pHJ? prop, that which is unrestrained, free, insolent (cf. Arabic c dtik, \ttik, unrestrained, free*) is the accusative of the object, as in xciv. 4, and as it is the nominative of the subject in 1 Sam. ii. 3.
Vers. 20 — 25. In this part well-grounded hope expands to triumphant certainty; and this breaks forth into grateful praise of the goodness of God to His own, and an exhortation to all to wait with steadfast faith on Jahve. The thought: how gracious hath Jahve been to me, takes a more universal form in ver. 20. It is an exclamation (no, as in xxxvi. 8) of adoring admiration, mr? DID is the sum of the good which God has treasured up for the constant and ever increasing use and enjoyment of His saints.)%% is used in the same sense as in xvii. 14; cf. to [xavva to xsxpo[A|iivov, Apoc. ii. 17. Instead of p6j[9 it ought strictly to be nnj; for we can say DID bj?B, but not DID ^D. What is meant is, the doing or manifesting of DID springing from this DID, which is the treasure of grace. Jahve thus makes Himself known to His saints for the confounding of their enemies and in defiance of all the world besides, xxiii. 5. He takes those who are His under His protection from the tt"N >DZn, confederations of men (from DD"1, n**$)» magna copia), from the wrangling, i. e. the slanderous scourging, of tongues. Elsewhere it is said, that God hides one in v7]tt nriD (xxvii. 5), or in "IHD V»DjD (lxi. 5), or in His shadow (^K, xci. 1); in this passage it is: in the defence and protection of His countenance, i. e. in the region of the unapproachable light that emanates from His presence. The PIDD is the safe and comfortable protection of the Almighty which spans over the persecuted one like an arbour of rich foliage. With 'n "YID David again passes over to his own personal experience. The unity of the Psalm requires us to refer the praise to the fact of the deliverance which is anticipated by faith. Jahve has shewn him wondrous favour, inasmuch as He has given him a "vj; TteE as a place of abode. TKO, from *y)2J to shut in (Arabic misr with the denominative verb massara, to found a fortified city), signifies both a siege, i. e. a shutting in by siege- works, and a fortifying (cf. lx. 11 with cviii. 11), i. e. a shutting in hy fortified works against the attack of the enemy, 2 Chron. viii. 5. The fenced city is mostly interpreted as God Himself and His powerful and gracious protection. We might then compare Isa. xxxiii. 21 and other passages. But why may not an actual city be intended, viz. Ziklag? The fact, that after long and troublous days David there found a strong and sure resting-place, he here celebrates beforehand, and unconsciously prophetically, as a wondrous token of divine favour. To him Ziklag was indeed the turningpoint between his degradation and exaltation. He had already said in his trepidation (fen, trepidare), cf. cxvi. 11: I am cut away from the range of Thine eyes, ^r,:: is explained according to jnj, an axe; Lam. iii. 54, TIHU, and Jonah ii. 5, VHBhM, favour this interpretation. He thought in his fear and despair, that God would never more care about him. px, verum enirn vero, but Jahve heard the cry of his entreaty, when he cried unto Him (the same words as in xxviii. 2). On the ground of these experiences he calls upon all the godly to love the God who has done such gracious things, i. e. to love Love itself. On the one hand, He preserves the faithful (DOICN, from pDN «=» J1CN, icwtof, as in xii. 2), who keep faith with Him, by also proving to them His faithfulness by protection in every danger; on the other hand, not scantily, but plentifully (b)l as in Isa. lx. 7, Jer. vi. 14: xaxa 7rspiaaEiav) He rewardeth those that practise pride — in the sight of God, the Lord, the sin of sins. An animating appeal to the godly (metamorpho out of the usual form of the expression pogp p[n, macte csio), resembling the animating call to his own heart in xxvii. 11, closes the Psalm. The godly and faithful are here called "those who wait upon Jahve". They arc to wait pati< 1. for this waiting has a glorious end; the bright, Bpring Bon at length breaks through the dark, angry a heavens, and the esto mihi is changed into hatteluja. This eye of hope patiently directed towards Jahve is the chai teristic of the Old Testament faith. The substantial unity, however, of the Old Testament order of with that of the New Testament, is us in 1 which, in its New Testament and Pauline character, is tho counterpart of Ps. xix.
quity, And in whose spirit there is no guile.
3 When I kept silence, my hones rotted Through my constant groaning.
4 For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me,
guilt; I said: "I will confess my transgressions unto Jahve" — And Thou, Thou hast taken away the guilt of my sin.
a time when Thou mayest be found; Surely, when the great waters rise — They shall not reach him.
9 Be ye not as horses, as mules without understanding, With bit and bridle is their mouth to be curbed, Otherwise they will not come near unto thee.
And shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart!
There are several prominent marks by which this Psalm is coupled with the preceding (vid. Symbolce § 52). In both Psalms, with the word vngK, the psalmist looks back upon some fact of his spiritual life; and both close with an exhortation to the godly, which stands in the relation of a general inference to the whole Psalm. But in other respects the two Psalms differ. For Ps. xxxi. is a prayer under circumstances of outward distress, and Ps. xxxii. is a didactic Psalm, con« cerning the way of penitence which leads to the forgiveness of sins; it is the second of the seven Psalmi pcenitentiales of the church, and Augustine's favourite Psalm. Wo might take Augustine's words as its motto: inielligentia prima est ut te noris peccatorem. The poet bases it upon his own personal experience, and then applies the general teaching which he deduces from it, to each individual in the church of God. For a whole year after his adultery David was like one under sentence of condemnation. In the midst of this fearful anguish of soul he composed Ps. li., whereas Ps. xxxii. \. composed after his deliverance from this state of mind. The former was written in the very midst of the penitential struggle; the latter after he had recovered his inward The theme of this Psalm is the precious treasure which brought up out of that abyss of spiritual distress,? doctrine of the blessedness of forgiveness, the sincere and unreserved confession of sin as the way to it, and th< tection of God in every danger, together with joy in God, as its fruits.
In the signification psalmus dfdascaUcus 8. Inform: (Reuchlin: ut si liceret dicere intellectificum 'ifi- cum), ^ri^'D would after all be aa appropriate a -1 as we could have for this Psalm which I salvation. This meaning, however, cannot b ined. [1 signifies intelligens, should, as a technical term, mean Intel- Hgentern faciens; because the Hiph. TOfcTI, in the causative meaning "to impart understanding", occurs only in solitaryinstances (ver. 8, Prov. xxi. 11) in the Hebrew of the period before the Exile, and only came into common use in the later language (in Daniel, Chronicles, and Nehemiah). But, that which is decisive against the meaning "a didactic poem" is the fact, that among the thirteen Psalms which are inscribed 7^1^32, there are only two (xxxii. and lxxviii.) which can be regarded as didactic poems. Ps. xlv. is called, in addition, rYT*P "W\ and Ps. cxlii., D^H, two names which ill accord with a didactic intention and plan. Even Ps. xlvii. 8, a passage of importance in the determining of the right idea of the word, in which ^Dt^D occurs as an accusative of the object, excludes the meaning "didactic poem". Ewald observes (Dichter des Alien Bundes, i, 31) that "in Ps. xlvii. 8 we have the safest guide to the correct meaning of the word; in this passage ^Oi£7D stands side by side with *")»] as a more exact definition of the singing and there can be no doubt, that an intelligent, melodious song must be equivalent to a choice or delicate, skillfully composed song". But in all other cases, ^Oi^D is only found as an attribute of persons, because it is not that which makes prudent, but that which is in itself intelligent, that is so named. Even in 2 Chron. xxx. 22, where allusion is made to the Maskil Psalms, it is the Levite musicians themselves who are called (21L3 b?t') D^ob'OH (i. e. those who play skillfully with delicate tact). Thus then we are driven to the Hiphil meaning of pensive meditation in cvi. 7, cf. xli. 2, Prov. xvi. 20; so that b'Ofc'E signifies that which meditates, then meditation, just like T22D, that which multiplies, and then fulness; HTIE/bj that which destroys, and then destruction. From the Maskil Psalms, as e. g. from liv. and cxlii., we cannot discover anything special as to the technical meaning or use of the word. The word means just pia meditatio, a devout meditation, and nothing more.
Vers. 1 — 2. The Psalm begins with the celebration of the happiness of the man who experiences God's justifying grace, when he gives himself up unreservedly to Him. Sin is called y#0, as being a breaking loose or tearing away from God; DNEn, as a deviation from that winch is well- pleasing to God; p$[, as a perversion, distortion, misdeed. The forgiveness of sin is styled NBO (Exod. xxxiv. 7), as a lifting up and taking away, oupetv and fopaipetv, Exod. xxxiv. 7; HD3 (lxxxv. 3, Prov. x. 12, Neh. iii. 37), as a covering, so that it becomes invisible to God, the Holy One, and is as though it had never taken place; DfcTI N^ (2 Sam. xix. 20, cf. v_>**£*, to number, reckon, 00 XoYiCeoGai, Rom. iv. 6 — 9), as a non-imputing; the StxotioauvY) /wpU epycov is here distinctly expressed. The justified one is called pBf9"V|feO, as being one who is exempted from transgression, prcevaricatione levatus (Ges. § 135, 1); *it£0, instead of NBtt, Isa. xxxiii. 24, is intended to rhyme with "»1D3 (which is the j9«r?. to HD3, just as "DI! is the participle to T)2); wVJ. on Isa. xxii. 13. One "covered of sin" is one over whose sin lies the covering of expiation (183, root rp, to cover, cogn. JL£, %-ais», -. t^ j *^fc) before the holy eyes of God. The third designation is an attributive clause: "to whom Jahve doth not reckon misdeed", inasmuch as He, on the contrary, regards it as discharged or as settled. He who is thus justified, however, is only he in whose spirit there is no ITD*1, no deceit, which denies and hides, or extenuates and excuses, this or that favourite sin. One such sin designedly retained is a secret ban, which stands in the way of justification.
Vers. 3 — 5. For, as his own experience has taught the poet, he who does not in confession pour out all his corruption before God, only tortures himself until he unburdens himself of his secret curse. Since ver. 3 by itself cannot be regarded as the reason for the proposition just laid down, 13 signifies either "because, quod" (e. g. Prov. xxii. 22) or "when, quum" (Judges xvi. 1G, Hos. xi. 1). The PIJKtf waa an outburst of the tortures which his accusing consci< 1 prepared for him. The more he strove against confessing! the louder did conscience speak; and while it was not in bis power to silence this inward voice, in which the wrath of God found utterance, he cried the whole day, viz. for help; but while his heart was still unbroken, he cried yel no answer. He cried all day Long, for God's pnnishin hand (xxxviii. 3, xxxix. 11) lay heavy upon him d night; the feeling of divine wrath left him no rest, cf. Job xxxiii. 14 sqq. A fire burned within him which threatened completely to devour him. The expression is >JQTQ (like ]Bty2 in xxxvii. 20, cii. 4), without D, inasmuch as the fears which burn fiercely within him even to his heart and, as it were, scorch him up, he directly calls the droughts of summer. The 2 is the Beth of the state or condition, in connection with which the change, t. e. degeneration (Job xx. 14), took place; for mutare in aliquid is expressed by b "SD. The b (which Saadia and other have mistaken) in nb6 is part of the root; -1156 (from ~lt£6, Jo*J, to suck), inflected after the analogy of bft) and the like, signifies succus. In the summerheat of anxiety his vital moisture underwent a change: it burned and dried up. Here the music becomes louder and does its part in depicting these torments of the awakened conscience in connection with a heart that still remains unbroken. In spite of this SidtyaXjia, however, the historical connection still retains sufficient influence to give ^"ViK the force of the imperfect (cf. xxx. 9): "I made known my sin and my guilt did I not cover up (HD3 used here as in Prov. xxviii. 13, Job xxxi. 33); I made the resolve: I will confess my transgressions to the Lord (min = miSTl, Neh. i. 6, ix. 2; elsewhere construed with the accusative, vid. Prov. xxviii. 13) — then Thou forgavest", etc. Hupfeld is inclined to place TnEN before "jyniK TlXiCn, by which "yniN and rVTIN would become futures; but Tl'DD tib "01JJ1 sounds like an assertion of a fact, not the statement of an intention, and DNCO riDNI is the natural continuation of the THEN which immediately precedes. The form n&sfco finNl is designedly used instead of Ni^ni. Simultaneously with his confession of sin, made fide supplice, came also the absolution: then Thou forgavest the guilt (m, misdeed, as a deed and also as a matter of fact, t. e. guilt contracted, and penance or punishment, cf. Lam. iv. 6, Zech. xiv. 19) of my sin. Vox nondum est in ore, says Augustine, et vulnus sanatur in corde. The rte here is the antithesis of the former one. There we have a shrill lament over the sinner who tortures himself in vain, here the clear tones of joy at the blessed experience of one who pours forth his soul to God — a musical Yea and Amen to the great truth of justifying grace.
Vers. 6 — 7. For this mercy, which is provided for every sinner who repents and confesses his sin, let then, every TOPI, who longs for -|Di"l, turn in prayer to Jahve frto n>6, at the time (xxi. 10, 1 Chron. xii. 22; cf. ny2, Isa. xlix. 8) when He, and His mercy, is to be found (cf. Deut. iv. 29 with Jer. xxix. 13, Isa. Iv. 6, IKsarn). This hortatory wish is followed by a promissory assurance. The fact of F]Etfi6 D^SH C"|P being virtually a protasis: quum inundant aquce magnce (7 of the time), which separates p*l from vpx, prohibits our regarding p~i as belonging to yhx in this instance, although like F)N,?jN, D|s and ]©, p"i is also placed per hypallage at the head of the clause (as in Prov. xiii. 10: with pride there is only contention), even when belonging to a part of the clause that follows further on. The restrictive meaning of pi here, as is frequently the case (Deut. iv. 6, Judges xiv. 16, 1 Kings xxi. 25, cf. Ps. xci. 8), has passed over to the affirmative: certo quum, etc. Inundation or flooding is an exemplificative description of the divine judgment (cf. Nah. i. 8); ver. 6bc is a brief form of expressing the promise which is expanded in Ps. xci. In ver. 7, David confirms it from his own experience. The assonance in T30 ■0*)?P (Thou wilt preserve me, so that "is, angustum = an* gustice, does not come upon me, cxix. 143) is not undesigned; and after vran comes 1J1, just like)bj after foyTQ in xxix. 9. There is no sufficient ground for setting aside Ti, with Houbigant and others, as a repetition of the half of the word 'On^D. The infinitive p (Job xxxviii. 7) might, like 21, plur. >S1, ph, plur. ij?n, with equal right be inflected as a substantive; and vbB (as in lvi. 8), which is likewise treated as substantive, cf. ps;, Dan. xii. 7, presents, as a genitive, no more difficulty than does njTlin the expression r;;~ ir'N With songs of deliverance doth Jahve surround him, so that t! encompass him on all sides, and an occasion of exulting meets him in whatever direction he turns. The music h again for the third time becomes forte, and that to expi the highest feeling of delight.
Yers. 8—10. It is not Jahve, who here Bpeak 1 in to the words that have been thus far addressed to Him. In this case the person addressed must be the po< t, who, however, has already attained the knowledge ben
It is lie himself who now directly adopts the tone of the teacher (cf. xxxiv. 12). That which David, in Ps. li. 15, promises to do, he here takes in hand, viz. the instruction of sinners in the way of salvation. It is unnecessary to read?\yTX instead of Pl25pK» as Olshausen does; the suffix of 5|TOBft< and 5plK (for TpiN) avails also for this third verb, to which tyg ipfnj, equivalent to *yg?|\^J Cty (fixing my eye upon thee, i. e. with sympathising love taking an interest in thee), stands in the relation of a subordinate relative clause. The LXX. renders it by emaTYjpiu) em as too; ocp 6aX[ioo; jj.oo, so that it takes ^Jj, in accordance with its radical signification firmare, as the r eg ens qi wy (I will fix my eye steadfastly upon thee); but for this there is no support in the general usage of the language. The accents give a still different rendering; they apparently make *yg an accus. advert, (since WV yhv WN is transformed from "on? "fhi n^ptf): I will counsel thee with mine eye; but in every other instance, ty y^n means only a hostile determination against any one, e. g. Isa. vii. 5. The form of address, without changing its object, passes over, in ver. 9, into the plural and the expression becomes harsh in perfect keeping with the perverted character which it describes. The sense is on the whole clear: not constrained, but willing obedience is becoming to man, in distinction from an irrational animal which must be led by a bridle drawn through its mouth. The asyndeton clause: like a horse, a mule (TJQ as an animal that is isolated and does not pair;
cf. i)J alone of its kind, single, unlike, the opposite of which is.;, a pair, equal number), has nothing remarkable about it, cf. xxxv. 14, Isa. xxxviii. 14. But it is not clear what V"W is intended to mean. We might take it in its usual signification "ornament", and render "with bit and bridle, its ornament", and perhaps at once recognise therein an allusion to the senseless servility of the animal, viz. that its ornament is also the means by which it is kept in check, unless "Hy, ornament, is perhaps directly equivalent to "harness". Still the rendering of the LXX. is to be respected: in camo et frceno — as Jerome reproduces it — maxillas eorum constringere quinon approximant ad te. If HJ means jaw, mouth or cheek, then DlW> V"j; is equivalent to or a eorum ooiuranda sunt (Ges. § 132, rem. 1), which the LXX. expresses by a-^ott, constringe, or, following the Cod. Alex., cq;i; (cfyfeic), constringes. Like Ewald and Hitzig (on Ezek. xvi. 7), we may compare with vjg, the cheek, the Arabic
Jl&«, which, being connected with 1H|, a furrow, signifies properly the furrow of the face, i. e. the indented part running downwards from the inner corners of the eyes to both sides of the nose, but then by synecdoche the cheek. If VI]) refers to the mouth or jaws, then it looks as if b3 5P7&J 2!p must be translated: in order that they may not come too near thee, viz. to hurt thee (Targ., Syriac, Rashi, etc.); but this rendering does not produce any point of comparison corresponding to the context of this Psalm. Therefore, it is rather to be rendered: otherwise there is no coming near to thee. This interpretation takes the emphasis of the ^2 into account, and assumes that, according to a usage of the language that is without further support, one might, for instance, say: nBtP' ^ftzb ^3, "I will never go thither." In Prov. xxiii. 17, bl also includes within itself the verb to be. So here: by no means an approaching to thee, i. e. there is, if thou dost not bridle them, no approaching or coming near to thee. These words are not addressed to God, but to man, who is obliged to use harsh and forcible means in taming animals, and can only thus keep them under his control and near to him. In the antitype, it is the sinner, who will not come to God, although God only is his help, and who, as David has learned by experience, must first of all endure inward torture, before he comes to a right state of mind. This agonising life of the guilty conscience which the ungodly man leads, is contrasted in ver. 10 with the mercy which encompasses on all sides him, who trusts in God. D':n, in accordance with the treatment of this adjective as if it were a numeral (vid. Ixxxix. 51), is an attributive or adjective placed before its noun. The final clause might be rendered: mercy encompasses him; but the Poel and ver. 7 favour the rendering: with mercy doth He encompass him.
Ver. 11. After the doctrine of the Psalm has been unfolded in three unequal groups of verses, there follows, cor- responding to the brief introduction, a still shorter close, which calls upon those whose happy state is there celebrated, to join in songs of exultant joy.
3 Sing unto Him a new song, Play merrily with a joyful noise.
4 For upright is the word of Jahve, And all His working is in faithfulness.
5 He loveth righteousness and judgment; The earth is full of the mercy of Jahve.
G By the word of Jahve were the heavens made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host.
7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heapj He layeth up the depths in storehouses.
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
9 For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.
10 Jahve hath brought the counsel of the heathen to nought, He hath made the thoughts of the people of none effect.
The thoughts of His heart to all generations.
14 From the place of His habitation He looketh Upon all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 He, who fashioneth their heart together, Who considereth all their works.
18 Behold, the eye of Jahve is upon them that fear Him, Upon them that hope in His mercy,
19 To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waiteth for Jahve, Our help and our shield is He.
21 For in Him shall our heart rejoice, Because we trust in His holy Name
22 Let, then, Thy mercy, 0 Jahve, be upon us, According as we hope in Thee!
The Davidic Maskil, Ps. xxxii., is followed by an anonymous congregational song of a hymnic character, which begins just like the former closes. It owes its composition apparently to some deliverance of the nation from heathen oppression, which had resulted from God's interposition and without war. Moreover it exhibits no trace of dependence upon earlier models, such as might compel us to assign a late date to it; the time of Jeremiah, for instance, which Hitzig adopts. The structure is symmetrical. Between the two hexastichs, vers. 1—3, 20—22, the materia laudis is set forth in eight tetrastichs.
Vers. 1 — 3. The call contained in this hexastich i^ addressed to the righteous and upright, who earnestly seek to live a godly and God -pleasing life, and the sole determining rule of whose conduct is the will and good pleasure of God. These alone know God, whose true nature finds in them a clear mirror; so on their part they are joyfully to confess what they possess in Him. For it is their duty, and at the same time their honour, to praise him, and make their boast in Him. DlfcO is the feminine of the adjective Pllfeti (formed out of ino), as in cxlvii. 1, cf. Prov. xix. 10. On -fl33 (LXX. xi6apa, xivupa) and?2} (LXX. ^aXxyjpiov, va(3Xa, vaoXa, etc.) vid. Introduction § II.?2\ is the name given to the harp or lyre on account of its resemblance to a skin bottle or flask (root d:, to swell, to be distended), and ilipy b22, "harp of the decade", is the ten-stringed harp, which is also called absolutely "Yit^y, and distinguished from the customary ^Dj, in xcii. 4. By a comparison of the asyndeton expressions in xxxv. 14, Jer. xi. 19, Aben-Ezra understands by "yiitfj? ^2J two instruments, contrary to the tenour of the words. Gecatilia, whom he controverts, is only so far in error as that he refers the ten to holes (D^DpJ) instead of to strings. The 2 is Beth instrum., just like the expression xi6ocpiCsiv h xi6dtpau, Apoc. xiv. 2. A "new song" is one which, in consequence of some new mighty deeds of God, comes from a new impulse of gratitude in the heart, xl. 4, and frequently in the Psalms, Isa. xlii. 10, Judith vi. 13, Apoc. v. 9. In V2WJ the notions of scite and strenue, suaviter and naviter, blend. With n^inii, referring back to i:n, the call to praise forms, as it were, a circle as it closes.
Vers. 4 — 5. Now begins the body of the song. The summons to praise God is supported (1) by a setting forth of His praiseworthiness * (a) as the God of revelation in the kingdom of Grace. His word is *)&, upright in intention, and, without becoming in any way whatever untrue to itself, straightway fulfilling itself. His every act is an act in n^EN, truth, which verifies the truth of His word, and one which accomplishes itself. On DHX, equivalent to Nin 2Hfc, vid. vii. 10, xxii. 29. PDIS is righteousness as
* We have adopted the word "praiseworthiness" for the sake of conciseness of expression, in order to avoid an awkward periphrasis, in the sense of being worthy to be praised. — TK.
conduct; tODB;D is right as a rule of judgment and a state or condition. -\£ri is an accusative, as in cxix. 64: misericordid Domini plena est terra (the introit for Misercordias Sunday or the second Sunday after Easter).
Vers. 6 — 9. God's praiseworthiness (b) as the Creator of the world in the kingdom of Nature. Jahve's ^21 is His almighty "Let there be"; and VD nn (inasmuch' as the breath is here regarded as the material of which the word is formed and the bearer of the word) is the command, or in general, the operation of His commanding omnipotence (Job xv. 30, cf. iv. 9; Isa. xxxiv. 16, cf. xi. 4). The heavens above and the waters beneath stand side by side as miracles of creation. The display of His power in the waters of the sea consists in His having confined them within fixed bounds and keeping them within these. "D is a pile, i. e. a, piled up heap (Arabic nadd), and more especially in reference to harvest: like such a heap do the convex waters of the sea, being firmly held together, rise above the level of the continents. The expression is like that in Josh. iii. 13, 16, cf. Exod. xv. 8; although there the reference is to a miracle occurring in the course of history, and in this passage to a miracle of creation. Dj3 refers to the heap itself, not to the walls of the storehouses as holding together. This latter figure is not introduced until ver. lb: the bed of the sea and those of the rivers are, as it were, rvniTiN, treasuries or storehouses, in which God has deposited the deep, foaming waves or surging mass of waters. The inhabitants 0l£'\ not iSBty) of the earth have cause to fear God who is thus omnipotent (np, in the sense of falling back from in terror); for He need only speak the word and that which He wills comes into being out of nothing, as we see from the hexaemeron or history of Creation, but which is also confirmed in human history (Lam. iii. 37). He need only command and it stands forth like an obedient servant, that appears in all haste at the call of his lord, cxix. 91.
Vers. 10 — 11. His praiseworthiness (c) as the irresistible Ruler in the history of men. Since in 2 Sam. xv. 34, xvii. 14, and frequently, HSg HEPI is a common phrase, therefore TSH as in lxxxix. 34," Ezek. xvii. 19, is equivalent to nErri (Ges. § 67, rem. 9). The perfects are not used in the abstract, but of that which has been experienced most recently, since the "new song" presupposes new matter. With ver. 11 compare Prov. xix. 21. The rw of God is the unity of the "thoughts of His heart," i. e. of the ideas, which form the inmost part, the ultimate motives of everything that takes place. The whole history of the world is the uninterrupted carrying out of a divine plan of salvation, the primary object of which is His people, but in and with these are included humanity at large.
Vers. 12 — 19. Hence the call to praise God is supported (2) by a setting forth of that which His people possess in Him. This portion of the song is like a paraphrase of the ^E'N in Deut. xxxiii. 29. The theme in ver. 12 is proved in vers. 13 — 15 by the fact, that Jahve is the omniscient Ruler, because He is the Creator of men, without whose knowledge nothing is undertaken either secretly or openly, and especially if against His people. Then in vers. 16 — 19 it is supported by the fact, that His people have in Jahve a stronger defence than the greatest worldly power would be. Jahve is called the fashioner of all the hearts of men, as in Zech. xii. 1, cf. Prov. xxiv. 12, as being their Maker. As such He is also the observer of all the works of men; for He is acquainted with their origin in the laboratory of the heart, which He as Creator has formed. Hupfeld takes TP as an equalisation (pariter ac) of the two appositions; but then it ought to be P2IE (cf. xlix. 3, 11). The LXX. correctly renders it xaxajiova?, singillatim. It is also needless to translate it, as Hupfeld does: He who formed, qui ftnxit; for the hearts of men were not from the very first created all at one time, but the primeval impartation of spirit-life is continued at every birth in some mysterious way. God is the Father of spirits, Hebr. xii. 9. For this very reason everything that exists, even to the most hidden thing, is encompassed by His omniscience and omnipotence. He exercises an omniscient control over all things, and makes all things subservient to the designs of His plan of the universe, which, so far as His people are concerned, is the plan of salvation. Without Him nothing comes to pass; but through Him everything takes place. The victory of the king, and the safety of the warrior, are not their own works. Their great military power and bodily strength can accomplish nothing without God, who can also be mighty in the feeble. Even for purposes of victory (HWn, cf. nj;W;, xxi. 2) the war-horse is T>#, i. e. a thing that promises much, but can in reality do nothing; it is not its great strength, by which it enables the trooper to escape (E^). "The horse", says Solomon in Prov. xxi. 31, "is equipped for the day of battle, but n^ltfFlPI Tft, Jahve's is the victory", He giveth it to whomsoever He will. The ultimate ends of all things that come to pass are in His hands, and — as vers. 18 sq. say, directing special attention to this important truth by n|TI — the eye of this God, that is to say the final aim of His government of the world, is directed towards them that fear Him, is pointed at them that hope in His mercy (D^irpJ?). In ver. 19, the object, norf?, is expanded by way of example. From His mercy or loving-kindness, not from any acts of their own, conscious of their limited condition and feebleness, they look for protection in the midst of the greatest peril, and for the preservation of their life in famine. Ps. xx. 8 is very similar; but the one passage sounds as independent as the other.
Vers. 20 — 22. Accordingly, in this closing hexastich, the church acknowledges Him as its help, its shield, and its source of joy. Besides the passage before us, rcn occurs in only one other instance in the Psalter, viz. cvi. 13. This word, which belongs to the group of words signifying hoping firmiter constringere sc. nodum), to be firm, compact, like rnp from nijj, to pull tight or fast, cf. the German harren (to wait) and hart (hard, compact). In ver. 20& we still hear the echo of the primary passage Deut. xxxiii. 29 (cf. ver. 26). The emphasis, as in cxv. 9 — 11, rests upon fcOPl, into which 12, in ver. 21, puts this thought, viz. He is the unlimited sphere, the inexhaustible matter, the perennial spring of our joy. The second >3 confirms this subjectively. His holy Name is His church's ground of faith, of love, and of hope; for from thence comes its salvation. It can boldly pray that the mercy of the Lord may be upon it, for it waits upon Him, and man's waiting or hoping and God's giving are reciprocally conditioned. This is the meaning of the
■ntfifcp. God is true to His word. The Te Deum laudamus of Ambrose closes in the same way.
And saved him out of all his troubles.
For there is no want to them that fear Him.
11 D Young lions do lack and suffer hunger,
But they that seek Jahve do not want any good thing.
19 p Jahve is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart,
And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
And they that hate the righteous shall be punished.
In Ps. xxxiii. 18 we heard the words, "Behold, the eye of Jahve is directed towards them that fear Him", and in xxxiv. 16 we hear this same grand thought, "the eyes of Jahve are directed towards the righteous". Ps. xxxiv. is one of the eight Psalms which are assigned, by their inscriptions, to the time of David's persecution by Saui, and were composed upon that weary way of suffering extending from Gibea of Saul to Ziklag. (The following is an approximation to their chronological order: vii., lix., lvi., xxxiv., lii., lvii., cxlii., liv.). The inscription runs: Of David, when he disguised his understanding (iBjflO with Dag., lest it should be pronounced ioytt) oefore Abimelech, and he drove him away (*nt2fWi with Chateph Pathach, as is always the case with verbs whose second radical is *j, if the accent is on the third radical) and he departed. David, being pressed by Saul, fled into the territory of the Philistines; here he was recognised as the man who had proved such a dangerous enemy to them years since and he was brought before Achish, the king. Ps. lvi. is a prayer which implores help in the trouble of this period (and its relation to Ps. xxiv. resembles that of Ps. li. to xxxii.). David's life would have been lost had not his desperate attempt to escape by playing the part of a madman been successful. The king commanded him to depart, and David betook himself to a place of concealment in his own country, viz. the cave of Adullam in the wilderness of Judah.
The correctness of the inscription has been disputed. Hupfeld maintains that the writer has blindly taken it from 1 Sam. xxi. 14. According to Redslob, Hitzig, Olshausen, and Stahelin, he had reasons for so doing, although they are invalid. The iDgtp of the Psalm (ver. 9) seemed to him to accord with 18JHD, 1 Sam. xxi. 14; and in addition to this, he combined y?nPFI, gloriaris, of the Psalm (ver. 3) with bbtTPij insanivit, 1 Sam. xxi 14. We come to a different conclusion. The Psalm does not contain any express reference to that incident in Philistia, hence we infer that the writer of the inscription knew of this reference from tradition. His source of information is not the Books of Samuel; for there the king is called ttfON, whereas he calls him ^D^QK, and this, as even Basil has perceived (yid. Euthymius Zigadenus' introduction to this Psalm), is the title of the Philistine kings, just as Pharaoh is title of the Egyptian, Agag of the Amalekite, and Lucumo of the Etruscan kings. His source of information, as a comparison of 2 Sam. xxii. 1 with Ps. xviii. 1 shews, is a different work, viz. the Annals of David, in which he has traced the Psalm before us and other Psalms to their historical connection, and then indicated it by an inscription in words taken from that source. The fact of the Psalm being alphabetical says nothing against David as its author (yid. on Ps. ix. — x.). It is not arranged for music; for although it begins after the manner of a song of praise, it soon passes into the didactic tone. It consists of verses of two lines, which follow one another according to the order of the letters of the alphabet. The) is wanting, just as the 2 is wanting in Ps. cxlv.; and after n, as in Ps. xxv., which is the counterpart to xxxiv., follows a second supernumerary d.
Vers. 2 — 4. The poet begins with the praise of Jahve, and calls upon all the pious to unite with him in praising Him. The substantival clause ver. 2&, is intended to have just as much the force of a cohortative as the verbal clause ver. 2a. PD12N, like int&HIPl, is to be written with Chateph- Pathach in the middle syllable. In distinction from 0*3]^ afflicti, Ui\y& signifies submissi, those who have learnt endurance or patience in the school of affliction. The praise of the psalmist will greatly help to strengthen and encourage such; for it applies to the Deliverer of the oppressed. But in order that this praise may sound forth with strength and fulness of tone, he courts the assistance of companions in ver. 4. To acknowledge the divine greatness with the utterance of praise is expressed by bl) with an accusative in lxix. 31; in this instance with b: to offer rbll unto Him, cf. xxix.
2. Even DCTl has this subjective meaning: with the heart and in word and deed, to place the exalted Name of God as high as it really is in itself. In accordance with the rule, that when in any word two of the same letters follow one another and the first has a Shebd, this Shebd must be an audible one, and in fact Chateph Pathach preceded by Gaja (Metheg), we must write HEETO.
Vers. 5 — 7. The poet now gives the reason La* this praise by setting forth the deliverance he has experienced. He longed for God and took pains to find Him (such is the meaning of Vftl in distinction from Bte), and this striving, which took the form of prayer, did not remain without some actual answer (roy is used of the being heard and the fulfilment as an answer to the petition of the praying one). The perfects, as also in vers. 6, 7, describe facts, one of which did not take place without the other; whereas qjgjj would give them the relation of antecedent and consequent. In ver. 6, his own personal experience is generalised into an experimental truth, expressed in the historical form: they look unto Him and brighten up, i. e. whosoever looketh unto Him (*?KEF2ri of a look of intense yearning, eager for salvation, as' in Num. xxi. 9, Zech. xii. 10) brightens up. It is impracticable to make the CU& from ver. 3 the subject; it is an act and the experience that immediately accompanies it, that is expressed with an universal subject and in gnomical perfects. The verb ^7V, here as in Isa. lx. 5, has the signification to shine, glitter (whence rnrD, light). Theodoret renders it: c0 jistoc mciecus x<j> 6c(j> 7rpooiu>v <pu>To; axilva<; Uyzzai vospou, the gracious countenance of God is reflected on their faces; to the actus directus of fides supplex succeeds the actus reflexus of fides triumphans. It never comes to pass that their countenances must be covered with shame on account of disappointed hope: this shall not and cannot be, as the sympathetic force of bi< implies. In all the three dialects isn ("l?n) has the signification of being ashamed and scared; according to Gesenius and Fiirst (root ~)D) it proceeds from the primary signification of reddening, blushing; in reality, however, since it is to be combined, not with.t^, but with, t^ (cf. wft$", "l£2, wit, j^-t), it proceeds from the primary signification of covering, hiding, veiling (Arabic chaftra, tachaffara, used of a woman, cf. chamara, to be ashamed, to blush, to be modest, used of both sexes), so that consequently the shame-covered countenance is contrasted with that which has a bright, bold, and free look. In ver. 7, this general truth is again individualised. By "0^ DT (like *j»b HI in lxviii. 9) David points to himself. From the great perii in which he was placed at the court of the Philistines, from which God has rescued him, he turns his thoughts with gratitude and praise to all the deliverances which lie in the past.
Vers. 8 — 11. This praise is supported by a setting forth of the gracious protection under which God's saints continually are. The miT ^5s6ft, is none other than He who was the medium of Jahve's intercourse with the patriarchs, and who accompanied Israel to Canaan. This name is not collective (Calvin, Hupfeld, Kamphausen, and others). He, the One, encampeth round about them, in so far as He is the Captain of the host of Jahve (Josh. v. 14), and consequently is accompanied by a host of inferior ministering angels; or insofar as He can, as being a spirit not limited by space, furnish protection that covers them on every side. T\)h (cf. Zech. ix. 8) is perhaps an allusion to D]TiD in Gen. xxxii. 2 sq., that angel-camp which joined itself to Jacob's camp, and surrounded it like a barricade or carrago. On the fut. consec. D^rpi, et expedit eos, as a simple expression of the sequence, or even only of a weak or loose internal connection, vid. Ewald, § 343, a. By reason of this protection by the Angel of God arises (ver. 9) the summons to test the graciousness of God in their own experience. Tasting (YsuaaaSai, Hebr. vi. 4 sq., 1 Pet. ii. 3) stands before seeing; for spiritual experience leads to spiritual perception or knowledge, and not vice versa. Nisi gustaveris, says Bernard, non videbis.
David is desirous that others also should experience what he has experienced in order that they may come to know what he has come to know, viz. the goodness of God.* Hence in ver. 10, the call to the saints to fear Jahve (iNT instead of \XT, in order to preserve the distinction between veremini and videbunt, as in Josh. xxiv. 14, 1 Sam. xii. 24); for whoso fears Him, possesses everything in Him. The young mature lions may sooner lack and suffer hunger, because they have no prey, than that he should suffer any want whatsoever, the goal of whose striving is fellowship with God. The verb ttT) (to lack, be poor, once by metaplasm £>'*p, 1 Sam. ii. 7, root eh, to be or to make loose, lax), elsewhere used only of men, is here, like civ. 21 bm tfj?2, transferred to the lions, without DH>S>3 being intended to refer emblematically (as in xxxv. 17, lvii. 5, xvii. 12) to his powerful foes at the courts of Saul and of Achish.
Vers. 12 — 15. The first main division of the Psalm is ended; the second (much the same as in Ps. xxxii.) assumes more the tone of a didactic poem; although even vers. 6, 9 — 11 have something of the didactic style about them. The poet first of all gives a direction for fearing God. We may compare xxxii. 8, li. 15 — how thoroughly Davidic is the turn which the Psalm here takes! D^3 are not children in years or in understanding; but it is a tender form of address of a master experienced in the ways of God to each one and to all, as in Prov. i. 8, and frequently. In ver. 13 he throws out the question, which he himself answers in vers. 14 sq. This form of giving impressiveness to a truth by setting it forth as a solution of some question that has been propounded is a habit with David: xv. 1, xxiv. 8, 10, xxv. 12. In the use made of this passage from the Psalms in 1 Pet. iii. 10 — 12 (= vers. 13 — 17 a of the Psalm) this form of the question is lost sight of. To D^n VDH, as being just as exclusive in sense, corresponds C'^ 2mK, so that consequently HlK"]; is a definition of the purpose. C1^ signifies days in the mass, just as D^n means long-enduring life. We see from James iii. 2 sqq., where ver. 13 also, in its form, calls to mind the Psalm before us, why the poet give the pre-eminence to the avoiding of sins of the tongue. In ver. 15, from among what is good peace is made prominent, — peace, which not only are we not to disturb, but which we are to seek, yea, pursue it like as the hunter pursues the finest of the herds. Let us follow, says the apostle Paul also, Rom. xiv. 19 (cf. Hebr. xii. 14), after those things which make for peace, nbv? is a relationship, harmonious and free from trouble, that is well-pleasing to the God of love. The idea of the bond of fellowship is connected with the corresponding word elp^vY), according to its radical notion.
Vers. 17 — 22. The poet now recommends the fear of God, to which he has given a brief direction, by setting forth its reward in contrast with the punishment of the ungodly. The prepositions bb< and 3, in vers 16 a and 17 a, are a well considered interchange of expression: the former, of gracious inclination (xxxiii. 18), the latter, of hostile intention or determining, as in Job vii. 8, Jer. xxi. 10, xliv. 11, after the phrase in Lev. xvii. 10. The evil doers are overwhelmed by the power of destruction that proceeds from the countenance of Jahve, which is opposed to them, until there is not the slightest trace of their earthly existence left. The subjects to ver. 18 are not, according to cvii. 17—19, the jn W'y (evil doers), since the indispensable characteristic of penitence is in this instance wanting, but the 0*pHtf (the righteous). Probably the B strophe stood originally before the y strophe, just as in Lam. ii — iv. the B precedes the y (Hitzig). In connection with the present sequence of the thoughts, the structure of ver. 18 is just like ver. 6: Clamant et Dominus audit — si qui (quicunque) clamant. What is meant is the cry out the depth of a soul that despairs of itself. Such crying meets with a hearing with God, and in its realisation, an answer that bears its own credentials. "The broken in heart" are those in whom the egotistical, i. e. self- loving, life, which encircles its own personality, is broken at the very root; "the crushed or contrite OfrCH, from sol, with a changeable a, after the form D)b]i< from b\}^) in spirit" are those whom grievous experiences, leading to penitence, of the false eminence to which their proud self- consciousness has raised them, have subdued and thoroughly humbled. To all such Jahve is nigh, He preserves them from despair, He is ready to raise up in them a new life upon the ruins of the old and to cover or conceal their infinitive deficiency; and, they, on their part, being capable of receiving, and desirous of, salvation, He makes them partakers of His salvation. It is true these afflictions come upon the righteous, but Jahve rescues him out of them all, chin = ]\2D (the same enallage generis as in Ruth i. 19, iv. 11). He is under the most special providence, "He keepeth all his bones, not one of them (ne unum quidern) is broken" — a pictorial exemplification of the thought that God does not suffer the righteous to come to the extremity, that He does not suffer him to be severed from His almighty protecting love, nor to become the sport of the oppressors. Nevertheless we call to mind the literal fulfilment which these words of the psalmist received in the Crucified One; for the Old Testament prophecy, which is quoted in John xix. 33 — 37, may be just as well referred to our Psalm as to Exod. xii. 46. Not only the Paschal lamb, but in a comparative sense even every affliction of the righteous, is a type. Not only is the essence of the symbolism of the worship of the sanctuary realised in Jesus Christ, not only is the history of Israel and of David repeated in Him, not only does human suffering attain in connection with Him its utmost intensity, but all the promises given to the righteous are fulfilled in Him xax' lloyjr^\ because He is the righteous One in the most absolute sense, the Holy One of God in a sense altogether unique (Isa. liii. 11, Jer. xxiii. 5, Zach. ix. 9, Acts iii. 14, xxii. 14). — The righteous is always preserved from extreme peril, whereas evil (njTl) slays (nniO stronger than JTEH) the ungodly: evil, which he loved and cherished, becomes the executioner's power, beneath which he falls. And they that hate the righteous must pay the penalty. Of the meanings to incur guilt, to feel one's self guilty, and to undergo punishment as being guilty, Dt^'N (vid. on iv. 11) has the last in this instance.
Ver. 23. The order of the alphabet having been gone through, there now follows a second d exactly like xxv. 22. Just as the first s, xxv. 16, is njS, so here in ver. 17 it is ijB; and in like manner the two supernumerary Phe's correspond to one another — the Elohimic in the former Psalm, and the Jehovic in this latter.
1 CONTEND, Jahve, with those who contend with me, Fight Thou against those who fight against me.
2 Lay hold of shield and buckler, And stand up as my help.
3 And draw forth the spear and shut up the way against
my persecutors, Say unto my soul: I am thy salvation.
5 Let them become as chaff before the wind, The Angel of Jahve thrusting them away.
6 Let their way become darkness and slipperinesses, The Angel of Jahve pursuing them.
7 For without cause have they hid for me their net, Without cause a pit have they digged for my soul.
8 Let destruction come upon him at unawares, And let his net, which he hath hid, catch himself, With a crash let him fall into it.
10 All my bones shall say: Jahve, who is like unto Thee, Who deliverest the afflicted from him who is too strong
cloth, I mortified my soul with fasting, And my prayer returned into my own bosom.
selves together, The abjects gather themselves together against me, and those whom I do not know, They mock and cease not.
17 0 Lord, how long wilt Thou look on?! Bring back my soul from their destructions, My only one from the lions.
18 I will praise Thee in a great congregation, Among much people will I sing praise unto Thee.
21 And they open their mouth wide concerning me, They say: Aha, aha, now our eye sees it.
22 Thou seest it, Jahve, therefore keep not silence; 0 Lord, remain not far from me.
25 Let them not say in their heart: Aha, it is our desire! Let them not say: We have swallowed him up.
Let those be clothed with shame and dishonour Who magnify themselves against me.
my right. And let them say continually: Jahve be magnified, Who hath pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.
28 And my tongue shall declare Thy righteousness, Thy praise at all times.
This Ps. xxxv. and Ps. xxxiv. form a pair. They are the only Psalms in which the name PlIiT "]*6d is mentioned. The Psalms that belong to the time of David's persecution by Saul are the Psalms which are more especially pervaded by such retrospective references to the Tora. And in fact this whole Psalm is, as it were, the lyrical expansion of that which David expresses before Saul in 1 Sam. xxiv- 16 [15, Engl.]. The critical opinion as to the authorship of this Psalm is closely allied with that respecting the author of Ps. xl. and lxix. to which Ps. xxxv. is nearly related; cf. vers. 21, 27 with xl. 16 sq.; ver. 13 with lxix. 11 sq.; whereas the relation of Ps. lxxi. to Ps. xxxv. is decidedly a secondary one. Hitzig conjectures it to be Jeremiah; but vers. I — 3 are appropriate in the lips of a persecuted king, and not of a persecuted prophet. The points of contact of the writings of Jeremiah with our Psalm (Jer. xviii. 19 sq., xxiii. 12, Lam. ii. 16), may therefore in this instance be more safely regarded as reminiscences of an earlier writer than in Ps. lxix. Throughout the whole Psalm there prevails a deep vexation of spirit (to which corresponds the suffix ID"'— » as in Ps. lix. lvi. xi. xvii. xxii. lxiv.)
and strong emotion; it is not until the second part, where the poet describes the base ingratitude of his enemies, that the language becomes more calm and transparent, and a more quiet sadness takes the place of indignation and rage.
Each of the three parts opens with a cry for deliverance; and closes, in the certain assumption that it will take place, with a vow of thanksgiving. The divisions cannot therefore be mistaken, viz. vers. 1 — 10, 11 — 18, 19 — 28. The relative numbers of the stichs in the separate groups is as follows: G. 6. 5. 5. | 7. 7. 5. | 6. 6. 6.5.
There are only a few Psalms of David belonging to the time of Saul's persecution, which, like Ps. xxii., keep within the limits of deep inward grief; and in scarcely a single instance do we find him confining himself to the expression of the accursed fate of his enemies with prophetic certainty, as that which he confidently expects will be realised (as, e. g., in vii. 13 — 17). But for the most part the objective announcement of punishment is swallowed up by the force of his inmost feelings, and changed into the most importunate prayer (as in vii. 7, xvii. 13, and frequently); and this feverish glow of feeling becomes still more harshly prominent, when the prayer for the revelation of divine judgment in punishment passes over into a wish that it may actually take place. In this respect Ps. vii. xxxv. lxix. cix. form a fearful gradation. In Ps. cix., the old expositors count as many as thirty anathemas. "What explanation can we give of such language coming from the lips and heart of the poet? Perhaps as paroxysms of a desire for revenge? His advance against Nabal shews that even a David was susceptible of such feelings; but 1 Sam. xxv. 32 sq. also shews that only a gentle stirring up of his conscience was needed to dissuade him from it. How much more natural — we throw out this consideration in agreement with Kurtz — that the preponderance of that magnanimity peculiar to him should have maintained its ascendancy in the moments of the highest religious consecration in which he composed his Psalms! It is inconceivable that the unholy fire of personal passion could be here mingled with the holy fire of his love to God. It is in fact the Psalms more especially, which arc the purest and most faithful mirror of the piety of the Old Testament:
the duty of love towards one's enemies, however, is so little alien to the Old Testament (Exod. xxiii. 4 sq., Lev. xix. 18, Prov. xx. 22, xxiv. 17, xxv. 21 sq., Job xxxi. 29 sq.), that the very words of the Old Testament are made use of even in the New to inculcate this love. And from Ps. vii., in its agreement with the history of his conduct towards Saul, we have seen that David was conscious of having fulfilled this duty. All the imprecatory words in these Psalms come, therefore, from the pure spring of unself-seeking zeal for the honour of God. That this zeal appears in this instance as zeal for his own person or character arises from the fact, that David, as the God-anointed heir of the kingdom, stands in antagonism to Saul, the king alienated from God; and, that to his mind the cause of God, the continuance of the church, and the future of Israel, coincide with his own destiny. The fire of his anger is kindled at this focus (so to speak) of the view which he has of his own position in the course of the history of redemption. It is therefore a holy fire; but the spirit of the New Testament, as Jesus Himself declares in Luke ix. 55, is in this respect, nevertheless, a relatively different spirit from that of the Old. That act of divine love, redemption, out of the open fountain of which there flowed forth the impulse of a love which embraces and conquers the world, was then as yet not completed; and a curtain then still hung before eternity, before heaven and hell, so that imprecations like lxix. 20 were not understood, even by him who uttered them, in their infinite depth of meaning. Now that this curtain is drawn up, the New Testament faith shrinks back from invoking upon any one a destruction that lasts ub)V^j and love seeks, so long as a mere shadow of possibility exists, to rescue everything human from the perdition of an unhappy future, — a perdition the full meaning of which cannot be exhausted by human thought.
In connection with all this, however, there still remains one important consideration. The curses, which are contained in the Davidic Psalms of the time of Saul's persecution, are referred to in the New Testament as fulfilled in the enemies of Jesus Christ, Acts i. 20, Rom.xi. 7 — 10. One expression found in our Psalm, eixia^aav \ie Scopsav (cf. lxix. 5) is used by Jesus
(John xv. 25) as fulfilled in Him; it therefore appears as though the whole Psalm ought to be, or at least may be, taken typically as the words of Christ. But nowhere in the Gospels do we read an imprecation used by Jesus against His own and the enemies of the kingdom of God; David's imprecations are not suited to the lips of the Saviour, nor do the instances in which they are cited in the New Testament give them the impress of being His direct words: they are treated as the language of prophecy by virtue of the Spirit, whose instrument David was, and whose work the Scriptures are. And it is only in this sense that the Christian adopts them in prayer. For after the pattern of his Lord, who on the cross prayed "Father forgive them", he desires that even his bitterest enemies may not be eternally lost, but, though it be only when in articulo mortis, that they may come to their right mind. Even the anathemas of the apostle against the Judaising false teachers and against Alexander the smith (Gal. i. 9, v. 12, 2 Tim. iv. 14), refer only to temporal removal and chastisement, not to eternal perdition. They mark the extreme boundary where, in extraordinary instances, the holy zeal of the New Testament comes in contact with the holy fervour of the Old Testament.
Vers. 1 — 3. The psalmist begins in a martial and anthropomorphical style such as we have not hitherto met with. On the ultima -accentuation of rQi"], vid. on iii. 8. Both nx are signs of the accusative. This is a more natural rendering here, where the psalmist implores God to subjugate his foes, than to regard rN as equivalent to cy (cf. Isa. xlix. 25 with ib. xxvii. 8, Job x. 2); and, moreover, for the very same reason the expression in this instance is CH1? (in the Kal, which otherwise only lends the part, cn"b, lvi. 2 sq., to the Niph. urbl) instead of the reciprocal form Cn^n. It is usually supposed that cr6 means properly vorare, and war is consequently conceived of as a devouring of men; but the Arabic offers another primary meaning: to press close and compact (Niph. to one another), consequently Wrbtj means a dense crowd, a dense bustle and tumult (cL the Homeric xXovos). The summons to Jahve to arm, and that in a twofold manner, viz. with the po for warding off the hostile blow and H3S (vid. v. 13) which covers the body like a testudo — by which, inasmuch as it is impossible to hold both shields at the same time, the figure is idealised — is meant to express, that He is to make Himself felt by the foes, in every possible way, to their own confounding, as the unapproachable One. The 2 of VHTJO (in the character of help turned towards me) is the so-called Beth essentice,* as in Exod. xviii. 4, Prov. iii. 26, Isa. xlviii. 10 (tanquam argenium), and frequently, p in has the same meaning as in Exod. xv. 9, cf. Gen. xiv. 14, viz. to bring forth, draw forth, to draw or unsheath (a sword); for as a sword is sheathed when not in use, so a spear is kept in the ooopoSoxrj (Odyss. i. 128). Even Parchon understands "IJD to mean a weapon; and the word acqapt?, in Herodotus, Xenophon, and Strabo, a northern Asiatic, more especially a Scythian, battle-axe, has been compared here;** but the battle-axe was not a Hebrew weapon, and *i}p, which, thus defectively written, has the look of an imperative, also gives the best sense when so taken (LXX. cu-pcXeioov, Targ. pTlKfi), viz. close, i. e. cut off, inter elude scil. viam. The word has Bechi, because >STI riNlp^, "casting Thyself against my per-
* The Hebrew Beth essentice is used much more freely and extensively than the Arabic, which is joined exclusively to the predicate of a simple clause, where in our language the verb is "to be", and as a rule only to the predicate of negative clauses: laisa bi-hakimin, he is not wise, or laisa bi-l-hakimi, he is not the wise man. The predicate can accordingly be indeterminate or determinate. Moreover, in Hebrew, where this 3 is found with the predicate, with the complement of the subject, or even, though only as a solecism {vid. Gesenius' Thesaurus p. 175), with the subject itself, the word to which it is prefixed may be determinate, whether as an attribute determined by itself (Exod. vi. 3. ^ ^G), by a suffix (as above, xxxv. 2, cf. cxlvi. 5, Exod. xviii. 4, Prov. iii. 26), or even by the article. At all events no syntactic objection can be brought against the interpretations of pJ'JJ^' "*n ^be quality of smoke", xxxvii. 20; cf. ^H3, lxxviii. 33, and of tfQ3?j "in the character of the soul", Lev. xvii. 11.
** Probably one and the same word with the Armenian sakr, to which are assigned the (Italian) meanings mannaja, scure, brando ferro, in Ciakciak's Armenian Lexicon; cf. Lagarde's Gesammelte Abhandlungen, 18G6, S. 203.
iltors", belongs to both the preceding summonses. Dacli- BeU rightly directs attention to the similar sequence of the accents in lv. 19, lxvi. 15. The Mosaic figure of Jahve as a man of war (-r:r^r2 L!'\X, Exod. xv. 3, Deut. xxxii. 41 sq.) is worked out here with brilliant colours, under the impulse of a wrathful spirit. But we see from ver. 3& what a spiritual meaning, nevertheless, the whole description is intended to convey. In God's intervention, thus manifested in facts, he would gladly hear His consolatory utterance to himself. The burden of his cry is that God's love may break through the present outward appearance of wrath and make itself felt by him.
Vers. 4 — 8. Throughout the next two strophes follow terrible imprecations. According to Fiirst and others the relation of #12 and "®n is like that of erblassen, to turn pale (cf. Isa. xxix. 22 with Ps. xxxiv. 6), and errothen, to turn red, to blush. #o has, however, no connection with ^13, nor has "i£n, Jii*., y+^i any connection with **£*, to be red; but, according to its radical notion, #j2 means disturbari {yid. vi. 11), and IDPJ, obtegere, absconder e (vid. xxxiv. 6). i:d, properly "let them be made to fall back" (cf., e. g., Isa. xlii. 17). On the figure in ver. 5a cf. lxxxiii. 14. The clauses respecting the Angel of Jahve, vers. 5b and 6&, are circumstantial clauses, viz. clauses defining the manner, nrn (giving, viz. them, the push that shall cause their downfall, equivalent to CPH or DPI!, lxviii. 28) is closely connected with the figure in ver. 6«, and D5T), with the figure in ver. 5a\ consequently it seems as though the original position of these two clauses respecting the Angel of Jahve had been disturbed; just as in Ps. xxxiv., the y strophe and the D strophe have changed their original places. It is the Angel, who took off Pharaoh's chariot wheels so that they drave them heavily (Exod. xiv. 25) that is intended here. The fact that this Angel is concerned here, where the point at issue is whether the kingship of the promise shall be destroyed at its very beginning or not, harmonises with the appearing of the T) "N^D at all critical junctures in the course of the history of redemption. nip^pSn, loca passim lubrica, is an intensive form of expression for nip^n, lxxiii. 18. Just as nrn recalls to mind Exod.
xv., so CD"h recalls Judges v. In this latter passage the Angel of Jahve also appears in the midst of the conquerors who are pursuing the smitten foe, incarnate as it were in Deborah.
Ver. 7 also needs re-organising, just as in vers. 5 sq. the original positions of TTH and DS11 are exchanged. CHttH nnt^ would he a pit deceptively covered over with a net concealed below; but, as even some of the older critics have felt, nn# is without doubt to be brought down from ver. la into lb: without cause, i. e. without any provocation on my part, have they secretly laid their net for me (as in ix. 16, xxxi. 5), without cause have they digged a pit for my soul. In ver. 8 the foes are treated of collectively. pr N*? is a negative circumstantial clause (Ew. § 341, b): improviso, as in Prov. v. 6, Isa. xlvii. 11 extrem. Instead of ^TffX\9 the expression is nS^R'j as in Hos. viii. 3; the sharper form is better adapted to depict the suddenness and certainty of the capture. According to Hupfeld, the verb riNNtf signifies a wild, dreary, confused noise or crash, then devastation and destruction, a transition of meaning which — as follows from i"lNll# (cf. -inn) as a name of the desolate steppe, from NIBf, a waste, emptiness, and from other indications — is solely brought about by transferring the idea of a desolate confusion of tones to a desolate confusion of things, without any intermediate notion of the crashing in of ruins. But it may be asked whether the reverse is not rather the case, viz. that the signification of a waste, desert, emptiness or void is the primary one, and the meaning that has reference to sound (cf. ^55.50, to gape, be empty; to drive along, fall down headlong, then also: to make a dull sound as of something falling, just like rumor from ruere, fragor from frangi) the derived one. Both etymology (cf. HPiH, whence 1DP) and the preponderance of other meanings, favour this latter view. Here the two significations are found side by side, inasmuch as DNlB' in the first instance means a waste = devastation, desolation, and in the second a waste = a heavy, dull sound, a rumbling (SouttsTv). In the Syriac version it is rendered: "into the pit which he has digged let him fall", as though it were nnt? in the second instance instead of T\8W\ and from this Hupfeld, with J. H. Michaelis, Stier, and others, is of opinion that it must be rendered: "into the destruction which he himself has prepared let him fall". But this quam ipse paravit is not found in the text, and to mould the text accordingly would be a very arbitrary proceeding.
Vers. 9 — 10. This strophe, with which the first part of the song closes, contains the logical apodosis- of those imprecatory jussives. The downfall of the power that is opposed to God will be followed by the joy of triumph. The bones of the body, which elsewhere are mentioned as sharing only in the anguish of the soul (vi. 3, xxxi. 11, xxxii. 3, li. 10), are here made to share (as also in li. 10) in the joy, into which the anxiety, that agitated even the marrow of the bones, is changed. The joy which he experiences in his soul shall throb through every member of his body and multiply itself, as it were, into a choir of praiseful voices. ^3 with a conjunctive accent and without Makkeph, as also in Prov. xix. 7 (not "72, vid. the Masora in Baer's Psalterium p. 133), is to be read cal (with 2m pop, opp. rpftH ynp) according to Kimchi. According to Lonzano, however, it is to be read col, the conjunctive accent having an equal power with Makkeph] but this view is false, since an accent can never be placed against Kametz chatuph. The exclamation *pD2 VD is taken from Exod. xv. 11, where, according to the Masora, it is to be pointed?pD2 'D, as Ben Naphtali also points it in the passage before us. The Dagesh, which is found in the former passage and is wanting here, sharpens and hardens at the same time; it requires that the expression should be emphatically pronounced (without there being any danger in this instance of its being slurred over); it does not serve to denote the closer connection, but to give it especial prominence, ijfto pin, stronger than he, is equivalent to: strong, whereas the other is weak, just as in Jer. xxxi. 11, cf. Hab. i. 13, 13BD pT?, righteous, whereas he is ungodly. The repetition of "0};i is meant to say: He rescues the ^57, who is VP2N (poor) enough already, from him who would take even the few goods that he possesses.
Vers. 11 — 16. The second part begins with two strophes of sorrowful description of the wickedness of the enemy. The futures in vers. 11, 12 describe that which at present takes place. CDJ1 ny are jiapiupe? aotxoi (LXX.). They demand from him a confession of acts and things which lie entirely outside his consciousness and his way of acting (cf. lxix. 5): they would gladly brand him as a perjurer, as an usurper, and as a plunderer. What David complains of in ver. 12 a, we hear Saul confess in 1 Sam. xxiv. 18; the charge of ingratitude is therefore well-grounded. ^Sib bl2# is not dependent on ^D?#>, in which case one would have looked for b)V?3 rather than TDt^j but a substantival clause: "bereavement is to my soul", its condition is that of being forsaken by all those who formerly shewed me marks of affection; all these have, as it were, died off so far as I am concerned. Not only had David been obliged to save his parents by causing them to flee to Moab, but Michal was also torn from him, Jonathan removed, and all those at the court of Saul, who had hitherto sought the favour and friendship of the highly-gifted and highly-honoured son-in-law of the king, were alienated from him. And how* sincerely and sympatkisingly had he reciprocated their leanings towards himself! By vjN\ in ver. 13, he contrasts himself with the ungrateful and unfeeling ones. Instead of piy *T)K/2b, the expression is pVJ ^D1?; the tendency of poetry for the use of the substantival clause is closely allied to its fondness for well-conceived brevity and pictorial definition. He manifested towards them a love which knew no distinction between the ego and tu, which regarded their sorrow and their guilt as his own, and joined with them in their expiation for it; his head was lowered upon his breast, or he cowered, like Elijah (1 Kings xviii. 42), upon the ground with his head hanging down upon his breast even to his knees, so that that which came forth from the inmost depths of his nature returned again as it were in broken accents into his bosom. Riehm's rendering, "at their ungodliness and hostility my prayer for things not executed came back", is contrary to the connection, and makes one look for $K instead of WT^N. Perret-Gentil correctly renders it, Je priai la tete penchee sur la poitrine.
The psalmist goes on to say in ver. 14, I went about as for a friend, for a brother to me, t. e. as if the sufferer had been such to me. With Tj^nnn, used of the solemn slowness of gait, which corresponds to the sacredness of pain, alternates nfifcf used of the being bowed down very low, in which the heavy weight of pain finds expression. CN-^2Nr, not: like the mourning (from bSN, like b2T\ from L,2H) of a mother (Hitzig), hut, since a personal ^2Nis more natural, and next to the mourning for an only child the loss of a mother (cf. Gen. xxiv. G7) strikes the deepest wound: like one who mourns (*^ZN*, like -p^, Gen. xlix. 12, from ^DN, construct state, like Nftp) for a mother (the objective genitive, as in Gen. xxvii. 41, Deut. xxxiv. 8, Amos viii. 10, Jer. vi. 2G). "Tip signifies the colours, outward appearance, and attire of mourning: with dark clothes, with tearful unwashed face, and with neglected beard. But as for them — how do they act at the present time, when he finds himself in yb)Z (xxxviii. 17, Job. xviii. 12), a sideway direction, i. e. likely to fall (from y1)^, *Jlfe, to incline towards the side)?
They rejoice and gather themselves together, and this assemblage of ungrateful friends rejoicing over another's misfortune, is augmented by the lowest rabble that attach themselves to them. The verb HDJ means to smite; Niph. Nr3, Job xxx. 6, to be driven forth with a whip, after which the LXX. renders it [AdtaxtYs?, Symm. irXrjxxai, and the Targum conterentes me verbis suis; cf. ftvfoz H2H, Jer. xviii. 18. But UO\ cannot by itself mean smiters with the tongue. The adjective D23 signifies elsewhere with D^ri, one who is smitten in the feet, i. e. one who limps or halts, and with nn, but also without any addition, in Isa. xvi. 7, one smitten in spirit, i. e. one deeply troubled or sorrowful. Thus, therefore, DOJ from P1DJ, like n*M from n*0, may mean smitten men, i. e. men who are brought low or reduced (Hengstenberg). It might also, after the Arabic narvika, to be injured in mind, anwak, stupid, silly (from the same root "p, to prick, smite, wound, cf. ichtalla, to be pierced through = mad), be understood as those mentally deranged, enraged at nothing or without cause. But the former definition of the notion of the word is favoured by the continua-
* According to the old Babylonian reading (belonging to a period when Pathach and Segol were as yet not distinguished from one another), bltO (with the sign of Pathach and the stroke for Raphe below = d); vid. Pinsker, Zur Geschichte des Karaismus, S. 141, and Einleitung, S. 118.
tion of the idea of the verbal adjective Q*2J by >Fljn* t6l, persons of whom I have hitherto taken no notice because they were far removed from me, i. e. men belonging to the dregs of the people (cf. Job xix. 18, xxx. 1). The addition of T)y"P N^l certainly makes Olshausen's conjecture that we should read DH23 somewhat natural; but the expression then becomes tautological, and there are other instances also in which psalm-poesy goes beyond the ordinary range of words, in order to find language to describe that which is loathsome, in the most glaring way. JT1D, to tear, rend in pieces, viz. with abusive and slanderous words (like ej> II.)
also does not occur anywhere else. And what remarkable language we now meet with in ver. 16 a\ jtyo does not mean scorn or buffoonery, as Bottcher and Hitzig imagine*, but according to 1 Kings xvii. 12, a cake of a round formation (like the Talmudic n^?, a circle); y?^, jeering, jesting. Therefore 3lyo *J|6 means: mockers for a cake, i. e. those who for a delicate morsel, for the sake of dainty fare, make scornful jokes, viz. about me, the persecuted one, vile parasites; German Tellerlecker, Bratenriecher, Greek xviacoxoXaxsc, ^(ojioxoXaxs?, Mediaeval Latin buccellarii. This JtyO >3j6, which even Rashi interprets in substantially the same manner, stands either in a logical co-ordinate relation (vid. on Isa. xix. 11) or in a logical as well as grammatical subordinate relation to its regens >&3Q. In the former case, it would be equivalent to: the profane, viz. the cake-jesters; in the latter, which is the more natural, and quite suitable: the profane (= the profanest, vid. xlv. 13, Isa. xxix. 19, Ezek. vii. 24) among cake-jesters. The a is not the Beth of companionship or fellowship, to express which cy or HN (Hos. vii. 5) would have been used, but Beth essentice or the Beth of characterisation: in the character of the most abject examples of this class of men do they gnash upon him with their teeth. The gerund p'"Ti (of the noise of the teeth being pressed together, like j^ of the crackling of a fire and the grating of a file), which is used according to Ges. § 131,
* The Talmudic my (jrrb), B. Sanhedrin 1015, which is said to mean "a jesting way of speaking", has all the less place here, as the reading wavers between HJy (N^V) and NJN.
4,ft, carries its subject in itself. They gnash upon him with their teeth after the manner of the profanest anions those, by whom their neighbour's honour is sold for a delicate morsel.
Vers. 17 — 18. Just as the first part of the Psalm elosed with wishes, and thanksgiving for their fulfilment, so the second part also closes with prayer and thanksgiving. TOD (compounded of 3, instar, and the interrogative TO which is drawn into the genitive by it; Aramaic nod, Arabic kam, Hebrew, like TO2, with Bag. forte conjunct., properly: the total of what?), which elsewhere means quot, here has the signification oiquousque, as in Job vii. 19. CiTNl£73 from HKttf, the plural of which may be both DW and nlfctt? (this latter, however, does not occur), like the plural of TO\x, terror, D^X and rrlDW. The suffix, which refers to the enemies as the authors of the destructions (Prov. iii. 25), shews that it is not to be rendered "from their destroyers" (Hitzig). If God continues thus to look on instead of acting, then the destructions, which are passing over David's soul, will utterly destroy it. Hence the prayer: lead it back, bring that back, which is already well nigh borne away to destruction. On HTTP vid. xxii. 21. The D^VED, which is intended literally in xxxiv. 11, is here emblematical. *~1K is the cohortative. di^j? as a parallel word to 2*1 always refers, according to the context, to strength of numbers or to strength of power.
Vers. 19—21. In the third part, vers. 19 — 28 the description of the godlessness of his enemies is renewed; but the soul of the praying psalmist has become more tranquil, and accordingly the language also is more clear and moves on with its accustomed calmness, iptt/ and C2n are genitives, having an attributive sense {vid. on 2 Sam. xxii. 23). The verb tng signifies both to pinch = nip, Job xxxiii. 6 (cf. the Arabic karada, to cut off), and to pinch together, compress = to wink, generally used of the eyes, but also of the lips, Prov. xvi. 30, and always as an insidiously malicious gesture. bi< rules over both members of the verse as in lxxv. 6, and frequently. c)h& in ver. 20 is the word for whatever proceeds from good intentions and aims at the promotion or restoration of a harmonious relationship.
spj/isttj lxxxiii. 4) are those who quietly and unostentatiously walk in the ways of God. Against such they devise mischievous, lying slanders and accusations. And with wideopened mouth, i. e. haughty scorn, they cry, as they carouse in sight of the misfortune of those they have persecuted: now we have that which we have longed to see. n^n (composed of P1D and nN) is a cry of joy, and more especially of malignant joy at another's hurt (cf. Ezek.xxv.3). Vers. 22 — 24. The poet takes up this malignant "new our eye sees it" and gives another turn to it. With HUT, alternates in vers. 22, 23, cf. ver. 17, ^TN, the pronominal force of which is revived in the comhination ^'"!&o Ti^N (vid.
xvi. 2). T$?n, carrying its object within itself, signifies to stir, rouse up, and ppTJ, to break off, tear one's self away, gather one's self up from, sleep. "To my right", viz. to prove it by facts; "to my cause", to carry it on in my defence.
Vers. 25 — 26. On the metonymical use of tt'EO, like to dpsxxixov for opefo, vid. Psychol. S. 203 [tr. p. 239]. The climax of desire is to swallow David up, i. e. to overpower him and clear him out of the way so that there is not a trace of him left. ffiyjpa with j? before J, as in exxxii. 6, and frequently; on the law of the vowels which applies to this, vid. Ewald, § 60, a. TIJH Wf? is a short form of expression for ipjn (2) by_ DTOfc To put on shame and dishonour (cix. 29, cf. 18), so that these entirely cover them, and their public external appearance corresponds with their innermost nature.
Vers. 27 — 28. Those who wish that David's righteousness may be made manifest and be avenged are said to take delight in it. When this takes place, Jahve's righteousness is proved. Vffmi let Him be acknowledged and praised as great, i. e. let Him be magnified! David desires that all who remain true to him may thus speak; and he, on his part, is determined to stir up the revelation of God's righteousness in his heart, and to speak of that of which his heart is full (lxxi. 24).
heart: There is no fear of God before his eyes.
4 The words of his mouth are evil and deceit; He hath ceased to act wisely and well.
He taketh his stand in a way that is not good, He abhorreth not evil.
6 O Jahve, to the heavens doth Thy mercy extend, Thy faithfulness unto the clouds.
7 Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God, Thy judgments are a great deep,
10 For with Thee is the fountain of life, [pleasures. And in Thy light do we see light.
11 Lengthen out Thy mercy to those who know Thee, And Thy righteousness to those who are upright in heart.
13 Behold, there have the workers of evil fallen, They are thrust down and are not able to rise.
The preceding Psalm, in the hope of speedy deliverance, put into the lips of the friends of the new kingship, who were now compelled to keep in the background, the words: " Jahve, be magnified, who hath pleasure in the well-being of His servant" David there calls himself the servant of Jahve, and in the inscription to Ps. xxxvi. he bears the very same name: To the Precentor, by the servant of Jahve, by David. The textus receptus accents TOD? with a conjunctive llluj; Ben-Naphtali accents it less ambiguously with a disjunctive Legarme (via1. Psalter, ii. 462), since David is not himself the TOD. Ps. xii., xiv. (liii.), xxxvi., xxxvii., form a group. In these Psalms David complains of the moral corruption of his generation. They are all merely reflections of the character of the time, not of particular occurrences. In common with Ps. xii., the Psalm before us has a prophetic colouring; and, in common with Ps. xxxvii., allusions to the primeval history of the Book of Genesis. The strophe schema is 4. 5. 5. 6. 6.
Vers. 2-5. At the outset the poet discovers to us the wickedness of the children of the world, which has its roots in alienation from God. Supposing it were admissible to render ver. 2: "A divine word concerning the evil-doing of the ungodly is in the inward parts of my heart " (pM with a genitive of the object, like Kfeto, which is compared by Hofmann), then the difficulty of this word, so much complained of, might find the desired relief in some much more easy way than by means of the conjecture proposed by Diestel, DVJ (DP), "Pleasant is transgression to the evil-doer," etc. But the genitive after QW
(which in ex. 1, Num. xxiv. 3 sq., 15 sq., 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, Prow xxx. 1, just as here, stands at the head of the clause) always denotes the speaker, not the thing spoken. Even in Isa. v. 1 id"oS> nn rwp is not a song concerning my beloved in relation to His vineyard, but a song of my beloved (such a song as my beloved has to sing) touching His vineyard. Thus therefore, y^a must denote the speaker, and yBH^, as in ex. 1 ♦yifcO, the person or thing addressed; transgression is personified, and an oracular utterance is attributed to it. But the predicate *jf> 3JiJ?> which is intelligible enough in connection with the first rendering of yp'a as genit. obj., is difficult and harsh with the latter rendering of ypa as gen, subj.y whatever way it may be understood: whether, that it is intended to say that the utterance of transgression to the evil-doer is inwardly known to him (the poet), or it occupies and affects him in his inmost parts. It is very natural to read top, as the LXX., Syriac, and Arabic versions, and Jerome do. In accordance therewith, while with Von Lengerke he takes DW as part of the inscription, Thenius renders it; "Sin is to the ungodly in the midst of his heart," i. e. it is the inmost motive or impulse of all that he thinks and does. But this isolation of DW is altogether at variance with the usage of the language and custom. The rendering given by Hupfeld, Hitzig, and at last also by Bottcher, is better: " The suggestion of sin dwells in the ungodly in the inward part of his heart;" or rather, since the idea of T\p2 is not central, but circumferential, in the realm of (within) his heart, altogether filling up and absorbing it. And in connection with this explanation, it must be observed that this combination)J? np2 (instead of 13"ip2, or 13^3, 133^3) occurs only here, where, together with a personification of sin, an incident belonging to the province of the soul's life, which is the outgrowth of sin, is intended to be described. It is true this application of DW does not admit of being further substantiated; but DW (cognate DHJ, nnn^ as an onomatopoetic desig nation of a dull, hollow sound, is a suitable word for secret communication (cf. Arabic nemmdm, a tale-bearer), or even — since the genius of the language does not combine with it the idea of that which is significantly secretly, and solemnly silently communicated, but spoken out — a suitable word for that which transgression says to the ungodly with all the solemn mien of the prophet or the philosopher, inasmuch as it has set itself within his heart in the place of God and of the voice of his conscience. Vgh/ does not, however, denote the person addressed, but, as in xxxii. 10, the possessor. He possesses this inspiration of iniquity as the contents of his heart, so that the fear of God has no place therein, and to him God has no existence (objectivity), that He should command his adoration.
Since after this V&& DN3 we expect to hear further, what and how transgression speaks to him, so before all else the most probable thing is, that transgression is the subject to P^nn. We do not interpret: He flatters God in His eyes (with eye-service), for this rendering is contrary both to what precedes and to what follows; nor with Hupfeld (who follows Hof mann): " God deals smoothly (gently) with him according to his delusions," for the assumption that py.nn must, on account of VJ^a, have some other subject than the evil-doer himself, is indeed correct. It does not, however, necessarily point to God as the subject, but, after the solemn opening of ver. 2a, to transgression, which is personified. This addresses flattering words to him (7K like?y in Prov. xxix. 5) in his eyes, i.e. such as are pleasing to him; and to what end? For the finding out, i.e. establishing (|\jJ Nyj, as in Gen. xliv. 16, Hos. xii. 9), or — since this is not exactly suited to y#B as the subject, and where it is a purpose that is spoken of, the meaning assequi, originally proper to the verb K¥D, is still more natural — to the attainment of his culpability, i.e. in order that he may inculpate himself, to hating, i.e. that he may hate God and man instead of loving them. K3fe? is designedly used without an object just as in Eccles. iii. 8, in order to imply that the flattering words of y#Q incite him to turn into an object of hatred everything that he ought to love, and to live and move in hatred as in his own proper element. Thenius endeavours to get rid of the harshness of the expression by the following easy alteration of the text: *UK>7i fW NVD7; and interprets it: Yea, it flatters him in his own eyes (it tickles his pride) to discover faults in others and to make them suffer for them. But there is no support in the general usage of the language for the impersonal rendering of the P 7£]£; and the VW3, which in this case is not only pleonastic, but out of place, demands a distinction between the flatterer and the person who feels himself flattered. The expression in ver. 3&, in whatever way it may be explained is harsh; but David's language, whenever he describes the corruption of sin with deep-seated indignation, is wont to envelope itself in such clouds, which, to our difficult comprehension, look like corruptions of the text. In the second strophe the whole language is more easy. 3*&U? 7*3^ is just such another asyndeton as K3fc6 my KK& A man who has thus fallen a prey to the dominion of sin, and is alienated from God, has ceased (? Snn, as in 1 Sam. xxiii. 13) to act wisely and well (things which essentially accompany one another). His words when awake, and even his thoughts in the night-time, run upon i]K (Isa. lix. 7), evil, wickedness, the absolute opposite of that which alone is truly good. Most diligently does he take up his position in the way which leads in the opposite direction to that which is good (Pro v. xvi. 29, Isa. lxv. 2); and his conscience is deadened against evil: there is not a trace of aversion to it to be found in him, he loves it with all his soul.
Vers. 6-10. The poet now turns from this repulsive prospect to one that is more pleasing. He contemplates, and praises, the infinite, ever sure mercy of God, and the salvation, happiness, and light which spring from it. Instead of DSE$3, the expression is D*D$ns? the syncope of the article not taking place. 3 alternating with IV, cf. lvii. 11, has here, as in xix. 5, lxxii. 16, the sense of touching or reaching to the spot that is denoted in connection with it. The poet describes the exaltation and super-eminence of divine mercy and faithfulness figuratively, after earthly standards. They reveal themselves on earth in a height that reaches to the heavens and extends to ^pn^, i.e. the thin veil of vapour which spreads itself like a veil over the depths of the heavens; they transcend all human thought, desire, and comprehension (ciii. 11, and cf. Eph. iii. 18). The np-l¥ (righteousness) is distinguished from the TO1DK (faithfulness) thus: the latter is governed by the promises of God, the former by His holiness; and further, the latter has its being in the love of God, the former, on the other hand, manifests itself partly as justifying in mercies, and partly as avenging in wrath. Concerning the righteousness, the poet says that it is like the mountains of God, i.e. (cf. cedars of God, Ixxx. 11) unchangeably firm (cxi. 3), like the giant primeval mountains which bear witness to the greatness and glory of God; concerning God's judgments, that they are u a great deep," incomprehensible and unsearchable (avegepevvrjrai, Rom. xi. 33) as the great, deep-surging mass of waters in the lower parts of the earth, which becomes visible in the seas and in the rivers. God's punitive righteousness, as at length becomes evident, has His compassion for its reverse side; and this, as in the case of the Flood (cf. Jon. iv. 11), embraces the animal world, which is most closely involved, whether for weal or for woe, with man, as well as mankind.
Lost in this depth, which is so worthy of adoration, the Psalmist exclaims: How precious (cf. cxxxix. 17) is Thy mercy, Elohim! i.e. how valuable beyond all treasures, and how precious to him who knows how to prize it! The Waw of *tt is the explicative Waw =■ et hoc ipsum quod. The energetic form of the future, Fpnjj has the pre-tonic Kametz, here in pause, as in xxxvi. 8, xxxix. 7, lxxviii. 44. The shadow of God's wings is the protection of His love, which hides against temptation and persecution. To be thus hidden in God is the most unspeakable blessedness, ver. 9: they satiate themselves, they drink full draughts of " the fatness of Thy house." The house of God is His sanctuary, and in general the domain of His mercy and grace.?gn (cf. 21D, lxv. 5) is the expression for the abundant, pleasant, and powerful gifts and goods and recreations with which God entertains those who are His; and ft)! (whence |W, as in Dent. viii. 13, Isa. xl. 18) is the spiritual joy of the soul that experiences God's mercy to overflowing. The abundant fare of the priests from Jahve's table (yid. Jer. xxxi. 14), and the festive joy of the guests at the shelamimoffering, i.e. the communion-offering, — these outward rites are here treated according to their spiritual significance, receive the depth of meaning which radically belongs to them, and are ideally generalized. It is a stream of pleasures (E^ny) w*tn which He irrigates and fertilizes them, a paradisaic river of delights. This, as the four arms of the river of Paradise had one common source (Gen. ii. 10), has its spring in God, yea, God is the fountain itself. He is "the fountain of life" (Jer. ii. 13); all life flows forth from Him, who is the absolutely existing and happy One. The more inwardly, therefore, one is joined to Him, the fuller are the draughts of life which he drinks from this first fountain of all life. And as God is the fountain of life, so also is He the fountain of light: "In Thy light do we see light;" out of God, seeing we see only darkness, whereas immersed in God's sea of light we are illumined by divine knowledge, and lighted up with spiritual joy. The poet, after having taken a few glimpses into the chaos of evil, here moves in the blessed depths of holy mysticism [Mystik, i.e. mysticism in the good sense — true religion, vital godliness], and in proportion as in the former case his language is obscure, so here it is clear as crystal.
Vers. 11-13. Now for the first time, in the concluding hexastich, after complaint and commendation comes the language of prayer. The poet prays that God would lengthen out, i.e. henceforth preserve (W&, as in cix. 12), such mercy to His saints; that the foot of arrogance, which is conceived of as a tyrant, may not come suddenly upon him (K13, as in xxxv. 8), and that the hand of the wicked may not drive him from his home into exile (cf. x. 18). With Tpn alternates njris, which, on its merciful side, is turned towards them that know God, and bestows upon them the promised gracious reward. Whilst the Psalmist is thus praying, the future all at once becomes unveiled to him. Certain in his own mind that his prayer will be heard, he sees the adversaries of God and of His saints for ever overthrown. D^, as in xiv. 5, points to the place where the judgment is executed. The preterites are prophetic, as in xiv. 5, lxiv. 8-10. The poet, like Isaiah (ch. xxvi. 14), beholds the whole tribe of the oppressors of Jahve's Church changed into a field of corpses, without hope of any rising again.
2 For like grass they are soon cut down, And like a green herb they wither away.
6 He will bring forth like the light thy righteousness, And thy right like the noon-day brightness.
Fret not thyself over him who prospereth in his way, Over the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
For He seeth that his day is coming.
14 n The wicked draw the sword and bend their bow,
To cast down the poor and needy, To slay them that are of upright walk.
15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart, And their bows shall be broken.
17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, And Jahve upholdeth the righteous.
19 They are not ashamed in the evil time, And in the days of famine they are satisfied.
And the enemies of Jahve are like the glory of the meadows, They vanish away like smoke, they disappear.
24 When he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down, For Jahve upholdeth his hand.
25 3 I have been young, and now am old,
Yet have I not seen a righteous man forsaken, And his seed begging bread.
28 For Jahve loveth the right, And will not forsake His saints. For ever are they preserved,
29 The righteous shall inherit the land, And dwell therein for ever.
31 The law of his God is in his heart, His steps do not slip.
33 Jahve doth not give him over into his hand, Nor condemn him when he is judged.
So shall He exalt thee to inherit the land; With the cutting off the wicked shalt thou delight thine eyes.
37 B> Mark the perfect man, and observe the upright;
38 But the transgressors are destroyed together, The posterity of the wicked is cut off.
The bond of connection between Ps. xxxvi. and xxxvii. is their similarity of contents, which here and there extends even to accords of expression. The fundamental thought running through the whole Psalm is at once expressed in the opening verses: Do not let the prosperity of the ungodly be a source of vexation to thee, but wait on the Lord; for the prosperity of the ungodly will suddenly come to an end, and the issue determines between the righteous and the unrighteous. Hence Tertullian calls this Psalm providential speculum; Isodore, potio contra murmur; and Luther, vestis pic-rum, cui adscriptum: Hie Sanctorum patientia est (Apoc. xiv. 12). This fundamental thought the poet does not expand in strophes of ordinary compass, but in shorter utterances of the proverbial form following the order of the letters of the alphabet, and not without some repetitions and recurrences to a previous thought, in order to impress it still more convincingly and deeply upon the mind. The Psalm belongs therefore to the series Ps. ix. and x., xxv., xxxiv., — all alphabetical Psalms of David, of whose language, cheering, high-flown, thoughtful, and at the same time so easy and unartiflcial, and withal elegant, this Psalm is fully worthy. The structure of the proverbial utterances is almost entirely tetrastichic; though 1, D, and p are tristichs, and n (which is twice represented, though perhaps unintentionally), 3, and n are pentastichs. The V is apparently wanting; but, on closer inspection, the originally separated strophes D and y are only run into one another by the division of the verses. The y strophe begins with D^j£, ver. 28b, and forms a tetrastich, just like the D. The fact that the preposition f stands before the letter next in order need not confuse one. The n, ver. 39, also begins with nyiOTi. The homogeneous beginnings, rpT D0», jrch n& yen nfito, vers. 12, 21, 32, seem, as Hitzig _. marks, to be designed to give prominence to the pauses in the succession of the proverbial utterances.
Vers. 1, 2. Olshausen observes, "The poet keeps entirely to the standpoint of the old Hebrew doctrine of recompense, which the Book of Job so powerfully refutes." But, viewed in the light of the final issue, all God's government is really in a word righteous recompense; and the Old Testament theodicy is only inadequate in so far as the future, which adjusts all present inconsistencies, is still veiled. Meanwhile the punitive justice of God does make itself manifest, as a rule, in the case of the ungodly even in the present world; even their dying is usually a fearful end to their life's prosperity. This it is which the poet means here, and which is also expressed by Job himself in the Book of Job, ch. xxvii. With »™nn, to grow hot or angry (distinct from n"™, to emulate, Jer. xii. 5, xxii. 15), alternates K3p, to get into a glow, excandescentia, whether it be the restrained heat of sullen envy, or the incontrollable heat of impetuous zeal which would gladly call down fire from heaven. This first distich has been transferred to the Book of Proverbs, ch. xxiv. 19, cf. xxiii. 17, xxiv. 1, iii. 31; and in general we may remark that this Psalm is one of the Davidic patterns for the Salomonic gnome system. The form v^ is, according to Gesenius, Olshausen, and Hitzig, fut. Kal of <?£, cognate?QK, they wither away, pausal form for W®[ like *Ofl*, cii. 28; but the signification to cut off also is secured to the verb??0 by the Niph.?D3? Gen. xvii. 11, whence fut. w| = ot|; vid. on Job xiv. 2, xviii. 16. KBH PJJ is a gepitival combination: the green (yiror) of young vigorous vegetation.
Vers. 3, 4. The "land" is throughout this Psalm the promised possession (Heilsgut), viz. the land of Jahve's presence, which has not merely a glorious past, but also a future rich in promises; and will finally, more perfectly than under Joshua, become the inheritance of the true Israel. It is therefore to be explained: enjoy the quiet sure habitation which God gives thee, and diligently cultivate the virtue of faithfulness. The two imperatives in ver. 3b, since there are two of them (cf. ver. 27) and the first is without any conjunctive Waw, have the appearance of being continued admonitions, not promises; and consequently nJ*BK is not an adverbial accusative as in cxix. 75 (Ewald), but the object to Hjn, to pasture, to pursue, to practise (Syriac ^IT}, Hos. xii. 2); cf. nyn? jn? one who interests himself in any one, or anything; Beduin.Jj = i^c-U of every kind of closer relationship (Deutsch. Morgenland. Zeitschr. v. 9). In ver. 4, |rw is an apodosis: delight in Jahve (cf. Job xxii. 26, xxvii. 10, Isa. lviii. 14), so will He grant thee the desire (niwD, as in xx. 6) of thy heart; for he who, entirely severed from the creature, finds his highest delight in God, cannot desire anything that is at enmity with God, but he also can desire nothing that God, with whose will his own is thoroughly blended in love, would refuse him.
Vers. 5, 6. The LXX. erroneously renders 7fa (= bi, xxii. 9) by airoKaXxr^rov instead of iirippL-^rov^ 1 Pet. v. 7: roll the burden of cares of thy life's way upon Jahve, leave the guidance of thy life entirely to Him, and to Him alone, without doing anything in it thyself: He will gloriously accomplish (all that concerns thee): nb>y, as in xxii. 32, Hi. 11; cf. Prov. xvi. 3, and Paul Gerhardt's Bejiehl du deine Wege, u Commit thou all thy ways," etc. The perfect in ver. 6 is a continuation of the promissory HB$P# K^rij as in Jer. li. 10, signifies to set forth: He will bring to light thy misjudged righteousness like the light (the sun, Job xxxi. 26, xxxvii. 21, and more especially the morning sun, Prov. iv. 18), which breaks through the darkness; and thy down-trodden right (^03^? is the pausal form of the singular beside Mugrash) like the bright light of the noon-day: cf. Isa. lviii. 10, as on ver. 4, Isa. lviii. 14.
Ver. 7. The verb OB^, with its derivatives (lxii. 2, 6, Lam. iii. 28), denotes resignation, Le. a quiet of mind which rests on God, renounces all self-help, and submits to the will of God. 'V?^1? (from ^n, to be in a state of tension, to wait) of the inward gathering of one's self together in hope intently directed towards God, as in B. Berachoth 305 as a synonym of pinnn, and as it were reflexive of n?n of the collecting one's self to importunate prayer. With ver. lb the primary tone of the whole Psalm is struck anew. On ver. 7c compare the definition of the mischief-maker in Prov. xxiv. 8.