The Michtam character of the Psalm manifests itself both in the fact that a divine oracle is unfolded in it, and also in the fact that the language of complaint, il Elohim, Thou hast cast us off" (cf. xliw 10), is repeated as its favourite utterance. Concerning HV1J (tfW"?^ after M ^4 Zi'/y zs Me testimony " (or "The Lily of the testimony"), vid. on xlv. 1. The addition of TD^ is to be interpreted according to n^;PT rrwipja Tt3&, 2 Sam. i. 18: the song is thereby appointed to be sung in connection with the practice of the bow. The elegy on Saul and Jonathan was suited to this by reason of the praise which is therein given to the bow of Jonathan, the favourite weapon of that brave warrior, and by the indirect remembrance of the skilful Philistine archers, who brought a disgrace upon the name of Israel in the battle on Gilboa, that needed as speedily as possible to be wiped out. Ps. lx., this most martial of all the Psalms, is also a song at the practice of arms, which was designed to inflame and to hallow the patriotic martial ardour of the young men when they were being exercised.
Hengstenberg and others, who reckon according to the Masoretic verses, divide the Psalm into three strophes of four Masoretic verses each. The fact that the use made of Ps. lx. in Ps. cviii. begins with ver. 7, p^bn^ jyoS, lends some colour to this division, which is also strengthened by the Sela. Never* theless vers. 6 and 7 belong inseparably together.
Vers. 3-7. This first strophe contains complaint and prayer; and establishes the prayer by the greatness of the need and Israel's relationship to God. The sense in which ttJWS is intended becomes clear from 2 Sam. v. 20, where David uses this word of the defeat of the Philistines, and explains it figuratively. The word signifies to break through what has hitherto been a compact mass, to burst, blast, scatter, disperse. The prayer is first of all timidly uttered in V? snv^'n in the form of a wish; then in nan (ver. 4fr) and njrmn (ver. lb) it waxes more and more eloquent.? 22)^ here signifies to grant restoration (like? n\3n? to give rest; xxiii. 3, Isa. lviii. 12). The word also signifies to make a turn, to turn one's self away, in which sense, however, it cannot be construed with p.
and Mose ha-Darshan the Targumic Dtf9 = V^p, Jer. xxii. 14. The deep wounds which the Edomites had inflicted upon the country, are after all a wrathful visitation of God Himself — reeling or intoxicating wine, or as «Wjn £ (not r.1), properly conceived of, is: wine which is sheer intoxication (an apposition instead of the genitive attraction, vid. on Isa. xxx. 20), is reached out by Him to His people. The figure of the intoxicating cup has passed over from the Psalms of David and of Asaph to the prophets (e.g. Isa. li. 17, 21). A kindred thought is expressed in the proverb: Quern Deus perdere vult, eum dementat. All the preterites as far as ttrppipn (ver. 5b) glance back plaintively at that which has been suffered. But ver. 6 cannot be thus intended; for to explain with Ewald and Hitzig, following the LXX., " Thou hast set up a banner for those who reverence Thee, not for victory, but for flight," is inadmissible, notwithstanding the fact that J13>3 "»pB» DH is a customary phrase and the inscribed *JB?p is favourable to the mention of the bow. For (1) The words, beginning with nni, do not sound like an utterance of something worthy of complaint, — in this case it ought at least to have been expressed by DDfann??]K (only for flight, not for victory); (2) it is more than improbable that the bow, instead of being called Wj? (feminine of the Arabic masculine kaus), is here, according to an incorrect Aramaic form of writing, called ®fPf whereas this word in its primary form t?B>P (Prov. xxii. 21) corresponds to the Aramaic KBK^P not in the signification u a bow," but (as it is also intended in the Targum of our passage) in the signification "truth" (Arabic kist of strict unswerving justice, root E>p, to be hard, strong, firm; just as, vice versa, the word sidk, coming from a synonymous root, is equivalent to " truth"). We therefore take the perfect predication, like ver. 4a, as the foundation of the prayer which follows: Thou hast given those who fear Thee a banner to muster themselves (sich aufpanieren), i.e. to raise themselves as around a standard or like a standard, on account of the truth — help then, in order that Thy beloved ones may be delivered, with Thy right hand, and answer me. This rendering, in accordance with which ver. 6 expresses the good cause of Israel in opposition to its enemies, is also favoured by the heightened effect of the music, which comes in here, as Sela prescribes. The reflexive DDUnn here therefore signifies not, as Hithpal. of Dtt, " to betake one's self to flight," but "to raise one's self" — a signification on behalf of which we cannot appeal to Zech. ix. 16, where rriDDi:np is apparently equivalent to nftiffariDj rt sparkling," but which here results from the juxtaposition with pa (cf. np5j iv. 7), inasmuch as Dp itself, like ^^J, is so called from DW, ^aj, to set up, raise, whether it be that the Hithpo. falls back upon the Kal of the verb or that it is intended as a denominative (to raise one's self as a banner, sich aufpanieren).* It is undeniable that not merely in later (e.g. Neh. v. 15), but also even in older Hebrew, VJBO denotes the reason and motive (e.g. Deut. xxviiL 20). Moreover P&. xliv. is like a commentary on this BtPp \5B&, in which the consciousness of the people of the covenant revelation briefly and comprehensively expresses itself concerning their vocation in the world. Israel looks upon its battle against the heathen, as now against Edom, as a rising for the truth in accordance with its mission. By reason of the fact and of the consciousness which are expressed in ver. 6, arises the prayer in ver. 7, that Jahve would interpose to help and to rescue His own people from the power of the enemy. I^D* is instrumental (vid. on iii. 5). It is to be read "^ according to the Keri, as in cviii. 7, instead of ty¥.i so that here the king of Israel is speaking, who, as he prays, stands in the place of his people.
Vers. 8-10. A divine utterance, promising him victory, which he has heard, is expanded in this second strophe. By reason of this he knows himself to be in the free and inalienable possession of the land, and in opposition to the neighbouring nations, Moab, Edom, and Philistia, to be the victorious lord to whom they must bow. The grand word of promise in 2 Sam. vii. 9 sq. is certainly sufficient in itself to make this feeling of certainty intelligible, and perhaps vers. 8-10 are only a pictorial reproduction of that utterance; but it is also possible that at the time when Edom threatened the abandoned bordering kingdom, David received an oracle from the high priest by means of the Urim and Thummim, which assured him of the undiminished and continued possession of the Holy Land and the sovereignty over the bordering nations. That which God speaks " in His holiness " is a declaration or a promise for the sure fulfilment and inviolability of which He pledges His holiness; it is therefore equal to an oath " by His holiness " (lxxxix. 36, Amos iv. 2). The oracle does not follow in a direct form, for it is not God who speaks (as Olshausen thinks), to whom the expression *ti/V$. is unbecoming, nor is it the people (as De Wette and Hengstenberg), but the king, since what follows refers not only to the districts named, but also to their inhabitants. %3 might have stood before HT^K, but without it the mode of expression more nearly resembles the Latin me exultaturum esse (cf. xlix. 12). Shechem in the centre of the region on this side the Jordan, and the valley of Succoth in the heart of the region on the other side, form the beginning; for there is not only a ci^Lj (the name both of the eminence and of the district) on the west side of the Jordan south of Beisan (Scythopolis), but there must also have been another on the other side of the Jordan (Gen. xxxiii. 17 sq., Judg. viii. 4 sq.) which has not as yet been successfully traced. It lay in the vicinity of Jabbok (ez-Zerka), about in the same latitude with Shechem (Sichem), south-east of Scythopolis, where Estori ha- Parchi contends that he had found traces of it not far from the left bank of the Jordan. Josh. xiii. 27 gives some information concerning the poy (valley) of Succoth. The town and the valley belonged to the tribe of Gad. Gilead, side by side with Manasseh, ver. 9a, comprehends the districts belonging to the tribes of Gad and Reuben. As far as ver. 9c, therefore, free dominion in the cis- and trans-Jordanic country is promised to David. The proudest predicates are justly given to Ephraim and Judah, the two chief tribes; the former, the most numerous and powerful, is David's helmet (the protection of his head), and Judah his staff of command (ppnp, the command-giving = staff of command, as in Gen. xlix. 10, Num. xxi. 18); for Judah, by virtue of the ancient promise, is the royal tribe of the people who are called to the dominion of the world. This designation of Judah as the king's staff or sceptre and the marshal's baton shows that it is the king who is speaking, and not the people. To him, the king, who has the promise, are Moab, Edom, and Philistia subject, and will continue so. Moab the boastful serves him as a wash-basin;* Edom the crafty and malicious is forcibly taken possession of by him and obliged to submit; and Philistia the warlike is obliged to cry aloud concerning him, the irresistible ruler. }*rn *vp is a wash-pot or basin in distinction from a seething-pot, which is also called "Vp. The throwing of a shoe over a territory is a sign of taking forcible possession, just as the taking off of the shoe (»"15?y5) is a sign of the renunciation of one's claim or right: the shoe is in both instances the symbol of legal possession, f The rendering of the last line, with Hitzig and Hengstenberg: u exult concerning me, O Philistia," i.e. hail me, though compelled to do so, as king, is forbidden by the vV, instead of which we must have looked for v. The verb)pn certainly has the general signification u to break out into a loud cry," and like the Hiph. (e.g.
* A royal attendant, the tasht-ddr, cup- or wash-basin-bearer, carried the wash-basin for the Persian king both when in battle and on a journey (yid. Spiegel, Avesta ii. lxix.). Moab, says the Psalmist, not merely waits upon him with the wash-basin, but himself serves as such to him.
f The sandal or the shoe, I. as an object of U?j, of treading down,
oppressing, signifies metaphorically, (1) a man that is weak and incapable of defending himself against oppression, since one says, ma kuntu nalan, I am no shoe, i.e. no man that one can tread under his feet; (2) a wife (quse subjicitur), since one says, g'alaa na'lahu, he has taken off his shoe,
i.e. cast off his wife (cf. Lane under Jjo-, which even signifies a shoe
$■ and a wife). II. As an instrument of \tj, tropically of the act of oppressing and of reducing to submission, the Jju serves as a symbol of subjugation to the dominion of another. Rosenmuller (Das alte und neue Morgenland, No. 483) shows that the Abyssinian kings, at least, cast a shoe upon anything as a sign of taking forcible possession. Even supposing this usage is based upon the above passage of the Psalms, it proves, however, that a people thinking and speaking after the Oriental type associated this meaning with the casting of a shoe upon anything. — Fleischer. Cf.
Wetzstein's Excursus at the end of this volume
Isa. xv. 4) the Hitlipal. can also be used of a loud outcry at violence.
Vers. 11-14. The third strophe reverts to prayer; but the prayer now breathes more freely with a self-conscious courage for the strife. The fortified city ("^D Ty) is not Rabbath Ammon; but, as becomes evident from the parallel member of the verse and 2 Kings xiv. 7, the Idumaean chief city of Sela* (J^D) or Petra (yid. Knobel on Gen. xxxvi. 42, cf. Ps. xxxi. 22, 2 Chron. viiL 5, xi. 5 together with xiv. 5). The wish: who will conduct me = Oh that one would conduct me (Ges. § 136, 1)! expresses a martial desire, joyful at the prospect of victory; concerning ^nj ''D, quis perduxerit me, vid. on xi. 3. What follows is not now to be rendered: Not Thou (who but Thou), Elohim, who... (Hitzig) — for in order to have been understood thus and not as in ver. 3, xliv. 10, the poet could not have omitted 1KW — on the contrary, the interrogatory *6n is the foundation on which the supplicatory nan is raised. The king of Israel is hard pressed in the battle, but he knows that victory comes from above, from the God who has hitherto in anger refused it to His people, inasmuch as He has given power to Edom to break through the defensive forces of Israel (vid. xliv. 10). rrw (not rn.W = rn$) is, as in cviii. 13, equivalent to nrnty The view that it is equal to W?V, the suffix being cast away, is not confirmed in this instance, vid. on xvi. 6, cf. iii. 3. How vain is human succour, has been seen only very recently in the case of the kings of Zobah and Ammon, who have succumbed in spite of their confederates. Israel prays for its victorious power from above, and also obtains it thence, as is most confidently expressed in ver. 14.?sn nby, to do valiantly, to show valour, is equivalent to: to be victorious, as in cxviii. 16. In God does Israel conquer, and God, who is in Israel, will by means of Israel tread down Edom in accordance with its deserts.
8 Let him remain for ever in the presence of Elohim — Mercy and truth do Thou appoint to preserve him —
9 So will I harp unto Thy name for it for ever, That I may pay my vows day by day.
The Davidic Michtammim are now ended, and there follows a short Davidic song nMJ"vjL Does this expression mean "with the accompaniment of stringed instruments?" Not strictly, for this is expressed by the inscription nfo^a (iv. 1, cf. Isa. xxx. 29, 32). But the formula may signify "upon the music of stringed instruments" i.e. upon stringed instruments. And this is more probable than that fU\M is the beginning of a standard song. The termination ath is not necessarily the construct state. It was the original feminine termination; and the prevailing one in Phoenician.
Some expositors, like Koster, Ewald, Hitzig, and Olshausen, feel themselves here also bound, by reason of the 1)1*? of the inscription, to seek a place for this Psalm as far down as the Babylonian Exile and the times of the Ptolemies and the
Seleucidse. Hupfeld deals somewhat more kindly with the IVi^ in this instance, and Bottcher (De Inferis, p. 204) refutes the hypotheses set up in its stead in order finally to decide in favour of the idea that the king of whom the Psalm speaks is Cyrus — which is only another worthless bubble. We abide by the proudly ignored ini>, and have as our reward a much more simple interpretation of the Psalm, without being obliged with Ewald to touch it up by means of a verse of one's own invention interwoven between verses 5 and 6. It is a Psalm of the time of Absalom, composed in Mahanaim or elsewhere in Gilead, when the army of the king had smitten the rebels in the wood of Ephraim. It consists of two parts of eight lines.
Vers. 2-5. Hurled out of the land of the Lord in the more limited sense* into the country on the other side of the Jordan, David felt only as though he were banished to the extreme corner of the earth (not: of the land, cf. xlvi. 10, Deut. xxviii. 49, and frequently), far from the presence of God (Hengstenberg). It is the feeling of homelessness and of separation from the abode of God by reason of which the distance, in itself so insignificant (just as was the case with the exiles later on), became to him immeasurably great. For he still continually needed God's helpful intervention; the enveloping, the veiling, the faintness of his heart still continues
(*19?, i— flkcj according to its radical signification: to bend and lay anything round so that it lies or draws over something else and covers it, here of a self -enveloping); a rock of difficulties still ever lies before him which is too high for his natural strength, for his human ability, therefore insurmountable. But he is of good courage: God will lead him up with a sure step, so that, removed from all danger, he will have rocky
* Just as in Num. xxxii. 29 sq. the country east of Jordan is excluded from the name "the land of Canaan" in the stricter sense, so by the Jewish mind it was regarded from the earliest time to a certain extent as a foreign country (pi&6 nVin), although inhabited by the two tribes and a half; so that not only is it said of Moses that he died in a foreign land, but even of Saul that he is buried in a foreign land (Numeri Rabba, ch. viii. and elsewhere).
ground under his feet. He is of good courage, for God has already proved Himself to be a place of refuge to him, to be a strong tower, defying all attack, which enclosed him, the persecuted one, so that the enemy can gain no advantage over him (cf. Prov. xviii. 10). He is already on the way towards his own country, and in fact his most dearly loved and proper home: he will or he has to (in accordance with the will of God) dwell (cf. the cohortative in Isa. xxxviii. 10, Jer. iv. 21) in God's tabernacle (vid. on xv. 1) throughout aeons (an utterance which reminds one of the synchronous Ps. xxiii. ver. 6). With m is combined the idea of the divine protection (cf. Arabic gar ollah, the charge or protege^ of God, and Beduinic gaur, the protecting hearth; g'awir, according to its form = "13, one who flees for refuge to the hearth). A bold figure of this protection follows: he has to, or will trust, i.e. find refuge, beneath the protection of God's wings. During the time the tabernacle was still being moved from place to place we hear no such mention of dwelling in Godrs tabernacle or house. It was David who coined this expression for loving fellowship with the God of revelation, simultaneously with his preparation of a settled dwelling-place for the sacred Ark. In the Psalms that belong to the time of his persecution by Saul such an expression is not yet to be found; for in Ps. lii. 7, when it is desired that Doeg may have the opposite of an eternal dwellingplace, it is not the sacred tent that is meant. We see also from its second part that this Ps. lxi. does not belong to the time of Saul; for David does not speak here as one who has drawn very near to his kingly office (cf. xl. 8), but as one who is entering upon a new stage in it.
Vers. 6-9. The second part begins with a confirmation of the gracious purpose of God expressed in ver. 5. David believes that he shall experience what he gives expression to in ver. 5; for God has already practically shown him that neither his life nor his kingship shall come to an end yet; He has answered the prayers of His chosen one, that, blended with vows, resulted from the lowly, God-resigned spirit which finds expression in 2 Sam. xv. 25 sq., and He has given or delivered up to him the land which is his by inheritance, when threatened by the rebels as robbers, — the land to which those who fear the covenant God have a just claim. It is clear enough that the receivers are "those who fear the name of Jahve;" the genitive relation describes the ntsh* as belonging to them in opposition to those who had usurped it. Or does nan* here perhaps mean the same as flKhjK in xxi. 3? Certainly not.? n$T jro is a customary phrase, the meaning of which, " to give anything to any one as his inheritance or as his own property," is to be retained (e.g. Deut. ii. 19). God has acknowledged David's cause; the land of Israel is again wrested from those to whom it does not belong; and now begins a new era in the reign of its rightful king. In view of this the king prays, in vers. 7, 8, that God would add another goodly portion to the duration of his life. The words sound like intercession, but the praying one is the same person as in vers. 2-5. The expression N37D Niwp (the King Messiah) of the Targum shows to whom the church referred the word " king " after the extinction of the Davidic dynasty. The exalted tone of the wish expressed in ver, lb (cf. Joel ii. 2) favours this without absolutely requiring it (cf. B^jty, ver. 5, xxi. 5, and the royal salutation, 1 Kings i. 31, Dan. ii. 4, and frequently). There ought (as also e.g. in ix. 8) not to be any question whether 2W\ in ver. 8 signifies " to sit enthroned," or " to sit " = u to abide;" when the person spoken of is a king it means " to remain enthroned," for with him a being settled down and continuous enthronement are coincident. IP in ver. 86 is imperat. apoc. for nap (after the form Dn? Wj IV). The poet prays God to appoint mercy and truth as guardian angels to the king (xl. 12, Prov. xx. 28, where out of pause it is ViJP; cf. on the other hand lxxviii. 7, Prov. ii. 11, v. 2), Since the poet himself is the king for whom he prays, the transition to the first person in ver. 9 is perfectly natural. 13 signifies, as it always does, so or thus = in accordance therewith, corresponding to the fulfilment of these my petitions, thankfully responding to it. ""PpP? is the infinitive of the aim or purpose. Singing praise and accompanying it with music, he will make his whole life one continuous paying of vows.
3 Verily He is my rock and my salvation, My fortress, I shall not be greatly moved.
How long will ye thrust him in all of you as a bowing wall, a tottering fence?! — him down, Seeing they love lies, each one blesseth with his mouth, And in their inward part they curse. (Sela.)
9 Trust in Him at all times, ye people! Pour out your heart before Him, Elohim is a refuge for us! (Sela.)
12 One thing hath Elohim spoken, These two have I heard: That power is of Elohim,
Concerning this Psalm, which is placed next to the preceding Psalm by reason of several points of mutual relationship (cf. lxii. 8b with lxi. 4, 8; lxii. 96 with Ixi. 4; lxii. 136 with lxi. 9), as being a product of the time of the persecution by Absalom, and also concerning pnviypy, we have spoken already in the introduction to Ps. xxxix., which forms with it a twin pair. The particle ^N occurs there four times, and in this Psalm even as many as six times. The strophic structure somewhat resembles that of Ps. xxxix., in that here we also have longer strophes which are interspersed by tristichs.
Vers. 2-5. The poet, although apparently irrecoverably lost, does not nevertheless despair, but opposes one thing to the tumultuous crowding in upon him of his many foes, viz. quiet calm submission, — not, however, a fatalistic resignation, but that which gives up everything to God, whose hand (vid. 2 Sam. xii. 7-13) can be distinctly recognised and felt in what is now happening to him. ^ (yea^ only, nevertheless) is the language of faith, with which, in the face of all assault, established truths are confessed and confirmed; and with which, in the midst of all conflict, resolutions, that are made and are to be firmly kept, are deliberately and solemnly declared and affirmed. There is no necessity for regarding njDrn (not njpfrl), which is always a substantive (not only in xxii. 3, xxxix. 3, but also in this instance and in Ixv. 2), and which is related to n?Fi, silence, xciv. 17, cxv. 17, just as ww, Jer. xxxii. 19, is related to njy^, as an accus. absol.: in silent submission (Hupfeld). Like njDH in cix. 4, it is a predicate: his soul is silent submission, i.e. altogether resigned to God without any purpose and action of its own. His salvation comes from God, yea, God Himself is his salvation, so that, while God is his God, he is even already in possession of salvation, and by virtue of it stands imperturbably firm. We see clearly from xxxvii. 24, what the poet means by ^\ He will not greatly, very much, particularly totter, i.e. not so that it should come to his falling and remaining down. nn"i is an adverb like nin? cxxiii. 4, and nT\J}, Eccles. v. 19.
There is some difficulty about the aira^ \eyojj,. tfininn (ver. 4a). Abulwalid, whom Parchon, Kimchi, and most others follow, compares the Arabic Js>-Ji\ L^Jfc, the man brags; but this c^is> (intensive form c^Ijfc) signifies only in a general way to speak fluently, smoothly and rapidly one word after another, which would give too poor an idea here. There is another l^j* (cogn« C-XIjfc, proscindere) which has a meaning that is even better suited to this passage, and one which is still retained in the spoken language of Syria at the present day: hattani is equivalent to " he compromised me" (= hataka es-sitra ranni, he has pulled my veil down), dishonoured me before the world by speaking evil concerning me; whence in Damascus el-hettdt is the appellation for a man who without any consideration insults a person before others, whether he be present or absent at the time. But this L^fc> only occurs in Kal and with an accusative of the object. The words inmnn fUfcOy E^fcwj? find their most satisfactory explanation in the c^Ji> in common use in Damascus at the present day, which is not used in Kal, but only in the intensive form. The Piel lzjj* li Lc signifies to rush upon any one, viz. with a shout and raised fist in order to intimidate him.* From this mn, of which even the construction with (Jx. together with the intensive form is characteristic, we here read the PH. J"iriiny which is not badly rendered by the LXX. eTnriOeaOe, Vulgate irruitis. In ver. 46 it is a question whether the reading *nann of the school of Tiberias or the Babylonian inann is to be preferred. Certainly the latter; for the former (to be rendered, "may you" or "ye shall be broken in pieces, slain") produces a thought that is here introduced too early, and one that is inappropriate to the figures that follow. Standing as it still does under the
* Neshwan and the Kamus say: " hawwata and Jiajjata bi-fuldn-in
signifies to call out to any one in order to put him in terror (<u _L?);"
" but in Syria," as Wetzstein goes on to say, "the verb does not occur as med. Jod, nor is hawwata there construed with;_>, but only with.Jlc.
A very ready phrase with the street boys in Damascus is CUj^j.c«£>,<^ cLc, ' why dost thou threaten me? ' "
regimen of n3^"*W, inyin is to be read as a Plel; and, as the following figures show, is to be taken, after xlii. 11, in its primary signification contundere (root p).* The sadness of the poet is reflected in the compressed, obscure, and peculiar character of the expression. t^K and D?p3 (a single one — ye all) stand in contrast. 'W T|?3? sicut parietem = similem parieti (cf. lxiii. 6), forms the object to ^nann. The transmitted reading fWfnn "Ha, although not incorrect in itself so far as the gender (Prov. xxiv. 31) and the article are concerned (Ges. § 111, 2, a), must apparently be altered to ^rn nv?| (Olshausen and others) in accordance with the parallel member of the verse, since both rn'ia and "H? are words that can be used of every kind of surrounding or enclosure. To them David seems like a bent, overhanging wall, like a wall of masonry that has received the thrust that must ultimately cause its fall; and yet they rush in upon him, and all together they pursue against the one man their work of destruction and ruin. Hence he asks, with an indignation that has a somewhat sarcastic tinge about it, how long this never-satiated selfsatisfying of their lust of destruction is meant to last. Their determination (}T as in Isa. xiv. 24) is clear. It aims only or entirely (^N, here tantummodo, prorsus) at thrusting down from his high position, that is to say from the throne, viz. him, the man at whom they are always rushing (n^in? — irvHnp). No means are too base for them in the accomplishment of their object, not even the mask of the hypocrite.* The clauses which assume a future form of expression are, logically at least, subordinate clauses (Ew. § 341, b). The Old Testament language allows itself a change of number like VB3 instead of D'^SS, even to the very extreme, in the hurry of emotional utterance. The singular is distributive in this instance: suo quisque ore, like f?
* The reading of Ben-Asher ^n^ifl is followed by Aben-Ezra, Kimchi, and others, taking this form (which could not possibly be anything else) as Pual. The reading of Ben-Naphtali inipfl is already assumed in B. Sanhedrin 119a. Besides these the reading W)fiF\ (without Dag.) is also found, which cannot be taken as a resolved Piel, since the Metheg is wanting, but is to be read terotzcliu, and is to be taken (as also the reading "Ob6d, ci. 5, and Dpi>ns1, 1 Chron. xxiii. 6, xxiv. 3) as Poal (vid. on xciv.
Vers. 6-9. The beginning of the second group goes back and seizes upon the beginning of the first. ^]K is affirmative both in ver. 6 and in ver. 7. The poet again takes up the emotional affirmations of vers. 2, 3, and, firm and defiant in faith, opposes them to his masked enemies. Here what he says to his soul is very similar to what he said of his soul in ver. 2, inasmuch as he makes his own sonl objective and exalts himself above her; and it is just in this that the secret of personality consists. He here admonishes her to that silence which in ver. 2 he has already acknowledged as her own; because all spiritual existence as being living remains itself unchanged only by means of a perpetual "becoming" (niittelst steten Werdens), of continuous, self-conscious renovation. The "hope" in ver. 66 is intended to be understood according to that which forms its substance, which here is nothing more nor less than salvation, ver. 26. That for which he who resigns himself to God hopes, comes from God; it cannot therefore fail him, for God the Almighty One and plenteous in mercy is surety for it. David renounces all help in himself, all personal avenging of his own honour — his salvation and his honour are DtoK"7P (vid. on vii. 11). The rock of his strength, i.e. his strong defence, his refuge, is DWK3; it is where Elohim is, Elohim is it in person (3 as in Isa. xxvi. 4). By DJ>, ver. 9, the king addresses those who have remained faithful to him, whose feeble faith he has had to chide and sustain in other instances also in the Psalms belonging to this period. The address does not suit the whole people, who had become for the most part drawn into the apostasy. Moreover it would then have been *&}) (my people). EJ> frequently signifies the people belonging to the retinue of a prince (Judg. iii. 18), or in the service of any person of rank (1 Kings xix. 21), or belonging to any union or society whatever (2 Kings iv. 42 sq.). David thus names those who cleave to him; and the fact that he cannot say " my people " just shows that the people as a body had become alienated from him. But those who have remained to him of the people are not therefore to despair; but they are to pour out before God, who will know how to protect both
Vers. 10-13. Just as all men with everything earthly upon which they rely are perishable, so also the purely earthly form which the new kingship has assumed carries within itself the germ of ruin; and God will decide as Judge, between the dethroned and the usurpers, in accordance with the relationship in which they stand to Him. This is the internal connection of the third group with the two preceding ones. By means of the strophe vers. 10-13, our Psalm is brought into the closest reciprocal relationship with Ps. xxxix. Concerning D'Jtp.JS and B^fcpjia vid. on xlix. 3, iv, 3. The accentuation divides ver. 10 quite correctly. The Athnacli does not mark T\)?V^ D?3?Klp3 as an independent clause: they are upon the balance?"?$-> for a going up; they must rise, so light are they (Hengstenberg). Certainly this expression of the periphrastic future is possible (vid, on xxv. 14, Hab. i. 17), still we feel the want here of the subject, which cannot be dispensed with in the clause as an independent one. Since, however, the combining of the words with what follows is forbidden by the fact that the infinitive with? in the sense of the ablat. gerund, always comes after the principal clause, not before it (Ew. § 280, d), we interpret: upon the balances ad ascendendum = certo ascensuri, and in fact so that this is an attributive that is co-ordinate with 3T3.
Is the clause following now meant to affirm that men, one and all, belong to nothingness or vanity (JD partitivum), or that they are less than nothing (JO compared.) % Umbreit, Stier, and others explain Isa. xl. 17 also in the latter way; but parallels like Isa. xli. 24 do not favour this rendering, and such as Isa. xliv. 11 are opposed to it. So also here the meaning is not that men stand under the category of that which is worthless or vain, but that they belong to the domain of the worthless or vain.
The warning in ver. 11 does not refer to the Absalomites, but, pointing to these as furnishing a salutary example, to those who, at the sight of the prosperous condition and joyous life on that side, might perhaps be seized with envy and covetousness. Beside 3 ntpa the meaning of 3 73H is nevertheless not: to set a vain hope upon anything (for the idea of hoping does not exist in this verb in itself, Job xxvii. 12, Jer. ii. 5, nor in this construction of the verb), but: to be befooled, blinded by something vain (Ilitzig). Just as they are not to suffer their heart to be befooled by their own unjust acquisition, so also are they not, when the property of others increases (nu, root 33, to raise one's self, to mount up; cf. Arabic nabata, to sprout up, grow; nabara, to raise; intransitive, to increase, and many other verbal stems), to turn their heart towards it, as though it wrere something great and fortunate, that merited special attention and commanded respect. Two great truths are divinely attested to the poet. It is not to be rendered: once hath God spoken, now twice (Job xl. 5, 2 Kings vi. 10) have I heard this; but after Ixxxix. 36: One thin^ hath God spoken, two things (it is) that I have heard; or in accordance with the interpunction, which here, as in xii. 8 (cf. on ix. 16), is not to be called in question: these two things have I heard. Two divine utterances actually do follow. The two great truths are: (1) that God has the power over everything earthly, that consequently nothing takes place without Him, and that whatever is opposed to Him must sooner or later succumb; (2) that of this very God, the sovereign Lord (^K), is mercy also, the energy of which is measured by His omnipotence, and which does not suffer him to succumb upon whom it is bestowed. With ^ the poet establishes these two revealed maxims which God has impressed upon his mind, from His righteous government as displayed in the history of men. He recompenses each one in accordance with his doing, /cara to, epya avjovy as Paul confesses (Rom. ii. 6) no less than David, and even (yid. LXX.) in the words of David. It shall be recompensed unto every man according to his conduct, which is the issue of his relationship to God. He who rises in opposition to the will and order of God, shall feel God's power (r'y) as a power for punishment that dashes in pieces; and he who, anxious for salvation, resigns his own will to the will of God, receives from God's mercy or loving-kindness p?[?), as from an overflowing fulness, the promised reward of faithfulness: his resignation becomes experience, and his hoping attainment.
2 ELOHIM, Thou art my God, early do I seek Thee; My soul thirsteth after Thee, my flesh pineth for Thee In a land of dryness, and is wearied without water.
3 Thus have I looked after Thee in the sanctuary, To see Thy power and Thy glory.
4 For Thy loving-kindness is better than life, My lips shall praise Thee,
5 Thus will I bless Thee while I live, In Thy name will I lift up my hands.
6 As with marrow and fat is my soul satisfied, And with jubilant lips doth my mouth sing praise.
7 When I remember Thee upon my bed, Throughout the night-watches do I meditate upon Thee.
9 My soul followeth hard after Thee, Thy right hand holdeth me fast.
10 But they, to destruction do they seek my soul: They shall go into the abysses of the earth.
11 They deliver him into the power of the sword, A portion of jackals do they become.
12 Nevertheless the king shall rejoice in Elohim, Every one shall glory who sweareth by Him;
Now follows Ps. Ixiii., the morning Psalm of the ancient church with which the singing of the Psalms was always introduced at the Sunday service.* This Psalm is still more closely related to Vs. lxi. than Ps. lxii. Here, as in Ps. lxi., David gives utteranee to his longing for the sanctuary; and in both Psalma he speaks of himself as king (vid. Symbolce, p. 56). All the three Psalms, lxi.-lxiii., were composed during the time of Absalom; for we must not allow ourselves to be misled by the inscription, A Psalm, by David, when he was in the wilderness of JudaJi (also LXX., according to the correct reading and the one preferred by Euthymius, t^? 'lovhaias, not tt}? 'I&ovfiaias), into transferring it, as the old expositors do, to the time of Saul. During that period David could not well call himself "the king;" and even during the time of his persecution by Absalom, in his flight, before crossing the Jordan, he tarried one or two days "Q"iDn nmjD, in the steppes of the desert (2 Sam. xv. 23, 28, xvii. 16), i.e. of the wilderness of Judah lying nearest to Jerusalem, that dreary waste that extends along the western shore of the Dead Sea. We see clearly from 2 Sam. xvL 2 pftBi ^J") and xvi. 14 (OW^), that he there found himself in the condition of a *)$. The inscription, when understood thus, throws light upon the whole Psalm, and verifies itself in the fact that the poet is a king; that he longs for the God on Zion, where he has been so delighted to behold Him, who is there manifest; and that he is persecuted by enemies who have plotted his ruin. The assertion that he is in the wilderness (ver. 2) is therefore no mere rhetorical figure; and when, in ver. 11, he utters the imprecation over his enemies, " let them become a portion for the jackals" the influence of the desert upon the moulding of his thoughts is clearly seen in it.
We have here before us the Davidic original, or at any rate the counterpart, to the Korahitic pair of Psalms, xlii., xliii. It is a song of the most delicate form and deepest spiritual contents; but in part very difficult of exposition. When we have, approximately at least, solved the riddle of same in his De virginitate: rrpog cpdpov rou •^/a.'K^ov rovrov hiytn, x.t.Tu Hence Ps. lxiii. is called directly 6 opQptvog (the morning hymn) in Constit. Apostol. viii. 37. Eusebius alludes to the fact of its being so in Ps. xci. (xcii.), p. 608, ed. Montfaucon. In the Syrian order of service it is likewise the morning Psalm k&t i&xyv, vid. Dietrich, De psalterii usu publico et divisione in Ecclesia Syriaca, p. 3. The LXX. renders -pntTK in ver. 2, npog at opdptfo, and HVlDtftG in ver. 7, h rot; opQpois (in matutinis).
one Psalm, the second meets us with new riddles. It is not merely the poetical classic character of the language, and the spiritual depth, but also this half-transparent and half-opaque covering which lends to the Psalms such a powerful and unvarying attractiveness. They are inexhaustible, there always remains an undeciphered residue; and therefore, though the work of exposition may progress, it does not come to an end. But how much more difficult is it to adopt this choice spiritual love-song as one's own prayer! For this we need a soul that loves after the same manner, and in the main it requires such a soul even to understand it rightly; for, as the saintly Bernard says, lingua amoris non amanti barbara est.
Vers. 2-4. If the words in ver. 2 were Jjn^K nm ttrf&K, then we would render it, with Bottcher, after Gen. xlix. 8: Elohim, Thee do I seek, even Theet But vN forbids this construction; and the assertion that otherwise it ought to be, " Jahve, my God art Thou" (cxl. 7), rests upon a non-recognition of the Elohimic style. Elohim alone by itself is a vocative, and accordingly has Mehupack legarme. The verb "1W signifies earnest, importunate seeking and inquiring (e.g. lxxviii. 34), and in itself has nothing to do with in^, the dawn; but since ver. 7 looks back upon the night, it appears to be chosen with reference to the dawning morning, just as in Isa. xxvi. 9 also, "intf stands by the side of rWa nut. The LXX. is therefore not incorrect when it renders it: irpo? <re 6p6pl£co (cf. o Xabs (opOpi^ev irpos avrov, Luke xxi. 38); and Apollinaris strikes the right note when he begins his paraphrase,
~NvKrec fAir cift(Di?iVXYiv as fteHxap poiKctp dfiQixopivoa — At night when the morning dawns will I exult around Thee, most blessed One.
The supposition that pN3 is equivalent to pN2t 1^3, or even that the Beth is Beth essentice (u as a," etc.), are views that have no ground whatever, except as setting the inscription at defiance. What is meant is the parched thirsty desert of sand in which David finds himself. We do not render it: in a dry and languishing land, for njy is not an adjective, but a substantive,— the transition of the feminine adjective to the masculine primary form, which sometimes (as in 1 King? xix. 11) occurs, therefore has no application here; nor: in the land of drought and of weariness, for who would express hirrjsclf thus? ^yi, referring to the nearest subject **}^3, continues the description of the condition (cf. Gen. xxv. 8). In a region where he is surrounded by sun-burnt aridity and a nature that bears only one uniform ash-coloured tint, which casts its unrefreshinor image into his inward part, which is itself in much the same parched condition, his soul thirsts, his flesh languishes, wrearied and in want of water (languidus deficiente aqua), for God, the living One and the Fountain of life. HJpB (here with the tone drawn back, HD3, like "ina, 1 Chron. xxviii. 10, *!»}}, Hab. ill. 11) of ardent longing which consumes the last energies of a man (root DD, whence JE3 and DD3 to conceal, and therefore like *l&y, *)?y, proceeding from the idea of enveloping; Arabic and Theodotion erroneously read HJ35 (how frequently is this the case!); whereas Aquila renders it eVera^, and Symmachus still better, Ifielperai (the word used of the longing of love). It is not a small matter that David is able to predicate such languishing desire after God even of his flesh; it shows us that the spirit has the mastery within him, and not only forcibly keeps the flesh in subjection, but also, so far as possible, draws it into the realm of its own life — an experience confessedly more easily attained in trouble, which mortifies our carnal nature, than in the midst of the abundance of outward prosperity. The God for whom he is sick [lit. love-sick] in soul and body is the God manifest upon Zion.
Now as to the J3 in ver. 3 — a particle which is just such a characteristic feature in the physiognomy of this Psalm as "HN is in that of the preceding Psalm — there are two notional definitions to choose from: thus = so, as my God (Ewald), and: with such longing desire (as e.g. Oettinger). In the former case it refers back to the confession, "Elohim, my God art Thou," which stands at the head of the Psalm; in the latter, to the desire that has just been announced, and that not in its present exceptional character, but in its more general and constant character. This reference to what has immediately gone before, and to the modality, not of the object, but of the disposition of mind, deserves the preference. "Thus" is accordingly equivalent to " longing thus after Thee." The two p in vers. 3 and 5 are parallel and of like import. The alternation of the perfect (ver. 3) and of the future (ver. 5) implies that what has been the Psalmist's favourite occupation heretofore, shall also be so in the future. Moreover, n^ pK2 and B*n'p3 form a direct antithesis. Just as he does now in a dry land, so formerly in the sanctuary he looked forth longingly towards God (njn with the conjoined idea of solemnity and devotion). We have now no need to take fflfcO? as a gerundive (videndo), which is in itself improbable; for one looks, peers, gazes at anything just for the purpose of seeing what the nature of the object is (xiv. 2, Isa. xlii. 18). The purpose of his gazing upon God was to gain an insight into the nature of God, so far as it is disclosed to the creature; or, as it is expressed here, to see His power and glory, i.e. His majesty on its terrible and on its light and loving side, to see this, viz., in its sacrificial appointments and sacramental self-attestations. Such longing after God, which is now all the more intense in the desert far removed from the sanctuary, filled and impelled him; for God's loving-kindness is better than life, better than this natural life (yid. on xvii. 14), which is also a blessing, and as the prerequisite of all earthly blessings a very great blessing. The loving-kindness of God, however, is a higher good, is in fact the highest good and the true life: his lips shall praise this God of mercy, his morning song shall be of Him; for that which makes him truly happy, and after which he even now, as formerly, only and solely longs, is the mercy or loving-kindness (^?r0 of this God, the infinite worth of which is measured by the greatness of His power (t'V) and glory pta?). It might also be rendered, a Because Thy loving-kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee;" but if *3 is taken as demonstrative (for), it yields a train of thought that that is brought about not merely by what follows (as in the case of the relative because), but also by what precedes: iC for Thy loving-kindness... my lips shall then praise Thee" (^natt* with the suffix appended to the energetic plural form uny as in Isa. Ix. 7, 10, Jer. ii. 24).
Vers. 5-9. This strophe again takes up the |3 (ver. 3): thus ardently longing, for all time to come also, is he set towards God, with such fervent longing after God will he bless Him in his life, i.e. entirely filling up his life therewith (^n^ as in civ. 33, cxlvi. 2; cf. Baruch iv. 20, iv rais y/iipai?
juov), and in His name, i.e. invoking it and appealing to it, will he lift up his hands in prayer. The being occupied with God makes him, even though as now in the desert he is obliged to suffer bodily hanger, satisfied and cheerful like the fattest and most marrowy food: velut adipe et pinguedine satiatur anima mea. From Lev. hi. 17, vii. 25, Grussetius and Frisch infer that spirituales epuhe are meant. And certainly the poet cannot have had the sacrificial feasts (Hupfeld) in his mind; for the 2?n of the shelamim is put upon the altar, and is removed from the part to be eaten. Moreover, however, even the Tora does not bind itself in its expression to the letter of that prohibition of the fat of animals, vid. Deut. xxxii. 14, cf. Jer. xxxi. 14. So here also the expression "with marrow and fat" is the designation of a feast prepared from well-fed, noble beasts. He feels himself satisfied in his inmost nature just as after a feast of the most nourishing and dainty meats, and with lips of jubilant songs (accus. instrum. according to Ges. § 138, rem. 3), i.e. with lips jubilant and attuned to song, shall his mouth sing praise. What now follows in ver. 7 we no longer, as formerly, take as a protasis subsequently introduced (like Isa. iv. 3 sq.): " when I remembered... meditated upon Thee," but so that ver. la is the protasis and ver. lb the apodosis, cf. xxi. 12, Job ix. 16 (Hitzig): When I remember Thee (meminerimy Ew. § 355, b) upon my bed (stratis meis, as in cxxxii. 3, Gen. xlix. 4, cf. 1 Chron. v. 1) — says he now as the twilight watch is passing gradually into the morning — I meditate upon Thee in the night-watches (Symmachus, tcaO* eKaarrju (puXa/crfv), or during, throughout the night-watches (like '•jro in ver. 5); i.e. it is no passing remembrance, but it so holds me that I pass a great part of the night absorbed in meditation on Thee. He has no lack of matter for his meditation; for God has become a help (aiucilio, vid. on iii. 3) to him: He has rescued him in this wilderness, and, well concealed under the shadow of His wings (vid. on xvii. 8, xxxvi. 8, lvii. 2), which affords him a cool retreat in the heat of conflict and protection against his persecutors, he is able to exult (\P_$, the potential). Between himself and God there subsists a reciprocal relationship of active love. According to the schema of the crosswise position of words (chiasmus), T^H5* and '■S intentionally jostle close against one another: lie depends upon God, following close behind Him, i.e. following Him everywhere and not leaving Him when He wishes to avoid him; and on the other side God's right hand holds him fast, not letting him go, not abandoning him to his foes.
Vers. 10-12. The closing strophe turns towards these foes. By nDJTi he contrasts with his own person, as in lix. 16 sq., lvi. 7 sq., the party of the enemy, before which he has retreated into the desert. It is open to question whether iifctiBO is intended to be referred, according to xxxv. 17, to the persecuted one (to destroy my life), or, with Hupfeld, to the persecutors (to their own destruction, they themselves for destruction). If the former reference to the persecuted be adopted, we ought, in order to give prominence to the evidently designed antithesis to ver. 9, to translate: those, however, who..., shall go down into the depths of the earth (Bottcher, and others); a rendering which is hazardous as regards the syntax, after n®[] and in connection with tthis position of the words. Therefore translate: On the other hand, those, to (their own) ruin do they seek my soul. It is true this ought properly to be expressed by DHKiBO, but the absence of the suffix is less hazardous than the above relative rendering of ^"j??*. What follows in ver. 105-11 is the expansion of rifcOK^. The futures from W3J onwards are to be taken as predictive, not as imprecatory; the former accords better with the quiet, gentle character of the whole song. It shall be with them as with the company of Korah. nwnn Yyp} is the interior of the earth down into its deepest bottom; this signification also holds good in cxxxix. 15, Isa. xliv. 23.* The phrase 2nn *T"^JJ van here and in Jer. xviii. 21, Ezek. xxxv. 5 (Hiph.j not of "HI, to drag, tear away, but *03, t0 draw towards, flow), signifies properly to pour upon = into the hands (Job xvL 11), i.e. to give over ("i^D?) m^° *ne Power of the sword; effundent eum is (much the same as in Job iv. 19, xviii. 18, and frequently) equivalent to effundetur. The enallage is
* In this passage in Isaiah are meant the depths of the earth (LXX. 6spihi» t»j? yvis), the earth down to its inmost part, with its caverns, abysses, and subterranean passages. The apostle, however, in Eph. iv. 9 by t« KUTonepoc rqg yijj means exactly the same as what in our passage is called in the LXX. rec xctTarxrec rfc yys: the interior of the earth = the under world, just as it is understood by all the Greek fathers (so far as my knowledge extends); the comparative xuTuripo; is used just like sviprepos.
like v. 10, vii. 2 sq., ami frequently: the singular refers to each in dividual of the homogeneous multitude, or to this multitude itself as a concrete persona moralis. The king, however, who is now banished from Jerusalem to the habitation of jackals, will, whilst they become a portion (D30 = HUD), i.e. prey, of the jackals (yid. the fulfilment in 2 Sam. xviii. 7 sq.), rejoice in Elohim. Every one who sweareth by Him shall boast himself. Theodoret understands this of swearing Kara ttjv tov ftacn\eco$ <j(i)T7]piav. Ilengstenberg compares the oath njF]Q *n, Gen. xlii. 15. Ewald also (§ 217,/) assumes this explanation to be unquestionable. But the Israelite is to swear by the name of J alive and by no other, Deut. vi. 13, Isa. lxv. 1G, cf. Amos viii. 14. If the king were meant, why was it not rather expressed by V P3K^n, he who swears allegiance to him? The syntax does not help us to decide to what the ta refers. Heinrich Moeller (1573) says of the 13 as referred to the king: peregrinum est et coactum; and A. H. Franke in his Introductio in Psalterium says of it as referred to Elohim: coactum est. So far as the language is concerned, both references are admissible; but as regards the subject-matter, only the latter. The meaning, as everywhere else, is a swearing by God. He who, without allowing himself to turn from it, swore by Elohim, the God of Israel, the God of David His anointed, and therefore acknowledged Him as the Being exalted above all things, shall boast himself or "glory," inasmuch as it shall be practically seen how well-founded and wise was this recognition. He shall glory, for the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped, forcibly closed, viz. those who, together with confidence in the Christ of God, have by falsehood also undermined the reverence which is due to God Himself. Ps. Ixiv. closes very similarly, and hence is placed next in order.
4 Who whet their tongue like a sword, Who aim their arrows, bitter words,
5 To shoot, in lurking-places, at the virtuous — Suddenly they shoot at him, and fear not.
They are ready with a cunningly-wrought-out plan — And the inward part of a man, and the heart, is deep!
10 Then all men shall fear and declare the deed of Elohim, And His work shall they consider well.
11 The righteous shall rejoice in Jahve and trust in Him, And all the upright in heart shall glory.
Even Hilary begins the exposition of this Psalm with the words Psalmi superscriptio historiam non continety in order at the outset to give up all attempt at setting forth its historical connection. The Midrash observes that it is very applicable to Daniel, who was cast into the lions' den by the satraps by means of a delicately woven plot. This is indeed true; but only because it is wanting in any specially defined features and cannot with any certainty be identified with one or other of the two great periods of suffering in the life of David.
Vers. 2-5. The Psalm opens with an octostich, and closes in the same way. The infinitive noun rpb> signifies a complaint, expressed not by the tones of pain, but in words. The rendering of the LXX. (here and in lv. 3) is too general, kv t<2 QeeaOal fie. The "terror" of the enemy is that proceeding from him (gen. obj. as in Deut. ii. 15, and frequently). The generic singular 3)iS is at once particularized in a more detailed description with the use of the plural. ito is a club or clique; ntrri (Targumic = [ten, e.g. Ezek. xxx. 10) a noisy crowd. The perfects after "Wta aflirm that which they now do as they have before done; cf. cxl. 4 and lviii. 8, where, as in this passage, the treading or bending of the bow is transferred to the arrow. "ID T3H is the interpretation added to the figure, as in cxliv. 7 That which is bitter is called *ip, root "id, stri?igere, from the harsh astringent taste; here it is used tropically of speech that wounds and inflicts pain (after the manner of an arrow or a stiletto), iriKpol XoyoL. With the Kal HiT? (xi. 2) alternates the Hiph. VT1*. With DitfiQ the description takes a new start. ttfJJ N7i, forming an assonance with the preceding word, means that they do it without any fear whatever, and therefore also without fear of God (lv. 20, Deut. xxv. 18).
Vers. 6, 7. The evil speech is one with the bitter speech in ver. 4, the arrow which they are anxious to let fly. This evil speech, here agreement or convention, they make firm to themselves (sibi)^ by securing, in every possible way, its effective execution. 13D (frequently used of the cutting language of the ungodly, lix. 13, lxix. 27; cf. Talmudic '&*?f I^ISD, to speak as with three tongues, i.e. slanderously) is here construed with? of that at which their haughty and insolent utterances aim. In connection therewith they take no heed of God, the all-seeing One: they say (ask), qais conspiciat ipsis. There is no need to take iD? as being for Sb (Hitzig); nor is it the dative of the object instead of the accusative, but it is an ethical dative: who will see or look to them, i.e. exerting any sort of influence upon them % The form of the question is not the direct (lix. 8), but the indirect, in which ""D, seq. futn is used in a simply future (Jer. xliv. 28) or potential sense (Job xxii. 17, 1 Kings i. 20). Concerning TvAv, vid. lviii. 3. It is doubtful whether UDfl* is the first person ( = ^iDn) as in Num. xvii. 28, Jer. xliv. 18, or the third person as in Lam. iii. 22 (=z}Dfl? which first of all resolved is ^n, and then transposed «on like nw» = iT?:y» = TOO Isa. xxiii. 11). The reading Vft®, from which Rashi proceeds, and which Luther follows in
* WDH in Baer's Psalterium is an error that has been carried over from Heidenheim's.
his translation, is opposed by the LXX and Targum; it does not suit the governing subject, and is nothing but an involuntary lightening of the difficulty. If we take into consideration, that DDJj signifies not to make, ready, but to be ready, and that consequently bsnp ban is to be taken by itself, then it must be rendered either: they excogitate knavish tricks or villanies, il we are ready, a clever stroke is concocted, and the inward part of man and the heart is deep!" or, which we prefer, since there is nothing to indicate the introduction of any soliloquy: they excogitate knavish tricks, they are ready — a delicately devised, clever stroke (nominative of the result), and (as the poet ironically adds) the inward part of man and the heart is (verily) deep. There is nothing very surprising in the form 13DJR for roi?, since the Psalms, whenever they depict the sinful designs and doings of the ungodly, delight in singularities of language. On &\ (not A) = (B*K) aforstaj], cf. cxviii. 14a.
Vers. 8-11. Deep is man's heart and inward part, but not too deep for God, who knoweth the heart (Jer. xvii. 9 sq.). And He will just as suddenly surprise the enemies of His anointed with their death-blow, as they had plotted it for him. The futt. consec. that follow represent that which is future, with all the certainty of an historical fact as a retribution springing from the malicious craftiness of the enemies. According to the accentuation, ver. 8 is to be rendered: " then will Elohim shoot them, a sudden arrow become their wounds." Thus at length Hupfeld renders it; but how extremely puzzling is the meaning hidden behind this sentence! The Targum and the Jewish expositors have construed it differently: " Then will Elohim shoot them with arrows suddenly; " in this case, however, because ver. Sb then becomes too blunt and bald, &KH3 has to be repeated in thought with this member of the verse, and this is in itself an objection to it. We interpunctuate with Ewald and Hitzig thus: then does Elohim shoot them with an arrow, suddenly arise (become a reality) their wounds (cf. Mic. vii. 4), namely, of those who had on their part aimed the murderous weapon against the upright for a sudden and sure shot. Ver. 9a is still more difficult. Kimchi's interpretation, which accords with the accents: et corruere facient earn super se, linguam suam, is intolerable; the proleptic suffix, having reference to DjiP? (Ex. iii. 6, Job xxxiii. 20), ought to have been feminine (yid. on xxii. 10), and u to make their own tongue fall upon themselves" is an odd fancy. The objective suffix will therefore refer per enallagen to the enemy. But not thus (as Hitzig, who now seeks to get out of the difficulty by an alteration of the text, formerly rendered it): "and they cause those to fall whom they have slandered [lit. upon whom their tongue came]." This form of retribution does not accord with the context; and moreover the gravely earnest tovtf, like the *n —, refers more probably to the enemies than to the objects of their hostility. The interpretation of Ewald and Ilengstenberg is better: "and one overthrows him, inasmuch as their tongue, i.e. the sin of their tongue with which they sought to destroy others, comes upon themselves." The subject to V^Bbjj as m lxiii. 11, Job iv. 19, vii. 3, Luke xii. 20, is the powers which are at the service of God, and which are not mentioned at all; and the thought Djitt6 iDytf (a circumstantial clause) is like cxl. 10, where in a similar connection the very same singularly rugged lapidary, or terse, style is found. In ver. 96 we must proceed on the assumption that 2 nxn in such a connection signifies the gratification of looking upon those who are justly punished and rendered harmless. But he who tarries to look upon such a scene is certainly not the person to flee from it; Vrbnn does not here mean "to betake one's self to flight" (Ewald, Hitzig), but to shake one's self, as in Jer. xlviii. 27, viz. to shake the head (xliv. 15, Jer. xviii. 16) — the recognised (yid. xxii. 8) gesture of malignant, mocking astonishment. The approbation is awarded, according to ver. 10, to God, the just One. And with the joy at His righteous interposition, — viz. of Him who has been called upon to interpose, — is combined a fear of the like punishment. The divine act of judicial retribution now set forth becomes a blessing to mankind. From mouth to mouth it is passed on, and becomes an admonitory riota bene. To the righteous in particular it becomes a consolatory and joyous strengthening of his faith. The judgment of Jahve is the redemption of the righteous. Thus, then, does he rejoice in his God, who by thus judging and redeeming makes history into the history of redemption, and hide himself the more confidingly in Him; and all the upright boast themselves, viz. in God, who looks into the heart and practically acknowledges them whose heart is directed unswervingly towards Him, and conformed entirely to Him. In place of the futt. consec.y which have a prophetic reference, simple futt. come in here, and between these a perf. consec. as expressive of that which will then happen when that which is prophetically certain has taken place.
2 TO Thee resignation is as praise, Elohim, in Zion, And to Thee is the vowed paid.
4 If instances of iniquity have overpowered me — Our transgressions Thou, Thou expiatest them.
O God of our salvation, The confidence of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea,
8 Who stilleth the roar of the seas, the roar of their waves, And the tumult of the nations.
afraid at Thy tokens, The outgoings of the morning and of the evening Thou makest to sing for joy.
10 Thou hast visited the land, that it should overflow, Abundantly didst Thou enrich it. The fountain of Elohim was full of water — Thou didst prepare their corn, for Thou didst thus prepare it;
thereof. By showers of rain Thou madest it loose; Its increase didst Thou bless.
12 Thou hast crowned the year of Thy goodness, And Thy tracks drop with fat.
And the valleys are covered over with corn — Everything shouts for joy, everything sings.
In this Psalm, the placing of which immediately after the preceding is at once explicable by reason of the WW so prominent in both (lxiv. 10, lxv. 9), we come upon the same intermingling of the natural and the historical as in Ps. viii., xix., xxix. The congregation gathered around the sanctuary on Zion praises its God, by whose mercy its imperilled position in relation to other nations has been rescued, and by whose goodness it again finds itself at peace, surrounded by fields rich in promise. In addition to the blessing which it has received in the bounties of nature, it does not lose sight of the answer to prayer which it has experienced in its relation to the world of nations. His rule in human history and His rule in nature are, to the church, reflected the one in the other. In the latter, as in the former, it sees the almighty and bountiful hand of Him who answers prayer and expiates sins, and through judgment opens up a way for His love. The deliverance which it has experienced redounds to the acknowledgment of the God of its salvation among the most distant peoples; the beneficial results of Jahve's interposition in the events transpiring in the w7orld extend temporally as well as spiritually far beyond the bounds of Israel; it is therefore apparently the relief of Israel and of the peoples in general from J;he oppression of some worldly power that is referred to. The spring of the third year spoken of in Isa. xxxvii. 30, when to Judah the overthrow of Assyria was a thing of the past, and they again had the fields ripening for the harvest before their eyes, offers the most appropriate historical basis for the twofold purport of the Psalm. The inscription, To the Precentor, a Psalm, by David, a song (cf. lxxv. 1, lxxvi. 1), does not mislead us in this matter. For even we regard it as uncritical to assign to David all the Psalms bearing the inscription in?. The Psalm in many mss. (Complutensian, Vulgate), beside the words Eh to reXos yfraXfib? tw AavlB wS^, has the addition a>Brj 'Iepefilov teal 'Ie^etctTjX, (i/e) rov \aov tt}? Trapoucias ore efieWov €/c7ropeveaOai. At the head of the following Psalm it might have some meaning, — here, however, it has none.
Vers. 2-5. The praise of God on account of the mercy with which He rules out of Zion. The LXX. renders aol nrpeireL vjjlvos, but njofa, tibi par est, h. e. convenit laus (Ewald), is not a usage of the language (cf. xxxiii. 1, Jer. x. 7). njn signifies, according to xxiL 3, silence, and as an ethical notion, resignation, lxii. 2. According to the position of the words it looks like the subject, and njnn like the predicate. The accents at least (Illuj, Shalsheleth) assume the relationship of the one word to the other to be that of predicate and subject; consequently it is not: To Thee belongeth resignation, praise (Hengstenberg), but: To Thee is resignation praise, i.e. resignation is (given or presented) to Thee as praise. Hitzig obtains the same meaning by an alteration of the text: wn rPDT *]b; but opposed to this is the fact that? 3JH is not found anywhere in the Psalter, but only in the writings of the chronicler. And since it is clear that the words r6nn *p belong together (xl. 4), the poet had no need to fear any ambiguity when he inserted iVDl between them as that which is given to God as praise in Zion. What is intended is that submission or resignation to God which gives up its cause to God and allows Him to act on its behalf, renouncing all impatient meddling and interference (Ex» xiv. 14). The second member of the sentence affirms that this praise of pious resignation does not remain unanswered. Just as God in Zion is praised by prayer which resigns our own will silently to His, so also to Him are vows paid when He fulfils such prayer. That the answers to prayer are evidently thought of in connection with this, we see from ver. 3, where God is addressed as the " Hearer or Answerer of prayer." To Him as being the Hearer and Answerer of prayer all flesh comes, and in fact, as T^V implies (cf. Isa. xlv. 24), without finding help anywhere else, it clears a way for itself until it gets to Him; i.e. men, absolutely dependent, impotent in themselves and helpless, both collectively and individually (those only excepted who are determined to perish or despair), flee to Him as their final refuge and help. Before all else it is the prayer for the forgiveness of sin which lie graciously answers. The perfect in ver. 4a is followed by the future in ver. 46. The former, in accordance with the sense, forms a hypothetical protasis: granted that the instances of faults have been too powerful for me, i.e. (cf. Gen. iv. 13) an intolerable burden to me, our transgressions are expiated by Thee (who alone canst and also art willing to do it), ^"n is not less si£- nificant than in xxxv. 20, cv. 27, cxlv. 5, cf. 1 Sam. x. 2, 2 Sam. xi. 18 sq.: it separates the general fact into its separate instances and circumstances. How blessed therefore is the lot of that man whom (supply 1?fcy God chooses and brings near, i.e. removes into His vicinity, that he may inhabit His courts (future with the force of a clause expressing a purpose, as e.g. in Job xxx. 28, which see), i.e. that there, where He sits enthroned and reveals Himself, he may have his true home and be as if at home (vid. xv. 1)! The congregation gathered around Zion is esteemed worthy of this distinction among the nations of the earth; it therefore encourages itself in the blessed consciousness of this its privilege flowing from free grace (inn), to enjoy in full draughts (V2& with 2 as in ciii. 5) the abundant goodness or blessing (3-.D) of God's house, of the holy (ayiov) of His temple, i.e. of His holy temple (BHp as in xlvi. 5, cf. Isa. lvii. 15). For for all that God's grace offers us we can give Him no better thanks than to hunger and thirst after it, and satisfy our poor soul therewith.
Vers. 6-9. The praise of God on account of the lovingkindness which Israel as a people among the peoples has experienced. The future W'p confesses, as a present, a fact of experience that still holds good in all times to come, nis^i might, according to xx. 7, as in cxxxix. 14, be an accusative of the more exact definition; but why not, according to 1 Sam. xx. 10, Job ix. 3, a second accusative under the government of the verb? God answers the prayer of His people superabundantly. He replies to it mNTn, terrible deeds, viz. P7V?, by a rule which stringently executes the will of His righteousness
(yid, on Jer. xlii. 6); in this instance against the oppressors of His people, so that henceforth everywhere npon earth He is a ground of confidence to all those who are oppressed. " The sea (pi construct state, as is frequently the case, with the retention of the a) of the distant ones " is that of the regions lying afar off (cf. lvi. 1). Venema observes, Signijicatur, Deum esse certissimum presidium, sive agnoscatur ab hominibus et eijldatur, sive non (therefore similar to yvovres, Rom. i. 21; Psychol. S. 347; tr. p. 408). But according to the connection and the subjective colouring the idea seems to have, 'Ul n92D is to be understood of the believing acknowledgment which the God of Israel attains among all mankind by reason of His judicial and redemptive self-attestation (cf. Isa. xxxiii. 13, 2 Chron. xxxii. 22 sq.). In the natural world and among men He proves Himself to be the Being girded with power to whom everything must yield. He it is who setteth fast the mountains (cf. Jer x. 12) and stilleth the raging of the ocean. In connection with the giant mountains the poet may have had even the worldly powers (yid. Isa. xli. 15) in his mind; in connection with the seas he gives expression to this allegorical conjunction of thoughts. The roaring of the billows and the wild tumult of the nations as a mass in the empire of the world, both are stilled by the threatening of the God of Israel (Isa. xvii. 12-14). When He shall overthrow the proud empire of the world, whose tyranny the earth has been made to feel far and wide, then will reverential fear of Him and exultant joy at the end of the thraldom (vid. Isa. xiv. 3-8) become universal. nhiN (from the originally feminine HiK = tfwdjat, from nix? to mark, Num. xxxiv. 10), arjp.eic^ is the name given here to His marvellous interpositions in the history of our earth. *$£, ver. 6 (also in Isa. xxvi. 15), out of construction is fltep. "The exit places of the morning and of the evening" are the East and West with reference to those who dwell there. Luther erroneously understands *fcttflD as directly referring to the creatures which at morning and evening " sport about (webern)y i.e. go safely and joyfully out and in." The meaning is, the regions whence the morning breaks forth and where the evening sets. The construction is zeugmatic so far as K13, not NJP, is said of the evening sun, but only to a certain extent, for neither does one say my N13D (Ewald). Perret-Gentil ren- ilers it correctly: les lieux d'ou surgissent Taube et le crepuscule. God makes both these to shout for joy, inasmuch as He commands a calm to the din of war.
Vers. 10-14. The praise of God on account of the present year's rich blessing, which He has bestowed upon the land of His people. In vers. 10, 11 God is thanked for having sent down the rain required for the ploughing (yid. Commentary on Isaiah, ii. 522) and for the increase of the seed sown, so that, as vers. 12-14 affirm, there is the prospect of a rich harvest. The harvest itself, as follows from ver. 146, is not yet housed. The whole of vers. 10, 11 is a retrospect; in vers. 12-14 the whole is a description of the blessing standing before their eyes, which God has put upon the year now drawing to a close. Certainly, if the forms nn and nrn were supplicatory imperatives, then the prayer for the early or seed-time rain would attach itself to the retrospect in ver. 11, and the standpoint would be not about the time of the Passover and Pentecost, both festivals belonging to the beginning of the harvest, but about the time of the feast of Tabernacles, the festival of thanksgiving for the harvest, and vers. 12-14 would be a glance into the future (Hitzig). But there is nothing to indicate that in ver. 11 the retrospect changes into a looking forward. The poet goes on with the same theme, and also arranges the words accordingly, for which reason n-n and nru are not to be understood in any other way. pp^ beside ^wn (to enrich) signifies to cause to run over, overflow, Le. to put anything in a state of plenty or abundance, from pw (Hiph. Joel ii. 24, to yield in abundance),
^L,-, to push, impel, to cause to go on in succession and to follow in succession. T\2"[ (for which we find nzn in lxii. 3) is an adverb, copiously, richly (cxx. 6, exxiii. 4, exxix. 1), like riXD, a hundred times (Eccles. viii. 12). naiBtyn is Hiph. with the middle syllable shortened, Ges. § 53, 3, rem. 4. The fountain (3?B) of God is the name given here to His inexhaustible stores of blessing, and more particularly the fulness of the waters of the heavens from which He showers down fertilizing rain. |3, " thus thoroughly," forms an alliteration with pan, to prepare, and thereby receives a peculiar twofold colouring. The meaning is: God, by raising and tending, prepared the produce of the field which the inhabitants of the land needed; for He thus thoroughly prepared the land in conformity with the fulness of His fountain, viz. by copiously watering (nyi infin. absol. instead of nVij as in 1 Sam. iii. 12, 2 Chron. xxiv. 10; Ex. xxii. 22, Jer. xiv. 19, Hos. vi. 9) the furrows of the land and pressing down, i.e. softening by means of rain, its ridges («JW*, defective plural, as e.g. in Ruth ii. 13), which the ploughshare has made, Djri (related by root with Jj, tell, a hill, prop, that which is thrown out to a place, that which is thrown up, a mound) signifies a furrow as being formed by casting up or (if from Jj, Sbre'cher, to make a fracture, rent, or notch in anything) by tearing into, breaking up the ground; W3 (related by root with uchdud and chatt, the usual Arabic words for a furrow*) as being formed by cutting into the ground. In ver. 12 the year in itself appears as a year of divine goodness (n^B, bonitas), and the prospective blessing of harvest as the crown which is set upon it. For Thou hast crowned " the
* Fiirst erroneously explains D^fi as a bed or strip of ground between two deep furrows, in distinction from rujJD or rTOD (yid. on cxxix. 3), a furrow. Beds such as we have in our potato fields are unknown to Syrian agriculture. There is a mode which may be approximately compared with it called kelif (Piro), another far wider called meskeba (rQ2B>D). The
Arabic tilm (ti?F\t Hebrew D^fi = talm), according to the Kamus (as actually in Magrebinish Arabic) talam (D?fl)» corresponds exact to our furrow, i.e. (as the Turkish Kamus explains) a ditch-like fissure which the iron of the plough cuts into the field. Neshwan (i. 491) say3: " The verb talam, fut.jatlum and jatlim, signifies in Jemen and in the Ghor (the land on the shore of the Eed Sea) the crevices (jjyLiJi) which the ploughman forms, and tilm, collective plural tildm, is, in the countries mentioned, a furrow of the corn-field. Some persons pronounce the word even thilm, collective plural thilam." Thus it is at the present day universally in Hauran; in Edreaf
But this pronunciation with C-> is certainly not the original one, but has arisen through a substitution of the cognate and more familiar verbal stem Aj, cf. /•-£», to slit (shurem, a harelip). In other parts of Syria and Palestine, also where the distinction between the sounds CU and c£j is carefully observed, I have only heard the pronunciation tilm. — Wetzstein.
r of Thy goodness" and u with Thy goodness" are different ■rtions, with which also different (although kindred as to substance) ideas are associated. The futures after FpttJ} depict its results as they now lie out to view. The chariot-tracks (vid. Deut. xxxiii. 26) drop with exuberant fruitfulness, even the meadows of the uncultivated and, without rain, unproductive pasture land (Job xxxviii. 26 sq.). The hills are personified in ver. lob in the manner of which Isaiah in particular is so fond (e.g. ch. xliv. 23, xlix. 13), and which we find in the Psalms of his type (xcvi. 11 sqq., xcviii. 7 sqq., cf. lxxxix. 13). Their fresh, verdant appearance is compared to a festive garment, with which those which previously looked bare and dreary gird themselves; and the corn to a mantle in which the valleys completely envelope themselves (^toy with the accusative, like u-sLdu with l~j of the garment: to throw it around one, to put it on one's self). The closing words, locking themselves as it were with the beginning of the Psalm together, speak of joyous shouting and singing that continues into the present time. The meadows and valleys (Bottcher) are not the subject, of which it cannot be said that they sing; nor can the same be said of the rustling of the waving corn-fields (Kimchi). The expression requires men to be the subject, and refers to men in the widest and most general sense. Everywhere there is shouting coming up from the very depths of the breast (JHithpal.), everywhere songs of joy; for this is denoted by TE? in distinction from pp.
2 Harp the glory of His name, Give glory as praise unto Him.
4 All lands shall do homage to Thee and harp to Thee, They shall harp to Thy name." (Sela.)
5 Come ye and see the mighty deeds of Elohim, Who ruleth terribly over the children of men I
6 He hath turned the sea into dry land, Through the river they passed on foot — Then we rejoiced in Him!
7 He who ruleth in His strength for ever — His eyes keep watch upon the nations.
12 Thou didst cause men to ride over our head, We fell into fire and into water —
13 I will enter Thy house with burnt-offerings, I will pay Thee my vows,
15 Burnt-offerings of fat sheep will I bring to Thee, Together with the incense of rams,
16 Come, hear, and I will tell, all ye who fear Elohim, What He hath done for my soul.
From Ps. Ixv. onwards we find ourselves in the midst of a series of Psalms which, with a varying arrangement of the words, are inscribed both YDftD and "W (lxv.-lxviii.). The two words YBTD YE* stand according to the accents in the stat. constr. (lxxxviii. 1), and therefore signify a Psalm-song * This series, as is universally the case, is arranged according to the community of prominent watchwords. In Ps. Ixv. 2 we read: " To Thee is the vow paid" and in lxvi. 13: u I xuill pay Thee my vows;" in Ps. lxvi. 20: "Blessed be Eloliim" and in lxvii. 8: " Elohim shall bless us" Besides, Ps. lxvi. and lxvii. have this feature in common, that TOUD7, which occurs fifty-five times in the Psalter, is accompanied by the name of the poet in every instance, with the exception of these two anonymous Psalms. The frequently occurring Sela of both Psalms also indicates that they were intended to have a musical accompaniment. These annotations referring to the temple-music favour the pre-exilic rather than the post-exilic origin of the two Psalms. Both are purely Elohimic; only in one instance (lxvi. 18) does ^"IN, equally belonging to this style of Psalm, alternate with Elohim,
On the ground of some deliverance out of oppressive bondage that has been experienced by Israel arises in Ps. lxvi. the summons to the whole earth to raise a shout of praise unto God. The congregation is the subject speaking as far as ver. 12. From ver. 13 the person of the poet appears in the foreground; but that which brings him under obligation to present a thankoffering is nothing more nor less than that which the whole congregation, and he together with it, has experienced. It is hardly possible to define this event more minutely. The lofty consciousness of possessing a God to whom all the world must bow, whether cheerfully or against its will, became strong among the Jewish people more especially after the overthrow
* If it were meant to be rendered canticum psalmns (not psalmi) it would surely have been accented YDftD YE> n^ob (for YDTD YB> ni:^, according to section xviii. of the Accentuationssystem).
of Assyria in the reign of Hezekiah. But there is no ground for conjecturing either Isaiah or Hezekiah to be the composer of this Psalm. If thty in ver. 7 signified the world (Hitzig), then he would be (vid. xxiv. 9) one of the latest among the Old Testament writers; but it has the same meaning here that it has everywhere else in Old Testament Hebrew.
In the Greek Church this Psalm is called Wa\/ib$ avaaTaaecos; the LXX. gives it this inscription, perhaps with reference to ver. 12, ityyaye? rjfAas ek ava-^v^v.
Vers. 1-4. The phrase? *H23 D*fe> signifies u to give glory to God" in other passages (Josh. vii. 19, Isa. xlii. 12), here with a second accusative, either (1) if we take irfenri as an accusative of the object: facite laudationem ejus gloriam = gloriosam (Maurer and others), or (2) if we take *li33 as an accusative of the object and the former word as an accusative of the predicate: reddite honorem laudem ejus (Hengstenberg), or (3) also by taking in?nn as an apposition: reddite honorem, scil. laudem ejus (Hupfeld). We prefer the middle rendering: give glory as His praise, i.e. to Him as or for praise. It is unnecessary, with Hengstenberg, to render: How terrible art Thou in Thy works! in that case nriK ought not to be wanting. TjfTO might more readily be singular (Hupfeld, Hitzig); but these forms with the softened Jod of the root dwindle down to only a few instances upon closer consideration. The singular of the predicate (what a terrible affair) here, as frequently, e.g. cxix. 137, precedes the plural designating things. The song into which the Psalmist here bids the nations break forth, is essentially one with the song of the heavenly harpers in Apoc. xv. 3 sq., which begins, MeydXa kcl\ 6av/xaaTa to, epya crov.
Vers. 5-7. Although the summons: Come and see... (borrowed apparently from xlvi. 9), is called forth by cotemporary manifestations of God's power, the consequences of which now lie open to view, the rendering of ver. 6c, " then will we rejoice in Him," is nevertheless unnatural, and, rightly looked at, neither grammar nor the matter requires it. For since DB> in this passage is equivalent to TN, and the future after TK takes the signification of an aorist; and since the cohortative form of the future can also (e.g. after *W, lxxiii. 7, and in clauses having a hypothetical sense) be referred to the past, tnd doos sometimes at least occur where the writer throws himself hack into the past (2 Sam. xxii. 38), the rendering: Then did we rejoice in Him, cannot be assailed on syntactical grounds. On the u we," cf. Josh. v. 1, Chethib, Hos. xii. 5. The church of all ages is a unity, the separate parts beinojointly involved in the whole. The church here directs the attention of all the world to the mighty deeds of God at the time of the deliverance from Egypt, viz. the laying of the Red Sea and of Jordan dry, inasmuch as it can say in ver. 7, by reason of that which it has experienced in the present, that the sovereign power of God is ever the same: its God rules in His victorious might B^V, i.e. not "over the world," because that ought to be Djty2t, but " in eternity" (accusative of duration, as in lxxxix. 2 sq., xlv. 7), and therefore, as in the former days, so also in all time to come. His eyes keep searching watch among the peoples; the rebellious, who struggle against His yoke and persecute His people, had better not rise, it may go ill with them. The Chethib runs *0*1J, for which the Ken is WIJ. The meaning remains the same; D^n can (even without Tj t\SH? \^ lxv. 5) mean "to practise exaltation," superbire. By means of Su? this proud bearing is designated as being egotistical, and as unrestrainedly boastful. Only let them not imagine themselves secure in their arrogance! There is One more exalted, whose eye nothing escapes, and to whose irresistible mifjht whatever is not conformed to His £racious will succumbs.
Vers. 8-12. The character of the event by which the truth has been verified that the God who redeemed Israel out of Egypt still ever possesses and exercises to the full His ancient sovereign power, is seen from this reiterated call to the peoples to share in Israel's Gloria. God has averted the peril of death and overthrow from His people: He has put their soul in life (WJ3, like y^3 in xii. 6), i.e. in the realm of life; He has not abandoned their foot to tottering unto overthrow (DID the substantive, as in cxxi. 3; cf. the reversed construction in lv. 23). For God has cast His people as it were into a smelting-furnace or fining-pot in order to purify and to prove them by suffering; — this is a favourite figure with Isaiah and Jeremiah, but is also found in Zech. xiii. 9, Mai. iii. 3. Ezek. xix. 9 is decisive concerning the meaning of •TTOCDJ where fc03n nttWM signifies a to bring into the holds or prisons;" besides, the figure of the fowling-net (although this is also called rnwo as well as n*J^) has no footing here in the context. '"TJ^P (yid. xviii. 3) signifies specula, and that both a natural and an artificial watch-post on a mountain; here it is the mountain-hold or prison of the enemy, as a figure of the total loss of freedom. The laying on of a heavy burden mentioned by the side of it in ver. 116 also accords well with this. nijyiD, a being oppressed, the pressure of a burden, is a Hophal formation, like nop, a being spread out, Isa. viii. 8; cf. the similar masculine forms in lxix. 3, Isa. viii. 13, xiv. 6, xxix. 3. The loins are mentioned because when carrying heavy loads, which one has to stoop down in order to take up, the lower spinal region is called into exercise. B>faK is frequently (ix. 20 sq., x. 18, lvi. 2, Isa. li. 12, 2 Chron. xiv. 10) the word used for tyrants as being wretched mortals, perishable creatures, in contrast with their all the more revolting, imperious, and self-deified demeanour. God so ordered it, that "wretched men" rode upon Israel's head. Or is it to be interpreted: He caused them to pass over Israel (cf. cxxix. 3, Isa. li. 23)? It can scarcely mean this, since it would then be in dorso nostro, which the Latin versions capriciously substitute. The preposition? instead of?£ is used with reference to the phrase? 3K>J: sitting upon Israel's head, God caused them to ride along, so that Israel was not able to raise its head freely, but was most ignominiously wounded in its self-esteem. Fire and water are, as in Isa. xliii. 2, a figure of vicissitudes and perils of the most extreme character. Israel was nigh to being burnt up and drowned, but God led it forth rvn? to an abundant fulness, to abundance and superabundance of prosperity. The LXX., which renders et? avayfrv^qv (Jerome absolutely: in refrigerium), has read ^nrg; Symmachus, eh €vpv%copiav, probably reading narn? (cxix. 45, xviii. 20). Both give a stronger antithesis. But the state of straitness or oppression was indeed also a state of privation.
Vers. 13-15. From this point onwards the poet himself speaks, but, as the diversity and the kind of the sacrifices show, as being a member of the community at large. The niirty stand first, the gifts of adoring homage; 3 is the Beth of the accompaniment, as in Lev. xvi. 3, 1 Sam. i. 24, cf. Heb. ix. 25.
•• Mv vows" refer more especially to TjJ W^. nP ^S also OCCUIV elsewhere of the involuntary vowing to do extraordinary things urged from one by great distress (Judg. xi. 35). "IKW is an accusative of the object relating to the vows, quce aperuerunt = aperiendo nuncupaverunt labia mea (Geier). In ver. 15 »it"'y, used directly (like the Aramaic and Phoenician *72y) in the signification "to sacrifice" (Ex. xxix. 36-41, and frequently), alternates with wfl, the synonym of "W3pJl. The sacrifices to be presented are enumerated. DWO (incorrect for D*no) are marrowy, fat lambs; lambs and bullocks (V?) have the most universal appropriation among the animals that were fit for sacrifices. The ram (^), on the contrary, is the animal for the whole burnt-offering of the high priest, of the princes of the tribes, and of the people; and appears also as the animal for the shelamim only in connection with the shelamim of Aaron, of the people, of the princes of the tribes, and, in Num. vi. 14, of the Nazarite. The younger he-goat (W) is never mentioned as an animal for the whole burnt-offering; but, indeed, as an animal for the shelamim of the princes of the tribes in Num. ch. vii. It is, therefore, probable that the shelamim which were to be offered in close connection with the whole burnt-offerings are introduced bv DJ>, so that mbp signifies the fat portions of the shelamim upon the altar smoking in the fire. The mention of "rams" renders it necessary that we should regard the poet as here comprehending himself among the people when he speaks thus.
Vers. 16-20. The words in ver. 16 are addressed in the widest extent, as in vers. 5 and 2, to all who fear God, wheresoever such are to be found on the face of the earth. To all these, for the glory of God and for their own profit, he would gladly relate what God has made him to experience. The individual-looking expression ^5? is not opposed to the fact of the occurrence of a marvellous answering of prayer, to which he refers, being one which has been experienced by him in common with the whole congregation. He cried unto God with his mouth (that is to say, not merely silently in spirit, but audibly and importunately), and a hymn (DJpn?* something
* Kimchi (MicMol 146a) and Parchon (under EEfO read Don with Pathach; and Heidenheim and Baer have adopted it.
SIWj was under my tongue; i.e. I became also at once so sure of my being heard, that I even had the. song of praise in readiness (vid. x. 7), with which I had determined to break forth when the help for which I had prayed, and which was assured to me, should arrive. For the purpose of his heart was not at any time, in contradiction to his words, |}K, God-abhorred vileness or worthlessness; nto with the accusative, as in Gen. xx. 10, Ps. xxxvii. 37: to aim at, or design anything, to have it in one's eye. We render: If I had aimed at evil in my heart, the Lord would not hear; not: He would not have heard, but: He would not on any occasion hear. For a hypocritical prayer, coming from a heart which has not its aim sincerely directed towards Him, He does not hear. The idea that such a heart was not hidden behind his prayer is refuted in ver. 19 from the result, which is of a totally opposite character. In the closing doxology the accentuation rightly takes Vnorn TODH as belonging together. Prayer and mercy stand in the relation to one another of call and echo. When God turns away from a man his prayer and His mercy, He commands him to be silent and refuses him a favourable answer. The poet, however, praises God that He has deprived him neither of the joyfulness of prayer nor the proof of His favour. In this sense Augustine makes the following practical observation on this passage: Cum videris non a te amotam deprecationem tuam, securus esto, quia non est a te amota misericordia ejus.
2 ELOHIM be merciful unto us and bless us, May He cause His face to shine among us — (Sela.)
3 That Thy way may be known upon earth, Among all the heathen Thy salvation.
5 Nations shall rejoice and shout for joy, For Thou wilt judge peoples in uprightness,
7 The earth hath yielded her fruit, Elohim our God doth bless us.
Like Ps. lxv., this Psalm, inscribed To the Precentor, with accompaniment of stringed instruments, a song-Psalm, ("W "nDTD), also celebrates the blessing upon the cultivation of the ground. As Ps. lxv. contemplated the corn and fruits as still standing in the fields, so this Psalm contemplates, as it seems, the harvest as already gathered in, in the light of the redemptive history. Each plentiful harvest is to Israel a fulfilment of the promise given in Lev. xxvi. 4, and a pledge that God is with His people, and that its mission to the whole world (of peoples) shall not remain unaccomplished. This mission-tone referring to the end of God's work here below is unfortunately lost in the church's closing strain, " God be gracious and merciful unto us," but it sounds all the more distinctly and sweetly in Luther's hymn, " Es woll uns Gott genddig sein,v throughout.
There are seven stanzas: twice three two-line stanzas, having one of three lines in the middle, which forms the clasp or spangle of the septiad, a circumstance which is strikingly appropriate to the fact that this Psalm is called "the Old Testament Paternoster" in some of the old expositors.* The second half after the three-line stanza begins in ver. 6 exactly as the first closed in ver. 4. ^rny is repeated three times, in order that the whole may bear the impress of the blessing of the priest, which is threefold.
* Vid. Soimtag's Tituli Psalmorum (1687), where it is on this account laid out as the Rogate Psalm.
Vers. 2, 3. The Psalm begins (ver. 2) with words of the priest's benediction in Num. vi. 24-26. By OTK the church desires for itself the unveiled presence of the light-diffusing loving countenance of its God. Here, after the echo of the holiest and most glorious benediction, the music strikes in. With ver. 3 the Beracha passes over into a Tephilla. rijn? is conceived with the most general subject: that one may know, that may be known Thy way, etc. The more graciously God attests Himself to the church, the more widely and successfully does the knowledge of this God spread itself forth from the church over the whole earth. They then know His T}1, »•*• the progressive realization of His counsel, and His njn£>^ the salvation at which this counsel aims, the salvation not of Israel merely, but of all mankind.
Vers. 4, 5. Now follows the prospect of the entrance of all peoples into the kingdom of God, who will then praise Him in common with Israel as their God also. His judging (bbi?) in this instance is not meant as a judicial punishment, but as a righteous and mild government, just as in the christological parallels lxxii. 12 sq., Isa. xi. 3 sq. IB^D in an ethical sense for D^B^D, as in xlv. 7, Isa. xi. 4, Mai. ii. 6. nnjn as in xxxi.
4 of gracious guidance (otherwise than in Job xii. 23).
Vers. 6-8. The joyous prospect of the conversion of heathen, expressed in the same words as in ver 4, here receives as its foundation a joyous event of the present time: the earth has just yielded its fruit (cf. lxxxv. 13), the fruit that had been sown and hoped for. This increase of corn and fruits is a blessing and an earnest of further blessing, by virtue of which (Jer. xxxiii. 9, Isa. lx. 3; cf. on the contrary Joel ii. 17) it shall come to pass that all peoples unto the uttermost bounds of the earth shall reverence the God of Israel. For it is the way of God, that all the good that He manifests towards Israel shall be for the well-being of mankind.
2 LET Elohim arise, let His enemies be scattered, And let those who hate Him flee before His face.
3 As smoke is driven away, do Thou drive them away; As wax melteth before the fire,
4 And let the righteous rejoice, let them exult before Elohim, And let them be glad with joy.
Pave a highway for Him who rideth along through the steppes; Jah is His name, and exult ye before Him.
6 A Father of the fatherless and an Advocate of the widows Is Elohim in His holy habitation.
7 Elohim maketh a household for the solitary, He leadeth forth prisoners into prosperity; Yet the rebellious abide in a land of drought.
8 Elohim, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people, When Thou didst march along in the wilderness — (Sela.)
The heavens also dropped before Elohim, Yon Sinai before Elohim, the God of Israel.
14 If ye encamp among the sheep-folds, The dove's win^s are covered with silver And her feathers with glistening gold.
15 When the Almighty scattereth kings therein, It becometh snow-white upon Zalmon.
16 A mountain of Elohim is the mountain of Bashan, A mountain full of peaks is the mountain of Bashan.
17 Why look ye enviously, ye many-peaked mountains, Upon the mountain which Elohim hath chosen, to dwell captive, Thou hast received gifts among men, Even from the rebellious, that Jah Elohim might dwell
21 He, God, is to us a God for deeds of deliverance, And Jahve the Lord hath ways of escape for death.
27 In the choirs of the congregation bless ye Elohim, The Lord, ye who are out of the fountain of Israel,
28 There is Benjamin the youngest, their ruler; The princes of Judah — their motley band,
31 Threaten the wild beast of the reed, the troops of bulls with
the calves of the people, That they may prostrate themselves with ingots of silver! — He hath scattered the peoples that delight in wars.
33 Ye kingdoms of the earth, sing unto Elohim, Praising the Lord with stringed instruments — (Sela.)
" The God of Israel giveth might and abundant strength to the people I" Blessed be Elohim!
Is it not an admirably delicate tact with which the collector makes the W tidtd lxviii. follow upon the W 11DTO lxvii.? The latter began with the echo of the benediction which Moses puts into the mouth of Aaron and his sons, the former with a repetition of those memorable words in which, at the breaking up of the camp, he called upon Jahve to advance before Israel (Num. x. 35). u It is in reality," says Hitzig of Ps. lxviii., " no easy task to become • master of this Titan." And who would not agree with him in this remark? It is a Psalm in the style of Deborah, stalking along upon the highest pinnacle of hymnic feeling and recital; all that is most glorious in the literature of the earlier period is concentrated in it: Moses' memorable words, Moses' blessing, the prophecies of Balaam, the Deuteronomy, the Song of Hannah re-echo here. But over and above all this, the language is so bold and so peculiarly its own, that we meet with no less than thirteen words that do not occur anywhere else. It is so distinctly Elohimic in its impress, that the simple Elohim occurs twentythree times; but in addition to this, it is as though the whole cornucopia of divine names were poured out upon it: mrp in ver. 17; ^riK six times; ^Nn twice; *W in ver. 15; FP in ver. 5; \HK PnTP in ver. 21; Dt6k rp in ver. 19; so that this Psalm among all the Elohimic Psalms is the most resplendent. In connection with the great difficulty that is involved in it, it is no wonder that expositors, more especially the earlier expositors, should differ widely in their apprehension of it as a whole or in separate parts. This circumstance has been turned to wrong account by Ed. Reuss in his essay, " Der acht-undsechzigste Psalm, Ein Denhnal exegetischer Noth und Kunst zu Ehren unsrer ganzen Zunft, Jena, 1851," for the purpose of holding up to ridicule the uncertainty of Old Testament exegesis, as illustrated in this Psalm.
The Psalm is said, as Reuss ultimately decides, to have been written between the times of Alexander the Great and the Maccabees, and to give expression to the wish that the Israelites, many of whom were far removed from Palestine and scattered abroad in the wide earth, might soon be again united ia their fatherland. But this apprehension rests entirely upon violence done to the exegesis, more particularly in the supposition that in ver. 23 the exiles are the persons intended by those whom God will bring back. Reuss makes out those who are brought back out of Bashan to be the exiles in Syria, and those who are brought back out of the depths of the sea he makes out to be the exiles in Egypt. He knows nothing of the remarkable concurrence of the mention of the Northern tribes (including Benjamin) in ver. 28 with the Asaphic Psalms: Judah and Benjamin, to his mind, is Judaea; and Zebulun and Naphtali, Galilee in the sense of the time after the return from exile. The " wild beast of the reed" he correctly takes to be an emblem of Egypt; but he makes use of violence in order to bring in a reference to Syria by the side of it. Nevertheless Olshausen praises the services Reuss has rendered with respect to this Psalm; but after incorporating two whole pages of the u DenkmaL" in his commentary he cannot satisfy himself with the period between Alexander and the Maccabees, and by