,,the ,,expositor',s ,,bible ,,edited ,,by ,,the ,,rev4 ,,sir ,w4 ,,robertson ,,nicoll1 ,m4,a41 ,,ll4,d4 ,editor of ,the ,expositor1 etc4 ,,the ,,psalms ,,by ,,alexander ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d4 ,,volume ,,ii4 ,,psalms ,,xxxix4-,,lxxxix4 ,,hodder ,,and ,,stoughton ,,london ,,new ,,york ,,toronto ,the ,expositor's ,bible4 crown #hvo1 ,cloth1 ,price #gs4 #f;d4 ,each ,vol4 ,first ,series4 ,colossians4 ,by the ,rev4 ,a4 ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d41 ,d4,lit4 ,st4 ,mark4 ,by the ,right ,rev4 the ,bishop of ,derry4 ,genesis4 ,by ,prof4 ,,marcus ,,dods1 ,d4,d4 #a ,samuel4 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,g4 ,,blaikie1 ,d4,d4 #b ,samuel4 ,by the same ,author4 ,hebrews4 ,by ,principal ,t4 ,c4 ,,edwards1 ,d4,d4 ,,second ,,series4 ,galatians4 ,by ,prof4 ,g4 ,g4 ,,findlay1 ,b4,a41 ,d4,d4 ,the ,pastoral ,epistles4 ,by the ,rev4 ,a4 ,,plummer1 ,d4,d4 ,isaiah ,i4-,,xxxix4 ,by ,prin4 ,g4 ,a4 ,,smith1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,the ,book of ,revelation4 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,,milligan1 ,d4,d4 #a ,corinthians4 ,by ,prof4 ,,marcus ,,dods1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,epistles of ,st4 ,john4 ,by the ,most ,rev4 the ,archbishop of ,armagh4 ,,third ,,series4 ,judges and ,ruth4 ,by the ,rev4 ,r4 ,a4 ,,watson1 ,m4,a41 ,d4,d4 ,jeremiah4 ,by the ,rev4 ,c4 ,j4 ,,ball1 ,m4,a4 ,isaiah ,,xl4-,,lxvi4 ,by ,prin4 ,g4 ,a4 ,,smith1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,st4 ,matthew4 ,by the ,rev4 ,j4 ,,monro ,,gibson1 ,d4,d4 ,exodus4 ,by the ,right ,rev4 the ,bishop of ,derry4 ,st4 ,luke4 ,by the ,rev4 ,h4 ,,burton1 ,m4,a4 ,,fourth ,,series4 ,ecclesiastes4 ,by the ,rev4 ,,samuel ,,cox1 ,d4,d4 ,st4 ,james and ,st4 ,jude4 ,by the ,rev4 ,a4 ,,plummer1 ,d4,d4 ,proverbs4 ,by the ,rev4 ,r4 ,f4 ,,horton1 ,d4,d4 ,leviticus4 ,by the ,rev4 ,s4 ,h4 ,,kellogg1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,gospel of ,st4 ,john4 ,by ,prof4 ,m4 ,,dods1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,the ,acts of the ,apostles4 ,by ,prof4 ,,stokes1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,,fifth ,,series4 ,the ,psalms4 ,by the ,rev4 ,a4 ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,i4 #a and #b ,thessalonians4 ,by ,prof4 ,,james ,,denney1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,book of ,job4 ,by the ,rev4 ,r4 ,a4 ,,watson1 ,m4,a41 ,d4,d4 ,ephesians4 ,by ,prof4 ,g4 ,g4 ,,findlay1 ,b4,a41 ,d4,d4 ,the ,gospel of ,st4 ,john4 ,by ,prof4 ,m4 ,,dods1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,the ,acts of the ,apostles4 ,by ,prof4 ,,stokes1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,,sixth ,,series4 #a ,kings4 ,by the ,very ,rev4 ,f4 ,w4 ,,farrar1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,philippians4 ,by ,principal ,,rainy1 ,d4,d4 ,ezra1 ,nehemiah1 ,esther4 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,f4 ,,adeney1 ,m4,a4 ,joshua4 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,g4 ,,blaikie1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,psalms4 ,by the ,rev4 ,a4 ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,the ,epistles of ,st4 ,peter4 ,by ,prof4 ,,rawson ,,lumby1 ,d4,d4 ,,seventh ,,series4 #b ,kings4 ,by the ,very ,rev4 ,f4 ,w4 ,,farrar1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,romans4 ,by the ,right ,rev4 ,h4 ,c4 ,g4 ,,moule1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,books of ,chronicles4 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,h4 ,,bennett1 ,d4,d41 ,d4,lit4 #b ,corinthians4 ,by ,prof4 ,,james ,,denney1 ,d4,d4 ,numbers4 ,by the ,rev4 ,r4 ,a4 ,,watson1 ,m4,a41 ,d4,d4 ,the ,psalms4 ,by the ,rev4 ,a4 ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,iii4 ,,eighth ,,series4 ,daniel4 ,by the ,very ,rev4 ,f4 ,w4 ,,farrar1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,the ,book of ,jeremiah4 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,h4 ,,bennett1 ,d4,d41 ,d4,lit4 ,deuteronomy4 ,by ,prof4 ,,andrew ,,harper1 ,b4,d4 ,the ,song of ,solomon and ,lamentations4 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,f4 ,,adeney1 ,m4,a4 ,ezekiel4 ,by ,prof4 ,,john ,,skinner1 ,m4,a4 ,the ,books of the ,twelve ,prophets4 ,by ,prin4 ,g4 ,a4 ,,smith1 ,d4,d4 ,two ,vols4 ,,the ,,psalms ,,by ,,alexander ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d4 ,,volume ,,ii4 ,,psalms ,,xxxix4-,,lxxxix4 ,,hodder ,,and ,,stoughton ,,london ,,new ,,york ,,toronto ,printed by ,hazell1 ,watson ,viney1 ,ld41 ,london and ,aylesbury4 ,,contents ,,page ,,psalm ,,xxxix4 #a ,,xl4 #ad ,,xli4 #cj ,,xlii41 ,,xliii4 #da ,,xliv4 #ed ,,xlv4 #fc ,,xlvi4 #gi ,,xlvii4 #hf ,,xlviii4 #ib ,,xlix4 #ajj ,l4 #aae ,,li4 #abe ,,lii4 #adb ,,liii4 #adh ,,liv4 #aea ,,lv4 #aeh ,,lvi4 #aga ,,lvii4 #ahj ,,lviii4 #ahi ,,lix4 #aih ,,lx4 #bji ,,lxi4 #baf ,,lxii4 #bbc ,,lxiii4 #bcb ,,lxiv4 #bda ,,lxv4 #bdf ,,lxvi4 #bee ,,lxvii4 #bfd ,,lxviii4 #bfi ,,lxix4 #bic ,,lxx4 #cjf ,,lxxi4 #cjh ,,lxxii4 #cae ,,lxxiii4 #ccc ,,lxxiv4 #cdh ,,lxxv4 #cei ,,lxxvi4 #cff ,,lxxvii4 #cga ,,lxxviii4 #chb ,,lxxix4 #cif ,,lxxx4 #djd ,,lxxxi4 #dad ,,lxxxii4 #dbe ,,lxxxiii4 #dca ,,lxxxiv4 #ddj ,,lxxxv4 #dea ,,lxxxvi4 #dfa ,,lxxxvii4 #dgj ,,lxxxviii4 #dgg ,,lxxxix4 #dhg ,,psalm ,,xxxix4 #a ,i said1 ,i will guard my ways1 that ,i sin not with my tongue2 ,i will put a muzzle on my mouth ,so long as the wicked is before me4 #b ,i made myself dumb in still submission1 ,i kept silence joylessly1 ,and my sorrow was stirred4 #c ,my heart was hot within me2 ,while ,i mused the fire blazed up2 ,i spake with my tongue4 #d ,make me1 ,jehovah1 to know my end1 ,and the measure of my days1 what it is2 ,let me know how fleeting ,i am4 #e ,behold1 as handbreadths hast ,thou made my days1 ,and my lifetime is as nothing before ,thee2 ,surely nothing but a breath is every man1 stand he ever so firm4 ,selah4 #f ,surely every man goes about like a shadow2 ,surely for a breath do they make such a stir2 ,he heaps up goods and knows not who will gather them4 #g ,and now what wait ,i for1 ,lord8 ,my hope--to ,thee it goes4 #h ,from all my transgressions deliver me2 ,make me not a reproach of the fool4 #i ,i make myself dumb1 ,i open not my mouth1 ,for ,thou hast done it4 #aj ,remove ,thy stroke from me2 ,i am wasted by the assault of ,thy hand4 #aa ,when with rebukes for iniquity ,thou correctest a man1 ,like a moth ,thou frayest away his gracefulness2 ,surely every man is but a breath4 ,selah4 #ab ,hear my prayer1 ,jehovah1 and give ear to my cry2 ,at my weeping be not silent3 ,for ,i am a guest with ,thee1 ,and a sojourner like all my fathers4 #ac ,look away from me1 that ,i may brighten up1 ,before ,i go hence and be no more4 ,protracted suffering1 recognised as chastisement for sin1 had wasted the psalmist's strength4 ,it had been borne for a while in silence1 but the rush of emotion had burst the floodgates4 ,the psalm does not repeat the words which forced themselves from the hot heart1 but preserves for us the calmer flow which followed4 ,it falls into four parts1 the first three of which contain three verses each1 and the fourth is expanded into four1 divided into two couples4 ,in the first part 7vv4 #a-c7 the frustrated resolve of silence is recorded4 ,its motive was fear of sinning in speech while the wicked is before me4 ,that phrase is often explained as meaning that the sight of the prosperity of the godless in contrast with his own sorrows tempted the singer to break out into arraigning ,god's providence1 and that he schooled himself to look at their insolent ease unmurmuringly4 ,but the psalm has no other references to other men's flourishing condition2 and it is more in accordance with its tone to suppose that his own pains1 and not their pleasures1 prompted to the withheld words4 ,the presence of the wicked imposed on his devout heart silence as a duty4 ,we do not complain of a friend's conduct in the hearing of his enemies4 ,god's servants have to watch their speech about ,him when godless ears are listening1 lest hasty words should give occasion for malicious glee or blasphemy4 ,so1 for ,god's honour1 the psalmist put restraint on himself4 ,the word rendered bridle in ver4 #b by the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 is better taken as muzzle1 for a muzzle closes the lips1 and a bridle does not4 ,the resolution thus energetically expressed was vigorously carried out3 ,i made myself dumb in still submission2 ,i kept silence4 ,and what came of it8 ,my sorrow was stirred4 ,grief suppressed is increased1 as all the world knows4 ,the closing words of ver4 #b b 7lit4 apart from good7 are obscure1 and very variously understood1 some regarding them as an elliptical form of from good and bad1 and expressing completeness of silence2 others taking the good to mean the law1 or the praise of ,god1 or good-fortune1 or such words as would serve to protect the singer from slanders4 ,but the preposition here employed1 when it follows a verb meaning silence1 does not introduce that concerning which silence is kept1 but a negative result of silence 7,hupfeld74 ,the meaning1 then1 is best given by some such paraphrase as joylessly or and ,i had no comfort 7,r4,v474 ,the hidden sorrow gnawed beneath the cloak like a fire in a hollow tree2 it burned fiercely unseen1 and ate its way at last into sight4 ,locked lips make hearts hotter4 ,repression of utterance only feeds the fire1 and sooner or later the muzzle is torn off1 and pent-up feeling breaks into speech1 often the wilder for the violence done to nature by the attempt to deny it its way4 ,the psalmist's motive was right1 and in a measure his silence was so2 but his resolve did not at first go deep enough4 ,it is the heart1 not the mouth1 that has to be silenced4 ,to build a dam across a torrent without diminishing the sources that supply its waters only increases weight and pressure1 and ensures a muddy flood when it bursts4 ,does the psalm proceed to recount what its author said when he broke silence8 ,it may appear so at first sight4 ,on the other hand1 the calm prayer which follows1 beginning with ver4 #d1 is not of the character of the wild and whirling words which were suppressed for fear of sinning1 nor does the fierce fire of which the psalm has been speaking flame in it4 ,it seems1 therefore1 more probable that those first utterances1 in which the overcharged heart relieved itself1 and which were tinged with complaint and impatience1 are not preserved1 and did not deserve to be1 and that the pathetic1 meditative petitions of the rest of the psalm succeeded them1 as after the first rush of the restrained torrent comes a stiller flow4 ,such a prayer might well have been offered while the wicked is before me1 and might have been laid to heart by them4 ,its thoughts are as a cool hand laid on the singer's hot heart4 ,they damp the fire burning in him4 ,there is no surer remedy for inordinate sensibility to outward sorrows than fixed convictions of life's brevity and illusoriness2 and these are the two thoughts which the prayer casts into sweet1 sad music4 ,it deals with commonplaces of thought1 which poets and moralists have been singing and preaching since the world began1 in different tones and with discordant applications1 sometimes with fierce revolt against the inevitable1 sometimes with paralysing consciousness of it1 sometimes using these truths as arguments for base pleasures and aims1 sometimes toying with them as occasions for cheap sentiment and artificial pathos1 sometimes urging them as motives for strenuous toil4 ,but of all the voices which have ever sung or prophesied of life's short span and shadowy activities1 none is nobler1 saner1 healthier1 and calmer than this psalmist's4 ,the stately words in which he proclaimed the transiency of all earthly things are not transient4 ,they are nothing but a breath1 but they have outlasted much that seemed solid1 and their music will sound as long as man is on his march through time4 ,our days have a measure2 they are a limited period1 and the ,measurer is ,god4 ,but this fleeting creature man has an obstinate fancy of his permanence1 which is not all bad indeed--since without it there would be little continuity of purpose or concentration of effort--but may easily run to extremes and hide the fact that there is an end4 ,therefore the prayer for ,divine illumination is needed1 that we may not be ignorant of that which we know well enough1 if we would bethink ourselves4 ,the solemn convictions of ver4 #e are won by the petitions of ver4 #d4 ,he who asks ,god to make him know his end has already gone far towards knowing it4 ,if he seeks to estimate the measure of his days1 he will soon come to the clear conviction that it is only the narrow space that may be covered by one or two breadths of a hand4 ,so do noisy years shrink when heaven's chronology is applied to them4 ,a lifetime looks long1 but set against ,god's eternal years1 it shrivels to an all but imperceptible point1 having position1 but not magnitude4 ,the thought of brevity naturally draws after it that of illusoriness4 ,just because life is so frail does it assume the appearance of being futile4 ,both ideas are blended in the metaphors of a breath and a shadow4 ,there is a solemn earnestness in the threefold surely1 confirming each clause of the seer's insight into earth's hollowness4 ,how emphatically he puts it in the almost pleonastic language1 ,surely nothing but a breath is every man1 stand he ever so firm4 ,the truth proclaimed is undeniably certain4 ,it covers the whole ground of earthly life1 and it includes the most prosperous and firmly established4 ,a breath is the very emblem of transiency and of unsubstantiality4 ,every solid body can be melted and made gaseous vapour1 if heat enough is applied4 ,they who habitually bring human life before ,thee dissolve into vapour the solid-seeming illusions which cheat others1 and save their own lives from being but a breath by clearly recognising that they are4 ,the ,selah at the end of ver4 #d does not here seem to mark a logical pause in thought nor to coincide with the strophe division1 but emphasises by some long-drawn1 sad notes the teaching of the words4 ,the thought runs on unbroken1 and ver4 #f is closely linked to ver4 #e by the repeated surely and breath as well as in subject4 ,the figure changes from breath to shadow1 literally image1 meaning not a sculptured likeness1 but an eidolon1 or unsubstantial apparition4 ,the glories of our birth and state ,are shadows1 not substantial things2 and all the movements of men coming and going in the world are but like a dance of shadows4 ,as they are a breath1 so are their aims4 ,all their hubbub and activity is but like the bustle of ants on their hill--immense energy and toil1 and nothing coming of it all4 ,if any doubt remained as to the correctness of this judgment of the aimlessness of man's toil1 one fact would confirm the psalmist's sentence1 viz41 that the most successful man labours to amass1 and has to leave his piles for another whom he does not know1 to gather into his storehouses and to scatter by his prodigality4 ,there may be an allusion in the words to harvesting work4 ,the sheaves are piled up1 but in whose barn are they to be housed8 ,surely1 if the grower and reaper is not the ultimate owner1 his toil has been for a breath4 ,all this is no fantastic pessimism4 ,still less is it an account of what life must be4 ,if any man's is nothing but toiling for a breath1 and if he himself is nothing but a breath1 it is his own fault4 ,they who are joined to ,god have in their embers something that doth live2 and if they labour for ,him1 they do not labour for vanity1 nor do they leave their possessions when they die4 ,the psalmist has no reference to a future life1 but the immediately following strophe shows that1 though he knew that his days were few1 he knew1 too1 that1 if his hope were set on ,god he was freed from the curse of illusoriness and grasped no shadow1 but the ,living ,substance1 who would make his life blessedly real and pour into it substantial good4 ,the effect of such convictions of life's brevity and emptiness should be to throw the heart back on ,god4 ,in the third part of the psalm 7vv4 #g-i7 a higher strain sounds4 ,the singer turns from his dreary thoughts1 which might so easily become bitter ones1 to lay hold on ,god4 ,what should earth's vanity teach but ,god's sufficiency8 ,it does not need the light of a future life to be flashed upon this mean1 swiftly vanishing present in order to see it apparelled in celestial light4 ,without that transforming conception1 it is still possible to make it great and real by bringing it into conscious connection with ,god2 and if hope and effort are set on ,him amid all the smallnesses and perishablenesses of the outer world1 hope will not chase a shadow1 nor effort toil for very vanity4 ,the psalmist sought to calm his hot heart by the contemplation of his end1 but that is a poor remedy for perturbation and grief unless it leads to actual contact with the one enduring ,substance4 ,it did so with him1 and therefore grief grew calm1 just because hope was not dead4 ,to preach the vanity of all earthly things to heavy hearts is but pouring vinegar on nitre1 unless it is accompanied with the great antidote to all sad and depreciating views of life3 the thought that in it men may reach their hands beyond the time-film that enmeshes them and grasp the unchanging ,god4 ,this psalm has no reference to life beyond the grave2 but it finds in present communion by waiting and hope1 emancipation from the curse of fleeting triviality which haunts every life separated from ,him1 like that which the ,christian hope of immortality gives4 ,god is the significant figure which gives value to the row of ciphers of which every life is without ,him made up4 ,blessed are they who are driven by earth's vanity and drawn by ,god's fulness of love and power to fling themselves into ,his arms and nestle there6 ,the strong recoil of the devout soul from a world which it has profoundly felt to be shadowy1 and its great venture of faith1 which is not a venture after all1 were never more nobly or simply expressed than in that quiet ,and now--things being so--what wait ,i for8 ,my hope--in contrast with the false directions which other men's takes--to ,thee it turns4 ,the burden is still on the psalmist's shoulders4 ,his sufferings are not ended1 though his trust has taken the poison out of them4 ,therefore his renewed grasp of ,god leads at once to prayer for deliverance from his transgressions1 in which cry may be included both sins and their chastisement4 ,the fool is the name of a class1 not of an individual1 and1 as always in ,scripture1 denotes moral and religious obliquity1 not intellectual feebleness4 ,the expression is substantially equivalent to the wicked of ver4 #a1 and a similar motive to that which there induced the psalmist to be silent is here urged as a plea with ,god for the sufferer's deliverance4 ,taunts launched at a good man suffering will glance off him and appear to reach his ,god4 ,ver4 #i pleads as a reason for ,god's deliverance the psalmist's silence under what he recognised as ,god's chastisement4 ,the question arises whether this is the same silence as is referred to in vv4 #a1 #b1 and many authorities take that view4 ,but that silence was broken by a rush of words from a hot heart1 and1 if the account of the connection in the psalm given above is correct1 by a subsequent more placid meditation and prayer4 ,it would be irrelevant to recur to it here1 especially as a plea with ,god4 ,but there are two kinds of silence under ,his chastisements3 one which may have for its motive regard to ,his honour1 but is none the less tinged with rebellious thoughts1 and brings no good to the sufferer1 and another which is silence of heart and will1 not of lips only1 and soothes sorrow which the other only aggravated1 and puts out the fire which the other fanned4 ,submission to ,god's hand discerned behind all visible causes is the blessed silence4 ,to lie still1 let ,him strike home1 and bless the rod1 is best4 ,and when that is attained1 the uses of chastisement are accomplished2 and we may venture to ask ,god to burn the rod4 ,the desire to be freed from its blow is not inconsistent with such submission4 ,this prayer does not break the silence1 though it may seem to do so1 for this is the privilege of hearts that love ,god3 that they can breathe desires to ,him without ,his holding them unsubmissive to ,his supreme will4 ,the last part 7vv4 #aj-ac7 is somewhat abnormally long1 and falls into two parts separated by ,selah1 which musical note does not here coincide with the greater divisions4 ,the two pairs of verses are both petitions for removal of sickness1 either real or figurative4 ,their pleading persistence presents substantially the same prayer and supports it by the same considerations of man's transiency4 ,the ,pattern of perfect resignation thrice prayed1 saying the same words2 and ,his suffering followers may do the same1 and yet neither sin by impatience1 nor weary the ,judge by their continual coming4 ,the psalmist sees in his pains ,god's stroke1 and pleads the effects already produced on him as a reason for cessation4 ,he is already wasted by the assault of ,god's hand4 ,one more buffet1 and he feels that he must die4 ,it is bold for a sufferer to say to ,god1 ,hold6 enough6 but all depends on the tone in which it is said4 ,it may be presumption1 or it may be a child's free speech1 not in the least trenching on a ,father's authority4 ,the sufferer underrates his capacity of endurance1 and often thinks1 ,i can bear no straw more2 but yet he has to bear it4 ,yet the psalmist's cry rests upon a deep truth3 that ,god cannot mean to crush2 therefore he goes on to a deeper insight into the meaning of that stroke4 ,it is not the attack of an enemy1 but the correction of a friend4 ,if men regarded sorrows and sicknesses as rebukes for iniquity1 they would better understand why sinful life1 separated from ,god1 is so fleeting4 ,the characteristic ground tone of the ,old ,testament echoes here1 according to which the wages of sin is death4 ,the commonplace of man's frailty receives a still more tragic colouring when thus regarded as a consequence of his sin4 ,the psalmist has learned it in relation to his own sufferings1 and1 because he sees it so clearly1 he pleads that these may cease4 ,he looks on his own wasted form2 and ,god's hand seems to him to have taken away all that made it or life desirable and fair1 as a moth would gnaw a garment4 ,what a daring figure to compare the mightiest with the feeblest1 the ,eternal with the very type of evanescence6 ,the second subdivision of this part 7vv4 #ab1 #ac7 reiterates the former with some difference of tone4 ,there is a beautiful climax of earnestness in the psalmist's appeal to ,god4 ,his prayer swells into crying1 and that again melts into tears1 which go straight to the great ,father's heart4 ,weeping eyes are never turned to heaven in vain2 the gates of mercy open wide when the hot drops touch them4 ,but his fervour of desire is not this suppliant's chief argument with ,god4 ,his meditation has won for him deeper insight into that transiency which at first he had only laid like ice on his heart1 to cool its feverish heat4 ,he sees now more clearly1 by reason of his effort to turn away his hope from earth and fix it on ,god1 that his brief life has an aspect in which its brevity is not only calming1 but exalting1 and gives him a claim on ,god1 whose guest he is while here1 and with whom he has guest-rights1 whether his stay is longer or shorter4 ,the land is mine1 for ye are strangers and sojourners with me 7,lev4 xxv4 #bc74 ,that which was true in a special way of ,israel's tenure of the soil is true for the individual1 and true for ever4 ,all men are ,god's guests2 and if we betake ourselves behind the curtains of ,his tent1 we have rights of shelter and sustenance4 ,all the bitterness of the thought of the brevity of life is sucked out of it by such a confidence4 ,if a man dwells with ,god1 his ,host will care for the needs1 and not be indifferent to the tears1 of ,his guest4 ,the long generations which have come and gone like shadows are not a melancholy procession out of nothing through vanity into nothing again1 nor disquieted in vain1 if they are conceived as each in turn lodging for a little while in that same ancestral home which the present generation inhabits4 ,it has seen many sons succeeding their fathers as its tenants1 but its stately strength grows not old1 and its gates are open to-day as they have been in all generations4 ,the closing prayer in ver4 #ac has a strange sound4 ,look away from me is surely a singular petition1 and the effect of ,god's averting ,his face is not less singular4 ,the psalmist thinks that it will be his regaining cheerfulness and brightness1 for he uses a word which means to clear up or to brighten1 as the sky becomes blue again after storm4 ,the light of ,god's face makes men's faces bright4 ,they cried unto ,god1 and were lightened1 not because ,he looked away from them1 but because ,he regarded them4 ,but the intended paradox gives the more emphatic expression to the thought that the psalmist's pains came from ,god's angry look1 and it is that which he asks may be turned from him4 ,that mere negative withdrawal1 however1 would have no cheering power1 and is not conceivable as unaccompanied by the turning to the suppliant of ,god's loving regard4 ,the devout psalmist had no notion of a neutral ,god1 nor could he ever be contented with simple cessation of the tokens of ,divine displeasure4 ,the ever-outflowing ,divine activity must reach every man4 ,it may come in one or other of the two forms of favour or of displeasure1 but come it will2 and each man can determine which side of that pillar of fire and cloud is turned to him4 ,on one side is the red glare of anger1 on the other the white lustre of love4 ,if the one is turned from1 the other is turned to us4 ,not less remarkable is the prospect of going away into non-being which the last words of the psalm present as a piteous reason for a little gleam of brightness being vouchsafed in this span-long life4 ,there is no vision here of life beyond the grave2 but1 though there is not1 the singer throws himself into the arms of ,god4 ,he does not seek to solve the problem of life by bringing the future in to redress the balance of good and evil4 ,to him the solution lies in present communion with a present ,god1 in whose house he is a guest now1 and whose face will make his life bright1 however short it may be4 ,,psalm ,,xl4 #a ,waiting1 ,i waited for ,jehovah1 ,and ,he bent to me and heard my loud cry4 #b ,and lifted me from the pit of destruction1 ,from the mire of the bog1 ,and set my feet on a rock-- ,established my steps1 #c ,and put in my mouth a new song1 ,praise unto our ,god4 ,many shall see and fear1 ,and trust in ,jehovah4 #d ,blessed is the man who has made ,jehovah his trust1 ,and has not turned away to the proud and deserters to a lie4 #e ,in multitudes hast ,thou wrought1 ,jehovah1 my ,god2 ,thy wonders and ,thy purposes towards us-- ,there is none to be set beside ,thee-- ,should ,i declare them and speak them1 ,they surpass numbering4 #f ,sacrifice and meal-offering ,thou didst not delight in-- ,ears hast ,thou pierced for me-- ,burnt-offering and sin-offering ,thou didst not demand4 #g ,then ,i said1 ,behold1 ,i am come-- ,in the roll of the book it is prescribed to me-- #h ,to do ,thy pleasure1 my ,god1 ,i delight1 ,and ,thy law is within my inmost parts4 #i ,i proclaimed glad tidings of ,thy righteousness in the great congregation2 ,behold1 my lips ,i did not restrain1 ,jehovah1 ,thou knowest4 #aj ,thy righteousness did ,i not hide within my heart2 ,thy faithfulness and ,thy salvation did ,i speak2 ,i concealed not ,thy loving-kindness and ,thy truth from the great congregation4 #aa ,thou1 ,jehovah1 wilt not restrain ,thy compassions from me2 ,thy loving-kindness and ,thy troth will continually preserve me4 #ab ,for evils beyond numbering have compassed me2 ,my iniquities have overtaken me1 and ,i am not able to see3 ,they surpass the hairs of my head1 ,and my heart has forsaken me4 #ac ,be pleased1 ,jehovah1 to deliver me2 ,jehovah1 hasten to my help4 #ad ,shamed and put to the blush together be the seekers after my soul to carry it away6 ,turned back and dishonoured be they who delight in my calamity6 #ae ,paralysed by reason of their shame ,be they who say to me1 ,oho6 ,oho6 #af ,joyful and glad in ,thee be all who seek ,thee6 ,jehovah be magnified1 may they ever say who love ,thy salvation6 #ag ,but as for me1 ,i am afflicted and needy2 ,the ,lord purposes good for me3 ,my ,help and my ,deliverer art ,thou2 ,my ,god1 delay not4 ,the closing verses of this psalm reappear with slight changes as an independent whole in ,psalm lxx4 ,the question arises whether that is a fragment or this a conglomerate4 ,modern opinion inclines to the latter alternative1 and points in support to the obvious change of tone in the second part4 ,but that change does not coincide with the supposed line of junction1 since ,psalm lxx4 begins with our ver4 #ac1 and the change begins with ver4 #ab4 ,cheyne and others are therefore obliged to suppose that ver4 #ab is the work of a third poet or compiler1 who effected a junction thereby4 ,the cumbrousness of the hypothesis of fusion is plain1 and its necessity is not apparent1 for it is resorted to in order to explain how a psalm which keeps so lofty a level of confidence at first should drop to such keen consciousness of innumerable evils and such faint-heartedness4 ,but surely such resurrection of apparently dead fears is not uncommon in devout1 sensitive souls4 ,they live beneath ,april skies1 not unbroken blue4 ,however many the wonderful works which ,god has done and however full of thankfulness the singer's heart1 his deliverance is not complete4 ,the contrast in the two parts of the psalm is true to facts and to the varying aspects of feeling and of faith4 ,though the latter half gives greater prominence to encompassing evils1 they appear but for a moment2 and the prayer for deliverance which they force from the psalmist is as triumphant in faith as were the thanksgivings of the former part4 ,in both the ground tone is that of victorious grasp of ,god's help1 which in the one is regarded in its mighty past acts1 and in the other is implored and trusted in for present and future needs4 ,the change of tone is not such as to demand the hypothesis of fusion4 ,the unity is further supported by verbal links between the parts3 e4g41 the innumerable evils of ver4 #ab pathetically correspond to the innumerable mercies of ver4 #e1 and the same word for surpass occurs in both verses2 be pleased in ver4 #ac echoes ,thy pleasure 7will1 ,a4,v47 in ver4 #h2 cares or thinks 7,a4,v47 in ver4 #ag is the verb from which the noun rendered purposes 7thoughts1 ,a4,v47 in ver4 #e is derived4 ,the attribution of the psalm to ,david rests solely on the superscription4 ,the contents have no discernible points of connection with known circumstances in his or any other life4 ,jeremiah has been thought of as the author1 on the strength of giving a prosaic literal meaning to the obviously poetical phrase the pit of destruction 7ver4 #b74 ,if it is to be taken literally1 what is to be made of the rock in the next clause8 ,baethgen and others see the return from ,babylon in the glowing metaphors of ver4 #b1 and1 in accordance with their conceptions of the evolution of spiritual religion1 take the subordination of sacrifice to obedience as a clear token of late date4 ,we may1 however1 recall #a ,sam4 xv4 #bb1 and venture to doubt whether the alleged process of spiritualising has been so clearly established1 and its stages dated1 as to afford a criterion of the age of a psalm4 ,in the first part1 the current of thought starts from thankfulness for individual deliverances 7vv4 #a-c72 widens into contemplation of the blessedness of trust and the riches of ,divine mercies 7vv4 #d1 #e72 moved by these and taught what is acceptable to ,god1 it rises to self-consecration as a living sacrifice 7vv4 #f-h72 and1 finally1 pleads for experience of ,god's grace in all its forms on the ground of past faithful stewardship in celebrating these 7vv4 #i-aa74 ,the second part is one long-drawn cry for help1 which admits of no such analysis1 though its notes are various4 ,the first outpouring of the song is one long sentence1 of which the clauses follow one another like sunlit ripples1 and tell the whole process of the psalmist's deliverance4 ,it began with patient waiting2 it ended with a new song4 ,the voice first raised in a cry1 shrill and yet submissive enough to be heard above1 is at last tuned into new forms of uttering the old praise4 ,the two clauses of ver4 #a 7,i and ,he7 set over against each other1 as separated by the distance between heaven and earth1 the psalmist and his ,god4 ,he does not begin with his troubles1 but with his faith4 ,waiting1 he waited for ,jehovah2 and wherever there is that attitude of tense and continuous but submissive expectance1 ,god's attitude will be that of bending to meet it4 ,the meek1 upturned eye has power to draw ,his towards itself4 ,that is an axiom of the devout life confirmed by all experience1 even if the tokens of deliverance delay their coming4 ,such expectance1 however patient1 is not inconsistent with loud crying1 but rather finds voice in it4 ,silent patience and impatient prayer1 in too great a hurry to let ,god take ,his own time1 are equally imperfect4 ,but the cry1 ,haste to my help 7ver4 #ac71 and the final petition1 ,my ,god1 delay not1 are consistent with true waiting4 ,the suppliant and ,god have come closer together in ver4 #b1 which should not be regarded as beginning a new sentence4 ,as in ,psalm xviii41 prayer brings ,god down to help4 ,his hand reaches to the man prisoned in a pit or struggling in a swamp2 he is dragged out1 set on a rock1 and feels firm ground beneath his feet4 ,obviously the whole representation is purely figurative1 and it is hopelessly flat and prosaic to refer it to ,jeremiah's experience4 ,the many waters of ,psalm xviii4 are a parallel metaphor4 ,the dangers that threatened the psalmist are described as a pit of destruction1 as if they were a dungeon into which whosoever was thrown would come out no more1 or in which1 like a wild beast1 he has been trapped4 ,they are also likened to a bog or quagmire1 in which struggles only sink a man deeper4 ,but the edge of the bog touches rock1 and there is firm footing and unhindered walking there1 if only some great lifting power can drag the sinking man out4 ,god's hand can1 and does1 because the lips1 almost choked with mire1 could yet cry4 ,the psalmist's extremity of danger was probably much more desperate than is usual in such conditions as ours1 so that his cries seem too piercing for us to make our own2 but the terrors and conflicts of humanity are nearly constant quantities1 though the occasions calling them forth are widely different4 ,if we look deeper into life than its surface1 we shall learn that it is not violent spiritualising to make these utterances the expression of redeeming grace1 since in truth there is but one or other of these two possibilities open for us4 ,either we flounder in a bottomless bog1 or we have our feet on the ,rock4 ,god's deliverance gives occasion for fresh praise4 ,the psalmist has to add his voice to the great chorus1 and this sense of being but one of a multitude1 who have been blessed alike and therefore should bless alike1 occasions the significant interchange in ver4 #c of my and our1 which needs no theory of the speaker being the nation to explain it4 ,it is ever a joy to the heart swelling with the sense of ,god's mercies to be aware of the many who share the mercies and gratitude4 ,the cry for deliverance is a solo2 the song of praise is choral4 ,the psalmist did not need to be bidden to praise2 a new song welled from his lips as by inspiration4 ,silence was more impossible to his glad heart than even to his sorrow4 ,to shriek for help from the bottom of the pit and to be dumb when lifted to the surface is a churl's part4 ,though the song was new in this singer's mouth1 as befitted a recipient of deliverances fresh from heaven1 the theme was old2 but each new voice individualises the commonplaces of religious experience1 and repeats them as fresh4 ,and the result of one man's convinced and jubilant voice1 giving novelty to old truths because he has verified them in new experiences1 will be that many shall see1 as though they behold the deliverance of which they hear1 and shall fear ,jehovah and trust themselves to ,him4 ,it was not the psalmist's deliverance1 but his song1 that was to be the agent in this extension of the fear of ,jehovah4 ,all great poets have felt that their words would win audience and live4 ,thus1 even apart from consciousness of inspiration1 this lofty anticipation of the effect of his words is intelligible1 without supposing that their meaning is that the signal deliverance of the nation from captivity would spread among heathens and draw them to ,israel's faith4 ,the transition from purely personal experience to more general thoughts is completed in vv4 #d1 #e4 ,just as the psalmist began with telling of his own patient expectance and thence passed on to speak of ,god's help1 so in these two verses he sets forth the same sequence in terms studiously cast into the most comprehensive form4 ,happy indeed are they who can translate their own experience into these two truths for all men3 that trust is blessedness and that ,god's mercies are one long sequence1 made up of numberless constituent parts4 ,to have these for one's inmost convictions and to ring them out so clearly and melodiously that many shall be drawn to listen1 and then to verify them by their own seeing1 is one reward of patient waiting for ,jehovah4 ,that trust must be maintained by resolute resistance to temptations to its opposite4 ,hence the negative aspect of trust is made prominent in ver4 #d b1 in which the verb should be rendered turns not instead of respecteth not1 as in the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 ,the same motion1 looked at from opposite sides1 may be described in turning to and turning from4 ,forsaking other confidences is part of the process of making ,god one's trust4 ,but it is significant that the antithesis is not completely carried out1 for those to whom the trustful heart does not turn are not here1 as might have been expected1 rival objects of trust1 but those who put their own trust in false refuges4 ,the proud are the class of arrogantly self-reliant people who feel no need of anything but their own strength to lean on4 ,deserters to a lie are those who fall away from ,jehovah to put their trust in any creature1 since all refuges but ,himself will fail4 ,idols may be included in this thought of a lie1 but it is unduly limited if confined to them4 ,much rather it takes in all false grounds of security4 ,the antithesis fails in accuracy1 for the sake of putting emphasis on the prevalence of such mistaken trust1 which makes it so much the harder to keep aloof from the multitudes and stand alone in reliance on ,jehovah4 ,ver4 #e corresponds with ver4 #d1 in that it sets forth in similar generality the great deeds with which ,god is wont to answer man's trust4 ,but the personality of the poet breaks very beautifully through the impersonal utterances at two points3 once when he names ,jehovah as my ,god1 thus claiming his separate share in the general mercies and his special bond of connection with the ,lover of all2 and once when he speaks of his own praises1 thus recognising the obligation of individual gratitude for general blessings4 ,each particle of finely comminuted moisture in the rainbow has to flash back the broad sunbeam at its own angle4 ,god's wonders and designs are realised ,divine thoughts and ,divine thoughts which are gradually being realised 7,delitzsch74 ,these are wrought and being wrought in multitudes innumerable2 and1 as the psalmist sees the bright1 unbroken beams pouring forth from their inexhaustible source1 he breaks into an exclamation of adoring wonder at the incomparable greatness of the ever-giving ,god4 ,there is none to set beside ,thee is far loftier and more accordant with the tone of the verse than the comparatively flat and incongruous remark that ,god's mercies cannot be told to ,him 7,a4,v4 and ,r4,v474 ,a precisely similar exclamation occurs in ,psalm lxxi4 #ai1 in which ,god's incomparable greatness is deduced from the great things which ,he has done4 ,happy the singer who has an inexhaustible theme6 ,he is not silenced by the consciousness of the inadequacy of his songs1 but rather inspired to the never-ending1 ever-beginning1 joyful task of uttering some new fragment of that transcendent perfection4 ,innumerable wonders wrought should be met by ever-new songs4 ,if they cannot be counted1 the more reason for open-eyed observance of them as they come1 and for a stream of praise as unbroken as is their bright continuance4 ,if ,god's mercies thus baffle enumeration and beggar praise1 the question naturally rises1 ,what shall ,i render to the ,lord for all ,his benefits8 ,therefore the next turn of thought shows the psalmist as reaching the lofty spiritual conception that heartfelt delight in ,god's will is the true response to ,god's wonders of love4 ,he soars far above external rites as well as servile obedience to unloved authority1 and proclaims the eternal and ultimate truth that what ,god delights in is man's delight in ,his will4 ,the great words which rang the knell of ,saul's kingship may well have sounded in his successor's spirit4 ,whether they are the source of the language of our psalm or not1 they are remarkably similar4 ,to obey is better than sacrifice1 and to hearken than the fat of rams 7#a ,sam4 xv4 #bc71 teaches precisely the same lesson as vv4 #f-h of this psalm4 ,the strong negation in ver4 #f does not deny the ,divine institution of the sacrificial law1 but affirms that something much deeper than external sacrifices is the real object of ,god's desire4 ,the negation is made emphatic by enumerating the chief kinds of sacrifice4 ,whether they are bloody or bloodless1 whether meant to express consecration or to effect reconciliation1 they are none of them the true sacrifices of ,god4 ,in ver4 #f the psalmist is entirely occupied with ,god's declarations of ,his requirements2 and he presents these in a remarkable fashion1 intercalating the clause1 ,ears hast ,thou pierced for me1 between the two parallel clauses in regard to sacrifice4 ,why should the connection be thus broken8 ,the fact that ,god has endowed the psalmist with capacity to apprehend the ,divine speech reveals ,god's desire concerning him4 ,just because he has ears to hear1 it is clear that ,god wishes him to hear1 and therefore that outward acts of worship cannot be the acknowledgment of mercies in which ,god delights4 ,the central clause of the verse is embedded in the others1 because it deals with a ,divine act which1 pondered1 will be seen to establish their teaching4 ,the whole puts in simple1 concrete form a wide principle1 namely1 that the possession of capacity for receiving communications of ,god's will imposes the duty of loving reception and obedience1 and points to inward joyful acceptance of that will as the purest kind of worship4 ,vv4 #g and #h are occupied with the response to ,god's requirements thus manifested by ,his gift of capacity to hear ,his voice4 ,then said ,i4 ,as soon as he had learned the meaning of his ears he found the right use of his tongue4 ,the thankful heart was moved to swift acceptance of the known will of ,god4 ,the clearest recognition of ,his requirements may coexist with resistance to them1 and needs the impulse of loving contemplation of ,god's unnumbered wonders to vivify it into glad service4 ,behold1 ,i am come1 is the language of a servant entering his master's presence in obedience to his call4 ,in ver4 #g the second clause interrupts just as in ver4 #f4 ,there the interruption spoke of the organ of receiving ,divine messages as to duty2 here it speaks of the messages themselves3 ,in the roll of the book is my duty prescribed for me4 ,the promise implied in giving ears is fulfilled by giving a permanent written law4 ,this man1 having ears to hear1 has heard1 and has not only heard1 but welcomed into the inmost recesses of his heart and will1 the declared will of ,god4 ,the word rendered delight in ver4 #h is the same as is rendered desire in ver4 #f 7,a4,v472 and that rendered by the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 in ver4 #h will is properly good pleasure4 ,thus ,god's delight and man's coincide4 ,thankful love assimilates the creature's will with the ,divine1 and so changes tastes and impulses that desire and duty are fused into one4 ,the prescriptions of the book become the delight of the heart4 ,an inward voice directs4 ,love1 and do what ,thou wilt2 for a will determined by love cannot but choose to please its ,beloved4 ,liberty consists in freely willing and victoriously doing what we ought1 and such liberty belongs to hearts whose supreme delight is to please the ,god whose numberless wonders have won their love and made their thanksgivings poor4 ,the law written in the heart was the ideal even when a law was written on tables of stone4 ,it was the prophetic promise for the ,messianic age4 ,it is fulfilled in the ,christian life in the measure of its genuineness4 ,unless the heart delights in the law1 acts of obedience count for very little4 ,the quotation of vv4 #g1 #h1 in ,heb4 x4 #e-g1 is mainly from the ,,lxx41 which has the remarkable rendering of ver4 #f b1 ,a body hast ,thou prepared for me4 ,probably this is meant as paraphrase rather than as translation2 and it does represent substantially the idea of the original1 since the body is the instrument for fulfilling1 just as the ear is the organ for apprehending1 the uttered will of ,god4 ,the value of the psalm for the writer of ,hebrews does not depend on that clause1 but on the whole representation which it gives of the ideal of the perfectly righteous servant's true worship1 as involving the setting aside of sacrifice and the decisive pre-eminence of willing obedience4 ,that ideal is fulfilled in ,jesus1 and really pointed onwards to ,him4 ,this use of the quotation does not imply the directly ,messianic character of the psalm4 ,out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh1 and thus the passage is easy from inward delight in ,god's will to public declaration of ,his character4 ,every true lover of ,god is a witness of ,his sweetness to the world4 ,since the psalmist had ,his law hidden in the depths of his being1 he could not hide ,his righteousness within his heart1 but must magnify it with his tongue4 ,that is a feeble and doubtful love which knows no necessity of utterance4 ,to love and be silent is sometimes imperative1 but always burdensome2 and a heart happy in its love cannot choose but ripple out in music of speech4 ,the psalmist describes himself as a messenger of glad tidings1 a true evangelist4 ,the multiplicity of names for the various aspects of ,god's character and acts which he heaps together in these verses serves to indicate their manifoldness1 which he delighted to contemplate1 and his long1 loving familiarity with them4 ,he sets his treasure in all lights1 and views it from all points1 as a man will turn a jewel in his hand and get a fresh flash from every facet4 ,righteousness1 the good news that the ,ruler of all is inflexibly just1 with a justice which scrupulously meets all creatures' needs and becomes penal and awful only to the rejecters of its tender aspect2 faithfulness1 the inviolable adherence to every promise2 salvation1 the actual fulness of deliverance and well-being flowing from these attributes2 loving-kindness and troth1 often linked together as expressing at once the warmth and the unchangeableness of the ,divine heart--these have been the psalmist's themes4 ,therefore they are his hope2 and he is sure that1 as he has been their singer1 they will be his preservers4 ,ver4 #aa is not prayer1 but bold confidence4 ,it echoes the preceding verse1 since ,i did not restrain 7ver4 #i7 corresponds with ,thou wilt not restrain1 and ,thy loving-kindness and ,thy troth with the mention of the same attributes in ver4 #aj4 ,the psalmist is not so much asserting his claims as giving voice to his faith4 ,he does not so much think that his utterance is deserving of remuneration as that ,god's character makes impossible the supposition that he1 who had so loved and sung ,his great name in its manifold glories1 should find that name unavailing in his hour of need4 ,there is an undertone of such felt need even in the confidence of ver4 #aa2 and it becomes dominant from ver4 #ab to the end1 but not so as to overpower the clear note of trust4 ,the difference between the two parts of the psalm is great1 but is not to be exaggerated as if it were contrariety4 ,in the former part thanksgiving for deliverance from dangers recently past predominates2 in the latter1 petition for deliverance from dangers still threatening3 but in both the psalmist is exercising the same confidence2 and if in the beginning he hymns the praises of ,god who brought him out of the pit of destruction1 in the end he keeps firm hold of ,him as ,his ,help and ,deliverer4 ,similarly1 while in the first portion he celebrates the purposes which are to usward1 in the latter he is certain that1 needy as he is1 ,jehovah has purposes of kindness to him4 ,the change of tone is not so complete as to negative the original unity1 and surely it is not difficult to imagine a situation in which both halves of the psalm should be appropriate4 ,are there any deliverances in this perilous and incomplete life so entire and permanent that they leave no room for future perils8 ,must not prevision of coming dangers accompany thankfulness for past escapes8 ,our ,pharaohs are seldom drowned in the ,red ,sea1 and we do not often see their corpses stretched on the sand4 ,the change of tone1 of which so much use is made as against the original unity of the psalm1 begins with ver4 #ab2 but that verse has a very strong and beautiful link of connection with the previous part1 in the description of besetting evils as innumerable4 ,both words of ver4 #e are repeated1 that for surpass or are more than in ver4 #ab c1 that for number in a4 ,the heart that has felt how innumerable are ,god's thoughts and deeds of love is not utterly reduced to despair1 even while it beholds a sea of troubles rolling its white-crested billows shoreward as far as the horizon4 ,the sky stretches beyond them1 and the true numberlessness of ,god's mercies outdoes the great yet really limited range of apparently numberless sins or sorrows1 the consequences of sin4 ,mine iniquities have overtaken me like pursuing foes1 and every calamity that held him in its grip was a child of a sin of his4 ,such consciousness of transgression is not inconsistent with delight in the law of ,god after the inward man1 as ,paul found out 7,rom4 vii4 #bb1 #bc71 but it sets aside the attempt to make this a directly ,messianic psalm4 ,i am not able to see4 ,such is the only possible rendering1 for there is no justification for translating the simple word by look up4 ,either the crowd of surrounding calamities prevent the psalmist from seeing anything but themselves1 or1 more probably1 the failure of vital power accompanying his sorrow dims his vision 7,psalm xxxviii4 #aj74 ,from ver4 #ac onwards ,psalm lxx4 repeats this psalm1 with unimportant verbal differences4 ,the first of these is the omission of ,be pleased in ver4 #ac1 which binds this second part to the first1 and points back to ,thy pleasure 7ver4 #h74 ,the prayer for the confusion of enemies closely resembles that in ,psalm xxxv41 ver4 #ad being almost identical with vv4 #d and #bf there1 and ver4 #ae recalling ver4 #ba of that psalm4 ,the prayer that enemies may fail in their designs is consistent with the most ,christlike spirit1 and nothing more is asked by the psalmist1 but the tinge of satisfaction with which he dwells on their discomfiture1 however natural1 belongs to the less lofty moral standard of his stage of revelation4 ,he uses extraordinarily forcible words to paint their bewilderment and mortification--may they blush1 turn pale1 be driven back1 be as if paralysed with shame at their baffled malice6 ,the prayer for the gladness of ,god's servants and seekers is like ,psalm xxxv4 #bg4 ,it asks that fruition as complete as the disappointment of the foes may be the lot of those whose desires set towards ,god1 and it is prophecy as well as prayer4 ,seekers after ,god ever find ,him1 and are more joyful in possession than they hoped to be while seeking4 ,he alone never eludes search1 nor ever disappoints attainment4 ,they who long for ,his salvation will receive it2 and their reception will fill their hearts so full of blessedness that their lips will not be able to refrain from ever-new outbursts of the old praise1 ,the ,lord be magnified4 ,very plaintively and touchingly does the low sigh of personal need follow this triumphant intercession for the company of the saints4 ,its triple elements blend in one believing aspiration1 which is not impatience1 though it pleads for swift help4 ,i am afflicted and needy2 there the psalmist turns his eye on his own sore necessity4 ,jehovah has purposes for me2 there he turns to ,god1 and links his final petitions with his earlier trust by the repetition of the word by which he described 7ver4 #e7 the many gracious designs of ,god4 ,my ,god1 delay not2 there he embraces both in one act of faithful longing4 ,his need calls for1 and ,god's loving counsels ensure1 swift response4 ,he who delights when an afflicted and poor man calls ,him my ,god will not be slack to vindicate ,his servant's confidence1 and magnify ,his own name4 ,that appeal goes straight to the heart of ,god4 ,,psalm ,,xli4 #a ,happy the man who considers the helpless2 ,in the day of calamity will ,jehovah deliver him #b ,jehovah will preserve him and keep him alive1 --,he shall be counted happy in the land1-- ,and do not ,thou give him up to the wrath of his enemies4 #c ,jehovah will sustain him on the bed of languishing2 ,all his lying down in his sickness ,thou hast turned into health4 #d ,as for me1 ,i said1 ,jehovah1 be merciful to me1 ,heal my soul1 for ,i have sinned against ,thee4 #e ,my enemies speak evil against me3 ,when will he die1 and his name perish8 #f ,and if one of them comes to see me1 he speaks falsehood 7insincere sympathy72 ,his heart collects malice for itself2 ,he goes forth1 he speaks it4 #g ,together against me do all my haters whisper2 ,against me they plan my hurt3 #h ,a fatal thing is fixed upon him1 ,and he who has now lain down will rise no more4 #i ,even the man of my peace1 in whom ,i trusted1 who ate my bread1 ,has lifted his heel against me4 #aj ,but ,thou1 ,jehovah1 be merciful to me and raise me up1 ,that ,i may requite them4 #aa ,by this ,i know that ,thou delightest in me1 ,since my enemy triumphs not over me4 #ab ,and as for me1 in my integrity ,thou upholdest me1 ,and settest me before ,thy face for ever4 #ac ,blessed be ,jehovah1 the ,god of ,israel1 ,from everlasting and to everlasting ,amen and ,amen4 ,the central mass of this psalm describes the singer as suffering from two evils3 sickness and treacherous friends4 ,this situation naturally leads up to the prayer and confidence of the closing strophe 7vv4 #aj-ab74 ,but its connection with the introductory verses 7#a-c7 is less plain4 ,a statement of the blessings ensured to the compassionate seems a singular introduction to the psalmist's pathetic exhibition of his sorrows4 ,cheyne thinks that the opening verses were added by the framer of the collection to adapt the poem to the use of the ,church of his own time1 and that the original opening must have been different 7,orig4 of ,psalt41 #bdf1 n474 ,it is to be observed1 however1 that the two points of the psalmist's affliction are the two from which escape is assured to the compassionate1 who shall not be delivered to the desire of his enemies1 and shall be supported and healed in sickness4 ,probably1 therefore1 the general promises of vv4 #a-c are silently applied by the psalmist to himself2 and he is comforting his own sorrow with the assurance which in his humility he casts into impersonal form4 ,he has been merciful1 and believes1 though things look dark1 that he will obtain mercy4 ,there is probably also an intentional contrast with the cruel exacerbation of his sufferings by uncompassionate companions1 which has rubbed salt into his wounds4 ,he has a double consciousness in these opening verses1 inasmuch as he partly thinks of himself as the compassionate man and partly as the weak one who is compassionated4 ,the combination of sickness and treachery is remarkable1 especially if the former is taken literally1 as the strongly marked details seem to require4 ,the sick man is visited by an insincere sympathiser1 who is all eyes to note symptoms of increasing weakness1 and all tongue1 as soon as he gets out of the sick-room1 to give the result1 which is to his malice the better the worse it is4 ,such a picture looks as if drawn from life1 and the sketch of the traitor friend seems to be a portrait of a real person4 ,the supporters of the post-exilic date and national interpretation of the psalm have not succeeded in pointing out who the false friends of ,israel were1 who seemed to condole with1 and really rejoiced over1 its weakness1 or who were the treacherous allies who failed it4 ,the theory of the ,davidic origin has in its favour the correspondence of ,ahithophel's treason with the treachery of the trusted friend in the psalm2 and1 while it must be admitted that there is no mention of sickness in the narrative in #b ,samuel1 the supposition that trouble of conscience had brought illness gains some countenance from ,psalm xxxii41 if it is ,davidic1 and would naturally explain ,david's singular passiveness whilst ,absalom was hatching his plot4 ,the psalm may be divided into four strophes1 of which1 however1 the two middle ones cohere very closely4 ,vv4 #a-c give the mercy requited to the merciful2 vv4 #d-f1 after a brief prayer and confession begin the picture of the psalmist's sufferings1 which is carried on through the next strophe 7vv4 #g-i71 with the difference that in the former the scene is mainly the sick man's chamber1 and in the latter the meeting-place of the secret conspirators4 ,vv4 #aj-ab build on this picture of distress a prayer for deliverance1 and rise to serene confidence in its certain answer4 ,the closing doxology is not part of the psalm1 but is appended as the conclusion of the first book of the ,psalter4 ,the principle that ,god's dealings with us correspond to our dealings with men1 as clouds are moulded after the curves of the mountains which they touch1 is no less characteristic of the ,new ,testament than of the ,old4 ,the merciful obtain mercy2 ,god forgives those who forgive their brethren4 ,the absoluteness of statement in this psalm is1 of course1 open to misunderstanding2 but the singer had not such a superficial view of his relations to ,god as to suppose that kindly sympathy was the sole condition of ,divine compassion4 ,that virtue1 the absence of which added pangs to his pains1 might well seem to a sufferer writhing under the bitterness of its opposite the ,divinest of all excellencies1 and worthiest of recompense4 ,that its requital should be mainly considered as consisting in temporal deliverance and physical health is partly due to the characteristics of the ,old ,testament promises of blessedness1 and partly to the psalmist's momentary needs4 ,we have noted that these are reflected in the blessings promised in vv4 #a-c4 ,the happy of ver4 #a is caught up in the abruptly introduced ,he shall be counted happy of ver4 #b1 which may carry tacit reference to the malicious slanders that aggravated the psalmist's sufferings1 and anticipates deliverance so perfect that all who see him shall think him fortunate4 ,the next clause rises into direct address of ,jehovah1 and is shown by the form of the negative in the ,hebrew to be petition1 not assertion1 thus strongly confirming the view that me lurks below him in this context4 ,a similar transition from the third to the second person occurs in ver4 #c1 as if the psalmist drew closer to his ,god4 ,there is also a change of tense in the verbs there3 ,jehovah will sustain2 ,thou hast turned1 the latter tense converting the general truth expressed in the former clause into a fact of experience4 ,the precise meaning of this verse is questioned1 some regarding both clauses as descriptive of tender nursing1 which sustains the drooping head and smoothes the crumpled bedding1 while others1 noting that the word rendered bed 7,a4,v4 and ,r4,v47 in the second clause means properly lying down1 take that clause as descriptive of turning sickness into convalescence4 ,the latter meaning gives a more appropriate ending to the strophe1 as it leaves the sick man healed1 not tossing on a disordered bed1 as the other explanation does4 ,jehovah does not half cure4 ,the second and third strophes 7vv4 #d-i7 are closely connected4 ,in them the psalmist recounts his sorrows and pains1 but first breathes a prayer for mercy1 and bases it no longer on his mercifulness1 but on his sin4 ,only a shallow experience will find contradiction here to either the former words1 or to the later profession of integrity 7ver4 #ab74 ,the petition for soul-healing does not prove that sickness in the following verses is figurative1 but results from the belief that sorrow is the effect of sin1 a view which belongs to the psalmist's stage of revelation1 and is not to be held by ,christians in the same absolute fashion4 ,if the ,davidic origin of the psalm is recognised1 the connection of the king's great sin with all his after-sorrows is patent4 ,however he had been merciful and compassionate in general1 his own verdict on the man in ,nathan's parable was that he showed no pity1 and that sin bore bitter fruit in all his life4 ,it was the parent of all the sensual outrages in his own house2 it underlay ,ahithophel's treachery2 it had much to do in making his reign abhorred2 it brought the fuel which ,absalom fired1 and if our supposition is right as to the origin of the sickness spoken of in this psalm1 that sin and the remorse that followed it gnawed at the roots of bodily health4 ,so the psalmist1 if he is indeed the royal sinner1 had need to pray for soul-healing first1 even though he was conscious of much compassion and hoped for its recompense4 ,while he speaks thus to ,jehovah1 his enemies speak in a different tone4 ,the evil which they utter is not calumny1 but malediction4 ,their hatred is impatient for his death4 ,the time seems long till they can hear of it4 ,one of them comes on a hypocritical visit of solicitude 7see is used for visiting the sick in #b ,kings viii4 #bi71 and speaks lying condolence1 while he greedily collects encouraging symptoms that the disease is hopeless4 ,then he hurries back to tell how much worse he had found the patient2 and that ignoble crew delight in the good news1 and send it flying4 ,this very special detail goes strongly in favour of the view that we have in this whole description a transcript of literal1 personal experience4 ,there were plenty of concealed enemies round ,david in the early stages of ,absalom's conspiracy1 who would look eagerly for signs of his approaching death1 which might save the need of open revolt and plunge the kingdom into welcome confusion4 ,the second strophe ends with the exit of the false friend4 ,the third 7vv4 #g-i7 carries him to the meeting-place of the plotters1 who eagerly receive and retail the good news that the sick man is worse4 ,they feed their ignoble hate by picturing further ill as laying hold of him4 ,their wish is parent to their thought1 which is confirmed by the report of their emissary4 ,a thing of ,belial is poured out on him1 or is fastened upon him1 say they4 ,that unusual expression may refer either to moral or physical evil4 ,in the former sense it would here mean the sufferer's sin1 in the latter a fatal disease4 ,the connection makes the physical reference the more likely4 ,this incurable disease is conceived of as poured out1 or perhaps as molten on him1 so that it cannot be separated from him4 ,therefore he will never rise from his sick-bed4 ,but even this murderous glee is not the psalmist's sharpest pang4 ,the man of my peace1 trusted1 honoured1 admitted to the privileges1 and therefore bound by the obligations1 of hospitality so sacred in the old world1 has kicked the prostrate sufferer1 as the ass in the fable did the sick lion4 ,the treachery of ,ahithophel at once occurs to mind4 ,no doubt many treacherous friends have wounded many trustful hearts1 but the correspondence of ,david's history with this detail is not to be got rid of by the observation that treachery is common4 ,still less is it sufficient to quote ,obad4 #g1 where substantially the same language is employed in reference to the enemies of ,edom1 as supporting the national reference of the present passage4 ,no one denies that false allies may be described by such a figure1 or that nations may be personified2 but is there any event in the post-exilic history which shows ,israel deceived and spurned by trusted allies8 ,the ,davidic authorship and the personal reference of the psalm are separable4 ,but if the latter is adopted1 it will be hard to find any circumstances answering so fully to the details of the psalm as the ,absalomic rebellion and ,ahithophel's treason4 ,our ,lord's quotation of part of ver4 #i1 with the significant omission of in whom ,i trusted1 does not imply the ,messianic character of the psalm1 but is an instance of an event and a saying which were not meant as prophetic1 finding fuller realisation in the life of the perfect type of suffering godliness than in the original sufferer4 ,the last strophe 7vv4 #aj-ab7 recurs to prayer1 and soars to confidence born of communion4 ,a hand stretched out in need and trust soon comes back filled with blessings4 ,therefore here the moment of true petition is the moment of realised answer4 ,the prayer traverses the malicious hopes of enemies4 ,they had said1 ,he will rise no more2 it prays1 ,raise me up4 ,it touches a note which sounds discordant in the desire that ,i may requite them2 and it is far more truly reverential and appreciative of the progress of revelation to recognise the relative inferiority of the psalmist's wish to render quid pro quo than to put violence on his words1 in order to harmonise them with ,christian ethics1 or to slur over the distinction between the ,law1 of which the keynote was retribution1 and the ,gospel1 of which it is forgiveness4 ,but the last words of the psalm are sunny with the assurance of present favour and with boundless hope4 ,the man is still lying on his sick-bed1 ringed by whispering foes4 ,there is no change without1 but this change has passed3 that he has tightened his hold of ,god1 and therefore can feel that his enemies' whispers will never rise or swell into a shout of victory over him4 ,he can speak of the future deliverance as if present2 and he can look ahead over an indefinite stretch of sunlit country1 scarcely knowing whether the furthest point is earth or no4 ,his integrity is not sinless1 nor does he plead it as a reason for ,jehovah's upholding1 but hopes for it as the consequence of ,his sustaining hand4 ,he knows that he will have close approach to ,jehovah2 and though1 no doubt1 for ever on his lips meant less than it does on ours1 his assurance of continuous communion with ,god reached1 if not to actual1 clear consciousness of immortality1 at all events to assurance of a future so indefinitely extended1 and so brightened by the sunlight of ,god's face1 that it wanted but little additional extension or brightening to be the full assurance of life immortal4 ,,book ,,ii4 ,,psalms ,,xlii4-,,lxxii4 ,,psalms ,,xlii41 ,,xliii4 ,,psalm ,,xlii4 #a ,like a hind which pants after the water-brooks1 ,so pants1 my soul after ,thee1 ,o ,god4 #b ,my soul thirsts for ,god1 for the living ,god2 ,when shall ,i come and appear before ,god8 #c ,my tears have been bread to me day and night1 ,while they say to me all the day1 ,where is thy ,god8 #d ,this would ,i remember1 and pour out my soul in me1 ,how ,i went with the throng1 led them in procession to the house of ,god1 ,with shrill cries of joy and thanksgiving1 a multitude keeping festival4 #e ,why art thou bowed down1 my soul1 and moanest within me8 ,hope in ,god1 for ,i shall yet give ,him thanks1 ,as the help of my countenance and my ,god4 #f ,within me is my soul bowed down2 ,therefore let me remember ,thee from the land of ,jordan and of the ,hermons1 from ,mount ,mizar4 #g ,flood calls to flood at the voice of ,thy cataracts2 ,all ,thy breakers and rollers are gone over me4 #h ,yet by day will ,jehovah command ,his loving-kindness1 ,and in the night shall a song to ,him be with me1 ,even a prayer to the ,god of my life4 #i ,let me say to ,god my ,rock1 ,why hast ,thou forgotten me8 ,why must ,i go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy8 #aj ,as if they crushed my bones1 my adversaries reproach me1 ,whilst all the day they say to me1 ,where is thy ,god8 #aa ,why art thou bowed down1 my soul1 and why moanest thou within me8 ,hope thou in ,god1 for ,i shall yet give ,him thanks ,as the help of my countenance and my ,god4 ,,psalm ,,xliii4 #a ,do me right1 ,o ,god1 and plead my plea against a loveless nation2 ,from the man of fraud and mischief rescue me4 #b ,for ,thou art ,god my stronghold2 why hast ,thou cast me off8 ,why must ,i wearily go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy8 #c ,send out ,thy light and ,thy troth2 let them lead me2 ,let them bring me to ,thy holy hill and to ,thy tabernacles1 #d ,that ,i may come in to the altar of ,god1 ,to ,god1 the gladness of my joy1 ,and give ,thee thanks with the harp1 ,o ,god1 my ,god4 #e ,why art thou bowed down1 my soul1 and why moanest thou within me8 ,hope in ,god1 for ,i shall yet give ,him thanks1 ,as the help of my countenance and my ,god4 ,the second book of the ,psalter is characterised by the use of the ,divine name ,elohim instead of ,jehovah4 ,it begins with a cluster of seven psalms 7reckoning ,psalms xlii4 and xliii4 as one7 of which the superscription is most probably regarded as ascribing their authorship to the sons of ,korach4 ,these were ,levites1 and 7according to #a ,chron4 ix4 #ai seq47 the office of keepers of the door of the sanctuary had been hereditary in their family from the time of ,moses4 ,some of them were among the faithful adherents of ,david at ,ziklag 7#a ,chron4 xii4 #f71 and in the new model of worship inaugurated by him the ,korachites were doorkeepers and musicians4 ,they retained the former office in the second ,temple 7,neh4 xi4 #ai74 ,the ascription of authorship to a group is remarkable1 and has led to the suggestion that the superscription does not specify the authors1 but the persons for whose use the psalms in question were composed4 ,the ,hebrew would bear either meaning2 but if the latter is adopted1 all these psalms are anonymous4 ,the same construction is found in ,book ,i4 in ,psalms xxv4-xxviii41 xxxv41 xxxvii41 where it is obviously the designation of authorship1 and it is naturally taken to have the same force in these ,korachite psalms4 ,it has been ingeniously conjectured by ,delitzsch that the ,korachite ,psalms originally formed a separate collection entitled ,songs of the ,sons of ,korach1 and that this title afterwards passed over into the superscriptions when they were incorporated in the ,psalter4 ,it may have been so1 but the supposition is unnecessary4 ,it was not exactly literary fame which psalmists hungered for4 ,the actual author1 as one of a band of kinsmen who worked and sang together1 would1 not unnaturally1 be content to sink his individuality and let his song go forth as that of the band4 ,clearly the superscriptions rested upon some tradition or knowledge1 else defective information would not have been acknowledged as it is in this one2 but some name would have been coined to fill the gap4 ,the two psalms 7xlii41 xliii47 are plainly one4 ,the absence of a title for the second1 the identity of tone throughout1 the recurrence of several phrases1 and especially of the refrain1 put this beyond doubt4 ,the separation1 however1 is old1 since it is found in the ,,lxx4 ,it is useless to speculate on its origin4 ,there is much in the psalms which favours the hypothesis that the author was a ,korachite companion of ,david's in his flight before ,absalom2 but the locality1 described as that of the singer1 does not entirely correspond to that of the king's retreat1 and the description of the enemies is not easily capable of application in all points to his foes4 ,the house of ,god is still standing2 the poet has been there recently1 and hopes soon to return and render praise4 ,therefore the psalm must be pre-exilic2 and while there is no certainty attainable as to date1 it may at least be said that the circumstances of the singer present more points of contact with those of the supposed ,korachite follower of ,david's fortunes on the uplands across ,jordan than with those of any other of the imaginary persons to whom modern criticism has assigned the poem4 ,whoever wrote it has given immortal form to the longings of the soul after ,god4 ,he has fixed for ever and made melodious a sigh4 ,the psalm falls into three parts1 each closing with the same refrain4 ,longings and tears1 remembrances of festal hours passed in the sanctuary melt the singer's soul1 while taunting enemies hiss continual sarcasms at him as forsaken by his ,god4 ,but his truer self silences these lamentations1 and cheers the feebler soul with clear notes of trust and hope1 blown in the refrain1 like some trumpet-clang rallying dispirited fugitives to the fight4 ,the stimulus serves for a moment2 but once more courage fails1 and once more1 at yet greater length and with yet sadder tones1 plaints and longings are wailed forth4 ,once more1 too1 the higher self repeats its half-rebuke1 half-encouragement4 ,so ends the first of the psalms2 but obviously it is no real ending1 for the victory over fear is not won1 and longing has not become blessed4 ,so once more the wave of emotion rolls over the psalmist1 but with a new aspect which makes all the difference4 ,he prays now2 he had only remembered and complained and said that he would pray before4 ,therefore now he triumphs1 and though he still is keenly conscious of his enemies1 they appear but for a moment1 and1 though he still feels that he is far from the sanctuary1 his heart goes out in hopeful visions of the gladness of his return thither1 and he already tastes the rapture of the joy that will then flood his heart4 ,therefore the refrain comes for a third time2 and this time the longing1 trembling soul continues at the height to which the better self has lifted it1 and silently acknowledges that it need not have been cast down4 ,thus the whole song is a picture of a soul climbing1 not without backward slips1 from the depths to the heights1 or1 in another aspect1 of the transformation of longing into certainty of fruition1 which is itself fruition after a kind4 ,perhaps the singer had seen1 during his exile on the eastern side of ,jordan1 some gentle creature1 with open mouth and heaving flanks1 eagerly seeking in dry wadies for a drop of water to cool her outstretched tongue2 and the sight had struck on his heart as an image of himself longing for the presence of ,god in the sanctuary4 ,a similar bit of local colour is generally recognised in ver4 #g4 ,nature reflects the poet's moods1 and overmastering emotion sees its own analogues everywhere4 ,that lovely metaphor has touched the common heart as few have done1 and the solitary singer's plaint has fitted all devout lips4 ,injustice is done it1 if it is regarded merely as the longing of a ,levite for approach to the sanctuary4 ,no doubt the psalmist connected communion with ,god and presence in the ,temple more closely together than they should do who have heard the great charter1 neither in this mountain1 nor in ,jerusalem2 but1 however the two things were coupled in his mind1 they were sufficiently separate to allow of approach by longing and prayer while distant in body1 and the true object of yearning was not access to the ,temple1 but communion with the ,god of the ,temple4 ,the soul is feminine in ,hebrew1 and is here compared to the female deer1 for pants is the feminine form of the verb1 though its noun is masculine4 ,it is better therefore to translate hind than hart4 ,the soul is the seat of emotions and desires4 ,it pants and thirsts1 is cast down and disquieted2 it is poured out2 it can be bidden to hope4 ,thus tremulous1 timid1 mobile1 it is beautifully compared to a hind4 ,the true object of its longings is always ,god1 however little it knows for what it is thirsting4 ,but they are happy in their very yearnings who are conscious of the true direction of these1 and can say that it is ,god for whom they are athirst4 ,all unrest of longing1 all fever of thirst1 all outgoings of desire1 are feelers put out blindly1 and are only stilled when they clasp ,him4 ,the correspondence between man's needs and their true object is involved in that name the living ,god2 for a heart can rest only in one all-sufficient ,person1 and must have a heart to throb against4 ,neither abstractions nor dead things can still its cravings4 ,that which does must be living4 ,but no finite being can still them2 and after all sweetnesses of human loves and helps of human strengths1 the soul's thirst remains unslaked1 and the ,person who is enough must be the living ,god4 ,the difference between the devout and the worldly man is just that the one can only say1 ,my soul pants and thirsts1 and the other can add after ,thee1 ,o ,god4 ,this man's longing was intensified by his unwilling exile from the sanctuary1 a special privation to a door-keeper of the ,temple4 ,his situation and mood closely resemble those in another ,korachite psalm 7lxxxiv471 in which1 as here1 the soul faints for the courts of the ,lord1 and as here the panting hind1 so there the glancing swallows flitting about the eaves are woven into the song4 ,unnamed foes taunt the psalmist with the question1 ,where is thy ,god8 ,there is no necessity to conclude that these were heathens1 though the taunt is usually put into heathen lips 7,psalms lxxix4 #aj2 lii4 #b7 but it would be quite as natural from co-religionists1 flouting his fervour and personal grasp of ,god and taking his sorrows as tokens of ,god's abandonment of him4 ,that is the world's way with the calamities of a devout man1 whose humble cry1 ,my ,god1 it resents as presumption or hypocrisy4 ,but even these bitter sarcasms are less bitter than the remembrance of happier things1 which is his sorrow's crown of sorrow4 ,yet1 with the strange but universal love of summoning up remembrance of departed joys1 the psalmist finds a certain pleasure in the pain of recalling how he1 a ,levite1 led the festal march to the ,temple1 and in listening in fancy again to the shrill cries of joy which broke from the tumultuous crowd4 ,the form of the verbs remember and pour out in ver4 #d indicates set purpose4 ,the higher self arrests this flow of self-pity and lamentation4 ,the feminine soul has to give account of her moods to calmer judgment1 and to be lifted and steadied by the strong spirit4 ,the preceding verses have given ample reason why she has been dejected1 but now she is summoned to repeat them to a judicial ear4 ,the insufficiency of the circumstances described to warrant the vehement emotions expressed is implied in the summons4 ,feeling has to vindicate its rationality or to suppress itself1 and its grounds have often only to be stated to the better self1 to be found altogether disproportioned to the storm they have raised4 ,it is a very elementary but necessary lesson for the conduct of life that emotion of all sorts1 sad or glad1 religious or other1 needs rigid scrutiny and firm control1 sometimes stimulating and sometimes chilling4 ,the true counterpoise to its excess lies in directing it to ,god and in making ,him the object of hope and patient waiting4 ,emotion varies1 but ,god is the same4 ,the facts on which faith feeds abide while faith fluctuates4 ,the secret of calm is to dwell in that inner chamber of the secret place of the ,most ,high1 which whoso inhabits heareth not the loud winds when they call1 and is neither dejected nor uplifted1 neither disturbed by excessive joys nor torn by anxieties4 ,ver4 #e has the refrain in a form slightly different from that of the other two instances of its occurrence 7ver4 #aa and xliii4 #e74 ,but probably the text is faulty4 ,the shifting of the initial word of ver4 #f to the end of ver4 #e1 and the substitution of ,my for ,his1 bring the three refrains into line1 and avoid the harsh expression help of ,his countenance4 ,since no reason for the variation is discernible1 and the proposed slight change of text improves construction and restores uniformity1 it is probably to be adopted4 ,if it is1 the second part of the psalm is also conformed to the other two in regard to its not beginning with the ,divine name4 ,the break in the clouds is but momentary1 and the grey wrack fills the sky once more4 ,the second part of the psalm takes up the question of the refrain1 and first reiterates with bitter emphasis that the soul is bowed down1 and then pours out once more the stream of reasons for dejection4 ,but the curb has not been applied quite in vain1 for throughout the succeeding verses there is a striking alternation of despondency and hope4 ,streaks of brightness flash through the gloom4 ,sorrow is shot with trust4 ,this conflict of opposite emotions is the characteristic of the second part of the psalm1 while that of the first part is an all but unrelieved predominance of gloom1 and that of the third an all but undisputed victory of sunshine4 ,naturally this transition strophe is marked by the mingling of both4 ,in the former part1 memory was the handmaid of sorrow1 and came involuntarily1 and increased the singer's pain2 but in this part he makes an effort of will to remember1 and in remembrance finds an antidote to sorrow4 ,to recall past joys adds stings to present grief1 but to remember ,god brings an anodyne for the smart4 ,the psalmist is far from the sanctuary1 but distance does not hinder thought4 ,this man's faith was not so dependent on externals that it could not come close to ,god while distant from ,his temple4 ,it had been so far strengthened by the encouragement of the refrain that the reflux of sadness at once rouses it to action4 ,my soul is cast down2 444 therefore let me remember ,thee4 ,with wise resolve he finds in dejection a reason for nestling closer to ,god4 ,in reference to the description of the psalmist's locality1 ,cheyne beautifully says1 ,the preposition 'from' is chosen 7rather than 'in'7 with a subtle purpose4 ,it suggests that the psalmist's faith will bridge over the interval between himself and the sanctuary3 ',i can send my thoughts to ,thee from the distant frontier' 7in loc474 ,the region intended seems to be the north-eastern corner of ,palestine1 near the lower slopes of ,hermon 7,cheyne1 u4s474 ,the plural ,hermons is probably used in reference to the group of crests4 ,mizar is probably the name of a hill otherwise unknown1 and specifies the singer's locality more minutely1 though not helpfully to us4 ,many ingenious attempts have been made to explain the name either as symbolical or as a common noun1 and not a proper name1 but these need not be dealt with here4 ,the locality thus designated is too far north for the scene of ,david's retreat before ,absalom1 unless we give an unusual southward extension to the names2 and this makes a difficulty in the way of accepting the hypothesis of the author's having been in his retinue4 ,the twofold emotions of ver4 #f recur in vv4 #g1 #h1 where we have first renewed despondency and then reaction into hope4 ,the imagery of floods lifting up their voices1 and cataracts sounding as they fall1 and breaking waves rolling over the half-drowned psalmist has been supposed to be suggested by the scenery in which he was2 but the rushing noise of ,jordan in its rocky bed seems scarcely enough to deserve being described as flood calling to flood1 and breakers and rollers is an exaggeration if applied to any commotion possible on such a stream4 ,the imagery is so usual that it needs no assumption of having been occasioned by the poet's locality4 ,the psalmist paints his calamities as storming on him in dismal continuity1 each flood seeming to summon its successor4 ,they rush upon him1 multitudinous and close following2 they pour down on him as with the thunder of descending cataracts2 they overwhelm him like the breakers and rollers of an angry ocean4 ,the bold metaphors are more striking when contrasted with the opposite ones of the first part4 ,the dry and thirsty land there and the rush of waters here mean the same thing1 so flexible is nature in a poet's hands4 ,then follows a gleam of hope1 like a rainbow spanning the waterfall4 ,with the alternation of mood already noticed as characteristic1 the singer looks forward1 even from the midst of overwhelming seas of trouble1 to a future day when ,god will give ,his angel1 ,mercy or ,loving-kindness1 charge concerning him and draw him out of many waters4 ,that day of extrication will surely be followed by a night of music and of thankful prayer 7for supplication is not the only element in prayer7 to ,him who by ,his deliverance has shown ,himself to be the ,god of the rescued man's life4 ,the epithet answers to that of the former part1 the living ,god1 from which it differs by but one additional letter4 ,he who has life in ,himself is the ,giver and ,rescuer of our lives1 and to ,him they are to be rendered in thankful sacrifice4 ,once more the contending currents meet in vv4 #i and #aj1 in the former of which confidence and hope utter themselves in the resolve to appeal to ,god and in the name given to ,him as my ,rock2 while another surge of despondency breaks1 in the question in which the soul interrogates ,god1 as the better self had interrogated her1 and contrasts almost reproachfully ,god's apparent forgetfulness1 manifested by ,his delay in deliverance1 with her remembrance of ,him4 ,it is not a question asked for enlightenment's sake1 but is an exclamation of impatience1 if not of rebuke4 ,ver4 #aj repeats the enemies' taunt1 which is there represented as like crushing blows which broke the bones4 ,and then once more above this conflict of emotion soars the clear note of the refrain1 summoning to self-command1 calmness1 and unfaltering hope4 ,but the victory is not quite won1 and therefore ,psalm xliii4 follows4 ,it is sufficiently distinct in tone to explain its separation from the preceding1 inasmuch as it is prayer throughout1 and the note of joy is dominant1 even while an undertone of sadness links it with the previous parts4 ,the unity is vouched by the considerations already noticed1 and by the incompleteness of ,psalm xlii4 without such triumphant close and of ,psalm xliii4 without such despondent beginning4 ,the prayer of vv4 #a1 #b1 blends the two elements1 which were at war in the second part2 and for the moment the darker is the more prominent4 ,the situation is described as in the preceding parts4 ,the enemy is called a loveless nation4 ,the word rendered loveless is compounded of the negative prefix and the word which is usually found with the meaning of one whom ,god favours1 or visits with loving-kindness4 ,it has been much disputed whether its proper signification is active 7one who shows loving-kindness7 or passive 7one who receives it74 ,but1 considering that loving-kindness is in the ,psalter mainly a ,divine attribute1 and that1 when a human excellence1 it is regarded as derived from and being the echo of experienced ,divine mercy1 it is best to take the passive meaning as the principal1 though sometimes1 as unmistakably here1 the active is more suitable4 ,these loveless people are not further defined1 and may either have been ,israelites or aliens4 ,perhaps there was one man of special mischief prominent among them1 but it is not safe to treat that expression as anything but a collective4 ,ver4 #b looks back to xlii4 #i1 the former clause in each verse being practically equivalent1 and the second in xliii4 being a quotation of the second in ver4 #i1 with a variation in the form of the verb to suggest more vividly the picture of weary1 slow1 dragging gait1 fit for a man clad in mourning garb4 ,but the gloomier mood has shot its last bolt4 ,grief which finds no fresh words is beginning to dry up4 ,the stage of mechanical repetition of complaints is not far from that of cessation of them4 ,so the higher mood conquers at last1 and breaks into a burst of joyous petition1 which passes swiftly into realisation of the future joys whose coming shines thus far off4 ,hope and trust hold the field4 ,the certainty of return to the ,temple overbears the pain of absence from it1 and the vivid realisation of the gladness of worshipping again at the altar takes the place of the vivid remembrance of former festal approach thither4 ,it is the prerogative of faith to make pictures drawn by memory pale beside those painted by hope4 ,light and ,troth--i4e41 ,loving-kindness and ,faithfulness in fulfilling promises--are like two angels1 despatched from the presence-chamber of ,god1 to guide with gentleness the exile's steps4 ,that is to say1 because ,god is mercy and faithfulness1 the return of the psalmist to the home of his heart is sure4 ,god being what ,he is1 no longing soul can ever remain unsatisfied4 ,the actual return to the ,temple is desired because thereby new praise will be occasioned4 ,not mere bodily presence there1 but that joyful outpouring of triumph and gladness1 is the object of the psalmist's longing4 ,he began with yearning after the living ,god4 ,in his sorrow he could still think of ,him at intervals as the help of his countenance and call ,him my ,god4 ,he ends with naming ,him the gladness of my joy4 ,whoever begins as he did will finish where he climbed4 ,the refrain is repeated for a third time1 and is followed by no relapse into sadness4 ,the effort of faith should be persistent1 even if old bitternesses begin again and break the low beginnings of content2 for1 even if the wild waters burst through the dam once and again1 they do not utterly wash it away and there remains a foundation on which it may be built up anew4 ,each swing of the gymnast lifts him higher1 until he is on a level with a firm platform on which he can spring and stand secure4 ,faith may have a long struggle with fear1 but it will have the last word1 and that word will be the help of my countenance and my ,god4 ,,psalm ,,xliv4 #a ,o ,god1 with our ears we have heard1 ,our fathers have told to us1 ,the work ,thou didst work in their days1 ,in the days of yore4 #b ,thou with ,thy hand didst dispossess nations1 and didst plant them1 ,didst afflict peoples and spread them forth4 #c ,for not by their own sword did they possess the land1 ,and their own arm did not save them1 ,but ,thy right hand and ,thine arm1 and the light of ,thy face1 ,because ,thou hadst delight in them4 #d ,thou ,thyself art my ,king1 ,o ,god2 ,command salvations for ,jacob4 #e ,through ,thee can we butt down our oppressors2 ,in ,thy name can we trample those that rise against us4 #f ,for not in my own bow do ,i trust1 ,and my own sword does not save me4 #g ,but ,thou hast saved us from our oppressors1 ,and our haters ,thou hast put to shame4 #h ,in ,god have we made our boast all the day1 ,and ,thy name will we thank for ever4 ,selah4 #i ,yet ,thou hast cast us off and shamed us1 ,and goest not forth with our hosts4 #aj ,thou makest us turn back from the oppressor1 ,and our haters plunder to their hearts' content4 #aa ,thou makest us like sheep for food1 ,and among the nations hast ,thou scattered us4 #ab ,thou sellest ,thy people at no profit1 ,and hast not increased ,thy wealth by their price4 #ac ,thou makest us a reproach for our neighbours1 ,a mockery and derision to those around us4 #ad ,thou makest us a proverb among the nations1 ,a nodding of the head among the peoples4 #ae ,all the day is my dishonour before me1 ,and the shame of my face has covered me1 #af ,because of the voice of the rebuker and blasphemer1 ,because of the face of the enemy and the revengeful4 #ag ,all this is come upon us1 and yet have we not forgotten ,thee1 ,nor been false to ,thy covenant4 #ah ,our heart has not turned back1 ,nor our footsteps swerved from ,thy way4 #ai ,that ,thou shouldest have crushed us in the place of jackals1 ,and covered us with thick darkness4 #bj ,if we had forgotten the name of our ,god ,and spread out our hands to a strange ,god1 #ba ,would not ,god search out this8 for ,he knows the secrets of the heart4 #bb ,nay1 for ,thy sake are we killed all the day2 ,we are reckoned as sheep for slaughter4 #bc ,awake2 why sleepest ,thou1 ,lord8 ,arise2 cast not off for ever4 #bd ,why hidest ,thou ,thy face1 ,forgettest our affliction and oppression8 #be ,for bowed to the dust is our soul2 ,our body cleaves to the earth4 #bf ,arise for a help for us1 ,and redeem us for ,thy loving-kindness' sake4 ,calvin says that the authorship of this psalm is uncertain1 but that it is abundantly clear that it was composed by any one rather than ,david1 and that its plaintive contents suit best the time when the savage tyranny of ,antiochus raged4 ,no period corresponds to the situation which makes the background of the psalm so completely as the ,maccabean1 for only then could it be truly said that national calamities fell because of the nation's rigid monotheism4 ,other epochs have been thought of1 so as to avoid the necessity of recognising ,maccabean psalms1 but none of them can be said to meet the conditions described in the psalm4 ,the choice lies between accepting the ,maccabean date and giving up the attempt to fix one at all4 ,objections to that late date based upon the history of the completion of the canon take for granted more accurate and complete knowledge of a very obscure subject than is possessed1 and do not seem strong enough to negative the indications arising from the very unique fact1 asserted in the psalm1 that the nation was persecuted for its faith and engaged in a religious war4 ,the psalm falls into four parts3 a wistful look backwards to days already old1 when ,god fought for them 7vv4 #a-h72 a sad contrast in present oppression 7vv4 #i-af72 a profession of unfaltering national adherence to the covenant notwithstanding all these ills 7vv4 #ag-bb72 and a fervent cry to a ,god who seems asleep to awake and rescue ,his martyred people 7vv4 #bc-bf74 ,the first part 7vv4 #a-h7 recalls the fact that shone so brightly in all the past1 the continual exercise of ,divine power giving victory to their weakness1 and builds thereon a prayer that the same law of ,his providence might be fulfilled now4 ,the bitter side of the retrospect forces itself into consciousness in the next part1 but here ,memory is the handmaid of ,faith4 ,the whole process of the ,exodus and conquest of ,canaan is gathered up as one great work of ,god's hand4 ,the former inhabitants of the land were uprooted like old trees1 to give room for planting the vine out of ,egypt4 ,two stages in the settlement are distinguished in ver4 #b3 first came the planting and next the growth2 for the phrase didst spread them forth carries on the metaphor of the tree1 and expresses the extension of its roots and branches4 ,the ascription of victory to ,god is made more emphatic by the negatives in ver4 #c1 which take away all credit of it from the people's own weapons or strength4 ,the consciousness of our own impotence must accompany adequate recognition of ,god's agency in our deliverances4 ,the conceit of our own power blinds our vision of ,his working hand4 ,but what moved ,his power8 ,no merit of man's1 but the infinite free grace of ,god's heart4 ,the light of ,thy face is the symbol of ,god's loving regard1 and the deepest truth as to ,his acts of favour is that they are the outcome of ,his own merciful nature4 ,he is ,his own motive4 ,thou hadst delight in them is the ultimate word1 leading us into sacred abysses of self-existent and self-originated ,deity4 ,the spirit1 then1 of ,israel's history is contained in these three thoughts3 the positive assertion of ,god's power as the reason for their victories2 the confirmatory negative1 putting aside their own prowess2 and the tracing of all ,god's work for them solely to ,his unmerited grace4 ,on this grand generalisation of the meaning of past centuries a prayer is built for their repetition in the prosaic present4 ,the psalmist did not think that ,god was nearer in some majestic past than now4 ,his unchangeableness had for consequence1 as he thought1 continuous manifestation of ,himself in the same character and relation to ,his people4 ,to-day is as full of ,god as any yesterday4 ,therefore ver4 #d begins with an emphatic recognition of the constancy of the ,divine nature in that strong expression ,thou ,thyself1 and with an individualising transition for a moment to the singular in my ,king1 in order to give most forcible utterance to the thought that ,he was the same to each man of that generation as ,he had been to the fathers4 ,on that unchanging relation rests the prayer1 ,command salvations for 7lit4 of7 ,jacob1 as if a multitude of several acts of deliverance stood before ,god1 as servants waiting to be sent on ,his errands4 ,just as ,god 7,elohim7 takes the place of ,jehovah in this second book of the ,psalter1 so in it ,jacob frequently stands for ,israel4 ,the prayer is no sooner spoken than the confidence in its fulfilment lifts the suppliant's heart buoyantly above present defeat1 which will in the next turn of thought insist on being felt4 ,such is the magic of every act of true appeal to ,god4 ,however dark the horizon1 there is light if a man looks straight up4 ,thus this psalmist breaks into anticipatory pans of victory4 ,the vivid image of ver4 #e is taken from the manner of fighting common to wild horned animals1 buffaloes and the like1 who first prostrate their foe by their fierce charge and then trample him4 ,the individualising my reappears in ver4 #f1 where the negation that had been true of the ancestors is made his own by the descendant4 ,each man must1 as his own act1 appropriate the universal relation of ,god to men and make ,god his ,god1 and must also disown for himself reliance on himself4 ,so he will enter into participation in ,god's victories4 ,remembrance of the victorious past and confidence in a like victorious future blend in the closing burst of praise and vow for its continuance1 which vow takes for granted the future continued manifestation of deliverances as occasions for uninterrupted thanksgivings4 ,well might some long-drawn1 triumphant notes from the instruments prolong the impression of the jubilant words4 ,the song drops in the second part 7vv4 #i-af7 from these clear heights with lyric suddenness4 ,the grim facts of defeat and consequent exposure to mocking laughter from enemies force themselves into sight1 and seem utterly to contradict the preceding verses4 ,but the first part speaks with the voice of faith1 and the second with that of sense1 and these two may sound in very close sequence or even simultaneously4 ,in ver4 #i the two verbs are united by the absence of us with the first2 and the difference of tense in the ,hebrew brings out the dependence of the second on the first1 as effect and cause4 ,god's rejection is the reason for the nation's disgrace by defeat4 ,in the subsequent verses the thoughts of rejection and disgrace are expanded1 the former in ver4 #i b to ver4 #ab1 and the latter in vv4 #ac-af4 ,the poet paints with few strokes the whole disastrous rout4 ,we see the fated band going out to battle1 with no ,pillar of ,cloud or ,ark of the ,covenant at their head4 ,they have but their own weapons and sinews to depend on--not1 as of old1 a ,divine ,captain4 ,no description of a fight under such conditions is needed1 for it can have only one issue2 and so the next clause shows panic-struck flight4 ,whoever goes into battle without ,god comes out of it without victory4 ,next follows plundering1 as was the savage wont of these times1 and there is no force to oppose the spoilers4 ,the routed fugitives are defenceless and unresisting as sheep1 and their fate is to be devoured1 or possibly the expression sheep for food may be substantially equivalent to sheep for the slaughter 7ver4 #bb71 and may refer to the usual butchery of a defeated army4 ,some of them are slain and others carried off as slaves4 ,the precise rendering of ver4 #ab b is doubtful4 ,calvin1 and1 among the moderns1 ,hitzig1 ,ewald1 ,delitzsch1 ,cheyne1 take it to mean ,thou didst not set their prices high4 ,others1 such as ,hupfeld1 ,baethgen1 etc41 adhere to the rendering1 ,thou didst not increase ,thy wealth by their price4 ,the general sense is clear1 and as bold as clear4 ,it is almost sarcasm1 directed against the ,divine dealings3 little has ,he gained by letting ,his flock be devoured and scattered4 ,hupfeld attaches to the bitter saying a deep meaning3 namely1 that the sale did not take place for the sake of profit or other external worldly ends1 as is the case with men1 but from higher disciplinary grounds of the ,divine government--namely1 simply as punishment for their sins1 for their improvement4 ,rather it may indicate the dishonour accruing to the ,god1 according to the ideas of the old world1 when ,his votaries were defeated2 or it may be the bitter reflection1 ,we can be of little worth in our ,shepherd's eyes when ,he parts with us so easily4 ,if there is any hint of tarnish adhering to the name of ,god by ,his people's defeat1 the passage to the second main idea of this part is the easier4 ,defeat brings dishonour4 ,the nearer nations1 such as ,edomites1 ,ammonites1 and other ancestral foes1 are ready with their gibes4 ,the more distant peoples make a proverb out of the tragedy1 and nod their heads in triumph and scorn4 ,the cowering creature1 in the middle of this ring of mockers1 is covered with shame as he hears the babel of heartless jests at his expense1 and steals a glance at the fierce faces round him4 ,it is difficult to find historical facts corresponding with this picture4 ,even if the feature of selling into captivity is treated as metaphor1 the rest of the picture needs some pressure to be made to fit the conditions of the ,maccabean struggle1 to which alone the subsequent avowals of faithfulness to ,god as the cause of calamity answer4 ,for there were no such periods of disgraceful defeat and utter devastation when once that heroic revolt had begun4 ,the third part of the psalm is in full accord with the religious consciousness of that ,indian summer of national glories2 but it must be acknowledged that the state of things described in this second part does not fit quite smoothly into the hypothesis of a ,maccabean date4 ,the third part 7vv4 #ag-bb7 brings closely together professions of righteousness1 which sound strangely in ,christian ears1 and complaints of suffering1 and closes with the assertion that these two are cause and effect4 ,the sufferers are a nation of martyrs1 and know themselves to be so4 ,this tone is remarkable when the nation is the speaker2 for though we find individuals asserting innocence and complaining of undeserved afflictions in many psalms1 a declaration of national conformity with the ,law is in sharp contradiction both to history and to the uniform tone of prophets4 ,this psalmist asserts not only national freedom from idolatry1 but adherence in heart and act to the ,covenant4 ,no period before the exile was clear of the taint of idol worship and yet darkened by calamity4 ,we have no record of any events before the persecutions that roused the ,maccabean struggle which answer to the martyr cry of ver4 #bb3 ,for ,thy sake we are killed all the day4 ,it may1 indeed1 be questioned what is the relation in time of the two facts spoken of in vv4 #ag-ai4 ,which comes first1 the calamity or the steadfastness8 ,does the psalmist mean1 ,we are afflicted1 and yet we are in affliction true to ,god1 or ,we were true to ,god1 and yet are afflicted8 ,probably the latter1 as in the remainder of this part4 ,the place of jackals is apparently the field of defeat referred to in the second part1 where obscene creatures would gather to feast on the plundered corpses4 ,the ,christian consciousness cannot appropriate the psalmist's asseverations of innocence1 and the difference between them and it should not be slurred over4 ,but1 on the other hand1 his words should not be exaggerated into charges of injustice against ,god1 nor claims of absolute sinlessness4 ,he does feel that present national distresses have not the same origin as past ones had had4 ,there has been no such falling away as to account for them4 ,but he does not arraign ,god's government4 ,he knows why the miseries have come1 and that he and his fellows are martyrs4 ,he does not fling that fact down as an accusation of ,providence1 but as the foundation of a prayer and as a plea for ,god's help4 ,the words may sound daring2 still they are not blasphemy1 but supplication4 ,the fourth part is importunate prayer4 ,its frank anthropomorphisms of a sleeping ,god1 forgetting ,his people1 surely need little defence4 ,sleep withdraws from knowledge of and action on the external world1 and hence is attributed to ,god1 when ,he allows evils to run unchecked4 ,he is said to awake1 or1 with another figure1 to arise1 as if starting from ,his throned calm1 when by some great act of judgment ,he smites flourishing evil into nothingness4 ,injustice is surely done to these cries of the ,ecclesia pressa when they are supposed to be in opposition to the other psalmist's word3 ,he that keepeth ,israel slumbers not1 nor sleeps4 ,some commentators call these closing petitions commonplace2 and so they are4 ,extreme need and agony of supplication have other things to think of than originality1 and so long as sorrows are so commonplace and like each other1 the cries of the sorrowful will be very much alike4 ,god is pleased with well-worn prayers1 which have fitted many lips1 and is not so fastidious as some critics4 ,,psalm ,,xlv4 #a ,my heart seethes with goodly speech3 ,i speak my work 7poem7 to a king3 ,my tongue is the pen of a swift scribe4 #b ,thou art fair beyond the sons of men2 ,grace is poured on thy lips3 ,therefore ,god has blessed thee for ever4 #c ,gird thy sword on thy thigh1 ,o hero1 ,thy splendour and thy majesty4 #d ,and in thy majesty press forward1 ride on1 ,for the help of truth1 and meekness-righteousness3 ,and thy right hand shall teach thee awe-striking deeds4 #e ,thine arrows are keen-- ,the peoples fall under thee-- ,into the heart of the enemies of the king4 #f ,thy throne1 ,o ,god1 is for ever and aye3 #g ,a sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom4 ,thou lovest righteousness1 and hatest iniquity3 ,therefore ,god1 thy ,god1 has anointed thee ,with the oil of gladness above thy fellows4 #h ,myrrh and aloes and cassia are all thy robes2 ,out of palaces of ivory1 stringed instruments make thee glad4 #i ,kings' daughters are among thy favourites3 ,the consort stands at thy right hand in ,ophir gold4 #aj ,hearken1 ,o daughter1 and behold1 and incline thine ear2 ,and forget thy people1 and thy father's house2 #aa ,so shall the king desire thy beauty3 ,for he is thy lord2 and bow thou down to him4 #ab ,and the daughter of ,tyre shall come with a gift2 ,the richest among the peoples shall seek thy favour4 #ac ,all glorious is the king's daughter in the inner palace3 ,of cloth of gold is her garment4 #ad ,in embroidered robes is she led to the king3 ,maidens behind her1 her friends1 are brought to thee4 #ae ,they are brought with gladness and exultation3 ,they enter into the palace of the king4 #af ,instead of thy fathers shall be thy children3 ,thou wilt make them princes in all the earth4 #ag ,i will commemorate thy name through generation after generation3 ,therefore shall the peoples praise thee for ever and aye4 ,this is an epithalamion or ode on a king's marriage4 ,the usual bewildering variety of conjectures as to his identity meets us in commentaries4 ,the older opinion points to ,solomon's marriage to an ,egyptian princess1 to which it is objected that he was not a warrior king1 as the monarch of the psalm is4 ,hitzig regards daughter of ,tyre1 in ver4 #ab1 as a vocative1 and therefore looks for a king who married a ,tyrian woman4 ,he is obliged to go to the northern kingdom to find one1 and pitches on ,ahab1 because ,jezebel was the daughter of a king of the ,zidonians1 and ,ahab had an ivory house 7#a ,kings xxii4 #ci74 ,it is hard to believe that that wedded pair of evil memory are the originals of the lovely portraits in the psalm1 or that a psalmist would recognise the kingdom of ,israel as divinely established and to be eternally upheld4 ,besides1 the construction of ver4 #ab1 on which this theory pivots1 is doubtful1 and the daughter of ,tyre there mentioned is more probably one of the bringers of gifts to the bride4 ,the attributes of the king and the promises for his descendants cannot be extended1 without incongruity1 beyond the ,davidic line4 ,hence ,delitzsch has selected ,jehoram1 the son of ,jehoshaphat1 principally because his wife1 ,athaliah1 was of ,tyrian descent1 being ,jezebel's daughter1 and partly because his father had been a trader1 which accounts for the allusions to gold of ,ophir and ivory4 ,these are slender grounds of identification1 to say nothing of the miserable contrast which ,jehoram's reign--a dreary record of apostasy and defeat1 culminating in a tragic death and a dishonoured grave 7#b ,chron4 xxi47--would present to the psalm4 ,some commentators have thought of the marriage of a ,persian king1 mainly because the peculiar word for consort in ver4 #i is employed for ,persian queens 7,neh4 ii4 #f71 and also because the ,tyrians were tributary to ,persia1 and because the sons of the king are to be called princes in all lands1 which reminds us of ,persian satraps4 ,ewald finally fixed on ,jeroboam ,,ii4 of ,israel4 ,cheyne 7,orig4 of ,psalt47 finds the king of the psalm in ,ptolemy ,philadelphus1 the inspirer1 as was believed1 of the ,,lxx4 translation1 whom ,josephus and ,philo extol4 ,its author puts this identification only as tentative4 ,notwithstanding his anticipatory protest against making ,philadelphus' moral character an objection1 he feels that it is an objection2 for he urges that its darker shades had not yet disclosed themselves1 and confesses that a haze of illusion encompassed our poet1 who overrated this ,ptolemy1 from taking too external a view of the ,messianic promise1 and being flattered by a ,hellenic king's partiality for his people 7u4s41 #agb74 ,philadelphus afterwards married his sister4 ,his hands were red with blood4 ,was a ,jewish psalmist likely to take up the singing robes of a court poet 7u4s47 in honour of a ,ptolemy1 or to transfer the promises to the ,davidic line to1 and to speak of ,god as the ,god of1 a foreign king8 ,or how1 if he did1 came his song to find and keep a place in the ,psalter8 ,all these conjectures show the hopelessness of identifying the person intended addressed in the psalm4 ,it is said that a knowledge of the historical allusions in the ,psalter is indispensable to enjoying it4 ,they would often be helpful if they could be settled1 but that is no reason for elevating conjecture to the place of knowledge4 ,one reason for the failure of attempts at identification is that the language is a world too wide for the best and greatest of ,jewish kings4 ,much in the psalm applies to a historical occasion1 the marriage of some monarch2 but there is much that as obviously goes beyond it4 ,either1 then1 the psalm is hyperbole1 outstripping even poetical licence1 or there appear in it characteristics of the ideal monarch whom the psalmist knew to be promised to ,israel4 ,every king of ,judah by descent and office was a living prophecy4 ,the singer sees the ,messiah shining1 as it were1 through the shadowy form of the earthly king1 whose limitations and defects1 no less than his excellences and glories1 pointed onwards to a greater than ,solomon1 in whom the sure mercies promised to ,david should be facts at last4 ,the psalm has two main divisions1 prefaced by a prelude 7ver4 #a71 and followed by prediction of happy issue of the marriage and enduring and wide dominion4 ,the two main parts are respectively addressed to the royal bridegroom 7vv4 #b-i7 and to the bride 7vv4 #aj-ae74 ,the singer lays claim to at least poetic inspiration4 ,his heart is seething or boiling over with goodly words1 or perhaps with the joyful matter which occasions his song--namely1 the royal nuptials4 ,he dedicates his work 7like the original meaning of poem--a thing made7 to a king1 the absence of the definite article suggesting that the office is more prominent than the person4 ,he sings to a king2 therefore his strains must be lofty4 ,so full is his heart that the swift words pour out as the stylus of a rapid writer races over the parchment4 ,the previous musing has been long1 the fire has burned slowly2 but at last all is molten1 and rushes out1 fluent because fervent4 ,the picture of the king begins with two features on which the old-world ideal of a monarch laid stress--personal beauty and gracious speech4 ,this monarch is fairer than the sons of men4 ,the note of superhuman excellence is struck at the outset2 and though the surface reference is only to physical beauty1 that is conceived of as the indication of a fair nature which moulds the fair form4 ,for of the soul the body form doth take2 ,for soul is form1 and doth the body make4 ,the highest truth of this opening word is realised only in ,him of whom it was also said1 in apparent contradiction1 but real harmony with it1 ,his visage was so marred more than any man1 and ,his form more than the sons of men4 ,the craving for whatsoever things are lovely1 like all other desires1 has for its object ,jesus ,christ4 ,another kingly excellence is sweet courtesy of speech4 ,possibly1 indeed1 the grace poured on the lips may mean the gracious smile which moulds their curves1 but more likely it refers to the kindly speech that so well become a mouth that can command4 ,the sweetest examples of such words are poor beside the gracious words that proceeded out of ,his mouth4 ,the psalmist's ideal is that of a gentle king4 ,where else than in the ,king whose sceptre was a reed1 not an iron rod1 has it been fulfilled8 ,nor know we anything more fair ,than is the smile upon ,thy face4 ,from such characteristics the psalmist draws an inference--therefore ,god hath blessed thee for ever2 for that therefore does not introduce the result of the preceding excellences1 but the cause of them4 ,the psalmist knows that ,god has blessed the king because he sees these beauties4 ,they are the visible signs and tokens of the ,divine benediction4 ,in its reference to ,christ1 the thought expressed is that ,his superhuman beauty is to all men the proof of a unique operation of ,god4 ,abiding divinity is witnessed by perfect humanity4 ,the scene changes with startling suddenness to the fury of battle4 ,in a burst of lyric enthusiasm1 forgetting for a moment nuptials and wedding marches1 the singer calls on the king to array himself for war and to rush on the foe4 ,very striking is this combination of gentleness and warrior strength--a union which has been often realised in heroic figures1 which is needful for the highest type of either1 and which is fulfilled in the ,lamb of ,god1 who is the ,lion of the tribe of ,judah4 ,the king is to gird on his sword1 and to array himself1 as in glittering armour1 in his splendour and majesty1 and1 thus arrayed1 to mount his chariot1 or1 less probably1 to bestride his war-horse1 and hurl himself on the yielding ranks of the enemy4 ,press forward1 drive 7or ride7 on1 crushing obstacles and forcing a path4 ,but ,israel's king could be no vulgar conqueror1 impelled by lust of dominion or glory4 ,his sword is to be girt on for the help or on behalf of truth1 meekness1 and righteousness4 ,these abstracts may be used for concretes--namely1 the possessors of the qualities named4 ,but the limitation is not necessary4 ,the monarch's warfare is for the spread of these4 ,the ,hebrew binds the two latter closely together by an anomalous construction1 which may be represented by connecting the two words with a hyphen4 ,they are regarded as a double star4 ,then follows a verse of hurry3 ,thy right hand shall teach thee awe-striking deeds4 ,he has no allies4 ,the canvas has no room for soldiers4 ,the picture is like the ,assyrian sculptures1 in which the king stands erect and alone in his chariot1 a giant in comparison with the tiny figures beneath him4 ,like ,rameses in ,pentaur's great battle-song1 he pierced the line of the foe2 444 he was all alone1 no other with him4 ,then follow three abrupt clauses1 reflecting in their fragmentary character the stress of battle3 ,thine arrows are sharp--,the peoples fall under thee--,in the heart of the enemies of the king4 ,the bright arrow is on the string2 it whizzes2 the plain is strewed with prostrate forms1 the king's shaft in the heart of each4 ,it is no mere fanciful spiritualising which sees in this picture an adumbration of the merciful warfare of ,christ all through the ages4 ,we get to the kernel of the history of ,israel when we regard it as the preparation for ,christ4 ,we understand the raison d'tre of its monarchy when we see in these poor shadows the types of the ,king of men1 who was to be all that they should have been and were not4 ,the world-wide conflict for truth and meekness and righteousness is ,his conflict1 and the help which is done on earth ,he doeth it all ,himself4 ,the psalm waits for its completion still1 and will wait until the day when the marriage supper of the ,lamb is preceded by the last battle and crowning victory of ,him who in righteousness doth judge and make war4 ,all the older versions take ,god1 in ver4 #f a1 as a vocative1 while most moderns seek another construction or text4 ,the sum of the matter is that the only natural rendering of the received text is that of the ,versions1 ',thy throne1 ,o ,god' 7,cheyne1 in loc474 ,three renderings have been proposed1 all of which are harsh4 ,thy throne is the throne of ,god1 etc41 is ,ewald's suggestion1 revived from a ,jewish expositor1 and adopted widely by many recent commentators1 and in the margin of the ,r4,v4 ,it is clumsy1 and leaves it doubtful whether the stress of the assertion lies on the ,divine appointment or on the eternal duration of the throne4 ,thy ,god's throne is1 etc41 is very questionable grammatically1 and extremely harsh4 ,the only other suggested rendering1 ,thy throne is ,god1 etc41 may fairly be pronounced impossible4 ,if the vocative construction is retained1 are we shut up to ,cheyne's further opinion1 that the only natural interpretation is that of the ,targum1 ',thy throne1 ,o ,jehovah'8 ,if so1 we shall be obliged to admit textual corruption2 for a reference to the eternal duration of ,jehovah's dominion is quite out of place here1 where the parallelism of the next clause demands some characteristic of the king's throne corresponding to that of his sceptre1 there stated4 ,but in ,exod4 xxi4 #f1 xxii4 #h1 and ,psalm lxxxii4 #f1 the name ,god 7,elohim7 is applied to rulers and judges1 on the ground1 as our ,lord puts it1 in ,john x4 #ce1 that unto them the word of ,god came--i4e41 that they were theocratic officers4 ,the designation1 therefore1 of the king as ,elohim is not contrary to the ,hebrew line of thought4 ,it does not predicate divinity1 but ,divine preparation for and appointment to office4 ,the recurrence of ,elohim 7,god7 in its full ,divine signification in the next verse is felt by many to be an insuperable objection to recognising the lower sense here4 ,but the emphatic thy ,god1 which is appended to the name in ver4 #g1 seems expressly intended to distinguish between the uses of the word in the two verses4 ,august1 then1 as the title is1 it proves nothing as to the divinity of the person addressed4 ,we recognise the prophetic character of the psalm1 and strongly believe that it points onwards to ,christ the ,king4 ,but we cannot take the ascription of the title ,o ,god as having reference to ,his ,divine nature4 ,such a thought lay far beyond the prophetic horizon4 ,the ,old ,testament usage1 which is appealed to in order to justify the translation of the word ,god as a vocative1 must govern its meaning4 ,the careful distinction drawn by the expressions of ver4 #g1 between the lower and higher senses of the name1 forbid the attempt to find here a premature and anomalous statement of deep truth1 for which the ages were not ripe4 ,while we1 who know the full truth1 may permissibly apply the psalmist's words as its expression1 we must not forget that in so doing we are going beyond their real meaning4 ,the controversies waged over the construction of this verse have sometimes been embittered by the supposition that it was a buttress for the truth of ,christ's ,divine nature4 ,but that is a mistake4 ,the psalm goes no further than to declare that the king is divinely endowed and appointed4 ,it does outline a character fairer than the sons of men1 which requires indwelling ,deity for its realisation in humanity4 ,but it does not speak the decisive word1 which alone could solve the mystery of its requirement1 by proclaiming the fact of incarnation4 ,the perpetuity of the king's throne is guaranteed1 not only by his theocratic appointment by ,god1 but by the righteousness of his rule4 ,his sceptre is not a rod of iron1 but a sceptre of uprightness4 ,he is righteous in character as well as in official acts4 ,he loves righteousness1 and therefore cannot but hate iniquity4 ,his broad shield shelters all who love and seek after righteousness1 and he wars against evil wherever it shows itself4 ,therefore his throne stands firm1 and is the world's hope4 ,a singer who had grasped the truth that power divorced from justice could not endure was far in advance of his time4 ,the nations have not yet learned his lesson4 ,the vast robber-kingdoms which seemed to give the lie to his faith have confirmed it by their evanescence4 ,the king's love of righteousness leads to his being anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows4 ,this anointing is not that of a coronation1 but that of a feast4 ,his fellows may either be other kings or his attendant companions at his marriage4 ,the psalmist looks as deep into individual life as he has just done into politics1 and ascribes to righteousness lofty powers in that region too4 ,the heart which loves it will be joyful1 whatever befalls4 ,conformity to the highest ideal known to a man1 or1 at all events1 hearty love thereof1 leading to efforts after it1 is the surest foundation for lasting and deep joy4 ,since ,christ is the fulfilment of the psalmist's picture1 and perfectly realised the perfection of manhood1 the psalmist's words here are most fully applicable to ,him4 ,true1 ,he was a man of sorrows1 but beneath ,his sorrow had abiding and central joy1 which ,he bequeathed to us1 with the assurance that to possess it would make our joy full4 ,his pure manhood was ever in touch with ,god1 and lived in conscious righteousness1 and therefore there was ever light within1 though there was darkness around4 ,he1 the saddest1 was likewise the gladdest of men1 and anointed with the oil of joy above ,his fellows4 ,in ver4 #h the ,psalm reaches its main theme--the marriage of the king4 ,the previous verses have painted his grace of person1 his heroic deeds in battle1 and his righteous rule4 ,now he stands ready to pass into the palace to meet his bride4 ,his festival robes are so redolent of perfumes that they seem to be composed of nothing but woven fragrance4 ,there are difficulties in the rendering of ver4 #h a1 but that adopted above is generally accepted as the most probable4 ,the clause then describes the burst of jubilant music which welcomed and rejoiced the king as he approached the palaces of ivory1 where his bride waited his coming4 ,ver4 #i carries the king into his harem4 ,the inferior wives are of royal blood1 but nearest him and superior to these is the queen-consort glittering with golden ornaments4 ,this feature of the psalmist's description can only have reference to the actual historical occasion of the psalm1 and warns against overlooking that in seeking a prophetic reference to the ,christ in every particular4 ,the second half of the psalm is an address to the bride and a description of her beauty and state4 ,the singer assumes a fatherly tone1 speaking to her as daughter4 ,she is a foreigner by birth1 and is called upon to give up all her former associations1 with whole-hearted consecration to her new duties4 ,it is difficult to imagine ,jezebel or ,athaliah as the recipient of these counsels1 nor does it seem to the present writer to add anything to the enjoyment of the psalm that the person to whom they were addressed should be identified4 ,the exhortation to give up all for love's sake goes to the heart of the sacred relation of husband and wife1 and witnesses to the lofty ideal of that relation which prevailed in ,israel1 even though polygamy was not forbidden4 ,the sweet necessity of wedded love subordinates all other love1 as a deeper well1 when sunk1 draws the surface waters and shallower springs into itself4 ,the rich1 golden shaft ,hath killed the flock of all affections else ,that live in her4 ,the king sung of in the psalm was a type of ,christ4 ,every true marriage is in the same fashion a type of the union of the soul with ,jesus1 the lover of all1 the bridegroom of humanity4 ,so it is not arbitrary spiritualising1 but recognition of the nobleness of the lower love and of its essential similarity with the highest1 when the counsel to this bride is regarded as shadowing the duties of the soul wedded to ,christ4 ,if a heart is really influenced by love to ,him1 that love will make self-surrender blessed4 ,a child gladly drops toys when it stretches out its little hand for better gifts4 ,if we are joined to ,jesus1 we shall not be unwilling to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of ,him4 ,have the terms of wedded life changed since this psalm was written8 ,have the terms of ,christian living altered since it was said1 ,whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath1 he cannot be ,my disciple8 ,the law still remains1 ,daughter1 forget thine own people and ,thy father's house4 ,the exhortation is followed by a promise3 ,so shall the king desire thy beauty4 ,the application of these words to the relations of ,christ and ,his people carries with it a striking thought that ,he is affected by the completeness of our self-surrender and dependence4 ,he pours love on the unworthy1 but that is a different thing from the love with which ,he responds to such abandonment of self and other loves4 ,holy1 noble living will bring a smile into ,his face and draw ,him nearer to us4 ,but whilst there is all this sweet commerce of love and giving1 the bride is reminded that the king is her lord1 and is to be reverenced as well as loved4 ,there is here1 no doubt1 the influence of an archaic mode of regarding marriage and the wife's position4 ,but it still is true that no woman finds all that her heart needs in her husband1 unless she can bring her reverence where she has brought her love2 and that love will not long remain if reverence departs4 ,nor is the warning less needed in the higher region of the wedlock of the soul with the ,saviour4 ,some types of emotional religion have more to say about love than about obedience4 ,they are full of half-wholesome apostrophes to a dear ,lord1 and are apt to forget the last word in the emphasis which they put on the first4 ,the beggar-maid married to a king was full of reverence as well as love2 and the souls whom ,jesus stoops to love and wash and wed are never to forget to blend adoration with approach and obedience with love4 ,a picture of the reflected honour and influence of the bride follows in ver4 #ab4 ,when she stands by the king's side1 those around recognise her dignity1 and seek to secure her favour4 ,hupfeld1 ,hitzig1 and others take daughter of ,tyre to be a vocative1 addressed to the bride1 who is1 according to their view1 a ,tyrian princess4 ,but there is a strong grammatical objection to that construction in the copula 7and7 prefixed to daughter1 which is never so prefixed to a vocative unless preceded by another vocative4 ,delitzsch1 ,baethgen1 ,perowne1 and ,cheyne agree in recognising the force of that consideration1 and the three former regard the phrase not as a vocative1 but as a nominative4 ,it is a personification of the ,tyrians according to a familiar idiom4 ,the clause is elliptical1 and has to be supplemented by supposing that the same verb1 which appears in the next clause in the plural1 is to be supplied in thought1 just as that clause requires the supplement of with a gift from this one4 ,there appears to be some flaw in the text1 as the clauses are unsymmetrical1 and possibly the punctuators have marked a hiatus by the sign 7,pasek7 after the word daughter of ,tyre4 ,to seek thy favour is literally to smooth thy face--a graphic representation4 ,in the highest region1 which we regard the psalm as adumbrating1 the words have fulfilment4 ,the bride standing by her bridegroom1 and showing her love and devotion by self-abandonment and reverence1 will be glorious in the eyes of those around4 ,they who manifestly live in loving communion with their ,lord will be recognised for what they are1 and1 though sometimes hated therefor1 will also be honoured4 ,when the ,church has cast all but ,christ out of its heart1 it will conquer the world4 ,the sons of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee4 ,in vv4 #ac-ae the bride's apparel and nuptial procession are described4 ,she is all glorious within1--by which is not meant1 as ordinarily supposed1 that she possesses an inner beauty of soul1 but that the poet conceives of her as standing in the inner chamber1 where she has been arrayed in her splendour4 ,krochmal1 followed by ,graetz and ,cheyne1 changes the text so as to read corals1 or1 as ,cheyne renders1 pearls 7,heb4 p'ninim71 for within 7p'ninah71 and thus preserves unity of subject in the verse by removing the local designation4 ,but the existing reading is intelligible4 ,in ver4 #ad the marriage procession is described4 ,the words rendered embroidered robes are by some taken to mean tapestry of divers colours 7,perowne71 or richly woven carpets spread for the bride to walk on1 and by others 7,hitzig1 ,riehm7 gay-coloured cushions1 to which she is led in order to sit beside the bridegroom4 ,but the word means apparel elsewhere1 and either of the other meanings introduces an irrelevant detail of another kind into the picture4 ,the analogy of other ,scripture metaphors leads at once to interpreting the bride's attire as symbolic of the purity of character belonging to the ,church4 ,the ,apocalypse dresses the ,lamb's wife in fine linen1 clean and white4 ,the psalm arrays her in garments gleaming with gold1 which symbolise splendour and glory1 and in embroidered robes1 which suggest the patient use of the slow needle1 and the variegated harmony of colour attained at last4 ,there is no marriage between ,christ and the soul1 unless it is robed in the beauty of righteousness and manifold graces of character4 ,in other places we read that the bride made herself ready1 and also that to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen1 clean and white1 in which sayings are set forth the double sources of such a garment of the soul4 ,it is a gift from above4 ,it is put on by continual effort1 based on faith4 ,the picture of the home-coming of the bride follows4 ,she is attended by her maidens1 and with them she passes into the palace amid joys and exultation4 ,the psalm stops at the threshold4 ,it is not for the singer to draw back the curtains and let in the day4 ,the door was shut4 ,the presence of virgin companions waiting on the bride no more interferes with the application of the psalm to ,christ and ,his ,church than the similar representation brings confusion into our ,lord's parable of the ,ten ,virgins4 ,parables and symbols are elastic1 and often duplicate their representations of the same thing2 and such is the case here4 ,the closing verses are addressed1 not to the bride1 but to the king1 and can only in a very modified way and partially be supposed to pass beyond the ,jewish monarch and refer to the true ,king4 ,hopes that he might be blessed with fortunate issue of the marriage were quite in place in an epithalamion1 and the delicacy of the light touch with which this closing note is struck is noteworthy1 especially in contrast with the tone of many famous secular songs of similar import4 ,but much straining is needed to extract a spiritual sense from the words4 ,perowne truly says that it is wiser to acknowledge at once the mixed character of the psalm1 and he quotes a sagacious saying of ,calvin's to the effect that it is not necessary that every detail should be carefully fitted to ,christ4 ,the psalm had a historical basis2 and it has also a prophetic meaning1 because the king of ,israel was himself a type1 and ,jesus ,christ is the fulfilment of the ideal never realised by its successive occupants4 ,both views of its nature must be kept in view in its interpretation2 and it need cause no surprise if1 at some points1 the rind of prose fact is1 so to speak1 thicker than at others1 or if certain features absolutely refuse to lend themselves to the spiritual interpretation4 ,,psalm ,,xlvi4 #a ,god is a refuge and stronghold for us1 ,a help in troubles most readily to be found4 #b ,therefore we will not fear1 though the earth do change1 ,and the mountains reel into the heart of the sea4 #c ,let its waters roar and foam2 ,let mountains shake at its pride4 ,selah4 ,jehovah of hosts is with us2 ,a high tower for us is ,jacob's ,god4 #d ,there is a river--its branches make glad the city of ,god ,the sanctuary of the tabernacles of the ,most ,high4 #e ,god is in her midst2 she shall not be moved3 ,god shall help her at the morning dawn4 #f ,nations roared1 kingdoms were moved3 ,he gave forth ,his voice1 the earth melts4 #g ,jehovah of hosts is with us2 ,a high tower for us is ,jacob's ,god4 ,selah4 #h ,come1 behold the deeds of ,jehovah1 ,who has made desolations in the earth4 #i ,quelling wars to the end of the earth3 ,the bow ,he breaks1 and hews the spear in splinters2 ,the chariots ,he burns in the fire4 #aj ,desist1 and know that ,i am ,god3 ,i will be exalted in the nations1 ,i will be exalted in the earth4 #aa ,jehovah of hosts is with us2 ,a high tower for us is ,jacob's ,god4 ,selah4 ,there are two events1 one or other of which probably supplies the historical basis of this and the two following psalms4 ,one is ,jehoshaphat's deliverance from the combined forces of the bordering nations 7#b ,chron4 xx474 ,delitzsch adopts this as the occasion of the psalm4 ,but the other more usually accepted reference to the destruction of ,sennacherib's army is more probable4 ,psalms xlvi4 and xlviii4 have remarkable parallelisms with ,isaiah4 ,the noble contrast of the quiet river which makes glad the city of ,god with a tossing1 earth-shaking sea resembles the prophet's threatening that the effect of refusing the waters of ,shiloah which go softly would be inundation by the strong and mighty river1 the ,assyrian power4 ,and the emblem is expanded in the striking language of ,isa4 xxxiii4 #ba3 ,the glorious ,lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams2 wherein shall go no galley with oars4 ,encircled by the flashing links of that broad moat1 ,jerusalem sits secure4 ,again1 the central thought of the refrain in the psalm1 ,the ,lord of hosts is with us1 is closely allied to the symbolic name which ,isaiah gave as a pledge of deliverance1 ,immanuel1 ,god with us4 ,the structure is simple4 ,the three strophes into which the psalm falls set forth substantially the same thought1 that ,god's presence is safety and peace1 whatever storms may roar4 ,this general theme is exhibited in the first strophe 7vv4 #a-c7 in reference to natural convulsions2 in the second 7vv4 #d-g7 in reference to the rage of hostile kingdoms2 and in the third 7vv4 #h-aa7 men are summoned to behold a recent example of ,god's delivering might1 which establishes the truth of the preceding utterances and has occasioned the psalm4 ,the grand refrain which closes the second and third strophes should probably be restored at the end of ver4 #c4 ,in the first strophe the psalmist paints chaos come again1 by the familiar figures of a changed earth1 tottering mountains sinking in the raging sea from which they rose at creation1 and a wild ocean with thunderous dash appalling the ear and yeasty foam terrifying the eye1 sweeping in triumphant insolence over all the fair earth4 ,it is prosaic to insist on an allegorical meaning for the picture4 ,it is rather a vivid sketch of utter confusion1 dashed in with three or four bold strokes1 an impossible case supposed in order to bring out the unshaken calm of those who have ,god for ark in such a deluge4 ,he is not only a sure refuge and stronghold1 but one easy of access when troubles come4 ,there is little good in a fortress1 however impregnable1 if it is so difficult to reach that a fugitive might be slain a hundred times before he was safe in it4 ,but this high tower1 which no foe can scale1 can be climbed at a thought1 and a wish lifts us within its mighty walls4 ,the psalmist speaks a deep truth1 verified in the spiritual life of all ages1 when he celebrates the refuge of the devout soul as most readily to be found4 ,as the text stands1 this strophe is a verse too short1 and ver4 #c drags if connected with will not we fear4 ,the restoration of the refrain removes the anomaly in the length of the strophe1 and enables us to detach ver4 #c from the preceding4 ,its sense is then completed1 if we regard it as the protasis of a sentence of which the refrain is the apodosis1 or if1 with ,cheyne and others1 we take ver4 #c1 ,let its waters roar1 etc4--what of that8 ,jehovah of hosts is with us4 ,if the strophe is thus completed1 it conforms to the other two1 in each of which may be traced a division into two pairs of verses4 ,these two verse-pairs of the first strophe would then be inverted parallelism1--the former putting security in ,god first1 and surrounding trouble second1 the latter dealing with the same two subjects1 but in reversed sequence4 ,the second strophe brings a new picture to view with impressive suddenness1 which is even more vividly dramatic if the refrain is not supplied4 ,right against the vision of confusion comes one of peace4 ,the abrupt introduction of a river as an isolated noun1 which dislocates grammatical structure1 is almost an exclamation4 ,there is a river enfeebles the swing of the original4 ,we might almost translate1 ,lo6 a river6 ,jerusalem was unique among historical cities in that it had no great river4 ,it had one tiny thread of water1 of which perhaps the psalmist is thinking4 ,but whether there is here the same contrast between ,siloam's gentle flow and the surging waters of hostile powers as ,isaiah sets forth in the passage already referred to 7,isa4 viii4 #f71 the meaning of this gladdening stream is the ever-flowing communication of ,god ,himself in ,his grace4 ,the stream is the fountain in flow4 ,in the former strophe we hear the roar of the troubled waters1 and see the firm hills toppling into their depths4 ,now we behold the gentle flow of the river1 gliding through the city1 with music in its ripples and sunshine in its flash and refreshment in its waters1 parting into many arms and yet one in diversity1 and bringing life and gladness wherever it comes4 ,not with noise nor tumult1 but in silent communication1 ,god's grace and peace refresh the soul4 ,power is loud1 but ,omnipotence is silent4 ,the roar of all the billows is weak when compared with the quiet sliding onwards of that still stream4 ,it has its divisions4 ,as in old days each man's bit of garden was irrigated by a branch led from the stream1 so in endless diversity1 corresponding to the infinite greatness of the source and the innumerable variety of men's needs1 ,god's grace comes4 ,all these worketh that one and the selfsame ,spirit1 dividing to every man severally4 ,the streams gladden the city of ,god with the gladness of satisfied thirsts1 with the gladness which comes from the contact of the human spirit with ,divine completeness4 ,so supplied1 the city may laugh at besiegers4 ,it has unfailing supplies within itself1 and the enemy may cut off all surface streams1 but its water shall be sure4 ,substantially the same thought is next stated in plain words3 ,god is in the midst of her4 ,and therefore two things follow4 ,one is unshaken stability1 and another is help at the right time--at the turn of the morning4 ,the ,lord is in the midst of her--that is a perennial fact4 ,the ,lord shall help her--that is the grace for seasonable help4 ,he1 not we1 determines when the night shall thin away its blackness into morning twilight4 ,but we may be sure that the presence which is the pledge of stability and calm even in storm and darkness will flash into energy of help at the moment when ,he wills4 ,the same expression is used to mark the time of ,his looking from the pillar of cloud and troubling the ,egyptians1 and there may be an allusion to that standing instance of ,his help here4 ,it is not for you to know the times and the seasons2 but this we may know--that the ,lord of all times will always help at the right time2 ,he will not come so quickly as to anticipate our consciousness of need1 nor delay so long as to let us be irrevocably engulfed in the bog4 ,jesus loved ,martha1 and her sister1 and ,lazarus4 ,when ,he heard therefore that he was sick1 ,he abode two days still in the same place where ,he was4 ,yet ,he came in time4 ,with what vigour the short1 crashing clauses of ver4 #f describe the wrath and turbulence of the nations1 and the instantaneous dissolving of their strength into weakness at a word from those awful lips6 ,the verse may be taken as hypothetical or as historical4 ,in either case we see the sequence of events as by a succession of lightning flashes4 ,the hurry of the style1 marked by the omission of connecting particles1 reflects the swiftness of incident1 like ,veni1 vidi1 vici4 ,the utterance of ,god's will conquers all4 ,at the sound of that voice stillness and a pause of dread fall on the roar 7same word as in ver4 #c7 of the nations1 like the hush in the woods when thunder rolls4 ,he speaks1 and all meaner sounds cease4 ,the lion hath roared1 who shall not fear8 ,no material vehicle is needed4 ,to every believer in ,god there is an incomprehensible action of the ,divine ,will on material things2 and no explanations bridge the gulf recognised in the psalmist's broken utterances1 which declare sequence and not mode of operation3 ,he uttered ,his voice1 the earth melted4 ,again the triumph of the refrain peals forth1 with its musical accompaniment prolonging the impression4 ,in it the psalmist gives voice1 for himself and his fellows1 to their making their own of the general truths which the psalm has been declaring4 ,the two names of ,god set forth a twofold ground for confidence4 ,jehovah of hosts is all the more emphatic here since the ,second ,book of the ,psalter is usually ,elohistic4 ,it proclaims ,god's eternal1 self-existent ,being1 and ,his covenant relation1 as well as ,his absolute authority over the ranked forces of the universe1 personal or impersonal1 spiritual or material4 ,the ,lord of all these legions is with us4 ,when we say ,the ,god of ,jacob1 we reach back into the past and lay hold of the ,helper of the men of old as ours4 ,what ,he has been1 ,he is2 what ,he did1 ,he is doing still4 ,the river is full to-day1 though the van of the army did long ago drink and were satisfied4 ,the bright waters are still as pellucid and abundant as then1 and the last of the rear-guard will find them the same4 ,the third strophe summons to contemplate with fixed attention the desolations made by some great manifestation of ,god's delivering power4 ,it is presupposed that these are still visible4 ,broken bows1 splintered spears1 half-charred chariots1 strew the ground1 and ,israel can go forth without fear and feast their eyes on these tokens of what ,god has done for them4 ,the language is naturally applied to the relics of ,sennacherib's annihilated force4 ,in any case it points to a recent act of ,god's1 the glad surprise of which palpitates all through the psalm4 ,the field of history is littered with broken1 abandoned weapons1 once flourished in hands long since turned to dust2 and the city and throne of ,god against which they were lifted remain unharmed4 ,the voice which melted the earth speaks at the close of the psalm2 not now with destructive energy1 but in warning1 through which tones of tenderness can be caught4 ,god desires that foes would cease their vain strife before it proves fatal4 ,desist is here an elliptical expression1 of which the full form is ,let your hands drop2 or1 as we say1 ,ground your weapons1 and learn how vain is a contest with ,him who is ,god1 and whose fixed purpose is that all nations shall know and exalt ,him4 ,the prospect hinted at in the last words1 of a world submissive to its ,king1 softens the terrors of ,his destructive manifestations1 reveals their inmost purpose1 and opens to foes the possibility of passing1 not as conquerors1 but as subjects1 and therefore fellow-citizens1 through the gate into the city4 ,,psalm ,,xlvii4 #a ,all ye peoples1 clap your hands2 ,shout to ,god with joyful cry4 #b ,for ,jehovah is most ,high and dread1 ,a great ,king over all the earth4 #c ,he subdues peoples under us1 ,and nations under our feet1 #d ,he chooses for us our inheritance1 ,the pride of ,jacob whom ,he loved4 ,selah4 #e ,god is gone up with a shout1 ,jehovah with trumpet clang4 #f ,sing with the harp to ,god1 sing with the harp3 ,sing with the harp to our ,king1 sing with the harp4 #g ,for ,king of all the earth is ,god3 ,sing with the harp a skilful song4 #h ,god has become ,king over the nations3 ,he has taken ,his seat on ,his holy throne4 #i ,the princes of the peoples gather themselves together ,as a people of the ,god of ,abraham3 ,for to ,god belong the shields of the earth2 ,greatly has ,he exalted ,himself4 ,the closing thought of ,psalm xlvi4 is nobly expanded in this jubilant summons to all nations to praise ,jehovah as their ,king4 ,both psalms have a similar1 and probably the same1 historical basis3 a ,divine act so recent that the tumult of triumph has not yet subsided1 and the waves of joy still run high4 ,only in ,psalm xlvi4 the effect of that ,god-wrought deliverance is principally regarded as the security and peace of ,israel1 and in this psalm as the drawing of the nations to obey ,israel's ,king1 and so to join the chorus of ,israel's praise4 ,while the psalm has many resemblances to the ,songs of the ,king 7,psalm xciii4 seqq471 it is clearly in its right place here1 as forming with the preceding and succeeding psalms a trilogy1 occasioned by one great manifestation of ,god's care for the nation4 ,no event is more appropriate than the usually accepted destruction of ,sennacherib's army4 ,the psalm has little of complexity in structure or thought4 ,it is a gush of pure rapture4 ,it rises to prophetic foresight1 and1 by reason of a comparatively small historical occasion1 has a vision of the world-wide expansion of the kingdom of ,god4 ,it falls into two strophes of four verses each1 with one longer verse appended to the latter4 ,in the first strophe the nations are invited to welcome ,god as their ,king1 not only because of ,his ,divine exaltation and world-wide dominion1 but also because of ,his deeds for ,jacob4 ,the same ,divine act which in ,psalm xlvi4 is represented as quelling wars and melting the earth1 and in ,psalm xlviii4 as bringing dismay1 pain1 and flight1 is here contemplated as attracting the nations to worship4 ,the psalmist knows that destructive providences have their gracious aspect1 and that ,god's true victory over men is not won when opposition is crushed and hearts made to quake1 but when recognition of ,his sway and joy in it swell the heart4 ,the quick clatter of clapping hands in sign of homage to the ,king 7#b ,kings xi4 #ab7 blends with the shrill cries with which ,easterns express joy1 in a tumult of acclaim4 ,hupfeld thinks that to suppose the heathen called upon to do homage because of the victory for ,israel won over them is entirely mistaken4 ,but unless that victory is the reason for the summons1 the psalm offers none2 and it is surely not difficult to suppose that the exhibition of ,god's power leads to reflection which issues in recognition of ,his sovereignty4 ,vv4 #c1 #d1 seem to state the grounds for the summons in ver4 #a4 ,the tenses in these verses present a difficulty in the way of taking them for a historical retrospect of the conquest and partition of ,canaan1 which but for that objection would be the natural interpretation4 ,it is possible to take them as a truth of experience inferred from what had just been witnessed1 the historical fact being expressed not in historical form1 but generalised and idealised 7,delitzsch1 in loc474 ,the just accomplished deliverance repeated in essence the wonders of the first entrance on possession of the land1 and revealed the continuous working of the same ,divine hand1 ever renewing the choice of ,jacob's inheritance1 and ever scattering its enemies4 ,the pride of ,jacob is a phrase in apposition with our inheritance4 ,the ,holy ,land was the object of pride to ,jacob1 not in an evil sense but in that he boasted of it as a precious treasure intrusted to him by ,god4 ,the root fact of all ,god's ancient and continued blessings is that ,he loved4 ,his own heart1 not ,jacob's deserts1 prompted ,his mercies4 ,the second strophe is distinguished from the first by the increased fervour of its calls to praise1 by its still more exultant rush1 and by its omission of reference to ,jacob4 ,it is wholly concerned with the peoples whom it invites to take up the song4 ,as in the former strophe the singer showed to the peoples ,god working in the world1 here he bids them look up and see ,him ascending on high4 ,now that ,he ascended1 what is it but that ,he also descended first8 ,the mighty deliverance of which the triumph throbs through this trilogy of pans of victory was ,god's coming down4 ,now ,he has gone back to ,his throne and seated ,himself thereon1 not as having ceased to work in the world--for ,he is still ,king over it all--but as having completed a delivering work4 ,he does not withdraw when ,he goes up4 ,he does not cease to work here below when ,he sits throned in ,his palace-temple above4 ,the shout and voice of a trumpet1 which accompany that ascent1 are borrowed from the ordinary attendants on a triumphal procession4 ,he soars as in a chariot of praises1--from whose lips the psalm does not say1 but probably it intends ,israel to be understood as the singer4 ,to that choir the nations are called to join their voices and harps1 since ,god is their ,king too1 and not ,jacob's only4 ,the word rendered in the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 7text7 with understanding is a noun1 the name of a description of psalm1 which occurs in several psalm titles1 and is best understood as a skilful song4 ,ver4 #h gathers up the reasons for the peoples' homage to ,god4 ,he has become ,king over them by ,his recent act1 having manifested and established ,his dominion2 and ,he has now sat down on ,his throne1 as having accomplished ,his purpose1 and as thence administering the world's affairs4 ,a final verse1 of double the length of the others1 stands somewhat apart from the preceding strophe both in rhythm and in thought4 ,it crowns the whole4 ,the invitations to the nations are conceived of as having been welcomed and obeyed4 ,and there rises before the poet's eye a fair picture of a great convocation1 such as might wait before a world-ruling monarch's throne on the day of his coronation4 ,the princes of the nations1 like tributary kings1 come flocking to do homage1 as if they surely knew their sovereign ,lord was by4 ,the obliteration of distinction between ,israel and the nations1 by the incorporation of the latter1 so that the peoples become part of the people of the ,god of ,abraham1 floats before the singer's prophetic eye1 as the end of ,god's great manifestation of ,himself4 ,the two parts of that double choir1 which the preceding strophes summon to song1 coalesce at last1 and in grand unison send up one full-throated1 universal melodious shout of praise4 ,the shields of the earth are best understood as a figurative expression for the princes just spoken of1 who now at last recognise to whom they belong4 ,thus ,god has exalted ,himself by ,his deeds2 and the result of these deeds is that ,he is greatly exalted by the praise of a world1 in which ,israel and the peoples dwell as one beneath ,his sceptre and celebrate ,his name4 ,the psalmist looked far ahead4 ,his immediate experience was as a little window through which he saw great matters4 ,the prophecy of the universal spread of ,god's kingdom and the inclusion in it of the ,gentiles is ,messianic2 and whether the singer knew that he spoke of a fair hope which should not be a fact for weary centuries1 or anticipated wider and permanent results from that triumph which inspired his song1 he spake of the ,christ1 and his strains are true prophecies of ,his dominion4 ,there is no intentional reference in the psalm to the ,ascension2 but the thoughts underlying its picture of ,god's going up with a shout are the same which that ,ascension sets forth as facts1--the merciful coming down into humanity of the ,divine ,helper2 the completeness of ,his victory as attested by ,his return thither where ,he was before2 ,his session in heaven1 not as idle nor wearied1 but as having done what ,he meant to do2 ,his continuous working as ,king in the world2 and the widening recognition of ,his authority by loving hearts4 ,the psalmist summons us all to swell with our voices that great chorus of praise which1 like a sea1 rolls and breaks in music round ,his royal seat4 ,,psalm ,,xlviii4 #a ,great is ,jehovah1 and much to be praised1 ,in the city of our ,god1 ,his holy mountain4 #b ,lovely in loftiness1 a joy of all the earth1 ,is ,mount ,zion1 the recesses of the north1 the city of the great ,king4 #c ,god in her palaces ,has made ,himself known as a high tower4 #d ,for1 lo1 the kings assembled themselves1 ,they marched onwards together4 #e ,they saw1 then they were amazed2 ,they were terror-struck1 they fled4 #f ,trembling seized them there2 ,pain1 as of a woman in travail4 #g ,with an east wind ,thou breakest the ships of ,tarshish4 #h ,according as we have heard1 so have we seen ,in the city of ,jehovah of hosts1 in the city of our ,god3 ,god will establish her for ever4 ,selah4 #i ,we have thought1 ,o ,god1 of ,thy loving-kindness ,in the midst of ,thy ,temple4 #aj ,according to ,thy name1 ,o ,god1 ,so is ,thy praise to the ends of the earth3 ,thy right hand is full of righteousness4 #aa ,let ,mount ,zion rejoice1 ,let the daughters of ,judah exult1 ,because of ,thy judgments4 #ab ,compass ,zion1 and walk round her3 ,reckon her towers4 #ac ,give heed to her bulwark1 ,pass through her palaces2 ,that ye may tell it to the generation after4 #ad ,that such is ,god1 our ,god3 ,for ever and aye ,he will guide us4 ,al-,muth4 ,the situation seems the same as in ,psalm xlvi41 with which this psalm has many points of contact4 ,in both we have the same triumph1 the same proud affection for the holy city and sanctuary1 the same confidence in ,god's dwelling there1 the same vivid picturing of the mustering of enemies and their rapid dispersion1 the same swift movement of style in describing that overthrow1 the same thought of the diffusion of ,god's praise in the world as its consequence1 the same closing summons to look upon the tokens of deliverance1 with the difference that1 in the former psalm1 these are the shattered weapons of the defeated foe1 and in this the unharmed battlements and palaces of the delivered city4 ,the emphatic word of the refrain in ,psalm xlvi4 also reappears here in ver4 #c4 ,the psalm falls into three parts1 of which the first 7vv4 #a1 #b7 is introductory1 celebrating the glory of ,zion as the city of ,god2 the second 7vv4 #c-h7 recounts in glowing words the deliverance of ,zion2 and the third tells of the consequent praise and trust of the inhabitants of ,zion 7vv4 #i-ad74 ,the general sense of the first part is plain1 but ver4 #b is difficult4 ,mount ,zion is obviously subject1 and lovely in loftiness and joy of all the earth predicates2 but the grammatical connection of the two last clauses is obscure4 ,further1 the meaning of the sides of the north has not been satisfactorily ascertained4 ,the supposition that there is an allusion in the phrase to the mythological mountain of the gods1 with which ,zion is compared1 is surely most unnatural4 ,would a ,hebrew psalmist be likely to introduce such a parallel1 even in order to assert the superiority of ,zion8 ,nor is the grammatical objection to the supposition less serious4 ,it requires a good deal of stretching and inserting to twist the two words the sides of the north into a comparison4 ,it is more probable that the clause is topographical1 describing some part of the city1 but what part is far from clear4 ,the accents make all the verse after earth the subject of the two preceding predicates1 and place a minor division at north1 implying that the sides of the north is more closely connected with ,mount ,zion than with the city of the great ,king1 or than that last clause is4 ,following these indications1 ,stier renders ,mount ,zion and the northern side 7i4e41 the lower city1 on the north of ,zion71 which together make the city1 etc4 ,others see here the ,holy ,city regarded from three points of view--viz41 the ,mount ,zion 7the city of ,david71 the sides of the north 7,mount ,moriah and the ,temple71 the city of the great ,king 7,jerusalem proper74 ,so ,perowne and others4 ,delitzsch takes ,zion to be the ,temple hill1 and the sides of the north to be in apposition4 ,the ,temple hill or ,zion1 in the narrower sense1 actually formed the north-eastern corner of ancient ,jerusalem1 says he1 and thus regards the subject of the whole sentence as really twofold1 not threefold1 as appears at first--,zion on the north1 which is the palace-temple1 and ,jerusalem at its feet1 which is the city of the great ,king4 ,but it must be admitted that no interpretation runs quite smoothly1 though the summary ejection of the troublesome words the sides of the north from the text is too violent a remedy4 ,but the main thought of this first part is independent of such minute difficulties4 ,it is that the one thing which made ,zion-,jerusalem glorious was ,god's presence in it4 ,it was beautiful in its elevation2 it was safely isolated from invaders by precipitous ravines1 inclosing the angle of the plateau on which it stood4 ,but it was because ,god dwelt there and manifested ,himself there that it was a joy for all the earth4 ,the name by which even the earthly ,zion is called is ,jehovah-,shammah1 ,the ,lord is there4 ,we are not forcing ,new ,testament ideas into ,old ,testament words when we see in the psalm an eternal truth4 ,an idea is one thing2 the fact which more or less perfectly embodies it is another4 ,the idea of ,god's dwelling with men had its less perfect embodiment in the presence of the ,shechinah in the ,temple1 its more perfect in the dwelling of ,god in the ,church1 and will have its complete when the city having the glory of ,god shall appear1 and ,he will dwell with men and be their ,god4 ,god in her1 not anything of her own1 makes ,zion lovely and gladdening4 ,thy beauty was perfect through ,my comeliness which ,i had put upon thee1 saith the ,lord4 ,the second part pictures ,zion's deliverance with picturesque vigour 7vv4 #c-h74 ,ver4 #c sums up the whole as the act of ,god1 by which ,he has made ,himself known as that which the refrain of ,psalm xlvi4 declared ,him to be--a refuge1 or1 literally1 a high tower4 ,then follows the muster of the hosts4 ,the kings were assembled4 ,that phrase need not be called exaggeration1 nor throw doubt on the reference to ,sennacherib's army1 if we remember the policy of ,eastern conquerors in raising their armies from their conquests1 and the boast which ,isaiah puts into the mouth of the ,assyrian3 ,are not my princes altogether kings8 ,they advance against the city4 ,they saw1--no need to say what4 ,immediately they were amazed4 ,the sight of the city broke on them from some hill-crest on their march4 ,basilisk-like1 its beauty was paralysing1 and shot a nameless awe into their hearts4 ,they were terror-struck2 they fled4 ,as in ,psalm xlvi4 #f1 the clauses1 piled up without cement of connecting particles1 convey an impression of hurry1 culminating in the rush of panic-struck fugitives4 ,as has been often noticed1 they recall ,csar's ,veni1 vidi1 vici2 but these kings came1 saw1 were conquered4 ,no cause for the rout is named4 ,no weapons were drawn in the city4 ,an unseen hand smites once1 and smites no more2 for once is enough4 ,the process of deliverance is not told2 for a hymn of victory is not a chronicle4 ,one image explains it all1 and signalises the ,divine breath as the sole agent4 ,thou breakest the ships of ,tarshish with an east wind is not history1 but metaphor4 ,the unwieldy1 huge vessel1 however strong for fight1 is unfit for storms1 and1 caught in a gale1 rolls heavily in the trough of the sea1 and is driven on a lee shore and ground to pieces on its rocks4 ,god blew upon them1 and they were scattered1 as the medal struck on the defeat of the ,armada had it4 ,in the companion psalm ,god's uttered voice did all4 ,here the breath of the tempest1 which is the breath of ,his lips1 is the sole agent4 ,the past1 of which the nation had heard from its fathers1 lives again in their own history2 and that verification of traditional belief by experience is to a devout soul the chief blessing of its deliverances4 ,there is rapture in the thought that ,as we have heard1 so have we seen4 ,the present ever seems commonplace4 ,the sky is farthest from earth right overhead1 but touches the ground on the horizon behind and before4 ,miracles were in the past2 ,god will be manifestly in the far-off future1 but the present is apt to seem empty of ,him4 ,but if we rightly mark ,his dealings with us1 we shall learn that nothing in ,his past has so passed that it is not present4 ,as the companion psalm says1 ,the ,god of ,jacob is our refuge1 this exclaims1 ,as we have heard1 so have we seen4 ,but not only does the deliverance link the present with the past1 but it flings a steady light into the future4 ,god shall establish her for ever4 ,the city is truly the eternal city1 because ,god dwells in it4 ,the psalmist was thinking of the duration of the actual ,jerusalem1 the imperfect embodiment of a great idea4 ,but whatever may be its fate1 the heart of his confidence is no false vision2 for ,god's city will outlast the world4 ,like the maiden fortresses1 of which there is one in almost every land1 fondly believed never to have been taken by enemies1 that city is inexpugnable1 and the confident answer to every threatening assailant is1 ,the virgin1 the daughter of ,zion1 hath despised thee1 and laughed thee to scorn2 the daughter of ,jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee4 ,god will establish her for ever4 ,the pledges of that stability are the deliverances of the past and present4 ,the third part 7vv4 #i-ad7 deals with the praise and trust of the inhabitants of ,zion4 ,deliverance leads to thankful meditation on the loving-kindness which it so signally displayed1 and the ransomed people first gather in the ,temple1 which was the scene of ,god's manifestation of ,his grace1 and therefore is the fitting place for them to ponder it4 ,the world-wide consequences of the great act of loving-kindness almost shut out of sight for the moment its bearing on the worshippers4 ,it is a lofty height to which the song climbs1 when it regards national deliverance chiefly as an occasion for wider diffusion of ,god's praise4 ,his name is the manifestation of ,his character in act4 ,the psalmist is sure that wherever that character is declared praise will follow1 because he is sure that that character is perfectly and purely good1 and that ,god cannot act but in such a way as to magnify ,himself4 ,that great sea will cast up nothing but pearls4 ,the words carry also a lesson for recipients of ,divine loving-kindness1 teaching them that they misapprehend the purpose of their blessings1 if they confine these to their own well-being and lose sight of the higher object--that men may learn to know and love ,him4 ,but the deliverance not only produces grateful meditation and widespread praise2 it sets the mother city and her daughter villages astir1 like ,miriam and her maidens1 with timbrel and dance1 and ringing songs which celebrate ,thy judgments1 terrible as they were4 ,that dead host was an awful sight1 and hymns of praise seem heartless for its dirge4 ,but it is not savage glee nor fierce hatred which underlies the psalmist's summons1 and still less is it selfish joy4 ,thy judgments are to be hymned when they smite some giant evil2 and when systems and their upholders that array themselves against ,god are drowned in some ,red ,sea1 it is fitting that on its banks should echo1 ,sing ye to ,jehovah1 for ,he hath triumphed gloriously4 ,the close of this part may be slightly separated from vv4 #i-aa4 ,the citizens who have been cooped up by the siege are bidden to come forth1 and1 free from fear1 to compass the city without1 and pass between its palaces within1 and so see how untouched they are4 ,the towers and bulwark or rampart remain unharmed1 with not a stone smitten from its place4 ,within1 the palaces stand without a trace of damage to their beauty4 ,whatever perishes in any assaults1 that which is of ,god will abide2 and1 after all musterings of the enemy1 the uncaptured walls will rise in undiminished strength1 and the fair palaces which they guard glitter in untarnished splendour4 ,and this complete exemption from harm is to be told to the generation following1 that they may learn what a ,god this ,god is1 and how safely and well ,he will guide all generations4 ,the last word in the ,hebrew text1 which the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 render even unto death1 can scarcely have that meaning4 ,many attempts have been made to find a signification appropriate to the close of such a triumphal hymn as this1 but the simplest and most probable course is to regard the words as a musical note1 which is either attached abnormally to the close of the psalm1 or has strayed hither from the superscription of ,psalm xlix4 ,it is found in the superscription of ,psalm ix4 7,al-,muth7 as a musical direction1 and has in all likelihood the same meaning here4 ,if it is removed1 the psalm ends abruptly1 but a slight transposition of words and change of the main division of the verse remove that difficulty by bringing for ever and aye from the first half4 ,the change improves both halves1 laying the stress of the first exclusively on the thought that this ,god is such a ,god 7or1 by another rendering1 is here1 i4e41 in the city71 without bringing in reference to the eternity of ,his protection1 and completing the second half worthily1 with the thought of ,his eternal guidance of the people among whom ,he dwells4 ,,psalm ,,xlix4 #a ,hear this1 all ye peoples2 ,give ear1 all ye inhabitants of the world3 #b ,both low-born and high-born1 ,rich and poor together4 #c ,my mouth shall speak wisdom2 ,and the meditation of my heart shall utter understanding #d ,i will bend my ear to a parable3 ,i will open my riddle on the harp4 #e ,why should ,i fear in the days of evil1 ,when the malice of my pursuers surrounds me1 #f ,even of those who rely on their riches1 ,and boast of their wealth8 #g ,no man can at all redeem a brother2 ,he cannot give to ,god a ransom for him #h 7,yea1 too costly is the redemption price of their soul1 ,and he must leave it alone for ever73 #i ,that he may continue living on for ever1 ,and may not see the pit4 #aj ,nay1 he must see that the wise die ,the fool and the brutish perish alike1 ,and leave to others their riches4 #aa ,their inward thought is that their houses shall last for ever1 ,their dwellings to generation after generation2 ,they call their lands by their own names4 #ab ,but man being in honour abides not3 ,he becomes like the beasts that are brought to silence4 #ac ,this is the lot of them to whom presumptuous confidence belongs3 ,and after them men approve their sayings4 ,selah4 #ad ,like sheep they are folded in ,sheol2 ,death shepherds them3 ,and the upright shall rule over them in the morning2 ,and their form shall be wasted away by ,sheol1 ,so that it is without a dwelling4 #ae ,surely ,god shall redeem my soul from the power of ,sheol3 ,for ,he shall take me4 ,selah4 #af ,fear not thou when a man becomes rich1 ,when the glory of his house increases3 #ag ,for when he dies he will not take away any of it2 ,his glory shall not go down after him4 #ah ,though in his lifetime he bless his soul 7,and men praise thee when thou doest well for thyself7 #ai ,he shall go to the generation of his fathers2 ,for evermore they see not light4 #bj ,man who is in honour1 and has not understanding1 ,becomes like the beasts that are brought to silence4 ,this psalm touches the high-water mark of ,old ,testament faith in a future life2 and in that respect1 as well as in its application of that faith to alleviate the mystery of present inequalities and non-correspondence of desert with condition1 is closely related to the noble ,psalm lxxiii41 with which it has also several verbal identities4 ,both have the same problem before them--to construct a theodicy1 or to vindicate the ways of ,god to man--and both solve it in the same fashion4 ,both appear to refer to the story of ,enoch in their remarkable expression for ultimate reception into the ,divine presence4 ,but whether the psalms are contemporaneous cannot be determined from these data4 ,cheyne regards the treatment of the theme in ,psalm lxxiii4 as more skilful1 and therefore presumably later than ,psalm xlix41 which he would place somewhat before the close of the ,persian period4 ,this date rests on the assumption that the amount of certitude as to a future life expressed in the psalm was not realised in ,israel till after the exile4 ,after a solemn summons to all the world to hear the psalmist's utterance of what he has learned by ,divine teaching 7vv4 #a-d71 the psalm is divided into two parts1 each closed with a refrain4 ,the former of these 7vv4 #e-ab7 contrasts the arrogant security of the prosperous godless with the end that awaits them2 while the second 7vv4 #ac-bj7 contrasts the dreary lot of these victims of vain self-confidence with the blessed reception after death into ,god's own presence which the psalmist grasped as a certainty for himself1 and thereon bases an exhortation to possess souls in patience while the godless prosper1 and to be sure that their lofty structures will topple into hideous ruin4 ,the psalmist's consciousness that he speaks by ,divine inspiration1 and that his message imports all men1 is grandly expressed in his introductory summons4 ,the very name which he gives to the world suggests the latter thought2 for it means--the world considered as fleeting4 ,since we dwell in so transitory an abode1 it becomes us to listen to the deep truths of the psalm4 ,these have a message for high and low1 for rich and poor4 ,they are like a keen lancet to let out too great fulness of blood from the former1 and to teach moderation1 lowliness1 and care for the ,unseen4 ,they are a calming draught for the latter1 soothing when perplexed or harmed by the proud man's contumely4 ,but the psalmist calls for universal attention1 not only because his lessons fit all classes1 but because they are in themselves wisdom1 and because he himself had first bent his ear to receive them before he strung his lyre to utter them4 ,the brother-psalmist1 in ,psalm lxxiii41 presents himself as struggling with doubt and painfully groping his way to his conclusion4 ,this psalmist presents himself as a divinely inspired teacher1 who has received into purged and attentive ears2 in many a whisper from ,god1 and as the result of many an hour of silent waiting1 the word which he would now proclaim on the housetops4 ,the discipline of the teacher of religious truth is the same at all times4 ,there must be the bent ear before there is the message which men will recognise as important and true4 ,there is no parable in the ordinary sense in the psalm4 ,the word seems to have acquired the wider meaning of a weighty didactic utterance1 as in ,psalm lxxviii4 #b4 ,the expression ,open my riddle is ambiguous1 and is by some understood to mean the proposal and by others the solution of the puzzle2 but the phrase is more naturally understood of solving than of setting a riddle1 and if so1 the disproportion between the characters and fortunes of good and bad is the mystery or riddle1 and the psalm is its solution4 ,the main theme of the first part is the certainty of death1 which makes infinitely ludicrous the rich man's arrogance4 ,it is one version of ,there is no armour against ,fate2 ,death lays his icy hand on kings4 ,therefore how vain the boasting in wealth1 when all its heaps cannot buy a day of life6 ,this familiar thought is not all the psalmist's contribution to the solution of the mystery of life's unequal partition of worldly good2 but it prepares the way for it1 and it lays a foundation for his refusal to be afraid1 however pressed by insolent enemies4 ,very significantly he sets the conclusion1 to which observation of the transiency of human prosperity has led him1 at the beginning of his parable4 ,in the parallel psalm 7lxxiii47 the singer shows himself struggling from the depths of perplexity up to the sunny heights of faith4 ,but here the poet begins with the clear utterance of trustful courage1 and then vindicates it by the thought of the impotence of wealth to avert death4 ,the hostility to himself of the self-confident rich boasters appears only for a moment at first4 ,it is described by a gnarled1 energetic phrase which has been diversely understood4 ,but it seems clear that the iniquity 7,a4,v4 and ,r4,v47 spoken of in ver4 #e b is not the psalmist's sin1 for a reference here to his guilt or to retribution would be quite irrelevant2 and if it were the consequences of his own evil that dogged him at his heels1 he had every reason to fear1 and confidence would be insolent defiance4 ,but the word rendered in the ,a4,v4 heels1 which is retained in the ,r4,v4 with a change in construction1 may be a participial noun1 derived from a verb meaning to trip up or supplant2 and this gives a natural coherence to the whole verse1 and connects it with the following one4 ,pursuers is a weak equivalent for the literal those who would supplant me1 but conveys the meaning1 though in a somewhat enfeebled condition4 ,ver4 #f is a continuance of the description of the supplanters4 ,they are men of this world1 the same type of man as excites stern disapproval in many psalms3 as1 for instance1 in xvii4 #ad--;a psalm which is closely related to this1 both in its portrait of the godless and its lofty hope for the future4 ,it is to be noted that they are not described as vicious or ,god-denying or defying4 ,they are simply absorbed in the material1 and believe that land and money are the real1 solid goods4 ,they are the same men as ,jesus meant when ,he said that it was hard for those who trusted in riches to enter into the kingdom of heaven4 ,it has been thought that the existence of such a class points to a late date for the psalm2 but the reliance on riches does not require large riches to rely on1 and may flourish in full perniciousness in very primitive social conditions4 ,a small elevation suffices to lift a man high enough above his fellows to make a weak head giddy4 ,those to whom material possessions are the only good have a natural enmity towards those who find their wealth in truth and goodness4 ,the poet1 the thinker1 and1 most of all1 the religious man1 are targets for more or less active malice1 or1 at all events1 are recognised as belonging to another class1 and regarded as singular and unpractical1 if nothing worse4 ,but the psalmist looks far enough ahead to see the end of all the boasting1 and points to the great instance of the impotence of material good--its powerlessness to prolong life4 ,it would be more natural to find in ver4 #g the statement that the rich man cannot prolong his own days than that he cannot do so for a brother4 ,a very slight change in the text would make the initial word of the verse 7brother7 the particle of asseveration1 which occurs in ver4 #ae 7the direct antithesis of this verse71 and is characteristic of the parallel ,psalm lxxiii4 ,with that reading 7,ewald1 ,cheyne1 ,baethgen1 etc47 other slight difficulties are smoothed2 but the present text is attested by the ,,lxx4 and other early versions1 and is capable of defence4 ,it may be necessary to observe that there is no reference here to any other redemption than that of the body from physical death4 ,there is a distinct intention to contrast the man's limited power with ,god's1 for ver4 #ae points back to this verse1 and declares that ,god can do what man cannot4 ,ver4 #h must be taken as a parenthesis1 and the construction carried on from ver4 #g to ver4 #i1 which specifies the purpose of the ransom1 if it were possible4 ,no man can secure for another continuous life or an escape from the necessity of seeing the pit--i4e41 going down to the depths of death4 ,it would cost more than all the rich man's store2 wherefore he--the would-be ransomer--must abandon the attempt for ever4 ,the see in ver4 #aj is taken by many to have the same object as the see in ver4 #i4 ,yea1 he shall see it4 7,so ,hupfeld1 ,hitzig1 ,perowne1 and others47 ,the wise die will then begin a new sentence4 ,but the repetition is feeble1 and breaks up the structure of ver4 #aj undesirably4 ,the fact stares the rich man in the face that no difference of position or of character affects the necessity of death4 ,down into that insatiable maw of ,sheol 7the ever-asking87 beauty1 wisdom1 wealth1 folly1 and animalism go alike1 and it still gapes wide for fresh food4 ,but a strange hallucination in the teeth of all experience is cherished in the inward thought of the men of this world--namely1 that their houses shall continue for ever4 ,like the godless man in ,psalm x41 this rich man has reached a height of false security1 which cannot be put into words without exposing its absurdity1 but which yet haunts his inmost thoughts4 ,the fond imagination of perpetuity is not driven out by the plain facts of life and death4 ,he acts on the presumption of permanence2 and he whose working hypothesis is that he is to abide always as his permanent home in his sumptuous palace1 is rightly set down as believing in the incredible belief that the common lot will not be his4 ,a man's real belief is that which moulds his life1 though he has never formulated it in words4 ,this inward thought either underlies the rich godless man's career1 or that career is inexplicable4 ,there is an emphatic contrast drawn between what he sees and what he1 all the while1 hugs in his secret heart4 ,that contrast is lost if the emendation found in the ,,lxx4 and adopted by many modern commentators is accepted1 according to which1 by the transposition of a letter1 we get their grave instead of their inward thought4 ,a reference to the grave comes too early2 and if the sense of ver4 #aa a is that their grave 7or1 the graves7 are their houses for ever1 there is no parallelism between ver4 #aa a and c4 ,the delusion of continuance is1 on the other hand1 naturally connected with the proud attempt to make their names immortal by impressing them on their estates4 ,the language of ver4 #aa c is somewhat ambiguous2 but1 on the whole1 the rendering they call their lands by their own names accords best with the context4 ,then comes with a crash the stern refrain which pulverises all this insanity of arrogance4 ,the highest distinction among men gives no exemption from the grim law which holds all corporeal life in its gripe4 ,the psalmist does not look1 and probably did not see1 beyond the external fact of death4 ,he knows nothing of a future for the men whose portion is in this life4 ,as we shall see in the second part of the psalm1 the confidence in immortality is for him a deduction from the fact of communion with ,god here1 and1 apparently1 his bent ear had received no whisper as to any distinction between the godless man and the beast in the regard to their deaths4 ,they are alike brought to silence4 ,the awful dumbness of the dead strikes on his heart and imagination as most pathetic4 ,that skull had a tongue in it1 and could sing once1 and now the pale lips are locked in eternal silence1 and some ears hunger in vain for the sound of a voice that is still4 ,hupfeld would transfer ver4 #ac1 which begins the second part1 so that it should stand before the refrain1 which would then have the ,selah1 that now comes in peculiarly at the end of ver4 #ac4 ,but there is nothing unnatural in the first verse of the second part summing up the contents of the first part2 and such a summary is needed in order to bring out the contrast between the godless folly and end of the rich men on the one hand1 and the hope of the psalmist on the other4 ,the construction of ver4 #ac is disputed4 ,the way may either mean conduct or fate1 and the word rendered in the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 folly has also the meaning of stupid security or self-confidence4 ,it seems best to regard the sentence as not pronouncing again that the conduct described in vv4 #f-aa is foolish1 but that the end foretold in ver4 #ab surely falls on such as have that dogged insensibility to the facts of life which issues in such presumptuous assurance4 ,many commentators would carry on the sentence into ver4 #ac b1 and extend the lot to those who in after-generations approve their sayings4 ,but the paradoxical fact that notwithstanding each generation's experience the delusion is obstinately maintained from father to son yields a fuller meaning4 ,in either case the notes of the musical interlude fix attention on the thought1 in order to make the force of the following contrast greater4 ,that contrast first deals with the fate of godless men after death4 ,the comparison with the beasts in the refrain may have suggested the sombre grandeur of the metaphor in ver4 #ad a and b3 ,sheol is as a great fold into which flocks are driven4 ,there ,death rules as the shepherd of that dim realm4 ,what a contrast to the fold and the flock of the other ,shepherd1 who guides ,his unterrified sheep through the valley of the shadow of death6 ,the waters of stillness beside which this sad shepherd makes his flock lie down are doleful and sluggish4 ,there is no cheerful activity for these1 nor any fair pastures1 but they are penned in compelled inaction in that dreadful fold4 ,so far the picture is comparatively clear1 but with the next clause difficulties begin4 ,does the morning mean only the end of the night of trouble1 the beginning in this life of the upright's deliverance1 or have we here an eschatological utterance8 ,the whole of the rest of the verse has to do with the unseen world1 and to confine this clause to the temporal triumph of the righteous over their dead oppressors drags in an idea belonging to another sphere altogether4 ,we venture to regard the interpretation of these enigmatical words1 which sees in them a dim adumbration of a great morning which will yet stream its light into the land of darkness1 and in which not this or that upright man but the class as a whole shall triumph1 as the only one which keeps the parts of the verse in unity4 ,it is part of the riddle of the psalmist1 probably not perfectly explicable to himself4 ,we cannot say that there is here the clear teaching of a resurrection1 but there is the germ of it1 whether distinctly apprehended by the singer or not4 ,the first glimpses of truth in all regions are vague1 and the gazer does not know that the star he sees is a sun4 ,not otherwise did the great truths of the future life rise on inspired men of old4 ,this psalmist divined1 or1 more truly1 heard in his bent ear1 that ,good and its lovers should triumph beyond the grave1 and that somehow a morning would break for them4 ,but he knew nothing of any such for the godless dead4 ,and the remainder of the verse expresses in enigmatical brevity and obscurity the gloomy fate of those for whom there was no such awakening as he hoped for himself4 ,very different renderings have been given of the gnarled words4 ,if we adhere to the accents1 the literal translation is1 ,their form is destined for the wasting of ,sheol1 from a dwelling-place for it1 or without its dwelling-place--an obscure saying1 which is1 however1 intelligible when rendered as above4 ,it describes the wasting away of the whole man1 not merely his corporeal form1 in ,sheol1 of which the corruption of the body in the grave may stand as a terrible symbol1 so that only a thin shred of personality remains1 which wanders homeless1 unclothed with any house either of this tabernacle or any other1 and so found drearily naked4 ,homeless desolation of bare being1 from which all that is fair or good has been gnawed away1 is awfully expressed in the words4 ,other renderings1 neglecting the accents and amending the text1 bring out other meanings3 such as ,their form is for corruption2 ,hades will be its dwelling-place 7,jennings and ,lowe72 ,their form shall waste away4 ,sheol shall be their castle for ever 7so ,cheyne in ,book of ,psalms2 in ,orig4 of ,psalt4 frame is substituted for form1 and palace for castle4 ,baethgen gives up the attempt to render the text or to restore it1 and takes to asterisks74 ,to this condition of dismal inactivity1 as of sheep penned in a fold1 of loss of beauty1 of wasting and homelessness1 the psalmist opposes the fate which he has risen to anticipate for himself4 ,ver4 #ae is plainly antithetical1 not only to ver4 #ad1 but to ver4 #g4 ,the redemption which was impossible with men is possible with ,god4 ,the emphatic particle of asseveration and restriction at the beginning is1 as we have remarked1 characteristic of the parallel ,psalm lxiii4 ,it here strengthens the expression of confidence1 and points to ,god as alone able to deliver ,his servant from the hand of ,sheol4 ,that deliverance is clearly not escape from the universal lot1 which the psalmist has just proclaimed so impressively as affecting wise and foolish alike4 ,but while he expects that he1 too1 will have to submit to the strong hand that plucks all men from their dwelling-places1 he has won the assurance that sameness of outward lot covers absolute difference in the conditions of those who are subjected to it4 ,the faith that he will be delivered from the power of ,sheol does not necessarily imply the specific kind of deliverance involved in resurrection1 and it may be a question whether that idea was definitely before the singer's mind4 ,but1 without dogmatising on that doubtful point1 plainly his expectation was of a life beyond death1 the antithesis of the cheerless one just painted in such gloomy colours4 ,the very brevity of the second clause of the verse makes it the more emphatic4 ,the same pregnant phrase occurs again with the same emphasis in ,psalm lxxiii4 #bd1 ,thou shalt take me1 and in both passages the psalmist is obviously quoting from the narrative of ,enoch's translation4 ,god took him 7,gen4 v4 #bd74 ,he has fed his faith on that signal instance of the end of a life of communion with ,god1 and it has confirmed the hopes which such a life cannot but kindle1 so that he is ready to submit to the common lot1 bearing in his heart the assurance that1 in experiencing it1 he will not be driven by that grim shepherd into his gloomy fold1 but lifted by ,god into ,his own presence4 ,as in ,psalms xvi4 and xvii41 we have here the certainty of immortality filling a devout soul as the result of present experience of communion with ,god4 ,these great utterances as to the two contrasted conditions after death are1 in one aspect1 the psalmist's riddle1 in so far as they are stated in dark and cloudy words1 but1 in another view1 are the solution of the painful enigma of the prosperity of the godless and the afflictions of the righteous4 ,fittingly the ,selah follows this solemn1 great hope4 ,as the first part began with the psalmist's encouraging of himself to put away fear1 so the whole ends with the practical application of the truths declared1 in the exhortation to others not to be terrified nor bewildered out of their faith by the insolent inflated prosperity of the godless4 ,the lofty height of wholesome mysticism reached in the anticipation of personal immortality is not maintained in this closing part4 ,the ground of the exhortation is simply the truth proclaimed in the first part1 with additional emphasis on the thought of the necessary parting from all wealth and pomp4 ,shrouds have no pockets4 ,all the external is left behind1 and much of the inward too--such as habits1 desires1 ways of thinking1 and acquirements which have been directed to and bounded by the seen and temporal4 ,what is not left behind is character and desert4 ,the man of this world is wrenched from his possessions by death2 but he who has made ,god his portion here carries his portion with him1 and does not enter on that other state in utter nakedness1 ,but trailing clouds of glory does he come ,to ,god who is his home4 ,our ,lord's parable of the foolish rich man has echoes of this psalm4 ,whose shall those things be8 reminds us of ,he will not take away any of it2 and ,soul1 thou hast much goods laid up 444 take thine ease is the best explanation of what the psalmist meant by blessing his soul4 ,the godless rich man of the psalm is a selfish and godless one4 ,his condemnation lies not in his wealth1 but in his absorption in it and reliance upon it1 and in his cherishing the dream of perpetual enjoyment of it1 or at least shunning the thought of its loss4 ,therefore1 when he dies1 he goes to the generation of his fathers1 who are conceived of as gathered in solemn assembly in that dark realm4 ,generation here implies1 as it often does1 moral similarity4 ,it includes all the man's predecessors of like temper with himself4 ,a sad company sitting there in the dark6 ,going to them is not identical with death nor with burial1 but implies at least some rudimentary notion of companionship according to character1 in that land of darkness4 ,the darkness is the privation of all which deserves the name of light1 whether it be joy or purity4 ,ver4 #ah b is by some taken to be the psalmist's address to the rich man1 and by others to be spoken to the disciple who had been bidden not to fear4 ,in either case it brings in the thought of the popular applause which flatters success1 and plays chorus to the prosperous man's own self-congratulations4 ,like ver4 #ac b1 it gibbets the servile admiration of such men1 as indicating what the praisers would fain themselves be1 and as a disclosure of that base readiness to worship the rising sun1 which has for its other side contempt for the unfortunate who should receive pity and help4 ,the refrain is slightly but significantly varied4 ,instead of abides not1 it reads and has not understanding4 ,the alteration in the ,hebrew is very slight1 the two verbs differing only by one letter1 and the similarity in sound is no doubt the reason for the selection of the word4 ,but the change brings out the limitations under which the first form of the refrain is true1 and guards the whole teaching of the psalm from being taken to be launched at rich men as such4 ,the illuminative addition in this second form shows that it is the abuse of riches1 when they steal away that recognition of ,god and of man's mortality which underlies the psalmist's conception of understanding1 that is doomed to destruction like the beasts that are put to silence4 ,the two forms of the refrain are1 then1 precisely parallel to our ,lord's two sayings1 when ,he first declared that it was hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven1 and then1 in answer to ,his disciples' surprise1 put ,his dictum in the more definite form1 ,how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom6 ,,psalm ,l4 #a ,el1 ,elohim1 ,jehovah has spoken1 and called the earth ,from the place of sunrise to its going down4 #b ,from ,zion1 the perfection of beauty1 ,god has shone4 #c ,our ,god will come1 and cannot be silent3 ,fire devours before ,him1 ,and round ,him it is tempestuous exceedingly4 #d ,he calls to the heavens above1 ,and to the earth1 that ,he may judge ,his people3 #e ,assemble to ,me ,my favoured ones1 ,who have made a covenant with ,me by sacrifice4 #f ,and the heavens declare ,his righteousness2 ,for ,god--the judge is ,he4 ,selah4 #g ,hearken1 ,my people1 and ,i will speak2 ,o ,israel1 and ,i will witness against thee3 ,elohim1 thy ,god am ,i4 #h ,not on account of thy sacrifices will ,i reprove thee2 ,yea1 thy burnt offerings are before me continually4 #i ,i will not take a bullock out of thy house1 ,nor out of thy folds he-goats4 #aj ,for ,mine is every beast of the forest1 ,the cattle on the mountains in thousands4 #aa ,i know every bird of the mountains1 ,and whatever moves on the field is before ,me4 #ab ,if ,i were hungry1 ,i would not tell thee3 ,for ,mine is the world and its fulness4 #ac ,shall ,i eat the flesh of bulls1 or the blood of he-goats shall ,i drink8 #ad ,sacrifice to ,god thanksgiving2 ,and pay thy vows to the ,most ,high3 #ae ,and call on ,me in the day of trouble4 ,i will deliver thee1 and thou shalt glorify ,me4 #af ,but to the wicked man ,god saith1 ,what hast thou to do to tell ,my statutes1 ,and that thou takest ,my covenant into thy mouth8 #ag ,and all the while thou hatest correction1 ,and flingest ,my words behind thee4 #ah ,if thou seest a robber1 thou art pleased with him2 ,and with adulterers is thy portion4 #ai ,thy mouth thou dost let loose for evil1 ,and thy tongue weaves deceit4 #bj ,thou sittest and speakest against thy brother2 ,at thine own mother's son thou aimest a thrust4 #ba ,these things hast thou done1 and ,i was silent2 ,thou thoughtest that ,i was altogether like thyself3 ,i will reprove thee1 and order the proofs before thine eyes4 #bb ,consider now this1 ye that forget ,god1 ,lest ,i tear you in pieces1 and there be no deliverer3 #bc ,he who offers thanksgiving as sacrifice glorifies ,me2 ,and he who orders his way aright--,i will show him the salvation of ,god4 ,this is the first of the ,asaph psalms1 and is separated from the other eleven 7,psalms lxxiii4-lxxxiii47 for reasons that do not appear4 ,probably they are no more recondite than the verbal resemblance between the summons to all the earth at the beginning of ,psalm xlix4 and the similar proclamation in the first verses of ,psalm l4 ,the arrangement of the ,psalter is often obviously determined by such slight links4 ,the group has certain features in common1 of which some appear here3 e4g41 the fondness for descriptions of theophanies2 the prominence given to ,god's judicial action2 the preference for the ,divine names of ,el1 ,adonai 7the ,lord71 ,elyn 7,most ,high74 ,other peculiarities of the class--e4g41 the love for the designation ,joseph for the nation1 and delight in the image of the ,divine ,shepherd--are not found in this psalm4 ,it contains no historical allusions which aid in dating it4 ,the leading idea of it--viz41 the depreciation of outward sacrifice--is unhesitatingly declared by many to have been impossible in the days of the ,levite ,asaph1 who was one of ,david's musical staff4 ,but is it so certain that such thoughts were foreign to the period in which ,samuel declared that obedience was better than sacrifice8 ,certainly the tone of the psalm is that of later prophets1 and there is much probability in the view that ,asaph is the name of the family or guild of singers from whom these psalms came rather than that of an individual4 ,the structure is clear and simple4 ,there is1 first1 a magnificent description of ,god's coming to judgment and summoning heaven and earth to witness while ,he judges ,his people 7vv4 #a-f74 ,the second part 7vv4 #g-ae7 proclaims the worthlessness of sacrifice2 and the third 7vv4 #af-ba7 brands hypocrites who pollute ,god's statutes by taking them into their lips while their lives are foul4 ,a closing strophe of two verses 7#bb1 #bc7 gathers up the double lesson of the whole4 ,the first part falls again into two1 of three verses each1 of which the former describes the coming of the judge1 and the latter the opening of the judgment4 ,the psalm begins with a majestic heaping together of the ,divine names1 as if a herald were proclaiming the style and titles of a mighty king at the opening of a solemn assize4 ,no ,english equivalents are available1 and it is best to retain the ,hebrew1 only noting that each name is separated from the others by the accents in the original1 and that to render either the mighty ,god 7,a4,v47 or the ,god of gods is not only against that punctuation1 but destroys the completeness symbolised by the threefold designation4 ,hupfeld finds the heaping together of names frosty4 ,some ears will rather hear in it a solemn reiteration like the boom of triple thunders4 ,each name has its own force of meaning4 ,el speaks of ,god as mighty2 ,elohim1 as the object of religious fear2 ,jehovah1 as the self-existent and covenant ,god4 ,the earth from east to west is summoned1 not to be judged1 but to witness ,god judging ,his people4 ,the peculiarity of this theophany is that ,god is not represented as coming from afar or from above1 but as letting ,his light blaze out from ,zion1 where ,he sits enthroned4 ,as ,his presence made the city the joy of the whole earth 7,psalm xlviii4 #b71 so it makes ,zion the sum of all beauty4 ,the idea underlying the representation of ,his shining out of ,zion is that ,his presence among ,his people makes certain ,his judgment of their worship4 ,it is the poetic clothing of the prophetic announcement1 ,you only have ,i known of all the inhabitants of the earth2 therefore will ,i punish you for your iniquities4 ,the seer beholds the dread pomp of the advent of the ,judge1 and describes it with accessories familiar in such pictures3 devouring fire is ,his forerunner1 as clearing a path for ,him among tangles of evil1 and wild tempests whirl round ,his stable throne4 ,he cannot be silent4 ,the form of the negation in the original is emotional or emphatic1 conveying the idea of the impossibility of ,his silence in the face of such corruptions4 ,the opening of the court or preparation for the judgment follows4 ,that ,divine voice speaks1 summoning heaven and earth to attend as spectators of the solemn process4 ,the universal significance of ,god's relation to and dealings with ,israel1 and the vindication of ,his righteousness by ,his inflexible justice dealt out to their faults1 are grandly taught in this making heaven and earth assessors of that tribunal4 ,the court having been thus constituted1 the ,judge on ,his seat1 the spectators standing around1 the accused are next brought in4 ,there is no need to be prosaically definite as to the attendants who are bidden to escort them4 ,his officers are everywhere1 and to ask who they are in the present case is to apply to poetry the measuring lines meant for bald prose4 ,it is more important to note the names by which the persons to be judged are designated4 ,they are ,my favoured ones1 who have made a covenant with ,me by 7lit4 over7 sacrifice4 ,these terms carry an indictment1 recalling the lavish mercies so unworthily requited1 and the solemn obligations so unthankfully broken4 ,the application of the name favoured ones to the whole nation is noteworthy4 ,in other psalms it is usually applied to the more devout section1 who are by it sharply distinguished from the mass2 here it includes the whole4 ,it does not follow that the diversity of usage indicates difference of date4 ,all that is certainly shown is difference of point of view4 ,here the ideal of the nation is set forth1 in order to bring out more emphatically the miserable contrast of the reality4 ,sacrifice is set aside as worthless in the subsequent verses4 ,but could the psalmist have given clearer indication that his depreciation is not to be exaggerated into entire rejection of external rites1 than by thus putting in front of it the worth of sacrifice when offered aright1 as the means of founding and sustaining covenant relations with ,god8 ,if his own words had been given heed to1 his commentators would have been saved the blunder of supposing that he is antagonistic to the sacrificial worship which he thus regards4 ,but before the assize opens1 the heavens1 which had been summoned to behold1 declare beforehand ,his righteousness1 as manifested by the fact that ,he is about to judge ,his people4 ,the ,selah indicates that a long-drawn swell of music fills the expectant pause before the ,judge speaks from ,his tribunal4 ,the second part 7vv4 #g-ae7 deals with one of the two permanent tendencies which work for the corruption of religion--namely1 the reliance on external worship1 and neglect of the emotions of thankfulness and trust4 ,god appeals first to the relation into which ,he has entered with the people1 as giving ,him the right to judge4 ,there may be a reference to the ,mosaic formula1 ,i am ,jehovah1 thy ,god1 which is here converted1 in accordance with the usage of this book of the ,psalter1 into ,god 7,elohim71 thy ,god4 ,the formula which was the seal of laws when enacted is also the warrant for the action of the ,judge4 ,he has no fault to find with the external acts of worship4 ,they are abundant and continually before ,him4 ,surely this declaration at the outset sets aside the notion that the psalmist was launching a polemic against sacrifices per se4 ,it distinctly takes the ground that the habitual offering of these was pleasing to the ,judge4 ,their presentation continually is not reproved1 but approved4 ,what then is condemned8 ,surely it can be nothing but sacrifice without the thanksgiving and prayer required in vv4 #ad1 #ae4 ,the irony of vv4 #i-ac is directed against the folly of believing that in sacrifice itself ,god delighted2 but the shafts are pointless as against offerings which are embodied gratitude and trust4 ,the gross stupidity of supposing that man's gift makes the offering to be ,god's more truly than before is laid bare in the fine1 sympathetic glance at the free1 wild life of forest1 mountain1 and plain1 which is all ,god's possession1 and present to ,his upholding thought1 and by the side of which man's folds are very small affairs4 ,the cattle in ver4 #aj are not1 as usually1 domesticated animals1 but the larger wild animals4 ,they graze or roam on the mountains of a thousand--a harsh expression1 best taken1 perhaps1 as meaning mountains where thousands of the cattle are4 ,but the omission of one letter gives the more natural reading mountains of ,god 7cf4 ,psalm xxxvi4 #f74 ,it is adopted by ,olshausen and ,cheyne1 and smooths the construction1 but has against it its obliteration of the fine thought of the multitudes of creatures peopling the untravelled hills4 ,the word rendered whatever moves is obscure2 but that meaning is accepted by most4 ,cheyne in his ,commentary gives as alternative that which comes forth abundantly1 and in ,orig4 of ,psalt41 #dgc1 offspring4 ,all these are with ,me--i4e41 present to ,his mind--a parallel to ,i know in the first clause of the same verse4 ,vv4 #ab1 #ac1 turn the stream of irony on another absurdity involved in the superstition attacked--the grossly material thought of ,god involved in it4 ,what good do bulls' flesh and goats' blood do to ,him8 ,but if these are expressions of thankful love1 they are delightsome to ,him4 ,therefore the section ends with the declaration that the true sacrifice is thanksgiving and the discharge of vows4 ,men honour ,god by asking and taking1 not by giving4 ,they glorify ,him when1 by calling on ,him in trouble1 they are delivered2 and then1 by thankfulness and service1 as well as by the evidence which their experience gives that prayer is not in vain1 they again glorify ,him4 ,all sacrifices are ,god's before they are offered1 and do not become any more ,his by being offered4 ,he neither needs nor can partake of material sustenance4 ,but men's hearts are not ,his without their glad surrender1 in the same way as after it2 and thankful love1 trust1 and obedience are as the food of ,god1 sacrifices acceptable1 well-pleasing to ,him4 ,the third part of the psalm is still sterner in tone4 ,it strikes at the other great corruption of worship by hypocrites4 ,as has been often remarked1 it condemns breaches of the second table of the law1 just as the former part may be regarded as dealing with transgressions of the first4 ,the eighth1 seventh1 and ninth commandments are referred to in vv4 #ah1 #ai1 as examples of the hypocrites' sins4 ,the irreconcilable contradiction of their professions and conduct is vividly brought out in the juxtaposition of declare ,my statutes and castest ,my words behind thee4 ,they do two opposite things with the same words--at the same time proclaiming them with all lip-reverence1 and scornfully flinging them behind their backs in their conduct4 ,the word rendered in the ,a4,v4 slanderest is better taken as in margin of the ,r4,v41 givest a thrust1 meaning to use violence so as to harm or overthrow4 ,hypocrisy finds encouragement in impunity4 ,god's silence is an emphatic way of expressing ,his patient tolerance of evil unpunished4 ,such long-suffering is meant to lead to repentance1 and indicates ,god's unwillingness to smite4 ,but1 as experience shows1 it is often abused1 and because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily1 the heart of the sons of men is throughly set in them to do evil4 ,the gross mind has gross conceptions of ,god4 ,one nemesis of hypocrisy is the dimming of the idea of the righteous ,judge4 ,all sin darkens the image of ,god4 ,when men turn away from ,god's self-revelation1 as they do by transgression and most fatally by hypocrisy1 they cannot but make a ,god after their own image4 ,browning has taught us in his marvellous ,caliban on ,setebos how a coarse nature projects its own image into the heavens and calls it ,god4 ,god made man in ,his own likeness4 ,men who have lost that likeness make ,god in theirs1 and so sink deeper in evil till ,he speaks4 ,then comes an apocalypse to the dreamer1 when there is flashed before him what ,god is and what he himself is4 ,how terror-stricken the gaze of these eyes before which ,god arrays the deeds of a life1 seen for the first time in their true character6 ,it will be the hypocrite's turn to keep silence then1 and his thought of a complaisant ,god like himself will perish before the stern reality4 ,the whole teaching of the psalm is gathered up in the two closing verses4 ,ye that forget ,god includes both the superstitious formalists and the hypocrites4 ,reflection upon such truths as those of the psalm will save them from else inevitable destruction4 ,this points on to ver4 #bc1 which is a compendium of both parts of the psalm4 ,the true worship1 which consists in thankfulness and praise1 is opposed in ver4 #bc a to mere externalisms of sacrifice1 as being the right way of glorifying ,god4 ,the second clause presents a difficulty4 ,but it would seem that we must expect to find in it a summing up of the warning of the third part of the psalm similar to that of the second part in the preceding clause4 ,that consideration goes against the rendering in the ,r4,v4 margin 7adopted from ,delitzsch73 and prepares a way by which ,i may show1 etc4 ,the ellipsis of the relative is also somewhat harsh4 ,the literal rendering of the ambiguous words is1 one setting a way4 ,graetz1 who is often wild in his emendations1 proposes a very slight one here--the change of one letter1 which would yield a good meaning3 he that is perfect in his way4 ,cheyne adopts this1 and it eases a difficulty4 ,but the received text is capable of the rendering given in the ,a4,v41 and1 even without the natural supplement aright1 is sufficiently intelligible4 ,to order one's way or conversation is1 of course1 equivalent to giving heed to it according to ,god's word1 and is the opposite of the conduct stigmatised in vv4 #af-ba4 ,the promise to him who thus acts is that he shall see ,god's salvation1 both in the narrower sense of daily interpositions for deliverance1 and in the wider of a full and final rescue from all evil and endowment with all good4 ,the psalm has as keen an edge for modern as for ancient sins4 ,superstitious reliance on externals of worship survives1 though sacrifices have ceased2 and hypocrites1 with their mouths full of the ,gospel1 still cast ,god's words behind them1 as did those ancient hollow-hearted proclaimers and breakers of the ,law4 ,,psalm ,,li4 #a ,be gracious to me1 ,o ,god1 according to ,thy loving-kindness3 ,according to the greatness of ,thy compassions blot out my transgressions4 #b ,wash me thoroughly from my iniquity1 ,and from my sin make me clean4 #c ,for ,i1 ,i know my transgressions3 ,and my sin is before me continually4 #d ,against ,thee1 ,thee only1 have ,i sinned1 ,and done what is evil in ,thine eyes3 ,that ,thou mightest appear righteous when ,thou speakest1 ,and clear when ,thou judgest4 #e ,behold1 in iniquity was ,i born2 ,and in sin did my mother conceive me4 #f ,behold1 ,thou desirest truth in the inward parts3 ,therefore in the hidden part make me to know wisdom4 #g ,purge me with hyssop1 and ,i shall be clean3 ,wash me1 and ,i shall be whiter than snow4 #h ,make me to hear joy and gladness2 ,that the bones ,thou hast crushed may exult4 #i ,hide ,thy face from my sins1 and all my iniquities blot out4 #aj ,a clean heart create for me1 ,o ,god2 ,and a steadfast spirit renew within me4 #aa ,cast me not out from ,thy presence2 ,and ,thy holy spirit take not from me4 #ab ,restore to me the joy of ,thy salvation3 ,and with a willing spirit uphold me4 #ac ,then will ,i teach transgressors ,thy ways2 ,and sinners shall return to ,thee4 #ad ,deliver me from blood-guiltiness1 ,o ,god1 the ,god of my salvation2 ,and my tongue shall joyfully sing ,thy righteousness4 #ae ,lord1 open my lips2 ,and my mouth shall declare ,thy praise4 #af ,for ,thou desirest not sacrifice2 else would ,i give it3 ,in burnt offering ,thou hast no pleasure4 #ag ,the sacrifices of ,god are a broken spirit3 ,a heart broken and crushed1 ,o ,god1 ,thou wilt not despise4 #ah ,do good in ,thy good pleasure to ,zion3 ,o build the walls of ,jerusalem4 #ai ,then shalt ,thou delight in sacrifices of righteousness1 burnt offering and whole burnt offering3 ,then shall they offer bullocks on ,thine altar4 ,the main grounds on which the ,davidic authorship of this psalm is denied are four4 ,first1 it is alleged that its conceptions of sin and penitence are in advance of his stage of religious development2 or1 as ,cheyne puts it1 ,david could not have had these ideas 7,aids to ,dev4 ,study of ,crit41 #aff74 ,the impossibility depends on a theory which is not yet so established as to be confidently used to settle questions of date4 ,again1 the psalmist's wail1 ,against ,thee only have ,i sinned1 is said to be conclusive proof that the wrong done to ,bathsheba and the murder of ,uriah cannot be referred to4 ,but is not ,god the correlative of sin1 and may not the same act be qualified in one aspect as a crime and in another as a sin1 bearing in the latter character exclusive relation to ,god8 ,the prayer in ver4 #ah is the ground of a third objection to the ,davidic authorship4 ,certainly it is hopeless to attempt to explain4 ,build the walls of ,jerusalem as ,david's prayer4 ,but the opinion held by both advocates and opponents of ,david's authorship1 that vv4 #ah1 #ai1 are a later liturgical addition1 removes this difficulty4 ,another ground on which the psalm is brought down to a late date is the resemblances in it to ,isa4 xl4-lxvi41 which are taken to be echoes of the prophetic words4 ,the resemblances are undoubted2 the assumption that the psalmist is the copyist is not4 ,the personified nation is supposed by most modern authorities to be the speaker2 and the date is sometimes taken to be the ,restoration period1 before the rebuilding of the walls by ,nehemiah 7,cheyne1 ,orig4 of ,psalt41 #afb72 by others1 the time of the ,babylonish exile2 and1 as usual1 by some1 the ,maccabean epoch4 ,it puts a considerable strain upon the theory of personification to believe that these confessions of personal sin1 and longing cries for a clean heart1 which so many generations have felt to fit their most secret experiences1 were not the wailings of a soul which had learned the burden of individuality1 by consciousness of sin1 and by realisation of the awful solitude of its relation to ,god4 ,there are also expressions in the psalm which seem to clog the supposition that the speaker is the nation with great difficulties--e4g41 the reference to birth in ver4 #e1 the prayer for inward truth in ver4 #f1 and for a clean heart in ver4 #aj4 ,baethgen acknowledges that the two latter only receive their full meaning when applied to an individual4 ,he quotes ,olshausen1 a defender of the national reference1 who really admits the force of the objection to it1 raised on the ground of these expressions1 while he seeks to parry it by saying that it is not unnatural that the poet1 speaking in the singular1 should1 although he writes for the congregation1 bring in occasional expressions here and there which do not fit the community so well as they do each individual in it4 ,the acknowledgment is valuable2 the attempt to turn its edge may be left to the reader's judgment4 ,in vv4 #a-i the psalmist's cry is chiefly for pardon2 in vv4 #aj-ab he prays chiefly for purity2 in vv4 #ac-ag he vows grateful service4 ,vv4 #ah1 #ai1 are probably a later addition4 ,the psalm begins with at once grasping the character of ,god as the sole ground of hope4 ,that character has been revealed in an infinite number of acts of love4 ,the very number of the psalmist's sins drove him to contemplate the yet greater number of ,god's mercies4 ,for where but in an infinite placableness and loving-kindness could he find pardon8 ,if the ,davidic authorship is adopted1 this psalm followed ,nathan's assurance of forgiveness1 and its petitions are the psalmist's efforts to lay hold of that assurance4 ,the revelation of ,god's love precedes and causes true penitence4 ,our prayer for forgiveness is the appropriation of ,god's promise of forgiveness4 ,the assurance of pardon does not lead to a light estimate of sin1 but drives it home to the conscience4 ,the petitions of vv4 #a1 #b1 teach us how the psalmist thought of sin4 ,they are all substantially the same1 and their repetition discloses the depth of longing in the suppliant4 ,the language fluctuates between plural and singular nouns1 designating the evil as transgressions and as iniquity and sin4 ,the psalmist regards it1 first1 as a multitude of separate acts1 then as all gathered together into a grim unity4 ,the single deeds of wrong-doing pass before him4 ,but these have a common root2 and we must not only recognise acts1 but that alienation of heart from which they come--not only sin as it comes out in the life1 but as it is coiled round our hearts4 ,sins are the manifestations of sin4 ,we note1 too1 how the psalmist realises his personal responsibility4 ,he reiterates my--my transgressions1 my iniquity1 my sin4 ,he does not throw blame on circumstances1 or talk about temperament or maxims of society or bodily organisation4 ,all these had some share in impelling him to sin2 but after all allowance made for them1 the deed is the doer's1 and he must bear its burden4 ,the same eloquent synonyms for evil deeds which are found in ,psalm xxxii4 occur again here4 ,transgression is literally rebellion2 iniquity1 that which is twisted or bent2 sin1 missing a mark4 ,sin is rebellion1 the uprising of the will against rightful authority--not merely the breach of abstract propriety or law1 but opposition to a living ,person1 who has right to obedience4 ,the definition of virtue is obedience to ,god1 and the sin in sin is the assertion of independence of ,god and opposition to ,his will4 ,not less profound is that other name1 which regards sin as iniquity or distortion4 ,then there is a straight line to which men's lives should run parallel4 ,our life's paths should be like these conquering ,roman roads1 turning aside for nothing1 but going straight to their aim over mountain and ravine1 stream or desert4 ,but this man's passion had made for him a crooked path1 where he found no end1 in wandering mazes lost4 ,sin is1 further1 missing an aim1 the aim being either the ,divine purpose for man1 the true ,ideal of manhood1 or the satisfaction proposed by the sinner to himself as the result of his sin4 ,in both senses every sin misses the mark4 ,these petitions show also how the psalmist thought of forgiveness4 ,as the words for sin give a threefold view of it1 so those for pardon set it forth in three aspects4 ,blot out2--that petition conceives of forgiveness as being the erasure of a writing1 perhaps of an indictment4 ,our past is a blurred manuscript1 full of false and bad things4 ,the melancholy theory of some thinkers is summed up in the despairing words1 ,what ,i have written1 ,i have written4 ,but the psalmist knew better than that2 and we should know better than he did4 ,our souls may become palimpsests2 and1 as devotional meditations might be written by a saint on a parchment that had borne foul legends of false gods1 the bad writing on them may be obliterated1 and ,god's law be written there4 ,wash me thoroughly needs no explanation4 ,but the word employed is significant1 in that it probably means washing by kneading or beating1 not by simple rinsing4 ,the psalmist is ready to submit to any painful discipline1 if only he may be cleansed4 ,wash me1 beat me1 tread me down1 hammer me with mallets1 dash me against stones1 do anything with me1 if only these foul stains are melted from the texture of my soul4 ,the psalmist had not heard of the alchemy by which men can wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the ,lamb2 but he held fast by ,god's loving-kindness1 and knew the blackness of his own sin1 and groaned under it2 and therefore his cry was not in vain4 ,an anticipation of the ,christian teaching as to forgiveness lies in his last expression for pardon1 make me clean1 which is the technical word for the priestly act of declaring ceremonial purity1 and for the other priestly act of making as well as declaring clean from the stains of leprosy4 ,the suppliant thinks of his guilt not only as a blotted record or as a polluted robe1 but as a fatal disease1 the first-born of death1 and as capable of being taken away only by the hand of the ,priest laid on the feculent mass4 ,we know who put out his hand and touched the leper1 and said1 ,i will3 be thou clean4 ,the petitions for cleansing are1 in ver4 #c1 urged on the ground of the psalmist's consciousness of sin4 ,penitent confession is a condition of forgiveness4 ,there is no need to take this verse as giving the reason why the psalmist offered his prayer1 rather than as presenting a plea why it should be answered4 ,some commentators have adopted the former explanation1 from a fear lest the other should give countenance to the notion that repentance is a meritorious cause of forgiveness2 but that is unnecessary scrupulousness4 ,sin is always sin1 and deserving of punishment1 whether it is confessed or not4 ,still1 confession of sin is of importance on this account--that ,god will be gracious to none but to those who confess their sin 7,luther1 quoted by ,perowne74 ,ver4 #d sounds the depths in both its clauses4 ,in the first the psalmist shuts out all other aspects of his guilt1 and is absorbed in its solemnity as viewed in relation to ,god4 ,it is asked1 ,how could ,david have thought of his sin1 which had in so many ways been against others1 as having been against ,thee1 ,thee only8 ,as has been noted above1 this confession has been taken to demonstrate conclusively the impossibility of the ,davidic authorship4 ,but surely it argues a strange ignorance of the language of a penitent soul1 to suppose that such words as the psalmist's could be spoken only in regard to sins which had no bearing at all on other men4 ,david's deed had been a crime against ,bathsheba1 against ,uriah1 against his family and his realm2 but these were not its blackest characteristics4 ,every crime against man is sin against ,god4 ,inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these 444 ye have done it unto ,me is the spirit of the ,decalogue as well as the language of ,jesus4 ,and it is only when considered as having relation to ,god that crimes are darkened into sins4 ,the psalmist is stating a strictly true and profound thought when he declares that he has sinned against ,thee only4 ,further1 that thought has1 for the time being1 filled his whole horizon4 ,other aspects of his shameful deed will torture him enough in coming days1 even when he has fully entered into the blessedness of forgiveness2 but they are not present to his mind now1 when the one awful thought of his perverted relation to ,god swallows up all others4 ,a man who has never felt that all-engrossing sense of his sin as against ,god only has much to learn4 ,the second clause of ver4 #d opens the question whether in order that is always used in the ,old ,testament in its full meaning as expressing intention1 or sometimes in the looser signification of so that1 expressing result4 ,several passages usually referred to on this point 7e4g41 ,psalm xxx4 #ab2 ,exod4 xi4 #i2 ,isa4 xliv4 #i2 ,hos4 viii4 #d7 strongly favour the less stringent view1 which is also in accordance with the genius of the ,hebrew race1 who were not metaphysicians4 ,the other view1 that the expression here means in order that1 insists on grammatical precision in the cries of a penitent heart1 and clogs the words with difficulty4 ,if their meaning is that the psalmist's sin was intended to show forth ,god's righteousness in judging1 the intention must have been ,god's1 not the sinner's2 and such a thought not only ascribes man's sin directly to ,god1 but is quite irrelevant to the psalmist's purpose in the words4 ,for he is not palliating his transgression or throwing it on ,divine predestination 7as ,cheyne takes him to be doing71 but is submitting himself1 in profoundest abasement of undivided guilt1 to the just judgment of ,god4 ,his prayer for forgiveness is accompanied with willingness to submit to chastisement1 as all true desire for pardon is4 ,he makes no excuses for his sin1 but submits himself unconditionally to the just judgment of ,god4 ,thou remainest the ,holy ,one2 ,i am the sinner2 and therefore ,thou mayest1 with perfect justice1 punish me and spurn me from ,thy presence 7,stier74 ,vv4 #e1 #f1 are marked as closely related by the ,behold at the beginning of each4 ,the psalmist passes from penitent contemplation and confession of his acts of sin to acknowledge his sinful nature1 derived from sinful parents4 ,original sin is theological terminology for the same facts which science gathers together under the name of heredity4 ,the psalmist is not responsible for later dogmatic developments of the idea1 but he feels that he has to confess not only his acts but his nature4 ,a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit4 ,the taint is transmitted4 ,no fact is more plain than this1 as all the more serious observers of human life and of their own characters have recognised4 ,only a superficial view of humanity or an inadequate conception of morality can jauntily say that all children are born good4 ,theologians have exaggerated and elaborated1 as is their wont1 and so have made the thought repugnant2 but the derived sinful bias of human nature is a fact1 not a dogma1 and those who know it and their own share of it best will be disposed to agree with ,browning1 in finding one great reason for believing in ,biblical religion1 that-- ',tis the faith that launched point-blank her dart ,at the head of a lie--taught ,original ,sin1 ,the ,corruption of ,man's ,heart4 ,the psalmist is not1 strictly speaking1 either extenuating or aggravating his sin by thus recognising his evil nature4 ,he does not think that sin is the less his1 because the tendency has been inherited4 ,but he is spreading all his condition before ,god4 ,in fact1 he is not so much thinking of his criminality as of his desperate need4 ,from a burden so heavy and so intertwined with himself none but ,god can deliver him4 ,he cannot cleanse himself2 for self is infected4 ,he cannot find cleansing among men1 for they too have inherited the poison4 ,and so he is driven to ,god1 or else must sink into despair4 ,he who once sees into the black depths of his own heart will give up thereafter all ideas of every man his own redeemer4 ,that the psalmist's purpose was not to minimise his own guilt is clear1 not only from the tone of the psalm1 but from the antithesis presented by the ,divine desire after inward truth in the next verse1 which is out of place if this verse contains a palliation for sin4 ,we can scarcely miss the bearing of this verse on the question of whether the psalm is the confession of an individual penitent or that of the nation4 ,it strongly favours the former view1 though it does not make the latter absolutely impossible4 ,the discovery of inherent and inherited sinfulness brings with it another discovery--that of the penetrating depth of the requirements of ,god's law4 ,he cannot be satisfied with outside conformity in deed4 ,the more intensely conscience realises sin1 the more solemnly rises before it the ,divine ideal of man in its inwardness as well as in its sweep4 ,truth within--inward correspondence with ,his will1 and absolute sincerity of soul are ,his desire4 ,but ,i am born in iniquity3 a terrible antithesis1 and hopeless but for one hope1 which dawns over the suppliant like morning on a troubled sea4 ,if we cannot ask ,god to make us what ,he wishes us to be1 these two discoveries of our nature and of ,his will are open doorways to despair2 but he who apprehends them wisely will find in their conjoint operation a force impelling him to prayer1 and therefore to confidence4 ,only ,god can enable such a ,being as man to become such as ,he will delight in2 and since ,he seeks for truth within1 ,he thereby pledges ,himself to give the truth and wisdom for which ,he seeks4 ,meditation on the sin which was ever before the psalmist1 passes into renewed prayers for pardon1 which partly reiterate those already offered in vv4 #a1 #b4 ,the petition in ver4 #g for purging with hyssop alludes to sprinkling of lepers and unclean persons1 and indicates both a consciousness of great impurity and a clear perception of the symbolic meaning of ritual cleansings4 ,wash me repeats a former petition2 but now the psalmist can venture to dwell more on the thought of future purity than he could do then4 ,the approaching answer begins to make its brightness visible through the gloom1 and it seems possible to the suppliant that even his stained nature shall glisten like sunlit snow4 ,nor does that expectation exhaust his confidence4 ,he hopes for joy and gladness4 ,his bones have been crushed--i4e41 his whole self has been1 as it were1 ground to powder by the weight of ,god's hand2 but restoration is possible4 ,a penitent heart is not too bold when it asks for joy4 ,there is no real well-founded gladness without the consciousness of ,divine forgiveness4 ,the psalmist closes his petitions for pardon 7ver4 #i7 with asking ,god to hide ,his face from his sins1 so that they be1 as it were1 no more existent for ,him1 and1 by a repetition of the initial petition in ver4 #a1 for the blotting out of all mine iniquities4 ,the second principal division begins with ver4 #aj1 and is a prayer for purity1 followed by vows of glad service4 ,the prayer is contained in three verses 7#aj-ab71 of which the first implores complete renewal of nature1 the second beseeches that there may be no break between the suppliant and ,god1 and the third asks for the joy and willingness to serve which would flow from the granting of the desires preceding4 ,in each verse the second clause has spirit for its leading word1 and the middle one of the three asks for ,thy holy spirit4 ,the petitions themselves1 and the order in which they occur1 are deeply significant1 and deserve much more elucidation than can be given here4 ,the same profound consciousness of inward corruption which spoke in the former part of the psalm shapes the prayer for renewal4 ,nothing less than a new creation will make this man's heart clean4 ,his past has taught him that4 ,the word employed is always used of ,god's creative act2 and the psalmist feels that nothing less than the power which brooded over the face of primeval chaos1 and evolved thence an ordered world1 can deal with the confused ruin within himself4 ,what he felt that he must have is what prophets promised 7,jer4 xxiv4 #g2 ,ezek4 xxxvi4 #bf7 and ,christ has brought--a new creation1 in which1 while personality remains unaffected1 and the components of character continue as before1 a real new life is bestowed1 which stamps new directions on affections1 gives new aims1 impulses1 convictions1 casts out inveterate evils1 and gradually changes all but the basis of the soul4 ,a desire for pardon which does not unfold into such longing for deliverance from the misery of the old self is not the offspring of genuine penitence1 but only of base fear4 ,a steadfast spirit is needful in order to keep a cleansed heart clean2 and1 on the other hand1 when1 by cleanness of heart1 a man is freed from the perturbations of rebellious desires and the weakening influences of sin1 his spirit will be steadfast4 ,the two characteristics sustain each other4 ,consciousness of corruption dictated the former desire2 penitent recognition of weakness and fluctuation inspires the latter4 ,it may be observed1 too1 that the triad of petitions having reference to spirit has for its central one a prayer for ,god's ,spirit1 and that the other two may be regarded as dependent on that4 ,where ,god's ,spirit dwells1 the human spirit in which it abides will be firm with uncreated strength4 ,his energy1 being infused into a tremulous1 changeful humanity1 will make it stable4 ,if we are to stand fast1 we must be stayed on ,god4 ,the group of petitions in ver4 #aa is negative4 ,it deprecates a possible tragic separation from ,god1 and that under two aspects4 ,part me not from ,thee2 part not ,thyself from me4 ,the former prayer1 ,cast me not out from ,thy presence1 is by some explained according to the analogy of other instances of the occurrence of the phrase1 where it means expulsion from the land of ,israel2 and is claimed1 thus interpreted1 as a clear indication that the psalmist speaks in the name of the nation4 ,but however certainly the expression is thus used elsewhere1 it cannot1 without introducing an alien thought1 be so interpreted in its present connection1 imbedded in petitions of the most spiritual and individual character3 much rather1 the psalmist is recoiling from what he knows only too well to be the consequence of an unclean heart--separation from ,god1 whether in the sense of exclusion from the sanctuary1 or in the profounder sense1 which is not too deep for such a psalm1 of conscious loss of the light of ,god's face4 ,he dreads being1 ,cain-like1 shut out from that presence which is life2 and he knows that1 unless his previous prayer for a clean heart is answered1 that dreary solitude of great darkness must be his lot4 ,the sister petition1 ,take not ,thy holy spirit from me1 contemplates the union between ,god and him from the other side4 ,he regards himself as possessing that ,divine spirit2 for he knows that1 notwithstanding his sin1 ,god has not left him1 else he would not have these movements of godly sorrow and yearnings for purity4 ,there is no reason to commit the anachronism of supposing that the psalmist had any knowledge of ,new ,testament teaching of a personal ,divine ,spirit4 ,but if we may suppose that he is ,david1 this prayer has special force4 ,that anointing which designated and fitted him for kingly office symbolised the gift of a ,divine influence accompanying a ,divine call4 ,if we further remember how it had fared with his predecessor1 from whom1 because of impenitence1 the ,spirit of the ,lord departed1 and an evil spirit from the ,lord troubled him1 we understand how ,saul's successor1 trembling as he remembers his fate1 prays with peculiar emphasis1 ,take not ,thy ,holy ,spirit from me4 ,the last member of the triad1 in ver4 #ab1 looks back to former petitions1 and asks for restoration of the joy of ,thy salvation1 which had lain like dew on this man before he fell4 ,in this connection the supplication for joy follows on the other two1 because the joy which it desires is the result of their being granted4 ,for what is ,thy salvation but the gift of a clean heart and a steadfast spirit1 the blessed consciousness of unbroken closeness of communion with ,god1 in which the suppliant suns himself in the beams of ,god's face1 and receives an uninterrupted communication of ,his ,spirit's gifts8 ,these are the sources of pure joy1 lasting as ,god ,himself1 and victorious over all occasions for surface sorrow4 ,the issue of all these gifts will be a willing spirit1 delighting to obey1 eager to serve4 ,if ,god's ,spirit dwells in us1 obedience will be delight4 ,to serve ,god because we must is not service4 ,to serve ,him because we had rather do ,his will than anything else is the service which delights ,him and blesses us4 ,the word rendered willing comes by a very natural process1 to mean nobles4 ,god's servants are princes and lords of everything besides1 themselves included4 ,such obedience is freedom4 ,if desires flow with equable motion parallel to ,god's will1 there is no sense of restraint in keeping within limits beyond which we do not desire to go4 ,i will walk at liberty2 for ,i keep ,thy precepts4 ,the last part of the psalm runs over with joyful vows--first1 of magnifying ,god's name 7vv4 #ac-ae71 and then of offering true sacrifices4 ,a man who has passed through such experiences as the psalmist's1 and has received the blessings for which he prayed1 cannot be silent4 ,the instinct of hearts touched by ,god's mercies is to speak of them to others4 ,and no man who can say ,i will tell what ,he has done for my soul is without the most persuasive argument to bring to bear on others4 ,a piece of autobiography will touch men who are unaffected by elaborate reasonings and deaf to polished eloquence4 ,the impulse and the capacity to teach transgressors ,thy ways are given in the experience of sin and forgiveness2 and if any one has not the former1 it is questionable whether he has1 in any real sense or large measure1 received the latter4 ,the prayer for deliverance from blood-guiltiness in ver4 #ad breaks for a moment the flow of vows2 but only for a moment4 ,it indicates how amid them the psalmist preserved his sense of guilt1 and how little he was disposed to think lightly of the sins of whose forgiveness he had prayed himself into the assurance4 ,its emergence here1 like a black rock pushing its grimness up through a sparkling1 sunny sea1 is no sign of doubt whether his prayers had been answered2 but it marks the abiding sense of sinfulness1 which must ever accompany abiding gratitude for pardon and abiding holiness of heart4 ,it seems hard to believe1 as the advocates of a national reference in the psalm are obliged to do1 that blood-guiltiness has no special reference to the psalmist's crime1 but is employed simply as typical of sin in general4 ,the mention of it finds a very obvious explanation on the hypothesis of ,davidic authorship1 and a rather constrained one on any other4 ,ver4 #af introduces the reason for the preceding vow of grateful praise1 as is shown by the initial ,for4 ,the psalmist will bring the sacrifices of a grateful heart making his lips musical1 because he has learned that these1 and not ritual offerings1 are acceptable4 ,the same depreciation of external sacrifices is strongly expressed in ,psalm xl4 #f1 and here1 as there1 is not to be taken as an absolute condemnation of these1 but as setting them decisively below spiritual service4 ,to suppose that prophets or psalmists waged a polemic against ritual observances per se misapprehends their position entirely4 ,they do war against the sacrifice of the wicked1 against external acts which had no inward reality corresponding to them1 against reliance on the outward and its undue exaltation4 ,the authors of the later addition to this psalm had a true conception of its drift when they appended to it1 not as a correction of a heretical tendency1 but as a liturgical addition in full harmony with its spirit1 the vow to offer whole burnt offerings on the restored altar1 when ,god should again build up ,zion4 ,the psalmist's last words are immortal4 ,a heart broken and crushed1 ,o ,god1 ,thou wilt not despise4 ,but they derive still deeper beauty and pathos when it is observed that they are spoken after confession has been answered to his consciousness by pardon1 and longing for purity by at least some bestowal of it4 ,the joy of ,thy salvation1 for which he had prayed1 has begun to flow into his heart4 ,the bones which had been crushed are beginning to reknit1 and thrills of gladness to steal through his frame2 but still he feels that with all these happy experiences contrite consciousness of his sin must mingle4 ,it does not rob his joy of one rapture1 but it keeps it from becoming careless4 ,he goes safely who goes humbly4 ,the more sure a man is that ,god has put away the iniquity of his sin1 the more should he remember it2 for the remembrance will vivify gratitude and bind close to ,him without whom there can be no steadfastness of spirit nor purity of life4 ,the clean heart must continue contrite1 if it is not to cease to be clean4 ,the liturgical addition implies that ,jerusalem is in ruins4 ,it cannot be supposed without violence to come from ,david4 ,it is not needed in order to form a completion to the psalm1 which ends more impressively1 and has an inner unity and coherence1 if the deep words of ver4 #ag are taken as its close4 ,,psalm ,,lii4 #a ,why boastest thou in wickedness1 ,o tyrant8 ,god's loving-kindness lasts always4 #b ,destructions does thy tongue devise2 ,like a sharpened razor1 thou framer of deceit6 #c ,thou lovest evil rather than good2 ,a lie rather than speaking righteousness4 ,selah4 #d ,thou lovest all words that swallow men up1 ,thou deceitful tongue6 #e ,so ,god shall break thee down for ever1 ,shall lay hold of thee and drag thee out of the tent1 ,and root thee out of the land of the living4 ,selah4 #f ,and the righteous shall see and fear1 ,and at him shall they laugh4 #g ,see6 the man that made not ,god his stronghold1 ,and trusted in the abundance of his wealth1 ,and felt strong in his evil desire4 #h ,but ,i am like a flourishing olive tree in the house of ,god3 ,i trust in the loving-kindness of ,god for ever and aye4 #i ,i will give ,thee thanks for ever1 for ,thou hast done this3 ,and ,i will wait on ,thy name before ,thy favoured ones1 for it is good4 ,the progress of feeling in this psalm is clear1 but there is no very distinct division into strophes1 and one of the two ,selahs does not mark a transition1 though it does make a pause4 ,first1 the poet1 with a few indignant and contemptuous touches1 dashes on his canvas an outline portrait of an arrogant oppressor1 whose weapon was slander and his words like pits of ruin4 ,then1 with vehement1 exulting metaphors1 he pictures his destruction4 ,on it follow reverent awe of ,god1 whose justice is thereby displayed1 and deepened sense in righteous hearts of the folly of trust in anything but ,him4 ,finally1 the singer contrasts with thankfulness his own happy continuance in fellowship with ,god with the oppressor's fate1 and renews his resolve of praise and patient waiting4 ,the themes are familiar1 and their treatment has nothing distinctive4 ,the portrait of the oppressor does not strike one as a likeness either of the ,edomite herdsman ,doeg1 with whose betrayal of ,david's asylum at ,nob the superscription connects the psalm1 or of ,saul1 to whom ,hengstenberg1 feeling the difficulty of seeing ,doeg in it1 refers it4 ,malicious lies and arrogant trust in riches were not the crimes that cried for vengeance in the bloody massacre at ,nob4 ,cheyne would bring this group of ,davidic psalms 7lii4-lix47 down to the ,persian period 7,orig4 of ,psalt41 #aba-bc74 ,olshausen1 after ,theodore of ,mopsuestia 7see ,cheyne loc4 cit47 to the ,maccabean4 ,but the grounds alleged are scarcely strong enough to carry more than the weight of a may be2 and it is better to recognise that1 if the superscription is thrown over1 the psalm itself does not yield sufficiently characteristic marks to enable us to fix its date4 ,it may be worth considering whether the very absence of any obvious correspondences with ,david's circumstances does not show that the superscription rested on a tradition earlier than itself1 and not on an editor's discernment4 ,the abrupt question at the beginning reveals the psalmist's long-pent indignation4 ,he has been silently brooding over the swollen arrogance and malicious lies of the tyrant1 till he can restrain himself no longer1 and out pours a fiery flood4 ,evil gloried in is worse than evil done4 ,the word rendered in the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 mighty man is here used in a bad sense1 to indicate that he has not only a giant's power1 but uses it tyrannously1 like a giant4 ,how dramatically the abrupt question is followed by the equally abrupt thought of the ever-during loving-kindness of ,god6 ,that makes the tyrant's boast supremely absurd1 and the psalmist's confidence reasonable1 even in face of hostile power4 ,the prominence given to sins of speech is peculiar4 ,we should have expected high-handed violence rather than these4 ,but the psalmist is tracking the deeds to their source2 and it is not so much the tyrant's words as his love of a certain kind of words which is adduced as proof of his wickedness4 ,these words have two characteristics in addition to boastfulness4 ,they are false and destructive4 ,they are1 according to the forcible literal meaning in ver4 #d1 words of swallowing4 ,they are1 according to the literal meaning of destructions1 in ver4 #b1 yawning gulfs4 ,such words lead to acts which make a tyrant4 ,they flow from perverted preference of evil to good4 ,thus the deeds of oppression are followed up to their den and birthplace4 ,part of the description of the words corresponds to the fatal effect of ,doeg's report2 but nothing in it answers to the other part--falsehood4 ,the psalmist's hot indignation speaks in the triple1 direct address to the tyrant1 which comes in each case like a lightning flash at the end of a clause 7vv4 #a1 #b1 #d74 ,in the second of these the epithet framing deceit does not refer to the sharpened razor1 but to the tyrant4 ,if referred to the former1 it weakens rather than strengthens the metaphor1 by bringing in the idea that the sharp blade misses its proper aim1 and wounds cheeks instead of shearing off hair4 ,the ,selah of ver4 #c interrupts the description1 in order to fix attention1 by a pause filled up by music1 on the hideous picture thus drawn4 ,that description is resumed and summarised in ver4 #d1 which1 by the ,selahs1 is closely bound to ver4 #e1 in order to enforce the necessary connection of sin and punishment1 which is strongly underlined by the also or so at the beginning of the latter verse4 ,the stern prophecy of destruction is based upon no outward signs of failure in the oppressor's might1 but wholly on confidence in ,god's continual loving-kindness1 which must needs assume attributes of justice when its objects are oppressed4 ,a tone of triumph vibrates through the imagery of ver4 #e1 which is not in the same key as ,christ has set for us4 ,it is easy for those who have never lived under grinding1 godless tyranny to reprobate the exultation of the oppressed at the sweeping away of their oppressors2 but if the critics had seen their brethren set up as torches to light ,nero's gardens1 perhaps they would have known some thrill of righteous joy when they heard that he was dead4 ,three strong metaphors describe the fall of this tyrant4 ,he is broken down1 as a building levelled with the ground4 ,he is laid hold of1 as a coal in the fire1 with tongs 7for so the word means71 and dragged1 as in that iron grip1 out of the midst of his dwelling4 ,he is uprooted like a tree with all its pride of leafage4 ,another blast of trumpets or clang of harps or clash of cymbals bids the listeners gaze on the spectacle of insolent strength laid prone1 and withering as it lies4 ,the third movement of thought 7vv4 #f1 #g7 deals with the effects of this retribution4 ,it is a conspicuous demonstration of ,god's justice and of the folly of reliance on anything but ,himself4 ,the fear which it produces in the righteous is reverential awe1 not dread lest the same should happen to them4 ,whether or not history and experience teach evil men that verily there is a ,god that judgeth1 their lessons are not wasted on devout and righteous souls4 ,but this is the tragedy of life1 that its teachings are prized most by those who have already learned them1 and that those who need them most consider them least4 ,other tyrants are glad when a rival is swept off the field1 but are not arrested in their own course4 ,it is left to the righteous to draw the lesson which all men should have learned4 ,although they are pictured as laughing at the ruin1 that is not the main effect of it4 ,rather it deepens conviction1 and is a modern instance witnessing to the continual truth of an old saw4 ,there is one safe stronghold1 and only one4 ,he who conceits himself to be strong in his own evil1 and1 instead of relying on ,god1 trusts in material resources1 will sooner or later be levelled with the ground1 dragged1 resisting vainly the tremendous grasp1 from his tent1 and laid prostrate1 as melancholy a spectacle as a great tree blown down by tempest1 with its roots turned up to the sky and its arms with drooping leaves trailing on the ground4 ,a swift turn of feeling carries the singer to rejoice in the contrast of his own lot4 ,no uprooting does he fear4 ,it may be questioned whether the words in the house of ,god refer to the psalmist or to the olive tree4 ,apparently there were trees in the ,temple area 7,psalm xcii4 #ac72 but the parallel in the next clause1 in the loving-kindness of ,god1 points to the reference of the words to the speaker4 ,dwelling in enjoyment of ,god's fellowship1 as symbolised by and realised through presence in the sanctuary1 whether it were at ,nob or in ,jerusalem1 he dreads no such forcible removal as had befallen the tyrant4 ,communion with ,god is the source of flourishing and fruitfulness1 and the guarantee of its own continuance4 ,nothing in the changes of outward life need touch it4 ,the mists which lay on the psalmist's horizon are cleared away for us1 who know that for ever and aye designates a proper eternity of dwelling in the higher house and drinking the full dew of ,god's loving-kindness4 ,such consciousness of present blessedness in communion lifts a soul to prophetic realisation of deliverance1 even while no change has occurred in circumstances4 ,the tyrant is still boasting2 but the psalmist's tightened hold of ,god enables him to see things that are not as though they were1 and to anticipate actual deliverance by praise for it4 ,it is the prerogative of faith to alter tenses1 and to say1 ,thou hast done1 when the world's grammar would say1 ,thou wilt do4 ,i will wait on ,thy name is singular1 since what is done in the presence of ,thy favoured ones would naturally be something seen or heard by them4 ,the reading ,i will declare has been suggested4 ,but surely the attitude of patient1 silent expectance implied in wait may very well be conceived as maintained in the presence of1 and perceptible by1 those who had like dispositions1 and who would sympathise and be helped thereby4 ,individual blessings are rightly used when they lead to participation in common thankfulness and quiet trust4 ,,psalm ,,liii4#a #a ,the fool says in his heart1 ,there is no ,god4 ,they corrupt and make abominable their iniquity2 ,there is no one doing good4 #b ,god looketh down from heaven upon the sons of men1 ,to see if there is any having discernment seeking after ,god4 #c ,each of them is turned aside2 together they are become putrid2 ,there is no one doing good2 ,there is not even one4 #d ,do the workers of iniquity not know ,who devour my people as they devour bread8 ,on ,god they do not call4 #e ,there they feared a great fear1 where no fear was3 ,for ,god has scattered the bones of him that encamps against thee2 ,thou hast put them to shame2 for ,god has rejected them4 #f ,oh that the salvations of ,israel were come out of ,zion6 ,when ,god brings back the captivity of ,his people1 ,may ,jacob exult1 may ,israel be glad6 ,in this psalm we have an ,elohistic recast of ,psalm xiv41 differing from its original in substituting ,elohim for ,jehovah 7four times7 and in the language of ver4 #e4 ,there are also other slight deviations not affecting the sense4 ,for the exposition the reader is referred to that of ,psalm xiv4 ,it is only necessary here to take note of the divergences4 ,the first of these occurs in ver4 #a4 ,the forcible rough construction they corrupt1 they make abominable1 is smoothed down by the insertion of and4 ,the editor apparently thought that the loosely piled words needed a piece of mortar to hold them together1 but his emendation weakens as well as smooths4 ,on the other hand1 he has aimed at increased energy of expression by substituting iniquity for doings in the same clause1 which results in tautology and is no improvement4 ,in ver4 #c the word for turned aside is varied1 without substantial difference of meaning4 ,the alteration is very slight1 affecting only one letter1 and may be due to error in transcription or to mere desire to emend4 ,in ver4 #d all1 which in ,psalm xiv4 precedes workers of iniquity1 is omitted1 probably as unnecessary4 ,the most important changes are in ver4 #e1 which stands for vv4 #e and #f of ,psalm xiv4 ,the first is the insertion of where no fear was4 ,these words may be taken as describing causeless panic1 or1 less probably1 as having a subjective reference1 and being equal to while in the midst of careless security4 ,they evidently point to some fact1 possibly the destruction of ,sennacherib's army4 ,their insertion shows that the object of the alterations was to adapt an ancient psalm as a hymn of triumph for recent deliverance1 thus altering its application from evil-doers within ,israel to enemies without4 ,the same purpose is obvious in the transformations effected in the remainder of this verse4 ,considerable as these are1 the recast most ingeniously conforms to the sound of the original4 ,if we could present the two versions in tabular form1 the resemblance would appear more strikingly than we can here bring it out4 ,the first variation--i4e41 scatters instead of in the generation--is effected by reading pizzar for b'dhor1 a clear case of intentional assonance4 ,similarly the last word of the verse1 has rejected them1 is very near in consonants and sound to his refuge in ,psalm xiv4 #f4 ,the like effort at retaining the general sound of the earlier psalm runs through the whole verse4 ,very significantly the complaint of the former singer is turned into triumph by the later1 who addresses the delivered ,israel with ,thou hast put them to shame1 while the other psalm could but address the fools with ,ye would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted4 ,in like manner the tremulous hope of the original1 ,god is his refuge1 swells into commemoration of an accomplished fact in ,god has rejected them4 ,the natural supposition is that some great deliverance of ,israel had just taken place1 and inspired this singular attempt to fit old words to new needs4 ,whatever the historical occasion may have been1 the two singers unite in one final aspiration1 a sigh of longing for the coming of ,israel's full salvation1 which is intensified in the recast by being put in the plural 7salvations7 instead of the singular1 as in ,psalm xiv41 to express the completeness and manifoldness of the deliverance thus yearned for of old1 and not yet come in its perfection4 ,,footnote3 #a ,italics show variations from text of ,psalm xiv4 ,,psalm ,,liv4 #a ,o ,god1 by ,thy name save me1 ,and by ,thy might right me4 #b ,o ,god1 hear my prayer2 ,give ear to the words of my mouth4 #c ,for strangers are risen up against me1 ,and violent men seek my soul3 ,they set not ,god before them4 ,selah4 #d ,behold1 ,god is a helper for me3 ,the ,lord is ,he that sustains my soul4 #e ,he will requite evil to the liers in wait for me3 ,in ,thy troth destroy them4 #f ,of my own free impulse will ,i sacrifice to ,thee3 ,i will thank ,thy name1 for it is good4 #g ,for from all distress it has delivered me2 ,and my eye has seen its desire on my enemies4 ,the tone and language of this psalm have nothing special4 ,the situation of the psalmist is the familiar one of being encompassed by enemies4 ,his mood is the familiar one of discouragement at the sight of surrounding perils1 which passes through petition into confidence and triumph4 ,there is nothing in the psalm inconsistent with the accuracy of the superscription1 which ascribes it to ,david1 when the men of ,ziph would have betrayed him to ,saul4 ,internal evidence does not suffice to fix its date1 if the traditional one is discarded4 ,but there seems no necessity for regarding the singer as the personified nation1 though there is less objection to that theory in this instance than in some psalms with a more marked individuality and more fervent expression of personal emotion1 to which it is proposed to apply it4 ,the structure is simple1 like the thought and expression4 ,the psalm falls into two parts1 divided by ,selah1--of which the former is prayer1 spreading before ,god the suppliant's straits2 and the latter is confident assurance1 blended with petition and vows of thanksgiving4 ,the order in which the psalmist's thoughts run in the first part 7vv4 #a-c7 is noteworthy4 ,he begins with appeal to ,god1 and summons before his vision the characteristics in the ,divine nature on which he builds his hope4 ,then he pleads for the acceptance of his prayer1 and only when thus heartened does he recount his perils4 ,that is a deeper faith which begins with what ,god is1 and thence proceeds to look calmly at foes1 than that which is driven to ,god in the second place1 as a consequence of an alarmed gaze on dangers4 ,in the latter case fear strikes out a spark of faith in the darkness2 in the former1 faith controls fear4 ,the name of ,god is ,his manifested nature or character1 the sum of all of ,him which has been made known by ,his word or work4 ,in that rich manifoldness of living powers and splendours this man finds reserves of force1 which will avail to save him from any peril4 ,that name is much more than a collection of syllables4 ,the expression is beginning to assume the meaning which it has in post-,biblical ,hebrew1 where it is used as a reverential euphemism for the ineffable ,jehovah4 ,especially to ,god's power does the singer look with hopeful petitions1 as in ver4 #a b4 ,but the whole name is the agent of his salvation4 ,nothing less than the whole fulness of the manifested ,god is enough for the necessities of one poor man2 and that prayer is not too bold1 nor that estimate of need presumptuous1 which asks for nothing less4 ,since it is ,god's might which is appealed to1 to judge the psalmist's cause1 the judgment contemplated is clearly not the ,divine estimate of the moral desert of his doings1 or retribution to him for these1 but the vindication of his threatened innocence and deliverance of him from enemies4 ,the reason for the prayer is likewise alleged as a plea with ,god to hear4 ,the psalmist prays because he is ringed about by foes4 ,god will hear because ,he is so surrounded4 ,it is blessed to know that the same circumstances in our lot which drive us to ,god incline ,god to us4 ,strangers1 in ver4 #c1 would most naturally mean foreigners1 but not necessarily so4 ,the meaning would naturally pass into that of enemies--men who1 even though of the psalmist's own blood1 behave to him in a hostile manner4 ,the word1 then1 does not negative the tradition in the superscription2 though the men of ,ziph belonged to the tribe of ,judah1 they might still be called strangers4 ,the verse recurs in ,psalm lxxxvi4 #ad1 with a variation of reading--namely1 proud instead of strangers4 ,the same variation is found here in some ,,mss4 and in the ,targum4 ,but probably it has crept in here in order to bring our psalm into correspondence with the other1 and it is better to retain the existing reading1 which is that of the ,,lxx4 and other ancient authorities4 ,the psalmist has no doubt that to hunt after his life is a sign of godlessness4 ,the proof that violent men have not set ,god before them is the fact that they seek his soul4 ,that is a remarkable assumption1 resting upon a very sure confidence that he is in such relation to ,god that enmity to him is sin4 ,the theory of a national reference would make such identification of the singer's cause with ,god's most intelligible4 ,but the theory that he is an individual1 holding a definite relation to the ,divine purposes and being for some end a ,divine instrument1 would make it quite as much so4 ,and if ,david1 who knew that he was destined to be king1 was the singer1 his confidence would be natural4 ,the history represents that his ,divine appointment was sufficiently known to make hostility to him a manifest indication of rebellion against ,god4 ,the unhesitating fusion of his own cause with ,god's could scarcely have been ventured by a psalmist1 however vigorous his faith1 if all that he had to go on and desired to express was a devout soul's confidence that ,god would protect him4 ,that may be perfectly and yet it may not follow that opposition to a man is godlessness4 ,we cannot regard ourselves as standing in such a relation2 but we may be sure that the name1 with all its glories1 is mighty to save us too4 ,prayer is1 as so often in the ,psalter1 followed by immediately deepened assurance of victory4 ,the suppliant rises from his knees1 and points the enemies round him to his one ,helper4 ,in ver4 #d b a literal rendering would mislead4 ,the ,lord is among the upholders of my soul seems to bring ,god down to a level on which others stand4 ,the psalmist does not mean this1 but that ,god gathers up in ,himself1 and that supremely1 the qualities belonging to the conception of an upholder4 ,it is1 in form1 an inclusion of ,god in a certain class4 ,it is1 in meaning1 the assertion that ,he is the only true representative of the class4 ,commentators quote ,jephthah's plaintive words to his daughter as another instance of the idiom3 ,alas1 my daughter1 444 thou art one of them that trouble me--i4e41 my greatest troubler4 ,that one thought1 vivified into new power by the act of prayer1 is the psalmist's all-sufficient buckler1 which he plants between himself and his enemies1 bidding them behold4 ,strong in the confidence that has sprung in his heart anew1 he can look forward in the certainty that his adversaries 7lit4 those who lie in wait for me7 will find their evil recoiling on themselves4 ,the reading of the ,hebrew text is1 ,evil shall return to2 that of the ,hebrew margin1 adopted by the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v41 is1 ,he shall requite evil to4 ,the meanings are substantially the same1 only that the one makes the automatic action of retribution more prominent1 while the other emphasises ,god's justice in inflicting it4 ,the latter reading gives increased force to the swift transition to prayer in ver4 #e b4 ,that petition is1 like others in similar psalms1 proper to the spiritual level of the ,old ,testament1 and not to that of the ,new2 and it is far more reverent1 as well as accurate1 to recognise fully the distinction than to try to slur it over4 ,at the same time1 it is not to be forgotten that the same lofty consciousness of the identity of his cause with ,god's1 which we have already had to notice1 operating here in these wishes for the enemies' destruction1 gives another aspect to them than that of mere outbursts of private vengeance4 ,that higher aspect is made prominent by the addition in ,thy troth4 ,god's faithfulness to ,his purposes and promises was concerned in the destruction1 because these were pledged to the psalmist's protection4 ,his well-being was so intertwined with ,god's promises that the ,divine faithfulness demanded the sweeping away of his foes4 ,that is evidently not the language which fits our lips4 ,it implies a special relation to ,god's plans1 and it modifies the character of this apparently vindictive prayer4 ,the closing verses of this simple1 little psalm touch very familiar notes4 ,the faith which has prayed has grown so sure of answer that it already begins to think of the thank-offerings4 ,this is not like the superstitious vow1 ,i will give so-and-so if ,jupiter--or the ,virgin--will hear me4 ,this praying man knows that he is heard1 and is not so much vowing as joyfully anticipating his glad sacrifice4 ,the same incipient personification of the name as in ver4 #a is very prominent in the closing strains4 ,thank-offerings--not merely statutory and obligatory1 but brought by free1 uncommanded impulse--are to be offered to ,thy name1 because that name is good4 ,ver4 #g probably should be taken as going even further in the same direction of personification1 for ,thy name is probably to be taken as the subject of hath delivered4 ,the tenses of the verbs in ver4 #g are perfects4 ,they contemplate the deliverance as already accomplished4 ,faith sees the future as present4 ,this psalmist1 surrounded by strangers seeking his life1 can quietly stretch out a hand of faith1 and bring near to himself the to-morrow when he will look back on scattered enemies and present1 glad sacrifices6 ,that power of drawing a brighter future into a dark present belongs not to those who build anticipations on wishes1 but to those who found their forecasts on ,god's known purpose and character4 ,the name is a firm foundation for hope4 ,there is no other4 ,the closing words express confidence in the enemies' defeat and destruction1 with a tinge of feeling that is not permissible to ,christians4 ,but the supplement1 my desire1 is perhaps rather too strongly expressive of wish for their ruin4 ,possibly there needs no supplement at all1 and the expression simply paints the calm security of the man protected by ,god1 who can look upon impotent hostility without the tremor of an eyelid1 because he knows who is his ,helper4 ,,psalm ,,lv4 #a ,give ear1 ,o ,god1 to my prayer2 ,and hide not ,thyself from my entreaty4 #b ,attend unto me1 and answer me3 ,i am distracted as ,i muse1 and must groan2 #c ,for the voice of my enemy1 ,on account of the oppression of the wicked2 ,for they fling down iniquity upon me1 ,and in wrath they are hostile to me4 #d ,my heart writhes within me3 ,and terrors of death have fallen upon me4 #e ,fear and trembling come upon me1 ,horror wraps me round4 #f ,then ,i said1 ,oh that ,i had wings like a dove6 ,i would fly away1 and there abide4 #g ,lo1 then would ,i migrate far away1 ,i would lodge in the wilderness4 ,selah4 #h ,i would hasten my escape ,from stormy wind and tempest4 #i ,swallow them up1 ,lord2 confuse their tongue3 ,for ,i see violence and strife in the city4 #aj ,day and night they go their rounds upon her walls3 ,and iniquity and mischief are in her midst4 #aa ,destructions are in her midst3 ,and from her open market-place depart not oppression and deceit4 #ab ,for it is not an enemy that reviles me--that ,i could bear3 ,it is not my hater that magnifies himself against me--from him ,i could shelter myself3 #ac ,but it is thou1 a man my equal1 ,my companion1 and my familiar friend4 #ad ,we who together used to make familiar intercourse sweet1 ,and walked to the house of ,god with the crowd4 #ae ,desolations fall on them6 ,may they go down alive to ,sheol6 ,for wickednesses are in their dwelling1 in their midst4 #af ,as for me1 ,i will cry to ,god2 ,and ,jehovah will save me4 #ag ,evening1 and morning1 and noon will ,i muse and groan3 ,and ,he will hear my voice4 #ah ,he has redeemed my soul in peace1 so that they come not near me ,for in great numbers were they round me4 #ai ,god will hear1 and answer them-- ,even ,he that sitteth throned from of old-- ,selah4 ,them who have no changes ,and who fear not ,god4 #bj ,he has laid his hands on those who were at peace with him3 ,he has broken his covenant4 #ba ,smooth are the buttery words of his mouth1 ,but his heart is war3 ,softer are his words than oil1 ,yet are they drawn swords4 #bb ,cast upon ,jehovah thy burden1 ,and ,he1 ,he will hold thee up3 ,he will never let the righteous be moved4 #bc ,but ,thou1 ,o ,god1 shall bring them down to the depth of the pit3 ,men of blood and deceit shall not attain half their days2 ,but as for me1 ,i will trust in ,thee4 ,the situation of the psalmist has a general correspondence with that of ,david in the period of ,absalom's rebellion1 and the identification of the traitorous friend with ,ahithophel is naturally suggested4 ,but there are considerable difficulties in the way of taking that view4 ,the psalmist is evidently in the city1 from which he longs to escape2 but ,ahithophel's treachery was not known to ,david till after his flight4 ,would a king have described his counsellor1 however trusted1 as a man my equal8 ,the doubt respecting the identity of the traitor1 however1 does not seriously militate against the ordinary view of the date and occasion of the psalm1 if we suppose that it belongs to the period immediately before the outburst of the conspiracy1 when ,david was still in ,jerusalem1 but seeing the treason growing daily bolder1 and already beginning to contemplate flight4 ,the singularly passive attitude which he maintained during the years of ,absalom's plotting was due to his consciousness of guilt and his submission to punishment4 ,hitzig ascribes the psalm to ,jeremiah1 principally on the ground of the resemblance of the prophet's wish for a lodge in the wilderness 7,jer4 ix4 #b7 to the psalmist's yearning in vv4 #f-h4 ,cheyne brings it down to the ,persian period2 ,olshausen1 to the ,maccabean4 ,the ,davidic authorship has at least as much to say for itself as any of these conjectures4 ,the psalm may be regarded as divided into three parts1 in each of which a different phase of agitated feeling predominates1 but not exclusively4 ,strong excitement does not marshal emotions or their expression according to artistic proprieties of sequence1 and this psalm is all ablaze with it4 ,that vehemence of emotion sufficiently accounts for both the occasional obscurities and the manifest want of strict accuracy in the flow of thought1 without the assumption of dislocation of parts or piecing it with a fragment of another psalm4 ,when the heart is writhing within1 and tumultuous feelings are knocking at the door of the lips1 the words will be troubled and heaped together1 and dominant thoughts will repeat themselves in defiance of logical continuity4 ,but1 still1 complaint and longing sound through the waning1 yearning notes of vv4 #a-h2 hot indignation and terrible imprecations in the stormy central portion 7vv4 #i-ae72 and a calmer note of confidence and hope1 through which1 however1 the former indignation surges up again1 is audible in the closing verses 7vv4 #af-bc74 ,the psalmist pictures his emotions in the first part1 with but one reference to their cause1 and but one verse of petition4 ,he begins1 indeed1 with asking that his prayer may be heard2 and it is well when a troubled heart can raise itself above the sea of troubles to stretch a hand towards ,god4 ,such an effort of faith already prophesies firm footing on the safe shore4 ,but very pathetic and true to the experience of many a sorrowing heart is the psalmist's immediately subsequent dilating on his griefs4 ,there is a dumb sorrow1 and there is one which unpacks its heart in many words and knows not when to stop4 ,the psalmist is distracted in his bitter brooding on his troubles4 ,the word means to move restlessly1 and may either apply to body or mind1 perhaps to both2 for ,eastern demonstrativeness is not paralysed1 but stimulated to bodily tokens1 by sorrow4 ,he can do nothing but groan or moan4 ,his heart writhes in him4 ,like an avalanche1 deadly terrors have fallen on him and crushed him4 ,fear and trembling have pierced into his inner being1 and horror 7a rare word1 which the ,,lxx4 here renders darkness7 wraps him round or covers him1 as a cloak does4 ,it is not so much the pressure of present evil1 as the shuddering anticipation of a heavier storm about to burst1 which is indicated by these pathetic expressions4 ,the cause of them is stated in a single verse 7#c74 ,the voice of the enemy rather than his hand is mentioned first1 since threats and reproaches precede assaults2 and it is budding1 not full-blown1 enmity which is in view4 ,in ver4 #c b oppression is an imperfect parallelism with voice1 and the conjectural emendation 7which only requires the prefixing of a letter7 of cries1 adopted by ,cheyne1 after ,olshausen and others1 is tempting4 ,they fling down iniquity on him as rocks are hurled or rolled from a height on invaders--a phrase which recalls ,david's words to his servants1 urging flight before ,absalom1 lest he bring down evil upon us4 ,then1 from out of all this plaintive description of the psalmist's agitation and its causes1 starts up that immortal strain which answers to the deepest longings of the soul1 and has touched responsive chords in all whose lives are not hopelessly outward and superficial--the yearning for repose4 ,it may be ignoble1 or lofty and pure2 it may mean only cowardice or indolence2 but it is deepest in those who stand most unflinchingly at their posts1 and crush it down at the command of duty4 ,unless a soul knows that yearning for a home in stillness1 afar from the sphere of our sorrow1 it will remain a stranger to many high and noble things4 ,the psalmist was moved to utter this longing by his painful consciousness of encompassing evils2 but the longing is more than a desire for exemption from these4 ,it is the cry of the homeless soul1 which1 like the dove from the ark1 finds no resting-place in a world full of carrion1 and would fain return whence it came4 ,o ,god1 ,thou hast made us for ,thyself1 and we are unquiet till we find rest in ,thee4 ,no obligation of duty keeps migratory birds in a land where winter is near4 ,but men are better than birds1 because they have other things to think of than repose1 and must face1 not flee1 storms and hurricanes4 ,it is better to have wings like birds of tempest-loving kind1 and to beat up against the wind1 than to outfly it in retreat4 ,so the psalmist's wish was but a wish2 and he1 like the rest of us1 had to stand to his post1 or be tied to his stake1 and let enemies and storms do their worst4 ,the ,,lxx4 has a striking reading of ver4 #h1 which ,cheyne has partially adopted4 ,it reads for ver4 #h a waiting for ,him who saves me2 but beautiful as this is1 as giving the picture of the restful fugitive in patient expectation1 it brings an entirely new idea into the picture1 and blends metaphor and fact confusedly4 ,the ,selah at the close of ver4 #g deepens the sense of still repose by a prolonged instrumental interlude4 ,the second part turns from subjective feelings to objective facts4 ,a cry for help and a yearning for a safe solitude were natural results of the former2 but when the psalmist's eye turns to his enemies1 a flash of anger lights it1 and1 instead of the meek longings of the earlier verses1 prayers for their destruction are vehemently poured out4 ,the state of things in the city corresponds to what must have been the condition of ,jerusalem during the incubation of ,absalom's conspiracy1 but is sufficiently general to fit any time of strained party feeling4 ,the caldron simmers1 ready to boil over4 ,the familiar evils1 of which so many psalms complain1 are in full vigour4 ,the psalmist enumerates them with a wealth of words which indicates their abundance4 ,violence1 strife1 iniquity1 mischief1 oppression1 and deceit--a goodly company to patrol the streets and fill the open places of the city6 ,ver4 #aj a is sometimes taken as carrying on the personification of ,violence and ,strife in ver4 #i1 by painting these as going their rounds on the walls1 like sentries2 but it is better to suppose that the actual foes are meant1 and that they are keeping up a strict watch to prevent the psalmist's escape4 ,several commentators consider that the burst of indignation against the psalmist's traitorous friend in vv4 #ab-ad interrupts the sequence1 and propose rearrangements by which vv4 #bj1 #ba1 will be united with vv4 #ab-ad1 and placed either before ver4 #f or after ver4 #ae4 ,but the very abruptness with which the thought of the traitor is interjected here1 and in the subsequent reference to him1 indicates how the singer's heart was oppressed by the treason2 and the return to the subject in ver4 #bj is equally significant of his absorbed and pained brooding on the bitter fact4 ,that is a slight pain which is removed by one cry4 ,rooted griefs1 overwhelming sorrows1 demand many repetitions4 ,trouble finds ease in tautology4 ,it is absurd to look for cool1 logical sequence in such a heart's cry as this psalm4 ,smooth continuity would be most unnatural4 ,the psalmist feels that the defection of his false friend is the worst blow of all4 ,he could have braced himself to bear an enemy's reviling2 he could have found weapons to repel1 or a shelter in which to escape from1 open foes2 but the baseness which forgets all former sweet companionship in secret1 and all association in public and in worship1 is more than he can bear up against4 ,the voice of wounded love is too plain in the words for the hypothesis that the singer is the personified nation4 ,traitors are too common to allow of a very confident affirmation that the psalm must point to ,ahithophel1 and the description of the perfidious friend as the equal of the psalmist does not quite fit that case4 ,as he thinks of all the sweetness of past intimacy1 turned to gall by such dastardly treachery1 his anger rises4 ,the description of the city and of the one enemy in whom all its wickedness is1 as it were1 concentrated1 is framed in a terrible circlet of prayers for the destruction of the foes4 ,ver4 #i a begins and ver4 #ae ends this part with petitions which do not breathe the spirit of ,father1 forgive them4 ,there may be a reference to the confusion of tongues at ,babel in the prayer of ver4 #i4 ,as then the impious work was stopped by mutual unintelligibility1 so the psalmist desires that his enemies' machinations may be paralysed in like manner4 ,in ver4 #ae the translation desolations follows the ,hebrew text1 while the alternative and in some respects preferable reading ,may death come suddenly follows the ,hebrew marginal correction4 ,there are difficulties in both1 and the correction does not so much smooth the language as to be obviously an improvement4 ,the general sense is clear1 whichever reading is preferred4 ,the psalmist is calling down destruction on his enemies2 and while the fact that he is in some manner an organ of the ,divine purpose invests hostility to him with the darker character of rebellion against ,god1 and therefore modifies the personal element in the prayer1 it still remains a plain instance of the lower level on which the ,old ,testament saints and singers stood1 when compared with the least in the kingdom of heaven4 ,the third part of the psalm returns to gentler tones of devotion and trust4 ,the great name of ,jehovah appears here significantly4 ,to that ever-living ,one1 the ,covenant ,god1 will the psalmist cry1 in assurance of answer4 ,evening1 and morning1 and noon designate the whole day by its three principal divisions1 and mean1 in effect1 continually4 ,happy are they who are impelled to unintermitting prayer by the sight of unslumbering enmity6 ,enemies may go their rounds day and night1 but they will do little harm1 if the poor1 hunted man1 whom they watch so closely1 lifts his cries to ,heaven evening1 and morning1 and noon4 ,the psalmist goes back to his first words4 ,he had begun by saying that he was distracted as he mused1 and could do nothing but groan1 and in ver4 #ag he repeats that he will still do so4 ,has he1 then1 won nothing by his prayer but the prolongation of his first dreary tone of feeling8 ,he has won this--that his musing is not accompanied by distraction1 and that his groaning is not involuntary expression of pain1 but articulate prayer1 and therefore accompanied by the confidence of being heard4 ,communion with ,god and prayerful trust in his help do not at once end sadness and sobbing1 but do change their character and lighten the blackness of grief4 ,this psalmist1 like so many of his fellows1 realises deliverance before he experiences it1 and can sing ,he has redeemed my soul even while the calamity lasts4 ,they come not near me1 says he4 ,a soul hidden in ,god has an invisible defence which repels assaults4 ,as with a man in a diving-bell1 the sea may press on the crystal walls1 but cannot crush them in or enter1 and there is safe1 dry lodging inside1 while sea billows and monsters are without1 close to the diver and yet far from him4 ,ver4 #ai is full of difficulty1 and most probably has suffered some textual corruption4 ,to hear and answer is uniformly an expression for gracious hearing and beneficent answering4 ,here it can only mean the opposite1 or must be used ironically4 ,god will hear the enemies' threats1 and will requite them4 ,various expedients have been suggested for removing the difficulty4 ,it has been proposed to read me for them1 which would bring everything into order--only that1 then1 the last clauses of the verse1 which begin with a relative 7who have no changes1 etc471 would want an antecedent4 ,it has been proposed to read will humble them for will answer them1 which is the ,,lxx4 translation4 ,that requires a change in the vowels of the verb1 and answer is more probable than humble after hear4 ,cheyne follows ,olshausen in supposing that the cry of the afflicted has dropped out after hear4 ,the construction of ver4 #ai b is anomalous1 as the clause is introduced by a superfluous and1 which may be a copyist's error4 ,the ,selah attached is no less anomalous4 ,it is especially difficult to explain1 in view of the relative which begins the third clause1 and which would otherwise be naturally brought into close connection with the them1 the objects of the verbs in a4 ,these considerations lead ,hupfeld to regard ver4 #ai as properly ending with ,selah1 and the remaining clauses as out of place1 and properly belonging to ver4 #ae or #ah2 while ,cheyne regards the alternative supposition that they are a fragment of another psalm as possible4 ,there is probably some considerable corruption of the text1 not now to be remedied2 but the existing reading is at least capable of explanation and defence4 ,the principal difficulty in the latter part of ver4 #ai is the meaning of the word rendered changes4 ,the persons spoken of are those whom ,god will hear and answer in ,his judicial character1 in which ,he has been throned from of old4 ,their not having changes is closely connected with their not fearing ,god4 ,the word is elsewhere used for changes of raiment1 or for the relief of military guards4 ,calvin and others take the changes intended to be vicissitudes of fortune1 and hence draw the true thought that unbroken prosperity tends to forgetfulness of ,god4 ,others take the changes to be those of mind or conduct from evil to good1 while others fall back upon the metaphor of relieving guard1 which they connect with the picture in ver4 #aj of the patrols on the walls1 so getting the meaning they have no cessation in their wicked watchfulness4 ,it must be acknowledged that none of these meanings is quite satisfactory2 but probably the first1 which expresses the familiar thought of the godlessness attendant on uninterrupted prosperity1 is best4 ,then follows another reference to the traitorous friend1 which1 by its very abruptness1 declares how deep is the wound he has inflicted4 ,the psalmist does not stand alone4 ,he classes with himself those who remained faithful to him4 ,the traitor has not yet thrown off his mask1 though the psalmist has penetrated his still retained disguise4 ,he comes with smooth words2 but1 in the vigorous language of ver4 #ba1 his heart is war4 ,the fawning softness of words known to be false cuts into the heart1 which had trusted and knows itself betrayed1 more sharply than keen steel4 ,ver4 #bb has been singularly taken as the smooth words which cut so deep2 but surely that is a very strained interpretation4 ,much rather does the psalmist exhort himself and all who have the same bitterness to taste1 to commit themselves to ,jehovah4 ,what is it which he exhorts us to cast on ,him8 ,the word employed is used here only1 and its meaning is therefore questionable4 ,the ,,lxx4 and others translate care4 ,others1 relying on ,talmudic usage1 prefer burden1 which is appropriate to the following promise of being held erect4 ,others 7,hupfeld1 etc47 would read that which ,he has given thee4 ,the general sense is clear1 and the faith expressed in both exhortation and appended promise has been won by the singer through his prayer4 ,he is counselling and encouraging himself4 ,the spirit has to spur the soul to heroisms of faith and patience4 ,he is declaring a universal truth4 ,however crushing our loads of duty or of sorrow1 we receive strength to carry them with straight backs1 if we cast them on ,jehovah4 ,the promise is not that ,he will take away the pressure1 but that ,he will hold us up under it2 and1 similarly1 the last clause declares that the righteous will not be allowed to stumble4 ,faith is mentioned before righteousness4 ,the two must go together2 for trust which is not accompanied and manifested by righteousness is no true trust1 and righteousness which is not grounded in trust is no stable or real righteousness4 ,the last verse sums up the diverse fates of the men of blood and deceit and of the psalmist4 ,the terrible prayers of the middle portion of the psalm have wrought the assurance of their fulfilment1 just as the cries of faith have brought the certainty of theirs4 ,so the two closing verses of the psalm turn both parts of the earlier petitions into prophecies2 and over against the trustful1 righteous psalmist1 standing erect and unmoved1 there is set the picture of the man of blood and deceit1 chased down the black slopes to the depths of destruction by the same ,god whose hand holds up the man that trusts in ,him4 ,it is a dreadful contrast1 and the spirit of the whole psalm is gathered into it4 ,the last clause of all makes ,i emphatic4 ,it expresses the final resolution which springs in the singer's heart in view of that dread picture of destruction and those assurances of support4 ,he recoils from the edge of the pit1 and eagerly opens his bosom for the promised blessing4 ,well for us if the upshot of all our meditations on the painful riddle of this unintelligible world1 and of all our burdens and of all our experiences and of our observation of other men's careers1 is the absolute determination1 ,as for me1 ,i will trust in ,jehovah6 ,,psalm ,,lvi4 #a ,be gracious to me1 ,o ,god2 for man would swallow me up3 ,all day the fighting oppresses me4 #b ,my liers-in-wait would swallow me up all the day3 ,for many proudly fight against me4 #c ,in the day when ,i fear1 ,i will trust in ,thee4 #d ,in ,god do ,i praise ,his word3 ,in ,god do ,i trust1 ,i will not fear2 ,what can flesh do to me8 #e ,all day they wrest my words2 ,all their thoughts are against me for evil4 #f ,they gather together1 they set spies1 ,they mark my steps1 ,even as they have waited for my soul4 #g ,shall there be escape for them because of iniquity8 ,in anger cast down the peoples1 ,o ,god4 #h ,my wanderings hast ,thou reckoned3 ,put ,thou my tears into ,thy bottle2 ,are they not in ,thy reckoning8 #i ,then shall my enemies turn back in the day when ,i call3 ,this ,i know1 that ,god is for me 7or mine74 #aj ,in ,god will ,i praise the word3 ,in ,jehovah will ,i praise the word4 #aa ,in ,god have ,i trusted1 ,i will not fear2 ,what can man do to me8 #ab ,upon me1 ,o ,god1 are ,thy vows3 ,i will requite praises to ,thee4 #ac ,for ,thou hast delivered my soul from death3 ,hast ,thou not delivered my feet from stumbling8 ,that ,i may walk before ,god in the light of the living4 ,the superscription dates this psalm from the time of ,david's being in ,gath4 ,probably his first stay there is meant1 during which he had recourse to feigned insanity in order to secure his safety4 ,what a contrast between the seeming idiot scrabbling on the walls and the saintly singer of this lovely song of purest trust6 ,but striking as the contrast is1 it is not too violent to be possible4 ,such heroic faith might lie very near such employment of pardonable dissimulation1 even if the two moods of feeling can scarcely have been contemporaneous4 ,swift transitions characterise the poetic temperament2 and1 alas6 fluctuations of courage and faith characterise the devout soul4 ,nothing in the psalm specially suggests the date assigned in the superscription2 but1 as we have already had occasion to remark1 that may be an argument for1 not against1 the correctness of the superscription4 ,the psalm is simple in structure4 ,like others ascribed to ,david during the ,sauline period1 it has a refrain1 which divides it into two parts2 but these are of substantially the same purport1 with the difference that the second part enlarges the description of the enemies' assaults1 and rises to confident anticipation of their defeat4 ,in that confidence the singer adds a closing expression of thankfulness for the deliverance already realised in faith4 ,the first part begins with that significant contrast which is the basis of all peaceful fronting of a hostile world or any evil4 ,on one side stands man1 whose very name here suggests feebleness1 and on the other is ,god4 ,man in ver4 #a is plainly a collective4 ,the psalmist masses the foes1 whom he afterwards individualises and knows only too well to be a multitude1 under that generic appellation1 which brings out their inherent frailty4 ,be they ever so many1 still they all belong to the same class1 and an infinite number of nothings only sums up into nothing4 ,the ,divine ,unit is more than all these4 ,the enemy is said to pant after the psalmist1 as a wild beast open-mouthed and ready to devour2 or1 according to others1 the word means to crush4 ,the thing meant by the strong metaphor is given in ver4 #a b4 #b2 namely1 the continual hostile activity of the foe4 ,the word rendered proudly is literally on high1 and ,baethgen suggests that the literal meaning should be retained4 ,he supposes that the antagonists held an influential position in a princely court4 ,even more literally the word may describe the enemies as occupying a post of vantage1 from which they shower down missiles4 ,one brief verse1 the brevity of which gives it emphasis1 tells of the singer's fears1 and of how he silences them by the dead lift of effort by which he constrains himself to trust4 ,it is a strangely shallow view which finds a contradiction in this utterance1 which all hearts1 that have ever won calmness in agitation and security amid encompassing dangers by the same means1 know to correspond to their own experience4 ,if there is no fear1 there is little trust4 ,the two do co-exist4 ,the eye that takes in only visible facts on the earthly level supplies the heart with abundant reasons for fear4 ,but it rests with ourselves whether we shall yield to those1 or whether1 by lifting our eyes higher and fixing the vision on the ,unseen and on ,him who is invisible1 we shall call such an ally to our side as shall make fear and doubt impossible4 ,we have little power of directly controlling fear or any other feeling1 but we can determine the objects on which we shall fix attention4 ,if we choose to look at man1 we shall be unreasonable if we do not fear2 if we choose to look at ,god1 we shall be more unreasonable if we do not trust4 ,the one antagonist of fear is faith4 ,trust is a voluntary action for which we are responsible4 ,the frequent use of the phrase ,in the day when is noticeable4 ,it occurs in each verse of the first part1 excepting the refrain4 ,the antagonists are continually at work1 and the psalmist1 on his part1 strives to meet their machinations and to subdue his own fears with as continuous a faith4 ,the phrase recurs in the second part in a similar connection4 ,thus1 then1 the situation as set forth in the first part has three elements1--the busy malice of the foes2 the effort of the psalmist1 his only weapon against them1 to hold fast his confidence2 and the power and majesty of ,god1 who will be gracious when besought4 ,the refrain gathers up these three in a significantly different order4 ,the preceding verses arranged them thus--,god1 man1 the trusting singer4 ,the refrain puts them thus--,god1 the trusting singer1 man4 ,when the close union between a soul and ,god is clearly seen and inwardly felt1 the importance of the enemies dwindles4 ,when faith is in the act of springing up1 ,god1 the refuge1 and man1 the source of apprehension1 stand over against each other1 and the suppliant1 looking on both1 draws near to ,god4 ,but when faith has fruited1 the believing soul is coupled so closely to the ,divine ,object of its faith1 that ,he and it are contemplated as joined in blessed reciprocity of protection and trust1 and enemies are in an outer region1 where they cannot disturb its intercourse with its ,god4 ,the order of thought in the refrain is also striking4 ,first1 the singer praises ,god's word4 ,by ,god's gracious help he knows that he will receive the fulfilment of ,god's promises 7not necessarily any special word1 such as the promise of a throne to ,david74 ,and then1 on the experience of ,god's faithfulness thus won1 is reared a further structure of trust1 which completely subdues fear4 ,this is the reward of the effort after faith which the psalmist made4 ,he who begins with determining not to fear will get such tokens of ,god's troth that fear will melt away like a cloud1 and he will find his sky cleared1 as the nightly heavens are swept free of cloud-rack by the meek moonlight4 ,the second part covers the same ground4 ,trust1 like love1 never finds it grievous to write the same things4 ,there is delight1 and there is strengthening for the temper of faith1 in repeating the contemplation of the earthly facts which make it necessary1 and the super-sensuous facts which make it blessed4 ,a certain expansion of the various parts of the theme1 as compared with the first portion of the psalm1 is obvious4 ,again the phrase all the day occurs in reference to the unwearying hostility which dogs the singer4 ,they wrest my words may be1 as ,cheyne prefers1 ,they torture me with words4 ,that rendering would supply a standing feature of the class of psalms to which this belongs4 ,the furtive assembling1 the stealthy setting of spies who watch his steps 7lit4 heels1 as ready to spring on him from behind71 are no new things1 but are in accordance with what has long been the enemies' practice4 ,ver4 #g brings in a new element not found in the first part--namely1 the prayer for the destruction of these unwearied watchers4 ,its first clause is obscure4 ,if the present text is adhered to1 the rendering of the clause as a question is best4 ,a suggested textual correction has been largely adopted by recent commentators1 which by a very slight alteration gives the meaning ,for their iniquity requite them4 ,the alteration1 however1 is not necessary1 and the existing text may be retained1 though the phrase is singular4 ,the introduction of a prayer for a world-wide judgment in the midst of so intensely individual a psalm is remarkable1 and favours the theory that the afflicted man of the psalm is really the nation2 but it may be explained on the ground that1 as in ,psalm vii4 #h1 the judgment on behalf of one man is contemplated as only one smaller manifestation of the same judicial activity which brings about the universal judgment4 ,this single reference to the theme which fills so considerable a part of the other psalms of this class is in harmony with the whole tone of this gem of quiet faith1 which is too much occupied with the blessedness of its own trust to have many thoughts of the end of others4 ,it passes1 therefore1 quickly1 to dwell on yet another phase of that blessedness4 ,the tender words of ver4 #h need little elucidation4 ,they have brought comfort to many1 and have helped to dry many tears4 ,how the psalmist presses close to ,god1 and how sure he is of ,his gentle care and love6 ,thou reckonest my wandering4 ,the thought is remarkable1 both in its realisation of ,god's individualising relation to the soul that trusts ,him1 and as in some degree favouring the ,davidic authorship4 ,the hunted fugitive feels that every step of his weary interlacing tracks1 as he stole from point to point as danger dictated1 was known to ,god4 ,the second clause of the verse is thought by prosaic commentators to interrupt the sequence1 because it interjects a petition between two statements2 but surely nothing is more natural than such an interruption4 ,what a lovely figure is that of ,god's treasuring up ,his servants' tears in ,his bottle1 the skin in which liquids were kept6 ,what does ,he keep them for8 ,to show how precious they are in ,his sight1 and perhaps to suggest that they are preserved for a future use4 ,the tears that ,his children shed and give to ,him to keep cannot be tears of rebellious or unmeasured weeping1 and will be given back one day to those who shed them1 converted into refreshment1 by the same ,power which of old turned water into wine4 ,think not thou canst weep a tear1 ,and thy ,maker is not near4 ,not only in order to minister retribution to those who inflicted them1 but also in order to give recompense of gladness to weepers1 are these tears preserved by ,god2 and the same idea is repeated by the other metaphor of ver4 #h c4 ,god's book1 or reckoning1 contains the count of all the tears as well as wanderings of ,his servant4 ,the certainty that it is so is expressed by the interrogative form of the clause4 ,the then of ver4 #i may be either temporal or logical4 ,it may mean things being so1 or in consequence of this1 or it may mean at the time when1 and may refer to the further specification of period in the next clause4 ,that same day which has already been designated as that of the enemies' panting after the psalmist's life1 and wresting of his words1 and1 on the other hand1 as that of his fear1 is now the time of his prayer1 and consequently of their defeat and flight4 ,the confidence which struggled with fear in the closing words of the first part1 is now consolidated into certain knowledge that ,god is on the singer's side1 and in a very deep sense belongs to him4 ,this is the foundation of his hope of deliverance2 and in this clear knowledge he chants once more his refrain4 ,as is often the case1 slight differences1 mainly due to artistic love of variety in uniformity1 occur in the repeated refrain4 ,word stands instead of ,his word2 man1 instead of flesh2 and a line is intercalated1 in which ,jehovah is substituted for ,god4 ,the addition may be a later interpolation1 but is probably part of the original text1 and due to the same intelligible motives which prompted the occasional use of the great ,covenant ,name in the ,elohistic psalms of this second book4 ,the psalmist's exuberant confidence overflows the limits of his song1 in a closing couple of verses which are outside its scheme4 ,so sure is he of deliverance1 that1 as often in similar psalms1 his thoughts are busied in preparing his sacrifice of thanks before the actual advent of the mercy for which it is to be offered4 ,such swift-footed ,gratitude is the daughter of very vivid ,faith4 ,the ground of the thankoffering is deliverance of the soul1 for which foes have waited4 ,thou hast delivered is a perfect tense expressing confidence in the certainty of the as yet unrealised exercise of ,god's power4 ,the question of ver4 #ac b1 like that of ver4 #h c 7and perhaps that of ver4 #g a71 is an emphatic affirmation1 and the verb to be supplied is not ,wilt thou8 as the ,a4,v4 has it1 but1 as is plain from the context1 and from the quotation of this verse in ,psalm cxvi4 #h1 ,hast thou8 ,the ,divine deliverance is complete1--not only doing the greater1 but also the less2 and not barely saving life1 but sustaining the steps4 ,god does not rescue by halves1 either in the natural or spiritual realm2 but in the former ,he first rescues and next preserves1 and in the latter ,he delivers from the true death of the spirit1 and then inspires to glad obedience4 ,the psalm crowns its celebration of ,god's miracles of deliverance by declaring the aim of them all to be that their recipient may walk before ,god--i4e41 in continual consciousness of ,his cognisance of his deeds1 and in the light of the living or of life4 ,the expression seems here to mean simply the present life1 as contrasted with the darkness and inactivity of ,sheol2 but we can scarcely help remembering the deeper meaning given to it by ,him who said that to follow ,him was to have the light of life4 ,whether any dim foreboding of a better light than streams from even an ,eastern sun1 and of a truer life than the vain shadow which men call by that august name1 floated before the singer or not1 we can thankfully interpret his words1 so as to make them the utterance of the ,christian consciousness that the ultimate design of all ,god's deliverances of souls from death and of feet from falling is that1 not only in ways of holiness here1 but in the more perfect consciousness of ,his greater nearness hereafter1 and in correspondingly increased perfectness of active service1 we should walk before ,god in the light of the living4 ,,psalm ,,lvii4 #a ,be gracious to me1 ,o ,god1 be gracious to me2 ,for in ,thee has my soul taken refuge3 ,and in the shadow of ,thy wings will ,i take refuge1 ,until the tempest of destructions is gone by4 #b ,i will cry to ,god ,most ,high2 ,to ,god who accomplishes for me4 #c ,he will send from heaven1 and save me2 ,for ,he that would swallow me up blasphemes4 ,selah4 ,god shall send ,his ,loving-kindness and ,his ,troth4 #d ,my soul is among lions2 ,i must lie down among those who breathe out fire-- ,sons of men1 whose teeth are spear and arrows1 ,their tongue a sharp sword4 #e ,exalt ,thyself above the heavens1 ,o ,god1 ,above all the earth ,thy glory4 #f ,a net have they prepared for my steps3 ,they have bowed down my soul3 ,they have digged before me a pit2 ,they have fallen into the midst of it4 ,selah4 #g ,steadfast is my heart1 ,o ,god1 steadfast is my heart3 ,i will sing and harp4 #h ,awake1 my glory2 awake1 harp and lute3 ,i will wake the dawn4 #i ,i will give ,thee thanks among the peoples1 ,o ,lord3 ,i will harp to ,thee among the nations4 #aj ,for great unto the heavens is ,thy ,loving-kindness1 ,and unto the clouds ,thy ,troth4 #aa ,exalt ,thyself above the heavens1 ,o ,god1 ,above all the earth ,thy glory4 ,this psalm resembles the preceding in the singer's circumstances of peril and in his bold faith4 ,it has also points of contact in the cry1 ,be gracious1 and in the remarkable expression for enemies1 ,those that would swallow me up4 ,it has also several features in common with the other psalms ascribed by the superscriptions to the time of the ,sauline persecution4 ,like ,psalm vii4 are the metaphor of lions for enemies1 that of digging a pit for their plots1 the use of glory as a synonym for soul4 ,the difficult word rendered destructions in ver4 #a connects this psalm with ,psalm lv4 #aa1 dated as belonging to the time of ,saul's hostility1 and with ,psalms v4 #i and xxxviii4 #ab1 both traditionally ,davidic4 ,there is nothing in the psalm against the attribution of it to ,david in the cave1 whether of ,adullam or ,engedi1 and the allusions to lying down among lions may possibly have been suggested by the wild beasts prowling round the psalmist's shelter4 ,the use in ver4 #a of the picturesque word for taking refuge derives special appropriateness from the circumstances of the fugitive1 over whose else defenceless head the sides of his cave arched themselves like great wings1 beneath which he lay safe1 though the growls of beasts of prey echoed round4 ,but there is no need to seek for further certainty as to the occasion of the psalm4 ,baethgen thinks that it can only have been composed after the annihilation of the independence of the ,israelite state1 because the vow in ver4 #i to make ,god's name known among the nations can only be the utterance of the oppressed congregation1 which is sure of deliverance1 because it is conscious of its ,divine call to sing ,god's praise to heathens4 ,but that vow is equally explicable on the assumption that the individual singer was conscious of such a call4 ,there is no very sharp division of parts in the psalm4 ,a grand refrain separates it into two portions1 in the former of which prayer for deliverance and contemplation of dangers prevail1 while in the latter the foe is beheld as already baffled1 and exuberant praise is poured forth and vowed4 ,as in ,psalm liv4 and often1 the first part begins with an act of faith reaching out to ,god1 and strengthening itself by the contemplation of ,his character and acts4 ,that energy of confidence wins assurance of help1 and only after that calming certitude has filled the soul does the psalmist turn his eye directly on his enemies4 ,his faith does not make him oblivious of his danger1 but it minimises his dread4 ,an eye that has seen ,god sees little terror in the most terrible things4 ,the psalmist knows that a soul which trusts has a right to ,god's gracious dealings1 and he is not afraid to urge his confidence as a plea with ,god4 ,the boldness of the plea is not less indicative of the depth and purity of his religious experience than are the tender metaphors in which it is expressed4 ,what truer or richer description of trust could be given than that which likens it to the act of a fugitive betaking himself to the shelter of some mountain fastness1 impregnable and inaccessible8 ,what lovelier thought of the safe1 warm hiding-place which ,god affords was ever spoken than that of the shadow of ,thy wings8 ,very significant is the recurrence of the same verb in two different tenses in two successive clauses 7#a b1 c74 ,the psalmist heartens himself for present and future trust by remembrance of past days1 when he exercised it and was not put to shame4 ,that faith is blessed1 and cannot but be strong1 which is nurtured by the remembrance of past acts of rewarded faith1 as the leaves of bygone summers make rich mould for a new generation of flowers4 ,when kites are in the sky1 young birds seek protection from the mother's wing as well as warmth from her breast4 ,so the singer betakes himself to his shelter till destructions are gone by4 ,possibly these are likened to a wild storm which sweeps across the land1 but is not felt in the stillness of the cave fortress4 ,hidden in ,god1 a man heareth not the loud winds when they call1 and may solace himself in the midst of their roar by the thought that they will soon blow over4 ,he will not cease to take refuge in ,god when the stress is past1 nor throw off his cloak when the rain ceases2 but he will nestle close while it lasts1 and have as his reward the clear certainty of its transiency4 ,the faith which clings to ,god after the tempest is no less close than that which screened itself in ,him while it raged4 ,hidden in his shelter1 the psalmist1 in ver4 #b1 tells himself the grounds on which he may be sure that his cry to ,god will not be in vain4 ,his name is ,most ,high1 and ,his elevation is the pledge of ,his irresistible might4 ,he is the ,god 7the ,strong7 who accomplishes all for the psalmist which he needs1 and ,his past manifestations in that character make ,his future interventions certain4 ,therefore the singer is sure of what will happen4 ,two bright angels--,loving-kindness and ,troth or ,faithfulness their names--will be despatched from heaven for the rescue of the man who has trusted4 ,that is certain1 because of what ,god is and has done4 ,it is no less certain1 because of what the psalmist is and has done2 for a soul that gazes on ,god as its sole ,helper1 and has pressed1 in its feebleness1 close beneath these mighty pinions1 cannot but bring down angel helpers1 the executants of ,god's love4 ,the confidence expressed in ver4 #b is interrupted by an abrupt glance at the enemy4 ,he that would swallow me up blasphemes is the most probable rendering of a difficult phrase1 the meaning and connection of which are both dubious4 ,if it is so rendered1 the connection is probably that which we have expressed in the translation by inserting ,for4 ,the wish to destroy the psalmist is itself blasphemy1 or is accompanied with blasphemy2 and therefore ,god will surely send down what will bring it to nought4 ,the same identification of his own cause with ,god's1 which marks many of the psalms ascribed to the persecuted ,david1 underlies this sudden reference to the enemy1 and warrants the conclusion drawn1 that help will come4 ,the ,selah at the end of the clause is unusual in the middle of a verse2 but it may be intended to underscore1 as it were1 the impiety of the enemy1 and so corresponds with the other ,selah in ver4 #f1 which is also in an unusual place1 and points attention to the enemy's ruin1 as this does to his wickedness4 ,the description of the psalmist's circumstances in ver4 #d presents considerable difficulty4 ,the division of clauses1 the force of the form of the verb rendered ,i must lie down1 and the meaning and construction of the word rendered those who breathe out fire1 are all questionable4 ,if the accents are adhered to1 the first clause of the verse is ,my soul is among lions4 ,that is by some--e4g41 ,delitzsch--regarded as literal description of the psalmist's environment1 but it is more natural to suppose that he is applying a familiar metaphor to his enemies4 ,in v4 #d b the verb rendered above ,i must lie down is in a form which has usually a cohortative or optative force1 and is by some supposed to have that meaning here1 and to express trust which is willing to lie down even in a lion's den4 ,it seems1 however1 here to denote objective necessity rather than subjective willingness4 ,hupfeld would read lies down 7third person71 thus making ,my soul the subject of the verb1 and getting rid of the difficult optative form4 ,cheyne suggests a further slight alteration in the word1 so as to read1 ,my soul hath dwelt--a phrase found in ,psalm cxx4 #f2 and this emendation is tempting4 ,the word rendered those who breathe out fire is by some taken to mean those who devour1 and is variously construed1 as referring to the lions in a1 taken literally1 or as describing the sons of men in c4 ,the general drift of the verse is clear4 ,the psalmist is surrounded by enemies1 whom he compares1 as the ,davidic psalms habitually do1 to wild beasts4 ,they are ready to rend4 ,open-mouthed they seem to breathe out flames1 and their slanders cut like swords4 ,the psalmist's contemplation of his forlorn lair among men worse than beasts of prey drives him back to realise again his refuge in ,god4 ,he1 as it were1 wrenches his mind round to look at ,god rather than at the enemies4 ,clear perception of peril and weakness does its best work1 when it drives to as clear recognition of ,god's help1 and wings faithful prayer4 ,the psalmist1 in his noble refrain1 has passed beyond the purely personal aspect of the desired deliverance1 and wishes not only that he may be shielded from his foes1 but that ,god would1 in that deliverance1 manifest ,himself in ,his elevation above and power over all created things4 ,to conceive of his experience as thus contributing to ,god's world-wide glory seems presumptuous2 but even apart from the consideration that the psalmist was conscious of a world-wide mission1 the lowliest suppliant has a right to feel that his deliverance will enhance the lustre of that ,glory2 and the lowlier he feels himself1 the more wonderful is its manifestations in his well-being4 ,but if there is a strange note in the apparent audacity of this identification1 there is a deep one of self-suppression in the fading from the psalmist's prayer of all mention of himself1 and the exclusive contemplation of the effects on the manifestation of ,god's character1 which may follow his deliverance4 ,it is a rare and lofty attainment to regard one's own well-being mainly in its connection with ,god's glory1 and to desire the latter more consciously and deeply than the former4 ,it has been proposed by ,hupfeld to transpose vv4 #e1 #f1 on the ground that a recurrence to the description of dangers is out of place after the refrain1 and incongruous with the tone of the second part of the psalm4 ,but do the psalmists observe such accuracy in the flow of their emotions8 and is it not natural for a highly emotional lyric like this to allow some surge of feeling to run over its barriers8 ,the reference to the enemies in ver4 #f is of a triumphant sort1 which naturally prepares for the burst of praise following1 and worthily follows even the lyrical elevation of the refrain4 ,the perfects seem at first sight to refer to past deliverances1 which the psalmist recalls in order to assure himself of future ones4 ,but this retrospective reference is not necessary1 and the whole description in ver4 #f is rather to be taken as that of approaching retribution on the foes1 which is so certain to come that the singer celebrates it as already as good as done4 ,the familiar figures of the net and pit1 by both of which wild animals are caught1 and the as familiar picture of the hunter trapped in his own pitfall1 need no elucidation4 ,there is a grim irony of events1 which often seems to delight in showing the engineer hoised with his own petard2 and whether that spectacle is forthcoming or not1 the automatic effects of wrongdoing always follow1 and no man digs pits for others but somehow and somewhen he finds himself at the bottom of them1 and his net wrapped round his own limbs4 ,the ,selah at the end of ver4 #f calls spectators to gather1 as it were1 round the sight of the ensnared plotter1 lying helpless down there4 ,a slight correction of the text does away with a difficulty in ver4 #f b4 ,the verb there is transitive1 and in the existing text is in the singular1 but ,he has bowed down my soul would be awkward1 though not impossible1 when coming between two clauses in which the enemies are spoken of in the plural4 ,the emendation of the verb to the third person plural by the addition of a letter brings the clauses into line1 and retains the usual force of the verb4 ,the psalmist has done with the enemies2 they are at the bottom of the pit4 ,in full confidence of triumph and deliverance1 he breaks out into a grand burst of praise4 ,my heart is fixed1 or steadfast4 ,twice the psalmist repeats this1 as he does other emphatic thoughts1 in this psalm 7cp4 vv4 #b1 #d1 #h1 #i74 ,what power can steady that fluttering1 wayward1 agitated thing1 a human heart8 ,the way to keep light articles fixed on deck1 amidst rolling seas and howling winds1 is to lash them to something fixed2 and the way to steady a heart is to bind it to ,god4 ,built into the ,rock1 the building partakes of the steadfastness of its foundation4 ,knit to ,god1 a heart is firm4 ,the psalmist's was steadfast because it had taken refuge in ,god2 and so1 even before his rescue from his enemies came to pass1 he was emancipated from the fear of them1 and could lift this song of praise4 ,he had said that he must lie down among lions4 ,but wherever his bed may be1 he is sure that he will rise from it2 and however dark the night1 he is sure that a morning will come4 ,in a bold and beautiful figure he says that he will wake the dawn with his song4 ,the world-wide destination of his praise is clear to him4 ,it is plain that such anticipations as those of ver4 #i surpass the ordinary poetic consciousness1 and must be accounted for on some special ground4 ,the favourite explanation at present is that the singer is ,israel1 conscious of its mission4 ,the old explanation that the singer is a king1 conscious of his inspiration and divinely given office1 equally meets the case4 ,the psalmist had declared his trust that ,god would send out ,his angels of ,loving-kindness and ,troth4 ,he ends his song with the conviction1 which has become to him matter of experience1 that these ,divine attributes tower to heaven1 and in their height symbolise their own infinitude4 ,nor is the other truth suggested by ver4 #aj to be passed over1 that the manifestation of these attributes on earth leads to their being more gloriously visible in heaven4 ,these two angels1 who come forth from on high to do ,god's errands for ,his poor1 trusting servant1 go back1 their work done1 and are hailed as victors by the celestial inhabitants4 ,by ,god's manifestation of these attributes to a man1 ,his glory is exalted above the heavens and all the earth4 ,the same thought is more definitely expressed in ,paul's declaration that to the principalities and powers in heavenly places is known by the ,church the manifold wisdom of ,god4 ,,psalm ,,lviii4 #a ,do ye indeed speak righteousness1 ,o ye gods8 ,in uprightness do ye judge the sons of men8 #b ,yea1 in heart ye work iniquity2 ,in the earth ye weigh out the violence of your hands4 #c ,the wicked are estranged from the womb3 ,gone astray from birth are the speakers of lies4 #d ,their poison is like the poison of a serpent1 ,like the deaf adder that stops its ear1 #e ,that will not hearken to the voice of the charmers1 ,the skilled weaver of spells4 #f ,o ,god1 break their teeth in their mouth3 ,the grinders of the young lions wrench out1 ,jehovah4 #g ,let them melt like waters that run themselves dry3 ,when he shoots his arrows1 let them be as if pointless4 #h ,let them be as a slug that dissolves as it crawls3 ,as the premature birth of a woman1 that has not seen the sun4 #i ,before your pots feel the thorns1 ,whether it be green or burning1 ,he shall whirl it away4 #aj ,the righteous shall rejoice that he has beheld the vengeance3 ,his footsteps shall he bathe in the blood of the wicked4 #aa ,and men shall say1 ,surely there is fruit for the righteous3 ,surely there is a ,god judging in the earth4 ,this psalmist's fiery indignation against unjust judges and evil-doers generally is not kindled by personal wrongs4 ,the psalm comes hot from a heart lacerated by the sight of widespread corruption1 and constrained to seek for patience in the thought of the swift sweeping away of evil men before their plans are effected4 ,stern triumph in the punitive manifestations of ,god's rule1 and keen sense of the need of such1 are its keynotes4 ,vehement emotion stirs the poet's imagination to heap together strong and1 in part1 obscure metaphors4 ,here emphatically ,indignatio facit versus4 ,the psalm is ,dantesque in its wealth of sombre imagination1 which produces the most solemn effects with the homeliest metaphors1 and in its awed and yet satisfied contemplation of the fate of evil-doers4 ,it parts itself into three portions1--a dark picture of abounding evil 7vv4 #a-e72 it's punishment prayed for 7vv4 #f-i72 and the consequent joy of the righteous and widespread recognition of the rule of a just ,god 7vv4 #aj1 #aa74 ,the abrupt question of ver4 #a speaks of long pent-up indignation1 excited by protracted experience of injustice1 and anticipates the necessary negative answer which follows4 ,the word rendered by the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 in silence or dumb can scarcely be twisted into intelligibility1 and the small alteration of reading required for the rendering gods is recommended by the similar expressions in the kindred ,psalm lxxxii4 ,taken thus1 the question is hurled at the appointed depositaries of judicial power and supreme authority4 ,there is no need to suppose1 with ,hupfeld and others1 whom ,cheyne follows1 that these gods are supernatural beings intrusted with the government of the world4 ,the explanation of the name lies in the conception of such power as bestowed by ,god1 and in some sense a delegation of ,his attribute2 or1 as our ,lord explained the similar name in ,psalm lxxxii41 as given because to them the word of ,god came4 ,it sets in sinister light the flagrant contradiction between the spirit in which these men exercised their office and the source from which they derived it1 and thus sharpens the reproach of the question4 ,the answer is introduced by a particle conveying a strong opposition to the previous supposition couched in the question4 ,heart and hands are so obviously antithetical1 that the alteration of in heart to ye all is not acceptable1 though it removes the incongruity of plans being wrought in the heart1 the seat of devices1 not of actions4 ,work may be here used anomalously1 as we say work out1 implying the careful preparation of a plan1 and there may even be a hint that the true acts are the undone acts of the heart4 ,the unaccomplished purpose is a deed1 though never clothed in outward fact4 ,evil determined is1 in a profound sense1 done before it is done2 and1 in another equally solemn1 not done when 'tis done1 as ,macbeth has taught us4 ,the act1 as men call it1 follows3 ,in the earth--not only in the heart--ye weigh out the violence of your hands4 ,the scales of justice are untrue4 ,instead of dispensing equity1 as they were bound to do1 they clash into the balance the weight of their own violence4 ,it is to be noted that the psalm says no more about the sins of unjust authorities1 but passes on to describe the wicked generally4 ,the transition may suggest that under unjust rulers all wrongdoers find impunity1 and so multiply and worsen2 or it may simply be that these former are now merged in the class to which they belong4 ,the type of wickedness gibbeted is the familiar one of malicious calumniators and persecutors4 ,from birth onwards they have continuously been doers of evil4 ,the psalmist is not laying down theological propositions about heredity1 but describing the inveterate habit of sin which has become a second nature1 and makes amendment hopeless4 ,the reference to lies naturally suggests the image of the serpent's poison4 ,an envenomed tongue is worse than any snake's bite4 ,and the mention of the serpent stimulates the poet's imagination to yet another figure1 which puts most graphically that disregard of warnings1 entreaties1 and every voice1 human or ,divine1 that marks long-practised1 customary sinfulness4 ,there can be no more striking symbol of determined disregard to the calls of patient ,love and the threats of outraged ,justice than that of the snake lying coiled1 with its head in the centre of its motionless folds1 as if its ears were stopped by its own bulk1 while the enchanter plays his softest notes and speaks his strongest spells in vain4 ,there are such men1 thinks this psalmist4 ,there are none whom the mightiest spell1 that of ,god's love in ,christ1 could not conquer and free from their poison2 but there are such as will close their ears to its plaintive sweetness4 ,this is the condemnation that light is come and men love darkness1 and had rather lie coiled in their holes than have their fangs extracted4 ,the general drift of the second part 7vv4 #f-i7 is to call down ,divine retribution on these obstinate1 irreclaimable evil-doers4 ,figure is heaped on figure in a fashion suggestive of intense emotion4 ,the transiency of insolent evil1 the completeness of its destruction1 are the thoughts common to them all4 ,there are difficulties in translation1 and1 in ver4 #i1 probable textual corruption2 but these should not hide the tremendous power of gloomy imagination1 which can lay hold of vulgar and in part loathsome things1 and1 by sheer force of its own solemn insight1 can free them from all low or grotesque associations1 and turn them into awful symbols4 ,the intense desire for the sweeping away of evil-doers has met us in many previous psalms1 and it is needless to repeat former observations on it4 ,but it is nowhere expressed with such a wealth of metaphor as here4 ,the first of these1 that of crushing the jaws and breaking the teeth of a beast of prey1 occurs also in ,psalm iii4 #g4 ,it is less terrible than the subsequent imprecations1 since it only contemplates the wickeds' deprivation of power to do harm4 ,in ver4 #g a their destruction is sought1 while1 in the second clause of the same verse1 the defeat of their attempts is desired4 ,ver4 #h then expands the former wish1 and ver4 #i the latter4 ,this plain symmetrical arrangement makes the proposals to resort to transposition unnecessary4 ,mountain torrents quickly run themselves dry2 and the more furious their rush1 the swifter their exhaustion4 ,they leave a chaos of whitened stones1 that lie bleaching in the fierce sun when the wild spate is past4 ,so stormy and so short will be the career of evil-doers4 ,so could a good man of old wish it to be2 and so may we be sure of and desire the cessation of oppression and man's inhumanity to man4 ,ver4 #g b is obscure4 ,all these figures are struck out with such parsimony of words that they are difficult4 ,they remind one of some of the stern1 unfinished work of ,michael ,angelo1 where a blow or two of his chisel1 or a dash or two of his brush1 has indicated rather than expressed his purpose1 and left a riddle1 fascinating in its incompleteness1 for smaller men to spell out4 ,in ver4 #g b it may be asked1 ,who is the archer8 ,if ,god1 then the whole is a presentation as if of an occurrence taking place before our eyes4 ,god shoots ,his arrow1 and at once it lodges in the heart of the enemies1 and they are as though cut off4 ,but it is better to take the wicked as the subject of both verbs1 the change from singular to plural being by no means unusual in successive clauses with the same subject4 ,if so1 this clause recurs to the thought of ver4 #f1 and prays for the neutralising of the wicked man's attempts4 ,he fits his arrows1 aims1 and draws the bow4 ,may they fall harmless1 as if barbless6 ,an emendation has been proposed by which the clause is made parallel with ,psalm xxxvii4 #b1 ,as grass let them be quickly cut off1 thus securing a complete parallel with a1 and avoiding the difficulty in the word rendered by us pointless4 ,but the existing text gives a vigorous metaphor1 the peculiarity of which makes it preferable to the feebler image of withering grass4 ,the prayer for destruction is caught up again in ver4 #h1 in two daring figures which tremble on the verge of lowering the key of the whole2 but by escaping that peril1 produce the contrary effect1 and heighten it4 ,a slug leaves a shining track of slime as it creeps1 which exudes from its soft body1 and thus it seems to disintegrate itself by its own motion4 ,it is the same thought of the suicidal character of bad men's efforts which was expressed by the stream foaming itself away in the nullah4 ,it is the eternal truth that opposition to ,god's will destroys itself by its own activity4 ,the unfulfilled life of a premature birth1 with eyes which never opened to the light for which they were made1 and possibilities which never unfolded1 and which is huddled away into a nameless grave1 still more impressively symbolises futility and transiency4 ,in ver4 #i the figure has given much trouble to commentators4 ,its broad meaning is1 however1 undoubted4 ,it is1 as ver4 #f and ver4 #g b1 symbolic of the ,divine intervention which wrecks wicked men's plans before they are wrought out4 ,the picture before the psalmist seems to be that of a company of travellers round their camp fire1 preparing their meal4 ,they heap brushwood under the pot1 and expect to satisfy their hunger2 but before the pot is warmed through1 not to say before the water boils or the meat is cooked1 down comes a whirlwind1 which sweeps away fire1 pot1 and all4 ,every word of the clause is doubtful1 and1 with the existing text1 the best that can be done is not wholly satisfactory4 ,if emendation is resorted to1 the suggestion of ,bickell1 adopted by ,cheyne1 gives a good sense3 ,and while your flesh is yet raw1 the hot wrath of ,jehovah shall sweep it away4 ,baethgen makes a slighter alteration1 and renders1 ,while it is still raw1 ,he sweeps it away in wrath4 ,retaining the existing text 7which is witnessed by the ,,lxx4 and other old versions71 probably the best rendering is1 ,whether it be green or burning1 ,he shall whirl it away4 ,this general understanding of the words is shared by commentators who differ as to what is represented as swept away1--some making it the thorn fire1 the twigs of which may be either full of sap or well alight2 while others take the reference to be to the meat in the pot1 which may be either living1 i4e4 raw1 or well on the way to being cooked4 ,neither application is quite free from difficulty1 especially in view of the fact that some pressure has to be put on the word rendered burning1 which is not an adjective1 but a noun1 and is usually employed to designate the fiery wrath of ,god1 as it is rendered in the amended text just mentioned4 ,after all attempts at clearing up the verse1 one must be content to put a mark of interrogation at any rendering4 ,but the scope of the figure seems discoverable through the obscurity4 ,it is a homely and therefore vigorous picture of half-accomplished plans suddenly reduced to utter failure1 and leaving their concocters hungry for the satisfaction which seemed so near4 ,the cookery may go on merrily and the thorns crackle cheerily1 but the simoom comes1 topples over the tripod on which the pot swung1 and blows the fire away in a hundred directions4 ,peter's gibbet was ready1 and the morning of his execution was near2 but when day dawned1 there was no small stir what was become of him4 ,the wind had blown him away from the expectation of the people of the ,jews into safe quarters2 and the fire was dispersed4 ,the closing part 7vv4 #aj1 #aa7 breathes a stern spirit of joy over the destruction of the wicked4 ,that is a terrible picture of the righteous bathing his feet in the blood of the wicked 7,psalm lxviii4 #bc74 ,it expresses not only the dreadful abundance of blood1 but also the satisfaction of the righteous at its being shed4 ,there is an ignoble and there is a noble and ,christian satisfaction in even the destructive providences of ,god4 ,it is not only permissible but imperative on those who would live in sympathy with ,his righteous dealings and with ,himself1 that they should see in these the manifestation of eternal justice1 and should consider that they roll away burdens from earth and bring hope and rest to the victims of oppression4 ,it is no unworthy shout of personal vengeance1 nor of unfeeling triumph1 that is lifted up from a relieved world when ,babylon falls4 ,if it is right in ,god to destroy1 it cannot be wrong in ,his servants to rejoice that ,he does4 ,only they have to take heed that their emotion is untarnished by selfish gratulation1 and is not untinged with solemn pity for those who were indeed doers of evil1 but were themselves the greatest sufferers from their evil4 ,it is hard1 but not impossible1 to take all that is expressed in the psalm1 and to soften it by some effluence from the spirit of ,him who wept over ,jerusalem1 and yet pronounced its doom4 ,the last issue of ,god's judgments contemplated by the psalm warrants the joy of the righteous2 for in these there is a demonstration to the world that there is fruit to the righteous1 and that notwithstanding all bewilderments from the sight of prosperous wickedness and oppressed righteousness there is a ,god who judges in the earth4 ,the word judging is here in the plural1 corresponding with ,god 7,elohim71 which is also plural in form4 ,possibly the construction is to be explained on the ground that the words describe the thoughts of surrounding1 polytheistic nations1 who behold the exhibition of ,god's righteousness4 ,but more probably the plural is here used for the sake of the contrast with the gods of ver4 #a4 ,over these unworthy representatives of ,divine justice sits the true judge1 in the manifoldness of ,his attributes1 exercising ,his righteous though slow-footed judgments4 ,,psalm ,,lix4 #a ,deliver me from my enemies1 ,o my ,god3 ,out of the reach of those who arise against me set me on high4 #b ,deliver me from workers of iniquity1 ,and from men of blood save me4 #c ,for1 see1 they have lain in wait for my soul1 ,the violent gather together against me3 ,not for transgression or sin of mine1 ,jehovah4 #d ,without my fault they run and set themselves in array3 ,awake to meet me1 and behold4 #e ,and ,thou1 ,jehovah1 ,god of hosts1 ,god of ,israel1 ,rouse ,thyself to visit all the nations3 ,be not gracious to wicked apostates4 ,selah4 #f ,they return at evening1 they snarl like dogs1 and prowl round the city4 #g ,see1 they foam at the mouth2 ,swords are in their lips3 ,for ,who hears8 #h ,but ,thou1 ,jehovah1 shalt laugh at them2 ,thou mockest at all the nations4 #i ,my ,strength1 for ,thee will ,i watch3 ,for ,god is my high tower4 #aj ,my ,god shall come to meet me with ,his loving-kindness3 ,god will let me look on my adversaries4 #aa ,slay them not1 lest my people forget3 ,make them wanderers by ,thy power 7army871 and cast them down1 ,o ,lord our shield4 #ab ,each word of their lips is a sin of their mouth1 ,and they snare themselves in their pride1 ,and for the cursing and lying which they speak4 #ac ,end them in wrath1 end them1 that they be no more3 ,and let them know that ,god is ruler in ,jacob1 ,unto the ends of the earth4 ,selah4 #ad ,and they shall return at evening1 they shall growl like dogs1 ,and prowl round the city4 #ae ,they--they shall wander about for food1 ,if they are not gorged1 then so must they pass the night4 #af ,and ,i will sing ,thy strength1 ,and sound aloud ,thy loving-kindness in the morning1 ,for ,thou hast been a high tower for me1 ,and a refuge in the day of my straits4 #ag ,my strength1 to ,thee will ,i harp1 ,for ,god is my high tower1 the ,god of my loving-kindness4 ,the superscription makes this the earliest of ,david's psalms1 dating from the ,sauline persecution4 ,it has many points of connection with the others of that group1 but its closest affinities are with ,psalm lv41 which is commonly considered to belong to the period of incubation of ,absalom's rebellion 7cf4 ,psalm lv4 #aj with lix4 #f1 #ad1 and lv4 #ba with lix4 #g74 ,the allusion to enemies patrolling the city1 which is common to both psalms1 seems to refer to a fact1 and may in this psalm be founded on the watchfulness of ,saul's emissaries2 but its occurrence in both weakens its force as here confirmatory of the superscription4 ,it does not necessarily follow from the mention of the nations that the psalmist's enemies are foreigners4 ,their presence in the city and the stress laid on words as their weapons are against that supposition4 ,on the whole1 the contents of the psalm do not negative the tradition in the title1 but do not strongly attest it4 ,if we have accepted the ,davidic authorship of the other psalms of this group1 we shall extend it to this one2 for they clearly are a group1 whether ,davidic or not4 ,the psalm falls into two principal divisions 7vv4 #a-i and #aj-ag71 each closing with a refrain1 and each subdivided into two minor sections1 the former of which in each case ends with ,selah1 and the latter begins with another refrain4 ,the two parts travel over much the same ground of petition1 description of the enemies1 confidence in deliverance and in the defeat of the foes4 ,but in the first half the psalmist prays for himself1 and in the second he prays against his persecutors1 while assured confidence in his own deliverance takes the place of alarmed gaze on their might and cruelty4 ,the former half of the first part begins and ends with petitions4 ,imbedded in these is a plaintive recounting of the machinations of the adversaries1 which are1 as it were1 spread before ,god's eyes1 accompanied with protestations of innocence4 ,the prayers1 which enclose1 as in a circlet1 this description of unprovoked hatred1 are varied1 so that the former petitions are directed to the singer's deliverance1 while the latter invoke judgment on his antagonists4 ,the strong assertion of innocence is1 of course1 to be limited to the psalmist's conduct to his enemies4 ,they attack him without provocation4 ,obviously this feature corresponds to the facts of ,saul's hatred of ,david1 and as obviously it does not correspond to the facts of ,israel's sufferings from foreign enemies1 which are supposed by the present favourite interpretation to be the occasion of the psalm4 ,no devout singer could so misunderstand the reason of the nation's disasters as to allege that they had fallen upon innocent heads4 ,rather1 when a psalmist bewailed national calamities1 he traced them to national sins4 ,anger went up against ,israel1 because they believed not in ,god4 ,the psalmist calls ,god to look upon the doings of his enemies4 ,privy plots and open assaults are both directed against him4 ,the enemy lie in wait for his life2 but also1 with fell eagerness1 like that of soldiers making haste to rank themselves in battle-array1 they run and set themselves4 ,this is probably simply metaphor1 for the rest of the psalm does not seem to contemplate actual warfare4 ,the imminence of peril forces an urgent prayer from the threatened man4 ,so urgent is it that it breaks in on the parallelism of ver4 #d1 substituting its piercing cry ,awake1 behold6 for the proper second clause carrying on the description in the first4 ,the singer makes haste to grasp ,god's hand1 because he feels the pressure of the wind blowing in his face4 ,it is wise to break off the contemplation of enemies and dangers by crying to ,god4 ,prayer is a good interruption of a catalogue of perils4 ,the petitions in ver4 #e are remarkable1 both in their accumulation of the ,divine names and in their apparent transcending of the suppliant's need4 ,the former characteristic is no mere artificial or tautological heaping together of titles1 but indicates repeated acts of faith and efforts of contemplation4 ,each name suggests something in ,god which encourages hope1 and when appealed to by a trusting soul1 moves ,him to act4 ,the very introductory word of invocation1 ,and ,thou1 is weighty4 ,it sets the might of ,god in grand contrast to the hurrying hatred of the adversary2 and its significance is enhanced if its recurrence in ver4 #h and its relation to ,and ,i in ver4 #af are taken into account4 ,the combination of the ,divine names is remarkable here1 from the insertion of ,god 7,elohim7 between the two parts of the standing name1 ,jehovah of hosts4 ,the anomaly is made still more anomalous by the peculiar form of the word ,elohim1 which does not undergo the modification to be expected in such a construction4 ,the same peculiarities occur in other ,elohistic psalms 7lxxx4 #d1 #ai1 and lxxxiv4 #h74 ,the peculiar grammatical form would be explained if the three words were regarded as three co-ordinate names1 ,jehovah1 ,elohim1 ,zebaoth1 and this explanation is favoured by good critics4 ,but it is going too far to say1 with ,baethgen1 that ,zebaoth can only be understood as an independent ,divine name 7,komm41 in loc474 ,other explanations are at least possible1 such as that of ,delitzsch1 that ,elohim1 like ,jehovah1 has become a proper name1 and so does not suffer modification4 ,the supplicatory force of the names1 however1 is clear1 whatever may be the account of the formal anomalies4 ,they appeal to ,god and they hearten the appellant's confidence by setting forth the loftiness of ,god1 who rules over the embattled forces of the universe1 which run and set themselves in array at ,his bidding and for ,his servant's help1 and before which the ranks of the foes seem thin and few4 ,they set forth also ,god's relation to ,israel1 of which the single suppliant is a member4 ,the petition1 grounded upon these names1 is supposed by modern commentators to prove that the psalmist's enemies were heathens1 which would1 of course1 destroy the ,davidic authorship1 and make the singer a personification of the nation4 ,but against this is to be observed the description of the enemies in the last clause of ver4 #e as apostates1 which must refer to ,israelites4 ,the free access to the city1 spoken of in ver4 #f1 is also unfavourable to that supposition1 as is the prominence given to the words of the enemy4 ,foreign foes would have had other swords than those carried between their lips4 ,the prayer that ,jehovah would arise to visit all nations is much more naturally explained1 as on the same principle as the judgment of the peoples in ,psalm vii4 ,all special cases are subsumed under the one general judgment4 ,the psalmist looks for his own deliverance as one instance of that world-wide manifestation of ,divine justice which will render to every man according to his deeds4 ,not only personal considerations move him to his prayer2 but1 pressing as these are1 and shrill as is the cry for personal deliverance1 the psalmist is not so absorbed in self as that he cannot widen his thoughts and desires to a world-wide manifestation of ,divine righteousness1 of which his own escape will be a tiny part4 ,such recognition of the universal in the particular is the prerogative in lower walks of the poet and the man of genius2 it is the strength and solace of the man who lives by faith and links all things with ,god4 ,the instruments here strike in1 so as to fix attention on the spectacle of ,god aroused to smite and of the end of apostates4 ,the comparison of the psalmist's enemies to dogs occurs in another psalm ascribed to ,david 7xxii4 #af1 #bj74 ,they are like the masterless1 gaunt1 savage curs which infest the streets of ,eastern cities1 hungrily hunting for offal and ready to growl or snarl at every passer-by4 ,though the dog is not a nocturnal animal1 evening would naturally be a time when these would specially prowl round the city in search of food1 if disappointed during the day4 ,the picture suggests the enemies' eagerness1 lawlessness1 foulness1 and persistency4 ,if the psalm is rightly dated in the superscription1 it finds most accurate realisation in the crafty1 cruel watchfulness of ,saul's spies4 ,the word rendered by the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 make a noise is said usually of the growling of the bear and the cooing of the dove 7,delitzsch74 ,it indicates a lower sound than barking1 and so expresses rage suppressed lest its object should take alarm4 ,the word rendered 7,a4,v4 and ,r4,v47 belch means to gush out1 and is found in a good sense in ,psalm xix4 #a4 ,here it may perhaps be taken as meaning foam1 with some advantage to the truth of the picture4 ,swords are in their lips--i4e41 their talk is of slaying the psalmist1 or their slanders cut like swords2 and the crown of their evil is their scoff at the apparently deaf and passive ,god4 ,with startling suddenness1 as if one quick touch drew aside a curtain1 the vision of ,god as ,he really regards the enemies is flashed on them in ver4 #h4 ,the strong antithesis expressed by the ,and ,thou1 as in ver4 #e1 comes with overwhelming force4 ,below is the crowd of greedy foes1 obscene1 cruel1 and blasphemous2 above1 throned in dread repose1 which is not1 as they dream1 carelessness or ignorance1 is ,jehovah1 mocking their fancied security4 ,the tremendous metaphor of the laughter of ,god is too boldly anthropomorphic to be misunderstood4 ,it sounds like the germ of the solemn picture in ,psalm ii41 and is probably the source of the similar expression in ,psalm xxxvii4 #ac4 ,the introduction of the wider thought of ,god's mocking--i4e41 discerning1 and manifesting in act1 the impotence of the ungodly efforts of all nations--is to be accounted for on the same principle of the close connection discerned by the devout singer between the particular and the general1 which explains the similar extension of view in ver4 #e4 ,ver4 #i is the refrain closing the first part4 ,the reading of the ,hebrew text1 ,his strength1 must be given up1 as unintelligible1 and the slight alteration required for reading my instead of his adopted1 as in the second instance of the refrain in ver4 #ag4 ,the further alteration of text1 however1 by which ,i will harp would be read in ver4 #i instead of ,i will watch is unnecessary1 and the variation of the two refrains is not only in accordance with usage1 but brings out a delicate phase of progress in confidence4 ,he who begins with waiting for ,god ends with singing praise to ,god4 ,the silence of patient expectance is changed for the melody of received deliverance4 ,the first part of the second division1 like the corresponding portion of the fist division1 is mainly prayer1 but with the significant difference that the petitions now are directed1 not to the psalmist's deliverance1 but to his enemies' punishment4 ,for himself1 he is sure that his ,god will come to meet him with ,his loving-kindness1 and that1 thus met and helped1 he will look on1 secure1 at their ruin4 ,the ,hebrew margin proposes to read ,the ,god of my loving-kindness will meet me--an incomplete sentence1 which does not tell with what ,god will meet him4 ,but the text needs only the change of one vowel point in order to yield the perfectly appropriate reading1 my ,god shall meet me with ,his loving-kindness1 which is distinctly to be preferred4 ,it is singular that the substitution of my for his1 which is needlessly suggested by the ,hebrew margin for ver4 #aj1 is required but not suggested for ver4 #i4 ,one is tempted to wonder whether there has been a scribe's blunder attaching the correction to the wrong verse4 ,the central portion of this part of the psalm is composed of terrible wishes for the enemies' destruction4 ,there is nothing more awful in the imprecations of the ,psalter than that petition that the boon of a swift end to their miseries may not be granted them4 ,the dew of pity for suffering is dried up by the fire of stern desire for the exhibition of a signal instance of ,divine judicial righteousness4 ,that desire lifts the prayer above the level of personal vengeance1 but does not lighten its awfulness4 ,there may be an allusion to the fate of ,cain1 who was kept alive and made a fugitive and a vagabond4 ,whether that is so or not1 the wish that the foes may be kept alive to be buffeted by ,god's strength--or1 as the word may mean1 to be scattered in panic-struck rout by ,god's army--is one which marks the difference between the old and the new covenants4 ,the ground of these fearful punishments is vehemently set forth in ver4 #ab4 ,every word which the adversaries speak is sin4 ,their own self-sufficient pride1 which is revolt against dependence on ,god1 is like a trap to catch them4 ,they speak curses and lies1 for which retribution is due4 ,this recounting of their crimes1 not so much against the psalmist1 though involving him1 as against ,god1 fires his indignation anew1 and he flames out with petitions which seem to forget the former ones for lingering destruction3 ,end them in wrath1 end them4 ,the contradiction may be apparent only1 and this passionate cry may presuppose the fulfilment of the former4 ,the psalmist will then desire two dreadful things--first1 protracted suffering1 and then a crushing blow to end it4 ,his ultimate desire in both is the same4 ,he would have the evil-doers spared long enough to be monuments of ,god's punitive justice2 he would have them ended1 that the crash of their fall may reverberate afar and proclaim that ,god rules in ,jacob4 ,unto the ends of the earth may be connected either with rules or with know4 ,in the former construction the thought will be1 that from ,his throne in ,israel ,god exercises dominion universally2 in the latter1 that the echo of the judgment on these evil-doers will reach distant lands4 ,the latter meaning is favoured by the accents1 and is1 on the whole1 to be preferred4 ,but what a strange sense of his own significance for the manifestation of ,god's power to the world this singer must have had1 if he could suppose that the events of his life were thus of universal importance6 ,one does not wonder that the advocates of the personification theory find strong confirmation of it in such utterances2 and1 indeed1 the only other explanation of them is that the psalmist held1 and knew himself to hold1 a conspicuous place in the evolution of the ,divine purpose1 so that in his life1 as in a small mirror1 there were reflected great matters4 ,if such anticipations were more than wild dreams1 the cherisher of them must either have been speaking in the person of the nation1 or he must have known himself to be ,god's instrument for extending ,his name through the world4 ,no single person so adequately meets the requirements of such words as ,david4 ,the second part of this division 7ver4 #ad7 begins with the same words as the corresponding part of the first division 7ver4 #f71 so that there is a kind of refrain here4 ,the futures in vv4 #ad1 #ae1 may be either simple futures or optatives4 ,in the latter case the petitions of the preceding verses would be continued here1 and the pregnant truth would result that continuance in sin is the punishment of sin4 ,but probably the imprecations are better confined to the former part1 as the ,selah draws a broad line of demarcation1 and there would be an incongruity in following the petition ,end them with others which contemplated the continuance of the enemies4 ,if the verses are taken as simply predictive1 the point of the reintroduction of the figure of the pack of dogs hunting for their prey lies in ver4 #ae4 ,there they are described as balked in their attempts1 and having to pass the night unsatisfied4 ,their prey has escaped4 ,their eager chase1 their nocturnal quest1 their growling and prowling1 have been vain4 ,they lie down empty and in the dark--a vivid picture1 which has wider meanings than its immediate occasion4 ,ye lust and desire to have1 and cannot obtain4 ,an eternal nemesis hangs over godless lives1 condemning them to hunger1 after all efforts1 and wrapping their pangs of unsatisfied desire in tragic darkness4 ,a clear strain of trust springs up1 like a lark's morning song4 ,the singer contrasts himself with his baffled foes4 ,the they at the beginning of ver4 #ae is emphatic in the ,hebrew1 and is matched with the emphatic ,and ,i which begins ver4 #af4 ,his morning is similarly set over against their night4 ,so petition1 complaint1 imprecation1 all merge into a song of joy and trust1 and the whole ends with the refrain significantly varied and enlarged4 ,in its first form the psalmist said1 ,for ,thee will ,i watch2 in its second he rises to ,to ,thee will ,i harp4 ,glad praise is ever the close of the vigils of a faithful1 patient heart4 ,the deliverance won by waiting and trust should be celebrated by praise4 ,in the first form the refrain ran ,god is my high tower1 and the second part of the psalm began with ,my ,god shall meet me with ,his loving-kindness4 ,in its second form the refrain draws into itself these words which had followed it1 and so modifies them that the loving-kindness which in them was contemplated as belonging to and brought by ,god is now joyfully clasped by the singer as his very own1 by ,divine gift and through his own acceptance4 ,blessed they who are led by occasion of foes and fears to take ,god's rich gifts1 and can thankfully and humbly feel that ,his loving-kindness and all its results are theirs1 because ,he ,himself is theirs and they are ,his6 ,,psalm ,,lx4 #a ,o ,god1 ,thou hast cast us off1 hast broken us1 ,hast been angry with us--restore us again4 #b ,thou hast shaken the land1 hast rent it-- ,heal its breaches1 for it trembles4 #c ,thou hast made ,thy people see hard things1 ,thou hast given them to drink reeling as wine4 #d ,thou hast given a banner to them that fear ,thee1 ,only that they may flee before the bow4 ,selah4 #e ,that ,thy beloved ones may be delivered1 ,save with ,thy right hand1 and answer us4 #f ,god has spoken in ,his holiness1--,i will exult3 ,i will divide ,shechem1 and measure out the valley of ,succoth4 #g ,mine is ,gilead1 and mine ,manasseh1 ,and ,ephraim is the strength of my head1 ,judah1 my baton of command4 #h ,moab is my wash basin1 ,upon ,edom will ,i throw my shoe1 ,because of me1 ,philistia1 shout aloud4 #i ,who will bring me into the fenced city8 ,who has guided me into ,edom8 #aj ,hast not ,thou1 ,o ,god1 cast us off8 ,and goest not out1 ,o ,god1 with our hosts4 #aa ,give us help from the oppressor ,for vain is help of man4 #ab ,in ,god we shall do prowess3 ,and ,he1 ,he will tread down our oppressors4 ,this psalm has evidently a definite historical background4 ,israel has been worsted in fight1 but still continues its campaign against ,edom4 ,meditating on ,god's promises1 the psalmist anticipates victory1 which will cover defeat and perfect partial successes1 and seeks to breathe his own spirit of confidence into the ranks of his countrymen4 ,but the circumstances answering to those required by the psalm are hard to find4 ,the date assigned by the superscription cannot be called satisfactory2 for ,david's war there referred to 7#b ,sam4 viii47 had no such stunning defeats as are here lamented4 ,the ,divine ,oracle1 of which the substance is given in the central part of the psalm1 affords but dubious indications of date4 ,at first sight it seems to imply the union of all the tribes in one kingdom1 and therefore to favour the ,davidic authorship4 ,but it may be a question whether the united ,israel of the ,oracle is fact or prophecy4 ,to one school of commentators1 the mention of ,ephraim in conjunction with ,judah is token that the psalm is prior to the great revolt2 to another1 it is proof positive that the date is after the destruction of the northern kingdom4 ,the ,maccabean date is favoured by ,olshausen1 ,hitzig1 and ,cheyne among moderns2 but1 apart from other objections1 the reappearance of vv4 #e-ab in ,psalm cviii4 implies that this piece of ,hebrew psalmody was already venerable when a later compiler wove part of it into that psalm4 ,on the whole1 the ,davidic authorship is possible1 though clogged with the difficulty already mentioned4 ,but the safest conclusion seems to be ,baethgen's modest one1 which contrasts strongly with the confident assertions of some other critics--namely1 that assured certainty in dating the psalm is no longer possible4 ,it falls into three parts of four verses each1 of which the first 7vv4 #a-d7 is complaint of defeat and prayer for help2 the second 7vv4 #e-h71 a ,divine ,oracle assuring victory2 and the third 7vv4 #i-ab71 the flash of fresh hope kindled by that ,god's-word4 ,the first part blends complaint and prayer in the first pair of verses1 in each of which there is1 first1 a description of the desperate state of ,israel1 and then a cry for help4 ,the nation is broken1 as a wall is broken down1 or as an army whose ordered ranks are shattered and scattered4 ,some crushing defeat is meant1 which in ver4 #b is further described as an earthquake4 ,the land trembles1 and then gapes in hideous clefts1 and houses become gaunt ruins4 ,the state is disorganised as in consequence of defeat4 ,it is an unpoetical mixture of fact and figure to see in the rending of the land allusion to the separation of the kingdoms1 especially as that was not the result of defeat4 ,there is almost a tone of wonder in the designation of ,israel as ,thy people1 so sadly does the fate meted out to them contrast with their name4 ,stranger still and more anomalous is it1 that1 as ver4 #c b laments1 ,god's own hand has commended such a chalice to their lips as should fill them with infatuation4 ,the construction wine of reeling is grammatically impossible1 and the best explanation of the phrase regards the nouns as in apposition--wine which is reeling1 or reeling as wine4 ,the meaning is that ,god not only sent the disaster which had shaken the nation like an earthquake1 but had sent1 too1 the presumptuous self-confidence which had led to it4 ,ver4 #d has received two opposite interpretations1 being taken by some as a prolongation of the tone of lament over disaster1 and by others as commemoration of ,god's help4 ,the latter meaning violently interrupts the continuity of thought4 ,the only natural view is that which sees in ver4 #d a continuation of the description of calamity in ver4 #c 7,cheyne1 in loc474 ,taking this view1 we render the second clause as above4 ,the word translated that they may flee may indeed mean to lift themselves up1 in the sense of gathering round a standard1 but the remainder of the clause cannot be taken as meaning because of the truth1 since the preposition here used never means because of4 ,it is best taken here as from before4 ,the word variously rendered bow and truth is difficult4 ,it occurs again in ,prov4 xxii4 #ba1 and is there parallel with truth or faithfulness in fulfilling ,divine promises4 ,but that meaning would be inappropriate here1 and would require the preceding preposition to be taken in the impossible sense already noted4 ,it seems better1 therefore1 to follow the ,,lxx4 and other old versions1 in regarding the word as a slightly varied mode of spelling the ordinary word for a bow 7the final dental letter being exchanged for a cognate dental74 ,the resulting meaning is deeply coloured by sad irony4 ,thou hast indeed given a banner--but it was a signal for flight rather than for gathering round4 ,such seems the best view of this difficult verse2 but it is not free from objection4 ,those who fear ,thee is not a fitting designation for persons who were thus scattered in flight by ,god1 even if it is taken as simply a synonym for the nation4 ,we have to make choice between two incongruities4 ,if we adopt the favourite view1 that the verse continues the description of calamity1 the name given to the sufferers is strange4 ,if we take the other1 that it describes ,god's gracious rallying of the fugitives1 we are confronted with a violent interruption of the tone of feeling in this first part of the psalm4 ,perowne accepts the rendering from before the bow1 but takes the verb in the sense of mustering round1 so making the banner to be a rallying-point1 and the giving of it a ,divine mercy4 ,the second part 7vv4 #e-h7 begins with a verse which ,delitzsch and others regard as really connected1 notwithstanding the ,selah at the end ver4 #d1 with the preceding4 ,but it is quite intelligible as independent1 and is in its place as the introduction to the ,divine ,oracle which follows1 and makes the kernel of the psalm4 ,there is beautiful strength of confidence in the psalmist's regarding the beaten1 scattered people as still ,god's darlings4 ,he appeals to ,him to answer1 in order that a result so accordant with ,god's heart as the deliverance of ,his beloved ones may be secured4 ,and the prayer has no sooner passed his lips than he hears the thunderous response1 ,god has spoken in ,his holiness4 ,that infinite elevation of ,his nature above creatures is the pledge of the fulfilment of ,his word4 ,the following verses contain the substance of the ,oracle2 but it is too daring to suppose that they reproduce its words2 for ,i will exult can scarcely be reverently put into the mouth of ,god4 ,the substance of the whole is a twofold promise--of a united ,israel1 and a submissive heathendom4 ,shechem on the west and ,succoth on the east of ,jordan1 ,gilead and ,manasseh on the east1 and ,ephraim and ,judah on the west1 are the possession of the speaker1 whether he is king or representative of the nation4 ,no trace of a separation of the kingdoms is here4 ,ephraim1 the strongest tribe of the northern kingdom1 is the strength of my head1 the helmet1 or perhaps with allusion to the horns of an animal as symbols of offensive weapons4 ,judah is the ruling tribe1 the commander's baton1 or possibly lawgiver1 as in ,gen4 xlix4 ,israel thus compact together may count on conquests over hereditary foes4 ,their defeat is foretold in contemptuous images4 ,the basin for washing the feet was a vessel unto dishonour2 and1 in ,israel's great house1 no higher function for his ancestral enemy1 when conquered1 would be found4 ,the meaning of casting the shoe upon or over ,edom is doubtful4 ,it may be a symbol for taking possession of property1 though that lacks confirmation2 or ,edom may be regarded as the household slave to whom the master's shoes are thrown when taken off2 or1 better1 in accordance with the preceding reference to ,moab1 ,edom may be regarded as part of the master's house or furniture4 ,the one was the basin for his feet2 the other1 the corner where he kept his sandals4 ,if the text of ver4 #h c is correct1 ,philistia is addressed with bitter sarcasm1 and bidden to repeat her ancient shouts of triumph over ,israel now1 if she can4 ,but the edition of these verses in ,psalm cviii4 gives a more natural reading1 which may be adopted here3 ,over ,philistia will ,i shout aloud4 ,the third part 7vv4 #i-ab7 is taken by some commentators to breathe the same spirit as the first part4 ,cheyne1 for instance1 speaks of it as a relapse into despondency1 whilst others more truly hear in it the tones of rekindled trust4 ,in ver4 #i there is a remarkable change of tense from ,who will bring8 in the first clause1 to ,who has guided8 in the second4 ,this is best explained by the supposition that some victory over ,edom had preceded the psalm1 which is regarded by the singer as a guarantee of success in his assault of the fenced city1 probably ,petra4 ,there is no need to supplement ver4 #aj1 so as to read1 ,wilt not ,thou1 ,o ,god1 which1 etc4 ,the psalmist recurs to his earlier lament1 not as if he thought that it still held true1 but just because it does not4 ,it explained the reason of past disasters2 and1 being now reversed by the ,divine ,oracle1 becomes the basis of the prayer which follows4 ,it is as if he had said1 ,we were defeated because ,thou didst cast us off4 ,now help as ,thou hast promised1 and we shall do deeds of valour4 ,it is impossible to suppose that the result of the ,divine answer which makes the very heart of the psalm1 should be a hopeless repetition of the initial despondency4 ,rather glad faith acknowledges past weakness and traces past failures to self-caused abandonment by a loving ,god1 who let ,his people be worsted that they might learn who was their strength1 and ever goes forth with those who go forth to war with the consciousness that all help but ,his is vain1 and with the hope that in ,him even their weakness shall do deeds of prowess4 ,hast not ,thou cast us off8 may be the utterance of despair2 but it may also be that of assured confidence1 and the basis of a prayer that will be answered by ,god's present help4 ,,psalm ,,lxi4 #a ,hear1 ,o ,god1 my shrill cry1 ,attend to my prayer4 #b ,from the end of the earth ,i cry to ,thee1 when my heart is wrapped in gloom3 ,lead me on to a rock that is too high for me to reach #c ,for ,thou hast been a place of refuge for me1 ,a tower of strength from the face of the foe4 #d ,let me dwell a guest in ,thy tent for ever1 ,let me find refuge in the covert of ,thy wings4 ,selah4 #e ,for ,thou1 ,o ,god1 hast hearkened to my vows1 ,thou hast given me the heritage of them that fear ,thy name4 #f ,days mayest ,thou add to the days of the king1 ,may his years be as many generations4 #g ,may he sit before ,god for ever3 ,give charge to loving-kindness and troth1 that they guard him4 #h ,so will ,i harp to ,thy name for aye1 ,that ,i may fulfil my vows day by day4 ,the situation of the singer in this psalm is the same as in ,psalm lxiii4 ,in both he is an exile longing for the sanctuary1 and in both the king is referred to in a way which leaves his identity with the psalmist questionable4 ,there are also similarities in situation1 sentiment1 and expression with ,psalms xlii4 and xliii4--e4g41 the singers exile1 his yearning to appear in the sanctuary1 the command given by ,god to ,his ,loving-kindness 7xlii4 #h and lxi4 #h71 the personification of ,light and ,troth as his guides 7xliii4 #c71 compared with the similar representation here of ,loving-kindness and ,troth as guards set by ,god over the psalmist4 ,the traditional attribution of the psalm to ,david has at least the merit of providing an appropriate setting for its longings and hopes1 in his flight from ,absalom4 ,no one of the other dates proposed by various critics seems to satisfy anybody but its proposer4 ,hupfeld calls ,hitzig's suggestion wunderbar zu lesen4 ,graetz inclines to the reign of ,hezekiah and thinks that the connection gains if the prayer for the preservation of the king's life refers to that monarch's sickness4 ,the ,babylonish captivity1 with ,zedekiah for the king1 is preferred by others4 ,still later dates are in favour now4 ,cheyne lays it down that pre-,jeremian such highly spiritual hymns 7i4e41 ,psalms lxi4 and lxiii47 obviously cannot be1 and thinks that it would not be unplausible to make them contemporaneous with ,psalm xlii41 the king being ,antiochus the ,great1 but prefers to assign them to the ,maccabean period1 and to take ,jonathan1 or 7better7 ,simon as the king4 ,are highly spiritual hymns probable products of that time8 ,if the ,selah is accepted as marking the end of the first part of the psalm1 its structure is symmetrical1 so far as it is then divided into two parts of four verses each2 but that division cuts off the prayer in ver4 #d from its ground in ver4 #e4 ,selah frequently occurs in the middle of a period1 and is used to mark emphasis1 but not necessarily division4 ,it is therefore better to keep vv4 #d and #e together1 thus preserving their analogy with vv4 #b and #c4 ,the scheme of this little psalm will then be an introductory verse1 followed by two parallel pairs of verses1 each consisting of petition and its grounding in past mercies 7vv4 #b1 #c1 and #d1 #e71 and these again succeeded by another pair containing petitions for the king1 while a final single verse1 corresponding to the introductory one1 joyfully foresees life-long praise evoked by the certain answers to the singer's prayer4 ,the fervour of the psalmist's supplication is strikingly expressed by his use in the first clause1 of the word which is ordinarily employed for the shrill notes of rejoicing4 ,it describes the quality of the sound as penetrating and emotional1 not the nature of the emotion expressed by it4 ,joy is usually louder-tongued than sorrow2 but this suppliant's need has risen so high that his cry is resonant4 ,to himself he seems to be at the end of the earth2 for he measures distance not as a map-maker1 but as a worshipper4 ,love and longing are potent magnifiers of space4 ,his heart faints1 or is overwhelmed4 ,the word means literally covered1 and perhaps the metaphor may be preserved by some such phrase as wrapped in gloom4 ,he is1 then1 an exile1 and therefore sunk in sadness4 ,but while he had external separation from the sanctuary chiefly in view1 his cry wakes an echo in all devout hearts4 ,they who know most about the inner life of communion with ,god best know how long and dreary the smallest separation between ,him and them seems1 and how thick is the covering spread over the heart thereby4 ,the one desire of such a suppliant is for restoration of interrupted access to ,god4 ,the psalmist embodies that yearning in its more outward form1 but not without penetrating to the inner reality in both the parallel petitions which follow4 ,in the first of these1 7ver4 #b b7 the thought is fuller than the condensed expression of it4 ,lead me on or in1 says he1 meaning1 ,lead me to and set me on4 ,his imagination sees towering above him a great cliff1 on which1 if he could be planted1 he might defy pursuit or assault4 ,but he is distant from it1 and the inaccessibility which1 were he in its clefts1 would be his safety1 is now his despair4 ,therefore he turns to ,god and asks ,him to bear him up in ,his hands1 that he may set his foot on that rock4 ,the figure has been1 strangely enough1 interpreted to mean a rock of difficulty1 but against the usage in the ,psalter4 ,but we do not reach the whole significance of the figure if we give it the mere general meaning of a place of safety4 ,while it would be too much to say that rock is here an epithet of ,god 7the absence of the definite article and other considerations are against that71 it may be affirmed that the psalmist1 like all devout men1 knew that his only place of safety was in ,god4 ,a rock will not afford adequate shelter2 our perils and storms need the ,rock4 ,and1 therefore1 this singer bases his prayer on his past experience of the safe hiding that he had found in ,god4 ,place of refuge and strong tower are distinctly parallel with rock4 ,the whole1 then1 is like the prayer in ,psalm xxxi4 #b1 #c3 ,be ,thou to me a strong rock4 ,for ,thou art my rock4 ,the second pair of verses1 containing petition and its ground in past experience 7vv4 #d1 #e71 brings out still more clearly the psalmist's longing for the sanctuary4 ,the futures in ver4 #d may be taken either as simple expressions of certainty1 or1 more probably1 as precative1 as is suggested by the parallelism with the preceding pair4 ,the tent of ,god is the sanctuary1 possibly so called because at the date of the psalm the ark of ,god dwelt in curtains4 ,the hiding-place of ,thy wings may then be an allusion to the ,shechinah and outspread pinions of the ,cherubim4 ,but the inner reality is more to the psalmist than the external symbols1 however his faith was trained to connect the two more indissolubly than is legitimate for us4 ,his longing was no superstitious wish to be near that sanctuary1 as if external presence brought blessing1 but a reasonable longing1 grounded on the fact for his stage of revelation1 that such presence was the condition of fullest realisation of spiritual communion1 and of the safety and blessedness thence received4 ,his prayer is the deepest desire of every soul that has rightly apprehended the facts of life1 its own needs and the riches of ,god4 ,the guests in ,god's dwelling have guest-rights of provision and protection4 ,beneath ,his wings are safety1 warmth1 and conscious nearness to ,his heart4 ,the suppliant may feel far off1 at the end of the world2 but one strong desire has power to traverse all the distance in a moment4 ,where the treasure is1 there will the heart be also2 and where the heart is1 there the man is4 ,the ground of this second petition is laid in ,god's past listening to vows1 and ,his having given the psalmist the heritage of those that fear ,thy name4 ,that is most naturally explained as meaning primarily the land of ,israel1 and as including therein all other blessings needful for life there4 ,while it is capable of being otherwise understood1 it is singularly appropriate to the person of ,david during the period of ,absalom's rebellion1 when victory was beginning to declare itself for the king4 ,if we suppose that he had already won a battle 7#b ,sam4 xviii4 #f71 we can understand how he takes that success as an omen and urges it as a plea4 ,the pair of verses will then be one instance of the familiar argument which trustful hearts instinctively use1 when they present past and incomplete mercies as reasons for continued gifts1 and for the addition of all which is needed to perfect that which concerneth them4 ,it rests on the confidence that ,god is not one who begins and is not able to finish4 ,very naturally1 then1 follows the closing prayer in vv4 #f1 #g4 ,the purely individual character of the rest of the psalm1 which is resumed in the last verse1 where the singer1 speaking in the first person1 represents his continual praise as the result of the answer to his petitions for the king1 makes these petitions hopelessly irrelevant1 unless the psalmist is the king and these prayers are for himself4 ,the transition to the third person does not necessarily negative this interpretation1 which seems to be required by the context4 ,the prayer sounds hyperbolical1 but has a parallel in ,psalm xxi4 #d1 and need not be vindicated by taking the dynasty rather than the individual to be meant1 or by diverting it to a ,messianic reference4 ,it is a prayer for length of days1 in order that the deliverance already begun may be perfected1 and that the psalmist may dwell in the house of the ,lord for ever 7cf4 ,psalms xxiii4 #f2 xxvii4 #d74 ,he asks that he may sit enthroned before ,god for ever--that is1 that his dominion may by ,god's favour be established and his throne upheld in peace4 ,the psalm is in so far ,messianic that the everlasting kingdom of the ,christ alone fulfils its prayer4 ,the final petition has1 as has been noticed above1 parallels in ,psalms xlii41 xliii41 to which may be added the personifications of ,goodness and ,loving-kindness in ,psalm xxiii4 #f4 ,these bright harnessed angels stand sentries over the devout suppliant1 set on their guard by the great ,commander2 and no harm can come to him over whom ,god's ,loving-kindness and ,faithfulness keep daily and nightly watch4 ,thus guarded1 the psalmist's prolonged life will be one long anthem of praise1 and the days added to his days will be occupied with the fulfilment of his vows made in trouble and redeemed in his prosperity4 ,what congruity is there between this closing verse1 which is knit closely to the preceding by that ,so1 and the previous pair of verses1 unless the king is himself the petitioner8 ,let him sit before ,god for ever--how comes that to lead up to ,so will ,i harp to ,thy name for ever8 ,surely the natural answer is1 ,because he and ,i are the same person4 ,,psalm ,,lxii4 #a ,only upon ,god waits my soul in silence3 ,from ,him is my salvation4 #b ,only ,he is my rock and my salvation1 ,my high tower1 ,i shall not be greatly moved4 #c ,how long will ye rush upon a man8 ,how long will ye all of you break him down1 ,like a bulging wall1 a tottering fence8 #d ,only from his elevation do they consult to thrust him down1 they delight in lies3 ,each blesses with his mouth1 and in their inner part they curse4 ,selah4 #e ,only to ,god be silent1 my soul1 ,for from ,him is my expectation4 #f ,only ,he is my rock and my salvation1 ,my high tower2 ,i shall not be moved4 #g ,on ,god is my salvation and my glory1 ,the rock of my strength1 my refuge1 is in ,god4 #h ,trust in him in every time1 ,o people6 ,pour out before ,him your heart1 ,god is a refuge for us4 ,selah4 #i ,only vanity are the sons of the lowly1 a lie are the sons of the lofty1 ,in the scales they go up1 they are lighter than vanity altogether4 #aj ,trust not in oppressions and in robbery become not vain1 ,when wealth grows1 set not your heart thereon4 #aa ,once has ,god spoken1 twice have ,i heard this1 ,that strength belongs to ,god4 #ab ,and to ,thee1 ,o ,god1 belongs loving-kindness1 ,for ,thou1 ,thou renderest to a man according to his work4 ,there are several points of affinity between this psalm and the thirty-ninth1--such as the frequent use of the particle of asseveration or restriction 7surely or only72 the rare and beautiful word for silence1 as expressing restful1 still resignation2 and the characterisation of men as vanity4 ,these resemblances are not proofs of identity of authorship1 though establishing a presumption in its favour4 ,delitzsch accepts the psalm as ,davidic1 and refers it to the time of ,absalom's revolt4 ,the singer is evidently in a position of dignity 7elevation1 ver4 #d71 and one whose exhortations come with force to the people 7ver4 #h71 whether that word is understood as designating the nation or his immediate followers4 ,cheyne1 who relegates the psalm to the ,persian period1 feels that the recognition of the singer as a personage who is the ,church's bulwark is the natural impression on reading the psalm 7,orig4 of ,psalt41 #bbg1 and #bdb1 n474 ,if so1 ,david's position is precisely that which is required4 ,whoever sang this immortal psalm1 rose to the heights of conquering faith1 and gave voice to the deepest and most permanent emotions of devout souls4 ,the psalm is in three strophes of four verses each1 the divisions being marked by ,selah4 ,the two former have a long refrain at the beginning1 instead of1 as usually1 at the end4 ,in the first the psalmist sets his quiet trust in contrast with the furious assaults of his foes2 while1 in the second1 he stirs himself to renewed exercise of it1 and exhorts others to share with him in the security of ,god as a place of refuge4 ,in the third strophe the nothingness of man is set in strong contrast to the power and loving-kindness of ,god1 and the dehortation from trust in material wealth urged as the negative side of the previous exhortation to trust in ,god4 ,the noble saying of ver4 #a a is hard to translate without weakening4 ,the initial word may have the meanings of ,only or ,surely4 ,the former seems more appropriate in this psalm1 where it occurs six times1 in one only of which 7ver4 #d7 does the latter seem the more natural rendering1 though even there the other is possible4 ,it is1 however1 to be noticed that its restrictive power is not always directed to the adjacent word2 and here it may either present ,god as the exclusive object of the psalmist's waiting trust1 or his whole soul as being nothing else but silent resignation4 ,the reference to ,god is favoured by ver4 #b1 but the other is possible4 ,the psalmist's whole being is1 as it were1 but one stillness of submission4 ,the noises of contending desires1 the whispers of earthly hopes1 the mutterings of short-sighted fears1 the self-asserting accents of an insisting will1 are hushed1 and all his nature waits mutely for ,god's voice4 ,no wonder that a psalm which begins thus should end with ,god hath spoken once1 twice have ,i heard this2 for such waiting is never in vain4 ,the soul that cleaves to ,god is still2 and1 being still1 is capable of hearing the ,divine whispers which deepen the silence which they bless4 ,there is no joy but calm2 and the secret of calm is to turn the current of the being to ,god4 ,then it is like a sea at rest4 ,the psalmist's silence finds voice1 which does not break it1 in saying over to himself what ,god is to him4 ,his accumulation of epithets reminds us of ,psalm xviii4 #a1 #b4 ,not only does his salvation come from ,god1 but ,god ,himself is the salvation which ,he sends forth like an angel4 ,the recognition of ,god as his defence is the ground of silence2 for if ,he is my rock and my salvation1 what can be wiser than to keep close to ,him1 and let ,him do as ,he will8 ,the assurance of personal safety is inseparable from such a thought of ,god4 ,nothing which does not shake the rock can shake the frail tent pitched on it4 ,as long as the tower stands1 its inhabitant can look down from his inaccessible fastness with equanimity1 though assailed by crowds4 ,thus the psalmist turns swiftly1 in the latter pair of verses making up the first strophe1 to address remonstrances to his enemies1 as engaged in a useless effort1 and then drops direct address and speaks of their hostility and treachery4 ,the precise meaning of parts of ver4 #c has been misapprehended1 by reason of the peculiarities of some of the words and the condensed character of the imagery in b1 c4 ,the rendering above is substantially that generally accepted now4 ,it sets in striking contrast the single figure of the psalmist and the multitude of his assailants4 ,all of you rush upon a man like a pack of hounds on one defenceless creature1 and try to break him down1 as men put their shoulders to a wall in order to overthrow it4 ,the partial success of the assault is hinted in the epithets applied to wall and fence1 which are painted as beginning to give under pressure4 ,language of confidence sounds strangely in such circumstances4 ,but the toppling wall1 with all these strong men pushing at it1 will not be greatly moved4 ,the assailants might answer the psalmist's ,how long8 with defiant confidence that a short time only was needed to complete the begun ruin2 but he1 firm in his faith1 though tottering in his fortunes1 knows better1 and1 in effect1 tells them by his question that1 however long they may press against his feebleness1 they will never overthrow him4 ,the bulging wall outlasts its would-be destroyers4 ,but appeal to them is vain2 for they have one settled purpose absorbing them--namely1 to cast him down from his height4 ,he is1 then1 probably in some position of distinction1 threatened by false friends1 who are plotting his deposition1 while their words are fair4 ,all these circumstances agree well with the ,davidic authorship4 ,the second strophe reiterates the refrain1 with slight but significant variations1 and substitutes for the address to and contemplation of the plotters a meditation on the psalmist's own security1 and an invitation to others to share it4 ,in ver4 #e the refrain is changed from a declaration of the psalmist's silent waiting to self-exhortation thereto4 ,cheyne would assimilate the two verses by making both verbs imperatives2 but that change destroys the beautiful play of feeling1 so true to experience1 which passes from consciousness of one's attitude towards ,god to effort at preserving it4 ,no emotions1 however blessed1 deep1 and real1 will last1 unless perpetually renewed4 ,like carbon points in electric lights1 they burn away as they burn1 and the light dies1 unless there is some impulse which presses a fresh surface forward to receive the fiery kiss that changes its blackness into radiance4 ,the expectation in ver4 #e b is substantially equivalent to the salvation in ver4 #a b4 ,it means not the emotion 7which could not be said to be from ,him71 but the thing expected1 just as hope is used for the res sperata4 ,the change in expression from salvation to expectation makes prominent the psalmist's attitude4 ,in his silence his wistful eyes look up1 watching for the first far-off brightening which tells him that help is on its road from the throne4 ,salvation will not come unexpected1 and expectation will not look for succours in vain4 ,there may be deep meaning in the slight omission of greatly in the second refrain4 ,confidence has grown4 ,the first hope was that the waiting heart should not be much shaken1 that the tottering fence should not be quite thrown down2 the second is that it shall not be shaken at all4 ,an access of faith has poured into the singer's soul with his song2 and now he has no thought of the crowd of assailants1 who have faded from his sight because he is gazing on ,god4 ,hence the second pair of verses in this strophe 7vv4 #g1 #h7 substitutes for the description of their fierce rush the triumphant reiteration of what ,god is to the psalmist1 and an invitation to others to come with him into that strong refuge4 ,the transition to addressing the people is natural1 if the psalm is ,david's4 ,the phrase would then apply to his immediate followers1 who were one with him in peril1 and whom he would fain have one with him in trust4 ,but the ,,lxx4 has another reading1 which involves only the insertion of a letter1 that may easily have dropped out1 in the word rendered time1 and which makes the verse run more smoothly4 ,it reads all the congregation of the people1 in which it is followed by ,baethgen1 ,cheyne1 and others4 ,whoever the psalmist was1 he felt the impulse which follows all deep experience of the security that comes from hiding in ,god--namely1 the longing to beckon in others out of the storm into peace4 ,every man who has learned that ,god is a refuge for him is thereby assured that ,he is the same for all men1 and thereby moved to beseech them to make the like blessed discovery4 ,the way into that hiding-place is trust4 ,pour out before ,him your heart1 says the psalmist4 ,in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto ,god1 says ,paul4 ,they both mean the same thing4 ,we take refuge in our refuge when we set our faith on ,god1 and tell ,him all that threatens or troubles us4 ,when we do1 we are no longer in the open1 defenceless before the rush of enemies1 but housed in ,god1 or1 as ,paul puts it1 guarded in ,christ ,jesus1 as in a fortress4 ,no wonder that the psalm pauses for a moment on that thought1 and lets the notes of harp and horn impress it on the listeners6 ,the third strophe sets the emptiness of men in strong contrast to the sufficiency of ,god4 ,vanity is literally a breath1 and would better be so rendered in ver4 #i1 but for the recurrence of the verb from the same root in ver4 #aj1 which requires the rendering be not vain4 ,it is desirable to preserve identity of translation1 so as to retain the play of words4 ,but by doing so ver4 #i is somewhat weakened4 ,the eyes that have been looking on ,god are cleared to see the shadowy nothingness of men of all degrees4 ,the differences of high and low dwindle when seen from that high tower1 as lower lands appear flat when viewed from a mountain top4 ,they are but breath1 so fleeting1 unsubstantial are they4 ,they are a lie1 in so far as hopes directed to them are deceived and trust misplaced4 ,the singer is not cynically proclaiming man's worthlessness1 but asserting his insufficiency as the object of man's trust4 ,his point of view is different from that of ,psalm xxxix41 though his words are the same4 ,the ,only which begins ver4 #i carries us back to the similar beginning of the preceding strophes1 and brings out the true force of the following words1 by suggesting the contrast between men and the ,god on whom the psalmist's soul waits in silence4 ,that contrast may be further continued in ver4 #i b4 ,the lowly and the lofty are in one scale4 ,what is in the other1 the solid weight of which sends them aloft as lighter8 ,is it pressing the metaphor too far to suppose that the psalmist is weighing the whole mass of men against ,god only8 ,heap them altogether and balance them against ,him1 and the gathered mass does not weigh as much as an imponderable breath4 ,who could trust in that emptiness when he has ,god to trust in8 ,who would grasp shadows when he may cling to that eternal ,substance8 ,the natural conclusion from ver4 #i follows in the exhortation of ver4 #aj1 which completes the positive presentation of the true object of trust 7ver4 #h7 by the warning against false refuges4 ,the introduction of oppression and robbery is singular1 for it can scarcely be supposed that the assailants of the psalmist are here addressed1 and still less that his followers needed to be warned against these crimes4 ,cheyne1 therefore1 follows ,graetz and others in reading perverseness for oppression1 and crookedness for robbery2 but the alteration throws the clause out of harmony with the next clause4 ,it may be that in ver4 #aj a the psalmist has in view unjust gain and in b justly acquired wealth1 and that thus his two dehortations cover the whole ground of material riches1 as if he had said1 ,whether rightly or wrongly won1 they are wrongly used if they are trusted in4 ,the folly and misery of such trust are vigorously set forth by that word become vain4 ,the curse of misplaced confidence is that it brings down a man to the level of what he trusts in1 as the blessing of wisely placed trust is that it lifts him to that level4 ,trust in vanity is vain1 and makes the truster vanity4 ,wind is not a nourishing diet4 ,it may inflate1 or1 as ,paul says about knowledge1 may puff up1 but not build up4 ,men are assimilated to the objects of their trust2 and if these are empty1 so is every one that trusteth in them4 ,so far the psalmist has spoken4 ,but his silent waiting has been rewarded with a clear voice from heaven1 confirming that of his faith4 ,it is most natural to regard the double revelation received by the psalmist as repeated in the following proclamation of the two great aspects of the ,divine nature--,power and ,loving-kindness4 ,the psalmist has learned that these two are not opposed nor separate1 but blend harmoniously in ,god's nature1 and are confluent in all ,his works4 ,power is softened and directed by ,loving-kindness4 ,loving-kindness has as its instrument ,omnipotence4 ,the synthesis of these two is in the ,god whom men are invited to trust2 and such trust can never be disappointed2 for ,his ,power and ,his ,loving-kindness will co-operate to render to a man according to his work4 ,the last word of the psalm adds the conception of ,righteousness to those of ,power and ,loving-kindness4 ,but the psalmist seems to have in view mainly one direction in which that rendering to a man according to his work is active--namely1 in answering the trust which turns away from human power which is weakness1 and from human love which may change and must die1 to anchor itself on the might and tenderness of ,god4 ,such work of faith will not be in vain2 for these twin attributes of ,power and ,love are pledged to requite it with security and peace4 ,,psalm ,,lxiii4 #a ,o ,god1 my ,god art ,thou1 ,i seek ,thee earnestly1 ,my soul thirsts for ,thee1 my flesh pines for ,thee1 ,in a dry and weary land1 without water4 #b ,so in the sanctuary have ,i gazed on ,thee1 ,to see ,thy power and ,thy glory4 #c ,for ,thy loving-kindness is better than life1 ,therefore my lips shall praise ,thee4 #d ,so will ,i bless ,thee while ,i live1 ,in ,thy name will ,i lift my hands4 #e ,as with fat and marrow shall my soul be satisfied1 ,and with lips that joyfully shout shall my mouth praise ,thee1 #f ,when ,i remember ,thee on my bed1 ,through the watches of the night do ,i meditate on ,thee4 #g ,for ,thou hast been a help for me1 ,and in the shadow of ,thy wings will ,i shout for joy4 #h ,my soul cleaves to and presses after ,thee1 ,me does ,thy right hand uphold4 #i ,but these--for its destruction they seek my soul2 ,they shall go into the undermost parts of the earth4 #aj ,they shall be given over to the power of the sword1 ,the portion of jackals shall they be4 #aa ,but the king shall rejoice in ,god1 ,every one that swears by ,him shall glory1 ,for the mouth of them that speak a lie shall be stopped4 ,if the psalmist is allowed to speak1 he gives many details of his circumstances in his song4 ,he is in a waterless and weary land1 excluded from the sanctuary1 followed by enemies seeking his life4 ,he expects a fight1 in which they are to fall by the sword1 and apparently their defeat is to lead to his restoration to his kingdom4 ,these characteristics converge on ,david4 ,cheyne has endeavoured to show that they fit the faithful ,jews in the ,maccabean period1 and that the king in ver4 #b is ,jonathan or better ,simon 7,orig4 of ,psalt41 #ii1 and ,aids to ,dev4 ,study of ,crit41 #cjh seqq474 ,but unless we are prepared to accept the dictum that ,pre-,jeremian such highly spiritual hymns obviously cannot be 7u4s471 the balance of probability will be heavily in favour of the ,davidic origin4 ,the recurrence of the expression ,my soul in vv4 #a1 #e1 #h1 suggests the divisions into which the psalm falls4 ,following that clue1 we recognise three parts1 in each of which a separate phase of the experience of the soul in its communion with ,god is presented as realised in sequence by the psalmist4 ,the soul longs and thirsts for ,god 7vv4 #a-d74 ,the longing soul is satisfied in ,god 7vv4 #e-g74 ,the satisfied soul cleaves to and presses after ,god 7vv4 #h-aa74 ,these stages melt into each other in the psalm as in experience1 but are still discernible4 ,in the first strophe the psalmist gives expression in immortal words to his longing after ,god4 ,like many a sad singer before and after him1 he finds in the dreary scene around an image of yet drearier experiences within4 ,he sees his own mood reflected in the grey monotony of the sterile desert1 stretching waterless on every side1 and seamed with cracks1 like mouths gaping for the rain that does not come4 ,he is weary and thirsty2 but a more agonising craving is in his spirit1 and wastes his flesh4 ,as in the kindred ,psalms xlii41 xliii41 his separation from the sanctuary has dimmed his sight of ,god4 ,he longs for the return of that vision in its former clearness4 ,but even while he thirsts1 he in some measure possesses1 since his resolve to seek earnestly is based on the assurance that ,god is his ,god4 ,in the region of the devout life the paradox is true that we long precisely because we have4 ,every soul is athirst for ,god2 but unless a man can say1 ,thou art my ,god1 he knows not how to interpret nor where to slake his thirst1 and seeks1 not after the living ,fountain of waters1 but after muddy pools and broken cisterns4 ,ver4 #b is difficult principally because the reference of the initial ,so is doubtful4 ,by some it is connected with the first clause of ver4 #a3 ,so--i4e41 as my ,god--have ,i seen ,thee4 ,others suppose a comparison to be made between the longing just expressed and former ones1 and the sense to be1 ,with the same eager desire as now ,i feel in the desert have ,i gazed in the sanctuary4 ,this seems the better view4 ,hupfeld proposes to transpose the two clauses1 as the ,a4,v4 has done in its rendering1 and thus gets a smoother run of thought4 ,the immediate object of the psalmist's desire is thus declared to be to behold ,thy power and glory1 and the ,so is substantially equivalent to ,according as4 ,if we retain the textual order of the clauses1 and understand the first as paralleling the psalmist's desert longing with that which he felt in the sanctuary1 the second clause will state the aim of the ardent gaze--namely1 to behold ,thy power and ,thy glory4 ,these attributes were peculiarly manifested amid the imposing sanctities where the light of the ,shechinah1 which was especially designated as the ,glory1 shone above the ark4 ,the first clause of ver4 #c is closely connected with the preceding1 and gives the reason for some part of the emotion there expressed1 as the introductory ,for shows4 ,but it is a question to which part of the foregoing verses it refers4 ,it is probably best taken as assigning the reason for their main subject--namely1 the psalmist's thirst after ,god4 ,where your treasure is1 there will your heart be also4 ,our desires are shaped by our judgments of what is good4 ,the conviction of ,god's transcendent excellence and absolute sufficiency for all our cravings must precede the direction of these to ,him4 ,unless all enjoyments and possessions1 which become ours through our corporeal life1 and that life itself1 are steadfastly discerned to be but a feather's weight in comparison with the pure gold of ,god's loving-kindness1 we shall not long for it more than for them4 ,the deep desires of this psalmist were occasioned by his seclusion from outward forms of worship1 which were to him so intimately related to the inward reality1 that he felt farther away from ,god in the wilderness than when he caught glimpses of ,his face1 through the power and glory which he saw visibly manifested in the sanctuary4 ,but in his isolation he learns to equate his desert yearnings with his sanctuary contemplations1 and thus glides from longing to fruition4 ,his devotion1 nourished by forms1 is seen in the psalm in the very act of passing on to independence of form2 and so springs break out for him in the desert4 ,his passion of yearning after ,god rebukes and shames our faint desires4 ,this man's soul was all on the stretch to grasp and hold ,god4 ,his very physical frame was affected by his intense longing4 ,if he did not long too much1 most men1 even those who thirst after ,god most1 long terribly too little4 ,strong desire has a joy in its very aching2 feeble desire only makes men restless and uncomfortable4 ,nothing can be more preposterous than tepid aspirations after the greatest and only good4 ,to hold as creed that ,god's loving-kindness is better than life1 and to wish a little to possess it1 is surely irrational1 if anything is so4 ,the remaining clauses of ver4 #c and ver4 #d form a transition to the full consciousness of satisfaction which animates the psalmist in the second part4 ,the resolve to praise1 and the assurance that he will have occasion to praise1 succeed his longing with startling swiftness4 ,the ,so of ver4 #d seems to be equivalent to ,accordingly--i4e41 since ,thy loving-kindness is such supreme good1 and is mine because ,i have desired it4 ,continual praise and as continual invocation are the fitting employments of those who receive it1 and by these alone can their possession of the loving-kindness bestowed be made permanent4 ,if empty palms are not ever lifted towards ,god1 ,his gifts will not descend4 ,when these are received1 they will fall like morning sunbeams on stony and dumb lips1 which before were only parted to let out sighs1 and will draw forth music of praise4 ,there are longings which never are satisfied2 but ,god lets no soul that thirsts for ,him perish for lack of the water of life4 ,wisdom bids us fix our desires on that ,sovereign ,good1 to long for which is ennobling and blessed1 and to possess which is rest and the beginning of heaven4 ,thus the psalmist passes imperceptibly to the second strophe1 in which the longing soul becomes the satisfied soul4 ,the emblem of a feast is naturally suggested by the previous metaphor of thirst4 ,the same conviction1 which urged the psalmist forward in his search after ,god1 now assures him of absolute satisfaction in finding ,him4 ,since ,god's loving-kindness is better than life1 the soul that possesses ,him can have no unappeased cravings1 nor any yet hungry affections or wishes4 ,in the region of communion with ,god1 fruition is contemporaneous with and proportioned to desire4 ,when the rain comes in the desert1 what was baked earth is soon rich pasture1 and the dry torrent beds1 where the white stones glittered ghastly in the sunshine1 are musical with rushing streams and fringed with budding oleanders4 ,on that telegraph a message is flashed upwards and an answer speeds downwards1 in a moment of time4 ,many of ,god's gifts are delayed by ,love2 but the soul that truly desires ,him has never long to wait for a gift that equals its desire4 ,when ,god is possessed1 the soul is satisfied4 ,so entire is the correspondence between wants and gift1 that every concavity in us finds1 as it were1 a convexity to match it in ,him4 ,the influx of the great ocean of ,god fills every curve of the shore to the brim1 and the flashing glory of that sunlit sea covers the sands1 and brings life where stagnation reigned and rotted4 ,so the satisfied soul lives to praise1 as the psalm goes on to vow4 ,lips that drink such draughts of ,loving-kindness will not be slow to tell its sweetness4 ,if we have nothing to say about ,god's goodness1 the probable cause is our want of experience of it4 ,that feast leaves no bitter taste4 ,the remembrance of it is all but as sweet as its enjoyment was4 ,thus1 in ver4 #f1 the psalmist recounts how1 in the silent hours of night1 when many joys are seen to be hollow1 and conscience wakes to condemn coarse delights1 he recalled his blessednesses in ,god1 and1 like a ruminant animal1 tasted their sweetness a second time4 ,the verse is best regarded as an independent sentence4 ,so blessed was the thought of ,god1 that1 if once it rose in his wakeful mind as he lay on his bed1 he meditated on it all the night4 ,hasty glances show little of anything great4 ,nature does not unveil her beauty to a cursory look2 much less does ,god disclose ,his4 ,if we would feel the majesty of the heavens1 we must gaze long and steadfastly into their violet depths4 ,the mention of the night-watches is appropriate1 if this psalm is ,david's4 ,he and his band of fugitives had to keep vigilant guard as they lay down shelterless in the desert2 but even when thus ringed by possible perils1 and listening for the shout of nocturnal assailants1 the psalmist could recreate and calm his soul by meditation on ,god4 ,nor did his experience of ,god's sufficiency bring only remembrances2 it kindled hopes4 ,for ,thou hast been a help for me2 and in the shadow of ,thy wings will ,i shout for joy4 ,past deliverances minister to present trust and assure of future joy4 ,the prerogative of the soul1 blessed in the sense of possessing ,god1 is to discern in all that has been the manifestations of ,his help1 and to anticipate in all that is to come the continuance of the same4 ,thus the second strophe gathers up the experiences of the satisfied soul as being fruition1 praise1 sweet lingering memories that fill the night of darkness and fear1 and settled trust in the coming of a future which will be of a piece with such a present and past4 ,the third strophe 7vv4 #h-aa7 presents a stage in the devout soul's experience which naturally follows the two preceding4 ,ver4 #h has a beautifully pregnant expression for the attitude of the satisfied soul4 ,literally rendered1 the words run1 cleaves after ,thee1 thus uniting the ideas of close contact and eager pursuit4 ,such union1 however impossible in the region of lower aims1 is the very characteristic of communion with ,god1 in which fruition subsists along with longing1 since ,god is infinite1 and the closest approach to and fullest possession of ,him are capable of increase4 ,satisfaction tends to become satiety when that which produces it is a creature whose limits are soon reached2 but the cup which ,god gives to a thirsty soul has no cloying in its sweetness4 ,on the other hand1 to seek after ,him has no pain nor unrest along with it1 since the desire for fuller possession comes from the felt joy of present attainment4 ,thus1 in constant interchange satisfaction and desire beget each other1 and each carries with it some trace of the other's blessedness4 ,another beautiful reciprocity is suggested by the very order of the words in the two clauses of ver4 #h4 ,the first ends with ,thee2 the second begins with ,me4 ,the mutual relation of ,god and the soul is here set forth4 ,he who cleaves after ,god is upheld in his pursuit by ,god's hand4 ,and not in his pursuit only1 but in all his life2 for the condition of receiving sustaining help is desire for it1 directed to ,god and verified by conduct4 ,whoever thus follows hard after ,god will feel his outstretched1 seeking hand inclosed in a strong and loving palm1 which will steady him against assaults and protect him in dangers4 ,no man is able to pluck them out of the ,father's hand1 if only they do not let it go4 ,it may slip from slack fingers4 ,we descend from the heights of mystic communion in the remainder of the psalm4 ,but in the singer's mind his enemies were ,god's enemies1 and1 as ver4 #aa shows1 were regarded as apostates from ,god in being traitors to the king4 ,they did not swear by ,him--i4e41 they did not acknowledge ,god as ,god4 ,therefore1 such being their character1 the psalmist's confidence that ,god's right hand upheld him necessarily passes into assurance of their defeat4 ,this is not vindictiveness1 but confidence in the sufficiency of ,god's protection1 and is perfectly accordant with the lofty strains of the former part of the psalm4 ,the picture of the fate of the beaten foe is partly drawn from that of ,korah and his company4 ,these rebels against ,god's king shall go1 where those rebels against ,his priest long ago descended4 ,they shall be poured out upon the hands of the sword1 or1 more literally still1 ,they shall pour him out1 is a vigorous metaphor1 incapable of transference into ,english1 describing how each single enemy is given over helplessly1 as water is poured out1 to the sword1 which is energetically and to our taste violently1 conceived of as a person with hands4 ,the meaning is plain--a battle is impending1 and the psalmist is sure that his enemies will be slain1 and their corpses torn by beasts of prey4 ,how can the king's rejoicing in ,god be the consequence of their slaughter1 unless they are rebels8 ,and what connection would the defeat of a rebellion have with the rest of the psalm1 unless the singer were himself the king8 ,this one line devoted to the king is strange1 says ,cheyne4 ,the strangeness is unaccounted for1 but on the supposition that ,david is the king and singer4 ,if so1 it is most natural that his song should end with a note of triumph1 and should anticipate the joy of his own heart and the glorying of his faithful followers1 who had been true to ,god in being loyal to ,his anointed4 ,,psalm ,,lxiv4 #a ,hear1 ,o ,god1 my voice in my complaint1 ,from the fear of the enemy guard my life4 #b ,hide me from the secret assembly of evil-doers1 ,from the noisy crowd of workers of iniquity3 #c ,who whet1 like a sword1 their tongue1 ,who aim as their arrow a bitter word1 #d ,to shoot in hiding-places at the upright3 ,suddenly they shoot at him1 and fear not4 #e ,they strengthen themselves in an evil plan1 ,they talk of laying snares1 ,they say1 ,who looks at them8 #f ,they scheme villainies1 ,we have perfected say they a scheme well schemed3 ,and the inward part of each1 and his heart1 is deep4 #g ,but ,god shoots at them with an arrow1 ,suddenly come their wounds4 #h ,and they are made to stumble1 ,their own tongue comes upon them1 ,all who look on them shake the head4 #i ,and all men fear1 ,and declare the act of ,god1 ,and understand ,his work4 #aj ,the righteous shall rejoice in ,jehovah1 and take refuge in ,him1 ,and all the upright in heart shall glory4 ,familiar notes are struck in this psalm1 which has no very distinctive features4 ,complaint of secret slanderers1 the comparison of their words to arrows and swords1 their concealed snares1 their blasphemous defiance of detection1 the sudden flashing out of ,god's retribution1 the lesson thereby read to and learned by men1 the vindication of ,god's justice1 and praise from all true hearts1 are frequent themes4 ,they are woven here into a whole which much resembles many other psalms4 ,but the singer's heart is none the less in his words because many others before him have had to make like complaints and to stay themselves on like confidence4 ,we have all of us one human heart1 and well-worn words come fresh to each lip when the grip of sorrow is felt4 ,the division into pairs of verses is clear here4 ,the burdened psalmist begins with a cry for help1 passes on to dilate on the plots of his foes1 turns swiftly from these to confidence in ,god1 which brings future deliverance into present peril and sings of it as already accomplished1 and ends with the assurance that his enemies' punishment will witness for ,god and gladden the upright4 ,in the first pair of verses complaint is sublimed into prayer1 and so becomes strengthening instead of weakening4 ,he who can cry ,hear1 ,o ,god1 guard1 hide has already been able to hide in a safe refuge4 ,the terror caused by the enemy is already dissipated when the trembling heart grasps at ,god2 and escape from facts which warrant terror will come in good time4 ,this man knows himself to be in danger of his life4 ,there are secret gatherings of his enemies1 and he can almost hear their loud voices as they plan his ruin4 ,what can he do1 in such circumstances1 but fling himself on ,god8 ,no thought of resistance has he4 ,he can but pray1 but he can pray2 and no man is helpless who can look up4 ,however high and closely engirdling may be the walls that men or sorrows build around us1 there is always an opening in the dungeon roof1 through which heaven is visible and prayers can mount4 ,the next two pairs of verse 7#c-f7 describe the machinations of the enemies in language for the most part familiar1 but presenting some difficulties4 ,the metaphors of a slanderous tongue as a sword and mischief-meaning words as arrows have occurred in several other psalms 7e4g41 lv4 #ba2 lvii4 #d2 lix4 #g74 ,the reference may either be to calumnies or to murderous threats and plans4 ,the latter is the more probable4 ,secret plots are laid1 which are suddenly unmasked4 ,from out of some covert of seeming friendship an unlooked-for arrow whizzes4 ,the archers shoot1 and fear not4 ,they are sure of remaining concealed1 and fear neither man's detection of them nor ,god's4 ,the same ideas are enlarged on in the third verse-pair 7#e1 #f7 under a new metaphor4 ,instead of arrows flying in secret1 we have now snares laid to catch unsuspecting prey4 ,they strengthen themselves in an evil plan 7lit4 word7 pictures mutual encouragement and fixed determination4 ,they discuss the best way of entrapping the psalmist1 and1 as in the preceding verse1 flatter themselves that their subtle schemes are too well buried to be observed1 whether by their victim or by ,god4 ,ver4 #f tells without a figure the fact meant in both figures4 ,they scheme villainies1 and plume themselves upon the cleverness of their unsuspected plots4 ,the second clause of the verse is obscure4 ,but the suppositions that in it the plotters speak as in the last clause of the preceding verse1 and that they say or the like expression is omitted for the sake of dramatic effect1 remove much of the difficulty4 ,we have schemed a well-schemed plan is their complacent estimate4 ,god's retribution scatters their dreams of impunity1 as the next pair of verses 7#g1 #h7 tells4 ,the verbs are in the past tense1 though the events described are still in the future2 for the psalmist's faith reckons them to be as good as done4 ,they were shooting at him4 ,god will shoot at them4 ,the archer becomes a target4 ,with what measure ye mete1 it shall be measured to you again4 ,punishment is moulded after the guise of sin4 ,the allusion to ver4 #d is made more obvious by adopting a different division of ver4 #g from that directed by the accents1 and beginning the second half with ,suddenly1 as in ver4 #d4 ,ver4 #h b is with difficulty made intelligible with the existing reading4 ,probably the best that can be done with it is to render it as above1 though it must be acknowledged that their tongue comes upon them needs a good deal of explanation to be made to mean that the consequences of their sins of speech fall on them4 ,the drift of the clause must be that retribution falls on the offending tongue2 but there is probably some textual corruption now unremovable4 ,cheyne wisely falls back on asterisks4 ,whatever is the precise nature of the instance of lex talionis in the clause1 it is hailed with gestures of scornful approval by all beholders4 ,many men approve the ,divine punishments1 who have no deep horror of the sins that are punished4 ,there is something of a noble1 if rough1 sense of justice in most men1 and something of an ignoble satisfaction in seeing the downfall of the powerful1 and both sentiments set heads nodding approval of ,god's judgments4 ,the psalm closes with the familiar thought that these judgments will move to wholesome awe and be told from lip to lip1 while they become to the righteous occasion of joy1 incitements to find refuge in ,god1 and material for triumph4 ,these are large consequences to flow from one man's deliverance4 ,the anticipation would be easily explained if we took the speaker to be the personified nation4 ,but it would be equally intelligible if he were in any way a conspicuous or representative person4 ,the humblest may feel that his experience of ,divine deliverance witnesses1 to as many as know it1 of a delivering ,god4 ,that is a high type of godliness which1 like this psalmist1 counts the future as so certain that it can be spoken of as present even in peril4 ,it augurs a still higher to welcome deliverance1 not only for the ease it brings to the suppliant1 but for the glory it brings to ,god4 ,,psalm ,,lxv4 #a ,to ,thee silence is praise1 ,o ,god1 in ,zion1 ,and to ,thee shall the vow be paid4 #b ,o ,thou hearer of prayer1 ,to ,thee all flesh comes4 #c ,deeds of iniquity have been too strong for me3 ,our transgressions--,thou1 ,thou coverest them4 #d ,blessed is he whom ,thou choosest and bringest near1 ,that he may dwell in ,thy courts3 ,we would be filled with the goodness of ,thy house1 ,thy holy temple4 #e ,by dread deeds in righteousness ,thou dost answer us1 ,o ,god of our salvation1 ,the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of the remotest sea3 #f ,setting fast the mountains by ,his strength1 ,being girded with might1 #g ,stilling the roar of the seas1 the roar of their billows1 ,and the tumult of the peoples4 #h ,so that the inhabitants of the ends of the earth become afraid at ,thy signs3 ,the regions whence morning and evening come forth ,thou makest to shout for joy4 #i ,thou hast visited the land and watered it1 ,thou enrichest it abundantly by a river of ,god1 full of water1 ,thou preparest their corn when thus ,thou preparest it3 #aj ,watering its furrows1 levelling its ridges1 ,with showers ,thou softenest it1 ,its outgrowth ,thou dost bless4 #aa ,thou hast crowned the year of ,thy goodness1 ,and ,thy chariot-tracks drop fatness4 #ab ,the pastures of the wilderness drop1 ,and the heights gird themselves with leaping gladness4 #ac ,the meadows are clothed with flocks1 ,and the valleys are covered with corn1 ,they shout for joy1 they also sing4 ,this and the two following psalms form a little group1 with one great thought dominant in each--namely1 that ,god's manifestations of grace and providence to ,israel are witnesses to the world4 ,they all reach out to the ends of the earth in yearning and confidence that ,god's name will be adored there1 and they all regard ,his dealings with ,his people as ,his appeals to mankind1 which will not always be vain4 ,psalm lxv4 begins with that privilege of approach to ,god with which ,psalm lxvi4 ends4 ,in both1 iniquity in heart is regarded as hindering access to ,god2 and1 in both1 the psalmist's experience of answered prayer is treated as testimony for the world of the blessedness of worshipping ,israel's ,god4 ,this psalm falls into three parts1 which set forth a threefold revelation of ,god in ,his acts4 ,the first 7vv4 #a-d7 deals with the most intimate privileges of the men who dwell in ,his house4 ,the second 7vv4 #e-h7 points to ,his rule in nature1 the tokens of ,god's power in the mighty things of creation--mountains1 ocean1 day and night1 the radiant east1 the solemn sunset-west4 ,the third 7vv4 #i-ac7 gives a lovely picture of the annual miracle which brings harvest joys4 ,the underlying thought binding these three parts into unity seems to be the witness to ,god's name which each set of ,his acts bears--a witness which they that dwell in the uttermost parts hear sounded in their ears4 ,if this is the true view of the psalm1 we may hear a reminiscence of it in ,paul's remonstrance with the rude ,lycaonian peasants3 ,he left not ,himself without witness1 in that ,he did good1 and gave you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons1 filling your hearts with food and gladness4 ,the first strophe is wholly concerned with the glory of ,god as answering prayer4 ,it begins with enigmatical words1 which1 if the existing text is adhered to1 carry a deep truth4 ,there are two kinds of prayer--wordless submission of will and spoken vows4 ,the former is truly praise4 ,the same thought is found in ,psalm lxii4 ,it goes down to the root of the matter4 ,the true notion of prayer is not that of swaying ,god's will to gratify ours1 but that of bringing ours into unremonstrating acceptance of ,his4 ,when the accents of eager desire or of impatient murmuring and vain sobs and weeping are hushed1 the still soul enters into closeness of communion1 else unattainable4 ,beautiful and profoundly true as this is1 it is not indubitably the psalmist's meaning2 and there is much to be said for the rendering which is adopted from the ,,lxx4 by many commentators1 and which only requires a slight change in the vocalisation--namely1 ,praise is meet for ,thee4 ,but that idea is expressed in ,psalm xxxiii4 #a by a different word1 and the meaning of the one used here is not to be suitable for1 but to be like4 ,so that we have to choose between altering the text and then imposing a somewhat unusual meaning on the word gained1 and adhering to the present reading and gaining a meaning which is admitted to be fine but alleged to be unbiblical4 ,on the whole1 that meaning seems preferable4 ,the convictions that ,god accepts silent devotion and answers vows1 so that the thank-offering promised in trouble will be called for by deliverance1 fill the psalmist with a longing that all mankind may have recourse to the same ,divine ,friend 7,cheyne1 in loc474 ,his experience of accepted prayers has taught him that it is ,god's nature and property to be the hearer of prayer 7the word is a participle1 expressive of a permanent characteristic71 and therefore he is sure that all flesh1 in its weariness and need of an ear into which to pour necessities and sorrows1 will come to ,him4 ,his eye travels far beyond ,israel1 and contemplates mankind as coming to worship4 ,but one black barrier rises between men and ,god1 the separating power of which the singer has painfully felt4 ,sin chokes the stream that would flow from seeking hearts into the ocean of ,god4 ,the very act of gathering himself up to pray and praise quickens the sense of sinfulness in the psalmist4 ,therefore his look turns swiftly inwards1 for the only time in the psalm4 ,the consciousness of transgression wakes the sense of personality and isolation as nothing else will1 and for one bitter moment the singer is1 as it were1 prisoned in the awful solitude of individual responsibility4 ,his words reflect his vivid sight of his sins in their manifoldness1 for he says that matters of iniquities have overcome him4 ,the exuberant expression is not tautological1 but emotional4 ,and then he passes into sunshine again1 and finds that1 though he had to be alone in guilt1 he is one of a company in the experience of forgiveness4 ,emphatically he reduplicates ,thou in his burst of confidence in ,god's covering of sins2 for none but ,god can cope with the evil things that are too strong for man4 ,i can neither keep them out1 nor drive them out when they have come in1 nor cleanse the stains that their hoofs have made2 but ,thou1 ,thou canst and dost cover them4 ,is not that an additional reason for all flesh coming to ,god1 and almost a guarantee that they will8 ,the strophe ends with an exclamation celebrating the blessedness of dwelling with ,god4 ,that refers1 no doubt1 to ,israel's prerogative of access to the ,temple2 but the inward and outward are blended1 as in many places in the ,psalter where dwelling in the house of the ,lord is yearned for or rejoiced in4 ,the universalism of the psalm does not forget the special place held by the nation whom ,god has chosen and brought near4 ,but the reality beneath the symbol is too familiar and sweet to this singer for him to suppose that mere outward access exhausts the possibilities of blessed communion4 ,it is no violent forcing more into his words than they contain1 if we read in them deeply spiritual truths4 ,it is noteworthy that they follow the reference to forgiveness1 and1 when taken in conjunction therewith1 may be called an itinerary of the road to ,god4 ,first comes forgiveness by expiation1 for such is the meaning of covering1 ,then the cleansed soul has access with confidence2 then approaching1 it happily dwells a guest in the house1 and is supplied with that which satisfies all desires4 ,the guest's security in the house of his host1 his right to protection1 help1 and food1 are1 as usual1 implied in the imagery4 ,the prerogative of his nation1 which the psalmist had in mind1 is itself imagery1 and the reality which it shadowed is that close abiding in ,god which is possible by faith1 love1 communion of spirit1 and obedience of life1 and which1 wherever realised1 keeps a soul in a great calm1 whatever tempests rave1 and satisfies its truest needs and deepest longings1 whatever famine may afflict the outward life4 ,forgiven men may dwell with ,god4 ,they who do are blessed4 ,the second strophe 7vv4 #e-h7 celebrates another aspect of ,god's manifestation by deeds1 which has1 in like manner1 a message for the ends of the earth4 ,israel is again the immediate recipient of ,god's acts1 but they reverberate through the world4 ,therefore in ver4 #e the two clauses are not merely adjacent1 but connected4 ,it is because ,god is ever revealing ,himself to the nation 7for the tense of the verb answer expresses continuous action7 that ,he is revealed as the trust of the whole earth4 ,god's grace fructifies through ,israel to all4 ,how clearly the psalmist had grasped the truth that ,god has limited the knowledge of ,himself to one spot of earth in order to its universal diffusion6 ,the light is focussed and set in a tower that it may shine out over sea and storm4 ,the fire is gathered into a brasier that it may warm all the house4 ,some commentators take that strong expression the trust of all the ends of the earth as asserting that even the confidences of idolaters in their gods are at bottom trust in ,jehovah and find their way to ,him4 ,but such a view of idolatry is foreign to the ,old ,testament1 and is not needed to explain the psalmist's words4 ,god is the only worthy object of trust1 and remains so whether men do in fact trust ,him or not4 ,and one day1 thinks the psalmist1 ,god's patient manifestation of ,his grace to ,israel will tell1 and all men will come to know ,him for what ,he is4 ,the remotest sea is not translation1 but paraphrase4 ,the psalmist speaks in vague terms1 as one who knew not what lay beyond the horizon of that little-traversed western ocean4 ,literally his words are the sea of the remote peoples2 but a possible emendation has been suggested1 reading instead of sea regions or nations4 ,the change is slight1 and smooths an awkward expression1 but destroys the antithesis of earth and sea1 and makes the second clause a somewhat weak repetition of the first4 ,from the self-revelation of ,god in history the psalm passes to ,his mighty deeds in nature 7vv4 #f1 #g a71 and from these it returns to ,his providential guidance of human affairs 7ver4 #g b74 ,the two specimens of ,divine power celebrated in vv4 #f1 #g1 are suggested by the closing words of ver4 #e4 ,the ends of the earth were1 according to ancient cosmography1 girdled by mountains2 and ,god has set these fast4 ,the dash of the remotest seas is hushed by ,him4 ,two mighty things are selected to witness to the ,mightier who made and manages them4 ,the firm bulk of the mountains is firm because ,he is strong4 ,the tossing waves are still because ,he bids them be silent4 ,how transcendently great then is ,he1 and how blind those who1 seeing hill and ocean1 do not see ,god6 ,the mention of the sea1 the standing emblem of unrest and rebellious power1 suggests the tumult of the peoples1 on which similar repressive power is exercised4 ,the great deeds of ,god1 putting down tyranny and opposition to ,israel1 which is rebellion against ,himself1 strike terror1 which is wholesome and is purified into reverence1 into the distant lands2 and so1 from the place where the sun rises to the sad-coloured end of evening where it sinks in the west1 i4e41 through all the earth1 there rings out a shout of joy4 ,such glowing anticipations of universal results from the deeds of ,god1 especially for ,israel1 are the products of diseased national vanity1 unless they are ,god-taught apprehension of the ,divine purpose of ,israel's history1 which shall one day be fulfilled1 when the knowledge of the yet more wondrous deeds which culminated in the ,cross is spread to the ends of the earth and the remotest seas4 ,god reveals ,himself not only in the sanctities of ,his house1 nor in ,his dread signs in nature and history1 but in the yearly recurring harvest1 which was waving1 as yet unreaped1 while the poet sang4 ,the local colouring which regards rain as the chief factor in fertility and the special gift of ,god is noticeable4 ,in such a land as ,palestine1 irrigation seems the one thing needful to turn desert into fruitful field4 ,to water the soil is there emphatically to enrich it4 ,the psalmist uses for river the technical word for an irrigation cutting1 as if he would represent ,god in the guise of the cultivator1 who digs his ditches that the sparkling blessing may reach all his field4 ,but what a difference between men-made watercourses and ,god's6 ,the former are sometimes flooded1 but often dry2 ,his are full of water4 ,the prose of the figure is1 of course1 abundant rain4 ,it prepares the earth for the seed1 and so in effect prepares the corn4 ,the one is the immediate1 the other the ultimate issue and purpose4 ,spring showers prepare autumn fruits4 ,it is so in all regions of man's endeavour and of ,god's work2 and it is practical wisdom to train ourselves to see the assurance of the end in ,his means1 and to be confident that whatever ,his doings have a manifest tendency to effect shall one day be ripened and harvested4 ,how lovingly and patiently the psalm represents the ,divine ,husbandman as attending to all the steps of the process needed for the great ingathering6 ,he guides the showers1 ,he fills the little valleys of the furrows1 and smooths down the tiny hills of the intervening ridges4 ,he takes charge of the germinating seed1 and ,his sunshine smiles a benediction on the tender green blade1 as it pricks through the earth which has been made soft enough for it to pierce from beneath4 ,this unhesitating recognition of the direct action of ,god in all natural processes is the true point of view from which to regard them4 ,god is the only force2 and ,his immediate action is present in all material changes4 ,the ,bible knows nothing of self-moving powers in nature1 and the deepest conception of ,god's relations to things sensible knows as little4 ,there is no power but of ,god is the last word of religion and of true philosophy4 ,the poet stands in the joyous time when all the beauty of summer flushes the earth1 and the harvest is yet a hope1 not a possibly disappointing reality4 ,it is near enough to fill his song with exultation4 ,it is far enough off to let him look on the whitened fields1 and not on the bristly stubble4 ,so he regards the crown as already set on a year of goodness4 ,he sees ,god's chariot passing in triumph and blessing over the land1 and leaving abundance wherever its wheel-tracks go4 ,out in the uncultivated prairie1 where sweet grass unsown by man grows1 is the flush of greenery1 where1 before the rain1 was baked and gaping earth4 ,the hills1 that wear a girdle of forest trees half-way up towards their barren summits1 wave their foliage1 as if glad4 ,the white fleeces of flocks are dotted over the vivid verdure of every meadow1 and one cannot see the ground for the tall corn that stands waiting for the sickle1 in each fertile plain4 ,the psalmist hears a hymn of glad praise rising from all these happy and sunny things2 and for its melody he hushes his own1 that he and we may listen to ,the fair music that all creatures make ,to their great ,lord4 ,,psalm ,,lxvi4 #a ,shout joyfully to ,god1 all the earth1 #b ,harp unto the glory of ,his name1 ,render glory to ,him by ,his praise4 #c ,say to ,god1 ,how dread are ,thy works6 ,for the greatness of ,thy strength shall ,thy enemies feign submission to ,thee4 #d ,all the earth shall bow down to ,thee1 and harp to ,thee1 ,they shall harp to ,thy name4 ,selah4 #e ,come1 and behold the deeds of ,god2 ,he is dread in ,his doing towards the sons of men1 #f ,he turned the sea to dry land1 ,they went through the river on foot1 ,there let us rejoice in ,him4 #g ,he rules by ,his might for ever2 ,his eyes watch the nations1 ,the rebellious--let them not exalt themselves4 ,selah4 #h ,bless our ,god1 ye peoples1 ,and let the voice of ,his praise be heard6 #i ,who has set our soul in life1 ,and has not let our foot slip4 #aj ,for ,thou hast proved us1 ,o ,god1 ,thou hast refined us1 as silver is refined4 #aa ,thou hast brought us into the fortress-dungeon1 ,thou hast laid a heavy burden on our loins4 #ab ,thou hast caused men to ride over our head1 ,we have come into the fire and into the water1 ,but ,thou broughtest us out into abundance4 #ac ,i will go into ,thy house with burnt offerings1 ,i will render to ,thee my vows1 #ad ,which my lips uttered1 ,and my mouth spoke1 in my straits4 #ae ,burnt offerings of fatlings will ,i offer to ,thee1 ,with the savour of rams1 ,i will offer bullocks with goats4 ,selah4 #af ,come1 hearken1 and ,i will recount1 all ye that fear ,god1 ,what ,he has done for my soul4 #ag ,to ,him did ,i cry with my mouth1 ,and a song extolling ,him was already under my tongue4 #ah ,if ,i had intended iniquity in my heart1 ,the ,lord would not hear3 #ai ,but surely ,god has heard1 ,he has attended to the voice of my prayer4 #bj ,blessed be ,god1 ,who has not turned away my prayer1 nor ,his loving-kindness from me4 ,the most striking feature of this psalm is the transition from the plural we and our1 in vv4 #a-ab1 to the singular ,i and my1 in vv4 #ac-bj4 ,ewald supposes that two independent psalms have been united1 but ver4 #ab is as abrupt for an ending as ver4 #ac is for a beginning2 and the ,come1 hear1 of ver4 #af echoes the ,come1 and see1 of ver4 #e4 ,it is possible that the ',i' of the second part is identical with the 'we' of the first2 in other words1 that the personified community speaks here 7,baethgen72 but the supposition that the psalm was meant for public worship1 and is composed of a choral and a solo part1 accounts for the change of number4 ,such expressions as my soul and my heart favour the individual reference4 ,of course1 the deliverance magnified by the single voice is the same as that celebrated by the loud acclaim of many tongues2 but there is a different note in the praise of the former--there is a tone of inwardness in it1 befitting individual appropriation of general blessings4 ,to this highest point1 that of the action of the single soul in taking the deliverances of the community for its very own1 and pouring out its own praise1 the psalm steadily climbs4 ,it begins with the widest outlook over all the earth1 summoned to ring forth joyous praise4 ,it ends focussed to one burning point1 in a heart fired by the thought that ,god has not turned away his loving-kindness from me4 ,so we learn how each single soul has to claim its several part in world-wide blessings1 as each flower-calyx absorbs the sunshine that floods the pastures4 ,the psalm has no superscription of date or author1 and no clue in its language to the particular deliverance that called it forth4 ,the usual variety of conjectures have been hazarded4 ,the defeat of ,sennacherib occurs to some2 the return from ,babylon to others2 the ,maccabean period to yet another school of critics4 ,it belongs to a period when ,israel's world-significance and mission were recognised 7which ,cheyne considers a post-exilic feature1 ,orig4 of ,psalt41 #agf71 and when the sacrificial worship was in full force2 but beyond these there are no clear data for period of composition4 ,it is divided into five strophes1 three of which are marked by ,selah4 ,that musical indication is wanting at the close of the third strophe 7ver4 #ab71 which is also the close of the first or choral part1 and its absence may be connected with the transition to a single voice4 ,a certain progress in thought is noticeable1 as will appear as we proceed4 ,the first strophe calls upon all the earth to praise ,god for ,his works4 ,the special deeds which fire the psalmist are not yet mentioned1 though they are present to his mind4 ,the summons of the world to praise passes over into prophecy that it shall praise4 ,the manifestation of ,god's character by act will win homage4 ,the great thought that ,god has but to be truly known in order to be reverenced is an axiom with this psalmist2 and no less certain is he that such knowledge and such praise will one day fill the world4 ,true1 he discerns that submission will not always be genuine2 for he uses the same word to express it as occurs in ,psalm xviii4 #dd1 which represents feigned homage4 ,every great religious awakening has a fringe of adherents1 imperfectly affected by it1 whose professions outrun reality1 though they themselves are but half conscious that they feign4 ,but though this sobering estimate of the shallowness of a widely diffused recognition of ,god tones down the psalmist's expectations1 and has been abundantly confirmed by later experience1 his great hope remains as an early utterance of the conviction1 which has gathered assurance and definiteness by subsequent ,revelation1 and is now familiar to all4 ,the world is ,god's4 ,his ,self-revelation will win hearts4 ,there shall be true submission and joyous praise1 girdling the earth as it rolls4 ,the psalmist dwells mainly on the majestic and awe-inspiring aspect of ,god's acts4 ,his greatness of power bears down opposition4 ,but the later strophes introduce other elements of the ,divine nature and syllables of the ,name1 though the inmost secret of the power of ,god in the weakness of manhood and the all-conquering might of ,love is not yet ripe for utterance4 ,the second strophe advances to a closer contemplation of the deeds of ,god1 which the nations are summoned to behold4 ,he is not only dread in ,his doings towards mankind at large1 but ,israel's history is radiant with the manifestation of ,his name1 and that past lives on1 so that ancient experiences give the measure and manner of to-day's working4 ,the retrospect embraces the two standing instances of ,god's delivering help--the passage of the ,red ,sea and of ,jordan--and these are not dead deeds in a far-off century4 ,for the singer calls on his own generation to rejoice there in ,him4 ,ver4 #f c is by some translated as ,there did we rejoice1 and more accurately by others1 ,let us rejoice4 ,in the former case the essential solidarity of all generations of the nation is most vividly set forth4 ,but the same idea is involved in the correct rendering1 according to which the men of the psalmist's period are entitled and invoked to associate themselves in thought with that long-past generation1 and to share in their joy1 since they do possess the same power which wrought then4 ,god's work is never antiquated4 ,it is all a revelation of eternal activities4 ,what ,he has been1 ,he is4 ,what ,he did1 ,he does4 ,therefore faith may feed on all the records of old time1 and expect the repetition of all that they contain4 ,such an application of history to the present makes the nerve of this strophe4 ,for ver4 #g1 following on the retrospect1 declares the perpetuity of ,god's rule1 and that ,his eyes still keep an outlook1 as a watchman on a tower might do1 to mark the enemies' designs1 in order that ,he may intervene1 as of old1 for ,his people's deliverance4 ,he looked forth upon the ,egyptians through the pillar of fire and of cloud 7,exod4 xiv4 #bd74 ,thus ,he still marks the actions and plans of ,israel's foes4 ,therefore it were wise for the rebellious not to rear their heads so high in opposition4 ,the third strophe comes still closer to the particular deliverance underlying the psalm4 ,why should all peoples be called upon to praise ,god for it8 ,the psalmist has learned that ,israel's history is meant to teach the world what ,god is1 and how blessed it is to dwell under ,his wing4 ,no exclusiveness taints his enjoyment of special national privileges4 ,he has reached a height far above the conceptions of the rest of the world in his day1 and even in this day1 except where the ,christian conception of humanity has been heartily accepted4 ,whence came this width of view1 this purifying from particularism1 this anticipation by so many centuries of a thought imperfectly realised even now8 ,surely a man who in those days and with that environment could soar so high must have been lifted by something mightier than his own spirit4 ,the details of the ,divine dealings described in the strophe are of small consequence in comparison with its fixed expectation of the world's participation in ,israel's blessings4 ,the familiar figures for affliction reappear--namely1 proving and refining in a furnace4 ,a less common metaphor is that of being prisoned in a dungeon1 as the word rendered net in the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 probably means4 ,another peculiar image is that of ver4 #ab3 ,thou hast caused men to ride over our head4 ,the word for men here connotes feebleness and frailty1 characteristics which make tyranny more intolerable2 and the somewhat harsh metaphor is best explained as setting forth insolent and crushing domination1 whether the picture intended is that of ruthless conquerors driving their chariots over their prone victims1 or that of their sitting as an incubus on their shoulders and making them like beasts of burden4 ,fire and water are standing figures for affliction4 ,with great force these accumulated symbols of oppression are confronted by one abrupt clause ending the strophe1 and describing in a breath the perfect deliverance which sweeps them all away3 ,thou broughtest us out into abundance4 ,there is no need for the textual alteration of the last word into a wide place 7,hupfeld71 a place of liberty 7,cheyne71 or freedom 7,baethgen74 ,the word in the received text is that employed in ,psalm xxiii4 #e4 ,my cup is overfulness and abundance yields a satisfactory meaning here1 though not closely corresponding to any of the preceding metaphors for affliction4 ,the fourth strophe 7vv4 #ac-ae7 begins the solo part4 ,it clothes in a garb appropriate to a sacrificial system the thought expressed in more spiritual dress in the next strophe1 that ,god's deliverance should evoke men's praise4 ,the abundance and variety of sacrifices named1 and the fact that rams were not used for the offerings of individuals1 seem to suggest that the speaker is1 in some sense1 representing the nation1 and it has been supposed that he may be the high priest4 ,but this is merely conjecture1 and the explanation may be that there is a certain ideal and poetical tone over the representation1 which does not confine itself to scrupulous accuracy4 ,the last strophe 7vv4 #af-bj7 passes beyond sacrificial symbols1 and gives the purest utterance to the emotions and resolves which ought to well up in a devout soul on occasion of ,god's goodness4 ,not only does the psalmist teach us how each individual must take the general blessing for his very own--of which act the faith which takes the world's ,christ for my ,christ is the supreme example--but he teaches us that the obligation laid on all recipients of ,god's mercy is to tell it forth1 and that the impulse is as certain to follow real reception as the command is imperative4 ,just as ,israel received deliverances that the whole earth might learn how strong and gracious was ,israel's ,god1 we receive ,his blessings1 and chiefly ,his highest gift of life in ,christ1 not only that we may live1 but that1 living1 we may declare the works of the ,lord4 ,he has little possession of ,god's grace who has not felt the necessity of speech1 and the impossibility of the lips being locked when the heart is full4 ,the psalmist tells his experience of ,god's answers to his prayer in a very striking fashion4 ,ver4 #ag says that he cried to ,god2 and while his uttered voice was supplication1 the song extolling ,god for the deliverance asked was1 as it were1 lying under his tongue1 ready to break forth1--so sure was he that his cry would be heard4 ,that is a strong faith which prepares banners and music for the triumph before the battle is fought4 ,it would be presumptuous folly1 not faith1 if it rested on anything less certain than ,god's power and will4 ,i find ,david making a syllogism in mood and figure4444 ',if ,i regard iniquity in my heart1 the ,lord will not hear me3 but verily ,god hath heard me2 ,he hath attended to the voice of my prayer4' ,now1 ,i expected that ,david would have concluded thus3 ',therefore ,i regard not wickedness in my heart4 ,but far otherwise he concludes3 ',blessed be ,god1 who hath not turned away my prayer1 nor ,his mercy from me4' ,thus ,david hath deceived but not wronged me4 ,i looked that he should have clapped the crown on his own1 and he puts it on ,god's head4 ,i will learn this excellent logic4 ,so says ,fuller 7,good ,thoughts in ,bad ,times1 p4 #cd1 ,pickering's ed41 #ahda74 ,no doubt1 however1 the psalmist means to suggest1 though he does not state1 that his prayer was sincere4 ,there is no self-complacent attribution of merit to his supplication1 in the profession that it was untainted by any secret1 sidelong looking towards evil2 and ,fuller is right in emphasising the suppression of the statement4 ,but even the appearance of such is avoided by the jet of praise which closes the psalm4 ,its condensed brevity has induced some critics to mend it by expansion1 as they regard it as incongruous to speak of turning away a man's prayer from himself4 ,some would therefore insert from ,him after my prayer1 and others would expand still further by inserting an appropriate negative before ,his loving-kindness4 ,but the slight incongruity does not obscure the sense1 and brings out strongly the flow of thought4 ,so fully does the psalmist feel the connection between ,god's loving-kindness and his own prayer1 that these are1 as it were1 smelted into one in his mind1 and the latter is so far predominant in his thoughts that he is unconscious of the anomaly of his expression4 ,to expand only weakens the swing of the words and the power of the thought4 ,it is possible to tame lyric outbursts into accuracy at the cost of energy4 ,psalmists are not bound to be correct in style4 ,rivers wind2 canals are straight4 ,,psalm ,,lxvii4 #a ,god be gracious to us1 and bless us1 ,and cause ,his face to shine among us2 ,selah4 #b ,that ,thy way may be known upon earth1 ,thy salvation among all nations4 #c ,let peoples give ,thee thanks1 ,o ,god1 ,let peoples1 all of them1 give ,thee thanks4 #d ,let tribes rejoice and shout aloud1 ,for ,thou wilt judge peoples in equity1 ,and tribes on the earth wilt ,thou lead4 ,selah4 #e ,let peoples give ,thee thanks1 ,o ,god1 ,let peoples1 all of them1 give ,thee thanks4 #f ,the earth has yielded her increase3 ,may ,god1 even our ,god1 bless us6 #g ,may ,god bless us1 ,and may all the ends of the earth fear ,him6 ,this little psalm condenses the dominant thought of the two preceding into a series of aspirations after ,israel's blessing1 and the consequent diffusion of the knowledge of ,god's way among all lands4 ,like ,psalm lxv41 it sees in abundant harvests a type and witness of ,god's kindness4 ,but1 whereas in ,psalm lxv4 the fields were covered with corn1 here the increase has been gathered in4 ,the two psalms may or may not be connected in date of composition as closely as these two stages of one harvest-time4 ,the structure of the psalm has been variously conceived4 ,clearly the ,selahs do not guide as to divisions in the flow of thought4 ,but it may be noted that the seven verses in the psalm have each two clauses1 with the exception of the middle one 7ver4 #d71 which has three4 ,its place and its abnormal length mark it as the core1 round which1 as it were1 the whole is built up4 ,further1 it is as if encased in two verses 7vv4 #c1 #e71 which1 in their four clauses1 are a fourfold repetition of a single aspiration4 ,these three verses are the heart of the psalm--the desire that all the earth may praise ,god1 whose providence blesses it all4 ,they are again enclosed in two strophes of two verses each 7vv4 #a1 #b1 and #f1 #g71 which1 like the closer wrapping round the core1 are substantially parallel1 and1 unlike it1 regard ,god's manifestation to ,israel as ,his great witness to the world4 ,thus1 working outwards from the central verse1 we have symmetry of structure1 and intelligible progress and distinctness of thought4 ,another point of difficulty is the rendering of the series of verbs in the psalm4 ,commentators are unanimous in taking those of ver4 #a as expressions of desire2 but they bewilderingly diverge in their treatment of the following ones4 ,details of the divergent interpretations1 or discussions of their reasons1 cannot be entered on here4 ,it may be sufficient to say that the adherence throughout to the optative rendering1 admitted by all in ver4 #a1 gives a consistent colouring to the whole4 ,it is arbitrary to vary the renderings in so short a psalm4 ,but1 as is often the case1 the aspirations are so sure of their correspondence with the ,divine purpose that they tremble on the verge of being prophecies1 as1 indeed1 all wishes that go out along the line of ,god's way are4 ,every deep1 ,god-inspired longing whispers to its utterer assurance that so it shall be2 and therefore such desires have ever in them an element of fruition1 and know nothing of the pain of earthly wishes4 ,they who stretch out empty hands to ,god never gather dust and chaff4 ,the priestly blessing 7,numb4 vi4 #bd-bf7 moulds ver4 #a1 but with the substitution of ,god for ,jehovah1 and of among us for upon us4 ,the latter variation gives an impression of closer contact of men with the lustre of that ,divine ,light1 and of yet greater condescension in ,god4 ,the soul's longing is not satisfied by even the fullest beams of a ,light that is fixed on high2 it dares to wish for the stooping of the ,sun to dwell among us4 ,the singer speaks in the name of the nation2 and1 by using the priestly formula1 claims for the whole people the sacerdotal dignity which belonged to it by its original constitution4 ,he gives that idea its widest extension4 ,israel is the world's high priest1 lifting up intercessions and holy hands of benediction for mankind4 ,what self-effacement1 and what profound insight into and sympathy with the mind of ,god breathe in that collocation of desires1 in which the gracious lustre of ,god's face shining on us is longed for1 chiefly that thence it may be reflected into the dark places of earth1 to gladden sad and seeking eyes6 ,this psalmist did not know in how true a sense the ,light would come to dwell among men of ,israel's race1 and thence to flood the world2 but his yearning is a foreshadowing of the spirit of ,christianity1 which forbids self-regarding monopoly of its blessings4 ,if a man is light in the ,lord1 he cannot but shine4 ,god hath shined into our hearts1 that we may give the light of the knowledge of the glory of ,god4 ,a ,church illuminated with a manifestly ,divine light is the best witness for ,god4 ,eyes which cannot look on the ,sun may gaze at the clouds1 which tone down its colourless radiance into purple and gold4 ,the central core of the psalm may either be taken as summons to the nations or as expression of desire for them4 ,the depth of the longing or the stringency of the summons is wonderfully given by that fourfold repetition of the same words in vv4 #c and #e1 with the emphatic all of them in the second clause of each4 ,not less significant is the use of three names for the aggregations of men--nations 7ver4 #b71 peoples1 and tribes4 ,all are included1 whatever bond knits them in communities1 whatever their societies call themselves1 however many they are4 ,the very vagueness gives sublimity and universality4 ,we can fill the vast outline drawn by these sweeping strokes2 and wider knowledge should not be attended with narrowed desires1 nor feebler confidence that the ,light shall lighten every land4 ,it is noticeable that in this central portion the deeds of ,god among the nations are set forth as the ground of their praise and joy in ,him4 ,israel had the light of ,his face1 and that would draw men to ,him4 ,but all peoples have the strength of ,his arm to be their defender1 and the guidance of ,his hand by providences and in other ways unrecognised by them4 ,the judgments here contemplated are1 of course1 not retribution for evil1 but the aggregate of dealings by which ,god shows ,his sovereignty in all the earth4 ,the psalmist does not believe that ,god's goodness has been confined to ,israel1 nor that the rest of the world has been left orphaned4 ,he agrees with ,paul1 ,that which may be known of ,god is manifest in them1 for ,god manifested it to them4 ,the final strophe 7vv4 #f1 #g7 is substantially a repetition of vv4 #a1 #b1 with the addition that a past fact is laid as the foundation of the desires or hopes of future blessings4 ,the earth has yielded her increase4 ,this may show that the psalm is a harvest hymn1 but it does not necessarily imply this4 ,the thought may have been born at any time4 ,the singer takes the plain fact that1 year by year1 by mysterious quickening which he recognises as of ,god1 the fertile earth causes the things sown in it to bring forth and bud1 as an evidence of ,divine care and kindliness1 which warrants the desire and the confidence that all blessings will be given4 ,it seems a large inference from such a premise2 but it is legitimate for those who recognise ,god as working in nature1 and have eyes to read the parables amid which we live4 ,the psalmist reminds ,god of ,his own acts1 and1 further1 of ,his own name1 and builds on these his petitions and his faith4 ,because ,he is our ,god ,he will bless us2 and since the earth has1 by ,his gift1 yielded her increase1 ,he will give the better food which souls need4 ,this the singer desires1 not only because he and his brethren need it1 but because a happy people are the best witnesses for a good ,king1 and worshippers satisfied with favour and full of the blessing of the ,lord proclaim most persuasively1 ,taste1 and see that ,god is good4 ,this psalm is a truly missionary psalm1 in its clear anticipation of the universal spread of the knowledge of ,god1 in its firm grasp of the thought that the ,church has its blessings in order to the evangelisation of the world1 and in its intensity of longing that from all the ends of the earth a shout of praise may go up to the ,god who has sent some rays of ,his light into them all1 and committed to ,his people the task of carrying a brighter illumination to every land4 ,,psalm ,,lxviii4 #a ,let ,god arise1 let ,his enemies be scattered1 ,and let them who hate ,him flee before ,him4 #b ,as smoke is whirled1 whirl them away3 ,as wax melts before fire1 ,may the wicked perish before ,god6 #c ,but may the righteous rejoice and exult before ,god1 ,and be mirthful in joy4 #d ,sing to ,god1 harp to ,his name3 ,throw up a way for ,him who rides through the deserts ,in ,jah is ,his name2 and exult ye before ,him2 #e ,the orphans' father and the widows' advocate1 ,god in ,his holy dwelling-place1 #f ,god1 who makes the solitary to dwell in a home1 ,who brings out the prisoners into prosperity3 ,yet the rebellious inhabit a burnt-up land4 #g ,o ,god1 at ,thy going forth before ,thy people1 ,at ,thy marching through the wilderness2 ,selah4 #h ,the earth quaked1 the heavens also dropped before ,god ,yonder ,sinai quaked before ,god1 the ,god of ,israel4 #i ,with a gracious rain1 ,o ,god1 ,thou didst besprinkle ,thine inheritance2 ,and when it was faint1 ,thou didst refresh it4 #aj ,thine assembly dwelt herein3 ,thou didst prepare in ,thy goodness for the poor1 ,o ,god4 #aa ,the ,lord gives the word3 ,the women telling the good tidings are a great army4 #ab ,kings of armies flee1 they flee3 ,and the home-keeping woman divides the spoil4 #ac ,will ye lie among the sheep-pens8 ,ye shall be as the wings of a dove that is covered with silver1 787 ,and her pinions with yellow gold #ad ,when the ,almighty scattered kings in it1 ,it snowed in ,salmon4 #ae ,a mountain of ,god is the mountain of ,bashan1 ,a many-peaked mountain is the mountain of ,bashan4 #af ,why look ye with envy1 ,o many-peaked mountains1 ,on the mountain which ,god has desired to dwell in8 ,yea1 ,god will abide in it for ever4 #ag ,the chariots of ,god are myriads and myriads1 thousands on thousands3 ,god is among them2 ,sinai is in the sanctuary4 #ah ,thou hast ascended on high1 ,thou hast led captive a band of captives1 ,thou hast taken gifts among men1 ,yea1 even the rebellious shall dwell with ,jah1 ,god4 #ai ,blessed be the ,lord6 ,day by day ,he bears our burdens1 ,even the ,god who is our salvation4 #bj ,god is to us a ,god of deliverances1 ,and ,jehovah the ,lord has escape from death4 #ba ,yea1 ,god will crush the head of ,his enemies1 ,the hairy skull of him that goes on in his guiltiness4 #bb ,the ,lord has said1 ,from ,bashan ,i will bring back1 ,i will bring back from the depths of the sea3 #bc ,that thou mayest bathe thy foot in blood1 ,that the tongue of thy dogs may have its portion from the enemy4 #bd ,they have seen ,thy goings1 ,o ,god1 ,the goings of my ,god1 my ,king1 into the sanctuary4 #be ,before go singers1 after come those who strike the strings1 ,in the midst of maidens beating timbrels4 #bf ,in the congregations bless ye ,god1 ,the ,lord1 ye who spring from the fountain of ,israel4 #bg ,there was little ,benjamin their ruler1 787 ,the princes of ,judah1 their shouting multitude1 ,the princes of ,zebulun1 the princes of ,naphtali4 #bh ,command1 ,o ,god1 ,thy strength1 ,show ,thyself strong1 ,o ,god1 ,thou that hast wrought for us4 #bi ,from ,thy temple above ,jerusalem ,unto ,thee shall kings bring presents4 #cj ,rebuke the beast of the reeds1 ,the herd of bulls1 with the calves of the peoples2 ,tread down those that have pleasure in silver2 787 ,scatter the peoples that delight in wars4 #ca ,great ones shall come from ,egypt1 ,cush shall quickly stretch out her hands to ,god4 #cb ,ye kingdoms of the earth1 sing to ,god2 ,harp unto the ,lord2 ,selah4 #cc ,to ,him who rides on the heavens of heavens1 which are of old2 ,lo1 ,he utters ,his voice1 a voice of strength4 #cd ,ascribe to ,god strength1 ,whose majesty is over ,israel1 and ,his strength in the clouds4 #ce ,dread art ,thou1 ,o ,god1 from ,thy sanctuaries1 ,the ,god of ,israel1 ,he gives strength and fulness of might to ,his people4 ,blessed be ,god6 ,this superb hymn is unsurpassed1 if not unequalled1 in grandeur1 lyric fire1 and sustained rush of triumphant praise4 ,it celebrates a victory2 but it is the victory of the ,god who enters as a conqueror into ,his sanctuary4 ,to that entrance 7vv4 #ae-ah7 all the preceding part of the psalm leads up2 and from it all the subsequent part flows down4 ,the ,exodus is recalled as the progress of a king at the head of his hosts1 and old pans re-echo4 ,that dwelling of ,god in the sanctuary is for ever4 ,therefore in the second part of the psalm 7vv4 #ai-ce7 its consequences for the psalmist's generation and for the future are developed--,israel's deliverance1 the conquest of the nations1 and finally the universal recognition of ,god's sovereignty and ringing songs sent up to ,him4 ,the ,davidic authorship is set aside as impossible by most recent commentators1 and there is much in the psalm which goes against it2 but1 on the other hand1 the ,syro-,ammonite war 7#b ,sam4 xi471 in which the ark was taken into the field1 is not unnaturally supposed by ,delitzsch and others to explain the special reference to the entrance of ,god into the sanctuary4 ,the numerous quotations and allusions are urged as evidence of late date1 especially the undeniable resemblance with ,isaiah ,,ii4 ,but the difficulty of settling which of two similar passages is original and which copy is great2 and if by one critical canon such allusions are marks of lateness1 by another1 rugged obscurities1 such as those with which this psalm bristles1 are evidences of an early date4 ,the mention of only four tribes in ver4 #bg is claimed as showing that the psalm was written when ,juda and ,galilee were the only orthodox districts1 and central ,palestine was in the hands of the ,samaritans4 ,but could there be any talk of princes of ,zebulun and ,naphtali then8 ,the exultant tone of the psalm makes its ascription to such a date as the age of the ,ptolemies unlikely1 when ,israel is too feeble1 too depressed1 to dream of self-defence2 and1 if ,god does not soon interpose1 will be torn to pieces 7,cheyne1 ,aids to the ,devout ,study1 etc41 #cce74 ,to the present writer it does not appear that the understanding and enjoyment of this grand psalm depend so much on success in dating it as is supposed4 ,it may be post-exilic4 ,whoever fused its reminiscences of ancient triumph into such a glowing outburst of exultant faith1 his vision of the throned ,god and his conviction that ancient facts reveal eternal truths remain for all generations as an encouragement of trust and a prophecy of ,god's universal dominion4 ,the main division at ver4 #ah parts the psalm into two equal halves1 which are again easily subdivided into strophes4 ,the first strophe 7vv4 #a-f7 may be regarded as introductory to the chief theme of the first half--namely1 the triumphant march of the conquering ,god to ,his sanctuary4 ,it consists of invocation to ,him to arise1 and of summons to ,his people to prepare ,his way and to meet ,him with ringing gladness4 ,the ground of both invocation and summons is laid in an expansion of the meaning of ,his name as ,helper of the helpless1 ,deliverer of the captive1 righteous1 and plentifully rewarding the proud doer4 ,the invocation echoes the ,mosaic prayer when the ark set forward 7,numb4 x4 #ce71 with the alteration of the tense of the verb from a simple imperative into a precative future1 and of ,jehovah into ,god4 ,this is the first of the quotations characteristic of the psalm1 which is penetrated throughout with the idea that the deeds of the past are revelations of permanent relations and activities4 ,the ancient history glows with present life4 ,whatever ,god has done ,he is doing still4 ,no age of the ,church needs to look back wistfully to any former1 and say1 ,where be all ,his wondrous works which our fathers have told us of8 ,the twofold conditions of ,god's intervention are1 as this strophe teaches1 ,israel's cry to ,him to arise1 and expectant diligence in preparing ,his way4 ,the invocation1 which is half of ,israel's means of insuring ,his coming1 being a quotation1 the summons to perform the other half is naturally regarded by the defenders of the post-exilic authorship as borrowed from ,isaiah ,,ii4 7e4g41 xl4 #c1 lvii4 #ad1 lxii4 #aj71 while the supporters of an earlier date regard the psalm as the primary passage from which the prophet has drawn4 ,god arises when ,he displays by some signal act ,his care for ,his people4 ,that strong anthropomorphism sets forth the plain truth that there come crises in history1 when causes1 long silently working1 suddenly produce their world-shaking effects4 ,god has seemed to sit passive2 but the heavens open1 and all but blind eyes can see ,him1 standing ready to smite that ,he may deliver4 ,when ,he rises to ,his feet2 the enemy scatters in panic4 ,his presence revealed is enough4 ,the emphatic repetition of before in these verses is striking1 especially when fully rendered1--from ,his face 7ver4 #a72 from the face of the fire 7ver4 #b72 from the face of ,god 7ver4 #b72 before ,his face 7vv4 #c1 #d74 ,to ,his foes that face is dreadful1 and they would fain cower away from its light2 ,his friends sun themselves in its brightness4 ,the same fire consumes and vivifies4 ,all depends on the character of the recipients4 ,in the psalm the righteous are ,israel1 the ideal nation2 the wicked are its heathen foes2 but the principle underlying the fervid words demands a real assimilation of moral character to the ,divine1 as a condition of being at ease in the ,light4 ,the deserts are1 in consonance with the immediately following reminiscences1 those of the ,exodus4 ,hupfeld and those who discover in the psalm the hopes of the captives in ,babylon1 take them to be the waste wilderness stretching between ,babylon and ,palestine4 ,but it is better to see in them simply a type drawn from the past1 of guidance through any needs or miseries4 ,vv4 #e1 #f1 draw out at length the blessed significance of the name ,jah1 in order to hearten to earnest desire and expectance of ,him4 ,they are best taken as in apposition with ,him in ver4 #d4 ,well may we exult before ,him who is the orphans' father1 the widows' advocate4 ,there may be significance in the contrast between what ,he is in ,his holy habitation and when ,he arises to ride through the deserts4 ,even in the times when he seems to be far above1 dwelling in the separation of ,his unapproachable holiness1 ,he is still caring and acting for the sad and helpless4 ,but when ,he comes forth1 it is to make the solitary to dwell in a home1 to bring out prisoners into prosperity4 ,are these simply expressions for ,god's general care of the afflicted1 like the former clauses1 or do they point back to the ,exodus8 ,a very slight change in the text gives the reading1 ,makes the solitary to return home2 but even without that alteration1 the last clause of the verse is so obviously an allusion to the disobedient1 whose carcasses fell in the wilderness1 that the whole verse is best regarded as pointing back to that time4 ,the home to which the people were led is the same as the prosperity into which the prisoners are brought--namely1 the rest and well-being of ,canaan2 while the fate of the rebellious is1 as it ever is1 to live and die amidst the drought-stricken barrenness which they have chosen4 ,with the second strophe 7vv4 #g-aj7 begins the historical retrospect1 which is continued till1 at the end of the fourth 7ver4 #ah71 ,god is enthroned in the sanctuary1 there to dwell for ever4 ,in the second strophe the wilderness life is described4 ,the third 7vv4 #aa-ad7 tells of the victories which won the land4 ,the fourth triumphantly contrasts the glory of the mountain where ,god at last has come to dwell1 with the loftier peaks across the ,jordan on which no such lustre gleams4 ,vv4 #g1 #h1 are from ,deborah's song1 with slight omissions and alterations1 notably of ,jehovah into ,god4 ,the phrase before still rings in the psalmist's ears1 and he changes ,deborah's words1 in the first clause of ver4 #g1 so as to give the picture of ,god marching in front of ,his people1 instead of1 as the older song represented ,him1 coming from the east1 to meet them marching from the west4 ,the majestic theophany at the giving of the ,law is taken as the culmination of ,his manifestations in the wilderness4 ,vv4 #i1 #aj1 are capable of two applications4 ,according to one1 they anticipate the chronological order1 and refer to the fertility of the land1 and the abundance enjoyed by ,israel when established there4 ,according to the other1 they refer to the sustenance of the people in the wilderness4 ,the former view has in its favour the ordinary use of inheritance for the land1 the likelihood that rain should be represented as falling on soil rather than on people1 and the apparent reference in dwelt therein1 to the settlement in ,canaan4 ,the objection to it is that reference to peaceful dwelling in the land is out of place1 since the next strophe pictures the conquest4 ,if1 then1 the verses belong to the age of wandering1 to what do they refer8 ,hupfeld tries to explain the rain as meaning the manna1 and1 still more improbably1 takes the somewhat enigmatical assembly of ver4 #aj to mean 7as it certainly does7 living creatures1 and to allude 7as it surely does not7 to the quails that fell round the camp4 ,most commentators now agree in transferring thine inheritance to the first clause1 and in understanding it of the people1 not of the land4 ,the verse is intelligible either as referring to gifts of refreshment of spirit and courage bestowed on the people1 in which case rain is symbolical2 or to actual rainfall during the forty years of desert life1 by which sowing and reaping were made possible4 ,the division of the verse as in our translation is now generally adopted4 ,the allusion to the provision of corn in the desert is continued in ver4 #aj1 in which the chief difficulty is the ambiguous word assembly4 ,it may mean living creatures1 and is so taken here by the ,,lxx4 and others4 ,it is twice used in #b ,sam4 xxii4 #aa 7871 #ac1 for an army4 ,delitzsch takes it as a comparison of ,israel to a flock1 thus retaining the meaning of creatures4 ,if the verse is interpreted as alluding to ,israel's wilderness life1 therein must be taken in a somewhat irregular construction1 since there is no feminine noun at hand to which the feminine pronominal suffix in the word can be referred4 ,in that barren desert1 ,god's flock dwelt for more than a generation1 and during all that time ,his goodness provided for them4 ,the strophe thus gives two aspects of ,god's manifestation in the wilderness--the majestic and terrible1 and the gentle and beneficent4 ,in the psalmist's triumphant retrospect no allusion is made to the dark obverse--,israel's long ingratitude4 ,the same history which supplies other psalmists and prophets with material for penetrating accusations yields to this one only occasion of praise4 ,god's part is pure goodness2 man's is shaded with much rebellious murmuring4 ,the next strophe 7vv4 #aa-ad7 is abrupt and disconnected1 as if echoing the hurry of battle and the tumult of many voices on the field4 ,the general drift is unmistakable1 but the meaning of part is the despair of commentators4 ,the whole scene of the conflict1 flight1 and division of the spoil is flashed before us in brief clauses1 panting with excitement and blazing with the glow of victory4 ,the ,lord giveth the word4 ,that word may be the news which the women immediately repeat4 ,but it is far more vivid and truer to the spirit of the psalm1 which sees ,god as the only actor in ,israel's history1 to regard it as the self-fulfilling decree which scatters the enemy4 ,this battle is the ,lord's4 ,there is no description of conflict4 ,but one mighty word is hurled from heaven1 like a thunder-clap 7the phrase resembles that employed so often1 the ,lord gave ,his voice1 which frequently means thunder-peals71 and the enemies' ranks are broken in panic4 ,israel does not need to fight4 ,god speaks1 and the next sound we hear is the clash of timbrels and the clear notes of the maidens chanting victory4 ,this picture of a battle1 with the battle left out1 tells best ,who fought1 and how ,he fought it4 ,he spake1 and it was done4 ,what scornful picture of the flight is given by the reduplication they flee1 they flee6 ,it is like ,deborah's fierce gloating over the dead ,sisera3 ,he bowed1 he fell1 he lay3 at her feet he bowed1 he fell3 where he bowed1 there he fell4 ,what confidence in the power of weakness1 when ,god is on its side1 in the antithesis between the mighty kings scattered in a general sauve qui peut1 and the matrons who had tarried at home and now divide the spoil6 ,sisera's mother was pictured in ,deborah's song as looking long through her lattice for her son's return1 and solacing herself with the thought that he delayed to part the plunder and would come back laden with it4 ,what she vainly hoped for ,israel's matrons enjoy4 ,vv4 #ac1 #ad1 are among the hardest in the ,psalter4 ,the separate clauses offer no great difficulties1 but the connection is enigmatical indeed4 ,will 7lit4 if7 ye lie among the sheepfolds8 comes from ,deborah's song 7,judg4 v4 #af71 and is there a reproach flung at ,reuben for preferring pastoral ease to warlike effort4 ,is it meant as reproach here8 ,it is very unlikely that a song of triumph like this should have for its only mention of ,israel's warriors a taunt4 ,the lovely picture of the dove with iridescent wings is as a picture perfect4 ,but what does it mean here8 ,herder1 whom ,hupfeld follows1 supposes that the whole verse is rebuke to recreants1 who preferred lying stretched at ease among their flocks1 and bidding each other admire the glancing plumage of the doves that flitted round them4 ,but this is surely violent1 and smacks of modern stheticism4 ,others suppose that the first clause is a summons to be up and pursue the flying foe1 and the second and third a description of the splendour with which the conquerors 7or their households7 should be clothed by the spoil4 ,this meaning would require the insertion of some such phrase as ye shall be before the second clause4 ,delitzsch regards the whole as a connected description of the blessings of peace following on victory1 and sees a reference to ,israel as ,god's dove4 ,the new condition of prosperity is compared with the play of colours of a dove basking in the rays of the sun4 ,all these interpretations assume that ,israel is addressed in the first clause4 ,but is this assumption warranted8 ,is it not more natural to refer the ye to the kings just mentioned1 especially as the psalmist recurs to them in the next verse8 ,the question will then retain the taunting force which it has in ,deborah's song1 while it pictures a very different kind of couching among the sheepfolds--namely1 the hiding there from pursuit4 ,the kings are first seen in full flight4 ,then the triumphant psalmist flings after them the taunt1 ,will ye hide among the cattle8 ,if the initial particle retains its literal force1 the first clause is hypothetical1 and the suppression of the conclusion speaks more eloquently than its expression would have done3 ,if ye couch---- ,the second and third clauses are then parallel with the second of ver4 #ab1 and carry on the description of the home-keeping matron1 the dove1 adorned with rich spoils and glorious in her apparel4 ,we thus have a complete parallelism between the two verses1 which both lay side by side the contrasted pictures of the defeated kings and the women2 and we further establish continuity between the three verses 7#ac-ae71 in so far as the kings are dealt with in them all4 ,ver4 #ad is even harder than the preceding4 ,what does in it refer to8 ,is the second clause metaphor1 requiring to be eked out with ,it is like as when8 ,if figure1 what does it mean8 ,one is inclined to say with ,baethgen1 at the end of his comment on the words1 ,after all this1 ,i can only confess that ,i do not understand the verse4 ,salmon was an inconsiderable hill in ,central ,palestine1 deriving its name 7,shady71 as is probable1 from forests on its sides4 ,many commentators look to that characteristic for explanation of the riddle4 ,snow on the dark hill would show very white4 ,so after the defeat the bleached bones of the slain1 or1 as others1 their glittering armour1 would cover the land4 ,others take the point of comparison to be the change from trouble to joy which follows the foe's defeat1 and is likened to the change of the dark hillside to a gleaming snow-field4 ,hupfeld still follows ,herder in connecting the verse with the reproach which he finds in the former one1 and seeing in the words ,it snowed on ,salmon the ground of the recreants' disinclination to leave the sheepfolds--namely1 that it was bad weather1 and that1 if snow lay on ,salmon in the south1 it would be worse in the north1 where the campaign was going on6 ,he acknowledges that this explanation requires a good deal of acuteness to discover1 and says that the only alternative to accepting it1 provisionally1 at all events1 is to give up the hope of any solution4 ,cheyne follows ,bickell in supposing that part of the text has dropped out1 and proposes an additional clause at the beginning of the verse and an expansion of the last clause1 arriving at this result3 ,for full is our land of spoil1 ,when ,shaddai scatters kings therein1 ,as the snow1 when it snows in ,salmon4 ,the adoption of these additions is not necessary to reach this meaning of the whole1 which appears the most consonant with the preceding verses1 as continuing the double reference which runs through them--namely1 to the fugitive kings and the dividers of the spoil4 ,on the one side we see the kings driven from their lurking-places among the sheepfolds2 on the other1 the gleam of rich booty1 compared now to the shining white wrapping the dark hill1 as formerly to the colours that shimmer on sunlit pinions of peaceful doves4 ,if this is not the meaning1 we can only fall back on the confession already quoted4 ,the battle is over1 and now the ,conqueror enters ,his palace-temple4 ,the third strophe soars with its theme1 describing ,his triumphal entry thither and permanent abiding there4 ,the long years between the conquest of ,canaan and the establishment of the ark on ,zion dwindle to a span2 for ,god's enthronement there was in one view the purpose of the conquest1 which was incomplete till that was effected4 ,there is no need to suppose any reference in the mention of ,bashan to the victories over ,og1 its ancient king4 ,the noble figure needs no historic allusion to explain it4 ,these towering heights beyond ,jordan had once in many places been seats of idol worship4 ,they are emblems of the world's power4 ,no light rests upon them1 lofty though they are1 like that which glorifies the insignificant top of ,zion4 ,they may well look enviously across the ,jordan to the hill which ,god has desired for ,his abode4 ,his triumphal procession is not composed of earthly warriors1 for none such had appeared in the battle4 ,he had conquered1 not by employing human hands1 but by ,his own bright-harnessed angels4 ,they now surround ,him in numbers innumerable1 which language strains its power in endeavouring to reckon4 ,myriads doubled1 thousands of repetition1 says the psalmist--indefinite expressions for a countless host4 ,but all their wide-flowing ranks are clustered round the ,conqueror1 whose presence makes their multitude an unity1 even as it gives their immortal frames their life and strength1 and their faces all their lustrous beauty4 ,god is in the midst of them2 therefore they conquer and exult4 ,sinai is in the sanctuary4 ,this bold utterance has led to a suggested emendation1 which has the advantage of bringing out clearly a quotation from ,deut4 xxxiii4 #b4 ,it combines the second and third clauses of ver4 #ag1 and renders ,the ,lord hath come from ,sinai into the sanctuary4 ,but the existing text gives a noble thought--that now1 by the entrance of ,god thither1 ,sinai itself is in the sanctuary1 and all the ancient sanctities and splendours1 which flamed round its splintered peaks1 are housed to shine lambent from that humble hill4 ,sinai was nothing but for ,god's presence4 ,zion has that presence2 and all that it ever meant it means still4 ,the profound sense of the permanent nature of past revelation1 which speaks all through the psalm1 reaches its climax here4 ,the height to which ver4 #ah triumphantly proclaims that ,god has gone up1 can only be ,zion4 ,to take it as meaning the heavenly sanctuary1 as in ,psalm vii4 #g it unquestionably does1 is forbidden by the preceding verses4 ,thither the conquering ,god has ascended1 as to ,his palace1 leading a long procession of bound captives1 and there receiving tribute from the vanquished4 ,assyrian slabs and ,egyptian paintings illustrate these representations4 ,the last clause has been variously construed and understood4 ,is ,yea1 even the rebellious to be connected with the preceding1 and among to be supplied1 so that those once rebellious are conceived of as tributary1 or does the phrase begin an independent clause8 ,the latter construction makes the remainder of the verse run more intelligibly1 and obviates the need for supplying a preposition with the rebellious4 ,it still remains a question whether the last words of the clause refer to ,god's dwelling among the submissive rebels1 or to their dwelling with ,god4 ,if1 however1 it is kept in view that the context speaks of ,god as dwelling in ,his sanctuary1 the latter is the more natural explanation1 especially as a forcible contrast is thereby presented to the fate of the rebellious in ver4 #f4 ,they dwell in a burnt-up land2 but1 if they fling away their enmity1 may be guests of ,god in ,his sanctuary4 ,thus the first half of the psalm closes with grand prophetic hopes that1 when ,god has established ,his abode on ,zion1 distant nations shall bring their tribute1 rebels return to allegiance1 and men be dwellers with ,god in ,his house4 ,in such anticipations the psalm is ,messianic1 inasmuch as these are only fulfilled in the dominion of ,jesus4 ,paul's quotation of this verse in ,eph4 iv4 #h does not require us to maintain its directly prophetic character4 ,rather1 the apostle1 as ,calvin says1 deflects it to ,christ4 ,that ascent of the ark to ,zion was a type rather than a prophecy4 ,conflict1 conquest1 triumphant ascent to a lofty home1 tribute1 widespread submission1 and access for rebels to the royal presence--all these1 which the psalmist saw as facts or hopes in their earthly form1 are repeated in loftier fashion in ,christ1 or are only attainable through ,his universal reign4 ,the apostle significantly alters received among into gave to1 sufficiently showing that he is not arguing from a verbal prophecy1 but from a typical fact1 and bringing out the two great truths1 that1 in the highest manifestation of the conquering ,god1 the conquered receive gifts from the victor1 and that the gifts which the ascended ,christ bestows are really the trophies of ,his battle1 in which ,he bound the strong man and spoiled his house4 ,the attempt to make out that the ,hebrew word has the extraordinary doubled-barrelled meaning of receiving in order to give is futile1 and obscures the intentional freedom with which the apostle deals with the text4 ,the ,ascension is1 in the fullest sense1 the enthronement of ,god2 and its results are the growing submission of nations and the happy dwelling of even the rebellious in ,his house4 ,the rapturous emphasis with which this psalm celebrates ,god's entrance into ,his sanctuary is most appropriate to ,davidic times4 ,the psalm reaches its climax in ,god's enthronement on ,zion4 ,its subsequent strophes set forth the results thereof4 ,the first of these1 the fifth of the psalm 7vv4 #ai-bc71 suddenly drops from strains of exultation to a plaintive note1 and then again as suddenly breaks out into stern rejoicing over the ruin of the foe4 ,there is wonderful depth of insight and tenderness in laying side by side the two thoughts of ,god1 that ,he sits on high as conqueror1 and that ,he daily bears our burdens1 or perhaps bears us as a shepherd might his lambs4 ,truly a ,divine use for ,divine might6 ,to such lowly offices of continual individualising care will the ,master of many legions stoop1 reaching out from amid their innumerable myriads to sustain a poor weak man stumbling under a load too great for him4 ,israel had been delivered by a high hand1 but still was burdened4 ,the psalmist has been recalling the deeds of old1 and he finds in them grounds for calm assurance as to the present4 ,to-day1 he thinks1 is as full of ,god as any yesterday1 and our burdens as certain to be borne by ,him1 as were those of the generation that saw ,his ,sinai tremble at ,his presence4 ,to us1 as to them1 ,he is a ,god of deliverances1 and for us can provide ways of escape from death4 ,the words breathe a somewhat plaintive sense of need1 such as shades our brightest moments1 if we bethink ourselves2 but they do not oblige us to suppose that the psalm is the product of a time of oppression and dejection4 ,that theory is contradicted by the bounding gladness of the former part1 no less than by the confident anticipations of the second half4 ,but no song sung by mortal lips is true to the singer's condition1 if it lacks the minor key into which this hymn of triumph is here modulated for a moment4 ,it is but for a moment1 and what follows is startlingly different4 ,israel's escape from death is secured by the destruction of the enemy1 and in it the psalmist has joy4 ,he pictures the hand that sustained him and his fellows so tenderly1 shattering the heads of the rebellious4 ,these are described as long-haired1 an emblem of strength and insolence which one is almost tempted to connect with ,absalom2 and the same idea of determined and flaunting sin is conveyed by the expression goes on in his guiltinesses4 ,there will be such rebels1 even though the house of ,god is open for them to dwell in1 and there can be but one end for such4 ,if they do not submit1 they will be crushed4 ,the psalmist is as sure of that as of ,god's gentleness2 and his two clauses do state the alternative that every man has to face--either to let ,god bear his burden or to be smitten by ,him4 ,vv4 #bb1 #bc1 give a terrible picture of the end of the rebels4 ,the psalmist hears the voice of the ,lord promising to bring some unnamed fugitives from ,bashan and the depths of the sea in order that they may be slain1 and that he 7or ,israel7 may bathe his foot in their blood1 and his dogs may lick it1 as they did ,ahab's4 ,who are to be brought back8 ,some have thought that the promise referred to ,israel1 but it is more natural to apply it to the flying foe4 ,there is no reference to ,bashan either as the kingdom of an ancient enemy or as envying ,zion 7ver4 #ae74 ,but the high land of ,bashan in the east and the depths of the sea to the west are taken 7cf4 ,amos ix4 #a-c7 as representing the farthest and most inaccessible hiding-places4 ,wherever the enemies lurk1 thence they will be dragged and slain4 ,the existing text is probably to be amended by the change of one letter in the verb1 so as to read shall wash or bathe1 as in ,psalm lviii4 #aj1 and the last clause to be read1 ,that the tongue of thy dogs may have its portion from the enemy4 ,the blood runs ankle-deep1 and the dogs feast on the carcasses or lick it--a dreadful picture of slaughter and fierce triumph4 ,it is not to be softened or spiritualised or explained away4 ,there is1 no doubt1 a legitimate ,christian joy in the fall of opposition to ,christ's kingdom1 and the purest benevolence has sometimes a right to be glad when hoary oppressions are swept away and their victims set free2 but such rejoicing is not after the ,christian law unless it is mingled with pity1 of which the psalm has no trace4 ,the next strophe 7vv4 #bd-bg7 is by some regarded as resuming the description of the procession1 which is supposed to have been interrupted by the preceding strophe4 ,but the joyous march now to be described is altogether separate from the majestic progress of the conquering ,king in vv4 #ag1 #ah4 ,this is the consequence of that4 ,god has gone into ,his sanctuary4 ,his people have seen ,his solemn entrance thither1 and therefore they now go up to meet ,him there with song and music4 ,their festal procession is the second result of ,his enthronement1 of which the deliverance and triumph described in the preceding strophe were the first4 ,the people escaped from death flock to thank their ,deliverer4 ,such seems to be the connection of the whole1 and especially of vv4 #bd1 #be4 ,instead of myriads of angels surrounding the conquering ,god1 here are singers and flute-players and damsels beating their timbrels1 like ,miriam and her choir4 ,their shrill call in ver4 #bf summons all who spring from the fountain of ,israel--i4e41 from the eponymous patriarch--to bless ,god4 ,after these musicians and singers1 the psalmist sees tribe after tribe go up to the sanctuary1 and points to each as it passes4 ,his enumeration is not free from difficulties1 both in regard to the epithets employed and the specification of the tribes4 ,the meaning of the word rendered ruler is disputed4 ,its form is peculiar1 and the meaning of the verb from which it is generally taken to come is rather to subdue or tread down than to rule4 ,if the signification of ruler is accepted1 a question rises as to the sense in which ,benjamin is so called4 ,allusion to ,saul's belonging to that tribe is thought of by some2 but this seems improbable1 whether the psalm is ,davidic or later4 ,others think that the allusion is to the fact that1 according to ,joshua xviii4 #af1 the ,temple was within ,benjamite territory2 but that is a far-fetched explanation4 ,others confine the rule to the procession1 in which ,benjamin marches at the head1 and so may be called its leader2 but ruling and leading are not the same4 ,others get a similar result by a very slight textual change1 reading in front instead of their ruler4 ,another difficulty is in the word rendered above their shouting multitude1 which can only be made to mean a company of people by a somewhat violent twist4 ,hupfeld 7with whom ,bickell and ,cheyne agree7 proposes an alteration which yields the former sense and is easy4 ,it may be tentatively adopted4 ,a more important question is the reason for the selection of the four tribes named4 ,the mention of ,benjamin and ,judah is natural2 but why are ,zebulun and ,naphtali the only representatives of the other tribes8 ,the defenders of a late date answer1 as has been already noticed1 ,because in the late period when the psalm was written1 ,galilee and ,juda formed the two orthodox provinces4 ,the objection to this is that in the post-exilic period there were no distinct tribes of ,zebulun and ,naphtali1 and no princes to rule4 ,the mention of these tribes as sharing in the procession to the sanctuary on ,zion would have been impossible during the period of the northern kingdom4 ,if1 then1 these two periods are excluded1 what is left but the ,davidic8 ,the fact seems to be that we have here another glance at ,deborah's song1 in which the daring valour of these two tribes is set in contrast with the sluggish cowardice of ,reuben and the other northern ones4 ,those who had done their part in the wars of the ,lord now go up in triumph to ,his house4 ,that is the reward of ,god's faithful soldiers4 ,the next strophe 7vv4 #bh-ca7 is the prayer of the procession4 ,it falls into two parts of two verses each1 of which the former verse is petition1 and the latter confident anticipation of the results of answered prayer4 ,the symmetry of the whole requires the substitution in ver4 #bh of command for hath commanded4 ,god's strength is poetically regarded as distinct from ,himself and almost personified1 as loving-kindness is in ,psalm xlii4 #h4 ,the prayer is substantially equivalent to the following petition in ver4 #bh b4 ,note how strength occurs four times in vv4 #cc-ce4 ,the prayer for its present manifestation is1 in accordance with the historical retrospect of the first part1 based upon ,god's past acts4 ,it has been proposed to detach ,from ,thy ,temple from ver4 #bi1 and to attach it to ver4 #bh4 ,this gets over a difficulty1 but unduly abbreviates ver4 #bi1 and is not in harmony with the representation in the former part1 which magnifies what ,god has wrought1 not from the ,temple1 but in ,his progress thither4 ,no doubt the retention of the words in ver4 #bi introduces a singular expression there4 ,how can presents be brought to ,god from ,thy ,temple8 ,the only explanation is that ,temple is used in a restricted sense for the holy place1 as distinguished from the holy of holies1 in which the ark was contained4 ,the tribute-bearers stand in that outer sanctuary1 and thence present their tokens of fealty4 ,the city is clustered round the ,temple mount1 and therefore the psalm says1 ,thy ,temple above ,jerusalem4 ,one is tempted to read unto instead of from2 for this explanation can scarcely be called quite satisfactory4 ,but it seems the best that has been suggested4 ,the submission of kings of unnamed lands is contemplated as the result of ,god's manifestation of strength for ,israel4 ,ver4 #cj resumes the tone of petition1 and maintains it throughout4 ,the beast of the reeds1 probably the crocodile1 is a poetic designation for ,egypt1 the reference to which is claimed by both the defenders of the ,davidic and of the post-exilic date as in their favour4 ,the former say that1 in ,david's day1 ,egypt was the greatest world-power known to the ,hebrews2 and the latter1 that the mention of it points to the time when ,israel lay exposed to the attacks of ,seleucid on the one hand and of ,ptolemies on the other4 ,why1 then1 should only one of the two hostile neighbours be mentioned here8 ,bulls are a standing emblem of leaders of nations1 and calves are accordingly their subjects4 ,the two metaphors are naturally connected1 and the correction leaders of the peoples is unnecessary1 and a prosaic intermingling of figure and fact4 ,ver4 #cj c is extremely obscure4 ,baethgen roundly says1 ,the meaning of the words can no longer be ascertained1 and in all probability they are corrupt4 ,the first word is a participle1 which is variously taken as meaning casting oneself to the ground 7i4e41 in submission71 and trampling to the ground4 ,it is also variously referred to the nations and their leaders spoken of in the previous verse1 and to ,god4 ,in the former case it would describe their attitude of submission in consequence of rebuke2 in the latter1 ,god's subjugation of them4 ,the slightest change would make the word an imperative1 thus bringing it into line with rebuke2 but1 even without this1 the reference to ,god is apparently to be preferred4 ,the structure of the strophe which1 in the first verse of each pair1 seems to put petitions and to confine its descriptions of the resulting subjugation of the enemy to the second verse in each case1 favours the latter interpretation4 ,the next words are also disputed4 ,one rendering is1 with bars of silver2 another1 those that delight in silver4 ,the former presupposes a very unusual word for bars4 ,it is necessarily adopted by those who refer the first word to the submission of the herd of bulls4 ,the enemies come with tribute of silver4 ,the other rendering1 which avoids the necessity of bringing in an otherwise unknown word1 is necessarily preferred by the supporters of the second explanation of the preceding word4 ,god is implored to crush those who delight in silver1 which may stand for a description of men of this world1 but must be acknowledged to be rather a singular way of designating active enemies of ,god and ,israel4 ,cheyne's rendering1 ,that rolls itself in mire for gain of money1 brings in the mercenaries of the ,seleucid4 ,but rolling oneself in mire is a strange way of saying hiring oneself out to fight4 ,certainty seems unattainable1 and we must be content with the general trend of the verse as supplication for an exhibition of ,god's strength against proud opponents4 ,the last clause sums up the whole in the petition1 ,scatter the peoples that delight in wars4 ,one verse then tells what the result of that will be4 ,great ones shall come from the land of the beast of the reeds1 and ,ethiopia shall make haste to stretch out tribute-bearing hands to ,god4 ,the vision of a world subjugated and loving its subjugation is rising before the poet4 ,that is the end of the ways of ,god with ,israel4 ,so deeply had this psalmist been led into comprehension of the ,divine purpose2 so clearly was he given to see the future1 and all the wonder that should be4 ,therefore he breaks forth1 in the last strophe1 into invocation to all the kingdoms of the earth to sing to ,god4 ,he had sung of ,his majesty as of old ,jehovah rode through the deserts2 and that phrase described ,his intervention in the field of history on behalf of ,israel4 ,now the singer calls for praise from all the earth to ,him who rides in the most ancient heavens2 and that expression sets forth ,his transcendent majesty and eternal1 universal sway4 ,the psalmist had hymned the victory won when ,god gave the word4 ,now he bids earth listen as ,he gives ,his voice1 a voice of strength1 which moves and controls all creatures and events4 ,therefore all nations are summoned to give strength to ,god1 who gives all fulnesses of strength to ,his people4 ,the psalm closes with the utterance of the thought which has animated it throughout--that ,god's deeds for and in ,israel are the manifestation for the world of ,his power1 and that these will one day lead all men to bless the ,god of ,israel1 who shines out in dread majesty from the sanctuary1 which is henceforth ,his abode for evermore4 ,,psalm ,,lxix4 #a ,save me1 ,o ,god2 ,for the waters have come in even to my soul4 #b ,i am sunk in the mud of an abyss1 without standing-ground ,i am come into depths of waters1 and a flood has overwhelmed me4 #c ,i am weary with my crying2 my throat is parched1 ,my eyes fail whilst ,i wait for my ,god4 #d ,more than the hairs of my head are they who hate me without provocation4 ,strong are my destroyers1 my enemies wrongfully ,what ,i did not rob1 then ,i must restore4 #e ,o ,god1 ,thou1 ,thou knowest my folly1 ,and my guiltinesses are not hidden from ,thee4 #f ,let not those who wait for ,thee be put to shame through me1 ,lord1 ,jehovah of hosts3 ,let not those be confounded through me who seek ,thee1 ,o ,god of ,israel4 #g ,for ,thy sake have ,i borne reproach2 ,confusion has covered my face4 #h ,i have become a stranger to my brothers1 ,and an alien to my mother's sons4 #i ,for zeal for ,thine house has consumed me1 ,and the reproaches of those that reproach ,thee have fallen upon me4 #aj ,and ,i wept1 in fasting my soul wept2 ,and that became matter of reproaches to me4 #aa ,also ,i made sackcloth my clothing2 ,and ,i became to them a proverb4 #ab ,they who sit at the gate talk of me1 ,and the songs of the quaffers of strong drink are about me4 #ac ,but as for me1 my prayer is unto ,thee1 ,jehovah1 in a time of favour1 ,o ,god1 in the greatness of ,thy loving-kindness1 ,answer me in the troth of ,thy salvation4 #ad ,deliver me from the mire1 that ,i sink not1 ,rescue me from those who hate me1 and from depths of waters4 #ae ,let not the flood of waters overwhelm me1 ,and let not the abyss swallow me1 ,and let not the pit close her mouth over me4 #af ,answer me1 ,jehovah2 for ,thy loving-kindness is good3 ,in the multitude of ,thy compassions turn toward me4 #ag ,and hide not ,thy face from ,thy servant1 ,for ,i am in straits2 answer me speedily4 #ah ,draw near to my soul1 redeem it1 ,because of my enemies set me free4 #ai ,thou1 ,thou knowest my reproach1 and my shame1 and my confusion4 ,before ,thee are all my adversaries4 #bj ,reproach has broken my heart2 and ,i am sick unto death1 ,and ,i looked for pitying1 and there was none1 ,and for comforters1 and found none4 #ba ,but they gave me gall for my food1 ,and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink4 #bb ,let their table become before them a snare1 ,and to them in their peacefulness1 let it become a trap4 #bc ,darkened be their eyes1 that they see not1 ,and make their loins continually to quake4 #bd ,pour out upon them ,thine indignation1 ,and let the glow of ,thy wrath overtake them4 #be ,may their encampment be desolate6 ,in their tents may there be no dweller6 #bf ,for him whom ,thou1 ,thou hast smitten1 they persecute1 ,and they tell of the pain of ,thy wounded ones4 #bg ,add iniquity to their iniquity1 ,and let them not come into ,thy righteousness4 #bh ,let them be blotted out of the book of the living1 ,and let them not be inscribed with the righteous4 #bi ,but as for me1 ,i am afflicted and pained1 ,let ,thy salvation1 ,o ,god1 set me on high4 #cj ,i will praise the name of ,god in a song1 ,and ,i will magnify it with thanksgiving4 #ca ,and it shall please ,jehovah more than an ox1 ,a bullock horned and hoofed4 #cb ,the afflicted see it2 they shall rejoice1 ,ye who seek ,god1 behold1 and let your heart live4 #cc ,for ,jehovah listens to the needy1 ,and ,his captives ,he does not despise4 #cd ,let heaven and earth praise ,him1 ,the seas1 and all that moves in them4 #ce ,for ,god will save ,zion1 and build the cities of ,judah1 ,and they shall dwell there1 and possess it4 #cf ,and the seed of ,his servants shall inherit it1 ,and those who love ,his name shall abide therein4 ,the ,davidic authorship of this psalm is evidently untenable1 if for no other reason1 yet because of the state of things presupposed in ver4 #ce4 ,the supposition that ,jeremiah was the author has more in its favour than in the case of many of the modern attributions of psalms to him1 even if1 as seems most probable1 the references to sinking in deep mire and the like are metaphorical4 ,cheyne fixes on the period preceding ,nehemiah's first journey to ,jerusalem as the earliest possible date for this psalm and its kindred ones 7xxii41 xxxv41 and xl4 #ac-ah74 ,baethgen follows ,olshausen in assigning the psalm to the ,maccabean period4 ,the one point which seems absolutely certain is that ,david was not its author4 ,it falls into two equal parts 7vv4 #a-ah and #ai-cf74 ,in the former part three turns of thought or feeling may be traced3 vv4 #a-f being mainly a cry for ,divine help1 with plaintive spreading out of the psalmist's extremity of need2 vv4 #g-ab basing the prayer on the fact that his sufferings flow from his religion2 and vv4 #ac-ah being a stream of petitions for deliverance1 with continuous allusion to the description of his trials in vv4 #a-f4 ,the second part 7vv4 #ai-cf7 begins with renewed description of the psalmist's affliction 7vv4 #ai-ba71 and thence passes to invocation of ,god's justice on his foes 7vv4 #bb-bh71 which takes the place of the direct petitions for deliverance in the first part4 ,the whole closes with trustful anticipation of answers to prayer1 which will call forth praise from ever-widening circles1--first from the psalmist himself2 then from the oppressed righteous2 and1 finally1 from heaven1 earth1 and sea4 ,the numerous citations of this psalm in the ,new ,testament have led many commentators to maintain its directly ,messianic character4 ,but its confessions of sin and imprecations of vengeance are equally incompatible with that view4 ,it is ,messianic as typical rather than as prophetic1 exhibiting a history1 whether of king1 prophet1 righteous man1 or personified nation1 in which the same principles are at work as are manifest in their supreme energy and highest form in the ,prince of righteous sufferers4 ,but the correspondence of such a detail as giving gall and vinegar1 with the history of ,jesus1 carries us beyond the region of types1 and is a witness that ,god's ,spirit shaped the utterances of the psalmist for a purpose unknown to himself1 and worked in like manner on the rude soldiers1 whose clumsy mockery and clumsy kindness fulfilled ancient words4 ,there is surely something more here than coincidence or similarity between the experience of one righteous sufferer and another4 ,if ,jesus cried ,i thirst in order to bring about the fulfilment of one verse of our psalm1 ,his doing so is of a piece with some other acts of ,his which were distinct claims to be the ,messiah of prophecy2 but ,his wish could not influence the soldiers to fulfil the psalm4 ,the first note is petition and spreading out of the piteous story of the psalmist's need4 ,the burdened heart finds some ease in describing how heavy its burden is1 and the devout heart receives some foretaste of longed-for help in the act of telling ,god how sorely ,his help is needed4 ,he who knows all our trouble is glad to have us tell it to ,him1 since it is thereby lightened1 and our faith in ,him is thereby increased4 ,sins confessed are wholly cancelled1 and troubles spoken to ,god are more than half calmed4 ,the psalmist begins with metaphors in vv4 #a1 #b1 and translates these into grim prose in vv4 #c1 #d1 and then1 with acknowledgment of sinfulness1 cries for ,god's intervention in vv4 #e1 #f4 ,it is flat and prosaic to take the expressions in vv4 #a1 #b1 literally1 as if they described an experience like ,jeremiah's in the miry pit4 ,nor can the literal application be carried through2 for the image of waters coming in unto the soul brings up an entirely different set of circumstances from that of sinking in mud in a pit4 ,the one describes trouble as rushing in upon a man1 like a deluge which has burst its banks and overwhelms him2 the other paints it as yielding and tenacious1 affording no firm spot to stand on1 but sucking him up in its filthy1 stifling slime4 ,no water was in ,jeremiah's pit4 ,the two figures are incompatible in reality1 and can only be blended in imagination4 ,what they mean is put without metaphor in vv4 #c1 #d4 ,the psalmist is weary with calling on ,god2 his throat is dry with much prayer2 his eyes ache and are dim with upward gazing for help which lingers4 ,yet he does not cease to call1 and still prays with his parched throat1 and keeps the weary eyes steadfastly fixed1 as the psalm shows4 ,it is no small triumph of patient faith to wait for tarrying help4 ,ver4 #d tells why he thus cries4 ,he is compassed by a crowd of enemies4 ,two things especially characterise these--their numbers1 and their gratuitous hatred4 ,as to the former1 they are described as more numerous than the hairs of the psalmist's head4 ,the parallelism of clauses recommends the textual alteration which substitutes for the unnecessary word my destroyers the appropriate expression more than my bones1 which is found in some old versions4 ,causeless hatred is the portion of the righteous in all ages2 and our ,lord points to ,himself as experiencing it in utmost measure 7,john xv4 #be71 inasmuch as ,he1 the perfectly righteous ,one1 must take into ,his own history all the bitterness which is infused into the cup of those who fear ,god and love the right1 by a generation who are out of sympathy with them4 ,the same experience1 in forms varying according to the spirit of the times1 is realised still in all who have the mind of ,christ in them4 ,as long as the world is a world1 it will have some contempt mingling with its constrained respect for goodness1 some hostility1 now expressed by light shafts of mockery and ridicule1 now by heavier and more hurtful missiles1 for ,christ's true servants4 ,the ancient ,woe for those of whom all men speak well is in force to-day4 ,the hatred is without a cause1 in so far as its cherishers have received no hurt1 and its objects desire only their enemies' good2 but its cause lies deep in the irreconcilable antagonism of life-principles and aims between those who follow ,christ and those who do not4 ,the psalmist had to bear unjust charges1 and to make restitution of what he had never taken4 ,causeless hatred justified itself by false accusations1 and innocence had but to bear silently and to save life at the expense of being robbed in the name of justice4 ,he turns from enemies to ,god4 ,but his profession of innocence assumes a touching and unusual form4 ,he does not1 as might be expected1 say1 ,thou knowest my guiltlessness1 but1 ,thou knowest my foolishness4 ,a true heart1 while conscious of innocence in regard to men1 and of having done nothing to evoke their enmity1 is1 even in the act of searching itself1 arrested by the consciousness of its many sins in ,god's sight1 and will confess these the more penitently1 because it stands upright before men1 and asserts its freedom from all crime against them4 ,in so far as men's hatred is ,god's instrument1 it inflicts merited chastisement4 ,that does not excuse men2 but it needs to be acknowledged by the sufferer1 if things are to be right between him and ,god4 ,then1 after such confession1 he can pray1 as this psalmist does1 that ,god's mercy may deliver him1 so that others who1 like him1 wait on ,god may not be disheartened or swept from their confidence1 by the spectacle of his vain hopes and unanswered cries4 ,the psalmist has a strong consciousness of his representative character1 and1 as in so many other psalms1 thinks that his experience is of wide significance as a witness for ,god4 ,this consciousness points to something special in his position1 whether we find the speciality in his office1 or in the supposed personification of the nation1 or in poetic consciousness heightened by the sense of being an organ of ,god's ,spirit4 ,in a much inferior degree1 the lowliest devout man may feel the same2 for there are none whose experiences of ,god as answering prayer may not be a light of hope to some souls sitting in the dark4 ,in vv4 #g-ab the prayer for deliverance is urged on the ground that the singer's sufferings are the result of his devotion4 ,psalm xliv4 #ac-bb may be compared1 and ,jer4 xv4 #ae is an even closer parallel4 ,fasting and sackcloth are mentioned again together in ,psalm xxxv4 #ac2 and ,lam4 iii4 #ad and ,job xxx4 #i resemble ver4 #ab b4 ,surrounded by a godless generation1 the psalmist's earnestness of faith and concern for ,god's honour made him an object of dislike1 a target for drunken ridicule4 ,these broke the strong ties of kindred1 and acted as separating forces more strongly than brotherhood did1 as a uniting one4 ,zeal for ,god's house presupposes the existence of the ,temple1 and also either its neglect or its desecration4 ,that sunken condition of the sanctuary distressed the psalmist more than personal calamity1 and it was the departure of ,israel from ,god that made him clothe himself in sackcloth and fast and weep4 ,but so far had deterioration gone that his mourning and its cause supplied materials for tipsy mirth1 and his name became a by-word and a butt for malicious gossip4 ,the whole picture is that of the standing experience of the godly among the godless4 ,the ,perfect ,example of devotion and communion had to pass through these waters where they ran deepest and chilliest1 but all who have ,his ,spirit have their share of the same fate4 ,the last division of this first part 7vv4 #ac-ah7 begins by setting in strong contrast the psalmist's prayer and the drunkard's song4 ,he is sure that his cry will be heard1 and so he calls the present time a time of favour1 and appeals1 as often in the ,psalter1 to the multitude of ,god's loving-kindnesses and the faithfulness of ,his promise of salvation4 ,such a pleading with ,god on the ground of ,his manifested character is heard in vv4 #ac1 #af1 thus inclosing1 as it were1 the prayer for deliverance in a wrapping of reminders to ,god of ,his own name4 ,the petitions here echo the description of peril in the former part--mire and watery depths--and add another kindred image in that of the pit shutting her mouth over the suppliant4 ,he is plunged in a deep dungeon1 well-shaped2 and if a stone is rolled on to its opening1 his last gleam of daylight will be gone1 and he will be buried alive4 ,beautifully do the pleas from ,god's character and those from the petitioner's sore need alternate1 the latter predominating in vv4 #ag1 #ah4 ,his thoughts pass from his own desperate condition to ,god's mercy1 and from ,god's mercy to his own condition1 and he has the reward of faith1 in that he finds in his straits reasons for his assurance that this is a time of favour1 as well as pleas to urge with ,god4 ,they make the black backing which turns his soul into a mirror1 reflecting ,god's promises in its trust4 ,the second part of the psalm 7ver4 #ai to end7 has1 like the former1 three main divisions4 ,the first of these1 like vv4 #a-f1 is mainly a renewed spreading before ,god of the psalmist's trouble 7vv4 #ai-ba74 ,rooted sorrows are not plucked up by one effort4 ,this recrudescence of fear breaking in upon the newly won serenity of faith is true to nature4 ,on some parts of our coasts1 where a narrow outlet hinders the free run of the tide1 a second high water follows the first after an hour or so2 and often a similar bar to the flowing away of fears brings them back in full rush after they had begun to sink4 ,the psalmist had appealed to ,god's knowledge of ,his foolishness as indorsing his protestations of innocence towards men4 ,he now 7ver4 #ai7 appeals to ,his knowledge of his distresses1 as indorsing his pitiful plaints4 ,his soul is too deeply moved now to use metaphors4 ,he speaks no more of mire and flood1 but we hear the moan of a broken heart1 and that wail which sounds sad across the centuries and wakes echoes in many solitary hearts4 ,the psalmist's eyes had failed1 while he looked upwards for a ,god whose coming seemed slow2 but they had looked yet more wearily and vainly for human pity and comforters1 and found none4 ,instead of pity ,he had received only aggravation of misery4 ,such seems to be the force of giving gall for food1 and vinegar to ,his thirst4 ,the precise meaning of the word rendered gall is uncertain1 but the general idea of something bitter is sufficient4 ,that was all that ,his foes would give ,him when hungry2 and vinegar1 which would make ,him more thirsty still1 was all that they proffered for ,his thirst4 ,such was their sympathy and comforting4 ,according to ,matthew1 the potion of wine 7or vinegar7 mingled with gall was offered to and rejected by ,jesus1 before being fastened to the cross4 ,he does not expressly quote the psalm1 but probably refers to it4 ,john1 on the other hand1 does tell us that ,jesus1 that the scripture might be accomplished1 said1 ,i thirst1 and sees its fulfilment in the kindly act of moistening the parched lips4 ,the evangelist's expression does not necessarily imply that a desire to fulfil the scripture was our ,lord's motive4 ,crucifixion was accompanied with torturing thirst1 which wrung that last complaint from ,jesus4 ,but the evangelist discerns a ,divine purpose behind the utterance of ,jesus' human weakness2 and it is surely less difficult1 for any one who believes in supernatural revelation at all1 to believe that the words of the psalmist were shaped by a higher power1 and the hands of the ,roman soldiers moved by another impulse than their own1 than to believe that this minute correspondence of psalm and gospel is merely accidental4 ,but the immediately succeeding section warns us against pushing the ,messianic character of the psalm too far1 for these fearful imprecations cannot have any analogies in ,christ's words 7vv4 #bb-bh74 ,the form of the wish in ,let their table become a snare is explained by remembering that the ,eastern table was often a leather flap laid on the ground1 which the psalmist desires may start up as a snare1 and close upon the feasters as they sit round it secure4 ,disease1 continual terror1 dimmed eyes1 paralysed or quaking loins1 ruin falling on their homes1 and desolation round their encampment1 so that they have no descendants1 are the least of the evils invoked4 ,the psalmist's desires go further than all this corporeal and material disaster4 ,he prays that iniquity may be added to their iniquity--i4e41 that they may be held guilty of sin after sin2 and that they may have no portion in ,god's righteousness--i4e41 in the gifts which flow from ,his adherence to ,his covenant4 ,the climax of all these maledictions is that awful wish that the persecutors may be blotted out of the book of life or of the living4 ,true1 the high ,new ,testament conception of that book1 according to which it is the burgess-roll of the citizens of the ,new ,jerusalem1 the possessors of eternal life1 does not plainly belong to it in ,old ,testament usage1 in which it means apparently the register of those living on earth4 ,but to blot names therefrom is not only to kill1 but to exclude from the national community1 and so from all the privileges of the people of ,god4 ,the psalmist desires for his foes the accumulation of all the ills that flesh is heir to1 the extirpation of their families1 and their absolute exclusion from the company of the living and the righteous4 ,it is impossible to bring such utterances into harmony with the teachings of ,jesus1 and the attempt to vindicate them ignores plain facts and does violence to plain words4 ,better far to let them stand as a monument of the earlier stage of ,god's progressive revelation1 and discern clearly the advance which ,christian ethics has made on them4 ,the psalm ends with glad anticipations of deliverance and vows of thanksgiving4 ,the psalmist is sure that ,god's salvation will lift him high above his enemies1 and as sure that then he will be as grateful as he is now earnest in prayer1 and surest of all that his thankful voice will sound sweeter in ,god's ear than any sacrifice would smell in ,his nostrils4 ,there is no contempt of sacrifices expressed in horned and hoofed1 but simply the idea of maturity which fits the animal to be offered4 ,the single voice of praise will be caught up1 the singer thinks1 by a great chorus of those who would have been struck dumb with confusion if his prayer had not been answered 7ver4 #f71 and who1 in like manner1 are gladdened by seeing his deliverance4 ,the grace bestowed on one brings thanksgivings from many1 which redound to the glory of ,god4 ,the sudden transition in ver4 #cb b to direct address to the seekers after ,god1 as if they stood beside the solitary singer1 gives vividness to the anticipation4 ,the insertion of behold is warranted1 and tells what revives the beholders' hearts4 ,the seekers after ,god feel the pulse of a quicker life throbbing1 when they see the wonders wrought through prayer4 ,the singer's thoughts go beyond his own deliverance to that of ,israel4 ,his captives is most naturally understood as referring to the exiled nation4 ,and this wider manifestation of ,god's restoring power will evoke praise from a wider circle1 even from heaven1 earth1 and sea4 ,the circumstances contemplated in vv4 #cc-cf are evidently those of a captivity4 ,god's people are in bondage1 the cities of ,judah are in ruins1 the inhabitants scattered far from their homes4 ,the only reason for taking the closing verses as being a liturgical addition is unwillingness to admit exilic or post-exilic psalms4 ,but these verses cannot be fairly interpreted without recognising that they presuppose that ,israel is in bondage1 or at least on the verge of it4 ,the circumstances of ,jeremiah's life and times coincide closely with those of the psalmist4 ,,psalm ,,lxx4#b #a ,o ,god1 be pleased to deliver me1 ,jehovah1 hasten to my help4 #b ,shamed and put to the blush be the seekers after my soul6 ,turned back and dishonoured be they who delight in my calamity6 #c ,let them turn back by reason of their shame who say1 ,oho6 ,oho6 #d ,joyful and glad in ,thee be all who seek ,thee6 ,and ,god be magnified may they ever say who love ,thy salvation6 #e ,but as for me1 ,i am afflicted and needy2 ,o ,god1 hasten to me3 ,my help and my deliverer art ,thou2 ,jehovah1 delay not4 ,this psalm is all but identical with the last verses of ,psalm xl4 #ac-ag4 ,some unimportant alterations have been made1 principally in the ,divine names2 but the principle on which they have been made is not obvious4 ,it is scarcely correct to say1 with ,delitzsch1 that the psalm has been transformed1 so as to become ,elohistic2 for though it twice replaces the name of ,jehovah with that of ,god 7vv4 #a1 #d71 it makes the converse change in ver4 #e1 last clause1 by reading ,jehovah instead of ,god1 as in ,psalm xl4 ,other changes are of little moment4 ,the principal are in vv4 #c and #e4 ,in the former the vehement wish that the psalmist's mockers may be paralysed with shame is softened down into a desire that they may be turned back4 ,the two verbs are similar in sound1 and the substitution may have been accidental1 a slip of memory or a defect in hearing1 or it may have been an artistic variation of the original4 ,in ver4 #e a prayer that ,god will hasten to the psalmist's help takes the place of an expression of confidence that ,jehovah purposes good to him1 and again there is similarity of sound in the two words4 ,this change is like the subtle alteration which a painter might make on his picture by taking out one spot of high light4 ,the gleam of confidence is changed to a call of need1 and the tone of the whole psalm is thereby made more plaintive4 ,hupfeld holds that this psalm is the original1 and ,psalm xl4 a composite2 but most commentators agree in regarding this as a fragment of that psalm4 ,the cut has not been very cleanly made2 for the necessary verb be pleased has been left behind1 and the symmetry of ver4 #a is destroyed for want of it4 ,the awkward incompleteness of this beginning witnesses that the psalm is a fragment4 ,,footnote3 #b ,italics show variations from ,psalm xl4 ,,psalm ,,lxxi4 #a ,in ,thee1 ,jehovah1 do ,i take refuge1 ,let me not be put to shame for ever4 #b ,in ,thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me1 ,bend ,thine ear and save me4 #c ,be to me for a rock of habitation to go to continually3 ,thou hast commanded to save me1 ,for my rock and my fortress art ,thou4 #d ,my ,god1 rescue me from the hand of the wicked1 ,from the fist of the evil-doer and the violent man4 #e ,for ,thou art my hope1 ,o ,lord ,jehovah1 ,thou art my trust from my youth4 #f ,on ,thee have ,i been stayed from the womb1 ,from my mother's bowels ,thou hast been my protector3 ,of ,thee is my praise continually4 #g ,as a wonder am ,i become to many1 ,but ,thou art my refuge--a strong one4 #h ,my mouth is filled with ,thy praise1 ,all the day with ,thine honour4 #i ,cast me not away in the time of old age1 ,when my strength fails1 forsake me not4 #aj ,for mine enemies speak concerning me1 ,and the watchers of my soul consult together1 #aa ,saying1 ,god has left him1 ,chase and seize him2 for there is no deliverer4 #ab ,o ,god1 be not far from me1 ,my ,god1 haste to my help4 #ac ,ashamed1 confounded1 be the adversaries of my soul1 ,covered with reproach and confusion be those who seek my hurt4 #ad ,but as for me1 continually will ,i hope1 ,and add to all ,thy praise4 #ae ,my mouth shall recount ,thy righteousness1 ,all the day ,thy salvation1 ,for ,i know not the numbers thereof4 #af ,i will come with the mighty deeds of the ,lord ,jehovah1 ,i will celebrate ,thy righteousness1 even ,thine only4 #ag ,o ,god1 ,thou hast taught me from my youth1 ,and up till now ,i declare ,thy wonders4 #ah ,and even to old age and grey hairs1 ,o ,god1 forsake me not1 ,till ,i declare ,thine arm to the next generation1 ,to all who shall come ,thy power4 #ai ,and ,thy righteousness1 ,o ,god1 reaches to the height4 ,o ,thou who hast done great things1 ,who is like ,thee8 #bj ,thou who hast made us see straits many and sore1 ,thou wilt revive us again1 ,and from the abysses of the earth will bring us up again4 #ba ,thou wilt increase my greatness1 ,and wilt turn to comfort me4 #bb ,also ,i will thank ,thee with the lyre1 even ,thy troth1 my ,god1 ,i will harp unto ,thee with the harp1 ,thou ,holy ,one of ,israel4 #bc ,my lips shall sing aloud when ,i harp unto ,thee1 ,and my soul1 which ,thou hast redeemed4 #bd ,also my tongue shall all the day muse on ,thy righteousness1 ,for shamed1 for put to the blush1 are they that seek my hurt4 ,echoes of former psalms make the staple of this one1 and even those parts of it which are not quotations have little individuality4 ,the themes are familiar1 and the expression of them is scarcely less so4 ,there is no well-defined strophical structure1 and little continuity of thought or feeling4 ,vv4 #ac and #bd b serve as a kind of partial refrain1 and may be taken as dividing the psalm into two parts1 but there is little difference between the contents of the two4 ,delitzsch gives in his adhesion to the hypothesis that ,jeremiah was the author2 and there is considerable weight in the reasons assigned for that ascription of authorship4 ,the pensive1 plaintive tone2 the abundant quotations1 with slight alterations of the passages cited2 the autobiographical hints which fit in with ,jeremiah's history1 are the chief of these4 ,but they can scarcely be called conclusive4 ,there is more to be said for the supposition that the singer is the personified nation in this case than in many others4 ,the sudden transition to us in ver4 #bj1 which the ,massoretic marginal correction corrects into me1 favours1 though it does not absolutely require1 that view1 which is also supported by the frequent allusion to youth and old age4 ,these1 however1 are capable of a worthy meaning1 if referring to an individual4 ,vv4 #a-c are slightly varied from ,psalm xxxi4 #a-c4 ,the character of the changes win be best appreciated by setting the two passages side by side4 ,,psalm ,,xxxi4 ,,psalm ,,lxxi4 #a ,in ,thee1 ,jehovah1 do ,i take #a ,in ,thee1 ,jehovah1 do ,i take refuge2 let me not be ashamed refuge3 for ever3 ,let me not be put to shame ,in ,thy righteousness rescue for ever4 me4 #b ,in ,thy righteousness deliver #b a ,bend ,thine ear to me and rescue me3 me2 deliver me speedily4 ,bend ,thine ear and save me4 ,the two verbs1 which in the former psalm are in separate clauses 7deliver and rescue71 are here brought together4 ,speedily is omitted1 and save is substituted for deliver1 which has been drawn into the preceding clause4 ,obviously no difference of meaning is intended to be conveyed1 and the changes look very like the inaccuracies of memoriter quotations4 ,the next variation is as follows3-- ,,psalm ,,xxxi4 ,,psalm ,,lxxi4 #b b ,be to me for a #c ,be to me for a rock of strong rock1 for a house of habitation to go to continually3 defence to save me4 ,thou hast commanded to save me2 #c ,for my rock and my fortress ,for my rock and my fortress art ,thou4 art ,thou4 ,the difference between a strong rock and rock of habitation is but one letter4 ,that between for a house of defence and to go to continually3 ,thou hast commanded is extremely slight1 as ,baethgen has well shown4 ,possibly both of these variations are due to textual corruption1 but more probably this psalmist intentionally altered the words of an older psalm4 ,most of the old versions have the existing text1 but the ,,lxx4 seems to have read the ,hebrew here as in ,psalm xxxi4 ,the changes are not important1 but they are significant4 ,that thought of ,god as a habitation to which the soul may continually find access goes very deep into the secrets of the devout life4 ,the variation in ver4 #c is recommended by observing the frequent recurrence of continually in this psalm1 of which that word may almost be said to be the motto4 ,nor is the thought of ,god's command given to ,his multitude of unnamed servants1 to save this poor man1 one which we can afford to lose4 ,vv4 #e1 #f1 are a similar variation of ,psalm xxii4 #i1 #aj4 ,on ,thee have ,i been stayed from the womb1 says this psalmist2 ,on ,thee was ,i cast from the womb1 says the original passage4 ,the variation beautifully brings out1 not only reliance on ,god1 but the ,divine response to that reliance by life-long upholding4 ,that strong arm answers leaning weakness with firm support1 and whosoever relies on it is upheld by it4 ,the word rendered above protector is doubtful4 ,it is substituted for that in ,psalm xxii4 #i which means ,one that takes out1 and some commentators would attach the same meaning to the word used here1 referring it to ,god's goodness before and at birth4 ,but it is better taken as equivalent to benefactor1 provider1 or some such designation1 and as referring to ,god's lifelong care4 ,the psalmist has been a wonder to many spectators1 either in the sense that they have gazed astonished at ,god's goodness1 or1 as accords better with the adversative character of the next clause 7,but ,thou art my refuge71 that his sufferings have been unexampled4 ,both ideas may well be combined1 for the life of every man1 if rightly studied1 is full of miracles both of mercy and judgment4 ,if the psalm is the voice of an individual1 the natural conclusion from such words is that his life was conspicuous2 but it is obvious that the national reference is appropriate here4 ,on this thankful retrospect of life-long help and life-long trust the psalm builds a prayer for future protection from eager enemies1 who think that the charmed life is vulnerable at last4 ,vv4 #i-ac rise to a height of emotion above the level of the rest of the psalm4 ,on one hypothesis1 we have in them the cry of an old man1 whose strength diminishes as his dangers increase4 ,something undisclosed in his circumstances gave colour to the greedy hopes of his enemies4 ,often prosperous careers are overclouded at the end1 and the piteous spectacle is seen of age overtaken by tempests which its feebleness cannot resist1 and which are all the worse to face because of the calms preceding them4 ,on the national hypothesis1 the psalm is the prayer of ,israel at a late stage of its history1 from which it looks back to the miracles of old1 and then to the ring of enemies rejoicing over its apparent weakness1 and then upwards to the ,eternal ,helper4 ,vv4 #ab1 #ac1 are woven out of other psalms4 #ab a1 ,be not far from me1 is found in xxii4 #aa1 #ai2 xxxv4 #bb2 xxxviii4 #ba1 etc4 ,haste to my help is found in xxxviii4 #bb2 xl4 #ac 7lxx4 #a74 ,for ver4 #ac compare xxxv4 #d1 #bf2 xl4 #ad 7lxx4 #b74 ,with this1 as a sort of refrain1 the first part of the psalm ends4 ,the second part goes over substantially the same ground1 but with lighter heart4 ,the confidence of deliverance is more vivid1 and it1 as well as the vow of praise following thereon1 bulk larger4 ,the singer has thinned away his anxieties by speaking them to ,god1 and has by the same process solidified his faith4 ,aged eyes should see ,god1 the helper1 more clearly when earth begins to look grey and dim4 ,the forward look of such finds little to stay it on this side of heaven4 ,as there seems less and less to hope for here1 there should be more and more there4 ,youth is the time for buoyant anticipation1 according to the world's notions1 but age may have far brighter lights ahead than youth had leisure to see4 ,i will hope always becomes sublime from aged lips1 which are so often shaped to say1 ,i have nothing left to hope for now4 ,this psalmist's words may well be a pattern for old men1 who need fear no failure of buoyancy1 nor any collapse of gladness1 if they will fix their thoughts where this singer did his4 ,other subjects of thought and speech will pall and run dry2 but he whose theme is ,god's righteousness and the salvation that flows from it will never lack materials for animating meditation and grateful praise4 ,i know not the numbers thereof4 ,it is something to have fast hold of an inexhaustible subject4 ,it will keep an old man young4 ,the psalmist recognises his task1 which is also his joy1 to declare ,god's wondrous works1 and prays for ,god's help till he has discharged it4 ,the consciousness of a vocation to speak to later generations inspires him1 and assures him that he is immortal till his work is done4 ,his anticipations have been fulfilled beyond his knowledge4 ,his words will last as long as the world4 ,but men with narrower spheres may be animated by the same consciousness1 and they who have rightly understood the purpose of ,god's mercies to themselves will1 like the psalmist1 recognise in their own participation in ,his salvation an imperative command to make it known1 and an assurance that nothing shall by any means harm them till they have fulfilled their witnessing4 ,a many-wintered saint should be a convincing witness for ,god4 ,ver4 #bj1 with its sudden transition to the plural1 may simply show that the singer passes out from individual contemplation to the consciousness of the multitude of fellow-sufferers and fellow-participants in ,god's mercy4 ,such transition is natural2 for the most private passages of a good man's communion with ,god are swift to bring up the thought of others like-minded and similarly blessed4 ,suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host1 praising4 ,every solo swells into a chorus4 ,again the song returns to my and me1 the confidence of the single soul being reinvigorated by the thought of sharers in blessing4 ,so all ends with the certainty of1 and the vow of praise for1 deliverances already realised in faith1 though not in fact4 ,but the imitative character of the psalm is maintained even in this last triumphant vow2 for ver4 #bd a is almost identical with xxxv4 #bh2 and b1 as has been already pointed out1 is copied from several other psalms4 ,but imitative words are none the less sincere2 and new thankfulness may be run into old moulds without detriment to its acceptableness to ,god and preciousness to men4 ,,psalm ,,lxxii4 #a ,o ,god1 give ,thy judgments to the king1 ,and ,thy righteousness to the king's son4 #b ,may he judge ,thy people with righteousness1 ,and ,thine afflicted with judgment6 #c ,may the mountains bring forth peace to the people1 ,and the hills1 through righteousness6 #d ,may he judge the afflicted of the people1 ,save the children of the needy1 ,and crush the oppressor6 #e ,may they fear ,thee as long as the sun shines1 ,and as long as the moon shows her face1 generation after generation6 #f ,may he come down like rain upon mown pasture1 ,like showers--a heavy downpour on the earth6 #g ,may the righteous flourish in his days1 ,and abundance of peace1 till there be no more a moon6 #h ,may he have dominion from sea to sea1 ,and from the ,river to the ends of the earth6 #i ,before him shall the desert peoples bow2 ,and his enemies shall lick the dust4 #aj ,the kings of ,tarshish and the isles shall bring tribute3 ,the kings of ,sheba and ,seba shall offer gifts4 #aa ,and all kings shall fall down before him3 ,all nations shall serve him4 #ab ,for he shall deliver the needy when he cries1 ,and the afflicted1 and him who has no helper4 #ac ,he shall spare the weak and needy1 ,and the souls of the needy shall he save4 #ad ,from oppression and from violence he shall ransom their soul2 ,and precious shall their blood be in his eyes4 #ae ,so that he lives and gives to him of the gold of ,sheba1 ,and prays for him continually1 ,blesses him all the day4 #af ,may there be abundance of corn in the earth on the top of the mountains6 ,may its fruit rustle like ,lebanon6 ,and may men spring from the city like grass of the earth6 #ag ,may his name last for ever6 ,may his name send forth shoots as long as the sun shines1 ,and may men bless themselves in him1 ,may all nations pronounce him blessed6 #ah ,blessed be ,jehovah1 ,god1 the ,god of ,israel1 ,who only doeth wondrous works1 #ai ,and blessed be ,his glorious name for ever1 ,and let the whole earth be filled with ,his glory6 ,amen1 and ,amen4 #bj ,the prayers of ,david the son of ,jesse are ended4 ,rightly or wrongly1 the superscription ascribes this psalm to ,solomon4 ,its contents have led several commentators to take the superscription in a meaning for which there is no warrant1 as designating the subject1 not the author4 ,clearly1 the whole is a prayer for the king2 but why should not he be both suppliant and object of supplication8 ,modern critics reject this as incompatible with the phraseological evidence1 and adduce the difference between the historical ,solomon and the ideal of the psalm as negativing reference to him4 ,ver4 #h is said by them to be quoted from ,zech4 ix4 #aj1 though ,cheyne doubts whether there is borrowing4 ,ver4 #ag b is said to be dependent on ,gen4 xxii4 #ah1 xxvi4 #d1 which are assumed to be later than the seventh century4 ,ver4 #ab is taken to be a reminiscence of ,job xxix4 #ab1 and ver4 #af b of ,job v4 #be4 ,but these are too uncertain criteria to use as conclusive1--partly because coincidence does not necessarily imply quotation2 partly because1 quotation being admitted1 the delicate question of priority remains1 which can rarely be settled by comparison of the passages in question2 and partly because1 quotation and priority being admitted1 the date of the original is still under discussion4 ,the impossibility of ,solomon's praying thus for himself does not seem to the present writer so completely established that the hypothesis must be abandoned1 especially if the alternative is to be1 as ,hitzig1 followed by ,olshausen and ,cheyne1 proposes1 that the king in the psalm is ,ptolemy ,philadelphus1 to whom ,psalm xlv4 is fitted by the same authorities4 ,baethgen puts the objections which most will feel to such a theory with studied moderation when he says that the promises given to the patriarchs in ,gen4 xxii4 #ah1 xxvi4 #d1 should be transferred by a pious ,israelite to a foreign king appears to me improbable4 ,but another course is open--namely1 to admit that the psalm gives no materials for defining its date1 beyond the fact that a king of ,davidic descent was reigning when it was composed4 ,the authorship may be left uncertain1 as may the name of the king for whom such far-reaching blessings were invoked2 for he was but a partial embodiment of the kingly idea1 and the very disproportion between the reality seen in any ,jewish monarch and the lofty idealisms of the psalm compels us to regard the earthly ruler as but a shadow1 and the true theme of the singer as being the ,messianic ,king4 ,we are not justified1 however1 in attempting to transfer every point of the psalmist's prayer to the ,messiah4 ,the historical occasion of the psalm is to be kept in mind4 ,a human monarch stands in the foreground2 but the aspirations expressed are so far beyond anything that he is or can be1 that they are either extravagant flattery1 or reach out beyond their immediate occasion to the ,king ,messiah4 ,the psalm is not properly a prediction1 but a prayer4 ,there is some divergence of opinion as to the proper rendering of the principal verbs1--some1 as the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 7text71 taking them as uniformly futures1 which is manifestly wrong2 some taking them as expressions of wish throughout1 which is also questionable2 and others recognising pure futures intermingled with petitions1 which seems best4 ,the boundaries of the two are difficult to settle1 just because the petitions are so confident that they are all but predictions1 and the two melt into each other in the singer's mind4 ,the flow of thought is simple4 ,the psalmist's prayers are broadly massed4 ,in vv4 #a-d he prays for the foundation of the king's reign in righteousness1 which will bring peace2 in vv4 #e-g for its perpetuity1 and in vv4 #h-aa for its universality2 while in vv4 #ab-ae the ground of both these characteristics is laid in the king's becoming the champion of the oppressed4 ,a final prayer for the increase of his people and the perpetuity and world-wide glory of his name concludes the psalm1 to which are appended in vv4 #ah-bj a doxology1 closing the ,second ,book of the ,psalter4 ,the first petitions of the psalm all ask for one thing for the king--namely1 that he should give righteous judgment4 ,they reflect the antique conception of a king as the fountain of justice1 himself making and administering law and giving decisions4 ,thrice in these four verses does righteousness occur as the foundation attribute of an ideal king4 ,caprice1 self-interest1 and tyrannous injustice were rank in the world's monarchies round the psalmist4 ,bitter experience and sad observation had taught him that the first condition of national prosperity was a righteous ruler4 ,these petitions are also animated by the conception1 which is as true in the modern as in the ancient world1 that righteousness has its seat in the bosom of ,god1 and that earthly judgments are righteous when they conform to and are the echo of ,his4 ,righteousness is the quality of mind1 of which the several judgments are the expressions4 ,this king sits on an ancestral throne4 ,his people are ,god's people4 ,since1 then1 he is ,god's viceroy1 the desire cannot be vain that in his heart there may be some reflection of ,god's righteousness1 and that his decisions may accord with ,god's4 ,one cannot but remember ,solomon's prayer for an understanding heart1 that he might judge this people2 nor forget how darkly his later reign showed against its bright beginning4 ,a righteous king makes a peaceful people1 especially in a despotic monarchy4 ,the sure results of such a reign--which are1 likewise1 the psalmist's chief reason for his petitions--are set forth in the vivid metaphor of ver4 #c1 in which peace is regarded as the fruit which springs1 by reason of the king's righteousness1 from mountains and hills4 ,this psalmist has special fondness for that figure of vegetable growth 7vv4 #g1 #af1 #ag72 and it is especially suitable in this connection1 as peace is frequently represented in ,scripture as the fruit of righteousness1 both in single souls and in a nation's history4 ,the mountains come into view here simply as being the most prominent features of the land1 and not1 as in ver4 #af1 with any reference to their barrenness1 which would make abundant growth on them more wonderful1 and indicative of yet greater abundance on the plains4 ,a special manifestation of judicial righteousness is the vindication of the oppressed and the punishment of the oppressor 7ver4 #d74 ,the word rendered judge in ver4 #d differs from that in ver4 #b1 and is the same from which the name of the ,judges in ,israel is derived4 ,like them1 this king is not only to pronounce decisions1 as the word in ver4 #b means1 but is to execute justice by acts of deliverance1 which smite in order to rescue4 ,functions which policy and dignity require to be kept apart in the case of earthly rulers are united in the ideal monarch4 ,he executes his own sentences4 ,his acts are decisions4 ,the psalmist has no thought of inferior officers by the king's side4 ,one figure fills his mind and his canvas4 ,surely such an ideal is either destined to remain for ever a fair dream1 or its fulfilment is to be recognised in the historical ,person in whom ,god's righteousness dwelt in higher fashion than psalmists knew1 who was1 first1 ,king of righteousness1 and then1 after that1 also ,king of peace1 and who1 by ,his deed1 has broken every yoke1 and appeared as the defender of all the needy4 ,the poet prayed that ,israel's king might perfectly discharge his office by ,divine help2 the ,christian gives thanks that the ,king of men has been and done all which ,israel's monarchs failed to be and do4 ,the perpetuity of the king's reign and of his subjects' peace is the psalmists second aspiration 7vv4 #e-g74 ,the ,thee of ver4 #e presents a difficulty1 as it is doubtful to whom it refers4 ,throughout the psalm the king is spoken of1 and never to2 and if it is further noticed that1 in the preceding verses1 ,god has been directly addressed1 and ,thy used thrice in regard to ,him1 it will appear more natural to take the reference in ver4 #e to be to ,him4 ,the fear of ,god would be diffused among the king's subjects1 as a consequence of his rule in righteousness4 ,hupfeld takes the word as referring to the king1 and suggests changing the text to him instead of ,thee2 while others1 among whom are ,cheyne and ,baethgen1 follow the track of the ,,lxx4 in adopting a reading which may be translated ,may he live1 or ,prolong his days4 ,but the thought yielded by the existing text1 if referred to ,god1 is most natural and worthy4 ,the king is1 as it were1 the shadow on earth of ,god's righteousness1 and consequently becomes an organ for the manifestation thereof1 in such manner as to draw men to true devotion4 ,the psalmist's desires are for something higher than external prosperity1 and his conceptions of the kingly office are very sacred4 ,not only peace and material well-being1 but also the fear of ,jehovah1 are longed for by him to be diffused in ,israel4 ,and he prays that these blessings may be perpetual4 ,the connection between the king's righteousness and the fear of ,god requires that that permanence should belong to both4 ,the cause is as lasting as its effect4 ,through generation after generation he desires that each shall abide4 ,he uses peculiar expressions for continual duration3 with the sun--i4e41 contemporaneous with that unfading splendour2 before the face of the moon--i4e41 as long as she shines4 ,but could the singer anticipate such length of dominion for any human king8 ,psalm xxi4 has similar language in regard to the same person2 and here1 as there1 it seems sufficiently accounted for by the consideration that1 while the psalmist was speaking of an individual1 he was thinking of the office rather than of the person1 and that the perpetual continuance of the ,davidic dynasty1 not the undying life of any one representative of it1 was meant4 ,the full light of the truth that there is a king whose royalty1 like his priesthood1 passes to no other is not to be forced upon the psalm4 ,it stands as a witness that devout and inspired souls longed for the establishment of a kingdom1 against which revolutions and enemies and mortality were powerless4 ,they knew not that their desires could not be fulfilled by the longest succession of dying kings1 but were to be more than accomplished by ,one1 of whom it is witnessed that ,he liveth4 ,the psalmist turns for a moment from his prayer for the perpetuity of the king's rule1 to linger upon the thought of its blessedness as set forth in the lovely image of ver4 #f4 ,rain upon mown grass is no blessing1 as every farmer knows2 but what is meant is1 not the grass which has already been mown1 but the naked meadow from which it has been taken4 ,it needs drenching showers1 in order to sprout again and produce an aftermath4 ,the poet's eye is caught by the contrast between the bare look of the field immediately after cutting and the rich growth that springs1 as by magic1 from the yellow roots after a plentiful shower4 ,this king's gracious influences shall fall upon even what seems dead1 and charm forth hidden life that will flush the plain with greenness4 ,the psalmist dwells on the picture1 reiterating the comparison in ver4 #f b1 and using there an uncommon word1 which seems best rendered as meaning a heavy rainfall4 ,with such affluence of quickening powers will the righteous king bless his people4 ,the ,mirror for ,magistrates1 which is held up in the lovely poem in #b ,sam4 xxiii4 #d1 has a remarkable parallel in its description of the just ruler as resembling a morning without clouds1 when the tender grass springeth out of the earth through clear shining after rain2 but the psalmist heightens the metaphor by the introduction of the mown meadow as stimulated to new growth4 ,this image of the rain lingers with him and shapes his prayer in ver4 #g a4 ,a righteous king will insure prosperity to the righteous1 and the number of such will increase4 ,both these ideas seem to be contained in the figure of their flourishing1 which is literally bud or shoot4 ,and1 as the people become more and more prevailingly righteous1 they receive more abundant and unbroken peace4 ,the psalmist had seen deeply into the conditions of national prosperity1 as well as those of individual tranquillity1 when he based these on rectitude4 ,with ver4 #h the singer takes a still loftier flight1 and prays for the universality of the king's dominion4 ,in that verse the form of the verb is that which expresses desire1 but in ver4 #i and following verses the verbs may be rendered as simple futures4 ,confident prayers insensibly melt into assurances of their own fulfilment4 ,as the psalmist pours out his petitions1 they glide into prophecies2 for they are desires fashioned upon promises1 and bear1 in their very earnestness1 the pledge of their realisation4 ,as to the details of the form which the expectation of universal dominion here takes1 it need only be noted that we have to do with a poet1 not with a geographer4 ,we are not to treat the expressions as if they were instructions to a boundary commission1 and to be laid down upon a map4 ,the sea is probably the ,mediterranean2 but what the other sea which makes the opposite boundary may be is hard to say4 ,commentators have thought of the ,persian ,gulf1 or of an imaginary ocean encircling the flat earth1 according to ancient ideas4 ,but more probably the expression is as indeterminate as the parallel one1 the ends of the earth4 ,in the first clause of the verse the psalmist starts from the ,mediterranean1 the western boundary1 and his anticipations travel away into the unknown eastern regions2 while1 in the second clause1 he begins with the ,euphrates1 which was the eastern boundary of the dominion promised to ,israel1 and1 coming westward1 he passes out in thought to the dim regions beyond4 ,the very impossibility of defining the boundaries declares the boundlessness of the kingdom4 ,the poet's eyes have looked east and west1 and in ver4 #i he turns to the south1 and sees the desert tribes1 unconquered as they have hitherto been1 grovelling before the king1 and his enemies in abject submission at his feet4 ,the word rendered desert peoples is that used in ,psalm lxxiv4 #ad for wild beasts inhabiting the desert1 but here it can only mean wilderness tribes4 ,there seems no need to alter the text1 as has been proposed1 and to read adversaries4 ,in ver4 #aj the psalmist again looks westward1 across the mysterious ocean of which he1 like all his nation1 knew so little4 ,the great city of ,tarshish lay for him at the farthest bounds of the world2 and between him and it1 or perhaps still farther out in the waste unknown1 were islands from which rich and strange things sometimes reached ,juda4 ,these shall bring their wealth in token of fealty4 ,again he looks southward to ,sheba in ,arabia1 and ,seba far south below ,egypt1 and foresees their submission4 ,his knowledge of distant lands is exhausted1 and therefore he ceases enumeration1 and falls back on comprehensiveness4 ,how little he knew1 and how much he believed6 ,his conceptions of the sweep of that all were childish2 his faith that1 however many these unknown kings and nations were1 ,god's anointed was their king was either extravagant exaggeration1 or it was nurtured in him by ,god1 and meant to be fulfilled when a world1 wide beyond his dreams and needy beyond his imagination1 should own the sway of a ,king1 endowed with ,god's righteousness and communicative of ,god's peace1 in a manner and measure beyond his desires4 ,the triumphant swell of these anticipations passes with wonderful pathos into gentler music1 as if the softer tones of flutes should follow trumpet blasts4 ,how tenderly and profoundly the psalm bases the universality of the dominion on the pitying care and delivering power of the ,king6 ,the whole secret of sway over men lies in that ,for1 which ushers in the gracious picture of the beneficent and tender-hearted ,monarch4 ,the world is so full of sorrow1 and men are so miserable and needy1 that he who can stanch their wounds1 solace their griefs1 and shelter their lives will win their hearts and be crowned their king4 ,thrones based on force are as if set on an iceberg which melts away4 ,there is no solid foundation for rule except helpfulness4 ,in the world and for a little while they that exercise authority are called benefactors2 but in the long-run the terms of the sentence are inverted1 and they that are rightly called benefactors exercise authority4 ,the more earthly rulers approximate to this ideal portrait1 the more broad-based upon their people's will and love will their thrones stand4 ,if ,israel's kings had adhered to it1 their throne would have endured4 ,but their failures point to ,him in whom the principle declared by the psalmist receives its most tender illustration4 ,the universal dominion of ,jesus ,christ is based upon the fact that ,he tasted death for every man4 ,in the ,divine purpose1 ,he has won the right to rule men because ,he has died for them4 ,in historical realisation1 ,he wins men's submission because ,he has given ,himself for them4 ,therefore does ,he command with absolute authority2 therefore do we obey with entire submission4 ,his sway not only reaches out over all the earth1 inasmuch as the power of ,his cross extends to all men1 but it lays hold of the inmost will and makes submission a delight4 ,the king is represented in ver4 #ad as taking on himself the office of ,goel1 or ,kinsman-,redeemer1 and ransoming his subjects' lives from deceit and violence4 ,that their blood is precious in his eyes is another way of saying that they are too dear to him to be suffered to perish4 ,this king's treasure is the life of his subjects4 ,therefore he will put forth his power to preserve them and deliver them4 ,the result of such tender care and delivering love is set forth in ver4 #ae1 but in obscure language4 ,the ambiguity arises from the absence of expressed subjects for the four verbs in the verse4 ,who is he who lives8 ,is the same person the giver of the gold of ,sheba1 and to whom is it given8 ,who prays1 and for whom8 ,and who blesses1 and whom does he bless8 ,the plain way of understanding the verse is to suppose that the person spoken of in all the clauses is the same2 and then the question comes whether he is the king or the ransomed man4 ,difficulties arise in carrying out either reference through all the clauses2 and hence attempts have been made to vary the subject of the verbs4 ,delitzsch1 for instance1 supposes that it is the ransomed man who lives1 the king who gives to the ransomed man gold1 and the man who prays for and blesses the king4 ,but such an arbitrary shuttling about of the reference of he and him is impossible4 ,other attempts of a similar kind need not be noticed here4 ,the only satisfactory course is to take one person as spoken of by all the verbs4 ,but then the question comes1 ,who is he8 ,there is much to be said in favour of either hypothesis as answering that question4 ,the phrase which is rendered above ,so that he lives is so like the common invocation ,may the king live1 that it strongly favours taking the whole verse as a continuance of the petitions for the monarch4 ,but if so1 the verb in the second clause 7he shall give7 must be taken impersonally1 as equivalent to one will give or there shall be given1 and those in the remaining clauses must be similarly dealt with1 or the text altered so as to make them plurals1 reading1 ,they shall pray for him 7the king71 444 and shall bless him4 ,on the whole1 it is best to suppose that the ransomed man is the subject throughout1 and that the verse describes his glad tribute1 and continual thankfulness4 ,ransomed from death1 he brings offerings to his deliverer4 ,it seems singular that he should be conceived of both as needy and as owning gold which he can offer2 but in the literal application the incongruity is not sufficient to prevent the adoption of this view of the clause2 and in the higher application of the words to ,christ and ,his subjects1 which we conceive to be warranted1 the incongruity becomes fine and deep truth2 for the poorest soul1 delivered by ,him1 can bring tribute1 which ,he esteems as precious beyond all earthly treasure4 ,nor need the remaining clauses militate against the view that the ransomed man is the subject in them4 ,the psalm had a historical basis1 and all its points cannot be introduced into the ,messianic interpretation4 ,this one of praying for the king cannot be2 notwithstanding the attempts of some commentators to find a meaning for it in ,christian prayers for the spread of ,christ's kingdom4 ,that explanation does violence to the language1 mistakes the nature of ,messianic prophecy1 and brings discredit on the view that the psalm has a ,messianic character4 ,the last part of the psalm 7vv4 #af1 #ag7 recurs to petitions for the growth of the nation and the perpetual flourishing of the king's name4 ,the fertility of the land and the increase of its people are the psalmist's desires1 which are also certainties1 as expressed in ver4 #af4 ,he sees in imagination the whole land waving with abundant harvests1 which reach even to the tops of the mountains1 and rustle in the summer air1 with a sound like the cedars of ,lebanon1 when they move their layers of greenness to the breeze4 ,the word rendered above abundance is doubtful2 but there does not seem to be in the psalmist's mind the contrast which he is often supposed to be expressing1 beautiful and true as it1 is between the small beginnings and the magnificent end of the kingdom on earth4 ,the mountains are here thought of as lofty and barren4 ,if waving harvests clothe their gaunt sides1 how will the vales laugh in plentiful crops6 ,as the earth yields her increase1 so the people of the king shall be multiplied1 and from all his cities they shall spring forth abundant as grass4 ,that figure would bear much expansion2 for what could more beautifully set forth rapidity of growth1 close-knit community1 multiplication of units1 and absorption of these in a lovely whole1 than the picture of a meadow clothed with its grassy carpet8 ,such hopes had only partial fulfilment in ,israel4 ,nor have they had adequate fulfilment up till now4 ,but they lie on the horizon of the future1 and they shall one day be reached4 ,much that is dim is treasured in them4 ,there may be a renovated world1 from which the curse of barrenness has been banished4 ,there shall be a swift increase of the subjects of the ,king1 until the earlier hope of the psalm is fulfilled1 and all nations shall serve ,him4 ,but bright as are the poet's visions concerning the kingdom1 his last gaze is fastened on its king1 and he prays that his name may last for ever1 and may send forth shoots as long as the sun shines in the sky4 ,he probably meant no more than a prayer for the continual duration of the dynasty1 and his conception of the name as sending forth shoots was probably that of its being perpetuated in descendants4 ,but1 as has been already noticed1 the perpetuity1 which he conceived of as belonging to a family and an office1 really belongs to the ,one ,king1 ,jesus ,christ1 whose ,name is above every name1 and will blossom anew in fresh revelations of its infinite contents1 not only while the sun shines1 but when its fires are cold and its light quenched4 ,the psalmist's last desire is that the ancient promise to the fathers may be fulfilled in the ,king1 their descendant1 in whom men shall bless themselves4 ,so full of blessedness may ,he seem to all men1 that they shall take ,him for the very type of felicity1 and desire to be even as ,he is6 ,in men's relation to ,christ the phrase assumes a deeper meaning still2 and though that is not intended by the psalmist1 and is not the exposition of his words1 it still is true that in ,christ all blessings for humanity are stored1 and that therefore if men are to be truly blessed they must plunge themselves into ,him1 and in ,him find all that they need for blessedness and nobility of life and character4 ,if ,he is our supreme type of whatsoever things are fair and of good report1 and if we have bowed ourselves to ,him because ,he has delivered us from death1 then we share in ,his life1 and all ,his blessings are parted among us4 ,,book ,,iii4 ,,psalms ,,lxxiii4-,,lxxxix4 ,,psalm ,,lxxiii4 #a ,surely ,god is good to ,israel1 ,to those who are pure in heart2 #b ,but ,i--within a little of turning aside were my feet1 ,all but slipping were my steps4 #c ,for ,i was envious of the foolish1 ,when ,i saw the prosperity of the wicked4 #d ,for they have no bonds dragging them to death1 ,and their body is lusty4 #e ,in the trouble belonging to frail mortals they have no part ,and in common with men they are not smitten4 #f ,therefore pride is their necklace2 ,violence covers them as a robe4 #g ,out of fat their eye flashes2 ,the imaginations of their heart overflow4 #h ,they mock and speak wickedly of oppression1 ,as from on high they speak4 #i ,they set in the heavens their mouth1 ,and their tongue stalks on the earth4 #aj ,therefore he turns his people thither1 ,and waters of abundance are drunk up by them4 #aa ,and they say1 ,how does ,god know8 ,and is there knowledge in the ,most ,high8 #ab ,behold6 these are wicked1 ,and1 prosperous for ever1 they have increased their wealth4 #ac ,surely in vain have ,i cleansed my heart1 ,and in innocency have washed my hands4 #ad ,yet have ,i been smitten all the day1 ,and my correction came every morning4 #ae ,if ,i had said1 ,i will speak thus1 ,behold1 ,i should have been unfaithful to the generation of ,thy children4 #af ,when ,i gave thought in order to understand this1 ,it was too difficult in my eyes-- #ag ,until ,i went into the sanctuary of ,god1 ,and gave heed to their end4 #ah ,surely in slippery places ,thou dost set them2 ,thou castest them down to ruins4 #ai ,how are they become a desolation in a moment1 ,are ended1 consumed with terrors6 #bj ,like a dream on awaking1 ,so ,lord1 on ,thy arousing1 ,thou wilt despise their shadowy form4 #ba ,for my heart was growing bitter1 ,and ,i was pricked in my reins4 #bb ,and ,i1 ,i was brutish and ignorant1 ,a very beast was ,i before ,thee4 #bc ,and yet ,i1 ,i am continually with ,thee2 ,thou hast grasped me by my right hand #bd ,in ,thy counsel ,thou wilt guide me1 ,and afterwards to glory wilt take me4 #be ,whom have ,i in heaven8 ,and1 possessing ,thee1 ,i have no delight on earth4 #bf ,though my flesh and my heart fail1 ,the rock of my heart and my portion is ,god for ever4 #bg ,for1 behold1 they that are far from ,thee shall perish2 ,thou hast destroyed every one that goes whoring from ,thee4 #bh ,but ,i1 ,i--to draw near to ,god is good to me2 ,i have made in the ,lord ,jehovah my refuge1 ,that ,i may recount all ,thy works4 ,the perennial problem of reconciling ,god's moral government with observed facts is grappled with in this psalm1 as in ,psalms xxxvii4 and xlix4 ,it tells how the prosperity of the godless1 in apparent flat contradiction of ,divine promises1 had all but swept the psalmist from his faith1 and how he was led1 through doubt and struggle1 to closer communion with ,god1 in which he learned1 not only the evanescence of the external well-being which had so perplexed him1 but the eternity of the true blessedness belonging to the godly4 ,his solution of the problem is in part that of the two psalms just mentioned1 but it surpasses them in its clear recognition that the portion of the righteous1 which makes their lot supremely blessed1 is no mere earthly prosperity1 but ,god ,himself1 and in its pointing to glory which comes afterwards1 as one element in the solution of the problem4 ,the psalm falls into two divisions1 in the first of which 7vv4 #a-ad7 the psalmist tells of his doubts1 and1 in the second 7vv4 #ae-bh71 of his victory over them4 ,the body of the psalm is divided into groups of four verses1 and it has an introduction and conclusion of two verses each4 ,the introduction 7vv4 #a1 #b7 asserts1 with an accent of assurance1 the conviction which the psalmist had all but lost1 and therefore had the more truly won4 ,the initial word ,surely is an indication of his past struggle1 when the truth that ,god was good to ,israel had seemed so questionable4 ,this ,i have learned by doubts2 this ,i now hold as most sure2 this ,i proclaim1 impugn it who list1 and seem to contradict it what may4 ,the decisiveness of the psalmist's conviction does not lead him to exaggeration4 ,he does not commit himself to the thesis that outward prosperity attends ,israel4 ,that ,god is good to those who truly bear that name is certain2 but how ,he shows ,his goodness1 and who these are1 the psalmist has1 by his struggles1 learned to conceive of in a more spiritual fashion than before4 ,that goodness may be plainly seen in sorrows1 and it is only sealed to those who are what the name of ,israel imports--pure in heart4 ,that such are blessed in possessing ,god1 and that neither are any other blessed1 nor is there any other blessedness1 are the lessons which the singer has brought with him from the darkness1 and by which the ancient faith of the well-being of the righteous is set on surer foundations than before4 ,the avowal of conquered doubts follows on this clear note of certitude4 ,there is a tinge of shame in the emphatic ,i of ver4 #b1 and in the broken construction and the change of subject to my feet and my steps4 ,the psalmist looks back to that dreary time1 and sees more clearly than he did1 while he was caught in the toils of perplexity and doubt1 how narrow had been his escape from casting away his confidence4 ,he shudders as he remembers it2 but he can do so now from the vantage-ground of tried and regained faith4 ,how eloquently the order of thought in these two verses speaks of the complete triumph over doubt6 ,in the first quatrain of verses1 the prosperity of the godless1 which had been the psalmist's stumbling-block1 is described4 ,two things are specified--physical health1 and exemption from calamity4 ,the former is the theme of ver4 #d4 ,its first clause is doubtful4 ,the word rendered bands only occurs here and in ,isa4 lviii4 #f4 ,it literally means bands1 but may pass into the figurative signification of pains1 and is sometimes by some taken in that meaning here1 and the whole clause as asserting that the wicked have painless and peaceful deaths4 ,but such a declaration is impossible in the face of vv4 #ah1 #ai1 which assert the very opposite1 and would be out of place at this point of the psalm1 which is here occupied with the lives1 not the deaths1 of the ungodly4 ,hupfeld translates ,they are without pains even until their deaths2 but that rendering puts an unusual sense on the preposition to1 which is not till4 ,a very plausible conjecture alters the division of words1 splitting the one which means to their death 7l'motham7 into two 7lamo tam71 of which the former is attached to the preceding words 7there are no pains to them they have no pains71 and the latter to the following clause 7,sound and well nourished is1 etc474 ,this suggestion is adopted by ,ewald and most modern commentators1 and has much in its favour4 ,if the existing text is retained1 the rendering above seems best4 ,it describes the prosperous worldling as free from troubles or diseases1 which would be like chains on a captive1 by which he is dragged to execution4 ,it thus gives a parallel to the next clause1 which describes their bodies 7lit41 belly7 as stalwart4 ,ver4 #e carries on the description1 and paints the wicked's exemption from trouble4 ,the first clause is literally1 ,in the trouble of man they are not4 ,the word for man here is that which connotes frailty and mortality1 while in the next clause it is the generic term ,adam4 ,thus the prosperous worldlings appeared to the psalmist1 in his times of scepticism1 as possessing charmed lives1 which were free from all the ills that came from frailty and mortality1 and1 as like superior beings1 lifted above the universal lot4 ,but what did their exemption do for them8 ,its effects might have taught the doubter that the prosperity at which his faith staggered was no blessing1 for it only inflated its recipients with pride1 and urged them on to high-handed acts4 ,very graphically does ver4 #f paint them as having the former for their necklace1 and the latter for their robe4 ,a proud man carries a stiff neck and a high head4 ,hence the picture in ver4 #f of pride as wreathed about their necks as a chain or necklace4 ,high-handed violence is their garment1 according to the familiar metaphor by which a man's characteristics are likened to his dress1 the garb of his soul4 ,the double meaning of habit1 and the connection between custom and costume1 suggest the same figure4 ,as the clothing wraps the body and is visible to the world1 so insolent violence1 masterfulness enforced by material weapons and contemptuous of others' rights1 characterised these men1 who had never learned gentleness in the school of suffering4 ,tricked out with a necklace of pride and a robe of violence1 they strutted among men1 and thought themselves far above the herd1 and secure from the touch of trouble4 ,the next group of verses 7vv4 #g-aj7 further describes the unfeeling insolence begotten of unbroken prosperity1 and the crowd of hangers-on1 admirers1 and imitators attendant on the successful wicked4 ,out of fat their eye flashes gives a graphic picture of the fierce glare of insolent eyes1 set in well-fed faces4 ,but graphic as it is1 it scarcely fits the context so well as does a proposed amended reading1 which by a very small change in the word rendered their eye yields the meaning their iniquity1 and takes fat as equivalent to a fat1 that is1 an obstinate1 self-confident1 or unfeeling heart4 ,from an unfeeling heart their iniquity comes forth makes a perfect parallel with the second clause of the verse rightly rendered1 the imaginations of their heart overflow2 and both clauses paint the arrogant tempers and bearing of the worldlings4 ,ver4 #h deals with the manifestation of these in speech4 ,well-to-do wickedness delights in making suffering goodness a butt for its coarse jeers4 ,it does not need much wit to do that4 ,clumsy jests are easy1 and poverty is fair game for vulgar wealth's ridicule4 ,but there is a dash of ferocity in such laughter1 and such jests pass quickly into earnest1 and wicked oppression4 ,as from on high they speak1--fancying themselves set on a pedestal above the common masses4 ,the ,,lxx41 followed by many moderns1 attaches oppression to the second clause1 which makes the verse more symmetrical2 but the existing division of clauses yields an appropriate sense4 ,the description of arrogant speech is carried on in ver4 #i1 which has been variously understood1 as referring in a to blasphemy against ,god 7they set against the heavens their mouth71 and in b to slander against men2 or1 as in a1 continuing the thought of ver4 #h b1 and designating their words as spoken as if from heaven itself1 and in b ascribing to their words sovereign power among men4 ,but it is better to regard heaven and earth as the ordinary designation of the whole visible frame of things1 and to take the verse as describing the self-sufficiency which gives its opinions and lays down the law about everything1 and1 on the other hand1 the currency and influence which are accorded by the popular voice to the dicta of prosperous worldlings4 ,that thought prepares the way for the enigmatic verse which follows4 ,there are several obscure points in it4 ,first1 the verb in the ,hebrew text means turns 7transitive71 which the ,hebrew margin corrects into returns 7intransitive74 ,with the former reading1 his people is the object of the verb1 and the implied subject is the prosperous wicked man1 the change to the singular he from the plural they of the preceding clauses being not unusual in ,hebrew4 ,with the latter reading1 his people is the subject4 ,the next question is to whom the people are conceived as belonging4 ,it is1 at first sight1 natural to think of the frequent ,scripture expression1 and to take the his as referring to ,god1 and the phrase to mean the true ,israel4 ,but the meaning seems rather to be the mob of parasites and hangers-on1 who servilely follow the successful sinner1 in hope of some crumbs from his table4 ,thither means to himself1 and the whole describes how such a one as the man whose portrait has just been drawn is sure to attract a retinue of dependants1 who say as he says1 and would fain be what he is4 ,the last clause describes the share of these parasites in their patron's prosperity4 ,waters of abundance--i4e41 abundant waters--may be an emblem of the pernicious principles of the wicked1 which their followers swallow greedily2 but it is more probably a figure for fulness of material good1 which rewards the humiliation of servile adherents to the prosperous worldling4 ,the next group 7vv4 #aa-ad7 begins with an utterance of unbelief or doubt1 but it is difficult to reach certainty as to the speakers4 ,it is very natural to refer the they to the last-mentioned persons--namely1 the people who have been led to attach themselves to the prosperous sinners1 and who1 by the example of these1 are led to question the reality of ,god's acquaintance with and moral government of human affairs4 ,the question is1 as often1 in reality a denial4 ,but they may have a more general sense1 equivalent to our own colloquial use of it for an indefinite multitude4 ,they say--that is1 the common opinion and rumour is4 ,so here1 the meaning may be1 that the sight of such flushed and flourishing wickedness diffuses widespread and deep-going doubts of ,god's knowledge1 and makes many infidels4 ,ewald1 ,delitzsch1 and others take all the verses of this group as spoken by the followers of the ungodly2 and1 unquestionably1 that view avoids the difficulty of allotting the parts to different unnamed interlocutors4 ,but it raises difficulties of another kind--as1 for instance1 those of supposing that these adulators should roundly call their patrons wicked1 and that an apostate should profess that he has cleansed his heart4 ,the same objections do not hold against the view that these four verses are the utterance1 not of the wicked rich man or his coterie of admirers1 but of the wider number whose faith has been shaken4 ,there is nothing in the verses which would be unnatural on such lips4 ,ver4 #aa would then be a question anxiously raised by faith that was beginning to reel2 ver4 #ab would be a statement of the anomalous fact which staggered it2 and vv4 #ac1 #ad1 the complaint of the afflicted godly4 ,the psalmist's repudiation of a share in such incipient scepticism would begin with ver4 #ae4 ,there is much in favour of this view of the speakers1 but against it is the psalmist's acknowledgment1 in ver4 #b1 that his own confidence in ,god's moral government had been shaken1 of which there is no further trace in the psalm1 unless vv4 #ac1 #ad1 express the conclusion which he had been tempted to draw1 and which1 as he proceeds to say1 he had fought down4 ,if these two verses are ascribed to him1 ver4 #ab is best regarded as a summary of the whole preceding part1 and only ver4 #aa as the utterance either of the prosperous sinner and his adherents 7in which case it is a question which means denial71 or as that of troubled faith 7in which case it is a question that would fain be an affirmation1 but has been forced unwillingly to regard the very pillars of the universe as trembling74 ,vv4 #ae-ah tell how the psalmist strove with and finally conquered his doubts1 and saw enough of the great arc of the ,divine dealings1 to be sure that the anomaly1 which had exercised his faith1 was capable of complete reconciliation with the righteousness of ,providence4 ,it is instructive to note that he silenced his doubts1 out of regard to the generation of ,thy children--that is1 to the true ,israel1 the pure in heart4 ,he was tempted to speak as others did not fear to speak1 impugning ,god's justice and proclaiming the uselessness of purity2 but he locked his lips1 lest his words should prove him untrue to the consideration which he owed to meek and simple hearts1 who knew nothing of the speculative difficulties torturing him4 ,he does not say that his speaking would have been sin against ,god4 ,it would not have been so1 if1 in speaking1 he had longed for confirmation of his wavering faith4 ,but whatever the motive of his words1 they might have shaken some lowly believers4 ,therefore he resolved on silence4 ,like all wise and devout men1 he swallowed his own smoke1 and let the process of doubting go on to its end of certainty1 one way or another1 before he spoke4 ,this psalm1 in which he tells how he overcame them1 is his first acknowledgment that he had had these temptations to cast away his confidence4 ,fermentation should be done in the dark4 ,when the process is finished1 and the product is clear1 it is fit to be produced and drank4 ,certitudes are meant to be uttered2 doubts are meant to be struggled with4 ,the psalmist has set an example which many men need to ponder to-day4 ,it is easy1 and it is also cruel1 to raise questions which the proposer is not ready to answer4 ,silent brooding over his problem did not bring light1 as ver4 #af tells us4 ,the more he thought over it1 the more insoluble did it seem to him4 ,there are chambers which the key of thinking will not open4 ,unwelcome as the lesson is1 we have to learn that every lock will not yield to even prolonged and strenuous investigation4 ,the lamp of the ,understanding throws its beams far1 but there are depths of darkness too deep and dark for them2 and they are wisest who know its limits and do not try to use it in regions where it is useless4 ,but faith finds a path where speculation discerns none4 ,the psalmist went into the sanctuary 7literally1 sanctuaries7 of ,god1 and there light streamed in on him1 in which he saw light4 ,not mere entrance into the place of worship1 but closer approach to the ,god who dwelt there1 cleared away the mists4 ,communion with ,god solves many problems which thinking leaves unresolved4 ,the eye which has gazed on ,god is purged for much vision besides4 ,the disproportion between the deserts and fortunes of good and bad men assumes an altogether different aspect when contemplated in the light of present communion with ,him1 which brings a blessedness that makes earthly prosperity seem dross1 and earthly burdens seem feathers4 ,such communion1 in its seclusion from worldly agitations1 enables a man to take calmer1 saner views of life1 and in its enduring blessedness reveals more clearly the transiency of the creatural good which deceives men with the figment of its permanence4 ,the lesson which the psalmist learned in the solemn stillness of the sanctuary was the end of ungodly prosperity4 ,that changes the aspect of the envied position of the prosperous sinner1 for his very prosperity is seen to contribute to his downfall1 as well as to make that downfall more tragic by contrast4 ,his sure footing1 exempt as he seemed from the troubles and ills that flesh is heir to1 was really on a treacherous slope1 like smooth sheets of rock on a mountain-side4 ,to stand on them is to slide down to hideous ruin4 ,the theme of the end of the prosperous sinners is continued in the next group 7vv4 #ai-bb74 ,in ver4 #ai the psalmist seems as if standing an amazed spectator of the crash1 which tumbles into chaos the solid-seeming fabric of their insolent prosperity4 ,an exclamation breaks from his lips as he looks4 ,and then destruction is foretold for all such1 under the solemn and magnificent image of ver4 #bj4 ,god has seemed to sleep1 letting evil run its course2 but ,he rouses ,himself--that is1 comes forth in judicial acts--and as a dreamer remembers his dream1 which seemed so real1 and smiles at its imaginary terrors or joys1 so ,he will despise them1 as no more solid nor lasting than phantasms of the night4 ,the end contemplated by the psalmist is not necessarily death1 but any sudden overthrow1 of which there are many in the experience of the godless4 ,life is full of such awakings of ,god1 both in regard to individuals and nations1 which1 if a man duly regards1 he will find the problem of the psalm less insoluble than at first it appears4 ,but if there are lives which1 being without goodness1 are also without chastisement1 ,death comes at last to such as ,god's awaking1 and a very awful dissipating of earthly prosperity into a shadowy nothing4 ,the psalmist has no revelation here of future retribution4 ,his vindication of ,god's justice is not based on that1 but simply on the transiency of worldly prosperity1 and on its dangerous character4 ,it is a slippery place1 and it is sure to come to an end4 ,it is obvious that there are many other considerations which have to be taken into account1 in order to a complete solution of the problem of the psalm4 ,but the psalmist's solution goes far to lighten the painful perplexity of it2 and if we add his succeeding thoughts as to the elements of true blessedness1 we have solution enough for peaceful acquiescence1 if not for entire understanding4 ,the psalmist's way of finding an answer is even more valuable than the answer which he found4 ,they who dwell in the secret place of the ,most ,high can look on the riddle of this painful world with equanimity1 and be content to leave it half unsolved4 ,vv4 #ba1 #bb1 are generally taken as one sentence1 and translated as by ,delitzsch1 ,if my heart should grow bitter 444 ,i should be brutish1 etc42 or1 as by ,hupfeld1 ,when my heart grew bitter 444 then ,i was as a beast1 etc42 but they are better regarded as the psalmist's penitent explanation of his struggle4 ,unbelieving thoughts had fermented in his mind1 and a pang of passionate discontent had pierced his inmost being4 ,but the higher self blames the lower self for such folly 7,cheyne1 in loc474 ,his recognition that his doubts had their source1 not in defect in ,god's providence1 but in his own ignorance and hasty irritation1 which took offence without cause1 prepares him for the sweet1 clear note of purely spiritual aspiration and fruition which follows in the next strophe4 ,he had all but lost his hold of ,god2 but though his feet had almost gone astray1 his hand had been grasped by ,god1 and that strong hold had kept him from utterly falling4 ,the pledge of continual communion with ,god is not our own vacillating1 wayward hearts1 but ,god's gentle1 strong clasp1 which will not let us go4 ,thus conscious of constant fellowship1 and feeling thrillingly ,god's touch in his inmost spirit1 the psalmist rises to a height of joyous assurance1 far above doubts and perplexities caused by the unequal distribution of earth's trivial good4 ,for him1 all life will be illumined by ,god's counsel1 which will guide him as a shepherd leads his sheep1 and which he will obey as a sheep follows his shepherd4 ,how small the delights of the prosperous men seem now6 ,and can there be an end to that sweet alliance1 such as smites earthly good8 ,there are blessings which bear in themselves assurance of their own undyingness2 and this psalmist1 who had nothing to say of the future retribution falling on the sinner whose delights were confined to earth1 feels that death cannot put a period to a union so blessed and spiritual as was his with ,god4 ,to him1 afterwards was irradiated with light from present blessedness2 and a solemnly joyful conviction springs in his soul1 which he casts into words that glance at the story of ,enoch's translation1 from which take is quoted 7cf4 ,psalm xlix4 #af74 ,whether we translate with glory or to glory1 there can be no question that the psalmist is looking beyond life on earth to dwelling with ,god in glory4 ,we have1 in this utterance1 the expression of the conviction1 inseparable from any true1 deep communion with ,god1 that such communion can never be at the mercy of ,death4 ,the real proof of a life beyond the grave is the resurrection of ,jesus2 and the pledge of it is present enjoyment of fellowship with ,god4 ,such thoughts lift the psalmist to a height from which earth's troubles show small1 and as they diminish1 the perplexity arising from their distribution diminishes in proportion4 ,they fade away altogether1 when he feels how rich he is in possessing ,god4 ,surely the very summit of devotional rapture is reached in the immortal words which follow6 ,heaven without ,god were a waste to this man4 ,with ,god1 he needs not nor desires anything on earth4 ,if the impossible should be actual1 and heart as well as flesh should fail1 his naked self would be clothed and rich1 steadfast and secure1 as long as he had ,god2 and he is so closely knit to ,god1 that he knows that he will not lose ,him though he dies1 but have ,him for his very own for ever4 ,what care need he have how earth's vain goods come and go8 ,whatever outward calamities or poverty may be his lot1 there is no riddle in that ,divine government which thus enriches the devout heart2 and the richest ungodly man is poor1 because he shuts himself out from the one all-sufficient and enduring wealth4 ,a final pair of verses1 answering to the introductory pair1 gathers up the double truth1 which the psalmist has learned to grasp more firmly by occasion of his doubts4 ,to be absent from ,god is to perish4 ,distance from ,him is separation from life4 ,drawing near to ,him is the only good2 and the psalmist has deliberately chosen it as his good1 let worldly prosperity come or go as it list1 or1 rather1 as ,god shall choose4 ,by the effort of his own volition he has made ,god his refuge1 and1 safe in ,him1 he can bear the sorrows of the godly1 and look unenvying on the fleeting prosperity of sinners1 while1 with insight drawn from communion1 he can recount with faith and praise all ,god's works1 and find in none of them a stumbling-block1 nor fail to find in any of them material for a song of thankfulness4 ,,psalm ,,lxxiv4 #a ,why1 ,o ,god1 hast ,thou cast us off for ever8 ,why smokes ,thine anger against the flock of ,thy pasture8 #b ,remember ,thy congregation which ,thou didst acquire of old1 ,didst redeem to be the tribe of ,thine inheritance1 ,mount ,zion1 on which ,thou hast dwelt4 #c ,lift up ,thy steps to the everlasting ruins1 ,the enemy has marred everything in the sanctuary4 #d ,thine adversaries roared in the midst of the place where ,thou dost meet us1 ,they set up their signs as signs4 #e ,they seem like one who heaves on high ,axes against a thicket of trees4 #f ,and now--its carved work altogether ,with hatchet and hammers they break down4 #g ,they have set on fire ,thy sanctuary1 ,rasing it to the ground1 they have profaned the dwelling-place of ,thy name4 #h ,they have said in their heart1 ,let us crush them altogether4 ,they have burned all meeting-places of ,god in the land4 #i ,our signs we see not1 ,there is no prophet any more1 ,and there is no one who knows how long4 #aj ,how long1 ,o ,god1 shall the adversary reproach8 ,shall the enemy despise ,thy name for ever8 #aa ,why dost ,thou draw back ,thy hand1 even ,thy right hand8 ,from the midst of ,thy bosom pluck it and consume them4 #ab ,yet ,god is my king from of old1 ,working salvations in the midst of the earth4 #ac ,thou1 ,thou didst divide the sea by ,thy strength1 ,didst break the heads of monsters on the waters4 #ad ,thou1 ,thou didst crush the heads of ,leviathan1 ,that ,thou mightest give him to be meat for a people--the desert beasts4 #ae ,thou1 ,thou didst cleave a way for fountain and torrent2 ,thou1 ,thou didst dry up perennial streams4 #af ,thine is day1 ,thine also is night1 ,thou1 ,thou didst establish light and sun4 #ag ,thou1 ,thou didst set all the bounds of the earth2 ,summer and winter1 ,thou1 ,thou didst form them4 #ah ,remember this--the enemy reviles ,jehovah1 ,and a foolish people despises ,thy name4 #ai ,give not up to the company of greed ,thy turtle dove1 ,the company of ,thine afflicted forget not for ever4 #bj ,look upon the covenant1 ,for the dark places of the land are full of habitations of violence4 #ba ,let not the oppressed turn back ashamed1 ,let the afflicted and needy praise ,thy name4 #bb ,rise1 ,o ,god1 plead ,thine own cause1 ,remember ,thy reproach from the foolish all the day4 #bc ,forget not the voice of ,thine adversaries1 ,the tumult of them which rise against ,thee goes up continually4 ,two periods only correspond to the circumstances described in this psalm and its companion 7lxxix47--namely1 the ,chaldean invasion and sack of ,jerusalem1 and the persecution under ,antiochus ,epiphanes4 ,the general situation outlined in the psalm fits either of these2 but1 of its details1 some are more applicable to the former and others to the later period4 ,the later date is strongly supported by such complaints as those of the cessation of prophecy 7ver4 #i71 the flaunting of the invaders' signs in the sanctuary 7ver4 #d71 and the destruction by fire of all the meeting-places of ,god in the land 7ver4 #h74 ,on the other hand1 the earlier date better fits other features of the psalm--since ,antiochus did not destroy or burn1 but simply profaned the ,temple1 though he did1 indeed1 set fire to the gates and porch1 but to these only4 ,it would appear that1 on either hypothesis1 something must be allowed for poetical colouring4 ,calvin1 whom ,cheyne follows in this1 accounts for the introduction of the burning of the ,temple into a psalm referring to the desolation wrought by ,antiochus1 by the supposition that the psalmist speaks in the name of the faithful1 who1 looking on the horrid devastation of the ,temple1 and being warned by so sad a sight1 carried back their thoughts to that conflagration by which it had been destroyed by the ,chaldeans1 and wove the two calamities together into one4 ,it is less difficult to pare down the statement as to the burning of the ,temple so as to suit the later date1 than that as to the silence of prophecy and the other characteristics mentioned1 so as to fit the earlier4 ,the question is still further complicated by the similarities between the two psalms and ,jeremiah 7compare ver4 #d with ,lam4 ii4 #g1 and ver4 #i with ,lam4 ii4 #i74 ,the prophet's well-known fondness for quotations gives probability1 other things being equal1 to the supposition that he is quoting the psalm1 which would1 in that case1 be older than ,lamentations4 ,but this inference scarcely holds good1 if there are other grounds on which the later date of the psalm is established4 ,it would be very natural in a singer of the ,maccabean period to go back to the prophet whose sad strains had risen at another black hour4 ,on the whole1 the balance is in favour of the later date4 ,the psalm begins with a complaining cry to ,god 7vv4 #a-c71 which passes into a piteous detail of the nation's misery 7vv4 #d-i71 whence it rises into petition 7vv4 #aj1 #aa71 stays trembling faith by gazing upon ,his past deeds of help and the wonders of ,his creative power 7vv4 #ab-ag71 and closes with beseeching ,god to vindicate the honour of ,his own name by the deliverance of ,his people 7vv4 #ah-bc74 ,the main emphasis of the prayer in vv4 #a-c lies on the pleas which it presents1 drawn from ,israel's relation to ,god4 ,the characteristic ,asaphic name ,thy flock stands in ver4 #a1 and appeals to the ,shepherd1 both on the ground of ,his tenderness and of ,his honour as involved in the security of the sheep4 ,a similar appeal lies in the two words acquire and redeem1 in both of which the deliverance from ,egypt is referred to1--the former expression suggesting the price at which the acquisition was made1 as well as the obligations of ownership2 and the latter1 the office of the ,goel1 the ,kinsman-,redeemer1 on whom devolved the duty of obtaining satisfaction for blood4 ,the double designations of ,israel as ,thy congregation and as the tribe of ,thine inheritance probably point to the religious and civil aspects of the national life4 ,the strongest plea is put last--namely1 ,god's dwelling on ,zion4 ,for all these reasons1 the psalmist asks and expects ,him to come with swift footsteps to the desolations1 which have endured so long that the impatience of despair blends with the cry for help1 and calls them everlasting1 even while it prays that they may be built up again4 ,the fact that the enemy of ,god and of ,his flock has marred everything in the sanctuary is enough1 the psalmist thinks1 to move ,god to action4 ,the same thought1 that the nation's calamities are really dishonouring to ,god1 and therefore worthy of ,his intervention1 colours the whole of the description of these in vv4 #d-i4 ,the invaders are ,thine adversaries4 ,it is in the place where ,thou didst meet us that their bestial noises1 like those of lions over their prey1 echo4 ,it is ,thy sanctuary which they have set on fire1 the dwelling-place of ,thy name which they have profaned4 ,it is ,thy meeting-places which they have burned throughout the land4 ,only at the end of the sad catalogue is the misery of the people touched on1 and that1 not so much as inflicted by human foes1 as by the withdrawal of ,god's ,spirit4 ,this is1 in fact1 the dominant thought of the whole psalm4 ,it says very little about the sufferings resulting from the success of the enemy1 but constantly recurs to the insult to ,god1 and the reproach adhering to ,his name therefrom4 ,the essence of it all is in the concluding prayer1 ,plead ,thine own cause 7ver4 #bb74 ,the vivid description of devastation in these verses presents some difficulties in detail1 which call for brief treatment4 ,the signs in ver4 #d b may be taken as military1 such as banners or the like2 but it is more in accordance with the usage of the word to suppose them to be religious emblems1 or possibly idols1 such as ,antiochus thrust upon the ,jews4 ,in vv4 #e and #f a change of tense represents the action described in them1 as if in progress at the moment before the singer's eyes4 ,they seem is literally ,he is known 7or makes himself known71 which may refer to the invaders1 the change from plural to singular being frequent in ,hebrew2 or it may be taken impersonally1 ,it seems4 ,in either case it introduces a comparison between the hacking and hewing by the spoilers in the ,temple1 and the work of a woodman swinging on high his axe in the forest4 ,and now seems to indicate the next step in the scene2 which the psalmist picturesquely conceives as passing before his horror-stricken sight4 ,the end of that ill-omened activity is that at last it succeeds in shattering the carved work1 which1 in the absence of statues1 was the chief artistic glory of the ,temple4 ,all is hewed down1 as if it were no more than so much growing timber4 ,with ver4 #g the tenses change to the calmer tone of historical narration4 ,the plundered ,temple is set on fire--a point which1 as has been noticed above1 is completely applicable only to the ,chaldean invasion4 ,similarly1 the next clause1 they have profaned the dwelling-place of ,thy name to the ground1 does not apply in literality to the action of ,antiochus1 who did indeed desecrate1 but did not destroy1 the ,temple4 ,the expression is a pregnant one1 and calls for some such supplement as is given above1 which1 however1 dilutes its vigour while it elucidates its meaning4 ,in ver4 #h the word let us crush them has been erroneously taken as a noun1 and rendered their brood1 a verb like we will root out being supplied4 ,so the ,,lxx4 and some of the old versions1 followed by ,hitzig and ,baethgen4 ,but1 as ,delitzsch well asks1--,why are only the children to be rooted out8 and why should the object of the action be expressed1 and not rather the action1 of which the object would be self-evident8 ,the meeting-places of ,god in the land cannot be old sanctuaries1 nor the high places1 which were ,israel's sin2 for no psalmist could have adduced the destruction of these as a reason for ,god's intervention4 ,they can only be the synagogues4 ,the expression is a strong argument for the later date of the psalm4 ,equally strong is the lament in ver4 #i over the removal of the signs--i4e41 as in ver4 #d1 the emblems of religion1 or the sacrifices and festivals1 suppressed by ,antiochus1 which were the tokens of the covenant between ,god and ,israel4 ,the silence of prophecy cannot be alleged of the ,chaldean period without some straining of facts and of the words here2 nor is it true that then there was universal ignorance of the duration of the calamity1 for ,jeremiah had foretold it4 ,vv4 #aj and #aa are the kernel of the psalm1 the rest of which is folded round them symmetrically4 ,starting from this centre and working outwards1 we note that it is preceded by six verses dilating on the profanations of the name of ,god1 and followed by six setting forth the glories of that name in the past4 ,the connection of these two portions of the psalm is obvious4 ,they are1 as it were1 the inner shell round the kernel4 ,the outer shell is the prayer in three verses which begins the psalm1 and that in six verses which closes it4 ,ver4 #aj takes up the despairing ,how long from the end of the preceding portion1 and turns it into a question to ,god4 ,it is best to ask ,him1 when ignorance pains us4 ,but the interrogation does not so much beg for enlightenment as to the duration of the calamity as for its abbreviation4 ,it breathes not precisely impatience1 but longing that a state of things so dishonouring to ,god should end4 ,that aspect1 and not personal suffering1 is prominent in the verse4 ,it is ,thy name which is insulted by the adversaries actions1 and laid open to their contempt1 as the name of a ,deity powerless to protect ,his worshippers4 ,their action reproaches1 and ,his inaction lets them despise1 ,his name4 ,the psalmist cannot endure that this condition should drag on indefinitely1 as if for ever1 and his prayer-question ,how long8 is next exchanged for another similar blending of petition and inquiry1 ,why dost ,thou draw back ,thy hand8 ,both are immediately translated into that petition which they both really mean4 ,from the midst of ,thy bosom consume1 is a pregnant phrase1 like that in ver4 #g b1 and has to be completed as above1 though1 possibly1 the verb stands absolutely as equivalent to make an end--i4e41 of such a state of things4 ,the psalmist's petition is next grounded on the revelation of ,god's name in ,israel's past1 and in creative acts of power4 ,these at once encourage him to expect that ,god will pluck ,his hand out from the folds of ,his robe1 where it lies inactive1 and appeal to ,god to be what ,he has been of old1 and to rescue the name which ,he has thus magnified from insult4 ,there is singular solemnity in the emphatic reiteration of ,thou in these verses4 ,the ,hebrew does not usually express the pronominal nominative to a verb1 unless special attention is to be called to it2 but in these verses it does so uniformly1 with one exception1 and the sevenfold repetition of the word brings forcibly into view the ,divine personality and former deeds which pledge ,god to act now4 ,remembrance of past wonders made present misery more bitter1 but it also fanned into a flame the spark of confidence that the future would be like the past4 ,one characteristic of the ,asaph psalms is wistful retrospect1 which is sometimes the basis of rebuke1 and sometimes of hope1 and sometimes of deepened sorrow1 but is here in part appeal to ,god and in part consolation4 ,the familiar instances of ,his working drawn from the ,exodus history appear in the psalm4 ,first comes the dividing of the ,red ,sea1 which is regarded chiefly as occasioning the destruction of the ,egyptians1 who are symbolised by the sea-monsters and by leviathan 7the crocodile74 ,their fate is an omen of what the psalmist hopes may befall the oppressors of his own day4 ,there is great poetic force in the representation that the strong hand1 which by a stroke parted the waters1 crushed by the same blow the heads of the foul creatures who floated many a rood on them4 ,and what an end for the pomp of ,pharaoh and his host1 to provide a meal for jackals and the other beasts of the desert1 who tear the corpses strewing the barren shore6 ,the meaning is completely misapprehended when the people inhabiting the wilderness is taken to be wild desert tribes4 ,the expression refers to animals1 and its use as designating them has parallels 7as ,prov4 xxx4 #be1 #bf74 ,in ver4 #ae another pregnant expression occurs1 which is best filled out as above1 the reference being to cleaving the rock for the flow of water1 with which is contrasted in b the drying up of the ,jordan4 ,thus the whole of the ,exodus period is covered4 ,it is noteworthy that the psalmist adduces only wonders wrought on waters1 being possibly guided in his selection by the familiar poetic use of floods and seas as emblems of hostile power and unbridled insolence4 ,from the wonders of history he passes to those of creation1 and chiefly of that might by which times alternate and each constituent of the ,kosmos has its appointed limits4 ,day and night1 summer and winter1 recur by ,god's continual operation4 ,is there to be no dawning for ,israel's night of weeping1 and no summer making glad the winter of its discontent8 ,thou didst set all the bounds of the earth1--wilt ,thou not bid back this surging ocean which has transgressed its limits and filled the breadth of ,thy land8 ,all the lights in the sky1 and chiefly the greatest of them1 ,thou didst establish1--surely ,thou wilt end this eclipse in which ,thy people grope4 ,thus the psalmist lifts himself to the height of confident though humble prayer1 with which the psalm closes1 recurring to the opening tones4 ,its centre is1 as we have seen1 a double remonstrance--,how long8 and ,why8 ,the encircling circumference is earnest supplication1 of which the keynote is ,remember 7vv4 #b and #ah74 ,the gist of this closing prayer is the same appeal to ,god to defend ,his own honour1 which we have found in the former verses4 ,it is put in various forms here4 ,twice 7vv4 #ah and #bb7 ,god is besought to remember the reproach and contumely heaped on his name1 and apparently warranted by ,his inaction4 ,the claim of ,israel for deliverance is based in ver4 #ai upon its being ,thy turtle dove1 which therefore cannot be abandoned without sullying ,thy fame4 ,the psalmist spreads the covenant before ,god1 as reminding ,him of ,his obligations under it4 ,he asks that such deeds may be done as will give occasion to the afflicted and needy to praise ,thy name1 which is being besmirched by their calamities4 ,finally1 in wonderfully bold words1 he calls on ,god to take up what is1 after all1 ,his own quarrel1 and1 if the cry of the afflicted does not move ,him1 to listen to the loud voices of those who blaspheme ,him all the day4 ,reverent earnestness of supplication sometimes sounds like irreverence2 but1 when the heart's deeps boil in earnest1 ,god understands the meaning of what sounds strange1 and recognises the profound trust in ,his faithfulness and love which underlies bold words4 ,the precise rendering of ver4 #ai is very doubtful4 ,the word rendered above by company may mean life or a living creature1 or1 collectively1 a company of such4 ,it has been taken in all these meanings here1 and sometimes in one of them in the first clause1 and in another in the second1 as most recently by ,baethgen1 who renders ,abandon not to the beast in a1 and ,the life of thine afflicted in b4 ,but it must have the same meaning in both clauses1 and the form of the word shows that it must be construed in both with a following of4 ,if so1 the rendering adopted above is best1 though it involves taking the word rendered greed 7lit41 soul7 in a somewhat doubtful sense4 ,this rendering is adopted in the ,r4,v4 7margin71 and is1 on the whole1 the least difficult1 and yields a probable sense4 ,delitzsch recognises the necessity for giving the ambiguous word the same meaning in both clauses1 and takes that meaning to be creature1 which suits well enough in a1 but gives a very harsh meaning to b4 ,forget not ,thy poor animals for ever is surely an impossible rendering4 ,other attempts have been made to turn the difficulty by textual alteration4 ,hupfeld would transpose two words in a1 and so gets ,give not up to rage the life of ,thy dove4 ,cheyne corrects the difficult word into to the sword1 and ,graetz follows ,dyserinck in preferring to death1 or ,krochmal1 who reads to destruction4 ,if the existing text is retained1 probably the rendering adopted above is best4 ,,psalm ,,lxxv4 #a ,we give thanks to ,thee1 ,o ,god1 we give thanks2 ,and that ,thy name is near1 ,thy wondrous works declare #b ,when ,i seize the set time1 ,i1 ,i judge in equity4 #c ,dissolved in fear are earth and its inhabitants3 ,i1 ,i set firm its pillars4 ,selah4 #d ,i say to the fools1 be not foolish3 ,and to the wicked1 ,lift not up the horn3 #e ,lift not up your horn on high2 ,speak not with stiff neck4 #f ,for not from east1 nor from west1 ,and not from the wilderness is lifting up4 #g ,for ,god is judge3 ,this one ,he abases1 and that one ,he lifts up4 #h ,for a cup is in the hands of ,jehovah1 ,and it foams with wine2 it is full of mixture1 ,and ,he pours out from it3 ,yea1 its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth gulp down and drink4 #i ,and as for me1 ,i will declare it for ever1 ,i will harp to the ,god of ,jacob4 #aj ,and all the horns of the wicked will ,i cut off3 ,exalted shall be the horns of the righteous4 ,this psalm deals with the general thought of ,god's judgment in history1 especially on heathen nations4 ,it has no clear marks of connection with any particular instance of that judgment4 ,the prevalent opinion has been that it refers1 like the next psalm1 to the destruction of ,sennacherib's army4 ,there are in it slight resemblances to psalm xlvi41 and to ,isaiah's prophecies regarding that event1 which support the conjecture4 ,cheyne seems to waver1 as on page #adh of ,orig4 of ,psalt4 he speaks of the two ,maccabean psalms1 lxxiv4 and lxxv41 and on page #aff concludes that they may be ,maccabean1 444 but we cannot claim for this view the highest degree of probability1 especially as neither psalm refers to any warlike deeds of ,israelites4 ,it is safer1 ,i think1 to 444 assign them at the earliest to one of the happier parts of the ,persian age4 ,it is apparently still safer to refrain from assigning them to any precise period4 ,the kernel of the psalm is a majestic ,divine utterance1 proclaiming ,god's judgment as at hand4 ,the limits of that ,divine word are doubtful1 but it is best taken as occupying two pairs of verses 7#b-e74 ,it is preceded by one verse of praise1 and followed by three 7#f-h7 of warning spoken by the psalmist1 and by two 7#i1 #aj17 in which he again praises ,god the ,judge1 and stands forth as an instrument of ,his judicial acts4 ,in ver4 #a1 which is as a prelude to the great ,voice from heaven1 we hear the nation giving thanks beforehand for the judgment which is about to fall4 ,the second part of the verse is doubtful4 ,it may be taken thus3 ,and ,thy name is near2 they 7i4e41 men7 declare ,thy wondrous works4 ,so ,delitzsch1 who comments3 ,the ,church welcomes the future acts of ,god with fervent thanks1 and all they that belong to it declare beforehand ,god's wondrous works4 ,several modern scholars1 among whom are ,grtz1 ,baethgen1 and ,cheyne1 adopt a textual alteration which gives the reading1 ,they who call upon ,thy name declare1 etc4 ,but the rendering of the ,a4,v41 which is also that of ,hupfeld and ,perowne1 gives a good meaning4 ,all ,god's deeds in history proclaim that ,he is ever at hand to help4 ,his name is ,his character as revealed by ,his self-manifestation2 and this is the glad thanks-evoking lesson1 taught by all the past and by the judicial act of which the psalm is the precursor--that ,he is near to deliver ,his people4 ,as ,deut4 iv4 #g has it1 ,what nation is there that hath ,god so near unto them8 ,the ,divine voice breaks in with majestic abruptness1 as in ,psalm xlvi4 #aj4 ,it proclaims impending judgment1 which will restore society1 dissolving in dread or moral corruption1 and will abase insolent wickedness1 which is therefore exhorted to submission4 ,in ver4 #b two great principles are declared--one in regard to the time and the other in regard to the animating spirit of ,god's judgment4 ,literally1 the first words of the verse run1 ,when ,i lay hold of the appointed time4 ,the thought is that ,he has ,his own appointed time at which ,his power will flash forth into act1 and that till that moment arrives evil is permitted to run its course1 and insolent men to play their fantastic tricks before an apparently indifferent or unobserving ,god4 ,his servants are tempted to think that ,he delays too long2 ,his enemies1 that ,he will never break ,his silence4 ,but the slow hand traverses the dial in time1 and at last the hour strikes and the crash comes punctually at the moment4 ,the purposes of delay are presented in ,scripture as twofold3 on the one hand1 that the long-suffering of ,god may lead to repentance2 and on the other1 that evil may work itself out and show its true character4 ,to learn the lesson that1 when the set time is come1 judgment will fall1 would save the oppressed from impatience and despondency and the oppressor from dreams of impunity4 ,it is a law fruitful for the interpretation of the world's history4 ,the other fundamental truth in this verse is that the principle of ,god's judgment is equity1 rigid adherence to justice1 so that every act of man's shall receive accurately its just recompense of reward4 ,the ,i of ver4 #b b is emphatic4 ,it brings to view the lofty personality of the ,judge1 and asserts the operation of a ,divine hand in human affairs1 while it also lays the basis for the assurance that1 the judgment being ,his1 and ,he being what ,he is1 it must be according to truth4 ,such a set time has arrived1 as ver4 #c proceeds to declare4 ,oppression and corruption have gone so far that the earth and its inhabitants are as if dissolved4 ,all things are rushing to ruin4 ,the psalmist does not distinguish between the physical and the moral here4 ,his figure is employed in reference to both orders1 which he regards as indissolubly connected4 ,possibly he is echoing ,psalm xlvi4 #f1 ,the earth melted1 though there the melting is an expression for dread occasioned by ,god's voice1 and here rather refers to the results of the proud man's wrong4 ,at such a supreme moment1 when the solid framework of society and of the world itself seems to be on the point of dissolution1 the mighty ,divine ,personality intervenes2 that strong hand is thrust forth to grasp the tottering pillars and stay their fall2 or1 in plain words1 ,god ,himself then intervenes to re-establish the moral order of society1 and thus to save the sufferers4 7,comp4 ,hannah's song in #a ,sam4 ii4 #h47 ,that intervention has necessarily two aspects1 being on the one hand restorative1 and on the other punitive4 ,therefore in vv4 #d and #e follow ,divine warnings to the fools and wicked1 whose insolent boasting and tyranny have provoked it4 ,the word rendered fools seems to include the idea of boastfulness as well as folly in the ,biblical sense of that word1 which points to moral rather than to merely intellectual aberration4 ,lifting up the horn is a symbol of arrogance4 ,according to the accents1 the word rendered stiff is not to be taken as attached to neck1 but as the object of the verb speak1 the resulting translation being1 ,speak not arrogance with a stretched out neck2 and thus ,delitzsch would render4 ,but it is more natural to take the word in its usual construction as an epithet of neck1 expressive of superciliously holding a high head4 ,cheyne follows ,baethgen in altering the text so as to read rock for neck--a slight change which is supported by the ,,lxx4 rendering 7,speak not unrighteousness against ,god7--and renders nor speak arrogantly of the rock4 ,like the other advocates of a ,maccabean date1 he finds here a reference to the mad blasphemies of ,antiochus ,epiphanes2 but the words would suit ,rabshakeh's railings quite as well4 ,the exact point where the ,divine oracle passes into the psalmist's own words is doubtful4 ,ver4 #g is evidently his2 and that verse is so closely connected with ver4 #f that it is best to make the break at the end of ver4 #e1 and to suppose that what follows is the singer's application of the truths which he has heard4 ,two renderings of ver4 #f b are possible1 which1 though very different in ,english1 turn on the minute difference in the ,hebrew of one vowel sign4 ,the same letters spell the ,hebrew word meaning mountains and that meaning lifting up4 ,with one punctuation of the preceding word wilderness1 we must translate from the wilderness of mountains2 with another1 the two words are less closely connected1 and we must render1 from the wilderness is lifting up4 ,if the former rendering is adopted1 the verse is incomplete1 and some phrase like help comes must be supplied1 as ,delitzsch suggests4 ,but lifting up occurs so often in this psalm1 that it is more natural to take the word in that meaning here1 especially as the next verse ends with it1 in a different tense1 and thus makes a sort of rhyme with this verse4 ,the wilderness of mountains1 too1 is a singular designation1 either for the ,sinaitic peninsula or for ,egypt1 or for the wilderness of ,judah1 which have all been suggested as intended here4 ,the wilderness stands for the south1 and thus three cardinal points are named4 ,why is the north omitted8 ,if lifting up means deliverance1 the omission may be due to the fact that ,assyria 7from which the danger came1 if we adopt the usual view of the occasion of the psalm7 lay to the north4 ,but the meaning in the rest of the psalm is not deliverance1 and the psalmist is addressing the foolish boasters here and that consideration takes away the force of such an explanation of the omission4 ,probably no significance attaches to it4 ,the general idea is simply that lifting up does not come from any quarter of earth1 but1 as the next verse goes on to say1 solely from ,god4 ,how absurd1 then1 is the self-sufficient loftiness of godless men6 ,how vain to look along the low levels of earth1 when all true elevation and dignity come from ,god6 ,the very purpose of ,his judicial energy is to abase the lofty and raise the low4 ,his hand lifts up1 and there is no secure or lasting elevation but that which ,he effects4 ,his hand casts down1 and that which attracts ,his lightnings is the haughtiness of man4 ,the outburst of ,his judgment works like a volcanic eruption1 which flings up elevations in valleys and shatters lofty peaks4 ,the features of the country are changed after it1 and the world looks new4 ,the metaphor of ver4 #h1 in which judgment is represented as a cup of foaming wine1 which ,god puts to the lips of the nations1 receives great expansion in the prophets1 especially in ,jeremiah1 and recurs in the ,apocalypse4 ,there is a grim contrast between the images of festivity and hospitality called up by the picture of a host presenting the wine cup to his guests1 and the stern compulsion which makes the wicked gulp down the nauseous draught held by ,god to their reluctant lips4 ,the utmost extremity of punitive inflictions1 unflinchingly inflicted1 is suggested by the terrible imagery4 ,and the judgment is to be world-wide2 for all the wicked of the earth are to drink1 and that to the dregs4 ,and how does the prospect affect the psalmist8 ,it moves him1 first1 to solemn praise--not only because ,god has proved ,himself by these terrible things in righteousness to be the ,god of ,his people1 but also because ,he has thereby manifested ,his own character as righteous and hating evil4 ,it is no selfish nor cruel joy which stirs in devout hearts1 when ,god comes forth in history and smites oppressing insolence4 ,it is but a spurious benevolence which affects to recoil from the conception of a ,god who judges and1 when needful1 smites4 ,this psalmist not only praised1 but in his degree vowed to imitate4 ,the last verse is best understood as his declaration of his own purpose1 though some commentators have proposed to transfer it to the earlier part of the psalm1 regarding it as part of the ,divine oracle4 ,but it is in its right place where it stands4 ,god's servants are ,his instruments in carrying out ,his judgments2 and there is a very real sense in which all of them should seek to fight against dominant evil and to cripple the power of tyrannous godlessness4 ,,psalm ,,lxxvi4 #a ,known in ,judah is ,god1 ,in ,israel is ,his name great4 #b ,and in ,salem was ,his tent pitched1 ,and ,his dwelling in ,zion4 #c ,there ,he shivered the lightnings of the bow1 ,shield and sword and battle4 ,selah4 #d ,effulgent art ,thou and glorious ,from the mountains of prey everlasting mountains84 #e ,spoiled are the stout of heart1 they slumber into their sleep1 ,and none of the men of might have found their hands4 #f ,at ,thy rebuke1 ,o ,god of ,jacob1 ,both chariot and horse are sunk in deep sleep4 #g ,thou6 dread art ,thou1 ,and who can stand before ,thee1 in the time of ,thine anger8 #h ,from heaven didst ,thou make judgment heard1 ,earth feared and was stilled1 #i ,at the rising of ,god for judgment ,to save all the afflicted of the earth4 ,selah4 #aj ,for the wrath of man shall praise ,thee1 ,with the residue of wraths ,thou girdest ,thyself4 #aa ,vow and pay to ,jehovah your ,god1 ,let all around ,him bring presents to the ,terrible ,one4 #ab ,he cuts down the lofty spirit of princes1 ,a dread to the kings of the earth4 ,in contents and tone this psalm is connected with ,psalms xlvi4 and xlviii4 ,no known event corresponds so closely with its allusions as the destruction of ,sennacherib's army1 to which the ,,lxx4 in its superscription refers it4 ,the singer is absorbed in the one tremendous judgment which had delivered the dwelling-place of ,jehovah4 ,his song has but one theme--,god's forth-flashing of judgment on ,zion's foes4 ,one note of thankfulness sounds at the close1 but till then all is awe4 ,the psalm is divided into four strophes1 of three verses each4 ,the former two describe the act2 the latter two deal with its results1 in an awed world and thankful praise4 ,the emphatic words in the first strophe are those which designate the scene of the ,divine act4 ,the glow of humble pride1 of wonder and thankfulness1 is perceptible in the fourfold reiteration--in ,judah1 in ,israel1 in ,salem1 in ,zion2 all which names are gathered up in the eloquent ,there of ver4 #c4 ,the true point of view from which to regard ,god's acts is that they are ,his ,self-revelation4 ,the reason why ,israel is the object of the acts which manifest ,his name is that there ,he has chosen to dwell4 ,and1 since ,he dwells there1 the special act of judgment which the psalm celebrates was there performed4 ,the lightnings of the bow picturesquely designate arrows1 from their swift flight and deadly impact4 7,compare ,psalm xlvi4 #i47 ,the second strophe 7vv4 #d-f7 comes closer to the fact celebrated1 and describes1 with magnificent sweep1 brevity1 and vividness1 the death sleep of the enemy4 ,but1 before it shows the silent corpses1 it lifts one exclamation of reverence to the ,god who has thus manifested ,his power4 ,the word rendered ,effulgent is doubtful1 and by a slight transposition of letters becomes1 as in ver4 #g which begins the next strophe1 dread4 ,in ver4 #d b the rendering more excellent than1 etc41 yields a comparison which can scarcely be called worthy4 ,it is little to say of ,god that ,he is more glorious than the enemies' mountains of prey1 though ,delitzsch tries to recommend this rendering1 by supposing that ,god is represented as towering above the ,lebanon of the hostile army of peoples4 ,the ,hebrew idiom expresses comparison by the preposition from appended to the adjective in its simple form1 and it is best here to take the construction as indicating point of departure rather than comparison4 ,god comes forth as glorious1 from the lofty heights where ,he sits supreme4 ,but mountains of prey is a singular phrase1 which can only be explained by the supposition that ,god is conceived of as a ,conqueror1 who has laid up ,his spoils in ,his inaccessible store-house on high4 ,but the ,,lxx4 translates everlasting mountains1 which fits the context well1 and implies a text1 which might easily be misinterpreted as meaning prey1 which misinterpretation may afterwards have crept into the body of the text4 ,if this alteration is not adopted1 the meaning will be as just stated4 ,ver4 #e gives some support to the existing text1 by its representation of the stout-hearted foe as spoiled4 ,they are robbed of their might1 their weapons1 and their life4 ,how graphically the psalmist sets before the eyes of his readers the process of destruction from its beginning6 ,he shows us the warriors falling asleep in the drowsiness of death4 ,how feeble their might now6 ,one vain struggle1 as in the throes of death1 and the hands which shot the lightnings of the bow against ,zion are stiff for evermore4 ,one word from the sovereign lips of the ,god of ,jacob1 and all the noise of the camp is hushed1 and we look out upon a field of the dead1 lying in awful stillness1 dreamlessly sleeping their long slumber4 ,the third strophe passes from description of the destruction of the enemy to paint its widespread results in the manifestation to a hushed world of ,god's judgment4 ,in it anger and love are wondrously blended2 and while no creature can bear the terrible blaze of ,his face1 nor endure the weight of ,his onset in the time of ,his anger1 the most awful manifestations thereof have a side of tenderness and an inner purpose of blessing4 ,the core of judgment is mercy4 ,it is worthy of ,god to smite the oppressor and to save the afflicted1 who not only suffer1 but trust4 ,when ,he makes ,his judgments reverberate from on high1 earth should keep an awed stillness1 as nature does when thunder peals4 ,when some gigantic and hoary iniquity crashes to its fall1 there is a moment of awed silence after the hideous tumult4 ,the last strophe is mainly a summons to praise ,god for ,his manifestation of delivering judgment4 ,ver4 #aj is obscure4 ,the first clause is intelligible enough4 ,since ,god magnifies ,his name by ,his treatment of opposing men1 who set themselves against ,him1 their very foaming fury subserves ,his praise4 ,that is a familiar thought with all the ,scripture writers who meditate on ,god's dealings4 ,but the second clause is hard4 ,whose wraths are spoken of in it8 ,god's or man's8 ,the change from the singular 7wrath of man7 to plural 7wraths7 in b makes it all but certain that ,god's fulness of wrath is meant here4 ,it is set over against the finite and puny wrath of men1 as an ocean might be contrasted with a shallow pond4 ,if so1 ,god's girding ,himself with the residue of ,his own wrath will mean that1 after every such forth-putting of it as the psalm has been hymning1 there still remains an unexhausted store ready to flame out if need arise4 ,it is a stern and terrible thought of ,god1 but it is solemnly true4 ,his loving-kindness out-measures man's1 and so does ,his judicial judgment4 ,all ,divine attributes partake of ,infinitude1 and the stores of ,his punitive anger are not less deep than those of ,his gentle goodness4 ,therefore men are summoned to vow and pay their vows2 and while ,israel is called to worship1 the nations around1 who have seen that field of the dead1 are called to do homage and bring tribute to ,him who1 as it so solemnly shows1 can cut off the breath of the highest1 or can cut down their pride1 as a grape-gatherer does the ripe cluster 7for such is the allusion in the word cuts down74 ,the last clause of the psalm1 which stands somewhat disconnected from the preceding1 gathers up the lessons of the tremendous event which inspired it1 when it sets ,him forth as to be feared by the kings of the earth4 ,,psalm ,,lxxvii4 #a ,i would lift my voice to ,god and cry2 ,i would lift my voice to ,god1 that ,he may give ear to me4 #b ,in the day of my straits ,i sought the ,lord3 ,my hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing2 ,my soul refused to be comforted4 #c ,when ,i remember ,god1 ,i must sigh2 ,when ,i muse1 my spirit is covered with gloom4 ,selah4 #d ,thou hast held open the guards of my eyes3 ,i am buffeted1 and cannot speak4 #e ,i considered the days of old1 ,the years of ancient times4 #f ,i would remember my song in the night3 ,in my heart ,i would muse1--and my spirit made anxious search4 #g ,will the ,lord cast off for ever8 ,and will ,he continue no more to be favourable8 #h ,is ,his loving-kindness ended for ever8 ,has ,his promise failed for all generations8 #i ,has ,god forgotten to be gracious8 ,or has ,he in anger drawn in ,his compassions8 ,selah4 #aj ,then ,i said1 ,it is my sickness2 ,but ,i will remember the years of the right hand of the ,most ,high4 #aa ,i will celebrate the deeds of ,jah2 ,for ,i will remember ,thy wonders of old4 #ab ,and ,i will meditate on all ,thy work1 ,and will muse on ,thy doings4 #ac ,o ,god1 in holiness is ,thy way3 ,who is a great ,god like ,god8 #ad ,thou1 ,thou art the ,god who doest wonders3 ,thou hast made known among the peoples ,thy strength4 #ae ,thou hast redeemed with ,thine arm ,thy people1 ,the sons of ,jacob and ,joseph4 ,selah4 #af ,the waters saw ,thee1 ,o ,god2 ,the waters saw ,thee1 they writhed in pangs3 ,yea1 the abysses trembled4 #ag ,the clouds were poured out in water2 ,the skies gave forth a voice3 ,yea1 ,thine arrows went to and fro4 #ah ,the voice of ,thy thunder was in ,thy chariot wheel2 ,lightnings illumined the world3 ,the earth trembled and shook4 #ai ,in the sea was ,thy way1 ,and ,thy paths in great waters1 ,and ,thy footprints were not known4 #bj ,thou leadest ,thy people like sheep1 ,by the hand of ,moses and ,aaron4 ,the occasion of the profound sadness of the first part of this psalm may be inferred from the thoughts which brighten it into hope in the second4 ,these were the memories of past national deliverance4 ,it is natural to suppose that present national disasters were the causes of the sorrow which enveloped the psalmist's spirit and suggested questions of despair1 only saved from being blasphemous because they were so wistful4 ,but it by no means follows that the singer is simply the personified nation4 ,the piercing tone of individual grief is too clear1 especially in the introductory verses1 to allow of that hypothesis4 ,rather1 the psalmist has taken into his heart the troubles of his people4 ,public calamity has become personal pain4 ,what dark epoch has left its marks in this psalm remains uncertain4 ,if ,delitzsch's contention that ,habakkuk iii4 is in part drawn from it were indubitably established1 the attribution of the psalm to the times of ,josiah would be plausible2 but there is1 at least1 room for doubt whether there has been borrowing1 and if so1 which is original and which echo4 ,the calamities of the ,exile in their severity and duration would give reasonable ground for the psalmist's doubts whether ,god had not cast off ,his people for ever4 ,no brief or partial eclipse of ,his favour would supply adequate occasion for these4 ,the psalm falls into two parts1 in the former of which 7vv4 #a-i7 deepest gloom wraps the singer's spirit1 while in the latter 7vv4 #aj-bj7 the clouds break4 ,each of these parts falls into three strophes1 usually of three verses2 but in the concluding strophe1 consisting of five1 ,selah stands at the end of the first and third1 and is not present at the end of the second1 because it is more closely connected with the third than with the first4 ,in like manner the first strophe of the second part 7vv4 #aj-ab7 has no ,selah1 but the second has 7vv4 #ac-ae72 the closing strophe 7vv4 #af-bj7 being thus parted off4 ,the psalmist's agitation colours his language1 which fluctuates in the first six verses between expressions of resolve or desire 7vv4 #a1 #c1 #f7 and simple statement of fact 7vv4 #b1 #d1 #e74 ,he has prayed long and earnestly1 and nothing has been laid in answer on his outstretched palm4 ,therefore his cry has died down into a sigh4 ,he fain would lift his voice to ,god1 but dark thoughts make him dumb for supplication1 and eloquent only in self-pitying monologue4 ,a man must have waded through like depths to understand this pathetic bewilderment of spirit4 ,they who glide smoothly over a sunlit surface of sea little know the terrors of sinking1 with choked lungs1 into the abyss4 ,a little experience will go further than much learning in penetrating the meaning of these moanings of lamed faith4 ,they begin with an elliptical phrase1 which1 in its fragmentary character1 reveals the psalmist's discomposure4 ,my voice to ,god evidently needs some such completion as is supplied above2 and the form of the following verb 7cry7 suggests that the supplied one should express wish or effort4 ,the repetition of the phrase in #a b strengthens the impression of agitation4 ,the last words of that clause may be a petition1 give ear1 but are probably better taken as above4 ,the psalmist would fain cry to ,god1 that he may be heard4 ,he has cried1 as he goes on to tell in calmer mood in ver4 #b1 and has apparently not been heard4 ,he describes his unintermitted supplications by a strong metaphor4 ,the word rendered stretched out is literally poured out as water1 and is applied to weeping eyes 7,lam4 iii4 #di74 ,the ,targum substitutes eye for hand here1 but that is commentary1 not translation4 ,the clause which we render without ceasing is literally and grew not stiff4 ,that word1 too1 is used of tears1 and derivatives from it are found in the passage just referred to in ,lamentations 7intermission71 and in ,lam4 ii4 #ah 7rest74 ,it carries on the metaphor of a stream1 the flow of which is unchecked4 ,the application of this metaphor to the hand is harsh1 but the meaning is plain--that all night long the psalmist extended his hand in the attitude of prayer1 as if open to receive ,god's gift4 ,his voice rose like a fountain night and day2 but brought no comfort to his soul2 and he bewails himself1 in the words which tell of ,jacob's despair when he heard that ,joseph was dead4 ,so rooted and inconsolable does he think his sorrows4 ,the thought of ,god has changed its nature1 as if the sun were to become a source of darkness4 ,when he looks up1 he can only sigh2 when he looks within1 his spirit is clothed or veiled--i4e41 wrapped in melancholy4 ,in the next strophe of three verses 7vv4 #d-f7 the psalmist plunges yet deeper into gloom1 and unfolds more clearly its occasion4 ,sorrow1 like a beast of prey1 devours at night2 and every sad heart knows how eyelids1 however wearied1 refuse to close upon as wearied eyes1 which gaze wide opened into the blackness and see dreadful things there4 ,this man felt as if ,god's finger was pushing up his lids and forcing him to stare out into the night4 ,buffeted1 as if laid on an anvil and battered with the shocks of doom1 he cannot speak2 he can only moan1 as he is doing4 ,prayer seems to be impossible4 ,but to say1 ,i cannot pray2 would that ,i could6 is surely prayer1 which will reach its destination1 though the sender knows it not4 ,the psalmist had found no ease in remembering ,god4 ,he finds as little in remembering a brighter past4 ,that he should have turned to history in seeking for consolation implies that his affliction was national in its sweep1 however intensely personal in its pressure4 ,this retrospective meditation on the great deeds of old is characteristic of the ,asaph psalms4 ,it ministers in them to many moods1 as memory always does4 ,in this psalm we have it feeding two directly opposite emotions4 ,it may be the nurse of bitter ,despair1 or of bright-eyed ,hope4 ,when the thought of ,god occasions but sighs1 the remembrance of ,his acts can only make the present more doleful4 ,the heavy spirit finds reasons for heaviness in ,god's past and in its own4 ,the psalmist in his sleepless vigils remembers other wakeful times1 when his song filled the night with music and awoke the dawn4 ,ver4 #f is parallel with ver4 #c4 ,the three key-words1 remember1 muse1 spirit1 recur4 ,there1 musing ended in wrapping the spirit in deeper gloom4 ,here1 it stings that spirit to activity in questionings1 which the next strophe flings out in vehement number and startling plainness4 ,it is better to be pricked to even such interrogations by affliction than to be made torpid by it4 ,all depends on the temper in which they are asked4 ,if that is right1 answers which will scatter gloom are not far off4 ,the comparison of present national evils with former happiness naturally suggests such questions4 ,obviously1 the casting off spoken of in ver4 #g is that of the nation1 and hence its mention confirms the view that the psalmist is suffering under public calamities4 ,all the questions mean substantially one thing--has ,god changed8 ,they are not1 as some questions are1 the strongest mode of asserting their negative2 nor are they1 like others1 a more than half assertion of their affirmative2 but they are what they purport to be--the anxious interrogations of an afflicted man1 who would fain be sure that ,god is the same as ever1 but is staggered by the dismal contrast of ,now and ,then4 ,he faces with trembling the terrible possibilities1 and1 however his language may seem to regard failure of resources or fickleness of purpose or limitations in long-suffering as conceivable in ,god1 his doubts are better put into plain speech than lying diffused and darkening1 like poisonous mists1 in his heart4 ,a thought1 be it good or bad1 can be dealt with when it is made articulate4 ,formulating vague conceptions is like cutting a channel in a bog for the water to run4 ,one gets it together in manageable shape1 and the soil is drained4 ,so the end of the despondent half of the psalm is marked by the bringing to distinct speech of the suspicions which floated in the singer's mind and made him miserable4 ,the ,selah bids us dwell on the questions1 so as to realise their gravity and prepare ourselves for their answer4 ,the second part begins in ver4 #aj with an obscure and much-commented-on verse1 of which two explanations are possible1 depending mainly on the meanings of the two words sickness and years4 ,the former word may mean my wounding or my sickness4 ,the latter is by many commentators taken to be an infinitive verb1 with the signification to be changed1 and by others to be a plural noun meaning years1 as in ver4 #f4 ,neglecting some minor differences1 we may say that those who understand the word to mean being changed explain the whole thus3 ,this is my wound 7misery1 sorrow71 that the right hand of the ,most ,high has changed4 ,so the old versions1 and ,hupfeld1 ,perowne1 and ,baethgen4 ,but the use of the word in ver4 #f for years creates a strong presumption that its sense is the same here4 ,as to the other word1 its force is best seen by reference to a closely parallel passage in ,jer4 x4 #ai--;,i said1 ,truly this is my grief 7margin1 sickness71 and ,i must bear it2 where the word for grief1 though not the same as in the psalm1 is cognate4 ,the most probable meaning1 then1 for the expression here is1 ,this my affliction is sent from ,god1 and ,i must bear it with resignation4 ,then follows an elevating thought expressed in its simplest form like an exclamation1 the years1 etc4--i4e411 ,i will remember 7comp4 ver4 #f7 the time when the right hand of ,jehovah had the pre-eminence 7,cheyne1 in loc474 ,delitzsch leaves the ellipsis unfilled1 and takes the whole to mean that the psalmist says to himself that the affliction allotted will only last for the time which the mighty hand of ,god has determined4 ,the rendering adopted above avoids the awkwardness of using the same word in two different senses in the same context1 yields an appropriate meaning1 especially in view of the continual references to remembering1 and begins the new strophe with a new note of hopefulness1 whereas the other renderings prolong the minor key of the first part into the second4 ,it is therefore to be preferred4 ,the revolution in feeling is abrupt4 ,all is sunny and bright in the last half4 ,what makes the change8 ,the recognition of two great truths3 first1 that the calamity is laid on ,israel1 and on the psalmist as a member of the nation1 by ,god1 and has not come because of that impossible change in ,him which the bitter questions had suggested2 and1 second1 the unchangeable eternity of ,god's delivering power4 ,that second truth comes to him as with a flash1 and the broken words of ver4 #aj b hail the sudden rising of the new star4 ,the remainder of the psalm holds fast by that thought of the great deeds of ,god in the past4 ,it is a signal example of how the same facts remembered may depress or gladden1 according to the point of view from which they are regarded4 ,we can elect whether memory shall nourish despondency or gladness4 ,yet the alternative is not altogether a matter of choice2 for the only people to whom remembering happier things need not be a sorrow's crown of sorrow are those who see ,god in the past1 and so are sure that every joy that was and is not shall yet again be1 in more thrilling and lasting form4 ,if ,he shines out on us from the east that we have left behind1 ,his brightness will paint the western sky towards which we travel4 ,beneath confidence in the perpetuity of past blessings lies confidence in the eternity of ,god4 ,the years of the right hand of the ,most ,high answer all questions as to ,his change of purpose or of disposition1 and supply the only firm foundation for calm assurance of the future4 ,memory supplies the colours with which ,hope paints her truest pictures4 ,that which hath been is that which shall be may be the utterance of the blas man of the world1 or of the devout man who trusts in the living ,god1 and therefore knows that ,there shall never be one lost good6 ,what was shall live as before4 ,the strophe in vv4 #ac-ae fixes on the one great redeeming act of the ,exodus as the pledge of future deeds of a like kind1 as need requires4 ,the language is deeply tinged with reminiscences of ,exod4 xv4 ,in holiness 7not in the sanctuary71 the question ,who is so great a ,god8 the epithet ,who doest wonders1 all come from ,exod4 xv4 #aa4 ,thine arm in the psalm recalls ,by the greatness of ,thine arm in ,exodus 7ver4 #af71 and the psalmist's redeemed ,thy people reproduces the people which ,thou hast redeemed 7,exod4 xv4 #ac74 ,the separate mention of sons of ,joseph can scarcely be accounted for1 if the psalm is prior to the division of the kingdoms4 ,but the purpose of the designation is doubtful4 ,it may express the psalmist's protest against the division as a breach of ancient national unity or his longings for reunion4 ,the final strophe differs from the others in structure4 ,it contains five verses instead of three1 and the verses are 7with the exception of the last7 composed of three clauses each instead of two4 ,some commentators have supposed that vv4 #af-ai are an addition to the original psalm1 and think that they do not cohere well with the preceding4 ,this view denies that there is any allusion in the closing verses to the passage of the ,red ,sea1 and takes the whole as simply a description of a theophany1 like that in ,psalm xviii4 ,but surely the writhing of the waters as if in pangs at the sight of ,god is such an allusion4 ,ver4 #ai1 too1 is best understood as referring to the path through the sea1 whose waters returned and covered ,god's footprints from human eyes4 ,unless there is such a reference in vv4 #af-ai1 the connection with the preceding and with ver4 #bj is no doubt loose4 ,but that is not so much a reason for denying the right of these verses to a place in the psalm as for recognising the reference4 ,why should a mere description of a theophany1 which had nothing to do with the psalmist's theme1 have been tacked on to it8 ,no doubt1 the thunders1 lightnings1 and storm so grandly described here are unmentioned in ,exodus2 and1 quite possibly1 may be simply poetic heightening of the scene1 intended to suggest how majestic was the intervention which freed ,israel4 ,some commentators1 indeed1 have claimed the picture as giving additional facts concerning the passage of the ,red ,sea4 ,dean ,stanley1 for example1 has worked these points into his vivid description2 but that carries literalism too far4 ,the picture in the psalm is most striking4 ,the continuous short clauses crash and flash like the thunders and lightnings4 ,that energetic metaphor of the waters writhing as if panic-struck is more violent than ,western taste approves1 but its emotional vigour as a rendering of the fact is unmistakable4 ,thine arrows went to and fro is a very imperfect transcript of the ,hebrew1 which suggests the swift zigzag of the fierce flashes4 ,in ver4 #ah the last word offers some difficulty4 ,it literally means a wheel1 and is apparently best rendered as above1 the thunder being poetically conceived of as the sound of the rolling wheels of ,god's chariot4 ,there are several coincidences between vv4 #af-ai of the psalm and ,hab4 iii4 #aj-ae3 namely1 the expression writhed in pain1 applied in ,habakkuk to the mountains2 the word rendered overflowing 7,a4,v47 or tempest 7,r4,v47 in ,hab4 v4 #aj1 cognate with the verb in ver4 #ag of the psalm1 and there rendered poured out2 the designation of lightnings as ,god's arrows4 ,delitzsch strongly maintains the priority of the psalm2 ,hupfeld as strongly that of the prophet4 ,the last verse returns to the two-claused structure of the earlier part4 ,it comes in lovely contrast with the majestic and terrible picture preceding1 like the wonderful setting forth of the purpose of the other theophany in ,psalm xviii41 which was for no higher end than to draw one poor man from the mighty waters4 ,all this pomp of ,divine appearance1 with lightnings1 thunders1 a heaving earth1 a shrinking sea1 had for its end the leading the people of ,god to their land1 as a shepherd does his flock4 ,the image is again an echo of ,exod4 xv4 #ac4 ,the thing intended is not merely the passage of the ,red ,sea1 but the whole process of guidance begun there amid the darkness4 ,such a close is too abrupt to please some commentators4 ,but what more was needful or possible to be said1 in a retrospect of ,god's past acts1 for the solace of a dark present8 ,it was more than enough to scatter fears and flash radiance into the gloom which had wrapped the psalmist4 ,he need search no further4 ,he has found what he sought2 and so he hushes his song1 and gazes in silence on the all-sufficient answer which memory has brought to all his questions and doubts4 ,nothing could more completely express the living1 ever-present worth of the ancient deeds of ,god than the abruptness with which this psalm ceases rather than ends4 ,,psalm ,,lxxviii4 #a ,give ear1 my people1 to my law1 ,bow your ear to the sayings of my mouth4 #b ,i will open my mouth in a parable1 ,i will utter riddles from the ancient days1 #c ,what we have heard and known ,and our fathers have told us1 #d ,we will not hide from their sons1 ,recounting to the generation to come the praises of ,jehovah1 ,and ,his might and the wonders that ,he has done4 #e ,for ,he established a testimony in ,jacob1 ,and appointed a law in ,israel1 ,which ,he commanded our fathers ,to make known to their children2 #f ,in order that the generation to come might know1 ,the children who should be born1 ,who should rise up and tell to their children1 #g ,that they might place their confidence in ,god1 ,and not forget the deeds of ,god1 ,but keep ,his commandments2 #h ,and not be as their fathers1 ,a stubborn and rebellious generation1 ,a generation that did not make its heart steadfast1 ,and whose spirit was not faithful towards ,god4 #i ,the children of ,ephraim1 bearing and drawing bows1 ,turned back in the day of onset4 #aj ,they kept not the covenant of ,god1 ,and in ,his law they refused to walk1 #aa ,and they forgot ,his doings1 ,and the wonders which ,he had showed them4 #ab ,before their fathers ,he did marvels1 ,in the land of ,egypt1 in the field of ,zoan4 #ac ,he cleft the sea and let them pass through1 ,and ,he reared up the waters like a heap of corn1 #ad ,and ,he guided them in a cloud by day ,and all night in a fiery light4 #ae ,he cleft rocks in the wilderness1 ,and gave them drink abundantly1 as from ocean depths4 #af ,and ,he brought forth streams from the cliff1 ,and made waters to flow down like rivers4 #ag ,but they went on to sin yet more against ,him1 ,to rebel against the ,most ,high in the desert4 #ah ,and they tempted ,god in their heart1 ,in asking meat after their desire4 #ai ,and they spoke against ,god1 they said1 ,is ,god able to spread a table in the wilderness8 #bj ,behold1 ,he struck a rock1 and waters gushed forth1 ,and torrents flowed out4 ,is ,he able to give bread also8 ,or will ,he prepare flesh for ,his people8 #ba ,jehovah heard and was wroth1 ,and a fire was kindled in ,jacob1 ,and wrath also went up against ,israel4 #bb ,for they did not believe in ,god1 ,and trusted not in ,his salvation4 #bc ,and ,he commanded the clouds above1 ,and opened the doors of heaven1 #bd ,and rained upon them manna to eat1 ,and gave them the corn of heaven4 #be ,men did eat the bread of the ,mighty ,ones2 ,he sent them sustenance to the full4 #bf ,he made the east wind go forth in the heavens1 ,and guided the south wind by ,his power2 #bg ,and ,he rained flesh upon them like dust1 ,and winged fowls like the sand of the seas1 #bh ,and let it fall in the midst of their camp1 ,round about their habitations4 #bi ,so they ate and were surfeited1 ,and their desires ,he brought to them4 #cj ,they were not estranged from their desires ,their food was yet in their mouths4 #ca ,and the wrath of ,god rose against them1 ,and slew the fattest of them1 ,and struck down the young men of ,israel4 #cb ,for all this they sinned yet more1 ,and believed not in ,his wonders4 #cc ,so ,he made their days to vanish like a breath1 ,and their years in suddenness4 #cd ,when ,he slew them1 then they inquired after ,him1 ,and returned and sought ,god earnestly4 #ce ,and they remembered that ,god was their rock1 ,and ,god ,most ,high their redeemer4 #cf ,and they flattered ,him with their mouth1 ,and with their tongue they lied to ,him1 #cg ,and their heart was not steadfast with ,him1 ,and they were not faithful to ,his covenant4 #ch ,but ,he is compassionate1 covers iniquity1 and destroys not2 ,yea1 many a time ,he takes back ,his anger1 ,and rouses not all ,his wrath4 #ci ,so ,he remembered that they were but flesh1 ,a wind that goes and comes not again4 #dj ,how often did they provoke ,him in the wilderness1 ,did they grieve ,him in the desert6 #da ,yea1 again and again they tempted ,god1 ,and the ,holy ,one of ,israel they vexed4 #db ,they remembered not ,his hand1 ,the day when ,he set them free from the adversary1 #dc ,when ,he set forth ,his signs in ,egypt1 ,and ,his wonders in the field of ,zoan4 #dd ,and ,he turned to blood their ,nile streams1 ,and their streams they could not drink4 #de ,he sent amongst them flies that devoured them1 ,and frogs that destroyed them4 #df ,and ,he gave their increase to the caterpillar1 ,and their toil to the locust4 #dg ,he killed their vines with hail1 ,and their sycamores with frost4 8 #dh ,and ,he gave their cattle up to the hail1 ,and their flocks to the lightnings4 #di ,he sent against them the heat of ,his anger1 ,wrath and indignation and trouble1 ,a mission of angels of evil4 #ej ,he levelled a path for ,his anger1 ,he spared not their souls from death1 ,but delivered over their life to the pestilence4 #ea ,and ,he smote all the first-born of ,egypt1 ,the firstlings of their strength in the tents of ,ham4 #eb ,and ,he made ,his people go forth like sheep1 ,and guided them like a flock in the desert4 #ec ,and ,he led them safely1 that they did not fear1 ,and the sea covered their enemies4 #ed ,and ,he brought them to ,his holy border1 ,this mountain1 which ,his right hand had won4 #ee ,and ,he drove out the nations before them1 ,and allotted them by line as an inheritance1 ,and made the tribes of ,israel to dwell in their tents4 #ef ,but they tempted and provoked ,god ,most ,high1 ,and ,his testimonies they did not keep4 #eg ,and they turned back and were faithless like their fathers1 ,they were turned aside like a deceitful bow2 #eh ,and they provoked ,him to anger with their high places1 ,and with their graven images they moved ,him to jealousy4 #ei ,god heard and was wroth1 ,and loathed ,israel exceedingly4 #fj ,so that ,he rejected the habitation of ,shiloh1 ,the tent which ,he had pitched among men4 #fa ,and ,he gave ,his strength to captivity1 ,and ,his beauty into the hand of the adversary4 #fb ,and ,he delivered ,his people to the sword1 ,and against ,his inheritance ,he was wroth4 #fc ,their young men the fire devoured1 ,and their maidens were not praised in the marriage-song4 #fd ,their priests fell by the sword1 ,and their widows made no lamentation4 #fe ,then the ,lord awoke as one that had slept1 ,like a warrior shouting because of wine4 #ff ,and ,he beat ,his adversaries back1 ,he put on them a perpetual reproach4 #fg ,and ,he loathed the tent of ,joseph1 ,and the tribe of ,ephraim ,he did not choose4 #fh ,but ,he chose the tribe of ,judah1 ,mount ,zion1 which ,he loved4 #fi ,and ,he built ,his sanctuary like heavenly heights1 ,like the earth which ,he has founded for ever4 #gj ,and ,he chose ,david ,his servant1 ,and took him from the sheepfolds2 #ga ,from following the ewes that give suck1 ,he brought him ,to feed ,jacob ,his people1 ,and ,israel ,his inheritance4 #gb ,so he fed them according to the integrity of his heart1 ,and with the skilfulness of his hands he guided them4 ,this psalm is closely related to ,psalms cv4-cvii4 ,like them1 it treats the history of ,israel1 and especially the ,exodus and wilderness wanderings1 for purposes of edification1 rebuke1 and encouragement4 ,the past is held up as a mirror to the present generation4 ,it has been one long succession of miracles of mercy met by equally continuous ingratitude1 which has ever been punished by national calamities4 ,the psalm departs singularly from chronological order4 ,it arranges its contents in two principal masses1 each introduced by the same formula 7vv4 #ab1 #dc7 referring to wonders in ,egypt and the field of ,zoan4 ,but the first mass has nothing to do with ,egypt1 but begins with the passage of the ,red ,sea1 and is wholly occupied with the wilderness4 ,the second group of wonders begins in ver4 #dd with the plagues of ,egypt1 touches lightly on the wilderness history1 and then passes to the early history of ,israel when settled in the land1 and finishes with the establishment of ,david on the throne4 ,it is difficult to account for this singular bouleversement of the history4 ,but the conjecture may be hazarded that its reason lies in the better illustration of continual interlacing of mercy and unthankfulness afforded by the events in the wilderness1 than by the plagues of ,egypt4 ,that interlacing is the main point on which the psalmist wishes to lay stress1 and therefore he begins with the most striking example of it4 ,the use of the formula in ver4 #ab looks as if his original intention had been to follow the order of time4 ,another peculiarity is the prominence given to ,ephraim1 both in ver4 #i as a type of faithlessness1 and in ver4 #fg as rejected in favour of ,judah4 ,these references naturally point to the date of the psalm as being subsequent to the separation of the kingdoms2 but whether it is meant as rebuke to the northern kingdom1 or as warning to ,judah from the fate of ,ephraim1 is not clear4 ,nor are there materials for closer determination of date4 ,the tone of the closing reference to ,david implies that his accession belongs to somewhat remote times4 ,there are no regular strophes1 but a tendency to run into paragraphs of four verses1 with occasional irregularities4 ,vv4 #a-d declare the singer's didactic purpose4 ,he deeply feels the solidarity of the nation through all generations--how fathers and children are knit by mystic ties1 and by possession of an eternal treasure1 the mighty deeds of ,god1 of which they are bound to pass on the record from age to age4 ,the history of ancient days is a parable and a riddle or dark saying1 as containing examples of great principles1 and lessons which need reflection to discern and draw out4 ,from that point of view1 the psalmist will sum up the past4 ,he is not a chronicler1 but a religious teacher4 ,his purpose is edification1 rebuke1 encouragement1 the deepening of godly fear and obedience4 ,in a word1 he means to give the spirit of the nation's history4 ,vv4 #e-h base this purpose on ,god's declared will that the knowledge of ,his deeds for ,israel might be handed down from fathers to sons4 ,the obligations of parents for the religious training of their children1 the true bond of family unity1 the ancient order of things when oral tradition was the principal means of preserving national history1 the peculiarity of this nation's annals1 as celebrating no heroes and recording only the deeds of ,god by men1 the contrast between the changing bearers of the story and the undying deeds which they had to tell1 are all expressed in these verses1 so pathetic in their gaze upon the linked series of short-lived men1 so stern in their final declaration that ,divine commandment and mercy had been in vain1 and that1 instead of a tradition of goodness1 there had been a transmission of stubbornness and departure from ,god1 repeating itself with tragic uniformity4 ,the devout poet1 who knows what ,god meant family life to be and to do1 sadly recognises the grim contrast presented by its reality4 ,but yet he will make one more attempt to break the flow of evil from father to son4 ,perhaps his contemporaries will listen and shake themselves clear of this entail of disobedience4 ,the reference to ,ephraim in vv4 #i-aa is not to be taken as alluding to any cowardly retreat from actual battle4 ,ver4 #i seems to be a purely figurative way of expressing what is put without a metaphor in the two following verses4 ,ephraim's revolt from ,god's covenant was like the conduct of soldiers1 well armed and refusing to charge the foe4 ,the better their weapons1 the greater the cowardice and ignominy of the recreants4 ,so the faithlessness of ,ephraim was made darker in criminality by its knowledge of ,god and experience of ,his mercy4 ,these should have knit the tribe to ,him4 ,a general truth of wide application is implied--that the measure of capacity is the measure of obligation4 ,guilt increases with endowment1 if the latter is misused4 ,a poor soldier1 with no weapon but a sling or a stick1 might sooner be excused for flight than a fully armed archer4 ,the mention of ,ephraim as prominent in faithlessness may be an allusion to the separation of the kingdoms4 ,that allusion has been denied on the ground that it is the wilderness history which is here before the psalmist's mind4 ,but the historical retrospect does not begin till ver4 #ab1 and this introduction may well deal with an event later than those detailed in the following verses4 ,whether the revolt of the ,ten ,tribes is here in view or not1 the psalmist sees that the wayward and powerful tribe of ,ephraim had been a centre of religious disaffection1 and there is no reason why his view should not be believed1 or should be supposed to be due to mere prejudiced hostility4 ,the historical details begin with ver4 #ab1 but1 as has been noticed above1 the psalmist seems to change his intention of first narrating the wonders in ,egypt1 and passes on to dilate on the wilderness history4 ,the field of ,zoan is the territory of the famous ,egyptian city of ,tzan1 and seems equivalent to the ,land of ,goshen4 ,the wonders enumerated are the familiar ones of the passage of the ,red ,sea1 the guidance by the pillar of cloud and fire1 and the miraculous supply of water from the rock4 ,in vv4 #ae1 #af1 the poet brings together the two instances of such supply1 which were separated from each other by the forty years of wandering1 the first having occurred at ,horeb in the first year1 and the second at ,kadesh in the last year4 ,the two words rocks1 in ver4 #ae1 and cliff1 in ver4 #af1 are taken from the two narratives of these miracles1 in ,exod4 xvii4 and ,numb4 xx4 ,the group of four verses 7#ac-af7 sets forth ,god's mighty deeds2 the next quartet of verses 7#ag-bj7 tells of ,israel's requital4 ,it is significant of the thoughts which filled the singer's heart1 that he begins the latter group with declaring that1 notwithstanding such tokens of ,god's care1 the people went on to sin yet more1 though he had specified no previous acts of sin4 ,he combines widely separated instances of their murmurings1 as he had combined distant instances of ,god's miraculous supply of water4 ,the complaints which preceded the fall of the manna and the first supply of quails 7,exod4 xvi471 and those which led to the second giving of these 7,numb4 xi47 are thrown together1 as one in kind4 ,the speech put into the mouths of the murmurers in vv4 #ai1 #bj1 is a poetic casting into bitter1 blasphemous words of the half-conscious thoughts of the faithless1 sensuous crowd4 ,they are represented as almost upbraiding ,god with ,his miracle1 as quite unmoved to trust by it1 and as thinking that it has exhausted ,his power4 ,when they were half dead with thirst1 they thought much of the water1 but now they depreciate that past wonder as a comparatively small thing4 ,so1 to the churlish heart1 which cherishes eager desires after some unattained earthly good1 past blessings diminish as they recede1 and leave neither thankfulness nor trust4 ,there is a dash of intense bitterness and ironical making light of their relation to ,god in their question1 ,can ,he provide flesh for ,his people8 ,much good that name has done us1 starving here6 ,the root of all this blasphemous talk was sensuous desire2 and because the people yielded to it1 they tempted ,god--that is1 they unbelievingly and defiantly demanded1 instead of trustfully waiting and praying 7,delitzsch74 ,to ask food for their desires was sin2 to ask it for their need would have been faith4 ,in ver4 #ba the allusion is to the fire of the ,lord1 which1 according to ,numb4 xi4 #c1 burnt in the camp1 just before the second giving of quails4 ,it comes in here out of chronological order1 for the sending of manna follows it2 but the psalmist's didactic purpose renders him indifferent to chronology4 ,the manna is called corn of heaven and bread of the ,mighty ,ones--i4e41 angels1 as the ,,lxx4 renders the word4 ,both designations point to its heavenly origin1 without its being necessary to suppose that the poet thought of angels as really eating it4 ,the description of the fall of the quails 7vv4 #bf-bi7 is touched with imaginative beauty4 ,the word rendered above made to go forth is originally applied to the breaking up an encampment1 and that rendered guided to a shepherd's leading of his flock4 ,both words are found in the ,pentateuch1 the former in reference to the wind that brought the quails 7,numb4 xi4 #ca71 the latter in reference to that which brought the plague of locusts 7,exod4 x4 #ac74 ,so the winds are conceived of as ,god's servants1 issuing from their tents at ,his command1 and guided by ,him as a shepherd leads his sheep4 ,he let it fall in the midst of their camp graphically describes the dropping down of the wearied1 storm-beaten birds4 ,vv4 #cj-cc paint the swift punishment of the people's unbelief1 in language almost identical with ,numb4 xi4 #cc4 ,the psalmist twice stigmatises their sin as lust1 and uses the word which enters into the tragical name given to the scene of the sin and the punishment--,kibroth-,hat taavah 7the graves of ,lust74 ,in vv4 #cb1 #cc1 the faint-hearted despondency after the return of the spies1 and the punishment of it by the sentence of death on all that generation1 seem to be alluded to4 ,the next group of four verses describes the people's superficial and transient repentance1 ,when ,he slew them they sought ,him--i4e41 when the fiery serpents were sent among them4 ,but such seeking after ,god1 which is properly not seeking ,him at all1 but only seeking to escape from evil1 neither goes deep nor lasts long4 ,thus the end of it was only lip reverence1 proved to be false by life1 and soon ended4 ,their heart was not steadfast4 ,the pressure being removed1 they returned to their habitual position1 as all such penitents do4 ,from the midst of this sad narrative of faithlessness1 springs up1 like a fountain in a weary land1 or a flower among half-cooled lava blocks1 the lovely description of ,god's forbearance in vv4 #ch1 #ci4 ,it must not be read as if it merely carried on the narrative1 and was in continuation of the preceding clauses4 ,the psalmist does not say ,he was full of compassion1 though that would be much1 in the circumstances2 but he is declaring ,god's eternal character4 ,his compassions are unfailing4 ,it is always ,his wont to cover sin and to spare4 ,therefore ,he exercised these gracious forbearances towards those obstinate transgressors4 ,he was true to ,his own compassion in remembering their mortality and feebleness4 ,what a melancholy sound1 as of wind blowing among forgotten graves1 has that summing up of human life as a breath that goes and comes not again6 ,with ver4 #dj the second portion of the psalm may be regarded as beginning4 ,the first group of historical details dealt first with ,god's mercies1 and passed on to man's requital4 ,the second starts with man's ingratitude1 which it paints in the darkest colours1 as provoking ,him1 grieving ,him1 tempting ,him1 and vexing ,him4 ,the psalmist is not afraid to represent ,god as affected with such emotions by reason of men's indifference and unbelief4 ,his language is not to be waved aside as anthropomorphic and antiquated4 ,no doubt1 we come nearer to the unattainable truth1 when we conceive of ,god as grieved by men's sins and delighting in their trust1 than when we think of ,him as an impassive ,infinitude1 serenely indifferent to tortured or sinful hearts4 ,for is not ,his name of names ,love8 ,the psalmist traces ,israel's sin to forgetfulness of ,god's mercy1 and thus glides into a swift summing up of the plagues of ,egypt1 regarded as conducing to ,israel's deliverance4 ,they are not arranged chronologically1 though the list begins with the first4 ,then follow three of those in which animals were the destroyers3 namely1 the fourth1 that of flies2 the second1 that of frogs2 and the eighth1 that of locusts4 ,then comes the seventh1 that of hail2 and1 according to some commentators1 the fifth1 that of the murrain1 in ver4 #di1 followed by the tenth in ver4 #ea4 ,but the grand1 sombre imagery of ver4 #di is too majestic for such application4 ,it rather sums up the whole series of plagues1 likening them to an embassy 7lit41 a sending7 of angels of evil4 ,they are a grim company to come forth from ,his presence--,wrath1 ,indignation1 and ,trouble4 ,the same power which sent them out on their errand prepared a way before them2 and the crowning judgment1 which1 in the psalmist's view was also the crowning mercy1 was the death of the first-born4 ,the next quartet of verses 7vv4 #eb-ee7 passes lightly over the wilderness history and the settlement in the land1 and hastens on to a renewed narration of repeated rebellion1 which occupies the next group 7vv4 #ef-ei74 ,these verses cover the period from the entrance on ,canaan to the fall of the sanctuary of ,shiloh1 during which there was a continual tendency to relapse into idolatry4 ,that is the special sin here charged against the ,israel of the time of the ,judges4 ,the figure of a deceitful bow1 in ver4 #eg1 well describes the people as failing to fulfil the purpose of their choice by ,god4 ,as such a weapon does not shoot true1 and makes the arrow fly wide1 however well aimed and strongly drawn1 so ,israel foiled all ,divine attempts1 and failed to carry ,god's message to the world1 or to fulfil ,his will in themselves4 ,hence the next verses tell1 with intense energy and pathos1 the sad story of ,israel's humiliation under the ,philistines4 ,the language is extraordinarily strong in its description of ,god's loathing and rejection of the nation and sanctuary1 and is instinct with sorrow1 blended with stern recognition of ,his righteousness in judgment4 ,what a tragic picture the psalmist draws6 ,shiloh1 the dwelling-place of ,god1 empty for evermore2 the ,glory--that is1 the ,ark--in the enemy's hands2 everywhere stiffening corpses2 a pall of silence over the land2 no brides and no joyous bridal chaunts2 the very priests massacred1 unlamented by their widows1 who had wept so many tears already that the fountain of them was dried up1 and even sorrowing love was dumb with horror and despair6 ,the two last groups of verses paint ,god's great mercy in delivering the nation from such misery4 ,the daring figure of ,his awaking as from sleep and dashing upon ,israel's foes1 who are also ,his1 with a shout like that of a hero stimulated by wine1 is more accordant with ,eastern fervour than with our colder imagination2 but it wonderfully expresses the sudden transition from a period1 during which ,god seemed passive and careless of ,his people's wretchedness1 to one in which ,his power flashed forth triumphant for their defence4 ,the prose fact is the long series of victories over the ,philistines and other oppressors1 which culminated in the restoration of the ,ark1 the selection of ,zion as its abode1 which involved the rejection of ,shiloh and consequently of ,ephraim 7in whose territory ,shiloh was71 and the accession of ,david4 ,the ,davidic kingdom is1 in the psalmist's view1 the final form of ,israel's national existence2 and the sanctuary1 like the kingdom1 is perpetual as the lofty heavens or the firm earth4 ,nor were his visions vain1 for that kingdom subsists and will subsist for ever1 and the true sanctuary1 the dwelling-place of ,god among men1 is still more closely intertwined with the kingdom and its ,king than the psalmist knew4 ,the perpetual duration of both is1 in truth1 the greatest of ,god's mercies1 outshining all earlier deliverances2 and they who truly have become the subjects of the ,christ1 the ,king of ,israel and of the world1 and who dwell with ,god in ,his house1 by dwelling with ,jesus1 will not rebel against ,him any more1 nor ever forget ,his wonders1 but faithfully tell them to the generations to come4 ,,psalm ,,lxxix4 #a ,o ,god1 the heathen have come into ,thine inheritance1 ,they have profaned ,thy holy ,temple1 ,they have made ,jerusalem heaps of stones4 #b ,they have given the corpses of ,thy servants as meat to the fowls of the heavens1 ,the flesh of ,thy favoured ,ones to the beasts of the earth4 #c ,they have poured out their blood like water round ,jerusalem1 ,and there was none to bury them4 #d ,we have become a reproach to our neighbours1 ,a scoff and a scorn to those round us4 #e ,how long1 ,jehovah1 wilt ,thou be angry for ever8 ,how long shall ,thy jealousy burn like fire8 #f ,pour out ,thy wrath upon the heathen who know ,thee not1 ,and upon the kingdoms which call not upon ,thy name4 #g ,for they have eaten up ,jacob1 ,and his pasture have they laid waste4 #h ,remember not against us the iniquities of those before us1 ,speedily let ,thy compassions come to meet us1 ,for we are brought very low4 #i ,help us1 ,o ,god1 for the sake of the glory of ,thy name1 ,and deliver us1 and cover over our sins for the sake of ,thy name4 #aj ,why should the heathen say1 ,where is their ,god8 ,let there be known among the heathen before our eyes ,the revenging of the blood of ,thy servants which is poured out4 #aa ,let there come before ,thee the groaning of the captive1 ,according to the greatness of ,thine arm preserve the sons of death4 #ab ,and return to our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom ,their reproach with which they have reproached ,thee1 ,o ,lord4 #ac ,and we1 we the people and the flock of ,thy pasture1 ,will thank ,thee for ever2 ,to generation after generation will we recount ,thy praise4 ,the same national agony which was the theme of ,psalm lxxiv4 forced the sad strains of this psalm from the singer's heart4 ,there1 the profanation of the ,temple1 and here1 the destruction of the city1 are the more prominent4 ,there1 the dishonour to ,god2 here1 the distresses of ,his people1 are set forth4 ,consequently1 confession of sin is more appropriate here1 and prayers for pardon blend with those for deliverance4 ,but the tone of both psalms is the same1 and there are similarities of expression which favour1 though they do not demand1 the hypothesis that the author is the same4 ,such similarities are the how long 7lxxiv4 #aj and lxxix4 #e72 the desecration of the ,temple 7lxxiv4 #c1 #g1 and lxxix4 #a72 the giving over to wild beasts 7lxxiv4 #ai1 and lxxix4 #b72 the reproach of ,god 7lxxiv4 #aj1 #ah1 #bb1 and lxxix4 #ab74 ,the comparison of ,israel to a flock is found in both psalms1 but in others of the ,asaph group also4 ,the same remarks which were made as to the date of the former psalm apply in this case4 ,two arguments have1 however1 been urged against the ,maccabean date4 ,the first is that drawn from the occurrence of vv4 #f1 #g1 in ,jer4 x4 #be4 ,it is contended that ,jeremiah is in the habit of borrowing from earlier writers1 that the verse immediately preceding that in question is quoted from ,psalm vi4 #a1 and that the connection of the passage in the psalm is closer than in the prophet1 and1 therefore1 that the words are presumably in situ here1 as also that the verbal alterations are such as to suggest that the prophet rather than the psalmist is the adapter4 ,but1 on the other hand1 ,hupfeld maintains that the connection in ,jeremiah is the closer4 ,not much weight can be attached to that point1 for neither prophet nor poet can be tied down to cool concatenation of sentences4 ,delitzsch claims the verbal alterations as indubitable proofs of the priority of the prophet1 and maintains that the borrower betrays himself by changing the prophet's words into less accurate and elegant ones1 and by omissions which impair the soaring fulness of ,jeremiah's expressions4 ,the critics who hold that the psalm refers to the ,chaldean invasion1 and that ,jeremiah has borrowed from it1 have to face a formidable difficulty4 ,the psalm must have been written after the catastrophe3 the prophecy preceded it4 ,how then can the prophet be quoting the psalm8 ,the question has not been satisfactorily answered1 nor is it likely to be4 ,a second argument against the ,maccabean date is based upon the quotation of ver4 #c in #a ,macc4 vii4 #af1 which it introduces by the usual formula of quotation from ,scripture4 ,it is urged that a composition so recent as the psalm would be1 if of ,maccabean date1 would not be likely to be thus referred to4 ,but this argument confuses the date of occurrence recorded in #a ,maccabees with the date of the record2 and there is no improbability in the writer of the book quoting as ,scripture a psalm which had sprung from the midst of the tragedy which he narrates4 ,the strophical division is not perfectly clear1 but it is probably best to recognise three strophes of four verses each1 with an appended verse of conclusion4 ,the first spreads before ,god ,his peoples miseries4 ,the second and third are prayer for deliverance and confession of sin2 but they differ1 in that the former strophe dwells mainly upon the wished-for destruction of the enemy1 and the latter upon the rescue of ,israel1 while a subordinate diversity is that ancestral sins are confessed in the one1 and those of the present generation in the other4 ,ver4 #ac stands out of the strophe scheme as a kind of epilogue4 ,the first strophe vividly describes the ghastly sights that wrung the psalmist's heart1 and will1 as he trusts1 move ,god's to pity and help4 ,the same thought as was expressed in ,psalm lxxiv4 underlies the emphatic repetition of ,thy in this strophe--namely1 the implication of ,god's fair name in ,his people's disasters4 ,thine inheritance is invaded1 and ,thy holy ,temple defiled by thee heathen4 ,the corpses of ,thy servants lie unburied1 torn by vultures' beaks and jackals' claws4 ,the blood of ,thy favoured ,ones saturates the ground4 ,it was not easy to hold fast by the reality of ,god's special relation to a nation thus apparently deserted1 but the psalmist's faith stood even such a strain1 and is not dashed by a trace of doubt4 ,such times are the test and triumph of trust4 ,if genuine1 it will show brightest against the blackest background4 ,the word in ver4 #a rendered heathen is usually translated nations1 but here evidently connotes idolatry 7ver4 #f74 ,their worship of strange gods1 rather than their alien nationality1 makes their invasion of ,god's inheritance a tragic anomaly4 ,the psalmist remembers the prophecy of ,micah 7iii4 #ab7 that ,jerusalem should become heaps1 and sadly repeats it as fulfilled at last4 ,as already noticed1 ver4 #c is quoted in #a ,macc4 vii4 #af1 #ag1 and ver4 #d is found in ,psalm xliv4 #ac1 which is by many commentators referred to the ,maccabean period4 ,the second strophe passes to direct petition1 which1 as it were1 gives voice to the stiffened corpses strewing the streets1 and the righteous blood crying from the ground4 ,the psalmist goes straight to the cause of calamity--the anger of ,god--and1 in the close of the strophe1 confesses the sins which had kindled it4 ,beneath the play of politics and the madness of ,antiochus1 he discerned ,god's hand at work4 ,he reiterates the fundamental lesson1 which prophets were never weary of teaching1 that national disasters are caused by the anger of ,god1 which is excited by national sins4 ,that conviction is the first element in his petitions4 ,a second is the twin conviction that the heathen are used by ,god as ,his instrument of chastisement1 but that1 when they have done their work1 they are called to account for the human passion--cruelty1 lust of conquest1 and the like--which impelled them to it4 ,even as they poured out the blood of ,god's people1 they have ,god's wrath poured out on them1 because they have eaten up ,jacob4 ,the same double point of view is frequently taken by the prophets3 for example1 in ,isaiah's magnificent prophecy against the ,assyrian 7x4 #e seq471 where the conqueror is first addressed as the rod of ,mine anger1 and then his punishment is foretold1 because1 while executing ,god's purpose1 he had been unconscious of his mission1 and had been gratifying his ambition4 ,these two convictions go very deep into the philosophy of history4 ,though modified in their application to modern states and politics1 they are true in substance still4 ,the ,goths who swept down on ,rome1 the ,arabs who crushed a corrupt ,christianity1 the ,french who stormed across ,europe1 were ,god's scavengers1 gathered vulture-like round carrion1 but they were each responsible for their cruelty1 and were punished for the fruit of their stout hearts4 ,the closing verse of the strophe 7ver4 #h7 is intimately connected with the next1 which we take as beginning the third strophe3 but this connection does not set aside the strophical division1 though it somewhat obscures it4 ,the distinction between the similar petitions of vv4 #h1 #i1 is sufficient to warrant our recognition of that division1 even whilst acknowledging that the two parts coalesce more closely than usual4 ,the psalmist knows that the heathen have been hurled against ,israel because ,god is angry2 and he knows that ,god's anger is no arbitrarily kindled flame1 but one lit and fed by ,israel's sins4 ,he knows1 too1 that there is a fatal entail by which the iniquities of the fathers are visited on the children4 ,therefore1 he asks first that these ancestral sins may not be remembered1 nor their consequences discharged on the children's heads4 ,the evil that men do lives after them1 and history affords abundant instances of the accumulated consequences of ancestors' crimes lighting on descendants that had abandoned the ancient evil1 and were possibly doing their best to redress it4 ,guilt is not transmitted1 but results of wrong are2 and it is one of the tragedies of history that one soweth and another reapeth the bitter fruit4 ,upon one generation may1 and often does1 come the blood of all the righteous men that many generations have slain 7,matt4 xxiii4 #ce74 ,the last strophe 7vv4 #i-ab7 continues the strain begun in ver4 #h1 but with significant deepening into confession of the sins of the existing generation4 ,the psalmist knows that the present disaster is no case of the fathers having eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth being set on edge1 but that he and his contemporaries had repeated the fathers transgressions4 ,the ground of his plea for cleansing and deliverance is the glory of ,god's name1 which he emphatically puts at the end of both clauses of ver4 #i4 ,he repeats the same thought in another form in the question of ver4 #aj1 ,why should the heathen say1 ,where is their ,god8 ,if ,israel1 sinful though it is1 and therefore meriting chastisement1 is destroyed1 there will be a blot on ,god's name1 and the heathen will take it as proof1 not that ,israel's ,god was just1 but that ,he was too feeble or too far off to hear prayers or to send succours4 ,it is bold faith which blends acknowledgment of sins with such a conviction of the inextricable intertwining of ,god's glory and the sinners' deliverance4 ,lowly confession is wonderfully wedded to confidence that seems almost too lofty4 ,but the confidence is in its inmost core as lowly as the confession1 for it disclaims all right to ,god's help1 and clasps ,his name as its only but sufficient plea4 ,the final strophe dwells more on the sufferings of the survivors than the earlier parts of the psalm do1 and in this respect contrasts with ,psalm lxxiv41 which is all but entirely silent as to these4 ,not only does the spilt blood of dead confessors cry for vengeance1 since they died for their faith1 as ,thy servants1 but the groans and sighs of the living who are captives1 and sons of death--i4e41 doomed to die1 if unrescued by ,god--appeal to ,him4 ,the expressions the groaning of the captive and the sons of death occur in ,psalm cii4 #bj1 from which1 if this is a composition of ,maccabean date1 they are here quoted4 ,the strophe ends with recurring to the central thought of both this and the companion psalm--the reproach on ,god from ,his servants' calamities--and prays that the enemies' taunts may be paid back into their bosoms sevenfold--i4e41 in fullest measure4 ,the epilogue in ver4 #ac has the image of a flock1 so frequent in the ,asaph psalms1 suggesting tender thoughts of the shepherd's care and of his obligations4 ,deliverance will evoke praise1 and1 instead of the sad succession of sin and suffering from generation to generation1 the solidarity of the nation will be more happily expressed by ringing songs1 transmitted from father to son1 and gathering volume as they flow from age to age4 ,,psalm ,,lxxx4 #a ,shepherd of ,israel1 give ear1 ,thou who leddest ,joseph like a flock1 ,thou that sittest throned upon the cherubim1 shine forth4 #b ,before ,ephraim and ,benjamin and ,manasseh stir up ,thy strength1 ,and come for salvation for us4 #c ,o ,god1 restore us1 ,and cause ,thy face to shine1 and we shall be saved4 #d ,jehovah1 ,god of ,hosts1 ,how long wilt ,thou be angry against the prayer of ,thy people8 #e ,thou hast made them eat tears as bread1 ,and hast given them to drink of tears in large measure4 #f ,thou makest us a strife to our neighbours1 ,and our enemies mock to their hearts' content4 #g ,god of ,hosts1 restore us1 ,and cause ,thy face to shine1 and we shall be saved4 #h ,a vine out of ,egypt didst ,thou transplant1 ,thou didst drive out the nations and plant it4 #i ,thou didst clear a place before it1 ,and it threw out its roots and filled the land4 #aj ,the mountains were covered with its shadow1 ,and its branches were like the cedars of ,god4 #aa ,it spread its boughs even unto the sea1 ,and to the ,river its shoots4 #ab ,why hast ,thou broken down its fences1 ,so that all who pass on the way pluck from it8 #ac ,the boar of the wood roots it up ,and the beasts of the field feed on it4 #ad ,god of ,hosts1 turn1 we beseech ,thee1 ,look from heaven and see1 ,and visit this vine4 #ae ,and protect what ,thy right hand has planted1 ,and the son whom ,thou madest strong for ,thyself4 #af ,burned with fire is it--cut down2 ,at the rebuke of ,thy countenance they perish4 #ag ,let ,thy hand be upon the man of ,thy right hand1 ,upon the son of man whom ,thou madest strong for ,thyself4 #ah ,and we will not go back from ,thee2 ,revive us1 and we will invoke ,thy name4 #ai ,jehovah1 ,god of ,hosts1 restore us1 ,and cause ,thy face to shine1 and we shall be saved4 ,this psalm is a monument of some time of great national calamity2 but its allusions do not enable us to reach certainty as to what that calamity was4 ,two striking features of it have been used as clues to its occasion--namely1 the designation of the nation as ,joseph1 and the mention of the three tribes in ver4 #b4 ,calvin1 ,delitzsch1 ,hengstenberg1 and others are led thereby to regard it as a prayer by an inhabitant of ,judah for the captive children of the northern kingdom2 while others1 as ,cheyne1 consider that only the ,persian period explains the usage in question4 ,the name of ,joseph is applied to the whole nation in other ,asaph psalms 7lxxvii4 #ae2 lxxxi4 #e74 ,it is tempting to suppose1 with ,hupfeld1 that this nomenclature indicates that the ancient antagonism of the kingdoms has passed away with the captivity of the ,ten ,tribes1 and that the psalmist1 a singer in ,judah1 looks wistfully to the ideal unity1 yearns to see breaches healed1 and the old associations of happier days1 when ,ephraim and ,benjamin and ,manasseh encamped side by side in the desert1 and marched one after the other1 renewed in a restored ,israel4 ,if this explanation of the mention of the tribes is adopted1 the psalm falls in some period after the destruction of the northern kingdom1 but prior to that of ,judah4 ,the prayer in the refrain turn us might1 indeed1 mean bring us back from exile1 but may as accurately be regarded as asking for restored prosperity--an explanation which accords better with the rest of the psalm4 ,we take the whole1 then1 as a prayer for the nation1 conceived of in its original1 long-broken unity4 ,it looks back to the ,divine purpose as expressed in ancient deeds of deliverance1 and prays that it may be fulfilled1 notwithstanding apparent thwarting4 ,closer definition of date is unattainable4 ,the triple refrain in vv4 #c1 #g1 #ai1 divides the psalm into three unequal parts4 ,the last of these is disproportionately long1 and may be further broken up into three parts1 of which the first 7vv4 #h-aa7 describes the luxuriant growth of ,israel under the parable of a vine1 the second 7vv4 #ab-ad7 brings to view the bitter contrast of present ruin1 and1 with an imperfect echo of the refrain1 melts into the petitioning tone of the third 7vv4 #ae-ai71 which is all prayer4 ,in the first strophe ,shepherd of ,israel reminds us of ,jacob's blessing of ,ephraim and ,manasseh1 in which he invoked the ,god who shepherded me all my life long to bless the lads1 and of the title in ,gen4 xlix4 #bd1 the shepherd1 the stone of ,israel4 ,the comparison of the nation to a flock is characteristic of the ,asaph psalms1 and here refers to the guidance of the people at the ,exodus4 ,delitzsch regards the notions of the earthly and heavenly sanctuary as being blended in the designation of ,god as sitting throned on the cherubim1 but it is better to take the reference as being to ,his dwelling in the ,temple4 ,the word rendered shine forth occurs in ,psalm l4 #b1 where it expresses ,his coming from ,zion1 and so it does here4 ,the same metaphor underlies the subsequent petition in ver4 #c4 ,in both ,god is thought of as light1 and the manifestation of ,his delivering help is likened to the blazing out of the sun from behind a cloud4 ,in reference to the mention of the tribes in ver4 #b1 we need only add to what has been already said1 that the petitions of ver4 #a1 which look back to the wilderness marches1 when the ,ark led the van1 naturally suggested the mention of the three tribes who were together reckoned as the camp of ,ephraim1 and who1 in the removal of the encampment1 set forth third--that is1 immediately in the rear of the tabernacle4 ,the order of march explains not only the collocation here1 but the use of the word ,before4 ,joseph and ,benjamin were children of the same mother1 and the schism which parted their descendants is1 to the psalmist's faith1 as transient as unnatural4 ,once again shall the old unity be seen1 when the brothers' sons shall again dwell and fight side by side1 and ,god shall again go forth before them for victory4 ,the prayer of the refrain1 turn us1 is not to be taken as for restoration from exile1 which is negatived by the whole tone of the psalm1 nor as for spiritual quickening1 but simply asks for the return of the glories of ancient days4 ,the petition that ,god would let ,his face shine upon the nation alludes to the priestly benediction 7,numb4 vi4 #be71 thus again carrying us back to the wilderness4 ,such a flashing forth is all that is needed to change blackest night into day4 ,to be saved means here to be rescued from the assaults of hostile nations4 ,the poet was sure that ,israel's sole defence was ,god1 and that one gleam of ,his face would shrivel up the strongest foes1 like unclean1 slimy creatures which writhe and die in sunshine4 ,the same conviction is valid in a higher sphere4 ,whatever elevation of meaning is given to saved1 the condition of it is always this--the manifestation of ,god's face4 ,that brings light into all dark hearts4 ,to behold that light1 and to walk in it1 and to be transformed by beholding1 as they are who lovingly and steadfastly gaze1 is salvation4 ,a piteous tale of suffering is wailed forth in the second strophe4 ,the peculiar accumulation of the ,divine names in vv4 #d1 #ai1 is found also in ,psalms lix4 #e and lxxxiv4 #h4 ,it is grammatically anomalous1 as the word for ,god 7,elohim7 does not undergo the modification which would show that the next word is to be connected with it by of4 ,hence1 some have regarded ,ts'bhaoth 7hosts7 as being almost equivalent to a proper name of ,god1 which it afterwards undoubtedly became2 while others have explained the construction by supposing the phrase to be elliptical1 requiring after ,god the supplement ,god of4 ,this accumulation of ,divine names is by some taken as a sign of late date4 ,is it not a mark of the psalmist's intensity rather than of his period8 ,in accordance with the ,elohistic character of the ,asaph psalms1 the common expression ,jehovah of ,hosts is expanded2 but the hypothesis that the expansion was the work of a redactor is unnecessary4 ,it may quite as well have been that of the author4 ,the urgent question ,how long8 is not petulant impatience1 but hope deferred1 and1 though sick at heart1 still cleaving to ,god and remonstrating for long-protracted calamities4 ,the bold imagery of ver4 #d b cannot well be reproduced in translation4 ,the rendering wilt ,thou be angry8 is but a feeble reproduction of the vigorous original1 which runs wilt ,thou smoke8 ,other psalms 7e4g41 lxxiv4 #a7 speak of ,god's anger as smoking1 but here the figure is applied to ,god ,himself4 ,what a contrast it presents to the petition in the refrain6 ,that light of ,israel has become as a flaming fire4 ,a terrible possibility of darkening and consuming wrath lies in the ,divine nature1 and the very emblem of light suggests it4 ,it is questionable whether the following words should be rendered against the prayer of ,thy people1 or while ,thy people are praying 7,delitzsch74 ,the former meaning is in accordance with the ,hebrew1 with other ,scripture passages1 and with the tone of the psalm1 and is to be preferred1 as more forcibly putting the anomaly of an unanswering ,god4 ,ver4 #e presents the national sorrows under familiar figures4 ,the people's food and drink were tears4 ,the words of a may either be rendered bread of tears--i4e41 eaten with1 or rather consisting of1 tears2 or1 as above1 tears as bread4 ,the word rendered in large measure means the third part--of some larger measure4 ,it is found only in ,isa4 xl4 #ab4 ,the third part of an ephah is a puny measure for the dust of the earth1 but it is a large measure for tears 7,delitzsch1 in loc474 ,ver4 #f adds one more touch to the picture--gleeful neighbours cynically rejoicing to their hearts' content 7lit41 for themselves7 over ,israel's calamities4 ,thus1 in three verses1 the psalmist points to an angry ,god1 a weeping nation1 and mocking foes1 a trilogy of woe4 ,on all he bases an urgent repetition of the refrain1 which is made more imploring by the expanded name under which ,god is invoked to help4 ,instead of the simple ,god1 as in ver4 #c1 he now says ,god of ,hosts4 ,as sense of need increases1 a true suppliant goes deeper into ,god's revealed character4 ,from ver4 #h onwards the parable of the vine as representing ,israel fills the singer's mind4 ,as has been already noticed1 this part of the psalm may be regarded as one long strophe1 the parts of which follow in orderly sequence1 and are held closely together1 as shown by the recurrence of the refrain at the close only4 ,three stages are discernible in it--a picture of what has been1 the contrast of what is now1 and a prayer for speedy help4 ,the emblem of the vine1 which has received so great development in the prophets1 and has been hallowed for ever by our ,lord's use of it1 seems to have been suggested to the psalmist by the history of ,joseph1 to which he has already alluded4 ,for1 in ,jacob's blessing 7,gen4 xlix4 #bb seqq471 ,joseph is likened to a fruitful bough4 ,other ,old ,testament writers have drawn out the manifold felicities of the emblem as applied to ,israel4 ,but these need not concern us here1 where the point is rather ,god's husbandry and the vine's growth1 both of which are in startling contrast with a doleful present4 ,the figure is carried out with much beauty in detail4 ,the ,exodus was the vine's transplanting2 the destruction of the ,canaanites was the grubbing up of weeds to clear the ground for it2 the numerical increase of the people was its making roots and spreading far4 ,in ver4 #aj b the rendering may be either that adopted above1 or ,and the cedars of ,god were covered with its branches4 ,the latter preserves the parallelism of clauses and the unity of representation in vv4 #aj1 #aa1 which will then deal throughout with the spreading growth of the vine4 ,but the cedars would not have been called of ,god1--which implies their great size1--unless their dimensions had been in point1 which would not be the case if they were only thought of as espaliers for the vine4 ,and the image of its running over the great trees of ,lebanon is unnatural4 ,the rendering as above is to be preferred1 even though it somewhat mars the unity of the picture4 ,the extent of ground covered by the vine is described1 in ver4 #aa1 as stretching from the ,mediterranean to the ,euphrates 7,deut4 xi4 #bd2 #a ,kings iv4 #bd74 ,such had been the glories of the past2 and they had all been the work of ,god's hand4 ,in ver4 #ab the miserable contrast of present desolation is spread before ,god1 with the bold and yet submissive question ,why8 ,the vineyard wall is thrown down1 and the vine lies exposed to every vagrant passenger1 and to every destructive creature4 ,swine from the woods burrow at its roots1 and whatever moves on the plain 7,psalm l4 #aa1 the only other place where the expression occurs7 feeds on it4 ,the parallelism forbids the supposition that any particular enemy is meant by the wild boar4 ,hupfeld would transpose ver4 #af so as to stand after ver4 #ac1 which he thinks improves the connection1 and brings the last part of the psalm into symmetrical form1 in three equal parts1 containing four verses each4 ,cheyne would put vv4 #ad1 #ae1 before vv4 #ab1 #ac1 and thereby secures more coherence and sequence4 ,but accuracy in these matters is not to be looked for in such highly emotional poetry1 and perhaps a sympathetic ear may catch in the broken words a truer ring than in the more orderly arrangement of them by critics4 ,ver4 #ad sounds like an imperfect echo of the refrain significantly modified1 so as to beseech that ,god would turn ,himself1 even as ,he had been implored to turn his people4 ,the purpose of ,his turning is that ,he may look and see the condition of the desolated vineyard1 and thence be moved to interfere for its restoration4 ,the verse may be regarded as closing one of the imperfectly developed strophes of this last part2 but it belongs in substance to the following petitions1 though in form it is more closely connected with the preceding verses4 ,the picture of ,israel's misery passes insensibly into prayer1 and the burden of that prayer is1 first1 that ,god would behold the sad facts1 as the preliminary to ,his acting in view of them4 ,the last part 7vv4 #ae-ai7 is prayer for ,god's help1 into which forces itself one verse 7#af71 recurring to the miseries of the nation4 ,it bursts in like an outcrop of lava1 revealing underground disturbance and fires4 ,surely that interruption is more pathetic and natural than is the result obtained by the suggested transpositions4 ,the meaning of the word in ver4 #ae rendered above protect is doubtful1 and many commentators would translate it as a noun1 and regard it as meaning plant1 or1 as the ,a4,v41 vineyard4 ,the verse would then depend on the preceding verb in ver4 #ad1 visit4 ,but this construction is opposed by the copula 7and7 preceding1 and it is best to render protect1 with a slight change in the vocalisation4 ,there may be an allusion to ,jacob's blessing in ver4 #ae b1 for in it 7,gen4 xlix4 #bb7 ,joseph is called a fruitful bough--lit41 son4 ,if so1 the figure of the vine is retained in ver4 #ae b as well as in a4 ,the apparent interruption of the petitions by ver4 #af is accounted for by the sharp pang that shot into the psalmist's heart1 when he recalled1 in his immediately preceding words1 the past ,divine acts1 which seemed so contradicted now4 ,but the bitterness1 though it surges up1 is overcome1 and his petitions return to their former strain in ver4 #ag1 which pathetically takes up1 as it were1 the broken thread1 by repeating right hand from ver4 #ae a1 and whom ,thou madest strong for ,thyself from ver4 #ae b4 ,israel1 not an individual1 is the man of ,thy right hand1 in which designation1 coupled with son1 there may be an allusion to the name of ,benjamin 7ver4 #b71 the son of the right hand4 ,human weakness and ,divine strength clothing it are indicated in that designation for ,israel the son of man whom ,thou madest strong for ,thyself4 ,the inmost purpose of ,god's gifts is that their recipients may be the secretaries of ,his praise4 ,israel's sacred calling1 its own weakness1 and the strength of the ,god who endows it are all set forth1 not now as lessons to it1 but as pleas with ,him1 whose gifts are without repentance1 and whose purposes cannot be foiled by man's unworthiness or opposition4 ,the psalm closes with a vow of grateful adhesion to ,god as the result of ,his renewed mercy4 ,they who have learned how bitter a thing it is to turn away from ,god1 and how blessed when ,he turns again to them1 and turns back their miseries and their sins1 have good reason for not again departing from ,him4 ,but if they are wise to remember their own weakness1 they will not only humbly vow future faithfulness1 but earnestly implore continual help2 since only the constant communication of a ,divine quickening will open their lips to call upon ,god's name4 ,the refrain in its most expanded form closes the psalm4 ,growing intensity of desire and of realisation of the pleas and pledges hived in the name are expressed by its successive forms1--,god2 ,god of ,hosts2 ,jehovah1 ,god of ,hosts4 ,the faith that grasps all that is contained in that full-toned name already feels the light of ,god's face shining upon it1 and is sure that its prayer for salvation is not in vain4 ,,psalm ,,lxxxi4 #a ,shout for joy to ,god our strength1 ,shout aloud to the ,god of ,jacob4 #b ,lift up the song1 and sound the timbrel1 ,the pleasant lyre with the harp4 #c ,blow the trumpet on the new moon1 ,on the full moon1 for the day of our feast4 #d ,for this is a statute for ,israel1 ,an ordinance of the ,god of ,jacob4 #e ,for a testimony in ,joseph ,he appointed it1 ,when ,he went forth over the land of ,egypt4 --,a language which ,i know not ,i hear4 #f ,i removed his shoulder from the burden1 ,his hands were freed from the basket4 #g ,in straits thou didst call and ,i delivered thee1 ,i answered thee in the secret place of thunder1 ,i proved thee at the waters of ,meribah4 ,selah4 #h ,hear1 ,my people1 and ,i will witness to thee2 ,o ,israel1 would that thou wouldest hearken to ,me6 #i ,there shall be no strange god in thee1 ,and thou shalt not bow down to an alien god4 #aj ,i1 ,i am ,jehovah thy ,god1 ,who brought thee up from the land of ,egypt4 ,open wide thy mouth1 and ,i will fill it4 #aa ,but ,my people hearkened not to ,my voice1 ,and ,israel did not yield to ,me4 #ab ,then ,i let them go in the stubbornness of their heart1 ,that they might walk in their own counsels4 #ac ,would that ,my people would hearken to ,me1 ,that ,israel would walk in ,my ways6 #ad ,easily would ,i humble their enemies1 ,and against their adversaries turn ,my hand4 #ae ,the haters of ,jehovah would come feigning to ,him1 ,but their time should endure for ever4 #af ,and ,he would feed thee with the fat of wheat1 ,and with honey from the rock would ,i satisfy thee4 ,the psalmist summons priests and people to a solemn festival1 commemorative of ,israel's deliverance from ,egypt1 and sets forth the lessons which that deliverance teaches1 the learning of which is the true way of keeping the feast4 ,there has been much discussion as to which feast is in the psalmist's mind4 ,that of ,tabernacles has been widely accepted as intended1 chiefly on the ground that the first day of the month in which it occurred was celebrated by the blowing of trumpets1 as the beginning of the civil year4 ,this practice is supposed to account for the language of ver4 #c1 which seems to imply trumpet-blowing both at new and full moon4 ,but1 on other grounds1 the ,passover is more likely to be intended1 as the psalm deals with the manifestations of ,divine power attending the beginning of the ,exodus1 which followed the first ,passover1 as well as with those during the desert sojourn1 which alone were commemorated by the feast of ,tabernacles4 ,true1 we have no independent knowledge of any trumpet-blowing on the first day of the ,passover month 7,nisan72 but ,delitzsch and others suggest that from this psalm it may be inferred that the commencement of each month1 and more especially the commencement of the month 7,nisan71 which was at the same time the commencement of the ecclesiastical year1 was signalised by the blowing of horns4 ,on the whole1 the ,passover is most probably the feast in question4 ,olshausen1 followed by ,cheyne1 regards the psalm as made up of two fragments 7vv4 #a-e a1 and #e c-#af74 ,but surely the exhortations and promises of the latter portion are most relevant to the summons to the festival contained in the former part1 and there could be no more natural way of preparing for the right commemoration of the deliverance than to draw out its lessons of obedience and to warn against departure from the delivering ,god4 ,definiteness as to date is unattainable4 ,the presupposed existence of the full ,temple ceremonial shows that the psalm was not written in exile1 nor at a time of religious persecution4 ,its warning against idolatry would be needless in a post-exilic psalm1 as no tendency thereto existed after the return from captivity4 ,but beyond such general indications we cannot go4 ,the theory that the psalm is composed of two fragments exaggerates the difference between the two parts into which it falls4 ,these are the summons to the feast 7vv4 #a-e71 and the lessons of the feast 7vv4 #f-af74 ,delitzsch suggests that the summons in ver4 #a is addressed to the whole congregation2 that in ver4 #b to the ,levites1 the appointed singers and musicians2 and that in ver4 #c to the priests who are intrusted with blowing the ,shophar1 or horn 7,josh4 vi4 #d1 and #b ,chron4 xx4 #bh74 ,one can almost hear the tumult of joyful sounds1 in which the roar of the multitude1 the high-pitched notes of singers1 the deeper clash of timbrels1 the twanging of stringed instruments1 and the hoarse blare of rams' horns1 mingle in concordant discord1 grateful to ,eastern ears1 however unmusical to ours4 ,the religion of ,israel allowed and required exuberant joy4 ,it sternly rejected painting and sculpture1 but abundantly employed music1 the most ethereal of the arts1 which stirs emotions and longings too delicate and deep for speech4 ,whatever differences in form have necessarily attended the progress from the worship of the ,temple to that of the ,church1 the free play of joyful emotion should mark the latter even more than the former4 ,decorum is good1 but not if purchased by the loss of ringing gladness4 ,the psalmist's summons has a meaning still4 ,the reason for it is given in vv4 #d1 #e a4 ,it--i4e41 the feast 7not the musical accompaniments7--is appointed by ,god4 ,the psalmist employs designations for it1 which are usually applied to the word of the ,lord2 statute1 ordinance1 testimony1 being all found in ,psalms xix41 cxix41 with that meaning4 ,a triple designation of the people corresponds with these triple names for the feast4 ,israel1 ,jacob1 and ,joseph are synonyms1 the use of the last of these having probably the same force here as in the preceding psalm--namely1 to express the singer's longing for the restoration of the shattered unity of the nation4 ,the summons to the feast is based1 not only on ,divine appointment1 but also on ,divine purpose in that appointment4 ,it was a testimony1 a rite commemorative of a historical fact1 and therefore an evidence of it to future times4 ,there is no better proof of such a fact than a celebration of it1 which originates contemporaneously and continues through generations4 ,the feast in question was thus simultaneous with the event commemorated1 as ver4 #e b tells4 ,it was ,god1 not ,israel1 as is often erroneously supposed1 who went forth4 ,for the following preposition is not from1 which might refer to the national departure1 but over or against1 which cannot have such a reference1 since ,israel did not1 in any sense1 go over or against the land4 ,god's triumphant forth-putting of power over the whole land1 especially in the death of the first-born1 on the night of the ,passover1 is meant to be remembered for ever1 and is at once the fact commemorated by the feast1 and a reason for obeying ,his appointment of it4 ,so far the thoughts and language are limpid1 but ver4 #e c interrupts their clear flow4 ,who is the speaker thus suddenly introduced8 ,what is the language 7lit41 lip7 which he knew not8 ,the explanation implied by the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v41 that the collective ,israel speaks1 and that the reference is1 as in ,psalm cxiv4 #a1 to the strange language of the ,egyptians1 is given by most of the older authorities1 and by ,ewald and ,hengstenberg1 but has against it the necessity for the supplement where1 and the difficulty of referring the ,i to the nation4 ,the more usual explanation in modern times is that the speaker is the psalmist1 and that the language which he hears is the voice of ,god1 the substance of which follows in the remainder of the psalm4 ,as in ,job iv4 #af ,eliphaz could not discern the appearance of the mysterious form that stood before his eyes1 and thus its supernatural character is suggested1 so the psalmist hears an utterance of a hitherto unknown kind1 which he thus implies to have been ,divine4 ,god ,himself speaks1 to impress the lessons of the past1 and to excite the thoughts and feelings which would rightly celebrate the feast4 ,the glad noises of song1 harp1 and trumpet are hushed2 the psalmist is silent1 to hear that dread ,voice1 and then with lowly lips he repeats so much of the majestic syllables as he could translate into words which it was possible for a man to utter4 ,the inner coherence of the two parts of the psalm is1 on this explanation1 so obvious1 that there is no need nor room for the hypothesis of two fragments having been fused into one4 ,the ,divine ,voice begins with recapitulating the facts which the feast was intended to commemorate--namely1 the act of emancipation from ,egyptian bondage 7ver4 #f71 and the miracles of the wilderness sojourn 7ver4 #g74 ,the compulsory labour1 from which ,god delivered the people1 is described by two terms1 of which the former 7burden7 is borrowed from ,exodus1 where it frequently occurs 7,exod4 i4 #aa1 v4 #d1 vi4 #f71 and the latter 7basket7 is by some supposed to mean the wicker-work implement for carrying1 which the monuments show was in use in ,egypt 7so ,,lxx41 etc471 and by others to mean an earthen vessel1 as an example of the work in clay in which the ,israelites were engaged 7,hupfeld74 ,the years of desert wandering are summed up1 in ver4 #g1 as one long continuance of benefits from ,god4 ,whenever they cried to ,him in their trouble1 ,he delivered them4 ,he spoke to them from the secret place of thunder 7,my thunder-covert1 ,cheyne74 ,that expression is generally taken to refer to the pillar of cloud1 but seems more naturally to be regarded as alluding to the thick darkness1 in which ,god was shrouded on ,sinai1 when ,he spoke ,his law amid thunderings and lightnings4 ,the proving at the waters of ,meribah is1 according to the connection and in harmony with ,exod4 xvii4 #f1 to be regarded as a benefit4 ,it was meant to serve the purpose of binding ,israel still more closely to its ,god 7,baethgen74 ,it is usually assumed that1 in this reference to the waters of ,meribah1 the two similar incidents of the miraculous supply of water--one of which occurred near the beginning of the forty years in the desert1 at ,massah and ,meribah 7,exod4 xvii4 #g71 and the other at the waters of ,meribah1 near ,kadesh1 in the fortieth year--have been blended1 or1 as ,cheyne says1 confused4 ,but there is no need to suppose that there is any confusion1 for the words of the psalm will apply to the latter miracle as well as to the former1 and1 if the former clause refers to the manifestations at ,sinai1 the selection of an incident at nearly the end of the wilderness period is natural4 ,the whole stretch of forty years is thereby declared to have been marked by continuous ,divine care4 ,the ,exodus was begun1 continued1 and ended amid tokens of ,his watchful love4 ,the ,selah bids the listener meditate on that prolonged revelation4 ,that retrospect next becomes the foundation of a ,divine exhortation to the people1 which is to be regarded as spoken originally to ,israel in the wilderness1 as ver4 #aa shows4 ,perowne well designates these verses 7#h-aj7 a discourse within a discourse4 ,they put into words the meaning of the wilderness experience1 and sum up the laws spoken on ,sinai1 which they in part repeat4 ,the purpose of ,god's lavish benefits was to bind ,israel to ,himself4 ,hear1 ,my people1 reminds us of ,deut4 v4 #a1 vi4 #d4 ,i will bear witness to thee here means rather solemn warning to1 than testifying against1 the person addressed4 ,with infinite pathos1 the tone of the ,divine ,speaker changes from that of authority to pleading and the utterance of a yearning wish1 like a sigh4 ,would that thou wouldest hearken6 ,god desires nothing so earnestly as that1 but ,his ,divine desire is tragically and mysteriously foiled4 ,the awful human power of resisting ,his voice and of making ,his efforts vain1 the still more awful fact of the exercise of that power1 were clear before the psalmist1 whose daring anthropopathy teaches a deep lesson1 and warns us against supposing that men have to do with an impassive ,deity4 ,that wonderful utterance of ,divine wish is almost a parenthesis4 ,it gives a moment's glimpse into the heart of ,god1 and then the tone of command is resumed4 ,in ver4 #i the keynote of the revelation of the law from ,sinai is given2 the fundamental command which opens the ,decalogue demanded fidelity towards ,jehovah1 and forbade idolatry1 as the sin of sins 7,delitzsch74 ,the reason for exclusive devotion to ,god is based in ver4 #aj1 as in ,exod4 xx4 #b1 the fundamental passage1 on ,his act of deliverance1 not on ,his sole ,divinity4 ,a theoretic ,monotheism would be cold2 the consciousness of benefits received from ,one ,hand alone is the only key that will unlock a heart's exclusive devotion and lay it at ,his feet4 ,and just as the commandment to worship ,god alone is founded on ,his unaided delivering might and love1 so it is followed by the promise that such exclusive adhesion to ,him will secure the fulfilment of the boldest wishes1 and the satisfying of the most clamant or hungry desires4 ,open wide thy mouth1 and ,i will fill it4 ,it is folly to go to strange gods for the supply of needs1 when ,god is able to give all that every man can wish4 ,we may be well content to cleave to ,him alone1 since ,he alone is more than enough for each and for all4 ,why should they waste time and strength in seeking for supplies from many1 who can find all they need in ,one8 ,they who put ,him to the proof1 and find ,him enough1 will have1 in their experience of ,his sufficiency1 a charm to protect them from all vagrant desire to go further and fare worse4 ,the best defence against temptations to stray from ,god is the possession by experience1 of ,his rich gifts that meet all desires4 ,that great saying teaches1 too1 that ,god's bestowals are practically measured by men's capacity and desire4 ,the ultimate limit of them is ,his own limitless grace2 but the working limit in each individual is the individual's receptivity1 of which his expectancy and desire are determining factors4 ,in vv4 #aa1 #ab1 the ,divine ,voice laments the failure of benefits and commandments and promises to win ,israel to ,god4 ,there is a world of baffled tenderness and almost wondering rebuke in the designation of the rebels as ,my people4 ,it would have been no cause of astonishment if other nations had not listened2 but that the tribes bound by so many kindnesses should have been deaf is a sad marvel4 ,who should listen to ,my voice if ,my people do not8 ,the penalty of not yielding to ,god is to be left unyielding4 ,the worst punishment of sin is the prolongation and consequent intensifying of the sin4 ,a heart that wilfully closes itself against ,god's pleadings brings on itself the nemesis1 that it becomes incapable of opening1 as a self-torturing ,hindoo fakir may clench his fist so long1 that at last his muscles lose their power1 and it remains shut for his lifetime4 ,the issue of such stubbornness is walking in their own counsels1 the practical life being regulated entirely by self-originated and ,god-forgetting dictates of prudence or inclination4 ,he who will not have the ,divine ,guide has to grope his way as well as he can4 ,there is no worse fate for a man than to be allowed to do as he chooses4 ,the ditch1 sooner or later1 receives the man who lets his active powers1 which are in themselves blind1 be led by his understanding1 which he has himself blinded by forbidding it to look to the ,one ,light of ,life4 ,in ver4 #ac the ,divine ,voice turns to address the joyous crowd of festal worshippers1 exhorting them to that obedience which is the true keeping of the feast1 and holding forth bright promises of the temporal blessings which1 in accordance with the fundamental conditions of ,israel's prosperity1 should follow thereon4 ,the sad picture of ancient rebellion just drawn influences the language in this verse1 in which ,my people1 hearken1 and walk recur4 ,the antithesis to walking in one's own counsels is walking in ,god's ways1 suppressing native stubbornness1 and becoming docile to ,his guidance4 ,the highest blessedness of man is to have a will submissive to ,god's will1 and to carry out that submission in all details of life4 ,self-engineered paths are always hard1 and1 if pursued to the end1 lead into the dark4 ,the listening heart will not lack guidance1 and obedient feet will find ,god's way the way of peace which steadily climbs to unfading light4 ,the blessings attached in the psalm to such conformity with ,god's will are of an external kind1 as was to be expected at the ,old ,testament stage of revelation4 ,they are mainly two--victory and abundance4 ,but the precise application of ver4 #ae b is doubtful4 ,whose time is to endure for ever8 ,there is much to be said in favour of the translation that so their time might endure for ever1 as ,cheyne renders1 and for understanding it1 as he does1 as referring to the enemies who yield themselves to ,god1 in order that they might be a never-exhausted people4 ,but to bring in the purpose of the enemies submission is somewhat irrelevant1 and the clause is probably best taken to promise length of days to ,israel4 ,in ver4 #af the sudden change of persons in a is singular1 and1 according to the existing vocalisation1 there is an equally sudden change of tenses1 which induces ,delitzsch and others to take the verse as recurring to historical retrospect4 ,the change to the third person is probably occasioned1 as ,hupfeld suggests1 by the preceding naming of ,jehovah1 or may have been due to an error4 ,such sudden changes are more admissible in ,hebrew than with us1 and are very easily accounted for1 when ,god is represented as speaking4 ,the momentary emergence of the psalmist's personality would lead him to say ,he1 and the renewed sense of being but the echo of the ,divine ,voice would lead to the recurrence to the ,i1 in which ,god speaks directly4 ,the words are best taken as in line with the other hypothetical promises in the preceding verses4 ,the whole verse looks back to ,deut4 xxxii4 #ac1 #ad4 ,honey from the rock is not a natural product2 but1 as ,hupfeld says1 the parallel oil out of the flinty rock1 which follows in ,deuteronomy1 shows that we are here1 not on the ground of the actual1 but of the ideal1 and that the expression is a hyperbole for incomparable abundance4 ,those who hearken to ,god's voice will have all desires satisfied and needs supplied4 ,they will find furtherance in hindrances1 fertility in barrenness2 rocks will drop honey and stones will become bread4 ,,psalm ,,lxxxii4 #a ,god stands in the congregation of ,god1 ,in the midst of the gods ,he judges4 #b ,how long win ye judge injustice1 ,and accept the persons of wicked men8 ,selah4 #c ,right the weak and the orphan1 ,vindicate the afflicted and the poor4 #d ,rescue the weak and needy1 ,from the hand of the wicked deliver them4 #e ,they know not1 they understand not1 ,in darkness they walk to and fro1 ,all the foundations of the earth totter4 #f ,i myself have said1 ,ye are gods1 ,and sons of the ,most ,high are ye all4 #g ,surely like men shall ye die1 ,and like one of the princes shall ye fall4 #h ,arise1 ,o ,god1 judge the earth1 ,for ,thou1 ,thou shall inherit all the nations4 ,in ,psalm #a4 ,god is represented as gathering ,his people together to be judged2 in this psalm ,he has garnered them together for ,his judgment on judges4 ,the former psalm begins at an earlier point of the great ,cause than this one does4 ,in it1 unnamed messengers go forth to summons the nation2 in this1 the first verse shows us the assembled congregation1 the accused1 and the ,divine ,judge standing in the midst in statuesque immobility4 ,an awe-inspiring pause intervenes1 and then the silence is broken by a mighty voice of reproof and admonition 7vv4 #b-d74 ,the speaker may be the psalmist1 but the grand image of ,god as judging loses much of its solemnity and appropriateness1 unless these stern rebukes and the following verses till the end of ver4 #g are regarded as ,his voice of judgment4 ,ver4 #e follows these rebukes with an indignant aside from the ,judge 7,cheyne71 evoked by obstinate deafness to ,his words2 and vv4 #f1 #g1 pronounce the fatal sentence on the accused1 who are condemned by their own refusal to hearken to ,divine remonstrances4 ,then1 in ver4 #h1 after a pause like that which preceded ,god's voice1 the psalmist1 who has been a silent spectator1 prays that what he has heard in the inward ear1 and seen with the inward eye1 may be done before the nations of the world1 since it all belongs to ,him by right4 ,the scene pictured in ver4 #a has been variously interpreted4 ,the congregation of ,god is most naturally understood according to the parallel in ,psalm l41 and the familiar phrase the congregation of ,israel as being the assembled nation4 ,its interpretation and that of the gods who are judged hang together4 ,if the assembly is the nation1 the persons at the bar can scarcely be other than those who have exercised injustice on the nation4 ,if1 on the other hand1 the gods are ideal or real angelic beings1 the assembly will necessarily be a heavenly one4 ,the use of the expressions ,the congregation of ,jehovah 7,numb4 xxvii4 #ag1 xxxi4 #af2 ,josh4 xxii4 #af1 #ag7 and ,thy congregation 7,psalm lxxiv4 #b7 makes the former interpretation the more natural1 and therefore exercises some influence in determining the meaning of the other disputed word4 ,the interpretation of gods as angels is maintained by ,hupfeld2 and ,bleek1 followed by ,cheyne1 goes the fun length of regarding them as patron angels of the nations4 ,but1 as ,baethgen says1 that angels should be punished with death is a thought which lies utterly beyond the ,old ,testament sphere of representation1 and the incongruity can hardly be reckoned to be removed by ,cheyne's remark1 that1 since angels are in other places represented as punished1 it is only a step further to say that they are punished with death4 ,if1 however1 these gods are earthly rulers1 the question still remains whether they are ,jewish or foreign judges8 ,the latter opinion is adopted chiefly on the ground of the reference in ver4 #h to a world-embracing judicial act1 which1 however1 by no means compels its acceptance1 since it is entirely in accordance with the manner of psalmists to recognise in partial acts of ,divine retribution the operation in miniature of the same ,divine power1 which will one day set right all wrongs1 and1 on occasion of the smaller manifestation of ,divine righteousness1 to pray for a universal judgment4 ,there would be little propriety in summoning the national assembly to behold judgments wrought on foreign rulers1 unless these alien oppressors were afflicting ,israel1 of which there is no sure indications in the psalm4 ,the various expressions for the afflicted in vv4 #c1 #d1 are taken1 by the supporters of the view that the judges are foreigners1 to mean the whole nation as it groaned under their oppression1 but there is nothing to show that they do not rather refer to the helpless in ,israel4 ,our ,lord's reference to ver4 #f in ,john x4 #cd-ch is1 by the present writer1 accepted as authoritatively settling both the meaning and the ground of the remarkable name of gods for human judges4 ,it does not need that we should settle the mystery of ,his emptying ,himself1 or trace the limits of ,his human knowledge1 in order to be sure that ,he spoke truth with authority1 when ,he spoke on such a subject as ,his own ,divine nature1 and the analogies and contrasts between it and the highest human authorities4 ,his whole argument is worthless1 unless the gods in the psalm are men4 ,he tells us why that august title is applied to them--namely1 because to them the word of ,god came4 ,they were recipients of a ,divine word1 constituting them in their office2 and1 in so far as they discharged its duties1 their decrees were ,god's word ministered by them4 ,that is especially true in a theocratic state such as ,israel1 where the rulers are1 in a direct way1 ,god's vicegerents1 clothed by ,him with delegated authority1 which they exercise under ,his control4 ,but it is also true about all who are set in similar positions elsewhere4 ,the office is sacred1 whatever its holders are4 ,the contents of the psalm need little remark4 ,in vv4 #b-d ,god speaks in stern upbraiding and command4 ,the abrupt pealing forth of the ,divine ,voice1 without any statement of who speaks1 is extremely dramatic and impressive4 ,the judgment hall is filled with a hushed crowd4 ,no herald is needed to proclaim silence4 ,strained expectance sits on every ear4 ,then the silence is broken4 ,these authoritative accents can come but from one speaker4 ,the crimes rebuked are those to which rulers1 in such a state of society as was in ,israel1 are especially prone1 and such as must have been well-nigh universal at the time of the psalmist4 ,they were no imaginary evils against which these sharp arrows were launched4 ,these princes were like those gibbeted for ever in ,isa4 #a4--loving gifts and following after rewards1 murderers rather than judges1 and fitter to be rulers of ,sodom than of ,god's city4 ,they had prostituted their office by injustice1 had favoured the rich and neglected the poor1 had been deaf to the cry of the helpless1 had steeled their hearts against the miseries of the afflicted1 and left them to perish in the gripe of the wicked4 ,such is the indictment4 ,does it sound applicable to angels8 ,for a moment the ,divine ,voice pauses4 ,will its tones reach any consciences8 ,no4 ,there is no sign of contrition among the judges1 who are thus solemnly being judged4 ,therefore ,god speaks again1 as if wondering1 grieved1 and indignant at the blindness of their hearts1 as ,his ,son was when ,his words met the same reception from the same class4 ,ver4 #e might almost be called a ,divine lament over human impenitence1 ere the ,voice swells into the fatal sentence4 ,one remembers ,christ's tears1 as ,he looked across the valley to the city glittering in the morning sun4 ,his tears did not hinder ,his pronouncing its doom2 nor did ,his pronouncing its doom hinder ,his tears4 ,these judges were without knowledge4 ,they walked in darkness1 because they walked in selfishness1 and never thought of ,god's judgment4 ,their gait was insolent1 as the form of the word walk to and fro implies4 ,and1 since they who were set to be ,god's representatives on earth1 and to show some gleam of ,his justice and compassion1 were ministers of injustice and vicegerents of evil1 fostering what they should have crushed1 and crushing whom they should have fostered1 the foundations of society were shaken1 and1 unless these were swept away1 it would be dissolved into chaos4 ,therefore the sentence must fall1 as it does in vv4 #f1 #g4 ,the grant of dignity is withdrawn4 ,they are stripped of their honours1 as a soldier of his uniform before he is driven from his corps4 ,the judge's robe1 which they have smirched1 is plucked off their shoulders1 and they stand as common men4 ,,psalm ,,lxxxiii4 #a ,o ,god1 let there be no rest to ,thee1 ,be not dumb1 and keep not still1 ,o ,god4 #b ,for1 behold1 ,thy enemies make a tumult1 ,and they who hate ,thee lift up the head4 #c ,against ,thy people they make a crafty plot1 ,and consult together against ,thy hidden ones4 #d ,they say1 ,come1 and let us cut them off from being a nation1 ,and let the name of ,israel be remembered no more4 #e ,for they consult together with one heart1 ,against ,thee they make a league3 #f ,the tents of ,edom and the ,ishmaelites1 ,moab and the ,hagarenes1 #g ,gebal and ,ammon and ,amalek1 ,philistia with the dwellers in ,tyre2 #h ,asshur also has joined himself to them1 ,they have become an arm to the children of ,lot4 ,selah4 #i ,do ,thou to them as to ,midian1 ,as to ,sisera1 to ,jabin at the brook ,kishon1 #aj ,who were destroyed at ,endor1 ,who became manure for the land4 #aa ,make them1 their nobles1 like ,oreb and like ,zeeb1 ,and like ,zebah and like ,zalmunnah all their princes1 #ab ,who say1 ,let us take for a possession to ourselves ,the habitations of ,god4 #ac ,my ,god1 make them like a whirl of dust1 ,like stubble before the wind1 #ad ,like fire that burns the forest1 ,and like flame that scorches the mountains4 #ae ,so pursue them with ,thy storm1 ,and with ,thy tempest strike them with panic4 #af ,fill their face with dishonour1 ,that they may seek ,thy name1 ,jehovah4 #ag ,let them be ashamed and panic-struck for ever1 ,and let them be abashed and perish2 #ah ,and let them know that ,thou1 even ,thy name1 ,jehovah1 alone ,art the ,most ,high over all the earth4 ,this psalm is a cry for help against a world in arms4 ,the failure of all attempts to point to a period when all the allies here represented as confederate against ,israel were or could have been united in assailing it1 inclines one to suppose that the enumeration of enemies is not history1 but poetic idealisation4 ,the psalm would then be1 not the memorial of a fact1 but the expression of the standing relation between ,israel and the outlying heathendom4 ,the singer masses together ancient and modern foes of diverse nationalities and mutual animosities1 and pictures them as burying their enmities and bridging their separations1 and all animated by one fell hatred to the ,dove of ,god1 which sits innocent and helpless in the midst of them4 ,there are weighty objections to this view2 but no other is free from difficulties even more considerable4 ,there are two theories which divide the suffrages of commentators4 ,the usual assignment of date is to the league against ,jehoshaphat recorded in #b ,chron4 xx4 ,but it is hard to find that comparatively small local confederacy of three peoples in the wide-reaching alliance described in the psalm4 ,chronicles enumerates the members of the league as being the children of ,moab and the children of ,ammon1 and with them some of the ,ammonites1 which last unmeaning designation should be read1 as in the ,,lxx41 the ,me'unim4 and adds to these ,edom 7#b ,chron4 xx4 #b1 corrected text74 ,even if the contention of the advocates of this date for the psalm is admitted1 and the ,me'unim are taken to include the ,arab tribes1 whom the psalmist calls ,ishmaelites and ,hagarenes1 there remains the fact that he names also ,philistia1 ,amalek1 ,tyre1 and ,asshur1 none of whom is concerned in the alliance against ,jehoshaphat4 ,it was1 in fact1 confined to eastern and south-eastern nations1 with whom distant western tribes could have no common interest4 ,nor is the other view of the circumstances underlying the psalm free from difficulty4 ,it advocates a ,maccabean date4 ,in #a ,macc4 v4 it is recorded that the nations round about were enraged at the restoration of the altar and dedication of the ,temple after its pollution by ,antiochus ,epiphanes1 and were ready to break out in hostility4 ,cheyne points to the occurrence in ,maccabees of six of the ten names mentioned in the psalm4 ,but of the four not mentioned1 two are ,amalek and ,asshur1 both of which had been blotted out of the roll of nations long before the ,maccabees' era4 ,the mention of ,amalek1 says ,cheyne1 is half-,haggadic1 half-antiquarian4 ,but what should ,haggadic or antiquarian elements do in such a list8 ,asshur is explained on this hypothesis as meaning ,syria1 which is very doubtful1 and1 even if admitted1 leaves unsolved the difficulty that the subordinate place occupied by the nation in question would not correspond to the importance of ,syria in the time of the ,maccabees4 ,of the two theories1 the second is the more probable1 but neither is satisfactory2 and the view already stated1 that the psalm does not refer to any actual alliance1 seems to the present writer the most probable4 ,the world is up in arms against ,god's people2 and what weapon has ,israel8 ,nothing but prayer4 ,the psalm naturally falls into two parts1 separated by ,selah1 of which the first 7vv4 #a-h7 describes ,israel's extremity1 and the second 7vv4 #i-ah7 is its supplication4 ,the psalmist begins with earnest invocation of ,god's help1 beseeching ,him to break ,his apparent inactivity and silence4 ,let there be no rest to ,thee is like ,isa4 lxii4 #f4 ,god seems passive4 ,it needs but ,his ,voice to break the dreary silence1 and the foes will be scattered4 ,and there is strong reason for ,his intervention1 for they are ,his enemies1 who riot and roar like the hoarse chafing of an angry sea1 for so the word rendered make a tumult implies 7,psalm xlvi4 #c74 ,it is ,thy people who are the object of their crafty conspiracy1 and it is implied that these are thus hated because they are ,god's people4 ,israel's prerogative1 which evokes the heathen's rage1 is the ground of ,israel's confidence and the plea urged to ,god by it4 ,are we not ,thy hidden ones8 ,and shall a hostile world be able to pluck us from our safe hiding-place in the hollow of ,thy hand8 ,the idea of preciousness1 as well as that of protection1 is included in the word4 ,men store their treasures in secret places2 ,god hides ,his treasures in the secret of ,his face1 the glorious privacy of light inaccessible4 ,how vain are the plotters' whisperings against such a people6 ,the conspiracy has for its aim nothing short of blotting out the national existence and the very name of ,israel4 ,it is therefore high-handed opposition to ,god's counsel1 and the confederacy is against ,him4 ,the true antagonists are1 not ,israel and the world1 but ,god and the world4 ,calmness1 courage1 and confidence spring in the heart with such thoughts4 ,they who can feel that they are hid in ,god may look out1 as from a safe islet on the wildest seas1 and fear nothing4 ,and all who will may hide in ,him4 ,the enumeration of the confederates in vv4 #f-h groups together peoples who probably were never really united for any common end4 ,hatred is a very potent cement1 and the most discordant elements may be fused together in the fire of a common animosity4 ,what a motley assemblage is here6 ,what could bring together in one company ,ishmaelites and ,tyrians1 ,moab and ,asshur8 ,the first seven names in the list of allies had their seats to the east and south-east of ,palestine4 ,edom1 ,moab1 ,ammon1 and ,amalek were ancestral foes1 the last of which had been destroyed in the time of ,hezekiah 7#a ,chron4 iv4 #dc74 ,the mention of descendants of ,ishmael and ,hagar1 nomad ,arab tribes to the south and east1 recalls their ancestors' expulsion from the patriarchal family4 ,gebal is probably the mountainous region to the south of the ,dead ,sea4 ,then the psalmist turns to the west1 to ,philistia1 the ancient foe1 and ,tyre1 the two peoples of the ,mediterranean coast1 which also appear in ,amos 7ch4 i42 cf4 ,joel iii47 as making common cause with the ,edomites against ,israel 7,delitzsch74 ,asshur brings up the rear--a strange post for it to occupy1 to be reduced to be an auxiliary to the children of ,lot1 i4e4 ,moab and ,ammon4 ,the ideal character of this muster-roll is supported by this singular inferiority of position1 as well as by the composition of the allied force1 and by the allusion to the shameful origin of the two leading peoples1 which is the only reference to ,lot besides the narrative in ,genesis4 ,the confederacy is formidable1 but the psalmist does not enumerate its members merely in order to emphasise ,israel's danger4 ,he is contrasting this miscellaneous conglomeration of many peoples with the ,almighty ,one1 against whom they are vainly banded4 ,faith can look without a tremor on serried battalions of enemies1 knowing that one poor man1 with ,god at his back1 outnumbers them all4 ,let them come from east and west1 south and north1 and close round ,israel2 ,god alone is mightier than they4 ,so1 after a pause marked by ,selah1 in which there is time to let the thought of the multitudinous enemies sink into the soul1 the psalm passes into prayer1 which throbs with confident assurance and anticipatory triumph4 ,the singer recalls ancient victories1 and prays for their repetition4 ,to him1 as to every devout man1 to-day's exigencies are as sure of ,divine help as any yesterday's were1 and what ,god has done is pledge and specimen of what ,he is doing and will do4 ,the battle is left to be waged by ,him alone4 ,the psalmist does not seem to think of ,israel's drawing sword1 but rather that it should stand still and see ,god fighting for it4 ,the victory of ,gideon over ,midian1 to which ,isaiah also refers as the very type of complete conquest 7,isa4 ix4 #c71 is named first1 but thronging memories drive it out of the singer's mind for a moment1 while he goes back to the other crushing defeat of ,jabin and ,sisera at the hands of ,barak and ,deborah 7,judg4 iv41 v474 ,he adds a detail to the narrative in ,judges1 when he localises the defeat at ,endor1 which lies on the eastern edge of the great plain of ,esdraelon4 ,in ver4 #aa he returns to his first example of defeat--the slaughter of ,midian by ,gideon4 ,oreb 7raven7 and ,zeeb 7wolf7 were in command of the ,midianites1 and were killed by the ,ephraimites in the retreat4 ,zebah and ,zalmunnah were kings of ,midian1 and fell by ,gideon's own hand 7,judg4 viii4 #ba74 ,the psalmist bases his prayer for such a dread fate for the foes on their insolent purpose and sacrilegious purpose of making me dwellings 7or1 possibly1 the pastures7 of ,god their own property4 ,not because the land and its peaceful homes belonged to the suppliant and his nation1 but because they were ,god's1 does he thus pray4 ,the enemies had drawn the sword2 it was permissible to pray that they might fall by the sword1 or by some ,divine intervention1 since such was the only way of defeating their ,god-insulting plans4 ,the psalm rises to high poetic fervour and imaginative beauty in the terrible petitions of vv4 #ac-af4 ,the word rendered whirling dust in ver4 #ac is somewhat doubtful4 ,it literally means a rolling thing1 but what particular thing of the sort is difficult to determine4 ,the reference is perhaps to spherical masses of dry weeds which course over the plains4 ,thomson 7,land and ,book1 #ahgj1 p4 #efc7 suggests the wild artichoke1 which1 when ripe1 forms a globe of about a foot in diameter4 ,in autumn the branches become dry and as light as a feather1 the parent stem breaks off at the ground1 and the wind carries these vegetable globes whithersoever it pleaseth4 ,at the proper season thousands of them come scudding over the plain1 rolling1 leaping1 bounding4 ,so understood1 the clause would form a complete parallel with the next1 which compares the fleeing foe to stubble1 not1 of course1 rooted1 but loose and whirled before the wind4 ,the metaphor of ver4 #ad is highly poetic1 likening the flight of the foe to the swift rush of a forest fire1 which licks up 7for so the word rendered scorches means7 the woods on the hillsides1 and leaves a bare1 blackened space4 ,still more terrible is the petition in ver4 #ae1 which asks that ,god ,himself should chase the flying remnants1 and beat them down1 helpless and panic-stricken1 with storm and hurricane1 as ,he did the other confederacy of ,canaanitish kings1 when they fled down the pass of ,beth-,horon1 and ,jehovah cast down great stones on them from heaven 7,josh4 x4 #aj1 #aa74 ,but there is a deeper desire in the psalmist's heart than the enemies' destruction4 ,he wishes that they should be turned into ,god's friends1 and he wishes for their chastisement as the means to that end4 ,that they may seek ,thy face1 ,jehovah1 is the sum of his aspirations1 as it is the inmost meaning of ,god's punitive acts4 ,the end of the judgment of the world1 which is continually going on by means of the history of the world1 is none other than what this psalmist contemplated as the end of the defeat of that confederacy of ,god's enemies--that rebels should seek ,his face1 not in enforced submission1 but with true desire to sun themselves in its light1 and with heart-felt acknowledgment of ,his ,name as supreme through all the earth4 ,the thought of ,god as standing alone in ,his majestic omnipotence1 while a world is vainly arrayed against ,him1 which we have traced in vv4 #e-g1 is prominent in the close of the psalm4 ,the language of ver4 #ah is somewhat broken1 but its purport is plain1 and its thought is all the more impressive for the irregularity of construction4 ,god alone is the ,most ,high4 ,he is revealed to men by ,his ,name4 ,it stands alone1 as ,he in ,his nature does4 ,the highest good of men is to know that that sovereign ,name is unique and high above all creatures1 hostile or obedient4 ,such knowledge is ,god's aim in punishment and blessing4 ,its universal extension must be the deepest wish of all who have for themselves learned how strong a fortress against a world in arms that ,name is2 and their desires for the foes of ,god and themselves are not in harmony with ,god's heart1 nor with this psalmist's song1 unless they are1 that ,his enemies may be led1 by salutary defeat of their enterprises and experience of the weight of ,god's hand1 to bow1 in loving obedience1 low before the ,name which1 whether they recognise the fact or not1 is high above an the earth4 ,,psalm ,,lxxxiv4 #a ,how lovely are ,thy dwellings1 ,jehovah of ,hosts6 #b ,my soul longs1 yea1 even languishes1 for the courts of ,jehovah1 ,my heart and my flesh cry out for the living ,god4 #c ,yea1 the sparrow has found a house1 ,and the swallow a nest for herself1 where she lays her young1 ,thine altars1 ,jehovah of ,hosts4 ,my ,king and my ,god4 #d ,blessed they that dwell in ,thy house6 ,they will be still praising ,thee1 ,selah4 #e ,blessed the man whose strength is in ,thee1 ,in whose heart are the ways6 #f ,who passing through the valley of weeping make it a place of fountains1 ,yea1 the early rain covers it with blessings4 #g ,they go from strength to strength1 ,each appears before ,god in ,zion4 #h ,jehovah1 ,god of ,hosts1 hear my prayer1 ,give ear1 ,o ,god of ,jacob4 ,selah4 #i ,thou1 our shield1 behold1 ,o ,god1 ,and look upon the face of ,thine anointed4 #aj ,for better is a day in ,thy courts than a thousand1 ,rather would ,i lie on the threshold in the house of my ,god1 ,than dwell in the tents of wickedness4 #aa ,for ,jehovah ,god is sun and shield1 ,grace and glory ,jehovah gives1 ,no good does ,he deny to them that walk in integrity4 #ab ,jehovah of hosts1 ,blessed the man that trusts in ,thee6 ,the same longing for and delight in the sanctuary which found pathetic expression in ,psalms xlii41 xliii41 inspire this psalm4 ,like these1 it is ascribed in the superscription to the ,korachites1 whose office of door-keepers in the ,temple seems alluded to in ver4 #aj4 ,to infer1 however1 identity of authorship from similarity of tone is hazardous4 ,the differences are as obvious as the resemblances4 ,as ,cheyne well says1 the notes of the singer of ,psalms xlii41 xliii41 are here transposed into a different key4 ,it is still ',te saluto1 te suspiro1' but no longer ',de longinquo te saluto' 7to quote ,hildebert74 ,the longings after ,god and the sanctuary1 in the first part of the psalm1 do not necessarily imply exile from the latter1 for they may be felt when we are nearest to ,him1 and are1 in fact1 an element in that nearness4 ,it is profitless to inquire what were the singer's circumstances4 ,he expresses the perennial emotions of devout souls1 and his words are as enduring and as universal as the aspirations which they so perfectly express4 ,no doubt the psalm identifies enjoyment of ,god's presence with the worship of the visible sanctuary more closely than we have to do1 but the true object of its longing is ,god1 and so long as spirit is tied to body the most spiritual worship will be tied to form4 ,the psalm may serve as a warning against premature attempts to dispense with outward aids to inward communion4 ,it is divided into three parts by the ,selahs4 ,the last verse of the first part prepares the way for the first of the second1 by sounding the note of ,blessed they1 etc41 which is prolonged in ver4 #e1 ,the last verse of the second part 7ver4 #h7 similarly prepares for the first of the third 7ver4 #i7 by beginning the prayer which is prolonged there4 ,in each part there is a verse pronouncing blessing on ,jehovah's worshippers1 and the variation in the designations of these gives the key to the progress of thought in the psalm4 ,first comes the blessing on those who dwell in ,god's house 7ver4 #d71 and that abiding is the theme of the first part4 ,the description of those who are thus blessed is changed1 in the second strophe1 to those in whose heart are the pilgrim ways1 and the joys of the progress of the soul towards ,god are the theme of that strophe4 ,finally1 for dwelling in and journeying towards the sanctuary is substituted the plain designation of the man that trusts in ,thee1 which trust is the impulse to following after ,god and the condition of dwelling with ,him2 and its joys are the theme of the third part4 ,the man who thus interpreted his own psalm had no unworthy conception of the relation between outward nearness to the sanctuary1 and inward communion with the ,god who dwelt there4 ,the psalmist's yearning for the ,temple was occasioned by his longing for ,god4 ,it was ,god's presence there which gave it all its beauty4 ,because they were ,thy tabernacles1 he felt them to be lovely and lovable1 for the word implies both4 ,the abrupt exclamation beginning the psalm is the breaking into speech of thought which had long increased itself in silence4 ,the intensity of his desires is expressed very strikingly by two words1 of which the former 7longs7 literally means grows pale1 and the latter fails1 or is consumed4 ,his whole being1 body and spirit1 is one cry for the living ,god4 ,the word rendered cry out is usually employed for the shrill cry of joy1 and that meaning is by many retained here4 ,but the cognate noun is not infrequently employed for any loud or high-pitched call1 especially for fervent prayer 7,psalm lxxxviii4 #b71 and it is better to suppose that this clause expresses emotion substantially parallel to that of the former one1 than that it makes a contrast to it4 ,the living ,god is an expression only found in ,psalm xlii41 and is one of the points of resemblance between it and this psalm4 ,that ,name is more than a contrast with the gods of the heathen4 ,it lays bare the reason for the psalmist's longings4 ,by communion with ,him who possesses life in its fulness1 and is its fountain for all that live1 he will draw supplies of that life whereof our veins are scant4 ,nothing short of a real1 living ,person can slake the immortal thirst of the soul1 made after ,god's own life1 and restless till it rests in ,him4 ,the surface current of this singer's desires ran towards the sanctuary2 the depth of them set towards ,god2 and1 for the stage of revelation at which he stood1 the deeper was best satisfied through the satisfaction of the more superficial4 ,the one is modified by the progress of ,christian enlightenment1 but the other remains eternally the same4 ,alas that the longings of ,christian souls for fellowship with ,god should be so tepid1 as compared with the sacred passion of desire which has found imperishable utterance in these glowing and most sincere words6 ,ver4 #c has been felt to present grammatical difficulties1 which need not detain us here4 ,the easiest explanation is that the happy1 winged creatures who have found resting-places are contrasted by the psalmist with himself1 seeking1 homeless amid creation1 for his haven of repose4 ,we have to complete the somewhat fragmentary words with some supplement before ,thine altars1 such as ,so would ,i find1 or the like4 ,to suppose that he represents the swallows as actually nesting on the altar is impossible1 and1 if the latter clauses are taken to describe the places where the birds housed and bred1 there is nothing to suggest the purpose for which the reference to them is introduced4 ,if1 on the other hand1 the poet looks with a poet's eye on these lower creatures at rest in secure shelters1 and longs to be like them1 in his repose in the home which his deeper wants make necessary for him1 a noble thought is expressed with adequate poetic beauty4 ,foxes have holes1 and birds of the air roosting-places1 but the ,son of ,man hath not where to lay ,his head4 ,all creatures find environment suited to their need1 and are at rest in it1 man walks like a stranger on earth1 and restlessly seeks for rest4 ,where but in ,god is it to be found8 ,who that seeks it in ,him shall fail to find it8 ,what their nests are to the swallows1 ,god is to man4 ,the solemnity of the direct address to ,god at the close of ver4 #c would be out of place if the altar were the dwelling of the birds1 but is entirely natural if the psalmist is thinking of the ,temple as the home of his spirit4 ,by the accumulation of sacred and dear names1 and by the lovingly reiterated my1 which claims personal relation to ,god1 he deepens his conviction of the blessedness which would be his1 were he in that abode of his heart1 and lingeringly tells his riches1 as a miser might delight to count his gold1 piece by piece4 ,the first part closes with an exclamation which gathers into one all-expressive word the joy of communion with ,god4 ,they who have it are blessed1 with something more sacred and lasting than happiness1 with something deeper and more tranquil than joy1 even with a calm delight1 not altogether unlike the still1 yet not stagnant1 rest of supreme felicity which fills the life of the living and ever-blessed ,god4 ,that thought is prolonged by the music4 ,the second strophe 7vv4 #e-h7 is knit to the first1 chain-wise1 by taking up again the closing strain1 ,blessed the man6 ,but it turns the blessedness in another direction4 ,not only are they blessed who have found their rest in ,god1 but so also are they who are seeking it4 ,the goal is sweet1 but scarcely less sweet are the steps towards it4 ,the fruition of ,god has delights beyond all that earth can give1 but the desire after ,him1 too1 has delights of its own4 ,the experiences of the soul seeking ,god in ,his sanctuary are here cast into the image of pilgrim bands going up to the ,temple4 ,there may be local allusions in the details4 ,the ways in ver4 #e are the pilgrims' paths to the sanctuary4 ,hupfeld calls the reading ways senseless1 and would substitute trust2 but such a change is unnecessary1 and tasteless4 ,the condensed expression is not too condensed to be intelligible1 and beautifully describes the true pilgrim spirit4 ,they who are touched with that desire which impels men to seek a better country1 that is an heavenly1 and to take flight from ,time's vanities to the bosom of ,god1 have ever the ways in their hearts4 ,they count the moments lost during which they linger1 or are anywhere but on the road4 ,amid calls of lower duties and distractions of many sorts1 their desires turn to the path to ,god4 ,like some nomads brought into city life1 they are always longing to escape4 ,the caged eagle sits on the highest point of his prison1 and looks with filmed eye to the free heavens4 ,hearts that long for ,god have an irrepressible instinct stinging them to ever-new attainments4 ,the consciousness of not having already attained is no pain1 when the hope of attaining is strong4 ,rather1 the very blessedness of life lies in the sense of present imperfection1 the effort for completeness1 and the assurance of reaching it4 ,ver4 #f is highly imaginative and profoundly true4 ,if a man has the ways in his heart1 he will pass through the valley of weeping1 and turn it into a place of fountains4 ,his very tears will fill the wells4 ,sorrow borne as a help to pilgrimage changes into joy and refreshment4 ,the remembrance of past grief nourishes the soul which is aspiring to ,god4 ,god puts our tears into ,his bottle2 we lose the benefit of them1 and fail to discern their true intent1 unless we gather them into a well1 which may refresh us in many a weary hour thereafter4 ,if we do1 there will be another source of fertility1 plentifully poured out upon our life's path4 ,the early rain covers it with blessings4 ,heaven-descended gifts will not be wanting1 nor the smiling harvests which they quicken and mature4 ,god meets the pilgrims' love and faith with gently falling influences1 which bring forth rich fruit4 ,trials borne aright bring down fresh bestowments of power for fruitful service4 ,thus possessed of a charm which transforms grief1 and recipients of strength from on high1 the pilgrims are not tired by travel1 as others are1 but grow stronger day by day1 and their progressive increase in vigour is a pledge that they will joyously reach their journey's end1 and stand in the courts of the ,lord's house4 ,the seekers after ,god are superior to the law of decay4 ,it may affect their physical powers1 but they are borne up by an unfulfilled and certain hope1 and reinvigorated by continual supplies from above2 and therefore1 though in their bodily frame they1 like other men1 faint and grow weary1 they shall not utterly fail1 but1 waiting on ,jehovah1 will renew their strength4 ,the fabled fountain of perpetual youth rises at the foot of ,god's throne1 and its waters flow to meet those who journey thither4 ,such are the elements of the blessedness of those who seek ,god's presence2 and with that great promise of certain finding of the good and the ,god whom they seek1 the description and the strophe properly ends4 ,but just as the first part prepared the way for the second1 so the second does for the third1 by breaking forth into prayer4 ,no wonder that the thoughts which he has been dwelling on should move the singer to supplication that these blessednesses may be his4 ,according to some1 ver4 #h is the prayer of the pilgrim on arriving in the ,temple1 but it is best taken as the psalmist's own4 ,the final part begins with invocation4 ,in ver4 #i our shield is in apposition to ,god1 not the object to behold4 ,it anticipates the designation of ,god in ver4 #aa4 ,but why should the prayer for ,thine anointed break in upon the current of thought8 ,are we to say that the psalmist completes his work by some rhythmical but ill-connected verses 7,cheyne78 ,there is a satisfactory explanation of the apparently irrelevant petition1 if we accept the view that the psalm1 like its kindred ,psalms xlii41 xliii41 was the work of a companion of ,david's in his flight4 ,if so1 the king's restoration would be the condition of satisfying the psalmist's longing for the sanctuary4 ,any other hypothesis as to his date and circumstances fails to supply a connecting link between the main subject of the psalm and this petition4 ,the ,for at the beginning of ver4 #aj favours such a view1 since it gives the delights of the house of the ,lord1 and the psalmist's longing to share in them1 as the reasons for his prayer that ,jehovah would look upon the face of ,his anointed4 ,in that verse he glides back to the proper theme of the psalm4 ,life is to be estimated1 not according to its length1 but according to the richness of its contents4 ,time is elastic4 ,one crowded moment is better than a millennium of languid years4 ,and nothing fills life so full or stretches the hours to hold so much of real living1 as communion with ,god1 which works1 on those who have plunged into its depths1 some assimilation to the timeless life of ,him with whom one day is as a thousand years4 ,there may be a reference to the ,korachites' function of door-keepers1 in that touchingly beautiful choice of the psalmist's1 rather to lie on the threshold of the ,temple than to dwell in the tents of wickedness4 ,whether there is or not1 the sentiment breathes sweet humility1 and deliberate choice4 ,just as the poet has declared that the briefest moment of communion is in his sight to be preferred to years of earthly delight1 so he counts the humblest office in the sanctuary1 and the lowest place there1 if only it is within the doorway1 as better than aught besides4 ,the least degree of fellowship with ,god has delights superior to the greatest measure of worldly joys4 ,and this man1 knowing that1 chose accordingly4 ,how many of us know it1 and yet cannot say with him1 ,rather would ,i lie on the door-sill of the ,temple than sit in the chief places of the world's feasts6 ,such a choice is the only rational one4 ,it is the choice of supreme good1 correspondent to man's deepest needs1 and lasting as his being4 ,therefore the psalmist vindicates his preference1 and encourages himself in it1 by the thoughts in ver4 #aa1 which he introduces with ,for4 ,because ,god is what ,he is1 and gives what ,he gives1 it is the highest wisdom to take ,him for our true good1 and never to let ,him go4 ,he is sun and shield4 ,this is the only place in which ,he is directly called a sun1 though the idea conveyed is common4 ,he is the master light of all our seeing1 the fountain of warmth1 illumination1 and life4 ,his beams are too bright for human eyes to gaze on1 but their effluence is the joy of creation4 ,they who look to ,him shall not walk in darkness1 but shall have the light of life4 ,what folly to choose darkness rather than light1 and1 when that ,sun is high in the heavens1 ready to flood our hearts with its beams1 to prefer to house ourselves in gloomy caverns of our own sad thoughts and evil doings6 ,another reason for the psalmist's choice is that ,god is a shield4 7,compare ver4 #i47 ,who that knows the dangers and foes that cluster thick round every life can wisely refuse to shelter behind that ample and impenetrable buckler8 ,it is madness to stand in the open field1 with arrows whizzing invisible all round1 when one step1 one heartfelt desire1 would place that sure defence between us and every peril4 ,god being such1 grace and glory will flow from ,him to those who seek ,him4 ,these two are given simultaneously1 not1 as sometimes supposed1 in succession1 as though grace were the sum of gifts for earth1 and glory the all-comprehending expression for the higher bestowments of heaven4 ,the psalmist thinks that both are possessed here4 ,grace is the sum of ,god's gifts1 coming from ,his loving regard to ,his sinful and inferior creatures4 ,glory is the reflection of ,his own lustrous perfection1 which irradiates lives that are turned to ,him1 and makes them shine1 as a poor piece of broken pottery will1 when the sunlight falls on it4 ,since ,god is the sum of all good1 to possess ,him is to possess it all4 ,the one gift unfolds into all things lovely and needful4 ,it is the raw material1 as it were1 out of which can be shaped1 according to transient and multiform needs1 everything that can be desired or can bless a soul4 ,but high as is the psalmist's flight of mystic devotion1 he does not soar so far as to lose sight of plain morality1 as mystics have often been apt to do4 ,it is the man who walks in his integrity who may hope to receive these blessings4 ,without holiness no man shall see the ,lord2 and neither access to ,his house nor the blessings flowing from ,his presence can belong to him who is faithless to his own convictions of duty4 ,the pilgrim paths are paths of righteousness4 ,the psalmist's last word translates his metaphors of dwelling in and travelling towards the house of ,jehovah into their simple meaning1 ,blessed is the man that trusteth in ,thee4 ,that trust both seeks and finds ,god4 ,there has never been but one way to ,his presence1 and that is the way of trust4 ,i am the way4444 ,no man cometh to the ,father but by ,me4 ,so coming1 we shall find1 and then shall seek more eagerly and find more fully1 and thus shall possess at once the joys of fruition and of desires always satisfied1 never satiated1 but continually renewed4 ,,psalm ,,lxxxv4 #a ,thou hast become favourable1 ,jehovah1 to ,thy land1 ,thou hast turned back the captivity of ,jacob4 #b ,thou hast taken away the iniquity of ,thy people1 ,thou hast covered all their sin4 #c ,thou hast drawn in all ,thy wrath1 ,thou hast turned ,thyself from the glow of ,thine anger4 #d ,turn us1 ,o ,god of our salvation1 ,and cause ,thine indignation towards us to cease4 #e ,for ever wilt ,thou be angry with us8 ,wilt ,thou stretch out ,thine anger to generation after generation8 #f ,wilt ,thou not revive us again1 ,that ,thy people may rejoice in ,thee8 #g ,show us1 ,jehovah1 ,thy loving-kindness1 ,and give us ,thy salvation4 #h ,i will hear what ,god1 ,jehovah1 will speak1 ,for ,he will speak peace to ,his people and to ,his favoured ones2 ,only let them not turn again to folly4 #i ,surely near to them who fear ,him is ,his salvation1 ,that glory may dwell in our land4 #aj ,loving-kindness and ,troth have met together1 ,righteousness and ,peace have kissed each other1 #aa ,troth springs from the earth1 ,and ,righteousness looks down from heaven4 #ab ,yea1 ,jehovah will give that which is good1 ,and our land will give her increase4 #ac ,righteousness shall go before ,him1 ,and shall make ,his footsteps a way4 ,the outstanding peculiarity of this psalm is its sudden transitions of feeling4 ,beginning with exuberant thanksgiving for restoration of the nation 7vv4 #a-c71 it passes1 without intermediate gradations1 to complaints of ,god's continued wrath and entreaties for restoration 7vv4 #d-g71 and then as suddenly rises to joyous assurance of inward and outward blessings4 ,the condition of the exiles returned from ,babylon best corresponds to such conflicting emotions4 ,the book of ,nehemiah supplies precisely such a background as fits the psalm4 ,a part of the nation had returned indeed1 but to a ruined city1 a fallen ,temple1 and a mourning land1 where they were surrounded by jealous and powerful enemies4 ,discouragement had laid hold on the feeble company2 enthusiasm had ebbed away2 the harsh realities of their enterprise had stripped off its imaginative charm2 and the mass of the returned settlers had lost heart as well as devout faith4 ,the psalm accurately reflects such a state of circumstances and feelings1 and may1 with some certitude1 be assigned1 as it is by most commentators1 to the period of return from exile4 ,it falls into three parts1 of increasing length1--the first1 of three verses 7vv4 #a-c71 recounts ,god's acts of mercy already received2 the second1 of four verses 7vv4 #d-g71 is a plaintive prayer in view of still remaining national afflictions2 and the third1 of six verses1 a glad report by the psalmist of the ,divine promises which his waiting ear had heard1 and which might well quicken the most faint-hearted into triumphant hope4 ,in the first strophe one great fact is presented in a threefold aspect1 and traced wholly to ,jehovah4 ,thou hast turned back the captivity of ,jacob4 ,that expression is sometimes used in a figurative sense for any restoration of prosperity1 but is here to be taken literally4 ,now1 as at first1 the restored ,israel1 like their ancestors under ,joshua1 had not won the land by their own arm1 but because ,god had a favour unto them1 and had given them favour in the eyes of those who carried them captive4 ,the restoration of the ,jews1 seen from the conqueror's point of view1 was a piece of state policy1 but from that of the devout ,israelite was the result of ,god's working upon the heart of the new ruler of ,babylon4 ,the fact is stated in ver4 #a2 a yet more blessed fact1 of which it is most blessed as being a token1 is declared in ver4 #b4 ,the psalmist knows that captivity had been chastisement1 the issue of national sin4 ,therefore he is sure that restoration is the sign of forgiveness4 ,his thoughts are running in the same line as in ,isa4 xl4 #b1 where the proclamation to ,jerusalem that her iniquity is pardoned is connected with the assurance that her hard service is accomplished4 ,he uses two significant words for pardon1 both of which occur in ,psalm xxxii4 ,in ver4 #b a sin is regarded as a weight pressing down the nation1 which ,god's mercy lifts off and takes away2 in ver4 #b b it is conceived of as a hideous stain or foulness1 which ,his mercy hides1 so that it is no longer an offence to heaven4 ,ver4 #c ventures still deeper into the sacred recesses of the ,divine nature1 and traces the forgiveness1 which in act had produced so happy a change in ,israel's position1 to its source in a change in ,god's disposition4 ,thou hast drawn in all ,thy wrath1 as a man does his breath1 or1 if the comparison may be ventured1 as some creature armed with a sting retracts it into its sheath4 ,thou hast turned ,thyself from the glow of ,thine anger gives the same idea under another metaphor4 ,the word turn has a singular fascination for this psalmist4 ,he uses it five times 7vv4 #a1 #c1 #d1 #f--lit41 wilt ,thou not turn1 quicken us8--and #h74 ,god's turning from ,his anger is the reason for ,israel's returning from captivity4 ,the abruptness of the transition from joyous thanksgiving to the sad minor of lamentation and supplication is striking1 but most natural1 if the psalmist was one of the band of returning exiles1 surrounded by the ruins of a happier past1 and appalled by the magnitude of the work before them1 the slenderness of their resources1 and the fierce hostility of their neighbours4 ,the prayer of ver4 #d1 ,turn us1 is best taken as using the word in the same sense as in ver4 #a1 where ,god is said to have turned the captivity of ,jacob4 ,what was there regarded as accomplished is here conceived of as still to be done4 ,that is1 the restoration was incomplete1 as we know that it was1 both in regard to the bulk of the nation1 who still remained in exile1 and in regard to the depressed condition of the small part of it which had gone back to ,palestine4 ,in like manner the petitions of ver4 #e look back to ver4 #c1 and pray that the anger which there had been spoken of as passed may indeed utterly cease4 ,the partial restoration of the people implied1 in the psalmist's view1 a diminution rather than a cessation of ,god's punitive wrath1 and he beseeches ,him to complete that which ,he had begun4 ,the relation of the first to the second strophe is not only that of contrast1 but the prayers of the latter are founded upon the facts of the former1 which constitute both grounds for the suppliant's hope of answer and pleas with ,god4 ,he cannot mean to deliver by halves4 ,the mercies received are incomplete2 and ,his work must be perfect4 ,he cannot be partially reconciled1 nor have meant to bring ,his people back to the land1 and then leave them to misery4 ,so the contrast between the bright dawning of the ,return and its clouded day is not wholly depressing2 for the remembrance of what has been heartens for the assurance that what is shall not always be1 but will be followed by a future more correspondent to ,god's purpose as shown in that past4 ,when we are tempted to gloomy thoughts by the palpable incongruities between ,god's ideals and man's realisation of them1 we may take a hint from this psalmist1 and1 instead of concluding that the ideal was a phantasm1 argue with ourselves that the incomplete actual will one day give way to the perfect embodiment4 ,god leaves no work unfinished4 ,he never leaves off till ,he has done4 ,his beginnings guarantee congruous endings4 ,he does not half withdraw ,his anger2 and1 if ,he seems to do so1 it is only because men have but half turned from their sins4 ,this psalm is rich in teaching as to the right way of regarding the incompleteness of great movements which1 in their incipient stages1 were evidently of ,god4 ,it instructs us to keep the ,divine intervention which started them clearly in view2 to make the shortcomings1 which mar them1 a subject of lowly prayer2 and to be sure that all which ,he begins ,he will finish1 and that the end will fully correspond to the promise of the beginning4 ,a day of the ,lord which rose in brightness may cloud over as its hours roll1 but at eventide it shall be light1 and none of the morning promise will be unfulfilled4 ,the third strophe 7vv4 #h-ac7 brings solid hopes1 based upon ,divine promises1 to bear on present discouragements4 ,in ver4 #h the psalmist1 like ,habakkuk 7ii4 #a71 encourages himself to listen to what ,god will speak4 ,the word ,i will hear expresses resolve or desire1 and might be rendered ,let me hear1 or ,i would hear4 ,faithful prayer will always be followed by patient and faithful waiting for response from ,god4 ,god will not be silent1 when ,his servant appeals to ,him with recognition of ,his past mercies1 joined with longing that these may be perfected4 ,no voice will break the silence of the heavens2 but1 in the depths of the waiting soul1 there will spring a sweet assurance which comes from ,god1 and is really ,his answer to prayer1 telling the suppliant that ,he will speak peace to ,his people1 and warning them not to turn away from ,him to other helps1 which is folly4 ,his favoured ones seems here to be meant as coextensive with ,his people4 ,israel is regarded as having entered into covenant relations with ,god2 and the designation is the pledge that what ,god speaks will be peace4 ,that word is to be taken in its widest sense1 as meaning1 first and chiefly1 peace with ,him1 who has turned ,himself from ,his anger2 and then1 generally1 well-being of all kinds1 outward and inward1 as a consequence of that rectified relation with ,god4 ,the warning of ver4 #h c is thought by some to be out of place1 and an emendation has been suggested1 which requires little change in the ,hebrew--namely1 to those who have turned their hearts towards ,him4 ,this reading is supported by the ,,lxx42 but the warning is perfectly appropriate1 and carries a large truth--that the condition of ,god's speaking of peace is our firm adherence to ,him4 ,once more the psalmist uses his favourite word turn4 ,god had turned the captivity2 ,he had turned ,himself from ,his anger2 the psalmist had prayed ,him to turn or restore the people1 and to turn and revive them1 and now ,he warns against turning again to folly4 ,there is always danger of relapse in those who have experienced ,god's delivering mercy4 ,there is a blessed turning1 when they are brought from the far-off land to dwell near ,god4 ,but there is a possible fatal turning away from the ,voice that speaks peace1 and the ,arm that brings salvation1 to the old distance and bondage4 ,strange that any ears1 which have heard the sweetness of ,his still small ,voice whispering ,peace1 should wish to stray where it cannot be heard6 ,strange that the warning should ever be required1 and tragic that it should so often be despised6 ,after the introductory ver4 #h1 the substance of what ,jehovah spoke to the psalmist is proclaimed in the singer's own words4 ,the first assurance which the psalmist drew from the ,divine word was that ,god's salvation1 the whole fulness of ,his delivering grace both in regard to external and in inward evils1 is ever near to them that fear ,him4 ,salvation here is to be taken in its widest sense4 ,it means1 negatively1 deliverance from all possible evils1 outward and inward2 and1 positively1 endowment with all possible good1 both for body and spirit4 ,with such fulness of complete blessings1 they1 and they only1 who keep near to ,god1 and refuse to turn aside to foolish confidences1 shall be enriched4 ,that is the inmost meaning of what ,god said to the psalmist2 and it is said to all4 ,and that salvation being thus possessed1 it would be possible for glory--i4e41 the manifest presence of ,god1 as in the ,shechinah--to tabernacle in the land4 ,the condition of ,god's dwelling with men is their acceptance of ,his salvation4 ,that purifies hearts to be temples4 ,the lovely personifications in vv4 #aj-ac have passed into ,christian poetry and art1 but are not clearly apprehended when they are taken to describe the harmonious meeting and co-operation1 in ,christ's great work1 of apparently opposing attributes of the ,divine nature4 ,no such thoughts are in the psalmist's mind4 ,loving-kindness and ,faithfulness or ,troth are constantly associated in ,scripture as ,divine attributes4 ,righteousness and ,peace are as constantly united1 as belonging to the perfection of human character4 ,ver4 #aj seems to refer to the manifestation of ,god's ,loving-kindness and ,faithfulness in its first clause1 and to the exhibition of ,his people's virtues and consequent happiness in its second4 ,in all ,god's dealings for ,his people1 ,his ,loving-kindness blends with ,faithfulness4 ,in all ,his people's experience ,righteousness and ,peace are inseparable4 ,the point of the assurance in ver4 #aj is that heaven and earth are blended in permanent amity4 ,these four radiant angels dwell in the land4 ,then1 in ver4 #aa1 there comes a beautiful inversion of the two pairs of personifications1 of each of which one member only reappears4 ,troth or ,faithfulness1 which in ver4 #aj came into view principally as a ,divine attribute1 in ver4 #aa is conceived of as a human virtue4 ,it springs out of the earth--that is1 is produced among men4 ,all human virtue is an echo of the ,divine1 and they who have received into their hearts the blessed results of ,god's ,faithfulness will bring forth in their lives fruits like it in kind4 ,similarly1 ,righteousness1 which in ver4 #aj was mainly viewed as a human excellence1 here appears as dwelling in and looking down from heaven1 like a gracious angel smiling on the abundance of ,faithfulness which springs from earth4 ,thus the bridal of the earth and sky is set forth in these verses4 ,the same idea is further presented in ver4 #ab1 in its most general form4 ,god gives that which is good1 both outward and inward blessings1 and1 thus fructified by bestowments from above1 earth yields her increase4 ,his gifts precede men's returns4 ,without sunshine and rain there are no harvests4 ,more widely still1 ,god gives first before ,he asks4 ,he does not gather where ,he has not strawed1 nor reap what ,he has not sown4 ,nor does ,he only sow1 but ,he blesses the springing thereof2 and to ,him should the harvest be rendered4 ,he gives before we can give4 ,isa4 xlv4 #h is closely parallel1 representing in like manner the co-operation of heaven and earth1 in the new world of ,messianic times4 ,in ver4 #ac the thought of the blending of heaven and earth1 or of ,divine attributes as being the foundation and parents of their human analogues1 is still more vividly expressed4 ,righteousness1 which in ver4 #aj was regarded as exercised by men1 and in ver4 #aa as looking down from heaven1 is now represented both as a herald preceding ,god's royal progress1 and as following in ,his footsteps4 ,the last clause is rendered in different ways1 which all have the same general sense4 ,probably the rendering above is best3 ,righteousness shall make ,his footsteps a way--that is1 for men to walk in4 ,all ,god's workings among men1 which are poetically conceived as ,his way1 have stamped on them ,righteousness4 ,that strong angel goes before ,him to clear a path for ,him1 and trace the course which ,he shall take4 ,that is the imaginative expression of the truth--that absolute1 inflexible ,righteousness guides all the ,divine acts4 ,but the same ,righteousness1 which precedes1 also follows ,him1 and points ,his footsteps as the way for us4 ,the incongruity of this double position of ,god's herald makes the force of the thought greater4 ,it is the poetical embodiment of the truth1 that the perfection of man's character and conduct lies in his being an imitator of ,god1 and that1 however different in degree1 our righteousness must be based on ,his4 ,what a wonderful thought that is1 that the union between heaven and earth is so close that ,god's path is our way6 ,how deep into the foundation of ethics the psalmist's glowing vision pierces6 ,how blessed the assurance that ,god's ,righteousness is revealed from heaven to make men righteous6 ,our psalm needs the completion1 which tells of that gospel in which the ,righteousness of ,god from faith is revealed for faith4 ,in ,jesus the glory has tabernacled among men4 ,he has brought heaven and earth together4 ,in ,him ,god's ,loving-kindness and ,faithfulness have become denizens of earth1 as never before4 ,in ,him heaven has emptied its choicest good on earth4 ,through ,him our barrenness and weeds are changed into harvests of love1 praise1 and service4 ,in ,him the ,righteousness of ,god is brought near2 and1 trusting in ,him1 each of us may tread in ,his footsteps1 and have ,his ,righteousness fulfilled in us who walk1 not after the flesh1 but after the spirit4 ,,psalm ,,lxxxvi4 #a ,bow down ,thine ear1 ,jehovah1 answer me1 ,for ,i am afflicted and poor4 #b ,keep my soul1 for ,i am favoured by ,thee1 ,save ,thy servant1 ,o ,thou my ,god1 ,that trusts in ,thee4 #c ,be gracious to me1 ,lord1 ,for to ,thee ,i cry all the day4 #d ,rejoice the soul of ,thy servant1 ,for to ,thee1 ,lord1 do ,i lift up my soul4 #e ,for ,thou1 ,lord1 art good and forgiving1 ,and plenteous in loving-kindness to all who call on ,thee4 #f ,give ear1 ,jehovah1 to my prayer1 ,and take heed to the voice of my supplications4 #g ,in the day of my straits will ,i call on ,thee1 ,for ,thou wilt answer me4 #h ,there is none like ,thee among the gods1 ,o ,lord1 ,and no works like ,thy works4 #i ,all nations whom ,thou hast made ,shall come and bow themselves before ,thee1 ,and shall give glory to ,thy ,name1 #aj ,for great art ,thou and doest wonders1 ,thou art ,god alone4 #aa ,teach me1 ,jehovah1 ,thy way1 ,i will walk in ,thy troth1 ,unite my heart to fear ,thy ,name4 #ab ,i will thank ,thee1 ,o ,lord my ,god1 with all my heart1 ,and ,i will glorify ,thy ,name for ever4 #ac ,for ,thy loving-kindness is great towards me1 ,and ,thou hast delivered my soul from ,sheol beneath4 #ad ,o ,god1 the proud have risen against me1 ,and a crew of violent men have sought after my soul1 ,and have not set ,thee before them4 #ae ,but ,thou1 ,lord1 art a ,god compassionate and gracious1 ,long-suffering and plenteous in loving-kindness and troth4 #af ,turn to me and be gracious to me1 ,give ,thy strength to ,thy servant1 ,and save the son of ,thy handmaid4 #ag ,work for me a sign for good1 ,that they who hate me may see and be ashamed1 ,for ,thou1 ,jehovah1 hast helped me and comforted me4 ,this psalm is little more than a mosaic of quotations and familiar phrases of petition4 ,but it is none the less individual1 nor is the psalmist less heavily burdened1 or less truly beseeching and trustful1 because he casts his prayer into well-worn words4 ,god does not give originality to every devout man2 and ,he does not require it as a condition of accepted prayer4 ,humble souls1 who find in more richly endowed men's words the best expression of their own needs1 may be encouraged by such a psalm4 ,critics may think little of it1 as a mere cento2 but ,god does not refuse to bow ,his ear1 though ,he is asked to do so in borrowed words4 ,a prayer full of quotations may be heartfelt1 and then it will be heard and answered4 ,this psalmist has not only shown his intimate acquaintance with earlier devotional words1 but he has woven his garland with much quiet beauty1 and has blended its flowers into a harmony of colour all his own4 ,there is no fully developed strophical arrangement but there is a discernible flow of thought1 and the psalm may be regarded as falling into three parts4 ,the first of these 7vv4 #a-e7 is a series of petitions1 each supported by a plea4 ,the petitions are the well-worn ones which spring from universal need1 and there is a certain sequence in them4 ,they begin with ,bow down ,thine ear1 the first of a suppliant's desires1 which1 as it were1 clears the way for those which follow4 ,trusting that he will not ask in vain1 the psalmist then prays that ,god would keep his soul as a watchful guardian or sentry does1 and that1 as the result of such care1 he may be saved from impending perils4 ,nor do his desires limit themselves to deliverance4 ,they rise to more inward and select manifestations of ,god's heart of tenderness1 for the prayer ,be gracious asks for such1 and so goes deeper into the blessedness of the devout life than the preceding4 ,and the crown of all these requests is ,rejoice the soul of ,thy servant1 with the joy which flows from experience of outward deliverance and of inward whispers of ,god's grace1 heard in the silent depths of communion with ,him4 ,it matters not that every petition has parallels in other psalms1 which this singer is quoting4 ,his desires are none the less his1 because they have been shared by a company of devout souls before him4 ,his expression of them is none the less his1 because his very words have been uttered by others4 ,there is rest in thus associating oneself with an innumerable multitude who have cried to ,god and been lightened4 ,the petition in ver4 #a is like that in ,psalm lv4 #b4 ,ver4 #b sounds like a reminiscence of ,psalm xxv4 #bj2 ver4 #c closely resembles ,psalm lvii4 #a4 ,the pleas on which the petitions are grounded are also beautifully wreathed together4 ,first1 the psalmist asks to be heard because he is afflicted and poor 7compare ,psalm xl4 #ag74 ,our need is a valid plea with a faithful ,god4 ,the sense of it drives us to ,him2 and our recognition of poverty and want must underlie all faithful appeal to ,him4 ,the second plea is capable of two interpretations4 ,the psalmist says that he is ,chasid2 and that word is by some commentators taken to mean one who exercises1 and by others one who is the subject of1 ,chesed--i4e41 loving-kindness4 ,as has been already remarked on ,psalm iv4 #c1 the passive meaning--i4e41 one to whom ,god's loving-kindness is shown--is preferable4 ,here it is distinctly better than the other4 ,the psalmist is not presenting his own character as a plea1 but urging ,god's gracious relation to him1 which1 once entered on1 pledges ,god to unchanging continuance in manifesting ,his loving-kindness4 ,but1 though the psalmist does not plead his character1 he does1 in the subsequent pleas1 present his faith1 his daily and day-long prayers1 and his lifting of his desires1 aspirations1 and whole self above the trivialities of earth to set them on ,god4 ,these are valid pleas with ,him4 ,it cannot be that trust fixed on ,him should be disappointed1 nor that cries perpetually rising to ,his ears should be unanswered1 nor that a soul stretching its tendrils heavenward should fail to find the strong stay1 round which it can cling and climb4 ,god owns the force of such appeals1 and delights to be moved to answer1 by the spreading before ,him of ,his servant's faith and longings4 ,but all the psalmist's other pleas are merged at last in that one contained in ver4 #e1 where he gazes on the revealed ,name of ,god1 and thinks of ,him as ,he had been described of old1 and as this suppliant delights to set to his seal that he has found ,him to be--good and placable1 and rich in loving-kindness4 ,god is ,his own motive1 and ,faith can find nothing mightier to urge with ,god1 nor any surer answer to its own doubts to urge with itself1 than the unfolding of all that lies in the ,name of the ,lord4 ,these pleas1 like the petitions which they support1 are largely echoes of older words4 ,afflicted and poor comes1 as just noticed1 from ,psalm xl4 #ag4 ,the designation of one whom ,god favours is from ,psalm iv4 #c4 ,unto ,thee do ,i lift up my soul is taken verbatim from ,psalm xxv4 #a4 ,the explication of the contents of the ,name of the ,lord1 like the fuller one in ver4 #ae1 is based upon ,exod4 xxxiv4 #f4 ,vv4 #f-ac may be taken together1 as the prayer proper1 to which vv4 #a-e are introductory4 ,in them there is1 first1 a repetition of the cry for help1 and of the declaration of need 7vv4 #f1 #g72 then a joyful contemplation of ,god's unapproachable majesty and works1 which insure the ultimate recognition of ,his ,name by all nations 7vv4 #h-aj72 then a profoundly and tenderly spiritual prayer for guidance and consecration--wants more pressing still than outward deliverance 7ver4 #aa72 and1 finally1 as in so many psalms1 anticipatory thanksgivings for deliverance yet future1 but conceived of as present by vivid faith4 ,echoes of earlier psalms sound through the whole2 but the general impression is not that of imitation1 but of genuine personal need and devotion4 ,ver4 #g is like ,psalm xvii4 #f and other passages2 ver4 #h a is from ,exod4 xv4 #aa2 ver4 #h b is modelled on ,deut4 iii4 #bd2 ver4 #i1 on ,psalm xxii4 #bg2 ver4 #aa a1 on ,psalm xxvii4 #aa2 ver4 #aa b1 on ,psalm xxvi4 #c2 ,sheol beneath is from ,deut4 xxxii4 #bb4 ,but1 withal1 there are unity and progress in this cento of citations4 ,the psalmist begins with reiterating his cry that ,god would hear1 and in ver4 #g advances to the assurance that ,he will4 ,then in vv4 #h-aj he turns from all his other pleas to dwell on his final one 7ver4 #e7 of the ,divine character4 ,as1 in the former verse1 he had rested his calm hope on ,god's willingness to help1 so now he strengthens himself1 in assurance of an answer1 by the thought of ,god's unmatched power1 the unique majesty of ,his works and ,his sole ,divinity4 ,ver4 #h might seem to assert only ,jehovah's supremacy above other gods of the heathen2 but ver4 #aj shows that the psalmist speaks the language of pure ,monotheism4 ,most naturally the prophetic assurance that all nations shall come and worship ,him is deduced from ,his sovereign power and incomparableness4 ,it cannot be that the nations whom ,thou hast made shall for ever remain ignorant of the hand that made them4 ,sooner or later that great character shall be seen by all men in its solitary elevation2 and universal praise shall correspond to ,his sole ,divinity4 ,the thought of ,god's sovereign power carries the psalmist beyond remembrance of his immediate outward needs1 and stirs higher desires in him4 ,hence spring the beautiful and spiritual petitions of ver4 #aa1 which seek for clearer insight into ,god's will concerning the psalmist's conduct1 breathe aspirations after a walk in that ,god-appointed way and in ,thy troth1 and culminate in one of the sweetest and deepest prayers of the ,psalter3 ,unite my heart to fear ,thy ,name4 ,there1 at least1 the psalmist speaks words borrowed from no other1 but springing fresh from his heart's depths4 ,jer4 xxxii4 #ci is the nearest parallel1 and the commandment in ,deut4 vi4 #e1 to love ,god with all thine heart1 may have been in the psalmist's mind2 but the prayer is all his own4 ,he has known the misery of a divided heart1 the affections and purposes of which are drawn in manifold directions1 and are arrayed in conflict against each other4 ,there is no peace nor blessedness1 neither is any nobility of life possible1 without whole-hearted devotion to one great object2 and there is no object capable of evoking such devotion or worthy to receive it1 except ,him who is ,god alone4 ,divided love is no love4 ,it must be all in all1 or not at all4 ,with deep truth1 the command to love ,god with all the heart is based upon ,his ,unity--,hear1 ,o ,israel3 ,the ,lord thy ,god is one ,lord2 and thou shalt love the ,lord thy ,god with all thine heart 7,deut4 vi4 #d74 ,the very conception of religion requires that it should be exclusive1 and should dominate the whole nature4 ,it is only ,god who is great enough to fill and engage all our capacities4 ,only the mass of the central sun is weighty enough to make giant orbs its satellites1 and to wheel them in their courses4 ,there is no tranquillity nor any power in lives frittered away on a thousand petty loves4 ,the river that breaks into a multitude of channels is sucked up in the sand without reaching the ocean1 and has no force in its current to scour away obstructions4 ,concentration makes strong men2 consecration makes saints4 ,this one thing ,i do is the motto of all who have done anything worthy4 ,unite my heart to fear ,thy ,name is the prayer of all whose devotion is worthy of its object1 and is the source of joy and power to themselves4 ,the psalmist asks for a heart made one with itself in the fear of ,god1 and then vows that1 with that united heart1 he will praise his delivering ,god4 ,as in many other psalms1 he anticipates the answers to his prayers1 and in ver4 #ac speaks of ,god's loving-kindness as freshly manifested to him1 and of deliverance from the dismal depths of the unseen world1 which threatened to swallow him up4 ,it seems more in accordance with the usage in similar psalms to regard ver4 #ac as thus recounting1 with prophetic certainty1 the coming deliverance as if it were accomplished1 than to suppose that in it the psalmist is falling back on former instances of ,god's rescuing grace4 ,in the closing part 7vv4 #ad-ag71 the psalmist describes more precisely his danger4 ,he is surrounded by a rabble rout of proud and violent men1 whose enmity to him is1 as in so many of the psalms of persecuted singers1 a proof of their forgetfulness of ,god4 ,right against this rapid outline of his perils1 he sets the grand unfolding of the character of ,god in ver4 #ae4 ,it is still fuller than that in ver4 #e1 and1 like it1 rests on ,exod4 xxxiv4 ,such juxtaposition is all that is needed to show how little he has to fear from the hostile crew4 ,on one hand are they1 in their insolence and masterfulness1 eagerly hunting after his life2 on the other is ,god with ,his infinite pity and loving-kindness4 ,happy are they who can discern high above dangers and foes the calm presence of the only ,god1 and1 with hearts undistracted and undismayed1 can oppose to all that assails them the impenetrable shield of the ,name of the ,lord6 ,it concerns our peaceful fronting of the darker facts of life1 that we cultivate the habit of never looking at dangers or sorrows without seeing the helping ,god beside and above them4 ,the psalm ends with prayer for present help4 ,if ,god is1 as the psalmist has seen ,him to be1 full of compassion and gracious1 it is no presumptuous petition that the streams of these perfections should be made to flow towards a needy suppliant4 ,be gracious to me asks that the light1 which pours through the universe1 may fall on one heart1 which is surrounded by earth-born darkness4 ,as in the introductory verses1 so in the closing petitions1 the psalmist grounds his prayer principally on ,god's manifested character1 and secondarily on his own relation to ,god4 ,thus in ver4 #af he pleads that he is ,god's servant1 and the son of ,thy handmaid 7compare ,psalm cxvi4 #af74 ,that expression does not imply any special piety in the psalmist's mother1 but pleads his hereditary relation as servant to ,god1 or1 in other words1 his belonging by birth to ,israel1 as a reason for his prayers being heard4 ,his last petition for a sign does not necessarily mean a miracle1 but a clear manifestation of ,god's favour1 which might be as unmistakably shown by an every-day event as by a supernatural intervention4 ,to the devout heart1 all common things are from ,god1 and bear witness for ,him4 ,even blind eyes and hard hearts may be led to see and feel that ,god is the helper and comforter of humble souls who trust in ,him4 ,a heart that is made at peace with itself by the fear of ,god1 and has but one dominant purpose and desire1 will long for ,god's mercies1 not only because they have a bearing on its own outward well-being1 but because they will demonstrate that it is no vain thing to wait on the ,lord1 and may lead some1 who cherished enmity to ,god's servant and alienation from ,himself1 to learn the sweetness of ,his ,name and the security of trust in ,him4 ,,psalm ,,lxxxvii4 #a ,his foundation on the holy mountains1 #b ,the gates of ,zion ,jehovah loves ,more than all the dwellings of ,jacob4 #c ,glorious things are spoken of thee1 ,o city of ,god4 ,selah4 #d ,i will proclaim ,rahab and ,babylon as those who know ,me3 ,behold ,philistia and ,tyre1 with ,cush2 ,this one was born there4 #e ,and of ,zion it shall be said1 ,man after man was born in her1 ,and ,he1 the ,most ,high1 shall establish her4 #f ,jehovah shall reckon when ,he writes down the peoples1 ,this one was born there4 ,selah4 #g ,and singers and dancers shall chant1 ,all my fountains are in ,thee4 ,one clear note sounds in this remarkable psalm4 ,its single theme is the incorporation of ancestral foes and distant nations with the people of ,god4 ,aliens are to be enrolled as home-born citizens of ,jerusalem4 ,in modern words1 the vision of a universal ,church1 a brotherhood of humanity1 shines radiant before the seer4 ,other psalmists and prophets have like insight into the future expansion of the nation1 but this psalm stands alone in the emphasis which it places upon the idea of birth into the rights of citizenship4 ,this singer has had granted to him a glimpse of two great truths--the universality of the ,church1 and the mode of entrance into it by reception of a new life4 ,to what age of ,israel he belonged is uncertain4 ,the mention of ,babylon as among the enemies who have become fellow-citizens favours the supposition of a post-exilic date1 which is also supported by resemblances to ,isa4 xl4-lxvi4 ,the structure is simple4 ,the psalm is divided by ,selah into two strophes1 to which a closing verse is appended4 ,the first strophe bursts abruptly into rapturous praise of ,zion1 the beloved of ,god4 ,the second predicts the gathering of all nations into her citizenship1 and the closing verse apparently paints the exuberant joy of the festal crowds1 who shall then throng her streets4 ,the abrupt beginning of the first strophe offends some commentators1 who have tried to smooth ver4 #a into propriety and tameness1 by suggesting possible preliminary clauses1 which they suppose to have dropped out4 ,but there is no canon which forbids a singer1 with the rush of inspiration1 either poetic or other1 on him1 to plunge into the heart of his theme4 ,ver4 #a may be construed1 as in the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v4 7text71 as a complete sentence1 but is then somewhat feeble4 ,it is better to connect it with ver4 #b1 and to regard ,his foundation upon the holy mountains as parallel with the gates of ,zion1 and as1 like that phrase1 dependent on the verb loves4 ,hupfeld1 indeed1 proposes to transfer ,jehovah loves from the beginning of ver4 #b1 where it now stands1 to the end of ver4 #a1 supplying the verb mentally in the second clause4 ,he thus gets a complete parallelism3-- ,his foundation upon the holy mountains ,jehovah loves1 ,the gates of ,zion before all the dwellings of ,jacob4 ,but this is not necessary2 for the verb may as well be supplied to the first as to the second clause4 ,the harshness of saying ,his foundation1 without designating the person to whom the pronoun refers1 which is extreme if ver4 #a is taken as a separate sentence1 is diminished when it is regarded as connected with ver4 #b1 in which the mention of ,jehovah leaves no doubt as to whose the foundation is4 ,the psalmist's fervent love for ,jerusalem is something more than national pride4 ,it is the apotheosis of that emotion1 clarified and hallowed into religion4 ,zion is founded by ,god ,himself4 ,the mountains on which it stands are made holy by the ,divine dwelling4 ,on their heads shines a glory before which the light that lies on the rock crowned by the ,parthenon or on the seven hills of ,rome pales4 ,not only the ,temple mountain is meant1 but the city is the psalmist's theme4 ,the hills1 on which it stands1 are emblems of the firmness of its foundation in the ,divine purpose1 on which it reposes4 ,it is beloved of ,god1 and that1 as the form of the word loves shows1 with an abiding affection4 ,the glorious things which are spoken of ,zion may be either the immediately following ,divine oracle1 or1 more probably1 prophetic utterances such as many of those in ,isaiah1 which predict its future glory4 ,the ,divine utterance which follows expresses the substance of these4 ,so far1 the psalm is not unlike other outpourings in praise of ,zion1 such as ,psalm xlviii4 ,but1 in the second strophe1 to which the first is introductory1 the singer strikes a note all his own4 ,there can be no doubt as to who is the speaker in ver4 #d4 ,the abrupt introduction of a ,divine ,oracle accords with a not infrequent usage in the ,psalter1 which adds much to the solemnity of the words4 ,if we regard the glorious things mentioned in ver4 #c as being the utterances of earlier prophets1 the psalmist has had his ears purged to hear ,god's voice1 by meditation on and sympathy with these4 ,the faithful use of what ,god has said prepares for hearing further disclosures of ,his lips4 ,the enumeration of nations in ver4 #d carries a great lesson4 ,first comes the ancient enemy1 ,egypt1 designated by the old name of contempt 7,rahab1 i4e4 pride71 but from which the contempt has faded2 then follows ,babylon1 the more recent inflicter of many miseries1 once so detested1 but towards whom animosity has died down4 ,these two1 as the chief oppressors1 between whom1 like a piece of metal between hammer and anvil1 ,israel's territory lay1 are named first1 with the astonishing declaration that ,god will proclaim them as among those who know ,him4 ,that knowledge1 of course1 is not merely intellectual1 but the deeper knowledge of personal acquaintance or friendship--a knowledge of which love is an element1 and which is vital and transforming4 ,philistia is the old neighbour and foe1 which from the beginning had hung on the skirts of ,israel1 and been ever ready to utilise her disasters and add to them4 ,tyre is the type of godless luxury and inflated material prosperity1 and1 though often in friendly alliance with ,israel1 as being exposed to the same foes which harassed her1 she was as far from knowing ,god as the other nations were4 ,cush1 or ,ethiopia1 seems mentioned as a type of distant peoples1 rather than because of its hostility to ,israel4 ,god points to these nations--some of them near1 some remote1 some powerful and some feeble1 some hereditarily hostile and some more or less amicable with ,israel--and gives forth the declaration concerning them1 ,this one was born there4 ,god's voice ceases1 and in ver4 #e the psalmist takes up the wonderful promise which he has just heard4 ,he slightly shifts his point of view3 for while the nations that were to be gathered into ,zion were the foremost figures in the ,divine utterance1 the ,zion into which they are gathered is foremost in the psalmist's1 in ver4 #e4 ,its glory1 when thus enriched by a multitude of new citizens1 bulks in his eyes more largely than their blessedness4 ,another shade of difference between the two verses is that1 in the former1 the ingathering of the peoples is set forth as collective or national incorporation1 and1 in me latter1--as the expression man after 7or by7 man suggests1--individual accession is more clearly foretold4 ,the establishment of ,zion1 which the psalmist prophesies1 is the result of her reinforcement by these new citizens4 ,the grand figure of ver4 #f pictures ,god as taking a census of the whole world2 for it is the peoples whom ,he numbers4 ,as he writes down each name1 ,he says concerning it1 ,this one was born there4 ,that list of citizens is the ,book of the ,living4 ,so the end of all history is that ,zion becomes the metropolis of all people 7,delitzsch74 ,three great truths had dawned on this psalmist1 though their full light was reserved for the ,christian era4 ,he had been led to apprehend that the ,jewish ,church would expand into a world-wide community4 ,if one thinks of the gulfs of hatred and incompatibility which parted the peoples in his day1 his clear utterance of that great truth1 the apprehension of which so far transcended his time1 and the realisation of which so far transcends ours1 will surely be seen to be due to a ,divine breath4 ,the broadest ,new ,testament expression of ,universalism does not surpass the psalmist's confident certainty1 ,there is neither ,greek nor ,jew1 barbarian1 ,scythian1 says no more than he said4 ,more remarkable still is his conception of the method by which the nations should be gathered in to ,zion4 ,they are to be born there4 ,surely there shines before the speaker some glimmering ray of the truth that incorporation with the people of ,god is effected by the communication of a new life1 a transformation of the natural1 which will set men in new affinities1 and make them all brethren1 because all participant of the same wondrous birth4 ,it would be anachronism to read into the psalm the clear ,christian truth ,ye must be born again1 but it would be as false a weakening of its words to refuse to see in them the germ of that truth4 ,the third discovery which the psalmist has made1 or rather the third revelation which he has received1 is that of the individual accession of the members of the outlying nations4 ,the ,divine voice1 in ver4 #d1 seems to speak of birth into citizenship as national2 but the psalmist1 in ver4 #f1 represents ,jehovah as writing the names of individuals in the burgess-roll1 and of saying in regard to each1 as ,he writes1 ,this one was born there4 ,in like manner1 in ver4 #e1 the form of expression is ,man after man1 which brings out the same thought1 with the addition that there is an unbroken series of new citizens4 ,it is by accession of single souls that the population of ,zion is increased4 ,god's register resolves the community into its component units4 ,men are born one by one1 and one by one they enter the true kingdom4 ,in the ancient world the community was more than the individual4 ,but in ,christ the individual acquires new worth1 while the bands of social order are not thereby weakened1 but made more stringent and sacred4 ,the city1 whose inhabitants have one by one been won by its ,king1 and have been knit to ,him in the sacred depths of personal being1 is more closely compact together than the mechanical aggregations which call themselves civil societies4 ,the unity of ,christ's kingdom does not destroy national characteristics any more than it interferes with individual idiosyncrasies4 ,the more each constituent member is himself1 the more will he be joined to others1 and contribute his special mite to the general wealth and well-being4 ,ver4 #g is1 on any interpretation1 extremely obscure1 because so abrupt and condensed4 ,but probably the translation adopted above1 though by no means free from difficulty or doubt1 brings out the meaning which is most in accordance with the preceding4 ,it may be supposed to flash vividly before the reader's imagination the picture of a triumphal procession of rejoicing citizens1 singers as well as dancers1 who chant1 as they advance1 a joyous chorus in praise of the city1 in which they have found all fountains of joy and satisfaction welling up for their refreshment and delight4 ,,psalm ,,lxxxviii4 #a ,jehovah1 ,god of my salvation1 ,by day1 by night ,i cry before ,thee4 #b ,let my prayer come before ,thy face1 ,bow ,thine ear to my shrill cry4 #c ,for sated with troubles is my soul1 ,and my life has drawn near to ,sheol4 #d ,i am counted with those that have gone down to the pit1 ,i am become as a man without strength4 #e ,i am free among the dead1 ,like the slain that lie in the grave1 ,whom ,thou rememberest no more1 ,but they are cut off from ,thy hand4 #f ,thou hast laid me in the lowest pit1 ,in dark places1 in the deeps4 #g ,upon me ,thy wrath presses hard1 ,and with all ,thy breakers ,thou hast afflicted me4 ,selah #h ,thou hast put my familiar friends far from me1 ,thou hast made me an abomination to them1 ,i am shut up so that ,i cannot come forth4 #i ,my eye wastes away because of affliction1 ,i have called on ,thee daily1 ,jehovah1 ,i have spread out my palms to ,thee1 #aj ,for the dead canst ,thou do wonders8 ,or can the shades arise and praise ,thee8 ,selah4 #aa ,in the grave can ,thy loving-kindness be told1 ,and ,thy faithfulness in destruction8 #ab ,can ,thy wonders be made known in darkness1 ,and ,thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness8 #ac ,but ,i1 ,i have cried unto ,thee1 ,jehovah1 ,and in the morning my prayer comes to meet ,thee4 #ad ,why1 ,jehovah1 dost ,thou cast off my soul1 ,and hidest ,thy face from me8 #ae ,afflicted am ,i and at the point of death from my youth1 ,i have borne ,thy terrors till ,i am distracted4 #af ,over me have ,thy streams of wrath passed1 ,thy horrors have cut me off4 #ag ,they have compassed me about like waters all the day4 ,they have come round me together4 #ah ,thou hast put far from me lover and friend1 ,my familiar friends are--darkness4 ,a psalm which begins with ,god of my salvation and ends with darkness is an anomaly4 ,all but unbroken gloom broods over it1 and is densest at its close4 ,the psalmist is so weighed upon by sore distress1 that he has neither definite petition for deliverance nor hope4 ,his cry to ,god is only a long-drawn complaint1 which brings no respite from his pains nor brightening of his spirit4 ,but yet to address ,god as the ,god of his salvation1 to discern ,his hand in the infliction of sorrows1 is the operation of true though feeble faith4 ,though ,he slay me1 yet will ,i trust in ,him1 is the very spirit of this psalm4 ,it stands alone in the ,psalter1 which would be incomplete as a mirror of phases of devout experience1 unless it had one psalm expressing trust which has ceased to ask or hope for the removal of lifelong griefs1 but still clasps ,god's hand even in the darkness4 ,such experience is comparatively rare1 and is meant to be risen above4 ,therefore this psalm stands alone4 ,but it is not unexampled1 and all moods of the devout life would not find lyrical expression in the book unless this deep note was once sounded4 ,it is useless to inquire what was the psalmist's affliction4 ,his language seems to point to physical disease1 of long continuance and ever threatening a fatal termination2 but in all probability sickness is a symbol here1 as so often4 ,what racked his sensitive spirit matters little4 ,the cry which his pains evoked is what we are concerned with4 ,there is little trace of strophical arrangement1 and commentators differ much in their disposition of the parts of the psalm4 ,but we venture to suggest a principle of division which has not been observed1 in the threefold recurrence of ,i cry or ,i call1 accompanied in each case by direct address to ,jehovah4 ,the resulting division into three parts gives1 first1 the psalmist's description of his hopeless condition as1 in effect1 already dead 7vv4 #a-h72 second1 an expostulation with ,god on the ground that1 if the psalmist is actually numbered with the dead1 he can no more be the object of ,divine help1 nor bring ,god praise 7vv4 #i-ab72 and1 third1 a repetition of the thoughts of the first part1 with slight variation and addition4 ,the central portion of the first division is occupied with an expansion of the thought that the psalmist is already as good as dead 7vv4 #c b-#f74 ,the condition of the dead is drawn with a powerful hand1 and the picture is full of solemn grandeur and hopelessness4 ,it is preceded in vv4 #a1 #b1 by an invocation which has many parallels in the psalms1 but which here is peculiarly striking4 ,this saddest of them all has for its first words the ,name which ought to banish sadness4 ,he who can call on ,jehovah as the ,god of his salvation possesses a charm which has power to still agitation1 and to flush despair with some light of hope as from an unrisen sun4 ,but this poet feels no warmth from the beams1 and the mists surge up1 if not to hide the light1 yet to obscure it4 ,all the more admirable1 then1 the persistence of his cry2 and all the more precious the lesson that ,faith is not to let present experience limit its conceptions4 ,god is none the less the ,god of salvation and none the less to be believed to be so1 though no consciousness of ,his saving power blesses the heart at the moment4 ,ver4 #a b is obscure4 ,psalm xxii4 #b and other places suggest that the juxtaposition of day and night is meant to express the continuity of the psalmist's prayer2 but1 as the text now stands1 the first part of the clause can only mean ,in the time 7day7 when ,i cry1 and the second has to be supplemented so as to read ,my cry comes before ,thee4 ,this gives a poor meaning1 and there is probability in the slight emendation on the word for day1 which is required in order to make it an adverb of time equivalent to ,in the day1 as in the passage already quoted4 ,another emendation1 adopted by ,graetz1 ,bickell1 and ,cheyne1 changes ,god of into my ,god1 and my salvation into ,i cry 7the same word as in ver4 #ac71 and attaches by day to the first clause4 ,the result is1-- ,jehovah1 my ,god1 ,i cry to ,thee by day1 ,i call in the night before ,thee4 ,the changes are very slight and easy1 and the effect of them is satisfactory4 ,the meaning of the verse is obvious1 whether the emendation is accepted or not4 ,the gain from the proposed change is dearly purchased by the loss of that solitary expression of hope in the name of ,god of my salvation1 the one star which gleams for a moment through a rift in the blackness4 ,with ,for in ver4 #c the psalmist begins the dreary description of his affliction1 the desperate and all but deodly character of which he spreads before ,god as a reason for hearing his prayer4 ,despair sometimes strikes men dumb1 and sometimes makes them eloquent4 ,the sorrow which has a voice is less crushing than that which is tongueless4 ,this overcharged heart finds relief in self-pitying depicting of its burdens1 and in the exercise of a gloomy imagination1 which draws out in detail the picture of the feebleness1 the recumbent stillness1 the seclusion and darkness of the dead4 ,they have no strength4 ,their vital force has ebbed away1 and they are but as weak shadows1 having an impotent existence1 which does not deserve to be called life4 ,the remarkable expression of ver4 #e1 free among the dead1 is to be interpreted in the light of ,job iii4 #ai1 which counts it as one blessing of the grave1 that there the servant is free from his master4 ,but the psalmist thinks that that freedom is loathsome1 not desirable1 for it means removal from the stir of a life1 the heaviest duties and cares of which are better than the torpid immunity from these1 which makes the state of the dead a dreary monotony4 ,they lie stretched out and motionless4 ,no ripple of cheerful activity stirs that stagnant sea4 ,one unvarying attitude is theirs4 ,it is not the stillness of rest which prepares for work1 but of incapacity of action or of change4 ,they are forgotten by ,him who remembers all that are4 ,they are parted from the guiding and blessing influence of the ,hand that upholds all being4 ,in some strange fashion they are and yet are not4 ,their death has a simulacrum of life4 ,their shadowy life is death4 ,being and non-being may both be predicated of them4 ,the psalmist speaks in riddles2 and the contradictions in his speech reflect his dim knowledge of that place of darkness4 ,he looks into its gloomy depths1 and he sees little but gloom4 ,it needed the resurrection of ,jesus to flood these depths with light1 and to show that the life beyond may be fuller of bright activity than life here--a state in which vital strength is increased beyond all earthly experience1 and wherein ,god's all-quickening hand grasps more closely1 and communicates richer gifts than are attainable in that death which sense calls life4 ,ver4 #g traces the psalmist's sorrows to ,god4 ,it breathes not complaint but submission1 or1 at least1 recognition of ,his hand2 and they who1 in the very paroxysm of their pains1 can say1 ,it is the ,lord1 are not far from saying1 ,let ,him do what seemeth ,him good1 nor from the peace that comes from a compliant will4 ,the recognition implies1 too1 consciousness of sin which has deserved the wrath of ,god1 and in such consciousness lies the germ of blessing4 ,sensitive nerves may quiver1 as they feel the dreadful weight with which that wrath presses down on them1 as if to crush them2 but if the man lies still1 and lets the pressure do its work1 it will not force out his life1 but only his evil1 as foul water is squeezed from cloth4 ,ver4 #g b is rendered by ,delitzsch ,all ,thy billows ,thou pressest down1 which gives a vivid picture2 but billows is scarcely the word to use for the downward rushing waters of a cataract1 and the ordinary rendering1 adopted above1 requires only natural supplements4 ,ver4 #h approaches nearer to a specification of the psalmist's affliction4 ,if taken literally1 it points to some loathsome disease1 which had long clung to and made even his friends shrink from companionship1 and thus had condemned him to isolation4 ,all these details suggest leprosy1 which1 if referred to here1 is most probably to be taken1 as sickness is in several psalms1 as symbolic of affliction4 ,the desertion by friends is a common feature in the psalmists' complaints4 ,the seclusion as in a prison-house is1 no doubt1 appropriate to the leper's condition1 but may also simply refer to the loneliness and compulsory inaction arising from heavy trials4 ,at all events1 the psalmist is flung back friendless on himself1 and hemmed in1 so that he cannot expatiate in the joyous bustle of life4 ,blessed are they who1 when thus situated1 can betake themselves to ,god1 and find that ,he does not turn away6 ,the consciousness of ,his loving presence has not yet lighted the psalmist's soul2 but the clear acknowledgment that it is ,god who has put the sweetness of earthly companionship beyond his reach is1 at least1 the beginning of the happier experience1 that ,god never makes a solitude round a soul without desiring to fill it with ,himself4 ,if the recurring cry to ,jehovah in ver4 #i is taken1 as we have suggested it should be1 as marking a new turn in the thoughts1 the second part of the psalm will include vv4 #i-ab4 ,vv4 #aj-ab are apparently the daily prayer referred to in ver4 #i4 ,they appeal to ,god to preserve the psalmist from the state of death1 which he has just depicted himself as having in effect already entered1 by the consideration which is urged in other psalms as a reason for ,divine intervention 7vi4 #e1 xxx4 #i1 etc47--namely1 that ,his power had no field for its manifestation in the grave1 and that ,he could draw no revenue of praise from the pale lips that lay silent there4 ,the conception of the state of the dead is even more dreary than that in vv4 #d1 #e4 ,they are shades1 which word conveys the idea of relaxed feebleness4 ,their dwelling is ,abaddon--i4e41 destruction1--darkness1 the land of forgetfulness whose inhabitants remember not1 nor are remembered1 either by ,god or man4 ,in that cheerless region1 ,god had no opportunity to show ,his wonders of delivering mercy1 for monotonous immobility was stamped upon it1 and out of that realm of silence no glad songs of praise could sound4 ,such thoughts are in startling contrast with the hopes that sparkle in some psalms 7such as xvi4 #aj1 etc471 and they show that clear1 permanent assurance of future blessedness was not granted to the ancient ,church4 ,nor could there be sober certainty of it until after ,christ's resurrection4 ,but it is also to be noticed that this psalm neither affirms nor denies a future resurrection4 ,it does affirm continuous personal existence after death1 of however thin and shadowy a sort4 ,it is not concerned with what may lie far ahead1 but is speaking of the present state of the dead1 as it was conceived of1 at the then stage of revelation1 by a devout soul1 in its hours of despondency4 ,the last part 7vv4 #ac-ah7 is marked1 like the two preceding1 by the repetition of the name of ,jehovah1 and of the allusion to the psalmist's continual prayer4 ,it is remarkable1 and perhaps significant1 that the time of prayer should here be the morning1 whereas in ver4 #a it was1 according to ,delitzsch1 the night1 or1 according to the other rendering1 day and night4 ,the psalmist had asked in ver4 #b that his prayer might enter into ,god's presence2 he now vows that it will come to meet ,him4 ,possibly some lightening of his burden may be hinted at by the reference to the time of his petition4 ,morning is the hour of hope1 of new vigour1 of a fresh beginning1 which may not be only a prolongation of dreary yesterdays4 ,but if there is any such alleviation1 it is only for a moment1 and then the cloud settles down still more heavily4 ,but one thing the psalmist has won by his cry4 ,he now longs to know the reason for his affliction4 ,he is confident that ,god is righteous when ,he afflicts1 and1 heavy as his sorrow is1 he has passed beyond mere complaint concerning it1 to the wish to understand it4 ,the consciousness that it is chastisement1 occasioned by his own evil1 and meant to purge that evil away1 is present1 in a rudimentary form at least1 in that cry1 ,why castest ,thou off my soul8 ,if sorrow has brought a man to offer that prayer1 it has done its work1 and will cease before long1 or1 if it lasts1 will be easier to bear1 when its meaning and purpose are clear4 ,but the psalmist rises to such a height but for a moment1 though his momentary attaining it gives promise that he will1 by degrees1 be able to remain there permanently4 ,it is significant that the only direct naming of ,jehovah1 in addition to the three which accompany the references to his prayers1 is associated with this petition for enlightenment4 ,the singer presses close to ,god in his faith that ,his hardest blows are not struck at random1 and that ,his administration has for its basis1 not caprice1 but reason1 moved by love and righteousness4 ,such a cry is never offered in vain1 even though it should be followed1 as it is here1 by plaintive reiterations of the sufferer's pains4 ,these are now little more than a summary of the first part4 ,the same idea of being in effect dead even while alive is repeated in ver4 #ae1 in which the psalmist wails that from youth he had been but a dying man1 so close to him had death seemed1 or so death-like had been his life4 ,he has borne ,god's terrors till he is distracted4 ,the word rendered ,i am distracted is only used here1 and consequently is obscure4 ,hupfeld and others deny that it is a word at all 7he calls it an ,unwort71 and would read another which means to become torpid4 ,the existing text is defended by ,delitzsch and others1 who take the word to mean to be weakened in mind or bewildered4 ,the meaning of the whole seems to be as rendered above4 ,but it might also be translated1 as by ,cheyne1 ,i bear ,thy terrors1 my senses must fail4 ,in ver4 #af the word for wrath is in the plural1 to express the manifold outbursts of that deadly indignation4 ,the word means literally heat2 and we may represent the psalmist's thought as being that the wrath shoots forth many fierce tongues of licking flame1 or1 like a lava stream1 pours out in many branches4 ,the word rendered ,cut me off is anomalous1 and is variously translated annihilate1 extinguish1 or as above4 ,the wrath which was a fiery name in ver4 #af is an overwhelming flood in ver4 #ag4 ,the complaint of ver4 #h recurs in ver4 #ah1 in still more tragic form4 ,all human sympathy and help are far away1 and the psalmist's only familiar friend is--darkness4 ,there is an infinitude of despair in that sad irony4 ,but there is a gleam of hope1 though faint and far1 like faint daylight seen from the innermost recesses of a dark tunnel1 in his recognition that his dismal solitude is the work of ,god's hand2 for1 if ,god has made a heart or a life empty of human love1 it is that ,he may ,himself fill it with ,his own sweet and all-compensating presence4 ,,psalm ,,lxxxix #a ,the loving-kindnesses of ,jehovah will ,i sing for ever1 ,to generation after generation will ,i make known ,thy ,faithfulness with my mouth4 #b ,for ,i said1 ,for ever shall ,loving-kindness be built up1 ,the heavens--in them wilt ,thou establish ,thy ,faithfulness1 #c ,i have made a covenant with ,my chosen one1 ,i have sworn to ,david ,my servant2 #d ,for ever will ,i establish thy seed1 ,and build up thy throne to generation after generation4 ,selah4 #e ,and the heavens shall make known ,thy wonders1 ,jehovah1 ,thy ,faithfulness also in the congregation of ,thy holy ones4 #f ,for who in the skies can be set beside ,jehovah1 ,or likened to ,jehovah1 amongst the sons of the mighty ones8 #g ,a ,god very terrible in the council of the holy ones1 ,and dread above all round about ,him4 #h ,jehovah1 ,god of ,hosts1 who like ,thee is mighty1 ,jah8 ,and ,thy ,faithfulness is round ,thee4 #i ,thou1 ,thou rulest the insolence of the sea1 ,when its waves lift themselves on high1 ,thou1 ,thou stillest them4 #aj ,thou1 ,thou hast crushed ,rahab as one that is slain1 ,by the arm of ,thy strength ,thou hast scattered ,thine enemies4 #aa ,thine are the heavens1 ,thine also the earth1 ,the world and its fulness1 ,thou1 ,thou hast founded them4 #ab ,north and south1 ,thou1 ,thou hast created them1 ,tabor and ,hermon shout for joy at ,thy ,name4 #ac ,thine is an arm with might1 ,strong is ,thy hand1 high is ,thy right hand4 #ad ,righteousness and ,justice are the foundation of ,thy throne1 ,loving-kindness and ,troth go to meet ,thy face4 #ae ,blessed the people who know the festal shout6 ,jehovah1 in the light of ,thy face they walk4 #af ,in ,thy ,name do they exult all the day1 ,and in ,thy righteousness are they exalted4 #ag ,for the glory of their strength art ,thou1 ,and in ,thy favour shall our horn be exalted4 #ah ,for to ,jehovah belongs our shield1 ,and to the ,holy ,one of ,israel our king4 #ai ,then ,thou didst speak in vision to ,thy favoured one and didst say1 ,i have laid help upon a hero1 ,i have exalted one chosen from the people1 #bj ,i have found ,david ,my servant1 ,with ,my holy oil have ,i anointed him #ba ,with whom ,my hand shall be continually1 ,mine arm shall also strengthen him1 #bb ,no enemy shall steal upon him1 ,and no son of wickedness shall afflict him4 #bc ,and ,i shatter his adversaries before him1 ,and them that hate him will ,i smite1 #bd ,and ,my ,faithfulness and ,my ,loving-kindness shall be with him1 ,and in ,my name shall his horn be exalted4 #be ,and ,i will set his hand on the sea1 ,and his right hand on the rivers4 #bf ,he1 he shall call upon ,me1 ,my ,father art ,thou1 ,my ,god and the rock of my salvation4 #bg ,also ,i1 ,i will give him to be ,my first-born1 ,higher than the kings of the earth4 #bh ,for ever will ,i keep for him ,my ,loving-kindness1 ,and ,my covenant shall be inviolable towards him4 #bi ,and ,i will make his seed to last for ever1 ,and his throne as the days of heaven4 #cj ,if his sons forsake ,my law1 ,and walk not in ,my judgments1 #ca ,if they profane ,my statutes1 ,and keep not ,my commandments1 #cb ,then will ,i visit their transgression with a rod1 ,and their iniquity with stripes4 #cc ,but ,my ,loving-kindness will ,i not break off from him1 ,and ,i will not be false to ,my ,faithfulness4 #cd ,i will not profane ,my covenant1 ,and that which has gone forth from ,my lips will ,i not change4 #ce ,once have ,i sworn by ,my holiness1 ,verily ,i will not be false to ,david4 #cf ,his seed shall be for ever1 ,and his throne as the sun before me1 #cg ,as the moon shall he be established for ever1 ,and the witness in the sky is true4 ,selah4 #ch ,but ,thou1 ,thou hast cast off and rejected1 ,thou hast been wroth with ,thine anointed1 #ci ,thou hast abhorred the covenant of ,thy servant1 ,thou hast profaned his crown to the ground4 #dj ,thou hast broken down all his fences1 ,thou hast made his strongholds a ruin4 #da ,all that pass on the way spoil him1 ,he is become a reproach to his neighbours4 #db ,thou hast exalted the hand of his adversaries1 ,thou hast made all his enemies rejoice4 #dc ,also ,thou turnest the edge of his sword1 ,and hast not made him to stand in the battle4 #dd ,thou hast made an end of his lustre1 ,and cast his throne to the ground1 #de ,thou hast shortened the days of his youth1 ,thou hast wrapped shame upon him4 ,selah4 #df ,how long1 ,jehovah1 wilt ,thou hide ,thyself for ever8 ,how long shall ,thy wrath burn like fire8 #dg ,remember how short a time ,i have to live1 ,for what vanity hast ,thou created all the sons of men6 #dh ,who is the man who shall live and not see death1 ,who shall deliver his soul from the hand of ,sheol8 #di ,where are ,thy former loving-kindnesses1 ,jehovah1 ,which ,thou swarest to ,david in ,thy faithfulness8 #ej ,remember1 ,lord1 the reproach of ,thy servants1 ,how ,i bear in my bosom the shame of the peoples787 #ea ,wherewith ,thine enemies have reproached ,thee1 ,jehovah1 ,wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of ,thine anointed4 #eb ,blessed be ,jehovah for evermore4 ,amen and ,amen4 ,the foundation of this psalm is the promise in #b ,sam4 vii4 which guaranteed the perpetuity of the ,davidic kingdom4 ,many of the characteristic phrases of the prophecy recur here--e4g41 the promises that the children of wickedness shall not afflict1 and that the transgressions of ,david's descendants should be followed by chastisement only1 not by rejection4 ,the contents of ,nathan's oracle are first given in brief in vv4 #c1 #d--like a text1 as ,hupfeld says--and again in detail and with poetic embellishments in vv4 #ai-cg4 ,but these glorious promises are set in sharpest contrast with a doleful present1 which seems to contradict them4 ,they not only embitter it1 but they bewilder faith1 and the psalmist's lament is made almost a reproach of ,god1 whose faithfulness seems imperilled by the disasters which had fallen on the monarchy and on ,israel4 ,the complaint and petitions of the latter part are the true burden of the psalm1 to which the celebration of ,divine attributes in vv4 #a-ah1 and the expansion of the fundamental promise in vv4 #ai-cg1 are meant to lead up4 ,the attributes specified are those of ,faithfulness 7vv4 #a1 #b1 #e1 #h1 #ad7 and of ,power1 which render the fulfilment of ,god's promises certain4 ,by such contemplations the psalmist would fortify himself against the whispers of doubt1 which were beginning to make themselves heard in his mind1 and would find in the character of ,god both assurance that ,his promise shall not fail1 and a powerful plea for his prayer that it may not fail4 ,the whole tone of the psalm suggests that it was written when the kingdom was toppling to ruin1 or perhaps even after its fall4 ,delitzsch improbably supposes that the young king1 whom loss and shame make an old man 7ver4 #de71 is ,rehoboam1 and that the disasters which gave occasion to the psalm were those inflicted by the ,egyptian king ,shishak4 ,others see in that youthful prince ,jehoiachin1 who reigned for three months1 and was then deposed by ,nebuchadnezzar1 and whom ,jeremiah has bewailed 7xxii4 #bd-bi74 ,but all such conjectures are precarious4 ,the structure of the psalm can scarcely be called strophical4 ,there are three well-marked turns in the flow of thought1--first1 the hymn to the ,divine attributes 7vv4 #a-ah72 second1 the expansion of the promise1 which is the basis of the monarchy 7vv4 #ai-cg72 and1 finally1 the lament and prayer1 in view of present afflictions1 that ,god would be true to ,his attributes and promises 7vv4 #ch-ea74 ,for the most part the verses are grouped in pairs1 which are occasionally lengthened into triplets4 ,the psalmist begins with announcing the theme of his song--the ,loving-kindness and ,faithfulness of ,god4 ,surrounded by disasters1 which seem in violent contradiction to ,god's promise to ,david1 he falls back on thoughts of the ,mercy which gave it and the ,faithfulness which will surely accomplish it4 ,the resolve to celebrate these in such circumstances argues a faith victorious over doubts1 and putting forth energetic efforts to maintain itself4 ,this bird can sing in midwinter4 ,true1 the song has other notes than joyous ones1 but they1 too1 extol ,god's ,loving-kindness and ,faithfulness1 even while they seem to question them4 ,self-command1 which insists on a man's averting his thoughts from a gloomy outward present to gaze on ,god's loving purpose and unalterable veracity1 is no small part of practical religion4 ,the psalmist will sing1 because he said that these two attributes were ever in operation1 and lasting as the heavens4 ,loving-kindness snail be built up for ever1 its various manifestations being conceived as each being a stone in the stately building which is in continual course of progress through all ages1 and can never be completed1 since fresh stones will continually be laid1 as long as ,god lives and pours forth ,his blessings4 ,much less can it ever fall into ruin1 as impatient sense would persuade the psalmist that it is doing in his day4 ,the parallel declaration as to ,god's ,faithfulness takes the heavens as the type of duration and immobility1 and conceives that attribute to be eternal and fixed1 as they are4 ,these convictions could not burn in the psalmist's heart without forcing him to speak4 ,lover1 poet1 and devout man1 in their several ways1 feel the same necessity of utterance4 ,not every ,christian can sing1 but all can and should speak4 ,they will1 if their faith is strong4 ,the ,divine promise1 on which the ,davidic throne rests1 is summed up in the abruptly introduced pair of verses 7#c1 #d74 ,that promise is the second theme of the psalm2 and just as1 in some great musical composition1 the overture sounds for the first time phrases which are to be recurrent and elaborated in the sequel1 so1 in the four first verses of the psalm1 its ruling thoughts are briefly put4 ,vv4 #a1 #b1 stand first1 but are second in time to vv4 #c1 #d4 ,god's oracle preceded the singer's praise4 ,the language of these two verses echoes the original passage in #b ,sam4 vii41 as in ,david ,my servant1 establish1 for ever1 build1 the last three of which expressions were used in ver4 #b1 with a view to their recurrence in ver4 #d4 ,the music keeps before the mind the perpetual duration of ,david's throne4 ,in vv4 #f-ah the psalmist sets forth the ,power and ,faithfulness of ,god1 which insure the fulfilment of ,his promises4 ,he is the incomparably great and terrible ,god1 who subdues the mightiest forces of nature and tames the proudest nations 7vv4 #i1 #aj71 who is ,maker and ,lord of the world 7vv4 #aa1 #ab71 who rules with power1 but also with righteousness1 faithfulness1 and grace 7vv4 #ac1 #ad71 and who1 therefore1 makes ,his people blessed and safe 7vv4 #ae-ah74 ,since ,god is such a ,god1 ,his promise cannot remain unfulfilled4 ,power and willingness to execute it to the last tittle are witnessed by heaven and earth1 by history and experience4 ,dark as the present may be1 it would1 therefore1 be folly to doubt for a moment4 ,the psalmist begins his contemplations of the glory of the ,divine nature with figuring the very heavens as vocal with ,his praise4 ,not only the object but the givers of that praise are noteworthy4 ,the heavens are personified1 as in ,psalm xix42 and from their silent depths comes music4 ,there is ,one higher1 mightier1 older1 more unperturbed1 pure1 and enduring than they1 whom they extol by their lustre which they owe to ,him4 ,they praise ,god's wonder 7which here means1 not so much ,his marvellous acts1 as the wonderfulness of ,his ,being1 ,his incomparable greatness and power71 and ,his ,faithfulness1 the two guarantees of the fulfilment of ,his promises4 ,nor are the visible heavens ,his only praisers4 ,the holy ones1 sons of the mighty--i4e41 the angels--bow before ,him who is high above their holiness and might1 and own ,him for ,god alone4 ,with ver4 #i the hymn descends to earth1 and magnifies ,god's ,power and ,faithfulness as manifested there4 ,the sea is1 as always1 the emblem of rebellious tumult4 ,its insolence is calmed by ,him4 ,and the proudest of the nations1 such as ,rahab 7,pride1 a current name for ,egypt71 had cause to own ,his power1 when ,he brought the waves of the sea over her hosts1 thus in one act exemplifying ,his sovereign sway over both nature and nations4 ,he is ,maker1 and therefore ,lord1 of heaven and earth4 ,in all quarters of the world ,his creative hand is manifest1 and ,his praise sounds4 ,tabor and ,hermon may stand1 as the parallelism requires1 for west and east1 though some suppose that they are simply named as conspicuous summits4 ,they shout for joy at ,thy ,name1 an expression like that used in ver4 #af1 in reference to ,israel4 ,the poet thinks of the softly swelling ,tabor with its verdure1 and of the lofty ,hermon with its snows1 as sharing in that gladness1 and praising ,him to whom they owe their beauty and majesty4 ,creation vibrates with the same emotions which thrill the poet4 ,the sum of all the preceding is gathered up in ver4 #ac1 which magnifies the might of ,god's arm4 ,but more blessed still for the psalmist1 in the midst of national gloom1 is the other thought of the moral character of ,god's rule4 ,his throne is broad-based upon the sure foundation of righteousness and justice4 ,the pair of attributes always closely connected--namely1 ,loving-kindness and ,troth or ,faithfulness--are here1 as frequently1 personified4 ,they go to meet ,thy face--that is1 in order to present themselves before ,him4 ,the two genii of the history of redemption 7,psalm xliii4 #c7 stand before ,his countenance1 like attendant maidens1 waiting the slightest indication of ,his will 7,delitzsch74 ,since ,god is such a ,god1 ,his ,israel is blessed1 whatever its present plight4 ,so the psalmist closes the first part of his song1 with rapturous celebration of the favoured nation's prerogatives4 ,the festal shout or the trumpet-blast is probably the music at the festivals 7,numb4 xxiii4 #ba and xxxi4 #f71 and those who know it means those who are familiar with the worship of this great ,god4 ,the elements of their blessedness are then unfolded4 ,they walk in the light of ,thy face4 ,their outward life is passed in continual happy consciousness of the ,divine presence1 which becomes to them a source of gladness and guidance4 ,in ,thy ,name do they exult all the day4 ,god's self-manifestation1 and the knowledge of ,him which arises therefrom1 become the occasion of a calm1 perpetual joy1 which is secure from change1 because its roots go deeper than the region where change works4 ,in ,thy righteousness shall they be exalted4 ,through ,god's strict adherence to ,his covenant1 not by any power of their own1 shall they be lifted above foes and fears4 ,the glory of their strength art ,thou4 ,in themselves they are weak1 but ,thou1 not any arm of flesh1 art their strength1 and by possession of ,thee they are not only clothed with might1 but resplendent with beauty4 ,human power is often unlovely2 ,god-given strength is1 like armour inlaid with gold1 ornament as well as defence4 ,in ,thy favour our horn shall be exalted4 ,the psalmist identifies himself at last with the people1 whose blessedness he has so glowingly celebrated4 ,he could keep up the appearance of distinction no longer4 ,they gives place to we unconsciously1 as his heart swells with the joy which he paints4 ,depressed as he and his people are for the moment1 he is sure that there is lifting up4 ,the emblem of the lifted horn is common1 as expressive of victory4 ,the psalmist is confident of ,israel's triumph1 because he is certain that the nation1 as represented by and1 as it were1 concentrated in its king1 belongs to ,god1 who will not lose what is ,his4 ,the rendering of ver4 #ah in the ,a4,v4 cannot be sustained4 ,our shield in the first clause is parallel with our king in the second1 and the meaning of both clauses is that the king of ,israel is ,god's1 and therefore secure4 ,that ownership rests on the promise to ,david1 and on it in turn is rested the psalmist's confidence that ,israel and its king are possessed of a charmed life1 and shall be exalted1 however now abject and despondent4 ,the second part 7vv4 #ai-cg7 draws out in detail1 and at some points with heightened colouring1 the fundamental prophecy by ,nathan4 ,it falls into two parts1 of which the former 7vv4 #ai-bg7 refers more especially to the promises given to ,david1 and the second 7vv4 #bh-cg7 to those relating to his descendants4 ,in ver4 #ai vision is quoted from #b ,sam4 vii4 #ag2 then points back to the period of giving the promise2 ,thy favoured one1 is possibly ,nathan1 but more probably ,david4 ,the ,masoretic reading1 however1 which is followed by many ancient versions1 has the plural favoured ones1 which ,delitzsch takes to mean ,samuel and ,nathan4 ,help means the help which1 through the king1 comes to his people1 and especially1 as appears from the use of the word hero1 aid in battle4 ,but since the selection of ,david for the throne is the subject in hand1 the emendation which reads for help crown recommends itself as probable4 ,david's prowess1 his humble origin1 and his devotion to ,god's service are brought into view in vv4 #ai1 #bj1 as explaining and magnifying the ,divine choice4 ,his dignity is all from ,god4 ,consequently1 as the next pair of verses goes on to say1 ,god's protecting hand will ever be with him1 since ,he cannot set a man in any position and fail to supply the gifts needed for it4 ,whom ,he chooses ,he will protect4 ,sheltered behind that strong hand1 the king will be safe from all assaults4 ,the word rendered steal upon in ver4 #bb is doubtful1 and by some is taken to mean to exact1 as a creditor does1 but that gives a flat and incongruous turn to the promise4 ,for ver4 #bb b compare #b ,sam4 vii4 #aj4 ,victory over all enemies is next promised in vv4 #bc-be1 and is traced to the perpetual presence with the king of ,god's ,faithfulness and ,loving-kindness1 the two attributes of which so much has been sung in the former part4 ,the manifestation of ,god's character 7i4e41 ,his ,name7 will secure the exaltation of ,david's horn--i4e41 the victorious exercise of his ,god-given strength4 ,therefore a wide extension of his kingdom is promised in ver4 #be1 from the ,mediterranean to the ,euphrates and its canals1 on which ,god will lay the king's hand--i4e41 will put them in his possession4 ,the next pair of verses 7#bf1 #bg7 deals with the inward side of the relations of ,god and the king4 ,on ,david's part there will be child-like love1 with all the lowliness of trust and obedience which lies in the recognition of ,god's fatherhood1 and on ,god's part there will be the acknowledgment of the relation1 and the adoption of the king as ,his first-born1 and therefore1 in a special sense1 beloved and exalted4 ,israel is called by the same name in other places1 in reference to its special prerogative amongst the nations4 ,the national dignity is concentrated in the king1 who stands to other monarchs as ,israel to other nations1 and is to them ,most ,high1 the august ,divine title1 which here may possibly mean that ,david is to the rulers of the earth an image of ,god4 ,the reciprocal relation of ,father and ,son is not here conceived in its full inwardness and depth as ,christianity knows it1 for it has reference to office rather than to the person sustaining the office1 but it is approximating thereto4 ,there is an echo of the fundamental passage in ver4 #bf4 7,compare #b ,sam4 vii4 #ad47 ,from ver4 #bh onwards the psalmist turns to expand the promises to ,david's line4 ,his words are mainly a poetical paraphrase of #b ,sam4 vii4 #ad4 ,transgression shall indeed be visited with chastisement1 which the fatherly relation requires1 as the original passage indicates by the juxtaposition of the promise ,i will be his ,father1 and the declaration ,i will chasten him4 ,but it will be chastisement only1 and not rejection4 ,the unchangeableness of ,god's loving purpose is very strongly and beautifully put in ver4 #cc1 in which the twin attributes of ,loving-kindness and ,faithfulness are again blended as the ground of sinful men's hope4 ,the word rendered above break off occasions a difficulty1 both in regard to its form and its appropriateness in this connection4 ,the clause is a quotation from #b ,sam4 vii4 #ae1 and the emendation which substitutes for break off the more natural word used there--namely1 withdraw--is to be preferred4 ,in ver4 #cc b the paradoxical expression of being false to ,my faithfulness suggests the contradiction inherent in the very thought that ,he can break ,his plighted word4 ,the same idea is again put in striking form in ver4 #cd3 ,i will not profane ,my covenant1 even though degenerate sons of ,david profane ,god's statute4 ,his word1 once spoken1 is inviolable4 ,he is bound by ,his oath4 ,he has given ,his holiness as the pledge of ,his word1 and1 till that holiness wanes1 those utterances which ,he has sealed with it cannot be recalled4 ,the certainty that sin does not alter ,god's promise is not traced here to ,his placableness1 but to ,his immutable nature1 and to the obligations under which ,he is laid by ,his own word and acts4 ,that unchangeableness is a rock-foundation1 on which sinful men may build their certitude4 ,it is much to know that they cannot sin away ,god's mercy nor exhaust ,his gentle long-suffering4 ,it is even more to know that ,his holiness guarantees that they cannot sin away ,his promises1 nor by any breach of ,his commandments provoke ,him to break ,his covenant4 ,the allusions to the ancient promise are completed in vv4 #cf1 #cg1 with the thought of the perpetual continuance of the ,davidic line and kingdom1 expressed by the familiar comparison of its duration to that of the sun and moon4 ,ver4 #cg b is best understood as above4 ,some take the faithful witness to be the moon2 others the rainbow1 and render1 as in the ,a4,v4 and ,r4,v41 and as the faithful witness4 ,but the designation of the moon as a witness is unexampled and almost unintelligible4 ,it is better to take the clause as independent1 and to suppose that ,jehovah is ,his own witness1 and that the psalmist here speaks in his own person1 the quotation of the promises being ended4 ,cheyne encloses the clause in a parenthesis and compares ,rev4 iii4 #ad4 ,the third part begins with ver4 #ch1 and consists of two portions1 in the first of which the psalmist complains with extraordinary boldness of remonstrance1 and describes the contrast between these lofty promises and the sad reality 7vv4 #ch-de71 and1 in the second prays for the removal of the contradiction of ,god's promise by ,israel's affliction1 and bases this petition on the double ground of the shortness of life1 and the dishonour done to ,his own ,name thereby4 ,the expostulation very nearly crosses the boundary of reverent remonstrance1 when it charges ,god with having ,himself abhorred or1 according to another rendering1 made void ,his covenant1 and cast the king's crown to the ground4 ,the devastation of the kingdom is described1 in vv4 #dj1 #da1 in language borrowed from ,psalm lxxx4 #ab4 ,the pronouns grammatically refer to the king1 but the ideas of the land and the monarch are blended4 ,the next pair of verses 7#db1 #dc7 ventures still further in remonstrance1 by charging ,god with taking the side of ,israel's enemies and actively intervening to procure its defeat4 ,the last verse-pair of this part 7#dd1 #de7 speaks more exclusively of the king1 or perhaps of the monarchy4 ,the language1 especially in ver4 #de a1 seems most naturally understood of an individual4 ,delitzsch takes such to be its application1 and supposes it to describe the king as having been prematurely aged by calamity2 while ,hupfeld1 with ,hengstenberg and others1 prefer to regard the expression as lamenting that the early days of the monarchy's vigour had so soon been succeeded by decrepitude like that of age4 ,that family1 which had been promised perpetual duration and dominion1 has lost its lustre1 and is like a dying lamp4 ,that throne has fallen to the ground1 which ,god had promised should stand for ever4 ,senile weakness has stricken the monarchy1 and disaster1 which makes it an object of contempt1 wraps it like a garment1 instead of the royal robe4 ,a long1 sad wail of the music fixes the picture on the mind of the hearer4 ,then follows prayer1 which shows how consistent with true reverence and humble dependence is the outspoken vigour of the preceding remonstrance4 ,the boldest thoughts about the apparent contradiction of ,god's words and deeds are not too bold1 if spoken straight to ,him1 and not muttered against ,him1 and if they lead the speaker to prayer for the removal of the anomaly4 ,in ver4 #df there is a quotation from ,psalm lxxix4 #e4 ,the question ,how long is the more imploring because life is so short4 ,there is but a little while during which it is possible for ,god to manifest ,himself as full of ,loving-kindness and ,faithfulness4 ,the psalmist lets his feelings of longing to see for himself the manifestation of these attributes peep forth for a moment1 in that pathetic sudden emergence of ,i instead of we or men1 in ver4 #dg a4 ,his language is somewhat obscure1 but the sense is clear4 ,literally1 the words read ,remember--,i1 what a transitoriness4 ,the meaning is plain enough1 when it is observed that1 as ,perowne rightly says1 ,i is placed first for the sake of emphasis4 ,it is a tender thought that ,god may be moved to show forth ,his ,loving-kindness by remembrance of the brief period within which a man's opportunity of beholding it is restricted1 and by the consideration that so soon he will have to look on a grimmer sight1 and see death4 ,the music again comes in with a melancholy cadence1 emphasising the sadness which enwraps man's short life1 if no gleams of ,god's loving-kindness fall on its fleeting days4 ,the last three verses 7vv4 #di-ea7 urge yet another plea--that of the dishonour accruing to ,god from the continuance of ,israel's disasters4 ,a second ,remember presents that plea1 which is preceded by the wistful question ,where are ,thy former loving-kindnesses8 ,the psalmist looks back on the glories of early days1 and the retrospect is bitter and bewildering4 ,that these were sworn to ,david in ,god's faithfulness staggers him1 but he makes the fact a plea with ,god4 ,then in vv4 #ej1 #ea1 he urges the insults and reproaches which enemies hurled against him and against ,thy servants1 and therefore against ,god4 ,ver4 #ej b is obscure4 ,to bear in the bosom usually implies tender care1 but here can only mean sympathetic participation4 ,the psalmist again lets his own personality appear for a moment1 while he identifies himself as a member of the nation with ,thy servants and ,thine anointed4 ,the last words of the clause are so obscure that there must apparently have been textual corruption4 ,if the existing text is retained1 the object of the verb ,i bear must be supplied from a1 and this clause will run1 ,i bear in my bosom the reproach of all the many peoples4 ,but the collocation of all and many is harsh1 and the position of many is anomalous4 ,an ingenious conjecture1 adopted by ,cheyne from ,bttcher and ,bickell1 and accepted by ,baethgen1 reads for all1 many peoples1 the shame of the peoples1 which gives a good meaning1 and may be received as at all events probable1 and expressing the intent of the psalmist4 ,insolent conquerors and their armies triumph over the fallen ,israel1 and reproach the footsteps of the dethroned king or royal line--i4e41 they pursue him with their taunts1 wherever he goes4 ,these reproaches cut deep into the singer's heart2 but they glance off from the earthly objects and strike the majesty of ,heaven4 ,god's people cannot be flouted without ,his honour being touched4 ,therefore the prayer goes up1 that the ,lord would remember these jeers which mocked ,him as well as ,his afflicted people1 and would arise to action on behalf of ,his own ,name4 ,his ,loving-kindness and ,faithfulness1 which the psalmist has magnified1 and on which he rests his hopes1 are darkened in the eyes of men and even of ,his own nation by the calamities1 which give point to the rude gibes of the enemy4 ,therefore the closing petitions beseech ,god to think on these reproaches1 and to bring into act once more ,his ,loving-kindness1 and to vindicate ,his ,faithfulness1 which ,he had sealed to ,david by ,his oath4 ,ver4 #eb is no part of the original psalm1 but is the closing doxology of ,book ,,iii4 ,printed by ,hazell1 ,watson ,viney1 ,ld41 ,london and ,aylesbury4 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout4 ,inconsistent hyphenation left as in the original text4