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<p_. T" 
 
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 A TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 BOOK OF PSALMS 
 
 TOR THE .USE OF THE 
 
 MINISTRY AND LAITY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 BY 
 
 AUGUSTUS THOLUCK, D.D., PH.D. 
 
 'fonslatrit frnnt tjp dSwinnn: 
 
 WITH A CAREFUL COMPARISON OF THE PSALM-TEXT 
 WITH THE ORIGINAL TONGUES. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. J. ISIDOR MOMBERT. 
 
 THY WORD is A LAMP UNTO M FEET, AND A LIUIII UNTO M* PATH. Psalm cxix. 106. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 
 WILLIAM S. & ALFRED MARTIEN, 
 
 608 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
 1858. 
 
D O 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE v 
 
 PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION ix 
 
 PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION xiii 
 
 INTRODUCTION 1 66 
 
 Sec. I. The Psalter in the Christian Church 114 
 
 Sec. II. The form, division, design, and use of the Psalter 
 
 in Old Testament Times 1422 
 
 Sec. III. The Authors of the Psalms 2232 
 
 Sec. IV. Doctrine and Ethics of the Psalms 32 56 
 
 i. God and the Government of the World 32 36 
 
 ii. Man and Sin 3639 
 
 in. Piety and Morality of the Psalmists 39 45 
 
 iv. The Future 4648 
 
 v. The Messiah 4856 
 
 COMMENTARY 57497 
 
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 THE fine Christian spirit and unassuming intelligence which pervade 
 the writings of Dr. Tholuck have not only endeared him to theolo- 
 gians and intelligent Christians on the Continent, but secured for 
 him a large number of admirers in this country. Almost all his 
 exegetical writings, with the exception of this Commentary on the 
 Psalms, have long been before the British public. Peculiar diffi- 
 culties lay in the way, and deterred translators from the execution 
 of the work. These difficulties are referred to by Dr. Tholuck 
 himself in his Preface to this translation : it may not, however, be 
 amiss here to advert to them in brief, so that my position as the 
 translator of this work may from the outset be clearly understood. 
 The text of the Psalms in the German edition is based on that of 
 Luther, with such emendations by Dr. Tholuck as were rendered 
 indispensably necessary by certain inaccuracies which occur in 
 Luther's version, and other indistinct renderings which obscure the 
 sense and connection. Every one familiar with Luther's translation 
 knows how much it is at variance with the English authorized 
 version; but Dr. Tholuck' s Commentary is based on the former in 
 its emendated condition. A literal translation of Tholuck' s version 
 would have rendered the valuable Commentary to a very great extent 
 useless to English readers, whereas the substitution of the English 
 authorized version for Tholuck' s would have produced an incon- 
 gruity not less fatal to the use of the work. The only way I could 
 see to meet this difficulty was this. Tholuck' s German work was 
 intended to meet the wants of the German public : the English 
 translation is intended to meet the wants of the British public. 
 Tholuck based his version on Luther's, which is the popular version 
 in Germany: in my translation I have taken the English authorized 
 A* v 
 
v i TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 version, printed in parallels, as the base of operation. The, princi- 
 ples on which I have sought to harmonize the German version with 
 the English and Dr. Tholuck' s Commentary have been the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 First: Never to alter when the two versions corresponded in 
 
 sense. 
 
 Second: Whenever the original Hebrew warranted a rendering 
 different from that in the English authorized version, which had 
 been adopted by Dr. Tholuck, and furnished a new idea, or one 
 which the English version would not have suggested, to put it either 
 in brackets in the text of the Psalms or in separate foot-notes. 
 
 Third : Not to undertake any alteration without having, besides 
 the versions of Luther, Tholuck, and other eminent German ver- 
 sionists, diligently consulted and carefully weighed the Hebrew 
 original, the Septuagint, and the Vulgate versions. 
 
 The version thus obtained harmonizes with that of Tholuck, 
 resembles sufficiently the English authorized version to bring the 
 alterations which have been undertaken into prominent relief, from 
 the fact that the smallest divergence from the latter will at once 
 arrest the attention of the English Bible reader, and though it does 
 not state the detailed steps of criticism, furnishes its results. How 
 far Dr. Tholuck, to whom a portion of the sheets have been sub- 
 mitted, approves of the way in which I have endeavoured to meet 
 these difficulties, will be seen from the following passage, which 
 occurs in his last communication to me : "I have gained the con- 
 viction from the sheets which lie before me, that you are perfectly 
 capable of meeting, as well as it can be done, the difficulty arising 
 from the relation of my translation to the English authorized 
 version." 
 
 The Introduction will be found peculiarly valuable to Bible 
 Students. 
 
 The chief merits of the Commentary consist in the highly spirit- 
 ual strain of its devotion, its concise and suggestive intelligence, 
 and rich historical and illustrative character. There are many 
 ministers who have not the time to enter into the learned and 
 
TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. yii 
 
 critical disquisitions which fill the pages of more voluminous works, 
 while there are others who have no relish for critical treatises and 
 contentions with Hebrew roots. Neither of these classes will con- 
 sult Tholuck in vain. But all ministers and laymen, who wish to 
 raise their own devotion and refresh their spirits by listening to 
 the sweet Psalmist of Israel, will find that much of the Psalmist's 
 holy flame has been caught by his German commentator, and that 
 he understands to touch cords which must elicit sympathy from every 
 Christian heart. Here is a thoroughly pious but also an intelligent 
 Commentary on the Psalms, which I consider to belong to that kind 
 of books wanted to raise the standard of religious instruction, and 
 to impress the minds of the many with the fact, that religion is not 
 insipid, and engages no less the affections than the understanding. 
 
 I have adopted a different arrangement from that of the German 
 volume : there the Psalm-text is followed by the Introduction and 
 the Commentary, while in the English edition the Introduction and 
 analysis precede the Psalm-text, and the Commentary succeeds it. 
 Ministers and students in particular, who often require the histo- 
 rical references and illustrative matter, or the bare outline of thought 
 of a psalm, will find this arrangement, which presents the intro- 
 ductory matter separate from the exegetical, very advantageous. 
 
 The verses of the Psalm-text correspond to the verses in the 
 German edition, which agrees with the versic division adopted in 
 the Hebrew, the Septuagint, and the Vulgate, but often differs from 
 that which prevails in the English authorized version, in which the 
 titles are generally given in a separate form, whereas in the original 
 tongues they are always counted as verses. The same remark 
 applies also to the references to various portions of the book of 
 Psalms. 
 
 Respecting the translation of the Commentary, I have endea- 
 voured to follow closely the sense of the original, and having 
 caught the German idiom, to express it in an English idiomatic 
 form. I have done so from the conviction that a slavish adherence 
 to the words renders many translations from the German obscure 
 and heavy. I know, from a comparison of several English transla- 
 
viii TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 tions with their German originals, that in very many instances the 
 epithet "misty" which is so lavishly fastened upon German works, 
 ought more appropriately to be laid to the charge of the translators, 
 who have sometimes furnished literal translations, which to under- 
 stand, however, transcends ttie capacity not only of English readers, 
 but of the very authors of the works. I know German authors 
 who, though good English Scholars, have been utterly unable to 
 identify the English translations of their works as their own pro- 
 ductions, and expressed their astonishment that their translations 
 could sell. 
 
 It has been my humble endeavour to do justice to Dr. Tholuck 
 and to the British public, but must not be considered to subscribe 
 to all the views set forth by the author. My prayer is, that the 
 blessing of God may attend the perusal of this Commentary in the 
 study, the closet, and the family, and that the lofty conceptions, 
 the humble penitence, the strong faith, and the silent resignation 
 of the royal bard, may charm the minds and captivate the hearts 
 of the readers, and prove as beneficial to them as the study of this 
 work has been to me. The example of the Psalmists, who lived 
 more than a thousand years before the advent of our Lord, who 
 were confined to the law and the shadow of things to come, and 
 had only dim views of the glory so clearly revealed to us in the 
 gospel, has often put me to the blush, and tended, I trust, to 
 deepen my convictions of sin, and to increase my faith in the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. May such be the experience of all who read this 
 book ! 
 
 I beg here thankfully to record my gratitude to Dr. Tholuck for 
 his readiness in writing a preface to this translation, and to 
 acknowledge the kindness and encouragement I have received 
 from many friends while this work was in progress. 
 
 J. ISIDOK MOMBERT. 
 
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. 
 
 HAVING been invited by the translator of this Commentary to 
 write a Preface to the English version, it affords me pleasure from 
 the outset to familiarize the British public with my object in lay- 
 ing this Commentary before the public of my native country. 
 
 Debarred of the privilege of Christian instruction and Christian 
 example, I shared, up to my nineteenth year, the then prevalent 
 rationalistic views. My scientific (theological) studies did not 
 result in my conversion to the faith of the gospel. It was brought 
 about by the instrumentality of a noble Christian layman, who 
 belonged to the small number of those who, under the influence of 
 Matthias Claudius of Hamburg, and the cooperation of the breth- 
 ren (unites fratrum,) had in that period of universal infidelity kept 
 alive the faith in the word of God's truth. His luminous example 
 of a Christian walk, more than what he told me, led me to think, 
 and assured me at least of this, that Jesus is the Son of God, and 
 that his doctrine and example make up a complete moral ideal, 
 which man must appropriate for the purpose of attaining to rest 
 and finding peace. Then I believed in Christ; I was able to 
 kneel before him and to pray to him. Then he became the friend 
 of my soul, whom I learned to consult in all things, as I had for- 
 merly consulted my conscience. But how far remote was I at 
 that time from the position of a doctrinally correct Christian! 
 Only some portion? of the New Testament fell in with my taste : 
 
X PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. 
 
 these were the Gospel of John and the Epistle of James; the Old 
 Testament, I am constrained to make the confession, I loathed, 
 like Marcion of old. I had till that time studied the Oriental 
 languages only. Not a long time after this, I was, without my 
 having taken any steps to that effect, requested by the religious 
 department of Government (Ministerium des Cultus) to deliver 
 theological lectures on the Old Testament, in the place of De Wette, 
 who had been deposed. I found myself in a great strait. I went 
 to solicit the help of Neander. 
 
 He knew how to meet my doubts and scruples relating to 
 Christianity, with wisdom and gentleness; but though himself a 
 Jew, he shared, respecting the Old Testament, the universally 
 diffused rationalistic views with this exception, that his religious 
 zeal prompted him to search in its pages for those religious truths 
 which are allied to Christianity. The share of Christian feeling 
 which entered into my faith, placed me in strong opposition to 
 rationalism, and I held it my duty to combat in my lectures on the 
 Old Testament also, every view advanced by the rationalistic 
 . school. 
 
 I gradually arrived at the conviction that the criticism and exe- 
 gesis on the Old Testament, as set forth by the old theologians, did 
 not in any way hold good in every instance. I endeavoured for 
 some time, while the struggle between my religious and my scien- 
 tific conscience was going on, to justify these old views only; but 
 at last I could no longer continue blind to such a contradiction, 
 and the thing to be done was to reconstruct in a new spirit that 
 old theology, as in fact it had already been done with reference to 
 the New Testament. I derived considerable aid in that task from 
 Calvin's Commentary on the Psalms: it disclosed tome a religious 
 depth in this one book of the Old Testament, which opened my 
 eyes for many other glories of the Old Testament scriptures. 
 
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. xi 
 
 Progressing in this knowledge, I learned to understand that the 
 Christian Kevelation is indeed a tree without a root, as long as it 
 is not understood in its intimate connection with God's revelation 
 of salvation in the Old Testament. My newly-prepared e<fitions 
 of the Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, and the Sermon 
 on the Mount, which have recently been published, contain fur- 
 ther proof of this fact. 
 
 I had to continually perceive that the students had no other 
 available help in their study of the Book of Psalms than the Com- 
 mentary of De Wette, which just on this Book of the Old Testa- 
 ment is particularly meagre in religious knowledge. The explicit 
 and valuable Commentary of Hengstenberg had then not yet 
 appeared, and owing to its great bulk is hardly circulated among 
 students. Our Christian laity feel the want of a more intimate 
 familiarity with the Old Testament, for which Hengstenberg's 
 Commentary is not at all designed. In writing my Commentary 
 on the Psalms, my object was this: to interpret the Book of Psalms 
 in the spirit of Calvin ; and losing it on the helps derived from 
 the newly -gained views of modern times, to adapt the volume to the 
 wants of the people, and also to professional men, who, besides 
 strictly grammatical Commentaries, look for a guide to the spirit- 
 ual understanding of this portion of Holy Writ. 
 
 I am hardly in a position to say whether similar wants exist in 
 England. I must in this respect rely on the judgment of the 
 translator. I should think that there is such a want; there are in 
 England and Scotland many laymen especially, who art little 
 acquainted with the Old Testament itself, or with its traditional 
 exegesis. 
 
 The main misgiving I entertained about a translation of my 
 Commentary on the Psalms, arose from the circumstance that my 
 Exposition was based on Luther's version, and only then^ deviated 
 
Xii PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. 
 
 from it when the sense rendered it unavoidably needful. The 
 relation of my version to that of Luther is similar to that which the 
 criticism of Wetstein and Griesbach, in the editions before Lach- 
 rnann's time, sustains to the New Testament, namely, to leave 
 Luther's version intact, even where it was not quite happy, and 
 only then to alter when positive errors occurred. The English 
 authorized version of the Bible, composed at a later period, and 
 supported by a richer exegetical apparatus, is better than Luther's, 
 as far as the correct rendering of the sense is concerned, although 
 Luther's excels it in richness of expression. I wholly confide in 
 the judgment of the translator to meet this difficulty in the best 
 manner. 
 
 It is my heart's desire that this English version may prove to 
 many English readers the means of producing an attachment for 
 this precious Book of the Psalms like that which I formed while 
 this volume was preparing. 
 
 DIl. THOLUCK. 
 

 PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION. 
 
 SOON after the commencement of my academical course, some 
 twenty or more years ago, I began to lecture on the Psalms. I 
 felt at that time, and have done ever since, on re-delivering the 
 said Lectures or on reading the Psalms, the want of a Commentary 
 which should familiarize our cotemporaries with the religious con- 
 tents of these immortal songs, as Calvin's work had done in his 
 days. From that time I have encouraged and desired those whose 
 special vocation I thought to lie in that direction, to execute such 
 a work. 
 
 But my desire, which I know was also that of many others, has 
 all this time remained ungratified. I have therefore myself under- 
 taken the present work on the Psalms. It has been my intention 
 to familiarize not only theologians, but the public at large, with 
 their religious contents : the learned and linguistic investigations 
 necessarily connected with such a work have, so far as the under- 
 standing of the text is concerned, been either received according 
 to the results to which they have led, or been referred to in sepa- 
 rate notes. I have written this Commentary with a view to the 
 great boon which these songs have been for more than three thou- 
 sand years to pious Jews and Christians, and with the elevating 
 knowledge that even now there are millions of human beings, who 
 just in the words of the Psalms express in their prayers the long- 
 ings of their souls and the gratitude of their hearts to God. May 
 it tend to give to all who lack it, the firm conviction that the 
 Psalter comprises indeed a treasure of the most diverse and of the 
 most holy religious experience, and that it deserves to continue, in 
 every epoch of time, the Prayer-book of the Christian world ! It 
 is indeed true that the knowledge of the Psalmists is not in all 
 points equal to the knowledge which flows from Christian illumina- 
 tion. The interpretation of the Old Testament in particular, is in 
 B xiii 
 
Xiv PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION. 
 
 this respect too a want, especially for the laity, to the end that they 
 may not confound the stand-points of the different periods of the 
 revelations of God. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the 
 Christian Church finds in the Psalms for many of her wants an 
 appropriate, a truly Christian, or as I should like to say, a truly 
 human expression, and that they constitute, for the liturgical use 
 of the people, and for the private devotion of individuals, a trea- 
 sury, sacred by its antiquity, for which it is impossible to substi- 
 tute any other. 
 
 These are the feelings with which I have undertaken this Com- 
 mentary, to which the prayers which accompany them correspond. 
 If I had known, when I began this volume, that the theologian who 
 seems especially qualified for the execution of a work of this kind, 
 would so soon publish a Commentary on the Psalms, I should not 
 have published mine. I have seen the first volume of Dr. Heng- 
 stenberg's Commentary, and entertain the hope that my work, 
 owing to its peculiar construction, will not prove superfluous, but 
 that both works will join to meet the existing want. 
 
 I have still briefly to advert to the critical position I occupy in 
 my Commentary. The authenticity of the titles has, with a few 
 exceptions, been taken as established. I declare from the outset, 
 that I have been far from making of this acceptation an article of 
 faith, or from attaching to it any special religious importance. 
 Every candid theologian will admit that, in the case of some of the 
 titles, there may be entertained by no means unfounded misgivings 
 respecting their authenticity. But I feel constrained to confess 
 that the manner in which the titles have in modern times been 
 treated, appears to me nothing short of the highest degree of criti- 
 cal arbitrariness. Instead of winnowing where necessary the his- 
 torical traditions, supported by weighty reasons, they are now from 
 the outset set aside, for the purpose of substituting in their place 
 the utterances of the most unbounded subjectivity. What confi- 
 dence can be placed in a criticism, the judgments of which present 
 among themselves such powerful contradictions?* Are we not 
 
 * E. g. Raster and Maurer observe, ad. Psalm li. that the psalm con- 
 tains nothing which contradicts its title, that David is the author, and that 
 verses 20, 21, are an addition of a later date. Ewald, on the other hand, 
 states that v. 20 throws the clearest historical light on the whole psalm, 
 and that it belongs to the period shortly after the destruction of the Temple! 
 Krahmer remarks, ad. Psalm xxxii. that the authorship of David is alto- 
 
PREFACE TO THE GERMAN EDITION. XV 
 
 entitled to the demand, that the critic to say the very least 
 should look at these titles, as the Commentators of the New Tes- 
 tament regard the diplomatically constituted text of Lachmann, 
 which they are bound to adhere to in all instances except those 
 where unmistakeable external or internal reasons render a deviation 
 from it absolutely necessary? 
 
 This is the position which I have adopted; from this point of 
 view I have endeavoured to understand and to historically explain 
 the Psalms, according to the hints furnished by the titles. I think 
 that in this manner objections which had been started have in more 
 than one instance been set aside, and that the authenticity of the 
 titles has been verified; but even if this were not the case, it was 
 necessary that some one should put forth the effort and make the 
 attempt. The critics, therefore, who start with different views, 
 cannot regard my method as blameworthy. 
 
 The translation is that of Luther, from which, however, I have 
 deviated in those instances where the sense was incorrect or the 
 connection dark. I fancy that I am not mistaken in thinking that 
 the printing of the text in separate lines and paragraphs, will mate- 
 rially facilitate to laymen the understanding of the Psalms and 
 their connection with the context. 
 
 A. THOLUCK. 
 
 gether to be called in question, that its tone is milder, more polished and soft, 
 than the psalms of David; while Ewald observes, "The song is clearly 
 ancient, thoroughly primitive, the mark of a strong mind." According to 
 Hitzig, Psalm ii. "is one of the latest." Maurer refers it to the time of Heze- 
 kiah ; and according to Ewald it cannot belong to a period later than the 
 days of Solomon, etc. 
 
Das schOne Buch, das Richtseheid guter Sittcn, 
 Die starke Kraft, den Himmel zu erbitten, 
 Bes Lebens Trost, der Muth zum Sterben giebt, 
 Was der Held sang, den Gott durchaus geliebt, 
 Ward durch den Saal der ganzen Welt gesungen, 
 Und regte sich in aller Christen Zungen. 
 
 Opitz. 
 

 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 THE PSALTER IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 THE BOOK OF PSALMS should be approached with feelings of 
 reverence. The saints of the Jewish community and the Chris- 
 tian Church have, from the earliest times, found in its words the 
 expressions of their most secret feelings. Appropriating its com- 
 plaints and promises, they have struggled before God in prayer. 
 The Psalter was the earliest prop of Christian worship. The 
 present liturgies of most Christian churches are greatly indebted 
 to the Book of Psalms for a large number of their sublimest senti- 
 ments, which now, at every service, in prayer ascend anew to 
 Heaven. Piety, Jewish or Christian, if genuine, and not formal, 
 has derived more nourishment from the Psalms than from any 
 other source. The Council of Toulouse prohibited (A. D. 1229) 
 the use of the Bible to laymen, the Book of Psalms excepted. We 
 may account for the diligent use of the Psalms for devotional pur- 
 poses, from the fact that, more than any other book of the Scrip- 
 tures, they contain the effusions of subjective piety, and meet on 
 that account in a more immediate manner the wants of Christian 
 devotion. Luther says, " Other books talk much of the works of 
 saints, but little of their words. The noble virtue and manner of 
 the Psalter is a pattern of another kind. Its perusal is so delight- 
 ful, because not only are the works of saints recounted, but the 
 words given in which they spoke and prayed to God." In our 
 day, the Psalms most thoroughly enter into the religious life of 
 Christendom. They are the prayers of the Roman Catholic Mass 
 Service, and of the Liturgy of the Church of England. In the 
 greater portion of reformed churches they serve as spiritual songs : 
 the Catholic priest daily prays them in his breviary, and, bound 
 with many editions of the New Testament, they form now the book 
 of devotion of many Protestants. 
 
 What sort of history would that be, which should record all the 
 spiritual experiences, disclosures, and struggles, which holy men 
 have in the course of time associated with separate passages in the 
 
2 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Psalms, and should indicate their influence on the inward history 
 of the heroes of the kingdom of God ! 
 
 When our Lord instituted the holy Supper, he sung psalms with 
 his apostles. (Matt. xxvi. 30.) He testified to his disciples that 
 the traits of his fate were delineated in the Psalms. (Luke xxiv. 44.) 
 He referred his opponents to a prophetic Psalm as inspired by the 
 Holy Ghost. (Matt. xxii. 43.) The extent to which his humilia- 
 tion and exaltation were, mirror-like, beheld by him in the Psalms, 
 may be illustrated by the fact, that even on the cross, when 
 expressing the desertion of his soul, he used not his own words, 
 but adopted the language of his typical ancestor. (Matt, xxvii. 46.) 
 Paul and Silas, at dead of night, praise God in psalms from the 
 dungeon. (Acts xvi. 25.) Paul exhorts the Christian Church to 
 sing psalms. (Col. iii. 16; Eph. v. 19.) Tertullian mentions, in 
 the second century, that Christians were wont to sing psalms at 
 the Agapa3, and that pious husbands and wives repeated them 
 antiphonically, i. e. by alternate responses. The Psalms have, 
 ever since the first century, formed an essential portion of Chris- 
 tian worship. 
 
 From some passages in the writings of Augustine and other 
 authors, we gather that an entire psalm was sung (or partly sung 
 and partly read) after the reading of a portion of the epistolary part 
 of the New Testament. The order of the Psalms was adhered to. 
 Then followed the Gospel lesson. (August. Op. vol. v. Serms. 
 176, 165, vol. iv.) The singing differed from the choral song 
 of the later Roman Catholic Church. It was congregational, 
 though the manner of its execution changed and varied. Hilary, 
 Chrysostom, and Augustine state, that these Psalms were fre- 
 quently sung by the congregation, sometimes recited by separate 
 individuals, and repeated by the rest. The antiphonical plan was 
 very common in the East, and since the days of Ambrose, also in 
 the West. The congregation, divided into two choirs, alternately 
 repeated the verses. Sometimes the precentor sung one half, and 
 the congregation responded, as e. g. Psalm cxxxvi. in the words, 
 "For his mercy endureth for ever/'* We have said they were 
 sung : this term must be qualified. Artistic singing, with unna- 
 tural variations and difficult notes, is altogether out of the question. 
 According to our information on the subject, there obtained varia- 
 tions rising from solemn recitation to choral song. Athanasius 
 had the Psalms (according to Augustine) recited with so slight a 
 modulation of voice, as to resemble simple repetition : it appears to 
 
 * Both are comprised in the term "Antiphonic." The same variety in 
 the manner of singing the Psalms obtains at present in the Roman Catholic 
 services: a variety, not only affected by different festivals, but also by 
 different localities. See, concerning the usages of the Romish Church, 
 and antiquity in general, the Sections " De Antiphonis" and "De Psalmis," 
 in Gavanti's Thesaurus Sacrorum Rituum, ed. Merati Romae, 1738, vol. ii. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 have been something like the chanting of the Psalms in the Church 
 of England. Many ancient Christian Churches, however, used to 
 sing. (August. Conf. 10, 33. Ep. 31.) We may indeed infer from 
 several circumstances, especially from the strophic nature of the 
 Psalms, that the singing in the African churches was not choral, 
 but solemn cantillation. Of this more hereafter. (See sec. ii.) 
 
 Some Psalms answered particular ends. From the earliest 
 times, e. g. Psalm li. was called, par excellence, The Penitential 
 Psalm: an epithet which, since the days of Origen, became attached 
 to seven psalms, (Psalms vi. xxxii. xxxviii. li. cii. cxxx. cxlii.), 
 reference being made to the Old Testament, where a seven-fold 
 sprinkling took place at the purification of lepers, and Naaman the 
 Syrian was ordered to wash seven times in Jordan. The morning 
 service opened with Psalm Ixiii., the evening with Psalm cxli.: 
 during Passion-week, Psalm xxii. etc. In the formation of the 
 services of the Romish Church, the Psalter was introduced into 
 the Mass. The oldest Mass books consisted of three parts : tho 
 sacramcntariMm, containing the prayers of the officiating priest; 
 the hctionariumj containing portions of the Scriptures; and the 
 antiphonarium, containing the Psalms and antiphonies, or verses 
 from the Psalms and the Prophets, which served as the introitus, 
 and was so called from the antiphonic method of singing. The 
 graduate of the Mass reminds us of the place which the Psalms 
 occupied in the ancient service. That psalm which was sung 
 before the reading of the Gospel, was called Responsorium gra- 
 duate, because two choristers intonated it from an elevated place, 
 (the steps of the ambon,) when it was taken up by the congrega- 
 tion. The Psalms are so distributed in the Liturgy of the Church 
 of England, that in the daily liturgical service, according to her 
 original institutions, the whole Psalter is prayed once a month: 
 the antiphonic method obtains, priest and people alternating in the 
 recitation of the single verses. The use of the Psalms was, how- 
 ever, not confined to public service. After the Jewish precedent 
 of the three hours for prayer (Dan. vi. 10; cf. Psalms Iv. xviii. lix. 
 xvii.) it was deemed right at certain hours of the day to give 
 verbal expression to the silent prayer, which ought to animate the 
 spiritual life of every Christian. The words of the Psalms fur- 
 nished that expression. The monks of the East used, in the eighth 
 century, to pray three psalms at each of the said three prayer hours. 
 The seven canonical prayer hours of the Romish Church were even 
 then developing themselves,* reference being made to Ps. cxix. 164, 
 
 * Jerome writes to a mother, whom he furnishes with counsel for her 
 daughter (Ep. 107. ad Loetam:) "Praeponatur ei probce fidei et morum et 
 pudicitiae virgo veterana, quae illam doceat et assuescat exemplo ad ora- 
 tiones et Psalmos noctu consurgere : mane hymnos cantare, tertia, sexta, nona 
 hora stare in acie quasi bellatricem Christi, accensaque lucernula reddere 
 sacrificium vespertinum" Here are mentioned jive hours for prayer. 
 
4 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 "Seven times a day do I praise thee, because of thy righteous 
 judgments." These seven hours are the matutina before sunrise, 
 when songs of praise were prayed (laucfes:) the first after sunrise, 
 the third between sunrise and noon, the sixth at noon, the ninth 
 between noon and sunset, the vespers in the evening, and the com- 
 pletorium at the close of day before retiring to rest. The Psalms 
 occupy an important position in the prayers, lessons, and hymns, 
 arranged according to the different hours of the day and seasons of 
 the year, since they are prayed through once a week 
 
 The Psalms exerted a third influence on the expressions of 
 Christian piety and Christian worship in particular, since Christian 
 song was formed with them and after their model. They are 
 referred to (Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16,) in connection with spiritual 
 songs, which latter are to be apprehended as songs suddenly inspir- 
 ed ly the Holy Spirit (avTo<rx,t$iaitrfA.ccTci.*) It appears from 1 Cor. 
 xiv. 26, that at that time the Spirit of God raised also in this 
 respect extraordinary powers in the Church. That influence of 
 the Spirit appears to have so powerfully existed in the Church of 
 the second century, that Tertullian, writing of his own times, 
 records it as the prevailing custom after the love-feast to invite 
 any one present according to their several capacity to sing songs to 
 God, which were either taken from the Scriptures or suggested to 
 the mind of the individual. (Apolog. c. 39.) It is evident that 
 the former are psalms, the latter spontaneous lyrical effusions no 
 doubt developed by them.* " The simplicity which characterizes 
 the composition of the Psalms/' says Herder, (for nothing can be 
 more simple than the parallelism of the Psalms which is, as it 
 were, a double choir alternately asking and responding, exhorting 
 and confirming,) " rendered its possession to simple-minded Chris- 
 tian communities in times of oppression no less than in seasons of 
 hope and joy the very boon of Heaven. Hence its early use in the 
 Christian Church; hence from the earliest times, before Christian 
 poets could exist, those loud hymns, which caused the Romans to 
 notice their meetings ; they were psalms." Even the New Testa- 
 ment contains imitations of the Psalms, if we may designate as 
 Christian^ the songs of Zacharias, of Mary, and of the angels at 
 the birth of our Lord. The most ancient strictly Christian songs 
 appear to have been hymns celebrating the praises of Christ, as 
 1 Tim. iii. 16. The pagan procurator, Pliny, writes to Trajan, 
 (about 100, A.^D.) that the Christians were in the habit of meet- 
 ing on a certain day before sunrise, singing hymns to the praise 
 of Christ as God. Caius, (Euseb. Eccles. Hist. v. 28.) a Christian 
 
 * With this view coincides Bsehr. The Christian poets and historians 
 of Rome, p. 4. 
 
 f So 1 Tim. iii. 16; Eph. v. 14, are held to be fragments of early Chris- 
 tian songs. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 author of the second century, says, " How many psalms and odes 
 of the brethren have we got, composed from the beginning by be- 
 lievers, in which Christ is celebrated as God !" This class of hymns 
 found its type in the psalms of praise. Others, based upon the 
 psalms of the New Testament, as mentioned above, reverted medi- 
 ately to the Old Testament. Sometimes Christian song was the 
 mere echo of the Psalms, as appears from several preserved frag- 
 ments of spiritual songs, used in the ancient Greek Church. An 
 influence from another quarter originated about the fourth century. 
 The form of classical songs began to be imitated in Western Eu- 
 rope, which gave rise to hymns* in the narrow sense of the word. 
 They, however, were less frequently used by the people, and rather 
 occasioned the introduction of the strictly musical, t. e., artistic sa- 
 cred song. We are entirely indebted to the Psalms as models, not 
 only for hymns sung by the people, but for choral songs in general. 
 
 Luther, in particular, has composed many hymns after the 
 Psalms : "Lord, look down from heaven," ("Ach Gott vom Him- 
 mel sieh darein") after Ps. xii.: "The Lord be merciful to us," 
 ("Es wolle Gott uns gnatdig sein,") after Ps. Ixvii.: "Were God 
 not with us at this time," (" Waer* Gott ntcht mit uns diese Zeit,") 
 after Ps. cxxiv.: "Out of deep sorrow I cry to Thee/' ("Aus lie- 
 fer Noth sckrei ick zu Dir") after Ps. cxxx. The majestic hymn, 
 "Now praise the Lord, my soul," ("JVun. lob' meine Seele den 
 Herrn") by John Gramann, is composed after Ps. ciii.: "My 
 hope doth stand in God alone," ("Allein zu Gott mein' Hoffnung 
 stcht") by Lobwasser, after Psalm xxxvii. efc.f The gift of song, 
 aroused by Luther's example, flows after the Reformation in the 
 Lutheran Church, in pure and copious streams, reflecting the free 
 effusions of the Christian mind. The Reformed Church, on the 
 other hand, adhering in her songs more closely to the letter of the 
 Scriptures, arranged the Psalms metrically for her service, though 
 of course an arrangement of this kind presents less vivacity and 
 freshness than free song. The French, Swiss, Dutch, and Angli- 
 can Churches use this metrical version. Lobwasser composed a 
 translation from the French, for the use of the German churches. 
 
 A long chain of testimonies may be adduced to show the influ- 
 ence of the Psalms on the Christian life of great men. Athana- x, 
 sius, bishop of Alexandria, in the fourth century, says, "They 
 appear to me a mirror of the soul of every one who sings them j 
 they enable him to perceive his own emotions, and to express them 
 in the words of the Psalms. He who hears them read receives 
 them as if they were spoken for him. Conscience-struck, he will 
 
 * Carmina, as distinguished from Cantica. 
 
 f A more detailed account and proof may be found, in a work of rare 
 investigation and exquisite learning, which we have frequently consulted: 
 Ferdinand Wolf on the Lais, Sequences, and Obsequies. Heidelberg, 
 1841. 
 
6 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 either humbly repent, or hearing how the trust of believers was 
 rewarded by God, rejoice as if his mercy were promised to him in 
 particular, and begin to thank God. Yes, in its pages you find 
 portrayed man's whole life, the emotions of his soul and the frames 
 of his mind. We cannot conceive of anything richer than the 
 Book of Psalms. If you need penitence, if anguish or temptation 
 have befallen you, if you have escaped persecution and oppression, 
 or are immersed in deep affliction, concerning each and all you 
 may find instruction, and state it to God in the words of the Psal- 
 ter!" Let us add Ambrose, the pious bishop of Milan, in the 
 fourth century: "The law instructs, history informs, prophecy 
 predicts, correction censures, and morals exhort. In the Book of 
 Psalms you find the fruit of all these, as well as a remedy for the 
 salvation of the soul. The Psalter deserves to be called, the praise 
 of God the glory of man, the voice of the Church, and the most 
 beneficial confession of faith. The Psalms teach me to avoid sin, 
 and to unlearn my being ashamed of repentance. Such a king, 
 such a prophet, teaches me by his example to make atonement for 
 past transgression and to avoid sin for the future. In the Psalms, 
 delight and instruction vie with one another : we sing for enjoy- 
 
 . ment, and read for instruction." Augustine relates with deep 
 " feeling, in his Confessions, what a treasure the Psalms were to him 
 at the time of his conversion: "How did I then," says he in 
 addressing God, "converse with thee, when I read the Psalms of 
 David, those songs full of faith, those accents which exclude all 
 pride! How did I address thee in those Psalms; how did they 
 kindle my love to thee; how did they animate me if possible to 
 read them out to the whole world as a protest against the pride of 
 the human race. And yet they are sung in the whole world, * no- 
 thing is hid from their heat/* How violent was my indignation 
 against the Manichaeans (the heretical sect, who entirely rejected 
 the Old Testament,) and yet felt pity for their not knowing those 
 holy riches, those remedies, and their raging against the antidote 
 that might have healed them. I wish they had been at my side 
 yet without my knowledge beheld my countenance and heard my 
 voice, when I read the fourth Psalm what a blessing it was to 
 me! ^Oh, that they could have heard but without my knowledge 
 of their being within hearing (lest they should fancy I were speak- 
 ing for their sakes,) what I said to thee at the occasion of those 
 words." He then states with profound emotion, what passed in 
 
 ^ his soul at the reading of every separate verse of that Psalm. 
 
 To unite ancient with modern days, let us hear how an intimate 
 disciple of St. Bernard, in the twelfth century, represents the 
 Psalter as the mirror of Christian virtue. "Be ready to do every 
 good, but be equally ready to bear any evil, that thy mouth with- 
 
 * A beautiful allusion to Psalm xix. 7. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 out being reproved by thine heart may sing with David, (Opp. 
 vol. ii. 8. Bernardi. p. 984,) 'My heart is prepared, my God, 
 my heart is prepared/ (Ps. Ivii. 8.) (the German version ren- 
 ders the word, ' fixed/ of the English A. V. by * prepared/ 
 cf. margin) prepared by Thine aid to perform the good, but 
 also prepared to suffer evil; and prepared to suffer because 'I 
 will sing and give praise/ i. e. bless and praise Thee for both. 
 And forthwith the godly man stirs himself by saying, i Awake 
 psaltery and harp/ i. e. my heart and my flesh, to glory in 
 the living God; the heart for His mercies, the flesh for its suf- 
 ferings. So David elsewhere shows his resignation to God, by 
 saying, *I will keep thy precepts/ and more than this, he said 
 also, ' I was not moved, when opposition arose and persecution 
 raged. At the persecution of my rival, the cursing of my servant 
 (Shimei,) the murderous designs of my son, I became not moved, 
 but obeyed Thy commandments, requited good for evil to those 
 who returned evil for good. I was anxious for the welfare and 
 porry for the death of my persecutors. I could brook to be despised 
 by my servant, but not bear to be avenged by my friends.' Behold 
 long before the Gospel the virtue of the Gospel. Thus prepared, 
 David went to meet his Lord with childlike confidence. ' 1 have 
 run without a false step, and corrected the perverse as many as I 
 could.' Come, then, Lord, and meet me, who run to meet Thee. 
 And as I cannot attain unto thy loftiness, except thou condescend to 
 give me thy right hand, 'Try me, and know my thoughts: and 
 ee if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way 
 everlasting; i. e. to Christ who is the way in which, and eternity 
 to which we are going/' 
 
 The words of Liilii^r'e^regnantJPjreface to the Psalter are well 
 known: we make from it the following extract: "The humanX' 
 heart is like a vessel in a tempestuous sea, tossed to and fro by the 
 storms from the four quarters of the world. Fear and care of 
 future mishap are roaring here; grief and sadness on account of 
 present evil there. Hope and courage respecting future happiness 
 are blowing here; while assurance and joy on account of present 
 good are sounding there. Such tempests teach one to be in ear- 
 nest now to open, and now to pour out one's heart. He who is in 
 fear and trouble talks in other strains about mishap than he who 
 lives in joy; and he who lives in joy in other strains about joy 
 than he who lives in fear. It comes not from the heart (they say) 
 when a sad one tries to laugh and a glad one to weep ; i. e. his 
 heart is neither opened nor poured out. But what do you find 
 most in the Psalms? Earnest speech in all manner of tempests. 
 Where can you find more appropriate expressions of joy than in 
 the Psalms of praise and thanksgiving? You look right into the 
 heart of saints, as into fair and pleasant gardens or heaven itself, 
 and behold beautiful, laughing, and delicate flowers of all manner 
 
8 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 of fair and joyous thoughts towards God and his love springing 
 lustily into life. Again, where can you find more profound, plain- 
 tive, and wretched words of grief than in the Psalms of complaint ? 
 Once more, you look into the heart of saints as into death or hell. 
 How gloomy and dark their mournful visions of God ! So again, 
 when the Psalms speak of fear and hope, they abound in words so 
 significant, that no painter could thus portray, no Cicero nor orator 
 thus describe them/' 
 
 ,/ Let us now hear Calvin. In the Preface of his Exposition of 
 the Psalms, he mentions with holy earnestness the blessing he 
 himself had derived from being engaged in that work, and the aid 
 with which his own experience, both temporal and spiritual, fur- 
 nished him in the Exposition of the Psalms of the Bible. But 
 let him speak for himself. "If the reading of my Commentaries 
 yield to the Church of God as much blessing as their preparation 
 has conferred upon me, I shall never repent having undertaken 
 the task." "Should the labour bestowed on this work prove a 
 blessing to my readers, may they know, that the experience of such 
 struggles and difficulties (though unimportant in itself,) through 
 which it has pleased the Lord to take me, has materially helped 
 me, not only to apply in its place whatever useful knowledge I 
 might possess, but to enter more thoroughly into the author's 
 design and the purpose of the Psalms." Calvin, who may be truly 
 said to have, probably more than any other man, imbibed the spirit 
 of the Psalms, says concerning their contents : " Not without good 
 grounds am I wont to call this book an anatomy of all parts of the 
 soul, since no one can experience emotions, whose portrait he could 
 not behold reflected in its mirror. Yes, the Holy Spirit has there 
 depicted in the most vivid manner every species of pain, affliction, 
 fear, doubt, hope, care, anxiety, and turbulent emotion, through 
 which the hearts of men are chased. Other portions of the Scrip- 
 tures contain commandments, whose transmission the Lord enjoined 
 upon his servants; but in the Psalms, the Prophets communing 
 with God and uncovering their inmost feelings, call and urge every 
 reader to self-examination to such a degree, that of the numerous 
 infirmities to which we are liable, and of the many failings which 
 oppress us, not one remains concealed. How great and rare again 
 for the human heart to be thus driven out of all its hiding-places, 
 liberated from hypocrisy (that most fearful of vices,) and exposed 
 to the light. Lastly, if calling on God is the surest means of our 
 salvation if better and more reliable directions for it than those 
 contained in the Book of Psalms are not to be obtained, then every 
 one who reads this book has attained to an essential part of the 
 Divine doctrine. Earnest prayer originates in our sense of need ; 
 afterwards in our faith in the Divine promises. The reader of the 
 Psalms finds himself both aroused to feel his misery, and exhorted 
 to seek for its remedy. The Psalter unfolds every encouragement 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 to prayer. It is not merely confined to promises, but men are 
 introduced who, on the one hand invited by God, and on the other 
 hindered by the flesh, take courage in prayer: if therefore we are 
 beset by doubt and scruple, here we may learn to combat, till the 
 disenthralled spirit rises anew to God. And more than this, we 
 may learn prayerfully to struggle through hesitation, fear, and 
 faint-hearted ness, till comfort be attained. For, be it remembered, 
 that though unbelief keep the door shut to our prayers, we must 
 not desist when our wavering hearts are being tossed to and fro, 
 but persevere until faith mounts victoriously from her struggles. 
 Again, the Psalms inspire us with the most desirable of all things, 
 in not only teaching us to approach God in confidence, but to 
 openly unbare before him all those failings which a false sense of 
 shame otherwise forbids us to own. They furnish, moreover, the 
 clearest directions how we may render to God that sacrifice of 
 praise which he declares as most acceptable to him. You cannot 
 read anywhere more glorious praises of God's peculiar grace towards 
 his Church or of his works; you cannot find anywhere such an 
 enumeration of man's deliverances or praises for the glorious proofs 
 of his fatherly care for us, or a more perfect representation to 
 praise him becomingly, or more fervent exhortations to the dis- 
 charge of that holy duty. But however rich the book may prove 
 in all these respects to fit us for a holy, pious and just life, its 
 chief lesson is how we are to bear the cross, and to give the true 
 evidence of our obedience, by parting with our affections, to sub- 
 mit ourselves to God, to suffer our lives to be entirely guided by 
 his will, so that the bitterest trial, because he sends it, seems 
 sweet to us. Finally, not only is the goodness of God praised in 
 general terms to secure our perfect resignation to him, and to 
 expect his aid in every time of need, but the free forgiveness of 
 our sins, which alone can effect our peace of conscience and recon- 
 ciliation to God, are in particular so strongly recommended, that 
 there is nothing wanting to the knowledge of eternal life." 
 
 Some, probably influenced by their antipathy for the matter of 
 the Psalms, find it difficult to get reconciled to their farm, and / 
 feel disposed to call the poetic claim of the Psalms, which is by * 
 no means their highest claim, into question. Men of that stamp 
 have never been wanting. To their shame, we adduce an evidence 
 in favour of the Psalms which an eminent scholar of classical 
 antiquity, Henry Stephanus, furnishes in the preface of his Com- 
 mentary on the Psalms.* He states his having met at Rome 
 with some who, from a one-sided attachment to classical lore, 
 denied the poetic merit of the Psalms, and charged the poet 
 Antonius Flaminius with the folly of attempting to reproduce in 
 
 * Liber Psalmorum Davidis cum Catliol. Exposit. Ecclesiastica. Paris, 
 1562. 
 
10 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Roman verse the contents of the Psalter, which, said they, was 
 nothing else than "committing seed to the arid sand." The 
 learned Stephanas further states that, on adducing several illustra- 
 tions, especially Psalm civ., he showed them that, "so far from 
 questioning the poetry of the Psalms of David, there existed no 
 production which could be conceived more poetical, harmonious, 
 and heart-stirring, and mostly more ecstatic, than just the Psalms;* 
 that Flaminius, therefore, had not selected an unfruitful subject, 
 but was simply incompetent for the performance of the task." 
 
 A passage taken from A. H. Franke's Devotional Exposition of 
 the Psalms, (Halle, 1731, 2 vols.) may form the transition from 
 the Reformation to our times. He says, (vol. i., p. 904) " Where 
 that is found, such Psalms are rightly understood. The man who 
 has not the Spirit of Christ, nor denies himself, nor daily takes up 
 his cross and follows Christ, has no relish for the Psalms. They 
 gladden not his heart, but appear to him like withered straw 
 altogether stale. But let him be brought into similar courses of 
 affliction and suffering, and experience the sneers and mockery of 
 the world for righteousness' and Christ's sake let him find out the 
 difficulty of the task to surmount every obstacle from within and 
 from without, and yet serve the Lord God in spirit and in truth 
 and he will learn that David's heart underwent other struggles 
 besides those which sprung from his external relations. He will 
 mark in his daily warfare the same enmity which God has 
 appointed to take place between Christ and Belial, and between 
 the followers of Christ and the followers of Satan, and find that 
 struggle expressed in the Psalms ; as the very first, in fact, states 
 it : * Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the 
 ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the 
 seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord ; 
 and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be 
 like a tree planted by the rivers of water.' He, then, who is 
 resolved to deny himself, to part with the world, her pomp and 
 riches, and the favour of man, to take the word of God for his 
 sole guide, and carry a peaceful conscience to his dying bed, will 
 experience the intensity of the struggle which is required, and 
 learn rightly to understand the Psalms." 
 
 As belonging to modern times, the words of a celebrated 
 politician, John Jacob Moser, (1785) equally renowned as a 
 statesman, and experienced as a Christian, are worthy of special 
 notice. He had been engaged in severe struggles for the rights of 
 
 * Prolatis delude aliquot exemplis, addebam, tantum abesse ut Davidici 
 Psalmi nihil cum poesi commune liabere putarem, ut contra nihil illis esse 
 src/T/fcvre/w, nihil esse ^ct/a-^I^^sy, nihil esse yjf>y><rtfuv, nihil denique plerisque 
 in locis J&vf*p0tf*ife9 aut esse aut fingi posse existimarem. Melanchthon, 
 who has written a somewhat poor Commentary on the Psalms, quoted by 
 A. H. Franke, says, "Hie liber elegantissimus est in toto mundo!" 
 
INTRODUCTION. 11 
 
 his country, and had been on that account unlawfully imprisoned 
 by his sovereign for a period of five years, during which the Bible 
 and hymn book were his sole companions. The Psalms made him 
 understand his position. In harmony with the voices of every 
 century he says,* " Those who have never experienced great and 
 continuous distress of body and of mind, neither understand the 
 Psalms nor know how to use them. Thus I found it for many 
 years. I fancied that I understood the words, but they were to 
 me a sealed book. For a long time I would not read them at all. 
 Its cries out of the depths, its enormous complaints, though 
 regarding them not as mere poetry, I considered exaggerated 
 hypochondriac sentiments; and my feelings thoroughly revolted 
 at David's desire to be revenged upon his enemies. Single verses, 
 in particular cases, sometimes instructed, comforted, and exhorted 
 me. The treasure of experience, lucid wisdom, profoundly inti- 
 mate and extensive knowledge of the human heart, contained in 
 them; what was meant by faithfulness to oneself by strict and 
 honest examination of the most secret questions of the soul by 
 confidence in God, his omnipotence, and love by attachment to 
 him in doubt and hesitancy by looking up to his Father's heart 
 with the deepest sense of personal unworthiness; what was meant 
 by the anchorage of faith in raging storms by the * Aber dock,' 
 of which Luther has so much to say by the words, ' / nothing, 
 but Thou Omnipresent, Eternal One, in, with, over us all;' what 
 was meant by the consciousness of Thy gracious call; what was 
 the state of mind described in the words 
 
 Although my heart say No to me, 
 Thy word shall be more sure to me,' 
 
 that a fainting soul should be refreshed, revived, and elevated by 
 the smallest ray of hope that she might rise from the dust, and 
 still in the dust believe herself to be God's creature that in the 
 prospect of impending peril and sinking she might still cling to 
 him; what it was, in articulo mortis, to say 
 
 'I live and die, Lord Christ, to thee, 
 In death and life belong to thee,' 
 
 that the omnipotent, quickening Spirit should govern to the end 
 of the world the entire Church of believers that there is but one 
 God, one truth, one way, one faith, one experience, one < Spiritus 
 Rector , throughout all times and generations; how much these 
 things contribute to establish and confirm the heart in the truth 
 to inspire confident courage in every kind of trouble and con- 
 sciousness of individual unworthiness to gain spiritual strength 
 to judge correctly of the connection between good and evil in the 
 world to produce a firm and sure step in the path of life ; how 
 
 * Doctor Leidemit. Frankfort, 1783. 
 
12 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 far they contribute to the enjoyment of our earthly existence of 
 a calm, refreshing, and joyous prospect of our transition into the 
 kingdom; with how much assurance we may link ourselves to the 
 gigantic chain of the experience of thousands of years, and with 
 tears of ecstatic joy glory even now in the hope of recounting 
 them with David and all the saints, and of blending our voices 
 with the harmony of praise and adoration throughout a blissful 
 eternity; what lies involved in so many other feelings of ineffable 
 3elight to our hearts, though too spiritual to be expressed: all 
 this gradually dawned upon me, and caused me to thank God for 
 the Psalms when I found myself in great tribulation, anguish, and 
 temptation, both from within and without. Oh, how precious 
 and dear was then the possession of the Psalms ; how much com- 
 fort, light, and strength have thej imparted to my fainting soul. 
 I often not only missed the .way, but lost the very trace of it. I 
 sat me down as if I had become petrified. One word from the 
 Psalms was a sunbeam to me; like a lark, I settled on the pinions 
 of that eagle; carried by her, I scaled the rock, and beheld from 
 that eminence the world, with its cares and mine, stretched out 
 beneath me; I acquired to think, infer, mourn, pray, wait, hope, 
 and speak in the spirit of David 'I thank thee, Lord, that 
 thou hast humbled me/ I acquired to know and understand the 
 rights of God his purposes of love and faithfulness to every man, 
 but especially to myself his mighty wisdom towards us his 
 creatures in our present state of probation, as well as the blessed- 
 ness, benefit, and necessity of sufferings for our cleansing, purifica- 
 tion, and perfection. I learned to esteem myself happy in being 
 permitted to endure suffering. I attained to a better knowledge 
 of the wisdom and love of God, the truth of his word and assur- 
 ance, the unalterable faithfulness of his promises, the riches of his 
 mercy and long-suffering; of my own dependence, insufficiency, 
 nothingness, and inability without him, of the wickedness and 
 deceit of my heart, of the world, of men, and of the profound wis- 
 dom of God in the blending of evil with good. I became less in 
 my own sight, more suffering and affectionate, more sparing and 
 forgiving, more severe with myself, more lenient to others. I 
 learned to trust God in all my ways, and to renounce the claims of 
 fame, honour, and comfort. It was nourishment to my soul to be 
 enabled to say i Lord, let me possess but Thee/ I asked for no 
 more aid in temporal concerns than his wisdom might find good 
 for the best of my soul. I learned to become more contented in 
 my desires, more moderate in my enjoyments. I was enabled 
 with tears to express my gratitude for mercies, which formerly I 
 counted not as blessings, but as my right and due. If my soul 
 would keep holyday, the Psalms became my temple and my 
 altar. Next to the writings of the New Testament, they are now 
 to me my dearest and most precious book the golden mirror, the 
 
i 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 cylopaedia of the most blessed and fruitful knowledge and experi- 
 ence of my life ; to thoroughly understand them will be the 
 occupation of eternity, and our second life will form their com- 
 mentary/' 
 
 Though our days are not rich in testimonies of this kind, they 
 are by no means wanting nay, they are not wanting on the part 
 of those lofty minds, whom our nation counts among her classics. 
 Prominent amongst these is Herder, of whose manifold statements, 
 setting forth the value of the Psalms, we insert here but one 
 expression, which recommends itself both by its freedom and 
 truthfulness. " The use of the Psalms became the blessing of 
 humanity, not only on account of their contents, but also on 
 account of their form. Just as no lyric poet among the Greeks 
 and the Romans furnished such a mass of doctrine, consolation, 
 and instruction, so there is hardly anywhere to be found so rich a 
 variety of tone in every species of song as here. For two thou- 
 sand years have the Psalms frequently and differently been trans- 
 lated and imitated, and still there are many new formations of 
 their much-embracing and rich manner possible. They are 
 flowers, which change their appearance in every time and in every 
 soil but always bloom in the beauty of youth. Just because the 
 Psalter contains the simplest lyrical expressions of the most diver- 
 sified feelings it is the hymn-book for all times."* 
 
 Herder's observations in his "Spirit of Hebrew Poetry/' con- 
 cerning the Psalms as a whole, and particular classes of them, 
 contain many excellent hints for expositors. Andrew Cramer, 
 who as a poet ranks among our classics, and as a preacher stands 
 as a model for all times, has in a yet higher degree merited of the 
 interpretation of the Psalms. The treatises which accompany his 
 Translation of the Psalmsf are so many testimonies of their 
 religious and poetic value. To the testimony of Cramer, we string 
 that of Stolberg, in his Treatise on the Psalms, contained in 
 vol. iii. of his History of Religion. John Mueller, the historian, 
 has many beautiful sayings on the spirit and influence of the 
 Psalms. Writing to his brother, he says : " David yields me 
 every day the most delightful hour. There is nothing Greek, 
 nothing Roman, nothing in the West, nor in the land towards 
 midnight, to equal David, when the God of Israel chose to praise 
 him higher than the gods of the nations. The utterance of his 
 mind sinks deep into the heart, and never in my life, never have I 
 thus seen God." "The Psalms/' he says elsewhere, " teach one to 
 
 * Treatises and Letters on the Belles Lettres. Works, vol. xvi. p. 17. 
 
 f Poetical Translation of the Psalms, with Treatises. Leipsio, 1759. 
 It must not be confounded with the Lyrical Translation of the Psalms, by 
 Joseph Anthony Cramer. Hildesheim, 1787. This work of a Catholic 
 author has no value. 
 
14 COMMENTAEY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 prize a much tried life.''* Even Lichtenberg, though not exactly 
 a man who would suffer his mind to be captivated by his feelings, 
 expresses himself with earnestness and warmth concerning the 
 moral and religious tendency of the Psalms, j- Songs, which like 
 the Psalms have thus stood the test of three thousand years, con- 
 tain a germ for eternity* 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 OF THE FORM, DIVISION, DESIGN, AND USE OF THE PSALTER 
 IN OLD TESTAMENT TIMES. 
 
 THE poetry of the Old Testament is of a twofold kind. It 
 embraces Lyric songs, which originally streamed forth as the 
 emotions of the heart for the personal gratification of the singer, 
 and Didactic poems, which were composed with a view to others, 
 and were on that account aided by reflection. The latter are either 
 brief sentences, as the Proverbs of Solomon, or more extensive 
 poems, as the Book of Job, which possesses however a lyrical cha- 
 racter, because it describes the personal struggles of its author. 
 The lyric songs of the Old Testament, with one exception, (2 Sam. 
 i. 19,) are all of a religious kind, and go by the term of " Psalms," 
 i. e. songs sung with musical accompaniment. Such songs were 
 offered to the Lord when he led Israel out of Egypt. The people 
 sang the song of deliverance, and Miriam and the women, singing 
 and playing the timbrel, repeated the first verse. (Exod. xv. 20, 21.) 
 Psalm xc. is a psalm of Moses. The song of Deborah is another 
 ancient psalm. (Judges v.) The prophets of Samuel's school used 
 to sing, (1 Sam. xix. 20, 21;)J but above all, David united from 
 his earliest youth the art of singing with that of playing the harp, 
 and practised daily, (1 Sam. xviii. 10.) The instrument which he 
 used was the harp or guitar; he played it with his hand, (1 Sam. 
 xvi. 23; xviii. 10.) His beautiful funeral ditty on the death of 
 Jonathan shows that he also used to tune his strings for other 
 themes than the praise of God. (2 Sam. i. 19-27.) The Psalter 
 being a collection of religious songs, has only preserved the 
 spiritual songs of David. 
 
 The form of the lyric poetry of the Old Testament deserves to 
 be noticed. The definition of poetry as "bound speech" points to 
 
 * Jno. of Mueller's Works, vol. v. pp. 122. 244. 
 
 f Lichtenberg' s Works, vol. i. pp. 15. 37. 
 
 j " Prophesying,'* i. e. a prophetically inspired recitation or song. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 the fact that the poet imposes fetters and prescribes a measure, 
 both to the expression of his sentiments and to the sentiments 
 themselves. This renders the utterance of the most stirring emo- 
 tions harmonious and beautiful. This fetter is in the poems of 
 classical antiquity the syllabic measure or metre, while it appears 
 in the songs of several Eastern nations, (who are however not 
 unacquainted with measure,} as e. g. the Hindoos, Persians, and 
 Arabs, as rhyme, and in those of the Icelanders and Spaniards as 
 assonance. The parallelism of the verse-members binds the speech 
 of Old Testament poetry. This form of poetry obtains also among 
 the Chinese. We can easily conceive that the most impassioned 
 speech did not only assume a metrical form, but involuntarily pass 
 into it, since enthusiasm has an invariable tendency for rhythmical 
 expression, even in outward movements; hence we find the dance 
 joined to worship and singing;* hence David danced before the 
 ark of the covenant.f It strikes one as strange, that a poet should 
 fetter himself with searching for like-sounding words in the moment 
 of most vivid excitement. But is not the musical effect of like- 
 sounding words clearly seen ? as is the case with assonance and the 
 parallelism of members, where the words frequently correspond in 
 so exact a manner that they actually rhyme in the original. But 
 this is not all. The origin of that poetic form may be accounted 
 for on other grounds. Under the impulse of strong emotion, 
 thought ignores to express itself in simple proportions : it either 
 separates into synonymous members of a qualifying tendency, or 
 into antithesis. What, then, is more natural than that these 
 members thus mutually related in thought, should by rhyme, 
 assonance, or parallelism, become equally so in form? (Gen. iv. 
 23. Psalm viii. 5; xxv. 4.) In Hebrew poetry a thought most 
 frequently resolves itself into symmetrical and synonymous mem- 
 bers till it gets exhausted. Sometimes a second or third member 
 adds some new and closely allied defining remark ; or proposition 
 and counter-proposition (thesis and anti-thesis) are placed together 
 symmetrically. 
 
 Thus we have in Psalm i. 1, three, and in verse 2, two proposi- 
 tions, exactly corresponding in sense, and used only for the 
 exhaustion of the idea: in verse 3, we find there is first the 
 leading thought which advances through the succeeding three 
 propositions in such a manner, that the last expresses in a direct 
 form the indirect statements of the former. In Psalm ii. the two 
 
 * Exod. xv. 20. Psalm cxlix. 3 ; cl. 4. The opinion which refers the 
 rhyme of romantic poetry to Arabic origin must be held as obsolete. 
 Rhyme may be found in Latin ecclesiastical hymns as early as the fifth 
 century: it exists also in the earliest Celtic songs, and flows successively 
 through many verses, as in Oriental poems. Vide Wolf, p. 279. 
 
 f 2 Sam. vi. 16. On the connection between music and dancing, vide 
 Herder's Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, vol. ii. p. 266. 
 
16 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 members of the first five verses are respectively synonymous : in 
 verse 12, the first two members are synonymous, the third con- 
 tinues the idea, while the last introduces the antithesis. Not 
 unfrequently word corresponds to word in the two members of a 
 verse; this, however, does not necessarily belong to the law of 
 parallelism. Such parallelisms occur also in the prophets, when 
 their language gets impassioned, which otherwise is rather rheto- 
 rical than poetical. Compare in particular the Book of Lamenta- 
 tions with the Prophecies of Jeremiah. In Hab. iii. Isaiah xii. 
 Jonah ii. may be seen some psalms of the prophets. (Isa. xxxviii. 
 Hezekiah's.) 
 
 The Psalter, which the Jews of the later period divided as early 
 
 \ as two hundred years before Christ* into five books, (Psalms i. xli. 
 
 \ xlii. Ixxii. Ixxiii. Ixxxix. xc. cvi. cvii. and cl.) corresponding to 
 the five books of the Pentateuch, is exclusively designed for reli- 
 gious purposes, and contains, therefore, religious songs only. The 
 edification of individuals, however, was less contemplated than that 
 of the congregation, as is the case with our hymn books. Hence 
 many Psalms bear the title, "To the chief musician," by which 
 was meant the Levitical musician, whose ofiice it was to conduct 
 the worship of the congregation. That arrangement explains, 
 firstly, why David's secular funeral ditty on Jonathan, recorded in 
 the historic books, finds no place in the Psalter, and why but two 
 psalms of Solomon, (Psalms Ixxii. and cxxvii.) who, according to 
 1 Kings iv. 32, composed one thousand and five songs, have been 
 inserted. It would indeed appear, from verse 33 of the passage 
 alluded to, that Solomon's Song possessed a less religious character; 
 and when it is said, in verse 29, that he possessed " largeness of 
 heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore/' we may interpret 
 that he compassed the boundaries of knowledge as the ocean does 
 the shores of the earth. Even Psalm cxxvii. though piously con- 
 ceived, contemplates social prosperity. Secondly, it may be inferred 
 from the design of the Psalms, that the personal songs of David 
 were intentionally excluded from the collection of the Psalms; 
 hence the absence of his last song. (2 Sam. xxiii.) When the col- 
 lection and arrangement into five books of the separate Psalms took 
 place, we know not; that it was a gradual process is evident from 
 the following details : The first book, excepting Psalms i. ii. x. 
 xxxiii. which are without titles, contains songs of David only; the 
 second book, chiefly the songs of his musicians, the songs of Korah 
 and Asaph, with a supplement of Davidic songs. (Psalms Ii. Ixv. 
 Ixviii. Ixx.) The compiler of the third bookf has inserted the 
 words, "The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended/' 
 
 * This division is that of the LXX. 
 
 f Linguistic grounds show that the compiler of the second book did not 
 add that sentence. See De Wette's Comment, on the Psalms, p. 18. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 17 
 
 between this and the second : it was therefore no longer his inten- 
 tion to collect Davidic songs. The fourth and fifth books, again, 
 contain some of the psalms of David, but the number of those 
 which appear to have been used in the services of the Second 
 Temple increase, while some bear distinct marks of having been com- 
 posed after the return from the captivity. (Psalms cxxvi. cxxxvii. 
 cxlix.) The hypothesis of a gradual collection alone explains the 
 recurrence of the same Psalms with slight deviations. (Cf. Psalm 
 xiv. with liii.; xl. 18 with Ixx.) The restoration and rearrange- 
 ment of the temple-worship took place during the reigns of Hezekiah 
 and Josiah. Songs of praise occupied a prominent place in the 
 feasts; hence it is thought that the collections of the Psalms were, 
 in all probability, if not earlier, then instituted. It appears from 
 Prov. xxv. 1, that Hezekiah gave orders for a collection of Solo- 
 mon's Proverbs; according to 2 Chron. xxix. 30, he caused the 
 Songs of David to be sung; how probable, therefore, that he 
 ordered a collection of the Songs of David and his musicians to be 
 made. The Psalter, in its present form, however, cannot be traced 
 to a time anterior to the Second Temple. 
 
 The titles of the Psalms did not originate with the compilers, 
 but with those who first wrote them down, or in the authors them- 
 selves. For it is not uncommon with poets among the ancient 
 Arabians and Syrians, to prefix their own names to their poems : 
 thus the prophets frequently place their names at the head of their 
 prophecies, (Isa. i. 2 ; Jer. i. 4; Hos. i. 2,) as e. g. Balaam, in Num- 
 bers xxiv. 3. 15, Habakkuk's Psalm (Hab. iii.,) and the Song of 
 Hezekiah, (Isa. xxxviii. 9.) That David adhered to the same prac- 
 tice is undeniably clear from 2 Samuel xxiii. 1, cf. also the title to 
 Psalm xviii. which had been seen by the author of the Books of 
 Samuel (2 Sam. xxii.)* Those titles may confidently be ascribed 
 to David himself, which are couched in poetic language, and relate 
 to the contents of the Psalm ; e. g. Psalm xxii. if we render with 
 Luther, "Concerning the early pursued hind/' and refer this to 
 David himself; and Psalm Ivi. where David describes himself as a 
 mute, innocent dove in a foreign country. Those Psalms, how- 
 ever, which simply have, "Of David/' may have been added at 
 their being written down for the first time, since the author's name 
 was not immaterial to the admirer of a song. If the addition of 
 the titles originated with the compilers in the days of Hezekiah, 
 we should be shut up to the supposition that certain verbal tradi- 
 tions respecting the separate psalms had been transmitted, which 
 certainly is the less probable case. The opinion has been diffused 
 in modern times, that the compilers determined the titles from 
 
 * The Song of Lamentation (2 Sam. i.) is not likely to have been recorded 
 in "The Book of the Upright, without any account of the author and the 
 theme: 17 and 18 verses furnish the words of the title. 
 2* 
 
18 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 mere supposition, or the indications contained in the historical 
 books; but (Ps. vii. Ix.) not all the statements are connected with 
 the historical books, while those which are, Psalin liv. excepted, 
 are by no means taken from them literally, (Psalms xxxiv. li. lii. 
 Ivii. lix. Ix.) and in Psalm Ivi. there even occurs a slight difference 
 in matter, as compared with 1 Sam. xxi. etc. 
 
 Respecting the design and use of the Psalms, we may divide 
 them as to their contents into songs of praise, of thanksgiving, of 
 complaint, and instruction, as Psalm i. and xxxvii. A portion of 
 them may at once be regarded as prayers, or colloquies of the heart 
 with God; (Ps. xix. 15, where A. V. renders, "The meditation of 
 my heart.") Hence the first two collections of the Psalms are 
 called (Ps. Ixxii. 20,) " The Prayers of David!' These, partly 
 sung under circumstances in which the psalmists could not possibly 
 contemplate anything but their own immediate need, were after- 
 wards designed for congregational use, and furnished with the 
 addition, "To the chief musician/' and the direction on which 
 instruments they were to be performed. David however, who calls 
 himself (2 Sam. xxiii. 1,) "the sweet Psalmist of Israel/' com- 
 posed others expressly for the use of the congregation, as e. g. on 
 the removal of the ark to Mount Zion, (Psalms xv. xxiv.) on 
 going to war, on triumphal festivities, (Ps. xx. xxi. Ixviii.) and 
 on pilgrimages to the sanctuary. (Ps. cxxii.) Personal relations 
 are of course entirely absent in that species of psalms. On this 
 point, it has already been observed that psalms too personal in 
 their allusions were excluded : if, however, certain psalms, to 
 judge from the occasions to which their titles refer, lead us to 
 expect individual references, as e. g. Psalm lii. liv. Ivi. Ivii. we 
 should remember that the absence of historical allusion has its 
 analogy in the spiritual songs of Luther, Paul, Gerhard, etc. 
 
 It is the mark of religious morbidity if a pious poet cannot free 
 himself from his personal relations, while it indicates strength if 
 he knows to enter into general truths and the relations of God to 
 man and his Church. In the measure as a Christian's piety is 
 developed, he learns to find under even extraordinary difficulties in 
 the Lord's Prayer the expression adapted to his need. The Psalms 
 of David may have been extensively circulated during his life-time : 
 we read (2 Sam. i. 18) that he caused the funeral ditty on Jona- 
 than to be learned by heart: the same song had been inserted into 
 a collection of National Songs, " The Book of Jasher," (the book 
 of the upright.)* To infer from the title, Psalm Ix. was intended 
 to be committed to memory. David had appointed singers, (1 Chron. 
 xvi. 37. 41.) both at the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle, 
 who chiefly used his own compositions : we may also presume that 
 
 * It is not likely that that book contained Psalms, because it appears 
 chiefly to have celebrated great heroes and heroic feats. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 David himself used to sing psalms in the service (cf. Psalm xx. 
 xxi. and Ps. xxvi. 6, 7.) In the time of Amos, about two hun- 
 dred years after David, his Psalms were so popular that the nobility 
 used to frame secular songs on their model, (Amos. vi. 5.) Heze- 
 kiah appointed the singing of the Psalms as part of the divine ser- 
 vice, (2 Chron. xxix. 30 :) so did Ezra and Nehemiah in the ser- 
 vice of the Second Temple, (Ezra iii. 10, 11; Neh. xii. 24, 45.) 
 Even such psalms, which, with slight deviations, are repetitions or 
 compositions of the Psalms of David, as e. g. Psalms liii. Ixx. cviii. 
 and the final verses at a later period added to others, (Psalms xiv. 
 Ixviii. xxxv.) indicate the diligent use of Davidic songs, both 
 during the captivity and the period of the Second Temple. 
 
 Song and music were prominent features of divine worship in 
 David's time. This is evident from the large number of two hun- 
 dred and eighty-eight Levites who were expressly appointed for 
 singing and the performance of music. (1 Chron. xxv. [xxvi.] 7.) 
 Not less than two hundred and fifty-five singing men and singing 
 women returned from the exile. (Neh. vii. 67.) Leaders were 
 appointed to the several divisions, Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun, 
 (1 Chron. xxv. 6.) A singer is mentioned (1 Chron. xv. [xvi.] 
 22,) on the occasioa jof the removal of the ark, whose special busi- 
 ness it was to teach song. So in the time of the Second Temple 
 the singers had their leaders. (Neh. xii. 24; xlii. 46.) "David 
 beautified their feasts, and set in order the solemn times perfectly, 
 that they might praise his holy name, and that the temple might 
 sound from morning." (Sir. xlvii. 12. [10.]) 
 
 The chief instruments used by the Levites were, according to 
 the records of the Books of Chronicles, cymbals, harps, and lutes; 
 according to Psalm v. 1, we should add the flute, which is fre- 
 quently noticed on Egyptian monuments. At processions, females 
 played the "doff" i. e. the bass-tambourine, which is still very 
 common in the East. The monuments of ancient Egypt show this 
 instrument to have been struck by females at religious festivals. 
 The same monuments, six thousand years old, have representations 
 of a large number of stringed instruments; an eight-stringed harp, 
 a three-stringed guitar.* The Israelites may have brought them 
 from Egypt. The music and song of the Levites used to be per- 
 formed at the times of the morning and evening sacrifices, but 
 chiefly on Sabbaths and festivals. (Psalms Ixxxi. xcii. cxviii.) 
 After the priests had finished the sacrifice, while the trumpets 
 sounded, the Levites, accompanied by music, used to begin their 
 song. (1 Chron. xvi. 4042; 2 Chron. xxix. 2530; Psalm xx. 4; 
 Neh. xii. 42, 43; 1 Mace. iv. 54.) The picture of a proces- 
 sion of the ark through the outer court, accompanied by song and 
 music, is indicated in Psalm Ixviii. 2528. 
 
 * The name "lute" is, like the instrument itself, of Oriental origin; its 
 Arabic name ia "alaud." 
 
20 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS, 
 
 "They have seen thy goings, God. 
 
 "Even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. 
 
 "The singers went before, the players on instruments followed 
 after. 
 
 "Among them were the damsels playing with timbrels, 
 
 " Bless ye God in the congregations, even the Lord, from the 
 fountain of Israel." (Of. margin.) 
 
 Nearest to the ark were the singers, then came the players on 
 stringed instruments along with damsels striking the tambourine. 
 Even a verse of their song is given. In the description of the 
 dedication of the temple of Solomon, the music of the Levites on 
 stringed instruments was accompanied by the sound of the silver 
 trumpets of the priests. Even the Pagans found those songs so 
 sweet, that during the captivity they asked the Levites for some 
 of their Psalms. (Ps. cxxxviii. 3.) 
 
 Antiphonic choruses obtained in the remotest times. (Of. Exod. 
 xv. 20, 21.) They existed during the period of the Second Tem- 
 ple. (Neh. xii. 40 42.) Those choruses distributed among them- 
 selves the contents of the songs, and were not confined to the mere 
 repetition of the same tune in a lower key, as is the custom in the 
 modern East. (Niebuhr's Travels, i. p. 176.) This is evident from 
 many psalms, (Psalms xx. Ixviii. cxviii. cxxxii. cxxxiv.) but chiefly 
 from Psalm cxxxvi. where the refrain, "For his mercy endureth 
 for ever/' was doubtless sung by a chorus. "Wa-should then con- 
 ceive of sacred song as either consisting of two responding choruses 
 or of a Levite precentor, responded by a chorus of Levites. 
 Responsive song seems to have been common among the ancient 
 Egyptians.* Responses, indeed, belong to the character of national 
 song.*}* It is a question how far the congregation took part in sing- 
 ing. To the best of our knowledge, the Old Testament nowhere 
 mentions congregational sacred singing. It appears that the 
 Levites only used to sing at public worship. There is nothing 
 strange in this, if we bear in mind the relation of the priesthood 
 to the people under the Jewish economy. The service of the 
 Roman Catholic Church corresponds in this respect also to the idea 
 and form of the Old Testament service. In the former the share 
 of the people has since about the sixth century been restricted to 
 the antiphonies of the "formulae solennes," and even that small 
 share passed at a later period into the "schola cantorum" It may 
 
 * Champillion describes an ancient Egyptian grotto-painting, represent- 
 ing a singer accompanied by a musician, and supported by two choruses, 
 consisting of males and females. (Hengstenberg's Moses and Egypt, 
 p. 133.) The support may probably mean, that now the choruses perform 
 simultaneously (the females only marking the time), and then the singer 
 performs a solo. 
 
 f Wolf, p. 122, etc., who shows that the refrain occurs in the oldest 
 species of national song, the Icelandic, etc. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 even be questioned whether the refrains frequently occurring in 
 the Psalms, (Psalms xlii. xliii. xlvi. Ivii.) or other emphasized final 
 words, were sung by the people at all, and not entirely confined to 
 the singers. Since, however, from the period after the exile, the 
 prayers and songs used to receive the confirmation of the people 
 by an "Amen," while they lifted up their hands and bowed their 
 heads, (Neh. viii. 6,) we may assume that the Hebrew people* used 
 to sing formulae, similar to those to which in the ninth and tenth 
 centuries the share of the Roman Catholic people was restricted, 
 viz. Hallelujah, and Kyrie Eleyson;f at all^ events it is not 
 improbable that the people joined in the singing cTthlfreTrain. A 
 similar relation obtained in the synagogue service of the later Jews. 
 But apart from the service there existed religious songs among the 
 people; we may especially assume the existence of Songs of Pil- 
 grimage. (Psalm cxxii.) Many think that the so-called "Songs 
 of Degree" (in Luther's version, "Songs in the Higher Choir," 
 because he believed that they used to be sung from the high choir 
 like the Psalms of the ancient church,) were songs of pilgrimage 
 used by the Israelites, who went up to the temple at Jerusalem to 
 the three great festivals. Here we have once more a resemblance 
 to the Roman Catholic Church, for the so-called "Songs of Pil- 
 grimage" (Hoffman, pp. 113 129,) are among the oldest sacred 
 national songs. The songs in 2 Sam. i. 18, Psalm Ix. seem to be 
 national, because they were intended to be learnt by heart. 
 
 Another question remains. What was the manner of singing? 
 The more common view inclines to a cantillare rather than a can- 
 tare. Something like the Mass service, or the intonations of the 
 Lutheran clergy at the altar a solemn chanting, during which the 
 voice rests with diversified modulations on separate notes. This 
 view has in its favour that, probably, every species of national song 
 was originally sung only in that manner. Fauriel says, that the 
 singing of the Greek clephts resembles cathedral song; Walker, 
 that the ancient Irish bards used thus to sing the songs of Ossian. 
 Synagogic singing (the notes of which may be found in the peri- 
 odical, "The Jew" \I)er Jude^\ Selig. vol. ii. p. 80,) and the sing- 
 ing of the Mohammedans at the reading of the Koran and the 
 Dsikr (i. e. the recitation of the name of the Deity,) are of the 
 same kind. Lane (Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyp- 
 tians, Lond. 1836, vol. ii. pp. 92, 192) gives specimens. Even 
 Greek religious songs (in the second century) were sung in a man- 
 ner related to cathedral song, as appears from Bellermann's 
 "Hymns of Dionysius and Mesomedes," Berlin, 1840. Synagogic 
 
 * Haberfeld (Baruch or the Doxologies of the Bible. Leips. 1806,) 
 expatiates on the antiphonies of the Old Testament service, but furnishes 
 suppositions only. He admits, as is maintained by some, that Sir. 1. 24, 
 is an antiphony of the people, which is the most important passage. 
 
 f Hoffman's History of Sacred Song. 1832. P. 7, etc. 
 
22 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 singing, the liturgic singing of the Mohammedans, and the more 
 ancient Christian cathedral song, coincide in the lengthening and 
 modulating of certain final notes; they are, among the Jews, the 
 word "echad;" one, in the formula, "Thy God is one God/' in 
 the Mohammedan Dsikrs, the syllable "Al," in Allah; in the 
 Mass-services, the syllable, " Jah," in Hallelujah.* The cantilla- 
 tion of the Psalms is again probable from their nature, which ren- 
 ders their separation into strophes of equal length impossible. 
 Unequal strophes occur in most of the Psalms : their separation is 
 not always certain even in the case of refrains (e. g. Ps. xlii. xliii.) 
 the number of the verses does not correspond, while their length 
 varies. We can only assume then a tune running on, as in the 
 case of the said Greek songs, and if so, that amounts to cantilla- 
 tion. For the same reason the singing of psalms in the ancient 
 Christian Church cannot have been our choral song. (v. p. 2.) 
 The prominent position of the precentor in the synagogue and 
 the ancient Church seems to agree with this view. The design 
 of some Psalms, (e .g. Psalms xxi. cxviii.) unmistakeably points to 
 solo performance. Others present exceptions. Logical strophes 
 of an equal number of verses occur in Psalms i. ii. xii. xxiv. xli. 
 cxiv. cxxviii. etc. But was the repetition of the same tune con- 
 fined to these ? According to the titles of Psalms Ivii. lix. etc* 
 several psalms differing in matter were sung to the same tune 
 (perhaps the same manner); may not this, again, point to cantilla- 
 tion? 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 THE AUTHORS OF THE PSALMS. 
 
 THE history and place of David in the kingdom of God accord 
 to him our chief interest. We have more psalms from him than 
 from any one else. There are seventy-four psalms headed by his 
 name a small number, if compared with the one thousand and 
 five songs of Solomon. It must be assumed for certain, that we 
 have only a selection, as appears from the two psalms which, 
 though recorded in the books of Samuel, find no place in the 
 Psalter. We introduce our remarks on David in the words of 
 Sirach: "In all his works he praised the holy one Most High, 
 with words of glory, with his whole heart he sung songs, and 
 
 * Vide Buxtorf, Synagoga Judaica, p. 205. Lane, vol. ii. p. 197. Wolf, 
 etc. This lengthened note of the mass was called Neuma, i. e. Pneuma ; it 
 was afterwards based on texts, which, because they followed the Hallelu- 
 jah, were termed "Sequences." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 loved him that made him. He set singers also before the altar, 
 that by their voices they might make sweet melody, and daily 
 sing praises in their songs. He beautified their feasts, and set in 
 order the solemn times, until the end, that they might praise his 
 holy name, and that the temple might sound from morning. The 
 Lord took away his sins and exalted his horn for ever; he gave 
 him a covenant of kings and a throne of glory in Israel." (Sir. 
 xlvii. 9 13.) 
 
 From comparing 1 Sam. xvi. 17 19, with chap. xvii. 13, 14. 28, 
 it appears that his hand was wont to strike the harp, when it was 
 thought too weak for combat and war : he was feeding his father's 
 sheep, while his elder brothers went out into the field. We have 
 reason to think, that even at so tender an age he did not confine 
 himself to accompanying the harp with the songs of others, but 
 that the praise of God was the favourite theme of his own com- 
 positions. How great a testimony to the power and humility of 
 his faith is furnished in the words of glorious renown, which the 
 heroic youth addressed to the Philistine : " Thou comest to me 
 with a sword, with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee 
 in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of 
 Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver 
 thee into mine hand ; that all the earth may know that there is a 
 God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord 
 saveth not with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's, and 
 he will give you into our hands." (1 Sam. xvii. 45 47.) Who 
 can forbear to recognize in these words the humble power of faith, 
 which resounds to us afterwards in the song of the aged man 
 (Ps. xviii. xxx. xxxi.)? "For by thee I have run through a 
 troop: and by my God have I leaped over a wall." " For who is 
 a God, save the Lord? or who is a rock, save our God?" His 
 playing of the harp was able to overcome the gloomy mind of Saul, 
 because the Spirit of God influenced his playing and songs. 
 Taken to the king's court, he forgot not his art. He practised it 
 daily (1 Sam. xviii. 10,) and doubtless derived from it comfort in 
 many a sad hour, for his chequered path began there. The king 
 gave him his affection, and it is said of the royal prince, that " he 
 loved him as his own soul." (1 Sam. xviii. 1.) But suspicion 
 was lurking in the already darksome mind of Saul, when the 
 people praised the shepherd youth's valour above his own, (1 Sam. 
 xviii. 7,) and during an attack of melancholic passion he cast a 
 javelin at the harmless singer. Saul regaining strength, and 
 shrinking from a personal attack, appointed David to the post of a 
 captain over a thousand, actuated by the same treacherous motive 
 which David himself afterwards entertained against Uriah, viz. 
 that the foe might kill him in the battle. (1 Sam. xviii. 25.) 
 David married the king's daughter; their union, contrary to 
 Eastern habit, was not entered upon by external necessity, but by 
 
24 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the bonds of love. (1 Sam. xviii. 20.) The hand of the Lor 
 protected David in his campaigns : Saul fell so greatly, that h 
 actually asked Jonathan and his servants to assassinate David 
 overcome by Jonathan's reasonings he yielded for a time to fee? 
 ings of penitence; (1 Sam. xix. 6;) but David's fresh victorie 
 rekindled his displeasure. He cast another javelin at him, whicl 
 again entered the wall. He sent murderers after him but Michael' 
 love and cleverness made a way for escape. It is natural that th 
 courtiers of such a monarch should resemble him. The words o: 
 David, (in 1 Sam. xxiv. 10 ; xxvi. 19 ; Ps. vii.*) and the conduc 
 of Doeg, (1 Sam. xxii. 9. 13,) show that they fanned the flame o: 
 suspicion, and accused the harmless young man of secret desigm 
 against the life and crown of the king. The expectation of thi 
 king's favour or of gain may have prompted them to falsehood; 
 but there was yet another motive which came powerfully into 
 play. Such was the jealousy of the tribe of the Benjaminites, to! 
 whom Saul belonged, against the youth of the tribe of Judah, ! 
 whose ascension to the throne they feared might result in their! 
 being obliged to yield place to others. All the courtiers of Saul 
 were Benjaminites; (1 Sam. xxii. 7;) so was Gush (Ps. vii.) and 
 mocking Shimei. (2 Sam. xvi.)f Finally, we must not overlook 
 that their enmity found ample fuel in the piety of David, for there 
 were but few that could rightly appreciate it, and many who felt 
 reproved by its exhibition. Obliged to flee from the court, he 
 hastened to the school of the prophets on the plains (Najoth) near 
 Ramah, between whom and himself there existed already spiritual 
 sympathies. A brief interval of some kind of understanding with 
 Saul seems then to have followed, since David was expected to 
 take his place at the king's table. (1 Sam. xx. 25.) He knew, 
 however, how little reliance was to be reposed in the changeable 
 king, and Jonathan confirmed his first fears. Then commenced 
 those days of exile, of which he sings in Psalm Ivi. 9. "Thou 
 tellest my wanderings ; put thou my tears into thy bottle. Are 
 they not in thy book ?" J His next place of refuge was Nob, close 
 
 * Introd. to Psalm vii. 
 
 f Cf. Introd. to Psalms v. and Ixxviii. 
 
 J At the close of the narrative of the meeting of Jonathan and David, 
 before his departure, we read, (1 Sam. xx. 42,) <And he arose and 
 departed; and Jonathan went into the city." Which city? Gibea, close 
 to Ramah, the place of Saul's nativity, seems to have been his usual 
 residence. (1 Sam. x. 26; xi. 4; xv. 34; xxiii. 19; xxvi. 1.) But it is 
 said (1 Sam. xvii. 54,) that David took the head of Goliath to Jerusalem, 
 and from the immediate sequel one feels inclined to infer that Saul 
 occasionally resided there. Once for all observe, that the idea of great 
 distances respecting the places of Judea, referred to in David's history, 
 should be abandoned. Gibea and Bethlehem were about four miles 
 Gibeon, the place of the tabernacle, (which according to Movers on the 
 books of Chron. p. 293, etc., is identical with Gibea,) about seven miles 
 
INTRODUCTION. '25 
 
 to Jerusalem, (vide ad. Ps. lix,) where the tabernacle was at that 
 time; he there went to Ahiinelech, the high priest, the descendant 
 of Eli. (1 Sam. xxii. 11; xiv. 3.) The close intimacy of the 
 youthful David with the sons of the prophets, and his warm 
 friendship with the high priest, furnish a striking testimony to his 
 great attachment for the sanctuary and its officers. " Who is/' 
 said Ahimelech to the king, "so faithful among all thy servants 
 as David, which is the king's son-in-law, and goeth at thy bidding, 
 and is honourable in thine house? Did I then (to-day) begin to 
 inquire of God for him?" After Doeg hud slain that man, 
 David immediately took his son under his protection. (1 Sam. 
 xxii. 23.) He next thinks of a place of refuge out of his native 
 country, remote from the power of Saul. He resorted accordingly 
 to Gath of the Philistines; but recognized and led before Achish, 
 it was only by a stratagem that he was able to escape the ven- 
 geance of that king. (Vide ad. Ps. Ivi.) On returning into Saul's 
 kingdom, he first looked for an asylum in the tribe of Judah, then 
 removed to the more distant regions of the Dead Sea to Kejilah, 
 near Hebron, and then still further towards the South to the most 
 inaccessible mountain heights along the borders of the Dead Sea, 
 into the wilderness of Ziph, of Mahon, and Engedi into mouiv 
 tain passes which are expressly called "the rocks of the wild 
 goats/' (1 Sam. xxiv. 3,) at an altitude of fifteen hundred feet 
 above the level of the sea. ( Vide ad. Ps. Ivii.) The southernmost 
 point is the wilderness of Pharan. On his retreat he had, how- 
 ever, not remained alone. Four hundred and soon six hundred 
 men, ruined in their affairs, and hoping to better their condition 
 through David,* had joined him. (1 Sam. xxii. 2f xxiii. 13.) 
 Nothing, however, was more remote from his thoughts than to 
 lead them in rebellion against whom he knew to be " the anointed 
 of the Lord;" he only employed them in skirmishes against 
 foreign tribes. Saul, who was twice delivered into his hands, he 
 twice treated with a generosity that touched his fierce persecutor 
 and caused him to exclaim, " Thou art more righteous than I; 
 for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee 
 
 Ramah nine miles Jericho twenty-four miles the Dead Sea (which is, 
 however, sixty- six miles in length) about thirty-six miles from Jerusalem. 
 The greatest extent of the whole country did not exceed the distance from 
 Berlin to Halle, t. e. from Sidon to Sodom one hundred and thirty-two 
 miles, the greatest breadth from Rabbath Ammon to Joppa eighty-four 
 miles. And yet according to 2 Samuel xxiv. the population of the 
 country amounted, in the reign of David, to 1,300,000 valiant men that 
 drew the sword ; hence since the total population of a country generally 
 equals four times the number of adult males to about five millions. 
 Still more diminutive appears the size of the kingdom of Judah one day's 
 journey on foot i. e. sixty miles in length, and forty-two in breadth. 
 
 * Many of them probably entertained views of David's future similar to 
 those of Abigail. (1 Sam. xxv. 28-30.) 
 
 3 
 
26 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 evil. And thou hast showed this day, how thou hast dealt well with 
 me ; forasmuch as when the Lord had delivered me into thine 
 hand, thou killedst me not. For if a man find his enemy, will he 
 let him go well away? Wherefore the Lord reward thee good 
 for that thou hast done unto me this day. And now, behold, I 
 know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of 
 Israel shall be established in thine hand. Swear now, therefore, 
 unto me by the Lord, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, 
 and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house." 
 (1 Sam. xxiv. 17 21.) David's words on this occasion, and on 
 his second encounter with Saul (chap, xxvi.) should be well 
 noticed ; they exhibit so distinct an agreement between the mind 
 of David and the sentiments which pervade many of his psalms, 
 that their very expression bears a strong resemblance. ( Vide ad. 
 Psalms xi. and xvi.) " The Lord judge' between me and thee, 
 and the Lord avenge me of thee; but mine hand shall not be upon 
 thee." "As the Lord livcth, the Lord shall smite him; or his 
 day shall come to die, or he shall descend into battle and perish. 
 The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the 
 Lord's anointed." "If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, 
 let him accept an offering; but if they be the children of men, 
 cursed be they before the Lord; for they have driven me out this 
 day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go, serve 
 other gods." "And, behold, as thy life was much set by this day 
 in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the 
 Lord, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation." 
 
 The continuous reference in the Psalms to multitudes of 
 enemies, to fraud, deceit, and persecution, to desire of revenge 
 and thirst for blood, to David's repeatedly calling himself one 
 innocently persecuted, to his escape into the mountains, to the 
 abandonment of all earthly hopes, to persecutors set upon him like 
 wild beasts; (Psalms xxii. Ivii. v. etc.) all these produce but poor 
 impressions on such minds, who only listen to the voice of the 
 poet, and perceive in them poetic forms only. We should bring 
 the history of David to them, to perceive that such passages 
 express the much-stirred life of a much-tried man. Although the 
 historic basis for the understanding of the Psalms, furnished 
 in the books of Samuel, could be desired more extensive, it is 
 nevertheless sufficient for enabling us to recognize the funda- 
 mental traits of the events and conditions of mind, to which allu- 
 sion is made in the Psalms. 
 
 ^ Even the generous conduct of David had not yet cured Saul of 
 his suspicion; the former preferred, tired of his long wanderings 
 on mountains and plains, once more to try his fortune with the 
 Philistines. ; No longer alone, but heading six hundred warriors, 
 and a heroic fame for his precursor, he might expect a good 
 reception with Achish, on offering his services to him. He met 
 
INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 one, and engaged in expeditions against the Amalekites and other 
 nations, continued there until at last his loyalty was put to a severe 
 test, when the Philistines made preparations for war against Saul. 
 He manifested on that occasion the same sagacity of which he 
 had furnished the evidence in other junctures. Foreseeing the 
 result, he responded in undivided terms to the call of Achish: 
 (1 Sam. xxviii. 2 :) he next joined, accompanied by his people, 
 the van of the army, and found his anticipations realized. The 
 misgivings of the Philistine captains as to the propriety of permit- 
 ting this Hebrew to march against his countrymen, effected his 
 being sent back. (1 Sam. xxix.) His wanderings had now 
 reached their termination. After Saul was killed in that battle, 
 the tribe of Judah chose David for their king. It had been a 
 time of much-tried waiting, covering not less than ten years. 
 David had stood the test with persevering faith. How noble the 
 generosity which, after the death of Saul, caused him to rear a 
 standing memorial to his valour in his song, "Of the bow/' where 
 he sings : " Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their 
 lives, and in their death they were not divided : they were swifter 
 than eagles, they were stronger than lions. Ye mountains of 
 Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor 
 fields of offerings : for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast 
 away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with 
 oil." How warmly flows the expression of his gratitude to those 
 who had buried Saul. (2 Sam. ii. 5, 6.) As he had sworn to Saul 
 at their meeting, (1 Sam. xxiv. 22,) he showed kindness to his 
 descendants: (2 Sam. iv. 5 12, and ix. 3, etc.) though afterwards, 
 to perform an imagined piece of necessary justice, he suffered him- 
 self to be misguided to deliver seven of Saul's sons into the hands 
 of the Gibeonites. (2 Sam. xxi.) 
 
 How touchingly he expresses (Psalm xviii.) the deep gratitude 
 that filled his heart after he had overcome his time of trial, when 
 he forcibly describes how the hand of God had visibly been 
 stretched out from heaven, and drawn him out of great waters. 
 
 He did not at once obtain the government of the entire nation : 
 his own tribe (Judah) alone acknowledged him, (which in num- 
 bers, however, nearly equalled the rest,*) and he ruled it at Hebron 
 for seven years and a half, while the other eleven tribes remained 
 under the descendants of Saul. After that period they, too, ren- 
 dered him homage. One of his first acts was the arrangement of 
 the priestly worship, and the removal of the ark to Zion. In 
 
 * Cf. the data of the census, 2 Sam. xxiv. 9, from which, however, the 
 Chronicles and Josephus deviate a little. The numbor of the tribe of Judah 
 is, indeed, disproportionately great, especially as we find (1 Kings xii. 21,) 
 the army of the kingdom of Judah and Benjamin limited to one hundred 
 and eighty thousand men. According to Numb. i. 27, the tribe of Judah 
 was stronger than all the rest. 
 
28 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 victorious campaigns he then successively humbled the Philistines, 
 the Edomites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Syrians, and 
 extended the frontiers of his kingdom to the Euphrates. His fame 
 spread to distant regions. (2 Sam. viii. 9; v. 11.) The sceptre of 
 his kingdom was confirmed to his race for eternal times. (2 Sam. 
 vii. 13.) An event occurred, however, which deeply affected the 
 honoured and aged king, and reminded him of his former days of 
 tribulation. 
 
 Absalom's ambition gave rise to revolt, and once more drove him 
 from the capital towards the region of that wilderness, where he 
 had spent the greater portion of his days when he fled from Saul. 
 ( Vide ad. Psalms iii. Iv. Ixiii.) He had even to quit the bounda- 
 ries of Canaan, and go beyond Jordan. Of less importance was 
 the insurrection of the Benjaminite, Sheba, (vide ad. Ps. Ixxviii.) 
 and the projected rebellion of Adonijah. In the seventieth year 
 of his life, after a reign of forty years and six months, David died, 
 and was buried at Jerusalem. His noble principles of government 
 are expressed in Psalm ci.: one of his subjects furnishes the fol- 
 lowing testimonial, in Psalm Ixxviii. 70 72: "God chose David 
 also his servant, and took him from the sheepfoids; from following 
 the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, 
 and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the inte- 
 grity of his heart, and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands/' 
 As with a mother's faithfulness he tended the nursing lambs when 
 he was their shepherd, so he transferred that faithfulness to his 
 people when he became their shepherd. 
 
 This is a bird's eye view of the history of David. The different 
 Psalms may be referred, if not with certainty, yet with more or less 
 of probability, to the different periods of his life. The fact that 
 most of them were composed in days of tribulation, during the 
 time of his residence at the court of Saul, (Psalms v. xli. lix. Ixix. 
 cxl.) the time of his flight before Saul (Psalms iii. iv. vi. vii. xi. 
 xiii. xxii. xxxiv. Hi. Ivi. Ivii. cxlii.) and Absalom, (Psalms iii. xxvii. 
 Iv. Ixiii.) should not surprise us, since the harp was just in seasons 
 of that kind the comfort of the pious minstrel. 
 
 A great number of our own hymns were composed in the gloomy 
 days of the thirty years' war. The use of David's plaintive songs 
 at worship caused him constantly to renew and multiply the praises 
 of God for his aid and deliverance, an exercise from which he 
 doubtless derived much benefit. As to the remainder of his 
 Psalms, some were composed for special use at certain public festi- 
 vals, (Psalms xv. xxiv. xx. xxi. Ixviii. cxxii.;) others were occa- 
 sioned by incidents of war, (Psalms ix. x. lx.;) some are didactic, 
 (Psalm xxxvii.) others psalms of nature, (Psalms viii. xix. xxix.;) 
 some psalms of praise, (Psalms xvi. xviii. xxiii. xxx. cxxxviii.) 
 others penitential, (Psalms xxxii. li.;) Psalms ii. and x. are Mes- 
 sianic. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 Glancing at the religious-moral character of David, and then at 
 the character of his Psalms, we recognize courage and warmth of 
 heart as its most prominent features. The boy who slew a lion 
 and a bear, slung the stone with so much assurance at the face of 
 gigantic Goliath, that he fell to the earth. But the tender youth 
 ruddy and of a fair countenance, (1 Sam. xvii. 42) shows himself 
 equally susceptible to tender emotions. His heart lacked no sus- 
 ceptibility for any kind of love : his union to Michal was, as has 
 been already noticed, not the result of convenience, but of genuine 
 affection. (1 Sam. xviii. 20.) Jonathan, his friend, loved him 
 "as his own soul." Filial piety was so sacred to him, that in his 
 greatest troubles, he never forgot a child's duties, but cared for his 
 father and mother. (1 Sam. xxii. 3.) His paternal tenderness 
 towards his children almost knew no limits. (2 Sam. xviii. 33; 
 xii. 18.) We have already noticed his loyalty to his king in spite 
 of all persecution. How soon his royal indignation could kindle 
 when it regarded the administration of justice towards his subjects, 
 appears from 2 Sam. xii. 5. The tender relations subsisting between 
 him and the people of Jerusalem reveals touchingly the scene of 
 his flight before Absalom : "And all the country wept with a loud 
 voice, and all the people passed over." (2 Sam. xv. 23.) The 
 noble general is seen in 2 Sam. xxiii. 17. His faithfulness of 
 promise was infallible ; the words in which he mourned the violent 
 death of honest Abner breathe simultaneously love and indignation. 
 (Cf. ad. Psalm Iviii.) His anger for the murder of Ishbosheth, 
 committed against his promise to the contrary, could hardly be kept 
 within bounds. (2 Sam. iv. 12.) He was soon angry, but gave 
 grateful hearing to calming speech. (1 Sam. xxv. 25 35.)^: But 
 the root of all his virtues was "the fear of God" In every situa- 
 tion of life, he looked up to the Lord, (with this correspond the 
 words which history furnishes concerning him.) The boy who 
 with his sling faced the Philistine expected the power of victory 
 from the Lord. (1 Sam. xvii. 45.) He thanked the Lord, when 
 his persecutor was delivered into his hand, and to the Lord he 
 prays for strength, that he might not sin against him. (1 Sam. 
 xxiv. 7.) He deemed it as a mercy of the Lord that Abigail's 
 admonition preserved him for sinning, (1 Sam. xxv. 32, 33;) he 
 besought the Lord for counsel in his martial enterprises, (1 Sam. 
 xxiii. 2; 2 Sam. v. 19, 23;) he humbly acknowledged the will of 
 the Lord when he lost the throne, and had to bear the contempt of 
 rebellious subjects, (2 Sam. xv. 25; xvi. 11, 12;) he praised the 
 Lord with deep gratitude and humility when he received the 
 glorious promises of the future of his race, (2 Sam. vii. 18, etc.]) 
 when the exultation in which he burst forth, singing and dancing 
 before the ark of the Lord, was met with derision, he said to 
 Michal, "It was before the Lord, which chose me before thy 
 father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the 
 3* 
 
30 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 people of the Lord, over Israel : therefore will I play before the 
 Lord. And I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in 
 mine own sight." (2 Sam. vi. 21, 22.) The loftiness of such 
 expressions of his piety in word and deed, would seem to render 
 the offence of his adultery with Bathsheba, and his sin against 
 Uriah, the more enormous. While it is habitual with legally 
 righteous Pharisees and the servants of sin, who just understand 
 the clever avoidance of appearances, to heap the rudest reproach 
 on David for those transgressions, and acclaim the right of rising 
 far above him, it is, especially for practical ministers, matter of 
 indispensable necessity to regard that event in its true nature. 
 Now if on the one hand it be apparent that David by no means 
 rushed without all thought headlong to the commission of his 
 double crime, but that sin also in his case gradually lured the weak 
 into her net, and that on the other if anywhere in this case the 
 de'pth of repentance seems to have equalled the greatness of the 
 crime, we may well ask, Who dares to throw the first stone on the 
 fallen one? See also Comment, to Psalm li. 
 
 We shall now endeavour to apprehend the peculiar features of 
 the Davidic compositions in relation to the psalms of other authors. 
 One difference is strikingly apparent. A certain child-like warmth 
 and simplicity seems peculiar to the Psalms of David. (Psalms xi. 
 xvi. xxiii. xxvii. Ixi. cxxxi. and cxxxiii.) If we are anxious to gain 
 the impression of a heart peaceful and happy in God, we have only 
 to read his'psalms. The same expressions of that peculiar child-like 
 familiarity with God, and silent resignation, occur also in some of 
 his sentiments in the historic books. As such we count his already 
 named reply to the mockery of his wife Michal, the expression of 
 his gratitude for Abigail's dehjortation from vengeance against 
 Nabal, the words of resignation on his being compelled to leave 
 Jerusalem for fear of Absalom, etc. (2 Sam. xv. 25, 26.) On the 
 other hand his Psalms portray the energy and courage of the youth 
 who slew Goliath, and of the man who became the terror of sur- 
 rounding nations, wielded the sceptre of the kingdom with a firm 
 hand, and irrevocably punished oppression. (Psalms xviii. Ix. ci. 
 Hi. Iviii.) We are now-a-days wont to conceive of a hero as 
 endowed with a stoical mastery of his affections, and chiefly of his 
 grief. In the heroes of antiquity, however, weeping and tears 
 Were deemed no disgrace. History records the violent outbreak of 
 David's grief as most overwhelming on receiving the news of 
 Absalom's death. (2 Sam. xviii. 33.) Regarding the Psalter as 
 reflecting the inward history of the man, which accompanied out- 
 ward acts, we may perceive how deeply all his experiences entered 
 into his heart. The Psalms make us to look down into the abysses 
 of grief and despair. It is truly elevating to observe how, while 
 praying and singing, his soul mounts sometimes as it were on the 
 steps of a ladder, from verse to verse, to joyous exultation, and the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 31 
 
 psalm which was begun in a tone of deepest complaint, ends with 
 triumphant song. This is most distinctly and remarkably indi- 
 cated in Psalm xxii. Sometimes the voice of exultation will burst 
 through the anguish of the prayer, as in Psalm vi. 9; xxviii. 6: 
 he perceives inward communications from God, which tear (Psalms 
 xii. 6; xiv. 4; xxxii. 8; xxvii. 8) him as it were at once from out 
 of the deepest tribulation. Some psalms of grief and hesitancy, 
 beginning with an "In the Lord do I put my trust/' (Psalms xi. 1; 
 xxv. 2; xxvi. 2,) shine like beacons. Taken as a whole, the Psalms 
 of David possess not the plenitude of poetic imagination, though 
 that exists in some. Exceedingly beautiful and grand is the 
 execution of the image at the beginning of Psalm xviii. which 
 contrasts the days of his affliction with those of his prosperity. 
 Psalms xxix. ex. and cxxxix. are sublime. 
 
 Since we find that poetry, music, and song were more frequently 
 united in one person in remote antiquity than in later times, when 
 those activities became more separate, there arises spontaneously 
 the supposition, that the individuals whom David appointed as 
 chief musicians and leaders of the Levites, as they combined music 
 and song, were also versed in poetry. (The three leaders, Asaph, 
 Heman, and Jeduthun, were, according to Chronicles, both chief 
 musicians and chief singers.) The example of David must have 
 exerted a great influence. It appears from Amos vi. 5, that the 
 nobility used to frame secular songs on the model of David's com- 
 positions. How much more may the spiritual songs of David 
 have served as models ! How exact an imitation of David is the 
 Psalm in Hab. iii. Asaph, Heinan, and perhaps Jeduthun, are 
 mentioned as seers, while Ethan and Heman, who, according to 
 Chronicles and the titles of Psalms Ixxxviii. Ixxxix. were Levitic 
 singers, are accounted among the wisest of men, (1 Kings iv. 31 ; 
 [v. 11.]) The titles ascribe twelve psalms to. Asaph, (Psalm 1. 
 73 83,) eleven to the children of Korah. Some psalms, how- 
 ever, cannot have had Asaph, the cotemporary of David, for their 
 author (e. g. Psalms Ixxiv. Ixxvii. Ixxix. Ixxx.,) as they unmis- 
 takeably refer to the last times of the Jewish empire : the same is 
 the case with the psalm of Ethan, (Psalm Ixxxix.) It may be 
 concluded, that the psalms of Asaph were by no means designated 
 by his name without sufficient reasons for it, because, in some 
 respects, they really bear strong marks of resemblance. It is not 
 improbable that the name, "Asaph," stands for the entire family 
 of singers of Asaph's children, so that no particular regard was 
 paid to the poetic productions of their separate authors. So the 
 Korahite psalms are ascribed to that family as a whole. As the 
 names of Jacob, Joseph, and Ephraim are used to designate their 
 entire races, why might not the same apply to the name of Asaph? 
 Most parties, at least, are now agreed that Jeduthun, in Psalms 
 xxxix. and Ixxvii. refers to the Jeduthun family of singers. The 
 
32 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 race of Asaph reaches down to the latest times: 2 Chron. xx. 14, 
 Jehasiel, a Levite of the children of Asaph, is named as a prophet 
 in the days of Jehosaphat, who is probably to be regarded as the 
 author of Psalm Ixxxiii. (Of. ad. Psalm Ixxxiii.) Descendants of 
 Asaph returned from the exile, according to Neh. yii. 47, not less 
 than one hundred and forty-eight, according to Ezra ii. 41, one hun- 
 dred and twenty-eight singers; and since, according to Nehemiah 
 vii. 47, the number of male and female singers who returned was 
 two hundred and forty-five, it is evident that the greater number 
 were Asaphites : though Jeduthunite singers are mentioned as well. 
 (Neh. xi. 17.) Excellent, as to form and contents, are the didac- 
 x tic poems of Asaph, (Psalms 1. and Ixxiii.) The other psalms of 
 Asaph are distinguished by a certain vivacity and freshness. (On 
 the psalm of Ethan, vide Psalm Ixxxix. Com.) The psalms of 
 the children of Korah stand highest for poetic symmetry, elevation, 
 vivacity, and warmth of sentiment, (Psalms xlii. xlix. Ixxxiv. 
 Ixxxv. Ixxxvii. Ixxxviii.) Some of these psalms were composed 
 by Levites in the times of David, e. g. Psalms xlii. xliii. xlvii. 
 Ixxxiv. ; others, however, refer to the days of Hezekiah and the 
 invasion of Sennacherib. (Psalms xlvi. xlviii. Ixxxvii.) The Ko- 
 rahite songs, as well as the Asaphite, bear a certain peculiarity, 
 which shows that the singers of certain families educated them- 
 selves after the model of their predecessors. Psalm Ixxxviii. alone, 
 besides the general designation, bears also the name of Heman. 
 (Cf. ad. Psalm Ixxxviii.) 
 
 There are, besides, a song of Moses, (Psalm xc.) which bears 
 most thoroughly the expression of his austerity, and two songs of 
 Solomon. (Psalms Ixxii. cxxvii.) Psalm cxxxii. which was sung 
 at the dedication of Solomon's Temple, (Solomon's prayer contains, 
 according to Chronicles, some passages of this Psalm,) may perhaps 
 have him for its author. (Cf. ad. Psalm cxxxii.) 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 DOCTRINE AND ETHICS OF THE PSALMS. 
 
 !.> God and the Government of the World. 
 
 HERDER says, "There is no attribute, no perfection of God left 
 unexpressed, in the simplest and most powerful manner, in the 
 Psalms and the Prophets." In fact, we can hardly realize how 
 much energy and freshness the Christian belief in God would lose, 
 were the lofty and eternal expressions of the Psalms on the being 
 and attributes of God withdrawn from the Christian Church. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 How many of such forcibles passages, stamped upon our memory 
 since infancy's tender age, have entered into our emotions and 
 thoughts, and often quite unconsciously originated those represen- 
 tations of God which we feel inclined to regard as the natural 
 expression of every human heart. Here that God is praised, who, 
 before the mountains, the earth, and the world had been created, 
 is from everlasting to everlasting who surrounds his creatures, 
 inquiring everywhere -whose presence cannot be avoided, whether 
 in heaven above, or the depth below from whom darkness can- 
 not hide who reigns as the Lord omnipotent, from the beginning, 
 in the heavens who thunders in his might who telleth the 
 number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names who is 
 good unto all, has compassion on all his works, and giveth food 
 to the young ravens which cry who delighteth not in the strength 
 of the horse nor the legs of a man, but taketh pleasure in them that 
 fear him and hope in his mercy who, like as a father pitieth his 
 children, pitieth those that fear him, and dealeth not with us after 
 our sins, nor rewardeth us according to our iniquities. Whatever 
 truths and praises can be said of the wisdom, eternity, omnipotence, 
 holiness, and mercy of God, are expressed in the Psalms, such as 
 Psalms xc. xci. xcvii. xxxiii. ciii. civ. and cxxxix. Here is a piety 
 which, on the one hand losing itself full of praise in the care of 
 God, as in Psalm cxix., preserves on the other, a clear and opened 
 eye for his glory in nature, before whose view the declaration in 
 the book of the law and that in the book of nature entirely commin- 
 gle, e. g. Psalm xix. Here we have the unceasing praise of God 
 in gloomy as well as in joyous days, for mercies temporal and 
 spiritual in every variety of tone and expression. The last psalms 
 (cxlvii. cxlviii. and cl.), the many-toned echo of the entire book, 
 or like the end of a long chain call with their unceasing "Praise 
 ye the Lord/' upon Israel and all mankind, the heights and the 
 depths and the heavenly spirits, to offer the sacrifice of their praise 
 to the Lord. Those who adhere to the erroneous opinion (Psalms 
 xxix. civ. cxlv.) that the God of Israel was the God of the nation 
 only in that sense, that the people believed, besides Him, in other 
 though impotent heathen deities, may derive more correct views from 
 the Psalms. " For God is the King of all the earth : sing ye praises 
 with understanding. God reigneth over thejieaihen : God sitteth 
 upon the throne of his holiness." (Psalm xlvii. 7, 8.) "0 God 
 of our salvation, who art the confidence of all the ends of the earthy 
 and of them that are afar off upon the sea." (Psalm Ixv. 5.) 
 "Among the gods there is none like unto thee, Lord; neither 
 are there any works like unto thy works. All nations whom thou 
 hast made shall come and worship before thee, Lord, and shall 
 glorify thy name. For thou art great, and doest wondrous things : 
 thou art God alone." (Psalm Ixxxvi. 8 10.) Because, says the 
 Psalmist, God has created the heathen, therefore they shall come 
 
34 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and worship before -him. He says (verse 8), "Among the gods 
 there is none like unto thee, O Lord;" and yet, in verse 10, "Thou 
 art God alone." Is this not sufficient to indicate how passages are 
 to he taken, in which it is certainly said, that God is greater than 
 any other god? (Psalms xcv. 3; Ixxvii. 14; xcvii, 9.) What else 
 does it mean, but that all who are regarded as gods are nothing 
 when compared with Him? This is distinctly asserted in Psalm 
 xcvi. 5: "All the gods of the nations are idols (i. e. nonentities:) 
 but the Lord made the heavens." With this corresponds the 
 language of the prophets. So it is said in Jeremiah xxvii. 5: "/ 
 have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the 
 ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have 
 given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me." So in Deut x. 14; 
 iv. 39 : "Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's 
 thy God, the earth (also,) with all that therein is." "Know there- 
 fore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is 
 God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath : (there) is none 
 else." 
 
 Contrasted with the gods of the heathen, which are less than 
 their worshippers, which have eyes and see not, and ears and hear 
 not the God of Israel appears as the living God, who governs the 
 world, and that in righteousness; who maintaineth the right and 
 cause of the innocent, and sitteth enthroned as the righteous Judge, 
 (Psalm ix. 5 ;) who throweth the ungodly into the ditch, and causeth 
 their desire to perish, (Psalms vii. 17; cxii. 10;) who preserveth 
 the soul of His saints, and delivereth them out of the hand of the 
 wicked, (Psalm xcvii. 10;) who heareth the cry of the righteous, 
 (Psalm xxxiv. 18;) delivereth them out of all trouble, and maketh 
 their eyes to see their desire upon their enemies, (Psalm liv. 9 ;) 
 who causeth the godly to prosper in whatsoever he doeth, (Psalm 
 i. 3,) wealth and riches to be in his house, (Tsalm cxii. 3,) that 
 they shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine 
 they shall be satisfied, (Psalm xxxvii. 16;) for " I have been young, 
 and now I am old: yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor 
 his seed begging bread." (Psalm xxvii. 25.) All these things are 
 continually being repeated in the course of the world, though fre- 
 quently the contrary really takes or seems to take place, so that 
 expressions like those quoted, will both edify and startle pious read- 
 ers. It is necessary for their right understanding first to inspect 
 those passages, which show that the Psalmist, no less than we, had 
 to realize the experience of innocence being crushed, and malice 
 triumphant, of virtue struggling with poverty and wretchedness, 
 and of wickedness revelling in abundance. "I have seen the 
 wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay- 
 tree." (Psalm xxxvii. 35.) "The ways of the wicked prosper 
 always: thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his 
 enemies, he puffeth at them." (Psalm x. 5.) "The wicked des- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 troy the foundations, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm xi. 3.) 
 Asaph says, that his steps had almost slipped at the sight of the 
 undisturbed prosperity of the wicked, when it seemed as if he had 
 cleansed his heart in vain and washed his hands in innocency to 
 no purpose. (Psalm Ixiii. 1 15.) Had not David to empty the 
 cup of sorrow for ten years and to bear privation and peril? But 
 what is the meaning of the assurances that God is ruling the world, 
 causing the prosperity of the righteous, and throwing the wicked into 
 their own net? They simply mean that "right is right after all" 
 (this is Luther's rendering of Psalm xciv. 15,) "tandem bona causa 
 triumphal" They express the truths so deeply inscribed upon the 
 hearts of all men, and confirmed by revelation, that the Divine gov- 
 ernment of the world is based on justice, that evil is ever condemned 
 by its indestructible laws, and that its condemnation will sooner 
 or later be made manifest. For the further elucidation of the 
 before quoted passages, we should add such as these: "Cast thy 
 burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." "He will not 
 leave for ever the righteous in trouble." (Ps. Iv. 22.) "Many are 
 the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth. him out of 
 them all." (Ps. xxxiv. 20.) "Light is sown for the righteous, 
 and gladness for the upright in heart." (Ps. xcvii. 11.) "Unto 
 the upright there ariseth light in the darkness, from Him who is 
 gracious, and full of compassion and righteous." (Ps. cxii. 4.) 
 But when is that light to rise? Very often here on earth, after 
 weeks, or years, and if not to the fathers yet to their children. 
 (Ps. cii. 29.) "God overturns the measure of the ungodly, when 
 it gets full." "When wrong gets too insolent, it commits suicide." 
 "Man proposes, but God disposes." "Lightly come, lightly go." 
 "Ill-gotten gains don't prosper." "Took by fraud, comes to 
 naught." "Honest gain will ever remain." "The world's the 
 world after all; depend on it, and you're sure to fall." "Avarice 
 gathers itself poor, charity pays itself rich." " Honesty is the best 
 policy." Could these proverbs have originated with the people, if 
 there were no temporal revelations of a righteous government of 
 the world? We hear the voice of experience when David says, 
 that he had not seen the seed of the righteous begging for bread, 
 but that he had beheld the sudden disappearance of the wicked, 
 though he spread himself like a green bay-tree, (Ps. xxxvii. 25. 
 36;) and Asaph states: "Then understood I their end: surely 
 Thou didst set them in slippery places : thou castedst them down 
 into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a 
 moment; they are utterly consumed with terrors." (Ps. Ixxiii. 
 17 19.) The truly pious and upright man is a faithful friend, a 
 kind neighbour, a conscientious citizen, a careful parent, and dili- 
 gent at his occupation: is it conceivable that his descendants 
 should be reduced to penury and find no friends ! (Cf. ad. Ps. 
 xxxvii. 25, and Ps. i.) The ungodly, on the other hand, who 
 
36 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 rears his fortune by wrong means, can hardly be said to attain to 
 pure joy, while he* has more dangerous enemies in his passions 
 than amongst his numerous adversaries: how easily may he fall 
 from his height! Cases which compel children to return their 
 parents' ill-gotten gain are of frequent occurrence. The laws of 
 the Divine government of the world, however, are analogous to 
 those of summer and winter, sunshine and rain, health and disease, 
 youth and old age, and many other things. Considered in the 
 aggregate they may be referred to certain rules and arrangements, 
 though they apply not always in particular instances. But as in 
 our present state of probation, the full revelation of the justice of 
 God is held in check by his long-suffering, that the field of the 
 world might exhibit both wheat and tares, (Rom. ii. 4; Matt. xiii. 
 30,) so all the particular judgments of God refer for their consum- 
 mation to the last judgment. Although the expectations of the 
 Old Testament saints respecting the future were on the whole 
 concealed in darkness, there are nevertheless distinct references to 
 the last judgment to be found in the Prophets and the Psalms. 
 , See Ps. i. 5, 6; xxxvii. 37, 38; xvii. 14, 15; xlix. 15, 16; Ixxiii. 
 23, 24; xcvi. 13; xcviii. 9, in the Commentary. The belief in 
 the justice of the Divine government of the world expressed by 
 the Psalmists, yields therefore on the one hand the character of 
 hope with respect to the future, and shows on the other that it de- 
 rived its nourishment from the daily experience of the present. 
 To this let us add the following. Every attempt to determine the 
 limits within which Divine justice is wont or able to reveal itself 
 as a universal law, would be labour lost. The history of the J ew- 
 ish nation in general, of the kingdom of Judah and Israel in par- 
 ticular, and the fate of the Jews down to the present time, show 
 the more regular appearance of such revelations in certain cycles; 
 moreover, the descent to sensible revelations belongs to the charac- 
 ter of the ancient economy: now, does all this not entitle us to the 
 assumption, that the Divine government of the world was wont 
 even in the case of individuals more frequently than with us, to 
 crown piety with blessings and requite injustice with curse? 
 Thus much is certain, that the Prophets did not confine the an- 
 nouncement of Divine judgments to nations, but proclaimed them 
 to individuals, when sin was followed by immediate punishment. 
 (E. g. Isa. xxii. 15, etc.] Jer. xxviii.; 2 Sam. xxiv. 12, 13.) 
 This explains the confidence with which the Psalmists insist upon 
 the principle that the good can never fare ill. 
 
 II. Man and Sin. 
 
 Our apprehension of the majesty and holiness of God should be 
 accompanied by a sense of our own nothingness and sin. The 
 Psalmist, alluding to the statement in Genesis, speaks of man as 
 
INTRODUCTION. 37 
 
 made a little lower than God, (Luther,) that God hath put all 
 things under his feet, and glories in the fact that man, though 
 externally more helpless than any other creature, does by virtue of 
 his Godlike soul wield the government of nature. (Ps. viii.) Yet 
 how defective is that dominion at present ! ( Vide ad. Ps. viii. 7.) 
 How small is the manifestation of that dignity, the capacity of 
 which man certainly possesses; how circumscribed and humbling 
 his present bodily existence; how much exposed to accident and 
 how soon destroyed! Hence the same David says, "The Lord 
 knoweth our frame: he remembereth that we are dust. As for 
 man, his days are as grass : as a flower of the field, so he flourish- 
 eth. For the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the place 
 thereof shall know it no more/' (Ps. ciii. 14 16.) "Surely men 
 of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree a lie : to be laid 
 in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity." (Ps. Ixii. 
 9.) And in the eighth Psalm, which celebrates the dignity of 
 man, he exclaims in contemplation of the infinity and greatness of 
 God in his works, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him, 
 and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Thus do the Psalms 
 speak of the impotency and finiteness of man. This our perish- 
 able condition is by no means the necessary and absolute barrier of 
 created existence, but the effect of internal discord originated by 
 sin. It manifests "the wrath of God because of sin." (Cf .Ps. xc. 
 7 9.) The authors of the Psalms are so alive to a sense of guilt, 
 that the voice of their conscience is audible amid all the accidental 
 trials and sorrows of life and the mischiefs perpetrated by ene- 
 mies, and that they acknowledge the justice of the Divine chastise- 
 ments. (Ad. Ps. xxxviii. 21; cxli. 5.) They feel themselves not 
 entitled to the reception of Divine blessings without the confession 
 of their unworthiness. The exultant spring song of praise in 
 Psalm Ixv. is preceded by a confession of sin.* They acknowledge 
 that were God to enter into judgment with man, and to mark his 
 iniquities, none could stand before him; (Ps. cxxx. 3; cxliii. 2; 
 cf. 1 Kings viii. 46; Eccl. vii. 21; Job ix. 2; xiv. 4; xv. 14-16;) 
 that unconscious sin, regarded as a condition which apparently 
 contradicts the original of a pure and holy human kind, needs the 
 Divine forgiveness; that sinfulness does not enter into our nature 
 by imitation from without, but that it is in us from the first stages 
 of our existence. (Ps. li. 7.) Far from seeking a ground for jus- 
 tification in our native depravity, David made that confession to 
 indicate the sincerity of his repentance and to show that he was 
 alive to the full extent of his guilt. What an evidence of the 
 depth of the perception of sin is furnished in expressions of pain 
 and grief like those in Psalm xxxii. "My bones waxed old 
 
 * De Wette concludes that the people had experienced some national 
 calamity, and that the Psalm was composed in exile. 
 4 
 
38 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 through my roaring all the day long : my moisture is turned into 
 the drought of summer."* While natural reason talks only of 
 trespasses against the moral law or man, and on that account re- 
 mains so cold at the commission of sin, every transgression is 
 regarded in the Psalms as a trespass against the Divine word 
 and the living God, whose will originates the moral law. "Thy 
 word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." 
 (Ps. cxix. 11.) Conscious of his greatest offence against man, he 
 cries, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned/' rightly apprehend- 
 ing that the most objectionable element of sin is its encroachment 
 upon the Divine law and the proof of man's wilful separation from 
 and opposition to God. Where is to be found a more touching con- 
 fession of a guilt-convicted conscience than in Psalm xxxii. 3, 4? 
 "When I kept silence (intended to conceal,) my bones waxed 
 old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy 
 hand was heavy upon me : my moisture is turned into the drought 
 of summer/' The Psalmists occasionally speak of innocence and 
 the purity of their hands, (Ps. vii. 9; xviii. 21 26; xvii. 3; xxvi. 
 2 6; xli. 13,) but the preceding observations clearly show that 
 they refer not to absolute integrity before God, but rather to guilt- 
 lessness towards man. In Psalm xxxviii. the experience of 
 affliction awakes a painful sense of guilt in David, and yet he 
 gives expression to the consciousness of his innocence. He says 
 (Ps. Ixix. 4,) "They that hate me without a cause, are more than 
 the hairs of mine head," and then adds, "0 God, thou knowest 
 my foolishness: and my sins are not hid from thee. 11 (Cf. in Ps. 
 xxv. verses 7. 11. 18, with verses 19 21, and in Ps. xli. verse 5 
 with verse 13.) The assertion of his purity in Psalm xvii. 3, 4, is 
 preceded by "Let my sentence come forth from thy presence: let 
 thine eyes behold the things that are equal." It is incontestably 
 clear from Psalm vii. 3 5, that David refers in verse 8, " Judge 
 me, Lord, according to my righteousness and according to mine 
 integrity, that is in me/' to righteousness and integrity in relation 
 to specific accusations. And if such were not the case, might not 
 a man, while assuring us of the sincerity of his piety, be at the 
 same time conscious of daily failings and multiform guilt? Such 
 sincerity shows itself when we delight in the commandments of 
 God, and strive to obey them; though the surmounting of obstacles 
 
 * Contemplating passages of Scripture so solemn, we are, against our 
 inclination, reminded of the folly of interpreters. As, however, benefit 
 may accrue from knowing with what impure hands interpreting theolo- 
 gians have touched this book, and to show our sympathy with the distress 
 of the Church in this respect, let us adduce an instance : A. W. Krahmer, 
 a modern interpreter, (The Psalms Translated and Interpreted, Leips. 
 1837, vol. i. p. 90,) says that David could not have been the author of this 
 psalm (Ps. xxxii.), "Because he was then not a fever patient, but well and in 
 good health." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 39 
 
 constitutes the business of this life. Who would have expected a 
 confession of sin (Ps. xl. 12,) after the description of a heart so 
 completely resigned to the will of God, as that which precedes it ? 
 The same Asaph who declares God to be his sole consolation and 
 portion, was not far from joining in the outrage of the wicked, 
 " that there is no righteous God in heaven." (Ps. Ixxiii.) How 
 frequently occur expressions like these: "I will keep thy statutes. 
 I will not forget thy word/' in Psalm cxix.; but that prevents not 
 David from praying, " Let thy merciful kindness be for my com- 
 fort." (Ps. cxix. 76.) It is to be noticed, that however much the 
 Psalmists refer to their integrity, they never demand, but suppli- 
 cate aid and deliverance at the hands of the righteous God : that 
 they hope in that name by which the Lord had named himself 
 (Exod. xxxiv. 6,) " Merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and 
 abundant in goodness and truth." (Psalms xxxi. 4; xl. 12; Ixix. 
 30: cxix. 77; xli. 4; xxv. 11; lii. 11; Ixxix. 9; ciii. 8; cxlv. 8. 
 
 III. The Piety and Morality of the Psalmists. 
 
 Piety is the sense of the relation of our dependence on God. It 
 may be servile, accompanied by a sense of fear and separation 
 from God; or child-like, accompanied by love, reconciliation to, 
 and unity with God. When the thought of Divine justice enters 
 into a sinner's consciousness, his being afraid of God will be pro- 
 portioned to his realizing the estrangement of his heart from God. 
 The Psalmist expresses that fear in almost appalling terms: " My 
 flesh trembleth for fear of thee." (Psalms cxix. cxx.) But when 
 God reveals himself to sinful man as gracious and forgiving, while 
 his conscience in spite of his faults and infirmities testifies to his 
 desire to obey the Divine commandments, love and the condition 
 of peace with God will ensue. The institution of sacrifices for the 
 atonement of sins of error and weakness had revealed God to his 
 people as the forgiver of sins; and in the important passage in Ex. 
 xxxiv. 6, 7, he proclaimed his name as "The Lord, the Lord 
 God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in good- 
 ness and truth, keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, 
 forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by no 
 means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon 
 the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and 
 to the fourth generation." The revelation of the God of love 
 avowing blessings to the pious down to the thousandth, and pun- 
 ishment to the ungodly (Cf. Psalm ciii. 17, 18, notes,) down to 
 the third and the fourth generation, was well adapted to kindle 
 reciprocal love in the hearts of the children of Israel. The 
 Psalms show that the Old Testament saints stood to God in the 
 relation of love to a much greater extent than we imagine. Who 
 can remain untouched on hearing the words of David at the begin- 
 
40 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 ning of the Psalm of thanksgiving, which he sung towards the 
 close of his life, and which may be regarded as the result of his 
 experience of life? "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength/' 
 (Psalm xviii. 1.) "Thou art my Lord, all my goods I prefer not 
 to thee." (Psalm xvi. 2.) "This I know, for God is for me." 
 No Christian could describe in sweeter language the peace of recon- 
 ciliation than we find it done in Psalms xvi. xxiii. ciii. Ixxiii. xxvi. 
 xxvii. Ixxi. 14 24, etc. How happy must have been their com- 
 munion with God who say, " How excellent is thy lovingkindness, 
 O God ! therefore the children of men put their trust under the 
 shadow of thy wings, they are abundantly satisfied with the fatness 
 of thy house, and thou makest them drink of the river of thy 
 pleasures." (Psalm xxxvi. 8, 9.) "Blessed is the man whom 
 thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he may 
 dwell in thy courts; he shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy 
 house, even of thy holy temple." (Psalm Ixv. 5.) " Thy loving- 
 kindness is better than life when I remember thee upon my bed, 
 and meditate on thee in the night watches." (Psalm Ixiii. 4. 7.) 
 It is always the mark of a strong and healthy divine life, when the 
 traces of God are recognized in surrounding nature. Do classical 
 songs celebrate the traces of God in nature? The Psalms contain 
 the sublimest and most fervent praises of the majesty of God 
 which is everywhere revealed in nature. (Cf. sec. iv. 1. on God 
 and the Government of the World.) From the relation to God 
 springs the relation to his law. All must bow to his law, either 
 willingly or unwillingly. So the Jews of the Old Testament were 
 mostly coerced to the keeping of the covenant of God; (Jer. xxxi. 
 32 ;) but there were many who loved the lawgiver as well as his 
 law. The Psalms furnish most remarkable evidences of this kind : 
 they begin with Psalm i. : the law is described as the delight of 
 man : as sweeter than honey and the honeycomb : as the riches, 
 the peculiar portion and possession of the pious : as the song in 
 the house of his pilgrimage (Psalms xix. 8 11, cxix. 54. 56, 57. 
 103. 111.) Is it possible to find an instance of more thorough 
 absorption of the human will in the law of God than this? "I 
 delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my 
 heart." (Psalm xl. 9.) We are therefore entitled to the assump- 
 tion, that morality of the purest kind, as the effect of filial love to 
 God, formed part of the obedience of the Old Testament saints. 
 The depth of their convictions of sin on the one hand, and their 
 fervent sense of intimacy and communion with God on the other, 
 must also have led to the knowledge that virtue could only exist 
 under and by such a combination. The Psalms declare that only 
 in God's light can man see light, (Psalm xxxvi. 9,) and that God 
 fashioneth the hearts of men. (Psalm xxxiii. 15.) The pious 
 singers pray to be guided by the light and counsel of God : to be 
 led through the paths of his commandments : and to be kept by the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 41 
 
 mercy of God, when their feet begin to slip. (Psalms xliii. 3; 
 cxxxix. 24; v. 9; xxv. 5; xxvii. 11; cxix. 35; xciv. 18.) They 
 beg for the Spirit of God as the source of their strength for every 
 kind of good. (Psalms li. 18; cxliii. 10.) 
 
 "We must, however, not apprehend the filial relationship of the 
 Old Testament saints as uninterrupted and continuous : every grave 
 transgression tended to banish it, and it could not be regained 
 without severe struggles. David mourns at being since his fall 
 deprived of "a constant spirit," "the spirit of joy/' and "the help 
 of God/' (Ps. li. 12, etc. in Luther's version.) The intensity of 
 internal discord under such circumstances, is proportioned to the 
 distinct apprehension, that sacrifices have no atoning virtues in 
 themselves, but possess only a typical meaning, (Psalm li. 18, 19.) 
 that the real sacrifice is the offering of our will to God, and the 
 reception of his law into our hearts. (Psalm xl. 7 9.) Faith, 
 however, always conquers despondency, and the Spirit stamps the 
 assurance of the forgiveness of specific transgressions so powerfully 
 even on the minds of individuals, that David afterwards exclaims, 
 full of confidence, " Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, 
 whose sin is covered." (Psalm xxxii. 1.) Two questions arise in 
 connection with this subject. How could forgiveness take place 
 before the atonement of our Lord Jesus ? and could the Old Testa- 
 ment saints be called regenerated? Those who put the first, for- 
 get that successive events in time are eternally present before God : 
 hence Paul's mighty declaration, that from before the creation of 
 man, yea, from before the foundation of the world, God chose 
 believers in Christ to holiness. (Eph. i. 4.) The whole of God's 
 relationship to man rests therefore on the presumption of an eternal 
 objective atonement in Christ. Regarding the second question, it 
 is well known that the Lutheran Church sets forth regeneration as 
 embodying repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. The Old Testa- 
 ment saints could not have that faith, because Christ had not been 
 preached to them : it might be said that they believed in the Mes- 
 siah, but, everything else abstracted, they do not associate the for- 
 giveness of their sins with the Messiah. Therefore regeneration 
 applies only in so far to Old Testament saints, that there were some 
 in whom the consciousness of repentance and peace with God pre- 
 dominated : though that could not by any means be so confirmed 
 and clear an inward condition as it is with believers in the gospel 
 of the incarnate Saviour. 
 
 The moral attitude towards their enemies has always formed an 
 objection to the morality of the Psalmists. Instead of the mild 
 voice of placability and compassion, we hear the tumult of revenge, 
 and prayers for the condemnation of their enemies. Augustine 
 already felt its offensiveness and endeavoured to palliate it by 
 observing, that there was no reference to the ivishes of the Psalm- 
 ists, but to predictions of such of God's visitations, which were 
 4* 
 
42 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 doubtlessly suspended over confirmed sinners. (Opp. v. Sermo. 22; 
 also Luther ad. Psalm Iv.) In modern times the opinion seems to 
 obtain, that love to enemies is enjoined as a duty in the New Tes- 
 tament only. The gratuitousness of that opinion is apparent from 
 consulting correct translations of Lev. xix. 18; Ex. xxiii. 4, 5; 
 Prov. xxiv. 17, 18. 29; xxv. 21, 22; Job xxxi. 29; Sirach 
 xxviii. 1 11. To form a right estimate of the misgivings alluded 
 to, we should consider the end contemplated by punishment. The 
 common view is that with God and the pious punishment springs 
 from love and contemplates the improvement of man. But what is 
 to be done if you have to deal with an incorrigible sinner ? If 
 this is denied as positively true, its possibility ought to be admitted, 
 and should even that be objected to, provision ought to be made 
 for the case which renders improvement within a fixed period of 
 time inconceivable, because a better system of control is to be 
 waited for. Nobody, methinks, would maintain that the consoli- 
 dation of man's impenitence ought to cancel his liability to punish- 
 ment, especially because, supposing him freed from positive punish- 
 ment, the so-called natural punishment, viz. internal discord or 
 spiritual death, is sure to visit him with an increased force accord- 
 ing to the measure of his obstinacy. The end of improvement 
 therefore cannot exhaust the purpose of punishment. Philosophy 
 agrees with Christianity, that the specific purpose of punishment is 
 retribution; i. e. the welfare of the individual is to be disturbed in 
 the same measure as he has disturbed or infringed upon the law of 
 God or the State. Hence it appears that to deny the punishment 
 of a hardened sinner (riot on personal ground, but from a sense of 
 the holiness of the Divine law,) is as little to be regarded as evi- 
 dencing moral imperfection, as it would be to desire that those who 
 are susceptible for improvement, should by means of correctives be 
 brought to their senses. The objection is met, if it can be shown 
 that the imprecations and prayers for Divine punishment do not 
 flow from the vindictive disposition (viz. personal irritability and 
 passion) of the Psalmists, but from tne motives just now alluded 
 to. Those supplications would then correspond to the earnest 
 desire of a good monarch or a just judge to discover the guilty that 
 justice might be administered, and the expressions of David, the 
 private individual, ought to be referred to those noble motives 
 which developed the principles he uttered when a king. (Ps. ci. 8.) 
 We are constrained to assume this in the case at least of David's 
 Psalms, from having first perused the historic record of his deeds, 
 which more than any words breathe a forgiving disposition, we pass 
 on to the reading of his psalms. If his acts were untainted by vin- 
 dictive passion, is it likely that it should only attach to his words ? 
 But we find many expressions in unison with his deeds; e. g. "If 
 I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me, (yea, I 
 have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:) let the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 43 
 
 enemy persecute my soul and take it : yea, let him tread down my 
 life upon the earth/ 7 (Ps. vii. 5, 6.) Here again he refers to the 
 same persecution, (Ps. cxli. 5:) "Let the righteous (God) smite 
 me, it shall be a kindness; and let him reprove me, it shall be an 
 excellent oil which shall not break my head, for yet my prayer 
 shall be at their offences/' "They rewarded me evil for good 
 to the spoiling of my soul. But as for me, when they were sick, 
 my clothing was sackcloth : I afflicted my soul with fasting, and 
 my prayer returned into mine own bosom." (Ps. xxxv. 12, 13.) 
 So in Psalm xxxviii. 21, "They also that render evil for good are 
 mine adversaries : because I follow the thing that good is." " For 
 my love, they are my adversaries; but I give myself unto prayer. 
 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love." 
 (Ps. cix. 4, 5.) The didactic Psalm xxxvii. opens with " Fret not 
 thyself (get not angry) because of evil doers." Now when the 
 same man calls, (Ps. vii. 35,) upon God as Judge, and utters in 
 Psalm cix. imprecations, it is but fair to refer his thirst for the 
 punishment of sin to purer motives than personal vindictive passion. 
 We are indeed for the most part enabled to judge of the source 
 from which his prayers for punishment flow. There uniformly 
 exist motives similar to those so sublimely expressed in Psalm 
 Ixiv. 10, 11, "And all men shall fear and shall declare, It is the 
 Lord's work; and they shall wisely mark his doing. The righteous 
 shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him: and all the 
 upright in heart shall glory." 
 
 The Psalmists frequently state sentiments like the following as 
 the motives of their prayers for the punishment of their enemies : 
 that the holiness of God and his righteous government of the world 
 should be acknowledged, that the faith of the pious should be 
 strengthened, that they should praise God, that the haughtiness of 
 the ungodly should be brought within bounds, that they should 
 know that God is the righteous judge of the world, and that the 
 fulfilment of his glorious promises should not fail. (Psalm v. 11, 12; 
 ix. 20, 21; xii. 9; xxviii. 4, 5; xxii. 2332; xxxv. 24; xl. 17; 
 lix. 14; cix. 27; cxlii. 8.) Aye, they even boast of their hatred 
 against their enemies, because "THEY HATE GOD." (Psalm 
 cxxxix. 21.) Offence may be taken at their straightway putting 
 down their own enemies as those of God. But what evidence have 
 we that they do it straightway? Returning to David, who is 
 prepared to deny the impiousness of the two chief sections of his 
 persecutors? A king passionate to madness, breathing slaughter 
 against his son-in-law to whom he was greatly indebted; courtiers 
 thirsting for blood, like a Doeg, who on no other ground than that 
 of gaining the favour of his sovereign could kill eighty helpless 
 priests; or an Ahithophel, beguiling Absalom to revolt against his 
 father and to stain the honour of royalty, (2 Sam. xvi. 21;) in 
 sight of wickedness so great, David may well advocate the claims 
 
44 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 of God. Confining ourselves to the general meaning of the tern 
 "enemies/' the description in the Psalms may often appear over 
 drawn. We should realize the fact, that in certainly most instance 
 reference is made to vile traitors of a sanguinary disposition, t< 
 rebels and assassins; and that in some places David speaks a 
 king, who as a ruler is obliged to wield the sword which God ha 
 entrusted to his keeping. This applies to Psalm Iviii. which i 
 distinguished for its many imprecations, and to all the psalm 
 which refer to Absalom, e. g. Psalm Ixiii. We do not even in th 
 New Testament meet with absolute forgiving love either in God o 
 his servants. The wrath of God is said to abide on tfrose whi 
 believe not on his Son, (John iii. 36 :) that " it is a fearful thin] 
 to fall into the hands of the living God :" that " God is a con 
 Burning fire/' (Heb. x. 31; xii. 29.) In terms not less offensiv 
 than those in the Psalms, Christ announces judgment to the cursed 
 (Matt. xxv. 41,) and foretells the judgment of God to those wh 
 had rejected the Son. (Matt. xxi. 41, 44; Luke xxiii. 29, 30. 
 Was it not Peter who, in the name of God, announced death t 
 Ananias and Sapphira, and did not the event show that his speed 
 was far from being idle passion ? Did he not say to Simon th 
 sorcerer, in holy indignation, "Thy money perish with thee," ye 
 not without adding, "Repent therefore of this thy wickedness" 
 (Acts viii. 20. 22.) Did not Paul strike Elymas the sorcerer wit! 
 blindness, and call him a child of the devil ? Did he not solemnl 
 "deliver unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh" (1 Cor. v. 5, 
 the wicked Corinthian who had married his step-mother, and saj 
 "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord rewar< 
 him according to his works" ? (2 Tim. iv. 14.) As a proof tha 
 these were not the expressions of the Apostle's personal passion 
 we refer to his affectionate advocacy in behalf of the Corinthiai 
 evil-doer, after he had heard of his improvement, (2 Cor. ii.) an< 
 to his saying concerning the very persons who had deserted hir 
 during his defence at the tribunal, immediately after the threaten 
 ing statement about Alexander, "May it not be laid to thei 
 charge." (2 Tim. iv. 16.) The Lord said to his two disciples 
 who (it seems not from personal passion but from pure love t 
 their Master) desired fire to descend from heaven, and to consum 
 the Samaritans "as Elias did:" "Know ye not what manner c 
 spirit ye are of?" (Luke ix. 55.) They said it from love to Christ 
 but are vindictive feelings for the sake of others impossible ? I 
 does not follow that their anger was pure, because it arose in behal 
 of another. The "ye" occurs in the original in a position whicl 
 emphasises and places it in antithesis to "Elias." It would thei 
 appear that our Lord declared the inferiority of the legal positioi 
 of the Old Testament, not because the desire of retribution ough 
 to be excluded from the religion of reconciliation, but because i 
 ought not to predominate in it. The question may finally arise 
 
INTRODUCTION. 45 
 
 Are we then compelled to assume that the unhallowed flame of 
 personal passion did in no case blend with the holy fire of the 
 Psalmists ? We cannot even say this of the Apostles. (Acts xv. 29 ; 
 xxiii. 3; Phil. iii. 2; Gal. v. 2.) Whether the anger of impas- 
 sioned speech be such " which worketh not the righteousness of 
 God," (James i. 20,) or such as was felt by Christ (Mark iii. 2) 
 himself, may generally be gathered from its nature, when delight 
 transpires at the thought of being permitted to be the instrument 
 of Divine retribution, when specific kinds of retribution are prayed 
 for with evident satisfaction, or when the thought of retribution is 
 regarded with complacency by the speaker, etc. Several expressions 
 in Psalms cix. and lix. bear the stamp of passion : so do Psalms 
 cxlix. 7, 8; cxxxvii. 8, 9; Iviii. 11; xli. 11, may have flowed 
 from such a disposition. Different individuals will hold different 
 views on other psalms. The vindictive psalms respecting the 
 heathen, as e.g. Psalm Ixxix. 6, "Pour out thy wrath upon the 
 heathen that have not known thee; and upon the kingdoms that 
 have not called upon thy name/' suggest particular considerations. 
 The victory of the heathen over Israel threatened indeed the 
 destruction of true religion. Read the impassioned description of 
 the Chaldean conquest of the country (Psalm Ixxiv.) : the heathen 
 triumphantly asked, "Where is now their God?" (Ps. Ixxix. 10;) 
 while on the other hand at the victories of Israel the sanctuary at 
 Jerusalem was honoured with gifts of foreign nations, the power of 
 the God of Israel acknowledged, and Messianic hopes awakened. 
 (Com. ad. Psalm Ixxvi. Ixxxvii.) Besides all this, it should be 
 observed that hatred against a nation as a whole excludes not 
 kindly sympathy towards individuals, as shown by the more noble 
 custom of war at all times, in even religious wars, such as the 
 Crusades. An instance of this kind occurs in 2 Kings vi. 22. 
 From this point of view even Lessing once advocated the so-called 
 vindictive Psalms.* 
 
 * During Lessing's residence at Hamburg, a violent attack was made 
 upon the Rev. Mr. Goetge, who resisted a proposition to cancel from the 
 fast-day prayer the words, "Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that 
 have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon 
 thy name." Lessing, who from a predilection for the stage had forsaken 
 the pulpit, composed just then a sermon a sermon! aye, and on the very 
 text, Psalm Ixxix. 6, after the manner of Sterne, entitled, Sermon from 
 two texts, Psalm Ixxix. 6, "Pour out," etc. and Matt. xxii. 39, "Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," by 5Torick, translated from the 
 English. He had only a few copies printed, his object being to show to 
 the conceited modernisers that there were others more clever than they, 
 and sent one copy to their leader, the Rev. Alberti. Nicolai says that 
 Alberti took fright, declaring that a man like Lessing was not to be trifled 
 with, and that he was afraid of the effect of the sermon on the public. 
 Lessing suppressed the pamphlet at his instance. The preface only has 
 been preserved; but Lessing's meaning is clear. This was the story: 
 " Colonel Shandy and his faithful Trim went out for a walk. They found 
 
46 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 IV. The Future. 
 
 Christianity neither refers to " the beyond" the grave, nor to 
 continuation after death. Christian hope, i. e. faith applied to the 
 future, has for its object the completion of the kingdom of God, of 
 which it may be said with equal truth that it has come and has not 
 yet come. Its completion will be threefold. At its completion all 
 who are ordained to it shall be received into it, so that the body of 
 Christ shall be complete : the dominion of God in the heart of 
 individuals shall be complete, and the power of sin cancelled : the 
 outward shall correspond to the inward, for the outward should be 
 the display or manifestation of the inward, which would imply the 
 cessation of discord and evil. The Messianic psalms contemplate 
 this latter object, and as the kingdom of God cannot be said to 
 have absolutely come before the end of time, so cannot those pro- 
 phecies be said to have met their proper fulfilment before then. 
 The departing Christian therefore is not to expect perfect bliss 
 immediately after death, but in the future at the end of the pre- 
 sent dispensation. In so far, however, as Christ has already 
 effected his communion with God this side the grave, there is in 
 store for him, if not complete, at all events some kind of bliss 
 immediately after death. A certain degree of bliss after death 
 must therefore be assumed in the case of the Old Testament saints, 
 who enjoyed communion with God here below, though certainly 
 less complete than theirs whose communion with God was effected 
 by Christ. On that account the ancient Church used to represent 
 the condition of the Old Testament saints beyond the grave as a 
 twilight, limbus patrum, in which they were waiting for Christ, as 
 it is said of Abraham, that he rejoiced to see the day of Christ. 
 Their fear of death, as expressed in several psalms, but most 
 
 on the road a starved man in a ragged French uniform, sustaining himself 
 on a crutch, because he had one foot maimed. With his eye silently bent 
 to the ground, he took off his hat; but his melancholic look spoke for him. 
 The colonel gave him several shillings without counting them. Trim 
 pulled a penny from his pocket, and presenting it, said, Trench dog.' 
 The colonel kept silence for some seconds, and then said, turning to Trim, 
 'Trim, he is a man, and not a dog.' The French invalid had followed 
 them. In answer to the colonel's speech, Trim gave him another penny, 
 and again said, * French Dog.' 'And Trim, he is a soldier.' Trim stared, 
 gave another penny, and said, * French dog.' 'And Trim, he has fought 
 for his country, and been severely wounded.' Trim pressed his hand, 
 giving another penny, and said, * French dog.' 'And Trim, this soldier is 
 a good and unhappy husband, has a wife and four uneducated children.' 
 Trim, with a tear in his eye, gave all he had left in his pocket, and said, 
 though in a low voice, 'French dog.' On reaching home he conferred on 
 this topic with Yorick. Yorick said, 'It is evident Trim hates the whole 
 nation which is hostile to his country, but he knows how to love each indi- 
 vidual of it when he is worthy of his love.' This gave occasion to Yorick's 
 preaching the following sermon." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 47 
 
 strongly in Psalm Ixxxviii. ought therefore not to startle us. A 
 pious Israelite could realize full joy only in view of that ultimate 
 future, when the great festival of joy is to take place on Mount 
 Zion, and all the dead are to march forth from their silent cham- 
 ber. (Isaiah xxv. 6; xxvi. 19.) The account which we possess of 
 Enoch (Gen. v. 24,) shows at how early a period the opinion pre- 
 vailed that death could not interrupt that communion with God 
 which the godly enjoyed with him on earth. Our Lord's argu- 
 ment for immortality, in reply to the tempting question of the 
 Sadducees, which he cited from the Pentateuch, (Matt. xxii. 32; 
 Luke xx. 37, 38,) alludes profoundly to the connection subsisting 
 between earthly communion with God and future blessedness. (Cf. 
 Heb. xi. 16.) If the Eternal (such is our Saviour's meaning) has 
 entered into so close a communion with man, that he calls himself 
 his God, how can such a relation be only of a temporal and transi- 
 tory nature? We ask further, Why should man, enjoying inti- 
 mate communion with God, not be sensible of the eternity of his 
 relation to him ? Since Christ refers to " eternal life" as begin- 
 ning on earth, and attaining to perfection beyond the grave, may 
 not the Old Testament saints, at times of their most intimate com- 
 munion with God, have equally possessed the presentiment, nay, 
 the certainty of its eternity? Is it likely that the man who, while 
 the subject of continuous tribulation and intense agony of soul, 
 could exclaim, "This I know, God is mine!" (Psalm Ivi. 10. See 
 also Psalmjxxiii. 25^ 26,) should believe that all would be over A 
 with death? If a Psalmist derives consolation from " dwelling in 
 the house of the Lord for ever/' and says of the pious that " like 
 a green olive tree they abide in the house of God, and trust in 
 the mercy of God, for ever and ever," (Psalm Hi. 10, 11,) and if, 
 as is shown in the commentary on the respective passages, the 
 abiding in the house of God designates " indissolubility of commu- 
 nion with God" is it not clear that the pledge of the Spirit 
 wrought a confidence in the mind of the Psalmists extending 
 beyond the grave? Taking such prophetic moments for granted, 
 may we not equally assume, that sentiments embodying in a gene- 
 ral way thoughts like this, " Continue upright, for the end of that 
 man is peace, but the transgressors shall be destroyed altogether," 
 and similar ones expressing God's unfailing judgment of the 
 impious, gave rise to presentiments extending beyond the grave ? 
 The expressions of such hopes are, however, met with ; their some- 
 what scanty occurrence may be sufficiently explained on the 
 assumption, that the dawning of such hopes was linked to the 
 holiest moments of their spiritual life. We may quote Psalm 
 xlviii. 15, " Yea, this God is our God for ever and ever, he will 
 guide us beyond death." (Psalm Ixviii. 21 is held in more general 
 terms.) Still more explicit are Psalms Ixix. 16; xvi. 8 11; xvii. 
 14, 15; Ixxiii. 23, 24. The strong distinction which these pas- 
 
48 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 sages draw between the worldly-minded who have their consolation 
 in this world, and the children of God, renders any other interpre- 
 tation inadmissible. It is truly remarkable that just these Psalms, 
 more than any others, express the utmost sense of oneness with 
 and happiness in God. 
 
 V.The Messiah. 
 
 The prophets of the Old Testament have predicted a time, when 
 Israel covered with the spirit of grace and supplication (Zech. xii. 
 10,) should become a righteous people and inherit the land foi 
 ever, (Isaiah Ix. 21,) when the old covenant to the observance oi 
 which they had to be coerced should cease, and the law be written 
 in their hearts, (Jeremiah xxxL 31 33,) when all nations of 
 the earth should now to Zion, call upon the name of the Lord, and 
 serve him with one consent. (Isaiah ii; Zeph. iii. 9.) David, the 
 servant of God, should be raised, in the person of an offspring of 
 David, who in the capacity of the good shepherd should feed the 
 people of God; a covenant of peace should be made with universal 
 nature, which ceasing to be hurtful to man, should thenceforth 
 minister to his comfort. (Ezekiel xxxiv. 23 31) " It would be 
 inexplicable," says a modern commentator, (Ko3ster, ad. Psalm 
 Ixxii. p. 113,) " were the Psalms to contain no reference to an 
 idea of such paramount importance to the Jewish religion as that 
 of the Messiah." Since the Psalms as lyrical poems express those 
 religious sentiments which the faith of the people, taught by the 
 law and the prophets, was calculated to inspire, it would indeed 
 be strange, if the prophetic article of faith of the Messiah were 
 absent from their prayers. The more so, as we know from David's 
 last song (which is preserved in 2 Sam. xxiii.) that Messianic 
 hopes animated his soul and entered into his poems. We insert 
 that passage, because important to our estimate and understanding 
 of the Messianic prophecies of David :* 
 
 " David the son of Jesse, said, 
 "The man raised up on high said, 
 " The anointed of the God of Jacob, 
 "And the sweet Psalmist of Israel: 
 "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, 
 "And his word was in my tongue, 
 
 * Luther's Translation, esp. of v. 3. misleads: so do the Vulg. Syr. and 
 LXX. The Chaldee paraphrase inserts the Messiah, but forcibly. We agree 
 in the main with Tremellius, de Wette, F. of Meyer, cf. also the Engl. ver- 
 siom On translating with Ewald (The Pract. Books of the Old Testament, 
 vol. i. p. 100,) "When one is ruling justly over men, when one is ruling 
 in the fear of God, it is as when it grows light of a morning," the possi- 
 bility of a Messianic allusion is certainly avoided, but v. 5 shows also this 
 rendering to be equally inadmissible. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 49 
 
 "The God of Israel said, 
 
 " The Rock of Israel spake to me : 
 
 " A ruler over men in righteousness, 
 
 (t A ruler in the fear of God. 
 
 "As the sun riseth at the light of the morning, 
 
 "Even on a morning without clouds, 
 
 "As the tender grass springing out of the earth 
 
 "By clear shining after rain. 
 
 "Although my house be not so with God: 
 
 " Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant 
 
 " Ordered in all things and sure, 
 
 "For all my salvation and all my desire, doth not 
 
 "He make it to grow? 
 
 ' ' But the ungodly shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, 
 "Because they cannot be taken with hands, 
 "But the man that shall touch them 
 "Must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear, 
 "And they shall be utterly burned with fire on the spot." 
 
 We gather in the first place from this passage that David felt him- 
 self conscious of being Divinely inspired, especially when speaking 
 of the Messiah. Our Lord confirms this (Matt. xxii. 43,) with 
 reference to Psalm ex. The Psalmists are also elsewhere conscious 
 of Divine influence. (Psalm xlix. 5; xii. 6.) We gather, again, 
 that the fundamental prophecy in 2 Sam. vii. 12 16, became in 
 his prophetic moments more distinctly developed to him. On his 
 first hearing it, he was greatly affected by the thought of the per- 
 petuity of regal dignity among his offspring. "Who am I, Lord 
 God? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?" 
 he exclaims with touching humility, "and this was yet a small 
 thing in thy sight, Lord God: but thou hast spoken also of 
 thy servant's house for a great while to come, and is this the 
 manner of man, Lord God?"* No other and no loftier thought 
 than that of a perpetual progeny on the throne of his kingdom did 
 probably then enter his mind : in Psalm Ixxxix. 30. 37, the pro- 
 mise is similarly understood, and in Psalm xviii. 50, he praises 
 God, "who showeth mercy to David, His anointed, and to his seed 
 for evermore." Those, however, who consult history, and believe 
 in a connection of revelation between the Old and New Testaments, 
 as well as in the gift of prophecy, are sensible that in those words 
 the Spirit of God referred to Him in whom the promise became 
 fulfilled. (Luke i. 32, 33.) This view may be held, though the 
 main essence of the prophecies made to him should have been con- 
 cealed from David during his lifetime, as e. g. Peter may never 
 
 * According to 1 Chron. xvii. 17, "And hast regarded me according to 
 the estate of a man of high degree." 
 5 
 
50 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 until the last moments of his existence have understood the mean- 
 ing of our Lord's prophecy concerning his end. (John xxi. 18.) 
 The Prophets did certainly apprehend the more profound sense. 
 " Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that 
 good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to 
 the house of Judah. In those days and at that time, I will cause 
 the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David : and he shall 
 execute judgment and righteousness in the land. For thus saith 
 the Lord : David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of 
 the house of Israel." (Jer. xxxiii. 14, etc.} Cf. what is said Isaiah 
 xi. 1, etc. of the rod out of the stem of Jesse. It cannot be denied 
 that the prophets knew that the prediction should meet its ultimate 
 fulfilment in the One great descendant of David. But was that 
 knowledge hid from David ? Believing, as he did, in the Messiah, 
 in the King of Zion as described in Psalms ii. and ex. to whom 
 the uttermost parts of the earth should obey, who should be a priest 
 for ever after the order of Melchizedek, (Ps. ii. 7; ex. 4,) is it 
 likely that the thought should never have entered his mind, that 
 the eternal kingdom of his house had reference to that descendant ? 
 At his departure from life, if not earlier, David knew at least, that 
 the Messiah whose victories he had celebrated in Psalms ii. and ex. 
 should spring from his progeny. In his above quoted last pro- 
 phecy, he sees a ruler over men in righteousness and in the fear 
 of God from his house, during whose reign an unclouded sun shall 
 shine on men and the earth yield a rich increase. (Cf. ad. Ps. 
 Ixvii. 7.) He says that God's everlasting covenant with him had 
 determined as much;* that all ungodly powers would be compelled 
 to yield to the conquering might of his house. These words may 
 be regarded as exhibiting the clear fundamental type of David's 
 Messianic hopes. Our collection of Psalms contains two Messianic 
 psalms of David, (Psalms ii. ex.) one of Solomon, (Psalm Ixxii.) 
 to which must be added Psalm xlv. 
 
 A few observations on matter and form are needed for the cor- 
 rect understanding of the Messianic psalms. If we understand 
 the prophecies as predictions of the life of Jems only, it will follow, 
 that only some particulars met a literal fulfilment. Even the 
 modern Jews, searching for Messianic predictions in that sense, 
 deem themselves entitled to the confident assertion, that the Old 
 Testament contains but few of that kind. We ask, Is the kingdom 
 of Christ to be confined to the brief period of not quite three years 
 of his ministry on earth? It is but the beginning of that consum- 
 mation in the future kingdom of glory to which we have refer- 
 
 * To understand what is said of the ruler collectively of the whole house 
 of David is equally admissible. It would even then exhibit a development 
 of the prophecy in 2 Sam. vii., though David would then not have under- 
 stood the full meaning of the promise. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 51 
 
 red, p. 46. Prophecy points to every gradation of Christ's existence 
 and the total extension of his kingdomj down to its final completion. 
 (1 Cor. xv. 28; xiii. 12; 2 Pet. iii.; Rev. xxi.) Supposing this 
 to be seen and granted, we have further to consider, that prophecy 
 refers to the Messiah and his kingdom in terms which have neither 
 been fulfilled during the period of Christ's appearance on earth, 
 nor in the history of the Christian Church, while they no less answer 
 the expectations which we entertain of the future kingdom of God. 
 The Messiah is certainly described as accomplishing his earthly 
 mission in the character of a prophet and teacher endowed with 
 the Spirit of God, of the servant of God, gentle and beneficent, 
 despised by his nation and enduring great sufferings. (Isaiah 
 xlii. 49. 53; Zech. ix. 11.) But a far greater number of passages 
 set him forth as a valiant king, endowed with Divine power, who 
 is to subdue the heathen and to establish the lasting temporal 
 prosperity of his people. (Ps. ii. ex. Ixxii.; 2 Sam. xxiii. 3, 6, as 
 well as Ps. xlv. which is to be regarded as Messianic, use similar 
 terms.) Here we ought to distinguish between the fundamental 
 ideas of such prophecies and the form in which they are expressed. 
 When reference is made to the condition of the saved, they are 
 described as sitting down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, as 
 entering paradise, as being received into everlasting habitations, as 
 joining the Saviour in drinking anew of the fruit of the vine in 
 his Father's kingdom, as being set some over few, others over 
 many cities, etc. In the Apocalypse, the prophetic book of the 
 New Testament, are depicted the heavenly Jerusalem as coming 
 down upon the earth the heavenly marriage at which the guests 
 are to be furnished with fine linen, clean and white the river of 
 the water of life, and on its banks the tree of life, yielding its fruit 
 every month, the leaves whereof are for the healing of the nations 
 the temple of God with the ark of the testaments, etc. (Chaps. 
 xxi. xix. 7, 8; xi. 19.) Of the condemned on the other hand it 
 is said in the Gospels and the Apocalypse, that they shall be cast 
 into hell-fire, that their worm shall not die, that they shall be 
 excluded from the marriage feast, that they shall be cast into outer 
 darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth. It has never 
 been doubted that Christians are to grasp the fundamental ideas of 
 such descriptions, and to regard the form of their expression as 
 adaptations to our present power of comprehension. This is clear 
 from the variety of forms and figures. In some passages of Eeve- 
 lations express explanations are given; e. g. chap. xix. 8, "The fine 
 linen is the righteousness of saints." The same remarks apply to 
 the predictions of the prophets concerning the kingdom of Christ. 
 Their prophetic visions are related to their fulfilment as are the 
 visions of Christ, the Apostles, and the Prophets of the New Tes- 
 tament, to the period of the completion of the kingdom of Christ. 
 Just as we employ the most beautiful and significant conditions of 
 
52 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the present as representations of the future, so did the prophets 
 respecting the future kingdom of the Messiah. In the time of the 
 Old Testament as well as among Christians, the weak and sensuous 
 can only realize the suhstance in the symbol, while the more intel- 
 ligent distinguish between symbol and thought. Hence the Messiah 
 is represented invested with the three chief offices of the Jewish 
 theocracy, as King, Priest, and Prophet. It is said in one place, 
 that the nations shall show themselves willing to be instructed in 
 Mount Zion, or that knowledge shall be sent to them, and that 
 universal peace shall revisit the earth; in another, that the Philis- 
 tines, Edom and Moab, shall be conquered, and the river of Egypt 
 be dried up; in a third place, "Egypt shall do sacrifice and 
 oblation. In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to 
 Assyria, and the Assyrians shall come into Egypt, and the Egypt- 
 ians into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. 
 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, 
 even a blessing in the midst of the land; whom the Lord of Hosts 
 shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the 
 work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance." (Isaiah ii. xlii. 
 16; Ix. 11; ix. 6, 7; xi. 14, 15; xix. 2325.) 
 
 The conversion of the heathen is sometimes spoken of in 
 terms which almost make one think that they were all to become 
 Jews, (Isaiah xix. 21; Ixvi. 20; Zech. xiv. 16,) while the same 
 passages contain expressions which point to the abrogation of the 
 ceremonial law. (Isaiah xix. 19; Ixvi. 21; Zech. xiv. 20, 21.) In 
 one place the wild beasts are represented as tame, in another, that 
 God will destroy them: that the sun ahall no more go down; and 
 again, that God shall be their sun. (Isaiah xi. 6; Ixv. 25; Ezek. 
 xxxiv. 25; Isaiah Ix. 20.) The variety of these figures shows that 
 we can only retain the general thoughts which they embody. Just 
 where everything seems to point to a narrow and Jewish horizon, 
 some expression or other occurs which plainly indicates that all 
 cannot be taken in a literal sense. Joel e. g. chap. iii. had spoken 
 of the judgment of God upon the heathen, after which Jerusalem 
 should become holy and no stranger pass through her any more, 
 (Joel iii. 17;) he then says, "It shall come to pass in that day, 
 that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall 
 flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters/' 
 all temporal allusions but immediately after we have, "and a 
 fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord and shall water 
 the valley of Shittim." Here we are all of a sudden on spiritual 
 territory, for Shittim is a place on the plains of the Moabites, 
 where the Israelites encamped when they contemplated their inva- 
 sion of Canaan, so that the meaning is, "The spiritual water of 
 life shall spread from the centre of the land to its frontiers." 
 Similar is the passage in Ezek. xlvii. etc. "Waters issued out from 
 under the threshold of the house, which being brought forth into 
 
INTRODUCTION. 53 
 
 the sea, the waters shall be healed, on the banks whereof trees shall 
 grow, that shall bring forth new fruits every month, because their 
 waters they issued out of the sanctuary" Here is another instance. 
 After the prophecy of the new covenant, by which the law should 
 be written on the hearts of men, we have in Jer. xxxi. 38, etc. the 
 following passage, which seems to proclaim the mere outward 
 enlargement of the city of Jerusalem: "Behold the days come, 
 saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord from the 
 tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner. And the measur- 
 ing line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and 
 shall compass about to Goath. And the whole valley of the dead 
 bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, 
 unto the corner of the horse-gate towards the east, shall be holy 
 unto the Lord." The sublime meaning of this prophetic utterance 
 is the sanctification of everything unclean and unholy at Jerusalem. 
 The hill of Gareb was the abode of lepers, and the valley of the 
 dead bodies and of the ashes, the unclean valley of Hinnom, where 
 the corpses of malefactors used to be burnt. The prophet's mean- 
 ing is, "Every unclean spot shall then be included into the sanctu- 
 ary/'* 
 
 But to return to the Messianic Psalms. The preceding remarks 
 are equally applicable to them. They depict the Messiah as a king 
 appointed of God; as swaying the sceptre of righteousness, under 
 whose reign God will lavish all his blessings on the people; as 
 causing rebels to feel the edge of his sword, but as blessing the 
 obedient. But what of the fulfilment of these predictions ? In 
 part it has already taken place, though it will be more completely 
 realized in Christ's blissful dominion over his Church, and his judg- 
 ments by which he will eventually triumph over all opposing powers 
 (Cf. ad. Ps. ii.) Psalm xlv. is peculiar in its kind, since it alle- 
 gorically represents the admission of Israel and the heathen into 
 Messiah's kingdom by the figure of a marriage.f 
 
 * Vide for more proof, Hengstenb erg's Christol. vol iii. 
 
 f Cf. the interpretation of that psalm. It has been repeatedly shown 
 that both love and marriage songs are found among the Hindoos, the Ara- 
 bians, and Persians, which, though without any allusions to a spiritual 
 meaning, celebrate the soul's relation to God. This has been done for the 
 purpose of supporting the view which attributes to the Song of Solomon a 
 mystical allusion to the relation of God to Israel. We have recently 
 received some interesting contributions in this respect by Lane, who cites 
 (vol. ii. p. 194,) the following lines extracted from a song used by Moham- 
 medan monks at their religious solemnities: "The image of thy form vis- 
 ited me in my sleep. I said, Oh, vision, who has sent thee? He said, I am 
 sent by him whom thou knowest, whose love captivated thee. The loved 
 of my heart visited me in the obscurity of night. I rose, to honour him, 
 till he sat down. I said, Oh, thou my desire, and all my delight, art thou 
 come at noon of night, and wert not afraid of the watchmen? He said,. I 
 feared them, but love has taken my soul and my breath." Lane compares 
 5* 
 
54 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 In conjunction with these royal psalms we have another kind 
 of Messianic psalms, which we may designate as psalms of the 
 kingdom. As some portions of the prophets celebrate the Mes- 
 sianic kingdom, without making mention of its head, the Messiah, 
 so also several psalms, vide Psalms xlvii. Ixvii. Ixviii. Ixxvi. xcvi. 
 xcvii. xcviii. Some of them indicate that great victories of Israel 
 over neighbouring nations, in consequence of which even the 
 heathen had to acknowledge the majesty of the God of Israel, and 
 probably to send gifts to Jerusalem, gave rise to the hope, that all 
 nations would gloriously join Israel, and all the princes and 
 nations of the earth hereafter worship the God of Abraham. Vide 
 esp. Psalm xlvii. 
 
 The Psalms contain yet another class of predictions, viz. the 
 typical or prefigurative, as e. g. Psalms xvi. xxii. xl. Ixix. As 
 some of their expressions are said in the New Testament to have 
 met their fulfilment in Christ, there have been from the earliest 
 times many commentators who thought that the Psalmist had, 
 while composing them, a lively representation of the Messiah, and 
 as it were, composed them in His soul.* This is a very strange 
 notion, for it is nowhere hinted that the Psalmist did ever com- 
 pose a psalm in the mind of another, and not in his own. Add 
 to this that the character of these psalms in no way differs from 
 those which David and others composed under personal affliction. 
 Hence some of the psalms of complaint, passages from which are 
 in the New Testament applied to Christ, have not without caprice 
 been designated as Messianic, and others because they do not 
 occur in the New Testament as Davidic. Why should Psalm Ixix. 
 be referred to the Messiah, and why not Psalm xxviii. xxxv. Ixiv. 
 Ixxxvi. etc. f Indeed, one of the psalms, the expressions of which 
 were appropriated by the Redeemer himself, (viz. Psalm xxxi. 6,) 
 has not been included in the list of Messianic Psalms.f Many 
 minds have been led astray by the notion, that all the passages of 
 the Old Testament which our Lord and his apostles have described 
 as fulfilled in the New Testament history apply to it exclusively. 
 The very opposite, however, appears from citations such as Matt, 
 ii. 15. 18; xiii. 14; John vi. 45; 1 Cor. ix. 10, etc.\ John v. 46, 
 
 it to Song of Solomon iii. 2 7. He remarks, however, that six of these 
 verses find place in a common worldly love song which occurs in an edition 
 of the ''Thousand and one Nights," Calcutta, vol. i. p. 425, showing that 
 such songs occasionally are void of every mark from which their spiritual 
 sense could be inferred. 
 
 * Among the moderns, Seiler, (Prophecy and its fulfilment, 1794, 
 p. 188,) Muentinghe, Hensler, Dereser, Pareau, Kaiser, Hengstenberg, 
 (Christol. vol. i. but differently in his Comm. on the Psalms.) 
 
 f Augustine, A. H. Francke, Brenz, Calov, H. Michaelis, etc., however, 
 regard also this Psalm as Messianic. 
 
 t Cf. my work, "The Old Testament in the New Testament." Second 
 Edition, 1839. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 55 
 
 our Lord appeals to the fact, that Moses prophesied concerning 
 him. Only the five following passages in the Pentateuch have 
 from the earliest times been regarded as predictions of Christ, 
 Gen. iii. 15. [iv. 1.] xii. 3; xlix. 10; Numb. xxiv. 17; Deut. 
 xviii. 18. Did Christ refer to these only ? Certainly not. His 
 manner of showing (John iii. 14) that the idea of his atonement 
 was already expressed in the Old Testament, indicates that he no 
 doubt desired us to regard the entire sacrificial institutions as well as 
 other phenomena of the Old Testament, e. g. the history of men 
 like David, as typical and pre-indicative of what should be com- 
 pletely fulfilled by him. It is said (Matt. v. 18) that every tittle 
 of the law must be fulfilled ; would not this imply a fulfilment in 
 the sense just indicated? We maintain that Christ and his apos- 
 tles quoted the Psalms as predictions of New Testament events in 
 the last sense. Every pious man under the ancient economy, who 
 suffered for God's cause, but triumphed at last, was a type of what 
 should be completely fulfilled in Christ : hence it is said (1 Peter 
 i. 11) that the Spirit of Christ in the prophets foretold them the 
 sufferings of Christ. The Spirit of Christ so stirred the minds of 
 the prophets that they could anticipatively speak of him. Some 
 of the typical psalms, as will appear in the Commentary, are really 
 of such a character that without assuming the Psalmists to have 
 soared beyond their usual religious consciousness, they defy every 
 attempt at explanation. E. g. Psalm xxii. in which after the hard- 
 est struggles and most lacerating complaints, the Psalmist is filled 
 with so irresistible a sense of confident victory, that he ventures 
 to describe the conversion of the whole world as the consequence of 
 his struggles and victories. In Psalm xvi. he expresses himself in 
 such confident and clear terms respecting his future hope, which 
 can only be expected in a disciple of the New Testament. A large 
 portion of commentators have from the earliest times held, that 
 the fulfilment of a psalm in Christ does by no means imply its 
 exclusive application to Christ, but is based upon the typical 
 character of the Old Testament. Bishop Theodoret observes in 
 the fifth century, ad. Ps. lix., that it strictly refers to the affliction 
 of the exiled Jews, but typically to the Redeemer and the afflic- 
 tion which his rejection would bring upon the nation : the vener- 
 able Bede, the oracle of the eighth century, refers it as properly 
 applicable to the times of the Maccabees. Theodoret explains 
 Psalm xl. which (Heb. x. 5 9) is applied to Christ, primarily of 
 David, secondarily of Christ. Ambrose, Augustine, and Athana- 
 sius have, on the other hand, explained these two psalms as if they 
 spoke in the name of Christ and his Church only. This double 
 manner of interpretation occurs also among the commentators of 
 the later Roman Catholic Church. One of their most eminent 
 men, the learned Benedictine Calmet, at the beginning of the 
 
66 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 eighteen century, maintains* (ad. Ps. xl. and Ixix.) that David 
 appears as the type of Christ, and that several passages in Ps. xxii. 
 and most in Ps. xvi. treat of David. 
 
 The typical interpretation of the Psalms in which the singer 
 speaks in the first person, became general in the Reformed Church. 
 Even Calvin, Bucerus, Beza, Musculus, Rivet, adopt it clearly and 
 confidently. According to Luther* s view, however, David speaks 
 in those passages in the person of Christ, so that we have really 
 the words of Christ: this view has generally been adopted by 
 Lutheran divines, e. g. Bugenhagen, Brenz, Calov, A. H. Fran eke, 
 Gteier, etc. Melanchthon already deviates from it and says, (ad. 
 Ps. xxii. xli.) that David recounts his own sufferings and deliver- 
 ances, though with the consciousness of their being types of the 
 sufferings and deliverances of the Messiah. Other psalms which 
 Luther applied to Christ and his kingdom, meet with a different 
 explanation at the hands of Melanchthon. Luther explained Psalm 
 xx. of David, and Psalm xxi. though connected with it, of the Mes- 
 siah. The majority of Lutheran interpreters followed him in this 
 respect; not so Melanchthon, who says that Psalm xxi. as well as 
 Psalm xx. treat of one and the same King. The desire of collecting 
 if possible many predictions of Christ, has so far biased some inter- 
 preters of the Psalms, that they dispute the validity of the titles. 
 In spite of the title of Psalm iii. which states that it was composed 
 when David fled from Absalom his son, Augustine explains it of 
 Christ and his enemies: so also Cocceius, A. H. Francke, etc. 
 Now, does it not imply distrust in the mighty and sure evidences 
 of Christian truth, if in defiance of undeniable facts, we obstinately 
 insist upon some less important piece of evidence ? Besides, we 
 should bear in mind, that we are not to consider the Psalter, 
 though containing several prophetic songs, as a prophetical book, 
 but that as far as it concerns the predictions respecting Christ 
 and his kingdom, we are chiefly referred to the writings of the 
 prophets. 
 
 * Commentarius literalis in Omnes libros Vet et Novi Test. vol. iv. 
 
COMMENTARY. 
 
 PSALM L 
 
 A DIDACTIC psalm, for its contents' sake (which resemble Psalm 
 cxii.) designedly placed at the beginning of the book. It expresses 
 in noble yet simple language the gospel truth, that " godliness is 
 profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, 
 and of that which is to come." (1 Tim. iv. 8.) Popular wisdom, 
 viz. the daily experience of life compressed into proverbs, is in 
 perfect agreement with that proposition; e.g. "Honesty is the 
 best policy." " Ill-gotten gains don't prosper," " Lightly come, 
 lightly go," etc. Particular exceptions to such expressions will of 
 course occur on earth, the land of faith, but an attentive observer 
 cannot help noticing their truth in the aggregate. 
 
 The confirmation of the doctrine of this psalm which Divine jus- 
 tice has provided in the history of the Jewish nation, appeals 
 strongly to the conscience of believers. It promises blessings and 
 salvation to the kings of Israel who fear the Lord, visitation and 
 multiform punishment to those who forsake him : Israel a flourish- 
 ing kingdom among the kingdoms of the earth, with a king and 
 the sanctuary, before the advent of the Messiah without kings 
 and priests, a proverb and a byeword among men, (Deut. xxviii. 
 37,) after their rejection of him. It has been shown in the Intro- 
 duction how the saints of the Old Testament used to reconcile par- 
 ticular exceptions to this rule with their faith in the mundane gov- 
 ernment of a righteous God, such as the spectacle of crushed inno- 
 cence contrasted with the assurance of the wicked, or that of the 
 want of the godly contrasted with the abundance of the ungodly. 
 We who live under the Gospel dispensation, and understand clearly 
 what they did but darkly apprehend, seek the ultimate solution of 
 all mysteries in the final judgment, which is to complete all the 
 judgments of earth; and as we now admire the long-suffering and 
 goodness of God by which he intends to lead the rebellious to 
 repentance, (Rom. ii. 4,) so shall we then tremble at the justice 
 
 57 
 
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 with which he will judge the obdurate. Many passages of the 
 Old Testament, especially of the Psalms, point, though with less 
 clearness, to that final solution of all mysteries. So does this 
 psalm, as do also Psalms xxxvii. xlix. and Ixxiii. 
 
 The Psalmist contrasts the godly with the ungodly as two differ- 
 ent generations, describes the difference of their destiny on earth, 
 (v. 1 4,) and from it infers with still more assurance their ulti- 
 mate destinies at the final judgment which is to complete God's 
 temporal judgments, (v. 5.) The last verse comprehensively 
 repeats the doctrine in both respects. 
 
 1 T)LESSED is the man that walketh not in the counsel 
 JL) of the ungodly, 
 
 Nor standeth in the way of sinners, 
 Nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 
 
 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD ; 
 And in his law doth he meditate day and night. 
 
 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, 
 That bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; 
 
 His leaf also shall not wither ; 
 
 And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. 
 
 4 The ungodly are not so: 
 
 But are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. 
 
 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, 
 Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 
 
 6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous : 
 But the way of the ungodly shall perish. 
 
 V. 1, 2. The generation of the righteous refuse to be deter- 
 mined and controlled in their resolutions by the ungodly; they 
 have in their actions no communion with sinners, and shun the 
 society of those who keep not holy the name of God. The law of 
 God is not only the sole rule of conduct, but the delight of the 
 pious. The saints of the Old Testament, though without the 
 " grace and truth," and confined to "the law and the shadow of 
 things to come/' for " grace and truth came by Jesus Christ/' 
 (John i. 17; Col. ii. 17,) had so great a delight in the law of the 
 Lord, that they did meditate on it day and night, and were able to 
 Bay with the Psalmist, " Oh, how love I thy law ! it is my medita- 
 tion all the day." Psalm cxix. 97.) True, the law had expressly 
 enjoined it upon them; and the Psalmist had no doubt clearly 
 before his mind the words in Josh. i. 8: "This book of the law 
 shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein 
 day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that 
 is written therein ; for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, 
 
PSALM I. 59 
 
 and then thou shalt have good success/' But the language of the 
 Psalms clearly shows that delight and love prompted many an Old 
 Testament saint to comply with the demands of the law. 
 
 F. 3. Trees planted by the water side are in a thriving condi- 
 tion, from the humidity which impregnates their pith, so that 
 their leaves continue green in the case of some, e. g. the olive 
 tree, all the year round (Psalm lii. 10) and they yield their fruit 
 in their season. So the soul of man gets watered and fecundated 
 from communion with God and delight in his law, so that he 
 appears healthy while others decay, and finds strength adequate to 
 the calls of duty. " I know both how to be abased/' says the 
 apostle, " and I know how to abound : everywhere and in all things 
 I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound 
 and to suffer need. / can do all things through Christ who 
 strengthened me" (Phil. iv. 12.) The assertion of the Psalmist, 
 that " whatsoever he doeth shall prosper," is apparently liable to 
 many exceptions, but when thoroughly fathomed will hold good in 
 its strictest sense. He refers not to every act of the godly, but 
 only to such "that are wrought in God" (John iii. 21) he 
 speaks of the pious deeds of the pious. The old Adam and the 
 new are waging war while flesh and blood attach to man ; hence 
 many acts are done which cannot succeed; but is it possible that 
 acts which flow from the new Adam should prove otherwise than 
 successful ? In performing them, man is simply the instrument of 
 God; how then can at any time ill -success attend to that which 
 the eternal God accomplishes by his instruments ? The prophet 
 Jeremiah propounds the same sentiment, (chap. xvii. 7, 8 :) 
 " Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the 
 Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and 
 that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when 
 heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful 
 in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit/' 
 
 V. 4. As the pious who derives the strength and fecundation 
 of his soul from the word of God is like a firmly rooted tree, so he 
 who lives without God in the world is like drifted chaff. He who 
 has nothing sure in heaven, cannot have anything firm on earth. 
 His views and resolutions change with the weather, as James says, 
 "a double-minded man (doubter) is unstable in all his ways." 
 (James i. 8.) Just as the wind carries away the light chaff from 
 the loftily situated threshing-floors of the East, when the corn is 
 winnowed, so are they scattered. (Job xxi. 18 ; Ps. xxxv. 5; Hos. 
 xiii. 4.) Can a man confidently pursue the path of life if his views 
 and principles are devoid of firmness? If the most confirmed 
 miscreants and usurpers, (and such ripened evil-doers are the 
 exceptions,) who seemed with unwavering step to pursue their end 
 for the greater portion of their life, have been known to reel at 
 certain decisive moments, as though the soil were receding from 
 
60 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 under their feet, how much more does this apply to beginners in 
 evil! Universal experience thus shows the inconstancy of the 
 prosperity of the wicked, and that is the judgment which they 
 prepare for themselves on earth. 
 
 F. 5. The temporal judgments of God will be completed in. 
 eternity. When the Lord shall have sent forth his angels, and 
 gathered the entire assembly of the righteous on earth, then shall 
 the ungodly, though already frequently scattered here below, be as 
 chaff before the blast of the final judgment, and find no place in 
 the congregation of the righteous. (Isaiah iv. 4; xi. 9; Ix. 21; 
 Mai. iv.) 
 
 V. 6. It often appears as if God were unmindful of the path 
 of thorns which his children have to tread here in "time," and 
 they often think every way of escape cut off; but " The Lord 
 knoweth the way of the righteous/' His eye fixedly rests on it, 
 and beholds the blessed issue where they can only see the boundary 
 of thorns. The way of the ungodly, though broad and secure in 
 the sight of men, suddenly breaks off and ends with terror. "The 
 Lord shall laugh at the wicked, for he seeth that his day is coming/' 
 (Psalm xxxvii. 13.) 
 
 PSALM II. 
 
 A HORTATORY psalm against the princes who oppose Messiah, the 
 anointed King of God. 
 
 The author is not mentioned in the title, but Acts iv. 25 refers 
 its authorship to David. Even if the Messianic character of this 
 psalm were denied, and it were explained of a rebellion of some 
 tributary nations against a king of Israel, it would still have to be 
 assigned to the times of David or Solomon, since in the later 
 periods of Judah there lived no king sufficiently powerful that this 
 psalm could apply to him. But it cannot be referred to the events 
 in the history of David or Solomon : it cannot apply to the times 
 of David, for, to mention but one thing, it clearly treats of the 
 rebellion against a newly instituted king, and David on ascending 
 the throne had not subdued all the tribes of Israel, much less 
 foreign nations; it cannot refer to Solomon's accession, for that as 
 well as the whole of his reign was strictly peaceful,* on which 
 
 * 1 Kings v. 3, 4. The insurrections mentioned 1 Kings xi. 14. 23, were 
 trifling in themselves, and belong to the last period of the king's reign. 
 The psalm could not have been composed then, because Solomon was at 
 that time too much immersed in idolatry to compose such a psalm. To 
 those who refer it to the accession of Solomon, (Ewald, Bleek,) it may be 
 
PSALM II. 61 
 
 account Solomon was called par excellence "the prince of peace." 
 David rather composed it in the spirit, when he contemplated the 
 future useless resistance of the nations of the earth against his 
 royal Son. It was shown in the Introduction how David, medi- 
 tating on the prophecy made to him, (2 Sam. vii.,) was led to the 
 thought that the Messiah should spring from his own house. In the 
 song from the last period of his life, (quoted pp. 48, 49,) we have 
 a clear evidence of his Messianic hopes : the contents of that song 
 may be compared with this psalm. The object of David's hopes in 
 the song is the coming of a righteous and holy King from his own 
 house, during whose reign universal prosperity should spring up 
 like an unclouded sunrise, (Of. ad. Psalm Ixvii. 7,) while the 
 ungodly should perish. In this psalm he beholds the eternal 
 Sovereign of his house entering upon his reign, the princes of the 
 earth rebelling against him, the Lord, while assuring him of victory, 
 exhorting them to obey him. As David calls himself divinely 
 inspired in 2 Samuel xxiii., and Christ says (Matt. xxii. 43) that 
 David spoke Psalm ex. in the spirit, we may assume inspiration in 
 this psalm. Its manner of expression indicates as much. Majesty 
 and life characterize this beautiful psalm : the kings, Glod, and 
 lastly the Messiah, appear in dramatic succession. Tranquillity 
 ensues at last. Most Jewish interpreters consider the king here 
 referred to, to be the Messiah. Messiah means "the anointed 
 one/' (John i. 41,) and this very king is described in verse 6 as 
 the Anointed of God.* 
 
 Respecting the manner in which the Redeemer is mentioned, 
 we refer to Introduction, page 50. Offence has been taken at the 
 punishment with which the opponents of Messiah are threatened; 
 but the same occurs in our Lord's own words in the New Testa- 
 ment. While the Saviour uses similar terms in representing the 
 citizens of his kingdom as rebellious, and "killing the heir/' 
 (Luke xix. 14; Matt. xxi. 38,) he likewise declares that the wicked 
 shall be slain, and those "who would not that he should reign over 
 them" be destroyed. (Matt. xxi. 41; Luke xix. 27.) "Whosoever 
 shall fall on this stone shall be broken/' says he, "but on whomso- 
 ever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder." Such is the har- 
 mony of the words of prophecy and those of the New Testament.f 
 
 The prophetic Psalmist is translated to the time of the appear- 
 ance of the Son of God as king of the earth, and hears the rebellious 
 
 replied that there is no allusion whatever to a rebellion on the part of sub- 
 dued nations: again it is a question whether if v. 6 be rendered "Upon 
 Zion" it may be said of Solomon, that he was anointed upon Zion. 
 (Cf. 1 Kings i. 38.) 
 
 * The Hebrew has not the word from which the name "Messiah" is 
 derived, but one cognate to it and in poetic use. 
 
 f Cf. to this Psalm and the prophetic psalms in general, (Sack's Apolo- 
 getik, 2d edition, 1841, p. 278,) etc. 
 
 6 
 
62 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 speech of the princes, (v. 1 3.) For a while God seems to sleep, 
 but then awakes like a hero, making the indisputable declaration, 
 that no mortal can despise the king whom he has instituted, 
 ( v . 4 6.) Then appears the Messiah, to testify to the dominion 
 over all flesh which the Father has conferred upon him, (v. 7 9.) 
 The royal prophet, finally, exhorts the kings of the earth to timely 
 obedience, ere punishment befall them, (10. 12.) 
 
 1 TTTHY do the heathen rage, 
 
 VV And the people imagine a vain thing? 
 
 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, 
 And the rulers take counsel together, 
 
 Against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 
 
 3 "Let us break their bands asunder, 
 And cast away their cords from us." 
 
 4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : 
 The LORD shall have them in derision. 
 
 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, 
 And vex them in his sore displeasure : 
 
 6 " Yet have I anointed my king 
 Upon my holy hill of Zion."* 
 
 7 I will declare the decree (of the Lord) : 
 
 The LORD hath said unto me, "Thou art my Son; 
 This day have I begotten thee. 
 
 8 Ask of me, 
 
 And I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, 
 And the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 
 
 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; 
 
 Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." 
 
 10 Be wise now therefore, ye kings : 
 Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. 
 
 11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 
 
 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, 
 And ye perish from the way, 
 For his wrath is soon kindled. 
 
 Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. 
 
 V. 1 3. The spirit of prophecy reveals to David, that the 
 world will not willingly submit to the government of the Prince of 
 Peace. His spirit hears the wild rage and tumult which usher in 
 rebellion, but discerns also its ill-success. He beholds their gath- 
 ering for darkness has its potentates and however much rent 
 
 * Or, Over my holy hill of Zion." 
 
PSALM II. 63 
 
 and divided they may be, in one thing they are of one mind. 
 "We will not have this one to reign over us." (Luke xix. 14.) 
 " My yoke is easy and my burden is light," said the Saviour when 
 he was on earth, and yet but few were willing to bow beneath 
 those light bands and blessed cords John had to complain in 
 those days that "He came to his own and his own received him 
 not." They who refuse to wear those light bands are injuring 
 themselves most by bringing down upon them the righteous judg- 
 ment of Him, who will not suffer his honour to be trampled under 
 foot with impunity. The New Testament as well as this psalm 
 state, that rejecting the Messiah is the same as rejecting the 
 Lord of heaven and earth, since here the bands and cords of the 
 Anointed of God are described as God's own. The Prophets refer 
 in language still more decisive to the unbelief and rebellion of 
 men against the Messiah. " He was so despised that they hid 
 their faces from him and we esteemed him not." (Isa. liii. 3.) 
 The prophet Zechariah personifies Messiah, the Shepherd whom 
 the people reward with the contemptible sum of thirty pieces of 
 silver. (Zech. xi. 12.) Daniel says, "And after three-score 
 and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself." 
 (Dan. ix. 26.) 
 
 F. 4 6. There are tumults and commotions on earth; the 
 children of God get afraid, and ask, " Lord, how long ?" But 
 'tis calm and bright in the heavens. "He that sitteth in the 
 heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision." He 
 would do so, were he man. " It is he that sitteth upon the circle 
 of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, that 
 stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as 
 a tent to dwell in. That bringeth the princes to nothing; he 
 maketh the judges of the earth as vanity." (Isa. xl. 22, 23.) 
 Our heart must be where God is. If we leave it on the raging 
 and stormy earth, it joins in the raging and the storm; if we lift 
 it to the peace and happiness of God's Heaven, his peace and hap- 
 piness flow to us. The Lord has his time to laugh and to continue 
 silent, but "Thinkest thou that I shall always be silent and thou 
 fearest me not?" he asks (Isa. Ivii. 11.) No; he will speak, and 
 so speak that " whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle." 
 But for a little while will he suffer his anointed One to be des- 
 pised, as if he did not heed it. Within that brief period falls our 
 existence. His voice will then be heard in all the earth, and his 
 mighty acts will ask, "Shall men be able to depose whom /have 
 created and instituted as king?" God has instituted him as king : 
 shall this king lack subjects? No, as the apostle has it, "At the 
 name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess 
 that he is the Lord." (Phil. ii. 9.) If not willingly, they will be 
 compelled to do it unwillingly : should they deny his righteousness 
 and lov e, they will not be able to deny his majesty and glory. This 
 
64 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 king is set upon or over Zion, viz. the heavenly Jerusalem of 
 which Paul speaks. (Gal. vi. 16 ; iv. 26.) 
 
 F. 7 9. The prophet now hears the king's own speech. He 
 speaks of his divine generation and appointment, which being 
 from everlasting can never be destroyed. His royal majesty, how- 
 ever, was not revealed till after the time of his obedience on earth, 
 and he was "declared to be the Son of God with power by the 
 resurrection from the dead/' (Rom. i. 4.) Paul connects this 
 passage with the time of Christ's resurrection, because not till then 
 did his Sonship become manifest to them. (Acts xiii. 33.) Israel 
 and its kings are sometimes called "sons of God." (Ex. iv. 22; 
 2 Sam. vii. 14; Psalm Ixxxix. 27.) But they bear the name of 
 children and sons of God in a very important sense, simply on 
 account of having experienced the love of God. The Messiah, on 
 the other hand, is the Son of God indeed, above whom the hea- 
 vens were opened, and the -voice of God said: "This is my 
 beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." He testifies in this 
 place that the ends of the earth are his possession. No king in 
 Israel ever received promise like this. The limits of Israel were 
 "from the Red Sea even unto the Sea of the Philistines, and from 
 the desert unto the river." (Ex. xxiii. 31; Ps. Ixxx. 12.) More 
 remote frontiers are set to King Messiah: "He shall have domin- 
 ion from sea to sea, and from the river (Euphrates) to the ends of 
 the earth." (Ps. Ixxii. 8; Zech. ix. 10.) He who had not where 
 to lay his head on earth, said nevertheless, "Thou hast given to 
 thy Son power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as 
 many as thou hast given him;" and again, "All mine are thine, 
 and thine are mine." Our Lord did not take the world with the 
 sceptre of the mighty on earth, but with the mild sceptre of peace. 
 But as the shepherd uses his staff only among the sheep that hear 
 his voice, but wears a sword against wolves, so the good Shepherd 
 wears a sword along with his staff, and says, concerning the evil 
 servant, "The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he 
 looketh not for him, and at an hour that he is not aware of, and 
 shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the 
 hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 
 (Matt. a xxiv. 50, 51.) The Saviour is called "a Lamb;" but 
 there is also mentioned the wrath of the Lamb ; as it is written 
 that they shall say to the mountains and to the rocks, " Fall on us, 
 and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and 
 from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is 
 come; and who shall be able to stand?" (Rev. vi. 16, 17.) " He 
 that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that 
 believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God 
 abideth on him." (John iii. 36.) 
 
 V. 1012. With such thoughts of the wrath to come the 
 royal prophet exhorts the kings of the earth to be instructed 
 
PSALM III. 65 
 
 betimes. They are to rejoice in the possession of such a ruler, 
 but to remember that the sceptre of his protection may be turned 
 into the rod of punishment. He bids them to kiss the Son, which 
 is a mark of homage and adoration, (1 Sam. x. 1,) and to confide 
 in and take refuge with him, which involves an amount of power 
 beneath the shelter of which they may securely brave any tempest. 
 Conscious that the possession of him includes that of everything 
 else, the Psalmist calmly closes this impassioned song with the 
 words: "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." 
 
 PSALM III. 
 
 A PRAYER of David, falling into that period of sore temptation, 
 when Absalom, his beloved son, sought to deprive him of his 
 crown and life. At the end of the ten years of Saul's bitter perse- 
 cution, David may have considered the time of his exile for ever 
 gone. But it was to return once more towards the latter end of 
 his life, caused by his own son, and Ahithophel, a treacherous 
 friend. A messenger came to David informing him that the 
 people were running after Absalom saying, "The hearts of the 
 men of Israel are after Absalom." But David said to all his ser- 
 vants that were with him at Jerusalem, "Arise and let us flee, for 
 we shall not else escape from Absalom !" Thus, accompanied by a 
 few of his faithful followers and the tears of a great portion of the 
 people, with covered head and barefooted, he went over Mount 
 Olivet towards the river Jordan to wait in the desert for the issue 
 of things at Jerusalem. (2 Sam. xvii. 21 24.) The event is 
 touchingly described in 2 Sam. xv. During his absence from 
 the city, David appears to have experienced the continuous 
 alternation of various degrees of calm repose and great anxiety 
 and fear. (Cf. Ps. Iv. xxviii.) Most of the psalms which he com- 
 posed during that flight in the desert, or still later, betray great 
 anxiety. This psalm, expressive of filial confidence in the midst 
 of trouble, accords best with that melancholic disposition of peace, 
 which may be traced in the words of the humbled king on the 
 first day after his departure from the city. Compare also his con- 
 ciliating language to Shimei. (2 Sam. xvi.) Since the contents of 
 the psalm show that it was sung in the evening, (v. 6,) we may 
 infer that it was composed on the evening of that first day when 
 the king took night-quarters at Bahurim, close by Jerusalem. 
 (2 Sam. xvi. 5 14.) 
 6* 
 
66 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 1 A PSALM of David, when he fled from Absalom 
 J\. his son. 
 
 2 LORD, how are they increased that trouble me ? 
 Many are they that rise up against me. 
 
 3 Many there be which say of my soul, 
 There is no help for him in God. Selah. 
 
 4 But thou, LORD, art a shield for me; 
 My glory, and the lifter up of mine head. 
 
 5 I cried unto the LORD with my voice, 
 
 And he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah. 
 
 6 I lay me down and sleep ; 
 
 I awake;* for the LORD sustaineth me. 
 
 7 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, 
 That have set themselves against me round about. 
 
 8 Arise, LORD ; save me, my God : 
 
 For thou smitest all mine enemies upon the cheek-bone ; 
 Thou breakest the teeth of the ungodly. 
 
 9 Salvation is with the LORD : 
 
 Thy blessing is upon thy people. Selah. 
 
 V. 1. What a share of sad experience for the humbled king 
 was compressed into that one day. His throne is lost, the sanctu 
 ary left behind; his beloved son has become his persecutor, and i 
 highly esteemed and trusty friend (Psalm Iv. 14, 15,) turned 
 traitor; faithless subjects have derided him, and even throwr 
 stones at him ! (2 Sam. xvi. 6, 7.) Tired and worn out with the 
 fatigues of the day, he has reached his night quarters, (2 Sam, 
 xvi. 14,) and withal can retire in profound calm of mind, as it is 
 here portrayed ! 
 
 His excitement is yet alive at the beginning of the psalm 
 The first impression of the insurrection is evident (v. 2, 3.) The 
 thought of the Lord however inspires confidence (v. 4, 5.) He 
 then lies down, sure of the blessing of God upon himself and the 
 faithful people of God (v. 69.) 
 
 V. 2, 3. He might well complain of the multitude of his 
 opponents. Hardly more than six hundred men had remained 
 with him, (2 Sam. xv. 18,) since the people without Jerusalem 
 had in masses joined rebellious Absalom. (2 Sam. xv. 13.) The} 
 said, in their overweening confidence, of him who, in innumerable 
 instances, had experienced the most wonderful deliverances oJ 
 
 * We may translate with A. V. in the past time, and render, "I laid me 
 down and slept," "I awaked." The psalm would then hare been sung ID 
 the morning ; but the subsiding in gradual calm towards the end, adapts 
 it more for an evening song. 
 
PSALM III. 67 
 
 God, "There is no help for him in God." Shimei in particular 
 had indulged in blasphemy like this: "The Lord hath delivered 
 the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son ; and behold thou 
 art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man/' 
 (2 Sam. xvi. 8.) 
 
 F. 4, 5. He had still a small number of faithful adherents. 
 Valiant Joab and Abishai surrounded him. But he confides not 
 in the spear and shield of man. The Lord is his shield : he hopes 
 to be reinstated to honour by him, and trusts that he will lift up 
 his bowed head again. " Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, 
 and maketh flesh his arm/' (Jer. xvii. 5.) The priests wished to 
 carry away the ark of the covenant : David sent it back, and said, 
 with mild resignation, " Carry back the ark of God into the city: 
 if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me 
 again, and show me both it and his habitation ; but if he thus say, 
 I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I, let him do to me as 
 seemeth good unto him." (2 Sam. xv. 25, 26.) He then directs 
 his thoughts to the holy hill, and knows that, though remote from 
 it, he is not remote from Him who hears from there. Selah fol- 
 lows this expression, which always occurs after emphatic thoughts, 
 when song used to be followed by a musical interlude. 
 
 V. 6, 7. Peaceful and quieted he is about to lay him down in 
 the midst of a rebellious people : he feels as if the Lord were stand- 
 ing by his side, and holding him with his right hand. Who 
 among Christians does imitate him in similar circumstances? 
 
 F. 8, 9. The recollection of great deliverances now rushed 
 upon his mind. His song at the close of his life was, "The Lord 
 is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my 
 strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my 
 salvation, and my high tower." (Psalm xviii. 3.) Every experi- 
 ence which formed the basis of these expressions burst upon his 
 soul. His enemies had frequently compassed him as wild beasts, 
 but he had escaped from their mouth. (Psalm xxii. 17. 22.) The 
 remembrance of such experiences kindled the hope that the Lord 
 would help him, and break the teeth of the wild animals which 
 were turned against him. He looks not around him on earth: his 
 confidence and hope centre in God alone. " Salvation is with the 
 Lord," as if he had said, What other help do I require? We may 
 understand the people for whom he prays to designate the mass of 
 the rebellious, which might then be paraphrased, Let not my 
 blinded subjects suffer for the folly and wickedness of some few! 
 The term "people of God," however, means frequently in the 
 Psalms, the generation of the godly, the real Israel after the Spirit, 
 (Psalms xiv. 4; Ixxii. 2,) and as such it may here have designated 
 the faithful portion of the people, who from faith in God had con- 
 tinued faithful to their rightful monarch. (Psalm Ixxxix. 9 ; see 
 also ad. Ixiii. 12.) 
 
68 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS, 
 
 PSALM IV. 
 
 A PSALM of comfort of David, which probably belongs to the 
 period when David, returning with his men to the town of Ziklag, 
 which the king of the Philistines had given him, found that the 
 Amalekites had invaded and burnt it, and carried off the women 
 and children. 
 
 The six hundred who had followed David became then so filled 
 with distrust and exasperation against David, that they actually 
 talked of stoning him. (1 Sam. xxx. 6.) That event would satis- 
 factorily explain v. 6, and especially vs. 6 8. The psalm was 
 composed in the evening, (see v. 9.) David looks to God for 
 strength and consolation, (v. 1.) He remembers his worldly- 
 minded associates, and chides them for their hasty abandonment of 
 confidence in his good cause, (vs. 2 6.) He supplicates God for 
 the return of prosperity, (v. 7,) though he already derives more 
 enjoyment and blessings from his communion with the Lord, than 
 they do from their temporal possessions, (v. 8.) Strengthened 
 by these thoughts, he retires peacefully to rest under the shield 
 and protection of God. 
 
 1 nnO the chief Musician, on the Harp, a Psalm of 
 1 David. 
 
 2 Hear me when I call, God of my righteousness ; 
 Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress ; 
 Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer. 
 
 3 ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into 
 
 shame ? 
 
 How long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? 
 Selah. 
 
 4 But know that the LORD hath chosen His holy one ; 
 The LORD will hear when I call unto him. 
 
 5 Stand in awe, and sin not : 
 Commune with your own heart 
 Upon your bed, and be still. Selah. 
 
 6 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,* 
 And put your trust in the LORD. 
 
 7 There be many that say, "Who will show us any good? 
 LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. 
 
 8 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, 
 
 More than in the time that their corn and their wine 
 increased. 
 
 9 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep : 
 For thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety. 
 
 * Or, "right sacrifices." 
 
PSALM IV. 69 
 
 F. 2. Taking his refuge in prayer, he practically expresses his 
 conviction, that however much the unbelieving may feel inclined 
 to ascribe to blind and unconscious fate events like that just real- 
 ized, (viz. the unexpected invasion of the Amalekites,) that all 
 visitations, however unexpected or distressing they be, are lodged 
 in the hands of God, and by him dispensed to men. By calling 
 him the God of his righteousness, he testifies that he, to whose will 
 every human destiny is to be referred, does not conduct the govern- 
 ment of the world in an arbitrary manner, but after a standard of 
 eternal truth and equity, and views his own case in that light: 
 "Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress/' shows that he is 
 not a novice in his communion with God, but that in similar situa- 
 tions he has frequently communed with him, and experienced that 
 the prayers of the tried and distressed are not uttered in vain, but 
 that there is an ear in heaven which is sure to hear them. 
 
 V. 3, 4. He then contemplates the case of his associates, who 
 had joined him in the confidence that God would not leave him, 
 his pious servant. David's example may teach us how to defend 
 our honour, though we should with David regard it as the gift of 
 God. It is hardly probable that he alludes to the royal glory, 
 derived from Samuel's having anointed him, as he could not assert 
 that during the lifetime of Saul, without appearing rebellious. 
 Moreover, he caused himself with the consent of the people once 
 more to be anointed after the death of Saul. (2 Sam. ii. 4.) But 
 he may refer to that glory of peculiar Divine protection, which is 
 enjoyed by the faithful servants of God, (v. 4.) We find, however, 
 that the opinion obtained pretty generally, that the son of Jesse 
 was to inherit the kingdom. (1 Sam. xxv. 28.) 
 
 Very probably many of those who were trying their chance with 
 David shared in that opinion, though there is nothing that should 
 have prevented him from remembering his prerogative in secret 
 prayer to God. But however that may be, he first remonstrates 
 with his followers, that not only his enemies, but they, his professed 
 friends, should yield themselves to the deterioration of his glory, 
 and leasingly doubt the continuance of God's protection because of 
 a transient bitter experience. He calls them, par excellence, "sons 
 of men," i. e. heroes, or as Luther renders, " Lords." He appeals 
 to his conviction that God, who had once for all separated him for 
 his service, would not prove faithless in his promise, and that his 
 prayers to God on that ground possess intrinsic worth. Here we 
 have the identical grounds for that confidence which the children of 
 God display in their prayers ; i. e. He who has once chosen them in 
 his Son can never prove faithless to his promises. That faith ren- 
 ders our prayers to God efficacious. 
 
 F. 5, 6. Conscious of the complete amalgamation of his cause 
 with that of God, he is able to exhort those who seemed to despair 
 of his cause, to stand in awe at such wickedness. In the stillness 
 
70 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 ip* 
 
 of night, he calls upon his passionate followers to come to them 
 selves duriag the quietude of nightly repose, when things appeal 
 so different from what they do in the bustle of the day. He chides 
 them for having hitherto omitted to pay the sacrifices which ar< 
 well pleasing to God, and expresses his conviction, that God wil 
 be sure to do his part and fulfil his promises, if they would bu 
 perform theirs. These words of David contain the exhortation o 
 James the apostle, "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh t< 
 you." (James iv. 8.) 
 
 F. 7, 8. After this exhortation follows his prayer to God, t< 
 perform his work and to lift up the light of his countenance upoi 
 him to whom he had made such great promises. The high priest' i 
 benediction upon the people of God was, "The Lord make his fac< 
 shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee." Every membe 
 of the true Israel was entitled to apply a share of that blessing t< 
 himself. Hence the frequent allusions to it in the Psalms. (Psaln 
 xxxi. 17; Ixvii. 2; Ixxx. 20; Ixxxix. 16.) A beaming counte 
 nance is expressive of love and joy: now if God regard man witl 
 such a face, how can good fail to come? David moreover declare; 
 that he for his part is not only hoping for the merey of God for th< 
 future, nor merely desiring it in its external manifestations, bu 
 that his goodness has already prepared so abundant a flow of joy ir 
 his heart as greatly to excel that loudest of earthly joys in Pales 
 tine the joy of harvest and vintage time, (Isaiah ix. 3; Jeremial 
 xlviii. 33,) when hill and dale reverberate with the festive soundi 
 of joy. The same joying in God is sublimely expressed in Psalmi 
 xvi. xxiii. xxxvi. Ixxiii. etc. How much the associates of Davie 
 were attached to temporal riches may be seen 1 Sam. xxx. 22. 
 
 F. 9. In this communion with God, a calm so deep and a jo] 
 so intense have filled the Psalmist's mind, that in the enjoymen 
 of profoundest peace he can lay him down, counting all humai 
 protection and human watchmen as nothing, and deems himsel: 
 perfectly safe beneath the shelter of his Lord. 
 
 PSALM V. 
 
 A PSALM of complaint of David, probably belonging to th< 
 period of his residence at the court of Saul; for he could not us< 
 verse 8, when during his flight he was alternately driven to th< 
 Judaean wilderness, to the Philistines, or elsewhere. While h( 
 was at Saul's court, a hostile faction sought to fan his suspicions 
 to which he was naturally addicted, by saying that David was aim 
 ing at his life and coveting his throne. That faction chiefly com 
 
PSALM V. . 71 
 
 prised members of the tribe of Saul (Benjaminites,) from whom the 
 majority of courtiers were selected. To these belonged Gush, of 
 whom David complains, (Psalm vii.) and Shimei, who showed his 
 attachment to Saul and hostility towards David at the time of the 
 conspiracy of Absalom. At the incitement of the Benjaminites 
 there arose a conspiracy during the last years of the reign of David. 
 (Of. 1 Sam. xxii. 7; xxvi. 19; 2 Sam. xvi. 8; xix. 16; xx. 1. Cf. 
 also Introduction to Psalm Ixxviii.) The instance of Doeg (Cf. In- 
 troduction to Psalm Hi.) shows how sanguinary and unscrupu- 
 lous some of his enemies were. 
 
 We gather from verse 4, that this psalm was sung in the morn- 
 ing. After having tuned his mind into a prayerful mood (vs. 2, 3,) 
 the Psalmist edifies himself with the thought, that the God to 
 whom he is praying delights in the honest and sincere of heart, 
 but despises the ungodly (vs. 4 8.) This forms the ground of 
 his prayer, that God would effectively manifest his hatred against 
 unrighteousness, to the end that his praise might for ever be on the 
 lips of all his servants (vs. 9 13.) 
 
 the chief Musician, on the Flute, A Psalm of 
 David. 
 
 2 Give ear to my words, LORD, consider the warmth of 
 
 my grief:* 
 
 3 Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my 
 
 God: 
 For unto thee will I pray. 
 
 4 My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, LORD ; 
 
 In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and 
 will look up. 
 
 5 For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wicked- 
 
 ness: 
 Neither shall evil dwell with thee. 
 
 6 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: 
 Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. 
 
 7 Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: 
 
 The LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. 
 
 8 But as for me, I will come into thy bouse in the fulness 
 
 of love to thee, 
 And in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. 
 
 9 Lead me, LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine 
 
 enemies ; 
 Make thy way straight before my face. 
 
 * Cf. Psalm xxxix. 4, in the original. 
 
72 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 10 For there is no faithfulness in their mouth ; 
 Their inward part is very wickedness ; 
 Their throat is an open sepulchre ; 
 
 They natter with their tongue. 
 
 11 Make them guilty, God; 
 
 Let them fall from their own counsels ; 
 Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions ; 
 For they have rebelled against t hee. 
 
 12 But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice; 
 Let them ever shout for joy, because thou protectest 
 
 them; 
 Let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. 
 
 13 For thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; 
 
 With favour wilt thou crown him as with a shield. 
 
 V. 2, 3. In his affliction David neither consumes his griel 
 within himself nor complains before man, but gives vent to his 
 oppressed heart by directing his complaints to Him who can send 
 relief. While others devour their troubles in silent obstinacy, or 
 give free course to them before men in talkative weakness, but 
 grow dumb before God, true Christians get neither hardened in 
 their sorrow nor soft and loquacious before man, but silently carry 
 their sorrow to Him who knows best how to heal. David calls the 
 Lord his King and his God. How significant! He is sure oi 
 being heard; for would a righteous king shut his ears against his 
 subjects? or God, who has said to man, "I am thy God!" refuse 
 protection, if supplicated ? 
 
 V. 4. As we should begin all things with God, so David begins 
 the day with him : before holding intercourse with man, he seeks 
 for communion with God. Early in the morning he takes his 
 cause to God, as his efficient advocate, and confidently looks up to 
 him for the direction of his affairs. 
 
 V. 5 8. The insolence of the wicked is so far from making 
 him afraid, that it only increases the confidence of his prayer. 
 While the wicked grow more determinate and daring, there is 
 nothing more certain than that He who according to his nature 
 hates all wickedness, will sooner or later effectively manifest the 
 promises of his word. The Psalmist speaks of his love and feat 
 with which he will frequent the house of God, not to boast himself, 
 but because the man of prayer feels the need of being subjectively 
 conscious of his adoption into God's family, to endue his prayers 
 
 ^ more trust. Did not our Lord, to express the grantability* 
 of his prayer in a more distinct manner, say, "I pray not for the 
 
 * I have coined this word, to escape a circuitous mode of expression. 
 [TEANS.] 
 
PSALM V. 73 
 
 world, but for them which thou hast given me"? Why then 
 should not a pious man address God in language like this: "0 
 Lord, thou wilt not leave me; for my inmost consciousness tells 
 me that I am thine ; my love to thee yields this evidence" ? By 
 "the temple," we must understand "the tabernacle:" (Cf. Psalm 
 Ixv. 5:) "temple" designates any large building: so in Psalm 
 xxvii. 4, the temple is mentioned, in verse 6 the tabernacle; so in 
 1 Sam. i. 9 ; iii. 3, the tabernacle is called the temple. At the 
 time when David composed this Psalm, the tabernacle was at Nob, 
 which was so near to Jerusalem, that the city could be seen from 
 there.* David could therefore easily repair there for public wor- 
 ship. His friendship with Ahimelech the priest, and the expres- 
 sions of the latter (1 Sam. xxii. 15; cf. chap, xxi.) show David's 
 faithfulness to the sanctuary. 
 
 F 9. The term, " righteousness of God," as used in the Psalms, 
 frequently includes the ideas of kindness and lenity, as does the 
 German " Rechtschaffenheit." The Psalmist invokes the kindness 
 of God to lead him in a straight path ; the plain way being that in 
 which men do not stumble, and are preserved from mishap. (Psalm 
 xxvii. 11 ; Jer. xxxi. 9.) Possibly that righteousness may be 
 meant here, which God demands from man. David's prayer would 
 then be, not to deviate from the right path, lest he should not 
 thrust himself into danger; according to Prov. xi. 5, "The right- 
 eousness of the perfect shall direct his way ; but the wicked shall 
 fall by his own wickedness." David prays for being kept in the 
 right path "because of his enemies;" for as the cause of the godly 
 is the cause of God, so the abuses of the wicked against them 
 affect Him who calls himself their God and their King. Of. 
 Ps. xxii. 9. 
 
 V. 10. The description of the impiousness of his enemies 
 strengthens his conviction that God will not linger with the 
 administration of his justice. Their speech is treacherous and 
 their throat an open sepulchre by throat he means the calumnies 
 which they utteredf they flatter with their tongues and hide mis- 
 chief in the secret recesses of their minds. We may readily con- 
 ceive that they pretended to be mightily zealous for the prosperity 
 of Saul, since he himself gave them to understand that he con- 
 sidered all those who did not desire the destruction of David as 
 his personal enemies. (1 Sam. xxii. 8.) 
 
 F 11. " Make them guilty" means, " May Divine justice cause 
 them to feel their guilt by the failure of their enterprises, and make 
 them perceive that they did not only oppose man but God." The 
 Lord said (Deut. xxxii. 35,) "To me belongeth vengeance and 
 
 * Robinson's Palestine, vol. ii. p. 368. 
 
 f The throat as well as the tongue are organs of speech, as is clear from 
 the Hebrew of Psalm cxlix. 6. 
 
74 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 recompense." That sentence caused David to refrain from taking 
 vengeance into his own hands and to refer it to God, as he said t< 
 Saul, "The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord avengi 
 me of thee; but mine hand shall not be upon thee." (1 Sam 
 xxiv. 12.) He supplicated revenge at the hands of God, not fo 
 his personal gratification, but mainly because the cause of calum 
 niated and oppressed innocence is always that of God, and becaus 
 his glory gets sullied when wickedness triumphs. Haughty me: 
 have certainly not the remotest idea that God sets so great a valu 
 on poor mortals, that he should consider his eternal majest 
 injured, when they are injured. They no more think that thei 
 blows will strike heaven, than they do when they tread the dust c 
 mud under foot. But the less they think so, the more fit does i 
 seem to Divine wisdom now and then to furnish the most palpabl 
 evidence how precious are to him those " little ones," as Chris 
 calls them: with this correspond the words of the prophet, "H 
 that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of His eye." (Zech. ii. 8. 
 
 V. 12. As another ground for the supplicated manifestation c 
 God's punitive justice, the Psalmist adduces the eternal praise an 
 gratitude of the entire company of the godly which should be pai 
 to him. For God is not like an unfeeling idol, unheedful of th 
 joyful praises and sacrifices of gratitude which man, his creatur< 
 pays to him, but he is like a father, who rejoices in the honor 
 and love which his children bear to him. David, here and els( 
 where, so completely regards all the pious as one component whol< 
 where if "one member be honoured all the members rejoice wit 
 it," (1 Cor. xii. 26,) that he considers his own deliverance i 
 their common interest; for are not benefits conferred on individual 
 pledges to the rest? 
 
 V. 18. The promise to the righteous is universal, and exclude 
 none from its blessings. Nothing is said of reward or merit, bi 
 grace shall crown and compass them : the same grace shall be the: 
 most sure defence. As the huge shields of antiquity were a cov* 
 and safeguard for the whole body, so there is no assault of the en< 
 my, and no danger, from which the grace of God is not a sufficier 
 protection. 
 
 PSALM VI. 
 
 SOME commentators hold that this Psalm, and Psalms xxvi. xxvi 
 xxxi. xxxviii. xxxix. xli. Ixix. Ixxxviii. which resemble it, wer 
 composed in great bodily afflictions, while others regard the alk 
 sions to disease which occur here and in Isaiah i. 5, 6; liii. 3, a 
 descriptive of physical sufferings resulting from the persecutions t 
 which the Psalmist was exposed. Both views contain some trutli 
 
PSALM VI. 75 
 
 Disease must be considered as the primary cause for complaint in 
 Psalm xli., to which are added the sufferings inflicted by the 
 arrogance of malicious enemies, so Psalm Ixix. 21, 22. In others, 
 mental sufferings are excited by the enemy, which like every kind 
 of acute and profound suffering is sure to affect the body. Thus 
 David complains (Psalm Ixix.) that the abuse of his enemies 
 makes him ill, and that his illness gave them new occasion to hurt 
 him. In Psalm xxxi. 10, 11, he says that his grief had diseased 
 his physical frame; verse 9 shows that the primary source of suf- 
 fering in this psalm is to be sought with the enemy. But while 
 daily mortification attending a sense of innocence, grief at the 
 wickedness of men, (Of. Psalm cxix. 53, "Horror hath taken 
 hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law/') and 
 the fear of having to deal with an angry Grod, made a united 
 onslaught upon the mind, is it likely that such manifold pain 
 should leave the body unaffected ? The composition of this psalm 
 no doubt belongs to the period of Saul's persecutions, when every 
 morning brought new dangers, and new terrors frightened the 
 wanderer from every asylum, to those days of tears of which he 
 has sung, (Psalm Ivi. 9 :) "Count the days of my flight: put thou 
 my tears into thy bottle." 
 
 It is truly affecting to mark how David in this prayer, after the 
 manner of genuine men of prayer, mounts from the abyss of 
 despair to the triumphant consciousness that his petition is heard. 
 He begins in mournful lays, declaring that affliction has reached a 
 climax, and that his strength is wholly broken, (v. 2 4.) To 
 some extent calmed, he vows songs of gratitude as they are pleasing 
 to Grod, and gets absorbed in the contemplation of that grief 
 which he has now borne for so long a time, (v. 5 8.) Then 
 issues forth from the depths of his soul the divine "Amen," and 
 he who just now lay in the abyss of despair, causes triumphal 
 notes to ascend to heaven, (v. 9 11.) This beautiful evidence of 
 genuine and deep-felt prayer, viz. the sudden assurance of being 
 heard, bursting forth from grievous complaint, may be also seen in 
 Psalms vii. 18; xxii. 25; xxviii. 6; Ivi. 13, 14; Ixxv. 10, 11. 
 
 1 rPO the chief Musician, on the Harp, to the eighth tune,* 
 JL A Psalm of David. 
 
 2 LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, 
 Neither chasten me in thine hot displeasure. 
 
 3 Have mercy upon me, LORD: for I am weak: 
 LORD, heal me ; for my bones are vexed. 
 
 * The stringed instruments of the Hebrews were probably like those of 
 the Greeks, drawn and tuned according to different keys and tunes. For 
 ancient performers were not able to play different tunes on the same 
 instrument, but obliged to use different instruments. 
 
76 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 4 My soul is also sore vexed : 
 Butthou, LORD, how long? 
 
 5 Keturn, LORD, deliver my soul: 
 Oh, save me for thy mercies' sake ! 
 
 6 For in death there is no remembrance of thee. 
 In the grave who shall give thee thanks ? 
 
 7 I am weary with my groaning ; 
 
 All the night make I my bed to swim ; 
 I water my couch with my tears. 
 
 8 Mine eye is consumed because of grief; 
 
 It waxeth old, for I am troubled everywhere. 
 
 9 Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity ! 
 
 For the LORD hath heard the voice of my weeping. 
 
 10 The LORD hath heard my supplication; 
 The LORD will receive my prayer. 
 
 11 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed : 
 Let them return and be ashamed suddenly. 
 
 V. 2. Though man's malice scourges David, he looks forth- 
 with up to the Hand in heaven, without whose permission no hand 
 on earth dares stir. He inquires into the last reason of his visita- 
 tion, and refuses not to acknowledge his tribulation as the well- 
 deserved judgment of God. He prays not for the removal of the 
 chastising rod, but only that God would not apply it in his anger, 
 and vouchsafe to him the assurance of his reconciliation. (Cf. 
 Ps. xxxviii. 1 ; Jer. x. 24.) As applicable to all psalms of 
 complaint, we should bear in mind the following fact. Those holy 
 men, feeling the hand of the Lord resting upon them, deemed the 
 displeasure of God as the bitterest drop in their cup of sorrow. 
 Thus David prays, (Ps. xxv. 17, 18,) "The troubles of my heart 
 are enlarged; bring thou me out of my distresses. Look upon 
 mine affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sin." Thus the 
 sons of Korah sing at a time of national calamity, " Wilt thou be 
 angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all gen- 
 erations?" (Ps. Ixxxv. 6; Cf. Notes to Ps. xxxviii. 26.) How 
 far remote from such wholesome humiliation is the mass of man- 
 kind, who curse and swear at man, or even, should they ultimately 
 trace back their misfortune to the Hand in heaven, blaspheme God 
 instead of accusing themselves. 
 
 V. 3, 4. Deep and especially lasting agony of mind cannot 
 but undermine the physical frame. Hence David laments that 
 because his soul is sore vexed to its foundation, his bones, the 
 foundations of the material body, are equally vexed and shaken. 
 But as God often desires things to reach a climax like this, David 
 represents the extremity of his sorrow as a motive that God would 
 
PSALM VII. 77 
 
 not delay his mercy any longer. We may infer frem the expres- 
 sion, "0 Lord, how long?" that he had already spent years of 
 misery. Those who have been disciplined in the school of sorrow 
 will confess that it is not so much the greatness of misery as its 
 continuous duration which undermines body and soul. History 
 shows us David, not as effeminately soft, but as a hero who braved 
 many a fierce battle. Is it likely that he should break out into 
 unbounded lamentation at transient and light afflictions ? 
 
 F. 5, 6. If God be our God, we anticipate to receive at his 
 hands peace and happiness. Hence the sufferer considers God as 
 having entirely deserted him: he cries therefore, " Return, O 
 Lord !" But he asserts no claim, not even in his great tribula- 
 tions, but simply prays to God for deliverance, and that for his 
 mercies' sake. He regards the praise of God as constituting the 
 real business of his life; he praised him in the day of affliction, 
 how great will his glory be after his deliverance. He is con- 
 vinced that a life thus spent in childlike, happy gratitude, is a 
 sweet savour to God, and asks therefore, "In the grave, who shall 
 give thee thanks?" 
 
 V. 7, 8. Trouble disturbed his peace by day, grief by night. 
 How intense must have been his affliction, who as a tender boy 
 slew a Goliath with his sling, and as a man wept for nights toge- 
 ther ! Tears had deprived his eyes of vision they had grown dim, 
 as in old age. How vehement the flow of sorrow that could draw 
 streams of tears. He says that he is troubled everywhere for his 
 persecutors gave him no rest; and history shows that even where 
 he deemed himself secure among his friends, e. g. at Kagilah and 
 Siph, fear and covetousness turned his friends into traitors. 
 
 V. 9 11. When God is not a mere thought without and above 
 us, but dwells essentially in our hearts, we are sure of the blessing, 
 that while we are perse veringly struggling in prayer to hear the 
 Divine, "Amen." How marvellous a change 1 A minute ago he 
 lay in the abyss of despair, now he has scaled the heavens. He 
 knows that his prayer is heard, and the eye of faith, to which the 
 invisible becomes visible, beholds all his enemies put to flight. He 
 beholds them suddenly put to shame, for God renders it manifest 
 to his children that it is his aid, by sending it unawares. 
 
 PSALM VII. 
 
 A PSALM of complaint of David, belonging to the period of his 
 flight. Yerse 5 refers to the magnanimity he exhibited in sparing 
 his persecutor, whom God had delivered into his hands, and stop- 
 ping the hand of vengeful Abishai. (1 Sam. xxvi. 9.) It was said 
 
 7* 
 
78 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 in the introduction to Psalm v. that the members of the tribe of 
 Saul the Benjaminite, were the chief accusers of the son of Jesse. 
 They accused him who had said in the hour of temptation, "The 
 Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the 
 Lord's anointed/' (1 Sam. xxvi. 11,) of aiming at the crown and 
 life of the king. In fact, David in his after-interview with Saul 
 told him, that the accusations of hostile men had mainly brought 
 about his proscription. (1 Sam. xxvi. 19.) Their hatred of David's 
 piety, their envy at his former greatness, no less than the covetous- 
 ness which made them court the favour and gifts of Saul, and 
 lastly, their jealousy of tribe against the scion of the house of 
 Judah, combined in stirring them to continuous hostilities against 
 the innocent man. 
 
 David turning him from his persecutors to God Almighty, asserts 
 the glory of a good conscience, (v. 2 6.) Dismayed at the injus- 
 tice and malice suffered to exist in this world, the sceptre of which 
 is swayed by a holy God, who has no pleasure in iniquity, he raises 
 an affecting cry for help, invoking Divine righteousness to dispose 
 of mundane affairs, (v. 7 10.) Soothing his soul, aod calming his 
 mind, he declares (however much human pusillanimity may differ 
 from him) that the judgments of God are daily being repeated, and 
 that his lingering with their execution arises mainly from his desire 
 to wait for the repentance of men, (v. 11 14.) His eye then looks 
 into the future, and he beholds with certainty, that the hardened 
 offender who refuses to repent, will eventually become his own 
 judge and executor, (v. 15 18.) 
 
 1 A COMPLAINT of David, which he sang unto the 
 jLL LORD, concerning the words of Cush the Benjaminite. 
 
 2 LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust : 
 
 Save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me : 
 
 3 Lest they tear my soul like a lion, 
 
 Rending it in pieces, while there is not a deliverer. 
 
 4 LORD my God, if I have done this; 
 If there be iniquity in my hands ; 
 
 5 If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with 
 
 me; 
 
 (Yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine 
 enemy :) 
 
 6 Let the enemy persecute my soul and take it; 
 Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, 
 And lay mine honour in the dust. Selah. 
 
 7 Arise, LORD, in thine anger, 
 
 Lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies : 
 And awake for me, thou, who hast ordained judgment. 
 
PSALM VII. 79 
 
 8 So shall the congregation of the people compass thee 
 
 about : 
 (Then) over them return thou on high. 
 
 9 The LORD shall judge the people : 
 
 Judge me, LORD, according to my righteousness, 
 And according to mine integrity that is in me. 
 
 10 Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end ! 
 But establish the just: 
 
 For the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins. 
 
 11 My defence is of God, 
 
 Which saveth the upright in heart, 
 
 12 God is a righteous judge, 
 
 And God is angry with the wicked every day. 
 
 13 If he (Saul) turn not, He hath whetted his sword ; 
 He hath bent his bow, and made it ready. 
 
 14 He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death ; 
 He hath made his arrows flaming. 
 
 15 Behold he (the persecutor) travaileth with iniquity, 
 And hath conceived mischief, 
 
 And brought forth falsehood. 
 
 16 He made a pit, and digged it, 
 
 And is fallen into the ditch which he made. 
 
 17 His mischief shall return upon his own head, 
 
 And his violent dealing shall come down upon his own 
 pate. 
 
 18 I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness, 
 And will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high. 
 
 V. 2. Stepping into the presence of God, in the language of 
 complaint, David's heart appears to have lost its hold; but it is 
 only appearance, for he at once declares himself to be one of those 
 who spread their complaints before God in faith and confidence. 
 
 V. 3 6. He is so conscious of his innocence that he ventures 
 to challenge Divine judgments, should the accusations of his ene- 
 mies prove just. "If I have done this" (without particularly spe- 
 cifying the accusation, for it had spread through all the country, 
 and the thousands of Saul's pursuing hosts were so many accusers 
 charging him with conspiracy,) " If there be iniquity in my hands," 
 says he, similar to his expressions in his interview with Saul, 
 " wherefore doth my Lord thus pursue after his servant ? for what 
 have I done? or what evil is in mine hand?" (1 Sam. xxvi. 18,) 
 Christians find it no easy task to repress the flame of anger at 
 unjust accusations, and to quench the rising passion, lest they 
 should render evil for evil. But David achieved greater things 
 
80 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 in rendering good to those who without cause were his enemies, 
 When the passionate Abishai turned his spear against Saul, David 
 held him back, lest the anointed of God should fall by an assas- 
 sin's hand. It is not with a desire to appear meritorious before 
 God that he refers to that magnanimous deed, he rather reminds 
 God and himself of the justice of his cause, for confidence in 
 prayer is necessarily increased by the consciousness that we appear 
 before our holy God in a just cause and with a clear conscience. 
 
 F. 7 9. Though refraining to be the judge of his own affairs, 
 and well remembering the words of the Lord, "Vengeance is mine, 
 I will recompense/' he deemed it proper to invite him to action 
 who has undertaken the work of recompense on earth; thus he said 
 to Saul, " The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord 
 avenge me of thee ; but mine hand shall not be upon thee." (1 Sam. 
 xxiv. 12.) Anxious to show that he desires not the gratification 
 of personal revenge, but that God should assert his dignity as the 
 judge of the world, he calls upon God to institute a judgment on 
 all nations and their iniquities, only hoping that his own cause 
 might be regarded as one of the innumerable ones which the right- 
 eous Judge could not suffer to remain unpunished. Most of us 
 almost entirely forget, on witnessing the countless transgressions 
 of law which daily transpire within our sight, that they are all 
 recorded in the memory of the righteous Judge of the world. But 
 David sees with his mind's eye how that Judge who forgets no 
 sins, save those which he forgives on the condition of faith and 
 repentance, comes down from heaven, mounts the tribunal, collects 
 the world before it, gives sentence in a moment, and reascends to 
 heaven. Although appearances go in a thousand instances against 
 that faith, we dare not doubt the possibility of its being at any 
 given moment evidenced as a fact. 
 
 V. 10. He raises that petition which flows from every Chris- 
 tian heart on reading in the Lord's prayer the words, "Deliver us 
 from evil/' Such desires are not vain imaginings. The very fact 
 that they may so powerfully well forth from pious hearts, is an evi- 
 dence that at some future period they will meet their fulfilment. 
 
 F. 11 14. David is none of those pious dreamers, who, lost 
 in their contemplation as to what God may do in heaven and here- 
 after, forget what he is daily doing on earth within the sight of all. 
 He perceives that His sword is whetted already, that His bow is 
 bent, and that the arrow lingers on the string simply because the 
 long-suffering of God is as great as his justice, and because he is 
 waiting even for the repentance of a Saul. Instruments of death 
 and flaming arrows point to the custom of the ancients, who hav- 
 ing enveloped their arrows in combustible matter, lighted and then 
 sent them off". 
 
 F. 15 17. David equally perceives that God is not obliged to 
 send down from heaven the rods to chastise, and flaming arrows to 
 
PSALM VIII. 81 
 
 destroy the wicked, but that they are everywhere present on earth. 
 In innumerable instances the wicked prepare their own scourge in 
 their wickedness, and perish by their own iniquities; as Luther 
 says, "Whence could God get ropes enough to hang every thief, if 
 they did not do it themselves?" and as the Prophet says, "The 
 strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they 
 shall both burn together, and none shall quench them." (Isaiah 
 i. 31.) 
 
 F. 18. The manner of his concluding shows the truthfulness 
 of his beginning the psalm with " Lord my God, in thee do I 
 put my trust;" for ice repeatedly forget to thank God after, David 
 thanks God before, the reception of benefits, singing praise to the 
 name of the Most High ; while the present furnishes him only with 
 themes of complaint. 
 
 PSALM VIII. 
 
 A PSALM of praise, like Psalm iv. composed at night, and equally 
 sublime, calm, and solemn. The solemn peace and brightness of 
 an eastern nocturnal sky seem to be shed on it. David may have 
 composed it when he was feeding his father Jesse's sheep on the 
 plains of Bethlehem. (1 Sam. xvii. 15.) 
 
 The fundamental idea of this beautiful psalm is the glory of God 
 on earth, as it appears to man, the noblest of his earthly creatures. 
 The eyes of the Psalmist repose at night upon the infinite starry 
 heavens : the more he is lost in the contemplation of their glory, 
 and the more he considers that glory shed there in such lavish 
 majesty, as to render it hardly credible that there should have 
 remained any for the earth, the greater is his astonishment when 
 reverting his look he meets the same revelation of Divine majesty 
 on earth. He beholds it in the noblest of God's creatures in 
 man, and that in his earliest development in the faltering accents 
 of sucklings, (v. 3.) The dominion of the Spirit makes itself 
 known in the faculty of speech; herein man resembles God; and 
 makes him the priest and king of nature, the head of the visible 
 creation, (v. 4 9.) 
 
 1 fPO the chief Musician, to the tune of Gath, A Psalm 
 JL of David. 
 
 2 LORD our Lord, 
 
 How excellent is thy name in all the earth ! 
 Who hast set thy glory above the heavens. 
 
82 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 3 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings 
 
 Hast thou ordained strength (prepared for thyself an 
 
 army)^ 
 
 Because of thine enemies, 
 That thou mightest still the enemy and the adversary. 
 
 4 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, 
 The moon and the stars, which thou hast prepared ; 
 
 5 What is man, that thou art mindful of him ? 
 And the son of man, that thou visitest him ? 
 
 6 For thou hast made him a little lower than God, 
 And hast crowned him with glory and honour. 
 
 7 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of 
 
 thy hands ; 
 Thou hast put all things under his feet : 
 
 8 All sheep and oxen, 
 
 Yea, and the beasts of the field ; 
 
 9 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, 
 
 And whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 
 10 LORD our Lord, 
 
 How excellent is thy name in all the earth ! 
 
 V. 2. We see the Psalmist, lost in the contemplation of the 
 brilliancy of the skies, which seems to eclipse everything else, turn 
 back to the earth and himself. Some in gazing upon the splen- 
 dour of the heavens forget the glories of earth, and others absorbed 
 in the glory of earth have no eyes for the majesty of heaven. 
 David adopts the proper course, in using the infinity of heaven as 
 a means of expressing with deeper humility his gratitude to God 
 for what he possesses on earth. Had he felt inclined to speak of 
 the glories of the earth, he might have referred to the immeasura- 
 ble deep, to the heads of the everlasting hills, to the wonders 
 above and the wonders below, to leviathan in the waters and the 
 unicorn in the desert. (Job xxxix. xli.) If he had enumerated 
 all these, he would still have omitted that handiwork of God, 
 wherein the brightest effulgency of his glory is to be found man 
 created in the image of God. 
 
 V. 3. He regards man from his tender infancy, and from the 
 first traces of awakening mind. The strength which God has pre- 
 pared for himself out of the mouth of babes we cannot refer to any- 
 thing characteristic of infancy except the faculty of speech : it is 
 no objection to this view that "babes and sucklings" are men- 
 tioned; for the word in the original for "babes," describes those 
 that are able to walk, (see Lam. i. 5,) and Hebrew mothers used 
 to suckle their infants down to their third year. The Psalmist, 
 therefore, though naming sucklings, may nevertheless think of 
 
PSALM VIII. 83 
 
 their faculty of speech. That faculty of speech, which indicates 
 the existence of mind in even the tender age of childhood (not to 
 make mention of other marvels belonging to the world of children,) 
 is a veritable army of God against his adversaries, against those 
 that would deprive him of the glory which is his due. The 
 Psalmist seems to have chosen his justification of God against his 
 adversaries from the marvels of infant age, because, as nature and 
 history combine to show, Divine omnipotence takes a peculiar 
 delight to confound his enemies by the instrumentality of the weak 
 and unseemly. Our Lord cited this very expression of the 
 Psalmist, when the high priests and scribes were displeased with 
 tine children, crying in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of 
 David:" and when they said, " Hearest thou what these say?" 
 Jesus replied, "Yea, have ye never read, out of the mouth of 
 babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" (Matt. xxi. 16.) 
 As though he had said, Has not Divine omnipotence always held 
 the little ones and the unseemly, worthy of the dignity to herald 
 forth and testify to kis glory, when the great ones of the earth 
 have arrogantly despised it ? 
 
 F. 4 6. The silence of the Psalmist about the noblest lumi- 
 nary of heaven the sun reference being made to the moon and 
 the stars only, has led to the just inference that he composed this 
 psalm at night. The transparent clearness of the eastern nocturnal 
 sky, and the splendour of its stars, are far superior to ours. He 
 calls the heavens " the work of God's fingers," to designate it as a 
 work of art immeasurably beyond any work of art prepared by 
 human fingers. It is said in the book of Job (xxxvi. 29, xxxviii. 
 33,) " Can any understand the spreading of the clouds, or the 
 noise of his tabernacle?" " Knowest thou the ordinances of 
 heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? He 
 then speaks of the rulers of night the moon and the stars, which 
 certainly impress us with a more profound sense of the majesty of 
 God than the sun himself, seeing that they spread away on the 
 illimitable expanse of heaven, and enter into distances more remote 
 than human eye can scan. "Lift up your eyes on high, and 
 behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host 
 by number : he calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his 
 might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth." (Isaiah 
 xl. 26.) 
 
 V. 5 7. If such riches of splendour and majesty are shed on 
 the heavens above till lost in infinity, who would expect to find 
 the same glorious God on earth? We must not suffer our eyes to 
 get so dazzled with the splendours aloft, that we become insensible 
 to the recognition of the mercy and glory of God, with which his 
 paths on earth are overflowing. Would God be as great as he is, 
 if he were only great in the heights but not in the depths in the 
 great but not in the small ? He has created man in his image on 
 
84 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 earth ; how then can that earth be mean over which He has placed 
 his image as king and ruler ? David alludes to the ancient record 
 which says, " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness : 
 and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth." When 
 at the close of the sixth day the earth stood arrayed in her spring 
 garments, swelling with riches on her surface and in her depths, 
 with flocks on her plains, beasts in her forests, birds in the air, 
 fish in the waters, the treasury of metals in her bowels, standing 
 like a temple waiting for its priest God created man and insti- 
 tuted him priest in that temple. The word of God gave existence 
 to everything else; but into man he breathed his Spirit, and made 
 him by the light of his reason and the holiness of his will hi? rep- 
 resentative before his other creatures on earth. While others get 
 conscious of this dignity in pride and haughtiness, David, lost in 
 meek admiration, adores his Lord. 
 
 F. 8, 9. This king of the earth enters his realm as weak, as 
 naked, and helpless as any other creature, <id is not adult man, 
 externally considered, the most defenceless of creatures? The lion 
 has his tooth, the crocodile its coat of mail, the birds their wings, 
 the fish their fins; but which is mac's weapon for attack, which his 
 shield for defence? The Spirit from God: therefore all must 
 obey him. The cattle on the pastures, wild beasts roaming the 
 forest, birds flyi-ng below the expanse of heaven, fish swimming in 
 the depths of the sea, they all must obey him man is their lord 
 and king. Aye, if our hearts were in that condition and relation 
 to God, in which fchey ought to be, (the relation of feudal lord and 
 feudal servant,) every new victory which we gain over surround- 
 ing nature, every sacrifice offered to us by the animal or vegetable 
 kingdoms, by the depths of the sea or the entrails of mountains, 
 and which subserve to our nourishment or clothing, the produce of 
 art or the inquiries of science, would elicit psalms of gratitude and 
 praise from our hearts. Is not our outward helplessness and indi- 
 gence by the side of our inward strength and riches, a powerful 
 admonition that these goods are the gifts of Divine munificence ? 
 But elated by arrogance the feudal servant has rebelled against his 
 feudal lord. We ought to consider ourselves servants, but rise as 
 independent lords of creation; we ought to be the priests of God, 
 re-offering to him, and using for his glory, whatsoever his creation 
 has provided for us, but have become idolaters, worshipping the 
 idols of our own selves. It is one of the effects of that rebellion, 
 that our royal sceptre became broken, and that only a fragment of 
 it remains in our hands. Although a great portion of creation 
 yields even now to the inquiries, and is submissive to the will of 
 man, our present knowledge and power are but poor fragments of 
 the glory which we were originally destined to enjoy. Though by 
 the aid of multiform art and means we succeed in the subjugation 
 
PSALM IX. 85 
 
 of a portion of nature, we cannot but feel how remote is our 
 dominion from that of which it is said, " He spake and it was 
 done, he commanded and it stood fast." The presentiment of 
 such a dominion has again been experienced since the time when 
 we beheld the perfect image of God on earth, who by the simple 
 act of his holy will could quench disease, sway his sceptre over 
 death, command the storm, and walk on the waves of the deep. 
 The Son, who alone is free indeed, can make us free too. (John 
 viii. 36.) This is the reason why this passage, that " All things 
 are put under his feet," is applied in the New Testament to him, 
 in whom God and man were manifested in perfect unity. (1 Cor. 
 xv. 27.) 
 
 V. 10. The Psalmist concludes with the same exulting praise 
 with which he began; and on comparing the conclusion with the 
 beginning we find, that David mainly contemplated the celebration 
 of the glory of God on earth. 
 
 PSALM IX. 
 
 
 A PSALM of thanksgiving, followed by new complaint. So in 
 Psalm xxxi. 8, 9, complaint is preceded by joyous hope and (v. 15) 
 again succeeded by resignation, (cf. Ps. xl.) Transitions of this 
 kind will not surprise those who are familiar with the ways of our 
 inner life and experienced in the school of prayer. The heart of 
 man is in hours of tribulation like the pendulum of a clock, which 
 oscillates from the right to the left now from God, then to him; 
 or like a wave now rising, now falling, now elevated by hope, 
 now crushed by despair. The history of David yields incidents 
 which may more clearly explain the triumph in the first part, and 
 the complaint and supplication in the second part, of this psalm. 
 When David had led his armies victoriously against the kings of 
 Syria in the north, and extended the boundaries of his dominion, 
 the Bedouin tribes of the Edomites embraced the opportunity to 
 invade the land destitute of troops from the south. That event 
 also occasioned the composition of Psalm Ix. We shall show in 
 the introduction to that psalm, that that event must have been 
 very disastrous and perilous to David's kingdom, as the hostile 
 army might have reached the capital after a march of two or three 
 days. Assuming the composition of the psalm to have taken place 
 at that crisis, both the triumph at the beginning and the complaint 
 and supplications towards the end are sufficiently explained. Diffi- 
 culties arise, however, from Psalm x. which in many points, chiefly 
 towards the close ; so strongly resembles Psalm ix. that it might 
 8 
 
86 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 almost be regarded (especially because it has no title,) as a con- 
 tinuation of the latter, or at least be referred to the same period 
 and the same author. But it seems less admissible to refer 
 Psalm x. to the oppression of the country by the invading hosts of 
 the Edomites, because it seems rather to speak of anarchy among 
 the inhabitants themselves : again it seems hardly credible that if 
 such a state of things really ever existed during the reign of David, 
 the same king who (Ps. ci. 3 5) so emphatically declares his 
 administration of justice, should instead of wielding the sword of 
 justice, nevertheless have indulged in complaints like those in 
 Psalm x. It will be seen in the introduction to Psalm x. that 
 those difficulties may be overcome, and paying special regard to 
 Ps. x. 16, it will after all be the best plan to refer Psalm x. to 
 the same event. 
 
 The one experience of God's victorious aid against his enemies, 
 which David celebrates (v. 2 7,) causes him, like a pious man, to 
 revert to the everlasting truth, that ttfe Lord rules the world in 
 righteousness, (v. 8 13.) Strengthened by this thought, he prays 
 the more trustfully, that the Governor of the world would, under 
 the present national calamity, protect the rights of the oppressed, 
 lest impotent man should deem himself stronger than Him who 
 has declared himself as the Refuge of Israel. 
 
 1 rPO the chief Musician to the tune, "Death to the son/' 
 JL A Psalm of David. 
 
 2 I will praise thee, Lord, with my whole heart ; 
 I will show forth all thy marvellous works. 
 
 3 I will be glad and rejoice in thee : 
 
 I will sing praise to thy name, thou Most High, 
 
 4 Because mine enemies are turned back, 
 And did fall and perish at thy presence. 
 
 5 For thou hast maintained my right and my cause ; 
 Thou satest in the throne judging right. 
 
 6 Thou hast rebuked the heathen, 
 Thou hast destroyed the wicked, 
 
 Thou hast put out their name for ever and ever. 
 
 7 The destructions of the enemy are come to a perpetual end : 
 And thou hast destroyed their cities ; 
 
 Their (the enemies') memorial is perished with them. 
 
 8 But the LORD shall endure for ever : 
 
 He hath prepared his throne for judgment. 
 
 9 And he shall judge the world in righteousness, 
 
 He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness. 
 10 The LORD also will be a refuge for the poor, 
 A refuge in times of trouble. 
 
PSALM IX. 87 
 
 11 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee. 
 For thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee. 
 
 12 Sing praises to the LORD, which dwelleth in Zion : 
 Declare among the people his doings. 
 
 13 When he maketh inquiry for blood, he remembereth them : 
 He forgetteth not the cry of the humble. 
 
 14 Have mercy upon me, LORD ; 
 
 Consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me. 
 Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death : 
 
 15 That I may show forth all thy praise in the gates of the 
 
 daughter of Zion : 
 I will rejoice in thy salvation. 
 
 16 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made : 
 In the net which they hid is their own foot taken. 
 
 17 The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth : 
 The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. 
 
 Meditation ! Selah. 
 
 18 The wicked shall be turned into Sheol, 
 And all the heathen that forget God. 
 
 19 For the needy shall not alway be forgotten : 
 
 The expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever. 
 
 20 Arise, LORD ; let not man prevail : 
 Let the heathen be judged in thy sight, 
 
 21 Put them in fear, LORD : 
 
 That the heathen may know themselves to be but men. 
 Selah. 
 
 F. 2 4. Whenever the banners of his army wave victoriously, 
 or the frontiers of his empire get extended, David seeks the theme 
 of his praise, not in his own feats of heroism, nor in the strategy 
 and valour of his generals and people, but in Jehovah. He calls 
 the deeds of his God marvellous works. In proportion to the 
 humility of the recipient of Divine favours is his readiness to 
 regard his experiences as marvellous; for he not only sees God in 
 every event, but deems himself utterly unworthy of his blessed 
 experience. The proper way of celebrating our victories is unques- 
 tionably after the manner of David, to triumph and rejoice in God, 
 and to sing praise to the name of the Most High, and not in foolish 
 reliance on our own strength to harden our hearts, or to turn giddy 
 in the boast of our wisdom and resources. 
 
 V. 5 9. While other heroes acknowledge only blind chance 
 as presiding over battle fields, and dispensing victory, David looks 
 upon the scene of contest as a judgment, and beholds hovering 
 above it the judgment-seat of God, on which the Lord of lords is 
 
88 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 enthroned, of whom it is written, " He changeth the times and the 
 seasons : he removeth kings and setteth up kings : he giveth 
 wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know under- 
 standing/' (Daniel ii. 21.) Confidence of this kind will inspire 
 armies and their leaders with courage, if conscious that they fight 
 for a just cause, and consider the battle-field as the judgment-seat 
 of the Euler of the world. Though God sometimes permits the 
 just cause to succumh, and the unjust to triumph in the scene of 
 action, such victories are only transient; and if but the holy flame, 
 lighted by the consciousness of a just cause, do not expire in the 
 hearts of the conquered, are sure to issue in the final subjugation 
 of unjust powers. Nay, the transient defeats of those engaged in 
 a just combat, will from the nature of the case, become the means 
 of fanning their courage and daring to a brighter flame, and then 
 adduce final victory. The foe had but lately celebrated his triumphs, 
 and filled the cities and the country with his triumphal shouts. 
 Now the cities lie in ruins, the mouth of the haughty silenced in 
 death; and the Lord has shown that however arrogant may be the 
 bearing of man, no human power can ever push him from his 
 throne. Hence David's faith infers, from this single act of God's 
 judgment, that, however much human circumstances may give way 
 and the righteous be crushed under foot, the Lord will continue to 
 judge the world in righteousness, while it shall last. This single 
 assistance of God in the past, is to David a gate through which he 
 passes with intrepid confidence to spread before the Lord his com- 
 plaints in present affliction. 
 
 F. 10, 11. The victorious king knew himself but recently rich 
 and mighty, but aware that the Lord loves to humble the lofty, he 
 did not triumph without fear: now knowing himself poor and 
 oppressed, he is of good courage, aware that the Lord loves to 
 glorify himself in their seeking him, as he well knew from his own 
 experience. 
 
 F. 12, 13. Praise for past mercies blends with that of hope for 
 the future. He feels sure that God, who has called himself a God 
 " of great faithfulness," will not at that time become untrue to his 
 name, provided the poor seek not within themselves for refuge, but 
 show by crying to Heaven that their strength is of God. He not 
 only calls upon himself, but, because he prays for a national cause, 
 upon all the people, to celebrate the praises of God for his past and 
 future mercies. 
 
 F. 14, 15. Prayer succeeds his praise. He prays in faith who 
 calls God, "Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death." 
 That name, if it is not quoted from books, but learnt in the school 
 of life, and actually confirmed by multiform experience, will be like 
 a rock, on which the man of prayer may take his stand, and raised 
 above every earthly source of doubt, know that he is more near to 
 

 PSALM X, 89 
 
 heaven. He is none of those who pray in distress only, but omit 
 to pray after help has come : no, David prays for help, that he may 
 show forth the praise of God in louder and more joyous strains, 
 in the gates of the daughter of Zion, viz. in those gatherings and 
 assemblies which used to be held at the city-gates. 
 
 F. 16, 17. Faith translates the future into the present: the eye 
 of faith sees the work as already accomplished. They have dug 
 pits. The proposal is man's, the disposal God's. His judgments 
 which are daily transpiring within our sight, but are noticed by the 
 eye of faith alone, show that the wicked is snared in the work of 
 his own hands, and caught in the net which he had set for others. 
 This is a passage, at the performance of which song ceased, and a 
 musical interlude took place to facilitate the meditation which is 
 expressly solicited. (Cf. ad. Ps. iii. 6.) 
 
 V. 18, 19. The Psalmist soars from the separate judgment of 
 the heathen, who had attacked the possession of God, because they 
 had forgotten him, to the hope of that time when all their attacks 
 shall be confounded, and the hope of the afflicted saints become 
 visibly manifest. (Cf. ad. Ps. vii. 10.) 
 
 V. 20, 21. David invokes the mighty arm of God to arise, that 
 the heathen may know the God of Israel, and the false delusion be 
 destroyed that any mortal can oppose and prevail against him. 
 Indeed, not only the heathen, but we all, require the occasional 
 powerful manifestation of the arm of God, (for, though servants, 
 we are given to the delusion that we are lords,) that if we refuse 
 to get softened by his love, he humble us by his terrors. 
 
 PSALM X. 
 
 WE stated in the introduction to Psalm ix. that the connection of 
 the two psalms favours the view which refers this Psalm to the 
 period when the Edomites invaded the country then stripped of 
 troops. We may infer from the customs of the Edomite Bedouins, 
 that previous to their collecting and advancing a large army, sepa- 
 rate hordes had invaded the southern districts, and rapaciously 
 spread themselves. We learn from the historic records, that after 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, and the abduction of the greater 
 portion of its inhabitants, the hostile neighbouring nations invaded 
 the deserted country, and Psalm Ixxiv. 20 says, that the whole 
 country was filled with dens of robbers. A similar condition may 
 have ensued from the invasion of the Edomites in the southern 
 districts, for some time had necessarily to elapse before the army, 
 8* 
 
90 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 which David had sent from Syria, headed by Joab and Abishai, 
 could reach the spot. The Wicked are indeed described in terms 
 which would better apply to ungodly Israelites, but the heathen 
 are similarly spoken of in Psalms Ixxiv. 10, Ixxix. 10, xciv. 7, and 
 it was but natural that the humiliation of the nation which so boldly 
 boasted of the protection of their God, should pour the contempt 
 of the heathen on him. (Isaiah xxxvii. 33.) The wicked are said 
 (v. 7) to have done much mischief with their tongues, which cannot 
 well apply to hostile troops. Supposing the country as occupied 
 for some time by the Edomite Bedouins, it is a fair question whe- 
 ther their intercourse with the oppressed people might not have led 
 to cursing and fraud, deceit and overbearing threats; as e.g. Isaiah 
 describes the Jews complaining against Moab : " We have heard of 
 the pride of Moab, he is very proud : even of his haughtiness, and 
 his pride, and his wrath." (Isaiah xvi. 6.) The rapacity which 
 despises God, and makes its lust (arrogance) its God, described in 
 verses 3, 4, has a complete parallel in what Habakuk says of the 
 rapacity of the Chaldeans: "They take up all of them with the 
 angle, they catch them in their net and gather them in their drag; 
 therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice unto 
 their net, and burn incense unto their drag : because by them their 
 portion is fat and their meat plenteous. Shall they therefore empty 
 their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?" (Hab. i. 
 15 17.) Verse 8 needs not be taken literally, as it may be 
 regarded as a figure taken from a robber; but if the Psalm refers 
 to the invasions of the Edomites, it is strikingly illustrated by 
 enemies, who promiscuously pitched their Bedouin tents, to carry 
 on from there their depredations.* 
 
 The psalm begins in sorrowful strains, invoking the manifesta- 
 tion of Divine justice, because the rapacious foe makes himself 
 equal to God and heeds not his judgments, (v. 1 6.) David 
 separately describes the violence of the oppressors as seen in their 
 speech and works, and states that the delay of punishment ren- 
 dered their obduracy the more confirmed, as his reasons for evoking 
 the righteousness of God, (v. 7 11,) and bases thereon his appeal 
 to the Ruler of the world, (v. 12, 13,) but forthwith gathers such 
 strength of confidence, that he proclaims with undoubting cer- 
 tainty, that the Lord will also at this time show that he is the 
 King of Israel, (v. 1418.) 
 
 * See Morgenland and Abendland, Stuttg. 1841, vol. ii. p. 305, which 
 mentions robberies on the way to Jericho, stating, "That here more than 
 anywhere else cruelties have been committed, is owing to the vicinity of 
 the savage Bedouins, who pitch their moveable camps to the right of this 
 road along the Dead Sea, and plunder travellers as opportunities present 
 themselves." The Edomites took this identical road from the south along 
 the Dead Sea. Cf. Introd. to Ps. Ix. and Note (*) of Introd. to Ps. Ixxxiii. 
 
PSALM X. 91 
 
 1 TT7HY standest thou afar off, LORD? 
 
 VV Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? 
 
 2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor : 
 They (the poor) are taken in the devices that they (the 
 
 wicked) have imagined. 
 
 3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, 
 
 The covetous blesseth it (his desire,) and contemneth 
 the LORD. 
 
 4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, thinks 
 
 Grod will not punish. 
 All his thoughts are, " There is no God." 
 
 5 His ways are always prosperous, 
 
 Thy judgments are far above out of his sight : 
 As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. 
 
 6 He hath said in his heart, " I shall not be moved: 
 For I shall never be in adversity. 5 * 
 
 7 His mouth is full of cursing and oppression and fraud : 
 His tongue worketh mischief and iniquity. 
 
 8 He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages : 
 In the secret places doth he murder the innocent : 
 His eyes are privily set against the poor. 
 
 9 He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den : 
 He lieth in wait to catch the poor : 
 
 He doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. 
 
 10 He croucheth, an^humbleth (or "stoopeth down") him- 
 
 self, 
 That the poor may fall by his strong ones (claws.) 
 
 11 He hath said in his heart, "God hath forgotten: 
 He hideth his face, he will never see it." 
 
 12 Arise, LORD ; God, lift up thine hand : 
 Forget not the afflicted. 
 
 13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God ? 
 
 He hath said in his heart, "Thou wilt not require it." 
 
 14 Thou hast seen it; 
 
 For thou beholdest mischief and spite ; thou markest it 
 
 on thine hand : 
 
 The poor committeth himself unto thee ; 
 Thou art the helper of the fatherless. 
 
 15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man : 
 Seek out his wickedness till thou find none. 
 
 16 The LORD is King for ever and ever : 
 The heathen are perished out of his land. 
 
92 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 17 LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the afflicted, 
 Thou wilt strengthen their heart, 
 
 Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear : 
 
 18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed. 
 
 That man, who is of the earth, may no more resist thee. 
 
 F. 1. We are prone, when misfortune and helplessness oppress 
 us, to regard God as standing afar off, because goodness and power 
 belong to his being; nor unjustly so, for however much the pre- 
 sence of God within us may strengthen our hearts in desperate 
 circumstances, the existence of outward trouble is always a sign 
 that our unity with God is not yet completely established nor mani- 
 fested in its last effects, which, however, can never take place on 
 earth. 
 
 V. 2, 3. Where wickedness has led to victory and proud lust 
 gained its end, is it matter of surprise that they who already are at 
 open rebellion with God make their own pride their god, and pay 
 to it the sacrifices which rightfully belong to the Ruler of the 
 world? It becomes thus manifest that the work of the wicked 
 cannot well prosper without leading to the idolatry of sin and the 
 contempt of God. David feels himself justified to call the Almighty 
 to action. 
 
 'V. 4. Though gross offenders do not always verbally deny the 
 existence of God, such denial is virtually involved in the disbelief 
 of God's punitive justice. To believe in the God of heaven above 
 and not to be afraid of his judgment to come, does it signify any- 
 thing else than the denial of the very attribute which causes the 
 pious to bend their knees before him ? If God were really confined 
 to heaven, as the wicked says in Job xxii. 18, 14, "How doth 
 God know? can he judge through the dark cloud? Thick clouds 
 are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the 
 circuit of heaven;" who would feel inclined to pray to so Epicu- 
 rean a God, and pay to him the sacrifices of obedience and thanks- 
 giving? 
 
 F. 5, 6. It is true, indeed, that in isolated instances, at least, 
 the judgments of God keep for a long time remote from the 
 wicked : hence the arrogance of his appearance and the delusion of 
 his security for the future. God, as is here stated, often suffers the 
 works of the wicked to prosper for a long time, but he suffers it 
 solely that the fall from his height be the more terrific, and he 
 share the fate of Nebuchadnezzar, in whose fall the people thus 
 rejoiced: "How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, Son of the 
 Morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst 
 weaken the nations!" (Isaiah xiv. 12.) 
 
 F. 7 11. The Psalmist now details the violence of the enemy. 
 His aim is to assure the hearts of the pious that the display of 
 
PSALM XI. 93 
 
 God's power will eventually take place. He describes the haughty 
 derisions and threats of the tongue, which victorious and oppres- 
 sive nations are wont to utter against the oppressed pictures them 
 as robbers hid in the lurking places of the villages, and as lions 
 lying in ambush in their dens to catch unwary passers by. They 
 would refrain from such conduct if they did believe in a God who 
 will never forsake his children, and whose eyes are always looking 
 upon the earth. (Psalm xi. 4.) 
 
 F. 12 14. David now calls upon God to bring their contemp- 
 tuous speech to nought and their untruth to light : he asserts his 
 remoteness from such unbelief, and his conviction that every 
 oppression of the afflicted is actually inscribed upon the hand of 
 God. He derives great consolation from the very attributes by 
 which God has described himself, as when e. g. he calls himself 
 " The helper of the fatherless." The poor may confidently commit 
 their cause to him, not only as their wisest Advocate, but as their 
 Father ', as the Father of all who have no father on earth. 
 
 F. 15, 16. Animated by this faith he confidently asserts that the 
 arm of strength, now defyingly set against heaven, will be broken. 
 He finds not sufficient protection and consolation for his people in 
 his own royal dignity, but the Lord is king for ever and ever. He 
 knows how to preserve his faithful subjects and to expel the hea- 
 then. 
 
 F. 17, 18. Behold! how his faith is changed into sight. His 
 prayer is heard, God himself has put the holy assurance into his 
 heart. The Lord in heaven will know how to justify his glory 
 against the resistance of man whose home is the earth. 
 
 PSALM XI. 
 
 A PSALM of comfort, replete with filial trust, and clearly referring 
 to the period of Saul's persecution. David sought and found an 
 asylum for a great portion of these years of anguish in the high 
 mountains of the wilderness of Judah not far from the Dead Sea. 
 As he said to Saul: "The king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, 
 as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains." Saul had 
 pursued him to the rocks of the wild goats, i. e. to the highest 
 peaks, scaled by the wild goats only. It accords with history that 
 David's enemies address him (v. 1) in the plural, for during the 
 latter period of his flight he had six hundred faithful companions 
 about him. 
 
 The beginning of the psalm seems to indicate that it was com- 
 posed when David was on the plains, perhaps in some town or 
 
94 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 other, and that this speech proceeded either from well-meaning 
 friends or mocking enemies. Indignantly but in childlike confi- 
 dence, and sure of his eternal foundation in God, he rebuts the 
 supposition of a cowardly flight, though he confesses that the 
 wicked invoke heaven and earth against the upright, and that his 
 own resources are exhausted, (v. 1 3.) But he is sure that the 
 Holy Lord sits enthroned as a spectator of these earthly tumults 
 and commotions, who, though satisfied with looking on for a time, 
 will eventually reveal himself as judge, (v. 4 7.) 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 2 In the LORD put I my trust : 
 
 How say ye to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your moun- 
 tain ?" 
 
 3 For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, 
 
 They make ready their arrow upon the string, 
 That they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. 
 
 4 If the foundations be destroyed, 
 What can the righteous do? 
 
 5 The LORD is in his holy temple, 
 The LORD'S throne is in heaven: 
 
 His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. 
 
 6 The LORD trieth the righteous : 
 
 But the wicked, and him that loveth. violence, his soul 
 hateth. 
 
 7 Upon the wicked he shall rain lightnings, 
 Fire and brimstone, and a burning tempest : 
 This shall be the portion of their cup. 
 
 8 For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness ; 
 The upright behold his countenance. 
 
 V. 2. The well-meant counsel of unbelieving friends and the 
 knowledge of the wicked, that should they succeed to deprive 
 David of his God, he himself would be delivered into their hand, 
 seemed to combine to drive him into despair. Firm of heart he 
 heads this psalm with the confession, " In the Lord put I my trust," 
 repelling thereby every temptation of hesitancy and fear. He had 
 frequently sought an asylum on mountain heights, in caverns and 
 chasms, against the pursuing storm. But here he means to say, 
 that though having used every earthly means for safety, his confi- 
 dence was not based on them, but on the eternal foundation of 
 God in heaven. The wicked seek to grieve him by saying, that 
 in the time of danger he knew no better refuge than that of the 
 hunted bird, which tremblingly flies from the reach of man into 
 
PSALM XI. 95 
 
 the thicket of mountain woods. His bold faith despises his 
 despisers and reproaches them for only knowing earthly mountains, 
 but being utterly ignorant of the Rock of Ages, of that God "who 
 was before the mountains were brought forth, or the earth and the 
 world had been formed, even from everlasting to everlasting/' 
 (Psalm xc. 1.) He says that he used to to confide in the Eternal 
 Rock even in those days, when he sought for shelter and refuge 
 on the mountains of earth. For the godly in the use of earthly 
 means ever remember that " except the Lord build the house, they 
 labour in vain who build it; except the Lord keep the city, the 
 watchman waketh but in vain." (Psalm cxxvii. 1.) In tilling the 
 soil they say, "The one planteth, the other watereth, but God 
 giveth the increase." (1 Cor. iii. 7.) Engaging in battle they cry, 
 "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon," (Judges vii. 20,) for 
 whenever Gideon is placed before the sword of the Lord, idolatry 
 will ensue and the blessing vanish. 
 
 V. 8, 4. David shows why a feeble heart may' be filled with 
 hesitancy. The malice of the wicked not only stalks about in 
 broad noonday, but they shoot their arrows at the godly in secret 
 and in the dark. Thus the persecutions of the suspicious king 
 equally embraced stratagem and open violence. David complains 
 that the foundations are destroyed, for no prerogative whether 
 Divine or human could any longer secure him against enmity unto 
 death, (i. e. of Saul.) When even kings disregard justice and 
 use the power conferred upon them not for the quenching but for 
 the practice of tyranny, what is the righteous to do? 
 
 V. 5. Because all the resources of David are gone, and there 
 is no helper for him on earth, he directs his looks to heaven. It 
 is the chief evidence of our faith, to look to heaven for the light 
 of salvation when darkness surrounds us here on earth. This 
 seems easy; for almost all confess to the belief that God governs 
 the world; but when hard and unheard of afflictions scatter uni- 
 versal gloom around us, very few indeed are able to retain this 
 faith as the anchor of their soul. David's faith is immovable : he 
 knows that, however much justice, faith, and confidence may seem 
 to have fled from the earth, he continues holy and unchangeable 
 on his heavenly throne, who is able in a moment to reverse the 
 most desperate condition. The Governor of the world apparently 
 suffers "men to be as the creeping things that have no ruler over 
 them," (Hab. i. 14,) but David is sure that the Keeper of Israel 
 neither sleepeth nor slumbereth", that his eyes behold and his eye- 
 lids try the children of men, and that he will never suffer the 
 eternal boundaries which separate right from wrong to be effaced. 
 
 V. 6 8. Now if the eternal boundaries of right and wrong can 
 never be effaced from the memory of God, and if according to this 
 eternal law he distinguishes between the godly and the ungodly, 
 (though many days may pass before him in whose sight a day is as 
 
96 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 a thousand years, till liis hour come,) that hour cannot fail to 
 strike nor that day to dawn, when he will effectively manifest that 
 distinction to the world. Sodom and Gomorrah with their fire 
 and brimstone, the burnt shores of the Dead Sea, as David beheld 
 them from the mountainous heights of the wilderness of Judah, 
 along with numberless separate judgments of God as recorded in 
 history, furnish the proofs that the final judgment of evil cannot fail 
 to come. Because God is righteous and loveth righteousness, says 
 David, therefore the day must come, when the upright shall behold 
 his countenance for ever. 
 
 PSALM XII. 
 
 A PSALM of complaint, composed during the residence of David at 
 the court of Saul, when haughty hypocrites threatened to destroy 
 him by their tongue. (Of. Introd. to Ps. v. and lii.) 
 
 He begins with a piteous complaint of the insolence of his many 
 opponents, (v. 2 5.) Because to him applies what Paul said 
 concerning himself, "We are perplexed, but not in despair," 
 (2 Cor. iv. 8,) and because in spite of the storm which troubles 
 his soul, faith has cast her anchor into firm ground, the prophetic 
 word of God rises in his mind, that there is still help with the 
 Lord, (v. 6.) Based on this word of God, the truth of which can 
 never fail, his soul gets calmed, and he concludes in the enjoy- 
 ment of profound peace, (v. 8, 9.) 
 
 1 n^O the chief Musician, to the eighth tune, A Psalm 
 JL of David. 
 
 2 Help, LORD ; for the godly man ceaseth ; 
 
 For the faithful fail from among the children of men. 
 
 3 They speak vanity every one with his neighbour : 
 
 With flattering lips and with a double heart do they 
 speak. 
 
 4 The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, 
 And the tongue that speaketh proud things : 
 
 5 Who have said, " With our tongue we will prevail ; 
 Our lips are our own: who .is lord over us?" 
 
 6 " For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the 
 
 needy, 
 
 Now will I arise," saith the LORD ; 
 " I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him." 
 
PSALM XII. 97 
 
 7 The words of the LORD are pure words : 
 
 As silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. 
 
 8 Thou shalt keep them, LOUD, 
 
 Thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever. 
 
 9 The wicked walk on every side, 
 
 Like the rising of a tempest upon the sons of men. 
 
 F. 2. God never permits the entire cessation of the godly, 
 though the masses of men serve Moloch, Baal", or other idols. 
 There remained, even in those days, a small band of the people of 
 G-od. There were in Israel, Samuel and his school of prophets 
 faithful to God, with whom David took refuge when Saul's tyranny 
 began to persecute him unto death. (1 Sam. xix. 18.) Among the 
 corrupt courtiers themselves a faithful Jonathan was found. The 
 small company of the godly seems almost to vanish among the 
 multitude of the carelesss and impious especially when they get 
 afraid. It happened thus to David, though he was not altogether 
 devoid of courage, for he states in this passage and verses 6. 8, 
 that there was still a remnant left. Our experience, alas, shows 
 only too often how prone we are in desponding moods to doubt the 
 existence of any good men on earth, and to opine that the Church 
 has never seen worse times than ours. The example of David 
 should teach us, on the one hand, that true faith, just because its 
 glory is so difficult to be recognized by the carnal eye, has never 
 been more general; and on the other, that it (true faith) is so 
 indispensable to men, that the generation of the godly has never 
 wholly ceased. 
 
 V. 3 5. Realizing the condition of the people, with whom he 
 daily commingles, he denounces their hypocrisy and pride. Where 
 calumny leads to gain, as was the case at the court of Saul (who 
 incited it by promised reward, (1 Sam. xxii. 8,) wicked confidence 
 in a lying tongue is sure to exist in those who owe their prosperity 
 to their wickedness, and who, like the robber in Ps. x. 3, ascribe 
 that praise to their tongue, which belongs to God. Their unbe- 
 lieving delusion emboldens them to assert that they are masters of 
 their destiny and to disclaim the authority of the Lord in heaven. 
 Could a pious man like David be the spectator of such atrocious 
 conduct without supplicating Heaven, that, however much the 
 godly might be willing to suffer their honour to be laid low, the 
 Lord of heaven and earth would not suffer them with impunity to 
 contemn his? 
 
 V. 6. Hark! the Divine voice rises from the lowest chamber of 
 his heart. Faith, nourished by the word of God, is indeed an 
 oracle within us, whose voice we hear in every gloomy hour. The 
 oracle proclaims to him that though God protract his vengeance, 
 his help will not fail for ever. 
 
 9 
 
98 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 V. 7. He seeks to strengthen himself with his consciousness of 
 the infallibility of the words of the Lord, by comparing them with 
 purest silver that has been purified seven times. The peculiar 
 emphasis with which David speaks of the infallibility of this Divine 
 sentence, renders it probable that we must regard it less as an 
 intuition of his faith, as they o.ccur elsewhere, (Ps. xii. 7; 
 xxxvi. 1; xlix. 5; 1. 7, etc.') than the prophetic utterance of Sam- 
 uel, Gad, or some other prophet. We feel the blessings of Scrip- 
 ture passages thus inscribed upon the heart, when in hours of 
 affliction and just at the right moment, faith brings them to our 
 remembrance, and applies them to the confirmation of our hopes. 
 David, as a prophet, had undoubtedly experienced the utterance 
 of the Divine voice in his own heart; but history adduces likewise 
 instances which show that he derived edification from the words of 
 the prophets. The oracle from which/ he gathers confidence 
 (Ps. Ix. 8. 10) seems to point to a similar prophetic communica- 
 tion. 
 
 V. 8. Prayer, inspired by the Spirit of God, always compre- 
 hends universal need in the particular, and the pious, in praying 
 for himself, actually prays for all the pious. So David, as the 
 representative of the small band of the godly in his time, virtually 
 prays for all godly men. He conceives of the human race as 
 divided into two camps and two generations, the one of whom fight 
 in huge masses and great strength, while the other, though small 
 in number and with little strength of their own, advance under 
 the banner of that God who has promised victory to the righteous 
 cause. David denies not that the generation of the children of 
 this world enjoy for the time being many victories and great 
 power, and even owns that their machinations and oppressions fre- 
 quently cause the earth to shake as from an earthquake, and so to 
 perplex the godly that he hardly knows where to establish himself. 
 But he suffers not these thoughts to weaken his courage, provided 
 the gate of prayer be open, and the small and oppressed band be 
 sure that the Mighty God is on their side. 
 
 PSALM XIII. 
 
 A PSALM of complaint, composed when persecution had raged for 
 a long time, troubled him, and made his enemy more overbearing. 
 Hence we infer that it belongs to the latter period of Saul's perse- 
 cution. 
 
 The complaint of this psalm is one of gentle grief, expressing 
 the fear that the enemy will after all prevail, (v. 2 5.) But the 
 
PSALM XIII. 99 
 
 mercy of a God, who is ready to help, once more consoles David, 
 who, animated by this hope, publishes his praise, (v. 7.) 
 
 1 HMO the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 2 How long wilt thou forget me, LORD ? 
 
 For ever ? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me ? 
 
 3 How long shall I grieve in my soul, 
 Having sorrow in my heart daily ? 
 
 . How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? 
 
 4 Consider and hear me, LORD, my God: 
 Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death ; 
 
 5 Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him ; 
 And those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved* 
 
 6 But I have trusted in thy mercy ; 
 
 My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. 
 
 7 I will sing unto the LORD, 
 
 Because he hath dealt bountifully with me. 
 
 V. 2, 3. The anxious question, "How long?" occurs four times; 
 an anxious question, familiar to those who have like David been 
 trained in the school of sorrows. If, on the one hand, they complain 
 that the continuance of suffering involves a greater trial than its 
 strength, they confess on the other, that continued heat is needed to 
 show whether the plant of faith be deeply rooted. David complains 
 that God has forgotten him; this does not imply that faith was 
 really extinct in his soul (for the end of this Psalm shows his 
 childlike hope in God.) Just as nobody can prevent the birds 
 from flying to his head, though he may prevent their building a 
 nest, so probably no pious man could ever forbid tempting thoughts 
 to pass transiently through his soul in gloomy hours, when all 
 signs of the nearness of God were absent. David at once corrects 
 his expression by stating that the Lord God is still with him, and 
 only laments his inability to see his joy-giving countenance. Four 
 times he raises his "How long?" We ought to know the Divine 
 reply. It ever runs: " Till thou art matured in the heat of tribu- 
 lation." 
 
 V. 4, 5. His eye is already dim like his who hastens to the 
 grave. (Cf. Psalm vi. 8.) He prays that he may not sleep the 
 sleep of death. He cannot brook the thought that his enemy has 
 triumphed over him. If it had been simply his own cause he 
 could have borne the sting thereof; when, however, as in the case 
 of David, who was anointed as king over Israel, and in this respect 
 hopefully thought of by the small band of his pious cotemporaries, 
 (1 Sam. xxv. 30,) the truth of God itself is at stake, and the deri- 
 sion of the wicked applies less to the servant of God than to the 
 
100 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Lord himself, its sting is unbearable to a pious heart. However, 
 as the godly live in a world where evil of every kind is met by the 
 long suffering of God, and as experience shows many a sanguinary 
 Saul transformed into a Paul, it is proper that they should strengthen 
 themselves against such trials of their faith, and admire the long- 
 suffering of God, who in many instances permits men to despise 
 with impunity his honour, simply because his love will give the 
 tare the chance of becoming good wheat. It was doubtless no 
 small trial of faith when Stephen, the first martyr, expired beneath 
 the falling stones, and Saul witnessed it with triumphant joy. 
 There were probably even at that time some Christians present who, 
 in their zeal for the honour of God, were praying for a flash of 
 lightning to descend on the head of Saul ! But none of them guessed 
 what the Lord had decreed in his eternal counsel. 
 
 V. 6, 7. We notice again that David founds his hope neither 
 on his merits nor on his just cause, "But I have trusted in THY 
 MERCY." Oh, that the struggling mind would not in its afflictions 
 part with the consciousness, that a God merciful and ready to 
 help is the witness of all the spectacles of our conflicts, who in per- 
 mitting them to continue can only have GRACIOUS motives. Thun- 
 der and lightning are as yet round David while he sings his songs 
 of praise ; as Luther has observed, " While Satan raged around 
 him he used quietly to sing his little psalm/' 
 
 PSALM XIV. 
 
 A PSALM of complaint. It is doubtful whether v. 7 originally 
 belongs to it. It was probably added as a liturgical expression 
 during the Babylonish captivity, to which it would admirably 
 apply, (Psalm liii. with some variations, still more expressly 
 applies to it.) This seems to have been the case with Psalms xxv. 
 xxxiv. li. Ixix. The final words of the Lord's prayer, according to 
 Matthew, are a similar liturgical addition. If v. 7 belong not to 
 this psalm, we may unhesitatingly assume that David composed it 
 at the court of Saul, under circumstances similar to Psalm xii. 
 Cf. v. 1.) But if it do, then David composed it as king, for Zion 
 is mentioned as the sanctuary of God. In the latter case David, 
 who calls himself, 2 Sam. xxiii. 1, "The sweet Psalmist of 
 Israel," may have composed it for the use of the people at worship. 
 There is certainly this objection. In Psalm ci. which all ascribe 
 to David, he says, with a royal sense of justice, "He that worketh 
 deceit shall not dwell within my house : he that telleth lies shall 
 not tarry in my sight. I will early destroy all the wicked of the 
 land, that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the 
 
PSALM XIV. 
 
 101 
 
 Lord/' (Psalm cvii. 7, 8.) Now is it probable that during the 
 reign of so determined a ruler, prevalence of the ungodly over the 
 people of God could have been affirmed in such unqualified terms ? 
 But parcenetic songs at public worship, do not so much describe 
 the actual condition, as they represent the general relations of the 
 wicked to the godly, which renders this objection by no means 
 decisive. Since, however, the final verses of several psalms appear 
 to belong to a later period, and there are other peculiarities,* we in- 
 cline to the view which regards v. 7 as a liturgical addition. David 
 states here, as in Psalm xii., that the mass of men have forsaken 
 God, and resist his true servants, (v. 1 3.) He prophecies in the 
 name of God their certain destruction, (v. 4, 5,) and confidently 
 assures them of their inability to prevail, (v. 6.) 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 2 The fool hath said in his heart, " There is no God." 
 They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, 
 There is none that doeth good. 
 
 3 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children 
 
 of men, 
 
 To see if there were many that did understand, and ask 
 for God. 
 
 4 They are all gone aside, 
 
 They are all together become filthy: 
 There is none that doeth good, no, not one. 
 
 5 "Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? 
 Who eat up my people as they eat bread, 
 
 And call not upon the LORD." 
 
 6 There were they in great fear : 
 
 For God is in the generation of the righteous. 
 
 7 Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, 
 But the LORD is his refuge. 
 
 8 Oh, that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion ! 
 When the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, 
 Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. 
 
 V. 2. The Psalmist inquires for the reason why the great mass 
 of mankind will not refrain from the commission of sin by legal 
 restraints or humane considerations. He accounts for it from the 
 fact that they are devoid of faith in the living God, who manifests 
 
 * We allude e. g. to the circumstance that in Psalms xxv. and xxxiv. the 
 respective verses successively occur in the order of the Hebrew alphabet, 
 and that just the final verses of both psalms go beyond the last letter of 
 the alphabet. 
 9* 
 
102 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 himself by his judgments; for were it otherwise, though legal 
 restraints and humane considerations cannot effect it, yet would 
 their fear of his holy eye, and his unfailing punishments, set a 
 boundary to their recklessness. Inveterate blindness alone can 
 deny the existence of God, when nature and history utter their 
 myriads of voices to the contrary. Hence David, and the Scrip- 
 tures in general, call the denier of God a fool and a madman, 
 while v. 2 assigns wisdom only to such who make the fear of the 
 righteous Judge the law of their lives. 
 
 F. 3, 4. Since the unspeakable long-suffering of God permits 
 months and years to elapse before we read in the destinies of man 
 indisputable marks that our holy God lays human affairs to heart, 
 David represents God as having for a time refrained from taking 
 any interest in the world, and as awakening suddenly to the exer- 
 cise of his office. Just as if the humble followers of God (v. 5) 
 were lost to his sight, and his eyes were only resting on evil doers. 
 Their sin is described in gradation. They do not understand, 
 because a true knowledge of things divine forms the basis of pro- 
 per conduct towards God; they do not ask for God, because they 
 only care for him whose clear and sure insight apprehends him as 
 their highest possession; they are gone aside, because he who cares 
 not for him is sure to get estranged from him, and to deviate from 
 his paths; and they are all together become filthy, (i. e. worthless,) 
 because man's proper strength and fitness for virtue must well from 
 the fountain of communion with God. 
 
 V. 5, 6. As in Psalm xii. 6, the believing Psalmist heard the 
 Divine oracle in the midst of earthly confusion, so here. So Micah, 
 the prophet, addresses the heads of Jacob, and the princes of the 
 house of Israel, who know not God, "Who also eat the flesh of my 
 people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their 
 bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within 
 the caldron/' (Micah iii. 3.) The people of God are, as shows v. 5, 
 and other passages, (Ps. xxiv. 6, Ixxii. 2, Ixxiii. 1, cxii. 2; Ezek. 
 xiii. 9; Jer. vii. 23, xxiv. 7,) the generation of the righteous, the 
 true Jacob and Israel of God. (Psalm Ixxiii. 1.) When the Lord, 
 whom they thought firm asleep, shall raise his voice, and they shall 
 perceive that he is awake, and that he will in his own time show 
 his royal sceptre to pride-intoxicated man, then shall terror over- 
 take them, and they shall find that they did not strive against man 
 but against God. 
 
 F. 7. David now addresses the haughty mockers of the simpli- 
 city of the faithful, who in their misery quietly wait for God as 
 their Saviour. The carnal mind thinks nothing more foolish than 
 to see the pious, while the feet of wicked men crush them with 
 impunity, with a calmness amounting to utter disregard, continue 
 in the praise of God. Would faith be needed if the heavens were 
 to rend ; and the hand of God to appear every time when the godly 
 
PSALM XV. 103 
 
 endure violence? Hence the godly acquiesce in the delays of God 
 and continue to confide in him, though their own counsel come a 
 thousand times to nought. They know that the cessation of human 
 counsel gives free scope to the Divine. 
 
 F. 8. The expression, "Bringeth back the captivity of his 
 people," does not by any means always refer to real captivity, of 
 which Psalm Ixxxv. furnishes the clearest proof. Then after deli- 
 verance from the exile, the bringing of the captivity is implored; 
 many passages show this more or less clearly. (Psalm cxlvi. 7; 
 Job xliii. 10; Ezek. xvi. 53, cf. 55; Zeph. iii. 20; Jer. xxx. 18; 
 Hos. vi. 1. 11.) Even Deut. xxx. 3, is to some extent a figurative 
 expression, which serves to denote the turning of all misery. Since 
 the people of God have above been described as the generation of 
 the righteous, these words may convey the sense that David implores 
 the aid of God for all the righteous in Israel who are afflicted and 
 oppressed, to the end, that the whole nation, restored and renewed 
 in righteousness, might sing praises unto the Lord. But from the 
 similarity of the final verses in other psalms, it is better to regard 
 this last verse as a liturgical addition made during the Babylonish 
 captivity. 
 
 PSALM XV. 
 
 THIS festive song was occasioned by David's removing the ark 
 of the covenant from Kirjath Jearim (according to Eusebius between 
 five and six miles from Jerusalem,) where, since its return from the 
 land of the Philistines, it had been for upwards of sixty years, in 
 solemn procession to Zion the seat of royalty. (2 Sam. vi.; 1 Chron. 
 xiii. 14.) The rashness of Uzzah had, as is well known, for a time 
 prevented the execution of the design, for David, terror-struck, 
 took the ark to the house of Obed-edom the Levite, which was by 
 the roadside. But three months later its execution took place. 
 The solemn procession was headed by priests playing the cornet, 
 followed by other priests, the heads of the tribes, military dignitaries, 
 and numerous Levites playing harps, psalteries, timbrels, cornets, 
 and cymbals. David in a linen ephod, and dancing to the rhythm 
 of the music, led the choir : it thus moved solemnly from the house 
 of Obed-edom, which seems to have been near to Jerusalem, to the 
 capital. It was a day of universal joy and gratitude: peace offer- 
 ings and burnt offerings were sacrificed on the altars. David 
 blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts; and to increase 
 the flow of popular joy, he distributed meat and drink among them. 
 Psalm xxiv. was sung on the same occasion, during the entrance 
 
104 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 of the procession into the gates of the royal castle; the present 
 Psalm may have been sung either on the road or in the interior of 
 the castle. This was a rare occasion for David, " the sweet Psalmist 
 of Israel/' (2 Sam. xxiii. 1,) to serve the congregation of God with 
 his gifts of song : so Moses accompanied the setting forward and 
 resting of the ark (Num. x. 85, 36) with pious exclamations. The 
 antiquity of this Psalm and of Psalm xxiv. is apparent from their 
 being quoted in Isaiah xxxiii. 14 16. 
 
 At first the ark of the covenant was inseparable from the taber- 
 nacle; but from the time it fell into the hands of the Philistines 
 it returned no more to its place, i. e. Shiloh, where the tabernacle 
 was at that time, but remained at Kirjath Jearim, in the house of 
 a Levite. David built a tabernacle for it on Mount Zion, while 
 the tabernacle with the holy vessels, and especially the altar of 
 burnt offering, remained at Gibeon (according to Josephus about 
 five or six miles from Jerusalem.) In the days of t Saul the ark 
 was at Nob, the city of the priests, close to Jerusalem (see ad. Ps. 
 v. 8;) but since, at Saul's cruel bidding, the priests were killed 
 and the city destroyed, (1 Sam. xxii. 18, 19,) it was probably then 
 removed to Gibeon. On comparing together the different passages 
 in the historic books, (2 Sam. vi. 17; 1 Kings iii. 15; 2 Chron. i. 
 4 6; 1 Chron. xvi.,) it will be seen that both the tabernacle for 
 the ark on Zion and the tabernacle of the covenant had their priests, 
 Levites, and porters, and that services were held in both places, 
 though, according to 1 Chron. xvi. (xvii.) 40. (cf. 4, 5.) xxi. (xxii.) 
 28 30, it would seem chiefly before the tabernacle of the covenant. 
 Respecting the question which of the two tabernacles is meant in 
 those Psalms of David which speak of the tabernacle or the house 
 of God and its services, we must presume that the Israelites, and 
 therefore the Psalmist, of that time regarded the two and their 
 services as one whole, as did the ancient churches regarding their 
 baptistries; for the tabernacle on Zion represented the Holiest of 
 Holies, and on that account was held in greater reverence.* The 
 reason why David did not remove the tabernacle along with the 
 ark to Zion is, probably, that the many journeys had rendered the 
 already five hundred years' old tabernacle unfit for use, as indeed 
 after the erection of the Temple it was deposited as a holy relic 
 only. As appears more clearly from Psalm xxiv. this Psalm was 
 probably also a choral song. Perhaps the precentor or David 
 himself sung the question in v. 2 solo, and the chorus of the Levites 
 
 * As an evidence of this view may be adduced 1 Chron. vi. (vii.) 31; 
 (where Luther renders, "When the ark rested," instead of, "After the 
 ark had come to rest.") It is clear that the term " The house of the Lord" 
 includes the place where the ark was, but also the tabernacle, as shows 
 v. 32. Hence v. 39 mentions Asaph as one of the officers of the house who, 
 according to chap. xvi. ministered at the tabernacle. Michselis adopts the 
 Bame view. 
 
PSALM XV. 105 
 
 gave the reply. The fundamental thought of Psalm xv. is this: 
 He only, who shows his piety not only in the temple but in his life, 
 is worthy of the prerogative of dwelling in the house of God. As it 
 is the object of this psalm to show the indissoluble connection 
 between the adoration of God in the temple and its evidences in 
 life, it cannot seem strange that it insists upon our duties towards 
 man. After the positive reply in v. 3, that neither sacrifice nor 
 praise in the temple are well-pleasing to God, if unaccompanied by 
 obedience to his commandments, so the following verses show as it 
 were in a mirror some of the grosser violations of duty towards man, 
 the perpetrators of which are absolutely excluded from communion 
 with God. 
 
 1 A PSALM of David. 
 
 A 
 
 2 LORD, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle? 
 Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? 
 
 3 HE THAT WALKETH UPRIGHTLY, AND WORKETH RIGHT- 
 
 EOUSNESS, 
 AND SPEAKETH THE TRUTH FROM HIS HEART. 
 
 4 He that backbiteth not with his tongue, 
 Nor doeth evil to his neighbour, 
 
 Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. 
 
 5 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned ; 
 But he honoureth them that fear the LORD. 
 
 He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. 
 
 6 He that putteth not out his money to usury, 
 Nor taketh reward against the innocent. 
 
 He that doeth these things shall never be moved. 
 
 V. 2. The sojourning and dwelling in the house of God cannot 
 mean a real continuous abode. Familiarity with the house of God, 
 where the pious has spent the most hallowed hours of his life, and 
 most emphatically realized the presence of God, is to the Psalmist 
 the emblem of familiarity with God in general and the blessings 
 flowing from it. Hence to be separated from the tabernacle or the 
 house of God, meant with him to be excluded from the true congre- 
 gation of Israel, from communion with the Lord and the preroga- 
 tives connected therewith. This follows unmistakeably from the 
 the conclusion of this psalm, and also from Psalms xxiii. 6; 
 xxvii. 5; xxxi. 21; xxxvi. 9; Ixi. 5; and Ixv. 5. How strongly 
 David's heart and its holiest emotions were attached to the house 
 of God, since the ark had been firmly established on Zion, may be 
 seen from his longing for the habitation of God in Zion/' as 
 recorded in 2 Sam. xv. 25, (cf. the Hebrew.) Need we surprised 
 
106 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 then if that habitation of God became to him the centre of every 
 mercy? He represents his participation in the adoration of God 
 as a prerogative. This shows that there were some at least in 
 Israel, who deemed the observance of holy rites, the sacrifice and 
 the praise of God not hard duties imposed upon them, but mercies 
 of God. David, however, uses these expressions, because he looked 
 beyond those merely outward acts. He questions God himself, 
 and expects a reply by Divine illumination. 
 
 F. 3. David affirms not, that the observance of holy rites, and 
 the offering of sacrifices, are well-pleasing to God : he, on the con- 
 trary, regards those services as merciful immunities and Divine 
 privileges, shared by those who offer to God the sacrifice of a pure 
 walk and a sincere heart. A walk of this kind we call a sacrifice, 
 because walking in obedience to God's commandments involves 
 the continuous sacrifice of our own will to that of God. There 
 may exist, indeed, an upright walk, a righteousness and a veracity, 
 which, because not flowing from the remembrance of God and the 
 conscious obedience to his holy commandments, establish no claim 
 whatsoever to the blessings conferred upon the children of God. 
 But it is equally certain, that none can claim the title of a child 
 of God, but he who strives to prove his obedience to the will of 
 God, in word and in deed. 
 
 F. 4. David had expressed in one sentence the sum total of 
 what God demands from his genuine followers. The profound 
 delusion of man renders nothing more common than that all of us 
 preserve no small amount of security of conscience, when our 
 duties to man are stated in general terms, e. g. that we are to love 
 our neighbour, not to injure but to aid him. Nor do we attain to 
 a proper sense of our guilt, till the mirror of the Divine command- 
 ments be held before every separate recess of the heart. Hence 
 David rests not satisfied with a general statement of duties, but 
 specifies much prevailing offences, which thousands indulge in, 
 who, with an unruffled conscience, and free from the fear of being 
 regarded as hypocrites, approach the sanctuary of God. He 
 begins with the violation of character, which since our usefulness 
 among men depends on it, must be regarded as a real possession, 
 as the wise man has it, "A good name is rather to be chosen than 
 great riches." (Prov. xxii. 1.) He next refers to every kind of 
 offence against the law of love to our neighbour, and lastly adverts 
 to the expressions of remarkable passion, as evidenced in scorn 
 and abuse. Though thousands of Christians may deem obedience to 
 these commands only a poor criterion of piety, it cannot be denied 
 that hundreds and thousands go Sabbath after Sabbath to the sanc- 
 tuary, professedly for the worship of God, who, were they to test 
 themselves by these, the requirements of God, would be convicted 
 by their own consciences. 
 
 F. 5. Here he asserts a demand, of which the mass of those 
 
PSALM XV. 107 
 
 who lift their hands to God think probably still less than of the for- 
 mer ; viz. that we should form our estimate of human merit only 
 by the standard of Divine law. Can any one, save he who regards 
 and loves God as his highest good, esteem as nothing the splen- 
 dour which great riches and distinction, great talents and other 
 amiable qualities, shed on man, if unaccompanied by the fear of 
 God ? Are there many to be found who can truthfully affirm that 
 they prize godliness as the most precious and valuable tie which 
 links them to man, so that they infinitely prefer the intercourse of 
 devout, plain, and uneducated saints to that of the talented and 
 highly-gifted ungodly? Or, do you find many Christians, who 
 esteem truthfulness towards our neighbour so valuable a possession, 
 that rather than forego it they will suffer injury and loss of every 
 and any kind? As there is nothing more common than to measure 
 the duty of veracity and faithfulness by the standard of profit and 
 loss, he most assuredly has the law of God deeply engraven in 
 his heart, who at the decisive moment of trial is willing rather to 
 part with property, wife, child, or his own life, than to fail in 
 veracity and faithfulness. We may account for the self-delusion 
 of many on this point, who think better of themselves than they 
 ought, from the fact that what they omit to do from fear of secu- 
 lar laws which punish the violation of promise, they fancy to have 
 omitted from reverence for eternal laws. What a flood of faithless 
 actions would rush upon us were secular law to leave the violation 
 of promise as unpunished as it does that of truth for how great is 
 the dominion of untruth in the world ! Who can deny this, since 
 in spite of the rigour of secular law, they are everywhere so uni- 
 versally obtaining? ^ 
 
 V. 6. As the original speaks not of usury but of interest, it 
 might appear that the law had exacted too much; the expression 
 would certainly exclude from the sanctuary of God a countless 
 number of Christians who least expect it. To obviate so hard an 
 opinion, Luther (and E. Y.) preferred the term "usury" as 
 denoting " an extravagant interest" Though the law had alto- 
 gether prohibited the lending on interest, (Exod. xxii. 25; Levit. 
 xxv. 36,) the term "usury" is nevertheless expressive of the spirit 
 of that law. As the manner of money-investment differed in those 
 days from ours, and money used to be lent to the poor and helpless 
 only, the law alludes to the hardheartedness of those who, instead 
 of assisting their neighbour by gifts, even refused to make any 
 advances to him, except on interest. The taking of reward refers 
 primarily to judges, who prefer their own interests to justice; but 
 applies equally to all who, bribed by temporal considerations, pro- 
 tect an unjust cause. "He that doeth these things shall never be 
 moved." These words plainly indicate, that David speaks not of 
 an external participation in the worship of Israel only. This con- 
 clusion reverts to the question in v. 2, viz. " Who is worthy of 
 
108 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 sojourning in the tabernacle of God?" and renders it more evident 
 that the Psalmist meant by dwelling in God's tabernacle something 
 more than a mere participation in external worship. Since this 
 verse, as well as Psalm i. 5, contains a profound anticipation of 
 the most remote future, we must not be surprised that Jewish and 
 Christian interpreters conclude the psalm to refer from the begin- 
 ning to dwelling in the everlasting habitations. (Luke xvi. 9.) This 
 conclusion is correct, because only those shall share in the com- 
 munion of the kingdom in glory who were no strangers to it on 
 earth, for the path which leads to communion with God both here 
 and there is the same, viz. obedience to the commandments of 
 God, (v. 2.) 
 
 PSALM XVI. 
 
 A SONG of praise of David, replete with the brightest confidence 
 and joy in God, which stretch beyond the grave.* We cannot 
 determine the occasion on which the minstrel became so powerfully 
 conscious of his communion with God. The immortal hopes which 
 David here expressed in a rapturous hour, could not be realized by 
 him before they met their fulfilment in Christ, who is the first-born 
 from the dead, has conquered death, and taken its sting away. 
 (Col. i. 18 ; 1 Cor. xv. 2022. 56, 57; Heb. ii. 14.) Hence the 
 apostles Peter and Paul declare that the Holy Ghost, speaking by 
 the mouth of David, refers in these words to that first-born from 
 the dead who had destroyed the power of death. (Acts ii. 25 81; 
 xiii. 35 37.) We cannot positively infer from verse 1, that this 
 psalm was composed in times of affliction; for a pious man thus 
 commits his ways to God in even the prosperous days of a life 
 which is subject to the alternations of fortune. V. 2 expresses the 
 fundamental thought of the psalm: "God is the highest possession 
 of the pious" Reflecting on this thought, David again sees man- 
 kind divided into two classes those who know that possession, and 
 those from whom it is concealed. He resolves to join the little 
 band of the former, but turns in dismay from the latter, (v. 3, 4.) 
 He is lost in the meditation of the riches and fulness that spring 
 from his communion with God ; he confines himself not to the pre- 
 sent, but expresses his conviction of future prosperity, (v. 6 8.) 
 
 * Ewald: "The bright splendours of sublime peace and the cordial 
 intensity of accomplished experience veils the whole. As there is but one 
 great emotion in the poet's soul, so his song is but one gently flowing 
 stream, without storms or difficult transitions, while the secret flame 
 gradually gains in intensity.'* 
 
PSALM XVI. 109 
 
 At this stage the Spirit of God leads him to the contemplation of 
 that eternal state of things which Christ having rendered possible 
 became first fulfilled in Him. He perceives that saints go through 
 the grave to heaven, the scene of life, of fulness of joy and plea- 
 sures for evermore. 
 
 GOLDEN Psalm (or "a writing") of David. 
 
 Preserve me, God: 
 
 For in thee do I put my trust. 
 
 2 my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my 
 
 Lord: 
 My welfare is nought beyond thee ; 
 
 3 Up ! to the saints that are in the earth, 
 
 And to the glorious ones in whom is all my delight. 
 
 4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after 
 
 another ; 
 
 Their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, 
 Nor take up their names (of the idols) into my lips. 
 
 5 The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of 
 
 my cup : 
 Thou maintainest my lot. 
 
 6 The lines are (or the lot is) fallen unto me pleasantly : 
 Yea, I have a goodly heritage. 
 
 7 I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel : 
 My reins also instruct me in the night seasons. 
 
 8 I have set the LORD always before mine eyes : 
 Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 
 
 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoiceth: 
 My flesh also shall dwell securely. 
 
 10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol: 
 
 Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.* 
 
 11 Thou wilt show me the path of life : 
 In thy presence is fulness of joy; 
 
 At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. 
 
 V. 1. The conviction that God in the most emphatic sense is his 
 God, which David realized more profoundly than ever in this hour 
 
 * Or, "Mine holy ones to see the grave." Translating in the plural 
 makes no change in the sense; for the promise is fulfilled to the holy ones 
 of God through the Holy One of God, who is the first-born from the dead. 
 Translating "to see the grave" (to see corruption) or "decay," makes no 
 material diiference. For David could only in a prophetic sense express 
 the hope of not seeing the grave, i. e. of continuing in death, (Cf. John xi. 
 25, 26,) as it could only be fulfilled to him through Christ. 
 10 
 
110 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 of sublime and blessed experience, leads him to commit himself 
 and all his destinies for ever unto God. We hear no anxious cry 
 for help, no expression "of need to unburden his oppressed heart; 
 but from the happiness and plenitude of the present he looks 
 towards the future. He trusts in the Lord. He trusts in him ; 
 and what kind of trust must have filled in that hour Ms soul who 
 was able to utter the sequel of this psalm ! 
 
 F. 2. There are sometimes epochs in the life of the godly, when 
 moments decide for eternity. David speaks as if in some hour of 
 the past he had for ever made that decision which our Lord 
 demands from his followers, (Matt. vi. 24.) It is indeed not diffi- 
 cult to say that all our welfare is nought beyond God, if it be only 
 the expression of intellectual assent; but if it mean a decision of 
 the will, which once for all spontaneously and unreservedly subjects 
 every and any earthly possessions to the highest of possessions, 
 (i. e. to God,) how small their number who can affirm that they 
 have come to such a decision. But we must assume that even in 
 the case of Old Testament saints, like David and Asaph, (Psalm 
 Ixxiii. 26,) who thus express themselves, it was only on certain 
 days or hours that their soul could in so clear and firm a manner 
 soar to this decision. And why? Because if that decision were 
 immoveably to abide on the heavens of our soul throughout the 
 period of our earthly existence, it would, like a spiritual sun, pierce 
 all our resolves, and completely absorb sin. 
 
 F. 3. Enjoying the delight which the presence of God imparts 
 to his servants, David feels that his faith is not isolated on earth, 
 but that he has gained much from the community of saints, which 
 the Christian language calls "the Church," though the Old Testa- 
 ment designates it as " fas people of God" " the generation of the 
 righteous," "the true Israel of God." (Cf. ad. iii. 9; xiv. 4, 5.) 
 As Isaiah cries, " Up to the law and to the testimony," (Isaiah 
 viii. 20,) so David calls upon his soul to delight in those only who 
 through their communion with God are in communion with him. 
 The very same parties who are called elsewhere "the poor and the 
 needy" (Psalm xii. 6; xiv. 6,) are here described as "the excel- 
 lent," (the glorious ones.) So Peter writes of the disciples of 
 Christ, " If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are 
 ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you." (1 Peter 
 iv. 14.) The addition, " that are in the earth" (i. e. the country 
 of the Philistines,) might be explained from supposing him, dur- 
 ing the composition of this psalm, as an exile from the land of 
 God, perhaps with the Philistines; but it is preferable to under- 
 stand here, as in Psalm ci. 8, "the holy laud," and that David 
 means to comprise in the term all who are promiscuously scattered 
 within the frontiers of Palestine. 
 
 F. 4. Looking at that little band, (Psalm xii. 1,) he cannot 
 forbear mentioning those who choose them other masters. (Exodus 
 
PSALM XVI. Ill 
 
 xx. 3; Isaiah xlii. 8.) David may refer to idolaters only, (compare 
 1 Sam. xxvi. 19, where David said to Saul, "If the children of 
 men have stirred thee up against me, cursed be they before the 
 Lord; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the 
 inheritance of the Lord, (for he had to seek refuge with the Philis- 
 tines,) Baying, Go, serve other gods,") but the antithesis to the 
 truly pious in the land, as well as other passages in which David 
 describes the wicked as idolaters, (Psalm x. 3; xii. 5; lix. 6, etc.) 
 render it probable that he refers to all whose hearts are estranged 
 from God. They may appear happy, and the sight of their pros- 
 perity may cause the pious to stagger. But seasons when all the 
 heaven of God fills the heart that loves God, (and David was then 
 blessed with such a season,) render it very evident that those who 
 are deprived of this can have no satisfaction in their prosperity, 
 that their welfare is trouble, and their joy intense pain. "Many 
 sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he that trusteth in the Lord, 
 mercy shall compass him about." (Psalm xxxii. 10.) To express 
 his thorough detestation of idolaters, he describes them by their 
 most horrible acts the frightful drink offerings mingled with 
 blood, which they sometimes used to present to their idols. (Zech. 
 ix. 7.) He will not even pollute his lips by naming their idols. 
 (Exod. xxiii. 13.) 
 
 V. 5, 6. He shows that those alone are well trained in the 
 school of piety who find their fullest satisfaction in the possession 
 of the only God, and desire nought beyond him, through whom all 
 other earthly possessions can only be truly and satisfactorily 
 enjoyed. For as all the enjoyments of creation, if partaken con- 
 trary to the limits and purposes which God has assigned, and with- 
 out any remembrance of the Giver, are bitter and insipid, so God 
 alone renders the enjoyment of creation pleasant. He regards his 
 happiness in God, not as an act or merit of his own, as if he had 
 sought God, but because God always takes the initiative to benefit 
 even those who have not yet sought him, and offers himself to their 
 choice. Hence David deems it a merciful lot to have been born 
 in Israel, where God has deposited his testimonies, and met him 
 from his earliest childhood. 
 
 V. 7. He thinks not only of outward means of grace, such as 
 those of education, the sanctuary, or the instructions of Samuel 
 and other pious men, but as man is unable to find the living God 
 without the inward guidance of the Holy Spirit in the proper use 
 of the means of grace, he mentions the spiritual counsel and 
 instructions which his reins had imparted to him at night, i. e. 
 according to Old Testament usage, his emotions, his feelings. In 
 the stillness of night, after the bustle and distraction of the day, 
 the monitor from within speaks and points us from time to 
 eternity. 
 
 V. 8. He has set the Lord always before his eyes; in other 
 
112 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 words, he has not suffered his senses to turn to the right or to the 
 left. If the mind's eye be thus firmly set upon the Lord, the 
 experience will not fail, that in him are to be found abundant 
 means of securing temporal and eternal happiness. When men 
 turn to the right and to the left to spy the means of comfort, but 
 are unable to find satisfaction in God, the reason is, that the all- 
 sufliciency of God is revealed to those alone who can muster suffi- 
 cient courage and perseverance, with an undiverted eye, to look 
 at their eternal possession. 
 
 F. 9, 10. Thoughts of immortal bliss are sure to arise in the 
 soul of man, when, like David, full of the fear of God, he finds 
 himself ushered into the Holiest of Holies, in communion with 
 God, and attains to the knowledge that God is his all-sufficient 
 good, in whose possession he may for ever prosper. So the Spirit 
 of God shows to the bard the glorious vistas of eternity which lie 
 open to man, since Christ has conquered death.* He is filled 
 with the hope of salvation. Heart and soul, as the spiritual part 
 of man, are glad and rejoice; but the flesh also shall dwell securely. "j" 
 V. 10 expands this thought. The soul shall not be consigned to 
 Sheol, nor the holy one of God to the grave and to corruption. 
 Not that the holy one of God is to escape death, but as Christ in 
 saying, " Whosoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die/' 
 simply means what is expressed in the preceding verse, " He that 
 believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John xi. 
 25, 26,) so this passage simply means that Sheol is the pathway, 
 and the grave of corruption the gate, to imperishable glory for the 
 children of God. It is said elsewhere, " But God will redeem my 
 soul from the power of Sheol, for he shall receive me." (Psalm xlix. 
 16.) What David expresses by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost 
 has neither been fulfilled in him nor any other saint, since only by 
 the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead were life and 
 immortality brought to light. The Old Testament saints were 
 gathered with the fathers, and perhaps partly translated into a 
 higher sphere of life; but as complete salvation is only to be 
 attained through union with Christ, the indwelling Spirit of whom 
 shall also quicken our newly glorified bodies, (Romans viii. 11,) so 
 the fathers gathered to God had to wait for the advent of Christ, 
 as he said of Abraham himself, that he rejoiced to see his day. 
 (John viii. 56.) Now since the Saviour, the first and only man 
 
 f Ewald: "The steady glow of the sublimest spiritual exclusion and 
 clarity raises the poet far above the future and its threatenings, and he 
 clearly realizes that such a continuance of the spirit in God banishes all 
 fear, whether of bodily pain or of death, but that the body must finally 
 enjoy rest, where true life is found, since deliverance of the soul from the 
 grave must be possible with Him who desires nothing but life." 
 
 f Cf. the antitheses of body and spirit; Isaiah x. 18; Psalm Ixxiii. 26; 
 Job xiv. 22. pp, which Luther translates "will lie," is used Isaiah xxvi. 
 19, Psalm xciv. 17, "of lying in the grave" 
 
PSALM XVII. 113 
 
 who rose from the grave as the conqueror of death, in a condition 
 no longer subject to death, thus became exalted at the right hand 
 of the Father, and since, according to his own statement, the mem- 
 bers shall share in the experience of the Head, " Where I am, 
 there shall my servant be also/' it follows that this prophecy of 
 David shall only be fulfilled in Christ the Head and his members. 
 " It is a faithful saying : For if we be dead with him, we shall also 
 live with him : if we suffer, we shall also reign with him/' (2 Tim. 
 ii. 11, 12.) 
 
 V. 11. He can hardly find words to express the sublimity and 
 loveliness of his final destiny: life and fulness of joy and pleasures 
 for evermore, and that in the presence and at the right hand of 
 God, depicting, as it were, how the rivers of satisfaction and of peace, 
 which even now fill his soul, shall enlarge into a boundless ocean. 
 Similar is the expression of our Lord, that the water which he 
 gives to those who believe in him, shall be in them a well of water 
 springing up into everlasting life. (John iv. 14.) 
 
 PSALM XVII. 
 
 A PSALM of complaint, composed in the time of Saul's persecu- 
 tion, to which an allusion is found in verse 11, where the plural is 
 used with reference to David and his followers. (Cf. ad. Ps. iv. 
 and xi.) The singular in verse 13 probably refers to Saul. 
 
 The Psalmist gathers confidence in prayer from the conscious- 
 ness of his just cause, (v. 1.) He can trustfully expose himself to 
 the judgment of God in the thing of which they accuse him. The 
 word of God is the guiding-star of his ways, which prevents the 
 slipping of his footsteps, (v. 2 5.) Full of a firm trust, he ventures 
 to lay claim to God's special providence, (v. 6 9.) He states to 
 God the zeal and assurance, the pride and unrelenting sanguinary 
 efforts, of his persecutors unto death, (v. 10 12.) The anxiety of 
 his cry for aid is proportioned to the vividness of this description. 
 They are people, whose sole welfare is confined to the things of 
 this world, (v. 13, 14.) David, however, feels himself conscious 
 of the eternal inheritance which the Lord will grant to them who 
 love him, (v. 15.) 
 
 PRAYER of David. 
 
 Hear justice, LORD, 
 Attend unto my cry. 
 
 Give ear unto my prayer, thatgoeth not out of feigned lips. 
 10* 
 
114 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 2 Let my sentence come forth from thy presence ; 
 
 Let thine eyes behold the things that are equal (or "the 
 right.") 
 
 3 Thou hast proved mine heart ; 
 Thou has visited me in the night ; 
 
 Thou hast tried me, and hast found nothing ; 
 
 I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress. 
 
 4 Concerning the works of men, 
 
 By the word of thy lips I have tried the paths of the 
 transgressor.* 
 
 5 Hold up my goings in thy paths, 
 That my footsteps slip not. 
 
 6 I have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, God : 
 Incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech. 
 
 7 Show thy marvellous loving-kindness, 
 
 thou Saviour of those that put their trust in thee, 
 From those that rise up against thy right hand. 
 
 8 Keep me as the apple of the eye, 
 
 Hide me under the shadow of thy wings, 
 
 9 From the wicked that waste me, 
 
 From my deadly enemies, who compass me about. 
 
 10 They are enclosed in their own fat : 
 With their mouth they speak proudly. 
 
 11 They have now compassed us in our steps : 
 
 They have set their eyes bowing down to the earth ; 
 
 12 Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, 
 
 And as it were a young lion sitting in secret places. 
 
 13 Arise, LORD, disappoint him, cast him down : 
 Deliver my soul from the wicked by thy sword: 
 
 14 From men, by thine hand, LORD, 
 
 From men of the world, which have their portion in 
 
 this life, 
 
 And whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure : 
 They satisfy their children, and leave the rest of their 
 
 substance to their babes. 
 
 15 As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness : 
 
 1 shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. 
 
 V. 1. David first expresses in this prayer the righteousness of 
 his cause. Since there is no greater drawback in our approaches to 
 God than an evil conscience, and no prayer rises to Heaven more 
 confidently than that in a righteous cause, we need not wonder at 
 
 * Cf. ID> in Ps. xxxvii. 37, if on be regarded in the Mascul. 
 
PSALM XVII. 115 
 
 David's placing his consciousness of wrongful accusation and per- 
 secution at the head of this prayer to strengthen his faith. It is 
 quite true, that the ungodly may have to glory in a just cause, but 
 since they refuse to own that God governs the world, their thoughts 
 stop at the judgment-seat of their own consciences; and since they 
 cannot call upon God in faith, they carry their troubles rather with 
 grudging pride than with manly perseverance. The righteousness 
 of his cause stimulates David, praying and weeping, earnestly to 
 refer it to Him who rules the world in righteousness. If a wrong- 
 fully accused man were to rest satisfied with the testimony of a 
 good conscience, and were on that account to omit prayer, would 
 he not rob God of his honour, by failing to recommend justice to 
 the Righteous Judge of the world? Aware that a hypocritical 
 mind is with God the most potent destroyer of the power of prayer, 
 David adds that in his prayers, the mouth is the interpreter of an 
 innocent heart. For the nature and groundlessness of the accusa- 
 tions which were brought against him, cf. ad. Ps. v. and Ps. vii. 
 
 F 2, 3. He must have a good conscience who calls the Omni- 
 scient Judge to his aid. David enjoys one. (Cf. Ps. vii. 4 6.) 
 He points to the silent watches of the night, where the Spirit of 
 God had tried his conscience and sifted his thoughts (to hours of 
 such awful solemnity as described in Job iv. 13, etc.*) and his heart 
 was clear of the charges which were brought against him. The 
 historical books contain similar testimonies to the purity of David's 
 conscience. (1 Samuel xxiv. 12; xxvi. 18. 23.) 
 
 V. 4, 5. David's life corresponds, not only in this instance, 
 but throughout, to what Paul in Rom. xii. 2, requires in Christians. 
 He regards the word of God as the law of his own actions, and 
 the standard to which to refer those of others. It is the character- 
 istic of genuine piety peculiarly becoming to Christians, to con- 
 scientiously regard their own and their neighbours' lives in the 
 light, and to judge of them by the standard, of Gods word. Con- 
 siderate conduct like this secures that heavenly wisdom which 
 David enjoyed, and which leads us so to know and pursue the 
 paths of God, that our footsteps glide not. 
 
 F 6 8. David trusts that He who guides the starry host in 
 their course, who has made the seven stars and Orion, (Amos v. 8,) 
 forgets not the lone fugitive on the mountains of Judah. He 
 trusts that he keeps him as the apple of the eye, that he may hide 
 himself under the shadow of his wings as the timid chicken under 
 that of the hen, and with childlike confidence prays for the exhi- 
 bition of the marvellous loving-kindness of God. However foolish 
 prayers like these may seem to those who are devoid of the testi- 
 mony of the love of God in their hearts, they are familiar to us 
 Christians, who know that God has given his only begotten Son to 
 die for us, for we ask in childlike simplicity and trustfulness, 
 " Shall he not with him give us all things?" 
 
116 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 V. 9 14. David states that his persecutors are most deter- 
 minately set upon his destruction; that they try to stop every 
 means of escape; that they are arrogant, secure in their voluptu- 
 ous prosperity, and on that account insensible to humane feelings; 
 that they indulge in proud boasting, (Cf. Job xv. 27; Psalm 
 Ixxiii. 7;) that they are confirmed and sanguinary spoilers, for 
 ever on the scent and pursuit of the fugitives; and (as the history 
 of David amply shows) that they are children of this world, who 
 have not the Lord before them, whose fulness of earthly goods is 
 so great that not only is there enough for their children, but even 
 a portion left for their grandchildren. 
 
 F. 15. Exposed to such persecutors, aiming not only at the 
 earthly possessions but the life of David, he might be thought to 
 be in a darkness from which every ray of hope is excluded. But 
 unenvious of the pleasure of those who fatten on such husks, David 
 glories in the prospect of the eternal joys of the world to come. 
 Wondrously enlightened by the Holy Ghost, he speaks with a 
 clearness which seems possible to Christian minds only, of the glo- 
 ries of heaven, where the struggle with sin shall be changed into 
 perfect righteousness, faith into face-to-face vision, satiation with 
 the divided goods of this life into satiation with the one perfect 
 good, which renders everything besides unnecessary. The expres- 
 sion, "to be satisfied with the likeness of God," has only one paral- 
 lel passage (Num. xii. 8 :) " With him (Moses) will I speak mouth 
 to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the 
 similitude (form) of the Lord shall he behold." The likeness, 
 similitude, and form, are to be understood as defined outlines con- 
 trasted with an indistinct perception. David probably alludes to 
 the passage in Numbers. 
 
 PSALM XVIII. 
 
 THE king, who speaks in this psalm, makes himself known in 
 v. 44. 51. It is David who sings this song of praise to his 
 God, after he had delivered him from all his enemies, therefore 
 from Absalom and Sheba. It was therefore composed during the 
 last years of his reign, when he was upwards of sixty years old, 
 (he lived to the good old age of seventy.) Though old age is 
 somewhat perceptible, there still remain his noble, heroic mind, 
 his fervent faith and glowing love to God, along with the full con- 
 sciousness of a long life, rich in experience and vicissitude. The 
 sacred historian set so important a value on this psalm, as embody- 
 ing the concentrated experience of the great king, that he assigned 
 
PSALM XVIII. 117 
 
 it a place among the historic records, (2 Sam. xxii.) in a form 
 which, owing to verbal tradition and the circulation of some 
 incomplete copies, varies in some respects from that of this psalrn.* 
 The king's deep gratitude, in the retrospect of the guidance of 
 his life, as the fundamental sentiment of this psalm, appears from 
 the accumulation of predicates by which he seeks to exhaust the 
 description of what the Lord has been to him throughout his long 
 life, and to indicate the results of his experience, (v. 2, 3.) He 
 then states the theme of his song; death and destruction have 
 assailed him more than any other, but he has found in a thousand 
 instances that there is a prayer-hearing and answering God, 
 (v. 4 7.) That expression is not sufficiently strong: the signal 
 experiences of his whole life combine into a figure. The earth 
 trembled, the heavens bent, the Lord almost visibly descended in 
 lightnings and tempests, and drew the nigh-drowned David out of 
 great waters, (v. 8 19.) All he has to say is, budlike, com- 
 pressed into this figure. He now separates the leaves. His life 
 has been the theatre of God's punitive justice, (v. 20 28.) His 
 God gave him strength and glorious victory in war, (v. 29 43.) 
 Enemies at home and abroad had to submit: once deeply humili- 
 ated, he is now highly exalted, (v. 44 46.) Feelings excited by 
 an experience of this kind cannot but issue in gratitude and praise 
 to Him who has done such great things. 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant 
 of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words 
 of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him 
 from the hand of all his enemies, and from the 
 hand of Saul : And he said, 
 
 2 I will love thee, LORD, my strength. 
 
 3 LORD, my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; 
 My God, my strength, in whom I will trust ; 
 
 My buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high 
 tower. 
 
 4 I called upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised : 
 And I was delivered from mine enemies. 
 
 5 The billows of death compassed me, 
 
 And the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. 
 
 * We have doubtless an older form of this song in the book of Samuel, 
 which is clear from peculiarities of language ; but its readings are less sat- 
 isfactory, and it appears to owe its origin to verbal tradition, (which is 
 also rendered probable from certain approximations to the common dialect 
 of the people, v. 37. 40. 41. 48.) The text in the Psalms may have been 
 taken from one of the king's own manuscripts, which in linguistic respects 
 was afterwards somewhat modified. 
 
118 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 6 The cords of Sheol compassed me about : 
 The snares of death prevented me. 
 
 7 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto 
 
 my God : 
 
 He heard my voice out of his temple, 
 And my cry before him came into his ears. 
 
 8 Then the earth shook and trembled ; 
 
 The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, 
 Because he was wroth. 
 
 9 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, 
 And devouring fire out of his mouth : 
 Coals were kindled by it. 
 
 10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down : 
 And darkness was under his feet. 
 
 11 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: 
 Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. 
 
 12 He made darkness his secret place ; 
 His pavilion round about him 
 
 Were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. 
 
 13 Out of the brightness, that is before him, passed through 
 
 his thick clouds 
 Hail stones and coals of fire. 
 
 14 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, 
 And the Highest gave his voice 
 
 Hail stones and coals of fire. 
 
 15 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them ; 
 And he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them. 
 
 16 Then the beds of the sea were seen, 
 
 And the foundations of the world were discovered 
 
 At thy rebuke, LORD, 
 
 At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. 
 
 17 He stretched (his arm) from above, he took me, 
 He drew me out of great waters. 
 
 18 He delivered me from my strong enemy, 
 And from them which hated me : 
 Which were too strong for me. 
 
 19 They prevented me in the day of my calamity : 
 But the LORD was my stay. 
 
 20 He brought me forth also into a large place ; 
 He delivered me, because he delighted in me. 
 
 21 The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; 
 According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recom- 
 pensed me. 
 
PSALM XVIII. 119 
 
 22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, 
 
 And have not wickedly departed from my God. 
 
 23 For all his judgments were before me, 
 
 And I did not put away his statutes from me. 
 
 24 I was also upright before him, 
 
 And I kept myself from mine iniquity.* 
 
 25 Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me 
 According to my righteousness, 
 
 According to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight. 
 
 26 With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful ; 
 With an upright man thou wilt show thyself upright ; 
 
 27 With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure ; 
 
 But with the frowardthou wilt sho w thyself froward.f 
 
 28 For thou wilt save the afflicted people ; 
 But wilt bring down high looks. 
 
 29 For thou wilt light my lamp : 
 
 The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness. 
 
 30 For by thee I have run through a troop (or " broken an 
 
 host:") 
 And by my God have I leaped over a wall. 
 
 31 As for God, his way is perfect: 
 
 The word of the LORD is tried (or " refined-pure :") 
 He is a buckler to all those that trust in him ; 
 
 32 For who is God save the LORD? 
 Or who is a rock save our God ? 
 
 33 It is God that girdeth me with strength, 
 And maketh my way perfect. 
 
 34 He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, 
 And setteth me upon my high places. 
 
 35 He teacheth my hands to war, 
 
 So that a bow of steel is bent by mine arms. 
 
 36 Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation : 
 And thy right hand hath holden me up, 
 
 And thy condescension hath made me great. 
 
 37 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, 
 That my feet (lit: " ancles") did not slip. 
 
 38 I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them : 
 Neither did I turn again until they were consumed ; 
 
 * The expression "from mine iniquity" is striking. It might at first 
 sight be regarded as alluding to connate depravity, (Ps. li. 7,) but from 
 comparison with Prov. xx. 9, Ps. xxvi. 1, it seems more natural to explain 
 it "the iniquity to which I feel myself tempted." 
 
 f Or, " With the faithless thou wilt show thyself faithless." 
 
120 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 39 I have wounded them that were not able to rise : 
 They are fallen under my feet. 
 
 40 For thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle 
 Thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against n 
 
 41 Thou hast also given me the necks of mine enemies, 
 That I might destroy them that hate me. 
 
 42 They cried, but there was none to save them : 
 Even unto the LORD, but he answered them not. 
 
 43 Then did I beat them small as the dust before the win 
 I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets. 
 
 44 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of my peop' 
 And thou hast made me the head of the heathen : 
 
 A people whom I have not known serve me. 
 
 45 As soon as they heard of me, they did obey me : 
 
 The sons of the stranger (or "of the strange land") <3 
 flatter me. 
 
 46 The sons of the stranger (or "of the strange land") d 
 
 fade away, 
 And were afraid out of their close places. 
 
 47 The LORD liveth ; and blessed be my Rock ; 
 And let the God of my salvation be exalted. 
 
 48 It is God that avengeth me, 
 
 And subdueth the people under me. 
 
 49 He delivereth me from mine enemies : 
 
 Yea, thouliftest me up above those that rise up against m 
 Thou hast delivered me from the violent man. 
 
 50 Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, LORD, amoi 
 
 the heathen, 
 And sing praises unto thy name. 
 
 51 Great deliverance giveth he to his king, 
 And showeth mercy to his anointed, 
 To David, and to his seed for evermore. 
 
 V. 1. The same inscription, except the words "to the ch 
 musician and "the servant of the Lord," occurs in the copy 
 this psalm in the book of Samuel. It consequently preceded tl 
 psalm at a very remote period, and the historian omitted th< 
 expressions only which were ill-adapted to historical compositi< 
 In all probability it was composed by David himself; its solei 
 poetic expression favours this view: cf. the solemn introductic 
 to the song of Balaam, (Numbers xxiv. 4. 16,) the speeches of t 
 prophets, (Isaiah xiii. 1; Hab. i. 1; Nah. i. 1,) and the psalm 
 Habakkuk. (Hab. iii. 1.) It is by no means strange that Da^ 
 calls himself "the servant of God/ 7 though that appellative occi 
 
PSALM XVIII. 121 
 
 besides only in Psalm xxxvi. 1. The term " servant of God" is 
 used either of any pious man, anxious to make the commandments 
 of God the rule of his life, or of those who are called to specific 
 services of God. In the former sense David calls himself "the 
 servant of God," (Psalm xix. 12. 14,) in the latter he is so called 
 by others. (Psalm Ixxxix. 4. 21.) In the historical books too he 
 calls himself "the servant of God." (2 Sam. vii. 26; xix. 20; 
 xxiii. 1.) The apostles designate themselves in the same manner, 
 as the servants of God. (Titus i. 1; James i. 1.) The expression, 
 "and from the hand of Saul," after mention had been made of his 
 remaining enemies, should be explained by the usage of singling 
 out the chief of a class. 
 
 V. 2, 3. The confession of David's cordial love to God in the 
 beginning of the psalm is very touching, for it represents, as it 
 were, the sum total of his experience. The great mass of men, and 
 kings in particular, remember in the retrospect of a life rich in 
 mercies, the gifts only. David manifests in simple and hearty 
 expressions his consciousness that a life eventful like his, with all 
 its gifts and mercies, is mainly designed to direct his eyes to the 
 Giver of all good. His God is one and all to him : while others 
 yield to the temptation to seek for other helpers besides God, he 
 hardly knows how to find words to express the all-sufficiency of 
 God, and the riches of salvation treasured up in him. There is, 
 however, one condition on which alone those riches can be enjoyed. 
 We must call upon God in faith if we desire to participate in the 
 fulness of his grace. David, therefore, energetically asserts that 
 help is ready and secure, provided that believing prayer be not 
 wanting. Just as our physical hunger gets satisfied by opening 
 our mouth before the benefactor who would fill it, so our souls, and 
 the mouth of the soul is prayer. (Psalm Ixxxi. 11.) 
 
 V. 4 7. Let the deliverances of God be ever so great and signal, 
 unbelief will not fail to lessen, nor insensibility to requite them with 
 ingratitude. David, anxious to exculpate himself from ingratitude, 
 and to move unbelievers by his testimony, speaks of the mercies he 
 had received in the strongest expressions which language can fur- 
 nish. He powerfully contrasts heaven and hell, death and God, 
 himself in the depths, God in the heights, the billows of destruction 
 and the snares of death, and his sole weapon, unseemly in appear- 
 ance, but if used in faith all-sufficient the weapon of prayer. He 
 uses figurative language ; but his history shows that the billows of 
 death did really often compass and threaten to devour him. In 
 more than one instance there was but one step between David and 
 the sword of the destroyer. The javelin thrust at him entered the 
 wall above his shoulder, he escaped through a window from his 
 pursuers, and the seam of a mountain separated him from his 
 deadly enemies. (1 Sam. xxiii. 26.) 
 
 V. 8 19. David calls the full force of poetical imagery to aid, 
 
122 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 to describe in a becoming manner the marvels of his deliverances. 
 He means to say that they were as manifest as the signs of heaven 
 and earth, as sudden and powerful as the phenomena in the king- 
 dom of nature surprise terrified mortals. Deliverance being his 
 theme, he might have taken the figure from the peaceable pheno- 
 mena of the heavens. But since man heeds heaven more in anger 
 than in blessing, and regards God more when he descends to earth 
 in the storm than in the rainbow^ David describes the blessing 
 condescension of God by the figure of a tempest. In order to 
 thoroughly appreciate the beauty and truthfulness of this figure, 
 we should endeavour to realize the full power of an oriental storm, 
 as it is described in Psalm xxix. (Cf. ad. Psalm xxix.) Solitary 
 lightning precedes the discharge this is meant by the coals in v. 9 : 
 the clouds approach the mountain summits "the heavens bow/' 
 as verse 10 has it; the storm shakes its pinions,* (v. 11;) enwrapped 
 in thick clouds as in a tent, God descends to the earth; hail (not 
 unfrequently attending eastern storms, Psalm Ixxviii. 48,) and 
 lightning issue from the black clouds, through the dissolving layers 
 of which is seen the fiery splendour which hides the Lord of nature, 
 (v. 12, 13.) He speaks and thunder is his voice : he shoots 
 and flashes of lightning are his arrows. At his rebuke and at the 
 blast of his breath, the earth recedes: the sea foams up and its 
 beds are seen : the land bursts and the foundations of the world 
 are discovered, (v. 14 16.) And lo! an arm of deliverance 
 issues forth from the black clouds and the destructive fire, grasps 
 the wretched one who had cried out from the depths, pulls him 
 forth, and delivers him from all his enemies ! Yes, the hand of the 
 Lord has done marvellous things in the life of David. But the eye 
 of faith alone could perceive in them all the hand of God. Thou- 
 sands whose experiences of the delivering hand of God are not less 
 signal than those of David, stop short at the powers of nature, and 
 instead of bending the knee before the all-merciful God, content 
 themselves to express with cold hearts their admiration of the 
 changes of the destiny of man. 
 
 V. 2025. The full energy of David's mind had in the pre- 
 ceding verses depicted in lofty touches the works of God. He 
 now details them. His first sentiment is, that God rules the 
 destinies of man, and rewards sincerity , and that human affairs are 
 in the aggregate governed by the laws of punitive justice. It 
 would be folly to infer from this passage, that David intended to 
 assert absolute sinlessness before the Highest. No, the sublime 
 record of the conviction of sin in Israel furnished in the speech of 
 
 * The cherub with the countenances of man, the lion, the bull, and the 
 eagle, (combining in itself, as it were, the intelligence, majesty, strength, 
 and life of nature,) was a symbol of the powers of nature. When powerful 
 elements, as in a storm, are serving God, he is said to ride on a cherub. 
 
PSALM XVIII. 123 
 
 Elipliaz to Job, which, sends a chill through marrow and bones, is 
 doubtless expressive of David's confession of sin : 
 
 "Now a thing was stealthily brought to me, 
 
 "And mine ear received the whispering thereof. 
 
 "In thoughts of the visions of the night, 
 
 "When deep sleep falleth on men. Fear came upon me and 
 
 trembling, 
 
 "Which made all my bones to shake. 
 "Then a spirit passed before my face, 
 "And the hair of my flesh stood up. 
 "There stood but I knew not the form thereof an image 
 
 before mine eyes : 
 "I heard a still voice, saying, 
 " Shall mortal man be just before God? 
 "And man pure before his Maker? 
 "Behold, he putteth no trust in his servants, 
 "And his angels he chargeth with folly."* 
 
 What shall we make of the penitential psalms and their mournful 
 complaints of the praises of God, who forgives sin, if David feels 
 himself guiltless before him ? This passage is to be understood in 
 the sense in which Paul speaks on the one hand, of rejoicing in 
 a good conscience, (2 Cor. i. 12,) of which nobody was to rob 
 him, and says on the other, " For I know nothing by myself/' 
 (i. e. according to Luther, "I am not conscious of anything my- 
 self":) "yet am I not hereby justified; but he that judgeth me is 
 the Lord." (1 Cor. iv. 4.) John writes in consecutive order, 
 "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light the blood of 
 Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John i. 7.) It 
 is very evident from all this that it is one thing sincerely to strive 
 to walk according to the commandments of God, and another to be 
 free from all sin. David might have praised the cleanness of his 
 hands, the caution of his ways, and the constancy of his having 
 had before his eyes the statutes of God, but it was no doubt accom- 
 panied by the acknowledgment of the necessity of the daily forgive- 
 ness of his sins. He says, Psalm xix. 12, " Who can understand 
 his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults," immediately after 
 the assertion that the commandments of God have instructed him, 
 and that in keeping of them there is great reward, just as if he 
 had been anxious to prevent people thinking too highly of him. 
 Comparing himself with others, he spoke highly of himself but 
 before God he did on that account no less join the rank and file of 
 the millions of the children of men, whose hope is salvation by 
 grace. 
 
 V. 26 28. From his own experience, that they who trust in 
 
 * Job iv. 1218. 
 
124 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 God trust well, and that those who do not forsake Mm will never 
 be forsaken by him, David is induced to state the general law, 
 which regulates the conduct of God to man. To terrify hypocrites 
 and the despisers of God, he shrinks not from using the expression 
 that "with the froward (faithless) he will show himself froward." 
 Similar language occurs, Lev. xxvi. 23, 24 ; Prov. iii. 24. The 
 fact that men treat the severity and terrors of the Divine judg- 
 ments, as stated in the Scriptures, with utter indifference, seems to 
 render it almost matter of necessity that unusual language should 
 be used to rouse them from their lethargy ; of such a nature is the 
 passage before us. The meaning, however, is simply this. God 
 will forsake and suddenly put to shame those who forsake him. 
 Although the preparation for such sudden destruction would in 
 general language be termed "faithlessness," we find that even men 
 in daily life absolve themselves from the duty of keeping faith 
 with the faithless. Such a procedure is with God nothing but the 
 administration of the immutable laws of punitive justice. 
 
 V. 29 43. He proceeds to praise separately the greatness and 
 variety of Divine mercies, especially the aid and support he had 
 received in his martial enterprises. Heroes who have gained vic- 
 tories by personal prowess and bodily strength, which was more the 
 case in ancient than in modern times, are wont to look to them- 
 selves, and to ascribe to the arm of flesh the praise which belongs 
 to God. How much then is David to be admired, who in every 
 respect refers both his strength and victories to God. The lamp 
 of v. 29 is, as in Psalm cxxxii. 17, the symbol of joy and bless- 
 ing; the ways of God in v. 31, mean his gracious promises. 
 When he asks, v. 32, "For who is God save the Lord? or who 
 is a rock save our God?" his meaning is not that there are other 
 gods, but that whatever sources of might, or strength, or happiness 
 men may conceive, their only source, though rarely acknowledged, 
 is the God of Israel. As in ancient times heroes were not only 
 praised for skilfulness in battle, but also for skilfulness in flight; 
 (Joel ii. 7;) and as David was, during the term of his persecu- 
 tion, compelled to seek his safety more by flight to the mountain 
 heights than by actual combat; he forgets not to praise the Lord 
 for the possession of that skilfulness, (v. 34; Hab. iii. 19.) An 
 uncommon amount of muscular strength was needed to bend the 
 heavy steel bows. Besides this weapon of attack, he names also 
 the shield as his weapon of defence, (v. 35, 36.) The chances of 
 falling are greatest in narrow paths but God had supported him, 
 (v. 37.) The successes of his wars have rendered it evident who 
 did fight with him, (v. 38 43.) Expressions like these we read 
 here may sound too martial and sanguinary, and doubts may be 
 entertained whether those who are led by the Spirit of Jesus would 
 use them ; but we must not forget to distinguish between a war- 
 rior, whom God has instituted into his office, and other Christians. 
 
PSALM XVIII. 125 
 
 Now if the office of destroying be instituted as much against those 
 who disturb order from without, and sin against the justice of God, 
 as government and police are against the disturbers of order from 
 within, then the martial courage, which glories in feats of destruc- 
 tion, cannot be wrong, provided they were done in a righteous 
 cause, and therefore to the glory of God. The justice and causes 
 of the wars of David are certainly not always stated; but is it 
 likely that one who in private life used to shrink from unjustly 
 shedding one drop of blood though it were that of his adver- 
 saries* would have wilfully begun unjust wars? The justice of 
 his wars against rebels like Absalom and Sheba is established yet 
 how lenient was his conduct towards individuals after the victory ! 
 (2 Sam. xix.) 2 Sam. x. records the gross contempt of the laws 
 of nations which provoked the second Syrian war, while Psalm ix. 
 and Ix. speak of the fierce invasions which led to the subjugation 
 of Edom. 
 
 V. 44 46. Not only foreign foes rose up against him, his own 
 people suffered themselves several times to be misled to rebel against 
 their anointed king. But he carried eventually the palm, through 
 the Lord. (Psalm Ixxviii. 70, 71.) He had at one time been the 
 poor and unknown shepherd of his father Jesse's flocks; for ten 
 years a fugitive, tossed about like a dry leaf, which the wind is 
 chasing: strangers and his own people had assailed him; yet the 
 once deeply abased David is now highly exalted, and abides at the 
 end of his career, the battle over, the honour and glory of his faith- 
 ful followers, the terror of all his adversaries. He is become the 
 type of his great descendant, to whom it behoved through many 
 tribulations to enter into His glory. (Luke xxiv. 26.) It is said 
 of the risen Saviour, that he showed unto his disciples from the 
 Scriptures, that "Christ ought to have suffered these things and 
 to enter into his glory;" we cannot doubt tbat he instructed them 
 from the example of the Old Testament saints, and David in par- 
 ticular, that the royal road to the kingdom is " out of tribulation 
 to glory ;" which if trod by the members, could not have been with- 
 held from the Head. 
 
 V. 47, 48. He exultingly owns the Lord as the King of kings, 
 exclaiming, "The Lord liveth," or "Let the Lord live," an address 
 of praise formerly paid to kings. (1 Sam. x. 24.) He had gone 
 into all his battles relying on the Lord's aid, and therefore thanks 
 the Lord for it. Though he praises God for the revenge granted 
 unto him, it is to be remembered that in the Scriptures the term 
 "revenge" has a different sense from that which it bears in general 
 language. It refers not to gratification of selfish passion, but to 
 
 * Notice his conduct towards Saul, or that at the murder of his rival 
 Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, (2 Sam. iv. 11 ; iii. 28, etc.) at the murder of 
 Abner, etc. 
 
126 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the exercise of recompense needed for the maintenance of holy 
 laws. So rulers are said to bear the sword of revenge. (Rom. 
 xiii. 4.) Is it likely that David should have thanked God for that 
 "revenge" if he had not been sure that he was fighting for a just 
 cause and that at God's bidding? 
 
 F. 50, 51. His gratitude causes him to mount higher and 
 higher. With a true missionary spirit he holds it but a little thing 
 to offer gratitude to the Lord in the congregations of Israel : he 
 would like as a missionary to go to all the nations and to loudly 
 praise and magnify the God of Israel. How copious must the 
 stream of gratitude flow in the heart of one, who, deeming house 
 and country too confined for his songs of praise, cannot feel at ease 
 till they sound throughout all the world, and all the nations of the 
 earth form his audience! David's praise and gratitude are not 
 confined to the past and the present. We are reminded of what 
 Nathan the prophet had told him : " I will set up thy seed after 
 thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish 
 his kingdom; he shall build an house for my name, and I will 
 stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever." (2 Sam. vii. 12, 13.) 
 He praises beforehand the blessings promised to his seed. This 
 prophecy has an ultimate reference to that seed of David, who in a 
 higher sense is to build the house of the Lord, and to wear the 
 crown, when all earthly crowns shall have ceased, and Israel after 
 the flesh shall have become Israel after the Spirit. (Gal. vi. 16; iv. 
 26.) His praise therefore, though perhaps not thoroughly realized 
 by David himself, points ultimately to Christ and his kingdom, to 
 " the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, who hath pre- 
 vailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof." (Rev. 
 v. 5.) 
 
 PSALM XIX. 
 
 A SONG of praise, celebrating the proclamation of God in nature 
 and in the law. Since v. 8 proceeds without any marked transition 
 to the praise of the law, and since the remaining portion of the 
 psalm is not equal to the sublimity of the former, it might be held 
 that the two portions were originally two separate songs; but this 
 view falls at once to the ground, since the first would have no con- 
 clusion, and the second no beginning. It is evident from Psalm 
 xxix. 10, 11, and xciii. 4, 5, that the transition from nature to reli- 
 gion, or the connexion of the praise of the revelation of God in 
 nature with that in the law, was by no means unusual with the 
 Psalmists. Sudden and unconnected transitions of this kind are of 
 frequent occurrence; e.g. Psalm xxxvi. 6 ; a passage worthy of our 
 
PSALM XIX. 127 
 
 special regard, because the Psalmist, engaged in describing the 
 blessings and protection enjoyed by the godly in spite of the oppo- 
 sition of the ungodly, suddenly adverts to the traces of divine 
 mercy in nature: a transition which is certainly very striking. 
 The first portion of this psalm refers to the speech, the proclama- 
 tion^ or sermon of God in the heavens, which would greatly facilitate 
 the transition to the word of God in the law : or we may more cor- 
 rectly say that the praise of God's voice in nature is the introduction 
 to the praise of the law, which was the main object of the Psalmist. 
 Nor does the poetic sublimity of expression which distinguishes 
 the former from the latter portion, militate against the unity of 
 both, because sublimity is the distinguishing characteristic of the 
 psalms of nature. 
 
 The Psalmist, deeply impressed with the blessings of piety and 
 of the divine law, looks at nature and the heavens, and feels that 
 an attentive observer may listen to the majestic evidence of the 
 
 g^ry of God. The heavens preach a never ceasing sernion on 
 od, which goes as far as the heavens themselves, (v. 2 5.) The 
 sun -is the chief preacher, from whose rays there is nothing con- 
 cealed, (v. 5 7.) Dwelling on the object which so deeply affects 
 him, David proceeds to the praise of the law, which so powerfully 
 testifies to the self- same God : he declares it intrinsically good and 
 sure, and on that account refreshing and enlightening to man, 
 (v. 8, 9.) Its commandments are pure and true, and therefore 
 immutable and righteous, and the sweetest possession of man, 
 (v. 10, 11.) The Psalmist speaks from his own experience that 
 they have admonished him, but as if he had said too much, he 
 forth with prays for the forgiveness of his secret and unconscious sins. 
 He is not even sure to be free from presumptuous sins, (v. 12. 
 14.) He concludes his prayer in a peaceful and confident frame 
 of mind, sure that God is his strength and his Redeemer, (v. 15.) 
 
 1 rp 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 2 The heavens declare the glory of God ; 
 And the firmament showeth his handiwork. 
 
 3 Day unto day uttereth speech, 
 
 And night unto night showeth knowledge. 
 
 4 It is not a speech or a language, 
 The voice whereof is not heard. 
 
 5 The sound thereof is gone out through all the earth, 
 And the words thereof to the end of the world, 
 Where he hath set a tabernacle for the sun, 
 
 6 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, 
 And rejoiceth as a hero to run the race. 
 
128 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 7 His going forth is from the end of the heaven, 
 And his circuit unto the ends of it : 
 
 And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. 
 
 8 The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul : 
 The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the 
 
 : , simple. 
 
 9 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: 
 The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the 
 
 eyes. 
 
 10 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever : 
 
 The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous 
 altogether. 
 
 11 More precious are they than gold, yea, than much fine 
 
 gold: 
 Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. 
 
 12 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: 
 And in keeping of them there is great reward. 
 
 13 (But) who can mark his errors ? 
 Cleanse thou me from unknown faults. 
 
 14 Keep back thy servant also from intentional sins;* 
 Let them not have dominion over me : 
 
 Then shall I be upright, 
 
 And I shall be innocent from great transgression. 
 
 15 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my 
 
 heart, 
 
 Be acceptable in thy sight, 
 LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. 
 
 V. 2. Lost in marvel he contemplates the expanse of heaven, of 
 which it is said, (Job xxxvii. 18,") " Canst thou like him spread 
 out the sky, firm as a molten looking-glass?" Who keeps the stars 
 and spheres in their liquid space? Who directs the course of their 
 
 * The word TftTntiYiTr* always means "intentional sins," (Deut. i. 43; 
 xvii. 13; Exod. xxi. 14,) in contradistinction to mytj use( * v - 13, of "un- 
 conscious sins" (Lev. iv. 2; v. 15.) "ri^Fl ' ls used when God restrains man 
 
 from sin, (Gen. xx. 6; 1 Sam. xxv. 39.) The masculine plural, though 
 less frequent than the feminine plural, designates abstract terms. (Psalm 
 xvi. 6.) From these details &n-jt should be translated "presumption," in 
 
 the sense of wilful transgression. If we render with a great many, "from 
 proud presumptuous men," the best explanation is that of Aben Ezra, 
 "from the society and seduction of the wicked." This view, however, 
 would introduce an extraneous thought into the text, and not cope with 
 the connection. 
 
PSALM XIX. 129 
 
 thousands and hundreds of thousands, side by side, above and 
 below one another, so that none of them faileth, comes too early or 
 too late ? Though all preachers on earth should grow silent, and 
 every human mouth cease from publishing the glory of God, the 
 heavens above will never cease to declare and proclaim his majesty 
 and glory. 
 
 F. 3. They are for ever preaching; for like an unbroken chain 
 their message is delivered from day to day, and from night to 
 night. At the silence of one herald, another takes up his speech. 
 One day like the other discloses the same spectacles of his glory, 
 and one night like the other the same wonders of his majesty. 
 
 F. 4. Though nature be hushed and quiet when the sun in his 
 glory has reached the zenith on the azure sky though the world 
 keep her silent festival when the stars shine brightest at night 
 yet, says the Psalmist, they speak; aye, holy silence itself is a 
 speech, provided there be the ear to hear it. 
 
 F. 5. Their sound is coextensive with the heavens, their 
 speech coextensive with the earth. Paul declares on this ground 
 the heathen is inexcusable; for if their hearts were but pure, the 
 splendours of the glorious majesty above would become reflected in 
 their hearts, and be the witnesses of their Creator. Nature gives 
 us the information we ask her for, but no more : but the heathen 
 would not ask for a holy and almighty God. The poet speaks here 
 of the noblest witness whom God has set in the heavens. Though 
 the infinite hosts of the stars fill our minds with more ineffable 
 and illimitable anticipations than the sun, yet is the impression of 
 his majesty more definite, and on that account more overwhelming. 
 He stands like the ambassador and representative of God in the 
 heavens. We find that man, whose heart is so strongly attached 
 to the creature, has worshipped this work of God rather than him- 
 self. David speaks of the sun as a man who, worn out with the 
 fatigues of the day, returns to his home. Thus when night sets in, 
 he daily retires for rest to his habitation at the seam of the sky. 
 (Hab. iii. 11, in the original.) 
 
 F. 6, 7. But at morn, refreshed and joyous, he steps like a 
 bridegroom from his chamber on the azure expanse, and like the 
 heroes of old, mighty in the race, he steadily and manfully runs his 
 course. He passes over the vault of heaven, and his rays reach to 
 the limits of his course. Behold him in his splendour, restlessness, 
 and power, as the preacher to insensible man. If we were not so 
 insensible and obdurate in heart as we are, the sight of the sun 
 and the heavens could hardly fail causing us to infer the glory of 
 the invisible being of God from the glory lavished upon his 
 creature, and making us to alternately realize ecstatic joy and holy 
 awe. Multitudes praise with untiring zeal the beauty of creation, 
 and point it out as worthy of their affection and admiration, and 
 are yet devoid of the thought, that the glory of the Creator is 
 
130 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 loftier by far, and that he is worthier by far of our love and adora- 
 tion : yea, they would be ashamed to speak with equal warmth of 
 the love of God. Others again, while admiring God in nature, are 
 unable to recognize him in the. Scriptures. The heavens and the 
 earth do certainly set forth the omnipotence and wisdom, the love 
 and majesty of God; but the Bible only sets forth his holiness. 
 Equal susceptibilities for the holy, the beautiful, and the sublime, 
 are needed, if the omnipotence, wisdom, love, and majesty, of the 
 laws of the moral government, are to affect man as do those of the 
 physical, and if the great moral phenomena of the Bible are to 
 produce impressions, as do the phenomena of the heavens and the 
 earth. The holy, we grant, may be called the beautiful, as it con- 
 sists in the harmony of the soul in itself and with God ; we grant 
 also, that a holy soul is sure to be a beautiful soul. But many, 
 though transported with the beauty of nature, or delighted with a 
 human work of art, have no susceptibility for the secret develop- 
 ment of a soul in harmony with itself and God. The Psalmist is 
 not less affected by the moral beauty of the Divine law, and the 
 soul yielding itself to it, than by the grandeur and beauty of nature. 
 He recognizes on that account, in the speech of the heavens and of 
 the earth, the same voice of God which speaks in the law. Hence 
 the rapid transition, which cannot but remain unintelligible to a 
 great many. 
 
 V. 8, 9. The same God of omnipotence and wisdom, mercy 
 and majesty, has revealed himself in his law. His law is true and 
 spotless in itself, sure and convincing to man : on that account it 
 renders happy the wretched, and makes wise the foolish. This 
 thought is differently expressed in verses 8, 9, to stamp it more 
 thoroughly upon our hearts. He who has experienced this, will 
 recognize in the law the omnipotence of God reflected in nature, 
 and consider the statutes of the law as eternal as are the laws of 
 nature: he will admire the wisdom by virtue of which the moral 
 commandments are so marvellously adapted to the wants of the 
 human heart: he will get refreshed by the love which, though it 
 rigorously insists upon the observance of its statutes, aims only at 
 our own happiness : he will worship before the Divine Majesty, the 
 expression of which is equally sublime in the events of the moral 
 government, as in the phenomena of nature. 
 
 F. 10, 11. The commandments of the fear of the Lord are 
 immutable because of their purity, and righteous because of their 
 truth. If man receives them into his will, he will find them more 
 precious than any earthly riches, and sweeter than the sweetest 
 food. Just as medicine does not cure, nor food nourish, until it 
 has been masticated, and entered into our constitution, so a merely 
 outward gaze and admiration cannot yield an idea of that precipus- 
 ness and sweetness : they are not tasted until the commandments 
 of God have been received into our will. 
 
PSALM XX. 131 
 
 F. 12, 13. The Psalmist, not satisfied with outwardly admiring 
 and adoring the commandments of God, adopted them as the law 
 of his life. He, therefore, calls himself the servant of God, and 
 can speak of the enjoyment of the great reward of holiness already 
 here on earth. For if the reception of the will of God into ours 
 confers upon us the privilege of revealing God in and through us, 
 and of becoming his instruments and representatives on earth, then 
 a holy life is a participation of the eternal life of God. Are we, 
 therefore, not justified in speaking of the great reward of godliness? 
 But David, as if afraid to liave said too much, forthwith remem- 
 bers secret faults which need Divine forgiveness. The grace of 
 God so influences the regenerate Christian, that conscious and 
 intentional sins do indeed vanish, and only unconscious and 
 thoughtless sins remain. So David thinks first of transgressions 
 of this light nature. But as the regenerate, while the tendency to 
 evil which he derives from Adam is not yet wholly extinct, can 
 never become sufficiently secure to answer for himself in evil hours, 
 when temptation from without and desire from within meet, so 
 David will not surrender himself to a false security, but seeks in 
 God the strength and grace which are to preserve him from inten- 
 tional sin. 
 
 V. 14. Concerning intentional sins he prays, "Let them not 
 have dominion over me," thinking that a condition of that kind 
 could only be brought about by some sudden invasion or act of 
 violence done to our better man. In the event of the preserving 
 care of God not failing him, he hopes to reach the position, that 
 transgression whether great or small shall find no place in his 
 life. 
 
 V. 15. These expressions indicate peace in God. Our pray- 
 ers, because they are hardly at any time the pure eifusions of the 
 Holy Spirit, require, as well as our good works, the petition of for- 
 giveness. His petition, however, that the words of his mouth might 
 be well-pleasing in the sight of God, makes us feel that he was by 
 no means devoid of the assurance that they were so. " My God 
 and my Kedeemer" is the last word in which his soul reposes. 
 
 PSALM XX. 
 
 A PSALM of supplication, occasioned by the king's going out to 
 war. We infer from verse 8 that it belongs to the time of David, 
 for the Jews had no chariots before the Syrian war, (Judges i. 19 ; 
 iv. 3,) and from the cavalry of Solomon being specially named, 
 they seem to have had no cavalry either : the Syrian army, on the 
 
132 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 other hand, had many chariots. (2 Sam. viii. 4; x. 18.) The 
 king being spoken of in the third person is no objection to David's 
 being the author, (Psalm xlviii. 51;) on occasions of this kind he 
 doubtless showed himself as the Psalmist of Israel, and composed 
 the hymns which were sung by the Levites. (2 Sam. xxiii. 1.) 
 
 The people supplicate in holy simplicity, in the songs of the 
 Levites (v. 2 6,) the grace of God and his assistance for their 
 king going out to war, and confidingly pray for the accomplishment 
 of his designs. Strengthened by the prayers of the people, the 
 king himself expresses his confidence, and with his mind's eye 
 beholds his enemies already laid low, (v. 7 9.) Then follows 
 another supplication of the people, (v. 10.) From the allusion in 
 verse 4, v. 2 6 may be regarded as sung during sacrifice, because 
 sacrifices used to be offered at the beginning of a warfare, and the 
 sacrifices themselves accompanied by music and song. 
 
 1 rPO the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 The Levites sing : 
 
 2 The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble ; 
 The name of the God of Jacob defend thee. 
 
 3 Send thee help from the sanctuary, 
 And strengthen thee out of Zion. 
 
 4 Remember all thy offerings, 
 
 And accept thy burnt sacrifice. Selah. 
 
 5 Grant thee according to thine own heart, 
 And fulfil all thy counsel. 
 
 6 We will rejoice in thy salvation, 
 
 And in the name of our God we will set up our banners :* 
 The LORD fulfil all thy petitions. 
 
 David sings : 
 
 1 Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed ; 
 He will hear him from his holy heaven, 
 With the saving strength of his right hand. 
 
 8 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses : 
 
 But we will remember the name of the LORD our God. 
 
 9 They are brought down and fallen : 
 But we are risen, and stand upright. 
 
 The Levites sing : 
 10 Save, LORD, the king; 
 
 He (the LORD) will hear us when we call. 
 
 * Or, " We lift up the name of our God." 
 
PSALM XX. 133 
 
 F. 2, 3. We here notice that the king and his people go to 
 war as if they went in the service of God, and on that account 
 implore his aid. (Cf. ad. Ps. xviii. 38 43.) As wars are sub- 
 jected to alternations and times of need, the aid of Heaven is 
 implored for seasons when earthly resources may be exhausted. 
 As the people whose weakness found it so difficult a task to look 
 up to the invisible God, were favoured with a visible sanctuary on 
 Zion, they pray for help from Zion. They call upon the God of 
 Jacob, that is, the God of his descendants, to whom was confirmed 
 the mercy which guided their ancestor. The name (Ps. lii. 11; 
 liv. 3; Isaiah xxx. 27; Prov. xviii. 10,) of the God of Jacob, 
 because the name is expressive of his character, as if the Psalmist 
 had said, "The God of Jacob help us, according to all the power 
 and glory which we seek to express in the name which we give to 
 him." 
 
 V. 4. Just as Christians rejoice in comfort that their prayers 
 will be heard through the Redeemer, who has made them accepta- 
 ble to God, so the ancient Israelites regarded sacrifice as the 
 Divinely instituted means for rendering their prayers well-pleasing 
 to God. The Psalmist prays therefore that his prayers may be 
 acceptable to God. 
 
 F. 5, 6. As it is impossible for a pious man to expect that the 
 promptings of covetousness or ambition should be heard by a holy 
 God, so we may regard the present petition as an evidence of the 
 good conscience of David in this warfare, which we cannot but 
 think was undertaken in a righteous cause: he therefore confi- 
 dently solicits the protection of God, since without such a good 
 conscience the prayers would be devoid of heartiness and trust.* 
 The Psalmist moreover is so sure that the prayers of his people 
 will be answered, that he lets the people beforehand rejoice at his 
 safety, and proclaims beforehand the fulfilment of his petitions. 
 The true relation of a king and his subjects may be noticed here. 
 The people rejoice at the safety of their king, as if it were their 
 own : for the life of a people should be in their king, and the life 
 and safety of a king in his people. 
 
 F. 7 9. The king derives much hope from the knowledge 
 that he is not isolated, but represented by all his people. If a 
 human parent will listen to the united cry of his children, how 
 much more will God hear, when in a just cause a whole people and 
 their king pray to him ! We need not be astonished that the hea- 
 then nations with whom David went to war put their trust in cha- 
 riots and in horses, when we remember that even among Christians 
 many are prone to forget God, in proportion to their possession of 
 
 * If this psalm was sung when David went during the second Syrian war 
 against the Syrians and the Ammonites, then history records the cause of 
 this war as most just. (2 Samuel x.) 
 12 
 
134 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 earthly resources. The heavenly mind of David, however, makes 
 itself heard, " But we will remember the name of the Lord our 
 God/' declaring that that name is to him and his people a more 
 potent defence than any weapon. We may presume that a general 
 like David neglected none of the earthly resources which the Lord 
 had placed within his reach. How admirable his demeanour, that 
 he none the less perseveres to have his eye fixed on the aid of the 
 invisible God ! He knows himself so strong in that aid, that his 
 prophetic vision beholds his enemies as already fallen and crushed, 
 and his people standing upright. 
 
 F. 10. Edified by these words, the people finally repeat with a 
 more courageous heart their call for help. 
 
 PSALM XXI. 
 
 A PSALM of thanksgiving, probably sung after the victory prayed 
 for in Psalm xx. (CL v. 3, with Ps. xx. 5.) The following cir- 
 cumstance renders it probable that the composition of this psalm 
 took place after the victory over the allied hosts of the Syrians and 
 Ammonites. The king of the Ammonites wore, according to 
 2 Sam. xii. 30, a crown a talent of gold in weight (about fifty-six 
 pounds,) which David put on his head after his defeat. That pas- 
 sage runs as if David had been without a royal diadem before. 
 Should this be so, this psalm may have been composed after the 
 complete victory over the Syrians and the Ammonites, and after 
 the complete restoration of peace at some triumphal solemnity. 
 
 The king is spoken of in the third person from v. 2 8 ; but we 
 assume that David expresses his gratitude himself in language at 
 once sublime and simple. V. 9 14 address the king; and while 
 the former portion of the psalm is expressive of gratitude for the 
 past, the latter contains two predictions, which, after their great 
 victories, are well becoming the people. 
 
 1 nPO the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 The King sings : 
 
 2 The king shall joy in thy strength, LORD ; 
 And in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice ! 
 
 3 Thou hast given him his heart's desire, 
 
 And hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah. 
 
PSALM xxr. 135 
 
 4 For thou overwhelmest him with the blessings of good- 
 
 ness: 
 Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. 
 
 5 He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, 
 Uven length of days, for ever and ever. 
 
 6 His glory is great in thy salvation : 
 
 Honour and majesty (ornament) hast thou laid upon him. 
 
 7 For thou hast made him most blessed for ever : 
 
 Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. 
 
 8 For the king trusteth in the LORD, 
 
 And through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be 
 moved. 
 
 The Levites sing : 
 
 9 Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies : 
 Thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. 
 
 10 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thy 
 
 anger : 
 
 The LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, 
 And the fire shall devour them. 
 
 11 Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth, 
 And their seed from among the children of men. 
 
 12 For they intended evil against thee : 
 They imagined a mischievous device, 
 Which they were not able to perform. 
 
 13 Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back : 
 When thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon thy 
 
 strings against the face of them. 
 
 14 Be thou exalted, LORD, in thine own strength ! 
 We will sing and praise thy power. 
 
 V. 2, 3. There are many who, when reduced to want, or 
 embarking in some great enterprise and distrustful of their own 
 power, call to God for aid, but after having been successful, forget 
 him whose assistance they had invoked; and though they do not 
 always ascribe the honour to themselves, rest wholly satisfied with 
 their successes, and go no further. David, after having been 
 crowned with victory, looks first to the Lord, and gives the honour 
 to him. Yea, he regards every new victory as a new seal set to 
 the mercy of God and a confirmation of his divine favour. It is 
 this which hallows his joy. 
 
 V. 4 8. If David had before been without the symbol of his 
 royal dignity, viz. the diadem, he was the more justified in prais- 
 ing the goodness of God, which had now transferred it from the 
 
13d COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 head of an enemy to his own. The words of the king in verse 5 
 are striking, because the term "for ever and ever" differs from " for 
 ever/' which generally denotes a long period. It is not improba- 
 ble that David alluded to the word of prophecy, " And thine house 
 and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee : thy 
 throne shall be established for ever/' (2 Sam. vii. 16;) and refers 
 to the life he was to live in his descendants, as he indeed lives and 
 reigns for ever in that descendant of his, who sways the sceptre 
 over the spiritual Israel. The Psalmist further declares before the 
 people, that however great and glorious he may appear, he glories, 
 not in his own deeds, but in the assistance and adornment which 
 the Lord had conferred upon him : and acknowledges his Lord and 
 Master as the only source of blessing and joy. This he still more 
 distinctly affirms in verse 8, and commits the future to the mercy 
 of God. 
 
 V. 9 13. The king had committed his future to the mercy of 
 the Lord. The people in their turn do now express bright hopes 
 and great predictions for his future. The prosperity of a kingdom 
 no less requires blessings and peace at home than defence against 
 enemies from without. They hopefully foretell to David that his 
 enemies shall not escape out of his hand, that he shall make them 
 as wood in a fiery oven, that not only his own martial chivalry shall 
 sustain him, but that the wrath of God shall come to his aid, and 
 as often our most dangerous enemies spring up from the revenge 
 of the descendants of our adversaries, to render the victory complete 
 their descendants also shall not escape vengeance. The heathen 
 disbelieving the divine appointment of David and the divine call 
 of his people, had arrogantly framed their designs without remem- 
 bering the Lord : therefore their devices came to nought, for the 
 Lord fights for his king and for his people. 
 
 F. 14. Once more they attest that the strength and glory 
 of David's kingdom is the Lord's a thought which since He is 
 mighty will crush his adversaries, but elevate his faithful followers 
 to gratitude and praise. 
 
 PSALM XXII. 
 
 A PLAINTIVE song, proceeding as it were from the lowest abyss of 
 tribulation, such as David might have uttered in an hour of intense 
 peril, an instance of which occurs in 1 Sam. xxiii. 26. The deep 
 distress which characterizes the description of his misery, (v. 2 11,) 
 is penetrated by a petition in verse 12, but again absorbed by the 
 affecting complaint of extreme peril down to v. 19. Then his cry 
 for help gets stronger in v. 20. 22 ; and the song rises to a wonder- 
 
PSALM xxir. 137 
 
 ful hope. The procrastination of his deliverance shall become a 
 festival of joy to all the afflicted in Israel, (v. 23 27.) Infinite in 
 space, and infinite in time, shall the message of that deliverance 
 reach all the nations of the earth down to the most remote futu- 
 rity: rich and poor shall alike be satisfied and worship Him. 
 (v. 2832.) 
 
 This psalm is wonderful indeed : such a fear in the lowest abyss, 
 and so triumphant a prediction a prediction of successes which 
 David could never have said of himself as a man. As in other 
 psalms, (Of. ad. Ps. xvi.) so here, the Spirit of God had raised the 
 Psalmist to so lofty a consciousness, in virtue of which he affirmed 
 what in quite a subordinate sense only met its fulfilment in himself, 
 though in the fullest sense in his great Descendant. He had been 
 in situations where he heard the rivers of death sweep past him, 
 and had presentiments of death, and might therefore as a man hope 
 that his deliverance would be the consolation of many a pious 
 Israelite but his expressions go far beyond what can apply to his 
 circumstances. A higher spirit must have come upon him, at 
 whose suggestions he expressed descriptions and hopes far beyond 
 his human sphere, which though possibly containing a certain sub- 
 ordinate truth in his own case, met their full realization in his anti- 
 type, the Messiah. Our Lord himself no doubt regarded this 
 psalm in this light, when at his approaching death he uttered 
 its opening words ; and the assumption of many commentators has 
 not a little probability, that the plaintive cry at the beginning, and 
 the triumphant exclamation at the close of the psalm, were simul- 
 taneously before the soul of the Redeemer. 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, concerning 
 the hind, pursued at dawn. 
 
 2 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? 
 
 Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the 
 words of my roaring ? 
 
 3 my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou nearest not ; 
 And in the night season, and am not silent. 
 
 4 But thou art the Holy One, 
 
 That art enthroned upon the praises of Israel. 
 
 5 Our fathers trusted in thee : 
 
 They trusted, and thou didst deliver them. 
 
 6 They cried unto thee, and were delivered: 
 They trusted in thee, and were not confounded. 
 
 7 But I am a worm, and no man : 
 
 A reproach of men, and despised of the people. 
 
 8 All they that see me laugh me to scorn : 
 
 They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 
 12* 
 
138 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 9 "He trusted on the LORD, let him save him: 
 Let him deliver him if he delight in him." 
 
 10 But thou art he that took me out. of the womb: 
 
 Thou didst keep me in safety when I was upon my 
 mother's breasts. 
 
 11 I was cast upon thee from my birth: 
 Thou art my God from my mother's womb. 
 
 12 Be not far from me ; for trouble is near ; 
 For there is no helper. 
 
 13 Many bulls have compassed me : 
 
 Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 
 
 14 They gaped upon me with their mouths, 
 As ravening and roaring lions. 
 
 15 I am poured out like water, 
 And all my bones are sundered : 
 My heart is like wax ; 
 
 It is melted in the midst of my bowels. 
 
 16 My strength is dried up like a potsherd; 
 And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; 
 
 And thou hast brought me into the dust of death. 
 
 17 For dogs have compassed me : 
 
 The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me : 
 They pierced my hands and my feet.* 
 
 18 I may tell all my bones : 
 They look and stare upon me. 
 
 19 They part my garments among them, 
 And cast lots for my vesture. 
 
 20 But be not thou far from me, LORD ; 
 my strength, haste thee to help me. 
 
 21 Deliver my soul from the sword ; 
 
 My lonely onef from the power of the dog. 
 
 22 Save me from the lion's mouth: 
 
 For thou hast heard me from the horns of the buffaloes. 
 
 23 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: 
 
 In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. 
 
 * Some translate, "As a lion they have surrounded my hands and feet." 
 But is it correct to say that lions surround our hands and feet? They 
 rather rush at man. Aben Ezra indeed observes, "We resist with the 
 hands, and flee with the feet." But who would resist a lion with his 
 hands ? The expression is inapplicable, even if we understand men as those 
 who surround him. Who would say of his persecutors, ''They have sur- 
 rounded my hands and my feet" ? 
 
 f Or, "My soul," "My life." 
 

 PSALM XXII. 139 
 
 24 Ye that fear the LORD, praise him ; 
 All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him ; 
 And fear him, all ye the seed of Israel, 
 
 25 For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of 
 
 the afflicted; 
 
 Neither hath he hid his face from him ; 
 But when he cried unto him, he heard. 
 
 26 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation : 
 I will pay my vows before them that fear him. 
 
 27 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied : 
 They shall praise the LORD that seek him: 
 Your heart shall live for ever. 
 
 28 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto 
 
 the LORD : 
 
 And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before 
 thee. 
 
 29 For the kingdom is the LORD'S : 
 
 And he is the governor among the nations. 
 
 30 And they that be rich upon earth shall eat and worship : 
 All they that lie in the dust shall bow before him : 
 And they that live in distress. 
 
 31 A seed shall serve him ; 
 
 They shall proclaim the Lord from generation to gene- 
 ration. 
 
 32 They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness 
 Unto a people that shall be born, for he hath done well. 
 
 V. 1. The expression, "The hind of the dawn," which in the 
 original forms the title of this psalm, indicates in the same manner 
 as the words, "The mute dove among enemies/' (Psalm Ivi.) the 
 subject of his burden. He compares himself to a hind pursued at 
 early dawn, and probably points to the time of day at which the 
 persecution took place. 
 
 V. 2. His representing himself as a man forsaken of God, 
 seems to argue so low a stage of despair, as if not even a spark of 
 faith had remained in him ; but as he hastens to pour out his grief 
 before God, and twice exclaims, " My God/' we see that in spite 
 of despair he has not made shipwreck of his faith. He complains 
 here that God has forsaken him, in the same sense in which he 
 says elsewhere, " Why standest thou afar off, Lord ? why hidest 
 thou thyself in times of trouble?" (Psalm x. 1.) Because God is 
 almighty and merciful, we are prone to think him afar off when we 
 cannot discern the traces of his omnipotence and mercy. Though 
 unbelief and obstinacy will in the heat of temptation ask " Why?" 
 
140 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 we must in the case of David regard it as expressive of his aston- 
 ishment that he should have reached such a climax of wretched- 
 ness : this remark applies also to Psalm x. 1, and Isaiah Ixiii. 17. 
 
 V. 3. This verse shows even more clearly than the last words 
 of v. 2, that the reference is not to transient, but continuous 
 misery. At the same time it is evident that David, though called 
 upon in his deep and continuous anxieties to experience the great- 
 est trials which can possibly befall a pious man, and though his 
 prayers met a shut door with God, was none of those faint-hearted 
 people who give over at the first unsuccessful attempt, and go in 
 search of other doors. He continued to stand before that one 
 door, and though it refused to open for weeks and months together, 
 he was sure in his faith that he was before the right door ; and that 
 there was none other which could supply its place. 
 
 F. 4 6. He goes on to state that which had kept up his 
 courage, viz. the myriads of praises in the congregation of the 
 righteous, of which the Holy One of Israel has prepared for himself 
 a throne the long list of the fathers, who bore the uniform testi- 
 mony, that "they who trust in the Lord shall never be confounded.' 9 
 As if he had said, " I must not forget that I am a member of the 
 great body of the congregation, and on that account the sharer of 
 the same mercy as all others before me ; and the God to whom all 
 the fathers cried is the same God in whose hands is the govern- 
 ment of the world to this day/' Now, though contemplations like 
 these became on the one hand to the warrior of faith a rock for 
 edification, they proved on the other a stone of stumbling for fall- 
 ing. " Why does He not help me, as he has helped them? Why do 
 my prayers fall back into my bosom, hurled back like impotent 
 arrows ? Is it because I am an excommunicated member, no longer 
 counted in his congregation ?" Such are the temptations of faith 
 by which the adversary intensifies the temptations of soul and body, 
 when the pious are committed to the furnace of trials. 
 
 V. 7 9. Attacking him, they attacked Him in whom he had 
 placed his hope. Those who can sympathize in such situations 
 with a pious man, know that that is the most lacerating kind of 
 contempt. Because such an one loves God more than himself, he 
 would rather encounter floods of derision himself, than that one 
 drop should fall on the name of his God. The contempt was of a 
 two-fold kind: it was either expressive of the daring unbelief that 
 there is no ear in heaven which hears praying mortals, or it con- 
 veyed the no less fearful accusation that Damd at least was of the 
 race of hypocrites, who have no right to apply the promises of God 
 to themselves. In this latter sense the same mockery was heard 
 before the cross of Golgotha. (Matt, xxvii. 43.) But their mockery 
 is turned into glory, "He trusted in God." This is the glory of 
 Christ and of David; the inscription of their lives, written by the 
 finger of God. The shaking of the head and the opened mouth 
 
 T 
 
PSALM XXII. 141 
 
 denote mocking delight. (2 Kings xix. 21; Job xvi. 4; Matt, 
 xxvii. 39.) 
 
 V. 10, 11. David repeats in faith, what they say in unbelief: 
 their mockery he counts his glory. Yes, the Lord takes pleasure 
 in him. God was his Father, when he could not take care of him- 
 self: he experienced him as his God all the days of his life. We 
 see the infant translated from the mother's womb to the light of 
 day the mother's breast provides it with nourishment, while yet 
 unable to partake of any other; and while we think that the tender 
 plants might perish a hundred times, the guardian angels of God 
 watch over them. All these things produce no grateful impressions 
 on us, simply because we daily experience them. Dut David is 
 impressed by them, and in childlike manner states first those proofs 
 of Divine protection which he shares with the rest of mankind, and 
 then mentions (v. 11) that he has always found God in his chequered 
 life as his God, i. e. as his Father. 
 
 V. 12. Not until now bursts a cry for help from his oppression 
 of anxiety. His desperate condition itself becomes the foundation 
 into which he casts his anchor. 
 
 V. 13, 14. His enemies in their blind rage are more like beasts 
 than men like bulls inflamed to fury like lions opening their 
 mouths when they roar for prey. 
 
 V. 15, 16. Having spoken of outward difficulties, he now depicts 
 the effects of anxiety upon his soul. The less we anticipate to meet 
 so uncommon an emotion, through sufferings, in a heroic mind like 
 David's, the more correct is our conclusion as to their uncommon- 
 ness and enormity. But from their nature they cannot with all 
 their greatness have been more than the shadow of the sufferings of 
 the Son of God on the cross. In proportion to the superiority of 
 Him, whom David in his spirit called his Lord, (Matt. xxii. 45,) 
 over David, are the sufferings of Christ greater than those of David. 
 As poured-out water will dissolve on the ground, so David says 
 that his strength is dissolved that his bones, the supports of the 
 human frame, are sundered and that trouble has melted his heart. 
 The sap of his life is dried up like a burnt-out potsherd : his tongue 
 is languid from the anxiety of his soul : yea, he lies in the dust 
 among the dead. 
 
 V. 17 19. He had before compared his persecutors to furious 
 bulls and blood-thirsty lions ; he now describes them as greedy dogs, 
 run astray, which in the East like wild beasts attack man. They 
 have pierced his hand and feet and as it were pinned him. This 
 expression, which to David could only be a figure, and that a 
 striking one,* carries him far beyond his own circumstances. The 
 spirit of prophecy prompts him to point to the event which was to 
 be fulfilled on Golgotha. The flesh and bodily strength are so 
 
 * The Psalmist may have retained the figure of " greedy dogs tearing 
 his hands and feet;" then the connexion explains the expression. 
 
142 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 entirely gone that he can count his bones : a condition so wretched 
 would, under ordinary circumstances, elicit pity even from the 
 heart of enemies but blind revenge has made his enemies so 
 savage that its contemplation yields them delight. They behold 
 the lifeless corpse lie at their feet, and cast lots for his vesture. 
 We expect to hear the troubled Psalmist sing of shameless robbery 
 rather than of their raffling for his vesture, and recognise therefore 
 in this expression another typical reference to the future. (John 
 xix. 24.) 
 
 V. 20 22. He is unable to find any strength in himself nor 
 help on earth : for days and nights he has cried in vain : the confi- 
 dence he displayed hitherto, while troubles were increasing and 
 not decreasing, had given new stings to their mockery, a new edge 
 to their scorn; yet he continues to pray. He calls the Lord his 
 strength, to show that his hopes are not on earth but in heaven. 
 The mouth of the lion, the horns of the wild buffalo, and the sword, 
 must be taken as figures of present danger of death. 
 
 V. 23 25. It is incontrovertibly clear from this passage, that 
 temptation never so completely broke David that it deprived him 
 of the consciousness of strength to resist. Lo ! grief and complaint 
 vanish suddenly. He resolves to sing songs of praises not only 
 in his intercourse with friends, but in the public assemblies, to 
 exhort his brethren, yea, all his brethren in faith, to imitate his 
 example, and to blend their praises with his. For since all the 
 children of God form one spiritual body, is therefore the victory of 
 one not the glory of the rest? So Paul desires the Corinthians 
 that " they also helping together by prayer for him, that for the 
 gift bestowed upon him by the means of many persons, thanks may 
 be given by many on his behalf." (2 Cor. i. 11.) A double truth 
 is apparent in this deliverance : men befriend the high, God most 
 loves to befriend the humble (low;) and prayer is the instrument 
 which will force the bars of the gate of heaven. 
 
 V. 26, 27. David uses a peculiar figure to denote the blessings 
 which the marvellous dealings of God with him were to confer upon 
 the congregation. It was customary in times of great danger to 
 make vows of thank-offerings, which were prepared into meals, 
 where the poor in particular were permitted to join. So David 
 represents the payment of his gratitude as a feast, where all the 
 aifiicted shall be filled, for which the pious shall praise the Lord 
 and rejoice for evermore. It is evident from the nature of the 
 case that no real feast is meant; but this gets yet more apparent from 
 V. 30, which says that the rich and the poor on earth shall alike 
 get filled at that feast. The feast and the thank-offering are rather 
 figurative expressions of the grateful proclamation of the merciful 
 works of God which is to take place in the congregation. In many 
 other places occurs the performance of vows as denoting prayers of 
 gratitude. (Cf. ad. Psalm 1. 14. 23.) When it is said that the 
 

 PSALM XXIII. 143 
 
 needy shall be filled by the message of the mercies of God as at a 
 great feast, we recognise in the expression the description of the 
 abundant fulness of nourishment which from that message shall 
 accrue to the inner man; while the typical nature of the words of 
 David stamps the expression with its proper significance. So Isaiah 
 foretold, in reference to the days of redemption, "And in this 
 mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of 
 wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees 
 well refined." (Isaiah xxv. 6.) 
 
 F. 28 32. The boundaries of Israel are too narrow for his 
 hope : the message shall be heard to the ends of the world, and 
 from the ends of the world shall men be invited to the feast; the 
 worship of the true God shall be the fruit. Who will gainsay, he 
 continues in v. 29, that, though the heathen seem to have no master 
 (even now the sceptre of the Lord is invisibly swayed over them : 
 "He ruleth in the midst of his enemies.") He will in his own 
 good time cause them to come, that there shall be one fold and one 
 Shepherd? The poor were almost exclusively gathered at the 
 feasts of thank-offerings; but the rich as well shall come to this 
 feast; for who among us is not poor in the possession of the goods 
 which it yields? As this message is unlimited in space, so it shall 
 be in time, and go from generation to generation, The Psalmist 
 finally praises the righteousness of God, but be it remembered that 
 his righteousness includes love. (Cf. ad. Psalm v. 9.) The upshot 
 of all is, that the wonderful glory after extreme sufferings shall 
 become the exhibition for the display of every Divine attribute an 
 exhibition of mercy, which shall inform the Church, down to the 
 most distant future of the fulness of the love of God, and of the 
 riches of his grace. 
 
 PSALM XXIII. 
 
 A PSALM of praise, which exhibits the purest effusion of a soul 
 reconciled to God, and expresses the one thought of happiness in 
 and with God. The blessed hour in which the bard composed this 
 psalm knew neither the law with its terrors nor sin with its tempta- 
 tions. Christians use this beautiful psalm as the expression of the 
 most peculiar emotions which their consciousness of salvation in 
 Christ has excited in them. This song yields not only the pre- 
 sentiments of the blessings of the kingdom of grace, but since the 
 Church militant does at no time experience those blessings in so 
 undimmed a light, may we not say that it yields the presentiment 
 of eternal happiness, which, in Rev. vii. 17, is described in these 
 
144 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 words: "The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 
 them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and 
 God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes" ? 
 
 PSALM of David. 
 
 2 The LORD is my shepherd; 
 I shall not want anything. 
 
 3 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures : 
 He leadeth me beside the still waters. 
 
 4 He refresheth my soul: 
 
 He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his 
 name's sake. 
 
 5 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow 
 
 of death, 
 
 I will fear no evil ; for thou art with me : 
 Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 
 
 6 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of 
 
 mine enemies: 
 
 Thou anointest my head with oil; 
 My cup runneth over. 
 
 7 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days 
 
 of my life : 
 And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. 
 
 V. 2. The spell of childlike simplicity shed over this psalm 
 seems to refer it, like Psalm viii., to the period when David was 
 feeding his father's sheep. The transient allusion to enemies in 
 verse 6, presents the only objection to this view. But those words 
 need not be regarded as descriptive of present enemies. The first 
 portion of his stay at the court of Saul seems the most likely, 
 because then the recollections of his shepherd-life were still fresh. 
 We find that man's proneness to forget God is proportioned to the 
 magnitude of the blessings he confers on him. How delightful to 
 see David lift his soul to God, not only in the hour of affliction, but 
 also in the enjoyment of perfect peace. Can we conceive of any- 
 thing more impotent and helpless than a flock of sheep? Again, 
 who pursues his path in more perfect security and peace, than the 
 flock which feeds under the staff of a faithful shepherd? Thus 
 helpless and unconcerned the children of God pass through life. 
 They say to themselves, He will think for me : he will care for me : 
 he will fight for me. The aged Israel calls the God of Abraham 
 and Isaac his " Shepherd." (Gen. xlviii. 15, in the original.) 
 Isaiah prophesies of the period of redemption, "He shall feed his 
 flock like a shepherd : he shall gather the lambs with his arm ; and 
 
PSALM XXIII. 145 
 
 carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with 
 young." (Isaiah xl. 11.) The Psalmist sings, "Give ear, Shep- 
 herd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock. " (Ps. Ixxx. 2.) 
 The Prophets declare that "God will visit his people, and feed 
 them as their shepherd, by the Messiah, the Son of David." (Ezek. 
 xxxiv. 23; Jer. xxxi. 10.) And when He came, he said of him- 
 self: "/ am the good Shepherd, and know my sheep, and am 
 known of mine. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and 
 they follow me : and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall 
 never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand" 
 (John x. 14. 27, 28.) "I shall not want anything," sings the 
 bard, expressing thereby that God is his all-sufficient good : pos- 
 sessing him, he has everything. His words show that while he 
 says this, his soul is like a clear sheet of water or a cloudless sky. 
 Our anxiety, care, and restlessness arise, because God does not 
 suffice us. 
 
 F 2, 3. He describes the blessings of the shepherd's crook, 
 first in figurative then in plain language Lovely provision is made 
 to satisfy the hungry and thirsty of the flock. The lamb is fur- 
 nished with a green pasture, i. e. fresh and nourishing food, and 
 may repose beside the still (Isaiah viii. 6) waters, where its thirst 
 gets quenched and refreshing breezes blow. He now expresses his 
 meaning in plain language Refreshment of his soul by Divine 
 instruction, and the treading of paths in which going astray or 
 falling are impossible. This David knows, that such grace is not 
 enjoyed by him because of any personal merit, but the Lord does it 
 all for his name's sake. (Ps. xxxi. 4; xxv. 11, etcJ) That name 
 he himself declared to be "merciful and gracious, longsuffering, 
 and abundant in goodness and truth." (Exod. xxxiv. 6.) He will 
 never prove faithless to that name: and as the name of God indi- 
 cates his Being, if he is said to do anything for his name's sake, 
 the meaning is that his merciful intentions flow from the ocean of 
 mercy of his Being. 
 
 F 4, 5. The path of the flock is alternately along sunny moun- 
 tain sides and through dark and narrow rock-bound valleys; but 
 the lambs fear no mishap, knowing that a mighty shepherd's staff 
 presides over $ieir helplessness. So David yields not to the dreamy 
 illusion, that the godly are free from affliction on earth, but is well 
 aware that their bread is often steeped in tears. It is a beautiful 
 trait of David's piety, that his happiness is not confined to bright 
 sunshine, but that he is not afraid in the dark vale, and for ever 
 finds a source of joy in the Shepherd's staff which presides over 
 him. He drops the figure in verse 5, and denotes his enemies as 
 the evil in the dark valley. A well-spread table is within their 
 sight, at which he is seated with anointed head (Luke vii. 46) and 
 an overflowing cup. He shows that a mind reposing in God, while 
 sure of his mercy, may feast on the peace of God, undisturbed by 
 13 
 
146 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 external calamity. Such a sentiment would be natural in a Chris- 
 tian, who as a child of the New Covenant may cheerfully exclaim, 
 "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God 
 that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that 
 died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is ever at the right hand 
 of God, who also maketh intercession for us?" (Rom. viii. 33, 34 j) 
 but confidence like that expressed in the Psalm before us is truly 
 marvellous in an Old Testament saint. 
 
 F. 6. The assurance of reconciliation is accompanied by the 
 assurance that no events in time can shorten, and no limits of time 
 circumscribe, the love and mercy of God. So the mighty faith of 
 David grasps the promises of God, steadfastly and calmly contem- 
 plating the alternations of uncertain life, and firmly convinced of 
 the immoveability of the Divine counsel. The Lord will never 
 forsake his people. The concluding words are very striking, " / 
 shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."* It is evident that 
 David refers not to a continuous residence in the tent of the ark or 
 the tabernacle : he rather considers the house of God as the sym- 
 bol of communion with God and the congregation of the righteous. 
 (Ps. lii. 10; cf. ad. Ps. xv. 1.) These words therefore furnish an 
 evidence that the blessings previously mentioned designate not 
 only the external blessings of man, but rather the enjoyments 
 which the Lord provides in the sanctuary for his people, the riches 
 of which David describes elsewhere in overwhelming fulness, 
 "How precious is thy loving-kindness, God! that the children 
 of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They get 
 drunk with the riches of thine house, thou makest them drink of 
 the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of light: 
 in thy light do we see light." (Ps. xxxvi. 8 10.) 
 
 PSALM XXIV. 
 
 A SONG of praise, sung on the same occasion as Psalm xv. when 
 the procession of the Levites had come near to the ancient castle 
 of Zion. (Cf. Introduction to Psalm xv.) The praise of having 
 won many victories, which are ascribed to the ark, clearly intimates 
 the days of David, for after it attained to its rest on Moriah, (Ps. 
 cxxxii. 14; cf. ad. Ps. xlvii.) it was no more taken into the camp. 
 The bard, anxious to express the solemnity of the moment, 
 declares that the sanctuary of Him is entering who has founded 
 the world and all that dwell therein. This gives rise to the ques- 
 
 * "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I 
 may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." (Ps. xxvii. 4.) 
 
4 / 
 
 Y 
 
 \ / 
 
 PSALM XXIV. 147 
 
 tion, Who is worthy to step into the vicinity of such a sanctuary? 
 (v. 1 3.) The generation of the true worshippers of God are 
 known by the purity of their hearts and hands (cf. Ps. xv.) and 
 not by their sacrifices. The hoary, grey castle gates, through which 
 many a wordly king of the Jebusites had entered, are too low to 
 receive the King of Heaven; they are therefore called upon to 
 raise their heads. As yet they knew him not in his dignity. A 
 mighty echo returns the question, "Who is the King of Glory?" 
 It is the Lord strong and mighty. How many victories have been 
 won by his ark ? The gates must not deny admission to Him. But 
 the question re-echoes once more, as if to furnish the occasion for 
 a louder and more confident declaration of glory, (v. 7 10.) 
 
 PRAYER of David. 
 
 First Choir. 
 
 THE earth is the LORD'S and the fulness thereof; 
 The world, and they that dwell therein. 
 
 2 For he hath founded it above the seas, 
 And established it above the floods. 
 
 3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? 
 Or who shall stand in his holy place? 
 
 Second Choir. 
 
 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart ; 
 
 Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn 
 deceitfully. 
 
 5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, 
 And righteousness from the God of his salvation. 
 
 6 This is the generation of them that seek him, 
 That seek his face, Jacob. Selah. 
 
 First Choir. 
 
 7 Lift up your heads, ye gates ; 
 
 And be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors ; 
 And the King of glory shall come in. 
 
 Second Choir. 
 
 8 Who is this King of glory ? 
 
 First Choir. 
 
 9 The LORD strong and mighty, 
 The LORD mighty in battle, s 
 Lift up your heads, ye gates; 
 
 Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors ; 
 ' the King of glory shall come in. 
 
148 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Second Choir. 
 10 Who is this King of glory? 
 
 First Choir. 
 The LORD of hosts, he i* the King of glory. Selah. 
 
 F. 1, 2. The name of God would not so easily glide over our 
 lips, nor would our minds evince so great an aptitude to wander 
 in our prayers, if we were able to concentrate at the time being 
 the sum total which that name includes. To impress the people 
 with the dignity attaching to the services before the sanctuary of 
 Israel, David deems it necessary to begin with an intimation of the 
 infinite majesty of Him before whom they were henceforth to appear 
 on the holy mount. Though he declares the small band of Israel 
 as his peculiar possession though to Jacob only he showeth his 
 word, and to Israel his statutes and judgments, (Ps. cxlvii. 19,) 
 nevertheless the earth, its fulness, and its inhabitants, are his too. 
 The more numerous his subjects, the greater should be the grati- 
 tude of Israel for his election of grace. It is said in v. 2, that he 
 hath founded the earth above the sea and above the floods; this is 
 explained by the fact that the land rises above the waters, and the 
 Psalmist intends to show his marvel at the waters surrounding and 
 not swallowing up the earth.* 
 
 F. 3 6. This description of the true worshippers of God cor- 
 responds to that of Psalm xv. It is not the scrupulous payment of 
 external offerings, nor regular attendance in the sanctuary, nor the 
 punctilious observance of sacred rites. But the participation in 
 the act of adoration in the holy place, and the privilege of being 
 permitted to bring offerings to God, and made to depend on the 
 purity of heart and hands of the worshippers, which is still further 
 defined by a refraining from every species of vaniiy and deceitful 
 speech. We Christians ought to regard our services, not so much 
 as duties, but as sacred privileges. He says, "This is the genera- 
 tion of them that seek him, that seek his face," intimating that 
 those who pretend to care for God and to seek him, but strive not 
 for purity of heart and hands, must be regarded as hypocrites. In 
 calling that generation par excellence Jacob, David makes a dis- 
 tinction similar to that made by Paul in Rom. ix. 6, between a 
 Jacob after the flesh and a Jacob after the Spirit.f Paul indeed 
 
 * Ps. xxxiii. 7 ; Job xxvi. 10. Other commentators hold that the 
 Psalmist considers the earth as swimming in the waters, and alludes to 
 Gen. vii. 11, forgetting that the fountains of the great deep mentioned 
 there are in the womb of the earth; on the other hand it is said, Job 
 xxvi. 7, that the earth hangeth upon nothing. 
 
 f Cf. Israel Ps. Ixxiii. 1 ; xxv. 22 ; Isa. xlix. 3, etc. Israel is the more 
 solemn name for Jacob. The whole people is called Jacob, Ps. xlvii. 5. 
 
PSALM XXV. 149 
 
 informs us that the promises of God became verified to this 
 Spiritual Israel with the advent of Messiah, though the large mass 
 of the people rejected him. 
 
 V. 7 10. The procession is now approaching the castle gates 
 of the seat of Jebusite royalty, which David had conquered. Its 
 doors are called everlasting,* i. e. ancient doors. History describes 
 the Jebusites as a peculiarly powerful and firmly established nation 
 of Palestine : that castle therefore was probably for a long time the 
 seat of Jebusite royalty. (Josh. x. 1. 23.) The doors in the east 
 moreover are much lower than ours.'j' And is so uncommon a 
 king to hold his entrance without the gates lifting up their heads, 
 i. e. the raising of their capitals? As if hurt at so uncommon a 
 demand, the gates are made to inquire who that unknown king of 
 glory might be who had never before entered through them. 
 Thrice they receive with increased confidence the response, that He 
 is the Lord of Hosts, he who won the victories which are still in 
 the memory of all. 
 
 PSALM XXV. 
 
 A SONG of complaint, either composed during the latter portion of 
 David's residence at the court of Saul, or during the years of his 
 exile. 
 
 Starting with the presence of his enemies the Psalmist seeks 
 comfort from the consciousness that he supplicates the assistance 
 of God as an intimate friend and not as a stranger, (v. 1 3.) 
 But he is aware of his need to pray for further guidance from 
 above for his advancement in righteousness, and to ask for the for- 
 giveness of many transgressions, (v. 4 11.) He knows and con- 
 fesses that the fear of the Lord leads to an ever-increasing illumi- 
 nation, and to the enjoyment of every good, (v. 12 14.) He 
 builds his hope on these convictions, and prays earnestly for Divine 
 aid against his enemies, (v. 15 21.) 
 
 1 A PSALM of David. 
 
 Unto thee, LORD, do I lift up my soul. 
 
 2 my God, I trust in thee : 
 Let me not be ashamed. 
 
 Let not mine enemies triumph over me. 
 
 * This word refers not to the /tore, as 1 Kings viii. 13, but to the past, 
 as Isa. Iviii. 12; Hab. iii. 6; Ez. xxxvi. 2. 
 
 f Faber. Observations on the East, vol. i. p. 94, etc. 
 13* 
 
150 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 3 Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed : 
 Let them be ashamed that wickedly despise thee. 
 
 4 Show me thy ways, LORD ; 
 Teach me thy paths. 
 
 5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me : 
 For thou art the God of my salvation ; 
 On thee do I wait daily. 
 
 6 Remember, LORI>, thy tender mercies and thy loving- 
 
 kindnesses. 
 For they are from everlasting. 
 
 7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions : 
 According to thy mercy remember thou me 
 
 For thy goodness' sake, LORD. 
 
 8 Good and upright is the LORD : 
 Therefore will he teach sinners in the way. 
 
 9 The meek will he guide in judgment : 
 And the meek will he teach his way. 
 
 10 All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth 
 Unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. 
 
 11 For thy name's sake, LORD, pardon mine iniquity ; 
 For it is great. 
 
 12 What man is he that feareth the LORD ? 
 Him shall he teach in the best way. 
 
 13 His soul shall lodge in goodness ; 
 And his seed shall possess the land. 
 
 14 The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him ; 
 And he will show them his covenant.* 
 
 15 Mine eyes are ever towards the LORD : 
 For he shall pluck my feet out of the net. 
 
 16 Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; 
 For I am desolate and afflicted. 
 
 17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged : 
 bring thou me out of my distresses. 
 
 18 Look upon mine affliction and my pain ; 
 And forgive all my sins. 
 
 19 Consider mine enemies how many they be. 
 And they hate me with cruel hatred. 
 
 20 keep my soul and deliver me: 
 
 Let me not be ashamed ; for I put my trust in thee. 
 
 * Or, "The Lord holds intimate converse with them that fear him; he 
 makes a covenant with them to instruct them." 
 
PSALM XXV. 151 
 
 21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me ; 
 For I wait on thee. 
 
 22 Redeem Israel, God, out of all his troubles,* 
 
 V. 13. "Unto thee, Lord, do I lift up my soul/' is his 
 cry, forgetting earthly treasures, men, and everything beside God, 
 as it ought to be when we mean to pray aright. His enemies 
 mock and oppress him; but knowing that in their worst appear- 
 ance they are merely chastising rods in the hands of God, he 
 prays for deliverance by the hand of God. How appeasing the 
 thought that when men show enmity towards us they are simply 
 the chastising rods in the hands of God, which must cease to strike 
 as soon as his end is accomplished. David finds it difficult to bear 
 the mocking triumph of his enemies, because, as has been already 
 more than once observed, he cannot put up with the denial of the 
 truthfulness of the promises of God. He calls his enemies, in 
 verse 3, " wicked despisers of God/' i. e. such as do not keep his 
 laws. He hopes, because it is the eternal law of God, that none 
 who wait on him shall ever be ashamed. We must assume that he 
 refers to ultimate confusion, for we could not well deny that the 
 pious have occasionally to succumb. 
 
 V. 4 7. He numbers himself with those who wait upon the 
 Lord and trust in him. But he is afraid to say too much : he 
 shrinks from describing himself as too righteous, and prays there- 
 fore that God, the only source of his salvation, might graciously 
 direct him by his Spirit and lead him into his paths. He disavows 
 all claim and merit, and appeals to the mercies and goodness of 
 God, as the only sources of man's salvation. By adding " which 
 are from everlasting" he means to say that were God at any time 
 to cease revealing himself to man by those glorious attributes, it 
 would be tantamount to his "proving untrue to himself." He 
 certainly remembers sin as the wall of partition which may step 
 between man and the mercy of God : especially the transgressions 
 of his youth, the period of our lives when the solemnity of the 
 Divine law is not sufficiently realized by man. But shall the 
 source from which he derives every other good, refuse to yield the 
 forgiveness of his sins ? 
 
 V. 8 10. As coals ^feed the fire, so the remembrance of the 
 truths of our faith should keep alive the flame of our prayers. He 
 derives comfort from his conviction that God, being good and 
 upright, cannot but lead into the paths of holiness those who really 
 desire to be instructed in them. The proud despise such instruc- 
 tion; David knows himself humbled; the humble and meek are, 
 however, the very parties whom God will guide and teach. These 
 truths therefore increase his comfort, which is still more enhanced 
 
 * Cf. Introduction to Psalm xiv. 
 
152 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 by his conviction that the paths of the Lofd are fraught with the 
 riches of mercy and truth, to all who are earnestly bent upon obey- 
 ing his law. He beautifully expresses the great truth, set forth 
 by our Lord, John vii. 17, that they are neither able nor entitled to 
 form a judgment of the ways and commandments of God, who only 
 apprehend them with their understanding : they must be obeyed, 
 if their power is to be felt, 
 
 F. 11 14. Prayer for forgiveness interrupts his meditation, 
 and very properly so : for no sooner do we realize the blessings of a 
 holy and pure life, than we get conscious of our many failings. He 
 is unable to present a more powerful shield to his threatening con- 
 science than the name of God's own choosing, which most tho- 
 roughly sets forth his glorious character. (Cf. ad. Psalm xxiii. 3.) 
 Having appeased the voice of conscience, he continued to delight 
 his soul with the contemplation of the blessed consequences of a 
 godly life. He is sure that the fear of the Lord is the best way : 
 the soul of the pious shall pitch her tent and lodge in goodness as 
 in a fruitful land shall reach her home and possess it for ever. 
 The thought of the last expression requires some further elucida- 
 tion. Moses made the promise " to possess the land" (to inherit 
 the earth,) in a literal sense to his people, (Deut. iv. 22; xl. 5; 
 xxxvi. 6. 18,) but since his days it has been used to denote perfect 
 peace, as is apparent from Prov. ii. 21. (Cf. ad. Psalm xxxvii. 8, 9. 
 The Psalmist further declares that God will hold intimate commu- 
 nion (Cf. Prov. iii. 32; and Job xxiv. 4, in the Hebrew,) with 
 them that fear him, instruct them by his Spirit, and establish them 
 in the truth. 
 
 F. 15, 16. Conscious of his sincerity, he yields once more to 
 the hope of deliverance, pleading that all other helpers had for- 
 saken him, and that the troubles of his heart are very great, at the 
 game time disclaiming personal merit. 
 
 F. 19 22. At the close of his prayer he resumes the petition 
 and complaint of the beginning, still enjoying the same comforts, 
 viz. the testimony of a good conscience towards his enemies, and a 
 heart assured that all help must come from above. Compare also 
 the remarks on Psalm xiv. 7. 
 
 PSALM XXVI. 
 
 A SONG of complaint belonging to the time of Saul's persecution, 
 in which David expresses the innocence of his life and his love of 
 the sanctuary, and prays that on that account his destiny may not 
 be like that of the ungodly, when they are visited with the judg- 
 ments of God. 
 
PSALM XXVI. 153 
 
 1 A PSALM of David. 
 
 A 
 
 Judge me, LORD ; 
 
 For I have walked in mine integrity: 
 
 I trust also in the LORD, therefore I shall not slide. 
 
 2 Examine me, LORD, and prove me; 
 Try my reins and my heart. 
 
 3 For thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes : 
 And I have walked in thy truth. 
 
 4 I have not sat with vain persons, 
 Neither have I communed with dissemblers. 
 
 5 I have hated the congregation of evil doers ; 
 And have not sat with the wicked. 
 
 6 I will wash mine hands in innocency: 
 So will I compass thine altar, LORD : 
 
 7 That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, 
 And tell of all thy wondrous works, 
 
 8 LORD, I have loved the habitation of thy house, 
 And the place where thine honour dwelleth. 
 
 9 Gather not my soul with sinners, 
 Nor my life with bloody men : 
 
 10 In whose hands is mischief, 
 
 And their right hand is full of bribes. 
 
 11 But as for me I will walk in mine innocence : 
 Redeem me, and be merciful unto me. 
 
 12 My foot standeth in an even place : 
 
 In the congregations will I bless the LORD. 
 
 V. 1. David received no justice at the hands of men, for the 
 king himself had become a servant of injustice. The blessing that 
 a Judge in heaven presides over all the judges on earth, cannot be 
 sufficiently prized till we get reduced to circumstances like these. 
 We have noticed his innocence at the persecutions of Saul, 
 (Ps. vii. 4, etc.^) He clings to hope though years had passed 
 away without having produced any visible change. He enters 
 into the secret of the presence of God with his "I trust in the 
 Lord." Who can help admiring his unflagging faith? Who 
 feels not that these words are more than mere hollow phrases ? 
 
 V. 2 8. His own conscience yields so powerful a testimony 
 against the untrue accusations circulated by his enemies, that he 
 knows his heart and mind free from any stain in that respect. 
 His marvellous adherence to integrity in his conduct towards Saul 
 was the result of his piety. He evinced that piety in refusing to 
 associate with evil doers; he no doubt increased thereby the num- 
 
154 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 ber of his adversaries, and fanned the flame of their passion. He 
 further showed it by paying to God the outward marks of adoration, 
 by his offerings on the altar, his songs of praise, and his preference 
 of the house of the Lord to every other dwelling. (Psalm xxiii. 6; 
 xxvii. 4; xxxvi. 9. Cf. on the house of the Lord ad. Psalm 
 xxiii. 6.) If "the honour of God" in this place be regarded to 
 be the glory of God as manifested above the ark of the covenant, 
 (Ezek. ix. 3; x. 4; 1 Sam. iv. 21; Ps. Ixxviii. 61,) it is to be 
 borne in mind that it cannot apply to Zion, for it was not removed 
 there until David's accession to the throne; again, the ark was in 
 Saul's time at Kirjath-jearim, but to judge from 1 Chron. xiii. 3, 
 no service seems to have been held there in the days of Saul. 
 For these reasons we had better understand the "honour" or 
 " glory" of God, of his majesty which is especially experienced 
 and found, when all the people pray to their God, as David says, 
 Psalm Ixiii. 3, "Thus have I seen thee in the sanctuary seen thy 
 power and thy glory." 
 
 V. 9 12. Assured that God does not cease even on earth to 
 make a marked distinction between the godly and the ungodly, 
 but being then apparently exposed to the superiority of the foe, 
 (for the sword was hourly suspended above his head,) he prays 
 God to make a difference between his destiny and that of the 
 wicked. (Ps. xxvii. 3, 4.) He describes the wicked as full of 
 mischief and ready to take bribes. The last clause seems not 
 applicable to his then persecutors: by limiting it to corrupt 
 judges exclusively we narrow the expression : it is rather a general 
 description of dishonesty and corrupt disposition.* On the other 
 hand, we are entitled to the supposition that Saul by no means 
 failed to reward his abettors for accusing and persecuting David. 
 (1 Sam. xxii. 7, 8.) David once more declares his resolution to 
 walk after the commandments of God, and since God likes nothing 
 more than being praised by sincere hearts, he vows not only to 
 celebrate his praise in the closet, but to publish it in the great 
 congregations of the godly. 
 
 PSALM XXVII. 
 
 A PSALM of comfort, replete with strong faith and poetical beauty. 
 David confidently asserts that though numerous hosts should rise 
 against him, or his nearest and dearest friends forsake him, he is 
 
 * Prov. xv. 27. "He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house: 
 but he that hateth gifts shall live." Sir. xx. 31. " Gifts and offerings 
 blind the wise." Sir. xl. 12. "All gifts and ill-gotten goods shall vanish, 
 but honesty shall abide for ever." 
 
PSALM xxvn. 155 
 
 sure to ultimately triumph through the Lord. From special 
 attention being had to verses 3, 4, 6, 10, 12, and their comparison 
 with several psalms which were composed during the persecution 
 of Absalom, (Ps. Ixiii. 42, 43,) it seems very probable that this 
 psalm falls into the same period. 
 
 When all the people had risen against David, he fervently and 
 joyfully clings to his God, (v. 1 3.) He regards the communion 
 with God, which he had enjoyed in the sanctuary, as his highest 
 good, and looks at the sanctuary as a sure asylum, where he yet 
 hopes to sing his praises, (v. 4 6.) After this lofty flight of his 
 soul, complaint gets audible but only for a moment it immedi- 
 ately re-assumes the expression of confidence, (v. 7 10.) The 
 injustice and violence of his enemies raise his courage to pray. 
 What would his condition be without his trust in God ? He 
 therefore encourages himself in the fervou* and assurance of 
 faith, (v. 1114.) 
 
 1 A PSALM of David. 
 
 A 
 
 The LORD is my light and my salvation ; 
 Whom shall I fear? 
 The LORD is the strength of my life ; 
 Of whom shall I be afraid ? 
 
 2 Though the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, 
 
 should come upon me to eat up my flesh, 
 They shall stumble and fall. 
 
 3 Though an host should encamp against me, 
 My heart shall not fear : 
 
 Though war should rise against me, 
 In this will I be confident. 
 
 4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, 
 That will I seek after; 
 
 That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days 
 
 of my life ; 
 
 To behold the beauty* of the LORD, 
 And to look at his temple. 
 
 5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion : 
 In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me : 
 
 He shall set me upon a rock. 
 
 6 And now shall mine head be lifted above mine enemies 
 
 round about me : 
 
 Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; 
 I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD. 
 
 * In the Hebrew, "loveliness." 
 
156 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 7 Hear, LORD, when I cry with my voice : 
 ' Have mercy also upon me and answer me. 
 
 8 My heart reminds thee of thy word: " Seek ye my face." 
 Thy face, LORD, will I seek. 
 
 9 Hide not thy face far from me ; 
 Put not thy servant away in anger: 
 Thou hast been my help ; leave me not, 
 Neither forsake me, God of my salvation. 
 
 10 When my father and my mother forsake me, 
 Then the LORD will take me up. 
 
 11 Teach me thy way, LORD, 
 
 And lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. 
 
 12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies : 
 For false witnesses are risen up against me, 
 
 And such as breathe out cruelty. 
 
 13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness 
 
 of the LORD 
 
 14 In the land of the living.* Wait on the LORD : 
 
 Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart : 
 Wait, I say, on the LORD. 
 
 V. 1, 2. Here, as in Ps. xlix. 6; Ixxiii. 1, we see a heart, which 
 having struggled some time with the temptation of despair mounts 
 triumphantly, fearlessly braving every storm, conscious that while 
 God is for us, we need not fear if the whole world be against us. 
 This triumph of faith is impossible if we lack the assurance that 
 God is reconciled to us : hence it arises in the soul of Old Testa- 
 ment saints as a transient ray of light, which is soon succeeded by 
 former darkness. Only Paul was able all his life long to enjoy the 
 assurance which he expresses in Rom. viii. 31, etc. "My light, 
 my salvation, the strength of my life," is "my All in All/' where 
 I find concentrated everything in the search of which others have 
 to pursue many roads. 
 
 V. 3, 4. Convinced that the combined strength of mortals is 
 nothing compared unto God, David neither fears hostile armies nor 
 an entire people risen in rebellion. He uses similar language in 
 Ps. iii. 6, 7, "I laid me down and slept, I awaked for the Lord 
 sustained me : I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that 
 have set themselves against me round about." On his flight before 
 Absalom, he left behind him his palace, his residence, his crown, 
 his wife and children : he thinks of none of these, but it is the 
 highest object of his desire "to dwell in the house of the Lord all 
 the days of his life," so when he was in the desert (Ps. Ixiii.) his 
 
 * Cf. Gen. 1. 15, in the Hebrew. 
 
PSALM XXVII. 157 
 
 soul thirsted for God and his sanctuary more than for anything 
 else. 2 Sam. xv. 25, shows how all his desires concentrated in the 
 hope of his seeing again the sanctuary on Zion. The holiest experi- 
 ences of his life were connected with the sanctuary, he therefore 
 desired to be never separated from it. It is there where he realized 
 the delight of holy communion with G-od, which he describes 
 Ps. xxxvi. 8 10; Ixxxiv. 11. "To behold the beauty of the 
 Lord" in connection with " looking at his temple" is best explained 
 by Luther, who renders, "to behold the beautiful services (worship) 
 of the Lord." Psalm xcii. 2, describes the same delights. " It is a 
 precious thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises 
 unto thy name, O most High." These passages show that many 
 of the pious in Israel regarded their worship not as an outward 
 formality, performed in obedience to the law, but that they poured 
 their whole soul into it and derived spiritual strength from it. 
 David goes beyond the delights of worship: he longs "to look at 
 the sanctuary." This meaning* is not "outward admiration," nor 
 the solemn sentiments only to which the holy place might give 
 rise, but the contemplation of the symbolical meaning of the holy 
 ritual: for just as our weak eyes are only able to look at the sun 
 when he is reflected in the mirror of the waters, so spiritual truths 
 were accessible to the ancients only when they were reflected in 
 the mirror or the symbol.f Another psalm which falls into this 
 period depicts in almost the same words the longing of the exiled 
 king for the sanctuary and its services, (Ps. Ixiii. 2, 3.) 
 
 V. 5, 6. The tabernacle presented an asylum to the pursued. 
 (1 Kings ii. 29.) He therefore names the pavilion of God as his 
 place of refuge in all the tempests of his life : the same thought is 
 expressed in Psalm Ixi. 5. (Cf. Ps. xxxi. 21.) David having 
 spoken of the temple in verse 4, names in verses 5, 6, the taber- 
 nacle, which shows, as was observed ad. Psalm v. 8, that the taber- 
 nacle used to be called the temple.^ Another figure describes the 
 manner of his deliverance from danger. "He shall set me upon a 
 rock." In that manner he had during his former years of suffer- 
 ing often escaped from his persecutors. While the children of the 
 
 * The Hebrew means rather "mental looking at a thing" than physical. 
 
 f "A former race, more affected by sensuous impressions, must have 
 possessed a greater sense (adaptation) for symbolical language: it may be 
 said that entire nature showed her physiognomy to them." 0. Mueller, 
 Prolegom. of Mythology, p. 258. Cf. Baehr's Symbolism of the Mosaic 
 Ritual, 2 vols. 1837 and 1839. 
 
 J Commentators who dispute the Davidic origin of this psalm, have not 
 satisfactorily explained David's speaking here of the Tabernacle. Krahmer 
 says, "The temple which was built in the form of the tabernacle." Others 
 (Gesenius) think that Ezek. xli. 1, is as much "tent" as "temple." Cf. 
 however Boetticher's Specimens of the Old Testament Interpretations, 
 p. 237. 
 
 14 
 
158 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 world celebrate only secular triumphs after such marvellous preser- 
 vations and deliverances, and praise and magnify their good for- 
 tune, David thinks beforehand of the praises he intends to sing to 
 his Lord, and he does it with an evident foretaste of holy delight. 
 
 F. 7 10. He had struggled through much anxiety to the con- 
 fidence here expressed; but as the waves of the heart undulate, 
 and light and shade alternate in trouble, fear breaks forth once 
 more, though it is raised and supported by divine consolation. 
 With the key of a divine promise as ancient as Moses, (Deut. 
 iv. 29; cf. 2 Chron. xv. 2; Psalm cv. 4,) he unlocks the door that 
 leads to God, and takes God at his own word, whereby he teaches 
 us how the word of God should, like the echo in mountainous 
 regions, find a thousandfold echo in our hearts, to raise our confi- 
 dence by its repeated calls. Having laid hold of God in his word, 
 he continues to pray for the experience of its power: for by*the 
 unveiling of the countenance of God he understands the experience 
 of his favour. He prays in the right manner, disowning all other 
 help save that of God. We may have earthly resources, and apply 
 to them, but we are to do it in God, not without him. David is so 
 sure of divine favour, that though all earthly supports however 
 near and dear should fail, he knows that God will always remain 
 the same. Parental hearts are susceptible of the tenderest love for 
 their offspring, but God has promised far greater : "Can a woman 
 forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the 
 son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will not I forget thee." 
 (Isa, xlix. 15.) God is David's first and last resource: he presents 
 indeed a powerful contrast to an unbelieving world, to whom God, 
 if haply they think of him, is only the stop-gap of earthly helpers. 
 But the Lord is a jealous God, who will not give his glory to 
 another. (Exod. xxxiv. 14.) 
 
 F. 11, 12. It is touching to notice his prayers for Divine assist- 
 ance that transgression may not deprive him of the glory which 
 until then even his enemies were obliged to leave him; viz. the 
 glory of a good conscience. Now that the father went to war against 
 his son, the king against his own people, there were many occasions 
 for stumbling, either from weakness or severity. Certain calumnies 
 of his enemies were not wanting: 2 Sam. xv. 3, 4, state the rumours 
 detrimental to the character of David which had been circulated by 
 Absalom, and 2 Sam. xvi. 8, the unjust railings which Shimei 
 uttered in the interest of Absalom. 
 
 F. 13, 14. We may supply the thought of David to the words, 
 "I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the 
 Lord in the land of the living/' from Psalm cxix. 92, where he says, 
 "Unless the law had been my delights, I should then have perished 
 in mine affliction. 1 ' If he had not trusted in the Lord, he would 
 indeed have been undone; for in his circumstances there was no 
 
PSALM XXVIII. 159 
 
 hope for him with men. Hoping in the Lord he encourages himself, 
 that though his help be delayed, he will not look out for any other 
 help. There is no more dignified species of worship to be found, 
 than that of exemplifying our faith in the omnipotence and wisdom 
 of Grod, by humble and joyous perseverance under the greatest 
 difficulties. 
 
 PSALM XXVIIL 
 
 A 90NG of complaint, belonging to the time of Absalom's persecu- 
 tion, as appears from verses 8, 9, where David prays for himself 
 the king, and for his loyal subjects. (Cf. Ps. Ixiii. 12.) 
 
 In some mournful hour of that time he prays God not to suffer 
 the innocent to be destroyed with the guilty, (v. 1 5.) His faith 
 then mounts suddenly to prophetic certainty : he thanks the Lord 
 for having answered his prayers, and expresses his conviction that 
 the blessing of God will rest on the king and the people, (v. 6 9.) 
 
 PSALM of David. 
 
 Unto thee will I cry, LORD, my rock ; be not silent 
 
 to me: 
 Lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go 
 
 down into the pit. 
 
 2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee. 
 When I lift up my hands towards thy holy oracle. 
 
 3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers 
 
 of iniquity, 
 
 Which speak peace to their neighbours, 
 But mischief is in their hearts. 
 
 4 Give them according to their deeds, 
 
 And according to the wickedness of their endeavours : 
 Give them after the work of their hands; 
 Render to, them their desert. 
 
 5 Because they regard not the works of the LORD, 
 Nor the operation of his hands, 
 
 He shall destroy them, and not build them up. 
 
 6 Blessed be the LORD, 
 
 Because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. 
 
160 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 7 The LORD is my strength and my shield ; 
 My heart trusted in him, and I am helped : 
 Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; 
 And with my song will I praise him. 
 
 8 The LORD 'is their strength (i. e. the faithful followers of 
 
 the king,) 
 And he is the saving strength of his anointed. 
 
 9 Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance : 
 Feed them also, and lift them up for ever. 
 
 V. 1. David's refuge is with God this evidences his faith and 
 good conscience. For however much suffering dims the life of all, 
 there are but few who make the Lord their refuge. Most men 
 either inwardly consume their grief in obstinate silence, or give 
 vent to it in idle complaints, or conquered by despair succumb to 
 misfortune. The reason is just this, that most men shrink from 
 approaching God through infidelity or accusing consciences, and 
 know not the blessedness of confiding in his omnipotence and 
 mercy. David indicates the greatness of his danger by saying, 
 that he resembles those who have no hope on earth. 
 
 V. 2. His supplication is fervent the waters are come unto 
 his soul. He has not indulged in lukewarm speech before God, 
 but cried and lifted up his hands to the Holiest of Holies : viz. 
 toward the seat of the ark, the visible sanctuary which God had 
 provided for Israel, because they found it so difficult to raise their 
 hearts to heaven. 
 
 V. 3 5. Far from believing that God makes no difference 
 between the righteous and the ungodly and treats both indiscrimi- 
 nately alike, he forms the hope of his consolation from the character 
 of God. In verse 5, the root of the evil works of the wicked is 
 shown, who will not regard the doings of the Lord those evidences 
 of his power, wisdom, and righteousness, which in every place he 
 has exhibited to the attentive observer. 
 
 V. 6, 7. Hearty petitions imply the assurance that they will be 
 answered. Hence no surprise need be felt if assurance often fur- 
 nishes the Amen. So here in the case of David. If his assurance 
 was of the right kind, we have to regard his Amen not as a human 
 response, but like assurance itself, the effect of the Holy Spirit. 
 Being able like a hero to look to the Lord and to trust in his 
 strength, his help is come. 
 
 V. 8, 9. "The Lord is their strength/' This refers to his 
 faithful followers, who had not joined the multitude in siding with 
 Absalom. He refers to these in Psalm Ixiii. 12, "But the king 
 shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory" 
 as in Psalm iii. he concludes with praying in verse 9 for these 
 the chosen people, the people and inheritance of God. 
 
PSALM XXIX* 161 
 
 PSALM XXIX. 
 
 A GLORIOUS psalm of praise sung during a tempest, the majesty of 
 which shakes universal nature, so much so that the greatness of 
 the power of the Lord is felt by all in heaven and on earth. This 
 Lord is the God of his people, who blesses them with strength and 
 peace. 
 
 To rightly appreciate the feelings of the bard, one ought to 
 realize an oriental storm, especially in the mountainous regions of 
 Palestine, which, accompanied by the terrific echoes of the encir- 
 cling mountains, by torrents of rain like waterspouts, often scatters 
 terror on man and beast, destruction on cities and fields.* 
 
 1 A PSALM of David. 
 
 -el 
 
 Give unto the LORD, ye mighty, f 
 Give unto the LORD glory and strength. 
 
 2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name ; 
 Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. 
 
 3 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters : 
 The God of glory thundereth : 
 
 The LORD is above great waters. 
 
 4 The voice of the LORD is powerful ; 
 The voice of the LORD is full of majesty. 
 
 5 The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars ; 
 Yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. 
 
 6 He maketh them also to skip like calves : 
 Lebanon and Sirion like young buffaloes. 
 
 7 The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire. 
 
 8 The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness ; 
 The LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh, 
 
 9 The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds (for terror) 
 
 to calve, 
 
 And denudeth the forests : 
 And in his temple the utterance of all is, " glory. " 
 
 * Wilson, the traveller, describes such a tempest in the neighbourhood 
 of Baalbek; "I was overtaken by a storm, as if the floodgates of heaven 
 had burst; it came on in a moment, and raged with a power which sug- 
 gested the end of the world. Solemn darkness covered the earth : the rain 
 descended in torrents, and sweeping down the mountain side, became by 
 the fearful power of the storm transmuted into thick clouds of fog." Cf. 
 also our Lord's parable, taken from life, in Matt. vii. 27.^ 
 
 f Or, "Ye sons of God." 
 14* 
 
162 COMMENTAK? ON THE PSALMS, 
 
 10 The LORD sitteth enthroned upon the floods ; 
 Yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever. 
 
 11 The LORD will give strength unto his people ; 
 The LORD will bless his people with peace. 
 
 V. 1, 2. The Psalmist translates himself to the regions above, 
 where the events of earth are prepared. The mighty ones of God 
 or the sons of God, i. e. his heavenly spirits, are represented as 
 spectators, while the Lord is about to send the messengers of his 
 power to the earth. The Psalmist calls upon them to praise the 
 mighty Lord in the beauty of holiness, i. e. after the solemn man- 
 ner of priests. (Psalm ex. 3.) Heaven is properly the Temple oi 
 God, (verse 9 ; Ps. xi. 4,) of which earthly temples are only the 
 representations. Saints on earth adore and worship at the rising 
 of the Lord's tempests how much more the holy ones in heaven ! 
 
 F. 3, 4. The solemn repetition of " The voice of the Lord," 
 occurs seven times. A sevenfold thunder is mentioned Rev. x. 4, 
 It is as if the voice of thunder were audible in sevenfold peals, 
 The waters float as yet heavily along the sky, while the thundei 
 rages with majesty and power in the heavens above them. (Cf. Ps, 
 civ. 3; cxlviii. 4.) 
 
 V. 5 9. The thunder of the Lord descends to the earth in the 
 lofty regions of Northern Palestine, in the high mountains o1 
 which its power is felt first. The ancient cedars, crowded togethei 
 on Lebanon and Sirion, (i. e. Anti-Lebanon,) leap at the might} 
 thunder peals, like calves skipping on the pasture or like youn 
 buffaloes, and are torn down. The thunder descending to th( 
 earth, separates into hissing lightning. The level country, th( 
 deserts, the pastures as far as the southern frontier of Palestine 
 the wilderness of Kadesh, where the country of the Edomitej 
 begins all shake and tremble. Storm and lightning divest the 
 trees of the forest of their garment, and terror-struck the timic 
 hinds give premature birth to their young. The celestial specta 
 tors gaze upon the scene, and the sound of " Glory, glory !" rever- 
 berates through the heavenly temple. 
 
 V. 10, 11. The Psalmist sees these things not with his physica 
 but with his spiritual eye: the majesty of the Lord, however greai 
 and glorious it did appear to him at all times, seems more roya 
 still on his beholding the King of nature enthroned over the floods 
 of water. This revelation of his majestic power was transient: bui 
 the power itself is his for ever and for ever. " Happy are we," h* 
 concludes, "if this God is our God: happy are we, for he will give 
 us strength and peace." 
 
PSALM XXX. 
 
 PSALM XXX. 
 
 A HUMBLE and joyful psalm of praise after deliverance from 
 great affliction. Its title and its contents can be harmonized on 
 the supposition, that David composed it when he dedicated the 
 place for the building of the Temple, on which God had com- 
 manded him to erect an altar after the deliverance of the country 
 from the pestilence. (1 Chron. xxi. 18 ; xxii. 1.) The details of 
 that event were as follows. In spite of the monitions of Joab, not 
 to sin against the Lord, David had insisted upon taking the census 
 of the martial strength of his nation. Joab, afraid of the resist- 
 ance of the people, had, accompanied by a military escort, gone 
 through the country for that purpose. (2 Sam. xxiv. 4; 1 Chron. 
 xxi. 4.) Though the historical books are not explicit as to the 
 motives of the king, yet the manner of the expressions used seems 
 to indicate that David yielded to the promptings of pride that he 
 sought in the exact knowledge of his available resources to gratify 
 his ambition, and in the enrolment of those of his subjects who 
 were competent to take up arms, to find a coercive which should 
 render the participation in new military enterprises obligatory to 
 all his subjects. 
 
 The assumption of the latter view is suggested by the question 
 of Joab, "My lord king, are they not all my lord's servants?" 
 This measure is the more striking because it falls into the latter 
 portion of the life of David, when his kingdom was not exposed to 
 any danger. The unpopularity of that measure with the people 
 may be inferred from the circumstance, that Joab was obliged to 
 go through the country under military escort, and that he could 
 not make up his mind to extend the census to Benjamin, a tribe 
 much inclined to resistance. (1 Chron. xxi. 6. Cf. on the aver- 
 sion of Benjamin to the king, Introduction to Psalm Ixxviii.) 
 The pestilence raged for three days in the land as a Divine pun- 
 ishment for the daring of the king. David and the elders of 
 Israel, clothed in sackcloth, (i. e. mourning apparel,) fell upon 
 their faces with prayers of repentance. Then was the plague 
 stayed, and Gad, the aged prophet, who had stood by David from 
 his youth, delivered the Divine commission to him, that he was to 
 build an altar on the place where the pestilence was stopped, on 
 Moriah. The sacredness in which David held that spot was pro- 
 portioned to the depths of his repentance. It was to him a stand- 
 ing memorial of the mercy of God. On that identical spot he 
 determined to erect the temple, the building of which he could 
 only prepare but not execute in his advanced age. The Psalm 
 expresses feelings such as we should or might expect then, (after 
 such events,) at the dedication of that place for the bunding of 
 the temple. His security of pride, which led to the taking of the 
 
164 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 census, is expressed in verses 7, 8, while v. 9 11 denote his fear 
 of being consumed by the judgment of God. (Of. 2 Sam. xxiv. 17.) 
 He glories at the brief duration of the anger of the Lord in 
 verses 5, 6. Feelings of deep humility and vivid joy alternate in 
 this beautiful psalm. 
 
 He glories in his deliverance from the brink of the precipice, 
 (v. 2 4,) and invites the godly to celebrate the riches of the 
 longsuffering and mercy of God, who suffers his anger to endure 
 but for a little, (v. 5, 6.) He describes his former security, as 
 well as his complaint when chastisement broke in, (v. 7, 11,) and 
 regards his deliverance as the most emphatic exhortation to the 
 unceasing praise of the Lord, (v. 12, 18.) 
 
 1 A PSALM and Song of David at the dedication of the 
 .iJL temple. 
 
 2 I will extol thee, LORD ; for thou hast lifted me up, 
 And hast not made my foes to rejoice over me. 
 
 3 LORD my God, I cried unto thee, 
 And thou hast healed me.* 
 
 4 LORD, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave : 
 Thou hast kept me alive, while others went down . to 
 
 the pit. 
 
 5 Sing unto the LORD, ye saints of his, 
 
 And give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. 
 
 6 For his anger endureth but a moment ; 
 But his favour for life. 
 
 Weeping may come in the evening, 
 But joy in the morning. 
 
 7 And in my prosperity I said, 
 "I shall never be moved." 
 
 8 LORD, by thy favour thou hadst made my mountain to 
 
 stand strong: 
 But thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled, 
 
 9 I cried to thee, LORD ; 
 
 And unto the LORD I made supplication. 
 
 10 What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to 
 
 the pit ? 
 Shall the dust praise thee ? shall it declare thy truth ? 
 
 11 Hear, LORD, and have mercy upon me : 
 LORD, be thou my helper. 
 
 12 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: 
 Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with 
 
 gladness : 
 
 * Or, "Thou hast restored me." 
 
PSALM XXX. 165 
 
 13 To the end that my soul* may sing praise to thee, and 
 
 not be silent. 
 LORD, my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever. 
 
 V. 2 4. History coincides with the sentiments of this psalm. 
 David so far from expecting to remain untouched by the pestilence, 
 prompted by his love for his people, actually called the punish- 
 ment upon his own guilty head. Hence his lively gratitude. 
 He says that he could have borne least the triumphant rejoicings 
 of his foes at home and abroad. Is it possible to think of any- 
 thing more humiliating than that he should expire beneath the 
 chastising strokes of that God, in whose aid he had so often 
 gloried, and whose support had carried him to so lofty a position? 
 He was preserved alive, while others went down to the pit. For 
 this he had reason to thank and praise the Lord in deep humility 
 but in great joy withal. From the expression, "And thou hast 
 healed me/' in verse 3, it does not follow that the king himself 
 was ill, since the words "to heal" and "to build" are used in the 
 Old Testament to denote any kind of healing. David tottered 
 when his kingdom tottered. 
 
 V. 5, 6. It is beautifully instructive to notice how the Psalmists 
 rise from their individual to general experience : identifying them- 
 selves with the Church they address the Church. The consoling 
 sentiment of verse 6, has dried myriads of tears since David 
 uttered it for the first time. True, our life is made up of so much 
 trouble and anguish, and such a perpetual alternation of light and 
 shade, that hardly a day passes without its sorrow for the present, 
 its care for the future. But the assurance of Divine favour invari- 
 ably enriches our souls with peace and gladness under present 
 trouble no less than in sight of fears of the future, and the severity 
 of Divine wrath is felt by those who are reconciled to God for 
 hours and moments only: the pious are therefore entitled to say 
 with David, that the proportion of their sense of Divine favour 
 and inward joy to Divine wrath and inward trouble, is like that of 
 their whole life to a moment. This sentiment in the mouth of 
 David shows that he did not determine the measure of his enjoy- 
 ments and pleasures by what is so called by the many for since 
 few have to drain a larger cup of affliction than fell to his lot, his 
 delight in life must have been based upon his delight in the love 
 of God. Who else would during so many years of affliction have 
 composed the number of songs of gratitude and praise which David 
 did? (Isa. liv. 7, 8.) 
 
 * The original has "soul" (or " tongue") without the pronoun, but such 
 omissions of the pronoun are by no means rare, (Jer. xxxi. 47; xiv. 10; 
 Psalm Ix. 6; cxlix. 5.) 
 
166 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 F. 7, 8. David with all his faults is ever ready to admit that 
 the chastisement of God is just, an extremely difficult admission to 
 the majority of men. The ancient declaration of Moses, "that 
 when Israel waxed fat he kicked/' (Deut. xxxii. 15,) finds its daily 
 confirmation in life. Though there is nothing more dissonant with 
 a truly pious man, than in prosperity to arrive at a carnal security, 
 yet some even of the pious occasionally yield to this temptation. 
 David is far from saying with Nebuchadnezzar, "Is not this great 
 Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the 
 might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?" (Daniel 
 iv. 27.) On the contrary he says, "Lord, by thy favour thou 
 hadst made my mountain to stand strong." But his very readiness 
 to trace back all his glory to God exposed him to the danger of 
 mingling self-elevation with his heartfelt joy at the mercy of God; 
 or he may have resembled those who in their confession, "God be 
 merciful to me a sinner," are wont to give the whole emphasis to 
 the word me instead of merciful; or in praising and considering 
 the gift of God, he may have rejoiced more at the gift than at the 
 Giver. The exact computation and mobilisation of his forces indi- 
 cates a state of mind but little befitting the aged king, who had 
 triumphed over all his enemies, and knew his kingdom secure. He 
 had yet to learn what is expressed in Psalm cxix. 67, "Before I 
 was brought low I went astray; but now have I kept thy word." 
 "Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong," may refer to 
 Zion, but "mountain" is probably a figurative expression for 
 "majesty," (i. e. royal highness.) 
 
 F. 9 11. When the Lord hid his countenance, David sought 
 to move him by his vows, and regarding his earthly existence in 
 the sole aspect of setting forth the glory of God, supplicated the 
 assistance of the Lord. 
 
 F. 12, 13. He and the elders of Israel had lain on their faces 
 in mourning apparel before the Lord. Now he was permitted to 
 gird himself with gladness : he determines to make the praises of 
 the Lord the business of his life, and his preparations for the 
 building of the temple are subservient to that intention. 
 
 PSALM XXXI. 
 
 A PLAINTIVE psalm, composed under a sense of great desertion, 
 from which the Psalmist, however, rises to confidence and firm 
 courage. It evidently belongs to the period of David's flight, when 
 the persecution had been raging for some time, and began to get 
 intolerable, (v. 11.) Commentators have referred this psalm to the 
 
PSALM XXXI. 167 
 
 same period as 1 Sam. xxiii. 26, simply because both there and in 
 v. 23 of this psalm the same word stands in the original.* 
 
 Conscious of his confidence in the Lord, he begins the psalm 
 with believing supplication, (v. 2 9 ;) his cry for help, however, 
 becomes more painful and touching on his realizing the continu- 
 ance and magnitude of his sufferings, (v. 10 19;) but placing, 
 on the other hand, the riches of the mercy of the Lord before his 
 soul, he feels edified and strengthened to a degree, that he wonders 
 how he could have hesitated : and concludes with an exhortation to 
 the godly to repose unwavering trust in the Lord, (v. 22 25.) 
 
 1 H^O the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 2 In thee, LORD, do I put my trust ; 
 Let me never be ashamed : 
 
 Deliver me in thy righteousness (goodness.) 
 
 3 Bow down thine ear to me ; 
 
 Deliver me speedily : be thou my strong rock. 
 For an house of defence to save me. 
 
 4 For thou art my rock and my fortress ; 
 
 Therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me. 
 
 5 Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me : 
 For thou art my strength. 
 
 6 Into thine hami I commit my spirit: 
 
 Thou hast redeemed me, LORD God of truth. 
 
 7 I hate them that regard lying vanities : 
 But I trust in the LORD. 
 
 8 I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: 
 For thou hast considered my trouble ; 
 Thou hast known my soul in adversities ; 
 
 9 And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy : 
 Thou hast set my feet in a large room (space.) 
 
 10 Have mercy upon me, LORD, for I am in trouble : 
 Mine eye is consumed with grief, 
 Yea, my soul and my belly. 
 
 * Jeremiah and Jonah have used this psalm in later times, and borrowed 
 some of its expressions. Cf. Sam. iii. 54, with verse 23; Jer. xx. 10, with 
 verse 14; Jonah ii. 3, with verse 23; Jonah ii. 9, with verse 7; also Psalm 
 xliv. 14; Ixxix. 4, with verse 12. That the prophets used the Psalms, and 
 not the Psalmist the prophets, may be inferred from the fondness of Jere- 
 miah to weave the sayings of the ancients into his compositions: it is 
 unmistakable e. g. in Psalm i. 3; xxxiii. 7. Cf. in general, Kuper, Jeremias 
 librorum sacrorum interpres atque index, Berlin, 1837 a work which is 
 not yet sufficiently estimated. 
 
168 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 11 For my life is spent with grief. 
 And my years with sighing : 
 
 My strength faileth because of my punishment, 
 And my bones are consumed. 
 
 12 I am become a reproach among all mine enemies, 
 But especially among my neighbours, 
 
 And a fear to my kindred: 
 They that see me without flee from me. 
 131 am forgotten as a dead man out of mind : 
 I am like a broken vessel. 
 
 14 For I have heard the slander of many: 
 Fear is on every side : 
 
 While they take council together against me, 
 They devise to take away my life. 
 
 15 But I trust in thee, LORD : 
 I say, "Thou art my God." 
 
 16 My times are in thy hand : 
 
 Deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, 
 And from them that persecute me. 
 
 17 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant : 
 Save me for thy mercies' sake. 
 
 18 Let me not be ashamed, LORD, for I have called upon 
 
 thee: 
 
 The wicked shall be ashamed, * 
 
 They shall be silenced in Sheol. 
 
 19 The lying lips shall be put to silence 
 Which speak grievous things proudly 
 And contemptuously against the righteous. 
 
 20 Oil how great is thy goodness, 
 
 Which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee ; 
 Which thou showest to them that trust in thee before 
 the sons of men ! 
 
 21 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence 
 From the device of man : 
 
 Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion 
 From the strife of tongues. 
 
 22 Blessed be the LORD : 
 
 For he hath showed me his marvellous kindness 
 In a strong city. 
 
 23 For I said in my haste, 
 
 I am cut off from before thine eyes : 
 
 Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications 
 
 When I cried unto thee. 
 
PSALM XXXI. 169 
 
 24 love the LORD, all ye his saints : 
 For the LORD preserveth the faithful, 
 And plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. 
 
 25 Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, 
 All ye that hope in the LORD. 
 
 V. 2 4. The prayer for speedy deliverance shows the greatness 
 of his affliction, while verses 10, 11, indicate that he was not inex- 
 perienced in the school of sorrows. How many prayers, equally 
 believing, may have preceded this, without having effected the 
 cessation of his season of suffering. We cannot sufficiently admire 
 these words, "In thee do I put my trust," which with every new 
 day of suffering, rise in undiminished strength. Though a thousand 
 times sent away, we should find it an easy thing to return a thou- 
 sand times to the same door, did we but possess the assurance of 
 of David that this is the only way to salvation: for he knows of no 
 other rock nor fortress than God. 
 
 F. 5 9. Most men suffer shipwreck on one of two cliffs; they 
 either march so securely in this life, where, as one of the Fathers 
 observes, man is ever walking on glass, as if no mishap could 
 befall them ; or, aware of the uncertainty of human prosperity, they 
 toil and labour in seeking to keep every disturbance of it at a dis- 
 tance, just as if they were able to see and manage everything. 
 David, though perfectly conscious of the thousandfold dangers which 
 beset our every step, yet equally convinced of the utter insufficiency 
 of human foresight, avoids either mistake. He is anxious for his 
 life, but anxious in such a manner that he commits it to the best 
 of advocates. His confidence is not the trial of a novice, who for 
 the first time tests his faith and his God. He is enabled to call 
 God by a name, which if learnt from experience and not from books, 
 is itself a potent shield in the day of temptation. He calls him the 
 God of truth, i. e. faithfulness, knows the inanity of every other 
 hope, and is sure that God remembers him in days of adversity. 
 
 V. 10, 11. The contrast of past experience with present facts 
 impresses him with the full extent of his tribulation. Though a 
 hero in mind, though disciplined in the school of sorrows, yet the 
 grief of his soul has so affected him that his sap of life is consumed 
 and his body attenuated. The sting of conscience has blended 
 with the external causes of his misery. Great evil, according to 
 the divinely instituted connexion between sin and evil, always tends 
 to awaken man's consciousness of guilt. Though in his present 
 troubles innocent before man, he knew himself impure (Cf. ad. Ps. 
 vi. 1) before God, and called therefore his misery his punishment. 
 
 V. 12 14. Though these and similar expressions in the Psalms 
 cannot always be taken in a literal sense, (Cf. Ps. Ixix. 9; Ixxxviii. 
 19,) they may be conceived as literally true in the case pf David. 
 
 15 
 
170 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 A man exiled by his king, who would reward with his royal favour 
 those who betrayed him, (1 Sam. xxii. 8; xxiii. 21,) could not but 
 become the reproach of those whose houses he used to frequent. 
 Nor does the fear of his kindred seem strange, since their connexion 
 with him (especially at a time when enmity towards an individual 
 became transferred upon all his family) was no doubt fraught with 
 danger to them. We read indeed that David, in order to secure 
 the safety of his parents, deemed it necessary to remove them to 
 the land of the Moabites. (1 Sam. xxii. 3.) It was even true that 
 his nearest relatives and friends had forgotten him like a dead man : 
 he could no longer meet with Jonathan, and probably saw his re- 
 latives during his decennial flight on that one occasion only when 
 he met them in the cave of Adullam. (1 Sam. xxii. 1.) That cave 
 was near Bethlehem, the town of David's tribe, (cf. the locality in 
 the narrative 2 Sam. xxiii. 13, etc.,} and he seems afterwards not 
 to have been so near the capital. " Fear on every side" was expe- 
 rienced by David more than any one else; for no secret nook nor 
 corner of the country was too remote to prevent infuriated Saul 
 from attempting the seizure of the fugitive. Add to all this his 
 many treacherous and false friends. 
 
 V. 15 19. David's faith stands the test in the midst of all these 
 temptations of outward affliction : he neither regards the number 
 nor the strength of his enemies, but looks to the hand of God, who 
 distributes the fortunes of men. So the believing child of God, 
 instead of settling his affairs with his enemies, commits them to 
 God from his closet, and while they deem themselves quite secure, 
 the strength of his prayers arrays Heaven against them. 
 
 V. 20 22. The consideration of his own experience of the 
 goodness of God, and that in the midst of his severe trials, leads 
 him to break forth into its admiration. His heart is deeply moved. 
 He speaks of the goodness of God in general toward all that fear 
 him, because he knows that no arbitrariness comes into play, but 
 as all who approach the sun are, irrespective of choice or favour, 
 warmed and illumed by his genial beams, so the goodness of God 
 does after the same law benefit those who seek and fear the Lord. 
 Many who repose their trust in God are by the fear of man deterred 
 from honouring him before men. David therefore expressly states, 
 that genuine trust in Him ought always to be accompanied by the 
 confession of him as our sole helper, before all men. Significant 
 are the terms that God has laid up that goodness for the pious, and 
 that he showeth it to them; meaning that God reserves more good- 
 ness by far than he shows. The Lord has his festina lente, and 
 the choicest of his favours are reserved for another world. (See 1 
 Cor. ii. 9.) But the goodness of God is also displayed to the wicked, 
 as our Lord says in Matt. v. 45, and even the brute creation shares 
 in it. But since this goodness is received according to the measure 
 of individual susceptibility, and since none save believers possess 
 
PSALM XXXII. 171 
 
 the susceptibility for the spiritual goods of God, and since, more- 
 over, none can be truly happy with earthly gifts and possessions 
 save those who receive and use them in the right manner, David 
 may well praise the peculiar goodness of God towards his children. 
 From the fact that the tabernacle presented an asylum to fugitives, 
 he figuratively states that the pious are hid in the pavilion of God, 
 but afterwards changes the figure and compares the protection of 
 God to a well-fortified city. 
 
 V. 23 25. He attempts not to conceal that he too has had his 
 weak hours. He is the more ready to make this humiliating con- 
 fession, because it sets the longsuffering of God in a stronger 
 light, (who remembers that his saints are still endued with flesh 
 and blood,) and leads to the edifying of desponding minds. He 
 turns to such desponding souls with the express exhortation not to 
 get languid in their love to God, nor to lose courage in the strug- 
 gles which are appointed for them by transient hours of doubt, 
 nor to measure their power of resistance by their own resources, 
 but by trusting in the Lord to wait for his assistance and support. 
 
 PSALM XXXII. 
 
 A PENITENTIAL prayer of David, apparently referring to the trans- 
 gression to which Psalm li. alludes, with this difference, that in 
 Psalm li. there seems to exist a mind which longs for forgiveness, 
 and here one which has realized it after the confession of sin. It 
 appears therefore that Ps. li. was composed immediately upon, this 
 some time after David's fall. If according to the title of Ps. li. 
 David composed it after Nathan came to him, we cannot expect it to 
 contain sentiments likely to have occurred immediately after his fall, 
 for Nathan did not meet David till after Bathsheba had given birth 
 to a child. (2 Sam. xii. 14. Cf. xi. 27.) David seems therefore 
 to have hesitated with the confession of his crime for an entire 
 year. The silence before God, which is mentioned in verse 3, 
 ought in this case to be referred to the whole extent of time which 
 preceded that event. It is difficult to suppose such an obduracy 
 in David, although the historical books seem to indicate as much. 
 Is it likely that David should have entertained a moment's mis- 
 giving as to the meaning of the parable of Nathan ? Not until 
 plainly accused by Nathan did the king as if awaking from the 
 sleep of sin exclaim, "I have sinned against the Lord." There is, 
 
172 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 however, another misgiving besides this. In Psalm li. David has 
 not yet received forgiveness, but prays for it. But Nathan pro- 
 nounced the consoling sentence, " The Lord also hath put away 
 thy sin/' immediately upon David's confession. The last misgiv- 
 ing is certainly not very important, since it is a generally acknow- 
 ledged experience, that there is often a great gulf between the 
 objective word of forgiveness, presented from without, and its sub- 
 jective appropriation by man, which hesitating conscience is unable 
 to bridge without great struggles. The prophet pronounced for- 
 giveness; but it was a different thing for David to appropriate and 
 rejoice in it before the Lord. The first objection requires a greater 
 consideration. It is very strange indeed that according to the 
 title of Psalm li. and the historical record David should after so 
 great a fall have walked before God in a state of impenitence. 
 The question arises, Will not in the case of such a man confession 
 and repentance have immediately succeeded the deed? which 
 deed? adultery. The faithless act against Uriah succeeded it. 
 He confesses his silence before God in verse 3. Impenitence in a 
 certain sense cannot be denied, but all depends upon the right con- 
 ception of that impenitence. Nobody will believe that David, 
 after all we know of him, should like other transgressors have 
 without much trouble banished that transgression from his 
 thoughts. If by impenitence is meant brutality and insensibility, 
 we emphatically declare that he did not remain impenitent. But 
 let it once be clearly seen that faith is a necessary ingredient of 
 true repentance, and that a penitent sinner cannot sincerely 
 approach God in prayer without some trust and faith in him, and 
 it will be equally clear that there is another kind of impenitence, 
 devoid not so much of the compunctions of conscience as of faith, 
 when terrified conscience is thoroughly alive to guilt, and just on 
 that account hesitates to confess it before God. We cannot con- 
 ceive otherwise of the state of David's mind at that time, and 
 verses 3, 4, of this Psalm furnish the most striking evidence of this 
 view. They exhibit a struggle of conscience, which deprives the 
 impenitent transgressor of rest by day and night, the scourge of 
 which causes flesh and bones to be consumed just such a strug- 
 gle as we should presume it in the case of a singer of psalms like 
 those of David. However incredible it may appear to many, that 
 a man who shrinks from confessing his sin before God, should pos- 
 sess so awakened a conscience and endure so much grief at its 
 compunctions yet they who are acquainted with the peculiar phe- 
 nomena of psychical life, cannot but know that such inward condi- 
 tions are sure to follow the transgressions of seriously minded 
 people. Just because the holiness and love of God are not mere 
 empty words to them, but because they have practically experi- 
 enced the marvellous goodness of God, it comes to pass that their 
 
PSALM XXXII. 173 
 
 own transgressions appear to them in the same light as did the 
 crime of fratricide to Cain, and they exclaim with him, "Mine 
 iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven." They are afraid 
 of the countenance of God, the marvellous loveliness of which they 
 have so often experienced and they would much rather flee from 
 before it. They have the presentiment that their sin, the heinous- 
 ness of which terrifies them already, if meditated upon in prayer be- 
 fore God, will assume a still more terrific aspect : owing to the threat- 
 enings of the accuser from within, they venture not to believe that 
 before God the compunctive power of their consciences will be sharp- 
 ened, nor that they will be pardoned. They prefer, therefore, 
 without prayer, their eyes turned away from God, to pursue their 
 path and to consume their grief to disclosing it before God. The 
 circumstance that David listened to Nathan's parable with such 
 apparent insensibility, ought not to make us hesitate in the assump- 
 tion, that such was the case with David. We ought to consider 
 that, unless Joab had violated his pledge to secrecy, the king's 
 transgression was by no means generally known that more than 
 a year had elapsed before Nathan appeared before David that 
 Nathan stated his parable in the form of a legal case and that its 
 true significance could only be surmised on the supposition that 
 the matter was generally known, and that Nathan appeared imme- 
 diately after its occurrence before the king. The condition of 
 David is, however, not to be regarded exclusively in the light of 
 reproaching conscience. We may assume a change of things, 
 involving moments in which excuses and accusations were con- 
 tending, as Paul describes, (Rom. ii. 15.) Let those who regard 
 the magnitude of his transgression as unaccountable remember, that 
 most people overlook in the estimate of this transgression the fact, 
 that however terrific the fatality may have been in this instance, 
 evil always engenders evil, and that he who has fallen once, 
 is by the force of circumstances ever propelled to new transgres- 
 sions. David had originally no intention to deprive Uriah of his 
 wife, his sole aim being to conceal his own sin, as is intimated in 
 2 Sam. xi. 9 13. David did not write his letter to Joab until 
 his cunning device had proved a failure. He still listens to the 
 voice of conscience cannot persuade himself to assassination, but 
 adopts a measure of ridding himself of his servant, which sug- 
 gested a variety of thoughts which tended to excuse his conduct 
 and to appease his protesting conscience : e. g. that in every war 
 many must fall that if Uriah should be killed, he would at least 
 fall like a hero and as a defender of the kingdom. Let no one 
 condemn David until he has judged himself and answered the 
 candid question, Whether in no relation of his life one sin has not 
 led him to the commission of a second or a third, and he has not 
 sought by excuses of a similar kind to silence the voice of his con- 
 science. 
 
 15* 
 
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM of David, giving instruction.* 
 
 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, 
 Whose sin ^covered. 
 
 2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not 
 
 iniquity, 
 And in whose spirit there is no guile. 
 
 3 When I kept silence my bones waxed old. 
 Through my roaring all the day long. 
 
 4 For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me : 
 
 My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. 
 
 5 Therefore I acknowledge my sin unto thee, 
 And mine iniquity do I not hide: 
 
 I said, " I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD ;" 
 And thou forgavest the guilt of my sin. Selah. 
 
 6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee 
 In a time when thou mayest be found : 
 
 Surely the floods of great waters, 
 They shall not come nigh unto him. 
 
 7 Thou art my hiding place ; 
 
 Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; 
 Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. 
 Selah. 
 
 8 "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which 
 
 thou shalt go: 
 I will guide thee with mine eye/' 
 
 9 Be ye not as the horse, 
 
 Or as the mule, which have no understanding: 
 Whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, 
 Which will not come near unto thee (of themselves.) 
 
 10 Many sorrows (or pains) shall be to the wicked: 
 
 But he that trusteth in the LORD, mercy shall compass 
 him about. 
 
 11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, ye righteous: 
 And shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. 
 
 V. 1, 2. David utters these words as if he had got breath again 
 after an overwhelming oppression of his soul, and speaks of his 
 own experience as if it were the experience of every one. The 
 words of Nathan, " The Lord also hath put away thy sin," were, as 
 appears from Psalm li. not sufficient to give him peace. There are 
 
 * Or, "A Poem." 
 
PSALM XXXII. 175 
 
 many passages in the Scriptures which, if the Holy Ghost were 
 simultaneously to write them into our hearts, would at once stop 
 our struggles and banish our griefs. The fight of faith which lasts 
 all our life long consists first in this, that the words of the Bible 
 are by the struggle of faith in our souls to be transcribed into the 
 book of our hearts. As Luther has it, "The great secret of Chris- 
 tian faith consists in the little words: './, for me, and me.'" Joy 
 did not return until the Holy Ghost had borne witness in the heart 
 of David to the words of Nathan. His expression of joy is accom- 
 panied by the condition on which alone joy can be attained. He 
 says, "In whose spirit there is no guile/' i. e. deceit. The dis- 
 cord of the soul can never be removed while the deceit of self-excuse 
 and self-righteousness continues. 
 
 V. 3, 4. Rarely, if ever, have human words expressed the 
 struggle of conscience in language so profoundly touching as here. 
 His fevered soul lacked the all-potent cordial, "Thy sins are for- 
 given thee :" its absence caused his body to pine and wither away. 
 His excuses of self distilled like separate drops upon his burning 
 conscience, which immediately dissolved them into vapour. He 
 sometimes sought to justify himself, and tried to convince himself 
 that there was no ground for his grievous complaint, and sometimes 
 thought that his wounds were incurable. 
 
 V. 5. The internal discord having reached its climax, pressed 
 out at last the blissful confession. The brief antithesis, "I said, I 
 will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest 
 the guilt of my sin/' expresses in a pleasing and touching manner 
 the facility afforded to sinful man in his inward struggles, provided 
 he be able and willing to confess and to believe. 
 
 F 6, 7. He affirms his own experience as the universal lot of 
 the godly. They embrace the moment when salvation is still 
 nigh, ere the floods of judgment come which sweep the hardened 
 sinner away. The inward struggle must issue in the sinner's turn- 
 ing to God, and his hoping for aid by his mercy : if it does not, 
 his end will be like that of Judas, who though not without peni- 
 tence, (Matt, xxvii. 3,) but lacking the ability and willingness to 
 acknowledge his sin and to believe in God, went and hanged him- 
 self. Having for a year been without God and therefore without 
 protection David once more feels himself in the hiding-place. 
 This conviction renders him so happy, that he hears, as it were, the 
 voice of God himself, cheering him with paternal friendliness. 
 
 F 8. The latter clause of this verse, " I will guide thee with 
 mine eye/' shows that the verse itself is not to be regarded as a 
 promise which David addresses to sinners, but rather as an oracular 
 expression, as they occur in several other psalms, (Of. ad. Ps. xl. 4; 
 xii. 6.) It is the Spirit of the Lord, who from the inmost cham- 
 bers of the soul, as if from the ark of the covenant, addresses his 
 words of comfort and encouragement to sinners. 
 
176 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 F. 9. David now addresses the servants of sin who refuse to 
 turn unto the Lord, until he causes them to feel his hands, and 
 holds them in with bit and bridle. Beasts such is the Psalmist's 
 meaning have no understanding, and on that account need the 
 bit and bridle from without, to be managed ; but man, to whom 
 God has given his Spirit, should govern and tame himself from 
 within. Shame upon him who, having received the Divine spark, 
 instead of being impelled from within, needs chastisement from 
 without to lead him to his Lord and God ! 
 
 F. 10, 11. David describes the great foolishness of those who 
 look for happiness and joy anywhere and everywhere except in 
 God: man, forgetful of God, chases after happiness and joy, 
 ignoring all the while that in turning from God he only increases 
 his sorrow and pain. " Only he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy 
 shall compass him about." David has just realized once more this 
 blessed truth, so blessed that he must needs invite every one to 
 become the sharer of his felicity. 
 
 PSALM XXXIII. 
 
 A PSALM of praise, celebrating in lively and joyous measures the 
 Creator and Governor of the world, who has chosen Israel for his 
 peculiar possession, and imparts his peculiar favour to those who 
 fear him. 
 
 The Psalmist utters a powerful and joyous invitation to the praise 
 of God, (v. 1 3 :) he celebrates his omnipotence as the omnipo- 
 tence of righteousness and love, (v. 4 11,) and glories in Israel's 
 enjoying the peculiar protection of that God. It must be secure 
 under such a protection, for everything that is and takes place on 
 earth is mysteriously connected with his hand, while all earthly 
 strength is derived from him, (v. 12 17.) They who fear him 
 shall experience his power. This thought expands into the same 
 exultation with which this psalm begins. 
 
 1 "OEJOICE in the LORD, ye righteous: 
 -It For praise is comely for the upright. 
 
 2 Praise the LORD with harp : 
 
 Sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of 
 ten strings. 
 
 3 Sing unto him a new song; 
 
 Play skilfully with trumpet sound. 
 
PSALM XXXIII. 177 
 
 4 For the word of the LORD is right ; 
 
 And all his doings are done in faithfulness. 
 
 5 He loveth righteousnes and judgment : 
 
 The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD. 
 
 6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made ; 
 And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 
 
 7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap : 
 He layeth up the depth in storehouses. 
 
 8 Let all the earth fear the LORD : 
 
 Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. 
 
 9 For he spake, and it was done ; 
 He commanded, and it stood fast. 
 
 10 The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought : 
 He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. 
 
 11 The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, 
 The thoughts of his heart to all generations. 
 
 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD ; 
 
 And the people whom he hath chosen for his own 
 inheritance. 
 
 13 The LORD looketh from heaven ; 
 He beholdeth all the sons of men. 
 
 14 From his firm throne 
 
 He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. 
 
 15 He leadeth their hearts alike ; 
 He considereth all their works. 
 
 16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host : 
 A mighty man is not delivered by much strength. 
 
 17 An horse is a vain thing for safety : 
 
 Neither shall any be delivered by their (the horses') 
 great strength. 
 
 18 Behold the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, 
 Upon them that hope in his mercy; 
 
 19 To deliver their soul from death, 
 And to keep them alive in famine. 
 
 20 Our soul waiteth for the LORD : 
 He is our help and our shield. 
 
 21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, 
 Because we have trusted in his holy name. 
 
 22 Let thy mercy, LORD, be upon us, 
 According as we hope in thee. 
 
 V. 1 3. The Psalmist invites the righteous and the upright 
 in heart to praise the Lord, because none but they know how to do 
 
178 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 it aright. The melody of the voice without the melody of the heart 
 cannot please the Lord. Such is the praise of the ungodly. The 
 pious only can praise him in truth, for they only rejoice in his pro- 
 mises, and appreciate his omnipotence and goodness. The bard, 
 feeling that the heart and the senses are too slow and lifeless for 
 setting forth the praises due to God, calls the sound of the harp to 
 his aid, to arouse the indolent spirits, and to give pinions to his 
 praises. He calls for a new (Ps. xl. 4; xcvi. 1) song as if all the 
 former ones were not sufficient. Because human praises are at the 
 best unworthy, the nations of antiquity as well as Israel used to 
 accompany them by sacrifices, intending thereby as it were to 
 complete and make up for the deficiency and poverty of human 
 praise. The mention of the trumpet alludes to those sacrifices, as 
 sacrifices used to be offered accompanied by the sound of the 
 trumpet. 
 
 F. 4, 5. The first object of praise is that God fulfils his pro- 
 mises. Surely there cannot be anything more joyful to a pious 
 man than to see that the divers glorious promises of God are for 
 ever being fulfilled in the guidance of men in obedience to laws as 
 unchangeable as those which direct the courses of the heavenly 
 bodies. If we shall hereafter review the guidances of his people 
 from eternity, may they not, to use the expression, seem like so 
 many incarnations of the eternal word and the eternal promises of 
 God? We shall then see, what the Psalmist here praises in faith 
 that all the ways of the Lord are righteousness and goodness. 
 The full glory of these attributes is not felt till we realize them as 
 the attributes of the omnipotence of God : what would be the con- 
 dition of us, the creatures, were his omnipotence other than the 
 omnipotence of righteousness and love? For this reason the 
 Psalmist praises in the following verses the omnipotence of God. 
 
 F. 6 9. How much toil and labour intervenes between the 
 resolution and completion of our works ? With God the word, the 
 breath of his mouth, and the commandment, are at once the 
 deed.* Thus he formed the heavens and their host. Nothing 
 greater could be predicated of the omnipotence of God: the 
 Psalmist singles out one miracle of omnipotence which strikingly 
 exhibits the wisdom and goodness of the Creator. Though the 
 waters of the ocean are higher than the face of the earth, the secret 
 hand of Omnipotence keeps them back that they dare not flood the 
 land. " Will ye not tremble at my presence, saith the Lord, which 
 have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual 
 decree, that it cannot pass it : and though the waves thereof toss 
 themselves, yet cannot they prevail; though they roar, yet can 
 they not pass over it ?" ( Jer. v. 22 ; cf. Psalm xxiv. 2 ; civ. 9 ; Job 
 
 * The heathen poet, Longinus, has praised the sublimity of this sentiment 
 of the Psalmist. 
 
PSALM XXXIII. 179 
 
 xxxviii. 8.) Again, the womb of the earth conceals subterraneous 
 floods; these would devour the face of the earth and all on it, if 
 the hand of Omnipotence did not hold them back so that they must 
 remain in the depth. Who does not fear and tremble before a God 
 like this ? But they who can believe that this omnipotence is the 
 omnipotence of love, burst forth the rather in exultant joy. 
 
 F 1012. Israel is entitled to that belief the belief that the 
 omnipotence of God is that of love, for the Lord has chosen Israel 
 for his own inheritance. What an election! His thoughts are 
 eternal thoughts of grace which no power can annul. (Rom. xi. 29.) 
 This is the consolation of the Church of God in sight of her ene- 
 mies. In the days of the Old Testament, when the Church was a 
 temporal kingdom, like the kingdoms of the earth, her enemies 
 were the heathen in their dominions; her enemies now are the ene- 
 mies of Christ : the servants of Christ get edified by these promises 
 that the merciful counsel of God cannot be overthrown, and that 
 he bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought. Though 
 scanned with the eye of sense, there never was a little band that 
 had so little hope to prevail over their enemies, as the small band 
 of Christians against whom the whole world stands in battle array; 
 but with regard to the eternal counsel of mercy which God has 
 decreed concerning his people, they entertain not a moment's doubt 
 as to their ultimate success. 
 
 F 13 17. People of God, he means to say, let not the world 
 persuade you that the throne on which your king is seated is an 
 idle easy chair; no, he is seated on a throne, on a judgment-seat, 
 from the lofty eminence of which proceed the destinies of the 
 world. People of God, he means to say, firmly believe, that all 
 things are either openly or in a hidden manner subject to the influ- 
 ence of his might; not only the works of men, which are evidently 
 so, since the issue never rests with them, but also the secret mov- 
 ings of their hearts, which God can strike with blindness, and can 
 make foolish the understanding of the prudent, and wise the hearts 
 of babes. People of God, believe not in appearances according to 
 which kings conquer by their might and warriors triumph in battle 
 by the strength of their horses : it is appearance only, for as all 
 earthly power is borrowed from the Governor of the world, he may 
 withdraw it at any time and give it to whomsoever he pleases : so 
 that all the victories on earth are won by his strength. 
 
 V. 18 22. While such omnipotence terrifies those who fear 
 not the Lord, it is rich in consolation to those who hope in his 
 mercy. The whole people commit themselves to the Lord, rejoic- 
 ing in him and trusting in his name. 
 
180 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM XXXIV. 
 
 A SONG of thanksgiving, composed on the same occasion (1 Sam. 
 xxi. 11, etc.") as Psalm Ivi. with this difference, that Psalm Ivi. was 
 composed in the midst of the danger which threatened David, when 
 the courtiers of Achish the king of the Philistines, with whom he 
 had taken refuge, were persecuting him, while the psalm before us 
 was composed after he had escaped from that danger. Though we 
 owe our most beautiful spiritual songs or hymns to special circum- 
 stances, they treat not of these, but alternately mount to universal 
 complaints or to universal praises of God. So the Psalmist praises 
 not so much his special deliverance, as the mercy of God, who 
 hears the cry of the afflicted. The title names Abimelech and not 
 Achish; which may be explained on the presumption that Abime- 
 lech (i. e. father of kings) was a general title of the Philistine 
 kings, as was Pharaoh (i. e. the king) of the Egyptian. In Gen. 
 xx. 2; xxvi. 1, two different kings of Gerar, the Philistine capital, 
 are called Abimelech. 
 
 Filled with gratitude, the Psalmist promises to make the praise 
 of God the business of his life, because he hears the prayers of the 
 afflicted, (v. 2 8.) He also calls upon others to open their eyes 
 and hearts because the goodness of God is everywhere manifest, 
 and annexes the condition on which alone it can be experienced, 
 (v. 9 11.) The indispensable condition is the fear of the Lord, 
 which he earnestly and affectionately recommends from verses 
 12 23, and to which his assurance of faith ascribes glorious pro- 
 mises. 
 
 1 A PSALM of David, when he changed his behaviour 
 JLJL before Abimelech : who drove him away, and he 
 
 departed. 
 
 2 I will bless the LORD at all times : 
 
 His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 
 
 3 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD : 
 The afflicted shall hear thereof and be glad. 
 
 4 magnify the LORD with me, 
 And let us exalt his name together. 
 
 5 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, 
 And delivered me from all my fears. 
 
 6 They that look unto him, get lightened: 
 And their faces are not ashamed. 
 
 7 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, 
 And saved him out of all his troubles. 
 
PSALM XXXIV. 181 
 
 8 The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them 
 
 that fear him, 
 And delivereth them. 
 
 9 taste and see that the LORD is good : 
 Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. 
 
 10 fear the LORD, ye his saints : 
 
 For there is no want to them that fear him. 
 
 11 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger : 
 
 But they that seek the LORD shall not want any good 
 thing. 
 
 12 Come, ye children, hearken unto me : 
 I will teach you the fear of the LORD. 
 
 13 What man is he that desireth a happy life 
 And loveth many days, that he may see good? 
 
 14 Keep thy tongue from evil, 
 And thy lips from speaking guile. 
 
 15 Depart from evil, and do good; 
 Seek peace,* and pursue it. 
 
 16 The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, 
 And his ears are open unto their cry. 
 
 17 The face of the LORD is against them that do evil, 
 To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 
 
 18 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, 
 And delivereth them out of all their troubles. 
 
 19 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart ; 
 And saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. 
 
 20 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: 
 But the LORD delivereth him out of them all. 
 
 21 He keepeth all his bones : 
 Not one of them is broken. 
 
 22 Evil shall slay the wicked: 
 
 And they that hate the righteous shall be guilty. 
 
 23 The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: 
 
 And none of them that trust in him shall be guilty, f 
 
 V. 2 4. Every day of a pious man's life is marked with the 
 monuments and tokens of the mercy of God, so that he has every 
 day to sing a new song. But each separate experience of that 
 kind should fill our heart to such a degree as to furnish the theme 
 of gratitude and praise for the entire period of our lives. With a 
 feeling of this kind, we see David celebrate the deliverance he has 
 just experienced. He realizes the fact that many hearts will echo 
 
 * /. e. honesty, "good;" cf. Ps. xxxv. 20; xxxvii. 37, in the Hebrew, 
 f Cf. Introduction to Psalm xiv. 
 16 
 
182 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 back his songs of praise, because the joys of the godly are always 
 universal. He invites the sharers of his feelings not to keep them 
 within their joyful hearts, but to blend their praises with his, 
 because songs of praise rise more triumphantly to heaven as bright 
 flames than as isolated sparks. 
 
 F. 5 8. He was no doubt greatly afraid. What fate could 
 he expect to meet were he delivered into the hand of Achish ? 
 The alternative was, that he, as a national foe, who had slain 
 Goliath and actually carried his sword during this flight, (1 Sam. 
 xxi. 9,) would either be sacrificed to the vengeance of the Philis- 
 tines, or ignominiously delivered into the hand of Saul, his enemy. 
 This poor man cried unto the Lord, who heard him, and delivered 
 him out of all his troubles. He therefore calls upon all, when 
 reduced to the extremity of trouble, neither to turn to the right 
 nor to the left, but to Him who is all-sufficient. We often fear 
 that we are forsaken but not so. He surrounds us with his Divine 
 messengers, as with an invisible host : and while we look anxiously 
 for help on earth, they fight our battles. If our eyes were opened 
 like those of Elisha's young man, we should frequently, when we 
 are most inclined to despair, see horses and chariots of fire round 
 about us. (2 Kings vi. 17.)* 
 
 F. 9 11. Heaven and earth are replete with the goodness of 
 God. We omit to open our mouths and eyes, on which account 
 the Psalmist desires us to taste and to see. Such an invitation would 
 be unavailing to the ungodly, to whom if they persist in their 
 obduracy even the best gifts are fraught with destruction, and to 
 whom rays of light turn into consuming flashes of lightning. He 
 therefore addresses himself to the saints, who in virtue of their ex- 
 ercised senses (Heb. v. 11,) are able to see the hidden sweet in the 
 bitter, and the bow of peace above the darkened cloud. "They 
 have no want/' means not exemption from the common lot of mor- 
 tals, as is clear from verse 20, where it is said that " many are the 
 afflictions of the righteous/' But if blessings attend us like those 
 which David affirms himself to enjoy in Psalm xxiii. 5, that in 
 sight of his enemies he is seated at a full table with anointed head 
 we must be silent about want. We shall feel no want though 
 we be in want. The possession of power and strength cannot of 
 itself secure satisfaction and prosperity. The lion, armed with 
 mouth and claws, has often to suffer hunger, while helpless and 
 afflicted men, whose only refuge is the Lord, have enough and to 
 spare. 
 
 * One angel of the Lord is mentioned, who at the same time is said to 
 encamp round about. This seems to indicate that the word "angel" which 
 primarily means " a message from God," denotes here as well as in many 
 other passages of the Old Testament, not one separate angel, but the efflu- 
 ence of Divine strength. Cf. Sack. Comm. Theol. p. 19, v. Ccelln. Bibl. 
 Theol. vol. i. p. 191. 
 
PSALM XXXIV. 183 
 
 V. 12 19. Most men consider untruth, fraud, and oppression, 
 the surest means of prosperity. This leads David most urgently to 
 exhort them to regard the fear of the Lord as the true source of 
 temporal prosperity. To rouse the indolent, he clothes his exhorta- 
 tion in the form of a question, "What man is he that desireth a 
 happy life?" as if he had asked, How is it, that, while every one 
 without exception desires to be happy, there are so few who adopt 
 the proper means for the attainment of happiness, but on the con- 
 trary make themselves wretched and miserable by their own mis- 
 takes ? He names two things, which, though they may sometimes 
 fail, will in most instances tell upon men, and lay a solid founda- 
 tion to their temporal prosperity. Firstly, let none imagine that 
 crooked ways and falsehood are the royal roads to prosperity, for 
 even in a spiritual sense the straight way is always the shortest. 
 Secondly, to confound all evil backbiting by the practice of good 
 works. However much enmity against Gk)d may influence the 
 wicked against the good qualities of the godly, there will always be 
 a class of men, who find it impossible so effectually to silence the 
 judge from within, that they should desire to acknowledge the 
 merit of these, who with firm perseverance and strict conscientious- 
 ness are bent upon the pursuit of righteousness and virtue. Much 
 time may be needed till such acknowledgment be forthcoming, and 
 in the case of thousands be looked for in vain; David therefore 
 once more regards the righteous in affliction, and comforts us by 
 saying, that the Lord at least does not ignore a pure and true life, 
 that his eyes look upon his servants, that his ears are open to their 
 cry, and that though not exempt from troubles and affliction, his 
 deliverance is sure to come. 
 
 7. 2023. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous:" this 
 might at first sight seem contradictory of verses 10, 11; but 
 we should remember that the pious often lack that purity and 
 irreprehensibility of conduct, which compels the esteem of the 
 world ; the difficulty of attaining it, and that even after it has been 
 attained we are utterly unable to impress the consciences of the tho- 
 roughly obdurate. The truth must then stand that " many are the 
 the afflictions of the righteous," or as the New Testament expresses 
 it, "It behoves us through much tribulation to enter into the king- 
 dom of G-od." And it is a good thing that such is the case. For 
 were the pious freed from every trouble and affliction, motives to 
 piety would become impure, faith would grow faint, prayer cease, 
 and carnal security abound. The Psalmist comforts us that the 
 afflictions of the righteous are under a powerful protection. The 
 Lord has said that the hairs of our head are numbered : so we are 
 told here that not the smallest bone of the godly can be hurt with- 
 out his permission. (Psalm xxxv. 10.) But guilt shall not leave 
 the wicked, for it cannot be forgiven until it be confessed, repented 
 of, and covered by faith. 
 
184 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM XXXV. 
 
 WE are familiar with the position of the Psalmist. Secret perse- 
 cution, (v. 7, 8,) and false accusations, (v. 11,) were met by a 
 peaceful and forgiving disposition on his part, (v. 12, 13.) Cf. 
 Introduction to Psalm vii. Other circumstances are in harmony 
 with the situation of David. The bard refers to himself in v. 27, 
 as to a man noticed by many. Verse 16 may suggest the courtly 
 banquet of the king : David uses words similar to v. 1 3 in 1 Sam. 
 xxiv. 16. The urgency of the request, and the manner in which 
 danger and trouble are introduced, seem to cope better with the 
 period of Saul's persecution than with that of David's residence at 
 his court. 
 
 F. 1 10 state the theme of the Psalmist a mighty cry for 
 help and a solemn vow of gratitude : v. 11 16, he shows the justice 
 of his cause as contrasted with that of his persecutors, who proved 
 themselves insensible to his proofs of tender sympathy, and requited 
 his sympathy in their suffering with malevolent joy at his own. 
 Having stated before the throne of God's justice this by no means 
 unimportant point in his case, he renews his supplication, (v. 17,) 
 and concludes with a new vow of heartfelt gratitude, (v. 25.) 
 
 A 
 
 PSALM of David. 
 
 1 Plead my cause, LORD, with them that strive with me : 
 Fight against them that fight against me. 
 
 2 Take hold of shield and buckler,* 
 And stand up for mine help. 
 
 3 Draw out also the spear, 
 
 And stop the way against them that persecute me ; 
 Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. 
 
 4 Let them be confounded and put to shame 
 That seek after my soul : 
 
 Let them be turned back and brought to confusion 
 That devise my hurt. 
 
 5 Let them be as chaff before the wind : 
 And let the angel of the LORD chase them. 
 
 6 Let their way be dark and slippery : 
 
 And let the angel of the LORD persecute them. 
 
 7 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit,f 
 Which without cause they have digged for my soul. 
 
 * /. e. a large shield which covers the whole body. 
 
 f Travellers mention pits which are dug to catch lions alive, covered on 
 the top with boughs and canes, (Shaw's Travels in North Africa, p. 153.) 
 But these seem to have been pits in which nets were placed. Verse 8 
 renders this view necessary. 
 
PSALM XXXV. 185 
 
 8 Let destruction come upon them at unawares ; 
 And let the net, that they have hid, catch them. 
 Into that very destruction let them fall. 
 
 9 But my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: 
 It shall rejoice in his salvation. 
 
 10 All my bones shall say, 
 LORD, who is like unto thee, 
 
 Which deliverest the afflicted from him that is too strong 
 
 for him, 
 Yea, the afflicted and the needy from him that spoileth 
 
 them? 
 
 11 False witnesses did rise up ; 
 
 They laid to my charge things that I knew not. 
 
 12 They rewarded me evil for good, 
 My soul is orphaned. 
 
 13 But as for me, 
 
 When they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: 
 
 I afflicted my soul with fasting. 
 
 And my prayer returned into mine own bosom.* 
 
 14 I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or 
 
 brother. 
 I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth/br his mother. 
 
 15 But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered them- 
 
 selves together: 
 Yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, 
 
 and I knew not for what: 
 They did tear me, and ceased not : 
 
 16 With hypocritical mockers in feasts, f 
 They gnashed upon me with their teeth. 
 
 17 LORD, how long wilt thou look on ? 
 Rescue my soul from their destructions, 
 My life from the lions. 
 
 18 I will give thee thanks in the great congregation : 
 I will praise thee among much people. 
 
 19 Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice 
 
 over me: 
 
 Neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without 
 a cause. 
 
 * /. e. when he who prayed, as it happened in cases in deep distress, fell 
 on his knees and inclined his head to the ground, (1 Kings xviii. 42.) 
 
 f Or, "With mocking gluttons," or, "like gourmands" (cf. Job xxxiv. 36, 
 in the original;) or, "quizzing epicures." 
 
 16* 
 
186 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 20 For they speak not peace : 
 
 But they devise deceitful matters against them that are 
 quiet in the land. 
 
 21 Yea, they open their mouth wide against me, 
 And say, Aha ! aha ! our eye hath seen it. 
 
 22 This thou hast seen, LORD : 
 
 Keep not silence : LORD, be not far from me. 
 
 23 Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, 
 Even unto my cause, my God and my Lord. 
 
 24 Judge me, LORD my God, according to thy righteous- 
 
 ness; 
 And let them not rejoice over me. 
 
 25 Let them not say in their hearts, "Ah! so would we 
 
 have it." 
 Let them not say, "We have swallowed him up." 
 
 26 Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together 
 That rejoice at mine hurt: 
 
 Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour 
 That magnify themselves against me. 
 
 27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, 
 That favour my righteous cause : 
 
 Yea, let them say continually," Let the LORD be magnified, 
 Which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant." 
 
 28 And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness 
 And of thy praise all the day long. 
 
 V. 1 3. Human weakness, which can only speak figuratively 
 of God, conceives of the distribution of Divine justice as of a war- 
 fare carried on with human weapons, though the weapons of the 
 righteous Lord against his enemies are not made of brass. Such 
 figurative representations of God tend to furnish us with a more 
 vivid apprehension of his powerful help. "Say unto my soul, I 
 am thy salvation/' expresses the Psalmist's desire for that secret 
 and inward encouraginent direct from God, which he is sure to im- 
 part in the hour of need. 
 
 V. 4 10. He prays that according to the law of retaliation, 
 confusion should befall the contemners, and that those who were 
 trumpeting forth their pride should be scattered like chaff before 
 the wind, that those who in their haughty confidence deemed them- 
 selves strong as mountains should see the soil give way under their 
 feet, and that those who had digged pits for others might in their 
 own pits be destroyed. We have often seen it thus in life, though 
 the longsuffering of God checks the hand of justice, as long as 
 there is any hope that the weed may become good wheat. Most 
 
PSALM XXXVI. 187 
 
 people in prayers of this kind are solely concerned with their own 
 deliverance but the spirit of David rejoices in the prospect of the 
 moment, when as it were moved with gratitude in all his bones, he 
 will ascribe all the glory to the Lord, and confess that no other 
 help can be compared to his. 
 
 V. 11 16. Oppression and violence are never more painful 
 than when they proceed from those who have experienced the proofs 
 of our love. We have already seen (Psalm vii. 5) to how great an 
 extent that species of painful experience fell to the lot of David. 
 Saul himseli, ashamed of his conduct, and weeping over it, had 
 said to David, "Thou art more righteous than I, for ihou hast 
 rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil" (1 Sam. 
 xxiv. 17.) David, though speaking of several, may either have 
 alluded to Saul in particular or to his courtiers possessed of hostile 
 intentions against him. Let it be observed that he not only refers 
 to benefits which our hand may confer without any cordial sympathy, 
 but to such evidences of love as necessarily imply the interest of 
 our hearts. He had prayed for those who now persecute him. 
 Such sympathy with their sufferings they now requite with malevo- 
 lent joy at his. The malicious accusations of verse 11, have already 
 been considered in Psalm vii. Verse 16 may respect the king 
 only, who joined by flattering courtiers used to vent his rage against 
 the afflicted exile; or David may contemplate particular companions 
 of the king, accustomed to join the epicures at the royal table. 
 (Cf. Psalm Ixix. 13.) 
 
 F. 17 28. These verses depict still more graphically the rude 
 fury of malevolent joy. The righteous God in heaven cannot be 
 silent at such triumphs of wickedness : their impudence must lead 
 to the display of his vengeance. David is aware that he has still 
 some friends in the country, at once the friends of God and of 
 righteousness, who would regard (v. 27) the triumph of his cause 
 as the universal triumph of righteousness, and accordingly praise 
 the Lord for it. His tongue shall gratefully join their praise. 
 
 PSALM XXXVI. 
 
 A LOFTY psalm of supplication, in which the Psalmist starting from 
 his own temptation and persecution (v. 12) represents men as if 
 divided into two families or armies. While the wicked devise only 
 evil against the children of God, he beholds the wings of a blessed 
 God spread over these as their protection. Inspired by this vision 
 he prays trustfully for himself. 
 
 * 
 
188 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant 
 of the LORD. 
 
 2 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart,* 
 That there is no fear of God before their eyes. 
 
 3 For they flatter him (God) in their own eyes (L e. as they 
 
 think,) 
 Until their iniquity be found to be hateful, f 
 
 4 The words of their mouth are iniquity and deceit : 
 They have left off to be wise, and to do good. 
 
 5 They devise mischief upon their bed ; 
 
 They set themselves in a way that is not good ; 
 They abhor no evil. 
 
 6 Thy mercy, LORD, is in (or, "as far as") the heavens: 
 And thy faithfulness reacheth unto (or, "as far as") the 
 
 clouds. 
 
 7 Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God ; 
 Thy judgments are like great seas. 
 
 LORD, thou preservest man and beast, 
 
 8 How precious is thy loving-kindness, God ! 
 
 The children of men put their trust under the shadow of 
 thy wings. 
 
 9 They get drunk with the riches of thine house : 
 
 And thou makest them drink of the river of thy pleasures. 
 
 10 For with thee is the fountain of life : 
 In thy light do we see light. 
 
 11 spread thy loving-kindness over them that know thee ; 
 And thy righteousness over the upright in heart. 
 
 12 Let not the foot of pride come against me, 
 And let not the hand of the wicked remove me. 
 
 13 Already J are the workers of iniquity fallen: 
 They are cast down, and shall not be able to rise. 
 
 * Or, "a Divine oracle says from the depth of my heart concerning the 
 wickedness of the ungodly." This rendering of this difficult passage agrees 
 in the main with that of Symmachus and Luther. The view of Maurer may 
 also be defended, who regards the words, "Divine voice" as a title. Jer. 
 xxiii. 31, shows that CD&W m ay be a noun substantive. That view has the 
 
 ' ' 
 
 advantage of beautiful correspondence in verse 1, while our explanation 
 has the double inconcinnity that the first hemistich announces the Divine 
 voice, and the second begins it at once, and that the contents of the Psalm 
 are not exactly stated, in calling it a Divine oracle " concerning the wicked- 
 ness of the ungodly," or concerning wickedness for the ungodly." It is 
 rather an oracular consolation for the suffering godly. 
 
 f Tholuck translates verse 3, " For they flatter God, as they think to 
 perform their evil with greater security, and to give vent to their hatred." 
 
 J Cf. Ps. xiv. 6, xlviii. 7, in the Hebrew. 
 
PSALM XXXVI. 189 
 
 F. 2 5. There are moments in our life, when the dimness and 
 mystery of the course of the world suddenly dissolve, and the world, 
 seen in the light of faith, assumes a new appearance. David seems 
 to have composed this psalm in such a moment of physical eleva- 
 tion. When he beheld with unusual charity the blessedness of the 
 children of God, in spite of their trials and temptations, he felt the 
 Spirit of God breathe upon him as upon a prophet, and under the 
 influence of the Divine afflatus uttered an oracular sentence respect- 
 ing the wicked, i. e. respecting their persecutions of the righteous. 
 Their professed fear of the Lord is hypocrisy, which does not avail 
 with God, though they imagine that under its cloak they can carry 
 on their mischief with greater impunity. As a corrupt tree cannot 
 bear good fruit, nor thorns yield grapes, so all they do, however 
 much it glitters, is only mischief and destruction. 
 
 V. 6 8. He turns from the wretched oppressors to the oppressed 
 children of God. Desirous to depict the blessedness of their con- 
 dition in spite of the devices of the wicked, his thoughts expand, 
 and describe the vast and infinite extent of Divine mercy, truth, 
 and righteousness, the chief portion of which benefits the pious. 
 He affirms the goodness of God to reach to the heavens, and his 
 truth to the clouds; whereby he means to say that the universe is 
 filled with them, and that human eyes are unable to measure their 
 dimensions. The expressions that righteousness is like the moun- 
 tains of God, i. e. like glorious and immense mountains, (Gen. 
 xiii. 10 ; Psalm Ixxx. 11,) and that his judgments are like great 
 seas, denote the immoveability of the eternal foundations of right, 
 and the apparency of their existence in the world. How rich in 
 mercy must be the wings of Divine Providence, since not only man 
 but also beast are sheltered in their vast shade ! Such and similar 
 expressions may easily glide over our lips, but to retain them 
 immoveably in our heart is a problem of faith which hardly one in 
 a thousand can solve. There is no mystery of Christianity more 
 difficult to believe than the simple truth that righteousness, truth, 
 and goodness secretly pervade the chaos of transgression and 
 injustice, of misery and woe, which fill the world. By truth (the 
 word used in the German version) is meant the faithfulness of God 
 in the fulfilment of his promises. The natural man treats this very 
 adhesion to the faithfulness of God on the part of the godly as sheer 
 folly in sight of occurrences which to all appearance contradict 
 the word of God, and in a world which seems governed by any 
 other power rather than the tears and the prayers of some few 
 wretched croakers, they who in spite of all this for instance, like 
 David on his flight, in his exile, in tribulation, and nakedness, and 
 in peril of death can say, concerning the promises of God, "Thy, 
 faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds" have stood the test of faith. 
 If any ask for the evidence that faith like this is not extinct, let 
 them read the song of steel and brass which John the Magnanimous 
 
190 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 sang after the battle of Miihlberg, in a situation not less desperate 
 than that of David, "As it pleaseth God, so it pleaseth me." 
 
 F. 9, 10. Though the Psalmist had spoken in the former part 
 of the psalm of man in general, it is evident from these verses that 
 he specially adverted to the children of God. David describes the 
 blessings of the house of God in such lofty terms, that some inter- 
 preters have thought him to allude to the everlasting habitations, 
 where the treasury of God with the plenitude of its riches shall be 
 displayed before believers.* But we have already seen from other 
 psalms, that the Psalmists regard the house of God as a figure of 
 the sum total of every and any blessing which is enjoyed in com- 
 munion with God : this is apparent from the sentence which follows 
 immediately afterwards, " For with thee is the fountain of life." 
 (Cf. ad. Psalm xv, 1; xxiii. 6.) So David sings, (Psalm Ixv. 5,) 
 " Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach 
 unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts : we shall be satisfied 
 with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." The 
 sacred bard's meaning is, therefore, that though apparently the 
 ungodly enjoy abundance in their life, yet because their souls con- 
 tinue hungering and thirsting, it really is the lot of believers to 
 experience what is meant by real satisfaction and abundance. It 
 cannot be denied, that a morsel of dry bread and a cup of cold 
 water consumed with a grateful heart, and the consciousness of the 
 presence of God, is a feast with which no royal feast can stand the 
 comparison : while the wicked take one gift after the other from 
 morn till night, without even a thought of the bounteous hand 
 which bestows them, David's eye of faith beholds high above the 
 clouds the source, the blessings whereof water and make fruitful 
 all the earth. Now, since the sum-total of the good which man 
 enjoys flows from God, the children of God may rest satisfied that 
 they shall not fall short in its distribution. "In thy light do we 
 see light," refers primarily to happiness and good of every kind,*)* 
 but finds a peculiarly beautiful application in the light of know- 
 ledge, which can never guide us in the right direction, except it 
 have been lighted by the eternal light of God, as Daniel has it, 
 "He revealeth the deep and secret things; he knoweth what is in 
 the darkness, for the light dwelleth with him" (Dan. ii. 22;) yea, 
 the living fountain of the knowledge of God is only to be sought 
 with God, nor has any one ever found God except by God. 
 
 F. 11 13. Thus far the description, now follows prayer. 
 Having had to suffer from the devices of the wicked, he prays God 
 in mercy to reveal himself to all the godly as the great Being 
 
 * Cf. the Commentaries of Kimchi, Venema, Klauss, p. 212. 
 
 f As Job says, "Oh, that I were as in months past, as in the days when 
 God preserved me, when his candle shined upon my head, and when by his 
 light I walked through darkness." (Job xxix. 2, 3.) 
 
PSALM XXXVII. 191 
 
 whom they adore and worship, and to graciously confer the same 
 happy experience upon himself. His prophetic vision sees the 
 judgment as already accomplished. Indeed the present prosperity 
 of the wicked can only be regarded as a term of the longsuffering 
 of God, which gives them the opportunity, by repentance, to escape 
 the final judgment of God. 
 
 PSALM XXXVII. 
 
 A DIDACTIC psalm on the ultimate victory of the children of God 
 over the wicked. Though the Psalmist does not explicitly refer 
 that victory to eternity, the consciousness of future judgment must 
 have been alive in his heart, since otherwise he could not well have 
 so confidently held out a happy end to the godly and an unhappy 
 one to the ungodly, (cf. verses 37, 38, with Ps. i. 5.) The reit- 
 erated prediction, moreover, that the children of God shall inherit 
 the earth, and the wicked be destroyed, (v. 9. 28, 29,) can only 
 have a meaning on the supposition that David, overlooking the 
 present, had before his mind the victorious future of the godly. 
 These allusions of the Psalmist have been more clearly expressed 
 by the Prophets. Isa. xi. 9; Ix. 21; Zech. xiv. 21; Mai. iv. 1 3, 
 (ch. iii. 1921.) 
 
 This psalm exhibits no progression of thought, but repeats like 
 a musical composition the same theme in different variations. 
 
 A 
 
 PSALM of David. 
 
 1 Fret not thyself because of evil doers, 
 
 Neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. 
 
 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, 
 And wither as the green herb. 
 
 3 Trust in the LORD, and do good ; 
 Dwell in the land and be honest.* 
 
 4 Delight thyself also in the LORD ; 
 
 And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. 
 
 5 Commit thy way unto the LORD ; 
 
 Trust also in him : and he shall bring it to pass. 
 
 6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, 
 And thy judgment (i. e. right) as the noonday. 
 
 * Luther: "Earn an honest livelihood. " 
 
192 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 7 Be silent to the LORD, and wait patiently for him : 
 Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, 
 Because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. 
 
 8 Cease from anger and forsake wrath: 
 Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil : 
 
 9 For evil doers shall be cut off: 
 
 But those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit 
 the earth. 
 
 10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be : 
 Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and he shall 
 
 not be. 
 
 11 But the meek shall inherit the earth ; 
 
 And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. 
 
 12 The wicked plotteth against the just, 
 And gnasheth upon him with his teeth. 
 
 13 The LORD shall laugh at him : 
 
 For he seeth that his day is coming. 
 
 14 The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent 
 
 their bow, 
 
 To cast down the poor and needy, 
 And to slay such as be of upright conversation. 
 
 15 Their sword shall enter into their own heart, 
 And their bows shall be broken. 
 
 16 A little that a righteous man hath 
 
 Is better than the riches of many wicked. 
 
 17 For the arms of the wicked shall be broken : 
 But the LORD upholdeth the righteous. 
 
 18 The LORD knoweth the days of the upright : 
 And their inheritance shall be for ever. 
 
 19 They shall not be ashamed in the evil time : 
 And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. 
 
 20 For the wicked shall perish, 
 
 And the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs 
 
 (or, "like the pride of the pastures:") 
 They shall consume ; into smoke shall they consume away. 
 
 21 The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again : 
 But the righteous showeth mercy and giveth. 
 
 22 For such as be blessed of him (the Lord) shall inherit the 
 
 earth : 
 And they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. 
 
 23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD : 
 And he delighteth in his way. 
 
PSALM XXXVII. 193 
 
 24 Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down : 
 For the LORD upholdeth Mm with his hand. 
 
 25 I have been young and now am old ; 
 
 Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, 
 Nor his seed begging bread. 
 
 26 He is ever merciful, and lendeth;* 
 And his seed is blessed. 
 
 27 Depart from evil and do good; 
 And dwell for evermore. 
 
 28 For the LORD loveth judgment (right,) 
 And forsaketh not his saints ; 
 
 They are preserved for ever :f 
 
 But the seed 01 the wicked shall be cut off. 
 
 29 The righteous shall inherit the land, 
 And dwell therein for ever. 
 
 30 The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, 
 And his tongue talketh of judgment (right.) 
 
 31 The law of God is in his heart ; 
 None of his steps shall slide. 
 
 32 The wicked watcheth the righteous, 
 And seeketh to slay him. 
 
 33 The LORD will not leave him in his hand, 
 Nor condemn him when he is judged. 
 
 34 Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, 
 And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land : 
 When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. 
 
 35 I have seen the wicked in great power, 
 And spreading himself like a green bay tree. 
 
 36 Yet he passeth away, and lo he was not : 
 Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. 
 
 37 Mark the honest man, and behold the upright (or, " Pre- 
 
 serve piety and honesty:") 
 For the end of that man is peace. J 
 
 * Psalm cxii. 5. 
 
 f According to ancient readings this verse is probably to be rendered, 
 "But the wicked shall be destroyed, and the seed of the ungodly shall be 
 cut off." 
 
 J Instead of Luther's version, which is also that of Jerome and Aben Ezra 
 (with which cf. the use of EJ^ Psalm cxii. 5,) a more correct rendering is 
 
 probably, "For the good man has an end," i. e. a good end. The render- 
 ing, " Mark the honest man, and behold the upright, for the man of peace 
 shall have offspring," which has been preferred by many ancient and 
 modern translators, is inadmissible. The respective Hebrew word fi 
 
 17 
 
194 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together : 
 The wicked shall be cut off at last. 
 
 39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD : 
 He is their strength in the time of trouble. 
 
 40 And the LORD shall Jielp them and deliver them : 
 He shall deliver them from the wicked, 
 
 And save them, because they trust in him. 
 
 V. 1, 2. Godly people, if they do not take great care, are 
 exposed to fall a prey to the two sins which David mentions. On 
 seeing the enterprises of the ungodly crowned with success, they 
 are prone to yield either to personal and passionate indignation, or 
 to envy at what is granted to the former and withheld from them- 
 selves. The Psalmist checks that foolish indignation by the con- 
 sideration, that compared with the final and eternal salvation of the 
 godly, the most redeeming prosperity of the wicked would vanish 
 as speedily as the grass which lustily grows at morn, but struck by 
 the heat of the sun, and the fiery breath of the east wind, is so 
 faded and withered at even, that it is cut off and cast into the oven 
 for fuel. (Matt. vi. 30; James i. 11.) 
 
 V. 3 6. On the other hand the prosperity of the godly is 
 immoveably firm : its very protraction only secures its imperishable 
 duration. Steadfastly observe therefore the condition on which 
 that prosperity depends. It is faith and hope in the Lord : simple 
 honesty in our several avocations : delight and satisfaction in the 
 communion with God as contrasted with the thousandfold allure- 
 ments of the world : and lastly, let our anxieties and burdens be 
 neither complained of in melancholy strains nor discarded in light- 
 mindedness, but rolled upon the Lord. Our righteousness may then 
 abide for a time in darkness, or seem ignominious in the sight of 
 men the day is sure to come when it shall shine as a light, and 
 our judgment (i. e. right) as the midday sun. 
 
 F. 7 11. Where faith is wanting we need not be surprised to 
 see the heart riding on billows in the storms of life. Having 
 asked for faith, David may also desire the silence of the heart. 
 Besides, is not our premature haste to help ourselves, instead of 
 quietly waiting for the arm of the Lord, the very means of shutting 
 out Divine help ? But he chiefly insists upon the silence of the 
 heart, because a heart moved with passion under pressure is most 
 inclined to get wrathful against the ungodly, and by doing so, to 
 fall into sin. This exhortation shows that the Psalmist's repeat- 
 edly threatening destruction to the wicked, which occurs both here . 
 and elsewhere, flows not from passion, but from his calm contern- 
 
 is undoubtedly more correctly rendered "end." Job xlii. 12 ; Prov. xxiv. 
 14.) Stier has the merit, by collating with Prov. xxiii. 18; xxiv. 14. 20, 
 to have first shown, that no other rendering is admissible in this place. 
 
PSALM XXXVII. 195 
 
 plation of the eternal and necessary order of the righteousness of 
 God. Striking is the prediction that the godly shall inherit the 
 earth, which has already occurred, Psalin xxv. 13. It was origi- 
 nally made to Israel on entering Canaan; but it has since then 
 been repeated in a spiritual sense, and the prophets point to a 
 period when Israel shall destroy the ungodly, and the seed of the 
 truly righteous only possess the land. Our Lord took up this very 
 prediction, (Matt. v. 5,) and explained its profound meaning. 
 Though the prediction meets a partial fulfilment in that the pros- 
 perity of the wicked comes frequently to a sudden and terrific end, 
 while honesty is the best policy, yet the entire fulfilment thereof 
 will take place, when the completed community of the righteous, 
 after the exclusion of every tare and every plant which the Father 
 hath not planted, (Matt. xv. 13,) shall take possession of that new 
 earth, " wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Peter iii. 13.) 
 
 V. 12 15. It is true, says the Psalmist, that while the wicked 
 are suffered to bend their bow (as is the case on earth,) the godly 
 do not experience much of the unclouded peace and delight which 
 are described in verse 11. But while the godly still weep and 
 hesitate, the Lord laugheth, because he sees that future day as 
 already present, when every blow of the wicked shall return upon 
 his own head. Now, if man have faith, the nature of which is to 
 regard the future as the present, may he not on that account dry 
 his tears and join in the laugh of his God ? 
 
 V. 16 26. David denies not that with respect to temporal 
 possessions the godly may fare worse than others, but he gives an 
 answer similar to that which Luther addressed from his dying bed 
 to his children : " Children, I leave you no riches, but I leave you 
 a rich God." Who would despair, when God declares his own 
 treasury to be the possession of his children? Though not com- 
 pletely opened to them on earth, what more can they desire, while 
 they have the assurance "that they shall be satisfied in the days of 
 famine" ? But the Psalmist seems to imply more than this. How 
 often does it happen on earth that the righteous receives more 
 than enough! Suppose we put the question, "Who spends more 
 in alms and charities, the poor people of the godly, or the rich 
 crowd of the ungodly?" we shall find that the small bag of the for- 
 mer, though continually drained, gets by secret influences from 
 above, like the cruse of oil of the widow of Sarepta, ever filled 
 anew. Does not this indicate that they are people who have access 
 to the treasury of God ? On the other hand how frequently does 
 it happen that the rich ungodly, anxious to get still more (for to 
 gain much, much must be staked) gets suddenly set fast in loss 
 and debt, from which he cannot extricate himself. The experi- 
 ence of a whole life lay spread out before David, and he unhesi- 
 tatingly affirms that he has never seen the righteous forsaken, nor 
 his children reduced to penury. Is it possible to deny this truth ? 
 
196 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Especially if we look upon the righteous as one who conscientiously 
 discharges the duties of his avocation, and shows in his life mercy 
 and charity. Suppose that peculiar circumstances were to com- 
 bine, and apparently forsaken of God and man, he were reduced to 
 momentary want he can nevermore become a beggar. Proverbs 
 such as these, "He who does well will fare well," " Honesty needs 
 not beg for bread/' would never have arisen, if the words of the 
 Psalmist did not contain a great truth. In brief, suppose mischief 
 of every kind to combine and fall at once on a pious and devout 
 man, it would indeed be strange if a true life before God and man 
 should not secure true friends in the time of need, if he who has 
 been to many a friend in need should not himself find a friend in 
 need. So the Psalmist declares in verse 26, that the righteous has 
 not only enough for himself and his children, but while the rich 
 shut their hand, he has even enough for strangers. 
 
 V. '27 34. Meanwhile, he goes on to specify the virtues 
 needed for genuine righteousness; they are these: the earnest 
 striving to obey the will of God wise thoughts and words and 
 the law of God written in the heart. Then let the wicked lie in 
 ambush, or human judges pronounce sentence of death : the Lord 
 will provide a way for escape ! 
 
 F. 35 40. David had seen it so in this life, before the last 
 day was come; with how much more security may he rely upon the 
 final issue of things, especially since as children of the New Cove- 
 nant we see with much greater clarity how that issue will termi- 
 nate. 
 
 PSALM XXXVIII. 
 
 DAVID deeply aggrieved, realizes before God the burden of his 
 sufferings as the punishment of his sins, though he attests his inno- 
 cence with regard to his enemies. "They that render me evil for 
 good, are mine adversaries, because I follow the thing which is 
 good," (v. 21.) But does not our conscience frequently disclose to 
 us that our innocent sufferings from enemies are a just judgment 
 of God? Appearances are here even stronger than in Psalm 6, 
 that reference is made to suffering from disease, from sores and 
 leprosy, (v. 8 12 :)* so leprous Job said, "My kinsfolk have failed, 
 and my familiar friends have forgotten me." (Job xix. 14.) This 
 latter expression, which occurs in verse 12, also occurs in Psalm 
 
 * Hetzel, Ewald, Krahmer, Ko'ster; Jerome translates verse 12: Amici 
 contra lepram meam steterunt. 
 
PSALM XXXVIII. 197 
 
 xxxi. 12, 13; Ixix. 9; Ixxxviii. 19, although there is no necessary 
 reference to leprosy in those passages. It appears from Genesis 
 iv. 23; Isa. i. 5, 6; liii. 3, that disease, wounds, and sores, were 
 used to denote every kind of suffering and pain. It will therefore 
 be more correct to seek the primary cause of this painful complaint 
 in the fiery persecution, which, however, probably aided by some 
 particular transgression, aroused David's sense of guilt and the 
 thought of the Divine wrath. Lost in himself, the Psalmist com- 
 plains in the first two strophes of the burden of his soul and body, 
 but feels the wrath of God in his bodily and psychical pains, 
 (v. 2 11.) He then looks around him: his friends leave him, 
 his enemies daily devise new mischief; he suffers without remon- 
 strating, for his hope is in the Lord, (v. 12 16.) He states to 
 God his misery on the one hand his awakened knowledge of him- 
 self, the voluptuous prosperity of his enemies, and their great 
 wrong on the other, (v. 17 21,) and bases thereon his prayer for 
 aid and deliverance. 
 
 1 A PSALM of David, to bring to remembrance. 
 
 2 LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath : 
 Neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 
 
 3 For thine arrows stick fast in me, 
 And thy hand presseth me sore. 
 
 4 There is no soundness in my flesh 
 
 Because of (or, "before") thine anger; neither is there 
 
 any rest in my bones 
 Because of (or " before") my sin. 
 
 5 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head : 
 As an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. 
 
 6 My wounds stink and are corrupt. 
 Because of my foolishness. 
 
 7 I am troubled ; I am bowed down greatly ; 
 I go mourning all the day long. 
 
 8 For my loins are filled with burning : 
 And there is no soundness in my flesh. 
 
 9 I am feeble and sore broken : 
 
 I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. 
 
 10 Lord, all my desire is before thee ; 
 And my groaning is not hid from thee. 
 
 11 My heart panteth, my strength faileth me : 
 
 As for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. 
 
 12 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore ; 
 And my kinsmen stand afar off. 
 
 17* 
 
198 COMMENTAEY ON THE TSALMS. 
 
 13 They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: 
 And they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, 
 And imagine deceits all the day long. 
 
 14 But I, as a deaf man, hear not ; 
 
 And I am as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. 
 
 15 Thus I am as a man that heareth not, 
 
 And in whose mouth are no reproofs (or "remonstrance.") 
 
 16 For in thee, LORD, do I hope : 
 Thou wilt hear, Lord, my God. 
 
 17 For I said, Hear me, 
 
 Lest otherwise they should rejoice over me ! 
 Lest when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves 
 against me ! 
 
 18 For I am ready to halt, 
 
 And my sorrow is continually before me. 
 
 19 For I declare mine iniquity; 
 I am sorry for my sin. 
 
 20 While mine enemies are alive,* and they are strong: 
 And they that hate me wrongfully, are multiplied. 
 
 21 They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries ; 
 Because I follow the thing that good is. 
 
 22 Forsake me not, LORD : 
 
 my God, be not far from me. 
 
 23 Make haste to help me, 
 LORD my salvation. 
 
 V. 2 6. It is not uncommon that a strong sense of guilt is 
 attendant upon afflictions, into which pious people are brought 
 without any fault of their own. Stimulated by the thought that 
 God must have his wise designs in sending them, we search for 
 concealed guilt. Transgressions which until then had been unno- 
 ticed suddenly advance into prominent relief in the hour of suffer- 
 ing. More than this, our deportment in affliction, our impatient 
 complaints, our fears and our shrinking from prayer, render us 
 more familiar with the condition of our hearts than in days of 
 prosperity. Our awakened consciences regard then every blow of 
 the enemy as a scourging of God every act of injustice of men as 
 a sting of Divine justice and every disease as an arrow sent from 
 God. David probably remembered some particular transgression. 
 Expressions of a sense of guilt accompanying suffering, occur also 
 in Psalms vi. 2; xxv. 18; xxx. 8; xxxi. 11; xxxix. 9; xl. 13; 
 cxliii. 2. 
 
 * Perhaps, but less probably, "They who hate me without cause are 
 many." 
 
PSALM XXXVIII. 199 
 
 F. 7 11. He derives consolation in his affliction from the 
 knowledge that his every complaint is well known to God. If that 
 conviction is clearly apprehended, it yields of itself a rich consola- 
 tion. For if the tempter succeeds in protracted suffering to per- 
 suade the soul that God is perfectly unconcerned about it, then we 
 must regard such persuasion as a temptation of the fiercest kind. 
 
 F. 12 16. His friends have deserted him; even good-meaning 
 people, as e.g. the inhabitants of Kegilah, (1 Sam. xxiii.) deemed 
 it dangerous to hold any communion whatsoever with the exile. 
 The inactivity on the part of our friends is generally accompanied, 
 under such circumstances, by greater inveteracy on the part of 
 enemies. Faith is much strengthened by stating all this to a God 
 who declares it to be his peculiar office to aid the orphan and the 
 forsaken. We are entitled to hope for the aid of the Lord, accord- 
 ing as the accusations of our adversaries are unfounded, and every 
 attempt of remonstrating against their obduracy and cunning is 
 useless, and according as the sufferer, as does David, absolutely 
 commits the justice of his cause to God as to his best advocate. 
 (Cf. Isaiah liii. 7; 1 Peter ii. 23.) Experience confirms it, that if 
 we have to deal with any crafty and embittered foes, resigned suf- 
 fering is more likely to benefit than a zealous apprehension of our 
 good cause. Suffering of this kind will finally disarm our adversa- 
 ries, and cause the better-minded no longer to persist in inactivity. 
 
 F. 17 21. His enemies are exalted and rejoice, while he, 
 hardly able to prevent a deep fall, mourns in humility and peni- 
 tence to have by his own sins adduced such severe chastisements 
 on the part of God. He prays therefore that should he succumb 
 to their unheard-of attacks, they might not be permitted to triumph 
 over him, as if the cause of the godly were entirely destroyed. 
 Bearing in mind that the eye of the nation was fixed on David 
 since many years, and all were waiting for the final issue of things, 
 it is clear that his total defeat would be interpreted as a public 
 signal that God had ceased to be king in Israel. To show more 
 markedly the contrast between himself and his enemies, he states 
 that so far from having by any fault of his own caused their animo- 
 sity, they had, on the contrary, even stood proof of shame at the 
 displays of his love to them. God hears the fervent prayers of his 
 children for the visible manifestation of his attributes now as he 
 ever did of old. But Christians should bear in mind of what 
 manner of spirit they are, (Luke ix. 55,) that their faith, superior 
 to that of the ancients, ought to soar above the things seen and 
 temporal, to the things not seen and eternal. 
 
 F 22, 23. He grounds his prayer for the assistance of God, on 
 the magnitude of his own misery, and the ready acknowledgment 
 of his guilt, as well as the hard-hearted arrogance and pride of his 
 enemies, and confesses that his sole help is with God. 
 
200 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM XXXIX. 
 
 A PECULIAR psalm of complaint, containing the confession of des- 
 perate struggle of soul, which resolves itself into a mournful prayer. 
 The Psalmist represents the fearful extent of his misery. Words 
 of murmuring and accusation against God had arisen in his soul, 
 but he had checked their eagerness to break forth. He would not 
 for his own sufferings' sake have the name of God contemned, and 
 therefore resolved to suppress the tumult of his soul, and to be 
 silent, (v. 13.) But the commotion of his heart was too vehement. 
 His depression burst forth once, and like Job he wished for the 
 end of his life. 
 
 Now the agitated complaint changes into humble supplication. 
 He is aware of the shortness of this sorrowful life : but that know- 
 ledge is no solid foundation for the anchor of hope. His hesitating 
 soul regains the solid and well-known foundation in his God, 
 (v. 6 8.) He will humbly hope for deliverance from the Lord. 
 The Lord is sure to afford some joyous moments, just because the 
 term of our sorrowful life is brief, (v. 9 14.) 
 
 the chief Musician of the Jeduthunites, A Psalm 
 of David. 
 
 2 I said, "I will take heed to my ways, 
 That I sin not with my tongue : 
 
 I will keep my mouth with a bridle, 
 While the wicked is before me." 
 
 3 I was dumb with silence, 
 
 I held my peace even from good ; 
 And my sorrow was stirred. 
 
 4 My heart was hot within me, 
 While I was musing the fire burned : 
 Then spake I with my tongue. 
 
 5 "LORD, make me to know mine end, 
 And the measure of my days, what it is ; 
 That I may know what time I have here." 
 
 6 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth;* 
 And mine age is as nothing before thee : 
 
 Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. 
 Selah. 
 
 7 Surely every man walketh in a vain show : 
 Surely they are disquieted in vain : 
 
 He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather 
 them. 
 
 * Properly, "Several spans." 
 
PSALM XXXIX. 201 
 
 8 And now, Lord, what wait I for? 
 My hope is in thee. 
 
 9 Deliver me from all my transgressions : 
 Make me not the reproach of the foolish: 
 
 10 I will be dumb, I will not open my mouth: 
 For thou wilt do it (well.) 
 
 11 Remove thy stroke away from me : 
 
 I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. 
 
 12 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, 
 Thou makest his beauty to consume away as by the moth : 
 Surely every man is vanity. Selah. 
 
 13 Hear my prayer, LORD, 
 And give ear unto my cry; 
 Hold not thy peace at my tears : 
 For I am a stranger with thee, 
 
 And a sojourner, as all my fathers were. 
 
 14 spare me, that I may recover strength, 
 Before I go hence, and be no more. 
 
 V. 2, 3. How true and graphic is this description of inward 
 struggle in hours of distress, when we have not faith enough to 
 humble ourselves before God, and yet are not sufficiently unbe- 
 lieving to deny him before his enemies. The heart will then not 
 shrink from the contradiction, to maintain the honour of the Lord 
 before others, and to deny it to ourselves. It is like a man who 
 seeks to master a monster which he cannot kill, by kneeling on its 
 back : its roaring has ceased, though not its panting and groaning. 
 
 V. 4, 5. It implied a greater extremity of despair in the case 
 of the children of the Old Covenant than in ours (because they 
 lacked our clear insight into the future,) to renounce earthly exist- 
 ence and to desire death. So Job exclaimed in his deepest wretch- 
 edness, " Oh, that I might have my request, and that God would 
 grant me the thing that I long for: even that it would please God 
 to destroy me: that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!" 
 (Job vi. 8,9.) And Elias, "It -is enough; now, Lord, take 
 away my life, for I am not better than my fathers." (1 Kings xix. 4.) 
 And Jonah, " Therefore now, O Lord, I beseech thee, take 
 my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live." 
 (Jonah iv. 3.) The fear of the Lord has as yet prevented David 
 from reaching that point of extremity to wish straightway for 
 death: in his then state of mind he only asked to know when 
 it should take place. 
 
 V. 6, 7. He no longer wishes for but complains of the near- 
 ness of death and the frailty of human life. Prosperity intoxicates 
 men to a security, as if they had to live for ever, (Psalm xlix. 12;) 
 
202 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 so most men are, even in old age, anxious for after days so does 
 the covetousness of misers increase and not decrease with their 
 years. When affliction enters, and now destroys this and that 
 foundation of prosperity, the nothingness of human life gets soon 
 apparent. 
 
 F. 8. Life is short indeed, and no sufferer needs to anticipate 
 centuries of misery. If prosperity therefore is to come at all, it 
 must come soon. Hence David indulges the hope, that the day 
 of joy will dawn to him after his nights of sorrow. He depends 
 not, after the manner of the worldly-minded, upon a caprice of the 
 goddess of fortune or chance but though in his depression he felt 
 half inclined to forsake the Lord, he patiently returns to him, 
 knowing that the destinies of man are lodged in his hand, to place 
 his hope in him. 
 
 V. 9 12. His challenge of God is transmuted into prayer, the 
 answer of which he means silently and trustfully to wait for. He 
 acquaints God with his grief: he describes his beauty to have van- 
 ished by his stealthily consuming grief of the chastisement of God, 
 like the beauty of a garment by the secret gnawing of a moth. 
 This has taught him the frailty of man. 
 
 F. 13, 14. He seeks by this representation also to move the 
 heart of God to mercy. Man traverses life like a pilgrim and a 
 stranger, making but a short stay: the law has enjoined kindness 
 to strangers. (Exod. xxii. 21; Lev. xix. 10.) It is said that "the 
 Lord preserveth the strangers, he relieveth the fatherless and 
 widow." (Psalm cxlvi. 9.) He asks whether he, a stranger of 
 God on earth, (Job x. 2,) may not hope for seasons of joy and 
 refreshing. Though those who know that this life is a time of dis- 
 cipline and probation for the next, are not surprised that the 
 draught of our earthly cup is mixed of bitter herbs only, still it is 
 to be remembered that God knows the weakness of the human 
 mind that we are dust and ashes and that therefore it cannot 
 be deemed a wrongful prayer to pray with David, that God would, 
 by the infusion of a few sweet drops, render the bitter draught 
 more palatable. "As all my fathers were/' probably refers to the 
 confessions of Abraham and Jacob. (Gen. xxiii. 4; xlvii. 9; Heb. 
 xi. 13.) In similar terms David says (1 Chron. xxix. 14, 15,) 
 after the humble confession, that the costly material, which he had 
 procured for the building of the Temple, was really the property of 
 God, " For we are strangers before thee and sojourners, as were all 
 our fathers : our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is 
 none abiding." 
 
PSALM XI.. 203 
 
 PSALM XL. 
 
 A PSALM like Psalm ix. simultaneously expressive of gratitude and 
 complaint. Gratitude for deliverance is the leading sentiment; 
 then follows the cry for help in view of impending dangers; and 
 in verse 18 there ensues a final calm. The portion of the psalm 
 which begins with verse 14, occurs in Psalm Ixx. in a separate 
 form. Situations such as this psalm presumes them, in which 
 danger and persecution were still threatening after remarkable 
 deliverances, constantly occurred in the life of David during this 
 flight before Saul. He had scarcely retired from the town of 
 Kegilah to the wilderness of Siph, before the Siphites send word 
 to Saul : having afterwards escaped from Saul into the wilderness 
 of Maon and fled to Engedi, Saul pursued him as far as there : 
 having in the wilderness of Siph escaped from Saul a second 
 time, he is so depressed at the snares and persecutions which com- 
 passed him on every hand, that weary of the unceasing chase and 
 flight, he says, " I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul : 
 there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape 
 into the land of the Philistines, and Saul shall despair of me to 
 seek me any more in any coast of Israel, so shall I escape out of 
 his hand/' (1 Sam. xxvii. 1.) 
 
 With a solemn and grateful mind he praises the deliverance he 
 has just experienced, (v. 2 5:) contemplating his manifold expe- 
 rience of the marvellous love of God, he ardently desires worthily 
 to thank the Lord; and knowing that sacrifice of itself is not suf- 
 ficient, he promises to render the sacrifice of himself, of his will, 
 according to the requirements of the law, besides his cheerful tes- 
 timony to the justice, goodness, and faithfulness of God in the con- 
 gregation, (v. 6 11.) Now for the first time remembering the 
 uncertain soil of the present, he sends up his fervent petitions 
 (v. 13 17,) and concludes with a calmed mind, (v. 18.) 
 
 i np< 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 2 I waited patiently for the LORD ; 
 
 And he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 
 
 3 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, 
 Out of the miry clay, 
 
 And set my feet upon a rock, 
 And established my goings. 
 
 4 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, 
 Even praise unto our God : 
 
204 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Many shall see it, and fear, 
 And shall trust in the LORD. 
 
 5 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, 
 And respectethnot the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. 
 
 6 Many, LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which 
 
 thou hast done, 
 
 And thy thoughts which are to us-ward: 
 Nothing can be compared unto thee (or "be made like :") 
 I would declare and speak of them but they are more 
 
 than can be numbered. 
 
 7 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; 
 
 Mine ears hast thou opened* (i. e. thou hast revealed it 
 
 to me :) 
 Burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. 
 
 8 Then said I, Lo, I comeif 
 
 In the volume of the book it is written of me, 
 
 9 I delight to do thy will, my God : 
 Yea, thy law is within my heart. 
 
 10 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation : 
 Lo, I have not refrained my lips, LORD, thou knowest. 
 
 11 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart ; 
 I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation : 
 
 I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth 
 from the great congregation. 
 
 12 Withold not thou thy tender mercies from me, LORD : 
 Let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually pre- 
 serve me. 
 
 13 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: 
 Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, 
 
 So that I am not able to look up ; 
 
 They are more than the hairs of mine head : 
 
 Therefore my heart forsaketh me. 
 
 14 Be pleased, LORD, to deliver me : 
 LORD, make haste to help me. 
 
 * /. e. The inward ear; another figure is, The awakening of the ear. 
 (Isaiah 1. 4.) 
 
 f f^ denotes here, Succession in time, (Jer. xxii. 15; Ps. Ivi. 10.) hjn&2 
 is explained by Kimchi, by supplying spjjg}*), and that not in the temple only, 
 (Ps. Ixv. 3; Ixxi. 16; xcv. 6.) Stier compares less happily hp^ with 
 Numb. xxii. 38; 2 Sam. xix. 21. 
 
PSALM XL. 205 
 
 / . 
 
 15 Let them be ashamed and confounded together 
 That seek after my soul to destroy it ; 
 
 Let them be be driven backward and put to shame 
 That wish me evil. 
 
 16 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame 
 That say unto me, Aha ! aha ! 
 
 17 Let all those that seek thee 
 Eejoice and be glad in thee: 
 Let such as love thy salvation 
 
 Say continually, "The LORD be magnified." 
 
 18 But I am poor and needy; 
 
 Yet the LORD thinketh upon me : 
 Thou art my help and my deliverer ; 
 Make no tarrying, my God. 
 
 F. 2 4. David describes his anguish and peril of life, by the 
 figure of a man who, e. g. like Joseph or Jeremiah, having been 
 thrown into a cistern, sinks deeper and deeper into the mire. (Cf. 
 ad. Ps. Ixix. 3.) When the Lord had stretched out his mighty 
 hand to him, he felt like one who, delivered from such a perilous 
 situation, has by some helping hand been set upon a rock. He 
 projects to celebrate this new theme in new accents, and rejoices 
 in the thought that his own experience should prove subservient 
 to the piety of others. 
 
 F. 5. Those who are strongly attached to appearances are prone 
 rather to cling to the mighty ones on earth whom they see, than 
 to God whom they do not see. But while "He giveth to all men 
 liberally and upbraideth not," they are proud while He is faithful, 
 they deal in lies. How much better to trust in God than in man ! 
 
 F. 6 9. This one experience opens to David the wonders of 
 Divine mercy in general. Who can vividly realize them, without 
 feeling constrained to proclaim them to a blinded world, that pass 
 them day after day without seeing or hearing them ? David is 
 thus constrained, but is none of those who consider that words 
 alone can do it. He not only knows the insufficiency of human 
 speech in these matters, but is equally conscious that gratitude 
 needs works as the concomitants of words. In his relation to God 
 he is not satisfied with those works which suffice to the great mass 
 of mankind. He has not forgotten the saying of Samuel, his fatherly 
 friend, that "to obey is better than sacrifice," (1 Sam. xv. 22 ;) nor 
 received it on human authority, but the Spirit of God has confirmed 
 it to his mind. Whatever name the different kinds of sacrifice 
 may bear, he knows that they are the symbols of the self-sacrifice 
 of man. Man offers them with an obscure feeling that the sacrifice 
 of his will is as yet incomplete. On that account David testifies 
 18 
 
206 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 before the Lord, that he has sacrificed his own will and adopted the 
 Divine as his, and that the law of God is for him not only inscribed 
 upon the tables of stone, but written upon his heart. But, it is 
 asked, how can David say so, since he immediately after declares 
 that "his iniquities are more than the hairs on his head"? The 
 Spirit of God, we answer, had certainly put these sublime words 
 into the mouth of David, which in their fullest sense, however, 
 could only be uttered by the Son of God, who said, "I seek the 
 will of my Father," and, " My meat is to do the will of him that 
 sent me." Just at that moment, when he had soared aloft in 
 prayer, the expression may have been true of David (for imperfect 
 man may bring such sacrifices of self in his prayers;) but in his 
 life it was a truth of only gradual development. Christ, however, 
 who became man to lay down his life for man by the perfect 
 resignation of his will, could in the fullest sense say, " Sacrifice 
 and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me," 
 (Heb. x. 5,) i. e. for sacrifice for he made a sacrifice to God of 
 the life he lived in the body, and of the body itself. 
 
 V. 10, 11. Gratitude is to be an act; but who that experiences 
 gratitude can repress the words f Though the wonders of Divine 
 mercy cannot be numbered, should we not count as many as we 
 are able? So David deems it his duty to preach to the godly, 
 that the mercy of God, which has yielded so much fruit to him, 
 may likewise yield fruit to others. 
 
 V. 12, 13. While speaking of the past love and faithfulness of 
 God, he is reminded of the present and the immediate future 
 before him, and feels how little he can spare the continuance of 
 that love and faithfulness. He has formed lofty views of the 
 duties of the godly, and expressed his heart's desire that his own 
 will should be absorbed by that of God; but this only causes him 
 to pass a more severe sentence on his past life, to recognize the 
 hand of a just God in his sufferings, however undeserved they 
 might appear to human eyes, and to measure the number of his 
 offences by the number of his sufferings. These expressions fur- 
 nish the clue, why afflictions, which less conscientious men could 
 have better borne than David, so completely prostrated him. 
 
 V. 14 18. With a humble and contrite heart he now cries 
 for help, and summoning his adversaries before the Divine judg- 
 ment-seat, enumerates the proofs of their inhuman disposition : 
 they aim at his life, rejoice at his tears, and every new disaster 
 which befalls him. On the other hand, he infers from his past 
 experiences the exultation to which his own deliverance would give 
 rise among the children of God, confesses the Lord as his all- 
 sufficient help, and prays, weakened by the endless chain of afflic- 
 tion, for the speedy forthcoming of that help. 
 
PSALM XLI. 207 
 
 PSALM XLI. 
 
 A PLAINTIVE psalm composed in sickness, which was attended by 
 the haughtiness of enemies and the faithlessness of friends. It can- 
 not well fall into the period of David's reign, because it is impro- 
 bable that such potent adversaries should have surrounded the 
 king, or if they had, he would no doubt from the sick-bed have 
 concerted means to check their malice. It is therefore better to 
 refer it to the period of his residence at the court of Saul. We 
 know that he was there surrounded by crafty men, who in every 
 way sought to calumniate him with the king, (v. 7.) It is by no 
 means improbable that his friends and associates dealt with him 
 in a hostile manner, though there is no historic record to that 
 effect. Psalm Ixix. refers to similar circumstances, (cf. verse 21.) 
 The Psalmist, conscious of his desertion, promises the reward of 
 blessing to those who will espouse the cause of the afflicted in 
 their time of calamity, (v. 2 4 :) previous to presenting his peti- 
 tion to the Lord, he confesses his readiness to regard his disease as 
 a well-merited chastisement, (v. 5 :) he complains of the cunning 
 of enemies, that his friends cannot be depended upon, (v. 6 10,) 
 and prays for health for the purpose of punishing the faithless, and 
 of knowing thereby that the Lord has not wholly cast him off, 
 (v. 1113.) 
 
 1 fFO 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 2 Blessed is he that considereth the poor: 
 The LORD will deliver him in the day of evil. 
 
 3 The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive ; 
 And he shall be blessed upon the earth : 
 
 And thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his 
 enemies. 
 
 4 The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing : 
 Thou wilt turn all his bed in his sickness. 
 
 5 I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: 
 
 Heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee. 
 
 6 Mine enemies speak evil of me, 
 
 "When shall he die, and his name perish?" 
 
 7 And if they come to see me, they speak vanity (or, 
 
 "falsehood":) 
 
 Their heart gathereth iniquity, 
 They go abroad and tell it. 
 
 8 All that hate me whisper together against me : 
 Against me do they devise my hurt. 
 
208 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 9 "An evil disease," say they, "cleaveth fast unto him: 
 And now that he lieth he shall rise up no more." 
 
 10 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which 
 
 did eat of my bread, 
 Hath lifted up his heel against me. 
 
 11 But thou, LORD, be merciful unto me, 
 And raise me up, that I may requite them. 
 
 12 By this I know that thou favourest me. 
 That mine enemy shall not triumph over me. 
 
 13 But as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, 
 And settest me before thy face for ever. 
 
 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel 
 
 From everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. 
 
 V. 2 10. The kind of recompense which the Psalmist ex- 
 pressed in verse 4, shows that he understands by the poor, one 
 afflicted with disease. He prefaces his petition with the confession 
 of his guilt, because the lenity of the judgment of God is propor- 
 tionate to the severity with which we judge ourselves. By his 
 enemies we have to understand such courtiers as disliked David, 
 partly on account of his piety, partly on account of the high position 
 he held at court. They cannot, without a breach of etiquette, omit 
 to visit him in the sick-chamber, but they partly contort his sayings 
 to calumniate him with the king, and partly rejoice at his sufferings. 
 The expression " to lift up the heel/' which David says of his friend, 
 is equivalent to "to strike out (kick) against one/' (Gen. xlix. 17,) 
 and denotes cunning insolence. Our Lord's (John xiii. 18) apply- 
 ing this passage to Judas, must be taken in a typical sense; and it 
 may be worth noticing that our Saviour omits the words, "in whom 
 I trusted ." 
 
 V. 11 13. The words, "that I may requite them/' seem to 
 express personal vindictive desires, and to contradict the sentiment 
 of Psalm xxxv. 13. Most interpreters regard the Psalmist as 
 speaking in his capacity of king, and contemplating as such the 
 exercise of legal punishment. But was it necessary that he should 
 for that purpose wait for the restoration of his health? Personal 
 vindictive feeling can hardly be denied; but all depends upon the 
 kind of recompense which he desired. He may have simply meant 
 to say that he intended to part with his faithless friend, and to 
 cause the king or other influential persons to punish his cunning 
 enemies, which would be a degree of revenge by no means unpar- 
 donable. Looking upon his sickness as a Divine chastisement, 
 he determines to regard his recovery as an evidence of the continued 
 favour of God. The doxology which occurs at the end of this 
 Psalm was added by transcribers, who thus concluded the first book 
 of the Psalms. (Cf. Psalms Ixxii. Ixxxix. cvi.) 
 
PSALMS XLII. XLIII. 209 
 
 PSALMS XLII. XLIII. 
 
 THESE two psalms of complaint make up, as show the recurring 
 verses xlii. 6. 12, xliii. 6, one whole. The voice of longing for 
 the sanctuary at Jerusalem is heard in the regions of Lebanon. 
 To infer from the title, the exile seems to be a Korahite Levite. 
 Similar yearnings occur in Psalms Ixi. Ixiii. Ixxxiv. Psalm Ixxxiv. 
 notices the striking circumstance that the banished Korahite, who 
 longs for the sanctuary, shares the exile of a king, and expresses 
 his anxiety to return conjointly with the king, and quasi in the 
 soul of that king. Psalm Ixxxiv. applies to no other king than to 
 David on his flight before Absalom (Of. ad. Ps. Ixxxiv.) beyond 
 Jordan : this favours the presumption that the mourning Levite of 
 this Psalm sang on the same occasion in the soul of the aggrieved 
 king. 2 Sam. xv. 24, states that Levites accompanied David on his 
 flight : the ark of the covenant which they bore was certainly by 
 order of the king taken back to the city, but it does not follow from 
 that circumstance that all the Levites returned. It would be difficult 
 to state another occasion when a Levite was exiled just in the region 
 beyond Jordan,* while the description of the locality agrees with 
 David's* residence at Mahanaim. David's longing for the sanctuary 
 is known from 2 Sam. xv. 25, and other Psalms. (Cf. ad. Ps. 
 Ixxxiv.) While the Psalm begins with a deep sense of yearning 
 for the place where the bard had enjoyed rich communings with 
 God, rebellious enemies mockingly tell him that his God has forsaken 
 him, (v. 2 4.) He comforts himself to some extent by the recol- 
 lection of the former beautiful seasons of worship (v. 5,) and soothes 
 his moved soul with the firm belief that help is sure to come, (v. 6.) 
 Scarcely soothed, grief bursts forth anew : the land of his exile, the 
 perpetual rushing of the mountain streams, furnish a figure of his 
 great grief. But since the Lord daily and hourly provides to his 
 people opportunities of praise, the Psalmist directs his plaintive 
 cries unto him, and by the exercise of faith succeeds once more to 
 appease his troubled heart, (v. 9 12.) But his grief rises a third 
 time, and streams forth in loud cries for help, until the same refrain 
 brings for the third time peace to his mind. (Ps. xliii. 1 5.) 
 
 (PSALM xlii.) 
 
 1 nnO the chief Musician, and instruction of the Sons of 
 1 Korah.f 
 
 2 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, 
 So panteth my soul after thee, God. 
 
 * According to Ewald, the Psalmist was, on the transport to Babylon, 
 detained for a night in the vicinity of Hermon. (?) 
 
 f Cf. ad. Ps. xxxii. 1. Perhaps with reference to practical wisdom of 
 life. (Cf. b^to Jos. i. 8.) 
 
 18* ' 
 
210 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 8 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God : 
 When shall I come and appear before God. 
 
 4 My tears have been my meat day and night, 
 
 While they continually say unto me, " Where is thy God 1" 
 
 5 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me : 
 How I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to 
 
 the house of God, 
 With the voice of joy and praise, 
 With a multitude that keep holy day. 
 
 6 WHY ART THOU CAST DOWN, MY SOUL ? 
 AND WHY ART THOU DISQUIETED IN ME ? 
 
 HOPE THOU IN GOD : FOR I SHALL YET PRAISE HIM, 
 
 WHO IS THE HEALTH OF MY COUNTENANCE, AND MY GOD. 
 
 7 My soul is cast down within me : 
 
 Whilst I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and 
 
 from the mountains of Hermon, 
 From the little hill. ) 
 
 8 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts ; 
 All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. 
 
 9 Yet the LORD will command his loving-kindness in the 
 
 daytime, 
 
 And in the night his song shall be with me, 
 And my prayer unto the God of my life.f 
 
 10 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me ? 
 Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the 
 
 enemy ? 
 
 11 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me ; 
 While they say daily unto me, "Where is thy God?" 
 
 12 WHY ART THOU CAST DOWN, MY SOUL ? 
 AND WHY ART THOU DISQUIETED WITHIN ME? 
 
 HOPE THOU IN GOD : FOR I SHALL YET PRAISE HIM, 
 
 WHO IS THE HEALTH OF MY COUNTENANCE, AND MY GOD. 
 (PSALM xliii.) 
 
 1 TUDGE me, God, and plead my cause 
 J Against an ungodly nation : 
 deliver me from deceitful and unjust men. 
 
 f Should the transition from the complaint in v. 8 appear too sudden, 
 interpret: "The day will bring help, and at night I shall be able to give 
 thanks." (Cf. Ps. Ixvi. 17.) "I cried unto him with my mouth, and now 
 I extol him with my tongue." This interpretation regards fij&tl as a prayer 
 of thanksgiving. T ' : 
 
PSALM XLIII. 211 
 
 2 For tliou art the God of my strength: 
 Why dost thou cast me off? 
 
 Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the 
 enemy ? 
 
 3 send out thy light and thy truth : 
 Let them lead me ; 
 
 Let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy taber- 
 nacles. 
 
 4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, 
 Unto God my exceeding joy: 
 
 , ^ And upon the harp will I praise thee, 
 God, my God. 
 
 5 WHY ART THOU CAST DOWN, MY SOUL ? 
 AND WHY ART THOU DISQUIETED WITHIN ME ? 
 
 HOPE IN GOD : FOR I SHALL YET PRAISE HIM, 
 
 WHO IS THE HEALTH OF MY COUNTENANCE, AND MY GoD. 
 (PSALM xlii.) 
 
 V. 2 4:. The outward sanctuary was the tie which united 
 the godly and their God : there they enjoyed the happiest hours in 
 holy communion with him. Hence this strong yearning for the 
 sanctuary. The Psalmist compares the complaints of his longing 
 to the panting of a thirsty hart; so incessant is the flow of his 
 tears, that his bread is steeped in them. Mockers sneer at his 
 king's trust in God, whose cause he has identified with his own. 
 
 V. 5, 6. The present being painful, and the future uncertain, 
 his troubled mind reverts to the past, and he enjoys once more in 
 memory the delights of the communion of the children of God 
 before his countenance. That retrospect elicits tears, but they are 
 at once expressive of grief and joy. The realization of the past 
 mercy of God, accompanied by the thought of his unchanging char- 
 acter, gives rise to hope for the future, and he gains a sufficient 
 amount of strength to address and comfort his soul. 
 
 V. 7, 8. The grief of a deeply afflicted soul is like a wave of 
 the sea, which now sinks, but immediately lifts itself again. So 
 grief returns on his beholding the place of his exile.* It was in 
 
 * The name, "The land of Jordan," is used not to designate the source 
 of Jordan, but because Canaan proper did not extend beyond Jordan, 
 (v. Roland's Palestine, p. 4.) This name denotes therefore the exile remote 
 from Canaan. The Hermon of the ancients is, according to Seezen, the 
 same as the modern Heish mountains. On Robinson's map Mahanaim is 
 certainly some miles distant from the Heish mountains, in the mountains 
 of Gilead ; but Lebanon, Hermon, and Gilead form a connected chain, or 
 may at least be regarded as such, as appears from Bochard's testimony 
 quoted in Bachiene's description of Palestine, vol. i. 1, J 126. The use of 
 
 the plural CD^fc^ri shows indeed that Hermon in a wide and not in the 
 narrow sense is meant. 
 
212 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the mountains of Gilead, beyond the frontiers of Canaan a coun- 
 try rich in natural wonders. But what are the beauties of nature 
 to a soul that is conscious of being exiled from the sanctuary of 
 God? Beauteous nature round about, with its mountain streams, 
 where one gush of water seems uproariously to call for the next, 
 is to him a figure of the billows of adversity, which had gone over 
 him. The most beautiful scenery appears to a saddened heart as 
 clad in mourning apparel, while a simple pasture may tune a glad- 
 dened one to exultant joy. 
 
 F. 9 12. Those who are rich in past experience possess in it 
 an eminence from which they may also enjoy genial prospects of the 
 future. Strengthened by the contemplation of the past, he acquaints 
 God, who had so often proved himself to be his rock, with his 
 grief, and above all with his great sorrow, harder to bear than 
 death itself, that his enemies deride his faith, and for the second 
 time he allays the tumult of his mind. 
 
 (PSALM xliii.) 
 
 F. 1 5. Soliloquy has ceased; he invokes Divine aid in a 
 state of mind which almost borders on despair. Neither transient 
 enjoyment nor temporal good, but the delights of worship and the 
 praise of God, which sounds so feebly at a distance from the accus- 
 tomed sanctuary, occasion his painful yearnings for Zion. Having 
 thus committed his cause to the Lord, he succeeds for the last time 
 to appease his troubled soul. 
 
 PSALM XLIV. 
 
 A SONG of complaint, which probably belongs to the period when 
 Nebuchadnezzar carried away Jehoiachin the king and thirty-two 
 noble Israelites into captivity. Many commentators have explained 
 v. 10 17 and v. 20 as descriptive of the condition of the Jews in 
 exile; this view is not correct, for v. 6 8 seems to point to the 
 hope of victory; nothing is said about the destruction of the sanc- 
 tuary, and the people were then far from regarding the judgments 
 of God as unmerited on their part, which they were called upon to 
 endure for the sake of God, as v. 21 23 state. Many expressions 
 in books, which originated in the exile, prove the contrary, (Ezra 
 ix. 7. 13; Neh. i. 6; ix. 30. 33; xiii. 18; Lam. i. 8. 18. 22; 
 iv. 6. 13 15; v. 16; Dan. ix. 4, etc.f) expressions differing from 
 those employed here occur also in Psalms Ixxix. 6; Ixxxv. 3. 
 The two characteristics of this psalm are the captivity and the deep 
 
PSALM XLIV. 213 
 
 humiliation of the people, and the consciousness that idolatry was 
 not the cause of their sore trial. For on an inspection of the epoch 
 from Josiah to the captivity, with a view to find the time when the 
 king and the nation were not adicted to idolatry, and yet visited 
 with great calamities and captivity, it appears there is none, 
 except that of the carrying away of king Jehoiachin. Several 
 prisoners had been carried to Bahylon during the reign of Jehoia- 
 kim, (Dan. i. 3, etc,} but they were few. (Of. Introd. to Ps. Ixxiv.) 
 Verses 12 17 apply to the days of Jehoiachin or Zedekiah only. 
 It cannot fall under the government of the latter (e. g. the period 
 when Jerusalem was besieged by the generals of Nebuchadnezzar,) 
 because the nobility and priests were then guilty of gross idolatry, 
 which was committed in the temple itself, (Ezraviii.; 2 Chron. 
 xxxvi. 14; see Introd. to Psalm Ixxiv.) and because Jeremiah 
 expressly states that the destruction of the city took place for idol- 
 atry's sake. (Jer. xxii. 9.) Though (2 Chron. xxxvi. 9,) it is 
 stated that Jehoiachin, during the three months of his government, 
 "did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord," it is apparent 
 from the description in Jer. xxii. 10, etc. of the kings after Josiah, 
 that the youthful king Jehoiachin, mourned for by many, had, in 
 accordance with the immutable counsel of God, to suffer for the 
 sins of the nation. Nothing else is mentioned of Shallum, the son 
 of Josiah, who immediately after his accession to the throne was 
 by Necho in his early youth taken a captive to Egypt. Of Jehoia- 
 kim who in his pride built lofty palaces, extorted the people, shed 
 innocent blood, and oppressed the land, it is said, "They shall not 
 lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother ! or, Ah, my sister ! they 
 shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, lord ! or, Ah, his glory ! 
 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth 
 beyond the gates of Jerusalem." But concerning Jehoiachin, (or 
 Coniah,) the people lament: "Is this man a despised, broken idol? 
 is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure ? wherefore are they cast out, 
 he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not ? 
 Now idolatry had ceased already in the days of Jehoiakim, and it 
 is said, (2 Kings xxiv. 3, 4,) that he was delivered into the hands 
 of his enemies for the sins of idolatrous Manasseh. How natural 
 therefore was it for a pious man during the reign of innocent 
 Jehoiachin to say that affliction had come upon them not on account 
 of their iniquities ! 
 
 At a time when the land was laid desolate by the devastations 
 of the foe, (v. 20,) while the foe was still in its borders, (v. 17,) 
 much people destroyed by him, and Israel deeply humiliated, 
 (v. 12 17,) the thoughts of the Levite singer revert to the 
 ancient works of God, to the period when the Lord was still 
 favouring his people, (v. 2 4;) he consoles himself by remember- 
 ing that the same God is still King, and able to give victory to 
 those who rely not on their own strength, but confide in his 
 
214 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 strong arm, (v. 5 9.) He successively contemplates the shame 
 which the Lord has suffered to come upon his people; he thinks 
 of their routed armies, of their ignominious captivity, of the foe in 
 their borders, (v. 10 17,) and all this (which the Lord had 
 threatened as their punishment if they forsook him, Deut. iv. 
 25 27; xxviii. 37,) now at a time when the nation clings close to 
 her God, (v. 18 23.) He then cries, almost despairingly, for 
 help, (v. 24,) but concludes with a humble prayer for mercy, (v. 25.) 
 
 i nn 
 
 the Chief Musician, A Poem of the sons of Korah. 
 
 2 We have heard with our ears, God, 
 Our fathers have told us, 
 
 What work thou didst in their days, 
 In the times of old. 
 
 3 How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, 
 But plantedst them ; 
 
 How thou didst afflict the nations, 
 But extendedst them. 
 
 4 For they got not the land in possession by their own 
 
 sword, 
 
 Neither did their own arm save them : 
 But thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy 
 
 countenance, 
 Because thou hadst a favour unto them. 
 
 5 God, thou art he, my king ! 
 Command deliverances for Jacob ! 
 
 6 Through thee will we push down our enemies : 
 Through thy name will we tread them under that rise 
 
 up against us. 
 
 7 For I will not trust in my bow, 
 Neither can my sword save me. 
 
 8 But thou hast saved us from our enemies, 
 And hast put them to shame that hated us. 
 
 9 In God we boast all the day long, 
 And praise thy name for ever. Selah. 
 
 10 But thou hast cast off, and put us to shame ; 
 And didst not go forth with our armies. 
 
 11 Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy; 
 And they which hate us spoil for themselves. 
 
 12 Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat ; 
 And hast scattered us among the heathen. 
 
 13 Thou sellest thy people for nought, 
 
 And dost not increase thy wealth by their price. 
 
PSALM XLIV. 215 
 
 14 Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, 
 
 A scorn and derision to them that are round about us. 
 
 15 Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, 
 A shaking of the head among the nations. 
 
 16 My confusion is continually before me, 
 And the shame of my face hath covered me, 
 
 17 For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth ; 
 By reason of the enemy and the vengeful. 
 
 18 All this is come upon us: 
 
 Yet have we not forgotten thee, 
 
 Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. 
 
 19 Our heart is not turned back, 
 
 Neither have our steps declined from thy way ; 
 
 20 Though thou hast sore broken us in the land of jackals, 
 And covered us with the shadow of death. 
 
 21 If we have forgotten the name of our God, 
 Or stretched out our hands to a strange god ; 
 
 22 Shall not God search this out ? 
 
 For he knoweth the secrets of the heart. 
 
 23 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; 
 We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. 
 
 24 Awake, why sleepest thou, Lord? 
 Arise, cast us not off for ever. 
 
 25 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, 
 
 And forgettest our affliction and our oppression ? 
 
 26 For our soul is bowed down to the dust : 
 Our belly cleaveth unto the earth. 
 
 27 Arise for our help, 
 
 And redeem us for thy mercies' sake. 
 
 V. 2. " Hath not the Lord made thee and established thee ? 
 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations; 
 ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will 
 tell thee." Thus saith the Lord in Deut. xxxii. 6, 7, etc. and goes 
 on to remind his people how he had, with the affection of a father, 
 established, led, and guarded them of old. The Psalmist obeys 
 this Divine commandment in causing his memory to go back to the 
 days of the beginning of his nation. It was the admirable occupa- 
 tion of old men in Israel, to immortalize the works of the Lord in 
 the nation, that the remembrance might in a continuous chain go 
 from century to century. (Psalm Ixxviii. 3 6.) The Psalmist 
 refers God's merciful dealings in hoary antiquity to the uninter- 
 rupted testimony as transmitted from one generation to the next, 
 
216 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and thereby intimates that the antiquity of their occurrence does 
 not in any way impair their certainty and credibility. Other 
 nations hand down to future generations the great events of anti- 
 quity in songs and histories but while their songs sing of the 
 heroism of their ancestors, the songs of Israel celebrate the works 
 of God. 
 
 V. 3, 4. The Lord had found the nation "in a desert land and 
 in the waste howling wilderness, as an eagle stirreth up her nest, 
 fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, 
 beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him." 
 (Deut. xxxii. 10, 11.) He had destroyed nations that were rooted 
 in their native soil, and established his people in their borders and 
 multiplied them. Israel had to fight for the possession of those 
 new borders. But faith knows that the strength in man is not his, 
 but the Lord's, who has created heaven and earth. The Psalmist 
 therefore confesses that it was the hand of God which brought 
 those mighty feats to pass. 
 
 F. 5 9. This self-same God is still the King. How encour- 
 aging a thought, and is there any other way in which a nation can 
 attain to unwavering trust ? Human strength and wisdom change 
 with the generations, but the Lord's arm is the same in every cen- 
 tury. If a nation desires to share his mercy and his might, she 
 must ascribe the honour to him alone. Though Israel had ceased 
 from idolatry since the days of godly Josiah, the Lord had need in 
 the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim to say to Jeremiah, 
 "Stand in the courts of the Lord's house, and speak unto all the 
 cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord's house, all the 
 words that I command thee to speak unto them ; diminish not a 
 word : if so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his 
 evil ways, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do 
 unto them because of the evil of their doings/' (Jer. xxvi. 2, 3.) 
 
 V. 10 15. Victory had departed from the arms of Israel since 
 the godly Josiah' s defeat in the battle of Megiddoh : the arms of 
 Jehoiakim gave way in the wars against Nebuchadnezzar, Moab, 
 and Ammon, (2 Kings xxiv. 2;) and when the Chaldeans besieged 
 Jerusalem, in the days of Jehoiachin, it fell almost without a blow. 
 Nebuchadnezzar, covered with rich spoil, appeared for the second, 
 perhaps the third (Cf. Introd. to Ps. Ixxiv.) time before Jeru- 
 salem, and carried off many nobles, e. g. Daniel and Ezekiel, and 
 many costly vessels from the temple (Dan. i. 2; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 10) 
 of the Lord. There is no need for explaining the dispersion among 
 hostile nations of the abduction of captives to Babylon, since it 
 was customary in the wars of that time to carry captives into foreign 
 countries, and to sell them as slaves. Joel e. g. accuses the com- 
 mercial nation of the Philistines of having sold the children (Joel 
 iv. 6) of Jerusalem to the remote Greeks of Asia Minor, and Amos 
 the Syrian of having sold the captives to the Edomites. (Amos i. 6.) 
 
PSALM XLIV. 217 
 
 Bufc the deep humiliation of Israel before all the surrounding 
 nations which is here mentioned, and which fulfilled the prediction 
 of Deut. xxviii. 37, refers certainly to the abduction of a great 
 portion of the nation to Babylon. The disasters and calamities of 
 Israel were the rejoicing of all the surrounding nations, the Edom- 
 ites, Ammonites, etc.; and when Nebuchadnezzar afterwards des- 
 troyed the city, Edom aided him, and exclaimed with malicious 
 joy, "Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof/' (Psalm 
 cxxxvii. 7.) The shaking of the head denotes here, as in Psalm 
 xxii. 8, derisive joy. 
 
 V. 16, 17. The Psalmist still hears the voice of the enemy, 
 (Ps. Ixxiv. 23,) and feels the ignominy of his people more deeply 
 than his own. His eye has not only to behold the destruction, but 
 the derision in the face of the destroyer. 
 
 V. 18. The Lord says (Deut. iv. 23, 24,) "Take heed unto 
 yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord your God which 
 he made with you, and make you a graven image, or the likeness 
 of anything which the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee : for the 
 Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God:" adding, 
 " Ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be des- 
 troyed; and the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye 
 shall be less few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord 
 shall lead you." The heart of the Psalmist is seized by that most 
 dangerous of temptations, that the word of God is no longer con- 
 sistent, for he afnrins of his nation and himself, "that they have 
 not dealt falsely in his covenant." But, as is always the case when 
 man thinks that God has become faithless to his covenant, so here 
 the Psalmist had neither wholly nor deeply understood the word 
 of God. Let man but grasp it in its depth and fulness, and it will 
 never contradict itself. Idolatry was not the only violation of the 
 covenant, though none other is mentioned there. The Lord says, 
 in Deut. xxviii. 15. 32. 37, "But it shall come to pass, if thou 
 wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to 
 do all the commandments and his statutes, ivhich I command thee 
 this day, that all their curses shall come upon thee and overtake 
 thee. Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a 
 byword among all nations, whither the Lord shall lead thee. Thy 
 sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and 
 thine eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all the day 
 long; and there shall be no might in thy hand." Is this not the 
 sense in which the keeping of the covenant is explained in Ps. 1.? 
 Is not all sin, in its deeper sense, idolatry ? But we are always 
 more prone to accuse God of faithlessness than our own hearts. 
 
 V. 19 23. The bard ventures to affirm that they have not 
 
 declined from the ways of God, while the sequel of his words shows 
 
 that all he means to say amounts just to this: that the nation as a 
 
 whole stretched out their hands to the true God, and had the 
 
 19 
 
218 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 statutes and the covenant of the Lord in their mouths. But what 
 if N God dealt with the people according to the words of Psalm 
 1. 16, 17, " What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that 
 thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth; seeing thou hatest 
 instruction, and castest my words behind thee?" It appears that 
 the Psalmist was in his own mind not quite sure of the innocence 
 of his people, for he speaks as if he were afraid of the just accusa- 
 tions, that though having done away with outward idolatry, they 
 were attached to their idols in their hearts, as Ezekiel reproves 
 those "whose hearts cling to their idols/ 1 How much is needed 
 for a whole nation to affirm, as does the Psalmist here, that they 
 endure their suffering, not on account of their own guilt, but solely 
 for the sake of their God and their faith, which Paul was permitted 
 to say of the Christians, (Rom. viii. 36.) The Psalmist calls his 
 country the land of jackals and of the shadow of death, to intimate 
 its deserted condition, for the desert is the haunting-place of 
 jackals. 
 
 V. 24 27. Though the heart of believers cannot but retain 
 the conviction that an active God wields the sceptre of the universe, 
 expressions of despair in time of great temptation pass even their 
 lips, to challenge as it were the manifestation of the Divine arm. 
 But the wild waves soon subside in the mind of the bard, his sole 
 appeals being to his own affliction and to the love and mercy of 
 God. 
 
 PSALM XLV. 
 
 AN exquisitely beautiful and poetic psalm, which were it found 
 elsewhere than in the collection of the sacred songs of Israel, might 
 be regarded as the nuptial song of an earthly king, whose bride is 
 exhorted to forget her father's house and to yield herself entirely 
 to her spouse and lord. The allegorical sense of this poem is ren- 
 dered highly probable, from the simple consideration that a secular 
 song of such a nature would not have been received into a collec- 
 tion of sacred songs.* John the Baptist calls our Lord Jesus the 
 
 * There are various objections to the allegorical interpretation of this 
 psalm, but grave difficulties attach also to the explanations which regard 
 the king as a worldly monarch of Persia, or Israel, or as Solomon. To 
 regard him as a king of Persia (Augusti, Rosenmuller, and formerly De 
 Wette) is prohibited by the following considerations: Other tributary 
 nations besides Tyre would be mentioned : and Israelites would not have 
 praised him in similar epithets ; nor would the position of the psalm occur 
 among such ancient songs. It is objected to its application to a king of 
 
PSALM XLV. 219 
 
 Bridegroom, and the people of Israel his bride. (John iii. 29.) 
 Our Lord himself describes his union to his people by the figure of 
 a marriage feast. (Matt. xxii. 2; cf. 2 Cor. xi. 2; Rev. xxix. 7.) 
 After the same manner this psalm represents Messiah as a king, 
 Israel as his affianced bride and queen, and pagan nations as her 
 associates or friends, who along with her are introduced into the 
 palace. The prophets (Isa. xi.; Mich. v. 3,) describe Messiah as a 
 victorious king of righteousness, wisdom and kindness. Israel 
 shall be the trunk-nation of the new kingdom, and the heathen be 
 received into Israel, believing in the Messiah. This is stated in 
 different figures. (Isaiah ii. 3.) It is described in another form 
 Ezek. viii. 23, "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; in those days it 
 shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages 
 of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a 
 Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is 
 with you/' The spiritual union of God to his people is frequently 
 represented by the figure of a marriage. (Hos. 2; Jer. iii. 1, etc.; 
 
 Israel (Ewald, Hitzig,) that Tyre would not have paid tribute to so unim- 
 portant a kingdom as Israel (for fif-tifa must be regarded as tribute see Ps. 
 
 Ixxii. 10; Isaiah Ix. 6;) that foreign kings would not have sent their 
 daughters into the harem of such a king; that v. 17 could not apply to 
 him; and that an Israelitish song of such a nature would not have t>een 
 received into the Jewish canon. Its application to Solomon (Calvin, Gro- 
 tius, Hupfeld) has against it that v. 5 ascribes a martial character to the 
 king; that v. 17 speaks of a series of ancestors, while Solomon's sole 
 ancestor was David. Its application to a later monarch of Judah, which is 
 defended by Bleek (Commentary to the Hebrews, vol. ii. p. 154,) seems 
 most admissible, though it must be confessed that the flattery "Thou 
 shalt make thy sons princes in all the earth," or, "in all the land," would 
 be too strong if addressed to a later Jewish king, the lord of a country the 
 dimensions of which were fifty miles by thirty. (See Introd. iii.) It is, 
 moreover, very questionable whether the contents of the psalm agree with 
 such an hypothesis. Firstly, the proper object of praise is the king in 
 general, v. 18, and the wedding is only described because in connection 
 with him, while the bride is quieted by a reference to his glory. Secondly, 
 much depends upon the correctness of the common view, which regards 
 the virgins who follow the queen as her friends, introduced for the comple- 
 tion of the picture. But the bride is not comforted by a reference to that 
 retinue, it being expressly stated that the virgins are brought unto him, 
 the king, which is rendered more emphatic still by v. 17. The word J^n 
 
 is, in fact, applied both to the queen and her companions. Verse 10 also 
 alludes to such an equalization. We think that a careful consideration of 
 the additional nifi^fa in v. 15, and of v. 16, necessarily leads to the con- 
 
 clusion to regard the virgins as brides, among whom the ^^ is prima inter 
 
 pares. If this be the case, the application of the psalm to a worldly monarch 
 is inadmissible. Among the different translations of rnT-n 1 -! *f\yj in the 
 
 title, that which renders, "A song concerning the beloved," seems most 
 preferable on grounds of language and of matter, which, after what has 
 been adduced, seems best to agree with the contents of the psalm. 
 
220 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Isa. liv. 5. Cf. Song of Solomon and Introd. 4, 5.) Compare 
 especially Ezek. xvi. where Israel is described as a virgin of 
 Canaanite extraction, poor at her birth, whom the Lord educated, 
 bathed, anointed, and adorned with broicjered garments and costly 
 jewels, but who had become unfaithful to him. The Psalmist 
 declares in an enraptured state of mind his intention to sing a song 
 to his king, (v. 2.) He praises his beauty and chivalry, his victo- 
 rious warfares in the interest of truth and holy love: he affirms 
 righteousness to be the fundamental part of his government, and 
 depicts his majesty in figures borrowed from worldly monarchs, one 
 of which is his riches in wives, (v. 3 10.) Eastern potentates 
 have one favourite wife, who is styled the queen: the nation to 
 whom belong the promises occupies her place, and is according to 
 a wife's duty to forget her father's house and her former connections, 
 and shall by way of reward receive tribute from the wealthiest 
 nations of the earth. This wife, with the retinue of all other 
 nations of the earth, holds a glorious entrance into the royal palace. 
 The offspring of that union shall be princes all over the earth, 
 more glorious than all the royal offspring of David, (v. 11 17.) 
 That king is worthy of eternal praises, and the nations shall praise 
 him for ever and ever for his greatness and his love, (v. 18.) 
 
 the chief Musician, to the tune "The lilies/' a Song 
 of the sons of Korah concerning the beloved, an 
 instruction.* 
 
 2 My heart welleth forth a fair song : 
 
 I say: I will sing touching the king: 
 
 My tongue is as the pen of a ready writer. 
 
 3 Thou art fairer than the children of men : 
 Grace is poured into thy lips : 
 Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. 
 
 4 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, Most Mighty, 
 With thy glory and thy majesty. 
 
 5 And in thy majesty ride prosperously 
 
 Because of truth, and mercy, f and righteousness; 
 And thy right hand shall teach thee marvellous things. 
 
 6 Thine arrows hit sharp into the heart of the king's 
 
 enemies ; 
 While the people fall under thee. 
 
 *So Gesenius in Thes. otherwise the rendering "Song of loves," would 
 be more preferable, 
 t p"l an< * JTl33> occur equally conjoined Zeph. ii. 3. These two asyn- 
 
 detically united words make up one idea, like two asyndetically united ad- 
 jectives (cf. Ewald's Hebrew Grammar, 3d Edition, | 538.) 
 
PSALM XLV. 221 
 
 7 Thy throne,* God, is for ever and ever: 
 
 The sceptre of thy kingdom is a sceptre of justice. 
 
 8 Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness : 
 Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee 
 With the oil of gladness above thy fellows. 
 
 9 All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, 
 Out of ivory palaces the sound of the harp maketh thee 
 
 ? glad. 
 
 10 Kings' daughters are among thy glories, 
 
 Upon thy right hand standeth the queen in gold of Ophir. 
 
 11 Hearken, daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear ; 
 Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house; 
 
 12 So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: 
 For he is thy Lord, and thou shalt worship him. 
 
 13 And the daughter of Tyre shall with a gift entreat thy 
 
 favour, 
 The richest among the nations. 
 
 14 The king's daughter entereth all gloriously: 
 Her clothing is of wrought gold. 
 
 15 She is brought unto the king in raiment of embroidery : 
 The virgins her companions that follow her f 
 
 Are brought unto thee. 
 
 16 With gladness and rejoicing are they brought unto thee: 
 They enter into the king's palace. 
 
 17 Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, 
 Whom thou shalt make princes in all the earth. 
 
 18 I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations : 
 Therefore shall the nations praise thee for ever and ever. 
 
 V. 2. The words of the poet well from a joyous and deeply- 
 moved mind. The thought that he is about to devote his pen to 
 the praise of his king inspires him with sublime enthusiasm. So 
 rapid is the pulsation of his heart, that the pen of the tongue knows 
 hardly to keep pace with the emotions of his heart. 
 
 V. 3 5. The bard seems already inclined to describe his king 
 as a bridegroom; he therefore praises his beauty. His beauty flows 
 from the possession of spiritual riches : it consists in the graceful- 
 ness of the words of his lips, which God has given to him. The 
 
 * The text will also admit the rendering, "Thy throne is a throne of 
 God." Aben Ezra compares 2 Chron. xv. 8. The instances which Ewald 
 ($ 647) adduces are not to the point, Gesenius quotes ($ 141) Song of Sol. 
 i. 16, which is most admissible, though the passage is also susceptible of 
 another grammatical structure. 
 
 f Germ, version renders " playmates." Equally correct is " friends." 
 19* 
 
222 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 prophet represents Messiah's victory over the world by the figure 
 of a warfare and mentions on that account the brave sword of his 
 royal hero. Truth and mercy blended with righteousness are the 
 object for which he fights. His enemies are the enemies of right- 
 eousness and mercy they are struck to the heart by his never- 
 missing arrows. 
 
 F 6 8. This Divine throne is perpetual, because justice is the 
 sceptre of this kingdom. Since all other sceptres are but weak 
 representations of this sceptre, righteousness and justice are pos- 
 sessed by them in an imperfect manner only : the Lord has there- 
 fore anointed this king with the oil of gladness more than any other. 
 He is indeed the joy of his people. 
 
 V. 9, 10. As the king passes along, his full garments emit the 
 richest and most delightful odours, (Cant. i. 3 :) he is gladdened 
 by lovely songs. Among his riches are his wives: among these 
 only one is "his dove," (Cant. vi. 7, 8,) and hers is the preroga- 
 tive, arrayed in gold, to stand to his right. 
 
 V. 11 13. The words which were of old addressed to woman, 
 (Gen. ii. 24; Comp. xii. 1,) are in a spiritual sense enjoined upon 
 this bride. The Lord, whose jealous love for man will not endure 
 another beside him, can only favour her with his love on her for- 
 saking home and natural ties for not only his love but his right 
 entitle him to that demand. Who would refuse to bring this sacri- 
 fice, that is alive to what he shall gain in lieu? As the prophet 
 promises to the new Jerusalem, the people of which shall be all 
 righteous, (Isa. Ix. 21,) all the riches of the earth as her posses- 
 sion all the flocks of Kedar, all the gold and incense of Sheba, 
 (Isa. Ix. 6, 7,) and as Solomon declares, that the kings of Tarshish 
 and of the isles shall bring presents, and the kings of Sheba offer 
 gifts to Messiah, (Psalm Ixxii. 10,) so the Psalmist promises to the 
 wife, who has entered this covenant, the gifts of the richest of na- 
 tions. (Ez. xxvii.) 
 
 F. 14 16. As Isaiah beheld in his rapturous ecstasy the flow- 
 ing together, (Isaiah Ix. 8, 9,) of all the nations of the earth with 
 all their possessions so the Psalmist sees the entrance of these 
 wives into the regal palace to the great marriage feast gloriously 
 adorned, for the Lord has provided their wedding garments, (Matt, 
 xxii. 12,) in joy and delight, for they who have enjoyment like this, 
 need none other. Foremost in the procession is Israel, the good olive 
 tree chosen from the beginning, into which all who wish to belong 
 to the kingdom of God must be grafted, (Rom. xi. 17;) but the fol- 
 lowing friends are led to the same delights they also are brought 
 as wives unto the king, who is anointed with the oil of gladness. 
 
 F. 17. The new connection is also glorious to tjie king. Many 
 were his glorious and royal ancestors down to Jesse, but now there 
 are born to him the eternal kings, sons as the dew from the womb 
 of the morning, (Ps. ex, 3 ; cf. also Isa. liii. 10,) who shall, as princes ; 
 
PSALM XLVI. 223 
 
 occupy the thrones of the world. So our Lord promised to his 
 disciples: "Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed 
 me in the regeneration (of all things,) when the Son of Man shall 
 sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, 
 judging the twelve tribes of Israel," (Matt. xix. 28.) And Paul 
 says, "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world ?" 
 (1 Cor. vi. 2.)*. 
 
 V. 18. The glory of the king is the proper theme of the song. 
 Seized with a sense of grateful homage, the Psalmist translates 
 himself down to the remotest future, to join through remote gene- 
 rations the praises of the nations of the earth to the Lord, who hath 
 done such great things for them. 
 
 PSALM XLVI. 
 
 SINCE the separation of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, the 
 holy city had become several times the prey of heathen enemies, 
 Shishak, king of Egypt, marched against the city as early as in the 
 fifth year of Rehoboam, and carried off the treasures of the king. 
 Edom and Philistia had joined him, and the children of Judah 
 were sold to the remote Greek Asia Minor. Joel mourns over 
 the plunder of the treasures of the Temple, (Joel iv. 5,) and the 
 sale of the children of Judah, (Joel iv. 16, 17, 18, 21.) The king 
 of Assyria threatened from the north with similar destruction in 
 the days of Hezekiah. Desire of conquest had several times brought 
 the kings of that remote empire against Egypt. Sennacherib was 
 on his march against Egypt, but contemplated at the same time to 
 reduce the king of Judah and other minor kings in Mesopotamia 
 and Syria to tributaries, (Isaiah ix. 9.) Isaiah describes in a vision 
 the terror of the Jewish nation at the approach of that northern 
 foe. " He is come to Aiath, Tie is passed to Migron : at Michmash 
 Tie hath laid up his carriages: they are gone over the passage: they 
 have taken up their lodging at Geba; Ramah is afraid: Gibeah 
 of Saul is fled. Lift up thy voice, daughter of Gallim; cause 
 it to be heard unto Laish, poor Anathoth. Madmenah is removed; 
 the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee. As yet shall he 
 remain at Nob^ that day: he shall shake his hand against the 
 mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem," (Isaiah x. 
 
 * Stier has not observed unjustly, that this verse ought to be regarded 
 as addressed to the royal bride, since it would be a comfort to her respect- 
 ing what is said v. 11. But the present reading prohibits that view. 
 
 f Whence Jerusalem could be seen. 
 
224 COMMENTARY ON THE TSALMS. 
 
 28, etc.} As yet the king threatens only, probably because he finds 
 the city too strong, and is afraid of delay. He sends his troops be- 
 fore all the fenced cities of Judah, that none might remain in his 
 rear, (2 Kings viii. 13.) Hezekiah seeks to satisfy the foe by pay- 
 ing a heavy tribute, (2 Kings xviii. 14^16,) (thirty times as 
 heavy as that which Pharaoh Necho had exacted, for Sennacherib 
 asked for three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, 
 while Necho had demanded one hundred talents of silver and one 
 talent of gold, 2 Kings xxiii. 33 ;) but Sennacherib remains in 
 the country. He came in the autumn of 713 : the fields remained 
 untilled, and the country had to suffer famine and oppression for 
 two years, (Isa. xxxvii. 30.) In the meantime Hezkeiah had opened 
 negotiations with Egypt and the far distant king of Ethiopia, (Isa. 
 xxxvi. 9; Ch. xviii.) Sennacherib encamped before the fortress of 
 Lachish, about thirty miles from Jerusalem, ordered his generals and 
 satraps to besiege the capital. " Woe for the multitude of many peo- 
 ple which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and for the rushing 
 of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters." 
 (Isa. xvii. 12.) When Shishak, king of Egypt, had marched against 
 Jerusalem, it fell, for "when Rehoboam forsook the law of the 
 Lord/' the Lord caused a prophet to proclaim : " Ye have forsaken 
 me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak." 
 (2 Chron. xii. 1 9.) When a hundred years later the Philistines 
 and Arabians marched against Jerusalem, in the reign of Jehoram, 
 they " carried away all the substance that was found in the king's 
 house, and his sons also, and his wives," for Jehoram had seduced 
 Judah to idolatry and slain his brothers; therefore the prophet 
 Elijah foretold that a great plague should befall himself and his peo- 
 ple. (2 Chron. xxi. ll 17.) When thirty years after the Syrians 
 marcned against Jerusalem, in the reign of Joash, "they destroyed 
 all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all 
 the spoil of them unto the king of Damascus," "because they had 
 forsaken the Lord God of their fathers." (2 Chron. xxiv. 23, 24.) 
 But while the godly Hezekiah lies in prayer before the Lord, he hears 
 the Divine reply: "Whereas thou hast prayed to me, against Sen- 
 nacherib, king of Assyria, this is the word which the Lord hath 
 spoken concerning him," etc. (Isa. xxxvii. 15;) and the Lord 
 smote in one night in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and 
 four score and five thousand with the plagues, so that those who 
 remained had to flee in ignominy. The knowledge of this miracle 
 spread far and wide among the nations, and the Greek historian 
 Herodotus (n. 141) narrates it three hundred years later in a fabu- 
 lous form. Many songs of praise were composed at that time by 
 Hezekiah, the Levites, and others. (Psalms xlviii. Ixvi. Ixxvi.) 
 Victories gained by an oppressed people, not with bow and spear, 
 nor the arm of flesh, but by the strong hand of the Lord, occasion 
 psalms, at the singing of which the whole nation feels that " the 
 
PSALM XLVI. 225 
 
 Lord who rules heaven and earth he is our God." The historical 
 and instructive books of the nation praise this work of the Lord, 
 and remote generations derived strength and consolation from the 
 remembrance thereof. (1 Mace. vii. 41. Sir. xlviii. 24.) This psalm 
 was at that time composed by a Levite, and its contents correspond 
 to the prophecy of Isaiah. (Cf. Isa. xvii. 12; viii. 7, 8, with v. 3, 4; 
 Isa. xxxiii. 21, with v. 5; Isa. xvii. 14, with v. 16.) The senti- 
 ment of this psalm is that of Luther's famous hymn, " A strong 
 fortress is our God/' 
 
 1 n^O the chief Musician, A Song of the sons of Korah, to 
 JL the tune of the virgins. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 2 God is our refuge and strength, 
 A very present help in trouble. 
 
 3 Therefore will not we fear, 
 Though the earth be removed, 
 
 And though the mountains be carried into the midst of 
 the sea; 
 
 4 Tliough the waters thereof roar and be troubled, 
 Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. 
 
 Selah. 
 
 5 There is a river, 
 
 The streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, 
 The holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. 
 
 6 God is in the midst of her ; 
 She shall not be moved : 
 
 God shall help her at early morn. 
 
 7 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved : 
 He uttered his voice, the earth melted. 
 
 The People. 
 
 8 The LORD of hosts is with us ; 
 
 The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 9 Come, behold the words of the LORD, 
 What desolations he hath made in the earth. 
 
 10 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth ; 
 He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder ; 
 He burneth the chariot with fire. 
 
 11 Be still, and know that I am God: 
 Exalted among the nations. 
 Exalted in the earth. 
 
226 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 The People. 
 12 The LORD of hosts is with us ; 
 
 The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. 
 
 V. 2 4. Isaiah describes the approach of the enemy thus : 
 "Woe for the multitude of many people, which make a noise like 
 the noise of the sea, and for the rushing of nations, that make a 
 rushing like the rushing of mighty waters." (Ch. xvii. 12.) And 
 he says elsewhere, (Ch. viii. 7, 8,) " Now therefore behold, the 
 Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and 
 many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory: and he shall 
 come up over all his channels and go over all his banks : and he 
 shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall 
 reach even to the neck; and the stretchings of his wings shall 
 fill the breadth of thy land, Immanuel." But God, who for cen- 
 turies "has been the protection and refuge of his people, rises like a 
 rock high above the waters, and though everything around do shake, 
 the hearts of believers remain firm. 
 
 V. 58. Isaiah says (xxxiii. 20,21), "Thine eyes shall see 
 Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken 
 down, not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither 
 shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious 
 Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams." Such 
 a river round about his city is the Lord no foes can pass it, no 
 mighty one bridge it. Happy the people with whom the Lord 
 dwelleth, who know that were he to suffer them to be endangered, 
 he would endanger himself. " God shall help her at early morn," 
 says the Psalmist, and the prophet states, " and behold at evening- 
 tide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the por- 
 tion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us," " and 
 when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead 
 corpses." (Isa. xxxvii. 36.) However much the nation may rage, 
 they grow dumb at the voice of the God of Jacob. 
 
 V. 9 12. Where the Lord goes to the war, the wars of man 
 must cease; for his wars are for the establishment of peace. The 
 Psalmist speaks as if the help which the Lord had vouchsafed to 
 the city of David would cause the whole earth to share in her peace, 
 and such was really the case. Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt, jEthio- 
 pia, and Phoenicia, rose in resistance, but were in part crushed by 
 the conqueror's foot. After his disaster before Jerusalem, Senna- 
 cherib returned to Nineveh, where his sons slew him, and thus was 
 the might of Assyria broken. The proud king was a chastising 
 rod in the hands of God, but the rod boasted against the hand that 
 led it, and was broken. ~ Beautifully sublime are the- words of Isaiah 
 would that every conqueror were instructed by these words, 
 ct Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath per- 
 formed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will 
 
PSALM XLVII. 227 
 
 punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the 
 glory of his high looks. For he saith : By the strength of my hands 
 I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I am prudent: and I have re- 
 covered the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, 
 and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man : and my 
 hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people : and as one 
 gathereth eggs that are left have I gathered all the earth; and 
 there was none that moved the wing, or opened mouth, or peeped. 
 Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith ? or 
 shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it?" (Isa. x. 
 12, etc.) Such are the words of the prophet. The Psalmist pro- 
 pounds the same doctrine to the nations of the earth, " Be still, 
 and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted in the 
 earth." Happy is the people with whom is such a God ; whose 
 refuge is the God of Jacob ! 
 
 PSALM XLVII. 
 
 
 THE period of the composition of this beautiful psalm, replete 
 with exultant joy, rests chiefly on the interpretation of verse 6. 
 Does it in a direct manner refer to the ascent of the ark or 
 merely alluding to it, denote the victory of God? The former is 
 the natural view; the psalm falls then into the time of David, 
 when the ark still used to be taken into the field, (2 Sam. xi. 11, 
 and Psalm Ixviii.*) It is very dubious, according to 1 Kings viii. 8, 
 whether after its removal to the temple it ever accompanied the 
 army, though 2 Chron. xiii. 12, seems to speak for it. Considering 
 that this psalm is placed between two others which belong to the 
 days of Sennacherib, and that just at that time Messianic hopes 
 revived, one feels inclined to refer it to the days of Hezekiah 
 rather than to those of David. ( Vide ad. Psalms Ixxvi. Ixxxvii.) 
 But since the indirect allusion to the ascent of the ark seems rather 
 strange (for the victory over Sennacherib was not gained by the 
 force of arms), we incline to the former view. We presume accord- 
 ingly that the ark had returned from a victory. The Psalmist rises 
 from that victory to the prospect, that hereafter all the nations of 
 the earth shall be subject to that king, to whom they already 
 belong, though they do not confess it. The Psalmist proclaims in a 
 
 * Verse 30, which speaks of the temple, implies no more a later period 
 than does Psalm v. 8. 
 
228 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 sublime lyrical flight (v. 10), the prophetical declaration of Isa. ii. 
 2, 3. Compare especially Psalm Ixxxvii. 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of the sons of Korah. 
 
 2 clap your hands, all ye people ; 
 
 Shout unto God with the voice of triumph. 
 
 3 For the LORD most high is terrible : 
 He is a great king over all the earth. 
 
 4 He shall subdue the people under us, 
 And the nations under our feet. 
 
 5 He shall choose our inheritance for us, 
 
 The excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah. 
 
 6 God is gone up with a shout, 
 
 The LORD with the sound of a trumpet. 
 
 7 Sing praises to God, sing praises : 
 
 Sing praises unto our King, sing praises. 
 
 8 For God is the King of all the earth: 
 Sing ye praises with understanding. 
 
 9 God reigneth over the heathen : 
 
 God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. 
 10 The princes of the people are gathered 
 Unto one people of the God of Abraham : 
 For the excellent of the earth belong unto God : 
 
 He is greatly exalted. 
 
 i 
 
 V. 2 5. Alive to the magnitude of the Lord's doings for his 
 people, the Psalmist deems it not enough that they only should 
 express their gratitude to him : he calls upon all the nations of the 
 earth to pay their homage to him with gestures of joy and songs of 
 praise, which was customary to do at the anointing of monarchs. 
 (2 Kings xi. 12; 1 Sam. x. 24.) The earth is his, though its 
 inhabitants have as yet forborne to pay their homage to him. He 
 has made Israel the heart of mankind : if he willeth, all nations 
 must serve Israel. -He has appointed all the nations of the earth 
 for the inheritance of Israel, (Isaiah liv. 3; Zeph. ii. 9:) he 
 has decreed and chosen the excellency of Jacob, the beloved, 
 which is to make him great before the nations. (Isaiah xlix. 3; 
 Luke ii. 32.) 
 
 V. 6 10. The ark reascends the sanctuary amid the sound of 
 the trumpet and songs of praises: the whole world is to join in the 
 praises of Israel. Jehovah is also the God of the heathen : the 
 nations shall come some day with their praises, and become one 
 people of the God of Abraham, even as Israel. (Psalm ii. 8 ; Rev. 
 xi. 15; Zech. xiv. 9.) 
 
PSALM XLVIII. 229 
 
 PSALM XLVIII. 
 
 A SONG of praise which belongs to the same period as Psalm 
 xlvi. The sentiments of this psalm are even more sublime and 
 joyous, the gratitude of astonishment more lively, on the people 
 opening their eyes in the morning as if after an oppressive dream, 
 and beholding the vast array of corpses of those whose presence 
 dismayed them the day before. And it was as a dream to the mock- 
 ing foe, "And the multitude of all the nations that fight against 
 Ariel (Jerusalem,) even all that fight against her and her munition, 
 and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision. It 
 shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and behold he 
 eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a 
 thirsty man dreameth, and behold he drinketh; but he awaketh, 
 and behold he is faint, and his soul has appetite : so shall the mul- 
 titude of all the nations be that fight against mount Zion." (Isaiah 
 xxix. 7, 8.) 
 
 SONG and Psalm of the Sons of Korah. 
 
 2 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised 
 
 In the city of our God, on the mountain of his holiness. 
 
 3 Beautiful for situation,* 
 
 The joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, 
 
 On the sides of the north, the city of the great King. 
 
 4 God is known in her palaces as her refuge. 
 
 5 For, lo, the kings were assembled (or, "took counsel,") 
 They passed away together. 
 
 6 They saw it (the city) and so they marvelled ; 
 They were dismayed and fled. 
 
 7 Fear took hold upon them there, 
 And pain, as of a woman in travail. 
 
 8 Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish 
 With an east wind. 
 
 9 As we have heard, so have we seen 
 
 In the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God : 
 God hath established it for ever. Selah. 
 
 10 We have thought of thy loving-kindness, God, 
 In the midst of thy temple. 
 
 11 According to thy name, God, 
 
 So is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: 
 Thy right hand is full of righteousness. 
 
 * Tholuck renders, " A beautiful hill, the joy of the whole earth is Mount 
 Zion, a joy of the earth to the remotest north, the city of the great king." 
 20 
 
230 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 12 Let Mount Zion rejoice, 
 
 Let the daughters of Judah be glad (i. e. the provincial 
 
 towns,) 
 Because of thy judgments. 
 
 13 Walk about Zion, and go round about her : 
 Tell the towers thereof. 
 
 14 Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider (or "roam through") 
 
 her palaces ; 
 That ye -may tell it to the generation following. 
 
 15 Yea, this God is our God for ever and ever : 
 He will be our guide, even beyond death. 
 
 F. 2 4. In their fearful anticipations they had already seen 
 their beautiful city turned to ruins, and their temple into smoke 
 and ashes. They rejoice in holy astonishment to see her in the 
 rosy light of dawn, strong and unhurt as ever. Many miracles of 
 mercy had already been exhibited on the holy mount. The Psalm- 
 ist would fain have the whole world be acquainted with the cove- 
 nant of mercy, to join in his rejoicing at the strong protector who 
 rules over her palaces. 
 
 F. 5 7. The proud king, who called himself the great king, 
 boasted that the kings of Hamath and Arpad were serving him. 
 (Isa. x. 8; xxxvi. 4.) He himself did not advance before the city, 
 but remained before Lachish, (vide ad. Ps. xlvi.,) about thirty 
 miles distant; but he felt the disaster of his army before Jerusa- 
 lem, and he was obliged to flee. The kings were assembled; but 
 the King of kings said once more, "Take counsel together and it 
 shall come to nought; speak the word and it shall not stand; for 
 God is with us." (Isa. viii. 10.) The flight was so sudden, that it 
 seemed as if the mere sight of the holy city had driven them back. 
 The Lord did at that time address the proud conqueror by the 
 mouth of his prophet: "But I know thy abode, and thy going out, 
 and thy coming in, and thy rage against me. Because thy rage 
 against me, and thy tumult, is come up into mine ears ; therefore 
 will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I 
 will turn thee back by the way by which thou earnest." (Isaiah 
 xxxvii. 28, 29.) 
 
 F. 8. The Psalmist's meaning probably is, that God, who wrecks 
 the ships at sea by the east wind, has done his miracles here. But 
 the Phoenicians were probably allied with the king of Assyria. 
 Isaiah xxxiii. 21. 23, may refer to this circumstance: "But there 
 the glorious God will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams, 
 wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass 
 
PSALM XL VIII. 231 
 
 thereby. Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen 
 their mast; they could not spread the sail/'* 
 
 F. 9 12. They had often heard that the Lord is king in 
 Zion, and has engraven her walls in his right hand. Now they 
 once more experienced it. The repeated fulfilment of such pro- 
 mises of God become so engraven upon the human heart that they 
 cannot be effaced. Where else then in the temple of God, kneel- 
 ing in the sanctuary, are we to expect to find a people after such 
 deliverances? If it has not been realized before that these judg- 
 ments go forth from the Lord of lords, it is sure to be felt in the 
 sanctuary. The fame of such acts of the Lord spread the glory of 
 his name to the ends of the earth, and brought the embassy of the 
 king of Babylon from a remote country. "Hezekiah was magni- 
 fied in the sight of all nations from thenceforth, and many brought 
 gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah, king 
 of Judah," (2 Chron. xxxii. 22, 23.) The right hand of the Lord 
 is stretched out over the whole earth, for ever dispensing righteous- 
 ness, though it may not become manifest until the end of days. 
 Although the rod of chastisement had immediately threatened the 
 capital only, yet all the cities of Judah suffered even more than 
 the capital ; for, their fields had been laid waste and their goods 
 spoiled. It was, therefore, not only a festival of rejoicing to the 
 capital, but to the whole country in all its borders. They probably 
 hastened from every part of the country to the temple of the Lord, 
 with songs of praise and rejoicing. 
 
 F. 13, 14. Unhurt, entirely unhurt, appears Jerusalem in the 
 morning sun : while the clouds concealed her, one might have 
 thought that not a stone had remained on its place; but the clouds 
 disperse, "God has made himself known in her palaces as a 
 refuge." The record of mercy so great was well worthy of being 
 transmitted to succeeding generations like a precious jewel, and 
 the exhortation of the Psalmist has been acted upon. (Of. Psalm 
 xlvi.) 
 
 F. 15. If God remains the same, then the grandchildren will 
 experience the mercy which was enjoyed by their believing fathers. 
 If God so marvellously glorifies himself to weak mortals in this life, 
 will he suffer them to decay into dust and ashes after death ? Faith 
 in a blissful eternity awakes most vividly when the mercy of God 
 powerfully shines upon our temporal existence. 
 
 * This is an address to the enemy: if, contrary to our supposition, 
 mighty, seafaring Tyre was not allied with Assyria, the prophet's refer- 
 ence to sails and masts would be a figurative description of the vessel of 
 the State, which is not probable. 
 
232 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM XLIX. 
 
 A DIDACTIC psalm, concerning the uncertain prosperity of the 
 proud rich, their certain death, the victory of the godly, and their 
 final reception with God. (Of. Ps. xxxvii. 73.) The Psalmist had 
 been alarmed at and tempted by the insolent security of the sump- 
 tuous children of the world; but his scruples vanished and the 
 struggle ended. He publishes aloud the revelations of God to his 
 soul, and invites attention, (v. 2 5.) The pride of the rich, how- 
 ever lofty, must cease, (v. 6 13.) They are carelessly secure: 
 flatterers render them still more so, but the godly rules them ; while 
 they depart to the grave, he is redeemed by the hand of the Lord, 
 (v. 14 16.) He comforts others with the sources of his encourage- 
 ment. Divine wisdom only can raise us above the lot of beasts, 
 (v. 1721.) 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of the sons of Korah. 
 
 2 Hear this, all ye people ; 
 
 Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world : 
 
 3 Both low and high, 
 Rich and poor, together. 
 
 4 My mouth shall speak of wisdom ; 
 
 And the meditation of my heart shall be of under- 
 standing. 
 
 5 I will incline mine ear to the oracle (of the Lord,)* 
 I will open my dark sayingf upon the harp. 
 
 6 Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, 
 
 When the iniquity of my heels (pursuers) shall compass 
 me about? 
 
 7 Of them that trust in their wealth, 
 
 And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches ? 
 
 8 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, 
 Nor give to God a ransom for him : 
 
 9 (For the redemption of their soul is precious, 
 And it ceaseth for ever:) 
 
 10 That he should still live for ever, 
 And not see corruption. 
 
 11 He rather shall see it. 
 Wise men die, 
 
 The foolish and the ignorant perish together, 
 And leave their wealth to others. 
 
 * I. e. "To hear it intuitively from the Lord." 
 f Properly, "an apothegm." 
 
PSALM XLIX. 233 
 
 12 Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue 
 
 for ever, 
 
 And their dwelling places to all generations; 
 They call their lands after their own names (or, "their 
 
 name is published over the land.") 
 
 13 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not : 
 He is like the beasts that perish. 
 
 14 This their way is their folly : 
 
 Yet their followers approve their sayings. Selah. 
 
 15 Like sheep they are driven to Sheol : 
 Death is their shepherd (or, "driver/') 
 
 And the upright shall soon have dominion over them, 
 And their beauty shall consume in Sheol, from their 
 dwelling.* 
 
 16 But God will redeem MY soul from the power of Sheol : 
 For he shall receive me. Selah. 
 
 17 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich. 
 When the glory of his house is increased : 
 
 18 For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away : 
 His glory shall not descend after him. 
 
 19 Though while he lived he blessed his soul : 
 
 (And men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.) 
 
 20 He shall go to the generation of his fathers ; 
 They shall never see light. 
 
 MAN THAT IS IN HONOUR, AND UNDERSTANDETH NOT, 
 IS LIKE THE BEASTS THAT PERISH. 
 
 V. 2 7. The Psalmist calls upon the whole human race to 
 give ear to his words, with which the Spirit of God has inspired 
 him; for he is conscious that he is about to utter a truth which, 
 alike Divine as to its origin and effects, is capable of imparting 
 wisdom to the rich, comfort and strength to the poor. He has 
 heard a Divine voice, and purposes to accompany its recital on the 
 harp. (Cf. ad. Ps. xii. 6.) He has had to struggle and to fear, but 
 Divine and not human wisdom gave him peace. He sings of the 
 struggle of his own heart. He had often feared when the sur- 
 rounding ungodly became powerful. If others therefore feel after 
 the same manner, they need not be ashamed. But the Psalmist 
 instructs himself by the Divine oracle : so may others instruct them- 
 selves by the word of God, and with the same amount of comfort 
 as the Psalmist. 
 
 V. 8 11. A rich man may buy much with his money, goods 
 of every kind, pleasures, honours, but he cannot buy eternal life. 
 
 * Or, "Their form shall go to Sheol: they must go from their dwelling 
 to be consumed," (for "a consuming.") 
 20* 
 
234 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Can that be called a happy life which every hour removes us fur- 
 ther from happiness ? However much people may differ in other 
 respects, death brings them to the same level. Happy the man 
 who at his departure has riches which he need not leave to others ! 
 
 V. 12, 13. They know it, but will not know it. Excluding the 
 light of the day, they prefer the artificial light which they them- 
 selves have made. They persuade themslves that their houses rest 
 on another foundation than that of the earth. If a rich man feels 
 inclined to deceive himself, he is sure to find many abettors. Their 
 names are praised on earth may they not think that that which 
 applies to every man, has no reference to them, "Unto dust shalt 
 thou return"? As beasts are destined for the slaughter, so man is 
 doomed to die : no earthly glory, however great it be, can save 
 from death. 
 
 F. 14, 15. Their hope is imaginary: the density of the mist 
 which surrounds them is proportioned to the number of their flat- 
 tering abettors : it will disperse when their hour has struck. They 
 loved to drive others, death now will drive them. Death will lift 
 his rod and drive them from their dwelling to the gloomy regions 
 below. The night passes but yesterday the rulers, to-day they 
 are the ruled ; for if the kingdom of God triumph not in time, it is 
 sure to triumph in eternity. 
 
 V. 16. My soul will not remain in Sheol; the way of all of us 
 is downwards, but in the case of some it points again upwards. The 
 God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, who took to himself Enoch 
 and Moses, will also receive me. (Psalm Ixxiii. 24.) 
 
 V. 17 21. Who will be so foolish and fear? If we have much 
 on earth, we can only keep it on earth. They praise themselves 
 and hear the echo from others; but when the lamp of their life 
 extinguishes, their light has set for ever. Divine wisdom only 
 raises us above the destiny of beasts. Man in all his glory, if de- 
 prived of Divine wisdom, is like the beast, and shall perish. 
 
 PSALM L. 
 
 A DIDACTIC psalm showing that the sacrifices of praise and 
 thanksgiving are the sacrifices by which God desires to be praised. 
 (Cf. Psalm xl. 7; li. 18, 19; Ixix. 31, 32.) 
 
 As amid signs of nature, which proclaimed his majesty, God 
 once appeared as the lawgiver, so he comes now as the judge, (v. 1 
 3). Heaven and earth must behold and hearken, (v. 4 6.) 
 The outward servant of the law, who offends more from obtuseness 
 than from wicked motives, is in majestic irony pointed to the in- 
 ward worship of God, (v, 7 15). So in the language of flaming 
 
PSALM L. 285 
 
 wrath, the hypocrite (v. 16 23.) Though the divinely instituted 
 peace, thank, and sin-offerings of the Mosaic dispensation, were 
 only intended to answer the end of impressing man with a sense 
 of the insufficiency of his praises, thanksgivings, and sufferings for 
 sin, as well as the necessity of substitution to render them sufficient, 
 though sacrifices therefore might and ought to have been the 
 true worship of the heart, they were far from being so. Some, 
 owing to the lassitude of the human heart, which prefers to worship 
 God by outward acts rather than inward, regarded the outward sacri- 
 fice as the main point, and the sacrifice of the heart as of secondary 
 moment, while others cared not even for the former, and were satis- 
 fied with having the law on their lips. The Spirit of God rested on 
 the Psalmist, who describes under his influence the coming Lord as 
 judge. As once he went out from Sinai, (Judges v. 4 Seir includes 
 JSinai^) so he now goes out from Zion, the beautiful city of God, ad- 
 dressing himself to formal worshippers and hypocrites. 
 
 A PSALM of Asaph. 
 
 A 
 
 1 The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, 
 And called the earth 
 
 From the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. 
 
 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, 
 God hath shined. 
 
 3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence : 
 A fire shall devour before him, 
 
 And it shall be very tempestuous round about him. 
 
 4 He shall call to the heavens from above, 
 
 And to the earth, that he may judge his people. 
 
 5 " Gather together unto me my SAINTS 
 
 THOSE THAT HAVE MADE A COVENANT WITH ME BY 
 SACRIFICE." 
 
 6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness : 
 For God is judge himself. Selah. 
 
 7 Hear, my people, and I will speak ; 
 
 Isral, and I will testify against thee : 
 
 1 am God, even thy God. 
 
 8 I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices 
 
 Or thy burnt- offerings, to have been continually before me. 
 
 9 I will take no bullock out of thy house, 
 Nor he goats out of thy folds. 
 
 10 For every beast of the forest is mine, 
 
 And the cattle upon the hills, where they are by thousands. 
 
 11 I know all the fowls of the mountains ; 
 And the wild beasts of the field are mine. 
 
236 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 r 
 
 12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee ; 
 
 For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. 
 
 13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, 
 Or drink the blood of goats ? 
 
 14 OFFER UNTO GOD THANKSGIVING: 
 
 AND PAY THY VOWS UNTO THE MOST Hf GH : 
 
 15 And call upon me in the day of trouble : 
 
 I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. 
 
 16 But unto the WICKED God saith, 
 
 What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, 
 
 Or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth ; 
 
 17 Seeing thou hatest instruction, 
 And castest my words behind thee ? 
 
 18 When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, 
 And hast been partaker with adulterers. 
 
 19 Thou givest thy mouth to evil, 
 And thy tougue frameth deceit. 
 
 20 Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother ; 
 Thou slanderest thine own mother's son. 
 
 21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence ; 
 Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as 
 
 thyself: 
 
 But I will reprove thee, and set them in order before 
 thine eyes. 
 
 22 Now consider this, ye that forget God, 
 
 Lest I tear you in pieces, and t here be none to deliver. 
 
 23 WHOSO OFFERETH PRAISE GLORIFIETH ME : 
 
 AND TO HIM THAT ORDERETH HIS CONVERSATION ARIGHT 
 WILL I SHOW THE SALVATION OF GOD. 
 
 V. 1 4. Asaph introduces the Lord by a lofty name, to impress 
 his hearers with his majesty. He calls the whole earth, yea, hea- 
 ven and earth, as witnesses to the great judgment of his nation. 
 It is the same Lord who has fixed his tabernacle ia Zion, and there 
 manifested himself to the people of his covenant in mercy and right- 
 eousness. The long-suffering of God has long been silent, he will 
 now make it known that his long-suffering was not indifference, but 
 mercy. He sends fire and tempests before him as his messengers, 
 announcing the approaching Judge. 
 
 V. 5, 6. The covenant at the foot of Sinai had been made by 
 sacrifice : they are the saints of God who continue to remember the 
 obedience which they had then yielded. These are to be gathered 
 first; that they may learn to do in the spirit what now they are 
 doing in the flesh; God himself is the judge: therefore the hea- 
 vens declare it far and wide, that he holds a righteous judgment. 
 
PSALM L. 237 
 
 V. 7 13. He gives his name before he speaks: it is God, the 
 God of his people. Israel A who hast so often experienced the 
 righteousness and love of that God what may thy feelings be, 
 when he announces himself as thy God? When he calls to account, 
 man thinks that is for the sake of outward works. It is so deeply 
 impressed upon the heart of man that his life should be a continu- 
 ous worship, that he seeks to calm his conscience by outward offer- 
 ings and works of 'obedience at least. But they can neither calm 
 the conscience nor satisfy God. Do you think that by offering 
 bullocks and goats you can really give anything to the Lord? Oh, 
 man, thou hast received them from him; who gave ever anything 
 to him ? He has not need to look to thy stables and their scanty 
 occupants. The beasts hid in the forest, the cattle that are by 
 thousands on the hills, the fowl of the air, and the wild beasts roam- 
 ing the fields are all his and before him. Why indeed should 
 he ask for bullocks and goats ? such gifts cannot benefit him, they 
 can only benefit thee! 
 
 V. 14, 15. Art thou anxious to know the sacrifice which is 
 acceptable to him ? It is ihe\thanksgiving and praise of a believing 
 heart : they must proceed from a believing heart, for none can 
 thank and praise, but they who, strong in faith, receive every bless- 
 ing and possession which earth can yield, from the hand of God. 
 See how great is his mercy, since his very requirements are blessed 
 promises. To call upon him in the day of trouble, to take salvation 
 and to offer thanksgiving : such are the sacrifices he desires us to 
 bring. Oh, God, how merciful art thou, who placest such glorious 
 promises into thy requirements ! 
 
 V. 16 20. God, who looketh at the heart, says to the hypo- 
 crite, What availeth thy boasting before men with the recounting 
 of my commandments, what availeth the utterance of my covenant 
 with thy lips, while I know that thou art averse to Divine disci- 
 pline? Where is the obedience to the words of the covenant of 
 Sinai? If thou lovest discipline, why dost thou not at least de- 
 nounce the sins of others? Thou knowest the sixth and seventh 
 commandments, why makest thou fellowship with thieves and 
 adulterers ? Why breakest thou the eighth, breakest it shamefully, 
 and givest false testimony against thine own brother? These things 
 thou dost, and in long-suffering I look on for a long time. Thou 
 thinkest that my thoughts are like thine; but the time will come, 
 sooner or later, when I shall surely punish thee, and it will then 
 appear that I have not forgotten anything, though I was silent, and 
 all will be set in order before thine eyes. 
 
 F. 21 23. Now consider this, ye that forget God, give heed 
 to my word. I warn you ere the day come, when salvation is gone ! 
 Mark it well : whoso offereth believing praise to me, glorifieth me ; 
 he that ordereth his way by mine, shall see the salvation of God! 
 
238 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM LI. 
 
 WE refer the reader to the introduction to Psalm xxxii. which was 
 probably occasioned by the same transgression which is specified in 
 the title of this psalm. David had passed a considerable time in 
 a gloomy sense of guilt and despair of the mercy of God, but con- 
 vinced by Nathan's address tha.t the Lord was still caring for him, 
 and had not entirely rejected him, he gathered courage once more 
 to seek his God, to confess his guilt before him, and to struggle for 
 his former consciousness of Divine aid, and the spirit of spon- 
 taneous and cordial love, the absence of which he now so painfully 
 realized, (v. 14.) Many similar prayers may at that time have 
 ascended to heaven, though this only is preserved to us. It fur- 
 nishes the evidence of the depth of his sense of guilt, of David's 
 habitual relation to God, and of his knowledge of the way to recon- 
 ciliation. If it be asked how a man like David could fall to such 
 a degree, we refer to Psalm xxxii. where it was shown in how 
 fearful a manner the history of even a David exhibits the fatality 
 of evil, which with an unrelenting force urges, as it were, even the 
 disinclined, from the first step of guilt on to the second, and from 
 the second to the third. David had never anticipated that the 
 bloodguiltiness, for which he mourns in v. 16, would ever have 
 been added to his adultery. 
 
 Re-appearing with downcast eye before his God, he seeks to 
 regain his affection by the confession of his guilt, that abstracting 
 from human relations he had recognized the eternity of his guilt 
 as a violation of the eternal laws of God, and that he was conscious 
 not only of the sinfulness of his works, but of his being, (v. 6 8.) 
 He knows the delights of the forgiveness of sins, (v. 9 11,) and 
 recollects the time when God was reigning over and in him, 
 (v. 12 14.) If it is to return once more, he promises to make 
 the conversion of transgressors the end of his life, (v. 15 17.) He 
 knows God's fundamental condition of the forgiveness of sins, 
 (v. 1819.) 
 
 1.2 npO the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan 
 X the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to 
 Bathsheba. 
 
 3 Have mercy upon me, God, 
 According to thy loving-kindness : 
 
 According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies 
 Blot out my transgressions. 
 
 4 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, 
 And cleanse me from my sin. 
 
PSALM LI. 239 
 
 5 For I acknowledge my transgressions : 
 And my sin is ever before me. 
 
 6 Against THEE, THEE ONLY, have I sinned, 
 And done evil in thy sight : 
 
 That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, 
 And be clear when thou judgest. 
 
 7 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity (or, I was gotten of 
 
 sinful seed;) 
 And in sin did my mother conceive me. 
 
 8 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts : 
 
 And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know 
 wisdom. 
 
 9 Purge (lit. "free me from sin with") me with hyssop, and 
 
 I shall be clean: 
 Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
 
 10 Make me to hear joy and gladness; 
 
 That the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 
 
 11 Hide thy face from my sins, 
 And blot out all mine iniquities. 
 
 12 Create in me a clean heart, God ; 
 
 And renew a constant (or, " established") spirit within me. 
 
 13 Cast me not away from thy presence ; 
 And take not thy Holy Spirit from me. 
 
 14 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation ; 
 And strengthen me with a willing spirit. 
 
 15 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways ; . 
 And sinners shall be converted unto thee. 
 
 16 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, 
 
 God, thou God of my salvation ; 
 
 And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.* 
 
 17 Lord, open thou my lips ; 
 
 And my mouth shall show forth thy praise. 
 
 18 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; 
 Thou delightest not in burnt-offering. 
 
 19 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: 
 
 A broken and a contrite heart, God, thou wilt not 
 despise. 
 
 20 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion : 
 Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. 
 
 * Righteousness = love, cf. ad. Psalm v. 9. 
 
240 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 21 Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of right- 
 eousness, 
 
 With burnt-offering and whole burnt-offering: 
 Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.* 
 
 V. 3 5. David appears before his Lord burdened with uncom- 
 mon and grave transgression. He intimates his consciousness of 
 it by representing himself as a man altogether disfigured by pollu- 
 tion, requiring a thorough, i. e. a long-continued ablution before he 
 can get clean, and who, owing to the greatness and uncommonness 
 of his sin, can only attain to purity by a great and uncommon dis- 
 play of the mercy of God. 
 
 V. 6 8. That conviction of sin, which stops at its finite rela- 
 tion to man, against whom we have sinned, cannot be called a true 
 one. For the guilt of our transgressions against man does by no 
 means get effaced with God as quickly as the tears of those whom 
 we have offended on earth dry away, but every offence against man 
 is a violation of the eternal law of God. So David confessed that 
 though having transgressed human law, by far the greatest and 
 most terrible accusation of his conscience was this, "Thou hast 
 transgressed the statutes and commandments of the law of God !" 
 He felt himself condemned by his conscience without being accused 
 of men (for supposing God to have continued silent, then the con- 
 nection of his transgressions was not even known among the peo- 
 ple,) and having sinned against God, he could not but acknowledge 
 the justice of the condemning sentence of God. And that is the 
 very point which every sinner must reach who desires to realize 
 the forgiveness of his sins. As Paul says, "If we would judge 
 ourselves, we should not be judged." (1 Cor. xi. 31.) The right 
 conviction of sin comprehends its being acknowledged, not only in 
 works, but also in our entire being. The knowledge that the root 
 of our sin is based on an absence of love to God, points to deep-seated 
 corruption. So David confesses sinfulness to begin with the life 
 of man, and that not only his works, but man himself, is guilty 
 before God. He is well aware of the difficulty of such a confession 
 to the self-complacent heart of man. Now the Lord desires us 
 above all things to be truthful to ourselves, for otherwise we cannot 
 be truthful to him. Man must on that account not withdraw him- 
 
 * The observations on Psalm xiv. 7, apply to the last two verses of this 
 psalm. They were added when the psalm was sung in the exile (Rosen- 
 mtiller, Umbreit, Koster.) As v. 19 seemed to speak too lightly of the sacri- 
 fices, so v. 21 seems to reestablish their import. The varying interpre- 
 tations of Calvin, Bucer, Miiis, Paulus, De Wette, Ewald, are either wrong 
 or not clear. According to our view, the last couplet contains two, while 
 the former ones have three verses each, which is also the case with Psalms 
 xxxv. 27 ; xxxviii. 22. Krister divides the psalm after the formula 4, 9, 4, 
 which is by no means to be preferred. 
 
PSALM LI. 241 
 
 self from God. The Psalmist is so thoroughly impressed with the 
 resistance of his sinful nature to yield to such a confession, that he 
 ascribes his knowledge to Divine illumination. 
 
 V. 9 11. He ventures to supplicate forgiveness after his con- 
 fession : he is a leper needing to be purged with hyssop : (Lev. 
 xiv. 4 :) he is blood-stained, and God alone can remove the stain. 
 (Isaiah i. 18.) The allusion to hyssop is significant. This 
 unseemly shrub, which thrives on rubbish and walls, symbolical of 
 Divine condescension, mixed with the noble wood of the cedar, 
 symbolical of Divine majesty, used to be employed in purifications 
 from sin (Numb. xix. 6,) and leprosy, which latter may be regarded 
 as a symbol of sin. Both the greatness and condescension of God 
 are needed for the reconciliation of man. The Psalmist desires to 
 intimate his need of Divine condescension.* He longs to hear 
 that word, which, though its sound die away in the hearing of the 
 self-satisfied, settles refreshing as the morning dew on the broken 
 heart, having joy and delights in its retinue, namely, the word/or- 
 giveness. 
 
 V. 12 14. Judiciously judging that our future cannot improve, 
 while the past remains uncancelled, David prayed for forgiveness 
 of the past before he turns from the present to the future. Equally 
 conscious that the beginning and progress of improvement must 
 take place in the strength of God, he turns to the source from 
 which every good gift is derived, praying not only for this virtue 
 or that, but for a clean heart, and having no confidence in his own 
 resolves, he supplicates a new, firm, and constant*)* Spirit from 
 above. Prom the contemplation of his transgression, his yearning 
 look reverts to the past, when the hand of God rested blessingly 
 on him, when the holy Spirit of God gave strength to his heart, 
 when he was daily experiencing the aid of God, and his works 
 were voluntary offerings. 
 
 F. 15 17. Were such seasons to return once more, how great 
 should his thank-offerings be. He here vows, and afterwards 
 really performed in Psalm xxxii. 9, and many other psalms, to 
 show his gratitude by referring every one in need of forgiveness to 
 this fountain of forgiveness. Since God desires not the praise of 
 unclean lips, we need not be astonished that David still feels his 
 lips tied. Bloodguiltiness oppresses his soul. Recollecting the 
 time of his communion with Him who has the power to condemn 
 and to absolve, and having regained courage, he supplicates him 
 first to remove guilt from his heart, and thereby the restraint from 
 his lips. If he opens his lips, no accuser will be suffered to shut 
 them again, for who can bind on earth what is loosed in heaven ? 
 F. 18, 19. He would give any and everything were the seasons 
 
 * Cf. Hengstenberg's Moses and Egypt, p. 183. 
 t Cf - "ViM Gen - xli - 32 
 21 
 
242 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 to return when he enjoyed communion with God, a cheerful heart 
 and a constant spirit, when the protection of God was spread out 
 over him, and his Spirit reigned in his heart. Let none imagine 
 that the price of many thousand offerings were too much for him ; 
 sacrifice and burnt-offering, if they could buy his peace, he would 
 gladly give. The wisdom which was given to him in hours of 
 illumination (vide ad. Psalm xl. 7; Psalm 1.) taught him that 
 God prizes only the broken bones of the burnt-offering if emblem- 
 atic of the broken heart, and the slain beast if emblematic of the 
 slain self-will of the offerer. Though this expression sounds as if 
 David rejected all sacrifice, other passages of Holy Writ show that 
 such a manner of expression is selected for the purpose of directing 
 special attention to the last member of a sentence : e. g. Paul says, 
 "He therefore that despiseth (man,) despiseth not man ZmrfGod."* 
 Sacrifice is the yielding > resigning, or giving up of a thing. The 
 best sacrifice which a sinner can offer God is his heart, which gives 
 up its sinful will, as hitherto exhibited in acts, to the consuming 
 flame of repentance, and yields its newly-awakened desire in child- 
 like faith to God, to be strengthened and glorified by him. (Cf. 
 Psalm xxxiv. 19; Isa. Ivii. 15.) 
 
 PSALM LII. 
 
 A PSALM of David occasioned by the following circumstances. On 
 his flight from the court and the borders of Israel, he had entered 
 the house of Ahimelech, the priest, at Nob, and asked him for a 
 meal and a weapon. Doeg, the director of the herdsmen and 
 flocks of the king, hereupon accused David and the priest of a con- 
 spiracy against the life of the king, and afterwards, in obedience to 
 the injunction of Saul, slew eighty-five helpless priests whom none 
 other of the servants of the king ventured to touch. (1 Sam. xxi. 
 1 10; xxii. 1 20.) David probably penned this psalm after 
 Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, had come and apprized him of the 
 event. (1 Sam. xxii. 20, 21.) 
 
 1.2 rpo the chief Musician, a Poem of David, when Doeg 
 JL the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto 
 
 him, David is come to the house of Ahimelech. f 
 3 Why boastest thou thyself in mischief, tyrant, 
 Since the goodness of God endureth continually ? 
 
 * 1 Thess. iv. 8; Winer's Grammar of the New Testament, p. 464. 
 f 1 Samuel, xxii. 9. 
 
PSALM LII. 243 
 
 4 Thy tongue deviseth mischiefs, 
 
 Like a sharp razor, worker of deceit ! 
 
 5 Thou lovest evil more than good; 
 
 And lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah. 
 
 6 Thou lovest all devouring words, 
 
 thou deceitful tongue. 
 
 7 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever, 
 
 He shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of thy dwell- 
 ing-place, 
 And root thee out of the land of the living. Selah. 
 
 8 The righteous also shall see, and fear, 
 And shall laugh at him : 
 
 9 " Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength ; 
 But trusted in the abundance of his riches, 
 
 And strengthened himself in his wickedness." 
 
 10 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God : 
 
 1 trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. 
 
 11 1 will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it : 
 And I will wait on thy name ; 
 
 For it is good before thy saints. 
 
 V. 3. The mighty ones, on prospering in their affairs, arro- 
 gantly think to have wrested the dominion from the hands of the 
 Lord, and the weak in faith persuade themselves that such is really 
 the case. But just on that account God will not persist in silence. 
 David has so often had occasion to experience this, that he can 
 now defy appearances, and while the mischief of men seemingly 
 wields the sceptre, to exclaim : " The goodness of God endureth 
 continually." 
 
 V. 4 6. One should think that even savages would benefit the 
 homeless, whose life is endangered by unjust hatred and suspicion. 
 On Saul's inquiring of his servants the abode of the fugitive 
 David, and promising them reward, they at least persist in silence. 
 A lenient word of defence would have been appropriate; for Saul 
 in his blindness thinks that David aims at his life. They are 
 silent but Doeg speaks. He fans by treacherous speech the sus- 
 picions of Saul instead of softening them. He declares that he has 
 seen the compassionate priest giving a meal and a weapon to the 
 anointed of the Lord, who was obliged to flee beyond the borders 
 of Israel. He asperses charity with treason. (Cf. Saul's speech to 
 Ahimelech, 1 Sam. xxii. 23.) He could anticipate the conse- 
 quences : the word escapes, cutting like a sharp razor. The king 
 orders eighty-five innocent men, helpless priests of God in linen 
 ephods, (1 Sam. xxii. 18 ; ) to be slain. The servants of the king 
 
244 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 shrink with dismay from the deed not so the traitor, who adds 
 murder to his treason. 
 
 V. 7, 8. " God will show himself froward with the froward." 
 (Psalm xviii. 27.) He causes him to encounter what he devised 
 against others. He is now concealed in the shadow of God, 
 proudly spreading his boughs like a mighty tree; but the hand of 
 God is stronger by far, and he shall be cut down. The Lord shall 
 make him a spectacle to the righteous : they shall laugh at his folly 
 and fear the righteous Lord. History is replete with spectacles of 
 this kind to those who have the seeing eye, though the temporal 
 judgments of God are still influenced by the long-suffering of God. 
 (Rom. ii. 4, 5.) 
 
 F. 9. Those who have not the protection of God seek for pro- 
 tection in the things of this world. Doeg, the director of the 
 herdsmen and flocks of Saul, was in all probability not a poor man : 
 yet he suffered himself to be enticed by the reward of riches. 
 (1 Sam. xxii. 7.) It frequently happens that riches render a man 
 more covetous than poverty. Doeg sought for strength in his 
 wickedness, not in virtue. 
 
 V. 10, 11. It is the eternal assurance of faith, which no appear- 
 ance can baffle, that he who has cast his root in God, shall flourish 
 in the house of God i. e. in communion with him. Those who do 
 not see it in time shall assuredly see it in eternity. He shall 
 flourish and prosper like the favoured olive-tree, which yields much 
 fruit without almost any culture, and its leaves fade not even in 
 winter. (Jer. xi. 6.) David ascribes all the praise to God, for he 
 does it and none else. He therefore confides in his name, and 
 calmly waits for the revelation of this name. Though others may 
 ignore it, to his people God always continues a cornucopia of mercy 
 and grace. The greatness and beauty of their thoughts and hopes 
 are all concealed in the name of the Lord. 
 
 PSALM LIII. 
 
 WITH slight variations the same as Psalm xiv. The alterations 
 were intended to render it more adapted for liturgical usage in the 
 time of the captivity. 
 
 PSALM LIV. 
 
 THREATENED with treason from the citizens of Keilah, the pur- 
 sued servant of God fled to the woody mountain heights near the 
 town of Siph. (1 Sam. xxiii. 14, 15.) His friend Jonathan came 
 
PSALM LIV. 245 
 
 there to comfort him, (1 Sam. xxiii. 16,) but the treachery of men 
 disturbs him even there, for the Siphites sent word to Saul. 
 (1 Sam. xxiii. 19.) 
 
 The Psalmist has hardly begun to pour out his complaint, 
 (v. 1 5,) and his soul gets more calmed, (v. 6 8;) yea, he 
 rejoices in victory, while affliction is as yet present with him, 
 (v. 9.) 
 
 the chief Musician on the harp, and instruction of 
 David, 
 
 2 When the Siphites came and said to Saul: Doth not 
 
 David hide himself with us ? 
 
 3 Save me, God, by thy name, 
 
 And secure me justice by thy strength. 
 
 4 Hear my prayer, God; 
 
 Give ear to the words of my mouth. 
 
 5 For strangers (barbarians) are risen up against me, 
 And oppressors seek after my soul : 
 
 They have not set God before them. Selah. 
 
 6 Behold, God is mine helper ; 
 
 The Lord is with them that uphold my soul. 
 
 7 Evil shall fall back upon mine enemies: 
 Cut them off in thy faithfulness. 
 
 8 I will freely sacrifice unto thee : 
 
 I will praise thy name, LORD, for it is good. 
 
 9 For he hath delivered me out of all trouble : 
 
 And mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies. 
 
 V. 3 7. Men were treacherous, therefore the servant of God, 
 on being forsaken by men, flees to the Lord. He may well do it, 
 for he believes that God will hear his prayers. They have not set 
 God before them; no wonder, therefore, that they violate justice 
 and ignore love. They even ignore it towards the harmless one 
 who has been unjustly pursued for years, and chased through 
 forests and deserts because of the caprice of a suspicious tyrant. 
 David prays in the faith, which is the "substance of things hoped 
 for, the evidence of things not seen." (Heb. xi. 1.) He roams 
 through the wood and the desert, but the eye of faith espies the 
 salvation of God. God will be the helper of him whom all men 
 have forsaken. God will recompense and cause their mischief to 
 fall back upon their own head; he will do it in his faithfulness, for 
 his word is yea and amen; and he did do it, for while Saul was on 
 his pursuit a messenger arrived, saying, " Haste thee and come, 
 for the Philistines have invaded the land/' (1 Sam. xxiii. 27 :) and 
 the rock where the deliverance of David took place was called for 
 a memorial, " The rock of escape." 
 21* 
 
246 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 F. 8, 9. Many vow thank-offerings in the hour of need, and 
 after the need is past, perform them with an unwilling disposition; 
 but David performs them with a joyous heart. Why should he do 
 otherwise, seeing that the name of the Lord is so rich in mercy ? 
 The future becomes the present to the eye of faith : in the midst 
 of distress he beholds deliverance; pursued by his enemies, he 
 sees his desire in their downfall : for it is the delight of the pious 
 to see by the judgments of God that "the government on earth is 
 in the hand of the Lord." (Sir. x. 4.) David saw this the second 
 time, when on the Siphites thinking to deliver him into the hands 
 of Saul, the Lord delivered his pursuers into his own. Even Saul, 
 covered with shame, and overpowered by the hand of the Lord, 
 was then constrained to exclaim, "Blessed be ihou,myson David: 
 tJiou shall both do great things, and also shalt still prevail." 
 (1 Sam. xxvi. 25.) 
 
 PSALM LV. 
 
 A PSALM of David, composed on his escape from Absalom in the 
 wilderness near Jordan, where he Was informed of the evil counsel 
 of Ahithophel, without knowing that Absalom had refused it. 
 (2 Sam. xvii. 21, 22.) 
 
 The psalm begins in great disquietude of mind, (v. 2 9.;) the 
 picture of the city, ruled by rebels, and of his faithless friend, 
 arises before the eye of the exiled king, (v. 10 15.) His heart 
 revives, he takes comfort from the hope of the ultimate triumph of 
 his prayers, and concludes with an expression of hope, which, 
 however, seems to denote that his disquietude was only partially 
 conquered, (v. 16 24.) 
 
 the chief Musician on the harp, an instruction of 
 David* 
 
 2 Give ear to my prayer, God : 
 
 And hide not thyself from my supplication. 
 
 3 Attend unto me, and hear me : 
 
 I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise ; (or, " I roam 
 in my complaint and cry;") 
 
 4 Because of the voice of the enemy, 
 Because of the oppression of the wicked ; 
 For they cast iniquity upon me, 
 
 And in wrath they hate me. 
 
PSALM LV. 247 
 
 5 My heart is sore pained within me : 
 
 And the terrors of death are fallen upon me : 
 
 6 Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, 
 And horror hath overwhelmed me. 
 
 7 And I said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove ! 
 For then would I fly away, and be at rest. 
 
 8 Lo, then would I wander far off, 
 
 And remain (or, " find rest") in the wilderness. Selah. 
 
 9 I would hasten my escape 
 
 From the sweeping storm and tempest. 
 
 10 Destroy, Lord, and divide their tongues : 
 For I have seen violence and strife in the city. 
 
 11 Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: 
 Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it. 
 
 12 Wickedness is in the midst thereof: 
 Deceit and guile depart not from her streets. 
 
 13 For it was not an enemy that reproached me ; 
 Then I could have borne it: 
 
 Neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself 
 
 against me ; 
 Then I would have hid myself from him t 
 
 14 But it was thou, a man whom I made mine equal, 
 My guide, and mine acquaintance. 
 
 15 We took sweet counsel together, 
 
 And walked unto the house of God in company (or, " with 
 the crowd.") 
 
 16 Let death seize upon them, 
 
 And let them go down alive into Sheol, 
 
 For wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them. 
 
 17 As for me, I will call upon God; 
 And the LORD shall save me. 
 
 18 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, 
 And cry aloud : 
 
 And he shall hear my voice. 
 
 19 He shall deliver my soul in peace from the battle that is 
 
 against me : 
 For there are many against me. 
 
 20 God shall hear, and afflict them, 
 
 Even he that sitteth on the throne from everlasting. 
 
 Selah. 
 
 Because they have no changes, 
 Therefore they fear not God. 
 
248 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 21 He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace 
 
 with him : 
 He hath broken his covenant. 
 
 22 'The words of his mouth was smoother than butter, 
 But war was in his heart : 
 
 His words were softer than oil, 
 Yet were they drawn swords. 
 
 23 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, 
 And he shall sustain thee : 
 
 He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. 
 
 24 But thou, God, shalt bring them down into the pit of 
 
 destruction : 
 Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their 
 
 days; 
 But I will trust in thee. 
 
 F. 2 5. It was an anxious hour when David poured out his 
 soul in this psalm before the Lord. On his first leaving the city 
 (Cf. Psalm iii.) he enjoyed a calm mind, but learning the insult 
 conferred upon him by his own son in obedience to the counsel of 
 Ahithophel, (2 Sam. xvi. 21,) as well as AhithopheFs new schemes 
 for his destruction, he became deeply moved. He has neither 
 rest nor peace : in the measure as his heart is excited, so roams his 
 complaint now in this direction, now in that. He hears as it 
 were the voice of the enemy from Jerusalem, and is afraid lest 
 they should lay hands on the Lord's anointed. And his own 
 deluded child leads his enemies. His heart may well be sore 
 pained. 
 
 F. 6 9. He prepares to leave the frontiers of Canaan, (Cf. ad. 
 Psalm xlii. 7:) he feels the presence of men a burden, and would 
 like best to hasten to remote deserts. We smart more beneath 
 the strokes which the hand of man, than those which the hand of 
 God, inflicts upon us : he got almost wroth with the fair counte- 
 nance of man. Like a timid dove, chased by the tempest, hastens 
 to her window, (Isaiah Ix. 8,) so he desires simply to fly away to 
 some remote desert or elsewhere, to find a refuge from the rising 
 storm.* Absalom was advancing with an army of upwards of 
 twenty thousand, (2 Sam. xviii. 7,) and his faithless subjects fol- 
 low the new sovereign. 
 
 * He was already in a desert when he received the news from the city, 
 (see Introd. ad. Psalm Ixiii.) but that desert near Jordan on the northern 
 portion of the Dead Sea was not far from Jerusalem, and might at any time 
 be occupied by the foe. But David desires to wander to a remote desert 
 totally separate from human intercourse. So Jeremiah exclaims, "Oh, 
 that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men ; then would 
 I leave my people and go from them." (Jer. ix. 2.) 
 
PSALM LV. 249 
 
 F. 10 12. He has received news respecting the state of things 
 in the city. (1 Sam. xvii. 21.) We may readily imagine what 
 things are, when rebels dethrone the rightful sovereign.* David 
 had preferred the odium of flight to exposing the whole city to the 
 edge of the sword. (2 Sam. xv. 14.) Violence and strife, sad 
 watchmen, go about her walls. Sorrow reigns in her midst. 
 Wickedness within, deceit and guile without her gates where the 
 markets were held. There the kings used to establish their 
 throne, (1 Kings xxii. 10; Jer. xxxviii. 7,) giving counsel and 
 judgment to the people. Absalom probably there conferred with 
 AWthophel, and there sat in judgment too; for with the promise 
 of more equitable judgments, he had seduced the people to desert 
 his father. (2 Sam. xv. 4.) But besides these acts of oppression, 
 the thought of the transgression which Absalom committed in the 
 sight of all Israel grieved David most : his deluded son had at the 
 instigation of a treacherous friend perpetrated incest with his 
 father's wives, that "all Israel shall hear that Tie had caused his 
 father's name to be abhorred." (2 Sam. xvi. 21.) The insulted 
 king exclaims, " Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues." His first 
 thought on hearing of AhithophePs desertion was, "0 Lord, I 
 pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel to foolishness," (2 Sam. 
 xv. 31,) and his prayer was heard. 
 
 F. 13 15. We know what we have to expect from an enemy: 
 if we can protect ourselves, we need not move. But if a friend 
 aims a blow, we have not only gained a foe, but lost a friend: we 
 feel the blow, though we should succeed in evading it. Honest 
 David, who had remained faithful for many years to Saul, his infu- 
 riated persecutor, must have doubly felt such blows. How great 
 had been his attachment to Ahithophel! "As if a man had 
 inquired at the oracle of God, so was the counsel of Ahithophel to 
 David." (2 Sam. xvi. 23.) David had given him his heart, raised 
 him to equality with himself in government, shown to him sweet 
 friendship at home, and in sight of all the people gone with him to 
 the temple of God. Thus treated a king his subject. That same 
 friend could now advise "to cause the name of David to be abhor- 
 red by all Israel." David, thou who didst find a Jonathan, and 
 experience in him the sweets of friendship, hast been obliged to 
 taste in this case its bitter ! 
 
 F. 16 18. Is David, so greatly disappointed in his friend, and 
 having by the treachery of a friend lost the love of his people as 
 well as his throne, to be blamed for desiring the due recompense 
 of such great wickedness? His mind gets calmer, and he uses the 
 remedy, which when all others have vanished still remains to the 
 
 * A better translation may probably be, "Yea, I see." David would 
 then describe how with his mind's eye he sees the punishments for which 
 he prayed as already accomplished. 
 
250 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 godly, namely, prayer. Knowing, however, that God is not satis- 
 fied with a transient emotion of the heart, that he desires above all 
 faith, and as faith cannot otherwise reveal itself than in persevering 
 prayer, though help may be delayed, he promises to persevere in 
 prayer to the end. A master in prayer like David could make this 
 promise the easier, since he did not so much regard the fruit of 
 prayer as prayer itself, and was no doubt familiar with its delights. 
 He specifies three hours of the day, at which he promises to call 
 upon God with a loud voice, meaning thereby that the loud cry of 
 the mouth should in the interval be echoed back by the gentle 
 voice of the heart. 
 
 V. 19 22. Though unable ie see that his prayer is answered, 
 he believes it. To this effect lie assures himself that his prayer 
 will be answered for two reasons. The first, that the government 
 of God is the same now as it was of old; the second, that there is 
 no hope of a change for the better with the rebels who fear not 
 God. Remembering them anew, he once more tells God that 
 theirs is an uncommon offence against God and man, in having 
 violated the bonds of friendship, and deceived under the mask of 
 hypocrisy. 
 
 F. 23, 24. The commencement of this psalm showed how 
 heavy was the burden which oppressed his heart. How great is 
 the blessedness of the godly in being able to pray ! He has got 
 rid of the burden by casting it upon the Lord. (Psalm xxxvii. 5; 
 1 Peter v. 7.) His faith unflinchingly adheres to the eternal law, 
 that the righteous shall never be moved the righteous being he 
 who cleaves to God. The Old Testament saints had to adhere to 
 this with less light of revelation than that which we enjoy, and yet 
 probably kept it better than we. He desires the immediate fulfil- 
 ment of the truth of his hope, in praying for an extraordinary 
 divine punishment to remove his adversaries in the midst of their 
 days. And so it happened, for Ahithophel, the originator of the 
 mischief, hanged himself; Absalom died suddenly by the hand of 
 Joab ; the greater part of his rebellious followers perished in the 
 ravines of the mountains of Ephraim, in the wood of Ephraim, 
 where the decisive battle took place, and many were consumed by 
 the sword. (2 Sam. xviii. 8.) 
 
 PSALM LVI. 
 
 A PSALM of David, when he had fled from the court of Saul and 
 the land of his fathers to the Philistines in Gath, where they seized 
 him who had slain Goliath. (1 Sam. xxi. 10.) He had still with 
 him the sword of Goliath, which Ahimelech gave him. Gath was 
 
PSALM LVI. 251 
 
 moreover the native city of Goliath. His enterprise was on that 
 account very hazardous. He did indeed not go before the king 
 (1 Sam. xxi. 12, etc.) of his own accord, but, intending to conceal 
 himself, was seized. 
 
 This psalm was probably composed at the time when they were 
 searching for him. Twice bitterly complaining against man, he 
 twice gets strengthened through faith in the word of Him against 
 whom all mankind cannot prevail, (v. 5 11, 12.) 
 
 1 nnO the chief Musician, concerning the silent dove in a 
 JL far-away country, A golden Psalm of David, when 
 
 the Philistines took him in Gath. 
 
 2 Be merciful unto me, God : for man would swallow 
 
 me up; 
 . He fighting daily oppresseth me. 
 
 3 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up ; 
 
 For they be many that fight against me, thou Most High. 
 
 4 What time I am afraid, 
 I will trust in thee. 
 
 5 In God I will praise his word, 
 In God I have put my trust ; 
 
 I will fear not what flesh can do unto me. 
 
 6 Every day they wrest my words : 
 
 All their thoughts are against me for evil. 
 
 7 They gather themselves together, 
 
 They hide themselves, they mark my steps, 
 When they wait for my soul. 
 
 8 Shall they escape by iniquity? 
 
 In thine anger cast down the people, God. 
 
 9 Thou tellest my wanderings : 
 
 Put thou my tears into thy bottle : 
 Are they not in thy book ? 
 
 10 When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn 
 
 back: 
 This I know; FOR GOD is FOR ME, (or, " GOD is MINE.") 
 
 11 In God will I praise his word : 
 
 In the LORD will I praise his word. 
 
 12 In God have I put my trust : 
 
 I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. 
 
 13 Thy vows are upon me, God, (or, " I owe vows unto 
 
 thee, God:") 
 I will render praises unto thee. 
 
252 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 14 For thou hast delivered my soul from death : 
 
 Wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling (or, " my feet 
 
 from falling,"*) 
 That I may walk before God in the light of the living ? 
 
 V. 1 3. The title furnishes the index to the sense of David's 
 desertion, in which he calls himself an innocent mute dove, driven 
 away from her native country. He submitted to everything with- 
 out any resistance. Encountering everywhere enemies, he regards 
 all men as such. (Cf. v. 5.) He had but recently experienced the 
 enmity of Doeg, and meets new enemies in a foreign land, where 
 he might at least have hoped to be secure from Saul. They would 
 daily swallow him up. Saul gave him no rest. At Nob he found 
 Doeg, and here the enemies of his nation, who are equally his ene- 
 mies. So many are against him, and that insolently, for they 
 despise the regal dignity which the Lord had conferred upon him. 
 
 V. 4, 5. He has no one with him in whom to confide : but he 
 trusts in that support which though invisible to human eye is yet 
 beheld by faith the word of the Lord. What is all flesh com- 
 pared to that rock : as he refers to some specific word, he probably 
 alludes to the word of the Lord, by which Samuel had promised the 
 royal throne of Israel to the shepherd youth. Jonathan, though 
 Saul's son, (1 Sam. xxiii. 17,) trusted in that word; and Saul 
 himself submitted to it and said to David, " Thou shalt do both 
 great things and also shalt still prevail/' (1 Sam. xxvi. 25.) 
 
 V. 6 8. David contemplates his present experience among 
 the Philistines. They probably assembled and consulted whether 
 he was the man or not whether they should take him before 
 Achish or attack him at once; they followed his steps lest they 
 should lose sight of him. But he is sure that if the word of a king 
 is to be depended on, much more that of the Lord of heaven and 
 earth. Shall mischief prosper against the anointed of God ? No, 
 his adversaries are cast down. 
 
 V. 9 12. Thus he strengthens his soul. His tears are despised 
 by men but they are precious before God, like precious wine, 
 enclosed in leathern bottles. He suffers not one of them to be lost. 
 The tears of the pious are quickly dried up before the eyes of 
 men they seem vile unto them but the angels of God gather 
 them up and take them to their place. The days of the wander- 
 ings of his servant, and all his tears, are written in the book of 
 God. Does not this apply to the tears of all his servants ? What 
 an account will that be, when God shall one day reproach oppress- 
 ors and tyrants with the tears of crushed innocence ? 
 
 With thoughts like these the Psalmist edifies himself, while as 
 
 * /. e. without "Wilt not thou deliver." Translate "For hast not thou 
 delivered ray soul from death, my feet from falling, that," etc. 
 
PSALM LVII. 253 
 
 yet the tears flow down his cheeks. He sees the enemies recede. 
 He neither knows the manner of his escape nor the end of the 
 days of his wanderings he has neither peace, nor happiness, nor 
 joy, but "this I know, that God is mine." This is the blessed 
 language of a heart reconciled to God. How much more should 
 we Christians use language like this ! Blessed be God who is so 
 near to his creatures! The word, the word is before the soul of 
 David : on it he takes his standing as on a high rock, at the base 
 of which the waves are breaking, and cries courageously, "I will 
 not be afraid what man can do unto me." 
 
 F. 13, 14. He thinks of songs of praise while he sings as yet 
 psalms of complaint, of vows of gratitude while he prays. He 
 knows not how his escape will be but he is sure that some escape 
 will come. Such deliverances need not always be miraculous. In 
 this instance it was the sagacity of the persecuted king which 
 opened the door of escape : the thought was given him to feign 
 madness before the king. Others would have praised their own 
 sagacity at such a thought, but David knows that even wise 
 thoughts flow to man in the hour of need from no other source 
 than from the Father of light, from whom cometh every good and 
 perfect gift. 
 
 PSALM LVII. 
 
 A PSALM composed when David fled from Saul in the cave 
 which is referred to in Psalm cxlii., and which because it is with- 
 out any other distinction called "the cave," is probably that cele- 
 brated cave where David with his six hundred followers lay con- 
 cealed, (Cf. 1 Sam. xxiii. 13,) when Saul entered and David cut 
 off the skirt of his robe, (1 Sam. xxiv. 4.) The king, accompanied 
 by three thousand followers, chased* him to the loftiest alpine 
 
 * A traveller (Fuerer of Hainendorf) describes the wilderness of Engedi, 
 where that mountain was : "It is a long and awful mountain range by the 
 Dead Sea, where only few shepherds dwell, that have no houses, but live 
 with their cattle in the caverns of the rocks." A difficult path through 
 cliffs led from Engedi, situate on the shore, to Jerusalem, (2 Chron. xx. 16.) 
 Robinson says respecting it, (Palestine, vol. ii. p. 438:) "This path 
 descends in zikzak, frequently below the most precipitous corner, which 
 horses only know how to make, and runs partly along projecting rocks 
 down the perpendicular side of the cliff and then down the almost equally 
 precipitous ruins. My companion had roamed over the heights of Lebanon 
 and the mountains of Persia, I myself ascended the Alps, but neither of us 
 had ever met with so difficult and perilous a pass." The sea is seen 
 1500 feet below the spectator (not 500 according to the Text, vide Hall. 
 Lit. Zeit. 1842. No. 71.) 
 22 
 
254 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 heights "to the sheep-cotes/' where the cattle was driven in the 
 hottest summer months only to hunt him in every hiding-place. 
 There was a cave, in the darkened cool of which David and his 
 men were hid. Such caves in Palestine and the East are fre- 
 quently enlarged by human hands, and so capacious that they 
 accomodate thousands of people. This song of complaint was sung 
 during the hours of suspense which David spent there to wait until 
 the calamity was overpast, (v. 2,) in which he only gradually 
 gains a stout heart, (v. 8.) His life was really suspended by a 
 hair if Saul or any of his attendants had espied him ! 
 
 The psalm begins with a mind already grown calm, twice aris- 
 ing from the mournful present to the sublime hope that the Lord 
 shall display his glory overall the earth, (v. 2 6, 7 12.) 
 
 1 nnO the chief Musician, to the tune, "Destroy not," A 
 JL golden Psalm of David, when he fled from Saul 
 
 in the cave. 
 
 2 Be merciful unto me, God, be merciful unto me : 
 For my soul trusteth in thee (or, "fleeth to thee:") 
 Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge. 
 Until these calamities be overpast. 
 
 3 I will cry unto God most high : 
 
 Unto God that performeth all things for me. 
 
 4 He shall send from heaven, and save me 
 
 From the reproach of him that would swallow me up. 
 
 Selah. 
 God shall send forth his mercy and his faithfulness. 
 
 5 My soul is among lions : 
 
 And I lie even among them that are set on fire, 
 
 Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, 
 
 And their tongue a sharp sword. 
 
 6 Be thou exalted, God, above the heavens; 
 Let thy glory be above all the earth. 
 
 7 They have prepared a net for my steps ; 
 My soul is bowed down : 
 
 They have digged a pit before me, 
 
 Into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah. 
 
 8 My heart is fixed, God, my heart is fixed (or, " pre- 
 
 pared:") 
 I will sing and give praise. 
 
 9 Awake up, my glory ; awake, psaltery and harp : 
 I myself will awake early. 
 
 10 I will praise thee, Lord, among the people: 
 I will sing unto thee among the nations. 
 
PSALM LVII. 255 
 
 11 For thy mercy is as far as the heavens, 
 And thy faithfulness as far as the clouds. 
 
 12 Be thou exalted, God, above the heavens : 
 Let thy glory be above all the earth. 
 
 V. 2 4. This is the basis of David's trust, that he ascribes 
 the honour to his God, and knows no other refuge under whose 
 pinions he can flee. He means to seek a shelter there, till the 
 tempest is over. What may his fears have been on hearing from 
 the back part of the cavern the noise of the three thousand war- 
 riors, or seeing some one enter the cave ! He knows that his God 
 is not an inactive God, but that the hand of God is free and power- 
 ful, when his own is lamed. The heavens the dwelling-place of 
 God are high, but his arm is not shortened that it could not 
 reach down. Happy are we that his mercy and faithfulness is not 
 only concealed from above us in the clouds, but becomes apparent 
 and reigns on earth among the children of men. 
 
 V. 5, 6. It is awful indeed to live amongst lions and tigers 
 with savage glaring eyes and blood-red mouths, but it is more awful 
 to dwell among men with the hearts of tigers, for the means of 
 oppression with which the lion and the tiger are furnished are con- 
 fined to their mouths and claws, while man has everything which 
 his understanding may shape into instruments of malice. His 
 teeth are his spear and arrows, and the tender weak tongue he 
 wields as a sharp sword. He who attacks the servants of the Lord 
 attacks the Lord himself. David therefore cries to God to show 
 his enemies the consequences of laying hands on Ms servants. He 
 prays him to disclose his majesty above the heavens, and his glory 
 over all the earth, that they might see that they are no mean peo- 
 ple who serve such a God. 
 
 V. 7. His glance once more reverts to the pit before him; his 
 soul is bowed down and near the fall, but mentally he sees them 
 who digged the pit fall into it themselves. They had prepared a 
 net for the fugitive, but the persecutors really got caught in it. 
 This should elicit a Selah from every feeling heart ! 
 
 V. 8 10. He declares before his God with jubilant joy that 
 Ms heart is fixed : the plaintive cry is changed into the song of 
 rejoicing and the play of the psaltery. He awakens his soul, and the 
 strings of his harp, feeling that having experienced mercy so rich, 
 his every nerve and vein ought to thrill with ecstatic joy. How 
 remiss are men in praising the Lord for undeserved benefits! 
 David intends to awake with the dawn that the praise of the Lord 
 may be his first thought. He is not satisfied with singing before 
 his people in his own house : had he a voice that could be heard by 
 all the nations of the earth, he would fain exert it to make them 
 the participators of his praise and thanksgiving. 
 
 F. 11; 12. A hard and ungrateful heart beholds even in pros- 
 
256 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 perity only isolated drops of divine grace; but a grateful one like 
 David's, though chased by persecutors and striking the harp in the 
 gloom of a cave, looks upon the mercy and faithfulness of God as 
 a mighty ocean, waving and heaving from the earth to the clouds, 
 and from the clouds to the earth again. 
 
 PSALM LVIIL 
 
 THIS psalm refers not to real judges, which verse 2 seems to inti- 
 mate, but, as shows verse 3, to such as exercise oppression in the 
 land. When it is said, " Ye divide the violence of your hands/' 
 or, " Ye weigh it," the allusion seems to be to self-revenge as 
 checking the exercise of the law. It would be difficult to account 
 for David's composing a psalm against the unjust judges of Saul, 
 still less against his own, whom he would rather have made to feel 
 the severity of the laws. Several circumstances render it very 
 probable that this psalm was occasioned when Joab and his brother 
 had given vent to their vengeance in assassinating Abner, who had 
 slain their brother Asahel at Gibeon in battle. (2 Sam. iii. 30.) 
 Abner, the valiant and generous, of whom David said after his 
 decease, " Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man 
 fallen this day in Israel V had come full of confidence to David 
 that he might deposit into his hands the sceptre over the remain- 
 ing tribes of Israel. Not only the vengeance but the ambition of 
 Joab, who would not endure him as a rival in the favour of David, 
 had led him to violate hospitality by his base act an act so base, 
 that in the eyes of David's servants it appeared to fall upon his 
 own head as if he had broken good faith. He says therefore, "I 
 and my kingdom are guiltless before the Lord for ever from the 
 blood of Abner the son of Ner : let it rest on the head of Joab and 
 on all his father's house; and let there not fail from the house of 
 Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper, or that leaneth on 
 a staff, or that falleth on a sword, or that lacketh bread." He wept 
 with a loud voice on the grave of the noble hero, and sang his 
 funeral ditty. "Died Abner as a fool dieth? Thy hands were not 
 bound, nor thy feet put into fetters : as a man falleth before wicked 
 men, so fellest thou." The haughtiness and passion of Joab and 
 his brother had become so intense that he exclaimed, "These men, 
 the sons of Zeruiah, be too hard for me : the Lord shall reward the 
 doer of evil according to his wickedness." (2 Sam. iii. 39.) Yet 
 he intended not to subject them to righteous punishment, as he did 
 immediately afterwards the sons of Kimmon the Beerothite, who 
 assassinated Ishbosheth the son of Saul. (2 Sam. iv. 12.) But the 
 
PSALM LVIII. 257 
 
 sons of Zeruiah were too powerful for him, and he therefore com- 
 mitted their punishment to God though he never forgot their 
 heinous crime, for on his death-bed he remembered the innocently- 
 shed blood of the prince in Israel, (1 Kings ii. 5 ; ) and charged 
 his son to punish it. 
 
 1 rPO the chief Musician, to the tune " Destroy not," a 
 JL golden Psalm of David. 
 
 2 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, congregation ? 
 Do ye judge uprightly, ye sons of men? 
 
 3 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness ; 
 
 Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. 
 
 4 The wicked are estranged from the womb : 
 
 They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. 
 
 5 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent : 
 
 They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear ; 
 
 6 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, 
 Be the charmer never so cunning. 
 
 7 Break their teeth, God, in their mouth : 
 
 Break out the great teeth of the young lions, LORD. 
 
 8 Let them melt away as waters which run continually : 
 When they bend their bow to shoot their arrows, let them 
 
 be as cut in pieces, (or, " blunted.") 
 
 9 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass 
 
 away: 
 
 Like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not 
 see the sun. 
 
 10 Before your pots can feel the thorns, 
 
 He shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living 
 and burning. 
 
 11 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: 
 He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. 
 
 12 So that a man shall say, Verily, there is a reward for the 
 
 righteous : 
 Verily, he is a God that judgeth in the earth. 
 
 V. 2, 3. People seek always to justify self-revenge though it 
 interferes with the exercise of the law; these two fierce brothers 
 may probably have made it their boast that they did right. But 
 the funeral ditty on Abner which David sang, compelled them to 
 hear before all the people that the noble hero fell by the violence 
 of assassins. They could not even say, We have dealt with Abner 
 as he dealt with our brother, for Asahel fell by the hand of Abner 
 in open battle, nor did Abner aim his spear at him till after he had 
 22* 
 
258 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 in vain addressed to him words of earnest and friendly admoni- 
 tion. (2 Sam. ii. 23.) David calls it a wickedness in or from the 
 heart, for the deed had been perpetrated with forethought and 
 cunning. 
 
 V. 4 6. Nor was it a single act of violence : he could have 
 forgiven that. Deceit and oppression lay blended with courage in 
 the breast of the two brothers. Penitence would have prevented 
 the second crime, if it had merely been the ebullition of passion. 
 The same Joab, while saying to Amasa, his envied under-captain, 
 "Art thou in health, my brother?" (or, " Peace be with thee, my 
 brother, 7 ') thrust with his left hand the sword into his body. 
 (2 Sam. xx. 10.) His heart was filled with untameable venom, 
 the poison of envy and ambition, which neither severity nor leni- 
 ency could conquer. Serpents may be charmed by the sound of 
 music so that they do not emit their poison not so these children 
 of wrath. David had resisted the temptation of Joab to fill him 
 with suspicion against his faithful subject, and he had no doubt 
 expressed himself in the language of confidence and gentleness. 
 (2 Sam. iii. 24, 25.) The poisonous adder could not be charmed 
 his perilous bite was done the more secretly. 
 
 F. 7 10. The sovereign feels himself too weak to use the arm 
 of justice against these powerful men. He therefore calls upon 
 the Lord to do justice, to destroy the success of their schemes con- 
 trived by cunning and violence, to break their destructive strength 
 as one deprives wild beasts of their teeth, as water dissolves, as if 
 one breaks the point of the spear, as a creeping snail melts, as an 
 abortion dissolves in the womb, as the tempests of the desert tears 
 away the half-burnt thorns ere the pots can feel their flame. 
 
 V. 11, 12. It is the comfort of kings, that if they are too weak 
 for the ^administration of justice, there is a King above whose 
 hands are never tied. The King of kings gives these signs to show 
 that though much power is conferred upon mortals, no one can 
 deprive him of his sceptre. 
 
 PSALM LIX. 
 
 A PSALM of David composed when Saul had first cast the javelin 
 at him, and then after his escape caused his house to be watched 
 at night that he might seize and kill him on the morrow. But 
 Michal, his wife, had secretly let him go out at an unguarded place, 
 and he fled at night to the neighbouring Raman,* to Samuel and 
 
 * Now Soba, according to Robinson's Palestine, vol. ii. p. 581, etc., at a 
 distance of about ten miles from Jerusalem. (Cf. Introduction, page 24, 
 note J.) 
 
PSALM LIX. 259 
 
 his school of prophets, (1 Sam. xix. 18,) where this psalm was 
 probably composed. We may perceive to how great an extent the 
 Spirit of God reigned in that circle, from the fact that the three 
 separate companies whom Saul sent out to seize David felt the 
 Spirit of G-od come upon them, and they began to prophesy, as in 
 fact even Saul on coming was overwhelmed by the strength of the 
 Spirit. (1 Sam. xix. 20, etc.}. 
 
 the chief Musician, to the tune, "Destroy not/' A 
 golden psalm of David, when Saul sent, and they 
 watched the house to kill him. 
 
 2 Deliver me from mine enemies, my God : 
 Defend me from them that rise up against me. 
 
 3 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, 
 And save me from bloody men. 
 
 4 For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul : 
 The mighty are gathered against me ; 
 
 Not for my transgression, nor for my sin, LORD. 
 
 5 They run and prepare themselves without my fault: 
 Awake to meet me, and behold. 
 
 G^Thou therefore, LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, 
 Awake to visit all the heathen: 
 Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah. 
 
 7 Let them return at evening: 
 And make a noise like a dog, 
 And go round about the city. 
 
 8 Behold, they belch with their mouth : 
 Swords are in their lips : 
 
 For who, say they, doth hear? 
 
 9 But thou, LORD, shalt laugh at them; 
 Thou shalt have all the heathen in derision. 
 
 10 0, my strength, I will wait upon thee:* 
 For God is my defence. 
 
 11 God shall prevent me by his mercy : 
 
 God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies. 
 
 12 Slay them not (suddenly) lest my people forget: 
 Scatter them by thy power ; 
 
 And bring them down, LORD our shield. 
 
 13 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips 
 Let them even be taken in their pride : 
 
 And for cursing and lying which they speak. 
 
 * Fourteen MSS. and all the ancient versions read *i.ts> instead of fay. 
 
 - \ \ 
 
260 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 14 Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may 
 
 not be: 
 
 And let them know that God ruleth in Jacob 
 Unto the ends of the earth. Selah* 
 
 15 And at evening let them return; 
 And let them make a noise like a dog, 
 And go round about the city. 
 
 16 Let them wander up and down for meat, 
 
 Though they be not satisfied, and will stay all night. 
 
 17 But I will sing of thy power ; 
 
 Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning : 
 For thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of 
 my trouble. 
 
 18 Unto thee, my strength, will I sing : 
 
 For God is my defence, and the God of my mercy. 
 
 V. 2, 3. Though having effected his escape, David still prays 
 for deliverance from Saul and his people, for their wrath was still 
 alive, and they soon came to Ramah to seize him : the messengers 
 are three times in succession overcome by the Spirit at last the 
 king himself. The character of the servants of Saul, who, devoid 
 of love and truthfulness, were not better than their master, may be 
 inferred from their becoming the abettors of malice, and not having 
 the courage of Jonathan to take the part of innocence. Doeg was 
 amongst their number. 
 
 V. 4, 5. If we have to deal with such people, innocence is a 
 great comfort, for he who is conscious of his innocence knows indubi- 
 tably that God is his ally and may courageously invoke his aid like 
 David, "Awake to meet me, Lord, and behold/' 
 
 V. 6. Shall not the Judge of the world send help? David 
 feels here as we do when judgment is delayed in time : we then 
 long for the last judgment, that all iniquity may for ever cease. 
 In a similar manner he prayed elsewhere (Psalm vii. 8. 10) for the 
 last judgment, and consoled himself by it to attain to a more perfect 
 assurance of the righteous judgment of God in his own case. At 
 the judgment of the heathen, the judgment of heathenish-minded 
 Israel will not fail to take place, (Psalm Ixxv. 9 ; cf. also Psalm 
 Ixxxii. 8,) for God is good to that Israel only that are of a clean 
 heart. (Psalm Ixxiii. 1.) 
 
 V. 7. His imagination depicts them as already standing and 
 waiting with open mouths for prey, but they have to stand and 
 wait from morning till evening, and roam like hungry dogs round 
 about and through the city. 
 
 V. 8, 9. The servants were like the suspicious king, and had 
 indeed excited his suspicions. ( Vide Introd. ad. Ps. Ixix.) How 
 
PSALM LX. 261 
 
 many lies and calumnies may they not have concocted while they 
 stood on the watch ! But God, who will hold the proud heathen 
 in derision, will equally laugh at them. Though the heavens are 
 high above the earth, his ear yet reacheth to the earth; and 
 whether mischief be talked of aloud or low, nothing escapes his 
 ear. 
 
 F. 10, 11. Deprived of personal strength, he looks to that 
 defence which constitutes his strength. He who who makes but 
 one step to meet God is met by his mercy for thousands of miles. 
 
 F". 12. The benefits which God now and then confers upon one 
 and another ought never to be forgotten by us : we should always 
 remember the arm which reached out of the clouds in the hour of 
 danger. But as even the pious are prone to forget nothing more 
 quickly than this very thing, David prays God not suddenly to con- 
 sume them, but only to scatter and humiliate them, that they may 
 for ever remember that the Lord did bow them down, and that he 
 is the shield of his people. By "my people" David probably 
 means the generation of the righteous, which is called the people 
 of God, (cf. ad. Ps. iii. 9; Ps. xiv. 4,) thinking of the sincere 
 Israelites with whom he was then staying, viz. Samuel and the sons 
 of the prophets. He felt himself in fellowship with them by say- 
 ing, "0 Lord, our shield/' (Psalm Ixxii. 10.) 
 
 V. 13 15. He considers once more their impiousness, for the 
 purpose of strengthening his conviction that the punishment of 
 God, though delayed, will assuredly be revealed to them, for the 
 government of God is preeminently manifest to Jacob after the 
 spirit. (Ps. xxiv. 6.) The sin of their mouth, the curses by which 
 they persecute the innocent, their pride before God and man, shall 
 become the net in which, like so many before them, they shall be 
 caught. Their present punishment shall be this: they shall roam 
 about greedy of prey, but find none, and shall in the evening behold 
 that the spoil has escaped them. 
 
 V. 16 18. They had to wander about when evening came, 
 having lost the prey, and hungry wake through the night; while 
 David, like a bird which has escaped the snare of the fowler, 
 attunes in the morning his song of praise to Him who in the day of 
 need is the refuge of his people. 
 
 PSALM LX. 
 
 A SONG of complaint and cry for help when^ while David was 
 engaged in the north of his kingdom against the Syrians of Zobah 
 and their allies from Mesopotamia, (2 Sam.' x. 16,) the Edomites 
 
262 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 had invaded the south, and he was obliged to send Joab and 
 Abishai* his brother with an army to meet them, who turned them 
 back (2 Sam. viii. 13; 1 Chron. xviii.) in the valley of Salt,f 
 where the boundaries of Edom and Palestine met. There were 
 probably only few troops in the kingdom, and they had been beat, 
 (v. 12.) It was this critical juncture which determined David to 
 send back his generals with so large a portion of his army. Two 
 short days' marches would suffice to bring the Edomites to Hebron, 
 and seven hours from Hebron to Jerusalem. The king had there- 
 fore good grounds for complaining that the country was trembling. 
 The foe had probably made further advances into the country, 
 and only on Joab's approach retired from the mountains and 
 ravines on the way to Hebron to the valley of Salt, where at a later 
 period Amaziah routed the Edomites. (2 Kings xiv. 7.) 
 
 1.2 npO the chief Musician, to the tune, "The lily of the 
 JL testimony," A golden psalm of David to be learnt 
 by heart : when he strove with Mesopotamia and 
 the Syrians of Zobah, when Joab returned and 
 smote of Edom in the valley of Salt twelve 
 thousand. 
 
 3 God thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, 
 Thou hast been displeased; turn thyself to us again. 
 
 4 Thou hast made the country to tremble; thou hast 
 
 broken it : 
 Heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. 
 
 5 Thou hast showed thy people hard things : 
 
 Thou hast made us to drink of the wine of astonishment. 
 
 6 Thou hast given a banner to them that feared thee, 
 To which they may flee because of the truth. Selah. 
 
 7 That thy beloved may be delivered; 
 
 Save with thy right hand, and hear me (or, "hear us".) 
 
 8 God hath spoken in his holiness 
 
 I will rejoice thereat, "I will divide Schechem, 
 And mete out the valley of Succoth. 
 
 9 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine : 
 Ephraim also is the shield of mine head ; 
 Judah is my sceptre ; and 
 
 * Abishai, who is described as a general (1 Chron. xviii.) may at" that 
 time (as 2 Sam. x. 10) have commanded a portion under Joab. But 
 (2 Sam. viii. 13) the king himself is described as victor. 
 
 f This valley is at the southern point of the Dead Sea, at the side of a 
 remarkable mountain side of mineral salt, which at some places is as high 
 as 150 feet. (Eobinson's Palestine, vol. iii. 1, p. 23.) 
 
PSALM LX. 263 
 
 10 Moab is my washpot ; 
 
 Over Edom will I cast out my shoe ; 
 Philistia, triumph thou because of me."* 
 
 11 Who will bring me into the strong city ? 
 Who will lead me into Edom ? 
 
 12 Wilt not thou, God, which hadst cast us off ? 
 
 And tJioUj God, which didst not go out with our armies ? 
 
 13 Give us help from trouble : 
 For vain is the help of man. 
 
 14 Through God we shall do valiantly : 
 
 For he it is that shall tread down our enemies. 
 
 V. 3 5. The course of life alternates between the heights and 
 the depths. Such was the experience of David. At the pinnacle 
 of triumph, enlarging the boundaries of his country, the mournful 
 tidings suddenly came upon him. He describes the country as a 
 wall which has been shaken and rent, and the consternation of the 
 people as if they were drunk with intoxicating wine and had almost 
 lost their senses. 
 
 V. 6, 7. There is a banner, however, to which those who fear 
 the Lord may fly. Such are the gracious promises of God, which 
 he will not dishonour, but fulfil because of his mercy and truth. 
 (Rom. xv. 8.) David doubts not for a moment that although 
 called to endure great affliction they continue to abide in the love 
 of God. That may have been a difficult thing to them of old but 
 it is an easy thing to those in the Gospel dispensation, who have 
 the words of reconciliation in their hearts. 
 
 V. 8 10. The prophetic words of Samuel, Gad, and Nathan, 
 had often declared the kindly designs of God respecting David, 
 and their words were diffused among all the people : e. g. Abner 
 refers to them before the whole nation. (2 Sam. iii. 18.) David 
 comforts himself now with such a Divine message by the mouth of 
 a prophet he rejoices in tribulation. The meaning of that utter- 
 ance is this : God, who has created all nations, the earth and every- 
 thing in it, has the power to distribute, as he pleases, the countries 
 of Israel as well as the countries of surrounding peoples. This 
 oracle mentions, first, two then flourishing cities, Succoth, in the 
 valley of Jordan in the East, and Schecheni opposite to it in the 
 West, then two of the most flourishing provinces in the east of 
 Jordan; rich Gilead, and the mighty tribe of Manasseh, to the 
 west of Jordan, the two most powerful tribes; Ephraim, the pro- 
 tecting helmet of the kingdom by its rich population, (Gen. xlviii. 
 19; Deut. xxxiii. 17;) and Judah, of whom Jacob's prophecy was 
 said, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver 
 
 * Or paraphrased, "Philistia, shout to me, the Conqueror." 
 
264 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 from between his feet, until Shiloh come/' (Gen. xlix. 10.) They 
 are the Lord's. But also the countries of enemies shall serve Moab 
 in the East, Edom in the South, and Philistia in the West (the 
 North is not mentioned, because the banner of David had already 
 been victorious there.) As after the labours of the day the hero 
 takes the washpot and throws off his shoes so Moab becomes his 
 washpot, and over Edom he casts his shoe which in ancient times, 
 in India as well as in Abyssinia and Palestine, was the symbol of 
 conquest. (Ruth iv. 7.) Philistia also shall render homage to 
 Him. Such was the burden of the prophecy.- 
 
 F. 11, 12. This is the banner to which David flies. Contem- 
 plating it, we may confidently hope that the same God who did 
 abase can also raise him. His hand shall lead him even to Petra, 
 (i. e. rock, 2 Kings xiv. 7,) which seems unapproachable by human 
 strength. That marvellous rock-city of the Edomites is surrounded 
 by rocks, some of which are three hundred feet high, and a single 
 path twelve feet in width "leads to it. The city itself is partly hewn 
 out of the cloven rocks, and its ruins, which, however, belong to a 
 later period, fill travellers with amazement. Obadiah, prophesying 
 against Edom, has mentioned that rocky stronghold. "The pride 
 of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts 
 of the rock, whose habitation is high ; that saith in his heart, Who 
 shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself 
 as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence 
 will I bring thee down, saith the Lord/' (Obad. v. 3, 4.) He who 
 like David appropriates the Divine promise, is not dismayed at even 
 such a rocky stronghold. At the eve of his life the old hero-king 
 used to sing at the remembrance of conquests like the present, 
 "By thee I have run through a troop, and by my God have I leaped 
 over a wall." (Ps. xviii. 30.) 
 
 F. 13, 14. Who is more proud of the arm of flesh than a hero 
 in the sense of his own strength? Not so David. He has just 
 now experienced once more that it is God who is able to exalt and 
 to abase him, and he therefore loudly declares that the help of man 
 is vain, and that the victories of heroes are gained through God 
 alone. 
 
PSALM LXI. 265 
 
 PSALM LXI. 
 
 % 
 
 A PSALM of David, sung at Mahanain, beyond Jordan on the 
 borders of Palestine, when he fled from before Absalom. (Cf. ad. 
 Psalm iii. 42.) 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm on the harp of David. 
 
 2 Hear my cry, God ; 
 Attend unto my prayer. 
 
 3 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my 
 
 heart is overwhelmed : 
 Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 
 
 4 For thou hast been a shelter for me, 
 And a strong tower from the enemy. 
 
 5 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever : 
 
 I will make my refuge in the covert' of thy wings. Selah. 
 
 6 For thou, God, hast heard my vows : 
 
 Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. 
 
 7 Thou wilt prolong the king's life : 
 And his years as many generations. 
 
 8 He shall abide before God for ever : 
 
 prepare (or, " show unto him*') mercy and truth, which 
 may preserve him. 
 
 9 So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, 
 That I may daily perform my vows. 
 
 V. 2 5. David seems to have sung this psalm in an hour when 
 his soul was more composed : it contains much trust and assurance 
 that he should reascend his throne. Remote from the sanctuary, 
 he feels himself prompted from afar to call upon his God. He 
 regards his fear as great waves, and his trust in God like a lofty 
 rock rising above them; he regards his enemies as if assailing him, 
 and his God as a tower which he can enter and abide there in 
 security. He has so frequently enjoyed happiness in the taberna- 
 cle of God that there he shelters himself, feeling as safe as a chicken 
 under the wing of the hen. (Psalm xxvii. 5; xxxi. 21.) 
 
 V. 6 9. The heritage (i. e. reward, Job xxxi. 2; cf. Wisd. 
 v. 5; Gal. iii. 18,) of those that fear the Lord is his rich mercy, 
 and if that is rich to all who call upon him, how much more so to 
 a king whose cause is a just one. Fall of this confidence, David 
 calls upon his God, he himself reminding him of his royal dignity. 
 (Psalm xviii. 51; xxi. 2; xxviii. 8, 9; Ixiii. 12.) The glorious 
 promise which he received by Nathan, the prophet, arises before 
 his soul, " And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established 
 for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever." 
 23 
 
266 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 (2 Sam. vii. 16.) This promise and the hope that he and his off- 
 spring shall for ever occupy the throne before the face of the Lord 
 yields him comfort, while he regards the faithfulness and love of 
 God as the defences to the right and to the left of his throne. He 
 promises nevermore to forget that he owes these blessings neither 
 to his own sagacity and valour nor to blind fate, but that he will 
 for ever sing praises to the name of the Lord, and that his whole 
 life shall be the payment of the vows which he made in the hour 
 of need. 
 
 PSALM LXIL 
 
 A PSALM of calm trust and exhortation, which David composed 
 when he resided at the court of Saul, and calumniating tongues 
 accused him of secret conspiracy, thereby seeking to rob him of 
 the king's confidence, and to cast him down from his elevated 
 position. 
 
 1 HpO the chief Musician of the choir of Jeduthun, A 
 J_ Psalm of David. 
 
 2 Truly my soul is silent to God: 
 From him cometh my salvation. 
 
 3 He only is my rock and my salvation ; 
 
 He is my defence : I shall not be greatly moved. 
 
 4 How long will ye press upon a man, 
 And seek to destroy him all of you : 
 
 As a bowing wall and as a tottering fence ? 
 
 5 They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: 
 They delight in lies : 
 
 They bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. 
 Selah. 
 
 6 My soul, be thou silent only to God; 
 For my hope is from him. 
 
 7 He only is my rock and my salvation : 
 He is my defence ; I shall not be moved. 
 
 8 With God is my salvation and my glory: 
 
 The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. 
 
 9 Trust in him at all times, ye people, 
 Pour out your heart before him : 
 God is a refuge for us. Selah. 
 
 10 Surely men of low degree are nothing, 
 And men of high degree are a lie : 
 To be laid in the balance, 
 They are altogether lighter than nothing. 
 
PSALM LXIII. 267 
 
 11 Trust not in wrong, 
 
 And become not vain in robbery: 
 
 If riches increase, set not your heart upon them. 
 
 12 God hath spoken once : 
 Twice have I heard this ; 
 
 THAT POWER BELONGETH UNTO GOD. 
 
 13 Also unto thee, Lord, belongeth mercy: 
 
 For thou renderest to every man according to his work. 
 
 V. 2 5. On fathoming in the process of self-examination the 
 very foundations of our soul, we sometimes comfort ourselves as it 
 were with the words, There is still a little spark of faith and trust 
 left. So David solaces and strengthens himself with the words, 
 My soul is quietly resigned to God and waits for his aid. 1 know 
 of no other help and though perchance I stumble I shall never 
 fall. I am already crushed like a tottering wall, but however much 
 you may press upon me, I shall never fall. He intimates to them, 
 that though their assaults are not done openly, he is right well 
 aware of their secret efforts to undermine his safety. 
 
 V. 6 9. He once more descends to the foundation of his soul. 
 Calmness has already ensued, yet he seeks to attain a still greater 
 peace. How great is the happiness of this inward calm. What 
 others se'ek in the creature he seeks in the Almighty. His salva- 
 tion, glory, strength, and refuge are all in God, who gives to crea- 
 tion whatever happiness, glory, strength, and refuge it can yield to 
 mortals. How great is his happiness in that calm of his soul ! He 
 invites all to pour out their heart before the Eternal One that they 
 may enjoy the same peace. 
 
 V. 10 13. Our estimate of man depends upon our estimate 
 of God. David knows that men of low and high degree, if sepa- 
 rated from the primal fount of every good, weigh nothing, and are 
 less than nothing. Riches are nothing, especially ill-gotten ones. 
 Man is not to get proud when riches increase. But such is the 
 course of things, that in proportion as the gifts of God are rich, 
 men confide more in the gifts than in the rich giver. But holy 
 David is better instructed. Once and again he has heard the 
 Divine voice in his soul, that power belongeth unto God only, (Job 
 xxxiii. 14; cf. Psalm xl. 5".) This powerful God is merciful : can 
 then any merit attach to our poor works? and yet the Lord render- 
 eth to every pious man according to his imperfect pious work. 
 
 PSALM LXIII. 
 
 A PSALM of David composed on his flight before Absalom, after 
 he had left Jerusalem, and having reached the. desert banks of 
 
268 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Jordan, was waiting for further news from the city. (2 Sam. xv. 
 23. 28; xvi. 2; xvii. 16. 29.) The place is a profound wilder- 
 ness. The wilderness of Judah, along the entire western shore of 
 the Dead Sea, had been David's refuge for years, when Saul pur- 
 sued him. Once adorned with the diadem, he may have little 
 thought that he should have to revisit that desert. But as a fugi- 
 tive king, he was obliged to seek it once more. The wilderness of 
 Judah extends to Jordan above the Dead Sea, where the territories 
 of Judan and Benjamin meet, (cf. Josh, xviii. 22, with xv. 61)* 
 it is a waste without any supply of water. In that neighbourhood 
 there remains an easy ford to the present day, and probably David 
 and his people crossed the river there. Gilgal was situate in that 
 region, and this is the place where David on his return from Maha- 
 naiin crossed Jordan. (2 Sam. xix. 15.) 
 
 1 A PSALM of David, when he was in the wilderness of 
 XL Judah. 
 
 2 God, thou art my God ; early will I seek thee : 
 My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee 
 In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is ; 
 
 3 To see thy power and thy glory, 
 
 So as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. 
 
 4 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, 
 My lips shall praise thee. 
 
 5 Thus will I bless thee while I live : 
 I will lift up my hands in thy name. 
 
 6 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness ; 
 And my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: 
 
 7 When I remember thee upon my bed 
 
 I meditate on thee in the night watches. 
 
 8 Because thou hast been my help, 
 
 Therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. 
 
 9 My soul cleaveth to thee : 
 Thy right hand upholdeth me. 
 
 10 But those that seek my soul to destroy it, 
 Shall go into the lower parts of the earth. 
 
 11 They shall fall by the sword : 
 They shall be a portion for jackals. 
 
 12 But the king shall rejoice in God; 
 
 Every one that sweareth by him shall glory: 
 
 But the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped. 
 
 * There were no signs of vegetation either along the upper coast or in 
 the valley, with the exception of a narrow strip of reeds and rushes below, 
 along either side of the basin, here and there dotted with tamarisks and a 
 species of the Arabian willow. (Robinson's Palestine, vol. ii. p. 495.) 
 
PSALM LXIII. 269 
 
 F. 2. He begins as every prayer that is to be heard ought to 
 begin ; the power of prayer consists in the knowledge that God is 
 our God. The body suffers in a dry and thirsty land; his friends 
 indeed had to furnish him with refreshments for the period of his 
 abode in the desert. (2 Sam. xvi. 2.) But the king's soul thirsts 
 more for God than bodily refreshments. His very flesh longs for 
 him. Is it not known to every prayerful man, that when God 
 refreshes the soul, he also refreshes the body ? 
 
 F. 3 5. Here is the reason of his longing for God. He 
 remembers the delightful experience of his power and glory in the 
 sanctuary. " Thus have I seen thee," i. e. so desirable, so refresh- 
 ing to body and soul. We know from other psalms, that David 
 felt most at home with God in the house of God. (Cf. ad. Psalm 
 xxvii.) 2 Sam. xv. 25, informs us that on leaving Jerusalem, the 
 hope of seeing again the tabernacle and the house of God formed 
 the pinnacle of David's desires. As life is valueless without the 
 taste of Divine mercy, David glories that his lovingkiudness is better 
 than life, and because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
 speaketh, therefore his lips shall praise him. He has known him 
 as so desirable to be possessed, that he promises to make his praise 
 the business of his life. Praying, he lifts up his hands in the name 
 of the Lord, i. e. with his heart and mind fixed on him. 
 
 F. 6, 7. How happy may the heart of man become through 
 God ! There was no other ground for the praise of David. The 
 crown torn from off his brow his own son a rebel a gloomy pre- 
 sent and an uncertain future stood before his soul round about 
 him the desert; but his heart is so satisfied that his mouth must 
 break forth in songs of praise. Such is his employment in day-time, 
 and at night, when the mouth must be silent, his heart continues 
 the praise. He thinks not to go again asleep, but continues in 
 meditation during the night watches there are three of them as 
 soon as the thought of God has once entered his soul. 
 
 F. 8, 9. Hope in his present tribulation causes him unceasingly 
 to think of God. As a bird, sheltered in the rich foliage from the 
 heat of the sun, sings its merry notes, so he celebrates his songs of 
 praise from the shadow of the wings of God. He feels as if the 
 eternal God were visibly present, upholding him with his right 
 hand, therefore his soul cleaves to him. 
 
 F. 10, 11. They who seek to destroy his life shall meet with 
 the fate they have planned for him. The sword shall consume 
 them in the war which was about to begin their bodies shall 
 remain unburied, the prey of jackals which feed on corpses. And 
 this came literally to pass. For in the battle, in the forest of 
 Ephraim, one portion of the people were consumed by the sword, 
 and another perished in the wooded rocks and abysses. (2 Sam. 
 xviii. 8.) 
 
 F. 12. The mouth of the faithless rebels is now filled with deceit 
 23* 
 
270 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 i 
 
 and lies, but it shall be stopped the king shall yet rejoice in his 
 God commend and praise those faithful subjects, who will swear 
 by no other name than that of their lawful sovereign. (Cf. Gen. 
 xlii. 15.) " The Lord reigneth 1" 
 
 PSALM LXIV. 
 
 A SONG of complaint of David, when he was at the court of Saul, 
 and calumniating and lying tongues sought his downfall. 
 
 1 rn 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 2 Hear my voice, God, in my prayer : 
 Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. 
 
 3 Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked : 
 From the throng of the workers of iniquity, 
 
 4 Who whet their tongue like a sword, 
 
 And bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter 
 words : 
 
 5 That they may shoot in secret at the godly : 
 Suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not. 
 
 6 They encourage themselves in an evil matter: 
 They commune of laying snares privily ; 
 They say, " Who shall see them?" 
 
 7 They search out iniquities; 
 
 " We are ready with diligent cunning." 
 Both the inward thought of every one of them, and the 
 heart, is deep. 
 
 8 But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; 
 Suddenly shall they be wounded. 
 
 9 So they 'shall make their own tongue to fall upon them- 
 
 selves : 
 All that see them shall laugh at them. 
 
 10 And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God ; 
 For they shall wisely consider of his doing. 
 
 11 The righteous shall be glad in the LORD and shall trust 
 
 in him ; 
 And all the upright in heart shall glory. 
 
 V. 2 5. There is no reference here to his mortal enemies, as 
 is the case in those psalms which were composed during his flight; 
 
PSALM LXV. 271 
 
 for some considerable time elapsed before the king dared to aim at 
 bis life. He simply speaks of such calumniators as laid their . 
 snares in secret, could not bear his piety ; and envied him of the 
 royal confidence. 
 
 V. 6, 7. The honest and straightforward youth is surprised at 
 the artifice with which they set their evil engines to work, for an 
 honest man pursues a straight course. "The children of this world 
 are wiser than the children of light." An honest-minded man 
 gets acquainted with the shallows of the heart by perceiving them 
 in others. With the expression of the Psalmist accord the words 
 of the prophet, " The heart is deceitful above all things, and des- 
 perately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. xvii. 9.) 
 
 F. 8, 9. The wisdom of God exceeds the utmost cunning of 
 men ; he changeth their wisdom into folly, and overturneth their 
 measure when it is filled. 
 
 F 10, 11. God does not exercise his judgments for the grati- 
 fication of our passions or revenge, but with the sublime and holy 
 design to instruct us that his hand pierces the doings of man, and 
 that the works of men, even of the ungodly, must serve him as 
 instruments for the accomplishment of his own purposes ; that the 
 righteous may ever rejoice in heart for being under the jurisdic- 
 tion of such a Lord ; and lastly, that the community of believers 
 should render to him the praises which he is worthy to receive. 
 We must, therefore, be on our guard, lest in rejoicing at the down- 
 fall of the ungodly by the hand of God, we dim the sacred flame 
 by unholy feelings. 
 
 PSALM LXV. 
 
 A SONG of praise composed in the spring, when the Lord had 
 richly blessed the land, the pastures were beginning to be clothed 
 with flocks, and the hills and valleys covered with corn. It was 
 probably sung at the passover, for a sheaf of the first fruits used to 
 be offered on the second day of the passover, after which harvest 
 commenced. Verses 2 9 are the preparation for the theme of the 
 psalm; the grace of prayer (v. 2, 3,) is followed by the confession 
 of sins (v. 4,) the expression of gratitude for spiritual delights in 
 the sanctuary (v. 5,) the recognition of Divine power and mercy 
 in nature amongst men (v. 6 8,) with the final praise of pecu- 
 liarly merciful revelations in the kingdom of nature, for which they 
 now return their thanks (v. 9 12.) 
 
272 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm and Song of David. 
 
 2 Praise is silently offered to thee, God, in Sion:* 
 And unto thee shall the vow be performed. 
 
 3 thou that hearest prayer, 
 Unto thee shall all flesh come. 
 
 4 Iniquities oppress me: 
 Our sins, cover thou them. 
 
 5 Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, 
 
 And causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in 
 
 thy courts: 
 
 We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, 
 Even of thy holy temple. 
 
 6 Hear us according to thy marvellous righteousness, 
 God of our salvation. 
 
 Who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, 
 And of them that are afar off by the sea : 
 
 7 Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains ; 
 Being girded with power. 
 
 8 Which stilleth the noise of the seas, 
 
 The noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people. 
 
 9 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at 
 
 thy tokens : 
 
 Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening 
 to rejoice. f 
 
 10 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it : 
 
 Thou greatly enrichest it with the well of God, which is 
 
 full of water : 
 Thou preparest them corn, 
 When thou hast so provided for it. 
 
 11 Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: 
 
 . Thou causest rain to enter the furrows thereof: 
 Thou makest it soft with showers : 
 Thou blessest the springing thereof. 
 
 12 Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; 
 And thy paths drop fatness. 
 
 18 They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness. 
 
 And the little hills are girded with joy. 
 14 The pastures are clothed with flocks ; 
 
 The valleys also are covered over with corn ; 
 
 They shout for joy, they also sing. 
 
 * Or, " Thou art praised with silent resignation in Sion, God." 
 f Or, " Thou makest glad all that liye in the East and in the West." 
 
PSALM LXV. 273 
 
 F. 2, 3. David names the two sacrifices of the pious, which are 
 demanded in Psalm 1., adding the important point, that the voice 
 of our own will must be silent. (Isaiah xxx. 15.) For many praise 
 God for those things which are in conformity to their own inclina- 
 tions. The reason of the scanty exhibition of praise and thanks- 
 giving, is that everything is not sufficiently received as from the 
 hand of the Lord. These spiritual sacrifices are offered in Zion. 
 Though all prayers, even those which men direct to fictitious deities, 
 are known to the true God (for which reason the Psalmist adds, 
 ^Unto thee shall all flesh come," cf. v. 6,) yet real prayer always 
 presupposes the existence of right knowledge and genuine faith. 
 Such sacrifices receives the Lord in Zion, as nowhere else on 
 earth. 
 
 V. 4, 5. Every prayer should begin with the confession that 
 our lips are unclean, for without that conviction no one is able in 
 humble reverence to realize before God the grace of being permitted 
 to pray. But it must not stop there, for the heart which groans 
 under the weight of the heavy stone called sin, cannot mount to 
 heaven. The stone must be removed, and the removal is effected 
 by grace and forgiveness. It is impossible that the voice of prayer 
 can pierce the heavens, if we cannot say with a lightened heart, 
 " My God/' The heart is constantly wavering "like a wave of the 
 sea driven with the wind and tossed," (James i. 6,) while there is 
 any doubt left that God is my God. So David desires the forgive- 
 ness of sins , before he begins to thank and praise. As a sinner 
 who has enjoyed grace, he is with the congregation alive to the 
 unmerited gift of the Lord of their being permitted to call upon 
 him in this place where rich consolation flows in such copious 
 streams. The temple and the house of God either designate the 
 tabernacle, or the place where the ark stood. (See ad. Ps. xv. on 
 the courts, cf. ad. Ps. Ixxxiv. 2.) 
 
 V. 6 9. Before expressing their gratitude for the peculiar 
 blessing which hurried them to the house of God, their mind rises 
 to the contemplation of the wonderful works of God. They dis- 
 tinctly declare that all the blessings and comforts of all the nations 
 of the earth flow from this fountain. It implies the confession that 
 the prayers of the heathen, however erroneous their ideas of God 
 may be, do after all ascend to the throne of the God of Israel. It 
 has been expressly pointed out by a prophet, that the same paternal 
 hand which brought Israel out of Egypt, did also lead and bless 
 pagan nations. (Amos ix. 7, in agreement with Ps. Ixvii. 5.) God 
 has displayed his powerful arm in nature as well as in history; he 
 has given roots to the mountains that" they move not; he stilleth 
 the noise of the waves of the sea (Ps. xlvi. 4 ; xciii. 3,) and of the 
 nations. These manifestations of the works of God scatter simul- 
 taneously fear and joy to the ends of the earth. 
 
 F. 10 ; 11. This God reveals himself as Omnipotent at the 
 
274 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 return of every spring, and uses his might for the bestowal of bless- 
 ings. He opens the flood-gates of heaven sends wholesome showers 
 from autumn, when the early rain falls, down to spring, when the 
 fruit of the field begins to bud and to spring up and needs the latter 
 rain. The wells and the channels of water which men dig, dry up, 
 but the well of God gets never exhausted though it have much land 
 to water. Thus the corn of men gets prepared. The furrows get 
 humid, the water presses them down, and genial showers soften 
 everything, and lo, the blessing of God waves in its golden beauty ! 
 V. 12 14. The goodness of God crowns the year as a diadem 
 does the brow. Men find out his goings by the blessing of his 
 paths. The pastures of the wilderness are clothed with verdant 
 richness the very hills are girded with joy and gladness. Jocund 
 flocks clothe the pastures as with a garment the corn waves in the 
 valleys so richly that the soil cannot be seen. Are these rejoicings 
 of nature to find no echo in the human heart? Yes; they vie in 
 their rejoicings, their rejoicings swell into praise and happy harvest 
 songs. 
 
 PSALM LXVI. 
 
 MANY interpreters consider v. 9 12 descriptive of the sufferings 
 in the exile at Babylon, and the psalm expressive of gratitude for 
 deliverance. It militates against this view, that v. 13 20 are 
 spoken by an individual, who ascribes that deliverance to his prayer, 
 and is able to say of himself, that he has not regarded iniquity in 
 his heart, while the nation looked at the exile as the punishment 
 of their sins. (Of. ad. Ps. xliv.; cvi. 6.) The individual who here 
 expresses the gratitude of a whole nation for their deliverance, 
 regarding it as an answer to his prayers, cannot be any other than 
 king Hezekiah, who lay in fervent prayer before the Lord when the 
 Assyrians were besieging Jerusalem, (2 Kings xix. 15,) to whom 
 the Lord sent Isaiah, saying, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, 
 That which thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of 
 Assyria I have heard/' (2 Kings xix. 20; cf. Ps. xlvi. 48.) It 
 appears from Isaiah xxxviii. 9, that Hezekiah used to compose 
 psalms. The fundamental sentiment of the Psalmist is joy and 
 joy so great that he invites all the earth to share it with him, 
 (v. 1 4.) From the wonderful works of God in the present, he 
 reverts to the imperishable deeds of God in the past, and thence 
 infers that the entire history of the world is under his almighty 
 power, (v. 5 7.) He approaches the object of his joy, and praises 
 the mighty deliverance, (v. 8 12.) But he forgets not his own 
 
PSALM LXVI. 275 
 
 gratitude, and fulfils the vows which he made in the time of need, 
 (v. 13 15.) He shows also the ground of the answer to his 
 prayers, namely, that God hears the prayers of the upright, 
 (v. 1620.) 
 
 T 
 
 the chief Musician, a Song or Psalm. 
 
 1 Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands : 
 
 2 Sing forth the honour of his name : 
 Make his praise glorious. 
 
 3 Say unto God, How terrible* are thy works ! 
 Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies 
 
 render homage unto thee. 
 
 4 All the earth shall worship thee, 
 
 And shall sing unto thee ; they shall sing to thy name. 
 Selah. 
 
 5 Come and see the works of God : 
 
 He is terrible in his doing toward the children of men. 
 
 6 He turned the sea into dry land: 
 They went through the flood on foot : 
 Thereat do we rejoice in him. 
 
 7 He ruleth by his power for ever ; 
 
 His eyes behold the nations : v 
 
 The rebellious dare not exalt themselves. Selah. 
 
 8 bless our God, ye peoples, 
 
 And make the voice of his praise to be heard : 
 
 9 Which putteth our souls into life, 
 
 And suffer eth not our feet to be moved.* 
 
 10 For thou, God, hast proved us : 
 Thou hast tried us, as silver is tried. 
 
 11 Thou broughtest us into the net ; 
 Thou laidest affliction upon our loins. 
 
 12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads ; 
 We went through fire and through water : 
 
 But thou broughtesfrus out to a place of refreshing. 
 
 13 I will go into thy house with burnt offerings ; 
 I will pay thee my vows, 
 
 14 Which my lips have uttered, 
 
 And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble. 
 151 will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the 
 
 incense of rams ; 
 I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah. 
 
 * Terrible, t. e. "So marvellous as to excite terror." 
 
276 COMMENTARY ON THE I-SALMS. 
 
 x 
 
 16 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, 
 
 And I will declare what he hath done for my soul. 
 
 17 I cried unto him with my mouth, 
 And praise lay beneath my tongue. 
 
 18 If I had regarded iniquity in my heart, 
 The LORD would not have heard me : 
 
 19 But verily God hath heard me: 
 
 He hath attended to the voice of my prayer. 
 
 20 Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, 
 Nor his mercy from me. 
 
 F. 1 4. The humiliation of proud Sennacherib, whose empire 
 extended from the interior of Asia to Egypt, before the walls of 
 Jerusalem, was an event which, as has been shown in the remarks 
 on Psalm xlvi. and xlviii., spread gladness throughout all the sur- 
 rounding countries. The Psalmist could, therefore, not without 
 E3od grounds, invite all the earth to sing praise to the name of the 
 ord. Hezekiah had supplicated God in the hour of need : " Now, 
 therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his band, that all the 
 kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou 
 only." (Isaiah xxxvii. 20.) To (rod alone they ascribe the vic- 
 tory: it was neither bow, nor spear, nor any other earthly weapon, 
 but the Lord from heaven who fought. The God who did perform 
 that miracle is the God of old the same God who led Israel with 
 dry feet out of Egypt and across Jordan. Faith regards these 
 records not as old but as new, and on that account daily experi- 
 ences them as new. When conquering hosts advance it seems as 
 if God were not noticing them; but the Psalmist comforts the 
 congregation by declaring that " his eyes behold the nations/' and 
 that " he ruleth by his power for ever/' that it may be known that 
 nobody possesses power on earth save he to whom the Lord has 
 delegated it, and that it is only to be wielded as long as he is will- 
 ing to give it. 
 
 F. 5 12. Where has the Lord manifested himself as he has 
 done before the walls of Zion? The Psalmist invites even the 
 heathen nations to join in Israel's songs of praise. He then 
 describes their tribulation. The Assyrians had partly carried 
 their fenced cities, imposed a heavy tax on the nation, and com- 
 pelled Hezekiah to empty the temple-treasury. (2 Kings xviii. 15, 
 16.) But all to no purpose. The hostile army continued in the 
 land for the space of two years; the fields could not be sowed 
 famine oppressed the nation. (Isaiah xxxvii. 30.) They were 
 obliged to listen to taunting language against the king, the people, 
 and the God of Israel. (Isaiah xxxvi. 18, 19.) Isaiah upbraided 
 Sennacherib by telling him that God had long ago resolved upon 
 that calamity by his determinate counsel : " Hast thou not heard 
 
PSALM LXVI. 277 
 
 long ago, how I have done it; and of ancient times, that I have 
 formed it? Now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be 
 to lay waste defenced cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore their 
 inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and con- 
 founded : they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, 
 as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be 
 grown up." (Isaiah xxxvii. 26, 27.) The Psalmist might indeed 
 say that he and his nation had been translated out of death into 
 life, their foot had been in the net, and their shoulders burdened; 
 that they had gone through fire and through water, (Isaiah xliii. 2; 
 Ezek. xv. 6, 7;) and that men, who knew not that human 
 power is derived from God, had haughtily ridden over their heads. 
 (Isaiah Ivii. 23; Lam. v. 5.) The bard declares also that they 
 had been cast into the crucible and tried as silver. With this 
 accords the prediction of Isaiah, "Turn ye unto him from whom 
 the children of Israel have deeply revolted. For in that day every 
 man shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which 
 your own hands have made unto you for a sin." (Isaiah xxxi. 6, 7.) 
 But " the Lord, who killeth and maketh alive, who bringeth down 
 to the grave and bringeth up," (1 Sam. ii. 6 ; ) did also bring them 
 up out of that grave. 
 
 V. 13 15. We read in 2 Kings xix. 15, that Hezekiah in 
 his need went not to man, but prayed before the Lord, saying, 
 "0 Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubim, thou 
 art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth : 
 thou hast made heaven and earth. Lord, bow down thine ear and 
 hear : open, Lord, thine eyes and see : and hear the words of Sen- 
 nacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. Of a 
 truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and 
 their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire : for they were no 
 gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone : therefore they 
 have destroyed them. Now therefore, Lord our God, I beseech 
 thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the 
 earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only." 
 Though there are found but few whose thanksgivings equal the 
 warmth of their petitions, Hezekiah at least determines not to con- 
 tinue in the debt of God, and to offer his choicest possessions upon 
 the altar of the Lord. 
 
 V. 16 20. Can he be silent who has made experience like this? 
 No, the experience of every individual pious man is the common 
 possession of all. The mouth of Hezekiah was uttering prayer, 
 when through his trust songs of praise were under his tongue. He 
 is aware that prayer must be the expression of an honest heart. In 
 supplicating the throne of God the eye must not throw side-glances 
 at earthly supports. Such prayers the Lord will hear and grant. 
 
 24 
 
278 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM LXVII. 
 
 THE hope of the conversion of the world forms the theme of this 
 psalm. 
 
 the chief Musician on the harp, A Psalm or Song. 
 
 2 God be merciful unto us and bless us ; 
 
 And cause his face to shine upon us. Selah. 
 
 3 That thy way may be known upon earth, 
 Thy salvation among all the heathen. 
 
 4 Let the people praise thee, God; 
 Let all the people praise thee. 
 
 5 let the nations be glad and sing for joy : 
 Because thou judgest the people righteously, 
 And leadest the nations upon earth. Selah. 
 
 6 Let the people praise thee, God; 
 Let all the people praise thee. 
 
 7 The earth yieldeth her increase ; 
 
 And God, even our own God, shall bless us. 
 
 8 God shall bless us ; 
 
 And all the ends of the earth shall fear him. 
 
 V. 2, 3. This is the blessing which Aaron, the high priest, 
 pronounced, in the days of hoary antiquity, upon Israel. (Numb, 
 vi. 24.) The shining countenance of God on his people is a gracious 
 one, the lustre of which refreshes the hearts, and pours blessings 
 on all the ways of the people. The blessings of God on Israel were 
 manifold: the more spiritual ones used to be spiritually understood: 
 the Psalmist, therefore, prays for the most spiritual of all blessings, 
 that the salvation of God might rise in Israel, and its lustre shine 
 upon all the nations of the earth. He remembered the Divine pro- 
 mise made to Abraham: "In thy seed shall all the nations of the 
 earth be blessed :" and in a most disinterested manner prayed for 
 his people a blessing, which simultaneously involves the salvation 
 of the world, as the Lord says, " Salvation is of (or from) the Jews/' 
 The way of the Lord, which is here referred to, is none other than 
 that of which Isaiah prophesied, saying, " And it shall come to pass 
 in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be 
 established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above 
 the hills: and all nations shall flow into it, and many people shall 
 go and say, < Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, 
 to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, 
 
PSALM LXVII. 279 
 
 and we will walk in his paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the 
 law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isa. ii. 2. 3 ; 
 cf. Ps. ex. 2.) 
 
 F. 4. Now they call upon him by many and false names, but 
 in that day there shall be one Lord and his name one. (Zech. 
 xiv. 9.) "For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that 
 they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with 
 one consent. (Zeph. iii. 9.) 
 
 F. 5. v Then shall the nations know the Lord, to whom now they 
 have built altars as to the unknown God! (Acts xvii. 28.) They 
 have already enjoyed benefits and blessings from the God of Israel: 
 but they thanked Baalim, Moloch, and Jupiter for them. Amos 
 asks, "Have I not brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? 
 and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?" 
 (Amos ix. 7,) that his own people might know that the God of 
 Israel equally determines the destinies of the heathen. The heathen 
 themselves shall know it, when their days shall have come. 
 
 F. 6. The heart of the Psalmist rejoices at the thought, that 
 the day shall come, when all the prayers and songs of praise which 
 ascend to heaven shall praise only one name. In the days of David 
 there were about five million souls in the narrow borders of Israel, 
 who did lift their hands to the living God. Now hundreds of 
 millions from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same 
 call upon his name, though the full completion of the Psalmist's 
 hope has not yet arrived. 
 
 F. 7. Many commentators interpret "the increase of the earth," 
 of the fruit of the field; but the Psalmist can only have figurativly 
 spoken of the fruit of the field in this connection. He intended to 
 designate by it the multiform spiritual and temporal blessings which 
 should then appear. Hosea prophecies in the same sense, placing 
 temporal and spiritual blessings in juxtaposition. "And it shall 
 come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear 
 the heavens, and they shall hear the earth ; and the earth shall hear 
 the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel 
 
 g. e. the Israel sown by God.) And I will sow her unto me in 
 e earth, and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained 
 mercy; and I will say to not my people, Thou art my people; and 
 they shalt say, Thou art my God." (Hos. ii. 2123.) As the 
 same prophet says elsewhere : "I will be as the dew unto Israel : he 
 shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His 
 branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and 
 his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall 
 return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the 
 memorial thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall 
 say, What have I to do any more with idols ? I have heard him 
 and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy 
 fruit found." (Hos, xiv. 69.) 
 
280 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 F. 8. Yes, the Lord shall be to Israel like a bright refreshing 
 fountain; but his blessing is the blessing of the world, and there 
 shall be channels made so that waters may stream forth unto all the 
 lands of the earth. 
 
 PSALM LXVIII. 
 
 A SUBLIME psalna to the praise of God. Its ancient origin appears 
 from the character of its language.* The authorship of David is 
 confirmed by verse 28, which represents the twelve tribes as still 
 united: after the division of the kingdom they did no more con- 
 jointly worship in the temple, and after the captivity of the tribes 
 the former kingdom could not be mentioned, since individuals only 
 did return. *} The occasion of the psalm may be conceived as a 
 gained victory, from which the ark was brought home to Zion. (Cf. 
 Introduction ad. Ps. xlvii.) 
 
 The opening verses (v. 2 7) celebrate in the words of Moses 
 the victorious power of Jehovah : verses 8 15 praise the mani- 
 festations of Divine protection and triumphant strength in the early 
 days of the nation: and (v. 16 19) Mount Zion where the Lord 
 God of Israel, having humbled his enemies, has fixed his abode, 
 mighty and glorious as once on Sinai. Verses 20 24 praise the 
 future hopes of Israel from such a God. In verses 25 28 the 
 details of the procession arrest the attention of the Psalmist; and 
 verses 29 32 stretch beyond the final victories of all the enemies 
 of the kingdom of God. Cf. ad. Psalm xlvii. Ixxvi.) The final 
 strophe (v. 33 36) exhorts all the nations of the earth to worship 
 this God. 
 
 1 rpO the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David. 
 
 2 Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered : 
 Let them also that hate him flee before him. 
 
 3 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: 
 As wax melteth before the fire, 
 
 So let the wicked perish at the presence of God. 
 
 To judge from the antiquity of its language, the concise description, 
 the thoroughly, fresh, forcible, and occasional artlessly ironical expression 
 of its poetry, we consider this poem as one of the most ancient monuments 
 of Hebrew poetry. Boettcher. 
 
 f Ps. Ix. 9. The mention of the separate tribes is a mark of the anti- 
 quity of the psalm. 
 
PSALM LXVIII. 281 
 
 4 But let the righteous be glad ; 
 Let them rejoice before God: 
 Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. 
 
 5 Sing unto God, sing praises to his name ; 
 
 Extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name 
 
 JAH.* 
 And rejoice before him. 
 
 6 A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, 
 Is God in his holy habitation. 
 
 7 God setteth the exiled into their homes, 
 He bringeth out the captives, 
 
 But causeth the rebellious to dwell in the desert. 
 
 8 God, when thou wentest forth before thy people. 
 When thou didst march through the wilderness ; Selah : 
 
 9 The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the pre- 
 
 sence of God. 
 
 That Sinai shook at the presence of God, the God of 
 Israel. 
 
 10 Thou, God, didst shake out a gracious rain, 
 Whereby thou didst refresh thine inheritance, when it 
 
 was weary. 
 
 11 Thy congregation dwelt therein: 
 
 Thou, God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the 
 poor. 
 
 12 The LORD gave the word (word of victory?) 
 
 Great was the company of those that published it, (or, 
 messengers of victory to the great army.' 7 ) 
 
 13 Kings of armies did flee apace : 
 
 And she that tarried at home divided the spoil. 
 
 14 When ye shall lie (again) among your borders (border 
 
 stones,) 
 
 Te shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, 
 And her feathers with yellow gold. 
 
 15 When the Almighty scattered kings in it, 
 It was white as snow in Salmon. 
 
 16 Ye mountains of God, ye mountains of Bashan, 
 Ye high mountains, ye mountains of Bashan, 
 
 17 Why, ye high mountains, why do ye blink 
 At the hill which God desireth to dwell in ? 
 Yea, the LORD will dwell in it for ever. 
 
 * Or, " Make way for him, who rideth through the plain, Jehovah is his 
 name, rejoice before him." 
 24* 
 
282 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 18 The chariots of God are many thousands and thousands 
 
 of angels : 
 The LORD is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place. 
 
 19 Thou hast ascended on high, 
 Thou hast led captivity captive : 
 Thou hast received gifts from men ;* 
 
 Yea, the rebellious also shall dwell with the LORD God. 
 
 20 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, 
 Even the God of our salvation. Selah.f 
 
 21 He that is our God is the God of salvation ; 
 
 And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death. J 
 
 22 But God shall wound the head of his enemies, 
 
 And the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in 
 his trespasses. 
 
 23 The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan, 
 
 I will bring t'hem again from the depths of the sea : 
 
 24 That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine ene- 
 
 mies, 
 And the tongue of thy dogs in the same. 
 
 25 They have seen thy goings, God ; 
 
 Even the goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. 
 
 26 The singers went before, the players on instruments 
 
 followed after; 
 
 Among them were the damsels playing with timbrels. 
 2T " Bless ye God in the congregations, 
 
 Even the LORD, from the fountain of Israel." 
 
 28 There is little Benjamin with their ruler, 
 The princes of Judah and their council, 
 
 The princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali. 
 
 29 Thy God hath commanded thy strength : 
 Strengthen, God, that which thou hast wrought for us. 
 
 30 Because of thy temple at Jerusalem 
 Shall kings bring presents unto thee. 
 
 31 Rebuke the beast of the reed, 
 
 The multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the people, 
 
 * Or, "In men," i. e. men themselves as gifts. 
 
 f Or, " The God who bears for us, is our help." 
 
 { Luther renders, "And the Lord God, who delivereth irom death." 
 But E. V. is more correct. Cf. Ps. xlviii. 15. 
 
 J The beast of the reeds is the lion, concealed in the reeds of Jordan, 
 (Jer. xlix. 19; 1. 44; Zech. xi. 3.) Lions and bulls denote strong nations, 
 the calves the lesser tribes. 
 
PSALM LXVIII. 283 
 
 Till every one submit himself with pieces of silver ;* 
 Scatter thou the people that delight in war. 
 
 32 Princes shall come out of Egypt ; 
 
 Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. 
 
 33 Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth) 
 sing praises unto the Lord ; Selah : 
 
 34 To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens from 
 
 everlasting : 
 Lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice.f 
 
 35 Ascribe ye strength unto God : 
 His excellency is over Israel, 
 And his strength is in the clouds. 
 
 36 God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places : 
 
 The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power 
 
 unto his people. 
 Blessed be God. 
 
 F. 2 7. The invocation, which the priests used to sing 
 (Numb. x. 35,) in the days of Moses when the ark set forward, 
 had become verified in this instance. It is indeed a theme which in 
 ever new variations is being repeated at different epochs in the his- 
 tory of the kingdom of God, until the final judgment shall absorb 
 and complete all the preceding judgments of Grod. Yerse 5 alludes 
 to the eastern custom of levelling the roads before monarchs on 
 their journeys, (Isaiah xl. 3, 4.) The ark of the Lord in the pro- 
 cession must not be lost sight of. 
 
 F. 8 15. Proofs of Divine government are adduced from the 
 history of Israel. The power and guardian care of God had 
 become evident in the miracles, (Exod. xix. 18; Lev. iv. 11; 
 Psalm cxiv. 6.) on ihat\ Sinai, in the blessings which revived the 
 fainting people during their forty years' leadings in the wilderness, 
 and finally in the victories by which the holy land became the pro- 
 perty of the people of God. The Psalmist remembers Deborah's 
 (Judges v. 4, 5,) song in verses 8, 9. Having in verse 11 referred 
 to the possession of Canaan as a proof of Divine mercy, he remem- 
 bers, as in Psalm Ixxviii. 60, etc., the attacks and humiliations 
 which the nation had to encounter in the days of the Judges, and 
 still lingering on the song of Deborah, speaks of female messengers 
 of victory for it was customary for women to sing songs of victory, 
 (Exodus xv. 20; 1 Sam. xviii. 6.) To this is added the joyful 
 
 * Cf. respecting this construction Gesen. Thes. S. V. $^ against Mau- 
 rer's objections. 
 
 f Or, "Lo ! he shall send out his thunder, the thunder of might." 
 
 J The use of *ft is peculiar to this passage, and Psalm Ixxviii. 54; 
 
 civ. 25 : it indicates a well-known subject. 
 
284 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 employment of the women, to divide the spoil for which the war- 
 riors had fought. After wearisome battles the people shall once 
 more abide within their borders, glittering in their conquered gold 
 and silver. The Psalmist next refers to Gideon's victory over the 
 Midianites, the theatre of which lay in the mountains of Ephraim 
 and the surrounding regions. * That victory is celebrated in Psalm 
 Ixxxiii. The mountain of Salmon is in that district not far from 
 Schechem, which was covered with slain as with flakes of snow.* 
 
 F. 16 19. The bard descends from the past to the present. 
 The insignificant mount Zion has attained to an honour distin- 
 guishing it above all other mountains, (Isa. ii. 2.) The God of 
 Israel fights with spiritual hosts, (2 Kings vi. 15, 16; Ps. ciii. 20; 
 Judges v. 20;) as he appeared on Sinai in days of yore, so he still 
 ruleth by his might : he has just ascended to Zion, having taken 
 captive his enemies, and received gifts and worship from men: 
 even the rebellious shall submit to him. The apostle Paul applies 
 in Eph. iv. 8 10, this passage to Christ, who ascended to heaven, 
 conquered his opponents, and gave gifts unto men. This is a simi- 
 lar adaptation of the Old Testament as that in Rom. x. 6, 7. The 
 apostle's meaning is, that the God of the Old Testament is also the 
 God of the New Testament: as there the victorious God of Israel 
 ascended on high, so here Christ carrying his own with him as 
 conquered. Paul had just said, "But unto every one of us is given 
 grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ/' and connect- 
 ing with it the citation says, "and gave gifts unto men." 
 
 F. 20 24. Trust for the future is based on the victory of the 
 present; the Lord will deliver his people from the deepest gulfs 
 though the foes of Israel lie concealed on the woody heights of 
 Bashan or the depths of the sea, (Cf. Amos ix. 3 ; ) they shall not 
 escape from the hand of the Lord. 
 
 F. 2528. The Psalmist delights in the lovely spectacle of 
 the solemn procession. The choruses of male singers come first, 
 the players on instruments next men with stringed instruments, 
 the damsels with the tambourines, which in the East to the 
 present day are carried by females. The contents of their songs of 
 praise are stated in brief: they are exhortations to the nation, which 
 since the days of the fathers, i. e. the patriarchs, is Jehovah's pos- 
 session, to make the praise of the Lord their peculiar and continu- 
 ous occupation. The tribe of David, with the heads of the two 
 northern tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, are mentioned in lieu of 
 the rest. 
 
 F. 29 32. The Lord has taken his abode on Zion and estab- 
 lished his kingdom. The divinely inspired Psalmist beholds its 
 infinitely glorious destiny, to incorporate in itself all the nations of 
 
 * The snow might probably allude to their numerous silver jewellery. 
 The spoil of jewellery of gold is mentioned in Judges ytii. 
 
PSALM LXIX. 
 
 the earth. We may gather from this passage that the declarations 
 of the prophets concerning war and victories on earth, of gold and 
 silver that shall be brought to Jerusalem, (Psalm Ixxii. 10; Isaiah 
 Ix. 6, 7,) have fundamentally a spiritual meaning, for we have also 
 in this place an immediate reference to the worship of the only true 
 God, in which the mighty Egypt and the distant Ethiopia shall 
 engage. (Psalm xlvii. 67; Zeph. iii. 10.) 
 
 F. 33 35. The Psalmist, as if anxious to demonstrate the 
 necessity of the future worship of the Lord by all the nations of the 
 earth, speaks of his primeval power in heaven, the expression of 
 which mortals hear in the voice of thunder, basing thereon a call 
 upon all the kingdoms of the earth to pay homage to the eternally 
 Almighty Lord. That homage, however glorious, is connected 
 with the acknowledgment of the dignity and destiny of Israel for 
 Israel is the theatre of his revelation the people from whom the 
 salvation of God shall flow to the rest of the nations. 
 
 PSALM LXIX. 
 
 A PLAINTIVE psalm, which must belong to the period when 
 David was still at the court of Saul, for he complains of his daily 
 acquaintances (v. 13. 21, 22;) his piety is the cause of his 
 reproach (v. 8. 10;) he complains of reproach and derision, not of 
 persecutions unto death. He refers not to the king himself, but 
 to those who persecuted and calumniated him from envy, flattery, 
 and impiousness. (Cf. 1 Sam. xxiv. 10; xxvi. 19; and ad. 
 Ps. vii.) We find in the history of David (1 Sam. xxvi. 19) 
 an invocation of Divine justice against the obdurate in heart, and 
 an imprecation on the delusion of the same parties, of whom he 
 indignantly expresses himself in verse 23, etc. 
 
 The figurative allusion to captives in verse 34, renders it proba- 
 ble that this psalm was like many others sung both during the 
 Babylonish captivity, and at the later temple-services with the 
 addition of verses 3537. (Cf. ad. Ps. xiv. 7; xxv. 22; li. 20, 21.) 
 
 The Psalmist begins his song in a profound sense of need, after 
 he had for a long time sent his prayers in vain to heaven (v. 2 4.) 
 Conscious of his innocence he has to endure bitter calumny men 
 hate in him the cause of God (v. 5 10.) The very grief of his 
 sufferings is the object of derision (v. 11 13.) He seeks for 
 strength in prayer in prayer to Him who is the secret witness of 
 his reproach and struggles (v. 14 20.) His heart is broken, he is 
 reduced to the bed of languishing, but instead of the food of sym- 
 pathy they bring him gall and vinegar (v. 21 22.) His indigna- 
 
286 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 tion arises at obduracy so profound : remembering the word of the 
 Lord, "Vengeance is mine, /will recompense/' (Deut. xxxii. 35,) 
 he is resolved, however, quietly to endure and persevere (v. 30,) 
 but invokes his vengeance of him who has declared that it 
 belongs unto him, (v. 20 29.) His song has made him more 
 calm, he looks forward to the time when to the great delight of the 
 pious he will not only offer visible sacrifices, but those which 
 above all are well-pleasing to the Lord, (Psalm 1. 23;) songs of 
 jpraise which flow from a grateful heart, (v. 30 34.) 
 
 1 rPO the chief Musician, to the tune " the lilies/ ' A Psalm 
 X of David. 
 
 2 Save me, God; 
 
 For the waters are come in unto my soul. 
 
 3 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing : 
 
 I am come into deep waters, and the floods will sweep 
 me off. 
 
 4 I am weary of my crying : my throat is dried : 
 Mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. 
 
 5 They that hate me without a cause 
 Are more than the hairs of mine head : 
 
 They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrong- 
 fully, are mighty : 
 I shall restore that which I took not away : 
 
 6 God, THOU knowest my foolishness; 
 And my sins are not hid from THEE. 
 
 7 Let not them that wait on thee, Lord GOD of hosts, 
 Be ashamed for my sake ; 
 
 Let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, 
 God of Israel. 
 
 8 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach ; 
 Shame hath covered my face. 
 
 9 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, 
 And an alien unto my mother's children. 
 
 10 For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up ; 
 
 And the reproaches of them that reproached thee are 
 fallen upon me. 
 
 11 When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, 
 That was to my reproach. 
 
 12 I made sackcloth also my garment; 
 And I became a proverb to them. 
 
 13 They that sit in the gate speak against me; 
 And I was the song of the drunkards. 
 
PSALM LXIX. 287 
 
 14 But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, LORD, in an 
 
 acceptable time : 
 
 God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the 
 truth of thy salvation. 
 
 15 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink : 
 
 Let me be delivered From them that hate me, and out of 
 the deep waters. 
 
 16 Let not the waterflood sweep me off, 
 Nor let the deep swallow me up, 
 
 And let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. 
 
 17 Hear me, LORD ; for thy lovingkindness is good : 
 Turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender 
 
 mercies. 
 
 18 And hide not thy face from thy servant ; 
 For I am in trouble ; hear me speedily. 
 
 19 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it : 
 Deliver me because of mine enemies. 
 
 20 Thou knowest my reproach, and my shame, and my dis- 
 
 honour : 
 Mine adversaries are all before thee. 
 
 21 Reproach hath broken my heart; 
 And I am full of heaviness : 
 
 And I look for some to take pity, but there is none; 
 And for comforters, but I find none. 
 
 22 They give me also gall for my meat ; 
 
 And in my thirst they give me vinegar to drink. 
 
 23 Let their table become a snare before them : 
 
 And when they think themselves in peace, let it become 
 a trap. 
 
 24 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not : 
 And make their loins continually to shake. 
 
 25 Pour out thine indignation upon them, 
 
 And let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. 
 
 26 Let their habitation be desolate ; 
 And let none dwell in their tents. 
 
 27 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten ; 
 
 And they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast 
 wounded. 
 
 28 Add punishment unto their iniquity:* 
 
 And let them not come into thy righteousness. 
 
 29 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, 
 And not be written with the righteous. 
 
 * Or render with Luther, "Let them fall from one sin into another." 
 
288 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 30 But I am poor and sorrowful : 
 
 Let thy salvation, God, set me up on high. 
 
 31 I will praise the name of God with a song, 
 And will magnify him with thanksgiving. 
 
 32 This also shall please the LOUD better than an ox 
 Or bullock that hath horns and hoofs. 
 
 33 The humble shall see this, and be glad : 
 And your heart shall live that seek God. 
 
 34 For the LORD heareth the poor, 
 And despiseth not his prisoners. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 35 Let the heaven and earth praise him, 
 
 The seas, and everything that moveth therein. 
 
 36 For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah, 
 That they may dwell there, and have it in possession. 
 
 37 The seed also of his servants shall inherit it : 
 And they that love his name shall dwell therein. 
 
 V. 2, 3. As Joseph was cast into the pit by his brothers, (Gen. 
 xxxvii. 24,) as Jeremiah was thrown into the dungeon of mire,* 
 (Jer. xxxviii. 6,) so . David regards himself as cast into a pit, in 
 the miry depth of which he is unable to find a standing, while the 
 floods threaten to sweep him away. We hear him as an old man, 
 looking back to those days from the royal throne, praise the Lord : 
 "He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of great waters." 
 (Ps. xviii. 17.) 
 
 V. 4. His piteous complaints begin not with the first stroke of 
 the chastising rod, as effeminate minds are wont to do; but the 
 hero of the battle-field, who had slain his ten thousands, is equally 
 a hero in endurance. Weeks and months had passed over his use- 
 less sorrow, his throat had got dried with crying, his eyes weak 
 with looking in vain for the arm of the Lord. A change seemed to 
 have come over the heart of Saul, but the voice of calumny rose 
 anew, and an evil spirit seized the king. The blows of the rod 
 became the blows of the club, among which he did not least feel 
 that the door of access to the Lord was shut, that he had to wait in 
 vain. He seeks comfort in God for his ineffectual waiting on God. 
 
 V. 5. By far the greater number of the courtiers and servants 
 of Saul belonged to his own tribe the tribe of Benjamin. (1 Sam. 
 xxii. 7.) They shared in all probability the sentiments of Cush 
 
 * They are cisterns for the collection of rain-water, with so narrow an 
 opening above that a stone is sufficient to shut them: the reason is to keep 
 out the drifted sand. They gradually widen below, and if not full of water 
 are full of mire. 
 
PSALM LXIX. 289 
 
 the Benjaminite, of whose envenomed speech complaint is made in 
 Psalm vii. The king went at a later period, accompanied by three 
 thousand young men, in pursuit of the fugitive. (1 Sam. xxiv. 3.) 
 As was the king, so were his servants. Innocent in heart, David 
 was perfectly at a loss to understand why the anger of the king did 
 not subside. He sought for reconciliation after the bitterest per- 
 secution, asking from the innocence of his heart, "What have I 
 done? what is mine iniquity?" (1 Sam. xx. 1.) His expression, 
 "I shall restore that which I took not away," is a proverbial form 
 of speech descriptive of all kinds of unfounded accusation. David, 
 complaining of being innocently persecuted, was far from desiring 
 to suffer as guilty. Socrates, on his wife visiting him in prison and 
 grieving at his suffering without a cause, asked her whether she 
 would rather see him suffer as guilty. So David's complaint simply 
 purports to remind God of his eternal justice, the administration 
 of which he has of his own accord pledged to man. 
 
 F. 6. It is one of the wiles of Satan that man, when persecuted 
 with innocent reproaches, gets more prone to delude himself as to 
 his real guilt. Not so David. He ignores righteousness before the 
 Lord, though he may courageously show his face to man. He may 
 therefore confidently expect that He who had so often called him- 
 self the judge of the widow and the orphan, will not suffer his 
 righteous cause to perish. 
 
 F. 7. The sufferings of a servant of God are never confined to 
 him as an individual. Whenever the Lord succours his people in 
 general, when and wheresoever it may be, it affects every individual, 
 and is to every one of them a seal of mercy while on the other 
 hand the cause of the individual is equally the cause of all the rest. 
 The Church is one body you cannot touch a toe without affecting 
 the whole body. "Whether one member suffer, all the members 
 suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice 
 with it." (1 Cor. xii. 26.) Happy is that servant of the Lord who 
 suffers not as an individual, but as a member, for the whole body 
 suffers with him, strengthening his cause in the Lord. 
 
 F. 8 10. David adduces the evidence that it was not his own 
 cause only that was at stake, for he was zealous not only for his 
 cause, but for that of his God. The sacred earnestness to which 
 he gave expression as a king in words like these, "A froward heart 
 shall depart from me : I will not know a wicked person," (Ps. ci. 4,) 
 dated not from his accession to the throne, but accompanied him 
 from his father Jesse's flock to the court of Saul. He became on 
 that account an object of derision to men like Doeg and Cush, and 
 not only to them but to his nearest kinsmen. (Cf. Ps. xxxviii. 12, 
 13.) David already had to realize the words of our Saviour, that 
 "a man's foes shall be they of his own household because of the 
 truth." He refers not to his natural brothers, for his friends did 
 25 
 
290 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 not accompany him to the residence,* but he means his friends by 
 marriage at the court of Saul, Jonathan excepted. They are called 
 brothers. (2 Sam. i. 26; Gen. xiv. 14; xxiv. 27.) The "house of 
 God" designates not only the tabernacle, but the congregation that 
 used to assemble there, that generation of the children of God of 
 which he speaks Psalm Ixxiii. 15. (Cf. Ps. xv. 1; xxiii. 6; xxvii. 
 4; Hi. 10.) We have already noticed the fulness of meaning and 
 abundance of riches which to David lay concealed in the term, 
 "The house of God." "The children of men get drunk with the 
 riches of thine house." (Psalm xxxvi. 9.) One thing have I 
 desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the 
 house of the Lord all the days of my life." (Psalm xxvii. 4.) But 
 however much his soul was kindled with love for the house of his 
 God, his zeal was that of a servant, while Christ's zeal was that of 
 the son of the house; hence the disciples of our Saviour, on behold- 
 ing his zeal for the temple, remembered that then this passage 
 met its true fulfilment. (John ii. 17.) David feels himself strong 
 and thoroughly armed in being able to identify his cause with that 
 of the Lord. But on the other hand, how great are the sufferings 
 of that man in this earth of sin and wickedness, who feels every 
 reproach which touches God, as touching himself! 
 
 V. 11 13. They who see that the honour of God is insulted 
 when their own is, weep away their life grieving and mourning. 
 But does it stand to reason, that those who have no tears for their 
 own sins should appreciate the tears shed because of the sins of 
 others ? Yes, the very persons that occasion those tears mock at 
 them. They sit at the gates where idlers assemble, (Ruth iv. 1 ; 
 Prov. xxxi. 81,) and the inns where drunkards meet, (Job xxx. 9,) 
 gossiping and singing away the conscientious scruples which the 
 sight of a man, who weeps over the sins of the race, might possibly 
 have aroused. 
 
 F. 14. While they prate and sing, the pious bard reverts to 
 prayer. Human resources are exhausted he confines himself to 
 God alone. He must wait, but he hopes earlier or later to catch 
 the moment when Divine goodness, though at present hid behind 
 the cloud, shall send forth her glorious beams. He might in prayer 
 have consoled himself with the crown promised to the believing 
 sufferer, but though all his sufferings were endured in the cause of 
 the Lord, in hoping for an answer he neither takes his stand on .his 
 sufferings nor on his works, but prays, " In the multitude of thy 
 mercy hear me" 
 
 V. 15, 16. His feet threaten to sink in the mire; the tumult 
 
 * It may also be inferred that they remained at Bethlehem, from the 
 fact that when David on his flight got to the cave Adullam, we are told that 
 his brothers came to see him. That cave was only a few miles distant from 
 Bethlehem, not far from Thekoa. (1 Sam. xxii. 1.) 
 
PSALM LXIX. 291 
 
 of his enemies comes rolling like a mighty flood of waters. He 
 deprecates the extremity of woe. Those cisterns have a narrow 
 mouth, which if shut, bring painful and bitter death to the unhappy 
 prisoner who is confined in them. So David prays that the one 
 vista of the bright heavens above might not be stopped, that the pit 
 might not shut its mouth over him. 
 
 F. 17 19. His prayer gains in intensity: his consolation flows 
 from the unchangeable attributes of God, which are now as they 
 were then, the fount of comfort to the pious, of which, however, 
 we Christians only have received the true pledge. His hope is not 
 based on his works, nor his sufferings, but on the mercy and lov- 
 ingkindness of the Lord. Let him in his great trouble only behold 
 the face of the Lord, and he is happy to know that He is nigh, and 
 he is comforted. 
 
 V. 20. His anxiety only makes him say that his God does not 
 see him. David knows that when the eye of man is averted from 
 the humbled, and has no delight in him, then the eye of God 
 fixedly rests upon him, and that there is on earth no spectacle more 
 glorious to the Lord, than that which exhibits the perseverance of 
 his saints under the cross. When the pious cannot see the Divine 
 countenance radiant with mercy, their distress and anxiety makes 
 them say that God has veiled his countenance and retired from 
 earth into heaven. "Thou knowest my reproach, my shame, and 
 my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee." Thus he 
 exclaims. It is one of our most potent consolations that the earthly 
 struggles of the pious are as it were performed on a stage, while 
 the Eternal with his angels and the host of perfected saints are the 
 spectators. 
 
 V. 21, 22. As elsewhere in the case of David, (cf. ad. Ps. vi.) 
 so here spiritual conflict had affected his physical frame. The 
 reproach which had broken his heart, also crushed his body. The 
 ungodly cannot sympathize with the spiritual sufferings of the ser- 
 vants of God, because they^are not familiar with them, but they 
 are able to perceive and sympathize with bodily sufferings. The 
 humiliated man hoped to find in them this kind of sympathy. But 
 they give him gall for meat and bitter for drink. This is a figura- 
 tive, not a literal expression. (Cf. Jer. ix. 14; xxiii. 15.) The 
 experience of David as an imperfect saint, in an imperfect and 
 figurative sense, became literally fulfilled in Christ, the perfectly 
 holy one. (Matt, xxvii. 34.) 
 
 V. 23 27. Patient endurance in the heat of tribulation, and 
 the forgiveness of our neighbour's offences, are our duties, while it 
 is the office of God to distribute justice among the obdurate. The 
 deeply humiliated man had abandoned all hope that the hard hearts 
 of his adversaries would ever relent. He therefore invokes the 
 Divine justice to cause the mischief which they had prepared for 
 others to fall upon their own head. They were singing at the 
 
292 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 carousing table while the servant of God fasted and wept : so shall 
 the table of their delight, where they were sure of peace, become 
 their snare. They had abused their eyes to make them run through 
 the land for the destruction of the saints of God : so their eyes 
 shall be darkened. They had abused their strength to strike down 
 the godly : so they shall tremble for fear, that their loins shake. 
 (Nahum ii. 10; Isa. xxi. 3.) They had felt themselves secure in 
 their palaces, (Ps. xlix. 12:) so their houses shall become desolate. 
 For the hand of God had smitten the pious ; but they delighted in 
 it, and boasted as their doings what God had brought about. 
 
 V. 28, 29. It is the curse of sin to beget new sin: so the 
 poisonous root in them shall display all its fibres, but the justifica- 
 tion of God remain to the honest in heart, unto whom it is pro- 
 mised. Sin is remitted only where it is acknowledged, but where 
 it is denied it will be punished. Those who carry death in their 
 heart, so that the mouldering odour issues from their mouths, shall 
 find no place in the book of the living! 
 
 V. 30 34. When God shall arise, who has said that he 
 "resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble ;" and "for 
 the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will 
 I arise," (Ps. xii. 6,) and verify his word this time : then will the 
 sufferer bring his offerings not such as others bring not the gifts 
 which are offered with hands, but those which are offered with the 
 heart, a song of praise and thanksgiving out of a full heart. Then 
 shall not only his own cause be triumphant, but there shall be a 
 universal triumph of the congregation of the children of God. 
 Men are most prone to favour the mighty and the rich. God 
 adopts a divine method; and he whose throne is in the heaven of 
 heavens chiefly delights in those who are poor and of a contrite 
 spirit, and tremble at his word. (Isa. Ixvi. 2; Ps. cxlvii. 10, 11.) 
 The term " prisoner" should be interpreted of every kind of afflic- 
 tion. (Lam. iii. 34; cf. Ps. Ixviii. 7, and ad. Ps. xiv. 7; Ixxix. 11.) 
 
 V. 35 37. When Israel was in the furnace of tribulation, 
 they applied to their hearts this prayer of David. They were then 
 poor and imprisoned; they prayed in the words of David, and like 
 David were heard. Hence this addition to the prayer of David 
 which was probably sung by a chorus. 
 
 PSALM LXX. 
 
 THIS is a portion of Psalm xl. (v. 14 18,) which probably used 
 to be prayed by itself in the time of the Babylonish captivity. 
 
PSALM LXXI. 293 
 
 PSALM LXXI. 
 
 A DIGNITARY (v. 21) rich in eventful experience (v. 7) supplicates 
 in old age, (v. 9. 17,) and after a season in which the whole nation 
 had experienced many and great troubles, (v. 20,) the Lord to pro- 
 tect him by his mighty hand, since impious enemies aim even at his 
 life, (v. 10, 11.) The mild and amiable language of an .old man, 
 who is resigned to and happy in G-od, pervades this psalm. After 
 a short sigh (v. 1 3) he recollects as motives for confidence, his 
 many wonderful deliverances and experiences from his earliest 
 childhood, (v. 4 8,) his helpless old age, (v. 9,) and the wicked 
 arrogance of his enemies, (v. 10, 11.) He will not abandon hope, 
 but trust continually, hoping to be preserved to be enabled to pub- 
 lish to his children and grandchildren the strength and power of 
 the Lord, (v. 14 19.) He has shared the humiliation of his 
 nation, but trusts to share their elevation, and to see the return of 
 former days of greatness, (v. 20, 21.) He abandons himself to the 
 confident expectation to still glorify his Lord in songs and with the 
 psaltery, (v. 2224.) 
 
 1 TN thee, LORD, do I put my trust: 
 JL Let me never be put to confusion. 
 
 2 Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape : 
 Incline thine ear unto me, and save me. 
 
 3 Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may con- 
 
 tinually resort: 
 
 Thou hast promised to save me ; 
 For thou art my rock and my fortress. 
 
 4 Deliver me, my God, out of the hand of the wicked, 
 Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. 
 
 5 For thou art my hope, LORD GOD : 
 Thou art my trust from my youtE. 
 
 6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb : 
 Thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels r* 
 My praise shall be continually of thee. 
 
 7 I am as a wonder unto many ; 
 For thou art my strong refuge. 
 
 8 Let my mouth be filled with thy praise, 
 And with thy honour all the day. 
 
 9 Cast me not off in the time of old age ; 
 Forsake me not when my strength faileth. 
 
 * Or, "Thou art my benefactor from my mother's womb." 
 25* 
 
294 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS." 
 
 10 For mine enemies speak against me; 
 
 And they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, 
 
 11 Saying, "God hath forsaken him: 
 
 Persecute and take him ; for there is none to deliver him.' 9 
 
 12 God, be not far from me : 
 
 my God, make haste for my help. 
 
 13 Let them be confounded and consumed 
 That are adversaries to my soul; 
 
 Let them be covered with reproach and dishonour 
 That seek my hurt. 
 
 14 But I will hope continually, 
 
 And will yet praise thee more and more. 
 
 15 My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness 
 And thy salvation all the day ; 
 
 For I know not the numbers thereof. 
 
 16 I will go in the strength of the LORD GOD ;* 
 
 1 will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. 
 
 17 God, thou hast taught me from my youth : 
 And hitherto have declared thy wondrous works. 
 
 18 Now also when I am old and greyheaded, 
 God, forsake me not; 
 
 Until I have showed thy strength unto this generation, 
 And thy power to every one that is to come. 
 
 19 Thy righteousness also, God, is very high, 
 
 Who hast done great things : God, who is like unto thee ! 
 
 20 Thou, which hast showed us great and sore troubles, 
 'Shalt quicken us again, 
 
 And shalt bring us up again from the depths of the earth. 
 
 21 Thou shalt increase my greatness, 
 And comfort me on every side. 
 
 22 I will also praise thee with the psaltery, 
 Even thy faithfulness, my God : 
 Unto thee will I sing with the harp, 
 
 thou Holy One of Israel. 
 
 23 My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; 
 And my soul which thou hast redeemed. 
 
 24 My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the 
 
 day long : 
 
 For they are confounded, for they are brought unto 
 shame, that seek my hurt. 
 
 * Or, "I come before the Lord with the praise of his power." 
 
PSALM LXXI. 295 
 
 V. 1 3. The old map, cast down by the visitations of Divine 
 providence, appears before his God. He is supported by the pro- 
 mise of the Lord, that those who trust in him shall never be put to 
 confusion, and his faith, confirmed by the experience of his whole 
 life, that the Lord is indeed a rock and a fortress. 
 
 V. 4 8. He has a solid foundation the experience of a long 
 life. He has clung to faith and hope throughout the entire period 
 of his existence even from his youth, where lightsomeness presents 
 so powerful an obstacle to their exertion. His experience is of an 
 extraordinary kind he is as a wonder unto many, and the excellence 
 of his experience arises from having sought in the Lord his only 
 refuge. He did not like most men recognize the hand of God only 
 when in an extraordinary manner it became manifest in life; but his 
 eye of faith regards the ordinary works of God as miracles. The 
 translation from his mother's womb to the light of day is to him an 
 object of praise. (Ps. xxii. 10, 11.) And really is not the preserva- 
 tion of the embryo in its narrow confines a miracle ? is it not a pledge 
 simultaneous with man's growing into being", of our after experience 
 in life, that we have a God " who bringeth us out of death to light 1" 
 (Psalm Ixviii. 21.) Is not the reason of our finding so little to praise 
 to be sought in our having no eyes for his daily miracles? The 
 Psalmist has eyes for the daily miracles of the Lord and therefore 
 his mouth is daily full of the praise of the Lord. 
 
 F. 9 13. If God did help in the time of our youth and man- 
 hood, when our own strength aided us to overcome many difficulties, 
 how much more will his strength deliver us when ours is gone. 
 Especially when the wicked challenge his mighty arm. For God 
 will never suffer it to be said that he forsakes those who all their 
 life long have not forsaken him. 
 
 F. 14, 15. But whatever may happen, the Psalmist will not 
 cease to persevere even in the night of tribulation. "Though unable 
 to proclaim the salvation of God as the result of actual present expe- 
 rience, he does it by faith and hope. He is sure that the con- 
 tinuous flow of his most ardent praise is always greatly surpassed 
 by his salvation. 
 
 F. 16. Weak in himself, his faith assures him of strength 
 through the strength of the Lord God. And as those who wait 
 upon the Lord shall renew their strength and mount up with wings 
 as eagles, so the old man is seen walking in that strength which 
 comes from above. The praise which youth bestows on earthly 
 goods, because still unacquainted with their insufficiency, lies far 
 behind him. The praise which manhood in the proud conscious- 
 ness of its own strength bestows on the strength of man, he has 
 seen turned to shame. Of all things which men are wont to praise 
 in old age, one only is left, as praiseworthy the righteousness and 
 
296 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 goodness of the Lord* This is the proper employment of old age 
 the supports of earth must diminish in our estimate in the measure 
 as we recede from them. 
 
 Y. 17 19. He regards it as the chief concern of his life to 
 
 proclaim the wondrous works of God : if spared any longer on earth, 
 that shall be the end of his life. Are there better preachers of the 
 works of God to be found than hoary parents in the circle of their 
 children, or grandparents in that of their grandchildren? 
 
 7. 20, 21. The public sufferings of the nation seem to have 
 brought low into the dust his greatness; but he hopes to share the 
 elevation of his people. 
 
 F. 22 24. We think it a lovely sight to see an old man spend 
 his days in singing the praise of God with trembling lips to the 
 notes of the harp. And there is no more beauteous sight to God 
 and the notes of that harp sound up to the highest heavens. Faith 
 did inspire the pious old man with his confidence; his future songs 
 of praise become therefore the foundation of his hope. 
 
 PSALM LXXIL 
 
 AN easy and lively flowing song, which contains a prayer for the 
 righteous and merciful protection of a king and the blessing of his 
 people, for his acknowledgment by the whole world and the eternal 
 duration of his kingdom. As the psalm refers to the future, ife 
 must either have been composed at an earthly monarch's accession 
 to the throne or apply to a future king; but the promises here made 
 are by far too lofty and great to be even in the flight of poetic ima- 
 gination applicable to a king. A poet speaks, indeed, in Psalm 
 Ixxxix. 37, 38, of David in terms similar to v. 5 and 17; but while 
 there eternal duration and government are promised to the posterity 
 of David, eternal dominion and the homage of the heathen are pro- 
 mised here to the king himself. Again, in Psalm Ixxxiv. 26, a 
 kingdom is promised to David from the Mediterranean Sea to 
 Euphrates, which he really obtained. The king in this psalm, how- 
 ever, shall reign from the river to the ends of the earth, (Zech. ix. 
 10; Micah v. 3,) language perfectly analogous to the expressions 
 of the prophets respecting Messiah. There is, indeed, a great 
 probability that Zechariah the prophet had the present prediction 
 before him. As, moreover, the title ascribes this psalm to Solomon, 
 
 * The word "righteousness" always equals in the Psalms "integrity," 
 and is therefore^equivalent to "faithfulness and lenity." Cf. ad. Psalm 
 v. 9. 
 
PSALM LXXII. 297 
 
 it cannot apply to any other king than Him whom Solomon acknow- 
 ledges as his superior, and whom David called "his Lord/' (Ps. 
 ex. 1.)* 
 
 The theme of the first half of this beautiful psalm is taken up 
 and completed in the second. V. 1 4 celebrate the righteousness, 
 v. 5 11 the fulness of blessing and glory of the king; v. 12 14 
 repeat the praise of the righteousness and mercy, and v. 15 17 
 of the blessing and glory of his government. 
 
 A 
 
 PSALM of Solomon. 
 
 1 Give the king thy judgments, God, 
 And thy righteousness unto the king's son. 
 
 2 That he may judge the people with righteousness, 
 And thy poor with judgment. 
 
 3 Let the mountains bring peace to the people, 
 And the little hills, by righteousness. 
 
 4 He shall judge the poor of the people, 
 He shall save the children of the needy, 
 And shall break in pieces the oppressor. 
 
 5 They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, 
 Throughout all generations. 
 
 6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: 
 As showers that water the earth. 
 
 7 In his days shall the righteous flourish; 
 
 And abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. 
 
 8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, 
 And from the river unto the ends of the earth. 
 
 9 They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him ; 
 And his enemies shall lick the dust. 
 
 10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents : 
 The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. 
 
 11 Yea, all kings shall fall down before him : 
 All nations shall serve him. 
 
 12 For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; 
 The poor also, and him that hath no helper. 
 
 13 He shall spare the poor and needy, 
 And shall save the souls of the needy. 
 
 14 He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: 
 And precious shall their blood be in his sight. 
 
 * The Ixx. renders the ^ of the title, "Concerning Solomon," but they 
 
 do it in violation of the renderings of all the other titles. This psalm is 
 referred to Messiah by Rosenmuller, Hengstenberg, Umbreit, KOster. 
 
298 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 15 And they shall live, and to him shall be given of the 
 
 gold of Sheba : 
 
 Prayer also shall be made for him continually ; 
 And daily shall he be praised. 
 
 16 There shall be an abundance of corn in the earth up to 
 
 the top of the mountains : 
 The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon : 
 And they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth. 
 
 17 His name shall endure for ever : 
 
 His name shall be continued as long as the sun : 
 And men shall be blessed in him : 
 All nations shall call him blessed. 
 
 18 Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, 
 Who only doeth wondrous things. 
 
 19 And blessed be his glorious name for ever : 
 
 And let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, 
 and Amen. 
 
 20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended. 
 
 F. 1 4. The glory of the Almighty, whom Israel praises, be- 
 cause "he executeth judgment and righteousness in Jacob/' 
 (Psalm xcix. 4,) refers to him who is his visible representative on 
 earth. So Isaiah says of Messiah, that he shall order and establish 
 his kingdom with judgment and with justice from henceforth even 
 for ever, (Isa. ix. 7;) and that "with righteousness shall he judge 
 the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth/' 
 (Isa. xi. 4.) As the Eternal sways the sceptre of righteousness 
 for the best of his oppressed followers on earth, so he has instituted 
 his Anointed One to conquer the earth for the meek. (Matt. v. 5.) 
 The people referred to in v. 2 11 are none other than the true 
 people and Israel of God, (see ad. Psalm xiv. 4; Ixxiii. 1;) the 
 peace and salvation of that people shall spring up in so rich a pro- 
 fusion, that they shall reach from the valleys to the high moun- 
 tains, and be seen from every quarter. 
 
 F. 5 8. The Psalmist now addresses in lively measures the 
 king himself, announcing to him the endless duration of his govern- 
 ment. Christian knowledge and indeed the sublime anticipations 
 of the prophets (Isa. Ix. 19, 20) regard the present form of the 
 earth and the skies with their starry hosts as transient, but the 
 Psalmist expresses the common view, which apprehends the glori- 
 ous stars as, of greater duration than the earth. (Psalm Ixxxix. 37.) 
 As mild rain upon the mown grass, so shall the earth prosper and 
 flourish, when he shall open the flood-gates of his blessing even 
 that earth which shall be inhabited by none but the generation of 
 the righteous. The extension of Israel had been promised to 
 
PSALM LXXIII. 299 
 
 reach from Euphrates to the Mediterranean, (Dent. xi. 24; cf. 
 Gen. xv. 18,) nor did David's kingdom extend any further, 
 (Psalm Ixxxix. 26;) but these borders expand before the prophet's 
 vision, "He shall have dominion from sea to sea/' i. e. to the 
 Indian main. (Amos viii. 12.) Yerse 11 prohibits the narrowing 
 of these frontiers. 
 
 V. 9 11. The most uncivilized, the most distant, and most 
 opulent nations shall pay their homage to Him; the barbarous 
 inhabitants of the desert, the remote Isles of the west, and the 
 kings of rich Arabia (Sheba) and Ethiopia (Seba) shall lick the 
 dust of his feet, i. e. they shall lie prostrate in the attitude of 
 adoring homage, and give an effective expression of their homage 
 by the multitude of their gifts, as Isaiah has declared it in sublime 
 measures. (Isa. Ix. 6 9; Psalm Ixviii. 30; xcvi. 7, 8; Ixxvi. 12.) 
 
 V. 12 14. The whole world shall acknowledge that he is a king 
 of perfect righteousness, a Saviour of the poor and needy. (Cf. 
 Ps. cxvi. 15, and ad. verse 14.) 
 
 F. 15 17. The plenitude of the blessings he shall bring, lies 
 condensed in the term, "They shall live." They shall offer the 
 choicest gifts. It will be their everlasting and blessed occupation 
 to praise and pray for him before God. (Rev. v. 8 10.) It has 
 been asked how the poor and needy could offer gifts of the gold of 
 Arabia to their king. On the one hand verse 10 cannot be under- 
 stood literally, but refers to the spiritual gifts, in the same way as 
 Isa. Ix. 17 cannot be literally explained: on the other hand be it 
 observed that the poor and needy shall be redeemed and enriched 
 by this king : they belong to the righteous, who according to verse 
 7, shall flourish, and for whom according to verse 16, the earth 
 shall unfold her riches. The fulness of temporal and spiritual 
 blessings in the completed kingdom of God is described in figures 
 similar to those which we have noticed in Psalm Ixvii. 7. So is 
 the fulness of the land, for it shall shake there as on the heights of 
 Lebanon, and the fulness of the cities, in which numerous inhabi- 
 tants shall stream like a river. (Mich. ii. 12.) Then shall the 
 ancient blessing of Abraham (Gen. xxii. 18; xxvi. 4) be fulfilled, 
 for in this descendant of Abraham shall all the families of the 
 earth be blessed, and him shall they praise. 
 
 V. 18 20 contain a praise, which announces the end of the 
 second book of the Psalms. 
 
 PSALM LXXIII. 
 
 A PSALM of comfort at the prosperity of the wicked, like Psalms 
 xxxvii. xxxix. xlix. 
 
 The chain of thoughts which are named at the beginning had 
 
300 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 been long before the Psalmist's mind: the sufferings of the godly, 
 and the undisturbed prosperity of the wicked who regard neither 
 heaven nor earth, the temptation to which the godly are exposed, 
 when God seems to be unfaithful to his promises, (v. 2 14.) 
 Appearances spoke as it were with conquering force, but if the 
 Psalmist had believed in them, he would virtually have denied that 
 which he esteemed far more precious and certain than any appear- 
 ances he would have become a traitor to the generation of the 
 children of his God, (v. 15.) He went into the sanctuary of his 
 soul to seek the solution of the enigma with Him who knows how 
 to solve any and every enigma of life, (v. 17.) In the light of this 
 revelation he sees how foolish and ignorant he had been in having 
 given scope to those doubts. "The shadow image of the pros- 
 perity of the wicked is gone when they awake. But thou guidest 
 me here below by thy right hand, and will ultimately receive me to 
 glory." Thus spake God in the sanctuary of his soul. The Psalm- 
 ist as if awaking from his deep meditation, (Psalm cxxxix. 18,) 
 and saving himself from the multitude of his thoughts, (Psalm 
 xciv. 10,) sets the result of all his struggles at the head of his 
 song. "Yet God is good to Israel." The storm being overpast, 
 the calm which ensued in his soul was the brighter. He praises 
 God with a strength and intensity hardly equalled in any monu- 
 ment of antiquity, as that good which far excels all others, (v. 25 
 28.)* 
 
 A PSALM of Asaph. 
 
 1 YET GOD is GOOD TO ISRAEL, 
 
 EVEN TO SUCH AS ARE or A CLEAN HEART. 
 
 2 But as for me my feet were almost gone ; 
 My steps had well nigh slipped. 
 
 3 For I was envious at the foolish, 
 
 When I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 
 
 4 For they have no pains till their death : 
 But their strength is firm. 
 
 5 They are not in trouble as other men; 
 Neither are they plagued like other men; 
 
 * How beautiful is this psalm. A brief maxim, the result of many medi- 
 tations, begins and ends the poem. He reverts in a quick and unobserved 
 manner to his position, describes his error, and having set this picture in 
 the fullest light, changes the song. He is ushered into the council of des- 
 tinies, and regards himself as a brute in his former judgments. New vows 
 to God, as yet proportioned to the former figure of doubt, rise to the warmest 
 sentiment, till another maxim concludes the song, A beautiful psalm of 
 instruction as to matter and arrangement. Herder. 
 
PSALM LXXIII. 301 
 
 6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a. chain: 
 Violence covereth them as a garment. 
 
 7 Their eyes stand out with fatness : 
 The thoughts of their hearts transgress. 
 
 8 They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppres- 
 
 sion. 
 They speak loftily. 
 
 9 They set their mouth against the heavens, 
 And their tongue walketh through the earth. 
 
 10 Therefore his people return hither: 
 
 And waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. 
 
 11 And they say, "How doth God know? 
 And is their knowledge in the Most High? 
 
 12 Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world : 
 They increase in riches. 
 
 13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, 
 And washed my hands in innocency. 
 
 14 For all the day long have I been plagued, 
 And chastened every morning." 
 
 15 If I had said, I will speak like they, 
 
 Behold, I should have been a traitor to the generation of 
 thy children. 
 
 16 When I thought to know this, 
 It was too painful for me ; 
 
 17 Until I went into the sanctuary of God ; 
 And took note of their end. 
 
 18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; 
 Thou castedst them down into destruction. 
 
 19 How they are brought into desolation, as in a moment ! 
 They are utterly consumed with terrors. 
 
 20 As a dream when one awaketh; 
 
 So, Lord, when they awake, thou shalt despise their 
 image.* 
 
 21 Thus my heart was grieved, 
 And I was pricked in my reins. 
 
 22 So foolish was I and ignorant : 
 I was as a beast before thee. 
 
 23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee. 
 Thou hast holden me by my right hand. 
 
 24 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel^ 
 And afterward receive me to glory. 
 
 * Or, "When thou wakest them." 
 26 
 
302 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 25 Whom have I heaven but thee f 
 
 And there is none upon earth that I desire but thee. 
 
 26 My flesh and my heart faileth : 
 
 But God is the strength of my heart, and my portion 
 for ever. 
 
 27 For, lo, they that are from thee shall perish : 
 
 Thou shalt destroy all them that go a whoring from thee. 
 
 28 But it is good for me to draw near to God : 
 I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, 
 That I may declare all thy works. 
 
 V. 1. We all confess to the indubitable article of faith, that 
 God governs the world. How different would our perseverance in 
 affliction be were we indubitably to believe it. But affliction is 
 generally accompanied by dejection, dejection issues in doubt, 
 doubt gives rise to mental conflict; the struggle gets intense, but 
 the multitude of the heavy and gloomy thoughts of the heart must 
 ultimately yield the bright and subnme result to which Asaph 
 gives expression, "Yet God is good unto Israel!" Is it possible 
 that a mind so intimately united with God as that which speaks 
 in verses 25, 26. 28, should ever murmur against him? Let every 
 man become a liar, that God be true. (Rom. iii. 4.) It should be 
 noticed that the Old Testament saints distinguished, like Paul, 
 (Rom. ix. 6; Gal. vi. 16; cf. ad. Psalm cxxv. 5; cxxviii. 6; also 
 ad. Ps. xxiv. 6; xxv. 22,) between Israel after the flesh and Israel 
 after the spirit. Tlie Israel of whom the Psalmist speaks are such 
 as are of a clean heart. 
 
 V. 2 5. On measuring the prosperity of men by their outward 
 successes, we shall find that just those who disregard justice and 
 the laws of God are, if not always, yet very often, in prosperous 
 circumstances, and the haughty show which they make of their 
 wealth is the touch-stone on which the faith of the godly is to be 
 tried. The distributive justice of God was in days of old as it is 
 -. now, visible in the history of a nation as a whole, but not always 
 in the life of individuals. The outward prosperity of the ungodly 
 ought never to be a stumbling-block to those who, in their commu- 
 nion with God, have tasted that there is nothing on earth or in 
 heaven which can exceed the possession of himself. Not even in 
 those rare instances, when having stifled the scruples of conscience 
 as well as the appetite of their hearts for something better, the 
 ungodly deem themselves happy in their own opinion. They are 
 acquainted only with what they have, not with what they are 
 deprived of. But he who knows what they are deprived of cannot 
 well envy them. In the measure as we are envious, we lack com- 
 munion with God in our hearts. For where that exists in power, 
 who would exchange it for the prosperity of a thousand worlds? 
 
PSALM LXXIII. 303 
 
 F. 6 9. Pride and violence are sure to arise when the chil- 
 dren of the world have become secure in their prosperity, for they 
 only know themselves as the masters of their happiness. Pride 
 becomes their ornament, (Prov. i. 9,) and oppression, like a gar- 
 ment, accompanies them everywhere. Their faces express volup- 
 tuousness; the images of their heart " overpass the deeds of the 
 wicked/' (Jer. v. 27, 28.) Their words are the words of reproach, 
 their works the works of oppression : there is nothing in heaven and 
 nothing on earth which they do not consider as under their control. 
 Is it likely that they who trace not their own strength back to God 
 should be afraid of his strength, and that they who are not afraid 
 of the strength of God should fear right and law on earth ? 
 
 F. 10 14. Temptations of that kind may, however, though 
 transiently only, cause the elect of God to hesitate. Though doubt 
 strike no roots in the heart, who can prohibit the thoughts which 
 pass through the unguarded mind ? We hear even a man like 
 Jeremiah raise a doubting complaint to Heaven in the hour of temp- 
 tation. " Righteous art thou, Lord, when I plead with thee : yet let 
 me reason the case with thee : wherefore doth the way of the wicked 
 prosper? Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacher- 
 ously? Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they 
 grow, yea, they bring forth fruit; thou art near in their mouth and 
 far from their reins. But thou, O Lord, knowest me : thou hast 
 seen me and tried my heart toward thee." (Jer. xii. 1 3.) It 
 was the experience of Asaph that the people of God had joined the 
 band of the wicked that they might drink in abundance. To drink 
 water denotes plentiful enjoyment. (Prov. v. 15.) The heart of 
 man undeniably expects at the hands of God a difference between 
 the righteous and the unrighteous; else it cannot believe in God. 
 If now the pious leave out of sight that the march of Divine jus- 
 tice on earth is often very gentle indeed so gentle that human 
 ears can hardly hear it: that here below is the time of long-suffer- 
 ing, which through goodness leadeth to repentance, but that on 
 that account the day of wrath shall in no way fail to come, (Rom. 
 ii. 4, 5 :) if the pious forget these things they are liable to gloomy 
 doubts as to the existence of a God, who beholds and delights in 
 those who have pure hands and hearts : such doubts are generally 
 followed by murmuring, judging, and chiding with the Governor 
 of the world. 
 
 F. 15 17. The tempter approached Asaph, and tried to infuse 
 such thoughts into, his mind, but he knew the meaning of the 
 sweet word of being a child of God. To become a traitor to the 
 generation of his children is to him the most terrible of thoughts. 
 The enjoyments and experiences of those who belong to that gene- 
 ration are realities which bid defiance to all appearance, and keep 
 the heart fixed on God, even when the thoughts begin to roam and 
 the mouth to wander. He found it a hard conflict : he had thought 
 
304 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 and wrestled. This caused him to descend to that deep where all 
 the riddles of life are solved : at the deepest foundation of his heart 
 was the sanctuary of his communion with God. He forced entrance 
 into that, and was commanded to look at the end. 
 
 Y, 18 20. However firmly established in their own eyes, the 
 soil beneath them is slippery. When we open our eyes at day- 
 break the dream of the night is vanished : so on their awaking shall 
 their shadow-happiness vanish. When our faith shall become 
 vision, then their dreams shall be like foam. 
 
 V. 21, 22. How foolish do grief and envy at so unsubstantial a 
 prosperity appear in the light of this reply ! 
 
 F. 23, 24. Concerning himself he has on the contrary heard 
 an oracular declaration, which is an ample equivalent for every 
 and anything. The path of the godly may be slippery and rough, 
 but an invisible hand will hold their right hand, guide them with 
 a wise counsel, and ultimately, after shame and wretchedness, lead 
 them in honour and glory to that place, where they shall be 
 received by Him who was their highest good on earth. 
 
 F. 25, 26. Ought not man, after such a revelation, to collect 
 all the love which hitherto was attached to the creature, and give 
 it to him who is able to fill the void x>f hearts throughout eternity ? 
 After such a solution of his enigmas, the flames of Asaph v s love to 
 God begin to burn so brightly in his heart, that they absorb every 
 other. He has felt anew, perhaps, more than ever, the riches of 
 his possession in his God he declares it in jubilant language, which 
 reminds one of the Apostle's triumphant exclamation. (Rom. 
 viii. 33 38.) The blessing of the nocturnal hours of doubt in the 
 case of God's chosen people becomes manifest in this, that when 
 the multitude of their thoughts have, like a huge heap of ashes, 
 covered the flame of their love to God and almost extinguished it, 
 the moment will arrive when faith shall blow away the heap of 
 ashes, and the flame ascend with irresistible force to heaven. A 
 man, so intimately united with God, as Asaph here expresses it, 
 cannot but by his union get refreshed in body and mind; yet while 
 he with the clearest consciousness connects the possession of every 
 bodily and spiritual good with his highest possession, he feels con- 
 strained to furnish the testimony, that whatever may be called goods 
 is as nothing to him beside God. 
 
 F. 27, 28. They who know no other life than that of this earth 
 shall perish and go into eternal death, when the shadow which they 
 regarded as the substance shall have ceased. But they who had 
 that life and that joy which are imperishable in death, shall con- 
 tinue, and the declaration of his works shall be their occupation 
 for ever and ever. 
 
PSALM LXXIV. 305 
 
 PSALM LXXIV, 
 
 A PSALM, composed after the devastation of the kingdom of 
 Judah (B. c. 588) by the Chaldeans, and the spoiling and burn- 
 ing of the Temple. Many interpreters, both ancient and modern, 
 have thought that the psalm refers to the profanation and spoiling 
 of the Temple which Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, brought 
 on Israel (B. c.. 167,) and which is mentioned in 1 Mace. i. 30, 
 and Josephus' Archseol. xii. v. 4, This opinion appears to receive 
 a striking confirmation from v. 9, which declares that there are no 
 more prophets in the land,* and speaks of the erection of signs in the 
 Temple^, while v. 8 seems to refers to the synagogues, which were 
 probably built after the time of the exile.J But the Book of 
 Psalms was long before that time incorporated into the Jewish 
 canon it can, on that account, contain no psalm of so late a date. 
 In 1 Mace. vii. 17, moreover, Psalm Ixxix. 3 is quoted as Holy 
 Writ. Add to this, that the king of Syria did profane and spoil 
 the Temple, but not destroy and burn it, and in spite of the 
 detailed account, which the book of Maccabees and Josephus give 
 of the ravages of the Syrians, there is no mention made of the burn- 
 ing of the synagogues. 
 
 As an introduction to those psalms which refer to the destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem and the abduction into exile, we subjoin a brief 
 view of the prophetic history relative to that solemn judgment of 
 God. 
 
 The Lord, to whom the future is as the present, had early 
 caused to be published as warnings what he had determined in his 
 council concerning Jerusalem. Who can forbear being deeply 
 
 * The complaint, that there were no prophets, was made in the days of 
 the Maccabees, for prophecy was silent from Malachi to John the Baptist, 
 t. e. for four hundred years, (vide 1 Mace. ix. 27.) 
 
 j- Antiochus Epiphanes ordered a small altar for idol worship to be built 
 upon the altar of the sanctuary, (1 Mace. i. 64.) Modern interpreters have 
 almost of one accord thought that this passage refers to a statue of Jupiter 
 Olympius, which had been erected upon the altar, but Hengstenberg with 
 reference to v. 69, has rendered the incorrectness of that view indubitable. 
 (See Contrib. to the Introd. to the Old Testament. Vol. i. p. 186.) 
 
 J They are mentioned in Josephus de bello Jud. vii. 3. 
 
 | 2 Mace. i. 8; viii. 83; 1 Mace. iv. 38. 48. Maurer quotes the last 
 verse as an evidence of the burning of the Temple, but that verse must be 
 interpreted by those passages which speak of the burning of the gates only. 
 It is conceivable that after the profanation of the Temple, and the estab- 
 lishment of idol-altars in the Temple, many alterations took place in the 
 interior, though that does not prove the burning or destruction of the 
 entire edifice. 
 26* 
 
306 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 impressed with the omniscience of God, which stretches over cen- 
 turies, as well by the solemnity of Divine justice, on reading that 
 immediately after the building of the Temple the Lord appeared to 
 Solomon, uttering upwards of four hundred years before the 
 destruction the threat, "But if ye shall at all turn from following 
 me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and 
 my statutes which I have set before you, then will I cut off Israel 
 out of the land which I have given them: and this house, which 1 
 have hallowed for my name, will least out of my sight: and Israel 
 shall be a proverb and a byeword among all people : and at this 
 house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished 
 and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus 
 unto this land, and to this house?" (1 Kings ix. 6, 7.) Prophecy 
 gets more explicit and definite with the approach of the threatened 
 catastrophe. Micah, who lived in the reign of Hezekiah, pre- 
 dicted more than one hundred years before the event, the country 
 to which Israel should be carried. "Be in pain and labour to 
 bring forth, daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail : for now 
 shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the 
 field, and thou shall go even to Babylon." (Micah iv. 10.) Isaiah 
 foretold, in the reign of the same king not long afterwards, the 
 same event, when the king of Babylon, moved by the mighty 
 judgments of God upon Sennacherib, had sent ambassadors to 
 Hezekiah, (cf. ad. Ps. xlviii. 10 12,) and Hezekiah, vainly 
 ambitious, showed them his treasures. "Then said Isaiah to 
 Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts : Behold the days 
 come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers 
 have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon : 
 nothing shall be left, saith the Lord/'- (Isaiah xxxix. v. 6.) Nor 
 were the words of the old prophet unremembered one hundred 
 years later, when Jeremiah, persecuted by the nation on account 
 of his upbraidings, referred before all the people of Judah to the 
 words of Micah (Jer. xxvi. 18,) the prophet. . As the days of 
 visitation approached, the prophecies, too, became more bright and 
 overwhelming. The nation had to experience several preludes of 
 the final catastrophe. Jerusalem appears to have been taken by 
 Nebuchadnezzar as early as the fourth year of Jehoiakim, again in 
 the eleventh,* when youthful Jeconiah, his mother, and wives, 
 along with ten thousand eight hundred and thirty-two of the flower 
 of Israel, were carried by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. (Cf. Introd. 
 ad. Psalm xliv.) 
 
 In Palestine, Jeremiah, the man of grief and the witness of God 
 
 * Cf. Dan. i. 1. Hengstenb erg's Contribut. to the Introd. to the Old 
 Testament. Vol. i. p. 152. Keil on Chronicles, pp. 24. 439; and Movers's 
 Researches on the Books of Chronicles, p. 333. 
 
PSALM LXXIV. 307 
 
 to an apostate race, was left as the sole holy watchman of the 
 house and people of God in the midst of a rebellious generation of 
 false prophets, idolatrous priests, sanguinary and deluded princes. 
 He had received the divine command to threaten and reprove, or 
 to admonish and edify, those who were not past edifying, in the 
 gloomy days which were about to set in. He almost uninterrupt- 
 edly, and with the most definite details, predicted the destruction 
 of Jerusalem and the captivity. The Lord called him when a 
 youth to his office. He had a presentiment of the impending evil 
 days; and he obeyed the Divine call not without strong resistance 
 from within. Immediately after his call, which took place in the 
 thirteenth year of Josiah, about fifty years before the catastrophe, at 
 a time when prof ound peace and prosperity rested upon the nation, 
 he had a vision of that ultimate visitation. " And the word of 
 the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou ? 
 And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward 
 the north. Then the Lord said unto me, Out of the north an evil 
 shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. For, lo, I 
 will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the 
 Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne 
 at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls 
 thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah." (Jer. i. 
 13 15.) A brief delay of peace was granted up to the death of 
 Josiah (-j-609,) the much mourned-for king. From that period 
 the nation, under Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, rushed into ever-grow- 
 ing destruction, and the Lord proclaimed the irrevocability of his 
 judgment, saying, " Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, 
 yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my 
 sight, and let them go forth." (Jer. xv. 1.) Jehoiakim, madly 
 deluded, cut the book of the warning prediction, which Jeremiah 
 had written, into pieces, and burnt it in the fire. (Jer. xxxvi. 22, 23.) 
 He destroyed also with the sword, Uriah, the prophet, who had 
 predicted the impending calamity, and cast his corpse into the 
 graves of the common people. (Jer. xxvi. 20 23.) Jeremiah, 
 though surrounded by prison, scourging, cruelty, and peril of 
 death, was, according to the promise of the Lord, (Jer. i. 19,) 
 miraculously preserved alive. The king's vain hope was, in spite 
 of the prophet's admonition to the contrary, in Egypt; supported 
 by that Gotten tree he actually ventured to revolt against Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, to whom he was tributary. The king of the Chalde- 
 ans now advanced with his hosts, took Jerusalem, carried Jeco- 
 niah, eighteen years old, who had ascended the throne of his 
 father Jehoiakim, along with ten thousand of the noblest amongst 
 the people, to Babylon, instituted Zedekiah, his uncle, as king, 
 after having rendered him by heavy oaths a tributary vassal to 
 Babylon. Eight years afterwards Zedekiah violated his oaths 
 again in opposition to the admonitions of the prophet trusting in 
 
308 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the hope of aid from Egypt. Lying prophets proclaimed predic- 
 tions which fell in with popular likings, e> g. that the captivity of 
 Jeconiah should soon terminate they thus fanned the delusion, 
 and furnished the most undeniable evidence that the prophecies of 
 Jeremiah and other true prophets were not the results of human 
 inspiration. (Of. the remarkable 28th chapter of Jeremiah.) The 
 armies of the angry king of the Chaldeans once more invaded 
 Palestine, laid waste the provincial towns, and besieged Jerusalem. 
 Despite the bonds and chains which fell to his reward, Jeremiah 
 prophesied, saying, "Behold, I will give this city into the hand of 
 the king of Babylon, and he shall take it : and Zedekiah king of 
 Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall 
 surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall 
 speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes, 
 and he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until 
 I visit him." (Jer. xxxii. 3 5; xxxiv. 2, 3.) The strong city 
 resisted for eighteen months. At one period a ray of hope was 
 seen. The hosts of Egypt advanced to help, and the Chaldeans 
 retired from Jerusalem to meet them. Zedekiah sent a message 
 to the prophet : " Pray now unto the Lord our God for us." This 
 was the last refuge of their hope. The word of the prophet once 
 more declared, "Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Thus 
 shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to inquire 
 of me: behold, Pharaoh's army, which is come forth to help you, 
 shall return to Egypt into their own land. And the Chaldeans 
 shall come again and fight against this city, and take it and burn 
 it with fire." (Jer. xxxvii. 7, 8.) The Chaldeans returned, and 
 it is terrible to say while the foe stood at the gates, while schism, 
 famine, and pestilence raged within the city, the people instead of 
 turning to the living God, as their only refuge, began to worship 
 idols. Ezekiel, far away in Mesopotamia, on the banks of Cha- 
 boras, had a vision of these horrors. In a vision he felt himself 
 seized by a lock of his hair, "and," saith he, "the spirit lifted me 
 up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the 
 visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that 
 looketh towards the north." What did the seer's eye behold? He 
 saw first at the northern entrance of the inner court a Canaanite 
 idol, then at the eastern entrance in deeply concealed apartments, 
 the walls covered with hieroglyphics, with images of beasts and 
 creeping things, and seventy elders offering incense to the Egyptian 
 idols : then at the northern entrance there sat women weeping for 
 the Syrian Thammuz, i. e. Adonis: and in the inner court five and 
 twenty priests, with their backs towards the temple of the Lord, 
 worshipped the sun towards the east after the manner of the Per- 
 sians. (Ezek. viii.) Should such abominations be suffered with 
 impunity ? 
 
 In the colony established at the banks of Chaboras ; Ezekiel felt 
 
PSALM LXXIV. 309 
 
 for the calamities of his native country, and prophesied her future 
 judgments. Like a man convulsed by pain, he raises his bitter 
 complaint for the sword of death which is drawn against Jerusalem. 
 (Ezek. xxi. 19, etc.} The hosts of the king of Babylon have gone 
 forth, and he beholds in a vision the indecision of the king whether 
 he is to march against the Ammonites or against Jerusalem, sees 
 him consulting heathen soothsayers, and how the lots decide against 
 Jerusalem. " The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, 
 Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the 
 king of Babylon may come : both twain shall come forth out of one 
 land : and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to 
 the city. Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of 
 the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem, the defenced. For the 
 Icing of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the 
 two ways, to use divination : he shook his arrows (ip^h to shake 
 
 or wave : these arrows had a name inscribed upon them,) he con- 
 sulted with images, he looked in the liver. At his right hand was 
 the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint battering rams, to open the 
 mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint 
 battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a 
 fort." (Ezek. xxi. 19, etc.) Ezekiel visibly describes in a still more 
 striking manner by his own person, the events which, at a great 
 distance in time and space, should on the day of visitation transpire 
 at Jerusalem. Before the eyes of his companions in exile he was 
 ordered to depart, after the symbolic manner of the prophets, with 
 his baggage on his shoulders, to dig through the wall, and to 
 remove it in the twilight, as a sign unto the house of Israel. And 
 the word of the Lord commanded him to say at the same time, " I 
 am your sign; like as I have done, so it shall be done unto them 
 {you]) they shall remove and go into captivity. And the prince 
 that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, 
 and shall go forth : they shall dig through the wall to carry out 
 thereby : he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with 
 his eyes. (Indicative of mourning : cf. 2 Sam. xv. 30.) My net 
 also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare : 
 and I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans; yet, 
 lie shall not see it, though he shall die there/' (Ezek. xii. 11, etc.) 
 Josephus narrates (Archseol. x. 7. 2,) that the prediction of 
 Ezekiel was sent by letters to the king, and that the contradiction 
 which he thought to perceive between it and that of Jeremiah only 
 confirmed his obduracy. Now Jeremiah had not said that the 
 fugitive king should see the land of Babylon, but that he should 
 see Nebuchadnezzar. The predictions of the two prophets, how- 
 ever, were fulfilled with so astonishing an exactness, which can 
 hardly fail to terrify hardened sinners at all times and in every 
 
310 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 / 
 
 place, and to confirm the wavering in their faith in God, the gov- 
 erner of the world. 
 
 Nebuchadnezzar did either not appear in person at Jerusalem, 
 or felt disinclined to share the fatigues of a siege of eighteen 
 months. Like Pharaoh-Necho in the days of Josiah, (2 Kings 
 xxiii. 33,) Nebuchadnezzar had fixed his camp at Riblah, on the 
 frontier of Syria and Palestine. On the ninth day of the fourth 
 month of the eleventh year of king Zedekiah, the Chaldean gene- 
 rals entered the city, and Zedekiah, accompanied by a few faithful 
 followers, escaped at night out of the city, along the king's garden, 
 through the gate on both walls. The Chaldeans before the city 
 saw, pursued, and overtook him on the road to Jericho : he was 
 carried to Riblah, and loaded with reproaches, for his faithlessness 
 had to submit to judgment. His children were butchered before 
 his eyes, Ms own eyes were put out, and bound in chains he was 
 led to Babylon. Thus was fulfilled the prediction of Ezekiel, that 
 he should be brought to Babylon, yet he should not see it : Ezekiel 
 having made mention of the unbelieving carelessness of the people, 
 who said, "The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth;" 
 when the Lord God said, "lam the Lord; 1 will speak, and the 
 word which I speak shall come to pass : it shall be no more pro- 
 longed." (Ezek. xii. 22. 25 ; cf. Jer. xxxix.) Be not deceived, 
 God is not mocked. The generals went, according to Josephus, 
 immediately after the conquest of the city, to the temple, for it 
 was the most important building, and its treasures the bait of con- 
 querors. Before determining what to do with the city and the 
 temple, they sent to consult the king. Not until a month after- 
 wards did they break down the ornaments of the temple, (Jer. 
 lii. 17,) and burn the king's palace, the temple, and the chief build- 
 ings. The more respectable class of the people, that were still 
 left, were carried away captive; only vinedressers and husbandmen 
 (Jer. lii. 16) were left behind, upon whom whom was imposed the 
 payment of a moderate tax. The lenient Babylonish viceroy dwelt 
 at Mizpah : under him and round Jeremiah a new congregation 
 was formed. Nebuchadnezzar, who had doubtlessly been informed 
 of Jeremiah's efforts to stay the folly of the people, had offered 
 him glorious distinction at Babylon, but Jeremiah preferred to 
 share the fate of the small remnant of his nation. The viceroy 
 was slain, however, after hardly two months had elapsed, and the 
 terrified people fled from the vengeance of the Chaldeans to Egypt, 
 again contrary to the express word of the Lord. (Jer. xlii.) Jere- 
 miah, the most faithful of pastors, would not even then forsake the 
 faithless band : he accompanied them, though proclaiming to them 
 in the most definite language that they should not stay there, but 
 that Nebuchadnezzar would pursue them thither. (Jer. xliii. 10, 
 etc.) He came upon them, and the last remnant of the rejected 
 people of God, who were driven into every direction, after having 
 
PSALM LXXIV. 311 
 
 rewarded the faithfulness of the prophet of the Lord by slaying 
 him with wicked hands , were also carried to Babylon. 
 
 Psalm Ixxiv. was composed after the destruction had occurred, 
 though the hostile army had not yet gone (v. 23,) when the deso- 
 lation had become so great that bands of robbers had established 
 themselves in the city, (v. 20.) One of the few who were left 
 behind must be regarded as the author of this psalm. 
 
 In language of deep emotion rises the call for help, (v. 1, 2.) 
 The bard is silent of temporal injury; he only weeps for the ruin 
 of the glorious temple, the burning of the synagogues, and the 
 absence of a prophet to proclaim the end of the woe, (v. 3 11.) 
 For his comfort he causes the ancient records of Divine omnipo- 
 tence which prevailed over human oppression, as well as the monu- 
 ments of Divine omnipotence in nature, to pass before his mind's 
 eye, (v. 12 17.) Edified thereby, he finds courage to pray that 
 God, the protector of the needy, would not deliver into the power 
 of the foe the timid turtledove, (v. 18 21.) Reanimated by hope, 
 he even calls upon the arm of the eternal for a renewed attack, 
 (v. 22, 23.) 
 
 IAN Instruction of Asaph. 
 
 A 
 
 GOD, why hast thou cast 'us off for ever ? 
 Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy 
 pasture ? 
 
 2 Eemember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased 
 
 of old ; 
 
 The tribe of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed ; 
 This Mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt. 
 
 3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations ; 
 
 Even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the 
 sanctuary. 
 
 4 Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations ; 
 They set up their ensigns for signs. 
 
 5 They appear like those who have lifted up 
 Axes upon the thick trees. 
 
 6 But now they break down the carved work thereof at once 
 With axes and hammers, 
 
 7 They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, 
 
 They have defiled by casting down the dwelling-place of 
 thy name to the ground. 
 
 8 They said in their hearts, " Let us destroy them together. " 
 They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land. 
 
312 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 9 We see not our signs : 
 
 There is no more any prophet: 
 
 Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. 
 
 10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach ? 
 Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever ? 
 
 11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? 
 Pluck it out of thy bosom and finish. 
 
 12 For God is my King of old, 
 
 Working salvation in the midst of the earth.* 
 
 13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: 
 
 Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. 
 
 14 Thou brakest the heads of the crocodiles in pieces, 
 And gavest them to be meat to the people inhabiting the 
 
 wilderness. 
 
 15 Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: 
 Thou driedst up mighty rivers. 
 
 16 The day is thine, the night also is thine : 
 Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.f 
 
 17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: 
 Thou hast made summer and winter. 
 
 18 Eemember this, that the enemy hath reproached the LORD, 
 And that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name. 
 
 19 deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multi- 
 
 tude of the wicked: 
 Forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever. 
 
 20 Have respect unto the covenant : 
 
 For the dark places of the earth are full of the habita- 
 tions of cruelty. 
 
 21 let not the oppressed be turned away in shame: 
 Let* the poor and needy praise thy name. 
 
 22 Arise, God, plead thine own cause : 
 
 Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. 
 
 23 Forget not the voice of thine enemies : 
 
 The tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth 
 continually. 
 
 V. 1. "For he is our God: and we are the people of his pas- 
 ture, and the sheep of his hand." So said the people in Psalm 
 xcv. 7. Would a shepherd pain his flock to such a degree? It 
 
 * Exod. viii. 18, states that God, by the control over nature, in Egypt, 
 gave a sign to Pharaoh, that He was Lord in Egypt. 
 
 f Or, "Thou hast appointed the course of the lights and of the sun." 
 
PSALM LXXIV. 313 
 
 was a time when the whole nation was called upon to reflect upon 
 the sentiment in 2 Mace. vi. 14 16: "For not as with other 
 nations, whom the Lord patiently forbeareth to punish till they be 
 come to the fulness of their sins, so dealeth he with us, lest that, 
 being come to the height of sin, he should take vengeance of us; 
 and though he punish with adversity, yet doth he never forsake hi3 
 people. But let this that we have spoken be for a warning unto 
 us." Shall God be silent for ever? If so, would not then the 
 words of Psalm 1. 21 be verified? " Thou thoughtest that I was 
 altogether such an one as thyself." 
 
 V. 2. Israel is indeed the Lord's inheritance from of old; it 
 grieves him, therefore, that he is compelled to use such severe 
 measures with him. The Lord himself asks, "Is Ephraim my dear 
 son ? Is he a pleasant child ? for since I spake against him, I do 
 earnestly remember him still : therefore my bowels are troubled for 
 him : I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord. (Jer. 
 xxxi. 20.) From words like these they could infer that the Lord 
 " doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." (Lam. 
 iii. 33.) 
 
 V. 3 7. Robbed of his possessions, his city and country laid 
 waste, his friends slain or carried into captivity, the Psalmist's 
 greatest grief is on account of the profanation of the sanctuary 
 by wicked hands. Instead of psalms and songs of praise the tri- 
 umphant roarings of heathen warriors are heard. As in the 
 days of Antiochus Epiphanes, so probably at this time the heathen, 
 as appears from v. 9, set up in the temple their signs, holy things, 
 altars, and rites. The axe fell upon the holy symbols, as if they 
 were common wood. It may easily be imagined that the enemy 
 had removed every precious thing from the temple, before they set 
 fire to it. Jeremiah, indeed, reports as much. The two celebrated 
 pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece in the outer court, 
 (1 Kings vii. 15;) the gilt folding-doors, the colossal golden 
 vine, the symbol of Israel, (Psalm Ixxx. 9;) the splendid 
 carpenters' work of cedar, with carved figures of cherubim, 
 palm-trees, and open flowers, all overlaid with gold, (1 Kings 
 vii. 15 35,) were there. How many precious, how many holy 
 remembrances of the present and the past ! And all this fell beneath 
 the strokes of the axe and the hammer, as if a man were felling 
 wood. 
 
 V. 8. They contemplate total destruction. The synagogues 
 throughout the country were burned. Now it appears that syna- 
 gogues or houses of worship did not spring up before the captivity 
 of Israel, when they were no longer able to resort to the temple for 
 purposes of worship. From this circumstance many have thought 
 that this psalm ought to be referred to the days of the Maccabees. 
 But, as was observed above, there is no record that Antiochus 
 27 
 
314 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Epiphanes did burn the synagogues in the country. Others apply 
 the passage to idolatrous high places and sanctuaries, of which, 
 though destroyed by the godly Josiah, some might have remained; 
 but it does not stand to reason that the pious bard should mourn 
 their being consumed by fire, nor would he have called them the 
 synagogues of God. Others again explain it of the settlements of 
 the schools of the prophets; but they had most likely ceased by 
 this time, else he would not have complained that there were no 
 more prophets. Others again refer it to the noted places, where 
 God had revealed himself to his people. But these were not known 
 to the heathen, nor were they distinguished by any external marks. 
 There is, however, nothing to prevent the supposition that as early 
 as then, there were scattered throughout the country synagogues 
 for purposes of prayer, if not for the reading of the Scrip- 
 tures.* 
 
 F. 9. The holy signs mean the entire sacred ritual, emblems, 
 sacred relics in the temple, circumcision, sacrifices; hence the 
 prophets are mentioned in connection with them. It was a Divine 
 judgment, according to the prediction of Ezekiel: " Mischief shall 
 come upon mischief, and rumour (judgment) shall be upon rumour; 
 then shall they seek a vision from the prophet; but the law shall 
 perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients." (Ezekiel 
 vii. 26.) Although in those hard times Jeremiah continued a holy 
 watchman among the people, who had not only predicted the desola- 
 tion but also the end of the calamity, (Jer. xxv. 11, 12,) yet in spite 
 of all this, a man who saw before him seventy long years of woe, 
 might, overwhelmed by his grief, utter complaint like this, because 
 there was no star of hope for the immediate future. If the author 
 of this psalm was one of the fugitives in Moab or Edom, (Jer. 
 xl. 11,) and composed it at the juncture when Jeremiah had, with 
 the last remnant of Israel, fled to Egypt the expression that there 
 was no prophet left would be accounted for. But since verses 10, 
 18, 23, seem to imply the presence of the Chaldeans in the coun- 
 try, yea, in the city itself, the psalm must belong to the time when 
 Jeremiah, bound in chains, had already been sent to Ramah to be 
 carried with the remnant to Babylon. (Jer. xl. 1.) The intense 
 grief of the Psalmist might, however, have expressed itself in lan- 
 guage, which is not to be taken quite literally. Jeremiah himself 
 says, "Her gates are sunk into the ground: he hath destroyed and 
 broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles; 
 the law is no more : her prophets also find no vision from the 
 Lord." (Lam. ii. 9.) 
 
 * The passage 2 Kings iv. 23, seems to imply that pious Israelites used 
 to assemble with the prophets on Sabbaths and new moons. Perhaps "the 
 assembly of the elders," in Psalm cvii. 32, (which was, however, composed 
 after the exile,) may, as KOster thinks, mean " assemblies for prayer." 
 
PSALM LXXIV. 315 
 
 F. 10, 11. Having enumerated the causes of his grief, the 
 lacerated mind of the Psalmist once more reverts to the complaint 
 in the beginning. Then he asked, Why? now he prays that their 
 unprecedented humiliation may not be of long duration. 
 
 V. 12 15. The comfort which he derives from the past his- 
 tory of Israel brings relief. He calls the nation of the Egyptians 
 a monster, and the crocodile of the water, because that rapacious 
 beast is peculiar to the river Nile, see Ezek. xxix. 3; Isa. li. 9. 
 The pursuing hosts of Pharaoh were drowned in the waters and 
 their bodies cast ashore to become the food of jackals, the inhabi- 
 tants of the wilderness. The Omnipotence of God provided for 
 his people in the most opposite manner, now breaking streams out 
 of the cloven rock, (Exod. xvii. 6; Numb. xx. 8,) and now drying 
 up mighty rivers, which used not to dry up in summer. (Josh, 
 iii. 14, etc.) 
 
 V. 16, 17. The same God has inscribed his Omnipotence on 
 the book of nature. Not accident, which is lawless, but the living 
 God has framed the eternal laws of the courses of the sun and 
 the moon. (Psalm cxlviii. 6.) His law reigns on the earth as it 
 does in the skies: 'tis he who made the change of seasons and set 
 the borders of countries and nations. (Acts xvii. 26.) 
 
 F. 18, 19. This is the foundation on which the Psalmist bases 
 his prayer to God, to display in the profound ignominy of his peo- 
 ple the eternal rights of that Omnipotence which governs history 
 and enacts the laws of nature. He calls his nation the turtledove 
 of God at this time not on account of their purity and innocence, 
 but because of their helplessness and timidity, for he immediately 
 prays, "Forget not the congregation of thy poor." 
 
 V. 20, 21. He cannot appeal to any righteousness of his own. 
 "Look upon the Covenant." This is the eternal asylum of the 
 saints of God even in the greatest peril. And though they have 
 broken it, shall the unbelief of man make the faithfulness of God 
 without effect? (Rom. iii. 3.) The country must have been deso- 
 late to a fearful extent if in their great calamity, when all the ties 
 of law and order had ceased, every secret place of the land had 
 become a den of murderers. 
 
 F. 22, 23. The savage tumult of the foe rages as yet without 
 intermission in the capital and the borders of the land. Though 
 the nation herself is the originator of all those evils, yet the name 
 of the God of Israel is for their sakes reproached! (Isaiah Hi. 5; 
 xlviii. 11.) 
 
316 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM LXXV. 
 
 A SONG of praise, expressive of the firm confidence that deliverance 
 is nigh. Terse 7 shows that the deliverance has respect to an 
 enemy who comes from the north, for it says that deliverance is to 
 proceed neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the 
 south, i. e. the desert of Arabia, (cf. Psalm cxxvi. 4 :) for a similar 
 reason the east, the west, and the south only are mentioned, 
 (Psalm Ix. 10.) Since Psalm Ixxvi. speaks definitely of the deliv- 
 erance of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, and since 
 Israel did not experience any other great deliverance from a north- 
 ern foe than this it may be concluded that the Psalmist raised 
 this song of praise at the time when it was observed at Jerusalem 
 that the pestilence had commenced its ravages in the camp of the 
 foe. 
 
 The sudden and fearful manifestation of the hand of God from 
 heaven against the proud, causes the Psalmist to recognize in that 
 judgment a prelude of the final judgment of God on evildoers. 
 He begins with a description of the praise of the wondrous works 
 of Jehovah, which shall then be sung, (v. 2,) adduces a prophetic 
 sentence like those which Isaiah had in those days repeatedly 
 addressed to the haughty king who would not own that he was 
 only an instrument in the hands of the Omnipotent, v. 3 6, (cf. ad. 
 Psalms xlvi. xlviii.) He next ascribes the sole honour of deliv- 
 erance to God, (v. 7, 8,) proclaims the Divine judgment on evil- 
 doers, (v. 9,) and thinks with exultant joy of his future songs of 
 triumph, naming as it were as their theme the promises of God. 
 (v. 10, 11.) 
 
 1 nnO the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of Asaph, to 
 JL the tune " Destroy not." 
 
 2 Unto thee, God, do we give thanks, 
 Unto thee do we give thanks : 
 
 For t hat thy name is near thy wondrous works declare. 
 
 3 "When I have taken a set time, 
 I will judge uprightly. 
 
 4 The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved : 
 I bear up the pillars of it. Selah. 
 
 5 I say unto the fools, deal not foolishly : 
 And to the wicked, lift not up the horn : 
 
 6 Lift not up your horn on high: 
 Speak not with a stiff neck." 
 
 7 For promotion cometh neither from the east, 
 Nor from the west, nor from the desert. 
 
PSLAM LXXV. 317 
 
 8 But God is the judge: 
 
 He putteth down one, and setteth up another. 
 
 9 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, 
 And the wine foameth, it is full of mixture ; 
 And he poureth out of the same : 
 
 But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall 
 wring them out, and drink them. 
 
 10 But I will declare for ever ; 
 
 I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. 
 
 11 "ALL THE HORNS OF THE WICKED ALSO WILL I CUT OFF; 
 BUT THE HORNS OF THE RIGHTEOUS SHALL BE EXALTED." 
 
 V. 2. The name of God is " merciful and gracious, long-suffer- 
 ing, and abundant in goodness and truth." The Lord himself 
 referred to his name, Exod. xxxiv. 5, 6. A new revelation of its 
 truth is at hand, and the Psalmist hears beforehand the praises of 
 his delivered nation. 
 
 V. 3 6. The fulfilment is at hand. Isaiah prophecies in 
 similar terms, (Isaiah x. 12 15,) " I shall take a set time/' saith 
 the word of the Lord. Israel did no doubt experience at that 
 time the grief, of which Asaph says, "I was envious at the foolish, 
 when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." (Psalm Ixxiii. 3.) 
 Many a time may they have asked, "O Lord, how long?" The 
 word of God reminds them that there is a suitable time for the 
 manifestation of Divine justice; though the earth and the heavens 
 should in the meantime shake, and human pusillanimity imagine 
 the worst when the set time shall have arrived, even a whole 
 world of tumult and confusion must again turn quiet. So should 
 we, when all around us is in confusion, and the firmest strongholds 
 give way, still retain the belief, that God is only waiting for his 
 set time. Divine visitations will least fail to appear when the pride 
 of wretched mortals ventures to measure itself with the Lord in 
 heaven, for God can never suffer mortals to deprive him of his 
 honour. (Isaiah xlii. 8.) 
 
 V. 7, 8. In virtue of the promised revelation the Psalmist dis- 
 dains to look for elevation from any other quarter than from him 
 who has promised to hold judgment in his time. He looks to 
 every direction from which the people might have expected deliv- 
 erance to come, e. g. from the kings of Egypt or Ethiopia, as in 
 fact those princes had really gone forth to the aid of Israel. (See 
 Introd. to Psalm xlvi.) God alone shall be the judge and the 
 refuge : and thus it came to pass. Not human weapon, but the 
 blow of the hand of God destroyed the proud Sennacherib: "For 
 the victory of battle standeth not in the multitude of an host: but 
 strength comethfrom heaven." (1 Mace. iii. 19.) 
 
 V. 9, 10. As the head of a family passes the cup at table, so the 
 27* 
 
318 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Lord, whose throne is in the heavens, hands to mortals, according 
 to their deserts, the cup of consolation or of folly. As myrrh 
 (Mark xv. 23) is put into wine to impart to it a stupifying virtue, 
 so God presents to evil doers an intoxicating cup, which they must 
 empty to the poisonous dregs. When the judgment began, the 
 servants of Sennacherib had to drink of that cup, and " fell into 
 their sleep/' (Ps. Ixxvi. 6.) 
 
 F. 11. The Psalmist cannot grow weary with praising. His 
 imperishable theme is the truth that the righteous shall finally 
 prevail. 
 
 PSALM LXXVI. 
 
 A SONG of praise for the deliverance of Jerusalem from the hand 
 of Sennacherib. (Cf. ad. Ps. xlvi. xlviii.) This psalm was proba- 
 bly composed by the same Asaphite, soon after the deliverance of 
 Zion, who composed Psalm Ixxv. before that event. It strikingly 
 depicts the eventful history of that time. As in Psalm xlviii. so 
 here the bard commences with praising the city of God, where he 
 had long since revealed his glory, and now also brought to an end 
 the strife of men, (v. 2 4.) He next describes how the mighty 
 ones, drunk with the intoxicating cup of God, have, with all their 
 apparatus of war, sunk powerless in the sleep of death, and been 
 obliged to leave their spoil to the servants of Jehovah, (v. 5 7.) 
 As it were, still stupified by the voice of the judgment, he now 
 speaks of the solemnity of the Divine judgments, (v. 8 10.) God 
 weaves himself a wreath of honour from the vain rebellion of mor- 
 tals. The Psalmist, therefore, finally calls upon the heathen, as in 
 Psalm xlvi. to pay their homage to the Lord, (v. 11 13.) 
 
 the chief Musician on the harp, A Psalm or Song 
 Asaph. 
 
 2 In Judah is God known : 
 His name is great in Israel. 
 
 3 In Salem also is his tabernacle, 
 And his dwelling-place in Zion. 
 
 4 There brake he the arrows of the bow, 
 
 The shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah. 
 
 5 Thou art glorious and excellent 
 From the mountains of prey.* 
 
 * This translation is sanctioned on comparing Cant. iv. 8 ; others render, 
 "More glorious than the mountains full of prey," i. e. the mountains of 
 the enemy, who came from the mountains of Mesopotamia ; cf. Nah. iii. 18. 
 
PSALM LXXVI. 319 
 
 6 The stouthearted are spoiled, 
 They are sunk into their sleep : 
 
 And none of the men of might have found their hands. 
 
 7 At thy rebuke, God of Jacob, 
 
 Both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep. 
 
 8 Thou, even thou, art to be feared : 
 
 And who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry ? 
 
 9 Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; 
 The earth feared, and was still, 
 
 10 When God arose to judgment, 
 
 To save all the meek of the earth. Selah. 
 
 11 Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee : 
 The remainder of wrath shall praise thee.* 
 
 12 Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God : 
 
 Let all that be round about him bring presents unto him 
 that is to be feared. 
 
 13 He shall cut off the spirit (or, "the courage") of princes: 
 He is terrible to the kings of the earth. 
 
 F. 2. The preceding psalm had praised the approaching new 
 revelation of the Divine name; now after it* has become true and 
 been sealed anew that "God is yet good in Israel," the Psalmist 
 can with increased confidence say that the name of the Lord is 
 known and glorious in Israel. We Christians read and repeat it 
 with sublime joy, knowing that every title to grace, every privilege, 
 has passed from the Israel after the flesh to that Israel of whom 
 the apostle speaks in Gal. iii. 16. It may now be said of this 
 Israel after the spirit that, "In Judah is God known, his name is 
 glorious in Israel." The Church of true believers is now the 
 theatre of the glory of God. The Church in which, says the 
 apostle, is manifested the manifold wisdom of God, is a glorious 
 revelation even to the principalities and powers in heavenly 
 places, (Ephes. iii. 10.) Knowing ourselves the members of the 
 same body, conjointly with the people of the ancient covenant, 
 with how increased a sense of sympathy do we peruse God's deal- 
 ings with them ! The tribe of Judah designates the entire nation 
 as in Psalm cxiv. 2. 
 
 F. 3, 4. Psalm xlviii. 2, praises after the same manner, that 
 the Lord has set up his tabernacle in Salem (the ancient name of 
 Jerusalem, (Gen. xiv. 18 ;) and the author of Psalm xlvi. lauds 
 the Lord in verse 10, for having terminated those wars before 
 Jerusalem, which Sennacherib had for many years carried on in a 
 large portion of the then known world. But the report of the fact 
 
 * Or, "With them thou girdest thyself," i. e. they shall surround thee 
 with praises. 
 
320 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 that the proud waves were stayed here, that just before the height 5 
 of Salem, "the hook was put into his nose, and the bridle into hif 
 lips/' (Isaiah xxxvii. 29,) coupled with the name of the God o: 
 Israel, could hardly fail to spread throughout all lands, (Psaln 
 xlviii. 11.) 
 
 V. 57. The Lord had foretold "that I will break the 
 Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him undei 
 foot/' (Isaiah xiv. 25.) They came to the mountains of Jerusalem 
 for prey, but they were obliged to leave prey behind them on those 
 very mountains. The expression of the Psalmist with reference tc 
 sleep, into which the men of might helplessly fell, is the more sig- 
 nificant, since a tendency to sleep accompanies the pestilence. A 
 profound stupor had inperceptibly translated the sleepers intc 
 eternal sleep. "When they arose early in the morning, behold, 
 they were all dead corpses." (2 Kings xix. 35.) The poet paints 
 the scene as if we were accompanying him into the camp, a shorl 
 time ago so full of life, but now covered with the silence of death, 
 Nalium refers in similar terms to the ultimate destiny of Assyria : 
 "Thy shepherds slumber, king of Assyria; thy valiant ones 
 shall dwell in the dust; thy people is scattered upon the moun- 
 tains, and no man gathereth them." (Nahum iii. 18.) 
 
 V. 8 10. " Thou, even thou art to be feared," we exclaim 
 with the Psalmist. The repetition of "thou" seems to say, that he 
 alone is to be feared who is able to disperse with a single breath 
 the united strength of the world. The judgment came from 
 heaven. The visitation was too great to refer it to chance or to 
 any human power. The words of the prophet concerning the 
 wicked are generally true: "The wicked are like the troubled sea ; 
 when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There 
 is no peace to the wicked." (Isaiah IviL 20, 21.) But even the 
 wicked must be silent, when the bared arm of the Lord visibly 
 pierces the clouds. 
 
 F. 11 13. Believers may with unshaken confidence look at 
 the rage of man. For it is certain that all mankind, the godly as 
 well as the wicked, must serve the Lord the one of their own 
 accord, the other against their will. The eternal and self-consist- 
 ing Creator turns the fury of man into a wreath of honour. So 
 the Scriptures say God raised (i. e. set him up in history) Pharaoh 
 simply for the purpose that he and all his raging should become 
 instrumental to God's name becoming declared throughout all the 
 earth. (Horn. ix. 17.) The horn of Sennacherib was broken, his 
 fury put an end to, but the whole power of the foe was not yet des- 
 troyed. A remnant had yet to be conquered. But that remnant 
 also must serve the Lord. The Psalmist considers the solemn 
 judgments of the God of Israel to have been an irresistible sermon 
 to all the princes of the earth, and calls upon them to pay their 
 homage to this God, who is able to break all human pride. He 
 
PSALM LXXVH. 321 
 
 probably says this in allusion to the fact, that at that time sur- 
 rounding nations, most likely the Egyptians and Ethiopians, who 
 were endangered by Sennacherib, brought gifts for Hezekiah and 
 the Temple. (2 Chron. xxxii. 23,) Psalm Ixxxvii. gives expres- 
 sion to still brighter Messianic hopes, most probably in connection 
 with the same event. 
 
 PSALM LXXVIL 
 
 A MELANCHOLIC song of complaint, deriving consolation from the 
 wonderful works of God in the past. We can hardly conceive that 
 the Psalmist intended to conclude the poem with the remembrance 
 of the exodus from Egypt, though the preparative verses 14 17 
 might possibly dispense with a conclusion, as it is indeed wanting 
 to Psalm Ixxviii.; but the probability is far greater that the Psalmist 
 was prevented from pursuing the narrative of the marvellous works 
 of God and bringing thus the poem to a close. 
 
 Troubles and struggles in prayer have for a long time continued 
 day and night with the Psalmist, (v. 2 4.) He dwells on the 
 joyous times of the past, and meditates on the thoughts of God, 
 (v. 5 7.) He inquires whether more gladsome days were to 
 arise, (v. 8 12.) He derives strength and comfort from the 
 thought that God did prove himself a covenant God, (v. 13, 14.) 
 When the Lord delivered his people, he brought them through the 
 great waters by ways unknown to men, and led them as his flock, 
 (v. 1521.) 
 
 the chief Musician of the Jeduthunites, A Psalm of 
 Asaph. 
 
 2 I cried unto God with my voice, 
 
 Even unto God with my voice ; and he gave ear unto me. 
 
 3 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord : 
 
 My hand was stretched out in the night, and ceased not : 
 My soul refused to be comforted. 
 
 4 I remembered God, and was troubled : 
 
 I meditated, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. 
 
 5 Thou boldest mine eyes waking : 
 
 I am so troubled that I cannot speak. 
 
 6 I have considered the days of old. 
 The years of ancient times. 
 
322 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 7 I call to remembrance my song in the night : 
 I commune with mine own heart : 
 
 And my spirit maketh diligent search. 
 
 8 "Will the Lord cast off for ever? 
 And will he be favourable no more? 
 
 9 Is his mercy clean gone for ever ? 
 Doth his promise fail for evermore ? 
 
 10 Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? 
 
 Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?" Selah. 
 
 11 And I say, "Tnis MY AFFLICTION 
 
 IS A CHANGE OF THE RIGHT HAND OF THE MOST HlGH." 
 
 12 I will remember the works of the LORD : 
 Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. 
 
 13 I will meditate also of all thy work, 
 And talk of thy doings. 
 
 14 Thy way, God, is in the sanctuary: 
 Who is so great a God as our God? 
 
 15 Thou art the God that doest wonders : 
 
 Thou hast declared thy strength among the nations : 
 
 16 Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, 
 The sons of Jacob and Joseph.* Selah. 
 
 17 The waters saw thee, God, the waters saw thee : 
 They were afraid: 
 
 The depths also were troubled. 
 
 18 The clouds poured out water : 
 The skies sent out a sound: 
 Thine arrows also went abroad 
 
 19 The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven (or, "in the 
 
 whirlwind:") 
 
 Thy lightnings lightened the world: 
 The earth trembled and shook: 
 
 20 Thy way is in the sea, 
 
 And thy path in the great waters, 
 And thy footsteps are not known. 
 
 21 Thou leddest thy people like a flock 
 By the hand of Moses and Aaron. 
 
 V. 2. Asaph informs us that, unlike the many, he had not poured 
 out the trouble of his heart indiscriminately, but that he had set a 
 term to his cries, even that term, to which the complaint of mortals 
 should alone be directed, he cried unto God. 
 
 F. 3. He did not in a superficial manner ease his heart by pray- 
 
 * Cf. ad. Pealm Ixxx. 2. 
 
PSALM LXXVII. 323 
 
 ing now and then, as many people declare to have prayed, when, 
 after having turned their eyes to a thousand helpers, they have 
 now and then looked up to heaven. But Asaph had for nights 
 stretched forth his hands, though his soul refused to be comforted 
 by that means of grace. They are real men of prayer with whom, 
 when answers fail to be forthcoming, the thirst for prayer gets not 
 weakened, but inflamed with greater ardour. Beginners get weary 
 and look out for other helpers. Asaph's faith did not waver; he 
 knew that they who perseveringly and believingly knock at the 
 door, will sooner or later get admittance. 
 
 F. 4. There are moments in the life of every believer when 
 God and his ways become unintelligible to them. They get lost in 
 profound meditation, and nothing is left them but a desponding 
 sigh. But we know, from Paul the Apostle, that the Holy Spirit 
 intercedes for believers with God, when they utter such sighs. 
 (Rom. viii. 26.) 
 
 F. 5. Disquieted in heart he cannot find sleep. He has cried 
 again and again, but his mouth grew silent for a time, and he gave 
 himself to deep thought. Whenever silence and thought like 
 this occur Sifter prayers long and loud, though the mouth be quiet 
 the heart continues in secret prayer. 
 
 F. 6, 7. He selects the theme which believers in trouble ought 
 always to choose : the days when the goodness of God was seen and 
 tasted. He makes mention of songs of praise, which he had sung 
 at night. This shows him to have been one of those godly men 
 who are peculiarly fond, in the still loneliness of night, to hold 
 communion with God. Such remembrances appease the tempest of 
 the soul, so that we gather courage and comfort ourselves with the 
 words, "Thou art his, he will never leave thee." But Satan may 
 withal turn these sweet remembrances into temptations; e.g. when 
 our soul inquires, " Why is it not always so?" or when troublesome 
 thoughts arise, like those expressed in the succeeding verses. 
 
 F. 8 11. We have seen that these despairing thoughts arose 
 after continued and silent suffering. It is to be noticed that the 
 doubt which is here expressed is not the doubt of unbelief, but of 
 hesitancy and pusillanimity: for he is unable thoroughly to believe 
 the suggestions of pusillanimity. Will God, who had said that his 
 name is "Merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in 
 goodness and truth/' (Exod. xxxiv. 6,) become untrue to his name? 
 Will God, to whose attributes it belongs to be good and faithful 
 to his promises, make an exception in my case? Impossible. 
 
 F. 12 14. He turns therefore his attention to the manifesta- 
 tions of the power and mercy of God in ancient times. His doings 
 are different from the doings of the gods whom the heathen worship. 
 He does not mean to affirm the existence of other gods, but to 
 shame the folly of. the world, which will not be satisfied with this 
 one God, whose wondrous power is so great. (Psalm xcvi. 5.) 
 
324 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 y. 15 20. He contemplates the memorable miracle of the 
 
 exode from Egypt, which is to all believers in Israel a figure, how 
 God brings his people out of the gloom of tribulation. Then God 
 powerfully manifested that the elements must obey at his bidding, 
 if he but moves his hand towards the deliverance of his people. 
 (Cf. Notes ad. Psalm Ixxviii. 13.) As a slave at the approach of 
 his master, so the billows tremble at the approach of God. A 
 north-east wind had divided the waters. The Psalmist describes 
 poetically the power of the Divine operations as the power of a 
 tempest. (Cf. ad. Psalm xviii. 10, etc.) But Moses seems to speak 
 of a storm which fought against Pharaoh. (Exodus xiv. 24.) The 
 Lord of Hosts has a way of his own, on which none can follow him. 
 When the waters returned his footsteps were gone. Well may the 
 Christian poet say, " Every way there is a way to him, and means 
 he has the many/' As a shepherd leads his helpless flock, so the 
 Lord led his people faithfully by the hand of his chosen servants. 
 (Micah vi. 4; Numbers xxxiii. 1.) 
 
 PSALM LXXVIII. 
 
 A PSALM of instruction, being a dehortation to the people from the 
 disobedience and inconstancy of their ancestors. (Cf. Psalm cvi.) 
 
 The psalm contemplates, however, another end, namely, to justify 
 the removal of the sanctuary from Shiloh in the tribe of Ephraim, 
 to Zion in the tribe of Judah. The psalm concludes with that jus- 
 tification as with its leading thought, (v. 67 72.) It is expressed 
 in verses 9 12, that the dehortation is specifically applicable to 
 the children of Ephraim, who had taken no warning from the exam- 
 ple of their forefathers. Circumstances must have induced the 
 choice of this theme : the inducement was furnished by the jealousy 
 of the tribe of Ephraim, which had occasioned as early as the days 
 of David, variance, schism, and even rebellion. (2 Sam. xix. 40; 
 2 Sam. xx.; 1 Chron. xxi. 6.)* It should be remembered that 
 Benjamin belonged to Ephraim, the reason being that Rachel was 
 the mother of both Benjamin and Joseph; these three sons of 
 Rachel used to follow immediately behind the ark, when it was 
 removed. (Cf. ad. Psalm Ixxx. 2.) This relation of Benjamin to 
 Ephraim is perfectly clear from 2 Sam. xix. 20, since Shimei, who 
 affirms himself to belong to the tribe of Joseph, was a Benjaminite. 
 
 * Joab's reluctance to take the census in Benjamin, probably arose from 
 the opposition of that tribe. 
 
PSALM LXXVIII. 325 
 
 (Z Sam. xix. 16, 17; xvi. 5.) This furnishes a clue to the exist- 
 ing variance. Since Saul belonged to the tribe of Benjamin and 
 had greatly preferred the children of that tribe, (1 Sam. xxii. 7,) 
 Ephraim had lost much of its importance by David's accession to 
 the throne. Hence David was for the space of seven years acknow- 
 ledged by Judah only, until Abner secured for him the acknow- 
 ledgment of the other tribes. (2 Sam. iii.) The spark of discord, 
 however, continued to glow, until it kindled into a flame at the 
 above-mentioned occasion. The insurrection of Sebna, who was a 
 Benjaminite, towards the close of the reign of David, furnishes the 
 evidence of secretly-continued opposition. Hence one of David's 
 singers might feel himself called upon to seek to justify the rejec- 
 tion of Ephraim on account of its guilt and the call of Judah. 
 Asaph shows that while the sanctuary continued at Shiloh in 
 Ephraim, Israel had to endure shame, and that even the ark fell 
 into the hands of the foe, (v. 61,) until the Lord awoke, as it were, 
 from his sleep, and gave to Israel new victories, under Samuel and 
 David, transplanting at the same time the sanctuary to Jerusalem, 
 from the tribe of Ephraim into that of Judah, (v. 65 68.) So 
 Jeremiah (Jer. vii. 14, 15) addresses the kingdom of Judah, 
 "Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, 
 wherein ye trust, and unto the .place, which I gave to you and to 
 your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out 
 of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole 
 seed of Ephraim/' Had this psalm been composed in later times, 
 as is the opinion of many commentators, on what grounds should 
 its author have confined himself to the description of Ephraim' s 
 sins before David, and omitted to reproach them with their falling 
 away from the Divinely chosen race of kings? Why should he 
 have satisfied himself with speaking of the idolatry in the time of 
 the Judges, and be silent about their ignominious idolatry in the 
 days of Jeroboam ? The psalm can therefore not well be referred 
 to a later period than that of David. It furnishes the remarkable 
 evidence that the Pentateuch must then have been well known, 
 since the Psalmist not only follows* the thread of its history, but 
 evidently dwells on specific passages of the Book of Numbers, (v. 21. 
 2831.) 
 
 The Psalmist having assigned as the reason of his descending to 
 antiquity, his desire that the children should be admonished by 
 the works of God to their fathers, as well as by the disobedience 
 of these, (v. 1 8 ;) and having accused Ephraim of unteachable- 
 ness; enumerates from verses 13 55 the instances of the obduracy 
 and faithlessness of the nation, as well as of the goodness and 
 majesty of Grod. He accuses (v. 56 64) the disobedient children, 
 who refused to take warning from the example of their fathers : 
 that accusation applies peculiarly to the tribe of Ephraim, because 
 under the reign of that tribe the sanctuary was with them, and 
 28 
 
326 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Israel had to endure great shame at the hands of the Philistines. 
 The sanctuary being now established on Zion, he beholds in a pro- 
 phetic vision its eternal duration, for what else is the Christian 
 Church than that spiritual Zion ; which issued forth from the tem- 
 poral Zion ? (Gal. iv. 26.) 
 
 A 1 
 
 Instruction of Asaph. 
 
 1 Give ear, my people, to my law : 
 Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 
 
 2 I will open my mouth in a parable : 
 I will utter dark sayings of old : 
 
 3 Which we have heard and known, 
 And our fathers have told us. 
 
 4 We will not hide them from their children, 
 
 Showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, 
 And his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath 
 done. 
 
 5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, 
 And appointed a law in Israel, 
 Which he commanded our fathers, 
 
 That they should make them known to their children : 
 
 6 That the generation to come might know them, 
 Even the children which should be born ; 
 
 Who should arise and declare them to THEIR children : 
 
 7 That they might set their hope in God, 
 And not forget the works of God, 
 
 But keep his commandments: 
 
 8 And might not be as their fathers, 
 
 A stubborn and rebellious generation; 
 
 A generation that set not their heart aright, 
 
 And whose spirit was not steadfast with God. 
 
 9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, 
 Turned back in the day of battle. 
 
 10 They kept not the covenant of God, 
 And refused to walk in his law ; 
 
 11 And forgat his works, 
 
 And his wonders that he had showed them. 
 
 12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their fathers, 
 In the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan. 
 
 13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through ; 
 And he made the waters to stand as an heap. 
 
PSALM LXXVIII. 327 
 
 14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, 
 And all the night with a light of fire, 
 
 15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, 
 
 And gave them drink as out of the great depths. 
 
 16 He brought streams also out of the rock, 
 And caused waters to run down like rivers. 
 
 17 And they sinned yet more against him 
 
 By provoking the Most High in the wilderness. 
 
 18 And they tempted God in their heart 
 By asking meat for their lust. 
 
 19 Yea, they spake against God; 
 
 They said, " Can God furnish a table in the wilderness ? 
 
 20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, 
 And the streams overflowed; 
 
 Can he give bread also ? 
 
 Can he provide flesh for his people? " 
 
 21 Therefore the LORD heard this, and was wroth : 
 So a fire was kindled against Jacob, 
 
 And anger also came up against Israel : 
 
 22 Because they believed not in God, 
 And trusted not in his salvation : 
 
 23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, 
 And opened the doors of heaven, 
 
 24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, 
 And had given them of the corn of heaven. 
 
 25 Man did eat the bread of the mighty : 
 He sent them meat to the full. 
 
 26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven : 
 And by his power he brought in the south wind. 
 
 27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, 
 
 And feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea : 
 
 28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, 
 Round about their habitations. 
 
 29 So they did eat and were well filled : 
 For he gave them their own desire. 
 
 30 They were not estranged from their lust. 
 But while their meat was yet in their mouths, 
 
 31 The wrath of God came upon them, 
 And slew the fattest of them, 
 
 And smote down the young men of Israel. 
 
 32 For all this they sinned still, 
 
 And believed not for his wondrous works. 
 
328 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, 
 And their years in trouble. 
 
 34 When he slew them, then they sought him: 
 And they returned and inquired early after God. 
 
 35 And they remembered that God was their rock, 
 And the high God their redeemer. 
 
 36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, 
 And they lied unto him with their tongues. 
 
 37 For their heart was not right with him, 
 Neither were they steadfast in his covenant. 
 
 38 But, he being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, 
 And destroyed them not : 
 
 Yea, many a time turned he his anger away, 
 And did not stir up all his wrath. 
 
 39 For he remembered that they were but flesh; 
 
 A wind that passeth away and cometh not again. 
 
 40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, 
 And grieve him in the desert? 
 
 41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, 
 And limited the Holy One of Israel. 
 
 42 They remembered not his hand, 
 
 Nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. 
 
 43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, 
 And his wonders in the field of Zoan : 
 
 44 And had turned their rivers into blood ; 
 And their floods, that they could not drink. 
 
 45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured 
 
 them: 
 And frogs, which destroyed them. 
 
 46 He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, 
 And their labour unto the locust. 
 
 47 He destroyed their vines with hail, 
 And their sycamore trees with frost. 
 
 48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, 
 And their flocks to flashes of lightning. 
 
 49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, 
 Wrath, and indignation, and trouble, 
 
 By sending evil angels among them. 
 
 50 He made a way to his anger ; 
 
 He spared not their soul from death, 
 But gave their life over to the pestilence ; 
 
 51 And smote all the firstborn in Egypt ; 
 
 The chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham : 
 
PSALM LXXVIII. 829 
 
 52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep, 
 And guided them in the wilderness like a flock. 
 
 53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not : 
 But the sea covered their enemies. 
 
 54 And he brought them to the border of his holiness, 
 Even to this mountain (or, "mountainous country") 
 
 which his right hand had purchased. 
 
 55 He cast out the heathen also before them, 
 And divided them an inheritance by line, 
 
 And made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents. 
 
 56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, 
 And kept not his testimonies : 
 
 5T But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers : 
 They were turned aside like a deceitful bow. 
 
 58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, 
 And moved him to jealousy with their graven images. 
 
 59 When God heard this, he was wroth, 
 And greatly abhorred Israel : 
 
 60 So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, 
 The tent which he placed among men ; 
 
 61 And delivered his strength into captivity, 
 And his glory into the enemy's hand. 
 
 62 He gave his people over also unto the sword ; 
 And was wroth with his inheritance. 
 
 63 The fire consumed their young men ; 
 
 And their maidens were not given to marriage. 
 
 64 And their priests fell by the sword ; 
 And their widows made no lamentation. 
 
 65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, 
 
 And like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. 
 
 66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder part : 
 He put them to a perpetual reproach. 
 
 67 Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, 
 And chose not the tribe of Ephraim : 
 
 68 But chose the tribe of Judah, 
 The mount Zion which he loved. 
 
 69 And he built his sanctuary like the heights of heaven, 
 Like the earth which he hath established for ever. 
 
 70 He chose David also his servant, 
 And took him from the sheepfolds: 
 
 71 From following the ewes great with young 
 He brought him to feed Jacob his people, 
 And Israel his inheritance. 
 
 28* 
 
330 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; 
 And guided them by the skilfulness of his hands. 
 
 V. 1 4. The Psalmist appears before the people as an 
 exhorter, who addresses instructive sentences to them, the historic 
 narratives being at the same time living instructions. His object 
 is to give instruction concerning the praise, the power, the glory, 
 and the miracles of God. 
 
 F. 5 8. He justifies his exhortation by a reference to the 
 Divine commandment, which enacts the transmission of all the 
 laws and commandments of God from the mouth of the fathers to 
 their children and grandchildren, (Deut. iv. 9; x. 6, 7; Exod. 
 xii. 26,) with the twofold object of immortalizing among them the 
 commandments and the works of the Lord, and of furnishing in 
 the rebellion and inconstancy of their ancestors perpetual examples 
 of warning. For if among the children of this world, the example 
 and education of the parents produce a generation who go even 
 more astray from God than their fathers, so among the children of 
 God ought penitent parents, by the recollection of their experience 
 and sinfulness, to warn their posterity, and thus lead them to 
 greater holiness. 
 
 V. 9 12. Ephraim especially needed that instruction. In 
 the day of battle they had been like bow-men who did not stand 
 their ground. This figure, like that in verse 57, indicates their 
 faithfulness in the cause of God. The miracles of God in Egypt 
 are not enumerated here ; their enumeration begins with verse 43. 
 Egypt is here called the field of Zoan. Zoan was the capital of 
 Lower Egypt, about twenty-five miles distant from the land of 
 Goshen. In its place there remains to the present day the village 
 of San. It is not mentioned as an ancient and large city in the 
 narrative of the miracles in Egypt, though reference is made to it 
 in Numb. xiii. 22. 
 
 V. 13. The Psalmist now meditates on the miraculous exode 
 of the children of Israel. The Scriptures state that Divine provi- 
 dence employed a natural means, namely, an east wind, for the 
 accomplishment of that miracle. North-west winds are very com- 
 mon to that locality. The Red Sea terminates above Suez, in a bay 
 where there is not more than a mile's distance between the oppo- 
 site shores, and even below Suez the distance does not exceed 
 three miles; at low water several depths of that locality get quite 
 dry. Now the Israelites were marching just in the direction of 
 Suez, and we may conceive that at the word of Moses, a wind from 
 the east or from the north-east dried the sea at low water just in 
 that neighbourhood, while the flood above Suez was repressed into 
 the bay, and below Suez into the sea. Israel, therefore, marched 
 as it were between two walls of water, while at day-break the 
 waters which had been repressed into the bay burst forth with 
 
PSALM LXXVIII. 331 
 
 renewed force upon the pursuing hosts of Pharaoh.* The remem- 
 brance of this marvellous event has also been preserved by Greek 
 writers. f 
 
 F. 14 16. In ancient times and even now, men carrying 
 poles to which are attached vessels filled with fire, precede armies 
 and caravans, as leaders and guides. J God condescending to a 
 sensuous people, became himself their guide, and gave them a 
 sensible token of his protection. On the exode he made the waters 
 stand like walls in the desert he turned the rocks into water- 
 springs, (Exod. xvii. 6,) satisfying man and beast with their copi- 
 ous supply. (Numb. xx. 11.) 
 
 F. 17 20. In fresh remembrance of such unusual testimonies 
 of Divine condescension, deprived of all human aid in the waste 
 wilderness, and depending on God alone, they dared to provoke in 
 shameless unbelief Him on whose bounty alone they depended. 
 (Cf. Psalm cvi.) They had been miraculously preserved by the 
 supply of manna : the low crowd of the Egyptians, that had come 
 out with them, began to lust after the diet to which they had been 
 accustomed in Egypt, and Israel became seduced by them. 
 (Numb. xi. 4.) After all their experience, they doubt the Divine 
 omnipotence, (Ps. cvi. 12, 13,) as if it were to be regarded as 
 nothing, when it refused to gratify their lusts. Unbelief is so 
 deeply rooted in the human heart, that when God performs mira- 
 cles on earthy unbelief doubts whether he can perform them in 
 heaven, and when he does them in heaven, whether he can do 
 them on earth? (Cf. Matt. xvi. 1.) 
 
 F. 21, 22. The fire was a real fire. The manifestations of 
 Divine wrath are as sensible and unmistakeable as are those of his 
 love: it is recorded in Numb. xii. how God revealed his majesty, 
 which a rude nation had insulted. The Psalmist makes a literal 
 reference to that event. The anger of God arose because they 
 Would not believe in him. Doubting his omnipotence is tanta- 
 mount to robbing God of his honour; hence it is said of Abraham 
 that because he was strong in faith he gave to God the honour due 
 to him. (Rom. iv. 20.) 
 
 * Cf. Niebuhr's Description of Arabia, p. 410, with the map of the neigh- 
 bourhood of Suez in Robinson's Palestine, i. p. 90, etc. and Von Raumer's 
 Exode of the Israelites, 1837, p. 16, where the view is defended that the 
 passage took place more to the south, where the sea is fifteen miles in 
 Width. 
 
 f Diod. Sic. iii. 39, Artapanus in Euseb. prsep. ev. ix. 27. 
 
 J Rosenmiiller, The Ancient and Modern East, ii. p. 4. 
 
 | The people were by no means confined to the manna : they had cattle, 
 and when they passed along the sea-shore, fish: they could also cultivate the 
 soil, since during the forty years they resided for a considerable time in 
 several places. October sowing is fit for reaping in April. But all this 
 was not sufficient for the wants of the mass of the nation, and Numb. xi. 22, 
 points to this fact. 
 
332 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 /r 
 
 F. 23 25. The manna with which the people were fed is 
 called here, " The bread of heaven," because descending as it were 
 from the hand of God, it was found mixed with the dew on the 
 land: it is called "the bread of the mighty/' i. e. of the noble, 
 because it was a tender and delicious food, which to this day con- 
 tinues a favourite dish of the Eastern nobility. Divine providence 
 seems in this case again to have employed a natural means in a 
 supernatural manner. For down to the present day, manna is a 
 well-known natural produce in the South of Italy, and the East in 
 particular. It is a sweet gum-like juice, which at sunrise in the 
 shape of dried granules, just like the manna in the wilderness, is 
 found in some parts on the leaves, in others on the boughs and 
 trunks of certain trees, and is consumed in the East as a delicacy, 
 but unknown to cause any medicinal effects. Now this produce, 
 known as manna, has different qualities in different localities, and 
 is found under different circumstances, and the qualities of the 
 manna of the Israelites do not exactly correspond to any of the 
 mannas which are known to us. The disparity consists chiefly in 
 this, that in the days of Moses manna was found all the year round, 
 while the modern manna obtains only for some months, the former 
 on the earth, mixed with dew, the modern on trees, and but very 
 seldom on the ground. It has been supposed on that account, that 
 the ancient manna was produced by the exhalations of plants, 
 which fell with the dew to the earth, as several travellers have 
 found that the dew in the East is sweet and sticky. All things 
 considered, it is clear that nature now yields a produce only similar 
 to that which Providence then supplied in a supernatural manner. 
 The natural appearance of manna depends upon varying circum- 
 stances, since in our times it is but rarely met with, and in the 
 neighbourhood of Sinai frequently only after an interval of five or 
 six years.* 
 
 V. 26 31. It is not uncommon that large numbers of quails, 
 which come across the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, are 
 found in Arabia and Egypt.f Since the Psalmist speaks of a 
 south-east wind, the birds probably came from the Persian Gulf 
 through Southern Arabia to Sinai; the statement of Moses that 
 they fell down in heaps, is confirmed by the fact, that those awk- 
 wardly flying birds lose their strength by a passage across the sea. 
 The judgment of God subsequent to the gratification of their insa- 
 tiable lust presents a warning example. God in his anger will 
 sometimes hear the foolish prayers of men, while the real and mer- 
 ciful granting of our petitions often consists in this, that Provi- 
 
 * Cf. esp. Rosemn tiller's Bibl. Natur. History, i. p. 316, etc. and Von 
 Raumer's Exode of the Israelites. 
 
 f Vide Josephus, Diodorus Siculus, and modern travellers in Rosemntil- 
 ler's Schol. in Exodum. chap. 16. 
 
PSALM LXXVIII. 333 
 
 * 
 
 dence supplies something different from what we had prayed for. 
 The Divine indignation fell also upon the strength and the youth 
 of Israel, to show that the strong could not in reliance upon their 
 strength presume to measure themselves with God, or to rebel 
 against him. (Ps. cxlvii. 10, 11.) 
 
 F. 32, 33. The miracles of the wrath, no less than those of the 
 mercy of God, however, made hardly any impression upon them, 
 so that the justice of God performed its last judgments in that not 
 one of those who had come out of Egypt should see the land of 
 promise which God had sworn to them. (Numb. xiv. 28, etc.') 
 
 V. 34 37. The punitive judgment of God produced, how- 
 ever, some effect: they came to themselves for days and weeks, 
 when the strokes of God fell too violently upon them: but where 
 penitence produced by fear does not issue in a turning to God in 
 faith and love, it will last no longer than till the last thunderings 
 of Divine wrath have died away. Their penitence struck no roots. 
 " It fell upon stony ground, and because it had no root it withered 
 away/' The Psalmist had spoken (v. 8,) of the apvstacy and dis- 
 obedience of the people; he now speaks of their changeability and 
 the untrustiness of their repentance. 
 
 V. 38, 39. Who can forbear trembling on meditating upon the 
 various scourges of God which are already now in the world, while 
 we live in the time of longsuffering, where God desires to lead sin- 
 ners through mercy to repentance? If now the cup of wrath is 
 only poured out half, what will it be when it shall be wholly emp- 
 tied ? The Psalmist says that in spite of all the punishments on 
 the people in the wilderness, God did not stir up all his wrath, but 
 exerted his sparing mercy. In his wisdom and goodness he has 
 made provision for the temptations and difficulties which surround 
 helpless and needy mortals : he is not the hard master who would 
 reap where he has not sown. (Matt. xxv. 24.) 
 
 F. 40 43. Moses, (Numb. xiv. 22,) speaks often great tempt- 
 ings of God in the wilderness, which were reprehensible in propor- 
 tion to the miraculous assistance of God, and the unfailing certainty 
 with which temporal transgression was succeeded by temporal pun- 
 ishment. The Psalmist now reverts to the miracles in Egypt, to 
 which he had made allusion in v. 12. 
 
 F. 44 51. The miracles of Egypt, the ten plagues, of which 
 the Psalmist enumerates only a few, were natural phenomena as 
 they occur in that country in this day; but in the days of Moses 
 they had miraculously accumulated and intensified, that Pharaoh 
 should know, that not he in his pride, but Jehovah, was the true 
 king of Egypt, vide Exod. viii. 22. The waters of the river Nile, 
 the usually sweet drink of the Egyptians, turn at a certain season 
 of the year reddish, like blood, (Joel iii. 4 shows that the reference 
 is only to the colour of blood;) and though the waters usually con- 
 tinue drinkable in that condition, yet they became loathsome to the 
 taste of the Egyptians. Musquitoes, which under ordinary circum- 
 
334 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 
 
 stances area great plague in Egypt, and frogs, multiplied; locusts, 
 which are less frequent, destroyed the crops; terrific tempests, 
 accompanied by hail, discharged upon the cattle, the vineyards, 
 and trees, while the pestilence slayed the firstborn.* 
 
 Y. 52 55. The weak nation, accustomed to the work of slaves, 
 would never have freed themselves by the force of arms. God 
 himself led them forth as a shepherd does his flock. He gave them 
 sensible evidence that he was marching before them, and yet they 
 were afraid, as we read Exod. xiv. 11; but that fear sprung from 
 their unfathomable unbelief. Nevertheless, the mercy of the God 
 of Abraham brought their descendants into the land of promise, 
 that mountainous country which was the object of Joshua's long- 
 ing.f 
 
 F. 5658. The Psalmist speaks of the second generation, (Of. 
 ad. verse 33,) but instead of being warned by the example of their 
 fathers, they imitated it. The Psalmist refers especially to the 
 times of the Judges, when the large mass of the nation reverted to 
 idolatry, set up idols, and idolatrous high places, unmindful of the 
 words of Moses. (Lev. xxvi. 30, cf. with Numb, xxxiii. 52.) 
 
 V. 59 61. Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, used already 
 in the wilderness to march immediately behind the sanctuary, 
 (Numb. x. 2124; ii. 1824; Psalm. Ixxx. 3;) and when the 
 nation came to rest, the sanctuary was placed at Shiloh, in the 
 tribe of Ephraim. Israel marched against their enemies under the 
 banner of Ephraim, and the ignominy of Israel fell also on Ephraim' s 
 head; and Ephraim deserted the ark of the covenant. Terror 
 seized upon the Philistines when they heard that the ark had 
 marched out against them. When the news reached them they 
 exclaimed, "Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of 
 these mighty gods? These are the gods that smote the Egyptians 
 with all the plagues in the wilderness!" But the banner of 
 Fphraim gave way, and the ark of the covenant fell into the hands 
 of the Philistines. (1 Sam. iv.) 
 
 Y. 62 64. Then followed the humiliation of the whole nation, 
 as it is described in the books of Samuel. The high-priests Hophni 
 and Phinehas died in that battle, in which thirty thousand men of 
 Israel fell. The widow of Phinehas died of terror, and her last 
 words were, " The glory is departed from Israel, because the ark of 
 God is taken." (1 Sam. iv. 21, 22; Job. xxvii. 15.) 
 
 V. 65 68. Then the Lord, like a hero awaking refreshed from 
 sleep, once more protected the nation under David, to avenge the 
 
 * Cf. Hengstenberg's Moses and Egypt, p. 93, etc. Rosenmtiller's 
 Ancient and Modern East, vol. i. p. 275, etc. 
 
 f Deut. iii. 25. Though Israel did not at once upon their possession of 
 the country take Mount Zion, the reference may be to Mount Zion as the 
 ultimate goal of the possession of the whole country. It is, however, bet- 
 ter to regard fit as in Psalm Ixviii. 9; civ. 25, and ^ft, as is often the case 
 in the sense of a mountain range. 
 
PSALM LXXIX. 835 
 
 ancient reproach of the Philistines. But he chose him a new tribe 
 and a new dwelling-place. 
 
 Y. 69 72. Sublime as in the heavens, and established like the 
 earth upon eternal rocks, he fixed his sanctuary on that hill of 
 which the prophets afterwards said, that "it should be exalted 
 above the hills, and that all nations should flow unto it." (Isaiah 
 ii. 2.) The faithful shepherd of his flocks of sheep, who tenderly 
 cared for the suckling ewes, was called to become the shepherd 
 of men. (So 1 Chron. xviii. 7.) He now feeds his people, as once 
 he fed his flocks with faithfulness and his sheep with diligence. 
 He who fears the works and the ways of the Lord is sure to 
 acknowledge him. 
 
 PSALM LXXIX. 
 
 A PSALM of complaint, composed in the days of Israel's calamity. 
 Though the burning and destruction of the temple are not speci- 
 fied as in Psalm Ixxiv. the reference is nevertheless to the same 
 event, and the composition of the poem must have taken place 
 after the consummation of the calamity that had come upon the 
 city, for Jerusalem is said to have become a heap of stones, (v. 1,) 
 the whole country laid waste, (v. 7,) and neighbouring nations to 
 have taken vengeance upon Israel, (v. 12.) The spoiling of the 
 temple by Nebuchadnezzar had taken place in the reigns of Jehoia- 
 kim and Jeconiah, and the country had greatly suffered from the 
 invasions of the foe. But a destruction like that which is implied 
 in the phraseology of the present psalm had not occurred at that 
 time, since Nebuchadnezzar only carried off the innocent Jeconiah 
 and established in his stead his uncle Zedekiah as tributary king, 
 that Israel might continue in vassalage. (Of. ad. Ps. Ixxiv. and xliv.) 
 Deeply alive to the degradation of Israel by heathen nations, the 
 Psalmist describes the sufferings of this nation and of the holy city 
 in particular, (v. 1 4;) he invokes the punitive judgment of God 
 upon the heathen, and his forgiving mercy upon the sins of his 
 nation, (v. 5 9 ;) he presumes to remind the Lord that the igno- 
 miny of the nation is his own, and demands a due requital. He 
 jromises to God songs of praise such as none other than his own 
 people are able to render, (v. 10 13.) 
 
 A 
 
 PSALM of Asaph. 
 
 God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; 
 Thy holy temple have they defiled ; 
 They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. 
 
336 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 2 The dead bodies of thy servants have they given 
 To be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, 
 
 The flesh of thy saints 
 Unto the beasts of the earth. 
 
 3 Their blood have they shed like water round about Jeru- 
 
 salem ; 
 And there was none to bury them. 
 
 4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours, 
 
 A scorn and derision to them that are round about us. 
 
 5 How long, LORD ? wilt thou be angry for ever ? 
 Shall thy zeal burn like fire ? 
 
 6 Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not 
 
 known thee. 
 
 And upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy 
 name. 
 
 7 For they have devoured Jacob, 
 And laid waste his dwelling place. 
 
 8 remember not against us former iniquities: 
 Let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us : 
 For we are brought very low. 
 
 9 Help us, God of our salvation, 
 For the glory of thy name : 
 
 And deliver us, and purge away our sins, 
 For thy name's sake. 
 
 10 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? 
 Let there be known among the heathen in our sight 
 The avenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed. 
 
 11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee ; 
 According to the greatness of thy power 
 Preserve the children of death : 
 
 12 And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom 
 Their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, 
 
 Lord. 
 
 13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture 
 Will give thee thanks for ever : 
 
 We will show forth thy praise to all generations. 
 
 V. 1 4. Not in common warfare but with unheard-of fury had 
 the heathen done outrage to the holy places and their inhabitants. 
 In their arrogance they regarded the possession of God as their 
 own. They treated the temple as if He had ceased to exist to 
 whose honour it had been built. Not content with the massacre 
 of the servants of the God of Israel; they refused to them the last 
 
PSALM LXXX. 337 
 
 honours, in leaving their corpses unburied as meat for the birds of 
 prey and jackals. Neighbouring nations, who had for centuries 
 been the witnesses that Israel had the Lord for their Shepherd, 
 raised the voice of derision, which with the people fell also upon 
 their God. 
 
 V. 5 9. Their degradation had continued unpunished for some 
 time already. Shall the heathen not now as in days of old be 
 brought to the knowledge that the King of kings is ruler in Israel ? 
 The Psalmist is nevertheless aware that the heathen are only instru- 
 ments in the hands of the Lord. He therefore prays for forgive- 
 ness of the sins of the nation, who not only on account of present 
 iniquity, but on account of the transgression of their ancestors, had 
 deserved the visitation of Divine anger. He prays for deliverance 
 not on account of any merits or virtues which they possess but for 
 his name's sake, for his name's sake. 
 
 V. 10 13. When God has so intertwined his name with that 
 of his people, and his own honour so intimately interwoven with 
 the history of his people, as in the case of Israel, does it not follow, 
 that the destiny of his nation affects the honour of his name ? The 
 Psalmist cannot resist the desire that the shed blood should not 
 remain unavenged. The sighing of the prisoners (cf. ad. Ps. 
 Ixix. 34) is too piteous, and those that are left have almost fallen 
 a prey to death. The heathen nations had used the language of 
 derision and aided in the destruction of Jerusalem, (Ezek. xxv. 12, 
 etc.] Jer. xlvii.; Obad. 10, etc.] Ps. cxvii.;) in reproaching Israel 
 they had reproached the Covenant-God of Israel. The Psalmist in 
 praying for the requital of their reproach, supplicates the vindica- 
 tion of his God. When other nations are delivered from a degrading 
 condition they praise their fate or dumb idols. Israel only knows 
 who is their Shepherd, to whom they owe their pasture, therefore 
 Israel promises, if spared through their present night of tribulation, 
 to show forth the praises of the living God. 
 
 PSALM LXXX. 
 
 A SONG of complaint, composed at a time when the worst had not 
 yet happened to Israel, but when various heathen nations were 
 wasting the country: we cannot determine whether its composition 
 took place in the days of the idolatrous monarchs before Josiah, or 
 in the period of tribulation before the reign of Zedekiah. 
 
 The author of this beautiful psalm recalls the times of old, when 
 29 
 
338 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the Lord used to march before his people, on their going out to 
 battle, (v. 2 4.) But in the present time, tears are the meat 
 and drink of the nation, which alternately falls into the hands of 
 neighbours or of the foe, (v. 58;) and yet the Lord himself had 
 miraculously planted that vine and given it room to spread. 
 Why should it now be undermined by wild beasts? (v. 915.) 
 Shall its planter quietly look on, when it is treated like a weed? 
 
 ( v . 16 20.) Each strophe concludes with emphatic cries for 
 
 deliverance. 
 
 the chief Musician, to the tune "the lilies of the 
 law," A Psalm of Asaph. 
 
 2 Give ear, Shepherd of Israel, 
 Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock ; 
 
 3 Thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth. 
 Before Ephraim, and Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up 
 
 thy strength, 
 And come and save us. 
 
 4 TURN us AGAIN, Gop, AND CAUSE THY FACE TO SHINE ; 
 
 AND WE SHALL BE SAVED. 
 
 5 LORD God of hosts, 
 
 How long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy 
 people ? 
 
 6 Thou feedest them with the bread of tears ? 
 And givest them tears to drink in great measure. 
 
 7 Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours : 
 And our enemies laugh among themselves. 
 
 8 TURN us AGAIN, GOD OF HOSTS, 
 
 AND CAUSE THY FACE TO SHINE; AND WE SHALL BE 
 SAVED. 
 
 9 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt : 
 Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. 
 
 10 Thou preparedst room before it, 
 And didst cause it to ta*ke deep root, 
 And it filled the land. 
 
 11 The hills were covered with the shadow of it, 
 
 And the boughs thereof were like the cedars of God. 
 
 12 She sent out her boughs unto the sea, 
 
 And her branches unto the river (Euphrates.) 
 
 13 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, 
 
 So that all they which pass by the way do pluck her ? 
 
 14 The boar out of the wood doth waste it ; 
 And the wild beast of the field doth devour it. 
 
PSALM LXXX. 339 
 
 15 RETURN, WE BESEECH THEE, GOD OF HOSTS: 
 LOOK DOWN FROM HEAVEN, AND BEHOLD, AND VISIT 
 
 THIS VINE. 
 
 16 And protect that which thy right hand hath planted, 
 And the branch (or, "the son") that thou madest strong 
 
 for thyself. 
 
 17 It is burned with fire, it is cut down: 
 
 They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance. 
 
 18 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, 
 Upon the son of mam whom thou madest strong for thyself. 
 
 19 So will not we go back from thee: 
 Quicken us, and we will call upon thy name. 
 
 20 TURN us AGAIN, LORD GOD OF HOSTS, 
 
 CAUSE THY FACE TO SHINE, AND WE SHALL BE SAVED. 
 
 V. 2 4. The Psalmist prays for the return of the glorious 
 days of old, when the ark of the Lord headed the armies of his 
 people; he therefore calls the God of Israel the Shepherd who 
 goes before his flock. Joseph stands for Israel. (Ps. Ixxvii. 16; 
 Ixxxi. 6; Obad. 18.) The three tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, 
 and Benjamin, the three sons of Rachel, (Numb. ii. 18 24; 
 x. 21 2,4,) went immediately behind the ark. Whenever the ark 
 arose against the enemy, (Numb. x. 35,) Moses used to exclaim, 
 "Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them 
 that hate thee flee before thee/' The Psalmist repeats this excla- 
 mation. "Cause thy face to shine upon us," was the blessing of 
 Aaron; the Psalmist prays for the renewal of that blessing. 
 
 V. 5 8. The Psalmist solemnly addresses God as the Lord 
 God of hosts, because he supplicates him to fight for his people. 
 Though only certain numbers of the chosen servants of God among 
 the people sought for aid from heaven, the Psalmist expresses 
 himself as if the whole nation were praying. If they had really 
 sent with one voice their prayers to heaven they would never have 
 been rejected, for great is the strength when a whole nation of one 
 accord, as it were-, like one man, importunes the Lord of heaven! 
 No doubt they had all their share in the tears, though certainly 
 not in the prayers. Their bread was so steeped in tears that they 
 became their food, and so copious was their weeping that their 
 tears became their drink. (Psalm xlii. 4.) He speaks of their 
 neighbours and enemies as if different nations had successively 
 invaded Palestine, as e. g. it was the case under Jehoiakim: 
 shortly before him Pharaoh Necho had conquered Jerusalem and 
 deposed Joash; then followed the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar; 
 and according to 2 Kings xxiv. 2, the Syrians, Moabites, and 
 Ammonites attacked the nation towards the close of Jehoiakim's 
 reign. 
 
340 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Y. 9 14. The prophets have often represented the people of 
 God by the figure of the noble vine. (Isaiah v. 1 7; xxvii. 2 6; 
 Jer. xii. 10; ii. 21; Hos. xiv. 8; Ezek. xvii. 310; xix. 10. The 
 symbol of a very large golden vine was therefore suspended above 
 the gate of the vestibule of the temple. The noble vine was taken 
 from Egypt, and its culture also took place in Lower Egypt, where 
 the Israelites dwelt; but room was given it in Canaan to grow and 
 spread. She sent her roots far into the earth, and her tendrils 
 high up to the skies, so that she overshadowed mountains and 
 darkened the lofty cedars.* She spread abroad, from the Mediter- 
 ranean to Syria, to the river Euphrates, to those borders ' which 
 Moses had promised (Exod. xxiii. 31,) and David secured to the 
 kingdom. But the hedge which used to surround the vineyard is 
 now broken down. (Isaiah v. 5.) Not only may all who pass by 
 pluck off her grapes, but the wild beasts of the forest come to des- 
 troy her, and the boar undermines the soil. 
 
 V. 15 20. But even the darkest days cannot be sufficiently 
 gloomy to prevent faith retaining the hope that a vine which God 
 had planted with so much tender care should not lie near to his 
 heart. God may cause a people which he has brought up to 
 endure great afflictions, but when their chastisement is consum- 
 mated, he will once more vouchsafe his aid. ".0 that my people 
 had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways. I 
 should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand 
 against their adversaries/' But afflicted Israel often forgot that 
 God never turns his hand until it has accomplished its end with 
 his people. Asaph and a few like-minded persons might have 
 
 Eromised, that though chastised by the rod of God, they would not 
 save him if he were to remove the rod. But if only a few noble 
 plants were left among all the people, they were obliged, in agree- 
 ment with the Divine arrangements, to share the stroke which fell 
 upon the whole nation, just as the single member must share the 
 disease which affects the whole body. Believers should then com- 
 fort themselves in the faith that that which happens to others as a 
 just recompense is to them a corrective, which, provided they con- 
 tinue in the fear of the Lord, is sure to issue in their ultimate 
 advantage. We may then have the assurance which is repeatedly 
 expressed in this psalm, that the gloomiest and thickest darkness 
 may cease at any moment, that every wound may be healed, as 
 soon as the Lord is pleased to lift up the light of his countenance. 
 
 * Rosenmttller, The East, iv. 89, speaking of the Persian vines, says, 
 "The plant rises to the loftiest heights above the highest trees." 
 
PSALM LXXXI. 341 
 
 PSALM LXXXI. 
 
 A PASSOVER psalm, which contains at the same time a sermon of 
 God to his people. Yerse 6 shows that the passover is meant.* 
 Asaph, the cotemporary of David, is probably the author. It is 
 very probable that this psalm was sung when the pious Hezekiah 
 solemnized his large passover at Jerusalem, to which he had 
 actually invited apostate Israel into, and there came indeed some 
 of Ashar, Manasseh, and Zebulun, to worship at Jerusalem, in the 
 place which the Lord had commanded them. (2 Chron. xxx. 11.) 
 We know that then some of the Psalms of David and of Asaph 
 were sung, (2 Chron. xxix. 30 :) and the address of the Deity in 
 this psalm is^ peculiarly applicable to that portion of the kingdom 
 of Israel which had forsaken the Lord. 
 
 The Psalmist joyfully begins with the exhortation to solemnize 
 the passover according to the Divine injunction, with pleasant 
 music and the psaltery, (v. 2 6.) He then introduces God as 
 speaking, as He had addressed his people from Sinai, (v. 7 11.) 
 He then, like the prophets, filled by the Holy Ghost, complains in 
 the name of God of the former obstinacy of Israel, and gives them 
 promises on condition of their faithfulness, (v. 12. 17.) 
 
 1 nnO the chief Musician, to the tune of Gath, A Psalm 
 JL of Asaph. 
 
 2 Sing aloud unto God our strength : 
 
 Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. 
 
 3 Raise a psalm and strike the timbrel. 
 The pleasant harp with the psaltery. 
 
 4 Blow up thB trumpet in the new moon, 
 
 In the full moon, on our solemn feast day. 
 
 5 For this is a statute for Israel, 
 And a law of the God of Jacob. 
 
 6 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, 
 When he went out against the land of Egypt : 
 Where I heard a language that I understood not : 
 
 7 "I removed his shoulder from the burden: 
 His hands were delivered from the basket. 
 
 8 Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee ; 
 I answered thee in the sacred place of thunder : 
 I proved thee at the waters of strife. Selah. 
 
 9 Hear, my people, and I will testify unto thee. 
 Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me ; 
 
 * Luther renders verse 4, "In our feast of tabernacles." 
 29* 
 
342 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 10 There shall no strange god be in thee ; 
 Neither shalt thou worship any strange god. 
 
 11 I am the LORD thy God, 
 
 Which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: 
 Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." 
 
 12 But my people will not hearken to my voice ; 
 And Israel would none of me. 
 
 13 So I gave them up unto the imaginations of their hearts ; 
 That they might walk in their own counsels. 
 
 14 that my people would hearken unto me, 
 And Israel walk in my ways ! 
 
 15 I should soon subdue their enemies, 
 
 And turn my hand against their adversaries. 
 
 16 The haters of the LORD should be forced to homage, 
 And their time should endure for ever. 
 
 17 He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat ; 
 And with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied 
 
 thee. 
 
 F. 2 4. The Sabbaths, the new moons, and the three annual 
 feasts of Israel were days of thanksgiving and joy. On those occa- 
 sions thanksgivings are returned partly for the goodness of God in 
 the historic guidance of Israel, partly for his annual blessings in 
 the kingdom of nature. (Deut. xvi. 11. 14; cf. Numb. x. 10.) 
 Hence at the occasion of the passover, the Psalmist calls for the 
 Levites, upon whom it devolved to tune the hearts to gladness by 
 the joyous sound of musical instruments. He calls for joyous 
 psalms accompanied by the solemn-sounding tambourine, the clear 
 notes of the harp and lute, bidding them to give the signal with 
 the majestic voice of the bugle at the beginning of the month, 
 (namely, new moon,) and in the midst of the month (namely, full 
 moon,) for the festive gathering of all the people at the sanctuary. 
 Sacrifice used to be accompanied by the sound of silver trumpets. 
 (Numb. x. 10.) 
 
 V. 5, 6. Godly people regard the joy and peace of religious 
 festivities as divine gifts. God gave Israel the privilege of rejoic- 
 ing at those days. They may, yea, they shall rejoice; for the 
 passover is the memorial of the time when God entered into cove- 
 nant with his people when after they had forgotten him, he spoke 
 to them by words and works. The giving of the law did indeed 
 not occur until three months after the exode from Egypt. But 
 since the deliverance from the Egyptian thraldom was Israel's obli- 
 gatory tie for the covenant of Sinai, and since God had brought 
 them out of Egypt, for the very purpose of their becoming the peo- 
 ple of his inheritance, the deliverance and the giving of the law 
 
PSALM LXXXI. 343 
 
 might be conceived as intimately connected. (Exod. xix. 3 8.) 
 The passover may be said to be the festival of the birth and life of 
 Israel. 
 
 F. 7 11. The Lord revealed himself and made known his 
 name to his people at the exode and the giving of the law. He 
 was the same God whom their fathers knew, but whom, under the 
 pressure of the yoke of Egypt, and while surrounded by an idolatrous 
 nation, they had forgotten. (Exod. iii. 13; Amos v. 25, 26.) He 
 spoke by a mighty act when he removed the burden which so heavily 
 pressed upon their shoulders. There are still existing Egyptian 
 sculptures, which represent the Israelites with the vessels in which they 
 carried the clay and the tiles. He answered their cry in sending aid 
 by the tempest which destroyed their pursuers. (Psalm Ixxvii. 19.) 
 He manifested himself to them by his miracles in the desert. 
 (Numb. xx. 10 12.) Having done so much for his people, he was 
 fairly entitled to exact their obedience: he had established the 
 claims of his all-sufficiency for them, that they should not go to 
 seek for help elsewhere. These were the demands which God put 
 forth from Sinai, and of these the Psalmist here reminds them; 
 and more than this, God, in his infinite compassion, actually invited 
 the nation as it were to test his all-sufficiency. Let them open 
 their hearts and mouths ever so wide, he would fill them; as infants 
 and young birds are fed by their mothers, so he would satisfy them. 
 (Psalm ciii. 5.) 
 
 V. 12, 13. But the people were not satisfied with a God like 
 him, and the God of Israel had to complain, " Israel will none of 
 me." (Jer. ii. 5.) He gave them up and made them experience 
 their nothingness without him. Man will return to the all-suffi- 
 cient God, though by circuitous and thorny paths, if some tender 
 parts continue in his heart; but if these are gone, then the judg- 
 ment of induration will ensue. 
 
 V. 14 17. Is there a human heart that can remain unmoved 
 on beholding the love of a superior despised by his inferior say 
 that of a king by a beggar? Should not the stones be moved on 
 hearing God complain, that his people has despised him? Why 
 does He complain? Does it impoverish Him? Does the spring 
 suffer hurt, when a thirsty fool would rather perish than drink its 
 waters? No, God, who is rich in mercy, complains of his despised 
 love, because He hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked. How 
 great is the chain of testimony, furnished by the books of the 
 history of Israel, showing that Israel was only then happy, when 
 they hearkened to the Lord. The foolish people often complained 
 in dark days, that their peace was far off when it was close at 
 hand, for as the Lord here promises, He would soon have delivered 
 them from all their enemies. But they hewed themselves broken 
 cisterns, and forsook the fountain of living waters. (Jer. ii. 13.) 
 The various and noble blessings which they might enjoy are here 
 
344 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 depicted to them by the figure of temporal goods, of fine wheat, 
 oil, and honey, which God can cause to flow out of Crocks. (Deut. 
 xxxii. 13.) But such is man, he complains that his happiness is 
 far away, and in departing from his G-od, he departs from his 
 happiness. 
 
 PSALM LXXXII. 
 
 A PSALM of complaint against unjust judges. 
 
 The corruption of judicial administration during several epochs 
 of the Jewish kingdom, appear from passages like Isaiah i.j 
 Amos ii.; Mic. vii. The high demands which truly pious mon- 
 archs put upon their judges, and which in the main agree with this 
 psalm, appear from the address of Jehoshaphat to the judges, 
 whom he had instituted. (2 Chron. xix. 5 7.) He said to 
 them, " Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for 
 the Lord, who is with you in the judgment. Wherefore now let 
 the fear of the Lord be upon you : take heed and do it : for there is 
 no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor 
 taking of gifts " 
 
 The Psalmist beholds the Lord as it were visibly stepping 
 among his representatives on earth as Judge Supreme, calling 
 them to account, because of their undermining and destroying the 
 distinctions between right and wrong, for the preservation of which 
 they had been instituted, (v. 2 4.) Deluded, they hear not 
 therefore the foundations of the earth begin to move, (v. 5.) 
 They are addressed once more : " The office is indeed from the 
 Lord, but ye, the bearers thereof, are mortal men/' (v. 6j 7.) 
 But from the conviction that even that admonition would prove 
 fruitless, the Psalmist calls upon the Judge Supreme, that He, to 
 whom everything which is opposed to the kingdom of God must 
 yield after all, would bring an effectual judgment on earth against 
 everything which opposes the Lord, (v. 8.) 
 
 1 A PSALM of Asaph. 
 
 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty : 
 He judgeth among the gods. 
 
 2 " How long will ye judge unjustly, 
 
 And take the part of the wicked? Selah. 
 
 3 Secure right to the poor and fatherless : 
 Do justice to the afflicted and needy* 
 
PSALM LXXXII. 345 
 
 4 Deliver the poor and needy: 
 
 Rid them out of the hand of the wicked." 
 
 5 They know not, neither will they understand ; 
 They walk on in darkness: 
 
 All the foundations of the earth totter. 
 
 6 "I have said, Ye are gods; 
 
 And all of you are children of the Most High. 
 
 7 But ye shall die like men, 
 
 And fall like one of the princes. " 
 
 8 Arise, God, judge the earth : 
 For thou shalt inherit all nations. 
 
 V. 1. It is the congregation of Israel in which the Lord 
 appears as Judge Supreme, where no other judgment than that 
 which is according to his eternal laws is permitted. (Psalm 
 Ixxiv. 2; cxlix. 2.) Because it is the office of judges to distribute 
 recompense on earth in God's stead, and according to his justice 
 and laws, they are in the Pentateuch called "gods." (Exod. 
 xxii. 28.) They judge not for man, but as Jehoshaphat says, "for 
 the Lord, who is with them in the judgment." 
 
 V. 2 4. The Judge Supreme had for a long time been lenient 
 to the unjust administrators of the divine office. Previous to his 
 exercising effective judgments, he commissions his servants to pro- 
 claim the word of admonition. They make fellowship with the 
 unjust, who are like them, and for the sake of covetousness with- 
 hold justice from the poor and the fatherless, for whose protection 
 in particular earthly tribunals are invested with power. And is 
 God, who is called the father of the fatherless and the judge 
 of the widows, (Psalm Ixviii. 6,) and has said, " Cursed be he that 
 perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow/' 
 (Deut. xxvii. 19,) to look at it with impunity? Here is the mighty 
 consolation of those who have no strength and support of their own, 
 that God, who has invested earthly tribunals with his power, for 
 the special purpose of protecting the helpless against oppressors, 
 will assuredly watch over their proceedings, and seize the sceptre 
 when bis judge* pervert justice and become oppressors. 
 
 V. 5, 6. When mortals to whom God has lent strength forget 
 that their strength is only a loan, and presume to regard them- 
 selves as lords, then their proud hearts get enshrouded with dark- 
 ness and delusion so great that they become proof against all exhor- 
 tation. The effects of that perversion are plain. Where right- 
 eousness and justice are perverted into injustice, the foundations of 
 the earth get moved, for justice and law are the cements of fami- 
 lies and states. 
 
 V. 7. God speaks once more. He says, as it were, "I have 
 made you the bearers of My Godhead, the children of the Most 
 
346 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 High, in whom by virtue of your office, and the power reposed in 
 that office, My Holy Godhead, which ruleth the world, may be seen 
 as if reflected in a glass but you who are the bearers of that power 
 continue after all nothing more or less than what you are, mortal 
 men; you are like other men and other potentates (2 Sam. ix. 11; 
 Judges xvi. 7. 11; 1 Kings xix. 2) doomed to die; God in insti- 
 tuting you as his vicegerents means not to renounce his own judi- 
 cial office." Death, which levels all men, is the most effective 
 sermon for earthly rulers. Our Lord refers to this passage in John 
 x. 34, when the Jews reviled him in that he made himself equal 
 to God. "If he called them gods," said he, "unto whom the word 
 of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, say ye of him, 
 whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, ' Thou 
 blasphemest/ because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not 
 the works of my Father, believe me not; but if I do, though ye 
 believe not me, believe the works : that ye may know and believe, 
 that the Father is in me and I in him." All this means, "If the 
 Scriptures confer the name of gods on those unjust judges, because 
 they are instituted to execute on earth the office and works of God, 
 how much less offence ought you to take at my saying, I and my 
 Father are one, I all whose works reveal the glory of the Father 
 on earth." 
 
 V. 8. Aware that most of the potentates and nobles of the earth 
 refuse to get wise by the thought of death, but that they think 
 because their lands are called after their own names, therefore their 
 houses shall continue for ever, (Ps. xlix. 12,) the Psalmist now 
 calls upon the Judge of the world to execute an effective judgment, 
 that mortals might know that they are vassals, and that he is the 
 only Lord and Master, to whom everything must yield which is 
 opposed to the kingdom of God. (Of. ad. Ps. lix. 6, and vii. 7.) 
 
 PSALM LXXXIH. 
 
 A PSALM of supplication, composed when many nations from beyond 
 Jordan and the South were threatening to destroy the people at 
 once. It was sung in the reign of Jehoshaphat, at the critical 
 juncture which is recorded 2 Chronicles xx. The chief enemies 
 were the Edomites, from Mount Seir, south of Palestine; the 
 Ishmaelites, an Arabian nation, who with the Midianites (Judges 
 viii. 22. 24) resided south-east in the vicinity of Moab; still more 
 to the east dwelt the Hagarenes, (1 Chron. v. 10; xix. 20,) in 
 the neighbourhood of Amalek, to the south, near Edom, there was 
 Gebal both Arabian tribes; the Ammonites lived in the east in 
 
PSALM LXXXIII. 347 
 
 the direction of Syria: to these came from the north-west Philistia 
 and Tyre, and from the north the remote Assyria. It appears from 
 verse 9 that the first-named lesser tribes, viz. the children of Lot 
 (i. e. Am in on and Moab,) were their chief enemies. 2 Chronicles 
 xx. states that a mighty host of the Moabites and Ammonites, and 
 of the countries beyond Ammon,* had unexpectedly marched against 
 Jehoshaphat; also from Syria, f (v. 2;) so that the king in great 
 anxiety entered the temple and prayed, "0 Lord God of our 
 fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all 
 the kingdoms of the heathen ? and in thine hand is there not power 
 and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? They come to 
 cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit, 
 O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against 
 this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what 
 to do: but our eyes are upon thee." And all Judah stood before 
 the Lord, with their little ones, their wives, and their children. 
 Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jehaziel, a Levite of the 
 sons of Asaphj who said, " Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabi- 
 tants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, thus saith the 
 Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great 
 multitude; for the battle is not yours but God's. To-morrow go 
 ye down against them : behold they come up by the cliff of Ziz, and 
 ye shall find them at the end of the valley before the wilderness of 
 Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle : set yourselves, 
 stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, Judah 
 and Jerusalem : fear not nor be dismayed : to-morrow go out against 
 them, for the Lord will be with you." Those nations were already 
 within a sixteen hours' march from Jerusalem. So far had they 
 advanced on the desert road along the Dead Sea. The next morn- 
 ing Jehoshaphat went to meet them, while the people and the 
 appointed singers were moving forward in the beauty of holiness, 
 and sang, "Praise the Lord, for his mercy endureth for ever." 
 And when they came to Mizpah, lo ! they found the earth covered 
 with dead bodies, with an abundance of riches and precious jewels, 
 for dissensions had arisen among the enemies, and the one had 
 killed the other; and Jehoshaphat and his people, laden with rich 
 spoil, returned to Jerusalem with psalteries, and harps, and trumpets, 
 unto the house of the Lord. It seems that all those tribes, as in a 
 migration of nations, had left their countries with all their riches, 
 
 * 2 Chron. xx. 1, should be rendered "beyond" instead "beside the 
 Ammonites." 
 
 j- They marched round the southern point of the Dead Sea, "along the 
 same road which to this day is frequented by the Arabs on their predatory 
 excursions: it goes along the shore to Ain Dschedi (the well of goats;") to 
 this day there remains a rocky pass, which goes up towards Jerusalem, 
 which in 2 Chronicles xx. 16 is called "Ziz." Robinson's Palestine, vol. ii. 
 p. 446. 
 
348 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 to take at once possession of the land of Israel, as Jehoshaphat and 
 the author of this psalm express it. (Of. 2 Chron. xx. 11, with 
 Psalm Ixxxiii. 5. 13; ef Keil on Chronicles, p. 246.) It is to be 
 noticed, that the Psalmist has intentionally selected from ancient 
 history the example of the Midianites, for as in the days of Jehos- 
 haphat, it was the Arabian tribes, who were then assembled, 
 "Midianites, Amalekites, Ishmaelites, and the children of the east;" 
 (Judges vi. 33; vii. 12; viii. 24,) the victory of Gideon moreover 
 coincides with this narrative, for it is said of the nations who fought 
 with Midian that "the Lord set every man's sword against his 
 fellow." (Judges vii. 22.) The examples of Sisera and Jabin may 
 possibly have been adduced because they were Canaanites (which 
 term included the Phoenicians, "Obad. 20,) and may therefore con- 
 tain a more specific reference to enemies in the west. The historical 
 books give no account of an alliance of the Philistines and Assyrians 
 and the other nations, but their participation may have been like 
 that of the Syrians* of a mediate kind, as in the days of David 
 the Syrians came to the aid of the Ammonites, but had in their 
 turn to ask Mesopotamia for help, (2 Sam. x. 16;) or those nations 
 might simply have promised their aid. 
 
 Since Jehoshaphat and his Levites are said to have gone forth 
 to meet the foe singing psalms, we may assume that it was this 
 psalm which they sang, and that the Levite of the sons of Asaph, 
 who is mentioned 2 Chron. xx. 14, is the author. He first invokes 
 the Lord for the manifestation of his power, since the foe contem- 
 plated nothing less than the total destruction of that nation which 
 was under his peculiar protection, (v. 2 5.) He reverts to ancient 
 history, considering that it would not be the first time that the 
 savage hordes of eastern nations had to succumb to the small band 
 of those who had the Lord for their ally, (v. 6 13.) The people 
 of God pray for victory, not only for the sake of temporal benefit, 
 but that all the kingdoms of the earth should know that the nation 
 which to a man confides in the Lord, may rely on him in times of 
 the most imminent peril, (v. 14 19.) 
 
 1 A SONG or Psalm of Asaph. 
 
 2 Keep not thou silence, God ; 
 
 Hold not thy peace, and be not still, God. 
 
 3 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult : 
 
 And they that hate thee have lifted up the head. 
 
 4 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, 
 And consulted against thy hidden ones. 
 
 * Possibly 2 Chron. xx. 2, and 2 Sam. viii. 13, ought, according to another 
 reading, to be rendered "Edom" instead of "Aram." 
 
PSALM LXXXIII. 349 
 
 5 They have said, " Come, and let us cut them off from 
 
 being a nation; 
 That the name of Israel maybe no more in remembrance." 
 
 6 For they have consulted together with one consent: 
 They are confederate against thee: 
 
 7 The tents of Edom, and the Ishmaelites ; 
 Of Moab, and the Hagarenes ; 
 
 8 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; 
 
 The Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre ; 
 
 9 Assur also is joined w T ith them: 
 
 He lends his arm to the children of Lot. Selah. 
 
 10 Do unto them as unto the Midianites; 
 
 As to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison : 
 
 11 Which perished at En-dor : 
 
 They became as dung for the earth. 
 
 12 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb : 
 Yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalinunna: 
 
 13 Who said, "Let us take to ourselves 
 The houses of God in possession." 
 
 14 my God, make them like a wheel (or, "whirlwind;") 
 As the stubble before the wind. 
 
 15 As the fire burneth a wood, 
 
 And as the flame setteth the mountains on fire ; 
 
 16 So persecute them with thy tempest, 
 And make them afraid with thy storm. 
 
 17 Fill their faces with shame ; 
 
 That they may seek thy name, LORD. 
 
 18 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; 
 Yea, let them be put to shame, and perish : 
 
 19 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is 
 
 JEHOVAH, 
 Art the Most High over all the earth. 
 
 V. 2 5. The God of Israel addressed his people, not only by 
 words, but by works. In faith they now pray for such an utter- 
 ance by works. The foe has determined the destruction of that 
 nation, to which it has been said, "He that toucheth you, toucheth 
 the apple of his eye." (Zech. ii. 8.) Ought not a people to whom 
 this is said cast all their care upon God, though the whole world 
 should rise up against them? Yea, they who lift up their head 
 against them virtually lift it against their Covenant-God. 
 
 V. 6 10. The children of Lot come as enemies. The tribes, 
 whom Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt, had spared, 
 (2 Chron. xx. 10,) come now to requite their good with evil. 
 30 
 
350 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Philistia, their old hereditary foe, has lent his aid, and as remote 
 Mesopotamia strengthened the king of Syria by her forces when he 
 marched against David, so now were the resources of the enemy 
 increased from Syria or Assyria. The Psalmist probably mentions 
 intentionally the name of the most distant nation. 
 
 y. 1113. The day of Midian. The heart of an Israelite 
 beats high at the remembrance of that day. " Thou hast broken 
 the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his 
 oppressor, as in the day of Midian." Such is the jubilant exclama- 
 tion of Isaiah while about to describe the advent of the great king- 
 dom of peace under Messiah. (Isa. ix. 4.) On that day Gideon, 
 with three hundred valiant men, routed the people, "who lay along 
 in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and whose camels 
 were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude." 
 (Judges vii. 12.) On that day they cried, " The sword of the Lord 
 and of Gideon" and all their enemies were scattered. The Lord 
 had then verified the words which the prophet had now told to 
 Jehoshaphat, " Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great 
 multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's." So it happened 
 also when Deborah, the heroic woman, went with Barak against 
 Sisera, the captain of the Philistines, and a woman smote a nail 
 in his temples, (Judges iv. 21;) when Deborah sang, "They fought 
 from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." 
 (Judges v. 20.) Their captains should fall like Oreb and Zeeb, 
 the captains of the Midianites; and their kings like Zebah and 
 Zalmunna, the kings of the Midianites, who in reliance on human 
 strength had resolved to take the possession of God. 
 
 F. 14 19. All their might and power are to pass away swift 
 and light as the stubble before the wind, as the splendour of the 
 mountain wood, when the tempest sets it on fire from the base to 
 its proud summit. The Psalmist contemplates even in their fall 
 nothing but the glory of God. They should learn to know and 
 seek the power of that name which they had insulted in His cove- 
 nant people. History concludes the record of that miracle of the 
 Lord in these words, "And the fear of the Lord was on all the 
 kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the Lord fought 
 against the enemies of Israel." (2 Chron. xx. 29.) This was a 
 revelation of the arm of the Lord similar to that when he struck 
 Sennacherib with the plague under the walls of Jerusalem. 
 
 PSALM LXXXIV. 
 
 A SONG expressive of longing for the sanctuary at Jerusalem, sung 
 by the Levites at Mahanaim; which one of David's Levites, placing 
 
PSALM LXXXIV. 351 
 
 himself in his royal master's position, composed during his flight 
 before Absalom, when they were at Mahanaim, beyond Jordan. 
 (Cf. ad. Psalms xlii. xliii. Ixiii.) 
 
 Yerses 10, 11, clearly show that this psalm refers to a king, who 
 remote from the sanctuary feels an intense longing for it. No other 
 kings were in exile before the destruction of Jerusalem beside the 
 wicked Manasseh and Jeconiah. It cannot have been composed 
 for the former, nor is it likely that it was for the latter, since in 
 that case there would certainly be some reference to the ignominy 
 of the nation at that time. Psalm xlii. 7 shows that it relates to 
 the flight of David. We know that lie (Psalms xxiii. xxvii. Ixi. 
 Ixiii. ; 2 Sam. xv. 25, 26,) longed for the sanctuary as his highest 
 possession. 
 
 This beautiful psalm is replete with the peace of God. The 
 longing for the sanctuary is symbolical of thirst for communion 
 with God, (v. 2 5.) The procession to the house of God is sym- 
 bolical of a walk in God and with God, which goes from strength 
 to strength. The measure of the vividness of the Psalmist's con- 
 templation is also the measure of the intensity of his prayer for 
 his king, to be once more favoured with the sight of the sanctuary. 
 He concludes in the confidence that he has not prayed in vain, 
 (v. 1013.) 
 
 1 nnO the chief Musician, to the tune of Gath, a Psalm of 
 JL the sons of Korah. 
 
 2 How amiable are thy tabernacles, LORD of hosts ! 
 
 3 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth 
 
 For the courts of the LORD : my heart and my flesh rejoice 
 In the living God. 
 
 4 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, 
 
 And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay 
 
 her young, 
 
 Near thine altars, LORD of hosts, 
 My King, and my God. 
 
 5 Blessed are they that dwell in thy house : 
 They will be still praising thee. Selah. 
 
 6 Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee.; 
 Who in their heart remember thy ways. 
 
 7 Who passing through the vale of tears* make it a well ; 
 The rain also covereth it with blessings. 
 
 8 They go from strength to strength, 
 
 Every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. 
 
 *This is probably the same shrub which the Arabs still call "Baca," 
 from its distilling an odoriferous gum, from the Terb> "Bacha, to distil 
 like tears." Translator. 
 
352 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 9 LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: 
 Give ear, God of Jacob. Selah. 
 
 10 Behold, God, our shield, 
 
 And look upon the face of thine anointed. 
 
 11 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. 
 
 I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, 
 Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. 
 
 12 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: 
 The LORD will give grace and glory: 
 No good thing will he withhold 
 From them that walk uprightly. 
 
 130 LORD of hosts, 
 
 Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee. 
 
 V. 2 5. The recollection of his former enjoyments in the 
 vicinity of the sanctuary causes the Psalmist to strengthen his long- 
 ing for the sanctuary by introducing into it his own feelings 
 towards the Lord. His soul longs for the courts,* for he was a 
 Levite and not a priest. Priests only were permitted to approach 
 the inner sanctuary. His humility is great, for the privilege of 
 passing its very threshold is enough to fill him with rapturous 
 delight. His longing, like that of the king in Psalm Ixiii. 2, 3, 
 weakens both heart and flesh. His soul rejoiceth in the living 
 God. Yes, it must have been the living God, who makes himself 
 felt and tasted by his people none other than he could have 
 infused yearnings for communion with him so great as to consume 
 both body and soul. Irrational creatures, such as the sparrow and 
 the swallow, unable to prize their privilege, enjoy what the bard 
 and his king are deprived of. Ancient nations the Arabs among 
 their number used to grant an asylum to birds within the sacred 
 precincts of their temples, and even the buildings themselves. 
 The walls of the Tabernacle were wooden, a yard deep, hung with 
 carpets, and over these there was a double leather-hanging: the 
 courts contained columns with capitals, where birds might easily 
 build their nests. We have no information respecting the arrange- 
 ment of the Tabernacle of Zion. The Psalmist probably refers to 
 the sacred precincts, since the expression, " thine altars/' cannot 
 be understood in a strictly literal sense. The reason of the Psalm- 
 
 * The ancient Tabernacle had only one court, the court of the priests. 
 This passage suggests therefore the idea of the Temple, (cf. Ixv. 5 ; xcvi. 8; 
 c. 4;) but, 1 the plural may be poetically used instead of the singular; 
 2 the court of the Tabernacle may already 1 have had a compartment for 
 the people, (Iken antig: sacra.;) 3 the bard may refer to the courts of the 
 two sanctuaries, that on Zion as well as the Tabernacle, (cf. xv. 1.) The 
 Tabernacle on Zion had two, and the Tabernacle several doorkeepers. 
 (1 Chron. xvi. 38. 42.) 
 
PSALM LXXXV. 353 
 
 iat's longing for the house of God is expressed in the words, 
 "Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they shall praise thee 
 for evermore." His soul longs for the praise of the Lord in the 
 holy congregation. How much is needed until we find the greatest 
 delight of our lives in the praise of the Lord ! 
 
 V. 6 8. His imagination depicts the blessedness of being per- 
 mitted to go up to Zion ; he probably alludes to the holy pilgrims, 
 who used to go up to Jerusalem to the three great feasts, singing 
 psalms. The processions to the sanctuary are to him symbolical 
 of a walk of communion with God. The tears which are shed on 
 that road become rich fountains yea, like the latter rain, which 
 ripens the crops and yields rich blessings. This is the blessing of 
 the tears which are shed in faith. Every station on that way yields 
 new strength, and thus they go on though weeping on and ever 
 onwards till they at last arrive in Zion. Is there a more beautiful 
 figure of home-sick bearers of the cross who are on the pilgrimage 
 to the heavenly Zion ? 
 
 F. 9. He prays for that blessing. One so initiated in the 
 delights and secrets of communion with God as he, heard no doubt 
 the amen in his heart while he was yet praying. 
 
 F. 10, 11. The happiness of the Psalmist is intimately allied 
 to that of the king. He prays so earnestly for the happiness of 
 the latter, that it is clear to see that his own return to Zion depends 
 on that of the anointed of the Lord. He may have been one of 
 the doorkeepers, whom David had appointed on Zion and in the 
 Tabernacle. The house of God in itself could never have been as 
 delightful to him as was the communion with God, which he had 
 realized there more than anywhere else. He had enjoyed more 
 happiness in the courts of that communion with God, than is to be 
 enjoyed in the fulness of the houses of the ungodly. 
 
 F. 12, 13. A pious heart, under the influence of God, receives 
 from him what the material sun imparts to the outward man 
 light, warmth, and joy. Armed hosts here threatened peril the 
 band of David was small but the Lord is a shield to his people, 
 and in him, and not in men, have they reposed their hope. 
 
 PSALM LXXXV. 
 
 A SONG of complaint, composed during the time subsequent to the 
 return of Israel from the captivity, when they had to contend 
 with want and misery in their recovered land, and with hostile 
 nations around them. Nehemiah, moved by their wretchedness^ 
 had obtained the permission of king Artaxerxes to go to their 
 assistance; but even then there were strife and want in the newly 
 30* 
 
354 COMMENTAKY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 founded city. (Neb. i. 3; chap, iv.) Psalm cxxvi. was composed 
 under similar circumstances. 
 
 With a sense of unworthiness and' guilt, the Psalmist (whose 
 language bears a strong resemblance to the prayer of Nehemiah) 
 regards it a great mercy that the Lord has turned the captivity, 
 though he tastes the remainder of the wrath of God in the calamity 
 and ignominy which still continue, (v. 2 8.) His faith assures 
 him of the Divine promise that the help of the Lord is at hand, 
 and he beholds in a vision the fulness of salvation, which is here- 
 after to come upon Zion, (v. 9 14.) 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Koran. 
 
 i nn 
 
 2 Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land : 
 Thou hast turned the captivity of Jacob. 
 
 3 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, 
 Thou hast covered all their sin. Selah. 
 
 4 Thou hast taken away all thy wrath : 
 
 Thou hast turned thy self from the fierceness of thine anger. 
 
 5 Turn us, God of our salvation, 
 
 And cause thine anger towards us to cease. 
 
 6 Wilt thou be angry with us for ever ? 
 
 Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations ? 
 
 7 Wilt thou not revive us again : 
 That thy people may rejoice in thee? 
 
 8 Show us thy mercy, LORD, 
 And grant us thy salvation. 
 
 9 I will hear what God the LORD will speak : 
 
 For he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints : 
 If they turn not again to folly. 
 
 10 Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; 
 That glory may dwell in our land. 
 
 11 Mercy and truth are met together; 
 Kighteousness and peace have kissed each other. 
 
 12 Truth shall spring out of the earth; 
 
 And righteousness shall look down from heaven. 
 
 13 Yea, the LORD shall give that which is good ; 
 And our land shall yield her increase. 
 
 14 Righteousness shall go before him ; 
 
 And shall set us in the way of his steps.* 
 
 V. 2 8. The Lord had punished the apostasy of Israel by 
 delivering them into the hands of their oppressors and driving them 
 
 * Tholuck renders, "And he shall proceed in his ways." 
 
PSALM LXXXVI. 355 
 
 from the land of his inheritance. That punishment bore its fruit. 
 The people tasted in it the anger of God ; yea, they taste it in the 
 residue of their affliction. They know with David that " He hath 
 not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our 
 iniquities/' (Psalm ciii. 10.) Hence they know, that though their 
 apostasy deserved everlasting anger, it would not yet last for ever. 
 The Psalmist is as sure of the mercy of God as he feels himself 
 conscious of guilt. 
 
 F. 9 14. God makes epochs in the life of his servants, so that 
 at times the transgressions of the past are forgiven and erased from 
 the book of his remembrance. Man may then begin anew. The 
 Psalmist predicts here such a time as coming, except new follies 
 should bring new chastisements. He sees salvation approaching. 
 It can only come when Israel shall be pure and holy. That shall 
 be the time of which Isaiah prophesies, "They shall not hurt nor 
 destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the 
 knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," (Isa. ix. 9.) 
 The space between earth and heaven shall be filled with truth and 
 righteousness. The land shall abound in blessings. (Cf. ad. Psalm 
 Ixvii. 7.) The Lord himself shall come to his people, righteous- 
 ness shall be his harbinger, and none shall be able to stay him in 
 his course. 
 
 PSALM LXXXVI. 
 
 A PLAINTIVE psalm of David, which seems to date from the time 
 of the persecution of Saul. It is related to Psalm vi. 
 
 He prays in that assurance which springs from the knowledge of 
 a pious and sincere heart, (v. 2 4,) of great trouble, (v. 1. 6, 7,) 
 the certainty of Divine mercy, (v. 5,) and the power of Divine 
 omnipotence, (v. 8 10.) He prays above all to be kept in the 
 fear of the Lord, (v. 11,) having already richly experienced his 
 mercy, (v. 12, 13.) He may therefore hope for present deliver- 
 ance, and that protection which the Lord has promised to his chil- 
 dren, (v. 1417.) 
 
 PRAYER of David. 
 
 Bow down thine ear, LORD, hear me : 
 For I am poor and needy. 
 2 Preserve my soul ; for I am holy : 
 
 thou, my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. 
 
356 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS, 
 
 3 Be merciful unto me, Lord: 
 For I cry unto thee daily. 
 
 4 Rejoice the soul of thy servant: 
 
 For unto thee, Lord, do I lift up my souL 
 
 5 For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive ; 
 
 And plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee : 
 
 6 Give ear, LORD, unto my prayer ; ^ 
 
 And attend to the voice of my supplications. 
 
 7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee : 
 For thou wilt answer me. 
 
 8 Among the gods there is none like unto thee, Lord : 
 Neither are there any works like unto thy works. 
 
 9 All nations whom thou hast made 
 
 Shall come and worship before thee, Lord ; 
 And shall glorify thy name. 
 
 10 For thou art great, and doest wondrous things : 
 Thou art God alone. 
 
 11 Teach me thy way, LORD; 
 I will walk in thy truth : 
 
 Unite my heart to fear thy name.* 
 
 12 I will praise thee, Lord my God, with all my heart : 
 And I will glorify thy name for evermore. 
 
 13 For great is thy mercy toward me : 
 
 And thouliast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. 
 
 14 God, the proud are risen against me, 
 
 And the assemblies of violent men have sought after my 
 
 soul; 
 And have not set thee before them. 
 
 15 But thou, Lord, art a God full of compassion, and 
 
 gracious, 
 Longsufiering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. 
 
 16 turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; 
 Give thy strength unto thy servant, 
 
 And save the son of thine handmaid. 
 
 17 Show me a token for good ; 
 
 That they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed : 
 Because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me. 
 
 V. 1. Although our poverty and need are by no means the 
 highest and ultimate grounds on which the unanswerableness of 
 our prayers is based, it is nevertheless certain that God has declared 
 
 * Tholuck renders, "Keep my heart to the one thingto fear thy name." 
 
PSALM LXXXVI. 357 
 
 it to be his peculiar office to help the poor, "For the oppression of 
 the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the 
 Lord/' (Psalm xii. 6 :) on the other hand, it is equally certain 
 that men do not begin to call upon the Lord, until the earth can 
 no longer satisfy them, and they feel that they are poor and needy. 
 
 V. 2 4. There is nothing more loathsome to God than hypo- 
 crisy. David knows this, and seeks to obtain the assurance of his 
 conscience that his love and trust in God are sincere, that he calls 
 upon him and longs for him more than for anything besides. 
 Should it be said, " If the confidence of prayer were based in this, 
 then the door of prayer would be shut to gross offenders/' we 
 answer, that sincere repentance is an equally solid foundation for the 
 support of a praying sinner, and an equally potent means of pro- 
 tection for the encouragement of a doubting conscience. 
 
 V. 5 7. What would all human sincerity and holiness avail, 
 if God were to deal with us according to justice? David's first 
 support lies therefore in the love and mercy of God which are 
 attainable on the one condition, that man call upon and seek the 
 Lord in his trouble. He applies that universal condition to him- 
 self, (v. 6,) declaring (v. 7,) that he had cried to the Lord not 
 effeminately nor on trivial grounds, but in trouble so great, that 
 none but he could send deliverance. 
 
 V. 8 10. There are two kinds of doubt which in temptation 
 interpose between ourselves and God either, whether God would, 
 or whether he could, help us. David had repelled the former, and 
 now shows that the latter also cannot prevail against him. When- 
 ever a human being on earth has obtained help, that help comes 
 from the Lord, for idols, the offspring of human thought, which 
 are worshipped by the heathen, are utterly impotent. The Psalmist 
 is so thoroughly affected by this truth, that he realizes the prophetic 
 presentiment that every nation should eventually worship Him. 
 He states this great hope with a profound allusion to its final cause, 
 namely, "All the heathen whom thou hast made" Indeed no 
 greater contradiction is to be conceived than that the spirit derived 
 from God should for ever be unmindful of its origin. Verse 8 
 might give rise to the supposition that he referred to other gods 
 besides the God of Israel. But who are the gods of the heathen, 
 if the God of Israel has made all the heathen ? He furnishes the 
 unmistakeable reply by saying in verse 10, "Thou art God alone/' 
 
 V. 11. Although immersed in outward trouble, we find that the 
 Psalmist, after the manner of real men of prayer, prefaced the peti- 
 tion, "Give us this day our daily bread, and deliver us from evil/' 
 by the petition, "Let thy name be hallowed in me/' He confesses 
 that his mind is as yet imperfectly illumined and his heart imper- 
 fectly fixed on God; stamping as untrue every standard and rule 
 of life which is contrary to the eternal laws of God, he prays that 
 by growing enlightenment he might attain to a more perfect know- 
 
358 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 ledge of the ways of God, and that all the interests and desires 
 which usually affect the hearts of men, might in his case become 
 subordinate to the one thing needful, "to fear the name of the 
 Lord/' 
 
 F. 12, 13. He contemplates the paramount importance of his 
 petition, "to fear the name of the Lord with an undivided heart." 
 He has already experienced mercy so great and undeserved, that 
 his gratitude for it shall never cease. The deliverances of the 
 Lord ought to be received in such a manner that every one of them 
 should bring us a step nearer to heaven, and prompt us to serve 
 the Lord with a more undivided heart. 
 
 F. 14 16. He refers now to his outward trouble. His adver- 
 saries are they who have not set the Lord before them who take 
 even offence at his filial piety, as appears from verse 17 and other 
 Psalms. The ground of his hope that the Lord would grant his 
 prayer lies neither in a sense of innocence, nor personal claims, to 
 which he feels himself entitled, but in that glorious name which 
 the Lord has given himself. (Exod. xxxiv. 6.) David appropri- 
 ates his share of the blessing, which lies in that name of the Lord, 
 not according to a specific prerogative, whether as king or a favour- 
 ite of God, but resting on a title which he held in common with 
 the meanest in Israel, that of a servant of God. 
 
 F. 17. His desire is that the whole world might see that none 
 trust the Lord in vain. His enemies had reproached the faith 
 which he had exhibited in his affliction. He prays that their 
 unbelief should be put to shame, which unfits them to think of a 
 living God, for ever working by love, and causes them to regard the 
 Lord as an indolent being, who, deaf to the cry of his children, 
 shuts himself up in heaven. These words do not, as some think, 
 necessarily imply David's asking for some specific or miraculous 
 token, (Psalm Ixxi. 7 :) he regards deliverance itself as a token. 
 We ask whether it be not true, that in the measure as we recog- 
 nize the mysteriously governing influence of God in every day 
 events, we regard those things as signs and miracles, which to 
 others appear as common-place? 
 
 PSALM LXXXVIL 
 t 
 
 A GLORIOUS psalm. Its theme is the great hope of the conversion 
 of the world to the sanctuary of Zion. The supposition that its 
 date is to be referred to the time of the deliverance of Jerusalem 
 from Sennacherib, is highly probable, from the fact that several 
 psalms of the sons of Korah celebrate in consequence of that 
 event the praises of Jerusalem, (Psalm xlvi. xlviii. Ixxvi.) and 
 
. PSALM LXXXVII. 359 
 
 connect similar hopes with them. (Psalm xlvi. 11; Ixxvi. 12.) It 
 might be objected to this supposition, that Babylon and not Assy- 
 ria is mentioned as offering homage, and that Babylon did only then 
 begin to get more known in Palestine. But it may also be used as 
 a confirmation. It is said (Psalm Ixxvi. 12,) that the surrounding 
 nations should offer gifts; we know also that Babylon sent an 
 embassy, (vide ad. Psalm xlviii. 10, 11;) and 2 Chron. xxxii. 23 
 states that other nations brought gifts for Hezekiah and the tem- 
 ple. As has been remarked ad. Psalm Ixxviii. 12, the probable 
 reference is to the Egyptians and the Ethiopians, who were equally 
 endangered by Sennacherib. Does this not render it probable that 
 the Psalmist should specify those nations which brought gifts, and 
 on that account name Babylon and be silent about Assyria? 
 Philistia may have belonged to them, since Hezekiah had but 
 lately reduced the Philistines to subjection. (2 Kings xviii. 8.) 
 Add to all this, that Isaiah, who wrote at that time, gives expres- 
 sion to similar hopes. He says of Ethiopia, "At that day shall a 
 present be brought to the Lord of hosts from the nation extended 
 and fierce the people terrible from the district beyond (Meroe,) 
 a nation most mighty and victorious, whose land is cut through by 
 rivers, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the Mount 
 Zion." (Isaiah xviii. 7.) And of Egypt and Assyria, "In that 
 day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and Assyria, even a bless- 
 ing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, 
 saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my 
 hands, and Israel mine inheritance." (Isa. xix. 24, 25.) 
 
 A PSALM or Song of the Sons of Koran. 
 
 A 
 
 1 HIS FOUNDATION IS IN THE HOLY MOUNTAINS. 
 
 2 THE LORD LOVETH THE GATES OF ZION 
 MORE THAN ALL THE DWELLINGS OF JACOB. 
 
 3 Glorious things are spoken of thee, 
 city of God. Selah. 
 
 4 "I will name Rahab and Babylon among them that know 
 
 me: 
 
 Behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; 
 These were born there." 
 
 5 And of Zion it shall be said, 
 
 This and that man was born in her : 
 
 And the highest himself shall establish her. 
 
 6 The LORD shall count, when he writeth up the nations: 
 These were born there. Selah* 
 
 7 Singers and dancers: 
 
 All my springs of joy are in thee. 
 
360 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 V. 1. The Psalmist in praising the everlasting foundations of 
 Jerusalem, has probably still before his mind's eye the miraculous 
 deliverance of the city, which has but just transpired, (see Psalms 
 xlviii. 4; xlvi. 5, 6.) Since the gates of a city form a chief por- 
 tion of its fortifications, the phrase, "Gates of Zion," is to be 
 regarded as a poetic description of the whole of Zion, just as Zion, 
 as*a chief portion of the city, designates the entire city, (see v. 3.) 
 On that account " mountains" are spoken of (the city being built 
 on three hills, Psalm cxxv. 2,) which are here called the "holy 
 mountains," because they became holy on account of the sanctu- 
 aries which were erected on them. There is no reference to Jeru- 
 salem according to her earthly aspects, with her streets, and walls, 
 and palaces. Why should that be loved more than all the dwell- 
 ings of Jacob? The reference is to the eternal glory of Jerusalem, 
 in that it was the centre of adoration of the true God. If that city 
 where the king resides is the capital, the eye and crown of a coun- 
 try, how much more is Jerusalem the eye and crown of the land, 
 where the Lord resides in the sanctuary, worshipped by all Israel ! 
 " Glorious things are spoken of thee." Is it possible that more 
 glorious things can be said of a city, than that as the heart with 
 the fount of its warm blood is placed in the centre of the body, so 
 she is placed in the midst of the nations, that out of her should be 
 carried to them the knowledge of the only true God and of his 
 Son? He hears her spoken of by myriads of voices, but he hears 
 first the Lord himself proclaiming the future glory of Zion. 
 
 F. 2 4. The nations arise in rapid succession they are aston- 
 ished, and engage in praises, (v. 5.) At last, as if instructed by 
 their voices, the Psalmist himself begins the praise, (v. 6, 7.) 
 The miracles which the mighty arm of the Lord had then achieved 
 before Jerusalem when he made "wars to cease unto the end of 
 the earth," (Psalm xlvi. 10,) when foreign nations, in acknowledg- 
 ment of the works of the God of Israel, came with gifts might 
 well originate the presentiment of a time when the God of Israel 
 should be acknowledged as the only God on earth. " To be born" 
 in the holy city, i. e. to belong to her as a child; we Christians, 
 as many of us as are of heathen extraction, must recognize our 
 spiritual mother in the congregation of Israel. Was it not the 
 Christian mother Church of Jerusalem that gave her breasts to the 
 entire heathen world, which with the Son scattered the knowledge 
 of the Father over the earth ? Are not we the branches of the 
 wild olive tree, that have grafted upon the good olive tree ? (Rom. 
 xi. 17.) All the nations which are here specified Egypt, Baby- 
 lon, Philistia, and Abyssinia became all engrafted at the time 
 when love and missionary zeal were glowing in the Christian 
 Church, and regarded Zion<as their spiritual mother. That was 
 the glorious time when it was said of them other Church, "Sing, 
 barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry 
 
PSALM LXXXVIII. 361 
 
 aloud, thou that didst not travail with child : for more are the chil- 
 dren of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith 
 the Lord." (Isa. liv. 1.) And again, "Lift up thine eyes round 
 about, and see : all they gather themselves together, they come to 
 thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be 
 nursed at thy side." (Isa. Ix. 4.) 
 
 V. 5. One shall tell the other how many nations shall find in 
 her their spiritual home : it will be seen that it is the Lord who 
 builds her so gloriously. 
 
 F. 6. The Lord will enrol his new citizens in the book of life, 
 as Isaiah says, " And it shall come to pass, that he that is left 
 in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, 
 even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem." 
 (Isa. iv. 3.) 
 
 V. 7. Every spring of joy shall be opened there. Isaiah says 
 of the day of Messiah, "With joy shall ye draw water out of the 
 wells of salvation." (Isa. xii. 3.) They shall for ever praise the 
 Lord with songs, the timbrel, and the dance. (Psalm cxlix. 3; cl. 4; 
 cf. Exod. xv. 20.) 
 
 PSALM LXXXVIII. 
 
 HEMAN, the author of this psalm, is probably the Levite chief 
 musician of David, who (1 Chron. vi. 33; xv. 17) is mentioned 
 along with Ethan,* (vi. 44; xv. 17,) as also the very next psalm is 
 ascribed to Ethan, the Ezrahite. Heman, the Levite, who is called 
 (1 Chron. xxv. 1. 5) a seer, i. e. a prophet and chief musician, 
 was of the race of Kahath, the son of Levi, of whom Korah also 
 was descended, so that this psalm may be ascribed to the Korahites 
 in general, but to Heman in particular. 
 
 A song of deep complaint, the occasion of which is not known. 
 His despair is so great that he was unable, as is the case in other 
 psalms, to rise to joyous confidence by means of his song; but 
 while a mourner can still carry his sorrow to the Lord, and call 
 upon him as his Saviour, hope cannot entirely have fled from his 
 soul. 
 
 1 A SONG or Psalm of the sons of Korah. To the 
 J\. chief Musician, to be sung to the flute (?) an 
 
 instruction of Heman the Ezrahite. 
 
 2 Lord God of my salvation, 
 
 I have cried day and night before thee : 
 
 * On the difficulties see the remarks on the title of Psalm Ixxxix. 
 31 
 
362 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 3 Let my prayer come before thee : 
 Incline thine ear unto my cry ; 
 
 4 For my soul is full of troubles : 
 
 And my life draweth nigh unto Sheol ; 
 
 5 I am counted with them that go down into the pit : 
 I am as a man that hath no strength : 
 
 6 I am alone among the dead. 
 
 Like the slain that lie in the grave, 
 
 Whom thou rememberest no more : 
 
 And they (who) are cut off from thy hand. 
 
 7 Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, 
 In darkness, in the deeps. 
 
 8 Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, 
 
 And thou hast oppressed me with all thy waves. Selah. 
 
 9 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me ; 
 Thou hast made me an abomination unto them : 
 
 I am shut up, and I cannot come forth. 
 
 10 Mine eye mourneth by reason of affliction: 
 LORD, I have called daily upon thee, 
 
 I have stretched out my hands unto thee, 
 
 11 " Wilt thou show wonders to the dead ? 
 Shall the dead arise and praise thee ? Selah. 
 
 12 Shall thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? 
 Or thy faithfulness in destruction ? 
 
 13 Shall thy wonders be known in the dark ? 
 
 And thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?" 
 
 14 But unto thee have I cried, LORD ; 
 
 And in the morning shall my prayer prevent thee. 
 
 15 LORD, why castesth thou off my soul? 
 Why hidest thou thy face from me ? 
 
 16 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: 
 While I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. 
 
 IT Thy fierce wrath goeth over me ; 
 Thy terrors stifle me. 
 
 18 They surround me daily like water ; 
 They compass me about together. 
 
 19 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, 
 And mine acquaintance into darkness. 
 
 V. 2 -10. The troubles of the complaining bard are very great. 
 His energies are checked, his friends have deserted him, and he 
 appears to himself like one of the dead, who are insensible to the 
 
PSALM LXXXIX. 863 
 
 genial sun, and removed from the favour and protection of God.* 
 In the measure as the night of melancholy is gloomy and enwraps 
 all around in her sable fold, must our admiration rise for the faith 
 of him who withal continues in prayer. The faith of the tempted 
 may appear like an extremely slender thread for such is the effect 
 of melancholy but the thread, which under such serious circum- 
 stances does not break, cannot be altogether powerless; it is 
 stronger than the most courageous confidence of sunny days. The 
 Psalmist, as he states in verse 9, sees no outlet, but he believes in 
 one, else why should he pray ? 
 
 F. 11 13. There is silence in the land of the dead; we Chris- 
 tians clearly know that their Hallelujah shall hereafter put to shame 
 the unbelievers, who used to mock at their confidence on earth; 
 though now they triumph over their silent graves, and the name 
 of God, in which the former used to confide, becomes a reproach 
 here. The troubled bard prays on that account to be delivered 
 from going down into the pit in his dumb pain, that he might still 
 be privileged to declare the glory and honour of the Lord in the 
 land of the living. (Psalm vi. 6.) 
 
 V. 14 19. He lives with God; from early morn to the eve 
 he lives with him; this is evident from his pouring out his soul 
 before the Lord at early morn. It may therefore be assumed that 
 though his prayer dies away in the accents of complaint, the light 
 of hope continued to burn in his soul. 
 
 PSALM LXXXIX. 
 
 A PLAINTIVE psalm of a faithful subject who lived during the last 
 period of the Jewish empire, probably in the days of Jeconiah, (cf. 
 v. 46,) who after a reign of three months was deposed by Nebu- 
 chadnezzar, and carried into exile after having witnessed the plun- 
 dering of the temple. (2 Kings xxiv.) How much he was loved 
 and mourned for by his people, appears from Jer. xxii. 24 29. 
 The conclusion of the psalm sounds almost as if the king himself 
 were complaining of his humiliation, especially verse 48 ; but that 
 verse is perfectly intelligible on the supposition that the Psalmist 
 was the king's friend, and if the rendering of verse 19, which we 
 have given in a note, should be correct, the king can in no wise 
 be regarded as the author. It has been shown in Psalms xlii. 
 Ixxxiv., that Korahite Levites used to compose psalms in the 
 
 * "A poetical description of the condition of the dead, not as it is in 
 reality, but as it appears to us." J. D. Michcelis. 
 
364 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 soul of David, i. e. identifying their interests so completely with 
 his that they spoke in his name. The historical references which 
 we have furnished would contradict the title, if Ethan the Ezra- 
 nite is held to be the Levite musician of that name, or that Ethan 
 the Ezrahite who was famed for his wisdom,* 1 Kings iv. 31; 
 
 v. 11. 
 
 The Psalmist begins in joyous and trustful strains, with his con- 
 viction of the infallibility of the promise made to David, (v. 2 5.) 
 The grounds of his faith are the majesty and the power of God, 
 which rule universal nature, while it is the ground of his Jiope 
 that this God is the King of Israel, (v. 6 19.) Thus confirming 
 his heart in faith and hope, he reminds God of the promises which 
 David had received by Nathan, (v. 20 38,) but gives free course 
 to his complaints, that the calamities of the present presented a 
 striking contrast to the glory of those prospects, (v. 39 52.) 
 
 Instruction of Ethan the Ezrahite. 
 
 2 I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever ; 
 
 With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to 
 all generations. 
 
 3 For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever : 
 
 Thy faithfulness hast thou established in the very heavens. 
 
 4 "I have made a covenant with my chosen, 
 I have sworn unto David my servant, 
 
 5 Thy seed will I establish for ever, 
 
 And build up thy throne to all generations. Selah." 
 
 6 And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, LORD : 
 Thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints. 
 
 7 For who in the clouds can be compared unto the LORD ? 
 Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto 
 
 the LORD ? 
 
 8 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, 
 And to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. 
 
 9 LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee ? 
 Or to thy faithfulness round about thee ? 
 
 10 Thou rulest the raging of the sea : 
 
 When<the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. 
 
 11 Thou hast broken Egypt in pieces, as one that is slain ; 
 Thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm. 
 
 * But he seems to have been none other than the Levite. See Keil on 
 Chronicles, p. 164, on 1 Chron. ii. 6, and Movers on Chronicles, p. 237. 
 
PSALM LXXXIX. 365 
 
 12 The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine : 
 
 As for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast 
 founded them. 
 
 13 The north and the south thou hast created them: 
 Tabor and Hermon rejoice in thy name. 
 
 14 Thou hast a mighty arm : 
 
 Strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand. 
 
 15 Justice and judgment are the foundation of thy throne: 
 Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. 
 
 16 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: 
 They shall walk, LORD, in the light of thy countenance. 
 
 17 In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: 
 And in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. 
 
 18 For thou art the glory of their strength : 
 And by thy favour our horn shall be exalted. 
 
 19 For the LORD is our shield: 
 
 And the Holy One of Israel is our king.* 
 
 20 Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, 
 
 And saidst, "I have laid help upon one that is mighty; 
 I have exalted one chosen out of the people. 
 
 21 I have found David my servant; 
 With my holy oil have I anointed him : 
 
 22 With whom my hand shall be established: 
 Mine arm also shall strengthen him. 
 
 23 The enemy shall not overwhelm him ; 
 Nor the son of wickedness quench him. 
 
 24 And I will beat down his foes before his face, 
 And plague them that hate him. 
 
 25 But my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him : 
 And in my name shall his horn be exalted. 
 
 26 I will set his hand also in the sea, 
 And his right hand in the rivers. 
 
 27 He shall cry unto me, " Thou art my father, 
 My God, and the rock of my salvation." 
 
 28 Also I will make him my firstborn, 
 Higher than the kings of the earth. 
 
 29 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, 
 And my covenant shall stand fast with him. 
 
 30 His seed also will I make to endure for ever, 
 And his throne as the days of heaven. 
 
 * Or, "For from the Lord is our shield, and from the Holy One in Israel 
 our King." 
 
 31* 
 
366 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 31 If his children forsake my law, 
 And walk not in my judgments ; 
 
 32 If they profane my statutes, 
 And keep not my commandments ; 
 
 33 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, 
 And their iniquity with stripes. 
 
 34 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take 
 
 from him, 
 Nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. 
 
 35 My covenant will I not break, 
 
 Nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. 
 
 36 Once have I sworn by my holiness 
 That I will not lie unto David. 
 
 87 His seed shall endure for ever, 
 
 And his throne as the sun before me. 
 
 38 It shall be established for ever as the moon, 
 And the witness in heaven is faithful. Selah. 
 
 39 But thou hast cast off and abhorred, 
 Thou hast been wrath with thine anointed. 
 
 40 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant : 
 Thou hast profaned his crown ~by casting it to the ground. 
 
 41 Thou hast broken down all his hedges ; 
 Thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin. 
 
 42 All that pass by the way spoil him : 
 He is a reproach to his neighbours. 
 
 43 Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries ; 
 Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. 
 
 44 Thou hast also turned the edge of his sword, 
 And hast not made him to stand in the battle. 
 
 45 Thou -hast made his splendour to cease, 
 And cast his throne down to the ground. 
 
 46 The days of his youth hast thou shortened : 
 Thou hast covered him with shame. Selah. 
 
 47 How long, LORD ? wilt thou hide thyself for ever ? 
 Shall thy wrath burn like fire ? 
 
 48 Remember how short my time is : 
 
 To what vanity thou hast made all men. 
 
 49 What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? 
 Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of Sheol ? Selah. 
 
 50 Lord, where are thy eternal lovingkindnesses, 
 Which thou swarest unto David in thy truth? 
 
 51 Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants ; 
 
 How I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the 
 mighty people; 
 
PSALM LXXXIX. 367 
 
 52 Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, LORD ; 
 Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine 
 
 anointed. 
 Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen. 
 
 V. 2 5. The Psalmist, from the full assurance of the infalli- 
 bility of Divine promise, begins with praising in the name of all 
 generations the mercy of God, whose faithfulness, far exalted above 
 earth and its changes, is established in the heavens. His confidence 
 is the result of a Divine promise, the burden of which he relates. 
 From a comparison of this trustful beginning with his sad complaint 
 from verse 89 downwards, we may gather the true state of mind of 
 devout people in great affliction. They are neither so callous and 
 insensible, that the stroke of the proving hand of God makes no 
 impression upon them, nor so soft and indolent that they at once 
 lose all their confidence. Their eyes shed tears while joy sits 
 enthroned on their brow. 
 
 V. 6 15. Little-minded mortals, overcome by adversities, 
 frequently doubt the faithfulness of God. But the wonderful ways 
 of the Lord are known and his faithfulness praised in the congre- 
 gation of the saints in heaven. He is God alone. The might and 
 strength of the inhabitants of heaven are his gift. He has the 
 ability to fulfil his promises, while his faithfulness, which encircles 
 him like a stream, is the pledge of his willingness. He is the God 
 who of old restrained the billows of the main, when he led his 
 people through it, and slew the sea-monster* of Egypt. He is the 
 God who created the heavens and the earth. How then should the 
 heavens and the earth be able to refuse obedience to his command- 
 ments? He has made the north and the south, Tabor in the west 
 and snowy Hebron in the east. He has made them as it were the 
 visible praises of his name. Immoveable justice controls his invin- 
 cible arm, and mercy and truth are for ever before his face. Where 
 is the doubter? 
 
 V. 16 19. The people may well rejoice who worship this God, 
 and are called to his feasts by the sound of the trumpet : their 
 strength is in their strong God. The horn is the symbol of strength 
 and power. (1 Sam. ii. 1; Ps. xcii. 11.) 
 
 V. 20 38. Reverting to the Divine promise of verses 4, 5, 
 which is preserved in 2 Samuel vii., he now details it poetically. 
 (The author of Psalm cxxxii., which was composed on the occasion 
 of the removal of the ark into the temple of Solomon, supplicates in 
 virtue of this promise mercy for the king.) Nathan, namely, "thy 
 holy one/' addressed David, not of his own accord, but he heard 
 the word of God in a moment of prophetic ecstasy, i. e. in a vision. 
 
 * Cf. Gesenius Thesaur. sub. v. y^\ 
 
368 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 The term vision is used in the prophets of revelations to the mind, 
 even when they heard the utterance of the Divine voice within. 
 (Isa. ii. 2; Hab. ii. 2.) David was not of royal extraction he was 
 raised from the people, to the end that his election should be alto- 
 gether the Lord's doing. He experienced the paternal favour of 
 the Lord : the young shepherd became a sovereign whose dominions 
 extended from the shores of the Mediterranean to the rivers Euphra- 
 tes and Tigris. If the kings of the earth, because invested with great 
 might and glory, as well as the administration of justice, are called 
 par excellence, the sons of God, then David, who had been raised 
 from the people, and only desired to be an instrument in the hands 
 of God, was the first-born among them. The sceptre of Israel is 
 to remain for ever with his posterity. His descendants, on trans- 
 gressing, shall indeed feel the Father's chastisement, but the mercy 
 of God shall never depart from David as it was removed from Saul. 
 (2 Sam. vii. 15.) Men are accustomed to speak of things terres- 
 trial as subjected to change, and of things celestial as exalted above 
 it. So when the sacred bards wish to indicate eternal duration, 
 they mention the duration of the sun and the moon. (Jer. xxxiii. 
 20; see ad. Psalm Ixxii. 17.) The witness is not less trustworthy 
 than the testimony is mighty : for he is not a man who might speak 
 the untruth, but he is the witness in the clouds* The promise 
 which here receives so solemn an attestation from God, would, how- 
 ever, have remained unfulfilled, if after the fall of David's kingdom, 
 the branch had not sprouted forth from the felled stem of Jesse, 
 whose kingdom over the spiritual Israel shall never come to an end. 
 (Jer. xi. 2; Luke i. 32, 33.) 
 
 V. 39 46. The gloomy present is now, after the manner of 
 Ps. xliv. 10, placed side by side of the glorious promises and for- 
 mer doings of God. Psalm Ixxx. describes the sad condition of 
 the last days of the kingdom in similar terms. " Thou hast short- 
 ened the days of his youth/ ' may be paraphrased by, " Thou hast 
 made him by trouble an old man in his youth/' with which the 
 following clause, " Thou hast covered him with shame/' well 
 
 > 
 
 V. 47 52. Convinced that this life is not given to man for 
 the exclusive purpose of his consuming it in grief and pain, the 
 Psalmist earnestly prays for speedy refreshment, especially since 
 death is frequently so early and sudden in its appearance. His 
 prayer is chiefly for the king, but the ignominy of the king is also 
 that^of his faithful servants; he, therefore, complains no less of 
 the ignominy of the servants of God than of his own. 
 
 * Jewish and Christian interpreters understand this of .the rainbow, but 
 the rainbow which appears when the sun pierces the rainy clouds is, accord- 
 ing to Gen. ix. 14, 15, simply the pledge that the flood is not to re-appear. 
 
PSALM XC. 369 
 
 PSALM XC. 
 
 A BEAUTIFUL song, replete with solemnity and sadness, as hearty 
 as it is solemn. It is not difficult to recognize in it the voice of 
 the ancient lawgiver,* The ancient bard looks to God at the close 
 of a life rich in trials and the experience of many hard visitations, 
 especially of a fearful mortality of his fellows, and with an unfin- 
 ished task before him. He looks to the omnipotent eternal God, 
 whom he has known as the refuge of his people, and longs for the 
 renewal of the lifting up of his gracious countenance. The psalm 
 opens with the expression of his faith, firm as a rock, in the eternal 
 God, (v. 2.) Human life appears especially short if contrasted 
 with the eternity of God, (v. 3 6.) The wrath of God against 
 sin is the cause that life gets so shortened, (v. 7 10.) Men do 
 not consider this: he prays, therefore, for true wisdom, (v. 11, 12.) 
 An enterprise is at hand, in which the people need a gracious God : 
 the Psalmist prays, therefore, for the Lord's gracious return, 
 (v. 1317.) 
 
 A PRAYER, of Moses the man of God. 
 
 1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. 
 
 2 Before the mountains were brought forth, 
 
 Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, 
 Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. 
 
 3 Thou turnest man to dust: 
 
 And sayest, "Return, ye children of men." 
 
 4 For a thousand years in thy sight 
 Are but as yesterday when it is past, 
 And as a watch in the night. 
 
 5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood ; 
 They are as a sleep : 
 
 In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. 
 
 6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up ; 
 In the evening it is cut down, and withereth. 
 
 * The sublime pathos and solemnity of this psalm mount to the Divine. 
 Its manner and matter are original and powerful, and would justly be 
 ascribed to Moses the man of God, if the motives were more accurately 
 known which justified the collector in that supposition. Moses might well 
 have been seized by the solemn thoughts of this psalm at the end of his 
 career in the wilderness. It is evident that the bard is a man grown old 
 in mighty enterprises, and stands on the verge of life." Ewald. See also 
 the remarks of Stier on the afiinities of the language of this psalm and that 
 of Moses. 
 
370 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 7 For we are consumed by thine anger, 
 
 And by thy wrath are we troubled (or, " we pass away.") 
 
 8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, 
 
 Our unknown sin in the light of thy countenance. 
 
 9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath : 
 We spend our years as a tale that is told.* 
 
 10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; 
 And if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, 
 Yet is their strength labour and sorrow : 
 
 For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. 
 
 11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger ? 
 Even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath. f 
 
 12 So teach us to number our days, 
 
 That we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. 
 
 13 Return, LORD, how long ? 
 
 And have mercy upon thy servants. 
 
 14 satisfy us early with thy mercy ; 
 
 That we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 
 
 15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast 
 
 afflicted us, 
 And the years wherein we have seen evil. 
 
 16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, 
 And thy glory unto their children. 
 
 17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us ; 
 And establish thou the work of our hands upon us ; 
 Yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. 
 
 V. 1, 2. It is our great consolation to know that God changes 
 not, and that the God of our fathers is our God. The retrospect 
 of Moses extended only over the then brief history of his people 
 and that of the patriarchs. The range of our retrospect is greater 
 and more extensive by far, and on that account more potent to 
 strengthen our faith, for it embraces the innumerable host of godly 
 men, whose experience falls under our inspection, who read the 
 words of Moses three and thirty centuries after he had penned 
 them. God, who was before any creature, is also much greater 
 than anything which he has created. The creature may well look 
 up to him. In writing the following words the Psalmist has before 
 his mind's eye the history of creation, and regards the mountains 
 which appeared above the surface of the waters as the oldest chil- 
 dren of the earth, (cf. Psalm civ. 5 8.) 
 
 V. 3 6. lhat address to God leads to the thought, which fills 
 
 * Or, " Our years pass away as a thought." 
 
 f Luther: "Who is afraid, as he ought, of thy wrath?" 
 
PSALM XC. 371 
 
 his mind, the sad thought of the frailty of human life. As long as 
 the eyes of men are not turned heavenwards, and simply range 
 among the creatures of the earth, the sense of that frailty is not so 
 profound, for multitudes of creatures count their life by the day or 
 the hour, while man counts it by years ! Moreover, how great is 
 the skill of most men to shut the thought of death completely out 
 of their minds. (Ps. xlix. 12.) Moses describes human frailty with 
 regard to the eternity of God. The generations of men change 
 fcefore God, as if their were but a moment between their coming 
 and going : now he suffers one generation to pass away and now 
 another to arise.* The future seems long to us, but the past short 
 beyond measure. Short seems the day which has been spent in 
 labour, still shorter a watch of the night (the Hebrews used to 
 count three) which has passed during our sleep. The life of man 
 is equally fleet before God. When it is passed, it appears even to 
 man to condense as a night's sleep into one moment. It is like 
 the grass in the east, which after a fruitful shower grows up high 
 as if by 'a magic spell, but which, when the scorching east wind 
 passes over it, completely withers within two days, (James i. 11 ; ) 
 is cut down and used for fuel. 
 
 F. 7 10. The remembrance of the longevity of the patriarchs 
 had no doubt been preserved : it gradually decreased, and there 
 were probably few who, in the days of Moses, lived more than a 
 hundred years. But on those who had left Egypt as adults fell the 
 specific Divine judgment, that with the exception of Caleb and 
 Joshua, not one of their number was held worthy to enter the pro- 
 mised land, and that they should die during their forty years' wan- 
 derings in the desert, so that none lived more than eighty years. 
 Moses felt justified in complaining that the wrath of God was short- 
 ening human life, inasmuch as disease, infirmity of old age, and 
 the struggle of death, with its cold perspiration, did not belong to 
 the original destiny of man; " for though horses, cows, and other 
 beasts die, their death is not owing to the wrath of God, but a 
 transient necessity. But the death of man is a grievous trouble, 
 because man is a creature destined to be like God." (Luther.) 
 Moses was therefore right in ascribing the brevity of human life 
 to the wrath of God on account of sin, since no doubt sin, the pas- 
 
 * Luther: "It happens that just as men die daily because of sin, so others 
 are born daily, but on the same condition as those who died," (cf. Psalm 
 civ. 29, 30.) Modern expositors render with reference to Gen. iii. 19, 
 "Return to the dust, ye children of men," so Aben Ezra and Kimchi. 
 But could then the "to the dust" be dispensed with ? The sentence more- 
 over would be too tautological, hence several have unduly strained the ^ 
 
 e. g. Amyraldus: Nee id (dying) uni aut alteri tantum accidit. Sententia 
 est, quam de omnibus in universum pronuncias, cum dicis : filii hominum, 
 etc. Many old commentators, Bucer, Strigel, Calov, Cocceius, Geier, 
 understand "return ye" of the resuscitation after the resurrection. 
 
372 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 sions, intemperance, covetousness, and unkindness, etc. are the chief 
 causes of the gradual diminution of human longevity, while the 
 evil consequences of sin are to be regarded as Divine punishments. 
 The Psalmist was the more justified in his assertion, from his daily 
 experience in witnessing the death of a generation of six hundred 
 thousand men. He deemed it necessary to remind us that after 
 all, our sense of the enormity of sin is but incomplete, and that 
 therefore we are more guilty before God than we are aware. He 
 refers therefore to sin, which though hid to us is known to God; 
 for how much is needed to attain to a right conception of but one 
 sin, e. g. of our murmuring against God in trials. He names three- 
 score years and ten as the common term of human life, an age 
 which in our days is reached by a few only, and the average would 
 be about threescore years. Moses, indeed, lived to the good old 
 age of a hundred and twenty years, but this must be regarded as 
 an exception, for Joshua speaks of himself as highly favoured in 
 having retained the strength of manhood up to his eighty-fifth 
 year. (Josh. xiv. 11.) Moses connects his complaints of "the bre- 
 vity of human life with those of its troubles. The words of Job 
 are very apposite: "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, 
 and full of trouble." (Job xiv. 1.) Moses therefore was not satis- 
 fied with what are commonly termed the joys of life; his vocation 
 was particularly difficult and trying during the hardship of the 
 journey through the desert and in the struggle with an ever obsti- 
 nate people.* This sentiment will be found to hold universally 
 true the more men try to go through life on the "narrow way;" 
 "and though it was a delightful life, it was yet labour and vanity." 
 How could it be otherwise, even if we simply bear in mind that 
 "all that will live godly shall suffer persecution." (2 Tim. iii. 12.) 
 The Psalmist says, "labour and vanity," adding, "for it is soon 
 cut oft 7 and we fly away." Our most delightful hours, as far as 
 they are of purely earthly origin, are hours only, and they are 
 gone before we have thoroughly enjoyed them. 
 
 V. 11, 12. How difficult is it to bring men to recognize in the 
 troubles of life the chastening hand of God, and to induce them to 
 walk in the fear of the Lord. They say, as St. Jerome once said 
 in plaintive strains, that men would be worse off than beasts if they 
 were, besides all the misery of life, still to believe in the wrath of 
 God both here and hereafter. Some regard the troubles of life 
 simply as the fate of blind necessity, saying that death ought nei- 
 ther to be desired nor feared. Most men take not even the trouble 
 of thinking about it, and live as if there were neither death nor 
 God : few, few only get humbled by trouble, and turn their eyes 
 
 * Luther renders Numb. xii. 3, "Moses was sorely tried above all the men 
 which were upon the face of the earth; " but the E. V. is more correct; so 
 also Hengstenberg's Authenticity, of the Pentateuch, vol. i. 174. 
 
PSALM XCI. 373 
 
 meekly and penitently to the direction from whence their strokes 
 come. How touching is this humble prayer for true wisdom in the 
 mouth of the much-tried lawgiver. He desires to attain to greater 
 obedience to the Divine commandments in consideration of the 
 wrath of God on account of sin. 
 
 V. 13 17. When the Lord purchased his people and led them 
 forth out of Egypt, his mercy was richly visible over them, "as an 
 eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth 
 abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings : so the 
 Lord alone did lead him. But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked : 
 then he forsook God who made him. They provoked him to jeal- 
 ousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked him to anger. 
 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their 
 end shall be : for they are a very froward generation, children in 
 whom is no faith/' Thus complains Moses in his last song, (Deut. 
 xxxii. 11 20;) he had to share a portion of the wrath of God, 
 (Deut. xxxii. 50, 51; Numb. xx. 12; cf. Psalm xcv. 811.) This 
 explains his prayer for the return of Divine favour, that the Lord 
 would satisfy them "early," i. e. soon, with his mercy, once more 
 act a father's part to them, the more so, as the solution-of the great 
 problem was at hand they had reached the frontiers of the land for 
 the possession of which they were to fight. We know from the life 
 of Moses how thoroughly he was instructed in the truth that through 
 the Lord we can do valiantly -and have in this place another tes- 
 timony of the same truth : the importunate repetition of his prayer 
 shows how well he knew that everything depends on the blessing 
 of God; 
 
 PSALM XCI. 
 
 A JOYOUS psalm, full of the assurance of faith.* The precentor 
 promises, the chorus vows, and finally, the Lord himself gives the 
 promise. 
 
 The Precentor. 
 
 1 TTE that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High 
 JLL Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 
 
 The Choir. 
 
 2 I will say of the LORD, 
 
 He is my refuge and my fortress : 
 My God; in him will I trust. 
 
 
 
 * Is it possible to set forth the providence of God in a more trustful and 
 tender manner? 
 32 
 
374 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 The Precentor. 
 
 3 Surely he will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, 
 And from the noisome pestilence. 
 
 4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings 
 
 shalt thou trust : 
 His truth is thy shield and buckler. 
 
 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night ; 
 Nor for the arrow that flieth by day ; 
 
 6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; 
 Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 
 
 7 Though a thousand fall at thy side, and ten thousand at 
 
 thy right hand ; 
 It shall not come nigh thee. 
 
 8 Yea* with thine eyes shalt thou behold 
 And see the reward of the wicked. 
 
 The Choir. 
 
 9 Yea, thou, Lord, art my refuge. 
 
 The Precentor. 
 
 The Most High thou hast made thy habitation. 
 
 10 There shall no evil befall thee, 
 
 No plague shall come nigh thy dwelling. 
 
 11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, 
 To keep thee in all thy ways. 
 
 12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, 
 Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. 
 
 13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: 
 
 The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under 
 feet. 
 
 The Precentor and the Choir. 
 
 14 " Because he hath set his love upon me, 
 Therefore will I deliver him : 
 
 I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. 
 
 15 He shall call upon me, and I -will answer him : 
 I will be with him in trouble : 
 
 I will deliver him, and honour him, 
 
 16 With long life will I satisfy him, 
 And show him my salvation." 
 
 * p^ is used in the same sense Psalm xxxii. 6, cf. Koster. 
 
PSALM xcr. 375 
 
 V. 1. Though there is nothing more common than for men to 
 profess that they are under the protection of the Most High, yet 
 are there but few who really believe what that profession involves. 
 The Psalmist invites us to consider what such a profession implies. 
 No power in heaven or on earth can prevail against the Most High, 
 for he is Almighty. Men who are under his protection may dis- 
 card all their fears. 
 
 V. 2. He is confident of his ability to pray to the Almighty in 
 faith as to his reconciled God his trust and hope. That faith has 
 its steps and degrees. It is but rarely, and even then only for a 
 limited period, that we witness man's faith so confident of his 
 union with God, and of his being an instrument of the Lord, as to 
 entertain an absolute certainty under even particular circum- 
 stances, that his prayer will be granted and his work prosper. It 
 is known to all that every work performed in the Lord must 
 eventually prosper, and that in the hour of danger things cannot 
 happen to us otherwise than as the Lord has determined them, and 
 as they are beneficial to us. It is a great thing not to stagger in this 
 conviction. But he only is a truly prophetic man who feels in his 
 own heart what the Lord intends to do in present emergency, and 
 speaks and acts according to his assurance. Only to this highest 
 degree of faith belongs the promise which the Psalmist goes on to 
 set forth; this is in perfect harmony with the promises which our 
 Lord himself has made to faith. (Matt. xvii. 20; Luke x. 19; 
 Mark xvi. 17, 18.) 
 
 F. 3 8. A voice from heaven seems to accompany the pro- 
 mise of God, that no persecution is able to hurt believers, but that 
 the pinions of the Lord shall cover them as a hen spreads her 
 wings over her chicken, and that every arrow shall fall back power- 
 less from the certainty of his promise. The Psalmist expands this 
 thought on account of the variety of dangers and perils to which 
 we are exposed. We may paraphrase it as follows: "Whatever 
 species of weapon the tempter may use against the children of 
 God, whenever and wherever he may come, the protection of the 
 Lord is all-sufficient, and you need not seek for any other. As a 
 general, conscious of having a great work to perform, stands with a 
 calm look and firm foot, while the balls whiz past him on the right 
 hand and on the left, saying, I know that the ball which is to touch 
 me is not yet cast; so stands a prophetic believer in danger's hour, 
 conscious that the lightning will go past his head, that the waters 
 will dry up at his feet, and the arrow fall back from his chest, 
 because the Lord willeth it thus. Have not men of faith been seen, 
 filled with this confidence, to rush into the ranks of the foe, to 
 struggle through tempest and wave, and to sleep in the midst of 
 those who were infected with the pestilence?" There is a great 
 beauty in the Psalmist's borrowing his figures from pestilence and 
 
376 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 disease. For the singular fact, that fearless confidence is a certain 
 preservative against contagion, explains to us how assurance of 
 faith is a breastplate in the hour of danger, from which the poisoned 
 arrow must fall back. The arrow that flieth by noonday may also 
 be explained of the Simoom, or the sun-stroke, as the cause of dis- 
 ease and death. 
 
 V..9 13. The believer's repeated confession that God is his 
 sole refuge, is again responded to by the most consoling promise. 
 No evil shall befall them. Their path through life lies across many 
 stones and rocks, but they shall not stumble, for invisible hands 
 carry them guardian angels surround them. Hostile and destruc- 
 tive powers of nature cannot prevail against them. (Luke x. 19.) 
 Satan cited this beautiful and rich promise in support of his futile 
 effort to tempt our Lord to the display of a vain act of prowess. 
 (Matt. iv. 6.) This promise may be said to have been made with 
 a special reference to Christ, not because Satan applies it to him, 
 but because that oneness with God, which is assured that particu- 
 lar prayers will be granted and particular works will prosper, 
 received in no instance a greater exemplification than in his. 
 Satan, however, misapplied the promise, for it is said, "He shall 
 give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways" 
 which, however, applies only to ways traced out l>y God to the 
 ways of duty and vocation. The tempter limited our Lord to a 
 work of selfish vanity, and God is not a servant to sin. 
 
 V. 14 16. God himself appears for the purpose of making a 
 still more profound impression of that rich consolation, and of con- 
 firming the faith of his servants "He sets his love upon me 
 knows my name calls upon me;" these are the characteristics of 
 believing godliness; the Lord will draw nigh to those who thus 
 draw nigh to him. (James iv. 8.) Long life being mentioned 
 among the promised goods, corresponds to the character of the old 
 covenant, which referred a sensuous people to temporal reward. 
 (Deut. v. 16.) We have already observed, e. g. Psalm xxxvii. 9, 
 that the Divinely-inspired Psalmist had more spiritual conceptions 
 of those passages which the common Israelites took in a literal 
 sense. The Psalmist may, therefore, at the time when he was 
 composing this sublime psalm, have had the presentiment of some- 
 thing more than the extension of temporal existence in speaking 
 of long life. So the apostles employed the terms death and life, 
 light and darkness, peace and righteousness, and others with which 
 they were familiar from the Old Testament, in a far more profound 
 sense. 
 
PSALM xcir. 877 
 
 PSALM XCII. 
 
 SONGS accompanied with music used to be sung on Sabbaths as 
 well as on other festive occasions. Several songs seem to be strung 
 together in this portion of the Psalms.* This one celebrates the 
 righteousness of the Divine government of the world, as it is praised 
 in many others, especially Psalm xxxvii. 
 
 PSALM or Song for the Sabbath day. 
 
 2 It is a precious thing to give thanks unto the LORD, 
 And to sing praises unto thy name, Most High: 
 
 3 To show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, 
 And thy faithfulness every night, 
 
 4 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery ; 
 Upon the harp with a solemn sound. 
 
 5 For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work; 
 I will triumph in the works of thy hands. 
 
 6 LORD, how great are thy works ! 
 And thy thoughts are very deep. 
 
 7 And brutish man knoweth not; 
 Neither doth a fool understand this. 
 
 8 When the wicked spring as the grass, 
 
 And when all the workers of iniquity do flourish ; 
 It is that they shall be destroyed for ever. 
 
 9 But thou, LORD, art Most High for evermore. 
 
 10 For, lo, thine enemies, LORD, 
 For, lo, thine enemies shall perish; 
 
 All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. 
 
 11 But my horn shall thou exalt like the horn o/an unicorn 
 
 (or, "buffalo";) 
 I shall be anointed with fresh oil. 
 
 12 Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, 
 And mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that 
 
 rise up against me. 
 
 13 The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree: 
 He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. 
 
 * Psalms xcv. xcvi. xcvii. xcviii. xcix. c. These songs have a certain 
 affinity of language, e. g. the anadiplosis xcii. 10; xciv. 3; xcvi. 13; the 
 repetition of the phrase xciii. 1, in xcvi. 10, the t^ttbfcrt^b? Psalms 
 
 VJ T 
 
 xcv. 3; xcvi. 4; xcvii. 9. 
 
 32* . 
 
878 COMMENTAEY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 14 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD 
 Shall flourish in the courts of our God. 
 
 15 They shall bring forth fruit in old age ; 
 They shall be fat and flourishing; 
 
 16 To show that the LORD is upright : 
 
 He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. 
 
 V. 2 5. Here is the expression of a mind which regards the 
 service of God, and song in particular, not only as a duty, but as 
 a real delight. The works and doings of the Lord incite such 
 songs. The Psalmist's theme at first embraces all the works and 
 doings of God in nature and in the history of man, but he soon 
 confines himself to the latter. 
 
 7. 6 9. His faith assures him that it is a holy God who rules 
 the world; on that account he admires and adores, when he can- 
 not thoroughly understand. Proud sages, whom he, however, calls 
 fools, begin to doubt the depth of the thoughts of God, when they 
 are unable to understand them. Humble faith, however, com- 
 plains of the weakness of human knowledge, and sees itself called 
 upon to admire the more. Our admiration of the Divine govern- 
 ment of the world is more matter of faith than of experience; so 
 the Psalmist points to what is concealed behind appearances. 
 " The workers of iniquity do flourish, but it is that they shall be 
 destroyed for ever, and that thou, Lord, art Most High for ever- 
 more/' 
 
 F. 10 12. Assured of the triumph of the kingdom of God 
 over the kingdoms of the world in the aggregate, and his enemies 
 being those of the Lord, he gives expression to the hope of 
 triumph with regard to himself. The horn is a symbol of strength, 
 vide Psalm Ixxxix. 18. 
 
 V. 13 16. The certainty of the ultimate triumph of the king- 
 dom of God causes his mind to overflow with the description of the 
 eternal youth of those who derive their strength from the Lord. 
 The palm-tree remains green all the year round, in- the cold of 
 winter no less than in the heat of summer:* the age of the cedar 
 is counted not by years but by centuries. This is a figure of those 
 who are planted in the courts of the Lord, and derive the sap of 
 their life from the house of God : it is clear that the house of God 
 denotes communion with God in general. ( Vide ad. Psalm xxiii. 6; 
 Hi. 10.) Even in old age, though every other mental power 
 . should have vanished, they shall be strong and fresh while pro- 
 claiming that the Lord is upright. Experience instructs us that 
 
 * The open country moreover wears a sad aspect now: the soil is rent 
 and dissolves into dust at every breath of wind ; the green-of the meadows 
 is almost entirely gone the palm-tree alone preserves in the drought and 
 heat its verdant roof of leaves. "Schubert's Journey to the East, vol. ii.p. 138. 
 
PSALM XCIII. 379 
 
 pious old men are the most powerful and efficient witnesses and 
 preachers to younger generations; in whom piety bears the sweetest 
 fruit the nearer they are to their grave while their physical 
 strength and their knowledge succumb to the infirmity attendant 
 upon old age. 
 
 PSALM XCIII. 
 
 A SONG of praise, celebrating the glory of the Divine government. 
 
 LORD reigneth, he is clothed with majesty ; 
 JL The LORD is clothed with strength, ^herewith he hath 
 
 girded himself: 
 The world also is established, that it cannot be moved.* 
 2 Thy throne is established of old : 
 
 Thou art from everlasting. 
 8 The floods have lifted up, LORD, 
 The floods liave lifted up their voice : 
 The floods raise their waves. 
 
 4 Mightier than the noise of many waters 
 Are the waves of the sea : 
 
 But mightier still 
 Is the Lord on high. 
 
 5 Thy testimonies are very sure : 
 
 Holiness becometh thine house, LORD, for ever. 
 
 V. 1 4. Adornment and honour grace earthly potentates as 
 the expressions of the majesty of their vocation; but all their 
 adornment and glory as well as their vocation are the gifts of 
 Divine grace; therefore not one of them can be compared with 
 God for adornment and glory. He has established the world, 
 the separate lands of which are ruled by the kings of the earth; 
 behold in this the proof of his might. Giving existence to all, he 
 himself received it from none. Self-existence is his eternal pro- 
 perty. Behold in this the proof of his majesty. The billows of 
 the tempests rise high as if intent upon splashing against the 
 clouds : their howling is terrific. But greater by far is the Lord 
 on high : none of the waves can overthrow his throne, which from 
 eternity he has established in the heavens. (Ps. xlvi. 4; Ixv. 8.) 
 
 * One feels almost tempted to translate with some of the old interpreters, 
 " The world also shall be firmly established;" but cf. ad. Psalm xcvi. 10; 
 civ. 5. 
 
380 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 V. 5. If reverence be due to the words of a transitory king of 
 the earth, how much more is it so to the words of the King of 
 kings ! The Psalmist prostrates himself reverentially before it as 
 before the words of the Highest Majesty, and regards with rever- 
 ence the earthly place where that majesty is revealed. 
 
 PSALM XCIV. 
 
 A PSALM of prayer, sung at times when the heathen poured 
 reproach upon the people of God, and practised injustice in the 
 land. 
 
 The Psalmist invokes the Judge of the earth not to defer the 
 punishment of the proud, (v. 1 3.) He describes the arrogant 
 bearing of the wicked (v. 4 7,) and reproves the folly of idolatry, 
 which will not believe in an omniscient God, (v. 8 11.) The 
 instruction of God is the comfort of the pious in the day of 
 adversity, (v. 12 15.) The Psalmist confesses that without the 
 assistance and consolation of the Lord he should never have been 
 able to stand, (v. 16 19.) Though the Lord may seem to have 
 fellowship with wrong, yet shall the faith of the pious be never 
 put to shame, (v. 2023.) 
 
 1 A LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; 
 
 \J God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shine forth. 
 
 2 Lift up thyself, thou Judge of the earth : 
 Render a reward to the proud. 
 
 3 LORD, how long shall the wicked, 
 How long shall the wicked triumph? 
 
 4 How long shall they utter and speak hard things ? 
 And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves ? 
 
 5 They break in pieces thy people, LORD, 
 And afflict thine heritage. 
 
 6 They slay the widow and the stranger, 
 And murder the fatherless. 
 
 7 Yet they say, " The LORD shall not see, 
 Neither shall the God of Jacob regard it." 
 
 8 Understand, ye brutish among the people : 
 And ye fools, when will ye be wise? 
 
PSALM XCIV. 381 
 
 9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? 
 He that formed the eye, shall he not see?* 
 
 10 He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? 
 He that teacheth man what he knoweth. 
 
 11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, 
 That they are vanity. 
 
 12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, LORD, 
 And teachest him out of thy law; 
 
 13 To give him rest from the days of adversity, 
 Until the pit be digged for the wicked. 
 
 14 For the LORD will not cast off his people, 
 Neither will he forsake his inheritance. 
 
 15 BUT JUDGMENT SHALL RETURN UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS :f 
 AND ALL THE UPRIGHT IN HEART SHALL FOLLOW IT. 
 
 16 Who will rise up for me against the evil doers ? 
 
 Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity ? 
 
 17 Unless the LORD had been my help, 
 My soul had almost dwelt in silence. 
 
 18 When I say, My foot slippeth ; 
 Thy mercy, LORD, upholdeth me. 
 
 19 In the multitude of my troubles within me 
 Thy comforts delight my soul. 
 
 20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, 
 Which frameth mischief against the law ? 
 
 21 They gather themselves together against the soul of the 
 
 righteous, 
 And condemn the innocent blood. 
 
 22 But the LORD is my defence; 
 
 And my God is the rock of my refuge. 
 
 23 And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, 
 And shall cut them off by their own wickedness ; 
 Yea, the LORD our God shall cut them off. 
 
 V. 15. Theintrinsic power of truth, the consciousness of which 
 is manifested in the words of this verse, has at all times given rise 
 to the hope of an ultimate conversion and restoration of the world. 
 The expression of the Psalmist seems to confirm it, though he con- 
 fines himself to saying that " all the upright in heart shall follow 
 it." It seems that evil is accompanied by the spell of delusion, so 
 
 * Herder says, "Is it possible to address more pointedly our modern 
 philosophers, who deny design in nature ? The heathen predicated of their 
 idols what they attribute to their dead, abstract nature:" that which the 
 prophets say against the former applies equally to the latter. 
 
 f Luther renders, "Right must remain right." 
 
382 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 that the eye, though created for the perception of truth, is unable 
 to discern the intrinsic power of the truth. 
 
 V. 20. The throne of iniquity is to be explained of the throne 
 of a hostile pagan power uniting enmity against the law of Grod 
 with their hostility against his people. So Psalm cxxv. 3, speaks 
 of the "rod of the wicked/' or " of wickedness. " 
 
 PSALM XCV. 
 
 A BEAUTIFUL festive psalm. (Of. Psalm c.) The Koman and 
 Anglican Churches use it, especially verse 6, as an introduction of 
 their services. 
 
 Exhortation to the joyous praise of G-od, (v. 1, 2.) He is more 
 worthy of praise than all other objects of adoration, (>. 4, 5.) 
 Israel above all must praise him, for he has made them his people, 
 and led them as a faithful shepherd. that they would anew give 
 ear to his voice on the day consecrated to his service, (v. 6, 7,) and 
 be admonished by the conduct of their ancestors, who after so 
 many benefits yet hardened their hearts, and were on that account 
 excluded from the rest of God. 
 
 First Choir. 
 
 LORD: 
 
 our 
 
 1 A COME, let us sing unto the LORD : 
 
 \J Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of 
 salvation. 
 
 2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, 
 And make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. 
 
 3 For the LORD is a great God, 
 And a great King above all gods. 
 
 4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth:* 
 The height of the hills is his also. 
 
 5 The sea is his, and he made it. 
 And his hands formed the dry land. 
 
 6 come, let us worship and bow down : 
 Let us kneel before the LORD our maker. 
 
 7 For he is our God; 
 
 And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of 
 
 his hand. 
 that ye would hear his voice to-day ! 
 
 * Or, "What the earth conceals." 
 
PSALM XCV. 383 
 
 Second Choir. 
 
 8 Harden not your heart, as in the contention 
 
 And as in the day of temptation in the wilderness : 
 
 9 When your fathers tempted me, 
 Proved me, though they saw my work. 
 
 10 Forty years long was I grieved with t his generation, 
 And said, "It is a people that do err in their heart, 
 And they would not know my ways." 
 
 11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath 
 
 That they should not enter into my rest. 
 
 V. 1 5. Holy joy in God, not discord and dejection, appears 
 here in the old covenant as the fundamental sentiment of adora- 
 tion. God, who eifects " the salvation" of his people, has a thousand 
 claims upon " their gratitude." There is no need of eloquence in 
 man to exalt him, for his works speak aloud and furnish infinite 
 matter for songs of praise. 
 
 V. 6, 7. Every emotion of the heart seeks for an adequate 
 expression. Hence the Psalmist is not satisfied with asking for 
 devotional feelings, but prays for the work of adoration and humilia- 
 tion, by bowing down and kneeling. He praises chiefly that work 
 of the Lord which deserved special consideration when Israel 
 assembled for purposes of worship. He is " the Lord our maker/' 
 or as Moses has it, " the Rock that begat thee, the God that formed 
 thee." (Deut. xxxii. 18.) He found Israel as a troop of slaves, 
 who were no people. He gave them the law, guided and fed them 
 as a shepherd, (vide ad. Ps. xxxiii. 1,) his faithful hand holding 
 the staff. They had often been faithless, but the "To-day" for 
 ever resounds anew, " For the gifts and calling of God are without 
 repentance." (Rom. xi. 29.) 
 
 V. 8 11. Lest the people should regard the admonition need- 
 less, God himself appears, reminding them of the faithlessness of 
 their ancestors, (Exod. xvii.) and its serious consequences. As it is 
 no easy thing firmly to believe in the love of our invisible Father 
 high above the clouds, so will this Father assuredly be lenient 
 towards the weakness of men. As regards his people he had showed 
 himself to them, become visible, and appeared, as it were, before 
 them in his miracles; but in spite of all this they provoked him 
 anew in the wilderness, by asking, " Is the Lord among us or not?" 
 (Exod. xvii. 7.) Their unbelief was by no means a transient weak- 
 ness. The Lord had to bear its effusions for forty years. It then 
 became manifest that they were not worthy to enter into the rest 
 which he had prepared for them in Canaan; besides Caleb and 
 Joshua, not one of their six hundred thousand men entered there. 
 This passage is beautifully explained Hebrews iv. 7, etc. Since 
 
384 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 God addressed the same admonition to later generations, the apos- 
 tle concludes that the rest which God had prepared for the people 
 in the earthly Canaan was not the right one ; that there was 
 another rest, from which men might exclude themselves through 
 unbelief. 
 
 PSALM XCVI. 
 
 ALTHOUGH Psalms xcvi. c. make no specific mention of the 
 Messiah, they are nevertheless (Psalm xcix. excepted) Messianic, 
 because they set forth his work and repeat the frequent declara- 
 tions of the prophets. They show how the messages of the pro- 
 phets entered into the hearts of pious Israelites, inspired them, and 
 how the lyric poets familiarized the people more with their con- 
 tents, from the fact of their forming part of the temple service. 
 The theme of these psalms is the Messiah's advent on earth, for 
 the purpose of establishing a kingdom of righteousness, of holding 
 a judgment in which idols shall be demolished, the only true God 
 receive universal homage, (Ps. xcvii. 7,) and the God of Israel be 
 preached over the whole earth. With this accord the predictions 
 of the prophets, and Isaiah attunes a song similar to this, " Sing 
 unto the Lord a new song," etc. (Isa. xlii. 10.) According to 
 1 Chronicles xvi. this psalm in conjunction with some verses of 
 Psalms cv. and cvi. was sung at the removal of the ark into the 
 sanctuary. Kindred in contents are especially Psalms xlvii. and 
 Ixvii. 
 
 The Lord shallbe praised in all the earth and at all times, 
 (v. 1 3.) He is worthy: all other gods are nothing, (v. 4 6.) 
 All the heathen must worship him in holy reverence, (v. 7 9.) 
 The proclamation of the Lord's monarchy is an object of joy so 
 great that even inanimate nature is forced to utter her voice and to 
 praise the Lord, (v. 10 13.) 
 
 1 C\ SING unto the LORD a new song : 
 \J Sing unto the LORD, all the earth. 
 
 2 Sing unto the LORD, bless his name; 
 Preach his salvation from day to day. 
 
 3 Declare his glory among the heathen, 
 His wonders among all people. 
 
 4 For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised : 
 He is to be feared above all gods. 
 
PSALM XCVI. 385 
 
 5 For all the gods of the nations are idols:* 
 But the LORD made the heavens. 
 
 6 Honour and majesty are before him : 
 Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 
 
 7 Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the people, 
 Give unto the LORD glory and strength. 
 
 8 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name ; 
 Bring an offering, and come into his courts. 
 
 9 worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness : 
 Fear before him, all the earth. 
 
 10 Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: 
 
 The world also shall be established that it shall not be 
 
 moved : 
 He shall judge the people righteously. 
 
 11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; 
 
 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof (or, "all that is 
 therein/') 
 
 12 Let the field be joyful and all that is therein: 
 And let all the trees of the wood rejoice 
 
 13 Before the LORD : for he cometh, 
 For he cometh to judge the ea^th: 
 
 He shall judgef the world with righteousness, 
 And the people with his truth. 
 
 V. 1 6. Songs of praise shall be addressed unto the Lord 
 with renewed faith and renewed love, not only by his people but 
 by the whole earth, not only now and then, but from day to day. 
 The knowledge of this God is to reach all the nations from the 
 narrow borders of a country the greatest extension of which, from 
 Sidon to Sodom, comprised not more than about 130 miles: the 
 words of the prophet shall be fulfilled, "Then will I turn to the 
 people a pure language, that they may call upon the name of the 
 Lord, to serve him with one consent/' (Zeph. iii. 9.) It was 
 incredible to men, but the Lord had imparted that assurance to 
 the hearts of his elect. "All the gods of the nations are idols." 
 The proper meaning of idol is "a vanity" "a nothing/' (1 Cor. 
 viii. 4;) they demand adoration without having done any works. 
 "But the Lord made the heavens/' Though glorious on earth, 
 the fulness of his glory is in his heavenly sanctuary. 
 
 V. 1 9. It is proper that the nations should approach such a 
 God with praises and offerings in the festal adornment of priests. 
 (Cf. Psalm xxix. 2.) 
 
 * Literally, "are nothings,'* ?'. e. fancies of the inincl. 
 f Or, "rule." 
 33 
 
386 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 F. 10 13. He who is the sole king of creation made and 
 established the world in so solid a manner that it cannot be moved, 
 though generations of rebels seek to scatter into it universal con- 
 fusion. He judges the nations in righteousness: believers are 
 sure of this, and shall see it when he shall establish his visible 
 kingdom. It will not be a reign of terror, but to all who obey his 
 laws a reign of joy, and of joy so great, that inanimate nature her- 
 gelf shall participate in "the glorious liberty of the children of 
 God/' (Rom. viii 21,) and give loud utterance to her rejoicing. 
 
 PSALM XCVII. 
 
 THIS description of ttfe advent of the Lord as the Judge of the 
 earth is similar to Psalm xviii. The Psalmist confines himself, 
 however, not to judgment in its literal sense, but comprises in that 
 term every divine energy which brings about the cessation of evil. 
 In the same way our Lord says, "The prince of this world is 
 judged." (John xvi. 11.) This is evident, for the conversion of 
 idolaters to the living God is stated as a result of that judgment, 
 
 Sr. 7.) So Malachi (Mai. iii. 2, 3,) names as one result of the 
 ivine judgment the purifying and sanctifying of the priesthood of 
 Israel. We who behold in history the partial manifestation at 
 least of the Psalmist's vision, are entitled to the assertion that 
 "the theme of this Psalm is the triumph of Christ over an unbe- 
 lieving world in its present partial fulfilment and ultimate com- 
 pletion." 
 
 LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; 
 JL Let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. 
 
 2 Clouds and darkness are round about him : 
 Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of his 
 
 throne. 
 
 3 A fire goeth before him, 
 
 And burneth up his enemies round about. 
 
 4 His lightnings enlightened the world : 
 The earth saw and trembled. 
 
 5 The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, 
 At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 
 
 6 The heavens declare his righteousness, 
 And all the people see his glory. 
 
PSALM XCVII. 387 
 
 7 Confounded be all they that serve graven images, 
 That boast themselves of idols : 
 
 Worship him, all ye gods ! 
 
 8 Zion heard, and was glad ; 
 
 And the daughters of Judah rejoiced 
 Because of thy judgments, LORD. 
 
 9 For thou LORD, art Most High in all the earth ; 
 Thou art greatly exalted above all gods. 
 
 10 Ye that love the LORD, hate evil : 
 He preserveth the souls of his saints ; 
 
 He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. 
 
 11 Light is sown for the righteous,* 
 And gladness for the upright in heart. 
 
 12 Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; 
 
 And give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. 
 
 V. 1 6. "The Lord reigneth." He reigns now, though his 
 longsuffering bears with his adversaries. This is not a fearful but 
 a comforting truth: the source of rejoicing to all who love the 
 good, even to remote isles that shall hereafter gratefully acknow- 
 ledge it. (Isa. xlii. 4. 10.) Dark clouds enwrap his throne. 
 This is meant to symbolize the severity of the judge; but there is 
 every reason for courage, since righteousness and judgment are the 
 foundations of the throne. The fire of his anger consumes his 
 adversaries. Though now it often seems as if he had laid his 
 sceptre for a while aside, it shall then become manifest that he is 
 "the Lord of the whole earth/' As far as the heavens extend, so 
 far shall his righteousness be made known. The term righteous- 
 ness must not be confined to retributive justice, but extended to 
 all the attributes which come into play in the revelation of his 
 Being , among which is included that of "goodness/' (See ad. 
 Ps. v. 9.) This is the reason why the latter half of the verse 
 speaks of his "glory." 
 
 V. 1 9. Yain pretenders to divine dignity shall then come to 
 nought, and great exulting shall be in the city of God, when the 
 Lord shall be revealed, such as he is now, though unacknow- 
 ledged, "Exalted far above all gods." 
 
 V. 10 12. They only who hate evil, as does the king, are 
 owned as citizens in the city of God. "The foundation of God 
 standeth sure, having this seal : let every one that nameth the 
 name of Christ depart from iniquity/' (2 Tim. ii. 19.) They may 
 safely trust in the immutability of the divine law, according to 
 which joy and gladness shall ultimately arise to the pious, and on 
 that account cannot but praise hini for evermore. 
 
 * Or, "Light shall arise to the righteous." 
 
388 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM XCVIII. 
 
 THIS psalm is the echo of Psalm xcvi. Its contents are, the final 
 great revelation, the ultimate triumph of G-od, when his salvation 
 and his righteousness, the revelation of which is promised to Israel, 
 shall be revealed to his own people and to the whole world. 
 
 A PSALM. 
 li 
 
 1 sing unto the LORD a new song; 
 For he hath done marvellous things: 
 His right hand, and his holy arm, 
 Hath gotten him the victory. 
 
 2 The LORD hath caused his salvation to be made known, 
 His righteousness hath he revealed before the heathen. 
 
 3 He hath remembered his mercy and his truth 
 Toward the house of Israel : 
 
 All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 
 
 4 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: 
 Make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. 
 
 5 Sing unto the LORD with the harp ; 
 With the harp, and the voice of a psalm. 
 
 6 With trumpets and sound of cornet 
 
 Make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King. 
 
 7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; 
 The world, and they that dwell therein. 
 
 8 Let the floods clap their hands : 
 Let the hills be joyful together 
 
 9 Before the LORD ; for he cometh to judge the earth : 
 With righteousness shall he judge the world, 
 
 And the people with equity. 
 
 PSALM XCIX. 
 
 A HORTATORY psalm, which calls upon Israel to worship their 
 God and King, who reigns in righteousness, and has shown much 
 favour to his people. 
 
 First Choir. 
 1 rPHE LORD reigneth let the people tremble : 
 
 JL He that sitteth between the cherubim let the earth 
 be moved. 
 
PSALM XCIX. 
 
 2 The LORD is great in Zion ; 
 
 And he is high above all the people. 
 
 3 Let them praise thy great and terrible name ; 
 For it is holy. 
 
 4 And the strength of the king who loveth judgment ! 
 Thou dost establish equity. 
 
 Thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob. 
 
 Second Choir. 
 
 5 Exalt ye the LORD our God, 
 And worship at his footstool ; 
 For he is holy. 
 
 First Choir. 
 
 6 Moses and Aaron among his priests, 
 
 And Samuel among them that call upon his name ; 
 They called upon the LORD, and he answered them. 
 
 7 He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar : 
 They kept his testimonies, 
 
 And the ordinance that he gave them. 
 
 8 Thou answerest them, LORD, our God ! 
 
 Thou wast a God that forgavest them (the people,) 
 Though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. 
 
 Second Choir. 
 
 9 Exalt the LORD our God, 
 And worship at his holy hill ; 
 For the LORD our God is holy. 
 
 V. 1 5. The Lord is a mighty King: at the revelation of his 
 power everything must tremble. For centuries he has exercised 
 judgment in Israel, therefore Israel above all nations shall worship 
 him. They shall worship at his footstool, i. e. near the ark and in 
 the temple. (1 Chron. xxviii. 2; Psalm cxxxii. 7; Isaiah Ix. 13; 
 Lam. ii. 1; Ezek. xliii. 7.) This expression is to indicate, that 
 however marvellous the revelation of (rod in his visble sanctuary 
 may appear, its glory is not to be compared with the sanctuary of 
 heaven, in which all his fulness is expanded. 
 
 V. 6 9. God had in his mercy favoured his people with 
 mighty intercessors, such as Moses, Aaron, and Samuel, the two 
 former of whom are here as the celebrated representatives and 
 intercessors of their nation called 'priests, though Moses was not a 
 priest. (Exod. xxxii. 31, 32; Psalm cvi. 23; 1 Sam. xii. 19; 
 Jer. xv. 1.) He had revealed his mercy in drawing nigh unto 
 his people. He had punished their transgressions; but his method 
 33* 
 
390 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 was lenient, (2 Sam. vii. 14 :) he had not removed his favour from 
 them, but forgave them for their intercessors' sake. Shall Israel 
 forget this ? 
 
 PSALM C. 
 
 A TEMPLE song, as Psalm xcv., which was probably sung during 
 the march of a procession. (Of. v. 4; Ps. cxviii. 19.) The refresh- 
 ing words of verse 5 seem to have been frequently repeated in 
 these songs: this seems to be the legitimate inference from 
 Ezra iii. II j 1 Mace. iv. 24; 1 Chron. xvi. 34. They occur 
 also in Psalms cvi. cvii. cxviii. cxxxvi. and in psalms whose date 
 falls after the captivity. 
 
 1 A PSALM of Praise. 
 
 A 
 
 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth. 
 
 2 Serve the LORD with gladness: 
 
 Come before his presence with singing ! 
 8 Know ye that the LORD he is God : 
 It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves, 
 To be his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 
 
 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, 
 And into his courts with praise : 
 
 Be thankful unto him, and bless his name, 
 
 5 For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; 
 And his truth enduretk to all generations. 
 
 PSALM 01. 
 
 THIS psalm contains the principles of David's government.* Many 
 commentators think that this psalm was composed during the period 
 of his persecution; but from his calling Jerusalem the city of God, 
 the ark seems already to have been on Mount Zion. If the words 
 in v. 2 "When thou wilt come to me/' should refer to the ark, 
 the date of the psalm falls into the period when David, afraid to 
 receive the ark, but hearing of" the blessing it brought upon the 
 
 * "It may easily be seen that the poet is a mighty potentate, and David, 
 for the nobility of David's mind is throughout discernible." JEwald. 
 
PSALM 01. 891 
 
 house of Obed-edom, intended to remove it from there to the capital, 
 and offered new vows to his God on that occasion. 
 
 He will sing of the chief virtues of royal government, which he 
 intends to cultivate. He begins with his private life, (v. 1, 2.) 
 Slanderous and proud servants shall be kept from his court, (v. 3 5,) 
 but he will attract faithful servants, and purify the city of God 
 from transgressors, (v. 6 8.) This psalm is one of the few (viz. 
 cxxvii. cxxviii.) which refer to the administration of a secular 
 calling. Luther observes, "This psalm is written against factious 
 men, who pretend to much holiness in condemning domesticity, 
 matrimony, and anything that is high and low on earth/' 
 
 1 A PSALM of David. 
 
 I will sing of mercy and judgment : 
 
 Unto thee, LORD, will I sing (or "play.") 
 
 2 I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. 
 When thou wilt come unto me. 
 
 I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. 
 
 3 I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes : 
 I hate the work of them that turn aside ; 
 
 It shall not cleave to me. 
 
 4 A froward heart shall depart from me : 
 I will not know a wicked person. 
 
 5 Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: 
 Him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not 
 
 I suffer. 
 
 6 Mine eyes look upon the faithful of the land, that they 
 
 may dwell with me : 
 He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me. 
 
 7 He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house : 
 He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. 
 
 8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land : 
 
 That I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the 
 LORD. 
 
 F. 1, 2. Mercy and judgment, the chief qualities of a king's 
 government, form the theme of his song. He calls it a song of 
 praise, because holiness prompts him to such resolutions. We 
 refer the words, "When thou wilt come unto me,"* to the ark, 
 
 * Interpreters are greatly at variance as to the meaning of this passage. 
 Luther renders, "Before them that belong unto me:" adding, Some Rabbis 
 will no doubt find fault with my free rendering, but I prefer plain sense to 
 their ambiguous words." David's meaning is, "Those who _ enter my 
 house, i. e. belong to me." Aben Ezra, Kimchi, refer to a coming of the 
 
392 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the object of his longing, which he brought up with rejoicing, and 
 before which he danced in the gladness of his heart. (2 Sam. vi.) 
 Its arrival on Zion made that day a day of new and holy resolves, 
 as we are wont to turn over a new leaf on experiencing unexpectedly 
 the goodness of the Lord. Everything should be holy in the city 
 which was henceforth to contain the visible sanctuary ci his God. 
 He would especially be holy within his house, i. e. hi? family, since 
 the public and private life of kings often presents a strange contrast. 
 
 Y. 3 7. It is his intention to strive as a ruler after righteous- 
 ness, to get faithful and godly courtiers around him. He had 
 during his residence at the court of Saul learnt how greatly kings 
 are plagued with sycophants, slanderers, and proud men, like Doeg 
 and Gush, who driving the faithful away, seek only their own gain, 
 and to become the lords of their lords. A prince once observed that 
 he was not afraid of those that are far away, but of those who were 
 following his steps, because these were far more inclined to injure 
 him. David vows in general terms that he will not bear with the 
 wicked; he then expresses his hatred against calumniators and the 
 proud, who had never an eye to the king's, though always to their 
 own interest. He will be on the look out for the faithful of the 
 land, whereby he intimates that, they are by no means numerous. 
 Duke Frederic once said, "The older I get the less I know whom 
 to trust." A prince should not get weary of seeking, for it is worth 
 the trouble. Even in regarding a country which is governed by a 
 Nero or a Caracalla, it may still be said that their righteous servants 
 prevented more evil than they themselves did. David detests 
 lying as much as slander, for he himself is honest and loves the 
 truth. The temptation to untruth and flattery in the case of ser- 
 vants and confidential attendants of great lords is confessedly most 
 common. It must be very common, since there are but few princes 
 who so thoroughly loathe it as David did, and since many are not 
 even as wise as that abbot who said of the brethren who made the 
 most reverential bow, "I know that they do not look at me, but at 
 the key which is fastened to my girdle/' 
 
 V. 8. The purifying of his immediate circle of attendants is 
 
 spirit of prophecy; and the majority of modern translators regard the words 
 as a longing sigh for Divine assistance, "When wilt thou come unto me 
 with thine aid?" But how can the simple "come unto me" mean the assist- 
 ance of God? How strange such a sigh? Theodoret regards the passage 
 as a question, but as a question of surprise why God did not enter into a 
 heart which was already entirely devoted to him ? Munster, Bucer, Calvin, 
 Grotius, who refer the date of the psalm to before the ascension of David, 
 render, "When wilt thou raise me to the throne?" or, "When thou shalt 
 raise me to the throne." Still different from the rest is Rudinger, "When- 
 ever thou wilt come to me," t. e. "When I am with mine;" and Tremellius, 
 "When thou shalt come to call me to account." Maurer, "When shall I 
 be prosperous?" Jarchi, "Until the right way shall come unto me." Our 
 explanation may be seen in Calmet and Venema. 
 
PSALM on. 893 
 
 only the beginning for the purifying of the whole land. The unholy 
 city, which now contains the sanctuary of the Lord, shall be holy 
 to the Lord. David purposes to attack sin of any kind wherever 
 it might appear. Sensible that such a work cannot be done at 
 once, he vows to renew his resolve from day to day ; and with new 
 strength to enter upon the work. 
 
 PSALM OIL 
 
 THE inscription denotes the object of the psalm. It is a psalm for 
 the afflicted. It was written, as appears from verses 14 18, dur- 
 ing the exile, after it had lasted for some considerable time, and 
 the seventy years which the prophets had stated as its duration 
 had almost expired, (v. 14.) 
 
 Remote from his native country, exposed to the reproach of ene- 
 mies the Psalmist's life is slowly advancing, (v. 1 12.) But 
 the time of deliverance is at hand. The Spirit assures him that 
 the Lord will soon rebuild Zion, and that the kings of the heathen 
 shall hereafter be converted to the Lord, who does such mighty 
 works, (v. 13 23.) This elevation of mind is succeeded by gloom 
 the voice of complaint is heard once more but only for a 
 moment, for he is raised again by looking to the Eternal, whose 
 omnipotence is unchangeable, and who will show his salvation to 
 his posterity at least, if not to himself. 
 
 1 A PRAYER of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, 
 JL\. and poureth out his complaint before the LORD. 
 
 2 Hear my prayer, LORD, 
 And let my cry come unto thee. 
 
 3 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble ; 
 Incline thine ear unto me : in the day when I call 
 Answer me speedily. 
 
 4 For my days are consumed like smoke, 
 
 And my bones are burned as an hearth (or, "faggots.") 
 
 5 My heart is smitten, and withered like grass ; 
 So that I forget to eat my bread. 
 
 6 By reason of the voice of my groaning 
 My bones cleave to my flesh. 
 
 7 I am like a pelican of the wilderness : 
 I am like an owl in ruins. 
 
 8 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top. 
 
394 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 9 Mine enemies reproach me all the day ; 
 
 And they that are mad against me are sworn against me. 
 
 10 For I have eaten ashes like bread. 
 And mingled my drink with weeping, 
 
 11 Because of thine indignation and thy wrath: 
 For thou hast lifted me up, and cast me down. 
 
 12 My days are like a shadow that declineth;* 
 And I am withered like grass. 
 
 13 But thou, LORD, shalt endure for ever; 
 And thy remembrance unto all generations. 
 
 14 Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion : 
 
 For the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come. 
 
 15 For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, 
 And have mercy uponf the dust thereof. 
 
 16 So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, 
 And all the kings of the earth thy glory. 
 
 17 When the LORD shall build up Zion, 
 He shall appear in his glory. 
 
 18 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, 
 And not despise their prayer. 
 
 19 This shall be written for the generation to come : 
 
 And the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD. 
 
 20 For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary ; 
 From heaven did the LORD behold the earth ; 
 
 21 To hear the groaning of the prisoner ; 
 
 To loose those that are appointed to death ; 
 
 22 To declare the name of the LORD in Zion, 
 And his praise in Jerusalem; 
 
 23 When the people are gathered together, 
 And the kingdoms, to serve the LORD, 
 
 24 He weakened my strength in the way, 
 He shortened my days. 
 
 25 I said, my God, take me not away in the midst of my days : 
 Thy years are throughout all generations. 
 
 26 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth : 
 And the heavens are the work of thy hands. 
 
 27 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure : 
 Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; 
 
 As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be 
 changed : 
 
 * Or, "Like an extended (i. e. stretched out) shadow." 
 f /. e. "are grieved at." 
 
PSALM Oil. 395 
 
 28 But thou art the same, 
 
 And thy years shall have no end. 
 
 29 The children of thy servants shall continue, 
 And their seed shall be established before thee. 
 
 V. 2 5. He begins to call upon God with the fervour of one 
 who is sure that his prayer reaches to heaven. The glow of these 
 complaints shows that the wailing is not only personal, but refers, 
 like the lamentations of Jeremiah, to the humiliation of a people 
 which was formerly highly honoured before God and men and to 
 whom the Psalmist belongs. The debasement of his nation has 
 struck the deepest wounds into the heart of this Psalmist as it did 
 to Jeremiah though both solely grieve on account of the sin 
 which had occasioned such chastisements. (Lam. i. 8. 18; ii. 14, 
 etc.) His days pass on like the extended evening shadow; flames 
 rage within, his heart is withered, he loathes to eat, and his flesh 
 is faint; like a bird of the desert, like a lone sparrow deprived of 
 his consort, he seeks in his pain for solitude. 
 
 V. 13 18. The Lord may have changed his dealings with 
 Israel but his Being remains eternally the same. He had caused 
 it to be proclaimed that the captivity should come to an end after a 
 certain term. "I will not make a full end of thee; but I will cor- 
 rect thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpun- 
 ished." (Jer. xxx. 11.) "As yet they shall use this speech in the 
 land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again 
 their captivity: The Lord bless thee, habitation of justice, and 
 mountain of holiness. And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and 
 in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go 
 forth with flocks." (Jer. xxxi. 23, 24.) The term of the chastise- 
 ment had even been revealed, "These nations shall serve the king 
 of Babylon seventy years." (Jer. xxv. 11; cf. Zech. i. 12; Dan. 
 ix. 2.) The complainant's hope has in these declarations some- 
 thing to seize, by means of which he mounts to so joyous an assu- 
 rance, that he proclaims the building of Jerusalem, and looks for- 
 ward to a time when the kings of the heathen shall fear the God 
 of Israel. 
 
 F. 19 23. As the history of the Lord's people is a sermon 
 so is especially the history of this deliverance. For mercy rebuilds 
 Zion the praise of the Lord shall be on the lips of its new inha- 
 bitants, so that they shall be the evangelists of the true God, at 
 the time when the Lord shall add the heathen nations to the people 
 of God. (Psalm xlvii. 10.) 
 
 V. 24 29. The prospects of the future are thus glorious and 
 bright; but shall the Psalmist be spared to see it? He feels that 
 his strength is gone. Yet however much things in heaven and on 
 earth may change, the Being of the Lord remains unchanged. 
 
396 COMMENTARY' ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 Heaven and earth are his handiwork, with which he as it were sur- 
 rounds himself as with a vesture. The vesture may change, but 
 he, whom it surrounds, endureth for ever. He may linger with 
 revealing himself in the present, but the children of his servants 
 shall experience his blessings. 
 
 PSALM GUI. 
 
 A PSALM of praise, no .less expressive of the peace of a soul recon- 
 ciled to God than Psalm xxiii. Psalms like the present show that 
 the evangelical spirit of the New Testament came occasionally upon 
 the servants of God, who lived under the Old Covenant. 
 
 It is the Psalmist's intention to praise the Lord for the benefits 
 which he had himself experienced, among which he regards the 
 forgiveness of sins as the greatest, (v. 1 5.) He then praises the 
 benefits which Israel had experienced in conjunction with the for- 
 giving mercy of the Lord, (V. 7 19.) The soul of the Psalmist 
 is so filled with the necessity to praise the Lord a want than 
 which none more noble can be conceived that he calls upon all the 
 creatures of God to praise him, (v. 20 22.) 
 
 A 
 
 PSALM of David. 
 
 Bless the LORD, my soul : 
 
 And all that is within me, bless his holy name. 
 
 2 Bless the LORD, my soul, 
 And forget not all his benefits. 
 
 3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities ; 
 Who healeth all thy diseases ; 
 
 4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction ; 
 
 Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender 
 mercies ; 
 
 5 Who satisfieth thy mouth* with good things; 
 So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. 
 
 6 The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment 
 For all that are oppressed. 
 
 7 He made known his ways unto Moses, 
 His acts unto the children of Israel. 
 
 * "Thine age?" Thol. do Wette. "Thy desire." Lxx. Vulg. 
 
 
 
PSALM cm. 397 
 
 8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, 
 Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. 
 
 9 He will not always chide: 
 
 Neither will he keep his anger for ever. 
 
 10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins ; 
 Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 
 
 11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, 
 
 So great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 
 
 12 As far as the east is from the west, 
 
 So far hath he removed our transgressions from us. 
 
 13 Like as a father pitieth his children, 
 
 So the LORD pitieth them that fear him. 
 
 14 For he knoweth our frame ; 
 
 He remembereth that we are dust. 
 
 15 As for man, his days are as grass : 
 
 As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. 
 
 16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone ; 
 And it shall know no more the place thereof. 
 
 17 But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to ever- 
 
 lasting upon them that fear him, 
 And his righteousness unto children's children; 
 
 18 To such as keep his covenant, 
 
 And to those that remember his commandments to do them. 
 
 19 The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens ; 
 And his kingdom ruleth over all. 
 
 20 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, 
 
 That excel in strength, that do his commandments, 
 Hearkening unto the voice of his word. 
 
 21 Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts ; 
 
 Ye ministers of his that do his pleasure. 
 
 22 Bless the LORD, all his works, 
 In all places of his dominion : 
 Bless the Lord, my soul. 
 
 V. 1 5. The Psalmist reproves as it were the remissness and 
 indolence of the human heart to praise the Lord, and repeatedly 
 calls upon his soul to engage in that occupation. He confesses 
 that enough of goodness has been shown to him, and that man 
 chiefly requires a good memory for the benefits of Grod. He begins 
 not like others with the enumeration of temporal benefits, such as 
 health, wife, offspring, and the like, however much they ought to 
 be gratefully acknowledged; but above all he thanks the Lord for 
 the forgiveness of his sins. In mentioning diseases he alludes to 
 34 
 
398 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the noxiousness of sin, and in naming destruction his reference 
 is to the punishment due to sin, which the grace and mercy of God 
 averts. The fountain of Divine mercy for his people is so copious, 
 that they shall remain ever young, and that their leaves shall not 
 wither, (Psalm i.) Similar in import is the figure of the eagle, 
 who attains to the highest age among birds, and as they moult 
 annually, may be said to renew themselves and to get young again. 
 . (Isaiah xl. 31; Ixv. 20.) The glory of the old age of the godly 
 consists in this, that while the faculties for sensuous no less than 
 mental enjoyment gradually decline, and the hearth of life gets 
 thus deprived of its fuel, the blessings of godliness not only con- 
 tinue to refresh the soul in old age, but are not until then most 
 thoroughly enjoyed. The sun of piety rises the warmer in propor- 
 tion as the sun of life declines. 
 
 F. 6 18. The Psalmist looks now from himself to his nation 
 and her experience of Divine deliverance, especially in the days of 
 her youth at the time of the great deliverance by Moses. No merit 
 gave them a title, but the mercy and grace of God were the only 
 sources of that blessing. He punished them in his anger but "in 
 measure." (Jer. xxx. 11; Isaiah liv. 8.) However much he pun- 
 ishes, his punishment does not come up to our iniquities; the 
 psalmist here alludes to the beautifully evangelical name of God. 
 (Exod. xxxiv. 6.) High as the heaven is above the earth, is his 
 mercy over his servants, and he removes the recollection of their 
 transgressions as far as the east is from the west. The Psalmist 
 twice adds "those that fear him," and then, "to such as keep his 
 covenant." In doing so, he repels that carnal view of Divine love, 
 which forgets that faith and repentance are the conditions on which 
 the Lord promises to become our father.' David often felt this 
 filial relation to God. (Psalms xvi. xxiii. xxxii.) He confesses 
 that the mercy of God is a pure act of grace : he is merciful because 
 we are nothing and are only strong in him. Man is as frail as the 
 flower of the field, which after the scorching east wind has passed 
 over it for a day or two, dies and others grow up in its stead. 
 What can man do without God ? Just those who know these things 
 and make him their refuge, experience his mercy and overflowing 
 goodness, which are extended to their posterity, provided they do 
 not render themselves unworthy of them. The added condition of 
 verse 18 shows the misapprehension of those who think that the 
 promise of the blessings on godly parents unto the thousandth gener- 
 ation, (Exod. xx. 5, 6.) might be so interpreted that hardened off- 
 spring could enjoy the favour of God for their father's sake, while 
 pious offspring could for their father's sake be rejected. It is clear 
 that this was not the meaning of Moses, for it is said of the wicked 
 J'unto the third and fourth generation of them tliat hate me," while 
 it is said of the godly, " showing mercy unto thousands of them 
 
PSALM CIV. 
 
 that love me and keep my commandments.* After this represen- 
 tation of the adorable attributes of the Lord, he concludes the des- 
 cription with the truth that his throne is established in the heavens, 
 hio-h above the fluctuations of earthly life, and that all, willingly or 
 unwillingly, must serve him. 
 
 V. 20 22. These thoughts have so edified the pious Psalmist 
 that his own praise and that of men seems insufficient to him ; he 
 calls therefore heavenly spirits to his aid, the servants of might, 
 forming as it were the Lord's army, as well as all creatures that 
 form part of his infinite dominion. But he finally reverts to his 
 own soul, lest engaged with calling upon others he should neglect 
 his own duty. 
 
 PSALM CIV. 
 
 A GLORIOUS psalm of nature. It begins with a description of the 
 habitation of God and of his ministering powers, (v. 2 4.) 
 Adverting to the beginning of creation there follows a description 
 of the origin of the habitable globe, (v. 5 9,) of God's care for 
 the wild beasts in the loneliness of the forest, for cattle, for man 
 who had received more than he needed, for the vegetable kingdom, 
 the birds in the top of the trees, and for the occupants of the 
 loftiest mountainous regions, (v. 10 18.) He turns to the stars 
 of heaven, the wonderful alternations of day and night and attend- 
 ant spectacles, (v. 19 23,) and proceeds to the miracles of the 
 deep, (v. 24 26;) though the creatures of God are innumerable 
 yet not one of them is uncared for : shall he not provide food, who 
 gives life? (v. 27 30.) His glory is not transient, (v. 31, 32.) 
 Who can regard such a God without praising him and desiring the 
 return of all those who have forsaken him? (v. 33 35.) 
 
 1 "DLESS the LORD, my soul. 
 
 JD LORD my God, thou art very great : 
 Thou art clothed with honour and majesty. 
 
 2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment : 
 Who stretehest out the heavens like a tent : 
 
 3 Who layeth his upper chambers above the waters :f 
 Who maketh the clouds his chariot: 
 
 Who walketh upon the wings of the wind : 
 
 * Cf. Deut. xxiv. 16; Lev. xxvi. 39; Jer. xxxi. 29, 30; Ezek. xviii. 
 Hengstenberg' s Authenticity of the Pentateuch, ii. 544. 
 
 f This is a better rendering than " of waters," for the sensuous idea of 
 man conceives of God as enthroned above the clouds, in the luminous heights 
 which spread away into infinity. Cf. Psalm cxlviii. 4, where the clouds 
 are the waters above the skies, beyond which the Lord sits enthroned. 
 
400 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 4 Who maketh the winds his angels (messengers,) 
 A flaming fire his ministers. 
 
 5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, 
 That it should not be removed for ever. 
 
 6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment 
 The waters stood above the mountains. 
 
 7 At thy rebuke they fled ; 
 
 At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away 
 
 8 The mountains rose, the valleys sank down 
 Unto the place which thou hast founded for them. 
 
 9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; 
 That they turn not again to cover the earth. 
 
 10 He sendeth the springs into the valleys, 
 Which flow among the hills. 
 
 11 They give drink to every beast of the field : 
 The wild asses quench their thirst. 
 
 12 By them the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, 
 And sing among the branches. 
 
 13 He watereth the hills from his chambers: 
 
 The earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. 
 
 14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, 
 And herb for the service of man : 
 
 That he may bring forth food out of the earth; 
 
 15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, 
 To make his face to shine more than oil : 
 And bread which strengtheneth man's heart. 
 
 16 The trees of the LORD are full of sap : 
 
 The cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted ; 
 
 17 Where the birds make their nests : 
 
 As for the stork, the fir trees are her house. 
 
 18 The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats ; 
 And the rocks for the conies. 
 
 19 He appointed the moon for seasons : 
 The sun knoweth his going down. 
 
 20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night : 
 Wherein all the beasts of the forest do weef* forth. 
 
 21 The young lions roar after their prey, 
 And seek their meat from God. 
 
 22 The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, 
 And lay them down in their dens. 
 
 23 Man goeth forth unto his work 
 And to his labour until the evening. 
 
PSALM CIV. 401 
 
 24 LORD, how manifold are thy works ! 
 In wisdom hast than made them all : 
 The earth is full of thy riches. 
 
 25 So is this great and wide sea. 
 
 Wherein are things creeping innumerable, 
 Both small and great beasts. 
 
 26 There go the ships : 
 
 There is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play 
 therein. 
 
 27 These wait all upon thee ; 
 
 That thou mayest give them their meat in due season. 
 
 28 That thou givest them they gather: 
 
 Thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. 
 
 29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled : 
 
 Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to 
 their dust. 
 
 30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created ; 
 And thou renewest the face of the earth. 
 
 31 The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever : 
 The LORD shall rejoice in his works. 
 
 32 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth : 
 He toucheth the hills, and they smoke. 
 
 33 I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live : 
 
 I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. 
 
 34 My speech shall be sweet to him: 
 I will be glad in the LORD. 
 
 35 Let the sintfers be consumed out of the earth, 
 And let the wicked be no more. 
 
 Bless thou the LORD, my soul. Praise ye the LORD. 
 
 F. 1. This call upon his soul to praise the Lord is impressively 
 repeated at the close of the psalm. The works of God give a 
 mirror-like reflection of his being. (Rom. i. 20.) The diversity 
 and extension of creation testify of his glory and majesty. 
 
 V. 2 4. The description beginning with the highest heaven 
 gradually descends to the earth and its inhabitants. The vaulted 
 sky is the tent, the light of heaven the garment of God, which 
 conceals him, the invisible one. His upper chamber (people in 
 the East used to retire to the upper chamber when they wished for 
 solitude) is reared up in bright aether on the slender foundation of 
 rainy clouds. (Ps. cxlviii. 4.) Undulating clouds and the wings 
 of the tempest are his royal chariot. The winds and flames of fire, 
 
 34* 
 
402 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 hastening from those heights to this lower world, are his minister- 
 ing spirits.* 
 
 Y. 5 9. With reference to the history of creation, the Psalmist 
 
 now turns to the lower regions of earth. The habitation of God in 
 the heavens is firmly established, though the waters be its rafters : 
 nor does the earth sink, though her weight seem to draw her into 
 the deep. The waters covered her in the beginning like a gar- 
 ment to the highest summits of her mountains; the Lord spoke, 
 the waters were gathered into the ocean, and mountains and val- 
 leys stood forth. Omnipotence has set a bound to the waters, 
 though they are above and lighter than the earth and seem to over- 
 flow it. (See ad. Ps. xxiv. 2.) 
 
 F. 10 12. There are streams in the lone desert, invisible to 
 man, giving drink to the beast of the field. The wild ass is very 
 shy and dwells in the desert. By their lone banks the birds war- 
 ble their notes, if not to human ears, to the Creator who made 
 them. 
 
 F. 13 15. The waters distil from the mountains for the benefit 
 of man and beast. The cattle, more dependent on water and 
 grass than men, for whom the vine grows to gladden their hearts, 
 so that their faces get radiant with joy, and shine as with ointment. 
 (Sir. xxxi. 84; xl. 20.) This passage may be explained as show- 
 ing that the truly pious need not restrict themselves to the barest 
 necessities of life, but that they who have the means may enjoy 
 the gifts of God. But the words of Sirach are first in considera- 
 tion, <( Wine and music rejoice the heart , but the love of wisdom is 
 above them both." Moreover, that which is lawful is not always 
 expedient, and love prompts sometimes to the denial of what is 
 lawful. (1 Cor. vi. 12.) 
 
 F. 16 18. Irrigated from above, the vegetable kingdom blos- 
 soms and flourishes. The Psalmist confines himself to the cedar 
 as the queen thereof. Life is diffused up to the top of the loftiest 
 trees and the summit of the highest mountains. A lone butterfly 
 may be seen on the heights of Chimborazo. 
 
 F. 19 23. The sun and the moon are, as it were, for the ser- 
 vice of our globe : they divide the year into day and night. The 
 night hides life in her lap, and the day brings it forth. The lion 
 roars in the stillness of night, and cries to God for food. When 
 
 i 
 
 *The most natural construction recommends the translation, "He 
 maketh his angels winds," (cf. Roster;) it has been remarked (ad. Psalm 
 xxxiv. 8) that the term "angel," literally message, or emanation from God, 
 does not always denote personal beings, but also the ministering powers of 
 God in nature. This would justify that translation, and Psalm cxlvii. 15 
 may be compared, where it is said, that the word of God, being sent out, 
 runneth swiftly. But when light is called the garment, rather the chamber, 
 and clouds the chariot, one cannot help thinking that the elements of 
 nature, e. g. the winds, should be called messengers. 
 
PSALM CIV. 403 
 
 
 the beasts of the forest retire to their dens, man goes forth to his 
 work. 
 
 V. 24 26. Having enumerated only a small portion of the 
 works of God, the Psalmist feels his inability to comprehend them 
 all. His astonishment is his adoration. From the few particulars 
 he had named, he makes the universal conclusion, "In wisdom 
 hast thou made them all; the earth is full of thy riches/' He 
 recollects having passed by the life in the deep. The vastness and 
 greatness of the sea alone would suffice to strike us with astonish- 
 ment, even if it were an uninhabited infinity. But its infinite 
 vastness hides an infinite world : an innumerable diversity of 
 beasts, small and great. Its surface is alive, and there is busy 
 life down to the lowest coral boughs. Its surface carries man, who 
 transplants his arts and his passions from the land to the ocean, and 
 trading and warring, inventing and discovering, animates the waste 
 face of the deep with the spectacles of earth. A race of creatures 
 merrily move in it as their home, and play in its billows. 
 
 V. 27 30. According to the judgment of merely sensuous 
 observation, the food which millions of creatures are consuming 
 every moment flows from other sources than the hand of God, and 
 secondary causes too easily conceal the final cause. But the truly 
 God-fearing man looks through every concealment and veiling, and 
 adores the ever-rich God, who has for many thousand years pro- 
 vided the meat "in due season/' (i. e. when they require it,) for 
 the millions of guests and children on earth, on mountain height, 
 in the air and the ocean, that look to his hand, without his treas- 
 ury having grown any the poorer during these many thousand years. 
 (Psalm cxlv. 15.) Their food cannot come from any other hand 
 than that from which their life proceeds. But their life is God's, 
 for by him breathe and live all that are alive; their breath is his, 
 and if he takes it away they die ; so the whole creation would per- 
 ish if God were to take away from it what is his. 
 
 V. 31, 32. The glory and majesty of God are subject to no 
 change. When he had created the world he said, "Behold, it is 
 very good." Though man did not continue in that goodness, and 
 brought confusion into the world, yet does the Lord rejoice in his 
 works, and will preserve them until they shall have accomplished 
 their ends. He gives the signal and the universe obeys, and at his 
 approach trembles like Sinai in reverential submission. (Exod. 
 xix. 18.) 
 
 Y. 33 35. It is indeed the most worthy employment of an 
 entire existence to sing the praises of such a God. While the 
 Psalmist says this, and with a sense of joy concludes his prayer, 
 his mind contemplates to how small an extent the Lord is acknow- 
 ledged. This gives rise to the prayer that the wicked should cease 
 to be in this beautiful earth. (Psalm vii. 10; xxxvii. 38; cxlv. 20.) 
 
404 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM CV. 
 
 A PSALM of praise. Its design is to recommend the faithful pre- 
 servation of the Divine law by a recital of the Divine leadings of 
 the nation, from the days of Abraham to their entrance into Canaan. 
 The proclamation of the name of the Lord among the heathen is 
 called for in the beginning of the psalm, as in Psalms xcvi. 3 ; 
 xcviii. 4; c. 1. The first fifteen verses occur in conjunction with 
 Psalm xcvi., in the psalm which was sung at the setting up of the 
 ark, which is mentioned in 1 Chron. xvi. The historical facts of 
 this and the succeeding psalm have partly been explained, ad. 
 Psalm Ixxviii. 
 
 1 A GIVE thanks unto the LORD ; 
 \J Call upon his name : 
 
 Make known his deeds among the people. 
 
 2 Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him : 
 Talk ye of all his wondrous works. 
 
 3 Glory ye in his holy name : 
 
 Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. 
 
 4 Seek* the LORD and his strength : 
 Seek his face evermore. 
 
 5 Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; 
 His wonders, and the judgments of his mouth ; 
 
 6 ye seed of Abraham his servant, 
 Ye children of Jacob his chosen. 
 
 7 He, the LORD, is our God: 
 
 His judgments are in all the earth. 
 
 8 He hath remembered his covenant for ever, 
 
 The word which he commanded to.a thousand generations* 
 
 9 Which covenant he made with Abraham, 
 And his oath unto Isaac ; 
 
 10 And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, 
 And to Israel for an everlasting covenant : 
 
 11 Saying, " Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, 
 The lot of your inheritance." 
 
 12 When there were but a few men in number: 
 Yea, very few, and strangers in it. 
 
 13 When they went from one nation to another, 
 From one kingdom to another people ; 
 
 14 He suffered no man to do them wrong: 
 Yea, he reproved kings for their sakes ; 
 
PSALM CV. 405 
 
 15 Scrying, " Touch not mine anointed, 
 And do my prophets no harm." 
 
 16 Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: 
 He brake the whole staff of bread. 
 
 17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, 
 Who was sold for a servant : 
 
 18 Whose feet they hurt with fetters : 
 He was laid in iron : 
 
 19 Until the time that his word came : 
 The word of the LOKD tried him. 
 
 20 The king sent and loosed him; 
 
 Even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. 
 
 21 He made him lord of his house, 
 And ruler of all his possessions, 
 
 22 To bind his princes at his pleasure ; 
 And teach his senators wisdom. 
 
 23 Israel also came into Egypt, 
 
 And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. 
 
 24 And he increased his people greatly ; 
 
 And made them stronger than their enemies. 
 
 25 He turned their heart to hate his people, 
 To deal subtilly with his servants. 
 
 26 He sent Moses his servant, 
 And Aaron whom he had chosen. 
 
 27 They showed his signs among them, 
 And wonders in the land of Ham. 
 
 28 He sent darkness, and made it dark ; 
 And they rebelled not against his word. 
 
 29 He turned their waters into blood, 
 And slew their fish. 
 
 30 Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, 
 In the chambers of their kings. 
 
 31 He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, 
 And lice in all their coasts. 
 
 32 He gave them hail for rain, 
 And flaming fire in their land. 
 
 33 He smote their vines also and their fig trees ; 
 And brake the trees of their coasts. 
 
 34 He spake, and the locusts came, 
 
 And caterpillars, and that without number, 
 
 35 And did eat up all the herbs in their land, 
 And devoured the fruit of their ground. 
 
406 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 36 He smote also all the firstborn in their land, 
 The chief of all their strength. 
 
 37 He brought them forth also with silver and gold : 
 
 And there was not one feeble person among their tribes. 
 
 38 Egypt was glad when they departed: 
 For the fear of them fell upon them. 
 
 39 He spread a cloud for a covering; 
 And fire to give light in the night. 
 
 40 The people asked, and he brought quails, 
 And satisfied them with the bread of heaven. 
 
 41 He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out ; 
 They ran in the dry places like a river. 
 
 42 For he remembered his holy promise, 
 And Abraham his servant. 
 
 43 And he brought forth his people with joy, 
 And his chosen with gladness : 
 
 44 And gave them the lands of the heathen : 
 And they inherited the labour of the people ; 
 
 45 That they might observe his statutes, 
 And keep his laws. 
 
 Praise ye the LORD. 
 
 V. 11. Cf. Gen. xiii. 17. 
 
 V. 15. The anointed and the prophets are the patriarchs who 
 experienced the protection of God in their intercourse with Abime- 
 lech and Pharaoh, (Gen. xii. 17; xx. 3;) they are called prophets 
 and the anointed, (Gen, xx. 7,) on account of their near relation 
 to God. 
 
 V. 19. The word of the Lord, i. e. the God-sent dream of 
 Joseph. 
 
 V. 22. Chiefly the wisdom for the government of the country. 
 
 V. 28. Pharaoh and the Egyptians were always obedient for the 
 moment. 
 
 PSALM OVL 
 
 A PSALM of praise, composed during the exile, (v. 4, 5. 47,) con- 
 taining the confession of guilt which the nation had contracted by 
 their unbelief from the beginning, with the added prayer that the 
 
PSALM CVI. 407 
 
 Lord Tould, now as then, be merciful to the chastened people, 
 (v. 47.) 
 
 1 TTALLELUJAH! 
 
 XI give thanks unto the LORD ; for Tie is good : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 2 Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD ? 
 Who can show forth all his praise ? 
 
 3 Blessed are they that keep judgment, 
 
 And he that doeth righteousness at all times. 
 
 4 Remember me, LORD, with the favour that thou hast 
 
 promised unto thy people : 
 Oh, visit me with thy salvation; 
 
 5 That I may see the good of thy chosen, 
 
 That I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, 
 That I may glory with thine inheritance. 
 
 6 We have sinned with our fathers, 
 
 We have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. 
 
 7 Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt ; 
 They remembered not the multitude of thy mercies ; 
 But provoked him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. 
 
 8 Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, 
 That he might make his mighty power to be known. 
 
 9 He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up : 
 
 So he led them through the depths, as through the 
 wilderness. 
 
 10 And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, 
 And redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. 
 
 11 And the waters covered their enemies: 
 There was not one of them left. 
 
 12 Then believed they his words; 
 They sang his praise. 
 
 13 They soon forgat his works; 
 They waited not for his counsel: 
 
 14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, 
 And tempted God in the desert. 
 
 15 And he gave them their request ; 
 But sent leanness into their soul.* 
 
 16 They strove against Moses also in the camp, 
 And Aaron the saint of the LORD. 
 
 * Or, "A disease against their life." 
 
408 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, 
 And covered the company of Abiram. 
 
 18 And a fire was kindled in their company ; 
 The flame burned up the wicked. 
 
 19 They made a calf in Horeb, 
 
 And worshipped the molten image. 
 
 20 Thus they changed their glory 
 
 Into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. 
 
 21 They forgat God their Saviour, 
 Which had done great things in Egypt ; 
 
 22 Wondrous works in the land of Ham, 
 And terrible things by the Red Sea. 
 
 23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them, 
 
 Had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, 
 To turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. 
 
 24 Yea, they despised the pleasant land, 
 They believed not his word: 
 
 25 But murmured in their tents, 
 
 And hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD. 
 
 26 Therefore he lifted up his hand against them, 
 To overthrow them in the wilderness : 
 
 27 To overthrow their seed also among the nations, 
 And to scatter them in the lands. 
 
 28 They joined themselves also unto Baal-peor, 
 And ate the sacrifices of the dead. 
 
 29 Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions: 
 And the plague brake in upon them. 
 
 30 Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment : 
 And so the plague was stayed. 
 
 31 And that was counted unto him for righteousness 
 Unto all generations for evermore. 
 
 32 They angered him also at the waters of strife, 
 So that it went ill with Moses for their sakes : 
 
 33 For they provoked his spirit, 
 
 So that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. 
 
 34 They did not destroy the nations, 
 Concerning whom the LORD commanded them : 
 
 35 But were mingled among the heathen, 
 And learned their works. 
 
 36 And they served their idols : 
 Which were a snare unto them. 
 
 37 Yea, they sacrificed their sons 
 And their daughters unto devils, 
 
PSALM CVI. 409 
 
 38 And shed innocent blood, 
 
 Even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, 
 Whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan : 
 And the land was polluted with blood. 
 
 39 Thus were they defiled with their own works, 
 And went a whoring with their own inventions. 
 
 40 Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against 
 
 his people, 
 Insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance. 
 
 41 And he gave them into the hand of the heathen ; 
 And they that hated them ruled over them. 
 
 42 Their enemies also oppressed them, 
 
 And they were brought into subjection under their hand. 
 
 43 Many times did he deliver them; 
 
 But they provoked him with their counsel, 
 And were brought low for their iniquity.* 
 
 44 Nevertheless he regarded their affliction, 
 When he heard their cry: 
 
 45 And he remembered for them his covenant, 
 
 And repented according to the multitude of his mercies. 
 
 46 He made them also to be pitied 
 
 Of all those that carried them cap.tives. 
 
 47 Save us, LOUD our God, 
 
 And gather us from among the heathen, 
 To give thanks unto thy holy name, 
 And to triumph in thy praise. 
 
 48 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel 
 From everlasting to everlasting: 
 
 And let all the people say, Amen. Hallelujah. 
 
 V. 1. The expression, "Hallelujah," i. e. "Praise ye the 
 Lord/' is prefixed for encouragement's sake to other Psalms. 
 Cxi. cxiii. on "0 give thanks unto the Lord/" etc., see ad. 
 Psalm c. 5. 
 
 V. 4 5. The Psalmist suffers with his nation, and hopes to be 
 exalted with his people, humiliation and repentance being the con- 
 ditions, though he confesses in the name of his people that their 
 tribulation is a just punishment. As in Psalm Ixxvii. so here 
 there follows a recounting of alternate faithlessness on the part of 
 the people and of faithfulness on the part of God, who punishes 
 but " jn measure," and has never forgotten his covenant of grace, 
 
 /. e. "decreased in numbers." 
 35 
 
410 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 V. 12. Cf. Exod. xiv. 31. 
 
 V. 16. Cf. Numb. xi. xvi. 
 
 V. 20. The honour and glory of the people is their glorious 
 God. Cf. Rom. i. 23. 
 
 F. 24. Cf. Numb. xiii. 33. 
 
 F 30. Cf. Numb. xxv. 7. 
 
 F 31. Cf. Numb, xxv. 12. 
 
 F 32. Cf. Numb. xx. 13. 
 
 F 48. This Doxology denotes the end of the fourth book of 
 the Psalms. 
 
 PSALM CVIL 
 
 A PSALM of thanksgiving and of praise. It invites to gratitude 
 those who had been redeemed from the Babylonish captivity, as 
 well as all who are delivered from any kind of trouble, and praises 
 in particular the gracious guidance of God which brought Israel 
 back into their land. 
 
 The children of Israel, brought from the wilderness to their 
 native land, shall praise him who heard them when they called 
 upon him, (v. 1 9.) All who were imprisoned because of diso- 
 bedience, called upon him and were delivered, shall praise him, 
 (v. 10 16.) All whose sins had brought them to the gates of 
 death, but on calling upon him were heard, shall praise him, 
 (v. 17 22.) All who on experiencing the vicissitudes of the sea, 
 called upon him, and were brought to the desired haven, shall 
 praise him, (v. 23 32.) Because of the sins of the people he had 
 laid waste their flourishing country, but made it fruitful again, and 
 blessed the people, (v. 33 38.) They had borne misfortune and 
 trouble, but he had raised them from the dust. The pious shall 
 rejoice over it, and Israel give heed that they may learn to thank 
 the Lord, (v. 3943.) 
 
 1 C\ GIVE thanks unto the LORD, for Tie is good: 
 \J For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say s0, 
 
 Whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy : 
 
 3 And gathered them out of the lands: 
 From the east, and from the west, 
 From the north, and from the sea. 
 
 4 They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; 
 They found no city to dwell in. 
 
PSALM CVII. 411 
 
 5 Hungry and thirsty, 
 Their soul fainted in them. 
 
 6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, 
 And he delivered them out of their distresses. 
 
 7 And he led them forth by the right way, 
 That they might go to a city of habitation. 
 
 8 Oh, that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, 
 And for his wonderful works to the children of men ! 
 
 9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, 
 
 And filleth the hungry soul with goodness. 
 
 10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, 
 Being bound in affliction and iron; 
 
 11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, 
 And contemned the counsel of the Most High : 
 
 12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour ; 
 They fell down, and there was none to help. 
 
 13 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, 
 And he saved them out of their distresses. 
 
 14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death. 
 And brake their bands in sunder. 
 
 15 Oh, that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, 
 And for his wonderful works to the children of men ! 
 
 16 For he hath broken the gates of brass, 
 And cut the bars of iron in sunder. 
 
 17 The fools because of their transgression, 
 And because of their iniquities, were afflicted, 
 
 18 Their soul abhorred all manner of meat ; 
 And they drew near unto the gates of death. 
 
 19 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, 
 And he saved them out of their distresses. 
 
 20 He sent his word, and healed them, 
 
 And delivered them from their destructions. 
 
 21 Oh, that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, 
 And for his wonderful works to the children of men ! 
 
 22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, 
 And declare his works with rejoicing. 
 
 23 They that went down to the sea in ships, 
 That did business in great waters ; 
 
 24 These saw the works of the LORD, 
 And his wonders in the deep. 
 
 25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, 
 Which lifted up the waves thereof. 
 
412 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 26 They mounted up to the heaven, 
 They went down again to the depths : 
 Their soul was melted because of trouble. 
 
 27 They reeled to and fro, and staggered like a drunken man, 
 And were at their wit's end. 
 
 28 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, 
 And he brought them out of their distresses. 
 
 29 He made the storm a calm, 
 
 So that the waves thereof were still. 
 
 30 Then were they glad because they were quiet: 
 So he brought them unto their desired haven. 
 
 31 Oh, that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, 
 And for his wonderful works to the children of men ! 
 
 32 Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people, 
 And praise him in the assembly of the elders. 
 
 33 He turned rivers into a wilderness, 
 And the watersprings into dry ground ; 
 
 34 A fruitful land into barrenness, 
 
 For the wickedness of them that dwelt therein. 
 
 35 He turned the wilderness into a standing water, 
 And dry ground into watersprings. 
 
 36 And there he made the hungry to dwell, 
 That they might prepare a city for habitation.; 
 
 37 And sow the fields and plant vineyards, 
 Which yielded fruits of increase. 
 
 38 He blessed them also, so that they were multiplied greatly ; 
 . And suffered not their cattle to decrease. 
 
 39 Again, they were minished and brought low 
 Through oppression, affliction, and sorrow. 
 
 40 He poured contempt upon princes, 
 
 And caused them to wander in the wilderness, where there 
 is no way. 
 
 41 Yet did he set the poor on high from affliction. 
 And made him families like a flock. 
 
 42 The righteous shall see it and rejoice : 
 And all iniquity shall stop her mouth. 
 
 43 Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, 
 
 Even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the LORD. 
 
 V. 1. This invitation to praise prefixed to Psalm cvi. recurs 
 also Psalm cxviii. 1. 
 
 V. 3. The enumeration of the different countries is either 
 poetical or refers, beside the captive Israelites at Babylon, to the 
 
PSALMS CVIII. CIX. 413 
 
 dispersed of the nation who had fled to surrounding countries, e. g. 
 Egypt, Moab, etc. Cf. ad. Psalm Ixxiv. 9. 
 
 V. 10 22. Commentators are divided in their opinion whether 
 the reference is to Israel in the Babylonish captivity, or to prison 
 and disease in general. But why should this passage not have a 
 more general application besides its primary reference to Israel ? 
 The praise in verse 20, "He sent his word/' is very remarkable: 
 the word is described as the effusion of God, his ministering angel. 
 This expression conceals the truth, that every Divine operation in 
 the world is effected by his eternal word. 
 
 F 23 32. If the Psalmist in the preceding verses simply 
 contemplated the trouble of his nation in exile, it cannot but strike 
 us as strange that he connects them with trials of a more general 
 kind, such as mariners have to endure; and the best solution of 
 the difficulty is to assume that the reference was not exclusively to 
 Israel, but to all similarly afflicted. 
 
 F. 33 41. There is again a more special regard to the experi- 
 ence of his nation : the language resembles Isaiah xli. 18, and pro- 
 bably alludes to that passage. 
 
 PSALM CVIII. 
 
 AT a time of great national depression this Psalm was composed of 
 two portions of older psalms, of Psalm Ivii. 8 12 and Psalm Ix. 
 7 14, and the latter portion is intended to remind God of his 
 promises, to fulfil them to his people. 
 
 PSALM CIX. 
 
 IT was perhaps composed under circumstances similar to Psalm 
 Ixix. The object of derision, (v. 25,) of imprecation, (v. 17 28,) 
 and persecution unto death, (v. 16,) to those whom he had loved 
 and benefitted (v. 4, 5,) David refrained from every opposition 
 except that of prayer. "But I give myself unto prayer/' (v. 4.) 
 In calling him to vengeance who says, "Vengeance is mine, I will 
 recompense/' he flings back their curse with such a vehemence 
 upon their head, that the impression remains that he was not alto- 
 gether devoid of vindictive feelings, although his enemies appear 
 as unsusceptible to the love of God and man, and David expressly 
 35* 
 
414 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 declares (V. 27,) that all he desires is, that they may know that 
 the Lord is God* (see Introduction, the paragraph on the ethics of 
 the Psalms, and also notes, ad. Ps. xli. 11.) 
 
 He describes the enormous guilt of his adversaries, (v. 1 5.) 
 He imprecates upon them what they had imprecated upon him, 
 / v H21,) and appeals to the mercy of God in portraying his 
 wretched condition, (v. 2125.) He prays for the manifestation 
 of the retributive justice of God, and that his enemies might attain 
 to knowledge, and promises sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, 
 (v. 2530.) 
 
 rpo the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 1 Hold not thy peace, God of my praise: 
 
 2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the 
 
 deceitful are opened against me : 
 They have spoken against me with a lying tongue, 
 
 3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred ; 
 And fought against me without a cause. 
 
 4 For my love they are my adversaries : 
 But I give myself unto prayer. 
 
 5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, 
 And hatred for my love. 
 
 6 Set thou a wicked man over him : 
 
 And let the accuser stand at his right hand. 
 
 7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned : 
 And let his prayer become sin. 
 
 8 Let his days be few ; 
 
 And let another take his office, f 
 
 9 Let his children be fatherless, 
 And his wife a widow. 
 
 10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg : 
 Let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. 
 
 11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; 
 And let the strangers spoil his labour. 
 
 * D. Michselis (also Muentinghe, Mendelssohn, Knapp, 1st Edition) 
 holds that verses 6 19 are the expressions of the cursing adversary who 
 Bpeaks in the singular. But, first, verse 15 has the plural; secondly, verse 
 17 can only apply to the adversary; and, thirdly, verse 20 shows that 
 David sent back the curses upon the head of his enemies. 
 
 f Some translate, "his goods," (D. Michaelis,) but since his possessions, 
 his goods are not mentioned till verse 11, and since the present clause is 
 parallel to the thought, "he shall early end his life," it is better to trans- 
 late, "his office." 
 
PSALM CIX. 415 
 
 12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him : 
 Neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children. 
 
 13 Let his posterity be cut off; 
 
 And in the generation following let their name be blotted 
 out. 
 
 14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the 
 
 LORD; 
 And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. 
 
 15 Let them be before the LORD continually, 
 
 That he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.* 
 
 16 Because that he remembered not to show mercy, 
 But persecuted the poor and needy man, 
 
 That he might even slay the broken in heart. 
 
 17 As he loved cursing so let it come unto him : 
 
 As he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. 
 
 18 As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, 
 So let it come within him like water, 
 
 And like oil into his bones. 
 
 19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him. 
 And for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. 
 
 20 Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, 
 And of them that speak evil against my soul. 
 
 21 But do thou for me, GOD the Lord, 
 For thy name's sake : 
 
 Because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me ; 
 
 22 For I am poor and needy, 
 
 And my heart is wounded within me. 
 
 23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: 
 I am tossed up and down like the locust, 
 
 24 My knees are weak through fasting ; 
 And my flesh faileth of fatness. 
 
 25 I became also a reproach unto them: 
 
 When they look upon me they shake their heads. 
 
 26 Help me, LORD my God: 
 
 save me according to thy mercy: 
 
 27 That they may know that this is thy hand; 
 That thou, LORD, hast done it. 
 
 28 Let them curse, but bless THOU : 
 When they arise, let them be ashamed ; 
 But let thy servant rejoice. 
 
 * The first "tbem," refers to the sin and iniquity of verse 14; the second 
 "them," to the adversaries. 
 
416 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, 
 
 And let them cover themselves with their own confusion, 
 as with a mantle. 
 
 30 I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth ; 
 Yea, I will praise him among the multitude. 
 
 31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, 
 To save him from those that condemn his soul. 
 
 V. I 5. Beginning with calling God his praise, David con- 
 temptuously casts off the reports and defence of men, and confesses 
 the all-sufficiency of God in the conduct of his affairs. He has to 
 deal with men who, so far from having been provoked by unkind- 
 ness on his part, stood proof against the love and benefits which he 
 had shown to them. Their most venomous reproaches could not 
 excite David to personal revenge. He remembered that the Lord 
 had said, " Vengeance is mine : I will recompense." Thus he 
 prayed while they were raging, supplicating patience for himself 
 and recompense for his reproachers. (Psalms xxxv. 13; cxli. 5.) 
 
 V. 6 16. However terrible these deprecations may sound, 
 they are uttered as sinful only if their fulfilment yields delight and 
 not pain to the utterer: if we were compelled to say that David 
 would not have greatly preferred the conversion of his adversaries 
 without such a retribution, than with and by it (the retribution.) 
 But when the punishment of hardened sinners is desired so vehe- 
 mently, as is the case here, its eventual occurrence is generally 
 regarded with complacency. Equanimity is always allied to Divine 
 wrath. The curse is this: he shall find an unrelenting accuser 
 before the tribunal of men, condemnation in the judgment of God 
 his prayer shall be changed into sin (as it must be in the case of 
 the obdurate) his life be cut off in the midst of his days his 
 office be given to strangers, so that his wife and children shall be 
 in want his posterity be cut off and the transgression of the 
 parents be visited on such of their posterity as are alike unto them. 
 (See ad. Psalm ciii.; Matt, xxiii. 35.) We should not forget that 
 however hard, uncommon, and terrible these words may sound, 
 God nevertheless daily brings that curse upon gross sinners : their 
 life often comes to a sudden and fearful end, the last sigh assumes 
 the form of a blasphemy on their unclean lips, their wife and chil- 
 dren are in want, and the transgressions and passions of parents 
 reappear in the lives of unworthy offspring. Every consequence of 
 sin is a punishment, and punishments proceed from the living God. 
 And is not man permitted to desire that God should do what he 
 really does, provided he desire it in that sense in which God does it? 
 We are not familiar with the family history of the "son of perdi- 
 tion," the hardened Judas; but in so far as we ,are acquainted 
 with his history, that curse was realized in him. He was con- 
 
PSALM CX. 417 
 
 demned in the judgment of God, (Matt. xxvi. 24;) his prayer, if 
 he prayed at all, can only have been that of despair ; he ended his 
 life in the midst of his days, and another took his office. Peter 
 has therefore justly applied this passage to him. (Acts i. 20.) 
 
 V- 17 20. The adversary indulged in cursing, as if he were 
 altogether unaware of its meaning : so shall cursing fall to his lot, 
 pierce his bone and marrow, that he may learn what cursing is. 
 Divine punishment deals with the sinner as the sinner has dealt with 
 God : attacking the right and dignity of God and man, he is him- 
 self attacked in his prosperity, that he may learn what He has done. 
 
 V- 21 25. He represents his wretched condition to God, who 
 might perchance be moved to vouchsafe his aid : he takes his stand- 
 ing on grace, not on right, and describes the consequences of his 
 troubles : he is like a disappearing evening shadow, like the locust, 
 chased from place to place, grief makes him loathe nourishment, 
 and strength has fled from his body. 
 
 V. 26 31. In praying for the help of God, he confines himself 
 not to his own welfare, but prays for the hand of God to become 
 known among men as the hand of a righteous Judge. The Psalmist 
 endeavours to assure himself of Divine favour, since, if we are con- 
 vinced that God is our friend, all the enterprises, attacks, and enmi- 
 ties of men shall prove utterly vain and impotent. In praying he 
 attains to the assurance of eventual deliverance, and promises 
 unrestrained praise and gratitude among men, because, though 
 men may have condemned the poor, the Lord is as a mighty advo- 
 cate at their right hand, who will crown their cause with victory. 
 
 PSALM CX. 
 
 A PSALM of David, celebrating the victory of Messiah as a priestly 
 king.* Just as the prophets represent the Messiah under the 
 
 * Those who reject the Messianic interpretation of this psalm must 
 either straightway reject the title, or render it "a psalm concerning 
 David." It may be shown that the psalm cannot refer to a king of Israel. 
 Could it be said of such a one that God would set him down at his right 
 hand ? 1 Chron. xxviii. 5 ; xxix. 23, have been quoted in support of this 
 supposition ; but the throne of Israel which is there called the throne of 
 God refers to the throne which God himself had established in Israel, on 
 which the king is seated as a representative and not as an assessor. Ewald 
 has the forced rendering, " sit thouin my triumphal car;" the view of Kimchi 
 and Bleek, that being seated at the right hand of God is expressive of 
 Divine protection, is more admissible ; but it can be shown that being seated 
 at the right hand of a king denotes familiarity with him and a participation 
 of his dignity. No king of Israel moreover held the regal and priestly 
 
418 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 threefold character of king, (Isa, ix. 11; Zech. ix.) prophet and 
 priest, and describe his victory over the world, now by the figure 
 of a martial triumphal procession, now as a reconcilement by 
 priestly activity, by prayer and vicarious suffering, and again by 
 instruction, so Psalms ii. Ixxii. ; 2 Sam. xxiii. set forth the Mes- 
 siah as a victorious king, and Psalra ex. as a Divine Sovereign, 
 uniting in himself regal and priestly dignity. The fulfilment of 
 history reveals the manner in which the ideas involved in that 
 figurative description should find their realization. The Son of 
 God, after having been a teacher, benefactor, and sufferer in a 
 state of humiliation, should make atonement for his people, attain 
 thereby to government, and eventually reveal in outward glory the 
 kingdom of God, which he had inwardly established. Cf. ad. 
 Psalm ii. The figurative sense of the expressions borrowed from 
 earthly warfare is clear from the circumstance that the sovereign 
 militant is called a priest, who makes atonement for his people, 
 and that his army are an army of priests. Our Lord himself 
 states, (Matt. xxii. 43,) that David called his son "in spirit," his 
 Lord, i. e. inspired by God. 2 Samuel xxiii. 2, David ascribes to 
 himself Divine inspiration. 
 
 David hears "in spirit" the call of God, which invites the Mes- 
 siah to the participation of his power and gives him the victory, 
 (v. 1 3.) His call, like that of Melchizedek, is that of a priestly 
 king ; supported by his God he shall have dominion over all his 
 enemies, (v. 4 7.) 
 
 A 
 
 PSALM of David. 
 
 1 The LORD said unto my Lord, 
 
 "SlT THOU AT MY RIGHT HAND, 
 
 UNTIL I MAKE THINE ENEMIES THY FOOTSTOOL/ 
 
 office conjointly. 1 Sam. xiii. 9; xiv. 82; 2 Sam. vi. 17, 18; 1 Kings 
 viii. 5, are quoted to show that the kings of Israel did offer sacrifice ; but 
 that refers to the slaying of the victims only, which in former times was done 
 by the owner and not by the priest. See Winer's Lexicon, s. v. "Sacrifice," 
 p. 213. It can be demonstrated that this is the meaning of 1 Kings viii. 5, 
 where it is said that Solomon and the people did sacrifice. The fact that 
 the Psalmist has to go back to hoary antiquity for the purpose of finding 
 an instance of the union of the priesthood and royality, militates still fur- 
 ther against this view. When Uzziah presumed to sacrifice upon the altar 
 of incense, he was smitten with leprosy, (2 Chron. xxvi.) The warriors of 
 the king in this psalm are priestly warriors. Ewald and Maurer acknow- 
 ledge that the psalm belongs to the age of David. Koster, who defends the 
 Messianic interpretation, calls it, "a song the artistic finish and poetic 
 elevation of which render it sublime." It breaks off suddenly, but that is 
 by no means a proof that it is merely a fragment. Cf. Psalms Ixxxix. 
 Ixxviii. Ixxvii. 
 
PSALM CX. 419 
 
 2 The LORD shall send the rod (i. e. sceptre) of thy strength 
 
 out of Zion : 
 Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. 
 
 3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, 
 
 In the beauties of holiness, more than the womb of the 
 
 morning, 
 Thou shalt have the dew of thy youth. 
 
 4 The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, 
 
 " Thou #r a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." 
 
 5 The Lord at thy right hand 
 
 Shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. 
 
 6 He shall judge among the heathen, 
 
 He shall fill the places with the dead bodies ; 
 He shall wound the heads over many countries.* 
 
 7 He shall drink of the brook in the way : 
 Therefore shall he lift up the head. 
 
 F. 1, 2. David hears, as in 2 Sam. xxiii. 1 3, "in the spirit/' 
 (Cf. Rev. i. 10,) a Divine oracle respecting the Messiah. The 
 Lord promises Divine perfection of power to his descendant, and 
 David straightway acknowledges as his Lord him who enjoys such 
 superhuman dignity. Although the phrase, "until I make thine 
 enemies thy footstool/' does not expressly state that his being 
 seated at the right hand of God should continue till that time and 
 then cease, yet the Psalmist contemplates the possession of Divine 
 perfection of power for the specific purpose of victory over his 
 enemies. The apostle has taken these words in the same sense 
 when he says, (I Cor. xv. 24 26,) "The last enemy that shall be 
 destroyed is death," and mentions as a consequence the surrender 
 of the kingdom to God the Father. When Christ shall have con- 
 quered everything in man which opposes the completion of the 
 kingdom of God, then shall the dominion of God over believers 
 cease to be one mediated by Christ, but God shall be all in all. 
 Zion, the outward primarily, but ultimately the spiritual Zion and 
 Israel, shall be the centre, whence the dominion of God over man 
 shall begin and from whence it shall be extended. "Out of Zion 
 shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." 
 (Isaiah ii. 3.) "In the midst of his enemies," i. e. the Son of 
 God shall display his dominion while encircled^by his enemies. 
 This is an emphatic description of his victorious power. 
 
 V. 3. Those who fight beneath the standard of that king follow 
 him with willing hearts. He reigns over them because he is their 
 priest, has through his mediation purchased them of God and sanc- 
 
 * Tholuck's version is, "He shall judge among the heathen, he shall 
 make a great slaughter, he shall crush the heads far over the country." 
 
420 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 tified them as priests. (Rev. i. 6; Isaiah Ixi. 6.) Hence they are 
 said to appear festively adorned, i. e. in the garb of priests. (Psalm 
 xxix. 2; 1 Chron. xvi. 29; 2 Chron. xx. 21.) They go into the 
 wars of their God, as into a holy assembly. So Psalm xcvi. 9 calls 
 upon the nations, "0 worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: 
 fear before him all the earth/' The Lord calls his people "a little 
 flock ;" but compares them elsewhere to a corn of mustard seed 
 which grows into a large tree and becomes the shelter of the birds 
 of the air, and " the voice of a great multitude, as the voice of many 
 waters and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia : 
 for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth." (Rev. xix. 6.) Isaiah 
 says, (Isa. liv. 1 3,) "Sing, barren, thou that didst not 
 bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not 
 travail with child : for more are the children of the desolate than 
 the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the 
 place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine 
 habitations : for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on 
 the left." Fresh and innumerable as the dew-drops in the splen- 
 dour of dawn shall be the youthfully strong hosts of this king. 
 (2 Sam. xvii. 12; Psalm cxxxiii. 3; Mic. v. 6; Job. xxxviii. 28.) 
 "The inhabitants shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell 
 therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." (Isa. xxxiii. 24.) 
 
 V. 4. The Lord has solemnly and irrevocably sworn that this 
 king is a priest not a priest of the Levite order, but a patriarchal 
 priest, after the order of Melchizedek, (Gen. xiv. :) His priesthood 
 is eternal. Passages in the Prophets predict the cessation of the 
 Levitical priesthood in the last time.* 
 
 V. 5, 6. The Lord shall fight at the right hand of his anointed, 
 and conquer all his adversaries. He shall greatly extend his vic- 
 tories among the heathen. As a hero, unspoiled and without much 
 stoppage, drinks of the brook by the way, (Of. Judges vii. 5 7,) 
 so shall He combat without stoppage, and therefore boldly raise his 
 head.f 
 
 * Isa. Ixvi. 21; Zech. xiv. 20, 21. The great doctrine of this passage is 
 expanded in the Epistle to the Hebrews, (chap, vii.) In the same manner, 
 Zechariah predicts the union of regal and priestly dignity in the Messiah, 
 (chap, vi.) Chap. iii. 6 of that prophet are next to Isa. liii. the most 
 important Messianic passages in the Old Testament. 
 
 f Amyraldus: "Hostibus ne momentum quidem temporis dabit ad respi- 
 randum. Adeo ut vix ipse sibi hoc indulgeat, ut in eorum persecutione, 
 levata aliquantisper galea, aquam e torrente haustam properantissime 
 bibat." Several commentators, Solomon ben Melech, Bucerus, D. Michselis, 
 explain with reference to Numb, xxiii. 24: "He shall still his thirst at the 
 stream of blood by the way." Luther, Calov, Stier: "On the way, t. e. on 
 the way of life, he shall drink of the waters of affliction," for water means 
 sufferings, (Ps. Ixix. 1) on that account he became exalted above every 
 creature, (Phil. ii. 8, 9.) 
 
PSALM CXI. 421 
 
 PSALM CXI. 
 
 A PSALM of praise, celebrating the manifold goodness of God, 
 especially towards his people. Luther regards it at a paschal psalm, 
 and verse 5 as a praise of the paschal Lamb. 
 
 ye the Lord. 
 JT I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, 
 In the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. 
 
 2 The works of the LORD are great, 
 
 Sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.* 
 
 3 His work is honourable and glorious : 
 And his righteousness endureth for ever. 
 
 4 He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered : 
 The LORD, gracious and full of compassion. 
 
 5 He hath given meat unto them that fear him : 
 He will ever be mindful of his covenant. 
 
 6 He hath showed his people the power of his works, 
 That he may give them the heritage of the heathen. 
 
 7 The works of his hands are verity and judgment; 
 All his commandments are sure. 
 
 8 They are established for ever and ever, 
 And are done in truth and uprightness. 
 
 9 He sent redemption unto his people : 
 
 He hath commanded his covenant for ever : 
 Holy and reverend is his name. 
 10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom : 
 
 A good understanding have all they that do his com- 
 
 mandments : 
 His praise endureth for ever. 
 
 F. 1 4. The Psalmist confesses himself prompted from within 
 to the praise of the Lord. Considering the concealment of that 
 praise as tantamount to depriving the Lord of half his glory, he 
 resolves to publish it in the right place, namely, the assembly of 
 believers. The works of the Lord furnish rich materials for his 
 praise. All possible desires of his people are already satisfied in 
 the works of the Lord : many of them may, at first sight, be stum- 
 bling blocks and rocks of offence to us, but the longer the mind of 
 man is engaged and absorbed in the contemplation of the works of 
 the Lord, and the more human wisdom, instead of running in the 
 van of the doings of God, modestly retires to the rear, the more 
 
 * Or, "Enough for all their (the upright's) desire." 
 36 
 
422 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 will they manifest the most perfect wisdom. His honour and 
 glory are everywhere visible, for all his works display his right- 
 eousness; i. e. his perfect justice and praise worth in ess. (Vide ad. 
 Ps. xcviii. 2.) His marvellous works are so widely diffused and 
 unmistakeable, that mankind cannot lose their memory, and that 
 even in the worst times, which witness the servitude of the flesh, 
 his worshippers cannot be wanting. He meets deluded man in a 
 thousand ways, for His every work and doing, if viewed from a 
 .right point of view, is a guide to the gracious and compassionate 
 Lord. 
 
 F. 5 9. He hath never left unsupplied the wants of those 
 that fear him, (Psalm cxxxii. 15) procured food in the desert, 
 and drink to gush out of rocks : he will never repent of his cove- 
 nant with the patriarchs. He is also the God of the heathen, and 
 though not recognized, has manifested the works of his hands 
 among them, (Amos ix. 7,) but above all, He has shown them to 
 his people, (Ps. cxlvii. 19, 20,) and given them the possession of 
 the heathen for an heritage. As his commandments are true and 
 just, so are his works. Therefore his commandments are eternal: 
 they continue as the fundamental laws of his kingdom for ever and 
 ever. He has by his power redeemed his people, and given them 
 an everlasting covenant. 
 
 F. 10. The praise of the Lord is followed by the praise of the 
 fear of the Lord : praise is succeeded by exhortation. The fear of 
 the Lord is the starting point of all true wisdom: any inquiry 
 .respecting things celestial or things terrestrial, if conducted in the 
 fear of the Lord, is sure to lead to the right way : but it is no less 
 the true source of real wisdom of life; for since "godliness is pro- 
 fitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and 
 of that which is to come/' (1 Tim. iv. 8,) it proves also a blessing 
 in every temporal work and pursuit. (Ps. cxix. 98 100.) The 
 praise of the Lord neither can nor shall cease for ever. 
 
 PSALM CXII. 
 A PSALM of instruction, similar to Psalms i. and xxxvii. 
 
 1 pRAISE ye the LORD. 
 
 JL Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, 
 That delighteth greatly in his commandments. 
 
 2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth : 
 
 The generation of the upright shall be blessed. 
 
PSALM CXIII. 423 
 
 3 Wealth and riches shall be in his house ; 
 And his righteousness endureth for ever. 
 
 4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness, 
 From him who is gracious, and full of compassion, and 
 
 righteous. 
 
 5 That man shall/are well who showeth. favour and lendeth : 
 He shall guide his affairs with judgment. 
 
 6 Surely he shall not be moved for ever : 
 
 The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. 
 
 7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings : 
 His heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. 
 
 8 His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, 
 Until he see his desire upon his enemies. 
 
 9 He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor ; 
 His righteousness endureth for ever ; 
 
 His horn shall be exalted with honour. 
 10 The wicked shall see it, and be grieved ; 
 
 He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: 
 The desire of the wicked shall perish. 
 
 PSALM CXIII. 
 
 A PSALM of praise. The Lord, though high and lifted up, conde- 
 scends to favour the lowly, regards it his peculiar employment to 
 advocate their cause, and to conduct them from the dust to glory. 
 This is the fundamental idea in the songs of Hannah and Mary. 
 (1 Sam. ii.; Luke i.) This psalm seems to be the echo of the for- 
 mer; see verse 9, and cf. verses 7, 8, with 1 Samuel ii. 8 : " Grod 
 is a father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows." (Psalm 
 Ixviii. 6.) This beautiful appellative contains the same truth. 
 
 Psalms cxiii. cxiv. cxv. cxvi. cxvii. and cxviii. form a cycle of 
 prayers which the Jews call Hallel, and used to sing at some of 
 their festivals, especially at the Passover. (This is stated in the 
 Talmud, and alluded to in Matthew xxvi. 30.) 
 
 1 pRAISE ye the LORD. 
 
 JL Praise, ye servants of the LORD, 
 Praise the name of the LORD. 
 
 2 Blessed be the name of the LORD 
 From this time forth and for evermore. 
 
424 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 3 From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same 
 The LORD'S name is to be praised. 
 
 4 The LORD is high above all nations, 
 And his glory as far as the heavens. 
 
 5 Who is like unto the LORD our God, 
 Who dwelleth on high, 
 
 6 Who humbleth himself to behold 
 
 The things that are in heaven and in the earth ? 
 
 7 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, 
 And lifteth the needy out of the dunghill ; 
 
 8 That he may set him with princes, 
 Even with the princes of his people. 
 
 9 He maketh the barren woman to dwell in an house v 
 Like a joyful mother of children. 
 
 Praise ye the LORD. 
 
 PSALM CXIV. 
 
 A PSALM of praise, simple and sublime, which celebrates God's 
 powerful deliverance of his people from Egypt. 
 
 1 TIT HEN Israel went out of Egypt, 
 
 V V The house of Jacob from a people of strange language ; 
 
 2 Judah became his sanctuary, 
 And Israel his dominion, 
 
 3 The sea saw it, and fled : 
 Jordan was driven back. 
 
 4 The mountains skipped like rams, 
 And the little hills like lambs. 
 
 5 What ailed thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest ? 
 Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back ? 
 
 x 6 Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams? 
 And ye little hills, like lambs ? 
 
 7 Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the LORD, 
 At the presence of the God of Jacob ; 
 
 8 Which turned the rock into a standing water, 
 The flint into a fountain of waters. 
 
 V. 1 4. Israel have ceased to be their own masters from the 
 time when the Lord purchased them as his grateful possession by 
 
PSALM CXV. 425 
 
 his wonderful deliverance out of Egypt, and gave them on Sinai 
 his law; they are now a kingdom of priests and a royal priesthood, 
 (Exod. xix. 6.) How mighty is the God under whose protection 
 they are, whom nature obeyed, before whom the invincible ocean 
 fled, the solid foundations of the mountains gave way, so that they 
 skipped like rams and lambs ! 
 
 F 5, 6. The Psalmist intends emphatically to shame the 
 obtuseness of men, one portion of whom refuse obedience to the 
 Lord, while the other pass by in indifference. He asks, therefore, 
 the irrational but potent forces of nature to name the overwhelm- 
 ing power before which the mountains and the sea tremblingly 
 receded. 
 
 F. 7, 8. He now pronounces for the first time the name of the 
 Lord, and calls not only upon the mountains and the sea, but upon 
 the earth to tremble before the Lord, as Sinai trembled and 
 smoked when the Lord descended on it. (Exod. xix. 18.) Reverting 
 once more to the history of Israel, he shows that even the most 
 solid elements of the earth must dissolve at the word of God. 
 
 PSALM CXV. 
 
 A PSALM of prayer and of praise, composed in a time of pagan 
 oppression. As it is a temple-song, like those which, after the 
 return from captivity, used to be sung in antiphonics or choruses, 
 (Ezra iii. 11,) it probably belongs to that period. 
 
 May the Lord glorify his people before the blind heathen for his 
 name's sake, (v. 1 8.) The people encourage themselves to con- 
 fidence and experience of the Divine blessing, (v. 9 15.) Men 
 enjoy mundane existence for the praise of God: he shall therefore 
 be praised for ever and ever, (v. 16 18.) 
 
 The Levite singers. 
 
 1 IVTOT unto us, LORD, not unto us, 
 i.\ But unto thy name give glory, 
 
 For thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. 
 
 2 Wherefore should the heathen say, 
 Where is now their God? 
 
 3 But our God is in the heavens : 
 
 He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. 
 
 4 Their idols are silver and gold, 
 The work of men's hands. 
 
 36* 
 
426 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 5 They have mouths but they speak not: 
 Eyes have they but they see not : 
 
 6 They have ears but they hear not : 
 Noses have they but they smell not : 
 
 7 They have hands but they handle not : 
 Feet have they but they walk not: 
 Neither speak they through their throat. 
 
 8 They that make them let them become like unto them ; 
 And every one that trusteth in them. 
 
 The Precentor. 
 
 9 Israel, trust thou in the LORD : 
 
 The Chorus. 
 He is their help and their shield. 
 
 The Precentor. 
 
 10 house of Aaron, trust in the LORD : 
 
 The Chorus. 
 He is their help and their shield. 
 
 The Precentor. 
 
 11 Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD : 
 
 The Chorus. 
 He is their help and their shield. 
 
 The Levite singers. 
 
 12 The LORD hath been mindful of us; he will bless us; 
 He will bless the house of Israel ; 
 
 He will bless the house of Aaron. 
 
 13 He will bless them that fear the LORD, 
 Both small and great. 
 
 14 The LORD shall increase you more and more, 
 You and your children. 
 
 15 Ye are blessed of the LORD 
 Which made heaven and earth. 
 
 16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S : 
 But the earth hath he given to the children of men. 
 
 17 The dead praise not the LORD, 
 Neither any that go down into silence. 
 
PSALM CXV. 427 
 
 18 But WE will bless the LORD 
 
 From this time forth and for evermore. 
 Praise the LORD. . 
 
 V. 1 3. The people penitently confess that for their virtue's 
 or merit's sake they have no claim upon the redemption of the 
 Lord, and pray that the Lord would have mercy for his name's 
 sake. (Isaiah xlviii. 11 ; Ps. cxxxv. 15 18.) Are the heathen 
 to regard, as they do, the God of Israel as a phantom of impotence ? 
 The people meet that wicked thought in holy boldness with the 
 shield of faith, since their God is as infinite as the heavens, and 
 does whatever he wills. The union of the two sentences in v. 3, 
 shows that the appellative, "God in the heavens/' implies no limit- 
 ation of power, but that he is exalted above earthly limits as the 
 heavens are high and infinite above the earth. 
 
 V. 4 8. How shall the idols of the heathen sustain a com- 
 parison with this God? They are formed of earthly materials, 
 while the living God has made man : they owe their existence to 
 human hands, and though representations of the human form are 
 inferior to man, for they are soulless representations. It is the 
 curse of every false religion that man becomes like his god : the 
 worshippers of a soulless god get soulless themselves. The indig- 
 nant Psalmist wishes them that punishment. 
 
 V. 9 11. The congregation gather strength and encourage- 
 ment to persevere in their confidence, exhorting the laity, the 
 priests, (Psalm cxviii. 2, 3,) and then all who fear the Lord. In 
 Psalm cxxxv. 19, 20, where this exhortation is repeated, (also v. 
 15 18 are taken from this psalm,) the Levites are mentioned 
 besides the priests of the house of Aaron. For the sake of greater 
 vividness the two halves of v. 9 11 were probably sung by the 
 precentor and the chorus, (Neh. xii. 42,) in such a manner that 
 the latter fell in when the former had done. 
 
 V. 12 15. The entire chorus pronounces the blessing of God, 
 who is not a soulless idol, but the Creator and Governor of heaven 
 and earth, upon the house of Israel, the house of Aaron, all that 
 fear him, both great and small, upon present and future genera- 
 tions. 
 
 V. 16 18. The Lord is enthroned in the heavens, exalted 
 above all. He has prepared the earth for the special benefit of 
 man. (Isaiah xlv. 18.) He has prepared it designing that they 
 should inhabit it and enjoy the light of life, and by their praises 
 render it a temple of the Lord, for this can be done by the living 
 only. (Ps. vi. 6; Ixxxviii. 11.) The congregation of Israel pro- 
 mise the fulfilment of that task, and will praise him for evermore. 
 
428 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM CXVI. 
 
 A DELIGHTFUL psalm of thanksgiving, some passages of which, 
 e.g. v. 3. 5. 11, are taken from other psalms: its language too 
 refers its date to the period after the captivity. 
 
 The Psalmist deems himself happy for having experienced the 
 blessings of granted prayers, (v. 1 6;) in his trouble he had 
 prayed in faith, enjoys present peace, and would gladly recompense 
 the goodness of the Lord, (v. 7 12.) He expresses the enthusi- 
 astic resolution henceforth to pray and praise right from the heart, 
 (v. 1319.) 
 
 is my delight, that the LORD hath heard 
 - My voice and my supplications. 
 
 2 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, 
 Therefore will I call upon Mm as long as I live. 
 
 3 The sorrows of death compassed me, 
 And the pains of hell gat hold upon me : 
 I found trouble and sorrow. 
 
 4 Then called I upon the name of the LORD ; 
 
 LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. 
 
 5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous ; 
 Yea, our God is merciful. 
 
 6 The LORD preserveth the simple: 
 
 1 was brought low, and he helped me. 
 
 7 Return unto thy rest, my soul; 
 
 For the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee. 
 
 8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, 
 Mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. 
 
 9 I will walk before the LORD 
 In the land of the living. 
 
 10 I believed, therefore have I (or, "though I said") spoken : 
 I am greatly afflicted : 
 
 11 I said in my haste, 
 All men are liars. 
 
 12 What shall I render unto the LORD 
 For all his benefits toward me ? 
 
 13 I will take the cup of salvation, 
 And call upon the name of the LORD. 
 
 14 I will pay my vows unto the LORD 
 Now in the presence of all his people. 
 
 15 Precious in the sight of the LORD 
 Is the death of his saints. 
 
PSALM CXVI. 429 
 
 16 LORD, truly I am thy servant; 
 
 I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid : 
 Thou hast loosed my bonds. 
 
 17 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, 
 And will call upon the name of the LORD. 
 
 18 I will pay my vows unto the LORD 
 Now in the presence of all his people, 
 
 19 In the courts of the LORD'S house, 
 In the midst of thee, Jerusalem. 
 Praise ye the LORD. 
 
 V. 1, 2. It is indeed a great thing to know from our own expe- 
 rience that we have a reconciled Father in heaven, who cares for 
 us, and, though infinitely exalted, hears the cry of poor troubled 
 mortals. The Psalmist speaks in joyous strains of the gracious 
 answers to his prayers, and regards them as a solemn admonition, 
 in every kind of trouble, to cling to the true helper. 
 
 V. 3 6. The suppliant could look back upon the experience 
 of a David, and adopts the language of David to describe the abyss 
 of his perils, (Psalm xviii. 4 :) he is happy in being able to join 
 the thousands and thousands who, from their own experience, con- 
 fess to the righteousness of the beautiful name which the Lord has 
 given himself, Exod. xxxiv. 6. "The Lord preserveth the simple." 
 (Psalm cxix. 130; Acts ii. 47.) The term simple equals the "sim- 
 plicity" of the New Testament, namely, that pure mind towards 
 God, which, without looking out for help from any other quarter, 
 and free from all dissimulation, expects salvation from him alone. 
 
 V. 7 12. This passage denies not the necessity incumbent 
 upon the godly to strive for peace of heart, though deliverance from 
 the Lord should linger to be forthcoming. Psalm xciv. 19 shows 
 the very contrary; but man is weak, and peace is generally subse- 
 quent to the answer to our prayers. The Psalmist exhorts himself 
 to be at ease, now that every motive for uneasiness has vanished. 
 He has been delivered from death, he resolves therefore to spend 
 his recovered life with a constant regard to Him to whom he owes 
 his present happiness. The prayer of faith only is effectual : the 
 Psalmist therefore testifies that in temptation he was by no means 
 devoid of faith. He believed when he sighed, "I am greatly 
 afflicted."* His faith made him even then confess to the treachery 
 of every human aid, and to cling solely to the heavenly Helper, 
 (Psalm xxxi. 23,) as it is said elsewhere, " It is better to trust in 
 the Lord than to put confidence in man." (Psalm cxviii. 8.) 
 
 V. 13 19. As it were astonished at the magnitude of Divine 
 
 * Paul cites this passage, 2 Cor. iv. 13, from the LXX., which, however, 
 does not well suit the connection. 
 
430 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 goodness, he asks, verse 12, how he could sufficiently display his 
 gratitude. This is a question which should every day stream from 
 the heart of man, since there is nothing more reprehensible than to 
 thoughtlessly receive the blessings of God as matters of course. 
 The reply to that question needs not much consideration, since God 
 has expressly declared (Ps. 1. 23) that a sincere prayer of thanks- 
 giving is the most grateful sacrifice to him. Such sacrifices the 
 Psalmist resolves to offer openly in the presence of all the people ; 
 he will pay his vows in the courts of the temple (congregational 
 worship was then confined to that locality.) The figure of verse 
 13 requires elucidation. Feasts of joy were connected with thank- 
 offerings, at which a libation of wine used to be poured out in 
 honour of the Lord : he, therefore, calls the cup of thanksgiving 
 the cup of salvation. Yerse 15 points back to Psalm Ixxii. 14. 
 
 PSALM CXVII. 
 
 THIS psalm, which invites not only Israel but all the nations of the 
 earth to engage in the praise of the Lord, (Rom. xv. 11,) as Psalms 
 xcvi. 1 ; c. 1, used to be sung at the festivals in the temple. 
 
 1 A PRAISE the LORD, all ye nations : 
 U Praise him, all ye people. 
 
 2 For his merciful kindness ruleth mightily over us : 
 And the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. 
 Praise ye the LORD. 
 
 PSALM CXVIII. 
 
 A SUBLIME festal psalm. Yerses 5 18 favour the view that it 
 was sung concerning a victorious prince, but the sequel does not 
 agree with that view, since verses 19 26 are addressed to several 
 persons, nor can that prince be identified. He cannot be David, 
 for several internal reasons. The formula description of temple 
 songs verses 1. 29, as well as verses 2 4, cf. with Psalms cxv. 
 cxxxvi. indicate that the psalm belongs to a period subsequent to 
 the captivity. (Cf. ad. Ps. c. 5.) But no king of Israel of that 
 age could use the language of verses 5 18. The only remaining 
 
PSALM CXVIII. 431 
 
 view is that the whole people speak in that passage of their degra- 
 dation before and during the exile, (Cf. Ps. Ixxi. 20, with verse 
 17,) and their marvellous deliverance. Yerse 24 shows that it was 
 sung at a feast, and verses 15. 27 that it was the feast of taber- 
 nacles. (Cf. ad. Ps. xxvii.)* 
 
 The procession moves towards the temple; Levite singers heard 
 it, and invite to the praise of the Lord in the liturgic formula, with 
 which they also conclude, (v. 1 4.) The precentor sings of the 
 trouble of the people, of the infallibility of Divine aid, and the 
 courageous faith of the delivered, (v. 5 18.) The people desire 
 to pay their gratitude to the Lord, and the Levites posted inside 
 the court invite them thither, (v. 19, 20.) The people celebrate 
 the mercy which exalts the deeply-humiliated, (v. 21 25.) An- 
 other invitation from the Levites from the court follows, (v. 26, 27,) 
 and the singers conclude in the name of the congregation with the 
 resolution to praise the Lord and an invitation thereto, (v. 28, 29.) 
 
 The Levite singers of the procession. 
 
 1 f\ GIVE thanks unto the LORD ; for he is good : 
 \J Because his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 2 Let Israel now say, 
 
 That his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 3 Let the house of Aaron now say, 
 That his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 4 Let them now that fear the LORD say, 
 That his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 The Precentor. 
 
 5 I called upon the LORD in distress : 
 The LORD answered me and set me free. 
 
 6 The LORD is on my side ; 
 
 I will not fear : what can man do unto me ? 
 
 7 The LORD taketh my part with them that help me : 
 Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. 
 
 8 It is better to trust in the LORD 
 Than to put confidence in man. 
 
 * Since our Lord and his apostles apply verse 22 to the Messiah (Matt. 
 xxi. 42, Acts iv. 11,) Tarnov, Calov, Geyer, have interpreted the whole 
 psalm not only of the Messiah but as the language of the Messiah, yet not 
 without being conscious of the forcedness of their interpretation. Theo- 
 dore t, Augustin, and Klauss regard verses 5 18 as said by the congrega- 
 tion ; Luther explains the first verses of that passage in the same sense, 
 saying that it was indifferent to him whether the Psalmist was speaking in 
 verses 10 13 of himself or of Christians. If that passage and verse 21 
 are inapplicable to the Messiah, it follows that our Lord, by quoting verse 
 22 in his address to the Pharisees, simply means to say that the expression 
 of the Psalmist had its truth and fulfilment also in relation to himself. 
 
432 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 9 It is better to trust in the LORD 
 
 Than to put confidence in princes. 
 TO All nations compassed me about ; 
 
 But in the name of the LORD will I destroy them. 
 
 11 They compassed me about; 
 Yea, they compassed me about : 
 
 But in the name of the LORD will I destroy them. 
 
 12 They compassed me about like bees ; 
 They are quenched as the fire of thorns : 
 
 For in the name of the LORD I will destroy them. 
 
 13 They thrust sore at me that I might fall: 
 But the LORD helped me. 
 
 14 The LORD is my strength and song, 
 And is become my salvation. 
 
 15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles 
 
 pf the righteous : 
 "The right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly. 
 
 16 The right hand of the LORD is exalted : 
 
 The right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly. " 
 171 shall not die, but live, 
 
 And declare the works of the LORD. 
 
 18 The LORD hath chastened me sore: 
 
 But he hath not given me over unto death. 
 
 The Levite singers of the procession. 
 
 19 Open to me the gates of righteousness : 
 
 I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord : 
 
 The Levite singers in the outer court. 
 
 20 This is the gate of the LORD, 
 
 Into which the righteous shall enter. 
 
 The Levite singers of the procession. 
 
 21 I will praise thee : for thou hast heard me, 
 And art become my salvation. 
 
 22 The stone which the builders refused 
 Is become the head stone of the corner. 
 
 23 This is the LORD'S doing: 
 It is marvellous in our eyes. 
 
 24 This is the day which the LORD hath made : 
 We will rejoice and be glad in it. 
 
 25 Save now, I beseech thee, LORD: 
 
 LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. 
 
PSALM CXVIII. 433 
 
 The Levite singers in the outer court. 
 
 26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD : 
 We have blessed you out of the house of the LORD. 
 
 27 God is the LORD, which hath showed us light : 
 
 Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the 
 altar.* 
 
 The Levite singers of the procession. 
 
 28 Thou art my God, and I will praise thee : 
 Thou art my God, I will exalt thee. 
 
 29 give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 V. 1 4. The joyous formula which is to celebrate the praise 
 of the Lord, receives, by the repetition of its last clause by the 
 people and the priests in particular, a strong amen. 
 
 V. 5 14. The prayer-hearing and answering God has assured 
 their hearts that he is an all-sufficient helper; and though helpless 
 men and even the princes of the earth should promise their aid, 
 the honour is always due to his protection. The glorious deliver- 
 ance which the people of God had realized gives them the assur- 
 ance of future triumphs. Now since from the establishment of the 
 Church of Christ, the Israel after the flesh has become the Israel 
 after the spirit, and partakes of the promises and privileges of the 
 ancient covenant people, the Church is entitled to the appropria- 
 tion of the confidence which is expressed in this passage, and to 
 join in the solemn words of this psalm. Luther appropriated this 
 psalm for his peculiar comfort, and had, according to Matthesius, 
 verse 17 written against his study wall, writing, "This is my psalm, 
 which I love. Though I love all the Psalms and the Scriptures, 
 and regard them as the comfort of my life, yet have I had such 
 experience of this psalm, that it must remain, and shall be called 
 my psalm, for it has been very precious to me, has delivered me 
 out of many troubles, and without it neither emperor, kings, the 
 wise and prudent, nor saints, could have helped me." 
 
 V. 15 18. Immediately after Israel's return from the capti- 
 vity, they kept a solemn feast of tabernacles, which feast was held 
 in special reverence by the people, (Ezra iii. 4; cf. Neh. viii. 15;) 
 this psalm, could not, however, have been sung on that occasion, 
 because the temple was as yet unbuilt, though it was sung at a time 
 when the memory of the wonderful right hand of the Lord, which 
 having sorely chastised them had exalted them again, was still 
 alive in their remembrance. 
 
 * Tholuck renders, "Decorate the feast with wreaths to the horns of tho 
 altar." 
 
 37 
 
434 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 V. 19, 20. An address to the temple-gates, similar to that in 
 Psalm xxiv. 7. Here, however, the people, and not the Lord him- 
 self, desire to enter and to sacrifice in the Divinely appointed place 
 for worship. "The gates of righteousness" are so called, as may 
 be inferred from verse 20, since really none but the righteous were 
 to be admitted. (See ad. Psalm xv.) 
 
 y g 21 25. The gratitude for granted prayer is followed by 
 the proverbial expression (v. 22,) which sets forth that deliverance 
 came to the people of God, at a time when its deep degradation 
 gave no sort of hope that it should ever attain to so exalted an 
 honour. The essential part of this honour consisted in their being 
 raised from the dust of humiliation, that they should become 
 the foundation in the building of the eternal kingdom of God. 
 Salvation flows from the Jews; Israel is the good olive tree on 
 which the Gentiles have been grafted. Since with the single 
 exception of the day of atonement, all the Divinely appointed feasts 
 were days of rejoicing, the feast of tabernacles in particular, which 
 Josephus calls the greatest of feasts, the invitation to rejoicing 
 contemplates primarily festal gladness, which became, however, 
 heightened by songs of praise for experienced deliverance. The 
 very expressive, "Save, Lord (Hosannah,) Lord, send now 
 prosperity," with which our Lord's entrance into Jerusalem was 
 hailed, (Matt. xxi. 9,) was so entensively used by the Jews at the 
 feast of tabernacles, that the boughs with which they constructed 
 the booths were called "Hosannah," and the seventh day of the 
 feast distinguished as the great Hosannah. 
 
 F. 26, 27. Every one should enter into the temple in the name 
 of the Lord, i. e. in obedience to his commandment and with 
 thoughts of him : those who entered in that manner should be 
 welcomed with the blessing of the Lord. The expression, " he 
 that cometh in the name of the Lord/' has been particularly 
 applied to the Messiah, who came in obedience to the command 
 and in the power of God, whose entrance into Jerusalem was also 
 hailed with these words. (Matt. xxi. 9; cf. Luke xiii. 25.)* The 
 people used on those festive days to carry branches of the olive, 
 balsam, myrtle, and palm-trees in their hands, and to build with 
 them booths in their roofs, in their courts, but also in the courts of 
 the temple. Neh. viii. 16. (The feast fell not into spring-time, 
 but after the fruit and vine harvest.) Those booth garlands should 
 extend to the horns of the altar of burnt-offerings. } 
 
 * It is very questionable whether this expression has occasioned the 
 Messiah's appellation of o ep^o/motcc. From Rev. xxii. 20, it seems more pro- 
 bable that the term denotes him as the object of desire. Cf. also Gen. 
 xlix. 10; Isa. xl. 10; lix. 20; Hag. ii. 8. 
 
 f See Stier for what may be said in favour of the rendering of Luther, 
 the LXX. and Jerome. 
 
PSALM CXIX. 435 
 
 V. 28, 29. The resolution of thanksgiving, which seems, as it 
 were, to grow out of the preceding exhortation, is followed by the 
 invitation which stands at the commencement of this sublime 
 psalm. 
 
 PSALM CXIX. 
 
 A PSALM of praise in celebration of the law. The Masorites notice 
 that, verse 122 excepted, the law, the word, or the testimony are 
 mentioned in every verse, (cf. however, verse 132.) There is no 
 connection between the verses, since the psalm is composed in the 
 order of the Hebrew alphabet. (See foot-note to Introd. to Ps. xiv.) 
 But that outward form of consecutive order is no more exclusive of 
 a deeper current of feeling than is the constraint of rhyme with 
 which modern poets fetter their compositions. Verse 176 testifies 
 to the deep feeling and humility of the author. The whole psalm 
 is pervaded by a profound sense of the sublimity of the Divine 
 law, in connection with a sense of personal unworthiness. Though 
 repetitions occur in some verses, and others correspond to the 
 expressions of other psalms, yet there are those which contain 
 peculiar and touching thoughts which especially adapt them for 
 texts of sermons. We confine ourselves to a summary of the lead- 
 ing thoughts on the law.* 
 
 The Psalmist expresses his estimate of the law, verse 105 a 
 feeling which, since he uttered it, has been re-echoed by myriads 
 of human hearts. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light 
 unto my path," (cf. v. 59.) The law of God is to him not only 
 the object of idle contemplation, nor an instruction in outward cere- 
 monies, but a practical counsellor for every circumstance and emer- 
 gency of life: so he calls in verse 24 the testimonies of God the 
 men of his counsel. It would be impossible for him to recognize 
 in the law such a dominion over his life, and such a corrector, if 
 he did not regard it as the eternal word of God, (v. 89, 90. 96. 
 152. 160.) That word governs the world. "It continueth this 
 day according to thy word: for all are thy servants/' (v. 91.) 
 What a theme for a sermon ! He especially recommends the 
 saving doctrine of the law to young men, who while they are most 
 easily developed and trained, are also easily deluded and led astray. 
 The beautiful words of verse 9 have been the polar star on the 
 path of life to multitudes of young men. His acquaintance with 
 the legislator of those commandments fills him with holy fear. 
 
 * Most passages are remembered by every child. It is the most beautiful 
 mark of the excellency of a doctrine when it instructs a child. Herder. 
 
436 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 " My flesh trembleth for fear of thee : and I am afraid of thy judg- 
 ments/ 7 (v. 120.) He has experienced that this legislator has 
 instituted his laws not for the benefit of himself, but for the welfare 
 of man, and, in language similar to Psalm xix. 8 11, he praises 
 with a rare heartiness the blessing of his possessing those command- 
 ments; he calls them his treasure, (v. 56,) now more precious than 
 gold and silver, (v. 72. 127. 162,) now his peculiar portion and 
 heritage, (v. 57. 111.) The more he gets acquainted with them, 
 the more he learns that the fear of the Lord is the greatest wisdom 
 and best sagacity, (cf. Psalm cxi. 10.) He speaks of the wondrous 
 things which he beholds in the law, (v. 18. 27.) The word of 
 God has been his best comfort in affliction, (v. 28. 50. 92,) while 
 trouble and humiliation have led him to that knowledge which 
 remains concealed to the majority of men, (v. 67. 71. 75.) In the 
 possession of that knowledge he knows himself wiser than his 
 teachers and the ancients, (v. 99, 100.) He knows no greater 
 grief than to see others break the law, and does all in his power 
 that his open avowal of the law shall lead men to acknowledge its 
 dignity and honour, (v. 136. 139. 158. 46. 109.) This exposes 
 him to the necessary consequence of persecution, but cannot move 
 him from his position, (v. 61. 157. 161.) The more he experiences 
 shame and hostility at the hands of the despisers of God, the 
 greater becomes his zeal and striving to commune with those that 
 fear the Lord, (v. 63. 79.) 
 
 ALEPH. 
 
 1 "DLESSED are the undefiled in the way, 
 JJ Who walk in the law of the LORD. 
 
 2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, 
 And that seek him with the whole heart. 
 
 3 They also do no iniquity: 
 They walk in his ways. 
 
 4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. 
 
 5 that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes ! 
 
 6 Then shall I not be ashamed, 
 
 When I have respect unto all thy commandments. 
 
 7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, 
 
 When I shall have learned the judgments of thy right- 
 eousness. 
 
 8 I will keep thy statutes : 
 forsake me not utterly. 
 
 BETH. 
 
 9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? 
 By taking heed thereto according to thy word. 
 
PSALM CXIX. 437 
 
 10 With my whole heart have I sought thee : 
 
 let me not wander from thy commandments. 
 
 11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, 
 That I might not sin against thee. 
 
 12 Blessed art thou, LORD : 
 Teach me thy statutes. 
 
 13 With my lips have I declared 
 All the judgments of thy mouth. 
 
 14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, 
 As much as in all riches. 
 
 15 I will meditate in thy precepts, 
 And have respect unto thy ways. 
 
 16 I will delight myself in thy statutes : 
 
 1 will not forget thy word. 
 
 GIMEL. 
 
 17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, 
 And keep thy word. 
 
 18 Open thou mine eyes, 
 
 That I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. 
 
 19 I am a stranger in the earth: 
 
 Hide not thy commandments from me. 
 
 20 My soul breaketh 
 
 For the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times, 
 
 21 Thou hast rebuked the proud, 
 
 Cursed are they which do err from thy commandments. 
 
 22 Remove from me reproach and contempt; 
 For I have kept thy testimonies. 
 
 23 Princes also did sit and speak against me : 
 But thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. 
 
 24 Thy testimonies also are my delight 
 And the men of my counsel. 
 
 DALETH. 
 
 25 My soul cleaveth unto the dust, 
 Quicken thou me according to thy word. 
 
 26 I have declared my ways, and thou heardest me : 
 Teach me thy statutes. 
 
 27 Make me to understand the way of thy precepts : 
 So shall I talk of thy wondrous works. 
 
 28 My soul melteth for heaviness: 
 Strengthen thou me according unto thy word. 
 
 37* 
 
438 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 29 Remove from me the way of lying: 
 And grant me thy law graciously. 
 
 30 I have chosen the way of truth : 
 Thy judgments have I laid before me. 
 
 31 I have stuck unto th^y testimonies : 
 LOUD, put me not to shame. 
 
 32 I will run the way of thy commandments, 
 
 When thou shalt enlarge (or, "comfort") my heart. 
 
 HE. 
 
 33 Teach me, LORD, the way of thy statutes : 
 And I shall keep it unto the end. 
 
 34 Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law ; 
 Yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. 
 
 35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments ; 
 For therein do I delight. 
 
 86 Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, 
 And not to covetousness. 
 
 37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity : 
 And quicken thou me in thy way. 
 
 38 Stablish thy word unto thy servant, 
 Which is promised to thy fear. 
 
 39 Turn away my reproach which I fear : 
 For thy judgments are good. 
 
 40 Behold, I have longed after thy precepts: 
 Quicken me in thy righteousness. 
 
 VAU, 
 
 41 Let thy mercies come also unto me, LORD, 
 Even thy salvation, according to thy word, 
 
 42 So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth 
 
 me: 
 For I trust in thy word. 
 
 43 And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth ; 
 For I have hoped in thy judgments. 
 
 44 So shall I keep thy law continually 
 For ever and ever. 
 
 45 And I will walk at liberty; 
 For I seek thy precepts. 
 
 46 I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, 
 And will not be ashamed. 
 
 47 And I will delight myself in thy commandments, 
 Which I have loved. 
 
PSALM CXIX. 439 
 
 48 My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, 
 
 which I have loved ; 
 And I will meditate in thy statutes. 
 
 ZAIN. 
 
 49 Remember the word unto thy servant, 
 Upon which thou hast caused me to hope. 
 
 50 This is my comfort in my affliction : 
 For thy word hath quickened me. 
 
 51 The proud have had me greatly in derision, 
 Yet have I not declined from thy law. 
 
 52 I remember thy judgments of old, LORD ; 
 And have comforted myself. 
 
 53 Horror hath taken hold upon me 
 Because of the wicked that forsake thy law. 
 
 54 Thy statutes have been my songs 
 In the house of my pilgrimage. 
 
 55 I have remembered thy name, LORD, in the night. 
 And have kept thy law. 
 
 56 This I had (or, "this was my treasure/') 
 Because I kept thy precepts. 
 
 CHETH. 
 
 57 Thou art my portion, LORD : 
 
 I have said that I would keep thy words. 
 
 58 I entreated thy favour (or, "prayed before thy face") 
 
 with my whole heart : 
 Be merciful unto me according to thy word. 
 
 59 I thought on my ways, 
 
 And turned my feet unto thy testimonies. 
 
 60 I made haste and delayed not 
 To keep thy commandments. 
 
 61 The bands of the wicked have robbed me : 
 But I have not forgotten thy law. 
 
 62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee, 
 Because of thy righteous judgments. 
 
 63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee, 
 And of them that keep thy precepts. 
 
 64 The earth, LORD, is full of thy mercy: 
 Teach me thy statutes. 
 
 TETH. 
 
 65 Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, LORD, 
 According unto thy word. 
 
440 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge : 
 For I have believed thy commandments. 
 
 67 Before I was brought low I went astray: 
 But now have I kept thy word. 
 
 68 Thou art good, and doest good; 
 Teach me thy statutes. 
 
 69 The proud have forged a lie against me: 
 
 But I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. 
 
 70 Their heart is as fat as grease ; 
 But I delight in thy law. 
 
 71 It is good for me that I have been brought low, 
 That I might learn thy statutes. 
 
 72 The law of thy mouth is better unto me 
 Than thousands of gold and silver. 
 
 JOD. 
 
 73 Thy hands have made me and fashioned me : 
 
 Give me understanding, that I may learn thy command- 
 ments. 
 
 74 They that fear thee will be glad when they see me ; 
 Because I have hoped in thy word. 
 
 75 I know, LORD, that thy judgments are right, 
 And that thou in faithfulness hast brought me low. 
 
 76 Let, I pray thee, thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, 
 According to thy word unto thy servant. 
 
 77 Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live : 
 For thy law is my delight. 
 
 78 Let the proud be ashamed; for they dealt perversely 
 
 with me without a cause. 
 But I will meditate in thy precepts. 
 
 79 Let those that fear thee turn unto me, 
 And those that have known thy testimonies. 
 
 80 Let my heart be sound in thy statutes ; 
 That I be not ashamed. 
 
 CAPH. 
 
 81 My soul fainteth for thy salvation: 
 I hope in thy word. 
 
 82 Mine eyes fail for thy word, 
 Saying, When wilt thou comfort me ? 
 
 83 For I am become like a bottle* in the smoke : 
 Yet do I not forget thy statutes. 
 
 * /. e. a leathern bottle. 
 
PSALM CXIX. 441 
 
 84 How many are the days of thy servant ? 
 
 When wilt thou execute judgment on them that perse- 
 cute me? 
 
 85 The proud have digged pits for me, 
 Which are not after thy law. 
 
 86 All thy commandments are faithful : 
 
 They persecute me wrongfully ; help thou me. 
 
 87 They had almost consumed me upon earth ; 
 But I forsook not thy precepts. 
 
 88 Quicken me after thy lovingkindness ; 
 
 So shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. 
 
 LAMED. 
 
 89 For ever, LORD, thy word is settled in heaven. 
 
 90 Thy faithfulness is unto all generations : 
 Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth. 
 
 91 They continue this day according to thine ordinances : 
 For all are thy servants. 
 
 92 Unless thy law had been my delights, 
 
 I should then have perished in mine affliction. 
 
 93 I will never forget thy precepts: 
 
 For with them thou hast quickened me. 
 
 94 I am thine, save me; 
 
 For I have sought thy precepts. 
 
 95 The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: 
 But I will consider thy testimonies. 
 
 96 I have seen an end of all perfection : 
 
 But thy commandment is exceeding broad (or, "con- 
 tinueth.") 
 
 MEM. 
 
 97 how love I thy law ! 
 
 It is my meditation all the day. 
 
 98 Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser 
 
 than mine enemies : 
 
 For it is ever with me (or, "For it is my treasure for 
 ever/') 
 
 99 I have more understanding than all my teachers : 
 For thy testimonies are my meditation. 
 
 100 I understand more than the ancients, 
 Because I keep thy precepts. 
 
 101 I have refrained my feet from every evil way, 
 That I might keep thy word. 
 
442 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 102 I have not departed from thy judgments : 
 For thou hast taught me. 
 
 103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste ! 
 Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth ! 
 
 104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: 
 Therefore I hate every false way. 
 
 NUN. 
 
 105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, 
 And a light unto my path. 
 
 106 I have sworn, and I will perform it, 
 That I will keep thy righteous judgments. 
 
 107 I am brought low very much : 
 
 Quicken me, LORD, according unto thy word. 
 
 108 Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my 
 
 mouth, LORD, 
 And teach me thy judgments. 
 
 109 My soul is continually in my hand ; 
 Yet do I not forget thy law. 
 
 110 The wicked have laid a snare for me : 
 Yet I erred not from thy precepts. 
 
 111 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever : 
 For they are the rejoicing of my heart. 
 
 112 I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes alway, 
 JEven unto the end. 
 
 SAMECH. 
 
 113 I hate vain thoughts : 
 But thy law do I love, 
 
 114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield : 
 I hope in thy word. 
 
 115 Depart from me, ye evildoers : 
 
 For I will keep the commandments of my God. 
 
 116 Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live : 
 And let me not be ashamed of my hope. 
 
 117 Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: 
 
 And I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. 
 
 118 Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy 
 
 statutes : 
 For their deceit is falsehood. 
 
 119 Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross ; 
 Therefore I love thy testimonies. 
 
PSALM CXIX. 443 
 
 120 My flesh trembleth for fear of thee ; 
 And I am afraid of thy judgments. 
 
 AIN. 
 
 121 I have done judgment and justice : 
 Leave me not to mine oppressors. 
 
 122 Be surety for thy servant for good : 
 Let not the proud oppress me. 
 
 123 Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, 
 
 And for the word of thy righteousness, 
 
 124 Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, 
 And teach me thy statutes. 
 
 125 I am thy servant ; give me understanding, 
 That I may know thy testimonies. 
 
 126 It is time for thee, LORD, to work, 
 For they have made void thy law. 
 
 127 Therefore I love thy commandments above gold ; 
 Yea, above fine gold. 
 
 128 Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things 
 
 to be right; 
 And I hate every false way. 
 
 PE. 
 
 129 Thy testimonies are wonderful: 
 Therefore doth my soul keep them. 
 
 130 The entrance of thy words giveth light ; 
 It giveth understanding unto the simple. 
 
 131 I opened my mouth, and panted: 
 For I longed for thy commandments. 
 
 132 Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, 
 
 As thou usest to do unto those that love thy name 
 
 133 Order my steps in thy word: 
 
 And let not any iniquity have dominion over me. 
 
 134 Deliver me from the oppression of man : 
 So will I keep thy precepts. 
 
 135 Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; 
 And teach me thy statutes. 
 
 136 Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, 
 Because they keep not thy law. 
 
 TZADDI. 
 
 137 Righteous art thou, LORD, 
 And upright are thy judgments. 
 
444 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 138 Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded 
 Are. righteous and very faithful. 
 
 139 My zeal hath consumed me, 
 
 Because mine enemies have forgotten thy words. 
 
 140 Thy word is very pure : 
 Therefore thy servant loveth it. 
 
 141 I am small and despised : 
 
 Yet do not I forget thy precepts. 
 
 142 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, 
 And thy law is the truth. 
 
 143 Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me : 
 Yet thy commandments are my delights. 
 
 144 The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting : 
 Give me understanding, and I shall live. 
 
 KOPH. 
 
 145 I cried with my whole heart ; hear me, LORD : 
 I will keep thy statutes. 
 
 146 I cried unto thee ; save me, 
 That I may keep thy testimonies. 
 
 147 I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried : 
 I hoped in thy word. 
 
 148 Mine eyes prevent the night watches, 
 That I might meditate in thy word. 
 
 149 Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness: 
 LORD, quicken me according to thy judgment. 
 
 150 They draw nigh that follow after i^chief : 
 They are far from thy law. 
 
 151 Thou art near, LORD : 
 
 And all thy commandments are truth. 
 
 152 Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old 
 That thou hast founded them for ever. 
 
 RESH. 
 
 153 Consider mine affliction, and deliver me : 
 For I do not forget thy law. 
 
 154 Plead my cause, and deliver me: 
 Quicken me according to thy word. 
 
 155 Salvation is far from the wicked : 
 For they seek not thy statutes. 
 
 156 Great are thy tender mercies, LORD : 
 Quicken me according to thy judgments. 
 
 157 Many are my persecutors and mine enemies ; 
 Yet do I not decline from thy testimonies ; 
 
PSALM CXIX. 445 
 
 158 I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved : 
 Because they kept not thy word. 
 
 159 Consider how I love thy precepts : 
 
 Quicken me, LORD, according to thy lovingkindness. 
 
 160 Thy word is true from the beginning : 
 
 And every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for 
 ever. 
 
 SCHIN. 
 
 161 Princes have persecuted me without a cause : 
 But my heart standeth in awe of thy word. 
 
 162 I rejoice at thy word, 
 
 As one that findeth great spoil. 
 
 163 I hate and abhor lying: 
 But thy law do I love. 
 
 164 Seven times a day do I praise thee 
 Because of thy righteous judgments. 
 
 165 Great peace have they which love thy law: 
 And they shall have no stumbling-block. 
 
 166 LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation. 
 And done thy commandments. 
 
 167 My soul hath kept thy testimonies; 
 And I love them exceedingly. 
 
 168 I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies : 
 For all my ways are before thee. 
 
 TAU. 
 
 169 Let my cry come near before thee, LORD: 
 Give me understanding according to thy word. 
 
 170 Let my supplication come before thee: 
 Deliver me according to thy word. 
 
 171 My lips shall utter praise, 
 
 When thou hast taught me thy statutes. 
 
 172 My tongue shall speak of thy word: 
 
 For all thy commandments are righteousness. 
 
 173 Let thine hand help me ; 
 
 For I have chosen thy precepts. 
 
 174 I have longed for thy salvation, LORD ; 
 And thy law is my delight. 
 
 175 Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; 
 And let thy judgments help me. 
 
 176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep ; seek thy servant ; 
 For I do not forget thy commandments. 
 
 38 
 
446 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM CXX. 
 
 LUTHER renders the title of the following fifteen short psalms, "A 
 Song from the higher choir." The words in the original mean, 
 " A Song of steps," and the translator has concluded from that 
 term, that they were sung from a higher, more elevated place, as 
 it were a choir, to secure their being more distinctly heard.* The 
 meaning of that title is, however, not yet established; the common 
 view that they are songs which were sung on the pilgrimage to 
 Jerusalem is beset with many objections. 
 
 This psalm is the song of a man in affliction, who experiences 
 calumny and disquietude among strangers. 
 
 A SONG from the higher choir. 
 
 1 In my distress I cried unto the LORD, 
 And he heard me. 
 
 2 Deliver my soul, LORD, from lying lips, 
 And from a deceitful tongue. 
 
 3 What shall be given unto thee ? 
 
 Or what shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue ? 
 
 4 It is as the sharp arrows of the mighty, 
 With coals of juniper. 
 
 5 Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, 
 That I dwell in the tents of Kedar ! 
 
 6 My soul hath long dwelt 
 With him that hateth peace. 
 
 7 I am for peace : but when I speak, 
 They are for war. 
 
 F 1, 2. The Psalmist is so familiar with the ways of God 
 that he is able to preface his complaints with the confession that 
 he supplicates a prayer-hearing God. He then specifies his trou- 
 bles: they are pains caused by unjust calumniations. Undaunted 
 believers are never free from them. 
 
 F 3, 4. He cannot refrain from uttering an imprecation 
 against that false tongue, which prepares cutting pain like sharp 
 arrows, and lasting pain like the coals of the broom or juniper tree, 
 which are said to retain^the heat for weeks and months together. 
 
 F. 5 7. He mentions the remote nations of the Moschian 
 mountains along the Caspian Sea and of the tent-dwelling Arabs, 
 
 * Luther's Works, Ed. Walch. iv. 2387. c. 
 
PSALM CXXI. 447 
 
 as we should mention the Turks and Tartars if we wished to des- 
 cribe barbarian nations. He is retained against his will in that 
 rude and hostile fellowship, and finds himself unable to silence 
 their discord by the most conscientious effort on his part not to 
 provoke them. Paul, in exhorting us to live peaceably with all 
 men, foreseeing that it does not entirely depend on ourselves, adds, 
 "if it be possible," and "as much as lieth in you." (Rom. xii. 18.) 
 However difficult his unwilling residence amidst such uncongenial 
 elements may have been, and however long it might have seemed 
 to him, yet it may be inferred from verse 1, that he bore without 
 murmuring or despairing the delay of Divine aid, and looked trust- 
 fully into the future. 
 
 PSALM CXXI. 
 
 A PSALM of consolation, which promises to those who seek aid 
 from the Lord alone, the fulness and comfort of his protection. 
 
 A SONG from the higher choir. 
 
 First Choir. 
 
 1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, 
 From whence cometh my help.* 
 
 2 My help cometh from the LORD, 
 Which made heaven and earth. 
 
 Second Choir. 
 
 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved : 
 He that keepeth thee will not slumber. 
 
 4 Behold he that keepeth Israel 
 Shall neither slumber nor sleep. 
 
 5 The LORD is thy keeper : 
 
 The LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. 
 
 6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, 
 Nor the moon by night. 
 
 7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: 
 He shall preserve thy soul : 
 
 8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in 
 From this time forth, and even for evermore. 
 
 * Or perhaps more correctly, "Shall I lift up mine eyes to the hills ? 
 Whence shall my help come?" 
 
448 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 F. 1. The common translation of this verse suggests the idea 
 that an afflicted person, remote from the holy land, looks longingly 
 towards its distant hills. The hills must then be regarded as those 
 of Zion, from which, though destroyed, the bard still expects 
 deliverance. -The expected help from the hills must also be the 
 same which in the sequel he calls the help from the Lord. If the 
 former half of this verse be, however, read as a question, " Shall I 
 lift up mine eyes unto the hills? Whence should my help 
 come?"* we have then the thought that a people besieged in a 
 fortress look for help into the distance, (Nah. ii. 2,) which help 
 would first appear on the mountain summit. According to this 
 view the Psalmist reproves himself for looking out for earthly 
 help, to give greater prominence to the thought that his only aid is 
 with the Creator of heaven and earth. 
 
 V. 4 6. The Divine Amen to that confidence is added in 
 sweet and figurative language. The weak in faith are prone to 
 imagine, at the delay of Divine deliverance, that God, after the 
 manner of human watchmen, and in spite of the office he has 
 undertaken, is asleep. But that can never apply to the keeper of 
 Israel. (Gen. xxviii. 15; Isaiah xxvii. 3; Deut. xxxii. 10.) He 
 who has led the people of his inheritance from the days of their 
 youth, as an eagle leadeth her young, spread his wings over them 
 and kept them as the apple of his eye, (Deut. xxxii. 10, 11,) will 
 assuredly stand as a keeper by the side of those who ignore every 
 other aid save that of the Lord; he will be to them as a cooling 
 shade in the heat of noon ; as a defender in battle, so that neither 
 the sun, nor the moon, nor day, nor night, shall do them any harm. 
 The Psalmist's reference to the moon is probably a parallelism,"}* 
 though the allusion may be to the heavy and injurious night dews 
 of the East. 
 
 F. 7, 8. A general blessing succeeds the promise. The terms, 
 "going out/' and "coming in," embrace, according to the Old 
 Testament phraseology, every act of the vocation of life. (Deut. 
 xxviii. 6; xxxi. 2; 2 Sam. iii. 25.) 
 
 PSALM CXXIL 
 
 A PSALM which was sung on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The 
 inhabitants of the provincial towns used to proceed in caravans to 
 Jerusalem, singing psalms. This may be inferred from Luke ii. 
 
 * So Venema, Ewald. 
 
 f By the association of Ideas: cf. Hitzig ad. Isa. xiii. 10. Umbreit, 
 "The moonshine shall not prevent sleep." 
 
PSALM cxxir. 449 
 
 41. 44. Since the psalms of degree belong mostly to the exile and 
 a later day,* and since in the days of David there was no sanctu- 
 ary at Gribeon, (cf. ad. Ps. xv.) it may be doubted whether those 
 processions to Jerusalem were instituted so early, and whether this 
 song does not belong to a later period. But the tabernacle and 
 the ark of the covenant were doubtless the sanctuary XT' t^x,* 1 '* 
 and David was anxious to make Jerusalem the capital of his king- 
 dom ; it is, therefore, not altogether improbable that he instituted 
 the annual processions to Zion/j" This view is supported by the 
 fact, that after Solomon the reference could no longer be to the 
 processions of the tribes of Israel, but only to those of the two tribes 
 of Judah and Benjamin. Still less could the tribes be mentioned 
 after the exile, nor could the thrones of judgment of the house of 
 David. If David is the author of this psalm, he composed it, like 
 many others, for the use of the pious of his nation. 
 
 A 
 
 SONG- of David from the higher choir. 
 
 1 I was glad when they said unto me. 
 Let us go into the house of the LORD, 
 
 2 Our feet shall stand 
 
 Within thy gates, Jerusalem. 
 
 3 Jerusalem is builded 
 
 As a city that is compact together : 
 
 4 Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD; 
 It is a law to Israel 
 
 To give thanks unto the name of the LORD. 
 
 5 For there are set thrones of judgment, 
 The thrones of the house of David. 
 
 6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : 
 They shall prosper that love thee. 
 
 7 Peace be within thy walls, 
 
 And prosperity within thy palaces. 
 
 8 For my brethren and companions' sakes, 
 I will now say, Peace be within thee. 
 
 9 Because of the house of the LORD our God 
 I will seek thy good. 
 
 V. 1, 2. The Psalmist reverts to the beginning of his festive 
 pilgrimage, to the moment when friends and relatives invite him to 
 it. The thought of it is a thought of delight. His longing mind 
 overleaps the intermediate space, and he sees himself with the pil- 
 grims within the gates of Jerusalem. 
 
 * Even De Wette refers Psalm cxxxii. to the days of Solomon, 
 f Compare the longing with which Psalm Ixxxiii. speaks of the pilgrim- 
 age to the sanctuary. 
 38* 
 
450 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 F. 3. The first object of the pilgrims* astonishment is the 
 extent of the city, where one house is built close to the other, while 
 gardens and open spaces intervene between the buildings in smaller 
 places. This is the most common view, but a modern expositor, 
 remarks that this meaning is cold.* Going back to David's time 
 we may translate, " That is compact together/' and interpret as 
 follows. Before David, Jerusalem consisted of two parts, the 
 castle, held by the Jebusites, and the remaining portion of the 
 city. David conquered Zion, and no doubt connected those por- 
 tions of the city, as he afterwards connected by bridges Mount 
 Zion and Mount Moriah. It is said, 2 Sam. v. 9, that David built 
 round about from Millo (the city of Zion) and inward (which may, 
 however, equally apply to fortifications.) The astonishment at the 
 extent of the city, which was effected by the established junction 
 of the different parts, would therefore be explained. 
 
 F. 4, 5. The thought rises from the outward beauty of the city 
 to its inward dignity. It is the city to which, according to an 
 ancient and now renewed law, the tribes go up to worship : it is 
 the city where the house of David administers the civil law : it is 
 the centre of religion and of the state. The thrones are the judg- 
 ment-seats of the kings. (1 Kings xxii. 10; Jer. xxxviii. 7.) But 
 why speak in the plural? Perhaps because such seats were erected 
 before the gates, (cf. Michselis' Mosaic Law, i. sec. 57,) where 
 judgment took place. (Psalm cxxvii. 5; Amos v. 10. 12.) It is 
 but natural that David speaks of his house. (Cf. 2 Sam. vii. 16; 
 iii. 1; Psalm xviii. 51.) 
 
 F. 6 9. David loved Zion, and therefore built a house of the 
 Lord, and because he had built there a house of the Lord, his heart 
 became still more attached to it. He therefore prays for her peace 
 and prosperity within and without, in her walls and palaces, both 
 for her inhabitants' sake and the house of the Lord, which was the 
 glory of Jerusalem and the joy of David. (Ps. xxiii. 6, etc.) 
 
 PSALM CXXIII. 
 
 A PRAYER of the whole nation in a condition of long-continued 
 
 1 ! A' '"' 
 
 humiliation. 
 
 A SONG from the higher choir. 
 
 1 Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, 
 thou that dwellest in the heavens. 
 
 * Gesenius Thes. S. V. ^fifi 
 
PSALM CXXIV. 451 
 
 2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of 
 
 their masters, 
 
 And as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress ; 
 So our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, 
 Until that he have mercy upon us. 
 
 3 Have mercy upon us, LORD, have mercy upon us : 
 For we are exceedingly filled with contempt. 
 
 4 Our soul is exceedingly filled 
 
 With the scorning of those that are at ease, 
 And with the contempt of the proud. 
 
 V. 1. The Psalmist directs his prayer and intercession to God, 
 like a man who feels the degradation of his people as his own, and 
 is himself greatly visited by it. The Psalmists are wont to call 
 God their God, for their peculiar comfort, just at the time when 
 no ray of hope is visible on earth; so here the Psalmist addresses 
 the Lord, who dwelleth in the heavens. He is sure that the attacks 
 of men cannot hurt the Lord, that the sceptre of his might is 
 unbroken, and that his eyes reach as far as the heavens. 
 
 V. 2. Men but rarely escape the temptation of looking out for 
 human help when they are in trouble, but the Psalmist here 
 solemnly declares that he and his people are fixedly gazing upon 
 the hand of the Omnipotent, from whom all the powerful on earth 
 have received and are daily receiving their power, all the wise their 
 wisdom, and all helpers the strength to help.* While such a fixed 
 gaze upon the Lord gives to him his due honour, it yields to man 
 continued peace and moderation. While we look to human hands 
 for help, hope and fear alternate; but if they, who may be sure of 
 a gracious God, look to his hands, confidence is sure to ensue. 
 
 V. 3, 4. These verses seem to intimate that contempt had been 
 carried on for some time past, and that the faith of the servants of 
 God had stood a long trial. This renders the perseverance of 
 verse 2 the more astonishing. They had got tired of suffering : we 
 need not much to get so. This short and hearty psalm contains, 
 however, not the expression of passionate impatience, but rather of 
 believing moderation. 
 
 PSALM CXXIV. 
 
 A BRIEF but powerful song of praise, like many psalms of David 
 in the first book. Some, though on insufficient grounds, have 
 
 *Savary, Letters on Egypt, p. 135: "The slaves, having their hands 
 crossed on their chest, stand silently at the end of the hall. With their 
 eyes fastened on their mastery they seek to anticipate his every wish." 
 
452 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 regarded it as a fragment which, after the exile, was used by the 
 pilgrims on their processions. 
 
 The first verses possess peculiar energy, from the repetition of 
 the former clause in verses 1 and 2, and the accumulation of images 
 in the after clauses. Yerse 7 announces the victory with joyous 
 vivacity a victory under circumstances when every hope of deliv- 
 erance seemed to have fled. Verse 8 expresses the confession and 
 vow that he to whom everything must obey, because he has made 
 everything, should be the sole help and consolation of Israel. Now 
 if the Israel, who on account of that experience could sing this 
 song of praise, continues now in the assembly of the redeemed of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, then has the ancient song of praise, like 
 many others, been transferred from the past to the present: the 
 Church of Christ shall experience the same deliverance, and sing 
 the same songs of praise. 
 
 A 
 
 SONG of David from the higher choir. 
 
 1 If it "had not been the LORD who was on our side, 
 
 Now may Israel say; 
 2, If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, 
 
 When men rose up against us: 
 
 3 Then they had swallowed us up quick, 
 When their wrath was kindled against us : 
 
 4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, 
 The stream had gone over our soul : 
 
 5 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. 
 
 6 Blessed be the LORD, 
 
 Who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. 
 
 7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the 
 
 fowlers : 
 The snare is broken, and we are escaped. 
 
 8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, 
 Who made heaven and earth. 
 
 PSALM CXXV. 
 
 THIS psalm of prayer and consolation points to a time ' 
 " rod of the wicked'' ruled over Israel, and when many o 
 
 \ when the 
 i many of the peo- 
 ple were seduced by oppression or bad example to make fellowship 
 with the wicked. The rod of the wicked most probably denotes the 
 power of -heathen oppressors > (Ps. xciv. 20;) then "the righteous 
 
PSALM CXXV. 453 
 
 that put forth their hands unto iniquity" are either those who sup- 
 port the oppression of heathen despots, or those who get seduced 
 to idolatry. 
 
 The Psalmist, having confidently proclaimed the termination of 
 the heathen rule, (v. 1 3,) supplicates God to bless the faithful 
 of his people, but to adequately punish the rebels, (v. 4, 5.) 
 
 A SONG from the higher choir. 
 
 1 They that trust in the LORD shall be as Mount Zion, 
 Which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. 
 
 2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, 
 So the LORD is round about his people 
 From henceforth even for ever. 
 
 3 For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot (or, 
 
 " small band") of the righteous; 
 Lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. 
 
 4 Do good, LORD, unto those that be good, 
 And to them that are upright in their hearts. 
 
 5 As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, 
 
 The LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of 
 
 iniquity : 
 But peace shall be upon Israel. 
 
 V. 1, 2. Not less firm than Zion, the mount of God, are they 
 who put their trust in the Lord of that sanctuary. The mountains 
 which encircle Jerusalem symbolize the high protection with which 
 God encircles his people, a protection as immovable as their foun- 
 dations. (Zech. ii. 5.) In speaking of the eternal duration of 
 Mount Zion, the Psalmist contemplates not the mountain as such, 
 but regards it as the centre of the kingdom of God, whence the 
 Messianic salvation proceeds, (Isa. ii. 3,) and which in that sense 
 may be called imperishable. The very psalm which celebrates the 
 removal of the ark from Zion to Moriah declares that the Lord 
 shall dwell for ever in Zion. (Psalm cxxxii. 13, 14.) 
 
 V. 3. This verse applies the confidence expressed in the pre- 
 ceding verses. The Psalmist complains of the long-continued 
 oppression of the people of God. In describing God as the eternal 
 protection of his people, he by no means intimated thereby that he 
 would exempt them from trial and affliction. The promise is not 
 exemption from stumbling, but exemption from falling. God will 
 not forget his covenant, nor punish beyond measure. (Ps. xxxvii. 24; 
 xciv. 18.) The noncontinuance of the rod of the wicked is 
 the consolation of the Psalmist. 
 
 V. 4, 5. This passage renders it clear that the PsalmisUncludes 
 
454 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 not in the terms, "the people of God" and "Israel/' those who 
 carnally belong to them, for he expressly implores blessings for the 
 small band of the upright in heart, while those who walk in crooked 
 paths shall be driven away with the ungodly. The reference is 
 here as elsewhere, (Psalm Ixxiii. 1; xiv. 4,) to the true Israel. 
 For them he desires peace. The same remarks apply to the final 
 verses of Psalms cxxviii. cxxx. cxxxi. 
 
 PSALM CXXVL 
 
 THIS psalm belongs to that period after the captivity, when inter- 
 nal troubles and external hostilities pressed upon the nation. Cf. 
 the account furnished in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and the 
 introduction to Psalm Ixxxv., which was composed under similar 
 circumstances. 
 
 The Psalmist praises the past dealings of God in the happy 
 recollection of the delights which they felt on returning from the 
 captivity, (v. 1 3.) He prays for the further manifestation of 
 Divine help, and derives comfort from the knowledge that tears 
 and sorrows lead to joy, (v. 4 6.) 
 
 A 
 
 SONG from the higher choir. 
 
 1 When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, 
 We were like them that dream. 
 
 2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, 
 And our tongue with singing: 
 
 Then said they among the heathen, 
 * The LORD hath done great things for them. 
 
 3 The LORD hath done great things for us ; 
 Whereof we are glad. 
 
 4 Turn again our captivity, LORD, 
 As the streams in the south. 
 
 5 They that sow in tears 
 Shall reap in joy. 
 
 6 He that goeth forth and weepeth, 
 Bearing precious seed, 
 
 Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, 
 Bringing his sheaves with him. 
 
 V. 1 3. When things which we deem incredible come even- 
 tually to 'pass, we are prone to regard them as dreams and not as 
 
PSALM CXXVI. 455 
 
 realities. The prophets had predicted the measure of Divine pun- 
 ishment. (Jer. xxix. 10; xxv. 12.) Yet their deliverance, when 
 it came, appeared to the people as a blissful dream. In proportion 
 to the incredibility of that event would have been their guilt in 
 denying the Omnipotent as the originator thereof. The Psalmist 
 testifies, however, that the rejoicings of the delivered were not con- 
 fined to what they saw, but that they ascribed appropriate praise 
 and glory to the Lord in heaven. How could they do otherwise 
 when even the blind heathens had their eyes opened and cried : 
 "The Lord hath done great things for them/' Indeed there is 
 something so marvellous in the determination of King Cyrus to 
 suffer a great people, who had settled in his country and filled it 
 with prosperity, to depart from his borders, that the learned con- 
 fess themselves unable to satisfactorily account for the motives of 
 the king of Persia, and not a few of them assume that he must 
 have had some kind of faith in the God of the Israelites.* The 
 Psalmist gratefully repeats in the name of the people, " The Lord 
 hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." Though he 
 has grounds for complaint, he is unwilling to fail in the duty of 
 thanksgiving for mercies already received. 
 
 F. 4 6. It has been shown in the notes to Psalm xiv. 7,f that 
 the expression, "to turn the captivity/' is in the Old Testament 
 figuratively employed for the turning of every kind of misery. 
 Narrowed in the means requisite for the building of the new 
 city, assailed by the surrounding heathen nations, who interfered 
 with the erection of the temple and calumniated them to the king 
 of Persia, the Israelites who had returned from the captivity had 
 sufficient ground to implore farther assistance from the Lord. The 
 country is as it were like an arid desert. The Psalmist prays that 
 the Lord would treat it like the streams in the waste land in the 
 south of Palestine, which dry up in summer, but get refilled with 
 water in autumn and spring. (Job vi. 15.) In this prayer the 
 Psalmist derives strength from the hope which has met innumera- 
 ble fulfilments in the kingdom of nature and in history, but especi- 
 ally in the experience of the children of God. (Heb. xii. 11.) The 
 sower casts his seed if not in tears, yet in the sweat of his brow, 
 but when the merry time of harvest comes, all is joy and gladness. 
 The combat leads to victory, sorrows to joy, death to life. Our 
 Lord expresses the same truth by another figure. "Except a corn 
 of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone : but if it 
 die, it bringeth forth much fruit." That truth cheers the Psalm- 
 ist in the prospect of the future; though as he says in verses 1, 2, 
 the past has already confirmed it to him. (Jer. xxxi. 9.) This 
 passage is applicable to suffering Christians; either to their strug- 
 
 * Cf. The decree of Cyrus, Ezra i. 
 f Cf. Psalm Ixxxv. 6, in the Hebrew. 
 
456 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 gles this side the grave or their triumphs beyond; the first 
 verses of the passage are also explained either of the joy of the 
 redeemed on earth or of their entrance upon the bliss of eternity. 
 Augustin interprets the title, "A Song of Degrees, i. e. a Song of 
 drawing upwards/' of the drawing (going) up to the heavenly 
 Jerusalem. This is right, inasmuch as the deliverance from the 
 captivity of sin and death should in an increased measure excite 
 those feelings of gratitude which Israel must have felt on being 
 delivered from their corporeal captivity; in this respect again is 
 the history of the outward theocracy a type of the history of the 
 Church. Luther says, " Let us overlook the peculiar prisons (i. e. 
 with respect to the Babylonish captivity,) and explain this psalm 
 of the common prison and deliverance of the entire human race." 
 
 PSALM CXXVII. 
 
 THIS beautiful psalm is the other one which is preserved of Solo- 
 mon. (Cf. Psalm Ixxii.) Its pious wisdom of life is peculiarly 
 consonant with the early life of Solomon. Luther, "We see that 
 Solomon instructs us in the things which are needed for the pre- 
 servation of governments (political or domestic,) and that he seldom 
 treats of the subject which so much engaged the attention of his 
 father, namely, "righteousness." We read, Prov. x. 22, "The 
 blessing of the Lord maketh rich without trouble;" xvi. 9, "A 
 man's heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his steps;" 
 and, viii. 15, wisdom says, "By me kings reign, and princes decree 
 justice." Cf. Eccl. ix. 11; viii. 16.* 
 
 A 
 
 SONG of Solomon from the higher choir. 
 
 1 Except the LORD build the house, 
 They labour, in vain that build it : 
 Except the LORD keep the city, 
 The watchman waketh but in vain. 
 
 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, 
 To eat the bread of sorrows : 
 
 For he giveth it to his beloved while asleep. 
 
 3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD : 
 And the fruit of the womb is his reward. 
 
 * Cf. the linguistic comparisons of Stier ad. loc. 
 
PSALM CXXVII. 457 
 
 4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man ; 
 So are children of the youth. 
 
 5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them : 
 They shall not be ashamed,* 
 
 When they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. 
 
 F. 1, 2. Although there is nothing more certain than that the 
 ability of man depends on the supplies from the inexhaustible 
 treasure-house of the Lord, and the success of man on the combi- 
 nation of outward circumstances which are beyond the control of 
 mortals, yet those who are not yet convinced that "we live, and 
 move, and have our being" in God, are ever inclined to look upon 
 themselves as the originators of their prosperity. The design of 
 this psalm is to reprove that ungrateful and proud idolatry. Men, 
 build and keep watch, but if they do it without God it is all in vain. 
 The term "house" may be interpreted as "household" or "family," 
 but it is better to regard it as a literal house, since afterwards the 
 city is mentioned. The term "watchman," however, seems to 
 have a more extensive meaning, .(as Ps. cxxx. 6;) it applies to all 
 who are responsible for the prosperity of a city, such as the magis- 
 trates and councillors. The prophets are called "watchmen" in the 
 Old Testament. (Isa. Hi. 8; Ezek. iii. 17.) 
 
 V. 3. Having stated in general terms the futility of man's 
 efforts without God, the Psalmist now addresses those for whom his 
 remarks are designed, to point out to them still more particularly 
 that effort and anxiety alone are not enough; for many seek to 
 account for the failure^ of men, by saying that they have not suffi- 
 ciently exerted themselves. The last clause of this verse has been 
 much ridiculed by the careless, as if it were favouring a pious 
 aversion to labour, and even Luther has fallen into a misapprehen- 
 sion in interpreting "the sleep" as "peace of conscience." But 
 from what precedes, it is evident that Solomon's meaning is tanta- 
 mount to the old proverb, "Everything depends on the blessing of 
 God;" or as P. Gerhard has it, "You cannot take anything from 
 God by care and anxiety you must pray for it." Should any one, 
 however, feel inclined to force the passage, let him do so, but bear 
 in mind "that it is given to the beloved of God while they are 
 asleep ;" but those who pretend to be the beloved of God must not 
 forget that though it is true that the Lord can and does give it to 
 his people while they are asleep, yet there is also the injunction of 
 the apostle, "If any will not work, neither shall he eat." (2 Thess. 
 iii. 10.) 
 
 F. 4. The Psalmist now illustrates by a most forcible example 
 how everything depends on the blessing of God. Is there any- 
 
 * Or, "Their fathers shall not be ashamed.' 1 
 39 
 
458 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 thing of greater moment in a household, after toiling, care, and 
 anxiety have had their due weight, than the possession of children? 
 People are very rarely heard to say that God has not given them a 
 wife or a fortune, though even the ungodly will thoughtlessly 
 observe that the Lord has given or refused them children. It is 
 said in Genesis, where the fruitfulness of matrimony is the theme, 
 "God blessed them/' Thus we are wont to call children the bless- 
 ing of matrimony. This one instance must render it patent to the 
 most blind, that with all our efforts and cares, prosperity depends 
 on the secret influence of God. 
 
 V. 5, 6. The Psalmist takes occasion to depict the excellency 
 of the blessing of children. A number of grown up children, begot 
 in the strength of youth, are like so many protecting weapons in 
 the assault and the defence, like arrows shot by a strong and 
 expert archer. Happy is the man who has the quiver of his house 
 full of them ! Such fathers are blessed even in the judgment when 
 they treat with their enemies in the gate, (see ad. Psalm cxxii. 
 5;) their sons become their spokesmen. " While he lived " (the 
 father of a Well-trained son) "he saw and rejoiced in him: and 
 when he died, he was not sorrowful. He left behind him an 
 avenger against his enemies, and one that shall requite kindness 
 to his friends." (Sir. xxx. 5, 6.) 
 
 PSALM OXXVIII. 
 
 A PSALM which celebrates the blessing of domestic piety. Luther 
 calls it a wedding-song for Christians. The impressiveness of the 
 psalm arises from the Psalmist's addressing himself to his readers 
 personally. 
 
 A SONG from the higher choir. 
 
 1 Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; 
 That walketh in his ways. 
 
 2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands : 
 Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. 
 
 3 Thy vfifd'shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine 
 
 house : 
 Thy children like olive plants round about thy table. 
 
 4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed 
 That feareth the LORD, 
 
 5 The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion : 
 
 And thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days 
 of thy life. 
 
PSALM CXXVIII. 459 
 
 6 Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, 
 And peace upon Israel. 
 
 V. 1. The fear of God flows like a fertilizing stream over the 
 temporal existence of men. The Psalmist rightly praises it as the 
 only solid foundation for a happy household. 
 
 F 2. The first promise respects the blessing of nourishment, 
 the second that of matrimony, the third that of children. While 
 mere early rising and sitting up late are not sufficient in the case 
 of the ungodly, (Ps. cxxvii. 2,) moderate exertion will, by the 
 blessing of God, secure the wants of those who fear the Lord. The 
 promises of the Scriptures seem to speak of supernatural bless- 
 ings flowing through invisible channels, and it cannot be denied 
 that the ways by which the blessing of God flows into a Christian 
 household, and causes it to prosper, are frequently concealed from 
 our view. It is, however, only natural that the fear of God, in 
 rendering men moderate, contented, honest, and diligent, must 
 ever prove the source of prosperity in every vocation of life. Add 
 to this, that those who work in faith and love are joyful and easy 
 workers. May it, therefore, not be said that the fear of God in 
 part at least removes that curse from labour which ushered it into 
 the world? (Gen. iii. 17.) 
 
 V. 3. Why rejoices man in the blessing of a prospering work? 
 If he has to reap its benefits alone, his joy is scanty and silent; he 
 should like to extend them to a house, to spread a table, that they 
 who are one flesh and blood with him should share the reward of 
 his toils. Thus the Psalmist considers the second and third bless- 
 ings. He compares .the wife and the children to the two noble 
 plants, the vine and the olive tree, from which the most choice 
 liquids are obtained. He refers the wife to the interior of the 
 house, because her proper domain is there, and not in the streets 
 and market-places; the children he describes as seated at the table, 
 because they appear peculiarly pleasant when they look up to their 
 father's hand, and joyously consume the food before them. He com- 
 pares the wife to the vine, the clusters of which no less rejoice the 
 eye than their juice gladdens the heart; it is a plant which needs 
 support, extremely delicate, and yet bearing such strong fruit. He 
 may probably have thought that the children, the fruit of her body, 
 cling to her, numerous and beautiful, as the grapes to the vine. 
 He compares the children to olive branches, not on account of 
 their beauty, but on account of their great number in the tree and 
 the excellency of their fruit. 
 
 F. 4. 6. The blessing having been pronounced in the third 
 person, is now addressed in a direct form to those who fear the 
 Lord. After the removal of the ark from Mount Zion, the name 
 of Zion used to denote the sanctuary of God, and Jerusalem itself 
 the centre thereof. (Ps. xx. 3.) He who has built his house in 
 
460 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 the fear of God cannot but rejoice in the building and flourishing 
 of the city of God. Such a building of houses in the fear of God 
 is the most efficient means towards the good of Jerusalem. Since 
 men regard the continuance of their own lives in those of their 
 offspring as a peculiar blessing, and frequently are more concerned 
 for the welfare of their children than their own, the Psalmist holds 
 out a long posterity. The Israel which is praised here must be the 
 true Israel, for it is the condition of the godly which is praised. 
 (See ad. Ps. cxxv. 5.) 
 
 PSALM CXXIX. 
 
 A PSALM of complaint. It belongs to a period when many calami- 
 ties having passed over the nation, the Lord had graciously removed 
 their last affliction as he had their former, (v. 4.) To this is 
 annexed an imprecation on all the enemies of Zion. 
 
 A 
 
 SONG from the higher choir. 
 
 1 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, 
 May Israel now say: 
 
 2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth : 
 Yet they have not prevailed against me. 
 
 3 The ploughers ploughed upon my back: 
 They made long their furrows. 
 
 4 The LORD is righteous : 
 
 He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. 
 
 5 Let them all be counfounded and turned back 
 That hate Zion. 
 
 6 Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, 
 Which withereth afore it groweth up : 
 
 7 Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; 
 Nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. 
 
 8 Neither do they which go by say, 
 
 " The blessing of the LORD be upon you : 
 We bless you in the name of the LORD." 
 
 F. 1 4. The Psalmist exhorts his nation to the contemplation 
 of their afflictions from the days of their youth, i. e. the exode from 
 Egypt to the present hour, since the believing consideration of 
 past affliction and past deliverance is most conducive to courageous 
 
PSALM CXXX. 461 
 
 perseverance. Their wounds had been deep : the plough had as it 
 were gone over their backs, and left long furrows behind it. Yet 
 the end has always been this : they have not prevailed against me. 
 When the seed falls into deep furrows, it will yield fruit, and the 
 Lord cut asunder the cords of their yoke whenever the people were 
 yielding the desired fruit. 
 
 F. 5 8. In view of the long ranks of the enemies of Zion, 
 the desire arises that they might all be put to shame : so Christians, 
 though constrained to own that the sufferings of the Church are a 
 capital crucible for the separation of her dross, can hardly suppress 
 the desire that the enemies of the Church of God should cease. 
 The imprecation of the Psalmist is no other judgment than that 
 which arises from the condition of the enemies of the Church. 
 They have no root, like the grass on the earth-covered roofs of the 
 houses of the poor in the East; it is a poor crop, and does not 
 deserve the salutation which used to be addressed to the mowers, 
 " The Lord be with you." (Ruth ii. 4.) 
 
 PSALM CXXX. 
 
 A PSALM of complaint in deep sorrow, (v. 1 4,) but full of confi- 
 dence and encouragement for Israel, (v. 5 8.) 
 
 A SONG from the higher choir. 
 
 1 Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, LORD. 
 
 2 Lord, hear my voice : 
 
 Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. 
 
 3 If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, 
 LORD, who shall stand? 
 
 4 But there is forgiveness with thee. 
 That thou mayest be feared. 
 
 5 I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, 
 And in his word do I hope. 
 
 6 My soul waiteth for the Lord 
 
 More than they that watch for the morning: 
 That watch for the morning. 
 
 7 Let Israel hope in the LORD: 
 For with the LORD there is mercy, 
 And with him is plenteous redemption. 
 
 8 And he shall redeem Israel 
 From all his iniquities. 
 
 39* 
 
462 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 y. 1 4. As a cry for help is heard from an abyss, so the 
 troubled bard sends his cry from earth to heaven. He complains 
 not, as most men do, of undeserved suffering, nor asks, Why hap- 
 pens this to me? why happens this to me? He rather confesses 
 that all men ought to consider all their sufferings as the well 
 deserved punishment of their sins, and asserts that if the sins of 
 men were adequately punished, they could not stand before God. 
 He holds the evangelical doctrine of the New Testament, by 
 declaring according to Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7, that the existence and 
 prosperity of sinners are only possible because of Divine forgive- 
 ness, and that God exerts forgiveness for the very purpose of kind- 
 ling the fear of God in a more vivid and powerful manner. (Psalm 
 cxliii. 2.) 
 
 V. 5 8. Confiding in the true word of the Lord and the surety 
 of his promises*, (Psalm xxxiii. 4; Ivi. 11,) he trains himself in 
 perseverance. His soul waits upon God, as watchmen look out for 
 the light of day in a dark night. (Isa. xxi. 11.) The confidence 
 which has cheered his own heart animates him to exhort all the 
 associates of his nation to bear in mind that God deals with us not 
 according to our deserts but according to his mercy. We may 
 therefore expect much and even new redemption at his hands, till 
 it shall be completed at last, when the true Israel of God shall be 
 redeemed from all their sins and their melancholy consequences. 
 
 PSALM CXXXL 
 
 A PSALM of David, which sets forth the confession of his calm 
 resignation to the will of God. Some think that it is descriptive 
 of David's readiness not prematurely to desire the throne of Saul. 
 But there are many other circumstances to be conceived, which 
 could have occasioned this brief but charming psalm. 
 
 A SONG of David from the higher choir. 
 
 1 LORD, my heart is not haughty, 
 Nor mine eyes lofty ; 
 
 Neither do I walk in great matters, 
 Or in things too high for me. 
 
 2 Surely I have behaved and quieted my soul, 
 As a child that is weaned of his mother : 
 My soul is even as a weaned child. 
 
PSALM CXXXII. 
 
 3 Let Israel hope in the LORD 
 From henceforth and for ever. 
 
 V. 1, 2. Common experience teaches *us, that the more man 
 has, the more he desires. Hence the rich are if anything more 
 liable than the poor, to fall into the universal temptation of being 
 dissatisfied with what the Lord has apportioned to them, and 
 of striving after higher things. The conduct of a victorious king, 
 blessed with prosperity and power, who is content with what the 
 Lord has meted out to him, demands a special acknowledgment. 
 The Psalmist neither denies the temptation of passion nor the 
 occasional commotion of his mind. He is afraid of the ingratitude 
 of which he would become guilty, and the unfailing retribution of 
 Divine justice, and has therefore succeeded to calm his soul, like 
 the weaned infant which nestles in his mother's bosom without 
 desire. 
 
 V. 3. Assured of the blessing of his own conduct, the Psalm- 
 ist calls upon all his associates in faith to set their hope on the 
 Lord, who in due time will grant to every one what he requires. 
 
 PSALM CXXXII. 
 
 A PSALM of supplication, which was sung at the removal of the 
 ark from the tabernacle on Zion into the temple on Moriah. As 
 verses 8 10 occur in the dedication prayer of Solomon, 2 Chron. 
 vi. 41, 42, we must assume that either Solomon is the author of 
 this psalm, or that the author of the Chronicles took that passage, 
 which is wanting in the version of the prayer which is furnished 
 in 1 Kings viii., from this psalm, and added it to Solomon's prayer, 
 because he knew that the king had uttered it on that occasion. 
 
 The prayer supplicates Divine mercy, on the plea of the fidelity 
 which David displayed in his zeal for God, and especially for the 
 building of a house for the ark, (v. 1 5.) The people, having 
 stated that the ark used formerly to wander from place to place, 
 begin to worship, (v. 6, 7,) and pray for mercy on the sanctuary 
 and the government, (v. 8 10.) They cite as a pledge of their 
 confidence the word which the Lord spoke unto Nathan, (v. 11 12.) 
 Now the Lord himself speaks, promising to dwell in Zion, to bless 
 the provisions of the people, to give salvation to the priests, and 
 might and victory to the royal house, ( v . 13 18.) 
 
464 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 A SONG- from the higher choir, 
 
 First Choir. 
 
 1 LORD remember David, 
 And all his pains. 
 
 2 How he sware unto the LORD, 
 
 And vowed unto the mighty G-od of Jacob ; 
 
 3 "Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, 
 Nor go up into my bed ; 
 
 4 I will not give sleep to mine eyes, 
 Or slumber to mine eyelids, 
 
 5 Until I find out a place for the LORD, 
 
 An habitation for the mighty Grod of Jacob.*' 
 
 Second Choir. 
 
 6 Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah : 
 
 We found it in the fields of the wood. 
 
 7 We will go into his tabernacles : 
 We will worship at his footstool. 
 
 First Choir. 
 
 8 Arise, LORD, into thy rest ; 
 Thou, and the ark of thy strength. 
 
 9 Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness ; 
 And let thy saints shout for joy. 
 
 10 For thy servant David's sake 
 
 Turn not away the face of thine anointed. 
 
 Second Choir. 
 
 11 The LORD hath sworn in truth unto David ; 
 He will not turn from it; 
 
 Of the fruit of thy bodywill I set upon thy throne, 
 
 12 "If thy children will keep my covenant 
 And my testimony that I shall .teach them, 
 
 THEIR children shall also sit upon thy throne for ever- 
 more." 
 
 The Two Choirs. 
 
 13 For the LORD hath chosen Zion; 
 
 He hath desired it for his habitation. 
 
 14 " This is my rest for ever : 
 
 Here will I dwell ; for I have desired it. 
 
 15 I will abundantly bless her provision: 
 I will satisfy her poor with bread. 
 
PSALM CXXXII. 465 
 
 16 I will also clothe her priests with salvation: 
 And her saints shall shout aloud for joy. 
 
 17 There will I make the horn of David to bud; 
 I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. 
 
 18 His enemies will I clothe with shame: 
 But upon himself shall his crown flourish/' 
 
 F. 1 5. The pains of David cannot mean anything else but his 
 varied efforts to establish the sanctuary, and to arrange and beautify 
 its worship. As a single proof is mentioned his anxiety for the 
 place of the ark. It is uncertain whether the adduced determina- 
 tion of David respects the foundation of a house for the ark (that 
 is the building of the temple,) and the words which are put into 
 the mouth of David are simply an expansion of the concise expres- 
 sion in 2 Samuel vii. 2, (Acts vii. 46,) or only expressive of his 
 desire to prepare a permanent place for the ark on Mount Zion. 
 Verse 6 favours the latter supposition. 2 Samuel vi. contains no 
 further details respecting his determination to remove the ark from 
 Kirjath Jearim, where it had been accidentally deposited. (Cf. 
 Introd. ad. Ps. xv.) On the other hand, 1 Chronicles xiii. (xiv.) 
 speaks of the complaint of David to the captains of Israel that the 
 ark had not been sufficiently honoured by Saul, from which com- 
 plaint we may infer the zeal with which David carried on its 
 removal to Zion. The powerful and poetically executed expres- 
 sions are still further confirmed by an oath. There is no need that 
 they should be taken literally. (Prov. vi. 4.) 
 
 V. 6, 7. The people confirm the declaration of David, by 
 stating to have heard from of old, that the ark used to be in the 
 tribe of Ephraim, i. e. at Shiloh, that in their own time it was at 
 Kirjath Jearim, i. e. the city of the wood, that therefore they had 
 found it in a wild region, (v. 6.) Then follows an invitation to 
 worship at the sanctuary of God. We have remarked on Psalm 
 xcix. 5, that the visible sanctuary, and the ark in particular, was 
 called the footstool of God, as an admonition that the sensible could 
 after all be only a poor representation of the eternal. 
 
 F. 8 10. The ark approaches the sanctuary, (Numb. x. 35;) 
 blessings always attend the entrance of the Lord. The church and 
 the civil government are two institutions, on which the prosperity 
 of the state and the people depend. The people implore, therefore, 
 blessings and salvation for their priests,* and permanent dominion 
 for their kings. 
 
 F 11, 12. The most potent weapon with God is his own word. 
 They remind him, therefore, as did Ethan in Psalm Ixxxix. 20, etc. 
 of the solemn words which he had spoken by Nathan, and which 
 
 * The Chaldee translator regards the saints as Levites; the reference 
 seems hardly to the godly among the people: the Psalmist probably means 
 the priests. 
 
466 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 must at that time have been still fresh in the memory of all. 
 Solomon too made mention of those glorious words of comfort in 
 his prayer at the dedication of the temple. (1 Kings viii. 25.) 
 
 V. 13 18. It may seem strange that the eternal resting-place 
 of God on Zion sbould be spoken of at the very moment when the 
 ark was being removed from Zion to Moriah. This objection 
 might be set aside by the fact, that Zion and Moriah were at first 
 separated by a gulf, but afterwards united by bridges, and could 
 therefore be regarded as one : as in fact the gulf is now filled up, 
 and Moriah no longer discernible as a separate hill. But it is 
 more correct to say, that Zion stands for Jerusalem, as is clear 
 from verses 15 17; and we Christians should therefore bear in 
 mind that the ancient Israel continues in the Israel of God of the 
 New Testament, (Gal. vi. 16,) and Zion in the Christian Church. 
 Calvin says, " Christ has by his advent, extended Mount Zion to 
 the ends of the earth."* The full pleasure of the Lord in this 
 kingdom which he established according to the free resolve of his 
 mercy, animates him to make glorious promises to people, (Psalm 
 cxi. 5,) priest and king. On the expression "horn," see notes to 
 Psalm cxii. 9, and on "lamp," cf. Psalm xviii. 29. 
 
 PSALM CXXXIII. 
 
 A JOYOUS and hearty psalm. Its theme is the blessing of frater- 
 nal unity among associates. Commentators regard either the union 
 of the tribes under the sceptre of David, as the occasion of* the 
 psalm, (2 Sam. v. 3,) or the great assembly of the people during 
 the reign of David, when Solomon was anointed as king, and Zadok 
 as the high priest of the people. (1 Chron. xxix. [xxx.] 22.) One 
 of the three great feasts, the passover in particular, when all the 
 tribes met together at Jerusalem, (Psalm cxxii. 4,) may, however, 
 have inspired David with this psalm, in praise of fraternal unity. 
 Verse 3 alludes to a gathering in Zion. 
 
 A SONG of David from the higher choir. 
 
 1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is 
 For brethren to dwell together in unity ! 
 
 2 It is like the precious ointment upon the head, 
 That ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: 
 That went down to the skirts of his garments ; 
 
 * Could the prophets have said that all the nations should flow to Zion, 
 and that the Temple should become the house of prayer of all nations, if 
 they had not regarded Zion as the symbol of the kingdom of God? 
 
PSALM CXXXIV. 467 
 
 3 As the dew of Hermon, 
 
 And as the dew that descended upon the mountains of 
 
 Zion: 
 
 For there the LORD commanded the blessing, 
 Even life for evermore. 
 
 V. 1. The Psalmist calls it good and pleasant for associates of 
 the same faith not only to preserve unity, but to express it by dwell- 
 ing together, as it was the case when all the worshippers of the 
 One God used to flow together to the one centre of his adoration 
 at the annual three great feasts. The adjectives grooc? and pleasant 
 denote the blessedness of such a fellowship of love, based on faith. 
 
 V. 2, 3. Two beautiful figures describe the benefits resulting 
 from such a dwelling together the fragrant oil of anointing with 
 which the high priest used to be anointed, the most sacred and fra- 
 grant of oils, (Exod. xxx. 24; xxxvii. 29; Lev. viii. 10,) as well 
 as the dew, noted for its copiousness (see ad. Psalm ex. 3,) and 
 refreshing power. The blessing of that fellowship is therefore 
 gratifying to the senses and strengthening to the heart. It is over- 
 flowing and all-embracing, so that it bears and refreshes the very 
 meanest. This is the meaning of the expression that the fragrant 
 oil copiously poured upon the head, descends to the ends of the 
 reverential beard, ye&, to the skirts of the garments. The second 
 figure applies the former to the case in hand. The Psalmist means 
 to say, these figures are exemplified in Zion. Hermon is a very 
 high mountain, enshrouded in clouds. The valleys at the base of 
 such mountains have a peculiarly copious supply of dew. The dew 
 of Hermon denotes the most abundant dew, which is to descend 
 upon the community of the pious in Zion. This psalm of praise 
 on the unity of brethren is confirmed by the statements of the New 
 Testament respecting the glorious blessings of fraternal unity, 
 which blessings, however, will not be completed until the comple- 
 tion of the kingdom of God shall have taken place. The last words 
 of the second figure show that it has ceased to be a simile, and 
 treats of the exemplification of the blessings of unity in Zion and 
 the brethren there assembled. They indicate that the promise 
 belongs to Zion. The word "blessing" is explained by the more 
 pregnant term "life." 
 
 PSALM CXXXIV. 
 
 A SONG of praise for the Levites, who were appointed to hold the 
 night watch in the temple. 
 
 "The offices of the Levites were threefold. They officiated in 
 holy things, conducted the singing, and guarded the temple. 
 
468 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 (1 Chron. xxvi. [xxvii.;] Lev. viii. 35.) The temple was guarded 
 also during the day, to ward off the approach of unclean persons; 
 but the watch was kept up especially at night. 
 
 This psalm and 1 Chronicles ix. (x.) 33, show that praise used 
 to be offered at night. The coming and retiring Levites invite 
 each other to praise by responses. Yerse 3 speaks of God the 
 Creator to denote his power, from which believers may venture to 
 hope everything. 
 
 A 
 
 SONG from the higher choir. 
 
 The coming Temple-guard. 
 
 1 Behold, bless ye the LORD, 
 All ye servants of the LORD, 
 
 Which by night stand in the house of the LORD. 
 
 2 Lift up your hands to the sanctuary, 
 And bless the LORD. 
 
 The retiring Temple-guard. 
 
 3 The LORD that made heaven and earth 
 Bless thee out of Zion. 
 
 PSALM CXXXV. 
 
 A SONG of praise for all the people, for those who stand in the 
 courts of the temple, (v. 2.) God is worthy to be praised, for 
 Israel is his peculiar treasure, and he is greater than all the gods, 
 (v. 4 6.) This is seen from his government in nature, (v. 7,) no 
 less than from the past experience and guidance of his people, 
 (v. 8^ 12.) He will be merciful to his people for ever, (v. 13, 14.) 
 The idols are soulless and powerless formations of men's hands, 
 (v. 15 18.) Repeated invitations to praise are addressed to the 
 people, the priests, and the Levites, (v. 19, 20.) Cf. with the last 
 verses Psalm cxv. 3 10. 
 
 1 pRAISE ye the LORD. 
 
 JL Praise ye the name of the LORD ; 
 Praise him, ye servants of the LORD. 
 
 2 Ye that stand in the house of the LORD, 
 In the courts of the house of our God. 
 
PSALM CXXXV. u 469 
 
 3 Praise the LORD ; for the LORD is good : 
 Sing praises unto his name ; for it is pleasant. 
 
 4 For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, 
 And Israel for his peculiar treasure. 
 
 5 For I know that the LORD is great 
 And that our LORD is above all gods. 
 
 6 Whatsoever the LORD pleaseth, that doeth he 
 In heaven and in earth, 
 
 In the seas, and all deep places. 
 
 7 He causeth the clouds to ascend from the ends of the earth ; 
 He maketh lightnings for the rain ; 
 
 He bringeth the wind out of his treasuries, 
 
 8 Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, 
 Both of man and beast. 
 
 9 Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee, 
 
 Upon Pharaoh, and upon all his servants. 
 
 10 Who smote great nations, 
 - And slew mighty kings ; 
 
 11 Sihon king of the Amorites, 
 And Og king of Bashan, 
 
 And all the kingdoms of Canaan: 
 
 12 And gave their land for an heritage, 
 An heritage unto Israel his people. 
 
 13 Thy name, LORD, endureth for ever; 
 
 And thy memorial, LORD, throughout all generations. 
 
 14 For the LORD will judge his people, 
 
 And he will repent himself concerning his servants. 
 
 15 The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, 
 The work of men's hands. 
 
 16 They have mouths but they speak not; 
 Eyes have they but they see not ; 
 
 17 They have ears but they hear not ; 
 Neither is there any breath in their mouths. 
 
 18 They that make them are (or, "shall become") like unto 
 
 them: 
 So is every one that trusteth in them. 
 
 19 Bless the LORD, house of Israel: 
 Bless the LORD, house of Aaron : 
 
 20 Bless the LORD, house of Levi : 
 
 Ye that fear the LORD, bless the LORD. 
 
 21 Blessed be the LORD out of Zion, 
 Which dwelleth at Jerusalem. 
 Praise ye the LORD. 
 
 40 * 
 
470 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM CXXXVI. 
 
 ft 
 
 A RESPONSIVE song in praise of God, the God of gods and the 
 Lord of lords, who has established the monuments of his miracles 
 in nature and in the history of Israel. A second chorus always 
 repeats the final clause, "For his mercy endureth for ever." 
 
 GIVE thanks unto the LORD ; for Tie is good ; 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 2 give thanks unto the God of gods : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 3 give thanks to the Lord of Lords : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 4 To him who alone doeth great wonders : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever, 
 
 5 To him that by wisdom made the heavens : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 6 To him that stretched out the earth above the waters : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 7 To him that made great lights : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 8 The sun to rule by day: 
 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 9 The moon and stars to rule by night : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 1 To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 11 And brought out Israel from among them : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever : 
 
 12 With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 13 To him which divided the Red Sea into parts: 
 For his mercy endureth for ever: 
 
 14 And made Israel to pass through the midst of it : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever : 
 
 15 But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 16 To him which led his people through the wilderness : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 IT To him which smote great kings : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever : 
 
PSALMS cxxxvir. 471 
 
 18 And slew famous kings: 
 
 For his mercy endureth for ever : 
 
 19 Sihon king of. the Amorites: 
 For his mercy endureth for ever : 
 
 20 And Og the king of Bashan: 
 For his mercy endureth for ever : 
 
 21 And gave their land for an heritage: 
 For his mercy endureth for ever : 
 
 22 Even an heritage unto Israel his servant: 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 23 Who remembered us in our low estate : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever: 
 
 24 And hath redeemed us from our enemies : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 25 Who giveth food to all flesh : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 26 give thanks unto the God of heaven : 
 For his mercy endureth for ever. 
 
 PSALM CXXXVII. 
 
 A PSALM of a Levite, a master in song. It was composed soon 
 after the return from the captivity, when the remembrance of its 
 ignominy was still fresh in the mind of the people. 
 
 1 T) Y the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, 
 13 Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. 
 
 2 We hanged our harps upon the Willows in the midst thereof. 
 8 For there they that carried us away captive required of 
 
 us a song ; 
 
 And they that wasted us required of us mirth, 
 Saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion." 
 
 4 How shall we sing the LORD'S song 
 In a strange land? 
 
 5 If I forget thee, Jerusalem, 
 
 Let my right hand forget her cunning. 
 
 6 If I do not remember thee, 
 
 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; 
 If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. 
 
472 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 7 Remember, LORD, the children of Edom 
 In the day of Jerusalem; 
 
 Who said, "Rase it, 
 
 Rase 'it, even to the foundation thereof. " 
 
 8 daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed (or, 
 
 "thou destroyer;") 
 
 Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee 
 As thou hast served us. 
 
 9 Happy shall he be, 
 
 That taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. 
 
 V. 1. The foreign land was rich and fascinating.* Many had 
 yielded to its fascination, and preferred a permanent settlement to 
 the granted return into their own native country. But withal the 
 hearts of the greater portion of the people, and especially of the 
 priests and Levites, were so powerfully attached to the sanctuary 
 and the city of God, that joy was a stranger to them. They sat by 
 the streams of the richly irrigated land and shed their tears into 
 its streams. 
 
 F 2, 3. The Levites had carried their harps, which they had 
 so frequently strung in praise of the Lord in the temple, as 
 precious memorials of happier days, into the land of their exile. 
 There they sat by the water's edge in the shade of the willow-tree, 
 but the charm of the scenery was unable to subdue their grief, and 
 they hung their harps on the willows. The heathen seem to have 
 heard of the joyous psalms which Israel used to sing to the Lord; 
 they may have occasionally listened to them, and they must have 
 been sweet to their ears. As Belshazzar wished for the vessels of the 
 temple, so they wished for its holy songs, that they might enjoy 
 a merry hour. If they had been able to practise their art under 
 ordinary circumstances, it would have been utterly impossible to 
 them to sing a mirthful psalm,")" especially before the originators 
 of their tribulation. 
 
 F. 4 6. This is the Psalmist's courageous reply to the strange 
 request. They wanted them to sing remote from the place to 
 which their harps and songs were exclusively devoted. He prizes 
 his fair art, but he would rather that his hand should forget it and 
 his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth, than that the thought 
 of Jerusalem should vanish from his mind. The place where he 
 
 * Compare the description which the Assyrian gives of the beauty of the 
 land to which he intends to transplant the Jews; he probably refers to the 
 province of Babylon. Isa. xxxxvi. 17; 2 Kings xviii. 32. But see Hitzig. 
 
 f "As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar 
 upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart" (or, "singeth 
 them himself.") Prov. xxv. 20. 
 
PSALM cxxxvnr. 473 
 
 used to practise it lies in ruins; Jerusalem is above his chief 
 delights; how should he sing songs of joy within sight of her 
 ruins? 
 
 K 7 9. He is unable to retain any longer his intense grief for 
 the destroyed city, as yet lying in ruins; it breaks forth into a cry 
 of vengeance against the Edomites, who in the day when Jerusa- 
 lem fell inflamed the destroyers to greater fury, and against Baby- 
 lon, which because Cyrus had spared it stood as yet undestroyed. 
 He imprecates upon their guilty heads the punitive judgments 
 which had already been foretold by the prophets. (Obad. v. 8 16; 
 Ezek. xxv. 12, 13; Jer. xlix. 7.) It cannot be denied that the 
 Psalmist's language like that of Psalm cix. bears the stamp of pas- 
 sion; but we should remember that, according to the barbarous 
 usage of those days, the slaughter of infants belonged to the prac- 
 tice of war, when a fortress had been carried by storm. (2 Kings 
 viii. 12; Isa. xiii. 16; Nah. iii. 10.) At a much later period we 
 find that the barbarity of the Greeks was so great, that according 
 to Athenseu?, during an insurrection the mob had the children of 
 the rich trampled to death by oxen, and that when the aristocracy 
 had regained their power, they ordered their enemies along with 
 their wives and children to be cast into the flames. We owe our 
 more civilized usages to the propagation of Gospel sentiments, 
 which, though they have not yet brought about the abolition of 
 war, have nevertheless by their genial beams lessened the dismal 
 horror of its night. 
 
 PSALM CXXXVIIL 
 
 A SONG of praise full of exuberant joy. It begins with praising 
 God for past deliverance, (v. 1- 3;) rejoices in the acknowledg- 
 ment of God by all the kings of the earth, (v. 4 6;) and finally 
 expresses confidence for the future, (v. 7, 8.) No period in the 
 history of David furnishes so appropriate an occasion for the com- 
 position of this psalm, as that of the death of Saul, which brought 
 his ten years of affliction to an end ; and transferred the sceptre into 
 the hand of the fugitive. 
 
 A 
 
 PSALM of David, 
 
 I will praise thee with my whole heart : 
 Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. 
 40* 
 
474 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, 
 
 And praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy 
 
 truth (" faithfulness:") 
 For thou hast magnified thy word ("promise") above all 
 
 thy name. 
 
 3 In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, 
 And strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. 
 
 4 All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, LORD, 
 When they hear the words of thy mouth. 
 
 5 Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD : 
 For great is the glory of the LORD. 
 
 6 Though the LORD be high, yet hath" he respect unto the 
 
 lowly : 
 But the proud he knoweth afar off. 
 
 7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me : 
 Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of 
 
 mine enemies, 
 And thy right hand shall save me. 
 
 8 The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me :* 
 Thy mercy, LORD, endureth for ever : 
 Forsake not the works of thine own hands. 
 
 V. 1 3. The Psalmist's praise of the Lord is not confined to 
 his lips it flows from his heart. Assured of the incomparable 
 excellence of his God, he extols him before the gods which are the 
 boast of the heathen. His own dwelling is insufficient for his song 
 he goes to the temple to celebrate the glories of his God before 
 the assembled multitude. In other instances, the theme of the 
 delivered is, that God has again verified his name, but in the pre- 
 sent instance the overflowing joy of the Psalmist leads him to say, 
 that he had exceeded the hopes he entertained of his name. His 
 soul is not only filled with joy but with holy strength. He derives 
 that strength from the Lord himself, which fact renders it suffi- 
 ciently evident that he means to use it only against those who 
 rebel against the Lord. " The way of the Lord is strength to the 
 upright." (Prov. x. 29.) 
 
 V- 4 6. We are not surprised that the Psalmist, overcome by 
 the exuberance of his joy, should call upon the kings (2 Sam. v. 
 11, 12; viii. 11,) of the earth to become his companions in praise. 
 These words assume the Psalmist to be a person of distinction, 
 whose fate would attract the attention of foreign princes : so it is 
 written of David; "And the fame of David went out into all lands : 
 and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations." (1 Chron. 
 
 * Or, "The Lord will bring it to pass for my sake." 
 
PSALM CXXXIX. 475 
 
 xiv. 17.) His most illustrious experience, however, was, that the 
 high exaltation of the Lord does not prevent him from mercifully 
 looking down upon those that are humbled to the dust, nor from 
 detecting the proud afar off. 
 
 V. 7, 8. He explains the nature of his hope of Divine 
 deliverance. He anticipates not, as do the carnally-minded, that 
 God would secure him against every arrow of adversity, but his 
 hope is that the Lord, if it be his pleasure, would resuscitate him 
 from death and lead him out of darkness into light. Confident 
 that he has to ascribe his deliverance to Divine mercy, which 
 mercy moreover has its foundation in the unchangeable Being of 
 God, he commits himself into his hands for the future, and 
 believes that he shall experience him as the same God for ever. 
 (Phil. i. 12.) 
 
 PSALM CXXXIX. 
 
 A MAJESTIC psalm. The sacred bard begins a close self-examina- 
 tion with the thought of the omniscience of God, (v. 1 6,) and 
 seeks to trace the influence of the omnipresence of God on an evil 
 conscience, (v. 7- : -12.) He accounts for the naturalness of such 
 a state of things from man's entire dependence on God, (v. 13 18.) 
 Overcome by the strength and infinity of these thoughts he pauses 
 confessing before the omnipotent and omnipresent God, that he 
 has no fellowship with the despisers of the Lord, and that he strives 
 to walk in his ways, (v. 19 24.) 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 1 LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. 
 
 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, 
 Thou understandest my thought afar off. 
 
 3 Thou winnowest my path and my lying down, 
 And art acquainted with all my ways. 
 
 4 For there is not a word in my tongue, 
 
 But, lo, LORD, thou knowest it altogether. 
 
 5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, 
 And laid thine hand upon me. 
 
 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me ; 
 It is high, I cannot attain unto it. 
 
 7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit ? 
 
 Or whither shall I flee from thy presence ? 
 
476 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 8 If I ascend up to heaven, thou art there: 
 
 If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there: 
 
 9 If I take the wings of the morning, 
 
 And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 
 
 10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, 
 And thy right hand shall hold me. 
 
 11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; 
 Even the night shall be light about me : 
 
 12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee ;* 
 But the night shineth as the day : 
 
 The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.^ 
 
 13 For thou hast prepared my reins : 
 
 Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. 
 
 14 I will praise thee ; for I am fearfully and wonderfully 
 
 made: 
 
 Marvellous are thy works ; 
 And that my soul knoweth right well. 
 
 15 My body was not hid from thee, 
 When I was made in secret, 
 
 And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 
 
 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, J yet being imperfect; 
 And in thy book all* of them were written, 
 
 What days they should be fashioned, when as yet there 
 was none of them. 
 
 17 How precious (or, "difficult") also are thy thoughts unto 
 
 me, God! 
 How great is the sum of them ! 
 
 18 If I should count them, 
 
 They are more in number than the sand: 
 When I awake, I am still with thee. 
 
 19 Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, God: 
 Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. 
 
 20 For they speak against thee wickedly, 
 And thine enemies take^Ay name in vain. 
 
 21 Do not I hate them, LORD, that hate thee ? 
 
 And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee ? 
 
 22 I hate them with perfect hatred : 
 I count them mine enemies. 
 
 23 Search me, God, and know my heart: 
 Try me, and know my thoughts : 
 
 * Or, "Darkness darkeneth not before thee," 
 t Or, "Darkness is as the light." 
 j " My embryo.' 1 
 
PSALM CXXXIX. 477 
 
 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, 
 And lead me in the way everlasting. 
 
 V. 1 6. The thought of the omniscience of God ought in 
 every prayer to purify our souls, while that of his omnipresence ought 
 to sanctify it. These thoughts stand in more prominent relief 
 when a man like David seeks to fathom his heart before the Lord. 
 Whatsoever happens to man, when he is awake or asleep, his 
 thoughts ere they are born, his words ere they are formed on his 
 tongue, are known to God; he is round about all his creatures; 
 man is no more able to withdraw himself from the presence of God, 
 than he is to visit a place where the heavens are not over him. 
 This thought suggests to his mind the omnipresence of God. Who 
 is there to grasp and fathom that Spirit who thus grasps and 
 fathoms ours? 
 
 F 7 12. When the guilty get conscious of the omniscience 
 of God, their terrified conscience suggests to them, as it did to 
 Cain, flight. But flight is vain. Neither height nor depth, neither 
 the east nor the west, are remote from God. His discerning spirit, 
 his countenance, and his right hand, are co-extensive with space, 
 to seize the guilty fugitive. Ascend to heaven or descend to Sheol, 
 (Amos ix. 2,) travel on the wings of the dawn, (Mai. iii. 20,) 
 whose rosy hue is in a moment scattered from the east to the west, 
 . but all to no purpose. Space can nowhere hide the guilty. He 
 desires to be covered with darkness; but to the light of the Divine 
 eye the night is light and shines as the day. Although these 
 revelations of the Being of God by the Psalmist set forth truths 
 which are universally acknowledged, yet is it by no means an easy 
 thing to have our souls so thoroughly imbued with them, and to 
 express them after the forcible manner of David. Else how could 
 it happen that thoughts like these, which are sufficient to rouse 
 the profoundest sleeper, are acknowledged as truths by thousands, 
 and yet exert so little influence upon their lives? 
 
 F. 13 15. Who can have a truer and more intimate know- 
 ledge of man than man's Maker? He knows us better than we 
 know ourselves ; we cannot hide our inner man from him. How 
 marvellously has he made us I In the womb he prepared our bodies 
 and reins, i. e. the seat of the feelings which communicate to us 
 the voice of God. (See ad. Psalm xvi. 7.) There is at first sight 
 something strange in the expression of verse 15, that the body was 
 curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, but this is only 
 said by way of comparison. Job furnishes the counterpart to it by 
 saying, " Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I 
 return thither." (Job i. 21.) The embryo is asleep in the womb 
 as are the dead in the grave; it waits for the light of this world as 
 
478 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 they do for that of the next. This comparison of the womb and 
 the grave is very beautiful, since it points to the grave as the birth- 
 place of the resurrection-life. 
 
 F. 16. God who gave him existence saw from the beginning 
 his entire development to the end, and only in seeing it before- 
 hand he gave him existence, retaining as the Creator his power 
 over the creature. The Psalmist says, "In thy book all the days 
 were written." This is an expression borrowed from human habits : 
 men write down their thoughts when they wish to remember things, 
 (Mai. iii. 16; Ps. Ivi. 9,) or plan a scheme. In applying this lan- 
 guage to God, he intends thereby to denote the certainty and 
 unchangeableness of the knowledge of God. 
 
 F. 17, 18. The Psalmist once more (cf. v. 6) bursts forth into 
 devout astonishment; he contrasts himself so entirely dependent 
 on God with the Almighty, and feels his inability of continuing 
 the thought of the designs of God respecting man any further. 
 He sinks into a profound meditation, but on coming to himself,* 
 finds that he has by no means finished thinking. 
 
 F. 19 22. He pauses and completely overwhelmed with feel- 
 ings of adoration towards so marvellous a God, indignantly sepa- 
 rates himself from the fellowship of those who sin against him.f 
 He is conscious that love to God is sincere in proportion to our 
 hating those who have fallen to so low a state that they are actually 
 capable of hating God. This passage explains the hatred of the 
 Psalmists towards their enemies : they are their enemies because 
 they are the enemies of God. 
 
 V. 23, 24. Looking up to the Omniscient, he finishes his self- 
 examination. He possesses the consciousness of his ability to stand 
 before the Lord, and knows that the path which deviates from 
 God's is the path of misery. (Ps. xxxii. 10; xxxiv. 22; xvi. 4.) 
 He feels, however, that the grace of God alone can keep him in his 
 happy frame of mind, and sustain him in his hatred of everything 
 that is opposed to God, and therefore superadds to his confession 
 the prayer that the Lord would graciously keep him in the narrow 
 way which is eternal; while it is said of the way of the ungodly 
 that it shall perish. (Ps. i. 6.) 
 
 ^ * If the interpretation of Geier and most commentators be preferred, 
 viz. " Meditantem somnus obruit, evigilantem mox tui meditatio subit," 
 cf. Ps. Ixiii. 7. 
 
 f " The Psalmist is so overcome by the infinite glory of the state of mind 
 to which he has risen, and with which he would not part on any considera- 
 tion, that his overflowing and melting heart is at that moment only capable 
 of regarding opposition from without with abhorrence." Ewald. 
 
PSALM CXL. 479 
 
 PSALM CXL. 
 
 A PSALM of David, similaj" in matter to those which he composed 
 during the persecution of Saul. Cf. Psalms xxxv. liv. Ivi. Ivii. Ixiv. 
 
 . T 
 
 the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 
 
 2 Deliver me, LORD, from the evil man : 
 Preserve me from the violent man ; 
 
 3 "Which imagine mischiefs in their heart ; 
 Continually are they gathered together for war. 
 
 4 They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent ; 
 Adders' poison is under their lips. Selah. 
 
 5 Keep me, LORD, from the hands of the wicked ; 
 Preserve me from the violent man; 
 
 Who have purposed to overthrow my goings ; 
 
 6 The proud have hid a snare from me, and cords ; 
 They have spread a net by the wayside; 
 
 They have set gins for me. Selah. 
 
 7 But I say unto the LORD, "Thou art my God: 
 Hear the voice of my supplications, LORD. 
 
 8 GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, 
 Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. 
 
 9 Grant not, LORD, the desires of the wicked : 
 Further not his wicked device ; 
 
 Lest they exalt themselves. Selah. 
 
 10 On the head of those that compass me about, 
 Let the mischief of their own lips fall. 
 
 11 Let burning coals fall upon them : 
 Let them be cast into the fire"; 
 
 Into deep pits, that they rise not up again. 
 
 12 An evil speaker shall not be established in the earth: 
 Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him. 
 
 13 I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the 
 
 afflicted, 
 And the right of the poor. 
 
 14 Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name : 
 The upright shall dwell in thy presence. 
 
480 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 PSALM CXLL 
 
 THIS psalm contains several passages the interpretation of which 
 is perhaps more doubtful than those of any other psalm, and accord- 
 ingly, contrary views as to its contents are likely to arise. Our 
 translation, which is close to the original, points immediately to 
 the memorable escape which David granted to Saul in the cave at 
 Engedi. (1 Sam. xxiv.) It is singular enough that this psalm, 
 like 5 David's earlier ones, has the peculiarity of the alternation in 
 the singular and plural numbers. (See ad. Ps. xi.) It should not 
 be overlooked that Psalarn cxlii. falls into the same period. 
 
 David has escaped from peril of life, and so magnanimously con- 
 quered the great temptation of his heart to requite evil with evil, 
 that even Saul could not withhold his admiration, (1 Sam. xxiv. 
 18 20;) but he is still exposed to danger as before, nor knows 
 himself secure against temptation ; he lifts therefore his hands in 
 prayer, assuring himself of the gratefulness of his prayer to God, 
 (v. 1, 2.) Conscious of his inclination to requite evil with evil, 
 he prays for strength to persevere in innocence in word and deed, 
 (v. 3, 4.) He states as a proof of his sincerity, that he regards the 
 sufferings to which he is exposed as the righteous visitations of 
 God, and has on that account no ill feeling towards his enemy, 
 v. 5, 6.) He now courageously implores speedy deliverance from 
 " ie fierce persecution, (v. 7 10.) 
 
 th 
 
 A PSALM of David. 
 
 A 
 
 1 LOBD, I cry unto thee : make haste unto me : 
 Give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. 
 
 2 Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense ; 
 And the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. 
 
 3 Set a watch, LORD, before my mouth ; 
 Keep the door of my lips. 
 
 4 Incline not my heart to any evil thing, 
 
 To practise wicked works with men that work iniquity : 
 And let me not eat of their dainties. 
 
 5 Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness : 
 And let Him reprove me, it shall be an excellent oil, 
 
 which shall no.t break my head : 
 For yet my prayer also shall be in their evil doings.* 
 
 * /. e. Though they continue in evil doings, "I will pray." The linguistic 
 justification of this rendering is based on Zech. viii. 20; Prov. xxiv. 27. 
 Ewald, 619. 
 
PSALM CXLI. 481 
 
 6 When their judges* were set free in rocky places, 
 They heard my words ; for they were sweet. 
 
 7 Our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol, 
 
 As when one ploughqth the land and draweth furrows in it. 
 
 8 But mine eyes are unto thee, GOD the LORD : 
 In thee is my trust ; leave not my soul destitute. 
 
 9 Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, 
 And the gins of the workers of iniquity. 
 
 10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, 
 Whilst that I withal escape. f 
 
 V. 1, 2. David intimates by these expressions, that sacrifices, 
 especially those of incense, with their fragrant odours, were symbol- 
 ical prayers offered to the Lord. He compares, (Exod. xxx. 7; 
 1 Kings xviii. 29; 2 Kings xvi. 15; Mai. i. 11,) therefore, his 
 prayer to the burning of incense, and to the meat-offering. The 
 former was offered every morning and evening, the latter in the 
 evening only. He hopes that it might be as grateful to God as 
 fragrant incense. 
 
 F. 3, 4. Those who know the manly heart of the heroic David 
 will readily understand the great temptation to which he was exposed, 
 of failing in his duty towards a persecutor such as Saul, if not by 
 active exertions, at least by unguarded language : but he conquered 
 his stout heart. He was one of those heroes of whom Solomon 
 says, "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he 
 that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." (Prov. xvi. 32.) 
 This demands no less our admiration than his humble self-knowledge, 
 which prompts him to pray for further grace from heaven, to be 
 kept from unguarded speech, and from sinking to the level of the 
 wicked. 
 
 F. 5, 6. David humbly regards his troubles as Divine correctives, 
 although they were occasioned by his enemies. (Cf. ad. Ps. xxxviii. 
 2 6.) In the disastrous day of his exit from Jerusalem, he could 
 reply to the deriding language of Shimei, "Let him curse, because 
 the Lord hath said unto him, curse David." (2 Sam. xvi. 11.) 
 The verses under consideration testify no less of his faith in the 
 providence of God than of his deep sense of guilt, which enabled 
 him to discern in all his visitations the paternal hand of love. (Heb. 
 xii. 7.) The Righteous of verse 5, is God himself. J The reason 
 
 * It militates against the rendering of Luther, "They were thrown" over 
 at or into the clefts of the rocks (Ewald, 2di edit.,) which has been adopted 
 by modern interpreters, that the most natural rendering of ^"a would be 
 "from the rock." 
 
 JOr, "Let the wicked fall into their own nets together, whilst I escape." 
 This view, which was already propounded by so early a writer as Amy- 
 raldus, has recently, and, as it seems, independently, been advocated by 
 41 
 
482 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 of David's making this confession is, that there is nothing more 
 calculated to quench personal vindictiveness towards our enemies, 
 than to regard them as instruments in the hands of God. David 
 adopted that course with reference to the abuses of Shimei, and 
 was able to persevere in prayer under the abuse of Saul. (Ps. 
 zxxv. 13 ; cix. 4.) It was this which enabled him to display that 
 magnanimous act to which he refers in verse 6; he refers not only 
 to the act, but also to his words which accompanied it. They are 
 preserved 1 Sam. xxiv. 12 16, and bear so powerful an impress 
 of passionless tranquillity that even Saul exclaimed, " Thou art 
 more righteous than I!" 
 
 V. 7 10. He now bewails his misery and prays for deliverance. 
 In Psalm xxii. 15, he said that his bones were sundered. In the 
 same manner he says in this place of himself and his associates, 
 that their bodies are torn as ploughed and furrowed land, that their 
 bones are scattered and their life brought to the borders of death. 
 Gins and snares are repeatedly set for them. But the tried servant 
 of God has sufficiently experienced that his God "taketh the wise 
 in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried 
 headlong." (Job v. 13.) The last clause of his prayer is bright- 
 ened by hope. 
 
 PSALM CXLII. 
 
 THE occasion of this psalm of complaint has been stated ad. Psalm Ivii. 
 
 JAN Instruction of David ; a Prayer when he was in 
 li. the cave. 
 
 2 I cried unto the LORD with my voice ; 
 
 With my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication. 
 
 3 I poured out my complaint before him ; 
 I showed before him my trouble. 
 
 4 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, 
 Then thou knewest my path. 
 
 In the way wherein I walked 
 
 Have they privily laid a snare for me. 
 
 5 I look on my right hand, and see, 
 
 But there is no man that will know me. 
 
 Refuge faileth me ; 
 
 No man careth for my soul. 
 
 Maurer with reference to Isaiah xxiv. 16. The absence of the article 
 iefore p^ is no objection in a poetical composition. If "the righteous" 
 be regarded as a man, cf. Prov. xxvii. 6; Eccl. vii. 5. 
 
PSALM CXLIII. 483 
 
 6 I cried unto thee, LORD : 
 I said, thou art my refuge 
 
 And my portion in the land of the living. 
 
 7 Attend unto my cry ; for I am brought very low : 
 Deliver me from my persecutors; 
 
 For they are stronger than I. 
 
 8 Bring my soul out of prison, 
 That I may praise thy name : 
 
 The righteous shall compass me about, 
 When thou shalt deal bountifully with me. 
 
 V. 2, 3. Peril so evident and imminent as that in which we 
 find David, is sufficient to check the courage and destroy the faith 
 of many an experienced Christian; to such an extent that he shall 
 be at a loss to ease himself of his grief by prayer. But David 
 enjoys perfect composure of mind, and unbosoms his cares before 
 the Lord. 
 
 V. 4 6. He contrasts his limited vision with the unlimited 
 vision of God, who not only sees the path when it is lost to man, 
 (Ps. i. 6,) but knows a way of escape from the midst of death. (Ps. 
 Ixviii. 21.) This thought composes his soul in circumstances which, 
 were he to be guided by his own observations, would certainly 
 make him fall a prey to despondency, for he sees himself com- 
 pletely surrounded by nets and snares. He looks in vain to his 
 right for a human defender. (See ad. Ps. cxxi. 5.) There were, 
 indeed, his attendant warriors, but even if they had been courage- 
 ous and powerful enough to try their strength against that of Saul, 
 it was not David's intention to settle his contest with the king in a 
 sanguinary manner. He clings entirely to the Lord, whom he 
 calls his refuge and his very own portion in the land of the living, 
 i. e. on earth. 
 
 V. 7, 8. Almost overwhelmed by his desperate position, he 
 cries anew for help. Yet even in extreme peril like this, David 
 can remember that the faith of the small band of believers is allied 
 to his destiny. He prays, therefore, for his own deliverance, also 
 for their sakes, and with a view to an increase of their faith. 
 
 PSALM CXLIII. 
 
 THE Psalmist struggles in a state of deep depression previous to 
 offering his prayer to attain the mastery over the consciousness of 
 his guilt, which rises like a separating wall between God and him- 
 
484 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 self, (v. 1 3,) but derives strength from remembering the former 
 manifestation of Divine mercy, (v. 4 6.) He prays now for deliv- 
 erance, (v. 7 9,) and for grace to be preserved from transgres- 
 sions, to which frail man is so liable in great trouble, (v. 10 12.) 
 
 \ PSALM of David. 
 
 A 
 
 1 Hear my prayer, LORD, 
 Give ear to my supplications : 
 
 " In thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness. 
 
 2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant : 
 For in thy sight shall no man living be justified. 
 
 3 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul ; 
 
 He hath smitten my life down to the ground; 
 He hath made me to dwell in darkness, 
 As those that have long been dead. 
 
 4 Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me ; 
 My heart within me is desolate. 
 
 5 I remember the days of old ; 
 I meditate on all thy works ; 
 
 I muse on the work of thy hands. 
 
 6 I stretch forth my hands unto thee : 
 
 My soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah. 
 
 7 Hear me speedily, LORD : 
 My spirit faileth : 
 
 Hide not thy face from me, 
 
 Lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. 
 
 8 Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning ; 
 For in thee do I trust : 
 
 Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk : 
 For I lift up my soul unto thee.* 
 
 9 Deliver me, LORD, from mine enemies : 
 I flee unto thee to hide me. 
 
 10 Teach me to do thy will ; 
 For thou art my God : 
 
 Thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness, f 
 
 11 Quicken me LORD, for thy name's sake: 
 
 10 ^ Or i thy ri g hteousness ' sake bring my soul out of trouble, 
 
 12 And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, 
 And destroy all them that afflict my soul : 
 For I am thy servant. 
 
 * Tholuck renders, "For I disclose my soul to thee." 
 1 1- e. "Uprightness," i. e. "straight, even." 
 
PSALM CXLIII. 485 
 
 * V. 1 3. The faithfulness of God in the fulfilment of his pro- 
 mises and his righteousness (which term in the Old Testament 
 includes also his mercy, see ad. Psalm v. 9,) are the two Divine 
 attributes on the exercise of which the granting of our prayers 
 depends. Who would expect it from that righteousness which 
 rewards man according to his deserts? since even those who call 
 themselves the servants of God (v. 12) are at best unprofitable ser- 
 vants? David knows this, and strives from the outset for the 
 attainment of childlike confidence and the consciousness of pardon, 
 (Psalm Ixv. 4;) for all our righteousness is like a filthy rag when 
 looked at in the light of Divine purity. (Isaiah Ixiv. 6.) The 
 apostle confirms the same truth. (Rom. Hi. 20.) So Job confessed, 
 "I know it so of a truth : but how should man be just with God? 
 If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thou- 
 sand." (Job ix. 2, 3.) 
 
 V. 4 6. We know that the heart of David was not stoically 
 unfeeling in its struggles; he was a man, and had human passions. 
 He was not ashamed to confess his depression. He did not give 
 way to it, however, without resistance, and anxiously looked for 
 the means to attain to a mastery over himself, and grasped that glo- 
 rious weapon of defence which is furnished by the meditation of the 
 former works of God in the guidance and deliverance of his people. 
 (Ps. xxii. 4, 5.) To this means he joined prayer, and he did pray 
 indeed. His soul was looking out for God, as land parched and 
 burst by the drought of summer waits as it were with open mouth 
 for the blessing of rain. 
 
 V. 7 9, He prays like one who is experienced and tried in 
 the school of prayer. By asking God to show him the way where- 
 in he should walk, he intimates his conviction, that no human 
 power could point out the way of escape out of the net of affliction, 
 wherein he lies a captive. On that account he has not put his 
 trust in man. For why should he confide in those, who if willing, 
 have not the ability to deliver? The useless expression of our 
 grief to man breaks the strength of the soul. David trusts only in 
 his God, and to him he discloses his grief. 
 
 V. 10 12. Heavy affliction blinds our eyes, and renders us 
 liable to have recourse to wrong means, and to stumble, and espe- 
 cially to forfeit Divine favour by our impatient murmurings. The 
 Psalmist prays for the guidance of the good Spirit (Neh. ix. 20) 
 of God along with outward assistance. In the measure as we lose 
 the sense of our strength in seasons of adversity, we derive com- 
 fort from the belief that there is a power without and above us, 
 which will come to the aid of those who themselves are poor and 
 helpless. (2 Cor. xii. 9.) The Psalmist's soul is deeply humbled 
 and prostrated; he prays for deliverance for God's mercy and 
 righteousness' (see ad. Psalm v. 9) sake, and flees in his utter help- 
 41* 
 
486 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 lessness to the Lord his refuge like a servant who has no means 
 of defence of his own, but is obliged to look to his master for 
 weapon and protection. (Psalm cxvi. 16.) 
 
 PSALM CXLIV. 
 
 THIS psalm is called a psalm of David, because it consists for the 
 most part of Davidic sentences, (verses 1, 2, 3. 5, 6, 7. 9.} Also 
 verses 12 15 are probably derived from some composition of 
 David.* The last mentioned verses suggest the view that this 
 psalm was composed for the comfort of the people, and that the 
 people are speaking in it. The manner in which the name of 
 David is mentioned in verse 10, shows that the entire authorship 
 does not belong to him. 
 
 The Psalmist having trustfully praised the Lord as his rock, 
 (v. 1, 2,) points to the indigence of helpless man, (v. 3, 4,) and 
 prays for deliverance, (v. 5 8.) He repeats his prayer, (v. 9 11,) 
 and implores the return of the prosperity which was formerly 
 enjoyed by the kingdom of David, (v. 12 14,) and concludes with 
 a blessing on the people, (v. 15.) 
 
 A PSALM of David. 
 
 A 
 
 1 Blessed be the LORD, my rock, 
 Which teacheth my hands to war ? 
 And my fingers to fight : 
 
 2 My goodness, and my fortress; 
 My high tower, and my deliverer ; 
 My shield, and he in whom I trust; 
 Who subdueth my people under me. 
 
 3 LORD, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him ! 
 Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him ! 
 
 4 Man is like to nothing ; 
 
 His days are as a shadow that passeth away. 
 
 5 Bow thy heavens, LORD, and come down: 
 Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke* 
 
 6 Cast forth lightning, and scatter them : 
 Shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them. 
 
 * This appears from the crowded character of the language and the stiff 
 connection with & verse 12. 
 
PSALM CXLV. 487 
 
 7 Send thine hand from above ; 
 
 Rid me, and deliver me out of great waters, 
 From the hand of strange children ; 
 
 8 Whose mouth speaketh vanity, 
 
 And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.* 
 
 9 I will sing a new song unto thee, God: 
 
 Upon a psaltry and an instrument of ten strings will I 
 sing praises unto thee. 
 
 10 It is he that giveth victory unto kings : 
 
 Who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword. 
 
 11 Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, 
 Whose mouth speaketh vanity, 
 
 And their right hand is a right hand of falsehood : 
 
 12 That our sons may be as plants 
 Grown up in their youth ; 
 
 That our daughters may be as corner columns, 
 Cut like those of palaces ; 
 
 13 That our garners may be full, 
 Affording all manner of store : 
 
 That our sheep may bring forth thousands 
 And ten thousands in our pastures. 
 
 14 That our oxen may be strong to labour : 
 That there be no breaking in, nor going out;t 
 That there be no complaining in our streets. 
 
 15 Happy is that people, that is in such a case : 
 
 Yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD. 
 
 PSALM CXLV. 
 
 AN easy-flowing song of praise. It is the effusion of a grateful 
 heart. Verses 1 7 denote the strong impulse of the Psalmist to 
 engage in the praise of the Lord. Verses 8 13 praise the mercy 
 and goodness as well as the glory of the government of God, 
 (v. 14 20,) his mercy to the afflicted and his real children, and 
 to a certain extent to every living thing. Verse 21 reverts to the 
 thought of verses 1, 2. The Jews remark on this psalm, which is 
 indeed tfie "Our Father" of every grateful heart, "that he is a 
 
 * Tholuck renders, " And their oaths are perjuries." 
 
 f Tholuck renders, "That our princes may be established, that there be 
 no breaking in of war, nor going out to war, that there be no shouting in 
 our streets." 
 
488 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 son of the world to come, who is able to pray this psalm three times 
 a day from his heart." 
 
 A PSALM of Praise of David. 
 
 1 1 will extol thee, my God, King; 
 
 And I will bless thy name for ever and ever. 
 
 2 Every day will I bless thee ; 
 
 And I will praise thy name for ever and ever. 
 
 3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; 
 And his greatness is unsearchable. 
 
 4 One generation shall praise thy works to another, 
 And shall declare thy mighty acts. 
 
 5 I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, 
 And of thy wondrous works. 
 
 6 And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts : 
 And I will declare thy greatness. 
 
 7 They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great 
 
 goodness, 
 And shall sing of thy righteousness. 
 
 8 The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion ; 
 Slow to anger, and of great mercy. 
 
 9 The LORD is good to all: 
 
 And his tender mercies are over all his works. 
 
 10 All thy works shall praise thee, LORD ; 
 And thy saints shall bless thee. 
 
 11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, 
 And talk of thy power; 
 
 12 To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, 
 And the glorious majesty of his kingdom. 
 
 13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, 
 
 And thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. 
 
 14 The LORD upholdeth all that fall, 
 
 And raised up all those that be bowed down. 
 
 15 The eyes of all wait upon thee ; 
 
 And thou givest them their meat in due season. 
 
 16 Thou openest thine hand, 
 
 And fillest every living thing with mercy. 
 
 17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways, 
 And holy in all his works. 
 
 18 The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, 
 To all that call upon him in truth. 
 
PSALM CXLV. 489 
 
 19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: 
 He also will hear their cry and will save them. 
 
 20 The LORD preserveth all them that love him: 
 But all the wicked will he destroy. 
 
 21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD : 
 
 And let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever. 
 
 F. 1, 2. The Psalmist, profoundly conscious that the Lord is 
 infinitely worthy to receive the praise of men, states his resolution 
 to praise and extol him, not in a transient manner only, but every 
 day of his life. 
 
 F. 8, 4. Human virtue and greatness have their limits, where 
 spots appear and poverty begins; but the greatness of God is 
 unsearchable and inexpressible. Human glory has its limits even 
 in time (i. e. the present life,) and frequently reaches not to the 
 succeeding generation, but the glory of God endures throughout all 
 generations. 
 
 F. 5 7. The Psalmist resolves to make the majesty of God 
 and his wondrous works which outreach the stretch of human 
 thought, the themes of his songs of praise. He contemplates 
 thereby not only his own gratification (for peace is the blessed con- 
 sequence of praise,) but that of others, and determines to invite 
 them that they might all join in his praise. 
 
 F. 8, 9. It is his desire to testify of the majesty of God, but 
 speaks of his grace y longsuffering, and mercy. (Exod. xxxiv. 6.) 
 The reason is that these are the attributes of God which enable 
 men to make his majesty the object of their praise. Dismantling 
 the majesty of God of its terrors, they render it the object of our 
 rejoicings. The mystery of his goodness can only be revealed to 
 rational beings, i. e. to men, and among these only to such whose 
 eyes are opened, i. e. to the pious. (See ad. Psalm xxxiii. 1.) But 
 his goodness is everywhere manifest, and the spacious folds of his 
 mantle of mercy furnish a hiding-place to every living creature. 
 
 F. 10 12. The minds of the pious perceive the traces of good- 
 ness which the Almighty has stamped on all his creatures; they, 
 therefore, may say, "All thy works shall praise thee, Lord/' 
 Since, however, the mouths of the pious alone can give an audible 
 expression to that praise, the Psalmist immediately adds, that it 
 belongs to the saints of God to testify of his glory among the chil- 
 dren of men. The kingdom of God will be the last on earth, and 
 in this respect, at least, maintain its superiority over the kingdoms 
 of this world, even on the supposition that its glory did not excel 
 in other respects. All the kingdoms of this world are only strug- 
 gling to become like that perfect empire, and shall ultimately be 
 dissolved and perfected in it. 
 
 F. 13 16. The Psalmist having praised goodness and mercy 
 
490 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 as the noblest qualities of the majesty of God, now notices that it 
 is chiefly manifested in the condescension of God to the condition 
 of the afflicted and the humble. This thought expands the range 
 of his vision; he is constrained to admire the condescension of the 
 majestic Kuler, which condescension in his government of the 
 world extends to the meanest and most insignificant of his crea- 
 tures. Men call it natural instinct which prompts all creatures to 
 seek their food, and praise nature for having provided for the 
 several necessities of all. The eye of the Psalmist, however, sees 
 the living God engaged in daily spreading the table for every 
 living creature. As the eyes of children look up to the hands of 
 their parents, so the eyes of every creature look up to the stretched- 
 out hand of God, which has for thousands of years daily distributed 
 innumerable gifts, provided to all their meat in due season, (Ps. 
 civ. 27,) and never grown empty. Men with unmoved hearts speak 
 of all these things as of a work of natural necessity, but the Psalmist 
 sees mercy in them, and this fills his soul with adoration. 
 
 F. 17 20. The earth and everything on it fell within the range 
 of David's vision when he spoke of the goodness of God. Nor did 
 he overlook the fact, that as those that fear the Lord have eyes for 
 beholding his goodness, so do they alone possess open mouths for 
 getting perfectly satisfied with his goodness. (Ps. Ixxxi. 11.) 
 Though the Lord makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, 
 and sends his rain on the just and on the unjust, so that none goes 
 away with empty hands, yet what are the blessings of sunshine and 
 rain when compared with the glorious blessings which the Lord 
 bestows upon them that fear him ? The Church of his saints is the 
 theatre where the marvellous wisdom and love of God are most 
 gloriously revealed. Hence the apostle declares that by these 
 revelations " the manifold wisdom of God becomes known unto the 
 principalities and powers in heavenly places." (Eph. iii. 10.) His 
 mercies are conditional. He reveals himself to those only that call 
 upon him, not only with their lips but with their hearts in sincerity. 
 He grants only "the desires of them that fear him/' for they only 
 ask according to his will, (1 John v. 14,) and subjecting their will 
 to his, pray, " Thy will be done." He saves and preserves them, 
 for though they must often succumb on earth, he will at least 
 "destroy the wicked," (see ad. Ps. civ. 35,) but "deliver them from 
 every evil work, and preserve them unto his heavenly kingdom," 
 (2 Tim. iv. 18,) yea, "their light affliction, which is but for a 
 moment, worketh for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight 
 of glory." (2 Cor. iv. 17.) 
 
 V. 21. The Psalmist will not suffer his mouth to be silent with 
 the praise of so glorious a God, but woe, if not every man will join 
 in that praise for ever and ever ! 
 
PSALM CXLVII. 491 
 
 PSALM CXLVI. 
 
 A TEMPLE psalm. The people resolve not to put their trust in 
 men, however potent they may be, (v. 1 5.) They praise the 
 sceptre of righteousness and mercy with which God, who has created 
 all things, governs the world, and has established his eternal throne 
 in Zion ; the kingdom of God, (v. 6 10.) 
 
 1 T)RAISE ye the LORD. 
 
 JL Praise tfre LORD, my soul. 
 
 2 While I live will I praise the LORD : 
 
 I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. 
 
 3 Put not your trust in princes, 
 
 They are the sons of men, in whom there is no help. 
 
 4 His breath goeth away, he returneth to his earth ; 
 In that very day his thoughts perish. 
 
 5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, 
 Whose hope is in the LORD his God : 
 
 6 Which made heaven, and earth, 
 The sea, and all that therein 2V: 
 
 Which keepeth truth (faithfulness) for ever : 
 
 7 Whicfy executeth judgment for the oppressed : 
 Which giveth food to the hungry. 
 
 The LORD looseth the prisoners : 
 
 8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: 
 The LORD raiseth them that are bowed down : 
 The LORD loveth the righteous : 
 
 9 The LORD preserveth the strangers ; 
 He relieveth the fatherless and widow : 
 
 But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. 
 10 The LORD shall reign for ever, 
 
 Even thy God, Zion, unto all generations. 
 Praise ye the LORD. 
 
 PSALM CXLVII. 
 
 A TEMPLE psalm of the people, composed soon after their return 
 from the captivity, when Jerusalem rose once more from the dust, 
 (v. 2. 13, 14.) 
 
 The Psalmist praises in glowing and sweet strains the mercy of 
 
492 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 God, which is revealed to the humiliated nation and his humble 
 worshippers as the mercy of the Almighty, (v. 1 6.) He cele- 
 brates the paternal love of God to the most helpless of his creatures, 
 and his peculiar delight in the meek, (v. 7 11.) He comforts 
 the rebuilding city with the assurance of Divine aid, praises the 
 universal traces of God's omnipotence in nature, and glories in the 
 thought that the Almighty King has favoured Israel above all the 
 nations of the earth, (v. 12 20.) 
 
 1 T)RAISE ye the LORD : 
 
 _L For it is good to sing praises unto our God;* . 
 For it is pleasant ; such praise is comely. 
 
 2 The LORD doth build up Jerusalem : 
 
 He gathered together the outcasts of Israel. 
 
 3 He healeth the broken in heart, 
 And bindeth up their griefs. 
 
 4 He telleth the number of the stars ; 
 He calleth them all by their names. 
 
 5 Great is our Lord, and of great power : 
 His understanding is infinite. 
 
 6 The LORD lifteth up the meek : 
 
 He casteth the wicked down to the ground. 
 
 7 Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving ; 
 
 Sing praise upon the harp unto our God: * 
 
 8 Who covereth the heaven with clouds, 
 Who prepareth rain for the earth, 
 
 Who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. 
 
 9 He giveth to the beast his food, 
 And to the young ravens which cry. 
 
 10 He delighteth not in the strength of the horse : 
 He taketh not pleasure in the bones of a man. 
 
 11 The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear him, 
 In those that hope in his mercy. 
 
 12 Praise the LORD, Jerusalem ; 
 Praise thy God, Zion. 
 
 13 For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates ; 
 He hath blessed thy children within thee. 
 
 14 He maketh peace in thy borders, 
 
 And filleth thee with the finest of the wheat. 
 
 15 Hesendeth forth his commandment upon earth: 
 His word runneth very swiftly. 
 
 * Or, "For it is a precious thing." 
 
PSALM CXLVII. 493 
 
 16 He giveth snow like wool : 
 
 He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. 
 
 17 He casteth forth his ice (hail) like morsels : 
 Who can stand before his cold? 
 
 18 He sendeth out his word, and melteth them : 
 
 He causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow. 
 
 19 He showeth his word unto Jacob, 
 
 His statutes and his judgments unto Israel. 
 
 20 He hath not dealt so with any nation: 
 
 And as for Adjudgments, they have not known them. 
 Praise ye the LORD. 
 
 F. 1 6. The Psalmist animates himself and others to engage 
 in the praise of the Lord, by the consideration that that exercise 
 is no less beneficial to the heart than it is a comely duty. He 
 expresses his gratitude for the manifest mercies of God, as dis- 
 played in the return of the scattered nation of broken-hearted 
 Israel to their native borders, in the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and 
 the binding up of the wounds of the nation. He only who telleth 
 the infinite host of the stars and calleth them all by their names 
 could have performed such mighty works. The Lord delights 
 especially in uplifting the low and debasing the high. 
 
 F. 7 11. He now praises in lofty strains the condescending 
 goodness of God, who in a wondrous manner prepares the rain in 
 the clouds, so that even the high mountains must yield food to the 
 beasts; who with paternal solicitude is mindful of the young ravens, 
 which, deserted by their own parents,* cry to the Lord of heaven 
 as to their only helper. He chiefly delights in those who, unable 
 to boast of their own strength, fear him and hope in his mercy. 
 
 F. 12 20. The Psalmist now addresses Zion, which is privi- 
 leged to call this God, her God. He bids the inhabitants to look 
 hopefully upon the new but weak beginnings in their land, pro- 
 mising strength to the city, blessings to her inhabitants, peace and 
 prosperity to the land within its borders. He seeks to raise their 
 confidence by again pointing to the irresistible strength of Divine 
 Omnipotence. The words of God become his executing servants 
 on earth. He scatters snow like woolly fleeces, the hoarfrost like 
 ashes, and hail like morsels : he contracts the air into intolerable 
 frost: he commands his wind to blow and all is melted. All these 
 things are great blessings of his goodness and Omnipotence : but 
 the greatest blessing of Israel is that they have a God who in his 
 condescending love has given them a clear revelation of his -will, 
 so that they need no longer ask, Who shall go up to heaven, who 
 
 * This has given rise to the German idiom of "raven father" and "raven 
 mother," as descriptive of unnatural or cruel parents. 
 42 
 
494 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 shall go over the sea and bring unto us the word of God ? The 
 word is now nigh unto them, in their mouths and in their hearts, 
 that they may do it. (Deut. xxx. 12 14.) 
 
 PSALM CXLVIIL 
 
 PSALMS cxlviii. and cl. seem to be placed at the conclusion of the 
 Psalter, as if it were intended that their perpetually recurring, 
 " Praise ye," should form a many- voiced echo of the praise which 
 fills every preceding psalm. Everything is invited to praise : 
 nothing is too high, nothing too low. The Psalmist begins (v. 1) 
 with the loftiest heights, descends (v. 7) to the lowest depths, 
 addresses the elements and kingdoms of nature, reascends to man, 
 addressing every rank and order of society, and finally turns to that 
 people which is the priesthood among men, as man is the priest 
 among the creatures on earth; The song of the youths in the fiery 
 furnace seems to be an echo of this psalm. 
 
 1 pRAISE ye the LORD. 
 
 JL Praise ye the LORD from the heavens : 
 Praise him in the heights. 
 
 2 Praise ye him, all his angels : 
 Praise ye him, all his hosts. 
 
 3 Praise ye him, sun and moon : 
 Praise him, all ye stars of light. 
 
 4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, 
 
 And ye waters that be above the heavens. 
 
 5 Let them praise the name of the LORD : 
 For he commanded and they were created. 
 
 6 He hath also stablished them for ever and ever : 
 He hath made a decree which they shall not pass. 
 
 7 Praise the LORD from the earth, 
 Ye dragons,* and all deeps: 
 
 8 Fire, and hail ; snow, and vapours ; 
 Stormy wind fulfilling his word : 
 
 9 Mountains, and all hills: 
 Fruitful trees, and all cedars: 
 
 10 Beasts, and all cattle; 
 
 Creeping things, and winged birds : 
 
 * Or, "Ye sea-monsters." 
 
PSALM CXLIX. 495 
 
 11 Kings of the earth, and all people ; 
 Princes, and all judges of the earth : 
 
 12 Both young men, and maidens ; 
 Old men, and children: 
 
 13 Let them praise the name of the LORD : 
 For his name alone is exalted. 
 
 His glory is above the earth and heaven. 
 
 14 He also exalteth the horn of his people, 
 The praise of all his saints ; 
 
 JEven of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. 
 Praise ye the LORD. 
 
 F. 1 6. The Psalmist begins with the heavens above : with 
 the twofold hosts of the Lord, the armies of his angels and the 
 shining planets and stars without number. They are placed in 
 different regions of the heavens (for God is enthroned high above 
 the lower heavens, Psalm civ. 3,) and he therefore addresses all the 
 heavens, and then the clouds which move along the skies. It has 
 been stated already (Ps. cxlv. 10) how these appeals to inanimate 
 creation are to be understood. Though every creature is full of the 
 praise of God, yet it belongs to man alone to give an audible expres- 
 sion to their praise. The Psalmist indicates that the unchangeable 
 laws and decrees according to which those countless worlds pursue 
 their course, denote the object of their praises. 
 
 F. 7 14. Wisdom and Omnipotence, worthy to be praised, 
 are also scattered over the earth, and the depths of the sea abound 
 with them. The phenomena of nature are his messengers: the 
 animal and vegetable kingdoms down to their lowest stages bear 
 the impress of the goodness and Omnipotence of God, and are 
 therefore a song of praise on his glorious attributes. But man is 
 chiefly invited to praise the Lord. It devolves upon him, as the 
 priest of nature, above every other creature: every rank, every age, 
 and every generation, have abundant cause for engaging in this 
 praise. As man is peculiarly blessed as the race of priests in the 
 midst of inanimate creation, so is Israel peculiarly blessed as the 
 race of priests among men. * 
 
 PSALM CXLIX. 
 
 WHILE Psalms cxlviii. and cl. invite all beings to praise, Psalms 
 cxlvii. and cxlix. address the newly established community at Jeru- 
 salem. They are invited to praise the Lord for his past goodness 
 
496 COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS. 
 
 towards them, (v. 15,) and new victories are promised to them, 
 (v. 6-9.) 
 
 1 T)EAISE ye the LORD. 
 
 JT Sing unto the LORD a new song, 
 
 And his praise in the congregation of saints. 
 
 2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: 
 
 Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. 
 
 3 Let them praise his name in the dance : 
 
 Let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. 
 
 4 For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people : 
 He will beautify the meek with salvation.* 
 
 5 Let the saints be joyful in glory: 
 Let them sing aloud upon their beds. 
 
 6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, f 
 And a two-edged sword in their hand : 
 
 7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen, 
 And punishments upon the people ; 
 
 8 To bind their kings with chains, 
 And their nobles with fetters of iron ; 
 
 9 To execute upon them the judgment written : 
 This honour have all his saints. 
 
 Praise ye the LORD. 
 
 V. 1 5. The Psalmist invites the people to recommence the 
 praise of the Lord as it were with new courage and a new tongue. 
 (Psalms xl. 4; Ixxxix. 2.) All men belong to God, for he made 
 them : but Israel is doubly his, and in a twofold sense the work of 
 his hands. (See ad. Psalm xcv. 6.) Israel therefore shall sing 
 praises to him, which accompanied by the manifold sound of festive 
 instruments are to sink the more deeply into their hearts. He 
 delivered his people from great misery : let all that belong to that 
 people sing his praises in the festive assemblies, as well as on their 
 lonely beds. 
 
 V. 6 9. Their mouth was full of 'praise on account of their 
 past deliverance: but hostile nations rose up once more against 
 them. (Neh. iv. 7.) They now took comfort from the promises 
 of the prophets, (Isaiah xlii. 10 13,) and indulged in the hope 
 that they should ultimately triumph over all their adversaries, and 
 treat them as the idolatrous nations of Canaan were treated by the 
 command of God. (Cf. Neh. xiii. 1 3.) These promises have a 
 spiritual meaning, (cf. ad. Psalms ii. and ex.) so Zechariah pre- 
 
 * Or, "He gloriously helpeth the wretched." 
 f Or, "Let their mouth exalt the Lord," 
 
PSALM CL. 497 
 
 diets that there shall be no more the Canaanites in the house of 
 the Lord of hosts, (Zech. xiv. 21;) but the less spiritually inclined 
 people thought more of victories to be achieved with drawn swords 
 in campaigns, such as the crusaders undertook against the oppres- 
 sors of the holy land: "With psalms in their mouths, but the 
 whetted sword in their hands/' 
 
 PSALM CL. 
 
 THIS psalm, like Psalm cxlviii. opens with an invitation of praise 
 addressed to the hosts of spirits in the heavens, depicts the jubi- 
 lant joy of the many instruments in the sanctuary, and ends with 
 the all-embracing invitations into which the entire Psalter resolves 
 itself "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Hal- 
 lelujah." 
 
 1 T)RAISE ye the LORD. 
 
 JL Praise God in his sanctuary : 
 Praise him in the firmament of his power. 
 
 2 Praise him in his mighty acts : 
 
 Praise him according to his excellent greatness. 
 
 3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet : 
 Praise him with the psaltery and harp. 
 
 4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance : 
 
 Praise him with stringed instruments and organs. 
 
 5 Praise him with the loud cymbals : 
 
 Praise him with the high sounding cymbals. 
 
 6 Let everything that hath breath praise the LORD. 
 Praise ye the LORD. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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