FOREIGN
THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY
VOLUME
I.
HENGSTENBERG'S
COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS.
T.& T. CLARK, 38,
MDCCCLXIX.
Digitized by Ted Hildebrandt at
Spring, 2007
COMMENTARY
ON
THE PSALMS,
BY
E. W.
HENGSTENBERG,
DOCTOR AND PROFESSOR OF
THEOLOGY IN
FOURTH EDITION, CAREFULLY
REVISED.
T. & T. CLARK, 38,
1869.
THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM FIRST.
THE
Psalmist begins by extolling the blessedness of the right-
eous,
who is first described negatively, as turning away from the
counsels
of the wicked, ver. 1, and then positively, as having his
thoughts
engrossed with the Divine law, ver. 2. He proceeds
next
to delineate under a pleasant image the prosperity which
attends
him in all his ways, and places in contrast to this, the
destruction
which is the inseparable concomitant of the wicked,
vers.
3, 4. He grounds upon these eternal principles the confi-
dence,
that God will take out of the way whatever, in the course
of
events, appears to be at variance with them; that by His judg-
ment
He will overthrow the wicked, through whose malice the
righteous
suffer, and free His Church, which must consist only
of
the righteous, from their corrupting leaven; and, as it was
declared,
in vers. 3 and 4, that the Lord interests Himself in the
righteous,
and hence could not leave them helpless, while de-
struction
is the fate of the wicked, the former must in conse-
quence
be exalted above the latter, vers. 5, 6.
According to this order, which alone
secures to the "there-
fore"
at the beginning of ver. 5, and the "for" in ver. 6, their
proper
meaning, the Psalm falls into three strophes, each con-
sisting
of two verses.
The Psalm is primarily of an
admonitory character. What
it
says of the prosperity which attends the righteous, and the
perdition
which befalls the wicked, cannot but incite to imitate
the
one, and shun the other. In reference to this Luther re-
marks:
"It is the practice of all men to inquire after blessed-
ness;
and there is no man on earth who does not wish that it
1
2 THE BOOK OF
PSALMS.
might
go well with him, and would not feel sorrow if it went ill
with
him. But he, who speaks in this Psalm with a voice from
heaven,
beats down and condemns everything which the thoughts
of
men might excogitate and devise, and brings forth the only
true
description of blessedness, of which the whole world knows
nothing,
declaring that he only is blessed and prosperous whose
love
and desire are directed to the law of the Lord. This is a
short
description, one too that goes against all sense and reason,
especially
against the reason of the worldly-wise and the high-
minded.
As if he had said: Why are ye so busy seeking counsel?
why
are ye ever in vain devising unprofitable things? There is
only
one precious pearl; and he has found it, whose love and
desire
is toward the law of the Lord, and who separates him-
self
from the ungodly—all succeeds well with him. But who-
soever
does not find this pearl, though he should seek with ever
so
much pains and labour the way to blessedness, he shall never
find
it."
The Psalm has, besides, a
consolatory character, which comes
clearly
out in the last strophe; for it must tend to enliven the
hope
of the righteous in the grace of God, and fill them with
confidence,
that everything which now appears contrary to their
hope,
shall come to an end; that the judgment of God shall
remove
the stumbling-blocks cast in their way by the temporal
prosperity
of the wicked, and the troubles thence accruing to
them.
The truth contained in this Psalm is
as applicable to the
Church
of the New Testament as to that of the Old. It remains
perpetually
true, that sin is the destruction of any people, and
that
salvation is the inseparable attendant of righteousness.
Whatever,
in the course of things, seems to run counter to this,
will
be obviated by the remark, that a righteous man, as the
author
delineates him,—one whose desire is undividedly fixed
upon
the law of God, and to whom it is "his thought by day
and
his dream by night,"—is not to be found among the children
of
men. Just because salvation is inseparably connected with
righteousness,
an absolute fulfilment of the promise of the Psalm
cannot
be expected. For even when the innermost bent of the
mind
is stedfastly set upon righteousness, there still exist so
many
weaknesses and sins, that sufferings of various kinds
are
necessary, not less as deserved punishments, than as the
means
of improvement, which, so far from subverting the
PSALM
I. 3
principles
here laid down, serve to confirm them. The senti-
ment,
that "everything he does, prospers," which is literally
true
of the righteous, in so far as he is such, passes, in conse-
quence
of the imperfect nature of our righteousness, which alone
can
be charged with our loss of the reward that is promised to
the
perfect, into the still richly consolatory truth, that "all
things
work together for good to them who love God." Those
who
are blinded by Pelagianism, who know not the limited na-
ture
of human righteousness, and consequently want the only
key
to the mystery of the cross, do apprehend the truth of the
main
idea of the Psalm, but at the same time escape from it only
by
surrendering themselves to a crude Dualism. It is unques-
tionable,
say they, that the internal blessedness of life has no
other
ground than genuine piety; but as for outward things,
"which
depend upon natural influences, the relations and acci-
dents
of life, and the violent movements of the populace," one
can
make no lofty pretensions to them. Who can but feel that
natural
influences and such like things are here placed in com-
plete
independence of God, are virtually raised to the condition
of
a second God, and that we are at once translated from a
Christian
into a heathen sphere, in which latter, accident, fate,
Typhon,
Achriman, play a distinguished part, and all on the
same
ground, to wit, the want of that knowledge of sin, which
peculiarly
belongs to revelation? Such masters must not take
it
upon them to instruct the Psalmist, but must learn of him.
Whoever
really believes in one true God, the Creator, Preserver,
and
Governor of the world, cannot but accord with the doctrine
of
the Psalmist. It is impossible to disparage in the least the
doctrine
of recompense, without trenching closely upon the truth
of
one God. Internal good, as the
perfect, is contrasted with
external, as the imperfect. But
where, in reality, is the man,
who
enjoys complete inward blessedness—who, even though
labouring
under the greatest delusion regarding his state, can
spend
so much as one day in perfect satisfaction with himself?
Besides,
is it not natural, that the external should go hand in
hand
with the internal? And have we any reason, on account
of
the troubles which befall us, to doubt the omnipotence and
righteousness
of God, and the truth of that doctrine of Scrip-
ture,
which pervades both economies, and appears in every book
from
Genesis to Revelation, that God will recompense to every
one
according to his works? Instead of running into such
4 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
mournful
aberrations, it behoves every one, when he reads what
the
Psalmist says of the righteous—"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"—and finds that his own condition pre-
sents
a melancholy contrast to what is here described, to turn
back
his eye upon the first and second verses, and inquire
whether
that which is there affirmed of the righteous will apply
to
him; and if he finds it to be otherwise, then should he smite
upon
his breast, and cry, "God be merciful to me a sinner,"
and
thereafter strive with all earnestness to realize the pattern
there
delineated, by employing the means which God has ap-
pointed
for the purpose.
The subject of the Psalm is, as
might be judged from the
previous
remarks, quite general, and it is an error in several
expositors
to refer it to particular times and persons. There is
great
probability in the opinion of those, who suppose with
Calvin,
that this Psalm, originally occupying another position,
was
placed by the collector of the Psalms, as an introduction to
the
whole. Basilius calls it a "short preface" to the Psalms; and
that
this view is of great antiquity, may be gathered from Acts
xiii.
33, where Paul, according to the reading agreed upon by the
most
approved critics (Erasmus, Mill, Bengel, Griesbach, etc.),
quotes
as the first Psalm that which, in our collection, occupies
the
second place. If the first was considered only as a sort of
introductory
preface, the numbering would begin with the one
following,
as, indeed, is the case in some manuscripts. The
matter
of the Psalm is admirably suited to this application of
it.
"The collector of these songs," says Amyrald, "seems to
have
carefully placed before the eye of his readers, at the very
threshold,
the aim at which the actions of men should, as so
many
arrows, be directed." The position of the Psalm at the
beginning
appears peculiarly suitable, if, along with its admoni-
tory
tendency, the consolatory is also brought prominently out.
In
the latter respect, it may be regarded as in fact a short corn-
pend
of the main subject of the Psalms. That God has ap-
pointed
salvation to the righteous, perdition to the wicked—this
is
the great truth, with which the sacred bards grapple amid
whatever
painful experiences of life apparently indicate the re-
verse.
The supposition is also favoured, or rather seems to be
demanded,
by the circumstance, that the Psalm has no super-
PSALM I. 5
scription.
As from Psalm third a long series of Psalms follows,
with
titles ascribing them to David, it cannot be doubted that
the
collectors intended to open the collection therewith. So that
there
must have been a particular reason for making our Psalm
an
exception from the general rule, and it is scarcely possible
to
imagine any other than the one already mentioned.
It is justly remarked, however, by
Koester, that the suppo-
sition
in question by no means requires us to hold that the
Psalm
is a late production, and probably composed by the col-
lector
himself. The simplicity and freshness which characterize
it
are against this. That it must have been composed, at any
rate,
before Jeremiah, is evident from his imitation of it. A
more
determinate conclusion regarding the time of its composi-
tion,
can only, since the Psalm itself furnishes no data, be de-
rived
from ascertaining its relation to Psalm second.
It has often been maintained, that
the two Psalms form but
one
whole,1 and this opinion has exercised considerable influence
upon
various manuscripts (De Rossi mentions seven, and even
Origen
in his Hexapla by Montfaucon, p. 475, speaks of having
seen
one in his day). But this view is obviously untenable.
Each
of the Psalms forms a separate and complete whole by
itself.
Still, several appearances present themselves, which cer-
tainly
point to a close relation between the two. First of all,
there
is the remarkable circumstance, that Psalm second stands
in
this place, at the head of a collection, to which, properly, only
such
Psalms belonged as bore the name of David in their super-
scription.
We can hardly explain this by any other reason than
its
inseparable connection with the first Psalm, which being
placed,
for the reason above given, at the commencement, re-
quired
the second to follow immediately after. There is, further,
a
certain outward resemblance between them: the number of
verses
in Psalm second is precisely the double of those in the
first;
and in both Psalms there is a marked and singularly
regular
construction of strophes, the first Psalm falling into
three
strophes of two verses, and the second into four strophes
of
three. In regard to the subject, the first is admirably fitted
to
be an introduction to the second, for which it lays a general
foundation.
What is said in the first Psalm generally,
of the
different
taste and destiny of the righteous and the wicked, the
1 See the opinions of the Jews and
the Fathers in Wetstein, on Acts
xiii.
33.
6 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
second
repeats with a special application to the Messiah and His
adversaries.
The first Psalm closed with the announcement of
judgment
against the wicked, and at that point the second
begins.
On the other hand, the latter Psalm concludes with a
benediction,
as the former had commenced with it—compare
"blessed
is the man," with "blessed are all they that put their
trust
in Him." The expression in Psalm ii. 12, "Ye shall perish
in
your way," remarkably coincides with that in Psalm i. 6,
"The
way of the ungodly shall perish." Finally, the words,
"The
nations meditate vain things" in Psalm second, acquire
additional
force, if viewed as a contrast to the meditation of the
righteous
on the law of the Lord, mentioned in the first Psalm.
These circumstances are by no means
satisfactorily ex-
plained
and accounted for, on the supposition that the collector
had
joined the second Psalm to the first, from certain points of
connection
happening to exist between them; and nothing
remains
for us but the conclusion, that both Psalms were com-
posed
by the same author, and were meant by him as different
parts
of one whole. This conclusion may be the more readily
embraced,
as we have elsewhere undoubted specimens of such
pairs
of Psalms (as Psalm ix. and x, xiv. and xv, xlii.
and xliii.),
and
as similar things are not awanting in Christian poets, for
example,
Richter's two poems, "It is not difficult to be a Chris-
tian,"
and "It is hard to be a Christian."
Now, as there are important grounds
for ascribing the
second
Psalm to David, we should be entitled to regard him as
the
author also of the first; nor can any solid objection be
urged
against this conclusion. In its noble simplicity, its quiet
but
still extremely spirited character, it presents a close resem-
blance
to other Psalms, of which David was unquestionably the
penman,
and in particular to the xv. xxiii. viii. Psalms.
Ver. I. Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the
ungodly, and stands not
in the way of sinners, and sits not in the
seat of the scornful. That the righteous
should first be de-
scribed
negatively, has its ground in the proneness of human
nature
to what is evil. From the same ground arises the pre-
dominantly
negative form of the decalogue. As there the
thought
of something, to which our corrupt heart is inclined,
is
everywhere forced on our notice, so also is it here. hcf never
signifies
what Stier and Hitzig here understand by it, disposi-
tion, spirit, but always counsel,
as in Job xxi. 16, xxii. 18.
PSALM
"The
counsel of a man" signifies, in some passages, the counsel
given
by him; for the most part, however, it is the counsel
which
he adopts himself—his plans and resolutions. This lat-
ter
is invariably the meaning of the expression, "to walk in
any
one's counsel," which uniformly means, "to adopt his
plans,
to share the same designs,"—comp. 2 Chron. xxii. 5,
where
"walked after their counsel," corresponds to, "he walked
in
the ways of the house of Ahab," ver. 3, and "he did evil in
the
sight of the Lord like the house of Ahab," ver. 4; only with
this
distinction, indicated by the "also" in ver. 5, and the clause
following,
"and went with Jehoram the son of Ahab to war,"
that
while there a general agreement in thought and action is
spoken
of, here it is referred to particular plans and undertak-.
ings.
In Micah vi. 16, to "walk in one's counsels," is taken
as
parallel with "observing one's statutes and doing one's
works."
In Psalm lxxxi. 12, "they walked in their own coun-
sels,"
means, they walked in the counsels they themselves took,
in
the plans they themselves devised. Consequently, the expo-
sition
of Gesenius and others, who render the first clause of our
Psalm:
"who lives not according to the counsels of the un-
godly,"
must be abandoned, and this the rather, that in what
follows,
the discourse is not of a dependence upon the influence
of
the wicked, but of one's personally belonging to them. To
walk
in the counsel of the wicked, is to occupy oneself with
their
purposes, their worthless projects.
Olshausen, in his emendations on the
Old Testament, would
read
tdf
for tcf,
"in the company or band of the ungodly."
He
appeals to the strong parallelism, which the author of this
Psalm
employs, and, indeed, pre-eminently in this first verse.
The
parallels here fall into three members: who walks not,
stands
not, sits not. In each member there is a preterite, as
predicate,
with the preposition b following it, a noun as its com-
plement,
and a completely appropriate dependent genitive.
Two
of the nouns which serve to limit the preposition, to wit,
way and seat, may be local designations, as then
they would
most
fitly accord with the sense of the particular verbs. In the
first
noun alone, no such local designation is to be found.
Rightly
viewed, the word tcf has of course this meaning. The
proposed
change is certainly needed to make out this significa-
tion.
For the counsel undoubtedly refers to
the spiritual by-
way,
into which he wanders, who follows it. But the second
8 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
term,
the way of sinners, must also be
spiritually understood.
To
speak of standing in their way can only refer to their man-
ner
of acting,—to follow with them the same moral paths, or
to
act like them. bwvm, "the seat,"
is the only term that im-
plies
an external locality. The difference is, however, of little
moment,
since here also the outward companionship comes into
view,
only as the result of an internal agreement. If we ex-
amine
the matter more closely, it will be found that the altera-
tion
proposed is not only quite unnecessary, but also unsuitable.
For
tdf,
is excluded on the very ground which Olshausen
presses
against tcf.
According to the analogy of jrdb and
bwvmb, the preposition b must admit of being
rendered by on;
it
must designate the sphere in which the conduct is exhibited.
Now,
the expression: "on the counsel," is quite suitable; but
the
expression: "on the company,"
is senseless.
According to the common acceptation,
bwvm
must mean here,
not
"seat," but "session." Of the few passages, however, which
are
brought forward in support of this meaning, Psalm cvii. 32,
so
far from requiring, does not even admit of it. If the transla-
tion
be adopted: "in the session (assembly) of the elders they
shall
praise Him," we must decide on adopting the perfectly
groundless
supposition, that the elders had instituted separate
meetings
for the praise of God, apart from the rest of the
people.
None but general religious assemblies
are known in
history.
If it be rendered: "upon the seat, or the bench of
the
elders," then everything will be in order; "they shall
extol
Him in the congregation of the people, and praise Him
on
the bench of the elders," namely, first the whole, and then
the
most distinguished part thereof. The only meaning which
is
certain, is here also quite suitable. To sit in the seat of
the
scorners, is, in other words, to sit as scorners, just as, in the
preceding
clauses, the discourse was of such as stood, not beside
sinners,
but among them, who not merely follow, but also cherish
for
themselves the counsels of ungodly men. Luther has given
the
meaning correctly: "nor sits where the scorners sit." It
is,
perhaps, not an accidental thing, that the attitude of sitting
is
distinctively ascribed to the scorners. A mocking disposition
unfolds
itself chiefly in the company of those who are like-
minded,
who are inflamed with wine and intoxicating drink,
which
we elsewhere find mentioned in connection with mockers,
—as
in Isa. v. and Prov. xx. 1, where wine itself is called a
PSALM
mocker.
So, in reference to social meetings, the act of sitting
is
frequently alluded to; for example, in Jer. xv. 17, "I sat
not
in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced;" in Psalm
1.
20, "Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother, thou slan-
derest
thine own mother's son;" Psalm lxix. 12, "They that sit
in
the gate speak against me, and I am the song of the drunk-
ards."
It is proper to add, however, that in Psalm xxvi. 4, 5,
sitting
is attributed to men of deceit, and evil-doers.
Cle (scorner), marks one
"who scoffs at God, His law and
ordinances,
His judgment and His people. In Prov. ix. 7, 8,
the
scorner is placed in opposition to the wise, whose heart is
filled
with holy reverence toward God and Divine things. In
opposition
to De Wette, who would here exclude the strictly
religious
scoffers, we can point to such passages as Isa. v. 19,
"They
say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we
may
see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw
nigh
and come, that we may know it;" Jer. xvii. 15, "Behold,
they
say unto me, Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come
now,"—where
the words of such scoffers are expressly given.
Religious
mockery is as old as the Fall. The admonition in
2
Peter iii. 3, regarding scoffers, as appears to me, has some re-
spect
to the passage before us.
Men have often sought to discover a
climax in the verse.
But
there is no foundation for this, either in the nouns or in
the
verbs. In reference to the former, it was already remarked
by
Venema, that "they distinguish men as exhibiting different
appearances,
rather than different grades of sin." The fwr,
from
fwr,
denotes in Arabic, magna cupiditate et concupiscentia
fuit,
and in Syriac, perturbatus es animo; hence it properly
signifies
"the passionate, the restless man" (Isa. lvii. 20, "The
wicked
are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest"); it is de-
scriptive
of the wicked, in respect to their internal state, their
violent
commotions within, the disquietude, springing from sin-
ful
desires, which constantly impels them to fresh misdeeds.
The
word MyxFH,
"sinners," designates the same persons in re-
spect
to the lengthened series of sinful acts which proceed from
them.
Finally, the word Mycl, "scornful," brings into view a
peculiarly
venomous operation and fruit of evil. But in the
verbs
we can the less conceive of a climactic gradation being
intended,
as Stier's assumption, that the middle verb dmf signi-
fies
not, to stand, but to continue, to persevere, destroys the
10 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
evidently
intentioned combination of the three bodily states of
waking
men. The verse simply declares in the most expressive
manner
possible, the absence of all fellowship with sin.
Ver. 2. The fellowship with
unrighteousness, which the
godly
man zealously shuns, is here placed in opposition to God
and
His law, which he zealously seeks. But
his delight is in the
law of the Lord, and in
His law he meditates day and night.
hrvt never has the general signification often
ascribed to it here
by
expositors—doctrine; but always the
more special sense of
law. That this is the
import here, is perfectly obvious from
a
comparison of the parallel passages, which show also, that the
law
meant here, is that, written, according to Psalm xl. 8, in
the
volume of the book or roll, called the law of Moses, which
is
always to be understood wherever the law is spoken of in the
Psalms.
The writer does not mean the natural
law spoken of
in
Isaiah xxiv. 5, and throughout the entire book of Job, and
which,
being darkened and disfigured by sin, could be but little
regarded
and seldom mentioned by those who walk in the clear
light
of revelation. These parallel passages are, Deut. vi. 6, 7,
where
Moses says to the people: "And these words, which I
command
thee this day, shall be in thine heart. And thou shalt
teach
them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them,"
etc.
(xi. 18 ff.); and Joshua i. 8, where the angel says to him:
"This
book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but
thou
shalt meditate therein clay and night, that thou mayest
observe
to do according to all that is written therein: for then
thou
shalt make thy way prosperous." This last manifestly
stands
in a very near relation to ours, not merely from the
meditation
spoken of, but also from the prosperity connected
with
it. Just as what the angel speaks to Joshua rests on the
ground
of those passages of the Pentateuch, and points to it
(comp.
also Deut. xvii. 19, which contains a like word of ex-
hortation
to the future king of
Psalm
points to the exhortation addressed to Joshua, who stood
forth
there as a worthy type of the fulfilment of what is here
required,
and in whose experience, the reward here promised
found
a sure guarantee for its realization. How De Wette
could
think that the love and study of the law being enjoined,
is
a proof of the later production of the Psalm, can scarcely be
imagined,
since a profound investigation into the nature of the
law,
the converting of it into juice and blood, might be proved
PSALM
by
many passages to have been even held by believers of the
Old
Testament, to be the highest end of their life. How much
David
fulfilled this condition, how intimate a knowledge he had
of
the law, even in its smallest particulars, and how constantly
it
formed the centre of his thoughts and feelings, the delight of
his
heart, will be placed beyond all doubt, by this exposition.
Indeed,
the fifteenth Psalm, which the dullest critic must ascribe
to
David, may serve, notwithstanding its limited compass, for
ample
proof; for it contains close and continued verbal re-
ferences
to the Pentateuch. Comp. also Psalm xix. Besides,
what
is here meant, is not that habit of speculating and laborious
trifling
upon the law which was quite foreign to the practical
turn
of the Old Testament saints, but a meditation referring
directly
to the walk and conduct. This follows, as is well re-
marked
by Claus, from the whole context, which is throughout
practical.
The subject in ver. 1 is, " fellowship with sin:" in
vers.
3-6, "the different portions of the righteous and the wicked."
How,
in such a connection, could ver. 2 refer to the theoretical
study
of the law, and not rather to the occupation of the heart
with
the subject and matter of the Divine Word? To this re-
sult
we are led also by a comparison of the parallel passages,
in
which the reading and meditating are expressly mentioned
as
means to the keeping and doing. Luther remarks on the
words,
"His delight is the law of the Lord:" "The prophet
does
not speak here of such an inclination, or liking as philo-
sophers
and modern theologians talk of, but of a simple and pure
pleasure
of heart, and a particular desire toward the law of
God,
which possesses him whom this Psalm pronounces blessed,
and
who neither seeks what the law promises, nor fears what it
threatens,
but feels that the law itself is a holy, righteous, and
good
thing. Therefore, it is not merely a love for the law, but
such
a sweet pleasure and delight in it, as the world and its
princes
can neither prevent nor take away by prosperous or
adverse
circumstances, nay, which shines triumphantly forth
through
poverty, reproach, the cross, death, and hell; for such
desire
shows itself the most in necessities and distresses, in ad-
versity
and persecution. Now from all this it seems manifest,
that
this Psalm (unless it should be understood of Christ alone)
is
nothing else than a mirror and goal, toward which a truly
pious
and blessed man must strive and labour; for in this life
there
is no one, who is not conscious of lacking to some extent
12 THE BOOK OP PSALMS.
this
delight in the law of the Lord, by reason of the lust and the
law in his members, which
decidedly and wholly oppose this
law
of God; as
I
delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see
another
law in my members, warring against the law of my
mind,
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is
in
my members."
It is a great thing, therefore, to
have one's delight in the
law
of the Lord. The natural man, even when the conscious-
ness
of the holiness of the law is awakened in him, and he
anxiously
strives to satisfy it, never gets beyond the region of
fear.
Even the regenerate, although delight in the law pre-
dominates
in them, yet have constantly to struggle with their
sinful
propensities. Perfect delight in the law presupposes a
perfect
union of the human with the Divine will, perfect ex-
tirpation
of sin—for the measure of sin is the measure of dis-
like
to the law—perfect holiness. And since this is not to be
found
in the present life, what man can complain if he does not
experience
a perfect fulfilment of the saying, "Everything he
doeth
prospers?" Christ alone, who was the only righteous
one
on earth, could have laid claim to such a fulfilment: He,
however,
freely renounced it and bore the cross, when He might.
well
have sought to rejoice. Those who are compelled to suffer,
receive
a testimony that they are sinful; and the fact, that none
experience
uniform prosperity, is a declaration on the part of
God,
that there is sin still dwelling even in His saints.
On the "day and night," J.
H. Michaelis remarks: "Inde-
fesso
studio, ut cessante etiam actu, nunquam tamen cesset pins
affectus."
Instead of meditating, Luther has
speaking; but he
remarks
at the same time that "the speaking here meant, is
not
the mere utterance of the lips, which even hypocrites are
capable
of, but such speaking as labours to express in words the
feelings
of the heart." The construction with b, however (yet,
compare
rbd
with b in
Dent. vi. 7), and especially the mention
of
night, recommends the first
signification. Such meditation
day
and night, he only practises who, as Luther puts it, "has,
through
desire, become one cake with the word of God; as,
indeed,
love is used to reduce him who loves, and that which
is
loved, to one substance."—The construction of the hgh
with
b, implies, that the person who meditates, loses
himself in his
object.
PSALM
Ver. 3. And he is like a tree planted by the rivers of water,
that brings fort -his
fruit in his season, and whose leaf does not
wither, and whatsoever
he does he prosperously executes. The v,
and, is not to be
translated for. For the verse does
not contain
the
reason, but the carrying out of the yrwx. The meaning
was
perceived quite correctly by Luther: "After the prophet
has
described, in vers. 1 and 2, the man who is blessed before
God,
and painted him in proper colours, he goes on here to de-
scribe
him still further, by means of a very beautiful image."
lf, by,
properly upon. A thing is said to be
upon one, if it
projects
over, or generally rises higher. Hence this preposi-
tion,
which in common use is rendered by,
beside, when the
discourse
is of a lower object, in juxtaposition with a higher,
is
very frequently employed in reference to streams, springs,
and
seas.—The comparison of a prosperous man to a tree
planted
beside a river, which is peculiarly appropriate in the
arid
regions of the East, occurs also in Jer. xvii. 8. There,
however,
it is only the imitation and further extension of our
passage.1
Nothing but the greatest prejudice could have in-
verted
the relation of these two passages to each other. The
sentence
in Jeremiah has all the appearance of a commentary
or
paraphrase. In Psalm xcii. 12, "The righteous shall flourish
like
the palm tree," the particular is put instead of the general.
With
the expression "in his season," compare that in Mark
xi.
13, "for it was not the time of figs." Most of the older ex-
positors
refer the words, "bringeth forth his fruit," of good
works;
but the connection shows, that fruitfulness here is con-
sidered
merely as a sign of joyful prosperity. The figure was
embodied
in an appropriate symbolical transaction by Christ,
when
He cursed the fig tree. Because the Jewish people did
not
answer the conditions laid down in vers. 1 and 2, they could
no
longer be as a tree yielding its fruit in its season: to the
tree,
therefore, by which the nation was represented, the evil
word
was spoken, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward
for
ever," Matt. xxi. 19. In the words: "Whatsoever he doeth
he
successfully accomplisheth," the author returns from the
image
to the object, explaining the former. The word Hylch is
to
be taken here, not as many expositors do, in an intransitive
sense,
for then we should have expected vl, but transitively, to
1 See Küper Jerem. libr. sacr.
interp. p. 162.
14 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
accomplish successfully; so generally; see, for
example, 2 Chron.
vii.
11. The intransitive signification, when more closely con-
sidered,
does not occur even in the single
passage which Winer
has
referred to as an example of it, Judges xviii. 5. The hiphil
everywhere
retains its own meaning. There appears to be an
allusion
to Gen. xxxix. 3, 4, where the same expressions are
used
of Joseph, whose prosperous condition was a pledge of like
prosperity
to those who resemble him in disposition.
Ver. 4. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff, which
the wind drives away. Luther: "When
Scripture speaks of
the
ungodly, take heed not to fancy, as the ungodly are prone to
do,
that it refers to Jews and heathens, or to any other persons
whatever,
but do thou thyself shudder before this word, as re-
specting
and concerning also thee. For an upright and godly
man
fears and trembles before every word of God." For the
understanding
of the figure, to which John the Baptist makes
reference
in Matt. iii. 12, as also to that of the tree in ver. 10
(which
occurs moreover in Job xxi. 18), we may remark, that,
in
the East, the threshing-floors are placed upon heights. They
throw
aloft the corn that has been threshed, until the wind has
driven
the chaff away.
Ver. 5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment.
The
Nk lf,
therefore, occasions great difficulty
to those who fail in
perceiving
aright the relation between vers. 5, 6, and 3, 4. Some,
as
Claus, have been led thereby to adopt instead, the meaning,
because, which the phrase in
the original is alleged frequently
to
have. That the ungodly stand not in the judgment, they
consider
to be the reason why, according to ver. 4, they fly away
as
the chaff. But it has already been proved by Winer, what
is
indeed self-evident, that Nk lf never bears this
meaning, which
is
precisely the reverse of its usual one; that it always indicates
the
consequence, never the cause. Those who adopt the common
signification,
cannot properly explain how that should be here
described
as a consequence flowing from the statement in the
preceding
verse, which appears to be simply co-ordinate with it.
Amyrald
alone, of all expositors, seems to have got upon the right
track,
and thus paraphrases: "But although the providence of
God,
whose ways are sometimes unsearchable, does not always
make
so remarkable a distinction between those two kinds of
men,
still the future life (he erroneously understands by the judg-
ment,
only the final judgment) shall so
distinguish them, that
PSALM
no
one shall any longer be able to doubt who they are that fol-
lowed
the path of true prosperity." In vers. 3 and 4, the idea
expressed
was one which holds for all times in respect to the lots
of
the righteous and the wicked. And from this truth, which can
never
be a powerless and quiescent one, is here derived its im-
pending
realization: so certain as salvation is to the righteous,
and
perdition to the wicked, the judgment must overthrow and
set
aside the latter, and exalt the former to the enjoyment of
the
felicity destined for them. That the therefore
refers, not
simply
to ver. 4, but also to ver. 3, is clear from ver. 6, where
the
subject of both verses is resumed, and is advanced as the
ground
of what is said in ver. 5. When the narrow view of
the
therefore is adopted, it is
impossible to tell what to do with
the
first clause of ver. 6, "for the Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous,"
and we are driven to the interpolation of some such
word
as only or indeed. The universality of the conclusion, and
its
reference to both the classes of men with which the Psalm
is
occupied, are quite lost. Ver. 5 forms quite a suitable deduc-
tion
from vers. 3 and 4, if we only consider that judgment against
the
wicked involves also the deliverance of the righteous who
had
suffered under their oppressions and annoyances. Indeed,
ver.
6 requires us to view it in that as it can only then
form
a suitable continuation.
The whole context shows, that by the judgment we are to
understand
God's; in particular, it appears from the following
verse,
where the fact that the ungodly shall not stand in the
judgment,
is founded on the truth that the Lord knoweth the
way
of the righteous. The reference to a human judgment,
which
has again been lately maintained by Hitzig, is alto-
gether
objectionable. De Wette narrows the expression too
much,
when he would understand it only of general searching,
theocratic
judgments. Ewald justly refers the words to the
process
of the Divine righteousness, which is perpetually ad-
vancing,
though not every moment visible. All manifestations
of
punitive righteousness are comprehended in it. "For God
will
bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing,
whether
it be good, or whether it be evil." Eccl. xii. 14.
And
sinners (shall not stand) in the
congregation of the right-
eous; i. e. those who, by
turning away their hearts from God,
have
internally separated themselves from
the
shall
also be outwardly expelled by a righteous act of judgment.
16 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The
external church or community can only
for a time be dif-
ferent
from the company or congregation of the righteous. For
God
will take care that it shall be purified from the leaven of
the
ungodly, which, however, will not be fully accomplished before
the
close of this present world. That the congregation of God,
in
its true idea, is the congregation of the righteous, embodies
a
prophecy of the excision and overthrow of sinners: An allu-
sion
is kept up through the whole verse to the expression used
in
the Pentateuch, regarding the transgressors of the Divine law,
"That
soul shall be cut off from his people," that is, it would
be ipso facto separated from the community
of God; and the
declaration
is commonly followed by an announcement of the
particular
manner in which the judgment, already pronounced,
should
be outwardly executed, or would be executed by God.
We
understand, therefore, the community or congregation of
the
righteous to be a designation of the whole covenant-people,
according
to its idea, in reference to which the Israelites are
elsewhere
(for example, Numb. xxiii. 10, Ps. cxi. 1) called
Myrwy, upright,
or even holy (comp. "Ye shall be
holy, for I
am
holy," Lev. xix. 2; Numb. xvi. 3). That this idea shall
one
day be fully realized, is intimated by Isaiah in ch. ix. 9,
liv.
13. hdf,
congregation, is a standing
designation of the whole
community
of
people
are referred to in the parallel passage, Ezek. xiii. 9, "And
My
hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that
divine
lies; they shall not be in the assembly of My
people,
neither
shall they be written in the writing (book) of the house
of
Accordingly,
"sinners in the congregation of the righteous"
may
be regarded as equivalent to "sinners in the congregation
of
ample
of this reaction of the idea against a state of things at
variance
therewith, is to be found in the overthrow of the com-
pany
of Korah, of whom it is said, Numb. xvi. 33, "They
perished
from among the congregation." Then, also, in the fate
of
Saul and his party. The more careless men are in wielding
the
discipline of the Church, the more vigorously does God
work.
De Wette and others understand by the righteous,
the
elite,
the fortunate citizens of the theocratic kingdom who stand
the
test. But this is inadmissible, for the one reason, that the
words,
"they shall not stand," that is, "they shall not remain,
PSALM
among
the righteous," presuppose that they had belonged to
the
community of the righteous up to the judgment, which was
to
throw them off, like morbid matter from the body in the crisis
of
a disease.
Ver. 6. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the
way of the ungodly shall
perish.
According to various exposi-
tors,
the two members of the verse do not correspond exactly,
and
something must be supplied in each. God knows the way
of
the righteous, and therefore they cannot fail to be prosperous;
He
knows the way of the wicked, and therefore they cannot fail
to
perish. But this exposition is not to be approved. The figure
of
"the way" is used in the Psalms in two senses, first of the
conduct, and then of the portion, the lot or destiny. The latter
signification
is by far the most common; comp. Psalm xxxvii.
5,
18, 23; Isa. xl. 27. Now, according to the above exposition,
the
first signification must be taken; but the second clause
shows
that the other ought to be preferred. The perishing
applies
only to the circumstances of the wicked. They who
would
refer it to the moral walk, must torture the word with
arbitrary
meanings (dbx
always means "to perish"), or cloak the
difficulty
by periphrases which introduce new thoughts. And
where
the parallelism is so marked, the way
must be taken in
the
same sense in the first clause. For understanding it of
the
affairs, the corresponding passage in Psalm ii. 12 may be
regarded
as a confirmation. Indeed, it would never have been
viewed
otherwise, if only the relation between this verse and
verses
3 and 4 had been rightly perceived, in which the things
befalling
the righteous and the wicked are alone discoursed of:
the
righteous are prosperous, the wicked are unprosperous;
therefore
the wicked shall not stand, etc. As here it is said of
the
way of the wicked, that it perishes, so of his hope, in Job
viii.
13; Prov. x. 28. The knowing here
involves blessing, as
its
necessary consequence. If the way of the righteous, their
lot,
is known by God as the omniscient, it cannot but be blessed
by
Him as the righteous. Hence there is no necessity, in order
to
preserve the parallelism, which exists otherwise, to explain
fdy by "curae cordique habere," a meaning
which it properly
never
has. It is enough if only God is not shut up in the
heavens
with His knowledge; the rest flows spontaneously from
His
nature, and needs not to be specially mentioned. How little
the
fdy
in such connections loses, or even modifies its common
18 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
signification,
appears from the parallel passage, Psalm xxxi.
"Thou
considerest my trouble, Thou knowest my soul in adver-
sities,"
where the knowing is parallel with considering or seeing.
It
is justly remarked by Ewald, that the issue in vers. 5 and 6 is
truly
prophetical, perpetually in force, and consequently descrip-
tive
of what is to be for ever expected and hoped for in the
course
of the world. To limit it to peculiarly theocratic affairs,
is
as certainly false as God's righteousness which is inherent in
His
nature, and consequently the moral order of the world, is
unalterable.
Luther: "At the close of this Psalm, I would
admonish,
as did also many holy fathers like Athanasius and
Augustine,
that we do not simply read or sing the Psalms, as if
they
did not concern us; but let us read and sing them for
the
purpose of being improved by them, of having our faith
strengthened,
and our hearts comforted amid all sort of neces-
sities.
For the Psalter is nothing else than a school and exercise
for
our heart and mind, to the end, that we may have our
thoughts
and inclinations turned into the same channel. So
that
he reads the Psalter without spirit, who reads it without
understanding
and faith."
PSALM
II.
The Psalmist sees with wonder, vers.
1-3, many nations and
their
kings rise against Jehovah and His Anointed, their right-
ful
King. He then describes the manner in which Jehovah
carries
Himself toward this undertaking,—how He first laughs
at,
then terrifies them with an indignant speech, and declares their
attempt
to be in vain, because they revolt against Him, whom
He
Himself has set up as His King. In vers. 7-9, the Anointed
proclaims,—detailing
at length, what the Lord had briefly
thrown
out against the insurgents,—that the Lord had given
Him,
as His Son, all the nations and kingdoms of the earth for a
possession,
and along with these, power and authority to punish
those
who rebelled against Him. The Psalmist finally turns, vers.
10-12,
to the kings, and admonishes them to yield a lowly sub-
mission
to the anointed King and Son of God, who is as rich
in
mercy towards those that trust in Him, as in destruction to-
ward
those that rise up against Him. In few Psalms is the
strophe-arrangement
so marked as in this. One perceives at a
PSALM II. 19
glance,
that the whole falls into four strophes of three members
each.
The verses, again, generally consist of two members;
the
last verse only has four, for the purpose of securing a full-
toned
conclusion.
There are the clearest grounds for
asserting, that by the
King,
the Anointed, or Son of God, no other can be understood
than
the Messias. It is generally admitted, that this exposition
was
the prevailing one among the older Jews, and that in later
times
they were led to abandon it only for polemical reasons
against
the Christians. In support of this position may be urged,
not
only the express declaration of Jarchi and a considerable
number
of passages in the writings of the older Jews, in which
the
Messianic sense still exists, and which may be found in those
adduced
by Venema in his Introduction to this Psalm, but also
the
fact, that two names of the Messias which were current in
the
time of Christ,—the name of Messias itself, the Anointed,
and
the name, Son of God, used by Nathanael in his conversa-
tion
with Christ, John i. 49, and also by the high-priest in
Matt.
xxvi. 63,—owed their origin to this Psalm in its Messianic
meaning.
The former is applied to the coming Saviour only in
another
passage, Dan. ix. 25, the latter in this Psalm alone.
But
though this is certainly a remarkable fact, we could not re-
gard
it as, by itself, constituting a ground for the interpretation
in
question. Neither would we rest upon the circumstance, that
the
New Testament, in a series of passages, refers this Psalm to
Christ
(it is so by the assembled Apostles in Acts iv. 25, 26; by
Paul.
in Acts xiii. 33, as also in Hebrews i. 5, v. 5; while the
same
Messianic sense lies at the basis of the plain allusions to
the
Psalm which occur in Rev. ii. 27, xii.. 5, xix. 15). Inas-
much
as typical Messianic Psalms are not unfrequently in the
New
Testament referred to Christ, and the Psalm really con-
tains
an indirect prophecy respecting Him, even though it be
primarily
referred to some individual living under the Old Cove-
nant,
the two contending interpretations are not so far asunder
from
each other as at first view they might seem; and, conse-
quently,
we cannot build with perfect confidence upon those
declarations,
though undoubtedly the fact, that the authors of
the
New Testament followed the direct Messianic view, renders
it
very probable that it was the prevailing one among their con-
temporaries.
But the proper proof we base on internal
grounds
alone, in regard to which we
remark at the outset, that we can
20 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
have
no interest in deceiving ourselves about their meaning,
since,
in our opinion, the Messianic kernel of the Psalm, and
its
application to the present, would remain quite unaffected,
even
though the internal grounds should speak for its referring
primarily,
for example, to David. What assured him of the fruit-
lessness
of the revolt of the peoples whom the Lord had subjected
to
him, to wit, his Divine installation, and the nearness of his
relation
to God, must be applicable with far higher force to
Christ's
relation to His rebellious subjects. But the internal
grounds
speak so loudly and so decidedly for the Messianic
sense,
that we can only ascribe the disinclination manifested
towards
it to causes, the investigation of which is foreign to our
present
purpose.
Many traits present themselves in
our Psalm which are ap-
plicable
to no other person than Messiah. Superhuman dignity
is
attributed to the subject of the Psalm in ver. 12, where the
revolters
are admonished to submit themselves, in fear and hu-
mility,
to their King, since His opponents shall be destroyed by
His
severe indignation, while those who put their trust in Him
shall
be made blessed. The remark of Venema: "Ira regis eo
modo
metuenda proponitur, v. 12, qui creaturm minus convenit
et
fiducia in eo ponenda commendatur ibidem, quae a creatura
abhorret,"
is too well grounded to be capable of being rebutted,
as
the fruitlessness of all attempts to refer to the Lord, what is
there
said of His Anointed, abundantly shows. Against every
other
person but Messiah speaks also ver. 12, where the King is
distinctly
called the Son of God, and vers. 6, 7, where the names
"His
King," and "His Anointed," are given Him in a sense which
implies
His dominion over the whole earth. Vers. 1-3, and vers.
8-10,
are decisive against all earthly monarchs; for they declare
that
the people and kings of the whole earth are given to be the
possession
of this King, and that they strive in vain to shake off
His
yoke. The extent of His kingdom is here described to be
what
the Messiah's kingdom is always described in those passages
which
are generally admitted to refer to Him;—comp., for ex-
ample,
Zech. ix. 10; Isa. ii. 2; Mic. iv. 1. De Wette en-
deavours
to support himself here, appealing to the pretended
liking
of the Hebrew poets for hyperbole, and the disposition
of
the enthusiastic members of the theocracy to conceive magni-
ficent
hopes." But in all circumstances, hyperbole has its limits,
and
exaggeration could scarcely, in this case, have referred to
PSALM II. 21
pictures
of the present, but only to the promises of the future.
Hofman,
in his work on Prophecy and its Fulfilment, p. 160,
thinks
that the words, "Ask of Me, and I will give thee the
heathen
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth
for a possession," mean no more than that "whatever
people,
whatever distant lands he desires to have for a posses-
sion,
these Jehovah would subject to him." But David was
modest;
he only besought for himself some small territories in
the
neighbourhood of
this
Divine appointment and plenipotence are held out against
the
kings of the earth, who have revolted against the King, their
rightful
Lord; and that, on the same ground, the judges of the
earth,
in ver. 10, are admonished to return to their allegiance to
their
proper King. And then, where shall we find in the history,
even
the smallest intimation that the Lord made such an offer to
David,
as if it had been in his option to decide whether he would
be
ruler over the whole world? Not even the sovereignty of a
single
people was offered in that manner to David. He never
waged
a war of conquest; he merely defended himself against
hostile
attacks. It is further to be regarded as conclusive against
an
earthly king, that the revolt here mentioned against the Son,
and
the Anointed of Jehovah, is so completely represented as a
revolt
against Jehovah Himself, that the nations are exhorted
to
yield themselves to Him with humility and reverence. It
would
be quite a different thing if enemies who aimed at the
overthrow
of the
who
stand forth here, have no other end in view than to free
themselves
from the yoke of the king. Although we would not
absolutely
maintain the impossibility of such a view, there are
still
no parallel passages to show that any such design would
have
been regarded as a revolt against Jehovah. The validity of
this
ground, which was already advanced in the first part of my
Christology,
is admitted by Hitzig. He denies still more de-
cidedly
than we would be disposed to do, that heathen nations,
which
had been subdued by the people of God, might simply on
that
account be regarded as Jehovah's subjects, and that every
attempt
to regain their freedom would be a revolt against
Jehovah.
To serve a deity, says he, is either to profess a re-
ligion,
or at least includes this, and presupposes it,—the
ites
served David, 2 Sam. viii. 2, not God. On this account,
though
he will still not declare himself for the Messianic inter-
22 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
pretation,
which reconciles all difficulties, he has felt himself
obliged
to ascribe the composition of the Psalm to the time of
the
Maccabees, when the attempt was first made to incorporate
vanquished
heathens with the people of God, by subjecting them
to
the rite of circumcision,—a supposition in which he will
certainly
have no followers. Finally, the Messianic sense is
supported
by the same grounds which prove that of Ps. xlv.
lxxii.
cx., which so remarkably harmonize with the Psalm now
under
consideration, that, as far as the Messiah is concerned,
they
must stand or fall together. These grounds are so con-
vincing,
that we find here among the defenders of the Messianic
interpretation
many even of those whose theological sentiments
must
have disposed them rather to adopt a different view,—in
particular,
Eichhorn, Bertholdt, Rosenmüller, Koester. Sack,
also,
in his Apolog., and Umbreit in his Erbauung a. d. Psalter,
p.
141, have advocated the same opinion.
Though the Psalm has no
superscription, yet that David
was
its author, as indeed he is expressly named in Acts iv. 25,
may
be gathered from the undoubted fact, that the relations of
David's
time evidently form the groundwork of the representa-
tion
which is given,—comp. the closing remarks, as also the
resemblance
to Psalm cx. The general character of Psalm
first,
suitable for an introduction, would scarcely have warranted
the
compilers in placing it, and this second one so closely related
to
it, at the head of a long series of Davidic Psalms, unless they
had
felt convinced of David's being their author. Besides other
characteristics
of the first, this Psalm shares its ease and sim-
plicity
of style; and that the discourse is of a more spirited
character,
arises from the different nature of the subject.
Ver. 1. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a
vain thing? The why is an expression of astonishment and
horror
at the equally foolish and impious attempt of the revolt-
ers.
The hgh
is here taken by some in the sense of being in
commotion, blustering; but in that sense the
word does not else-
where
occur in the Hebrew; and as little does it occur in that
of
Koester, to murmur. The common
meaning is here quite
suitable.
qyr,
not an adverb, in vain, to no purpose,
but a noun,
vanity, nothing. The vanity or nothing
is that which, being
opposed
to the Divine will, and, therefore, nothing, also leads
to
nothing, reaches not its aim, to wit, the revolt against the
King,
which, at the same time, is revolt against the Almighty
PSALM II. VER. 2. 23
God.
The why at the beginning, and the vain thing at the end
of
this verse, are what alone indicate, in the otherwise purely
historical
representation of vers. 1-3, the point of view from
which
the transaction is to be considered. But these two little
words
contain in germ the whole substance from ver. 4 to
ver.
12, in which is unfolded the reason why the project of the
insurgents
is a groundless and vain one.
Ver. 2. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers
sit with one another
against the Lord and His Anointed. It is
unnecessary,
and destructive to the sense, to repeat, with De
Wette,
Koester, and others, the wherefore at
the beginning of
this
verse. The word bcyth means simply, "to set oneself, to
come
forward, to appear;" and the hostility is not expressed in
the
word, but is indicated by the context, and by the addition
of
the words, "against the Lord." The word lf
expresses
"the
oppressive,
the inimical." The kings of the
earth,—the huge
mass
of tumultuous revolters draws upon itself so much the eye
of
the prophet, that he overlooks the small company of subjects
who
still remained faithful. The dsy means to found, in Niph.
to be founded, Isa. 28, Ex. ix. 18;
then poetically to sit
down. This is the only
legitimate exposition of the vdsvn. The
idea
of combination and common counsel is not contained in the
verb
itself, but only in the adverb dHy, together, with which the
verb
is connected also in Psalm xxxi. 13. Against
the Lord
and His Anointed. Calvin remarks, that
this does not neces-
sarily
imply that the revolt was publicly avowed to be against
God;
indeed, they could not revolt against Him otherwise than
indirectly,
that is, by seeking to withdraw themselves from the
supremacy
of His Son; and in that respect, to use Luther's
expression,
the ungodly often do terrible deeds for God's honour
against
God's honour. The anointing in the
Old Testament,
whether
it occur as an actually performed symbolical action, or
as
a mere figure, constantly signifies the communication of the
gifts
of the Holy Spirit,—see Christol. P. II. p. 445. This is
evidently
the meaning in the account given of Saul's anointing,
1
Sam. x. 1, and David's, xvi. 13, 14. The kings of
were
said pre-eminently to be anointed,
because they received
a
peculiarly rich measure of Divine grace for their important
office.
From them was the expression transferred to Him who
is
absolutely THE KING, the one in whom the idea of royalty
was
to be perfectly realized. That he should be endowed, with-
24 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
out
measure, with that Spirit which was given only in limited
measure
to His types, is mentioned by Isaiah, chap. xi., as an
essential
feature. Luther remarks, making a suitable applica-
tion
to the members, of that which is here said concerning the
Head:
"Therefore God decrees that the ungodly shall boil and
rage
against the righteous, and employ against them all their
devices.
But all such attempts are like the swelling waves of
the
sea, blown up by the wind, which make as if they would
tear
down the shore, but before they even reach it, again sub-
side,
and melt away in themselves, or spend themselves with
harmless
noise upon the beach. For the righteous is so firmly
grounded
in his faith upon Christ, that he confidently scorns,
like
a beach, such vain impotent threatenings of the wicked,
and
such proud swellings, which are destined so soon again to
disappear."
Ver. 3. The enemies are introduced
speaking: We will break
their bands asunder, and
cast away their cords from us. The
plural
suffix has reference to Jehovah and His Anointed.
Their bands,—that is, the bands
which they have laid upon us.
The
prophet speaks as from the soul of the insurgents, to whom
the
mild yoke of the Lord and His Anointed appears as a
galling
chain. Calvin: "So even now we see that all the
enemies
of Christ find it as irksome a thing to be compelled to
submit
themselves to His supremacy, as if the greatest disgrace
had
befallen them."
Ver. 4. The prophet looks away from
the wild turmoil of
enemies,
from the dangers which here below seem to threaten
the
kingdom of the Anointed, to the world above, and sets
over
against them the almightiness of God. Calvin: "How-
ever
high they may lift themselves, they can never reach to the
heavens;
nay, while they seek to confound heaven and earth,
they
do but dance like grasshoppers. The Lord meanwhile
looks
calmly forth from His high abode, upon their senseless
movements."
He who is throned in the heavens laughs;
the
Lord mocks them. God is here
emphatically described as being
enthroned
in heaven, to mark His exalted sovereignty over the
whole
machinery of earth, and, in particular, over the kings of
the
earth. "Laughter" and "derision" are expressive of secu-
rity
and contempt. Calvin: "We must therefore hold, that
when
God does not immediately punish the wicked, it is His
time
to laugh; and though we must sometimes even weep, yet
PSALM II. VER. 4. 25
this
thought should allay the sharpness of our grief, nay, wipe
away
our tears, that God does not dissemble, as if He were
tardy
or weak, but seeks through silent contempt, for a time,
to
break the petulance of His enemies." Expositors generally
suppose
that the vml
is to be supplied to qHwy. This is not
necessary,
though it is certainly supported by Psalm xxxvii. 13,
lix.
8. Luther gives a course of admirable remarks upon this
passage;
some of these, we feel it our duty to quote, not for
the
sake of answering practical purposes independent of exe-
gesis,
but in the interest of exegesis itself. "All this is written
for
our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the
Scriptures,
may have hope. For what is here written of Christ,
is
an example for all Christians. For every one who is a sound
Christian,
especially if he teaches the word of Christ, must
suffer
his Herod, his Pilate, his Jews and heathens, who rage
against
him, to speak much in vain, to lift themselves up and
take
counsel against him. If this is not done now by men, by
the
devil, or, finally, by his own conscience, it will at least be
done
on his death-bed. There, at last, it will be in the highest
degree
necessary to have such words of consolation in remem-
brance
as—"He who sits in heaven laughs: the Lord holds
them
in derision." To such a hope we must cling fast, and on
no
account suffer ourselves to be driven from it. As if He
would
say—So certain is it, that they speak in vain, and pro-
ject
foolish things, let it appear before men as strong and
mighty
as it may, that God does not count them worthy of
being
opposed, as He would needs do in a matter of great and
serious
moment; that He only laughs and mocks at them, as
if
it were a small and despicable thing which was not worth
minding.
0 how great a strength of faith is claimed in these
words!
For who believed, when Christ suffered, and the Jews
triumphed
over and oppressed Him, that God all the time was
laughing?
So, when we suffer and are oppressed by men,
when
we believe that God is laughing at and mocking at
our
adversaries; especially, if to all appearance we are mocked
and
oppressed both by God and men." Upon the expression,
"He
that is enthroned in the heavens," Luther specially re-
marks—"As
if it were said, He who cares for us dwells quite
secure,
apart from all fear; and although we are involved in
trouble
and contention, He remains unassailed, whose regard is
fixed
on us; we move and fluctuate here and there, but He
26 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
stands
fast, and will order it so, that the righteous shall not
continue
for ever in trouble, Psalm lv. 22. But all this pro-
ceeds
so secretly that thou canst not well perceive it, unless thou
wert
in heaven thyself. Thou must suffer by land and sea,
and
among all creatures; thou mayest hope for no consolation
in
thy sufferings and troubles, till thou canst rise through faith
and
hope above all, and lay hold on Him who dwells in the
heavens—then
thou also dwellest in the heavens, but only in
faith
and hope. Therefore must we fix and stay our hearts, in
all
our straits, assaults, tribulations, and difficulties, upon Him
who
sitteth in the heavens; for then it will come to pass that
the
adversity, vexation, and trials of this world, can not only be
taken
lightly, but can even be smiled at."
Ver. 5. The words of contempt are
followed by others of
indignation
and threatening. Then He speaks to them
in His
wrath, and afrights them
in His sore displeasure. zx, then,
namely,
when He has first laughed at and mocked them ;
others
improperly, at the time of this revolt,
or when they be-
lieve
that they have broken the chains. The laughter directing
itself
upon the impotence of the revolters, is the first subject;
the
wrath excited by their criminal disposition to revolt, is the
second.
Many expositors, as Calvin, think that here is a re-
ference
to God's speaking by deeds, to the judgments which He
decrees
against the insolent revolters, after having previously
manifested
His contempt of them; but without foundation.
Ver.
6, where the speech of God follows, shows that the second.
member
here is to be expounded by the first; and in His rage
He
affrights them with the succeeding words, not the reverse.
The
actual punishment of the revolters, who even to this day
have
got no further than the speech, "Let us break their bands
asunder,
and cast away their cords from us," lies beyond the
compass
of this Psalm. In it, the Lord, the Anointed, and
the
Psalmist, come forth one after another against the rebels,
and
endeavour to turn them from their foolish purpose. It is
not
till they have shut their ear against all these admonitions
and
threatenings that the work of punishment properly begins.
With
a thundering voice of indignation, before which impotent
sinners
quail to their inmost heart, the Psalmist represents the
Lord
as speaking to them what follows in ver. 6.
Ver. 6. And I have formed My King upon
Few
of the expositors take notice of the v at the beginning,
PSALM II. VER. 6. 27
which
yet well deserves to be noticed. It is never used without
meaning,
nor ever elsewhere than where we can also put our
word
and (Ewald, p. 540). The discourse,
as is appropriate to
a
very excited state of mind, here begins in the middle. The
commencement,
"Ye rise in rebellion," is
naturally suggested
by
the existing circumstances. The I here,
the Lord of heaven
and
of earth, stands with peculiar emphasis in opposition to you.
Luther:
"They have withdrawn themselves from Him; but I
have
subjected to Him the holy hill of Zion, and all the ends of
the
earth. So that it will become manifest how they have been
objects
of laughter and scorn, and have troubled themselves,
and
taken counsel in vain." The ytbsn is commonly rendered,
I have anointed; and of the more recent
expositors, Stier
alone
has raised doubts against this rendering, without, how-
ever,
decidedly substantiating them. But it has been strik-
ingly
rebutted by Gousset. The supposition that j`sn, besides its
ordinary
meaning to pour, had also the sense to anoint, is sup-
ported
only by Prov. viii. 23, and by the derivation j`ysn, a prince,
though
to signify "an anointed one." But in the passage from
Proverbs,
all the old translations express the idea of creation or
preparation
(to pour out to form); and this idea is decidedly
favoured
by the context: "From everlasting was I formed,"
is
followed by, "from the beginning, or ever the earth was,
was
I born." But j`ysn cannot possibly have
the meaning an
anointed one, since it is
pre-eminently and specially used of
princes,
who hold their dignity in fief of a superior, and in
whose
case anointing was out of the question. See the decisive
passage,
Josh. xiii. 21; and Micah v. 4. The word Mykysn rather
means
strictly, those who are poured out,
then those who are
formed, invested, appointed, and refers, as Gousset
justly remarks,
to
" productio principis per communicationem influxumque po-
tentiae,"
with an allusion either to generation, or to the relation
between
an artist and his statue or picture. In the case before
us,
the signification to form is
confirmed by the corresponding
words,
"I have begotten Thee," in ver. 7. The expression,
"My King," is also deserving of
special remark. If its peculiar
emphasis
is not considered, if it is merely expounded as if it were
"I
have appointed Him to be King," the speech of God will then
be
unsuited to the end which it is meant to serve, that, namely,
of
representing the vanity of the revolt of the kings of the
earth.
For one might possibly have been set by God as king
28 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
on
heathen
world. Then, in opposition to every exposition which
weakens
the force of the words, we have the corresponding words
in
ver. 7, "Thou art My Son;" through which, as the conclusion
drawn
from them in ver. 8 shows, a much more intimate rela-
tion
to God is indicated than if He had been an ordinary king.
The
words, therefore, "I have formed My King," can only
mean,
"I have appointed a King (as Luther renders ytbsn much
more
correctly than our recent expositors) who is most closely
related
to Me." In the setting up or appointing of such a King,
for
whom nothing less than the whole earth could be a suffi-
cient
empire, there was given a proof of the nothingness of
all
attempts at insurrection which were now made against the
King,
and in the King against the Lord. lf is most naturally
regarded
as indicating the place where the Lord's King was
constituted
and set up by Him, implying of course that this
place
is at the same time the seat of His supremacy. The ex-
pression
Nvyc lf. "upon
explanation
—"I have appointed My King (that He be King)
upon
other,
"I have appointed My King (that He be King) over
My
holy mountain," as in 1 Sam. xv. 17, Saul was anointed
king
over
of
the King, not the sphere of His rule—which is rather the
whole
earth.
priate
seat for His King; for as it had been the centre of
from
the time of David, who fixed his own abode and trans-
ferred
there the ark of the covenant, so was it destined one day
to
be the centre of the world; for "out of
the
law, and the word of the Lord out of
The
Lord is to govern the whole earth from there. The thought
is
there expressed in Old Testament language, that the king-
dom
of God should one day break through its narrow bounds,
and
bring the whole world under its sway. Upon ywdq rh, not
the
mountain of My holiness, but My holiness-mountain, My
holy
mountain, see Ewald, p. 580.
honour
by its having, had the ark of the covenant transferred
to
it by David. From that period it became the centre of the
Ver. 7. The speech of the Lord, in
proper adaptation to His
majesty
and indignation, is but short. Next appears the King
PSALM. II. VER. 7. 29
appointed
by God, reiterating, to the astonished rebels, what has
been
said by God, and further developing it: I will declare the
statute: the Lord hath
said unto Me, Thou art My Son, this day
have I begotten Thee. Rosenmüller explains,
"narrabo secun-
dum,
juxta decretum;" but there is no ground for this, as the
word
rPesi
is elsewhere coupled with the preposition indi-
cating
the object of the narrative, Psalm lxix. 26; as also the
similar
verbs fydvyi,
"to make known," rmx,
rbd, and fmw; see,
for
example, Isa. xxxviii. 19; Jer. xxvii. 19; Job xlii. 7. We
may
not, however, on the ground of such constructions, ex-
plain
lx
by of. They are explained by the
circumstance of
the
relater's or speaker's mind being directed
to the matter—
the
narrative or speech goes out upon it. Ewald, p. 602. As
it
is clear that lx may mark the thing to be announced, the
exposition
of Claus: "I will declare for a statute," i.e. some-
thing
which shall become an irrevocable law, is to be rejected
as
less simple, and hence less suited to the character of the
Psalmist,
who dislikes whatever is hard or artificial. But Claus
is
right in giving to the word qH its common
signification of
statute, law, for which most of the
modern expositors substitute
the
arbitrary sense of decree, sentence,
and then, in opposition to
the
accents, conceive that they must bring over to this mem-
ber
the word hvhy.
"I will declare a law," contains more than
"I
will declare a decree or sentence." It intimates, that the
sentence
of the Lord just to be announced, has the force of law,
and
that it was perfectly in vain to undertake anything which
wars
against it. Since the Lord has spoken this, "Thou art
My
Son," He has at the same time laid upon the heathen the
law
of serving His Son. Obedience is due to the laws of the
Almighty,
and punishment inevitably overtakes him who trans-
gresses
them.
The question now arises, what
determination or sentence of
Jehovah,
having the force of an unchangeable law, is here
meant?
Rosenmüller, Ewald, and others, conceive, that the
reference
is to the Divine promise in 2 Sam. vii. But this sup-
position
must be rejected. For then the words, "Thou art My
Son,"
would be spoken, not in the sense in which they occur
here,
as implying an investiture with dominion over the heathen.
And,
besides, this exposition would destroy the obvious connec-
tion
between ver. 6 and ver. 7. What the Son here throws out
against
the revolters, call only be the further development of
30 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
that
which the Lord had advanced against them; the to-day
becomes
quite indeterminate, if it do not refer to the precise day
on
which the Lord had set His King on
pression,
"Thou art My Son," can only point to the subject
contained
in the words, "My King." So that the discourse here
can
only be of a determination of the Lord, which was issued to
the
Anointed at the time of His appointment: "I will declare
the
law," which the Lord then gave;
when He made Me His
King
on
Psalmist
has only in a general way before him, the terminus of
the
setting up as King. When Paul represents, in Acts xiii.
33,
the words of our text as spoken to Christ, in consequence of
His
resurrection from the dead, he does but define them more
closely
from the fulfilment. The resurrection of Christ was the
key-stone
of His redemption-work, the starting point of His
setting
forth as the Son of God, and of His establishment in
the
kingdom.
The Lord addresses the King on the
day of His installation
as
His Son. Where God, in the Old Testament, is represented
as
Father, where the subject of discourse is sonship to God,
there
is always (apart from a few passages not in point here,
which
speak of Him as the author of external existence, the
giver
of all good, Deut. xxxii. 18, Jer. ii. 27, and perhaps Isa.
lxiv.
7) an allusion, involving a comparison, to His tender love,
as
being similar to that of a father toward his son,—see, for ex-
ample,
Psalm ciii. 13, where the comparison is fully stated. In
this
sense,
As
in Ex. iv. 22: "
the
expression, "My first-born," points to the abridged com-
parison,
as if it had been said, "
first-born
son;" Deut. xiv. 1, 2, where the words, "Ye are tho
children
of the Lord your God," are more fully explained by
the
following, "For thou art an Holy people unto the Lord
thy
God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people
unto
Himself above all nations;" Deut. xxxii. 6, where the
question,
"Is He not thy Father?" is followed by declarations
testifying,
in various particulars, to His fatherly love and care-
fulness;
Isa. 16, "Doubtless Thou art our Father, though
Abraham
be ignorant of us, and
Thou,
0 Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; Thy name is
from
everlasting;" where the name of Father is used to de-
PSALM II. VER. 7. 31
note
what is related at large in vers. 7-15, the things He did
in
His great goodness towards the house of
1,
“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My
son
out of
honour?"
the theme from vers. 2-5 being this, "I have loved
you"—in
considering which, some have started with the false
idea
that the words, "Have we not all one
Father," were in
synonymous
parallelism with, “One God hath
created us," Jer.
xxxi.
9, 20. With a just perception of what is implied in the
abbreviated
comparison, the Apostle, in Rom. x. 4, gathers up
what
is said of
adoption
into the position of children," ui[oqesi<a. In the same
sense
the relation of David's family to God is, in two passages,
described
as one of sonship. In 2 Sam. vii. 14, 15, the de-
claration,
"I will be his Father, and he shall be My son," is
followed
by the promise of His ever-abiding love as a sort of
interpretation;
and in Ps. lxxxix. 26, etc., which is based on the
passage
in Samuel, the words, "My Father," stand in parallelism
with
"My God, and the rock of my salvation," and is explained
by,
"My mercy I will keep for him for evermore," in ver. 29.
Nowhere
in the Old Testament is the idea of God's sonship
handled
with reference to a generation through the Spirit, which
Hoffmann
would have to be the case in all the passages. No-
where,
also, does this expression proceed upon an identifying of
creation
with generation; and it is an entire mistake for Hitzig
to
maintain concerning Ex. iv. 22, that all men or peoples are
there
considered as God's sons, because made by Him. No-
where
does the expression, "Jehovah's son," as used of kings,
point
to the Divine origin of the kingly authority, or to the ad-
ministration
of the office according to the mind of Jehovah.
Finally,
nowhere in the Old Testament is the sonship spoken of
as
a production out of the nature of the Father, as the greater
of
the older expositors think they discover here. Now, as
we
cannot isolate the passage before us from all others, we
may
here also understand the words, " Thou art My Son," as
the
inwardness of relation which subsists between the
Lord
and His Anointed. How inward this relation is, how
emphatically
sonship is here predicated of the Lord,—which is
never
on any other occasion, done of any individual king in
it
(for, in the two passages before noticed, it is spoken of
the
whole line of David), and far less still of heathen kings,—is
32 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
shown
by ver. 7, where the sovereignty of the whole earth is
announced
as a simple consequence of the sonship. In that
sense
no earlier king of
God's
own heart, was the son and darling of Jehovah. Such
an
inward relationship cannot properly exist between God and
a
mere man.
When the sense of the words,
"Thou art My Son," is fairly
settled,
no great difficulty can be found with the parallel clause,
"This
day I have begotten Thee." If the King is named the
Son
of God, not in a proper but in a figurative sense, then the
reference
here cannot be to a proper begetting, against which the
word
to-day also testifies (which word at the same time confirms
the
non-literal interpretation of the expression, "Thou art My
Son"),
but only to a begetting in a figurative sense—not a be-
getting
which calls the person into existence, but one merely in
which
originates the intimate relationship between the Anointed
and
God. "I have begotten Thee to-day," spiritually under-
stood,
exactly corresponds to "Thou art from henceforth, spi-
ritually
understood, My Son;" both alike imply that He was
brought
into the relation of sonship, or received into the inner-
most
fellowship of life. This non-literal, temporal begetting,
has
certainly the essential and eternal one for its foundation,
which
is found here by the older expositors and theologians.
Figuratively,
of the appointment to the dignity of Son of God,
the
expression is taken by Paul in Acts xiii. 3; so also in
Heb.
v. 5.
Ver. 8. Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine
inheritance, and the
uttermost parts of the earth for Thy posses-
sion. For the King, and the
Son of the Lord, nothing less
than
the whole earth is a proper dominion. Vers. 1-3 show,
that
He had accepted all, which the love
of His Father here freely
offered.
Ver. 9. If the nations will not obey
Thee, My Son, as their
rightful
Lord and King, I give Thee the right and the power to
chastise
them for their disobedience. Thou shalt
break them
with a rod of iron, Thou
shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel. The LXX. render the
first clause, "Thou wilt feed them
with
an iron sceptre,"—deriving the form Mfrt from hfArA, to feed.
So
also the Syriac, Vulgate, and many later expositors. Then,
either
the present punctuation is held to be incorrect, and they
read
Mfer;ti, or the form is considered as Poel. But the paral-
PSALM II. VER. 9. 33
lelism
requires that the form should be derived from ffr, "to
break
or shiver to pieces," as is done by the Chaldaic. At the
same
time, we may perhaps suppose with Stier, that the word
carries
a sort of ironical allusion to hfr, which is so frequently
used;
comp. 2 Sam. vii. 7, Ps. lxxxi. 16, Mic. vii. 14. Fbw,
“sceptre,”
was anciently the sign of the dignity of ruler. The
objections
which Rosenmüller and others have brought against
the
application of this meaning here, are of little weight. It is
true,
indeed, we do not hear of iron sceptres having been ac-
tually
used, but such only as were of wood, silver, gold, or ivory.
But
iron is here selected, as being the hardest metal, to indicate
the
strength and crushing force with which the Anointed would
chastise
the revolters; and it is perfectly allowable to use it in
this
figurative sense, although there actually existed no such thing
as
an iron sceptre. The comparison with the vessels of the
potter,
which occurs also in Jer. xix. 11, expresses at once the
ideas
of without trouble, and of entireness. It is, besides, to be
remarked,
what is omitted by De Wette, who argues from this
expression,
against the application of the Psalm to Christ, and
by
Umbreit, who labours to make that denote grace, which is
manifestly
said of punitive righteousness, that as the Messiah
has
here to do with impudent revolters, only one aspect of the
power
committed to Him by God is displayed. That He is as
rich
in grace to His people, as He is in overwhelming power
against
His enemies, is evident from vers. 11 and 12. That, in
like
circumstances, the same aspect of power which is spoken
of
here, is also brought to notice by Christ in the New Testa-
ment,
needs no proof. Those on His left hand, the compas-
sionate,
but still righteous Saviour, banishes into everlasting
fire;
he who treads under foot the Son of God, must endure
infinitely
sorer punishment than he who broke the law of Moses;
and
the destruction of
the
Lord as His work. What alone suffices, is the circumstance,
that,
in the place referred to in Revelation, the punishment
which
Christ is going to execute upon His enemies is described
in
the very words of this Psalm. The question, whether what
is
here said of Christ be worthy of Him, resolves itself into this,
whether
God's righteousness be an actual reality, and, conse-
quently,
to be continued under the New Testament. For what
is
true of God, is true also of His Anointed, to whom He has
given
up the whole administration of His kingdom. But, that
34 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
this
question is to be answered in the affirmative, will be shown
in
our excursus upon the doctrine of the Psalms.
Ver. 10. An admonition to the
revolters to consider what
had
been said, and submit themselves to the King set up by the
Lord.
Here it comes clearly out, that the object aimed at in
the
reference to the punitive omnipotence of the Anointed, was
to
induce the revolters to flee from coming wrath by embracing
His
offers of grace and compassion. And now
act wisely, 0 ye
kings; be warned, ye
judges of the earth. And now, since the
case
is as I have said, since the supremacy of the Anointed over
you
rests upon so immoveable a foundation, a severe punish-
ment
is ready to alight on the revolters. lykWh properly sig-
nifies,
to make wise, namely, the actions,
the behaviour, then to
act
wisely, finally, to be wise, to understand, discern. rsy, "to
instruct,
direct aright, warn," in Niph. "to be warned," and
then
"to let one's self be warned, to lay the warning to heart,"
and
act according to it. The judges of the
earth, corresponding
to
kings in the first clause, the men of authority and rule, be-
cause
the office of judgment is considered as one of their chief
functions.
Judging is used in a wider sense. All
governing is,
in
a certain sense, a judging. Various interests, claims, and
rights,
come before the ruler for decision.
Ver. 11. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
The
serving stands opposed to the resolution in ver. 3 to revolt.
The
admonition to serve the Lord involves a call on them to
subject
themselves to His Son and Anointed. Following the
LXX.
and Vulgate (gaudeatis cum tremore),
some explain vlyg
hdfrb to mean: "Rejoice that you have
found so glorious and
good
a King; but along with this joy, think always of the terrible
punishment
which must overtake you, if ye withdraw yourselves
from
His benignant sway." It is well remarked, however, by
Stier,
that this construction neither agrees with the parallelism
nor
with the prevailing tone of the whole context.
The kings
had
scarcely got so far yet, that they could be called on to
rejoice,
even with the addition of trembling. But still more
objectionable
is the exposition approved of by De Wette, Stier,
Gesenius,
and others, "shake with trembling." lyg never sig-
nifies
anything but to rejoice, occurring
very often in this sense
in
the Psalms never, however, to tremble or shake, not even in
Hos.
x. 5, where, before the expression vlygy vylf, the relative is
to
be supplied, and the rendering should be: "who rejoice
PSALM II. VER. 12. 35
thereat."
Besides, the shaking does not
correspond to the serving
and
doing homage, which require that vlyg also, should express
some
mark of subordination. Now, this is the case if we refer
the
"rejoice" to the acclamations by which subjects testify their
fealty
to their sovereigns, to the "shout of a king," spoken of in
Numb.
xxiii. 21. In that case it is only the outward subjection
which
is primarily demanded for averting the threatened punish-
ment.
What rich blessings internal subjection and allegiance
brings
along with it, is first gently indicated at the close.
Ver. 12. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry. The kiss was,
from
the earliest times, the mark of subjection and respect in
the
East. Such a kiss was given for the most part not upon
the
mouth, but upon the kisser's own garment, or upon the
hand
of the person kissed.1 That this custom prevailed also
among
the Hebrews, appears from 1 Sam. x. 1, where Samuel,
after
he had anointed the king, as a mark of respect, gave him
a
kiss. The throwing of the kiss was also a religious usage, as
appears
from 1 Kings xix. 18, Hos. xiii. 2, Job xxxi. 27. Hence
Symmachus
translates here, explaining the figure: "adorate."
rb is found also in Prov. xxxi. 2, for
Aramaic,
and seems to have belonged to the loftier poetic dia-
lect
in Hebrew, which has much in common with the Chaldaic;
and
this explains why the higher style delights in old words
which
no longer occur in common life. These words were
handed
down from the primeval times, when the Hebrews
stood
in closer connection with the people who spoke the Ara-
maic
tongue. The reason why it is used here instead of Nb,
many
suppose to be a wish to avoid the cacophony which
would
arise from the juxtaposition of Nb and NP. Others con-
ceive
that rb
is chosen as being the more dignified and signifi-
cant
expression. Various other explanations which have been
tried
have partly usage against them, and partly the circum-
stance
that the mention of the Son of God here is quite natural
after
ver. 7. This rendering is, in consequence, approved by
most
modern interpreters, not excepting those who find the
sense
thus given not quite convenient, as Rosenmüller, De
Wette,
Gesenius, Winer, and Hitzig. Ewald's explanation,
"Take
counsel," is quite arbitrary, since qwn has in Pi. invari-
ably
the sense of kissing, and, though rb may signify
"pure,"
1 Rosenmüller, A. u. N.
Morgenland, Th. 3, Nr. 496, Th. 4, Nr. 786.
36 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
it
could not possibly mean "good counsel," without some fur-
ther
reason. The second arbitrariness is
shunned by Koester,
who
renders, "embrace purity," but the first still remains.
Besides,
in all these expositions the close connection is over-
looked
between our verses and vers. 1-3. To "the raging and
imagining
a vain thing," corresponds the exhortation, "Be
wise
and warned." It is in reference to the revolt
against the
Lord, that the injunction,
to "serve the Lord," is uttered.
But
there is still wanting a special hortative reference to the
Anointed,
which is the main point of the whole; and this must
be
lost unless rb is rendered son.
That this cannot possibly be
awanting,
becomes more evident still when we compare the
entire
exposition in vers. 6-9, which prepared the way for it.
Koester's
objection, that rb must then have the article, is of no
force,
as rb,
here signifying absolutely "the Son," is in a state
of
transition to becoming a nomen proprium. Comp. Ewald,
659.
The King, who is the subject of this Psalm, appears here
as
Son of God in a sense as exclusive as that in which God
Himself
is God. One God and one Son of God. Even
though
the title, "Son of God," according to what was re-
marked
above, be much the same as the beloved of God, and
we
are not to regard it as conveying directly the idea of unity
of
nature with God, yet the distinct and peculiar dignity here
ascribed
to the Anointed, points indirectly to distinctness and
peculiarity
of nature.
The words j`rd
vdbxtv,
though perfectly plain in themselves,
have
occasioned much trouble to expositors, and have had many
false
renderings. Every intransitive or passive idea may, in
Hebrew,
find an immediate limitation, if it is relative; that is,
if
it admits of being extended to many particular cases. For
example,
he was sick, his feet; he was great to the throne.
This
concise mariner of speech is easily explained, if we only
expand
it a little more: he was sick, and this sickness affected
his
feet, etc. So also here, "perish the way," must mean,
"perish
as to the way." The way is used
here, precisely as in
Ps.
i. 6, as an image of "state, condition." For soon willhis
wrath be kindled.
Blessed are all they who put their trust
Him. Ffmk shortly, soon. The k, when denoting
limits
of
time, retains in some measure its common signification of a
particle
of comparison. The time up to the beginning of this
punishment,
when repentance is too late, is like a short path
PSALM II.
VER. 12. 37
ysvH stat.
constr. for absol. This can only
take place when the
preposition
serves merely as a description of the stat. constr.
relation;
so that, instead of the verb being followed by the
preposition
and pronoun, it might simply have been vysvH. hsH
with
b
signifies, from the first, "to confide in some one;" never
"to
fly to any one"—which has been taken as its import, only
in
consequence of a false interpretation of the phrase, "trusting
in
the shadow, i.e., in the support of any one." Scripture con-
stantly
admonishes us to place our confidence in the Lord alone;
on
which account the verb before us is in a manner consecrated
and
set apart; and also warns men against confiding in earthly
kings;
comp. Psalm cxviii. 9 "It is better to trust in the
Lord,
than to put confidence in princes;" Psalm cxlvi. 3:
"Trust
not in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is
no
help." In the words, therefore, "Blessed are all they who
put
their trust in Him," an allusion is made to the superhuman
nature
and dignity of the Anointed. Many expositors, opposed
to
the Messianic interpretation, are driven to such straits by
this,
that they would refer the suffix in vb, with great violence,
not
to the Son, of whom mention had been
made immediately
before,
and of whom it is said in this verse itself, "Kiss the
Son,
lest He be angry," but to the Lord—which is an unwill-
ing
testimony to the Messianic character of this Psalm, as well
as
to the superhuman nature of the Messiah in the Old Testa-
ment.
Others, as Abenezra, De Wette, Maurer, would refer
even
the words, "lest He be angry," to Jehovah; overlooking,
however,
while they do so, the relation in which these words
stand
to ver. 9, according to which, not Jehovah, but the Son,
is
to break the revolters with an iron sceptre, and dash them
in
pieces like a potter's vessel—a manifestation of wrath which
they
are here exhorted to flee from.
In conclusion, we have a few general
remarks to make upon
this
Psalm. The Messianic predictions in the Psalms cannot
so
far coincide in character with those in the Prophets, that the
distinction
between Psalmist and Prophet here at once ceases
to
exist. We rather expect this distinction to manifest itself
here.
The essential nature of the distinction is, that the Pro-
phets
for the most part communicate the objective word of
God,
as that had been imparted to their internal contemplation,
while
the predominating character of the Psalms is subjective,
38 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the
subject-matter taken from some earlier revelation being set
forth
in a vivid and perceptible form by means of the events
and
circumstances of the Psalmist's own life, or of those of his
time,
yet all in such a way that the earlier revelation is often,
through
the special working of the Spirit of God, carried for-
ward
and advanced to a higher degree of clearness. The
Messianic
interpretation of a Psalm, then, can only be fully
justified
when we are both able to point to a revelation, through
which
the writer was incited to give a subjective representation
of
its contents, and can find a substratum for the writer's mode
of
representation, either in his own circumstances, or in those
of
his time. But both conditions meet in the case before us.
In
regard to the first, David was incited to this and other
Messianic
Psalms, by the promise given to him by God of a
perpetual
kingdom in his family, 2 Sam. vii. 7, which he could
not
but feel, after careful reflection, referred, in its highest
sense,
to Christ. In regard to the second, David found in the
circumstances
of his own life ample occasion to express, in the
way
and manner he has here done, the hope of the triumph of
the
promised King his successor, which the Spirit of God had
stirred
up within him. He had too frequently experienced, on
the
one hand, the contumacy and rebellious disposition of his
domestic
and foreign subjects; and on the other hand, the help
of
God in subduing them, to find it at all strange for him to
transfer
these relations in a more enlarged form to his antitype,
which
he probably did at a time when his experience in this re-
spect
was fresh and lively, about the period of his second great
victory
over the Syrians, 2 Sam. viii. 6: "And the Syrians
became
servants to David, and brought gifts; and the Lord
preserved
David whithersoever he went;" chapter x. 6, where
the
Syrians are said to have joined with the Ammonites against
David,
and verse 19, where we are told, that after David's
victory
over them, "all the kings that were servants to Hadar-
ezer,
when they saw that they were smitten before
peace
with
progress
made in this Psalm as regards the proclamations con-
cerning
the Messiah, it consists mainly in this, that there here
dawns
upon the Psalmist the superhuman nature and dignity
of
the Messiah, which is brought out still more distinctly in
Psalms
cx. and xlv. It deserves to be noted, that the expositors
who
oppose the Messianic sense, are driven hither and thither,
PSALM
III.
39
and
can nowhere find solid ground for their feet to stand upon.
Ewald
has disputed the reference to David advocated by most
writers,
and yet has decided upon applying it to Solomon. But
against
his view we have to set, besides the positive grounds
already
adduced for the Messianic interpretation, the force of
which
he unwittingly acknowledges by violent explanations,
such
as that of verse 12, not merely the silence of the historical
books,
of which he would make very light, but their most ex-
press
and unequivocal declarations. The posture of affairs
alluded
to here, is one of general revolt. Now, if we place that
at
the commencement of Solomon's reign, we shall be driven to
pronounce
the descriptions contained in the historical books
entirely
mythical. Hitzig has endeavoured to bring down the
application
to Alexander Jannaeus, a supposition which Koester,
in
his mild way, pronounces a make-shift. Maurer, again, would
carry
it up to the time of Hezekiah. He conceives, that by the
people
and kings of the earth, might very well be understood
the
Philistines. In Hoffmann, the non-Messianic interpretation
has
again arrived at David, only, however, after a very short
time,
once more to begin its wanderings.
PSALM III.
The Psalmist complains of the
multitude of his enemies,
who
mocked at his confidence in the Lord, vers. 2, 3. He
comforts
himself by calling to remembrance the support which
the
Lord had hitherto afforded him, the dignity to which He
had
raised him, and the manifold deliverances and answers to
prayer
which he had experienced, vers. 4, 5. He closes with
an
expression of his elevated joy of faith, vers. 6, 7; and with a
supplication
to the Lord to help him, as He had been wont to do
in
times past, and to bless His people, vers. 8, 9. The Psalm
consequently
falls quite naturally into four strophes, each con-
sisting
of two verses, the first of which describes the distress,
the
second the ground of hope, the third expresses the hope
itself,
and the fourth contains the prayer prompted by the hope.
With
this division of strophes corresponds also the position of
the
Selah, which in each case is placed at the end of a strophe.
The superscription of the
Psalm—"An excellent song of
David,
when he fled before Absalom his son"—declares it to
40 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
have
been composed when David fled from his son Absalom,
2
Sam. xv. 16. It is alleged by De Wette against the correct-
ness
of this supposition, that the Psalm itself contains nothing
in
support of it. Would not the tender heart of David, says
he,
have manifested in the presence of Jehovah, to whom he
made
his complaint, the deep wound it received from the con-
duct
of his son? In a similar way, De Wette very commonly
argues
against the Davidic authorship of the Psalms, and the
correctness
of the superscriptions, from the absence of any
definite
historical allusions. Now, it is here first of all to be
remarked,
that a prolix and detailed description of personal cir-
cumstances
is a thing impossible for a living faith, which, con-
vinced
that our heavenly Father knows what we need before
we
ask Him, is satisfied with mere allusions and general out-
lines.
It is otherwise where the prayer is only in form a
meditation
of the heart before God, but is in reality a conver-
sation
of the supplicant with himself. Then we are very prone
to
dive into the particulars of suffering, and run on in senti-
mental
descriptions of our circumstances. But still more is it
to
be considered that the sacred authors of the Psalms, and most
of
all David, had not themselves primarily in view in their
Psalms,
and only afterwards devoted that to general use, which
in
its origin was throughout individual as is commonly thought;
but
rather from the first their design in exhibiting their own
feelings,
was to build up the Church at large. The Psalms
which
arose out of personal transactions, are distinguished from
the
didactic Psalms, properly so called, by a fluctuating boundary.
The
former also possess, in a general way, the character of di-
dactic
Psalms. If we could imagine the sacred authors of them
cast
upon a desert island, with no prospect of again coming into
contact
with men, they would certainly, in that case, have lost
both
the desire and the impulse to utter their complaints and
their
hopes in the form of Psalms. For lyric poetry is not in
such
a sense subjective, that all reference to those placed in
like
situations, and agitated by like feelings, can be considered
as
shut out. David, in particular, was so closely connected with
the
Church, and recognised so thoroughly his Divine mission, to
give
it a treasure of sacred poetry for instruction, edification,
and
comfort, that he distinctly regarded all the events of his
own
course, from the first, as a type of similar ones in that of
his
brethren the righteous;—he considered himself to be their
PSALM III. 41
mouth
and representative, and the consolation primarily ad-
ministered
to him, to be equally destined for them. Herewith
was
necessarily connected a tendency to subordinate the parti-
cular
to the general, and to give only slight hints of the one
upon
the ground of the other. But such hints as confirm the
truth
of the superscription, are found in this Psalm. That
there
is a general resemblance between the position of the
Psalmist
and David's, there can be no doubt. As, according to
2
Sam. xv. 13, the report was brought to David that the hearts
of
all
18,
Hushai said to Absalom, "Whom the Lord, and this people,
and all the men of
abide;"
so the Psalmist complains, "Lord, how are they in-
creased
that trouble me! Many are they that rise up against
me;
many that say of my soul, There is no help for him in God."
In
both cases alike the distress is connected with a state of war.
And
as in 2 Sam. xvii. 1, 2, Ahithophel said to Absalom, "I
will
arise and pursue after David this night, and I will come
upon
him while he is weary and weak-handed, and will make
him
afraid; and all the people that are with him shall flee, and
I
will smite the king only;" so David says here, "I will not be
afraid
of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against
me
round about."
That a high dignity belonged to the
Psalmist, appears from
ver.
3, where he calls the Lord "his glory," and speaks of Him
as
having a lifted up his head." He is not afraid of myriads of
people;
the Lord has often already vanquished all his enemies,
—both
which indicate greatness of character in the oppressed.
The
mention of the people also, in his prayer, ver. 9, agrees well
with
his being a king, as their destiny might be represented as
intimately
connected with his own. But if the writer is a king,
of
whom can we think, but David, since, excepting him and
Solomon,
who is here out of the question, his government having
been
quite peaceful, history makes mention of no other crowned
bard;
while the dignified simplicity and freshness of the compo-
sition
bespeak his hand, and its place, also, among the Psalms of
David,
confirms the supposition? Then, if David is the author
of
it, we have only to choose between the troubles occasioned
by
Saul, and those occasioned by Absalom. Hitzig decides in
favour
of the former. For the refutation of this view, we have
no
need even to call to our aid the superscription. During the
42 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
persecutions
he sustained from the hand of Saul, David was not
yet
king. And a still stronger proof is afforded by ver. 4, where
David
says that the Lord had often before heard him from His
holy
mountain. This implies, that the seat of the sanctuary had
some
time previously been fixed in
removed
there till David had ascended the throne, after Saul's
death. Hitzig's attempt to escape from this ground
by under-
standing
the mountain to be Horeb, scarcely deserves a serious
consideration.
The whole phraseology of the Psalms repels this
supposition,
for these know no other holy mountain but Mount
where
an Israelite is found looking for help from
which
was only hallowed by ancient reminiscences, and not en-
nobled
by the presence of the Lord in later times. In fine, the
past
deliverances, on which the Psalmist, in vers. 3, 4, 7, and 8,
based
his hopes of escape from present trouble, are, manifestly,
chiefly
those which occurred in the reign of Saul. Indeed,
David
had experienced no such continued series of deliverances
in
this latter. So that we are led by internal grounds to the
very
same result, which the superscription had from the first an-
nounced.
And from this we deduce, at the same time, a favour-
able
conclusion for the superscriptions generally. The internal
grounds
lie here, as the aberrations of recent expositors show,
so
concealed, that the superscription could not possibly have been
derived
from a subtle combination of them,—a thing foreign to
antiquity.
Ewald maintains very decidedly, both that David
was
the author of the Psalm, and specially that it was composed
at
the time of Absalom. In regard to the former, he says,
David's
elevation, colouring, and style, are unmistakeable; in
regard
to the latter, he says, the author had already stood long
upon
the pinnacle of human power, had long experienced the
highest
favour from God, and often already poured forth the
feelings
of his heart in song. In ver. 8, we plainly recognise
the
noble spirit of David in that flight, by which he sought to
allay
the threatening storm, and avert from the people the burden
of
a new civil war. But we can still more nearly determine
the
situation of the bard, though only, it may be, with the highest
degree
of probability. The Psalm was, according to vers. 5 and
6,
an evening hymn. He there expresses his confidence, that,
though
surrounded by the greatest dangers, he could quietly
sleep,
and be certain of beholding the light of the following day.
PSALM III. 43
Now,
this circumstance accords only with the first night of
David's
flight, which he spent in the desert, after he had gone
weeping,
barefooted, and with his head covered, over the Mount
of
Olives, 2 Sam. xvi. 14. Comp. ver. 20. This first night was
the
most dangerous one for David; nay, it was the only night
during
the whole period of the insurrection, in which the danger
was
so very urgent, as ver. 6 states it to have been. David's
life
hung then by a single hair: had God not heard his prayer,
"Lord,
turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness," he had
actually
perished. Consequently, when the counsel of Ahitho-
phel,
to fall upon the king that very night, was rejected by
Absalom,
the strength of the rebellion was completely broken,
and
the danger in a manner past, as is manifest from this one.
circumstance,
that Ahithophel, in consequence of that rejection,
went
and hanged himself.
Two objections have been raised
against this conclusion.
First,
David was then still quite uncertain whether the Lord
would
again grant him the victory, and restore to him the king-
dom;
whereas he speaks here at the close with the greatest con-
fidence.
The passages referred to in support of this are 2 Sam.
xv.
25, 26: "The king said unto Zadok, 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 what seemeth good to Him." And chap. xvi. 12:
"It may be that the Lord will look on mine
affliction, and
that
the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day."
But
these passages by no means indicate a complete uncertainty,
and
are mainly to be regarded as a simple expression of the hu-
mility
which scarcely ventures to declare, with perfect confidence,
the
still never extinguished hope of deliverance, because feeling
itself
to be utterly unworthy of it; indeed, to give utterance to
this
latter feeling is their more special object. That David,
in
the midst of his deepest grief, did not abandon his trust in
the
Lord, appears from his confiding prayer, "Lord, turn the
counsel
of Ahithophel into foolishness," and from his conferring
on
Ziba the goods of Mephibosheth, 2 Sam. xvi. 4. And then
it
is not to be forgotten, that those expressions and our Psalm,
according
to the situation we are defending, were still separated
from
each other by a certain interval, great enough to admit of
the
relatively not great change of mood, which often takes place
44 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
in
a moment. It is expressly said, that David refreshed
himself
that
first night in the wilderness; which is certainly to be under-
stood,
not in a mere bodily sense, but also spiritually, since, in
troubles
of that nature, a mere bodily refreshment is inconceiv-
able.
But it is again objected, that, in such a state and con-
dition,
men do not write poetry. We might, however, appeal to
the
poems of the Arabians, which have been composed amid the
very
turmoil of action; to the fact, that the poet Lebid was
writing
verses in the very article of death, etc.; but we would
rather
admit, that there is a certain degree of truth in the ob-
jection.
The artificial construction of this Psalm, and others
composed
in similar situations (it is far from correct to regard the
Psalms
in general as the simple poetry of nature); the circum-
stance
that a number of Psalms not unfrequently refer to one and
the
same situation, as this, for example, and the fourth,—these
and
other things render it very probable, that in such cases, the
conception
and the birth of the Psalm were separated from
each
other; that David did not immediately express in manifold
forms
what he had felt in moments of pressing danger; that he
only
afterwards, and by degrees, coined for the Church the gold
of
consolation bestowed upon himself in such moments. This
opinion
was long ago held by Luther in regard to the present
Psalm;
but he, on insufficient grounds—"for it is against all
experience,
that, in the midst of the cross, no decided joy should
be
able to be felt" —adjudges the matter
of the Psalm also to a
later
period: "It is not probable that he
should have composed
it
at the time of his flight and distress. For the Holy Spirit will
have
a calm, happy, cheerful, select instrument, to preach and
sing
of Him. In the conflict, moreover, man has no understand-
ing,
but becomes capable of this only after the conflict is over
—reflects
then aright upon what has occurred to him under it.
Therefore,
it is more credible that David composed this Psalm long
after,
when he came to quiet reflection, and understood the secrets
of
his life and history, which had variously happened to him."
As in the first and second Psalms,
so here again, in this and
the
fourth, we have a pair of Psalms inseparably united by the
inspired
writer himself. The situation in each is exactly the
same;
comp. iii. 5 with iv. 8. The thoughts which agitated his
heart
in that remarkable night, the Psalmist has represented to
us
in a whole with two parts. In Psalm iii. his earlier experi-
ences
of Divine aid form the chief point, while in Psalm iv. he
PSALM III. VERS. 1,
2. 45
looks
to his Divine appointment as to the rock upon which the
waves
of revolt must dash themselves to pieces.
It is certainly not to be regarded
as an accident, that Psalms
third
and fourth immediately follow the first and second. They
are
occupied, as well as Psalm second, with a revolt against the
Lord's
Anointed; and Psalm fourth especially shows a remark-
able
agreement with it, first in thought, and then also in expres-
sion—comp.
"imagine a vain thing" in ii. 1 with "love vanity"
in
iv. 2. In this third Psalm the personal experiences and feel-
ing
of David are most prominent, and they formed the basis on
which
he reared the expectation of the events which were to
befall
his successor, the Anointed One absolutely.
Ver. 1. 0 Lord, how are mine enemies so many! Many are
they that rise up against
me. The
Mvq
with lf
used of enemies
generally
in Dent. xxviii. 7, and does not specially indicate
revolt
as such.
Ver. 2. Many say to my soul, There is no help for hint in God.
The
greater part of expositors consider ywpnl as a mere peri-
phrasis
for the pronoun. The words "my soul," indeed, occur
in
that sense among the Arabians, with whom many words have
been
clipt and pared so as to lose their original impress; but
not
so among the Hebrews, with whom the words still always
express
the thoughts and feelings. There is always a reason
why
the ywpn
rather than the pronoun is used. Here the dis-
course
of the enemies is described as one which wounds the
heart
and soul—comp. Ps. lxix. 20, "Reproach hath broken my
heart;"
also Isa. li. 23. If we explain, "of
my soul," or "to my
soul,"
the word "soul" is used because David's very life was
in
question, because his enemies thought they had it already in
their
power. No support for that rendering is to be drawn from
the
following words: "no help to him in
God." What the ene-
mies
say of David is so painful to him,
that he considers it as
spoken
personally to himself. It is his soul
that is affected by
the
discourse. It is further to be objected to that rendering,
that
rmx
with l for
the most part signifies, "to speak to some
one,"—comp.
also the opposite declaration in Ps. xxxv. 3, "Say
to
my soul, I am thy salvation." In the form htfvwy the h is
added,
as the poets not unfrequently did with nouns, which
already
had the feminine termination, to give the word a fuller
and
better sound; Ewald, p. 323. Before this h the preceding
h fem. becomes hardened into t; Ewald, p. 37.
46 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Nyx is always negation of
being, always signifies, "it is not."
By
the expression, "in God," God is described as the ground
and
source of salvation. The enemies denied that God would
help
him, either because, in utter
ungodliness, they excluded
God
altogether from earthly affairs, or at all events thought
that
matters had gone too far with David, even for God's power
to
help him, Ps. x. 11; or because they
considered David as one
cast
off by Him, unworthy of His protection, Ps. xlii. 3, 10,
lxxi.
11, 7, 8; Matt. xxvii. 43; and this pained him most
deeply.
The last mentioned view of David's case was that taken
by
Shimei, 2 Sam. xvi. 8. He sought to rob David of his last,
his
dearest treasure: "The Lord hath
returned upon thee all
the
blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned;
and
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." This kind of attack was the
most
painfully affecting. The denial, that God is our God, finds
an
ally in the believer's own consciousness of guilt, however
strongly
he may be convinced of his innocence in regard to
particular
charges, and it requires no small measure of faith to
gain
here the victory. Luther: "As if he
would say, They
not
only say that I am abandoned and trodden upon by all crea-
tures,
but also that God will not help me, who assists all things,
sustains
all, cares for all; that for me alone of all things He has
no
care, and will minister to me no support. Though every
possible
assault, the assaults of a whole world, and of all hell to
boot,
were combined, it were still nothing to the assault of God,
when
He thrusts at a man. It made Jeremiah tremblingly beg
and
pray, xvii. 17, ‘Be not a terror unto me, 0 Thou my Hope
in
the day of evil.’"
But while the words, as is evident
from the analogous ones
used
by Shimei, and also from 2 Sam. xvi. 18, principally refer
to
the will of God to help the Psalmist,
a reference to His power
also
is not entirely to be excluded. This is clear from the closing
words,
"Salvation belongeth to the Lord," which plainly refer
to
the taunt, "no help for him in God," and which vindicate
to
the Lord, not the will, but the power to help. The general
name
of God, Elohim, is used on account of the contrast that is
silently
implied to human means of help: everything is against
him
on earth, and in heaven too there is no longer any resource
for
him. The speakers are not, as De Wette supposes, the
PSALM III. VER. 2. 47
Psalmist's
despairing friends, but his enemies. Only then could
it
justly be said, that there were so many of them. De Wette's
allegation,
that the speech is not godless and spiteful enough
for
enemies, rests on a misapprehension of its real meaning.
For
to the man, who with his whole being throws himself upon
God,
it is even as "death in his bones" to hear his enemies say-
ing,
"Where is thy God?" This is the most envenomed arrow
which
they could shoot into his heart.
The selah occurs here for the first time. It is found seventy-
one
times in the Psalms, and thrice in Habakkuk. It is best
derived
from hlw,
to rest, of frequent use in Hebrew,
as well
as
Syriac. The change of the harder w to the softer s is very
common;
see Ewald, p. 29. It can either be taken as a noun,
rest, pause, or, with Gesenius in
his Thes., as the imperative
with
He parag. and in the pause. Primarily, indeed, it is a
music-mark.
But as the pause in music always occurs where
the
feelings require a resting-place, it is of no little importance
as
regards the sense, and the translators who leave it out, cer-
tainly
do wrong. This view acquires great probability, by a
particular
consideration of the places where the selah occurs. It
generally
stands where a pause is quite suitable. Others suppose
that
the word is an abbreviation of several words. But there is
no
proof that the practice of such abbreviations prevailed among
the
Israelites. Koester is inclined to regard the selah as mark-
ing
the division of strophes. But that it should in many places
coincide
with such a division, is easily explained by the circum-
stance
that the resting-place for the music must generally coin-
cide
with a break in the sense. And that selah is not strictly
the
mark of the strophe-divisions, is evident from its frequently
not
coinciding with the end of a strophe; for example, Ps. lv. 19,
lvii.
3; Hab. iii. 3, 9, in which places it is found in the middle
of
a verse. Besides, if the selah had indicated a poetical, rather
than
a musical division, the prophets, in whose writings there
are
traces of the beginnings of a division into strophes, would
have
employed it. Habakkuk forms only an apparent excep-
tion.
For the third chapter of this prophet, in which alone the
selah
occurs, embodies the feelings which were stirred in the
Church
by the announcements of God, those, namely, of judg-
ment
in ch. i., and of deliverance in ch., so that it is really
of
the nature of Psalmodic poetry, and is adapted for singing
and
playing as a Psalm; as, indeed, both its superscription and
48 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
conclusion
are borrowed from the Psalms. Our view of the
matter
is confirmed also by Ps. ix. 16, where the hls stands
along
with Nvygh,
"reflection" (see our remarks there). This
juxtaposition
decides against Ewald's notion, that selah was a
summons
to particularly loud playing, deriving the word from
a
substantive ls and that from lls, professedly signifying
to
mount; properly, "to the
heights," "up," which in matters of
sound,
must be synonymous with loud, clear.
In a philological
point
of view, also, this opinion is open to many objections. For
remarks
against this and other divergent explanations, see Ge-
nesius'
Thes. The right view was
substantially given by Luther.
The
selah, says he, tells us "to pause and carefully reflect on
the
words of the Psalm, for they require a peaceful and medi-
tative
soul, which can apprehend and receive what the Holy
Spirit
there cogitates and propounds. Which we see, indeed,
in
this verse, where the Psalmist is deeply and earnestly moved
to
feel and understand this heavy trial of the spirit, wherein
also
God seems to take part, as well as the creature."
Ver. 3. While, according to vers. 1
and 2, the earth pre-
sented
to the Psalmist nothing but trouble and danger, an helper
in
the heavens appears to his eye of faith. He comforts him-
self
in God, to whom he looks as his Saviour in all troubles and
dangers,
to whom he owed his high elevation, and who always
hears
his prayers. Man may deny him His help, but yet he
sees
in what God had already done for him a sure pledge of
what
he might still expect. Luther: "Here he sets, in oppo-
sition
to the foregoing points, three others. Against the many
enemies of whom he had spoken,
he places this, that God is his
shield. Then, as they had set
themselves against him, thinking
to
put him to shame before the world, he opposes the fact, that
God
had given him honour. Finally, he complains of the slan-
derers
and scoffers, and against these he boasts, that it is the
Lord
who lifts up his head.--To the people, and to his own mind,
he
may seem forsaken and alone; but before God, and in his
spirit,
he is encompassed with a great host, neither forsaken,
nor
alone, as Christ said to His disciples, John xvi. 32, ‘Lo
the
hour cometh, yea is now come, that ye shall be scattered
every
man to his own, and shall leave Me alone; and yet I am
not
alone, because the Father is with Me.’—However impotent
and
oppressed he might seem in the eyes of men, before God,
and
in the spirit, he is the strongest and the mightiest; inso-
PSALM III. VER. 3. 49
much
that he boasts of God's power with the utmost confidence
and
security, like
then
I am strong.’—Whoever understands, or has experienced
such
assaults, will, at the same time, understand how foolishly and
wickedly
they speak, who say that man by nature can love God
above
all things. Thou shalt find no one who will bear such dis-
pleasure
from God; and yet, if the love of God does not over-
come
that, He is not loved above all things. Therefore the words
of
this verse are not words of nature, but words of grace,—not
of
man's free will, but of the Spirit of God,—of a very strong
faith,
which can see God through the darkness of death and
hell,
and can still recognise Him as a shield, though He seems to
have
forsaken,—can see God as a persecutor, and yet recognise
Him
as an helper,—can see God apparently condemning, and
at
the same time recognise Him as blessing. For he who
has
such faith judges not by what he sees and feels, like
the
horse and mule, which have no understanding, Ps. xxxii.
9,
but clings fast to the word, which speaks of things that man
sees
not."
And
Thou, 0 Lord, art a shield about me; my glory, and
He who lifts up my head. God is Abraham's
shield, according
to
Gen. xv. 1, and
of
the law, Deut. xxxiii. 29. David has an especial predilec-
tion
for this designation: Psalm vii. 10; xviii. 2; xxviii. 7.
The
dfb,
corresponds entirely to the German um
(Anglice,
about), and to the Gr. a]mfi< Ew. p. 613, around me, giving me
protection.—My glory. Because David's glory, viz.
the high
dignity
which he possessed, was derived from the Lord; he
names
Him his glory—comp. Psalm lxii. 7,
"In God is my
salvation
and my glory." Many expositors falsely render: the
vindicator of my glory, by metonomy of the
effect for the cause.
The
parallel passages to which reference is made, such as Psalm
xxvii.
1, "The Lord is my light and my salvation," are brought
in
support only by a wrong exposition. The vindication of glory
is
a consequence of the Psalmist's having his glory from God
and
in God. What has its ground in God, that he will not
suffer
to be taken away. The lifting up of the
head marks the
deliverance
of a man from a position of humiliation, from great
dangers,
from the state in which he goes mournful and dis-
pirited
with drooping head. The discourse here, however, is
not
of the deliverance to be hoped for in this danger nor of
50 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
any
particular transaction whatever, but of all the events in
the
life of David, in which he had found that the Lord was his
deliverer.
Upon the circumstance that the Lord had generally
been
the lifter up of his head, he grounds the hope that in this
distress
also He would be the same; and from God's having
been
the source of his glory, he derived the hope that God
would
not suffer the impious attempts of those now to go un-
punished,
who sought to rob him of it.
Ver. 4. I cry unto the Lord with my voice, and He hears me
out of His holy hill. The verbs in this
verse mark a habit, not
a
single action, just as in Psalm xviii. 3, "When I call upon
the
Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and am saved from mine
enemies."
Because the Lord is, in respect to David, the one
who
hears prayer, the surest mark of a gracious condition, He
cannot
leave him now, without also hearing him. Luther
"He
speaks here chiefly of the voice of the heart; still I con-
ceive
that the corporeal voice is not excluded, and hence, that
the
voice of the heart and feeling, when it is vehement, cannot
be
restrained, but must break forth into the literal voice. For
Christ
Himself upon the cross cried with an audible voice,
teaching
us to cry in straits and necessities, and that with all
our
power, inward and outward, we should call upon the Lord.'
The
answer follows in a sermo realis. The
Fut. with vau conv.
simply
denotes the consequence from the preceding; hence, if
we
render xrqx
I call, it is to be translated, not
He answered,
but
He answers. The holy hill is
the
servant of the Lord derives his help. This faith is very
often
expressed in the Psalms. It had its ground in the pro-
mise,
that the Lord would dwell among His people, and would
sit
on a throne in the sanctuary above the ark of the covenant.
This
promise was given to help the weakness of the Israelites,
which
made them desire a praesens numen, an incorporation of
the
idea that God is, in a peculiar sense, their God. When
the
faithful seek help from the sanctuary, they declare that
they
expect it, not from Elohim, but from Jehovah—that they
hope
for that power of the covenant with
alone
they could rest with proper confidence. For the Chris-
tian,
Christ has come into the place of Jehovah, and the holy
bill.
In regard to the Selah here, Luther remarks: "The
word
means, that we should here pause, and not lightly pass
over
these words, but reflect further upon them. For it is an
PSALM III. VER.
5. 51
exceedingly
great thing to be heard, and to expect help from
the
holy hill of God."
Ver. 5. I lay me down and sleep; I awake, for the Lord sus-
taineth me; i.e. the assistance of
the Lord, which is assured to
me,
by what He has formerly done, makes me soon fall to sleep,
and
brings me a pleasant awakening. In this part also, many
expositors
think the Psalmist speaks of what is still going for-
ward:
Often already have I laid myself quietly down in the
midst
of danger, and found sleep. I have not, like those who
live
in the world without God, tossed about with uneasy cares
upon
my bed, and the issue has always corresponded with my
hopes.
I have constantly awoke without any evil having be-
fallen
me, for the Lord is my stay and help. By this construc-
tion,
however, according to which this verse would be closely
united
to vers. 3, 4, the strophe-division is entirely destroyed,
and
the Selah at the end of the preceding verse appears then
unsuitable.
The expression of confidence in regard to present
distress,
limited in such a case to ver. 6, is too short, and the
setting
forth of the Psalmist's hope ceases to bear a due propor-
tion
to the setting forth of the ground of
his hope. But if,
with
Venema and others, we refer ver. 6 also to the past, we
put
out the eye of the Psalm. It is therefore better to refer
the
words to his present danger, and regard them as the expres-
sion
of a joyful confidence, which enabled him, even in such
circumstances,
to lay himself down and sleep, and to expect also
to
awake in security and peace. The ytvcyqh is consequently to
be
taken as the praet. proph. Faith sees what is not as if it
were,
the awaking just as surely as the lying down. The verse
shows
that the Psalm was an evening hymn, as was also the
following
one, the eighth verse of which remarkably agrees
with
that now under consideration; and the praet. ytbkw im-
plies
that the Psalmist had already betaken himself to rest. It
happened
to David according to his faith. Ahithophel made
no
way with his counsel to attack by night, and David with-
drew
before break of day beyond
bus
aeque feliciter accidit," remarks J. H. Michaelis, adducing
1
Sam xxvi. 7-15, where David surprised and could have slain
Saul
while sleeping in his tent. It is only to the righteous
that
the promise is given in Prov. iii. "When thou liest
down,
thou shalt not be afraid; yea, thou shalt lie down, and
thy
sleep shall be Sweet." The ynx is emphatical, in
opposition
52 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
to
the vain expectation of the enemy: I, the very person, whom
ye
imagine to be beyond the reach of deliverance.
Ver. 6. I am not afraid of ten thousands of people, which they
set against me round
about.
The tvbbr
has reference to vbr and
Mybr in vers. 2 and 3. There is as little reason
here, as in Isa.
xxii.
7 (where it may with propriety be rendered, "The Horse-
men,
place they, towards the gate"), for taking tvw intransi-
tively,
set themselves, in which sense it
never occurs.
Ver. 7. The Psalmist prays the Lord
to justify the confi-
dence
which he had expressed in the preceding strophe, and to
fulfil
the promise substantially given in the earlier deliverances -
he
had experienced, and on which he grounded his expectation
of
present aid. Arise, 0 Lord, save me, 0 my
God. For Thou
didst smite all mine
enemies upon the cheek-bone; thou didst
break the teeth of the
ungodly.
That is, I cannot but expect
this
from Thee, as Thou hast hitherto so uniformly stood by
me.
The words "save (or deliver) me," have reference to those
in
ver. 2, " There is no help for him in God." yHl is in the
accusative.
By the smiting on the cheek, as a piece of insult-
ing
treatment, the power and energy is broken; comp. 1 Kings
xxii.
24; Micah iv. 14; Lam. iii. 30. We must not, because
of
the following clause, limit the design of the smiting on the
cheek-merely
to the knocking out of the teeth, with which the
wicked,
like so many wild beasts, were ready to eat the flesh of
David,
Psalm xxvii. 2. That clause only specifies a particular
result
of the smiting in question. The ungodly are parallel to
the
enemies in the preceding clause. This is explained by the
fact,
that David's adversaries were, at the same time, the un-
godly,
and that their hatred was directed against him as the
representative
of the principle of good. This is confirmed also
by
history. In particular, and there is no question, that, in the
wearisome
persecutions he endured at the hands of Saul, to
which
he specially refers, individual was not opposed to indi-
vidual,
but principle to principle. The ungodly principle,
thrown
down in Saul, sought afterwards to regain the ascend-
ant
in Absalom, who is only to be considered as an instrument
and
centre of the unrighteous party. The more, therefore, did
the
earlier deliverance experienced by the Psalmist, form a
ground
for his present supplication.
That tykh and trbw are not to be regarded
as praeterita pro-
phetica, as some think—that
David rather grounds, according
PSALM III. VER. 8. 53
to
custom, his prayer to the Lord for deliverance upon his
earlier
deliverances, which arose from his general relation to
the
Lord, as his present deliverance was to be a result thereof,
is
manifest from the causative particle yk, which the expositors
referred
to seek in vain to render by yea;
also from the parallel
passage,
Psalm iv. 1; and most of all, from a comparison of
vers.
2-4, the substance of which is only concisely repeated
here.
As in vers. 5, 6, he rested his hope upon the general re-
lation,
so here also his prayer. That relation also of David to
the
Lord which warranted him to seek help from Him, is alluded
to
in the expression, "my God." But it is not absolutely neces-
sary
to translate, "Thou smotest," "Thou didst break:" we
may
also correctly translate with Luther, "Thou smitest,"
"Thou
breakest in pieces;" and this rendering is confirmed
by
vers. 3, 4, where, not so much what the Lord had already
done
is represented as a ground of hope, as what He is con-
stantly
doing. The preterite not unfrequently denotes a past,
reaching
forward into the present: see Ewald's Small
Gr.
§
262. In perfect accordance with the spirit of the Psalms,
which
always treat a particular danger, threatening the right-
eous,
as representative of the entire class, Luther remarks:
"This
Psalm is profitable also to us for comforting weak and
straitened
consciences, if we understand in a spiritual sense by
the
enemies, and by the teeth of the ungodly, the temptations
of
sin, and the conscience of an ill-spent life. For there indeed
is
the heart of the sinner vexed, there alone is it weak and for-
saken;
and when men are not accustomed to lift their eyes
above
themselves, and to cry to God against the raging of sin,
and
against an evil conscience, there is great danger; and it is
to
be feared lest the evil spirits, who, in such a case, are ready
to
seize upon poor souls, may at last swallow them up, and lead
them
through distress into despair."
Ver. 8. Salvation is the Lord's. He is the possessor and
sole
dispenser thereof—He can give it to whom He pleases, even
to
the most helpless, whom the whole world considers to be in a
desperate
case. "Though all misfortune, all tribulation and evil,
should
come at once, still there is a God who can deliver, in His
hand
is help and blessing." This thought must have been pe-
culiarly
comforting to David when deserted by human helpers
and
means of deliverance. Since salvation belonged wholly to
the
Lord, he might rest secure, for the Lord was his God. Thy
54 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
blessing upon Thy people! The royal Psalmist shows by these
words
that his own person lay less upon his heart, than the
people
committed to him by the Lord—that he claims deliver-
ance
for himself only in so far as it could do good. to his people.
The
declaration in the first clause forms the necessary founda-
tion
for the prayer uttered in the second. To be able truly to
pray
from the heart, we must firmly believe that God is really
in
possession of the treasure, from which He is to communicate
to
us. In the preceding verse the order is reversed.
PSALM IV.
Encompassed by enemies, the Psalmist
calls upon the Lord
for
help, ver. 1. He turns then to his enemies, and admonishes
them
to cease from their attempts to rob him of his dignity, and
from
their vain purposes; exhorts them to reflect that the
dignity
which they sought to take from him was conferred on
him
by God, and that this fact gave the Psalmist sure ground
for
expecting the fulfilment of the prayer which he utters at the
commencement;
for what the Lord has given He must also pre-
serve,
vers. 2, 3. He warns them not to sin further by giving
way
to passionate emotions; urges them to meditate upon this
admonition
in their silent chamber, upon their bed; to cease from
their
noise and bluster; and instead of hypocritical offerings, with
which
they thought to make the Lord favourable to them, to
present
righteous sacrifices; to put their trust in the Lord, instead
of
boasting of their own power, and of the superiority of their
means
to those of the Psalmist; for only these two things,
righteous
sacrifices and confidence in God, can afford a well-
grounded
hope of a prosperous issue, and those to whom these
conditions
fail, flatter themselves with vain hopes, vers. 4, 5.
In
vers. 6 and 7 the Psalmist declares how much the confidence
in
the Lord, which his enemies wanted, was possessed by him-
self.
He despairs not in his distress, as many do, but is firmly
persuaded
that the Lord can and will help him; and this per-
suasion,
wrought in him by the Lord Himself, makes him more
blessed
than his enemies are in the very fulness of their pro-
sperity.
In conclusion, he again expresses the firmest trust in
the
Lord, in which he gives himself to sleep, ver. 8.
The strophe-division has been
correctly made by Koester
PSALM IV. 55
thus:
1. 2. 2. 2. 1. He remarks, that the first verse obviously
stands
by itself; then follows the address to the enemies in two
strophes,
a third expresses David's delight, and the last verse
again
stands alone, as a "good night." Koester's remark, how-
ever,
that the selah is twice placed a verse too early, is not cor-
rect.
On the contrary, it forms a most appropriate break in the
sense,
in the middle of the two strophes, which are directed to-
ward
the enemies. The first verse of both strophes contains the
dissuasion,
the second the exhortation; in both instances there
is
a pause in the middle, as if to give them space for reflection,
to
make them thoughtful. We need only conceive a dash to
occupy
the place of the selah.
The Psalm begins with a prayer, and
concludes with an ex-
pression
of confidence in its fulfilment. In the middle, the
Psalmist
seeks to make himself acquainted with the grounds
which
assured him of this. It is only when we take vers. 2-7
so,
viewing it as an address to the enemies merely in form, that
the
Psalm appears in its real internal connection. The pillars
of
the bridge, which in vers. 2-7 is laid between the distress
and
the deliverance, between the prayer and the confidence, are,
1.
The Psalmist's election, and the circumstance, that his ene-
mies
were striving against this Divine decree, and seeking to rob
him
of what God had given him. 2. The Psalmist's sincere
and
fervent piety (the dysH, in ver. 3), the enemies' hypocritical
and
outward religiousness, implied in their needing to be called
on
to "offer sacrifices of righteousness,"
in ver. 5. 3. The
Psalmist's
lively trust in God, vers. 6, 7, while his enemies were
placing
their confidence not upon the Lord, but only upon
human
means of help—comp. ver. 5, "put your trust in the
Lord."
Expositors for the most part refer
this Psalm also to Absa-
low's
conspiracy; and that they are right in doing so, appears
from
the following considerations:--1. The Psalmist charges
his
enemies, vers. 2, 3, with seeking to rob him of the dignity
conferred
on him by God. On this ground alone, we cannot
refer
the Psalm, with some, and in particular Calvin, to the
persecutions
of Saul. It presupposes a domestic revolt against
the
Psalmist, after he had actually ascended the throne. 2. The
Psalm
so remarkably agrees with the preceding one, which is
connected
with Absalom's conspiracy, that it must of necessity
be
referred to the same period—comp. ydvbk, “my glory,” in ver.
56 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
2,
with iii. 3, and ver. 8 with iii. 5. The objection of De Wette,
that
the Psalmist does not address a faithless son, but only men
generally,
apart from what was remarked on Ps. iii., is obviated
by
the consideration that Absalom was the mere tool of an un-
righteous
party dissatisfied with David, which made his vanity
subservient
to its own purposes; hence David, who so willingly
regarded
his son as the seduced, rather than as the seducer,
directs
his speech mainly to these. The other objections pro-
ceed
upon a false view of vers. 5, 7. So also Hitzig's opinion,
that
the Psalm must have been composed after the danger spoken
of
in the preceding one had passed away, is founded upon a
false
exposition. Claus endeavours to show, that all the ap-
parently
individual allusions in the Psalm might possibly also
be
viewed as general; but he has proved nothing that is not un-
derstood
at a glance, namely, that the individual always has at
the
same time a general aspect, and is only sketchily indicated
on
the ground of the general. We have already seen how this
structure
of the Psalms arises from the nature of the case—
out
of the living faith of their authors, which did not allow them
to
narrate at length their own circumstances, and also from their
keeping
always in view the wants of the whole community.
How
much this peculiarity of the Psalms fits them for the general
use
of the Church, is easily perceived. Only glance for a moment
at
this Psalm. How much less edifying would it have been, had
David,
in place of glory, which can be taken
in the most ex-
tended
sense, so that the very least can possess and lose it, put
his
kingly honour and supremacy; or in
place of vanity and lies,
by
which each one can understand, according to his situation,
every
kind of calumny and deception to which he may possibly
be
exposed, had substituted the foolish counsels of Absalom, and
his
companions in particular! Ewald, following many of the older
expositors,
properly concludes from ver. 8, that the Psalm was
composed
as an evening hymn and prayer. Night is the season
when
painful feelings are most apt to stir up and inflame the hearts
of
those who are far from God. That this night was the first of
David's
flight, is probable from ver. 7, in addition to the reasons
already
adduced in our introduction to the preceding Psalm.
To
the chief musician.—The word Hcnml (comp. Delitzsch
Symb. p. 25), which stands
at the head of fifty-three Psalms, is
considered
by many as an Aramaic form of the infinitive. They
render
it, either "for singing," or as Claus more definitely, "for
PSALM IV. 57
singing
through," with reference to that kind of music, of which
the
same melody is continued through different strophes, in con-
trast
to a composition embracing the whole Psalm. Both ren-
derings,
however, are quite arbitrary, and not less arbitrary is
the
explanation given of the form. The Aramaic form of the
infinitive
is never found in Hebrew; and even if it were, it would
not
be as it is here. Against this explanation may lastly be
urged,
that with that word is always joined the article. The
form
can only be the partic. in Piel with the article prefixed.
Now
Hace.ni occurs frequently in the books of Chronicles and Ezra,
in
the sense of "preside," and, as has been remarked by Ewald,
is
used only of the ordering and directing which were committed
to
the chiefs of the Levites—uncertain whether incidentally, or
whether
the word is a Levitical technical term—and in 1 Chron.
xv.
2, it is specially used of the directing of the musical per-
formance.
What could be more natural then, in the superscrip-
tions
to the Psalms, than to remember the leader of the music?
Hcnm signifies merely a "president," and
we gather only from the
context,
that a director of music is specially meant. From the
article,
which may with perfect propriety be understood generi-
cally,
we are not to conclude with Ewald, that the directorship
of
music was a standing office in the temple. The title, "to the
chief
musician," is of importance in so far, as it affords a proof
that
the Psalms which contain this in the superscription were
intended
for public use in the temple. It is only with a refer-
ence
to this that the word could hold the place it does in the
superscriptions.
This place must have been assigned it by the
authors
themselves of the Psalms, thereby begetting a very fa-
vourable
prepossession in behalf of the originality of the other
information
contained in the superscriptions. Ewald, in order
to
neutralize this testimony for the superscriptions, would fain
translate
Hcnml:
of the chief musician. In his view,
the word
indicates
that the Psalm had actually been set to music, and per-
formed
by the chief musician. But for the other rendering to
the chief musician, meaning that it was to
be delivered up to him
to
be prepared for performance (in which case the word must
have
been prefixed by the author himself, before the musical per-
actually
took place), a decisive proof is afforded by Hab.
iii.
19, the more important in its bearing on our exposition here, as
the
prophet manifestly imitates the superscription of the Psalms.
The
words ytvnygnb Hcnml, with which the song of the Church is
58 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
there
closed, can be no otherwise explained than as meaning,
"to
the chief musician upon my (
that
speaks through the whole chapter) stringed instrument;"
which
is as much as, assigned to the chief musician, that he might
have
it publicly sung in the temple with the accompaniment of
sacred
music: this might be considered to be the national music.
Negionoth is the general name for
all stringed instruments. The
whole
superscription, then, of the Psalm, is to be paraphrased
thus:
A Psalm of David to be delivered to the music director,
that
he may arrange for its performance with the accompaniment
of
stringed instruments.
Ver. 1. When I call, answer me, Thou my righteous God,
who givest me help in
distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my
prayer. The "my God"
is here rendered more definite, by an
additional
word. The Psalmist indicates that he expected help,
not
on account of any partial predilection entertained for him
by
God, but from his God being the Righteous One, who could
not
but afford aid to His righteous cause. In this he supplies
a
rule for every prayer in like extremities. To beg help, with-
out
being able thus to designate God, is equivalent to blasphemy.
For,
instead of wishing God to act according to His nature, one
then
wishes Him to deny His nature. The suffix refers, as
it
very frequently does, to the compound idea; Ewald, p. 580.
It
is used precisely in the same way, for example, in Psalm
xxiv.
5, "The God of his salvation," = his salvation-God. The
explanation
adopted by several, which takes "Thou God of my
righteousness,"
as equal to "Thou who takest the part of my
righteousness,"
can find no parallel to justify it.—yl tbHrh rcb,
properly,
in straits Thou makest me large, wide.
Narrowness is
a
figurative term for misfortune, as broadness for prosperity.
The
meaning is, "Full of confidence, I call on Thee for help,
who
hast already given me so many proofs of Thy goodness,
hast
so often already delivered me from trouble, whose proper
business
it is to do this." The verb may be rendered either,
"Thou
hast enlarged," —in which case David would ground his
prayer
for help merely upon past deliverances,—or, "Thou dost
enlarge,"
David being then understood to comfort himself with
the
thought, that God stood ordinarily to him in the relation of
a
helper in the time of need. This latter view, which is Luther's
also,
"Thou who comfortest me in distress," is to be preferred
on
this account, that the words, according to it, briefly compre-
PSALM IV. VER. 2. 59
hend
what had been set forth in detail in vers. 3 and 4 of the
preceding
Psalm, which stands so closely related to this. The
Psalmist
shortly resumes in these words what in Psalm iii. had
been
the foundation of his hope of deliverance, and raises him-
self
up in the following verses, by means of a new ground of
hope,
even his Divine election. The words have suffered a false
exposition
in two ways. First, by De Wette, who explains the
pret.
imperatively. Grammatically, this is inadmissible, for in
such
cases the vau relat. never fails; Ewald p. 554; Small Gr.
§
621. The parallel passages, Ps. vii. 7, lxxi. 3, adduced by
De
Wette are to be explained differently. And, granting that
a
single passage might be found, in which an exception occurs
to
the general rule, yet we should not be justified in adopting
here
an usage which is certainly very rare, and only to be ad-
mitted
in a case of necessity; since the exposition we prefer gives
an
easy and natural sense, and is confirmed by the parallel pas-
sages
in the preceding Psalm. Comp. Psalm xxvii. 9, where
"Thou
who art my helper" corresponds to "Thou God of my
salvation."—Then
by Hitzig, who finds here a deliverance from a
certain
particular distress, the same that was spoken of in Psalm
third.
But that this still continued, is evident from the extra-
agreement
between the whole substance of this Psalm
and
that of the preceding one. And still more decidedly is this
supposition
rebutted by a comparison of our Psalm with iii. 2-4,
and
especially ver. 7.
Ver. 2. 0 ye sons of men, how long shall my glory be for
shame? or be a matter of
reproach; i.e. when will ye at length
cease
wantonly to attack my dignity? According to De Wette,
the
expression, sons of men, must be
viewed as standing simply
for
men. But in that case it would certainly have been, not
wyx ynb, but the more common expression,