COMMENTARY
ON
THE PSALMS
BY
E. W. HENGSTENBERG,
DR AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN
VOL.
III.
TRANSLATED BY THE
REV. JOHN THOMSON,
AND
REV. PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, SALTON.
T. &L T. CLARK,
SEELEY AND CO.; WARD AND CO.;
JACKSON AND WALFORD, &C,
MDCCCXLVIII,
1848
Digitized by Ted Hildebrandt,
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE present Volume of the FOREIGN
THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY
has
been enlarged considerably beyond the regular size, in order
to
comprize the whole of the remainder of HENGSTENBERG on
the
PSALMS. Of the portion contained in this volume, it may be
proper
to state that the translation, as far as the close of Psalm
cxxvi.,
is by Mr Thomson, the remainder by Mr Fairbairn. The
Treatises
at the close have a separate paging, from its having
been
found convenient to print that part of the translation before
the
rest could be got ready for the press. By some accident the
short
general introduction to the group of Psalms, cxxxv.—cxlvi.,
was
omitted at its proper place between Ps. cxxxiv. and cxxxv.;
and
it has been inserted at the close of the group, at p. 546.
The
translators have not thought it necessary to append any
notes
or explanations of their own, with the exception of a brief
statement
at the close of the Treatises, for which the translator
of
that portion is alone responsible.
ERRATA.
In Ps. cxx., p. 412; Ps. cxxi., p. 418; Ps.
cxxii., p. 426; Ps, cxxiii, p. 432, for
Pilgrims
read Pilgrimages.
THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
PSALM
LXXIX.
THE
main division of the Psalm contains twelve verses. These
are
divided, as is frequently the case, into three strophes, each
consisting
of four verses. Ver. 1-4 contains the representation
of
the misery:—the land of the Lord has been taken possession
of
by the heathen, the temple
desecrated,
the
servants of God have been put to
death; the people of God
become
the objects of contempt to their neighbours. The second
and
third strophes contain the prayer.
The conclusion, ver. 13,
containing
the result of the whole, gives expression to confi-
dence.
The Psalm stands nearly related to
the lxxiv.; the situation
is
the same, and they come a good deal in contact as regards the
expression.
Both Psalms refer to the Chaldean invasion. The
Psalm
before us proceeds on the supposition that the seventy-
fourth
had been previously composed, and supplements
it. In
the
seventy-fourth Psalm the destruction of
the sanctuary is
pre-eminently
and almost exclusively brought forward; but in the
seventy-ninth
it is referred to very briefly, for the purpose of
indicating
the passages which connect the two Psalms, and
other
subjects are put in the foreground. There is no good
reason
for the assertion which has been made, that the Psalm
before
us must have been composed previously to the seventy-
fourth,
as the
2 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
whereas
it is only its desecration that is
spoken of here. The
desecration
does not exclude its destruction; the destruction is
one
of the forms of its desecration. Had the Psalmist design-
ed,
in allusion to the seventy-fourth, to speak of the sanctuary
in
one single expression, he could not
possibly have found a
stronger
term than this: the most dreadful thing that can befal
the
sanctuary is that it be desecrated. In saying this every
thing
that can be affirmed of it is said.
Several expositors, both ancient and
modern, refer the Psalm
to
the time of the Maccabees. But there are quite decisive
grounds
against this view. First, from the close resemblance to
Ps.
lxxiv., the arguments which were there
adverted to are of
equal
force here. There are no traces here
of any reference to
the
special relations of the times of the Maccabees. And there
are
two circumstances which are not suitable to those times: the
laying of
and
kingdoms in ver. 6 (comp. 2 Kings
ixiv. 2), whereas in the
time
of the Maccabees Judah had to do only with a single king-
dom.a
There are also two weighty external reasons. Jeremiah
was
acquainted with the Psalm, and made use of it (comp. at
ver.
6), and in 1 Macc. vii. 16 and 17 it is quoted as forming at
that
time a portion of the sacred volume.b It is thus not neces-
sary
here to avail ourselves of the general reasons which may be
urged
against the existence of Maccabean Psalms.c
The title, "a Psalm of
Asaph," is confirmed by the fact that
the
Psalm stands closely related to a whole class of Psalms which
bear
in their titles the name of Asaph. Those critics who re-
a The remark of Venema
renders it evident that even verses 2 and 3 will not suit the
times
of the Maccabees: "that the expressions, they delivered the servants of God to
birds and wild beasts, and there was none to
bury them, are to be taken in a restricted
sense,
as used only of some, and in reference to the attempts and intentions of the
enemies."
b kata> to>n
lo<gon o{n e@graye: sa<rkaj o[si<wn k.t.l. The Syrian translation: " ac-
cording
to the word which the prophet has written." This is the usual way of
quoting
Scripture:
comp. Harless on Eph. iv. 8. Hitzig translates falsely: according to the
words
which a certain one wrote. The obscure productions of unknown authors are
never
quoted in this way. The fact that the author omits, in the passage from the
Psalm,
what does not suit his purpose, renders it evident that the Psalm was not com-
posed
for the occasion there referred to: comp. J. D. Michaelis.
c Amyrald.: besides it
cannot be doubted that there were prophets at the time of Ne-
buchad
who were able to compose such poems; whereas in the age of Antiochus there
were
none, at least none whose writings have reached posterity.
PSALM LXXIX. VER. 1-8. 3
ject
the titles are unable to explain this similarity admitted by
themselves,
which obtains among all the Asaphic Psalms, even
among
those which were composed at different eras. If we fol-
low
the title the reason of this is clear as day. The descendants
of
Asaph looked upon themselves as the instruments by which
the
Asaph of David's time, their illustrious ancestor, continued
to speak, and therefore they
very naturally followed as closely in
his
footsteps as possible: the later descendants, moreover, would
always
have the compositions of their more early, ancestors before
their
minds. The unity of the persons named in the titles is
connected
with the unity of character by which all these Psalms
are
pervaded. Any one who composed at his own hand, and did
not
look at his ancestor or the early or contemporaneous instru-
ments
of that ancestor, could not have adopted it.
Ver. 1-4.—Ver. 1. 0 God, the heathen have come into
thine inheritance, they
have polluted thy holy temple; they
have laid
the bodies of thy
servants for food to the fowls of heaven,
the flesh of thy saints
to the wild beasts of the earth. Ver.
3.
They have shed their blood like water
round about Jerusa-
lean, and the was no one
to bury.
Ver. 4. We have become
a reproach to our
neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that
are round about us.—On ver. 1, Calvin: The
Psalmist says,
the
order of nature is, as it were, inverted; the heathen have
come
into the inheritance of God." Berleb.: "Faith utters a
similar
complaint in its struggles: the heathen have made an
inroad
into my heart as thy inheritance."
The pollution of the
temple
by the heathen presupposes its previous pollution by the
Israelites: comp. Ex. v. 11, xxiii. 38. Ps. lxxiv. 7, is
parallel.
On
vtyH
in ver. 2, comp. at Ps. 1. 10. That the Crx is to be
understood
of the earth and not of the land is obvious from the
term
in contrast heaven.—The expression,
"and there was none
to
bury," points to a great and general desolation, such as did
not
exist at any other period except during the Chaldean inva-
sion.—Ver.
4 is from Ps. xliv. 13.
Ver. 5-8.—Ver. 5. How long, 0 Lord, wilt thou be angry
for ever? shall thy
jealousy burn like fire! Ver. 6. Pour out
thy floods of wrath upon
the heathen who know thee not, and up-
on the kingdoms which do
not call upon thy name. Ver. 7.
4 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
For he devours Jacob,
and they lay waste his pasture. Ver. 8.
Remember not against us
the iniquities of our ancestors, make
haste to surprise us
with thy tender mercies, for we have become
very much reduced.—On "how long . .
. for ever," in ver. 5,
comp.
at Ps. lxxiv. 9; xiii. 1. On the second clause, Deut.
xxix.
19. Ex. xx. 5.a –In ver. 6, the heathen and the kingdoms
are
not at all the heathen nations generally, but those who had
risen
up against
constantly.
Judgment begins at the house of God, but it pro-
ceeds
thence to those whom God has employed as the instruments
of
his punishment: the storm of the wrath of God always re-
mains
to fall at last upon the world at,
enmity with his church;
comp. Deut. xxxii. Ez. xxxviii. 39.b—The
sing. lkx
in ver. 7
denotes
the one soul which animates the many
membered body of
the
enemies of the
doms
referred to in ver. 6 served the king of
better
to take hvn
in the sense of pasture than of habitation:
comp.
the tyfrm
in ver. 13: they eat up
and
lay waste his pasture, his land. Ver. 6 and 7 are repeated
almost
word for word in Jer. x. 25. It has been alleged in
favour
of Jeremiah being the original author, that the prophecy
was
uttered before the destruction. But
this reason is of no
weight.
The prophecy, which designedly bears no particular
date,
was, at least in its present form, written after the destruc-
tion;
it contains much moreover which represents the destruc-
tion
as an event which had already taken place, while other por-
tions
of it again refer to it as still future, (a peculiarity which
admits
of explanation from the circumstance that the prophet is
here
giving a summary view and the substance of what had been
spoken
at different times); ver. 25 itself takes for granted that
the
heathen had already devoured
turage.
On the other hand, and in favour of the priority
of the
Psalm
before us, it may be urged that in all such cases there is
a Ven.: The interrogative form
conveys an insinuation that God ought not to de-
stroy
utterly the whole people, as there remain among them so many pious, to be chas-
tised
and purified (Dan. xi. 35), but not to be destroyed.
b Arnd: "The difference is
this: God's wrath will burn for ever against unbelievers;
with
believers, however, when they deserve punishment his wrath burns fiercely
indeed,
but
not eternally,—he visits them with the rod and chastisement for a short while,
and
with
a view to their improvement."
PSALM LXXIX. VER.
5-8. 5
a
presumption in favour of Jeremiah borrowing--it being his
usual
manner to do so; that in this chapter there are manifestly
references
to other Psalms, the preceding verse being borrowed
from
Ps. vi. 1, (comp. Kuper p. 159); that in Jeremiah the
words
occur without any connection whatever, while in the Psalm
before
us the prayer that the Lord would
pour out the flood of
his
wrath upon the heathen, is appended without anything inter-
vening
to the complaint that his zeal is
burning like fire against
in
ver. 3, (
funde,
see Ps. lxix. 24),—comp. ver. 10; that the difficult singu-
lar
lkx
is changed into the plural; and finally, that the passage
is
expanded exactly in the style of Jeremiah in quoting passages,
who
can leave nothing short and round,--and
they have eaten him
and consumed him.—Mynwxr in ver. 8, where it
stands alone, sig-
nifies
nothing else than ancestors, not antiquity. The reference to
Lev.
xxvi. 45, which it is impossible not to observe, is altogether
against
the exposition, the former sins: "and I remember to
them
the covenant of their ancestors whom I brought out of the
their
God,"—God does not remember the sins
of their ancestors,
but
according to his own promise, the covenant
which he made
with
them. Comp. also Lev. xxvi. 39, where instead of "ances-
tors"
we have "fathers:" they desired that they may not be
treated
according to this verse, but according to the 45th of this
chapter,
or rather, that after they had experienced the treatment
referred
to in the 39th verse, they might now also enjoy the 45th,
comp.
Lam. v. 7. The guilty fathers do not at all stand in op-
position
to the innocent children. It is the uniform doctrine of
scripture
that no one is punished unless he be personally guilty,
and
that it is only in the ungodly children that the sin of the
fathers
which is represented as increased in them that is punish-
ed:
comp. the Beitr. p. 544 ss. The mention of the sins of
the
fathers, so far from exculpating, indicates the depth and the
magnitude
of the guilt. Calvin: "They
acknowledge an obstin-
ancy
of long standing, in which they have hardened themselves
against
God. And this acknowledgment corresponds to the
prophetic
punishments. For sacred history testifies that the
punishment
of the captivity was postponed till God had experi-
6 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
enced
that their wickedness was incurable:" comp. Is. lxv. 7.
On
Mdq to surprise, comp. at Ps. xxi. 4.
Ver. 9-12.—Ver. 9. Help us, 0 God, our Salvation, for thy
name's glory's sake; and
deliver us and pardon our sins for
thy name's sake. Ver. 10. Why should the heathen say, Where
is their God? May the
vengeance of the blood of thy servants
which they have shed
become known to the heathen before our
eyes. Ver. 11. May the sighing of those who are bound come
before thee. According
to the greatness of thine arm preserve
the dying. Ver 12. And recompense to our neighbours seven-
fold into their bosom
their reproach wherewith they have re-
proached thee, 0 Lord.—In the 9th verse the
church implores
the
Lord to redeem that pledge of similar future deeds, which she
got
in his early dealings. The name, and the honour of the name,
i.
e., his glory (comp. at Ps. xxix. 1, 2), are in reality the
same:—for
the sake of thy historically manifested glory (comp.
at
Ps. xxiii. 3), for the purpose of now verifying this in sight of
the
blaspheming enemies, and to their terror.—The first half of
the
10th verse is word for word from Jo. ii. 17, and this passage
again
rests on Ex. xxxii. 12. Num. xiv. 13 ss. Deut. ix. 28. On
comparing
these passages, especially the one last quoted, it be-
comes
obvious, that "Where is their God?" signifies, "Where is
his
far-famed love towards his people and where is his omnipo-
tence?"
The ground is not one of a mere external
character:--
the
heathen would have had good reason to
speak thus, and
therefore
God must not give them any occasion to do so; he must
make
known his omnipotence, and his love, in delivering his
people;
they cannot be for ever given over to
misery: comp. the
Christology
p. 657, &c. In the second clause,
the Myg is
written
without the Vau: comp. at Ps. lxxiv. 11. "Before our
eyes,"
is from Deut. vi. 22. "The vengeance of the blood of thy
servants"
points back to "He will avenge the blood of his ser-
vants,"
in the conclusion of the Song of Moses, in Deut. xxxii.
43.—In
ver. 11, the whole people appears under the emblem of a
prisoner.
At the first clause we ought to add: as
it once did in
every
trouble, of looking to the early deliverances as pledges of
those
yet to come; and hence they possess a sure ground of con-
fidence.
The world, when it prays, prays only as an experiment,
PSALM LXXX. 7
having
no connection whatever with history. On "according to
the
greatness of thine arm," comp. Num. xiv. 19. Deut. iii. 24.
Inward
greatness is meant, energy. The htvmt is a noun
formed
from the third fem. fut. (comp. in Balaam p. 120, &c.),
very
probably by the Psalmist himself. Hence it cannot mean
"death,"
but only "that which dies," "the dying." The sons
of
the dying are those who belong to him as a personified race,
and
thus the dying themselves, just like "the sons of the needy''
in
Ps. lxxii. 4.—On "in their lap," ver. 12, comp. Is. lxv. 6-7.
Jer.
xxxii. 18. Luke vi. 38. Their reproach,
inasmuch as they
say,
Where is their God? ver. 10.
Ver. 13. And we are thy people and sheep of thy pasture,
therefore we shall
praise thee for ever, recount thy praise through
all generations. The verse is expressive
of confidence: "we shall
praise
thee" being equivalent to "thou shalt give us occasion to
do
so;" comp. Ps. xliv. 8. In reference to "the sheep of thy
pasture,"
comp. at Ps. lxxiv. 1.
PSALM LXXX.
The Psalmist prays for help on
behalf of the oppressed church,
particularly
on behalf of Joseph and Benjamin, ver. 1-3, and
describes,
in mournful language, their oppression in ver. 4-7.
In
ver. 8-13,
which
at first is carefully attended to, and had spread forth luxu-
riantly,
but now had become altogether destroyed. In ver.
19,
the Psalmist prays that God would again take this vine tree
under
his gracious protection.
Ver. 1-7 are evidently to be
considered as an Introduction;
and
the individual character of the Psalm is to be found in the
figure
of the vine tree.
The formal arrangement is
obvious,—so obvious, that light is
thrown
from this Psalm upon others, where otherwise there would
have
been ground for uncertainty; and even from this Psalm alone,
the
significance of the numbers in the arrangement of the Psalms is
placed
beyond a doubt. The whole, inclusive of the significant
title,
contains twenty verses, two decades. The introduction con-
tains
seven, and the main division twelve,—the numbers of the
8 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
covenant,
and of the covenant people. The seven is divided into
three
and four, the preliminary complaint and the preliminary
petition;
the twelve is divided into six and six, the expanded
complaint,
which comes in immediately after the preliminary one,
and
the expanded prayer, the first and the last verses of which
are
the same.
The fundamental tone of the whole
Psalm is given in the words:
"0
God, lead us back, and cause thy face to shine, and us to be
delivered."
These words occur three times, like the Mosaic bles-
sing
to which they allude, for the purpose of making a deeper
impression
upon the mind,a at the end of the first and of the se-
cond
part of the Introduction, ver. 3 and 7, and at the end of the
main
division and of the whole, ver. 19: the names of God in
these
same verses are arranged in an ascending series,—God,
ver.
3; God of Hosts, ver. 7; Jehovah, God of Hosts, ver. 19.
They
are wanting at the end of the first
part of the main division,
because
it is bound together by the unity of the figure of the vine
tree;
the twelve also is not so decidedly divided by the six, which
is
destitute of any meaning of its own, as is the seven by the three
and
the four. The beginning, moreover, of the second half of the
main
division is externally indicated by the address, "0 God of
Hosts,"
ver. 14, just as the beginning of the second part of the
Introduction
by the address, "Jehovah, God of Hosts," ver. 4,
indicating
the termination prescribed for the refrain, to which it
had
to advance by degrees.
The Psalm is a remarkable testimony
on behalf of the catholic
spirit
by which the true
—an
illustration of the apostolic saying, "when one member suf-
fers,
all the members suffer along with it." Like the seventy-
seventh
Psalm, to which it is closely allied, it gives adequate ex-
pression
to the painful feelings awakened in
captivity
of the ten tribes; comp. the three times repeated "lead
us back," ver. 3, 7, 19.
The Septuagint have already with ac-
curacy
written: u[pe>r tou? ]Assuri<ou. For it is incontrovertibly
evident,
from reasons which never would have been overlooked,
had
it not been for the perverse disposition to assign to the Psalms
a Calvin: God did not
design to dictate a vain repetition of words to his people; but
this
support is frequently held out to them, when oppressed with evils, in order
that
nevertheless
they may courageously arise.
PSALM LXXX. 9
the
latest possible date, that we cannot refer the Psalm with se-
veral
interpreters, to the Chaldean invasion, nor yet, with others,
to
the times of the Maccabees, nor indeed to any suffering which
befel
derable
extent, and even as deprived partly of its branches, but
still
it is standing in the holy land: the people of the Lord ap-
pear,
as is evident from the thrice-repeated prayer, lead us back,
partly
as led away; and yet they are also in possession of their
own
land, as is manifest from the title, "to the Chief Musician,"
which
is wanting in Ps. lxxiv. and lxxix., and which marks out
this
Psalm as designed for a public service in the temple. By
this
the reference to the Chaldean destruction is wholly excluded.
2.
In the very first verse, God is addressed by the title: he who
leads
Joseph like a flock. The idea is altogether untenable that
Joseph,
who appears always as the leader of the ten tribes, and
who
is spoken of, in Ps. lxxviii. 67, in opposition to
here
used for the whole of
the
time existed. Even in Obed. ver. 18, the house of Joseph
denotes
the ten tribes (comp. Caspari), and, in like manner, in
Amos
vi. 6, Joseph is used only of the ten tribes; comp. Ch. B.
Michaelis.
3. In ver. 2, the tribes on whose behalf the help of
God
is supplicated are Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.
Every
thing here depends upon determining whether, in the divi-
sion
of the state into two kingdoms, the Benjamites adhered to
(Comp.
for example Winer in his dic., Gesenius in his Thesau-
rus.)
It is, however, involved here in
inextricable difficulties; as
if
Benjamin belonged to the
refers
to the misery of the whole people, there can be no reason
assigned
why Benjamin is named here, and not
the
other hand, maintain that, with the exception of
which
lay close on the boundaries of Judah, by whom it was con-
quered,
and by whom, in common with Benjamin, it was inhabited
(comp.
Raumer, p. 334), and of that portion of its environs which
lay
on the side of Benjamin, the declivity, namely, slanting down,
from
the upper city, Benjamin adhered to Joseph. The presump-
tions
are all in favour of this view. Benjamin and Joseph were
bound
together by ties of an ancient character. They were both
the
darling sons of beloved Rachel (Gen. xliv. 27-29), and were
10 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
united
to each other in the tenderest affection, Gen. xliii. 29-
30-34.
In travelling through the wilderness we find them as
here
united to each other; comp. Num. ii. 17, &c., x. 21-24. It
is
clear, from 2 Sam. xix. 21, that the bond of union between
Joseph
and Benjamin was very close even in David's time: in
this
passage Simei says that he comes first of the whole house of
Joseph.
Further, Benjamin is the very last tribe who can be
supposed
to have entertained any friendly feeling towards
inasmuch
as the honour and pre-eminence which belonged to it
during
the reign of Saul was transferred to
xxii.
7); and history affords evidence that, even in David's time,
there
existed a spirit of deep-rooted hostility. Shimei, on the
rebellion
of Absalom, gave utterance to the spirit of the tribe;
the
rebel
the
numbering of the people, with the exception of Levi, which,
from
the nature of the case, could not be included, the only tribe
which
was not numbered was Benjamin, undoubtedly because
Joab
did not choose to provoke its seditious spirit. If we turn
now
to the evidence in support of the opposite view, we find, as
wholly
favouring it, the passage 1 Kings xii. 21, according to
which
Rehoboam assembled the whole house of Judah and the
tribe of Benjamin. But a whole series of
other passages demon-
strates
that the author loosely, though, after all, with sufficient
accuracy,
as the real state of matters was universally known, em-
ployed
the tribe of Benjamin to denote that small portion of the
tribe
which was incorporated with
as
understood: so far as it remained faithful to
ing
to 1 Kings xi. 13, 32, 36, xii. 20, it was only the single
tribe
of
utterly
preposterous to suppose that in all these passages Benja-
min,
which always occupied a place of distinguished honour among
the
tribes, is passed over in silence, on account of its littleness.
In
1 Kings xii. 17, the only individuals not Jews who submitted
to
the government of Rehoboam are "the children of
dwelt
in the cities of
link
between xii. 21 and the passages above quoted, and gives to
the
former the necessary limitation. Further, if we join Benja-
min
to
for
Simeon, who is commonly reckoned among them, manifestly
PSALM LXXX. 11
cannot
be counted. That tribe, according to Gen. xlix. 7, ought
to
be found like Levi, broken up into pieces; according to Jos.
xix.
1, "its inheritance was in the midst of the tribe of
not
certainly any contiguous portion of the land, but separate,
single
cities, lying at a distance from each other: comp. Bachiene
i.
2, 408. The Simeonites belong, assuredly, to "the children
of
nally
were situated within the tribe of
in
the list of these cities, Bach. § 409. They must necessarily
have
held fast by
was
quite natural that they should amalgamate with
this
is sufficient to explain the fact that they are nowhere men-
tioned
as a part of the
two
kingdoms they became extinct as a tribe. This peculiar
state
of matters explains 1 Kings xi. 30, &c., according to which
the
whole number of the tribes was twelve, of which one remained
faithful
to the house of David, and ten took part with Jeroboam.
Now,
if we leave out Simeon, it becomes necessary to take in
Benjamin,
in order to complete the number ten.—It is, therefore,
evident
that the three passages above quoted represent
only
in a limited sense, whose leading tribes they name, in ac-
cordance
with original historical relations, and agreeably to later
usage;
and, therefore, the Psalm cannot be referred either to the
Babylonian
captivity or to the times of the Maccabees.a
Title: To the Chief Musician, on lilies, a testimony of Asaph,
a Psalm. This title is formed in
an original manner after those of
the
two Davidic Psalms, the sixtieth and the sixty-ninth. "To the
Chief
Musician" is important, because it skews that the Psalmist
is
here acting as the organ of the whole church. Instead of lx
pointing
out the object (comp. at title of Ps. vi.) we have lf in
the
two fundamental passages, The lilies
are an emblem of what is
lovely
(comp. at Ps. xlv.), here, as in Ps. lxix., of the lovely salva-
tion
of the Lord, his tvfvwy: comp. hfwvn with which the re-
frain
generally ends, the peculiarly prominent word of the Psalm,
and
the htfvwy,
in ver. 2. The tvdf, which, on account of the ac-
cusative,
cannot be connected with Mynww, signifies always law
a Calvin: It would have
been absurd to have passed over the tribe Judah, and the
sacred
city itself, and to have given the prominence to Joseph, Manasseh, Ephraim, and
Benjamin,
if the language had not been designed to apply specially to
12 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
(comp.
at Ps. lx. title), and generally denotes the
divine law, as
given
in the Books of Moses; in this way also it is used in the
Asaphic
Psalms lxxviii. 5, lxxxi. 5. That it is used in the
same
sense here also, that the Psalmist designates his poem a
law, because he does not
prescribe a way of salvation at his own
hand,
but merely points to the one which had already been de-
scribed
in the law, and comes forward as its expounder, is evi-
dent
from the reference to the title of Ps. lx., where the original
itself
from which the Psalmist merely copies, is named tvdf,
and
from the fact that the Psalm really throughout depends
upon
the law, especially the refrain which gives its fundamental
tone.
The particular application of tvdf is to be got from the
word
immediately preceding, on the lilies:
"a law which treats
of
the way of obtaining deliverance."a The Jsxl tvdf, cor-
responds
to the Jsxl lykWm an instruction of Asaph in
Psalms
lxxiv. and lxxviii.; but it is a stronger and more em-
phatic
expression: comp. also, Hear, my people,
my law in Ps.
lxxviii.
1.
Ver. 1-3.--Ver. 1. 0 thou Shepherd of
leadest Joseph as the
sheep; thou who sittest enthroned upon the
cherubim, shine forth. Ver. 2. Before Ephraim, and Benjamin,
and Manasseh, stir up
thy strength and come for help to us.
Ver.
3. 0 God, lead us back, and cause thy
face to shine, and us
to be delivered.—The "thou
Shepherd of
at
Ps. xxiii. 1), refers to Gen. xlviii. 15; xlix. 24, where in
Joseph's
blessing God is named the Shepherd of Israel. The
expression,
"who leadest Joseph," &c., is the development of the
first
clause, and marks directly that part of
time
stood particularly in need of the shepherd care of God. In
the
second clause prominence is given to the omnipotence
of God
as
the second foundation of the deliverance, just as in the first
his
care for his people had been especially dwelt upon. It is
omnipotence
that is indicated by, "thou sittest enthroned upon
the
cherubim:" comp. at Ps. xviii. 10. The cherubim of the
sanctuary
are the emblem of the earthly creation. God's sitting
above
these indicates that this sublunary world with all its powers
is
subject to him and serves him. "God
of hosts" corresponds
a Venema: that the pious,
when placed in dreadful trouble, might be instructed in
the
true way of obtaining deliverance and salvation.
PSALM LXXX. VER. 4-7. 13
to
this appellation of God, and denotes as exclusively God's
dominion
over the heavenly powers as the expression before us
denotes
his dominion over those of earth. In reference to shine-
forth, comp. at Ps. 1. 2.
Allusion is made, as appears, to the
resplendent
symbol of the presence of God during the march
through
the wilderness. In ver. 2, Benjamin "the little," stands
between
Ephraim and Manasseh. "Before
them:"—that is,
leading
them forward, at their head, as formerly before
the
pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire: comp. Deut. xiii. 21, 22,
"and
the Lord went before them," &c. Thy
strength:—which
now
slumbers,—comp. Ps. lxxviii. 65.—The "lead
us back," in
ver.
3, refers to that portion of the people who had been led into
captivity,
and who had been described with sufficient distinctness
in
the preceding clauses, and whom the Psalmist, sympathising
with
a suffering member, keeps throughout prominently before
his
eye. The usual sense of bvw in Hiph. is to lead back
(comp.
Gen. xxviii. 15, where Jacob, who in his exile beyond the
Euphrates,
and in his restoration to
his
people, is addressed by God, I bring thee
back to this place,
Jer.
xii. 15; xvi. 15; xxx. 3): and there is no ground whatever
to
depart from this usual sense here; more especially as in the
12th
and 13th verses we find a lamentation expressed in figu-
rative
language over a considerable portion of the people who had
been
led into captivity. The sense to bring
back to a former
condition, to restore (Luther: comfort us), is of very rare occur-
rence,
indeed occurs with certainty only in one passage, Dan.
ix.
25: comp. the Christology, p. 2, p. 456. "Cause thy face
to shine," is demanded as a
fulfilment of the Mosaic blessing,
Num.
vi. 25: comp. at Ps. iv. 6; xxxi. 16.
Ver. 4-7.—Ver. 4. 0 Lord God, God of hosts, how long
dost thou smoke against
the prayer of thy people? Ver. 5.
Thou feedest them with
tear-bread, and givest them drink in a
great measure full of
tears.
Ver. 6. Thou placest us for conten-
tion to our neighbours,
and our enemies make merry. Ver. 7. 0
God, God of hosts, bring
us back, and cause thy face to shine
upon us, and us to be
delivered. A
heaping up of the names of
God
similar to that in ver. 4, occurs also in the first verse of the
fiftieth
Psalm, another of the Psalms of Asaph. In prayer,
every
thing depends upon God, in the full glory of his being,
14 THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
walking
before the soul. It is only into the bosom of such a
God
that it is worth while to pour out lamentations and prayers.
"Jehovah,"
corresponding to "thou Shepherd of
1,
points to the fulness of the love of God towards his people;
and
"God, God of hosts" corresponding to "who sittest enthron-
ed
upon the cherubim," to his infinite power to help them. The
Elohim
Zebaoth causes no difficulty if we only explain cor-
rectly
Jehovah Zebaoth: comp. Ps. xxiv. 10. It is manifest
from,
comparing the fundamental passage, Deut. xxix. 19, and
the
parallel Asaph. passage Ps. lxxiv. 1, that the smoke comes
into
notice only as the attendant of fire.
It is clear also from
these
passages that we must translate against,
not at the prayer
of
thy people. There is a significant reference to smoke as the
standing
symbol of prayer, and to its embodiment in the burnt
offering:
comp. Ps. cxli. 2. Rev. v. 8; viii. 3, 4. Is. vi. 4, "the
house
was full of smoke," Beitr. iii. 644. The smoke of prayer,
according
to Lev. xvi. 13, should smother the fire of the wrath
of
God: but instead of this, God opposes the smoke of his anger
to
the smoke of prayer. In ver. 5, tear-bread is not at all bread
destroyed
by tears, but bread composed of tears. This is mani-
fest
from the parallel passages: comp. at Ps. xlii.3, and the second
clause:
as the tears are drink there, they
must be bread here.
It
cannot always be, that the Shepherd of Israel, of whom it is
said,
Ps. xxiii. 5, "thou preparest before me a table in presence
of
my enemies, . . . my cup overfloweth," prepares nothing
but
tears for the food and the drink of
his people. That were a
very
singular quid pro quo. The second
clause can only be
translated:
thou causest them to drink with a measure
of tears.
For
hqwh is
constantly construed with the accusative of the per-
son
and the thing; but it never occurs with b, before the thing.
The
"measure" is thus the thing that is given to drink (the wylw
as
the name of a measure occurs only in one other passage, Is.
xl.
12; there is no need for defining its size, it was, at all events,
large
for tears): "of tears" denotes
the contents of the measure.—
Ver.
6 alludes to Ps. xliv. 13, on which also Ps. lxxix. 4 depends.
The
neighbours are always the petty tribes in the immediate neigh-
bourhood
of
syrians
and Egyptians), who always availed themselves of those
occasions
when
PSALM LXXX. VER. 8-13. 15
give
vent to their hatred. The Nvdm the object, the butt of
rage
expressed in actions, but especially in bitter contempt,
"where is now their God?" &c. The vml as the dat. comm.,
i.e.,
according to the heart's desire.
Ver. 8-13.—Ver. 8. Thou broughtest a vine out of
thou didst remove the
heathen and didst plant it. Ver. 9. Thou
didst make room before
it, and it struck its roots and filled
the land. Ver. 10. The mountains were covered with its sha-
dow, and the cedars of
God with its branches.
Ver. 11. It
sent its boughs to the
sea and its shoots to the river. Ver. 12.
Why then hast thou
broken down its wall, so that everything
that passes by plunders
it?
Ver. 13. The boar out of the forest
wastes it, and whatever
stirs in the field feeds of it.—God can-
not
leave off, far less destroy a work which he has once begun;
this
is the truth on which depends the significance of the con-
trast
between the once and the now. The fundamental passage
for
the figurative representation is Gen. xlix. 22, where Joseph,
to
whom the eye of the Psalmist is continually directed, appears,
in
reference to his joyful prosperity, as a wall tree by a fountain,
whose
branches rose high above the walls. The difference is
only
this, that here instead of the fruit
tree, the vine is intro-
duced,
after the example of Isaiah in ch. v. 1-7, where
appears
as the vineyard of the Lord. It is obvious from the fun-
damental
passage, and from the expanded description which fol-
lows,
that the point of comparison next to the abundance of beau-
tiful
fruit is the luxuriant growth: comp. Hos. xiv. 7, "They
shall
grow as the vine."—That the fysh in ver. 8 is to be
taken
in
its usual sense, to cause to depart,
which it maintains even in
Job
xix. 10, is evident on comparing the Asaphic passage, from
which
it is immediately borrowed, Ps. lxxviii. 52, and the funda-
mental
passages, Ex. xii. 37; xv. 22, on which this depends.
An
affirmation may be made in regard to the spiritual, which
could
not be applied to the natural vine.
"Thou didst remove the
heathen" is taken from Ps.
lxxviii. 55, which again depends upon
Ex.
xxiii. 28; xxxiii. 2; xxxiv. 11. The sons of Asaph always
follow
in the footsteps of their father. The
"plant" is from Ps.
xliv.
2, to which allusion is also made in ver. 12. The Berleb.:
“Shall
all this be for nought and in vain? Or
hast thou plant-
ed
it on this account, that the enemies might devour it?" On
16 THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
hnp in Ps. vii. "to clear," "to
clear out," in ver. 10, comp.
the
Christol. 404. It corresponds to "the clearing out of the
stones"
of Is. v. 2, and refers to the removal of the original inha-
bitants
of the country. Instead of "it struck its roots," Luther
has
falsely, "Thou hast made it strike its roots."—The funda-
mental
passages for verses 11 and 12 are Gen. xxviii. 14, where
it
is said in the promise to Jacob, "thou stretch out on the west
and
on the east, on the north and on the south," and especially
Deut.
xi. 24, "every place which the sole of your feet shall tread
upon
shall be yours, from the wilderness and
river,
the river
boundaries:"—comp.
Josh. i. 4. God had in former times glori-
ously
fulfilled the promises contained in these passages. hlc
and
hypnf
are in reality both accusatives governed by vsk
Pü;
the mountains which were covered with
the shadow of
the
vine are the mountains on the south of
try
of
hill
country of the Amorites, which at the commencement of Is-
rael's
country met the traveller like a wall; comp. Raumer p.
48.
"The wilderness of mountains" is introduced in Ps. lxxv. 7
as
the southern boundary, in the same
way as the mountains are
here
spoken of as the most southern portion of the land. The
cedars of God (comp. at Ps. xxxvi. 6)
which the boughs of the
vine
ascend and cover, are, as usual, those of
xxix.
5; xcii. 13; civ. 16), which formed the north boundary
of
Canaan: comp. Ps. xxix., where
of
Kadesh stand opposed to each other as the northern and
southern
boundaries of
the
river,
to
the ground: and his boughs were cedars of God,—which
would
bring out a monstrous figure.—The hrx to pluck (else-
where
only in Song of Sol. v. 1), applies not to the grapes but to
the
branches:—the luxuriance of the branches formed the subject
of
the preceding description; and the opposite of that state is
described
in this clause, as it is in Is. v. 5, Ps. lxxxix. 40, 41.
All who pass by time way: Berleb.: "for example, Pul, Tiglath-
pileser,
Salmanasser, Senacherib."— The boar
from the forest
(comp.
Jerem. v. 4) is according to the analogy of Ps. lxviii. 30.
Ez.
xxix. 3, where the hippopotamos and the crocodile are em-
PSALM LXXX. VER. 14-19. 17
blem
of Pharaoh, and Ez. xvii., where the eagle indicates Ne-
buchadnezar,
descriptive not of the enemies generally, but of the
king
of
Asaph.
Ps. 1. 11, the only other passage where it is used of
beasts),
denotes the whole mass of the nations serving under
him.a
Ver. 14-19.—Ver. 14. 0 God, God of hosts, turn yet back,
look from heaven and
behold and visit this vine. Ver. 15. And
maintain that which thy
right hand has planted, and the Son
whom, thou hast made
strong for thyself. Ver. 16. It
is burned
with fire, cut down,
before the rebuke of thy countenance they
perish. Ver. 17. May thy hand be upon the man of thy right
hand, the Son of Man
whom thou hast made strong for thyself.
Ver.
18. We will not go back, quicken thou us
and we will call
upon thy name. Ver. 19. Lord, God, God of hosts, lead us
back, cause thy face to
shine and us to be delivered.—The be-
ginning
of the prayer in the main division, ver. 14 is connected
with
the beginning of the prayer in the introduction, ver. 1. The
hnk; ver. 15, is the imper. of Nnk, to make firm, comp. the pro-
per
noun, vhynnk,
whom Jehovah hath established. It is
con-
strued
first with the accusative, and afterwards with lf, which
denotes
the care and the protection. Against the idea that it
is
to be considered as a noun, in the sense of a slip, it may be
urged,
that there is no such noun, that the reference to the 8th
verse
demands that it be the vine-tree that is here spoken of,
and
that the following verse refers to the vine as if it had pre-
viously
been spoken of. The Son of the second
clause is just the
spiritual
vine. The translation, a shoot,
according to Gen. xlix.
22,
is not only against ver. 17, but also against the sense, as it
is
not any particular shoot, but the whole vine that is here spo-
ken
of. The Cmx should
be taken in its usual sense, to make
strong (comp. the proper noun,
Amaziah,) rather than in the
sense
of to choose, which depends upon the
single and very doubt-
ful
passage, Is. xliv. 14. The singular,
of rare occurrence else-
where,
here and in ver. 17, is accounted for by the allusion to
the
name of Benjamin, whom the Psalmist here considers as the
representative
of all
a Berleb: The beasts
represent, in the inner man, the destructive passions by which
the
vineyard of the soul is torn up and consumed.
18 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
read
with italics, for the purpose of making this allusion obvious.
The
Son of the right hand is the Son who stands at the right
hand
of his earthly and his heavenly father, and who is, conse-
quently,
protected by him: Gen. xliv. 20, "his father loves
him,"
and Deut. xxxiii. 12, "the beloved of the Lord," are to
be
considered as explanations of the name. In so far as Jacob
gave
this significant name to his son, under the guidance and in-
spiration
of God, it was a pledge of the divine love and help for
him,
and, at the same time, for all
woven.
The subject in "they perish," in ver. 16, is the chil-
dren
of
18,
"our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps declined
from
thy paths."
served their misery, they have
turned aside to many ways, and,
instead
of the name of the Lord, they have called upon strange
gods
(comp. Ps. lxxix. 6), but they promise better; if the Lord
will
bring them back unto life (Ps. lxxi. 20), they also will walk
in
a new life. The guilt of
The
Psalmist has no intention of acting the part of Job's friends,
he
follows the admonition of Job: "have
pity upon me, have
pity
upon me, my friends, for the hand of God is upon me." God
has
undertaken to rebuke, ver. 16, and therefore his servants may
well
be silent.
PSALM LXXXI.
The exhortation to celebrate the
passover with joyful heart,
ver.
1-3, is followed by the basis on
which it rests, ver. 4-7:
the
passover is the festival of
Lord
and God, from great trouble and deep misery. While the
first
part points to what the Lord has done for
describes
the position which
their
Lord: inasmuch as the Lord, who brought
its
imaginary deities,—a preposition, however, to which
a Calvin: "Let us learn, whenever the anger of God
burns forth, even in the midst
of
the flames of the conflagration to cast our griefs into the bosom of God, who
wonder-
fully
revives his church from destruction.
PSALM LXXXI. 19
alas,
has not hitherto responded,—and hence the origin of all his
troubles,
ver. 8-12. Would that he would now become obe-
dient
to the Lord! the salvation of his kingdom would be the
consequence,
ver. 13-16.
In ver. 1-5 the Psalmist speaks, as
is manifest from the con-
clusion
of ver. 5, as the representative of the better self of the
church,
or, in the language of the Apocalypse, as its angel; and
in
the 6th and following verses the speaker is the Lord. But
that
this distinction, which has commonly been a great deal too
much
spoken of, is one of no moment, is evident from the fact,
that
vers. 6 and 7 are nothing else than a continuation of ver. 5,
and
from the conclusion, vers. 15 and 16, where the address of the
Lord,
and the address of the Psalmist, who speaks in the spirit
of
the Lord, are immediately linked together.
If we keep this in view, the formal
arrangement of the Psalm
becomes
easy and simple. The Psalm falls into two main divi-
sions,
an objective and a subjective one, which are even exter-
nally
separated from each other by a Selah, at the end of ver. 7.
The
first, ver. 1-7, is completed in seven verses. This, as
usual,
is divided into a three and a four. The second main divi-
sion
contains, in the first instance, only nine verses, and is di-
vided
by a five and a four. The defect of the conclusion, how-
ever,
is, as in the case in Ps. lxxvii:, compensated by the title.
The
arrangement, therefore, is exactly the same as that which
obtains
universally in Psalms which contain 17 verses.
According to the title, "To the Chief Musician after the
manner of
Psalm
was composed by Asaph. We shewed already, at Ps.
lxxiv.,
that we must adhere to the Asaph who belonged to the
age
of David, in all the Psalms which bear this name, except in
those
cases in which the contents of the Psalm render this im-
possible.
In the present instance this is not the case. "The
contents,"
observes Köster, "are of a general character, and the
freshness
of tone indicates the great age of the Psalm." The
verbal
reasons which led Hitzig to assign it a very late date are
of
no consequence. He refers to the loose Jsvhy in ver. 5, and
to
the participle after vl in ver. 13. But that the retention of
the
h
of the Hiph. (Ew. §. 284), is not at all characteristic of
the
language of later times, is evident, among other passages,
20 THE
BOOK OF PSALMS.
from
Ps. xlv. 17, and from 1 Sam. xxii. 47. These forms are
throughout
poetical, and are altogether
independent of time.
Poetry
is fond of full and sonorous expressions. It can never be
shewn
that the position of the participle after vl is characteristic
of
a later idiom; comp. 2 Sam. xviii. 12. In favour, however, of
the
Asaph of David's tithe, we have to urge the prophetic cha-
racter
which our Psalm bears in common with the other produc-
tions
of this bard, the "seer," the prophet among the Psalmists,
Ps.
1., lxxiii., lxxviii. (even Hitzig believed that he heard in the
warnings
here the voice of the author of the seventy-eighth
Psalm),
and lxxxii. To this we may add the striking connection
between
ver. 8 here, and Ps. 1. 7.
Ver. 1-3.—Ver. 1. Sing aloud to God, who is our strength,
make a joyful-noise unto
the God of Jacob.
Ver. 2. Raise the
song, and give the
timbrel, the lovely guitar with the harp.
Ver.
3. Blow in the month the horn, at the
full moon, on the
day of our feast.--The exhortation to
praise God with all the
might
depends for its significance, as the second part of the
strophe
shews, upon its pointing to the rich treasures of salvation
which
he has imparted to his people.—On "our strength," comp.
as
a commentary vers. 14, 15, and Ps. xlvi. 1. The Lord mani-
fested
himself as the strength of his people on their deliverance
from
to
their tone: timbrel stands instead of
sound of the timbrel.
Against
the exposition "bring hither the timbrels," it may be
urged,
that, according to the title and verse 2d, those addressed
are
called upon both to sing and to play.—In verse 3 the month
is
the first and the chief month of the year, the month in which
the
passover occurred: comp. Ex. xii. 1, 2: "And
the Lord said
to
Moses and Aaron in the
to
you the chief of months, it shall be
the first month of the year
to
you." "In the full moon"
of the second clause defines ex-
actly
the time within the sacred month which belonged to the
festival.
The general and special descriptions are connected with
each
other exactly in the same way in Lev. xxiii. 5: "In the
first
month, on the 14th day of the month, is the passover to the
Lord."
In other passages throughout the law it is merely the
general
descriptions that occur; thus, Ex. xxxiv. 18: "The
feast
of unleavened bread shalt thou keep, seven days shalt thou
PSALM LXXXI. VER. 1-3. 21
eat
unleavened bread, at the time of the month Abib" (comp. on
the
passage the Beitr. p. 361 ss. on Abib p. 364), Deut. xvi.
1:
"Observe the month Abib, for in the
month Abib the Lord
thy
God brought thee out of
Beitr.
p. 365. According to the common
construction, wdH sig-
nifies
the new moon; throughout the
Pentateuch, however, it
invariably
signifies a month; and everywhere,
even in the later
scriptures,
it retains this signification, with this difference, that
sometimes
the month stands for the festival peculiar to the month.
And
the following grounds are decisive the other way. 1. As it
is
undoubted that hsk signifies full
moon, we have two festivals
according
to this view—a supposition very unlikely in itself, and
the
more so that no inward connection whatever is indicated be-
tween
the new moon and the full moon festival. 2. The con-
tents
of the Psalm shew that it was composed exclusively for
use
at the passover. The festival for which it was set apart was,
according
to ver. 5, instituted at the departure from
according
to verses 6, 7, and 10, stands in immediate reference
to
this deliverance;--that the new moon of the month Abib was
celebrated
as, a preparation for the passover is altogether an arbi-
trary
assumption. 3. The horn (not at all
the trumpets named
in
Num. x. 10) appears here only as one among many instruments,
while
the sound of drums for the new moons, and especially for
the
7th of the month, was the peculiar and characteristic cere-
mony.
Such an amount of musical power as is here desired was
not
suitable for this festival. 4. There is no doubt that our verse
as
supplementing the title fixes the character of the Psalm. This,
however,
it cannot do, if wdH signify the new
moon. In this
case,
in consequence of the indefinite nature, “in the new moon,”
which
demands explanation from what follows, we have our atten-
tion
directed exclusively to "in the full moon;" and are thus left
to
waver in uncertainty, as the example of Gesenins shows, be-
tween
the full moon of the passover and of the feast of taber-
nacles.a—The idea of those who,
after the example of Luther (in
our festival of booths), understand the feast
of tabernacles, is
confuted
by the preceding context. By this reference, it becomes
a It is clear from Prov.
vii. 20, and also from the Syr. (See Gesen.), that hsk denotes
in
general the full moon, and not at all, as has been supposed, specially the
feast of ta-
bernacles.
22 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
altogether
impossible to understand the Psalm. The expression
"on
the day of our feast" is also in favour of the passover. The
passover,
which celebrates the fundamental deed of God on be-
half
of his church, is the feast: comp.
the Christol. ii. p. 565.
Beitr.
iii. p. 80. The feast of tabernacles never has this name,
not
even in 2 Chron. v. 3.—The correct interpretation of this
verse
is destructive of the position taken up by Venema, that the
Psalm
was composed for the celebration of the passover under
Hezekiah;
for this took place, according to 2 Chon. xxx. 2, con-
trary
to the usual custom, in the second
month. The account of
this
celebration, however, is so far of importance to rev. 1-3, as
it
shows that at that times music and singing formed a very im-
portant
part of the celebration of the passover: comp. 2 Chron.
xxx.
21, 22.
Ver. 4-7.—Ver. 4. For it is a law for
the God of Jacob. Ver. 5. Such a commandment he gave to
Joseph, when he brought
him over Egypt land, where I heard
a language unknown to me. Ver. 6. I removed from the bur-
den his shoulder, his
hands were set free from the burden-bas-
kets. Ver. 7. In the distress thou didst call and I
delivered
thee. I heard thee in
the thunder-cover. I proved thee at the
waters of strife. Selah.—In ver. 4, the law for
right
for the God of Jacob correspond. God, by the deliverance
which
he has wrought out, has acquired a right
to the thanks of
pointed
law of the passover, to implement this right.
not
celebrate the passover at his own hand, he only pays to God
what
is his due,—a due demanded on the ground of mercies be-
stowed.
It is this that distinguishes all festivals belonging to
the
true religion from those connected with religions that are
false;
the former depends throughout upon the foundation of
a
salvation imparted by God, and assumes the character of a
right
and a duty. The xvh refers to the festivals in general.
The
individual expressions of festive joy spoken of in ver. 1-3
had
not been expressly commanded in the law. They are, how-
ever,
accidents which necessarily accompany the substance.—In
ver.
5-7, the deed is more particularly described on which the
right
of God and the duty of
Hvdf a
testimony, next a law, comp. at
Ps. xix. 7, lxxviii, 5.
23 PSALM LXXXI. VER. 4-7.
Joseph
occupies the place of
period
of the residence in the
every
thing to Joseph, "the crowned one among his brethren,"
Gen.
xlix. 26; their whole existence there was founded on the
services
which Joseph had rendered to
according
to which, the oppression of
king,
who did not know Joseph. It was only during this period
of
his existence that
it
is altogether incorrect to generalize what is founded singly and
entirely
on the special circumstances connected with that period.
The
passage before us has assuredly nothing whatever to do with
Ps.
lxxvii. 15 and lxxx. i. The suffix in vtxcb refers to Jo-
seph.
"Out of
occurs
in the Pentateuch; comp. Ex. xi. 41, "All the armies
of
the Lord went out from the
xxii.
5, Deut. ix. 7; particularly in connection with the feast of
the
passover, comp. Ex. xxxiv. 18, "Thou shalt keep the feast
of
unleavened bread, seven days shalt thou eat unleavened
bread
as I have commanded thee at the time of the month Abib,
for
in the month Abib thou wentest out of
Egypt." Here, how-
ever,
the expression is "over
sense
in which it occurs in Job xxix. 7, "When I went out to the
gate
over or across the city." This over is more expressive than
out of. The marching out
appears all the more glorious, inas-
much
as the marching extended over the whole country, across
dren
of
tians;"
comp. Ex. xiv. 8.a Many expositors have suffered them-
selves
to be led astray by the lf. They translate: when he.
(the
Lord) went forth against the
to
Ex. xi. 4, "About midnight I go out in the
Against
this, however, we may urge, besides the manifest refer-
ence
to the passage from the Pentateuch above referred to, the
obviously
corresponding expression "who led thee out of the land
of
ing
to the first-mentioned rendering, "where I heard a language
a Calvin: The people, led
on by God, traversed freely the whole
sage
having been afforded them in consequence of the broken and terrified state of
the
inhabitants.
24 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
unknown
to me," an expression which denotes more exactly the
oppressive
nature of their previous condition, and the unspeakable
benefit
arising from their deliverance; comp. Ps. cxiv. 1, "When
strange
language." Finally, in the continuation in ver. 6 and 7,
the
language refers entirely to the deliverance out of
not
at all to the destruction of the first-born of the Egyptians, to
which
there is nowhere else one single reference throughout the
whole
Psalm. The last words of the verse indicate, as has been
already
observed, what it was that rendered the departure of the
strange
language, to serve a people from whom they were inwardly
in
a state of utter estrangement, must have been very painful and
oppressive.
The subject is
We
cannot translate, "a language of such a one whom," "but a lan-
guage
(of the kind that) I did not understand," "a language of
unintelligibility
for me;" Comp. Böttcher, proben p. 51. Many
expositors
translate: the voice of one unknown to me (a God
whom
I till that time did not know) I heard then in
I
hear now, the oracle referred to in ver. 6-16. But a compa-
rison
of the parallel passages, Ps. cxiv. 1, which is particularly
decisive,
Deut. xxviii. 49, "The Lord will bring upon thee a
people
from afar, . . . . a people whose language thou
dost
not understand," Is. xxxiii. 19, and Ju. v. 15, leaves
no
doubt whatever as to the correctness of the interpreta-
tion
given above. Farther, the description of the miserable
condition
in which
continued
in ver. 6 and 7. To the unknown language
here,
corresponds
the burden, the burden-basket there;
and to the
marching out here the rescuing, the delivering there. Then
the
designation of Jehovah as one unknown, for the whole people,
or
for the individual, to whom a revelation begins, is destitute
of
all real foundation and analogy. Finally, this translation,
which
proceeds from an entire misapprehension of the whole
train
of thought, must be rejected on etymological grounds. hpW
never
signifies a particular discourse, but a way of speaking, a
language;
comp. Böttcher.--As the difference in regard to the
speaker
(in ver: 6 and 7 it s the Lord that speaks, while pre-
vious
to this the Psalmist, or
PSALM LXXXI.
VER. 4-7 25
spoken
in the name and spirit of the Lord) is one merely of form,
and
as, in reality, verses 6 and 7 merely continue the train of
thought
of ver. 5 (when the Lord removed, or, then the Lord re-
moved)
it is altogether inappropriate, by marks of quotation, to
favour
the idea of the beginning of a new address. Such a change
as
to speakers requires very little attention to be paid to it, es-
pecially
in the Psalm of Asaph, as they are of a highly poetical
character.
At the first clause of ver. 6, comp. Ex. vi. 6, 7, "I
the
Lord bring you out from under the burden of the Egyptians."
The
basket dvd is,
according to the parallelism, the burden-
basket. Baskets of this kind
were found in the sepulchral vaults
which
have been opened in
nished
drawings and descriptions: the Israelites used them for
carrying
from one place to another the clay and manufactured
bricks:
comp.
"I
heard thee in the thunder-cover," in ver. 7, comp. Hab. iii. 4,
"And
there (in the lightning-flash which surrounds the Lord at
his
appearance) was the hiding of his power." As in that pas-
sage
God is concealed in the lightning-flash (comp. Delitzsch),
so
is he here in the thunder, i. e., the thunder-cloud, "the dark-
ness,"
Ex. xx. 18, the storm. There is no need for assuming
that
the Psalmist alludes, specially and exclusively, to Ex. xiv.
24,
according to which, while the Egyptians were passing through
the
sea, the Lord looked upon their chariots from the pillar of
fire
and cloud, and thus completed the deliverance of the Is-
raelites.
It is a common figure of poetry to represent the Lord
as
riding forth in a storm, mighty against his enemies, and on
behalf
of this people; comp. Ps. lxxvii. 16-18; Ps. xviii. 11:
--and
hence the Psalmist has assuredly before his eyes
the
whole series of Egyptian plagues. At the last clause, I
proved thee at the water
of Meribah,
Luther says correctly:
"he
makes mention of the waters of strife in order that he may
remind
them of their sins." The words do not properly belong
to
the train of thought in the preceding context, which is occu-
pied
only with the salvation of God. They look in the first in-
a Calvin: "We may
now apply the subject to ourselves: inasmuch as God has not
only
removed our shoulders from burdens of bricks, and our hands from kilns, but
has
redeemed us from the tyranny of Satan, and brought us up from perdition, we
are
laid under much more solemn obligations than were the ancient people."
26 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
stance
very like the expression of an idea which had started up
uncalled
for. This apparently arbitrary reference to
faithfulness
and ingratitude prepares the way, however, for the
following
exhortation and complaint, and thus forms the connect-
ing
link between the first and second portions of the Psalm. The
proving
at the waters of strife, Ez. xvii. 1, &c. (comp. on the rela-
tion
which this narrative bears to that at Num. xx. 1, &c., the
Beitr.
p. 378, &c.) is specially referred to, because it was here
that
the first proper act of rebellion took place on the part of the
people
who had only a short while ago beheld the glorious deeds
of
the Lord—the first manifestation of his real nature. The
proving comes into notice here
in reference to the well known re-
sult by which it was
followed.
Ver. 8-12.—Ver. 8. Hear my people, and let me swear
solemnly to thee, if
thou harkenest unto me. Ver. 9. Let
there not be among thee
another God; and thou shalt not wor-
ship a God of the
strangers.
Ver. 10. I am the Lord thy God
who have brought thee
out of the
wide, I will fill it. Ver. 11. But my people does not listen to
my voice, and
given them over to the
wickedness of their heart, they walk in
their own counsels.—On ver. 8, comp. Ps.
1. 7. On "my peo-
ple,"
Luther says: "You are my people, I have preserved, nour-
ished,
and redeemed thee; therefore listen to me." As Mx is
never
a particle expressive of desire, it is necessary to supply:
it will be well with
thee,
or something similar,—a construction
rendered
also probable by comparing ver. 13. Similar ellipses
occur
in Ex. xxxii. 32 ; Ps. xxvii. 17 (comp. at the passage),
Luke
xix. 42; xix. 9 (see Koenöhl on the passages).—Ver. 9
and
10 depend on Ex. xx. 2, 3. It has been very unjustifiably
maintained
that the first commandment stands instead of the
whole
decalogue. This would deprive the thought of all point.
It
was only their fathers' God, their country's God, that had ma-
nifested
himself in the past as
xxxii.
12, "the Lord alone did lead him, and there was not with
him
one God of the stranger)," and thus he is still rich in help
for
them; therefore they should even now serve this one God only.
—Ver.
10 is in reality connected with ver. 9 by a "Because." The
expression,
"who led thee out of the
PSALM L.XXXI. VER.
10-16. 27
from
Deut. xx. 1. The words, "Open thy mouth wide, I will
fill
it," are equivalent to "I am rich for all thy necessities, even
for
thy boldest wishes," as is evident from their development in
ver.
14-16.—In ver. 11, 12, the Lord complains that
hitherto,
to their own loss, failed to respond to the exhortations
addressed
to them in ver. 8-10, notwithstanding the solid foun-
dation
on which these rested in their deliverance. Comp. Prov.
i.
30, 31, "they would have none of my counsel, they despised
all
my censures: therefore they eat the fruit of their way and
shall
be satisfied with their own counsels." At ver. 11, Luther
says:
“It is something dreadful and terrible
that he says my
people
fested
no particular deeds of kindness, &c.” Allusion is made to
Deut.
xiii. 9, where it is said, in reference to him who should
entice
unto
him nor hearken unto him."
shamefully
reversed the matter: they had lent their ear to the
enticer
and renounced their own God. The preterites denote
the
past stretching forward into the present.—At ver. 12, God
lets
every one take his own way; the stiff-necked Israelites who
would
not have his truth and goodness, shall be given over to
error
and wickedness, to their own destruction; comp.
24.
2 Thess. ii. 10, 11. The bl tvryrw (not hardness
but
wickedness of heart) is here and
everywhere else where it occurs,
Is.
iii. 17; vii. 24, taken from Deut. xxix. 19. To walk in their
own counsels is to regulate the life
according to them, according
to
the passions of their own corrupted hearts instead of the com-
mandments
of the holy God, comp. Jer. vii. 24; Is. lxv. 2: "a
rebellious
people who walk in a way that is not good,
after their
own thoughts."
Ver. 13-16. Arnd.: "The blessed God in his great fatherly
love
and faithfulness cannot leave them, he must repeat his pro-
mise
and call men again to him by the offer of his gracious deeds."
—Ver.
13. If now my people did hear me, and
my way. Ver. 14. I would soon bring down their enemies and
turn my hand upon their
adversaries.
Ver. 15. The haters of
the Lord would feign
submission to him, and their time would
continue for ever. Ver. 16. He would feed them with the fat of
the wheat, and out of
the rock would I satisfy thee with honey.
28 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
---The
vl,
ver. 13, denotes the condition notwithstanding the
consciousness
that it is not realized: if my people heard, which
they
do not: comp. Ewald, 627. Is. xlviii. 18. The
ways of
the Lord form the contrast to
their own stupid and ruinous plans,
ver.
12.—The phrase "to turn the hand upon," ver. 14, is, when
taken
by itself, an indefinite one, to turn it to the object of trade
or
manufacture: comp. the Christol. p. 338. Here, accord-
ing
to the connection, it is the punishing
hand; and to turn it
back
denotes the speedy overpowering of the enemies,—as for-
merly
in the days of old, ver. 6 and 7: comp. particularly there
hrcb.—The first half of ver. 15 depends on Deut.
xxxiii. 29:
"thy
enemies shall feign to thee" (comp. at Ps. xviii. 44.) The
allusion
to this passage shews that the vl is to be referred to
Lord,"
Luther: "Thou shouldst not think that I am favourable
to
them, for they are my enemies also. But they are too strong
for
thee and gain the upper hand because thou hast forsaken me.
Had
it not been for this, matters would have been very different.
It
is not the enemies that plague thee; it is I: mine hand it is
that
oppresses thee when thine enemies oppress thee." It was
the
design to give great prominence to the thought so comfort-
ing
for
God,
that their enemies are also the enemies of God, which led to
the
expression, "the haters of the Lord," instead of "my
haters."
The use of the third person in the first clause of ver.
16
is connected with this. But towards the conclusion, the usual
form
is resumed. On the second clause, comp. 2 Sam. vii. 24.
The
tf
signifies always time, never fortune.—On ver. 16, Luther:
"For
there are two things of which we stand in need, nourish-
ment
and protection. Therefore, God now says, that if they turn
to
him he will not only be their man of war to fight for them, but
also
their husbandman: so that those who fear him and trust in
him
shall want nothing that pertains to this life." The first
clause
is from Deut. xxxii. 14 (the fat of the
wheat is instead of
the
best of the wheat), the second clause
from Deut. xxxii. 13,
and
he caused
flinty
rock." That the honey from the rock is not at all what
several
very prosaicly have supposed, the honey which the bees
had
prepared in the crevices of the rocks, but something alto-
PSALM LXXXII. 29
gether
unusual and supernatural (out of the hard
barren rock) is
evident
from the parallel clause in Deut., oil
from the flinty rock,
and
also from the passage, Job. xxix. 6, which in like manner
alludes
to the passage in Deut.: "when I bathed my feet in milk
and
the hard rock was changed for me into streams of oil."
PSALM LXXXII.
God appears in the midst of his
church for judgment upon the
gods
of the earth, the judges who bear his image, ver. 1, pun-
ishes
them on account of their violation of justice, and exhorts
them
to a better conduct, ver. 2-4. Still they persevere in
their
want of understanding, in their walk in darkness, and every
thing
is in confusion, ver. 5. The definite sentence is there-
fore
passed upon them, intimation of their destruction
is made
to
them, ver. 6 and 7. In conclusion, the Psalmist expresses in
ver.
8 his desire for the appearance of the Lord to judgment.
The formal arrangement is very
simple. The main division is
complete
in seven, which is again divided into a four and a three,
the
preceding judgment, and the final decision. To the main
division,
which is throughout of a prophetical character, there is
appended
a lyrical conclusion, in which the Psalmist expresses
his
wish for that which he had already announced as just impend-
The question arises, whether the
wicked rulers against whom
the
Psalm is directed are internal or external. The last view is
the
one generally entertained. The Psalm is considered as di-
rected
" against the potentates of
captivity;"
"the miserable, the poor," &c. are viewed as the Is-
raelites.
But the only argument in favour of this view depends
upon
a false interpretation of ver. 5 and 8; and there are nu-
merous
and decisive reasons in favour of the reference to inter-
nal
relations. Just at the very beginning God appears for judg-
ment
in the "congregation of God," and there calls to account the
wicked
judges who must therefore belong to it. The name
Elohim
and sons of God which is given to them, is never used in
the
Old Testament of heathen magistrates. It presupposes the
30 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
king.
Besides, in ver. 6, in reference to this title of honour, al-
lusion
is made to expressions in the Pentateuch which are applied
exclusively
to Israelitish rulers. In reference to heathen rulers,
it
is matter of great difficulty that those in the Psalm are accused
of
nothing else than faulty administration of justice, partiality in
favour
of the wicked, the denial of the rights of the poor, and so
on.
The sins of the heathen judges lay entirely in another direc-
tion.
And on the other hand, these very charges are brought
forward
in many passages against the Israelitish rulers, for ex-
ample,
Is. iii. 13-15, a passage nearly related to our Psalm, and
which
may serve as a commentary to it: "the Lord standeth up
to
plead, and the Lord standeth to judge the people: the Lord will
enter
into judgment with the ancients of his people and the
princes
thereof; for ye have eaten up the vineyard, the spoil of
the
poor is in your houses," Ch. i. 17-24.
Jer.
xxii. 1, &c. If we compare carefully these passages and
likewise
the passages in the Pentateuch in which the Israelitish
rulers
are told their duties, such as Deut. i. 17, and also the ad-
dress
of Jehosaphat to the rulers sent forth by him, it will not be
possible
with a good conscience to adopt the hypothesis of hea-
then
riders.
These passages, and also the
fundamental passages of the
Pentateuch,
are decisive against those who would refer the Psalm
exclusively,
or only especially, to kings. It has to do with the
judges
of the people, and with kings, if at all, only in so far as
they
are judges. If the Psalm was composed in the time of
David,
in favour of which supposition may be pleaded the pro-
phetic
tone peculiar to the Asaph of that period, and against
which
no tenable ground can be advanced (even Hitzig must
allow
that there is no allusion of any kind, no late form or con-
necting
particle, no term which could be pronounced as being
decidedly
of later origin to betray an author belonging to a later
age),
the Psalmist could not, in the first instance, assuredly have
referred
to the king,—a view which is confirmed by the express
mention
of "the princes," in ver. 7, as compared with "the
ancients
of his people and the princes thereof," in Is. iii. Still
though
the Psalm was in the first instance called forth by exist-
ing
relations, yet being destined for all ages, it undoubtedly ad-
mits
of being applied to kings in the discharge of their duty as
31 PSALM LXXXII.
judges,
in so far as they are guilty of that perversion of right
here
imputed to them: comp. Jos. xxii. 1, ss.
The following remarks are designed
to lead to a deeper insight
into
the meaning of the Psalm. Nothing can be more unground-
ed
than the assertion which in modern times has been repeatedly
made,
that the God of the Old Testament is a being altogether
strange
or foreign to finite beings. The Old Testament opposes
this
view at its very opening, with its doctrine of the creation of
man
after the image of God. With this doctrine in its com-
mencement,
it cannot possibly teach in any other part that there
is
an absolute opposition between God and man. Besides, in
the
Law of Moses, all those whose office it is to command, to
judge;
and to arbitrate, all those to whom in any respect rever-
ence
and regard is due, are set apart as the representatives of God
on
earth. The foundation of this is found in the commandment,
"honour
thy father and mother," in the Decalogue. It was shewn
in
the Beitr. P. iii. p. 605, that this commandment belongs to the
first
table: thou shalt fear and honour. God, first in himself,
second
in those who represent him on earth, and farther, that the
parents
are named in it only in an individualising manner, as re-
presentatives
of all who are possessed of worth, and are worthy
of
esteem. The direction in Lev. xix. 32, rises on the foundation
of
this commandment, where respect for the aged
appears as the
immediate
consequence of respect for God, whose eternity was de-
signed
to be revered and honoured under the emblem of their old
age;
also Ex. xxii. 27, according to which we are taught to re-
cognise
in governors a reflection of the majesty of God: "thou shalt
not
revile God, nor curse the ruler of thy people," i. e., thou shalt
not
curse thy rulers (or in any one way dishonour him), for he
bears
the image of God, and every insult offered to such a repre-
sentative
of God in his kingdom is an insult against God, in him
God
himself is honoured and revered: comp. 1 Chron. xxix. 23,
"and
Solomon sat upon the throne of Jehovah." But it was in
connection
with the office of judge that the stamp of divinity was
most
conspicuous, inasmuch as that office led the people under
the
foreground of an humble earthly tribunal to contemplate the
background,
of a lofty divine judgment; "the judgment is God's,"
Deut.
i.. 17, whoever comes before it, comes before God, Ex.
xxi. 6; xxii. 7, 8.
32 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
The position assigned to the office
of judge must, when pro-
perly
considered, have exerted a practical influence of a twofold
character.
It must have filled those who were brought before its
tribunal
with a sacred reverence for an authority which maintained
its
right upon earth in the name of God. And on the part of the
judges
themselves it must have led them to take a lofty view of
their
calling, it must have called forth earnest efforts to practise
the
virtues of him whose place they occupied, him "who does not
favour
princes, and makes no distinction between rich and poor, for
they
are the work of his hands," Job xxxiv. 19, and it must have
awakened
a holy fear of becoming liable to his judgment. For
there
could be no doubt that as they judged in God's stead, the
heavenly
Judge would not suffer them to go unpunished should
they
misuse their office, but would in that case come forth from
his
place and utter his thundering cry, "how long!" This last
idea
is expressly brought forward in the law. In Deut. i. 17,
solemn
admonitions are addressed to judges, grounded on the
lofty
position assigned to their office. Comp. 2 Chron. xix. 6, 7,
where
Jehosaphat, with greater copiousness of detail, addresses
the
following admonitions to the judges, whom he commission-
ed:
"Take heed what ye do, for ye judge
not for man but
for
God, who is with you in the judgment: wherefore now let the
fear
of the Lord be upon you, take heed and do it, for there is
no
iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor
taking
of gifts."
The Psalm has no reference to the
depth of human sinfulness
except
in so far as the judges lost sight of the above view, set
before
their minds rather the rights than the duties of their
exalted
station, and abused for the gratification of their pride
what
should have produced in them fear and trembling. The
name
Elohim, which should have continually reminded them of
their
heavenly Judge, served them as a shield for their own un-
righteousness.
They held it up in the face of all complaints and
objections.
Every man who did not go in with their unrighteous-
ness,
they branded as a rebel against God. The Psalmist raises
his
protest against this melancholy perversity. He shows the
wicked
judges what it was that they really had to do with the
title
Elohim. Asaph the seer lets them see,
what the eye of
PSALM LXXXII. 33
flesh
did not see, God, God among the gods, and brings him out
to
their dismay from his place of concealment.
There is a deviation so far from the
language of the law of
Moses,
that there the name Elohim is applied only in general to
the
bench of judges as representing God, and here in the expression,
"in
the midst of the gods he judges," it is applied to individual
judges.
This difference, however, which has frequently been
misused
in favour of completely untenable expositions, is so far
from
being of any importance, that even in the Pentateuch an
individual
person, although not a judge, if representing God,
is
dignified with the name Elohim. Moses, in Ex. iv. 16, as the re-
presentative
of God for Aaron, is called his god; and in like manner
a
god to Pharaoh, ch. vii. 1: comp. Baumgarten on the passages.
Luther,
after giving a picture of the wickedness and profligacy
of
the great men of his time, remarks:--"There existed also among
the
Jewish people youths of this character, who kept, continually in
their
mouths the saying of Moses in Ex. xxii. 9. They employed
this
saying as a cloak and shield for their wickedness, against the
preachers
and the prophets; and gave themselves great airs
while
they said: wilt thou punish us and instruct us? Dost thou
not
know that Moses calls us Gods? Thou art
a rebel, thou
speakest
against the ordinance of God, thou preachest to the
detriment
of our honour. Now the prophet acknowledges and
does
not deny that they are gods, he will not be rebellious, or
weaken
their honour or authority, like the disobedient and re-
bellious
people, or like the mad saints who make heretics and
enthusiasts,
but he draws a proper distinction between their
power
and the power of God. He allows that they are gods over
men,
but not over God himself. It is as if he said: It is true
you
are gods over us all, but not over him who is the God of us
all.
From this we see in what a high and glorious position God
intends
to maintain the office of the magistracy. For who will
set
himself against those on whom God bestows his own name?
Whoever
despises them, despises at the same time the true
Magistrate,
God, who speaks and judges in them and through
them,
and calls their judgment his judgment. The Apostle Paul,
Rom.
xiii. 2, points out the consequences of this; and experience
amply
confirms his statement. But again; just as on the one
hand
he restrains the discontent of the populace, and brings
34 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
them
on account of it under the sword and under law, so does he
on
the other hand restrain the magistracy, that it shall not abuse
such
majesty and power for wickedness, but employ it in the pro-
motion
and maintenance of peace. But yet only so far, that he will
not
permit the people to lift up their arm against it, or to seize
the
sword for the purpose of punishing and judging it. No, that
they
shall not do; God has not commanded it. He himself,
God;
will punish wicked magistrates, he will be judge and master
over
them, he will get at them, better than any one else could,
as
he has done from the beginning of the world."
Ver. 1-4.—Ver. 1. A Psalm of Asaph. God stands in the
congregation of God, in
the midst of the gods he judges. Ver. 2.
"How long will ye
judge unjustly, and accept the persons of
the wicked? Selah. Ver. 3. Judge the poor and the fatherless,
give their rights to the
poor and needy.
Ver. 4. Deliver the
poor and the needy, rid
them out of the hand of the wicked."—
The
fiftieth Psalm, which was also composed, by Asaph, begins,
like
the one now before us, with an appearance of God for judg-
ment.
The name Elohim, not Jehovah, designedly occurs in the
first
clause of ver. 1, because the judges also had been designated
by
this name: God judges the gods. The bcn
is,
"he is placed,"
he
comes forward," as in Is. iii. 13. The sphere of the judging
is
described in general terms in the first clause, and is more par-
ticularly
defined in the second. The general description refers to
the
ground of this special judging act on the part of God because
riess,
no abuse of an office which bears his name, he must judge
his
degenerate office-bearers.a hvhy tdf, the congregation,
of
Jehovah, in lxrWy tdf, the congregation of
ample
Ps. lxxiv. 2), hdfh, the congregation, are standing ex-
pressions
for the people of God. The Psalmist places lx in-
stead
of the Jehovah of the first expression, for the sake of the
allusion
to the second, and also because lx is more allied to
Myhlx. Several
deny the reference to
a Luther: He stands in his congregation, for the congregation
is his own. This is a
terrible
word of threatening against these wicked gods or magistrates. For they must
here
understand that they are not placed overstocks and stones, nor over swine and
dogs,
but
over the congregation of God: they must therefore be afraid of acting against
God
himself
when they act unjustly.
PSALM LXXXII. VER. 1-4. 35
either:
in the assembly of God, the assembly which God ap-
points,
or that over which he presides, or: in the divine college
of
judges. But hdf never signifies an assembly or a college,
but
always a community, a congregation. By Elohim
several
would
understand the sons of God, the angels: God holds a
judgment
(upon the judges) in the midst of his heavenly court.
But
in this way the fundamental thought of the Psalm which
seems
placed at its head in marked antithetic expressions, God
judges the Gods, is destroyed; Elohim
is never used for angels,
(comp.
at Ps. viii. 5, Gesen. on the word), and there is no reason
why
it should be so used here, the same appellation applied to
God
and to the angels manifestly leading to confusion; it is
impossible
to tell in this case who is judged, or to whom the
address
in ver. 4-6 is directed; and finally, ver. 6, where the
judges
are called gods, cannot possibly be separated from the,
words
"in the midst of the gods." The judging
refers, in the
first
instance, to the sharp accusation of ver. 2-4. Still in these
cases
where this is not attended to,a it is completed in the
defi-
nite
sentence of death contained in ver. 6 and 7.—Ver. 2 de-
pends
on Lev. xix. 15: Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judg-
ment,
thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour
the
person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge
thy
neighbour: comp. Deut. i. 17: Ye shall not respect persons
in
judgment. The lf stands here in some measure as an ad-
verb,
exactly as Myrwym in Ps. lviii. 1: comp. at the passage.
Gesenius
in his Thesaurus has proved, in a thorough discussion
which
in fact exhausts the subject, that the phrase Mynp xWn
signifies,
not "to lift up the face of any
one," “to make him
lift
it up,” but "to regard the face of any one," "to respect his
person,"
"to be inclined towards him," "to favour him." The
Selah standing here, as in
Ps. iv. 4, between the prohibition and
the
command, leaves time to lay the first to heart.—The judging
in
ver. 3 denotes the opposite of not taking up their case, of
sending
them away unheard: comp. Is. i. 17: judge the father-
less,
plead for the widow. The poor,—comp. Ex. xxiii. 3. The
fatherless,--comp. Ex. xxii. 21.
Luther "Every prince should,
a
pronouncing
sentence he addresses to the criminals before his bar a serious admonition,
with
a view of bringing them, if possible, to a sound state of mind.
36 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
get
these three verses, yea the whole Psalm, painted upon the
walls
of his room, upon his bed, over his table, and even upon
his
clothes. For here they will find what high, princely, noble
virtue
their situation demands; so that assuredly worldly supre-
macy,
next to the office of the ministry, is the highest service of
God,
and the most profitable duty upon earth."
Ver. 5-7.—Ver. 5. They know not and understand not, in
darkness they walk on,
all the foundations of the earth are
shaken. Ver. 6. I have said: Ye are gods and sons of the
Most High all of you. Ver. 7. But ye shall die like men, and
fall like one of the
princes.—At
ver. 5 we must supply: "as
they
have hitherto done; the divine reprehension and punish-
ment
have produced no good effects." As God continues to
speak
in ver. 6 and 7, we must conceive of this complaint in re-
gard
to the inefficacy of what he had hitherto announced, as pro-
ceeding
from him. At "they know not and understand not,"
we
are to supply the object from the context, as in all similar
cases
(comp. at Ps. xiv. 3), viz., the sacred
duties of their office,
which
had been inculcated upon them in ver. 2-4. Comp.
indicates
moral bewilderment, comp. Prov. ii. 13: "They
forsake
the
ways of uprightness, and walk in the
ways of darkness." At
the
last clause we are by no means to supply therefore:
the
clause
stands in the same relation as the other clauses to the
criminality of the judges: every
thing is ruined by them,—they
ruin
every thing. There is an implied comparison: every thing
in
the land is tossed upside down as in an earthquake. It is
only
in the comparison, and not in the reality, that the reference
to
the earth lies.—In the final judgment pronounced by God,
ver.
6 and 7, the elevated station of judges is first acknowledged,
on
which they grounded their assertion that they were invested
with
absolute power, ver. 4, and then it is affirmed that this
station
by no means frees them from responsibility, or affords
them
any protection against that merited punishment which was
just
about immediately to befal them. The but
in ver. 7 sup-
poses
an indeed understood in ver. 6.a I have said refers to cer-
a Calvin: A concession in which the
prophet spews the wicked judges, that they will
derive
no protection from that sacred character with which God has invested them. I
acknowledge
that you are God, &c.
PSALM LXXXII. VER.
5-7. 37
tain
generally well-known expressions in which the magistracy,
and
in particular the judicial office, is designated by the name
Elohim,—the
passages already quoted of the Mosaic law. The
Elohim might here in itself be
taken in the singular: ye are God,
bearers
of his image, as Gousset and others expound. But ver. 1
renders
it necessary to translate: ye are gods. Our Saviour in-
terprets
the passage in this way in Jo. x. 35. Along with the
fundamental
passages to which it refers, and on which it certainly
forms
an advance, in so far as the name Elohim is applied to
individuals,
the passage before us is strikingly adapted to
give
a blow to that rigid dualism of God and man, in which the
Pharasaic
opposition to the God-man is rooted: The second ap-
pellation,
"Sons of the Highest," indicates the intimate character
of
the relation in which earthly judges stand to the Judge in
heaven.
It was shewn at Ps. ii. 7, that it is in this sense that
the
sonship of God is spoken of every where throughout the Old
Testament.
Luther: "It may well make one wonder
that he
calls
such wicked individuals as those whom he here rebukes so
sharply,
by the name of sons of God or sons of the Highest, since
children
of God is an appellation which in Scripture is applied to
holy
believers. Answer: it is just as great a
wonder that he
should
bestow upon such wicked people his own name; yea, it is
rather
a greater wonder that he should call them gods. But it all
lies
in the word: I have said. For we have often remarked that
the
word of God sanctifies and deifies all things to which it is
applied.
Wherefore we may call such situations as have had im-
pressed
upon them the word of God, in every respect holy divine
conditions,
although the persons are not holy. Just as father,
mother,
preacher, minister, &c., are in every respect holy divine
situations,
although the persons who are in them may be knaves
and
rogues. Thus inasmuch as God stamps the office of magistry
with
his word, magistrates are correctly called gods, and the chil-
dren
of God, on account of their divine condition, and the word of
God,
although they are really vile knaves, as he complains that they
are."—The
7th verse does not at all refer in general to mortality
and
death—a reference which acquired proper force and significance
only
in New Testament times, when "and after that the judg-
ment,"
was brought clearly out as standing in immediate con-
nection.
The idea meant to be conveyed is, in accordance with
38 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
the
Old Testament practice throughout, and especially that of
the
Psalms in similar cases, a threatening of violent death, of a
cutting
off in the midst of the days: comp. the heathen saying:
ad generum Cereris sine caede et sanguine pauci
descendant reges
et
sicca morte tyranni. This is evident from "ye shall fall" of
the
second clause (lpn is always used of a violent death, Ps.
xci. 7; Ex. xix. 21; Jer. viii. 12, and in the full
form, "to fall
by the sword," in Jer. xxxix.
18, and in other passages), by
which
the general expression of the first clause, "ye shall die,"
which
is accompanied only by the words "like men," is rendered
definite.
The expression, "like men," "after the manner of
men"
(comp. at Ps. xvii.), intimates to the gods of the earth,
who
fancied themselves to be above all other men, that as far as
death
is concerned, they are subject to the general lot of hu-
manity.
The expression, "as one of the princes" (comp. 1 Kings
xxii.
13; xix. 2. Obed. ver. 11), reminds them of the numerous
examples
in early times of similar dignitaries who were removed
by
the judgment of God. The connection shews that it is fallen
princes
that are meant. Any further reference (several exposi-
tors
suppose that heathen princes are
meant, who are not even
once
particularly alluded to, others warriors,—not
to speak of
still
more arbitrary ideas) is altogether unknown to the context,
is
in no respect called for, and indeed is of no use whatever.
The prophetic denunciation of the
judgment of God is followed,
in
ver. 8, by an expression of earnest desire for its accomplish-
ment.--Lift up thyself, 0 God, judge the earth, for
thou art
Lord over all the
nations.—The
wish of the Psalmist, or of the
church,
in whose name he speaks, refers, in the first instance, to
God
is only an instance of what is general, the Psalmist calls
upon
him to appear to judge the world: comp. at Ps. vii. 7,
8;
lvi. 7; lix. 5. The Lord appears also,
in the parallel pas-
sage,
Is. iii. 13, to judge the nations. The
call made upon God
to
judge the earth is based upon the fact, that all its nations are
subject
to him, and responsible to him, no less than
peculiar
hlHn
of the Lord, and, therefore, the immediate
object
of
his judgment. lHn, with the accusative is, "to
possess," and
with
b
"to have a possession:" comp. Num. xviii. 20; Deut.
xix.
14; Num. xxxiv. 29. (Böttcher is wrong, Proben. p. 184.)
PSALM LXXXIII. 39
PSALM LXXXIII.
The short prayer that God would
help, ver. 1, is followed, in
ver.
2-8, by a representation of the trouble which occasions the
prayer:
first, in ver. 2-4, the doings of the
enemies,--they roar,
they
take crafty counsel, they aim at nothing less than the entire
destruction
of
fewer
than ten nations assembled around Ammon and
the
centre-point, are united against
of
the distress is followed, in ver. 9-18, by
the developed
prayer. This prayer first
reminds God of the wonderful assist-
ance
which, in similar circumstances, he had vouchsafed to
his
people in the days of old, ver. 9-12; next it calls upon
him
to let loose the storm and the tempest of his wrath upon the
enemies,
ver. 13-15, and finally, by the destruction of the ene-
mies,
to promote his own glory upon the earth, ver. 16-18.
The formal arrangement admits of
being ascertained with ease
and
certainty. If we cut off the title and the preliminary prayer
in.
ver. 1 which in reality belongs to it, we have two main divi-
sions,
which are also externally separated by the Selah, viz., the
representation
of the trouble, ver. 2-8, and the prayer, ver. 9-16.
The
seven of the first is divided into a three and a four, the qua-
lity
of the enemies, and their quantity; the ten of the second by
a
seven, which again falls into a four and a three (the reversed
relation
of the three and the four of the first half) and a three.
The
ten hostile nations, in ver. 5-7, correspond to the number
ten
of the verses of the second half: there are as many verses of
petitions
as there are enemies; while the number of individual peti-
tions
of this half is complete in twelve, the signature of the peo-
ple
of the covenant. This number ten of the nations is divided
exactly
in the same way as the verses: 4, 3, 3. In like manner,
the
number seven of the names of the enemies of the times of
old,
who were annihilated by the omnipotence of God, at the be-
ginning
of the second part, ver. 9-11, corresponds to the num-
ber
seven of the verses of the first half, which speaks of the rage
and
the crowd of the enemies. Accident here cannot possibly
exist.
There is no room for doubt as to the
historical occasion of the
40 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
Psalm.
It refers to the war of Jehosaphat against the allied
Edomites,
Moabites, Ammonites, and other nations, and forms
the
earliest as to subject of a series of cognate Psalms. While it
makes
mention of the help of God in the midst
of danger, the forty-
seventh
Psalm was sung, after the discomfiture of the enemy, on
the field of battle, and the forty-eighth
at the thanksgiving service
in the temple. The following reasons
may be urged in favour of this
view--a
view which has been taken by all commentators, except
those
who have been prevented from arriving at the truth by
some
prejudice, such as that all the Psalms of Asaph were com-
posed
in David's time, or that the narrative at 2 Chron. xx. is
not
historically correct. 1. Here, as on that occasion, it is the
same
nations, upon the whole, that meet us. The Edomites, the
Moabites,
and the Ammonites, whom alone the author of Chro-
nicles
expressly names, are not only mentioned in this Psalm, but
are
also introduced as those with whom the whole enterprise ori-
ginated.
The others are grouped around these three; and at the
conclusion,
the sons of
Even
the narrative in Chronicles decidedly indicated that these
three
were named merely as the centre of
the undertaking, and
that
there were others concerned of less note, the mention of
whom
was not a matter of such consequence to the historian
as
it
was to the Psalmist whose object was promoted by a heaping
up
of names. Not to mention that, according to Chronicles, the
enemy
formed such a mass that
them,
that the quantity of plunder indicated an enemy from a far
country,
who had set out, bag and baggage, it is expressly said,
in
ver. 1, "and with them others who dwelt remote from the
Ammonites,
beyond them," (comp. on Mynvmfhm Cler. and the
annot.),
and in ver. 2, "and they told Jehosaphat saying, There
cometh
a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea, be-
yond
the
country east of that stripe which is bounded on the north by
serts
of Arabia, whose hordes had in former times made
the
object of their marauding assaults. 2. The union
and con-
federacy of all the nations
mentioned, ver. 3 and 5, is of great
consequence.
Such a confederacy of nations took place only at
one
period during the whole history, viz., in the time of Jehosa-
PSALM LXXXIII. 41
phat.
The remark of Koester, who finds it necessary to consider
the
confederacy of the nations as not a historical event, "they
plunder
us as if they had preconcerted a plan," shows to what
arbitrary
expedient those are obliged to have recourse who do
not
adopt the reference to this transaction. 3. According to ver.
4,
the enemies kept their plans secret, and employed cunning
preparatory
to force. It is exactly in accordance with this, that,
from
2 Chron. xx. 2, it appears that Jehosaphat obtained intelli-
gence
of the undertaking of his enemies for the first time, when
they
were already within his dominions, at Engedi: they could
not
possibly have made their hostile preparations with greater
cunning
and silence. The place, also, at which the enemies made
their
entrance, leads to the same result. Their marching south-
ward
so as to go round the
quietly
entered Canaan from the east, as
times,
could only have been adopted for the purpose of concealing
their
object. 5. According to ver. 4 and 12, the enemies had
nothing
less for their object than to do to
formerly
done to the Canaanites. It was no ordinary marauding
expedition;—the
intention was completely to root out
and
to take entire possession of his lands. The enemies of Jeho-
saphat,
according to 2 Chron. xx. 11, had the same object in
view.
That they had so is obvious from the quality of the booty
which
was found in their tents. They had set out, as
of
old, with bag and baggage. 5. The mention of the Amalekites
among
the enemies of
come
down to times later than that of Jehosaphat. The last re-
mains
of the Amalekites were, according to 1 Chron. iv. 43, rooted
out
by the Simeonites, under Hezekiah. From that time, they
disappear
altogether from history. Ewald's assertion that Ama-
lek
stands here "only as a name of infamy applied to parties
well-known
at the time," is to be considered as a miserable shift.
6.
The Psalm must have been composed previous to the exten-
sion
of the empire of the Assyrians over
Assyrians
named last, in the 8th verse, appear here in the very
extraordinary
character of an ally of the Sons of Lot. 7. Our
Psalm,
according to the title, was composed by Asaph. In ac-
cordance
with this, we read, in 1 Chron. xx. 14, that the Spirit
of
the Lord came upon Jehasiel, of the sons of Asaph, in the
42 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
midst
of the assembly. This Jehasiel is probably the author of
the
Psalm. 8. Our Psalm is a true picture of the state of feel-
ing
which prevailed throughout the people during the danger
under
Jehosaphat. According to the history of Chronicles, they
praised
God at that time, in the midst of their danger, with loud
voice,
ver. 19; and here in the title, which is an appendage to
that
of Ps. xlviii., the Psalm is called a song
of praise (comp. on
ryw, at Ps. xlii. 9); and it is such in reality,
although it bears
the
form of a prayer,—a song of triumph
sung before the vic-
tory,—no
contest, no doubt, the distress is simply committed to
God.
In establishing the correct view, we, at the same time,
virtu-
ally
refute those of an erroneous nature, whose very existence, as
well
as that of the prejudice against the historical character of
2
Chron. xx.—a notion which even our Psalm, in common with
Ps.
xlvii. and xlviii. (comp. Keil on 2 Chron. p. 241 ss.) is suffi-
cient
to put to shame,—is to be accounted for by the extent to
which
the abettors of the late origin of the Psalms have overshot
their
mark. The hypothesis that the Psalm refers to the occur-
rence
at Neh. iv. 1 ss. is negatived by this, among other reasons,
that
it is scarcely possible to conceive anything less suitable to
it
than these "railleries of the neighbours," who had no further
end
in view than to hinder the building of the temple; and still
further
by the consideration that the Samaritans,
who were at
that
time the chief enemies, would not
have been wanting, and
that
the Amalekites and the Assyrians would not have been
mentioned.
That the Persians are meant by the
Assyrians is
again
a miserable subterfuge. In a case where nine nations are
spoken
of by their proper names, the tenth must be referred to
in
the same way: that the Persians took any part in that ma-
chination
is a groundless assertion; even had they done so, they
would
not have occupied such a subordinate place as is here as-
signed
to the Assyrians.—The assertion first made by v. Til, and
subsequently
repeated by Hitzig, that the Psalm refers to the
incidents
of 1 Macc. v. is negatived by the following considera-
tions:—At
that time, there was no combination among the
neighbouring
nations; each acted by itself: these nations at that
time
did not set out for the purpose of extirpating the Jews ge-
nerally; they only rose up
against those who were dwelling in
PSALM LXXXIII. VER.
2-4. 43
the
midst of them: there is no passage where the Syrians are
designated
by the name of Assyrians; they never were, like the
Chaldeans
and the Persians, the successors of the Assyrians in
the
dominion of
the
mention of Endor as the place of the discomfiture of the
Canaanites,
at ver. 10, shows that the Psalm must have been
composed
at a time when, in reference to the period of the Judges,
there
were other sources of information at hand than those which
now
exist. It is, therefore, not at all necessary to have recourse
to
those general grounds which are conclusive against the exist-
ence
of Maccabean Psalms. The incidents, however, recorded in
Neh.
iv. and 1 Macc. v. are of importance so far, that they show
how
intense and permanent was the hatred of the neighbouring
nations
against "the people of God," and, consequently, go far
to
confirm the credibility of 2 Chron. xx., and the historical cha-
racter
of ver. 2-8 of our Psalm.
Amyraldus: "The Psalm may be applied now to the
enemies
of
the Christian Church, of which
important
and formidable of these are assuredly sin
and Satan,
from
whom we most especially long to be delivered."
Title: A Song of praise, a Psalm of Asaph. Ver. 1. 0 God,
keep not silence, be not
dumb, and be not still, 0 God.—That
ymd signifies not rest, but silence, is
evident from "thine enemies
make
a noise;" in ver. 2, and from the following word, wrHt,
comp.
at Ps. xxviii. 1. The word also signifies to be silent, in
Is.
lxii. 7, as is evident from the 6th verse.
Ver. 2-4.—Ver. 2. For lo, thine enemies make a noise, and
those who hate thee lift
up the head.
Ver. 3. They make cun-
ning plots against thy
people, and consult against thy concealed
ones. Ver. 4. They say: come let us root them out; so that
they shall not be a
people, and that mention be no more made
of the name of Israel.—On ver. 2. Calvin: "It is to be re-
marked
that those who attack the church are called enemies of
God,
and it is no ordinary ground of confidence to have enemies,
in
common with God." They lift up the
head,—proudly, boldly,
confidently;
comp. Judges viii. 28, “And Midian was humbled
by
the children of
—In
the first clause of ver. 3, the translation generally given is:
they
make artfully the plots in the councils. But as Myrfh in
44 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
other
passages means to act cunningly, and dvs does not exactly
indicate
counsel or deliberation; it is better to consider dvs
as
standing in the accusative, just as bl does in ver. 5, and
jmw in ver. 18, comp. Evr. § 483: in reference to
confidence
comp.
at Ps. lxiv. 2, confidential intercourse which they carry on.
The
expression, "the hidden ones of God," instead of "those
under
his protection," is explained by Ps. xxvii. 5; xxxi. 21.—
On
ver. 4, Calvin: "it is as if they had formed the daring pur-
pose
of annulling the decree of God in which the eternal exist-
ence
of the church lies founded." The yvgm is away from a peo-
ple,---so that they
shall be no more a people: comp. Jer. xlviii.
2;
Is. vii. 8.—There are five terms employed in these three
verses,
descriptive of the doings of the enemies. The number
five
as the signature of the half, of something unfinished, points
to
the second half strophe, which is occupied with enumerating
the
enemies.
Ver. 5-8.—Ver. 5. For they have consulted from the heart
together, they have
formed a covenant against thee. Ver. 6.
The tents of
rites. Ver. 7. Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek;
with the inhabitants of
them; they stretch out
their arm to the Sons of
Calvin:
"It is not a little profitable for
us to see in this case, as
in
a glass, what, from the beginning, has been the experience of
the
when
the whole world is against us. When we see that nothing
new
befals us, we are strengthened in patience by the example of
the
church of old, until God suddenly put forth his power, which
alone
is sufficient to subvert all the machinations of the world."
Several
expositors erroneously connect the 5th verse with what
goes
before—a flat and insipid rendering. The yk indicates a
more
full exhibition of the relations alluded to in the preceding
verses;
and it is not co-ordinate with the yk in ver. 2. The bl
stands
like the dvs
in ver. 3, and the dmw in ver. 18, in the
accusative.
The expression "with the heart" supplies a commen-
tary
to Ps. lxiv. 5,6, and denotes the earnestness and zeal of their
plans;
the heart, with the whole fulness of its purposes, plans,
and
wickedness, is engaged in the matter. Several expositors
refer
erroneously to dHx bl with one
heart,
in 1 Chron. xii.
PSALM LXXXIII. VER. 5-8. 45
38.—In
enumerating the nations, the first seven are grouped to-
gether
in such a manner that we find associated with the ring-
leaders,
who are
been
pressed into the service by them,—so that these three names
should
be looked upon as if printed in large characters. That the
arrangement
is to be explained in this way is evident from the
otherwise
inexplicable separation of
the
Edomites were not a wandering but a settled people, we
must
either understand by "tents" camp-tents, or "tents" is to
be
considered as a poetical expression for habitations, founded on
the
dwelling of the Israelites in the wilderness: comp. Jud. vii.
8;
1 Kings xii. 16. The Edomites, who are associated with the
Ishmaelites,
dwelt, according to Gen. xxv. 18, next to the Assy-
rians,
and therefore, in the
of
try
by the tribe of Reuben: comp. 1 Chron. v. 10, 19-22. They
removed,
in all probability, farther south, into that part of Ara-
bia
which adjoins
allies
in this league. On the right side of Ammon there was
Gebal,
in all probability an Idumean district, and on the left,
Amalek,
who appears here, as on a former occasion, Judges iii.
13,
in a state of alliance with him: “and he (Eglon, the king of
To
the seven nations, who formed the main body, there are
added
other three. First, the Philistines, who are not, indeed,
expressly
named in Chronicles, but concerning whom it is taken
for
granted, that those who always embraced the opportunity of
a
war raised against the Israelites by other nations, would not
lose
this opportunity of gratifying their deep-seated hatred. The
inhabitants
of
Philistines.
The merchants were induced merely by cupidity to
join
in this movement, as the tradesmen of
xxxviii.
13. They are universally to be found
wherever there is
any
thing to be earned. In Amos, also, i. 6-10, the Philistines
and
the Tyrians appear in compact with each other, and with the
Edomites,
in their purposes of hostility towards the
Israelites;
and
the passage in Joel iv. 4, &c., shows how natural is this ad-
dition
of the Tyrians to the Philistines, where we find it repre-
46 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
sented
in prophetic vision that the Philistines, along with the
Tyrians
and Sidonians, avail themselves of the opportunity of a
war
raised against
and
their cupidity.—The Assyrians are
mentioned last, being at
the
greatest distance, and engaged only indirectly and partially
in
the enterprise. According to Gen. xxv. 18, they were the
neighbours
of the Arabian sons of the desert, yea, according to
Gen
xxv. 3, they had Arabic elements in the midst of themselves,
so
that it is, therefore, antecedently probable that they should be
found
taking part in this great movement of the Arabic tribes.
The
Assyrians finally, as the associates from the most remote
east,
stand opposed to the Philistines and the Tyrians from the
west.
The seven wicked nations are bounded by these on the east
and
the west. Last of all, the sons of
per
instigators and fire-brands of the war. The subject in "they
stretch"
is not the singular Assyrian, but all the nations which
had
been named, with the self-evident exception of the sons of
Lot
themselves. It is only by adopting this view, which, indeed,
is
the most obvious one, as far as the language is concerned, that
this
conclusion receives its proper significance.a
Ver. 9-12.—Ver. 9. Do to them as to Midian, as to Sisera,
as to Jabin, in the
stroyed at Endor, they
were dung for the land. Ver. 11. Make
them, their nobles, as
Oreb and as Seeb, all their princes as
Sebah and Zalmuna. Ver. 12. Who said: we will possess
ourselves of the
habitations of God.—Calvin:
"The substance
is,
may God who has so often smitten his enemies, and delivered
his
timorous sheep out of the jaws of wolves, not leave them at
this
time unprotected against these forces." From the many
examples
of divine judgment upon the enemies, which constituted
pledges
of deliverance in this trouble, the Psalmist selects two,
the
victory over the Canaanites from Judges iv. and v., and the
victory
of Gideon over the Midianites from Judges vii. and viii.
He
begins with the latter as the more glorious of the two. But
in
expanding the general subject of the 9th verse, in ver. 10 and
11,
the order is reversed. Ver. 10 is an appendage to the second
clause;
ver. 11 expands the first. "Do to them as to Midian"
a Venema: Finally, having
enumerated the nations in order, the Psalmist adds who
were
the authors of the war and who allies.
PSALM LXXXIII. VER.
13-15. 47
(instead
of "as thou didst to Midian,"—the comparison being, as
is
frequently the case, merely referred to, not drawn out, comp.
Ew.
527) was fulfilled beyond what they asked or thought:
the
discomfiture of the enemies, as was the case with the Midian-
ites,
took place by mutual destruction,--a means which has often
proved
of signal service to the
xx.
22, 23, with Judges vii. 22. The glorious victory over
Midian
appears also in Is. ix. 4, and Hab. iii. 7, as the emblem
and
pledge of glorious deliverances yet to come. The effort to
exhibit
the individuals named, standing as much apart as pos-
sible,
"as Sisera, as Jabin," not
"and Jabin," is explained
by
the
reference to the seven nations. On "in the
comp.
Judges iv. 7, 13; v. 21.—Endor ver. 10 (comp. Robin-
son,
vol. iii. 468. 77), which appears here as the proper place of
the
discomfiture of the Canaanites, is not expressly named in the
book
of Judges. In the second clause there is an abbreviated
comparison,
as is obvious from the other passages where this
same
comparison occurs, drawn out, for example, 2 Kings ix. 37,
"and
the carcase of Jezebel shall be as
thing upon the face of
the
field," Jer. ix. 21. Is. v. 25.—The "their nobles" In ver. 11,
is
expository of "them." Oreb
and Seeb were, according to
Judges
vii. 25; the commanders of the
Midianites, Sebah and
Zalmunah,
Judges viii. 5-10; xii. 18-21, their kings.—Ver. 12
points
once more to the guilt of the enemies which made them
worthy
of a destruction similar to that which befel those of an
earlier
period. Elohim (not Jehovah) is selected for the purpose
of
making more distinct the criminality of the attempt. By the
"habitations
of God" is meant the whole
2
Chron, xx. 11, "they have come to cast us out of thy posses-
sion
which thou hast given us to inherit," Ps. xlvii. 4.
Ver. 13-15.—Ver. 13. My God, make them like the whirl,
like the stubble before
the wind.
Ver. 14. As fire which burns
up the forest, as flame
which scorches the hills: Ver. 15. Do
thou thus pursue them
with thy tempest, and terrify them
with thy storm.a—The "like the
whirl (comp. at Ps. lxxvii.
a Venema: Having placed
before our eyes the judgment of God upon the enemies, as
illustrated
by the example of antiquity, he now describes it in a sublimer style, with
images
drawn from wind, storm, and fire, and (ver 16-18) exhibits the scope and effect
of
these judgments, in order that men, overwhelmed with shame, may learn to
reverence
the
majesty of Jehovah.
48 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
18),
like the stubble," in ver. 13, is equivalent to "like
the
stubble which is, whirled round and carried off:" comp. Is.
xvii.
13, a passage which depends on the verse before us.—As
fire, ver. 14, as
destructively. The hills are
mentioned, as
is
obvious from the parallel clause, in reference to what covers
them.
Ver. 16-18.--Ver. 16. Fill their faces with shame, and may
they seek thy name, 0
Lord. Ver
17. Let them be put to shame
and terrified for ever,
and blush and perish.
Ver. 18. And may
they know that thou with
thy name, 0 Lord, art above the most
high over the whole
earth.—The
object aimed at is intimated
in
the words: may they seek thy name, and may they know thy
name.
"Fill their face with shame" serves as the basis of the
first,
and the contents of ver. 18, of the second: we can never
be
more confident of the destruction of our enemies, and of our
own
deliverance, than when these tend to promote the exaltation
and
the glory of God. In point of form, however, the second
clause
of ver. 16 is independent of, and co-ordinate with the first:
—not:
that they may seek. Otherwise, we destroy the number
of
petitions, twelve in all, seven in this paragraph, corresponding
to
the number seven of the verses of the preceding paragraph.—
On
"their faces," ver. 16, comp. Ps. lxix. 7. "Thy name" is
equivalent
to "thee, rich in deeds, glorious." "May they seek
thee"
(Berleb: as humble suppliants) has no reference to "con-
version,"
but to the forced subjection of those who, like Pharaoh,
are
not able to hold out any longer against the inflictions of God.
This
is evident, also, from the following verse, where the Psalmist
prays
for the destruction of the enemies.a It would be the height
of
folly to hope for the conversion of such enemies.—In the 18th
verse,
the acknowledgment is not a voluntary but a forced ac-
knowledgment:
comp. Ps. lix. 13; 1 Sam. xvii. 46. The jmw,
is
the accus., just as the bl in ver, 5, and the dvs in ver. 3, "as
a Calvin: "It is, I
acknowledge, the first step towards repentance, when men, humbled
by
chastisements, yield of their own accord; but the prophet adverts merely to a
forced
and
servile submission. For it often happens that the wicked, subdued by
sufferings,
give
glory to God for a time. But because in a short while they exhibit a frantic
rage,
their
hypocrisy is thus sufficiently exposed, and the ferocity which lay concealed in
their
hearts
becomes apparent. He wishes, therefore, that the wicked may be compelled reluc-
tautly
to acknowledge God: that at least their fury, at present breaking forth with
im-
punity,
may be kept under restraint and within due bounds.
PSALM LXXXIV. 49
to
thy name," i. e., "for the sake
of thy name:" thou who
rich
in deeds, glorious. The name, the
product of the deeds, is
what
belongs to the Lord, above all others who are called lords
and
gods these are all nameless; the
names which they bear
are
mere names, shells without kernel. That we are not to give
the
first half of the verse a sense complete in itself—and know
that thou alone hast the
name Jehovah—is
evident from the
parallel
and in all probability dependant passage, Is. xxxvii. 16,
where
Hezekiah says: Jehovah, Sabbaoth, God of
Israel, thou
art
God Ha-elohim, alone for all the kingdoms of the earth,
2
Kings xix. 19.a The Eljou is the predicate here just as Elo-
him
is there.
PSALM LXXXIV.
The Psalmist pronounces himself
happy in the possession of the
highest
of all blessings, that of dwelling in the house of God, and
that
of communion with him; for inheritance follows adoption:
to
those who participate in this blessing, the Lord will by his
salvation
yet give occasion to praise him, ver. 1-4. He pronounces
those
happy (salvation to himself because he belongs to their
number)
who place their trust in God, and walk blamelessly: for
their
misery, shall be turned into salvation, and the end of their
way
is praise and thanks, ver. 5-7. The prayer
rises on the
basis
of the meditation; may God be
gracious to his anointed,
for
his favour is the highest good, whoever possesses it is sure of
salvation,
ver. 8-12.
The whole Psalm contains 12 verses.
It is divided into two
strophes;
one of meditation, in seven verses,
and the other of
prayer, in five. The seven is
divided into four and three: sal-
vation
as the necessary consequence of dwelling in the house of
the
Lord, and salvation: as the consequence of piety and blame-
lessness.
The five which points out the second strophe as sup-
plementary
to the first is divided into an introduction and, a con-
clusion,
each of one verse, and a main body of three verses.
The
Selah stands where it is most necessary, at the end of the
a Is. xxxvii. 20 is to be
supplemented from both these passages: and
all the kingdoms
of the earth may
experience that thou; 0 Lord, alone (art God).
50 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
first
part of the first strophe, and at the end of the introduction
of
the prayer-strophe. It is here that the parts, which ought
to
be kept separate, admit most easily of being read together.
The
name Jehovah occurs three times in the first and three times
in
the second strophe. Sabbaoth is added twice in each. If we
add
to the six repetitions of Jehovah the four repetitions of Elo-
him,
which occurs generally in a subordinate position, so that
Jehovah
preponderates, we have altogether ten names of God.
The
ninth verse renders it evident that the speaker is the
Anointed
of the Lord: This fact an be reconciled with the
title,
which ascribes the Psalm to the sons of Korah, only by
the
supposition that it was sung from the soul of the Anointed:
comp.
the Intro. to Ps. xl. and xliii., where the case is exactly
the
same.
The Psalm gives very slight
intimation as to the situation of
the
Anointed. That he was in a calamitous
situation is obvious
from
the whole tendency of the Psalm, which, is, manifestly de-
signed
to pour consolation into the soul of the sufferer, and in
particular
from "they shall still praise thee," in ver. 4, "going
through
the valley of tears," in ver. 6, and the prayer in ver. 8
and
9, which is that of a sufferer standing in need of divine
assistance.
It is intimated in ver. 7 that the sufferer particu-
larly
is separated from the sanctuary. Farther, the Anointed
stands
in inward and near relation to the Lord, ver. 1-4; he is
one
who has his strength in the Lord, and trusts in him, vers. 5
and
12, and who has walked blamelessly, vers. 5 and 11, yea he
stands
as the teacher in
These marks lead to David in his flight from Absalom; they
meet
together as applicable no where else. This result obtained
from
the consideration of the Psalm itself is confirmed by com-
paring
it with Ps. xlii. and in which the traces of that
time,
and the reference to these events, are still more apparent.
These
Psalms are so closely allied to the one before us, that it
is
impossible to consider them apart. They both bear a con-
siderable
resemblance to it, even externally, as might be made
to
appear,--Pss. xlii. and xliii. stand at the head of the Korahite
Elohim
Psalms, and this Psalm at the head of the Korahite Je-
hovah
Psalms, so that thus both are in a peculiarly close manner
connected
together. And they possess the following points in
PSALM LXXXIV. 51
common:—they
were composed by the sons of Korah from the
soul
of the Anointed; they are all characterized by an ardour of
feeling,
and a tender pathos, which here, as is also indicated by
the
title, assumes the form of a pathetic joy;
in all, the Anointed
is
in a state of suffering, and is separated from the sanctuary.
The
fundamental thought also of this Psalm occurs in Ps. xlii. 6,
8,
where the Psalmist obtains comfort in his misery, and the hope
of
salvation because he becomes absorbed in a consciousness of
possessing
the favour of God. As to particular expressions comp.
ver.
4 with Ps. xlii. 5, ver. 7 with Ps. xliii. 3, ver. 9 with Ps.
xliii.
5.a
The sons of Korah perform here as in
Ps. xliii. for David
in
the time of Absalom, the same duty which David once per-
formed
for Saul. They sang quietness and peace from
their soul
to
his, giving back to him a part of what they themselves had
ceived,
from him the "teacher," ver. 6. They brought to his
recollection
the foundations of his hope: the blessing of com-
munion
with God yet remaining to him, which, as the fountain
all
other blessings, must brighten his piety and his blameless
walk
in the estimation of all who regard God, and finally his
suffering
in joy.
The contents are nearly allied to
those of Ps. lxiii., which was
composed
by David himself in the time of Absalom. There also
we
find hope in reference to the future rising on the basis of in-
ward
union with God enjoyed by the Psalmist at present.
It has been maintained as an
argument against the composi-
tion
of the Psalm in the time of David, that the sanctuary in
per.
1, 2, 3, 10, must have been a temple,
a large building. But
the
mention of “habitations” of God, in ver. 1, does not imply
this;
for even the tabernacle-temple was divided into several
apartments,
and the habitations and sanctuaries of the Lord are
a Even Ewald acknowledges
that Ps. xlii., and Ps. lxxxiv., are inseparably con-
nected.
"These Psalms are manifestly so similar, in colouring of language, in plan
and
structure,
in overflowing fulness of rare figures, finally, in refined delicacy and
tender-
ness
of thought, and yet every thing in both poems is so entirely original, while
nothing
is
the result of imitation from the other, that it is impossible to avoid coming
to the con-
clusion
that both are the product of the same poet." It is singular that with such
ac-
knowledgments
and concessions the inference so necessarily flowing from them it
favour
of the titles should be disregarded. How comes it that in the titles those
Psalms
are attributed to the same authors which on internal grounds are so intimately
related,
if these titles were composed upon mere conjecture?
52 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
mentioned
in other Psalms which manifestly belong to the times
of
David, Ps. xliii. 3, lxviii. 35. The same cannot be said of
"courts
" in ver. 2 and 10. The tabernacle, and therefore pro-
bably
also the tent erected by David for the ark of the covenant
on
language
we not infrequently find courts used
in the sense of the
space before the
sanctuary,
where in reality there was only one
court.
Thus, for example, in Ps. lxv. 4, which was composed by
David;
again in Is: i. 12, "who hath required this of you that
ye
tread my courts," Ps. xcii. 13, c. 4: the one of the two courts
of
Solomon's temple was the court of the
Priests, and it therefore
cannot
be meant as included. Finally, it is only by adopting a
false
rendering that ver. 3 can be considered as making any men-
tion
of birds nests in the sanctuary; the same may be said of
ver.
5 ss., in regard to pilgrimages,—it is without any good rea-
soh,
besides, that it has been said of these that they did not exist
in
the time" of David. An intimation that the sanctuary at that
time
existed in a tent, occurs in ver. 10. The reference to the
tabernacle-house
of God undoubtedly called forth in that passage
the
mention of the tents of wickedness,
instead of its palaces:
The Psalm has had the misfortune to
be misunderstood in
various
ways, particularly by the modern expositors whose per-
ception
of its meaning is upon the whole much more profound
than
was that of Luther. The main ground of the misunder-
standings
is the falsely literal rendering of those passages in
which
mention is made of the house of the Lord.
It is from this
that
has arisen the idea that there exists in the Psalm "an ex-
pression
of earnest desire for the temple," in opposition to ver. 2,
where
the Psalmist rejoices as one who
already enjoys the privi-
lege
of near access to God, to ver. 3, according to which the bird
has
already found its house and the swallow its nest in the house
of
God, and to ver. 10 in connection with to ver. 9, &c.
On the title "to the chief
Musician after the manner (or ac-
cording
to the harp, comp. at title of Ps. viii.) of Gath, by the
sons
of Korah, a Psalm," Arnd remarks: The Gittith was a
spiritual
musical instrument on which these Psalms were played,
which
sounded pleasantly and joyfully. For the ancients did not
play
all the Psalms upon the same instrument, but they varied
according
to the strain of each Psalm. What should we learn
PSALM LXXXIV. VER.
1-4 53
from
this? That our heart, mouth, and tongue,
should be the true
spiritual
musical instruments of God, the pleasant harps and the
good
sounding symbols, both mournful and joyful instruments
according
to the dispensation of God and the times." "To the
Chief
Musician," shews that the Psalm was intended for some-
thing
more than what immediately gave occasion to it, that along
with
its individual application we must keep in view its applica-
tion
for all the suffering people of God: comp. the Intro. at
Ps.
xlii.
Ver. 1-4.—Ver. 1. How beloved are thy dwelling-places, 0
Lord, (Lord) of Hosts. Ver. 2. My soul longeth and even
fainteth after the
courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh
rejoice to the living
God.
Ver. 3. Even the bird has found a
house, and the swallow a
nest for herself, where she lays her
young, thine altars, 0
Lord of Hosts, my king and my God.
Ver.
4. Blessed are those who dwell in thy
house, they shall
still praise thee.—The dydy in Ver. 1 signifies
always beloved and
never
lovely; comp. at Ps. xlv. 1; and the
second verse is in
entire
harmony with this, where the expression "how much loved
they
are (by me)" is expanded; and also the parallel passage,
Ps.
xxvii. "One thing I desire of the Lord, that do I seek after,
that
I may dwell in the house of the Lord." The Psalmist loves
the
habitations of the Lord; because he is sure of finding safety
and
protection there: comp., among other passages, Ps. xxvii. 5.
The
term Sabbaoth points to this ground as one to which marked
prominence
is given in what follows. The Lord of Heaven is rich
in
salvation on behalf of his own people; the man whom he takes
into
his presence is protected, and that, too, although the whole
world
were to rise up against, him: comp. Ps. xxvii. 1, “Nothing
can
go entirely wrong with him whom the Most High has resolved
to
aid."--The longing and fainting, in ver. 2, do not at all in-
dicate
any desire completely unsatisfied at the time; but rather a
spiritual
hunger, which is immediately connected with satiety, a
need
which as it has arisen from enjoyment, also, calls for enjoy-
ment.
This is evident from the rejoicing, which , stands, as far
as
the grammatical interpretation is concerned, inseparably con-
nected
with the longing and fainting, but which, in consequence
of
the erroneous view taken of the former, has been to no purpose,
considered
as equivalent to to cry aloud. Nn.eri is of frequent oc-
54 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
currence
in the Psalms, and always signifies to
rejoice. He who
can
rejoice in God must be in possession
of the object of his de-
sire.
In proportion as the soul has already enjoyed the grace of
God,
does it earnestly long after it; and in proportion as it longs
after
it does it rejoice in God. Arnd: "This
is the effect of
holy
desire, the fruit of holy longing after God, for God is so gra-
cious
and condescending that he does not permit the heartfelt
love
and the holy desire which man bears towards him to pass
unrewarded,
but so gladdens the man that he refreshes him both
in
body and soul. There arises, therefore, out of heartfelt desire
after
God a heartfelt joy, or true joy of the heart." The Mg
does,
not indicate a climax; but, as is frequently the case (comp.,
for
example; Ps. cxxxvii. 1) is a mere particle of addition. The
soul, heart, and flesh are exceedingly appropriate, when
used
together,
as expressive of the whole than, and therefore, as
indicating
the intensity of the desire (comp. at Ps: lxiii. 1), and
the
second clause begins with "they
rejoice," to which the nomi-
native
is soul, heart, and flesh. The
"courts of the Lord" are
the
courts of the outward temple, which is also designated in ver.
1
the habitations: the desire, however, is, not to be present
in
this temple corporeally, but
spiritually, which is possible even
in
the case of external distance the servants of the Lord dwell
always
spiritually with him in his temple, and are there cared for
by
him with fatherly love, comp. at Ps. xxvii. 4; xxxvi. 8; lxv.
4,
and the parallel passages referred to there. The court is spe-
cially
spoken of here, as in Ps. lxv. 4; xcii. 13, because in the.
"tabernacle
of meeting" it formed the external place of concourse
for
the congregation; it is, therefore, there also the spiritual seat
of
its members; into it there flowed upon them out of the sanc-
tuary
the stream of the grace and love of God. The Nnr with
lx, to rejoice to God, who makes himself known in
grace and
love
to the longing soul, in rejoice, in return or response; occurs
only
here. On yh lx comp. at Ps. xlii.
2.—The simple thought of
ver.
3 is this: the dwelling in thy house, confiding relationship
to
thee, secures: thy grace, with confidence and protection. The
"bird"
and the swallow is the Psalmist himself, the rvrz need
not
to be very exactly defined; the connection in which it is used
defines
nothing except that from the parallel rvpc, and the ge-
neral
sense of the passage, it must denote a little, helpless bird:
PSALM LXXXIV. VER.
1-4. 55
comp.
Ps. xi, 1, where David calls himself a "little bird," Ps. lvi.
Title
(comp. lv. 6), where he calls himself "the dumb dove of
distant
places," 1 Sam. xxvi. 20, where he calls himself a flea, and
compares
himself to a partridge on the mountains. There is an
abbreviated
comparison: like a little bird, which, after a long
defenceless
wandering, has found a house (Matth. viii. 20) in
which
it may dwell securely, a nest to which it may entrust with
confidence
its dearest possession, its young, thus have I, a poor
wanderer,
found safety and protection in thy house, 0 Lord. Jo.
Arnd:
"David gives thanks to the Lord for
this, and says, my
poor
little soul, the terrified little bird has now found its right
house,
and its right nest, namely, thy altars; and if I had not
found
this beautiful house of God, I must have been for ever-
flying
about, out of the right way. I would have been like a
lonely
bird on the house-top, like an owl in the desert, Ps. cii:,
like
a solitary turtle dove; give not thy turtle dove into the
hands
of the enemies," says Ps. lxxiv. The Mg does not connect,
the
whole passage with what goes, before (comp. Ew. § 622, Ps.
lxxxv.
12); not: even the bird has found, but: the bird has even
found.
Feeble man, in this hard, troublous world, destitute of
the
help and grace of God, is compared to the "little bird," and
the,
"swallow." The house, in an extended sense, is brought into
notice
as a place of safety for the bird, for the little bird itself, the
nest,
as a place of safety for its most precious possession. On rwx
for
"where" comp., Ew. § 589. The jytvHbzm tx is the accus.
as
at 1 Kings xix. 10, 14. The plural refers to the altar of burnt-
offering,
and the altar of incense-offering: comp. Num. iii. 31.
The
altars are specially mentioned instead, of the whole house;
because
there the relation to God was concentrated. There the
soul
brings forward its spiritual offerings, which constitute the
soul even of material
sacrifices, and hears the much-loved respon-
sive
call of God; the assurance of his help, and his salvation, even
when
the body is not near the altar. "My king and my God"
(
joined together in this manner only in Ps. v. 2) gives, in connec-
tion
with Sabbaoth, the ground why the Psalmist considers it
such
a happy thing for him that he has been permitted access to
the
altars of God, why the house of God is to him what its house
and,
nest are to the little bird. How should he not feel infinitely
safe
whom his king and his God, he who guides the stars in their
56 THE BOOK OF PSALMS.
courses,
has taken him into his own dwelling-place. Luther took
a
correct view of this verse, as is obvious from his "namely thine
altars."
Modern expositors, however, have gone astray, in con-
sequence
of their having unfortunately taken up the idea that the
Psalm
contains the expression of the earnest longings after the
temple
of one separated from it. They translate: "even the
sparrows
find an house, and the swallows a nest; for themselves,
where
they lay their young, in thine altars, Jehovah Sabbaoth,
my
King and my God," and suppose the idea intended to be con-
veyed
is: and are thus happier than I am, who am separated from
thy
sanctuary. But the thought obtained in this way is one, not-
withstanding
the defence which has been made of it by De Wette
and
Maurer, of a trivial character, and unworthy the holy earnest-
ness
of Israelitish poetry; a bird, certainly, was in no very en-
viable
situation which had fixed its place of dwelling and its nest
in
the house of the Lord. The main thing, moreover, I am less
fortunate than they is wanting, and added to the passage without
any
reason whatever. The "with thine
altars," instead of "at,"
is
very strange, and certainly the unusual tx
would not
have
been
used for the purpose of avoiding the ambiguity. The birds
durst
build their nest if generally in the sanctuary, yet certainly
not
in the neighbourhood of the altars.
Finally, verse 4th is
not
at all suitable, if we suppose that ver. 3 contains a lamenta-
tion
over absence from the sanctuary; and even ver. 2 can only
by
a false interpretation be brought, in this case, into harmony
with
ver. 3.—The dwellers in the house of God,
in ver. 4, are, as
was
formerly shown at Ps. xxvii. 4, not those who regularly repair
to
it, but the inmates (Jer. xx. 6) of God's house in a spiritual
sense.
As the Psalmist, according to what has been said before,
belongs
to their number, in praising their happiness, he praises
at
the same time his own: happy, therefore, also I. In the
second
clause, the ground of this praise is given: for
they shall
still (even though for the
present they may be in misery) praise
him; he by imparting to
them his salvation, give them yet
occasion
to do so: comp. "he will praise me," for "he will get
occasion
to do so," Ps. 1. 15, 23, and also lxxix. 13. It is usually
translated:
always they praise thee. But with this construction
the
use of dvf
in the parallel passage, Ps. xlii. 6, is not attended
to.
Besides, dvf
never means always. Gen, xlvi. 29 is
to be trans-
PSALM LXXXIV. VER. 1-4. 57
lated:
and he wept still upon his neck when
Ruth
i. 14, the dvf, "they wept still," refers back to
ver.
9.
The sons of Korah now open up, in
ver. 5-7, to the anointed
of
the Lord the second fountain of
consolation, they point out to
him
the pledge of salvation which had been imparted to him
through
his trust in God and the blamelessness of his walk.—
Ver.
5. Blessed is the man whose strength is
in thee, in whose
hearts (are) ways. Ver. 6. Going through the valley of tears, they
make it a well; the teacher
is even covered with blessing. Ver.
7.
They go from strength to strength, he
appears before God in
Zion.—Ver. 6 and 7 contain
the grounds on which the declara-
tion
of blessedness made in ver. 5 is founded: Blessed are they,
for
in passing through the valley of tears, &c. Ver. 5 contains.
two
conditions of salvation. First, that
a man has his strength
in
God, has him as his strength. Jo. Arnd: "But what
does
having God for our strength mean? It means that we
place
the trust of our heart, our confidence, help, and consolation
only
in him, and in no creature, be it power, skill, honour, or
riches.
That is a happy man who knows in his heart of no other
strength, help, and comfort than of God."