This Psalm, which is pronounced by Ewald to be "indisputably the most beautiful of all the elegies in the Psalter," is a sequel to the preceding one. The situation of the Psalmist is in the main the same. Prolonged sickness has brought him to the very edge of the grave. But the crisis of suffering i... [ Continue Reading ]
_I said_ To myself: I resolved, as the result of self-communing. Cp. Psalms 30:6; Psalms 31:14. _I will take heed to my ways_ Lit. _I will keep my ways:_keep watch and ward over thought word and action. Cp. Proverbs 16:17; and the often repeated exhortation in Deuteronomy to -take heed" (Deuteronomy... [ Continue Reading ]
The resolution of silence in the presence of temptation.... [ Continue Reading ]
_silence_ The word carries with it the idea of mute submission. Cp. Psalms 62:1; Psalms 37:7; Lamentations 3:26. even _from good_ I kept absolute silence, speaking neither good nor bad (Genesis 31:24). Less probably as R.V. marg., _and had no comfort_. _my sorrow was stirred_ The effort to suppres... [ Continue Reading ]
_burned_ Better, as R.V. from Coverdale and P.B.V., _kindled_. The smouldering fire of passion within could no longer be restrained from bursting into a flame of words. Comp. (though the cause was different) Jeremiah 20:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
His prayer is not that he may know how much of life is left him; as the P.B.V. _that I may be certified how long I have to live_, paraphrasing the LXX. ἵνα γνῶ τί ὑστερῶ ἐγώ : _ut sciam quid desit mihi_, Vulg.: but that he may realise how surely life must end, and how brief it must be at best. _What... [ Continue Reading ]
Silence has proved impossible. He must give vent to his emotions, and he breaks out into a prayer that he may be taught so to understand the frailty of his life and the vanity of human aims, that he may be led back from selfish, envious, murmuring thoughts, to rest in submission to God's will. Cp. P... [ Continue Reading ]
as _a handbreadth_ Better, _a few handbreadths long_. The shortest measure is enough to reckon life by. The -handbreadth" = four -fingers" (Jeremiah 52:21 compared with 1 Kings 7:26) or less than half a -span." _mine age_&c. The same word as that rendered -world" in Psalms 17:14, denoting life in i... [ Continue Reading ]
Only as a phantom doth each walk to and fro: Only for vanity do they turmoil: One heapeth up, and he will not know who doth gather the hoard. Man is an unsubstantial phantom (or _shadow_, lit. _image_), Psalms 73:20: σκιᾶς ὄναρ, -a dream of shadow" as Pindar calls him (Pyth. viii. 95). With unrea... [ Continue Reading ]
_And now_ Or, _Now therefore_(Psalms 2:10), introduces a conclusion from a preceding statement. _what wait I for_ What have I waited and still am waiting for? or, What (else) could I have waited for? the form of the question implying that nothing else was possible. _wait … hope_ The words form a l... [ Continue Reading ]
Man's life being thus transient, and earthly treasures thus deceitful, the Psalmist turns to God, as the one sure stay in life.... [ Continue Reading ]
The Psalmist prays to be delivered not merely from his present afflictions but from the power of the sins which he recognises as the cause of them. Sin gets hold of its victim and brings him into punishment. Cp. Psalms 40:12; Job 8:4. _the reproach of the foolish_ The fool (Psalms 14:1 note) regards... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse may refer to the silence with which he bore the taunts of his enemies (Psalms 39:2; Psalms 38:13-14); or it may be the expression of perfect resignation to the will of God: I am dumb, I will not open my mouth, for Thou hast done it. Cp. Lamentations 1:21. "He has risen out of the moody si... [ Continue Reading ]
_stroke_ The same word as that rendered _plague_in Psalms 38:11. Cp. Job 9:34. _I am consumed_&c. By the conflict of thy hand am I consumed. -I" stands in emphatic contrast with -thy hand". When the power of the Almighty contends with me, I, frail mortal that I am, must needs perish. Cp. Job 10:2 f... [ Continue Reading ]
Petition for relief (10, 11) and respite (12, 13).... [ Continue Reading ]
When thou with rebukes dost chasten a man for iniquity, Thou wastest like a moth his desirableness: Nought but vanity are all men. The A.V. obscures the correspondence of the first line with Psalms 38:1; Psalms 6:1. As easily as the moth-grub, working unseen, destroys -goodly raiment" (Genesis 27... [ Continue Reading ]
_hold not thy peace_ Restoration to health will be an answer. But the word may be rendered, as in R.V. of Psalms 28:1, _be not deaf_. So Jerome, _ne obsurdescas_. It is a Rabbinic saying that there are three kinds of supplication, each superior to the other; prayer, crying, and tears. Prayer is mad... [ Continue Reading ]
_O spare me_ So Jerome, _parce mihi_. But more exactly, Look away from me. Cheyne renders, -avert thy frown." _that I may recover strength_ Lit. _brighten up_, as the sky when the clouds clear. Parallels for every phrase in the verse are to be found in Job. See Job 7:19; Job 14:6; Job 10:20-21; Jo... [ Continue Reading ]