Acts 2:25

Δαυεὶδ γὰρ λέγει : the words which follow are quoted by St. Peter from Psalms 16; and it has been said that the Apostle's argument would be the same if the Psalm were the work of some other author than David. But if the following Psalm and the Psalm in question may with considerable reason be attributed to the same author, and if the former Psalm, the seventeenth, may be referred to the period of David's persecution by Saul, then David's authorship of Psalm sixteen becomes increasingly probable (Kirkpatrick). In Delitzsch's view whatever can mark a Psalm as Davidic we actually find combined here, e.g., coincidences of many kinds which he regards as undoubtedly Davidic (cf. Acts 5:5 with Acts 11:6; Acts 5:10 with Acts 4:4; Acts 5:11 with Acts 17:15), and he sees no reason for giving up the testimony afforded by the title. But it is plain that David's experience did not exhaust the meaning of the Psalm, and St. Peter in the fulness of the gift of Pentecost interprets the words εἰς αὐτὸν, “with reference to Him,” i.e., the Messiah (cf. St. Paul's interpretation of the same Psalm in Acts 13:35). On the application of the Psalm as Messianic, cf. Edersheim, Jesus the Messiah, ii., p. 717. Προωρώμην : not “I foresaw,” but “I beheld the Lord always before my face,” LXX; Heb., “I have set the Lord always before me”. Κύριον = Jehovah. ἐκ δεξιῶν μου : as a defence and helper. Cf. παραστάτης, Xen., Cyr., iii., 3, 21. The imagery may be taken from that of the trials in which advocates stood at the right hand of their clients (Psalms 109:31), or there may be a reference to a champion who, in defending another, would stand on his right hand; cf. Psalms 110:5; Psalms 121:5 (Kirkpatrick, and Robertson Smith, Expositor, 1876, p. 351). ἵνα μὴ σαλευθῶ : although the verses which follow contain the chief Messianic references in St. Peter's interpretation, yet in the fullest sense of the words the Christ could say προωρ. κ. τ. λ. (see Felten, in loco). But because the Father was with Him, He could add διὰ τοῦτο εὐφράνθη ἡ καρδία μου : “the heart” in O.T. is not only the heart of the affections, but the centre of the man's whole moral and intellectual nature (Oehler, Theol. des A.T., p. 71). εὐφράνθη refers rather to a joyous state of mind, “was glad,” R.V., ἠγαλλιάσατο used of outward and active expression of joy is rendered “rejoiced,” R.V. (in A.V. the meaning of the two verbs is transposed). At the same time εὐφράνθη is sometimes used in LXX and N.T., as in modern Greek of festive enjoyment, Kennedy, Sources of N. T. Greek, p. 155. ἡ γλῶσσά μου : in Hebrew כְּבוֹדִי “my glory,” i.e., my soul, my spirit (cf. Genesis 49:6, Schöttgen). The Arabs use a similar expression for the eye, the hand, or any member of the body held in special honour (cf. Lumby on Psalms 108:1). ἔτι δὲ καὶ ἡ σάρξ : flesh does not here mean the dead corpse but the living body (Perowne, Kirkpatrick). κατασκηνώσει, “shall dwell in safety,” R.V., “confidently,” margin (O.T.); the expression is used frequently of dwelling safely in the Promised Land. In N.T. the R.V. translates “shall dwell,” “tabernacle” margin, shall dwell as in a tent, a temporary abode. In its literal meaning, therefore, there is no reference to the rest of the body in the grave, or to the hope of resurrection from the grave, but the words must be understood of this life (Perowne); cf. Deuteronomy 33:12; Deuteronomy 33:28; Psalms 4:8; Psalms 25:13; Jeremiah 23:6; Jeremiah 33:16. For the hope of the Psalmist, expressed in the following words, is primarily for preservation from death: “Thou wilt not give up my soul to Sheol [i.e., to the underworld, so that one becomes its prey], neither wilt thou suffer thy beloved one [singular] to see the pit” (so Delitzsch and Perowne, as also R. Smith and Kirkpatrick).