LVII. This psalm offers a good example of the way in which hymns were sometimes composed for the congregation It is plainly the work of a man with a fine poetic sense. The imagery is striking, and the versification regular and pleasing. A refrain divides it into two equal pieces, each falling into... [ Continue Reading ]
TRUSTETH. — Better, _has taken refuge._ The future of the same verb occurs in the next clause. SHADOW OF THY WINGS. — See Note, Psalms 17:8. UNTIL THESE CALAMITIES. — _Danger of destruction_ gives the feeling of the Hebrew better than “camities.”... [ Continue Reading ]
PEFORMETH ALL THINGS FOR ME. — Literally, _completes for_ me, which may be explained from the analogy of Psalms 138:8. But as the LXX. and Vulg. have “my benefactor” (reading _gomçl_ for _gomçr_) we may adopt that emendation.... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL SEND... — The _selah_ in the middle of this verse is as much out of place as in Psalms 55:19. The LXX. place it after Psalms 57:2. The marginal correction of the second clause is decidedly to be adopted, the word “reproach” is here being used in the sense of “rebuke.” For the verb “send,” u... [ Continue Reading ]
THEM THAT ARE SET ON FIRE. — Rather, _greedy ones_ (literally, _lickers_) in apposition to _lions._ The verse expresses the insecurity of the poet, who, his dwelling being in the midst of foes, must go to sleep every night with the sense of danger all round him. (See LXX.) How grandly the refrain in... [ Continue Reading ]
A NET. — For this image, so common in Hebrew hymns, see Psalms 9:15, &c, and for that of the _pit,_ Psalms 7:15, &c MY SOUL IS BOWED DOWN. — The verb so rendered is everywhere else transitive. So LXX. and Vulg. here, “And have pressed down my soul.” Despite the grammar, Ewald alters “my soul” into... [ Continue Reading ]
FIXED. — Better, _steadfast_ (See Psalms 51:10, Note.)... [ Continue Reading ]
MY GLORY. — See Note, Psalms 7:5. I MYSELF WILL AWAKE EARLY. — Perhaps, rather, _I will rouse the dawn._ Comp Ovid. Met. xi. 597, where the cock is said _evocare Auroram;_ and Milton, still more nearly: “Oft listening how the hounds and horn, Cheerily _rouse the slumbering morn” — L’Allegro._)... [ Continue Reading ]