LXVIII. “It is no easy task,” writes Hitzig of this psalm, “to become master of this Titan.” The epithet is apt. The psalm is Titanic not only in its unmanageable resistance to all the powers of criticism, but also in its lyric force and grandeur. It scales too, Titan-like, the very divinest height... [ Continue Reading ]
LET GOD ARISE. — A reminiscence of the battlecry raised as the ark was advanced at the head of the tribes (Numbers 10:35). For interesting historical associations with this verse, see Gibbon (chap. 58), and Carlyle, _Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches_ (Vol. II, 185).... [ Continue Reading ]
SMOKE. — The figure of the vanishing smoke has occurred before (see Psalms 37:20); for that of the melting wax see Psalms 97:5. Both figures are too obvious to need reference to the cloud and fire of the ancient encampment.... [ Continue Reading ]
SING PRAISES... — Better, _play on the harp._ EXTOL HIM THAT RIDETH UPON THE HEAVENS. — Rather, _cast up a highway for him that rideth on the steppes._ (Comp. Isaiah 40:3, of which this is apparently an echo.) The poet’s voice is the herald’s who precedes the army of God to order the removal of all... [ Continue Reading ]
The LXX. and Vulg. prefix to this verse, “They shall be troubled by the face of Him who is,” &c, which seems to indicate that the abrupt introduction of this description of God is due to some loss in the text. A FATHER OF THE FATHERLESS, AND A JUDGE OF THE WIDOWS. — These epithets of God seem to ha... [ Continue Reading ]
SOLITARY... — This might refer to the _childless_ (comp. Psalms 113:9), but it is better, in connection with the next clause, to think of the exiles scattered and dispersed, and who are by the Divine arm brought home. WITH CHAINS. — The Hebrew word is peculiar to this passage, and is derived by the... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU, O GOD... — The text of these two verses literally runs, _A rain of gifts thou shakest out, O God, on thine inheritance, and when exhausted didst refresh it. Thy living creatures dwell therein; thou makest provision of thy goodness for the afflicted, O God._ The rain of gifts has been variously... [ Continue Reading ]
THY CONGREGATION. — See above. If the emendation there adopted seems unnecessary, we may render here, _Thy life dwells in her, i.e.,_ in the people of Israel. (Comp. Psalms 143:3.) The vigour consequent on the heavenly food might be called the Divine life, and conceal a higher application.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD GAVE... — Literally, _The Lord gives a word. Of the women who bring the news, the host is great._ The Hebrew for _a word_ is poetical, and used especially of a Divine utterance (Psalms 19:4; Psalms 77:8; Habakkuk 3:9). Here it might mean either the _signal_ for the conflict, or the _announc... [ Continue Reading ]
(11-14) These verses refer to the conquest of Canaan, the long history of which is, however, here crowded into one supreme and crowning moment: a word from God, and all was done.... [ Continue Reading ]
KINGS OF ARMIES DID FLEE APACE. — Better, _Kings of armies flee, flee._ This and the two next verses wear the air of being a fragment of those ancient battle-songs sung by the women after the defeat of the foe. The fact that they have thus been torn from their original context accounts for the great... [ Continue Reading ]
The agreement of the ancient versions in rendering these difficult verses shows that their obscurity does not arise, as in the case of so many passages of the Psalms, from any corruptions in the text, but from the fact that they are an adaptation of some ancient war-song to circumstances to which we... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HILL OF GOD IS... — Better, “Mountain of God, mount Basan; Mountain of peaks, mount Basan.” Even if the range of Hermon were not included, the _basalt_ (_basanite,_ probably from the locality) ranges, always rising up before the eyes of those looking eastward from Palestine, must have been doub... [ Continue Reading ]
(15-18) A third retrospect follows — the third scene in the sacred drama of Israel’s early fortunes. It sets forth the glory of God’s chosen mountain. A finer passage could hardly be found. The towering ranges of Bashan — Hermon with its snowy peaks — are personified. They become, in the poet’s imag... [ Continue Reading ]
WHY LEAP YE? — The verb occurs only here, but is explained by Delitzsch, by comparison with an Arabic root, to express the attitude of a beast crouching down for a spring on its prey; a fine image: the jealous hills lying, like panthers, ready to spring on the passing Israelites. Or does the old fee... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHARIOTS. — As the text stands, this verse can only be brought into harmony with the context by a certain violence to grammar. Its literal reading is, _God’s chariots, two myriads of thousands, and again myriads of thousands_ (literally, _of repetition_)_, the Lord among them, Sinai in holiness;... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST ASCENDED ON HIGH. — Or, _to the height, i.e.,_ Mount Zion, as in Psalms 24 (Comp. Jeremiah 31:12; Ezekiel 20:40.) CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE. — Or, _captives into captivity._ (See Judges 5:12, Note.) FOR MEN. — This rendering is inadmissible. Literally, _in man,_ which is equivalent to our _of men... [ Continue Reading ]
The verb, as the italics of the Authorised Version show, is of somewhat indefinite use. It appears to have both an active and passive sense, meaning to _lay a burden,_ or to _receive a burden._ Here the context seems to require the latter: _who daily takes our burden for us, i.e.,_ either the burden... [ Continue Reading ]
(19-23) The abrupt transition from the scene of triumph just described to the actual reality of things which the psalmist now for the first time faces, really gives the key to the intention of the poem. It is by God’s favour and might, and not by the sword, that deliverance from the enemies actually... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT IS. — The insertion is unnecessary. Render, _God unto us_ (_i.e., our God_)_ is a God of salvation._ ISSUES FROM DEATH. — Literally, _for death goings out._ The same word rendered _issues_ in Proverbs 4:23, there means _sources._ Here it will mean _sources of death,_ or _escapes from death_... [ Continue Reading ]
HAIRY SCALP. — Literally, _crown,_ or _top,_ or _head of hair._ The word is rendered “pate” in Psalms 7:16. This is probably a portrait of some historical person hostile to Israel. Others take it as a type of pride and arrogance, comparing the use of the Greek verb κομαν. The word “scalp,” properly... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL BRING. — The meaning of this verse is very obscure. It is plainly another fragment of some ancient song quoted, we can hardly doubt, with reference to the return from captivity. “Bashan” and the “depths of the sea” (comp. Amos 9:1) may, in the quotation, only stand generally for _east_ and _w... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THY FOOT. — This makes an unnecessary transposition of a very involved sentence. The image is perfectly clear, though the syntax, as often happens in all languages, goes tripping itself up. The conqueror, after wading in the blood of his enemies, is met by the dogs, who lick his gory feet. With... [ Continue Reading ]
GOINGS. — Better, _processions._ (Comp. Psalms 42:4.) IN THE SANCTUARY. — Rather, _into the sanctuary. _... [ Continue Reading ]
(24-27) These hopes of national deliverance are kept alive in the worship of the sanctuary, which the poet now proceeds to describe. A solemn procession advances to the Temple, and we have a description of it by one evidently as interested in this ritual as familiar with it.... [ Continue Reading ]
PLAYERS — _i.e.,_ harpers. PLAYING WITH TIMBRELS. — Or, _beating the tambourine._ For this instrument (Heb., _tôph_) see Exodus 15:20, and comp. Judges 11:34.... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESS YE. — Apparently these words are part of the processional hymn. But in Judges 5:9 a similar outburst of praise appears to come from the poet. FROM THE FOUNTAIN OF ISRAEL. — A comparison with Isaiah 48:1; Isaiah 51:1, certainly allows us to understand this _in the congregations sprung from the... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE IS... — The procession is apparently a representative one. and the conjecture is probable which refers the selection of Zebulun and Naphtali to their prominence in Deborah’s song. Benjamin may owe its position to the fact that it gave the nation its first king, and Judah would naturally figure... [ Continue Reading ]
THY GOD HATH COMMANDED. — Rather, with LXX. and the ancient versions generally, _Ordain, O_ _God, thy strength. _... [ Continue Reading ]
KINGS. — This verse is a strong argument for referring the psalm either to the time of the rebuilding of the Temple, or its re-dedication after the pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes.... [ Continue Reading ]
REBUKE... — See margin, which (if we change _beasts_ to _beast_) gives the right rendering. So LXX. and Vulgate. The _beast of the reed_ is undoubtedly symbolical of Egypt, whether it be the _crocodile_ or the _hippopotamus._ BULLS... CALVES. — These are possibly emblems respectively of the _strong_... [ Continue Reading ]
PRINCES. — Or, _magnates._ ETHIOPIA. — Literally, _Cush shall make to run his hands to God,_ an idiom easily intelligible, expressing hasty submission. (32–35) A noble doxology, worthy of the close of one of the finest Hebrew hymns.... [ Continue Reading ]
SING PRAISES... — Better, _play and sing._ The Selah, as in some other cases, is introduced where to our sense of rhythm it is quite out of place.... [ Continue Reading ]
OUT OF THY HOLY PLACES — _i.e., out of Zion._ The plural “places” occurs also in Ps. lxxiii, 17 (Heb.).... [ Continue Reading ]