5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning. 6 If I do not remember thee, Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. 7 Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; Who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. 8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; be treason to the memories of Zion. The protest is dramatically expressed in the words which they would have used at the time. B. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem] To have consented would have seemed an act of unfaithfulness to Zion. Some of the exiles did forget the "holy mountain" (Is. lxv. 11). For the imprecation as a solemn asseveration cp. Job xxxi. 21, 22. forget her cunning] So the aposiopesis is admirably completed in the Great Bible of 1540. Less forcibly the LXX and Jer. read the verb as a passive, 'Let my right hand be forgotten,' which is the rendering of Coverdale (1535), retained in the first edition of the Great Bible. 6. Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, If I remember thee not (R.V.). Let all power of speech and song desert me. Cp. Job xxix. 10. if I prefer not &c.] Lit. if I exalt not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy: i.e. if I do not regard J. as dearer to me than aught else. 7-9. The Psalmist's love for Jerusalem leads him to invoke vengeance on her enemies: upon Edom for the unbrotherly spite which rejoiced at her destruction; upon Babylon, for having accomplished that destruction 7. Remember, Jehovah, against the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem] Remember and punish the conduct of the Edomites in the fatal day of Jerusalem's fall. For this sense of 'remember' cp. Neh. vi. 14; xiii. 29; and for 'day' cp. Ob. 12; Ps. xxxvii. 13. The hostility of the Edomites to Israel was of long standing, and it was aggravated by the fact of their relationship through their descent from Esau and Jacob They are repeatedly denounced for it by the prophets, and threatened with vengeance. See Amos i. 11; Obad. 10 ff.; Joel iii. 19; Jer. xlix. 7 ff.; Lam. iv. 21 f.; Ezek. xxv. 12 ff.; xxxv. 2 ff.; Is. xxxiv; Ixiii. 1 ff. Rase it] Lit. lay (it) bare. 8. O daughter of Babylon] The city of Babylon personified. who art to be destroyed] The most obvious translation is that of R.V. marg., that art laid waste. So Aq. and Jerome, vastata. But the following clauses apparently imply that Babylon has not been destroyed, and the participle may be 'prophetic,' that art doomed to be laid waste'. 1 Coverdale and the Great Bible of 1539 have, thou shalt come to misery thy self, Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee As thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh And dasheth thy little ones against the stones. Delitzsch quotes examples of a similar idiom in Arabic. The stricken one,''one who is doomed to be stricken.' So Theodotion, diapTanooμév. Some of the Ancient Versions, however (Symm., Syr., Targ.), render thou waster, a rendering which only requires a slight change of the text, and is adopted by many critics. 9. The barbarous customs of Oriental warfare spared neither women nor children in a war of extermination. Cp. Is. xiii. 16; Hos. x. 14; xiii. 16; Nah. iii. 10; 2 Kings viii. 12; Hom. I. XXII. 63. The stern law of retaliation demanded that Babylon should be treated as she had treated Jerusalem. Cp. Is. xlvii. 1-9; Jer. li. 24, 56. the stones] The rock or crag. PSALM CXXXVIII. This Psalm may best be understood as an expression of the gratitude and confidence of Israel after the Return from the Captivity. Speaking in the name of the people the Psalmist praises Jehovah before all the world for the fulfilment of His promises (1-3); anticipates the impression which the manifestation of His glory will make upon heathen nations (4-6); and looks forward to the completion of His purposes for His people, in spite of further troubles that may await them (7, 8). To the Hebrew title 'A Psalm of David' some MSS of the Septuagint add of Haggai and Zechariah, or of Zachariah, possibly preserving a tradition that the Psalm belonged to the period of the Restoration, or suggesting that it fitly expressed the feelings of that period. The tone and language of vv. 4-7 resemble cii. 15 ff., and many passages in Is. xl-lxvi where the hope of the conversion of the nations is connected with the Restoration of Israel from exile. A Psalm of David. I will praise thee with my whole heart: 1-3. Thanksgiving for Jehovah's manifestation of His lovingkindness and truth in the fulfilment of His promises. 1. I will give thanks unto thee with my whole heart] Cp. ix. 1. There is no need for the Psalmist to mention the name of Him Whom he addresses. The Ancient Versions, however, insert O Lord, after thee, and the P.B.V. follows them. from Zürich Bible, und du Babel, wirst auch ellend werden. The P.B.V. wasted with misery, from the Great Bible of 1540, may have been suggested by Münster's devastata and the Vulg, misera. 138 2 Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship towards thy holy temple, And praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. 3 In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, And strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. 4 All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, When they hear the words of thy mouth. before the gods] The Psalmist stands face to face with the might of the heathen world, apparently under the patronage and protection of powerful gods, but the sight does not shake his fidelity to Jehovah. It is not to be supposed that he would have admitted that these gods had a real existence; he speaks of them only as they existed in the minds of their worshippers; practically it is before those worshippers that he proclaims his faith. Cp. xcv. 3; xcvi. 4, 5. The LXX, probably fearing to seem to attribute a real existence to heathen gods, renders Elohim by angels (cp. xcvii. 7); but beautiful and solemn as is the thought that the angels are spectators of man's worship, Elōhīm can hardly bear that meaning here. The Targ. renders it judges, the Syr. kings, giving a good sense (cp. cxix. 46); but though the title Elohim is applied to judges in lxxxii. 1, 6, where they are spoken of as representatives of God, there would be no special fitness in the use of the word here. will I sing praise] will I make melody: sing psalms of praise, as in ci. I, and elsewhere. Some texts of the LXX, and the Vulg., add because thou hast heard the words of my mouth after the first line, others at the end of the verse. It is a gloss suggested by v. 4. 2 a. A reminiscence of v. 7. and give thanks unto thy name...for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy_name] By the accomplishment of His promises Jehovah has surpassed all previous revelations of Himself. The expression, however, is a strange one; possibly thy word is a gloss, and we should read thou hast magnified thy name above all things. The P.B.V., thou hast magnified thy name and thy word above all things (derived from Münster, Magnificasti supra omnia nomen tuum et eloquium tuum') involves a harsh asyndeton. 3. and strengthenedst me] R.V. thou didst encourage me, giving me a proud consciousness of strength; a bold use of the word, which elsewhere denotes pride in a bad sense. 4-6. Jehovah's faithfulness to His promises will evoke the homage of the world. 4. All the kings of the earth shall give thanks unto thee, Jehovah] 1 The reading of the Massora, not -, is a reminiscence of this construction of the sentence. The Maqqeph should be omitted. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: 5 Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the s lowly : But the proud he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me : Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, And thy right hand shall save me. The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: Forsake not the works of thine own hands. When the kings of the nations hear of Jehovah's promises to Israel and His fulfilment of them, they will join in the Psalmist's thanksgiving. Cp. lxviii. 29 ff.; cii. 15, 16. 5. they shall sing of the ways of Jehovah] They will celebrate His providential methods of dealing with His people. For ways cp. ciii. 7. the glory of Jehovah] The revelation of His power and majesty in the deliverance of Israel. Cp. Is. xl. 5; lx. 1. 6. For though Jehovah is high, yet he seeth the lowly] Exalted as He is, Jehovah never loses sight of the lowly, and in due time raises them up (Ex. iii. 7; Is. lvii. 15; lxvi. 2; Ps. cxiii. 5 ff.): and the haughty he knoweth from afar; no distance hides them from His eye, and they cannot escape the punishment they deserve. Cp. xciv. 7 ff.; Job xxii. 12 ff.; and for know see note on i. 6. 7, 8. Though fresh troubles may still await Israel, Jehovah will not fail to carry out His purposes for them. 7. wilt revive me] Or, preserve me alive. Cp. lxxi. 20; cxix. 25 &c.; cxliii. II. thou shalt stretch forth thine hand] A common figure for the exertion of Divine power to help or punish. Cp. cxliv. 7; Ex. iii. 20; ix. 15. thy right hand &c.] Cp. xvii. 7; cxxxix. 10. 8. will perfect that which concerneth me] Will accomplish His promises and purposes for me. Cp. lvii. 2; Phil. i. 6 (èreλev is the word used in Aquila's version here). forsake not the works of thine own hands] The plural works and the parallelism of the first line shew that the meaning is not 'Do not abandon Israel whom Thou hast made'; but 'Do not fail to carry forward to completion the mighty works which Thou hast undertaken to do for Israel.' Cp. xc. 16; xcii. 5; cxliii. 5. PSALM CXXXIX. The consciousness of the intimate personal relation between God and man which is characteristic of the whole Psalter reaches its climax here. 8 PSALMS 50 The omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence of Jehovah are no cold philosophical abstractions for the Psalmist. He realises most vividly that Jehovah is One Who knows all his thoughts and actions, One from Whose universal Presence he cannot escape, One Who has fashioned his frame and ordered his life. With profound reverence he meditates on these truths in an address to God, recognising their mystery and awfulness, and seeking not to escape from God but to yield himself more fully to His control and guidance. The Psalm falls into four divisions. i. Jehovah knows every thought and action' (1-6). ii. To escape from His Presence is impossible (7-12). iii. Nor is this surprising, for it is He Who has moulded the Psalmist's frame and ordered his life, with unsearchable depth of wisdom (13-18). iv. How can this All-seeing, Almighty God tolerate evil men? With such the Psalmist will have no fellowship. May God search his heart, and purge it from every evil way (19—24)! The title APsalm of David cannot indicate its authorship. The language of the Psalm is not pure Hebrew, but is marked by a strong Aramaic colouring. It resembles the language of the Book of Job, and in several respects the thought of the Psalm is also akin to that book. The problem of God's tolerance of the wicked perplexed the Psalmist (vv. 19 ff.), as it perplexed Job. Vv. 13-16 resemble Job x. 9 ff. Eloah, the common word for God in Job, but found only four times in the Psalter, occurs in v. 19; and the word for 'slay' in the same verse is used in Heb. elsewhere only in Job, though it is common in Aramaic. The addition of Zachariah, in Cod. A of the LXX, with the further gloss in the margin, in the dispersion (both readings are found in the Zürich Psalter, T) may preserve a tradition of the exilic or post-exilic origin of the Psalm. But when or where it was written must remain unknown. If the provenance of the Book of Job could be determined, we might be on the track of the origin of this Psalm. To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 139 O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. 1-6. God's perfect knowledge of all the Psalmist's life and thoughts. 1. searched me] Cp. v. 23; Jer. xvii. 10. and known me] Or, and knowest me, for nothing can be hid from that omniscient scrutiny. 2. Thou knowest] Thou is emphatic. It is God alone Who possesses this absolute knowledge of His creatures. my downsitting and mine uprising] My whole life, at rest or in activity. Cp. cxxvii. 2; Deut. vi. 7. thought] The word used here and in v. 17 is an Aramaism, found here only in the O.T. |