10 They are inclosed in their own fat: With their mouth they speak proudly. 12 And as it were a young lion lurking in secret places. 13 Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down : 14 Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword : From men of the world, which have their portion in this life, in soul, i.e. with murderous intent (xxvii. 12; xli. 2), or enemies against (my) soul. 10-12. The character of his enemies. 10. Prosperity has resulted in obtuse self-complacency and contemptuous arrogance. Cp. lxxiii. 7, 8; Job xv. 27. The right rendering of 10a is however probably (cp. R.V. marg.) Their heart (lit. midriff) have they shut up. They have closed it against every influence for good and all sympathy. Cp. 1 John iii. 17. See for this explanation Prof. Robertson Smith's Religion of the Semites, P. 360. they speak proudly] Cp. xii. 3 ff.; x. 2; xxxi. 18; lxxiii. 6. 11. It has come to this that they beset the Psalmist and his adherents at every step. See 1 Sam. xxiii. 26. They have set &c.] R.V., They set their eyes to cast us down to the earth. They watch intently for an opportunity of overthrowing us. Cp. xxxvii. 32, 14; x. 8. 12. Like as a lion &c.] Lit., He is like a lion that is greedy to raven. (xxii. 13). One of the pursuers (Saul, if the singer is David) is conspicuous for ferocity and craftiness. Cp. vii. 2; x. 8, 9. 13. Arise, O LORD (iii. 7), confront him, meet him face to face as he prepares to spring (or, as R.V. marg., forestall him), make him bow down, crouching in abject submission (xviii. 39). The same word is used of the lion in repose, Gen. xlix. 9; Num. xxiv. 9. 13, 14. from the wicked, which is thy sword: from men which are thy hand] This rendering, which is in part that of Jerome, is retained in R.V. marg. For the thought that God uses even the wicked as His instruments see Is. x. 5, where the Assyrian is called the rod of Jehovah's anger. But R.V. text is preferable: from the wicked by thy sword; from men, by thy hand. Cp. vii. 12. 14. from men of the world] Men whose aims and pleasures belong to the world that passeth away': those who in N.T. language are 'of the world' (John xv. 19), 'sons of this age' (Luke xvi. 8; xx. 34, 35). 'who mind earthly things' (Phil. iii. 19). They are further described as those whose portion is in [this] life. Jehovah Himself is the portion of the godly (xvi. 5); these men are content with a portion of material and transitory things. See xlix. 6 ff.; lxxiii. 3 ff.; Wisdom ii. 6 ff. And whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: And leave the rest of their substance to their babes. The sense is still better given by the rendering of R. V. marg., From men whose portion in life is of the world. God deals with thein according to their own base desires. They care only for the satisfaction of their lower appetites (Phil. iii. 19), and so He "who maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good" fills their belly with His store of blessings, gratifies the animal part of their nature (Job xxii. 18; Luke xvi. 25). They are full of children] Better, They are satisfied with sons, the universal desire of men in Oriental countries being to see a family perpetuating their name (Job xxi. 8, 11); and leave their superabundance to their children; their prosperity continues through life, they have enough for themselves and to spare for their families. 15. As for me, in righteousness let me behold thy face: Let me be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. With the low desires of worldly men the Psalmist contrasts his own spiritual aspirations. He does not complain of their prosperity; it does not present itself to him as a trial of patience and a moral enigma, as it does to the authors of Pss. xxxvii and lxxiii. Their blessings are not for an instant to be compared with his. 'To behold Jehovah's face' is to enjoy communion with Him and all the blessings that flow from it; it is the inward reality which corresponds to 'appearing before Him' in the sanctuary. Cp. xvi. 11. Righteousness' is the condition of that 'beholding'; for it is sin that separates from God. Cp. xi. 7 note; xv. I ff.; Matt. v. 8; Heb. xii. 14. He concludes with a yet bolder prayer, that he may be admitted to that highest degree of privilege which Moses enjoyed, and be satisfied with the likeness or form of Jehovah. See Num. xii. 6--8. Worldly men are satisfied if they see themselves reflected in their sons: nothing less than the sight of the form of God will satisfy the Psalmist. Cp. xvi. II. See Driver on Deut. iv. 12. 15 But what is meant by when I awake? Not 'when the night of calamity is at an end'; a sense which the word will not bear. What he desires is (1) the daily renewal of this communion (cp. cxxxix. 18; Prov. vi. 22); and (2) as the passage in Numbers suggests, a waking sight of God, as distinguished from a dream or vision. The words are commonly explained of awaking from the sleep of death to behold the face of God in the world beyond, and to be transfigured into His likeness. Death is no doubt spoken of as sleep (xiii. 3), and resurrection as awakening (Is. xxvi. 19; Dan. xii. 2). But elsewhere the context makes the meaning unambiguous. Here, however, this reference is excluded by the context. The Psalmist does not anticipate death, but prays to be delivered from it (vv. 8 ff.). The contrast present to his mind is not between 'this world' and 'another world,' the 'present life' and the 'future life,' but between the false life and the true life in this present world, between 'the flesh' and 'the spirit,' between the 'natural man' with his sensuous desires, and the 'spiritual man' with his Godward desires. Here, as in xvi. 9-11, death fades from the Psalmist's view. He is absorbed with the thought of the blessedness of fellowship with God'. But the doctrine of life eternal is implicitly contained in the words. For it is inconceivable that communion with God thus begun and daily renewed should be abruptly terminated by death. It is possible that the Psalmist and those for whom he sung may have had some glimmering of this larger hope, though how or when it was to be realised was not yet revealed. But whether they drew the inference must remain doubtful. In the economy of revelation "heaven is first a temper and then a place." It is indeed impossible for us to read the words now without thinking of their 'fulfilment' in the light of the Gospel: of the more profound revelation of righteousness (Rom. i. 17); of the sight of the Father in the Incarnate Son (John xiv. 9); of the hope of transfiguration into His likeness here and hereafter, and of the Beatific Vision (2 Cor. iii. 18; Phil. iii. 21; 1 John iii. 2; Rev. xxii. 4). It may be remarked that none of the ancient versions render as though they definitely referred the passage to the Resurrection. Targ., Aq., Symm., Jer., all give a literal version. The LXX, I shall be satisfied when Thy glory appears: Syr., when Thy faithfulness appears: Theod., when Thy right hand appears: seem to have had a different Thy glory is substituted for thy form in LXX as in Num. xii. 18. text. PSALM XVIII. At length the warrior-king was at peace. The hairbreadth escapes of his flight from Saul, when his life was in hourly peril and he knew not whither to turn for safety; the miseries and bitterness of civil strife, through which though chosen by Jehovah to rule His people he had to fight his way to the throne; the wars with surrounding nations, which, jealous of Israel's rising power, had leagued together to crush the scarcely consolidated kingdom;-all were past and over. David had been preserved through every danger; victory had accompanied his arms; he was the accepted king of an united people; the nations around acknowledged his supremacy. To crown all, Jehovah's message communicated by Nathan had opened out the prospect of a splendid future for his posterity. In this hour of his highest prosperity and happiness David composed this magnificent hymn of thanksgiving. He surveys the course of an 1 Comp. Delitzsch: "The contrast is not so much here and hereafter, as world (life) and God. We see here into the inmost nature of the O.T. belief. All the blessedness and glory of the future life which the N.T. unfolds is for the O. T. faith contained in Jehovah. Jehovah is its highest good; in the possession of Him it is raised above heaven and earth, life and death; to surrender itself blindly to Him, without any explicit knowledge of a future life of blessedness, to be satisfied with Him, to rest in Him, to take refuge in Him in view of death, is characteristic of the O.T. faith." The Psalms, p. 181. eventful life; he traces the hand of Jehovah in every step; and his heart overflows with joyous gratitude. The inspiring thought of the whole Psalm is that Jehovah has made him what he is. To His loving care and unfailing faithfulness he owes it that he has been preserved and guided and raised to his present height of power. By expressive metaphors he describes what Jehovah had proved Himself to be to him (1-3); and then depicting in forcible figures the extremity of peril to which he had been brought (4-6), he tells how in answer to his prayer Jehovah manifested His power (7-15), and delivered him from the enemies who were too strong for him (16—19). In strong and simple consciousness of his own integrity (2023), he delights to trace in this deliverance a proof of Jehovah's faithfulness to those who are faithful to Him, in accordance with the general law of His dealings (24-27). To Him alone he owes all that he is (28—30); He, the unique and incomparable God, has given him strength and skill for war (31-34); He it is who has made him victorious over his enemies (35-42); He it is who has made him king over his people and supreme among surrounding nations (43-45). It is Jehovah alone; and His praise shall be celebrated throughout the world. Nor is His lovingkindness limited to David only; the promise reaches forward, and embraces his posterity for evermore (46-50). That David was the author of this Psalm is generally admitted, except by critics who question the existence of Davidic Psalms at all. Not only does it stand in the Psalter as David's, but the compiler of 2 Samuel embodied it in his work as at once the best illustration of David's life and character, and the noblest specimen of his poetry. The internal evidence of its contents corroborates the external tradition. The Psalmist is a distinguished and successful warrior, general, and king (vv. 29, 33, 34, 37 ff., 43): he has had to contend with domestic as well as foreign enemies (43 ff.), and has received the submission of surrounding nations (44). He looks back upon a life of extraordinary trials and dangers to which he has been exposed from enemies among whom one was conspicuous for his ferocity (4 ff., 17, 48). He appeals to his own integrity of purpose, and sees in his deliverance God's recog nition of that integrity (20 ff.); yet throughout he shews a singular humility and the clearest sense that he owes to Jehovah's grace whatever he has or is. These characteristics, taken together, point to David, and to no one else of whom we have any knowledge: and the intense personality and directness of the Psalm are a strong argument against the hypothesis that it is a composition put into his mouth by some later poet. At what period of David's life the Psalm was written has been much debated. But title and contents both point unmistakably to the middle period of his reign, when he was in the zenith of his prosperity and power, rather than to the close of his life. His triumphs over his enemies at home and abroad are still recent; the perils of his flight from Saul are still fresh in his memory. On the other hand there is not a trace of the sins and sorrows which clouded the later years of his reign. The free and joyous tone of the Psalm, and its bold assertions of integrity, point to a time before his sin with Bath-sheba, and Absalom's rebellion. The composition of the Psalm may therefore most naturally and fitly be assigned to the interval of peace mentioned in 2 Sam. vii. 1, which may (see notes there) have been subsequent to some at least of the wars described in ch. viii, for the arrangement of the book does not appear to be strictly chronological. But it must be placed after the visit of Nathan recorded in 2 Sam. vii, as v. 50 clearly refers to the promise then given: unless indeed v. 50 is to be regarded as a later addition to the Psalm. In that time of tranquillity David reviewed the mercies of Jehovah in this sublime ode of thanksgiving, and planned to raise a monument of his gratitude in the scheme for building the Temple, which he was not allowed to carry out. The title of the Psalm is composite. The first part of it, For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD, is analogous to the titles of other psalms in this collection: the second part is taken from 2 Sam. xxii. 1, or from the older history which the compiler of Samuel made use of. Comp. the similar titles in Ex. xv. 1; Deut. xxxi. 30. Here, as in the title of Ps. xxxvi, David is styled Jehovah's servant. Cp. 2 Sam. iii. 18; vii. 5, 8; 1 Kings viii. 24; Ps. lxxviii. 70; lxxxix. 3, 20; cxxxii. 10. Any Israelite might profess himself Jehovah's servant in addressing Him, but only a few who were raised up to do special service or who stood in a special relation to Jehovah, such as Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Job, are honoured with this distinctive title. Saul is mentioned by name as the most bitter and implacable of David's enemies. (For the form of expression cp. Ex. xviii. 10.) David's preservation in that fierce persecution which was aimed at his very life was the most signal instance of the providence which had watched over him. Much of the language of this Psalm reflects the experience of that time of anxiety and peril. THE TWO RECENSIONS OF PSALM XVIII. The existence of this Psalm in two forms or recensions, in the Psalter and in 2 Sam., is a fact of the highest interest and importance in its bearing on the history and character of the Massoretic text of the O. T. Two questions obviously arise: (1) how are the variations to be accounted for? and (2) which text is to be preferred as on the whole nearest to the original? Defenders of the integrity of the Massoretic text have maintained that both recensions proceeded from the poet himself, and are both equally authentic. That in Samuel is supposed to be the original form; that in the Psalter is supposed to be a revision prepared by David him. self, probably towards the close of his life, for public use. This hypothesis can neither be proved nor disproved, but few will now maintain it. It is certain that many of the variations are due to errors of transcription (see on vv. 4, 10, 41, 42, 50); and the great probability is that those which appear to be due to intentional alteration were the work of a later reviser (see on vv. 11, 32, 45). Critics differ widely as to the relative value of the two texts. Both texts have unquestionably been affected by errors of transcription, and the text in 2 Sam. has suffered most from this cause, less care having |