INTRODUCTION TO PSALM XC. MORTALITY THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN. TITLE. "A Prayer, to Moses, the man of God." THE poet writes during a period of affliction. He complains of days wherein God has afflicted the people, and of years of acquaintance with evil, he prays God to "return," to "repent concerning His servants," to give joy and gladness proportionate to the present trouble, and to let the nation witness a glorious deliverance. Such is the tenor of the concluding section of the Psalm, vv. 13—17. But with this we have to connect twelve verses of a somewhat different character, wherein must lie the true starting-point of the poem. In these the prayer is not yet developed, the Psalmist addresses God, but he does so in the hushed voice of meditation rather than with the loud earnestness of entreaty, he details his own experience of human affairs rather than implores Divine intervention in them. Human transitoriness, the creature made subject to vanity, death in its much disregarded connection with sin, these and the awful contrast, God's Eternity, His absolute disposition of men's lives, His mindfulness of their misdeeds, are here the theme of melancholy contemplation. What is the connection between this meditation, and the subsequent entreaties for an alteration of the Divine purpose, and a renewal of mercies? Obviously it must lie in some notorious indication of human weakness, some unusual mortality, among his compatriots, inciting the Psalmist first to melancholy reflection, secondly to urgent prayer. Searching for such an occasion in Scriptural history, we naturally first turn to the ancient inscription "to Moses," and consider whether this may serve us as a guide. I. As regards the subject-matter of the Psalm; we find that during the journey in the wilderness the Israelites were visited with an extraordinary mortality. A whole generation was punished for the great rebellion at Kadesh, consequent on the evil report of the ten spies, by premature death; all from twenty years old and upwards (scil. 600,500 men) perishing within the next thirty-eight years. There is hardly any occasion in Scripture so likely to suggest this meditation on the transitoriness of human life and the prayer with which it is combined. When Hupfeld raises an objection to the Title on the ground that life in the time of Moses was of longer duration than 70 years, he overlooks the punishment inflicted on those who rebelled at Kadesh. His other objection, that there is no clear and distinct allusion to the circumstances of the Israelites in the wilderness is even weaker. There is an allusion, we believe, to be gathered from the very subject of the Psalm, but were it not so there is no cause for objection. How can we fairly require an obvious allusion to historical incidents in a Psalm of only seventeen verses? 2. But this coincidence would be of little importance if we found a glaring discrepancy between the style that characterizes the Pentateuch, and that of the Psalm before us. Obvious similarity could not be required to attest the authenticity of the Title, but an obvious dissimilarity would go far to disprove it, regard being had to the obscurity which envelopes the origin of the Titles, and to the fact that this is the only Psalm which professes such ancient origin. But the internal evidence of this Psalm does more than meet the requirements of the case. The language here used is not merely similar to that of the writings of Moses, it is of a character peculiarly his. Were the title other than it is, the affinity to the book of Deuteronomy and more especially to the utterance of Moses in the closing chapters xxxii. and xxxiii., would at once suggest itself to every competent Hebrew scholar. When therefore Augustine writes, "It is not to be believed that this Psalm was entirely the composition of that Moses, as it is not distinguished by any of those of his expressions, which are used in his songs,' we must remember that the great Latin Father was really incapacitated for critical investigation on the subject by ignorance of Hebrew. The language of the Psalm is more akin to that of Moses than to that of any other writer, and it does more especially resemble that "used in his songs.' The following instances will prove the truth of this statement. The Psalm opens with the words, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place mâôn:" the same metaphor occurs in Deut. xxxiii. 27, "The eternal God is thy dwelling-place, m'ônâh. In v. 2 we have the curious phrase vat-t'chôlêl, “and thou wert in birth-pangs with," used with reference to God's work of Creation : in Deut. xxxii. 18, we have the same metaphor, God being called m'chôl'lecâ, "God that formed thee,” A.V. If we except the ambiguous passage Prov. xxvi. 10, this term is nowhere else used directly of God. In v. 13 we read "and have compassion on (or, "and let it repent Thee concerning") thy servants," 'hinnâchém al a'bâdecâ; in Deut. xxxii. 36, occur the words, v'al a'bâdâv yithnechâm "and repent Himself for his servants," A.V. The form y'môth, days of," v. 15, is found in Deut. xxxii. 7, and there only; sh'noth, "years of," for the more usual sh'nê, there as here accompanies it : innithânoo in v. 15, "Thou hast humbled us," recalls Deut. viii. 2, where the trials of the past forty years are |