INTRODUCTION TO PSALM XCII.

PROSPERITY THE REWARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

TITLE. "A Psalm, a Song, for the Sabbath-day."

THE key to this Psalm lies in the words:-"For thou, Jehovah, hast made me rejoice in thy doing: I will exult in the works of thine hands," v. 4. The terms italicized sometimes denote the works of the creation, sometimes the acts of God's rule. In what sense they are to be taken here, is shewn by the immediate introduction of allusions to personal trouble, and personal deliverance. The Psalmist has just witnessed the downfall of adversaries who lay in wait for him, he has had convincing proof that wickedness, however seemingly triumphant, must eventually bring shame and degradation. His own position has been wonderfully aggrandized, his horn is exalted, his ears and eyes alike attest the fact that the enemy has fallen. These are the grounds of the Psalmist's joy, therefore it is that he declares at the outset how meet it is to give thanks unto the Lord, at the conclusion how surely the reward of prosperity awaits the righteous. This however is not the traditional interpretation of the Psalm. It is obvious that in early times the terms "thy doing," and "the work of thine hands," were regarded as referring, not to recent mercies, but to the wonders of Creation. The Psalmist's joy was supposed to be roused by the contemplation of the great six days' work of Jehovah; herein he finds the doings which are great, the designs which are exceedingly deep, (v. 5). And hence this Psalm was regarded as appropriate to the Sabbath-day. The Title designates it as a "Song for the Sabbath-day;" the Talmud (Kiddushin) tells us that it was sung in the Temple, on the Sabbath-day, at the offering of the first lamb in the morning, when the wine was poured out; and it is even to this day used in the Synagogue Service as a Sabbatical Psalm. Further, an absurd legend (Talmud, Kiddushin) relates that this Psalm was the song of praise uttered by Adam, when the first Sabbath dawned upon the world, and that it descended by tradition as the special hymn for that day: and accordingly it is styled in the Targ. "The hymn and the song which Adam the first man spoke on the Sabbath-day." It appears to us that this system of interpretation owed its origin simply to a misunderstanding of vv. 4 and 5. In no way does the Psalm appear to be an appropriate expression of “Sabbath thoughts," Del. We can only force it into reconciliation with its Title by arbitrarily assigning an allegorical significance to vv. 7-—11. This expedient

is adopted by R. Akiba and Athanasius, who find here a reference to the final Sabbath of the world, "that rest which is to come." Those, however, who

prefer the literal to the mystical system of exegesis will do well to discard entirely the traditional view of this Psalm. The M'tsoodath Dâvîd, seems to point to the right interpretation, by explaining “Thy doing,” and “the works of Thy hands" (ver. 4), as the interpositions of God's Providence in behalf of the Psalmist, and by indicating that that, which the "brutish man" cannot understand, is God's hidden purpose in allowing a temporary prosperity to the wicked.

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is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:

2 To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,

3 Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.

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For thou, LORD, hast made me

glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.

5 O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.

6 A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.

7 When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:

2. For "every night" rend. "in the nights." The beginning and ending of the day are so often mentioned in the Pss. as the fit occasions of private meditation, prayer and thanksgiving (cf. Ps. v. 3, lv. 17, lix. 16, lxxxviii. 13) that we can hardly agree with Dr Neale's comment, “There is a distinct reference in this second verse to the morning and evening sacrifice."

3. Rend. "With a ten-stringed instrument, yea with a lute: with loud music on the harp :" nebel is here identified as a stringed instrument, and with this agrees the testimony of tradition; cf. Bibl. Dict. Psaltery.

higgayon here and in ix. 16 [17] denotes, we believe, loud music of a joyful character.

4-8. The cause of the Psalmist's joy are mighty deeds effected in his behalf by Jehovah. These are particularized in verse 10, meantime he descants on the grandeur and wisdom of Jehovah's governance. Such thoughts, he says, are foreign to the "brutish man,” the man who lives, as aλoya çŵa, 2 Pet. ii. 12, for mere sensual pleasures; and the fool or "stolid" materialist cannot perceive any such Divine interposition in the affairs of men. The shortsightedness or callousness of such godless persons suggests a meditation on their whole state. in their lives, so in their deaths, they are indeed "like the beasts that perish," they sprout up and flower (v. 7), i. e. attain eminence in this world, and with what result? "It is [only] that they may be destroyed for ever," 7 b. In awful contrast is the position of Jehovah, who, whe

As

8 But thou, LORD, art most high for

evermore.

9 For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.

10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

II Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall

ther regarded or not, has a pre-eminence, which abides not as theirs, for the short life of one generation, but for endless ages. He remains Most High, lit. " a Height" for evermore (v. 8).

9-15. That degradation and shame must certainly be eventually the portion of those who appear to thrive in ungodliness, the Psalmist has recently had proof. His deliverance from enemies leads him to a confident belief that even in this world righteousness will ever bring prosperity. This, in the silence of revelation with regard to a future state, was a favourite theme of the Hebrews; cf. Ps. xxxiv. 19, xxxvii. 25, lviii. II. Of a future dawn of higher hopes they were from time to time admonished, by the spectacle of the good man given over to affliction; cf. the cases of Job, and of the writer of Ps. lxxiii. But the temporal prosperity of the righteous was generally matter both of expectation and experience, Divine interposition continually adjusting the scales of fortune, and the very polity of the nation contributing much to the elevation of the good and overthrow of the wicked.

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Rend. "But thou hast upraised my horn like [that of] a buffalo: my old age is green in its vigour."

a. Upraised my horn. For this figure of speech cf. lxxxix. 17, lxxv. 5 note. The r'êm appears to be a species of buffalo; we can hardly identify it with the oryx, an antelope, "one-horned according to Aristotle and the Talmud," Del.; for 1. Ps. xxii. 21 shews that the r'em is a savage and a formidable animal. 2. No authority besides that of tradition requires us to identify the r'êm with a one-horned animal, and Ps. xxii. 21 rather favours the view that a two-horned animal is intended; cf. Gesen. 3. The description of it in Job xxxix. 9, 10, as an animal whose great strength would make it serviceable for the plough, durst man capture it, and its classification with “bulls” and “bullocks" in Is. xxxiv. 7, both point to the meaning "wild ox" or "buffalo," adopted by Saadia.

10. b. The usual rendg. of this hemist. is "I have been moistened with fresh oil;" the H. ballôthê being taken as 1st pers. sing. Past. Kal from balal in the sense "was moistened." And the metaphor is supposed to have its origin in the practice of anointing the head with oil on festal occasions; cf. xxiii. 5. But we cannot help

hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.

12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a

cedar in Lebanon.

13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.

thinking that ballôthî is a subst. or infin. used as a subst. (of the form zammothî xvii. 3, challôthí lxxvii. 10) from R. bâlal=bâlâh, usu et vetustate attritus est, and means what the LXX. have rendered it, rò γηράς μου. For balal, the Ar. balla means made moist, not was moistened, and the adj. raa’nân, gen. used of a tree in the signif. vigorous, flourishing, verdant, is not strictly applicable to the subst. shemen, “oil,” but would be most appropriate when predicated of ballôthî in this substantival signif. The subst. shemen may, it seems, denote a well-fed, vigorous condition; cf. Is. x. 27. And this interp. is here certainly supported by ver. 14 of this Ps., where the righteous are said to enjoy a fat” and “green” old age.

II.

"Mine enemies" lit. "those that lay themselves in wait for me." H.shooray: cf. for this deponent perfect signif. the forms noos, Numb. xxxv. 32, soor, Jer. xvii. 13 (see Del.'s note). For "shall see” rend. "has looked" or "looks." To “look on” means to regard with the calm disdain of perfect security: cf. liv. 7, note. Here only we have the ear indulging itself in the same way: cf. the use of a yw shamâ b’ in the sense of “to listen to with pleasure” in 2 Sam. xix. 36. This verse expresses the confidence with which the Psalmist looks forward to the "requital of the wicked:" cf. xci. 8. Then his eyes and his ears shall no longer be painfully strained to catch the slightest indication of the approach of his persecutors, but he shall in perfect tranquillity both see and hear that they are blotted out for

ever.

12-15. The righteous shall thrive, growing high as the palms, mighty as the cedars, for their affections are rooted in the House of Jehovah, and thereby it is that their life of prosperity is sheltered. Age checks not their yield of fruit, dries not up their sap, withers not their leaf, and very different is the result of their prosperity to that of the evil-doer's precarious growth: these sprung up and flourished (v. 7) only to illustrate God's hatred of sin by their sudden and utter destruction, the righteous, to justify in the eyes of all men the old Mosaic saying, "The Rock-He is a God of faithfulness, and there is no evil [with Him]: righteous and upright is He.”

13. "Planted in," not in the sense "transplanted into," μeraputevőévtes, Aq., Symm., but, according to the figure in i. 3, rooted and

14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;

15 To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

grounded in attachment to the Holy Place, the dwelling of Jehovah, and the true glory of Israel.

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b. Flourish," yaphrîchoo, is to be understood literally of the putting forth of buds, and the metaph. is continued throughout the next verse, which should be rendered, “In old age they will still bear fruit: full of sap and green of leaf shall they be."

Bear fruit. This rendering is justified by the use of the derivatives nôb and ť noobah, as "produce," "fruit." The primary meaning is to "break forth," either with leaf or with fruit. D'shênîm, the A.V. "fat,” here="sappy”; raa'nânîm, on which cf. v. 10, is “verdant,” "green with leaves"; here it is used exactly in correspondence with our metaphor "a green old age."

15. This verse is based on a passage in the great 'song' of Moses, Deut. xxxii. 4; see above.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM XCIII.

THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY SUPERIOR TO GENTILE INSURRECTION. TITLE. LXX. Εἰς τὴν ἡμέραν τοῦ προσαββάτου, ὅτε κατῴκισται ἡ γῆ, αἶνος ᾠδῆς τῷ Δαυίδ.

THIS short poem is the first in order, of a series of contemporary Psalms, composed, evidently, for liturgical purposes, and treating of one and the same glorious theme, the Final Establishment of the Theocracy by the Advent of Jehovah, and subordinately (for this topic only appears clearly in two of these Psalms) of the inclusion under it of all the nations of the world. The series consists of Ps. xciii., and Pss. xcvi.-xcix. Pss. xcv. and c. are strictly contemporary with these, but their silence with regard to this great expectation compels us to assign them to a different order: they are merely liturgical poems, the series introduced by xciii. is of a prophetic as well as a liturgical character. The subject of the Psalmist's aspirations, and its connection with Messianic prophecy, will be treated of in Psalm xcvi., where it is brought more prominently forward than in this shorter composition. The question of date we also reserve for our Introduction to xcvi., as in that Psalm it is connected with a peculiar difficulty, which must affect all the members of this series. It will be