3 He hath remembered his mercy

and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

4 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

5 Sing unto the LORD with the harp;

with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

6 With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.

7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

enough, since, even in our sense of the term, righteousness which gives to every one his own must bring to the people of the Lord salvation, and further, the Hebr. equivalent, ts'dâkâh, frequently, like tsedek (see lxxxv. II, note), expresses the notion of justice in its remunerative character, its counterpart being then mishpât, “punitive judgment."

3. a. Rend. "He has remembered His gracious goodness and truth, etc.," i.e. He has recalled His promise of shewing peculiar peace to Israel. See note on the similar expression in lxxxv. 11, and cf. xcii. 2.

4-6. Jehovah is to be greeted with festal jubilee. As Hengst. has observed, the first section of this Psalm declares the reason why there should be joy, this second section declares how the joy is to be expressed, and the third declares who are to rejoice.

4. Rend. "Shout ye to Jehovah, all [parts of] the earth: break out, and sing with joy, and raise a hymn." Hemist. a is taken from lxvi. 1, with the substitution of “Jehovah” for "God." "To break out with joyful song" ( ), and "to break out [and] sing with joy" (1), are expressions peculiarly Isȧianic. This verse would seem to be based on Isaiah's "Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth (i.e. as the antithesis shews, not the land of Palestine but the whole world, which is therefore probably the meaning of earth in this v. of the Ps.); and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted His people,” xlix. 13. But the wording "break out and sing with joy” is after the model of Is. lii. 9, the only other place where the combination of these two verbs occurs.

6. Lit. "With trumpets and the sound of the horn; shout ye aloud before the King, Jehovah ;" i. e. sing loudly to Him, to an accompaniment of trumpets and horns.

a. The "cornet" of the A. V. is the shophar, or "ram's horn," cf. xlvii. 5, lxxxi. 3.

b. "The King," this title corresponds to the "Jehovah is now become King," cf. xciii., xcvii., xcix.

7-9. All nature is charged to meet the Advent of its King with joyfulness.

8 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

9 Before the LORD; for he cometh

to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

8. Lit. "Let the rivers clap their hands: let the mountains sing with joy together." "The clapping of the hands is an expression of joy, cf. for example Ps. xlvii. 1, and was employed as such especially at the commencement of the reign of earthly kings, cf. 2 Kings xi. 12: ‘and they clapped their hands, and said, Long live the king,"" Hengst. Here again we must refer to Isaiah for the fundamental thought; the same bold metaphor occurring in Is. lv. 12, "the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." In v. 9, the reason why the universe should declare God's praises is again taken up, and the Psalm closes with a description of the joyful prospect, closely allied with that which we find at the end of Ps. xcvi.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM XCIX.

THE HOLY SOVEREIGNTY.

TITLE. LXX. Ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαυίδ.

THAT more awful aspect of the Παρουσία τοῦ Κυρίου, which is presented to us in xcvii., is manifested, though less forcibly, in Psalm xcix. Here, as there, the Psalmist's theme is made the ground for admonition; God is depicted as great and fearful, the earth is said to tremble (not to rejoice, as in xcvi. and xcviii.) at His approach, and the Trisagion of the Psalmist (see vv. 3, 5, 9) naturally leads up to a description of the holiness of his worshippers, in the last section.

It is this thrice-repeated "Sanctus" that indicates the true divisions of the Psalm. The first strophe consists of vv. 1—3, and sets before us Jehovah the awful King, before whom the world bows itself in awe; the second (vv. 4, 5) treats of Jehovah's righteous judgments; the third and longest (6—9) illustrates from ancient history the character of the true worshipper, ending with an expanded form of that assertion of Jehovah's sanctity, which closed the two preceding strophes. Bengel's explanation that Jehovah is set forth in these three strophes respectively as He who is to come, He who is, and He who was, is quoted with approbation by Delitzsch. But it appears far more natural and far more in harmony with the usage of these Theocratic Psalms, that the

two first strophes should be understood as dealing both of them entirely with the Future (a Future, however, which has been so anticipated by faith as to become, sometimes, in the writer's mind, a part of the Present).

HE LORD reigneth; let the

sitteth

tween the cherubims; let the earth be moved.

2 The LORD is great in Zion; and he is high above all the people.

3 Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it is holy.

4 The king's strength also loveth judgment; thou dost establish equity, thou executest judgment and righteousness in Jacob.

1-3. Rend. (1) "Jehovah has become King, the peoples tremble; [even] He that sits upon the Cherubim, the earth shakes. (2) Jehovah is great in Zion: and exalted is He above all the peoples. (3) Let them praise Thy great and terrible name: holy is He."

1. a. The peoples tremble, H. yirg'zoo ammim, a strict parallel to the closing words of hemist. b, the earth shakes, and certainly not to be rendd. as in P. B. V., "be the people never so impatient," though this rendg. is countenanced by LXX. and Vulg.

b. Cf. xcvii. 4, "His lightnings have enlightened the world; the earth has seen, and it totters."

3. a.

Them, that is, the peoples, mentioned in v. 2.

b. The "for it is holy" of A. V. is proved to be wrong by the occurrence of "for He is holy," and "for holy is Jehovah, etc.," as at the end of vv. 5 and 9, see Introd. The LXX. is yet more erroneous, dividing the verse wrongly and rendering ὅτι φοβερὸν καὶ ἅγιόν ἐστιν. We find a parallel to hemist. a in Deut. x. 17, "for the LORD your God is the God of gods, the Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty and the terrible." In hemist. 6 Del. refers to Isaiah vi. 3, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts," to account for the change from the second to the third person such changes, however, are of frequent occurrence in Hebr. poetry.

4. Rend. "And the strength of [i.e. such as becomes] a king loving right, hast Thou established in equity: right and righteousness hast Thou wrought in Jacob." Here, as elsewhere, we can give no adequate equivalent to the H. mishpât and ts'dâkâh; the former, which we have rendd. "right,” means here a righting of prevalent injustices; the latter, which we have rendd. "righteousness," a just remuneration of the good. The same characteristics are said to belong to the Theophany in xcvii. 6 and 8, cf. also our v. 8. The fact that this verse begins a new strophe forbids Rosenmüller's interpretation according to which a verb is to be supplied from v. 3—"and [let them

5 Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.

6 Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name; they called upon the LORD, and he answered them.

7 He spake unto them in the cloudy

pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinance that he gave them.

8 Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.

9 Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at his holy hill; for the LORD our God is holy.

praise] the strength of the king who loves right: Thou establishest equity, etc." The rendg. of A. V. and P. B. V. is based on that of the LXX., καὶ τιμὴ βασιλέως κρίσιν ἀγαπᾷ· σὺ ἡτοίμασας εὐθύτητας κ.τ.λ.

6-8. The poet now adduces instances of the justice of God's rule, in the early days of Israel's nationality.

6. a. Before the consecration of the priesthood Moses used to perform the priestly functions ; thus (Exod. xxiv.) he sprinkled the blood at the ratification of the covenant. He used, too, to set the shewbread in order, prepare the candlestick and burn incense (Exod. xl. 22—27); moreover it was he who performed the whole ritual at the consecration of the priests (Lev. viii.).

"Them that call upon His Name," i. e. men of prayer. Thus Samuel obtained a victory for Israel over the Philistines at Eben-ezer, when "he cried unto the LORD on behalf of Israel, and the LORD answered him," 1 Sam. vii. 9 ; and again “Samuel called unto the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day," 1 Sam. xii. 18.

b. Lit. "Those calling on Jehovah, and He answers them," i.e, "such as call upon Jehovah, and receive answer."

7, 8. The Poet passes on from these sacred leaders to those who were under them, the Israelite nation of old time.

8. Rend. "Jehovah, our God, Thou didst answer them; a forgiving God wast Thou unto them, and one taking vengeance of their deeds." A proof of the justice of His reign; for He did not answer the good and bad alike; and therefore also a corroboration of what was said in v. 4, that God is a King loving to suppress evil by a righting interposition.

9. A final exhortation to worship Him, concluding this section with a refrain similar to that of vv. 5 and 9, "For holy is Jehovah, our God."

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM C.

A CALL TO WORSHIP.

TITLE. "A Psalm for Thanksgiving."

THIS liturgical Psalm is connected both in purport and in phraseology with Psalm xcv., but whereas in the middle of v. 7 of that Psalm the Poet suddenly changes his note, and passes from the realm of doxology to that of admonition, here the exuberant joy and gratitude with which the Psalm opens, is but expanded as it advances: and while Ps. xcv. ends with a condemnation of the ancient Israel, as erring, godless, unworthy of rest, the last verse of Ps. c. eulogizes Jehovah as good, everlastingly beneficent, continuously faithful. And thus the connection between the two (with regard to subject-matter) extends only as far as the section 1-7 a of Ps. xcv. is concerned.

As in that Psalm so in this, a distinct resemblance to the Psalms of the Theophany is noticeable, which perhaps suggests not only that the two compositions belong to the post-exilic period, but also that the tones of gladness and gratitude conspicuous herein are roused by the great Expectation. of that time. In neither Psalm, however, as we have observed in xcv. Introd., do we find any but this indirect evidence to lead us to thus associate the two with xciii. and xcvi.-xcix. The restrictively joyous character of this Psalm well accounts for its position at the end of this contemporary series. It occupies the position of a doxology to the Psalms of the Theophany.

On the subject-matter of the Poem little can be said that would not suggest itself to every reader. Although there is not any artificial system of division which can be readily detected, we may notice, that 'Praise Jehovah for He is God' is the burden of one portion of the Psalm, vv. 1-3, 'Praise Jehovah for He is good,' of the remaining vv. 4 and 5.

Under the designation "the Jubilate" this Psalm has long been in use as the second Lauds Psalm in the Matins of the Western Church. A similar and probably more ancient usage prescribes its recital in the Synagogue Service every day, with the exception of Sabbaths, Festivals, the Eve of the Passover, the Middle Holidays of Passover, and the Eve of the Day of Atonement. And certainly no Psalm is so appropriate to the ordinary occasions of public worship as this. In five verses we have the grounds of Divine Service-the various relations of Jehovah to man as his God, Creator and Preserver, the reciprocal relation of man to God, the consequent duty incumbent on man to praise and worship-all brought before us in such a way that not one word is superfluous, not one less appropriate to the service of the Christian than to that of the Jewish Church.