8 To bind their kings with chains,

And their nobles with fetters of iron;

9 To execute upon them the judgment written. This honour have all his godly ones.

Hallelujah.

1

PSALM CL.

Hallelujah.

PRAISE ye God in his holy place;
Praise ye him in the firmament of his

strength;

2 Praise ye him on account of his mighty acts; Praise ye him according to the abundance of

his greatness.

3 Praise ye him with the sound of the cornet, Praise ye him with the lyre and harp, 4 Praise ye him with the timbrel and dance, Praise ye him with stringed instruments and the pipe,

5 Praise ye him with the loud cymbals,

Praise ye him with the cymbals of joyful sound.

6 Let everything that hath breath praise Jah. Hallelujah.

NOTES

SUGGESTIVE OF INTERPRETATION.

NOTES

SUGGESTIVE OF INTERPRETATION.

INTRODUCTION.

Interpreting God's word is something quite distinct from translating it. A bad translator, or a person without any ability to translate, as being entirely ignorant of the original languages, might be, whilst availing himself of a translation made by somebody else, a good interpreter, through the power of the Holy Ghost; but a bad interpreter would make a poor translator. Nevertheless, the translator has to be on his guard against being unduly influenced by any supposed or real power of interpreting. The object, however, of every reader is to get at the meaning of his author, and it is especially the object of every translator to enable his reader so to do. With the view, therefore, of forwarding the common object of both translator and reader, as far as the Book of Psalms is concerned, the following Notes suggestive of Interpretation have been prepared.

The first consideration in reference to the interpretation of the Book of Psalms is this, that God's word testifies that David, who had so much to do with that book, was a prophet.b

a The seventy-three psalms, ascribed to David in the titles, are not the only psalms that he was the author of. Of the sixty psalms, not ascribed to any one in the title, the following five are ascribed to David elsewhere: Psalms cv., xcvi., cvi., in 1 Chron. xvi. 7; Psalm ii., in Acts iv. 25; and Psalm xcv., in Hebrews iv. 7. The probability is that David was the author of the rest of this class. Thus we may reckon that, out of the total of 150, there are 133 by David.

The other authors named in the titles are Asaph, Solomon, Heman the Ezrahite, Ethan the Ezrahite, and Moses. To Asaph twelve psalms are ascribed; to Solomon two; to each of the others This makes a total of seventeen by other authors mentioned by name.

one.

b Acts ii. 30.