Psalms 97:7-12

Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.

-How the angels and how Judah shall receive Him when He shall come to confound the idols; and how the saints ought to hate evil and rejoice in His holy name as the source of light to them at the last.

Verse 7. Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols. "Idols" - literally, things of nought, nullities; Hebrew, Elilim. Isaiah 42:17 is parallel; 44:9.

Worship him, all ye gods - not the false gods, as Hengstenberg takes it, quoting Exodus 12:12; Numbers 33:41; Isaiah 19:1, as if it were a spirited poetical personification by which the idols are told to acknowledge Yahweh to be above them. The inspired authority of Hebrews 1:6 ('When He bringeth again (namely, at Christ's second advent, margin) the First-begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him'), confirming the translation of the Septuagint, Vulgate, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Syriac versions, decides that the angels are meant here by 'Elohiym (H430). So the mighty rulers of the earth and judges are called 'Elohiym (H430) in Psalms 82:1; Psalms 82:6; Exodus 22:28. The connection is, if real principalities, such as are the angels, are required by God to "worship" Messiah as "the brightness of the Fathers glory" at His manifestation, much more must false gods give place to Him, the universal Lord. Compare 1 Timothy 3:16, "seen of angels." God designed that Messiah at His first advent should be gazed at with adoring love by heavenly intelligences (Ephesians 3:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:9; 1 Peter 3:22); and especially at His second advent shall all powers recognize His Lordship (1 Corinthians 15:24; Philippians 2:9).

Verse 8. Zion heard, and was glad ... because of thy judgments - (Psalms 97:3.) While the worshippers of idols are confounded (Psalms 97:7), Zion rejoices at God's righteous judgments (Revelation 15:3). This verse rests upon Psalms 48:11. What there was an exhortation (so Isaiah 40:9), is here an asserted fact-`Zion rejoices.' 'Zion hears' it-namely, that the Lord judges, as He did of old in the case of Jehoshaphat, whose name (meaning Yahweh judgeth) was so gloriously verified by the fact.

And the daughters of Judah rejoiced - i:e., the remaining cities of Judah, as distinguished from Zion, the capital.

Verse 9. For thou, Lord, art high above all the earth - taken from Psalms 83:18.

Thou art exalted far above all gods - (cf. Psalms 47:9, end.) Hengstenberg remarks that the Psalmist's significant allusions to the three psalms, Psalms 47:1; Psalms 48:1; Psalms 83:1, confirm the reference of those psalms to the deliverance under Jehoshaphat.

Verse 10. Ye that love the Lord, hate evil - (Psalms 34:13 ; Romans 12:9 ; 2 Timothy 2:19 .) he preserveth the souls of his saints - an incentive that we should "hate evil." In spite of the seeming prosperity of the godless, it is the soul of the saint alone which is finally preserved.

Verse 11. Light is sown for the righteous - Psalms 112:4, "Unto the upright there ariseth [ zaarach (H2224), rises as the sun; which the Septuagint, Vulgate, Chaldaic, Syriac, and Arabic versions read here also, but needlessly, as poets love variety, light in the darkness]." Therefore the designedly similar sounding Hebrew here [ zaara` (H2232)] for "is sown" means, is scattered abroad in rich profusion, as the sun sows abroad his beams. Though "darkness" is round about the Lord to the unrighteous (Psalms 97:2), yet "Light is sown for the righteous."

Verse 12. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous - (Psalms 32:11) and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness - `and give thanks (literally, confess) to the memorial of His holiness' (Psalms 30:4, note).