Psalms 66 - Introduction

Another Psalm of thanksgiving, probably intended, like Psalms 65, for use at the Passover, but evidently owing its origin to special circumstances which called for more than ordinary rejoicings. It consists of two parts, distinguished by the use of the first person plural (Psalms 66:1-12) and the first person singular (Psalms 66:13-20) respectively; and it contains five stanzas of nearly equal length, marked off (except where the division is obvious at the end of the first part and of the whole) by Selah.

i. 1. All the inhabitants of the world are summoned to praise God and acknowledge His sovereignty (Psalms 66:1-4).

2. They are bidden to contemplate His mighty works on behalf of His people in the past, and to recognise that His sovereignty is still exercised in the government of the world (Psalms 66:5-7).

3. They are invited to praise God for His recent deliverance of His people from a calamity which had threatened to prove their ruin (Psalms 66:8-12).

ii. 1. The people's representative enters the Temple to pay the vows which he had made in the hour of distress (Psalms 66:13-15).

2. He invites all who fear God to listen to his grateful acknowledgement of God's answer to his prayer, and concludes with an ascription of praise to God for His goodness (Psalms 66:16-20).

The reader is at once struck by the abrupt change from the first person plural in Psalms 66:1 to the first person singular in Psalms 66:13. How is it to be accounted for, and who is the speaker in Psalms 66:13 ff?

(1) Some critics have supposed that portions of two Psalms, the one national, the other personal, have been combined. But would not the incongruity, if it exists, have been felt by the compiler? and the similarity of the situation (Psalms 66:9 ff, Psalms 66:14 ff), and of the style (Psalms 66:5; Psalms 66:8; Psalms 66:16) in both parts is strongly in favour of the unity of the Psalm.

(2) In spite of the personal turn of the language in Psalms 66:13 ff, it might be the congregation assembled for worship which lifts up its voice as one man in that consciousness of national solidarity which was so vivid a reality to the mind of ancient Israel.

(3) But this view does not account for the transitionfrom the plural to the singular; and it seems best to hear in these verses the voice of the responsible and representative leader of the nation (not necessarily himself the author of the Psalm), who identifies its fortunes and interests with his own.

Who then was this leader and what was the occasion? The language of Psalms 66:9 ff clearly refers to some wonderful interposition by which God had delivered the nation from a danger which threatened its very existence. Was it the termination of the Assyrian tyranny by the destruction of Sennacherib's army? or was it the restoration from the Babylonian captivity? If it was the latter, the Psalm must be placed after b.c. 516, for the Temple is standing, and sacrificial worship is being carried on. But there is no distinct reference to the Exile; the language points to a short and sharp crisis rather than to a prolonged humiliation; and the whole Psalm admits of a far more satisfactory explanation in connexion with the earlier occasion, (a) The Assyrian oppression was certainly sufficiently severe, and the danger to Judah sufficiently great, to justify the language of Psalms 66:9 ff. It must have seemed as though Jerusalem's last hour was come, and the Southern Kingdom must inevitably share the fate of the Northern Kingdom. (b) A distinctive feature of the Psalm is the appeal to the nations to recognise Jehovah as the ruler of the world. In just such a spirit Hezekiah prays for deliverance from Sennacherib "that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only" (Isaiah 37:20); and in God's name Isaiah bids those who are afar off to hear what He has done and those who are near to acknowledge His might (Psalms 33:13) (c) The parallel obviously suggested between the Exodus and the recent deliverance might seem to point to the Return from Babylon which is so often spoken of as a second Exodus: but the parallel between the Egyptian oppression and the Assyrian oppression is constantly present to Isaiah's mind (Isaiah 10:24, &c.), and he expressly compares the rejoicings with which the deliverance will be celebrated to the rejoicings of the Passover (Isaiah 30:29). (d) The Psalm contains some striking parallels of thought and language with Isaiah 1, and with Psalms 46, 48, 75, 76, which belong to that time.

If then the Psalm is a song for the Passover festival, celebrating the deliverance of Jerusalem from the tyranny of the Assyrians and the menaces of Sennacherib, the speaker in Psalms 66:13 ff (though not necessarily the composer of the Psalm) will be Hezekiah. This may explain the personal, and yet more than personal, character of the language. He speaks as the representative and mouthpiece of the nation in its trial and deliverance; and in Psalms 66:16 ff not without allusion to his own restoration from sickness, which was to him a type and pledge of the nation's escape from death (Isaiah 38:5 ff). His prayer in his sickness (Isaiah 38:3) presents a striking parallel to the profession of integrity in Psalms 66:18.

This Psalm and Psalms 57 are the only anonymous Psalms which have For the Chief Musicianprefixed. It is doubly described as A Song, a Psalm, or perhaps A Song for Music. The LXX adds ἀναστάσεως, of resurrection, probably with reference to Psalms 66:9; Psalms 66:16.