The preceding Psalm dwells much upon the righteousness of God: this Psalm depicts the blessings which will flow from the righteousness of His earthly representative, the theocratic king. In Psalm after Psalm in this book we have heard the cry of the oppressed: here is unfolded to our view the splend... [ Continue Reading ]
God is the source of all judgement (Deuteronomy 1:17); the king is His representative for administering it. May God therefore grant him such a knowledge of the divine laws and ordinances by which he is to govern Israel, and endow him with such a divine spirit of justice, as may make him a worthy rul... [ Continue Reading ]
A prayer that God will confer upon the king the gifts which he needs for the right exercise of his office. Then righteousness will bear the fruit of peace; redress and repression of wrong will promote the fear of God; under his beneficent rule the righteous will flourish.... [ Continue Reading ]
He shall give sentence to thy people with righteousness, And to thine afflicted ones with Judgement. Many commentators render the verbs throughout the Ps. as optatives, _Let him give sentence_, and so forth. In Psalms 72:8 ff. this rendering is required by the form of the verb; but here the form i... [ Continue Reading ]
Logically this verse forms but one sentence, and the exact reproduction of the Heb. division into two clauses for the sake of rhythm has an awkward effect. The sense is, By righteousness shall the mountains and the hills bear peace for the people. The mountains and the hills, which are the character... [ Continue Reading ]
An expansion of Psalms 72:2. The oppressed and defenceless are the special care of the true king, "whose glory is, redressing human wrong." He does justice to -the afflicted of the people"; he is the preserver of -the children of the needy," words which are best understood literally, not merely of t... [ Continue Reading ]
They shall fear thee while the sun endureth, And so long as the moon doth shine, throughout all generations. Who is addressed? Not the king, who is spoken of throughout in the third person, but God. The just administration of the king will promote reverence for God, Whose representative he is (cp.... [ Continue Reading ]
_He shall come down_&c. A condensed comparison, for, -he shall be like rain coming down." The simile may have been suggested by the -last words of David," 2 Samuel 23:4: cp. Proverbs 16:15; Hosea 6:3; Micah 5:7. _the mown grass_ The meadow which has been mown, and which needs rain to start the after... [ Continue Reading ]
_flourish_ The metaphor follows naturally upon that of the preceding verse. Cp. Proverbs 11:28; Psalms 92:12-13. For _the righteous_LXX, Jer., Syr. read _righteousness_, which suits the parallelism better. _so long as the moon endureth_ Lit. as R.V., till the moon be no more; for all time. Cp. Job... [ Continue Reading ]
_He shall have dominion also_ Render, And may he have dominion. The form of the verb here is decisive in favour of rendering as a wish or prayer, and governs the meaning of the verbs in Psalms 72:9, which should all be similarly rendered. _from sea to sea_&c. The words are a poetical generalisation... [ Continue Reading ]
May all nations submit to this best of rulers, recognising the paramount claim of moral supremacy.... [ Continue Reading ]
Let them that dwell in the wilderness bow down before him, And let his enemies lick the dust. Even the wild Bedouin tribes that roam at large through the desert, the freest of the free, submit to his rule. LXX, Aq., Symm., Jer., render, _Ethiopians_, the Targ., _Africans_; but the term is quite gen... [ Continue Reading ]
Let the kings … bring presents, or, as R.V. marg., render tribute, the word implying that they are rendering what is _due_to him. _Tarshish_was the wealthy Phoenician colony of Tartessus in southern Spain: _the isles_or rather _the coastlands_are those of the Mediterranean generally. _Sheba_was sout... [ Continue Reading ]
Yea, let all kings fall down before him, Let all nations serve him. The allusions to Solomon's empire in this and the preceding verse are obvious. "All kingdoms brought presents and served Solomon." … "All the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, … and they brought every man his present.... [ Continue Reading ]
_For he shall deliver_ His claim to this universal homage rests not on the strength of his armies but on the justice and mercifulness of his rule. Cp. Isaiah 16:4-5. The true victory of the kingdom of God is a moral victory, Psalms 72:9, it is true, refers to the forced submission of his enemies; bu... [ Continue Reading ]
He shall have pity on the weak and needy, And the souls of the needy shall he save. _The weak_may include the sick as well as the poor. Cp. Psalms 40:1; Psalms 82:3-4; Isaiah 10:1; Isaiah 11:4; Amos 4:1. _Souls_primarily = lives, and so in Psalms 72:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
_deceit_ Oppression (R.V.) or fraud (R.V. marg.). The word occurs elsewhere only in Psalms 10:7; Psalms 55:11. _and precious_&c. He will not suffer it to be shed with impunity. Cp. for the phrase Psalms 116:15; 1Sa 26:21; 1 Kings 1:13-14; and see Psalms 9:12. P.B.V. _dear_means -costly" or -preciou... [ Continue Reading ]
The connexion and meaning are uncertain. The R.V. connects the verse with Psalms 72:14, placing a colon at the end of Psalms 72:14 and rendering, and they shall live: lit., as marg., _he_, namely, each one of the afflicted ones. The literal rendering of the next clause is, _and he_(or, _one) shall g... [ Continue Reading ]
A concluding triplet of prayers, for the welfare of the king (Psalms 72:15), for the prosperity of his people (Psalms 72:16), for the perpetuation of his memory (Psalms 72:17).... [ Continue Reading ]
May there be abundance of corn in the land upon the top of the mountains: May the fruit thereof rustle like Lebanon; And may men flourish out of the city like grass of the earth. A prayer for the fertility of the land, and the prosperity of the people. The poet would see the cornfields stretching... [ Continue Reading ]
May his name endure for ever; As long as the sun doth shine may his name have Issue: May all nations bless themselves in him, (and) call him happy. The Psalmist prays that the king's name may not perish like the name of the wicked (Job 18:19), but may always _have issue_, be perpetuated in his po... [ Continue Reading ]
_who only doeth wondrous_things] Cp. Psalms 86:10; Psalms 136:4; Job 9:10; and note on Psalms 71:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
This doxology is no part of the Psalm, but marks the close of Book ii. It is fuller than the corresponding doxology at the end of Book i (Psalms 41:13), and those at the end of Books iii (Psalms 89:52) and iv (Psalms 106:48).... [ Continue Reading ]
_his glorious name_ Lit. _the name of his glory_, as in Nehemiah 9:5. Cp the similar phrase in 1 Chronicles 29:13; Isaiah 63:14. The Name of His glory is the compendious expression for the Majesty of His Being, as it is revealed to men. _and let the whole earth_&c. From Numbers 14:21. _Amen, and Am... [ Continue Reading ]
Compare the note in Job 31:40 which separates the speeches of Job from those of Elihu and Jehovah. As the Fourth and Fifth Books contain Psalms ascribed to David, this note cannot have been placed here by an editor who had the whole Psalter before him. Most probably it was added by the compiler of t... [ Continue Reading ]