CIV. This psalm touches the highest point of religious poetry. It is the most perfect hymn the world has ever produced. Even as a lyric it has scarcely been surpassed; while as a lyric inspired by religion, not only was all ancient literature, except that of the Hebrews, powerless to create anythin... [ Continue Reading ]
CLOTHED. — For the same metaphor see Psalms 93:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
(1-4) First and second days of Creation. Instead, however, of describing the _creation_ of light, the poet makes a sublime approach to his theme by treating it as a symbol of the Divine majesty. It is the vesture of God, the tremulous curtain of His tent, whose supporting beams are based, not on the... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO COVEREST. — Perhaps better with the participles of the original retained: Putting on light as a robe; Spreading the heavens as a curtain. The psalmist does not think of the formation of light as of a single past act, but as a continued glorious operation of Divine power and splendour. Not only... [ Continue Reading ]
LAYETH THE BEAMS. — Literally, _maketh to meet_ The meaning of the Hebrew word, which is an exact equivalent of the Latin _contignare,_ is clear from Nehemiah 2:8; Nehemiah 3:3; Nehemiah 3:6, and from the meaning of the derived noun (2 Kings 6:2; 2 Kings 6:5; Song of Solomon 1:17). CHAMBERS. — Liter... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO MAKETH... — Rather, Who maketh winds His messenger A flaming fire His ministers. Or, keeping the order of the Hebrew, Who maketh His messengers of winds, And His ministers of flaming fire. This is plainly the meaning required by the context, which deals with the use made by the Divine King of... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO LAID... — Better, _He fixed the earth on its foundations._ (Comp. Job 38:4; Proverbs 8:29.) The inconsistency of this with Job 26:7, “He laid the earth upon nothing,” need not cause difficulty. Both treatments are poetical, not scientific. The word _foundations_ implies stability and endurance... [ Continue Reading ]
(5–18) The work of the third day of Creation in its two great divisions. (1) The separation of the land and water (Psalms 104:5); (2) the clothing of the earth with grass, herbs, and trees (Psalms 104:10). The poet, however, ranges beyond the Mosaic account, and already peoples the earth with the li... [ Continue Reading ]
THE DEEP. — The water-world is first considered as a vast garment wrapped round the earth, so that the mountain-tops are covered. But here it is beyond its right, and the Divine rebuke forces it to retire within narrower limits. It is noticeable that the idea of a chaos finds no place in the poetic... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY GO UP. — This translation is grammatically possible, but is inconsistent with the preceding description. It is better therefore to take the clause parenthetically, and to make hills and valleys the subjects. _Hills rise, valleys sink,_ an interesting anticipation of the disclosures of geology,... [ Continue Reading ]
A BOUND. — It is striking to observe what a deep impression their little line of coast, the barrier which beat off the waves of the Mediterranean, made on the Hebrew mind. The sea was an object of dread. Or if dread passes into reverent wonder, as in Psalms 104:25, it ends there; the Jew never took... [ Continue Reading ]
SPRINGS. — The account in Genesis goes on abruptly from the appearance of the dry land to speak of the vegetation which covers it, apparently without any physical means for its production. But a poet, especially an Oriental poet, thinks first of the springs and rivers on which fertility and life dep... [ Continue Reading ]
WILD ASSES. — See Job 39:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
BY THEM. — Better, _above them, i.e._, in the trees and bushes growing on the bank of the stream. Translate by the present, _have their homes. _... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAMBERS — _i.e., of cloud,_ as in Psalms 104:3. THY WORKS. — If we go by the parallelism, this means the “rain,” here called God’s works, as in Psalms 65:9 (see Note), his “river.” Others prefer to see a general reference to the operations of nature which produce fruit.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE SERVICE OF MAN — _i.e.,_ for his use (so Gesenius). But some deny this meaning to the Hebrew, which properly means “labour” or “office.” (In 1 Chronicles 27:26; Nehemiah 10:37, it means “agriculture,” “tillage.”) Hence they render, “And herbs for man’s labour in bringing them forth from the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WINE THAT... — Better, _and wine gladdens man’s heart, making his face shine more than oil_ (see-margin. The alternative follows the LXX. and Vulg., and suggests the anointing with oil at a banquet), _and bread man’s heart sustains._ OIL. — For oil and its uses see Psalms 133:2; Psalms 141:5.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TREES... — Better, _Jehovah’s trees are satisfied._ The parallelism shows what are Jehovah’s trees. The cedar of Lebanon (see 1 Kings 4:33) was the grandest and fairest tree known to the Hebrew; and like lightning and the tropical rain, is honoured by the epithet most expressive of grandeur. (Se... [ Continue Reading ]
STORK. — The LXX. give “heron,” but Dr. Tristram has shown that there is no need to prefer “heron” here, on account of “the nesting in fir trees,” since if near its feeding-grounds the stork readily selects a fir as the tallest and most convenient tree for its nest (_Nat. Hist. of the Bible,_ p. 244... [ Continue Reading ]
WILD GOATS. — Heb., _climbers,_ and so at home on the “high hills.” (See 1 Samuel 24:2, “the rocks of the wild goats.”) “This animal, which is a relation of the Swiss ibex or steinbock, is now called the beden or jaela “(_Bible Educator,_ II., 104). CONIES. — Heb., _shâphan, i.e._, “hider.” (Comp.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MOON FOR SEASONS. — See Psalms 89:37, Note. The mention of the inferior luminary first is no doubt partly due to its importance in fixing the calendar, but partly also to the diurnal reckoning, “the evening and the morning” as making the day. THE SUN KNOWETH. — So Job 38:12’ of the dawn. The su... [ Continue Reading ]
CREEP FORTH. — The word “forth” is better omitted. The Hebrew verb is that especially used of crawling animals and reptiles, and here, no doubt, his chosen to express the stealthy motion of the beasts when on the track of their prey. (See Psalms 104:25; comp. Job 37:8; Job 38:40.)... [ Continue Reading ]
LAY THEM DOWN. — With sunrise all is changed. The Wild animals, with their savage instincts, give way to man with his orderly habits and arranged duties. The curse of labour, on which the account in Genesis dwells, is here entirely out of sight, and instead there appears the “poetry of labour.” And... [ Continue Reading ]
RICHES. — LXX., “creation;” Aquila, Symmachus, and the Vulg., “possession.” The MSS. vary between singular and plural. _Creatures_ will perhaps. best express the sense here. There is something as fine in art as true in religion in this sudden burst of praise — the “evening voluntary” of grateful ad... [ Continue Reading ]
SO IS... — BETTER, _Yonder is the sea great and broad._ For a moment the poet, “lost in wonder, love and praise,” has forgotten his model, the Mosaic account of creation. But suddenly, as his eye catches sight of the sea — we imagine him on some hill-top, commanding on the one hand the range of Leba... [ Continue Reading ]
SHIPS. — The poet writes like one who had been accustomed to see the navies of Phœnicia, one of the indications which leads to the hypothesis that he belonged to the northern part of Palestine. And here for once we seem to catch a breath of enthusiasm for the sea — so rare a feeling in a Jew. LEVIA... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HIDEST THY FACE. — Elsewhere an image of displeasure, here only of withdrawal of providential care. (See Psalms 30:7, where the expression “troubled” also occurs.) THOU TAKEST AWAY THEIR BREATH. — Not only is the food which sustains animal life dependent on the ceaseless providence of God, but... [ Continue Reading ]
SPIRIT. — Rather, _breath,_ as in Psalms 104:29. We must not here think of the later theological doctrine of the Holy Spirit. The psalmist evidently regards the breath of God only as the vivifying power that gives matter a distinct and individual, but transient, existence. Even in the speculative bo... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD SHALL REJOICE. — The poet still follows Genesis in representing God as looking on His finished work with pleasure, but he says nothing of a sabbath. But it is possible that the thought of the sabbath hymns of praise led him to join man with the Divine Being in celebrating the glory and perf... [ Continue Reading ]
TREMBLETH. — With the praise is united something of awe and fear, since the majesty and power of Him who made the world is so great. Its very existence is dependent on His will, and a glance, a touch from Him would be enough to shake it to its foundations and consume it. For “the smoky mountain tops... [ Continue Reading ]
MY MEDITATION. — Rather, _my singing_ or _my poetry. _... [ Continue Reading ]
SINNERS BE CONSUMED. — This imprecation, which comes in at the close of this otherwise uniformly glad hymn, has been variously excused. The truth seems to be that from a religious hymn of Israel, since religion and patriotism were one, the expression of the national feeling against heathen oppressor... [ Continue Reading ]