CXLI.
This is one of the most obscure psalms in the whole psalter, hardly a
clause of Psalms 141:5 offering anything more than a conjectural
meaning. The author appears from Psalms 141:2 to be a priest or
Levite, being so familiar with the rites of the sanctuary as to use
them as metaphors. From Psa... [ Continue Reading ]
SET FORTH... — See margin; but more literally, _be erected,_
suggesting the pillar of smoke (comp. Tennyson’s “Azure pillars of
the hearth”) continually rising to heaven. Some think the _incense_
refers to the morning sacrifice, so that the verse will mean, “let
my prayer rise regularly as morning a... [ Continue Reading ]
WATCH. — The image drawn from the guard set at city gates at night
seems to indicate the evening as the time of composition of the psalm.
DOOR OF MY LIPS. — Comp. “doors of thy mouth” (Micah 7:5), and
so in Euripides, πύλαι στόματος. For the probable motive
of the prayer, see Introduction. The poet... [ Continue Reading ]
TO PRACTISE WICKED WORKS... — The Vulg., _ad excusandas
excusationes,_ following the LXX., not only preserves the expressive
assonance of the original, but probably conveys its meaning better
than the somewhat tame English version. Evidently the danger to be
guarded against was not so much a sinful... [ Continue Reading ]
The difficulties of the psalm thicken here. Render, _Let a righteous
man smite me, it is a kindness; and let him reprove me, it is oil for
the head: my head shall not refuse it though it continue; yet my
prayer is against their wickedness._
The word rendered “smite” is that used of Jael’s “hammer
st... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse again is full of obscurities. The first clause probably
should be rendered, _Let their judges be broken to pieces by the
force_ (literally, _hands_)_ of the rock;_ or, _let their judges be
cast down by the sides of the cliff — i.e.,_ hurled down the
precipitous face of the ravine (See 2 C... [ Continue Reading ]
OUR BONES. — The literal rendering of this verse is _As when one
cutteth and cleaveth in the earth our bones are scattered at the mouth
of Sheôl._
The reading “our bones” necessarily makes this an abrupt
transition from the fate of the unjust judges in the last verse to
that of the afflicted people,... [ Continue Reading ]
Comp. Psalms 25:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THE SNARE. — The original idiom is far more forcible: “from
the hands (or, ‘clutches’) of the snare.” (See above, Psalms
141:6, “in the hands of the cliff.”)... [ Continue Reading ]
Comp. Psalms 7:15.
WITHAL. — Probably, _altogether_ (“whilst I altogether escape”),
which some join with the previous clause, “Let the wicked fall into
their own nets together, whilst I escape.”... [ Continue Reading ]