XXX. This psalm, which is plainly an expression of thankfulness for recovery from a dangerous, and nearly fatal, sickness, does not in a single line or word bear out the title, which suggests either the dedication of the site of the future temple (2 Samuel 24; 1 Chronicles 21; 1 Chronicles 21) or of... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST LIFTED ME UP. — The Hebrew word seems to mean to _dangle,_ and therefore may be used either of _letting down_ or _drawing up._ The cognate noun means _bucket_ It is used in Exodus 2:19, literally of drawing water from a well; in Proverbs 20:5, metaphorically of counsel. Here it is clearly... [ Continue Reading ]
GRAVE. — _Sheôl_ (See Note to Psalms 6:5.) THAT I SHOULD NOT GO DOWN TO THE PIT. — This follows a reading which is considered by modern scholars ungrammatical. The ordinary reading, rightly kept by the LXX. and Vulg., means _from these going down to the pit, i.e.,_ from the dead. (Comp. Psalms 28:1... [ Continue Reading ]
SING UNTO... — Better, _Play to Jehovah, ye saints of his._ (See Note, Psalms 16:10.) AND GIVE THANKS. — Better, _and sing praises to his holy name._ (See margin.) Possibly Exodus 3:15 was in the poet’s mind. (Comp. Psalms 97:12.)... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HIS ANGER. — Literally, “For a moment (is) in his anger, Life in his favour; In the evening comes to lodge weeping, But at morning a shout of joy.” Some supply _comes to lodge_ with the last clause, but the image is complete and finer without. It is thoroughly Oriental. Sorrow is the wayfarer... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IN. — Better, _But as for me, in,_ &c. The pronoun is emphatic. The mental struggle through which the psalmist had won his way to this sublime faith is now told in the most vivid manner, the very soliloquy being recalled. PROSPERITY. — Better, _security._ I SHALL NEVER BE MOVED. — Better, _I s... [ Continue Reading ]
LORD, BY THY FAVOUR — _i.e., and all the while thou_ (not my own strength) _hadst made me secure._ The margin gives the literal rendering, but the reading varies between the text “to my mountain,” “to my honour” (LXX., Vulg., and Syriac), and “on mountains,” the last involving the supply of the pron... [ Continue Reading ]
I CRIED TO THEE. — The very words of “this utter agony of prayer” are given. But it is better to keep the futures in Psalms 30:8, instead of translating them as _preterites,_ and make the quotation begin here. So Symmachus, “Then I said, _I will cry to thee, O Lord,”_ &c... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT PROFIT... — _i.e.,_ to God. For the conception of death as breaking the covenant relation between Israel and Jehovah, and so causing loss to Him as well as to them (for Sheôl had its own king or shepherd, _Death_) by putting an end to all religious service, comp. Hezekiah’s song; Isaiah 38:18.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST TURNED FOR ME. — This verse gives the answer to the prayer. _Mourning_ is literally _beating the breast,_ and therefore _dancing_ forms a proper parallelism; or else, according to one derivation of the word, _machôl_ would suggest _piping._ (See margin, Psalms 149:3; Psalms 150:4; see Smit... [ Continue Reading ]
MY GLORY. — The suffix is wanting in the Hebrew, and in all the older versions except LXX. and Vulg. The Chaldee versions make the word concrete and render “the nobles.” The Syriac, reading the verb in a different person, makes _glory_ the object — “then will I sing to thee, Glory.” _My_ glory would... [ Continue Reading ]