Psalms 5 - Introduction

V.

Psalms 5:7 makes the inscription to this psalm suspicious. (See Note.) The address, “my king,” also denoting the theocratic relation of Jehovah to His people, seems more natural in. an invocation supposed to come from the entire faithful Israel — an invocation for help against the idolatrous part of the nation now in power, and preparing, if not actually beginning, persecution. The psalm is therefore rightly assigned to the troublous times of the later monarchy, possibly the reign of Manasseh. The bitterness of possible estrangement from the Temple and its services makes itself visible enough here, in feelings natural to this period. It is plain that when Psalms 5 was composed the adherents of Jehovah’s religion were the objects of dislike and calumny.

The parallelism is marked and well sustained.

Title. — Properly, to the leader on the flutes or to the precentor, with flute accompaniments. (See Note to inscription, Psalms 4)

Nehiloth. — Properly, nechîlôth: that is, bored instruments. The LXX., followed by the Vulg., translate, “on behalf of the heiress,” i.e., according to Augustine, “the Church;” but this is founded on a wrong etymology. Some Rabbins, deriving from a Chaldee word meaning “a swarm of bees,” make it refer to the multitudes reciting the psalm; others to the humming or hoarse sound of the musical accompaniment; others to a particular tune, “the drones.” Of the use of flutes in the religious services of the Hebrews we have proof in 1 Samuel 10:5; 1 Kings 1:40; Isaiah 30:29. Possibly the plural form may indicate the double flute. (See Bible Educator, ii. 89.)