Psalms 59 - Introduction

LIX.

The fascinating conjecture of Ewald which connects this psalm with the Scythian irruption into Judæa in the reign of Josiah is not easily surrendered. Some wild nomad tribe supporting itself by pillage, terrifying the inhabitants of a beleaguered city with an outlandish gesture and speech, seems indicated by the recurring simile of the “dogs” (Psalms 59:6; Psalms 59:14). And, again, the mode in which the heathen are spoken of in Psalms 59:8, and the effect to be produced far and wide by the evidence of Jehovah’s power (Psalms 59:13) seems to point to a foreign invasion. But, on the other hand, the prominence given to the utterances of this poet’s foes (Psalms 59:7; Psalms 59:12), seems to indicate that his danger was rather from calumnious and false accusations than from hostile violence. Was he merely the mouthpiece of the righteous part of the community, whom a hostile or renegade party is trying to devour, body and soul, character and substance, as the gaunt scavenger dogs devour in an Eastern city? At first sight an apparent double refrain (Psalms 59:6; Psalms 59:14; Psalms, 9, 17) promises a regular poetical form, but the strophes are unequal and the parallelism loose.

Title. — See titles, Psalms 4, 57, 16, and see Introduction.