VIII. This psalm has been aptly called a lyric echo of the first chapter of Genesis. There is no reason to doubt the traditional ascription to David. This exquisite little poem is a record of his shepherd’s days, when, under the midnight sky of Palestine, brilliant with stars, he mused on things de... [ Continue Reading ]
O LORD OUR LORD. — _Jehovah our Lord._ For the first time in the Book of Psalms the personal feeling is consciously lost sight of in a larger, a national, or possibly human feeling. The poet recognises God’s relation to the whole of mankind as to the whole material creation. Thus the hymn appropriat... [ Continue Reading ]
BABES AND SUCKLINGS. — Better, _young children and sucklings._ A regular phrase to describe children from one to three years old (1 Samuel 15:3; 1 Samuel 22:19). The _yonek,_ or suckling, denotes an earlier stage of the nursing period (which, with Hebrew mothers, sometimes extended over three years,... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I CONSIDER. — Literally, _see, scan._ ORDAINED. — Or, as in margin, _founded_ — _i.e., created, formed;_ but the English word aptly introduces the idea of _order_ in the _kosmos._ Comp.: — “Know the cause why music was ordained? — SHAKESPEARE. In our humid climate we can hardly imagine the... [ Continue Reading ]
MAN... SON OF MAN... — The first, possibly, with suggestion of frailty; the second to his life derived from human ancestry. The answer to this question must always touch the two poles, of human frailty on the one hand, and the glory of human destiny on the other. “O the grandeur and the littleness,... [ Continue Reading ]
The Hebrew poet dwells on neither of these aspects, but at once passes on to the essential greatness of man and his superiority in creation, by reason of his moral sense and his spiritual likeness to God. Another English poet sings to the stars: — “’Tis to be forgiven That, in our aspirations to be... [ Continue Reading ]
The poet continues, in a rapturous strain, to complete the cycle of animated nature, and to describe man’s kingship over all other created beings. For St. Paul’s expansion of the thought, and elevation of it into yet a higher sphere, see 1 Corinthians 15:27.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHATSOEVER PASSETH. — This is more poetical than to render “the fish of the sea who pass,” &c. PATHS OF THE SEAS. — Comp. Homer’s ὑγρὰ κέλευθα. The repetition of the first thought of the poem, binding’ the contents together as in a wreath, is the one touch of art it displays.... [ Continue Reading ]