LXXXIV. By an almost complete agreement of commentators this psalm is descriptive of a caravan of Israelites either returning from exile to Jerusalem or on its way up to one of the regular feasts. It has so many points of resemblance to Psalms 42, 43 that it has been ascribed to the same author and... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW AMIABLE. — Better, _How loved and how lovable._ The Hebrew word combines both senses. TABERNACLES. — Better, perhaps, _dwellings._ (Comp. Psalms 43:3.) The plural is used poetically, therefore we need not think of the various courts of the Temple.... [ Continue Reading ]
LONGETH. — From root meaning to _grow pale,_ expressing one effect of strong emotion — _grows pale with longing._ So the Latin poets used _pallidus_ to express the effects of passionate love, and generally of any strong emotion: “Ambitione mala aut argenti pallet amore.” HOR., _Sat. ii._ 3, 78. Or... [ Continue Reading ]
SPARROW. — Heb., _tsippôr,_ which is found up-wards of forty times in the Old Testament, and is evidently used in a very general way to include a great number of small birds. “Our common house- sparrow is found on the coast in the towns, and inland its place is taken by a very closely-allied species... [ Continue Reading ]
BLESSED IS THE MAN. — Or collective, _men,_ as the suffix, _their_ hearts, shows. WAYS. — From a root meaning _to cast up_ — and so _highways_ marked by the heaps of stone piled up at the side (Isaiah 57:14). In Jeremiah 18:15 mere _footways_ or _bypaths_ are contrasted, and so the _highway_ lends... [ Continue Reading ]
(5-7) In these verses, as in the analogous picture (Isaiah 35:6; comp. Hosea 2:15), there is a blending of the real and the figurative; the _actual_ journey towards Sion is represented as accompanied with ideal blessings of peace and refreshment. It is improbable that the poet would turn abruptly fr... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO PASSING THROUGH THE VALLEY OF BACA. — All the ancient versions have “valley of weeping,” which, through the Vulg. _vallis lacrymosa,_ has passed into the religious language of Europe as a synonym for life. And _Baca_ (_bâkha_) seems to have this signification, whatever origin we give the word. T... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY GO FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH — _i.e.,_ each difficulty surmounted adds fresh courage and vigour. “And he who flagg’d not in the earthly strife, From strength to strength advancing, only he His soul well knit, and all his battles won, Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal life.” MATTHEW ARNOLD. T... [ Continue Reading ]
SHIELD.... ANOINTED. — These are here in direct parallelism. So in Psalms 89:18. (See Note, and comp. Psalms 47:9, Note.)... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAD RATHER BE A DOORKEEPER. — Better, _I had rather wait on the threshold,_ as not worthy (LXX. and Vulgate, “be rejected in scorn”) to enter the precincts. The idea of “doorkeeper,” however, though not necessarily involved in the Hebrew word, is suggested in a Korahite psalm, since the Korahites... [ Continue Reading ]