Psalms 89:12

Ver. 12 The north and the south, thou hast created them,.... The two extreme parts of the world, the northern and southern poles, whether inhabited or uninhabited, are created by the Lord, to answer

And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O LORD: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.

The north and the south; the northern and southern parts of the world, yea, even the remotest ends thereof; though not yet known to us, were made and are ruled by thee. Or possibly he may understand the northern and southern empires, and people of the world, who have from time to time annoyed and disturbed the kingdom of David and of Israel, of which this Psalm principally treats, such as Syria, Chaldea, and Assyria; which in Scripture phrase are called the north, in reference to that kingdom; and Egypt, and Ethiopia, and Arabia, which are southward from it. These, saith he, are all thy creatures, and none of them can withstand thee, if thou wilt undertake to deliver thy people. But this I only propose with submission. Tabor and Hermon; two eminent mountains in the land of Canaan; Tabor in the west and within Jordan, Hermon on the east and without Jordan; by which he may understand either, first, The western and eastern parts of the world; and so all the four parts of the world are contained in this verse. But this may seem an uncouth and incongruous description of the east and west, partly because the north and the south here mentioned are not those parts of the land of Canaan, but of the world with respect to it; and therefore the east and west should in reason have been so too; and partly because these places were not so situated in Canaan, for Tabor was not in the west part of Canaan, but rather in the middle space between the sea and Jordan; and Hermon was not so much on the east as on the north, being indeed the northern border of the land without Jordan. Or, secondly, The several parts of the land of Canaan, both within Jordan, where Mount Tabor is; and without it, where Hermon lies. And the mountains may be named rather than the valleys, because when their fertility is expressed, the fertility of the valleys is more strongly supposed. Shall rejoice, i.e. shall be fruitful and prosperous, and so give their inhabitants cause to rejoice. Joy and singing are oft ascribed to mountains and fields, &c., in a poetical strain. In thy name; in or by thy favour, and the fruits thereof.

Psalms 89:12 The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.Ver. 12. Tabor and Hermon] That is, the west and east of Judaea, but put here for the west and east of the world. Judaea was the world of the world, as Athens the Greece of Greece, as Solon the epitome of Athens.

(12) Tabor and Hermon.—Introduced not only as standing roughly for west and east, but for their prominence and importance in the landscape. (Comp. Hosea 5:1.) Shall rejoice.—Better, sing for joy.

Verse 12. The north and the south] It is generally supposed that by these four terms all the four quarters of the globe are intended. Tabor, a mountain of Galilee, was on the west of Mount Hermon, which was beyond Jordan, to the east of the source of that river.

12. The north and the south] The furthest extremities of the world. Cp. Job 26:7. Tabor and Hermon] These mountains are named, not so much to represent the West and East of the land, as because they are the grandest and most conspicuous natural features of Palestine. Tabor is described as a “strange and beautiful mountain,” towering “over the monotonous undulations of the surrounding hills,” and “so thickly studded with trees, as to rise from the plain like a mass of verdure.” In Jeremiah 46:18 it is used as an emblem of pre-eminence. Hermon was “the image of unearthly grandeur, which nothing else but perpetual snow can give; especially as seen in the summer, when ‘the firmament around it seems to be on fire.’ ” Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, pp. 350, 404. shall rejoice in thy name] Better as R.V., rejoice. Nature is a revelation of its Creator, and rejoices in the fulfilment of its office. Cp. Psalms 19:1; Psalms 65:12-13.

The north and the south, thou hast created them - All that there is in the north and in the south - in the northern and the southern sky - the constellations and the stars; and all that there is in

12. Tabor and Hermon—Not the “Little Hermon,” south of Tabor, as some have supposed, but the celebrated spur of Anti-Lebanon of that name, both mentioned poetically as representative mountains, the