Psalms 59

Psalms 59. THE Psalm falls, like so many others, into two chief divisions, the one of 10 verses, and the other of 7. The ten, as usual, are divided into two fives, the seven fall into three and four. Thefirst strophe in both parts contains a prayer for the overthrow of the ungodly enemies, and the deliverance of the Psalmist, ver. 1-5, and ver. 11-13; the second, the hope of this over-throw and this deliverance; and the confident expectation of the same, ver. 6-10, and 14-17. At the conclusion of the prayer-strophes, which are already distinguished from the two others by the use of the imperatives, the Selah is both times used, externally also bounding them off. Hence the main divi-sions do not lie loosely beside each other; in the second hope-strophe the first is again resumed. The first verses of both take up the beginning of the first and expand it, their last ones the conclusion.

It is not accidental that in the second main divi-sion the confidence externally predominates over the prayer, (4 to 3), while in the first the hope occupies the same space with the prayer, (5 and 5). It is in perfect accordance with this, that in the second hope-strophe, the hope has received a firm foundation in the internal assurance of being heard, and has thereby risen to confidence, which discovers itself especially in the two concluding verses.

The occasion of the Psalm is given in the superscription: to the chief musician, destroy not, (Psalms 57.) of David, a secret, (Ps. xvi, lvi, lvii,) when Saul sent, and caused his house to be watched, that he might kill him. The history is contained in 1 Sam. 19:11, ss. Saul caused the house of David to be sur-rounded, with orders to kill him, whenever he might come out. David was delivered through the artifice of his wife Michal, which was blessed by God, but this transaction formed the com-mencement of his long-continued flight, during which he had to encounter unheard-of dangers, and to endure nameless suffer-ings. The fact being of such importance, we are prepared to expect, that David would perpetuate its remembrance by a Psalm, the superscription of which would expressly make men-tion of it, (comp. on Psalms 34.) Such a superscription was the more necessary, since, according to David’s manner, the refe-rences to the event in the Psalm itself, which was naturally com-posed immediately after the danger had been surmounted, are very general-the special references to it, which have been sought in ver. 6 and in ver. 14 and 15, are not found in these. So much only is clear from the Psalm, that it was called forth by some plot upon the life of the Psalmist; for the rest, the relations are the general ones belonging to the Sauline period.

Many modern expositors have rejected the announcements of the superscription, and denied the composition by David. But their reasons are any thing but convincing.

The description of the enemies as mighty or powerful in ver. 3, it is maintained, suits better heathenish oppressors, tyrants, than the messengers of Saul. As if David had not, in all the Psalms of this period, primarily and chiefly before his eyes Saul himself, and his in-struments merely as such, merely as members of that body of wickedness of which he was the head! The idea that the hea-then being once and again mentioned, ver. 5 and 8, indicates that the Psalm refers to foreign enemies, rests upon a false ex-position, as we shall see. As to the multiplication of titles of God in ver. 5 proving, as is alleged, that the Psalm belongs to a later age, this is disproved by a single glance at the prayer of David in 2 Sam. vii, which is distinguished by a heaping toge-ther of the names of God, and where, particularly in ver. 27, “for thou Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, God of Israel,” the ad-dress here is literally repeated, with the omission merely of Elohim. The positive grounds for referring this Psalm to David, and at the period in question, are, besides the superscription, to which the Psalm itself appears to contain a reference in ver. 9, and the enigmatical character of which (indicated by: destroy not, and: the secret,) bespeaks David for its author-the use, characte-ristic of David, of military expressions, ver. 4, 9, 16, the strong asseveration of innocence, ver. 3 and 4, and the lively conviction, also so characteristic of David, of the reality of a divine recom-pense, of the connection between a venomous slandering, and violent deeds, which meets us in all the Psalms of the Sauline period; to which may be added the circumstance, that all the strikingly agreeing parallel passages belong to the Psalms of David, and especially to such as were composed in the times of Saul. Those, who reject the superscription, wander hither and thither, and each one excogitates his own hypothesis and satis-fies himself.

According to De Wette it is a plaint of the peo-ple, and has reference to the relations which arose in the time of the exile. According to Ewald, the poet is one of the last kings of Judah, who was besieged in Jerusalem by a multitude of heathenish enemies, the surrounding tribes in league with the Chaldeans-of such a combination history says nothing.Koester refers the Psalm to “the nocturnal assaults of the Samaritans in the time of Nehemiah,” but himself also discreetly adds, that “there is no absolute certainty on the subject.” Hitzig pleads for the times of the Maccabees.

It is to be objected to these hypotheses, that the assaulted is throughout only one, in the presence of a great number of mighty adversaries, no hint being ever given that a multitude lay concealed in this oneness, the Psalmist rather expressly distinguishing himself, in ver. 14, from “his people;” that the reproach particularly discovering itself in the Psalm of veno-mous slandering, and malicious lying, comp. ver. 7 and 12, does not at all suit heathenish enemies, nor also the epithet of “men of blood,” in ver. 2, which is never used of heathenish national enemies; that the heathen are excluded by ver. 14, 15, according to which Israel has the spectacle of the humiliation of the wicked constantly before his eyes, sees them wandering about in misery and want; that the threatening of a hungry and wretched existence in ver. 6 and 15 is suitable only to indivi-duals, not to nations; finally, that the overthrow of the wicked could afford a proof that “God rules in Jacob,” ver. 18, only if the Psalm refers to domestic enemies, to conflicts among the people of God, upon whom he exercises judment.

Psalms 59:1-5

The Psalmist prays for deliverance from his enemies, ver. 1 and 2, grounds this prayer by alluding to the powerful malice of the enemies, and his own innocence, ver. 3 and 4, and reminds God, that he, as the Almighty and the Covenant-God of Israel, cannot let wickedness rage with impunity among his own peo-ple. Ver. 1. Deliver me from my enemies, my God, and defend me from those who raise themselves against me. Ver. 2. Deliver me from the evil-doers, and from the men of blood redeem me. Ver. 3. For lo! they lay wait for my-soul, gather themselves against me the strong, without my crime and my sin, O Lord. Ver. 4. Without my fault they run and establish themselves; awake and meet me, and see here. Ver. 5. And thou, Lord, God of Hosts, God of Israel, wake up, visit all the heathen, be not gracious to all wicked men of perfidy. On ver. 1 and 2, Arnd: “Although these words are in themselves simple and mean, yet we must look mainly upon the heart and the spirit of David, how firmly he held by his faith and confidence in God.” Upon שגב, to lift up, in the sense of “deliver,” comp. on Psalms 20:1.-On the expression: they lay wait for my soul, in ver. 8,he comp. 1 Samuel 19:11, “And Michal his wife said to David, If thou deliver not thy soul this night, to-morrow thou shalt be slain,” Psalms 7:2; Psalms 7:5. That עז, strong, (not, rash, Ew.) is used in its common signification, appears from עזו in ver, 9, ך~זע inver. 16, עזי in ver. 17, and Psalms 18:17. Arnd: “The stronggather themselves against me, as if he would say: But I amweak, be thou, however, my strength, and vindicate my inno-cence.” גור, as in Psalms 56:6, in the sense of gathering them-selves; the exact agreement with that passage implies, since both bear the mark of originality, the identity of the writers of both Psalms. The words: not my crime, and not my sin, is aconcise form for, not on account of my sins. Where the relation in itself is clear, there not rarely the word expressive of the re-lation is omitted. Most render: not is my crime.

But the supplying of the is is not enough, and then instead of לא there would rather have been אין. The crime, comp. on Psalms 19., is the particular, the sin the general.

It were, for example, a crime to project a plan for murdering the king; while under sin, all disobedience and unfaithfulness is comprehended. WhenDavid here denies, that sin is the cause of his suffering, he thinks of the human cause. He was deeply penetrated by the conviction, that before the divine judgment-seat, an entirely different standard is to be taken; he recognized there in those sufferings a painful indication of deserved punishment. We are to compare the similar protestations of the innocence of David in 1 Samuel 24:10, and in Psalms 7:3-5. On the “O Lord,“Kimchi: “Thou Lord knowest it.” David can appeal to the knowledge of the Omniscient for his innocence in respect to Saul.-How necessary this freedom from guilt is to the assault, if this is to be an occasion for God to step in, is indicated by the Psalmist, while in ver. 4, he rises from the innocence to the as-sault, as in ver. 3 he had risen from the assault to the innocence. Only the assault of the innocent comes under the idea of perfi-diousness, which the Psalmist in ver. 5 describes as the object ofdivine judgment.

Upon בלי, without, comp. Ewald, �˜ 506.

To this: without fault, naturally suggests itself to be supplied: on my part. The: run, is used, as in Psalms 18:29, in a war- like sense. יכוננו, fut. Hithp. from כון, with compensation of the ת charact. by Dag., which is common with this verb, is for the most part expounded: they prepare themselves. But we have the less reason for renouncing here the elsewhere commonsig. of the Hithp.: to be settled, established, as the preparing of themselves for the tempestuous onset, does not follow, but goes before. It is beyond doubt a military expression: to fix one’s self, to get firm footing, from the attacking host, which, planting its firm foot in the walls of the beleaguered city, is ready to rush in over them, or rather through them, as being al-ready broken through, into the city, comp. Job 30:14. Onעורה, not with Ewald, stir thyself, but: awake, comp. Psalms 7:6; Psalms 44:23. Meet me, as a true member of the covenant for my relief. At the: see, the object is awanting: their wickedness and my danger. Calvin: “When he says: see, he mingles the feeling of the flesh with the teaching of faith. For as if God, with shut eyes, had overlooked till then all unrighteousness, he prays, that he would now begin to see; this after the weakness of the human mind. Meanwhile he confesses, while he attri-butes seeing to God, that nothing is concealed from his inspec-tion.

Yet it is to be noticed, that David, while he so stammers after the manner of a man, at the same time is satisfied, that his sufferings, as well as his own innocence, and the wickedness of his enemies, are known to God. But he gives over in these words the whole cause to the judgment of God for trial."-On ver. 5, Geier: “He here resumes more fully the address al-ready begun in the preceding verse, while he describes Him more narrowly, whose awaking he wishes.

But the names con-tain at the same time, the reasons for the divine help being im-mediately extended to him.” The “Jehovah” is the deepest and most comprehensive name of God. The following names divide its import into the particular parts. Jehovah is first Elohim, God in the full sense, (God) of Hosts, (comp. on Sabaoth at Psalms 24:10,) the Almighty; he therefore cannot want power to restrain the mighty ones of the earth, whose strength is sheer impotence against him; he cannot find, should the right not prevail, the justification that is so often sought for human judges. Then, Jehovah is the God of Israel; Arnd: “that is, who has taken the church, with all the believing mem-bers, under his powerful support.” Has he, as God and as Sa-baoth, the power, he must as the God of Israel have the will to punish and deliver. The God of Israel (comp. ver. 13) mustestablish right and righteousness without which Israel comesto nothing. We may compared Jeremiah 35:17, where the God of Israel is called God as judge of the wicked in it; there, and inchap. 38:17, the Jehovah, the God of Hosts, the God of Is- rael, are taken from this verse, only with the putting of אלהיinstead of אלהים here. The proper wish and the proper prayer of the Psalmist here is contained in the words: be not gracious to all wicked perfidious persons, prop. all perfidious persons of wickedness; perfidiousness in Israel, the people who are all friends and brethren, is every violation of neigh-bourly love not called forth by the commission of any miscon-duct, comp. on Psalms 25:2; wickedness (comp. the און פעלי in ver. 2, through which the opinion of Koester, in itself of no weight, that און here denotes idolatry, is disproved,) is that, through which the perfidiousness has been committed: toward brothers and friends to be wicked is perfidiousness. That these words alone could contain the proper prayer of the Psalmist, is clear simply from this, that they alone admit a reference to enemies from amongst the covenant people: only in Israel was wickedness at the same time perfidiousness. Now, since the enemies could not be of a twofold kind, at once heathens and Jews, the preceding supplication: “awake and visit all hea-then,” can only have the force of a preliminary step to the pro-per prayer, and that so much the more, as the wicked perfidious persons are manifestly those of whose unprovoked attacks the Psalmist had complained in ver. 3 and 4-comp. in Psalms 25:3 : those who without cause are perfidious. In substance: a-waken to visit all heathen, is q. d. thou, who judgest all heathen. Because every special judgment of God is a consequence of this, that he is judge of the whole world, as already Abraham calls him, so the holy Psalmists very often place him as such before their eyes, ere they call upon him to judge in their own cause, comp. on Psalms 7:7; Psalms 7:8; Psalms 56:7. The right view is given already by Calvin: “He reasons from the greater to the less, since not even the profane and aliens can escape the hand and vengeance of God, a more sure and severe judgment must impend the do-mestic enemies, who, under the name of brethren, are inimical to the pious, and disturb the order divinely settled in the church. At the same time also, he wrestles with a temptation, with which it is probable he was much disquieted. For he was not pressed by four or five wicked persons, but by a great multitude.

On the other hand, however, he elevates his mind, considering it to be the proper office of God not only to bring a few into order, but to inflict punishment on the crimes of the whole world. Foras God’s judgment extends to the farthest bounds of the earth, he ought not to be frightened by that multitude, which was still but a small portion of the human race.” That the point brought out last by Calvin is to be kept most prominently in view; that the Psalmist on this account especially places God here before his eyes as the judge of all the heathen, so that he might be no more disturbed by the great number and might of his ene-mies, is manifest from ver 8.

Psalms 59:6-10

In the second strophe of the first main division, the prayer is followed by the hope. Ver. 6. They return back at even, howl like a dog, and run through the city. Ver. 7. Behold they belch with their mouth, swords are on their lips; for who hears? Ver. 8. And thou, O Lord, laughest at them, thou mockest all the hea-then. Ver. 9.

His strength will I preserve to thee, for God is my fortress. Ver. 10. My God will with his favour surprise me, God makes me see my desire upon my adversaries. The Psalmist in ver. 6 sees his enemies, the strong, ver. 3, brought down, wan-dering about in hunger and sorrow. Because in their conduct they resembled hounds, with hound-like fury had attacked him, comp. on Psalms 22:16; Psalms 22:20, they must now also experience a hound-like fate; in regard to which we must consider, that the dogs in the east run about without any master, and seek their food wherever they can find it. Ver. 11 gives the commentary on this passage: “Make them wander about through thy power, and overthrow them,” the more so as in ver. 15 there is a re-sumption and farther expansion of what is said here.

Whence it is clear, that our passage must not be referred, with many, to the want of success of the plan against David, that it rather con-tains the hope of the overthrow of the wicked themselves. They return back at even, namely, after they have in vain sought the whole day for food.

The dog cries or howls for hunger. They also run through the city at even, in order, perhaps, to ob-tain somewhat of nourishment. Various expositors find here, not the hope, but the wish of the overthrow of the wicked: might they return. But this is refuted by all the other contents of the strophe, which throughout expresses, not a wish, but a hope, and the resumption in ver. 14 and 15, comp. especially the se-cond half of the latter verse. Then, according to some, the verse must refer, not to the fate of the wicked, but, as ver. 7, to their procedure, (Ewald, Maur.) But ver. 14 is opposed to this view. When there is such a similarity in the words, a differ-ence in the sense is not to be supposed; this would certainlyhave been indicated by some change in the expression.

Then,by this exposition, we cannot explain why precisely the evening is thought of, unless one should take refuge in Some far-fetchedsupposition. The Psalmist, in ver. 7, casts a glance back onthe malice of his enemies, only in order to give opportunity forexercising hope in God, that it may break forth the more vigo-rously.

The consideration of the need is only a preliminarystep to him, on which he can raise himself to the contemplationof the helper for the time of need. Behold, they belch, &c. is inmeaning, q. d. let them belch, &c., thou, O Lord, mockestthem. On הביע, to make, to belch forth, comp. on Ps. xis. 12.What they belch or bubble forth, is not expressly mentionedhere, as it is in Proverbs 15:2; Proverbs 15:28, comp. Psalms 94:4. It may beeasily understood from the character of the persons; accordingto that, we can only think of a torrent of lies and calumnies,which instrumentally serve the purpose of their actual persecu-tion. Arnd: “Just as smoke proceeds from the fire, so do liesand slanders from open persecutions.” The verb retains itscommon meaning.

The Psalmist says only, that there was anentire flood of what they bring forth. On the expression:swords are on their lips, Calvin: “they vomit forth as manyswords for the murder of the poor as they utter words.” Arnd:“Just as a naked sword inflicts wounds, so do such lies and ca-lumnies cut in pieces upright hearts,” comp.

Psalms 55:21, “hiswords are smoother than oil, and they are drawn swords,” Psalms 52:2, “upon evil thinks thy tongue, as a sharp razor, thou worker of deceit,” Psalms 57:4, “whose tongue a sharp sword.” These parallel passages especially preclude us from thinking ofinsults, and oblige us to understand only false charges and ca-lumnies. This trait is only applicable to internal enemies; heathenish ones wield not the sword of the word. Who hears? is commonly regarded as a speech of the wicked: for, say they, who hears and judges. “God certainly hears it not, he will neither hear, nor punish,” (Arnd,) comp. a similar speech of the wicked in Psalms 10:11; Psalms 10:13. But we can also conveniently take the words as a sad lamentation of the Psalmist, that God through his past inaction, had strengthened the wicked in their wicked-ness, comp. a similar lamentation in Psalms 10:5. Hitherto God had actually not heard, comp. the see in verse 4. The malice of the enemies does not distress the Psalmist, it only leads him toraise his mind with the loftier elevation to God, and since he sees God laugh at it, he will also treat it as a mockery, verse 8.

On the expression: thou laughest, comp. Psalms 2:4, “he who is throned in heaven laughs, the Lord holds them in derision,” Psalms 37:13.

Thou mockest all the heathen, q. d. how should-est thou not mock them, how should it not be a light thing for thee, to annihilate all their malicious projects, since all the hea-then, with their far greater might, can do nothing against thee, comp. verse 5. In verse 9 the suffix in עזו refers to the strong, עזים, in verse 3. The singular goes, as so often happens, upon the ideal person of the wicked. Since in the other Psalms of the Sauline period, the singular constantly interchanges with the plural, it can only be regarded as purely accidental, that in this Psalm the enemy is nowhere else mentioned in the singu-lar. The ך~ילא, to thee, so that thou keepest it, and in refe-rence to it doest what is necessary. שמר, to keep, to secure, as in Exodus 22:6, and here in the supers. The Psalmist, con-scious of his own impotence, will have nothing to do himself with the strength of his enemies; he rolls it wholly upon God, who will already know what he has to make of it.

The expression: his strength, is here used in a thoughtful refe-rence to “thy power” in verse 16, my strength in verse 17, similar to that between: his countenance, in Psalms 42:5, and my countenance, in ver. 11: the enemies’ strength he delivers over to the Lord, he celebrates God’s strength, and for his own strength he gives thanks to him. This thoughtful reference is destroyed, if we read with many here עזי: my defence, upon whom I wait, (Ew.) Ver. 17 speaks against, not for this change; for deviations do occur in the reiterations, comp. on Psalms 42:5, and עזי would, if it had been original, have been preserved by ver. 17; nowhere does it call for more consideration to change the reading, than precisely where the reiterating verses deviate from each other.

Those, who abide by the common text, usually expound: what concerns their strength, I have thee in my eye. But עזי would then probably have stood by itself; that it is the accusative, which is governed by the verb, appears from the analogy between ver. 16 and 17. In the first member of ver. 10, the reading of the text should be ודס;הa יהaלoא<. Where thedistinction stood merely in the vowels, as here in the אלהי, there the Masorites wrote no Kri on the margin, but where, as here, the context of itself led to the conclusion, that the vowelscould not belong to the reading of the text, they gave to the Chetib exactly the vowels of the Kri, or, where that was not the case, they gave to the word a double punctuation, comp. on Psalms 7:6. We can either expound: my God, his favour will surprise me comp. Psalms 79:79; Psalms 79:8; or: my God will with his fa-vour surprise me, comp.

Psalms 21:3, where the קדם occurs with a double accus. The latter mode is recommended by the par-allel.

That of the Masorites: my favour-God, is a bad con-jecture from ver. 17. On the second member, comp. Psalms 54:8; Psalms 54:6, where all the words have already occurred. Calvin: “The sum is, whensoever God may withhold, or delay his aid, at that very time he will be present.”

Psalms 59:11-13

There follows now the second main division, first the prayer, in ver. 11-13. Ver. 11. Slay them not, lest my people forget, make them wander up and down through thy power, and over- throw them, thou our shield, O God. Ver. 12. Sin of their mouth is the word of their lips, and let them be taken through their pride, and on account of the cursing and lies, which they speak. Ver. 13. Consume in anger, consume, that they may be no more, and that it may be known that God is ruler in Jacob, even to the ends of the earth. That the: slay them not, in ver. 11, re- fers not to the individuals hostile to the Psalmist, as such, but to their race, appears from ver. 13, where he seeks for the same persons their destruction, as constantly, indeed, in the Psalms belonging to the Sauline period. The enemies must serve for monuments of the divine righteousness, not less in the abiding wretchedness of their race, than by their own sudden destruc-tion. Parallel to this verse, and to ver. 6, 14, is the curse which David utters upon Joab, in 2 Samuel 3:29, “let there never fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, and a leper, and that leaneth on a staff, and that lacketh bread;” then, the threat-ening of the man of God to Eli, in 1 Samuel 2:36, where, after announcing the violent death of the evil-doers themselves, cor-responding to ver. 13 here, it is said, “and it shall come to pass, that whosoever is left of thy house will come, and crouch to him, (the new high-priest), for a piece of silver and a bit of bread, and will say: Put me, I pray thee, in something of the priest-hood, that I may eat a piece of bread.” The Christian exposi-tion of this verse has all along drawn attention to the fact, that the substance of our verse, as that also of ver. 6, 14, has gone into fulfilment on the Jews. “They have been scattered intoall lands, and must go and stand before the eyes of all Chris-tians, as a living witness, that they have crucified the true Mes- siah and Saviour of the world. So that if you see a Jew, think on this word,” (Arnd.) The Psalmist calls all Israel his people; so the expression: my people, often occurs, for ex. Judges 14:3, Psalms 14:4. Many think without reason exclusively of the right-eous seed; the ungodly needed the warning example of the divine punitive righteousness still more than they.

On the ex-pression: let them wander about, comp. the divine judgment on Cain in Genesis 4:12, Numbers 32:13, “Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he caused them to wander in the wilderness forty years,” and Psalms 109:10, “Let his chil-dren be continually vagabonds and beg.” On the: through thy power, (falsely Hitzig: through thy host,) “David invokes God’s power for the destruction of the wicked, because they, trusting in their earthly power, thought themselves invin-cible;” comp.: they gather themselves together against me strong, in ver. 3. On the: overthrow them, prop. make them come down, Calvin: “He wills that they should be thrown down from their honourable position, be cast, as it were, before one’s feet, so that they may afford in their misery and dis-grace a standing spectacle of the divine indignation.” The designation of God as the shield of the righteous, is of fre-quent use in the mouth of David, comp. Psalms 3:3; Psalms 18:2; Psalms 28:7. By saying “our shield,” he indicates that his cause is that of the whole church, comp. in ver. 5: thou God of Israel. David was the bearer and representative of the good principle, and this was endangered in him. Saul’s victory would have opened a deep wound in the kingdom of God.-The words: Sin of their mouths is the word of their lips, in ver. 12, are q.d. they sin, as often as they but speak. That the wish of their destruction is to be supplied here, which the simple representa-tion of the matter-of-fact includes in itself, is evident from thesecond member. The ב in בגאום is explained by the follow-ing מן. The pride must be viewed as the cause of their de-struction in so far as it served to draw down upon them the divine vengeance.

Pride was manifestly the root of Saul’s hatred to David; the more he was devoid of true greatness, the more in-supportable to him was the thought of true greatness beside him, it filled him with rage, and he would, at whatever expense, have it driven out of the world; comp. the account of the firstorigin of Saul’s enmity to David, in 1 Samuel 18:8; 1 Samuel 19:8, ss. The curse is connected in Psalms 10:7, as here, with lying and deceit.

There are curses which the wicked pronounces upon himself, so that his deceit prospers with him, his lie finds currency. Saul protested loudly and vehemently, that David sought occasion against his life. Before יספרו the rela-tive is to be supplied. The word is used in its common sig.:they tell under solemn protestations lies for truth. That the entire verse is unsuitable to heathen armies, is clear as day, comp. Psalms 5:9.-In ver. 13, the first words of which are seen reflected in the fate of the Jews, when they were “mercilessly extirpated at the destruction of Jerusalem,” not less than in ver. 6 and 13, but the immediate fulfilment of which is exhibited in the signal overthrow of Saul, we must connect: that it may be known to the ends of the earth, that God is ruler in Jacob, not that God is ruler in Jacob to the ends of the earth, against which already the accents speak, and in which case also an and should have been prefixed before unto.

Calvin: “David indi-cates an extraordinary kind of punishment, the report of which would reach to the most distant people, and force even on blind and profane men the fear of God.” It is characteristic of David that he everywhere thinks also of the heathen as interested in that which God did among the Israelites, for ex. Psalms 18:49, Ivii. 5, 9, 11.

In remarkable agreement with our passage David says to Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:46, “And all the earth shall know, that the God of Israel is God.” On the expression: that God is ruler in Jacob, it is justly remarked by expositors: not Saul or any other person whatever. From this contrast we are to explain the position of the general name of God.

Psalms 59:14-17

The Psalm closes in ver. 14-17 with the second hope-strophe, in which, as the result of the whole, the destruction of the ene-mies, and the Psalmist’s rejoicing at his own deliverance, are represented. Ver. 14. Yea, they shall return back at even, make a noise like a dog, and run through the city. Ver. 15. They shall wander about for food, although they shall not be satisfied, so shall they stay over night. Ver. 16. But I will sing of thy strength, and praise thy favour in the morning, for thou wert my fortress and my refuge in the time of my necessity. Ver. 17. My strength will I sing to thee; for God is my for-tress, my gracious God.-Ver. 14 is a resumption of ver. 6, Ver. 15 serves only for expansion and colouring. Instead ofthe fut. in Kal ינועון, the Masorites would read the fut. in Hiph.,merely because in ver. 11 the Hiph. is used, and without anytolerable sense. The אם is found not rarely where we put “al-though,” Ges. Thes. Ew. § 625.

So they stay over night, somust it still happen to them, that the night overtakes them inthis condition. Hence it is the image of a wretched existencein hunger and pain.-The: in the morning, ver. 16, stands inobvious reference to the expression in ver. 6 and 14 in the morning, and on that account alone we must not think of the besides ungrammatical exposition: every morning. The morn-ing is not uncommonly mentioned in connection with salvation, comp. for example, Psalms 90:14; Psalms 92:2; Psalms 144:8, because it pre-sents an image of that, comp. 2 Samuel 23:4, where David thus describes the salvation of the future, “and as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth; a morning without clouds.” Job 11:17, “Now art thou dark, then shalt thou be as the morning.” The fancy, occupied with images of future prosperity, will dwell with special delight on the morning, and conceive of this as the time of an uninterrupted prosperity. To the enemies the Psalmist assigns the evening and the night, because their lot is a matter of darkness, but he himself sings praise to God in the morning, because his lot is a morning. רנן with the accus. as in Psalms 51:14. On משגב here, and in ver. 9, comp. Psalms 17:2. In reference to צר, distress, necessity, see on Psalms 18:6. In ver. 17, the words: my strength will I sing to thee, q. d.

I will praise thee in a song as the author of my strength, which thou hast imparted to me, after thou hast thrown down the strength of my enemy. The Psalmist alludes to what is said in ver. 9: his strength will I preserve for thee. Just as he had laid aside the strength of his enemy for the Lord, so will he now also not keep for himself, but righteously attribute to its real author his own strength (which he already possesses in faith after having received the assurance of being heard-comp. the: thou wert in ver. 16.) At the same time, the words refer to that in ver. 16: I will sing of thy strength. The common construction is inadmissible, which takes: my strength, as an address to God.For זמר is never connected with אל, always with ל. That the unusual construction has been called for by ver. 9, we are not warranted in saying; for there the construction is just as un-usual according to the common view.