After an introduction, praising the divine goodness, and expressing the hope of a participation in it, ver. 1-5, this psalm contains a solemn confession of the sins of Israel through all the periods of his history: in Egypt, ver. 6-12; in the wilderness, vej. 13-33; in Canaan, ver. 34-43; and a prayer, founded on encouraging tokens of the Lord’s compassion, that he will save his people from the punishment incurred by their unfaithfulness, ver. 44-48. According to Hengstenberg’s hypothesis already mentioned, this is the third psalm of the trilogy added to Ps. ci.-ciii., in the times of the captivity, and a direct continuation of the series, since the moral condition of God’s covenant, propounded at the close of Ps, cv., is here acknowledged to have been violated by his people, who are also represented as actually suffering the punishment of this violation, but encouraged by returning tokens of a favourable change, to hope and pray for the forgiveness of their sins and the removal of the judgments which they have so well deserved. The first verse and the two last form a part of the mixed composition in First Chronicles, which has been already mentioned. See above, on Ps. xcvi. 1. But a still more interesting parallel to this psalm is the prayer or confession in the ninth chapter of Daniel, which resembles it so much in subject, tone, and diction, that although not otherwise demonstrable, it would not be absurd to regard the psalm before us as a lyrical paraphrase of that confession, prepared for permanent and public use by Daniel himself or some contemporary writer.
1. Hallelujah! Give thanks unto Jehovah, for (he is) good, for unto eternity (is) his mercy. The Hallelujah (praise ye J ah!) which concludes the two preceding psalms, stands both at the beginning and the close of this. The exhortation to give thanks unto Jehovah is also found at the beginning of Ps. cv. The reason here assigned, that he is good, and his mercy endures for ever, is expressed in the same words, Ps. c. 5.
2. Who shall tell the mighty deeds of Jehovah / (Who) shall utter all his praise? The potential meaning (who can tell?) is here included in the simple future. Mighty deeds answers to a single word in Hebrew meaning strengths or powers. The expression is borrowed from Deut. iii. 24, where the English Bible has the singular form might. The verb translated utter is a causative, who shall cause to hear or to be heard? See above, on Ps. xxvi. 7. The interrogation involves a negative assertion, namely, that they cannot be fully expressed or duly celebrated.
8. Happy the keepers of judgment, the doer of righteousness at every time. The form of expression at the beginning is the same as in Ps. i. 1. The keepers of judgment are those who observe justice as the rule of their conduct, the same idea that is afterwards expressed in other words, the doer (or practiser) of righteousness, not occasionally merely but at all times. The change from the plural to the singular is common, where the latter denotes an ideal individual, the representative of a whole class. The condition here propounded is identical with that in Ps. cv. 45, ciii. 18, Dan. ix. 4.
4. Remember me, Jehovah, with the favour of thy people; visit me with thy salvation. The speaker is the Church or chosen people, and therefore prays to be remembered with the kindness due to her as such. Visit me, manifest thy favourable presence. See above, on Ps. viii. 5 (4). Such a prayer, uttered by the church itself, implies that the tokens of God’s favourable presence had been interrupted or withdrawn.
5. To witness the welfare of thy chosen (ones), to rejoice in the joy of thy nation, to glory with thy heritage. Our idiom requires the subject of the verb to be more distinctly indicated. The meaning evidently is, that I may witness, that 1 may rejoice, that I may glory. The phrase translated witness the welfare literally means to see in the good, i. e. to look on, to be a spectator, when thy chosen ones are in possession or enjoyment of good. Thy nation is here used instead of the customary phrase thy people, perhaps because the meaning Is, the nation which is thy chosen people. The general meaning of the whole verse is, that I may once more be recognised and treated as thy people.
6. We have sinned with our fathers, we have done perversely, we have done wickedly. The connection with the foregoing context may be made clear by supplying a few intermediate thoughts. “ True, we have no right to expect this, much less to demand it. We have not performed the condition of thy covenant; we have not kept thy statutes or observed thy laws; we have not kept judgment or done righteousness.” The national confession here begun is nearly co-extensive with the psalm itself. The terms of this verse are borrowed, here as well as in Dan ix. 5, from that great model of ecclesiastical and national devotion furnished by Solomon, in his prayer at the dedication of the temple, 1 Kings viii. 47. Compare Isa. hx. 12. With our fathers, not merely like them, but as sharing their responsibility and guilt. Of the three verbs used in this confession, the first denotes failure to discharge one’s obligations, the second wilful perversion or distortion, the third disorderly or turbulent transgression. See above, on Ps. i. 1.
7. Our fathers in Egypt did not understand thy wondrous works, they did not remember the abundance of thy mercies, and rebelled upon the sea, at the Red Sea. The general confession in ver. 6 is now followed by a more detailed acknowledgment, beginning with the exodus from Egypt. The wondrous works of God, the things done wonderfully by him, then and there, for the deliverance of his people, the great body of them did not understand. Even those who referred them to their true source and author, did not fully appreciate the end for which they were performed, or enter into the majestic plan, in executing which they were permitted to be God’s co-workers. The truth of this charge is abundantly established by the narrow, grovelling, selfish views and feelings so repeatedly betrayed by the generation which came out of Egypt, shewing clearly that they did not practically understand God’s dealings with them. This is probably the idea meant to be conveyed by the Hebrew verb, which usually means to act wisely, but is here modified by governing a noun directly. See above, on Ps. ii. 10, xiv. 2. The twofold local designation, on the sea, at the Bed Sea, was probably suggested by the parallelism in Exod. xv. 4. The variation of the particle seems merely a poetical embellishment; the difference in meaning is no greater than in our on and at. The Sea of Sea-weed was the name given by the Hebrews and Egyptians to that bay or gulf of the Indian Ocean, which was called the Red Sea by the Greek geographers.
8. And he saved them for his name’s sake, to make known his might. This is an answer to a tacit objection, namely, that their conduct had been sanctioned by God’s saving them. True, he did save them, because they were necessary to his purpose. He saved them not for their sake but his own, to accomplish his own ends, and exhibit his own power.
9. And he rebuked the Bed Sea and it dried up, and he made them go through the deeps like the desert. This is merely a specification of the general statement in the preceding verse. The divine intervention here commemorated was the more remarkable because it took place on the very spot where they first rebelled, as mentioned in ver. 7. Though they disobeyed him at the Red Sea, he nevertheless dried the Red Sea, i. e. as much of it as was required to furnish them a passage. Rebuked, as in Ps. civ. 7. Like the desert, as in the desert, i. e. in a level and extensive plain, without obstruction or unevenness. See my note on Isa. lxiii. 13, where the same comparison is used.
10. And Tie saved them from the hand of the hater, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. Both epithets are intended to apply to Pharaoh, not only as a personal oppressor of the Israelites, but as the representative of Egypt, all of which now feared and hated the occasion of its multiplied and aggravated sufferings.
11. And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left. The Psalmist dwells upon the completeness of the overthrow and destruction experienced by Pharaoh and his host, in order to aggravate the previous and subsequent ingratitude of Israel, as well as to enhance the free grace of Jehovah, and the MeHty with which he executed his engagements, even to the faithless.
12. And they believe his words, they sing his praise. Then (and not till then) do they believe. This is not an encomium on their faith, but a confession of their unbelief. It was not till the promise was fulfilled that they believed it. With the first clause compare Exod. xiv. 31; with the second, Exod. XV. 1.
13. They made haste, they forgot his deeds, they did not wait for his counsel. Their propensity to evil was so strong that they are said to have hastened to forget what God had done for them, which means much more than that they soon forgot it. They did not even wait for the promise to be verified by the event. The expression in the first clause is borrowed from Exod. xxxii. 8. The works or deeds of God are not in this case, as in Ps. ciii. 22, civ. 24, the works of nature, but the plagues of Egypt. See Deut. xi. 3, and compare Dan. ix. 4.
14. And they lusted a lust in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. The confession now passes from their sins in Egypt to their sins in the wilderness. The strong expression in the first clause relates to their wanton craving of animal food. See Num. xi. 4, 34. With the last clause compare Ps. lxxviii. 18. The two words for wilderness and desert are the same as those in Ps. lxxviii. 40. See also Ps. lxviii. 8 (7).
15. And he gave them their request and sent (them) leanness in their soul. The last phrase is by some translated against, by others into their soul; but it is really a qualifying phrase, designed to shew that the emaciation or decay which was sent upon them was not bodily but spiritual. See Num. xi. 18, and compare Ps. lxxviii. 10, 18.
16. And they were envious at Moses in the camp, at Aaron, the Holy One of Jehovah. This is another of their wilderness sins. See Num. chap. xvi. Aaron is not called the Saint of the Lord in reference to his personal holiness, which does not seem to have been eminent, but his Holy (or Consecrated) One, in reference to his sacerdotal dignity.
17. (Then) opens the earth and swallows Dathan, and covers over the company of Abiram. This relates to the destruction of those followers of Korah who were not Levites. See Num. xvi. 32, 33, and compare Deut. xi. 6. From the first of these passages some interpreters supply her mouth after opens; but the absolute use of the verb is perfectly consistent with our idiom.
18. And a fire devours their company, a flame consumes (those) wicked (men). This relates to the destruction of Korah himself and his Levitical followers. See Num. xvi. 35, xxvi. 10.
19. They make a calf in Horeb, and bow down to a molten image. This was a third sin committed in the wilderness. See Exod. xxxii. 1-6, and compare Exod. xxxiv. 4. The golden calf appears to have been an imperfect and diminutive copy of the bull Apis, worshipped in Egypt.
20. And exchange their glory for the likeness of an ox eating grass. This must be read in the closest connection with ver. 19, in order to complete it. Their folly consisted in exchanging the true God, whose worship and whose favour was their highest honour, for the mere likeness of an irrational brute. Eating grass, not in the act, but in the habit, of so doing. Although the golden calf at Horeb, and the golden calves at Dan and Beersheba, were all regarded as representatives of Jehovah himself, their worship was uniformly treated as idolatry, and as a virtual though not a formal or avowed renunciation of his service. Compare Jer. ii. 10-13.
21. They forgot God that saved them, that did great (things) in Egypt. That saved, that did, literally saving, doing.
22. Wonderful (things) in the land of Ham, terrible (things) on the Red Sea. Wonderful, literally (things) made wonderful or strangely done. Terrible, literally to be dreaded. Compare Ps. cv. 23, 27.
23. And he said he would destroy them—unless Moses his elect had stood in the breach before him-, to turn back his wrath from destroying. The first and last verbs are different in Hebrew, but have only one exact equivalent in English. The second clause is not a part of what God said, but a historical statement of what really prevented the execution of his threatening. He said he would destroy them, and he would have done so, had not Moses, &c. Moses is called the Elect or Chosen of Jehovah, as having been selected and set apart to be God’s instrument in the great work of deliverance and legislation. The plural is elsewhere applied to the whole nation as the chosen people. See above, ver. 5, and Ps. cv. 43. Stood in the breach is a military figure, dra\vn from the desperate defence of a besieged town or fortress. Compare Jer. xv. 1, Ezek. xiii. 5, xxii. 30. The historical reference is to Exod. xxxii. 11-14, Deut. ix. 18, l9. To turn back his wrath is to prevent its accomplishing its object. See above, on Ps. lxxviii. 88, and compare Num. xxv. 11.
24. And they rejected the pleasant land, they did not believe his word. This refers to the refusal of the people to invade the land of Canaan in the first year of their exodus from Egypt, and to their believing the report of the ten spies in preference to God himself. See above, on Ps. lxxviii. 22, 32, and compare Num. xiv. 31. The land of desire, the desired or desirable land, is a name also found in Jer. iii. 19.
25. And they murmured in their tents; they did not hearken to the voice of Jehovah. Tho form of expression in the first clause is borrowed from Deut. i. 27; in the second from Num. xiv. 22.
26. And he lifted his hand to them, to make them fall in the wilderness. The first phrase does not mean, he raised his hand against them, or to strike them, but as the ancient gesture of swearing. See Num. xiv. 28, 30, Deut. i. 34, ii. 14. The last clause contains the oath itself, or what he swore, to wit, that he would make them fall, slay them, in the wilderness. See Num. xiv. 29, 32.
27. And to make their seed fall in the nations, and to scatter them in the lands. As the appointed punishment of the older generation was to die in the wilderness, so that of their descendants was to die in dispersion and captivity among the Gentiles. See Lev. xxvi. 33, 38, and compare Deut. xxviii. 32, 36, 64, 68. The recollection of this threatening must have been peculiarly affecting to the Jews in Babylon.
28. And they joined themselves to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. He now adds a sin committed near the end of the long error, and on the very borders of the Promised Land. The first verb is properly passive, they were joined, but this of course does not mean by others but themselves, and thus the simple passive comes to have a reflexive meaning. Baal Peor is the name given to Baal, or the supreme god of the Tyrians and Moabites, as he was worshipped, with licentious rites, at Peor, a mountain in the land of Moab. See Num. xxv. 1-3. The dead, not dead men, in allusion to necromantic superstitions, but the dumb or lifeless gods whom they worshipped. See below, on Ps. cxv. 4-7, and compare 1 Cor. xii. 2.
29. Aoid they provoked him hy their crimes, and the plague broke out among them. The first verb means to excite both grief and indignation. Compare the use of the cognate noun in Ps. vi. 8 (7), and of the verb itself in Ps. lxxviii. 58. The word translated plague, like its English equivalent, has both a generic and specific meaning; that of a divine stroke or infliction in general, and that of a pestilential disease in particular. See Num. xxv. 18, 19.
30. Then stood up Phinehas and judged, and (so) was stayed the plague. He stood (or rose) up from among the rest, presented himself before the people. He judged, i. e. assumed the office and discharged the duty, from which the regular official judges seemed to shrink. The verb includes the act both of pronouncing and of executing judgment. See the narrative in Num. xxv. The form of expression in the last clause is borrowed from Num. xvii. 13 (xvi. 48).
81. And it was reckoned to him for righteousness, to generation and generation, even to eternity. The form of expression is borrowed from Gen. XV. 6; but what is here meant is evidently not a justifying act by which Phinehas was saved, but a praiseworthy act for which he, a justified or righteous man already, received the divine commendation and a perpetual memorial of his faithfulness. Compare Deut. vi. 25, xxiv. 13. The particular reward promised (Num. xxv. 13), that of a perpetual priesthood, is riot here mentioned, but was familiar to the mind of every Hebrew reader.
32. And they angered (him) at the waters of Strife, and it went ill with Moses, on their account. See above, on Ps. lxxxi. 8 (7), xcv. 8, xcix. 8. The Hebrew word for strife is the name given to the place, Meribah. The object of the first verb is Jehovah, as in ver. 29. It went ill with Moses, or, more literally, it was had for Moses.
33. For they resisted his spirit, and he spake unadvisedly with his lips. His spirit may grammatically signify either that of God or that of Moses. The latest writers are in favour of the first construction, which is not without analogies in other parts of Scripture (Isa. lxiii. 10, Eph. iv. 30), but the other seems entitled to the preference in this connection, because the first clause then contains the ground or reason of the other. It was because the mind of Moses was excited by their opposition, that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. The last verb is one used in the law to denote a precipitate inconsiderate engagement, Lev. v. 4.
34. They did not destroy the nations which the Lord said to them. The confession now passes from the sins of the wilderness to those of Canaan. The neglect to destroy the Canaanites completely was not only a direct violation of God’s precept, but the source of nearly all the public evils that ensued. There is no need of giving to the last verb a rare and dubious sense (commanded). The meaning of the clause is, which Jehovah said to the^n (must be destroyed).
85. And they mixed themselves with the nations and learned their doings. The reflexive verb at the beginning indicates an active and deliberate amalgamation, as distinguished from a passive and involuntary one. The nations of the Canaanites, and those which inhabited surrounding countries. The primary idea is not that of gentiles or heathen, in the religious sense. Learned their doings or practices, learned to do as they did. With the first clause compare Josh, xxiii. 12, 13, Judges iii. 6; with the second, Deut. xviii. 9, xx. 18.
86. And served their idols, and they were to them for a snare. The word translated idols, by its etymological affinities, suggests the idea of vexations, pains. See above, on Ps. xvi. 4. A snare, i. e. a temptation to idolatry. Compare Deut. vii. 16.
37. And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons. This last is the Septuagint version, and, if not directly sanctioned, is at least referred to in the New Testament (1 Cor. x. 20). That the worship of idols was connected with that of fallen spirits, is neither improbable in itself nor contradictory to Scripture, According to the modern etymologists, the Hebrew word means lords or masters, and is a poetical equivalent to Baalim, which means the same thing. Compare Deut. xxxii. 17, and the xvgioi of 1 Cor. viii. 5. The word translated devils in Lev. xvii. 7 is entirely different.
38. And they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, which they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and defiled was the land with bloods. The first verb means to pour out, and here implies a copious or abundant bloodshed, corresponding to the next verb, which is an intensive form of that used in ver. 37. Blood, in the singular, is used in a physical sense; the plural bloods, in a moral one, always implying guilt, and especially the guilt of murder. See above, on Ps. v. 7 (6), xxvi. 9, U. 16 (14), lv. 24 (23). The first three members of the sentence have respect to the prohibitions in Deut. xii. 31, xviii. 10, xix. 10. With the last clause compare Num. XXXV. 33.
39. And they were polluted by their own doings, and went a whoring by their own crimes. They defiled not only the land of promise but themselves. Or rather, this verse is explanatory of the last clause of ver. 38, and shews that the^pollution of the land was nothing more nor less than that of its inhabitants. The figure of spiritual whoredom or adultery is often used to signify the violation, by the chosen people, of their covenant with God, which is constantly described as a conjugal relation. See above, on Ps. xlv., and compare Ps. lxxiii. 27. This is not stated as an additional offence, but as an aggravating circumstance attending the iniquities already mentioned.
40. And the anger of Jehovah was enkindled at his people, and he abhorred his heritage. This is the strongest form in which his detestation of their sins could be expressed, but does not necessarily imply the abrogation of his covenant with them. The feeling described is like that of a parent towards his wicked children, or of husbands and wives, who do not cease to love each other, though grieved and indignant at each other’s sins. The word heritage adds great point to the sentence. He abhorred the very people whom he had chosen to be his, not merely for a single generation, but for many. See above, on Ps. lxxviii. 59, 62.
41. And he gave them into the hand of nations, and over them ruled tludr haters. The same nations whom they had rebelliously spared, with others of Uke spirit,—the same nations who had led them into sin,—were used as instruments of punishment. Compare Lev. xxvi. 17, Judges ii. 14.
42. And their enemies oppressed them, and they were bowed down under their hand. They not only governed them, but governed them tyrannically, so that they were not only under coercion and constraint, but humbled and degraded from the rank of an independent state to that of tributaries and bondsmen. With the terms of this verse compare Judges i. 34, iii. 30, iv. 3, viii. 28.
43. Many times he frees them, and they resist (him) hy their counsel, and are brought low by their guilt. Having given in the preceding verses a brief but lively summary of the Book of Judges, the Psalmist now passes, by an almost insensible transition, to the later periods of the history, and indeed to its catastrophe; for the meaning of the last clause seems to be, that after all their fluctuations, they at length sink or fall into a ruinous condition, as the ultimate fruit of their rebellions. The meaning of the first clause is, that by their self-willed plans and projects they continually come into collision with the will of God, and with that great providential purpose, in promoting which it was their duty, and would have been their happiness, to co-operate. With the last clause compare Lev. xxvi. 39, Ezek. xxxii. 10.
44. And he has looked at their distress when he hard them cry. The idiomatic form of the original may thus be represented by a bald translation, and he saw in the distress to them in his hearing their cry. As this follows the brief statement of their downfall, there is much probability in the opinion, that it relates to the “ tokens for good,” which were granted to the exiled Jews in Babylon long before their actual restoration. With the first clause compare Exod. ii. 25, iv. 31, Deut. iv. 30, Ps. xviii. 7, cii. 3.
45. And he has remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the abundance of his mercy. For them, i. e. in their favour, for their benefit. It does not qualify covenant, but remembered. With the first clause compare Lev. xxvi. 42, 45, Ps. cv. 8, 42; with the second. Num. xiv. 19, Ps. V. 8 (7), lxix. 14 (13), Neh. xiii, 22. The common version of the last word (mercies) rests upon the marginal or masoretic reading; the more ancient text is mercy.
46. And has given them favour before all their captors. The literal translation of the first clause is, and has given, them for mercies or compassions. This remarkable expression is borrowed from 1 Kings viii. 50 (compare 2 Chron. xxx. 9), not only here but in the history of Daniel and his fellow-captives (Dan. i. 9), which makes it not at all improbable, that what is there recorded is among the indications of returning divine favour here referred to by the Psalmist.
47. Save us, Jehovah, our God, and gather us from the nations, to give thanks unto thy holy name, to glory in thy praise. Encouraged by these tokens of returning favour, the church prays that the hopes thus raised may not be disappointed, but abundantly fulfilled in the restoration of the exiles to their own land, in return for which she indirectly engages to render praise and thanksgiving to Jehovah as her liberator. We are thus brought back to the beginning of the psalm, and the voice of confession is again lost in that of anticipated praise. Instead of our God, the parallel passage (1 Chron. xvi. 86) has God of our Salvation. The word translated glory occurs only in that passage and the one before us. It is synonymous, however, with the one used in Ps. cv. 3, and often elsewhere, both meaning properly to praise one’s self. With the second clause compare Ps. xxx. 5 (4).
48. Blessed (be) Jehovah, God of Israel, from eternity even to eternity. And all the people says Amen. Hallelujah! Some interpreters regard the psalm as closing with the preceding verse, and the one before us as a doxology added to mark the conclusion of the Fourth Book. But here, as in Ps. lxxii. 19, it is far more probable that this doxology was the occasion of the psalm’s being reckoned as the last of a Book, notwithstanding its intimate connection with the one that follows. This probability is strengthened, in the case before us, by the addition of the words, and all the people says Amen, which would be unmeaning,’unless the doxology formed part of the psalm itself. The additional words are borrowed from Deut. xxvii. 15-26. The parallel passage (1 Chron. xvi. 36) has, Aiid all the people said Amen and give praise (or gave praise) to Jehovah, which last words are represented, in the verse before us, by the Hallelujah (Praise ye Jah!)
