This psalm teaches the necessity of moral purity as a condition of the divine protection. It first propounds the question who shall be admitted to God’s household, and the privileges of its inmates, ver. 1. This is answered positively, ver. 2, and negatively, ver. 3; then positively again, ver. 4, and negatively, ver. 5. The last clause of the last verse winds up by declaring, that the character just described shall experience the protection, tacitly referred to in the first verse. As the contrast exhibited in this psalm and the fourteenth may account for its position in the Psalter, so its obvious resemblance to the twenty-fourth makes it not improbable that their historical occasion was identical.
1. A Psalm by David. Jehovah, who shall sojourn in thy tent? who shall dwell in thy hill of holiness? The holy hill is Zion, as in Ps. ii. 6; the tent is the tabernacle which David pitched there for the ark, when he removed it from Gibeon (2 Sam. vi. 17, 1 Chron. xv. 1, xvi. 1, 39, 2 Chron. i. 3-5). Both together signify the earthly residence of God; see above on Ps. iii. 5 (4). The idea is not that of frequenting Zion as a place of worship, but of dwelling there, as a guest or as an inmate of God’s family. The same figure for intimate communion with Jehovah, and participation of his favour, reappears in Ps. xxiii. 6, xxvii. 4, 5, xxiv. 3, lxi. 5, lxv. 5 (4), lxxxiv. 5 (4). So too, in Eph. ii. 19, believers are described as members of God’s family (olxiToi ro\J ©soD).
2. Walking perfect, and doing right, and speaking truth, in his heart. The Psalmist, speaking in behalf of God, here answers his own question. The only person who can be admitted to domestic intercourse with God is one walking perfect, &c. Walking is put for the habitual course of life (see above, on Ps. i. 1). Perfect, complete, as to all essential features of the character, without necessarily implying perfection in degree. The form of expression seems to be borrowed from Gen. xvii. 1. A remarkably analogous expression is that used by Horace: integer vitae scelerisque purus. The next phrase, doing right, practising rectitude, may be either a synonymous parallel to the first, or a specification under it, parallel to speaking truth. The general idea of walking perfect is then resolved into the two particular ideas of doing right and speaking truth. In his heart, i. e. sincerely, as opposed to outward show or hypocritical profession. This phrase seems to qualify not merely what precedes, speaking truth, but the whole description, as of one who sincerely and internally, as well as outwardly, leads a blameless life by doing right and speaking truth.
3. (Who) hath not slandered with his tongue, (who) hath not done his neighbour harm, and a scandal hath not taken up against his neighbour. The positive description of the foregoing verse is now followed by a negative one. (Compare Ps. i. 1, 2). The social virtues are insisted on, and their opposites excluded, because they are apt to be neglected by hypocrites, against whom this psalm is directed. The past tense of the verbs denotes a character already marked and determined by the previous course of life. The verb 7J*1 seems strictly to denote the act of busy or officious tale-bearing. There seems to be an allusion to Lev. xix. 16. With his tongue, literally on his tongue, as we say to live on, i. e. by means of anything, an idiom which occurs in Gen. xxvii. 40. (Compare Isa. xxxviii. 16.) The next clause adds deed to word, as in the foregoing verse. Scandal, reproach, defamatory accusation. The verb i^Wi is by some explained as meaning to take up upon the lips (Ps. xvi. 4), and then to utter or ‘pronounce. Others give it the same sense as in Gen. xxxi. 17, where 7)3 ^<^£^3 means to lift up upon, i. e. to burden. The idea then is, that he has not helped to load his neighbour with reproach. Friend and neighbour does not mean any other man, but one sustaining a peculiarly intimate relation, such as that of the members of the chosen people to each other. See above, On Ps. xii. 3 (2).
4. Despised in his eyes (is) a reprobate, and the fearers of Jehovah he will honour; he hath sworn to his own hurt, and will not change The Chaldee Paraphrase, followed by the Prayer Book version, makes the first clause descriptive of humility. He is despised in his own eyes (and) rejected. But the parallelism with the next clause shews that a contrast was designed between his estimation of two opposite classes, and as one of these is those who fear Jehovah, the other must be represented by Di^Dj, rejected, i. e. by Jehovah, reprobate. The future form, as usual, suggests the idea of a present act repeated or continued in the future. He honours, and will still persist in honouring, the fearers of Jehovah. The Septuagint and Vulgate explain J^IH? to the neighbour, and some modern versions to the bad (man). But the sense is determined by the obvious allusion to Lev. v. 4: “if a soul swear to do evil iyi’^TD) or to do good,” i. e. whether to his own advantage or the contrary. So here the phrase must inean “ he hath sworn to injure (himself)” not designedly, but so as to produce that effect. He will not change, literally, exchange, i. e. substitute something else for what he has promised.
5. His silver he hath not given for usury, and a bribe against a guiltless (person) hath not taken. Doing these (things), he shall not be moved for ever. In Hebrew as in French, silver is put for money in general. There is obvious allusion to the frequent prohibition in the Mosaic law, not of lending money upon interest for commercial purposes, a practice then unknown, but of usurious lending to the poor, and especially to poor Israelites. See Exod. xxii, 24, Lev. xxv. 37, Deut. xxiii. 20, and compare Prov. xxviii. 8, Ezek. xviii. 8. The taking of judicial bribes is also expressly forbidden in Exod. xxiii. 8, Deut. xvi. 19, xxvii. 25. The masoretic interpunction of this sentence seems to be merely rhythmical or musical, as in Ps. xi. 5. The words doing these cannot be separated from what follows without destroying the sense. This last clause is an answer to the question in ver. 1, but with a change of form, implying that admission to God’s household was itself secm-ity against all danger. Compare Ps. lv. 23 (22). For the sense of lOiQM, see above, on Ps. x. 6, xiii. 5.
