1. To the Chief Musician. On the Lily of Testimony. A Mystery. By David. To he Learnt. The lily is probably, in this case, as in Ps. xlv. 1, an emblem of beauty or loveliness. ‘ The testimony is a name given to the Law, as God’s testimony against sin., See above, on Ps. xix. 8 (7), and compare 2 Kings xi. 12, where the term is applied absolutely to the Law, considered as a book or writing. This enigmatical inscription, therefore, may be understood as representing the theme or subject of the psalm to be the beauty of the law, or something lovely in it, with reference most probably to the gracious promise cited from it. At the same time, there seems to be an allusion to the precept in Deut. xxxi. 19, “ Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel.” To this verse there seems to be a double allusion in the one before us; first in the word testimony, which is a cognate form to that translated witness, and then in the concluding words, to teach, where the verb is the same with that in Deuteronomy. The title before us, therefore, seems to say, this song is like the song of Moses, which was to be taught to the people, as a witness or testimony against them, in case of unbelief or disobedience. To teach then means to be taught or to be learned by heart, committed to memory. Compare 2 Sam. i. 18, where the English version incorrectly supplies (use of) the bow, instead of (song of) the bow, meaning the elegy on Saul and Jonathan which immediately follows, so called, according to an ancient custom, from the mention of Jonathan’s favourite weapon in ver. 22. See above, on Ps. ix. 1. From this enigmatical allusion, and the disguised form under which the truth is here revealed, the psalm is justly represented as a Michtam, mystery, or secret. See above, on the titles of the four preceding psalms. The body of the psalm, apart from the additional title or historical inscription in ver. 2, may be divided into three equal stanzas or strophes, each consisting of four verses. In the first, the Psalmist takes occasion from God’s seeming desertion of his people, to recall his former interventions in their favour, ver. 3-6 (1-4). In the second, he pleads an express promise, as a ground of present hope, ver. 7-10 (5-8). In the third, he expresses his confidence of safety and success, in the proposed expedition against Edom, ver. 11-14 (9-12). ^ Throughout the psalm the ideal speaker is Israel, considered as the chosen people.
2. When he conquered Aram Naharaim and Aram Zobah, and Joab returned and smote Edom in the Valley of Salt, twelve thousand men. The common version of the first verb (strove with) seems too weak, as a victory is clearly presupposed, and the idea of contention is conveyed by a cognate form of the same verb. The name Aram corresponds to Syria in its widest and vaguest sense, and is joined with other names to designate particular parts of that large country. It even includes Mesopotamia, which is a term of physical rather than political geography, and denotes the space between the Tigris and Euphrates, corresponding to Aram-Naharaim, or Syria of the Two Rivers, in the verse before us. The king of this country was ti-ibutary to the king of Ai-am Zobah, as appears from the account of David’s second Aramean war (2 Sam. x. 16, 19). It was after the return of the victorious army from this war, that Joab marched against Edom and achieved the victory here ascribed to him, as the leader of the army, but in 1 Chron. xviii. 12, to his brother Abishai, who probably commanded under him, as he did in a subsequent campaign (2 Sam. x. 10), and in 2 Sam. viii. 13, to David himself as the sovereign whom they both represented. The Valley of Salt has been identified by modern travellers with a valley south of the Dead Sea, on the ancient confines of Israel and Edom, See Robinson’s Palestine, vol. ii. p. 483. The number killed on this occasion is stated in 2 Sam. viii. 13, and 1 Chron. xviii. 12, at eighteen thousand. But this diversity might easily arise from different modes of computation, and seems at least to shew that the writer of the verse before us did not blindly copy the historical books, while the smaller number which he gives evinces his exemption from all disposition to embellish or exaggerate.
3 (1). 0 God, thou hast cast us off; thou hast broken us; thou hast been angry; thou, wilt restore to iis (thy favour or our previous prosi)erity). Clear as the marks of thy displeasure have been, we still confidently look for thy returning favour. This may refer to disasters experienced in the former part of the campaign. Cast us off, with abhorrence and contempt, as in Ps. xliii. 2, xliv. 10, 24 (9, 23). Broken us, or made a breach in us, which appears to be a military figure, and a favourite with David in real life. See 2 Sam. v. 20, vi. 8, and compare Judges xxi. 15, Job xvi. 14, XXX. 14. The last verb means to restore, as in Ps. xix. 8 (7), xxiii. 3, but in application to a different object. Compare Isa. lviii. 12.
4 (2). TJiov, hast made the earth quake, thou hast riven it; heal its breaches, for it moves. The idea of social disaster and calamity is here expressed by the figure of an earthquake and its natural effects, to which God is besought to put an end by the removal of the cause.
5 (3). lliou hast made thy people see (what is) hard; thou hast made us drink wine of staggering (or reeling). The meaning of the first clause is, that God had made them experience hardship. See a similar expression in Ps. lxxi. 20. Wine of staggering, wine that causes men to reel or stagger, here used as a figure for confusion, weakness, and distress. The same image reappears in Ps. lxxv. 9 (8), Isa. li. 17, 22, Jer. xxv. 15, xlix. 12. See above, on Ps. xi. 6.
6 (4). Thou hast given to those fearing thee a banner to be lifted because of (thy) truth. Selah. In the sight of thy discomfited and downcast people, thou hast set up a signal, as a rallying point, and an assurance of the truth of thy engagements. The word (DJJ) translated banner means anything elevated as a signal, being derived from the following verb, which, in the form here used, means properly to raise itself, as in Zech. ix. 16. The word for truth is not the one commonly so rendered, but has the same meaning in Prov. xxii. 21, and in the Aramaic dialects. See Dan. ii. 47, iv. 34. Because of, literally from before or from the face of, an expression indicating, as the cause of the effect described, the truth or veracity of God himself. The translation of the last clause in the ancient versions and some modern ones, to flee from before the bow, gives an unauthorised meaning both to the verb and noun.
7 (5). In order that thy beloved ones may be delivered, save (with) thy right hand and hear (or ansuer) us. This is a prayer naturally prompted by the previous experience of God’s favour, as recorded in the foregoing verse. Thy beloved, an epithet applied to Benjamin in Deut. xxxiii. 12, and forming a part of Solomon’s additional name Jedidiah, 2 Sam. xii. 25. See also Ps. xlv. 1. The common version of the last words (hear 7ne) rests upon the marginal reading or Keri.
8 (6). God hath spoken in his holiness; I will triumph; I will divide Shechem, and the Valley of Succoth I will measure. As a further ground for his petition, the Psalmist, speaking in the name of Israel, appeals to the promise of Jehovah, that his people should possess the entire land of Canaan. The reference is not to any insulated promise, but to that pervading the whole Law. There God had spoken, uttered his promise, in his holiness, i. e. as a holy God, and as such incapable of failing to perform it. See the similar expressions in Ps. lxxxix. 36 (35), Amos iv. 2. Some understand what follows as the words which God had spoken; but as ver. 11 (9) is confessedly the language of the people or their representative, and as no intermediate point of transition can be well assumed, it seems better to explain these also as the words of David or of Israel. “ God hath spoken in his holiness (and therefore) I will triumph.” Because he has promised me victorious possession of the land, I exult in confident anticipation of it. This idea of triumphant occupation is expressed in terms appropriate to the times of the original conquest, when the land was measured and distributed among the tribes. See Josh. xiii. 7, xviii. 5. The two great divisions of the country, east and west of Jordan, are denoted by Shechem and Succoth, the places where Jacob pitched his tent on his return from exile, as if to claim the Land of Promise as his heritage. See Gen. xxxiii. 17, 19.
9 (7). To me (belongs) Gilead and to me Manasseh, and Ephraim the strength of my head, Judah my lawgiver. The idea still is that the whole of Canaan rightfully belongs to Israel. The form of expression is analogous to that in the preceding verse, but with a beautiful variation. As the two great divisions of the country, east and west of Jordan, are there represented by detached points, Shechem and Succoth, so here by the names of extensive districts, Judah and Ephraim, the two largest territories on the west, Bashan and Gilead on the east, the latter called by its own name, the former by that of the tribe which occupied the greater part of it. See Deut. iii. 12, 13. The last clause does due honour to the military strength of Ephraim (Gen. xlviii. 19, Deut. xxxiii. 17), but asserts the civil supremacy of Judah (Gen. xlix. 10). The phrase translated strength of my head might seem to mean my chief strength; but that would require the terms to be inverted, head of my strength. Compare Gen. xlix. 3. It rather means the protection of my head, as strength of my life in Ps. xxvii. 1 means that which protects my life, the head being mentioned as the vital part peculiarly exposed. Compare Ps. lxviii. 22 (21), ex. 6. Some suppose the figure to be that of a helmet, which is too specific. In the last clause there is obvious allusion to the prophecy in Gen. xlix. 10. Lawgiver has its proper sense of ruler, sovereign. That of rod or sceptre, which some give it, rests upon a doubtful explanation of Num. xxi. 18.
10 (8). Moab (is) my wash-pot; at Edom will I throw my shoe; at me, Philistia, shout aloud! The three hostile powers, with which Israel was most frequently at war, are here put together, as the objects of a contemptuous address. Moab is likened to the humblest household utensil, the vessel in which slaves were wont to wash their master’s feet. Edom is likened to the slave himself, to whom or at whom the master throws his shoe when about to bathe his feet. Compare Mat. iii. 11, Acts xiii. 25. This is much better suited to the context than the allusion, which some assume, to the practice mentioned in Ruth iv. 7, where the removal of the shoe is a symbol of renunciation, and could not be here used to express the opposite idea of seizure or triumphant occupation. Shout aloud, or make a noise, is by some explained as an expression of triumph, and the whole clause treated as ironical. Others understand it of the acclamation or shout of welcome and applause by which subjects recognise and hail their sovereign. See above, on Ps. ii. 11, where the exhortation to rejoice with trembling is, by the same interpreters, explained in the same manner. In either case, the clause implies superiority in him who speaks, and willing or compulsory subjection on the part of those whom he addresses.
11 (9). Who will bring me (to) the fenced city? Who has led me up to Edom? In reliance on God’s promise, and in the possession of the hope and courage just expressed, his people are ready to go forward, and only waiting, as it were, for some one to conduct them into the enemy’s country, nay, into his very citadel. The fenced city, literally, city of defence^ ox fortification, a phrase already used in Ps. xxxi. 22 (21), is Petra, the famous capital of Idumea, hewn in the rock, and almost perfectly impregnable. See Robinson’s Palestine, vol. ii. pp. 573-580. The past tense in the last clause represents the question as already answered. Up to, even to, as far as, implying not mere motion or direction, but actual arrival.
12 (10). (Is it) not thou, 0 God, (who) hast cast us off and will not go forth with our hosts? A simpler construction of the first clause would be, hast thou not cast us off But it seems better to explain the verse as an indirect answer to the question in the one preceding. Who has brought us into Edom, if not he who had rejected us? The terms are borrowed from Ps. xliv. 10 (9), which seems to have been written in the midst of the distress here spoken of as past. “ Wilt not thou, of whom we lately were compelled to say, thou hast forsaken us and wilt not go forth with our hosts?” Compare 2 Sam, v. 24.
13 (11). Give us help from trouble (ox from the enemy); and (the rather because) vain (is) the salvation of man, i. e. the deliverance which man affords. The causal particle,/or, because, which seems necessary to connect the clauses, is implied but not expressed in Hebrew. The second noun (^S) may either mean distress, as in Ps. iv. 2 (1), xviii. 7 (6), or one who gives distress, a persecuting or oppressing enemy, as in Ps. iii. 2 (1), xiii. 5 (4), xxvii. 2, 12, xliv. 6, 8, 11 (5, 7, 10). Either sense would be appropriate, but the latter is strongly recommended by its occurrence in the next verse.
14 (12). In God we will make (i. e. gain or gather) strength, and he will tread down (or trample on) our adversaries (persecutors or oppressors). The prayer is followed by the confident anticipation of the answer. In God, i. e. in union with him, in possession of him. See above, on Ps. xviii. 30 (29). The common version of the next phrase (shall do valiantly) is vague and dubious, being.inadmissible in several of the cases where the phrase occurs, whereas they all admit of the translation make or gather strength, in reference to the acquisition or recovery of force by those who had before been in a state of weakness. See below, on Ps. cviii. 14 (13), cxviii. 15,16, and compare Ezek. xxviii. 4, Ruth iv. 11, Deut. viii. 17, 18, Num. xxiv. 18, to the last of which places there is obvious allusion here, as relating to the very same enemies. Treading or trampling, as an emblem of violent subjection, occurs above in a contemporaneous passage, Ps. xliv. 6 (5). The last eight verses reappear as a part of Ps. cviii., in the exposition of which the points of difference and the general relation of the passages will be considered.
