1 (א) Unto Thee, Jehovah, I uplift my soul;
[On Thee I wait all the day, O my God!].
2 (ב) On Thee I hang: let me not be put to shame;
Let not my enemies exult over me.
3 (ג) Yea, all who wait on Thee shall not be put to shame;
Put to shame shall they be who faithlessly forsake Thee without
cause.
4 (ד) Thy ways, Jehovah, make me to know,
Thy paths teach Thou me.
5 (ה) Make me walk in Thy troth, and teach me,
For Thou art the God of my salvation.
6 (ז) Remember Thy compassions, Jehovah, and Thy loving-kindnesses,
For from of old are they.
7 (ח) Sins of my youth and my transgression remember not;
According to Thy loving-kindness remember me,
For Thy goodness' sake, Jehovah.
8 (ט) Good and upright is Jehovah;
Therefore He instructs sinners in the way.
9 (י) He will cause the meek to walk in that which is right,
And will teach the meek His way.
10 (כ) All the paths of Jehovah are loving-kindness and troth
To keepers of His covenant and His testimonies.
11 (ל) For Thy name's sake, Jehovah,
Pardon my iniquity, for great is it.
12 (מ) Who, then, is the man who fears Jehovah?
He will instruct him in the way he should choose.
13 (נ) Himself shall dwell in prosperity,
And his seed shall possess the land.
14 (ס) The secret of Jehovah is [told] to them that fear Him,
And His covenant He makes them know.
15 (ע) My eyes are continually toward Jehovah,
For He, He shall bring out my feet from the net.
16 (פ) Turn Thee unto me, and be gracious to me,
For solitary and afflicted am I.
17 (צ) The straits of my heart do Thou enlarge (?),
And from my distresses bring me out.
18 (ר) Look on my affliction and my travail,
And lift away all my sins.
19 (ר) Look on my enemies, for they are many,
And they hate me with cruel hate.
20 (ש) Keep my soul and deliver me;
Let me not be put to shame, for I have taken refuge in Thee.
21 (ת) Let integrity and uprightness guard me,
For I wait on Thee.
22 Redeem Israel, O God,
From all his straits.
The recurrence of the phrase "lift up the soul" may have determined
the place of this psalm next to Psalm xxiv. It is acrostic, but with
irregularities. As the text now stands, the second, not the first,
word in ver. 2 begins with Beth; Vav is omitted or represented in the
"and teach me" of the He verse (ver. 5); Qoph is also omitted, and its
place taken by a supernumerary Resh, which letter has thus two verses
(18, 19); and ver. 22 begins with Pe, and is outside the scheme of the
psalm, both as regards alphabetic structure and subject. The same
peculiarities of deficient Vav and superfluous Pe verses reappear in
another acrostic psalm (xxxiv.), in which the initial word of the last
verse is, as here, "redeem." Possibly the two psalms are connected.
The fetters of the acrostic structure forbid freedom and progress of
thought, and almost compel repetition. It is fitted for meditative
reiteration of favourite emotions or familiar axioms, and results in a
loosely twined wreath rather than in a column with base, shaft, and
capital. A slight trace of consecution of parts may be noticed in the
division of the verses (excluding ver. 22) into three sevens, of which
the first is prayer, the second meditation on the Divine character and
the blessings secured by covenant to them who fear Him, and the third is
bent round, wreath-like, to meet the first, and is again prayer. Such
alternation of petition and contemplation is like the heart's beat of
the religious life, now expanding in desire, now closing in possession.
The psalm has no marks of occasion or period. It deals with the
permanent elements in a devout man's relation to God.
The first prayer-section embraces the three standing needs:
protection, guidance, and forgiveness. With these are intertwined
their pleas according to the logic of faith--the suppliant's uplifted
desires and God's eternal tenderness and manifested mercy. The order
of mention of the needs proceeds from without inwards, for protection
from enemies is superficial as compared with illumination as to duty,
and deeper than even that, as well as prior in order of time (and
therefore last in order of enumeration), is pardon. Similarly the
pleas go deeper as they succeed each other; for the psalmist's trust
and waiting is superficial as compared with the plea breathed in the
name of "the God of my salvation"; and that general designation leads
to the gaze upon the ancient and changeless mercies, which constitute
the measure and pattern of God's working (_according to_, ver. 7), and
upon the self-originated motive, which is the deepest and strongest of
all arguments with Him (_for Thy goodness' sake_, ver. 7).
A qualification of the guest in God's house was in Psalm xxiv. the
negative one that he did not lift up his soul--_i.e._, set his
desires--on the emptinesses of time and sense. Here the psalmist
begins with the plea that he has set his on Jehovah, and, as the
position of "Unto Thee, Jehovah," at the beginning shows, on Him
alone. The very nature of such aspiration after God demands that it
shall be exclusive. "All in all or not at all" is the requirement of
true devotion, and such completeness is not attained without continual
withdrawal of desire from created good. The tendrils of the heart must
be untwined from other props before they can be wreathed round their
true stay. The irregularity in ver. 2, where the second, not the
first, word of the verse begins with Beth, may be attenuated by
treating the Divine name as outside the acrostic order. An acute
conjecture, however, that the last clause of ver. 5 really belongs to
ver. 1 and should include "my God" now in ver. 2, has much in its
favour. Its transposition restores to both verses the two-claused
structure which runs through the psalm, gets rid of the acrostical
anomaly, and emphasises the subsequent reference to those who wait on
Jehovah in ver. 3.
In that case ver. 2 begins with the requisite letter. It passes from
plea to petition: "Let me not be shamed." Trust that was not
vindicated by deliverance would cover the face with confusion. "Hopes
that breed not shame" are the treasure of him whose hope is in
Jehovah. Foes unnamed threaten; but the stress of the petitions in the
first section of the psalm is less on enemies than on sins. One cry
for protection from the former is all that the psalmist utters, and
then his prayer swiftly turns to deeper needs. In the last section the
petitions are more exclusively for deliverance from enemies. Needful
as such escape is, it is less needful than the knowledge of God's
ways, and the man in extremest peril orders his desires rightly, if he
asks holiness first and safety second. The cry in ver. 2 rests upon
the confidence nobly expressed in ver. 3, in which the verbs are not
optatives, but futures, declaring a truth certain to be realised in
the psalmist's experience, because it is true for all who, like him,
wait on Jehovah. True prayer is the individual's sheltering himself
under the broad folds of the mantle that covers all who pray. The
double confidence as to the waiters on Jehovah and the "treacherous
without cause" is the summary of human experience as read by faith.
Sense has much to adduce in contradiction, but the dictum is
nevertheless true, only its truth does not always appear in the small
arc of the circle which lies between cradle and grave.
The prayer for deliverance glides into that for guidance, since the
latter is the deeper need, and the former will scarcely be answered
unless the suppliant's will docilely offers the latter. The soul
lifted to Jehovah will long to know His will and submit itself to His
manifold teachings. "Thy ways" and "Thy paths" necessarily mean here
the ways in which Jehovah desires that the psalmist should go. "In Thy
truth" is ambiguous, both as to the preposition and the noun. The
clause may either present God's truth (_i.e._, faithfulness) as His
motive for answering the prayer, or His truth (_i.e._, the objective
revelation) as the path for men. Predominant usage inclines to the
former signification of the noun, but the possibility still remains of
regarding God's faithfulness as the path in which the psalmist desires
to be led, _i.e._ to experience it. The cry for forgiveness strikes a
deeper note of pathos, and, as asking a more wondrous blessing, grasps
still more firmly the thought of what Jehovah is and always has been.
The appeal is made to "_Thy_ compassions and loving-kindnesses," as
belonging to His nature, and to their past exercise as having been
"from of old." Emboldened thus, the psalmist can look back on his own
past, both on his outbursts of youthful passion and levity, which he
calls "failures," as missing the mark, and on the darker evils of
later manhood, which he calls "rebellions," and can trust that Jehovah
will think upon him _according to His mercy_, and _for the sake of His
goodness_ or love. The vivid realisation of that Eternal Mercy as the
very mainspring of God's actions, and as setting forth, in many an
ancient deed, the eternal pattern of His dealings, enables a man to
bear the thought of his own sins.
The contemplation of the Divine character prepares the way for the
transition to the second group of seven verses, which are mainly
meditation on that character and on God's dealings and the blessedness
of those who fear Him (vv. 8-14). The thought of God beautifully draws
the singer from himself. How deeply and lovingly he had pondered on
the name of the Lord before he attained to the grand truth that His
goodness and very uprightness pledged Him to show sinners where they
should walk! Since there is at the heart of things an infinitely pure
and equally loving Being, nothing is more impossible than that He
should wrap Himself in thick darkness and leave men to grope after
duty. Revelation of the path of life in some fashion is the only
conduct consistent with His character. All presumptions are in favour
of such Divine teaching; and the fact of sin makes it only the more
certain. That fact may separate men from God, but not God from men,
and if they transgress, the more need, both in their characters and in
God's, is there that He should speak. But while their being sinners
does not prevent His utterance, their disposition determines their
actual reception of His teaching, and "the meek" or lowly of heart are
His true scholars. His instruction is not wasted on them, and, being
welcomed, is increased. A fuller communication of His will rewards the
humble acceptance of it. Sinners are led _in_ the way; the meek are
taught His way. Here the conception of God's way is in transition from
its meaning in ver. 4 to that in ver. 10, where it distinctly must
mean His manner of dealing with men. They who accept His teaching, and
order their paths as He would have them do, will learn that the
impulse and meaning of all which He does to them are "mercy and
truth," the two great attributes to which the former petitions
appealed, and which the humble of heart, who observe the conditions of
God's covenant which is witness of His own character and of their
duty, will see gleaming with lambent light even in calamities.
The participators, then, in this blessed knowledge have a threefold
character: sinners; humble; keepers of the covenant and testimonies.
The thought of these requirements drives the psalmist back on himself,
as it will do all devout souls, and forces from him a short
ejaculation of prayer, which breaks with much pathos and beauty the
calm flow of contemplation. The pleas for forgiveness of the
"iniquity" which makes him feel unworthy of Jehovah's guidance are
remarkable. "For Thy name's sake" appeals to the revealed character of
God, as concerned in the suppliant's pardon, inasmuch as it will be
honoured thereby, and God will be true to Himself in forgiving. "For
it is great" speaks the boldness of helplessness. The magnitude of sin
demands a Divine intervention. None else than God can deal with it.
Faith makes the very greatness of sin and extremity of need a reason
for God's act of pardon.
Passing from self, the singer again recurs to his theme, reiterating
in vivid language and with some amplification the former thoughts. In
vv. 8-10 the character of Jehovah was the main subject, and the men
whom He blessed were in the background. In vv. 12-14 they stand
forward. Their designation now is the wide one of "those who fear
Jehovah," and the blessings they receive are, first, that of being
taught the way, which has been prominent thus far, but here has a new
phase, as being "the way that he should choose"; _i.e._, God's
teaching illuminates the path, and tells a man what he ought to do,
while his freedom of choice is uninfringed. Next, outward blessings of
settled prosperity shall be his, and his children shall have the
promises to Israel fulfilled in their possession of the land. These
outward blessings belong to the Old Testament epoch, and can only
partially be applied to the present stage of Providence. But the final
element of the good man's blessedness (ver. 14) is eternally true.
Whether we translate the first word "secret" or "friendship," the
sense is substantially the same. Obedience and the true fear of
Jehovah directly tend to discernment of His purposes, and will besides
be rewarded by whispers from heaven. God would not hide from Abraham
what He would do, and still His friend will know His mind better than
the disobedient. The last clause of ver. 14 is capable of various
renderings. "His covenant" may be in the accusative, and the verb a
periphrastic future, as the A.V. takes it, or the former word may be
nominative, and the clause be rendered, "And His covenant [is] to make
them to know." But the absolute use of the verb without a
specification of the object taught is somewhat harsh, and probably the
former rendering is to be preferred. The deeper teaching of the
covenant which follows on the fear of the Lord includes both its
obligations and blessings, and the knowledge is not mere intellectual
perception, but vital experience. In this region life is knowledge,
and knowledge life. Whoso "keeps His covenant" (ver. 10) will ever
grow in appropriation of its blessings and apprehension of its
obligations by his submissive will.
The third heptad of verses returns to simple petition, and that, with
one exception (ver. 18 _b_), for deliverance from enemies. This
recurrence, in increased intensity, of the consciousness of hostility
is not usual, for the psalms which begin with it generally pray
themselves out of it. "The peace which passeth understanding," which
is the best answer to prayer, has not fully settled on the heaving
sea. A heavy ground swell runs in these last short petitions, which
all mean substantially the same thing. But there is a beginning of
calm; and the renewed petitions are a pattern of that continual
knocking of which such great things are said and recorded in
Scripture. The section begins with a declaration of patient
expectance: "Mine eyes are ever towards Jehovah," with wistful
fixedness which does not doubt though it has long to look. Nets are
wrapped round his feet, inextricably but for one hand. We can bear to
feel our limbs entangled and fettered, if our eyes are free to gaze,
and fixed in gazing, upwards. The desired deliverance is thrice
presented (ver. 16, "turn unto"; ver. 18, "look upon"; ver. 19,
"consider," lit. look upon) as the result of Jehovah's face being
directed towards the psalmist.
When Jehovah turns to a man, the light streaming from His face makes
darkness day. The pains on which He "looks" are soothed; the enemies
whom He beholds shrivel beneath His eye. The psalmist believes that
God's presence, in the deeper sense of that phrase, as manifested partly
through delivering acts and partly through inward consciousness, is his
one need, in which all deliverances and gladnesses are enwrapped. He
plaintively pleads, "For I am alone and afflicted." The soul that has
awakened to the sense of the awful solitude of personal being, and
stretched out yearning desires to the only God, and felt that with Him
it would know no pain in loneliness, will not cry in vain. In ver. 17 a
slight alteration in the text, the transference of the final Vav of one
word to the beginning of the next, gets rid of the incongruous phrase
"are enlarged" as applied to troubles (lit. straits), and gives a prayer
which is in keeping with the familiar use of the verb in reference to
afflictions: "The troubles of my heart do Thou enlarge [cf. iv. 2;
xviii. 36], and from my distresses," etc. Ver. 18 should begin with
Qoph, but has Resh, which is repeated in the following verse, to which
it rightly belongs. It is at least noteworthy that the anomaly makes the
petition for Jehovah's "look" more emphatic, and brings into prominence
the twofold direction of it. The "look" on the psalmist's affliction and
pain will be tender and sympathetic, as a mother eagle's on her sick
eaglet; that on his foes will be stern and destructive, many though they
be. In ver. 11 the prayer for pardon was sustained by the plea that the
sin was "great"; in ver. 19 that for deliverance from foes rests on the
fact that "they are many," for which the verb cognate with the adjective
of ver. 11 is used. Thus both dangers without and evils within are
regarded as crying out, by their multitude, for God's intervention. The
wreath is twined so that its end is brought round to its beginning. "Let
me not be ashamed, for I trust in Thee," is the second petition of the
first part repeated; and "I wait on Thee," which is the last word of the
psalm, omitting the superfluous verse, echoes the clause which it is
proposed to transfer to ver. 1. Thus the two final verses correspond to
the two initial, the last but one to the first but one, and the last to
the first. The final prayer is that "integrity (probably complete
devotion of heart to God) and uprightness" (in relation to men) may
preserve him, as guardian angels; but this does not assert the
possession of these, but is a petition for the gift of them quite as
much as for their preserving action. The implication of that petition is
that no harm can imperil or destroy him whom these characteristics
guard. That is true in the whole sweep of human life, however often
contradicted in the judgment of sense.
Like Psalm xxxiv., this concludes with a supplementary verse beginning
with Pe, a letter already represented in the acrostic scheme. This may
be a later addition, for liturgical purposes.