1 (א) I will bless Jehovah at all times,
Continually shall His praise be in my mouth.
2 (ב) In Jehovah my soul shall boast herself,
The humble shall hear and rejoice.
3 (ג) Magnify Jehovah with me,
And let us exalt His name together.
4 (ד) I sought Jehovah and He answered me,
And from all my terrors did He deliver me.
5 (ה) They looked to Him and were brightened,
(ו) And their faces did not blush.
6 (ז) This afflicted man cried and Jehovah heard,
And from all his distresses saved him.
7 (ח) The angel of Jehovah encamps round them that fear Him,
And delivers them.
8 (ט) Taste and see that Jehovah is good;
Happy the man that takes refuge in Him.
9 (י) Fear Jehovah, ye His holy ones;
For there is no want to them that fear Him.
10 (כ) Young lions famish and starve,
But they that seek Jehovah shall not want any good.
11 (ל) Come [my] sons, hearken to me;
I will teach you the fear of Jehovah.
12 (מ) Who is the man who desires life,
Who loves [many] days, in order to see good?
13 (נ) Keep thy tongue from evil,
And thy lips from speaking deceit.
14 (ס) Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.
15 (ע) The eyes of Jehovah are toward the righteous,
And His ears are towards their loud cry.
16 (פ) The face of Jehovah is against the doers of evil
To cut off their remembrance from the earth.
17 (צ) The righteous cry and Jehovah hears;
And from all their straits He rescues them.
18 (ק) Jehovah is near to the broken in heart,
And the crushed in spirit He saves.
19 (ר) Many are the afflictions of the righteous;
But from them all Jehovah delivers him.
20 (ש) He keeps all his bones,
Not one of them is broken.
21 (ת) Evil shall slay the wicked;
And the haters of the righteous shall be held guilty.
22 (פ) Jehovah redeems the soul of His servants;
And not held guilty shall any be who take refuge in Him.
The occasion of this psalm, according to the superscription, was that
humiliating and questionable episode, when David pretended insanity to
save his life from the ruler of Goliath's city of Gath. The set of
critical opinion sweeps away this tradition as unworthy of serious
refutation. The psalm is acrostic, therefore of late date; there are no
references to the supposed occasion; the careless scribe has blundered
"blindly" (Hupfeld) in the king's name, mixing up the stories about
Abraham and Isaac in Genesis with the legend about David at Gath; the
didactic, gnomical cast of the psalm speaks of a late age. But the
assumption that acrostic structure is necessarily a mark of late date is
not by any means self-evident, and needs more proof than is forthcoming;
the absence of plain allusions to the singer's circumstances cuts both
ways, and suggests the question, how the attribution to the period
stated arose, since there is nothing in the psalm to suggest it; the
blunder of the king's name is perhaps not a blunder after all, but, as
the Genesis passages seem to imply, "Abimelech" (the father of the King)
may be a title, like Pharaoh, common to Philistine "kings," and Achish
may have been the name of the reigning Abimelech; the proverbial style
and somewhat slight connection and progress of thought are necessary
results of acrostic fetters. If the psalm be David's, the contrast
between the degrading expedient which saved him and the exalted
sentiments here is remarkable, but not incredible. The seeming idiot
scrabbling on the gate is now saint, poet, and preacher; and, looking
back on the deliverance won by a trick, he thinks of it as an instance
of Jehovah's answer to prayer! It is a strange psychological study; and
yet, keeping in view the then existing standard of morality as to
stratagems in warfare, and the wonderful power that even good men have
of ignoring flaws in their faith and faults in their conduct, we may
venture to suppose that the event which evoked this song of thanksgiving
and is transfigured in ver. 4 is the escape by craft from Achish. To
David his feigning madness did not seem inconsistent with trust and
prayer.
Whatever be the occasion of the psalm, its course of thought is
obvious. There is first a vow of praise in which others are summoned
to unite (vv. 1-3); then follows a section in which personal
experience and invocation to others are similarly blended (vv. 4-10);
and finally a purely didactic section, analysing the practical
manifestations of "the fear of the Lord" and enforcing it by the
familiar contrast of the blessedness of the righteous and the
miserable fate of the ungodly. Throughout we find familiar turns of
thought and expression, such as are usual in acrostic psalms.
The glad vow of unbroken praise and undivided trust, which begins the
psalm, sounds like the welling over of a heart for recent mercy. It
seems easy and natural while the glow of fresh blessings is felt, to
"rejoice in the Lord always, and again to say Rejoice." Thankfulness
which looks forward to its own cessation, and takes into account the
distractions of circumstance and changes of mood which will surely
come, is too foreseeing. Whether the vow be kept or no, it is well
that it should be made; still better is it that it should be kept, as
it may be, even amid distracting circumstances and changing moods. The
incense on the altar did not flame throughout the day, but, being
fanned into a glow at morning and evening sacrifice, it smouldered
with a thread of fragrant smoke continually. It is not only the
exigencies of the acrostic which determine the order in ver. 2: "In
Jehovah shall my soul boast,"--_in Him_, and not in self or worldly
ground, of trust and glorying. The ideal of the devout life, which in
moments of exaltation seems capable of realisation, as in clear
weather Alpine summits look near enough to be reached in an hour, is
unbroken praise and undivided reliance on and joy in Jehovah. But
alas--how far above us the peaks are! Still to see them ennobles, and
to strive to reach them secures an upward course.
The solitary heart hungers for sympathy in its joy, as in its sorrow;
but knows full well that such can only be given by those who have
known like bitterness and have learned submission in the same way. We
must be purged of self in order to be glad in another's deliverance,
and must be pupils in the same school in order to be entitled to take
his experience as our encouragement, and to make a chorus to his solo
of thanksgiving. The invocation is so natural an expression of the
instinctive desire for companionship in praise that one needs not to
look for any particular group to whom it is addressed; but if the
psalm be David's, the call is not inappropriate in the mouth of the
leader of his band of devoted followers.
The second section of the psalm (vv. 4-10) is at first biographical,
and then generalises personal experience into broad universal truth.
But even in recounting what befell himself, the singer will not eat
his morsel alone, but is glad to be able at every turn to feel that he
has companions in his happy experience. Vv. 4, 5 are a pair, as are
vv. 6, 7, and in each the same fact is narrated first in reference to
the single soul, and then in regard to all the servants of Jehovah.
"This poor man" is by most of the older expositors taken to be the
psalmist, but by the majority of moderns supposed to be an
individualising way of saying, "poor men." The former explanation
seems to me the more natural, as preserving the parallelism between
the two groups of verses. If so, the close correspondence of
expression in vv. 4 and 6 is explained, since the same event is
subject of both. In both is the psalmist's appeal to Jehovah
presented; in the one as "seeking" with anxious eagerness, and in the
other as "crying" with the loud call of one in urgent need of
immediate rescue. In both, Divine acceptance follows close on the cry,
and in both immediately ensues succour. "He delivered me from all my
fears," and "saved him out of all his troubles," correspond entirely,
though not verbally. In like manner vv. 5 and 7 are alike in extending
the blessing of the unit so as to embrace the class. The absence of
any expressed subject of the verb in ver. 5 makes the statement more
comprehensive, like the French "_on_," or English "they." To "look
unto Him" is the same thing as is expressed in the individualising
verses by the two phrases, "sought," and "cried unto," only the
metaphor is changed into that of silent, wistful directing of
beseeching and sad eyes to God. And its issue is beautifully told, in
pursuance of the metaphor. Whoever turns his face to Jehovah will
receive reflected brightness on his face; as when a mirror is directed
sunwards, the dark surface will flash into sudden glory. Weary eyes
will gleam. Faces turned to the sun are sure to be radiant.
The hypothesis of the Davidic authorship gives special force to the
great assurance of ver. 7. The fugitive, in his rude shelter in the
cave of Adullam, thinks of Jacob, who, in his hour of defenceless
need, was heartened by the vision of the angel encampment surrounding
his own little band, and named the place "Mahanaim," the two camps.
That fleeting vision was a temporary manifestation of abiding reality.
Wherever there is a camp of them that fear God, there is another, of
which the helmed and sworded angel that appeared to Joshua is Captain,
and the name of every such place is Two Camps. That is the sight which
brightens the eyes that look to God. That mysterious personality, "the
Angel of the Lord," is only mentioned in the Psalter here and in Psalm
xxxv. In other places, He appears as the agent of Divine
communications, and especially as the guide and champion of Israel. He
is "the angel of God's face," the personal revealer of His presence
and nature. His functions correspond to those of the Word in John's
Gospel, and these, conjoined with the supremacy indicated in his name,
suggest that "_the_ Angel of the Lord" is, in fact, the everlasting
Son of the Father, through whom the Christology of the New Testament
teaches that all Revelation has been mediated. The psalmist did not
know the full force of the name, but he believed that there was a
Person, in an eminent and singular sense God's messenger, who would
cast his protection round the devout, and bid inferior heavenly
beings draw their impregnable ranks about them. Christians can tell
more than he could, of the Bearer of the name. It becomes them to be
all the surer of His protection.
Just as the vow of ver. 1 passed into invocation, so does the personal
experience of vv. 4-7 glide into exhortation. If such be the experience
of poor men, trusting in Jehovah, how should the sharers in it be able
to withhold themselves from calling on others to take their part in the
joy? The depth of a man's religion may be roughly, but on the whole
fairly, tested by his irrepressible impulse to bring other men to the
fountain from which he has drunk. Very significantly does the psalm call
on men to "taste and see," for in religion experience must precede
knowledge. The way to "taste" is to "trust" or to "take refuge in"
Jehovah. "Crede et manducasti," says Augustine. The psalm said it before
him. Just as the act of appealing to Jehovah was described in a
threefold way in vv. 4-6, so a threefold designation of devout men
occurs in vv. 8-10. They "trust," are "saints," they "seek." Faith,
consecration and aspiration are their marks. These are the essentials of
the religious life, whatever be the degree of revelation. These were its
essentials in the psalmist's time, and they are so to-day. As abiding as
they, are the blessings consequent. These may all be summed up in
one--the satisfaction of every need and desire. There are two ways of
seeking for satisfaction: that of effort, violence and reliance on one's
own teeth and claws to get one's meat; the other that of patient,
submissive trust. Were there lions prowling round the camp at Adullam,
and did the psalmist take their growls as typical of all vain attempts
to satisfy the soul? Struggle and force and self-reliant efforts leave
men gaunt and hungry. He who takes the path of trust and has his supreme
desires set on God, and who looks to Him to give what he himself cannot
wring out of life, will get first his deepest desires answered in
possessing God, and will then find that the One great Good is an
encyclopædia of separate goods. They that "seek Jehovah" shall assuredly
find Him, and in Him everything. He is multiform, and His goodness takes
many shapes, according to the curves of the vessels which it fills.
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God ... and all these things shall be
added unto you."
The mention of the "fear of the Lord" prepares the way for the
transition to the third part of the psalm. It is purely didactic, and,
in its simple moral teaching and familiar contrast of the fates of
righteous and ungodly, has affinities with the Book of Proverbs; but
these are not so special as to require the supposition of
contemporaneousness. It is unfashionable now to incline to the Davidic
authorship; but would not the supposition that the "children," who are
to be taught the elements of religion, are the band of outlaws who
have gathered round the fugitive, give appropriateness to the
transition from the thanksgiving of the first part to the didactic
tone of the second? We can see them sitting round the singer in the
half-darkness of the cave, a wild group, needing much control and yet
with faithful hearts, and loyal to their leader, who now tells them
the laws of his camp, at the same time as he sets forth the broad
principles of that morality, which is the garment and manifestation
among men of the "fear of the Lord." The relations of religion and
morals were never more clearly and strikingly expressed than in the
simple language of this psalm, which puts the substance of many
profound treatises in a nutshell, when it expounds the "fear of
Jehovah" as consisting in speaking truth, doing good, abhorring evil
and seeking peace even when it seems to flee from us. The primal
virtues are the same for all ages and stages of revelation. The
definition of good and evil may vary and become more spiritual and
inward, but the dictum that it is good to love and do good shines
unalterable. The psalmist's belief that doing good was the sure way to
enjoy good was a commonplace of Old Testament teaching, and under a
Theocracy was more distinctly verified by outward facts than now; but
even then, as many psalms show, had exceptions so stark as to stir
many doubts. Unquestionably good in the sense of blessedness is
inseparable from good in the sense of righteousness, as evil which is
suffering is from evil which is sin, but the conception of what
constitutes blessedness and sorrow must be modified so as to throw
most weight on inward experiences, if such necessary coincidence is to
be maintained in the face of patent facts.
The psalmist closes his song with a bold statement of the general
principle that goodness is blessedness and wickedness is wretchedness;
but he finds his proof mainly in the contrasted relation to Jehovah
involved in the two opposite moral conditions. He has no vulgar
conception of blessedness as resulting from circumstances. The
loving-kindness of Jehovah is, in his view, prosperity, whatever be
the aspect of externals. So with bold symbols, the very grossness of
the letter of which shields them from misinterpretation, he declares
this as the secret of all blessedness, that Jehovah's eyes are towards
the righteous and His ears open to their cry. The individual
experiences of vv. 5 and 6 are generalised. The eye of God--_i.e._
His loving observance--rests upon and blesses those whose faces are
turned to Him, and His ear hears the poor man's cry. The grim
antithesis, which contains in itself the seeds of all unrest, is that
the "face of Jehovah"--_i.e._ His manifested presence, the same face
in the reflected light of which the faces of the righteous are lit up
with gladness and dawning glory--is against evil doers. The moral
condition of the beholder determines the operation of the light of
God's countenance upon him. The same presence is light and darkness,
life and death. Evil and its doers shrivel and perish in its beams, as
the sunshine kills creatures whose haunt is the dark, or as Apollo's
keen light-arrows slew the monsters of the slime. All else follows
from this double relationship.
The remainder of the psalm runs out into a detailed description of the
joyful fate of the lovers of good broken only by one tragic verse (21),
like a black rock in the midst of a sunny stream, telling how evil and
evil-doers end. In ver. 17, as in ver. 5, the verb has no subject
expressed, but the supplement of A.V. and R.V., "the righteous," is
naturally drawn from the context and is found in the LXX., whether as
part of the original text, or as supplement thereto, is unknown. The
construction may, as in ver. 6, indicate that whoever cries to Jehovah
is heard. Hitzig and others propose to transpose vv. 15 and 16, so as to
get a nearer subject for the verb in the "righteous" of ver. 15, and
defend the inversion by referring to the alphabetic order in Lam. ii.,
iii., iv., where similarly Pe precedes Ayin; but the present order of
verses is better as putting the principal theme of this part of the
psalm--the blessedness of the righteous--in the foreground, and the
opposite thought as its foil. The main thought of vv. 17-20 is nothing
more than the experience of vv. 4-7 thrown into the form of general
maxims. They are the commonplaces of religion, but come with strange
freshness to a man, when they have been verified in his life. Happy they
who can cast their personal experience into such proverbial sayings,
and, having by faith individualised the general promises, can
re-generalise the individual experience! The psalmist does not promise
untroubled outward good. His anticipation is of troubled lives,
delivered because of crying to Jehovah. "Many are the afflictions," but
more are the deliverances. Many are the blows and painful is the
pressure, but they break no bones, though they rack and wrench the
frame. Significant, too, is the sequence of synonyms--righteous,
broken-hearted, crushed in spirit, servants, them that take refuge in
Jehovah. The first of these refers mainly to conduct, the second to that
submission of will and spirit which sorrow rightly borne brings about,
substantially equivalent to "the humble" or "afflicted" of vv. 2 and 6,
the third again deals mostly with practice, and the last touches the
foundation of all service, submission, and righteousness, as laid in the
act of faith in Jehovah.
The last group of vv. 21, 22, puts the teaching of the psalm in one
terrible contrast, "Evil shall slay the wicked." It were a mere
platitude if by "evil" were meant misfortune. The same thought of the
inseparable connection of the two senses of that word, which runs
through the context, is here expressed in the most terse fashion. To
do evil is to suffer evil, and all sin is suicide. Its wages is death.
Every sin is a strand in the hangman's rope, which the sinner nooses
and puts round his own neck. That is so because every sin brings
guilt, and guilt brings retribution. Much more than "desolate" is
meant in vv. 21 and 22. The word means _to be condemned_ or _held
guilty_. Jehovah is the Judge; before His bar all actions and
characters are set: His unerring estimate of each brings with it, here
and now, consequences of reward and punishment which prophesy a
future, more perfect judgment. The redemption of the soul of God's
servants is the antithesis to that awful experience; and they only,
who take refuge in Him, escape it. The full Christian significance of
this final contrast is in the Apostle's words, "There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus."