1 Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
2 Harp [unto] the glory of His name,
Render glory [to Him by] His praise.
3 Say to God, How dread are Thy works!
For the greatness of Thy strength shall Thy enemies feign
[submission] to Thee.
4 All the earth shall bow down to Thee, and harp to Thee,
They shall harp [to] Thy name. Selah.
5 Come, and behold the deeds of God;
He is dread in His doing towards the sons of men,
6 He turned the sea to dry land,
They went through the river on foot,
There let us rejoice in Him.
7 He rules by His might for ever;
His eyes watch the nations,
The rebellious--let them not exalt themselves. Selah.
8 Bless our God, ye peoples,
And let the voice of His praise be heard!
9 Who has set our soul in life,
And has not let our foot slip.
10 For Thou hast proved us, O God,
Thou hast refined us, as silver is refined.
11 Thou hast brought us into the fortress-dungeon,
Thou hast laid a heavy burden on our loins.
12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our head,
We have come into the fire and into the water,
But Thou broughtest us out into abundance.
13 I will go into Thy house with burnt offerings,
I will render to Thee my vows,
14 Which my lips uttered,
And my mouth spoke, in my straits.
15 Burnt offerings of fatlings will I offer to Thee,
With the savour of rams,
I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.
16 Come, hearken, and I will recount, all ye that fear God,
What He has done for my soul.
17 To Him did I cry with my mouth,
And a song extolling [Him] was [already] under my tongue.
18 If I had intended iniquity in my heart,
The Lord would not hear:
19 But surely God has heard,
He has attended to the voice of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away my prayer, nor His loving-kindness from
me.
The most striking feature of this psalm is the transition from the
plural "we" and "our," in vv. 1-12, to the singular "I" and "my,"
in vv. 13-20. Ewald supposes that two independent psalms have been
united, but ver. 12 is as abrupt for an ending as ver. 13 is for a
beginning; and the "Come, hear," of ver. 16 echoes the "Come, and
see," of ver. 5. It is possible that "the 'I' of the second part
is identical with the 'we' of the first; in other words, that the
personified community speaks here" (Baethgen); but the supposition
that the psalm was meant for public worship, and is composed of a
choral and a solo part, accounts for the change of number. Such
expressions as "my soul" and "my heart" favour the individual
reference. Of course, the deliverance magnified by the single voice is
the same as that celebrated by the loud acclaim of many tongues; but
there is a different note in the praise of the former--there is a tone
of inwardness in it, befitting individual appropriation of general
blessings. To this highest point, that of the action of the single
soul in taking the deliverances of the community for its very own,
and pouring out its own praise, the psalm steadily climbs. It begins
with the widest outlook over "all the earth," summoned to ring forth
joyous praise. It ends focussed to one burning point, in a heart fired
by the thought that God "has not turned away his loving-kindness from
_me_." So we learn how each single soul has to claim its several part
in world-wide blessings, as each flower-calyx absorbs the sunshine
that floods the pastures.
The psalm has no superscription of date or author, and no clue in its
language to the particular deliverance that called it forth. The usual
variety of conjectures have been hazarded. The defeat of Sennacherib
occurs to some; the return from Babylon to others; the Maccabean
period to yet another school of critics. It belongs to a period when
Israel's world-significance and mission were recognised (which Cheyne
considers a post-exilic feature, "Orig. of Psalt.," 176), and when the
sacrificial worship was in full force; but beyond these there are no
clear data for period of composition.
It is divided into five strophes, three of which are marked by Selah.
That musical indication is wanting at the close of the third strophe
(ver. 12), which is also the close of the first or choral part, and
its absence may be connected with the transition to a single voice.
A certain progress in thought is noticeable, as will appear as we
proceed. The first strophe calls upon all the earth to praise God
for His works. The special deeds which fire the psalmist are not
yet mentioned, though they are present to his mind. The summons of
the world to praise passes over into prophecy that it shall praise.
The manifestation of God's character by act will win homage. The
great thought that God has but to be truly known in order to be
reverenced is an axiom with this psalmist; and no less certain is
he that such knowledge and such praise will one day fill the world.
True, he discerns that submission will not always be genuine; for he
uses the same word to express it as occurs in Psalm xviii. 44, which
represents "feigned homage." Every great religious awakening has a
fringe of adherents, imperfectly affected by it, whose professions
outrun reality, though they themselves are but half conscious that
they feign. But though this sobering estimate of the shallowness
of a widely diffused recognition of God tones down the psalmist's
expectations, and has been abundantly confirmed by later experience,
his great hope remains as an early utterance of the conviction, which
has gathered assurance and definiteness by subsequent Revelation, and
is now familiar to all. The world is God's. His Self-revelation will
win hearts. There shall be true submission and joyous praise, girdling
the earth as it rolls. The psalmist dwells mainly on the majestic and
awe-inspiring aspect of God's acts. His greatness of power bears down
opposition. But the later strophes introduce other elements of the
Divine nature and syllables of the Name, though the inmost secret of
the "power of God" in the weakness of manhood and the all-conquering
might of Love is not yet ripe for utterance.
The second strophe advances to a closer contemplation of the deeds
of God, which the nations are summoned to behold. He is not only
"dread" in His doings towards mankind at large, but Israel's history
is radiant with the manifestation of His name, and that past lives on,
so that ancient experiences give the measure and manner of to-day's
working. The retrospect embraces the two standing instances of God's
delivering help--the passage of the Red Sea and of Jordan--and these
are not dead deeds in a far-off century. For the singer calls on
his own generation to rejoice "there" in Him. Ver. 6 _c_ is by some
translated as "There did we rejoice," and more accurately by others,
"Let us rejoice." In the former case the essential solidarity of all
generations of the nation is most vividly set forth. But the same idea
is involved in the correct rendering, according to which the men of
the psalmist's period are entitled and invoked to associate themselves
in thought with that long-past generation, and to share in their joy,
since they do possess the same power which wrought then. God's work
is never antiquated. It is all a revelation of eternal activities.
What He has been, He is. What He did, He does. Therefore faith may
feed on all the records of old time, and expect the repetition of all
that they contain. Such an application of history to the present makes
the nerve of this strophe. For ver. 7, following on the retrospect,
declares the perpetuity of God's rule, and that His eyes still keep
an outlook, as a watchman on a tower might do, to mark the enemies'
designs, in order that He may intervene, as of old, for His people's
deliverance. He "looked forth upon the Egyptians through the pillar
of fire and of cloud" (Exod. xiv. 24). Thus He still marks the
actions and plans of Israel's foes. Therefore it were wise for the
"rebellious" not to rear their heads so high in opposition.
The third strophe comes still closer to the particular deliverance
underlying the psalm. Why should all "peoples" be called upon to praise
God for it? The psalmist has learned that Israel's history is meant
to teach the world what God is, and how blessed it is to dwell under
His wing. No exclusiveness taints his enjoyment of special national
privileges. He has reached a height far above the conceptions of the
rest of the world in his day, and even in this day, except where the
Christian conception of "humanity" has been heartily accepted. Whence
came this width of view, this purifying from particularism, this
anticipation by so many centuries of a thought imperfectly realised even
now? Surely a man who in those days and with that environment could soar
so high must have been lifted by something mightier than his own spirit.
The details of the Divine dealings described in the strophe are of small
consequence in comparison with its fixed expectation of the world's
participation in Israel's blessings. The familiar figures for affliction
reappear--namely, proving and refining in a furnace. A less common
metaphor is that of being prisoned in a _dungeon_, as the word rendered
"net" in the A.V. and R.V. probably means. Another peculiar image is
that of ver. 12: "Thou hast caused men to ride over our head." The word
for "men" here connotes feebleness and frailty, characteristics which
make tyranny more intolerable; and the somewhat harsh metaphor is best
explained as setting forth insolent and crushing domination, whether the
picture intended is that of ruthless conquerors driving their chariots
over their prone victims, or that of their sitting as an incubus on
their shoulders and making them like beasts of burden. Fire and water
are standing figures for affliction. With great force these accumulated
symbols of oppression are confronted by one abrupt clause ending the
strophe, and describing in a breath the perfect deliverance which sweeps
them all away: "Thou broughtest us out into abundance." There is no
need for the textual alteration of the last word into "a wide place"
(Hupfeld), a place of liberty (Cheyne), or freedom (Baethgen). The
word in the received text is that employed in Psalm xxiii. 5. "My cup
is _overfulness_" and "abundance" yields a satisfactory meaning here,
though not closely corresponding to any of the preceding metaphors for
affliction.
The fourth strophe (vv. 13-15) begins the solo part. It clothes in a
garb appropriate to a sacrificial system the thought expressed in more
spiritual dress in the next strophe, that God's deliverance should
evoke men's praise. The abundance and variety of sacrifices named, and
the fact that "rams" were not used for the offerings of individuals,
seem to suggest that the speaker is, in some sense, representing the
nation, and it has been supposed that he may be the high priest. But
this is merely conjecture, and the explanation may be that there is a
certain ideal and poetical tone over the representation, which does
not confine itself to scrupulous accuracy.
The last strophe (vv. 16-20) passes beyond sacrificial symbols, and
gives the purest utterance to the emotions and resolves which ought
to well up in a devout soul on occasion of God's goodness. Not only
does the psalmist teach us how each individual must take the general
blessing for his very own--of which act the faith which takes the
world's Christ for my Christ is the supreme example--but he teaches us
that the obligation laid on all recipients of God's mercy is to tell
it forth, and that the impulse is as certain to follow real reception
as the command is imperative. Just as Israel received deliverances
that the whole earth might learn how strong and gracious was Israel's
God, we receive His blessings, and chiefly His highest gift of life in
Christ, not only that we may live, but that, living, we may "declare
the works of the Lord." He has little possession of God's grace who
has not felt the necessity of speech, and the impossibility of the
lips being locked when the heart is full.
The psalmist tells his experience of God's answers to his prayer in a
very striking fashion. Ver. 17 says that he cried to God; and while
his uttered voice was supplication, the song extolling God for the
deliverance asked was, as it were, lying under his tongue, ready to
break forth,--so sure was he that his cry would be heard. That is a
strong faith which prepares banners and music for the triumph before
the battle is fought. It would be presumptuous folly, not faith, if it
rested on anything less certain than God's power and will.
"I find David making a syllogism in mood and figure.... 'If I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: but verily God
hath heard me; He hath attended to the voice of my prayer.' Now, I
expected that David would have concluded thus: 'Therefore I regard
not wickedness in my heart. But far otherwise he concludes: 'Blessed
be God, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me.'
Thus David hath deceived but not wronged me. I looked that he should
have clapped the crown on his own, and he puts it on God's head. I
will learn this excellent logic." So says Fuller ("Good Thoughts in
Bad Times," p. 34, Pickering's ed., 1841). No doubt, however, the
psalmist means to suggest, though he does not state, that his prayer
was sincere. There is no self-complacent attribution of merit to his
supplication, in the profession that it was untainted by any secret,
sidelong looking towards evil; and Fuller is right in emphasising
the suppression of the statement. But even the appearance of such is
avoided by the jet of praise which closes the psalm. Its condensed
brevity has induced some critics to mend it by expansion, as they
regard it as incongruous to speak of turning away a man's prayer from
himself. Some would therefore insert "from Him" after "my prayer,"
and others would expand still further by inserting an appropriate
negative before "His loving-kindness." But the slight incongruity
does not obscure the sense, and brings out strongly the flow of
thought. So fully does the psalmist feel the connection between God's
loving-kindness and his own prayer, that these are, as it were,
smelted into one in his mind, and the latter is so far predominant in
his thoughts that he is unconscious of the anomaly of his expression.
To expand only weakens the swing of the words and the power of the
thought. It is possible to tame lyric outbursts into accuracy at the
cost of energy. Psalmists are not bound to be correct in style. Rivers
wind; canals are straight.