Hallelujah.
1 א Happy the man who fears Jehovah,
ב [Who] delights exceedingly in His commandments.
2 ג Mighty on the earth shall his seed be,
ד The generation of the upright shall be blessed.
3 ה Wealth and riches are in his house,
ו And his righteousness stands fast for aye.
4 ז There riseth in the darkness light to the upright,--
ח Gracious and pitiful and righteous is he.
5 ט Well is the man who pities and lends,
י He shall maintain his causes in [the] judgment.
6 כ For he shall not be moved for ever,
ל In everlasting remembrance shall the righteous be held.
7 מ Of evil tidings he shall not be afraid,
נ Steadfast is his heart, trusting in Jehovah.
8 ס Established is his heart, he shall not fear,
ע Until he looks on his adversaries.
9 פ He has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor,
צ His righteousness stands fast for aye,
ק His horn shall be exalted with glory.
10 ר The wicked man shall see it and be grieved,
ש He shall gnash his teeth and melt away,
ת The desire of wicked men shall perish.
"Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect," might be
inscribed on this picture of a godly man, which, in structure and
substance, reflects the contemplation of God's character and works
contained in the preceding psalm. The idea that the godly man is, in
some real sense, an image of God runs through the whole, and comes out
strongly, at several points, in the repetition of the same expressions
in reference to both. The portrait of the ideal good man, outlined in
this psalm, may be compared with those in Psalms xv. and xxiv. Its
most characteristic feature is the prominence given to beneficence,
which is regarded as eminently a reflection of God's. The foundation
of righteousness is laid in ver. 1, in devout awe and inward delight
in the commandments. But the bulk of the psalm describes the blessed
consequences, rather than the essential characteristics, of godliness.
The basis of righteousness and beneficence to men must be laid in
reverence and conformity of will towards God. Therefore the psalm
begins with proclaiming that, apart from all external consequences,
these dispositions carry blessedness in themselves. The close of the
preceding psalm had somewhat overpassed its limits, when it declared
that "the fear of Jehovah" was the beginning of wisdom and that to do
His commandments was sound discretion.
This psalm echoes these sayings, and so links itself to the former
one. It deepens them by pointing out that the fear of Jehovah is a
fountain of joy as well as of wisdom, and that inward delight in the
Law must precede outward doing of it. The familiar blessing attached
in the Old Testament to godliness, namely, prosperous posterity, is
the first of the consequences of righteousness which the psalm holds
out. That promise belongs to another order of things from that of
the New Testament; but the essence of it is true still, namely, that
the only secure foundation for permanent prosperity is in the fear
of Jehovah. "The generation of the upright" (ver. 2) does not merely
mean the natural descendants of a good man--"It is a moral rather than
a genealogical term" (Hupfeld)--as is usually the case with the word
"generation." Another result of righteousness is declared to be "wealth
and riches" (ver. 3), which, again, must be taken as applying more
fully to the Old Testament system of Providence than to that of the New.
A parallelism of the most striking character between God and the
godly emerges in ver. 3_b_, where the same words are applied to the
latter as were used of the former, in the corresponding verse of
Psalm cxi. It would be giving too great evangelical definiteness
to the psalmist's words, to read into them the Christian teaching
that man's righteousness is God's gift through Christ, but it
unwarrantably eviscerates them of their meaning, if we go to the
other extreme, and, with Hupfeld, suppose that the psalmist put in
the clause under stress of the exigencies of the acrostic structure,
and regard it as a "makeshift" and "stop-gap." The psalmist has
a very definite and noble thought. Man's righteousness is the
reflection of God's; and has in it some kindred with its original,
which guarantees stability not all unlike the eternity of that
source. Since ver. 3_b_ thus brings into prominence the ruling
thought of the two psalms, possibly we may venture to see a fainter
utterance of that thought, in the first clause of the verse, in which
the "wealth and riches" in the righteous man's house may correspond
to the "honour and majesty" attendant on God's works (cxi. 3_a_).
Ver. 4 blends consequences of righteousness and characterisation
of it, in a remarkable way. The construction is doubtful. In _a_,
"upright" is in the plural, and the adjectives in _b_ are in the
singular number. They are appended abruptly to the preceding clause;
and the loose structure has occasioned difficulty to expositors,
which has been increased by the scruples of some, who have not given
due weight to the leading thought of correspondence between the human
and Divine, and have hesitated to regard ver. 4_b_ as referring to
the righteous man, seeing that in Psalm cxi. 4_b_ it refers to God.
Hence efforts have been made to find other renderings. Delitzsch
would refer the clause to God, whom he takes to be meant by "light"
in the previous clause, while Hitzig, followed by Baethgen, would
translate, "As a light, he (the righteous) rises in darkness for the
upright," and would then consider "gracious," etc., as in apposition
with "light," and descriptive of the righteous man's character as
such. But the very fact that the words are applied to God in the
corresponding verse of the previous psalm suggests their application
here to the godly man, and the sudden change of number is not so
harsh as to require the ordinary translation to be abandoned. However
dark may be a good man's road, the very midnight blackness is a
prophecy of sunrise; or, to use another figure,
"If winter comes, can spring be far behind?"
(Compare Psalm xcvii. 11.) The fountain of pity in human hearts must
be fed from the great source of compassion in God's, if it is to gush
out unremittingly and bless the deserts of sorrow and misery. He who
has received "grace" will surely exercise grace. "Be ye merciful,
even as your Father is merciful" (Luke vi. 36).
Ver. 5 blends characteristics and consequences of goodness in
reverse order from that in ver. 4. The compassionate man of ver.
4_b_ does not let pity evaporate, but is moved by it to act and to
lend (primarily money, but secondarily) any needful help or solace.
Benevolence which is not translated into beneficence is a poor
affair. There is no blessing in it or for it; but it is well with
the man who turns emotions into deeds. Lazy compassion hurts him
who indulges in it, but that which "lends" gets joy in the act of
bestowing aid. The result of such active compassion is stated in ver.
5_b_ as being that such a one will "maintain his causes in judgment,"
by which seems to be meant the judgment of earthly tribunals. If
compassion and charity guide a life, it will have few disputes, and
will contain nothing for which a judge can condemn. He who obeys the
higher law will not break the lower.
Vv. 6-8 dwell mainly on one consequence of righteousness, namely,
the stability which it imparts. While such a man lives, he shall
be unmoved by shocks, and after he dies, his memory will live,
like a summer evening's glow which lingers in the west till a
new morning dawns. In ver. 7 the resemblance of the godly to God
comes very beautifully to the surface. Psalm cxi. 7 deals with
God's commandments as "trustworthy." The human parallel is an
_established_ heart. He who has learned to lean upon Jehovah (for
such is the literal force of "trusting" here), and has proved the
commandments utterly reliable as basis for his life, will have his
heart steadfast. The same idea is repeated in ver. 8 with direct
quotation of the corresponding verse of Psalm cxi. In both the word
for "established" is the same. The heart that delights in God's
established commandments is established by them, and, sooner or
later, will look in calm security on the fading away of all evil
things and men, while it rests indeed, because it rests in God. He
who builds his transient life on and into the Rock of Ages wins
rocklike steadfastness, and some share in the perpetuity of his
Refuge. Lives rooted in God are never uprooted.
The two final verses are elongated, like the corresponding ones
in Psalm cxi. Again, beneficence is put in the forefront, as a
kind of shorthand summing up of all virtues. And, again, in ver. 9
the analogy is drawn out between God and the godly. "He has sent
redemption to His people"; and they, in their degree, are to be
communicative of the gifts of which they have been made recipient.
Little can they give, compared with what they have received; but what
they have they hold in trust for those who need it, and the sure test
of having obtained "redemption" is a "heart open as day to melting
charity." In the former psalm, ver. 9_b_ declared that God has
"ordained His covenant for ever"; and here the corresponding clause
re-affirms that the good man's righteousness endures for ever. The
final clauses of both verses also correspond, in so far as, in the
former psalm, God's Name is represented as "holy and dread"--_i.e._,
the total impression made by His deeds exalts Him--and in the latter,
the righteous man's "horn" is represented as "exalted in glory" or
honour--_i.e._, the total impression made by his deeds exalts _him_.
Paul quotes the two former clauses of ver. 9 in 2 Cor. ix. 9 as
involving the truth that Christian giving does not impoverish. The
exercise of a disposition strengthens it; and God takes care that
the means of beneficence shall not be wanting to him who has the
spirit of it. The later Jewish use of "righteousness" as a synonym
for _almsgiving_ has probably been influenced by this psalm, in which
beneficence is the principal trait in the righteous man's character,
but there is no reason for supposing that the psalmist uses the word
in that restricted sense.
Ver. 10 is not parallel with the last verse of Psalm cxi., which
stands, as we have seen, somewhat beyond the scope of the rest of
that psalm. It gives one brief glimpse of the fate of the evil-doer,
in opposition to the loving picture of the blessedness of the
righteous. Thus it too is rather beyond the immediate object of the
psalm of which it forms part. The wicked _sees_, in contrast with the
righteous man's _seeing_ in ver. 8. The one looks with peace on the
short duration of antagonistic power, and rejoices that there is a
God of recompenses; the other grinds his teeth in envious rage, as
he beholds the perpetuity of the righteous. He "shall melt away,"
_i.e._, in jealousy or despair. Opposition to goodness, since it is
enmity towards God, is self-condemned to impotence and final failure.
Desires turned for satisfaction elsewhere than to God are sure to
perish. The sharp contrast between the righteousness of the good man,
which endures for ever, in his steadfast because trustful heart, and
the crumbling schemes and disappointed hopes which gnaw the life
of the man whose aims go athwart God's will, solemnly proclaims an
eternal truth. This psalm, like Psalm i., touches the two poles of
possible human experience, in its first and last words, beginning
with "happy the man" and ending with "shall perish."