1 Blessed be Jehovah my rock, who trains my hands for battle,
My fingers for war;
2 My loving-kindness and my fortress, my high tower and my
deliverer,
My shield and He in whom I take refuge,
Who subdues my people under me.
3 Jehovah, what is man, that Thou takest knowledge of him?
The son of frail man, that Thou takest account of him?
4 Man--he is like to a breath,
His days are like a shadow passing away.
5 Jehovah, bow Thy heavens and come down,
Touch the mountains that they smoke.
6 Lighten lightning and scatter them,
Shoot Thy arrows and confound them.
7 Stretch Thy hands from on high,
Pluck me [out] and deliver me from many waters,
From the hands of the sons of the alien,
8 Whose mouth speaks falsehood,
And whose right hand is a right hand of lies.
9 O God, a new song will I sing to Thee,
On a ten-stringed harp will I harp to Thee,
10 Who giveth salvation to kings,
Who snatches David His servant from the evil sword.
11 Pluck me [out] and deliver me from the hand of the sons of the
alien,
Whose mouth speaks falsehood,
And whose right hand is a right hand of lies.
12 So that (? or Because) our sons [may be] as plants,
Grown tall in their youth;
Our daughters like corner-pillars,
Carved after the fashion of a palace;
13 Our granaries full, giving forth kind after kind [of supply];
Our flocks producing thousands,
Producing tens of thousands in our fields;
14 Our kine heavy with young;
No breach and no sally,
And no [battle-] cry in our open spaces.
15 Happy the people that is in such a case!
Happy the people whose God is Jehovah!
The force of compilation could no further go than in this psalm,
which is, in the first eleven verses, simply a _réchauffé_ of known
psalms, and in vv. 12-15 is most probably an extract from an unknown
one of later date. The junctions are not effected with much skill,
and the last is tacked on very awkwardly (ver. 12). It is completely
unlike the former part, inasmuch as there the speaker is a warlike
king praying for victory, while in the latter the nation sings of the
tranquil blessings of peaceful expansion. The language of the later
portion is full of late forms and obscurities. But the compiler's
course of thought is traceable. He begins by praising Jehovah, who
has taught him warlike skill; then adoringly thinks of his own
weakness, made strong by God's condescending regard; next prays for
complete victory, and vows fresh praises for new mercies; and closes
with a picture of the prosperity which follows conquest, and is
secured to Israel because Jehovah is its God.
Vv. 1, 2, are echoes of Psalm xviii. 2, 34, 46, with slight
variations. The remarkable epithet "My loving-kindness" offends
some critics, who emend so as to read "My stronghold"; but it has a
parallel in Jonah ii. 9, and is forcible as an emotional abbreviation
of the fuller "God of my loving-kindness" (Psalm lix. 10). The
original passage reads "people," which is the only appropriate word
in this connection, and should probably be read in ver. 2_c_.
Psalm viii. supplies the original of vv. 3, 4, with a reminiscence
of Psalm xxxix. 5, and of Psalm cii. 11, from which comes the
pathetic image of the fleeting shadow. The link between this and the
former extract seems to be the recognition of God's condescension
in strengthening so weak and transient a creature for conflict and
conquest.
The following prayer for further Divine help in further struggles
is largely borrowed from the magnificent picture of a theophany
in Psalm xviii. 9, 14-16. The energetic "Lighten lightning" is
peculiar to this psalm, as is the use of the word for "Pluck out."
The description of the enemies as "sons of the alien" is like Psalm
xviii. 44, 45. As in many other psalms, the treachery of the foe
is signalised. They break their oaths. The right hand which they
had lifted in swearing is a lying hand. The vow of new praise
recalls Psalms xxxiii. 2, 3, and xcvi. 1, xcviii. 1. Ver. 10 is a
reproduction of Psalm xviii. 50. The mention of David's deliverance
from the "evil sword" has apparently been the reason for the LXX.
referring the psalm to the victory over Goliath--an impossible view.
The new song is not here sung; but the psalm drops from the level
of praise to renew the petition for deliverance, in the manner
of a refrain caught up in ver. 11 from ver. 7. This might make a
well-rounded close, and may have originally been the end of the psalm.
The appended fragment (vv. 12-15) is attached to the preceding in
a most embarrassing fashion. The first word of ver. 12 is the sign
of the relative. The LXX. accordingly translates "Whose sons are,"
etc., and understands the whole as a description of the prosperity of
the enemies, which view necessarily involves the alteration of "our"
into "their" in the following clauses. Others supply an antecedent
to the relative by inserting _save us_ or the like expression at
the beginning of the verse. Others, again--_e.g._, Ewald, followed
by Perowne--connect the relative with ver. 15: "We whose sons are,"
etc.... "Happy is the people," etc. Delitzsch takes the relative to
signify here "because," and compares Judg. ix. 17; Jer. xvi. 13. The
prosperity subsequently described would then be alleged as the occasion
of the enemies' envy. Others would slightly emend the text so as to
read, "I pronounce happy," or "Happy are we." The latter, which makes
all smooth, and corresponds with ver. 15, is Graetz's proposal. The
rendering of the A.V., "that" or "in order that," has much in its
favour. The word which is the sign of the relative is a component of
the full expression usually so rendered, and stands alone as equivalent
to it in Deut. iv. 40, Gen. xi. 7. It is true, as Delitzsch objects to
this rendering, that the following verbs are usually finite, while here
they are participles; but that is not a fatal objection. The whole that
follows would then be dependent on the petition of ver. 11, and would
describe the purpose of the desired deliverance. "This is, in fact,
the poet's meaning. He prays for deliverance from enemies, in order
that the happy condition pictured in ver. 12 _sqq._ may come to pass"
(Baethgen). On the whole, that rendering presents least difficulty, but
in any case the seam is clumsy.
The substance of the description includes three things--a vigorous,
growing population, agricultural prosperity, and freedom from
invasion. The language is obscure, especially in ver. 14, but the
general drift is plain. The characteristic Jewish blessing of
numerous offspring is first touched on in two figures, of which
the former is forcible and obvious, and the latter obscure. The
comparison of the virgin daughters of Israel to "corners" is
best understood by taking the word to mean "corner-pillars," not
necessarily caryatides, as is usually supposed--an architectural
decoration unknown in the East. The points of comparison would then
be slender uprightness and firm grace. Delitzsch prefers to take the
word as meaning _cornices_, such as, to the present day, are found
in the angles of Eastern rooms, and are elaborately carved in mazy
patterns and brightly coloured. He would also render "variegated"
instead of "carved." But such a comparison puts too much stress on
gay dresses, and too little on qualities corresponding to those of
the "well-grown" youths in the former clause.
The description of a flourishing rural community is full of
difficult words. "Granaries" is found only here, and "kind" is a late
word. "Fields" is the same word as is usually rendered "streets";
it literally means "places outside," and here obviously must refer
to the open pastures without the city, in contrast to the "open
spaces" within it, mentioned in the next verse. In that verse almost
every word is doubtful. That rendered "kine" is masculine in form,
but is generally taken as being applicable to both sexes, and here
used for the milky mothers of the herd. The word translated above
"heavy with young" means _laden_, and if the accompanying noun is
masculine, must mean laden with the harvest sheaves; but the parallel
of the increasing flocks suggests the other rendering. The remainder
of ver. 14 would in form make a complete verse, and it is possible
that something has fallen out between the first clause and the two
latter. These paint tranquil city life when enemies are far away.
"No breach"--_i.e._, in the defences, by which besiegers could
enter; "No going forth"--_i.e._, sally of the besieged, as seems
most probable, though _going forth as captured_ or _surrendering_
has been suggested; "No cry"--_i.e._, of assailants who have forced
an entrance, and of defenders who make their last stand in the open
places of the city.
The last verse sums up all the preceding picture of growth,
prosperity, and tranquillity, and traces it to the guardian care and
blessing of Jehovah. The psalmist may seem to have been setting too
much store by outward prosperity. His last word not only points to
the one Source of it, but sets high above the material consequences
of God's favour, joyous as these are, that favour itself, as the
climax of human blessedness.