《Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers – Psalms (Vol. 1)》(Charles J. Ellicott) Commentator

47 Psalm 47
Introduction

XLVII.

This is one of those psalms that tantalise by seeming to tell the story of their origin, though on closer inspection the story refuses to be satisfactorily identified. Some public rejoicing for victory evidently gave it birth, but whether it was that of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20). or of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:8), or of John Hyrcanus over the Idumæans (Jos., Ant., xiii. 9, 1), must remain in the region of conjecture. The reading, “with the people,” in Psalms 47:9 (see Note), would lend probability to the last of these queries. The occasion, whatever it was, seems to have led to a re-dedication of the Temple (Psalms 47:5), such as we read of 1 Maccabees 4:54. The rhythm is fine and varied.

Title.—See titles Psalms 42, 3.

Verse 1

Verse 2

(2) Most high.—Or, possibly, a predicate, is exalted.

Terrible.—Literally, feared. (Comp. 2 Chronicles 20:29).

Verse 3

(3) Our inheritance.—The LXX. read, “his inheritance,” suggesting that originally the passage may have run, He chooses us for His inheritance, an even commoner thought in the Hebrew mind than that of the present text, that Jehovah chose Canaan as an inheritance for Israel.

Verse 3-4

(3, 4) Shall subdue . . . shall choose.—Rather, subdues, chooses, indicating a continued manifestation of the Divine favour.

Verse 4

(4) The excellency of Jacob.—This phrase, which literally means the loftiness of Jacob, is used in Nahum 2:2 of the national glory, in Ezekiel 24:21 of the Temple, but in Amos 6:8 has a bad sense, “the pride of Jacob.” Here, as the text stands, it is to be understood of the country. (Comp. Isaiah 13:19.)

Verse 5

(5) Is gone up.—Not, as in Genesis 17:22, Judges 13:20, to heaven, but, as in Psalms 24, to the Temple, as is shown by the public acclaim accompanying the ark to its resting-place after victory. (Comp. 2 Chronicles 20:28; Psalms 68:17; Amos 2:2.)

Verse 6

(6) Sing praises.—Better, Strike the harp.

Verse 7

(7) With understanding.—Rather, play a fine tune. (See title Psalms 32) Or perhaps as LXX., and Vulg. adverbially, play with skill.

Verse 9

(9) The shields of the earth—i.e., the princes just mentioned, as in Hosea 4:18; so LXX. and Vulg. (“strong ones”), which, however, they make the subject of the verb—“have been mightily exalted.”
48 Psalm 48
Introduction

Verse 1

(1) To be praised.—See Psalms 18:3, Note.

Verse 2

Verse 3

(3) Refuge.—See Note, Psalms 46:1. Prominence should be given to the idea of security from height. We might render, “God among her castles is known as a high and secure tower.”

Verse 4

(4) The kings.—With the striking picture of the advance and sudden collapse of a hostile expedition that follows, comp. Isaiah 10:28-34; possibly of the very same event.

The kings.—Evidently known to the writer, but, alas! matter of merest conjecture to us. Some suppose the kings of Ammon, Moab, and Edom, who attacked Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:25); others, the tributary princes of Sennacherib. In his annals, as lately deciphered, this monarch speaks of setting up tributary kings or viceroys in Chaldæa, Phoenicia, and Philistia, after conquering these countries. (See Assyrian Discoveries, by George Smith, p. 303.) Others again, referring the psalm to the time of Ahaz, understand Pekah and Rezin (2 Kings 15:37). The touches, vivid as they are, of the picture, are not so historically defined as to allow a settlement of the question.

Assembled.—Used of the muster of confederate forces (Joshua 11:5).

Passed by—i.e., marched by. So, according to the time reading, the LXX. A frequent military term (Judges 11:29; 2 Kings 8:21; Isaiah 8:8). Others, “passed away,” but it is doubtful if the verb can have this meaning.

Together.—Notice the parallelism, they came together, they passed by together.

Verse 5

(5) They saw.—A verse like Psalms 46:6, vivid from the omission of the conjunctions, wrongly supplied by the Authorised Version. It has reminded commentators of Caesar’s Veni, vidi, vici.

They looked, even so were terrified, bewildered, panic-struck.

Hasted away.—Or, sprung up in alarm.

Verse 7

Verse 8

(8) As we have heard.—The generations of a religious nation are “bound each to each by natural piety.” Probably here the ancient tale of the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host recurred to the poet’s mind.

God will establish it.—Better, God will preserve her for ever, i.e., the holy city. This forms the refrain of the song, and probably should be restored between the parts of Psalms 48:3.

Verse 9

(9) Thy temple.—This verse seems to indicate a liturgic origin for the psalm.

Verse 10

(10) According to thy name . . .—“Name” here has plainly the meaning we give it in the phrase, “name and fame.” God’s praise was up to the reputation His great deeds had won. (Comp. Psalms 138:2.)

Thy right hand is full of righteousness.—Not like Jove’s, as heathen say, full of thunderbolts, but of justice.

Verse 11

(11) Daughters of Judah.—Not the maidens of Jerusalem, but the towns and villages of Judah.

Judgments.—Perhaps here, as in Psalms 119:132, with prominent idea of God’s customary dealings with His people.

Verse 12

(12) Tell—i.e., count. So in Milton, “Every shepherd tells his tale,” i.e., counts his sheep.

Verse 13

(13) Consider.—The Hebrew word is peculiar to this passage. The root idea seems to be divide, and the natural sense of divide her palaces is, take them one by one and regard them.

Verse 14

(14) Unto death.—The words (‘al mûth) are proved by the ancient versions and various readings to be really a musical direction, either placed at the end instead of the beginning, as in Habakkuk 3:19, or shifted back from the title of the next psalm. See Psalms 9 title, ‘alamôth.

49 Psalm 49
Introduction

XLIX.

This psalm, though didactic, does not altogether belie the promise of lyric effort made in Psalms 49:4. Not only is it cast in a lyrical form, with an introduction and two strophes, ended each by a refrain (see Note, Psalms 49:12), but it rises into true poetry both of expression and feeling. Indeed, it is not as a philosophical speculation that the author propounds and discusses his theme, but as a problem of personal interest (Psalms 49:15-16); hence throughout the composition a strain of passion rather than a flow of thought.

Title.—See titles Psalms 4, 42

Verse 1

(1) Hear this.—For the opening address, comp. Deuteronomy 32:1; Micah 1:2; Psalms 50:7; Isaiah 1:2.

World.—As in Psalms 17:14; properly, duration. (Comp. our expression, “the things of time.”)

Verse 2

(2) Both high and low.—The two Hebrew expressions here used, benê-âdam and benê-îsh, answer to one another much as homo and vir in Latin. The LXX. and Vulg., taking âdam in its primary sense, render “sons of the soil and sons of men.” Symmachus makes the expressions stand for men in general and men as individuals.

Shall be of understanding.—The copula supplied by the Authorised Version is unnecessary. The word rendered meditation may mean, from its etymology, “muttered thoughts,” and it is quite consistent to say, my musings speak of understanding. So LXX. and Vulgate.

Verse 4

(4) I will incline mine ear.—The psalmist first listens, that he may himself catch the inspiration which is to reach others through his song. It was an obvious metaphor in a nation to whom God’s voice was audible, as it was to Wordsworth, for whom nature had an audible voice:

“The stars of midnight shall be dear

To her; and she shall lend her ear

In many a secret place,

Where rivulets dance their wayward round,

And beauty, born of murmuring sound,

Shall pass into her face.”

Parable.—Heb. mâshal, root idea, similitude. It is the term used of Balaam’s prophecies, and of the eloquent speeches of Job. Hence here proverb-song (Ewald), since the psalmist intends his composition for musical accompaniment.

Dark saying.—Either from a root meaning to tie, and so “a knotty point;” or to sharpen, and so a sharp, incisive saying. The LXX. and Vulgate have “problem,” “proposition.”

To open the riddle is not to solve it, but to propound it, as we say to “open a discourse.” (Comp. St. Paul’s phrase, “opening and alleging.”) The full phrase is probably found in Proverbs 31:26, “She openeth her mouth with wisdom.’”

Verse 5

(5) Should I fear?—Here the problem is stated not in a speculative, but personal form. The poet himself feels the pressure of this riddle of life.

When the iniquity of my heels.—The Authorised Version seems to take “heels” in the sense of footsteps, as Symmachus does, and “when the evil of my course entangles me,” is good sense, but not in agreement with the context. Render rather, when iniquity dogs me at the heels, i.e., when wicked and prosperous men pursue him with malice. This is more natural than to give the word heel the derived term of supplanter; the sense, too, is the same. There is no direct reference to Genesis 3:15, though possibly the figure of the heel as a vulnerable part, and of wickedness lying like a snake in the path, may have occurred to the poet. The Syriac, however, suggests a different reading, “malice of my oppressors.”

Verse 6

(6) They that—i.e., the rogues implied in the last verse.

Verse 7

(7) None of them can.—Brother is here used in the wide sense of Leviticus 19:17, Genesis 13:11 (where rendered “the one”). The sense is the same whether we make it nominative or accusative. Death is the debt which all owe, and which each must pay for himself. No wealth can buy a man off. God, in whose hand are the issues of life and death, is not to be bribed; nor, as the next verse says, even if the arrangement were possible, would any wealth be sufficient.

Verse 8

(8) For.—This verse is rightly placed in a parenthesis. “Soul” is the animal life, as generally, and here necessarily from the context. There is no anticipation of the Christian scheme of redemption from sin. A ransom which could buy a man from death, as one redeems a debtor or prisoner, would be beyond the means of the wealthiest, even if nature allowed such a bargain.

It ceaseth for ever.—This is obscure. It may mean, either the ransom utterly fails, or the life utterly perishes, and so cannot be ransomed. Or, as in the Prayer Book version, the verb may be taken transitively, “he lets that alone for ever.” The first of these is the simplest, and most agreeable to the context.

Verse 9

(9) That—i.e., in order that; introducing the purpose of the imagined ransom in Psalms 49:7. Others connect it consecutively with Psalms 49:8, “He must give up for ever the hope of living for ever.”

Verse 10

Verse 11

(11) Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever.—These eleven words represent three in the Hebrew, and, as the text stands, give its sense, which is intelligible and consistent:

“They believe their houses will last for ever,

Their dwelling places from generation to generation;

They call the lands by their own names.”

The reading followed by the LXX., Chaldee, and Syriac, kibram for kirbam gives a different thought—

“Their graves are their homes,

Their dwelling places for ever.”

(Comp. “his long home,” Ecclesiastes 12:5.)

The last clause, which literally runs, they call in their names upon lands, is by some explained (see Isaiah 44:5) to mean, “they are celebrated in their lands,” which suits the text followed by the LXX.

Verse 12

Verse 13

(13) This their way—i.e., the folly mentioned in the (amended) preceding verse, and described in Psalms 49:11.

Is their folly—i.e., is a way of folly.

Verse 14

(14) Like sheep they are laid in the grave.—Rather, like a flock for sheol they are arranged; death is their shepherd. While planning for a long life, and mapping out their estates as if for a permanent possession, they are but a flock of sheep, entirely at the disposal and under the direction of another, and this shepherd is death. Comp. Keble’s paraphrase.

“Even as a flock arrayed are they

For the dark grave; Death guides their way,

Death is their shepherd now.”

The rendering, “feed on them,” is an error. The rest of the verse as it stands is quite unintelligible. Among the many conjectured emendations, the best is (Burgess) to point the verb as the future of yârad, and render, “and the upright shall go down to the grave amongst them (i.e., amongst the ungodly) until the morning” (for the last words compare Deuteronomy 16:4), when in contrast to the wicked they shall see light (Psalms 49:20).

Adopting this emendation, a new force is lent to the next two clauses, which have puzzled modern commentators, as they did the ancient translators (LXX., “their help shall grow old in hell from their glory.”) By a slight change of points and accents, and taking mizbul as a derivative noun equivalent to zebul (so also Grätz), we get, “Their beauty (is) for corruption; sheol (is) its dwelling,” i.e., all, wise and unwise, good and bad, must descend to the under world (Psalms 49:11), so that the upright accompany the wicked thither, and it becomes the dwelling-place of their beauty, i.e., their bodies.

Verse 15

(15) But God will.—Better, But God shall redeem my life from the hand of sheol when it seizes me. Taken by itself, this statement might only imply that when just at the point of death, the Divine favour would draw him back and rescue him. But taken with the rendering given above to the previous verse, we must see here the dim foreshadowing of a better hope, that death did not altogether break the covenant bond between Jehovah and His people, a hope to which, through the later psalms and the book of Job, we see the Hebrew mind feeling its way. (Comp. Psalms 16:10; and see Note to Psalms 6:5.)

Verse 16-17

(16, 17) After expressing his own hopes of escaping from death, or being rescued from corruption, the psalmist recurs to the question of Psalms 49:5, and completes the answer to it. He need not fear, however prosperous and wealthy his adversaries become, for they will die, and, dying, can take none of their possessions with them.

Verse 18

(18) Though, while he lived. . . .—This is abundantly illustrated by our Lord’s parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:19; comp. Deuteronomy 29:19).

And men will.—Rather, and though men praise thee, &c. “Although prosperity produces self-gratulation, and procures the homage of the world as well, yet,” &c

Verse 19

(19) They shall never.—Better, who will never again look on the light, i.e., “never live again,” implying, in contrast, a hope of a resurrection for the upright. (See Note Psalms 49:14.)
50 Psalm 50
Introduction

L.

The one great corruption to which all religion is exposed is its separation from morality, and of all religions that of Israel was pre-eminently open to this danger. It was one of the main functions of the prophetical office to maintain the opposite truth—the inseparable union of morality with religion. This psalm takes rank with the prophets in such a proclamation. It makes it under a highly poetical form, a magnificent vision of judgment, in which, after summoning heaven and earth as His assessors, God arraigns before Him the whole nation, separated into two great groups; sincere but mistaken adherents to form; hypocrites, to whom religious profession is but a cloak for sin. The rhythm is fine and fairly well sustained.

Title.—Asaph was a Levite, son of Berachiah, and one of the leaders of David’s choir (1 Chronicles 6:39). He was also by tradition a psalm writer (2 Chronicles 29:30, Nehemiah 12:46). It is certain, however, that all the psalms ascribed to Asaph (73-83) were not by the same hand, or of the same time (see Introduction to Psalms 74); and, as in the case of the Korahite psalms, probably the inscription, “to Asaph,” only implies the family of Asaph, or a guild of musicians bearing that name (1 Chronicles 25:1; 2 Chronicles 20:14; Ezra 2:41).

Verse 1

(1) The mighty God, even the Lord.—Heb., El Elohîm, Jehovah, a combination of the Divine names that has been very variously understood. The Authorised Version follows the rendering of Aquila and Symmachus. But the Masoretic accents are in favour of taking each term as an appellative. Hitzig objects that this is stiff, but it is so on purpose. The poet introduces his vision of judgment in the style of a formal royal proclamation, as the preterite tenses also indicate. But as in this case it is not the earthly monarch, but the Divine, who is “Lord also of the whole earth,” the range of the proclamation is not territorial, “from Dan even unto Beersheba,” as in 2 Chronicles 30:5, but is couched in larger terms, “from sunrise to sunset,” an expression constantly used of the operation of Divine power and mercy. (Comp. Psalms 103:12; Psalms 113:3; Isaiah 41:25; Isaiah 45:6.)

Verse 2

(2) Perfection of beauty—i.e., Zion, because the Temple, the residence of Jehovah, was there. (Comp. Psalms 48:2; Lamentations 2:15; 1 Maccabees 2:12.)

Hath shined.—Comp. Psalms 80:1; Deuteronomy 33:2. A natural figure of the Divine manifestation, whether taken from the dawn or from lighting.

Verse 3

(3) Our God shall come . . . shall devour . . . shall be.—Better, comes . . . devours . . . is. The drama, the expected scene having been announced, now opens. The vision unfolds itself before the poet’s eye.

Verse 4

(4) He shall call.—Better, He calls. The poet actually hears the summons go forth calling heaven and earth as witnesses, or assessors (comp. Micah 6:2), of the judgment scene. (Comp. Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 32:1; Isaiah 1:2; Micah 1:2; 1 Maccabees 2:37.)

Israel, politically so insignificant, must have been profoundly conscious of the tremendous issues involved in its religious character to demand a theatre so vast, an audience so august.

Verse 5

(5) My saints.—This verse is of great importance, as containing a formal definition of the word chasîdîm, and so a direction as to its interpretation wherever it occurs in the Hebrew hymn book. The “saints” are those in the “covenant,” and that covenant was ratified by sacrifices. As often, then, as a sacrifice was offered by an Israelite, it was a witness to the existence of the covenant, and we are not to gather, therefore, from this psalm that outward acts of sacrifice were annulled by the higher spirit taught in it; they were merely subordinated to their proper place, and those who thought more of the rites that bore testimony to the covenant than of the moral duties which the covenant enjoined, are those censured in this part of the psalm.

Verse 6

(6) The heavens.—Here is an exceedingly fine touch. In obedience to the Divine summons the heavens are heard acknowledging the right of God to arraign the nations before Him in virtue of His moral sway. Render the verb in the present: And the heavens declare. The verse is adapted to Psalms 97:6.

In the language of modern thought, order and law in the physical world are an evidence of an ordered moral government, and the obedience of the unconscious stars to that sway which, as Wordsworth says, “preserves them from wrong,” is a challenge to man to submit himself consciously to the same will.

Verse 7

(7) Hear.—The actual judgment now opens, God asserting in impressive tones His right to preside: God, thy God, I . . . the Elohistic form of the more usual “Jehovah, thy God.”

Verse 8

(8) I will not . . .—Better, Not on account of thy sacrifices do I reprove thee, nor thy burnt offerings, which are always before me. This part of the nation is judged not for neglect of ritual, but for mistaken regard for it. (See Introduction to this psalm.)

As usual in such visions of judgment (comp. Matthew 25:32) the arraigned nation is separated into two classes when brought before the bar of the judge, and the better part is first reproved.

Verses 9-18

(9-18) Notice the fine tone of irony that pervades this rebuke, the best weapon against ritualistic errors.

Verse 10

(10) A thousand hills.—Literally, mountains of a thousand, an expression for which there is no analogy, but which might conceivably mean, “mountains where the cattle are by thousands;” but surely the LXX. and Vulg. are right here, in rendering “oxen” instead of “a thousand,” and we should read “hills of oxen.”

Verse 11

(11) Wild beasts.—Literally, that which moveth. (Comp. Psalms 80:13.)

Verse 14

(14) Offer.—Gratitude, and the loyal performance of known duties, are the ritual most pleasing to God. Not that the verse implies the cessation of outward rites, but the subordination of the outward to the inward, the form to the spirit. (See Psalms 51:17-19.)

Verse 16

(16) But.—The psalm here turns to address a worse class, those who, while undisguisedly wicked, shelter themselves under the name of the covenant.

What hast thou to do?—i.e., how darest thou?

Verse 18

(18) Thou consentedst with him—i.e., hast pleasure in. (Comp. Job 34:9.)

Verse 19

(19) Givest.—Literally, lettest loose.

Frameth.—Literally, weaves. So LXX. To weave snares is a common figure in all languages. Comp.

“My brain, more busy than the labouring spider,

Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies.”

SHAKSPERE: 2 Henry VI. .

Verse 20

(20) Sittest.—Rather, as in Psalms 10:8; Psalms 17:12, lurkest.

Slanderest.—Literally, givest a thrust; but, from the parallelism, used of words that often hurt more than blows.

Mother’s son.—In a country where polygamy was practised, this marks a closer relationship than the more general “brother” would do. (See Song of Solomon 1:6, Note.)

Verse 21

(21) The forbearance of God (intended to give room for repentance, Romans 2:4) is misconstrued. Men come to think the Divine Being as indifferent to evil as themselves.

That I was altogether.—We might render, that I was actually.

And set them in order.—The insertion of “them,” referring back to “these things,” is rather confusing. Better supply thine offences. All the sins of the wicked are marshalled before them.

Verse 23

(23) Offereth praise.—Better, sacrificeth thanksgiving, as in Psalms 50:14; the poet here sums up what he has previously said. This clause must therefore be considered as addressed to the sincere formalist, the next to the openly wicked.

To him that ordereth . . .—Literally, as the text stands, placeth his way, which is hardly intelligible. The version of Symmachus suggests the reading tam, instead of sam, “to him who walks uprightly.” But being plainly intended for the ungodly, we want in this clause some mention of amendment; and if the poet wrote shab, we get, literally, him who has turned his way, i.e., who has changed his course of life.