HYMNS OF PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING

I. FOR JEHOVAH'S JUST AND GRACIOUS RULE

Pss. 9, 575, 7-11, 75, 113, 92, 107, 145, 33, 138

II. THANKSGIVING FOR JEHOVAH'S GUIDANCE AND CARE IN ISRAEL'S PAST

Pss. 105, 114, 111, 117

III. THANKSGIVING FOR RECENT NATIONAL DELIVERANCES Pss. 18, 661-12, 68, 76, 124, 126, 118

IV. THANKSGIVING FOR JERUSALEM AND THE TEMPLE Pss. 48, 84, 87

V. PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING FOR PERSONAL DELIVER

ANCES

Ps. 30, Jon. 22-9, Pss. 6613-20, 116

VI. LITURGICAL HYMNS

Pss. 811-5, 100, 115, 134, 135, 136, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150

HYMNS OF PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING

I

FOR JEHOVAH'S JUST AND GRACIOUS RULE

Pss. 9, 575, 7-11, 75, 113, 92, 107, 145, 33, 138

§ 52. Gratitude for the Evidences of Jehovah's Justice, Ps. 9

Ps. 9 1With my whole heart I give thanks to Jehovah,

I recount all thy marvellous deeds,

2I rejoice and exult in thee,

I sing praise, O Most High, to thy name,

Because my foes have turned back, a

They stumble and perish at thy presence.

"For thou hast maintained my right and my cause,

Thou didst sit on the throne judging righteously.

"Thou didst rebuke the heathen, thou didst destroy the wicked,

Psalms of Thanksgiving.—The distinction between the pss. of praise and thanksgiving and those of adoration and trust is not always clearly drawn. Although they are closely related, there is, however, a fundamental difference. The pss. of adoration voice the feelings of the psalmists as they contemplated the gracious character of Jehovah, revealed in the life of the nation, in nature, and in his care for mankind; while the pss. of praise and thanksgiving express the gratitude which the individual or nation felt for definite services performed by Jehovah in their behalf. In the pss. of praise and thanksgiving some national deliverance or signal experience is usually in the mind of the psalmist, or else they were written for liturgical use. As a rule, therefore, these pss. are more national and less individualistic than the pss. of adoration.

The Hebrews conceived of thanksgiving as a form of offering pleasing to Jehovah. It is often compared with sacrifice and other concrete forms of expressing allegiance to their divine King. The pleasure which Jehovah was thought to take in praise is suggested by Ps. 30':

What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit?

Can the dust praise thee, and make known thy faithfulness?

No one can question that there is an ultimate truth in this naïve, primitive conception. The infinite God does not depend for his joy upon the gratitude of mankind; but, from all analogies between the human and divine Father, there is reason to believe that he delights in the sincere thanks of his children and, above all, in that development in their character which comes from the spontaneous and joyous expression of the innate and yet divine impulse of gratitude.

52 This ps. bears the title, For the chief musician. To be sung by male soprano voices (following a revised text). Psalm of David. Originally Pss. 9 and 10 constituted one alphabetical Ps. 10 has no superscription in the Heb., and the two pss. are joined in Gk. texts. They were evidently divided for liturgical purposes. Only half the alphabetical strophes can now be clearly

ps.

distinguished. The metre also frequently changes from the three to the four-beat measure, indicating that the original poem has been recast, especially in vss. 7-10, 101-11, by a later editor. Many attempts have been made to recover the original acrostic ps., but the resulting text is only conjectural. The logical connection of thought does not always follow the alphabetical strophic division, so that in the above analysis the acrostic structure has been ignored.

The artificial structure of the ps. points to a post-exilic date. The wicked in the community are arrogantly persecuting the afflicted righteous, 102, and are uttering their sceptical taunts, as in the book of Mal. 313-15 Cf. 104. Jehovah is enthroned in his temple in Mount Zion. Evidently the background of this ps., like most of those in the first Davidic collection, is the discour aging days just before the appearance of Nehemiah.

93 The allusion is evidently to some definite event.

His just

rule

A

refuge

to the afflicted

Praise due him

Cry for deliver

ance

Retribution

Judgment and

vindication

Thou didst blot out their name for ever and ever.
"As for the foes-their swords have disappeared forever,
And the cities thou hast destroyed-their memory hath perished.

Behold, "Jehovah is enthroned forever,

He hath set up his throne for judgment;

"He it is who judgeth the world in righteousness,

He passeth judgment upon the peoples with equity.

'Jehovah is a refugee to the oppressed,

A place of refuge in times of distress,

10 And they who know thy name trust in thee,

g

For thou, O Jehovah, dost not forsake those who seek thee.

11 Make melody to Jehovah who is enthroned in Zion,
Among the peoples declare his deeds,

12 For he who avengeth bloodshed doth remember them,
He doth not forget the distressed cry of the afflicted.

13Be gracious to me, O Jehovah, see my affliction,
Thou who liftest me up from the gates of death,i
14In order that I may recite all thy praises,

That in the gates of Zionk I may exult in thy help.

15The proud' are sunk down in the pit they have made,
In the net which they hid their own feet are caught.
16 Jehovah hath made himself known by doing judgment;
By the work of their hands the wicked are trapped."

17The wicked shall surely go back to Sheol,
All the proud" who are forgetful of God;

18 For the poor are not forgotten forever,

Nor the hopes of the afflicted lost for all time.

b96 Heb., the foe, a collective noun representing all of Israel's foes and especially the early Canaanites.

96 So Gk., Syr., and several MSS. Heb., ruins. The above translation is also strongly supported by this parallelism.

d96 Heb., they, but a slight change gives the above.

.99 Lit., high, inaccessible place.

1910 Name in Heb. stands for the true self, the real character.

8910 Possibly Jehovah is a scribal addition.

b 912 Or, poor.

1913 The Heb. adds from those who hate me; but this fits very awkwardly in its context and appears to be a later explanatory gloss.

194 The Heb. has here the title of the pss.

his day.

k914 Lit., daughter of Zion.

Possibly the poet has in mind the pss. in use in

1915 Following Duhm (Psalmen, p. 30), in slightly correcting the text, as required by the context. Cf. 18. The Heb. has the more common word heathen. Possibly this is due to a Maccabean scribe.

916 The Heb. inserts at the end of this line, higgaion selah.

D917 Making the same slight correction in the Heb. as in 15, so that it reads proud instead of heathen. Here again the context supports the correction.