GOD'S WORKS OF CREATION

27These all wait for thee,

That thou mayest give them their food in due season.

28 Thou givest to them, they gather it;

Thou openest thy hand, they are well satisfied. 29Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled;

Thou takest away their breath, they die.'

30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created;
And thou renewest the face of the ground.m

31Let the glory of Jehovah endure forever;
Let Jehovah rejoice in his works,

32 Who looketh on the earth, and it trembleth,

He toucheth the mountains, and they smoke.

33I will sing to Jehovah as long as I live;

I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.

34 Let my meditation be sweet to him;

I will find my joy in Jehovah.

35 Bless, Jehovah, O my soul."

II

JEHOVAH'S LOVING PROVISIONS FOR MAN

II Sam. 2, Pss. 365-12, 65, 14412-15, 103, 139

§ 96. Jehovah's Care for His People, I Sam. 2

I Sam. 2 1bMy heart exulteth in Jehovah,

My horn is exalted through my God.b
My mouth exulteth over mine enemies,

I rejoice in the deliverance thou hast wrought.
2Ford there is none holy like Jehovah,"

110429 A scribe familiar with Ecc. has added and return to the dust.

m 10430 I. e., as at creation thou dost cause the earth to be covered with living things.

n 10431-34. 350 This closing refrain was probably added to adapt the ps. to liturgical use. Maccabean scribe has also added:

Let sinners be consumed out of the earth,
And let the wicked be no more.

A

These lines reflect an entirely different spirit from that which pervades the ps. and reveals the point of view of the Maccabean age, for sinners probably refers to the foes of the Jews.

$96 This poem does not fit in the mouth of Hannah, for it is a national rather than an individual ps. A later editor placed it in the Samuel history because of the allusion in se to "the barren that hath borne seven.' The reference does not apply to Hannah but is rather a common Semitic figure of prosperity. The reference in 10 is apparently to a messianic king. The absence of such allusions in the literature following the deposition of Zerubbabel after the rebuilding of the second temple in 516 B.C. and the prominence of those hopes in the years immediately preceding favor the conclusion that this ps. comes from the days of hopefulness and keen expectancy immediately following the stirring sermons of Haggai in 520 B.C. On the other hand, the references to the godly, the afflicted, and the arrogant point to a date nearer the middle of the Persian period. In any case the ps. is probably post-exilic. Its style is simple and direct. Its faith is strong and its teachings resemble those of the book of Proverbs. Its influence on the Magnificat is obvious. Cf. Lk. 148-53

21 Cf., for the same figure, Ps. 9210. The horn was the symbol of the power to accomplish. b21 So Gk., Luc., Lat., and many MSS. Heb., in Jehovah.

21 Lit., is enlarged. Cf. Is. 574.

d22 So Gk. and Luc. In the Heb. the for has been transposed to the second line.

22 Following the text suggested by the Gk. and Luc., which is strongly supported by the parallelism and metrical structure. Heb., for there is none beside thee.

In his

care
for all
created
things

May
he find
pleasure

in his
creation

Praise to Jehovah

Warning

to opposers

Jehovah's just rule

His care

for his

people

There is none righteous like our God,
And there is no Rock beside thee.

'Do not go on speaking haughtily,'
Nor let arrogance come from your mouth,
For a God of knowledge is Jehovah,
And by him actions are weighed."
"The bow of the mighty is broken,
But the weak are girded with strength.
"The sated hire themselves out for food,
While the famished cease from toil;i
For the barren hath borne seven,
And the mother of many mourneth.

"Jehovah killeth and giveth life,

Bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth up.
'Jehovah maketh poor and maketh rich,
Bringeth low and also setteth on high,
"He raiseth the poor from the dust,

From the dunghill he raiseth up the needy,

He maketh them sit with the nobles of the people,
And assigneth them an honorable place.

"The feet of his godly ones will he guard,'
But the wicked shall perish in darkness,
For by strength a man is not mighty.
10 Jehovah will shatter his enemies,m

Upon them will he thunder in the heavens."
Jehovah will judge the whole earth;°

He will give strength to his king,

And will exalt the horn of his anointed.

123 So Gk. The Heb. has an unnecessary repetition which is out of harmony with the regular metrical structure of the poem.

23 The standard Heb. text is probably corrupt. It might read, And evil actions are not right, lit., adjusted (to the standard). The marginal reading and a slightly corrected Heb. text give the above reading. This text may have been before the translators of Gk, and Luc., which read, a God who weigheth actions. The meaning at least is the same.

b24 Lit., those who stumble.

125 Slightly correcting the corrupt Heb. Gk. and Luc., earth.
128 Lit., causes them to inherit.
28 The lines:

For the pillars of the earth are Jehovah's,
And he hath set the world upon them,

are not found in the Gk. and break the close sequence of thought between the preceding line and. It seems clear, therefore, that they are a later addition, as is also the corresponding Gk. rendering,

Granting the prayer to the one who prays,

And blessing the righteous with years.

The latter evidently aimed to adapt the ps. to its present literary setting.

129 This line is lacking in the Gk. and Luc. It may also be a later addition.

m 210 Correcting the Heb. with the aid of the Gk.

210 Gk., He hath gone up into the heavens and thundered. A possible correction of the text reads, The Almighty in heaven will destroy them.

210 Lit., ends of the earth.

JEHOVAH'S LOVE AND GOODNESS

§ 97. Jehovah's Boundless Love and Goodness, Ps. 365-12

Ps. 36 Thy lovingkindness, O Jehovah, is in the heavens,
Thy faithfulness reacheth to the skies,

"Thy righteousness is like the mighty mountains,
Thy judgments are like the great deep.

Thou preservest man and beast."

His good

ness

and justice

How precious is thy lovingkindness, O God!

And men trust in the shadow of thy wings.

"They are fully satisfied with the rich things of thy house,"
And thou makest them drink of thy river of delights;
"For with thee is the fountain of life,

And in thy light shall we see light.

100 continue thy lovingkindness to those who know thee,
And thy righteousness to the upright in heart.
"Let not the foot of pride come against me,

And let not the hand of transgressors drive me forth.
12There have the workers of iniquity fallen,

They are cast down and are unable to arise.

§ 98. Jehovah's Goodness Revealed in His Mercy to Man and in His Plenteous Provision for His Needs, Ps. 65

Ps. 65 1A song of praise is befittingt for thee, O Jehovah," in Zion, And to thee shall the vow be paid, 20 thou hearer of prayer.

All flesh shall come to thee 3on account of their sins;

Yea, though our transgressions have been too great for us, thou, indeed, wilt forgive them.

His bountiful provision for

man

Prayer that it

may

con

tinue

to those who trust

him

Man's gratitude

due for divine

forgive

ness

and

'Happy is the man whom thou choosest and bringest near to dwell in thy favor courts!

We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, the holiness of thy temple.

§ 97 Two very different themes are treated in Ps. 36. In 14 is found a wisdom ps. describing the thoroughly bad man. Cf. 181. Possibly a later editor combined the two in order to bring into clear contrast Jehovah's goodness and man's perverseness. The feeling of satisfaction and thanksgiving expressed in 5-9 points to the latter part of the Persian period, when Nehemiah's work had brought prosperity to the Jewish community. Possibly 12 is a later Maccabean addition. P 365 This vs. is quoted in 5710 and echoed in 108.

9366 Lit., mountains of El.

366 The Heb. adds Jehovah, but it destroys the regular metre of the vs. and is superfluous. Possibly this line is secondary.

368 Lit., the fatness of thy house, as in 236 and elsewhere in the pss., the faithful are thought of as the guests of Jehovah. The river of delight or pleasures is evidently the river of Eden. Ezek. 47-5 and Zech. 148 picture a life-giving stream issuing from the temple.

§ 98 The symmetry of this beautiful ps. has been obscured by the vs. division to which it was subjected in the middle ages. It is written in the emotional five-beat measure by a poet who, like the author of Ps. 23, was keenly appreciative of the privilege of worshipping in Jehovah's temple. Song service and vows are regarded by men as the gifts most pleasing to God. The figure of the earth watered by irrigation, in 3. 10, suggests that he was familiar with the agricultural methods of either Babylonia or Egypt. The universal outlook in also points to a post-exilic date. contains echoes of the II Is. The background of the ps. is bright and hopeful. It comes either from the latter part of the Persian or the earlier part of the Gk. period.

651 Lit., is like to thee, i. e., befits.

Vs. 8

For the

proofs

of God's

power

in na

ture

And for giving fertility

to the land

The domestic bliss

And

material prosperity

Of the nation

that

trusts

God

His provisions for man's every need

"By terrible things thou answerest us in righteousness, O God of our salvation;

Thou that art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, of the coast lands and the distant people,

Χ

"Who establisheth the mountains by his strength, being girded with might,
"Who stilleth the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves.
They also who dwell at the ends of the earth fear thy signs,
The outgoings of the morning and evening sing joyously of thee."

"Thou visitest the earth and waterest it, thou greatly enrichest it,
With the river of God, which is full of water, thou providest their grain,
For so thou, O Jehovah, dost prepare it, 1osaturating its furrows.
Thou settlest its ridges, making it soft with showers,

Thou blessest its growth, thou "crownest the year with thy goodness,
And thy paths drip with fatness; 12the pastures of the wilderness drip,
And the hills are girded with joy; they are clothed with lambs;
The valleys also are covered over with grain; they rejoice and they sing.

§ 99. The Blessedness of Jehovah's People, Ps. 14412-15

Ps. 144 12Our sons are like saplings in the full strength of their youth;
Our daughters are as corner pillars, fitly carved for a palace.

13Our garners are full, affording all kinds of store,

Our sheep are bringing forth thousands, ten thousands in our fields,
14Our cattle are with young, there are no miscarriages,

There are no goings forth to war nor outcries in our streets.

15Happy the people when they have it so !

Happy the people, when Jehovah is their God!

§ 100. Jehovah's Superlative Goodness to Man, Ps. 103

Ps. 103 'Bless Jehovah, O my soul,

And all within me, bless his holy name.

655 Revising the text with Wellhausen.

657 A scribe has added the clause, and the tumult of the peoples. It or the preceding clause is secondary, for together they destroy the metre and the figure.

65 Probably an allusion to the song services at sunrise and sunset.
658 Restoring the last part of this line as the parallelism suggests.

to be that all peoples, east and west, unite in Jehovah's praise.
65 Adding Jehovah, required to complete the measure.

The thought appears

66510 Supplying the with required in English to bring out the logical meaning. The figure of irrigated fields runs through 9. 10.

6512 A scribe has added the flock.

§ 99 This supplement to the prayer in 1441-11 has no connection with its context and is, beyond reasonable doubt, a fragment from an independent ps. It breathes the peace and contentment of the Maccabean period.

d14412 A scribe has added, in order to connect this ps. with the preceding, the relative which. § 100 This ps. comes from the school of the wise. It is a meditation as well as a prayer of adoration. Its appreciation of Jehovah's character and attitude toward men, its childlike, filial trust, and its faith in his universal kingdom and rule all connect it closely with the teachings of Jesus. Here is the atmosphere in which the Master Builder of Nazareth was reared, and here is the heart of that universal message which made him the Saviour of men. The dependence upon Jer., II Is., and Ps. 905. 6, the Aram. words, the didactic note, and the hopeful yet not arrogant spirit of the ps. indicate that it probably comes from the Gk. period.

JEHOVAH'S GOODNESS

2Bless Jehovah, O my soul,

And forget not all his benefits,

"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,

Who healeth all thy diseases,

4Who redeemeth thy life from the grave,1

Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies,

"Who satisfieth thy mouths with good things,

So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.h

"Jehovah is a doer of righteous acts,

And of judgment for all who are oppressed.
'He kept making known his ways to Moses,
His deeds to the children of Israel.

Jehovah is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and abundant in mercy.
"He doth not always strive;

Nor doth he restrain his anger forever.

1oHe hath not dealt with us according to our sins,

Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

"For as the heavens are high above the earth,

So great is his lovingkindness toward those who fear him.

12 As far as the east is from the west,

So far doth he remove our transgressions from us.

13 Like as a father' pitieth his children,

So Jehovah pitieth those who fear him. 14For he, indeed, knoweth our frame;

He remembereth that we are dust.k

15 Frail man-his days are as grass;

As a blossom of the field, so he blossometh;1
16 For the wind passeth over it and it is gone;
And the place thereof knoweth it no more."
17But the lovingkindness of Jehovah is everlasting,"
And his righteousness to children's children,
18To those who faithfully keep his covenant,
And remember his precepts to do them.

1033 Lit., maketh light of, tosseth aside.

11034 I. e., from death; lit., the Pit.

1035 Gk. and Lat., thy desire. Late Jewish rendering, mouth.

b 1035 Cf., for this figure, Is. 4031.

1036 Lit., judgments.

103 For the further use of the figure of father, cf. Ex. 42, 3, Hos. 1114. k10314 I. e., that we are made of dust, Gen. 27.

110315 With Briggs, bringing out the assonance of the Heb.

m 10316 Taken from Job 710.

10317 A scribe has added in the Heb., from 11, to those who fear him. The same scribe possibly added 18, for it lacks the metrical symmetry of the rest of the ps. and limits the universality of the passage. It also defines piety in the restricted, late priestly sense. Vas. 19 ff. are the immediate logical sequel of 17. The same scribe has added Jehovah at the beginning of 19, although it destroys the metrical symmetry of the line and was made necessary only by the insertion of 18.