LECTURE II. PART I. The tone of mind proper to this inquiry.—We next consider Pss. cviii. and cix. which form a small group with Ps. cx. Ps. cix., however, may be reserved; it was placed where it is for a purely mechanical reason. Ps. cviii. is a compilation, made presumably under Simon the Maccabee.-The third of the three psalms specially set apart in Lecture I. is Ps. cxlix. This too is Maccabean, as internal evidence and coincidences with passages in Maccabees prove. A fit psalm for the first day of Nicanor.'-And does not this result involve the Maccabean date of other psalms? How can we separate Pss. cxlviii.-cl. ?— The word khasīdīm under certain conditions an evidence of date.-We now ask, Do any psalms in Books IV. and V. require to be dated before the Maccabees (or at any rate before Ezra)? Study the rest of the Hallel and of the Hallelujah psalms. Those groups have points of mutual contact, and were presumably arranged by Simon. But were all the psalms so old? Pss. cxiii. and cxiv. need not be, but post-Exile they must be on the internal and especially phraseological evidence. Pss. cxlvi. and cxlvii. are, at any rate, not older than Nehemiah, but still better suit the age of Simon. The Hallelujah psalms are all certainly either of the Persian or the Greek period. Pss. cxxxv. and cxxxvi. are probably Maccabæan. Pss. cxi. and cxii. go naturally with Ps. cxix. (early Greek?)---The 'Songs of Ascent,' a collection of psalms for the use of pilgrims. Their date discussed in much detail. They reflect the fluctuating fortunes of the Jews during the Persian and, perhaps, early Greek period.-Israel's third great captivity.— Historical value of the minor Psalter.' PART II.-Consideration of the remaining twenty-five psalms. Pss. ciii. and civ. are clearly contemporaneous with Pss. cv.-cvii. (see Hallelujah psalms). Ps. cix. more difficult. Why not Messianic. Psychological study of the poem. An Exilic date not probable, in spite of the parallels in the Book of Job. Marks of the Persian period (cf. Isa. xxxiv.).—Pss. cxxxviii.-cxlv. (‘Davidic '), within which Pss. cxl.-cxliii. form a minor group. Ps. cxli. certainly, Ps. cxxxviii. probably, Maccabean.-Date of Ps. cxxxix. singularly clear; perhaps early Greek.-We next pause at Ps. ci., which is most intelligible with a Maccabean background. A companion-piece to Ps. cx.-Why thirteen psalms in Books IV. and V. were assigned to David.-Ps. cxxxvii., why not early post-Exilic, but probably Maccabæan.-Ps. cii., why considerably older than the Maccabees; strikingly illustrates Neh. iv. 3. Historical significance of this.-The 'heptad of new songs' (xciii. and xcv.-c.). Not much later than the Second Isaiah.-Pss. xci., xcii., xciv. are all Persian; Ps. xciv. from the troublous times of Artaxerxes Ochus.-Ps. xc., why not Mosaic.-How to account for the title. When was the psalm written? Phraseological evidence and the character of the ideas bring it very near the reorganization of the church-people. PART I. ANALYSIS OF BOOKS IV. AND V. CONTINUED. THE 90th psalm is not the starting-point but the goal of my present lecture. Its solemn' opening words, however, strike a note to which I fervently hope to be true throughout the course of this inquiry. In my previous lecture I began the analysis of Books IV. and V., which form a small psalter in themselves. I determined the period of Pss. cxv.-cxviii. and cx., our first Maccabæan psalms, and showed that the prince referred to in Ps. cx. was most probably Simon the Maccabee. The question now arises, May we assume, on the analogy of Ps. cxviii., that the psalms which appear to belong to the same small group with Ps. cx. were composed in the Maccabæan period? These psalms are cviii. and cix. The latter psalm may be at once set aside for future consideration. The tone is absolutely opposed to that of the Maccabæan age. A reason for placing it before Ps. cx. was suggested by the catchword in the last verse, 'For he standeth at the right hand of the needy,' which leads on to the in Ps. cx. I. But Ps. cviii. (the only Elohistic psalm in the collection) was presumably compiled from the so-called Davidic Psalms, lvii. (vv. 8-12) and lx. (vv. 7-14), under Simon the Maccabee, and is a fitting introduction to Ps. cx. Let us pause next at Ps. cxlix., than which no poem in the Psalter is more clearly Maccabæan. This is no hymn of universal benevolence, like Pss. lxxxvi. and cxlv. The members of the great conspiracy against Israel and his God deserve no better fate than that of Midian and of Sisera (v. 9, cf. lxxxiii. 10-13). They are the 'peoples that delight in wars' (lxviii. 31); it remains for the 'friends of God,' however averse to it by nature, to seize the two-edged sword, and, lifting a song of praise, to advance to battle (v. 6). Is this poetry or history? It is both. Notice the unsought coincidence of v. 6 with 2 Macc. xii. 37, 1 Macc. iv. 33, and 2 Macc. xv. 26, 27. Can there be much doubt that the psalm expresses the national rejoicing, not at the return from Babylon, but at the victories of Judas the Maccabee, more especially (cf. p. 178, note) his last victory over Nicanor at Adasa in March 161? That was a high festival day when the conquerors entered the city and joined the anxious holiday makers in the feast of Purim. Well may this psalm have been sung when the 'day of Nicanor' was first kept in memory of this great salvation (1 Macc. vii. 49, 2 Macc. xv. 36).a But does not the Maccabæan date of this psalm carry with it that of others? Read Pss. cxlviii. and cxlix. together, and especially compare cxlviii. 14 with cxlix. I, and you will agree with me that the two psalms cannot be separated in date. And now it is time to say why, although in itself the term khasidim (pious ones,' 'friends of God') is not distinctively Maccabean, yet, taken in connexion with other exegetical phenomena which point to the Maccabean age, it steps at once into importance as an evidence of the first value. In the Maccabæan rising khasidim ('Aoidaîoi) was the name given to those 'mighty (or, perhaps, capable) men' who joined the volunteer Church Army under the aged Mattathias, and 'smote sinful men in their anger and lawless men in their wrath' (I Macc. ii. 44). Judged by a modern standard they may be found wanting. Dean Stanley complains that 'their obstinate foolhardiness vexed the great soul, and their narrow selfishness cost the life of Judas.' But it was a passionate love of the sacred deposit of pure religion which animated them, and if they took umbrage at the treaty between Judas and the Romans, it must be admitted that this alliance was in flagrant contradiction to the traditions of the higher religion. It was not to renew the ideal kingship of David that they had taken the sword, and 'the lofty hymns divine' which were 'in their throat' were inspired far less by the slaughter of God's enemies than by His wondrous and adorable perfections (cxlviii.). They sing for joy, not only upon the field of battle, but in the recovered sanctuary, where Simon, as it would appear, reorganized the service of song in a nobler style. Jewish Church, iii. 333. 1 There it was that 'Hallelujah' was understood in its full significance as the song of creation's priest to creation's God (Ps. cl.). Consistency requires us to make Ps. cl. contemporaneous in origin with its two predecessors. And now see how these closing psalms confirm the view which we have taken of Ps. cx. Comparing Ps. cxlix. 7 with Ps. cx. 5, is it not clear that the writers regard the Jewish victories which they have witnessed as the beginning of a world-judgment, the agents in which will be the true Israelites (cf. Dan. vii. 26); in short, that both psalms are germinally Messianic? Next observe that in Ps. cx. 3 we have the remarkable phrase, 'Thy people are self-devotion;' but we do not find anywhere in Ps. cx. that distinctively Maccabæan term (which occurs in Pss. cxlviii. 14, cxlix. 1, 5) khasidim. That is true; but notice the definition of khasidim given in 1 Macc. 2 ii. 43, every one that freely devoted himself for the law.' d Does not this at once explain the concise phrase in Ps. cx. 3. and show that it is really synonymous with 'Thy people are khasidim'? Is not the case for the contemporaneousness of these psalms reasonably complete? And if one of them be Maccabæan, must not the others be so too? I now advance a step, and inquire, Are there any psalms in these two books which require to be dated before the Maccabæan period, or at any rate before that promulgation of the Law without which the Maccabæan heroes would have had nothing to fight for? Take the larger groups to which Pss. cxv.-cxviii. and cxlviii.-cl. respectively belong, one of which (Pss. cxiii.-cxviii.) is called the Hallel or the Egyptian Hallel, and the other (Pss. cxlvi.-cl.) the Hallelujah psalms. Both groups' present phraseological and other linguistic points of mutual contact. It is highly probable that the arrangement of both goes back to the time of Simon; 2 but of course it does not follow from this that all the psalms were new. Pss. cxiii. and cxiv. have affinities with the great body of literature, partly lyric, partly prophetic, which was called forth by Israel's second wonderful deliverance from foreign bondage. They can hardly be earlier, and may be even later, than Ezra's and Nehemiah's time. Pss. cxlvi. and cxlvii. are at any rate not 'See Ehrt, Abfassungszeit und Abschluss des Psalters, p. 83. E products of an earlier period; one could easily prove this, granting critical principles, from the literary and linguistic evidence. The only question is whether the fortification of Jerusalem referred to in cxlvii. 2, 13, is that which was celebrated in B.C. 444 (Neh. xii. 27), or that in B.C. 142 (see I Macc. xiv. 37). It would be delightful to know some. of the psalms with which Nehemiah's dedication-feast was celebrated. Still we must not be too confident. The picture in Ps. cxlvii. may possibly be true to the facts of the great governor's time, but it corresponds almost more strikingly with the age of Simon.h The reference to the law (vv. 19, 20) agrees equally well with both periods. At any rate, it is certain that these psalms received their full meaning when Simon reorganized the arrangements of the temple. Not without some reason did a noble pioneer of modern Jewish scholarship-Nachman Krochmal-call Pss. cxlvi.-cl. the Greek Hallel, because it was collected, if not entirely composed, in the Greek period. At the same time it must be remembered that Pss. cxiii.-cxviii. (of whose title 'the Egyptian Hallel' Krochmal was thinking) have an equal claim to this appellation. Let us now extend our range of inquiry to the rest of the poems which are in the widest sense Hallelujah psalms. There are altogether seventeen which have a right to this designation, because they all bear on the front the formula hallelu Jah, 'praise ye Jehovah.' The remaining psalms of this large group are cv., cvi., cvii., cxi., cxii., cxxxv., and cxxxvi. The two last are undoubtedly the least original in the whole Psalter, and some perhaps may doubt whether an age so full of inspiration as the Maccabæan could have produced them. But that Pss. cxxxv. and cxxxvi. are dependent upon Maccabæan psalms (the one upon Ps. cxv. and the other on Ps. cxviii.), is certain, and why may not the authorities, even in this stirring period, have had the practical wisdom to employ some less gifted persons to produce a few plain hymns for liturgical use?! Pss. cv. and cvi. must have belonged to the temple Psalter at the end of the Persian period, for they contribute to the imaginary psalm in 1 Chron. xvi. 7-36; in other words, are not Maccabæan. But we can go further than this. The trilogy which they form |