THE PSALMS

BOOK II

Psalms 42-72

THE SECOND BOOK OF PSALMS

The Second and Third Books (Psalms 42-89) form the second principal division of the Psalter. The greater part of it (Psalms 42-83) is known as the ‘Elohistic’ collection, because the appellative Elôhîm, ‘God,’ is employed throughout it in the place and almost to the exclusion of the proper name Jehovah, A.V. ‘Lord’ or ‘God.’ This peculiarity is due, in all probability, to the hand of the editor who made the collection by combining a selection of Psalms taken from three sources: (1) a collection of Psalms preserved and used by the Levitical family or guild of the Korahites: (2) a collection bearing the name of David: (3) a collection bearing the name of Asaph, and probably preserved in the family or guild of Asaph. To the Elohistic collection is attached an appendix containing Psalms taken from the Korahite hymnary and other sources, which have not been altered by the Elohistic editor. This collection, perhaps at first without, and afterwards with, the appendix, was probably at one time in circulation as a separate book. See Introd. pp. liii ff.

The first seven Psalms in Book ii (if we reckon 42 and 43 as one) are described in their titles as of the sons of Korah. This rendering of the R.V. is certainly to be preferred to that of the A.V. for the sons of K., which is explained to mean that these Psalms were delivered to the Korahites to be set to music and performed; and the title indicates in all probability (see p. xxix) that the Psalms bearing it were taken from a collection bearing some such name as “The Book of the Songs of the Sons of Korah.”

Korah was the grandson of Kohath and great-grandson of Levi. When he perished for the part which he took in the famous rebellion against Moses, his family escaped (Numbers 16; Numbers 26:11), and his descendants held important offices.

Korahites acted as sentinels of the camp of the Levites; they were warders of the sacred Tent erected by David[18]; and to them was assigned the office of porters or door-keepers of the Temple, which they resumed after the Return from Babylon (1 Chronicles 9:17 ff; 1 Chronicles 26:1 ff.; Nehemiah 11:19)[19].

[18] It is uncertain whether the Korahites who joined David at Ziklag (1 Chronicles 12:6) belonged to the Levitical family, or to that of the Judahite Korah settled at Hebron (1 Chronicles 2:43).

[19] It is doubtful whether Psalm 84:10 is really, as has been supposed, an allusion to this important office. See note on the passage.

Korahites were also connected with the service of sacred song in the Temple. Heman, one of David’s three principal musicians, was a Korahite (1 Chronicles 6:31-33), and his sons were the leaders of fourteen out of the twenty-four courses of Temple musicians (1 Chronicles 25:4 ff.).

There is an allusion to them as singers in the history of the reign of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:19), but in the post-exilic period they are only mentioned as door-keepers and not as musicians. Jehuel and Shimei, two of Heman’s descendants, are named in 2 Chronicles 29:14 as taking part in Hezekiah’s reformation.

The common characteristics of the Korahite Psalms have been somewhat exaggerated. The collection includes, as we should expect a Levitical collection to do, Psalms which breathe a spirit of strong devotion to the Temple, and heartfelt delight in its services (Psalms 42-43; Psalms 84), and Psalms which celebrate with enthusiastic pride the praise of Jerusalem as “the city of God,” which He has chosen for His own abode, and in which He reigns as King (46, 47, 48, 87). But these thoughts are not confined to these Psalms[20]; and other features have been pointed out as peculiar, which do not amount to distinctive characteristics common to these Psalms as a group, or which, as in the case of the Divine names, are due to the editor, not to the original authors[21].

[20] See e.g. for the first, Psalms 63, 65; for the second, Psalms 24.

[21] Thus though Jehovah Tsebâôth occurs six times in Korahite Pss. (Psalm 46:7; Psalm 46:11; Psalm 48:8; Psalm 84:1; Psalm 84:3; Psalm 84:12) and only once besides in the Psalter (Psalm 24:10), it is only found in three out of eleven Psalms, and of these two (46, 48) are the work of the same poet. But in view of the alteration which the Divine names have undergone, it can hardly be distinguished from Jehovah Elôhîm Tsebâôth, which occurs not only in the Korahite Ps., Psalm 84:8, but in a Davidic Ps., Psalm 59:5, and an Asaphic Ps., Psalm 80:4; Psalm 80:19, which also has Elôhîm Tsebâôth (v. 7, 14), which can be nothing but the editorial equivalent Jehovah Tsebâôth. The peculiar Adonai Jehovah Tsebâôth in Psalm 69:6 is probably due to the editor: the form in Psalm 89:8 is not unfrequent in the prophets.

In fact the variety of thought and type in the Psalms included in this collection is more remarkable than their similarity. There are (1) personal Psalms, expressive of the most intense personal devotion (Psalms 42-43, 84), and, if 88 is included among the Korahite Psalms, a most pathetic prayer in a situation of the deepest distress: (2) national Psalms, of which one (Psalms 44) is a prayer in time of grave calamity, others (Psalms 46-48) are thanksgivings for a marvellous deliverance, another (85) is a combination of thanksgiving and prayer. (3) Psalms 45 is a congratulatory ode on the marriage of a king: Psalms 49 is a didactic poem, closely related (as is also Psalms 88) to the ‘Wisdom literature’: Psalms 87 breathes the largest spirit of prophetic universalism. The Korahite Psalms form in fact a strikingly representative selection, though, as might be expected, the public and national elements predominate.

As regards the date of these Psalms, the group included in the Elohistic collection should be distinguished from the Psalms in the appendix to it. Of the former (Psalms 42-49) some certainly belong to the time of the Monarchy (45, 46, 48); none are certainly later than the Fall of the Kingdom: of the latter, some may date from the time of the Monarchy, but one at least (85) is later than the Return.

Psalms 42, 43

These two Psalms form a connected poem, consisting of three equal stanzas, each ending with the same refrain. The same circumstances appear to lie in the background, and the tone, spirit, and language are the same throughout. The prayer of Psalms 43 is needed to supplement the complaint of Psalms 42.

It is possible that some interval of time separated the composition of Psalms 43 from that of Psalms 42, or even that they were the work of different poets, and that from the first they were separate poems; but it is far more probable that they are the work of the same poet, and that they originally formed one poem, which has been divided for liturgical or devotional purposes. This division is ancient, for it appears in the majority of Hebrew MSS., and in all Ancient Versions. In some MSS. the two Psalms appear to be united, but this may be due to the absence of any title to mark the beginning of Psalms 43. The absence of a title, however, indicates that the division was made after the formation of the Elohistic collection, in which all the Psalms, with the exception of this and 71, are furnished with titles. See Introd., p. liv.

The author of these Psalms was one who had been wont to conduct processions of pilgrims to the Temple for the great festivals with joyous songs of praise. But now he is forcibly debarred from going up to the worship of the sanctuary. He describes the locality where he is detained as “the land of Jordan and the range of Hermon,” the district in which the Jordan takes its rise from the roots of Hermon. “Mount Mizar” was doubtless some hill in the neighbourhood, though it cannot now be identified. He is surrounded by inhuman heathen enemies (Psalm 43:1), who continually taunt him with being deserted by his God (Psalm 42:3; Psalm 42:10; Psalm 43:2). His faith is sorely tried; but he is confident that he will soon be allowed once more to go up to Jerusalem, and join in the services of the sanctuary.

Who was he and when did he live? The inclusion of the Psalm in the Korahite collection makes it probable that he was a Korahite Levite; and this probability is confirmed by his enthusiastic love for the Temple services, by the part he was accustomed to take in the festal pilgrimages, and by his skill as a musician (Psalm 42:8; Psalm 43:4). The Temple was standing and its services were being regularly carried on. So far however as this Psalm is concerned there is nothing to shew whether it was written before or after the Exile. But its close connexion with Psalms 84 is in favour of assigning it to the earlier period. That Psalm presents such striking resemblances in tone and spirit, in language, and in structure, that it may well have been written by the same author under happier circumstances; and if v. 9 is understood (as it is most natural to understand it) as a prayer for the king, it must belong to the period of the monarchy. Psalms 63, and in a less degree Psalms 61, which belong to the same period, also present affinities. The coincidences with Joel (see notes on Psalm 42:1; Psalm 42:3, and cp. Psalm 84:6), and the use of the Psalm in the prayer of Jonah (see on Psalm 42:7), are noteworthy, but in the uncertainty as to the date of these books, throw no additional light on the question. The circumstances under which the Psalmist found himself debarred from going up to Jerusalem and exposed to the taunts of heathen conquerors might have happened at many different periods, in one of the Syrian or Assyrian invasions, or after the northern kingdom had ceased to exist.

More definite conjectures as to the date lack probability. Delitzsch attributes the Psalm to a Korahite Levite who accompanied David in his flight to Mahanaim, in Absalom’s rebellion (2 Samuel 15:24). But the Psalm contains no allusions to the circumstances of the rebellion; David was among sympathising friends, not among mocking heathen enemies; and Mahanaim was too distant from Hermon to suit the description of the locality in v. 6. Ewald thinks that the Psalm was written by Jehoiachin, as he halted for a night in the neighbourhood of Hermon on his way to exile in Babylon. But there is not the slightest hint that the Psalmist was a king: he does not appear to be an actual prisoner, or a mere temporary sojourner in the neighbourhood of Hermon: he expects soon to be able to go up to Jerusalem again, whereas Jehoiachin had nothing before him but the prospect of a lifelong captivity. Hitzig, followed so far as the date is concerned by Cheyne, attributes the Psalm to the high-priest Onias 3, whom he supposes to have been carried away prisoner by the Egyptian general Scopas, when after the capture of Jerusalem he marched northwards to be defeated by Antiochus the Great, near the source of the Jordan (Jos. Antiq. xii. 3. 3), in b.c. 199–198. But the inclusion of the Psalm in the Elohistic collection, to say nothing of the arguments already given for assigning the Psalm to the period of the monarchy, renders so late a date extremely improbable. See Intr. to Psalms 44.

Happily the poetic beauty and the devotional earnestness of the Psalm are independent of all doubts as to its date and authorship. It is a monument of the spirituality and the joyousness of the religion of Israel. If the writer yearns for renewed access to the earthly sanctuary, it is that in the appointed place and by the appointed means he may realise that communion with God which is the soul’s highest happiness. The Latin hymn Ut iucundas cervus undas (Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, No. lii) is a beautiful development of the theme of this Psalm.

The structure of the poem is symmetrical and artistic. It consists of three equal stanzas, each closed by the same refrain. Many of the lines fall into the peculiar ‘lamentation-rhythm.’

i. The yearning of the Psalmist’s soul for God strikes the keynote of the Psalm (Psalm 42:1-2): and in his present sorrow he finds sad comfort in the recollection of former happiness (Psalm 42:3-4).

ii. He describes his pitiable plight (Psalm 42:6-7); and recalling past mercies, expostulates with God for having abandoned him to the taunts of his foes (Psalm 42:8-10).

iii. He prays for deliverance from these enemies (Psalm 43:1-2), and restoration to the privileges of the sanctuary (Psalm 43:3-4).

In the refrain which closes each stanza faith rebukes despondency and hope triumphs over despair (Psalm 43:5).

On the title, which should be rendered, with R.V., For the Chief Musician; Maschil of the sons of Korah, see Introd. pp. xix, xxi, xxxiii, and p. 223.

1. As a hind which panteth for water-brooks,

So panteth my soul for Thee, O God.

Render hind, not hart, for the verb is feminine, and the timorous hind is the apter emblem for the soul. The parallel in Joel 1:20 (the only other instance of the verb) makes it clear that the figure is suggested by the sufferings of wild animals in a prolonged drought (cp. Jeremiah 14:5 f.), not by the hind “heated in the chase,” and deterred by the fear of its pursuers from descending into the valley to slake its thirst.

1, 2. The yearning of the Psalmist’s soul for communion with God.

2. thirsteth] Cp. Psalm 63:1; Amos 8:11-13. God, who is the living God, in contrast to dead impotent idols, is “the fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 17:13). With Him is “the fountain of life,” and He gives men drink from the stream of His delights (Psalm 36:8-9). The phrase for ‘living God’ (El chay) is found elsewhere only in Joshua 3:10; Psalm 84:2; Hosea 1:10. In Deuteronomy 5:26; 1 Samuel 17:26; 1 Samuel 17:36; 2 Kings 19:4; 2 Kings 19:16 (= Isaiah 37:4; Isaiah 37:17); Jeremiah 10:10; Jeremiah 23:36; the Heb. word for God is Elôhim.

appear before God] The regular formula for the stated visits to the Temple at the three great Festivals (Exodus 23:17; Psalm 84:7). Grammatical considerations however make it probable that here and in some other passages (e.g. Exodus 23:15; Exodus 34:20; Deuteronomy 31:11; Isaiah 1:12) we should read, by a simple change of the vowel-points, see the face of God. The usual phrase for admission to the presence of a superior (Genesis 43:3) was applied to visiting the sanctuary; but since man cannot literally see God (Exodus 33:20), it was supplemented by the synonymous phrase appear before God, which came to be generally adopted as more seemly in the traditional method of reading the consonantal text. But cp. Psalm 11:7 note; Psalm 17:15; Psalm 63:2.

3. my meat] Lit. my bread. Cp. Psalm 80:5; Psalm 102:4; Psalm 102:9. Tears take the place of his daily food. So Ovid, Metam. x. 75, “Cura dolorque animi lacrimaeque alimenta fuere.”

continually] Lit. all the day, and so in Psalm 42:10.

Where is thy God] Cp. Psalm 79:10; Psalm 115:2; Joel 2:17; Micah 7:10. The bitterest ingredient in his cup of sorrow is the taunt of the heathen that his plight demonstrates the impotence or indifference of the God Whom he serves.

3, 4. Present sorrow contrasted with past happiness.

4. This let me remember as I pour out my soul upon me,

How I was wont to pass on with the throng, leading them to the house of God,

With the voice of singing and thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.

He must needs give free course to his feelings, to the emotional part of his nature, as he thinks of the past. The renderings in me (A.V.) or within me (R.V.) miss the idiomatic force of the preposition which means upon me. The soul (as elsewhere the heart or the spirit) is distinguished from a man’s whole ‘self,’ and regarded as acting upon it from without. See Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology, pp. 179 ff. Cp. Psalm 42:5-6; Psalm 42:11, Psalm 43:5; Psalm 131:2; Psalm 142:3; Lamentations 3:20; Job 30:16; Jeremiah 8:18.

How I was wont to pass on. The tense denotes that it was his custom thus to conduct pilgrims to Jerusalem for the festivals. The joyousness of these processions was proverbial (Isaiah 30:29; cp. Psalm 35:10; Psalm 51:11).

But what is the connexion of thought? Is it that he indulges in the recollection of the past, as a luxury of grief, because “a sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things”? Or is it not rather that the retrospect is the best antidote to the sneers of the heathen? The God, in Whose service he once found such delight, cannot really have deserted him. The verse will then form the natural transition to Psalm 42:5. Cp. Psalm 42:6, and Psalm 77:11.

Leading them. The word is found elsewhere only in Isaiah 38:15. It seems to denote the slow and stately march of a solemn procession, and may be rendered as in R.V. marg. went in procession with them, or, with a slight change of vowels, taken transitively.

5. In this refrain the truer ‘self’ chides the weaker ‘soul,’ the emotional nature, for its despondency and complaint.

cast down] Bowed down as a mourner. Cp. Psalm 35:14; Psalm 38:6.

The resemblance of our Lord’s words in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:38; Mark 14:34) to the Sept. rendering of this verse, Why art thou exceeding sorrowful, O my soul? (ἵνα τί περίλυπος εἶ, ἡ ψυχή;) suggests that this Psalm may have been in His mind at the time; the more so as He appears to use the words of Psalm 42:6, which the Sept. renders, My soul is troubled (ἡ ψυχή μου ἑταράχθη), in a similar connexion upon another occasion (John 12:27). In view of this it is interesting to remember that the hart is a common emblem for our Lord in Christian art.

disquieted in me] Lit. moanest, or frettest upon me, the same idiom as in Psalm 42:4. Cp. Psalm 77:3; Jeremiah 4:19.

hope thou in God] Or, wait thou for God. Cp. Psalm 38:15; Psalm 39:7; Micah 7:7.

praise him] Or, give him thanks, as in past time (Psalm 42:4).

for the help of his countenance] This is the reading of the Massoretic Text. But the construction is peculiar, and the LXX and Syr. suggest that we ought to read here as in Psalm 42:11, and Psalm 43:5, (Who is) the help of my countenance and my God. But O my God should be retained at the beginning of Psalm 42:6, where it is needed[22]. The help (lit. salvations, the plur. denoting manifold and great deliverances, as in Psalm 28:8) of my countenance is a periphrasis for my help, facilitated by phrases like to look upon or turn away the face of a person (Psalm 84:9; Psalm 132:10).

[22] The error arose very simply from the transference of the ו from the beginning of ואלהי to the end of מני, so that מני ואלהי became מניו אלהי. Then אלהי was assumed to be merely an accidental repetition of אלהי at the beginning of Psalm 42:6, and dropped out.

6. Within me, or rather, as in Psalm 42:4, upon me, stands emphatically at the beginning of the sentence. His own feelings overwhelm him, and therefore he must turn to God, whose goodness he can call to mind, remote though he is from the place where God’s presence is specially manifested. He describes the place from which he speaks as the land of Jordan and the Hermons, probably the neighbourhood of Dan (Tell-el-Kadi) or Caesarea Philippi (Banias), where the Jordan rises from the roots of Hermon. The plural Hermons either denotes the Hermon range in general or refers to the three peaks in which Mount Hermon culminates. The hill Mizar or mount Mizar was probably some hill in the immediate neighbourhood of which he was[23]; perhaps some point whence he could command a view of the hills beyond the Jordan, over which he would fain be travelling to Jerusalem. Its name—the little mountain—may perhaps be meant to contrast its insignificance with the fame and splendour of God’s holy mountain where he desires to be (Psalm 43:3; Psalm 48:2).

[23] Prof. G. A. Smith notes that there are in the same neighbourhood “two or three names with the same or kindred radicals,” and suggests that they may be “a reminiscence of the name of a hill in this district.” Hist. Geogr. of the Holy Land, P. 477.

6–11. From self he turns to God and pleads his cause.

7. at the noise of thy waterspouts] Better, in the roar of thy cataracts. God is sending upon him one trouble after another. He is overwhelmed with a flood of misfortunes. The metaphorical language is derived from the surrounding scenery. The roar of the cataracts calling to one another from opposite sides of the valley is like the voice of one abyss of waters (Psalm 33:7 note) summoning another to break forth and join in overwhelming him. The torrents and eddies of the Jordan suggest the breakers and waves of calamity which have gone over his head. Tristram in describing Banias speaks of “the impetuous stream which has hewn out its channel in the black basalt,” and of the “wild medley of cascades and dashing torrents” everywhere (Land of Israel, p. 573). According to Robinson (Researches, iii. 405) “in the rainy season, and at the time of the melting of the snow on Hermon, an immense volume of water must rush down the chasm” below the ridge on which the castle stands. It might be supposed that the figure of breakers and waves must have been suggested by the sea, but no one who has seen mountain streams in spate will doubt that the words might refer to the Jordan in flood. The winter rainfall in Palestine is enormous. See Tristram’s Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 31.

Psalm 42:7 b is borrowed in Jonah’s prayer (Jonah 2:3).

8. According to the rendering of the A.V., retained by the R.V., this verse expresses the Psalmist’s confidence that he will soon again experience the favour of God, and give Him thanks for His goodness. But it is equally possible to render

In the day-time Jehovah used to give his lovingkindness charge concerning me,

And in the night his song was with me,

Even prayer unto the God of my life.

This rendering gives the best connexion of thought. The verse is a retrospect like Psalm 42:4, and is a further explanation of the ‘remembering God’ of which he speaks in Psalm 42:6. He contrasts the present, in which tears are his constant food (Psalm 42:3) and God’s indignation seems to be let loose upon him, with the past, in which God’s lovingkindness constantly watched over him, and glad songs of praise to Him were his constant companions. In the day-time and in the night, though divided between the two lines for rhythmical reasons, are to be connected together (= continually), and taken as referring equally to both clauses. Cp. Psalm 92:2. God’s lovingkindness, like His light and truth in Psalm 43:3, is almost personified as the Psalmist’s guardian angel.

Prayer denotes any form of communion with God—here predominantly thanksgiving. Cp. 1 Samuel 2:1; Habakkuk 3:1.

With the beautiful phrase the God of my life cp. Psalm 66:9; and Sir 23:1; Sir 23:4, “O Lord, Father and Master” (δέσποτα) of mylife”: … “Father and God of my life.”

The Lord] Contrary to the general rule in Book ii (Introd. p. lv.) the name Jehovah has been retained here; unless it is the insertion or alteration of a later editor.

9. I will say] Or, Let me say, the tense (voluntative, as in Psalm 42:4) emphatically expressing his resolution.

my rock] The word, lit. my cliff or crag (sela), is used of God as a refuge only in Psalm 18:2 (= 2 Samuel 22:2); Psalm 31:3 (=Psalm 71:3). On the more common word for rock (tsûr) see note on Psalm 18:2 (A.V. my strength).

The original edition of the A.V. (1611) has unto God, My rock, why; treating my rock as a vocative, with LXX and Jerome. Editions of 1612 and 1630 have God, my rock, why: and the usual punctuation God my rock, Why appears to have been introduced in editions of 1629, 1638. See Scrivener, Authorised Ed. of the English Bible, p. 165.

Why &c.] Not a demand for explanation, but the expostulation of perplexity. Cp. Psalm 13:1; Psalm 22:1; Psalm 77:9; Psalm 88:14.

mourning] Cp. Psalm 35:14, Psalm 38:6; Job 30:28.

because of the oppression of the enemy] Or, as R.V. marg. (cp. P.B.V.), while the enemy oppresseth. The substantive occurs in the Psalter only here and in Psalm 43:2; Psalm 44:24; the verb only in Psalm 56:1; Psalm 106:42. Both are used elsewhere, especially of the oppression of Israel by foreign invaders (Jdg 2:18; 1 Samuel 10:18; 2 Kings 13:4; Amos 6:14; &c.).

9–11. Having thus recalled God’s mercy in the past he expostulates with Him for having abandoned him, and exposed him to the sneers of his enemies.

10. My bones are smitten asunder with mine adversaries’ reproaches,

While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

Lit. with crushing in my bones do mine adversaries reproach me. They stab him to the heart with their taunts. ‘The bones,’ in the language of Hebrew poetry, denote the whole physical organism of the living man, as being the framework of it. They are the seat of pain; and mental torture affects the body. Cp. Psalm 6:2 (note); Lamentations 3:4; Isaiah 38:13.