《Keil & Delitzsch Commentary – Psalms (Vol. 2)》(Karl F. Keil, etc.) 51 Psalm 51

64 Psalm 64
Introduction

invocation of Divine Protection against the Falseness of Men

Even Hilary begins the exposition of this Psalm with the words Psalmi superscriptio historiam non continetin order at the outset to give up allattempt at setting forth its historical connection. The Midrash observesthat it is very applicable to Daniel, who was cast into the lions' den by thesatraps by means of a delicately woven plot. This is indeed true; but onlybecause it is wanting in any specially defined features and cannot with anycertainty be identified with one or other of the two great periods ofsuffering in the life of David.

Verses 1-4

The Psalm opens with an octostich, and closes in the same way. Theinfinitive noun שׂיח signifies a complaint, expressed not by thetones of pain, but in words. The rendering of the lxx (here and in Psalm 55:3) is too general, åôùèåìåThe“terror” of the enemy is that proceeding from him (gen. obj. as in Deuteronomy 2:15, and frequently). The generic singular אויב is at once particularized in a more detailed description with the use of the plural. סוד is a club or clique; רגשׁה (Targumic = המון, e.g., Ezekiel 30:10) a noisy crowd. The perfects after אשׁר affirm that which they now do as they have before done; cf. Psalm 140:4 and Psalm 58:8, where, as in this passage, the treading or bending of the bow is transferred to the arrow. דּבר מר is the interpretation added to the figure, as in Psalm 144:7. That which is bitter is called מר, root מר, stringere, from the harsh astringent taste; here it is used tropically of speech that wounds and inflicts pain (after the manner of an arrow or a stiletto), πικροὶ λόγοι . With the Kal לירות (Psalm 11:2) alternates the Hiph. ירהוּ. With פּתאם the description takes a new start. ולא ייראוּ, forming an assonance with the preceding word, means that they do it without any fear whatever, and therefore also without fear of God (Psalm 55:20; Psalm 25:18).

Verse 5-6

The evil speech is one with the bitter speech in Psalm 64:4, the arrow which they are anxious to let fly. This evil speech, here agreement or convention, they make firm to themselves ((sibi)), by securing, in every possible way, its effective execution. ספּר (frequently used of the cutting language of the ungodly, Psalm 59:13; Psalm 69:27; cf. Talmudic ספּר לשׁון שׁלישׁי, to speak as with three tongues, i.e., slanderously) is here construed with ל of that at which their haughty and insolent utterances aim. In connection therewith they take no heed of God, the all-seeing One: they say (ask), quis conspiciat ipsis. There is no need to take למו as being for לו (Hitzig); nor is it the dative of the object instead of the accusative, but it is an ethical dative: who will see or look to them, i.e., exerting any sort of influence upon them? The form of the question is not the direct (Psalm 59:8), but the indirect, in which מי, seq. fut., is used in a simply future (Jeremiah 44:28) or potential sense (Job 22:17; 1 Kings 1:20). Concerning עולת, vid., Psalm 58:3. It is doubtful whether תּמּנוּ

(Note: תּמּנוּ in Baer's Psalterium is an error that has been carried over from Heidenheim's.)

is the first person (= תּמּונוּ) as in Numbers 17:13, Jeremiah 44:18, or the third person as in Lamentations 3:22 (= תּמּוּ, which first of all resolved is תּנמוּ, and then transposed תּמּנוּ, like מעזניה = מענזיה = מעזּיה, Isaiah 23:11). The reading טמנוּ, from which Rashi proceeds, and which Luther follows in his translation, is opposed by the lxx and Targum; it does not suit the governing subject, and is nothing but an involuntary lightening of the difficulty. If we take into consideration, that תּמם signifies not to make ready, but to be ready, and that consequently חפשׂ מחפּשׂ is to be taken by itself, then it must be rendered either: they excogitate knavish tricks or villainies, “we are ready, a clever stroke is concocted, and the inward part of man and the heart is deep!” or, which we prefer, since there is nothing to indicate the introduction of any soliloquy: they excogitate knavish tricks, they are ready - a delicately devised, clever stroke (nominative of the result), and (as the poet ironically adds) the inward part of man and the heart is (verily) deep. There is nothing very surprising in the form תּמּנוּ for תּמּוּ, since the Psalms, whenever they depict the sinful designs and doings of the ungodly, delight in singularities of language. On ולב (not ולב) = (אישׁ) ולב = ולבּו, cf. Psalm 118:14 .

Verses 7-10

Deep is man's heart and inward part, but not too deep for God, who knoweth the heart (Jeremiah 17:9.). And He will just as suddenly surprise the enemies of His anointed with their death-blow, as they had plotted it for him. The futt. consec. that follow represent that which is future, with all the certainty of an historical fact as a retribution springing from the malicious craftiness of the enemies. According to the accentuation, Psalm 64:8 is to be rendered: “then will Elohim shoot them, a sudden arrow become their wounds.” Thus at length Hupfeld renders it; but how extremely puzzling is the meaning hidden behind this sentence! The Targum and the Jewish expositors have construed it differently: “Then will Elohim shoot them with arrows suddenly;” in this case, however, because Psalm 64:8 then becomes too blunt and bald, פּתאם has to be repeated in thought with this member of the verse, and this is in itself an objection to it. We interpunctuate with Ewald and Hitzig thus: then does Elohim shoot them with an arrow, suddenly arise (become a reality) their wounds (cf. Micah 7:4), namely, of those who had on their part aimed the murderous weapon against the upright for a sudden and sure shot. Psalm 64:9 is still more difficult. Kimchi's interpretation, which accords with the accents: et corruere facient eam super se, linguam suam, is intolerable; the proleptic suffix, having reference to לשׁונם (Exodus 3:6; Job 33:20), ought to have been feminine (vid., on Psalm 22:16), and “to make their own tongue fall upon themselves” is an odd fancy. The objective suffix will therefore refer per enallagen to the enemy. But not thus (as Hitzig, who now seeks to get out of the difficulty by an alteration of the text, formerly rendered it): “and they cause those to fall whom they have slandered [lit. upon whom their tongue came].” This form of retribution does not accord with the context; and moreover the gravely earnest עלימו, like the הוּ -, refers more probably to the enemies than to the objects of their hostility. The interpretation of Ewald and Hengstenberg is better: “and one overthrows him, inasmuch as their tongue, i.e., the sin of their tongue with which they sought to destroy others, comes upon themselves.” The subject to ויּכשׁילהוּ, as in Psalm 63:11; Job 4:19; Job 7:3; Luke 12:20, is the powers which are at the service of God, and which are not mentioned at all; and the thought עלימו לשׁונם (a circumstantial clause) is like Psalm 140:10, where in a similar connection the very same singularly rugged lapidary, or terse, style is found. In Psalm 64:9 we must proceed on the assumption that ראה ב in such a connection signifies the gratification of looking upon those who are justly punished and rendered harmless. But he who tarries to look upon such a scene is certainly not the person to flee from it; התנודד does not here mean “to betake one's self to flight” (Ewald, Hitzig), but to shake one's self, as in Jeremiah 48:27, viz., to shake the head (Psalm 44:15; Jeremiah 18:16) - the recognised (vid., Psalm 22:8) gesture of malignant, mocking astonishment. The approbation is awarded, according to Psalm 64:10, to God, the just One. And with the joy at His righteous interposition, - viz. of Him who has been called upon to interpose, - is combined a fear of the like punishment. The divine act of judicial retribution now set forth becomes a blessing to mankind. From mouth to mouth it is passed on, and becomes an admonitory nota bene. To the righteous in particular it becomes a consolatory and joyous strengthening of his faith. The judgment of Jahve is the redemption of the righteous. Thus, then, does he rejoice in his God, who by thus judging and redeeming makes history into the history of redemption, and hide himself the more confidingly in Him; and all the upright boast themselves, viz., in God, who looks into the heart and practically acknowledges them whose heart is directed unswervingly towards Him, and conformed entirely to Him. In place of the futt. consec., which have a prophetic reference, simple futt. come in here, and between these a perf. consec. as expressive of that which will then happen when that which is prophetically certain has taken place.
65 Psalm 65
Introduction

Thanksgiving Song for Victory and Blessings Bestowed

In this Psalm, the placing of which immediatley after the preceding is atonce explicable by reason of the ויּיראוּ so prominent in both(Psalm 64:10; Psalm 65:9), we come upon the same intermingling of the natural andthe historical as in Psalm 8:1-9; Psalm 19:1-14; Psalm 29:1-11. The congregation gathered around thesanctuary on Zion praises its God, by whose mercy its imperilled positionin relation to other nations has been rescued, and by whose goodness itagain finds itself at peace, surrounded by fields rich in promise. In additionto the blessing which it has received in the bounties of nature, it does notlose sight of the answer to prayer which it has experienced in its relationto the world of nations. His rule in human history and His rule in natureare, to the church, reflected the one in the other. In the latter, as in theformer, it sees the almighty and bountiful hand of Him who answersprayer and expiates sins, and through judgment opens up a way for Hislove. The deliverance which it has experienced redounds to the acknowledgmentof the God of its salvation among the most distant peoples; the beneficialresults of Jahve's interposition in the events transpiring in the worldextend temporally as well as spiritually far beyond the bounds of Israel; itis therefore apparently the relief of Israel and of the peoples in generalfrom the oppression of some worldly power that is referred to. The springof the third year spoken of in Isaiah 37:30, when to Judah the overthrow ofAssyria was a thing of the past, and they again had the fields ripening for the harvest before their eyes, offers the most appropriate historical basis for the twofold purport of the Psalm. The inscription, To the Precentor, a Psalm, by David, a song (cf. Psalm 75:1; Psalm 76:1), does not mislead us in this matter. For even we regard it as uncritical to assign to David all the Psalms bearing the inscription לדוד. The Psalm in many MSS (Complutensian, Vulgate), beside the words Εἰς τὸ τέλος ψαλμός τῷ Δαυίδ ᾠδὴ , has the addition ᾠδὴ Ἱιερεμίου καὶ Ἰεζεκιὴλ , ( ἐκ ) τοῦ λαοῦ τῆς παροικίας ὄτε ἔμελλον ἐκπορεύεσθαι . At the head of the following Psalm it might have some meaning - here, however, it has none.

Verses 1-4

The praise of God on account of the mercy with which He rules out ofZion. The lxx renders óïéðñåõbutדּומיּה, tibi par est, h. e. convenit laus(Ewald), is not a usageof the language (cf. Psalm 33:1; Jeremiah 10:7). דּמיּה signifies, accordingto Psalm 22:3, silence, and as an ethical notion, resignation, Psalm 62:2. According tothe position of the words it looks like the subject, and תּהלּה likethe predicate. The accents at least (Illuj, Shalsheleth) assume therelationship of the one word to the other to be that of predicate andsubject; consequently it is not: To Thee belongeth resignation, praise(Hengstenberg), but: To Thee is resignation praise, i.e., resignation is(given or presented) to Thee as praise. Hitzig obtains the same meaning byan alteration of the text: לך דמיה תהלּל; but opposed to this is the factthat הלּל ל is not found anywhere in the Psalter, but only in thewritings of the chronicler. And since it is clear that the words לך תהלה belong together (Psalm 40:4), thepoet had no need to fear any ambiguity when he inserted dmyh betweenthem as that which is given to God as praise in Zion. What is intended isthat submission or resignation to God which gives up its cause to God andallows Him to act on its behalf, renouncing all impatient meddling andinterference (Exodus 14:14). The second member of the sentence affirms that this praise of pious resignation does not remain unanswered. Just as God in Zion is praised by prayer which resigns our own will silently to His, so also to Him are vows paid when He fulfils such prayer. That the answers to prayer are evidently thought of in connection with this, we see from Psalm 65:3, where God is addressed as the “Hearer or Answerer of prayer.” To Him as being the Hearer and Answerer of prayer all flesh comes, and in fact, as עדיך implies (cf. Isaiah 45:24), without finding help anywhere else, it clear a way for itself until it gets to Him; i.e., men, absolutely dependent, impotent in themselves and helpless, both collectively and individually (those only excepted who are determined to perish or despair), flee to Him as their final refuge and help. Before all else it is the prayer for the forgiveness of sin which He graciously answers. The perfect in Psalm 65:4 is followed by the future in Psalm 65:4 . The former, in accordance with the sense, forms a hypothetical protasis: granted that the instances of faults have been too powerful for me, i.e., (cf. Genesis 4:13) an intolerable burden to me, our transgressions are expiated by Thee (who alone canst and also art willing to do it). דּברי is not less significant than in Psalm 35:20; Psalm 105:27; Psalm 145:5, cf. 1 Samuel 10:2; 2 Samuel 11:18.: it separates the general fact into its separate instances and circumstances. How blessed therefore is the lot of that man whom (supply אשׁר) God chooses and brings near, i.e., removes into His vicinity, that he may inhabit His courts (future with the force of a clause expressing a purpose, as e.g., in Job 30:28, which see), i.e., that there, where He sits enthroned and reveals Himself, he may have his true home and be as if at home (vid., Psalm 15:1)! The congregation gathered around Zion is esteemed worthy of this distinction among the nations of the earth; it therefore encourages itself in the blessed consciousness of this its privilege flowing from free grace (בחר), to enjoy in full draughts (שּבע with בּ as in Psalm 103:5) the abundant goodness or blessing (טוּב) of God's house, of the holy ( ἅγιον ) of His temple, i.e., of His holy temple (קדשׁ as in Psalm 46:5, cf. Isaiah 57:15). For for all that God's grace offers us we can give Him no better thanks than to hunger and thirst after it, and satisfy our poor soul therewith.

Verses 5-8

The praise of God on account of the lovingkindness which Israel as a people among the peoples has experienced. The future תּעננוּ confesses, as a present, a fact of experience that still holds good in all times to come. נוראות might, according to Psalm 20:7, as in Psalm 139:14, be an accusative of the more exact definition; but why not, according to 1 Samuel 20:10; Job 9:3, a second accusative under the government of the verb? God answers the prayer of His people superabundantly. He replies to it גוראות, terrible deeds, viz., בּצדק, by a rule which stringently executes the will of His righteousness (vid., on Jeremiah 42:6); in this instance against the oppressors of His people, so that henceforth everywhere upon earth He is a ground of confidence to all those who are oppressed. “The sea (ים construct state, as is frequently the case, with the retention of the å) of the distant ones” is that of the regions lying afar off (cf. Psalm 56:1). Venema observes, Significatur, Deum esse certissimum praesidium, sive agnoscatur ab hominibus et ei fidatur, sive non (therefore similar to γνόντες , Romans 1:21; Psychol. S. 347; tr. p. 408). But according tot he connection and the subjective colouring the idea seems to have, מבטח וגו is to be understood of the believing acknowledgment which the God of Israel attains among all mankind by reason of His judicial and redemptive self-attestation (cf. Isaiah 33:13; 2 Chronicles 32:22.). In the natural world and among men He proves Himself to be the Being girded with power to whom everything must yield. He it is who setteth fast the mountains (cf. Jeremiah 10:12) and stilleth the raging of the ocean. In connection with the giant mountains the poet may have had even the worldly powers (vid., Isaiah 41:15) in his mind; in connection with the seas he gives expression to this allegorical conjunction of thoughts. The roaring of the billows and the wild tumult of the nations as a mass in the empire of the world, both are stilled by the threatening of the God of Israel (Isaiah 17:12-14). When He shall overthrow the proud empire of the world, whose tyranny the earth has been made to feel far and wide, then will reverential fear of Him and exultant joy at the end of the thraldom (vid., Isaiah 13:4-8) become universal. אותת (from the originally feminine אות = (ăwăjat), from אוה, to mark, Numbers 34:10), σημεῖα , is the name given here to His marvellous interpositions in the history of our earth. קצוי, Psalm 65:6 (also in Isaiah 26:15), out of construction is קצות. “The exit places of the morning and of the evening” are the East and West with reference to those who dwell there. Luther erroneously understands מוצאי as directly referring to the creatures which at morning and evening “sport about (webern), i.e., go safely and joyfully out and in.” The meaning is, the regions whence the morning breaks forth and where the evening sets. The construction is zeugmatic so far as בּוא, not יצא, is said of the evening sun, but only to a certain extent, for neither does one say נבוא ערב (Ewald). Perret-Gentil renders it correctly: les lieux d'où surgissent l'aube et le crepuscule. God makes both these to shout for joy, inasmuch as He commands a calm to the din of war.

Verses 9-13

The praise of God on account of the present year's rich blessing, which He has bestowed upon the land of His people. In Psalm 65:10, Psalm 65:11 God is thanked for having sent down the rain required for the ploughing (vid., Commentary on Isaiah, ii. 522) and for the increase of the seed sown, so that, as vv. 12-14 affirm, there is the prospect of a rich harvest. The harvest itself, as follows from v. 14b, is not yet housed. The whole of Psalm 65:10, Psalm 65:11 is a retrospect; in vv. 12-14 the whole is a description of the blessing standing before their eyes, which God has put upon the year now drawing to a close. Certainly, if the forms רוּה and נחת were supplicatory imperatives, then the prayer for the early or seed-time rain would attach itself to the retrospect in Psalm 65:11, and the standpoint would be not about the time of the Passover and Pentecost, both festivals belonging to the beginning of the harvest, but about the time of the feast of Tabernacles, the festival of thanksgiving for the harvest, and vv. 12-14 would be a glance into the future (Hitzig). But there is nothing to indicate that in Psalm 65:11 the retrospect changes into a looking forward. The poet goes on with the same theme, and also arranges the words accordingly, for which reason רוּה and נחת are not to be understood in any other way. שׁקק beside העשׁיר (to enrich) signifies to cause to run over, overflow, i.e., to put anything in a state of plenty or abundance, from שׁוּק (Hiph. Joel 2:24, to yield in abundance), Arab, (sâq), to push, impel, to cause to go on in succession and to follow in succession. רבּת (for which we find רבּה in Psalm 62:3) is an adverb, copiously, richly (Psalm 120:6; Psalm 123:4; Psalm 129:1), like מאת, a hundred times (Ecclesiastes 8:12). תּעשׁרנּה is Hiph. with the middle syllable shortened, Ges. §53, 3, rem. 4. The fountain (פּלג) of God is the name given here to His inexhaustible stores of blessing, and more particularly the fulness of the waters of the heavens from which He showers down fertilizing rain. כּן, “thus thoroughly,” forms an alliteration with הכין, to prepare, and thereby receives a peculiar twofold colouring. The meaning is: God, by raising and tending, prepared the produce of the field which the inhabitants of the land needed; for He thus thoroughly prepared the land in conformity with the fulness of His fountain, viz., by copiously watering (רוּה infin. absol. instead of רוּה, as in 1 Samuel 3:12; 2 Chronicles 24:10; Exodus 22:22; Jeremiah 14:19; Hosea 6:9) the furrows of the land and pressing down, i.e., softening by means of rain, its ridges (גּדוּדה, defective plural, as e.g., in 2:13), which the ploughshare has made. תּלם (related by root with Arab. (tll), tell, a hill, prop. that which is thrown out to a place, that which is thrown up, a mound) signifies a furrow as being formed by casting up or (if from Arab. (ṯlm), (ébrécher), to make a fracture, rent, or notch in anything) by tearing into, breaking up the ground; גּדוּד (related by root with (uchdûd) and (chaṭṭ), the usual Arabic words for a furrow

(Note: Fürst erroneously explains תּלם as a bed or strip of ground between two deep furrows, in distinction from מענה or מענית (vid., on Psalm 129:3), a furrow. Beds such as we have in our potato fields are unknown to Syrian agriculture. There is a mode which may be approximately compared with it called (ketif) (כּתף), another far wider called (meskeba) (משׂכּבה). The Arabic (tilm) (תּלם, Hebrew תּלם = (talm)), according to the Kamûs (as actually in Magrebinish Arabic) (talam) (תּלם), corresponds exact to our furrow, i.e., (as the Turkish Kamûs explains) a ditch-like fissure which the iron of the plough cuts into the field. Neshwân (i. 491) says: “The verb (talam), fut. (jatlum) and (jatlim), signifies in Jemen and in the Ghôr (the land on the shore of the Red Sea) the crevices (Arab. ('l) -(šuqûq)) which the ploughman forms, and (tilm), collective plural (tilâm), is, in the countries mentioned, a furrow of the corn-field. Some persons pronounce the word even (thilm), collective plural (thilâm).” Thus it is at the present day universally in (Ḥaurân); in (Edre‛ât) I heard the water-furrow of a corn-field called (thilm) (el) -(kanâh) (Arab. (ṯlm) ('l) -(qnât)). But this pronunciation with Arab. (ṯ) is certainly not the original one, but has arisen through a substitution of the cognate and more familiar verbal stem Arab. (ṯlm), cf. (šrm), to slit ((shurêm), a harelip). In other parts of Syria and Palestine, also where the distinction between the sounds Arab. (t) and (ṯ) is carefully observed, I have only heard the pronunciation (tilm). - Wetzstein.))

as being formed by cutting into the ground.

In Psalm 65:12 the year in itself appears as a year of divine goodness (טובה, bonitas), and the prospective blessing of harvest as the crown which is set upon it. For Thou hast crowned “the year of Thy goodness” and “with Thy goodness” are different assertions, with which also different (although kindred as to substance) ideas are associated. The futures after עטרתּ depict its results as they now lie out to view. The chariot-tracks (vid., Deuteronomy 33:26) drop with exuberant fruitfulness, even the meadows of the uncultivated and, without rain, unproductive pasture land (Job 38:26.). The hills are personified in Psalm 65:13 in the manner of which Isaiah in particular is so fond (e.g., Psalm 44:23; Psalm 49:13), and which we find in the Psalms of his type (Psalm 96:11., Psalm 98:7., cf. Psalm 89:13). Their fresh, verdant appearance is compared to a festive garment, with which those which previously looked bare and dreary gird themselves; and the corn to a mantle in which the valleys completely envelope themselves (עטף with the accusative, like Arab. (t‛ṭṭf) with (b) of the garment: to throw it around one, to put it on one's self). The closing words, locking themselves as it were with the beginning of the Psalm together, speak of joyous shouting and singing that continues into the present time. The meadows and valleys (Böttcher) are not the subject, of which it cannot be said that they sing; nor can the same be said of the rustling of the waving corn-fields (Kimchi). The expression requires men to be the subject, and refers to men in the widest and most general sense. Everywhere there is shouting coming up from the very depths of the breast (Hithpal.), everywhere songs of joy; for this is denoted by שׁיר in distinction from קנן.