Quoted by Christ. The contents. 11 By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me. 12 And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me be fore thy face for ever. 13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. THE melancholy interest attached to this Psalm has made it well-known in Zion. Our Lord quoted it as his own, on the night when he was betrayed (see John xiii. 18, compared with ver. 9), when he saw the traitor take his seat at the Passover table with him, and sit down on his left hand, so near that he could hand him the sop, and dip with him in the dish. The strain, however, is such as suits his family as well as himself; they may use it in Him. It is the Lord who says, "Blessed is he that acts wisely toward the poor,” ver. 1; the same who said "Blessed are the merciful!" and the same who on the day of his coming shall say, “Come, ye blessed; I was sick, and ye visited me." He encourages us to do good works in his Name, especially to those of the household of faith. What is written from verse 1 to 3 is a promise which Barzillai could have claimed; and Ebedmelech, who drew Jeremiah from the pit; and Onesiphorus, who oft refreshed Paul; and the women of Galilee, Susannah and others, who ministered to Christ of their substance; and the daughters of Jerusalem, who gave him sympathy as he bore the cross, pitying his marred countenance. Perhaps in verse 4 Christ may be understood as saying, “I, even I, myself, did that to others, and do, therefore, claim the blessing. But how differently my foes act toward me! All my miracles of kindness are forgotten, the memory of all my thousand benefits is drowned in their malice; they wish my death," When shall He die ;" and "his name perish?" (Ver. 5.) If he comes to see me," (ie, to play the spy on me), he goes away, saying, "Some cursed thing cleaves to him." (Ver. 8, literally, "is soldered into him.") But the issue shall disappoint them; I shall not even once err, and I shall soon stand at thy right hand; "Mine enemy is not to triumph over me : And as for me, thou upholdest me in my integrity, And settest me before thy face for ever.” (Ver. 12.) In this he anticipates the reward of his obedience unto death, and “the glory that should follow," as we too may do. In this prospect it is interesting to hear him say, "Blessed Israel in it. be Jehovah, God of Israel," (ver. 13). The rejected and despised One has not forgotten or given up the people who rejected him. He will be their King, "King of the Jews," though they crucify him; he intends grace and glory for them in the latter day. "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel." And that " Amen and Amen," how sweetly it dropped from the lips of the Faithful Witness, who delighted to preface his weighty sayings with "Verily," verily, Aμny, Any, and who fixes his mark to this blessed Psalm (resembling what Paul does in some of his Epistles), as if to say, "The signature of me, the Faithful Witness, with mine own hand." The Righteous One unpitied in his time of need. PSALM XLII. To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. 1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. 2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God! When shall I come and appear before God? 3 My tears have been my meat day and night, While they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? 4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: For I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, For the help of his countenance. 6 0 my God, my soul is cast down within me! Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of the Her From the hill Mizar. 7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts; All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. of Book II. С6 8 Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, And my prayer unto the God of my life. 9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? 11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God. Commencement THE Jews begin Book II. with this Psalm. There is little doubt that their fourfold division of the Book of Psalms is arbitrary, and was suggested by the single circumstance that Amen" happens to occur at the close of Ps. xl., lxxii., lxxxix., and cvi., which are the closing Psalms of the different divisions. The Maschil has reference to the music. As for the sons of Korah, descendants of the rebel Korah whose children, spared by grace, took a conspicuous part in the Temple worship of song, they were only the receivers, not the writers of the Psalm. Probably the Levites who were with David (2 Sam. xv. 24) include the sons of Korah. The title. Christ. 66 Here is the hart in the wilderness panting for the water brooks which it had not got at. It stands on some bank that hangs over (), the brook,-the water is not reached. Such is the Psalmist's state of soul. O that I might see the face of God!" is the force of verse 2; and verse 4 is the soul responding to itself, saying, in remembrance of past joys now withheld, "Thereon will I think, and pour out my soul within myself." The Septuagint has translated this very nearly in the words used in Matt. xxvi. 38, and John xii. 27. "Why art thou (Teguros' Septuagint) very sorrowful, O my soul? And why art thou (ragaoseis μe) troubled within me ?” Our Lord, as well as every troubled and sorrowful one of his people, could use this Psalm, when, as the true David, he was driven out, not by a son, but by his Father for our sakes -driven farther from heaven than Hermon or Jordan, or "the Little Hill," are from Zion and the Tabernacle, hearing deeper દ floods calling to one another, and mustering their waters, as at the deluge the cataracts dashed upon the ark from above, while bursting fountains heaved it up from below. Still, He knew the issue: "For the joy set before Him he endured the cross." He could sing in the gloom, "I shall y t praise him, the salvation of my countenance, and my God!" The marginal reading is, " His presence is salvation;" but verse 11 is against this. The meaning is, I shall praise Him as He who shall change my marred form, and give me beauty; who shall change my humiliation into exaltation; who shall in my case, and then in the case of all my people, exchange the wilderness and its parched sands for the kingdom and its rivers of pleasure. The sorest pang of Christ, arising from reproach and scorn, The speaker. was that which he felt when they cast suspicion on the love and faithfulness of his Father (ver. 10), "Where is thy God?" In proportion as sanctification advances, his members feel this, too, forgetting their own glory, and intent upon his. In the primary use of the Psalm, this taunt would be felt by David when his enemies insinuated that though God had anointed him king, yet He could not bring him to his kingdom: or even if "the sons of Korah" wrote this Psalm, (as Hengstenberg thinks), there would be the same feeling in them in regard to this taunt flung at that devoted leader, whose cause they espoused, coming to him at Ziklag. (1 Chron. xii. 6.) All believers. But the Holy Ghost founded on these circumstances a song of Zion, which was meant for Zion's King, and all his princes in their passage to the throne and kingdom. The Lord Jesus might specially call it to mind, and sing it with his disciples on that remarkable day when, at Cæsarea Philippi (Matt. xvi. 13), he asked what men were saying of him? On that day, * The various cataracts of Jordan (see Lynch's Narrative of Expedition to Jordan) might give origin to the figures of "deep unto deep-noise of thy waterspouts." † "The sons of Korah" have their name prefixed to fourteen Psalms. Herein is free sovereign grace! The descendants of the rebel are spared (Numb. xxvi. 11), and honoured. We find them "porters" and "over the host of the Lord," 1 Chron. ix. 19, for they were Levites of the family of Kohath. Some of them came to David at Ziklag, 1 Chron. xii. 6, and these may be specially the sons of Korah " mentioned here, viz., Elkanah, Jesiah, Jaser, Joshobcam, and Azareel. Their after history, too, is interesting, grace still shining in it throughout, in the days of the later kings. 66 Christ. The tone Hermon was in sight, and Jordan's double-fountain close beside him, and some "Little Hill" near them, some “Mizar, that, by contrast, called up to mind the Hills of Zion. On that day, it may be, the Head of the Church made special use of this Psalm, and embalmed it in the hearts of his disciples, who would never afterwards fail to sing it (even as we do), with double refreshment in the thought that it had comforted the Master, expressing, as it does, The Righteous One in his weariness looking up to the Father for refreshment. PSALM XLIII. 1 JUDGE me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation! 2 For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? 3 O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me Let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. 4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: 5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted Hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. MANY ancient and modern writers make this Psalm a part of the former. They have failed to see that the strain is now more gladsome and hopeful. The hart is now bounding on to the water brooks. The psalmist is claiming his right to refreshment, and anticipating it as at his very lips. The gloom of "night" (xlii. 8) and of "mourning" (ver. 2) is to be exchanged for favour or “light” (ver. 3), and “truth,” i.e., the fulfilment of the promises made to him (Aben-Ezra) shall * Tucker has made an interesting suggestion, though it will not bear examination: "I will remember thee concerning the land" (). God's past mercies displayed there, at the miraculous passage of the river Jordan, and the getting possession of the land even to Hermon; and then "The Little Hill" would be Zion itself, only great because the Tabernacle is there. The construction of the Hebrew refuses to yield this sense. |