Bible Commentaries

O Give Thanks unto the Lord, for He Is Good

The cry Psalm 135:3, Praise ye (Jāh), for good is Jahve, is here followed by aHodu, the last of the collection, with “for His goodness endureth for ever”repeated twenty-six times as a versus intercalarisIn the liturgical languagethis Psalm is called par excellencethe great Hallel, for according to itsbroadest compass the great Hallel comprehends Ps 120-136,

(Note: There are three opinions in the Talmud and Midrash concerning the compass of the “Great Hallel,” viz., (1) Ps 136, (2) Ps. 135:4-136:26, (3) Ps 120-136.)

whilst the Hallel which is absolutely so called extends from Psalm 113:1-9 to Ps 118. Down to Psalm 136:18 the song and counter-song organize themselves intohexastichic groups or strophes, which, however, from Psalm 136:19 (and thereforefrom the point where the dependence on Ps 135, already begun with Psalm 136:17,becomes a borrowing, onwards) pass over into octastichs. In Heidenheim'sPsalter the Psalm appears (after Norzi) in two columns (like Deut. 32),which it is true has neither tradition (vid., Ps 18) nor MSS precedent in itsfavour, but really corresponds to its structure.

Like the preceding Psalm, this Psalm allies itself to the Book ofDeuteronomy. Psalm 136:2 and Psalm 136:3 (God of gods and Lord of lords) are takenfrom Deuteronomy 10:17; Psalm 136:12 (with a strong hand and stretched-out arm) fromDeuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 5:15, and frequently (cf. Jeremiah 32:21); Psalm 136:16 like Deuteronomy 8:15 (cf. Jeremiah 2:6). With reference to the Deuteronomic colouring of Psalm 136:19-22, vid.,on Psalm 135:10-12; also the expression “Israel His servant” recalls Deuteronomy 32:36 (cf. Psalm 135:14; Psalm 90:13), and still more Isaiah 40:1, where the comprehension of Israel under the unity of this notion has its own proper place. In other respects, too, the Psalm is an echo of earlier model passages. Who alone doeth great wonders sounds like Psalm 72:18 (Psalm 86:10); and the adjective “great” that is added to “wonders” shows that the poet found the formula already in existence. In connection with Psalm 136:5 he has Proverbs 3:19 or Jeremiah 10:12 in his mind; תּבוּנה, like חכמה, is the demiurgic wisdom. Psalm 136:6 calls to mind Isaiah 42:5; Isaiah 44:24; the expression is “above the waters,” as in Psalm 34:2 “upon the seas,” because the water is partly visible and partly invisible מתּחת לארץ (Exodus 20:4). The plural אורים, luces, instead of מארות, lumina (cf. Ezekiel 32:8, מאורי אור), is without precedent. It is a controverted point whether אורת in Isaiah 26:19 signifies lights (cf. אורה, Psalm 139:12) or herbs (2 Kings 4:39). The plural ממשׁלות is also rare (occurring only besides in Psalm 114:2): it here denotes the dominion of the moon on the one hand, and (going beyond Genesis 1:16) of the stars on the other. בּלּילה, like בּיּום, is the second member of the stat. construct.

Up to this point it is God the absolute in general, the Creator of all things,to the celebration of whose praise they are summoned; and from this pointonwards the God of the history of salvation. In Psalm 136:13 גּזר (instead of בּקע, Psalm 78:13; Exodus 14:21; Nehemiah 9:11) of the dividing ofthe Red Sea is peculiar; גּזרים (Genesis 15:17, side by side withבּתרים) are the pieces or parts of a thing that is cut up into pieces. נער is a favourite word taken from Exodus 14:27. With reference tothe name of the Egyptian ruler Pharaoh (Herodotus also, ii. 111, calls thePharaoh of the Exodus the son of Sesostris-Rameses Miumun, not Μενόφθας , as he is properly called, but absolutely Öåñù), vid., onPsalm 73:22. After the God to whom the praise is to be ascribed has beenintroduced with ל by always fresh attributes, the ל before the names ofSihon and of Og is perplexing. The words are taken over, as are the six lines of Psalm 136:17-22 in the main, from Psalm 135:10-12, with only a slight alteration in the expression. In Psalm 136:23 the continued influence of the construction הודוּ ל is at an end. The connection by means of שׁ (cf. Psalm 135:8, Psalm 135:10) therefore has reference to the preceding “for His goodness endureth for ever.” The language here has the stamp of the latest period. It is true זכר with Lamed of the object is used even in the earliest Hebrew, but שׁפל is only authenticated by Ecclesiastes 10:6, and פּרק, to break loose = to rescue (the customary Aramaic word for redemption), by Lamentations 5:8, just as in the closing verse, which recurs to the beginning, “God of heaven” is a name for God belonging to the latest literature, Nehemiah 1:4; Nehemiah 2:4. In Psalm 136:23 the praise changes suddenly to that which has been experienced very recently. The attribute in Psalm 136:25 (cf. Psalm 147:9; Psalm 145:15) leads one to look back to a time in which famine befell them together with slavery.