Bible Commentaries

Praise of the Good Shepherd

The arrangement, by which a Psalm that speaks of a great feast of mercyprepared for mankind is followed by a Psalm that praises Jahve as theShepherd and Host of His own people, could not possibly be moresensible and appropriate. If David is the author, and there is no reason fordoubting it, then this Psalm belongs to the time of the rebellion underAbsolom, and this supposition is confirmed on every hand. It is like anamplification of Psalm 4:8; and Psalm 3:7 is also echoed in it. But not only does itcontain points of contact with this pair of Psalms of the time mentioned,but also with other Psalms belonging to the same period, as Psalm 27:4, and moreespecially Psalm 63:1-11, which is said to have been composed when David hadretreated with his faithful followers over Kidron and the Mount of Olivesinto the plains of the wilderness of Judah, whither Hushai sent himtidings, which counselled him to pass over Jordan with all possible haste. It is characteristic of all these Psalms, that in them David years after thehouse of God as after the peculiar home of his heart, and, that all his wishes centre in the one wish to be at home again. And does not this short, tender song, with its depth of feeling and its May-like freshness, accord with David's want and wanderings to and fro at that time?
It consists of two hexastichs with short closing lines, resembling (as also in Isaiah 16:9-10) the Adonic verse of the strophe of Sappho, and a tetrastich made up of very short and longer lines intermixed.

The poet calls Jahve רעי, as He who uniformly andgraciously provides for and guides him and all who are His. Laterprophecy announces the visible appearing of this Shepherd, Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:23, and other passages. If this has taken place, the רעי ה fromthe mouth of man finds its cordial response in the words ååéïðïéìçïêáëïHe who has Jahve, thepossessor of all things, himself has all things, he lacks nothing; viz., כּ־טוב, whatever is good in itself and would be good for him, Psalm 34:11; Psalm 84:12. נאות דּשׁא are the pastures of fresh and tendergrass, where one lies at ease, and rest and enjoyment are combined. נאה (נוה), according to its primary meaning, is a resting-ordwelling-place, specifically an oasis, i.e., a verdant spot in the desert. מי מנוּחת are waters, where the weary finds a mostpleasant resting-place (according to Hitzig, it is a plural brought in by theplural of the governing word, but it is at any rate a superlative plural), andcan at the same time refresh himself. נהל is suited to this as being apastoral word used of gentle leading, and more especially of guiding theherds to the watering-places, just as הרבּיץ is used of making them torest, especially at noon-tide, Song of Solomon 1:7; cf. ïRev 7:17. שׁובב נפשׁ (elsewhere השׁיב) signifies tobring back the soul that is as it were flown away, so that it comes to itselfagain, therefore to impart new life, recreareThis He does to the soul, bycausing it amidst the dryness and heat of temptation and trouble, to tastethe very essence of life which refreshes and strengthens it. The Hiph. הנחה (Arabic: to put on one side, as perhaps in Job 12:23) is, as in Psalm 143:10 the intensive of נחה (Ps 77:21). The poet glories that Jahve leads him carefully and without risk or wandering in מעגּלי־צדק, straight paths and leading to the right goal, and this למען שׁמו (for His Name's sake). He has revealed Himself as the gracious One, and as such He will prove and glorify Himself even in the need of him who submits to His guidance.

Rod and staff are here not so much those of the pilgrim, which would be aconfusing transition to a different figure, but those of Jahve, the Shepherd(שׁבט, as in Micah 7:14, and in connection with it, cf. Numbers 21:18,משׁענת as the filling up of the picture), as the means of guidanceand defence. The one rod, which the shepherd holds up to guide the flock,and upon which he leans and anxiously watches over the flock, hasassumed a double form in the conception of the idea. This rod and staff inthe hand of God comfort him, i.e., preserve to him the feeling of security,and therefore a cheerful spirit. Even when he passes through a valley darkand gloomy as the shadow of death, where surprises and calamities ofevery kind threaten him, he hears no misfortune. The lxx narrows thefigure, rendering בגיא according to the Aramaic בּגוא, Daniel 3:25, åìåThe noun צלמות, which occurs in this passage for thefirst time in the Old Testament literature, is originally not a compoundword; but being formed from a verb צלם, Arab. (ḏlm) (root צל, Arab. (ḏl)), toovershadow, darken, after the form עבדוּת, but pronouncedצלמות (cf. חצרמות, (Hadra) -(môt) = the court ofdeath, בּצלאל in-God's-shadow), it signifies the shadow of deathas an epithet of the most fearful darkness, as of Hades, Job 10:21., butalso of a shaft of a mine, Job 28:3, and more especially of darkness such asmakes itself felt in a wild, uninhabited desert, Jeremiah 2:6.

After the figure of the shepherd fades away in Psalm 23:4, that of the hostappears. His enemies must look quietly on (נגד as in Psalm 31:20),without being able to do anything, and see how Jahve provides bountifully for His guest, anoints him with sweet perfumes as at a joyous and magnificent banquet (Psalm 92:11), and fills his cup to excess. What is meant thereby, is not necessarily only blessings of a spiritual kind. The king fleeing before Absolom and forsaken by the mass of his people was, with his army, even outwardly in danger of being destroyed by want; it is, therefore, even an abundance of daily bread streaming in upon them, as in 2 Samuel 17:27-29, that is meant; but even this, spiritually regarded, as a gift from heaven, and so that the satisfying, refreshing and quickening is only the outside phase of simultaneous inward experiences.

(Note: In the mouth of the New Testament saint, especially on the dies viridium, it is the table of the Lord's supper, as Apollinaris also hints when he applied to it the epithet ῥιγεδανῶν βρίθουσαν , horrendorum onustam.)

The future תּערך is followed, according to the customary return to the perfect ground-form, by דּשּׁנתּ, which has, none the less, the signification of a present. And in the closing assertion, כּוסי, my cup, is metonymically equivalent to the contents of my cup. This is רויה, a fulness satiating even to excess.

Foes are now pursuing him, but prosperity and favour alone shall pursuehim, and therefore drive his present pursuers out of the field. אך,originally affirmative, here restrictive, belongs only to the subject-notion inits signification nil nisi (Psalm 39:6, Psalm 39:12; Psalm 139:11). The expression is remarkableand without example elsewhere: as good spirits Jahve sends forth טּוב and חסד to overtake David's enemies, and to protect himagainst them to their shame, and that all his life long (accusative ofcontinuance). We have now no need, in connection with our reference ofthe Psalm to the persecution under Absolom, either to persuade ourselvesthat ושׁבתּי is equivalent to ושׁבתּי; Psalm 27:4, or that it isequivalent to וישׁבתּי. The infinitive is logically inadmissiblehere, and unheard of with the vowel (ā) instead of (i), which would here (cf. on the other hand קחתּי) be confusing and arbitrary. Nor can it be shown from Jeremiah 42:10 to be probable that it is contracted from וישׁבתי, since in that passage שׁוב signifies redeundo = rursus. The lxx, certainly, renders it by καθίσαντες , as in 1 Samuel 12:2 by καὶ καθήσομαι ; but (since so much uncertainty attaches to these translators and their text) we cannot draw a safe inference as to the existing usage of the language, which would, in connection with such a contraction, go out of the province of one verb into that of another, which is not the case with תּתּה = נתתּה in 2 Samuel 22:41. On the contrary we have before us in the present passage a constructio praegnans: “and I shall return (perf. consec.) in the house of Jahve,” i.e., again, having returned, dwell in the house of Jahve. In itself ושׁבתּי ב might also even mean et revertam ad (cf. Psalm 7:17; Hosea 12:7), like עלה ב, Psalm 24:3, adscendere ad(in). But the additional assertion of continuance, לארך ימים (as in Psalm 93:5; Lamentations 5:20, ארך, root רך, extension, lengthening = length) favours the explanation, that בּ is to be connected with the idea of וישׁבתי, which is involved in ושׁבתי as a natural consequence.