Bible Commentaries

Song of Thanksgiving after Recovery from Dangerous Sickness

The summons to praise God which is addressed to the angels above in Psalm 29:1-11, is directed in Psalm 30:1-12 to the pious here below. There is nothing againstthe adoption of the לדוד. Hitzig again in this instance finds all kinds ofindications of Jeremiah's hand; but the parallels in Jeremiah are echoes ofthe Psalms, and דלּיתני in Psalm 30:2 does not need to be explained of alowering into a tank or dungeon, it is a metaphorical expression for raisingup out of the depths of affliction. Even Hezekiah's song of thanksgiving inIsa 38 has grown out of the two closing strophes of this Psalm under theinfluence of an intimate acquaintance with the Book of Job. We aretherefore warranted in supposing that it is David, who here, having in themidst of the stability of his power come to the verge of the grave, and nowbeing roused from all carnal security, as one who has been rescued, praisesthe Lord, whom he has made his refuge, and calls upon all the pious to joinwith him in his song. The Psalm bears the inscription: A Song-Psalm at the Dedication of theHouse, by David. This has been referred to the dedication of the site of thefuture Temple, 2 Sam; 1 Chronicles 21:1; but although the place of the futureTemple together with the altar then erected on it, can be called בּית יהוה (1 Chronicles 22:1), and might also at any rate be calledabsolutely הבּית (as הר הבית, the Temple hill); yetwe know that David did not himself suffer (2 Samuel 24:17) from thepestilence, which followed as a punishment upon the numbering of thepeople which he instituted in his arrogant self-magnification. The Psalm,however, also does not contain anything that should point to a dedicationof a sanctuary, whether Mount Moriah, or the tabernacle, 2 Samuel 6:17. Itmight more naturally be referred to the re-consecration of the palace, thatwas defiled by Absolom, after David's return; but the Psalm mentionssome imminent peril, the gracious averting of which does not consist in the turning away of bloodthirsty foes, but in recovery from some sickness that might have proved fatal. Thus then it must be the dedication of the citadel on Zion, the building of which was just completed. From 2 Samuel 5:12 we see that David regarded this building as a pledge of the stability and exaltation of his kingdom; and all that is needed in order to understand the Psalm is, with Aben-Ezra, Flaminius, Crusius, and Vaihinger, to infer from the Psalm itself, that David had been delayed by some severe illness from taking possession of the new building. The situation of Psalm 16:1-11 is just like it. The regular official title אשׁר על־הבּית (majordomo)shows, that הבית, used thus absolutely, may denote the palace just as well as the Temple. The lxx which renders it τοῦ ἐγκαινισμοῦ τοῦ οἴκου (ôïõ) Äáõéunderstands the palace, not the Temple. In the Jewish ritual, Psalm 30:1-12 is certainly, as is even stated in the Tractate Sofrim xviii. §2, the Psalm for the feast of Chanucca, or Dedication, which refers to 1 Macc. 4:52ff.

(Heb.: 30:2-4)The Psalm begins like a hymn. The Pielדּלּה (from דּלה, Arab. (dlâ), to hold anything long, loose and pendulous, whether upwards ordownwards, conj. V Arab. (tdllâ) =, to dangle) signifies to lift or draw up, likea bucket (דּלי, Greek áLatin tollotollenoin Festus). Thepoet himself says what that depth is into which he had sunk and out ofwhich God had drawn him up without his enemies rejoicing over him (לי as in Psalm 25:2), i.e., without allowing them the wished for joy at hisdestruction: he was brought down almost into Hades in consequence ofsome fatal sickness. חיּה (never: to call into being out ofnothing) always means to restore to life that which has apparently orreally succumbed to death, or to preserve anything living in life. With thisis easily and satisfactorily joined the Kerîמיּרדי בור (without Makkeph in the correct text), ita ut non descenderemtheinfinitive of ירד in this instance following the analogy of thestrong verb is ירד, like יבשׁ, ישׁון, and with suffix jordi (like josdi, Job 38:4) or jaaredi, for here it is to be read thus, and not jordi (vid., on Psalm 16:1; Psalm 86:2).

(Note: The Masora does not place the word under יו וחטפין קמציןאלין תיבותא יתירין ו (Introduction 28b), as one would expect to find it if it were to be read (mijordi), and proceeds on the assumption that (mijārdi) is infinitive like עמדך (read (‛amādcha)) Obadiah 1:11, not participle (Ewald, S. 533).)

The Chethîb מיורדי might also be the infinitive, written with (Cholem) (plenum), as an infinitive Genesis 32:20, and an imperative Numbers 23:8, is each pointed with (Cholem) instead of (Kamtez) (chatuph); but it is probably intended to be read as a participle, מיּורדי: Thou hast revived me from those who sink away into the grave (Psalm 28:1), or out of the state of such (cf. Psalm 22:22 ) - a perfectly admissible and pregnant construction.

(Heb.: 30:5-6)Psalm 30:4 call upon all the pious to praise this God, who after a short season of anger is at once and henceforth gracious. Instead of שׁם of Jahve, we find the expression זכר in this instance, as in Psalm 97:12 after Exodus 3:15. Jahve, by revealing Himself, renders Himself capable of being both named and remembered, and that in the most illustrious manner. The history of redemption is, as it were, an unfolding of the Name of Jahve and at the same time a setting up of a monument, an establishment of a memorial, and in fact the erection of a זכר קדשׁ; because all God's self-attestations, whether in love or in wrath, flow from the sea of light of His holiness. When He manifests Himself to His won love prevails; and wrath is, in relation to them, only a vanishing moment: a moment passes in His anger, a (whole) life in His favour, i.e., the former endures only for a moment, the latter the whole life of a man. “Alles Ding währt seine Zeit, Gottes Lieb' in Ewigkeit.” All things last their season, God's love to all eternity. The preposition בּ does not here, as in the beautiful parallel Isaiah 54:7., cf. Psalm 60:10, denote the time and mode of that which takes place, but the state in which one spends the time. Psalm 30:6 portrays the rapidity with which love takes back wrath (cf. Isaiah 17:14): in the evening weeping takes up its abode with us for the night, but in the morning another guest, viz., רנּה, appears, like a rescuing angel, before whom בּכי disappears. The predicate ילין etaci does not belong to Psalm 30:6 as well (Hupfeld, Hitzig). The substantival clause: and in the morning joy = joy is present, depicts the unexpectedness and surprise of the help of Him who sends בכי and רנה.

(Heb.: 30:7-8)David now relates his experience in detail, beginning with the cause of the chastisement, which he has just undergone. In ואני אמרתּי (as in Psalm 31:23; Psalm 49:4) he contrasts his former self-confidence, in which (like the רשׁע, Psalm 10:6) he thought himself to be immoveable, with the God-ward trust he has now gained in the school of affliction. Instead of confiding in the Giver, he trusted in the gift, as though it had been his own work. It is uncertain, - but it is all the same in the end, - whether שׁלוי is the inflected infinitive שלו of the verb שׁלי (which we adopt in our translation), or the inflected noun שׁלו (שׁלוּ)= שׁלו, after the form שׂחוּ, a swimming, Ezekiel 47:5, = שׁלוה, Jeremiah 22:21. The inevitable consequence of such carnal security, as it is more minutely described in Deuteronomy 8:11-18, is some humbling divine chastisement. This intimate connection is expressed by the perfects in Psalm 30:8, which represent God's pardon, God's withdrawal of favour, which is brought about by his self-exaltation, and the surprise of his being undeceived, as synchronous. העמיד עז, to set up might is equivalent to: to give it as a lasting possession; cf. 2 Chronicles 33:8, which passage is a varied, but not (as Riehm supposes) a corrupted, repetition of 2 Kings 21:8. It is, therefore, unnecessary, as Hitzig does, to take ל as accusatival and עז as adverbial: in Thy favour hadst Thou made my mountain to stand firm. The mountain is Zion, which is strong by natural position and by the additions of art (2 Samuel 5:9); and this, as being the castle-hill, is the emblem of the kingdom of David: Jahve had strongly established his kingdom for David, when on account of his trust in himself He made him to feel how all that he was he was only by Him, and without Him he was nothing whatever. The form of the inflexion הררי, instead of הרי = harri, is defended by Genesis 14:6 and Jeremiah 17:3 (where it is הררי as if from הרר). The reading להדרי (lxx, Syr.), i.e., to my kingly dignity is a happy substitution; whereas the reading of the Targum להררי, “placed (me) on firm mountains,” at once refutes itself by the necessity for supplying “me.”

(Heb.: 30:9-11)Nevertheless he who is thus chastened prayed fervently. The futures in Psalm 30:9, standing as they do in the full flow of the narration, have the force of imperfects, of “the present in the past” as the Arabian grammarians call it. From the question “What profit is there (the usual expression for τίὄφελος , quid lucri) in my blood?”, it is not to be inferred that David was in danger of death by the hand of a foe; for ותרפאני in Psalm 30:3 teaches us very different, “what profit would there be in my blood?” is therefore equivalent to (cf. Job 16:18) what advantage would there be in Thy slaying me before my time? On the contrary God would rob Himself of the praise, which the living one would render to Him, and would so gladly render. His request that his life may be prolonged was not, therefore, for the sake of worldly possessions and enjoyment, but for the glory of God. He feared death as being the end of the praise of God. For beyond the grave there will be no more psalms sung, Psalm 6:6. In the Old Testament, Hades was as yet unvanquished, Heaven was not yet opened. In Heaven are the בני אלים, but as yet no blessed בני אדם.

(Heb.: 30:12-13)In order to express the immediate sequence of the fulfilling of the prayer upon the prayer itself, the otherwise (e.g., Psalm 32:5) usual ו of conjunction is omitted; on הפכתּ וגו cf. the echoes in Jeremiah 31:13; Lamentations 5:15. According to our interpretation of the relation of the Psalm to the events of the time, there is as little reason for thinking of 2 Samuel 6:14 in connection with מחול, as of 1 Chronicles 21:16 in connection with שׂקּי. In place of the garment of penitence and mourning (cf. מחגרת שׂק, Isaiah 3:24) slung round the body (perhaps fastened only with a cord) came a girding up (אזּר, synon. חגר; Psalm 65:13, whence אזור, חגרה) with joy. The designed result of such a speedy and radical change in his affliction, after it had had the salutary effect of humbling him, was the praise of Jahve: in order that my glory (כּבוד for כּבודי = נפשׁי, as in Psalm 7:6; Psalm 16:9; Psalm 108:2) may sing Thy praises without ceasing (ידּם fut. Kal). And the praise of Jahve for ever is moreover his resolve, just as he vows, and at the same time carries it out, in this Psalm.