Bible Commentaries

Praise of the Ruler of the World as Being the Defender of His People

The Davidic Maskîl, Psalm 32:1-11, is followed by an anonymous congregationalsong of a hymnic character, which begins just like the former closes. Itowes its composition apparently to some deliverance of the nation fromheathen oppression, which had resulted from God's interposition andwithout war. Moreover it exhibits no trace of dependence upon earliermodels, such as might compel us to assign a late date to it; the time ofJeremiah, for instance, which Hitzig adopts. The structure is symmetrical. Between the two hexastichs, Psalm 33:1, Psalm 33:20, the materia laudisis set forthin eight tetrastichs.

The call contained in this hexastich is addressed to the righteousand upright, who earnestly seek to live a godly and God-pleasing life, andthe sole determining rule of whose conduct is the will and good pleasure ofGod. These alone know God, whose true nature finds in them a clearmirror; so on their part they are joyfully to confess what they possess inHim. For it is their duty, and at the same time their honour, to praise him,and make their boast in Him. נאוה is the feminine of theadjective נאוה (formed out of נאוי), as in Psalm 147:1, cf. Proverbs 19:10. On כּנּור (lxx êéèáêéíõ) and נבל (lxx ψαλτήριον, νάβλα, ναῦλα etc.) vid., Introduction §II. נבל is thename given to the harp or lyre on account of its resemblance to a skinbottle or flash (root נב, to swell, to be distended), and נבל עשׂור, “harp of the decade,”' is the ten-stringed harp, whichis also called absolutely עשׂור, and distinguished from thecustomary נבל, in Psalm 92:4. By a comparison of the asyndeton expressions in Psalm 35:14, Jeremiah 11:19, Aben-Ezra understands by נבל עשור two instruments, contrary to the tenour of the words. Gecatilia, whom he controverts, is only so far in error as that he refers the ten to holes (נקבים) instead of to strings. The בּ is Beth instrum., just like the expression κιθαρίζειν ἐν κιθάραις , Revelation 14:2. A “new song” is one which, in consequence of some new mighty deeds of God, comes from a new impulse of gratitude in the heart, Psalm 40:4, and frequently in the Psalms, Isaiah 42:10, Judith 6:13, Revelation 5:9. In היטיבוּ the notions of scite and strenue, suaviter and naviter, blend. With בּתרוּעה, referring back to רננו, the call to praise forms, as it were, a circle as it closes.

Now beings the body of the song. The summons to praise God issupported (1) by a setting forth of His praiseworthiness

(Note: We have adopted the word “praiseworthiness” for the sake of conciseness of expression, in order to avoid an awkward periphrasis, in the sense of being worthy to be praised. - Tr.)

(a) as the God of revelation in the kingdom of Grace. His word is ישׂר, upright in intention, and, without becoming in any way whateveruntrue to itself, straightway fulfilling itself. His every act is an act inאמוּנה, truth, which verifies the truth of His word, and onewhich accomplishes itself. On אהב, equivalent to אהב הוּא, vid., Psalm 7:10; Psalm 22:29. צדקה is righteousness asconduct; משׁפּט is right as a rule of judgment and a state orcondition. חסד is an accusative, as in Psalm 119:64: misericordia Domini plena est terra(the introit for Misercordias Sunday or the secondSunday after Easter).

God's praiseworthiness (b) as the Creator of the world in the kingdom of Nature. Jahve's דּבר is His almighty “Let there be;” and רוח פּיו (inasmuch as the breath is here regarded as the material of which the word is formed and the bearer of the word) is the command, or in general, the operation of His commanding omnipotence (Job 15:30, cf. Job 4:9; Isaiah 34:16, cf. Psalm 11:4). The heavens above and the waters beneath stand side by side as miracles of creation. The display of His power in the waters of the sea consists in His having confined them within fixed bounds and keeping them within these. נד is a pile, i.e., a piled up heap (Arabic nadd), and more especially an inference to harvest: like such a heap do the convex waters of the sea, being firmly held together, rise above the level of the continents. The expression is like that in Joshua 3:13, Joshua 3:15, cf. Exodus 15:8; although there the reference is to a miracle occurring in the course of history, and in this passage to a miracle of creation. כּנס refers to the heap itself, not to the walls of the storehouses as holding together. This latter figure is not introduced until Psalm 33:7 : the bed of the sea and those of the rivers are, as it were, אוצרות, treasuries or storehouses, in which God has deposited the deep, foaming waves or surging mass of waters. The inhabitants (ישׁבי, not יושׁבי) of the earth have cause to fear God who is thus omnipotent (מן, in the sense of falling back from in terror); for He need only speak the word and that which He wills comes into being out of nothing, as we see from the hexaëmeron or history of Creation, but which is also confirmed in human history (Lamentations 3:37). He need only command and it stands forth like an obedient servant, that appears in all haste at the call of his lord, Psalm 119:91.

His praiseworthiness (c) as the irresistible Ruler in the history of men. Since in 2 Samuel 15:34; 2 Samuel 17:14, and frequently, הפר עצה is a common phrase, therefore heepiyr as in Psalm 89:34, Ezekiel 17:19, is equivalent to הפר (Ges. §67, rem. 9). The perfects arenot used in the abstract, but of that which has been experienced mostrecently, since the “new song” presupposes new matter. With Psalm 33:11 compare Proverbs 19:21. The עצת of God is the unity of the “thoughts of His heart,” i.e., of the ideas, which form the inmost part, the ultimate motives of everything that takes place. The whole history of the world is the uninterrupted carrying out of a divine plan of salvation, the primary object of which is His people, but in and with these are included humanity at large.

Hence the call to praise God is supported (2) by a setting forth of thatwhich His people possess in Him. This portion of the song is like aparaphrase of the אשׁרי in Deuteronomy 33:29. The theme in Psalm 33:12 isproved in Psalm 33:13 by the fact, that Jahve is the omniscient Ruler,because He is the Creator of men, without whose knowledge nothing isundertaken either secretly or openly, and especially if against His people. Then in Psalm 33:16 it is supported by the fact, that His people have inJahve a stronger defence than the greatest worldly power would be. Jahveis called the fashioner of all the hearts of men, as in Zechariah 12:1, cf. Proverbs 24:12, as being their Maker. As such He is also the observer of all theworks of men; for His is acquainted with their origin in the laboratory ofthe heart, which He as Creator has formed. Hupfeld takes יחד as an equalisation (pariter ac) of the two appositions; but then it ought tobe וּמבין (cf. Psalm 49:3, Psalm 49:11). The lxx correctly renders it êáôáìïsingillatimIt is alsoneedless to translate it, as Hupfeld does: He who formed, qui finxitfor thehearts of men were not from the very first created all at one time, but theprimeval impartation of spirit-life is continued at every birth in somemysterious way. God is the Father of spirits, Hebrews 12:9. For this veryreason everything that exists, even to the most hidden thing, isencompassed by His omniscience and omnipotence. He exercises anomniscient control over all things, and makes all things subservient to thedesigns of His plan of the universe, which, so far as His people areconcerned, is the plan of salvation. Without Him nothing comes to pass;but through Him everything takes place. The victory of the king, and thesafety of the warrior, are not their own works. Their great military power and bodily strength can accomplish nothing without God, who can also be mighty in the feeble. Even for purposes of victory (תּשׁוּעה, cf. ישׁוּעה, Psalm 21:2) the war-horse is שׁקר, i.e., a thing that promises much, but can in reality do nothing; it is not its great strength, by which it enables the trooper to escape (ימלּט). “The horse,” says Solomon in Proverbs 21:31, “is equipped for the day of battle, but התּשׁוּעה לה, Jahve's is the victory,” He giveth it to whomsoever He will. The ultimate ends of all things that come to pass are in His hands, and - as Psalm 33:18. say, directing special attention to this important truth by הנּה - the eye of this God, that is to say the final aim of His government of the world, is directed towards them that fear Him, is pointed at them that hope in His mercy (למיחלים). In Psalm 33:19, the object, לחסדּו, is expanded by way of example. From His mercy or loving-kindness, not from any acts of their own, conscious of their limited condition and feebleness, they look for protection in the midst of the greatest peril, and for the preservation of their life in famine. Psalm 20:8 is very similar; but the one passage sounds as independent as the other.

Accordingly, in this closing hexastich, the church acknowledges Him as itshelp, its shield, and its source of joy. Besides the passage before us,חכּה occurs in only one other instance in the Psalter, viz., Psalm 106:13. This word, which belongs to the group of words signifying hopingand waiting, is perhaps from the root חך (Arab. (ḥk'), (ḥkâ), firmiterconstringere sc. nodum), to be firm, compact, like קוּה fromקוה, to pull tight or fast, cf. the German harren (to wait) andhart (hard, compact). In Psalm 33:20 we still hear the echo of the primarypassage Deuteronomy 33:29 (cf. Deuteronomy 33:26). The emphasis, as in Psalm 115:9-11, restsupon הוּא, into which בּו, in Psalm 33:21, puts this thought, viz.,He is the unlimited sphere, the inexhaustible matter, the perennial springof our joy. The second כּי confirms this subjectively. His holyName is His church's ground of faith, of love, and of hope; for from thence comes its salvation. It can boldly pray that the mercy of the Lord may be upon it, for it waits upon Him, and man's waiting or hoping and God's giving are reciprocally conditioned. This is the meaning of the כּאשׁר. God is true to His word. The Te Deum laudamus of Ambrose closes in the same way.