PSALM XXXIX. למנצח לידותון מזמור לדוד The thirty-ninth Psalm is a penitential meditation on the vanity of the present life. It seems not to be appropriated to any particular person. [A] Ver. 5. —with all his pride;"—" at his best state." E. T. The word 233 has much distressed interpreters, What if we take it for the participle Niphal of the verb 3, which signifies to swell, either literally or figuratively. The sense of the passage then will be: Also every thing is vanity, Even man swoln (as he may be with pride). [B] Ver. 6. he heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them." E. T. The pronoun, suffixed to the verb DN, has no antece As for his heaps, [the * .צבריו לא read יצבר ולא dent. For riches which he amassed] he knoweth not who shall gather them." PSALM XL. למנצח לדוד מזמור [A] Ver. 4. turneth him not to pride, and the wanderings of falsehood;"-" respecteth not the proud nor such as go about with lies.”Ε.Τ. Επέβλεψεν εἰς ματαιότητας καὶ μανίας ψευδεῖς. LXX, Vulg. Syr. to the same effect. "Nec declinavit ad supérbiam et aberrationes mendacii," Houbigant. "Pride,” atheism."Errors of falsehood," idolatry. See Mudge. [B] Ver. 7. mine ears hast thou opened." Zãpa di naτnęτion μo, LXX-a body hast thou prepared for me. Mr κατηρτίσω μοι, Pierce of Exon conjectures that the copies of the LXX gave the text thus, זבח ומנחה לא חפצת אז גוה כרית לי: עולה וחטאת לא שאלת אז אמרתי הנה באתי: It is obvious, indeed, that the two words i might And the interpretation of אזנים easily be changed into the LXX may seem, in some degree, confirmed by St Paul's quotation. Pierce's conjecture is approved by Bishop Lowth. Bishop Horne, however, very justly remarks, that "if the apostle's argument turned on the word rua, such an emendation might seem necessary. But that word is not essential to the argument, which seems to stand clear and full, whatever be the meaning of σῶμα κατηρτίσω μοι.” He might have added, that the apostle's argument would be complete, if these words were expunged, or if they had been omitted in the citation. Archbishop Secker was clearly of the same opinion." It is not certain," says the Archbishop, "that the apostle argues from the word raua at all. He quotes the translation of the LXX as he found it in his copy; lays a stress on what is in the Hebrew, but none on the rest; either knowing it not to be there, or being restrained, by the Spirit of God, from making use of it." See Secker in Merrick's Appendix. [C] Ver. 8. to execute thy gracious will;" literally, as Houbigant thinks, " to make an appeasement of thee,” i. e. to appease thee, or to make the expiation in which thou delightest. St Paul may seem to have perceived a particular allusion to the reconciliation made by Christ's sacrifice in the word, although the LXX perceived it not. At the same time, as Houbigant well observes, the particular interpretation of is not necessary to the apostle's argument; and the expression occurs in other places, where its sense is simply, "to do thy will." [D] Ver. 12. —mine iniquities." Aerumnae meae, says Houbigant; piously thinking that the person who speaks throughout this Psalm had no sins with which to charge himself. But since "God laid upon him the iniquities of us all," therefore the Messiah, when he is personated in the Psalms, perpetually calls those iniquities his own, of which he bore the punishment. The word, however, in the singular is used, as is observed by Pierce, for punishment. Gen. iv, 13, and xix, 15, and 2 Kings vii, 9. [E] Ver. 15. They shall go off immediately with their due disgrace."-"Let them be desolate, for a reward of their shame." E. T By comparing this with the parallel place in Psalm lxx, and considering the version of the LXX, in both places, I have little doubt that the true reading for 1 is 12, and that the phrase apy by, signifies, immediately. Statim reportabunt dedecus suum," they shall immediately go off with shame;" or, more literally, "carry off their shame." Bishop Lowth thinks the copies of the LXX gave "N", which would render the same sense. Archbishop Secker is unwilling to admit that the phrase py by may signify statim. But upon that point the LXX, in my opinion, may be allowed to decide. In this, and the preceding verse, the shame, confusion, and desolation to be brought upon the Jewish nation, in the first instance, and ultimately upon the antichristian faction in the latter ages, is foretold. is foretold. See Bishop Horne upon this verse. [F] Ver. 17. But I am poor," &c.-"Truly I am poor." E.T. The humanity of the Messiah speaks. And yet it seems hardly to suit the character of the Messiah, raised from the dead (and in that character he appears in this Psalm), to say of himself that he was then "helpless and poor." We may apply, therefore, to this verse the remark which Bishop Horne, with less propriety, makes upon the 12th. "These words are uttered by our Lord, considering himself (for the primitive writers suppose him, in the Psalms, frequently to consider himself) as still suffering in his body mystical, the Church. After his ascension, when the members of that body were persecuted on earth, the head complained from Heaven, as sensible of the pain: Saul, Sauk, why persecutest thou ME?" Under the sense of these sufferings, he comforts himself with the reflection, that Jehovah is not unmindful of him, and prays that he would not delay to complete the deliverance and triumph of the Church. [G] This reading is found in eighteen MSS. and eight printed editions of Kennicott's Collation. |