1 Shout joyfully to God, all the earth, 2 Harp [unto] the glory of His name, Render glory [to Him by] His praise. 3 Say to God, How dread are Thy works! For the greatness of Thy strength shall Thy enemies feign [submission] to Thee. 4 All the earth shall bow down to Thee, and harp to Thee, They shall harp [to] Thy name. Selah.
5 Come, and behold the deeds of God; He is dread in His doing towards the sons of men, 6 He turned the sea to dry land, They went through the river on foot, There let us rejoice in Him. 7 He rules by His might for ever; His eyes watch the nations, The rebellious--let them not exalt themselves. Selah.
8 Bless our God, ye peoples, And let the voice of His praise be heard! 9 Who has set our soul in life, And has not let our foot slip. 10 For Thou hast proved us, O God, Thou hast refined us, as silver is refined. 11 Thou hast brought us into the fortress-dungeon, Thou hast laid a heavy burden on our loins. 12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our head, We have come into the fire and into the water, But Thou broughtest us out into abundance.
13 I will go into Thy house with burnt offerings, I will render to Thee my vows, 14 Which my lips uttered, And my mouth spoke, in my straits. 15 Burnt offerings of fatlings will I offer to Thee, With the savour of rams, I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.
16 Come, hearken, and I will recount, all ye that fear God, What He has done for my soul. 17 To Him did I cry with my mouth, And a song extolling [Him] was [already] under my tongue. 18 If I had intended iniquity in my heart, The Lord would not hear: 19 But surely God has heard, He has attended to the voice of my prayer. 20 Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, nor His loving-kindness from me.
The most striking feature of this psalm is the transition from the plural "we" and "our," in vv. 1-12, to the singular "I" and "my," in vv. 13-20. Ewald supposes that two independent psalms have been united, but ver. 12 is as abrupt for an ending as ver. 13 is for a beginning; and the "Come, hear," of ver. 16 echoes the "Come, and see," of ver. 5. It is possible that "the 'I' of the second part is identical with the 'we' of the first; in other words, that the personified community speaks here" (Baethgen); but the supposition that the psalm was meant for public worship, and is composed of a choral and a solo part, accounts for the change of number. Such expressions as "my soul" and "my heart" favour the individual reference. Of course, the deliverance magnified by the single voice is the same as that celebrated by the loud acclaim of many tongues; but there is a different note in the praise of the former--there is a tone of inwardness in it, befitting individual appropriation of general blessings. To this highest point, that of the action of the single soul in taking the deliverances of the community for its very own, and pouring out its own praise, the psalm steadily climbs. It begins with the widest outlook over "all the earth," summoned to ring forth joyous praise. It ends focussed to one burning point, in a heart fired by the thought that God "has not turned away his loving-kindness from _me_." So we learn how each single soul has to claim its several part in world-wide blessings, as each flower-calyx absorbs the sunshine that floods the pastures.
The psalm has no superscription of date or author, and no clue in its language to the particular deliverance that called it forth. The usual variety of conjectures have been hazarded. The defeat of Sennacherib occurs to some; the return from Babylon to others; the Maccabean period to yet another school of critics. It belongs to a period when Israel's world-significance and mission were recognised (which Cheyne considers a post-exilic feature, "Orig. of Psalt.," 176), and when the sacrificial worship was in full force; but beyond these there are no clear data for period of composition.