38 But Thou, Thou hast cast off and rejected, Thou hast been wroth with Thine anointed, 39 Thou hast abhorred the covenant of Thy servant, Thou hast profaned his crown to the ground.
40 Thou hast broken down all his fences, Thou hast made his strongholds a ruin. 41 All that pass on the way spoil him, He is become a reproach to his neighbours.
42 Thou hast exalted the hand of his adversaries, Thou hast made all his enemies rejoice. 43 Also Thou turnest the edge of his sword, And hast not made him to stand in the battle.
44 Thou hast made an end of his lustre, And cast his throne to the ground, 45 Thou hast shortened the days of his youth, Thou hast wrapped shame upon him. Selah.
46 How long, Jehovah, wilt Thou hide Thyself for ever? [How long] shall Thy wrath burn like fire? 47 Remember how short a time I [have to live], For what vanity hast Thou created all the sons of men! 48 Who is the man who shall live and not see death, [Who] shall deliver his soul from the hand of Sheol?
49 Where are Thy former loving-kindnesses, Jehovah, Which Thou swarest to David in Thy faithfulness? 50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, How I bear in my bosom the shame of the peoples(?) 51 Wherewith Thine enemies have reproached Thee, Jehovah, Wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of Thine anointed.
52 Blessed be Jehovah for evermore. Amen and Amen.
The foundation of this psalm is the promise in 2 Sam. vii. which guaranteed the perpetuity of the Davidic kingdom. Many of the characteristic phrases of the prophecy recur here--_e.g._, the promises that the children of wickedness shall not afflict, and that the transgressions of David's descendants should be followed by chastisement only, not by rejection. The contents of Nathan's oracle are first given in brief in vv. 3, 4--"like a text," as Hupfeld says--and again in detail and with poetic embellishments in vv. 19-37. But these glorious promises are set in sharpest contrast with a doleful present, which seems to contradict them. They not only embitter it, but they bewilder faith, and the psalmist's lament is made almost a reproach of God, whose faithfulness seems imperilled by the disasters which had fallen on the monarchy and on Israel. The complaint and petitions of the latter part are the true burden of the psalm, to which the celebration of Divine attributes in vv. 1-18, and the expansion of the fundamental promise in vv. 19-37, are meant to lead up. The attributes specified are those of Faithfulness (vv. 1, 2, 5, 8, 14) and of Power, which render the fulfilment of God's promises certain. By such contemplations the psalmist would fortify himself against the whispers of doubt, which were beginning to make themselves heard in his mind, and would find in the character of God both assurance that His promise shall not fail, and a powerful plea for his prayer that it may not fail.
The whole tone of the psalm suggests that it was written when the kingdom was toppling to ruin, or perhaps even after its fall. Delitzsch improbably supposes that the young king, whom loss and shame make an old man (ver. 45), is Rehoboam, and that the disasters which gave occasion to the psalm were those inflicted by the Egyptian king Shishak. Others see in that youthful prince Jehoiachin, who reigned for three months, and was then deposed by Nebuchadnezzar, and whom Jeremiah has bewailed (xxii. 24-29). But all such conjectures are precarious.
The structure of the psalm can scarcely be called strophical. There are three well-marked turns in the flow of thought,--first, the hymn to the Divine attributes (vv. 1-18); second, the expansion of the promise, which is the basis of the monarchy (vv. 19-37); and, finally, the lament and prayer, in view of present afflictions, that God would be true to His attributes and promises (vv. 38-51). For the most part the verses are grouped in pairs, which are occasionally lengthened into triplets.