The series of afflictions which God alleviates is resumed in ver. 9 with a pathetic triad--strangers, widows, and fatherless. These are forlorn indeed, and the depth of their desolation is the measure of the Divine compassion. The enumeration of Jehovah's acts, which make trust in God blessed in itself, and the sure way of securing help which is not vain, needs but one more touch for completion, and that is added in the solemn thought that He, by His providences and in the long run, turns aside (_i.e._ from its aim) the way of the wicked. That aspect of God's government is lightly handled in one clause, as befits the purpose of the psalm. But it could not be left out. A true likeness must have shadows. God were not a God for men to rely on, unless the trend of His reign was to crush evil and thwart the designs of sinners.
The blessedness of trust in Jehovah is gathered up into one great thought in the last verse of the psalm. The sovereignty of God to all generations suggests the swift disappearance of earthly princes, referred to in ver. 4. To trust in fleeting power is madness; to trust in the Eternal King is wisdom and blessedness, and in some sense makes him who trusts a sharer in the eternity of the God in whom is his hope, and from whom is his help.
1 Hallelujah! For it is good to harp unto our God, For it is pleasant: praise is comely. 2 Jehovah is the builder up of Jerusalem, The outcasts of Israel He gathers together; 3 The healer of the broken-hearted, And He binds their wounds; 4 Counting a number for the stars, He calls them all by names. 5 Great is our Lord and of vast might, To His understanding there is no number. 6 Jehovah helps up the afflicted, Laying low the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to Jehovah with thanksgiving, Harp to our God on the lyre, 8 Covering heaven with clouds, Preparing rain for the earth; Making the mountains shoot forth grass, 9 Giving to the beast its food, To the brood of the raven which croak. 10 Not in the strength of the horse does He delight, Not in the legs of a man does He take pleasure. 11 Jehovah takes pleasure in them that fear Him, Them that wait for His loving-kindness.
12 Extol Jehovah, O Jerusalem, Praise thy God, O Zion. 13 For He has strengthened the bars of thy gates, He has blessed thy children in thy midst. 14 Setting thy borders in peace, With the fat of wheat He satisfies thee; 15 Sending forth His commandment on the earth, Swiftly runs His word; 16 Giving snow like wool, Hoar frost He scatters like ashes; 17 Flinging forth His ice like morsels, Before His cold who can stand? 18 He sends forth His word and melts them, He causes His wind to blow--the waters flow; 19 Declaring His word to Jacob, His statutes and judgments to Israel. 20 He has not dealt thus to any nation; And His judgments--they have not known them.
The threefold calls to praise Jehovah (vv. 1, 7, 12) divide this psalm into three parts, the two former of which are closely connected, inasmuch as the first part is mainly occupied with celebrating God's mercy to the restored Israel, and the second takes a wider outlook, embracing His beneficence to all living things. Both these points of view are repeated in the same order in the third part (vv. 12-20), which the LXX. makes a separate psalm. The allusions to Jerusalem as rebuilt, to the gathering of the scattered Israelites, and to the fortifications of the city naturally point to the epoch of the Restoration, whether or not, with Delitzsch and others, we suppose that the psalm was sung at the feast of the dedication of the new walls. In any case, it is a hymn of the restored people, which starts from the special mercy shown to them, and rejoices in the thought that "Our God" fills the earth with good and reigns to bless, in the realm of Nature as in that of special Revelation. The emphasis placed on God's working in nature, in this and others of these closing psalms, is probably in part a polemic against the idolatry which Israel had learned to abhor, by being brought face to face with it in Babylon, and in part a result of the widening of conceptions as to His relation to the world outside Israel which the Exile had also effected. The two truths of His special relation to His people and of His universal loving-kindness have often been divorced, both by His people and by their enemies. This psalm teaches a more excellent way.