The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 3 — Section 24

old commentators, that these fearful curses are those of the Lord Jesus Christ on Judas, who betrayed him, has only made the difficulties connected with this psalm ever so much worse.. What is to be said? The solution we have to offer is that given by a learned theological writer, Mr. J. Hammond; and it is this-that these frightful cursings are not David's at all, but Shimei's (see 2 Sam. xvi,). They are what he heaped upon David, not David upon him. For- I. Suen CURSING Is UNLIKE DAVID. No doubt David was capable of saying and doing terrible things. Still, such brutal malignity, such diabolic depths of cruelty, as are reached in these cursings, are not what David's life, even where the worst has been said of it, would lead us to expect. He was not himself, though passionate, a v.indictive m,m. And if David's dying injunctions concerning Joab and Shimei be cited, we venture to say that, deplorable as they were, they are mildness and meek- ness itself compared with what we find here. They do not take in the parents and innocent children, nor stretch into the far future, as these delight to do; they are limited to the individual criminal and to the present life. But this cannot be said of the curses of this psalm. No, they are not like David; we do not believe they could have come from him. II, Al,.,> THEY ARE INCONSISTENT WITH THE PSALM ITSELF WHEN TAKEN IN ITS ENTIRETY. There are three plainly marked divisions in the psalm. 'l'he first, vers. 1-5; the second, containing these imprecations, vers. 6-19; and the third, ver. 20 to the end. Now, nothing could be iu greater contrast than the central, the cursing portion, and that which both precedes and follows. The first and last sections tell of "adversaries," many of them; but the central one points to one solitary individual: "Let him be condemned;" "He loved cursing," etc. And not in form only, but how utterly different in spirit! See the frequent references to God in the first and last sections; but they are scarcely to be found in the central one, In ver. 4, in the first section, David meekly says, "I give myself unto prayer;" which assuredly be did not, but to something very different, if vers. 6-19 are the utterances of his mind. Is it likely that all a.t once, as by a leap, he would pass from the spirit of meek devoutness and lowly trust in God, to the very spirit of hell, which breathes and burns in vers. 6-19? And if such were his spirit, would he a.t ver. 20 suddenly return to the bitter spirit of the beginning of this psalm? We think not. IIL THEIR AUTHORSHIP CAN BE SETTLED ONLY BY THE CONTEXT, and that is in favour of the view we have maintained. Note: 1. That in Hebrew there are no quotation marks. Such contrivances as inverted commas and the like, to make clear when the words of another are given, were unknown to Hebrew writers. You can tell only by the context and the general sense when such quotations occur. Hence: 2. Our translators wntinually add some word or words to marlc them. (Of. Pas. ii. 2; xxii 7; xxvii. 8; xli. 8; !ix. 7; cv. 15; cxxxvii. 3, and many more.) 3. And there are numbera qfpassages where such signs should be given but are not: e.g. Pss. ii. 6; xiv. 4; xx. a.nd xxi. (liturgical psalms); xxii. 22; xxxix. 4; and the writer I am indebted to for these references says, "I have counted a score of passages in Perowne's transla- tion of the Psalms where he employs either the one or the other." And theu: 4. The reproachei; of enem-ies are cited frequently: e.g. Pss. x. 6; xxii. 8; xxxv. 21, etc. Now, may we not ask, that seeing the Hebrew has no quotation marks, and that the context only can declde when they should be inserted, could any context more plainly indicate that these vers. 6-19 form an instance in which our tran8lators should, as they have done ,else1vhere, have given such signs? IV. IN DAVID'S OWN HISTORY WE HAVE AMPLE EXPLANATION 011' THIS PSALM, and confirmation of the view we have maintained. '!'be co1Tespondencies between the history and the psalm are clear, constant, and minute, as well as obvious. 'l'he history is in 2 Sam. xvi. Take the vers. 1-5, and what could more faithfully depict tha condition, the spirit, and the enemy of David at the time of Absalom's revolt, and when he was cursed by Shimei? And if, as we believe we should, we introduce the word '' saying "after ver. 5, then do we not get a vivid representation of the curses that Shimei heaped upon him? And the imprecations themselves are just those that. would have been spoken. They indicate the fact that he against whom they were directed held some great office; ver. 8 shows this. Ver. 14 points to facts told of in the Book of Ruth. David's ancestors were Israelites, but they had committed the great sin of PB, OIX, 1-31.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. !?5