The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 1 — Section 214

EXPOSITION. Ver. 1.-I will extol thee, 0 Lord; or, PSALM XXX. "I will exalt thee," as tho word is rendered Tms psalm is one of thanksgiving from in Pss. xxxiv. S; xcix. 5, 9; and elsewhere. first to last, an<l commemorates a deliverance For thou hast lifted me up; or, "drawn me up," as a bucket is drawn up out of a well, from a grca\ da11gcr. It is divided into or a man out of o. dungeon. And hast not two unequal portions-one of five and the me.de my foes to rejoice over me. David other of seven verses. In the first put, had still enemies at the time of his number- the delivernnce is mentioned, and thanks ing the people, o.s appears from 2 Sam. gh·en for it, in the briefest possible way xxiv. 13. Indeed, it was doubtless with some reference to the number of bis foes (vers. 1-3), after which the people are that he wished to know how many followers co.lied upon to join in praising God, and he could rally to hie standard iu case of reminded what cause they have for doing need. If the plague had continued much so ( vers. 4, 5). In the second part, the longer, David's military strength would circnmste.nces of the deliverance are set out have been eeriouRly crippled, and hie foes would have rejoiced with reason. at greater length. First of all, the sin is Ver. 2.-0 Lord my God, I cried unto confessed, which had drawn down God's thee, and thou he.at healed me. "Heal " anger (ver. 6); then mention is made of may be used metaphorically for the removal the trouble which Cll.me (ver. 7); next the of mental sufferings (see Pas. xii. 4; cxlvii. psalmist tells us how the trouble wa.s met 3); but David's grief when he saw the sufferings of hie people from the plague (ver. 8); be gives us his prayer and seems to have wholly prostrated him, both expostulation with God (vers. 9, 10); then in mind and body. .l!'or the nature of he relates how, on a sudden, there was the "cry" spoken of, comp. vers. 8-10, relief-grief was tnmed into gladness- which a.re an expansion of the present entreaty into thanksgiving (vers. 11, 12). verse. Ver. 3.-0 Lord, thou he.at brought up Finally, in e. burst of joy, he promises to my soul from the grave; i.e. when I was on continue to praise a.nd thank God for ever. the verge of the grave, just ready to depart The title ascribes the psalm to David: to the unseen world, thy interposition saved 11ml. it ia generally allowed to possess me, and brought me, as it were, back to life. internal evidence of De.vidic authorship. Thon hast kept me alive. Lest tbe hyperbole of the preceding clause shoultl be misunder- Ewald calls it "a model hymn of thanks- stood, the writer appends a prosaic account giving, composed in the best age of Hebrew of what harl happened. God had "kept poetry, for recitation in the temple." The him alive" when he was in peril of death, 11articule.r occe.sion on which it was written and saved him, the.t he should not go down is declared in the title to have been " the to the pit. Ver. 4.-Sing unto the Lord, 0 ye se.ints dedication of the honse," by which (if of his. David continually co.lie upon the David was the author) it is impossible to people to join him in his praises of God. understand anything but the dedication Even when the meroy vouchso.fed ho.a been of the altar (with its precinct) on the granted specially to himself, he regnrds threshing-floor of Araunah the J ebusite, tbe people as interested, since he is th~ir ruler in peace o.nd their leader in wn.r (see o.fter tbe great plague sent to punish David Pas. ix. 11; xxxiv. 3, eto.). On the present for numbering the people, as related in occasion, however, the people who had 2 Sam. xxiv. 1-25; 1 Chron. xxi. 1-28. escaped the pestilence had almost exactly With this occasion its contents are in the same- reason for pro.ising and tlmnking y,erfoJt ho.rmony. It was probably sung at God that David had, and were bound to join him in his thanksgiving service. And the thanksgiving service with which give thanks at the remembrance of his David inaugurated his altar. The modern holine11 ; literally, gif/6 thank• to the Jews still recite it at their Feast of the memorial of hia holineu, whioh is explained, Dedication. by reference to Exod. iii. 15, as weaning, PS. XXX. 1-12.J THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 219