The Pulpit Commentary — Psalms — Volume 2 — Section 75

1tm1glh of the nC1tlon (2 Kings xxi v. 14-16; psalmist wishes to ask two things: I. Is XJ:V, 11), ond their settlement in the for-off the present clistres1 to continue for ever? region or Dabyloniu; hence the desolntion, 2. And if not, how long is it to endure? not nn ly of J eruaalem, but of "all the It is true that be inverts the no.( urs.l order habitations of Jacob" (Lam. ii. 2), nil the of the questions; hut this is so common a "strongholds or the do.ughter of Judoh" mode of speech, that ~rammarians have (Lorn, ii. 2, 5). They have bumt up all given it a name, a.ud call it ~<Tupov-1rp&TEpov. the synagogues of God in the land. The Ver. 11.-Why withtlrawcst thou thy eynogngue syeltm WCIB first introduced by ha!.d, even thy right hand 1 Why dost Ezro, according tn Jewish tradition; and it thou keep back the r:g!it h:md of thy power hos been argued that the mention of" syna- hiding it in thy bosom? Why not sho~ gogues" here-literally, "sacred meeting- forth thy power, and cor.snme th,·m, as it places "-proves the psalm to be Maccabean. were, in a moment? (See the next clause.) But meeting-places for worship, other than Plock it out of thy bosGm; ralh,·r, out with the temple, always existed in Pul~stine, it from thy bosom, and consume them. Tbe both before and after its erection. Mesha psalmist sees no reason why the Baby- epeo.ks of having plundered a "ho □ se of lonians should not be consnm~d, and Israel Jehovah" in bis war with Ahab (' Records delivered, at 011ce. He has an insufficient of the Past,' vol. xi. p. 167); and it is pie.in sense of the greatness of larael'~ sin. from 2 Kings iv. 23 that religious meetings were held by the prophets, probably in Vere. 12-17.-Comfort springs from the houses devoted to the purpose, during t?e thought of God's previous deli ver:i.nces of period or the divided mono.rchl', Hezckiali'e his people, and of his other grent mercies.. destrnction of the high plo.ces (2 Kings x viii. The deliverance from Egypt has the fore- 4) is not likely to have interfered with the use of these buildings, to which no savour most place (vcrs. 13, H), as the most striking. of idolatry can have attached in the mind Then the deliverance from the wilderness, of the most violent iconoclBSt. I should and the passage of Jordan (ver. 15). Fro:u therefore believe, with Leopold Low, that these the poet passes to God's mercies in buildings existed before the Exile, in which nature-day and night, light and sun, set religious in~trnction was given by authorized teachers. bounds of earth nnd sea, e.Hemations of the Ver. 9.-We see not our signs. Some see.sons-all formed and arranged by the snppose "standards" to be meant, as in Almighty (vers. 16, 17). ver. 4, where the same word is used; but it is. perhaps, better to understand, with Dr. Ver. 12.-For God is my King of old Kny, "Divine ordinances, which were stand- (comp. Ps. xliv. 4). As "King,'' he has ing signs of God's presence-as the taber- power to perform all that he wills, to set up nacle-, the sacrifices, the sa.bba.the." There nnd to cast down, to give into the enemy's is no more any prophet. It hBB been so.id hand and to deliver. Working aalvation that this shows the psalm not to have been in the midst of the earth. Not in any written on the occasion of the destruction imaginary earth-centre, but, as Professor of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, sinoo Cheyne says, "quite broadly, in various Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel were-, all of parts of the earth " (comp. Excd. viii. 22). them, then living. But the writer only Ver. 13.-Thou didst divide the sea by means to say that· there are no prophets in thy strength. A clear reference to Exod. Palestine, where he ill residing. Jeremiah xiv. 21 (comp. Pss. luvii. 16; lu:viii. 13; in Egypt, Ezekiel on the banks of Chebar, cvi. 9). Thou brakest the heads of the Daniel in Babylon, are nothing to him, even dragons in the waters. The dragon (tannim) if he knows of their existence, o.nd in no is frequently used as a. symbol of Egyptian wo.y fill up the gap whereof he complains. power (see Isa. li. 9; Ezek. :ui.x. 3; xxxii ll'either is there among us any who knoweth 2). The allusion here is to the destruction how long, Jeremie.h's prophecy of the of Pharaob's host in the waters of the Red seventy yea.re .(Jer. xxv. 11, 12) did not Seo. (Exod. xiv. 27-30; xv. 4). remove the doubt, since it was uncertain Ver. H:.-Thou brakest the heads of from what event the seventy yeo.rs were to levio.than in pieces. Here the metaphor is be counted. Jeremiah's prophecies, more- only slightly varied, leviathan, "the croco- over, were not yet, in all probo.bility, col- dile," being substituted for tannim, "the lected into a. volume, and eo mo.y not have dragon,'' or ".sea-monster," as the repr~ been known to the psalmist. sentative of the might of Egypt. And Ver. 10.-0 God, how long shall the adver- go.vest him to be meat to the people inhabit- ■ary reproaoh 1 shall the enemy blo.spheme ing the wildemess. The corpses of the thy Na.me for ever 1 There is no contra· Egyptians thrown up upon tl:e Red Sea diction between these two clauses. The shores (E.xod. xiv. 30) nre certainly \he  84 THE BOOK OF PSALMS [rs. LXXIV. 1-23.