Ver. 1.-0ur place of safety. The construction of this psalm is peculiar (see exegetical notes). Ewald gives the best suggestion concerniug its structure. Partly the poet expresses his own feelings as from himself, and partly as if they were uttered by another. He seems to listen to the thoughts of his own spirit till they become clear and distinct, like some prophetic words, or some Divine oracle speaking to him from without, and giving him thus the assurance and the consolation afresh which had already sprung up in his heart. The associations of the psalm, and the authorship, cannot with any certainty be traced, but the Jewish idea that it belongs to the age of 278 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. [PB, XCI, 1-16,
Moses de~e_rve~ comid~ration. Cert11in ly the expariences of the wilderness-life give the most effective illustration of both the figures and the sentiments of the psalm. Bishop Wordsworth says confidently," The scenery of the p.~alm is derived from the circum- ~tances of the sojourn of Israel in the wil<lcrncss." Dean Plumptre says, "The psalm 1s an_ echo, verse by verse almost, of the words in which Eliphaz the Temanite describes the good man's life (,Tob v. 17-23)." Perhaps the two sentenoes of ver. 1 would be better read as a repetition, according to the customary construction of Hebrew poets. "He that dwelleth . . . he that abideth . . . shall say unto the Lord." Working out the Mosaic association, show- I. Tm: WILDERKESS-PERILS, As Moses would be impressed by them. Limited food. ~a~ger~ of pestilence by remaining too long in a place. Active enemies. Local d1fficult1es, as from serpents. Temper of the people. Influence of mixed multitudes. Wearying effect of constant changes, etc. We seldom fully realize the persistent and exhausting anxieties of Moses. Sometimes even his life seemed to be in danger. II. THE WILDERNESS-SAFETIES. Moses could not help contrasting the holy quiet of those forty da.ys he had spent in the "secret place" with God, and the forty years of strain and stress be bad spent with the stiff-necked and rebellious people. He must often have yearned for a renewal of those restful hours. And yet the spiritual fact and truth for him was that be did still" dwell in the secret place," he did still" abide under the shadow of the Almighty;" for this, in very truth, is a mood of soul- experience, and not a mere bodily relationship. Moses with God in the mount does but illustrate Moses with God always, resting and safe in bis "sbadow."-R. T.
Ver. 2.-Many names for God. Finding various names is a common device of love. The names seem to express the many-sidedness of our relationship. It must be specially true of God that we stand in various relations to him, and are helped by a variety of terms and name~, which express those relations. There a.re four name11 inven to God in vers. 1, 2. God the Concealer is the "inacces~ibly High One." God the Shadower is the "invincibly Almighty One." God. the Covenant-maker is "'J ebovah, the Lord." And God personally appropriated is "my God." Or it has been put in this way: 1. We commune with him reverently, for be is the Most High. 2. We rest in him as the Almighty. 3. We rejoice in him as Jehovah, or Lord. 4. We trust in him as El, the mighty God. Perowne's suggestion is more directly in harmony with the psalm. "God is • Most High,' far above all the rage and malice of enemies; • Almighty,' so that none can stand before his power; 'Jehovah,' the God of covenant and grace, who has revealed himself to his people; and it is of such a God that the psalmist says, in holy confidence, ' He is " my God," in whom I trust.'" Trying to find the thoughts which one so circumstanced as Moses would attach to the terms, we may say- L THE "MosT HIGH" 1s ABOVE ALL EA.llTHLY CHANGES. Unaffected by them in ruch sense as can weaken bis relations to them. We cannot interfere in disputes aud difficulties without prejudice. Often we cannot keep calm to fo1·m good judgment. God can. IL THE "ALMIGHTY" 18 ABLE TO DEAL WITH ALL EARTHLY CONDITIONS. They can never be so complicated that be cannot unravel them; never so desperate _that be cannot master them. "With God all things are possible." If God does not lllterfere in a case, the reason must be that be will not, because be ca11 if be please. Ill. THE" LORD, JEHOVAH" 18 UNDER PLEDGE TO INTERFERE FOR HIS PEOPLE'S GOOD, The name "Jehovah" was taken as the sign and seal of the covenant, as the rainbow was taken as tbe sign of the nature-covenant. God, as Jehovah, may be thought of as the "Faithful Promiser." IV. THE TEBM "MY GoD,, IMPLIES THAT GOD HAS BEEN, IN ACTUAL EXPERIENCE, WHAT THE PSALll!IST FEL'l' CONFWE~T THAT HE WAS. Jt is an iroportant advance to be able to say," I know not only what God is, I know also what he bas ucen to me.''-R. T.
Ver. 3.-Umitation, of temp<:m l protection. The fact is pat.ent. It _dem~nds consideration. God does not alway.i give protection from bodily evils to bis sa111t~. On a house at Chester, that was spared in the timo of plague, is the inscription, "God's PB, XCI, 1-16.] THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 279