Bible Commentaries

Evening Psalm in the Times of Absalom

The four Psalms, Psalm 140:1-13, Psalm 141:1-10, Psalm 142:1-7, and Psalm 143:1-12, are interwoven with one anotherin many ways (Symbolae, pp. 67f.). The following passages are verysimilar, viz., Psalm 140:7; Psalm 141:1; Psalm 142:2, and Psalm 143:1. Just as the poet complainsin Psalm 142:4, “when my spirit veils itself within me,” so too in Psalm 143:4; as heprays in Ps 142:8, “Oh bring my soul out of prison,” so in Psalm 143:11, “bring mysoul out of distress,” where צרה takes the place of the metaphoricalמסגר. Besides these, compare Psalm 140:5-6 with Psalm 141:9; Psalm 142:7 with Psalm 143:9; Psalm 140:3 with Psalm 141:5, רעות; Ps 140:14 with Ps 142:8; Psalm 142:4 with Psalm 143:8.

The right understanding of the Psalm depends upon the rightunderstanding of the situation. Since it is inscribed לדוד, it is presumablya situation corresponding to the history of David, out of the midst ofwhich the Psalm is composed, either by David himself or by some one elsewho desired to give expression in Davidic strains to David's mood when inthis situation. For the gleaning of Davidic Psalms which we find in the lasttwo Books of the Psalter is for the most part derived from historicalworks in which these Psalms, in some instances only free reproductions ofthe feelings of David with respect to old Davidic models, adorned thehistoric narrative. The Psalm before us adorned the history of the time ofthe persecution by Absalom. At that time David was driven out ofJerusalem, and consequently cut off from the sacrificial worship of Godupon Zion; and our Psalm is an evening hymn of one of those troublousdays. The ancient church, even prior to the time of Gregory(Constitutiones Apostolicae, ii. 59), had chosen it for its evening hymn,just as it had chosen Psalm 63:1-11 for its morning hymn. Just as Psalm 63:1-11 was called ὁ ὀρθρινός (ibid. 8:37), so this Psalm, as being the VesperPsalm, was called ïå(vid., 8:35).

The very beginning of Psalm 141:1-10 is more after the manner of David than really Davidic; for instead of haste thee to me, David always says, haste thee for my help, Psalm 22:20; 38:23; Psalm 40:14. The לך that is added to בּקראי (as in Psalm 4:2) is to be explained, as in Psalm 57:3: when I call to Thee, i.e., when I call Thee, who art now far from me, to me. The general cry for help is followed in Psalm 141:2 by a petition for the answering of his prayer. Luther has given an excellent rendering: Let my prayer avail to Thee as an offering of incense; the lifting up of my hands, as an evening sacrifice (Mein Gebet müsse fur dir tügen wie ein Reuchopffer, Meine Hende auffheben, wie ein Abendopffer). תּכּון is the fut. Niph. of כּוּן, and signifies properly to be set up, and to be established, or reflexive: to place and arrange or prepare one's self, Amos 4:12; then to continue, e.g., Psalm 101:7; therefore, either let it place itself, let it appear, sistat se, or better: let it stand, continue, i.e., let my prayer find acceptance, recognition with Thee קטרת, and the lifting up of my hands מנחת־ערב. Expositors say that this in both instances is the comparatio decurtata, as in Psalm 11:1 and elsewhere: as an incense-offering, as an evening (mincha). But the poet purposely omits the כּ of the comparison. He wishes that God may be pleased to regard his prayer as sweet-smelling smoke or as incense, just as this was added to the (azcara) of the meal-offering, and gave it, in its ascending perfume, the direction upward to God,

(Note: It is not the priestly קטרת תּמיד, i.e., the daily morning and evening incense-offering upon the golden altar of the holy place, Exodus 30:8, that is meant (since it is a non-priest who is speaking, according to Hitzig, of course John Hyrcanus), but rather, as also in Isaiah 1:13, the incense of the (azcara) of the meal-offering which the priest burnt (הקטיר) upon the altar; the incense (Isaiah 66:3) was entirely consumed, and not merely a handful taken from it.)

and that He may be pleased to regard the lifting up of his hands (משׂאת, the construct with the reduplication given up, from משּׂאת, or even, after the form מתּנת, from משּׂאה, here not oblatio, but according to the phrase נשׂא כפּים ידים, elevatio, Judges 20:38, Judges 20:40, cf. Psalm 28:2, and frequently) as an evening (mincha), just as it was added to the evening (tamı̂d) according to Exodus 29:38-42, and concluded the work of the service of the day.

(Note: The reason of it is this, that the evening (mincha) is oftener mentioned than the morning (mincha) (see, however, 2 Kings 3:20). The whole burnt-offering of the morning and the meat-offering of the evening (2 Kings 16:15; 1 Kings 18:29, 1 Kings 18:36) are the beginning and close of the daily principal service; whence, according to the example of the (usus) (loquendi) in Daniel 9:21; Ezra 9:4., later on (mincha) directly signifies the afternoon or evening.)

The prayer now begins to be particularized, and that in the first instanceas a petition fore the grace of silence, calling to mind old Davidic passageslike Psalm 39:2; Psalm 34:14. The situation of David, the betrayed one, requirescaution in speaking; and the consciousness of having sinned, not indeedagainst the rebels, but against God, who would not visit him thus withouthis deserving it, stood in the way of any outspoken self-vindication. Inpone custodiam ori meoשׁמרה is áëåãafter the infinitiveform דּבקה, עזבה, עצמה. In Psalm 141:3 דּל is áëåãfor דּלת; cf. “doors of the mouth” in Micah 7:5,and ðõóôïin Euripides. נצּרה might beimper. Kal: keep I pray, with Dag. dirimens as in Proverbs 4:13. But נצר על is not in use; and also as the parallel word to שׁמרה, which likewise has the appearance of being imperative, נצּרה is explicable as regards its pointing by a comparison of יקּהה inGenesis 49:10, דּבּרה in Deuteronomy 33:3, and קרבה in Psalm 73:28. The prayer for the grace of silence is followed in Psalm 141:4 by a prayer for thebreaking off of all fellowship with the existing rulers. By a flight of ironythey are called אישׁים, lords, in the sense of בּני אישׁ, Psalm 4:3 (cf. the Spanish hidalgos = (hijos) (d'algo), sons of somebody). The evil thing (רע | דּבר, with Pasekbetween the two ר,as in Numbers 7:13; Deuteronomy 7:1 between the two מ, and in 1 Chronicles 22:3 between the two)ל, to which Jahve may be pleased never to incline hisheart (תּט, fut. apoc. Hiph. as in Psalm 27:9), is forthwith more particularlydesignated: perpetrare facinora maligne cum dominis, etcעללות of great achievements in the sense of infamous deeds, also occurs in Psalm 14:1; Psalm 99:8. Here, however, we have the Hithpo. התעלל, which, withthe accusative of the object עללות, signifies: wilfully to make such actionsthe object of one's acting (cf. Arab. (ta‛allala) (b-('l) -(š'), to meddle with any matter, to amuse, entertain one's self with a thing). The expression is made to express disgust as strongly as possible; this poet is fond of glaring colouring in his language. In the dependent passage neve eorum vescar cupediis, לחם is used poetically for אכל, and בּ is the partitive Beth, as in Job 21:25. מנעמּים is another hapaxlegomenon, but as being a designation of dainties (from נעם, to be mild, tender, pleasant), it may not have been an unusual word. It is a well-known thing that usurpers revel in the cuisine and cellars of those whom they have driven away.

Thus far the Psalm is comparatively easy of exposition; but now itbecomes difficult, yet not hopelessly so. David, thoroughly conscious ofhis sins against God and of his imperfection as a monarch, says, inopposition to the abuse which he is now suffering, that he would gladlyaccept any friendly reproof: “let a righteous man smite in kindness andreprove me - head-oil (i.e., oil upon the head, to which such reproof islikened) shall my head not refuse.” So we render it, following the accents,and not as Hupfeld, Kurtz, and Hitzig do: “if a righteous man smites me, itis love; if he reproves me, an anointing of the head is it unto me;” inconnection with which the designation of the subject with היא would be twice wanting, which is more than is admissible. צדּיק stands here as an abstract substantive: the righteous man, whoever he maybe, in antithesis, namely, to the rebels and to the people who have joinedthem. Amyraldus, Maurer, and Hengstenberg understand it of God; but it onlyoccurs of God as an attribute, and never as a direct appellation. חסד, as in Jeremiah 31:3, is equivalent to בּחסד, cum benignitate=benigneWhat is meant is, as in Job 6:14, what Paul (Galatians 6:1) styles πνεῦμα πραΰ́τητος . and הלם, tundereis used of thestrokes of earnest but well-meant reproof, which is called “the blows of afriend” in Proverbs 27:6. Such reproof shall be to him as head-oil (Psalm 23:5; Psalm 133:2), which his head does not despise. יני, written defectively for יניא, like ישּׁי, in Psalm 55:16, אבי, 1 Kings 21:29 and frequently; הניא (root נא, Arab. (n'), with the nasal (n), which also expresses the negation in the Indo-Germanic languages) here signifies to deny, as in Psalm 33:10 to bring to nought, to destroy. On the other hand, the lxx renders μὴ λιπανάτω τὴν κεφαλήν μου , which is also followed by the Syriac and Jerome, perhaps after the Arabic (nawiya), to become or to be fat, which is, however, altogether foreign to the Aramaic, and is, moreover, only used of fatness of the body, and in fact of camels. The meaning of the figure is this: well-meant reproof shall be acceptable and spiritually useful to him. The confirmation כּי־עוד וגו follows, which is enigmatical both in meaning and expression. This עוד is the cipher of a whole clause, and the following ו is related to this עוד as the Waw that introduces the apodosis, not to כּי as in 2 Chronicles 24:20, since no progression and connection is discernible if כי is taken as a subordinating quia. We interpret thus: for it is still so (the matter still stands thus), that my prayer is against their wickednesses; i.e., that I use no weapon but that of prayer against these, therefore let me always be in that spiritual state of mind which is alive to well-meant reproof. Mendelssohn's rendering is similar: I still pray, whilst they practise infamy. On עוד ו cf. Zechariah 8:20 עוד אשׁר (vid., Köhler), and Proverbs 24:27 אחר ו. He who has prayed God in Psalm 141:3 to set a watch upon his mouth is dumb in the presence of those who now have dominion, and seeks to keep himself clear of their sinful doings, whereas he willingly allows himself to be chastened by the righteous; and the more silent he is towards the world (see Amos 5:13), the more constant is he in his intercourse with God. But there will come a time when those who now behave as lords shall fall a prey to the revenge of the people who have been misled by them; and on the other hand, the confession of the salvation, and of the order of the salvation, of God, that has hitherto been put to silence, will again be able to make itself freely heard, and find a ready hearing.

As Psalm 141:6 says, the new rulers fall a prey to the indignation of the people and are thrown down the precipices, whilst the people, having again come to their right mind, obey the words of David and find them pleasant and beneficial (vid., Proverbs 15:26; Proverbs 16:24). נשׁמטוּ is to be explained according to 2 Kings 9:33. The casting of persons down from the rock was not an unusual mode of execution (2 Chronicles 25:12). ידי־סלע are the sides (Psalm 140:6; Judges 11:26) of the rock, after which the expression ἐχόμενα πέτρας of the lxx, which has been misunderstood by Jerome, is intended to be understood;

(Note: Beda Pieringer in his Psalterium Romana Lyra Radditum (Ratisbonae 1859) interprets κατεπόθησαν ἐχόμενα πέτρας οἱ κραταιοὶ τὐτῶν , absorptii.e., operti sunt loco ad petram pertinente signiferi turpis consilii eorumf0.)

they are therefore the sides of the rock conceived of as it were as the hands of the body of rock, if we are not rather with Böttcher to compare the expressions בּידי and על־ידי construed with verbs of abandoning and casting down, Lamentations 1:14; Job 16:11, and frequently. In Psalm 141:7 there follows a further statement of the issue on the side of David and his followers: instar findentis et secantis terram (בּקע with Beth, elsewhere in the hostile signification of irrumpere) dispersa sunt ossa nostra ad ostium (לפי as in Proverbs 8:3) orci; Symmachus: ὥσπερ γεωργὸς ὅταν ῥήσσῃ τὴν τὴν, οὕτως ἐσκορπίσθη τὰ ὀστᾶ ἡμῶν εἰς στόμα ᾅδου ; Quinta: ὡς καλλιεργῶν καὶ σκάπτων ἐν τῇ γῇ κ. τ. λ Assuming the very extreme, it is a look of hope into the future: should his bones and the bones of his followers be even scattered about the mouth of Sheôl (cf. the Syrian picture of Sheôl: “the dust upon its threshold (‛al) -(escûfteh),” Deutsche Morgenländ. Zeitschrift, xx. 513), their soul below, their bones above - it would nevertheless be only as when on in ploughing cleaves the earth; i.e., they do not lie there in order that they may continue lying, but that they may rise up anew, as the seed that is sown sprouts up out of the upturned earth. lxx Codd. Vat. et Sinait. τὰ ὀστᾶ ἡμῶν , beside which, however, is found the reading αὐτῶν (Cod. Alex. by a second hand, and the Syriac, Arabic, and Aethiopic versions), as Böttcher also, pro ineptissimo utcunque, thinks עצמינו must be read, understanding this, according to 2 Chronicles 25:12 extrem., of the mangled bodies of those cast down from the rock. We here discern the hope of a resurrection, if not directly, at least (cf. Oehler in Herzog's Real-Encyclopädie, concluding volume, S. 422) as am emblem of victory in spite of having succumbed. That which authorizes this interpretation lies in the figure of the husbandman, and in the conditional clause (Psalm 141:8), which leads to the true point of the comparison; for as a complaint concerning a defeat that had been suffered: “so are our bones scattered for the mouth of the grave (in order to be swallowed up by it),” Psalm 141:7, would be alien and isolated with respect to what precedes and what follows.

If Psalm 141:7 is not merely an expression of the complaint, but at the same timeof hope, we now have no need to give the כּי the adversative senseof imo, but we may leave it its most natural confirmatory significationnamque. From this point the Psalm gradually dies away in strainscomparatively easy to be understood and in perfect keeping with thesituation. In connection with Psalm 141:8 one is reminded of Psalm 25:15; Psalm 31:2; withPsalm 141:9., of Psalm 7:16; Psalm 69:23, and other passages. In “pour not out (תּער with sharpened vowel instead of תּער, Ges. §75, rem. 8) my soul,”ערה, Pielis equivalent to the Hiph. הערה in Isaiah 53:12. ידי פח are as it were the hands of the seizing andcapturing snare; and יקשׂוּ לּי is virtually agenitive: qui insidias tendunt mihisince one cannot say יקשׁ פח, ponere laqueumמכמרים, nets, in Psalm 141:10 is anotherhapaxlegomenon; the enallage numeriis as in Psalm 62:5; Isaiah 2:8; Isaiah 5:23, - thesingular that slips in refers what is said of the many to each individual inparticular. The plural מקשׁות for מקשׁים, Psalm 18:6; Psalm 64:6, also occurs only here. יחד is to be explained as in 4:9: it isintended to express the coincidence of the overthrow of the enemies andthe going forth free of the persecuted one. With יחד אנכי the poet gives prominence to his simultaneous, distinct destiny:simul ego dum(עד as in Job 8:21, cf. Job 1:18) praetereo h.e. evadoThe inverted position of the כּי in Psalm 18:10-12 may be compared;with Psalm 120:7 and 2 Kings 2:14, however (where instead of אף־הוּא it is with Thenius to be read אפוא), the case is different.