Refuge, Fullness of Joy, and the Path of Life

Psa 16:6-8 The measuring lines (הבלים) are cast (Mic 2:5) and fall to any one just where and as far as his property is assigned to him; so that נפל חבל (Jos 17:5) is also said of the falling to any one of his allotted portion of land. נעמים (according to the Masora defective as also in Psa 16:11 נעמות) is a pluralet . , the plural that is used to denote a unity in the circumstances, and a similarity in the relations of time and space, Ges.

§108, 2, a ; and it signifies both pleasant circumstances, Job 36:11, and, as here, a pleasant locality, Lat. amaena (to which נעמות in Psa 16:11, more strictly corresponds). The lines have fallen to him in a charming district, viz. , in the pleasurable fellowship of God, this most blessed domain of love has become his paradisaic possession. With אף he rises from the fact to the perfect contentment which it secures to him: such a heritage seems to him to be fair, he finds a source of inward pleasure and satisfaction in it.

נחלת - according to Ew. §173, d , lengthened from the construct form נהלת (like נגינת Psa 61:1); according to Hupfeld, springing from נחלתי (by the same apocope that is so common in Syriac, perhaps like אמרתּ Psa 16:1 from אמרתּי) just like זמרת Exo 15:2 - is rather, since in the former view there is no law for the change of vowel and such an application of the form as we find in Ps 60:13 (Psa 108:13) is opposed to the latter, a stunted form of נחלתה: the heritage = such a heritage pleases me, lit.

, seems fair to me (שׁפר, cognate root ספר, צפר, cognate in meaning בשׂר, Arab. bs̆r , to rub, polish, make shining, intr. שׁפר to be shining, beautiful). עלי of beauty known and felt by him (cf. Est 3:9 with 1Sa 25:36 טוב עליו, and the later way of expressing it Dan. 3:32). But since the giver and the gift are one and the same, the joy he has in the inheritance becomes of itself a constant thanksgiving to and blessing of the Giver, that He (אשׁר quippe qui ) has counselled him (Psa 73:24) to choose the one thing needful, the good part.

Even in the night-seasons his heart keeps watch, even then his reins admonish him (יסּר, here of moral incitement, as in Isa 8:11, to warn). The reins are conceived of as the seat of the blessed feeling that Jahve is his possession (vid. , Psychol . S. 268; tr. p. 316). He is impelled from within to offer hearth-felt thanks to his merciful and faithful God. He has Jahve always before him, Jahve is the point towards which he constantly directs his undiverted gaze; and it is easy for him to have Him thus ever present, for He is מימיני (supply הוּא, as in Psa 22:29; Psa 55:20; Psa 112:4), at my right hand (i.

e. , where my right hand begins, close beside me), so that he has no need to draw upon his power of imagination. The words בּל־אמּוט, without any conjunction, express the natural effect of this, both in consciousness and in reality: he will not and cannot totter, he will not yield and be overthrown.

Psa 16:6-8 The measuring lines (הבלים) are cast (Mic 2:5) and fall to any one just where and as far as his property is assigned to him; so that נפל חבל (Jos 17:5) is also said of the falling to any one of his allotted portion of land. נעמים (according to the Masora defective as also in Psa 16:11 נעמות) is a pluralet . , the plural that is used to denote a unity in the circumstances, and a similarity in the relations of time and space, Ges.

§108, 2, a ; and it signifies both pleasant circumstances, Job 36:11, and, as here, a pleasant locality, Lat. amaena (to which נעמות in Psa 16:11, more strictly corresponds). The lines have fallen to him in a charming district, viz. , in the pleasurable fellowship of God, this most blessed domain of love has become his paradisaic possession. With אף he rises from the fact to the perfect contentment which it secures to him: such a heritage seems to him to be fair, he finds a source of inward pleasure and satisfaction in it.

נחלת - according to Ew. §173, d , lengthened from the construct form נהלת (like נגינת Psa 61:1); according to Hupfeld, springing from נחלתי (by the same apocope that is so common in Syriac, perhaps like אמרתּ Psa 16:1 from אמרתּי) just like זמרת Exo 15:2 - is rather, since in the former view there is no law for the change of vowel and such an application of the form as we find in Ps 60:13 (Psa 108:13) is opposed to the latter, a stunted form of נחלתה: the heritage = such a heritage pleases me, lit.

, seems fair to me (שׁפר, cognate root ספר, צפר, cognate in meaning בשׂר, Arab. bs̆r , to rub, polish, make shining, intr. שׁפר to be shining, beautiful). עלי of beauty known and felt by him (cf. Est 3:9 with 1Sa 25:36 טוב עליו, and the later way of expressing it Dan. 3:32). But since the giver and the gift are one and the same, the joy he has in the inheritance becomes of itself a constant thanksgiving to and blessing of the Giver, that He (אשׁר quippe qui ) has counselled him (Psa 73:24) to choose the one thing needful, the good part.

Even in the night-seasons his heart keeps watch, even then his reins admonish him (יסּר, here of moral incitement, as in Isa 8:11, to warn). The reins are conceived of as the seat of the blessed feeling that Jahve is his possession (vid. , Psychol . S. 268; tr. p. 316). He is impelled from within to offer hearth-felt thanks to his merciful and faithful God. He has Jahve always before him, Jahve is the point towards which he constantly directs his undiverted gaze; and it is easy for him to have Him thus ever present, for He is מימיני (supply הוּא, as in Psa 22:29; Psa 55:20; Psa 112:4), at my right hand (i.

e. , where my right hand begins, close beside me), so that he has no need to draw upon his power of imagination. The words בּל־אמּוט, without any conjunction, express the natural effect of this, both in consciousness and in reality: he will not and cannot totter, he will not yield and be overthrown.

Psa 16:6-8 The measuring lines (הבלים) are cast (Mic 2:5) and fall to any one just where and as far as his property is assigned to him; so that נפל חבל (Jos 17:5) is also said of the falling to any one of his allotted portion of land. נעמים (according to the Masora defective as also in Psa 16:11 נעמות) is a pluralet . , the plural that is used to denote a unity in the circumstances, and a similarity in the relations of time and space, Ges.

§108, 2, a ; and it signifies both pleasant circumstances, Job 36:11, and, as here, a pleasant locality, Lat. amaena (to which נעמות in Psa 16:11, more strictly corresponds). The lines have fallen to him in a charming district, viz. , in the pleasurable fellowship of God, this most blessed domain of love has become his paradisaic possession. With אף he rises from the fact to the perfect contentment which it secures to him: such a heritage seems to him to be fair, he finds a source of inward pleasure and satisfaction in it.

נחלת - according to Ew. §173, d , lengthened from the construct form נהלת (like נגינת Psa 61:1); according to Hupfeld, springing from נחלתי (by the same apocope that is so common in Syriac, perhaps like אמרתּ Psa 16:1 from אמרתּי) just like זמרת Exo 15:2 - is rather, since in the former view there is no law for the change of vowel and such an application of the form as we find in Ps 60:13 (Psa 108:13) is opposed to the latter, a stunted form of נחלתה: the heritage = such a heritage pleases me, lit.

, seems fair to me (שׁפר, cognate root ספר, צפר, cognate in meaning בשׂר, Arab. bs̆r , to rub, polish, make shining, intr. שׁפר to be shining, beautiful). עלי of beauty known and felt by him (cf. Est 3:9 with 1Sa 25:36 טוב עליו, and the later way of expressing it Dan. 3:32). But since the giver and the gift are one and the same, the joy he has in the inheritance becomes of itself a constant thanksgiving to and blessing of the Giver, that He (אשׁר quippe qui ) has counselled him (Psa 73:24) to choose the one thing needful, the good part.

Even in the night-seasons his heart keeps watch, even then his reins admonish him (יסּר, here of moral incitement, as in Isa 8:11, to warn). The reins are conceived of as the seat of the blessed feeling that Jahve is his possession (vid. , Psychol . S. 268; tr. p. 316). He is impelled from within to offer hearth-felt thanks to his merciful and faithful God. He has Jahve always before him, Jahve is the point towards which he constantly directs his undiverted gaze; and it is easy for him to have Him thus ever present, for He is מימיני (supply הוּא, as in Psa 22:29; Psa 55:20; Psa 112:4), at my right hand (i.

e. , where my right hand begins, close beside me), so that he has no need to draw upon his power of imagination. The words בּל־אמּוט, without any conjunction, express the natural effect of this, both in consciousness and in reality: he will not and cannot totter, he will not yield and be overthrown.

Psa 16:9-11 Thus then, as this concluding strophe, as it were like seven rays of light, affirms, he has the most blessed prospect before him, without any need to fear death. Because Jahve is thus near at hand to help him, his heart becomes joyful (שׂמח) and his glory, i. e. , his soul (vid. , on Psa 7:6) rejoices, the joy breaking forth in rejoicing, as the fut.

consec . affirms. There is no passage of Scripture that so closely resembles this as 1Th 5:23. לב is πνεῦμα (νοῦς), כבוד, ψυχή (vid. , Psychol . S. 98; tr. p. 119), בּשׂר (according to its primary meaning, attrectabile , that which is frail), σῶμα. The ἀμέμπτως τηρηθῆναι which the apostle in the above passage desires for his readers in respect of all three parts of their being, David here expresses as a confident expectation; for אף implies that he also hopes for his body that which he hopes for his spirit-life centred in the heart, and for his soul raised to dignity both by the work of creation and of grace.

He looks death calmly and triumphantly in the face, even his flesh shall dwell or lie securely, viz. , without being seized with trembling at its approaching corruption. David’s hope rests on this conclusion: it is impossible for the man, who, in appropriating faith and actual experience, calls God his own, to fall into the hands of death. For Psa 16:10 shows, that what is here thought of in connection with שׁכן לבטח, dwelling in safety under the divine protection (Deu 33:12, Deu 33:28, cf.

Pro 3:24), is preservation from death. שׁחת is rendered by the lxx διαφθορά, as though it came from שׁחת διαφθείρειν, as perhaps it may do in Job 17:14. But in Psa 7:16 the lxx has βόθρος, which is the more correct: prop. a sinking in, from שׁוּח to sink, to be sunk, like נחת from נוּח, רחת from רוּח. To leave to the unseen world (עזב prop. to loosen, let go) is equivalent to abandoning one to it, so that he becomes its prey.

Psa 16:10 - where to see the grave (Psa 49:10), equivalent to, to succumb to the state of the grave, i. e. , death (Psa 89:49; Luk 2:26; Joh 8:51) is the opposite of “seeing life,” i. e. , experiencing and enjoying it (Ecc 9:9, Joh 3:36), the sense of sight being used as the noblest of the senses to denote the sensus communis , i. e. , the common sense lying at the basis of all feeling and perception, and figuratively of all active and passive experience ( Psychol .

S. 234; tr. p. 276) - shows, that what is said here is not intended of an abandonment by which, having once come under the power of death, there is no coming forth again (Böttcher). It is therefore the hope of not dying, that is expressed by David in Psa 16:10. for by חסידך David means himself. According to Norzi, the Spanish MSS have חסידיך with the Masoretic note יתיר יוד, and the lxx, Targ.

, and Syriac translate, and the Talmud and Midrash interpret it, in accordance with this Kerî . There is no ground for the reading חסידיך, and it is also opposed by the personal form of expression surrounding it. The positive expression of hope in Psa 16:11 comes as a companion to the negative just expressed: Thou wilt grant me to experience (הודיע, is used, as usual, of the presentation of a knowledge, which concerns the whole man and not his understanding merely) ארח חיּים, the path of life, i.

e. , the path to life (cf. Pro 5:6; Pro 2:19 with ib . Psa 10:17; Mat 7:14); but not so that it is conceived of as at the final goal, but as leading slowly and gradually onwards to life; חיּים in the most manifold sense, as, e. g. , in Psa 36:10; Deu 30:15 : life from God, with God, and in God, the living God; the opposite of death, as the manifestation of God’s wrath and banishment from Him.

That his body shall not die is only the external and visible phase of that which David hopes for himself; on its inward, unseen side it is a living, inwrought of God in the whole man, which in its continuance is a walking in the divine life. The second part of Psa 16:11, which consists of two members, describes this life with which he solaces himself. According to the accentuation, - which marks חיים with Olewejored not with Rebia magnum or Pazer , - שׂבע שׂמחות is not a second object dependent upon תּודיעני, but the subject of a substantival clause: a satisfying fulness of joy is את־פּניך, with Thy countenance, i.

e. , connected with and naturally produced by beholding Thy face (את preposition of fellowship, as in Psa 21:7; 140:14); for joy is light, and God’s countenance, or doxa, is the light of lights. And every kind of pleasurable things, נעמות, He holds in His right hand, extending them to His saints - a gift which lasts for ever; נצח equivalent to לנצח. נצח, from the primary notion of conspicuous brightness, is duration extending beyond all else - an expression for לעולם, which David has probably coined, for it appears for the first time in the Davidic Psalms.

Pleasures are in Thy right hand continually - God’s right hand is never empty, His fulness is inexhaustible. The apostolic application of this Psalm (Act 2:29-32; Act 13:35-37) is based on the considerations that David’s hope of not coming under the power of death was not realised in David himself, as is at once clear, to the unlimited extent in which it is expressed in the Psalm; but that it is fulfilled in Jesus, who has not been left to Hades and whose flesh did not see corruption; and that consequently the words of the Psalm are a prophecy of David concerning Jesus, the Christ, who was promised as the heir to his throne, and whom, by reason of the promise, he had prophetically before his mind.

If we look into the Psalm, we see that David, in his mode of expression, bases that hope simply upon his relation to Jahve, the ever-living One. That it has been granted to him in particular, to express this hope which is based upon the mystic relation of the חסיד to Jahve in such language, - a hope which the issue of Jesus’ life has sealed by an historical fulfilment, - is to be explained from the relation, according to the promise, in which David stands to his seed, the Christ and Holy One of God, who appeared in the person of Jesus.

David, the anointed of God, looking upon himself as in Jahve, the God who has given the promise, becomes the prophet of Christ; but this is only indirectly, for he speaks of himself, and what he says has also been fulfilled in his own person. But this fulfilment is not limited to the condition, that he did not succumb to any peril that threatened his life so long as the kingship would have perished with him, and that, when he died, the kingship nevertheless remained (Hofmann); nor, that he was secured against all danger of death until he had accomplished his life’s mission, until he had fulfilled the vocation assigned to him in the history of the plan of redemption (Kurtz) - the hope which he cherishes for himself personally has found a fulfilment which far exceeds this.

After his hope has found in Christ its full realisation in accordance with the history of the plan of redemption, it receives through Christ its personal realisation for himself also. For what he says, extends on the one hand far beyond himself, and therefore refers prophetically to Christ: in decachordo Psalterio - as Jerome boldly expresses it - ab inferis suscitat resurgentem .

But on the other hand that which is predicted comes back upon himself, to raise him also from death and Hades to the beholding of God. Verus justitiae sol - says Sontag in his Tituli Psalmorum , 1687 - e sepulcro resurrexit , στήλη seu lapis sepulcralis a monumento devolutus, arcus triumphalis erectus, victoria ab hominibus reportata. En vobis Michtam! En Evangelium!

-

Psa 16:9-11 Thus then, as this concluding strophe, as it were like seven rays of light, affirms, he has the most blessed prospect before him, without any need to fear death. Because Jahve is thus near at hand to help him, his heart becomes joyful (שׂמח) and his glory, i. e. , his soul (vid. , on Psa 7:6) rejoices, the joy breaking forth in rejoicing, as the fut.

consec . affirms. There is no passage of Scripture that so closely resembles this as 1Th 5:23. לב is πνεῦμα (νοῦς), כבוד, ψυχή (vid. , Psychol . S. 98; tr. p. 119), בּשׂר (according to its primary meaning, attrectabile , that which is frail), σῶμα. The ἀμέμπτως τηρηθῆναι which the apostle in the above passage desires for his readers in respect of all three parts of their being, David here expresses as a confident expectation; for אף implies that he also hopes for his body that which he hopes for his spirit-life centred in the heart, and for his soul raised to dignity both by the work of creation and of grace.

He looks death calmly and triumphantly in the face, even his flesh shall dwell or lie securely, viz. , without being seized with trembling at its approaching corruption. David’s hope rests on this conclusion: it is impossible for the man, who, in appropriating faith and actual experience, calls God his own, to fall into the hands of death. For Psa 16:10 shows, that what is here thought of in connection with שׁכן לבטח, dwelling in safety under the divine protection (Deu 33:12, Deu 33:28, cf.

Pro 3:24), is preservation from death. שׁחת is rendered by the lxx διαφθορά, as though it came from שׁחת διαφθείρειν, as perhaps it may do in Job 17:14. But in Psa 7:16 the lxx has βόθρος, which is the more correct: prop. a sinking in, from שׁוּח to sink, to be sunk, like נחת from נוּח, רחת from רוּח. To leave to the unseen world (עזב prop. to loosen, let go) is equivalent to abandoning one to it, so that he becomes its prey.

Psa 16:10 - where to see the grave (Psa 49:10), equivalent to, to succumb to the state of the grave, i. e. , death (Psa 89:49; Luk 2:26; Joh 8:51) is the opposite of “seeing life,” i. e. , experiencing and enjoying it (Ecc 9:9, Joh 3:36), the sense of sight being used as the noblest of the senses to denote the sensus communis , i. e. , the common sense lying at the basis of all feeling and perception, and figuratively of all active and passive experience ( Psychol .

S. 234; tr. p. 276) - shows, that what is said here is not intended of an abandonment by which, having once come under the power of death, there is no coming forth again (Böttcher). It is therefore the hope of not dying, that is expressed by David in Psa 16:10. for by חסידך David means himself. According to Norzi, the Spanish MSS have חסידיך with the Masoretic note יתיר יוד, and the lxx, Targ.

, and Syriac translate, and the Talmud and Midrash interpret it, in accordance with this Kerî . There is no ground for the reading חסידיך, and it is also opposed by the personal form of expression surrounding it. The positive expression of hope in Psa 16:11 comes as a companion to the negative just expressed: Thou wilt grant me to experience (הודיע, is used, as usual, of the presentation of a knowledge, which concerns the whole man and not his understanding merely) ארח חיּים, the path of life, i.

e. , the path to life (cf. Pro 5:6; Pro 2:19 with ib . Psa 10:17; Mat 7:14); but not so that it is conceived of as at the final goal, but as leading slowly and gradually onwards to life; חיּים in the most manifold sense, as, e. g. , in Psa 36:10; Deu 30:15 : life from God, with God, and in God, the living God; the opposite of death, as the manifestation of God’s wrath and banishment from Him.

That his body shall not die is only the external and visible phase of that which David hopes for himself; on its inward, unseen side it is a living, inwrought of God in the whole man, which in its continuance is a walking in the divine life. The second part of Psa 16:11, which consists of two members, describes this life with which he solaces himself. According to the accentuation, - which marks חיים with Olewejored not with Rebia magnum or Pazer , - שׂבע שׂמחות is not a second object dependent upon תּודיעני, but the subject of a substantival clause: a satisfying fulness of joy is את־פּניך, with Thy countenance, i.

e. , connected with and naturally produced by beholding Thy face (את preposition of fellowship, as in Psa 21:7; 140:14); for joy is light, and God’s countenance, or doxa, is the light of lights. And every kind of pleasurable things, נעמות, He holds in His right hand, extending them to His saints - a gift which lasts for ever; נצח equivalent to לנצח. נצח, from the primary notion of conspicuous brightness, is duration extending beyond all else - an expression for לעולם, which David has probably coined, for it appears for the first time in the Davidic Psalms.

Pleasures are in Thy right hand continually - God’s right hand is never empty, His fulness is inexhaustible. The apostolic application of this Psalm (Act 2:29-32; Act 13:35-37) is based on the considerations that David’s hope of not coming under the power of death was not realised in David himself, as is at once clear, to the unlimited extent in which it is expressed in the Psalm; but that it is fulfilled in Jesus, who has not been left to Hades and whose flesh did not see corruption; and that consequently the words of the Psalm are a prophecy of David concerning Jesus, the Christ, who was promised as the heir to his throne, and whom, by reason of the promise, he had prophetically before his mind.

If we look into the Psalm, we see that David, in his mode of expression, bases that hope simply upon his relation to Jahve, the ever-living One. That it has been granted to him in particular, to express this hope which is based upon the mystic relation of the חסיד to Jahve in such language, - a hope which the issue of Jesus’ life has sealed by an historical fulfilment, - is to be explained from the relation, according to the promise, in which David stands to his seed, the Christ and Holy One of God, who appeared in the person of Jesus.

David, the anointed of God, looking upon himself as in Jahve, the God who has given the promise, becomes the prophet of Christ; but this is only indirectly, for he speaks of himself, and what he says has also been fulfilled in his own person. But this fulfilment is not limited to the condition, that he did not succumb to any peril that threatened his life so long as the kingship would have perished with him, and that, when he died, the kingship nevertheless remained (Hofmann); nor, that he was secured against all danger of death until he had accomplished his life’s mission, until he had fulfilled the vocation assigned to him in the history of the plan of redemption (Kurtz) - the hope which he cherishes for himself personally has found a fulfilment which far exceeds this.

After his hope has found in Christ its full realisation in accordance with the history of the plan of redemption, it receives through Christ its personal realisation for himself also. For what he says, extends on the one hand far beyond himself, and therefore refers prophetically to Christ: in decachordo Psalterio - as Jerome boldly expresses it - ab inferis suscitat resurgentem .

But on the other hand that which is predicted comes back upon himself, to raise him also from death and Hades to the beholding of God. Verus justitiae sol - says Sontag in his Tituli Psalmorum , 1687 - e sepulcro resurrexit , στήλη seu lapis sepulcralis a monumento devolutus, arcus triumphalis erectus, victoria ab hominibus reportata. En vobis Michtam! En Evangelium!

-

Psa 16:9-11 Thus then, as this concluding strophe, as it were like seven rays of light, affirms, he has the most blessed prospect before him, without any need to fear death. Because Jahve is thus near at hand to help him, his heart becomes joyful (שׂמח) and his glory, i. e. , his soul (vid. , on Psa 7:6) rejoices, the joy breaking forth in rejoicing, as the fut.

consec . affirms. There is no passage of Scripture that so closely resembles this as 1Th 5:23. לב is πνεῦμα (νοῦς), כבוד, ψυχή (vid. , Psychol . S. 98; tr. p. 119), בּשׂר (according to its primary meaning, attrectabile , that which is frail), σῶμα. The ἀμέμπτως τηρηθῆναι which the apostle in the above passage desires for his readers in respect of all three parts of their being, David here expresses as a confident expectation; for אף implies that he also hopes for his body that which he hopes for his spirit-life centred in the heart, and for his soul raised to dignity both by the work of creation and of grace.

He looks death calmly and triumphantly in the face, even his flesh shall dwell or lie securely, viz. , without being seized with trembling at its approaching corruption. David’s hope rests on this conclusion: it is impossible for the man, who, in appropriating faith and actual experience, calls God his own, to fall into the hands of death. For Psa 16:10 shows, that what is here thought of in connection with שׁכן לבטח, dwelling in safety under the divine protection (Deu 33:12, Deu 33:28, cf.

Pro 3:24), is preservation from death. שׁחת is rendered by the lxx διαφθορά, as though it came from שׁחת διαφθείρειν, as perhaps it may do in Job 17:14. But in Psa 7:16 the lxx has βόθρος, which is the more correct: prop. a sinking in, from שׁוּח to sink, to be sunk, like נחת from נוּח, רחת from רוּח. To leave to the unseen world (עזב prop. to loosen, let go) is equivalent to abandoning one to it, so that he becomes its prey.

Psa 16:10 - where to see the grave (Psa 49:10), equivalent to, to succumb to the state of the grave, i. e. , death (Psa 89:49; Luk 2:26; Joh 8:51) is the opposite of “seeing life,” i. e. , experiencing and enjoying it (Ecc 9:9, Joh 3:36), the sense of sight being used as the noblest of the senses to denote the sensus communis , i. e. , the common sense lying at the basis of all feeling and perception, and figuratively of all active and passive experience ( Psychol .

S. 234; tr. p. 276) - shows, that what is said here is not intended of an abandonment by which, having once come under the power of death, there is no coming forth again (Böttcher). It is therefore the hope of not dying, that is expressed by David in Psa 16:10. for by חסידך David means himself. According to Norzi, the Spanish MSS have חסידיך with the Masoretic note יתיר יוד, and the lxx, Targ.

, and Syriac translate, and the Talmud and Midrash interpret it, in accordance with this Kerî . There is no ground for the reading חסידיך, and it is also opposed by the personal form of expression surrounding it. The positive expression of hope in Psa 16:11 comes as a companion to the negative just expressed: Thou wilt grant me to experience (הודיע, is used, as usual, of the presentation of a knowledge, which concerns the whole man and not his understanding merely) ארח חיּים, the path of life, i.

e. , the path to life (cf. Pro 5:6; Pro 2:19 with ib . Psa 10:17; Mat 7:14); but not so that it is conceived of as at the final goal, but as leading slowly and gradually onwards to life; חיּים in the most manifold sense, as, e. g. , in Psa 36:10; Deu 30:15 : life from God, with God, and in God, the living God; the opposite of death, as the manifestation of God’s wrath and banishment from Him.

That his body shall not die is only the external and visible phase of that which David hopes for himself; on its inward, unseen side it is a living, inwrought of God in the whole man, which in its continuance is a walking in the divine life. The second part of Psa 16:11, which consists of two members, describes this life with which he solaces himself. According to the accentuation, - which marks חיים with Olewejored not with Rebia magnum or Pazer , - שׂבע שׂמחות is not a second object dependent upon תּודיעני, but the subject of a substantival clause: a satisfying fulness of joy is את־פּניך, with Thy countenance, i.

e. , connected with and naturally produced by beholding Thy face (את preposition of fellowship, as in Psa 21:7; 140:14); for joy is light, and God’s countenance, or doxa, is the light of lights. And every kind of pleasurable things, נעמות, He holds in His right hand, extending them to His saints - a gift which lasts for ever; נצח equivalent to לנצח. נצח, from the primary notion of conspicuous brightness, is duration extending beyond all else - an expression for לעולם, which David has probably coined, for it appears for the first time in the Davidic Psalms.

Pleasures are in Thy right hand continually - God’s right hand is never empty, His fulness is inexhaustible. The apostolic application of this Psalm (Act 2:29-32; Act 13:35-37) is based on the considerations that David’s hope of not coming under the power of death was not realised in David himself, as is at once clear, to the unlimited extent in which it is expressed in the Psalm; but that it is fulfilled in Jesus, who has not been left to Hades and whose flesh did not see corruption; and that consequently the words of the Psalm are a prophecy of David concerning Jesus, the Christ, who was promised as the heir to his throne, and whom, by reason of the promise, he had prophetically before his mind.

If we look into the Psalm, we see that David, in his mode of expression, bases that hope simply upon his relation to Jahve, the ever-living One. That it has been granted to him in particular, to express this hope which is based upon the mystic relation of the חסיד to Jahve in such language, - a hope which the issue of Jesus’ life has sealed by an historical fulfilment, - is to be explained from the relation, according to the promise, in which David stands to his seed, the Christ and Holy One of God, who appeared in the person of Jesus.

David, the anointed of God, looking upon himself as in Jahve, the God who has given the promise, becomes the prophet of Christ; but this is only indirectly, for he speaks of himself, and what he says has also been fulfilled in his own person. But this fulfilment is not limited to the condition, that he did not succumb to any peril that threatened his life so long as the kingship would have perished with him, and that, when he died, the kingship nevertheless remained (Hofmann); nor, that he was secured against all danger of death until he had accomplished his life’s mission, until he had fulfilled the vocation assigned to him in the history of the plan of redemption (Kurtz) - the hope which he cherishes for himself personally has found a fulfilment which far exceeds this.

After his hope has found in Christ its full realisation in accordance with the history of the plan of redemption, it receives through Christ its personal realisation for himself also. For what he says, extends on the one hand far beyond himself, and therefore refers prophetically to Christ: in decachordo Psalterio - as Jerome boldly expresses it - ab inferis suscitat resurgentem .

But on the other hand that which is predicted comes back upon himself, to raise him also from death and Hades to the beholding of God. Verus justitiae sol - says Sontag in his Tituli Psalmorum , 1687 - e sepulcro resurrexit , στήλη seu lapis sepulcralis a monumento devolutus, arcus triumphalis erectus, victoria ab hominibus reportata. En vobis Michtam! En Evangelium!

-

Psa 17:1-15 is placed after Psa 16:1-11, because just like the latter (cf. Psa 11:7) it closes with the hope of a blessed and satisfying vision of God. In other respects also the two Psalms have many prominent features in common: as, for instance, the petition שׁמרני, Psa 16:1; Psa 17:8; the retrospect on nightly fellowship with God, Psa 16:7; Psa 17:3; the form of address in prayer אל, Psa 16:1; Psa 17:6; the verb תּמך, Psa 16:5; Psa 17:5, etc.

(vid. , Symbolae p. 49), notwithstanding a great dissimilarity in their tone. For Psa 16:1-11 is the first of those which we call Psalms written in the indignant style, in the series of the Davidic Psalms. The language of the Psalms of David, which is in other instances so flowing and clear, becomes more harsh and, in accordance with the subject and mood, as it were, full of unresolved dissonances (Psa 17:1; Psa 140:1; Psa 58:1; Psa 36:2, cf.

Psa 10:2-11) when describing the dissolute conduct of his enemies, and of the ungodly in general. The language is then more rough and unmanageable, and wanting in the clearness and transparency we find elsewhere. The tone of the language also becomes more dull and, as it were, a dull murmur. It rolls on like the rumble of distant thunder, by piling up the suffixes mo , āmo , ēmo , as in Psa 17:10; Psa 35:16; Psa 64:6, Psa 64:9, where David speaks of his enemies and describes them in a tone suggested by the indignation, which is working with his breast; or in Psa 59:12-14; Psa 56:8; Psa 21:10-13; Psa 140:10; Psa 58:7, where, as in prophetic language, he announces to them of the judgment of God.

The more vehement and less orderly flow of the language which we find here, is the result of the inward tumult of his feelings. There are so many parallels in the thought and expression of thought of this Psalm in other Davidic Psalms (among those we have already commented on we may instance more especially Psa 7:1 and Psa 11:1, and also Psa 4:1 and Psa 10:1), that even Hitzig admits the לדוד.

The author of the Psalm is persecuted, and others with him; foes, among whom one, their leader, stands prominently forward, plot against his life, and have encompassed him about in the most threatening manner, eager for his death. All this corresponds, line for line, with the situation of David in the wilderness of Maon (about three hours and three quarters S.

S. E. of Hebron), as narrated in 1Sa 23:25. , when Saul and his men were so close upon the heels of David and his men, that he only escaped capture by a most fortunate incident. The only name inscribed on this Psalm is תּפּלּה (a prayer), the most comprehensive name for the Psalms, and the oldest (Psa 72:20); for שׁיר and מזמור were only given to them when they were sung in the liturgy and with musical accompaniment.

As the title of a Psalm it is found five times (Psa 17:1, Psa 86:1, Psa 90:1, Psa 92:1, Psa 142:1) in the Psalter, and besides that once, in Hab. Habakkuk’s תפלה is a hymn composed for music. But in the Psalter we do not find any indication of the Psalms thus inscribed being arranged for music. The strophe schema is 4. 7; 4. 4. 6. 7.

Psa 17:1-2 צדק is the accusative of the object: the righteousness, intended by the suppliant, is his own ( Psa 17:15 ). He knows that he is not merely righteous in his relation to man, but also in his relation to God. In all such assertions of pious self-consciousness, that which is intended is a righteousness of life which has its ground in the righteousness of faith.

True, Hupfeld is of opinion, that under the Old Testament nothing was known either of righteousness which is by faith or of a righteousness belonging to another and imputed. But if this were true, then Paul was in gross error and Christianity is built upon the sand. But the truth, that faith is the ultimate ground of righteousness, is expressed in Gen 15:6, and at other turning-points in the course of the history of redemption; and the truth, that the righteousness which avails before God is a gift of grace is, for instance, a thought distinctly marked out in the expression of Jeremiah צדקנוּ ה, “the Lord our righteousness.

” The Old Testament conception, it is true, looks more to the phenomena than to the root of the matter ( ist mehr phänomenell als wurzelhaft ), is (so to speak) more Jacobic than Pauline; but the righteousness of life of the Old Testament and that of the New have one and the same basis, viz. , in the grace of God, the Redeemer, towards sinful man, who in himself is altogether wanting in righteousness before God (Psa 143:2).

Thus there is no self-righteousness, in David’s praying that the righteousness, which in him is persecuted and cries for help, may be heard. For, on the one hand, in his personal relation to Saul, he knows himself to be free from any ungrateful thoughts of usurpation, and on the other, in his personal relation to God free from מרמה, i. e. , self-delusion and hypocrisy.

The shrill cry for help, רנּה, which he raises, is such as may be heard and answered, because they are not lips of deceit with which he prays. The actual fact is manifest לפני יהוה, therefore may his right go forth מלּפניו, - just what does happen, by its being publicly proclaimed and openly maintained - from Him, for His eyes, the eyes of Him who knoweth the hearts (Psa 11:4), behold מישׁרים (as in Psa 58:2; Psa 75:3 = בּמישׁרים, Psa 9:9, and many other passages), in uprightness, i.

e. , in accordance with the facts of the case and without partiality. מישׁרים might also be an accusative of the object (cf. 1Ch 29:17), but the usage of the language much more strongly favours the adverbial rendering, which is made still more natural by the confirmatory relation in which Psa 17:2 stands to Psa 17:2 .

Psa 17:3-5 David refers to the divine testing and illumination of the inward parts, which he has experienced in himself, in support of his sincerity. The preterites in Psa 17:3 express the divine acts that preceded the result בּל־תּמצא, viz. , the testing He has instituted, which is referred to in צרפתּני and also בּחנתּ as a trying of gold by fire, and in פּקד as an investigation (Job 7:18).

The result of the close scrutiny to which God has subjected him in the night, when the bottom of a man’s heart is at once made manifest, whether it be in his thoughts when awake or in the dream and fancies of the sleeper, was and is this, that He does not find, viz. , anything whatever to punish in him, anything that is separated as dross from the gold. To the mind of the New Testament believer with his deep, and as it were microscopically penetrating, insight into the depth of sin, such a confession concerning himself would be more difficult than to the mind of an Old Testament saint.

For a separation and disunion of flesh and spirit, which was unknown in the same degree to the Old Testament, has been accomplished in the New Testament consciousness by the facts and operations of redemption revealed in the New Testament; although at the same time it must be remembered that in such confessions the Old Testament consciousness does not claim to be clear from sins, but only from a conscious love of sin, and from a self-love that is hostile to God. With זמּותי David begins his confession of how Jahve found him to be, instead of finding anything punishable in him.

This word is either an infinitive like חנּות (Psa 77:10) with the regular ultima accentuation, formed after the manner of the הל verbs, - in accordance with which Hitzig renders it: my thinking does not overstep my mouth, - or even 1 pers. praet . , which is properly Milel , but does also occur as Milra , e. g. , Deu 32:41; Isa 44:16 (vid. , on Job 19:17), - according to which Böttcher translates: should I think anything evil, it dare not pass beyond my mouth, - or (since זמם may denote the determination that precedes the act, e.

g. , Jer 4:28; Lam 2:17): I have determined my mouth shall not transgress. This last rendering is opposed by the fact, that עבר by itself in the ethical signification “to transgress” (cf. post-biblical עברה παράβασις) is not the usage of the biblical Hebrew, and that when יעבר־פּי stand close together, פי is presumptively the object. We therefore give the preference to Böttcher’s explanation, which renders זמותי as a hypothetical perfect and is favoured by Pro 30:32 (which is to be translated: and if thou thinkest evil, (lay) thy hand on thy mouth!)

Nevertheless בל יעבר־פי is not the expression of a fact, but of a purpose, as the combination of בל with the future requires it to be taken. The psalmist is able to testify of himself that he so keeps evil thoughts in subjection within him, even when they may arise, that they do not pass beyond his mouth, much less that he should put them into action. But perhaps the psalmist wrote פּיך originally, “my reflecting does not go beyond Thy commandment” (according to Num 22:18; 1Sa 15:24; Pro 8:29), - a meaning better suited, as a result of the search, to the nightly investigation.

The ל of לפעלּות fo ל need not be the ל of reference (as to); it is that of the state or condition, as in Psa 32:6; Psa 69:22. אדם, as perhaps also in Job 31:33; Hos 6:7 (if אדם is not there the name of the first man), means, men as they are by nature and habit. בּדבר שׂפתיך does not admit of being connected with לפעלּות: at the doings of the world contrary to Thy revealed will (Hofmann and others); for פּעל בּ cannot mean: to act contrary to any one, but only: to work upon any one, Job 35:6.

These words must therefore be regarded as a closer definition, placed first, of the שׁמרתּי which follows: in connection with the doings of men, by virtue of the divine commandment, he has taken care of the paths of the oppressor, viz. , not to go in them; 1Sa 25:21 is an instance in support of this rendering, where שׁמרתי, as in Job 2:6, means: I have kept (Nabal’s possession), not seizing upon it myself.

Jerome correctly translates vias latronis ; for פּריץ signifies one who breaks in, i. e. , one who does damage intentionally and by violence. The confession concerning himself is still continued in Psa 17:5, for the inf. absol. תּמך, if taken as imperative would express a prayer for constancy, that is alien to the circumstances described. The perfect after בּל is also against such a rendering.

It must therefore be taken as inf. historicus , and explained according to Job 23:11, cf. Psa 41:13. The noun following the inf. absol. , which is usually the object, is the subject in this instance, as, e. g. , in Job 40:2; Pro 17:12; Ecc 4:2, and frequently. It is אשׁוּרי, and not אשּׁוּרי, אשׁור (a step) never having the שׁ dageshed, except in Psa 17:11 and Job 31:7.

Psa 17:3-5 David refers to the divine testing and illumination of the inward parts, which he has experienced in himself, in support of his sincerity. The preterites in Psa 17:3 express the divine acts that preceded the result בּל־תּמצא, viz. , the testing He has instituted, which is referred to in צרפתּני and also בּחנתּ as a trying of gold by fire, and in פּקד as an investigation (Job 7:18).

The result of the close scrutiny to which God has subjected him in the night, when the bottom of a man’s heart is at once made manifest, whether it be in his thoughts when awake or in the dream and fancies of the sleeper, was and is this, that He does not find, viz. , anything whatever to punish in him, anything that is separated as dross from the gold. To the mind of the New Testament believer with his deep, and as it were microscopically penetrating, insight into the depth of sin, such a confession concerning himself would be more difficult than to the mind of an Old Testament saint.

For a separation and disunion of flesh and spirit, which was unknown in the same degree to the Old Testament, has been accomplished in the New Testament consciousness by the facts and operations of redemption revealed in the New Testament; although at the same time it must be remembered that in such confessions the Old Testament consciousness does not claim to be clear from sins, but only from a conscious love of sin, and from a self-love that is hostile to God. With זמּותי David begins his confession of how Jahve found him to be, instead of finding anything punishable in him.

This word is either an infinitive like חנּות (Psa 77:10) with the regular ultima accentuation, formed after the manner of the הל verbs, - in accordance with which Hitzig renders it: my thinking does not overstep my mouth, - or even 1 pers. praet . , which is properly Milel , but does also occur as Milra , e. g. , Deu 32:41; Isa 44:16 (vid. , on Job 19:17), - according to which Böttcher translates: should I think anything evil, it dare not pass beyond my mouth, - or (since זמם may denote the determination that precedes the act, e.

g. , Jer 4:28; Lam 2:17): I have determined my mouth shall not transgress. This last rendering is opposed by the fact, that עבר by itself in the ethical signification “to transgress” (cf. post-biblical עברה παράβασις) is not the usage of the biblical Hebrew, and that when יעבר־פּי stand close together, פי is presumptively the object. We therefore give the preference to Böttcher’s explanation, which renders זמותי as a hypothetical perfect and is favoured by Pro 30:32 (which is to be translated: and if thou thinkest evil, (lay) thy hand on thy mouth!)

Nevertheless בל יעבר־פי is not the expression of a fact, but of a purpose, as the combination of בל with the future requires it to be taken. The psalmist is able to testify of himself that he so keeps evil thoughts in subjection within him, even when they may arise, that they do not pass beyond his mouth, much less that he should put them into action. But perhaps the psalmist wrote פּיך originally, “my reflecting does not go beyond Thy commandment” (according to Num 22:18; 1Sa 15:24; Pro 8:29), - a meaning better suited, as a result of the search, to the nightly investigation.

The ל of לפעלּות fo ל need not be the ל of reference (as to); it is that of the state or condition, as in Psa 32:6; Psa 69:22. אדם, as perhaps also in Job 31:33; Hos 6:7 (if אדם is not there the name of the first man), means, men as they are by nature and habit. בּדבר שׂפתיך does not admit of being connected with לפעלּות: at the doings of the world contrary to Thy revealed will (Hofmann and others); for פּעל בּ cannot mean: to act contrary to any one, but only: to work upon any one, Job 35:6.

These words must therefore be regarded as a closer definition, placed first, of the שׁמרתּי which follows: in connection with the doings of men, by virtue of the divine commandment, he has taken care of the paths of the oppressor, viz. , not to go in them; 1Sa 25:21 is an instance in support of this rendering, where שׁמרתי, as in Job 2:6, means: I have kept (Nabal’s possession), not seizing upon it myself.

Jerome correctly translates vias latronis ; for פּריץ signifies one who breaks in, i. e. , one who does damage intentionally and by violence. The confession concerning himself is still continued in Psa 17:5, for the inf. absol. תּמך, if taken as imperative would express a prayer for constancy, that is alien to the circumstances described. The perfect after בּל is also against such a rendering.

It must therefore be taken as inf. historicus , and explained according to Job 23:11, cf. Psa 41:13. The noun following the inf. absol. , which is usually the object, is the subject in this instance, as, e. g. , in Job 40:2; Pro 17:12; Ecc 4:2, and frequently. It is אשׁוּרי, and not אשּׁוּרי, אשׁור (a step) never having the שׁ dageshed, except in Psa 17:11 and Job 31:7.