The Lord Shepherds and Hosts His People

Psa 23:6 Foes are now pursuing him, but prosperity and favour alone shall pursue him, and therefore drive his present pursuers out of the field. אך, originally affirmative, here restrictive, belongs only to the subject-notion in its signification nil nisi (Psa 39:6, Psa 39:12; Psa 139:11). The expression is remarkable and without example elsewhere: as good spirits Jahve sends forth טּוב and חסד to overtake David’s enemies, and to protect him against them to their shame, and that all his life long (accusative of continuance).

We have now no need, in connection with our reference of the Psalm to the persecution under Absolom, either to persuade ourselves that ושׁבתּי is equivalent to ושׁבתּי Psa 27:4, or that it is equivalent to וישׁבתּי. The infinitive is logically inadmissible here, and unheard of with the vowel ā instead of i , which would here (cf. on the other hand קחתּי) be confusing and arbitrary.

Nor can it be shown from Jer 42:10 to be probable that it is contracted from וישׁבתי, since in that passage שׁוב signifies redeundo = rursus . The lxx, certainly, renders it by καθίσαντες, as in 1Sa 12:2 by καὶ καθήσομαι; but (since so much uncertainty attaches to these translators and their text) we cannot draw a safe inference as to the existing usage of the language, which would, in connection with such a contraction, go out of the province of one verb into that of another, which is not the case with תּתּה = נתתּה in 2Sa 22:41.

On the contrary we have before us in the present passage a constructio praegnans : “and I shall return ( perf. consec. ) in the house of Jahve,” i. e. , again, having returned, dwell in the house of Jahve. In itself ושׁבתּי ב might also even mean et revertam ad (cf. Psa 7:17; Hos 12:7), like עלה ב, Psa 24:3, adscendere ad ( in ). But the additional assertion of continuance, לארך ימים (as in Psa 93:5; Lam 5:20, ארך, root רך, extension, lengthening = length) favours the explanation, that בּ is to be connected with the idea of וישׁבתי, which is involved in ושׁבתי as a natural consequence.

Psa 23:1-6 expressed a longing after the house of Jahve on Zion; Psa 24:1-10 celebrates Jahve’s entrance into Zion, and the true character of him who may enter with Him. It was composed when the Ark was brought from Kirjath Jearim to Mount Zion, where David had caused it to be set up in a tabernacle built expressly for it, 2Sa 6:17, cf. 2Sa 11:11, 1Ki 1:39; or else, which is rendered the more probable by the description of Jahve as a warrior, at a time when the Ark was brought back to Mount Zion, after having been taken to accompany the army to battle (vid.

, Ps 68). Psa 15:1-5 is very similar. But only Psa 24:1-6 is the counterpart of that Psalm; and there is nothing wanting to render the first part of Psa 24:1-10 complete in itself. Hence Ewald divides Psa 24:1-10 into two songs, belonging to different periods, although both old Davidic songs, viz. , Psa 24:7-10, the song of victory sung at the removal of the Ark to Zion; and Psa 24:1-6, a purely didactic song pre-supposing this event which forms an era in their history.

And it is relatively more natural to regard this Psalm rather than Psa 19:1-14, as two songs combined and made into one; but these two songs have an internal coherence; in Jahve’s coming to His temple is found that which occasioned them and that towards which They point; and consequently they form a whole consisting of two divisions. To the inscription לדוד מזמור the lxx adds τῆς μιᾷs σαββάτου (= שׁל אחד בשׁבת, for the first day of the week), according to which this Psalm was a customary Sunday Psalm.

This addition is confirmed by B . Tamı̂d extr . , Rosh ha - Shana 31 a , Sofrim xviii. (cf. supra p. 19). In the second of these passages cited from the Talmud, R. Akiba seeks to determine the reasons for this choice by reference to the history of the creation. Incorporated in Israel’s hymn-book, this Psalm became, with a regard to its original occasion and purpose, an Old Testament Advent hymn in honour of the Lord who should come into His temple, Mal 3:1; and the cry: Lift up, ye gates, your heads, obtained a meaning essentially the same as that of the voice of the crier in Isa 40:3 : Prepare ye Jahve’s way, make smooth in the desert a road for our God!

In the New Testament consciousness, the second appearing takes the place of the first, the coming of the Lord of Glory to His church, which is His spiritual temple; and in this Psalm we are called upon to prepare Him a worthy reception. The interpretation of the second half of the Psalm of the entry of the Conqueror of death into Hades-an interpretation which has been started by the Gospel of Nicodemus (vid.

, Tischendorf’s Evv. apocrypha p. 306f.) and still current in the Greek church, - and the patristic interpretation of it of the εἰς οὐρανοῦς ἀνάληψις τοῦ κυρίου, do as much violence to the rules of exegesis as to the parallelism of the facts of the Old and New Testaments.

Psa 24:1-6 Jahve, whose throne of grace is now set upon Zion, has not a limited dominion, like the heathen deities: His right to sovereignty embraces the earth and its fulness (Psa 50:12; Psa 89:12), i. e. , everything that is to be found upon it and in it. For He, הוא, is the owner of the world, because its Creator. He has founded it upon seas, i. e. , the ocean and its streams, נהרות, ῥέεθρα (Jon 2:4); for the waters existed before the dry land, and this has been cast up out of them at God’s word, so that consequently the solid land, - which indeed also conceals in its interior a תּהום רבּה (Gen 7:11), - rising above the surface of the sea, has the waters, as it were, for its foundation (Psa 136:6), although it would more readily sink down into them than keep itself above them, if it were not in itself upheld by the creative power of God.

Hereupon arises the question, who may ascend the mountain of Jahve, and stand above in His holy place? The futures have a potential signification: who can have courage to do it? what, therefore, must he be, whom Jahve receives into His fellowship, and with whose worship He is well-pleased? Answer: he must be one innocent in his actions and pure in mind, one who does not lift up his soul to that which is vain (לשּׁוא, according to the Masora with Waw minusculum ).

(ל) נשׂא נפשׁ אל, to direct one’s soul, Psa 25:1, or longing and striving, towards anything, Deu 24:15; Pro 19:18; Hos 4:8. The Kerî נפשׁי is old and acknowledged by the oldest authorities. Even the lxx Cod. Alex . translates: τὴν ψυχὴν μου; whereas Cod. Vat. (Eus. , Apollin. , Theodor. , et al.) : τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ. Critically it is just as intangible, as it is exegetically incomprehensible; נפשׁי might then be equivalent to שׁמי.

Exo 20:7, an explanation, however, which does not seem possible even from Amo 6:8; Jer 51:14. We let this Kerî alone to its undisturbed critical rights. But that the poet did actually write thus, is incredible. In Psa 24:5 (just as at the close of Psa 15:1-5), in continued predicates, we are told the character of the man, who is worthy of this privilege, to whom the question in Psa 24:3 refers.

Such an one shall bear away, or acquire (נשׁא, as e. g. , Est 2:17) blessing from Jahve and righteousness from the God of his salvation (Psa 25:5; Psa 27:9). Righteousness, i. e. , conformity to God and that which is well-pleasing to God, appears here as a gift, and in this sense it is used interchangeably with ישׁע (e. g. , Psa 132:9, Psa 132:16). It is the righteousness of God after which the righteous, but not the self-righteous, man hungers and thirsts; that moral perfection which is the likeness of God restored to him and at the same time brought about by his own endeavours; it is the being changed, or transfigured, into the image of the Holy One Himself.

With Psa 24:5 the answer to the question of Psa 24:3 is at an end; Psa 24:6 adds that those thus qualified, who may accordingly expect to receive God’s gifts of salvation, are the true church of Jahve, the Israel of God. דּור (lit. , a revolution, Arabic dahr , root דר, to turn, revolve) is used here, as in Psa 14:5; Psa 73:15; Psa 112:2, of a collective whole, whose bond of union is not contemporaneousness, but similarity of disposition; and it is an alliteration with the דּרשׁיו ( Chethîb דרשו, without the Jod plur .)

which follows. מבקשׁי פּניך is a second genitive depending on דּור, as in Psa 27:8. Here at the close the predication passes into the form of invocation (Thy face). And יעקב is a summarising predicate: in short, these are Jacob, not merely after the flesh, but after the spirit, and thus in truth (Isa 44:2, cf. Rom 9:6; Gal 6:16). By interpolating אלהי, as is done in the lxx and Peshîto, and adopted by Ewald, Olshausen, Hupfeld, and Böttcher, the nerve, as it were, of the assertion is cut through.

The predicate, which has been expressed in different ways, is concentrated intelligibly enough in the one word יעקב, towards which it all along tends. And here the music becomes forte . The first part of this double Psalm dies away amidst the playing of the instruments of the Levitical priests; for the Ark was brought in בּכל־עז וּבשׁירים, as 2Sa 6:5 (cf. 2Sa 6:14) is to be read.

Psa 24:1-6 Jahve, whose throne of grace is now set upon Zion, has not a limited dominion, like the heathen deities: His right to sovereignty embraces the earth and its fulness (Psa 50:12; Psa 89:12), i. e. , everything that is to be found upon it and in it. For He, הוא, is the owner of the world, because its Creator. He has founded it upon seas, i. e. , the ocean and its streams, נהרות, ῥέεθρα (Jon 2:4); for the waters existed before the dry land, and this has been cast up out of them at God’s word, so that consequently the solid land, - which indeed also conceals in its interior a תּהום רבּה (Gen 7:11), - rising above the surface of the sea, has the waters, as it were, for its foundation (Psa 136:6), although it would more readily sink down into them than keep itself above them, if it were not in itself upheld by the creative power of God.

Hereupon arises the question, who may ascend the mountain of Jahve, and stand above in His holy place? The futures have a potential signification: who can have courage to do it? what, therefore, must he be, whom Jahve receives into His fellowship, and with whose worship He is well-pleased? Answer: he must be one innocent in his actions and pure in mind, one who does not lift up his soul to that which is vain (לשּׁוא, according to the Masora with Waw minusculum ).

(ל) נשׂא נפשׁ אל, to direct one’s soul, Psa 25:1, or longing and striving, towards anything, Deu 24:15; Pro 19:18; Hos 4:8. The Kerî נפשׁי is old and acknowledged by the oldest authorities. Even the lxx Cod. Alex . translates: τὴν ψυχὴν μου; whereas Cod. Vat. (Eus. , Apollin. , Theodor. , et al.) : τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ. Critically it is just as intangible, as it is exegetically incomprehensible; נפשׁי might then be equivalent to שׁמי.

Exo 20:7, an explanation, however, which does not seem possible even from Amo 6:8; Jer 51:14. We let this Kerî alone to its undisturbed critical rights. But that the poet did actually write thus, is incredible. In Psa 24:5 (just as at the close of Psa 15:1-5), in continued predicates, we are told the character of the man, who is worthy of this privilege, to whom the question in Psa 24:3 refers.

Such an one shall bear away, or acquire (נשׁא, as e. g. , Est 2:17) blessing from Jahve and righteousness from the God of his salvation (Psa 25:5; Psa 27:9). Righteousness, i. e. , conformity to God and that which is well-pleasing to God, appears here as a gift, and in this sense it is used interchangeably with ישׁע (e. g. , Psa 132:9, Psa 132:16). It is the righteousness of God after which the righteous, but not the self-righteous, man hungers and thirsts; that moral perfection which is the likeness of God restored to him and at the same time brought about by his own endeavours; it is the being changed, or transfigured, into the image of the Holy One Himself.

With Psa 24:5 the answer to the question of Psa 24:3 is at an end; Psa 24:6 adds that those thus qualified, who may accordingly expect to receive God’s gifts of salvation, are the true church of Jahve, the Israel of God. דּור (lit. , a revolution, Arabic dahr , root דר, to turn, revolve) is used here, as in Psa 14:5; Psa 73:15; Psa 112:2, of a collective whole, whose bond of union is not contemporaneousness, but similarity of disposition; and it is an alliteration with the דּרשׁיו ( Chethîb דרשו, without the Jod plur .)

which follows. מבקשׁי פּניך is a second genitive depending on דּור, as in Psa 27:8. Here at the close the predication passes into the form of invocation (Thy face). And יעקב is a summarising predicate: in short, these are Jacob, not merely after the flesh, but after the spirit, and thus in truth (Isa 44:2, cf. Rom 9:6; Gal 6:16). By interpolating אלהי, as is done in the lxx and Peshîto, and adopted by Ewald, Olshausen, Hupfeld, and Böttcher, the nerve, as it were, of the assertion is cut through.

The predicate, which has been expressed in different ways, is concentrated intelligibly enough in the one word יעקב, towards which it all along tends. And here the music becomes forte . The first part of this double Psalm dies away amidst the playing of the instruments of the Levitical priests; for the Ark was brought in בּכל־עז וּבשׁירים, as 2Sa 6:5 (cf. 2Sa 6:14) is to be read.

Psa 24:1-6 Jahve, whose throne of grace is now set upon Zion, has not a limited dominion, like the heathen deities: His right to sovereignty embraces the earth and its fulness (Psa 50:12; Psa 89:12), i. e. , everything that is to be found upon it and in it. For He, הוא, is the owner of the world, because its Creator. He has founded it upon seas, i. e. , the ocean and its streams, נהרות, ῥέεθρα (Jon 2:4); for the waters existed before the dry land, and this has been cast up out of them at God’s word, so that consequently the solid land, - which indeed also conceals in its interior a תּהום רבּה (Gen 7:11), - rising above the surface of the sea, has the waters, as it were, for its foundation (Psa 136:6), although it would more readily sink down into them than keep itself above them, if it were not in itself upheld by the creative power of God.

Hereupon arises the question, who may ascend the mountain of Jahve, and stand above in His holy place? The futures have a potential signification: who can have courage to do it? what, therefore, must he be, whom Jahve receives into His fellowship, and with whose worship He is well-pleased? Answer: he must be one innocent in his actions and pure in mind, one who does not lift up his soul to that which is vain (לשּׁוא, according to the Masora with Waw minusculum ).

(ל) נשׂא נפשׁ אל, to direct one’s soul, Psa 25:1, or longing and striving, towards anything, Deu 24:15; Pro 19:18; Hos 4:8. The Kerî נפשׁי is old and acknowledged by the oldest authorities. Even the lxx Cod. Alex . translates: τὴν ψυχὴν μου; whereas Cod. Vat. (Eus. , Apollin. , Theodor. , et al.) : τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ. Critically it is just as intangible, as it is exegetically incomprehensible; נפשׁי might then be equivalent to שׁמי.

Exo 20:7, an explanation, however, which does not seem possible even from Amo 6:8; Jer 51:14. We let this Kerî alone to its undisturbed critical rights. But that the poet did actually write thus, is incredible. In Psa 24:5 (just as at the close of Psa 15:1-5), in continued predicates, we are told the character of the man, who is worthy of this privilege, to whom the question in Psa 24:3 refers.

Such an one shall bear away, or acquire (נשׁא, as e. g. , Est 2:17) blessing from Jahve and righteousness from the God of his salvation (Psa 25:5; Psa 27:9). Righteousness, i. e. , conformity to God and that which is well-pleasing to God, appears here as a gift, and in this sense it is used interchangeably with ישׁע (e. g. , Psa 132:9, Psa 132:16). It is the righteousness of God after which the righteous, but not the self-righteous, man hungers and thirsts; that moral perfection which is the likeness of God restored to him and at the same time brought about by his own endeavours; it is the being changed, or transfigured, into the image of the Holy One Himself.

With Psa 24:5 the answer to the question of Psa 24:3 is at an end; Psa 24:6 adds that those thus qualified, who may accordingly expect to receive God’s gifts of salvation, are the true church of Jahve, the Israel of God. דּור (lit. , a revolution, Arabic dahr , root דר, to turn, revolve) is used here, as in Psa 14:5; Psa 73:15; Psa 112:2, of a collective whole, whose bond of union is not contemporaneousness, but similarity of disposition; and it is an alliteration with the דּרשׁיו ( Chethîb דרשו, without the Jod plur .)

which follows. מבקשׁי פּניך is a second genitive depending on דּור, as in Psa 27:8. Here at the close the predication passes into the form of invocation (Thy face). And יעקב is a summarising predicate: in short, these are Jacob, not merely after the flesh, but after the spirit, and thus in truth (Isa 44:2, cf. Rom 9:6; Gal 6:16). By interpolating אלהי, as is done in the lxx and Peshîto, and adopted by Ewald, Olshausen, Hupfeld, and Böttcher, the nerve, as it were, of the assertion is cut through.

The predicate, which has been expressed in different ways, is concentrated intelligibly enough in the one word יעקב, towards which it all along tends. And here the music becomes forte . The first part of this double Psalm dies away amidst the playing of the instruments of the Levitical priests; for the Ark was brought in בּכל־עז וּבשׁירים, as 2Sa 6:5 (cf. 2Sa 6:14) is to be read.