Waiting for the Lord, Delighting to Do His Will, and Pleading for Help

Psa 40:5-6 He esteems him happy who puts his trust (מבטחו, with a latent Dagesh , as, according to Kimchi, also in Psa 71:5; Job 31:24; Jer 17:7) in Jahve, the God who has already made Himself glorious in Israel by innumerable wonderful works. Jer 17:7 is an echo of this אשׁרי. Psa 52:9 (cf. Psa 91:9) shows how Davidic is the language. The expression is designedly not האישׁ, but הגּבר, which is better adapted to designate the man as being tempted to put trust in himself.

רהבים from רהב (not from רהב) are the impetuous or violent, who in their arrogance cast down everything. שׂטי כזב, “turners aside of falsehood” (שׁוּט = שׂטה, cf. Psa 101:3), is the expression for apostates who yield to falsehood instead of to the truth: to take כּזב as accusative of the aim is forbidden by the status construct . ; to take it as the genitive in the sense of the accusative of the object (like תם הלכי, Pro 2:7) is impracticable, because שׂוט (שׂטה) does not admit of a transitive sense; כזב is, therefore, genit.

qualit. like און in Psa 59:6. This second strophe contains two practical applications of that which the writer himself has experienced. From this point of view, he who trusts in God appears to the poet to be supremely happy, and a distant view of God’s gracious rule over His own people opens up before him. נפלאות are the thoughts of God realized, and מחשׁבות those that are being realized, as in Jer 51:29; Isa 55:8.

רבּות is an accusative of the predicate: in great number, in rich abundance; אלינוּ, “for us,” as e. g. , in Jer 15:1 (Ew. §217, c). His doings towards Israel were from of old a fulness of wondrous deeds and plans of deliverance, which was ever realizing and revealing itself. There is not ערך אליך, a possibility of comparison with Thee, οὐκ ἔστι (Ew. §§321, c ) ἰσουν τί σοι - ערך as in Psa 89:7; Isa 40:18 - they are too powerful (עצם of a powerful sum, as in Psa 69:5; Psa 139:17, cf.

Jer 5:6) for one to enumerate. According to Rosenmüller, Stier, and Hupfeld, אין ערך אליך even affirms the same thing in other words: it is not possible to lay them forth to Thee (before Thee); but that man should “lay forth” (Symmachus ἐκθέστηαι) before God His marvellous works and His thoughts of salvation, is an unbecoming conception. The cohortative forms, which follow, אגּידה ואדבּרה ,wollof h, admit of being taken as a protasis to what follows, after the analogy of Job 19:18; Job 16:6; Job 30:26; Psa 139:8 : if I wish to declare them and speak them forth, they are too powerful (numerous) to be enumerated (Ges.

§128, 1, d ). The accentuation, however, renders it as a parenthetical clause: I would (as in Psa 51:18; Psa 55:13; Psa 6:10) declare them and speak them forth. He would do this, but because God, in the fulness of His wondrous works and thoughts of salvation, is absolutely without an equal, he is obliged to leave it undone - they are so powerful (numerous) that the enumeration of them falls far short of their powerful fulness.

The words alioqui pronunciarem et eloquerer have the character of a parenthesis, and, as Psa 40:7 shows, this accords with the style of this Psalm.

Psa 40:7-9 The connection of the thoughts is clear: great and manifold are the proofs of Thy loving-kindness, how am I to render thanks to Thee for them? To this question he first of all gives a negative answer: God delights not in outward sacrifices. The sacrifices are named in a twofold way: ( a ) according to the material of which they consist, viz. , זבח, the animal sacrifice, and מנחה, the meal or meat offering (including the נסך, the wine or drink offering, which is the inalienable accessory of the accompanying mincha ); ( b ) according to their purpose, in accordance with which they bring about either the turning towards one of the good pleasure of God, as more especially in the case of the עולה, or, as more especially in the case of the הטּאת (in this passage חטאה), the turning away of the divine displeasure.

The fact of the זבח and עולה standing first, has, moreover, its special reason in the fact that זבח specially designates the shelamı̂m offerings, and to the province of these latter belongs the thank-offering proper, viz. , the tôda - shelamı̂m offering; and that עולה as the sacrifice of adoration (προσευχή), which is also always a general thanksgiving (εὐχαριστία), is most natural, side by side with the shalemim, to him who gives thanks.

When it is said of God, that He does not delight in and desire such non-personal sacrifices, there is as little intention as in Jer 7:22 (cf. Amo 5:21.) of saying that the sacrificial Tôra is not of divine origin, but that the true, essential will of God is not directed to such sacrifices. Between these synonymous utterances in Psa 40:7 and Psa 40:7 stands the clause אזנים כּרית לּי.

In connection with this position it is natural, with Rosenmüller, Gesenius, De Wette, and Stier, to explain it “ears hast Thou pierced for me” = this hast Thou engraven upon my mind as a revelation, this disclosure hast Thou imparted to me. But, although כּרה, to dig, is even admissible in the sense of digging through, piercing (vid. , on Psa 22:17), there are two considerations against this interpretation, viz.

: (1) that then one would rather look for אזן instead of אזנים after the analogy of the phrases גּלה אזן, חעיר אזן, and פּתח אזן, since the inner sense, in which the external organs of sense, with their functions, have their basis of unity, is commonly denoted by the use of the singular; (2) that according to the syntax, חפצתּ, כּרית, and שׁאלתּ are all placed on the same level. Thus, therefore, it is with this very אזנים כרית לי that the answer is intended, in its positive form, to begin; and the primary passage, 1Sa 15:22, favours this view: “Hath Jahve delight in whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in one’s obeying the voice of Jahve?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to attend better than the fat of rams! ” The assertion of David is the echo of this assertion of Samuel, by which the sentence of death was pronounced upon the kingship of Saul, and consequently the way of that which is well-pleasing to God was traced out for the future kingship of David. God - says David - desires not outward sacrifices, but obedience; ears hath He digged for me, i.

e. , formed the sense of hearing, bestowed the faculty of hearing, and given therewith the instruction to obey. The idea is not that God has given him ears in order to hear that disclosure concerning the true will of God (Hupfeld), but, in general, to hear the word of God, and to obey that which is heard. God desires not sacrifices but hearing ears, and consequently the submission of the person himself in willing obedience.

To interpret it “Thou hast appropriated me to Thyself לעבד עולם,” after Exo 21:6; Deu 15:17, would not be out of harmony with the context; but it is at once shut out by the fact that the word is not אזן, but אזנים. Concerning the generalizing rendering of the lxx, σῶμα δὲ κατηρτίσω μου, following which Apollinaris renders it αὐτὰρ ἐμοί Βροτέης τεκτήναο σάρκα γενέθλης, and the Italic (which is also retained in the Psalterium Romanum ), corpus autem perfecisti mihi; vide on Heb 10:5, Commentary , S.

460f. transl. vol. ii. p. 153. The אז אמרתּי, which follows, now introduces the expression of the obedience, with which he placed himself at the service of God, when he became conscious of what God’s special will concerning him was. With reference to the fact that obedience and not sacrifice has become known to him as the will and requirement of God, he has said: “Lo, I come,” etc.

By the words “Lo, I come,” the servant places himself at the call of his master, Num 22:38; 2Sa 19:21. It is not likely that the words בּמגלּת ספר כּתוּב עלי then form a parenthesis, since Psa 40:9 is not a continuation of that “Lo, I come,” but a new sentence. We take the Beth , as in Psa 66:13, as the Beth of the accompaniment; the roll of the book is the Tôra, and more especially Deuteronomy, written upon skins and rolled up together, which according to the law touching the king (Deu 17:14-20) was to be the vade-mecum of the king of Israel.

And עלי cannot, as synonymous with the following בּמעי, signify as much as “written upon my heart,” as De Wette and Thenius render it-a meaning which, as Maurer has already correctly replied, עלי obtains elsewhere by means of a conception that is altogether inadmissible in this instance. On the contrary, this preposition here, as in 2Ki 22:13, denotes the object of the contents; for כּתב על signifies to write anything concerning any one, so that he is the subject one has specially in view (e.

g. , of the judicial decision recorded in writing, Job 13:26). Because Jahve before all else requires obedience to His will, David comes with the document of this will, the Tôra, which prescribes to him, as a man, and more especially as the king, the right course of conduct. Thus presenting himself to the God of revelation, he can say in Psa 40:9, that willing obedience to God’s Law is his delight, as he then knows that the written Law is written even in his heart, or, as the still stronger expression used here is, in his bowels.

The principal form of מעי, does not occur in the Old Testament; it was מעים (from מע, מעה, or even מעי), according to current Jewish pronunciation מעים (which Kimchi explains dual); and the word properly means (vid. , on Isa 48:19) the soft parts of the body, which even elsewhere, like רחמים, which is synonymous according to its original meaning, appear pre-eminently as the seat of sympathy, but also of fear and of pain.

This is the only passage in which it occurs as the locality of a mental acquisition, but also with the associated notion of loving acceptance and cherishing protection (cf. the Syriac phrase סם בגו מעיא, som begau meajo , to shut up in the heart = to love). That the Tôra is to be written upon the tables of the heart is even indicated by the Deuteronomion, Deu 6:6, cf.

Pro 3:3; Pro 7:3. This reception of the Tôra into the inward parts among the people hitherto estranged from God is, according to Jer 31:33, the characteristic of the new covenant. But even in the Old Testament there is among the masses of Israel “a people with My law in their heart” (Isa 51:7), and even in the Old Testament, “he who hath the law of his God in his heart” is called righteous (Psa 37:31).

As such an one who has the Tôra within him, not merely beside him, David presents himself on the way to the throne of God.

Psa 40:7-9 The connection of the thoughts is clear: great and manifold are the proofs of Thy loving-kindness, how am I to render thanks to Thee for them? To this question he first of all gives a negative answer: God delights not in outward sacrifices. The sacrifices are named in a twofold way: ( a ) according to the material of which they consist, viz. , זבח, the animal sacrifice, and מנחה, the meal or meat offering (including the נסך, the wine or drink offering, which is the inalienable accessory of the accompanying mincha ); ( b ) according to their purpose, in accordance with which they bring about either the turning towards one of the good pleasure of God, as more especially in the case of the עולה, or, as more especially in the case of the הטּאת (in this passage חטאה), the turning away of the divine displeasure.

The fact of the זבח and עולה standing first, has, moreover, its special reason in the fact that זבח specially designates the shelamı̂m offerings, and to the province of these latter belongs the thank-offering proper, viz. , the tôda - shelamı̂m offering; and that עולה as the sacrifice of adoration (προσευχή), which is also always a general thanksgiving (εὐχαριστία), is most natural, side by side with the shalemim, to him who gives thanks.

When it is said of God, that He does not delight in and desire such non-personal sacrifices, there is as little intention as in Jer 7:22 (cf. Amo 5:21.) of saying that the sacrificial Tôra is not of divine origin, but that the true, essential will of God is not directed to such sacrifices. Between these synonymous utterances in Psa 40:7 and Psa 40:7 stands the clause אזנים כּרית לּי.

In connection with this position it is natural, with Rosenmüller, Gesenius, De Wette, and Stier, to explain it “ears hast Thou pierced for me” = this hast Thou engraven upon my mind as a revelation, this disclosure hast Thou imparted to me. But, although כּרה, to dig, is even admissible in the sense of digging through, piercing (vid. , on Psa 22:17), there are two considerations against this interpretation, viz.

: (1) that then one would rather look for אזן instead of אזנים after the analogy of the phrases גּלה אזן, חעיר אזן, and פּתח אזן, since the inner sense, in which the external organs of sense, with their functions, have their basis of unity, is commonly denoted by the use of the singular; (2) that according to the syntax, חפצתּ, כּרית, and שׁאלתּ are all placed on the same level. Thus, therefore, it is with this very אזנים כרית לי that the answer is intended, in its positive form, to begin; and the primary passage, 1Sa 15:22, favours this view: “Hath Jahve delight in whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in one’s obeying the voice of Jahve?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to attend better than the fat of rams! ” The assertion of David is the echo of this assertion of Samuel, by which the sentence of death was pronounced upon the kingship of Saul, and consequently the way of that which is well-pleasing to God was traced out for the future kingship of David. God - says David - desires not outward sacrifices, but obedience; ears hath He digged for me, i.

e. , formed the sense of hearing, bestowed the faculty of hearing, and given therewith the instruction to obey. The idea is not that God has given him ears in order to hear that disclosure concerning the true will of God (Hupfeld), but, in general, to hear the word of God, and to obey that which is heard. God desires not sacrifices but hearing ears, and consequently the submission of the person himself in willing obedience.

To interpret it “Thou hast appropriated me to Thyself לעבד עולם,” after Exo 21:6; Deu 15:17, would not be out of harmony with the context; but it is at once shut out by the fact that the word is not אזן, but אזנים. Concerning the generalizing rendering of the lxx, σῶμα δὲ κατηρτίσω μου, following which Apollinaris renders it αὐτὰρ ἐμοί Βροτέης τεκτήναο σάρκα γενέθλης, and the Italic (which is also retained in the Psalterium Romanum ), corpus autem perfecisti mihi; vide on Heb 10:5, Commentary , S.

460f. transl. vol. ii. p. 153. The אז אמרתּי, which follows, now introduces the expression of the obedience, with which he placed himself at the service of God, when he became conscious of what God’s special will concerning him was. With reference to the fact that obedience and not sacrifice has become known to him as the will and requirement of God, he has said: “Lo, I come,” etc.

By the words “Lo, I come,” the servant places himself at the call of his master, Num 22:38; 2Sa 19:21. It is not likely that the words בּמגלּת ספר כּתוּב עלי then form a parenthesis, since Psa 40:9 is not a continuation of that “Lo, I come,” but a new sentence. We take the Beth , as in Psa 66:13, as the Beth of the accompaniment; the roll of the book is the Tôra, and more especially Deuteronomy, written upon skins and rolled up together, which according to the law touching the king (Deu 17:14-20) was to be the vade-mecum of the king of Israel.

And עלי cannot, as synonymous with the following בּמעי, signify as much as “written upon my heart,” as De Wette and Thenius render it-a meaning which, as Maurer has already correctly replied, עלי obtains elsewhere by means of a conception that is altogether inadmissible in this instance. On the contrary, this preposition here, as in 2Ki 22:13, denotes the object of the contents; for כּתב על signifies to write anything concerning any one, so that he is the subject one has specially in view (e.

g. , of the judicial decision recorded in writing, Job 13:26). Because Jahve before all else requires obedience to His will, David comes with the document of this will, the Tôra, which prescribes to him, as a man, and more especially as the king, the right course of conduct. Thus presenting himself to the God of revelation, he can say in Psa 40:9, that willing obedience to God’s Law is his delight, as he then knows that the written Law is written even in his heart, or, as the still stronger expression used here is, in his bowels.

The principal form of מעי, does not occur in the Old Testament; it was מעים (from מע, מעה, or even מעי), according to current Jewish pronunciation מעים (which Kimchi explains dual); and the word properly means (vid. , on Isa 48:19) the soft parts of the body, which even elsewhere, like רחמים, which is synonymous according to its original meaning, appear pre-eminently as the seat of sympathy, but also of fear and of pain.

This is the only passage in which it occurs as the locality of a mental acquisition, but also with the associated notion of loving acceptance and cherishing protection (cf. the Syriac phrase סם בגו מעיא, som begau meajo , to shut up in the heart = to love). That the Tôra is to be written upon the tables of the heart is even indicated by the Deuteronomion, Deu 6:6, cf.

Pro 3:3; Pro 7:3. This reception of the Tôra into the inward parts among the people hitherto estranged from God is, according to Jer 31:33, the characteristic of the new covenant. But even in the Old Testament there is among the masses of Israel “a people with My law in their heart” (Isa 51:7), and even in the Old Testament, “he who hath the law of his God in his heart” is called righteous (Psa 37:31).

As such an one who has the Tôra within him, not merely beside him, David presents himself on the way to the throne of God.

Psa 40:7-9 The connection of the thoughts is clear: great and manifold are the proofs of Thy loving-kindness, how am I to render thanks to Thee for them? To this question he first of all gives a negative answer: God delights not in outward sacrifices. The sacrifices are named in a twofold way: ( a ) according to the material of which they consist, viz. , זבח, the animal sacrifice, and מנחה, the meal or meat offering (including the נסך, the wine or drink offering, which is the inalienable accessory of the accompanying mincha ); ( b ) according to their purpose, in accordance with which they bring about either the turning towards one of the good pleasure of God, as more especially in the case of the עולה, or, as more especially in the case of the הטּאת (in this passage חטאה), the turning away of the divine displeasure.

The fact of the זבח and עולה standing first, has, moreover, its special reason in the fact that זבח specially designates the shelamı̂m offerings, and to the province of these latter belongs the thank-offering proper, viz. , the tôda - shelamı̂m offering; and that עולה as the sacrifice of adoration (προσευχή), which is also always a general thanksgiving (εὐχαριστία), is most natural, side by side with the shalemim, to him who gives thanks.

When it is said of God, that He does not delight in and desire such non-personal sacrifices, there is as little intention as in Jer 7:22 (cf. Amo 5:21.) of saying that the sacrificial Tôra is not of divine origin, but that the true, essential will of God is not directed to such sacrifices. Between these synonymous utterances in Psa 40:7 and Psa 40:7 stands the clause אזנים כּרית לּי.

In connection with this position it is natural, with Rosenmüller, Gesenius, De Wette, and Stier, to explain it “ears hast Thou pierced for me” = this hast Thou engraven upon my mind as a revelation, this disclosure hast Thou imparted to me. But, although כּרה, to dig, is even admissible in the sense of digging through, piercing (vid. , on Psa 22:17), there are two considerations against this interpretation, viz.

: (1) that then one would rather look for אזן instead of אזנים after the analogy of the phrases גּלה אזן, חעיר אזן, and פּתח אזן, since the inner sense, in which the external organs of sense, with their functions, have their basis of unity, is commonly denoted by the use of the singular; (2) that according to the syntax, חפצתּ, כּרית, and שׁאלתּ are all placed on the same level. Thus, therefore, it is with this very אזנים כרית לי that the answer is intended, in its positive form, to begin; and the primary passage, 1Sa 15:22, favours this view: “Hath Jahve delight in whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in one’s obeying the voice of Jahve?

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to attend better than the fat of rams! ” The assertion of David is the echo of this assertion of Samuel, by which the sentence of death was pronounced upon the kingship of Saul, and consequently the way of that which is well-pleasing to God was traced out for the future kingship of David. God - says David - desires not outward sacrifices, but obedience; ears hath He digged for me, i.

e. , formed the sense of hearing, bestowed the faculty of hearing, and given therewith the instruction to obey. The idea is not that God has given him ears in order to hear that disclosure concerning the true will of God (Hupfeld), but, in general, to hear the word of God, and to obey that which is heard. God desires not sacrifices but hearing ears, and consequently the submission of the person himself in willing obedience.

To interpret it “Thou hast appropriated me to Thyself לעבד עולם,” after Exo 21:6; Deu 15:17, would not be out of harmony with the context; but it is at once shut out by the fact that the word is not אזן, but אזנים. Concerning the generalizing rendering of the lxx, σῶμα δὲ κατηρτίσω μου, following which Apollinaris renders it αὐτὰρ ἐμοί Βροτέης τεκτήναο σάρκα γενέθλης, and the Italic (which is also retained in the Psalterium Romanum ), corpus autem perfecisti mihi; vide on Heb 10:5, Commentary , S.

460f. transl. vol. ii. p. 153. The אז אמרתּי, which follows, now introduces the expression of the obedience, with which he placed himself at the service of God, when he became conscious of what God’s special will concerning him was. With reference to the fact that obedience and not sacrifice has become known to him as the will and requirement of God, he has said: “Lo, I come,” etc.

By the words “Lo, I come,” the servant places himself at the call of his master, Num 22:38; 2Sa 19:21. It is not likely that the words בּמגלּת ספר כּתוּב עלי then form a parenthesis, since Psa 40:9 is not a continuation of that “Lo, I come,” but a new sentence. We take the Beth , as in Psa 66:13, as the Beth of the accompaniment; the roll of the book is the Tôra, and more especially Deuteronomy, written upon skins and rolled up together, which according to the law touching the king (Deu 17:14-20) was to be the vade-mecum of the king of Israel.

And עלי cannot, as synonymous with the following בּמעי, signify as much as “written upon my heart,” as De Wette and Thenius render it-a meaning which, as Maurer has already correctly replied, עלי obtains elsewhere by means of a conception that is altogether inadmissible in this instance. On the contrary, this preposition here, as in 2Ki 22:13, denotes the object of the contents; for כּתב על signifies to write anything concerning any one, so that he is the subject one has specially in view (e.

g. , of the judicial decision recorded in writing, Job 13:26). Because Jahve before all else requires obedience to His will, David comes with the document of this will, the Tôra, which prescribes to him, as a man, and more especially as the king, the right course of conduct. Thus presenting himself to the God of revelation, he can say in Psa 40:9, that willing obedience to God’s Law is his delight, as he then knows that the written Law is written even in his heart, or, as the still stronger expression used here is, in his bowels.

The principal form of מעי, does not occur in the Old Testament; it was מעים (from מע, מעה, or even מעי), according to current Jewish pronunciation מעים (which Kimchi explains dual); and the word properly means (vid. , on Isa 48:19) the soft parts of the body, which even elsewhere, like רחמים, which is synonymous according to its original meaning, appear pre-eminently as the seat of sympathy, but also of fear and of pain.

This is the only passage in which it occurs as the locality of a mental acquisition, but also with the associated notion of loving acceptance and cherishing protection (cf. the Syriac phrase סם בגו מעיא, som begau meajo , to shut up in the heart = to love). That the Tôra is to be written upon the tables of the heart is even indicated by the Deuteronomion, Deu 6:6, cf.

Pro 3:3; Pro 7:3. This reception of the Tôra into the inward parts among the people hitherto estranged from God is, according to Jer 31:33, the characteristic of the new covenant. But even in the Old Testament there is among the masses of Israel “a people with My law in their heart” (Isa 51:7), and even in the Old Testament, “he who hath the law of his God in his heart” is called righteous (Psa 37:31).

As such an one who has the Tôra within him, not merely beside him, David presents himself on the way to the throne of God.

Psa 40:10-11 The self-presentation before Jahve, introduced by אז אמרתּי, extends from הנה to מעי; consequently בּשּׂרתּי yltn joins on to אמרתי, and the אכלא which stands in the midst of perfects describes the synchronous past. The whole is a retrospect. בּשּׂר, Arab. bššr (root בש), starting from its sensible primary signification to scrape off, scratch off, rub smooth, means: to smooth any one ( glätten ), Engl.

to gladden one, i. e. , vultum ejus diducere , to make him joyful and glad, more especially to cheer one by good news (e. g. , basharahu or bashsharuhu bi̇maulûdin , bashsharuhu bi - maulûdin , he has cheered him by the intelligence of the birth of a son), in Hebrew directly equivalent to εὐαγγελίζειν (εὐαγγελίζεσθαι). He has proclaimed to all Israel the evangel of Jahve’s justifying and gracious rule, which only changes into retribution towards those who despise His love; and he can appeal to the Omniscient One (Jer 15:15), that neither through fear of men, nor through shame and indolence, has he restrained his lips from confessing Him.

God’s conduct, in accordance with the prescribed order of redemption, is as a matter of fact called צדק, and as an attribute of His holy love, צדקה; just as אמוּנה is His faithfulness which fulfils the promises made and which does not suffer hope to be put to shame, and תּשׁוּעה is His salvation as it is manifested in facts. This rich matter for the preaching of the evangel, which may be comprehended in the two words חסד ועמת, the Alpha and Omega of God’s self-attestation in the course of the redemptive history, he has not allowed to slumber as a dead, unfruitful knowledge hidden deep down in his heart.

The new song which Jahve put into his mouth, he has also really sung. Thus far we have the first part of the song, which renders thanks for past mercies.

Psa 40:10-11 The self-presentation before Jahve, introduced by אז אמרתּי, extends from הנה to מעי; consequently בּשּׂרתּי yltn joins on to אמרתי, and the אכלא which stands in the midst of perfects describes the synchronous past. The whole is a retrospect. בּשּׂר, Arab. bššr (root בש), starting from its sensible primary signification to scrape off, scratch off, rub smooth, means: to smooth any one ( glätten ), Engl.

to gladden one, i. e. , vultum ejus diducere , to make him joyful and glad, more especially to cheer one by good news (e. g. , basharahu or bashsharuhu bi̇maulûdin , bashsharuhu bi - maulûdin , he has cheered him by the intelligence of the birth of a son), in Hebrew directly equivalent to εὐαγγελίζειν (εὐαγγελίζεσθαι). He has proclaimed to all Israel the evangel of Jahve’s justifying and gracious rule, which only changes into retribution towards those who despise His love; and he can appeal to the Omniscient One (Jer 15:15), that neither through fear of men, nor through shame and indolence, has he restrained his lips from confessing Him.

God’s conduct, in accordance with the prescribed order of redemption, is as a matter of fact called צדק, and as an attribute of His holy love, צדקה; just as אמוּנה is His faithfulness which fulfils the promises made and which does not suffer hope to be put to shame, and תּשׁוּעה is His salvation as it is manifested in facts. This rich matter for the preaching of the evangel, which may be comprehended in the two words חסד ועמת, the Alpha and Omega of God’s self-attestation in the course of the redemptive history, he has not allowed to slumber as a dead, unfruitful knowledge hidden deep down in his heart.

The new song which Jahve put into his mouth, he has also really sung. Thus far we have the first part of the song, which renders thanks for past mercies.

Psa 40:12-13 Now, in accordance with the true art of prayer, petition developes itself out of thanksgiving. The two כּלא, Psa 40:10 and here, stand in a reciprocal relation to one another: he refrained not his lips; therefore, on His part, let not Jahve withhold His tender mercies so that they should not be exercised towards him (ממּנּי). There is just the same correlation of mercy and truth in Psa 40:11 and here: he wishes continually to stand under the protection of these two saving powers, which he has gratefully proclaimed before all Israel.

With כּי, Psa 40:13, he bases these desires upon his own urgent need. רעות are the evils, which come even upon the righteous (Psa 34:20) as trials or as chastenings. אפפוּ עלי is a more circumstantial form of expression instead of אפפוּני, Psa 18:5. His misdeeds have taken hold upon him, i. e. , overtaken him in their consequences (השּׂיג, as in Deu 28:15, Deu 28:45; cf.

לכד, Pro 5:22), inasmuch as they have changed into decrees of suffering. He cannot see, because he is closely encompassed on all sides, and a free and open view is thereby altogether taken from him (the expression is used elsewhere of loss of sight, 1Sa 3:2; 1Sa 4:15; 1Ki 14:4). The interpretation adopted by Hupfeld and Hitzig: I am not able to survey, viz. , their number, puts into the expression more than it really expresses in the common usage of the language.

His heart, i. e. , the power of vital consistence, has forsaken him he is disconcerted, dejected, as it were driven to despair (Psa 38:11). This feeling of the misery of sin is not opposed to the date of the Psalm being assigned to the time of Saul, vid. , on Psa 31:11.

Psa 40:12-13 Now, in accordance with the true art of prayer, petition developes itself out of thanksgiving. The two כּלא, Psa 40:10 and here, stand in a reciprocal relation to one another: he refrained not his lips; therefore, on His part, let not Jahve withhold His tender mercies so that they should not be exercised towards him (ממּנּי). There is just the same correlation of mercy and truth in Psa 40:11 and here: he wishes continually to stand under the protection of these two saving powers, which he has gratefully proclaimed before all Israel.

With כּי, Psa 40:13, he bases these desires upon his own urgent need. רעות are the evils, which come even upon the righteous (Psa 34:20) as trials or as chastenings. אפפוּ עלי is a more circumstantial form of expression instead of אפפוּני, Psa 18:5. His misdeeds have taken hold upon him, i. e. , overtaken him in their consequences (השּׂיג, as in Deu 28:15, Deu 28:45; cf.

לכד, Pro 5:22), inasmuch as they have changed into decrees of suffering. He cannot see, because he is closely encompassed on all sides, and a free and open view is thereby altogether taken from him (the expression is used elsewhere of loss of sight, 1Sa 3:2; 1Sa 4:15; 1Ki 14:4). The interpretation adopted by Hupfeld and Hitzig: I am not able to survey, viz. , their number, puts into the expression more than it really expresses in the common usage of the language.

His heart, i. e. , the power of vital consistence, has forsaken him he is disconcerted, dejected, as it were driven to despair (Psa 38:11). This feeling of the misery of sin is not opposed to the date of the Psalm being assigned to the time of Saul, vid. , on Psa 31:11.

Psa 40:14-16 In the midst of such sufferings, which, the longer they last, discover him all the more to himself as a sinner, he prays for speedy help. The cry for help in Psa 40:14 turns with רצה towards the will of God; for this is the root of all things. As to the rest, it resembles Psa 22:20 (38:23). The persecuted one wishes that the purpose of his deadly foes may as it were rebound against the protection of God and miserably miscarry.

לספּותהּ, ad abripiendam eam (with Dagesh in the פ according to Ges. §45, 2, Ew. §245, a , and not as Gesenius, Thesaurus , p. 1235, states, aspirated), is added to מבקשׁי נפשׁי by way of explanation and definiteness. ישׁמּוּ, from שׁמם, to become torpid, here used of outward and inward paralysis, which is the result of overpowering and as it were bewitching surprise or fright, and is called by the Arabs ro‛b or ra‛b (paralysis through terror) cf.

Job , note at Psa 18:12. An על following upon ישׁמּוּ looks at first sight as though it introduced the object and reason of this fright; it is therefore not: as a reward, in consequence of their infamy, which would not be על־עקב, but merely the accusative עקב (Isa 5:23, Arabic ‛qîba ), it is rather: on account of the reward (Psa 19:12) of their disgrace (cf.

as belonging to the same period, Psa 109:29; Psa 35:26), i. e. , of the reward which consists in their being put to shame (Hitzig). לי as in Psa 3:3; Psa 41:6 : with reference to me. האח האח (Aquila, ἀὰ ἀὰ, αὐτῇ συγχρησάμενος, as Eusebius says, οὕτως ἐχούσῃ τῇ Ἑβραΐκῆ φωνῇ) is an exclamation of sarcastic delight, which finds its satisfaction in another’s misfortune (Psa 35:25).

Psa 40:14-16 In the midst of such sufferings, which, the longer they last, discover him all the more to himself as a sinner, he prays for speedy help. The cry for help in Psa 40:14 turns with רצה towards the will of God; for this is the root of all things. As to the rest, it resembles Psa 22:20 (38:23). The persecuted one wishes that the purpose of his deadly foes may as it were rebound against the protection of God and miserably miscarry.

לספּותהּ, ad abripiendam eam (with Dagesh in the פ according to Ges. §45, 2, Ew. §245, a , and not as Gesenius, Thesaurus , p. 1235, states, aspirated), is added to מבקשׁי נפשׁי by way of explanation and definiteness. ישׁמּוּ, from שׁמם, to become torpid, here used of outward and inward paralysis, which is the result of overpowering and as it were bewitching surprise or fright, and is called by the Arabs ro‛b or ra‛b (paralysis through terror) cf.

Job , note at Psa 18:12. An על following upon ישׁמּוּ looks at first sight as though it introduced the object and reason of this fright; it is therefore not: as a reward, in consequence of their infamy, which would not be על־עקב, but merely the accusative עקב (Isa 5:23, Arabic ‛qîba ), it is rather: on account of the reward (Psa 19:12) of their disgrace (cf.

as belonging to the same period, Psa 109:29; Psa 35:26), i. e. , of the reward which consists in their being put to shame (Hitzig). לי as in Psa 3:3; Psa 41:6 : with reference to me. האח האח (Aquila, ἀὰ ἀὰ, αὐτῇ συγχρησάμενος, as Eusebius says, οὕτως ἐχούσῃ τῇ Ἑβραΐκῆ φωνῇ) is an exclamation of sarcastic delight, which finds its satisfaction in another’s misfortune (Psa 35:25).

Psa 40:14-16 In the midst of such sufferings, which, the longer they last, discover him all the more to himself as a sinner, he prays for speedy help. The cry for help in Psa 40:14 turns with רצה towards the will of God; for this is the root of all things. As to the rest, it resembles Psa 22:20 (38:23). The persecuted one wishes that the purpose of his deadly foes may as it were rebound against the protection of God and miserably miscarry.

לספּותהּ, ad abripiendam eam (with Dagesh in the פ according to Ges. §45, 2, Ew. §245, a , and not as Gesenius, Thesaurus , p. 1235, states, aspirated), is added to מבקשׁי נפשׁי by way of explanation and definiteness. ישׁמּוּ, from שׁמם, to become torpid, here used of outward and inward paralysis, which is the result of overpowering and as it were bewitching surprise or fright, and is called by the Arabs ro‛b or ra‛b (paralysis through terror) cf.

Job , note at Psa 18:12. An על following upon ישׁמּוּ looks at first sight as though it introduced the object and reason of this fright; it is therefore not: as a reward, in consequence of their infamy, which would not be על־עקב, but merely the accusative עקב (Isa 5:23, Arabic ‛qîba ), it is rather: on account of the reward (Psa 19:12) of their disgrace (cf.

as belonging to the same period, Psa 109:29; Psa 35:26), i. e. , of the reward which consists in their being put to shame (Hitzig). לי as in Psa 3:3; Psa 41:6 : with reference to me. האח האח (Aquila, ἀὰ ἀὰ, αὐτῇ συγχρησάμενος, as Eusebius says, οὕτως ἐχούσῃ τῇ Ἑβραΐκῆ φωνῇ) is an exclamation of sarcastic delight, which finds its satisfaction in another’s misfortune (Psa 35:25).

Psa 40:17 On Psa 40:17 compare Psa 35:27. David wishes, as he does in that passage, that the pious may most heartily rejoice in God, the goal of their longing; and that on account of the salvation that has become manifest, which they love (2Ti 4:8), they may continually say: Let Jahve become great, i. e. , be magnified or celebrated with praises! In Psa 40:17 with ואני he comes back to his own present helpless state, but only in order to contrast with it the confession of confident hope.

True he is עני ואביון (as in Psa 109:22; Psa 136:1, cf. Psa 25:16), but He who ruleth over all will care for him: Dominus solicitus erit pro me (Jerome). חשׁב in the same sense in which in Psa 40:6 the מחשׁבות, i. e. , God’s thoughts of salvation, is conceived of (cf. the corresponding North-Palestinian expression in Jon 1:6). A sigh for speedy help (אל־תּאחר, as in Dan 9:19 with a transition of the merely tone-long Tsere into a pausal Pathach , and here in connection with a preceding closed syllable, Olshausen, §91, d , under the accompanying influence of two final letters which incline towards the a sound) closes this second part of the Psalm.

The first part is nothing but thanksgiving, the second is exclusively prayer.

After a Psalm with אשׁרי follows one beginning with אשׁרי; so that two Psalms with אשׁרי close the First Book of the Psalms, which begins with אשׁרי. Psa 41:1-13 belongs to the time of the persecution by Absalom. Just as the Jahve- Psa 39:1-13 forms with the Elohim- Psa 62:1-12 a coherent pair belonging to this time, so does also the Jahve- Psa 41:1-13 with the Elohim-Psalm 55.

These two Psalms have this feature in common, viz. , that the complaint concerning the Psalmist’s foes dwells with especial sadness upon some faithless bosom-friend. In Psa 41:1-13 David celebrates the blessing which accompanies sincere sympathy, and depicts the hostility and falseness which he himself experiences in his sickness, and more especially from a very near friend.

It is the very same person of whom he complains in Ps 55, that he causes him the deepest sorrow - no ideal character, as Hengstenberg asserts; for these Psalms have the most distinctly impressed individual physiognomy of the writer’s own times. In Ps 55 the poet wishes for the wings of a dove, in order that, far away from the city, he might seek for himself a safe spot in the wilderness; for in the city deceit, violence, and mischief prevail, and the storm of a wide-spread conspiracy is gathering, in which he himself sees his most deeply attached friend involved.

We need only supplement what is narrated in the second Book of Samuel by a few features drawn from these two Psalms, and these Psalms immediately find a satisfactory explanation in our regarding the time of their composition as the period of Absalom’s rebellion. The faithless friend is that Ahithophel whose counsels, according to 2Sa 16:23, had with David almost the appearance of being divine oracles.

Absalom was to take advantage of a lingering sickness under which his father suffered, in order to play the part of the careful and impartial judge and to steal the heart of the men of Israel. Ahithophel supported him in this project, and in four years after Absalom’s reconciliation with his father the end was gained. These four years were for David a time of increasing care and anxiety; for that which was planned cannot have remained altogether concealed from him, but he had neither the courage nor the strength to smother the evil undertaking in the germ.

His love for Absalom held him back; the consciousness of his own deed of shame and bloodshed, which was now notorious, deprived him of the alacrity essential to energetic interference; and the consciousness of the divine judgments, which ought to follow his sin, must have determined him to leave the issue of the conspiracy that was maturing under his very eyes entirely to the compassion of his God, without taking any action in the matter himself. From the standpoint of such considerations, Psa 41:1-13 and 55 lose every look of being alien to the history of David and his times.

One confirmation of their Davidic origin is the kindred contents of Psa 28:1-9. Jesus explains (Joh 13:18) that in the act of Judas Iscariot Psa 41:10 is fulfilled, ὁ τρώγων μετ ̓ ἐμοῦ τὸν ἄρτον, ἐπῆρεν ἐπ ̓ ἐμε ̓ τὴν πτέρναν αὐτοῦ (not following the lxx), and Joh 17:12; Act 1:16 assume in a general way that the deed and fate of the traitor are foretold in the Old Testament Scriptures, viz.

, in the Davidic Psalms of the time of Absalom - the treachery and the end of Ahithophel belong to the most prominent typical features of David’s affliction in this second stage of persecution (vid. , Hofmann, Weissagung und Erfüllung , ii. 122).

Psa 41:1-3 (Hebrew_Bible_41:2-4) The Psalm opens by celebrating the lot, so rich in promises, of the sympathetic man. דּל is a general designation of the poor (e. g. , Exo 30:15), of the sick and weakly (Gen 41:19), of the sick in mind (2Sa 13:4), and of that which outwardly or inwardly is tottering and consequently weak, frail. To show sympathising attention, thoughtful consideration towards such an one (השׂכּיל אל as in Neh 8:13, cf.

על Pro 17:20) has many promises. The verb חיּה, which elsewhere even means to call to life again (Psa 71:20), in this instance side by side with preserving, viz. , from destruction, has the signification of preserving life or prolonging life (as in Psa 30:4; Psa 22:30). The Pual אשּׁר signifies to be made happy (Pro 3:18), but also declaratively: to be pronounced happy (Isa 9:15); here, on account of the בּארץ that stands with it, it is the latter.

The Chethîb יעשּׁר sets forth as an independent promise that which the Kerî ואשּׁר joins on to what has gone before as a consequence. אל, Psa 41:3 (cf. Psa 34:6 and frequently), expresses a negative with full sympathy in the utterance. נתן בּנפשׁ as in Psa 27:12. The supporting in Psa 41:4 is a keeping erect, which stops or arrests the man who is sinking down into death and the grave.

דּוי (= davj , similar form to שׁמי, מעי, but wanting in the syllable before the tone) means sickness. If Psa 41:4 is understood of the supporting of the head after the manner of one who waits upon the sick (cf. Sol 2:6), then Psa 41:4 must, with Mendelssohn and others, be understood of the making of the couch or bed. But what then is neat by the word לך? משׁכּב is a sick-bed in Exo 21:18 in the sense of being bedridden; and הפכתּ (cf.

Psa 30:12) is a changing of it into convalescence. By כל־משׁכבו is not meant the constant lying down of such an one, but the affliction that casts him down, in all its extent. This Jahve turns or changes, so often as such an one is taken ill (בחליו, at his falling sick, parallel with דוי על־ערשׂ דוי htiw). He gives a complete turn to the “sick-bed” towards recovery, so that not a vestige of the sickness remains behind.

Psa 41:1-3 (Hebrew_Bible_41:2-4) The Psalm opens by celebrating the lot, so rich in promises, of the sympathetic man. דּל is a general designation of the poor (e. g. , Exo 30:15), of the sick and weakly (Gen 41:19), of the sick in mind (2Sa 13:4), and of that which outwardly or inwardly is tottering and consequently weak, frail. To show sympathising attention, thoughtful consideration towards such an one (השׂכּיל אל as in Neh 8:13, cf.

על Pro 17:20) has many promises. The verb חיּה, which elsewhere even means to call to life again (Psa 71:20), in this instance side by side with preserving, viz. , from destruction, has the signification of preserving life or prolonging life (as in Psa 30:4; Psa 22:30). The Pual אשּׁר signifies to be made happy (Pro 3:18), but also declaratively: to be pronounced happy (Isa 9:15); here, on account of the בּארץ that stands with it, it is the latter.

The Chethîb יעשּׁר sets forth as an independent promise that which the Kerî ואשּׁר joins on to what has gone before as a consequence. אל, Psa 41:3 (cf. Psa 34:6 and frequently), expresses a negative with full sympathy in the utterance. נתן בּנפשׁ as in Psa 27:12. The supporting in Psa 41:4 is a keeping erect, which stops or arrests the man who is sinking down into death and the grave.

דּוי (= davj , similar form to שׁמי, מעי, but wanting in the syllable before the tone) means sickness. If Psa 41:4 is understood of the supporting of the head after the manner of one who waits upon the sick (cf. Sol 2:6), then Psa 41:4 must, with Mendelssohn and others, be understood of the making of the couch or bed. But what then is neat by the word לך? משׁכּב is a sick-bed in Exo 21:18 in the sense of being bedridden; and הפכתּ (cf.

Psa 30:12) is a changing of it into convalescence. By כל־משׁכבו is not meant the constant lying down of such an one, but the affliction that casts him down, in all its extent. This Jahve turns or changes, so often as such an one is taken ill (בחליו, at his falling sick, parallel with דוי על־ערשׂ דוי htiw). He gives a complete turn to the “sick-bed” towards recovery, so that not a vestige of the sickness remains behind.

Psa 41:4-6 (Hebrew_Bible_41:5-7) He, the poet, is treated in his distress of soul in a manner totally different from the way just described which is so rich in promises of blessing. He is himself just such a דּל, towards whom one ought to manifest sympathising consideration and interest. But, whilst he is addressing God in the language of penitential prayer for mercy and help, his enemies speak evil to him, i.

e. , with respect to him, wishing that he might die and that his name might perish. רפאה . hs is as an exception Milra , inasmuch as א draws the tone to its own syllable; cf. on the other hand רגזה, Isa 32:11 (Hitzig). מתי (prop. extension, length of time) has only become a Semitic interrogative in the signification quando by the omission of the interrogative אי (common Arabic in its full form Arab.

'ymtâ , êmata ). ואבד is a continuation of the future. In Psa 41:7 one is singled out and made prominent, and his hypocritically malicious conduct described. ראות of a visit to a sick person as in 2Sa 13:5. , 2Ki 8:29. אם is used both with the perf . (Psa 50:18; Psa 63:7; Psa 78:34; Psa 94:18; Gen 38:9; Amo 7:2; Isa 24:13; Isa 28:25) and with the fut . (Psa 68:14; Job 14:14), like quum , as a blending together of si and quando , Germ.

wenn (if) and wann (when). In ידבר לבו two Rebias come together, the first of which has the greater value as a distinctive, according to the rule laid down in Baer’s Psalterium , p. xiv. Consequently, following the accents, it must not be rendered: “falsehood doth his heart speak. ” The lxx, Vulgate, and Targum have discerned the correct combination of the words.

Besides, the accentuation, as is seen from the Targum and expositors, proceeds on the assumption that לבּו is equivalent to בּלבּו. But why may it not be the subject-notion: “His heart gathereth” is an expression of the activity of his mind and feelings, concealed beneath a feigned and friendly outward bearing. The asyndeton portrays the despatch with which he seeks to make the material for slander, which has been gathered together, public both in the city and in the country.