Expositions of Holy Scripture: PsalmsMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Psalms
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
I need not dilate on the power of this description, nor do more than
notice how the abruptness of the language, huddled together, as it were,
without connecting particles, conveys the impression of hurry and
confusion, culminating in the rush of fugitives fleeing under the
influence of panic-terror. They are like the well-known words, 'I came,
I saw, I conquered,' only that here we have to do with swift
defeat--they came, they saw, they were conquered. They are, in regard to
vivid picturesqueness, arising from the broken construction, singularly
like other words which refer to the same event in the forty-sixth psalm,
'The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the
earth melted.' In their scornful emphasis of triumph they remind us of
Isaiah's description of the end of the same invasion--'So Sennacherib,
king of Assyria, departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.'
Mark, still further, the eloquent silence as to the cause of the panic
and the flight. There is no appearance of armed resistance. This is no
'battle of the warrior with garments rolled in blood,' and the shock of
contending hosts. But an unseen Hand smites once--'and when the morning
dawned they were all dead corpses.' The impression of terror produced by
such a blow is increased by the veiled allusion to it here. The silence
magnifies the deliverance. If we might apply the grand words of Milton
to that night of fear--
'The trumpet spake not to the armed throng,
But kings sat still, with awful eye,
As if they surely knew their sovereign Lord was by.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account