The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 3: Psalms XC.-CL.Maclaren, Alexander
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 3: Psalms XC.-CL.
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
Jehovah is holy, not only because lifted above and separated from
creatural limitations, but because of His righteousness. The second
strophe therefore proclaims that all His dominion is based on
uprightness, and is a continual passing of that into acts of "judgment
and righteousness." The "And" at the beginning of ver. 4, following the
refrain, is singular, and has led many commentators to link the words
with ver. 3_a_, and, taking the refrain as parenthetical, to render,
"Let them give thanks to Thy great and dread name, [for it is holy],
and [to] the strength of the King [who] loveth," etc. But the presence
of the refrain is an insuperable bar to this rendering. Others, as
Delitzsch and Cheyne, regard "the strength of the king" as dependent
on "established" in ver. 4_b_, and suppose that the theocratic monarch
of Israel is represented as under Jehovah's protection, if he reigns
righteously. But surely one King only is spoken of in this psalm,
and it is the inmost principle and outward acts of His rule which
are stated as the psalmist's reason for summoning men to prostrate
themselves at His footstool. The "And" at the beginning of the strophe
links its whole thought with that of the preceding, and declares
eloquently how closely knit together are Jehovah's exaltation and His
righteousness. The singer is in haste to assert the essentially moral
character of infinite power. Delitzsch thinks that love cannot be
predicated of "strength," but only of the possessor of strength; but
surely that is applying the measuring line of prosaic accuracy to lyric
fervour. The intertwining of Divine power and righteousness could not
be more strongly asserted than by that very intelligible attribution to
His power of the emotion of love, impelling it ever to seek union with
uprightness. He is no arbitrary ruler. His reign is for the furtherance
of justice. Its basis is "equity," and its separate acts are "judgment
and righteousness." These have been done in and for Jacob. Therefore
the call to worship rings out again. It is addressed to an undefined
multitude, which, as the tone of all this group of psalms leads us to
suppose, includes the whole race of man. They are summoned to lift high
the praise of Him who in Himself is so high, and to cast themselves low
in prostrate adoration at His footstool--_i.e._, at His sanctuary on
Zion (ver. 9). Thus again, in the centre strophe of this psalm, as in
Psalms xcvi. and xcviii., mankind are called to praise the God who has
revealed Himself in Israel; but while in the former of these two psalms
worship was represented as sacrificial, and in the second as loud music
of voice and instrument, here silent prostration is the fitting praise
of the holiness of the infinitely exalted Jehovah.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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