แ "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple: The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes: The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: And in keeping of them there is great reward." Gold is the most precious of metals, he says; but though it might 'answer all things," the revelation of God to man is better, more precious, more to be desired even than the fine gold itself. Honey, he adds, is the sweetest of all known substances, but still the word which tells man of a heart of grace and fatherliness in God, is more pleasant to the taste even than the purest of honey-that which drops from the comb itself. "Honey," Heb. devāsh, see under Judg. xiv. 8; 2 Kings xviii. 32; and 2 Chron. xxxi. 5. The word used here for honeycomb is nōpheth, literally the droppings. Thus the rendering in the margin. The term comes to be used for that from which the honey drops—the honeycomb. The lips of "the strange woman" are said to "drop as an honeycomb" (Prov. v. 3). The youth is exhorted to eat it "My son, eat thou honey (devash), because it is sweet; and the honeycomb (nopheth), which is sweet to thy taste: so shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul" (xxiv. 13, 14). It is turned away from by those fully satisfied "The full soul loatheth an honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet" (xxvii. 7). "The king" in the Song (iv. 10, 11) addresses the "bride" in glowing terms: "How beautiful thy love, my sister-spouse! Sweeter thy love than is the juice of grapes! The apostle Peter, referring to the prophets "who inquired and searched diligently, and prophesied of the grace that should come,' represents them as "searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow" (1 Peter i. 10, 11). We have both aspects of Christ's experience in this Psalm (xxii.). Interpreters generally have held, that we have here the prophecy of the sufferings and the glory which followed. The title of the psalm, moreover, makes it almost certain, that it was regarded in the same light by the spiritually minded among the Jews, long before the advent of our Lord. Aijeleth shahar (the hind of the morning)—an expression used to indicate that the appearance of the persecuted One, heralded the immediate bursting forth of the full bright day of grace and of gospel liberty. Several of the deer family (Cervidae) are noticed as emblems of gentleness, innocence, and beauty:-"Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words" (Gen. xlix. 21); "Let her be as the loving hind and the pleasant roe" (Prov. v. 19); "Make haste my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices" (Song viii. 14). In another passage the idea of the dawn is expressly, as in this psalm, associated with this animal-" Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether" (Song ii. 17). The "Hind of the morning" is represented here as surrounded by enemies. Carrying out the emblematical form of the title, the hind is pictured in the midst of wild "evil beasts". "Many bulls have compassed me: Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, As a ravening and a roaring lion. And thou hast brought me to the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me; The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: They pierced my hands and my feet" (ver. 12, 13, 15, 16). Thus pressed and persecuted by the wicked, he leaves his people an example in such circumstances, by committing himself to the Father. Thus he prays "Be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me. My darling from the power of the dog. For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn" (ver. 19-21). It has recently become the custom, especially with those who write practical notes on Holy Scripture, to set down the unicorn as the wild buffalo of Syria, but the question of identification is not so clear as they seem to think. It is much more likely that the Hebrew term, rēēm, was employed in the same way as the modern Arabs use a corresponding word to include wild goats, deer, and even wild oxen. The question is fully discussed under Deuteronomy xxxiii. 17, which see. The reference in this passage is no doubt to one of the oxen (Bovidae), most likely to the wild buffalo, which has ever been celebrated for its ferocity. "I do not think," says one who had much opportunity of observing them in their native haunts, "there can be a more menacing object than a single wild buffalo." The suffering Saviour is represented as surrounded by a multitude of wicked men-fierce, savage, implacable as the enraged buffalo or bull. PSALM XXIX.-LVII. WELL-DEFINED and intelligent understanding of the references to the external world by the Psalmist, is necessary to the right interpretation of Psalm xxix. A review of these will show us that they are used to manifest the sovereign majesty and glory of Jehovah on the one hand, and to comfort his people on the other. His church is taught the blessed truth that the Lord has might, in order that she may go to him in her weakness and trial, and get might from the Lord. Thus, as Hengstenberg has put it, "the key to the interpretation of this psalm is to be found in its conclusion" "The Lord will give might unto his people; The Lord will bless his people with peace" (ver 11). The princes and leaders among the people, and through them all the nations, are addressed in verse 1 (see vol. i., p. 175–182). They are pointed to the true place of worship, even "his glorious sanctuary"the temple as the expression, "beauty of his holiness," should be rendered. Then we have "the voice of Jehovah," named in verse 3, as being "upon the waters," and as "upon many waters." It was heard rolling from the far west, across the waters of the great sea. Then filling the land, it sounded along the valley of the Jordan, from the Dead Sea on the south, up by the Sea of Galilee to the waters of Merom on the north, while the awe-stricken multitude crowded the courts of the "glorious sanctuary" at Jerusalem. The voice of the Lord is explained in verse 3 "The God of glory thundereth." In all times this has been held by men to be the voice of God. In one of the plagues, "the Lord sent thunder" (Exod. ix. 23); and when Pharaoh humbled himself, he cried, "Entreat the Lord that there be no more voices of God" (ver. 28). "God," says Job, "thundereth marvellously with his voice" (xxxvii. 4). Isaiah tells us that God's use of all the wildest forces of nature was his voice to Assyria-"And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod" (xxx. 30, 31). So too, when David in another place refers to one of the glorious manifestations of God before his people, he says: "The Lord also thundered in the heavens, And the Highest gave his voice" (xviii. 13). The majesty of this voice is specially shown in God's dealings with "the glory of Lebanon" "The voice of the Lord breaketh he cedars; Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon" (ver. 3). Rolling in peal on peal from the shores of the Mediterranean, it is represented as reaching the white cliffs of goodly Lebanon, and there the tempest breaks the trees. The thunder-bolts crash those giant cedars of Lebanon themselves, which had held their ground for centuries. It has been pointed out already (1 Kings iv. 23; 1 Chron. xiv. 1), that "cedar" is sometimes applied to the cone-bearing trees generally, and to the Lebanon species in particular. The first clause of verse 5 inay be regarded as descriptive of the power of the tempest on all great trees, and the last as specially on the cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus Libani). The power of the hurricane reaches the very mountains themselves. Shaken by the full thunder of Jehovah's might, they are represented as being made "to skip like a calf." With us this word is generally used in a joyous sense, but its Hebrew equivalent may mean to leap or bound either in joy or in sorrow and terror. Here, and in Psalm cxiv., it has the latter signification, and indicates the excitement and haste with which the young of the terror-stricken herds hasten to a place of shelter when the thunder-storm breaks over them. The mountains named are Lebanon and Sirion. The latter is Hermon, called in Deuteronomy by the same name" And we took at that time, out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites, the land that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto Mount Hermon ; which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amorites call it Shenir" (iii. 8, 9). The wilderness generally is then mentioned, and that of Kadesh is specified, to indicate that the voice was heard over all the land, from Kadesh on the southern border to the range of AntiLibanus and the snow-clad peaks of Hermon on the north. The prevailing terror reaches the deer straying on the forest VOL. II. 3 D |