|
1.
|
In a dry and thirsty land, where no water is. Compare
Psa. 42:1,2; 84:2; 143:6. These words are to be given full value, both literally
and spiritually. “That such as be faint in the wilderness may drink...
And the king and all that were with him, came weary, and refreshed
themselves there” (2 Sam. 16:2,14). “The people is hungry and
weary and thirsty in the wilderness” (17:29). But banishment from
friends and comforts does not banish one from God. In fact, it may bring God
closer: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after
righteousness; for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6).
|
2.
|
To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in
the sanctuary. David’s longing to be back in Jerusalem. He had sent
back the ark of the covenant: 2 Sam. 15:25-29 (contrast v. 17: “far
off”).
|
3.
|
Thy lovingkindness is better than life. This word often
refers to God’s Covenants of Promise: here, to the great promise of 2
Samuel 7, which was better than this life because it involved a promise to David
of everlasting life in the kingdom of his Eternal Son (2 Sam. 7:16:
“before thee”). But how was this promise to be fulfilled when a
rebellious son reigned in Jerusalem?
|
5.
|
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness.
This is the language of peace-offerings (Lev. 3:9,10). Here is David’s
confidence that all would yet work out right. Meantime there was the lavish help
of faithful Barzillai (2 Sam. 17:27-29; Psa. 23:5). God is able to provide a
spiritual “banquet” even in a dry and desolate land (v. 1
here).
|
6.
|
When I remember thee upon my bed. An uncomfortable bed,
too, in the course of this hasty flight. (The word in this case is plural
— literally, “beds” — because at this time David
scarcely spent two nights in the same place!)
|
|
And meditate on thee in the night watches. The
marvelous sight of the night sky, with the slow inexorable progress of the
stars, would emphasize the slow but sure purposes of God. The word for
meditate implies talk, either in prayer, or in the comfort of
conversation with those on guard during the night watches. Guards would be
necessary because of the risk of prompt pursuit, as Ahithophel had advocated (2
Sam. 17:1-3).
|
7.
|
In the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. Another
allusion to the ark and the cherubim of glory: 2 Sam. 15:25.
|
8.
|
My soul followeth hard after thee, while his enemy
would follow hard after him (v. 9a).
|
|
Thy right hand upholdeth me, while the hostile right
hand would wield a sword against him (v. 10).
|
9.
|
But those that seek my soul to destroy it, shall go into
the lower parts of the earth. 2 Sam. 16:11; 17:1-3; cp. Psa. 55:15; Num.
16:31-34.
|
10.
|
They shall be a portion for foxes. That is,
“jackals” (RSV) — tearing and ravaging the corpses on the
battlefield. “These sinister, guilty, woe-begone brutes, when pressed with
hunger, gather in gangs among the graves, and yell in rage, and fight like
fiends over their midnight orgies; but on the battlefield is their great
carnival. Oh! let me never even dream that any one dear to me has fallen by the
sword, and lies there to be torn, and gnawed at, and dragged about by these
hideous howlers” (Thomson, The Land and the Book, p. 94).
|
11.
|
Every one that sweareth by him (the king?). If so, this
is exemplified by the faithful Ittai in 2 Sam. 15:21.
|
|
The mouth of them that speak lies (i.e. against David)
shall be stopped. Reference to Absalom and Shimei (2 Sam. 15:3;
16:7,8).
|
|
1.
|
In a dry and thirsty land. Compare the Lord’s
“I thirst” (John 19:28; Psa. 22:15; 69:21; Isa. 53:2 — a root
out of a “dry ground”). The scene of the Lord’s
crucifixion outside Jerusalem corresponds to the desolation of David’s
wilderness. The familiar hymn notwithstanding, the dry, hot and dusty Golgotha
was anything but “a green hill far away”!
|
2.
|
To see thy power and glory. These and also v. 7
happened even in his crucifixion (Psa. 18:7-15, notes).
|
|
In the sanctuary. (1) Jesus called before the Sanhedrin
in solemn assembly? Or (2) the “sanctuary” of his own body (John
2:19)?
|
|
For a somewhat different perspective, contemplate this and
similar passages (Psa. 27:4; 48:1-3,12,13; 84:1-4; 122:1-4,6,7) as the possible
words and thoughts of the twelve-year-old Jesus, making probably his first
“official” visit to the Temple in Jerusalem (Luke
2:39-52).
|
3.
|
See earlier comment on this verse. If true regarding David,
how much more true for Jesus, the Promised Seed.
|
4.
|
I will lift up my hands. The pierced hands, lifted up
on the cross.
|
5.
|
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and
my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. Even when on the cross Jesus
knew that one day he would be King of the Jews, and preside at a glorious
banquet for his beloved (Isa. 25:6-9). But also how many times during his
ministry was John 4:32 (cp. also vv. 13,14 there) realized: his “meat and
drink” being to do the will of his Father?
|
6.
|
When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate upon thee in
the night watches. Was there any counterpart to this in the experience of
Jesus? Luke 9:58? “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but
the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.”
|
7.
|
The shadow of thy wings. He was strengthened and
encouraged by a Passover angel (Luke 22:43).
|
8.
|
My soul followeth hard after thee. There must have been
a tremendous intensity about the Lord’s prayerful dependence on God in
Gethsemane and when he was on the cross.
|
9,10.
|
But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into
the low-er parts of the earth... they shall be a portion for foxes (jackals:
RSV). Both phrases were literally true in A.D. 70 (cp. Lam. 5:18). But, as to v.
9 only, consider Matt. 2:20: “For they are dead which sought the young
child’s life.”
|
11.
|
The king. The prospect of fulfillment of God’s
“lovingkindness”: v. 3.
|
|
1.
|
Early will I seek thee. The habit of rising early in
the morning is practically universal in Palestine (Psa. 57:8; Gen. 19:2; 21:14;
28:18; Exod. 34:4; Job. 1:5; Prov. 1:28; etc.). God is to be sought early in the
morning; otherwise he is sought in vain: as the manna, unless collected at early
dawn, dissolves.
|
2.
|
Thy power and thy glory. Allusion to the ark of the
covenant is more specific than appears: Psa. 73:24; 78:61; 1 Sam. 4:21; 1 Chron.
16:11. Note the phrasing in Psa. 62:11,12: God speaking from the place of
“power”! This phrase suggests the young man Isaiah seeing the power
and glory of God in the Temple (Isa. 6:1-8).
|
4.
|
Thus will I bless thee while I live. The implication of
man’s mortality and the silence of death is not to be missed (Psa. 6:5;
104:33; 146:2).
|
|
I will lift up my hands in thy name. Paul likewise
exhorted men (brethren) to “lift up holy hands” in prayer (1 Tim.
2:8). “Holy hands” = “clean hands” in Psa. 24:4; James
4:8. And Jeremiah adds, “Let us lift up our hearts with our
hands” (Lam. 3:41). Compare Psa. 28:2; 134:2; 141:2; 1 Kings 8:54; John
17:1.
|
6.
|
In the night watches. The Hebrews divided the night
into three “watches”: generally speaking, the first, or beginning,
watch (Lam. 2:19) was from sunset to approximately 10 P.M. ; the second, or
middle, watch (Judg. 7:19) from 10 P.M. to 2 A.M.; and the third, or morning,
watch (Exod. 14:24; 1 Sam. 11:11) from 2 P.M. to sunrise. See also Psa. 119:148.
(The later, Roman, method consisted of four watches: Matt. 14:25; 24:43; Mark
6:48; 13:35; Luke 12:38.)
|
7.
|
The shadow of thy wings: Psa. 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4;
91:1. Compare also Deut. 32:10,11; Ruth 2:12; and Matt. 23:37.
|
8.
|
My soul followeth hard after thee. RSV has
“clings” — s.w. “cleaves” in Gen. 2:24; Deut.
10:20; and Ruth 1:14.
|
|
Thy right hand upholdeth me. This was Peter’s
experience, as he attempted to “follow” Jesus by walking to him on
the water: as he was sinking “Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught
him” (Matt. 14:31). The very same phrase (“his right hand doth
embrace me”) is used by the Bride in the Song of Songs (2:6; 8:3) to
describe her Beloved. At first sight, there might seem to be little of common
ground in these two allusions; yet both describe the tender loving care that
Christ shows toward those who have entered into the bonds of covenant with
him.
|
9.
|
“Souls” die, are destroyed, and are consigned to
the grave: Josh. 10:28,30,32,35,37,39; Judg. 16:16; Job 7:15; 33:18; Psa. 16:10;
33:19; 35:17; 49:15; 78:50; 89:48; Ezek. 18:4,27; etc.
|
10.
|
They shall fall by the sword is, literally (see AV mg.)
“they shall run out like water” — i.e. their life-blood will
gush out from their sword wounds. Compare 2 Sam. 14:14: “For we must needs
die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up
again”.
|
11.
|
The whole world is divided into two camps, according to their
attitudes toward the king!
|