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1.
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Praise waiteth for thee, O God. Here waiteth
implies waiting in silence (cp. 62:1; Rev. 8:1, in a strong Day of Atonement
context; Hab. 2:20; Zech. 2:13). It is a picture of the multitude of worshippers
praying in silence in the sanctuary while the high priest presents their special
offering within the sanctuary — hushed in the awed expectation of the
coming revelation of God.
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Unto thee shall the vow be performed. David’s vow
to give the Ark a worthy home in Jerusalem (132:1-5).
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2.
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Unto thee shall all flesh come. Specially true of one
of the great Feasts of the Lord.
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3.
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Iniquities... transgressions. The entire Day of
Atonement has this as its theme.
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Thou shalt purge them away. Here purge is the
word kaphar, “cover” — from whence is derived
Yom Kippur; it is also the s.w. as “make atonement”,
which appears 16 times in the Hebrew of Leviticus 16.
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4.
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Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to
approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with
the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. “The man whom thou
choosest” is, of course, the high priest. The rest of the verse is
specially suitable to the Day of Atonement.
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5.
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By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us.
The dominant words here seem incompatible with each other. But on the Day of
Atonement they were just right, for it was a day when sin was covered and
righteousness imputed; and this was signified by the terrible shining forth of
the Shekinah Glory (Psa. 80:1).
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The confidence of all the ends of the earth (eretz
= Land). As in v. 2, all the nation gathered before God.
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9,10.
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Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly
enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them
corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof
abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers:
thou blessest the springing thereof. The early rains come soon after the Day
of Atonement, which itself is preceded by Rosh Hashanah, the New
Year, hence...
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11.
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Thou crownest the year, in that the “head”,
or the “beginning”, of the year sees fruitful showers from
God.
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5.
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Thou art the confidence of all the ends of the Land.
From north to south the ravaged Land of Israel sighed with relief that,
suddenly, the irresistible enemy had been swept away. Literally, all the
limits of the Land, and the sea of far distances... . Is this a hint of
Tyrian sailors being impressed, or even overpowered, by the storm of God’s
wrath? Compare Psa. 48:7, another picture of the same titanic crisis.
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6.
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Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being
girded with power. Mount Zion mocked the military might and intentions of
these all-victorious Assyrians. Jerusalem was girded for defense by twelve
legions of Passover angels (Isa. 31:5; 26:20,21; 37:36).
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7.
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Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their
waves. Verse 5 requires a literal reading of these phrases (see note there),
but then the tumult of the people(s) requires a figurative reference
also, as in several other places (i.e. Psa. 89:9; 93:3,4; cp. Isa. 57:20; Luke
21:25). The Assyrians had doubled their invading force with considerable
contingents from other nations (see references, Psa. 47:3). But this word is
that which is hundreds of times applied to the twelve tribes. So, possibly:
‘the tumult created in Israel’s Land’ is the
meaning.
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8.
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They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid.
This was one of the results of the mighty angelic stroke:
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“And many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and
presents to Hezekiah king of Judah: so that he [i.e. the Lord] was magnified in
the sight of all nations from thenceforth” (2 Chron. 32:23).
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Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and (ellipsis:
add ‘the incoming of the... ’) evening to rejoice. The
contrast with v. 8a makes it difficult to apply to neighbors east and west
(Moab, Edom, Philistia). Then is the reference to the awesome destruction of
Isa. 37:36 and the surge of relief and gladness in God’s salvation, which
was felt across the breadth of the Land, “from the rising of the sun unto
the going down thereof” (i.e. Psa. 50:1; 113:3)?
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1.
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Praise waiteth for thee.
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“For Christ is not entered into the holy places made
with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself
often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of
others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world:
but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many: and
unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin
unto salvation” (Heb. 9:24-28).
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2.
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Unto thee shall all flesh come. The time when the
Father’s house will truly become “a house of prayer for all
nations” (Isa. 56:7).
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3.
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Literally, as AV mg., Words of iniquity
prevail against me — in two different senses: (a) the reviling by his
enemies (Matt. 27:39-43), and (b) his numbering with the transgressors (Isa.
53:6,12; Mark 15:28) under the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:13; Deut.
21:23).
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Our (not: my) transgressions are being purged
away (Isa. 53:4-6, 8,11).
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4.
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A new priesthood in a new temple. This is a very satisfying
verse.
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Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to
approach unto thee. One of the relatively few prophecies of Christ’s
ascension.
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We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house.
True now (1 Pet. 2:4,9); and with a greater fullness yet to come.
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5.
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By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us.
There will be overpowering manifestations of divine might at the Second
Coming. Even Acts 2:1-4 was awe-inspiring, and that was just the most meager
foretaste (Heb. 6:4,5) of the powers of the age to come.
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O God of our salvation... the confidence of all the ends of
the earth. These words similarly describe the exhilaration of the gospel now
and the even greater blessedness of the Kingdom.
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6.
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Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains. Here
will be another open demonstration, as in David’s and Hezekiah’s
time, of the divine permanence of Zion — the “mountain” of
the Lord’s house being established in the tops of the mountains (Isa.
2:2-4).
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Girded with power. Rev. 1:13; 19:11-16: “Girt
about the paps with a golden girdle”.
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7,8.
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Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their
waves, and the tumults of the people. They also that dwell in the uttermost
parts are afraid at thy tokens. This found extraordinary fulfillment, in the
Lord’s ministry, with the stilling of the storm (Mark 4:37-41), the saving
of the demoniac Legion (5:1-16), and the fear imparted to Gentiles round about
(5:17). “He who could quieten the uproar of one man’s tortured mind
can quell the turbulence of peoples; and the linking together of these two
miracles reflects the power of God described in this passage” (L.G.
Sargent, “Hearer of Prayer”, The Christadelphian, vol. 77
— 1940, pp. 218,219). Furthermore, all of this is a kind of acted parable
of the startling events at our Lord’s coming. Then follows...
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9-13.
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A delightful symbolic picture of the blessings of
Christ’s kingdom, the true and perfect and final “Jubilee”.
John Thomas’ section on the salvation symbolism of the water cycle
(Eureka, vol. 1, pp. 139-145) may be read with great profit.
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1.
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Sion. This misspelling derives from Vulgate and the
LXX. In spite of various other suggested identifications, in the Old Testament
Zion is always the temple mount.
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2.
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Unto thee. This preposition implies: “as far
as”. So also in Psa.100:1.
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Shall all flesh come. They come because they are
flesh.
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4.
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That he may dwell in thy courts. Psa. 15:1; 23:6; 24:3;
27:4; 84:4.
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Courts (chatser). From a root meaning to wall
around, especially ap-plied to the open space within the outer fence of the
Tabernacle (Exod. 27:9), or to the different courts of the Temple (1 Kings 6:36;
7:12).
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6,7.
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The remarkable similarity to 46:2,3 (a
“Hezekiah/Sennacherib” psalm) supports the suggestion made in the
first part of Par. 4. So also, Isa. 17:12-14 (Sennacherib again).
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9-13.
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“The climax of this psalm, a stanza as fresh and
irrepressible as the fertility it describes, puts every harvest hymn to shame as
plodding and contrived. Here we almost feel the splash of the showers, and sense
the springing growth around us” (Kidner).
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9.
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The river of God, which is full of water is perhaps the
Kidron which then, but not now, rushed boisterously down the valley after the
rains (cp. Psa. 46:4, notes; Rev. 22:1). Or may it be the rain which, because it
descends from heaven, is called “the river of God”? (Contrast, very
significantly, Deut. 11:10-12: Palestine, unlike Egypt, was a land God cared
for, because it received its moisture from heaven and not from any river!) The
rabbis taught that “God hath four keys which He never entrusts to any
angel, and chief of these is the key of the rain.” Compare Job 26:8;
28:26; 38:28.
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10.
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Thou makest it soft with showers.
“Palestine’s summer sun bakes the ground hard so that no
oriental plow can break it until the autumn rains” (Sargent).
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Showers = rebibim, literally
“myriads” — of rain drops.
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11.
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Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, the greatest
blessing of all being the Day of Atonement itself and God’s open sign of
sins forgiven.
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Thy paths drop fatness. The word for
“paths” is literally “the tracks of thy chariot” (RSV)
— God rides upon the chariot of His clouds (18:10,11; 68:4; 104:3), a
richly-laden wagon which drops the “fatness” of His rains as He
passes! See Isa. 55:10-13; Psa. 72:6; 2 Sam. 23:4.
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13.
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Are clothed... are covered = “Clothe
themselves... deck themselves” (RSV). This, along with v. 12b, is the
language of animation, as though all creation sings praise to the
Almighty. (Isaiah is literally filled with this sort of imagery: 35:1,2;
44:23; 49:14; 55:12.) Even Solomon in all his splendor was not arrayed like the
frailest and lowliest lily of the field, turned out in its best divine attire to
worship God (Matt. 6:28-30).
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