Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 138:3 - 138:3
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
There are two things for which the poet gives thanks to God: He has answered him in the days of trouble connected with his persecution by Saul and in all distresses; and by raising him to the throne, and granting him victory upon victory, and promising him the everlasting possession of the throne, He has filled him with a proud courage, so that lofty feeling has taken up its abode in his soul, which was formerly fearful about help. Just as רהב signifies impetuosity, vehemence, and then also a monster, so הִרְהִיב signifies both to break in upon one violently and overpowerlingly (Son 6:5; cf. Syriac arheb, Arabic arhaba, to terrify), and to make any one courageous, bold, and confident of victory. בְּנַפְשִׁי עֹז forms a corollary to the verb that is marked by Mugrash or Dechî: so that in my soul there was עֹז, i.e., power, viz., a consciousness of power (cf. Jdg 5:21). The thanksgiving, which he, the king of the promise, offers to God on account of this, will be transmitted to all the kings of the earth when they shall hear (שָׁמְעוּ in the sense of a fut. exactum) the words of His mouth, i.e., the divine אִמְרָה, and they shall sing of (שִׁיר with בְּ, like דִּבֶּר בְּ in Psa 87:3, שִׂיחַ בְּ in Psa 105:2 and frequently, הַלֵּל בְּ in Psa 44:9, הִזְכִּיר בְּ in Psa 20:8, and the like) the ways of the God of the history of salvation, they shall sing that great is the glory of Jahve. Psa 138:6 tells us by what means He has so super-gloriously manifested Himself in His leadings of David. He has shown Himself to be the Exalted One who is His all-embracing rule does not leave the lowly (cf. David's confessions in Psa 131:1; 2Sa 6:22) unnoticed (Psa 113:6), but on the contrary makes him the especial object of His regard; and on the other hand even from afar (cf. Psa 139:2) He sees through (יָדַע as in Psa 94:11; Jer 29:23) the lofty one who thinks himself unobserved and conducts himself as if he were answerable to no higher being (Psa 10:4). In correct texts וגבה has Mugrash, and ממרחק Mercha. The form of the fut. Kal יְיֵדַע is formed after the analogy of the Hiphil forms יְיֵלִיל in Isa 16:7, and frequently, and יְיֵטִיב in Job 24:21; probably the word is intended to be all the more emphatic, inasmuch as the first radical, which disappears in יֵדַע, is thus in a certain measure restored.
(Note: The Greek imperfects with the double (syllabic and temporal) augment, as ἑώρων, ἀνέῳγον, are similar. Chajuǵ also regards the first Jod in these forms as the preformative and the second as the radical, whereas Abulwalîd, Gramm. ch. xxvi. p. 170, explains the first as a prosthesis and the second as the preformative. According to the view of others, e.g., of Kimchi, יְיֵדַע might be fut. Hiph. weakened from יְהֵדַע (יְהֵידִיעַ), which, apart from the unsuitable meaning, assumes a change of consonants that is all the more inadmissible as ידע itself springs from ודע. Nor is it to be supposed that יְיֵדַע is modified from יִיִדַע (Luzzatto, §197), because it is nowhere written יֵידע.)