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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 4:4 - 4:4
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(Heb.: 4:5-6) The address is continued: they are to repent and cleave to Jahve instead of allowing themselves to be carried away by arrogance and discontent. The lxx has rendered it correctly: ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε (cf. Eph 4:26): if ye will be angry beware of sinning, viz., backbiting and rebellion (cf. the similar paratactic combinations Psa 28:1; Jos 6:18; Isa 12:1). In connection with the rendering contremiscite we feel to miss any expression of that before which they are to tremble (viz., the sure punishment which God decrees). He warns his adversaries against blind passion, and counsels them to quiet converse with their own hearts, and solitary meditation, in order that they may not imperil their own salvation. To commune with one's own heart, without the addition of the object, is equivalent to to think alone by one's self, and the bed or resting-place, without requiring to be understood literally, points to a condition of mind that is favourable to quiet contemplation. The heart is the seat of the conscience, and the Spirit of God (as Hamann, Werke i. 98, observes on this subject) disguises itself as our own voice that we may see His exhortation, His counsel, and His wisdom well up out of our own stony heart. The second imper. continues the first: and cease, prop. be still (דָּמַם from the sound of the closed mouth checking the discourse), i.e., come to your right mind by self-examination, cease your tumult-a warning coming with the semblance of command by reason of the consciousness of innocence on his part; and this impression has to be rendered here by the striking in of the music. The dehortation passes over into exhortation in Psa 4:6. Of course the sacrifices were continued in the sanctuary while David, with his faithful followers, was a fugitive from Jerusalem. Referring to this, David cries out to the Absolomites: offer זִבְחֵי־צֶדֶק. Here at least these are not offerings consisting of actions which are in accordance with the will of God, instead of slaughtered animals, but sacrifices offered with a right mind, conformed to the will of God, instead of the hypocritical mind with which they consecrate their evil doings and think to flatter God. In Ps 51:21, Deu 33:19 also, “the sacrifices of righteousness” are real sacrifices, not merely symbols of moral acts. Not less full of meaning is the exhortation וּבִטְחוּ אֶל־ה. The verb בָּטַח is construed with אֶל as in Psa 31:7; Psa 56:4; Psa 86:2, combining with the notion of trusting that of drawing near to, hanging on, attaching one's self to any one. The Arabic word bṭḥ, expandere, has preserved the primary notion of the word, a notion which, as in the synon. Arab. bsṭ, when referred to the effect which is produced on the heart, countenance and whole nature of the man by a joyous cheerful state of mind, passes over to the notion of this state of mind itself, so that בָּטַח (like the Arab. inbasaṭa to be cheerful, fearless, bold, lit., expanded [cf. רהב Isa 60:5] = unstraitened) consequently signifies to be courageous, confident. They are to renounce the self-trust which blinds them in their opposition to the king who is deprived of all human assistance. If they will trustingly submit themselves to God, then at the same time the murmuring and rancorous discontent, from which the rebellion has sprung, will be stilled. Thus far the address to the rebellious magnates goes.