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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 4:8 - 4:8
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(Heb.: 4:9) Thus then he lies down to sleep, cheerfully and peacefully. The hymn closes as it began with a three line verse. יַחְדּוּ (lit., in its unions = collectively, Olshausen, §135, c, like כֻּלֹּו altogether, בְּעִתֹּו at the right time) is by no means unemphatic; nor is it so in Psa 19:10 where it means “all together, without exception.” With synonymous verbs it denotes the combination of that which they imply, as Isa 42:14. It is similar in Psa 141:10 where it expresses the coincidence of the fall of his enemies and the escape of the persecuted one. So here: he wishes to go to sleep and also at once he falls asleep (וְאִישַׁן in a likewise cohortative sense = וְאִישָׁנָה). His God makes him to dwell in seclusion free of care. לְבָרָד is a first definition of condition, and לָבֶטַח a second. The former is not, after Deu 32:12, equivalent to לְבַדְּךָ, an addition which would be without any implied antithesis and consequently meaningless. One must therefore, as is indeed required by the situation, understand לְבַדָד according to Num 23:9; Mic 7:14; Deu 33:28; Jer 49:31. He needs no guards for he is guarded round about by Jahve and kept in safety. The seclusion, בָּדָד, in which he is, is security, בֶּטַח, because Jahve is near him. Under what a many phases and how sweetly the nature of faith is expressed in this and the foregoing Psalm: his righteousness, exaltation, joy, peace, contentment in God! And how delicately conceived is the rhythm! In the last line the evening hymn itself sinks to rest. The iambics with which it closes are like the last strains of a lullaby which die away softly and as though falling asleep themselves. Dante is right when he says in his Convito, that the sweetness of the music had harmony of the Hebrew Psalter is lost in the Greek and Latin translations.