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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 49:1 - 49:1
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(Heb.: 49:2-5) Introduction. Very similarly do the elder (in the reign of Jehoshaphat) and the younger Micha (Micah) introduce their prophecies (1Ki 22:28; Mic 1:2); and Elihu in the Book of Job his didactic discourses (Psa 34:2, cf. Psa 33:2). It is an universal theme which the poet intends to take up, hence he calls upon all peoples and all the inhabitants of the חֶלֶד. Such is the word first of all for this temporal life, which glides by unnoticed, them for the present transitory world itself (vid., on Psa 17:14). It is his intention to declare to the rich the utter nothingness or vanity of their false ground of hope, and to the poor the superiority of their true ground of hope; hence he wishes to have as hearers both בני אדם, children of the common people, who are men and have otherwise nothing distinctive about them, and בְּנַי־אִישׁ, children of men, i.e., of rank and distinction (vid., on Psa 4:3) - rich and poor, as he adds to make his meaning more clear. For his mouth will, or shall, utter הָכְמֹות, not: all sorts of wise teachings, but: weighty wisdom. Just in like manner תְּבוּנֹות signifies profound insight or understanding; cf. plurals like בִּינֹות, Isa 27:11, יְשּׁוּעֹת, Ps. 42:12 and frequently, שַׁלְוּת, Jer 22:21. The parallel word תְּבוּנֹות in the passage before us, and the plural predicate in Pro 24:7, show that חָכְמֹות, here and in Pro 1:20; Pro 9:1, cf. Psa 14:1, is not to be regarded, with Hitzig, Olshausen, and others, as another form of the singular חָכְמוּת. Side by side with the speaking of the mouth stands חָגוּת לֵב (with an unchangeable Kametz before the tone-syllable, Ew. §166, c): the meditation (lxx μελέτη) of the heart, and in accordance therewith the well-thought-out discourse. What he intends to discourse is, however, not the creation of his own brain, but what he has received. A מָשָׁל, a saying embodying the wisdom of practical life, as God teaches men it, presents itself to his mind demanding to be heard; and to this he inclines his ear in order that, from being a diligent scholar of the wisdom from above, he may become a useful teacher of men, inasmuch as he opens up, i.e., unravels, the divine Mashal, which in the depth and fulness of its contents is a חִידָה, i.e., an involved riddle (from חוּד, cogn. אָגַד, עָקַד), and plays the cithern thereby (ב of the accompaniment). The opening of the riddle does not consist in the solving of it, but in the setting of it forth. פָּתַח, to open = to propound, deliver of a discourse, comes from the phrase אֶת־ּפַּיו-פָּתַח, Pro 31:26; cf. Psa 119:130, where פֵּתַח, an opening, is equivalent to an unlocking, a revelation.