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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 89:5 - 89:5
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At the close of the promises in Psa 89:4-5 the music is to become forte. And וְיוֹדוּ attaches itself to this jubilant Sela. In Psa 89:6-19 there follows a hymnic description of the exalted majesty of God, more especially of His omnipotence and faithfulness, because the value of the promise is measured by the character of the person who promises. The God of the promise is He who is praised by the heavens and the holy ones above. His way of acting is פֶלֶא, of a transcendent, paradoxical, wondrous order, and as such the heavens praise it; it is praised (יודו, according to Ges. §137, 3) in the assembly of the holy ones, i.e., of the spirits in the other world, the angels (as in Job 5:1; Job 15:15, cf. Deu 33:2), for He is peerlessly exalted above the heavens and the angels. שַׁחַק, poetic singular instead of שְׁחָקִים (vid., supra on Psa 77:18), which is in itself already poetical; and עָרַךְ, not, as e.g., in Isa 40:18, in the signification to co-ordinate, but in the medial sense: to rank with, be equal to. Concerning בְּנֵי אֵלִים, vid., on Psa 29:1. In the great council (concerning סֹוד, of both genders, perhaps like כֹּוס, vid., on Psa 25:14) of the holy ones also, Jahve is terrible; He towers above all who are about Him (1Ki 22:19, cf. Dan 7:10) in terrible majesty. רַבָּה might, according to Psa 62:3; Psa 78:15, be an adverb, but according to the order of the words it may more appropriately be regarded as an adjective; cf. Job 31:34, כִּי אֶֽעֱרֹץ הָמֹון רַבָּה, “when I feared the great multitude.” In Psa 89:9 He is apostrophized with אלהי צבאות as being the One exalted above the heavens and the angels. The question “Who is as Thou?” takes its origin from Exo 15:11. חֲסִין is not the construct form, but the principal form, like גּבִיר, יְדִיד, עֲוִיל ,יְדִ, and is a Syriasm; for the verbal stem Syr. hṣan is native to the Aramaic, in which Syr. haṣı̄nā' = שַׁדַּי. In יָהּ, what God is is reduced to the briefest possible expression (vid., Psa 68:19). In the words, “Thy faithfulness compasseth Thee round about,” the primary thought of the poet again breaks through. Such a God it is who has the faithfulness with which He fulfils all His promises, and the promises given to the house of David also, as His constant surrounding. His glory would only strike one with terror; but the faithfulness which encompasses Him softens the sunlike brilliancy of His glory, and awakens trust in so majestic a Ruler.