Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 89:9 - 89:9

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 89:9 - 89:9


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At the time of the poet the nation of the house of David was threatened with assault from violent foes; and this fact gives occasion for this picture of God's power in the kingdom of nature. He who rules the raging of the sea, also rules the raging of the sea of the peoples, Psa 65:8. גֵּאוּת, a proud rising, here of the sea, like גַּֽאֲוָה in Psa 46:4. Instead of בְּשֹׂוע, Hitzig pleasantly enough reads בְּשֹׁוא = בִּשְׁאֹו from שָׁאָה; but שֹׂוא is also possible so far as language is concerned, either as an infinitive = נְשֹׂוא, Psa 28:2; Isa 1:14 (instead of שְׂאֵת), or as an infinitival noun, like שִׂיא, loftiness, Job 20:6, with a likewise rejected Nun. The formation of the clause favours our taking it as a verb: when its waves rise, Thou stillest them. From the natural sea the poet comes to the sea of the peoples; and in the doings of God at the Red Sea a miraculous subjugation of both seas took place at one and the same time. It is clear from Psa 74:13-17; Isa 51:9, that Egypt is to be understood by Rahab in this passage as in Psa 87:4. The word signifies first of all impetuosity, violence, then a monster, like “the wild beast of the reed,” Psa 68:31, i.e., the leviathan or the dragon. דִּכִּאתָ is conjugated after the manner of the Lamed He verbs, as in Psa 44:20. כֶּחָלָל is to be understood as describing the event or issue (vid., Psa 18:43): so that in its fall the proudly defiant kingdom is like one fatally smitten. Thereupon in Psa 89:12-15 again follows in the same co-ordination first the praise of God drawn from nature, then from history. Jahve's are the heavens and the earth. He is the Creator, and for that very reason the absolute owner, of both. The north and the right hand, i.e., the south, represent the earth in its entire compass from one region of the heavens to the other. Tabor on this side of the Jordan represents the west (cf. Hos 5:1), and Hermon opposite the east of the Holy Land. Both exult by reason of the name of God; by their fresh, cheerful look they give the impression of joy at the glorious revelation of the divine creative might manifest in themselves. In Psa 89:14 the praise again enters upon the province of history. “An arm with (עִם) heroic strength,” says the poet, inasmuch as he distinguishes between the attribute inherent in God and the medium of its manifestation in history. His throne has as its מָכֹון, i.e., its immovable foundation (Pro 16:12; Pro 25:5), righteousness of action and right, by which all action is regulated, and which is unceasingly realized by means of the action. And mercy and truth wait upon Him. קִדֵּם פְּנֵי is not; to go before any one (הִלֵּךְ לִפְנֵי, Ps 85:14), but anticipatingly to present one's self to any one, Psa 88:14; Psa 95:2; Mic 6:6. Mercy and truth, these two genii of sacred history (Psa 43:3), stand before His face like waiting servants watching upon His nod.