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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 9:3 - 9:3
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(Heb.: 9:4-5) The call upon himself to thanksgiving sounds forth, and the ב-strophe continues it by expressing the ground of it. The preposition בְּ in this instance expresses both the time and the reason together (as in Psa 76:10; 2Ch 28:6); in Latin it is recedentibus hostibus meis retro. אָחֹור serves to strengthen the notion of being driven back, as in Psa 56:10, cf. Psa 44:11; and just as, in Latin, verbs compounded of re are strengthened by retro. In Psa 9:4 finite verbs take the place of the infinitive construct; here we have futt. with a present signification, just as in 2Ch 16:7 we find a praet. intended as perfect. For the rendering which Hitzig adopts: When mine enemies retreat backwards, they stumble... is opposed both by the absence of any syntactic indication in Psa 9:4 of an apodosis (cf. Psa 27:2); and also by the fact that יִכָּֽשְׁלוּ is well adapted to be a continuation of the description of שׁוּב אָחֹור (cf. Joh 18:6), but is tame as a principal clause to the definitive clause בשוב אויבי אחור. Moreover, אָחֹור does not signify backwards (which would rather be אֲחֹרַנִּית Gen 9:23; 1Sa 4:18), but back, or into the rear. The מִן of מִפָּנֶיךָ is the מִן of the cause, whence the action proceeds. What is intended is God's angry countenance, the look of which sets his enemies on fire as if they were fuel (Psa 21:10), in antithesis to God's countenance as beaming with the light of His love. Now, while this is taking place, and because of its taking place, will be sing praise to God. From Psa 9:2 we see that the Psalm is composed directly after the victory and while the destructive consequences of it to the vanquished are still in operation. David sees in it all an act of Jahve's judicial power. To execute any one's right, מִשְׁפָּט (Mic 7:9), to bring to an issue any one's suit or lawful demand, דִּין (Psa 140:13), is equivalent to: to assist him and his good cause in securing their right. The phrases are also used in a judicial sense without the suffix. The genitive object after these principal words never denotes the person against whom, but the person on whose behalf, the third party steps forward with his judicial authority. Jahve has seated Himself upon His judgment-seat as a judge of righteousness (as in Jer 11:20), i.e., as a judge whose judicial mode of procedure is righteousness, justice,
(Note: Also Pro 8:16 is probably to be read צֶדֶק כָּל־שֹׁכְּטִי, with Norzi, according to the Targum, Syriac version, and old Codices; at any rate this is an old various reading, and one in accordance with the sense, side by side with כל־שׁפטי אֶרֶץ.)
and has decided in his favour. In יָשַׁב לְ (as in Psa 132:11), which is distinguished in this respect from יַשַׁב עַל (Psa 47:9), the idea of motion, considere, comes prominently forward.