Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 99:4 - 99:4

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 99:4 - 99:4


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

The second Sanctus celebrates Jahve with respect to His continuous righteous rule in Israel. The majority of expositors construe it: “And (they shall praise) the might of the king, who loves right;” but this joining of the clause on to יֹודוּ over the refrain that stands in the way is hazardous. Neither can וְעֹז מֶלֶךְ מִשְׁפָּט אָהֵב, however, be an independent clause, since אָהֵב cannot be said of עֹז, but only of its possessor. And the dividing of the verse at אהב, adopted by the lxx, will therefore not hold good. משפט אהב is an attributive clause to מלך in the same position as in Psa 11:7; and עֹז, with what appertains to it, is the object to כֹּונַנְתָּ placed first, which has the king's throne as its object elsewhere (Psa 9:8, 2Sa 7:13; 1Ch 17:12), just as it here has the might of the king, which, however, here at the same time in מֵישָׁרִים takes another and permutative object (cf. the permutative subject in Psa 72:17), as Hitzig observes; or rather, since מישׁרים is most generally used as an adverbial notion, this מישׁרים (Psa 58:2; Psa 75:3; Psa 9:9, and frequently), usually as a definition of the mode of the judging and reigning, is subordinated: and the might of a king who loves the right, i.e., of one who governs not according to dynastic caprice but moral precepts, hast Thou established in spirit and aim (directed to righteousness and equity). What is meant is the theocratic kingship, and Psa 11:4 says what Jahve has constantly accomplished by means of this kingship: He has thus maintained right and righteousness (cf. e.g., 2Sa 8:15; 1Ch 18:14; 1Ki 10:9; Isa 16:5) among His people. Out of this manifestation of God's righteousness, which is more conspicuous, and can be better estimated, within the nation of the history of redemption than elsewhere, grows the call to highly exalt Jahve the God of Israel, and to bow one's self very low at His footstool. לַֽהֲדֹם רַגְלָיו, as in Psa 132:7, is not a statement of the object (for Isa 45:14 is of another kind), but (like אֶל in other instances) of the place in which, or of the direction (cf. Psa 7:14) in which the προσκύνησις is to take place. The temple is called Jahve's footstool (1Ch 28:2, cf. Lam 2:1; Isa 60:13) with reference to the ark, the capporeth of which corresponds to the transparent sapphire (Exo 24:10) and to the crystal-like firmament of the mercaba (Eze 1:22, cf. 1Ch 28:18).