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1.We will praise thee, O God! With respect to the inscription of this psalm, I have sufficiently spoken when explaining the 57th psalm. As to the author of it, this is a point, in the determination of which, I am not inclined to give myself much trouble. Whoever he was, whether David or some other prophet, he breaks forth at the very commencement into the language of joy and thanksgiving: We will praise thee, O God! we will praise thee. The repetition serves the more forcibly to express his strong affection and his ardent zeal in singing the praises of God. The verbs in the Hebrew are in the past tense; but the subject of the psalm requires that they should be translated into the future; which may be done in perfect consistency with the idiom of the Hebrew language. The inspired writer, however, may declare that God had been praised among his people for the benefits which he had bestowed in the times of old, the design being thereby to induce God to persevere in acting in the same manner, that thus continuing like himself, he might from time to time afford his people new matter for celebrating his praises. The change of the person in the concluding part of the verse has led some interpreters to supply the relative pronoun אשר, asher, who, as if the reading were, O Lord! we will praise thee; and thy name is near to those who declare thy wondrous works (252) But the prophet, I have no doubt, puts the verb they will declare, indefinitely, that is to say, without determining the person; (253) and he has used the copula and instead of the causal participle for, as is frequently done. His meaning, then, may be brought out very appropriately th We will praise thee, O God! for thy name is near; and, therefore, thy wondrous works shall be declared. He, no doubt, means that the same persons whom he said would celebrate the praise of God, would be the publishers of his wonderful works. And, certainly, God, in displaying his power, opens the mouths of his servants to recount his works. In short, the design is to intimate that there is just ground for praising God, who shows himself to be at hand to afford succor to his people. The name of God, as is well known, is taken for his power; and his presence, or nearness, is judged of by the assistance which he grants to his people in the time of their need.
(252) This is the reading adopted by Hammond; but instead of making it out by supplying the pronoun אשר, asher, as is done by some, he renders, ספרו,sipperu, as a participle plural in the sense of the dative case. “ name is near, ספרו, sipperu, to them that declare thy wondrous works.” He supports this view from the Chaldee, and from the translation of the learned Castellio.
(253) “C’ a dire, sans determiner personne.” — Fr.