The Lord is my strength and my song, And he hath become my salvation. The sound of rejoicing and deliverance is in the tents of the righteous: "The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly, The right hand of the Lord is exalted: The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly.' I shall not die, but live, And declare the works of the Lord. The Lord hath chastened me sore: But he hath not given me over unto death. The procession at the gates of the Temple. Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will enter into them and give thanks unto the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, Into which the righteous may enter. The procession. I will give thanks unto thee: for thou didst hear me, The stone which the builders despised Is become the head stone of the corner This is the Lord's doing; It is marvellous in our eyes This is the day which the Lord hath made; The whole chorus. Save now, we beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, we beseech thee, send now prosperity. Levites within the Temple. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Leaders of the procession. The Lord is God; he hath given us light: Bind ye garlands with myrtles unto the horns of the altar. (?) 'THE HEAD STONE OF THE CORNER Part of the chorus. Thou art my God, and I will give thanks unto thee: The whole chorus. O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: 'The gates of righteousness,' i. e. (1) 'the gates which open only to the righteous, and (2) those from which Jehovah's righteous acts of deliverance proceed' (Cheyne). The despised stone is either Zion or Israel. 'In consequence of the Maccabean victories, the despised Jewish people now assume a prominent position in the world' (Wellhausen). Bind ye garlands with myrtles:' a very doubtful rendering due to Professor Graetz. The usual translation is, Fasten the festal victim with cords to the horns of the altar,' which is both absurd and un-Hebraic. Perhaps the text is corrupt. The Midrash on the Psalms has a pretty little homily on the 'Gate of the Lord.' 'In the world to come a man is asked, “What was thine occupation?" If he reply, "I fed the hungry," he is answered, "That is the gate of the Lord: enter thou in."' § 18. The one hundred and thirty-eighth Psalm.-My thanksgiving group is concluded by a probably Maccabean Psalm (cxxxviii), in which the writer expresses his gratitude for the divine deliverance of Israel, and his faith in the complete realization of the prophetic word. I will praise thee with my whole heart: Before kings will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple, And praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: For thou hast done great things above all thy word. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, And madest me bold in my soul with thy strength. All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, The Lord is high, yet he beholdeth the lowly: And the proud he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: Thou wilt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, And thy right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me Forsake not the works of thine hands. Israel is bold through God-given strength. He is both proud and humble. Proud towards his foes and persecutors, for he is fearless unto death; humble towards God, for even his courage is not his own. PILGRIMAGE SONGS 545 CHAPTER VI PSALMS OF PILGRIMAGE §1. The Songs of Ascents.-Three groups of Psalms have passed before us. Prayers in Affliction; Peaceful Communings with God; Songs of Thanksgiving. There shall now follow a group marked out and distinguished in the Psalter itself by a special title or heading. In the Authorized Version the Psalms of this group are called Songs of Degrees; in the Revised Version they are called Songs of Ascents. The Hebrew word is 'Ma'aloth,' which may also be rendered (songs of) goings up,' or '(songs of) the pilgrimages.' The meaning of the term is obscure, but the majority of scholars regard these songs as having been composed for pilgrims who came up for worship and prayer to the Temple at Jerusalem. Professor Robertson-Smith, for instance, writes: According to the Mishnah and other Jewish traditions, these Psalms were sung by the Levites, at the Feast of Tabernacles, on the fifteen steps or degrees that led from the women's to the men's court of the Temple. But when we read the Psalms themselves, we see that originally they must have been sung not by Levites but by the laymen who came up to Jerusalem at the great feasts; and the word which Jewish tradition renders by "degree" or "step" ought rather to be translated "going up" to Jerusalem, so that the Songs of Degrees ought rather to be called "Pilgrimage Songs." But now the curious thing is that, according to the laws of Hebrew grammar, the title prefixed to each of these hymns must be translated not a song of pilgrimage," but "the songs of pilgrimage." In other words, each title is properly the collective title of the whole fifteen Psalms, which must once have formed a separate hymnal for the use of pilgrims; and when the collection was taken into the greater Psalter, this general title was set at the head of each of the hymns.' On the other hand, as Professor Wellhausen observes, many of the hymns seem to have nothing II. 66 N n to do with pilgrimages, and to be unsuitable for such occasions. The meaning of the expression (Songs of Ascents) cannot be regarded as finally determined.' It did not seem right to separate the songs of this historic hymnal, so I have kept them together, and shall quote them (omitting only one) in the order in which we find them. I place them as my fourth group, because if one were to separate them, they could be distributed between the three previous groups, five of them falling to group one, five to group two, and four to group three. Their date is uncertain, but they probably belong to the late Persian and early Greek periods. § 2. The one hundred and twentieth Psalm.-The first pilgrimage song (cxx) depicts the community of Israel as suffering from hostile neighbours, but these 'neighbours' are not necessarily foreigners. Many may have been Israelites. But the key to the special circumstances is lost' (Cheyne). In my distress I cried unto the Lord, And he heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, From the deceitful tongue. What shall he give unto thee, And what shall he add unto thee, thou deceitful tongue? (?) Sharpened arrows of a warrior, With coals of broom. (?) Woe is me, that I sojourn in Meshech, That I dwell beside the tents of Kedar! My soul hath too long dwelt With him that hateth peace. I am for peace, but when I speak A little Psalm full of obscurities. 'What shall he give unto thee?' The translation is disputed. Apparently the meaning is that God is asked to requite the ' deceitful tongue' in its own coin. The tongue of the wicked is sharp as the arrow and works ruin like fire. May the arrow and the fire destroy it! As to 'coals of broom,' Professor Cheyne says that the Bedawins of Sinai still burn this very plant into a charcoal which throws out the most intense heat.' Meshech (i.e. tribes between the Black and the Caspian Sea) and Kedar (i.e. nomad tribes of North Arabia) perhaps symbolize the malignant neighbours of the Jews at home.' |