EIN' FESTE BURG IST UNSER GOTT 519 saying that we need not be surprised that it is by means of the Law that the present poet is led to understand God's preference of obedience to sacrifice. We find, in our books, the thoughts with which we are in sympathy; the rest we pass over. But the book here referred to probably included the Prophets as well as the Law. I hardly think this explanation satisfactory. Perhaps, therefore, the distich containing the 'roll of the book' is a later addition. The law within the heart' could with equal accuracy be translated 'teaching." The great congregation' refers presumably to the people as a whole. The leaders or representatives of the nation explain and set forth to the community the meaning and import of the divine deliverance. Of the outward event they show the inner significance. The phraseology of the Psalm reminds us of the Second Isaiah hence some think that the return from Babylon is the 'salvation which the Psalmist 'declared.' § 4. Psalms forty-six and forty-eight.-We pass now to the songs of deliverance and thanksgiving contained in the second collection. Of these there are seven. The first three are Psalms xlvi, xlvii and xlviii, but the second of these is more akin to the first sub-group in the third collection, and will therefore be quoted later on. Psalm xlvi may perhaps have been written during the ferment produced in Israel at the overthrow of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great. All such great catastrophes were regarded by the Hebrews as divinely ordained, and as bearing a close relation to their own fortunes. Out of every such catastrophe they hoped the Messianic Age would arise. But our use and appreciation of the Psalm are not limited by the occasion of its origin. For us, as for the Jews of old, it is our highest hope to remember that above the intrigues and selfishness of international politics, as above the horrors of war, the divine purpose is still guiding and controlling the destinies of man. Luther's famous hymn, Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott, is founded upon this Psalm. Note that there are three stanzas with a probably recurrent refrain. At the end of the first and the beginning of the second stanza the text seems imperfect. The words in brackets are conjectural. God is our refuge and stronghold, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved, And though the mountains sink into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and foam, Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. [The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.] [His lovingkindness is] a river, the arms whereof make glad The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the Lord, What terrors he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; 'Give way, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.' The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. 'When the morning dawneth': i.e. the morning of the Messianic Age. Wonderful stories grew up about Alexander and the Jews. They were undoubtedly well treated by the great conqueror. Was Jerusalem spared unexpectedly? If so, the following Psalm (xlviii) may have been written to commemorate the event. The Psalmist recalls the days of Sennacherib: the kings (i. e. the Assyrian generals) drew near Jerusalem, but did not enter within its walls. And even such a deliverance as the Jews had heard' of in story, they had now 'seen' (i. e. experienced) with their own eyes. The Psalmist bids one and all rejoice in gratitude. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised In the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Fair in height, the joy of the whole earth, Is mount Zion, the city of the great King: God hath made himself known in her palaces as a refuge. For, lo, the kings were assembled, They came onward together. 'HE MAKETH WARS TO CEASE' They saw, they marvelled; They were troubled, they hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, And pain, as of one in travail. 521 Thou didst scatter them as the ships of Tarshish are broken by the east wind. (?) As we have heard, so have we seen In the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: We think of thy lovingkindness, O God, So is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: Let mount Zion rejoice, Let the daughters of Judah be glad, Walk about Zion, and go round about her: Count the towers thereof. Mark ye well her ramparts, Visit her palaces; That ye may declare to the next generation: For ever and ever he will lead us. § 5. The eighty-seventh Psalm: Zion, the Spiritual Mother.Near the two hymns about Jerusalem may be placed that great lyric of universalism which was quoted at the end of Part I (p. 608). It is Psalm lxxxvii, in one important respect the grandest in the whole Psalter. Proselytes had already begun to join the communion of Israel, and Jerusalem was becoming a spiritual metropolis as well as a political capital. The singer, inspired and enthusiastic through these yet small beginnings, looks forward to and realizes their consummation. The various nations (some old typical names are chosen, Rahab meaning Egypt) send up their sons for 'enrolment in the civic register of Zion.' But this enrolment means religious regeneration, and therefore the new citizens are, as it were, born again.' The text of this strange and striking Psalm is unfortunately in more places than one obscure and uncertain. I have mainly adopted Professor Cheyne's translation in his commentary upon the Psalms (1888). His foundation upon the holy mountains, 'Rahab and Babylon I proclaim my votaries; And of Zion it shall be said, 'Each and every one is born in her;' And he, the Most High, shall establish her. The Lord shall reckon, when he writeth down the peoples, 'This one was born there.' And they sing and dance, All whose fountains are in thee. The last two lines are especially doubtful. The Greek translators had a different text before them in the ninth and tenth lines, and in accordance with it one may render: 'And Zion each one calls Mother; yea, each one was born in her.' 'Mother Zion,' as the Greek text has it—a grand and significant phrase. And surely the conception of the spiritual motherhood of Jerusalem may inspire us still. That is the spiritual Zionism which we profess; the goal of Judaism, which should determine its development and influence its form. In Professor Cheyne's latest book (Jewish Religious Life after the Exile, 1898) he gives a fresh translation of the Psalm, which probably brings out the meaning of the writer more clearly than any literal rendering of the present Hebrew text. He says of the Psalm: It is the eulogy of Zion as the metropolis of an ideally catholic church which we have before us. The Psalmist has absorbed all the great ideas of the Second Isaiah and the Songs of the Servant, and finds them becoming realized in his own happy experience. Whether by preaching, or simply by letting its light shine, the once despised Israel is now attracting Palestinians, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Babylonians, in such numbers that a day seems coming when all mankind will be Jews, i. e. when religion will unite more than the accidental differences of language or national character separate. The Second Isaiah seems to anticipate that foreigners will only be able to become Jews by sacrificing their national peculiarities. But our poet, and the author of the appendix to Isaiah xix (Part I, p. 605), clearly anticipate that Egypt and Babylon will remain Egypt and Babylon, even when their higher life and their truest happiness are derived from Zion.' Therefore this Psalm prefigures with astonishing foresight the highest hopes of an enlightened Judaism to-day. And now shall follow Professor Cheyne's new translation. He regards the Psalm as a poem in three stanzas of five lines each.' Thou hast founded her on the holy mountains! More than all (other) dwellings of Jacob. Thou city of God! Rahab and Babylon I will celebrate as her friends; Behold, Philistia and Tyre, With the people of Cush-each of these was born there. Jehovah will note in the register of peoples, This one (and that one) were born there. And Zion each one calls Mother, Yea, each one was born therein; And (God) himself establishes her. And (this anthem) will be sung in the congregations, § 6. Psalms sixty-six and sixty-seven.-We now come to a pair of Thanksgiving Psalms of which the date is uncertain. The first is Psalm lxvi. Its author is not averse to sacrifices like the singer of Psalm xl, but his gratitude to God is no less deep and sincere. In the first part of the Psalm its national character and reference are clearly indicated by the plural pronoun; in the second part 'I' is used instead of 'we.' But the 'we' and the 'I' probably mean the same. Both are Israel. Note in the third stanza the appeal to the nations to join in Israel's thanksgiving. The consciousness that the one God should have more worshippers than a single people was dimly present to many an Israelite, but only very rarely did even the highest thinkers among them wholly free themselves from those religious limitations which a vivid sense of Israel's close relation to God had entailed. Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye of the earth: |