Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Psalms 第25章

That wherewith the praying one comforts himself is no peculiar personal prerogative, but the certain, joyous prospect of all believers: ἡ ἐλπίς ου ̓ καταισχύνει , Romans 5:5. These are called קויך ( קוה participle to קוּה ot elp , just as דּבר is the participle to דּבּר ). Hope is the eye of faith which looks forth clear and fixedly into the future. With those who hope in Jahve, who do not allow themselves to be in any way disconcerted respecting Him, are contrasted those who act treacherously towards Him (Psalms 119:158, Aq., Symm., Theodot. οἱ ἀποστατοῦντες ), and that ריקם , i.e. - and it can only mean this-from vain and worthless pretexts, and therefore from wanton unconscientiousness.

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Recognising the infamy of such black ingratitude, he prays for instruction as to the ways which he must take according to the precepts of God ( Psalms 18:22). The will of God, it is true, lies before us in God's written word, but the expounder required for the right understanding of that word is God Himself. He prays Him for knowledge; but in order to make what he knows a perfect and living reality, he still further needs the grace of God, viz., both His enlightening and also His guiding grace.

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His truth is the lasting and self-verifying fact of His revelation of grace. To penetrate into this truth and to walk in it (Psalms 26:3; Psalms 86:11) without God, is a contradiction in its very self. Therefore the psalmist prays, as in Psalms 119:35, οδήγησόν με ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ σου (lxx Cod. Alex.; whereas Cod. Vat. ἐπὶ τὴν ..., cf. John 16:13). He prays thus, for his salvation comes from Jahve, yea Jahve is his salvation. He does not hope for this or that, but for Him, all the day, i.e., unceasingly,

(Note: Hupfeld thinks the accentuation inappropriate; the first half of the verse, however, really extends to ישׁעי , and consists of two parts, of which the second is the confirmation of the first: the second half contains a relatively new thought. The sequence of the accents: Rebia magnum, Athnach, therefore fully accords with the matter.)

for everything worth hoping for, everything that can satisfy the longing of the soul, is shut up in Him. All mercy or grace, however, which proceeds from Him, has its foundation in His compassion and condescension.

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The supplicatory reminiscere means, may God never forget to exercise His pity and grace towards him, which are (as the plurals imply) so rich and superabundant. The ground on which the prayer is based is introduced with כּי ( nam , or even quoniam ). God's compassion and grace are as old in their operation and efficacy as man's feebleness and sin; in their counsels they are eternal, and therefore have also in themselves the pledge of eternal duration (Psalms 100:5; Psalms 103:17).

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May Jahve not remember the faults of his youth ( חטּאות ), into which lust and thoughtlessness have precipitated him, nor the transgressions ( פּשׁעים ), by which even in maturer and more thoughtful years he has turned the grace of God into licentiousness and broken off his fellowship with Him ( פּשׁע בּ , of defection); but may He, on the contrary, turn His remembrance to him ( זכר ל as in Psalms 136:23) in accordance with His grace or loving-kindness, which אתּה challenges as being the form of self-attestation most closely corresponding to the nature of God. Memor esto quidem mei, observes Augustine, non secundum iram, qua ego dignus sum, sed secundum misericordiam tuam, quae te digna est . For God is טּוב , which is really equivalent to saying, He is ἀγάπη . The next distich shows that טוּב is intended here of God's goodness, and not, as e.g., in Nehemiah 9:35, of His abundance of possessions.

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The בּ with הורה denotes the way, i.e., the right way ( Job 31:7), as the sphere and subject of the instruction, as in Psalms 32:8, Proverbs 4:11; Job 27:11. God condescends to sinners in order to teach them the way that leads to life, for He is טוב־וישׂר ; well-doing is His delight, and, if His anger be not provoked (Psalms 18:27), He has only the sincerest good intention in what He does.

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The shortened form of the future stands here, according to Ges. §128, 2, rem., instead of the full form (which, viz., ידרך , is perhaps meant); for the connection which treats of general facts, does not admit of its being taken as optative. The ב (cf. Psalms 25:5, Psalms 107:7; Psalms 119:35) denotes the sphere of the guidance. משׁפּט is the right so far as it is traversed, i.e., practised or carried out. In this course of right He leads the ענוים , and teaches them the way that is pleasing to Himself. ענוים is the one word for the gentle, mansueti , and the humble, modesti . Jerome uses these words alternately in Psalms 25:9 and Psalms 25:9; but the poet designedly repeats the one word - the cardinal virtue of ענוה - here with the preponderating notion of lowliness. Upon the self-righteous and self-sufficient He would be obliged to force Himself even against their will. He wants disciples eager to learn; and how richly He rewards those who guard what they have learnt!

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The paths intended, are those which He takes with men in accordance with His revealed will and counsel. These paths are חסד loving-kindness, mercy, or grace, for the salvation of men is their goal, and אמת truth, for they give proof at every step of the certainty of His promises. But only they who keep His covenant and His testimonies faithfully and obediently shall share in this mercy and truth. To the psalmist the name of Jahve, which unfolds itself in mercy and truth, is precious. Upon it he bases the prayer that follows.

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The perf. consec. is attached to the יהי , which is, according to the sense, implied in למען שׁמך , just as in other instances it follows adverbial members of a clause, placed first for the sake of emphasis, when those members have reference to the future, Ges. §126, rem. 1. Separate and manifold sins (Psalms 25:7) are all comprehended in עון , which is in other instances also the collective word for the corruption and the guilt of sin. כּי gives the ground of the need and urgency of the petition. A great and multiform load of sin lies upon him, but the name of God, i.e., His nature that has become manifest in His mercy and truth, permits him to ask and to hope for forgiveness, not for the sake of anything whatever that he has done, but just for the sake of this name (Jeremiah 14:7; Isaiah 43:25). How happy therefore is he who fears God, in this matter!

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The question: quisnam est vir , which resembles Psalms 34:13; Psalms 107:43; Isaiah 50:10, is only propounded in order to draw attention to the person who bears the character described, and then to state what such an one has to expect. In prose we should have a relative antecedent clause instead, viz., qui ( quisquis ) talis est qui Dominum vereatur .

(Note: The verb ver-eri, which signifies “to guard one's self, defend one's self from anything” according to its radical notion, has nothing to do with ירא ( ורא ) .)

The attributive יבהר , ( viam ) quam eligat (cf. Isaiah 48:17), might also be referred to God: in which He takes delight (lxx); but parallels like Psalms 119:30, Psalms 119:173, favour the rendering: which he should choose. Among all the blessings which fall to the lot of him who fears God, the first place is given to this, that God raises him above the vacillation and hesitancy of human opinion.

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The verb לין ( לוּן ), probably equivalent to ליל (from ליל ) signifies to tarry the night, to lodge. Good, i.e., inward and outward prosperity, is like the place where such an one turns in and finds shelter and protection. And in his posterity will be fulfilled what was promised to the patriarchs and to the people delivered from Egypt, viz., possession of the land, or as this promise runs in the New Testament, of the earth, Matthew 5:5 (cf. Psalms 37:11), Revelation 5:10.

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The lxx renders סוד , κραταίωμα , as though it were equivalent to יסוד . The reciprocal נוסד , Psalms 2:2 (which see), leads one to the right primary signification. Starting from the primary meaning of the root סד , “to be or to make tight, firm, compressed,” סוד signifies a being closely pressed together for the purpose of secret communication and converse, confidential communion or being together, Psalms 89:8; Psalms 111:1 (Symm. ὁμιλία ), then the confidential communication itself, Psalms 55:15, a secret (Aquila ἀπόῤῥητον , Theod. μυστήριον ). So here: He opens his mind without any reserve, speaks confidentially with those who fear Him; cf. the derivative passage Proverbs 3:32, and an example of the thing itself in Genesis 18:17. In Psalms 25:14 the infinitive with ל , according to Ges. §132, rem. 1, as in Isaiah 38:20, is an expression for the fut. periphrast.: faedus suum notum facturus est iis ; the position of the words is like Daniel 2:16, Daniel 2:18; Daniel 4:15. הודיע is used of the imparting of not merely intellectual, but experimental knowledge. Hitzig renders it differently, viz., to enlighten them. But the Hiph. is not intended to be used thus absolutely even in 2 Samuel 7:21. בּריתו is the object; it is intended of the rich and deep and glorious character of the covenant revelation. The poet has now on all sides confirmed the truth, that every good gift comes down from above, from the God of salvation; and he returns to the thought from which he started.

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He who keeps his eyes constantly directed towards God (Psalms 141:8; Psalms 123:1), is continually in a praying mood, which cannot remain unanswered. תּמיד corresponds to ἀδιαλείπτως in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. The aim of this constant looking upwards to God, in this instance, is deliverance out of the enemy's net. He can and will pull him out (Psalms 31:5) of the net of complicated circumstances into which he has been ensnared without any fault of his own.

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The rendering “regard me,” so far as פּנה אל means God's observant and sympathising turning to any one (lxx ἐπιβλέπειν ), corresponds to Psalms 86:16; Leviticus 26:9. For this he longs, for men treat him as a stranger and refuse to have anything to do with him. יחיד is the only one of his kind, one who has no companion, therefore the isolated one. The recurrence of the same sounds עני אני is designedly not avoided. To whom could he, the isolated one, pour forth his affliction, to whom could he unveil his inmost thoughts and feelings? to God alone! To Him he can bring all his complaints, to Him he can also again and again always make supplication.

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The Hiph. הרחיב signifies to make broad, and as a transitive denominative applied to the mind and heart: to make a broad space = to expand one's self (cf. as to the idea, Lamentations 2:13, “great as the sea is thy misfortune”), lxx ἐπληθύνθησαν , perhaps originally it was ἐπλατηύνθησαν . Accordingly הרחיבוּ is admissible so far as language is concerned; but since it gives only a poor antithesis to צרות it is to be suspected. The original text undoubtedly was הרחיב וממצוקותי ( הרחיב , as in Psalms 77:2, or הרחיב , as e.g., in 2 Kings 8:6): the straits of my heart do Thou enlarge (cf. Psalms 119:32; 2 Corinthians 6:11) and bring me out of my distresses (Hitzig and others).

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He entreats for preservation and deliverance from God; and that He may not permit his hope to be disappointed ( אל־אבושׁ , cf. 1 Chronicles 21:13, instead of אל־אבושׁה which is usual in other instances). This his hope rests indeed in Him: he has taken refuge in Him and therefore He cannot forsake him, He cannot let him be destroyed.

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Devoutness that fills the whole man, that is not merely half-hearted and hypocritical, is called תּם ; and uprightness that follows the will of God without any bypaths and forbidden ways is called ישׁר . These two radical virtues (cf. Job 1:1) he desires to have as his guardians on his way which is perilous not only by reason of outward foes, but also on account of his own sinfulness. These custodians are not to let him pass out of their sight, lest he should be taken away from them (cf. Psalms 40:12; Proverbs 20:28). He can claim this for himself, for the cynosure of his hope is God, from whom proceed תם and ישׁר like good angels.

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