Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 10 May 2020
William Cowper was born in England in 1731. Six years later his mother died. His school years were described by one biographer1 as “wretched” but he went on to Westminster college, where he studied to be a lawyer. He fell in love with a girl, but her dad said they couldn’t marry. His own dad then died, leaving him without enough financial support. He tried supporting himself with freelance writing until the House of Lords offered him a clerkship. As he realized how difficult the exams and interviews would be to secure this position, he panicked and fell deep into depression, trying three times to kill himself. It took him the better part of a decade to recover from that, after which he found himself helping John Newton with pastoral responsibilities and worship leadership. During this time his brother died and so did a woman who had become like a surrogate mother to him. He wrote a lament after her death called “The Castaway,” because he really felt like God had thrown him away. He struggled almost continuously with depression so deep that he would spend months in bed. But during that time, he wrote hymns, the most famous of which is, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins; and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains… Ever since by faith I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.”
In Psalms 42-43, we see a hymn written by another man who was depressed ans was being tempted to question God:
He is asks the question of God: “When am I going to get to see You?”
His enemies are asking some questions too: “Just where IS your God, huh?”
And he is even asking questions about himself: “Why are you cast down?”
This is a model for us; when we are having a hard time, these are questions we need to ask – and not only to ask but also to answer, drawing from the great psalms and hymns of the faith and adding our own.
We pick up in the middle of Psalm 42 where we left off, and there is kind-of a summary statement:
This word תִשְׁתּוֹחָח is repeated from v.5 and literally paints a picture of “sinking low.” I translated it “depressed,” and others have translated it “troubled,” “despair,” or “cast down.”
The three geographical terms mentioned in this verse have unique spellings, so there is some uncertainty among Bible scholars as to exactly what locations are meant by these terms, but
Hermon is the tallest mountain range in the Levant, three times the height of the tallest mountain in Israel, and tall enough to maintain snow on its top, so it was a prominent landmark, but it was a border landmark2. To be on Mt. Hermon was to be outside of Israel to the Northeast.
Likewise, the Jordan River was also a border; to be on the land on the other side of it was to be outside of Israel.
The third geographical feature is Har Mitzar – literally “the little mountain.”
Although there are Jewish traditions which say it means Mt. Sinai (Targums, Rashi), or some hill in Israel (Hirsch, Cohen)
and some Christian traditions which say it means one of the smaller peaks of the Mt. Hermon range (Plumer, citing Piscator, Mudge, and Dodd),
the only other time it occurs as a place name in the Bible is when Lot called the town of Zoar at the southern end of the Dead Sea, “the little mountain,” when he was escaping from the destruction of Sodom (Gen. 19:20, cf. Jer. 48:34), and that’s what I (along with Lightfoot and Keil & Delitzsch) think it’s referring to.
This makes a third geographical point of reference along the eastern border of Israel, from Mt. Hermon on the north, down the line of the Jordan River, to Zoar in the south, connoting a life in the borderlands, outside of homeland.
The reference to the Jordan and the Hermon mountain range that feeds water into it could be a reference to the geography around David as he crossed the river to get away from Absolom’s coup, although others think it refers to the waterfalls further north at the source of the Jordan River which would have been the route of Israelite prisoners taken into exile later by foreign enemies to the north and east.
In this condition of being an outsider, the Psalmist feels his heart sinking into depression, as probably any of us would in the same circumstances. What does he do about it?
The main thing in v.6 is the simple statement, “I remember you.” I, the lowly outcast, remember You, the living God.
“God” is in every verse of this Psalm so far: “my soul pants for You, God.. thirsty for God, for the Living God... Where is your God?... the house of God... hope in God... My God... I will remember you...” Simply speaking His name is a way of remembering and addressing the dryness in our soul.
Note that “rather than remembering the ‘things’ of worship in which the presence of God could be experienced, he now remembers God himself… ‘I will remember you...’ – the living God, the source of life and hope.” ~Gerald Wilson, NIV Application Commentary
"We ought to learn from this, that although we are deprived of the helps which God has appointed for the edification of our faith and piety, it is, nevertheless, our duty to be diligent in stirring up our minds, that we may never suffer ourselves to be forgetful of God. But, above all, this is to be observed, that as in the preceding verse we have seen David contending courageously against his own affections, so now we here see by what means he steadfastly maintained his ground. He did this by having recourse to the help of God, and taking refuge in it as in a holy sanctuary." ~J. Calvin
In verse 7, the imagery changes from geography that indicates being an outsider, to water imagery that describes a drowning experience of being overwhelmed by trouble:
What is this “deep”?
In the 35 verses where this Hebrew noun tahomah occurs in the Old Testament, all of them describe water that is below the surface of the earth.
It seems to be one of the four realms of the astronomical earth in Ps. 135:6, in contrast to the atmosphere of heaven, the surface of the dry land of earth, and the surface of the seas3.
In some Bible verses, the deep lies below the surface of the sea and reaches to the seabed4, and in others it lies below the surface of the land as the source of springs of fresh water5.
Now, I imagine that the sound described here of vast quantities of water moving underground from one place to another would be terrifying. The Jordan River is an earthquake faultline, so perhaps he’s hiding in a cave and hearing actual gushing sounds.
The sound is that of a tsinnor in Hebrew.
The only other place this word occurs is in 2 Sam 5:8, where it describes a tunnel that fed water from a spring into a city.
Some scholars have suggested that this is describing a waterspout – a tornado-like storm that occurs over the ocean, whirling around and sucking up vast quantities of water and then dumping it somewhere.
It has been claimed6 that a person standing on Mt. Hermon could observe waterspouts over the Mediterranean sea 40 miles to the West, offering a literal interpretation of this verse.
At any rate, I’ve lived in Alabama and Kansas, where tornadoes were common, and I’ve seen and heard them a few times, and it is terrifying to feel so small and powerless in the path of a force so gigantically powerful.
The full force of all this water then hits this poor guy, pounding him, tumbling him over and over, nearly drowning him.
I think of my boyhood experience during summer vacations on the Atlantic coast of Florida, getting hit unexpectedly by waves breaking over me and getting knocked over and rolled around and getting my face scrubbed in the sand and a nose-full of salt-water, coming up spluttering and gasping for air, and I’ve felt the powerful hydraulic force of the undertow that is almost impossible to stand up against.
However, the subject matter of this Psalm, of course is not meteorology; it is the human soul in relationship with God, so we have to look for a figurative meaning evoked by what could well have been a literal storm.
I think St. Augustine was onto something when he commented, “What then is the abyss that calls, and to what other abyss does it call? If by 'abyss' we understand a great depth, is not man's heart... an abyss?”
“These words [‘deep calls unto deep’] express the grievousness, as well as the number and long continuance, of the miseries which he suffered; as if he had said, I am oppressed not only with one kind of misery, but various kinds of distress return one after another, so that there seems to be neither end nor measure to them." ~J. Calvin, 16th Century
“The scenery... [of Mt. Hermon] becomes suggestive of the troubles which had descended upon him. The melting snows from the peaks of Hermon form thunderous waterfalls; to these are added the rapids of the Jordan. This display of the forces guided by the hand of God make him think of the waters of tribulation which are overwhelming him.” ~A. Cohen, 20th Century Jew, Soncino Books of the Bible
The second half of this verse is identical to Jonah 2:2. Whether this is a post-exilic Psalmist quoting Jonah, or whether Jonah was quoting an earlier Psalm-writer7, there is a clear connection. Both Jonah and this Psalmist remembered God from the depths and wrote a psalm.
An important thing to note is that this believer recognizes that the cataracts and waves and billows which are so threatening and overwhelming belong to the very God who is his life, his rock, his thirst-quenching living water, his Savior! They are “your waterfalls… your breakers… your waves… your billows.”
They all belong to God, and so he trusts God to use His creation in his life in such a way that it will result in life, health, stability, and the quenching of spiritual thirst. Do you trust that God is using the painful circumstances in your life as His creative way of bringing you to life and peace forever?
That reminds me of another hymn by William Cowper, written two years before America’s independence, “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform; He plants his footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm... Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; The clouds ye so much dread Are big with mercy, and shall break In blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust him for his grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.”
Now, in the next verse of Psalm 42, in answer to the tears that have been his bread “day and night,” we finally see that “day... and night,” God – his personal name Yahweh/the Lord introduced here – has been supporting him in his distress all along!
Translations of this verse seem to be pretty evenly split between interpreting this verse as occurring in the future and interpreting this verse as occurring in the present moment. I prefer the present because:
the psalmist presents most of his story here as though it is currently happening,
and because the grammar of “daily” and “nightly” seems to indicate something ongoing – as well as the understood verb “is” in “is with me,”
and this fits theologically with the rest of scripture, such as, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases...” (Lam 3:22), and “...Jesus... having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1, ESV).
Nowhere else in the Bible do we have this verb-object combination of “commanding lovingkindness,” but there is an echo of it in Ps. 43:3 “Send Your light and Your truth to guide me.”
The picture is of the personal God initiating action with commanding authority based on His covenant love and mercy.
God has both the power to command and the desire command things for our benefit!
I imagine it like Isaiah 51:3 “So Yahweh comforted Zion. He comforted all her dry places and set her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and a voice of song!” (NAW)
The merism of “day… and night” in this verse connotes that the Lord’s initiative to keep His covenant commitments has been nonstop.
What exactly is this “song” that is “with” the psalmist “by night”?
“His song” is described later in v.8 as “a prayer to the God of my life.”
Notice the interaction then between God and his servant with nightly prayer-songs and daily commands for mercy. The two are related. Through our prayers, God allows us to participate in His work of salvation. Are you engaged in that, or will you let self-pity turn you so in on yourself that you miss this opportunity to work together with God?
“Compare this verse with the bitter response of the exile in [Psalm] 137:4: ‘How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land?’ Yet our psalmist is able to find a song and to sing it out in response to the saving act of Yahweh that reaches into the isolated darkness of the flood… God is not absent in the midst of trouble but continues to stand with us wherever we are...” ~Gerald Wilson
This song sticks with the psalmist; no enemy can take it away. Even if bad guys take everything you have and isolate you from everyone you know, they can never take away your prayers to God; you will always have that and so His song will never leave you!
It reminds me of Job 35:10 “...Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night…?” (NKJV) and of Psalm 34:1 “His praise will always be in my mouth” (which was occasioned in similar circumstances when David was in exile).
"It is well when hope puts on her helmet, and mirth sings her song, and faith at the same time offers up her prayer… [yet] God’s servant, in the darkest state of his affairs, still relied on Jehovah, thankfully praising Him and devoutly praying to Him." ~Wm. Plumer
“He will not leave thee destitute of His help....” ~Augustine He is the life-giving God, the God of my life, the source of life, and so to Him we direct our souls if we want to live!
But the Psalmist, like all of us, is struggling to reconcile these two realities, on the one hand, the reality of God’s unfailing love toward Him and, on the other hand, the reality of the overwhelming hardship he’s experiencing. Because of his faith in a personal God, he does the only right thing he can do: he talks to God about this problem when he can’t reconcile it in his own mind.
Note that this kind of rock is not something you can keep in your pocket – you couldn’t even pave your garden with one of these. The Hebrew word sal’ah is a rocky mountain that is big enough – and secure enough – to build an army fortress in, so even though this conversation with God sounds kind-of cheeky, “Hey, you didn’t forget me, did you. God?” he is still approaching God with respect, calling Him “my rock-mountain,” and he’s asking for an explanation for why he feels he has to keep marching into this gloom and enemy oppression feeling like God doesn’t love him anymore.
Now, God’s word has already been published on this point:
using the same word for oppression/adversity/affliction, Job had declared in chapter 36 v15 "He... rescues those who suffer... he gets their attention through adversity." (New Living Translation)
We also have the word of God in Isaiah 19:20b “When they cry to Yahweh because of oppressors, He will send to them a Savior and Defender, and He will deliver them. 49:14-16 "Yet Zion said, ‘Yahweh has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.' Can a woman forget her nursing baby – from having compassion on a son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet as for me, I will not forget you. Look, I have engraved you on my palms, your walls are always before me.” (NAW)
So God has already answered that question; He hasn’t forgotten, but sometimes we just need to ask it again, in order to start the conversation with God and get to the point where He can remind us of His truth. Sometimes we need to experience stress in order for God to get us talking to Him again.
C.S. Lewis, as he was grappling with the suffering of his wife as she died of cancer, once wrote, “Pain is God’s megaphone...” Pain causes Christians to focus our attention on God like nothing else.
This brings us back into that age-old question of why there is suffering in this world.
Why did the children of Israel suffer “oppression” as slaves in Egypt? (Ex. 3:9) So that God could deliver them and bring them into the Promised Land! Otherwise, they would have stayed in Egypt!
Why did the Israelites suffer “oppression” from the Canaanites in the Promised Land? (Judges 10:12) So they would turn from idols and He could send them Judges to free them and establish them as a nation!
Why did God feed the Jews with the “bread of oppression” and send them into exile? (Isa. 30:20, Psalm 106:42) Because He wanted to restore a righteous remnant through whom would come the Messiah.
Why does it feel like God has forgotten you? Because He has a plan that He is developing with you, and you need to experience stress for that plan to develop.
Go ahead; talk to God about it!
Asking God why He forgot about you, actually proves that you don’t really believe that God abandoned you because the very fact that you ask Him a question assumes that God is there to hear your question! (Calvin)
“It seemed as if God had deserted David’s cause. But the prophet filled his mouth with arguments. He humbly expostulated against the Lord’s desertion of him and his cause. Prayer may have great vehemence and strong argument in it… the righteous may earnestly plead with God for the removal of… a calamity. His honor and their purity demand it...” ~Plumer
The Psalmist continues his rant in...
The word I rendered “wrecking-ball” – and which the KJV rendered “sword” – is related to the Hebrew verb for “murder.” 19th century commentator William Plumer wrote that, “It describes excruciating pain.”
The mocking, taunting, insulting words of his enemy were like daggers stabbing into him and hitting his very bones.
I had a medical procedure last year that involved injections inbetween several of the bones in my neck and back to try to help with arthritis, and I’ll never forget the feeling when, a couple of times the doctor hit a bone and the needle scraped across that bone as he was getting it into place. I don’t think I’ve ever felt pain at such a deep level, and it just about made me come unglued!
"[T]he grief which he experienced from the reproaches of his enemies, wounded him in no degree less than if they had pierced through his bones... of all the bitter evils which befall us, there is nothing which can inflict upon us a severer wound than to see the wicked tear in pieces the majesty of God, and endeavor to destroy and overturn our faith." ~Calvin
The word for “reproach” is used in the story of the Syrian army general’s siege of Jerusalem recorded in Isaiah 37:13-20 “Rabshaqah stood and called in a great voice in Judean and said, ‘Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!… do not let Hezekiah cause you to trust in Yahweh by saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ... Which are they among all the gods of these lands that delivered their land from my hand, that Yahweh will deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’… Hezekiah... went up to the house of Yahweh and... prayed..., ‘Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, sitting at the cherubim, you are it, the God alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You Yourself have made the heavens and the earth. Incline your ear, Yahweh, and hear; open your eyes, Yahweh, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.’” There really was no question about it, the Syrian army had conquered every other city in the region, and they easily could have taken Jerusalem down too. I can’t imagine the terror King Hezekiah must have had to struggle with as he heard the taunts of the captain of that vast army spread out around the city, “What good is your god?” But Hezekiah did the right thing, he took the matter before God in prayer, and God delivered a ringing defeat, and the Assyrian army – what was left of them after the death angel was done with them – tucked their tails and ran home. It’s history like that which gives us confidence that deliverance can come quite unexpectedly and we will be praising God before long.
This is the chorus of his song to God which we already saw in v.5 and we’ll see again in Psalm 43, but with an addition to the ending.
“[The addition] ‘and my God’ is not an unmeaning or gratuitous addition, but has reference to the taunting question in the preceding verse, ‘Where is thy God?’” (Alexander) “It is a favorite device of the great adversary and his minions to attempt in various ways to drive believers to despondency and even to despair, v. 3. If they cannot destroy, they are determined to torment God's people… When tempted to despond, we must rally and exhort ourselves by a consideration of the truths suited to our cases, vv. 5, 11. Dejection is not the offspring of piety. We must have faith and hope in God, or we must lose our cause… But the only thing that ever lost a believer the victory was cowardice… Let the wicked spit their spite, but let us be steadfast with God… In every extremity let believers plead their covenant relation with God, saying, ‘Thou art my God, v. 11.’ This will sustain them when all else falls. Often this is all they can do.” ~Plumer8
The Psalmist developed hope in God by talking to Him in prayer and singing. That’s also what William Cowper did, William fought depression by writing and singing songs; he even published a hymnbook with John Newton (another guy who struggled with depression but who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace”). Cowper wrote, “Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings; It is the Lord, who rises with healing in His wings; when comforts are declining, he grants the soul again a season of clear shining to cheer it after rain.” He still had to fight depression until his dying day, and it was still so rare to see him cheerful that it was considered remarkable that when he died at the age of 69, it was observed that on his face there was “composure and calmness… mingled, as it were, [with] a holy surprise.”
LXX (Ps.41) |
Brenton (LXX) |
DRB (Vulgate) |
KJV |
NAW |
Masoretic Txt |
1
Εἰς τὸ τέλος·
εἰς σύνεσιν
τοῖς
υἱοῖς Κορε. |
1 For the end, [a Psalm] for instruction, for the sons of Core. As the hart earnestly desires the fountains of water, so my soul earnestly longs for thee, O God. |
1
Unto the end,
understanding
for
the sons of Core. |
1 To the chief Musician, Maschil, for the sons of Korah. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. |
1 For the concertmaster, a thought-provoking one by the sons of Korah: Like a deer pants over bodies of water, so my soul pants for You, God. |
1
לַמְנַצֵּחַ
מַשְׂכִּיל
לִבְנֵי־קֹרַח׃ |
3 ἐδίψησεν ἡ ψυχή μου πρὸς τὸν θεὸν X τὸν ζῶντα· πότε ἥξω καὶ ὀφθήσομαι τῷ προσώπῳ τοῦ θεοῦ; |
2 My soul has thirsted for the living God: when shall I come and appear before X X God? |
3 My soul hath thirsted after the strongH living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God? |
2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? |
2 My soul was thirsty for God, for the Living God: “When can I go and be seen before the face of God?” |
3 צָמְאָה נַפְשִׁי לֵאלֹהִים לְאֵל חָי מָתַי אָבוֹא וְאֵרָאֶהI פְּנֵי אֱלֹהִים׃ |
4 ἐγενήθη μοι τὰ δάκρυά μου ἄρτος ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτὸς ἐν τῷ λέγεσθαί μοι καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν Ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ θεός σου; |
3 My tears have been bread to me day and night, while they daily said to me, Where is thy God? |
4 My tears have been my bread day and night, whilst it is said to me daily: Where is thy God? |
3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God? |
3 My tears were a daily and nightly meal to me while they were saying to me all the day, “Where is your God?” |
4 הָיְתָה־לִּי דִמְעָתִי לֶחֶם יוֹמָם וָלָיְלָה בֶּאֱמֹרJ אֵלַי כָּל־הַיּוֹם אַיֵּה אֱלֹהֶיךָ׃ |
5
ταῦτα ἐμνήσθηνK
καὶ
ἐξέχεα ἐπ᾿L
ἐμὲ τὴν ψυχήν
μου, ὅτι διελεύσομαι
ἐν [τόπῳ]
σκηνῆς |
4
I remembered these things, and
poured out my soul |
5
These things I remembered, and
poured out my soul |
4
When
I remember these things,
I pour out my soul |
4 It is these things I will remember while I spill my soul out on myself: that I would pass through with the throng; I would lead them to the house of God with the sound of singing and thanksgiving - a multitude celebrating the feast. |
5 אֵלֶּה אֶזְכְּרָהQ וְאֶשְׁפְּכָה עָלַיR נַפְשִׁי כִּי אֶעֱבֹר בַּסָּךְ אֶדַּדֵּם עַד־בֵּית אֱלֹהִים בְּקוֹל־רִנָּה וְתוֹדָה הָמוֹן חוֹגֵג׃ |
6 ἵνα τί περίλυποςS εἶ, ψυχή, καὶ [ἵναT] τί συνταράσσειςU X με; ἔλπισονV ἐπὶ τὸν θεόν, ὅτι X ἐξομολογήσομαι αὐτῷ· σωτήριον τοῦ προσώπου μουW |
5 Wherefore art thou very sad, O my soul? and wherefore dost thou trouble me? hope in God; for I will give thanks to him; [he is the] salvation of my countenance. |
6 Why art thou sad, O my soul? and why dost thou trouble me? Hope in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance, |
5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the helpX of his countenance. |
5 My soul, why are you depressing yourself and moaning over me? Develop hope towards God, because I shall praise Him again before His face [for] salvations. |
6מַה־תִּשְׁתּוֹחֲחִיX נַפְשִׁי וַתֶּהֱמִי עָלָי הוֹחִילִי לֵאלֹהִים כִּי־עוֹד אוֹדֶנּוּ יְשׁוּעוֹת פָּנָיו׃ |
7 ὁ θεός μου. πρὸς ἐμαυτὸν ἡ ψυχή μου ἐταράχθηY· διὰ τοῦτο μνησθήσομαί σου ἐκ γῆς Ιορδάνου καὶ Ερμωνιιμ, ἀπὸ ὄρους μικροῦZ. |
6 O my God, my soul has been troubled within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Ermonites, from the little hill. |
7 And my God. My soul is troubled within my self: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan and Hermoniim, from the little hill. |
6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. |
6 My God, my soul is getting depressed over me, therefore I will remember you from the land of Jordan and the Hermon-ranges, from Mount Mitzar. |
7 אֱלֹהַי עָלַי נַפְשִׁי תִשְׁתּוֹחָח עַל־כֵּן אֶזְכָּרְךָAA מֵאֶרֶץ יַרְדֵּןBB וְחֶרְמוֹנִיםCC מֵהַר מִצְעָר׃ |
8 ἄβυσσος ἄβυσσον ἐπικαλεῖται εἰς φωνὴν τῶν καταρρακτῶνDD σου, πάντες οἱ μετεωρισμοίEE σου καὶ τὰ κύματά σου ἐπ᾿ ἐμὲ διῆλθον. |
7 Deep calls to deep at the voice of thy cataracts: all thy billows and thy waves have gone over me. |
8 Deep calleth on deep, at the noise of thy flood-gates. All thy heights and thy billows have passed over me. |
7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. |
7 Deep-waters are calling out to deep-waters according to the sound of your water-channels. All your breakers and your waves went over on me. |
8תְּהוֹם־אֶל־תְּהוֹם קוֹרֵא לְקוֹל FFצִנּוֹרֶיךָ כָּל־מִשְׁבָּרֶיךָ וְגַלֶּיךָ עָלַי עָבָרוּ׃ |
9
ἡμέρας ἐντελεῖται
κύριος τὸ ἔλεος
αὐτοῦ, καὶ νυκτὸς
|
8
[By]
day the Lord will command his mercy, and |
9
[In]
the daytime the Lord |
8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness [in] the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and [my] prayer unto the God of my life. |
8 Daily Yahweh commands His lovingkindness, and nightly His song is with me – a prayer to the God of my life. |
9 יוֹמָם יְצַוֶּה יְהוָה חַסְדּוֹ וּבַלַּיְלָה שִׁירֹהHH עִמִּי תְּפִלָּה לְאֵל חַיָּי׃ |
10 ἐρῶ τῷ θεῷ ἈντιλήμπτωρII μου εἶ· διὰ τί μου ἐπελάθου; ἵνα τί σκυθρωπάζων πορεύομαι ἐν τῷ ἐκθλίβειν τὸν ἐχθρόν [μουJJ]; |
9 I will say to God, Thou art my helper; why hast thou forgotten me? wherefore do I go sad of countenance, while the enemy oppresses [me]? |
10 I will say to God: Thou art my support. Why hast thou forgotten me? and why go I mourning, whilst [my] enemy afflicteth [me]? |
9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? |
9 I will say to God my rock-mountain, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go gloomily into the oppression of the enemy? |
10 אוֹמְרָהKK לְאֵל סַלְעִי לָמָה שְׁכַחְתָּנִי לָמָּה־קֹדֵר אֵלֵךְLL בְּלַחַץ אוֹיֵב׃ |
11 ἐν τῷ καταθλάσ[θ]αιMM τὰ ὀστᾶ μου ὠνείδισάν με οἱ θλίβοντέςNN με ἐν τῷ λέγειν αὐτούς μοι καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν Ποῦ ἐστιν ὁ θεός σου; |
10 While my bones were breaking, they that afflicted me reproached me; while they said to me daily, Where is thy God? |
11 Whilst my bones are broken, my enemies who trouble me have reproached me; Whilst they say to me day be day: Where is thy God? |
10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? |
10 With a wrecking-ball to my bones my oppressors mock me while they say to me all the day, ‘Where is your god?’” |
11 בְּרֶצַחOO בְּעַצְמוֹתַי חֵרְפוּנִי צוֹרְרָי בְּאָמְרָם אֵלַי כָּל־הַיּוֹם אַיֵּה אֱלֹהֶיךָ׃ |
12 ἵνα τί περίλυποςPP εἶ, ψυχή, καὶ ἵνα τί συνταράσσειςQQ με; ἔλπισον ἐπὶ τὸν θεόν, ὅτι ἐξομολογήσομαι X αὐτῷ· ἡ σωτηρία τοῦ προσώπου μου XRR ὁ θεός μου. |
11 Wherefore art thou very sad, O my soul? and wherefore dost thou trouble me? hope in God; for I will give thanks to him; [he is] the health of my countenance, and my God. |
12) Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why dost thou disquiet me? Hope thou in God, for I will still give praise to him: the salvation of my countenance, and my God. |
11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. |
11 My soul, why are you depressing yourself and why are you moaning over me? Develop hope towards God, because I shall praise Him again – even my God – [for] salvations before my face. |
12מַה־תִּשְׁתּוֹחֲחִי נַפְשִׁי וּמַה־תֶּהֱמִי עָלָי הוֹחִילִי לֵאלֹהִים כִּי־עוֹד אוֹדֶנּוּ יְשׁוּעֹת פָּנַי וֵאלֹהָיSS׃ |
1 John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)
2 Canticles 4:8 also seems to use this mountain poetically to connote being outside of homeland.
3 "Whatever the LORD pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places." (NKJV)
4 Ex. 15:2-8, Job 38:16, 41:32, Ps. 106:9, Isa. 51:10, Jonah 2:6
5 Gen. 49:25, Deut. 8:7, Ps. 78:15, Eze. 31:4
6 By Dr. Shaw in his Travels, quoted by Alexander in his edition of Calvin’s Commentaries, and by Plumer in his Studies in the Psalms
7 Delitzsch weighed in in favor of the latter.
8 He went on to quote Dickson: “Although the Lord, for a time, shall neither remove the outward affliction nor inwardly give comfort, yet faith will sustain itself by the covenant, and lay its whole weight upon it.”
AMy
original chart includes the NASB and NIV, but their copyright
restrictions have forced me to remove them from the
publicly-available edition of this chart. I have included the ESV in
footnotes when it employs a word not already used by the KJV, NASB,
or NIV. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation adds words not
in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done so by the use
of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words in [square
brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is different
from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs
too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far
from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the Hebrew text, I
insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scroll containing any part of Psalm 42:6-43:5 is 11Q(8)PsD,
which contain fragments of 43:1-3, highlighted in purple.
B Α= πεπρασιασμενος (“having rushed”?), Σ= σπευδει (“hurries”), Ε=πρασιασθη (“beds down”)
C Α=αυλων (“pipes”?), Ε=πεδιον (“plain”/”ground”)
D Aq= εκχουσεις (“outpouring”), Σ = διεξοδους (“exit”)
EKeil & Delitzsch commented that the masculine stag "... is construed with a feminine predicate in order to indicate the stag (hind) as an image of the soul" (the gender of which is feminine). Calvin’s commentary editor, James Anderson, on the other hand, contended that it was the female “hart” that was meant, but the gender of the deer isn’t terribly important. Joel 1:20 is the only other instance of the ensuing verb in the Hebrew Bible. Commentators debate whether its root meaning is a gasping sound (Anderson, Plumer, KJV) or whether its root meaning is to desire or to reach out (Delitzsch, LXX). Surely the opening verb of the next verse is intended to be a synonym, so that helps narrow down the meaning.
FThe basic meaning of this word has to do with holding together, containing, being connected. “Streams” does connote confluence, but I thought that the word “body” communicates more in English the idea of a contiguous mass of water.
G Two manuscripts plus the Syriac and the Targums read YHWH instead of elohim, but it refers to the same person.
H Jerome must have misinterpreted אל (God of) as “strength” (א’ל).
IThe MT pointing indicates this to be Niphal Imperfect (lit. “be seen”), and the LXX interprets it that way. The consonants would remain the same if it were Qal, however, and the Syriac and Targums interpreted it actively, as the NIV did.
JThe second half of this verse is repeated verbatim in the second half of v.11 except that in v.11, a 3rd person plural pronomial suffix is added to this word (“their saying”). The BHS cites manuscripts and the Syriac version reconciling the two verses with this addition in v.4.
K Σ=αναπολων
L Augustine made much of the upward direction of επι/עָלַ as in prayer directed upward to God, but that seems forced.
MΑ= εν συσκιω προβιβαζων αυτους (“in a crowd? as they advance” = MT), Σ= εις την σκηνην, διαβασταχθησομαι (“into the tabernacle, I was being lead through”?) Both comport with the MT rather than the LXX & the Vulgate. The LXX seems to have read אדדם (“I lead them”) as אדרם (“wonderful ones”). These two letters can be difficult to distinguish in handwritten manuscripts. How I wish a little more of the Dead Sea Scrolls had been preserved to settle the question!
N cf. synonymns from Aquila (αινεσεως… ευχαριστιας) & Symmachus (ευφημιας… πανηγυριζοντων)
OThe Hebrew word chamon can be interpreted as the sound of a crowd (as the LXX interpretation went) or as the crowd itself, as English translators of the MT went, as did Aquila (οχλου) & Symmachus (πληθους).
PThe Vaticanus and Sinaiticus pluralized this participle, but it doesn’t change the meaning because the singular already refers to a plurality of persons.
QVerb
tenses in Hebrew are not as precise in time as English. According to
Plumer, the verbs in this verse are interpreted as future by Venema,
Marloratus, Hengstenberg and Alexander, they are interpreted as past
by the Syriac, Arabic, Septuagint, Vulgate and Ethiopic, and in the
present by Calvin, church of England, Vatablus, Piscator, Amesius,
Ainsworth, Fabritius, Mudge, Green, Waterland, Edwards, Jebb,
Horsley, Fry and Tholuck. I prefer the future to bring out the
optative sense of the cohortative (“The cohortative lays
stress on the determination underlying the action, and the personal
interest in it.” ~Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar)
"[T]he
cohortatives affirm that he yields himself up most thoroughly to
this bittersweet remembrance and to this free outward expression of
his pain" ~Delitzsch
Note that the only other place the
cohortative he is found with a first person imperfect form of
this verb is Psalm 77 (vs. 4, 7, & 12), where Asaph speaks. When
God speaks using the same verb (Lev. 26:42; Isa. 43:25; Jer. 31:34),
the cohortative never appears.
The demonstrative pronoun which
is the object of this verb is in the emphatic position, first in the
sentence. Delitzsch explained that it “points forwards... [to]
the כִּי
...
which follows opens up the expansion of this word. The futures, as
expressing the object of the remembrance, state what was a habit in
the time past.”
R "עָלַי used here and further on instead of בִּי or בְּקִרְבִּי... distinguishing between the ego and the soul..."~Delitzsch
S cf. Α=κατακυπτεις (“stoop down”) & Σ=κατακαμπτη (“bend down”)
TThe LXX and Syriac versions have a second interrogative in v.11 where it is absent in the Hebrew text of this verse, but it doesn’t change the meaning because it can be supplied by ellipsis.
U Αq=οχλαζεις (“mob”), Σ=θορυβη (“make an uproar”)
V Αq & Sym=αναμεινον (“stay fixed upon”)
WSince at least the first century AD (and probably longer), scholars have debated whether it should be “my presence” or “His presence” in this verse and in the last verse of this psalm. Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotian, and more read, as the MT, autou “him,” in this verse, and “my” in v.11/12 and in 43:5. On the other hand, there are several Hebrew manuscripts – as well as the Syriac version – which support the LXX “my” here (thus the NIV), and there are Hebrew manuscripts and ancient Coptic, Aramaic, and Greek versions which read “him” in v.11/12. Since the word “and” and the word “his” in Hebrew are spelled the same, and since early manuscripts had no spaces between words, one part of the explanation for this variant is that different translators divided the words in different places. At any rate, both statements are true, and it doesn’t change the theology presented either way. And, for what it’s worth, no Dead Sea Scroll has been discovered with this verse visible for comparison.
XThis verb is only used in these psalms of the sons of Korah - Ps. 42-44. BDB defined it as “sink down,” Holladay as “melt away,” and Delitzsch as “to sit down upon the ground like a mourner, and to bend one's self downwards,” I’m not sure where James Ward got “buckled over deep down” for lyrics to his musical setting of this psalm, but it also seems fitting. “In both verses [5 & 6] the form is reflexive, q. d.. My soul casts itself down.” ~Plumer
Y Α=κατακυψει (“stoop down”), Σ=κατατηκεται (“put down”), Ε=ταπεινουται (“be low”)
Z The LXX translated the word mitzar (“small”), whereas the English versions transliterate it as a proper noun.
AA
Some manuscripts and versions (including the Coptic and Sinaiticus)
add the word “LORD” or “God,” but this
merely clarifies the identity of the person referred to as
“you.”
“עַל־כֵּן
means 'therefore,' and the relationship of reason and
consequence is reversed... this thinking upon God does not appear as
the cause but as the consequence of pain.” ~Delitzsch
BB The phrase “land of Jordan” does not occur anywhere else in the Bible. “Land” is usually associated with a people or a king, not with the river. Furthermore, “Jordan” almost never appears without the definite article as it appears here in Hebrew; the only exceptions are here and the Israelite rendezvous point “in the plains of Moab over Jordan Jericho” mentioned several times in the book of Numbers (Num. 26:3, 63; 31:12; 33:48, 50; 35:1; 36:13), and one other poetic reference in Job 40:23 to Leviathan being unafraid of the river. Likewise, the plural form of “Hermon” here occurs nowhere else in the Bible.
CC
"Perhaps David also has
purposely made use of the plural number on account of the fear by
which he was forced frequently to change his place of abode, and
wander hither and thither." ~J. Calvin
“The
original word is plural of Hermon — Hermonim. The word in this
form occurs no where else. It pretty certainly designates not a
people, but a range of mountains, the Hermons,
because there were several high points in the range to which this
name was given, as we say the Alps, Alleghenies... If a large
mountainous region is designated... then we have the reason given
for David's remembering God, viz. his remoteness from the sanctuary
and his perils in that wild district.” ~Plumer
“The
plural may refer to [Mt. Hermon’s] three peaks.”
~Cohen
“...two summits..” ~John Wilson, Lands
of the Bible
"חֶרְמֹונִים
is
an amplificative plural: the Hermon, as a peak soaring far above all
lower summits... [T]he plural serves to denote the whole range of
the Antilebanon extending to the south-east, and accordingly to
designate the east Jordanic country…”~Delitzsch
DD Σ=...απηντα απο ηχου την κρουνων σου “Deep has met deep from the sound of your buffetings” diff. from MT and LXX.
EE cf. synonym in Σ=καταιγιδες
FF 2 Sam. 5:8 is the only other use of this word in the O.T., referring to a tunnel built to channel water in to Jerusalem.
GGAlexandrian edition of the LXX and Symmachus’ version read ᾠδὴ (“a song”) instead here, which is more like the MT Ketib. Aquila concurred with ασμα (“happy-songs”). Interestingly, the Vulgate seems to have followed the MT Qere here.
HH Hapex legomenon. Masorite scribes thought this should be spelled שִׁירוֹ, although this too has difficulties because nowhere else in scripture is there a song from God called “His song.” As best I can tell, this represents a shift in spelling over centuries from representing both the masculine and feminine third person singular pronoun with a he suffix to the current differentiation in spelling between the masculine (vav suffix) and feminine (he suffix), so it makes no difference in meaning, but this was done to avoid the misunderstanding that happened in the Greek translations, some of which missed the 3ms suffix (“a song” rather than “his song”) and others of which misunderstood it as a verb (“show” - perhaps assumed to be from שׁרה - to set free/wide-open”). Delitzsch sought to remove the difficulty my making it a feminine pronomial suffix referring forward to the feminine word “prayer,” and that also seems plausible.
II Aquila & Symmachus read petra, as the M.T.
JJ Symmachus and Eusebius supported the M.T. by omitting the “my” at the end of the verse.
KK Hapex legomenon. Should the cohortative he be interpreted as directive together with the lamed preposition which follows? Or hortitory and thus future tense? Or is it just euphonic to avoid the juxtaposition of the two liquid phonemes resh and lamed?
LL cf. Psalm 38:7b כָּל־הַיּוֹם קֹדֵר הִלָּכְתִּי
MMThis is Rahlf’s reading. cf. Vaticanus καταθλάσθαι and Theodotian:συνθλασθαι (both passive instead of active). Aquila used the synonym φονευσαι (“slaughtering” - active infinitive), and Symmachus σφαγην (“slaughter” -noun, which is the M.T. form).
NNThe LXX translation of this word “afflictors” and Aquila’s translation ενδεσμουντες (“those who imprison”) seem closer to the MT “those who put pressure” than the translations of Symmachus (εναντιοι= “those in opposition”) and the NAS (“adversaries”) and NIV (“foes”).
OO Delitzsch commented on the first letter of this verse that, “In some MSS we find the reading כְּרֶצַח instead of בְּרֶצַח; the בְּ is here really synonymous with the כְּ, it is the Beth essentiae (vid., Ps. 35:2): ‘after the manner of...’” The KJV, NAS, and ESV followed in that tradition. I, on the other hand, don’t see why the author couldn’t have used the comparative preposition coph if that’s what he meant, so I went for the more common instrumental meaning of the beth preposition “with,” which is also what the LXX did. The NIV chose to drop it out.
PP Αq=κατακυπτεις (as v.6), Σ=κατατηκη (unlike v.6)
QQ Αq=LXX (unlike v.6), Σ=θορυβη (like v.6)
RR See endnote “W”
SS Differences in each version and edition between v.5/6 and this verse are underlined.