Sabbath, when we know that the religious assemblies were more particularly
COMMENTARY ON PSALMS - VOLUME 3 the deep places of the earth, 44 And the heights of the mountains are his. 5. For his is the sea, and he made it; And the dry land his hands formed.
1. Come, let us rejoice before Jehovah. This psalm is suited for the Sabbath, when we know that the religious assemblies were more particularly convened for the worship of God. It is not individuals among the godly whom he exhorts to celebrate the divine praises in private; he enjoins these to be offered up in the public meeting. By this he showed that the outward worship of God principally consisted in the sacrifice of praise, and not in dead ceremonies. He enjoins haste upon them; by which they might testify their alacrity in this service. For the Hebrew word,קדםkadam, in the second verse, which I have rendered, let us come before, etc., means to make haste. He calls upon them to speed into the presence of God; and such an admonition was needed, considering how naturally backward we are when called by God to the exercise of thanksgiving. This indirect charge of indolence in the exercise, the Psalmist saw it necessary to prefer against God's ancient people; and we should be made aware that there is just as much need of a stimulus in our own case, filled as our hearts are with similar ingratitude. In calling them to come before God's face, he uses language which was also well fitted to increase the ardor of the worshippers; nothing being more agreeable than to offer in God's own presence such a sacrifice as
Horsley reads the second clause, "Let us raise the loud peal of melody to the Rock of our salvation;" on which he has the following note: "The verbהריעsignifies to make a loud sound of any sort, either with the voice or with instruments. In the Psalms it generally refers to the mingled din of voices and various instruments, in the temple-service. This wide sense of the word cannot be expressed otherwise in the English language than by a peripharasis." Bishop Mant, acting on this notion, has ventured, conformably to it, to specify in his version some of the instruments commonly used in the temple-worship: —
"Come, let us sing Jehovah's praise! To him the pealing chorus raise, With trump, and harp, and cymbals ring; The rock on which our hopes are placed!"
"The deep places of the earth," which are opposed to the "heights of the mountains," plainly mean the deepest and most retired parts of the terraqueous globe, which are explored by the eye of God, and by his only. Horsely reads the verse thus, —
"The God in whose hand are the nethermost recesses of the earth, Whose also are the inaccessible summits of the mountains."
"This, and the following verse," says he, "are expositive of the greatness of the Godship of Jehovah, generally mentioned in the lst verse. 'The God, in whose hand.' Thus, I have endeavoured to preserve the full force of the Hebrew phrase".בידו אשרBythner's version of the last member is, "And the strength of the mountains is his." He derives the noun ,ותועפותvethoaphoth, which he renders strength, from the verb,יעףyaaph, was wearied; and observes, that this is "a noun plural feminine, weariness, — by antiphrasis, strength: is read four times in Scripture, and is said of mountains, silver, and the unicorn, the weariness and difficulty in overcoming which, denote their great strength." Pagninus gives a similar rendering. Montanus has cacumina, the tops, which the Septuagint seems to agree, reading τὰὕψη τῶν ὀρέων.