291 CHAPTER XV. THE SIXTY-EIGHTH PSALM. 405. Ps.lxviii (E.31,J.4), is undoubtedly a Psalm of David's, as the title declares, and we must call attention specially to it, as one of great importance with reference to the question now before us. That this Psalm is unquestionably a Psalm of David's age appears as follows. (i) In v.16, 'This is the hill which God desireth to dwell in, yea, Jehovah will dwell in it for ever,' we have a plain reference to the hill of Zion; but this, as we have seen (321), does not necessarily point to the Tabernacle, and so to the age of David. (ii) In v.29, Because of Thy Temple at Jerusalem,' we have a reference either to the Tabernacle, 1S.i.9, or to the Temple; and so in v.24 mention is made of the Sanctuary,' and in v.35 we read, 'O God, Thou art terrible out of Thy holy places.' (iii) In v.34,35, we read, 'Ascribe ye strength unto God; His excellency is over Israel,' and 'the God of Israel is He that giveth strength and power unto His people.' This language seems to belong clearly to the time of the undivided kingdom, so that the Psalm was composed in the days of David or Solomon. (iv) But the martial tone which pervades the Psalm, v.1,12,14,30,35, corresponds to the age of David, not to that of Solomon. (v) The expressions in v.27, There is little Benjamin their ruler, the princes of Judah with their company, (oņp, their band, LXX. yéμoves auтwv, P.B.V. their counsel') the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali,' belong also to the undivided kingdom, and correspond to the time when Benjamin, which, as the tribe of Saul, had been the ruling tribe in Israel, and had afterwards been ruling again in the person of Saul's son, Ishbosheth, had now submitted itself to David. It may be, therefore, in a politic manner, spoken of here, as being still a tribe of royal dignity. 406. This Psalm contains Elohim thirty-one times, and Adonai, Lord, seven times, as well as the ancient name Shaddai in v.14; while Jehovah appears only twice and Jah twice. Manifestly, therefore, the last Name was less familiar to the writer at the time when he wrote, than Elohim, at all events,— we might almost say, than Adonai also ; but it would not be safe to infer this last from a single instance. In v.4 we have Sing unto God, sing praises to His Name: extol Him that rideth upon the heavens by His Name JAH, and rejoice before Him;' or, in FRENCH and SKINNER's translation, 'Sing ye unto God, hymn His Name! Raise a highway for Him, who rideth through the desert! JEHOVAH is His Name; Exult at His Presence!' It is plain that a special stress is here laid upon the fact ́that God's Name is Jehovah. Setting aside, as we must, from what we have seen already, the Mosaic story as unhistorical, this seems rather to imply that the Name had been newly introduced. 407. In v.1 we have— 'Let Elohim arise, let His enemies be scattered; And let them that hate Him flee before Him.' Here we have almost the identical words, which are found in -N.x.35, And it came to pass, when the Ark set forward, that Moses said, Arise, Jehovah, and let Thine enemies be scattered; And let them, that hate Thee, flee before Thee.' But let it be noted that the Name Jehovah, in this passage of Numbers, appears as Elohim in the Psalm. Now, from the general identity of the two passages, either in the E.V., or when compared, as below, in the original, it will be plain that one of them has been copied from the other. 408. Upon which we observe as follows: (i) Surely, if the Psalmist drew his language from so sacred a book as the Pentateuch, according to the ordinary view, must have been, he would not have changed the Name from Jehovah to Elohim. (ii) Besides, the Name Jehovah, if it had really originated in the way described in the Pentateuch, would have been the very Name required for this Psalm, considering its character, as the Name of the Covenant God of Israel. (iii) Moreover, v.1 of the Psalm is closely connected with the words that follow, and has all the appearance of being an original utterance, poured forth by the same impulse which gave birth to them. (iv) But, if the passage from Numbers, as we believe, was written at a later date than the Psalm, at a time when the Name Jehovah was in common use, (which was evidently not the case when the Psalm was written,) it is easy to understand how David's words in this Psalm might have been first used, as most commentators suppose, when the Ark was brought up to Mount Zion, and might afterwards have been adapted by the writer of the passage in Numbers, with the change of the Divine Name, as fit words to be used with every movement of the Ark in the wilderness. (v) Lastly, in the Psalm we have the older grammatical יָנָסוּ יָפְצוּ אֹיְבֶיךָ where the other has ,יָנוּסוּ יָפוּצוּ אוֹיְבָיו forms Upon the whole it can scarcely be doubted that this Elohistic Psalm was written first, and that in a later day the Jehovist adapted the first words of it,-which, perhaps, he had himself helped to chant, when the procession with the Ark wound its way up the hill of Zion,—to the story, which he was writing, of the movements of the host of Israel in the wilderness. 409. The following expressions of this Psalm are also noticeable: 'O God, when thou wentest forth before Thy people, The earth trembled, Yea, the heavens dropped rain, at the Presence of God,— Sinai itself trembled, At the Presence of God, the God of Israel.' v.7,8. The chariots of God are thousands on thousands (E.V. twenty thousand, even thousands of angels); The Lord (Adonai) is among them, as at Sinai, in the Sanctuary.' v.17. ‹ The Lord (Adonai) hath said, I will bring again from Bashan, The references in the above verses to the passage of the Red Sea, the transactions at Sinai, and, perhaps, the conquest of Bashan, show only that the Psalmist was acquainted with certain portions of the story of the Exodus, which had probably been already written by Samuel, who died fifteen years before the bringing up of the Ark, and may have composed his narrative many years previously, and may have communicated it to David. 410. The above references, however, occurring in a Psalm intended for a public occasion, imply also that those, who would be likely to join in chanting it, must likewise have been familiar, to some extent, with the story of the Exodus. These would not be the people generally, but only those who would take part in the procession, the sons of Heman, and Asaph, and Jeduthun,' it may be, who should prophesy with harps and psalteries and cymbals,' 1Ch.xxv.1,6, and who, doubtless, had had their train 6 ing in the School of the Prophets' under Samuel's direction, where they prophesied' in Samuel's time, as well as in David's, - that is, evidently, sang or chanted their psalms of praise,with a psaltery and tabret and pipe and harp before them,' 1S.x.5. 411. These sons of the Prophets,' then, as well as any Priests, &c., taking part in the ceremonies, may have been quite familiar with the facts of the Elohistic story, and even have helped already, by mixing with their own families and in other ways, to communicate them in some measure to the people. And, indeed, it is very conceivable that the people may have had among them, in a more imperfect form, the same traditionary remnants of past history, which the Prophet Samuel and his School may have used as the basis of their Elohistic story;' e.g. Ps.lxviii.8, the heavens also dropped,' and Ju.v.4, 'the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water,'—and the references to the storm of thunder and lightning at the passage of the Red Sea, Ps.lxxvii. 16-19,-and Ps.lxxviii.9, 'The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle,'-of which facts we have no record in the Pentateuch, unless, indeed, a reference may be made to the last in D.i.44. 412. The E.V. of v.15,16, of this Psalm, is as follows: The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan, An high hill as the hill of Bashan. Why leap ye, ye high hills? This is the hill which God desireth to dwell in, Yea, Jehovah will dwell in it for ever. Thus translated, the hill of God' can only be understood to mean Mount Zion. But this hill was not remarkably high, and was not even the highest of the two hills of Jerusalem. Probably, the passage should be rendered thus: A lofty mountain (lit. mountain of God) is the mountain of Bashan, |