Page:03.BCOT.KD.HistoricalBooks.B.vol.3.LaterProphets.djvu/228

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28  Give unto Jahve, ye kindreds of the people,
Give unto Jahve glory and strength. 29  Give unto Jahve the honour of His name:
Bring an offering, and come before His presence;
Worship the Lord in the holy ornaments. 30  Tremble before Him, all the lands;
Then will the earth stand fast unshaking. 31  Let the heavens be glad, and the earth rejoice;
And they will say among the heathen, Jahve is King. 32  Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof;
Let the field exult, and all that is thereon. 33  Then shall the trees of the wood rejoice
Before the Lord; for He comes to judge the earth. 34  Give thanks unto Jahve, for He is good;
For His mercy endureth for ever. 35  And say, “Save us, God of our salvation:”
And gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen,
To give thanks to Thy holy name,
To glory in Thy praise. 36  Blessed be Jahve, the God of Israel,
From everlasting to everlasting.And all the people said Amen, and praised Jahve.

Verses 8-36


This hymn forms a connected and uniform whole. Beginning with a summons to praise the Lord, and to seek His face (1Ch 16:8-11), the singer exhorts his people to remember the wondrous works of the Lord (1Ch 16:12-14), and the covenant which He made with the patriarchs to give them the land of Canaan (1Ch 16:15-18), and confirms his exhortation by pointing out how the Lord, in fulfilment of His promise, had mightily and gloriously defended the patriarchs (1Ch 16:19-22). But all the world also are to praise Him as the only true and almighty God (1Ch 16:23-27), and all peoples do homage to Him with sacrificial gifts (1Ch 16:28-30); and that His kingdom may be acknowledged among the heathen, even inanimate nature will rejoice at His coming to judgment (1Ch 16:31-33). In conclusion, we have again the summons to thankfulness,combined with a prayer that God would further vouchsafe salvation; and a doxology rounds off the whole (1Ch 16:34-36). When we consider the contents of the whole hymn, it is manifest that it contains nothing which would be at all inconsistent with the belief that it was composed by David for the above-mentioned religious service. There is nowhere any reference to the condition of the people in exile, nor yet to the circumstances after the exile. The subject of the praise to