Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/383

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David thinks of the people, then of himself; for his private character retreats behind his official, by virtue of which he is the head of Israel. For this very reason his deliverance is the deliverance of Israel, to whom, so far as they have become unfaithful to His anointed, Jahve has not requited this faithlessness, and to whom, so far as they have remained true to him, He has rewarded this fidelity. Jahve is a עז a si evhaJ to them, inasmuch as He preserves them by His might from the destruction into which they would have precipitated themselves, or into which others would have precipitated them; and He is the מעוז ישׁוּעות of His anointed inasmuch as He surrounds him as an inaccessible place of refuge which secures to him salvation in all its fulness instead of the destruction anticipated. Israel's salvation and blessing were at stake; but Israel is in fact God's people and God's inheritance - may He, then, work salvation for them in every future need and bless them. Apostatised from David, it was a flock in the hands of the hireling - may He ever take the place of shepherd to them and carry them in His arms through the destruction. The נשּׂאם coupled with וּרעם (thus it is to be pointed according to Ben-Asher) calls to mind Deu 1:31, “Jahve carried Israel as a man doth carry his son,” and Exo 19:4; Deu 32:11, “as on eagles' wings.” The Piel, as in Isa 63:9, is used of carrying the weak, whom one lifts up and thus removes out of its helplessness and danger. Psa 3:1-8 closes just in the same way with an intercession; and the close of Psa 29:1-11 is similar, but promissory, and consequently it is placed next to Psa 28:1-9.

Psalm 29

The Psalm of the Seven Thunders