Psalm 121:5 Komentář

Some call this the soldier's psalm, and think it was penned in the camp, when David was hazarding his life in the high places of the field, and thus trusted God to cover his head in the day of battle. Others call it the traveller's psalm (for there is nothing in it of military dangers) and think David penned it when he was going abroad, and designed it pro vehiculo - for the carriage, for a good man's convoy and companion in a journey or voyage. But we need not thus appropriate it; wherever we are, at home or abroad, we are exposed to danger more than we are aware of; and this psalm directs and encourages us to repose ourselves and our confidence in God, and by faith to put ourselves under his protection and commit ourselves to his care, which we must do, with an entire resignation and satisfaction, in singing this psalm. I. David here assures himself of help from God (Psa 121:1, Psa 121:2). II. He assures others of it (Psa 121:3-8). A song of degrees.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 121 A Song of degrees. The inscription of the Syriac version is, "one of the songs of ascent out of Babylon.'' Aben Ezra thinks it was composed on account of Israel, when in a siege and distress; or, adds he, on account of the children of our captivity; the present state of the Jews. Grotius is of opinion it was written by David, at the time of the battle with Absalom. Some take it to be a military psalm, proper for soldiers engaged with an enemy: others, that it is suitable for travellers when on a journey; and why not for persons also, when they commit themselves to God in the night watches, and about to take rest? And indeed it is suitable at all times; when the good man may, with the psalmist, expect divine help, and be secure of protection and preservation.

The sun shall not smite thee by day,.... With its rays, which it shoots forth like darts, and which fly swiftly, and pierce and hurt: hence Apollo, the same with the sun, is represented with a bow and arrows (o); so the rays of the sun seem to be called in Hab 2:11; nor the moon by night; this clause should be supplied, as a learned man (p) observes, thus, "neither shall the moon cool thee by night"; for that has no warmth in it, and cannot smite with heat, as the sun does: for even, as he observes, its rays focused by a magnifying glass will not communicate the least degree of sensible heat to bodies objected thereunto; yet some say (q) the moon is not only moist, but heats bodies as the sun. And Isaac Vossius (r) observes, that there can be no light, which, separately considered, does not contain some heat at least: and Macrobius (s) speaks of the lunar heat; and Plutarch (t) ascribes heat and inflammation to it, and asserts it to be fire. It is said (u) that some men of good credit, in a voyage to Guinea, strongly affirmed, that, in the night season, they felt a sensible heat to come from the beams of the moon. The Septuagint version is, "the sun shall not burn thee by day, nor the moon by night". And burning may be ascribed to the cold frosty air in a moonlight night, as to the north wind, as in the Apocrypha: "20 When the cold north wind bloweth, and the water is congealed into ice, it abideth upon every gathering together of water, and clotheth the water as with a breastplate. 21 It devoureth the mountains, and burneth the wilderness, and consumeth the grass as fire.'' (Sirach 43) see Gen 31:40; and our English poet (w) expresses a sentiment to this effect; yet not what affects the bodies of men, but plants, trees, &c. and this not owing to the moon, but to the air. However, these clauses are not to be understood literally; for good men may be smitten and hurt by the heat of the one and the cold of the other, as Jacob and Jonah, Gen 31:40; but mystically, of persecuting antichristian tyrants, which are sometimes signified by the sun and moon, as both in Rome Pagan and Papal, Rev 6:12; and of persecution and tribulation itself, Mat 13:6; and is sometimes applied to the perfect state of the saints, either in the New Jerusalem, or ultimate glory, when there will be nothing more of this kind, Rev 7:15. And there are some periods in the present state, when those entirely cease; nor are the saints ever really hurt by them, they being always for their good; or, however, not so as to affect their eternal happiness. The Targum is, "in the day, when the sun rules, the morning spirits shall not smite thee; nor the nocturnal ones in the night, when the moon rules.'' (o) Macrob. Saturnal. l. 1. c. 17. (p) Scheuchzer. Physic. Sacr. p. 976, 977. (q) Suidas in voce so Theodoret. (r) De Motu Marium & Vent. c. 6. Vid. Senecae Nat. Quaest. l. 5. c. 9. (s) Saturnal. l. 7. c. 16. (t) De Facie Lunae, in tom. 2. p. 933. (u) The Second Voyage in Eden's Travels, p. 350. 2. (w) "----The parching air----Burns frore (frosty) and cold performs the effect of fire". Milton's Paradise Lost, l. 2. v. 594.

Let us now come to this verse of the Psalm: "The Lord is your defence upon the hand of your right hand" [Psalm 121:5]. By hand he means power. How do we prove this? Because the power of God also is styled the hand of God...Whereof John says, "He gave unto them power to become the sons of God." [John 1:12] Whence have you received this power? "To them," he says, "that believe in His Name." If then you believe, this very power is given you, to be among the sons of God. But to be among the sons of God, is to belong to the right hand. Your faith therefore is the hand of your right hand: that is, the power that is given you, to be among the sons of God, is the hand of your right hand...

An earnest and expecting prayer for divine aid in distress. (Psa 123:1-4) (Compare Psa 121:1). thou that dwellest--literally, "sittest as enthroned" (compare Psa 2:4; Psa 113:4-5).

upon thy right hand--a protector's place (Psa 109:31; Psa 110:5).

That which holds good of "the Keeper of Israel" the poet applies believingly to himself, the individual among God's people, in Psa 121:5 after Gen 28:15. Jahve is his Keeper, He is his shade upon his right hand (היּמין as in Jdg 20:16; Sa2 20:9, and frequently; the construct state instead of an apposition, cf. e.g., Arab. jânbu 'l-grbı̂yi, the side of the western = the western side), which protecting him and keeping him fresh and cool, covers him from the sun's burning heat. על, as in Psa 109:6; Psa 110:5, with the idea of an overshadowing that screens and spreads itself out over anything (cf. Num 14:9). To the figure of the shadow is appended the consolation in Psa 121:6. הכּה of the sun signifies to smite injuriously (Isa 49:10), plants, so that they wither (Psa 102:5), and the head (Jon 4:8), so that symptoms of sun-stroke (Kg2 4:19, Judith 8:2f.) appears. The transferring of the word of the moon is not zeugmatic. Even the moon's rays may become insupportable, may affect the eyes injuriously, and (more particularly in the equatorial regions) produce fatal inflammation of the brain. (Note: Many expositors, nevertheless, understand the destructive influence of the moon meant here of the nightly cold, which is mentioned elsewhere in the same antithesis. Gen 31:40; Jer 36:30. De Sacy observes also: On dit quelquefois d'un grand froid, comme d'un grand chaud, qu'il est brulant. The Arabs also say of snow and of cold as of fire: jaḥrik, it burns.) From the hurtful influences of nature that are round about him the promise extends in Psa 121:7-8 in every direction. Jahve, says the poet to himself, will keep (guard) thee against all evil, of whatever kind it may be and whencesoever it may threaten; He will keep thy soul, and therefore thy life both inwardly and outwardly; He will keep (ישׁמר־, cf. on the other hand ישׁפּט־ in Psa 9:9) thy going out and coming in, i.e., all thy business and intercourse of life (Deu 28:6, and frequently); for, as Chrysostom observes, ἐν τούτοις ὁ βίος ἅπας, ἐν εἰσόδοις καὶ ἐξόδοις, therefore: everywhere and at all times; and that from this time forth even for ever. In connection with this the thought is natural, that the life of him who stands under the so universal and unbounded protection of eternal love can suffer no injury.