Chapter V
HEBREW HYMNS IN PRAISE OF SACRED INSTITUTIONS
But there were in Hebrew religious poesie not only hymns in praise of deity, but also hymns in praise of sacred institutions. Especially prominent were hymns in praise of the sanctuary. Naturally however, only those that were written in praise of the temple in Jerusalem, or could be so interpreted had a chance for survival, and of those we have in the Psalter only 84, 122, 48, and 87.
It is best to begin with Psalm 84, for it represents a transition stage between the psalm of lamentation and petition and the hymn of praise. In great part Psalm 84 is addressed in the second person to deity, and it actually has, in verses 9, 10, a petition for Yahwe’s favor. The request in these verses is not explicit, yet the context, especially verses 3 and 11, makes it clear that our psalmist, like the author of Psalms 42-43, earnestly desires the privilege of worshipping in the temple. Moreover the petition of verses 9, 10 is reinforced by a profession of devotion in verses 11-13 that corresponds to the affirmation of faith, so characteristic a feature of the prayer of supplication. In so far this psalm is also itself a psalm of lamentation and supplication. On the other hand verses 2-8 are essentially an expression of devotion to the temple:
How lovely is thy dwelling, O Yahwe of hosts! Longeth, yea fainteth my soul For the courts of Yahwe; My heart and my flesh cry out unto the living God. —Verses 2-3.
He envies the birds which nest in the temple (verse 4), the priests who are continually in the sanctuary praising God, and the men who, by God’s favor, are privileged to pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to pass from rampart to rampart, and to behold God in Zion. Psalm 84 therefore deserves to be grouped with the hymns in praise of the temple.
As Psalm 84 has kinship with the psalms of lamentation and supplication, so Psalm 122 has a certain kinship with the psalms of faith. In the latter the psalmist has a joyous confidence in Yahwe, in this psalm he has great joy in the temple and the holy city. Verses 1 and 2 affirm his joy in the temple, and his positive intention of attending in company with others the great festivals:
I am glad whenever they say unto me, Let us go to the house of Yahwe. Our feet shall assuredly stand Within thy gates O Jerusalem.
Then follows, in verses 3-5, his praise of Jerusalem the city of David:
Jerusalem that is built As a city compact and solid, Whither go up Yahwe’s tribes. A law is it for Israel to give thanks to Yahwe’s name, For there abide the thrones of justice, The thrones of the house of David.
Having thus praised the city, the psalmist exhorts others to pray for it:
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, May thy dwellings prosper, May peace be within thy walls, Prosperity in thy palaces. —Verses 6, 7.
The psalm then closes with his personal protestation of devotion to the city:
For the sake of my brethren and companions I will say: “Peace be in Thee.” For the sake of the house of Yahwe our God I will seek thy good. —Verses 8-9.
It has been said above that this psalm has some similarity to the psalms of faith. It is possible that it also, in verses 6-9, reflects the influence of prophetic style. But, since the spirit that animates it is one of enthusiasm for the holy city, it is best classed among the hymns of praise.
Psalm 48 is also, in a sense, a transition hymn, for it praises, not God alone, but both God and the city in which he dwells. Verse 2 praises Yahwe, and verse 3 the city:
Great is Yahwe and to be praised exceedingly In the city of our God on his holy mountain. Beautiful for situation, the joy of all the earth, Is Mount Zion, on the Northern slope, The city of the great King.
Then verses 4-8 record the city’s chief glory, that Yahwe has been in its midst, its mighty defender against its foes:
God is known in her palaces as a defense: For lo, kings assembled; They invaded her together; They saw, so they marveled; They were troubled, they fled. Fear seized them there, As pain seizes a woman in travail, While thou didst shatter them, As an east wind the great merchantmen.
Our psalmist and his associates are obviously pilgrims to Jerusalem. They had previously heard of such events as the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib; they have now seen with their own eyes the sacred sites which testify to such deliverances. They have meditated on Yahwe’s goodness in the holy temple, and are certain of his universal fame. Therefore, they can bid Zion and the towns of Judah rejoice in their God:
As we have heard, so have we seen In the city of Yahwe of hosts, in the city of our God. God will establish it forever. We have thought O God of thy loving kindness In the midst of thy temple. As thy name O God, So is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Victories fill thy right hand. Let Mount Zion rejoice, Let the towns of Judah be glad Because of thy deliverances.
It is evident that the closing verses (13-15) must have been spoken in Jerusalem, and it is perhaps equally clear that they must have been spoken, not by the pilgrims to residents of Jerusalem, but rather by residents of Jerusalem, probably the temple choir to the pilgrims, exhorting them to make their final procession around the city, that they may know it and be able to tell the story of the city to the oncoming generation, and so inspire in them reverence and loyalty for the God of their fathers:
Walk about Zion and go round her: Count up her towers; Give heed to her ramparts; Consider her palaces, That you may tell it to the coming generation, For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even unto death.
But if verses 9-12 were spoken by the pilgrims, and verses 13-15 by the temple choir, then it is probable that likewise verses 2-4 were spoken by the pilgrims, and verses 5-8 by the temple choir. Thus Psalm 48 may be considered a liturgical hymn of praise, rendered in the temple on one of the great religious festivals that brought the pilgrims of the diaspora to the holy city.
Psalm 87 is a hymn devoted entirely to the praise of the temple and the holy city. Unfortunately the text is in disorder. Probably verse 5b should be brought back to verse 1, and then the introductory verses 1-3 would read:
Its foundation is in the holy mountains, And the Most High doth sustain her. Yahwe loveth the gates of Zion More than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things he speaketh concerning thee, O city of God.
The rest of the psalm is exceedingly difficult. Verse 3 leads us to expect a divine pronouncement regarding Zion’s future glory. In that day Egypt and Babylon, Philistia and Tyre, together with far distant Ethiopia, will recognize it as a distinction to be a Hebrew. Verses 4 and 5 perhaps read:
I will cause Egypt and Babylon to remember thy children, Behold Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia, They shall say of Zion, “This one and that one was born in her.”
Then the psalmist informs us (verses 6, 7) that Yahwe himself will count up the scattered Jews of the diaspora, and they in turn in that great day will be proudly mindful of the mother city:
Yahwe will count them in the midst of the peoples This one and that one was born there; And princes as common people will say We shall all make our home in thee.
Two psalms, 119 and 19:8-15, are in praise of the Jewish law. Since Psalm 119 is an alphabetical psalm, each successive eight lines beginning with the twenty-two successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet, its one hundred seventy-six lines are necessarily a very mechanical and mediocre production. Psalm 19:8-15, on the other hand, is a much finer piece of craftsmanship. The first six lines (verses 8-10) which are strikingly uniform in style, draw attention to six complementary virtues of the law. Then four lines (verses 11-12) express in general terms the joy that is to be found in knowledge of the law and the practical benefit to be derived from obedience to it. Verses 13 and 14 present his humble petition that he be delivered from violating the law unwittingly or presumptuously, while verse 15 dedicates the hymn so carefully written, not to any princely patron but to Yahwe, his strength and redeemer.
Another little group of hymns deals with the king, who as the anointed of Yahwe was also a sacred institution. From a modern standpoint however Psalm 45 is purely secular in character, celebrating as it does the king’s wedding day. Verse 2 is introductory in which the author announces himself as a clever poet. Verses 3-10 are in characteristically extravagant praise of the king. Verses 11-16 are devoted to the bride, while verse 17 makes tactful and appropriate reference to the princes yet to be born. Verse 18 concluding the poem, makes the naïvely modest promise that the pen of the poet will guarantee immortal fame to the king.
Psalm 101 is likewise secular, for it is evidently a king’s proclamation. As such it may have been used in the coronation service in the temple, and so preserved in the sanctuary song book. Quite naturally, as is always to be expected, the king promises to walk uprightly in his own private life, to choose wise counsellors, to turn a deaf ear to slanderers, to give protection to honest men, and to suppress the wicked.
Psalm 72 might likewise be fitted into the coronation service, being then the prayer offered for a just and successful reign. This would mean translating the successive sentences of the psalm from verse 1 to verse 11 and from verse 15 to verse 17 as petitions. Thus verse 2 would be translated:
May he judge thy people with righteousness And thy poor with justice,
and the other verses correspondingly, and the psalm would accordingly be classed as a prayer of supplication. On the other hand if the successive sentences, with the necessary exception of verse 1 are to be regarded as predictions of a glorious reign, then the psalm is to be regarded as a hymn in praise of the Messiah, or possibly of an ordinary king who has just ascended the throne.
Psalm 110 and Psalm 2 are clearly hymns in praise of the king. Psalm 110 brings to the king in verse 1 the oracle of Yahwe:
Oracle of Yahwe to my lord, sit on my right hand Until I make thy enemies my footstool.
Then in verses 2-7 the priest supplements this oracle with his assurance of Yahwe’s effective support, and the king’s great triumph over all his enemies. The imagery describing Yahwe’s activity belongs to eschatology, and we undoubtedly have here an eschatological hymn in praise of the king.
Psalm 2 is likewise an eschatological hymn, dealing with that same feature of the last days as Psalm 110, and the last futile rebellion of the nations against the will of Yahwe and Yahwe’s king. In verses 1-3 some one, perhaps a layman, asks why the nations are so foolish as to rebel against Yahwe:
Why do the nations rage, And the peoples plan a mad thing? The kings of the earth take their stand, And princes plot together Against Yahwe and against his anointed: “Let us break their bands And cast from us their cords.”
Then in verses 4-5 a priest, one who knows the plan of God, gives answer:
He that sitteth in the heavens laugheth; The lord is scornful of them. Presently he will speak to them in his anger, And terrify them in his rage: “I, on my part, have set my king Upon Zion, my holy hill.”
And now it is for the king himself to add a final authoritative word concerning Yahwe’s plan, for to the king himself Yahwe had actually spoken:
I will declare the decree; Yahwe said to me: “You are my son;” I this day have adopted you. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, And the entire earth your possession. You can beat them with an iron rod; You can break them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Yahwe’s decree, bestowing such power over the nations upon Israel’s king, having thus been made known, it only remained to advise the nations to make humble submission to Yahwe and to Yahwe’s representative upon the throne in Zion:
And now, O kings, be prudent; Take warning, ye judges of the earth. Worship Yahwe with reverence, Submit to him with trembling. Do homage to the son, lest he be angry and ye perish, For his anger is quickly kindled. Happy are all who secure his protection.
Here again, as in Psalm 110, because of the prominence of the king in this dramatic setting forth of one of the important features of the last days, Psalm 2 must be classed as an eschatological hymn in praise of the king.
Division II ASSYRIAN HYMNS OF PRAISE
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