I. ACKNOWLEDGMENT OFrPLIGHT (1-5). The Extremity. I. Noteworthy eonfession (1-2). Jehovah our Help. 2. Neat Comparisons (3-5 ). (i) Ferocious Beasts (3). (ii) Flood Waters (4-5). II. ASCRIPTION OF PRAISE (6-8). The Escape. I. Neat Comparisons (6-7). (i) Ferocious Beasts (6). (ii) Fowler's Snare (7). 2. Noteworthy Confession (8). Jehovah our Help. S!JPERSCRIPT.-A Song of the Degrees ( or, Ascents); David's. PRIMARY AssocIATION.-Evidently points to a sudden national danger providentially averted. Only such period recorded in David's history was that of the Syrian and Edomite wars, cf. Pss. xliv., Ix. This is the thanksgiving for deliverance. Language and style confirm David's authorship. Note the step-like structure; before the next
jl8 ANALYTiCAL STUDiES iN THE PSALMS forward move, the writer goes back half a step. It is not so much poetic art as a passionate heart. The repetition is for emphasis. Patient Resignation, cxxiii.; Jubilant Celebration, cxxiv. Hezekiah uses David's composition as el1llilently suited to the new crisis in the nation in his day. Three hundred and fifty years earlier David had he: in siar danger, especially when pursued by Saul, 1 Sam. XXlll.-XXVl. PROPHETIC ANncIPATION.-:Jehovah has intervened for the deliverance of His people in answer to the appeal of Ps. cxxiii.; c£ notes to Ps. lxxxiii. See Joel ii. 32. PERSONAL APPLICATION.-Thanksgiving for answered prayers should be as persistent as the prayers. Shallow gratitude is poured out in one gush; deep gratitude flows on like a river. God changes our notes of alarm into songs of joy. Sin both snares and swallows up its victin1s. What Jehovah's name declares Him to be that He is to our souls. VERSE NOTES 1. "on our side," hr. "for us," so 2a. For the construction of verse c£ cxxix. 1:-2. The repetition may indicate more than one divine intervention; e.g. first over Hadadrezer and then over Edom. ul" h ) d Cf ... 6 our so . us emp . so 5 an 7; stream = torrent. . xv111. 1 . d "H bfr b il h th fh prou , e . om root to o over. 4-5 s ow e unmmence o t e danger; 6-7 the completeness of the deliverance. 7. "we" (emph.). Note the beautiful comparison of the fluttering feebleness of the bird snatched from the snare by the delivering hand. It is teresting to note that on Sennacherib's cylinder (now in the British Museum) the Assyrian king refers to Hezekiah as a bird in a cage. 8. C£ cxxi. 2, cxxxiv. 3.
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