8 Jehovah is loosing the prisoners, Jehovah is opening (the eyes of) the blind, Jehovah is raising the bowed down, Jehovah is loving the righteous,
he who is having my commands, and is keeping them, that one it is who is loving me, and he who is loving me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.' Judas saith to him, (not the Iscariot), `Sir, what hath come to pass, that to us thou are about to manifest thyself, and not to the world?' Jesus answered and said to him, `If any one may love me, my word he will keep, and my Father will love him, and unto him we will come, and abode with him we will make;
`Go away, wash at the pool of Siloam,' which is, interpreted, Sent. He went away, therefore, and did wash, and came seeing; the neighbours, therefore, and those seeing him before, that he was blind, said, `Is not this he who is sitting and begging?' others said -- `This is he;' and others -- `He is like to him;' he himself said, -- `I am `he'.' They said, therefore, to him, `How were thine eyes opened?' he answered and said, `A man called Jesus made clay, and rubbed my eyes, and said to me, Go away to the pool of Siloam, and wash; and having gone away and having washed, I received sight;' they said, therefore, to him, `Where is that one?' he saith, `I have not known.' They bring him to the Pharisees who once `was' blind, and it was a sabbath when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Again, therefore, the Pharisees also were asking him how he received sight, and he said to them, `Clay he did put upon my eyes, and I did wash -- and I see.' Of the Pharisees, therefore, certain said, `This man is not from God, because the sabbath he doth not keep;' others said, `How is a man -- a sinful one -- able to do such signs?' and there was a division among them. They said to the blind man again, `Thou -- what dost thou say of him -- that he opened thine eyes?' and he said -- `He is a prophet.' The Jews, therefore, did not believe concerning him that he was blind and did receive sight, till that they called the parents of him who received sight, and they asked them, saying, `Is your son, of whom ye say that he was born blind? how then now doth he see?' His parents answered them and said, `We have known that this is our son, and that he was born blind; and how he now seeth, we have not known; or who opened his eyes, we have not known; himself is of age, ask him; he himself shall speak concerning himself.' These things said his parents, because they were afraid of the Jews, for already had the Jews agreed together, that if any one may confess him -- Christ, he may be put out of the synagogue; because of this his parents said -- `He is of age, ask him.' They called, therefore, a second time the man who was blind, and they said to him, `Give glory to God, we have known that this man is a sinner;' he answered, therefore, and said, `If he be a sinner -- I have not known, one thing I have known, that, being blind, now I see.' And they said to him again, `What did he to thee? how did he open thine eyes?' He answered them, `I told you already, and ye did not hear; why again do ye wish to hear? do ye also wish to become his disciples?' They reviled him, therefore, and said, `Thou art his disciple, and we are Moses' disciples; we have known that God hath spoken to Moses, but this one -- we have not known whence he is.' The man answered and said to them, `Why, in this is a wonderful thing, that ye have not known whence he is, and he opened my eyes! and we have known that God doth not hear sinners, but, if any one may be a worshipper of God, and may do His will, him He doth hear; from the age it was not heard, that any one did open eyes of one who hath been born blind; if this one were not from God, he were not able to do anything.'
and lo, there was a woman having a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and she was bowed together, and not able to bend back at all, and Jesus having seen her, did call `her' near, and said to her, `Woman, thou hast been loosed from thy infirmity;' and he laid on her `his' hands, and presently she was set upright, and was glorifying God.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 146
Commentary on Psalms 146 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Hallelujah to God the One True Helper
The Psalter now draws to a close with five Hallelujah Psalms. This first closing Hallelujah has many points of coincidence with the foregoing alphabetical hymn (compare אחללה in Psalms 146:2 with Psalms 145:2; שׂברו in Psalms 146:5 with Psalms 145:15; “who giveth bread to the hungry” in Psalms 146:7 with Psalms 145:15.; “who maketh the blind to see” in Psalms 146:8 with Psalms 145:14; “Jahve reigneth, etc.,” in Psalms 146:10 with Psalms 145:13) - the same range of thought betrays one author. In the lxx Psalms 146:1 (according to its enumeration four Psalms, viz., Psalms 145:1, Psalms 147 being split up into two) have the inscription Ἀλληλούια. Ἀγγαίου καὶ Ζαχαρίου , which is repeated four times. These Psalms appear to have formed a separate Hallel, which is referred back to these prophets, in the old liturgy of the second Temple. Later on they became, together with Psalms 149:1, an integral part of the daily morning prayer, and in fact of the פסוקי דזמרה , i.e., of the mosaic-work of Psalms and other poetical pieces that was incorporated in the morning prayer, and are called eve in Shabbath 118 b Hallel ,
(Note: Rashi, however, understands only Psalms 148:1-14 and Psalms 150:1-6 by פסוקי דזמרה in that passage.)
but expressly distinguished from the Hallel to be recited at the Passover and other feasts, which is called “the Egyptian Hallel.” In distinction from this, Krochmal calls these five Psalms the Greek Hallel. But there is nothing to oblige us to come down beyond the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. The agreement between 1 Macc. 2:63 ( ἔστρεψεν εἰς τὸν χοῦν αὐτοῦ καὶ ὁ διαλογισμὸς αὐτοῦ ἀπώλετο ) and Psalms 146:4 of our Psalm, which Hitzig has turned to good account, does not decide anything concerning the age of the Psalm, but only shows that it was in existence at the time of the author of the First Book of Maccabees, - a point in favour of which we were not in need of any proof. But there was just as much ground for dissuading against putting confidence in princes in the time of the Persians as in that of the Grecian domination.
Instead of “bless,” as in Psalms 103:1; Psalms 104:1, the poet of this Psalm says “praise.” When he attunes his sole to the praise of God, he puts himself personally into this mood of mind, and therefore goes on to say “I will praise.” He will, however, not only praise God in the song which he is beginning, but כּחיּי (vid., on Psalms 63:5), fillling up his life with it, or בּעודי (prop. “in my yet-being,” with the suffix of the noun, whereas עודנּי with the verbal suffix is “I still am”), so that his continued life is also a constant continued praising, viz., (and this is in the mind of the poet here, even at the commencment of the Psalm) of the God and Kings who, as being the Almighty, Eternal, and unchangeably Faithful One, is the true ground of confidence. The warning against putting trust in princes calls to mind Psalms 118:8. The clause: the son of man, who has no help that he could afford, is to be understood according to Ps 60:13. The following לאדמתו shows that the poet by expression בּן־אדם combines the thoughts of Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 3:19. If his breath goes forth, he says, basing the untrustworthiness and feebleness of the son of Adam upon the inevitable final destiny of the son of Adam taken out of the ground, then he returns to his earth, i.e., the earth of his first beginning; cf. the more exact expression אל־עפרם , after which the εἰς τὴν γῆν αὐτοῦ of the lxx is exchanged for εἰς τὸν χοῦν αὐτοῦ in 1 Macc. 2:63: On the hypothetical relation of the first future clause to the second, cf. Psalms 139:8-10, Psalms 139:18; Ew. §357, b . In that day, the inevitable day of death, the projects or plans of man are at once and forever at an end. The ἅπ. λεγ . עשׁתּנת describes these with the collateral notion of the subtleness and magnitude.
Man's help is of no avail; blessed is he (this is the last of the twenty-five אשׁרי of the Psalter), on the contrary, who has the God of Jacob ( שׁאל like שׁיהוה in Psalms 144:15) as Him in whom is his succour ( בּעזרו with Beth essentiae , vid., on Psalms 35:2) - he, whose confidence ( שׂבר as in Psalms 119:116) rests on Jahve, whom he can by faith call his God. Men often are not able to give help although they might be willing to do so: He, however, is the Almighty, the Creator of the heavens, the earth, and the sea, and of all living things that fill these three (cf. Nehemiah 9:6). Men easily change their mind and do not keep their word: He, however, is He who keepeth truth or faithfulness, inasmuch as He unchangeably adheres to the fulfilling of His promises. שׁמר אמת is in form equivalent substantially to שׁמר חסד and שׁמר הבּרית . And that which He is able to do as being the Almighty, and cannot as being the Truthful One leave undone, is also really His mode of active manifestation made evident in practical proofs: He obtains right for the oppressed, gives bread to the hungry, and consequently proves Himself to be the succour of those who suffer wrong without doing wrong, and as the provider for those who look for their daily bread from His gracious hand. With השּׁמר , the only determinate participle, the faithfulness of God to His promises is made especially prominent.
The five lines beginning with Jahve belong together. Each consists of three words, which in the main is also the favourite measure of the lines in the Book of Job. The expression is as brief as possible. התּיר is transferred from the yoke and chains to the person himself who is bound, and פּקח is transferred from the eyes of the blind to the person himself. The five lines celebrate the God of the five-divisioned Tôra, which furnishes abundant examples for these celebrations, and is directed with most considerate tenderness towards the strangers, orphans, and widows in particular. The orphan and the widow, says the sixth line, doth He recover, strengthen (with reference to עודד see Psalms 20:9; Psalms 31:12). Valde gratus mihi est hic Psalmus , Bakius observes, ob Trifolium illud Dei: Advenas, Pupillos, et Viduas, versu uno luculentissime depictum, id quod in toto Psalterio nullibi fit . Whilst Jahve, however, makes the manifold sorrows of His saints to have a blessed issue, He bends ( יאוּת ) the way of the wicked, so that it leads into error and ends in the abyss (Psalms 1:6). This judicial manifestation of Jahve has only one line devoted to it. For He rules in love and in wrath, but delights most of all to rule in love. Jahve is, however, the God of Zion. The eternal duration of His kingdom is also the guarantee for its future glorious completion, for the victory of love. Hallelujah!