Psalms 69:34

A HOPEFUL OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE

"Let heaven and earth praise him,

The seas and everything that moveth therein.

For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah;

And they shall abide there, and have it in possession.

The seed also of his servants shall inherit it;

And they that love his name shall dwell therein."

"Let heaven and earth ... the sea and everything ... praise God (Psalms 69:34).

EVERYWHERE

"Where myriad waterfowl with thunderous wings

Ascending climb dawn's flaming stair,

The oratorio of all created things

Is heard upon the morning air.

Where velvet footsteps march beneath the shade

Of giant trees, and move along

The resinous forest's colonnade,

God hears this thrilling glory song.

Where countless life-forms teem the ocean floor,

Is sung God's glory in the sea.

A mighty chores shore to shore,

They justify their right to be.

Where Pleiades and Morning Star adorn

The arch of heaven, even there,

From Creation's birthday more,

God's glory sings, and EVERYWHERE."

- James Burton Coffman, 1962.

"For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah" (Psalms 69:35). This, of course is the verse, which according to Dummelow, "Points to a date long after the age of David."[15] Of course, Dummelow was thinking of the times of Zedekiah; but others find that this verse allegedly points to the times of "Nehemiah and Ezra,"[16] or "The times of the Maccabees."[17]

We reject such opinions in full confidence of their error. It seems never to have occurred to such scholars that they are misinterpreting the word "build," reading it instead as "rebuild," which is simply not in the Hebrew at all. Even though the RSV, apparently for the purpose of supporting such false views, has without authority changed the word to rebuild, the Douay Version and the Septuagint (LXX) both support the American Standard Version (our version) in rendering the word "build," not "rebuild."

Rawlinson gave the proper meaning of the term as follows: "`Build the cities of Judah' means to maintain them, and to keep them from decay and ruin."[18]

At the time David wrote this, many of the "cities of Judah had never been built." It was only after David became king that Jerusalem itself was secured as a bastion of Israel's power; and what David prophesied here was not that the cities of Judah would be rebuilt after having been destroyed, but that they would be constructed for the first time.

"The seed of his servants shall inherit it" (Psalms 69:36). This is a reference to God's children, the seed of the kingdom.

"And they that love his name shall dwell therein" (Psalms 69:36). This line, according to the genius of Hebrew poetry has the same meaning as the preceding line, enabling us more certainly to determine the meaning of both.