Introduction
In 1 Chronicles 16:23-33, this psalm is recorded entire, with little variation from its form in the Psalter, as having been used on occasion of the second removal of the ark. 1 Chronicles 16:7. Apparently contrary to this, and apparently self contradictory, the Septuagint gives the title: “When the house was built after the captivity, a song of David.” But these two accounts may well agree if we take the real date to be as given in Chronicles, and suppose that, after the exile, it was used at the dedication of the second temple. The latter fact would naturally be preserved in the sacred archives, and the authors of the Greek version, more than two hundred years later, might have inserted their title simply as showing that the psalm was thus used. On this hypothesis, and on no other, could they have named it ωδη τω Δαυιδ , ( a song of David,) and at the same time dated it οτε οικος ωκοδομηται την αιματωσιαν , ( when the house was built, after the captivity.) We cannot take the latter part of the Greek title and reject the former, as do some critics. Such a procedure is wholly arbitrary. We must take the whole as genuine, or reject such as conflicts with Chronicles. The explanation we have given meets all the demands of fair criticism.
The psalm is a most joyful celebration of the universal sovereignty of God, as King and Saviour, written in the strain of Psalms 95:1-7, and in marked sympathy with the later prophecies of Isaiah, chapters 40 to 63. In the introduction, the whole earth is called to praise God (Psalms 96:1-6) because of his greatness and glory, and the beauty, purity, and fitness of his worship; the heathen, also, are invited to come with offerings, (Psalms 96:7-9,) for his kingdom is to be set up over them also, (Psalms 96:10,) on which occasion heaven, earth, and sea, man and nature, are called to exult, Psalms 96:11-13. The whole psalm is a prophecy of the submission of the Gentile nations to Jehovah, which is the common medium through which the Hebrew prophets contemplated the reign of Messiah.
Be the first to react on this!
