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The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 1 Psalms I.-XXXVIII. — Text and Context
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2013
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Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
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118,667
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516 min
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11
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This editorial note examines the structure and imagery in Alexander Maclaren's exposition of Psalms I–XXXVIII, focusing on how he traces movement between individual prayer and communal response, and his attention to recurring motifs like the divine name and battle scenes.
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Jehovah said unto me, My son art thou; I have begotten thee this day. 8 Ask from me and I will give thee the nations as thine inheritance, And as thy possession the ends of the earth. 9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Like a potter's vessel shalt thou shatter them.
10 And now, O kings, be wise; Let yourselves be warned, O judges of the earth. 11 Serve Jehovah in fear, And rejoice in trembling. 12 Kiss the Son (?), lest He be angry, and ye perish in [your] way; For easily may His wrath kindle. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
Various unsatisfactory conjectures as to a historical basis for this magnificent lyric have been made, but none succeeds in specifying events which fit with the situation painted in it. The banded enemies are rebels, and the revolt is widespread; for the "kings of the earth" is a very comprehensive, if we may not even say a universal, expression. If taken in connection with the "uttermost parts of the earth" (ver. 8), which are the King's rightful dominion, it implies a sweep of authority and a breadth of opposition quite beyond any recorded facts. Authorship and date must be left undetermined. The psalm is anonymous, like Psalm i., and is thereby marked off from the psalms which follow in Book I., and with one exception are ascribed to David. Whether these two preludes to the Psalter were set in their present place on the completion of the whole book, or were prefixed to the smaller "Davidic" collection, cannot be settled. The date of composition may have been much earlier than that of either the smaller or the larger collection.
The true basis of the psalm is not some petty revolt of subject tribes, even if such could be adduced, but Nathan's prophecy in 2 Sam. vii., which sets forth the dignity and dominion of the King of Israel as God's son and representative. The poet-prophet of our psalm may have lived after many monarchs had borne the title, but failed to realise the ideal there outlined, and the imperfect shadows may have helped to lift his thoughts to the reality. His grand poem may be called an idealising of the monarch of Israel, but it is an idealising which expected realisation. The psalm is prophecy as well as poetry; and whether it had contemporaneous persons and events as a starting-point or not, its theme is a real person, fully possessing the prerogatives and wielding the dominion which Nathan had declared to be God's gift to the King of Israel.
The psalm falls into four strophes of three verses each, in the first three of which the reader is made spectator and auditor of vividly painted scenes, while in the last the psalmist exhorts the rebels to return to allegiance.
In the first strophe (vv. 1-3) the conspiracy of banded rebels is set before us with extraordinary force. The singer does not delay to tell what he sees, but breaks into a question of astonished indignation as to what _can_ be the cause of it all. Then, in a series of swift clauses, of which the vivid movement cannot be preserved in a translation, he lets us see what had so moved him. The masses of the "nations" are hurrying tumultuously to the mustering-place; the "peoples" are meditating revolt, which is smitingly stigmatised in anticipation as "vanity." But it is no mere uprising of the common herd; "the kings of the earth" take their stand as in battle-array, and the men of mark and influence lay their heads together, pressing close to one another on the divan as they plot. All classes and orders are united in revolt, and hurry and eagerness mark their action and throb in the words. The rule against which the revolt is directed is that of "Jehovah and His Anointed." That is one rule, not two,--the dominion of Jehovah exercised through the Messiah. The psalmist had grasped firmly the conception that God's visible rule is wielded by Messiah, so that rebellion against one is rebellion against both. Their "bands" are the same. Pure monotheist as the psalmist was, he had the thought of a king so closely associated with Jehovah, that he could name them in one breath as, in some sense, sharers of the same throne and struck at by the same revolt. The foundation of such a conception was given in the designation of the Davidic monarch as God's vicegerent and representative, but its full justification is the relation of the historic Christ to the Father whose throne He shares in glory.
Alexander Maclaren's exposition of the first thirty-eight Psalms, published as the first volume of The Expositor's Bible series, is marked by a keen attention to the structural interplay between the individual voice and the congregation. In his treatment of Psalm XX, for instance, Maclaren observes how the prayer of a single speaker—'the prayer of the people has set Omnipotence in motion'—gives way to a choral response that treats victory as already accomplished. This movement from solitary petition to collective assurance recurs throughout the volume and shapes Maclaren's reading of the psalms as dramatic dialogues.
The Architecture of Antiphonal Prayer
Maclaren repeatedly highlights how the psalms shift between a lone suppliant and a responding multitude. In Psalm XX, he notes that after the individual's confident utterance, 'the many voices take up the song, responding to the confidence of the single speaker.' This antiphonal pattern is not merely a literary device for Maclaren; it underscores a theological conviction that prayer is both personal and corporate. He draws attention to the way the psalmist's assurance—'a forerunner of fulfilment'—spreads to the assembly, creating a unified voice that 'treats the victory as already won.' The structure thus becomes a model for how faith is nurtured within a community.
Recurring Images: Chariots, Horses, and the Divine Name
Maclaren is alert to the recurrence of military imagery, particularly the contrast between human weaponry and the power of God's name. In Psalm XX, he remarks on the 'world of contempt and confidence' in the juxtaposition of 'chariots and horses' with 'the name of Jehovah our God.' He notes that the reference to Israel as unequipped with cavalry suggests an early date, since such equipment became common after Solomon. This image recurs across the psalms, and Maclaren uses it to trace a consistent theme: reliance on divine strength rather than military might. The divine name itself becomes a leitmotif, invoked three times in Psalm XX alone as 'the source at once of strength and confidence.'
Movement Between Earthly and Heavenly Kingship
Maclaren pays close attention to how the psalms shift focus between the earthly king and the divine monarch. In his analysis of Psalm XXI, he observes that the text transfers 'the title of King from the earthly shadow to the true Monarch in the heavens,' thereby suggesting a plea for help grounded in the subordinate role of the human ruler. He defends the Masoretic reading against the Septuagint's emendation, arguing that the original yields 'a striking meaning, beautifully suggesting the subordinate office of the earthly monarch.' This movement between the visible and invisible king is a structural feature Maclaren traces across several psalms, reinforcing his view that the psalms are both historical and typological.
The Role of Silence and Anticipation
Maclaren identifies a recurring pattern of waiting and silence within the psalms' dramatic movement. In Psalm XX, he writes that 'he has but half prayed who does not wait in silence, watching the flight of his arrow and not content to cease till the calm certainty that it has reached its aim fills his heart.' This emphasis on the pause between petition and answer is not merely devotional but structural: it creates a space for the congregation to reflect on the certainty of divine response. Maclaren's exposition often lingers on these moments of transition, showing how the psalmist builds anticipation before the communal shout of victory. The silence becomes a rhetorical device that heightens the impact of the ensuing praise.
Readers approaching Maclaren's commentary will find that his method rewards attention to the psalms' internal dynamics—the shifts in speaker, the repetition of key images, and the careful orchestration of prayer and response. Rather than offering a verse-by-verse gloss, Maclaren treats each psalm as a dramatic unit with its own movement. This volume covers only the first thirty-eight psalms, but the patterns he identifies here recur throughout the Psalter, making his observations a useful lens for further study.
That Maclaren volume left me noticing how solitary cries eventually become shared songs, how one voice finds its echo. It made me think differently about what gets preserved in the bones of a tradition. I found myself lingering on that same quiet ache while reading The Causes of the Corruption of the Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels Being the Sequel to The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels — Edition Insights — the gentle sorrow of something beloved, worn thin by time.
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