Psalms 9:20

Put them in fear, O Lord,.... Who are, a bold, impudent, fearless generation of men; who, like the unjust judge, neither fear God nor regard men, therefore the psalmist prays that God would inject

Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah. Put them in fear - literally, Put fear into them. So the Chaldaic. Also one reading [ mowraa' (H4172].

Subdue their proud and insolent spirits, and strike them with terror, or with some terrible judgment. But men, Heb. weak, and miserable, and mortal men, and therefore altogether unable to oppose the omnipotent and eternal God. This he saith, because wicked men, when they are advanced to great power and majesty, are very prone to forget their own frailty, and to carry themselves as if they were gods. See ,8 Daniel 5:21.

Psalms 9:20 Put them in fear, O LORD: [that] the nations may know themselves [to be but] men. Selah.Ver. 20. Put them in fear, O Lord] Strike them with a panic terror, as once the Canaanites, Philistines, 1 Samuel 5:1-12; Syrians, 2 Kings 7:6-7; Germans, in the war against the Hussites, &c. Some read it, Put a law upon them, bridle them, bound them, as thou hast done the sea, Job 38:11. The Greek and Syriac favour this reading. That the nations may know themselves to be but men] And not gods, as that proud prince of Tyrus, Ezekiel 27:1-36, and Antiochus, who would needs be styled Yåïò, to such a height of pride will persecutors grow, if they prosper, and he not taken a link lower, as we say. Homo, id est fracti, saith R. Obad. on this text; men, that is, broken, cracked creatures, morbis mortiquo obnoxii, woeful wights, sorry and sickly captives. This to know savingly is the beginning of true humility, saith Augustine here.

(20) Put them in fear.—There is a difficulty about the reading. The LXX., Vulg., and Syriac read “place a lawgiver or master over them.” So Syriac, “law.” Hitzig conjectures, “set a guard upon them.” With the present reading apparently the rendering should be, put a terror upon them: i.e., “give such a proof of power as to trouble and subdue them.”

Verse 20. Put them in fear] שיתה יהוה מורה להם shithah Yehovah morah lahem, "O Lord, place a teacher among them," that they may know they also are accountable creatures, grow wise unto salvation, and be prepared for a state of blessedness. Several MSS. read מורא morre, fear; but teacher or legislator is the reading of all the versions except the Chaldee. Coverdale has hit the sense, translating thus: O Lorde, set a Scholemaster over them: and the old Psalter, Sett Lord a brynger of Law abouen tham. That the nations may know themselves to be but men] אנוש enosh; Let the Gentiles be taught by the preaching of thy Gospel that they are weak and helpless, and stand in need of the salvation which Christ has provided for them. This may be the spirit of the petition. And this is marked by the extraordinary note Selah; Mark well, take notice. So the term may be understood. "This whole Psalm," says Dr. Horsley, "seems naturally to divide into three parts. The first ten verses make the FIRST part; the six following, the SECOND; and the remaining four the THIRD. "The FIRST part is prophetic of the utter extermination of the irreligious persecuting faction. The prophecy is delivered in the form of an Επινικιον, or song of victory, occasioned by the promise given in the fifteenth verse of the tenth Psalm; and through the whole of this song the psalmist, in the height of a prophetic enthusiasm, speaks of the threatened vengeance as accomplished. "The SECOND part opens with an exhortation to the people of God to praise him as the Avenger of their wrongs, and the watchful Guardian of the helpless, and, as if the flame of the prophetic joy which the oracular voice had lighted in the psalmist's mind was beginning to die away, the strain is gradually lowered, and the notes of triumph are mixed with supplication and complaint, as if the mind of the psalmist were fluttering between things present and to come, and made itself alternately present to his actual condition and his future hope. "In the THIRD part the psalmist seems quite returned from the prophetic enthusiasm to his natural state, and closes the whole song with explicit but cool assertions of the future destruction of the wicked, and the deliverance of the persecuted saints, praying for the event." ANALYSIS OF THE NINTH PSALM This Psalm consists of five chief parts: - I. David's thanksgiving, Psalms 9:1-2, amplified and continued till the tenth verse. II. An exhortation to others to do the like, Psalms 9:11, and the reason of it, Psalms 9:12. III. A petition for himself, Psalms 9:13, and the reason of it, Psalms 9:14. IV. A remembrance of God's mercy in the overthrow of his enemies, for which he sings a song of triumph, from Psalms 9:15-19. V. A prayer in the conclusion against the prevalence of the heathen, Psalms 9:19-20. I. His profession of praise is set down in the two first verses, in which we may perceive, - 1.

20. Put them in fear] Lit. set terror for them: some awe-inspiring exhibition of power, such as were the wonders of the Exodus. (Deuteronomy 4:34; Deuteronomy 26:8; Deuteronomy 34:12; Jeremiah 32:21.) The rendering of LXX, Vulg., Syr., appoint a lawgiver over them, (reading môreh for môrah) is certainly wrong, though it is adopted by Luther and by some modern critics.

Put them in fear, O Lord - From this it is evident that the enemies of the psalmist were bold, daring, confident in their own strength, and in the belief that they would succeed.

19, 20. The closing strophe is an urgent call for hastening the righteous judgments of God.