class="scripRef">72 have distinctive positions in this group, since each offers up a petition in behalf of the king. In Psalm 20 the king had apparently presented his offerings and sacrifices at the sanctuary, and the priest prays, in verses 2-6 that God will remember the king’s sacrifices and grant him help in the day of trouble and all his hearts desires. Naturally, in the case of a king, the chief concern is that he should be victorious over his enemies whenever war should come. In verse 7 the priest, possibly informed by some sign that the sacrifice had indeed been accepted by Yahwe, gives positive assurance that the prayer has been answered:

Verse 8 reaffirms faith in Yahwe as mightier than horse or chariot, while verse 9 again predicts victory over the enemy. The psalm concludes in verse 10, as it began, with a petition for the king.

Psalm 72 might be fitted into the coronation service, being then the prayer offered for a just and successful reign. This would mean translating the successive sentences of the psalm from verse 1 to verse 11 and from verse 15 to verse 17 as petitions. Thus verse 2 would be translated:

and other verses correspondingly. This psalm is then in no sense a psalm of lamentation, but it seems to be a psalm of petition in behalf of the king who is about to begin his reign.

The remaining thirty-seven Psalms of Lamentation, or almost one-fourth of the Psalter, arise out of the distress of the individual. The most common misfortune is sickness (Psalms 13, 6, 88, 70, 39, 77, and 102), accordingly the petition is that the afflicted one may be saved from death by Yahwe’s merciful power.

Together with sickness there is usually the bitter complaint against the wicked enemies (Psalms 3, 13, 70, 64, 140, 7, 55, and 109). It is of course altogether understandable that men should be alienated from a sick person, regarding him as justly smitten of God and afflicted, and that such men should in turn be regarded by the sick man as enemies. It is also possible that in some instances, as in Psalms 22 and 69, it may be a matter of religious persecution. On the other hand the language used in a number of psalms (13, 70, 64, 140, 7, 55, 57, 59, and 109) rather strongly suggests that the enemies are practicers of black magic, an art familiar to every land unilluminated by modern scientific knowledge.

Yet in a considerable number of these psalms it is Yahwe himself who has sent the affliction. When this is the case the psalmist may do either of two things: he may acknowledge his misfortune to be just punishment for his sin, and accordingly petition for forgiveness and deliverance (Psalms 38, 88, 39, and 102); or he may affirm his innocence and demand deliverance as a matter of justice (Psalms 26, 7, 17, 59, and 71).

Of all the individual psalms of lamentation, unquestionably the three finest are 51, 42-43, and 130. Psalm 51 has but one single clause referring to physical distress! “that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice,” and is remarkable for its profound consciousness of guilt, and its strong conviction that cleansing and regeneration and the righteous life can only be achieved by divine mercy and divine redemptive power. As for Psalms 42-43, there is expressed in language of haunting beauty, both an intense thirst for the presence of God, and the awakening realization of a something of superior worth in man that can only be satisfied by the experience of God. This would seem to be the road along which the Hebrew ultimately arrived at the consciousness of his own supreme worth and immortality. Yet possibly the rarest of these psalms both for simplicity of expression and depth of religious insight is 130. The psalmist, who “waits for God more than they who watch for the morning” has an amazingly profound consciousness of sin expressed in the words:

and likewise a sublime conception of God’s mercy:

Psalms of Testimony and Thanksgiving

Corresponding to the Psalms of Lamentation and Petition are the Psalms of Testimony and Thanksgiving. The afflicted community or individual which has, in answer to its petition to Yahwe, experienced deliverance is obligated to give public expression to its gratitude for Yahwe’s salvation. Such psalms may be expected to tell the story of the affliction, the appeal for divine help, and the deliverance. Furthermore it is altogether natural for any people with a national and a religious consciousness to look back through the years and the centuries and to give thanks for the favors manifested by Deity to the fathers. Originally the first words of such psalms may well have been: “Give thanks to Yahwe” or “I will give thanks to Yahwe.”

It is best to begin with the individual psalms of thanksgiving, since the individual experience of affliction and deliverance recurs with little change from age to age, and the individual psalm of thanksgiving accordingly approximates more nearly than the national the original type. The individual psalms of thanksgiving in the Psalter are 116, 30, 32, 138, 66, 21, 18, 118, and 103.

Psalm 116 is the testimony of a man who has been sick unto death. In anguish and despair he prayed: “O Yahwe save my life.” Yahwe heard his prayer, restored him to health, and accordingly he is in the temple to pay his vows, to offer up his sacrifices of thanksgiving and to give his testimony in the presence of all Yahwe’s people.

Again Psalm 30 is the testimony of a man who had once been very prosperous, but who by the loss of Yahwe’s favor had been brought low. Near unto death, he cried unto Yahwe, pleading that his death could not profit the Deity since the dead in Sheol praise not God. Yahwe saved his life to the end that he might praise and give thanks