Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/804

 The Sela shows that the Psalm, as מזמור שׁיר says, is appointed to be sung with musical accompaniment; and to the לאסף corresponds its thoroughly Asaphic character, which calls Ps 50 to mind with especial force. But from this Psalm Psa 75:1-10 differs, however, in this particular, viz., that a more clearly defined situation of affairs manifests itself through the hope of the judicial interposition of God which is expressed in it with prophetic certainty. According to appearances it is the time of the judgment of the nations in the person of Assyria; not, however, the time immediately following the great catastrophe, but prior to this, when Isaiah's prophecy concerning the shattering of the Assyrian power against Jerusalem had gone forth, just as Hengstenberg also regards this Psalm as the lyrical companion of the prophecies which Isaiah uttered in the presence of the ruin which threatened from Assyria, and as a testimony to the living faith with which the church at that time received the word of God. Hitzig, however, assigns both Psa 75:1-10 and Psa 76:1-12 to Judas Maccabaeus, who celebrates the victory over Apollonius in the one, and the victory over Seron in the other: “we may imagine that he utters the words of Ps 75:11 whilst he brandishes the captured sword of the fallen Apollonius.” But the probability that it refers to the Assyrian period is at least equally balanced with the probability that it refers to the Maccabaean (vid., Psa 75:7; Psa 76:5-7); and if the time of Hezekiah were to be given up, then we might sooner go back to the time of Jehoshaphat, for both songs are too original to appear as echoes and not much rather as models of the later prophecy. The only influence that is noticeable in Psa 75:1-10 is that of the Song of Hannah.

Verse 2-6
The church in anticipation gives thanks for the judicial revelation of its God, the near approach of which He Himself asserts to it. The connection with ו in וקרוב שׁמך presents a difficulty. Neither here nor anywhere else is it to be supposed that ו is synonymous with כּי; but at any rate even כי might stand instead of it. For Hupfeld's attempt to explain it: and “near is Thy name” Thy wonders have declared; and Hitzig's: and Thou whose Name is near, they declare Thy wondrous works - are past remedy. Such a personification of wonders does not belong to the spirit of Hebrew