Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 72:5
They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
5. They shall fear thee while the sun endureth,
And so long as the moon doth shine, throughout all generations.
Who is addressed? Not the king, who is spoken of throughout in the third person, but God. The just administration of the king will promote reverence for God, Whose representative he is (cp. 1Ki 8:40; Mat 5:16), so long as the established course of nature lasts. For the order of nature as an emblem of permanence cp. Jer 31:35 ff; Jer 33:20 ff.
The LXX however represents a different reading: He shall endure as long as the sun, &c.: a reference to the promise of eternal dominion to the house of David, as in Psa 72:17: cp. Psa 89:4; Psa 89:29; Psa 89:36-37; Psa 21:4. The word presumed by the LXX ( ) closely resembles that in the Massoretic Text ( ), so far as the consonants are concerned, and it may have been the original reading: still, the text gives a good sense.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They shall fear thee – That is, men shall fear thee, or thou shalt be feared, or reverenced. The idea is, that his reign would continue, or that he would be obeyed during all the time mentioned here.
As long as the sun and moon endure – literally, With the sun, and before the moon; that is, as long as they have the sun with them, or have it to shine upon them, and as long as they are in the presence of the moon, or have its light. In other words, they would continue to the end of time; or to the end of the world. It does not denote eternity, for it is not assumed in the Bible that the sun and moon will continue forever; but the idea is, that as long as the sun shall continue to shine upon the earth – as long as people shall dwell upon the earth – the kingdom would be perpetual. There would be no change of dynasty; no new empire would arise to displace and to supersede this. This would be the dynasty under which the affairs of the world would be wound up; this the kingdom which would be found at the consummation of all things. The reign of the Messiah will be the final reign in the earth; that under which the affairs of earth will close.
Throughout all generations – While the generations of people dwell on the earth.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 72:5
They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
The perpetuity and imperishable nature of the religion of Christ
The grand doctrine brought before us in these words is the perpetuity of the Church of Christ upon the earth; or the imperishable and indestructible character of His religion. We conceive that the same doctrine that is taught in this text is taught in such passages of Scripture as the following: The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church–one generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts–of the increase of the government of the Messiah there shall be no end; my salvation shall be from generation to generation. And notwithstanding all the vicissitudes of the Church of Christ, that Church has been preserved through them all. In the reign of Solomon the Church in Israel seemed likely that men would always fear the Lord. But we know what apostasy began in his reign, and went on with scarcely an interruption till the days of the captivity. And then from the time of our Lord there have been seasons of decay, but revival has ever followed. All attempts to efface Christianity have failed, numerous, varied, and severe though they have been. We conclude, therefore, that the Church can never perish so long as time shall endure. (James Smith, M. A.)
The perpetuity and beneficence of Christs reign
Like the treacherous signal-boats that are sometimes stationed by the wreckers off an iron-bound coast, the shifting systems of false religion are continually changing their places. Like them, they attract only to bewilder, and allure only to destroy. The unwary mariner follows them with a trembling uncertainty, and only finds out where he is when he feels his ill-fated vessel crashing into a thousand fragments on the beach. But how different to these floating and delusive systems is that unchanging Gospel of Christ, which stands forth like the towering lighthouse of Eddystone, with its beacon blaze streaming far out over the midnight sea. It moves not, it trembles not, for it is founded upon a rock. Year by year the storm-stricken mariner looks out for its star-like light as he sweeps in through the British Channel. It is the first object that meets his eye as he returns on his homeward voyage; it is the last he beholds long after his native land has sunk beneath the evening wave. So is it with the unchanging Gospel of Christ. While other systems rise and fall, and pass into nothingness, this Gospel, like its immutable Author, is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. While other false and flashing lights are extinguished, this, the true light, ever shineth. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)
Christs perpetuity
Leslie Stephen says, It takes a very powerful voice and a very clear utterance to make a man audible to the fourth generation. That is very true, yet there is quite a galaxy of men who have spoken the clear utterance with a powerful voice, and have been heard through many centuries; but there is but one man, the man Christ Jesus, concerning whom it could be said, They shall fear Thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. They shall fear thee] There is no sense in which this can be spoken of Solomon, nor indeed of any other man: it belongs to Jesus Christ, and to him alone. He is the Prince of peace, who shall be feared and reverenced “through all generations, and as long as the sun and moon endure.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Fear; or, reverence, or worship, as this word is used, Isa 29:13, compared with Mat 15:9, and elsewhere. Thee; either,
1. Thee, O king, to whom he suddenly turneth his speech. And so this is hyperbolically true of Solomon, but truly and literally of Christ. Or rather,
2. Thee, O God, of whom he had spoken before, and that in the second person, Psa 72:1,2, as it is here; whereas he never speaks of the king in the whole Psalm in the second person, but constantly in the third. And so the sense is, This shall be another blessed fruit of this righteous government, that together with peace true religion shall be established, and that
throughout all generations, as it here follows; which was begun in Solomons days, and continued, though not without interruption, in the time of his successors, the kings of Judah, and afterwards until Christ, in and by whom this prediction and promise was most fully accomplished.
As long as the sun and moon endure, Heb. with the sun and before the moon, i.e. whilst they continue in the heavens. Others expound it thus, both day and night, as the twelve tribes are said to serve God, Act 26:7. But the former interpretation seems more probable, by comparing this verse with Psa 72:17.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. as long as . . .endureliterally, “with the sun,” coeval with itsexistence, and before, or, in presence of the moon,while it lasts (compare Ge 11:28,”before Terah,” literally, “in presence of,”while he lived).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They shall fear thee,…. The King Messiah, the Judge of the poor, and the destroyer of the oppressor: either the tyrants and oppressors themselves shall fear him, and such who have been aiding and assisting to them; see Re 11:11; or rather the people of God, the poor of the people, and children of the needy, judged and saved by Christ; who shall fear the Lord, both internally and externally, in the exercise of grace, and in the performance of religious worship; in all the parts of it, which are both included in the fear of the Lord; of which there will be many instances, both among Jews and Gentiles, in the latter day; see Ho 3:5; and this they shall do,
as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations; or, “with the sun, and before the moon, generation of generations” r; that is, to the end of the world, until sun and moon shall be no more: so long will Christ have a seed to serve him:; see Ps 89:36.
r Sic Eth. Syr. Arab. Apollinarius, Vatablus, & Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The invocation of Psa 72:1 is continued in the form of a wish: may they fear Thee, Elohim, , with the sun, i.e., during its whole duration ( in the sense of contemporary existence, as in Dan. 3:33). , in the moonlight (cf. Job 8:16, , in the sunshine), i.e., so long as the moon shines. (accusative of the duration of time, cf. Psa 102:25), into the uttermost generation which outlasts the other generations (like of the furthest heavens which surround the other heavens). The first two periphrastic expressions for unlimited time recur in Psa 89:37., a Psalm composed after the time of Solomon; cf. the unfigurative expression in Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the Temple in 1Ki 8:40. The continuance of the kingship, from the operation of which such continuance of the fear of God is expected, is not asserted until Psa 72:17. It is capricious to refer the language of address in Psa 72:5 to the king (as Hupfeld and Hitzig do), who is not directly addressed either in Psa 72:4, or in Psa 72:6, or anywhere in the Psalm. With respect to God the desire is expressed that the righteous and benign rule of the king may result in the extension of the fear of God from generation to generation into endless ages. The poet in Psa 72:6 delights in a heaping up of synonyms in order to give intensity to the expression of the thoughts, just as in Psa 72:5; the last two expressions stand side by side one another without any bond of connection as in Psa 72:5. (from , Arab. rbb , densum , spissum esse , and then, starting from this signification, sometimes multum and sometimes magnum esse ) is the shower of rain pouring down in drops that are close together; nor is a synonym of , but (formed from , Arab. drf , to flow, by means of a rare reduplication of the first two letters of the root, Ew. 157, d) properly the water running from a roof (cf. B. Joma 87 a: “when the maid above poured out water, came upon his head”). , however, is not the meadow-shearing, equivalent to a shorn, mown meadow, any more than , , Arabic gizza , signifies a shorn hide, but, on the contrary, a hide with the wool or feathers (e.g., ostrich feathers) still upon it, rather a meadow, i.e., grassy plain, that is intended to be mown. The closing word ( accus. loci as in Psa 147:15) unites itself with the opening word : descendat in terram . In his last words (2 Sam. 23) David had compared the effects of the dominion of his successor, whom he beheld as by vision, to the fertilizing effects of the sun and of the rain upon the earth. The idea of Psa 72:6 is that Solomon’s rule may prove itself thus beneficial for the country. The figure of the rain in Psa 72:7 gives birth to another: under his rule may the righteous blossom (expanding himself unhindered and under the most favourable circumsntaces), and (may there arise) salvation in all fulness , until there is no more moon (cf. the similar expression in Job 14:12). To this desire for the uninterrupted prosperity and happiness of the righteous under the reign of this king succeeds the desire for an unlimited extension of his dominion, Psa 72:8. The sea (the Mediterranean) and the river (the Euphrates) are geographically defined points of issue, whence the definition of boundary is extended into the unbounded. Solomon even at his accession ruled over all kingdoms from the Euphrates as far as the borders of Egypt; the wishes expressed here are of wider compass, and Zechariah repeats them predictively (Psa 9:10) with reference to the King Messiah.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
5. They shall fear thee with the sun If this is read as an apostrophe, or change of person, it may be properly and without violence understood of the king; implying, that the ornaments or distinctions which chiefly secure to a sovereign reverence from his subjects are his impartially securing to every man the possession of his own rights, and his manifesting a spirit of humanity ready at all times to succor the poor and miserable, as well as a spirit determined rigorously to subdue the audacity of the wicked. But it will be more appropriate, without changing the person, to explain it of God himself. (131) The preservation of mutual equity among men is an inestimable blessing; but the service of God is well worthy of being preferred even to this. David, therefore, very properly commends to us the blessed fruits of a holy and righteous government, by telling us that it will draw in its train true religion and the fear of God. And Paul, when enjoining us in 1Ti 2:2, to pray for kings, expressly mentions what we ought to have in view in our prayers, which is, “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” As there is no small danger, were civil government overthrown, of religion being destroyed, and the worship of God annihilated, David beseeches God to have respect to his own name and glory in preserving the king. By this argument he at once reminds kings of their duty, and stirs up the people to prayer; for we cannot be better employed than in directing all our desires and prayers to the advancement of the service and honor of God. When we come to Christ, this is far more truly applicable to him, true religion being established in his kingdom and nowhere else. And certainly David, in describing the worship or service of God as continuing to the end of the world, intimates by the way that he ascends in thought to that everlasting kingdom which God had promised: They shall fear thee with the sun; and generation of generations shall fear thee in the presence of the moon. (132)
(131) “The poet in this clause addresses God; not the king, of whom he speaks always in the third person. The sense is, This king shall establish and preserve among his subjects the true religion, — the uncorrupted worship of God. Michaelis, on this passage, justly remarks that this could not, without extreme flattery, be predicated of Solomon.” — Dathe.
(132) “With the sun,” and “in the presence of the moon,” are Hebrew idioms, designating the eternity of the Messiah’s kingdom. “‘They shall venerate thee with the sun, and in presence of the moon;’ that is, as long as the sun shines, and is succeeded by the moon, or while the sun and moon continue to give light, — in a word, for ever. Compare verse seventh, where the same idea is expressed, only in a slightly different manner, — until there be no moon Psa 89:37 — ‘His throne shall be as the sun before me, as the moon it shall be established for ever.’ The word לפני, [translated in presence of, ] in this passage, is to be understood in the same sense as in Gen 11:28, Mortuus est Haran , על-פני, coram facie Terah; ‘And Haran died before the face of Terah,’ that is, while Terah still survived. Hence, in Psa 102:28, where לפניך, coram te , ‘before thee,’ is used in reference to God, — the Alexandrine version gives εἰς αἰω̑νας ‘for ever.’ Here the sense is given in the words immediately following, דור דורים, generatio generationum , ‘a generation of generations’ shall venerate thee; — in other words, throughout all generations, or during a continual series of years, men shall celebrate thy happy and glorious reign.” — Rosenmüller Calvin also reads דור דורים, “generation of generations,” in the nominative case. The translators of our English Bible supply the preposition ל, lamed, thus making it, “throughout all generations.” But in either case the meaning is the same.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) They shall . . .Literally, may they fear Thee (coevally) with the sun, and in the face of the moon, generation of generation. For the preposition, coevally with, see Dan. 3:33; (Hebrew) and comp. the Latin use of cum
Cum sole et luna semper Aratus erit.
OVID: Amor., xv. 16.
The phrase in the presence of the moon (see the same expression, Psa. 72:17, and compare Job. 8:16), means, not by the moonlight, but as long as the moon shines. (Comp. Psa. 72:7.) On the other hand, our phrase under the moon refers to space. With this passage Psa. 89:36-37, alone in Hebrew poetry exactly compares, or may perhaps have been borrowed from here.
Whether God or the king is the object of the fear spoken of in this verse is a question that must remain unanswered.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. They shall fear thee On account of thy righteous judgments. See Rev 15:4.
As long as the sun and moon endure Literally, With the sun and before the moon: a proverbial expression for stability and perpetuity, equal to Isa 51:6; Isa 54:10; Mat 5:18.
Throughout all generations Literally, generation of generations. The repetition of the same word is a Hebraic form for suggesting the idea of uninterrupted continuance and boundless duration, (Ewald,) here applicable only in the prophetic sense to Messiah’s kingdom, as in Dan 7:13-14; Psa 33:11; Deu 3:15
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 72:5. They shall fear thee Let both high and low equally reverence him throughout all generations; whilst the sun and moon shall endure. Chandler. The meaning is, that all posterity shall revere Solomon continually, and esteem him as the wisest and justest prince: But the more sublime sense is, that all generations shall adore the Messiah.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Here is a verse, which, if needed by way of confirmation, is enough to cast forever to the ground all the childish ideas which some may have taken, as if this Psalm had any reference to Solomon, king of Israel. The whole reign of David’s son was not more than forty years; whereas that throne, which the angel told Mary, the Lord God would give to Jesus should be forever, and of his kingdom there should be no end. Luk 1:32-33 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 72:5 They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
Ver. 5. They shall fear thee ] Who hast blessed them with so good a king; such as maketh it his main care to set up God, wherever he hath to do.
As long as the sun and moon endureth
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 72:5-7
5Let them fear You while the sun endures,
And as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
6May he come down like rain upon the mown grass,
Like showers that water the earth.
7In his days may the righteous flourish,
And abundance of peace till the moon is no more.
Psa 72:5-7 This strophe emphasizes two requests.
1. that God’s people continue to fear/revere Him
2. that this devotion continue through time (i.e., while the sun and moon endure, cf. Gen 8:22; Psa 89:36-37)
If they do, then the promises of abundance from the Mosaic covenant will continue (cf. Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 27-30). The king and the people must meet the covenant conditions.
Psa 72:5
NASB, JPSOAthem
NKJVthey
NRSV, NJB,
REV, LXXhe
The MT has the plural, therefore, it could refer to
1. the covenant people’s reverence
2. the Messianic king’s (i.e., the plural of majesty) reverence
NASB, NKJV,
REB, JPSOAfear
NRSV, NEBlive
TEVworship
NJB, LXXendure
The UBS Text Project (p. 309) gives last a C rating (considerable doubt). This follows the LXX. It fits the parallelism better.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Psa 72:5-8
Psa 72:5-8
THE IMMORTAL, PRE-EXISTENT; UNIVERSAL RULER
“They shall fear thee while the sun endureth,
And so long as the moon, throughout all generations.
He will come down like rain upon the mown grass,
As showers that water the earth.
In his days shall the righteous flourish,
And abundance of peace, till the moon be no more
He shall have dominion from sea to sea,
And from the River to the ends of the earth.”
It appears to us that there is precious little in this paragraph that can intelligently be applied to Solomon or to any other except the Blessed Messiah.
“They shall fear … while the earth endureth … so long as the moon … throughout all generations” (Psa 72:5). Such a time-span as this is a reference to immortality. “Clearly, his immortality is implied in Psa 72:5.
“He will come down like rain … like showers” (Psa 72:6). Both the rain and the showers come down from the heavens; and Solomon certainly never did anything like that. “Not only will this Great One rule all nations, but his pre-existence seems to be assumed in Psa 72:6.
“In his days the righteous shall flourish … abundance of peace” (Psa 72:7). In a very limited and imperfect manner these words might be applied to the reign of Solomon. However his excessive taxation to support his hundreds of wives and concubines (a full thousand of them in all), his building of temples to their gods, the extravagant magnificence of his reign, and his expensive military establishment with some 40,000 horses, resulted finally in the rebellion against his successor and the rejection of the Davidic dynasty by the vast majority of the nation, ten of the twelve tribes going with Jeroboam I. All this prevents the application of Psa 72:7 to Solomon, except in a very limited sense.
“Dominion from sea to sea … from the River to the ends of the earth” (Psa 72:8). It is true that Solomon ruled over all of the Mid-East from the River (Euphrates) to the Mediterranean Sea, but not “to the ends of the earth.”
Furthermore, the expression “from sea to sea,” actually refers to the whole planet earth. “The ancient idea was that the earth was set in the middle of a great ocean”; thus “from sea to sea” meant the whole earth. Zechariah applied the exact Words of this verse to the Dominion of Messiah (Zec 9:10), of which dominion alone are they truly descriptive.
Delitzsch summarized this paragraph by his declaration that, “The wishes expressed here are of wider compass (than Solomon’s dominion); and Zechariah repeats them predictively with reference to the King Messiah (Zec 9:10).
Our own viewpoint is that the words of this paragraph were not only “predictive” when Zechariah repeated them. They are predictive here, referring not to Solomon at all but to Christ. Such a truth as this lends remarkable support to the viewpoint of Calvin and of Matthew Henry that these words here are David’s prayer for Solomon.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 72:5. They (the poor) would fear or reverence the Lord because of his goodness to them. No man will live as long as the sun and moon exists. The thought is that as long as these heavenly bodies lasted there would be grateful people to respect God. Incidentally we here learn that the production of human generations on earth will end simultaneously with that of the sun and moon.
Psa 72:6. It should be understood that the tribute being referred to in these verses applies specifically to the king. But that is because he had been enabled to do all these good deeds by the help of God. Therefore it can justly be said that both God and his king are the antecedents of the pronouns. The favors from God through the services of the king are here figuratively compared to showers upon the grass.
Psa 72:7. Consult the comments at Psa 72:5.
Psa 72:8. God will favor the righteous king by giving him widespread dominion.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
fear
(See Scofield “Psa 19:9”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
They shall: 1Sa 12:18, 1Ki 3:28
as long: Psa 72:7, Psa 72:17, Psa 89:29, Psa 89:36, Psa 89:37, Isa 9:7, Dan 2:44, Dan 7:14, Dan 7:27, Luk 1:32, Luk 1:33, 1Co 15:24, 1Co 15:25, Eph 3:21, Rev 11:15
Reciprocal: Deu 11:21 – as the days 2Sa 7:16 – General Jer 31:35 – which giveth Jer 31:36 – those
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 72:5. They shall fear thee, &c. Most commentators consider the psalmist as suddenly turning his speech to Solomon here, and signifying that his wisdom and righteous administration of his government should redound to his everlasting honour, so that all posterity should continually esteem and revere him as the wisest and best of princes. They acknowledge, however, that in this he was a type of Christ, and that the words ultimately, and in their most sublime sense, are to be explained of him. But as fear or reverence is frequently put for strict and proper divine worship, (as Isa 29:13, compared with Mat 15:9, and frequently elsewhere,) which certainly was not due to Solomon, and could not be paid to him without idolatry; and as the psalmist never elsewhere, in any part of the Psalm, speaks of Solomon in the second person, but always in the third; many others consider him as addressing God in these words, to whom he had spoken before in the second person, Psa 72:1-2, as it is here. Thus Mr. Samuel Clark: They shall worship and serve thee, O God, so that, with peace, true religion shall flourish. The sense is, says Poole, This shall be another blessed fruit of his righteous government, that, together with peace, true religion shall be established, and that throughout all generations, as it here follows. Which was begun in Solomons days, and continued, though not without much interruption, in the time of his successors, the kings of Judah, and afterward, until the coming of Christ, in and by whom this prediction and promise was, in part, and shall, in the end, be most fully accomplished. And Henry interprets the words to the same purpose. As long as the sun and moon endure Hebrew, With the sun, and before the moon, that is, while they continue in the heavens; or, as others expound it, Both day and night, as the twelve tribes are said to serve God, Act 26:7.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
72:5 They shall {f} fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.
(f) The people will embrace your true religion, when you give a king who rules according to your word.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
In Psa 72:5, the antecedent of "them" in the NASB is "the oppressed" of Psa 72:4, and "Thee" refers to God. In the NIV the translators, following the Septuagint, felt that the king was the subject of the whole verse. The Hebrew text favors the NASB rendering. In Psa 72:6-7, the king is the subject.
The effects of a just and righteous king, the type of person Solomon asked God to make him, are as beneficial to his people as rain and peace are to the landscape.
"It is the other side of kingship to the ’rod of iron’ of Psa 2:9; yet the one is the true complement of the other, as Psa 72:4 has shown already." [Note: Kidner, p. 255.]