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commentators. The word translated in the Revised Version 'stretched out'
must not be understood as 'stretched out in prayer' but lying open, weak and
helpless. Nagar is translated 'As water spilt on the ground' in 2 Samuel
14:14. A close parallel is found in Lamentations 3:49 'Mine eye trickleth
down (nagar) and ceaseth not, without intermission'.
'My soul refused to be comforted' (Psa. 77:2). These words refer back
to the sorrow of Jacob for the loss of Joseph (Gen. 37:35), and a glance at
verse 15 of this Psalm shows that the captivity of the ten tribes (Joseph) is
one of the subjects that disturbs and distresses the Psalmist.
Coming now to the verses where the Psalmist uses the word 'fail' we
read:
'Will the Lord cast off for ever?
And will He be favourable no more?
Is His mercy clean gone forever?
Doth His promise fail for evermore?
Hath God forgotten to be gracious?
Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies?' (Psa. 77:7 -9).
Here, as we have already remarked, the word 'fail' is gamar. This
word, gamar means, 'to finish', 'to come to an end'. It can be used in a
good sense, as in Psalm 138:8: 'The Lord will perfect that which concerneth
me', or it can be used in a bad sense, as in Psalm 7:9, 'Let the wickedness
of the wicked come to an end'.
The cry of the Psalmist in Psalm 77, is 'Will the promises of God come
to a premature end?' or if we could be allowed the graphic colloquialism
'Will they peter out?' The Psalmist now awakened up to the enormity of his
doubts. He said:
'This is my infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right hand
of the most High' (verse 10).
The Revised Version margin reads 'Or, That the right Hand of the most High
doth change'. Hengstenberg rejects this rendering, Perowne adopts it, and
Luther rendered the passage, 'The right hand of the Highest can change
everything'. The question is perhaps beyond us at this remote period.
Shenoth is the ordinary plural 'years' or it may be the infinitive of the
verb shanah 'change'. We have often found that an appeal to the LXX will
sometimes turn the scale in disputed passages, and we should remember that
the translators were over 2,000 years nearer to the original than we are, and
were familiar with the language and current interpretation. We find the LXX
reads alloiosis 'change', a word used by them to translate the Chaldee shena
in Daniel 2:21:
'He changeth the times and the seasons'.
This, the Psalmist seems to mean in the disputed passage. He set his
doubtings aside as infirmity, and instead called to remembrance the fact that
the right hand of the Most High had in days past turned what appeared to look
like defeat into success. So he continues:
'I will remember the deeds of Jah' (verse 11, author's translation).