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The scholarly Lexicon of Brown, Driver and Briggs gives the meaning of
kachash:
'Be disappointing, deceive, fail, grown lean',
and in reference to the Psalms in question, their note reads:
'Cringe, come cringing, make a show of obedience'.
The Hebrew Word Kachash is Very Rigid
We cannot sweep aside this unanimous testimony without betraying that
ulterior motives are prompting our decision. Further, although the LXX is
not infallible, yet surely we must allow Hebrews of that early age to
understand their own tongue, at least as well as the best of us today. The
LXX uses epseusanto (pseudesthai), 'they lied' in Psalm 18:44 and Psalm 81:15
exactly as they do in Deuteronomy 33:29. We believe the candid student will
be convinced that the Hebrew kachash is very rigid in its meaning, and cannot
be made to favour a period of universal peace and righteousness. To accept
the rendering 'to yield feigned obedience' shatters the unscriptural dream of
The Millennium. That thousand-year reign is not the perfect kingdom on
earth.
Psalm 18:44,45 places in correspondence these features:
'The strangers shall yield feigned obedience unto me.
The strangers shall fade away, and come trembling' (Author's
translation).
Their submission is false.
Psalm 66:3.
The immediate context refers to the Exodus from Egypt:
'How terrible art Thou in Thy works!
Through the greatness of Thy power shall thine enemies submit
themselves unto Thee ... .
(whether willingly or unwillingly is not revealed here)
He is terrible in His doing toward the children of men.
He turned the sea into dry land ... .
Let not the rebellious exalt themselves' (Psa. 66:3-7).
Pharaoh is an example of such forced submission.
We learn from Zechariah 14:16 -19 that some of the nations will rebel
against the command to go up to Jerusalem to keep the feast of tabernacles,
yet at the selfsame time and period Israel will be so soundly converted and
blessed, that the sacred words, originally limited to the Mitre of the High
Priest, namely 'Holiness unto the Lord', shall be on the bells of the horses
and on the very pots in the kitchen of this blessed kingdom
of priests, yet their holy presence does not prevent disobedience rearing its
head among the surrounding nations.
The Rule of the Rod of Iron
Another revealing feature is the use of a rod of Iron. It is beside
the point to dwell on the meaning of the Greek word rhabdos or its Hebrew