8 The Lord makes open the eyes of the blind; the Lord is the lifter up of those who are bent down; the Lord is a lover of the upright;
He who has my laws and keeps them, he it is who has love for me: and he who has love for me will be loved by my Father, and I will have love for him and will let myself be seen clearly by him. Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, How is it that you will let yourself be seen clearly by us and not by the world? Jesus said to him in answer, If anyone has love for me, he will keep my words: and he will be dear to my Father; and we will come to him and make our living-place with him.
And said to him, Go and make yourself clean in the bath of Siloam (the sense of the name is, Sent). So he went away and, after washing, came back able to see. Then the neighbours and others who had seen him before in the street, with his hand out for money, said, Is not this the man who got money from people? Some said, It is he: others said, No, but he is like him. He said, I am he. So they said to him, How then were your eyes made open? His answer was: The man who is named Jesus put earth mixed with water on my eyes, and said to me, Go and make yourself clean in Siloam: so I went away and, after washing, am now able to see. And they said to him, Where is he? His answer was: I have no knowledge. They took him before the Pharisees--this man who had been blind. Now the day on which the earth was mixed by Jesus and the man's eyes were made open was the Sabbath. So the Pharisees put more questions to him about how his eyes had been made open. And he said to them, He put earth on my eyes, and I had a wash and am able to see. Then some of the Pharisees said, That man has not come from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. Others said, How is it possible for a sinner to do such signs? So there was a division among them. Again they said to the blind man, What have you to say about him for opening your eyes? And he said, He is a prophet. Now the Jews had no belief in the statement that he had been blind and was now able to see, till they sent for the father and mother of the man whose eyes had been made open, And put the question to them, saying, Is this your son, of whom you say that he was blind at birth? how is it then that he is now able to see? In answer his father and mother said, We are certain that this is our son and that he was blind at birth: But how it is he is now able to see, or who made his eyes open, we are not able to say: put the question to him; he is old enough to give an answer for himself. They said this because of their fear of the Jews: for the Jews had come to an agreement that if any man said that Jesus was the Christ he would be put out of the Synagogue. That was the reason why they said, He is old enough; put the question to him. So they sent a second time for the man who had been blind and they said to him, Give glory to God: it is clear to us that this man is a sinner. He said in answer, I have no knowledge if he is a sinner or not, but one thing I am certain about; I was blind, and now I see. Then they said to him, What did he do to you? how did he give you the use of your eyes? His answer was: I have said it before, but your ears were shut: why would you have me say it again? is it your desire to become his disciples? And they were angry with him and said, You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We are certain that God gave his word to Moses: but as for this man, we have no knowledge where he comes from. The man said in answer, Why, here is a strange thing! You have no knowledge where he comes from though he gave me the use of my eyes. We have knowledge that God does not give ear to sinners, but if any man is a worshipper of God and does his pleasure, to him God's ears are open. In all the years nobody has ever before seen the eyes of a man blind from birth made open. If this man did not come from God he would be unable to do anything.
And there was a woman who had had a disease for eighteen years; she was bent, and was not able to make herself straight. And when Jesus saw her, he said to her, Woman, you are made free from your disease. And he put his hands on her, and she was made straight, and gave praise to God.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 146
Commentary on Psalms 146 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Hallelujah to God the One True Helper
The Psalter now draws to a close with five Hallelujah Psalms. This first closing Hallelujah has many points of coincidence with the foregoing alphabetical hymn (compare אחללה in Psalms 146:2 with Psalms 145:2; שׂברו in Psalms 146:5 with Psalms 145:15; “who giveth bread to the hungry” in Psalms 146:7 with Psalms 145:15.; “who maketh the blind to see” in Psalms 146:8 with Psalms 145:14; “Jahve reigneth, etc.,” in Psalms 146:10 with Psalms 145:13) - the same range of thought betrays one author. In the lxx Psalms 146:1 (according to its enumeration four Psalms, viz., Psalms 145:1, Psalms 147 being split up into two) have the inscription Ἀλληλούια. Ἀγγαίου καὶ Ζαχαρίου , which is repeated four times. These Psalms appear to have formed a separate Hallel, which is referred back to these prophets, in the old liturgy of the second Temple. Later on they became, together with Psalms 149:1, an integral part of the daily morning prayer, and in fact of the פסוקי דזמרה , i.e., of the mosaic-work of Psalms and other poetical pieces that was incorporated in the morning prayer, and are called eve in Shabbath 118 b Hallel ,
(Note: Rashi, however, understands only Psalms 148:1-14 and Psalms 150:1-6 by פסוקי דזמרה in that passage.)
but expressly distinguished from the Hallel to be recited at the Passover and other feasts, which is called “the Egyptian Hallel.” In distinction from this, Krochmal calls these five Psalms the Greek Hallel. But there is nothing to oblige us to come down beyond the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. The agreement between 1 Macc. 2:63 ( ἔστρεψεν εἰς τὸν χοῦν αὐτοῦ καὶ ὁ διαλογισμὸς αὐτοῦ ἀπώλετο ) and Psalms 146:4 of our Psalm, which Hitzig has turned to good account, does not decide anything concerning the age of the Psalm, but only shows that it was in existence at the time of the author of the First Book of Maccabees, - a point in favour of which we were not in need of any proof. But there was just as much ground for dissuading against putting confidence in princes in the time of the Persians as in that of the Grecian domination.
Instead of “bless,” as in Psalms 103:1; Psalms 104:1, the poet of this Psalm says “praise.” When he attunes his sole to the praise of God, he puts himself personally into this mood of mind, and therefore goes on to say “I will praise.” He will, however, not only praise God in the song which he is beginning, but כּחיּי (vid., on Psalms 63:5), fillling up his life with it, or בּעודי (prop. “in my yet-being,” with the suffix of the noun, whereas עודנּי with the verbal suffix is “I still am”), so that his continued life is also a constant continued praising, viz., (and this is in the mind of the poet here, even at the commencment of the Psalm) of the God and Kings who, as being the Almighty, Eternal, and unchangeably Faithful One, is the true ground of confidence. The warning against putting trust in princes calls to mind Psalms 118:8. The clause: the son of man, who has no help that he could afford, is to be understood according to Ps 60:13. The following לאדמתו shows that the poet by expression בּן־אדם combines the thoughts of Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 3:19. If his breath goes forth, he says, basing the untrustworthiness and feebleness of the son of Adam upon the inevitable final destiny of the son of Adam taken out of the ground, then he returns to his earth, i.e., the earth of his first beginning; cf. the more exact expression אל־עפרם , after which the εἰς τὴν γῆν αὐτοῦ of the lxx is exchanged for εἰς τὸν χοῦν αὐτοῦ in 1 Macc. 2:63: On the hypothetical relation of the first future clause to the second, cf. Psalms 139:8-10, Psalms 139:18; Ew. §357, b . In that day, the inevitable day of death, the projects or plans of man are at once and forever at an end. The ἅπ. λεγ . עשׁתּנת describes these with the collateral notion of the subtleness and magnitude.
Man's help is of no avail; blessed is he (this is the last of the twenty-five אשׁרי of the Psalter), on the contrary, who has the God of Jacob ( שׁאל like שׁיהוה in Psalms 144:15) as Him in whom is his succour ( בּעזרו with Beth essentiae , vid., on Psalms 35:2) - he, whose confidence ( שׂבר as in Psalms 119:116) rests on Jahve, whom he can by faith call his God. Men often are not able to give help although they might be willing to do so: He, however, is the Almighty, the Creator of the heavens, the earth, and the sea, and of all living things that fill these three (cf. Nehemiah 9:6). Men easily change their mind and do not keep their word: He, however, is He who keepeth truth or faithfulness, inasmuch as He unchangeably adheres to the fulfilling of His promises. שׁמר אמת is in form equivalent substantially to שׁמר חסד and שׁמר הבּרית . And that which He is able to do as being the Almighty, and cannot as being the Truthful One leave undone, is also really His mode of active manifestation made evident in practical proofs: He obtains right for the oppressed, gives bread to the hungry, and consequently proves Himself to be the succour of those who suffer wrong without doing wrong, and as the provider for those who look for their daily bread from His gracious hand. With השּׁמר , the only determinate participle, the faithfulness of God to His promises is made especially prominent.
The five lines beginning with Jahve belong together. Each consists of three words, which in the main is also the favourite measure of the lines in the Book of Job. The expression is as brief as possible. התּיר is transferred from the yoke and chains to the person himself who is bound, and פּקח is transferred from the eyes of the blind to the person himself. The five lines celebrate the God of the five-divisioned Tôra, which furnishes abundant examples for these celebrations, and is directed with most considerate tenderness towards the strangers, orphans, and widows in particular. The orphan and the widow, says the sixth line, doth He recover, strengthen (with reference to עודד see Psalms 20:9; Psalms 31:12). Valde gratus mihi est hic Psalmus , Bakius observes, ob Trifolium illud Dei: Advenas, Pupillos, et Viduas, versu uno luculentissime depictum, id quod in toto Psalterio nullibi fit . Whilst Jahve, however, makes the manifold sorrows of His saints to have a blessed issue, He bends ( יאוּת ) the way of the wicked, so that it leads into error and ends in the abyss (Psalms 1:6). This judicial manifestation of Jahve has only one line devoted to it. For He rules in love and in wrath, but delights most of all to rule in love. Jahve is, however, the God of Zion. The eternal duration of His kingdom is also the guarantee for its future glorious completion, for the victory of love. Hallelujah!