590 BC at 570 BC, Psalm 18: The celestial chariot.

This site was first built in French (see www.147thgeneration.net). The English translation was mainly done using « google translation ». We have tried to correct the result of this translation to avoid interpretation errors. However, it is likely that there are unsatisfactory translations, do not hesitate to communicate them to us for correction.
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    Summary

This generation is from the years 590 BC to 570 BC

According to our count, this generation is the 18th generation associated with Psalm 18. It is in this Psalm 18 that we therefore find an illustration of the facts of this generation.

This generation is a hinge generation in the night of the children of Israel. Before this generation, God was in the midst of his people, after this generation God will have disappeared from the holy mountain of Jerusalem, from among his people. This is the generation of the destruction of the first Temple. The second Temple will continue the worship of sacrifices until its destruction but in the absence of the divine essence.

The psalm which is associated with this generation naturally has a place of its own. Indeed it is taken again in full in the book of Samuel which takes again the course of king David.

The eighteen generation is probably the most painful of the long night of the people of Israel. Because even if in exile, the people of Israel are confronted many times with the barbarism of the nations, this is nothing compared to the separation between God and his people. This is the lot of this generation during which the complete break-up of the kingdom of Judah takes place and the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple.

Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylonia came, he and his entire army, against Jerusalem. After a long siege, a breach is opened, it is the debacle on the side of the defenders of the city. King Zedekiah tries to flee but is caught up, his sons are slaughtered, and he is deported to Babylon. The Temple is burnt down like most of Jerusalem and its ramparts. The people of Jerusalem are sent into exile in Babylon.

The Chaldeans broke the copper pillars that were in the house of the Lord and the bases and the copper sea that was in the house of the Lord, and they carried off their copper to Babylon, as well as all the utensils which were used for worship, all that was in copper, gold or silver.

The destruction of the Temple, the home of God on Earth, causes it to take flight. The fact that God could thus leave the Temple was also part of the predictions of the prophets before the destruction.

But the destruction of the people of Israel is not complete. Divine anger remains measured in order to preserve its people all the same. In order to give the latter a chance to finally find his way so that the pronounced alliance is finally realized in a definitive way. So when Jeremiah announces the destruction orchestrated by Nebuchadnezzar, he announces at the same time that it will not be complete. The people of Israel will find favor with God.

Talk

To fully explain Psalm 18, the one associated with this 18th generation, it would be necessary to address explanations that go far beyond the usual rational framework. In particular to understand how David the author of the Psalms was able to navigate into the future to describe the 3 millennia of Jewish life which followed his earthly existence. I have written an explanation of this Psalm 18 and the associated generation that helps us understand it better. The version presented on this site is a « light » version that does not include these explanations. In particular, the title of the psalm is not explained here as it is of paramount importance in understanding the mystery associated with this psalm. However readers will find that even in this light (in fact « very » light) version of the explanations of this psalm, the irrational is already strongly present. So, I think, we reach a high level of irrationality when Psalm 18 describes the angry flight of God into the heavens as his temple is destroyed in accordance with his own curses in Generation 18 associated with this Psalm. .

A hinge generation

This generation is a hinge generation in the night of the children of Israel. Before this generation, God was in the midst of his people, after this generation God will have disappeared from the holy mountain of Jerusalem, from among his people.

This is the generation of the destruction of the first Temple.

The second Temple will continue the worship of sacrifices until its destruction but in the absence of the divine essence. It will simply close the forty-nine generations related to the curses of Leviticus, those related to the period when the service of the Temple is active.

This in contrast to the ninety-eight curses of Deuteronomy corresponding to the second exile following the destruction of the Second Temple during which the worship of Temple sacrifices is definitely replaced by prayer within the synagogues.

The psalm[1] which is associated with this generation naturally has a place of its own. Indeed it is taken again in full in the book of Samuel which takes again the course of king David.

The fact that this psalm is reproduced in full in the book of the bible (SAMUEL) which relates the life of King David, the narrator of the psalms, clearly indicates the particular importance of this one and consequently the importance of generation ( 18) which it is supposed to illustrate.

For seventeen generations, the people of Israel have returned in the night but still benefiting from the residual glow of the fading day. This generation represents for the people of Israel the entrance into the dark night. This is symbolized by the destruction of the Temple of Solomon by Nebuchadnezzar, in respect of the various predictions that the prophets had made to the people of Israel.

Divine absence

By the destruction of the Temple, it is also the departure of God from among his people. This does not mean that he does not keep a benevolent eye to avoid the worst of his people but he no longer assists his people directly.

At the level of the prophecies, it is Ezekiel who marks this generation by his prophecies. This one will expose again the reasons which make the people of Israel is immersed in this long night.

  1. When[2] I am in distress, I call upon the Lord; yes, I cry out to my God; out of His temple He hears my voice, and my cry comes before Him in His ears.

Regarding this verse 7 of the psalm of this generation, we can refer to Rashi’s interpretation.

Recall that the psalm of this generation is included in the book of Samuel, and so here we refer to Rashi’s commentary on this same verse in the book of Samuel, verse 7 of II Samuel, Chapter 22:

  • I call upon… He hears: Heb. וישמע lit. He heard. That is the nature of the present tense, it speaks in past and future tense simultaneously.

The time used in this psalm makes it timeless: past, present and future. The psalm is extended to the entire destiny of the people of Israel, while remaining focused on the major event of this generation: the destruction of the first Temple and especially the departure of God from among his people. Enlargement that allows, when a loved one moves away, to comfort himself by imagining, as he moves away, his next return.

The eighteen generation is probably the most painful of the long night of the people of Israel. In exile, the people of Israel will be confronted many times with the barbarism of the nations, that is nothing beside the separation of God and his people.

This is the lot of this generation.

How can David find the energy to make a psalm for this generation? It is precisely by detaching himself from the distress of this event and by projecting himself through all the generations and more particularly to those who will see the reconciliation of God and his people, those who will see the people of Israel come out of the power of nations to regain its sovereignty and place with God.

This explains the introduction of this psalm which we will not explain here (see introduction to this page).

David agrees to describe the catastrophe that must occur only because in the process, he can also evoke the resurrection of his people. He can speak of the divorce of the people of Israel with his God, because from the start he knows that there will be reconciliation before the divorce is actually pronounced.

The turbulence that reaches the eighteenth generation is perhaps the most terrible because it is the one that sees the departure of the divine presence of the Temple of Jerusalem.

This explains the beginning of Psalm 18, which reminds us that, whatever the test to be passed, God remains the only refuge that allows the people of Israel to go through trials.

David knows that the people of Israel, through the trials, will be able to count on the same support to come out except hardships despite the suffering of time.

This is what David says at the beginning of this psalm in anticipation of the terrible ordeal that awaits the people of Israel:

  1. For the conductor; of the servant of the Lord, of David, who spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord saved him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
  2. And he said, « I love You, O Lord, my strength.
  3. O Lord, my rock and my fortress and my rescuer; my God, my rock, I will take refuge in Him; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my refuge.
  4. With praise I call to the Lord, and from my enemies I will be saved.

La destruction

The eighteenth generation sees indeed the complete bursting of the kingdom of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple. So the prophet Jeremiah:

  • And[3] it was in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylonia came, he and his entire army, against Jerusalem and encamped against it, and they built works of siege around it.
  • And the city came under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
  • On the ninth of the month, the famine became severe in the city, and the people of the land had no food.
  • The city was broken into, and all the men of war [fled] at night by way of the gate between the two walls that was near the king’s garden, and the Chaldees were surrounding the city, and he went by way of the Arabah.
  • And the army of the Chaldees pursued the king, and they overtook him on the plains of Jericho, and all his army had scattered and deserted him.
  • And they seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylonia, to Riblah, and called him to account.
  • And they slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and they blinded Zedekiah’s eyes, and he bound him with copper chains and brought him to Babylon.
  • And in the fifth month, on the seventh of the month (that was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylonia) Nebuzaradan, chief executioner, servant of the king of Babylonia, came to Jerusalem.
  • And he burnt the house of the Lord and the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem and all the houses of the dignitaries he burnt with fire.
  • The entire army of the Chaldeans that was [with] the chief executioner demolished the walls of Jerusalem around.
  • And Nebuzaradan the chief executioner exiled the remnant of the people who remained in the city, and the defectors who defected to the king of Babylonia, and the rest of the populace.
  • Now the chief executioner left over some of the poorest of the land as vine-dressers and farmers.
  • And the Chaldeans broke the copper pillars that were in the house of the Lord and the bases and the copper sea that was in the house of the Lord, and they carried off their copper to Babylon.
  • And they took the pots and the shovels and the musical instruments and the spoons and all the copper vessels with which they served.
  • And the chief executioner took the censers and the basins, both of gold and of silver

The warnings of the prophets

This event had been widely predicted by the prophets without changing the attitude of the people of Israel thus making divine wrath inevitable:

Ezechiel shutterstock_86557228
  • For[4] so said the Lord to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem: Plow for yourself a furrow, and do not sow upon thorns.
  • Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your heart, O people of Judah and dwellers of Jerusalem, lest My anger go forth and burn with none to quench it because of the evil of your deeds.
  • Tell in Judah and in Jerusalem; let it be heard and say, « Sound a shofar in the land »; cry out, assemble, and say, « Gather, and let us come into the fortified cities. »
  • Raise a standard to Zion, assemble, do not stand, for I am bringing evil from the north, and a great destruction.
  • A lion has come up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has traveled, has come forth from his place, to make your land into a waste, your cities will be desolate without an inhabitant.
  • Because of this, gird yourselves with sackcloth, lament and wail, for the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned back from us.

And also :

  • Therefore[5], so says the Lord God of Hosts, because you have spoken this word. Behold I put My words into your mouth as fire, and this people [shall be wood] and it shall consume them.
  • Behold I bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, says the Lord; it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you will not know, and you will not understand what he will speak.
  • His quiver is like an open grave, all of them are mighty men.
  • And he will devour your harvest and your bread; they will devour your sons and your daughters; he will devour your flocks and your cattle; he will devour your vines and your fig trees; he will impoverish your fortified cities upon which you rely, with the sword.

The fall of Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah justifies the anguish of David, who may fear the premature end of the adventure of his people.

This is what he evokes in the sequel of the psalm of this generation while not missing to place himself virtually in the heart of the Temple of Jerusalem which will be destroyed:

  1. Bands of death have encompassed me, and streams of scoundrels would affright me.
  2. Bands of the nether world have surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me.
  3. When I am in distress, I call upon the Lord; yes, I cry out to my God; out of His temple He hears my voice, and my cry comes before Him in His ears.

Another prediction that associates the trembling of the mountains with divine anger as well as the association of fire:

  • Therefore[6], as a flame of fire consumes stubble, and a flame shrivels straw, their root shall be like rot, and their blossom shall go up like dust, for they have rejected the law of the Lord of Hosts and the word of the Holy One of Israel they have despised.
  • Therefore, the Lord has become wroth with His people, and He has stretched forth His hand upon them and has struck them, and the mountains have quaked, and their corpses were like spittle in the midst of the streets; with all this, His anger has not turned back, and His hand is still outstretched.

And again in the same association:

  • For[7] My people are foolish, they know Me not; they are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, but they know not to do good.
  • I saw the earth, and behold, it was void and unformed, and the heavens, and they had no light.
  • I saw the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro.
  • I saw, and behold, there were no people, and all the fowl of the heavens wandered away.
  • I saw, and behold, the fruitful field became a desert, and all its cities were destroyed because of the Lord, because of His fierce anger.
  • For so says the Lord: All the land shall be a desolation, but I will not make an end.

As well as this one linked to the association of hail:

  • And[8] I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet, and hail shall sweep away the shelter of lies, and water shall flood the hidingplace.

Ezekiel’s vision

The descriptions made by the prophets to announce the future destruction of Jerusalem are used in the sequel of the psalm of this generation to evoke the actual destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem:

  1. The earth shook and quaked, the foundations of the mountains did tremble; and they were shaken when He was angered.
  2. Smoke went up in His nostrils, and fire out of His mouth did devour; coals flamed forth from Him.
  3. And He bent the heavens, and He came down, and thick darkness was under His feet.

This last passage, in addition to evoking the evils that fall on Judah and Jerusalem evokes the flight of God from his earthly home to his heavenly abode. The fact that God could leave the Temple in this way was also part of Jeremiah’s predictions:

  • For[9] so says the Lord of Hosts: Cut the trees and cast on Jerusalem a siege mound; that is the city whose sins have been visited upon her, everywhere there is oppression in its midst.
  • As a well lets its water flow, so has she let her evil flow; violence and spoil is heard therein before Me continually; sickness and wounds.
  • Be corrected, O Jerusalem, lest My soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, a land uninhabited.
16 Zurich Bible Ezechiel Vision Of God Ez 1 Emory University

However, the flight of God from his earthly residence evoked by David in his psalm is the subject of a more detailed description in a dream of Ezekiel during his exile in Babylon. Ezekiel was one of the first exiles, he was presumably deported around 597 BC, before the destruction of the first Temple. The following dream therefore corresponds approximately to the moment of its destruction. The following narration, which describes the ascent of the divine chariot which thus abandons Jerusalem, initializes the book of Ezekiel. This narration obviously echoes the last passage of Psalm 18 that we commented on:

  • Now[10] it came to pass in the thirtieth year in the fourth [month] on the fifth day of the month, as I was in the midst of the exile by the river Chebar-the heavens opened up, and I saw visions of God.
  • « On the fifth of the month »-that is the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s exile.
  • The word of the Lord was [revealed] to Ezekiel the son of Buzi, the priest, in the land of the Chaldeans, by the river Chebar, and the hand of the Lord came upon him there.
  • And I saw, and behold, a tempest was coming from the north, a huge cloud and a flaming fire with a brightness around it; and from its midst, it was like the color of the chashmal from the midst of the fire.
  • And from its midst was the likeness of four living beings, and this is their appearance; they had the likeness of a man.
  • And [each] one had four faces, and [each] one had four wings.
  • And their legs were a straight leg, and the soles of their feet were like a round foot, and they sparkled like the color of burnished copper.
  • And human hands were beneath their wings on their four sides, and their faces and their wings were [the same] to all four of them.
  • Their wings joined one to the other; they did not turn when they walked; each one would go toward the direction of his face.
  • And the likeness of their faces was the face of a man, and the face of a lion was on their right, to the four of them, and the face of an ox to their left, to the four of them, and the face of an eagle [was] to the four of them.
  • And so were their faces. And their wings were extended upward; each one had two wings joined to each other, and two covering their bodies.
  • Now each one would go toward the direction of his face; wherever would be the will to go, they would go; they did not turn as they walked.
  • And the likeness of the living beings; their appearance was like fiery coals, burning like the appearance of firebrands; it was going among the living beings; and there was a brightness to the fire and from the fire came forth lightning.
  • And the living beings would run and return, like the appearance of the sparks.
  • And I saw the living beings, and behold, one wheel [was] on the ground beside the living beings for its four faces.
  • The appearance of the wheels and their work was like the appearance of crystal, and the four of them had one likeness, and their appearance and their workings were as a wheel would be within a wheel.
  • When they went, they went toward their four sides; they did not turn when they went.
  • And they had backs, and they were very high, and they were dreadful, and their eyebrows were full of eyes round about-[so it was] to the four of them.
  • And when the living beings would go, the wheels would go beside them; and when the living beings would lift themselves off the ground, the wheels would lift themselves.
  • Wherever there was the will to go, they would go; there was the will to go, and the wheels would lift themselves correspondingly to them, for the will of the living being was in the wheels.
  • When they [the living beings] would go, they [the wheels] would go, and when they would stand, they would stand, and when they would lift themselves up from the ground, the wheels would lift themselves correspondingly to them, for the will of the living being was in the wheels.
  • And there was a likeness over the heads of the living beings, of an expanse like the color of the severe frost extended over their heads above.
  • And beneath the expanse, their wings were straight, one [pointed] toward the other; this one had two that covered, to here, and that one had two that covered, to here, their bodies.
  • And I heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of many waters like the voice of the Almighty-when they went; the sound of stirring, like the sound of a camp; when they would stand, they would let down their wings.
  • And there was a voice above the expanse that was over their heads; when they stood still, they would let down their wings.
  • And above the expanse that was over their heads, like the appearance of a sapphire stone, was the likeness of a throne, and on the likeness of the throne, was a likeness like the appearance of a man upon it above.
  • And I saw like the color of chashmal like the appearance of fire within it round about, from the appearance of his loins and above; and from the appearance of his loins and below, I saw [a thing] like the appearance of fire, and there was a brightness round about it.
  • Like the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness round about; that was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord, and when I saw, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice speaking.

Following[11] this apparition, God appears to Ezekiel and, relying on the faults of the people of Israel, justifies the fate that will befall his people and, above all, the abandonment of Jerusalem by divine essence. This can be summarized by:

  • And the beauty[12] of His adornment (God evokes the people of Israel) is what he made for [their] pride, but they made there the despicable images of their abominations; therefore I made it repugnant to them.
  • And I shall give it into the hands of strangers for a prey and to the wicked of the earth for plunder, and they will profane it.
  • And I shall turn My face away from them, and they will profane My secret place (the Temple), and wild men will enter it and profane it.

Then the announcement of the destruction will follow:

  • Then[13] He called into my ears with a loud voice, saying, « Bring near those appointed over the city, and each one his weapon of destruction in his hand. »
  • And behold six men coming from the way of the upper gate (of Temple), which is turned northward; each man has his sledgehammer in his hand, and one man among them clothed in linen with a scribe’s tablet on his loins, and they came and stood beside the copper altar.
  • And the glory of the God of Israel lifted itself from upon the cherub upon which it had been, to the threshold of the House, and He called to the man clothed in linen, upon whose loins was the scribe’s tablet.

The Lord commands him to record the sentence of destruction on Jerusalem. Man does what precedes the departure of the Lord:

  • And I saw[14], and behold on the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim, [a thing] like a sapphire stone; like the appearance of a throne appeared upon them.
  • And He said to the man clothed in linen, and He said, « Come between the wheels under the cherub, and fill your hands with fiery coals from the cherubim, and cast [them] upon the city, » and he came, before my eyes.
  • Now the cherubim were standing at the right of the House when the man came, and the cloud filled the inner court.
  • Then the glory of the Lord lifted itself from upon the cherub onto the threshold of the House, and the House was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the splendor of the glory of the Lord.
  • And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard until the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks.
  • And it came to pass when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, « Take fire from between the wheels, from among the cherubim, » he came and stood beside the wheel.
  • And the cherub extended his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and he picked [it] up and gave [it] into the hands of the one clothed in linen, and he took [it] and left.
  • And there appeared to be to the cherubim a form of a human hand under their wings.
  • And I saw, and behold four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub and one wheel beside one cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was like the appearance of crystal.
  • As for their appearance-the four of them had one likeness, as a wheel would be within a wheel.
  • When they went, they would go toward their four sides, they would not turn when they would go, for [to] the place where the head would turn, after him they would go; they would not turn when they went.
  • And all their flesh and their backs and their hubs and their wings, and the wheels were full of colors all around, [so it was] to their four wheels.
  • To the wheels, to them was called hagalgal to my ears.
  • Now each one had four faces; the face of one was the face of the cherub, and the face of the second was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
  • And the cherubim were lifted; it was the living being that I had seen by the river Chebar.
  • And when the cherubim went, the wheels would go beside them, and when the cherubirn would lift their wings to rise off the earth, the wheels, too, did not turn away from [being] beside them.
  • When they stood, they would stand, and when they would rise, they would rise with them, for the will of the living being was in them.
  • Then the glory of the Lord went out from upon the threshold of the House, and it stood on the cherubim.
  • And the cherubim raised their wings and lifted themselves from the earth, before my eyes, when they left, and the wheels corresponded to them, and it stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the House of the Lord, and the glory of the God of Israel was upon them from above.
  • It was the living being that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar, and I knew that they were cherubim.
  • Four faces each for every one, and four wings for every one, and the likeness of the hands of a man was beneath their wings.
  • As for the likeness of their faces-those were the faces that I saw by the river Chebar-their appearance and themselves; each one would go in the direction he was facing.

The continuation of the psalm of this generation thus describes and the flight of God from his earthly residence and the destruction of the Temple by resuming the elements of the dream of Ezekiel:

  1. And He rode on a cherub and did fly; He swooped on the wings of the wind.
  2. He made darkness His hiding-place about Him as His booth; the darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
  3. From the brightness before Him, His thick cloud passed, hail and coals of fire.
  4. The Lord thundered from Heaven; and the Most High gave forth His voice with hail and coals of fire.
  5. And He sent out arrows and He scattered them; He shot lightning and He discomfited them.

Ezekiel is not the first to see the celestial chariot. Elisha also discovers it during Elijah’s departure from this world:

  • And[15] it was that they (Elisha and Elijah) were going, walking and talking, and behold a fiery chariot and fiery horses, and they separated them both. And Elijah ascended to heaven in a whirlwind.
  • And Elisha saw, and he was crying, « My father! My father! The chariots of Israel and their riders! » And he saw him no longer. Now he took hold of his garments and rent them in two pieces.

This departure of God from his residence in Jerusalem was not inevitable. Before these events, God, through Jeremiah, had tried to bring the people of Israel back to the right path:

  • For[16] so says the Lord of Hosts: Cut the trees and cast on Jerusalem a siege mound; that is the city whose sins have been visited upon her, everywhere there is oppression in its midst.
  • As a well lets its water flow, so has she let her evil flow; violence and spoil is heard therein before Me continually; sickness and wounds.
  • Be corrected, O Jerusalem, lest My soul be alienated from you; lest I make you a desolation, a land uninhabited.

These warnings were not listened to and the divine wrath was expressed. This is illustrated by the following verse of Psalm 18:

  1. And the depths of the water appeared; the foundations of the world were laid bare by Your rebuke, O Lord, by the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.

Redemption

But the destruction of the people of Israel is not complete. The divine wrath remains measured in order to preserve his people, and to leave the latter a chance to finally find his way so that the pronounced alliance is finally realized in a definitive way. So when Jeremiah announces the destruction orchestrated by Nebuchadnezzar[17], he announces at the same time that it will not be complete:

  • And[18] also in those days, says the Lord, I will not make an end to you.

In fact, the pact between God and his people can not be broken.

  • So[19] said the Lord: If not My covenant with the day and the night, that the statutes of heaven and earth I did not place,
  • Also will I reject the seed of Jacob and David, My servant, not to take from his seed rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when I bring back their captivity and have mercy upon them.

Thus, a faith announced the destruction that is happening to Jerusalem and the people of Israel, as predicted by the various prophets who have unfortunately not been heard, the continuation of the psalm connects on the future resurrection of the people of Israel. With David at his head, the narrator of the psalms.

Again, the psalm echoes the predictions of the eighteenth-generation prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel:

  1. He sent forth from on high [and] He took me; He drew me out of many waters.
  2. He delivered me from my mighty enemy, and from those that hated me, for they were too powerful for me.
  3. They confronted me on the day of my calamity, but the Lord was a support to me.
  4. And He brought me forth into a wide space; He delivered me because He took delight in me.
  5. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands He recompensed me.
  6. For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from [the commandments of] my God.
  7. For all His ordinances were before me; and His statutes I will not remove from myself.
  8. And I was single-hearted with Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity.
  9. And the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands before His eyes.
  10. With a kind one, You show Yourself kind, with a sincere man, You show Yourself sincere.
  11. With a pure one, You show Yourself pure, but with a crooked one, You deal crookedly.
  12. For You deliver a humble people, and You humble haughty eyes.

Can easily be compared with the following predictions:

  • Behold[20], days are coming, says the Lord, when I will set up of David a righteous shoot, and he shall reign a king and prosper, and he shall perform judgment and righteousness in the land.
  • In his days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely, and this is his name that he shall be called, The Lord is our righteousness.

And also :

  • For[21], behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will restore the captivity of My people Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will restore them to the land that I gave their forefathers and they shall possess it. (…)
  • And they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will set up for them.
  • And you, fear not, My servant Jacob, says the Lord, and do not be dismayed, O Israel, for behold I save you from afar and your seed from the land of their captivity, and Jacob shall again be silent and at ease, and no one will frighten them.
  • For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you, for I will make an end of all the nations where I dispersed you, but of you I will not make an end, but I will chasten you in measure, and I will not completely destroy you.

Or :

  • Behold[22], days are coming, says the Lord, and I will establish the good thing that I spoke concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
  • In those days and in that time I will cause to grow for David a plant of righteousness, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
  • In those days, Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell securely and this is the name that He shall call it, the Lord is our righteousness.
  • For so said the Lord: There shall not be cut off from David a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel.
  • And of the Levitic priests, there shall not be cut off from before Me a man offering up a burnt offering, or burning a meal-offering or performing a sacrifice for all time.
  • And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying:
  • So said the Lord: If you break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, and not to have day and night in their time.
  • Also My covenant with David shall be broken, that he should not have a son reigning on his throne, and with the Levitic priests, My ministers.
  • Just as the host of heaven cannot be counted nor can the sand of the sea be measured, so will I increase the seed of My servant David and the Levites who minister to Me.

And:

  • For[23] so said the Lord God: Behold I am here, and I shall search for My flocks and I shall seek them out.
  • As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his separated flocks, so will I seek out My flocks, and I will save them from all the places where they have scattered on a cloudy and dark day.
  • I will take them out from among the nations, and I will gather them from the lands and bring them to their land, and I will shepherd them to the mountains of Israel, by the streams and in all the dwellings of the land. (…)
  • And I shall put up over them one shepherd and he will shepherd them, namely My servant David; he will shepherd them, and he will be for them as a shepherd.
  • And I, the Lord, shall be to them for a God, and My servant David [will be] a prince in their midst; I, the Lord, have spoken.

As well as the following passage which establishes David as the future pastor of Israel before the evocation of fidelity to the laws and statutes, thus designating the latter as the implicit guarantor thereof:

  • And[24] say to them, So says the Lord God: Behold I will take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side, and I will bring them to their land.
  • And I will make them into one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be to them all as a king; and they shall no longer be two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms anymore.
  • And they shall no longer defile themselves with their idols, with their detestable things, or with all their transgressions, and I will save them from all their habitations in which they have sinned, and I will purify them, and they shall be to Me as a people, and I will be to them as a God.
  • And My servant David shall be king over them, and one shepherd shall be for them all, and they shall walk in My ordinances and observe My statutes and perform them.
  • And they shall dwell on the land that I have given to My servant, to Jacob, wherein your forefathers lived; and they shall dwell upon it, they and their children and their children’s children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever.
  • And I will form a covenant of peace for them, an everlasting covenant shall be with them; and I will establish them and I will multiply them, and I will place My Sanctuary in their midst forever.
  • And My dwelling place shall be over them, and I will be to them for a God, and they shall be to Me as a people.
  • And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, Who sanctifies Israel, when My Sanctuary is in their midst forever. »

It is through these future events that David can find hope. While his people live, through the destruction of the first Temple, perhaps the most tragic event of the long night that it crosses, because it directly concerns the divine essence.

It is this future that brings a little light to the deep darkness of the long night that the people of Israel endure.

This is what David still says in the following verses of the psalm:

  1. For You light my lamp; the Lord, my God, does light my darkness.
  2. For by You I run upon a troop, and by my God I scale a wall.
  3. [He is] the God Whose way is perfect; the word of the Lord is refined; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.
  4. For who is God save the Lord? And who is a Rock, save our God?


[1] Shmuel II – II Samuel – Chapter 22

[2] Shmuel II – II Samuel – Chapter 22 and also Psalm 18, verse 7

[3] Melachim II – II Kings – Chapter 25, verses 1 to 15

[4] Yirmiyahu – Jeremiah – Chapter 4, verses 3 to 8

[5] Yirmiyahu – Jeremiah – Chapter 5, verses 14 to 17

[6] Yeshayahu – Isaiah – Chapter 5, verses 24 and 25

[7] Yirmiyahu – Jeremiah – Chapter 4, verses 22 to 27

[8] Yeshayahu – Isaiah – Chapter 28, verses 17

[9] Yirmiyahu – Jeremiah – Chapter 6, verses 6 to 8

[10] Yechezkel – Ezekiel – Chapter 1

[11] Yechezkel – Ezekiel – Chapters 2 to 7

[12] Yechezkel – Ezekiel – Chapter 7, verses 20 to 22

[13] Yechezkel – Ezekiel – Chapter 9, verses 1 to 3

[14] Yechezkel – Ezekiel – Chapter 10

[15] Melachim II – II Kings – Chapter 2, verses 11 and 12

[16] Yirmiyahu – Jeremiah – Chapter 6, verses 6 to 8

[17] Yirmiyahu – Jeremiah – Chapter 5, verses 14 to 17

[18] Yirmiyahu – Jeremiah – Chapter 5, verse 18

[19] Yirmiyahu – Jeremiah – Chapter 33, verses 25 and 26

[20] Yirmiyahu – Jeremiah – Chapter 23, verses 5 and 6

[21] Yirmiyahu – Jeremiah – Chapter 30, verses 3 and 9 to 11

[22] Yirmiyahu – Jeremiah – Chapter 33, verses 14 to 22

[23] Yechezkel – Ezekiel – Chapter 34, verses 11 to 13, 23 and 24

[24] Yechezkel – Ezekiel – Chapter 37, verses 21 to 28