A Riddle will be Solved,
Psalm 49:4by Jack Kettler
Psalm 49: To the Chief
Musician, a Psalm for the sons of Korah.
“Hear this, all peoples; Give
ear, all inhabitants of the world, Both low
and high, Rich and poor together. My mouth
shall speak wisdom, And the meditation of my
heart shall give understanding. I will incline
my ear to a proverb; I will disclose my dark
saying on the harp.” (Psalm 49:1-4)
From Scripture:
“I will incline mine ear to a
parable: I will open my dark saying upon the
harp.” (Psalm 49:4 KJV)
“I will incline my ear to a
proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music
of the lyre.” (Psalm 49:4 ESV)
Related passages:
“But now bring me a minstrel.
And it came to pass, when the minstrel played,
that the hand of the LORD came upon him.” (2
Kings 3:15)
“After that thou shalt come
to the hill of God, where is the garrison of
the Philistines: and it shall come to pass,
when thou art come thither to the city, that
thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming
down from the high place with a psaltery, and
a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them;
and they shall prophesy.” (1 Samuel 10:5)
“And it came to pass, when
the evil
spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took
a harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was
refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit
departed from him.” (1 Samuel 16:23)
“And I heard a voice from
heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as
the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the
voice of harpers harping with their harps.”
(Revelation 14:2)
Introductory comments:
The Bible uses many literary
forms. For example, the Bible uses genera's
such as; law, historical narrative, wisdom,
poetical, gospel, didactic letters, or
epistles, predictive, and apocalyptic
literature.
To illustrate potential
problems in interpretation:
When Jesus said “I am the
door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be
saved, and shall go in and out, and find
pasture.” (John 10:9) Does He mean that He is
a door and that we are going to live in a
pasture?
When God says: “He shall
cover thee with his feathers, and under his
wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy
shield and buckler.” (Psalm 91:4) Does this
mean God is a bird?
Our general approach is to
take the Bible literally, and not fall into
the error of hyper-literalism as could happen
with the above passages. These introductory
comments and questions along with the
following section on hermeneutical guidelines
will help when we get to the biblical text
under consideration.
Interpretive hermeneutical
guidelines for the book of Psalms:
Hebrew Poetry
Poetry in the Old Testament. At a
very early date poetry became part of the
written literature of the Hebrew people. Many
scholars believe the song of Moses and the
song of Miriam (Ex. 15: 1– 21), celebrating
the destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the sea,
is the oldest existing Hebrew hymn or poetic
work, dating perhaps from the twelfth century
B.C. Three of the greatest poetic masterpieces
of the Old Testament are the Song of Deborah
(Judges 5); the Song of the Bow— David’s
lament over the death of Saul and Jonathan (2
Sam. 1: 17– 27) — and the Burden of Nineveh
(Nah. 1: 10— 3: 19).
Approximately 40 percent of the
Old Testament is written in poetry. This
includes entire books (except for short prose
sections) such as Job, Psalms, Proverbs, the
Song of Solomon, and Lamentations. Large
portions of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Minor
Prophets are also poetic in form and content.
Many scholars consider the Book of Job to be
not only the greatest poem in the Old
Testament but also one of the greatest poems
in all literature.
The three main divisions of the
Old Testament— the Law, the Prophets, and the
Writings— contain poetry in successively
greater amounts. Only seven Old Testament
books— Leviticus, Ruth, Ezra, Nehemiah,
Esther, Haggai, and Malachi— appear to have no
poetic lines.
Poetic elements such as
assonance, alliteration, meter, and rhyme— so
common to poetry as we know it today— occur
rarely in Hebrew poetry; these are not
essential ingredients of Old Testament poetry.
Instead, the essential formal characteristic
of Hebrew poetry is parallelism. This is a
construction in which the content of one line
is repeated, contrasted, or advanced by the
content of the next— a type of sense rhythm
characterized by thought arrangement rather
than by word arrangement or rhyme. The three
main types of parallelism in biblical poetry
are synonymous, antithetic, and synthetic.
Synonymous parallelism— A
parallel segment repeats an idea found in the
previous segment. With this technique a kind
of paraphrase is involved; line two restates
the same thought found in line one, by using
equivalent expressions. Examples of synonymous
parallelism are found in Genesis 4: 23: “Adah
and Zillah, hear my voice; / Wives of Lamech,
listen to my speech!/ For I have killed a man
for wounding me/ Even a young man for hurting
me.” Another example is found in Psalm 2: 4:
“He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; / The
Lord shall hold them in derision.” Yet a third
example is Psalm 51: 2– 3: “Wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. /
For I acknowledge my transgressions, / And my
sin is always before me.” (Also see Ps. 24: 1–
3; 103: 3, 7– 10; Jer. 17: 10; Zech. 9: 9.)
Antithetic parallelism— By means
of this poetic construction, the thought of
the first line is made clearer by contrast— by
the opposition expressed in the second line.
Examples of antithetic parallelism may be
found in Psalm 1: 6: “The Lord knows the way
of the righteous, / But the way of the ungodly
shall perish”; in Psalm 34: 10: “The young
lions lack and suffer hunger; / But those who
seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing”;
and in Proverbs 14: 20: “The poor man is hated
even by his own neighbor,/ But the rich has
many friends.”
Synthetic parallelism— Also
referred to as climactic or cumulative
parallelism, this poetic construction expands
the idea in line one by the idea in line two.
In synthetic parallelism, therefore, there is
an ascending (or descending) progression, a
building upof thought, with each
succeeding line adding to the first.
Here is one good example of this
poetic technique: “He shall be like a tree/
Planted by the rivers of water, / That brings
forth its fruit in its season, / Whose leaf
also shall not wither; / And whatever he does
shall prosper” (Ps. 1: 3).
Another poetic form found in the
Old Testament is the alphabetical acrostic, a
form used often in the Book of Psalms (Psalms
9– 10; 25; 34; 37; 111; 112; 119; 145). In the
alphabetical psalms the first line begins with
the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the
next with the second, and so on, until all the
letters of the alphabet have been used. Thus,
Psalm 119 consists of twenty-two groups of
eight verses each. The number of groups equals
the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet.
The first letter of each verse in a group is
(in the original Hebrew text) that letter of
the alphabet that corresponds to its position
in the group.
Many of the subtleties of Hebrew
poetry, such as puns and various plays on
words, are virtually untranslatable into
English and may be fully appreciated only by
an accomplished Hebrew scholar. Fortunately,
many good commentaries are available to
explain to the layperson these riches of
Hebrew thought.
The Bible is full of numerous
figures of speech, such as metaphors and
similes. For example, the psalmist
metaphorically described God by saying, “The
Lord is my rock and my fortress and my
deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will
trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold” (Ps. 18: 2).
Moses gave this remarkable simile
describing God’s care of Israel in the
wilderness: “As an eagle stirs up its nest, /
Hovers over its young, / Spreading out its
wings, taking them up, / Carrying them on its
wings,/ So the Lord alone led him” (Deut. 32:
11– 12).
Such figures of speech are not to
be interpreted literally but as poetic
symbolism for God. He is the firm ground of
life and a solid defense against evil. The
worshiper sings for joy because of His
protecting presence and the soaring power of
His loving care. (1)
My comments:
This passage is somewhat
mysterious. Is a riddle or dark saying
literally solved by a Harp? Or is the Harp
played while prophesying, counseling,
preaching or teaching of parables, praise or
when supplications are made? Or is there a
type of poetic symbolism being used that
connects the instrument to an opening and
understanding of God’s Word? The Psalmist in
verse three says: “My mouth shall speak
wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall
give understanding.” The hearers are to grasp
and understand something, wisdom. What do the
commentators say?
From Gill's
Exposition of the Entire Bible:
I will incline mine ear to a
parable… In which way of speaking the
doctrines of the Gospel were delivered out by
Christ, Matthew 13:3. Wherefore the prophet,
representing his apostles and disciples,
signifies that he would listen thereunto, that
he might attain to the knowledge thereof, and
communicate it to others;
I will open my dark saying
upon the harp; the enigmas, riddles, and
mysteries of the Gospel, being understood by
the ministers of it, are opened and explained
in a very pleasant and delightful manner; they
are made clear and evident, and are as a
lovely song upon a harp; see Ezekiel 33:32. (2)
Gill draws a comparison
between the parable and prophet: “Wherefore
the prophet, representing his apostles and
disciples, signifies that he would listen
thereunto, that he might attain to the
knowledge thereof, and communicate it to
others.”
From the Treasury
of David:
Verse 4. I will incline mine
ear to a parable. He who would have others
hear, begins by hearing himself. As the
minstrel leans his ear to his harp, so must
the preacher give his whole soul to his
ministry. The truth came to the psalmist as a
parable, and he endeavoured to unriddle it for
popular use; he would not leave the truth in
obscurity, but he listened to its voice till
he so well understood it as to be able to
interpret and translate it into the common
language of the multitude. Still of necessity
it would remain a problem, and a dark saying
to the unenlightened many, but this would not
be the songster's fault, for, saith he, I will
open my dark saying upon the harp. The writer
was no mystic, delighting in deep and cloudy
things, yet he was not afraid of the most
profound topics; he tried to open the
treasures of darkness, and to uplift pearls
from the deep. To win attention he cast his
proverbial philosophy into the form of song,
and tuned his harp to the solemn tone of his
subject. Let us gather round the minstrel of
the King of kings, and hear the Psalm which
first was led by the chief musician, as the
chorus of the sons of Korah lifted up their
voices in the temple. (3)
As Spurgeon notes: “As the
minstrel leans his ear to his harp, so must
the preacher give his whole soul to his
ministry. The truth came to the psalmist as a
parable, and he endeavored to unriddle it for
popular use; he would not leave the truth in
obscurity, but he listened to its voice till
he so well understood it as to be able to
interpret and translate it into the common
language of the multitude.” It was the
Psalmist’s job to unriddle the parable, not
the Harp.
From the Pulpit
Commentary:
Verse 4. - I will incline
mine ear to a parable. The psalmist is “like a
minstrel who has to play a piece of music put
into his hands. The strain is none of his own
devising; and as he proceeds, each note awakes
in him a mysterious echo, which he would fain
catch and retain in memory” (Kay). A “parable”
in the Old Testament means any enigmatical or
dark saying, into which much metaphor or
imagery is introduced, so that it is only φωνᾶν
συνετοῖσι. I will open my dark saying
upon the harp; i.e. with a harp accompaniment.
Music was a help to inspired persons in the
delivery of messages which they were
commissioned to deliver (see 1 Samuel 10:5; 2
Kings 3:15). (4)
It is good to note the
connection between parable and dark saying.
From Barnes'
Notes on the Bible:
I will incline mine ear to a
parable - The phrase “I will incline mine ear”
means that he would listen or attend to - as
we incline our ear toward those whom we are
anxious to hear, or in the direction from
which a sound seems to come. Compare Psalm
5:1; Psalm 17:1; Psalm 39:12; Isaiah 1:2. On
the word rendered “parable” here משׁל
mâshâl - see the notes at Isaiah 14:4.
Compare Job 13:12, note; Job 27:1, note. The
word properly means similitude; then, a
sentence, sententious saying, apophthegm;
then, a proverb; then, a song or poem. There
is usually found in the word some idea of
“comparison,” and hence, usually something
that is to be illustrated “by” a comparison or
a story. The reference here would seem to be
to some dark or obscure subject which needed
to be illustrated; which it was not easy to
understand; which had given the writer, as
well as others, perplexity and difficulty. He
proposed now, with a view to understand and
explain it, to place his ear, as it were,
“close to the matter,” that he might clearly
comprehend it. The matter was difficult, but
he felt assured he could explain it - as when
one unfolds the meaning of an enigma. The
“problem” - the “parable” - the difficult
point - related to the right use, or the
proper value, of wealth, or the estimate in
which it should be held by those who possessed
it, and by those who did not. It was very
evident to the author of the psalm that the
views of people were not right on the subject;
he therefore proposed to examine the matter
carefully, and to state the exact truth.
I will open - I will explain;
I will communicate the result of my careful
inquiries.
My dark saying - The word
used here - חידה
chı̂ydâh - is rendered “dark speeches”
in Numbers 12:8; “riddle,” in Judges 14:12-19;
Ezekiel 17:2; “hard questions” in 1 Kings
10:1; 2 Chronicles 9:1; “dark saying” (as
here) in Psalm 78:2; Proverbs 1:6; “dark
sentences,” in Daniel 8:23; and “proverb” in
Habakkuk 2:6. It does not elsewhere occur. It
means properly “something entangled,
intricate;” then, a trick or stratagem; then
art intricate speech, a riddle; then, a
sententious saying, a maxim; then a parable, a
poem, a song, a proverb. The idea here is,
that the point was intricate or obscure; it
was not well understood, and he purposed "to
lay it open," and to make it plain.
Upon the harp - On the
meaning of the word used here, see the notes
at Isaiah 5:12. The idea here is, that he
would accompany the explanation with music, or
would so express it that it might be
accompanied with music; that is, he would give
it a poetic form - a form such that the
sentiment might be used in public worship, and
might be impressed upon the mind by all the
force and power which music would impart.
Sentiments of purity and truth, and sentiments
of pollution and falsehood also, are always
most deeply imbedded in the minds of people,
and are made most enduring and effective, when
they are connected with music. Thus the
sentiments of patriotism are perpetuated and
impressed in song; and thus sentiments of
sensuality and pollution owe much of their
permanence and power to the fact that they are
expressed in corrupt verse, and that they are
perpetuated in exquisite poetry, and are
accompanied with song. Scenes of revelry, as
well as acts of devotion, are kept up by song.
Religion proposes to take advantage of this
principle in our nature by connecting the
sentiments of piety with the sweetness of
verse, and by impressing and perpetuating
those sentiments through associating them with
all that is tender, pure, and inspiriting in
music. Hence, music, both vocal and that which
is produced by instruments, has always been
found to be an invaluable auxiliary in
securing the proper impression of truth on the
minds of people, as well as in giving
utterance to the sentiments of piety in
devotion. (5)
Barnes seems to have a
similar view as Spurgeon when he says: “It was
very evident to the author of the psalm that
the views of people were not right on the
subject; he, therefore, proposed to examine
the matter carefully and to state the exact
truth. I will open - I will explain; I will
communicate the result of my careful
inquiries.”
Clarke's Commentary on Psalms
49:4:
I will incline mine ear to a
parable - This was the general method of
conveying instruction among the Asiatics. They
used much figure and metaphor to induce the
reader to study deeply in order to find out
the meaning. This had its use; it obliged men
to think and reflect deeply; and thus in some
measure taught them the use, government, and
management of their minds. (6)
These commentators see a
connection between explaining “dark sayings”
sometimes known as “parables” with the prophet
or preacher’s ability to explain God’s
revelation. So there seems to be a type of
poetic symbolism being used that connects the
instrument with the opening of the mind and
the understanding of God’s Word as expounded
by the prophet, preacher teachers ordained by
God to deliver and make known His Word.
“Blessed art thou, O LORD:
teach me thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:12)
“Study to shew thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not
to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)
Notes:
1.Herbert Lockyer, Sr.
General Editor, Nelson's
Illustrated Bible Dictionary,
(Nashville, Tennessee, Thomas Nelson
Publishers), pp. 858-859.
2.John Gill, Exposition
of the Old and New Testaments, Psalms, 9
Volumes, (Grace Works, Multi-Media Labs),
2011, p. 539.
3.C. H. Spurgeon, The
Treasury of David, Vol. I, (Nashville,
Tennessee, Thomas Nelson), p. 370.
4.H. D. M. Spence and
Joseph S. Exell, The
Pulpit Commentary, Psalms, Vol. 8,
(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdmans Publishing
Company reprint 1978), p. 378.
5.Albert Barnes, THE AGES
DIGITAL LIBRARYCOMMENTARY, Barnes’
Notes on the Bible, Psalms, Vol. 5
p.861.
“To God, only wise, be glory
through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” (Romans
16:27) and “heirs according to the promise.”
(Galatians 3:28, 29)
Mr. Kettler has previously
published articles in the Chalcedon Report
and Contra Mundum. He and his wife
Marea attend the Westminster, CO, RPCNA
Church. Mr. Kettler is the author of the book
defending the Reformed Faith against attacks,
titled: The Religion That Started in a
Hat. Available at:
www.TheReligionThatStartedInAHat.com
For more study:
* For a great source of
theological definitions go to Rebecca writes
at Rebecca Writes:
http://www.rebecca-writes.com/theological-terms-in-ao/