of God as "Most High"
(vii. 17; lvii. 2), an expression which only occurs twice besides in the
Davidic psalms (ix. 2; xxi. 7); the parallelism in sense between the
petition which forms the centre and the close of the one, "Be Thou
exalted, O God, above the heavens" (lvii. 5, 11), and that which is the
most emphatic desire of the other, "Arise, O Lord, awake, ... lift up
Thyself for me" (vii. 6). Another correspondence, not preserved in our
English version, is the employment in both of a rare poetical word,
which originally means "to complete," and so comes naturally to have the
secondary significations of "to perfect" and "to put an end to." The
word in question only occurs five times in the Old Testament, and always
in psalms. Four of these are in hymns ascribed to David, of which two
are (lvii. 2), "The God that _performeth_ all things for me," and (vii.
9), "Let the wickedness of the wicked _come to an end_." The use of the
same peculiar word in two such dissimilar connections seems to show that
it was, as we say, "running in his head" at the time, and is, perhaps, a
stronger presumption of the cotemporaneousness of both psalms than its
employment in both with the same application would have been.

Characteristic of these early psalms is the occurrence of a refrain
(compare lvi. and lix.) which in the present instance closes both of
the portions of which the hymn consists. The former of these (1-5)
breathes prayerful trust, from which it passes to describe the
encompassing dangers; the second reverses this order, and beginning with
the dangers and distress, rises to ringing gladness and triumph, as
though the victory were already won. The psalmist's confident cleaving
of soul to God is expressed (ver. 1) by an image that may be connected
with his circumstances at Engedi: "In Thee has my soul taken refuge."
The English version is correct as regards the sense, though it
obliterates the beautiful metaphor by its rendering "trusteth." The
literal meaning of the verb is "to flee to a refuge," and its employment
here may be due to the poetical play of the imagination, which likens
his secure retreat among the everlasting hills to the safe hiding-place
which his spirit found in God his habitation. A similar analogy appears
in the earliest use of the expression, which may have been floating in
the psalmist's memory, and which occurs in the ancient song of Moses
(Deut. xxxii.). The scenery of the forty years' wanderings remar