ALPHA AND OMEGA`

THE ALPHA AND OMEGA

"Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen" Psa. 41:13

The English reader has gained much in the study of the Psalms from the fact that the Revisers have restored the Hebrew divisions of the selection into five Books. There is no doubt that the editing, by whom so always done, was carefully done, and that in each of the five books there is a dominant idea. In each case this idea is revealed in the Doxology with which the Book ends. The editor—possibly and even probably Hezekiah—may have written this Doxology himself. The verse we have taken is the Doxology with which the first Book ends. Kirkpatrick is certainly right when he says: "This doxology is, of course, no part of the Psalm, but stands here to mark the close of Book I." The prevailing Name of God found in this collection is Jehovah. The songs have set forth in varied ways all that this Name meant to the men of faith. Thus the Doxology utters the praise of Jehovah, Who is the God of Israel. It recognizes the all-encompassing sweep of the Divine government and grace in the words: “From everlasting to everlasting." It declares the assent of man to this fact, in the concluding double: "Amen and Amen." The word everlasting in the Hebrew means the vanishing point. The idea is that the God of Israel is Jehovah from the past which is beyond human knowledge, to the future which is equally so. Rotherham's rendering is very fine; "Blessed be Jehovah, God of Israel, from antiquity unto antiquity. Amen and Amen.” To us the great truth is made clearer in the words of Jesus: "I am the ALPHA and the OMEGA." (Rev. 1:8, 11; 21:6; 22:13) In that sense of the eternity of our God, and of the eternity of the things concerning Him unveiled in His Son, is the secret of our songs.