Psalms 72:20

20 velut somnium surgentium Domine in civitate tua imaginem ipsorum ad nihilum rediges

Psalms 72:20 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 72:20

The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.
] The Septuagint version renders it, the hymns. This psalm is thought by some to be the last that was written by David, though put in this place; and it is certain that the psalms are not always placed in the order of time in which they were written: this being, as is supposed, made by him in his old age, when Solomon his son was appointed and set upon his throne by his order; on account of which he composed it, with a view to the Messiah, the antitype of Solomon. Or, as others, this is the last of the psalms, which were put together and digested in order by David himself; the rest that follow being collected by Hezekiah or the Levites. Aben Ezra mentions it as the sense of some of their interpreters,

``then shall be fulfilled the prayers of the son of Jesse;''

that is, as R. Joseph Kimchi explains it, when those consolations are completed, then the prayers of David the son of Jesse shall be fulfilled. The sense is, when all the things spoken of in this psalm, concerning the Messiah and his kingdom, should be accomplished, then the prayers of David, and so of every good man, his hearty wishes and desires, will then be answered, and have their full effect, and not till then. This verse seems to be written not by David, for the psalm itself ends with "Amen and Amen"; but by some collector of the Psalms: it is not in the Arabic version, in the room of which is "Hallelujah"; and in the Syriac version it is, "the end of the second book". The first book of Psalms ends with the forty first Psalm. The whole is divided into five parts by the Jews; observed by Origen F24 and Hilarius F25, and others.


FOOTNOTES:

F24 Apud Montfaucon. Praelim. ad Hexapla Origen. p. 78, 79.
F25 Prolog. in Psalm. p. 33.

Psalms 72:20 In-Context

18 verumtamen propter dolos posuisti eis deiecisti eos dum adlevarentur
19 quomodo facti sunt in desolationem subito defecerunt perierunt propter iniquitatem suam
20 velut somnium surgentium Domine in civitate tua imaginem ipsorum ad nihilum rediges
21 quia inflammatum est cor meum et renes mei commutati sunt
22 et ego ad nihilum redactus sum et nescivi
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.