PSALM 9

This and the following Psalm are, in the LXX. and the Vulgate, reckoned as one; though the numbering of the verses breaks off and begins again. The Antiphons, therefore, Arguments, and the like, must be taken to apply to one, as well as to the other.

TITLE. English Version: To the Chief Musician upon Muthlabben. Vulgate: To the end; for the hidden things of the Son; a Psalm of David. Targum: To sing upon the death of a man who had gone out from between the camps. A Psalm of David.1

No title has given modern Commentators more trouble than this. Some, as Bishop Horsley, follow the Vulgate, and adopt the mysterious interpretation of Venerable Bede. Others will have the Muthlabben to be a musical instrument. Others, as Dr. Good, dissatisfied with all these, propose, by a different division of the word, to elicit the meaning, On the death-blow: that is, One of the decisive victories obtained by David over the Great Confederation that attacked him immediately after his accession to the throne.