The singers went before It is evident that he does not now speak of an army in battle array, but of a solemn assembly held for offering up thanksgivings to God for victory. God had openly shown that he was their leader in war, and to him the song of triumph is with propriety addressed. Mention is made of distinct choirs employed in his service, and particularly of such as played upon the timbrel; for, absurd as the practice may appear to us, it was then customary for the women to play upon that instrument. By the fountain [1] from which they are called upon to bless God, some understand the heart, as it is known that those praises which proceed from the lips merely, and are hypocritical, meet with the Divine reprobation. But I conceive the true meaning to be, that all are summoned to praise the Lord who could deduce their origin from the patriarch Jacob. Many might not sustain the character which answered to their high vocation; but, as the whole race had been chosen of God, the Psalmist very properly invites them to engage in this devotional exercise. At the same time, I see nothing objectionable in the opinion, if any persist in preferring it, that the term is here used to distinguish the true saints of God from those who vainly boasted of being the posterity of Abraham, while they had degenerated from his spirit. Those only who walk in the footsteps of his faith are reckoned to be his children. It has caused some surprise that, in a general description of the sacred assemblies of the people, precedence should have been given to the tribe of Benjamin According to certain interpreters, this is owing to the position which it occupied, as being next to David; and honor is put upon the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, [2] which, though they lay at a great distance, were in a particular manner friendly and attached to him. Others think that the whole nation is represented under the tribes specified, which were at once the nearest and most distant. [3] These conjectures [4] are probable enough, but the point is one which may be left in uncertainty, as there may have been some other reason, which it is impossible for us to discover. It has been suggested that Benjamin is called little on account of the smallness of its numbers, the tribe having been nearly exterminated for the crime of the men of Gibeah, (Judges 19:20;) but David would not probably have adverted to any reproach of this kind in calling them to take so prominent a part in the praises of God. The inspired writers, in speaking of the tribes, often allude to the patriarchs from whom they respectively took their origin; nor is it surprising that the posterity of Benjamin, who was the youngest of Jacob's children, [5] should receive the designation here given to them; and the truth is, that even antecedently to the heavy stroke which befell them, they were not numerous. Interpreters, by general consent, have considered that Benjamin is called ruler, as Saul, who was first made king in Israel, belonged to this tribe; but I cannot bring myself to think it probable that David would have made such an unseasonable allusion to Saul's memory, whose government is everywhere represented in Scripture as pregnant with disaster, and which was to be buried in that of his successor, whose reign is so prominently brought forward in this psalm. The more likely conjecture is, that this title of dignity is applied in order to put honor upon a tribe, which some might despise for its smallness, and to intimate that the Benjamites, though few in numbers, and not possessed of great influence, formed one head in Israel as well as the rest. Others may be disposed to think that there must have been some illustrious individual in this and the two tribes mentioned along with it, or that the whole tribe had signalised itself in a recent battle. Though honorable mention is made of these tribes, yet the chief place in the numbers assembled together at this time is assigned to the princes of Judah. Some think that the copulative is understood, and read, the princes of Judah and their congregation The Hebrew word which we translate congregation is by others translated stoning. [6] But it seems preferable to construe the words as implying that this tribe presided over the assembly which marched under its auspices in war. The power of summoning the people together is thus asserted as belonging to Judah, and it is represented as honored with the government and primacy of the kingdom.

Footnotes

1 - "A metaphor denoting the posterity of Israel, springing, as it were, from a common source or fountain." -- Mant Bishop Hare's conjectural emendation gives a good sense; but it seems unnecessary. Instead of mmqvr, mimmekor, he proposes to read mqvr, mekor; and then the passage would run thus: -- "The fount whence blessings spring to Israel's race." Horsley reads, "The Lord of the stock of Israel;" and explains it of the Messiah, who was of the stock of Israel according to the flesh. Fry conceives that the reading more strictly may be, "from the quarry of Israel; dug, as it were, from this pit, hewn from this rock. See Isaiah 51:1." "They blessed Elohim in the congregations, The Lord from the stock of Israel, (or from the quarry of Israel.)"

2 - Zebulun and Naphtali were in Galilee, divided from the country of the half-tribe of Manasseh; the former by the Jordan, the latter by the Lake of Gennesareth.

3 - Why these tribes in particular? May it be, Judah (having, instead of Reuben, succeeded to the blessing which conveyed the privilege of having the Chief Ruler and Messiah of his line) and Benjamin (tsyr) the youngest? or Judah and Benjamin, as two of the tribes most southern and nearest to Jerusalem; and Zebulun and Naphtali, as two of the most northern and most remote? as another way of expressing from Dan to Beersheba,' to include them all." -- Dr Lowth

4 - Of other conjectures the following are a specimen: "As for Zebulun and Naphtali, why their names are here added rather than any of the other tribes, the reason may, perhaps, best be taken from what we find prophesied of those two (Genesis 49 and Deuteronomy 33 and Judges 5.) by Jacob and Moses and Deborah, that learning and knowledge should be most eminent in those two tribes. Of Naphtali it is said, (Genesis 49:21,) Naphtali is a hind let loose; he giveth goodly words;' and of Zebulun, (Judges 5:14,) They shall handle the pen of the writer.'" -- Hammond. "It then specifies the tribes of Judah, Zebulun, and Naphtali, not as if they were the only tribes present, but as occupying, perhaps, the foremost ranks of the procession, and followed by all the other tribes." -- Walford.

5 - The Septuagint has, "There is Benjamin the younger." He was the son of Jacob's old age; and to this there is an allusion in the name, which is compounded of vn, ben, a son, and ymyn, yamin, of days, (according to the Chaldee plural termination, yn, yin,) intimating that he was the son of his father's old age, (Genesis 44:20,) and not, as is commonly said, the son of my right hand -- Bythner

6 - The word rgmtm, rigmatham, here translated congregation or assembly, signifies, according to Parkhurst, a heap of stones for defence, a bulwark of stones; and he considers it to be here applied metaphorically to the princes of Judah, who, so to speak, were the bulwark of Israel. Horsley adopts the same reading: "The princes of Judah their bulwark." Hammond, after stating that the word signifies a stone, observes, that it "is here used in a metaphorical sense for a ruler or governor, as a foundation-stone which supports the whole building may fitly be applied to a commonwealth, and then signify the prince thereof." In this sense the LXX., no doubt, understood rgmtm, rigmatham, who render it hegemones auton, "their governors." "It may mean," says Pike, in his Hebrew Lexicon, "their supreme authority, signified by stoning, a capital punishment among the Israelites, in the same manner as it was represented among the Romans by the Fasces and Securis, the instruments of punishment carried before the Consuls." Jerome, however, has taken it for another word nearly similar to it in its letters, signifying purple, -- "in purpura sua;" -- but this comes to the same thing as the Septuagint translation. Dathe has "agmen," "a troop;" and according to Gesenius, it signifies "a multitude, crowd, band."

The singers went before - That is, in the removal of the ark; in the solemn procession referred to in the previous verse. "In" that procession those who sang preceded those who performed on instruments of music. Compare 1-Chronicles 13:8; 1-Chronicles 15:16. "The players on instruments followed after." The different classes of performers would naturally be ranged together. In 1-Chronicles 13:8, the following instruments of music are mentioned as having been employed on a similar occasion, if not on this very occasion - harps, psalteries, timbrels, cymbals, and trumpets.
Among them were the damsels playing with timbrels - The true construction of the passage is, "Behind were the players in the midst of damsels playing." The singers and the players were surrounded by these women playing on timbrels. The word rendered "playing with timbrels" - תפף tâphaph - means to strike, to beat; and hence, to strike or beat upon a timbrel. A timbrel is a kind of drum, a tabret, or tambourine, usually beaten with the fingers. See a description of it in the notes at Isaiah 5:12, under the word "tabret." It is an instrument which has been in use from the remotest antiquity.

The singers went before - This verse appears to be a description of the procession.

The (t) singers went before, the players on instruments [followed] after; among [them were] the damsels playing with timbrels.
(t) He describes the order of the people, when they went to the temple to give thanks for the victory.

The singers went before,.... The apostles and ministers of the word, the sweet singers of Israel, the charmers that charm so very wisely: the Gospel is a joyful sound; it is like vocal music, harmonious and delightful; it is as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, as Ezekiel's ministry was, Ezekiel 33:32; it is a voice of love, grace, and mercy, of peace, pardon, and righteousness, and of eternal life and salvation by Christ; it is as music in the ears of sensible souls, when sounded forth, and sung out clearly and distinctly by the faithful ministers of it. The allusion seems to be to singers going before armies, when marching to battle, or returning with victory; see 2-Chronicles 20:21;
the players on instruments followed after; so the sweet strains of the Gospel, the melodious notes and distinguishing sounds of it, as well as the praises of God's people, are, in the New Testament, signified by harps, and men's playing upon them, Revelation 5:8;
amongst them were the damsels playing with timbrels; or "in the midst of the virgins playing with timbrels" (u); or "beating on tabrets"; as women used to do when they met their kings returning from the conquest of their enemies; see 1-Samuel 18:6; these may be the pure and primitive churches of Christ, and the members thereof, rejoicing at the preaching of the Gospel, and praising God for the blessings of grace in it; in the midst of which the ministers of the word sung the new song of Gospel truths: and who may be compared to damsels or virgins for their beauty and comeliness through Christ; for their relation to him, being betrothed unto him; and for their strong and chaste affection for him; for their uncorruptness in doctrine and worship, and their uprightness in their lives and conversation, Revelation 14:4; the allusion may be to Miriam and the women with her at the Red sea, Exodus 15:20; and the Targum interprets the whole verse of Moses and Aaron singing at the Red sea, and of Miriam and the women playing with timbrels.
(u) "in medio puellarum", Pagninus, Montanus; "inter puellas", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so Cocceius, Gejerus.