Bishop Lowth has some fine remarks on the imagery and metaphors of this Psalm. The exordium, says he, is peculiarly magnificent, wherein the majesty of God is described, so far as we can investigate and comprehend it, from the admirable construction of nature; in which passage, as it was for the most part necessary to use translatitious images, the sacred poet has principally applied those which would be esteemed by the Hebrews the most elevated, and worthy such an argument; for they all, as it seems to me, are taken from the tabernacle. We will give these passages verbally, with a short illustration: - tŤbl rdhw dwh hod vehadar labashta. "Thou hast put on honour and majesty." The original, tŤbl , is frequently used when speaking of the clothing or dress of the priests.

Verse 2. hmlŤk rwa hf[ oteh or cassalmah.

"Covering thyself with light as with a garment." A manifest symbol of the Divine Presence; the light conspicuous in the holiest is pointed out under the same idea; and from this single example a simile is educed to express the ineffable glory of God generally and universally.

h[yryk µymŤ hfwn noteh shamayim kayeriah.

"Stretching out the heavens like a curtain." The word h[yry , rendered here curtain, is that which denotes the curtains or uncovering of the whole tabernacle. This may also be an allusion to those curtains or awnings, stretched over an area, under which companies sit at weddings, feasts, religious festivals, curiously painted under, to give them the appearance of the visible heavens in the night-season.

Matthew Henry Commentary

Original Hebrew