TEHILLIM LIGHT

Commentaries

Mizmor 008, Verse 001

לַמְנַצֵּ֥חַ עַֽל־הַגִּתִּ֗ית מִזְמ֥וֹר לְדָוִֽד

lamnatzeyach ʿal–haggittiys mizmor ledovid

To the conductor, on the gittith, a song of David.

MIDRASH TEHILLIM

1.....(8.1)
For Him who triumphs, at treading the wine-press
In Tanakh, you find redemption described by four metaphors:
as grape-gathering,
as a harvest,
as a pregnant woman, and
as spices.
If any if these be taken prematurely, the owners will get no profit from them.
All the prophets saw the wine-press as the symbol of redemption.
So the prophet Joel saw it, for he said: "Put you in the sickle, ... the wine-press is full" (Yoel - Joel 4:13),
So Isaiah saw it, for he said: "On that day, A vineyard producing wine, sing to it." (Yeshayahu - Isaiah 27:2)
So Asaph saw it, for he said: "For Him who triumphs, at treading the wine-press" (Tehillim 8:1)

RASHI

1.
the gittith...
A musical instrument that came from Gath, where craftsmen were found to make it (Machbereth Menachem p. 60).
But our Sages said (Midrash Tehillim 8:1): Concerning a nation [Edom] that is destined to be trodden like a wine-press, as it is written (in Isaiah 63:3): “A wine-press I trod alone.”
However, the contents of the psalm do not indicate it.

RADAK

1.
For the Chief Musician: set to the Gittith. A Psalm of David.
Gittith is a kind of music.
There are those who say that David composed and recited (the Psalm) when he was in Gath;
Others say (Ibn Ezra) that he gave it to the sons of Obed Edom the Gittite.
This Psalm also is a hymn and rendering of praise and thanks to God, and a recounting of His acts of power.

Rabbi HIRSCH

1.
To Him Who grants victory, upon the "wine pressing." A Psalm of David.
[גִּתִּ֗ית] (ggittith) is derived from [גַּת] (gath) wine-press
The word [גַּת] (GATH) “the wine press”, is used in Lamentations 1:15, Joel 4:13, Isaiah 63:2-3, as an allegorical expression for the grievous catastrophes which God has visited upon the nations. This figure of speech, however, indicates that what is meant is only apparent destruction, while in reality the painful, bruising pressure such as occurs during the wine-pressing operation does not destroy but only brings out all the fine and noble essence that was locked within the crushed grape. Thus “upon the wine pressing” would characterize the content of a psalm as a meditation upon the ennobling effect of those afflictions decreed by God for the moral betterment of mankind, or the ennobling of man brought about by the LORD by means of such suffering.

WORDS