"ho thronos sou ho theos...dia touto...ho theos, ho theos sou...It is not
necessary to discuss here in detail the construction of the original words
of the Psalm. The LXX admits of two renderings: ho theos can be taken as a
vocative in both cases (_Thy throne, O God,... therefore, O God, Thy
God..._) or it can be taken as the subject (or the predicate) in the first
case (_God is Thy throne,_ or _Thy throne is God..._), or in apposition to
ho theos sou in the second case (_Therefore God, even Thy God..._). The only
important variation noted in the other Greek versions is that of Aquila, who
gave the vocative thee in the first clause (Hieron. _Ep._ lxv. _ad Princ._
13) and, as it appears, also in the second (Field, _Hexapla_ ad loc._). It
is scarcely possible that 'elohim in the original can be addressed to the
king. The presumption therefore is against the belief that ho theos is a
vocative in the LXX. Thus on the whole it seems best to adopt in the first
clause the rendering: _God is Thy throne_ (or, _Thy throne is God_), that
is, 'Thy kingdom is founded upon God, the immovable Rock'; and to take ho theos as in apposition in the second clause.
"The phrase 'God is Thy throne' is not indeed found elsewhere, but it is in
no way more strange than Psalm lxxi. 3 _[Lord] be Thou to me a rock of
habitation...Thou art my rock and my fortress._ Is xxvi. 4 (R.V.) _In the
LORD JEHOVAH is an everlasting rock._ Ps xc. 1 _Lord, Thou hast been our
dwelling-place._ Ps xci. 1 _He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
High..._ v. 2 _I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress,_ v.
9; Deut. xxxiii. 27 _The eternal God is thy dwelling-place._ Comp. Is. xxii.
23.