TITLE. A Prayer of David. We have here
one of the five psalms entitled Tephillahs or prayers.
This psalm consists of praise as well as prayer, but it is in
all parts so directly addressed to God that it is most fitly
called "a prayer." A prayer is none the less but all
the more a prayer because veins of praise run through it. This
psalm would seem to have been specially known as David's prayer;
even as the ninetieth is "the prayer of Moses." David
composed it, and no doubt often expressed himself in similar
language; both the matter and the wording are suitable to his
varied circumstances and expressive of the different
characteristics of his mind. In many respects it resembles Ps
17:1-15, which bears the same title, but in other aspects it is
very different; the prayers of a good man have a family
likeness, but they vary as much as they agree. We may learn from
the present psalm that the great saints of old were accustomed
to pray very much in the same fashion as we do; believers in all
ages are of one genus. The name of God occurs very frequently in
this psalm, sometimes it is Jehovah, but more commomly Adonai,
which it is believed by many learned scholars was written by the
Jewish transcribers instead of the sublimer title, because their
superstitious dread led them to do so: we, labouring under no
such tormenting fear, rejoice in Jehovah, our God. It is
singular that those who were so afraid of their God, that they
dared not write his name, had yet so little godly fear, that
they dared to alter his word.
DIVISION. The psalm is irregular in
its construction but may be divided into three portions, each
ending with a note of gratitude or of confidence: we shall
therefore read from Ps 86:1-7, and then, (after another pause at
the end of Ps 86:13), we will continue to the end.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me.
In condescension to my littleness, and in pity to my weakness,
"bow down thine ear, O Lord." When our prayers are
lowly by reason of our humility, or feeble by reason of our
sickness, or without wing by reason of our despondency, the Lord
will bow down to them, the infinitely exalted Jehovah will have
respect unto them. Faith, when she has the loftiest name of God
on her tongue, and calls him Jehovah, yet dares to ask from him
the most tender and condescending acts of love. Great as he is
he loves his children to be bold with him. For I am poor and
needy—doubly a son of poverty, because, first, poor and
without supply for my needs, and next needy, and so full of
wants, though unable to supply them. Our distress is a forcible
reason for our being heard by the Lord God, merciful, and
gracious, for misery is ever the master argument with mercy.
Such reasoning as this would never be adopted by a proud man,
and when we hear it repeated in the public congregation by those
great ones of the earth who count the peasantry to be little
better than the earth they tread upon, it sounds like a mockery
of the Most High. Of all despicable sinners those are the worst
who use the language of spiritual poverty while they think
themselves to be rich and increased in goods.
Verse 2. Preserve my soul. Let my life be safe
from my enemies, and my spiritual nature be secure from their
temptations. He feels himself unsafe except he be covered by the
divine protection. For I am holy. I am set apart for holy uses,
therefore do not let thine enemies commit a sacrilege by
injuring or defiling me: I am clear of the crimes laid to my
charge, and in that sense innocent; therefore, I beseech thee,
do not allow me to suffer from unjust charges: and I am
inoffensive, meek, and gentle towards others, therefore deal
mercifully with me as I have dealt with my fellow men. Any of
these renderings may explain the text, perhaps all together will
expound it best. It is not self righteous in good men to plead
their innocence as a reason for escaping from the results of
sins wrongfully ascribed to them; penitents do not bedaub
themselves with mire for the love of it, or make themselves out
to be worse than they are out of compliment to heaven. No, the
humblest saint is not a fool, and he is as well aware of the
matters wherein he is clear as of those wherein he must cry "peccavi."
To plead guilty to offences we have never committed is as great
a lie as the denial of our real faults. O thou my God, save thy
servant that trusteth in thee. Lest any man should suppose that
David trusted in his own holiness he immediately declared his
trust in the Lord, and begged to be saved as one who was not
holy in the sense of being perfect, but was even yet in need of
the very clements of salvation. How sweet is that title,
"my God", when joined to the other, "thy
servant"; and how sweet is the hope that on this ground we
shall be saved; seeing that our God is not like the Amalekitish
master who left his poor sick servant to perish. Note how
David's poor I am (or rather the I repeated
without the am) appeals to the great I AM with
that sacred boldness engendered by the necessity which breaks
through stone walls, aided by the faith which removes mountains.
Verse 3. Be merciful unto me, O Lord. The best
of men need mercy, and appeal to mercy, yea to nothing else but
mercy; they need it for themselves, and crave it eagerly of
their God as a personal requisite. For I cry unto thee daily. Is
there not a promise that importunity shall prevail? May we not,
then, plead our importunity as an argument with God? He who
prays every day, and all the day, for so the word may mean, may
rest assured that the Lord will hear him in the day of his need.
If we cried sometimes to man, or other false confidences, we
might expect to be referred to them in the hour of our calamity,
but if in all former times we have looked to the Lord alone, we
may be sure that he will not desert us now. See how David
pleaded, first that he was poor and needy, next that he was the
Lord's set apart one, then that he was God's servant and had
learned to trust in the Lord, and lastly that he had been taught
to pray daily; surely these are such holy pleadings as any tried
believer may employ when wrestling with a prayer hearing God,
and with such weapons the most trembling suppliant may hope to
win the day.
Verse 4. Rejoice the soul of thy servant. Make
my heart glad, O my Maker, for I count it my honour to call
myself again and again thy servant, and I reckon thy favour to
be all the wages I could desire. I look for all my happiness in
thee only, and therefore unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my
soul. As the heliotrope looks to the sun for its smile, so turn
I my heart to thee. Thou art as the brazen serpent to my sick
nature, and I lift up my soul's eye to thee that I may live. I
know that the nearer I am to thee the greater is my joy,
therefore be pleased to draw me nearer while I am labouring to
draw near. It is not easy to lift a soul at all; it needs a
strong shoulder at the wheel when a heart sticks in the miry
clay of despondency: it is less easy to lift a soul up to the
Lord, for the height is great as well as the weight oppressive;
but the Lord will take the will for the deed, and come in with a
hand of almighty grace to raise his poor servant out of the
earth and up to heaven.
Verse 5. For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to
forgive. Good at giving and forgiving; supplying us with his
good, and removing our evil. Here was the great reason
why the Psalmist looked to the Lord alone for his joy, because
every joy creating attribute is to be found in perfection in
Jehovah alone. Some men who would be considered good are so self
exultingly indignant at the injuries done them by others, that
they cannot forgive; but we may rest assured that the better a
being is, the more willing he is to forgive, and the best and
highest of all is ever ready to blot out the transgressions of
his creatures. And plenteous in mercy unto all them that call
upon thee. God does not dispense his mercy from a slender store
which perchance may be so impoverished as to give out
altogether, but out of a cornucopiae he pours forth the infinite
riches of his mercy: his goodness flows forth in abounding
streams towards those who pray and in adoring worship make
mention of his name. David seems to have stood in the cleft of
the rock with Moses, and to have heard the name of the Lord
proclaimed even as the great lawgiver did, for in two places in
this psalm he almost quotes verbatim the passage in Ex
34:6—"The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering,
and abundant in goodness and truth."
Verse 6. Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer. Even
the glory which his spirit had beheld did not withdraw him from
his prayer, but rather urged him to be more fervent in it; hence
he implores the Lord to hear his requests. Attend to the voice
of my supplications. Here are repetitions, but not vain
repetitions. When a child cries it repeats the same note, but it
is equally in earnest every time, and so was it with the
suppliant here. Note the expression, "the voice of my
supplications", as if they were not all voice but were
partly made up of inarticulate noise, yet amid much that was
superfluous there really was a distinct voice, an inner meaning,
a living sense which was the heart's intention. This he would
have the Lord sift out from the chaff, and hear amid the mingled
din. May our prayers never be voiceless; may the soul's intent
always give them a live core of meaning.
Verse 7. In the day of my trouble I will call upon
thee: for thou wilt answer me. A pious resolve backed by a
judicious reason. It is useless to cry to those who cannot or
will not hear; once convince men that prayer has no effect upon
God, and they will have no more of it. In these busy days and
especially in troublous times, men cannot afford to waste time
in entreaties which must be unavailing. Our experience confirms
us in the belief that Jehovah the living God really does aid
those who call upon him, and therefore we pray and mean to pray,
not because we are so fascinated by prayer that for its own sake
we would continue in it if it proved to be mere folly and
superstition, as vain philosophers assert; but because we
really, indeed, and of a truth, find it to be a practical and
effectual means of obtaining help from God in the hour of need.
There can be no reason for praying if there be no expectation of
the Lord's answering. Who would make a conscience of pleading
with the winds, or find a solace in supplicating the waves? The
mercy seat is a mockery if there be no hearing nor answering.
David, as the following verses show, believed the Lord to be a
living and potent God, and indeed to be "God alone",
and it was on that account that he resolved in every hour of
trouble to call upon him.
Verse 8. Among the gods there is none like unto
thee, O Lord. There are gods by delegated office, such as
kings and magistrates, but they are as nothing in the presence
of Jehovah; there are also gods by the nomination of
superstition, but these are vanity itself, and cannot be
compared with the living and true God. Even if the heathen idols
were gods, none of them in power or even in character, could be
likened unto the self existent, all creating God of Israel. If
every imaginary deity could start into actual existence, and
become really divine, yet would we choose Jehovah to be our God,
and reject all others. Neither are there any works like unto thy
works. What have the false gods ever made or unmade? What
miracles have they wrought? When did they divide a sea, or march
through a wilderness scattering bread from the skies? O Jehovah,
in thy person and in thy works, thou art as far above all gods
as the heavens are above the nethermost abyss.
Verse 9. All nations whom thou hast made, and
these include all mankind, since they all come of the first
Adam—thy creature, and their lives are all distinct creations
of thine omnipotence. All these shall come with penitent
hearts, in thine own way, to thine own self, and worship
before thee, O Lord. Because thou art thus above all gods,
the people who have been so long deceived shall at last discover
thy greatness, and shall render thee the worship which is thy
due: thou hast created them all, and unto thee shall they all
yield homage. This was David's reason for resorting to the Lord
in trouble, for he felt that one day all men would acknowledge
the Lord to be the only God. It makes us content to be in the
minority today, when we are sure that the majority will be with
us tomorrow, ay, and that the truth will one day be carried
unanimously and heartily. David was not a believer in the theory
that the world will grow worse and worse, and that the
dispensation will wind up with general darkness, and idolatry.
Earth's sun is to go down amid tenfold night if some of our
prophetic brethren are to be believed. Not so do we expect, but
we look for day when the dwellers in all lands shall learn
righteousness, shall trust in the Saviour, shall worship thee
alone, O God, and shall glorify thy name. The modern
notion has greatly damped the zeal of the church for missions,
and the sooner it is shown to be unscriptural the better for the
cause of God. It neither consorts with prophecy, honours God,
nor inspires the church with ardour. Far hence be it driven.
Verse 10. For thou art great. He had before
said, "thou art good"; it is a grand thing when
greatness and goodness are united; it is only in the Divine
Being that either of them exists absolutely, and essentially.
Happy is it for us that they both exist in the Lord to an equal
degree. To be great and not good might lead to tyranny in the
King, and for him to be good and not great might involve
countless calamities upon his subjects from foreign foes, so
that either alternative would be terrible; let the two be
blended, and we have a monarch in whom the nation may rest and
rejoice. And doest wondrous things. Being good, he is said to be
ready to forgive: being great, he works wonders: we may blend
the two, for there is no wonder so wonderful as the pardon of
our transgressions. All that God does or makes has wonder in it;
he breathes, and the wind is mystery; he speaks, and the thunder
astounds us; even the commonest daisy is a marvel, and a pebble
enshrines wisdom. Only to fools is anything which God has made
uninteresting: the world is a world of wonders. Note that the
verb doest is in the present, the Lord is doing wondrous
things, they are transpiring before our eyes. Where are they?
Look upon the bursting buds of spring or the maturing fruits of
autumn, gaze on the sky or skim the sea, mark the results of
providence and the victories of grace, everywhere at all times
the great Thaumaturge stretches forth his rod of power.
Thou art God alone. Alone wast thou God before thy creatures
were; alone in godhead still art thou now that thou hast given
life to throngs of beings; alone for ever shalt thou be, for
none can ever rival thee. True religion makes no compromises, it
does not admit Baal or Dagon to be a god; it is exclusive and
monopolizing, claiming for Jehovah nothing less than all. The
vaunted liberality of certain professors of modern thought is
not to be cultivated by believers in the truth.
"Philosophic breadth" aims at building a Pantheon, and
piles a Pandemonium; it is not for us to be helpers in such an
evil work. Benevolently intolerant, we would, for the good of
mankind, as well as for the glory of God, undeceive mankind as
to the value of their compromises,—they are mere treason to
truth. Our God is not to be worshipped as one among many good
and true beings, but as God alone; and his gospel is not to be
preached as one of several saving systems, but as the one sole
way of salvation. Lies can face each other beneath one common
dome; but in the temple of truth the worship is one and
indivisible.
Verse 11. Teach me thy way, O LORD. Instruct me
thus at all times, let me live in thy school; but teach me now
especially since I am in trouble and perplexity. Be pleased to
shew me the way which thy wisdom and mercy have prepared for my
escape; behold I lay aside all wilfulness, and only desire to be
informed as to thy holy and gracious mind. Not my way
give me, but thy way teach me, I would follow thee and
not be wilful. I will walk in thy truth. When taught I will
practise what I know, truth shall not be a mere doctrine or
sentiment to me, but a matter of daily life. The true servant of
God regulates his walk by his master's will, and hence he never
walks deceitfully, for God's way is ever truth. Providence has a
way for us, and it is our wisdom to keep in it. We must not be
as the bullock which needs to be driven and urged forward
because it likes not the road, but be as men who voluntarily go
where their trusted friend and helper appoints their path. Unite
my heart to fear thy name. Having taught me one way, give me one
heart to walk therein, for too often I feel a heart and a heart,
two natures contending, two principles struggling for
sovereignty. Our minds are apt to be divided between a variety
of objects, like trickling streamlets which waste their force in
a hundred runnels; our great desire should be to have all our
life floods poured into one channel and to have that channel
directed towards the Lord alone. A man of divided heart is weak,
the man of one object is the man. God who created the
bands of our nature can draw them together, tighten, strengthen,
and fasten them, and so braced and inwardly knit by his uniting
grace, we shall be powerful for good, but not otherwise. To fear
God is both the beginning, the growth, and the maturity of
wisdom, therefore should we be undividedly given up to it,
heart, and soul.
Verse 12. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with
all my heart. When my heart is one, I will give thee all of
it. Praise should never be rendered with less than all our
heart, and soul, and strength, or it will be both unreal and
unacceptable. This is the second time in the psalm that David
calls the Lord "my God", the first time he was in an
agony of prayer (Ps 86:2), and now he is in an ecstacy of
praise. If anything can make a man pray and praise, it is the
knowledge into that the Lord is his God. And I will glorify thy
name for evermore, eternity gratitude will prolong its praise.
God has never done blessing us, let us never have done blessing
him. As he ever gives us grace, let us ever render to him the
glory of it.
Verse 13. For great is thy mercy toward me.
Personal experience is ever the master singer. Whatever thou art
to others, to me thy mercy is most notable. The psalmist claims
to sing among the loudest, because his debt to divine mercy is
among the greatest. And thou hast delivered my soul from the
lowest hell. From the direst death and the deepest dishonour
David had been kept by God, for his enemies would have done more
than send him to hell had they been able. His sense of sin also
made him feel as if the most overwhelming destruction would have
been his portion had not grace prevented, therefore does he
speak of deliverance from the nethermost abode of lost spirits.
There are some alive now who can use this language unfeignedly,
and he who pens these lines most humbly confesses that he is
one. Left to myself to indulge my passions, to rush onward with
my natural vehemence, and defy the Lord with recklessness of
levity, what a candidate for the lowest abyss should I have made
myself by this time. For me, there was but one alternative,
great mercy, or the lowest hell. With my whole heart do I sing,
"Great is thy mercy towards me, and thou hast delivered my
soul from the lowest hell." The psalmist here again touches
a bold and joyful note, but soon he exchanges it for the
mournful string.
Verse 14. O God, the proud are risen against me.
They could not let God's poor servant alone, his walk with God
was as smoke to their eyes, and therefore they determined to
destroy him. None hate good men so fiercely as do the high
minded and domineering. And the assemblies of violent men have
sought after my soul. Unitedly oppressors sought the good man's
life; they hunted in packs, with keen scent, and eager foot. In
persecuting times many a saint has used these words in reference
to Papal bishops and inquisitors. And have not set thee before
them. They would not have molested the servant if they had cared
one whit for the master. Those who fear not God are not afraid
to commit violent and cruel acts. An atheist is a misanthrope.
Irreligion is akin to inhumanity.
Verse 15. But thou, O Lord. What a contrast! We
get away from the hectorings and blusterings of proud but puny
men to the glory and goodness of the Lord. We turn from the
boisterous foam of chafing waves to the sea of glass mingled
with fire, calm and serene. "Art a God full of compassion,
and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and
truth." A truly glorious doxology, in which there is not
one redundant word. As we have before observed, it is mainly
transcribed from Ex 34:6. Here is compassion for the weak and
sorrowing, grace for the undeserving, longsuffering for the
provoking, mercy for the guilty, and truth for the tried. God's
love assumes many forms, and is lovely in them all. Into
whatsoever state we may be cast, there is a peculiar hue in the
light of love which will harmonize with our condition; love is
one and yet sevenfold, its white ray contains the chromatic
scale. Are we sorrowful? We find the Lord full of compassion.
Are we contending with temptation? His grace comes to our aid.
Do we err? He is patient with us. Have we sinned? He is
plenteous in mercy. Are we resting on his promise? He will
fulfil it with abundant truth.
Verse 16. O turn unto me. As though the face of
God had been before averted in anger, the suppliant pleads for a
return of conscious favour. One turn of God's face will turn all
our darkness into day. And have mercy upon me, that is all he
asks, for he is lowly in heart; that is all he wants, for mercy
answereth all a sinner's needs. Give thy strength unto thy
servant. Gird me with it that I may serve thee, guard me with it
that I may not be overcome. When the Lord gives us his own
strength we are sufficient for all emergencies, and have no
cause to fear any adversaries. And save the son of thine
handmaid. He meant that he was a home born servant of God. As
the sons of slaves were their master's property by their birth,
so he gloried in being the son of a woman who herself belonged
to the Lord. What others might think a degrading illustration he
uses with delight, to show how intensely he loved the Lord's
service; and also as a reason why the Lord should interpose to
rescue him, seeing that he was no newly purchased servant, but
had been in the house from his very birth.
Verse 17. Shew to me a token for good. Let me
be assured of thy mercy by being delivered out of trouble.
That they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed.
"Some token of thy favour show,
Some sign which all my foes may see;
And filled with blank confusion know,
My comfort and my help in thee."
What bodes good to me shall make them quail and blush.
Disappointed and defeated, the foes of the good man would feel
ashamed of what they had designed. "Because thou, LORD,
hast holpen me, and comforted me." God doth nothing by
halves, those whom he helps he also consoles, and so makes them
not merely safe but joyful. This makes the foes of the righteous
exceedingly displeased, but it brings to the Lord double honour.
Lord, deal thou thus with us evermore, so will we glorify thee,
world without end. Amen.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
TITLE.—The prophet David has penned two psalms,
which he has eminently appropriated to himself as his own: the
one is styled David's prayer, though many other psalms
are prayers—it is Ps 86:1-17; the other David's praise,
Ps 145:1-21. The first his tephilla, the latter his tehilla;
in each of these he makes a solemn rehearsal of the very words
of Moses, in Ex 34:6-7. In Ps 86:1-17 he brings them in as they
were a support unto his faith in his distresses from sins and
miseries, to which use he puts them, Ps 86:3-4 6-7. And again,
Ps 86:16-17, he makes a plea of these words by way of prayer. In
Ps 145:1-21, he brings them in as they are an elogium or
celebration of the glorious nature and excellencies of God, to
excite the sons of men to love and praise him.—Thomas
Goodwin.
Title.—This Psalm was published under the title of A
Prayer of David; not as if David sung all his prayers, but
into some of his songs he inserted prayers; for a psalm will
admit the expression of any pious and devout affections. But it
is observable how very plain the language of this psalm is, and
how little there is in it of poetical flights or figures, in
comparison with some other psalms; for the flourishes of wit are
not the proper ornaments of prayer.—Matthew Henry.
Title.—There was much, very much, of God's peculiar
character, his glorious name, brought to view in the close of
the last Psalm. This may account for its being followed by
another, A Prayer of David, almost equally full of the
character of Jehovah. The key note of this Psalm is Jehovah's
name.—Andrew A. Bonar.
Whole Psalm. Christ prays throughout the whole of this
Psalm. All the words are spoken exclusively by Christ, who is
both God and man.—Psalt. Cassiodori, 1491.
Whole Psalm. In this Psalm Christ the Son of God and
Son of Man, one God with the Father, one man with men, to whom
we pray as God, prays in the form of a servant. For he prays for
us, and he prays in us, and he is prayed to by us. He prays for
us as our Priest. He prays in us as our Head. He is prayed to by
us as our God.—Psalt. Pet. Lombard. 1474.
Verse 1. Bow down thine ear, O Lord. As the
careful physician doth to his feeble patient: so Basil glosseth
here.—John Trapp.
Verses 1-4. Poor, holy, trusteth, I
cry. The petitioner is first described as poor, then holy,
next trusting, after that crying, finally, lifted
up to God. And each epithet has its fitting verb; bow
down to the poor, preserve the holy, save the
trusting, be merciful to him who cries, rejoice
the lifted up. It is the whole gamut of love from the
Incarnation to the Ascension; it tells us that Christ's
humiliation will be our glory and joy.—Neale and
Littledale's Commentary.
Verse 2. Holy. The word has been variously
translated:—Godly, De Muis, Ainsworth and others; charitable,
or beneficent, Piscator; merciful or tenderhearted,
Mariana; diligently or earnestly compassionate,
Vatablus; meek, Calvin; a beloved one, Version of
American Bible Union; one whom thou lovest, Perowne; a devoted
or dedicated man, —Weiss.
Verse 2. For I am Holy. Some have objected to
David's pleading his own good character; but if he did not go
beyond the truth, and the occasion called for it, there was
nothing wrong in his so doing. Job, David, Peter, John and Paul
all did it, Job 27:5 Ps 116:16 Joh 21:15-17 Re 1:10 1Co 9:1. Nor
is it presumptuous to ask God to show mercy to us for we show it
to others; or to forgive us for we forgive others, Mt 5:7
6:14-15.—William S. Plumer.
Verse 2. I am holy...thy servant which trusteth in
thee. They that are holy, yet must not trust in themselves,
or in their own righteousness, but only in God and his grace.—Matthew
Henry.
Verse 2. Save thy servant that trusteth in thee.
When God saves his servant, he saves what belongs to himself;
and, when he saves him that trusts in him, he shows himself to
be just and faithful, in carrying out what he promised.—Bellarmine.
Verses 2-5. The aspirations after holiness which are
found in this Psalm, coupled with its earnest invocation of
mercy from the God with whom there is forgiveness, render it
peculiarly applicable to those whose daily access is to a throne
of needed grace. Christians know that while their standing
is the blameless perfection of the Lord their righteouness, they
are in many things offenders still. Nor do we ever fully prove
the preciousness of Jesus as our portion, except we are drawn to
him by that Spirit which reveals to us a nakedness and poverty
within ourselves, which his blessed fulness can alone redress.
There is a consciousness of personal sanctification through
faith (Ps 86:2) associated with an acutely sensitive perception
of intrinsic worthlessness, such as only finds relief in the
remembrance of unaltered grace (Ps 86:5), which, to the
exercised spirit of one really growing in the knowledge of God,
will address itself with an especial acceptance.—Arthur
Pridham.
Verse 3. Be merciful unto me. Lest any should
by the former words, ("I am holy", )suspect him
to be a merit monger, he beggeth mercy with instancy and
constancy of request.—John Trapp.
Verse 3. I cry unto thee daily. A great
difference between saints and sinners in prayer is that sinners
who pray at all, pray only when they are in trouble,
whereas saints cry daily unto God. Compare Job 27:10.—William
S. Plumer.
Verse 4. Rejoice the soul of thy servant, etc.
As I have not found rest in anything created, I have raised up
my soul on the wings of thought and desire to thee my Creator.
Love bears one's soul up; and it has been truly said, that the
soul is more where it loves, than where it actually is. Thought
and desire are the wings of love; for he that loves is borne on
to, and abides in, what he loves, by thinking constantly on, and
longing for, the object of his love. Whoever truly, and from his
heart, loves God, by thinking on him and longing for him lifts
up his soul to God; while, on the contrary, whoever loves the
earth, by thinking on and coveting the things of the earth, lets
his soul down to its level.—Bellarmine.
Verse 4. Unto thee, Lord, do I lift my soul. If
thou hadst corn in thy rooms below, thou wouldest take it up
higher, lest it should grow rotten. Wouldest thou remove thy
corn, and dost thou suffer thy heart to rot on the earth? Thou
wouldest take thy corn up higher: lift up thy heart to heaven.
And how can I, dost thou say? What ropes are needed? What
machines? What ladders? Thy affections are the steps; thy will
the way. By loving thou mountest, by neglect thou descendest.
Standing on the earth thou art in heaven, if thou lovest God.
For the heart is not so raised as the body is raised: the body
to be lifted up changes its place: the heart to be lifted up
changes its will.—Augstine.
Verse 4. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift my soul,
intimates that he had brought himself to the Lord as a living
sacrifice, even as the heave offering in the
tabernacle—to show that it belonged to God and to his altar,
and, that man had no part in it—was lifted up by the hands of
the priests.—Benjamin Weiss.
Verse 4. —I lift up my soul. It denotes the
devotion, fervency, heartiness, and sincerity of his prayer; the
doing of it with a true heart, the lifting up of the heart with
the hands unto God, La 3:41; or by way of offering unto the
Lord, not the body only, but the soul or heart also; or as a
deposition committed into is hands.—John Gill.
Verse 4. Lord. Here, and in all the verses in
this psalm where ynda Adonai, occurs, many MSS read hwhy,
Yehovah. The Jews, out of reverence to the incommunicable
name Jehovah pronounce ynda where hwhy is in the text. It is,
therefore, not improbable that hwhy is in the true reading in
all these places.—Note to Calvin in loc.
Verse 5. For thou, Lord, art good, and whither
should beggars go but to the door of the good house keeper?—Matthew
Henry.
Verse 5. Ready to forgive. The mercy of God is
a ready mercy, and his pardons are ready for his people; his
pardons and mercies are not to seek, he hath them at hand, he is
good and ready to forgive. Whereas most men, though they
will forgive, yet they are not ready to forgive, they are
hardly brought to it, though they do it at last. But God is "ready
to forgive"; he hath, as it were, pardons ready drawn
(as a man who would be ready to do a business, he will have such
writings as concern the passing of it ready); there is nothing
to do but to put in the date and the name; yea indeed, the date
and the name are put in from all eternity. Thus the Scripture
speaks to show how forward God is to do good; he needs not set
his heart to it; his heart is ever in the exactest fitness.—Joseph
Caryl.
Verse 5. Plenteous in mercy. It is a thing
marvellously satisfactory and pleasing to the heart of a man to
be still taking from a great heap; and upon this ground are
those proverbial sayings, There is no fishing like to a fishing
in the sea; no service like the service of a king: because in
one there is the greatest plenty and abundance of that kind of
pleasure that fishers look after; and for them that serve, and
must live by their service, there is none like that of princes,
because they have abundance of reward and opportunity whereby to
recompense the services of those that do wait and attend upon
them. . . . And upon the same ground is it that the Scriptures,
in several places, do not only assert and testify that God is
merciful and gracious, but abundant in mercy and full of grace;
and not simply that there is redemption in him, but plenteousness
of redemption: Ps 103:8 130:7 Isa 55:7; "Let the wicked
forsake his way", etc.; "Let him return unto the Lord
and he will have mercy; and unto our God, for lie will
abundantly pardon." The commodity which we stand in need of
is mercy and the pardon of our sins, in case we have been unholy
and ungodly creatures; this commodity is abundantly in God.
There it is treasured up as waters are in the store house of the
sea; there is no end of the treasures of his grace, mercy,
pardon, and compassion. There is no man, being in want, but had
ten times rather go to a rich man's door to be relieved, than to
the door of a poor man, if he knoweth the rich man to be as
liberal and bountifully disposed as the poor man can be.—John
Goodwin.
Verse 6. Supplications ytwnwxt, deprecations.
The Psalmist forms a peculiar Hebrew word, feminine plural, not
found elsewhere, to convey more impressively the idea of
suppliant weakness.—A.R. Fausset.
Verses 8-10.—There are two kinds of doubt which are
wont in the hour of temptation to assail the soul: the doubt as
to God's willingness, and the doubt as to God's power
to succour. The first of these the Psalmist has already put from
him; he now shows that he has overcome the second. God is able
as well as willing to help, and every being on the face of the
earth who receives help, receives it from the hand of Him who is
the only God, and who shall one day be recognized (so speaks the
strong prophetic hope within him, Ps 86:9) as the only God.—J.J.S.
Perowne.
Verses 9-10. All nations shall worship before thee,
because as King of Nations, thou art great, thy
sovereignty absolute and incontestable, thy Majesty terrible and
unsupportable, thy power universal and irresistible, thy riches
vast and inexhaustible, thy dominion boundless and
unquestionable; and for the proof of this, thou doest
wondrous things, which all nations admire, and from whence
they might easily infer that thou art God alone; not only
none like thee, but none beside thee.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 11. Teach me thy way: I will walk in
thy truth: unite my heart. Here is the "Via, Veritas,
Vita" of the Gospel (Joh 14:6). "Via tua, Veritas tua,
Vita tua, Christus." Christ is our Way, Truth, and Life,
because he is Man united to God, and is one substance with the
Father.—Christopher Wordsworth.
Verse 11. Teach me. There is no point on which
the world is more dark than that of its own ignorance—we might
truly say, "it is ignorant of its ignorance"—it
knows enough when it learns by rote a few first principles of
religion; it comforts itself that it is not atheistical because
it believes that there is a God; but as to knowing his ways,
laws, mind, or any such things, with them it has nothing at all
to do. The people of the world do not care for enlightenment;
they feel no pressing need for it; in all probability they have
an instinctive feeling that if enlightened they would know a
little more than they wish to know, that their newly acquired
knowledge would interfere with their old habits and ways, and
this is one reason why all spiritual teaching which goes beneath
the surface is distasteful to the majority of men. They cannot
bear to be brought into contact with God, in anything but a
general way; the particulars of his character may not agree over
well with the particulars of their lives! It is the fashion in
the present day to talk of man's enlightenment, and to represent
human nature as upheaving under its load, as straining towards a
knowledge of truth; such is not in reality the case, and
whenever there is an effort in the mind untaught of the Spirit,
it is directed towards God as the great moral and not as
the great spiritual Being. A man untaught of the Holy
Ghost may long to know a moral, he can never desire to
know a spiritual Being.—John Hyatt, 1767-1826.
Verse 11. Teach. The common version of the verb
here is too vague, as it fails to bring out the peculiar
suitableness of the term to express the kind of teaching here
specifically meant. The original meaning of the Hebrew word is to
point out or mark the way.—J.A. Alexander.
Verse 11. I will walk in thy truth. Conform to
Scripture. Let us lead Scripture lives. Oh that the Bible might
be seen to be printed in our lives! Do what the Word commands.
Obedience is an excellent way of commenting upon the Bible. Let
the Word be the sun dial by which you set your life. What are we
the better for having the Scriptures, if we do not direct all
our speeches and actions according to it? What is a carpenter
better for his rule about him, if he sticks it at his back, and
never makes use of it for measuring and squaring? So, what are
we the better for the rule of the Word, if we do not make use of
it, and regulate our lives by it?—Thomas Watson.
Verse 11. I will walk in thy truth. Walking, in
the Scripture, takes in the whole of our conversation or
conduct: and to walk in anything, intends a fulness of
it. For a man to walk in pride, is something more than to
be proud: it says, that pride is his way, his element; that he
is wholly under the influence of it.—William Jay.
Verse 11. Unite my heart to fear thy name. The end
which he desired to secure was that he might truly fear God, or
properly reverence and honour him; the means which he saw
to be necessary for this was that his "heart"
might be "united" in this one great object;
that is, that his heart might be single in its views and
purposes; that there might be no distracting purposes; that one
great aim might be always before him. The word rendered unite—dxy,
yahhad—occurs as a verb only in three places. In Ge
49:6 it is rendered united: "Unto their assembly,
mine honour, be not thou united." In Isa 14:20 it is
translated joined: "Thou shalt not be joined
unto them." The adverb—dxy ya-hhad—occurs
often, and is rendered together, Ge 13:6 22:6,8,19 36:7; et
soepe. The idea is that of union, or conjunction; of
being together; of constituting one; and this is accomplished in
the heart when there is one great ruling object before the mind
which nothing is allowed to interfere with. It may be added,
that there is no more appropriate prayer which a man can offer
than that his heart may have such unity of purpose, and that
nothing may be allowed to interfere with that one supreme
purpose.—Albert Barnes.
Verse 11. Unite my heart, etc. Sincerity drives
but one design, and that is to please and enjoy God; and what
can more establish and fix the soul in the hour of temptation
than this? The reason why the hypocrite is unstable in all his
ways, is given us by the apostle: he is "a double minded
man", a man of two souls in one body; as a profane wretch
once boasted, that he had one soul for God, and another for
anything. But all the designs of a gracious heart are united in
one; and so the entire stream of his affections runs strong. It
is base by ends and self interests, that, like a great many
ditches cut out of the bank of a river, draw away the stream out
of its proper channel, and make its waters fail. But if the
heart be united for God, then we may say of such a Christian, as
was said of a young Roman, "What he does is done with all
his might." A man of only one design, puts out all his
strength to carry it; nothing can stand before him. Sincerity
brings a man's will into subjection to the will of God; and this
being done, the greatest danger and difficulty is over with such
a man. This is that holy oil which makes the wheels of the soul
run nimbly, even in the difficult paths of obedienee.—John
Flavel.
Verse 11. Unite my heart.
Give me thine heart but as I gave it thee:
Or give it me at least as I
Have given mine
To purchase thine.
I halved it not when I did die;
But gave myself wholly to set thee free.
The heart I gave thee was a living heart;
And when thy heart by sin was slain,
I laid down mine
To ransom thine,
That thy dead heart might live again,
And live entirely perfect, not in part.
But whilst thine heart's divided, it is dead;
Dead unto me, unless it liveTo me alone,
It is all one
To keep all, and a part to give:
For what's a body worth without an head!
Yet, this is worse, that what thou keepest from me
Thou dost bestow upon my foes
And those not mine
Alone, but thine;
The proper causes of thy woes,
From whom I gave my life to set thee free.
Have I betrothed thee to myself, and shall
The devil, and the world, intrude
Upon my right,
Eeen in my sight?
Think not thou canst me so delude:
I will have none, unless I may have all.
I made it all, I gave it all to thee,
I gave all that I had for it:
If I must lose,
I would rather choose
Mine interest in all to quit:
Or keep it whole, or give it whole to me.
—Francis Quarles, in "The School of the Heart."
Verse 11. Unite my heart to fear thy name.
In knotts, to be loosed never,
Knitt my heart to thee forever,
That I to thy name may beare
Fearful love and loving feare.
—Francis Davison.
Verse 12. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with
all my heart: and I will glorify thy name. We glorify God by
praising him. Doxology, or praise, is a God exalting work. Ps
50:23. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me." The
Hebrew word, Bara, to create, and Barak, to
praise, are little different, because the end of creation is to
praise God. Though nothing can add to God's essential glory, yet
praise exalts him in the eyes of others. When we praise God, we
spread his fame and renown, we display the trophies of his
excellency. In this manner the angels glorify him; they are the
choristers of heaven, and do trumpet forth his praise. Praising
God is one of the highest and purest acts of religion. In prayer
we act like men; in praise we act like angels. Believers are
called "temples of God", 1Co 3:16. When our tongues
praise, then the organs of God's spiritual temple are sounding.
How sad it is that God hath no more glory from us in this way!
Many are full of murmuring and discontent, but seldom bring
glory to God, by giving him the praise due to his name. We read
of the saints having harps in their hands, the emblems of
praise. Many have tears in their eyes and complaints in their
mouths, but few have harps in their hands, blessing and
glorifying God. Let us honour God this way. Praise is the quit
rent we pay to God: while God renews our lease, we must renew
our rent.—Thomas Watson.
Verse 12. I will praise thee, O Lord, & c.
Such a soul as David was is enlarged to talk high of God: I
will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart; and I will
glorify thy name for evermore. Alas! poor creature, how
canst thou proclaim him "for evermore"? A soul
fired with desire to praise God, burns after both more perfect
things and more lasting than it is able to perform. "To
will is present with it", etc. See but the reachings and
longings of such a soul, how it swells in desires to glorify
God!—Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 12. With all my heart. When my heart
is united to fear thy name, then shall I praise thee with
my whole heart.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 13. Hell is put metaphorically for great
and extreme dangers, or miseries which seem irrecoverable and
remediless; these are figuratively called hell, because hell,
properly taken, is a place from whence there is no recovery.
There's no release from the chains of darkness: all changes are
on earth; heaven and hell know none. When David praises the Lord
for delivering his soul from the lowest hell, he meaneth
an estate on earth of the lowest and deepest danger imaginable:
mercy helped him at the worst. To be as low as hell, is to be at
the lowest.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 13. The lowest hell. According to Jewish
traditions, there are seven different regions, in the abode of
departed souls.—Daniel Creswell.
Verse 13. Thou hast delivered my soul from the
lowest hell. Someone having a troublesome cause was to be
sent to prison: another comes and defends him; what does he say
when he thanks him? Thou hast delivered my soul out of prison. A
debtor was to be tortured: his debt is paid; he is said to be
delivered from being tortured. They were not in all these evils;
but because they were in such due course towards them, that
unless aid had been brought, they would have been in them, they
rightly say that they are delivered from thence, whither they
were not suffered by their deliverers to be taken.—Augustine.
Verses 13, 16. There is no stronger argument of God's
infallible readiness to grant our requests, than the experience
of his former concessions. So David reasons, "The Lord that
delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of
the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this
Philistine", 1Sa 17:37. This is the argument a priori,
the voice of a strong faith, that persuades the conscience God
will be gracious to him, because he hath been gracious. The
prophet thus often comforted his soul: "Thou hast enlarged
me when I was in distress"; therefore, "have mercy
upon me, and hear my prayer", Ps 4:1. So, Thou hast
delivered my soul from the lowest hell; therefore, O turn
unto me, and have mercy upon me. Let the justiciaries deduce
arguments from their own present merits, my soul from God's
former mercies. Thou, O Lord, madest me good, restoredst me when
I was evil; therefore have mercy upon me, miserable sinner, and
give me thy salvation. Thus Paul grounded his assurance: because
the Lord had stood with him, and delivered him out of the lion's
mouth; therefore the Lord shall deliver me still, from every
evil work, and preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. 2Ti
4:17-18.—Thomas Adams.
Verse 15. Thou, O Lord, Adonai, art a God; El,
the strong God, full of compassion; the same words as
Moses useth. Instead of Jehovah, Adonai is used, "O
Lord"; but then El, strong God, is the same word.
The meaning is, let all the strength and power thou the strong
God hast in thee be for my advantage. Now, is it not a bold
request to say, Lord, wilt thou give me all thy strength to help
me? A very bold request indeed; but his mercy moves him to grant
it. Thus then petition him: Thou art a God merciful and
gracious, give thy strength to me! Thou, O God, givest all thy
attributes up to thy children, to serve their advantage, as well
as to serve thy own glory; give me thy strength!—Thomas
Goodwin.
Verse 15. Full of compassion. The original word
Rachum is very emphatical; it signifies such tenderness
as parents have toward their children when their bowels yearn
within them.—"Critical and Practical Exposition of the
Pentateuch." 1748.
Verse 16. Save the son of thine handmaid.
Deliver me, who am as completely thy property, as the offspring
of a female slave born in her master's house, and which belongs
of right to him. Ge 14:14 Jer 2:14.—William Keatinge Clay.
Verse 17. Shew me a token for good. These words
do not, as some think, necessarily imply David's asking for some
specific or miraculous token; he regards deliverance itself as a
token. We ask whether it be not true, that in the same measnre
as we recognise the mysteriously governing influence of God in
every day events, we regard those things as signs and miracles,
which to others appear common place?—Augustus F. Tholuck.
Verse 17. Perhaps, the token for good means
that spiritual joy which he asked for in the beginning of the
Psalm, when he said, "Rejoice the soul of thy
servant" for such joy to a holy soul in tribulation is
the clearest sign of the grace of God, and on the sight of it
all manner of persecutors are confounded; and then the meaning
would be, "shew me a token for good"; give me
the grace of that spiritual joy that will appear exteriorily in
my countenance, "that they which hate me may see" such
calmness and tranquillity of soul, "and be
confounded"; for thou, O Lord, hast helped me in the
struggle, consoled me in my sorrow, and hast already converted
my sadness into interior joy and gladness.—Robert
Bellarmine.
Verse 17. Shew me a token for good, may be
rendered "make me a sign for good." Weiss paraphrases
it, "make of me such a sign or monument of good that all my
enemies may be arrested by it, and be daunted at injuring a man
so assisted by the Lord."
Verse 17. Hast holpen me, in struggle; and
comforted me, in sorrow.—Augustine.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1.
1. A singular request—that the Lord should bow his ear.
2. A singular plea—"I am poor and needy."
3. The singular grace of God will answer the request, because
singular grace has made the petitioner feel his need.
Verse 2.
1. The blessing sought is present, spiritual, complete and
final preservation.
2. Our reasons for expecting it are—
(a) Our belonging to God—"I am holy."
(b) God's belonging to us—"my God."
(c) Our faith, which has the promise.
(d) Our fruits, which prove our faith—"thy
servant"
Verse 3.—Importunity.
1. When she pleads—"daily."
2. How she pleads—"I cry."
3. To whom she pleads—"unto thee."
4. For what she pleads—"be merciful."
Verse 3.—I will cry daily for pardoning,
sanctifying, assisting, preserving, providing and guiding
mercy.—William Jay.
Verse 4.
1. The believer's joy is from God—"Rejoice",
& c.
2. The believer's joy is in God—"unto thee",
& c.—G.R.
Verse 4.
1. The great lift.
2. The heavy weight—"my soul".
3. The weak worker—"I lift".
4. The great height—"unto thee".
5. The appointed machinery—means of grace; and,
6. The expected aid—"Rejoice", etc.
Verse 5.—Encouraging thoughts of God.
1. He has goodness in his essence.
2. He has forgiveness in readiness.
3. He has mercy in action, flowing forth from him plenteously.
4. His very discrimination is gracious—"all them that
call upon him."
Verse 6. The praying man desires above all things an
answer. Objections to such an expectation. Grounds for
continuing to expect, and duties incumbent upon those who
realise such expectations.
Verse 6. The voice of supplication. It is the
voice of weakness, of penitence, of faith, of hope, of the new
nature, of knowledge, & c.
Verse 7.
1. Help needed.
2. Help sought.
3. Help found.—G.R.
Verse 7.
1. A time to be expected—"day of my trouble."
2. A resolve to be practised—"I will call upon
thee."
3. A result to be experienced—"thou wilt answer
me."
Verse 7.—Prayer is the design of trouble, the
evidence that it is sanctified, its solace, and the medium of
deliverance from it.—William Jay.
Verse 8.
1. God is one; the only God: characters of false gods
inferior far.
2. His works are unique. Nature, providence, grace, all
peculiar in many respects. A good theme for a thoughtful
preacher.
Verse 9. The certain conversion of the world as
opposed to modern theories.
Verse 10.
1. God is "great", therefore great things
may be expected of him.
2. He is unsearchable, therefore "wondrous
things" may be expected of him.
3. He is irresistible, therefore impossibihties to others may
be expected of him: "Thou art God alone".—G.R.
Verse 11. In the disposition of mind which is
expressed in these words, the believer stands opposed to four
descriptions of character.
1. The ignorant and thoughtless sinner, who neither regards
his way nor his end.
2. The Antinomian, who is zealous for doctrines, and averse
from the practice of religion.
3. The Pharisee, who disregards religious sentiment, and
makes practice all in all.
4. The hypocrite, who appears to be divided between religion
and the world.—John Hyatt, 1811.
Verse 11. The Christian as a scholar, a man of action,
and a man of devotion.
Verse 11. Holiness taught, truth practised, God
adored; and thus the life perfected.
Verse 11. (middle clause). We should walk in
the belief of the truth, its practice, enjoyment, and
profession.—William Jay.
Verse 11. (third clause). The necessity,
benefit, and reasonableness of whole heartedhess in religion.
Verse 12.—The art of praising God by heart.
Verse 13.
1. Where I might have been—"the lowest hell."
2. What thou hast done for me—"hast
delivered."
3. What thou art doing—"great is thy mercy."
Verse 13. (first clause).—God's mercy great
in election, redemption, calling, pardon, upholding, etc. It is
so, at this very moment, in supplying my needs, preserving from
danger, consoling in sorrow, etc. Great is thy mercy towards
me—so great a sinner, with such needs, so provoking, so
full of doubts, etc.
Verses 13-15. The three verses describe salvation,
consequent persecution, and all sufficient consolation.
Verse 15. The shades of the light of love. Compassion
upon suffering, grace towards unworthiness, long suffering to
provocation, mercy towards sin, truth towards the promise.
Verse 16.
1. My pedigree—"son of thine handmaid."
2. My occupation—"thy servant."
3. My character—needing "mercy."
4. My request "turn unto me."
Verse 16. In what respects a servant of God may be
girt with divine power.
Verse 17. What inward feelings and outward providences
are "tokens for good."