Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 26:12
My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the LORD.
12. Faith realises the answer to its prayer as already granted, and security assured. He has traversed the rough winding path through the gloomy defile, and stands in the open plain, where there is no more fear of stumbling or sudden assault. Life thus prolonged is the reason and the opportunity for public thanksgiving. Cp. Psa 22:25.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My foot standeth in an even place – The word rendered even place – myshor – means properly righteousness, or justice; then, evenness, a level region, a plain: Isa 40:4; Isa 42:16. DeWette renders it, in a right path. The idea is, either that he was standing now on smooth and level ground; or that he was walking in a straight path, in contradistinction from the crooked and perverse ways of the wicked; that is, he had found now a level road where he might walk securely. The latter is probably the true meaning. He had been anxious about his condition. He had been examining the evidences of his piety. He had had doubts and fears. He had seen much to apprehend, and he had appealed to God to determine the question on which he was so anxious – whether his hope was built on a solid foundation. His path in these inquiries, and while his mind was thus troubled, was like a journey over a rough and dangerous road – a road of hills and valleys – of rocks and ravines. Now he had found a smooth and safe path. The way was level. He felt secure; and he walked calmly and safely along, as a traveler does who has past over dangerous passes and who feels that he is on level ground. The idea is, that his doubts had been dissipated, and he now felt that his evidences of piety were well founded, and that he was truly a child of God.
In the congregations will I bless the Lord – In the assemblies of his people will I praise him. Compare Psa 22:22. The meaning is, that in the great assembly he would offer special praise that God had resolved his doubts, and had given him so clear evidence that he was truly his friend. He would go to the house of God, and there render to Him public praise that he had been able to find the evidence which he desired. No act could be more appropriate than such an act of praise, for there is nothing for which we should render more hearty thanks than for any evidence that we are truly the friends of God, and have a well-founded hope of heaven. The whole psalm should lead us carefully to examine the evidences of our piety; to bring before God all that we rely on as proof that we are His friends; and to pray that He will enable us to examine it aright; and, when the result is, as it was in the case of the psalmist – when we can feel that we have reached a level place and found a smooth path, then we should go, as he did, and offer hearty thanks to God that we have reason to believe we are His children and are heirs of salvation.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 26:12
My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the Lord.
An even place
I. The even place on which the believers foot will stand.
II. The benefits in possession, in experience, and in prospect which he will derive from this standing.
III. The occasion, and the manner in which it will become him to express his gratitude. (Thomas Dale.)
Worship in the beauty of holiness
By the foot, the instrument of motion, we understand the whole turn and conduct of life. Thus the ways of a man denote his doings and his dealings, the affections which govern him, and the actions proceeding from them. When these are right, or even, we may appeal to God as Judge, worship Him in the beauty of holiness, bless Him in the congregations.
I. Holiness of life is a proper qualification for all who would worship God with acceptance. Holiness likens us to God. He desires the holy to worship Him, respects their service, and bestows His blessing.
II. Holiness of life is an essential as well as a proper qualification for all resorts to God in religious offices. Worship is not enjoined on us for the sake of God, but for our own benefit. Its main intent is to lodge with us a sense of our depending upon Him for all we have and all we hope for, to the end that it may secure our obedience to His commands and provide effectually for our final happiness. We cannot, therefore, approach Him in worship without a heart and life corresponding. (N. Marshall, D. D.)
Blessing God in the congregation
If a saints single voice in prayer is so sweet to Gods ear, much more His saints prayer and praise in consort together. A father is glad to see any one of his children, and makes him welcome when he visits him, but much more when they come together; the greatest feast is when they all meet at his house. The public praises of the Church are the emblem of heaven itself. There is a wonderful prevalence in the joint prayers of His people. When Peter was in prison the Church meets and prays him out of his enemies hands. A prince will grant a petition subscribed by the hands of a whole city, which, may be, he would not grant at the request of a private subject. (H. Gurnall.)
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Psa 27:1-14
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. My foot standeth in an even place] On the above principles I have taken my stand: to abhor evil; to cleave to that which is good; to avoid the company of wicked men; to frequent the ordinances of God; to be true and just in all my dealings with men; and to depend for my support and final salvation on the mere mercy of God. He who acts in this way, his feet stand in an even place.
I will bless the Lord.] In all my transactions with men, and in all my assemblings with holy people, I will speak good of the name of the Lord, having nothing but good to speak of that name.
ANALYSIS OF THE TWENTY-SIXTH PSALM
There are four general parts in this Psalm: –
I. An appeal of David to God to be his Judge, Ps 26:1-2.
II. The causes that induced him to make the appeal. His conscious innocence, integrity, c.
III. A petition, Ps 26:9-11.
IV. His gratitude, Ps 26:12.
I. He begins with his appeal to God, whom he knew to be a just Judge and therefore desires to be dealt with according to law: “Judge me; examine me; prove me; try me; even my reins and my heart.”
II. Then he assigns two causes of it; his integrity and his faith.
1. His faith and confidence in God were such that he knew that the Judge of all the world would do him right. “I have trusted in the Lord, therefore, I shall not slide.” I will not change my religion, though powerfully tempted to do so.
2. His integrity: “I have walked in my integrity.” For which he assigns the cause: “Thy loving-kindness is before my eyes; I have walked in thy truth.” I follow thy word, and the principle it lays down.
Next he sets down his integrity by an injunction of parts, which were two: 1. How he carried himself to men; 2. How he conducted himself towards God.
1. He abstained from all society, confederacy, counsels, and intimacy with wicked men; he did hate and abominate their ways: “I have not sat in counsel with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil doers, and will not sit with the wicked.”
2. The other degree of his integrity was, his piety: “I will wash my hands in innocence,” i.e., I will worship thee; and for this end he would keep his hands from blood, oppression, c., in order that he “might publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all the wondrous works of the Lord.”
3. He mentions a second act of his piety, his love to God’s house, and the service done in it: “O Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thy honour dwelleth.”
III. Upon which conscientiousness of his integrity he falls to prayer, that God would not suffer him to be polluted with the conversation of wicked men, nor involved in their punishment: “Gather not my soul with sinners.”
Observe the many titles he gives to wicked men: –
1. They are vain persons void of the fear of God; irreligious, Ps 26:4.
2. Deep, dark men; saying one thing with their mouth, and another with their heart, Ps 26:4.
3. Malignant; doing all for their own ends, Ps 26:5.
4. Impious; regardless of God and religion, Ps 26:5.
5. Sinners; traders in wickedness, Ps 26:9.
6. Blood-thirsty men; cruel and revengeful. Ps 26:9.
7. Mischievous; ready to execute with their hands what they had plotted in their heart, Ps 26:10.
8. Lovers of bribes; perverting judgment for the sake of money, Ps 26:10.
With such David will have nothing to do: “But as for me, I will walk in my integrity.” Redeem me from such people, and be merciful to me.
IV. Lastly. He shows his gratitude. “My foot stands in an even place;” hitherto I am sure I am in the good way. I will therefore praise the Lord in the congregation; not only privately, but publicly.
My foot hath hitherto been kept right by thy grace and mercy; therefore, when thou shalt bring me back again to thy temple, I will not be ungrateful, but will sing praises to thy name in and with the great congregation. Amen.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In an even place, Heb. in rectitude, or
in a right, or straight, or plain, or even place; which may be understood either,
1. Civilly, or in regard of his outward condition. So this is opposed to the slippery places, in which wicked men are said to be, Psa 35:6; 73:18; Jer 23:12; and the sense is, I stand upon a sure and solid foundation, where I fear no fall, nor to be overthrown by the assaults of mine enemies, being under the protection of Gods promise, and his almighty and watchful providence. Or,
2. Morally, or in regard of his conversation. So the sense is, I do and will persist or continue (which is oft signified by standing, as Psa 1:1) in my plain, and righteous, and straight course of life, not using those frauds, and wicked arts, and perverse and crooked paths, which mine enemies choose and walk in, or whereof they do falsely accuse me. And so this is the same thing for substance with his
walking in his integrity, expressed in the foregoing verse, as also Psa 26:1.
In the congregations will I bless the Lord; I will not only privately acknowledge, but publicly, and in the assemblies of thy people, celebrate thy praises, both for thy grace enabling and inclining me to choose, and love, and persevere in the ways of holiness and righteousness, and for thy protection hitherto afforded to me in the midstof all my dangers and troubles, and for that well-grounded assurance which thou hast given me, of thy favour, and of thy future deliverance.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. even placefree fromoccasions of stumblingsafety in his course is denoted. Hence hewill render to God his praise publicly.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My foot standeth in an even place,…. Or “in a plain” b; in a sure place; on Christ the sure foundation, and who is the plain way and path to eternal life; see Ps 27:11; or in the ways and worship of God, prescribed by his word; and so denotes steadfastness and continuance in them;
in the congregations will I bless the Lord; in the assemblies of the saints, in the churches of Christ below, and in the great congregation above, in the general assembly and church of the firstborn; where it is the work of saints now, and will be hereafter, to praise the Lord, for all his mercies temporal and spiritual.
b “in plano”, Musculus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis “in planitie”, Gejerus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The epilogue. The prayer is changed into rejoicing which is certain of the answer that shall be given. Hitherto shut in, as it were, in deep trackless gorges, he even now feels himself to be standing ,
(Note: The first labial of the combination , , when the preceding word ends with a vowel and the two words are closely connected, receives the Dagesh contrary to the general rule; on this orthophonic Dag. lene, vid., Luth. Zeitschr., 1863, S. 414.)
upon a pleasant plain commanding a wide range of vision (cf. , Psa 31:9), and now blends his grateful praise of God with the song of the worshipping congregation, (lxx ), and its full-voiced choirs.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
This verse may be explained in two ways. Some are of opinion that David declares how carefully he had studied uprightness among men; but I rather think that he celebrates the grace of God towards him, and, at the same time, vows his gratitude. By the use of the metaphor, therefore, he tells us that he was preserved in safety. And as he knew that it was the hand of God alone which enabled him to stand, he therefore addresses himself to the exercise of praise and thanksgiving. Nor does he merely say, that he will acknowledge in private the goodness of God bestowed upon him, but in public also, that the assemblies of God’s people may be witnesses of it. It is highly necessary that every one should publicly celebrate his experience of the grace of God, as an example to others to confide in him. (578)
(578) “ Qu’elle soit celebree publiquement; afin qu’elle serve d’exempleaux autres pour se confermer en Dieu.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) My foot standeth.It seems more in accordance with the general drift of the poem to take this verse, When I stand in an even or level place [i.e., when I am rescued from the difficulties which now beset me] I will praise Jehovah in the congregation.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. An even place In a level and plain path.
In the congregations In the public assemblies, which implies his restoration to Jerusalem and the regular worship a pledge of the acceptance of all his petitions.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
My foot stands in an even place,
In the congregations will I bless YHWH.
And having the assurance of Psa 26:11 he can declare that his foot now stands in a level place. No longer for him the valley of darkness, where danger ever lurks (Psa 23:4), or the rough paths along which it is easy to stumble, for YHWH has brought him out into a pleasant place, and among the assemblies of YHWH He will stand in order to bless Him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 26:12. My foot standeth in an even place Mudge observes, that this is an answer to the first verse: he had said there, Let me not slide, for so it should be rendered: here he says, my foot standeth firm on plain ground.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The greatest innocence is no protection from the envenomed tongue of slander. It is well that there is a day coming which, shall confute the calumnies of the wicked, and turn them with confusion on their own heads.
David here appeals to God for his integrity: not as upright in the sight of God, for there he pretended not to be justified; but as innocent of the charges laid against him by Saul; respecting which, he desires to submit to the heart-searching scrutiny of God, and to abide by his judgment, conscious that there was no just occasion of offence to be found in him; and therefore trusting that God would espouse his righteous quarrel, and preserve him that he should not slide: neither fall before the malignity of his persecutors, nor be ensnared by the power of evil. Note; Under the basest misrepresentations, it is an unspeakable comfort to possess conscious innocence.
2nd, As in the former part of the psalm we are told what company David avoided, in the latter we are informed what company he delighted in,the worshippers of God.
He declares how he approached the courts of the Lord’s house. He washed his hands in innocency, washed in the blessed fountain, open for sin and for uncleanness; and he kept back no allowed sin; but, with a conscience void of offence, compassed God’s altar; alluding to the priests who went round the altar, sprinkling the atoning blood on the four corners; so would he wait continually upon God, pleading the blood of sprinkling, and offering the grateful sacrifice of praise. That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wonderous works, works of mercy and grace so astonishing, that they deserve to be proclaimed for the comfort of his brethren and the glory of God. And this was not a mere slavish duty to satisfy conscience, or support a Pharisaical righteousness, no; it was the very joy of his heart. Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house; there could I with pleasure ever abide, and the place where thine honour dwelleth, where in the divine Shechinah thy glory visibly appears.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
READER, how truly lovely it is to behold Jesus in the immaculate lushness of his nature! For with that holiness we should ever connect the interests of his people. And of all the pleas for a poor sinner to use at a throne of grace, the holiness of Jesus, as his justification, is the highest and the best; indeed the only plea. Oh! what unknown arguments are contained in that sanctity of Christ, which could, and did appeal to Jehovah, to examine and prove and try his reins and his heart. Precious Lamb of God! methinks I feel the confidence of it! Surely it hath a double assurance; for the Father’s grace and the Son’s righteousness are here blended. And can I have any just apprehension of my God’s condemning me for sin, while I am looking up, in God’s own way, for acceptance in the perfect justifying righteousness of his dear Son? Here, then, blessed Jesus, would I adopt thine own words, as oft as I go to the mercy-seat, and say, Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in the integrity of Jesus; I have trusted in his righteousness, therefore I shall not slide. Surely, I will say, in the Lord have I righteousness, and strength even to him am I come; for thou hast said, In him shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 26:12 My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the LORD.
Ver. 12. My foot standeth in an even place ] i.e. Mine affections are in an equal tenor. A good man is , the scales of his mind neither rise up toward the beam, through their own lightness, or their overly weened opinion of prosperity; nor are too much depressed with any load of sorrow, but hanging equal and unmoved between both, give him liberty in all occurrences to enjoy himself.
I will bless the Lord
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
congregations = assemblies; or plural of majesty = the great assembly. Occurs only here, and Psa 68:26.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
My: Psa 27:11, Psa 40:2, 1Sa 2:9, Pro 10:9
in the: Psa 26:7, Psa 22:22-25, Psa 107:32, Psa 111:1, Psa 122:4, Heb 2:12
Reciprocal: Psa 1:1 – standeth 1Co 4:4 – but
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 26:12. My foot standeth in an even place Hebrew, , bemishor, in rectitude. I stand upon a sure and solid foundation, being under the protection of Gods promise and his almighty and watchful providence. Or the sense may be, I do and will persist in my plain, righteous, and straight course of life, not using those frauds and wicked arts, and perverse and crooked paths, which mine enemies choose and walk in. And, thus understood, it is the same thing with his walking in his integrity, expressed in the foregoing verse and Psa 26:1. In the congregations will I bless the Lord I will not only privately acknowledge, but publicly, and in the assemblies of thy people, celebrate thy praise.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
26:12 My foot standeth in {h} an even place: in the congregations will I bless the LORD.
(h) I am preserved from my enemies by the power of God, and therefore will praise him openly.