Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 31:7
I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities;
7. Let me be glad and rejoice in thy lovingkindness:
For thou hast seen my affliction;
Thou hast taken knowledge of the distresses of my soul.
An entreaty, based upon past experience. Here, and in Psa 31:8, as well as in 5 b, it is more natural to understand the perfect tenses to refer to past mercies, rather than as a confident anticipation of future deliverance. With the second line cp. Psa 9:13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy – I will triumph and joy in thy mercy; that is, in the mercy which he had already experienced, and in that which he still hoped to enjoy. He had had abundant proofs of that mercy; he hoped for still further proofs of it; and he says that he would find his joy in that, and not in what idols could give.
For thou hast considered my trouble – In times past and now. He felt assured that his prayer would be regarded, and that God would relieve and deliver him.
Thou hast known my soul in adversities – In the troubles that have come upon me. That is, God had seen and known all the feelings of his heart in the time of adversity; his sorrow and anxiety; his hope and trust; his uncomplaining spirit; his feeling of entire dependence on God, and his belief that He would interpose to save him. God had not turned away from him, but had shown that he regarded with interest all his feelings, his desires, his hopes. It is much, in the time of trouble, to know that all our feelings are understood by God, that He sees all our sorrows, and that He will not be regardless of them. There are no states of mind more interesting than those which occur in adversities; there is no one who can fully understand the soul in adversities but God; there is no one but God who can entirely meet the needs of the soul in such seasons.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 31:7
I will be glad and rejoice in Thy mercy, for Thou hast considered my trouble.
Divine chastisements
I. That the souls of all Gods people must have their day of adversity, This, indeed, follows from the universal methods by which God governs and upholds the world. The present life is not a state of retribution, or a place where God professes to discriminate visibly between the good and the evil. If God make His sun to shine both on the just and the unjust, what shall forbid His judgments from alighting also on both?
II. whatever our troubles may be there is one to consider our calamities and to know how long we can bear them, Thou hast considered and known my soul in adversities. Affliction often appears to move both God and man; it moves God to consider mans infirmities, and it moves man to consider his own soul. Behold, then, why we count them happy which endure–because endurance has a tendency to bring God and the sinner together. Prosperity, health, and comfort too often form a great gulf betwixt us and God–a gulf which must either be crossed by a bridge of sighs, or else filled up with the fragments of those earthly idols which our hearts had worshipped instead of God. And when the poor sinner is thus brought unto God, the first petition he prefers is, Lord, consider my affliction; look upon my distress; let Thine eye fasten itself upon my misery and pain. For his faith tells him all will be well, if God can be brought to take notice of his low estate. Our faith in the Divine promises warms and brightens by the very earnestness with which we plead them; we move God to pity, by moving ourselves to feel that we need pity, and are enabled to draw nigh to God, by the very act of asking God to draw nigh to us.
III. that our heavenly Fathers consideration of the troubles of his people should supply us with matter for joy and praise. I will be glad and rejoice in Thy mercy. We are all more forward to ask for blessings than we are to render God thanks when we have received them. Ten lepers would ask the Saviour for health, but one alone returned to thank Him for it. A day could be taken from our labours to humble ourselves under a scourge, but a day could not be afforded to return thanks for our deliverance. Brethren, this backwardness in thanksgiving ought not so to be. We are hastening to a world where praise is all we shall have to do, and it surely were but fitting that we should begin our rehearsal now. Here we can forbear, and hope, and believe, and pray; but what room will there be for such like works in heaven? (Daniel Moore, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. Thou hast known my soul in adversities] When all forsook me; when none could help me; when I could not save my own life; when my enemies were sure that I could not escape; then I found thee to be my Friend and Supporter. When friend, so called, finds it convenient not to know his friend in affliction and poverty, then thou didst acknowledge me as thine own, all worthless as I was. Human friendships may fail; but the Friend of sinners never fails. Cicero defines a real friend, Amicus certus in re incerta cernitor: “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” Reader, such a Friend is the Lord.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou hast known, i.e. loved me, and cared for me; for words of knowledge commonly imply affection.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. hast known my soul, &c.hadregard to me in trouble.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I will be glad, and rejoice in thy mercy,…. Both because of the nature of it, which is large and abundant, free and sovereign, from everlasting to everlasting, and is communicated in and through Christ, and is a good ground of hope and trust; and because of the effects of it, or what it has produced; for to it are owing the covenant of grace, and all the sure mercies of it; the mission of Christ, and redemption by him; regeneration, and the forgiveness of sins, and even eternal life and glory; besides a multitude of blessings, deliverances, and salvations in Providence; on account of all which there is great reason for joy and gladness; of which the following are particulars;
for thou hast considered my trouble; inward, arising from indwelling sin, doubts and fears, desertions and darkness, and Satan’s temptations; and outward, from the world, and the men of it, and by reason of bodily afflictions: now the Lord looks upon the troubles of his people, and upon them in them, with an eye of pity and compassion; he sympathizes with them; he considers the nature of their trouble, their weakness to bear it, and the best way, in tans, and time to deliver out of it; he working all things after the counsel of his own will; see Ex 3:7;
thou hast known my soul in adversities; that is, the Lord had took notice of him, approved of him, loved him, had visited him, and made known his love to him, and owned him for his own, and had chosen him in the furnace of affliction; a time and season when oftentimes friends and acquaintance are shy, and will not look upon men, know them, and own them; but the Lord does otherwise, and which is another reason of joy and gladness in his mercy.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
7. I will be glad and rejoice in thy goodness. Here is inserted a thanksgiving, although many are rather of opinion that David’s prayer is suspended, and that he makes a vow, when he shall be delivered from present danger. But as no condition is annexed, I am rather inclined to think that stopping all at once in the middle of his prayer, he promises himself a deliverance, for which he will have abundant matter for giving thanks. Nor is it to be wondered at that different feelings are mingled in the psalms in which David has set forth his own temptations, as well as the resistance which his faith made to them, considering also that when he sung the praises of God, after having already obtained deliverance from him, he embraces different periods in his song, as he here says, that God had regarded his affliction, intimating by this the effect of the assistance which God had afforded him. And that he may the better confirm this, he adds, that he had not been delivered into the hands of his enemies: in which words there is an implied antithesis, namely, that when he was encompassed on every side by severe afflictions, he was marvellously delivered by God. This is also farther intimated by the following sentence, Thou hast set my feet in a large place, (642) which denotes a sudden and unexpected change.
(642) “There is a contrast in the expression between the straits to which he had been confined, and the freedom which was now bestowed upon him.” — Walford.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
7. For thou hast considered my trouble The psalmist comforts himself with the thought that God has thoroughly known both his affliction and deportment under trials, and, by implication, would do what was befitting the case.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
I will be glad and rejoice in your covenant love,
For you have seen my affliction,
You have known my soul in adversities,
And you have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy,
You have set my feet in a large place.
And as a result of trusting in YHWH he is filled with gladness and rejoicing at His covenant love, that love which was the cause of Him establishing the covenant (‘I am YHWH your God Who delivered you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage’), and which now continually reaches out to His people through the covenant. For he is aware that in His love YHWH has seen his affliction, knows precisely what he is going through, and rather than delivering him up to his enemies, has set his feet firmly in ‘a large place’.
In other words in his need God has not let him down, but has protected and established him because He is his covenant God, and has made full provision for him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 31:7 I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities;
Ver. 7. I will be glad and rejoice ] In the midst of trouble faith will find matter of joy; as extracting abundance of comfort in most desperate distresses from the precious promises and former experiences.
Thou hast known my soul in adversity
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
mercy = lovingkindness, or grace.
considered = looked upon.
my soul = me myself. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will: Psa 13:5, Isa 49:13, Jer 33:11
for: Psa 9:13, Psa 25:18, Psa 71:20, Psa 119:153, Neh 9:32, Job 10:9, Lam 3:50, Lam 5:1
known: Psa 1:6, Psa 142:3, Job 23:10, Isa 43:2, Isa 63:9, Isa 63:16, Joh 10:27-30, 1Co 8:3, Gal 4:9, 2Ti 2:19
Reciprocal: Gen 31:42 – hath seen Deu 2:7 – he knoweth Psa 13:3 – Consider Psa 37:18 – knoweth Psa 37:33 – will not Psa 59:16 – sing aloud Pro 29:7 – considereth Isa 33:18 – heart Hos 13:5 – know
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 31:7-8. Thou hast known my soul in adversities Hast not stood aloof from me, and acted toward me as a stranger, but hast loved me, and cared for me. For knowledge often implies affection. And hast not shut me up Or, suffered me to be shut up; into the hand Or power; of the enemy Of which I was in great and imminent danger, if thou hadst not delivered me. Thou hast set my foot in a large room Made way for me to escape when I was encompassed by them, and set me at liberty.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Even though the psalmist had not yet experienced deliverance, he delighted in the loyal love of his God. God had not handed him over to his enemy, so the prospects for the future were encouraging. Even though final deliverance was yet to come, David could praise God as he waited for it since he believed God would be faithful to His promises to help His afflicted. Paul and Silas sang praises to God in the Philippian jail with the same confidence (Act 16:25).