Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 91:15
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I [will be] with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him.
15, 16. Cp. Psa 50:15; Psa 50:23.
honour him ] Or, glorify him. Cp. Jer 30:19.
with long life ] Lit., with length of days (Deu 30:20; Pro 3:2; Pro 3:16); in fulfilment of the ancient promises, Exo 20:12; Exo 23:26 (“the number of thy days I will fulfil”), and in contrast to the destruction of the wicked, Psa 91:7-8.
satisfy ] Cp. Psa 90:14
my salvation ] Visible manifestations of God’s Providence proving His care for His people, such as the author of Psalms 90 desired to see, and especially the deliverance from Babylon. Cp. Psa 98:2-3. Each such manifestation was a harbinger of the final Messianic glory which is the goal of O.T. hope. In the light of N.T. revelation the words of the verse gain a new and larger meaning (1Jn 5:11; 1Pe 1:5 ff.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He shall call upon me – He shall have the privilege of calling on me in prayer; and he will do it.
And I will answer him – I will regard his supplications, and will grant his requests. There could be no greater privilege – no more precious promise – than this.
I will be with him in trouble – I will stand by him; I will not forsake him.
I will deliver him, and honor him – I will not only rescue him from danger, but I will exalt him to honor. I will recognize him as my friend, and will regard and treat him as such. On earth he shall be treated as my friend; in another world he shall be exalted to honor among the redeemed, and become the associate of holy beings forever.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 91:15
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him.
Four great promises
Peter speaks of exceeding great and precious promises (2Pe 1:4). The promises of the text are among this number.
I. He will answer their prayers. He answers–
1. Kindly.
2. Quickly.
3. Always.
4. More abundantly than we ask.
5. Wisely.
II. He will be with them is trouble. We cannot escape trouble in this world (Job 5:7). In trouble many persons are forsaken of their friends. But God is the companion and friend who is nearest to us when we need Him most. In poverty, persecution, sickness and death He will be with us.
III. He will deliver them.
1. Surely.
2. By unexpected means.
3. Completely.
4. Eternally.
IV. He will honour them. It is not wrong to seek honour, but we should seek the best (Rom 2:7; Joh 5:4; Joh 5:44). God honoured Moses, Joshua, David, Ruth. These promises belong only to the people of God. (Anon.)
Prayer and its answer
I. A declaration. God has said in positive terms, He shall call upon Me. It therefore does not rest with the creature, whether he will call upon Him or not; it is not a matter poised in the balances of the creature, whether he shall pray or not. God has not left it to man, whether he shall take up prayer or lay aside prayer, but He has made it a part of His own sovereign appointments, of His own eternal decrees, which can no more be frustrated than salvation itself. Therefore this soul, that dwells in the secret place of the Most High–he shall call upon God. He shall call upon Me. When shall he call? Why, when the Lord pours out the Spirit of grace and of supplications; when the Lord lays wants upon his heart; when the Lord brings conviction into his conscience; when the Lord brings trouble into his soul. Then to call upon the Lord is no point of duty, which is to be attended to as a duty; it is no point of legal constraint, which must be done because the Word of God speaks of it; but it is a feeling, an experience, an inward work, which springs from the Lords hand, and which flows in the Lords own Divine channel.
II. A promise. I will answer him. What will He answer? Why, He will answer those prayers, which He Himself has indited. He will answer those wants, which He Himself has created. He will answer those hungerings, which He Himself has produced. But the answer that God gives, He gives in His own time. And I believe many of the children of God have had to cry to Him for days and weeks and months and years. But sometimes the Lord is pleased to answer our prayers more immediately; He brings us into those straits and troubles from which we cannot extricate ourselves, and then will answer our prayers and fulfil the promise. But perhaps it is in such a way as we least expect; and yet in such a way as most glorifies Him. We say, Lord, make me rich. He says, I will; but thou must first be made poor. We say, Lord, let me have a precious view of Christ. I will; but you must first have a wretched view of self. Let me know the riches of Christs blood. I will; but you must first know the depth of your guilt. (J. C. Philpot.)
Prayer answered
You may not get what you fancy you need. You may not get this, that, or the other blessing which you ask, for perhaps they are not blessings. We are not always good at translating our needs into words, and it is a mercy that there is Some One who understands what we do want a great deal better than ourselves. But if below the special petition there lies the cry of a heart that calls for the living God, then, whether the specific petition be answered or dispersed into empty air will matter comparatively little. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
The honour God puts on His faithful servants
The biographer of the Countess of Huntingdon tells how, One day at court the Prince of Wales inquired of Lady Charlotte Edwin where Lady Huntingdon was, that she so seldom visited the court. Lady Charlotte replied, with a sneer, I suppose praying with her beggars. The Prince shook his head, and, turning to Lady Charlotte, said, Lady Charlotte, when I am dying, I think I shall be happy to seize the skirt of Lady Huntingdons mantle to lift me with her up to heaven. (R. Pitman.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. He shall call upon me] He must continue to pray; all his blessings must come in this way; when he calls, I will answer him – I will give him whatever is best for him.
I will be with him in trouble] Literally, I am with him. immo anochi; as soon as the trouble comes, I are there.
I will deliver him] For his good I may permit him to be exercised for a time, but delivered he shall be.
And honour him] acabbedehu, “I will glorify him.” I will load him with honour; that honour that comes from God. I will even show to men how highly I prize such.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He shall call upon me, to wit, in trouble, which is expressed in the following clause. As he knoweth and loveth me, so he will offer up sincere and fervent prayers to me upon all occasions.
I will be with him in trouble, to keep him from sinking under his burden.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him,…. God is to be invoked by prayer, and to be called upon in every time of trouble, in faith and with fervency, in truth and uprightness, and sincerity of soul; and he himself directs and encourages to it, and promises an answer, which he always sooner or later gives; for he is a God hearing and answering prayer; see Ps 50:15.
I will be with him in trouble; the Lord knows his people in adversity; he visits them in their affliction, grants his gracious presence with them, supports them under it, that they are not overwhelmed by it; he bears them up and through it, and makes all things work together for their good:
I will deliver him, and honour him: deliverance is again promised, to denote the certainty of it; and with this addition, that the Lord will honour such that know him, and love him: all his saints are honoured by him, by taking them into his family, and giving them a name better than that of sons and daughters of the greatest potentate; by clothing them with the righteousness of his Son; by adorning them with the graces of his Spirit; by granting them communion and fellowship with himself, and by bringing them to his kingdom and glory.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. He shall call upon me. He now shows more clearly what was meant by trusting in God, or placing our love and delight in him. For that affection and desire which is produced by faith, prompts us to call upon his name. This is another proof in support of the truth, which I had occasion to touch upon formerly, that prayer is properly grounded upon the word of God. We are not at liberty in this matter, to follow the suggestions of our own mind or will, but must seek God only in so far as he has in the first place invited us to approach him. The context, too, may teach us, that faith is not idle or inoperative, and that one test, by which we ought to try those who look for Divine deliverances, is, whether they have recourse to God in a right manner. We are taught the additional lesson, that believers will never be exempt from troubles and embarrassments. God does not promise them a life of ease and luxury, but deliverance from their tribulations. Mention is made of his glorifying them, intimating that the deliverance which God extends, and which has been spoken of in this psalm, is not of a mere temporary nature, but will issue at last in their being advanced to perfect happiness. He puts much honor upon them in the world, and glorifies himself in them conspicuously, but it is not till the completion of their course that he affords them ground for triumph. It may seem strange that length of days should be mentioned in the last verse as promised to them, since many of the Lord’s people are soon taken out of the world. But I may repeat an observation which has been elsewhere made, that those Divine blessings which are promised in relation to the present perishing world, are not to be considered as made good in a universal and absolute sense, or fulfilled in all according to one set and equal rule. (583) Wealth and other worldly comforts must be looked upon as affording some experience of the Divine favor or goodness, but it does not follow that the poor are objects of the Divine displeasure; soundness of body and good health are blessings from God, but we must not conceive on this account that he regards with disapprobation the weak and the infirm. Long life is to be classed among benefits of this kind, and would be bestowed by God upon all his children, were it not for their advantage that they should be taken early out of the world. (584) They are more satisfied with the short period during which they live than the wicked, though their life should be extended for thousands of years. The expression cannot apply to the wicked, that they are satisfied with length of days; for however long they live, the thirst of their desires continues to be unquenched. It is life, and nothing more, which they riot in with such eagerness; nor can they be said to have had one moment’s enjoyment of that Divine favor and goodness which alone can communicate true satisfaction. The Psalmist might therefore with propriety state it as a privilege peculiarly belonging to the Lord’s people, that they are satisfied with life. The brief appointed term is reckoned by them to be sufficient, abundantly sufficient. Besides, longevity is never to be compared with eternity. The salvation of God extends far beyond the narrow boundary of earthly existence; and it is to this, whether we live or come to die, that we should principally look. It is with such a view that the Psalmist, after stating all the other benefits which God bestows, adds this as a last clause, that when he has followed them with his fatherly goodness throughout their lives, he at last shows them his salvation.
(583) “ Dei benedictiones quae ad hanc caducam vitam spectant, non esse perpetuas, neque aequali tenore fluere.” — Lat. “ Ne sont pas perpetuelles, et ne descoulent pas d’un fil continuel.” — Fr.
(584) “ With long life, etc. This was a blessing often pledged to good men during the Mosaic dispensation; though we cannot understand it as being universally accomplished, because God at that, as at every subsequent period, has reserved to himself, and to his own wisdom, ‘the times and the seasons.’” — Walford.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
15. I will answer him The response given to Psa 91:15-16 of the preceding psalm.
In trouble Compare Gen 46:4; Isa 63:9.
Deliver honour Deliverance from trouble, even all the perils enumerated, which have been the world’s terror, is not the fulness of the salvation promised. The soul is advanced to “honour” also. God setteth him on high to be understood of, and fully realized in, the spiritual life.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 91:15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I [will be] with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
Ver. 15. He shall call upon me ] This is an indispensable duty, and will be cheerfully performed by those who know and love the Lord.
I will deliver him, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psalms
WHAT GOD WILL DO FOR US
Psa 91:15 – Psa 91:16
When considering the previous verses of this psalm, I pointed out that at its close we have God’s own voice coming in to confirm and expand the promises which, in the earlier portion of it, have been made in His name to the devout heart. The words which we have now to consider cover the whole range of human life and need, and may be regarded as being a picture of the sure and blessed consequences of keeping our hearts fixed upon our Father, God. He Himself speaks them, and His word is true.
The verses of the text fall into three portions. There are promises for the suppliant, promises for the troubled, promises for mortals. ‘He shall call upon Me and I will answer him’; that is for the suppliant. ‘I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honour him’; that is for the distressed. ‘With long life will I satisfy him, and show him My salvation’; that is for the mortal. Now let us look at these three.
I. The promise to the suppliant.
In these great words we may see set forth both the instinct, as I may call it, of prayer, and the privilege of access to God. If a man’s heart is set upon God, his very life-breath will be a cry to His Father. He will experience a need which is not degraded by being likened to an instinct, for it acts as certainly as do the instincts of the lower creatures, which guide them by the straightest possible road to the surest supply of their need. Any man who has learned in any measure to love God and trust Him will, in the measure in which he has so learned, live in the exercise and habit of prayer; and it will be as much his instinct to cry to God in all changing circumstances as it is for the swallows to seek the sunny south when the winter comes, or the cold north when the sunny south becomes torrid and barren. So, then, ‘He shall call upon Me’ is the characteristic of the truly God-knowing and God-loving heart, which was described in the previous verse. ‘Because he has clung to Me in love, therefore will I deliver him; because he has known My name, therefore will I set him on high,’ and because he has clung and known therefore it is certain that He will ‘call upon Me.’
My friend! do you know anything of that instinctive appeal to God? Does it come to your heart and to your lips without your setting yourself to pray, just as the thought of dear ones on earth comes stealing into our minds a hundred times a day, when we do not intend it nor know exactly how it has come? Does God suggest Himself to you in that fashion, and is the instinct of your hearts to call upon Him?
Again, we see here not only the unveiling of the very deepest and most characteristic attribute of the devout soul, but also the assurance of the privilege of access. God lets us speak to Him. And there is, further, a wonderful glimpse into the very essence of true prayer. ‘He shall call upon Me.’ What for? No particular object is specified as sought. It is God whom we want, and not merely any things that even He can give. If asking for these only or mainly is our conception of what prayer is, we know little about it. True prayer is the cry of the soul for the living God, in whom is all that it needs, and out of whom is nothing that will do it good. ‘He shall call upon Me,’ that is prayer.
‘I will answer him.’ Yes! Of course the instinct is not all on one side. If the devout heart yearns for God, God longs for the devout heart. If I might use such a metaphor, just as the ewe on one side of the hedge hears and answers the bleating of its lamb on the other, so, if my heart cries out for the living God, anything is more credible than that such a cry should not be answered. You may not get this, that, or the other blessing which you ask, for perhaps they are not blessings. You may not get what you fancy you need. We are not always good at translating our needs into words, and it is a mercy that there is Some One that understands what we do want a great deal better than we do ourselves. But if below the specific petition there lies the cry of a heart that calls for the living God, then whether the specific petition be answered or dispersed into empty air will matter comparatively little. ‘He shall call upon Me,’ and that part of his prayer ‘I will answer’ and come to him and be in him. Is that our experience of what it is to pray, and our notion of what it is to be answered?
II. Further, here we have a promise for suppliants.
‘I will be with him in trouble.’ The promise is not only that, when trials of any kind, larger or smaller, more grave or more slight, fall upon us, we shall become more conscious, if we take them rightly, of God’s presence, but that all which is meant by God’s presence shall really be more fully ours, and that He is, if I may say so, actually nearer us. Though, of course, all words about being near or far have only a very imperfect application to our relation to Him, still the gifts that are meant by His presence-that is to say, His sympathy, His help, His love-are more fully given to a man who in the darkness is groping for his Father’s hand, and yet not so much groping for as grasping it. He is nearer us as well as felt to be nearer us, if we take our sorrows rightly. The effect of sorrow devoutly borne, in bringing God closer to us, belongs to it, whether it be great or small; whether it be, according to the metaphor of an earlier portion of this psalm, ‘a lion or an adder’; or whether it be a buzzing wasp or a mosquito. As long as anything troubles me, I may make it a means of bringing God closer to myself.
Therefore, there is no need for any sorrowful heart ever to say, ‘I am solitary as well as sad.’ He will always come and sit down by us, and if it be that, like poor Job upon his dunghill, we are not able to bear the word of consolation, yet He will wait there till we are ready to take it. He is there all the same, though silent, and will be near all of us, if only we do not drive Him away. ‘He will call upon Me and I will answer him’; and the beginning of the answer is the real presence of God with every troubled heart.
Then there follows the next stage, deliverance from trouble; ‘I will deliver him.’ That is not the same word as is employed in the previous verse, though it is translated in the same way in our Bibles. The word here means lifting up out of a pit, or dragging up out of the midst of anything that surrounds a man, and so setting him in some place of safety. Is this promise always true, about people who in sorrow of any kind cast themselves upon God? Do they always get deliverance from Him? There are some sorrows from the pressure of which we shall never escape. Some of us have to carry such. Has this promise no application to the people for whom outward life can never bring an end of the sorrows and burdens that they carry? Not so. He will deliver us not only by taking the burden off our backs, but by making us strong to carry it, and the sorrow, which has changed from wild and passionate weeping into calm submission, is sorrow from which we have been delivered. The serpent may still wound our heel, but if God be with us He will give us strength to press the wounded heel on the malignant head, and we can squeeze all the poison out of it. The bitterness remains; be it so, but let us be quite sure of this, that though sorrow be lifelong, that does not in the least contradict the great and faithful promise, ‘I will be with him in trouble and deliver him,’ for where He is there is deliverance.
Lastly, there is the third of these promises for the troubled. ‘I will honour him.’ The word translated ‘honour’ is more correctly rendered ‘glorify.’ Is not that the end of a trouble which has been borne in company with Him; and from which, because it has been so borne, a devout heart is delivered even whilst it lasts? Does not all such sorrow hallow, ennoble, refine, purify the sufferer, and make him liker his God? ‘He for our profit, that we should be partakers of His holiness.’ Is not that God’s way of glorifying us before heaven’s glory? When a blunt knife is ground upon a wheel, the sparks fly fast from the edge held down upon the swiftly-revolving emery disc, but that is the only way to sharpen the dull blade. Friction, often very severe friction, and heat are indispensable to polish the shaft and turn the steel into a mirror that will flash back the sunshine. So when God holds us to His grindstone, it is to get a polish on the surface. ‘I will deliver him and I will glorify him.’
III. Last of all, we have the promise for mortals.
So this promise assures us that, if we are of those who, in the midst of fleeting days, lay hold on the ‘Ancient of Days’ and live by Him, we shall find a table spread in the wilderness, and like travellers in an inn, having eaten enough, shall willingly obey the call to leave the meal provided on the road, and pass into the Father’s house, and sit at the bountiful feast there.
The heart that lives near God, whether its years be few or many, will find in life all that life is capable of giving, and when the end comes will not be unwilling that it should come, nor hold on desperately to the last fag-end and fragment of life that it can keep within its clutches, but will be satisfied to have lived and be contented to die.
Nor is this all, for says the Psalmist, ‘I will show him My salvation.’ That sight comes after he is satisfied with length of days here. And so I think the fair interpretation of the words, in their place in this psalm, is, that however dimly, yet certainly, here the Psalmist saw something beyond. It was not a black curtain which dropped at death. He believed that, yonder, the man who here had been living near God, calling to Him, realising His presence, and satisfied with the fatness of His house upon earth, would see something that would satisfy him more. ‘I shall be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness.’ That is satisfaction indeed, and the vision, which is possession, of that perfected salvation is the vision that makes the blessedness of heaven.
So, dear friends! we, if we will, may have access to God’s chamber at every moment, and may have His presence, which will make it impossible that we should ever be alone. We may have Him to deliver us from all the evil that is in evil, and to turn it into good. We may have Him to purge, and cleanse, and uplift, and change us into His likeness, even by the ministry of our trials. We may get out of life the last drop of the sweetness that He has put in it; and when it comes to a close, may say, ‘It is enough! Let Thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,’ and then we may go to see it better in that world where we shall all, if we attain thither, be ‘satisfied’ when we ‘awake in His likeness.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
honour = glorify.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
He shall: Psa 10:17, Psa 18:3, Psa 18:4, Psa 18:15, Isa 58:9, Isa 65:24, Jer 29:12, Jer 29:13, Jer 33:3, Rom 10:12, Rom 10:13, Heb 5:7
I will be: Psa 23:4, Psa 138:7, Isa 41:10, Isa 43:1, Isa 43:2, Mat 28:20, Joh 16:32, Act 18:9, Act 18:10, 2Ti 4:17
deliver: Psa 37:40, 2Co 1:9, 2Co 1:10
honour: 1Sa 2:30, Joh 5:44, Joh 12:26, Joh 12:43, 1Pe 1:21, 1Pe 3:22, 1Pe 5:4, Rev 3:21
Reciprocal: Gen 21:17 – heard Gen 25:21 – entreated Gen 32:9 – Jacob Gen 35:1 – God said Gen 35:3 – who answered Gen 39:2 – the Lord Exo 3:8 – I am Exo 15:25 – cried Num 21:3 – hearkened Deu 33:27 – refuge Jdg 16:28 – called 1Sa 1:10 – prayed 1Sa 30:8 – he answered him 2Sa 15:32 – he worshipped 2Sa 21:1 – of the Lord 1Ki 8:38 – prayer 1Ki 22:32 – Jehoshaphat 2Ki 6:17 – prayed 1Ch 21:26 – and called 2Ch 6:29 – what prayer 2Ch 14:11 – cried unto 2Ch 32:20 – prayed Job 12:4 – calleth Job 22:27 – make thy Job 33:26 – pray Psa 3:4 – I cried Psa 4:3 – the Lord Psa 20:1 – hear Psa 27:5 – For in Psa 34:17 – cry Psa 37:39 – strength Psa 42:5 – for the help Psa 50:15 – call Psa 55:16 – General Psa 69:13 – my prayer Psa 81:7 – calledst Psa 86:7 – General Psa 107:6 – Then Psa 143:11 – bring Psa 145:19 – he also will Isa 26:16 – in trouble Isa 33:2 – our salvation Isa 37:3 – General Isa 37:21 – Whereas Isa 38:2 – turned Jer 14:8 – in time Jer 39:17 – I will Dan 2:18 – they would Joe 1:19 – to thee Jon 2:1 – prayed Nah 1:7 – in the Hab 3:16 – that I Zec 13:9 – they shall call Luk 5:12 – besought Act 16:25 – prayed Rom 7:24 – who Jam 5:13 – any among