Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 61:1
To the chief Musician upon Neginah, [A Psalm] of David. Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.
1. my cry my prayer ] Synonynas often coupled together to express the urgency of supplication. Cp. Psa 17:1; 1Ki 8:28; Jer 7:16; Jer 11:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 4. David prays that God will prove Himself a refuge as in time past, and that he may again live in His presence and under His protection in Jerusalem.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Hear my cry, O God – See the notes at Psa 5:2. The word rendered cry in this place sometimes denotes a joyful shout – a shout of triumph; but the connection makes it certain that it here refers to the voice of prayer. It is implied that it was audible prayer, or that the psalmist gave utterance to his desires in words. It is language such as would be produced by deep distress; when a sad and burdened heart gives vent to its feelings in a loud cry for mercy.
Attend unto my prayer – Give ear; incline the ear to me, Psa 5:1; Psa 17:1, Psa 17:6; Psa 39:12; Psa 71:2.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 61:1-8
Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.
A meditation on the sixty-first psalm
In the first verse it is not the Jew but the man that speaks. The same idea can be found in all languages. When David speaks thus, he speaks for the whole world! There is no doubt the most intense personality in the petition; it is my cry, it is my prayer. What then? Even when the man individualizes himself most carefully, he does but mingle most familiarly with all other men. This is the voice of an exile–a man far from the city which he loves most; yet even at the extremity of the land he says he will cry unto God. Why not? God can give the exile a home! Wherever God reveals himself in loving pity and all the riches of His grace, the soul may take its rest, knowing that no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up thereon. David cried from the end of the land! We have cried from the same extremity. By processes too subtle for us to comprehend, God has often caused our misfortunes to become our blessings, In the midst of the psalmists trouble there rises an aspiration–lead me to the rock that is higher than I. The self-helplessness expressed in this prayer moves our entire sympathy. Lead me–what a blind man who had wandered from the accustomed path would say; lead me–what a lame man would say who had fallen by reason of his great weakness; lead me–what a terrified man would say who had to pass along the edge of a bottomless abyss. It is in such extremities that men best know themselves. David wished to be led to the rock; he wished to stand firmly, to stand above the flood-line, to have rest after so great disquietude. Then there is a rock higher than we? We have heard of Jesus Christ by this strange name; we have heard of Him as the Rock of ages; we have heard of Him as the Rock in the wilderness; we have heard of Him as the Stone rejected of the builders but elected of God to the chief place. The aspiration is succeeded by a recollection (Psa 61:3). History is rightly used when it becomes the guide of hope. The days of a mans life seem to be cut off from each other by the nights which intervene; but they are continuous when viewed from the altitude of Divine providence. Yesterday enriches to-day. All the historic triumphs of the Divine arm stimulate us in the present battle. We may say of God–What Thou hast been, Thou wilt be; because Thou hast inclined Thine ear unto us, therefore will we call upon Thee as long as we live. I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever, I will trust in the covert of Thy wings. Here is a beautiful combination–worship and confidence! The relation is not only beautiful, but strictly sequential; for worship is confidence, and confidence is worship. Truly to kneel before God is to express trust in Him, and truly to express trust in Him is to bow down and worship at His footstool. This is the complete idea of worship: not prayer only, not hope only, not adoration only, not a blind dependence only; but all combined, all rounded into one great act of life. Under the covert of Thy wings–how tender the figure! The bird spreads her wings over the nest where her young ones lie, and thus gives them warmth, and affords them all the little protection in her power. What a beautiful image of unity, defence, completeness, safety, is so frail a thing as the nest of a bird! Multiply that image by infinitude; carry it far above all the mischances which may befall the little home of the bird, and then see how full of comfort is the idea. We have heard of a shelter, and a tower, and a tabernacle,–words which have much meaning for the heart when its distresses are not to be numbered, and which reach their full explanation only in that great Saving Man who was wounded for our transgressions. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The pious experiences of an exile
I. A deep sense of isolation. From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee. Few feelings are more saddening than the feeling of lonelihood. It hangs like a cold leaden cloud over the heart. In this lonelihood, and far away from the scenes of his home and populations of men, he prays. The Great Father is accessible in all seasons of the soul, and all points of space.
II. A felt need for Divine helps. Many things would tend to overwhelm the heart of David with sorrow–the conduct of Absalom his son, the treachery of professed friends, the disorders of his country, and, above all, remorse on account of the many wrong things he had done and which had perhaps brought all these distresses upon him. Under such a load of sadness, he feels that his only hope is in God. The soul in its sorrow requires something outside of itself and greater, and there is a Rock for tempest-tossed souls.
III. A yearning for lost privileges. I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever. He was far away from this tabernacle now,–a scene where he had often worshipped and experienced the raptures of religion. Profoundly does he feel the loss, and hence he resolves on his return to abide there, not only to visit it occasionally, but to continue as a resident, dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life. When there, he had felt like the young bird under the wing of its parent, warm, safe, and happy; and this privilege he yearned for again. I will trust in the covert of Thy wings. It is an old adage, that the well is not missed until it is dried up. The loss of blessings is evermore the means of deepening our impressions as to their value.
IV. As acknowledgment of Divine kindness (Psa 61:5). The heritage mentioned is participation in the honours and privileges of the chosen people, and such were indeed great (Rom 9:4-5). What a heritage! And this David acknowledges as being given to him by God. Whatever privileges we have, personal, social, political, or religious, our heritage is the gift of God.
V. An assurance of future prosperity. Thou wilt prolong the kings life. He seems to have been assured of two things.
1. The lengthening of his rule as a king. Thou wilt prolong the kings life–add days to that reign which was nearly brought to an abrupt termination.
2. The continuation of his privileges as a saint. He shall abide before God for ever. These two things he seems to have been assured of–that he should live for years, and for years to come enjoy the presence of his God. Blessed assurance this!
VI. A cry for moral excellence. Mercy and truth. These are the cardinal virtues. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. A soul full of benevolence and in harmony with eternal realities. In this all good is comprised. Herein Paradise blooms and blossoms. The profoundest hunger Of all souls should be for these two things, grace and truth. Having these, all else follows.
VII. A resolution to worship for ever. Worship is the highest end of being. Religion, or worship, is not the means to an end, it is the grandest end of existence. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM LXI
The psalmist’s prayer for those who were banished from their
own land, and from the ordinances of God, 1, 2.
He praises God for his past mercies, 3;
purposes to devote himself entirely to his service, 4, 5.
He prays for the king, 6, 7;
and promises to perform his vow to the Lord daily, 8.
NOTES ON PSALM LXI
The title, To the chief Musician upon Neginath, . The verb nagan signifies to strike or play on a musical instrument, especially one of the stringed kind; but the neginoth, as it is written in about thirty MSS., may signify either the players on the instruments or the instruments themselves. The Psalm appears to have been written about the close of the captivity, and the most judicious interpreters refer it to that period. On this supposition the notes are formed.
Verse 1. Hear my cry, O God] In the midst of a long and painful captivity, oppressed with suffering, encompassed with cruel enemies and insolent masters, I address my humble prayer to THEE, O my God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
1-3. From the endthat is,places remote from the sanctuary (De28:64).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Hear my cry, O God,…. Being in distress; and which was vocally expressed with great fervency and importunity;
attend unto my prayer; which psalm was made by him, and not for him; inwrought in his heart by the Spirit of God, and put up by him with a true heart and full assurance of faith, and related to his own case in particular. Aben Ezra thinks that the former word designs public prayer, vocally and openly expressed; and that this intends prayer in the heart, or mental prayer; both the Lord hears and attends unto, and is here requested; which is marvellous grace and condescension in him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Hurled out of the land of the Lord in the more limited sense
(Note: Just as in Num 32:29. the country east of Jordan is excluded from the name “the land of Canaan” in the stricter sense, so by the Jewish mind it was regarded from the earliest time to a certain extent as a foreign country ( ), although inhabited by the two tribes and a half; so that not only is it said of Moses that he died in a foreign land, but even of Saul that he is buried in a foreign land ( Numeri Rabba, ch. viii. and elsewhere).)
into the country on the other side of the Jordan, David felt only as though he were banished to the extreme corner of the earth (not: of the land, cf. Psa 46:10; Deu 28:49, and frequently), far from the presence of God (Hengstenberg). It is the feeling of homelessness and of separation from the abode of God by reason of which the distance, in itself so insignificant (just as was the case with the exiles later on), became to him immeasurably great. For he still continually needed God’s helpful intervention; the enveloping, the veiling, the faintness of his heart still continues ( , Arab. tf , according to its radical signification: to bend and lay anything round so that it lies or draws over something else and covers it, here of a self-enveloping); a rock of difficulties still ever lies before him which is too high for his natural strength, for his human ability, therefore insurmountable. But he is of good courage: God will lead him up with a sure step, so that, removed from all danger, he will have rocky ground under his feet. He is of good courage, for God has already proved Himself to be a place of refuge to him, to be a strong tower, defying all attack, which enclosed him, the persecuted one, so that the enemy can gain no advantage over him (cf. Pro 18:10). He is already on the way towards his own country, and in fact his most dearly loved and proper home: he will or he has to (in accordance with the will of God) dwell (cf. the cohortative in Isa 38:10; Jer 4:21) in God’s tabernacle (vid., on Psa 15:1) throughout aeons (an utterance which reminds one of the synchronous Psa 23:6). With is combined the idea of the divine protection (cf. Arabic gar ollah , the charge or proteg of God, and Beduinic gaur , the protecting hearth; gawir , according to its form = , one who flees for refuge to the hearth). A bold figure of this protection follows: he has to, or will trust, i.e., find refuge, beneath the protection of God’s wings. During the time the tabernacle was still being moved from place to place we hear no such mention of dwelling in God’s tabernacle or house. It was David who coined this expression for loving fellowship with the God of revelation, simultaneously with his preparation of a settled dwelling-place for the sacred Ark. In the Psalms that belong to the time of his persecution by Saul such an expression is not yet to be found; for in Psa 52:7, when it is desired that Doeg may have the opposite of an eternal dwelling-place, it is not the sacred tent that is meant. We see also from its second part that this Psa 61:1-8 does not belong to the time of Saul; for David does not speak here as one who has drawn very near to his kingly office (cf. Psa 40:8), but as one who is entering upon a new stage in it.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Crying to God in Distress. | |
To the chief musician upon Neginah. A psalm of David.
1 Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. 2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 3 For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. 4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
In these verses we may observe,
I. David’s close adherence and application to God by prayer in the day of his distress and trouble: “Whatever comes, I will cry unto thee (v. 2), –not cry unto other gods, but to thee only,–not fall out with thee because thou afflictest me, but still look unto thee, and wait upon thee,–not speak to thee in a cold and careless manner, but cry to thee with the greatest importunity and fervency of spirit, as one that will not let thee go except thou bless me.” This he will do, 1. Notwithstanding his distance from the sanctuary, the house of prayer, where he used to attend as in the court of requests: “From the end of the earth, or of the land, from the most remote and obscure corner of the country, will I cry unto thee.” Note, Wherever we are we may have liberty of access to God, and may find a way open to the throne of grace. Undique ad clos tantundem est vi–Heaven is equally accessible from all places. “Nay, because I am here in the end of the earth, in sorrow and solitude, therefore I will cry unto thee.” Note, That which separates us from our other comforts should drive us so much the nearer to God, the fountain of all comfort. 2. Notwithstanding the dejection and despondency of his spirit: “Though my heart is overwhelmed, it is not so sunk, so burdened, but that it may be lifted up to God in prayer; if it is not capable of being thus raised, it is certainly too much cast down. Nay, because my heart is ready to be overwhelmed, therefore I will cry unto thee, for by that means it will be supported and relived.” Note, Weeping must quicken praying, and not deaden it. Is any afflicted? Let him pray,Jas 5:13; Psa 102:1.
II. The particular petition he put up to God when his heart was overwhelmed and he was ready to sink: Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; that is, 1. “To the rock which is too high for me to get up to unless thou help me to it. Lord, give me such an assurance and satisfaction of my own safety as I can never attain to but by thy special grace working such a faith in me.” 2. “To the rock on the top of which I shall be set further out of the reach of my troubles, and nearer the serene and quiet region, than I can be by any power or wisdom of my own.” God’s power and promise are a rock that is higher than we. This rock is Christ; those are safe that are in him. We cannot get upon this rock unless God by his power lead us. I will put thee in the cleft of the rock, Exod. xxxiii. 22. We should therefore by faith and prayer put ourselves under the divine management, that we may be taken under the divine protection.
III. His desire and expectation of an answer of peace. He begs in faith (v. 1): “Hear my cry, O God! attend unto my prayer; that is, let me have the present comfort of knowing that I am heard (Ps. xx. 6), and in due time let me have that which I pray for.”
IV. The ground of this expectation, and the plea he uses to enforce his petition (v. 3): “Thou hast been a shelter for me; I have found in thee a rock higher than I: therefore I trust thou wilt still lead me to that rock.” Note, Past experiences of the benefit of trusting in God, as they should engage us still to keep close to him, so they should encourage us to hope that it will not be in vain. “Thou hast been my strong tower from the enemy, and thou art as strong a ever, and thy name is as much a refuge to the righteous as ever it was.” Prov. xviii. 10.
V. His resolution to continue in the way of duty to God and dependence on him, v. 4. 1. The service of God shall be his constant work and business. All those must make it so who expect to find God their shelter and strong tower: none but his menial servants have the benefit of his protection. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever. David was now banished from the tabernacle, which was his greatest grievance, but he is assured that God by his providence would bring him back to his tabernacle, because he had by his grace wrought in him such a kindness for the tabernacle as that he was resolved to make it his perpetual residence, Ps. xxvii. 4. He speaks of abiding in it for ever because that tabernacle was a type and figure of heaven, Heb 9:8; Heb 9:9; Heb 9:24. Those that dwell in God’s tabernacle, as it is a house of duty, during their short ever on earth, shall dwell in that tabernacle which is the house of glory during an endless ever. 2. The grace of God and the covenant of grace shall be his constant comfort: I will make my refuge in the covert of his wings, as the chickens seek both warmth and safety under the wings of the hen. Those that have found God a shelter to them ought still to have recourse to him in all their straits. This advantage those have that abide in God’s tabernacle, that in the time of trouble he shall there hide them.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 61
A Strong Tower of Protection
This is a psalm-prayer of David, under extreme distress. It has two strophes, with the first closing with the meditation pause, “Selah;” They are: Strophe 1, v. 1-4; Strophe 2, v. 5-8. It was perhaps written when he was beyond Jordan, under Absalom’s rebellion.
Scripture v. 1-8:
Verses 1, 2 are an outcry of David to God. He was in an exile land, far away from Jerusalem and his homeland, where God manifested Himself. He plead with God to hear or give heed to his lonely cry, as his heart was heavy laden, pressed down in despond, “to the ends of the earth;” literally wherever he wandered, far from home, Psa 107:5; Psa 77:3. He asked God to “lead him to the rock,” that was “too high for him,” to climb or ascend for safety, by his natural strength. And “that rock was Christ,” 1Co 10:4; Exo 17:6; Joh 4:13-14; 1Pe 2:8.
Verse 3 declared that the God of protection, had been his shelter and strong tower from the face of the enemy all his days, as set forth Pro 18:10; Psa 18:2.
Verse 4 vows “I will abide (reside) in thy tabernacle for ever,” on and on, without departure, Psa 27:4. Even there he would permanently dwell, committed to the care and service of the Lord, in priority of his life, Psa 21:4; Mat 6:33. He added that he would “trust in the covert,” (warm place of security) of thy wings, a safe refuge, Mat 23:37; Psa 36:7. “Selah,” meditate on, digest, and find spiritual nourishment in this.
The ground of his confidence was the prophetic work of God, as foretold 2Samuel Ch. 7.
Verse 5 asserts that he believed God had heard his vows, known his priority resolves, and given him an heritage of those who heeded or revered His name, Psa 21:2-4; Ecc 12:13-14. The heritage was lengthened life and an abiding kingdom, Luk 1:32-33.
Verse 6 adds in confidence, “thou wilt prolong the king’s life; and even his years as many generations,” as also set forth Psa 21:4; Isa 38:5. In Christ his posterity found is real fulfillment, as David’s seed, Mat 1:1; Gen 15:18; 2Sa 7:8-16; Act 2:25-36; Rom 1:3.
Verse 7 asserts “He (David), or his seed (Jesus Christ) shall abide (reside) before God for ever,” of whose kingdom “there shall be or exist no end,” no termination, Luk 1:31-33; 1Co 15:24. Then David appeals to God for “mercy and truth,” Divine intervention, that should preserve him for ever. Here is the source of refuge, in the High-tower-rock, Jesus Christ, the king eternal, Isa 26:20; Isa 32:2. See also Psa 41:2; Isa 9:6-7. Mercy and truth from God do preserve men, even as their attributes preserve the influence of the believer, who shows them, in his behavior, Gen 24:27; Gen 32:10; Psa 43:3.
Verse 8 concludes that in this context of faith he will sing and praise the name and honor of God for ever, a noble resolve for every child of God, Psa 107:2; Mat 5:15-16; Jas 1:22. this he resolved to do daily, carrying out his vow to follow the Lord, always, Mar 8:34-38; Luk 9:23; Rom 12:1-2.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Hear my cry, O God! It is not exactly ascertained at what time this psalm was composed; but there seems to be some probability in the conjecture, that David had been for a considerable period in possession of the throne before he fell into the circumstances of distress which are here mentioned. I agree with those who refer it to the time of the conspiracy of Absalom; (402) for, had he not been an exile, he could not speak, as in the second verse, of crying from the ends of the earth. By using the term cry, he would intimate the vehemency of his desire; and it is a word which expresses inward fervency of spirit, without reference to the fact whether he may have prayed aloud, or in a low and subdued tone. The repetition which is employed denotes his diligence and perseverance in prayer, and teaches us that we should not faint and become discouraged in this exercise, because God may not have immediately and openly testified his acceptance of our petitions. There can be no question that, by the ends of the earth, he refers to the place of his banishment, as being cut off from access to the temple and the royal city. By some, indeed, the words have been understood figuratively, as meaning, that he prayed from the lowest deeps of distress; but I can see no foundation for this. In a subsequent part of the psalm, he calls himself King, a title never assumed by him before the death of Saul, and from this circumstance we may at once infer, that the time referred to was that when he fled in trepidation from the fury of his son Absalom, and hid himself in the wilderness of Mahanaim, and places of a similarly solitary description. Mount Zion was the place where the ark of the covenant had been deposited, and it was the seat of royalty; and David, when banished from this, which was the principal and most eligible locality, speaks as if he had been driven to the uttermost parts of the earth. Living, though he did, under the shadows of a legal dispensation, he did not cease to pray, because removed to a distance from the temple; and how inexcusable must our conduct be, privileged as we are of God, and called to draw near by the way which has been opened through the blood of Christ, if we break not through every hinderance which Satan presents to our communications with heaven? Let those who may have been deprived of the hearing of the word, and the dispensation of the sacraments, so as, in a manner, to be banished out of the Church, learn from the example of David to persevere in crying to God, even under these solitary circumstances. He adverts, in what follows, to his grief and anguish. He adds the fact of his being shut up from every method of escape, that the grace of God might be made more apparent in his deliverance. The Hebrew word עטף, ataph, which I have translated vexed, means occasionally to cover, or involve, which has led some to render the clause, while my heart is turned about; that is, tossed hither and thither, or agitated. This is a harsh translation. Others read with more propriety, while my heart is involved in cares and troubles, or overwhelmed. (403) I have adopted a simpler rendering, although I would not be understood as denying the metaphor, to which they suppose that there is an allusion. The clause, there can be no question, is inserted to intimate that he was not prevented by trouble from having recourse to God. Notice was taken already of the outward trial to which he was subjected, in distance from the sanctuary, and of his rising above this, so as to direct his cry to God; and in the words before us, we have his confession that he was far from being stoically insensible, being conscious of a severe inward struggle with grief and perplexity of mind. It is the duty, then, of believers, when oppressed with heaviness and spiritual distress, to make only the more strenuous efforts for breaking through these obstacles in their approaches to God. His prayer is, that God would bring him to that safety from which he seems to be excluded. By a rock or citadel, he means, in general, secure protection, from which he complains of being shut out, as it was impossible to reach it unless he were raised by the hand of God. In looking round him, it seemed as if every place of shelter and safety were lifted up above his head and rendered inaccessible. He was cut off from all help, and yet, hopeless as deliverance appeared, he had no doubt of his safety, should God only extend his hand for interposition. This is the plain meaning of the passage, when divested of figure, that God was able to rescue him from danger, though all other help should be withdrawn, and the whole world should stand between him and deliverance; a truth which we would do well to consider seriously. In looking for deliverance from God, we must beware of yielding to the suggestions of sense; we should remember that he does not always work by apparent means, but delivers us when he chooses by methods inscrutable to reason. If we attempt to prescribe any one particular line of procedure, we do no less than wilfully limit his almighty power.
(402) It is generally agreed that this psalm refers to the history recorded in 2Sa 17:22.
(403) This last translation is omitted in the French version, perhaps through inadvertency.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.To the Chief Musician. See Introduction to Psalms 57. Upon Neginah. Hebrew: Neginath. The LXX. and Vulg., evidently read Neginoth in the plural, which occurs in the title of five psalms, and is perhaps the true reading. Whether the word be singular or plural, it is the general term by which all stringed instruments are described. Of David. The contents of the psalm confirm the title as to its Davidic authorship. The psalm was probably composed by David When he was in exile in consequence of the rebellion of Absalom (2 Samuel 15-18, especially 2Sa. 17:22).
THE CRY OF A TROUBLED HEART
(Psa. 61:1-4.)
We have here
I. A painful experience. From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed. The experience of David included
1. Distressing exile. From the end of the earth is an expression denoting a painful sense of removal to a great distance from the dwelling-place of God. The country to the east of Jordan, into which David had been compelled to retreat, was not accounted the Lords land properly. (Comp. Num. 32:29; Jos. 22:19). In this country the Psalmist felt himself as it were banished to the extremity of the earth, far from the face of God. He was far from the city that he loved most, from his home, from his throne, and from the tabernacle of his God. To the godly soul separation from the ordinances of worship is a sore trial.
2. Overwhelming sorrow. When my heart is overwhelmed. Moll: In the covering of my heart. The idea is that his heart was enveloped with trouble. Anxiety and grief wrapped his soul as a garment. Terribly bitter and painful were the experiences of the Psalmist at this time. Our souls, too, have known the bitterness and desolation of great sorrows and severe trials. Like David, there are times when we are in anguish because of the feeling of absence from God, and the rebellion of our own children, and the ingratitude and treachery of those we esteemed our friends, &c.
II. A fervent prayer. Hear my cry, O God, &c.
1. The object of the prayer. The Psalmist seeks Divine audience. Hear my cry, O God. And Divine consideration. Attend unto my prayer. But the chief object of his prayer was Divine protection. Lead me to the rock that is higher than L More correctly: Lead me to a rock that is too high for me; i.e., a rock so high that he could not ascend it by his own power, and which his enemies would not be able to ascend. His own resources were inadequate to secure his safety; so he seeks the protection of God. The high rock is a frequent figure for security. He who stands upon it is far above the reach of his enemies. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the true Rock for human souls.
2. The self-distrust involved in this prayer. Lead me is the cry of the man who feels incompetent to direct his own steps, or choose his own path. To a rock that is too high for me, indicates a sense of insufficiency and the abandonment of self-dependence. If we are to be secure and blessed, we must be led to ONE who is far above us in wisdom, power, &c.
3. The personality of this prayer. Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer, &c. Though all men pray, says Dr. Parker, yet each man has his own prayer. The heart has its own way of telling its own tales, and cannot be satisfied with paraphrase or generalisation. It must tell all its sins, and set forth in order its troubles, its plagues, and its high desires; with brokenness of speech, which is often the most perfect of eloquence, it must recite the number of its failures, and tell of all its groping and stumbling along the path of life. No man will it accept as a hired advocate; no voice could do it justice; it must utter my cry and my prayer, and where it cannot find words it will heave the sigh or the groan which asks God to be His own interpreter. We may have great helps in prayer, the spirit may accept the choicely wise and tender words of other men; yet there is a point at which the heart breaks away to hold secret intercourse with the Father and Saviour of men.
This is indeed a fervent prayera pathetic, urgent, earnest cry of the human heart to God.
III. A cheering recollection. Thou hast been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. In former times God had been to the Psalmist a sure refuge, had preserved him safely amid many and great dangers, &c. To the thoughtful and devout heart life abounds with memorials of the Divine goodness and faithfulness. It is inexpressibly important to keep the mind up to a full realisation of all that God has done in ones personal history. When a mans own history goes for nothing with him, he may be regarded as having sunk below the level of a man; but if he will watch how God has developed his life, how wondrously He has turned it, how gently He has withdrawn it into shelter when the storm was coming, how graciously He has placed it in the strong tower when sounds of war shook the air, he will be moved from thankfulness to eloquence, and will say to those who doubtfully look onIn God is my salvation and my glory; &c. Recollections such as this of Davids should be cherished; because
1. They impress us with our obligations to God.
2. They inspire us with hope in time of trial, and courage in time of danger.
IV. An exemplary resolution. I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever; &c. The Psalmists recollection of past mercies inspired him with confidence in his present dangers. Few of us would be doubtful of the future if we would make a right use of the past. Experience is the nurse of faith. Trusting in God, the Psalmist looks forward to a life of
1. Perpetual worship. I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever. He has a firm assurance that he will be restored to his home and to the public worship of God. It may be, perhaps, that he looked forward to a home in heaven with God for ever. A life of worship is ennobling and blessed.
2. Hearty confidence. I will trust in the covert of Thy wings. A very tender and assuring figure, suggestive of affection, security, rest. Such was the full and hearty trust of the Psalmist in God.
CONCLUSION.Let us aspire and strive after a life of confidence and worship. Such a life will raise us above the dread of dangers, will bring to us rest and comfort in the midst of sore trials, and will lead us to the tabernacle of God as our eternal home.
THE SHELTERING ROCK
(Psa. 61:2.)
I. The season referred to. When my heart is overwhelmed. There are seasons in which the soul of the Christian is overwhelmed:
1. From a sense of the Divine claims on our obedience (Deu. 6:5; Mat. 22:37).
2. From the pressure of heavy trials (Psa. 55:12-14).
3. From the keenness of temptation. The very best of men are subject to temptation. Moses and David, Daniel and Job. Yea, Christ Himself.
4. From the anticipations of future evils.
II. Whither the Psalmist desires to be led. To the rock that is higher than I. The rock gives the idea
1. Of strength (Psa. 62:2; Psa. 62:6; Psa. 62:8).
2. Durability. I am the Lord, I change not. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.
III. The grounds of the Psalmists plea. From the ends of the earth, &c.
1. This prayer is prompted by a consciousness of need.
2. In this prayer we have the true source of ability addressed.
3. In this prayer we see the encouragement he derives from past experience. For Thou hast been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.GEO. STOCKDALE, in The Pulpit Analyst.
THE CONFIDENCE OF A TROUBLED HEART
(Psa. 61:5-8.)
We have here
I. Confidence of safety and stability in God. Thou wilt prolong the kings life; his years as many generations. He shall abide before God for ever. These expressions of confidence are variously interpreted. They are interpreted of () David himselfthat God would deliver him out of the danger in which he was placed, would grant him long life, and restore him to the throne and the tabernacle without danger of being driven into exile again. () Of the dynasty of David. Hengstenberg: David speaks designedly of the days of the king instead of his own days for the purpose of showing that he considered the promise of eternal dominion as relating not to himself personally, but to his familythe royal family of David. () Of the Messiah. David, realising that he is the anointed of the Lord, does not always distinguish between himself and the Messianic dynasty, so that the latter thought fills up as it were the background of his consciousness.
We certainly have here an expression of his assurance of his own safety and stability. His occupancy of the throne was imperilled. Absalom and the rebel army sought to take even his life. But he was confident that God would preserve his life, and restore him to his throne. He shall abide before God for ever, may signify more than a constant abode at Jerusalem in the enjoyment of the ordinances of worship. Barnes: His restoration to his home, to his throne, and to the privileges of the sanctuary, he may have regarded as an emblem of his ultimate reception into a peaceful heaven, and his mind may have glanced rapidly from the one to the other. On earth, after his restoration, he would have no fear that he would be banished again; in heaven, of which such a restoration might be regarded as an emblem, there would be no change, no exile.
Notwithstanding the subtlety and malice and power of his enemies, the spiritual interests of the godly man are perfectly secured by Divine grace (Joh. 10:28-29; Rom. 8:31-39; 2Ti. 1:12). Every faithful disciple of the Lord Jesus may through Him triumph in the assurance of a crown of glory that fadeth not away, and of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, &c.
II. Confidence arising out of past experiences. Thou, O God, hast heard my vows; Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear Thy name.
1. David had proved the efficacy of prayer. His vows included petitions. They were prayers accompanied with solemn promises. Prayer was not a mere theory or form with David, not a spiritual gymnastic either. He knew its reality and power and preciousness by experience.
2. He had received the heritage of the godly. Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear Thy name. Perowne: Primarily this would be the land of Canaan, and then it would include all blessings, temporal and spiritual, which were in fact implied and comprised in the possession of the land. Glorious is the heritage of those who fear God now (Rom. 8:16-17). It is clear, from both the experience of the Psalmist and the statement of the apostle, that the heritage of the godly may include severe trials. It is a point of great practical importance.
These past experiences were an encouragement to the Psalmist to trust God in his present dangers and trials. History is rightly used when it becomes the guide of hope. Yesterday enriches to-day. All the historic triumphs of the Divine arm stimulate us in the present battle. What God has been and done is an earnest of what He will yet be and do. Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.
III. Confidence expressing itself in prayer. Oh, prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him.
1. He looks for preservation to God as the covenant God. Mercy and truth, loving-kindness and faithfulness, are the attributes which the Psalmist is accustomed to mention when he looks to God as a Being in covenant relations with His people. In His mercy God has entered into gracious engagements with His people; and in His truth He will fulfil those engagements.
2. His confidence does not supersede, but stimulate prayer. Presumption may lead to neglect of prayer; but faith quickens it. The attitude of true confidence is that of the bent knee and the uplifted eye.
IV. Confidence issuing in constant praise. So will I sing praise unto Thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows. As the result of his trial and prayer and assurance the Psalmist looked forward to
1. The ascription of praise to God. His praising God was itself the performance of his vows. He felt and acknowledged the binding force of the vows which he had made to God. And their fulfilment he regarded not as a duty merely, but as a joyous privilege.
2. The ascription of praise to God constantly. Praise for ever, daily perform my vows. Praise to God should not be an occasional exercise, but a permanent element in the spirit of our entire life. Gratitude, reverence, and trust should characterise us at all times and under all circumstances.
CONCLUSION.In the trials of life let the Psalmist, in this-exercise of strong and devout confidence in God in the time of his great trial, be to us both an example and an encouragement. Be encouraged to exercise trust in God, and imitate the character of this trust.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 61
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
The Psalmist, in Banishment, Prays for Restoration.
ANALYSIS
Stanza I., Psa. 61:1-4, Prayer for Restoration based on Past Mercies. Stanza II., Psa. 61:5-8, Prayer for Long Life, grounded on Public Blessings, and closing with a Promise of Perpetual Praise.
(Lm.) By David.
1
Do hear O God my piercing[660] cry,
[660] PlaintiveDel.; ringingDr.
oh attend unto my prayer:
2
From the end of the land unto thee will I cry when my heart fainteth,
into a rock too high for me (to climb) shalt thou lead me.
3
For thou hast been a refuge for me,
a tower of strength from the face of the foe.
4
I would fain be a guest in thy tent to the ages,
I would take refuge in the hiding-place of thy wings.
5
For thou O God hast hearkened to my vows,
thou hast given a possession to the reverers of thy name.
6
Days unto the days of a king shalt thou add,
his years as of generation after generation:
7
He shall be enthroned to the ages before God,
Kindness and Truth appoint thou to preserve him.
8
Thus will I make melody of thy name to futurity,
that I may pay my vows day by day.
(Lm.) To the Chief Musician.
(CMm.) For Jeduthun.
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 61
O God, listen to me! Hear my prayer!
2 For whatever I am, though faraway at the ends of the earth, I will cry to You for help. When my heart is faint and overwhelmed, lead me to the mighty, towering Rock of safety.
3 For You are my refuge, a high tower where my enemies can never reach me.
4 I shall live forever in Your tabernacle; oh, to be safe beneath the shelter of Your wings.
5 For You have heard my vows, O God, to praise[661] You every day, and You have given me the blessings You reserve for those who reverence Your name.
[661] Implied from Psa. 61:8.
6 You will give me[662] added years of life, as rich and full as those of many generations, all packed into one!
[662] Literally, to the days of the king.
7 And I shall live before the Lord forever. Oh, send your lovingkindness and truth to guard and watch over me,
8 And I will praise Your name continually, fulfilling my vow of praising You each day.
EXPOSITION
No better origin in Davids life for this sweet little psalm need be sought, than when the psalmist was at Mahanaim; Absaloms rebellion having been crushed, and the King waiting to return to Jerusalem. It is only a snatch of song, revealing but a glimpse into the experiences of the Monarch; but it is striking, and well worthy, not only of preservation, but of occasional use in the liturgy of the Temple.
Far from home, far from the services of the Sacred Tent, the petitioner cries out to be permitted to return. He is occasionally depressed, but finds solace in his harp, whereon he formulates his plea. He recalls past mercies, and the memory of them emboldens his present requests. To be again Jehovahs guest and to realize the sense of nestling under His protection, is his foremost wish.
Reverting to the past, he remembers that those past mercies had been granted in answer to vows previously made; and, in particular, that to his brethren as well as to himself, the Sanctuary had been granted as a priceless possession. Continued life then comes into the field of his desire; and, at this point, he is carried away in what we may describe as a Messianic Ecstasy; asking for such a prolonged continuance of days as far transcended ordinary human existence. What mortal, though crowned, could reasonably expect to live generation after generation? to be enthroned age-abiding before God? It may be that, as some interpret, David was thinking rather of his dynasty (according to 2 Samuel 7) than of his own person. But the mind soon tires of the thought of a mere dynasty abiding, while the members who in succession sustain it, are all, one after the other, swept away by death. At all events it is a welcome and instructive relief to find the ancient Targum-writing Rabbis discovering, in the prospect of the dynasty, the brighter prospect of a Final Holder of dynastic promisesthe Messiah? Thus on Psa. 61:8 : Very pathetic is the paraphrase of the Targum (=interpretation or translation). So will I pay my vows in the day of the redemption of Israel, even in the day when King Messiah is anointed to reign Kp.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
Read II Samuel, chapter eighteen and discuss this psalm with the background of Davids exile in Mahanaim.
2.
Davids faithconfidencelove for God is beautifully expressed in this psalm. To David God is: (1) A rock that is higher than I; (2) A refuge for me; (3) A strong tower; (4) a refuge in the covert of thy wings; (5) I shall dwell in Thy tent. Discuss these figures as they relate to us.
3.
There is a prophecy in verses six through eightwhat is it?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Heading.
‘For the Chief Musician, on a stringed instrument. A Psalm of David.’
This Psalm is also dedicated to the Chief Musician and is to be accompanied by a stringed instrument. It is a Psalm of David. If David, rather than a member of the Davidic house, was its author it was quite possibly written during his period of exile east of Jordan after fleeing from Absalom (2Sa 15:13 ff.). In later days, after the end of the monarchy and the Exile, it began to be given a Messianic interpretation as witnessed by the Targums.
Separated From The Visible Means of Worshipping God David Seeks His Refuge In The God Of The Tabernacle In His Invisible Tabernacle ( Psa 61:1-4 ).
Crying out to God from wherever he is, (many see it as in the wilderness of Mahanaim, east of Jordan, where he was hiding from Absalom), David declares his trust in God as his Rock, his Refuge, his Fortress and his Tabernacle. When the earthly Tabernacle is no longer available to him, he knows that he can approach God in His heavenly Tabernacle, where he can take refuge under the shadow of His wings.
Psa 61:1-2
‘Hear my cry, O God,
Attend to my prayer.’
‘From the end of the earth will I call to you,
When my heart is overwhelmed,
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.’
David cries to God to hear his prayer as he sees himself as at ‘the end of the earth (or ‘the land’)’, that is as being as far from the Tabernacle where he would usually pray as he could be, for he knows that wherever he is, God is there. And his cry is that when his heart is overwhelmed God will lead him to the Rock that is higher than he is, in other words to God Himself as his Rock. For on that Rock he knows that he will be totally secure. No one knew better than David, from his life of refuge in the wilderness as he hid from Saul, the security provided by rocks on high mountains.
Psa 61:3
‘For you have been a refuge for me,
A strong tower from the enemy.’
He bases his appeal on what God has proved to be to him in the past. God has been his Refuge and his Fortress from the enemy. Notice the continuing figurative descriptions. This suggests that the descriptions which follow are also figurative. His point is that he has continually looked to God to be his Protector, and that God has never failed. He has been to him like a Refuge and a Fortress, somewhere where he can be secure. That was why he had survived all his trials. In the words of Pro 18:10. ‘The name of YHWH is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and are safe.’
Psa 61:4
‘I will dwell (sojourn) in your tabernacle for ever,
I will take refuge in the covert of your wings. [Selah.
In view of the fact that the Rock, the Refuge and the Fortress have all figuratively described his security in God’s hands there seems little reason for not seeing this Tabernacle as being figurative as well. Man may have cut him off from the earthly Tabernacle, but, (utilising in our interpretation the words of the later writer of the letter to the Hebrews), he considers that he has ‘a Tabernacle not made with hands eternal in the heavens’. In that Tabernacle he knows that he can dwell with God for ever, and take refuge under the shelter of His wings. The latter picture is of young birds finding shelter under the wings of their mother. We too, as Christians, can enter into that heavenly Tabernacle through the blood of Jesus (Heb 10:19).
Some, however, see it as indicating his desire to once again be able to enter the earthly Tabernacle, and his confidence that one day he will do so (compare Psa 65:4 which may be seen as supporting this). Either way it is in God Himself that he will find security, not the Tabernacle. ‘Selah.’ Once again the music draws attention to these words.
‘I will sojourn in your Tabernacle.’ He is not there as its owner with full rights, but ever as a sojourner, as God’s guest, sojourning there and confident that God will extend to him all the hospitality expected from a host by his guest.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psalms 61
Theme – Psalms 61 is about the divine protection of God. Therefore, the names of God used in this Psalm are descriptive of this attribute of God’s divine nature.
Psa 61:2, “From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I .”
Psa 61:3, “For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.”
Psa 61:4, “I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings . Selah.”
Psa 61:4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
Psa 61:4
Exo 26:1, “Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
A Confident Prayer for Divine Aid.
v. 1. Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer, v. 2. From the end of the earth, v. 3. For Thou hast been a Shelter for me, v. 4. I will abide in Thy Tabernacle, v. 5. For Thou, O God, hast heard my vows, v. 6. Thou wilt prolong the king’s life, v. 7. He shall abide before God forever, v. 8. So will I sing praise unto Thy name forever,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Cheth. True Piety the Calling of the Believers.
v. 57. Thou art my Portion, O Lord; I have said that I would keep Thy words. v. 58. I entreated Thy favor, v. 59. I thought on my ways, v. 60. I made haste, v. 61. The bands of the wicked have robbed me, v. 62. At midnight, v. 63. I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, v. 64. The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
This short psalm is one of much beauty, and was sung daily at Matins in the earliest ages of the Church. It is, however, somewhat obscure, especially in its later portion, where a king is spoken of (Psa 61:6), who may be David, or may represent David’s house, or may be the Messiah, the “King” of Psa 2:6. The Davidical authorship, asserted in the “title,” is probable, though some contend for a captive exile of a later date. The psalm consists of an earnest prayer (Psa 2:1, Psa 2:2), followed by expressions of trust and confidence (Psa 2:3-7), and by a burst of praise in conclusion (Psa 2:8). Metrically, it consists of two strophes of four verses each, separated by the pause mark, “Selah.”
Psa 61:1
Hear my cry, O God (see the comment on Psa 17:1). The word rinnah expresses a shrill, piercing cry, but one which may be of joy or of lamentation. Attend unto my prayer; i.e. “hear and answer it.”
Psa 61:2
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee. Eastern hyperbole may call the Trans-Jordanic territory “the end of the earth,” but certainly the expression would be more natural in the mouth of an exile in Assyria, Media, or Babylon. When my heart is overwhelmed; or, “when my heart fainteth” (comp. Psa 107:5). Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; rather, that is too high for methat I cannot reach unaided. Some regard the “rock” as Mount Zion; but others, more reasonably, explain it as “God himself” (see Psa 62:2, Psa 62:6, Psa 62:7). “Let thy grace lead me to thee” (Kay).
Psa 61:3
For thou hast been a Shelter for me. In the past thou hast often been my “Shelter” or my “Refuge” (comp. Psa 18:2; Psa 44:7, Psa 44:11; Psa 48:3, etc.); be so once more. And a strong Tower. A migdala fortress, like the great fortress of the south (Exo 14:2)the Magdolus of Herodotus (2.149). From the enemy. If the psalm is David’s, “the enemy” is probably Absalom.
Psa 61:4
I will abide in thy tabernacle forever. As the psalmist is in exile, at “the end of the earth” (Psa 61:2), the literal “tabernacle” cannot be intended. A spiritual abiding in the heavenly dwelling, whereof the tabernacle was a type, must be meant (comp. Psa 18:11). I will trust in the covert of thy wings (comp. Psa 17:8; Psa 36:7; Psa 57:1; Psa 63:7; Psa 91:4). The origin of the metaphor is hardly to be sought in the outspread wings of the cherubim on the mercy seat; rather in the brooding wings of birds protecting and defending their young (Deu 32:11; Mat 23:37).
Psa 61:5
For thou, O God, hast heard my vows. Thou hast heard me so often in the past, thou hast granted so many of my prayers, accepted so many of my vows, that I am emboldened to make further requests. Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy Name. All the blessed inheritance of thy saints thou hast made mine, and, included in it, boldness to approach the throne of grace in full assurance of faith, and to present to thee my petitions.
Psa 61:6
Thou wilt prolong the king’s life. The question arisesWhat king? Some answer that David prays for the extension of his own life; or, if not exactly of his own life, then for the prolongation of his dynasty upon the throne (Hengstenberg); others suggest that a distant exile, perhaps in Assyria, prays for the life of the reigning King of Judah, Josiah probably; but the Messianic interpretation is perhaps the best. The writer, lifted up above himself and above sublunary things, abiding, as he does, in the spiritual tabernacle under the shelter of God’s wings (Psa 61:4), prays for long continuance of days for the true King, the ideal King, Messiah, of whom David and his house are types: “Mayest thou add days to the days of the King,” and make his years as many generations; or, as generation and generation; i.e. eternally continuous.
Psa 61:7
He shall abide before God forever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him; literally, appoint that mercy and truth may preserve him. Let “mercy and truth,” the highest of thy attributes, preserve him, and keep him in life forever.
Psa 61:8
So will I sing praise unto thy Name forever. This, if thou doest, then I, for my part, so long as I have my being, will praise thy Name, thus performing day by day what I have vowed. The writer’s continuance in life, and retention of consciousness, though not actually asserted, is implied.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH
Psa 61:1-8
The power of prayer in trouble.
“My cry.” Every one has his own needs. Think how it is this day. In how many lands, by what various voices, with what manifold emotions, the cries of men are uttered! What sighs of pain, what plaints of desire, what passionate prayers for help, go up to heaven! Who but God could “attend” to them all? Moses groaned under “the burden of all the people” (Num 11:11). Paul was oppressed with “the care of all the Churches” (2Co 11:28). But increase the “burden,” and multiply the “cares” ten thousand times, and what is it all compared with what falls upon God? What mind but the eternal mind of God could attend to all? What love but the infinite and unchanging love of God would not grow weary by the continual comings and the countless importunities of such multitudes of suppliants? But God bends his ear to all. Not one, not the humblest or the poorest, is neglected. Wherever we are, however great and sore may be our troubles, though weak and sinful and unworthy of the least of God’s mercies, yet if we call upon him he will hear us; if we commit our cause to him, he will bring us deliverance. The psalm illustrates the power of prayer in trouble.
I. PRAYER SPRINGING FROM FAITH IN GOD. Like an exile, we may be far off from friends, solitary and sad. But God is always near. Though all help from man should fail, God is with us to deliver us. The enemy may be coming in like a flood. There may seem to be no way to escape. But God will, when we cry to him, stretch forth his mighty arm from above, and lead us to “the Rock” where we shall find safety and peace.
II. PRAYER SUSTAINED BY THE MEMORY OF PAST MERCIES. (Psa 61:3-5.) We trust our friends. The remembrance of their kindness in the past emboldens us to confide in them for the future. How much more should we trust in God! “Thou hast been a Shelter for me” is a strong plea. Our past life is not lost. It is gone, but it has left its lessons and its memories. Looking back, we can see the hand of God. Our memories may be turned to hopes. Our remembrance of God’s gracious dealings may be converted into inspiration and guidance for the future.
III. PRAYER RISING TO THE HEIGHTS OF ASSURANCE. (Psa 61:6, Psa 61:7.) When we are sincere in our prayers, we feel that we have not only pledged ourselves to God, but that God has pledged himself to us. He will not only give us “the heritage” of his people, but the “life” that will enable us to enjoy it. His white-robed angels of “mercy and truth” will go with us and preserve us, and we shall “abide before God forever.”
IV. PRAYER CULMINATING IN JOYFUL CONSECRATION TO GOD. (Psa 61:8.) Prayer ends in praise. True praise is not in words only, but in the free and joyous devotion of cur lives. Religion will be a daily duty. Our service here will be a preparation for our service hereafterforever and ever.W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 61:1-4
A cry from the wilderness.
I. THE HEART BECOMES “FAINT” WHEN IT IS CONSCIOUS OF BEING FAR FROM GOD. (Psa 61:1.)
II. WHEN THUS OVERWHELMED (OR FAINT), OUR DIFFICULTIES ARE TOO GREAT FOR US. (Psa 61:2.)
III. WE ARE THEN DRIVEN FOR HELP TO GOD, WHO ALONE CAN ENABLE US TO SURMOUNT THEM. “Land me upon the rock that is too high for me.”
IV. PAST EXPERIENCE WARRANTS US TO EXPECT THE INTERPOSITION OF GOD. (Psa 61:3.)
V. TO DWELL NEAR GOD ALWAYS AND CONSCIOUSLY IS THE GREATEST BLESSEDNESS. (Psa 61:4.)S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 61.
David fleeth to God upon his former experience: he voweth perpetual service unto him, because of his promises.
To the chief musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David.
Title. lamnatseach al neginath.] The occasion of this psalm is very doubtful. Mudge thinks that it was composed upon the same occasion with the former. In which view the two first verses, says he, are a prayer to God, that he would conduct him safe in his attempt upon the city, which was otherwise too strong for him; probably, seated on an almost impregnable rock. In the three next he acknowledges the divine protection in bringing him back safe into his country. The sixth and seventh are spoken by the priests, or a chorus of priests, praying for long life to the king. In the last, the king concludes with saying, that he would every day thus pay his vows, by visiting God’s temple and praising his name.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 61
To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David
1Hear my cry, O God;
Attend unto my prayer.
2From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed:
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
3For thou hast been a shelter for me,
And a strong tower from the enemy.
4I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever:
I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
5For thou, O God, hast heard my vows:
Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.
6Thou wilt prolong the kings life:
And his years as many generations.
7He shall abide before God for ever:
O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him.
8So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever,
That I may daily perform my vows.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its Contents and CompositionThe Psalmist calls from afar for deliverance to God (Psa 61:1-2), who has previously afforded it to him (Psa 61:3), and he prays for shelter and protection in Gods tent (Psa 61:4), on the ground of previous special tokens of grace (Psa 61:5). Upon this is based the prayer for special blessings for the king (Psa 61:6-7), for which the Psalmist will offer without cessation the thanksgiving he has vowed (Psa 61:8). Although the king is referred o in the third person, this does not necessarily show that he and the Psalmist are two different persons. The objection that such a petition in he mouth of the speaker would be immodest, amounts to nothing, when we consider that the contents of the prayer refer to the eternal royal position before Gods face and the worthy fulfilment of this position as well as enduring establishment in it by Divine blessing. The king thus praying gives his petition naturally and involuntarily a more objective form, and if we hold fast to its composition by David, and accordingly refer Psa 61:5 to the special promise, 2 Samuel 7, it has likewise a prophetic character. It is unnecessary, therefore, to put this verse into the mouth of a chorus (Paulus), which Psa 61:2 would not allow, or to understand this of the dynasty of David (Hengstenberg), or the rule of the Messiah (many of the older interpreters after the Chald.), which would be against the wording and context. It thus resembles Psalms 21 Since now the expression: to be a guest in the tent of God, is entirely in Davids style (Psalms 15), and the end of the earth can be satisfactorily explained, there is no reason to give up the statement of the title, and think of a prophet under King Josiah and his successors at the time of the exile at Babylon (Ewald), or of a priest in a Jewish colony living among the heathen in the time of the Seleucid (Hitzig), or a poet living in a distant land, perhaps in banishment (Hupfeld), or indeed of King Cyrus (Bttcher).
Str. I. Psa 61:2. From the end of the earth.This is an expression for the greatest distance from the dwelling of God, as the place of protection, help and salvation, not indeed mathematically, but in accordance with the feelings, but yet on a geographical foundation in accordance with the ideas of the Israelites, not in contrast to heaven and its centre=out from the earth (Luther), or out of the uttermost depths of the earth (Clauss), but in contrast to Zion as the middle of the earth (Psa 74:12; Eze 5:5), and in connection with the usage of the language, in accordance with which the land to the east of the Jordan did not belong to the land of Canaan in the strictest sense (Num 32:29 sq.), and a foreign land included generally the idea of banishment from the face of God (Psalms 42). We have therefore properly to think of the abode of David in the district of Gilead at the time of his flight before Absalom, and the translation: from the end of the land (Geier, et al ), is to be rejected.In the covering of my heart.[This word is used of covering with a garment, of clothing the valleys with corn, Ps. 65:14, etc. Thus by a natural metaphor of clothing the mind or soul, covering it over, enveloping it, clouding it with care, anxiety, trouble, Psa 102:1; Isa 57:16.Upon a rock, too high for me.A rock which was inaccessible to him by his own power, and hence still more inaccessible to his enemies. The high rock is a usual figure of security, comp. Psa 27:5.
Psa 61:3. A strong tower before the face of the enemy.Comp. Jdg 9:51; Pro 18:10. This is parallel with the high rock, both of which afford a sure refuge before the enemy. They are alike inaccessible to him.C. A. B.]
[Str. II. Psa 61:4. Let me be a guest.Compare Psa 15:1; Psa 27:4.In Thy tent.Perowne: The expression is figurative, no doubt, but would hardly have been employed after the Temple was built, and hence it is almost certain that the Psalm belongs to the time of David.ForeverHupfeld: The plural is not used with reference to the double eternity of this and the future life, as the Rabbins, but instead of the singular , usually . The reference is entirely personal.Let me find refuge in the shelter of Thy wings.Comp. Psa 17:8; Psa 57:1. Perowne thinks the reference here is evidently to the outstretched wings of the cherubim, but it is better to think of the more simple figure of the hen, or eagle, as in the other passages.
Psa 61:5. The possession of those that fear Thy name.Perowne: Primarily this would be the land of Canaan, and then it would include all blessings, temporal and spiritual, which were in fact implied and comprised in the possession of the land.C. A. B.]
[Str. III. Psa 61:6-7. Add days to the days of the king! (May) his years (be) as generation and generation. May he sit (enthroned) before Gods face, appoint grace and truth that they may guard him.The king David here prays that he as the anointed of Jehovah may have a long life, seeing one generation after another, that he may sit on his throne enjoying the sunshine of Gods countenance, and that Gods grace and truth may be the appointed guards, to stand at the side of his throne, to protect him from his enemies and rebellious subjects. David, realizing that he is the anointed of the Lord, does not always distinguish between himself and the Messianic dynasty, so that the latter thought fills up as it were the background of his consciousness. The translation of the A. V., Perowne, Alexander, et al. of the verbs as futures of confident expectation, is not so good, The translation given above is essentially that of Hupfeld and Moll.C. A. B.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It is worse to be separated from the house of God than it is to be far from home. When the pious experience both painfully, they long above all in hope of return to the former. But where ever we may be on earth, we can call upon God and implore in prayer, with the assurance of faith, the consolation of the Divine promises and the assistance of Divine help in order to a deliverance unattainable by our own power.
2. The faith of an afflicted man finds great strength in looking at previous exhibitions of Divine help in words and deeds, and arises on this foundation not unfrequently to the boldest hopes of faith, especially to the desire for a communion with God, which reaches from time into eternity, and to the prayer for the blessings necessary thereto. For the possession of the promised land secured to those who fear God and allotted to them, forms the foundation, the sweet pledge, the symbolical type of the inheritance involved in it.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Fresh hopes spring forth from experiences of grace, and when prayer is heard anew, new vows are entwined with the thanksgivings to which we have been accustomed of old.A long life is a blessing only when grace and truth are its guardians.Communion with God is best strengthened by prefering to be a guest in the house of God.Our welfare is best provided for when we are provided with the good things of the house of God.God sees us and hears us everywhere, but He prefers to see us in His house and in His ways.Children of God need to pray likewise for temporal welfare and earthly good things, but their special desire is for communion with their God.Communion with God is spiritually attained through grace and faith in the heart; it presents itself as intercourse with God in prayer and the service of God; it is accomplished as an eternal sitting on a throne before Gods face with submission to Gods grace and truthHe who would gain abiding blessings, must not only flee to Gods protection, but must keep himself at the house of God and allow himself to be led in his calling by Gods grace and truth.It is likewise the kings honor and surest gain to show himself to be a servant of God.
Starke: God is to us all things and will be all by faith.God is more inclined to hear our prayers than we are to send them up to Him.The reward which the God-fearing are to receive, is not based on their own merits, but Gods gracious promises.
Frisch: To lift up holy hands is everywhere good and nowhere fruitless.Franke: So long as we have an earthly mind, we have a heart unfaithful to God.Arndt: We are so much indebted to God that we should pay something daily.Tholuck The inheritance of those who fear God is His rich grace.Taube: Truly it is equally far from earth to heaven in all places, and God is everywhere near those who call upon Him.
[Matt. Henry: That which separates us from our other comforts, should drive us so much nearer to God, the fountain of all comfort.Weeping must quicken praying, and not deaden it.We need not desire to be better secured than under the protection of Gods mercy and truth.Spurgeon: Tribulation brings us to God, and brings God to us. Faiths greatest triumphs are achieved in her heaviest trials.How infinitely higher than we are is the salvation of God We are low and grovelling, but it towers like some tall cliff far above us.Experience is the nurse of faith. From the past we gather arguments for present confidence.He who communes with God is always at home.There should be a parallel between our supplications and our thanksgivings. We ought not to leap in prayer, and limp in praise.C. A. B.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Psalm is but short, though sweet. The heart is in heaviness in the opening of it, but finds comfort before it closeth. In using it with reference to Christ, it promiseth rich consolation.
To the chief musician upon Niginah, A Psalm of David.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Whither shall a soul in trouble go, but to the Lord? or to whom shall a soul cry, but to him that is able to save? It is blessed to be sometimes driven to straits, that we may know where our resources are alone to be found. The Reader will do well to observe the expression, from the end of the earth; meaning that no place is so remote, no distance so great, but what may find access to the mercy-seat of a God in Christ. And the sweetest and most encouraging of all thoughts is, that the Lamb is in the midst of the throne, open alike in every direction, and accessible to every comer. Rev 7:17 . But what a blessed view is here given of Christ as the Rock. This is plain from what the Holy Ghost instructed the apostle to tell the church, 1Co 10:3-4 . Reader, do not overlook this in any overwhelmings you may meet with. There can be no safety for a poor buffetted, wave-beaten, and weather-beaten soul, until he is standing upon the Rock Christ Jesus. And do not overlook that blessed lesson also taught in this divine scripture; the poor overwhelmed sinner must be led there, for of himself he can never get there. Gracious God and Father, do thou put me in the clefts of this rock, that Jesus may say to me, O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs. Exo 33:22 ; Son 2:14 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 61
As it is with many other Psalms so it is with this. If we are to find in the Bible narratives a situation suitable for it we may allow ourselves to conjecture that it was written by David after Absalom’s defeat, and before David’s return to Jerusalem. The Psalm expresses the feelings of one who is a king in circumstances of great sorrow, who has experienced deliverance, and prays with confident expectation for restoration and long life. It falls into two divisions, each expressing two main thoughts; the second taking up the note with which the first closed. We have in the first anguish of heart leading to prayer, then recollection, from which springs hope. In the second we have hope based on recollection, and faith issuing in thanksgiving.
I. There are two elements in the Psalmist’s anguish. ‘My heart is overwhelmed,’ he says. It faints within him. There is no strength or spirit left in him. The second element is move special to himself. He felt himself at the end of the earth, an exile from God’s presence. He called to God as across a great distance. There are times when we too feel far from Him. The very intensity of our need of God may obscure from us the fact of His nearness.
II. In the midst of trouble the Psalmist remembers experiences that give him ground for hope. We see how in his deliverance David was quick to perceive the beginnings of the fulfilment of his prayers; that from being a dispossessed and exiled king he might be restored to his kingdom and throne. God’s deeds of deliverance are promises and earnests. To the insight and foresight of faith they mean more than they are.
III. Finally the Psalmist rises into confidence for the future. He expects that his life will be prolonged and his throne established in the presence and favour of God. If we noted God’s deliverances, if we daily called to mind and made mention of His goodness, what resources of hope we should have for darker times.
P. G. Maclagan, The Gospel View of Things, p. 84.
References. LXI. 2. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 268. J. C. M. Bellew, Christ in Life; Life in Christ, p. 120. J. Bolton, Selected Sermons (2nd Series), p. 46. LXI. 3. Bishop Woodford, Sermons on Subjects from the Old Testament, p. 129. LXI. 7. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 43. LXI. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 65. LXII. 1, 5. A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 151. LXII. 8. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 247. LXII. International Critical Commentary, vol. ii. p. 68.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Worship and Confidence
Psa 61
‘Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer” ( Psa 61:1 ).
The Book of Psalms illustrates in a most varied and striking manner the religious side of human life. Setting aside for the moment all theories of inspiration, and indeed ignoring inspiration altogether, we have a book full of the most passionate and reverent utterances addressed to a Being supposed to be worthy of all homage and to be the fountain of all blessing. This we have simply as a matter of fact, and no history of the human mind would be complete which omitted the most explicit notice of this circumstance. It will be observed, too, that the Psalmists and suppliants seldom allow the slightest doubt to mar the purity and wholeness of their worship; God is present, close at hand, brighter than light, clothed with power, girded with majesty! Sometimes there is familiarity, as of friend talking with friend; sometimes there is a cry of pain, as if God had turned away his face; sometimes a moan of contrition, as if penitence were rending the heart; sometimes a shout of triumph, as if the observer had caught the King’s smile. Yet, throughout the whole, all is intensely religious. In passing from page to page of this book we pass as it were through the aisles of a temple, or through solemn cloisters where men are engaged in prayer.
Let us dwell upon this side of the book as affording the most impressive evidence of the intense Religiousness of the human heart; and in doing so we feel that there is no chasm between the ancient Psalmists and ourselves. Their words, stripped of all local references, might have been our own; they express the common passions of the heart; they set to music the most elevated feelings of the world. The very first words of this psalm have often been wrung from our own spirits; in the troubled night, in the doubtful day, in affliction, in disappointment, and sometimes even in joy, we too have said, “Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.” Any other words would not have been equal to the feeling of the moment; they would have been cold, narrow, barren, unworthy of the soul’s paroxysm or ecstasy. In the highest spiritual moods we realise our kinship with the whole world. We know all men when we kneel in worship; the Mohammedan is no longer a stranger to us, nor are men who use gestures and expressions which we cannot adopt. Centrally, we are one; the Great Interpreter, to whom all languages are but variations of one speech, knows what the heart is saying, and sees in worship what can be seen in no other exercise of the soul, sees the unity and moral identity of all men. In the first verse of this psalm it is not the Jew, but the man, that speaks. The same idea can be found in all languages. When David speaks thus, he speaks for the whole world.
There is no doubt the most intense Personality in the petition; it is my cry, it is my prayer. What then? Even when the man individualises himself most carefully, he does but mingle most familiarly with all other men. Picture the scene; see David separating himself from the companionship of his most trusted friends, seeking out the most obscure retirement, kneeling alone in some deeply shadowed forest or in the cleft of a far-off rock; yet the moment he says, “Hear my cry, O God,” he gives expression to the sigh of the universal heart. But we cannot be indifferent to the pathetic aspect of this petition. Though all men pray, yet each man has his own prayer. The heart has its own way of telling its own tale, and cannot be satisfied with paraphrase or generalisation. With minuteness which cuts it as a sharp instrument, the heart must tell all its sins, and set forth in order its troubles, its plagues, and its high desires; with brokenness of speech, which is often the most perfect of eloquence, it must recite the number of its failures, and tell of all its groping and stumbling along the path of life. No man will it accept as a hired advocate; no voice could do it justice; it must utter my cry, and my prayer, and where it cannot find words it will heave the sigh or the groan which asks God to be his own interpreter. We may have great helps in prayer, the spirit may accept the choicely wise and tender words of other men; yet there is a point at which the heart breaks away to hold secret intercourse with the Father and Saviour of men.
“From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I” ( Psa 61:2 ).
This is the voice of an exile, a man far from the city which he loves most; yet even at the extremity of the land he says he will cry unto God. Why not? God can give the exile a home! Wherever God reveals himself in loving pity and all the riches of his grace, the soul may take its rest, knowing that no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up thereon. David cried from the end of the land! We have cried from the same extremity. By processes too subtle for us to comprehend, God has often caused our misfortunes to become our blessings. While we stood at the centre our souls were unsteady; but when we were driven to the outside, far away to some bleak place where the cutting winds struck us, and the stranger made us a gazing-stock and a reproach, we turned towards the holy hill and desired to be led to the high rock. Who can say how much of our wealth we owe to our poverty? Who can tell how trouble has been the minister of God, sent to show us the way to great joy? David said that his heart was overwhelmed, what a strong expression! Great floods had broken upon it; strong tempests had poured their fury upon his spirit; night and day the storm had laid siege to his heart; for long weeks he had been unable to make himself heard through the roar of the assault, and when there was a lull in the wind, he said “my heart is overwhelmed.” Does sorrow estrange him from us, so that we cannot understand his speech? Is the word “overwhelmed” not in our vocabulary? We know few words better! We have often seen the ominous cloud gather; it has spread into a great blackness; a few drops have been suddenly lashed against the panes, and then with terrific violence the floods have come, shower on shower, river on river, wild winds whirling the seas with terrific force against our dwelling-place until our home was ruined, our pride broken down, and the last joy savagely engulfed. Oh, the roar; the cold, pitiless, hollow roar! There was a sound of mockery in it, and a sound of doom; it was a voice without speech, a desolation more desolate than death. No man of overwhelmed heart is a stranger to us. Tears talk all languages. David would be at home with us today!
In the midst of the Psalmist’s trouble there rises an aspiration, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” The self-helplessness expressed in this prayer moves our entire sympathy. “Lead me,” what a blind man who had wandered from the accustomed path would say; “lead me,” what a lame man would say who had fallen by reason of his great weakness; “lead me,” what a terrified man would say who had to pass along the edge of a bottomless abyss. It is in such extremities that men best know themselves. Before the floods they account themselves as gods, but afterwards they feel themselves to be but men. David wished to be led to the rock; he wished to stand firmly, to stand above the flood-line, to have rest after so great disquietude. Then there is a rock, is there, a rock higher than we? We have heard of Jesus Christ by this strange name; we have heard of him as the Rock of ages; we have heard of him as the Rock in the wilderness; we have heard of him as the Stone rejected of the builders but elected of God to the chief place. Truly, a man is driven by overwhelming floods to feel that he needs something higher than himself, and to feel that is to feel oneself on the way to heaven. “Higher than I,” more to be relied upon, nearer God, stronger than man, equal to all the exigencies of life! Man naturally likes strength, and is stirred into wonder, and often into ambition, by eminence; his natural condition is to be satisfied only by him who created it. Stop at yourself, and you become an idolater; ascend to God, and you become a true worshipper. To stop at yourself is to hide your head in the dust while the great universe is shining around you; to ascend to the High Rock is to catch the light and the inspiration of heaven. God of David, hear our prayer! Keep us from self-trust, which is self-worship, and lead us to the Rock!
The aspiration is succeeded by a recollection:
“For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy” ( Psa 61:3 ).
History is rightly used when it becomes the guide of hope. The days of a man’s life seem to be cut off from each other by the nights which intervene; but they are continuous when viewed from the altitude of divine providence. Yesterday enriches today. All the historic triumphs of the divine arm stimulate us in the present battle. We may say of God What thou hast been, thou wilt be; because thou hast inclined thine ear unto us, therefore will we call upon thee as long as we live. David was accustomed to turn memory into hope. We remember how the recollection of one victory transfigured him into Israel’s greatest hero, “The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and put of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” Few of us would be doubtful of the future if we would make a right use of the past. We may be very uncertain about to-morrow, but yesterday is a great fact; it is behind us, a monument of mercy, a witness of God’s integrity, the last page of God’s continual revelation; and if we read carefully what is written upon it, our spirits will rise with a great hope, we shall say each to his own soul, “Wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved.”
It is inexpressibly important to keep the mind up to a full realisation of all that God has done in one’s personal history. When a man’s own history goes for nothing with him, he may be regarded as having sunk below the level of a man; but if he will watch how God has developed his life, how wondrously he has turned it, how gently he has withdrawn it into “shelter” when the storm was coming, how graciously he has placed it in the “strong tower” when sounds of war shook the air, he will be moved from thankfulness to eloquence, and will say to those who doubtfully look on “In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.” And is not such a course in strict accordance with what may be termed the logic of the heart? Can any man who thus closely accompanies the unfolding of divine purposes in his life resist the inference that where so much has been done for him he should do something for God? The testimony would be more explicit if the reflection were more accurate; but we are all more or less exposed to the temptation of practical atheism, and we fall into it when we cease to associate God’s name with the “shelter” and the “strong tower” to which we owe the protection of our lives.
“I will abide in thy tabernacle: for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings” ( Psa 61:4 ).
How much we desire the tabernacle when we are excluded from its privileges! Some of us have been in foreign lands, where at least our form of worship was almost unknown; the Sabbath has returned, but its face has been unfamiliar, for it has come as if it were but a common day; there has been no friendly challenging to “go into the house of the Lord;” the influence of the world has been strong upon us, yet we have been conscious of a great want. In course of time this experience takes a definite turn; either we cease to care for Sabbatic ordinances and give ourselves up to the current of dissipation in which we have been caught, or the heart sickens for its wonted fellowship with those that keep holyday, and then we say bitterly, yet hopefully, “My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God;” “My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is;” thus we come by a painful process to know what David meant when he said, “I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings.” Here is a beautiful combination, worship and confidence! The relation is not only beautiful, but strictly sequential; for worship is confidence, and confidence is worship. Truly to kneel before God is to express trust in him, and truly to express trust in him is to bow down and worship at his footstool. This is the complete idea of worship: not prayer only, not hope only, not adoration only, not a blind dependence only; but all combined, all rounded into one great act of life.
“Under the covert of thy wings,” how tender the figure! The bird spreads her wings over the nest where her young ones lie, and thus gives them warmth, and affords them all the little protection in her power. What a beautiful image of unity, defence, completeness, safety, is so frail a thing as the nest of a bird! Multiply that image by infinitude; carry it far above all the mischances which may befall the little home of the bird, and then see how full of comfort is the idea. “In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast;” “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust,”
This course of reflection obviates the necessity of a formal application. We have heard of an “overwhelmed heart;” we have also heard of a “high rock;” it only remains to say with Jeremiah, “Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains,” and to add with the Psalmist, “Who is God, save the Lord? or who is a rock, save our God?” We have heard of a “shelter,” and a “tower,” and a “tabernacle,” words which have much meaning for the heart when its distresses are not to be numbered, and which reach their full explanation only in that great Saving Man who was wounded for our transgressions.
Prayer
God be merciful unto us sinners! The priest has sinned, and the ruler, and the whole congregation, and the common people. There is none righteous, no, not one. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. There is no Pharisee standing here to challenge the scrutiny of Heaven. We are bowed down in broken-hearted-ness, in simple penitence and contrition of soul. In our right hand is no virtue, in our left hand is no price; on our tongue there is no plea or self-defence. We put our hand upon our mouth, and we put our mouth in the dust, and we say: Unprofitable! unclean! God be merciful unto us sinners! We do not stand back one for the other saying: I am holier than thou. There is no holy man without having upon him stains and marks which tell of the great apostacy and the personal fault The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. We welcome that sweet gospel as we would welcome an angel of light in trouble and darkness. It is the voice of God; it is the music of the Eternal Heart. Let it come into our spirits mightily, ruling them with sovereign power into peace, and rest, and hope. We thank thee for such words as we read in the gospels of thy Son. We need them every one; there is not one syllable too many. We need all the tones of thy persuasion, all the voices of thine appeal; for, verily, we knew not how far we were from home until by thy grace we were persuaded to return home and come to our Father’s house. Behold! then we knew that we had in very deed taken our journey into a far country. The Lord pity us; the Lord himself stoop down to us, and teach us to look for new heavens and a new earth, brighter eras, grander opportunities of service maybe of suffering also. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 61:1 To the chief Musician upon Neginah, [A Psalm] of David. Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.
To the chief Musician upon Neginah, &c. ] Vincenti in melodiis Davidis (Vatab.). It is probable that he made this psalm when, driven out of his kingdom by his son Absalom, he took up at Mahanaim beyond Jordan, 2Sa 17:24 , and therehence prayed from the ends of the earth, or rather of the land, Psa 61:2 . Howbeit R. Obadiah saith, that this psalm is De pugna cum Aram in confinibus Israel, concerning the battle with the Syrians in the borders of the land. See 2Sa 10:14 , &c., and 1Ch 19:16 , &c.
Ver. 1. Hear my cry, O God ] Heb. my shouting, my sad outcry; for he was in great extremity, Psa 61:2 , and seeks ease by prayer. This is the way, Job 22:21 Phi 4:6-7 , walk in it. Prayer hath virtutem pacativam; it doth sweetly settle the soul, and lodge a blessed security in it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
This is “To the chief musician, on a stringed instrument, of David.” Here it is the soul more than the people and their enemies. And though the heart is overwhelmed, the cry is to God. From the end of the earth is strange and sad for a Jew, but makes no difference to God, Whose chastening is accepted, and His leading to a Rock higher than himself is counted on. go cannot fail, though His people do. Nor does the Spirit look for a refuge only but “the king,” not as erst to be rejected, but to abide for ever. So will the godly praise His name for ever, performing vows day by day.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 61:1-4
1Hear my cry, O God;
Give heed to my prayer.
2From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
3For You have been a refuge for me,
A tower of strength against the enemy.
4Let me dwell in Your tent forever;
Let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings. Selah.
Psa 61:1 Two parallel imperatives of request start this Psalm (cf. Psa 86:6; Isa 28:23; Isa 49:1; Isa 51:4; Jer 18:19; Dan 9:19; Hos 5:1).
1. hear my cry BDB 1033, KB 1570, Qal imperative
2. give heed to my prayer BDB 904, KB 1151, Hiphil imperative
In Psa 61:2 the psalmist says, From the end of the earth I call to You. This sounds like a prayer of an exiled person but the rest of the Psalm does not support this. Therefore, it must be imagery of a sense of alienation n his behalf.
The word earth can, in this context, be understood as land (i.e., Promised Land), see SPECIAL TOPIC: LAND, COUNTRY, EARTH . Words have meaning only in context!
The AB understands the phrase to refer to Sheol (p. 84). This is based on Ugaritic parallels. If so, the psalmist faced death, not just discouragement.
cry Cry (BDB 943) can refer to shouts of joy or, as here, a cry for help and protection (cf. Psa 17:1; Psa 88:2; Psa 106:44; Psa 119:169; Psa 142:6).
Psa 61:2 the rock that is higher than I The title, rock reflects two Hebrew roots (BDB 849 and 700 I). The title first (BDB 849) appears in Deu 32:4; Deu 32:15; Deu 32:18; Deu 32:30-31. Notice how it is expressed.
1. the Rock Deu 32:4; Deu 32:15; Deu 32:18; Deu 32:30-31
2. the Rock of his salvation Deu 32:15; 2Sa 22:47; Psa 89:26; Psa 95:1
3. the Rock who begot you Deu 32:18
4. their Rock sold them Deu 32:30
5. their rock is not like our Rock Deu 32:31
6. there is no rock like our God 1Sa 2:2
7. YHWH is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer Psa 18:2; Psa 31:3; Psa 71:3; Psa 94:22
8. My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge Psa 18:2; Psa 28:1; Isa 17:10
9. who is a rock, except our God Psa 18:31
10. YHWH lives, and blessed be my rock Psa 18:46
11. my rock and my redeemer Psa 19:14
12. my rock (BDB 700 I) Psa 42:9
13. my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him Psa 92:15
14. blessed by YHWH, my rock Psa 144:1
15. YHWH an everlasting Rock Isa 26:4
16. to the mountain of YHWH, to the Rock of Israel Isa 30:29
17. is there any other Rock? Isa 44:8
BDB 700 I occurs only in Psa 18:2; Psa 42:9. It literally means rocky crag, but is a synonym of BDB 849 (both used in Psa 18:2).
This imagery has several possible origins.
1. the mountain roots or pillars connected to creation
2. the site of YHWH’s giving of the law to Israel
3. the temple on Mt. Moriah
4. the strength and permanency of physical mountains
5. mountains are the highest point, closest to heaven where God dwells
higher than I This could mean several things.
1. the rock that provides salvation and refuge that the psalmist cannot provide himself
2. the rock he is unable to climb or possibly understand (i.e., God’s permanency)
3. the contrast between God’s exalted place and the psalmist’s place of discouragement (i.e., when my heart is faint)
The LXX and Peshitta have, You left me upon a rock.
Psa 61:3 Much of the imagery used to describe God has military connotations.
1. a refuge linked to a shield in 2Sa 22:31; Psa 18:30; Pro 30:5
2. a refuge linked to a stronghold in Psa 59:16
3. here a refuge linked to a tower of strength (cf. Pro 18:10) in Psa 62:7, the rock of my strength
Psa 61:4 Psa 61:4 has two cohortative verbs.
1. let me dwell in Your tent BDB 157, KB 184, Qal cohortative, cf. Psa 27:5; Psa 31:20; Psa 32:7
2. let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings BDB 340, KB 337, Qal imperfect used in a cohortative sense (see SPECIAL TOPIC: SHADOW AS METAPHOR FOR PROTECTION AND CARE )
As Psa 61:3 has military imagery, Psa 61:4 has imagery related to the temple or possibly rock in Psa 61:2. The imagery of Psa 61:4 a is also found in Psa 23:6; Psa 27:4.
The term forever is plural, which accentuates the concept (see SPECIAL TOPIC: FOREVER (OLAM) . I think in this OT, Wisdom Literature context it denotes a happy, long life in temple fellowship (i.e., tent) with YHWH (cf. Psa 23:6).
in the shelter of Your wings This is female imagery of God as a protective mother bird (cf. Mat 23:37; Luk 13:34). See notes at Psa 17:8 and Special Topic: Shadow as Metaphor for Protection and Care.
Selah See notes at Psa 3:2 and Intro. to Psalms, VII.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Neginah = smitings. App-65.
Title. of David: i.e. relating to David and to the true David.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Shall we turn now to the sixty-first psalm for our beginning of our Bible study this evening. Psa 61:1-8 .
Hear my cry, O Lord ( Psa 61:1 );
Now in the Hebrew, this word for cry is very intense. It is actually, “Hear my loud wailing, O Lord.” Now David was the kind of a guy when he was in trouble, he really let go. Some people are very reserved in their nature. I’m sort of a reserved kind of a person, but David wasn’t. I mean, when he was in trouble he wanted everybody to know. And especially God. And so, he would wail out. “Hear my wailing, my loud cries, O God.”
attend unto my prayer ( Psa 61:1 ).
It is thought that David probably wrote this psalm at the time that he had been in exile as the result of the rebellion of Absalom. David had fled across the Jordan River when Absalom came from Hebron with an army to take Jerusalem. David did not want to encounter his son in battle. He didn’t want to be fighting against his own son. And so rather than making a stand there in Jerusalem, which would have been the natural thing to do, because Jerusalem was a walled city, it was a difficult city to take. And he could have, no doubt, withstood Absalom. But yet, because of his son and all and his own broken heart, he just fled from Jerusalem with his armies and with those that followed after him and just sort of capitulated to Absalom and fled across Jordan. And now he is crying unto God, “Hear my cry, O God, attend unto my prayer.”
From the end of the eaRuth ( Psa 61:2 )
Driven out of the Land of Promise, he now feels that he is out to the end of the earth. If we would put that in our common vernacular, we might say, “The end of the world.” And sometimes we do have those experiences which we feel are the end of the world kind of an experience. In other words, “Man, this is it. This is the end of the world. This is as far as I can go. This is as deep as I can get. This is it. You know, from the end of the world.” Or,
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed ( Psa 61:2 ):
Many things can cause our hearts to be overwhelmed: the loss of loved ones, financial problems, the loss of a job, the loss of health. So many things can cause our hearts to be overwhelmed. What do I do? When I get to the end of the proverbial rope, when I have no place else to turn, where do I turn? What do I do? Every one of us are driven by circumstances, sooner or later, to this end of the road type of an experience, where I have no place else to go, no place else to turn. And where I turn at this point is so important. Some people turn to pills, some people turn to the bottle, some people turn to a gun and just try to end it all. “When my heart is overwhelmed,” David said,
lead me to the rock that is higher than I ( Psa 61:2 ).
There is a place of refuge, there is a place of strength, there is a place of security that we can have in Christ, the Rock that is higher than I. The place where I can be sheltered from the storm. Sheltered from the enemy. Protected. A rock is a symbol of strength in the Bible. The Bible says concerning Jehovah, “He is our Rock,” Deu 32:1-52 . In I Corinthians, chapter 10, Paul said concerning the rock from which the water flowed in the wilderness, and that rock was Christ. That life-giving source. The rock. Smitten from whence life flows to all men.
So, “When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” It is so comforting to know that at my extremity I can turn to God. There is a verse of the song, “He Giveth More Grace,” that beautifully describes it. “When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength is gone, ere the day is half through, when we have reached the end of our hoarded resources, our Father’s full giving has only begun. His grace has no limits, His love has no measure, His power has no boundary known unto man. For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth and giveth and giveth again.” And when I’ve come to the end, when I am overwhelmed, and I cry unto Him, that Rock that is higher than I. At that point of my extremity, God has just begun His glorious work within my life.
God brought many people of the Bible to the end of the road. I think of the angel wrestling with Jacob all night. It was a bad day for Jacob. He had just left his father-in-law, and that was a bad scene. They had had words, and their leaving wasn’t on the best on terms. Even though when they departed from each other they said, “Mizpah,” which means, “The Lord watch between me and thee while we’re absent one from the other.” Yet, that isn’t as pleasant as it sounds when we put it into English. In the Hebrew it literally means, “You’ve ripped me off, and now you are leaving with all of my goods that you have ripped off from me. And I can’t keep my eye on you anymore, because you are going to be gone. You have gone with my daughters, you’ve gone with my flock, my herds, and I can’t watch you any more, so may God watch over you while we are absent one from the other, you crook.” And it had been a bad scene; Jacob didn’t know how he was going to fare out of it. In fact, he wouldn’t have fared so well unless God had been with him. And the night before his father-in-law had caught up with him and the Lord said to his father-in-law, “Don’t you touch Jacob. You keep your hands off of him.” And so because Laban was afraid of God, he didn’t touch Jacob. He said, “Listen, I have the power to really do you hurt, but last night the Lord told me not to touch you.” So it was a strained experience.
Now Jacob has left his father-in-law. They have gone back toward Babylon, and Jacob receives word, “Your brother is coming with a host of men to meet you.” But that isn’t really a welcome home party kind of a thing that you are anticipating or looking for, because the last time you saw Esau seventeen years ago, he was saying, “As soon as I get a chance I am going to kill that rat.” And his brother had been threatening to murder him. Now, if his brother was coming to welcome him home, he wouldn’t need two or three hundred men with him in a welcome party, so Jacob knew that trouble was brewing, and he was trouble.
That was the night that there came an angel of the Lord and wrestled with Jacob all night. The Lord was trying to bring Jacob to the end of the road. You see, he was going to need all kinds of strength tomorrow. He is going to be meeting Esau. He doesn’t know what the situation is going to be; it could be perilous. And so all night, a night when you especially need sleep, you need strength for tomorrow; he is wrestling with this angel. Now, Jacob at this point is a ninety-six-year-old man. I mean, he is no spring chicken anymore. And in the morning, as the day began to break, still wrestling. Man, this guy is tenacious. He’s not going to give up. So the angel touched him in his thigh and caused his muscle to shrivel, and crippled him. And the angel said to Jacob, “Let me go before the day breaks.” And Jacob at this point was hanging on with all that he had, but he broke down and he began to weep. Now, Genesis doesn’t tell us that he wept, but Hosea tells us that Jacob now was in tears; he was a broken man. And he said, “I will not let you go until you bless me.” But that was not a demand, that was a plea. It was a plea with tears. “Please don’t go without blessing me.” He is defeated now. God has him where He wants him.
Jacob, the name means heel catcher, Jacov. For when he was born, he had hold of his brother’s heel, so they said, “Oh, look at that heel catcher.” And the name stuck. “What is your name?” “My name is heel catcher.” “You won’t be called heel catcher anymore. You are going to be called Governed by God, Israel.” His life was changed. No longer the supplanter. No longer the deceiver. Now a man, Israel, governed by God. What a difference. But God had to bring him to the end of the road to bring about those necessary changes. And so the last cry of desperation that came forth with weeping and tears from Jacob was really the first cry of victory.
So often that is true in our lives. When my heart is overwhelmed, when I turn to God out of desperation, that becomes the beginning of God’s glorious victory in my life as He leads me to the Rock that is higher than I.
For you have been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy [the shelter of the rock, strong tower]. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert [or the covering] of thy wings. For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: you have given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. And you will prolong the king’s life: and the years as many generations. He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him. And so will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows ( Psa 61:3-8 ).
And so David ends the psalm with more or less words of confidence. “God, You are going to take care of it. The Rock that is higher than I will see me through. He will bring me back. I will dwell in Your tabernacle. I will dwell before Thee.” “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 61:1-3
PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING OF AN EXPELLED KING ON HIS WAY BACK TO THE THRONE
PRAYER FOR A KING
THE EXILED KING PRAYS FOR RESTORATION
A PRAYER OF A DISTRAUGHT KING
A HYMN OF CONFIDENCE
THE ROCK THAT IS HIGHER THAN I
SUPERSCRIPTION: FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN; ON A STRINGED INSTRUMENT.
A PSALM OF DAVID.
It will be seen from the titles which various scholars have given this psalm that the ascription to David as the author is generally assumed to be true; and as for the occasion, several view the time of David’s absence from Jerusalem during Absalom’s rebellion as correct.
This beautiful psalm, from the very earliest ages of the church, “Has been sung daily at Matins, as “A Morning Prayer.” There are few religious hymnals today that do not have a song based on this psalm. “The Rock that is Higher than I,” by E. Johnson, is an example.
There are a number of erroneous interpretations proposed for this psalm. Leupold listed the following: (1) This is the prayer of a sick man. (2) It is the prayer of the nation of Israel. (3) It is a liturgical prayer for use at the festival of the covenant. “Such views are out of harmony with express statements in the text.
There are also a number of different occasions, or dates, which have been proposed. Addis dated it during the Babylonian exile, or afterward, due to his misunderstanding of “the ends of the earth” (Psa 61:2), and the mention of “tent” in Psa 61:4. Several scholars, mentioned by Delitzsch, dated the psalm even later, during the times of Cyrus the Persian, or of the Ptolemies, or the Seleucidae, but he denounced them all as “worthless bubbles.
By far, the most reasonable understanding of this psalm sees it as written by David, most probably at the time of Absalom’s forcing him to flee across the Jordan River to Mahanaim.
This little pearl of a psalm is very short, but very beautiful. The three divisions proposed by Leupold will be followed here.
(1) An exile’s prayer for help (Psa 61:1-3).
(2) His plea to dwell with God forever (Psa 61:4-5).
(3) His prayer for “The King” (Psa 61:6-8).
AN EXILE’S PRAYER FOR HELP
Psa 61:1-3
“Hear my cry, O God;
Attend unto my prayer.
From the end of the earth will I call unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a refuge for me,
A strong tower from the enemy.”
“Hear my cry … attend my prayer” (Psa 61:1). No situation can be bad enough that it does not call for prayer. When a man is through with praying, that man is through with any life that matters. As James stated it, “Is any among you suffering, let him pray” (Jas 5:13).
“From the end of the earth” (Psa 61:2). “This need not refer to a remote area, the distance is magnified by the yearning to be back home. To the Jew, anything east of the river Jordan would have been so designated. The Biblical note that Moses died “in a foreign land” is proof of this.
“The rock that is higher than I” (Psa 61:2). “This means the rock that is too high for me, the rock that I cannot reach unaided.” And just Who is that Rock? “This Rock is Christ. For ancient Israel, the Rock was a symbol of the love and protection of God, a figure of the security, serenity and protection provided for the believer by the Lord. For this generation, “Our Lord Jesus Christ is the true Rock for human souls.
“When my heart is overwhelmed” (Psa 61:2). “There are times when many of us are in anguish because of the feeling that God is displeased with us, or that we are separated from Him; and the rebellion of our own children, and the ingratitude and treachery of those whom we have trusted have simply overwhelmed us. Such was the situation that pressed upon the heart of David.
“For thou hast been a refuge for me, a strong tower” (Psa 61:3). This is the first of two reasons (the other is in Psa 61:5) that the psalmist advances as reasons why God should hear him. His past experience had been such that David might confidently expect the continuation of God’s help.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 61:1. A cry is an earnest form of prayer.
Psa 61:2. From the end of the earth indicated that David would call upon God from the farthest extent of his difficulties. Rock is from an original that Strong defines as a “refuge.” A place of safety that was above the area of David’s trials was that to which he prayed God to lead him.
Psa 61:3. Shelter has the same force of meaning as rock in the preceding verse. In material warfare a tower is constructed for two purposes: One is that of a defensive fort, the other is to give opportunity as a “look-out” post to observe the enemy.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
In this song there is the same undertone of confidence as in the preceding one. Here, however, it is rather the voice of one man than that of the people. The reference to the king, in verse Psa 61:6, although in the third person, makes it likely that it was written by David under the stress of trial, most probably at some period of exile from his city.
His longing is for restoration to God rather than to circumstances. All through there seems to breathe a sense of perfect confidence in God, together with a consciousness of present need, and a longing desire for a return to past experience. There is no uncertainty in his mind concerning God’s help of him in days that are gone. The very height of the psalm as a prayer is reached when he cries: “O prepare lovingkindness and truth, that they may preserve him.” There has been some difficulty as to the word “prepare.” Perhaps it ought not to be there. In that case we have an affirmation rather than a petition, which may read: “Lovingkindness and truth shall continually guard him.” The one impression from reading the psalm is that of the singer’s sense that in the midst of trouble his hope is still in God.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Safe under Gods Protection
Psa 61:1-8
This psalm was probably composed at the time of Absaloms rebellion, when David was a fugitive from the Tabernacle that he loved. There are two stanzas.
Prayer, Psa 61:1-4
The king was only across the Jordan, yet it seemed the end of the earth. He was at the end of human help. In overwhelming floods trouble poured all around, but in the distance he perceived the rock that towered above the waters. If he could but reach it, he would be safe. What rock is this save the Rock of Ages, that was cleft for us! We cannot reach or climb it by ourselves, but need to be led and lifted thither. And God answers, I will put thee. See Exo 33:22.
Confidence, Psa 61:5-8
The psalmist quotes the great assurance of 2Sa 7:12-16, and turns it into prayer. Faith presents Gods pledges to Himself, and affirms her confidence in their fulfillment. Thus we advance from step to step on the predestined road, knowing that Loving-Kindness and Truth have gone before us, to prepare the way of our steps and to discover themes for endless praise.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Psa 61:2
How many confessions underlie these words. Blindness, else David would not have said, “Lead me.” Weakness, otherwise he would not have thought of a rock. Littleness; therefore he says, “Higher than I.” The words of the text may convey (1) the notion of safety, for the metaphor may be taken from a ship in stormy water, or from a man travelling through the desert, subject to the simooms which sweep over the sand. In either case there would be security under the lee of a “rock,” and the higher the rock the more complete would be the shelter. (2) The words may carry the idea of elevation. “Lead me to that which I may climb,” or rather “Place me at that height from which I may look down on things around me, and see them little.”
I. The first thing that we all want is the feeling of safety. We need a calm, quiet place, where our heaving thoughts will grow still, and where no external circumstances shall be able to move us greatly. That calm and refuge is Christ, and all who come nearer to Him do at His side pass strangely into peace. His work is so strong, His faithfulness is so sure, His presence is so tranquillising, that those who are brought to Him are always at rest.
II. Look at the image of elevation. There are few of us who, at some time or other of life, have not been occupied in going up certain heights. But outside self, and altogether apart from self, there is another object of ambition: truth. You will never have an object and an employment worthy of your being until you begin to make the ascent of truth. And what is truth? The Lord Jesus Christ. Then you will rise to the grand intention for which you were created, when you mount up higher and higher, into the mind, and the counsel, and the image, and the work, and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And hence the wisdom of that prayer, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 75.
References: Psa 61:2.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 69; J. Martineau, Hours of Thought, vol. ii., p. 270; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 268.
Psa 61:2-4
Consider:-
I. In what sense David could say, “Thou hast been a shelter to me,” and then that he was fully justified in concluding, “I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever; I will trust in the covert of Thy wings.” The argument before us is not precisely that which we could venture in all cases to employ with our fellow-men. Man is changeable, and the goodwill which he once showed to us may no longer exist, but may have been transferred to others, who will, in their turn, be forced to give way to new objects. But the case is wholly changed when the benefactor is God. Here there is no limitation to the power, for “the eyes of all wait upon Him, and He satisfieth the desire of every living thing.” Neither can there be change in the will, for “with Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” There is not a single answer received to prayer which may not serve as a promise that if we ask again, again we shall obtain.
II. Consider how past mercies may be used as motives to the expecting fresh at God’s hands. Let mercies be remembered as well as enjoyed, and they must be as lights in our dark days and as shields in our perilous. If I find a believer in Christ cast down because exposed to vehement temptation, I would tell that man that he does wrong in looking thus on the future; he is bound to look also on the past. Can he remember no former temptation from which he came out a conqueror, no seasons of danger when God showed Himself a very present help? And what then has he to do but to gird up the loins of his mind, and to “pray without ceasing”? In one way or another, keep the past before you if you would look the future calmly in the face. Treasure your experience. Double life by living over again every case of trial in which God has shown Himself your Friend. Let experience do its part, and faith shall hardly be languid. When you pray, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I,” call earnestly to mind what cause you have to say, “Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy,” and your language shall soon be that of confidence and exultation: “I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever; I will trust in the covert of Thy wings.”
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2151 (see also Voices of the Year, vol. i., p. 97).
References: Psa 61:3.-M. G. Pearse, Sermons to Children, p. 131; Bishop Woodford, Sermons on Subjects from the Old Testament, p. 129. Psa 61:7.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 43. Psa 62:1, Psa 62:2.-A. Maclaren, Expository Sermons and Outlines on the Old Testament, p. 229.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Psalm 61-68
Psalm 61
The Identification of the King with His People
1. His cry and their cry (Psa 61:1-4)
2. His answer and exaltation (Psa 61:5-8)
The following eight Psalms are grouped together leading up again to the final deliverance of Israel and the glory of the Lord. The question in connection with this Psalm is, who is the king whose years shall be from generations to generations, that is forever, who shall abide in Gods presence forever? The ancient Jewish Targum says it is King Messiah, which is the true answer. This is the key to this Psalm. The King, Christ, is seen as identified with the remnant. He walked on earth trusting, having as the dependent Man His shelter in God. And so does the godly remnant trust and fleeing to the rock which is higher than they, find their shelter there also. And when the King comes back they will have their full deliverance.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Hear: Psa 5:1-3, Psa 17:1, Psa 28:2, Psa 55:1, Psa 55:2, Psa 130:2, Phi 4:6
Reciprocal: Psa 119:145 – cried Lam 3:25 – good Eze 36:3 – swallowed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The King’s vows.
To the chief musician; upon a stringed instrument: [a psalm] of David.
In this, accordingly, we find the King’s vows -vows taken up and fulfilled in place of Israel’s, which have failed so utterly of fulfillment. The thirtieth chapter of Numbers will be found instructive as to this (see the notes). The title of the psalm has significantly here, al neginah, “upon a stringed instrument,” instead of the usual plural, al neginoth. One Hand alone is upon the strings at this time. We may be assured, it is the hand of One who is a Master in harmony, amply sufficient to make all creation responsive. We have already heard Him say, In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee.” And that this is in direct connection with His vow, both the twenty-second psalm (ver. 25) and the present one assure us: “So will I psalm unto Thy Name for aye: that I may daily perform my vows.”
1. The identification of the King with His people is the explanation of the first part of the psalm. The voice is like that with which the book began, as being the cry of an outcast, “from the end of the earth,” which may be of the land,” but is perhaps better given its whole depth of meaning. We find as we go on, that the voices are not the same; but the connection between them is full of significance. The Speaker here is pleading to be heard, to gain attention, to be led to a Rock that is higher than He. As the Representative of those whose ease He has taken up, we can understand this, and we have heard Him thus crying out of lower depths than this. And immediately God is owned as His sanctuary-refuge, “a tower of strength from the face of the enemy.” As one exposed to danger, He finds His shelter where man must ever find it, “under the covert of Thy wings.”
When we realize the Person that is here, there is a remarkable and blessed word which He utters, which cannot be left unnoticed. “I will sojourn in Thy tent for ever,” He says. The last word is olamim, “ages,” but which is applied to the ages of eternity; and there can hardly be a doubt of its meaning in this case. The use of the plural form is, I think, as we may say, pictorial, -to make emphatic that measureless duration; all the more significant in contrast with the thought of a “tent” and “sojourner,” in the same sentence.
But the tent is God’s, and must contemplate that which He pitches among men, and which, though it be a “tent,” in view of the glory of Him who dwells in it, does not necessarily imply any transience of the abode of the glory in it. For in relation to the new earth, and therefore the eternal state, we have in Revelation exactly the same expression: “The tent of God shall be with men, and He will tent among them” (Rev 21:3, Gk.): the thing said over twice, after the peculiar emphatic manner that we find in John, and which is the sweet divine assurance of what might seem for man too good to be true.
Thus God abides forever in a “tent,” manifesting Himself in infinite condescension to His creatures in such a manner as that they shall know Him in the intimacy of perfect grace. This indeed the humanity of Christ already pledges to us. The Word made flesh could be no temporary condition, nor an isolated, however glorious, witness to the love of God. Rather must its witness be maintained and justified in all things being made conformable to it. The very throne is characterized thus as “the throne of God and the Lamb.” The Lamb thus governs all; and the tent of God among men shows how this is to be realized, not simply by the saints in heaven, but by the inhabitants of earth also, -when once the banishment of sin from the earth shall make this possible.
But if this “tent” of God speak of final earthly blessing, how sweetly does the voice of Him who in this psalm is seen acquainted with the trials and sorrows of men, echo and confirm this grace! “I,” He says, “will sojourn in Thy tent for ever”: if Thou art pleased to have a tent, and sojournest, I too will be a sojourner; and not apart from this, but in the tent in which Thou sojournest, there will I sojourn! Blessed Lord, no wonder that when Thou wast born upon earth, the angels heralded Thee with “on earth peace, good pleasure in men”!
2. In the three verses following, which are thus the normal division of a seven, the eighth verse following not interfering with this, as we know, the same Speaker declares therefore the answer to His vows, in the “possession of those that fear God’s Name” being given to Him. His vows are in behalf of these; He takes His place as their Head and Representative; and their blessing comes through Him who has interposed for them. He openly takes accordingly the King’s place, with days “added” to the “shortened days” (Psa 102:1-28) of a life that was for their sake “taken from the earth” (Act 8:33). The prophet Isaiah, of whose words this is the Septuagint version, beautifully supplements and explains these “added days,” which at first have a strange look in connection with this glorious Person: “Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him: He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand” (Isa 53:10). And these prolonged days are not to be simply the still limited days of a merely human life lengthened beyond the natural time: “His years shall be as those of successive generations.” The peculiar words show how He still clings to men.
The next verse shows how the kingdoms of earth and of heaven, for so long separated, have come together. “He” -this blessed King -“shall dwell in the presence of God forever.” No fear of a breach any more. And the latter part of the verse intimates that this is the voice of the people breaking in. Well may they, not doubtfully, but with the full accord of hearts filled with the prospect before them, cry: “Appoint loving-kindness and truth to preserve Him!”*
{*The verse as it stands in the ordinary text has, however, some difficulty. A few Hebrew MSS. put min instead of man, but then the preposition cannot stand alone, and Coleman therefore proposes a different division of the letters of the two words that come together (originally written without division), and to read thus, “mercy and faithfulness from Me preserve Him.” It would thus be the divine voice and not that of the people. The Septuagint reads again differently, and other alterations have been proposed.}
3. With the eighth verse the original voice takes up the word again, and the concord of different speakers has fitness and beauty. “So will I psalm unto Thy Name forever,” He says: “that I may daily perform My vows.”
For it is to glorify God in the face of sin and rebellion that He has come in, lifting up the fallen and sustaining in its place the new creation, with henceforth no failure. Thus His “vows,” which began to be fulfilled in His life on earth, and then in His atoning death, shall still be performed by Him as the Leader of the unending praise that shall fill eternity. And there shall not be a dull note there: no heart but shall be tuned to full harmony with His. Blessed be God!
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Title. A psalm of David, written during his northern expedition, as it would seem from the second verse.
Psa 61:2. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee; that is, from the north-east extremity of the country, where he was then fighting with Shobah, and in Mesopotamia, as in the preseding psalm. He was far from his country, from his throne, and the sanctuary.Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. The MESSIAH: so the ancients have understood the words. A fortified place is too low a sense. See Psa 62:2.
Psa 61:6-7. Thou wilt prolong the kings life: He shall abide before God for ever. The Hebrew word lam, when applied to God or his perfections, denotes everlasting existence; but when applied to men, it is equivalent to an age, or to long life. David, though in exile, calls himself the king, as in Psa 63:11; he abates nothing of the promise made at his consecration. But the words are too strong to apply to David; they undoubtedly relate to the Messiah, whose throne is for ever and ever. So all the christian fathers have understood this psalm.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
LXI. The Psalmist prays from the end of the earth in the confidence that God will protect him. He expresses his desire to dwell in the Temple and ends with a prayer for the king. The Exile is presupposed: further we have no clue to the date except in the mention of the king (see on Psalms 20). We may add, however, that this king seems to be high priest also, for he is to dwell in the tabernacle (Psa 61:4) and to abide before God (Psa 61:7). This suits later Maccabean times, but scarcely any other period after the Exile.
Psa 61:2 b. The LXX, with a different text, translates, Thou hast exalted me on a rock: thou hast led me. Jerome, with the present text, translates, When the strong man shall be exalted against me, thou wilt be my guide. We may with a slight emendation translate, In straits that are too mighty for me, lead thou me.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
PSALM 61
The cry of an outcast whose spirit, though overwhelmed, looks to God as his rock, to save from the floods by which he is surrounded.
(vv. 1-2) The psalmist cries to God from the end of the earth (or land). Thus the enemy is in possession of the sanctuary, while the godly man is driven out. Though overwhelmed with distress, the soul sees there is a rock that rises above the floods. In spite of his distress, he is confident that God will lead him to this place of security, for he can say, Thou wilt lead me on to a rock (JND).
(v. 3) His confidence in God is the result of his experience of God; for he says, Thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. He has found in God a shelter from the storm, and a defence against those opposed to him
(v. 4) With God before his soul, he is lifted above the overwhelming floods, and can look on with confidence to a bright future when he will dwell in the presence of God for ever. Until then he will trust in the protecting care of God – the covert of His wings.
(vv. 5-8) Conscious of being heard, he has the assurance that he will inherit the portion of those who fear God’s name; though at the moment he may be at the end of the earth. The ground of his confidence is that Christ – the King – had passed through the circumstances of the godly, and His years had been prolonged, so that He is before God for ever. If the King abides before God for ever (v. 7), then those who are subject to the King abide…for ever. (v. 4) The one that abides for ever will sing praises to God for ever.
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
Psalms 61
Several of the commentators believe David wrote this individual royal lament psalm when he was fleeing from Saul. However, the text itself records no such information (cf. Psa 61:6 a). David strengthened himself in the Lord-when he felt faint and inadequate-by remembering his Rock and by relying on His promises.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. Request for salvation 61:1-2
David began this psalm, as he did many others, by asking God to give attention to his prayer. He evidently felt separated from his own people and his secure surroundings on this occasion. The rock he requested may have been a literal butte on which he could take refuge, such as Masada. On the other hand, he may have been speaking figuratively of God (cf. Deu 32:4; Deu 32:15; Deu 32:18; Deu 32:30-31; Deu 32:37; 2Sa 22:2; Psa 18:31; Psa 18:46; Psa 28:1; et al.).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 61:1-8
THE situation of the singer in this psalm is the same as in Psa 63:1-11. In both he is an exile longing for the sanctuary, and in both “the king” is referred to in a way which leaves his identity with the psalmist questionable. There are also similarities in situation, sentiment, and expression with Psa 42:1-11; Psa 43:1-5 -e.g., the singers exile, his yearning to appear in the sanctuary, the command given by God to His Lovingkindness {Psa 42:8 and Psa 61:8} the personification of Light and Troth as his guides, {Psa 43:3} compared with the similar representation here of Lovingkindness and Troth as guards set by God over the psalmist. The traditional attribution of the psalm to David has at least the merit of providing an appropriate setting for its longings and hopes, in his flight from Absalom. No one of the other dates proposed by various critics seems to satisfy anybody but its proposer. Hupfeld calls Hitzigs suggestion “wunderbar zu lesen.” Graetz inclines to the reign of Hezekiah, and thinks that “the connection gains” if the prayer for the preservation of the kings life refers to that monarchs sickness. The Babylonish captivity, with Zedekiah for “the king,” is preferred by others. Still later dates are in favour now. Cheyne lays it down that “pre-Jeremian such highly spiritual hymns (i.e., Psa 61:1-8; Psa 63:1-11) obviously cannot be,” and thinks that “it would not be unplausible to make them contemporanaeous with Psa 42:1-11, the king being Antiochus the Great,” but prefers to assign them to the Maccabean period, and to take “Jonathan, or (better) Simon” as the king. Are “highly spiritual hymns” probable products of that time?
If the Selah is accepted as marking the end of the first part of the psalm, its structure is symmetrical, so far as it is then divided into two parts of four verses each; but that division cuts off the prayer in Psa 61:4 from its ground in Psa 61:5. Selah frequently occurs in the middle of a period, and is used to mark emphasis, but not necessarily division. It is therefore better to keep Psa 61:4 and Psa 61:5 together, thus preserving their analogy with Psa 61:2 and Psa 61:3. The scheme of this little psalm will then be an introductory verse, followed by two parallel pairs of verses, each consisting of petition and its grounding in past mercies (Psa 61:2, Psa 61:3, and Psa 61:4-5), and these again succeeded by another pair containing petitions for “the king,” while a final single verse, corresponding to the introductory one, joyfully foresees life-long praise evoked by the certain answers to the singers prayer.
The fervour of the psalmists supplication is strikingly expressed by his use in the first clause, of the word which is ordinarily employed for the shrill notes of rejoicing. It describes the quality of the sound as penetrating and emotional, not the nature of the emotion expressed by it. Joy is usually louder tongued than sorrow; but this suppliants need has risen so high that his cry is resonant. To himself he seems to be at “the end of the earth”; for he measures distance not as a map maker, but as a worshipper. Love and longing are potent magnifiers of space. His heart “faints,” or is “overwhelmed.” The word means literally “covered,” and perhaps the metaphor may be preserved by some such phrase as wrapped in gloom. He is, then, an exile and therefore sunk in sadness. But while he had external separation from the sanctuary chiefly in view, his cry wakes an echo in all devout hearts. They who know most about the inner life of communion with God best know how long and dreary the smallest separation between Him and them seems, and how thick is the covering spread over the heart thereby.
The one desire of such a suppliant is for restoration of interrupted access to God. The psalmist embodies that yearning in its more outward form, but not without penetrating to the inner reality in both the parallel petitions which follow. In the first of these, (Psa 61:2 b) the thought is fuller than the condensed expression of it. “Lead me on” or in, says he, meaning, Lead me to and set me on. His imagination sees towering above him a great cliff, on which, if he could be planted, he might defy pursuit or assault. But he is distant from it, and the inaccessibility which, were he in its clefts, would be his safety, is now his despair. Therefore he turns to God and asks Him to bear him up in His hands, that he may set his foot on that rock. The figure has been, strangely enough, interpreted to mean a rock of difficulty, but against the usage in the Psalter. But we do not reach the whole significance of the figure if we give it the mere general meaning of a place of safety. While it would be too much to say that “rock” is here an epithet of God (the absence of the definite article and other considerations are against that), it may be affirmed that the psalmist, like all devout men, knew that his only place of safety was in God. “A rock” will not afford adequate shelter; our perils and storms need “the Rock.” And, therefore, this singer bases his prayer on his past experience of the safe hiding that he had found in God. “Place of refuge” and “strong tower” are distinctly parallel with “rock.” The whole, then, is like the prayer in Psa 31:2-3 : “Be Thou to me a strong rock. For Thou art my rock.”
The second pair of verses, containing petition and its ground in past experience (Psa 61:4-5), brings out still more clearly the psalmists longing for the sanctuary. The futures in Psa 61:4 may be taken either as simple expressions of certainty, or, more probably, as precative, as is suggested by the parallelism with the preceding pair. The “tent” of God is the sanctuary, possibly so called because at the date of the psalm “the ark of God dwelt in curtains.” The “hiding place of Thy wings” may then be an allusion to the Shechinah and outspread pinions of the Cherubim. But the inner reality is more to the psalmist than the external symbols, however his faith was trained to connect the two more indissolubly than is legitimate for us. His longing was no superstitious wish to be near that sanctuary, as if external presence brought blessing, but a reasonable longing, grounded on the fact for his stage of revelation, that such presence was the condition of fullest realisation of spiritual communion, and of the safety and blessedness thence received. His prayer is the deepest desire of every soul that has rightly apprehended the facts of life, its own needs and the riches of God. The guests in Gods dwelling have guest rights of provision and protection. Beneath His wings are safety, warmth, and conscious nearness to His heart. The suppliant may feel far off, at the end of the world: but one strong desire has power to traverse all the distance in a moment. “Where the treasure is, there will the heart be also”; and where the heart is, there the man is.
The ground of this second petition is laid in Gods past listening to vows, and His having given the psalmist “the heritage of those that fear Thy name.” That is most naturally explained as meaning primarily the land of Israel, and as including therein all other blessings needful for life there. While it is capable of being otherwise understood, it is singularly appropriate to the person of David during the period of Absaloms rebellion, when victory was beginning to declare itself for the king. If we suppose that he had already won a battle, {2Sa 18:6} we can understand how he takes that success as an omen and urges it as a plea. The pair of verses will then be one instance of the familiar argument which trustful hearts instinctively use, when they present past and incomplete mercies as reasons for continued gifts, and for the addition of all which is needed to “perfect that which concerneth” them. It rests on the confidence that God is not one who “begins and is not able to finish.”
Very naturally, then, follows the closing prayer in Psa 61:6-7. The purely individual character of the rest of the psalm, which is resumed in the last verse, where the singer speaking in the first person, represents his continual praise as the result of the answer to his petitions for the king, makes these petitions hopelessly irrelevant, unless the psalmist is the king and these prayers are for himself. The transition to the third person does not necessarily negative this interpretation, which seems to be required by the context. The prayer sounds hyperbolical, but has a parallel in Psa 21:4, and need not be vindicated by taking the dynasty rather than the individual to be meant, or by diverting it to a Messianic reference. It is a prayer for length of days, in order that the deliverance already begun may be perfected, and that the psalmist may dwell in the house of the Lord forever {cf. Psa 23:6; Psa 27:4} He asks that he may sit enthroned before God forever-that is, that his dominion may by Gods favour be established and his throne upheld in peace. The psalm is in so far Messianic that the everlasting kingdom of the Christ alone fulfils its prayer.
The final petition has, as has been noticed above, parallels in Psa 42:1-11 and Psa 43:1-5, to which may be added the personifications of Goodness and Lovingkindness in Psa 23:6. These bright harnessed angels stand sentries over the devout suppliant, set on their guard by the great Commander; and no harm can come to him over whom Gods Lovingkindness and Faithfulness keep daily and nightly watch;
Thus guarded, the psalmists prolonged life will be one long anthem of praise, and the days added to his days will be occupied with the fulfilment of his vows made in trouble and redeemed in his prosperity. What congruity is there between this closing verse which is knit closely to the preceding by that “So,” and the previous pair of verses, unless the king is himself the petitioner? “Let him sit before God forever”-how comes that to lead up to “So will I harp to Thy name forever”? Surely the natural answer is, Because “he” and “I” are the same person.