Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 61:4
I will abide in thy tabernacle forever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
4. Let me sojourn in thy tent for ever:
Let me take refuge in the hidingplace of thy wings.
The words are a prayer. In his banishment he prays that he may once more be received as Jehovah’s guest, to enjoy His protection and hospitality, to dwell in the place which He has consecrated by His Presence (Psa 15:1). In thy tent may mean no more than ‘in thy abode’: but it is natural to connect the metaphor with the ‘tent’ which David pitched for the Ark on Mount Zion (2Sa 6:17). Cp. Psa 27:5-6. ‘Sojourn’ implies the relation of guest to host, and the protection which the guest in Oriental countries claims from his host. “The Arabs give the title of jr allh to one who resides in Mecca beside the Caaba.” Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 77.
for ever ] All my life. Cp. 1Sa 1:22; Psa 23:6. And the revelation of the Gospel has made it plain that life does not end with death.
For the hidingplace (R.V. covert) of thy wings cp. Psa 57:1, note; Psa 27:5, “in the hidingplace of his tent shall he hide me”; Psa 31:20, “Thou shalt hide them in the hidingplace of thy presence.” So the Targ. here in the shadow of Thy Presence (lit. Shechinah).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever – This expresses the confident assurance that he would be restored to his home, and to the privileges of public worship. The word forever here means perpetually; that is, his permanent home would be there, or he would dwell with God who dwelt in the tabernacle. The word tabernacle refers to the sacred tent which was erected for the worship of God, within which were the ark, the tables of the law, the table of showbread, etc. In the innermost part of that tent – the holy of holies – the symbol of the divine presence rested on the mercy-seat or cover of the ark of the covenant. David regarded it as a great privilege to abide near that sacred tent; near to the place of; public worship; near to the place where God was supposed to dwell. See Psa 23:6, note; Psa 26:8, note; Psa 27:4, note. It is possible that his mind looked beyond the tabernacle on earth to an eternal residence in the very presence of God; to his being admitted into his own sacred abode in heaven.
I will trust in the covert of thy wings – Margin, Make my refuge. See the notes at Psa 17:8. Compare Psa 36:7; Psa 57:1. The idea is, that he would seek and find protection in God – as young birds do under the outstretched wings of the parent bird.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 61:4-5
I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever; I will trust in the covert of Thy wings.
Comfort in exile
1. The Lord can give such satisfaction to a sad heart in the time of its trouble, that the trouble may turn to be no trouble, even while it lieth on still, as here is to be seen in Davids comfort, who speaketh as if he were restored, while he is yet in exile.
2. Spiritual consolations in temporal troubles do both give satisfaction to a soul for the present and for the time to come, for everlasting happiness; I will abide in Thy tabernacle for ever: his hope is, that not only he shall be restored to the fellowship of the saints, at the tabernacle in Jerusalem, but also that he shall be in Gods company in heaven, represented by the tabernacle, and that for ever.
3. True consolation standeth not in earthly things, but in things heavenly, and things having nearest relation thereto; for Davids comfort was not so much that he should be brought to the kingdom, as that he should be brought to the tabernacle, and to heaven by that means.
4. Sincerity setteth no term-day to Gods service, or to the seeking of communion with Him.
5. The ground of all spiritual consolations is in the mercy and grace of God offered to us in Christ, represented by the wings of the Cherubims stretched out over the mercy-seat; there faith findeth a rest and solid ground, able to furnish comfort abundantly: I will trust in the covert of Thy wings.
6. Access to God in prayer, and approbation of the conscience, and the sincere pouring forth of the heart melting with present felt sense of Gods love, do strengthen greatly the assurance of everlasting communion with God; For Thou, O God, hast heard my voice.
7. As spiritual comfort in time of trouble granted to a believer is indeed the earnest of everlasting life, so should they to whomsoever the earnest is given make reckoning that by this earnest the inheritance is confirmed unto them by way of possession begun: Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear Thy name.
8. The inheritance of the chief of Gods servants, and of the meanest and weakest of them, is one; the right of every believer is alike good, albeit the hold laid upon the right by all is not alike strong; and what the strongest of the godly do believe for their own consolation and salvation, the weakest may believe the same to belong to every believer that feareth God. (D. Dickson.)
Selah.—
Selah
The majority of Bible-readers Think the word of my text of no importance. They suppose it to be a superfluity, a mere filling-in, a meaningless interjection, a useless refrain, an indefinable echo. Selah! It is never a Scriptural accident. Seventy-four times does it appear in the Psalms, and three times in Habakkuk. You must not convict this book of seventy-seven trivialities. Selah! It is an enthroned word. If, according to an old author, there are words that are battles, this word is a Marathon, a Thermopylae, a Waterloo, a Sedan. It is a word decisive sometimes for solemnity, and sometimes for beauty, and sometimes for grandeur. Through it roll the thundering chariots of the omnipotent God.
I. The Selah of poetic significance. When you find this word you are to rouse yourself to great stanzas. You are to open the door of your soul for analogies. You are to spread the wings of your imagination for flight. I answered thee in the secret place of thunder; I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah! The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved. I bear up the pillars thereof. Selah!. . . Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory. Selah! Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah! Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah! The Lord of Hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah! Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah! I will trust in the covert of Thy wings. Selah! O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people, when Thou didst march through the wilderness. Selah! You see the text is a signal hung out to warn you off the track while the rushing train goes by with its imperial messengers. Poetic word, charged with resurrections and millenniums!
II. The Selah of intermission. Gesenius, Tholuck and Hengstenberg agreed that this word often means a rest in the music. According to the Greeks it is a diapsalma, a pause, a halt in the solemn march of cantillation. God thrusts the Selah into His Bible and into our lives to make us stop and think, stop and consider, stop and admire, stop and repent, stop and pray, stop and be sick, stop and die. It is not the number of times that we read the Bible through that makes us intelligent in the Scriptures. We must pause. It may take us an hour to one word. It may take a day to one verse. It may take a year to one chapter. We must pause to measure the height, the depth, the length, the breadth, the universe, the eternity of one passage. Matthew Henry made a long pause after the verse, Open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy braise, and it converted him. Cowper made a long pause after the verse, Being justified freely by His grace, and it converted him. God tells us seventy-seven times meditatively to pause in reading two books in the Bible, leaving to our common sense to decide how often we ought to pause in reading the other sixtyfour Rooks of the Bible. Pause and pray for more light. Pause and weep for our sins. Pause and absorb the strength of one promise. It is not the number of times you go through the Bible, but the number of times the Bible goes through you. Pause! Reflect! Selah! So, in the scroll of your life and mine, we go rushing on in our song of prosperity from note of joy to note of joy, and it is smooth and long-drawn-out legato, and we become indifferent and unappreciative, when lo! we find a blank in the music; no notes between these two bars. A pause! The spaces will be filled up with a sick-bed, or a commercial disaster, or a grave. You and I have been halted by more than one Selah! But, thank God, it is not a ruinous break-down; it makes the past mercies the more valuable, and will make the future the more tender. Whether we understand now or not, it is best for us to pause. It is good to be afflicted. The Selah is not misplaced or wasted. Indeed, we shall all soon have to stop. Men of science are improving human longevity, but no one has proposed to make terrene life perpetual. Yet the GOspel makes death a Selah between two beatitudes, dying triumph standing on one side the grave, celestial escort standing on the other.
III. The Selah of emphasis. Ewald, the German theologian, thinks this word is from the Hebrew word to ascend, and that it means you are to lift up your voice and make distinct utterance. Oh! how much we all need to correct our emphasis. We put too much emphasis on the things of this world and too little emphasis on the things of the next world. Behold wretchedness on a throne! Napoleon, while yet emperor, sat dejected, with his face buried in his hands, and a little page presented him a tray of food, saying, Eat, sir, it will do you good. The emperor looked up and said to him, You are from the country? Yes. Where your parents have a cottage and some acres of land? Yes. There is happiness, cried Napoleon. Then behold happiness under worst worldly disadvantage. I never saw until I was blind, cried a Christian blind man one day. I never knew contentment when I had my eyesight as I do now that I have lost it. I can truly affirm, though few know how to credit me, that I would on no account change my present situation and circumstances with any that I ever enjoyed before I was blind. Oh, my hearers, change your emphasis. Put less weight on this world and more weight on God as a joy and an unfading portion.
IV. The Selah of perpetuity. The Targum renders this word for ever. Many writers agree in its meaning for ever. In the very verse from which my text is taken, Selah means not only poetic significance and intermission and emphasis, but eternal reverberation. For ever! Gods goodness for ever, Gods government for ever, gladness of the righteous for ever. This Selah of perpetuity makes all earthly inequalities insignificant; the difference between sceptre and needle, between Alhambra and hut, between chariot and cart; between throne and kerbstone, between Axminster and bare floor, between satin and sackcloth, trivial. This is the Selah that makes getting ready so important. For such a prolongation of travel, are we provided with guide books and passes and escort? Are we putting out into wilderness sirocco-swept and ghoul-haunted, or into regions of sun-lighted and spray-sprinkled garden? Is it to be Elysium or Gehenna? As we start we must keep on. That current is so swift that once in it no oar can resist it, no helm steer out of it, no herculean or titanic arm baffle it. Hear the long-resounding echo–For ever! But there are two for evers. The one is as swift as the other, as long as the other, as mighty as the other, but the one empties into an ocean of gladness, opaline above and coraline beneath. The other goes down over a plunge of awful abysm of despair. On the one sail argosies of light, on the other the charred hulks of a fiery cyclone. Wake up to the value of your deathless spirit! Strike out for heaven! Arouse ye, the men and women for whom Christ died! Selah! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. I will abide in thy tabernacle] The greater portion of those Psalms which were composed during and after the captivity, says Calmet, had Levites and priests for their authors. Hence we find the ardent desire so frequently expressed of seeing the temple; of praising God there; of spending their lives in that place, performing the functions of their sacred office. There I shall sojourn; – there I shall dwell, – be at rest, – be in safety, – be covered with thy wings, as a bird in its nest is covered with the wings of its mother. These simple comparisons, drawn from rural affairs and ordinary occurrences, are more pleasing and consolatory in the circumstances in question, than allegories derived from subjects the most noble and sublime.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I shall, I doubt not, be restored to the tabernacle from which I am now banished, and, according to the desire of my heart, worship and enjoy thee there all my days. In the mean time, whilst I am in danger and trouble, I will cast myself upon thy protection with full confidence.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. I will abideSo I desire todo (compare Ps 23:6).
trust in the covert,c.make my refuge, in the shadow (compare Psa 17:8Psa 36:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever,…. Under the protection of the Lord, as in a shepherd’s tent, or as in one belonging to a general of an army, where are fulness and safety;
[See comments on Ps 27:5]; or else the tabernacle of the congregation is meant; the house of God, the place of divine and public worship, where he desired and determined always to continue, Ps 23:6; or else the tabernacle which was prefigured by that below, where he knew he should dwell to all eternity. Kimchi, by “for ever”, understands a long time; and Jarchi explains it both of this world and of the world to come; which is true, understanding the tabernacle of the church below, and the church above;
I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Or, “in” or “into the secret of thy wings” z; this he determined to make his refuge for the present time, and while in this world; [See comments on Ps 57:1].
Selah; on this word, [See comments on Ps 3:2].
z “in abscondito”, Pagninus, Montanus; “in occultum”, Junius & Tremellius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(4) I will abide.Rather, Let me be a guest in, etc. (Comp. Psa. 15:1; Psa. 27:4.)
Thy tabernacle . . .It is difficult to decide whether this indicates. the Mosaic tabernacle, and so may be used as an index of the date of the poem; or whether the tent is a general figure for the protection of God, wherever it may be found. It certainly recalls Psa. 23:6.
For ever.Literally, for ages or ons. For the same plural, see Psa. 145:13.
I will trust . . .Rather, let me find refuge under the shelter of thy wings. (For the image, see Note Psa. 17:8.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. I will abide in thy tabernacle The figure changes from a rock or fortress to a tabernacle, in itself an emblem of transitoriness and frailty; but the idea of security is still preserved. The allusion is to the “tabernacle” in the wilderness (“ thy tabernacle”) which, like the tent of the chief in a military encampment, is the place of honour, authority, and safety. During the march through the wilderness the tabernacle was placed in the center of the camp, surrounded first by eight thousand five hundred Levites, in the form of a square, and beyond those, in the same form, by the entire population of the tribes, including over six hundred thousand warriors. See on Numbers 2. Thus the tent of Jehovah was the throne of power, in the midst of the people. The allusion is not uncommon. See on Psa 27:5; Psa 31:20; Psa 32:7; Psa 91:1.
Trust in the covert of thy wings The wings of the cherubim in the holy of holies in the “tabernacle.” Exo 25:18-22; Psa 57:1
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 61:4-5. I will abide in thy tabernacle, &c. David’s danger seems to have been over before he had finished this psalm; and therefore, after a pause, he here begins to acknowledge how God had granted the petitions that he had made while he was in distress, and thankfully commemorates his mercy, in crowning his attempt, and giving him the heritage of those that fear his name; i.e. the possession of the country, which is the inheritance of his faithful people.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 61:4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.
Ver. 4. I will abide in thy tabernacle ] Et scribam mirabilia tua in memoriale, saith R. Obadiah by way of gloss; and I will there register up thy wonderful works. Or, I shall there worship thee, and do thee acceptable service again, though at present I am banished or bruised abroad. He saith not, I shall abide in my palace, but in thy tabernacle, which he more highly esteemed. Some render it, I shall dwell in thy tent, or pavilion royal, making it a metaphor from warfare, where those that are in the king’s own tent must needs be in greatest safety. And this sense suiteth well with the following words, I will trust in the covert of thy wings.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
tabernacle. Hebrew. ‘ohel, tent (App-40.), i.e. David’s tent on Mount Zion. The Psalm probably refers to Absalom’s rebellion.
trust = flee for refuge. Hebrew. hasah. App-69.
covert = secret place.
wings. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia. App-6.
Selah. Connecting the confidence with the only true ground of it. This is the central member of the Psalm. See the Structure above.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 61:4-5
Psa 61:4-5
A PLEA TO LIVE WITH GOD FOREVER
“I will dwell in thy tabernacle forever
I will take refuge in the covert of thy wings. (Selah)
For thou, O God, hast heard my vows;
Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.”
“I will dwell in thy tabernacle forever” (Psa 61:4). There is apparently a double significance in these words. David did not dwell “in” God’s tabernacle; and Rawlinson proposed that this may refer to David’s, “Dwelling spiritually in the heavenly dwelling of which the earthly tabernacle was a type.”
Another view is that of Addis, who wrote, “The king mentioned here seems to be a high priest also, for he dwells in the tabernacle (Psa 61:4) and abides before God (Psa 61:7).
Of course, there is only one great King and High Priest dwelling in the presence of God, and that is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Since the Messianic King is most surely mentioned in Psa 61:6-8, we find no objection to Addis’ interpretation; but, at the same time, the thought advanced by Rawlinson that David’s spiritual hope was also mentioned here cannot be denied. There is a double significance of the words.
“Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name” (Psa 61:5). This is the second reason the psalmist advanced as the grounds of his hope of God’s help. This “heritage” is extremely important. “The `heritage’ is all-embracing, unlimited, inalienable and inclusive of all the blessed promises to Christians. It is the equivalent of `all things are yours.’ “`The heritage here’ refers to that distinctive promise which God gave to David through the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 7) assuring him of the eternal continuation of the `Throne of David,’ and of one of his seed to sit upon it. Thus, the “heritage” is nothing less than the promise of Christ himself.
These verses from here to the end of the psalm are capable of being interpreted in three ways, namely: “(1) of David himself; (2) of the Davidic dynasty; and (3) of the Messiah. There are elements of all three interpretations in the passage, due to David’s being a type of Christ.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 61:4. There was a literal tabernacle but David used the term to indicate the sanctuary of God from a spiritual standpoint. He would maintain an unbroken relationship with God. Wings was also used figuratively to mean the overshadowing protection of Jehovah for those under his care.
Psa 61:5. His vows refers to the professions that had been made of service to the Lord. Hast heard means that God approved of them and rewarded David for them. The heritage means he rewarded David in the same way he had others who feared the Lord.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
trust
(See Scofield “Psa 2:12”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
abide: Psa 61:7, Psa 15:1, Psa 23:6, Psa 27:4, Psa 90:1, Psa 91:1, Psa 92:13, Rev 3:12
trust: or, make my refuge, Psa 17:8, Psa 57:1, Psa 62:7, Psa 63:7, Psa 91:4, Psa 142:4, Psa 142:5, Rth 2:12, Mat 23:37, Heb 6:18
Reciprocal: Psa 21:7 – For the Psa 143:9 – flee unto thee Pro 18:10 – a strong Isa 18:1 – shadowing Isa 30:1 – cover
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 61:4. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever I shall, I doubt not, be restored to thy tabernacle, from which I am now banished, and, according to the desire of my heart, worship and enjoy thee there all my days. Thus he determines that the service of God shall be his constant business; and all those must make it so who expect to find God their shelter and strong tower. None but his servants have the benefit of his protection. David speaks of abiding in Gods tabernacle for ever, because it was a type and figure of heaven, Heb 9:8; Heb 9:24. And those that dwell in his tabernacle, as it is a house of duty, during the short time of their abode on earth, shall dwell in that tabernacle which is a house of glory during an endless eternity. I will trust in the covert of thy wings In the mean time, while I am in danger and trouble, I will cast myself upon thy protection with full confidence. This advantage they have that abide in Gods tabernacle; that in the time of trouble he shall there hide them. And those that have found God a shelter to them, ought still to have recourse to him in all their straits.