Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 63:4
Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
4. Thus ] So, as in Psa 63:2: cp. Psa 61:8: so fervently; in such a spirit of loving gratitude.
while I live ] Cp. Psa 104:33; Psa 146:2.
I will lift up my hands ] The attitude of prayer (Psa 28:2; Psa 141:2; 1Ti 2:8), the outward symbol of an uplifted heart (Psa 25:1).
in thy name ] Relying upon all that Thou hast revealed Thyself to be. Cp. Psa 44:5; Joh 14:13, &c.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thus will I bless thee while I live – In my life; or, as long as life lasts, will I praise thee. The word thus refers to the sentiment in the previous verse, meaning that as the result of his deep sense of the value of the loving kindness of God, he would praise him through all the remainder of his life, or would never cease to praise him. A true purpose of serving God embraces the whole of this life, and the whole of eternity. He who loves God, and who has any proper sense of his mercy, does not anticipate a time when he will cease to praise and bless him, or when he will have any desire or wish not to be engaged in his service.
I will lift up my hands in thy name – In solemn prayer and praise. See the notes at Psa 28:2.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 63:4-7
Thus will I bless Thee while I live; I will lift up mine hand in Thy Name.
David blessing God and praying to Him
In this verse we have David engaging himself to God in two particulars. First, to the blessing of God, Thus will I bless Thee while I live. And secondly, to praying to Him, I will lift up my hands, etc.
I. Davids engaging himself to blessing, Thus will I bless Thee, etc.
1. The thing itself promised is blessing; David promises to bless God. This at the first hearing may seem to carry some kind of difficulty in it. The apostles rule (Heb 7:7) is, that without contradiction the less is blessed of the greater; if so, how can we be said to be blessers of God, who is so infinitely superior to us? For this we must, therefore, know that there is a double kind of blessing; the one imperative, or by way of authority; the other declarative, end by way of publication. According to the first sense, so God blesses man, namely by making him blessed. According to the second sense, so man blesses God, namely, by declaring Him blessed, and by acknowledging that blessedness which is in Him. This is that which ties upon us all as a duty to be performed by us, and accordingly we shall find often mention made of it in Scripture, in sundry places–as for instance Psa 103:1,
2. It is exquisite upon a twofold ground. First, the goodness which is in Himself. And secondly, the overflowing and communications of this goodness to us; each of these call for this our blessing, and do engage us thereunto. There are two ways especially in which God is blest of His creatures. The one is objectively by way of representation; and the other is significatively by way of publication. According to the first sense, so all His creatures bless Him (Psa 19:1; Psa 147:3). But according to the second sense, so He is blest only by angels and men, who are, therefore, to do it with so much the greater intention.
2. What is it to bless God thus? We may take it in these explications.
(1) Sincerely, in the uprightness and integrity of our hearts.
(2) Affectionately, as having our hearts much enlarged in us. As God loves a cheerful giver, so He loves a cheerful thanksgiver; that is, such an one as is thoroughly apprehensive of the greatness of the mercy itself, and which accordingly has his spirit much advanced and enlarged about it.
(3) Spiritually. This is another thing which belongs to this thus; when we bless God by the assistance of His Spirit, and in the name of His Son, that is, to bless Him as we should do for the mariner of it.
3. The extent, and that is in these words, While I live; whereby he signifies that it was not only a sudden fit or mood in him, but an habitual frame and disposition of spirit. This is thanksgiving in those which are Gods servants, it is a constant and settled thing in them; that mercy which they receive but once, yet they are thankful for always, and they do more or less remember it all their lives long. This there is very good ground and reason for, if we examine it, and search into it.
(1) Gods dealing with us In regard of His mercies, which He does extend unto us all our lives long. His goodness runs through the whole course of our lives, and every moment of them we have some touch and sprinkling of it; therefore it is but requisite that our praises should be so likewise.
(2) If we consider the nature of Gods mercies in themselves, not only for the continuance, but the quality, they are such as nothing less than a life is sufficient for the celebrating of them; a few days, or years, are too little and scanty for such a performance; especially if we speak of the great mercies of all, which is the love of God in Christ, and those spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Him; they are such as call for a life indeed for the publishing of them.
(3) Do but consider how much we provoke God by our sins. We offend Him while we live, and therefore while we live we should praise Him, that so we may in some measure make amends for those offences. So, then, every day will I praise Thee, because every day I sin against Thee.
II. Davids engaging himself to prayer. I will lift up my hands, etc.
1. The duty itself.
(1) An expression of homage and obedience to God. They hereby signify that they are at His disposing, and stand in need of His owning of them.
(2) An opportunity of converse and communion with Him.
(3) A means for the diverting of evils from us, and the obtaining of blessings.
2. The manner or carriage of it. In Thy Name. This does include divers things in it.
(1) The Person to whom the prayer is made, and that is God, and He alone.
(2) It shows the manner in which it is done, and that is according to the will of God, with His allowance and approbation of us; we must not ask anything of God loosely and carelessly, we do not care how, but with reverence and awfulness, and humility, and submission to His good pleasure.
(3) By Thy assistance, by Thy Spirit helping of me (Jud 1:20; Rom 8:26-27). It must be the voice of Gods Spirit in us, this is to pray in His Name. (T. Horton, D. D.)
Praising God while we can
I went one day with Billy Bray, says the Rev. F.W. Bourne, to see a dying saint whose character had been unblemished for many years, but whose natural disposition was modest and retiring almost to a fault. His face wore a look of ineffable dignity and repose, lit up with a strange unearthly radiance and glory. He was just on the verge of heaven. He could only speak in a whisper. He said, I wish I had a voice, so that I might praise the Lord. You should have praised Him, my brother, when you had one, was Billys quiet but slightly satirical comment.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. I will lift up my hands in thy name.] I will take God for my portion. I will dedicate myself to him, and will take him to witness that I am upright in what I profess and do. Pious Jews, in every place of their dispersion, in all their prayers, praises, contracts, &c., stretched out their hands towards Jerusalem, where the true God had his temple, and where he manifested his presence.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thus, i.e. so as I have done and now do. Or, upon that occasion, when I shall be restored. Or, for this reason, being so sensible of the sweetness of thy favour. Or, certainly; for this particle is sometimes used as a note of asseveration, as it is Psa 127:2; Isa 16:6.
I will lift up my hands towards thee in heaven, in prayers and praises.
In thy name; according to thy command. Or, with confidence in thy name.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. Thusliterally, “Truly.”
will I blesspraiseThee (Ps 34:1).
lift up my handsinworship (compare Ps 28:2).
in thy namein praiseof Thy perfections.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thus will I bless thee while I live,…. With his whole heart and soul, as he had sought after him, and as under a sense of his lovingkindness; and as he now praised him with his lips, so he determined to do as long as he had life and being; by proclaiming his blessedness, by ascribing blessing and honour to him, and by giving him the glory of all mercies temporal and spiritual;
I will lift up my hands in thy name; not against his enemies, against those that fought against him, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it, but unto God in heaven; and that not as a gesture used in swearing, but either in blessing, as Aben Ezra observes; so the high priest lifted up his hands when he blessed the people; or in prayer, or in both, so Jarchi’s note is, to pray and to praise; [See comments on Ps 28:2]. The Targum is,
“in the name of thy Word I will spread out my hands in prayer for the world to come;”
that is, in the name of the Messiah, the essential Word, in whose name prayer is to be made, and whereby it becomes prevalent and successful; see Joh 14:13. This is a prayer gesture;
[See comments on Ps 28:2].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This strophe again takes up the (Psa 63:3): thus ardently longing, for all time to come also, is he set towards God, with such fervent longing after God will he bless Him in his life, i.e., entirely filling up his life therewith ( as in Psa 104:33; Psa 146:2; cf. Baruch 4:20, ), and in His name, i.e., invoking it and appealing to it, will he lift up his hands in prayer. The being occupied with God makes him, even though as now in the desert he is obliged to suffer bodily hunger, satisfied and cheerful like the fattest and most marrowy food: velut adipe et pinguedine satiatur anima mea . From Lev 3:17; Lev 7:25, Grussetius and Frisch infer that spiritualies epulae are meant. And certainly the poet cannot have had the sacrificial feasts (Hupfeld) in his mind; for the of the shelamim is put upon the altar, and is removed from the part to be eaten. Moreover, however, even the Tra does not bind itself in its expression to the letter of that prohibition of the fat of animals, vid., Deu 32:14, cf. Jer 31:14. So here also the expression “with marrow and fat” is the designation of a feast prepared from well-fed, noble beasts. He feels himself satisfied in his inmost nature just as after a feast of the most nourishing and dainty meats, and with lips of jubilant songs ( accus. instrum . according to Ges. 138, rem. 3), i.e., with lips jubilant and attuned to song, shall his mouth sing praise. What now follows in Psa 63:7 we no longer, as formerly, take as a protasis subsequently introduced (like Isa 5:4.): “when I remembered…meditated upon Thee,” but so that Psa 63:7 is the protasis and Psa 63:7 the apodosis, cf. Psa 21:12; Job 9:16 (Hitzig): When I remember Thee ( meminerim , Ew. 355, b) upon my bed ( stratis meis , as in Psa 132:3; Gen 49:4, cf. 1Ch 5:1) – says he now as the twilight watch is passing gradually into the morning – I meditate upon Thee in the night-watches (Symmachus, ), or during, throughout the night-watches (like in Psa 63:5); i.e., it is no passing remembrance, but it so holds me that I pass a great part of the night absorbed in meditation on Thee. He has no lack of matter for his meditation; for God has become a help ( auxilio, vid., on Psa 3:3) to him: He has rescued him in this wilderness, and, well concealed under the shadow of His wings (vid., on Psa 17:8; Psa 36:8; Psa 57:2), which affords him a cool retreat in the heat of conflict and protection against his persecutors, he is able to exult ( , the potential). Between himself and God there subsists a reciprocal relationship of active love. According to the schema of the crosswise position of words ( Chiasmus), and intentionally jostle close against one another: he depends upon God, following close behind Him, i.e., following Him everywhere and not leaving Him when He wishes to avoid him; and on the other side God’s right hand holds him fast, not letting him go, not abandoning him to his foes.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
In the words which follow, David expresses his consequent resolution to praise God. When we experience his goodness, we are led to open our lips in thanksgiving. His intention is intimated still more clearly in the succeeding verse, where he says that he will bless God in his life There is some difficulty, however, in ascertaining the exact sense of the words. When it is said, So will I bless thee, etc., the so may refer to the good reason which he had, as just stated, to praise God, from having felt how much better it is to live by life communicated from God, than to live of and from ourselves. (430) Or the sense may be, so, that is, even in this calamitous and afflicted condition: for he had already intimated that, amidst the solitude of the wilderness, where he wandered, he would still direct his eye to God. The word life, again, may refer to his life as having been preserved by divine interposition; or the sense of the passage may be, that he would bless God through the course of his life. The former meaning conveys the fullest matter of instruction, and agrees with the context; he would bless God, because, by his goodness, he had been kept alive and in safety. The sentiment is similar to that which we find elsewhere,
“
I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord;” — (Psa 118:17)
and again; —
“
The dead shall not praise the Lord, neither any that go down into silence, but we who live will bless the Lord,” (Psa 115:17.)
In the lifting up of hands, (431) in the second clause of the verse, allusion is made to praying and vowing; and he intimates, that besides giving thanks to God, he would acquire additional confidence in supplication, and be diligent in the exercise of it. Any experience we may have of the divine goodness, while it stirs us up to gratitude, should, at the same time, strengthen our hopes of the future, and lead us confidently to expect that God will perfect the grace which he has begun. Some understand by the lifting up of his hands, that he refers to praising the Lord. Others, that he speaks of encouraging himself from the divine assistance, and boldly encountering his enemies. But I prefer the interpretation which has been already given.
(430) “ Melius esse nobis vivificari ab ipso quam apud nos vivere.”
(431) “The practice of lifting up the hands in prayer towards heaven, the supposed residence of the object to which prayer is addressed, was anciently used, both by believers, as appears from various passages in the Old Testament, and by the heathen, agreeably to numerous instances in the classical writers. Parkhurst, considering the ‘hand’ to be the chief organ or instrument of man’s power and operations, and properly supposing the word to be thence used very extensively by the Hebrews for power, agency, dominion, assistance, and the like, regards the lifting up of men’s hands in prayer as an emblematical acknowledging of the power, and imploring of the assistance of their respective gods. Is it not, however, rather the natural and unstudied gesture of earnest supplication?” — Mant.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
4. I will lift up my hands In solemn posture of prayer. In thy name Depending only on thee for such deliverance as thou canst sanction.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
His Refreshed Vision Of God Has Restored His Heartfelt Spiritual Satisfaction, Has Enhanced His Praise Towards God And Has Reminded Him That It Is God Who Is His Refuge ( Psa 63:4-7 ).
And so wherever he is, whether in the Sanctuary, or in the wilderness cut off from the Sanctuary, he can bless God and find deep inner satisfaction, and know that he shelters under God’s wings.
Psa 63:4-5
‘So will I bless you while I live,
I will lift up my hands in your name,
My inner man will be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.’
Because God meets him, whether in the wilderness or in the Jerusalem Tent of Meeting, he will bless God for his whole lifetime, and lift up his hands in His Name. For he knows that God will fully satisfy his inner being with choice blessings, something which causes him to praise God with joyful lips. Thus can he rejoice in the midst of trial, even when all appears to be going wrong.
‘I will lift up my hands in your name.’ The lifting up of the hands was a regular attitude of prayer (Psa 28:2; Psa 141:2; 1Ti 2:8). In Psa 141:2 it is compared with the offering up of the evening sacrifice, just as prayer is compared with the offering up of incense..
Psa 63:6-7
When I remember you on my bed,
I meditate on you in the night-watches.
For you have been my help,
And in the shadow of your wings will I rejoice.’
Even when he is lying wakeful in bed and remembers God, he meditates on Him and on what He is through the night watches. (In Israel the night was divided up into three watches). His thoughts are all on God. And he does this because it is God Who has been his help in trouble, and Who hides him in the shadow of His wings so that he can rejoice in the face of adversity. Thus even when the world appears to be collapsing, he never lets his mind wander away too far from God. God is in all his thoughts. It is well for us if our thoughts are similarly constantly of God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 63:4. I will lift up my hands in thy name i.e. “I will, in the most solemn manner, pay my adorations to thee, and render thee most grateful acknowledgments for thy benefits, as the only living and true God.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Reader! do not overlook the Lord Jesus here. As the great and almighty Aaron of his people, he lifted up his hands to bless God for the people, and to bless his people in God. And while viewing Christ in this priestly service (which, remember, is an eternal priesthood), let our hands, our hearts, our whole souls be lifted up to bless a covenant God in Christ; and that, not only for the hour, for the day, but for the whole of life. Precious Lord! I would say, for myself and Reader, mercifully grant that our whole lives may be praising lives, and that when the last praise is closing upon our dying lips of the body, the soul may go on and continue the ardent hymn until we arrive to join the hallelujahs before the throne of God and the Lamb! Rev 7:9-12 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 63:4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
Ver. 4. Thus will I bless thee while I live ] I will divide my time between praises and prayers, and so drive a holy trade between heaven and earth. See Psa 18:3 .
I will lift up my hands
In thy name Thus: Psa 104:33, Psa 145:1-3, Psa 146:1, Psa 146:2
I will lift: Psa 134:2, 1Ki 8:22-66, Hab 3:10
Reciprocal: 2Ch 6:12 – spread forth Neh 8:6 – with lifting Psa 28:2 – when Psa 100:2 – Serve Psa 141:2 – the lifting Lam 2:19 – lift up Lam 3:41 – with Luk 18:30 – manifold more Col 3:16 – singing Jam 3:9 – bless
Psa 63:4. Thus will I bless thee That is, so as I have done, and have now said. As I have begun, I will go on: the present devout affections shall not pass away like the morning cloud, but shine more and more like the morning sun. Or, for this reason, being so sensible of the sweetness of thy favour; or, certainly, as the particle , cheen, is sometimes used. While I live I will persevere in this work of blessing and praising thee: it shall be an important part of the business of my whole life. Through thy grace I will retain a sense of thy former favours, and repeat my thanksgivings for them; and every day give thanks for the benefits with which I am daily loaded. I will lift up my hands Toward thee, in heaven, in prayers and praises, to my duty, and against my enemies; in thy name According to thy command, with confidence in thy name, or thy nature and attributes, and in the strength of thy Spirit and grace.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments