Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 86:17
Show me a token for good; that they which hate me may see [it], and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast helped me, and comforted me.
17. a token for good ] Some visible and unmistakable sign of Thy favour towards me. Cp. Jer 24:6; Ezr 8:22; Neh 5:19; Neh 13:31.
that they &c.] That they which hate me may be ashamed when they see that thou &c. Cp. Psa 40:3; Psa 6:10; Psa 35:4: and for holpen comforted, Isa 49:8; Isa 49:13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Shew me a token for good … – Hebrew, Make me a sign for good; that is, Do that for me in my trouble which will be an evidence that thou dost favor me, and wilt save me. Let there be such a manifest interposition in my behalf that others may see it, and may be convinced that thou art God, and that thou art the Protector and Friend of those who put their trust in thee. We need not suppose that the psalmist refers here to a miracle in his behalf. Any interposition which would save him from the hands of his enemies – which would defeat their purposes – which would rescue him when there seemed to be no help, would be such an evidence that they could not doubt that he was the friend of God. Thus they would be made ashamed of their purposes; that is, they would be disappointed and confounded; and there would be furnished a new proof that God was the protector of all who put their trust in him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 86:17
Show me a token for good, that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed; because Thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me.
Tokens for good
At the outset note–
1. How this man in the hour of conflict looks to his Divine protector. Not to men but to God does he cry, And observe–
2. That his troubles drove him to God. Too often they drive men away from God.
3. We look to God along. We may not set up a rival with God in the temple of our trust. What is it that thou wouldst yoke with God? Oh to be cut clear of all visible supports, and props, and holdfasts! You have seen a balloon well filled struggling to rise: what kept it downy What hindered it? The ropes which bound it to earth. Cut clear the ropes, and then see how it mounts! With a spring it leaps upward while we are gazing into the open sky. Oh for such a clearance and such a mounting for our spirits! Alas, we are hindered and hampered, and those bonds which detain us are our visible supports and reliances. My soul, wait thou only upon God. The Lord bring us into this high state of spiritual emancipation. Now, let us notice the request David puts up. If we are in his state of mind when we put up a like prayer, this asking for a token will do us no harm: otherwise such desire may be very hurtful to us.
I. This request for a token. It was to be from God and according to Gods will, and asked in faith, not in unbelief. For we have no right to say we will not believe unless God give us a token. We are bound to believe Him whether He gives us a token or not. And tokens that men have had, or thought they had, they have come to question about after a while. Peter, though he had seen our Lords transfiguration, declares that he had the more sure word of prophecy. Yet may we ask for tokens in a subordinate sense, when we are willing to believe God without them: we may ask for them as confirmatory signs and seals. Several such are named in this psalm.
1. We may long for answer to prayer (Cf. 5:1, 6). If we have received such answers (and have we not?), we may take them as tokens for good.
2. Then, preservation of character is another token (Psa 86:2). If amid much trial and temptation we have been able to maintain an unblemished reputation, then you need not envy any among the sons of men.
3. Deliverance in trouble is another such (Psa 86:2). And there is another form of token which must never be overlooked, and that is–
4. A sense of pardoned sin (Psa 86:3; Psa 86:5). Before this all ills disappear. And–
5. Support under trial. If God gives you this, if you are able to say to all God sends you, Thy will be done, take comfort from that.
6. Cheering visits from Christ, and fresh anointings of the Holy Spirit are also most sure tokens for good. They are implied in Psa 86:4; Psa 86:11; Psa 86:16; and in our text.
II. The result of such tokens. Our enemies are abashed before them, The most malicious adversaries of Gods people have stood in awe of them.
III. Conclusion. What an unhappy state must those be in who have troubles, but have no God to go to: enemies, but no defender; darkness, but no star of hole. Your friends, and, still less, yourself, are to be trusted in such times. What can they do? Oh, seek the Saviours face. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Tokens for good
Webster defines a token thus: Something intended to represent or indicate another thing or event. The rainbow was the token to Noah that a second flood would not destroy the world (Gen 9:1-17). The blood on the doorposts of the Israelites was a token that their firstborn would be spared when the destroying angel passed over the land (Exo 12:13). The going down of the shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward, was a token or sign that fifteen additional years would be added to Hezekiahs life (Isa 38:7-8). God grants to His people tokens for good.
1. A deep sense of sin is a token for good–the precursor of salvation. Sinners must be made sorrowful for their sins, or they cannot be saved.
2. Prayerfulness. Do you feel a strong impulse to pray for the prosperity of the Church, or for one of its individual members; for your family, or for your personal growth in the Divine life? It is a token for good, the work of the Spirit within you, a sure precursor of some blessing which God has in store for you.
3. A spirit of inquiry into the meaning of Gods Word. Luther received a token for good when reading an ancient manuscript in his cell. He saw what a treasure of light and life there was in the Bible compared with the traditions of the Papacy. He discovered the doctrine of justification by faith, which he calls the test of a standing or falling Church. He also found that millions of people were ready to receive its blessed light.
4. In the prosecution of our work God gives tokens for good. A preacher saw no good done, and resolved to quit the scene of his labours, but he was encouraged by the dream of a man with a small hammer striking a large head, which after a long time flew into a thousand pieces.
5. Dark and distressing dispensations of Providence are often a token for good. Health decays: business fails. Temporal loss often leads to spiritual gain. If God takes away one blessing He confers another more fitted to promote our well-being than that of which He deprived us. The drying up of the streams of earthly comfort lead men to seek the water of life. (H. Woodcock.)
God our helper
I like this Saxon word holpen. There is something substantial in the appearance of it and hearty in the sound of it. When associated with certain adverbs and prepositions its meaning comes out in full force. Help forward, onward, out, over, off, to, up. Thou, Lord, hast holpen me. We have cause to say this every birthday, and when completing each stage of life. Have we not reason to say it at the end of decades of years, as we pass from childhood to youth and from youth to manhood? In truth this is a suitable utterance at the end of every day. (Samuel Martin.)
Comfort
To what shall we liken comfort? It is like copious and heavy dew to withering flowers. It is like rain to the parched and thirsty earth. It is like an anodyne to sharp pain. It is like the sight of coast and harbour to the mariner, when the sea is rough and the sky is stormy. It is like the appearance of the moon after hours of thick, black, dark cloudiness. It is like the mothers voice to a terrified child, and like the mothers arms to a fretful babe. Comfort is a word which we interpret by our feelings. A mothers lap and bosom, and a birds nest, are embodiments of Gods idea of comfort. (Samuel Martin.)
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Psa 87:1-7
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 17. Show me a token for good] aseh immi oth, “Make with me a sign.” Fix the honourabie mark of thy name upon me, that I may be known to be thy servant. There seems to be an allusion here to the marking of a slave, to ascertain whose property he was. The Anglo-Saxon, [A. S.] on [A. S.], “do with me a token in good.’ Old Psalter: Do with me signe in gude. From [A. S.] tacn we have our word token, which signifies a sign, mark, or remembrancer of something beyond itself; a pledge that something, then specified, shall be done or given. Give me, from the influence of thy Spirit in my heart, a pledge that the blessings which I now ask shall be given in due time. But he wished for such a sign as his enemies might see; that they might know God to be his helper, and be confounded when they sought his destruction.
ANALYSIS OF THE EIGHTY-SIXTH PSALM
This Psalm is a continued prayer, and may be divided into four parts: –
I. The first part is a petition for safety, drawn from his own person, Ps 86:1-4.
II. The second, a quickening of the same petition, drawn from the person and nature of God, Ps 86:5-13.
III. The third, taken from the quality of his adversaries, Ps 86:14.
IV. The fourth, a conjunction of all these three; the first, Ps 86:15; the second, Ps 86:16; the third, Ps 86:17.
I. The reasons of his petition, drawn from himself.
1. “Bow down thine ear.” Reason: “I am poor and needy,” Ps 86:1.
2. “Preserve my soul.” Reason: “I am holy,” or merciful, Ps 86:2.
3. “Save thy servant.” Reason: “He puts his trust in thee,” Ps 86:3.
4. “Be merciful unto me.” Reason: “I cry unto thee daily,” Ps 86:4.
5. “Rejoice the soul of thy servant.” Reason: “For unto thee do I lift up my soul,” Ps 86:4.
II. A quickening of the petition, drawn from the nature of God.
1. “For thou, Lord, art good,” c., Ps 86:5-6.
2. “I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me,” Ps 86:7.
3. “There is none like unto thee,” Ps 86:8.
4. “Nor any works like unto thy works,” Ps 86:8. This shall be amply proved: for
5. “All nations,” now worshipping idols, “shall be converted to thee,” Ps 86:9.
6. “Because thou art great, and doest wondrous things,” Ps 86:10.
On this reason, that there is none like God, –
1. He begs to be governed by his word and Spirit, Ps 86:11.
2. Promises to praise him for his great mercy, Ps 86:12-13.
III. He presses another argument taken from his enemies.
1. They were proud: “The proud are risen against me.”
2. They were powerful: “The assemblies of violent men.”
3. They were ungodly: “They did not set thee before them,” Ps 86:14.
IV. He amplifies his former argument.
1. From the nature of God: “Thou art full of compassion,” &c., Ps 86:15.
2. From his own condition: “Turn unto me and have mercy upon me,” Ps 86:16.
3. From the quality of his adversaries: “Show me a token – that they which hate me may be ashamed,” Ps 86:17.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Vouchsafe unto me some evident and eminent token of lay good will to me, for the conviction of mine enemies, and mine own comfort.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. Show meliterally, “Makewith me a token,” by Thy providential care. Thus in and by hisprosperity his enemies would be confounded.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Show me a token for good,…. Not only one by which he might know that his sins were pardoned, and his person accepted with God, and that he should be saved; but one visible to others, even to his enemies, by which they might know that God was on his side, and would verily do him good: Kimchi interprets it of the kingdom; and his being raised to the throne of Israel was a token of the Lord’s goodness to him, and showed that he had a delight in him, and meant to do him good:
that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed; of their envy of him, their combinations and conspiracies against him, and of all their efforts to distress him, to hinder him of the kingdom, or deprive him of it, or make him uncomfortable in it:
because thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me; he comforted him by helping him against his enemies, and out of his troubles; and, by doing both, showed him a token for good, and filled his enemies with shame and confusion.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The last verse contains an additional confirmation of the statement, that he was in a manner forsaken of God. He would not have desired to be favored with some token of the divine favor, had he not been on all sides driven to despair, and had not the divine favor been hidden from him to try his patience. It was a proof of no ordinary steadfastness to maintain the conflict with this temptation, and to do this so successfully, as not to cease to descry light in the midst of darkness. He desires that his enemies may be put to shame, because they assailed his simplicity with mockery and scoffing, as if he had acted a foolish part by trusting in God. The miserable and distressing condition in which the Church was placed after the Babylonish captivity, might be apt to sink the minds of the godly into despondency; and, accordingly, the Holy Spirit here promises her restoration in a wonderful and incredible manner, so that nothing would be more desirable than to be reckoned among the number of her members.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(17) A token for goodi.e., some sign of continued or renewed providential care and love, such, indeed, as an Israelite under the old covenant saw, and every pious heart under the new sees, in what to others is an every-day occurrence. The expression for good is a favourite one with Nehemiah (Neh. 5:19; Neh. 13:31) and Jeremiah (Jer. 24:5-6, and comp. Rom. 8:28. &c).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. Token for good Such a turn of affairs as shall prove to my enemies, not only that I am successful against all their power and strategy, but that my prosperity is of God. It was not enough to succeed against the conspiracy, but it must appear that God was on his side. This alone could restore public order, give sanction to law, and re-establish his authority.
Comforted me A beautiful instance of David’s deep heart and real piety. The verb denotes such consolation as flows from true sympathy. It was not a demonstration of the divine power simply that he asked, but of the divine sympathy also. Let my enemies see that thou hast consoled me, as one that heartily and lovingly enters into the righteousness of my cause and the depth of my afflictions. The past tense of the verbs is delicately put for the present by the lively anticipations of faith.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 86:17. Shew me a token for good Vouchsafe me a token of thy goodness, that they who hate me may see it and be ashamed, and be convinced that thou, O Lord, art he who helpest me and comfortest me. Bishop Hare and Green.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The same composition may breathe the language of prayer and praise, and our hymns speak our request for mercy, as well as our thankfulness for what we have received.
1. He intermixes his prayers and pleas for mercy and salvation. Bow down thine ear, O Lord, and hear me, speaking after the manner of men, and intimating the great condescension of God, when he takes notice of such poor worms as we are, and vouchsafes a hearing to our imperfect supplications; for I am poor and needy; this is his plea, for God hath promised to hear such, and will be magnified in his mercy towards them who have nothing but their wants and miseries to bring to him. Preserve my soul, or my life, the life of his body, from Saul’s enmity, or the more precious life of his spirit, which, in his sojourning among idolaters, amid temptations, and far from the ordinances of the sanctuary, was in danger; for the greatest saint, without God’s continual preservation, would quickly fall. His plea is, for I am holy, innocent of all the accusations laid against him by Saul and his courtiers; and also being renewed by divine grace, he pleads it as an argument for God’s carrying on his work in his soul. Note; However poor we are, yet, if rich in grace, we need never repine at our lot. O thou, my God, save thy servant; he expected not salvation in any other, but hoped to find it in him, his reconciled God; in whose love he had a precious interest, as being his servant, and therefore entitled to his protection; and that trusteth in thee, not in his own holiness, but God’s grace, and therefore God’s faithfulness was engaged to him for the fulfilment of his promises. Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for merit he utterly disclaimed, and now in time of need sought the promised mercy; for I cry unto thee daily, and therefore, waiting on God in his appointed way, was emboldened to expect the help he wanted. Rejoice the soul of thy servant with discoveries of thy pardoning love, with thy comforting Spirit, and with deliverance from his present trouble: and he urges this argument, for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul, as an oblation on God’s altar, devoted to his service; and whoever thus continues instant in prayer, will be sent away rejoicing in God.
2. He expresses his confidence in God’s grace and help. For thou, Lord, art good, essentially so in himself, and manifesting in innumerable instances his goodness to his believing people, and ready to forgive, which is an especial proof of it, nothing being so desirable to a guilty soul as the pardon of sins; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee: knowing the riches of God’s grace, his heart rested satisfied in him, and left his case contentedly in God’s hands. Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer, and attend to the voice of my supplications; and being fully persuaded of God’s willingness to hear and help him, he professes it as his continual purpose to wait upon God, In the day of my trouble; for such must every faithful soul more or less expect, from temptation, opposition, and affliction. I will call upon thee, committing all the concerns of body and soul into thy hands; for thou wilt answer me, of this I rest assured, and therefore wait in confidence to see the salvation of God.
2nd, Having professed his own dependance upon God, the Psalmist,
1. Ascribes to him the glory due unto his name, and therein shews what ground he had to trust, and not be afraid, when this glorious God was his support. Among angels, or men, none can be found comparable with him, or who can presume to rival his stupendous works of creation, providence, and redemption. All nations are the work of his hands, and must own him their great Creator: They shall come and worship him alone, and glorify his name, by yielding themselves up to his service, in body, soul, and spirit, as bound for ever to approve themselves his faithful servants, which prophesy will receive its full and most glorious accomplishment in the latter days of the Messiah’s kingdom. Infinitely great in his adorable perfections, he worketh wonders in nature, providence, and grace; which angels, as well as men, behold with admiration: and as there is none like him, neither is there any besides him: thou art God alone!
2. He prays for a heart to fear and follow him. Teach me thy way, O Lord; for we are blind and ignorant without divine teaching, and never else could know the way of salvation. I will walk in thy truth; when taught of God what is truth, he would follow it, particularly when instructed in the knowledge of Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, in whom we must walk, believing in him, and expecting happiness from him. Unite my heart to fear thy name, solely and sincerely attached to God, fearing nothing but to offend him, desiring nothing so much as to please him; and this can only be received from God, whose grace can alone enable us thus to walk.
3. He acknowledges the everlasting obligations lying on him to bless and praise God’s name, and declares it is his full purpose of heart to do so. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, most cordially, and with delight; and I will glorify thy name for evermore, whilst I have a being upon earth, and through the days of eternity; and with abundant reason: For great is thy mercy toward me, yea, greater than I am able to express; and to me in such an astonishing manner declared; thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell, when by his sins, especially in the matter of Uriah, he had so justly deserved the wrath of God, and yet had obtained mercy, and, plucked as a brand from the burning, stood a monument of God’s infinitely rich and free grace. Note; The greatest saints of God reflect with deepest gratitude on the mercies they have experienced; and it heightens the songs of heaven, when those who are advanced to that glorious place look down on the flames beneath, and see on what a precipice of misery they stood when God snatched them from the everlasting burnings.
4. He lodges his complaint with God against his enemies. O God, the proud are risen against me, who could not bear the thoughts of his exaltation; and the assemblies of violent men, or terrible ones, have sought after my soul, confederate to destroy him, plotting his ruin, and with cruelty and malice breathing forth slaughter; and have not set thee before them, regardless of God’s omniscience, and fearless of his vengeance. Note; (1.) Proud men cannot bear the rebuke of a holy conversation, and therefore turn persecutors of the righteous. (2.) Though the wicked forget God, he does not forget them; but will, to their confusion, return their mischievous devices upon their own heads.
5. He professes his dependance on God’s kindness, to save him from their malice. But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious; though they were cruel, he was kind; though they persecuted, he would protect: longsuffering, even to the wicked, and much more to his believing people; plenteous in mercy, to redeem them from every misery, and truth, to engage their reliance on the faithfulness of his promises. Note; They who are under the care of this good God, need not fear the enmity of evil and malicious men.
6. He renews his prayer. O turn unto me with kind regard, and have mercy upon me, for thereon my hope is placed; give thy strength unto thy servant, for my own is weakness itself, but thine almighty, and save the son of thine handmaid, as one born in God’s house, from days of infancy devoted to his service, and who had taken the Lord by choice for his blessed master. Shew me a token for good, both for his own comfort, and visibly for his enemies’ confusion, that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed of their malice and enmity; because thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me; and therefore in fighting against his believing servant, they will find they have been impotently struggling against that omnipotent arm which protected him. Note; (1.) All our spiritual strength is from God alone; without him, we are weak and helpless as infancy. (2.) Whom God helps, he comforts; his assistance being the pledge of his love. (3.) Sooner or later the enemies of God’s people will be ashamed of their impotent malice.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
Pause, Reader, yet a little longer, and hear the cries which Jesus, thy Surety, used in the days of his flesh. He begs the Father to incline his ear to him, for, though holy, he is poor and needy; though harmless, the proud were risen up against him; and though undefiled and separate from sinners, yet there were those that hated him. And was it so, that he who was rich became poor for our sakes, that we, through his poverty, might be made rich? – Precious Lord! we have seen thee in thy low and debased estate, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and shall not such views of thine unequalled humiliation tend to reconcile our hearts to any, and to every situation, which thy wisdom appoints, and which thy grace will carry all thy people safely through? Oh for grace to imitate thy lovely example! Oh for a spirit of supplication to carry all trials, crosses, afflictions, to the throne; and there to remember we have an Advocate, one whom the Father heareth always; there to lodge, and there to leave all our wants; and to cast all our care upon him, who hath so cared, and still doth care, for us. And wert thou, blessed Jesus, in the days of thy flesh thus exercised? Though thou wert a Son, yet didst thou learn obedience by the things which thou didst suffer? And being made perfect, didst thou become the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey thee? Oh Lord! show some token for good, even the light of thy blessed countenance upon us; and let the whole world, both of friends and foes, know that He, who was once a man of Sorrows, is now our risen and exalted Saviour, and can, and will send down every token of good, as the necessities of his people shall require. Yes, Lord! we are assured that we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but thou wert, in all points, tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Help us then to come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 86:17 Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see [it], and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.
Ver. 17. Show me a token for good ] Make me king, as thou hast promised; and meanwhile so deliver me, that my greatest adversaries may be convinced of their malice and madness. At the death of some of the martyrs strange tokens were shown, as they had foretold: Latimer, Hauks, Smith, Samuel, &c., for instance. Son of God, shine upon me, said Hunter at the stake, and the sun shone out of a dark cloud so full, that he was forced to look another way (Acts and Mon. 1544, 1547, 1398).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Show: Psa 41:10, Psa 41:11, Psa 74:9, Isa 38:22, 1Co 5:5
that they: Psa 71:9-13, Psa 109:29, Mic 7:8-10
thou: Psa 40:1, Psa 71:20, Psa 71:21
Reciprocal: Gen 15:8 – General Exo 3:12 – token Jdg 6:17 – show Jdg 13:23 – he would not Psa 6:10 – Let all Psa 119:82 – When wilt Isa 26:11 – be 2Co 1:4 – comforteth Rev 11:12 – and their