1 I love the Lord, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
2 Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
3 The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
4 Then I called upon the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul!”
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
7 Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
9 I will walk before the Lord
In the land of the living.
10 I believed, therefore I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted.”
11 I said in my haste,
“All men are liars.”
12 What shall I render to the Lord
For all His benefits toward me?
13 I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the Lord.
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord
Now in the presence of all His people.
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
Is the death of His saints.
16 O Lord, truly I am Your servant;
I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant;
You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
And will call upon the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord
Now in the presence of all His people,
19 In the courts of the Lord’s house,
In the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!
While God is transcendent (i.e., “above,” or distinct, from His creation—as affirmed in Psalm 115:3), He is also immanent (i.e., present and active within His creation)—the depth of which immanence forms the topic of the present psalm. In this opening section (vs.1-4) the psalmist praises God not simply for the fact that He can express His immanence by responding to the deepest need of man, but because He has and does respond to the psalmist’s need personally. That the psalmist has in view here man’s deepest—i.e., spiritual—need is indicated by his reference to Sheol (v.3), referring to his fundamental need for justification/salvation, as well as by his reference to the fact that God “hears” him (v.2), signifying God’s special, ongoing solicitude for one with whom He has a relationship. — Wechsler, pages 276-277.
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Regardless of whatever life might yet hold in store for him, the psalmist praises God (vs.5-11)—and in the process draws encouragement—from what He has already done, and than which there is no more gracious and compassionate (v.5) expression of God’s intimate immanence, to wit: His having set the psalmist’s soul at rest. In the confidence of this rest that he already has, and in the hope of future glory that it inseparably entails, the psalmist is able to derive further strength and determination to continue on in his walk before the LORD (v.9) despite his being greatly afflicted by others (v.10; cf. 2 Timothy 3:12). — Wechsler, page 277.
simple (v.6) — perhaps in the sense of “open-minded.” Williams believes it means “sinless.”
haste (v.11) = in a hurry, alarmed, to start away suddenly.
Williams’ take:
“Haste” does not mean “hastily” but hasting on. He [Messiah] found in this world nowhere to lay His head. He hasted through it as a pilgrim making speed to the Father’s House; and as He hasted His true and deliberate judgment as to man was that all men are untrustworthy. The Holy Spirit repeats this testimony in Romans 3:4. — Williams, page 388.
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In addition to expressing his personal praise and devotion to God, the psalmist is impelled by his experience of God’s intimate immanence to further express his praise for Him in a public venue—in the presence of all His people (vs.14 and 18). This public expression of worship consists, specifically, of his paying his vows to the Lord—i.e., his vows to offer God a sacrifice of thanksgiving for each of His manifold expressions of lovingkindness. — Wechsler, page 277.
This is my opinion on reading this psalm—I think it makes sense to read it as if the Messiah is speaking (see Williams below), which gives more meaning to anyone who is applying the psalm to his own life/experience.
2 Corinthians 4 makes it clear that the Messiah is the speaker in this fourth Hallel Psalm. The comforting message to faith in both Psalm and Epistle is that the resurrection of Christ is a pledge and assurance of the resurrection of His people; and that as God carried Him victoriously through the sorrows of life and of death, so will He triumphantly carry those who by faith are united to Him. Hence their resurrection (v.15) is based upon and connected with His resurrection (v.8).
The Psalm sung by Him and the little flock on the eve of His crucifixion will be re-sung by Him in the midst of the great congregation (22:25) on the morn of His coronation. This will take place in Jerusalem (v.9) in the courts of the Temple described in Ezekiel 40–48. …
The structure of the Psalm presents an introduction (vs.1-2) and two stanzas. In the former (vs.3-11) Messiah recalls His First Advent in weakness and atonement; in the latter He anticipates His Second Advent in power and glory (vs.12-19), and He praises and worships Jehovah in respect of both. This double theme appears in the introduction. He offers praise because of His deliverance out of the death-world (vs.3 and 8) and because of the promised fulfillment of the Covenant granting Him the kingdom (vs.14-19) — Williams, page 387.
