Verse by Verse

¹⁹ He declares His word to Jacob,
His statutes and His judgments to Israel.

²⁰ He has not dealt thus with any nation;
And as for His judgments, they have not known them.

This psalm continues the focus of Psalm 146:6-10, reviewing the various expressions of God’s solicitude for Israel—and for which Israel’s responsive praise is not only obligated, but also good and pleasant. First and foremost in his ensuing review, the psalmist affirms that the Lord builds up Jerusalem (v.2)—referring here not to His “building” of the actual city, but rather, as borne out by the following parallel line, to His regathering of the outcasts of Israel. God also heals the brokenhearted (v.3), referring to His acts of delivering His people from oppression and distress at the hands of more powerful forces—hence the following emphasis on God’s sovereign authority (this being the point of His giving names to all of the stars) and strength (vs.4-5). The psalmist also points to the fact that, just as the Lord gives to every beast its food without showing favor (i.e., giving more food) to animals that are endowed with greater strength, such as the horse (vs.9-10a), so too He shows no favor towards the stronger when expressing His solicitude towards man (v.10b, in which “legs” symbolizes the muscular power that impels a warrior forward)—as particularly manifest in the history of Israel, who were not only not the strongest of peoples, but, from their inception (see Deuteronomy 7:7) onwards, among the fewest and weakest. It is in human weakness—provided that the weak are among those who fear (i.e., worship) the Lord and wait upon His lovingkindness—that God’s power is most manifest (2 Corinthians 12:9). — Wechsler, page 351.

Williams’ take:

Israel’s redemption from Egypt, the healing of the wounds there inflicted, and her formation into a nation, illustrate the greater deliverance now awaiting her, and which she will celebrate when the kingdoms of the earth become the Kingdoms of her Messiah. …

[God’s] power over nature, and His ability to make it serve His creatures, is recognized by His people and excites their praise (vs.7-18). In verses 10-11 He distinguishes between physical and spiritual strength. …

[God’s] election of Israel as the depository of His Word, and as the channel of its communication to the world (vs.19-20), moved both Moses and Paul to wonder and worship (Deuteronomy 4:8; Romans 3:2 and 11:33). — Williams, page 413.

¹⁰ The Lord shall reign forever—
Your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!

That the final five psalms are intended as a distinct unit is indicated by the fact that each one (and hence the unit as a whole) is framed by the identical exhortation “Praise the LORD!”—reflecting as well as the shared focus of each psalm on the central theme of god’s praise, both its basis and its extent. Given this thematic focus, it became an established practice in early Jewish tradition (continued to this day) to recite these five psalms, together with Psalm 145, as part of the daily morning liturgy. Though none of these five psalms has a heading, early Jewish tradition (in the Septuagint) attributes the first three to the post-exilic prophets Haggai and Zechariah. — Wechsler, page 349

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The psalmist follows a call to praise by exhorting Israel (explicitly referenced as his addressees in v.10) not to trust in princes who are mere mortal men, an din whom there is therefore no salvation. Then, after affirming the blessedness of the one who adheres to this principle (i.e. of trusting/hoping in God rather than in human leaders), the psalmist considers the various ways in which God’s solicitude is expressed towards His people (in vs.6-9), culminating (in v.10) with an allusion to that solicitude as finally and ideally manifest when He establishes His reign over Zion forever (cf. Ezekiel 43:7ff; Zechariah 14:9ff; Revelation 21:2ff). — Wechsler, page 350.

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The God of Jacob (v.5); Your God, O Zion (v.10). The distinctive and trustworthy character described in vs.7-9 belongs to this God exclusively and to no other; the God who is known to Israel and in Zion. This is the exclusivism of the Old Testament. The abstract concept of “deity” is not enough for a man to trust; nor is any other claimant to the title “god.” Only one God is worthy of trust and He is to be found only in Jacob and Zion. — Guthrie, page 544.

strangers (v.9) — foreigners living in Israel, often refugees without personal possessions

¹⁷ The Lord is righteous in all His ways,
Gracious in all His works.

¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.

¹⁹ He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He also will hear their cry and save them.

²⁰ The Lord preserves all who love Him,
But all the wicked He will destroy.

²¹ My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord,
And all flesh shall bless His holy name
Forever and ever.

It is an acrostic Psalm, the verses beginning in the Hebrew with the successive letters of the alphabet. Somehow the couplet for the fourteenth letter, Nun, has dropped out of the text as it has come down to us. The Septuagint, however, supply the omission thus: “The Lord is faithful in His words, and holy in all His works.” The place of this verse is between verses 13 and 14 in our English Bibles. — Meyer, page 176.

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This psalm is structured as an alphabetic acrostic … although excluding the 14th letter, which further enables the organization of this psalm into three stanzas of seven verses each. These numerical elements of the psalm’s structure in turn reinforce and sharpen our understanding of its content—to wit: that each of the three stanzas describe the complete/perfect (=”7″) expression of a distinct aspect of “God’s name,” all three of which serve as the collective basis for blessing him to the utmost/superlative (=”3″) degree. — Wechsler, page 347.

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The repetition at the end of the psalm of David’s opening declaration, “And I will bless They name forever and ever,” underscores the them of the psalm itself. So too, the specific reference to “God’s name” (rather than just “God”) indicates a specific thematic focus on God’s “reputation” as based on His manifest deeds of deliverance and victory (both spiritual and physical). … Especially prominent in this section is the notion of God’s “greatness,” as borne out by the three-fold use of the Hebrew root g-d-l (“to be great”): in v.3 (“Great is the LORD … His greatness is unsearchable”) and v.6 (“I will tell of They greatness). — Wechsler, pages 347-348.

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[Verses 8-14] emphasize the glory of God’s name (i.e., reputation) as manifest in His dominion—specifically, His dominion as characterized by (1) the glory (vs.11a, 12b) and everlasting extent (v.13) of that over which He rules (i.e., His kingdom in vs. 11-13); (2) the rule itself, which, like the Ruler, is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and great in lovingkindness; and (3) the “citizens” of His kingdom, who are described as “recipients of hesed). Wechsler, page 348.

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Saints (v.10) — This title (Heb. hasid) is related to “steadfast love (Heb. hesed), and therefore denotes primarily those who have been the object of the covenant love of the Lord; it then advances to include also the thought of their responsive love toward Him. — Guthrie, page 544.

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David concludes (vs.15-21) on the specific ways in which God’s hesed, referenced in the previous section, is expressed towards the citizens of His kingdom—both now as well as in the hereafter—to wit: He supplies their need for physical sustenance in due time (v.15); even more, He satisfies their desire (vs. 16 and 19); He is near to them (an allusion to Deuteronomy 4:7, signifying special access to God on the basis of relationship); He saves them; and He keeps (or “preserves,” “guards”) them, meaning that, from the moment that their status as “citizens” in God’s kingdom is granted, as expressed through their faith here and now, He maintains that status forever. — Wechsler, pages 348-349.

Williams’ take:

In Psalm 22:25, Messiah said, “My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation.” This vow He here fulfills on ascending the throne of Jehovah at Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 29:23). As Viceroy He acts for God the Great King, addressing Him as “My God the King.” Before Him stands “the great congregation” composed of the princes and people of Israel, and the representatives of all nations. This mighty anthem is then sung. Messiah leads the song, and the great congregation responds. The subjoined arrangement has been suggested:

Messiah sings: “I will extol Thee,” etc., (vs.1-2).
The great congregation responds: “Great is Jehovah,” etc., (vs.3-4).
Messiah sings: “I will speak,” etc., (v.5).
The congregation responds, “and men shall speak” etc., (v.6).
Messiah sings: “Yea, I will declare,” etc., (v.6).
The congregation responds: “They shall abundantly” etc., (vs.7-20).
Messiah sings: “My mouth shall speak” etc., (v.21).
The response: “And all flesh shall bless,” etc., (v.21). — Williams, page 412.

¹¹ Rescue me and deliver me from the hand of foreigners,
Whose mouth speaks lying words,
And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood—

¹² That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth;
That our daughters may be as pillars,
Sculptured in palace style;

¹³ That our barns may be full,
Supplying all kinds of produce;
That our sheep may bring forth thousands
And ten thousands in our fields;

¹⁴ That our oxen may be well laden;
That there be no breaking in or going out;
That there be no outcry in our streets.

¹⁵ Happy are the people who are in such a state;
Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!

[This psalm] is partly compiled of passages taken from other Psalms, as 8:4, and 18:13-15. But the last verses (9-15) are a valuable addition. — Meyer, page 174.

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In most Jewish congregations in Israel, this psalm—which focuses on God’s dominion over both His own people (v.2) and the hostile Gentile nations that surround them—is recited at the beginning of prayers for the end of the Sabbath (i.e., on Saturday night, ushering in the new [lunar] week) as well as on Israeli Memorial Day, honoring soldiers killed in the line of duty as well as the thousands of civilians killed in acts of terror and aggression. — Wechsler, page 344.

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David underscores both the depth and all-encompassing nature of his personal connection to God by describing Him with expressions in which the possessive pronoun “my” predominates. David expands and enhances his devotional focus by pondering … why God would condescend to enter into intimate relationship (this being the sense of “take knowledge of”) with any human. The implicit answer is, of course, that God is not only holy, righteous, and just, but also merciful, gracious, and loving. — Wechsler, page 345.

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In vs.5-11, David affirms God’s role as the one who both protects Israel and determines her military success. … As in Isaiah 8:7, the enemies of Israel are described with the imagery of “great waters” (v.7), emphasizing their greater number and military prowess, and hence David’s ultimate reliance on God to rescue him and his people. Also, the reference to the evil sword (v.10) may allude to the sword of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:45 and 51) who is himself a biblical symbol of Gentile opposition to God and His people. — Wechsler, pages 345-346.

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In vs.12-15 David implored God’s continued solicitude in providing for his people’s physical-material needs. … This last section should be taken to refer to the messianic kingdom. The two-fold “How blessed are the people” in v.15 hearkens back to David’s conclusion of Psalm 2. — Wechsler, page 346.

¹¹ Revive me, O Lord, for Your name’s sake!
For Your righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble.

¹² In Your mercy cut off my enemies,
And destroy all those who afflict my soul;
For I am Your servant.

Early Jewish attribution identifies the occasion for this psalm as the time when David was forced to flee Jerusalem by his son Absalom (2 Samuel 15-18). Whether or not this tradition is true, it is worth noting that (1) in verses 2 and 7 David clearly affirms the possibility that his persecution by the enemy may be an expression of God’s just chastisement, which is consistent with his view of Absalom’s coup (2 Samuel 16:8-11), and (2) David is unusually restrained with respect to imprecation in this psalm, focusing primarily on God’s deliverance and spiritual guidance (vs.8 and 10) and making only one very general imprecatory statement in v.12 concerning his collective “enemies,” all of which is consistent with his loving attitude towards Absalom. — Wechsler, page 342.

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David begins his prayer by imploring God to hear him, not because David himself merits a hearing, but on the basis of God’s own faithfulness and righteousness. This spiritually honest (and accurate) attitude of self-introspection—which is one of the main qualifiers of David as “a man after (God’s) own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14)—is further borne out by this affirmation in v.2 that his current persecution by “the enemy” (v.3) may well be intended as an expression of … chastisement. — Wechsler, page 343.

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The extremely close parallels between elements of the phraseology in v.5 and that in Psalm 44:1-2 indicates that the specific “work” of God to which David here refers is the exodus. … By his statement “I remember … I meditate …” David is thus affirming his confidence in God’s faithfulness: just as He upheld His promise to the Israelites through the patriarchs, so too would He uphold His promise to David (2 Samuel 7:8-16). — Wechsler, page 343.

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Most important to David was … that God’s glory be manifested in his life (v.11) … as the result of David’s obedience and devotion. For this reason he affirms the potential necessity of God’s chastisement, though in affirming its necessity—which implies, of course, a recognition of his sin—he nonetheless asks God to bring that chastisement to an end, while at the same time imploring God to teach him to do His will (v.10). — Wechsler, page 244.

Williams’ take:

As in the two prior Psalms so here Messiah prays from out of the depths and darkness of Sheol. … In the second verse He pleads for the justification of His people, and in the last verses for the destruction of their enemies. … The enemy of verses 3 and 4 is death—the last enemy that is to be destroyed. In these two verses are fore-told Messiah’s death on the cross. … The depth of anguish was deepened by the remembrance of the glory which He had with the Father before and at creation (v.5). The language of intense suffering, of full subjection of will, and of confident expectation of the promised resurrection, are all expressed in verses 6-11.

God’s true servants in all dispensations may, with David, use the words of this Psalm as a vehicle of prayer and faith in times of deep trial; but only One could suffer fully the sorrows here revealed. — Williams, pages411-412.

I think I agree with Williams here that the psalm is Messianic, but at the same time reflects a prayer of David and one that we can use when facing hardship.

⁵ I cried out to You, O Lord:
I said, “You are my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.

⁶ Attend to my cry,
For I am brought very low;
Deliver me from my persecutors,
For they are stronger than I.

⁷ Bring my soul out of prison,
That I may praise Your name;
The righteous shall surround me,
For You shall deal bountifully with me.”

the cave (intro) — either the cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1ff.) or the cave at Ein Gedi, among the Rocks of the Wild Goats (1 Samuel 24:1ff). In both cases, David was fleeing Saul who wanted to kill him.

A proper biblical definition [of worship] entails any outward expression by believers that affirms God for who He is and what He does. It is therefore unquestionably an act of worship for David to pour out his complaint before God (v.2; as also in Psalm 77:3), for in doing so he is affirming who God is, not simply as his Creator, but as his Father—a Father who earnestly desires to hear and respond to all that fills the heart of His deeply beloved child. … As David emphasizes four times in the opening two verses, [his complaint] is “poured out” to God alone.  Hence, when Paul exhorts the Philippian Christians to “do all things without complaining or arguing” (Philippians 2:14) he is not contradicting the clear example of David (or Job, among many others), but rather emphasizing the importance of refraining from such as part of our witness to unbelievers, “among whom you appear as lights in the world” (Philippians 2:15). — Wechsler, pages 339-340.

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The second parameter of “worshipful” complaint (v.7a) is that it is motivated ultimately by the desire to further God’s glory. Hence … David draws his complaint to a conclusion by imploring God to bring his soul out of prison (here, intended as a figurative reference to circumstantial-psychological “darkness,” despair and depression), not simply for the sake of his personal comfort and ease, but so that he may give thanks to God’s name—i.e., that by resolving the situation about which he is complaining, God would enable David to (1) express his worship in the way that God legislated by offering Him sacrifice at the Tabernacle (which he was prevented from doing as a fugitive from Saul), and (2) enhance the basis of God’s praise by adding yet another distinct act of His redemption thereto. — Wechsler, page 341.

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The final parameter of worshipful complaint (v.7b) is the tempering thereof by affirming God’s promises—specifically, by affirming His promise of future and final victory. It is this time that David envisions by his closing, confident assertion, “The righteous will surround me”—a situation that was certainly never true during David’s lifetime. — Wechsler, page 341.

Williams’ take:

David when in the cavern reviews his experiences prior to his descent into it (vs.3-6); prays that he may be delivered out of it; and believes that his prayer will be heard (v.7). In all this he was a type of his Son and Lord.

The reader is invited to contemplate Messiah when shut up in the prison-house of Sheol (vs.1-2, 7); he is permitted to hear Him reviewing before God His life as Man (v.3); His anguish and prayer when hanging on the tree (vs.4-6); His petition to be delivered out of the death-world; His assurance that that prayer will be heard (v.7); and the subsequent joy that His resurrection would cause to His people (v.7) …

His absolute abandonment and loneliness when in the hands of the High Priests and of Pilate, and when nailed to the tree, are declared in verse 4; and in verses 5-6 His unfailing faith in, and dependence upon, God up to the last moment that in “the land of the living” He suffered the rage and cruelty of His persecutors is touchingly expressed. — Williams, pages 410-411.

⁸ But my eyes are upon You, O God the Lord;
In You I take refuge;
Do not leave my soul destitute.

⁹ Keep me from the snares they have laid for me,
And from the traps of the workers of iniquity.

¹⁰ Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
While I escape safely.

David begins (vs.1-4) by appealing to God on the basis of their relationship—i.e., that though he is a sinner, he is nonetheless God’s child, and can therefore call upon God with the expectation that He will indeed give ear to his voice (i.e., meet his need in the best way possible [per God’s knowledge of what is best]). — Wechsler, page 338.

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The relationship nuance of God’s guidance is here extended by David to include the chastising activity of his fellow children of God—i.e., the righteous—who smite (the verb indicates and ongoing action) him in love and so reprove him (v.5), the phraseology of which hearkens to the same action on the part of God towards those “whom He loves (Proverbs 3:11-12)—which action is in turn emulated by God’s children towards each other (cf. Matthew 5:48; 1 John 3:16; 4:7-21). — Wechsler, page 338.

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David’s absolute and unqualified submission to God—and in particular to God’s chastisement is here emphasized by his declaring not only that his eyes are toward God (parallel in sense to the “lifting up of [his] hands” toward God in v.2), but also by his specific reference to God as “Yahweh, my Lord,” paralleling his affirmation in Psalm 16:1-2. — Wechsler, page 339.

Williams’ take:

The hatred of man’s heart to Messiah and His followers (vs. 7 and 9); the just judgment of these haters (v.10); and the faith and dependence of Messiah Himself in and upon God, and His preciousness to God (vs.1, 3-4, 6 and 8), form the the teaching of the song. …

His subjection and dependence as a man, and His shrinking from evil, are foretold in the petitions of verses 3-4. …

The doom of the wicked is predicted in verse 10. The future tense should be here used, as in the Hebrew text; and the sens of the second member of the verse is that the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Herodians were caught in their own snares, but that Messiah passed safely through and over them. — Williams, page 410.

I don’t find Wechsler’s interpretation particularly meaty, and Williams’ interpretation is a little hard to find in the passage. I think Morgan may have caught the meaning best:

In this song the influence of the external troubles upon the inner life of the singer is revealed. Throughout it breathes the spirit of fear lest the soul should be seduced from the attitude of whole-hearted loyalty to God. The peril most evidently threatening arises from the enticements of the ungodly; and the psalmist earnestly prays that he may be protected by Jehovah in speech and thought and action.

Without in so many words declaring so, the song clearly reveals the fact that the singer has been sorely tempted to turn aside to ways of ungodly men, to share their hospitality, and so escape their hostility. This peril is more subtle than that of the active opposition of these men, and in this distress he turns to God. … If the former psalm reveals the perils of foes without, this no less clearly deals with the danger of fears within.

I would probably replace the word “fear” in that last sentence with “temptations” — temptations that come from the wicked in the world around the believer. — Morgan, page 275.

¹² I know that the Lord will maintain
The cause of the afflicted,
And justice for the poor.

¹³ Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name;
The upright shall dwell in Your presence.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;

²⁴ And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand
Against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.

⁸ The Lord will perfect that which concerns me;
Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

The Old Testament … strenuously denies the existence of “other gods” as beings (Psalm 115:4-7) but ever recognizes their reality as objects of somebody’s worship and their potential to seduce Israel away from the Lord. The psalmist’s purpose here (v.1) is simply to assert the absolute supremacy of the Lord against all such claimants to his worship (1 Corinthians 8:5-6). — Guthrie, page 537.

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Implicit in David’s assertion that he will give thanks with all his heart … before the gods is the contrary assertion that these other “gods” (i.e., the gods of “all the (Gentile) kings of the land” mentioned in v.4) deserve none of his worship, since they are in fact no gods at all (Psalm 135:15-18). The worshiper’s focus on the Temple is motivated not by the “house” itself, but by the presence of God Himself therein. God’s name here represents a summary reference to all the past deeds for which He is known—specifically those deeds expressive of His lovingkindness and truth, as when He redeemed David from Saul in the episode described in Psalm 57, where David employs the same parallelism (57:3; suggesting that the present psalm may have been specifically intended as a follow-up to the former). — Wechsler, page 332.

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One of the many reasons for the description of David as having a heart after God’s own (1 Samuel 13:14) was, as demonstrated here, his recognition of the underlying motivation tying together all of God’s dealings, both in word and in deed, with His people Israel—to wit: that by means of such the Gentiles might also come to know and worship Him as one people with Israel (cf. Isaiah 19:24-25). Such is clearly the meaning of vs.4-5, the very wording of which hearkens to David’s anticipation of the same in Psalm 22:27-31 and 68:32. — Wechsler, page 332.

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David concludes with the confident assertion (as opposed to a wish) that God will revive him—literally, “give me life,” referring not just to preservation of his mortal life, but also, if not more so, to the granting of eternal and incorruptible life in God’s presence, as in Psalm 30:3 and 80:18—as also intended by his parallel assertion that God will save him. — Wechsler, page 333.

Williams’ take:

The praise of the first three verses of this Psalm, the predictions of the next three, and the persuasion of the last two are based upon the trustworthiness of the Word of God. The first six verses will have their fulfillment in the future day of Messiah’s glory, and the last two express His faith while waiting for that glory. As Israel’s High Priest He sings the song for, and with, His people.

The prediction in verses 4-6 relate to the time when all the kings of the earth—the gods of verse 1—will become subject to the words of Messiah’s mouth (v.4); they will applaud His ways, and great will be His glory (v.5). He as the self-humbled One (Philippians 2:8) will be enthroned (v.6); but the proud one (Isaiah 10:13, Daniel 11:36) will be afar off in the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20). — Williams, page 408