{"id":8570,"date":"2023-11-18T08:10:06","date_gmt":"2023-11-18T14:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=8570"},"modified":"2023-11-18T08:10:30","modified_gmt":"2023-11-18T14:10:30","slug":"psalm-138","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=8570","title":{"rendered":"Psalm 138"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Psalm of David.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

1 <\/span>I will praise You with my whole heart;<\/span><\/span><\/em>
\nBefore the gods I will sing praises to You.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

2 <\/sup>I will worship toward Your holy temple,<\/span><\/em>
\nAnd praise Your name<\/span><\/em>
\nFor Your lovingkindness and Your truth;<\/span><\/em>
\nFor You have magnified Your word above all Your name.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

3 <\/sup>In the day when I cried out, You answered me,<\/span><\/em>
\nAnd made me bold with strength in my soul.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

4\u00a0<\/sup>All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord<\/span>,<\/span><\/em>
\nWhen they hear the words of Your mouth.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

5 <\/sup>Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord<\/span>,<\/span><\/em>
\nFor great is the glory of the Lord<\/span>.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

6 <\/sup>Though the Lord<\/span> is on high,<\/span><\/em>
\nYet He regards the lowly;<\/span><\/em>
\nBut the proud He knows from afar.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n
\n

7\u00a0<\/sup>Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;<\/span><\/em>
\nYou will stretch out Your hand<\/span><\/em>
\nAgainst the wrath of my enemies,<\/span><\/em>
\nAnd Your right hand will save me.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

8 <\/sup>The Lord<\/span> will perfect that which concerns me;<\/span><\/em>
\nYour mercy, O Lord<\/span>, endures forever;<\/span><\/em>
\nDo not forsake the works of Your hands.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

The Old Testament … strenuously denies the existence of “other gods” as beings (Psalm 115:4-7<\/span><\/a>) 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<\/span><\/a>). \u2014 Guthrie, page 537.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

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<\/span><\/a>). The worshiper\u2019s focus on the Temple is motivated not by the \u201chouse\u201d 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\u2014specifically those deeds expressive of His lovingkindness and truth, as when He redeemed David from Saul in the episode described in Psalm 57<\/span><\/a>, where David employs the same parallelism (57:3<\/span><\/a>; suggesting that the present psalm may have been specifically intended as a follow-up to the former). \u2014 Wechsler, page 332.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

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\u2014to 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<\/span><\/a> and 68:32<\/span><\/a>. \u2014 Wechsler, page 332.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

David concludes with the confident assertion (as opposed to a wish) that God will revive him\u2014literally, “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<\/span><\/a> and 80:18<\/span><\/a>\u2014as also intended by his parallel assertion that God will save him. \u2014 Wechsler, page 333.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Williams’ take:<\/h3>\n

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.<\/span><\/h3>\n

The prediction in verses 4-6 relate to the time when all the kings of the earth\u2014the gods of verse 1\u2014will 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<\/span><\/a>) 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). \u2014 Williams, page 408<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Psalm of David. 1 I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to You. 2 I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psalms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8570"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8572,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8570\/revisions\/8572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}