Psalms 61

Psalms 61. THE Psalmist prays in great distress to the Lord for deliver-ance (ver. 1, 2), grounds thin prayer on the fact that the Lord is his Saviour (ver. 3), and expresses his confident expectation of help from God (ver. 4). The basis of this confidence lies in this, that the God who hears his prayer has promised him an eternal dominion; may God, in fulfilment of this promise, vouch-safe to him deliverance; and he will continually thank him, (ver. 5-8). The Psalm consequently is divided into two strophes, separated by Selah, and consisting each of five verses, ver.4,) and ver. (5-8). In the first we have prayer and confidence, and in the second, the grounds of the confidence. That David was the author of the Psalm is evident not less from its title than from its contents. The mention of the taber-nacle-temple (ver. 4.) leads us to the time of David.

And inas-much as the Psalm was undoubtedly composed by a king-for it is as such that the Psalmist claims salvation as grounded on a divine promise-this king can be none other than David. This, moreover, is evident even from ver. 5.

For there the author refers to the promises contained in 2 Samuel 7. as having been imparted to him in answer to his prayer. The question may be asked, whether David composed the Psalm for any particular occasion, or merely for his own com-fort, and that of his successors on the throne, in disastrous times, and for the purpose of confirming the courage of his subjects. In favour of the first view, we have the clause, “from the ends of the earth,” which would seem to intimate that the Psalmist was at the time in exile, and that therefore the Psalm must have been composed during the rebellion of Absalom, when David was beyond Jordan: comp. Psalms 42:6. This special occasion, however, must not lead us to lose sight of the general reference. It could only be by keeping this reference in view that David issued the Psalm for public use.

The Psalm, even in our days, has its complete use, inasmuch as the promises in 2 Samuel 7. have undoubtedly their complete fulfilment in Christ. Gener-ally, whenever the kingdom of Christ is in danger, we may, in addition to other considerations, plead with God as the Psalm-ist does, on the ground also of this particular promise which he there made.Title: To the Chief Musician, on David’s instrumental music, by David. “On David’s instrumental music” (comp. on נגינה in Ps. liv.) is to be explained by Habakkuk 3:19, where thechurch calls the musical instruments of the temple its musicalinstruments. It is obvious that לדוד must be connected withthe preceding noun, because that noun is in the stat. constr.But this cannot be its only connection. For, in that case, therewould be no reason for the existence of the ל, and, besides, in the titles, לדוד, is the usual mark which points out that the Psalm was composed by David, and finally, this mark cannot be wanting herein the midst of Psalms, all of which are inscribed withthe name of David. We must, therefore, assume that לדוד both supplies the place of a genitive to נגינת and also serves to point out the authorship of the Psalm,-an idea which har-monizes well with the enigmatical character of the titles com-posed by David. The idea that the stat. constr. is used instead of the stat. abs. and that נגינת is to be pointed as if it were a plural, are mere attempts to cut the knot, and have, more-over, the analogy of the title of the following Psalm against them, a title which corresponds exactly to the one before us.

Psalms 61:1-4

The first strophe, ver. 1-4.-Ver. 1. Hear, O God, my cry, and attend to my prayer. Ver. 2. From the end of the earth I cry to thee in the trouble of my heart, wilt thou lead me to a rock which is too high for me. Ver. 3. For thou art my confi-dence, a strong tower before my enemies. Ver. 4. I will dwell in thy tabernacle for ever, I will trust in the shelter of thy wings.- הארץ קצה in ver. 2, stands in the sense of “the end of the earth,” “its extreme part;” comp. for example, Deuteronomy 28:64; and it will not do to translate it either “from the end of the land;” or “low down on the earth,” with Luther, (cam-pensis: e terra, quae longissimo tractu a coelo distat,) nor “from the extreme depth of the earth,” with Clauss. The end of the earth is at the same time the end of the heaven, (comp. Deuteronomy 4:32, Isaiah 13:5), and therefore that portion of it which is most remote from the throne of God, which was supposed to stand in the middle: comp. Psalms 135:7, Jeremiah 10:13; Jeremiah 51:16. David, when he was driven out of the Lord’s land, properly so called, felt as much distressed as if he had been banished to the utmost extremity of the earth, far from the face of God. And as there is, after all, in the expression an element of feeling, wemay perhaps consider it as equivalent to “I feel as far fromthee as if I were banished to the utmost extremity of the earth.” Still, that the idea conveyed by the expression contains as its principal element a matter of fact, is evident from the parallel passage in Psalms 42:7, from the circumstance that immediately after verse 5 David speaks in his own name, and from the refe-rence in the following Psalm to the time of Absalom.

The rock is noticed as a place of security; compare Psalms 40:2. “Which is too high for me,” is, “which is so high that I cannot in my own strength ascend it."-The היות in ver. 3 is to be taken as a pre-sent: the Psalmist grounds his prayer not only on what God has been, but on what he always is towards him. Proverbs 18:10 refers to the second clause: “the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it and is safe:” this is all the more evident from the fact, that the second part is strictly connected with the conclusion of ver. 2 The “I will dwell” in verse 4, is an energetic expression for, “I shall dwell.” The Psalmist is so sure of his privilege, that he proceeds as it were to take possession of it, without any regard to the misery of his pre-sent condition, by which he is effectually excluded from its enjoyment.

On “dwelling in the house of the Lord,” in the sense of “enjoying his grace;” see Psalms 27:4, and the pas-sages quoted there. The עולמים, properly “eternities,” but also “eternal,” shews that David, with his eye on the pro-mises in 2 Samuel 7. looked upon himself as identified with his posterity: comp. Psalms 21:4. So far from his enemies having it in their power to rob him personally of what the grace of God had given him, he is safe through this grace even to the most distant posterity. For the second clause compare Psalms 36:7.

Psalms 61:5-8

The second strophe (ver. 5-8) contains the ground of David’s confidence, viz. that sure word of prophecy, which guaranteed to him eternal dominion: against this rock all the waves of re-bellion must dash in vain.-Ver. 5. For thou, O Lord, heardest my vows, thou gavest the inheritance to them who feared thy name: Ver. 6. Thou wilt add days to the days of the king, his years last for many generations. Ver. 7. He will sit on a throne for ever before God, appoint mercy and truth to preserve him. Ver. 8. Therefore will I sing praise to thy name continually, paying my vows every day.-The “vows” in ver. 5 are prayers mingled with vows, like Jacob’s vow.

We gather the object of this prayer from verse 6: it is the continuance of his dominion. That the promise of Nathan was given in answer to ardentprayer on the part of David, we gather also from Psalms 21:2; Psalms 21:4, which throughout is to be considered as parallel to the 61:“thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips,-he desired life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.” The in-heritance of those who feared the name of the Lord is salvation: -even though we were to translate as erroneously as many have done, “thou gavest their inheritance to the leavers of thy name,” as if the constr. case could be used instead of the absolute.-In what this, inheritance of the Lord consists, (for the expression, being altogether general in its form, requires some limitation), is seen in ver. 6, which stands in the same relation to ver. 5, as in Psalms 21. verses 3 and 4, stand to verse 2. David’s fear of God had received as its reward the promise of eternal do-minion. Those who perceive the connection (at the end of ver. 5, there should be a colon), will not think anything of the usual future תוסיף being used in an optative sense. David speaks designedly of the days of the king instead of his own days, as might have been expected from what had been said, for the purpose of showing that he considered the promise of eternal dominion as relating not to himself personally but to his family -the royal family of David. In the second clause we supply from the first, “thou wilt increase.” “As generation and ge-neration,"-so that they resemble the continuance of a whole succession of generations.-“Before God,” in ver. 7, is “under the protecting guardianship of his grace:” compare 2 Samuel 7:29, " And now let it please thee to bless the house of thy ser-vant, that it may continue for ever before thee.” The מן,imper. from מנה in Pih., is to instruct, to appoint�\הסר and אמת, which are accusatives. Mercy and Truth are God’s servants, which are instructed to protect his devoted people, the royal family of David: compare “God will send his mercy and his truth,” Psalms 57:3, and Psalms 43:3. The “appoint” rises from the ground of “he will appoint:"-the imperative, there-fore, has a close affinity to the future: see similar imperatives in 2 Samuel 7:29.-The “therefore” in ver 8, “is if thou fulfillest this prayer and thine own promise.” David undertakes for his posterity in regard to the vow of thanks. At all times the call of grace will be accompanied by the corresponding call of thanks. In reference to the לשלמי, “paying therefore my vows,” (for thanks formed the soul of a vow), or “so that I pay,” compare Ewald, § 544.