The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 3: Psalms XC.-CL.Maclaren, Alexander
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms, Vol. 3: Psalms XC.-CL.
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Psalms -- Commentaries
The psalmist does not pause to say definitely that he was delivered,
but breaks into the celebration of the Name on which he had called,
and from which the certainty of an answer followed. Since Jehovah
is gracious, righteous (as strictly adhering to the conditions He
has laid down), and merciful (as condescending in love to lowly and
imperfect men), there can be no doubt how He will deal with trustful
suppliants. The psalmist turns for a moment from his own experience
to sun himself in the great thought of the Name, and thereby to come
into touch with all who share his faith. The cry for help is wrung
out by personal need, but the answer received brings into fellowship
with a great multitude. Jehovah's character leads up in ver. 6 to a
broad truth as to His acts, for it ensures that He cannot but care
for the "simple," whose simplicity lays them open to assailants,
and whose single-hearted adhesion to God appeals unfailingly to His
heart. Happy the man who, like the psalmist, can give confirmation
from his own experience to the broad truths of God's protection to
ingenuous and guileless souls! Each individual may, if he will, thus
narrow to his own use the widest promises, and put "I" and "me"
wherever God has put "whosoever." If he does he will be able to turn
his own experience into universal maxims, and encourage others to put
"whosoever" where his grateful heart has put "I" and "me."
The deliverance, which is thus the direct result of the Divine
character, and which extends to all the simple, and therefore included
the psalmist, leads to calm repose. The singer does not say so in cold
words, but beautifully wooes his "soul," his sensitive nature, which
had trembled with fear in death's net, to come back to its rest. The
word is in the plural, which may be only another indication of late
date, but is more worthily understood as expressing the completeness of
the repose, which in its fulness is only found in God, and is made the
more deep by contrast with previous "agitation."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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