A Prayer for Perseverance
Explanation of the Psalm
1–2 The holy prophet, mindful of God’s promises to those who put their trust in him, and not presuming on his own strength, exclaims, “In thee, O Lord,” and not in myself nor in any other creature, “I have hoped,” certain, therefore, that I will “never be put to confusion.” I fly to you in my present trouble, and ask of you “to deliver and rescue me” from the hands of my persecutors; “in thy justice,” with that justice that prompts you to punish the wicked, and free the innocent. And, for effect, he repeats the prayer, saying, “Incline thy ear unto me, and save me;” hear my humble voice, save me in the present danger.
3 He now explains more clearly what he wants from God, and that is, that God should protect him like a city strongly fortified, and incapable of being penetrated by the enemy. The Hebrew implies that this fortified place was on a lofty rock and, in truth, there is no easier way of overcoming all troubles than the knowing how to ascend in spirit to God, and there to contemplate the everlasting happiness; and there one will at once despise everything human; thus, the tribulations, which otherwise would be counted severe and heavy, St. Paul calls “momentary and light.” “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Cor. 4. “For thou art my firmament and my refuge.” Be my protector, for you alone “are my firmament;” my firm and well built house, built of stone, as the Hebrew implies, to which I can fly; and “my refuge.”
Everything else, the favors of man, my own industry and exertions, are houses of mud or of straw, built on the sand; for what are all the goods of this world but frail, perishable things, in which fools alone confide? Happy they who understand so much; happier they who put them into practice.
4 He now descends to particulars, and asks to be delivered out of “the hand,” that is, from the power of the sinner, “the transgressor of the law, and of the unjust;” all of which literally apply to Absalom, Achitophel, and their servants, for this Psalm altogether corresponds with Psalm 30, which, by general consent, treats of Absalom’s persecution. “The hand of the sinner,” then, seems to be intended for Absalom, a perverse, wicked man; “the transgressors of the law” are the people who rise up in arms against their lawful king, and the “unjust” alludes to Achitophel, who in private, had fraudulently sought to injure David. Looking at the passage in a spiritual sense, the sinner may mean the devil, the unjust may mean heretics, and the transgressors of the law, tyrants and persecutors. The just man, however, desires to be freed not only from corporal trouble, but much more so from any danger to his soul, for fear he may, through fear of persecution, consent to sin, and run the risk of eternal death.
5–6 The Hebrew for patience here implies patience in hope, rather than in endurance, as we have it in Rom. 8, “We wait for it with patience;” and in James 5, “Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, patiently bearing till he receive the early and the later rain. Be you, therefore, also patient, and strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth near.” “For thou art my patience,” then, means, for it is from thee I am patiently expecting help. “My hope, O Lord, from my youth;” because I began to hope in you from the time that I first knew you, nay more, long before I was capable of knowing you, in your mercy you were my protector; because, “By thee have I been confirmed from the womb;” scarce had I come into the world, when I was in a most infirm state, incapable of invoking you, you extended your protection to me. Such favors God is wont to confer on all men, especially when they are of an age when they cannot help themselves; while very few are they who acknowledge such favors, or thank God sufficiently for them; and the prophet, therefore, who, by the light of the Holy Ghost, knew such to be the case, with great devotion exclaims, “By thee I have been confirmed from the womb; from my mother’s womb thou art my protector;” as much as to say, I know and confess, O Lord, that you cared me from my very infancy, which makes me now confidently hope that you will be my protector when I shall call upon you. “Of thee shall I continuously sing.” For such reasons, for such favors, I will always chant thy praises, in prosperity and adversity, in this world, and in the next.
7 Banished from my kingdom by my own son, a wretched fugitive instead of a glorious conqueror, I am the wonder of every one, especially when I seem to be so deserted by you whom I always worshipped, in whom I always trusted; but, however, you are a “strong helper,” and a steady one; and though, for a time, in your wisdom, you may appear to have deserted me, and allowed my enemies to get the better of me, still, when the proper time comes, you will be a “strong helper.” St. Augustine, taking a spiritual view of this passage, says, that he who despises the things of this world, patiently submits to injury, and thus goes in a contrary direction to that of mankind, may be called a wonder and a prodigy. Such was John the Baptist, Christ himself, Peter, Paul, and the other Apostles; such were all the martyrs and confessors, and others, who were looked upon by the wise ones of the world as fools, yet could truly say, I am become as a wonder to many, yet you are a strong helper, to carry me through the narrow gate, and to offer violence to the kingdom of heaven, when it will appear whether I was a fool or a wise man.
8 Whatever men may think or say of me, I therefore, wish that “my mouth may be filled with praise,” that nothing else may please me, may delight me, but to love thee and praise thy glory; and “the whole day,” that is, at all times, “to sing thy greatness and thy glory.” All they, and they alone, are like this holy king and prophet, who think, and feel, and deeply consider that there is nothing great, nothing worthy our admiration but God alone.
9 David was an old man when he was persecuted by Absalom; and, therefore, calling to mind the victories of his youth, nay, even of his boyhood, he says, “Cast me not off in the time of old age;” do not desert him you always stood by, now at the last moment. “When my strength shall fail;” when I am become weak and feeble, “do not thou forsake me;” when I want your help more than ever I did before.
10–11 Such was literally true of David, against whom his people, with Absalom at their head, and Achitophel as his counselor, rebelled; a thing they did under the impression that he was now grown old and weak, and abandoned by God. “And they that watched my soul,” my former counselors and guards, “have consulted together;” took counsel how they may destroy me, saying, as “God hath forsaken him, pursue and take him;” the very advice that Achitophel gave, which, however, had no effect, as God did not suffer it to be carried out. See 2 Kings 17.
12–13 While they were taking measures against David, he had recourse to God, who, without any trouble, could mar them all, as he really did. “O God, be not thou far from me,” as they boast you are, but rather “make haste to my help,” to save me from them. “Let them be confounded and come to nothing that detract my soul,” by your hastening to help me, let Absalom’s counselors be confounded, their plots fail, disappear, and vanish; and let those “that detract my soul,” that calumniate me, be rendered senseless. “Let them be covered with confusion and shame that seek my hurt;” a repetition of the foregoing.
14–15 Let them be confounded and come to nothing; “But I will always hope;” will confide more and more in you, having learned by experience the efficacy of your assistance, and will always “add to all thy praise;” singing new hymns to you for your new and repeated favors. “My mouth shall show forth thy justice,” with which you punish the wicked; and “thy salvation,” through which you free and save the innocent, “all day long;” that is, constantly. “Because I have not known learning.” How could David say this of himself, when he says, in Psalm 118, “I have understood more than all my teachers;” and the Psalms prove him to have been well up in both human and divine knowledge; for, though he was a shepherd and a soldier, he may not have been so entirely devoted to caring his flocks, or waging war, as not to be able to devote some time to literature and study? By the word “learning,” then, I take it that David means that human craft and cunning in which Achitophel, who had given counsel against him, abounded; and, by the words, “I have not known,” that he does not simply mean knowledge, but approbation and use; as we commonly say, “I don’t know you;” and, as St. Paul says, “that he knows nothing but Christ, and him crucified.” The meaning, then, is, “I have not known learning.” I know not the wisdom of this world; I confide not in the counsels of man; I approve not of human craft and cunning; but,
16 I will cling entirely to God’s omnipotence; in it will I confide, and will hide myself in it as I would in an impregnable fortress; and thus, “I will be mindful of thy justice alone;” I will lose sight completely of human counsel, of my own strength, or of my friends; but I will remember and bear in mind “thy justice alone,” by virtue of which you keep your promises and through which you punish the wicked, and crown the pious.
17 You taught me to despise human literature, and to trust in your power; and it was in consequence, that I, an unarmed youth, fought with a bear and a lion, and conquered both them and the giant Goliath. “And till now I will declare thy wonderful works;” while I live, to the last day of my life, I will record “the wonderful works” you enabled me to do in my youth.
18 And I ask, at the same time, that “unto old age you forsake me not,” but that you always may come to my aid, “until I show forth,” until I shall have finished the book of Psalms, through which I will show forth “thy arm,” thy strength, to all posterity. How David could say that he would announce God’s power to all posterity we have already explained, for he foresaw that the Psalms composed by him would be chanted all over the world to the end of time. “Thy power.” He explains what arm he is to announce, when he says, “thy power.”
19 He explains the meaning of the showing forth thy arm to the generation that is to come, and says, “thy power and thy justice;” that is to say, I will announce thy arm, which signifies your power united with your justice. God is all powerful, but he is still most just; he can do what he wills, but he wills nothing unjust. Now, such power and justice reaches even “to the highest great things” among God’s creatures, for God created by his power, not only the earth, and the sea, and all their inhabitants, but he also created the heavens, and the heavens of heavens, and the countless millions of Angels that dwell therein. Thus the arm of God’s power reaches even those highest great things. God’s justice also has not only punished sinful man, who is but dust and ashes, but he has also punished the most exalted among the Angels, who, for their pride, he hurled from heaven into the abyss. The arm of divine justice, then, has reached “the highest things,” so that one may well exclaim, “O God, who is like to thee?” Nor does this contradict the Scripture that says, “God made man to his likeness;” and 1 John 3, “We know that when he shall appear we shall be like to him; because we shall see him as he is.” For when David says here, “Who is like to thee?” he means, is equal to thee, equally wise, powerful, depending on no one, while all depend on him.
20–21 David consoles himself in his present calamity, by the fact of having escaped, through God’s assistance, from other calamities. “How many troubles hast thou shown me, many and grievous;” great in their variety and bitterness, borne by me in Saul’s persecution, “and turning, thou hast brought me to life,” when I was all but in the jaws of death, “and hast brought me back again from the depths of the earth;” deliver me from the height of misery, that nearly drove me to the other world. For “thou hast multiplied thy magnificence,” in accordance with the extent of my troubles, “and turning to me,” in mercy, while you chastised me, as a father you have wonderfully “comforted me,” when from a wretched exile you made me a prosperous king.
22–24 The prophet now predicts his delivery from the power of Absalom, and promises all manner of thanks in his heart, with his lips, and with all sorts of musical instruments. “For I will also,” when I shall have obtained the victory, “confess thy truth to thee;” will praise your justice and your fidelity, “with the instruments of psaltery,” with the musical instrument called the psaltery. And I will use the harp too, “thou Holy One of Israel;” a name applied to God, whom the people of Israel were bound to sanctify by public worship and due honor, for which he in return sanctified them by the sanctity of his grace. And I will not only thank and praise you with the harp and psaltery, but “my lips shall greatly rejoice,” my mouth shall send forth its notes, “when I shall sing to thee;” “and my soul,” my life, “which thou hast redeemed,” shall also praise thee. And it is not once or twice that “my tongue shall meditate on thy justice,” but “all the day,” at all times “it shall meditate,” exercise itself in chanting the praises of thy justice, “when they shall be confounded and put to shame that seek evils to me.”