1Píseň a žalm Davidův. 2Hotovo jest srdce mé, Bože, zpívati a oslavovati tě budu, také i sláva má. 3Probuď se loutno a harfo, když v svitání povstávám. 4Slaviti tě budu mezi lidmi, Hospodine, a tobě žalmy prozpěvovati mezi národy. 5Nebo nad nebesa větší jest milosrdenství tvé, a až k nejvyšším oblakům pravda tvá. 6Vyvyšiž se nad nebesa, ó Bože, a nade všecku zemi sláva tvá. 7Ať jsou vysvobozeni milí tvoji, zachovávejž je pravicí svou, a vyslyš mne. 8Bůh mluvil skrze svatost svou; veseliti se budu, že budu děliti Sichem, a údolí Sochot že rozměřím. 9Můjť jest Galád, můj i Manasses, a Efraim síla hlavy mé, Juda učitel můj. 10Moáb medenice k umývání mému, na Edoma uvrhu obuv svou, proti Palestině troubiti budu. 11Kdo mne uvede do města hrazeného? Kdo mne zprovodí až do Idumejské země? 12Zdali ne ty, ó Bože, kterýž jsi nás byl zavrhl, a nevycházels, ó Bože, s vojsky našimi? 13Uděliž nám pomoci proti nepříteli, nebo marná jest pomoc lidská. 14V Bohu udatně sobě počínati budeme, a on pošlapá nepřátely naše.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 We may here learn how to praise God from the example of one who was master of the art. 1. We must praise God with fixedness of heart. Our heart must be employed in the duty (else we make nothing of it) and engaged to the duty (
Pss 108:1):
O God! my heart is fixed, and then
I will sing and give praise. Wandering straggling thoughts must be gathered in, and kept close to the business; for they must be told that here is work enough for them all. 2. We must praise God with freeness of expression: I will praise him
with my glory, that is, with my tongue. Our tongue is our glory, and never more so than when it is employed in praising God. When the
heart is inditing this
good matter our
tongue must be as
the pen of a ready writer, Pss 45:1. David's skill in music was his glory, it made him famous, and this should be consecrated to the praise of God; and therefore it follows,
Awake my
psaltery and harp. Whatever gift we excel in we must praise God with. 3. We must praise God with fervency of affection, and must stir up ourselves to do it, that it may be done in a lively manner and not carelessly (
Pss 108:2):
Awake, psaltery and harp; let it not be done with a dull and sleepy tune, but let the airs be all lively.
I myself will awake early to do it, with all that is within me, and all little enough. Warm devotions honour God. 4. We must praise God publicly, as those that are not ashamed to own our obligations to him and our thankful sense of his favours, but desire that others also may be in like manner affected with the divine goodness (
Pss 108:3):
I will praise thee among the people of the Jews; nay,
I will sing to thee among the nations of the earth. Whatever company we are in we must take all occasions to speak well of God; and we must not be shy of singing psalms, though our neighbours hear us, for it looks like being ashamed of our Master. 5. We must, in our praises, magnify the mercy and truth of God in a special manner (
Pss 108:4), mercy in promising, truth in performing. The heavens are vast, but the mercy of God is more capacious; the skies are high and bright, but the truth of God is more eminent, more illustrious. We cannot see further than the heavens and clouds; whatever we see of God's mercy and truth there is still more to be seen, more reserved to be seen, in the other world. 6. Since we find ourselves so, defective in glorifying God, we must beg of him to glorify himself, to do all, to dispose all, to his own glory, to get himself honour and make himself a name (
Pss 108:5):
Be thou exalted, O God! above the heavens, higher than the angels themselves can exalt thee with their praises,
and let
thy glory be spread over
all the earth. Father, glorify thy own name. Thou hast glorified it; glorify it again. It is to be our first petition,
Hallowed be thy name. 6 We may here learn how to pray as well as praise. 1. We must be public-spirited in prayer, and bear upon our hearts, at the throne of grace, the concerns of the church of God,
Pss 108:6. It is God's
beloved, and therefore must be ours; and therefore we must pray for its deliverance, and reckon that we are answered if God grant what we ask for his church, though he delay to give us what we ask for ourselves.
Save thy church,
and thou
answerest me; I have what I would have.
Let the earth be filled with God's glory, and the prayers of David are ended (
Pss 72:19,
Pss 72:20); he desires no more. 2. We must, in prayer, act faith upon the power and promise of God - upon his power (
Save with thy right hand, which is mighty to save), and upon his promise:
God has spoken in his holiness, in his holy word, to which he has sworn by his holiness, and therefore
I will rejoice, Pss 108:7. What he has promised he will perform, for it is the word both of his truth and of his power. An active faith can rejoice in what God has said, though it be not yet done; for with him saying and doing are not two things, whatever they are with us. 3. We must, in prayer, take the comfort of what God has secured to us and settled upon us, though we are not yet put in possession of it. God had promised David to give him, (1.) The hearts of his subjects; and therefore he surveys the several parts of the country as his own already:
Shechem and
Succoth, Gilead and
Manasseh, Ephraim and
Judah, are all my own,
Pss 108:8. With such assurance as this we may speak of the performance of what God has promised to the Son of David; he will, without fail, give him the heathen for his
inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession, for so has he
spoken in his holiness; nay, of all the particular persons that were given him he will
lose none; he also, as David, shall have the hearts of his subjects,
John 6:37. And, (2.) The
necks of his enemies. These are promised, and therefore David looks upon
Moab, and
Edom, and
Philistia, as his own already (
Pss 108:9):
Over Philistia will I triumph, which explains
Pss 60:8,
Philistia, triumph thou because of me, which some think should be read,
O my soul! triumph thou over Philistia. Thus the exalted Redeemer is set down at God's right hand, in a full assurance that all his enemies shall in due time
be made his footstool, though all things are not yet put under him, Hebre 2:8. 4. We must take encouragement from the beginnings of mercy to pray and hope for the perfecting of it (
Pss 108:10,
Pss 108:11):
Who will bring me into the strong cities that are yet unconquered? Who will make me master of the country of
Edom, which is yet unsubdued? The question was probably to be debated in his privy council, or a council of war, what methods they should take to subdue the Edomites and to reduce that country; but he brings it into his prayers, and leaves it in God's hands:
Wilt not thou, O God? Certainly thou wilt. It is probable that he spoke with the more assurance concerning the conquest of Edom because of the ancient oracle concerning Jacob and Esau, that
the elder should serve the younger, and the blessing of Jacob, by which he was made Esau's lord,
Gen 27:37. 5. We must not be discouraged in prayer, nor beaten off from our hold of God, though Providence has in some instances frowned upon us: Though thou hast
cast us off, yet thou wilt now
go forth with our hosts, Pss 108:11. Thou wilt
comfort us again after the time that thou
hast afflicted us. Adverse events are sometimes intended for the trial of the constancy of our faith and prayer, which we ought to persevere in whatever difficulties we meet with, and not to
faint. 6. We must seek help from God, renouncing all confidence in the creature (
Pss 108:12):
Lord, give us help from trouble, prosper our designs, and defeat the designs of our enemies against us. It is not unseasonable to talk of trouble at the same time that we talk of triumphs, especially when it is to quicken prayer for help from heaven; and it is a good plea,
Vain is the help of man. It is really so, and therefore we are undone if thou do not help us; we apprehend it to be so, and therefore depend upon thee for help and have the more reason to expect it. 7. We must depend entirely upon the favour and grace of God, both for strength and success in our work and warfare,
Pss 108:13. (1.) We must do our part, but we can do nothing of ourselves; it is only
through God that we shall do valiantly. Blessed Paul will own that even he can
do nothing, nothing to purpose,
but through Christ strengthening him, Phili 4:13. (2.) When we have acquitted ourselves ever so well, yet we cannot speed by any merit or might of our own; it is God himself that
treads down our enemies, else we with all our valour cannot do it. Whatever we do, whatever we gain, God must have all the glory.