I love thee, O Lord." To give evidence of his entire and ardent love of
God, he oft professeth his wonderful great love to God's commandments,
whereof he saith with admiration, "Oh, how I love thy law! I love thy
commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. I love them exceedingly"
(Psalm 119:97, 127, 167); therefore, he saith to God, "Consider how I love
thy precepts" (verse 159).— William Gouge, 1575-1653.
Verse 1. "I will love thee." Intimately as a mother loves the child
that comes out of her womb.— Westminster Assembly's Annotations, 1651.
Verses 1, 2. God hath, as it were, made himself over to believers. David
doth not say, God will give me or bestow salvation upon me; but he saith,
"He is the horn of my salvation." It is God himself who is the salvation
and the portion of his people. They would not care much for salvation if
God were not their salvation. It more pleaseth the saints that they enjoy
God, than that they enjoy salvation. False and carnal spirits will express
a great deal of desire after salvation, for they like salvation, heaven, and
glory well; but they never express any longing desire after God and Jesus
Christ. They love salvation, but they care not for a Saviour. Now that
which faith pitcheth most upon is God himself; he shall be my salvation, let
me have him, and that is salvation enough; he is my life, he is my comfort,
he is my riches, he is my honour, and he is my all. Thus David's heart
acted immediately upon God, "I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The
Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in
whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high
tower." It pleased holy David more that God was his strength, than that
God gave him strength; that God was his deliverer, than that he was
delivered; that God was his fortress, his buckler, his horn, his high tower,
than that he gave him the effect of all these. It pleased David, and it
pleases all the saints more that God is their salvation, whether temporal or
eternal, than that he saves them: the saints look more at God than at all
that is God's.— Joseph Caryl.
Verses 1, 2. David speaks like one in love with God, for he doth adorn
him with confession of praise, and his mouth is filled with the praise of
the Lord, which he expresseth in this exuberancy and redundancy of holy
oratory.— Edward Marbury.
Verse 2. "The Lord is my rock. " As the rocks that are hard to be
clambered unto are good refuges to fly unto from the face of pursuers, so
God is the safety of all such as in distress do fly to him for succor.— Robert Cawdray.
Verse 2. "My deliverer." He who betook himself to one of these
inaccessible retreats, was sometimes obliged by famine to surrender to his
enemy, who lay in wait for him beneath; but Jehovah gives him not only
security but liberty; not only preserves him, as it were, in an inaccessible
retreat, but at the same time enables him to go forth in safety.— Jarchi.
Verse 2. "The horn of my salvation." The allusion here is doubtful.
Some have supposed the reference to be to the horns of animals, by which
they defend themselves and attack their enemies. "God is to me, does for
me, what their horns do for them." Others consider it as referring to the
well-established fact, that warriors were accustomed to place horns, or
ornaments like horns, on their helmets. The horn stands for the helmet; and
"the helmet of salvation" is an expression equivalent to "a saving, a
protecting helmet." Others consider the reference as to the corners or
handles of the altar in the court of the tabernacle or temple, which are
called its horns. Others suppose the reference to be to the highest point
of a lofty and precipitous mountain, which we are accustomed to call its
peak. No doubt, in the Hebrew language, horn is used for mountain as in
Isaiah 5:1. A very fertile mountain is called a horn of oil. The sense is
substantially the same, whichever of these views we take; though, from the
connection with "shield" or "buckler," I am induced to consider the second
of these views as the most probable. It seems the same idea as that
expressed, Psalm 140:7, "Thou hast covered," and thou wilt cover "my head in
the day of battle."— John Brown.
Verse 2. "The horn of my salvation." Horns are the well-known emblems
of strength and power, both in the sacred and profane writers; by a metaphor
taken from horned animals, which are frequently made subjects of comparison
by poetical writers, and the strength of which, whether for offence or
defence, consists principally in their horns. Bruce speaks of a remarkable
head-dress worn by the governors of provinces in Abyssinia, consisting of a
large broad fillet, bound upon their foreheads and tied behind their heads,
and having in the middle of it a horn, or a conical piece of silver, gilt,
about four inches long, much in the shape of our common candle
extinguishers. It is called kirn or horn, and is only worn on reviews or
parades after victory. He supposes this, like other Abyssinian usages, to
be taken from the Hebrews, and is of opinion that there are many allusions
to the practice in Scripture, in the expression, "lifting up the horn,"
"exalting the horn," and the like.— Richard Mant.
Verse 2. "The Lord is my high tower." If a man do run to a tower, yet
if that be a weak and an insufficient tower, without men and munition, and a
ruinous shaken tower; or if a man do make choice of a tower, a strong
sufficient tower, yet if in his danger he betakes not himself to that tower,
but he sit still; or if he sit not still, yet he but only go and walk on
easily towards it, he may well be met withal, and a danger may arrest him,
surprise him, and cut him off before he get the tower over his head. But
the man that will be safe, as he must choose a strong tower, so he must go
to, nay, run into that tower. Running will not secure a man unless the
tower be strong. . . . David was got unto his tower , and in that tower
there was thundering ordnance, and David put fire to them by prayer, verse
6, "In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard
my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even unto his ears."
Here David prays and gives fire to the cannon, and what followed? See
verses 7, 8, 13, 14. "Then the earth shook and trembled," etc. "There went
up a smoke out of his nostrils," etc. "The Lord also thundered in the
heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings,
and discomfited them." There were no guns nor ordnance invented and in use
in David's time, and yet David's prayers being in this tower, did him as
good service against his enemies as all the ordnance and cannons in the
world have done. David had thundering ordnance, and with them discomfited
his enemies long before powder and guns were invented. It is a memorable
and well known story of that Christian legion that was in Marcus Aurelius's
army: the enemy being in great straits, those Christian soldiers did by
their prayers not only procure rain, by which his languishing army was
refreshed, but also obtained hail mixed with thunderbolts against his
enemies, upon which he honoured them with the name Legio fulminatrix, the
Thundering Legion. They used David's cannon against the enemy, and
discharged that thundering ordnance by their prayers, and that to the
confusion of their enemies.— Jeremiah Dyke's "Righteous Man's Tower," 1639.
Verse 2. "My high tower." Even as the fowls of the air, that they may
escape the nets and snares of the fowlers, are wont to fly up on high; so
we, to avoid the infinite snares of innumerable temptations, must fly to
God; and lift up ourselves from the corruptions, lying vanities, and
deceitful sleights of the world.— Robert Cawdray.
Verse 3. "I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised."
Prayer and invocation of God should always be joined with praises and
thanksgivings, and used as a means whereby faith shall extract the good
which it knoweth is in God, and of which he hath made promise.— David Dickson.
Verse 3. "So shall I be saved from mine enemies." Whoso comes to God
as he should will not call in vain. The right kind of prayer is the most
potent instrumentality known on earth.— William S. Plumer.
Verse 4. "Sorrows of death." It is heaven's peculiar to be the land of
the living; all this life is at most but the shadow of death, the gate
of death, the sorrows of death, the snares of death, the terrors of
death, the chambers of death, the sentence of death, the savour of
death, the ministration of death, the way of death.— Matthew Griffith, 1634.
Verse 4. "The bands or cords of death encompassed me." It is not very
easy to fix the precise meaning of the phrase, "bands" or "cords" of death.
It may either be considered as equivalent to "the bands by which the dead
are bound," in which case, to be encircled with the bands of death is just a
figurative expression for being dead; or it may be considered as equivalent
to the bands in which a person is bound in the prospect of a violent death,
and by which his violent death is secured, he being prevented from escaping.
It has been supposed by some, that the allusion is to the ancient mode of
hunting wild animals. A considerable tract of country was surrounded with
strong ropes. The circle was gradually contracted till the object of
pursuit was so confined as to become an easy prey to the hunter. These
cords were the cords of death, securing the death of the animal. The phrase
is applicable to our Lord in both senses; but as "the floods" of wickedness,
or the wicked, are represented as making him afraid subsequently to his
being encircled with the cords of death, I am disposed to understand it in
the latter of these two senses.— John Brown.
Verse 4. "The floods." There is no metaphor of more frequent
occurrence with the sacred poets, than that which represents dreadful and
unexpected calamities under the image of overwhelming waters. This image
seems to have been especially familiar with the Hebrews, inasmuch as it was
derived from the peculiar habit and nature of their own country. They had
continually before their eyes the river Jordan, annually overflowing its
banks, when at the approach of summer the snows of Libanus and the
neighbouring mountains melted, and, suddenly pouring down in torrents,
swelled the current of the river. Besides, the whole country of Palestine,
although it was not watered by many perennial streams, was, from the
mountainous character of the greater part of it, liable to numerous
torrents, which precipitated themselves through the narrow valleys after the
periodical rainy seasons. This image, therefore, however known and adopted
by other poets, may be considered as particularly familiar, and as it were,
domestic with the Hebrews; who accordingly introduced it with greater
frequency and freedom.— Robert Lowth (Bishop), 1710-1787.
Verse 5. "The snares of death prevented me." The word "snares,"
signifies such traps or gins as are laid for birds and wild beasts. The
English word "prevent" has changed its meaning in some measure since our
authorised translation of the Bible was made. Its original meaning is to
"come before."— John Brown.
Verse 6. "In my distress." If you listen even to David's harp, you
shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy
Spirit hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the
felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes;
and adversity is not without comforts and hopes. We see, in needleworks and
embroideries, it is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and
solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome
ground; judge, therefore, of the pleasures of the heart by the pleasures of
the eye. Certainly virtue is like precious odours—most fragrant when
they are crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth
best discover virtue.— Francis Bacon, Baron of Verulam, etc., 1561-1626.
Verse 6. "I called upon the Lord and cried." Prayer is not eloquence,
but earnestness; not in the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of
it; it is the cry of faith to the ear of mercy.— Hannah Moore, 1745-1833.
Verse 6. "He heard my voice out of his temple," etc. The ædiles or
chamberlains among the Romans, had ever their doors standing open for all
who had occasion of request or complaint to have free access to them.
"God's mercy-doors are wide open to the prayers of his faithful people."
The Persian kings held it a piece of their silly glory to deny an easy
access to their greatest subjects. It was death to solicit them uncalled.
Esther herself was afraid. But the king of heaven manifesteth himself to