Psalms 61:8

Verse Psalms 61:8. So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever] For the benefits which I have received, and hope to receive endlessly from thee, I will to all perpetuity praise thee.

That I may daily perform my vows.] While I live, I shall יום יום yom, yom, "day by day," each day as it succeeds, render to thee my vows - act according to what I have often purposed, and as often promised. The Chaldee ends remarkably: "Thus I will praise thy name for ever, when I shall perform my vows in the day of the redemption of Israel; and in the day in which the King Messiah shall be anointed, that he may reign."

The ancient Jews were full of the expectation of the Messiah; the Jews of the present day have given up their hope.

ANALYSIS OF THE SIXTY-FIRST PSALM

The author of this Psalm prays and vows perpetual service to God. It is composed of two parts: -

I. His prayer, Psalms 61:1.

II. His vow, Psalms 61:4.

He begins with a prayer, in which he begs, -

1. Audience: "Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer," Psalms 61:1.

2. The reason to enforce it.

1. He was in banishment, in the farther part of the land of Judah: "From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee."

2. He was in extremity: "When my heart is overwhelmed."

3. For defence: "Lead me to the rock that is higher than I;" that is, To some safe and defenced place to which my enemies may have no access, whither without thy help I cannot ascend.

And he adds a reason to this part of his prayer drawn from his own experience: "For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy."

His faith now presents him as delivered; and, therefore, he vows, -

1. "I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever." I will return, and adore thee in thy temple.

2. "I will trust in the covert of thy wings." He alludes to the cherubim, whose wings cover the ark.

And for this he assigns many reasons also: -

1. "For thou, O God, hast heard my vows," i.e., my prayers.

2. "Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name; " made me king over thy people, and more fully performed to me the promise made to Abraham, in the land of Canaan.

3. "Thou wilt prolong the king's life."

4. "And his years," i.e., in his posterity, "as many generations;" of which the beginning of the next verse is the prediction. "He shall abide before God for ever."

And now David, assuring himself of the crown, and that his posterity should inherit it, puts forth an earnest vote for that which should establish it: "O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him; i.e., me thy king;" for these two virtues, mercy, i.e., clemency, and truth, do commend a king, and make him dear to his subjects; for in the practice of these it is not possible that his government should be harsh, unjust, or tyrannical.

Which if it please God to bestow upon him, then he makes a new vow: "So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever."

Though here this appears to be a new vow, yet he had vowed it before, and engaged to discharge; for in singing praise to God's name, he should but pay what by vow he had often undertaken: "I will sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows."