Psalm 138 A Psalm of David. 1 I will praise You with my whole heart; before the gods I will sing praises to You. 2 I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for you have magnified your word above all your name. 3 In the day when I cried out, You answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul. 4 All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Yahweh, when they hear the words of Your mouth. 5 Yes, they shall sing of the ways of Yahweh, for great is the glory of Yahweh. 6 Though Yahweh is on high, yet He regards the lowly but the proud He knows from afar. 7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. 8 Yahweh will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Yahweh, endures forever; do not forsake the works of Your hands.
“’A Psalm of David.’ from his exile. It is likely that future generations, like the one in Babylon, used this psalm in to excite worship. — “‘I will praise You with my whole heart;’ “The harp is now no more hanging idle on the willows, but is tuned afresh to praise His Name.” (Arno Gaebelein) “Up, dear soul! What though thou hast once complained like Israel of thy captivity in Babylon, Psa 137:1, yet now sing once more a song of joy to the Lord. Thou hast been pressed like a cluster of grapes, now give forth thy ripe juice.” (Christoph Starke) “There will come a time when the praise of Jahve, which according to Psalms 137:3 was obliged to be dumb in the presence of the heathen, will, according to Psalms 138:5, be sung by the kings of the heathen themselves.” (Delitzsch)— “‘before the gods I will sing praises to You.’ that is, before angels, who are present in holy assemblies, 1 Corinthians 11:10 (as was represented by those cherubims... [above the mercy seat], as also before princes…” (Trapp) of the church.“ who, like Jacob , wrestled with God and prevailed and were part of that remnant people who received the name of Israel (Gen 32:28).
“’I will worship toward Your holy temple’— the tabernacle of the ark, a type and figure of the Lord Jesus. “Therefore we find Daniel opening his windows toward the temple, where he prayed three times a day; and we find Jonah saying, ‘Yet will I look again toward thy holy temple.’ So looking to Jesus, He is our temple. There is no acceptable worship except through Him; but we can offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Then, set the Lord Jesus Christ before your eyes, that you may worship God and draw near to the footstool of mercy through Him, that you may offer an acceptable sacrifice, and praise His name for His lovingkindness and for His truth.” (Joseph C. Philpot)
“Both the temple and ceremonial service at Christ's coming were abolished: so that now God will be worshipped only in spirit and truth, (John 4:23).” (Geneva Study Bible)— “‘and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for you have magnified your Word above all your name.’ (2) “Some do understand this of Christ the essential Word, in whom He has set His name, and whom He has so highly exalted, that He has given Him ‘a name above every name.’” (Ebenezer Erskine) “Or, ‘Thou hast magnified above all things Thy name by Thy word’; that is, ‘Thou hast got thee a very great name, by fulfilling thy promises, and by setting on thy word with power.” (John Trapp) “Here we must remember, that amongst the rest of the promises made to David, one was that the Messias should come out of his loins, and that those parts of the promised mercies which David had actually received were pledges to assure him that he should receive the rest in due time, and especially that great and eminent word of promise concerning the Messias, which might well be said to be magnified above all God’s name.” (Matthew Poole)
“‘In the day when I cried out, You answered me and made me bold with strength in my soul.’ (3) in the inward man, Ephesians 3:16; Ephesians 3:20, with spiritual mettle, with supporting grace; keeping head above water. My body is weak, my soul is well, said that dying saint. I am as full of comfort as heart can hold, said a certain martyr. The apostle speaketh of the new supplies of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, επιχορηγεω, Philippians 1:19; the joy of the Lord is strengthening, Nehemiah 8:10. “ (Trapp) “And though their outward trials and sufferings continue, yet their prayers are answered in the most desirable manner…” (Thomas Scott)— a renewing of the Spirit. “Other masters cut out work for their servants, but do not help them in their work; but our Master in heaven doth not only give us work, but strength. God bids us serve Him, and He will enable us to serve Him, Eze 36:27: ‘I will cause you to walk in my statutes.’ The Lord doth not only fit work for us, but fits us for our work.” (Thomas Watson)
“All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Yahweh, when they hear the words of Your mouth.’ (4) ”This is usual language in which the prophets speak of the conversion of the gentiles from idolatry, to worship the Lord Messiah.” (Sutcliffe) “Such also as shall hereafter be converted to the faith; for though ‘Not many mighty, not many noble, are called,’ 1 Corinthians 1:26, yet some are, and these shine in the Church like stars of the first magnitude.” (Trapp)— “’Yes, they shall sing of the ways of Yahweh, for great is the glory of Yahweh’. (5) - They shall admire thy conduct, and the wondrous workings of thy providence.” (Adam Clarke) They will join in the Lord's songs of Heavenly Zion.
Though Yahweh is on high, yet He regards the lowly’ lifting the valley. But the proud He knows from afar,’ and will save many of them, as well. These mountain will be brought low. (cp. Isaiah 40:4) “So this is the repetition of the former sentence, as is very usual in this book.” (Matthew Poole) Or “‘Though Yahweh is on high, yet He regards the lowly’; for good, as the Targum; that are low in their own eyes, humbled under a sense of sin, convinced, of the insufficiency of their own righteousness to justify them, and made to submit to the righteousness of Christ;… but the proud he knoweth afar off; the Targum adds, ‘to destroy them:' such who are proud of themselves and what they have; of their wisdom and knowledge, of their strength or beauty, of their wealth and riches; or of their righteousness and holiness; of the purity and goodness of their hearts, and power of their free will, they vainly think themselves possessed of.” (Gill) “Give me the homely vessel of humility, which God shall preserve, and fill with the wine of his grace; rather than the varnished cup of pride, which he will dash in pieces, like a potter's vessel.” (William Seeker)
“‘Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;’ or preserve me alive. “So as to the three youths in the fiery furnace, their persecutor, Nebuchadnezzar, said, ‘Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.’” (Andrew Robert Fausset)— “ You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me.’ In reference to all their attempts to destroy me. Thou wilt meet their wrath by thy power, and I shall be safe.” (Barnes) “Though his way may lead through the midst of heart - oppressing trouble, Jahve will loose these bands of death and quicken him afresh ( חיּה as in Psalms 30:4; Psalms 71:20, and frequently). Though his enemies may rage, Jahve will stretch forth His hand threateningly and tranquillizingly over their wrath, and His right hand will save him [the humble of the earth].” (Keil & Delitzsch)
“‘Yahweh will perfect that which concerns me;’ He that began the good work will also finish it. “He will not do His business to the halves, leave it in the midst, but carry it on to a consummation.” (John Trapp)— “’Your mercy, O Yahweh, endures forever; do not forsake the works of Your hands’ (8) His creating hands formed our souls at the beginning; His nail-pierced hands redeemed them on Calvary; His glorified hands will hold our souls fast and not let them go for ever. Unto His hands let us commend our spirits.” (J. W. Burgon) “Thy work begun in my soul; thy work in behalf of Israel; thy work in the evangelization of the world; thy work in the salvation of mankind. Thou wilt not forsake these.” (Adam Clarke) “Behold in me thy work, not mine: for mine, if thou seest, thou condemnest; thine, if thou seest, thou crownest.” (Augustine) “God's work is perfect, man's is clumsy and incomplete. God does not leave off till he has finished. When He rests, it is because, looking on His work, He sees it all ‘very good.’ His Sabbath is the Sabbath of an achieved purpose, of a fulfilled counsel. The palaces which we build are ever like that in the story, where one window remains dark and without jewels, while the rest blaze in beauty. But when God builds none can say, ‘He was not able to finish.’ In His great palace He makes her ‘windows of crystal,’ and all her ‘borders of pleasant stones,’ Isaiah 54:12.” (A. Maclaren)