|
1.
|
For I am poor and needy, in his sickness and deep
political trouble.
|
2.
|
Preserve my soul. These are the words of a dying man
(Isa. 38:1,2).
|
|
For I am holy. The NIV renders chasid as
“devoted” (i.e., to God). What better ground for a petition for help
than this? And Hezekiah (like David) knew that he had that foundation.
|
|
O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in
thee:
|
|
“Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed
for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there
be more with us than with him” (2 Chron. 32:7).
|
3.
|
I cry unto thee daily. David, thrice daily (Psa. 55:17;
cp. Luke 18:1).
|
4.
|
Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Neither David
nor Hezekiah could lift up a heave offering in the House of the Lord.
Circumstances were against them. But this alternative was better; for one may
lift up his soul to God no matter where he might be!
|
5.
|
For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive: and
plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. The third, along with
vv. 3 and 4b, of three strong reasons. So the petitions are irresistible, even
by Omnipotence!
|
7.
|
In the day of my trouble will I call upon thee.
Possible references to: (a) David’s sickness, and Absalom’s
rebellion; and (b) Hezekiah’s sickness, and Sennacherib’s
invasion.
|
|
For thou wilt answer me. Can anything be expressed in a
more certain manner? The faith of these men of God was breathtaking at
times!
|
8.
|
Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord.
David did not have occasion to face the challenge of polytheism. But
Hezekiah had it hurled at him time and again (Isa. 36:18-20; 37:8-13,
18,19,37).
|
9.
|
All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship
before thee, O Lord: and shall glorify thy name. 2 Chron. 32:23
again:
|
|
“And many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and
presents to Hezekiah king of Judah: so that he [Yahweh, not Hezekiah!] was
magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth.”
|
10.
|
For thou art great, and doest wondrous things. After
the Exodus, Israel never saw anything else to compare with the annihilation of
the Assyrians:
|
|
“Then the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the
camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they
arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses” (Isa.
37:36).
|
|
Thou art God alone, in contrast to the many presumptive
“gods” of the nations.
|
11.
|
I will walk in thy truth. God’s covenants of
promise, also called His mercy (v. 15). Hezekiah relied especially on
God’s great promise to David (2 Sam. 7; Isa. 38:18,19).
|
|
These words are echoed in Psa. 26:3. This was the prayer of
Hezekiah also in 2 Kings 20:3:
|
|
“I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have
walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have
done that which is good in thy sight.”
|
12.
|
I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart.
|
|
“The Lord was ready to save me: therefore we will sing
my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of
the Lord” (Isa. 38:20).
|
|
And I will glorify thy name for evermore. Both David
and Hezekiah believed emphatically in the Messianic kingdom, and in themselves
as types of Messiah.
|
13.
|
Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell
(“the depths of Sheol”: RSV, NEB; or “the depths of the
grave”: NIV). Here is Hezekiah’s miraculous recovery:
|
|
“I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the
gates of the grave: I am deprived of the residue of my years... Behold, for
peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from
the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. For the
grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into
the pit cannot hope for thy truth” (Isa. 38:10,17,18).
|
14.
|
O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies
of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them.
This is a remarkably vivid description of the crude threats of the Assyrians
and their allies against God’s beleaguered city.
|
16.
|
The son of thine handmaid is found elsewhere only in
Psa. 116:16, which is another Hezekiah psalm. While not especially appropriate
to David, such a phrase is quite fitting for Hezekiah, in the light of the
initial application of Isa. 7:14 (Whittaker, Hezekiah the Great, pp.
1-6).
|
17.
|
Shew me a token (sign: RSV) for good; that they
which hate me (i.e., the Assyrian enemy) may see it, and be ashamed.
Hezekiah saw a vision of the Glory of the Lord as surety of his own
miraculous recovery. The Glory was also the overpowering accompaniment of the
devastation of the Assyrian camp. In the aftermath of Assyrian depredations, God
granted an astonishingly productive Year of Jubilee (Isa. 37:30,31).
|
|
1-7.
|
This should be read with reference to Christ in
Gethsemane.
|
5.
|
For thou, Lord, art ready to forgive. The words are not
inappropriate, considering how near Jesus came to turning away from the crisis
of his mission.
|
8.
|
Among the gods (elohim) there is none like unto
thee, O Lord. Possibly this means: ‘In the congregation (cp.
“assemblies of violent men” in 86:14) of the mighty judges
(82:1,6), there are none who act righteously.’
|
|
Neither are there any works like unto thy works. These
“works” are men and women new-born in Christ — for example,
Psalm 145:10-13:
|
|
“All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord: and thy saints
shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy
power; to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious
majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion
endureth throughout all generations.”
|
|
Rev. 15:3,4 is not only the Song of Moses (Exod. 15:1,11), but
also the Song of the Lamb (cp. with Psa. 86:2,8-10).
|
9.
|
All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship
before thee, O Lord. The fulness of the Kingdom, when God’s house will
have become “a house of prayer for all nations” (Isa. 56:7; Matt.
21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46; cp. Psa. 22:27-29 and Rev. 15:4)!
|
11.
|
Unite my heart to fear thy Name. Consider the divided
inclinations even in the heart of Jesus: “Not my will, but thy will, be
done” (Matt. 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42). “Only a powerful motive
could make a man’s heart one perfect whole” (L.G.
Sargent).
|
12.
|
I will glorify thy name. This was the dominant idea in
all Christ’s life: John 12:28; 13:31; 14:13; 15:8, 17:1,4; etc.
|
|
For evermore. The full meaning of this is at present
simply inconceivable.
|
13.
|
Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. This
signifies not only deliverance from death but also from all the misery of the
day of crucifixion: “O my Father... let this cup pass from me”
(Matt. 26:39; Mark 14:35,36; Luke 22:42).
|
14.
|
Assemblies of violent men is easily transformed, in
this context, into the Jewish Sanhedrin (cp. Psa. 22:16).
|
|
Men... have not set thee before them. The words imply
that they knew this duty but deliberately backed away from it; they were
“enlightened rejectors” of God’s Law and — especially
— of Jesus, God’s special representative set down in their
midst.
|
15.
|
Mercy and truth. Without the sacrifice of Christ, there
would be no fulfillment whatsoever of any of the Covenants of Promise.
|
16.
|
Give thy strength unto thy servant. An angel —
probably Gabriel (the “Strong One of God”) — strengthened
God’s Servant Jesus in Gethsemane (Luke 22:43).
|
|
The son of thine handmaid. This can be a description
— in the fullest sense — of the Messiah and of no one else. Mary was
the only true handmaid of the Lord (Luke 1:38,48).
|
|
Save anticipates the very name of Jesus (Luke 1:31),
“for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matt.
1:21).
|
17.
|
Shew me a token for good, that they which hate me may see
it, and be ashamed. This “token”, or sign, would have been the
radiant Glory in the face of Jesus on the night of his arrest. Those who came to
the garden to arrest him did see it, and “went backward and fell to the
ground” (John 18:6; cp. Psa. 27:1,2; 42:11). And this in turn
became an earnest of the shame of all Jerusalem when the Lord’s
resurrection was proclaimed (Acts 2:37; Mic. 7:10).
|
|
Thou, Lord, hast... comforted me. The LXX has
parakaleo, i.e., the Comforter, or the Holy Spirit.
|
|
1.
|
Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me. As one might do to
hear the feeble words of the sick or dying (cp. Psa. 31:2). These words of David
might especially have appealed to Hezekiah in an equally hopeless situation (2
Kings 19:16).
|
|
For I am poor and needy (Psa. 40:17). Here is
“the poor in spirit”, whom Christ blessed (Matt. 5:3; Luke 6:20,24).
The man who is truly poor in spirit is the man who has learned to trust in God
alone. He does not have to be taught that he is sick and in need of a physician;
he already knows that only too well!
|
3.
|
Be merciful unto me, O Lord. This was quoted by that
amazing Canaanite woman, who came to Jesus seeking a miracle of healing for her
daughter (Matt. 15:22). And note the rest of the verse: “thou son of
David”!
|
|
Lord is Adonai (i.e., Master, or
Sovereign), as in vv. 4,5,8,9,12, and 15. But these are (at least, according to
the Companion Bible: Appendix 32) seven of the passages where the
original Yahweh was altered by the Sopherim.
|
5.
|
For thou, Lord, art... ready to forgive, implying: just
as soon as repentance makes forgiveness possible.
|
8.
|
Among the gods. Compare Psa. 115:3-7;
135:13-17.
|
9.
|
All nations... shall come and worship before thee. Note
the various nations of Psa. 87:4 — all ready to declare themselves
spiritual “sons of Zion”.
|
|
And shall glorify thy name. Compare vv. 11 and 12.
Verse 15 quotes Exod. 34:6,7 — the primary exposition of the Name of the
Lord. God’s Name is most significantly revealed in His character and
purpose — not in mere Hebrew word-analysis (see “Explanatory
Notes” at the beginning of Book 1).
|
11.
|
Teach me thy way, O Lord = “the way of his
steps” in Psa. 85:13.
|
|
Unite my heart. This was the apostle Paul’s
heartfelt longing (Rom. 7:14-21). And it was also an important element in the
New Covenant:
|
|
“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in
their inward parts, and write it in their hearts: and will be their God,
and they shall be my people” (Jer. 31:33).
|
13.
|
On Sheol, see notes and references, Psa.
6:5.
|
17.
|
Shew me a token for good. That is, ‘Show me some
sign that — though my enemies mean evil against me — thou, O God,
meanest it for good.’
|
|
“But as for you, ye thought evil against me: But God
meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much
people alive” (Gen. 50:20).
|