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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comTreasury of David - Psalms 57:7 - 57:7
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.
8 Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
9 I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people' I will sing unto thee among the nations.
10 For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.
11 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.
Psa 57:7
“My heart is fixed.” One would have thought he would have said, “My heart is fluttered;” but no, he is calm, firm, happy, resolute, established. When the central axle is secure, the whole wheel is right. If our great bower anchor holds, the ship cannot drive. “O God, my heart is fixed.” I am resolved to trust thee, to serve thee, and to praise thee. Twice does he declare this to the glory of God who thus comforts the souls of his servants. Reader, it is surely well with thee, if thy once roving heart is now firmly fixed upon God and the proclamation of his glory. “I will sing and give praise.” Vocally and instrumentally will I celebrate thy worship. With lip and with heart will I ascribe honour to thee. Satan shall not stop me, nor Saul, nor the Philistines. I will make Adullam ring with music, and all the caverns thereof echo with joyous song. Believer, make a firm decree that your soul in all seasons shall magnify the Lord.
“Sing, though sense and carnal reason
Fain would stop the joyful song:
Sing, and count it highest treason
For a saint to hold his tongue.”
Psa 57:8
“Awake up, my glory.” Let the noblest powers of my nature bestir them-selves: the intellect which conceives thought, the tongue which expresses it, and the inspired imagination which beautifies it - let all be on the alert now that the hour for praise has come. “Awake, Psaltery and harp.” Let all the music with which I am familiar be well attuned for the hallowed service of praise. “I myself will awake early.” I will awake the dawn with my joyous notes. No sleepy verses and weary notes shall be heard from; I will thoroughly arouse myself for this high employ. When we are at our best we fall far short of the Lord's deserts, let us, therefore, make sure that what we bring him is our best, and, if marred with infirmity, at least let it not be deteriorated by indolence. Three times the Psalmist calls upon himself to awake. Do we need so much arousing, and for such work? Then let us not spare it, for the engagement is too honourable, too needful to be left undone or ill done for want of arousing ourselves.
Psa 57:9
“I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people.” Gentiles shall hear my praise. Here is an instance of the way in which the truly devout evangelic spirit o'erleaps the boundaries which bigotry sets up. The ordinary Jew would never wish the Gentile dogs to hear Jehovah's name, except to tremble at it; but this grace-taught Psalmist has a missionary spirit, and would spread the praise and fame of his God. “I will sing unto thee among the nations.” However far off they may be, I would make them hear of thee through my glad Psalmody.
Psa 57:10
“For thy mercy is great unto the heavens.” Right up from man's lowliness to heaven's loftiness mercy reaches. Imagination fails to guess the height of heaven, and even thus the riches of mercy exceed our highest thoughts. The Psalmist, as he sits at the cave's mouth and looks up to the firmament, rejoices that God's goodness is vaster and sublimer than even the vaulted skies. “And thy truth unto the clouds.” Upon the cloud he sets the seal of his truth, the rainbow, which ratifies his covenant; in the cloud he hides his rain and snow, which prove his truth by bringing to us seedtime and harvest, cold and heat. Creation is great, but the Creator greater far. Heaven cannot contain him; above clouds and stars his goodness far exceeds.
Psa 57:11
“Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens.” A grand chorus. Take it up, ye angels and ye spirits made perfect, and join in it, ye sons of men below, as ye say, “Let thy glory be above all the earth.” The prophet in the previous verse spoke of mercy “unto the heavens,” but here his song flies “above the heavens;” praise rises higher and higher, and knows no bound.