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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comTreasury of David - Psalms 71:14 - 71:14
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
14 But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.
15 My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.
16 I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.
Psa 71:14
The holy faith of the persecuted saint comes to the front in these three verses. “But I will hope continually.” When I cannot rejoice in what I have, I will look forward to what shall be mine, and will still rejoice. Hope will live on a bare common, and Sing on a branch laden down with snow. No date and no place are unsuitable for hope. Hell alone excepted, hope is a dweller in all regions. We may always hope, for we always have grounds for it: we will always hope, for it is a never-failing consolation. “And will yet praise thee more and more.” He was not slack in thanksgiving; in fact, no man was ever more diligent in it; yet he was not content with all his former praises, but vowed to become more and more a grateful worshipper. When good things are both continual and progressive with us, we are on the right tack. We ought to be misers in doing good; and our motto should be “more and more.” While we do not disdain to “rest and be thankful,” we cannot settle down into resting in our thankfulness. “Superior,” cries the eagle, as he mounts towards the sun: higher and yet higher is also our aims, as we soar aloft in duty and devotion. It is our continual hope that we shall be able more and more to magnify the Lord.
Psa 71:15
“My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day.” We are to bear testimony as experience enables us, and not withhold from others that which we have tasted and handled. The faithfulness of God in saving us, in delivering us out of the hand of our enemies, and in fulfilling his promises, is to be everywhere proclaimed by those who have proved it in their own history. How gloriously conspicuous is righteousness in the divine plan of redemption! It should be the theme of constant discourse. The devil rages against the substitutionary sacrifice, and errorists of every form make this the main point of their attack; be it ours, therefore, to love the doctrine, and to spread its glad tidings on every side, and at all times. Mouths are never so usefully employed as in recounting the righteousness of God revealed in the salvation of believers in Jesus. The preacher who should be confined to this one theme would never need seek another: it is the medulla theologiae, the very pith and marrow of revealed truth. Has our reader been silent upon this choice subject? Let us, then, press him to tell abroad what he enjoys within: he does not well who keeps such glad tidings to himself. “For I know not the numbers thereof” He knew the sweetness of it, the sureness, the glory, and the truth of it; but as to the full reckoning of its plentitude, variety, and sufficiency, he felt he could not reach to the height of the great argument. Lord, where I cannot count I will believe, and when a truth surpasses numeration I will take to admiration. When David spoke of his enemies, he said they were more in number than the hairs of his head; he had, therefore, some idea of their number, and found a figure suitable to set it out; but, in the case of the Lord's covenant mercies, he declares, “I know not the number,” and does not venture upon any sort of comparison. To creatures belong number and limit, to God and his grace there is neither. We may, therefore, continue to tell out his great salvation all day long, for the theme is utterly inexhaustible.
Psa 71:16
“I will go in the strength of the Lord God.” Our translators give us a good sense, but not the sense in this place, which is on this wise, “I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord Jehovah.” He would enter into those deeds by admiring study, and then, wherever he went, he would continue to rehearse them. He should ever be a welcome guest who can tell us of the mighty acts of the Lord, and help us to put our trust in him. The authorised version may be used by us as a resolve in all our exertions and endeavors. In our own strength we must fall; but, when we hear the voice which saith, “Go in this thy might,” we may advance without fear. Though hell itself were in the way, the believer would pursue the path of duty, crying, “I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.” Man's righteousness is not fit to be mentioned - filthy rags are best hidden; neither is there any righteousness under heaven, or in heaven, comparable to the divine. As God himself fills all space, and is, therefore, the only God, leaving no room for another, so God's righteousness, in Christ Jesus, fills the believer's soul, and he counts all other things but dross and dung “that he may win Christ, and be found in him, not having his own righteousness which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of God by faith.” What would be the use of speaking upon any other righteousness to a dying man? and all are dying men. Let those who will cry up man's natural innocence, the dignity Of the race, the purity of philosophers, the loveliness of untutored savages, the power of sacraments, and the infallibility of pontiffs; this is the true believer's immovable resolve, “I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.” For ever dedicated to thee, my Lord, be this poor, unworthy tongue, whose glory it shall be to glorify thee.