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« [A Psalm] of David. » Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul.

A Psalm of David — An excellent psalm; the second of those seven called by the ancients penitential; and such as may well serve us for a pattern of our daily prayers; as wherein David beggeth three things (answerable to those two last petitions in the Lord’s prayer), first, pardon of sin; secondly, guidance of God’s good Spirit; thirdly, defence against his enemies (Beza). It appeareth that this psalm was made by David when he was well in years, Psalms 25:7 , after his sin in the matter of Uriah (that great iniquity, as he calleth it, Psalms 25:11 , saith Vatablus), and some gather, from Psalms 25:19 , that he framed this psalm when Absalom was up in arms against him, Psalms 25:19 (compared with Psalms 3:1 ). See also Psalms 25:15 ; Psalms 25:22 . It may seem therefore that when he came to Mahanaim, 2 Samuel 17:24 ; 2 Samuel 17:27 (where God showed him marvellous lovingkindness in a strong city, Psalms 31:21 , and wherehence he was at the people’s request to help them, or to cause them to be helped, viz. by his hearty prayers for God’s assistance, 2 Samuel 18:3 ), he composed this psalm with more than ordinary artifice, viz. in order of alphabet, as he hath done also some few others, both for the excellency of the matter and likewise for help of memory; for which cause also St Matthew summeth up the genealogy of Christ into three fourteens; all helps being but little enough. Nazianzen and Sedulius have done the like; the former in his holy alphabet, Aρχην απαντων , …, and the latter in his hymn, A Solis ortus cardine Beatus auctor saeculi, …

Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul — i.e. Praeparo cor meum, saith R. Solomon. My heart maketh its faithful addresses to thee (and not any other), with strength of desire and delight, with earnest expectation and hope of relief. Ad te orando non ad idola. See Jeremiah 22:27 Deuteronomy 24:15 Psalms 86:5 , Cyprian saith, that in the primitive times the minister was wont to prepare the people’s minds to pray by prefacing Sursum corda, Lift up your hearts. The Jews at this day write upon the walls of their synagogues these words, Tephillah belo cavannah ceguph belo neshamah; that is, a prayer without the intention of the affection, is like a body without a soul; and yet their devotion is a mere outside, saith one, a brainless head, and a soulless body; Antiquum obtinent, Isaiah 29:13 , Buxtorf. Abbreviat. This people draweth nigh to me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. A carnal man can as little lift up his heart in prayer as a mole can fly. A David finds it a hard task; since the best heart is lumpish, and naturally beareth downward, as the poise of a clock, as the lead of a net. Let us, theretbre, lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us; and pray God to draw us up to himself, as the loadstone doth the iron, …

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O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.

O my God, I trust in thee — I pray in faith, which is as the fire, and my prayer as the flame that ariseth out of it. Faith is the foundation of prayer; and prayer is the fervency of faith. Now David knew that the hand of faith never knocketh at the gate of grace in vain.

Let me not be ashamed — Shame is the daughter of disappointment. This David deprecateth; Quaeque repulsa gravis. See Job 6:20 .

Let not mine enemies triumph over me — By saying that I pray to no purpose, as Rabshakeh did, Isaiah 35:6 . I say (saith Hezekiah) I have words of my lips, prayer; prayer? but alas, what is that more than empty words, an airy nothing? Counsel and strength are for the battle. Thus he.

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Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed — Be nosed and twitted with my disappointments, as they are sure to be if I be repulsed by thee and worsted by mine enemies; all thy praying people shall have it cast in their teeth and laid in their dish.

Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause — Let shame be sent to the right owner, even to those that deal disloyally, unprovoked on my part. And so it was; for Ahithophel hanged himself; Absalom was trussed up by the hand of God, and despatched by Joab; the people that conspired with him partly perished by the sword, and partly fled home, much ashamed of their enterprise. Oh the power of prayer! what may not the saints have for asking!

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Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.

Show me thy ways, O Lord — q.d. However other men walk towards me, yet my desire is to keep touch with thee; for which purpose I humbly beg thy best direction. See Exodus 33:13 Isaiah 2:3 .

Teach me thy paths — Assuefac me ; inure me to thy paths, Sicut parvulus ad ambulandum assuetus, saith Kimchi, as a little one is taught to find his feet.

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Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou [art] the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

Lead me in thy truth, and teach me — i.e. Assidue doce et urge. David was a great proficient in God’s school, and yet he would learn more; so sweet is divine knowledge. Four times together here prayeth David to be further instructed. See Moses in like manner holily encroaching upon God, Exodus 33:12-13 ; Exodus 33:16 ; Exodus 33:18 , as if his motto had been that of Charles V, Ulterius, More yet.

For thou art the God of my salvation — Perfect, therefore, that which concerneth me. "Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever; forsake not the works of thine own hands," Psalms 138:8 . Thou hast written me down in thy book of preservation with thine own hand. Oh read thine own handwriting, and save me, said Queen Elizabeth in her troubles.

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Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they [have been] ever of old.

Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies — Heb. thy bowels, which thou mayest seem to have lost, but I shall find them for thee. Where are thy bowels and thy compassions? are they restrained? If thou hast forgotten them (but that cannot be) I shall be thy remembrancer, and read them over unto thee out of the register of a sanctified memory.

For they have been ever of old — Etiam ad Adamum, qui vixit quasi mille annis, Ever since Adam, and so onward, saith R. Solomon; and why not then to me, who am one of thine, to whom thy mercy successively belongeth in my generation, as it did to mine ancestors in theirs?

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Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O LORD.

Remember not the sins of my youth — Which, though long since committed, must not be remembered without remorse; since for them God often punisheth men in their age, Job 13:26 Jeremiah 3:25 . It is not the last sand that emptieth the hour glass, nor the last blow that throweth down the oak. Sin may sleep a long time, like a sleeping debt, not called for of many years; as Saul’s sin in slaying the Gibeonites, not punished till forty years after; as Joab’s killing of Abner slept all David’s days, … It is not safe to be at odds with the Ancient of days. This David knew, and, therefore, was willing to clear all old scores, to get pardon for youthful lusts, lest they should put a sting into his present sufferings. And that being thoroughly done, as he could expect mercy and direction from God, so if any should maliciously upbraid him with his bygone iniquities he could answer, as Austin did in like case, Quae tu reprehendis, ego damnavi, What thou reprehendest in me I have long since condemned in myself. And as reverend Beza, when a spiteful Papist hit him in the teeth with his wanton poems set forth in his youth, and long before repented of, Hic homo invidet mihi gratiam Christi, This fellow, said he, envieth me the grace of Jesus Christ.

Nor my transgressions — Or, prevarications, in personam Uriae, in the matter of Uriah, saith R. Obadiah; the sins of mine age, saith Kimchi; all my faults of former and later time, saith another. David was well in years when he defiled himself with Bathsheba. In many young men the rose is cankered in the bud. And again, as the canker soonest entereth into the white rose, so doth corruption easily creep into the white head. David prayeth God to forgive him his sins, both of former and of latter time; and not to forgive them only, but to forget them too; "Remember not the sins," … And as he fitly joineth memory of mercies and forgetfulness of sins, so he forgetteth not to subjoin,

According to thy mercy remember thou me, for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord — Do all of free grace, not for any motive or merit of mine. Lorinus, a Jesuit, here bringeth in sundry passages (as well he may), Psalms 6:8 ; Psalms 51:3 ; Psalms 69:14 ; Psalms 86:5 ; Psalms 86:15 ; Psalms 106:45 ; Psalms 119:156 ; Psalms 136:7 ; Daniel 9:18 ; Isaiah 55:7 , to prove that all is of mercy, and not of merits.

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Good and upright [is] the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

Good and upright is the Lord — i.e. Gracious and righteous, or faithful; and hence it is that our God is merciful, as Psalms 116:5 ; hence it is that we poor creatures are not overwhelmed, aut magnitudine peccatorum, aut mole calamitatum, either with the greatness of our sins, or the multitude of our miseries.

Therefore will he teach sinners in the way — i.e. Sensible sinners, meek and mortified, as in the next verse, self-judging, and self-condemned; those will he teach to turn to him, and to walk before him in all well pleasing; and this doctrine of election must needs be good, because he is good; and certain, because he is upright.

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