Bible Commentaries

REFLECTIONS.—This Psalm professes to have been written in mature age, and after David’s head was lifted up above his enemies. The Lord was become his light and salvation;—whom in future was he to fear? Past deliverances should always inspire hopes for the future.

In the time of triumph and of joy he made religion his chief delight. “One thing have I desired of the Lord.” That voice, “one thing is needful,” should often sound in our ears. David in all his exile had preserved a confidence in God; had ever viewed the sanctuary as full of glory, the altar as smoking with atoning victims, that sinners might approach the Just and Holy One. He had regarded it as the house of prayer, crowded with worshippers, and with devout strangers. There he heard the prophets preach at the close of the services, magnify the law, reprove vice, console the faithful, uplift the curtains of the Messiah’s glory, and of the nation’s hope. There, there his hallowed soul would ever dwell, to behold his beauty and taste the sweet delights of his courts. He knew that God in the time of trouble would hide him in his pavilion, and cover him with his wings. Therefore his soul sighed for a cessation of war and trouble, that he might enjoy repose and piety.

When the Lord said, seek ye my face, his heart responded, thy face, Lord, will I seek. Here is the harmony of grace and will. Grace must first draw, and then the heart obeys. What a pattern for young people, to yield to the first drawings of the Holy Spirit, and not resist and fight against the calls of grace. This grieves the Holy Spirit, and brings torpor and death upon the soul. Oh how many thousands of lovely youths lie in this deplorable and revolting state, and seem determined not to yield themselves to God, but seek at all hazards their happiness in created good. They may meet with death in the error of their life.

We have next, the support which the promise made to David at his anointing afforded him in times of trouble, that the Lord would assuredly place him on the throne of Israel. “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Christians, whatever promises the Lord may apply to your hearts with light, and peace, and joy, they are given you to hold them fast for yourselves and for your children. The Lord gives you those promises that you may keep them, and never let them go. They are the anchor-hold of the soul till the storms of life be past and gone.