Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Extreme Perils
The psalmist proclaims the fact that he was saved from great dangers, celebrates his deliverance by giving praise to God alone, and pledges His public acknowledgment of his debt to Jehovah. V. 1. I love the Lord because He hath heard my voice and my supplications, the fact that God attended to His prayer and delivered him fills his heart with grateful love.
V. 2. Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, in the attitude of willing attention, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live, in prayers both of thanksgiving and of further supplication. He now pictures the situation in which he found himself, from which he was delivered.
V. 3. The sorrows, literally, “the cords,” of death compassed me, as in a net, and the pains, the oppressions, or straits, of hell, of the realm of death, got hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow, experiencing both in full measure. Compare Psalm 18, 4. 5.
V. 4. Then called I upon the name of the Lord, depending upon the promises in His Word: O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. The psalmist now pictures the manner in which the Lord delivered him.
V. 5. Gracious, full of merciful compassion, is the Lord and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. Compare Exodus 34, 6. 7.
V. 6. The Lord preserveth the simple, guarding them against evil designs of the enemies on every hand. I was brought low, thrown to the ground in utter helplessness, and He helped me.
V. 7. Return unto thy rest, O my soul, being quiet and satisfied in the relief afforded by the Lord; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee, showing kindness far beyond any man’s merit. After this admonition to his own heart the poet turns back to his prayer.
V. 8. For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling, these three expressions representing all calamities which may befall a man, and the deliverance therefore being complete in every way.
V. 9. I will walk before the Lord, leading his whole life with the consciousness that he is in the presence of Yahweh and His omniscient eye, in the land of the living; instead of becoming a prey to death, he enjoys life and is able always to have his Savior before his eyes.