Deeper Commentary
Psa 138:1
By David-
According to the LXX titles, there were certain Psalms which were written
for the dedication of the rebuilt temple, and others written by Haggai and
Zechariah. They include: Psalms 96,138,147,148. These all seem to speak as
if the time of a glorious temple was to be the time of God’s Kingdom; this
was the possibility, and it was the prevailing hope in the minds of the
faithful minority. But the Psalms had to remain prophecies of the future day
of Zion’s glory, for the temple was not rebuilt by the returned exiles
according to the specifications of Ez. 40-48. This psalm originally by David
was reused and reapplied to later contexts.
I will give You thanks with my whole heart. Before the mighty ones I will
sing praises to You-
David spoke of seeking and praising God's grace with his "whole heart"
(Ps. 9:1; 119:58; 138:1). Solomon uses the phrase, but speaks of being
obedient with the "whole heart" (1 Kings 8:23; 2 Chron. 6:14) and applying
the "whole heart" to the intellectual search for God (Ecc. 1:13; 8:9).
There is a difference. The idea of whole hearted devotion to God was
picked up by Solomon, but instead of giving the whole heart to the praise
of God's grace, he instead advocated giving the whole heart to ritualistic
obedience and intellectual search for God. This has been the trap fallen
into by many Protestant groups whose obsession with "truth" has obscured
the wonder of God's grace.
Psa 138:2
I will bow down toward Your holy temple, and give thanks to Your Name
for Your grace and for Your truth; for You have exalted above all things
your name and your word-
The particular "word" David initially had in view was the word of God
through Samuel that he would become king. That is what "the word" in Ps.
119 mainly refers to. Now that he was established king and could come
before the sanctuary as he so longed to do whilst exiled, he thanks God.
"Grace and truth" is a phrase which often refers to God's promises. David
perceived that the fulfilment of Samuel's prophetic word about these
things was the articulation of God's Name, exalted in the fulfilment of
God's prophetic word. However we will note on :7,8 that David seems to
have prayed this time whilst still under persecution from Saul, so we
could read these past tenses at the start of the Psalm as his confident
expectation that one day he would be in the sanctuary praising God for
fulfilling His word about the Davidic Kingdom. And this was to be a
pattern for the exiles.
Psa 138:3
In the day that I called, You answered me; You encouraged me with
strength in my soul-
David thinks back to his time in the wilderness, and how his
desperate calls for help and for the fulfilment of the prophetic word
about his becoming king has been answered. He recalls how God had answered
his many requests recorded in Ps. 119, to encourage him with strength in
believing that the prophetic word about his kingship would in fact come
true. The application to the exiles was that their prayers for restoration
would likewise be heard- if they followed David's path of humility,
repentance and restoration. But for the most part they didn't.
Psa 138:4
All the kings of the land will give You thanks, Yahweh, for they have
heard the words of Your mouth-
David's vision was of all the rulers in the eretz promised
to Abraham glorifying God for making him king. And likewise there was the
potential at the time of the restoration for the whole area of the
eretz to come to accept Yahweh as their God because of the evident
fulfilment of His prophetic word for His people. But this again didn't
happen as potentially possible, and will come to full term only in the
last days.
Psa 138:5
Yes, they will sing of the ways of Yahweh; for great is Yahweh’s
glory-
Nations only accepted new gods because the nations who worshipped
those gods had overrun them and forced them to accept their gods
and reject their own. But Yahweh's envisaged spiritual conquest of the
nations of the eretz was to be because they had "heard the words
of Your mouth", seeing them fulfilled in the restoration of David and
later of the exiles; and they willingly therefore were to perceive
Yahweh's glory and sing of His ways. And so it is in the expansion of His
Kingdom in this life; individuals willingly submit themselves to Him
rather than due to coercion or being swamped with His power unavoidably.
Psa 138:6
For though Yahweh is high, yet He looks after the lowly; but the
proud, He knows from afar-
What was intended to attract the nations to submission to Yahweh was
the way that He works with the lowly, be they David or the exiles, and
restores them and brings down the proud (cp. Saul, the Babylonian empire).
This love of the humble was a radical inversion of all accepted values,
for the proud are glorified and the humble abused in secular life. And it
was this which was one of Yahweh's unique and so attractive
characteristics.
Psa 138:7
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will
stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies. Your right hand
will save me-
The Psalm begins with David thanking God for having already restored
him to Zion; but as noted on :2, it could be that he said this whilst
still walking "in the midst of trouble" during Saul's persecution, as well
as during his exile from Absalom. "The wrath of my enemies" is a phrase he
uses about both those situations (Ps. 55:3). His confidence that he would
be revived / restored is therefore a pattern for the exiles, who were in a
similar situation. Ps. 119 is full of requests for God to "revive" or
restore David according to His word of promise through Samuel that David
would become king.
"Trouble" was the result of disobedience to the covenant, and God would not be in the "midst" of His people at this time (s.w. Dt. 31:17). This is very relevant to the exiles, but the Psalm reflects faith that even in the experience of judgment, God is still desirous to save His people.
Psa 138:8
Yahweh will fulfil that which concerns me; Your grace, Yahweh,
endures forever. Don’t forsake the works of Your own hands-
See on Ps. 139:15. GNB better captures the sense that this refers to God's
word of promise to restore David (and the exiles) even when that seemed
impossible: "You will do everything you have promised; LORD, your love is
eternal. Complete the work that you have begun". The work had been "begun"
with David as it had with the exiles; but David is ever aware, as he is
throughout Ps. 119, that the fulfilment of that word of the kingdom would
be by grace. He and the exiles were personally undeserving of it. If we
read "Don’t forsake the works of Your own hands", we have another example
of how David sees in creation, including that of his own body, an
encouragement to faith that God will work intricately and powerfully with
us to further fulfil His ultimate intention with us. Our attitudes to
creation therefore affect our present faith. This verse is alluded to in
Phil. 1:6: "Being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good
work in you will keep working at perfecting it [AV "will complete it"],
until the day of Jesus Christ". David's pattern is therefore our template.
We too have been given the word of the Kingdom as he was, which appears so
far from fulfilment; and yet it will be fulfilled, as with David, despite
his sinfulness and weakness.
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