Psalms
Psalms 108
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3 commentators · 9 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry2
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
We may here learn how to praise God from the example of one who was master of the art. 1. We must praise God with fixedness of heart. Our heart must be employed in the duty (else we make nothing of it) and engaged to the duty (Psa 108:1): O God! my heart is…
We may here learn how to pray as well as praise. 1. We must be public-spirited in prayer, and bear upon our hearts, at the throne of grace, the concerns of the church of God, Psa 108:6. It is God's beloved, and therefore must be ours; and therefore we must…
John Gill5
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise,.... From hence to Psalm 108:6 the words are taken out of Psalm 57:7, which see. Even with my glory; my tongue; in Psalm 57:8, it is read, "awake up my glory". See Gill on Psalm 57:7,
For thy mercy is great above the heavens,..... It is in Psalm 57:10, "thy mercy is great unto the heavens". See Gill on Psalm 57:10.
That thy beloved may be delivered,.... From hence to the end of the psalm the words are taken out of Psalm 60:5. See Gill on Psalm 60:5.
Keil & Delitzsch2
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
This first half is taken from Ps. 57:8-12. The repetition of confident is my heart in Psa 57:1-11 is here omitted; and in place of it the "my glory" of the exclamation, awake my glory, is taken up to "I will sing and will harp" as a more minute definition of…
Ps. 60:7-14 forms this second half. The clause expressing the purpose with למען, as in its original, has the following הושׁיעה for its principal clause upon which it depends. Instead of ועננוּ, which one might have expected, the expression used here is וענני…
World English Bible — Public domain