Psalms
Psalms 111
Commentary
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3 commentators · 13 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.
The title of the psalm being Hallelujah, the psalmist (as every author ought to have) has an eye to his title, and keeps to his text. I. He resolves to praise God himself, Psa 111:1. What duty we call others to we must oblige and excite ourselves to; nay…
We are here taught to give glory to God, I. For the great things he has done for his people, for his people Israel, of old and of late: He has shown his people the power of his works (Psa 111:6), in what he has wrought for them; many a time he has given…
John Gill10
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.
Praise ye the Lord,.... Or "hallelujah"; this is the title of the psalm, and is expressive of the subject matter of it; and so it stands in the Targum, Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions; as it should, as appears from the psalm being…
The works of the Lord are great,.... His works of creation are great, being made out of nothing, are the effects of great power, and the produce of great wisdom, and which greatly display the glory of their Maker; the works of providence are great, which are…
His work is honourable and glorious,.... Or "honour and glory" (g) itself; there is nothing mean and trifling done by him; nothing unworthy of him in nature, providence, and grace; every work of his serves to display his glory, and set off the greatness of…
Keil & Delitzsch1
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.
That which the poet purposes doing in Psa 111:1, he puts into execution from Psa 111:2 onwards. ועדה, according to Psa 64:7; Psa 118:14, is equivalent to ועדתם. According to Psa 111:10, הפציהם in Psa 111:2 apparently signifies those who find pleasure in them…
World English Bible — Public domain