John Calvin Commentary Psalms 86:12

"I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with my whole heart; And I will glorify thy name for evermore." — Psalms 86:12 (ASV)

I will praise you, O Lord my God! David commits himself, once he has experienced God to be in every way a beneficent father, to offer Him the tribute of gratitude. He expressed in the preceding verse a desire to have his heart united to God, so that he might fear Him; and now he affirms his resolution to publish or celebrate His praises, not only with his mouth or tongue but also with sincere affection of heart; indeed, even to continue with steadfast perseverance in that practice.

In verse 13, he explains the reason for this: because, in delivering him, God had given a unique and remarkable proof of His mercy. To highlight the greatness of this benefit, he describes the dangers from which he had been delivered with the expression, the lower grave; as if he had said, 'I have not been held down by one death only, but have been thrust down into the lowest depths of the grave, so that my circumstances required God's hand to be stretched out to me in a wonderful manner.'

By the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are delivered from a still deeper abyss of death; consequently, our ingratitude will be inexcusable unless each of us strives to the utmost of his ability to celebrate this deliverance. If David so highly magnified the name of God merely because his life was prolonged for a short time, what praises are due for this unparalleled redemption by which we are drawn from the depths of hell and elevated to heaven?

The Papists attempt to base an argument on this passage in support of their doctrine of Purgatory, as if Purgatory were an upper hell while there was another, lower one; but this argument is too rotten to need refutation.