John Gill Commentary Psalms 61

Hear my cry, O God
Being in distress; and which was vocally expressed with great fervency and importunity;

attend unto my prayer ;
which psalm was made by him, and not for him; inwrought in his heart by the Spirit of God, and put up by him with a true heart and full assurance of faith, and related to his own case in particular. Aben Ezra thinks that the former word designs public prayer, vocally and openly expressed; and that this intends prayer in the heart, or mental prayer; both the Lord hears and attends unto, and is here requested; which is marvellous grace and condescension in him.

From the end of the earth will I cry to you
Where he now was, as is observed on the title, (See Gill on Psalms 61:1): though he was distant from his own house, and from the house of God, he did not restrain prayer before him, but continued to cry to him, and determined to do so; and as the people of God are sometimes forced to flee to distant parts, they have a God still to go to, who is a God afar off, as well as at hand. It may be the psalmist may represent the church in Gospel times, throughout the whole world, even at the further parts of it, in the isles afar off, where men may and do lift up holy hands to God without wrath and doubting:

when my heart is overwhelmed ;
or "covered" ^F24 ; with grief and sorrow for any trouble, outward or inward, and ready to sink, and fail and die. Sometimes the saints are overwhelmed with a sense of sin, are pressed down with the weight and burden of its guilt; their faces are covered with shame and confusion; and their hearts are swallowed up and overwhelmed with overmuch sorrow, both at the number of their sins, and at the aggravated circumstances of them; and especially when they are without a view of pardoning grace and mercy, (Psalms 38:4Psalms 38:10) (51:12) (Lamentations 3:42Lamentations 3:43) ;

And sometimes they are overwhelmed with afflictive providences; the Lord causes all his waves and billows to go over them, and they are just ready to sink; and did he not stay his hand, and stop contending with them, the spirit would fail before him, and the souls that he has made, (Psalms 42:6Psalms 42:7) (Isaiah 57:16) ; and sometimes with divine desertions, which cause a "deliquium" of soul, and throw them into fainting fits, (Song of Solomon 5:6) ; and sometimes through unbelieving frames; and did not the Lord appear to them, and strengthen their faith, and remove their unbelief, they would sink and die away, (Psalms 77:2Psalms 77:3Psalms 77:7–9) (27:13) . And at all such times it is right to cry to the Lord, and make the following request to him:

lead me to the rock [that] is higher than I ;
not the land of Israel, as Kimchi thinks, the psalmist being now in the low lands of the Philistines; nor Jerusalem, and the fort and hill of Zion; he being now at the extreme and lower parts of the land: this sense is too low. Some think that some great difficulty is meant; which seemed insuperable, and like a rock inaccessible, which he could not get up to, and upon, and get over; and therefore desires the Lord would lead him up it, and over it, before whom every rock, mountain, and hill, becomes a plain, (Zechariah 4:7) ; but rather Christ is meant, the Rock of Israel, the Rock of our salvation, and our refuge. He is higher than David, and all the kings of the earth; higher than the angels in heaven, and than the heavens themselves, (Hebrews 7:26) ; and who by his height is able to protect and defend his people from all their enemies; and by the shade he casts to refresh and comfort them; and by the sufficiency in him to supply all their wants; for he is as a rock impregnable, and well stored, (Isaiah 33:16) (32:9) . And here gracious souls desire to be led by the Spirit of God always, and especially when in distressing circumstances; and he does lead them to his blood for pardon and cleansing, and to his righteousness for justification and acceptance with God, and to his fulness for fresh supplies.

FOOTNOTES:

• F24: (Pjeb) "quum tegitur", Michaelis.

For you have been a shelter for me
Or "refuge" ^F25 , from avenging justice; a hiding place and covert from the storms and tempests of divine wrath; a shadow and a screen from the heat of Satan's fiery darts, and the blast of his terrible temptations, (Isaiah 25:4) ;

[and] a strong tower from the enemy :
from Satan the devouring lion, from furious persecutors, and every other enemy; see (Proverbs 18:10) ; and this experience the psalmist had of protection from the Rock in former times made him desirous of being led to it now.

FOOTNOTES:

• F25: (hoxm) "asylum", Tigurine version, Vatablus; "perfagium", Cocceius; "refugium", Michaelis.

I will abide in your tabernacle for ever
Under the protection of the Lord, as in a shepherd's tent, or as in one belonging to a general of an army, where are fulness and safety; (See Gill on Psalms 27:5); or else the tabernacle of the congregation is meant; the house of God, the place of divine and public worship, where he desired and determined always to continue, (Psalms 23:6) ; or else the tabernacle which was prefigured by that below, where he knew he should dwell to all eternity. Kimchi, by "for ever", understands a long time; and Jarchi explains it both of this world and of the world to come; which is true, understanding the tabernacle of the church below, and the church above;

I will trust in the covert of your wings .
Or, "in" or "into the secret of your wings" ^F26 ; this he determined to make his refuge for the present time, and while in this world; (See Gill on Psalms 57:1).

Selah; on this word, (See Gill on Psalms 3:2).

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: (rtob) "in abscondito", Pagninus, Montanus; "in occultum", Junius & Tremellius.

For you, O God, has heard my vows
Or "my prayers", as the Septuagint and other versions. Vows are so called, because it was usual to make vows in trouble, when prayer was made to the Lord for help and deliverance, (Psalms 66:13Psalms 66:14) (Psalms 132:1Psalms 132:2) . This is a reason why the psalmist was encouraged to put his trust in the Lord, because his prayers were heard by him; or he was sure they would be, as he had entreated, (Psalms 61:1) .

The past is put for the future, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe; and it may be because of the certainty of his prayers being heard; and which may be concluded from the Lord's declaring himself a God hearing prayer, from the prevalent mediation of Christ, from the assistance and intercession of the Spirit, and from the exercise of faith in prayer, and the divine promises; or while he was crying to God an answer was returned, and he was delivered out of his troubles, (Isaiah 65:24) (Daniel 9:20Daniel 9:21Daniel 9:23) . Another reason follows:

you has given [me] the heritage of those that fear your name :
not the land of Israel, as Aben Ezra and Jarchi; which was given for an inheritance to the posterity of Abraham, (Psalms 105:11) ; and which was never more fully in their possession than in the times of David: nor the tabernacle or sanctuary of the Lord, as Kimchi; where he desired to dwell, (Psalms 61:4) ; and now had his request granted: but the heavenly glory, the incorruptible inheritance, the inheritance of the saints in light, prefigured by them both; which is the gift of God their Father to them his children; comes to them through the death of Christ the testator; is not of the law, and the works of it; is not acquired nor purchased; but is owing to the free grace of God; to predestinating grace, as the source of it; to justifying grace, through the righteousness of Christ, as the right unto it; and to regenerating and sanctifying grace, as the meetness for it.

Wherefore it manifestly belongs to those that "fear the name of the Lord", himself, his perfections, particularly his goodness; who adore and admire, serve and worship him, internally and externally; not with a slavish fear, but with a filial godly fear.

The Targum renders it,``you has given an inheritance to them that fear your name;'' that in the King's Bible is, ``an inheritance in the world to come;'' so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and the Oriental versions; and which sense is given by Aben Ezra. It may be understood of them that fear the Lord, being the inheritance itself; as they are of Christ, David's son and antitype, and who is designed in (Psalms 61:6) : see (Deuteronomy 32:9) (Psalms 2:8) (16:6) .