Psalm 138:3

This is the line in these verses that people ask about most. It means that God has given the highest honour to what he has said, and that he binds himself to keep it. “Magnified” is gâdal, to make large or great, to increase, to lift up or promote. “Word” is ʼimrâh, something said: a word, a speech or a commandment, used of human speech and of God’s. Here it is what God has spoken, his promises and his commands. “Name” is shêm, which in Scripture stands for the whole person, his character, reputation and authority.

So God has set the keeping of his word above everything his name is known for. His reputation rests on what he has promised, and his promises will be fulfilled because his own name stands behind them. The word is still his word, spoken by him, so the verse does not make it greater than God himself. It tells us how fully he can be trusted.

Scripture says the same in other places. “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19). Through Isaiah he says that his word “shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). And another psalm sings, “For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89).

This is why the line begins with “for”. David can praise God’s lovingkindness and truth with confidence because God has staked his own honour on what he has said.

“I will praise thee” is a decision David makes in advance, a vow. The verb is yâdâh, which means to praise, to give thanks or to confess. Strong’s ties its root to holding out the hand, and Israel’s praise was often given with hands lifted up. It is the verb of thanksgiving, which is why this is called a psalm of thanks, and David uses it again in verse 2 for “praise thy name”.

“With my whole heart” is b’khol libbi in Hebrew. The heart, lêb, is the organ in the chest, and Scripture uses the word for the whole inner person, the seat of feeling, will and understanding, and also for the centre of anything. To praise with the whole heart is to praise sincerely and with undivided attention, keeping no part of oneself back. It is the same wholeness the law asks of Israel’s love: “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Jesus gives the command again: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37). David’s praise is the praise of a man who loves God in that way, and the last of this group of psalms opens in the same spirit: “I will extol thee, my God, O king” (Psalm 145:1–3).

David will sing his praise neged ʼĕlôhîym, “before the gods”. The verb for “sing praise” is zâmar, praise in music and song, a joyful act done in the open. The word for “gods”, ʼĕlôhîym, is plural in form. It is the usual name for the true God, where it is a plural of majesty. It can also mean the gods of the nations, it is sometimes applied to magistrates and judges out of respect for their office, and it can stand for what is very great or mighty. So believers differ on whom David means, and each reading has support.

• The gods of the nations. On this reading David praises the LORD in the face of the idols of the peoples around Israel and declares him supreme over them all. “For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens” (Psalm 96:5).
• Rulers and judges. As king, David met foreign envoys and rival kings, and on this reading he praises the LORD openly before them, owning that their power answers to God. Another psalm speaks this way: “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods” (Psalm 82:1).
• The angels. On this reading David sings in the presence of the heavenly assembly, and Psalm 8:5 speaks of man as made “a little lower than the angels”.

On every reading the LORD has no rival, and David’s praise is spoken out loud where other powers can hear it. His faith is a public witness to God’s greatness, given in the presence of whatever else claims honour.

“I will worship” is shâchâh, to bow down low, even to lie face down, as people did in homage before a king and above all before God. David bows “toward thy holy temple”. The word for temple, hêykâl, means a palace or temple, a large public building, and “holy” is qôdesh, a sacred place or thing.

People ask how David could bow toward a temple that Solomon built after him. In David’s day the holy hêykâl was the Tabernacle, the central place of worship where God had set his presence among his people. To face it in worship was to seek God where he had chosen to show himself and receive his people’s praise, and the body’s posture matched the heart’s. David speaks the same way in another psalm: “But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple” (Psalm 5:7).

David praises God’s name, all that God is and is known to be, for two things. Lovingkindness is cheçed (often written chesed), God’s steadfast and loyal love, the kindness and mercy he has bound himself to show his people in his covenant, a love that lasts and keeps seeking their good. Truth is ʼemeth (emeth), which means stability, certainty and truth, and in God it is his complete reliability.

The two are paired again and again in the psalms. One psalm opens, “I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations” (Psalm 89:1–2), and the shortest psalm gives the whole reason for praise in these two: “For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever” (Psalm 117:2). God’s love is faithful and his faithfulness is loving, and together they are the ground of David’s trust.

Verse 3 is David’s own testimony, and it is the reason his thanks are so personal. “In the day when I cried” points to a particular day he remembers, a time of need when he called on God. The psalm does not say what the trouble was. The verb is qârâʼ, to call out to someone, to cry unto him or address him by name. Here it is an earnest prayer from someone who knows he depends on God. Another psalm describes this kind of prayer: “Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us” (Psalm 62:8).

“Thou answeredst me” uses ʻânâh, to answer, to respond, to heed. God heard and replied, and the reply was to David himself. David says the same with confidence in an earlier psalm: “But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him” (Psalm 4:3).

God’s answer reached David’s inner being. He “strengthenedst me with strength in my soul”. The noun ʻôz means strength or might, and it is also used of a stronghold. God made David strong at the core of who he was, in his will and his spirit, so that he could stand up under what he faced. Isaiah gives the same promise to all God’s people: “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31).

Jesus is the one who praised and obeyed the Father with his whole heart. “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” (John 4:34). He is also the one before whom every power will bow. God has highly exalted him and given him the name above every name, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Philippians 2:9–11). At the cross he disarmed the powers that set themselves against God: “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). Through him our own praise is acceptable to God, “the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” (Hebrews 13:15).

The word God has magnified became flesh in Jesus, the Word who was with God and was God (John 1:1). John says that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us... full of grace and truth” (John 1:14), the same pair David praises in God’s lovingkindness and truth. Every promise God has made is kept in him: “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Jesus also knew the day of crying out. “In the days of his flesh” he “offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard” (Hebrews 5:7), above all in the Garden of Gethsemane, where an angel came and strengthened him (Luke 22:43). After his resurrection and ascension he poured out the Holy Spirit, who now lives in believers and gives them the strength in the soul that David knew.

These verses give us a God worth thanking with everything we are. He stands above every power that claims honour, so his praise can be sung openly anywhere. His lovingkindness and truth belong together, and he has bound his own name to keeping what he has said, so his promises are as sure as he is. And he hears the cry of one person on one hard day, answering with strength where it is most needed, deep in the soul. David’s vow rests on all three, and the same God who answered David answers everyone who calls on him through Christ.