Psalm 138:5

Psalm 138 is a psalm of David. It opens with his vow to praise the LORD with his whole heart, even before “the gods”, which may mean mighty ones or rulers. He gives thanks for God’s lovingkindness and truth, for a prayer answered and for strength put into his soul. From that personal deliverance his view widens past himself and his own nation to “all the kings of the earth”.

The reach of the promise is complete. It takes in every ruler across the world, Israel’s near neighbours and the farthest kingdoms alike. David was a king himself, and he knew that the mightiest monarch answers to a greater King. Among the nations, kings were often treated as the representatives of their gods or even as gods themselves, so a picture of foreign kings praising the God of Israel was a bold one. They will praise him as Yᵉhôvâh, the LORD, God’s own covenant name, which speaks of the eternal, self-existent God who keeps faith with his people. Their praise goes to the God of Israel by name.

The verb for praise, yâdâh, means to praise, to give thanks or to confess. So the kings will both thank the LORD and openly confess who he is. David writes “shall praise”, and he speaks of it as certain.

This hope runs all through Scripture. The second psalm already calls the kings of the earth to be wise and to serve the LORD with fear (Psalm 2:10–12). Another psalm says that all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD (Psalm 22:27). Isaiah hears God say that every knee shall bow to him (Isaiah 45:23), and that his servant will be a light to the nations (Isaiah 49:6). Zechariah looks to the day when the LORD shall be king over all the earth (Zechariah 14:9), and in Revelation the song of the redeemed declares that all nations will come and worship before God (Revelation 15:4).

“Yea” carries the thought straight on from verse 4. The kings who hear God’s words and praise him now sing. The verb shîyr means to sing, to give words a tune, and the psalm moves from praise into song. “They” are the kings of verse 4, and with them the nations they rule.

They sing “in the ways of the LORD”. The word derek is a road, a path worn by walking, and from there it comes to mean a course of life or a way of acting. The ways of the LORD are his character and his dealings: how he acts, what he decrees and commands, how he governs the world in his providence, and the path of life he sets before people. To sing in them is to celebrate who God is and how he works, and to take his ways as the path we walk. That delight fills Psalm 119, where the psalmist rejoices in walking by God’s law, and Proverbs calls us to trust in the LORD with all our heart and to acknowledge him in all our ways (Proverbs 3:5–6).

Verse 6 gives the reason the LORD is worthy of the praise of kings and of David’s own whole heart. His greatness lies in his power and also in his heart toward people: he cares for the humble and opposes the proud. It also prepares for the end of the psalm, where David trusts the LORD to keep him through trouble (verses 7 and 8).

“Though the LORD be high.” He is exalted above all creation, with all power and knowledge, holy and supreme, and set apart from every earthly ruler and every created being. “Yet hath he respect unto the lowly.” The verb behind “respect” is râʼâh, the ordinary word for seeing. Joined to “the lowly”, it means looking on them with favour: the LORD turns his eyes toward them with care, approves them and acts for them. The lowly, shâphâl, are those who are low or brought low, whether by their place in society, by affliction, or by a humble spirit before God. They know that they depend on him.

Among the nations, the gods were pictured as powerful and far away, and kings were known for their pride and grandeur and had little regard for common people, let alone the lowly. The LORD’s greatness reaches down. He looks at the heart, and outward status carries no weight with him. All through Israel’s story he chose people the world would have passed over: Abraham, Moses, David himself, and the nation of Israel.

These verses come to their fullest meaning in Jesus Christ, the King of kings. The praise David foresaw from all the kings of the earth is given to the Son, through whom God has spoken. He is the Word of God in person, and the hearing that leads to praise is now above all the hearing of the gospel, which “is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Romans 1:16).

He is also the glory of the LORD made visible: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He calls himself the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), so to sing in the ways of the LORD is to walk with Christ, to follow his teaching and example and to trust in his sacrifice. His resurrection and ascension draw people of every nation to him, and the song of the redeemed gathers people from every tribe and tongue to praise God’s great glory, shown in his Son.

Verse 6 describes the incarnation itself. Christ was in the form of God, yet he “made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men”, and he “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:6–8). In his ministry he stood with the lowly, and he exposed the pride and hypocrisy of the self-righteous (Matthew 23). In his parable the humble tax collector who begged for mercy went home justified, and the proud Pharisee who trusted in himself did not (Luke 18:9–14). As the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), he opened the way for all who humble themselves to come near to the high God and receive his favour. And his exaltation after the cross shows the truth of his own words: “he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 14:11).

These verses set before us a God whose word will win the kings of the earth and whose glory will fill the world’s song. When the news is full of rulers who ignore him or oppose him, the psalm gives us the end of the story: they will hear his words and praise him. That is good ground for praying for those in authority and for telling others the gospel, since it is by hearing the words of his mouth that hearts are changed.

The same verses show that this great God looks with favour on the lowly. Those who feel small or overlooked are seen by the LORD who governs all things, and he draws near to them. Pride, of whatever kind, keeps a person at a distance from him. The way to his nearness is the humble and contrite heart that Isaiah describes, the heart that depends on him and takes his ways as its own, and that is where the song of verse 5 begins.