Psalm 69:31

Psalm 69 is traditionally David’s. Until this point he has cried out from deep mire and floods, hated by more enemies than the hairs of his head (Psalm 69:1–4), and he has pleaded for rescue and for judgment on those who persecute him (Psalm 69:19–28). Verse 30 is where the psalm turns. His troubles are still with him, yet he speaks of praise as already settled: “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.”

A promise like this is called a vow of praise, and it belongs to many laments. The one who prays promises to give thanks when God delivers him, and the promise is itself an act of faith, made before the answer comes. Psalm 13 ends the same way, with trust and a song after long complaint (Psalm 13:5–6).

The verb for praise, hâlal, first meant to be clear or to shine, and from there to make a show, to boast and to celebrate. It is open, joyful praise, spoken aloud and often in front of others. What he praises is “the name of God”. In Scripture a name, shêm, stands for the person himself, his character, his reputation and his presence, so to praise God’s name is to praise all that God has shown himself to be. The word for God is ʼĕlôhîym, and the praise comes “with a song”, shîyr, the plain word for a song or for singing. Song was at the heart of Israel’s worship, in the tabernacle, the temple and the gathered congregation.

The second line says the same thing again in other words, as Hebrew poetry often does, with “magnify” answering “praise” and “thanksgiving” answering “song”. To magnify is gâdal, which in this form means to make great. God’s greatness is already complete, so to magnify him is to declare it until it stands large in our own eyes and in the eyes of others. Thanksgiving is tôwdâh, a word that covers thanks, the confession of God’s goodness, a choir giving thanks, and the thank offering brought to the altar. Thanks of this kind was a public act, given before others as a testimony to God’s faithfulness after he had delivered someone, and that is the scene the psalmist looks forward to.

The Psalms call all God’s people to the same worship. Psalm 96 calls us to sing a new song to the LORD and declare his glory among the nations (Psalm 96:1–3), and Psalm 100 bids us enter his gates with thanksgiving because he is good (Psalm 100:4–5). Paul tells believers to teach and admonish one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in their hearts to the Lord (Colossians 3:16).

“This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.” The word “this” points back to the song and the thanksgiving of verse 30. The name “the LORD” is Yᵉhôvâh, the covenant name of the God of Israel. The verb yâṭab stands under both “please” and “better”. It means to be good, to go well with someone, and in its causative form to do good, so the thankful song is good in the LORD’s sight, and better there than any animal on the altar.

The ox, shôwr, is the common word for a head of cattle, an ox or a bull. The bullock, par, is a young bull. The verse names them together and weighs both against praise. The last phrase is built from two verbs. “Hath horns” is qâran, to put out horns, and “hoofs” is pâraç, a verb meaning to split or divide, used for having hoofs. A bull that has grown its horns and stands on its hoofs is a full-sized animal, large and costly, the kind of offering a worshipper would bring to show how much he valued God. The psalmist sets the best gift of the field beside a song of thanks, and the song is what the LORD prefers.

“The humble shall see this, and be glad.” In this verse “this” is the deliverance the psalmist has been praying for, God’s answer to his cry and his vindication before his enemies. The humble, ʻânâv, are people brought low, in mind or in circumstances. The word covers the gentle and meek as well as the needy and afflicted, and above all it describes those who know they depend on God. Scripture sets them against the proud, and it is to them that God “giveth grace unto the lowly” (Proverbs 3:34).

To see is râʼâh, and to be glad is sâmach, to brighten up, to be cheerful and full of joy. The verse moves from seeing, to rejoicing, to a heart that lives. When God rescues one humble sufferer, all who share his lowliness see it and take heart, because his rescue tells them what God will do for them. Israel rejoiced in the same way when God brought them through the sea (Exodus 14), and the returning captives of Psalm 126 had their mouths filled with laughter (Psalm 126:2).

“And your heart shall live that seek God.” Here the psalmist turns and speaks to the seekers directly. The heart, lêbâb, is the inmost person, the seat of will, feeling and thought, so the whole person is in view. To live is châyâh, to live or, in its causative form, to revive. A heart that lives is revived and full of hope, peace and strength in God. To seek is dârash, to seek, to inquire of, to resort to and to care for, and it is used for worshipping God. It is the earnest seeking God promises to reward in Jeremiah: “ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart (Psalm 34:18), he dwells with the contrite and humble (Isaiah 57:15), and Jesus calls the “poor in spirit” blessed (Matthew 5:3).

“For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth not his prisoners.” The word “For” gives the reason for the gladness of verse 32. The humble rejoice because of who the LORD, Yᵉhôvâh, is. He hears, shâmaʻ, a verb for hearing with understanding and attention, and often with the sense of answering what is heard. When God hears a cry, he takes it to heart and acts on it. David says the same from his own experience: “This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him” (Psalm 34:6). At the burning bush God told Moses that he had heard the cry of his people in Egypt (Exodus 3:7).

The poor, ʼebyôwn, are the destitute and needy, people in want and keenly feeling it, sometimes reduced to begging. To despise, bâzâh, is to disesteem, to think little of, to scorn. Saying that God does not despise his prisoners is a strong way of saying that he values them highly, the kind of understatement that means far more than it says. The prisoners, ʼâçîyr, are those who are bound, captives in chains. They are “his” prisoners, which marks them as God’s own. In this psalm the sufferer bears reproach for God’s sake, so those bound in God’s service belong to him even in their chains. A later psalm describes the LORD looking down from heaven to hear the groaning of the prisoner (Psalm 102:19–20), and Isaiah speaks of one anointed “to proclaim liberty to the captives” (Isaiah 61:1).

“Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.” Praise here is the same word as in verse 30, hâlal, the verb that gives us “Hallelujah”. The psalmist began with his own song and now calls the whole creation to join it. Heaven, shâmayim, is the sky, the lofty realm above, and earth, ʼerets, is the firm ground below. Named together they mean everything God has made, from the highest heaven to the lowest depth. The seas, yâm, come from a word meaning to roar, the sea breaking in noisy surf, and even these restless waters are under God and called to praise him. “Every thing that moveth” translates râmas, to glide, to creep, to swarm, a word for the teeming small creatures that move along the ground or through the water. “Therein” points first to the seas just named, and with heaven and earth already called, nothing in creation is left out.

This is the God of all things, Lord of every realm above, below and in the deep. The rescue of one poor man becomes a reason for praise across the whole world, because it shows who God is. Psalm 148 calls every part of creation by name to praise the LORD (Psalm 148), Isaiah pictures creation rejoicing when God’s people are set free (Isaiah 55:12), and John hears every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth and in the sea give praise to God and to the Lamb (Revelation 5:13).

“For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah: that they may dwell there, and have it in possession.” Another “For” gives the reason creation should praise. God, ʼĕlôhîym, will save, yâshaʻ, a verb that first meant to be open, wide or free, and so to be safe, and in its causative form to free, to help, to deliver, to save. Zion, Tsîyôwn, is the hill of Jerusalem, the city where God chose to dwell, the capital of the nation and the center of its worship. God promises to build, bânâh, a verb used for building, repairing and setting up, and even for building a family. The cities, ʻîyr, belong to Judah, Yᵉhûwdâh, the tribe and kingdom whose land surrounded Jerusalem. The promise starts with Zion and widens to every town in the land.

The purpose follows. His people will dwell, yâshab, a verb that properly means to sit down and so to settle and remain, a settled life after fear and displacement. They will “have it in possession”, yârash, to occupy a land by driving out those who held it and taking their place, and so to inherit. Here the word speaks of rightful, lasting ownership, and it recalls God’s promise of the land to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 12:7, Genesis 15:7). The prophets give the same promise: Jeremiah says God will build Israel again (Jeremiah 31:4), and in Isaiah the LORD confirms the word of his servants and says of the cities of Judah that they shall be built (Isaiah 44:26).

Israel knew times of invasion and exile when its cities lay in ruins, and some believers hear in this verse the hope of those years. Whenever it was first sung, it gave God’s people a promise to hold in every such time. God’s purpose for the people he has saved is a home where they can live in peace and call the place their own.

“The seed also of his servants shall inherit it: and they that love his name shall dwell therein.” The seed, zeraʻ, is offspring, the children and descendants of God’s servants. A servant, ʻebed, is one who serves a master, and God’s servants are those who serve him loyally. They “shall inherit”, nâchal, a verb meaning to take or give as a permanent possession. “It” is Zion and the cities of Judah from verse 35. The promise reaches beyond one generation, as God’s promise to Abraham reached to descendants as many as the stars (Genesis 22:17). God’s faithfulness to those who serve him extends to their children, and Moses told Israel to teach what they had seen to their children and their children’s children (Deuteronomy 4:9).

The second line names the true heirs: “they that love his name”. To love, ʼâhab, is to have affection for, and his name is shêm again, the same word that opened the passage in verse 30. The psalmist began by praising God’s name, and he ends with all who love it. To love God’s name is to love God himself, all that he is and has shown himself to be, as Israel was commanded to love the LORD with all the heart, soul and might (Deuteronomy 6:5). Jesus says, “If a man love me, he will keep my words” (John 14:23), so this love shows itself in reverence and obedience.

They “shall dwell therein”, and here “dwell” is shâkan, a different Hebrew word from the yâshab of verse 35, though both are “dwell” in English. Shâkan carries the idea of lodging and abiding, of settling down to stay. The prophets look forward to the same end: Isaiah says God’s people shall all be righteous and inherit the land for ever (Isaiah 60:21), and Ezekiel sees ruined cities inhabited and desolate land tilled again (Ezekiel 36:33–36). Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5).

The New Testament quotes Psalm 69 often and applies it to Christ. His zeal for his Father’s house recalls Psalm 69:9 (John 2:17), Paul applies the reproaches of the psalm to him (Romans 15:3), and the psalm speaks of one hated without a cause and given gall and vinegar in verse 21. So the sufferer who vows to praise God here points to Jesus, who made himself of no reputation, took the form of a servant and became obedient unto death (Philippians 2:7–8). His whole life was obedience and praise offered to the Father, and through his death and resurrection the deliverance this psalm looks for was won.

Christ is also the clearest picture of verse 33. Though he was rich, he became poor for our sakes so that we might be made rich through his poverty (2 Corinthians 8:9). He began his ministry by announcing good news to the poor and deliverance to the captives (Luke 4:18–19), words Isaiah had spoken of the one God would anoint. He so identifies with those in prison that he counts a visit to them as a visit to himself (Matthew 25:36). The living heart promised to those who seek God is his gift: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10), and he calls the weary to come to him for rest (Matthew 11:28–30).

The praise of all creation belongs to him as well. All things were created by him and for him (Colossians 1:16), and through the blood of his cross God reconciles all things to himself (Colossians 1:20). One day “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10–11).

The promise to Zion reaches its fullness in him too. Jesus said, “upon this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18), and Paul teaches that the true Israel is counted by God’s promise as well as by descent (Romans 9:6–8). To believers Hebrews says, “ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22). The true seed of God’s servants are those who belong to Christ, the Servant in whom God delights (Isaiah 42:1), and in him we love the Father’s name, because “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Through his resurrection we have an inheritance that cannot perish or fade, kept in heaven for us (1 Peter 1:3–5), and we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). The dwelling promised in verse 36 is finally the new Jerusalem, where “the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them” (Revelation 21:1–4).

These verses give words for praising God while the trouble is still present. The psalmist is still in deep water when he vows to sing, and his vow rests on the God who hears the poor and treats his prisoners as his own. God is pleased with a song of thanks from a sincere heart, and he counts it better than the costliest gift on the altar.

The passage also shows how wide God’s purposes are. The rescue of one humble man brings joy to all the humble, revives the hearts of all who seek God, and calls heaven, earth and sea to praise. God’s promise reaches past the one who prays to a city rebuilt and to the children of his servants after him. Those who love his name will settle in that city to stay, because the God who began the psalm as the one hearing a cry from the depths ends it as the one who gives his people a home.