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NOTES for Psa 108

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1 O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
2 Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
3 I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.
4 For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds.
5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth;
6 That thy beloved may be delivered: save with thy right hand, and answer me.
7 God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;
9 Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph.
10 Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?
11 Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?
12 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
13 Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.
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The words of the psalm ring with the martial vigor natural to David, king and warrior. He is ready to go out against his enemies, and he believes that the Lord will help him prevail. And even if today He has rejected us, David still continues to implore Him for protection, hoping in His mercy.

But if the Lord’s mercy is higher than the heavens, this means that it extends over every land. Therefore, the one who prays for the deliverance of His beloved and wishes to sing His praises among the nations asks the Lord to triumph also in lands whose peoples do not yet know Him.

Those who read about the bloody wars of the Old Testament Israelites against their pagan neighbors may at first find it difficult to see these wars as anything other than the tribal clashes common to every age. Many participants in the events undoubtedly viewed them in the same way. But if we believe that one people was chosen not for itself alone, but also in order to awaken all humanity, then those same clashes acquire a different meaning. We see that the Lord’s support for Israel is not support for “some against others,” but opposition to the pagan impiety that had enslaved all humanity.

Other notes

 
For
1 O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
2 Awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early.
3 I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.
4 For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds.
5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth;
6 That thy beloved may be delivered: save with thy right hand, and answer me.
7 God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;
9 Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph.
10 Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?
11 Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?
12 Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.
13 Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.
Hide
The psalmist is surrounded by enemies who hate him, and his feelings toward them correspond to their own hostility...  Read more

The psalmist is surrounded by enemies who hate him, and his feelings toward them correspond to their own hostility. David's wishes for them are merciless; he clearly has no intention of forgiving them or letting them off, much less of repaying evil with good. Yet David is driven not only by resentment against his enemies or a desire to deal with them, but above all by rejection of the wickedness they commit.

With childlike directness, evil is identified with those who bear it, and one must admit that at first this is unavoidable: a deeper view of human nature does not come at once. It takes time to understand that it is extremely rare for a person to consent to being wholly saturated with evil, and that one who bears evil is often dependent on it in a way resembling addiction to alcohol or drugs.

Nevertheless, in order initially to recoil from evil, one must also recoil from its living bearers, whom their dependence cannot absolve of responsibility.

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