Micah 7:7

Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Therefore I will look unto the Lord.—Because of all this gloom which has settled upon the earth, I, for my part, will lift up mine eyes to the everlasting hills, whereon rests the light of Jehovah’s presence.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:1-7 The prophet bemoans himself that he lived among a people ripening apace for ruin, in which many good persons would suffer. Men had no comfort, no satisfaction in their own families or in their nearest relations. Contempt and violation of domestic duties are a sad symptom of universal corruption. Those are never likely to come to good who are undutiful to their parents. The prophet saw no safety or comfort but in looking to the Lord, and waiting on God his salvation. When under trials, we should look continually to our Divine Redeemer, that we may have strength and grace to trust in him, and to be examples to those around us.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore - (And,) when all these things come to pass and all human help fails, "I", for my part, "will look unto", (literally, "on") "the Lord" God, the Unchangeable. The prophet sets himself, I, with emphasis, against the multitude of the ungodly. When all forsake, betray, fail, when "love is waxed cold" Matthew 24:12, and men, in the last days, shall be "lovers of their ownselves" 2 Timothy 3:2, 2 Timothy 3:4, "not lovers of God", I, - he does not say, "will trust," but - , "will" (Jerome), "with the eye of the heart contemplating, loving, venerating God most High, and weighing His mercy and justice," "gaze intently" with the devotion of faith toward Him, though I see Him not: yet so too I will rest "in" Him (compare Psalm 25:15; Psalm 123:1; Psalm 141:8) and "on" Him, as the eyes are accustomed to rest in trust and love and dependence, and as, on the other hand, the eyes of God "espy into" Psalm 66:7 man and dwell on him, never leaving him unbeheld.

I will "espy" Him, although from afar, with the eyes of the soul, as a watchman, (the word is the same,) looking for His coming and announcing it to others; and until He comes, "I will wait (I would wait") with trust unbroken by any troubles or delay, as Job saith, "Though He slay me, yet will I put my trust in Him" Job 13:15. The word is almost appropriated to a longing waiting for God. "For the God of my salvation". This too became a customary title of God , a title, speaking of past deliverances, as well as of confidence and of hope. Deliverance and salvation are bound up with God, and that, in man's personal experience. It is not only, "Saviour God," but "God, my Saviour," Thou who hast been, art, and wilt be, my God, my saving God. It is a prelude to the name of Jesus, our Redeeming God. "The Lord will hear me".

His purpose of waiting on God he had expressed wistfully. "I would wait;" for man's longing trust must be upheld by God. Of God's mercy he speaks confidently, "the Lord will hear me", He, who is ever "more ready to hear than we to pray." He has no doubts, but, as Abraham said, "the Lord will provide" Genesis 22:8, Genesis 22:14, so he, "The Lord will hear me". So, when Jehoshaphat prayed, "We have no might against this great company that cometh, against us, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee" 2 Chronicles 20:12, 2 Chronicles 20:15; God answered by the prophet, "Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's". Micah unites with himself all the faithful as one, "in the unity of the spirit," where in all are one band, looking, waiting, praying for His Coming in His kingdom. Lap.: "God is our only refuge and asylum in things desperate, and rejoices to help in them, in order to shew His supreme Power and Goodness especially to those who believe, hope, and ask it. Therefore all mistrust and despondency is then to be supremely avoided, and a certain hope and confidence in God is to be elicited. This will call forth the help of God assuredly, yea though it were by miracle, as to Lot in Sodom, to Moses and the people from Pharaoh, to David from Saul, to Hezekiah from Sennacherib, to the Maccabees from Antiochus. This our proverbs express , how God aids, when there is least sign of it."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. Therefore I will look unto the Lord—as if no one else were before mine eyes. We must not only "look unto the Lord," but also "wait for Him." Having no hope from man (Mic 7:5, 6), Micah speaks in the name of Israel, who herein, taught by chastisement (Mic 7:4) to feel her sin (Mic 7:9), casts herself on the Lord as her only hope," in patient waiting (La 3:26). She did so under the Babylonian captivity; she shall do so again hereafter when the spirit of grace shall be poured on her (Zec 12:10-13).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Therefore, since times are so calamitous, and all sorts of men are so perfidious, since no sure comfort or relief from those that are nearest relations, and should be dearest friends,

I will look; as one set in a watch-tower looks round about, and diligently observes all that stirreth; so will the prophet, speaking in the person of the faithful, the Israel of God; so did they who in Israel and Judah feared the Lord and walked with him;

unto the Lord, the God of mercy, power, truth, and wisdom, who can and will help.

I will wait for, though he do not presently appear for me, saith the church, I will with patience expect,

the God of my salvation; who only can, and who graciously hath promised to save his church.

My God will hear me; he doth hear my cry, and will deliver me.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore I will look unto the Lord,.... Here the prophet, in the name of the church and people of God, declares what he would do in such circumstances, since there was no dependence on men of any rank, in any relation or connection with each other; he resolved to look alone to the Lord, and put his trust in him; look up to the Lord in prayer, use an humble freedom with him, place a holy confidence in him, expect all good things from him, and wait for them; look to Christ in the exercise of faith, which is, in New Testament language, a looking to Jesus; and the Targum interprets this clause of the Word of the Lord, the essential Word, who is to be looked unto, and believed in, as the Son of God, who is the true God, and eternal life; as the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world; as the Mediator between God and men: as in all his offices of Prophet, Priest, and King; as the Lord our righteousness, and as the only Saviour and Redeemer of men; and that for all things; when in darkness, for light; when weak, for strength; when sick, for healing; when hungry, for food; when disconsolate, for comfort; in short, for all supplies of grace here, and for eternal glory and happiness hereafter; and though he is in heaven, and not to be seen with our bodily eyes, yet he is held forth in the word of the Gospel, and the ordinances of it; and is to be seen there with an eye of faith:

I will wait for the God of my salvation; who is the author both of temporal, and of spiritual, and eternal salvation; for the light of his countenance, when he hides himself; for the performance of promises he has made; for answers of prayer put up to him; for discoveries of pardoning grace, having sinned against him; for help and assistance in all times of need; for the salvation of the Lord, for an application of it, for the joys and comforts of it; and for Christ the Saviour, his coming in the flesh, which all the prophets and Old Testament saints were looking and waiting for: and who, doubtless, was upon the mind and in the view of the prophet when he uttered these words,

my God will hear me; this is the language of faith, both to say that God was his God, and that he would hear and answer him; the former is the ground of the latter; God has an ear to hear when his people cry; and sooner or later it appears that he does hear, by giving an answer of peace unto them, which issues in their salvation they have been praying, looking, and waiting for. The Targum is,

"my God will receive my prayer.''

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore {g} I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

(g) The Prophet shows that the only remedy for the godly in desperate evils, is to flee to God for help.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. Therefore I] Rather, And as for me, I.

the God of my salvation] A reminiscence of the Psalter (Psalm 27:9).

will hear me] ‘Hearing’ includes answering (Isaiah 30:19).

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 7-13. - § 6. Israel expresses her faith in God, though she suffers grievous tribulation, and is confident in the fulfilment of the promised restoration. Verse 7. - Therefore I; rather, but as for me, I, etc. The prophet speaks in the name of the ideal Israel. Though love and confidence have disappeared, and the day of visitation has come, and human help fails, yet Israel loses not her trust in the Lord. Will look; gaze intently, as if posted on a watch tower to look out for help. Will wait with longing trust, unbroken by delay. The God of my salvation. The God from whom my salvation comes (Psalm 18:46; Psalm 25:5; Psalm 27:9; Habakkuk 3:18) My God will hear me. My prayer is sure to be answered (Isaiah 30:19). Micah 7:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"This confession of sin is followed by a confession of faith on the part of the humiliated people of God" (Shlier.) Micah 7:7. "But I, for Jehovah will I look out; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. Micah 7:8. Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy! for am I fallen, I rise again; for do I sit in darkness, Jehovah is light to me." By ואני what follows is attached adversatively to the preceding words. Even though all love and faithfulness should have vanished from among men, and the day of visitation should have come, the church of the faithful would not be driven from her confidence in the Lord, but would look to Him and His help, and console itself with the assurance that its God would hear it, i.e., rescue it from destruction. As the looking out (tsâphâh) for the Lord, whether He would not come, i.e., interpose to judge and aid, involves in itself a prayer for help, though it is not exhausted by it, but also embraces patient waiting, or the manifestation of faith in the life; so the hearing of God is a practical hearing, in other words, a coming to help and to save. The God of my salvation, i.e., from whom all my salvation comes (cf. Psalm 27:9; Isaiah 17:10). Her enemy, i.e., the heathen power of the world, represented in Micah's time by Asshur, and personified in thought as daughter Asshur, is not to rejoice over Zion. כּי, for, not "if:" the verb nâphaltı̄ is rather to be taken conditionally, "for have I fallen;" nâphal being used, as in Amos 5:2, to denote the destruction of the power and of the kingdom. The church is here supposed to be praying out of the midst of the period when the judgment has fallen upon it for its sins, and the power of the world is triumphing over it. The prophet could let her speak thus, because he had already predicted the destruction of the kingdom and the carrying away of the people into exile as a judgment that was inevitable (Micah 3:12; Micah 6:16). Sitting in darkness, i.e., being in distress and poverty (cf. Isaiah 9:1; Isaiah 42:7; Psalm 107:10). In this darkness the Lord is light to the faithful, i.e., He is their salvation, as He who does indeed chasten His own people, but who even in wrath does not violate His grace, or break the promises which He has given to His people.