Psalm 131:3

Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

131:1-3 The psalmist's humility. Believers encouraged to trust in God. - The psalmist aimed at nothing high or great, but to be content in every condition God allotted. Humble saints cannot think so well of themselves as others think of them. The love of God reigning in the heart, will subdue self-love. Where there is a proud heart, there is commonly a proud look. To know God and our duty, is learning sufficiently high for us. It is our wisdom not to meddle with that which does not belong to us. He was well reconciled to every condition the Lord placed him in. He had been as humble as a little child about the age of weaning, and as far from aiming at high things; as entirely at God's disposal, as the child at the disposal of the mother or nurse. We must become as little children, Mt 18:3. Our hearts are desirous of worldly things, cry for them, and are fond of them; but, by the grace of God, a soul that is made holy, is weaned from these things. The child is cross and fretful while in the weaning; but in a day or two it cares no longer for milk, and it can bear stronger food. Thus does a converted soul quiet itself under the loss of what it loved, and disappointments in what it hoped for, and is easy whatever happens. When our condition is not to our mind, we must bring our mind to our condition; then we are easy to ourselves and all about us; then our souls are as a weaned child. And thus the psalmist recommends confidence in God, to all the Israel of God, from his own experience. It is good to hope, and quietly to wait for the salvation of the Lord under every trial.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let Israel hope in the Lord ... - The connection would seem to require us to understand this as the assertion of him who had been accused of thoughts which seemed to be too lofty. As the result of all his reflections (of those reflections for which he was rebuked and charged with pride, but which were really conceived in a modest spirit) - as expressing what he saw that seemed to be in advance of what others saw, or to indicate a habit of thought beyond his years - he says that there were reasons why Israel should hope in the Lord; that there was a foundation for confident trust; that there was that in the divine character which was a just ground of reliance; that there was that in the course of events - in the tendencies of things - which made it proper for the people of God, for the church, to hope, to confide, to feel assured of its ultimate and permanent safety. This would indicate the nature of the suggestions which he had expressed, and which had exposed him to the charge of arrogance; and it would also indicate a ripe and mature habit of thinking, beyond what might be expected from one in very early life. All this was, probably, applicable to David in his early years, as to the reflections which might have foreshadowed what he would be in future; this was eminently applicable to David's Descendant - greater than he - who, at twelve years of age, astonished the Hebrew doctors in the temple with "his understanding and answers" Luke 2:47; this gives a beautiful view of modesty joined with uncommon gifts in early life; this shows what is always the nature of true religion - as producing modesty, and as prompting to hope.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. Surely, &c.—The form is that of an oath or strongest assertion. Submission is denoted by the figure of a weaned child. As the child weaned by his mother from the breast, so I still the motions of pride in me (Mt 18:3, 4; Isa 11:8; 28:9). Hebrew children were often not weaned till three years old.

soul—may be taken for desire, which gives a more definite sense, though one included in the idea conveyed by the usual meaning, myself.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Let all Israelites learn by my example to commit themselves to God in well-doing, and to fix all their hope and trust upon him alone.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever. What he did himself, and found it good for him to do, that he knew was good for others, and therefore exhorts and encourages to it, to hope in the Lord and wait for his salvation; and which should be done constantly, and to the end of life, or till the thing hoped for is enjoyed; see Hebrews 3:6. Perhaps some respect is here had to the people of Israel, especially the friends of David, who were weary of Saul's government, and impatient to have David on the throne; whom he advises to wait patiently, and not take any indirect steps to bring it about, but leave it with God, and hope and trust in him; compare with this 1 Samuel 24:7; See Gill on Psalm 130:7.

Geneva Study Bible

Let Israel hope in the LORD from henceforth and for ever.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. Hope, Israel, in Jehovah,

From this time forth and for evermore.

In this spirit of resignation and contentment let Israel patiently wait for the development of God’s purposes. Cp. Psalm 130:7.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and forever (comp. Psalm 130:7). Israel is exhorted to have like confidence and trust in God as the psalmist.



Psalm 131:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This little song is inscribed לדוד because it is like an echo of the answer (2 Samuel 6:21.) with which David repelled the mocking observation of Michal when he danced before the Ark in a linen ephod, and therefore not in kingly attire, but in the common raiment of the priests: I esteem myself still less than I now show it, and I appear base in mine own eyes. In general David is the model of the state of mind which the poet expresses here. He did not push himself forward, but suffered himself to be drawn forth out of seclusion. He did not take possession of the throne violently, but after Samuel has anointed him he willingly and patiently traverses the long, thorny, circuitous way of deep abasement, until he receives from God's hand that which God's promise had assured to him. The persecution by Saul lasted about ten years, and his kingship in Hebron, at first only incipient, seven years and a half. He left it entirely to God to remove Saul and Ishbosheth. He let Shimei curse. He left Jerusalem before Absalom. Submission to God's guidance, resignation to His dispensations, contentment with that which was allotted to him, are the distinguishing traits of his noble character, which the poet of this Psalm indirectly holds up to himself and to his contemporaries as a mirror, viz., to the Israel of the period after the Exile, which, in connection with small beginnings under difficult circumstances, had been taught humbly contented and calm waiting.

With לבּי לא־גבהּ the poet repudiates pride as being the state of his soul; with לא־רמוּ עיני (lo-ramū' as in Proverbs 30:13, and before Ajin, e.g., also in Genesis 26:10; Isaiah 11:2, in accordance with which the erroneous placing of the accent in Baer's text is to be corrected), pride of countenance and bearing; and with ולא־הלּכתּי, pride of endeavour and mode of action. Pride has its seat in the heart, in the eyes especially it finds its expression, and great things are its sphere in which it diligently exercises itself. The opposite of "great things" (Jeremiah 23:3; Jeremiah 45:5) is not that which is little, mean, but that which is small; and the opposite of "things too wonderful for me" (Genesis 18:14) is not that which is trivial, but that which is attainable.

אם־לא does not open a conditional protasis, for where is the indication of the apodosis to be found? Nor does it signify "but," a meaning it also has not in Genesis 24:38; Ezekiel 3:6. In these passages too, as in the passage before us, it is asseverating, being derived from the usual formula of an oath: verily I have, etc. שׁוּה signifies (Isaiah 28:25) to level the surface of a field by ploughing it up, and has an ethical sense here, like ישׂר with its opposites עקב and עפּל. The Poel סּומם is to be understood according to דּוּמיּה in Psalm 62:2, and דּוּמם in Lamentations 3:26. He has levelled or made smooth his soul, so that humility is its entire and uniform state; he has calmed it so that it is silent and at rest, and lets God speak and work in it and for it: it is like an even surface, and like the calm surface of a lake. Ewald and Hupfeld's rendering: "as a weaned child on its mother, so my soul, being weaned, lies on me," is refuted by the consideration that it ought at least to be כּגמוּלה, but more correctly כּן גמולה; but it is also besides opposed by the article which is swallowed up in כּגּמל, according to which it is to be rendered: like one weaned beside its mother (here כּגמול on account of the determinative collateral definition), like the weaned one (here כּגּמול because without any collateral definition: cf. with Hitzig, Deuteronomy 32:2, and the like; moreover, also, because referring back to the first גמול, cf. Habakkuk 3:8), is my soul beside me (Hitzig, Hengstenberg, and most expositors). As a weaned child - viz. not one that is only just begun to be weaned, but an actually weaned child (גּמל, cognate גּמר eta, to bring to an end, more particularly to bring suckling to an end, to wean) - lies upon its mother without crying impatiently and craving for its mother's breast, but contented with the fact that it has its mother - like such a weaned child is his soul upon him, i.e., in relation to his Ego (which is conceived of in עלי as having the soul upon itself, cf. Psalm 42:7; Jeremiah 8:18; Psychology, S. 151f., tr. p. 180): his soul, which is by nature restless and craving, is stilled; it does not long after earthly enjoyment and earthly good that God should give these to it, but it is satisfied in the fellowship of God, it finds full satisfaction in Him, it is satisfied (satiated) in Him.

By the closing strain, Psalm 131:3, the individual language of the Psalm comes to have a reference to the congregation at large. Israel is to renounce all self-boasting and all self-activity, and to wait in lowliness and quietness upon its God from now and for evermore. For He resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.