Psalm 75:9

But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 75:9-10. But I will declare for ever — These dispensations of mercy and judgment to the world. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob — He will praise God, and give him glory for the power to which he had advanced him, and that not only at first, while the mercy was fresh, but for ever; as long as he lives he will remember, and be grateful for, this instance of the Lord’s goodness. Thus the exaltation of the Son of David will be the subject of the saints’ everlasting praises. And he will give glory to God, not only as his God, but as the God of Jacob, knowing it was for his servant Jacob’s sake, and because he loved his people Israel, that he made him king over them. All the horns of the wicked — Their honour and power, which they made instruments of mischief to oppress good men; a metaphor taken from horned and mischievous beasts; will I cut off — I will humble their pride and break their power; I will disable them to do mischief. But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted — Good men shall be encouraged and promoted, and intrusted with the management of all public affairs, which will be a great blessing to all my people. Thus he determines to use the power wherewith he was intrusted for the great ends for which it was put into his hands, as every governor ought to do, and as every good governor will do. And herein David was a type of Christ, who, with the breath of his lips, slays the wicked, Isaiah 11:4; but exalts with honour the horn of the righteous, Psalm 112:9.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

75:6-10. No second causes will raise men to preferment without the First Cause. It comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. He mentions not the north; the same word that signifies the north, signifies the secret place; and from the secret of God's counsel it does come. From God alone all must receive their doom. There are mixtures of mercy and grace in the cup of affliction, when it is put into the hands of God's people; mixtures of the curse, when it is put into the hands of the wicked. God's people have their share in common calamities, but the dregs of the cup are for the wicked. The exaltation of the Son of David will be the subject of the saints' everlasting praises. Then let sinners submit to the King of righteousness, and let believers rejoice in and obey him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But I will declare for ever - I-- the author of the psalm. I will make known at all times the character of God, and will declare the truth respecting his works and ways. The particular mode as referred to here, was praise.

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob - The God whom Jacob worshipped; the God who proved himself to be his Friend, thus showing that he is the Friend of all that trust in him. See the notes at Psalm 24:6.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9, 10. Contrasted is the lot of the pious who will praise God, and, acting under His direction, will destroy the power of the wicked, and exalt that of the righteous.

The Treasury of David

9 But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

10 All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

Psalm 75:9

"But I will declare for ever." Thus will the saints occupy themselves with rehearsing Jehovah's praises, while their foes are drunken with the wrath-wine. They shall chant while the others roar in anguish and justly so, for the former Psalm informed us that such had been the case on earth, - "thine enemies roar in the sanctuary," the place where the chosen praised the Lord. "I will sing praises to the God of Jacob." The covenant God, who delivered Jacob from a thousand afflictions, our soul shall magnify. He has kept his covenant which he made with the patriarch, and has redeemed his seed, therefore will we spread abroad his fame world without end.

Psalm 75:10

"All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off." Power and liberty being restored to Israel, she begins again to execute justice, by abasing the godless who had gloried in the reign of oppression. Their power and pomp are to be smitten down. Men wore horns in those days as a part of their state, and these, both literally and figuratively, were to be lopped off; for since God abhors the proud, his church will not tolerate them any longer. "But the horns of the righteous shall be exalted." In a rightly ordered society, good men are counted great men, virtue confers true rank, and grace is more esteemed than gold. Being saved from unrighteous domination, the chief among the chosen people here promises to rectify the errors which had crept into the commonwealth, and after the example of the Lord himself, to abase the haughty and elevate the humble.

This memorable ode may be sung in times of great depression, when prayer has performed her errand at the mercy-seat, and when faith is watching for speedy deliverance. It is a song of the second advent, concerning the nearness of the Judge with the cup of wrath.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Declare, to wit, this great and glorious work of God, or the praises due unto God for it, as the next words imply.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But I will declare for ever,.... These are not the words of the psalmist, but of Christ, who is all along speaking in the psalm; what he would declare is not expressed, and is to be supplied in sense thus; either that he would declare the wonderful works of God, Psalm 75:1, so the Targum, his thoughts, mercies, and kindnesses to his people, as in Psalm 55:5, or his judgments on his enemies, whom he shall pass sentence on, which will be for ever; or the name of the Lord, his purposes and decrees, his counsel and covenant, his mind and will, his Gospel and the truth of it: see Psalm 22:22,

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob; the covenant God of his people, Christ's God, and their God; of his singing praise to him, see Psalm 22:22.

Geneva Study Bible

But I will declare for ever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. But as for me, I will declare for ever. It is easy to supply ‘thy wondrous works.’ But the LXX reads (with change of one letter) I will rejoice, which may be right. Cp. Psalm 9:14; Isaiah 29:19.

For ever may mean ‘while life lasts’ (1 Samuel 1:22): or is he speaking as the representative of the immortal people?

9, 10. The vow of praise and the assurance of triumph.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - But I will declare forever; i.e. "I will declare these things" - viz. God's just judgments upon the wicked. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. On the force of the phrase, "God of Jacob," see the comment upon Psalm 20:1. Psalm 75:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The poet now turns back thankfully and cheerfully from the prophetically presented future to his own actual present. With ואני he contrasts himself as a member of the now still oppressed church with its proud oppressors: he will be a perpetual herald of the ever memorable deed of redemption. לעולם, says he, for, when he gives himself up so entirely to God the Redeemer, for him there is no dying. If he is a member of the ecclesia pressa, then he will also be a member of the ecclesia triumphans; for ει ̓ ὑπομένομεν, καὶ συμβασιλεύσομεν (2 Timothy 2:12). In the certainty of this συμβασιλεύειν, and in the strength of God, which is even now mighty in the weak one, he measures himself in v. 11 by the standard of what he expresses in Psalm 75:8 as God's own work. On the figure compare Deuteronomy 33:17; Lamentations 2:3, and more especially the four horns in the second vision of Zechariah, Zechariah 2:1. Zechariah 1:18.. The plural is both קרנות and קרני, because horns that do not consist of horn are meant. Horns are powers for offence and defence. The spiritual horns maintain the sovereignty over the natural. The Psalm closes as subjectively as it began. The prophetic picture is set in a lyric frame.