Psalms 42:8

_YET THE LORD WILL COMMAND HIS LOVINGKINDNESS IN THE DAYTIME, AND IN THE NIGHT HIS SONG SHALL BE WITH ME, AND MY PRAYER UNTO THE GOD OF MY LIFE._ Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the day-time, and in the night his song shall be with me - in beautiful contrast to Psalms 42:3, "My tears have been my meat day and night." The two clauses mutually complement one another - "The Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day-time (and so, since experienced loving-kindness generates praise in the recipient, his song shall be with me in the day-time), and in the night His song shall be with me" (even as He will command His loving-kindness to be with me in the night). Compare Psalms 92:1. "By day and by night" God gives me His consoling grace to counteract "my tears day and night;" so I

8._Jehovah will command his loving-kindness by day _The verb here used is of the future tense; but I do not deny that, according to the Hebrew idiom, it might be rendered in the past tense, as some do who think that David here enumerates the benefits which he had formerly received from God, in order by contrast to add greater force to the complaint which he makes of his present sad and miserable condition; as if he had said, How comes it to pass that God, who formerly manifested so much kindness towards me, having as it were changed his mind, now deals towards me with great severity? But as there is no sufficient reason for changing the tense of the verb, and as the other interpretation seems more in accordance with the scope of the text, let us adhere to it. I do not, indeed, positively deny, that for the strengthening of his faith, David calls to memory the benefits which he had alread...

6-11 The way to forget our miseries, is to remember the God of our mercies. David saw troubles coming from God's wrath, and that discouraged him. But if one trouble follow hard after another, if all seem to combine for our ruin, let us remember they are all appointed and overruled by the Lord. David regards the Divine favour as the fountain of all the good he looked for. In the Saviour's name let us hope and pray. One word from him will calm every storm, and turn midnight darkness into the light of noon, the bitterest complaints into joyful praises. Our believing expectation of mercy must quicken our prayers for it. At length, is faith came off conqueror, by encouraging him to trust in the name of the Lord, and to stay himself upon his God. He adds, And my God; this thought enabled him to triumph over all his griefs and fears. Let us never think that the God of our life, and the Rock of...

Verse Psalms 42:8. _THE LORD WILL COMMAND_] Every day the Lord will give an especial commission to his loving-kindness to visit me. During the night I shall sing of his mercy and goodness; and alternately mingle my _singing_ with _prayer_ for a continuance of his mercy, and for power to make the best use of these visitations....

YET THE LORD WILL COMMAND HIS LOVING-KINDNESS IN THE DAYTIME - literally, “By day the Lord will command his mercy;” that is, he will so order or direct his mercy or his favor. The word “daytime” here refers evidently to prosperity; and the expectation of the psalmist was that a time of prosperity would return; that he might hope for better days; that the loving-kindness of God would again be manifested to him. He did not wholly despair. He expected to see better times (compare the notes at Psalms 42:5); and, in view of this, and in the confident assurance of it, he says in the subsequent part of the verse that even in the night - the season of calamity - his song should be unto God, and he would praise Him. Some, however, as DeWette, have understood the words “daytime” and “night” as synonymous with “day and night;” that is, at all times; implying an assurance that

EXPOSITION THIS psalm, committed (like so many others) to the precentor, or. chief musician, for its musical setting, is entitled "Maschil of the sous of Korah"—_i.e._ an "instruction," or didactic psalm, composed by the Korahite Levites—a Levitical family of singers (1 Chronicles 26:1, 1 Chronicles 26:2; 2 Chronicles 20:19). To the same family are assigned Psalm 45-49; in the present book, and Psalms 84:1; Psalms 85:1;...

[YET] THE LORD WILL COMMAND HIS LOVINGKINDNESS IN THE DAYTIME,.... Which is a tender affection in God towards his people, springs from his sovereign will and pleasure, is from everlasting, is ever the same, never removes from them, and is better than life; the effects of which are all spiritual blessings, grace, and glory: and this the Lord "commands" when he sends it forth with power, makes a clear manifestation and home application of it to them; when he commands his covenant, or bestows covenant blessings on them; when he commands his strength, or gives them strength to bear up under afflictions; when he commands deliverances for Jacob, or works salvation for them; and when he commands blessings temporal and spiritual on them, especially life for evermore: see Psalms 111:9; and this is done in "the daytime"; either, as some interpret it, in a fit and seasonable time, in God's appointe...

We often read this Psalm, because we are very often in the same state that the psalmist was in when he wrote it, and the language seems to suit us at many periods of our life. Psalms 42:1. _As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God._ It is the «hart» that panteth; and, in the Hebrew, the word is in the feminine. The old naturalists say that the female has greater thirst than the male, and that it shows it more, having more feebleness of body, and less power of endurance. The hart is said to be, naturally, a thirsty creature, and when it has been long hunted, its thirst seems to be insatiable. The psalmist does not say, «thy soul hungereth,» but, «My soul thirsteth.» As man can bear hunger much longer than he can bear thirst; he may continue without food for days, but not without drink; so the psalmist mentions the most thirsty creat

II. THE EXODUS SECTION: BOOK TWO:PSALM 42-72 The second division of the book of Psalms corresponds to the book of Exodus, the second book of the Pentateuch. That book begins with the groans and moans of a suffering people in Egypt and after redemption by blood and by power, ends with the glory of the Lord filling the tabernacle when the work was finished. Ruin, oppression, suffering and sorrow, ending in deliverance and redemption, is the order in which the Psalms in this section are arranged. It is a most interesting study and we regret that we cannot enter into all the details, to explore these mines of prophecy. The oppressed, persecuted people, who suffer surrounded by the ungodly, is that same godly remnant of Israelites. Their deliverance comes by the visible manifestation of the Lord, the second coming of our Lord. The Psalm which concludes this Exodus of the Psalms is 72, the gre...

PSALMS 42, 43. Originally these two Pss. were one. This is proved by the long refrain common to each, Why art thou cast down, O my soul, etc. It recurs in Psalms 42:5; Psalms 42:11 and Psalms 43:5, and thus divides the Ps. into fairly equal portions. The theme, moreover, is the same in both, and Psalms 43 is an orphan Ps. (p. 366), _i.e._ it has no title, because it did not originally rank as an independent poem. PSALMS 42:1. The misery of exile from the Temple and the memory of happy worship there. PSALMS 42:1. For hart read with many sc