Chapter Sixty-Two

This psalm was written by David during his flight, when he was in the wilderness (2 Sam 15:28). By this flight one must understand the time of Absalom, since in verse 12 David directly calls himself king, one who had already occupied the throne, by whose name people swore—that is, having subjects, which he certainly did not have during the life of Saul.

From this wilderness I strive toward Your sanctuary, O God! (2–4). I will bless You all my life and now I constantly remember You (5–7). You are my strength and hope and You will preserve me, and those who seek my destruction will be annihilated; their unjust mouths will be silenced. But the king will rejoice in God.

Psalm 62:2. O God! You are my God; from early dawn I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You in a barren land, dry and waterless, Psalm 62:3. to see Your power and Your glory, as I saw You in the sanctuary: “I seek You from early dawn”—to You, O Lord, I turn with prayer from early morning. This prayer, as is evident from the subsequent content of the psalm, has as its object the request for the punishment of enemies and for my return to Jerusalem, as the center of religious life and the place of God’s special presence. For David, a devout man and religiously-minded, accustomed to sanctifying each day with prayer at the tabernacle, the forced removal from Jerusalem, and thereby from the tabernacle, was a heavy deprivation. In this separation he experiences extraordinary longing for the tabernacle; for David to see the triumph of worship and to hear the reading of the law (“to see Your power and glory”) is the same as for one thirsting in the wilderness to find a spring of water.

Psalm 62:4. For Your mercy is better than life. My lips will praise You. Psalm 62:5. Thus I will bless You in my life; in Your name I will lift up my hands. Psalm 62:6. As my soul is satisfied with marrow and fat, my lips will praise You with a joyful voice, “For Your mercy is better than life.” David prefers God’s mercy to him above life itself. By mercy, as is customarily understood in Scripture, are meant spiritual blessings, such as, for example, purity of conscience, religious disposition, closeness to God, and the like. In this expression the thought is conveyed that David would prefer closeness to God, the possibility of intimate communion with Him in prayer at the tabernacle, over a life full of every external comfort but lacking this blessing—communion with God. For granting such mercy David will praise the Lord all his life, and his joy will be as deep and exalted as the value of a sacrifice when animals, healthy and well-fed, are slain (“with marrow and fat”).

Psalm 62:7. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the watches of the night, Psalm 62:8. for You are my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice; From his previous life David knows that the Lord constantly protected him, and he constantly remembers these instances of His help to him at night (“on my bed”) and during the “watches,” which continued until the breaking of day—that is, David remembers both at night and in the morning. One might also understand that David had the custom of, both in the morning and when going to sleep, “learning the law”—that is, reading or remembering the law, the commandments of God.

Psalm 62:9. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me. Psalm 62:10. But those who seek my soul’s destruction will go down into the depths of the earth; Psalm 62:11. they will be struck down by the sword; they will become prey for foxes. Psalm 62:12. But the king will be glad in God; everyone who swears by Him will be praised, for the mouths of those who speak lies will be shut. Since David’s soul “clings to the Lord”—that is, seeks protection and places his trust only in Him—he is born the confidence that those “who seek” his soul do so in vain, fruitlessly attempting to destroy him, since the Lord will take him under His right hand, protect him with His strength. David’s enemies will perish (“go down into the depths of the earth”—to Hades, which the Hebrews imagined to be in the earth’s depths), and their bodies will lie unburied and become the property of jackals (in the Slavonic text “portions for foxes”—prey for foxes). The destruction of enemies will be accompanied by the joy of the king for his salvation, and not only the king, but also those who “swore by him”—that is, the king. To swear by the king (cf. Gen 42:15-16) means to remain faithful to him, to guard his rights. Those who remained loyal to David during his persecution by Absalom, together with the king’s return to the throne, will be “praised,” honored by the king, will receive the reward due them, which no one will be able to take away, since even “the mouths of those who speak lies” will be shut, intrigues against the king will be destroyed and the king’s enemies annihilated. The psalm holds the 3rd place in the six-psalm cycle, constituting a prayer to God at the coming of day that the prayer be pleasing to God (verse 6) and that the Lord receive the one praying under the “shadow of His wings” (verse 8) throughout the coming day.