Psalm 71:8

Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 71:8-11. Let my mouth be filled with thy praise — Give me occasion to multiply praises to thee for delivering me out of my present distress. Cast me not off in my old age — When I am most feeble, and most need thy help, and am one that is grown old in thy service. For mine enemies lay wait for my soul, &c. — Hebrew, שׁמרי נפשׁי, shomree naphshi, the watchers, or observers, of my soul — That watch, that they may find occasion to take away my life, and that I may not escape out of their hands; take counsel together — Combine their powers and policies to destroy me. Saying, God hath forsaken him — For his many acts of wickedness, as is manifest, because the hearts of all Israel are turned from him, and his own heart fails him. Persecute him, and take him — Let us pursue him closely now, and we shall certainly take him; for he has not forces sufficient to withstand us, and deliver him out of our hands.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

71:1-13 David prays that he might never be made ashamed of dependence upon God. With this petition every true believer may come boldly to the throne of grace. The gracious care of Divine providence in our birth and infancy, should engage us to early piety. He that was our Help from our birth, ought to be our Hope from our youth. Let none expect ease or comfort from the world. Those who love the Lord, often are hated and persecuted; men wondered at for their principles and conduct; but the Lord has been their strong refuge. The faithful servants of God may be assured that he will not cast them off in old age, nor forsake them when their strength fails.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let my mouth be filled - This is an appeal to himself, in view of the goodness of God, to praise him always. See the notes at Psalm 35:28.

With thy praise - With the expressions of praise.

And with thy honor all the day - With such expressions as shall promote thy glory, and make thy honor known.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6-9. His history from early infancy illustrated God's care, and his wonderful deliverances were at once occasions of praise and ground of confidence for the future.

my praise … of thee—literally, "in" or "by Thee" (Ps 22:25).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Give me occasion to multiply my praises to thee, for delivering me out of my present distress.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let my mouth be filled with thy praise,.... Or "thy praise shall fill my mouth" (x); which shows that his heart was affected with the goodness of God to him, and that he had a deep impression and sense of it upon him; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks; and for the mouth to be filled with the praise of God, is to speak largely, publicly, and with great delight, in the praise of God, his divine perfections and benefits;

and with thy honour all the day; the excellency of his nature, the glory of his majesty, the honour due unto him, on account of his being, attributes, and blessings of providence and grace; a work to be employed in all the day, evening, morning, and at noon; as often as prayer is made to God, praise, honour, and glory, should be given him; since his mercies are new every morning, and they continue all the day long; his goodness endures for ever.

(x)

Geneva Study Bible

Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. My mouth shall be filled with thy praise,

And with thy honour all the day (R.V.).

Cp. 1 Chronicles 29:11 “Thine, O Jehovah, is the greatness, and the might, and the honour, and the victory, and the majesty.” The P.B.V. that I may sing of thy glory and honour all the day long comes from the LXX through the Vulg.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day. Praise alternates with complaint and prayer, even in this first portion of the psalm, preparing the way for the sustained praise of the second portion. Psalm 71:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Brought safely through dangers of every kind, he is become כּמופת, as a wonder, a miracle (Arabic aft from afata, cognate afaka, הפך, to bend, distort: a turning round, that which is turned round or wrenched, i.e., that which is contrary to what is usual and looked for) to many, who gaze upon him as such with astonishment (Psalm 40:4). It is his God, however, to whom, as hitherto so also in time to come, he will look to be thus wonderfully preserved: מחסי־עז, as in 2 Samuel 22:33. עז is a genitive, and the suffix is thrown back (vid., supra, p 171) in order that what God is to, and does for, the poet may be brought forward more clearly and independently [lit. unalloyed]. Psalm 71:8 tells us what it is that he firmly expects on the ground of what he possesses in God. And on this very ground arises the prayer of Psalm 71:9 also: Cast me not away (viz., from Thy presence, Psalm 51:13; Jeremiah 7:15, and frequently) in the time (לעת, as in Genesis 8:11) of old age - he is therefore already an old man (זקן), though only just at the beginning of the זקנה. He supplicates favour for the present and for the time still to come: now that my vital powers are failing, forsake me not! Thus he prays because he, who has been often wondrously delivered, is even now threatened by foes. Psalm 71:11, introduced by means of Psalm 71:10, tells us what their thoughts of him are, and what they purpose doing. לי, Psalm 71:10, does not belong to אויבי, as it dies not in Psalm 27:2 also, and elsewhere. The ל is that of relation or of reference, as in Psalm 41:6. The unnecessary לאמר betrays a poet of the later period; cf. Psalm 105:11; Psalm 119:82 (where it was less superfluous), and on the contrary, Psalm 83:5. The later poet also reveals himself in Psalm 71:12, which is an echo of very similar prayers of David in Psalm 22:12, Psalm 22:20 (Psalm 40:14, cf. Psalm 70:2), Psalm 35:22; Psalm 38:22. The Davidic style is to be discerned here throughout in other points also. In place of הישׁה the Ker substitutes חוּשׁה, which is the form exclusively found elsewhere.