Charles Spurgeon

Make and fulfill your vows to the LORD your God; let all the neighboring lands bring tribute to Him who is to be feared.

“Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God. Well may we do so in memory of such mercies and judgments. To vow or not is a matter of choice, but to discharge our vows is our bounden duty.”

He breaks the spirits of princes; He is feared by the kings of the earth.

“He shall cut off the spirit of princes. Their courage, skill, and life are in his hands, and he can remove them as a gardener cuts off a slip from a plant. None are great in his hand.”

I cried out to God; I cried aloud to God to hear me.

“I cried unto God with my voice. This Psalm has much sadness in it, but we may be sure it will end well, for it begins with prayer, and prayer never has an ill issue.”

In the day of trouble I sought the Lord; through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary; my soul refused to be comforted.

“In this refusal to be comforted, David is not to be imitated. His experience in this instance is recorded rather as a warning than as an example.”

In the day of trouble I sought the Lord; through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary; my soul refused to be comforted.

“In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. All day long his distress drove him to his God, so that when night came he continued still in the same search.”

I remembered You, O God, and I groaned; I mused and my spirit grew faint. Selah

“I remembered God, and was troubled. He who is the wellspring of delight to faith becomes an object of dread to the psalmist's distracted heart.”

You have kept my eyes from closing; I am too troubled to speak.

“Thou holdest mine eyes waking. The fears which thy strokes excite in me forbid my eyelids to fall, my eyes continue to watch as sentinels forbidden to rest.”

At night I remembered my song; in my heart I mused, and my spirit pondered:

“I call to remembrance my song in the night. At other times his spirit had a song for the darkest hour, but now he could only recall the strain as a departed memory.”

“Will the Lord spurn us forever and never show His favor again?

“Wilt the Lord cast off forever? This was one of the matters he enquired into. He painfully knew that the Lord might leave his people for a season, but his fear was that the time might be prolonged and have no close; eagerly, therefore, he…”

Is His loving devotion gone forever? Has His promise failed for all time?

“Is his mercy clean gone for ever? If he has no love for his elect, has he not still his mercy left? Has that dried up? Has he no pity for the sorrowful? Doth his promise fail for evermore?”

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has His anger shut off His compassion?” Selah

“Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Has El, the Mighty One, become great in everything but grace? Does he know how to afflict, but not how to uphold? Can he forget anything?”

So I said, “I am grieved that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”

“And I said, This is my infirmity. He has won the day, he talks reasonably now, and surveys the field with a cooler mind. He confesses that unbelief is an infirmity, a weakness, a folly, a sin.”

I will remember the works of the LORD; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old.

“I will remember the works of the Lord. Fly back my soul, away from present turmoil, to the grandeurs of history, the sublime deeds of Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts; for he is the same and is ready even now to defend his servants as…”

I will reflect on all You have done and ponder Your mighty deeds.

“I will meditate also of all thy work. Sweet work to enter into Jehovah's work of grace, and there to lie down and ruminate, every thought being absorbed in the one precious subject. And talk of thy doings.”

Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God?

“Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary, or in holiness. In the holy place we understand our God, and rest assured that all his ways are just and right.”

You are the God who works wonders; You display Your strength among the peoples.

“Thou art the God that doest wonders. Thou alone art Almighty. The false gods are surrounded with the pretence of wonders, but you really work them.”

With power You redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

“Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. All Israel, the two tribes of Joseph as well as those which sprang from the other sons of Jacob, were brought out of Egypt by a display of divine power, which…”

The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You and swirled; even the depths were shaken.

“The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid. As if conscious of its Maker's presence, the sea was ready to flee from before his face.”

The clouds poured down water; the skies resounded with thunder; Your arrows flashed back and forth.

“The clouds poured out water. Obedient to the Lord, the lower region of the atmosphere yielded its aid to overthrow the Egyptian host. The cloudy chariots of heaven hurried forward to discharge their floods. The skies sent out a sound.”

Your thunder resounded in the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked.

“The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven, or in the whirlwind. Rushing on with terrific swiftness and bearing all before it, the storm was as a chariot driven furiously, and a voice was heard (even thy voice, O Lord!)”

You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

“Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. What a transition from tempest to peace, from wrath to love. Quietly as a flock Israel was guided on, by human agency which veiled the excessive glory of the divine presence.”

The archers of Ephraim turned back on the day of battle.

“I DO NOT THINK that it has ever been clearly ascertained to what particular historical event Asaph here refers, but I do not find that any of the commentators mention a very obscure passage in the First Book of Chronicles, which I venture to suggest…”

And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.

“But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not. Though they were full of flattery, he was full of mercy, and for this cause he had pity on them.”

Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

“MAN IS ALWAYS ALTERING what God has ordained. Although God’s order is ever the best, yet man will never agree therewith. When God gave forth the law it was engraved upon two stones.”

He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had pitched among men.

“So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men. His glory would no more reveal itself there, he left Shiloh to become a complete ruin.”