Psalm 108
13 verses · Composite psalm
My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing and make music with all my being.
Introduction
David, the Two Psalms Joined, Book 5: The return and the great Hallelujah, Poetry, Psalms Overview.
The heading calls this a song and a psalm of David. It is built from two earlier psalms of David joined together, the praise that closes Psalm 57 and the prayer for victory that closes Psalm 60. Whoever joined them set the praise first, so the request for help is made by a man whose heart is already settled. Listen for the move from a singer waking before dawn to a people asking for help against Edom, and for the word God has already spoken over the land.
Context
- Who
- Israelites going out to fight, who needed to know the land they were fighting for had been given away already
- What
- A psalm made from two earlier psalms of David, praise first and then a plea for victory.
- Where
- Israel facing Edom, with the lands east and west of the Jordan named as God's.
- When
- The reign of David, about 1010 to 970 BC, in the material it is built from; the date of the joining is unrecorded.
- Why
- To send God's people into a hard fight trusting the word He has already spoken.
Historical context
The psalm is made of two earlier psalms joined at the seam between verses 5 and 6. Psalm 57 was written in a cave with Saul hunting David and ends in praise, and Psalm 60 was written after a reverse in the field and asks for help against Edom. Whoever joined them put the praise in front of the plea. Edom is the practical problem, and the fortified city of verse 10 is generally taken to be Sela or Bozrah in the Edomite highlands, country of cliffs and narrow approaches.
Significance
An army marching south and east went into country that Edom and Moab held and that God had already called His own, and the psalm let them go out singing it. The question of verse 11, whether God had rejected them, was real for men who remembered a defeat, and the psalm answers it by repeating what God had said and ending on valour with God.
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How it is read
The psalm opens the third Davidic collection, Psalms 108 to 110 and 138 to 145 (src/components/book/dossier-content/psalms-structure.ts), and the classical commentary reads it throughout as David speaking in his own person.
Rashi reads the singing of verse 2 as singing that costs the singer his standing. On the words about glory he gives a second explanation, that even according to his own honour David will not hesitate to sing to God and will take no glory for himself (Rashi on Psalms 108:2:2, Rashi on Psalms, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, CC-BY).
The nations named in verses 8 to 10 he reads as the settled facts of David's reign. The allotting of a portion is the dividing of the land of his enemies to Israel, Moab as a washbasin means slaves and servants, and the shoe cast on Edom means that Edom's kings should put the shoes on his feet (Rashi on Psalms 108:8:2, 108:10:1 and 108:10:2, same edition).
Verse 11 he then turns forward. He reads the question of who will bring him into the fortified city as a question about "the time of the Messiah", when a hand will be stretched out upon Esau, and he grounds the hope in the eighteen thousand smitten in the Valley of Salt (Rashi on Psalms 108:11:1, same edition). Malbim, Radak, Ibn Ezra and Metzudat David carry fourteen comments for which Sefaria holds no English version, and they are cited by reference (Malbim on Psalms 108:1:1, Radak on Psalms 108:1:1 and the twelve references beside them).
What the rabbis say
Rashi carries two sayings of the Rabbis here, and names where each stands. On the awakening of the dawn in verse 3 he reports the teaching of Berakhot 3b, that a harp hung above David's bed, and that when midnight came the north wind blew on it and it played by itself, so that David woke the dawn where other kings are woken by it (Rashi on Psalms 108:3:1, same edition).
On verse 5 he sets this psalm beside Psalm 57:11, where the same praise is measured differently, and reports the explanation of the Rabbis that one verse speaks of those who keep a commandment for its own sake and the other of those who keep it with an ulterior motive (Rashi on Psalms 108:5:1, same edition). The site reports both as what the rabbis taught.
The corpus records twenty places where the Midrash and the Talmud cite this psalm, fifteen under Midrash and five under Talmud, and it carries the locator for each one with no text. The Babylonian Talmud cites verse 5 at Pesachim 50b:5 and verses 9 and 10 at Sanhedrin 104b:15, and the Jerusalem Talmud cites verse 8 at Berakhot 9:1:12 and verses 9 and 10 at Sanhedrin 10:2:27. Midrash Tehillim treats the psalm at 108:1, 108:2 and 108:3. The site reports where the rabbis cite the verse and reports no saying, because the locator carries none.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Psalms 108, in The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, CC-BY; MannaFest, the third Davidic collection, at src/components/book/dossier-content/psalms-structure.ts, 2026; Malbim, Radak, Ibn Ezra and Metzudat David, their comments on Psalms 108, cited by reference; Sefaria holds no English version; The Midrash and the Talmud, the twenty locators on Psalms 108 in scripts/data/sources/sefaria/psalms/108.json.
Psalms 108:1-3
My heart is steadfast: The opening is Psalm 57:7 to 9. Psalm 57 says the heart is steadfast twice; here it is said once, and the singer adds that he will sing with all his being. Harp and lyre are called awake, the dawn is woken, and the praise goes out among the nations.
Psalms 108:1
“O God, my heart is fixed. Though I have many wars to disturb me, and many cares to toss me to and fro, yet I am settled in one mind and cannot be driven from it. My heart has taken hold and abides in one resolve. Thy grace has overcome the fickleness of nature, and I am now in a resolute and determined frame of mind. I will sing and give praise. Both with voice and music will I extol thee—"I will sing and play", as some read it.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 5 (1878)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Psalms 108:1
“And these things indeed we say according to the Jews. But according to the higher sense, it is the Lord who sings these things. "My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready." I am ready here, I am ready in the future: I save both on earth and I save in heaven; that is, I save both the angels and men.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 34, on Psalm 107patristic
I will awaken the dawn: This is Psalm 57:8, where the line opens with a call to the singer's glory to awake. Here that call has moved into verse 1 as the words with all his being. Psalm 119:147 speaks of rising before dawn to cry for help.
Psalms 108:2
"Arise, O psaltery and harp." O psaltery, O harp, you were made and created to make melody to God: arise and make melody, why do you lie idle? O monk, you who stand upright in body, why does your soul lie idle, and you do not make melody to the Lord? "Cursed is the man who does the work of God negligently." If you are a psaltery, if you are a harp, why are you deaf, and do not glorify God? "I will arise at daybreak."
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 34, on Psalm 107patristic
among the nations: Psalm 57:9 has Adonai, Lord, in this line, and Psalm 108 puts the covenant name, the LORD. The peoples include Moab, Edom and Philistia, named in verse 9. Paul quotes a like vow from Psalm 18:49 at Romans 15:9.
Psalms 108:3
"I will confess to you among the peoples, O Lord." Understand "the peoples" as the Jews. "And I will make melody to you among the nations." He speaks of us. For by "the Jews" he means those who first believed from among the Jews. And notice the order: first he praises God among the peoples, and afterward he praises God among the nations. For first they believed from among the Jews, and afterward they believed from among the Gentiles.
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 34, on Psalm 107patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 108:3
“I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people. Whoever may come to hear me, devout or profane, believer or heathen, civilized or barbarian, I shall not cease my music. David seemed inspired to foresee that his Psalms would be sung in every land, from Greenland's icy mountains to India's coral strand. His heart was large, he would have the whole race of man listen to his joy in God, and lo, he has his desire, for his psalmody is cosmopolitan; no poet is so universally known as he.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 5 (1878)Particular Baptist
Psalms 108:4-5
loving devotion extends beyond the heavens: Devotion is measured against the heavens, faithfulness against the clouds. Psalm 57:10 has that devotion reaching to the heavens, and here it extends beyond them. The one request in the first half is that God be exalted and His glory cover all the earth.
Psalms 108:4
"For your mercy is great above the heavens." There is no creature that does not stand in need of God's mercy. All of us stand in need of God's mercy. Gabriel, Michael, the Seraphim, the Cherubim, the Powers, the Dominions, are indeed holy, but they stand in need of the mercy of their creator. I do not disparage the angels, but I proclaim the creator; since the angels themselves gladly have their creator proclaimed. And we can say it another way: "For your mercy raises up from the earth to the heavens. And your truth reaches even to the clouds."
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 34, on Psalm 107patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 108:4
“For thy mercy is great above the heavens,..... It is in Psa 57:10, "thy mercy is great unto the heavens". See Gill on Psa 57:10.”
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens: Psalm 57 sings this line twice, at 57:5 and 57:11, as a refrain. Here God is exalted once, and the line joins the praise of Psalm 57 to the plea of Psalm 60. Verse 6 asks God to save with His right hand.
Psalms 108:5
"Be exalted above the heavens, O God." God is not exalted except above the heavens, he is not exalted above the earth. When we are earthly, we do not exalt God; but if from earthly we have been made heavenly, then we exalt God. And our Lord, when he was on earth, did not exalt us. Someone may say: You speak rashly, since he himself says in the Gospel: "When I have been lifted up, I will draw all things to myself."
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 34, on Psalm 107patristic
that Your beloved may be delivered: This one verse is Psalm 60:5 word for word. It turns from praise to a plea, asking God to respond and save with His right hand, so that His beloved may be delivered. The word for beloved is plural, yedideikha, and the verb with it reads they may be rescued.
Psalms 108:6
“That thy beloved may be delivered: save with thy right hand, and answer me. Let my prayer avail for all the beloved ones. Sometimes a nation seems to hang upon the petitions of one man. With what ardour should such an one pour out his soul! David does so here.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 5 (1878)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 108:6
“That thy beloved may be delivered,.... From hence to the end of the psalm the words are taken out of Psa 60:5. See Gill on Psa 60:5.”
Psalms 108:7-9
God has spoken from His sanctuary: The answer is an oracle, Psalm 60:6 to 8. God parcels out Shechem, west of the Jordan, and the Valley of Succoth to the east, so the claim covers the whole land. Moab is a washbasin, the sandal is tossed on Edom, and the shout goes up over Philistia.
Psalms 108:7
"God has spoken in his holy one": whether in the temple, or in each one of the saints, or in a prophet. He is heard in Moses, he is heard in an apostle; and more truly I say, he has spoken in his Son. What, then, has God spoken? These things that follow. "I will be exalted, and I will divide Shechem." For this reason, he says, I am crucified, that I may divide Shechem. "Shechem" is interpreted in our language as "shoulders." And "shoulders" are interpreted as "works."
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 34, on Psalm 107patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 108:7
“What he has promised he will perform, for it is the word both of his truth and of his power. An active faith can rejoice in what God has said, though it be not yet done; for with him saying and doing are not two things, whatever they are with us.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Judah is My scepter: This is Psalm 60:7 almost word for word. Judah is His scepter, the ruler's staff of Genesis 49:10, where the scepter stays with Judah. Ephraim, the leading tribe of the north, is His helmet.
Psalms 108:8
"Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine." Our Lord and Savior rejoices, possessing greater riches. "Gilead" is interpreted "migration": he rejoices, therefore, when the people migrated from among the Gentiles and came to him. "Manasseh" is interpreted "from forgetfulness." See, then, what he says. That son who received the substance and consumed it, and had forgotten me, now has remembered me; and he is called Manasseh, that is, "from forgetfulness," because he has not forgotten, but has returned to his father. And "Ephraim" is interpreted "fruitful." "Ephraim," he says, "is the receiving of my head."
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 34, on Psalm 107patristic
Moab is My washbasin: The line is Psalm 60:8 with one change in the Hebrew. There Philistia is told to shout, and here God shouts in triumph over Philistia. Ruth 4:7 shows a sandal used to confirm a transfer of property.
Psalms 108:9
“Moab is my washpot. This nation had shown no friendly spirit to the Israelites, but had continually viewed them as a detested rival, therefore they were to be subdued and made subject to David's throne. He claims by faith the victory, and regards his powerful enemy with contempt. Nor was he disappointed, for "the Moabites became David's servants and brought him gifts" (2Sa 8:2). As men wash their feet after a long journey, and so are revived, so vanquished difficulties serve to refresh us: we use Moab for a washpot. Over Edom will I cast out my shoe.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 5 (1878)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 108:9
"Moab is the pot of my hope." A great mystery is recognized in few words. I beg you, pay careful attention: since it profits both me who speak, and you who hear. "Moab" is interpreted "from the father." "AB" means "father," "MO" means "from." Who is this one "from the father"? He who lost his father, who abandoned his father, who did not return to his own father, and is not worthy to be called Manasseh. Who is this Moab?
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 34, on Psalm 107patristic
Psalms 108:10-13
bring me to the fortified city?: The close is Psalm 60:9 to 12, and it opens with a question about the fortified city of Edom. Verse 11 asks whether God has rejected them and will no longer march, and verse 13 answers that with God they will trample the enemy. The help of man is worthless.
Psalms 108:10
“Faith leads on to strong desire for the realization of the promise, and hence the practical question, Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? The difficulty is plainly perceived. Petra is strong and hard to enter: the Psalmist warrior knows that he cannot enter the city by his own power, and he therefore asks who is to help him.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 5 (1878)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 108:10
"Who will lead me into the fortified city?" No one, O Lord, for you are the one who says: "I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there was no man with me." "For all have turned aside, together they have become useless: there is none that does good, there is not even one." Who, then, will lead me into the fortified city? No one, O Lord: since even Peter, who had promised to die for you, afterward denied you. What is this fortified city?
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 34, on Psalm 107patristic
Have You not rejected us, O God?: This is Psalm 60:10. Psalm 60 opens at verse 1 with the complaint that God has rejected His people, and Psalm 108 leaves that lament out. The question here is the one trace of it left.
Psalms 108:11
“And wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?.... In Psa 60:10, it is, "and thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies". See Gill on Psa 60:10.”
2 more voices on this verse
Psalms 108:11
"You who have cast us off." Was it not you, O God, who have cast us off? He did not say, "Who cast us off," but "Who once cast us off." "And will you not go out, O God, in our powers?" These things are to be read interrogatively: "And will you not go out, O God, in our powers?" You who suffered for us, why do you not help us, but allow us to be trampled by the most cruel devil? "And will you not go out, O God, in our powers?" See what he says.
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 34, on Psalm 107patristic
Psalms 108:11
“Wilt not thou, O God, who hast cast us off? This is grand faith which can trust the Lord even when he seems to have cast us off. Some can barely trust him when he pampers them, and yet David relied upon him when Israel seemed under a cloud and the Lord had hidden his face. O for more of this real and living faith. The casting off will not last long when faith so gloriously keeps her hold.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 5 (1878)Particular Baptist
the help of man is worthless: This is Psalm 60:11. Worthless translates shav, the empty and vain thing of Exodus 20:7, and the help of man is literally the salvation of man. Aid against the enemy comes from God, as verse 13 says.
Psalms 108:12
"Give us help from tribulation." He did not say, "Give us help from delights," but "from tribulation." "To the Lord, when I was in tribulation, I cried out, and he heard me." He did not say, "when I was in delights I cried out," or "sleeping I cried out." Do you wish to be heard by the Lord? Be in tribulation: cry out, and you will be heard. If, then, anyone is not in tribulation, he cannot call upon the help of the Lord. "For vain is the salvation of man."
Jerome · written before 420 · Homily 34, on Psalm 107patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 108:12
“Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. This prayer has often fallen from the lips of men who have been bitterly disappointed by their fellows, and it has also been poured out unto the Lord in the presence of some gigantic labour in which mortal power is evidently of no avail. Edom cannot be entered by any human power, yet from its fastnesses the robber bands come rushing down; therefore, O Lord, do thou interpose and give thy people deliverance. Help divine is expected because help human is of no avail.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 5 (1878)Particular Baptist
With God we will perform with valor: This is Psalm 60:12, the close of both psalms. Perform with valor is the phrase of Numbers 24:18, where Edom is taken while Israel performs with valor. God answers the question of verse 10 about Edom.
Psalms 108:13
“God's help shall inspire us to help ourselves. Faith is neither a coward nor a sluggard: she knows that God is with her, and therefore she does valiantly; she knows that he will tread down her enemies, and therefore she arises to tread them down in his name. Where praise and prayer have preceded the battle, we may expect to see heroic deeds and decisive victories. Through God is our secret support; from that source we draw all our courage, wisdom, and strength. We shall do valiantly.”
Charles Spurgeon · The Treasury of David, Vol. 5 (1878)Particular Baptist
1 more voice on this verse
Psalms 108:13
“Blessed Paul will own that even he can do nothing, nothing to purpose, but through Christ strengthening him, Phil. iv. (2.) When we have acquitted ourselves ever so well, yet we cannot speed by any merit or might of our own; it is God himself that treads down our enemies, else we with all our valour cannot do it. Whatever we do, whatever we gain, God must have all the glory.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: A psalm composed out of two earlier psalms, praise first and petition after, as Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Two psalms joined at the seam | Verses 1 to 5 are Psalm 57:7 to 11 and verses 6 to 13 are Psalm 60:5 to 12. The seam falls between verse 5 and verse 6, where praise that has reached above the heavens turns into a request for the right hand to save.Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms, 1871, on Psalm 108:1. | Psalm 108:1, Psalm 108:5, Psalm 108:6, Psalm 108:13 |
| I will awaken the dawn | The harp and lyre are told to wake, and then the singer says he will wake the dawn. The instruments are roused first and the morning second, which puts the praise before the sunrise rather than after it.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Psalm 108:1. | Psalm 108:2 |
| Beyond the heavens, to the clouds | Verse 4 measures loving devotion against the heavens and faithfulness against the clouds. Psalm 57:10 has that devotion reaching to the heavens, and here it extends beyond them, which is the one place the borrowed text is changed.Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 5, 1878, on Psalm 108:4. | Psalm 108:4, Psalm 108:5 |
| The land parcelled out by name | The oracle of verses 7 to 9 names Shechem west of the Jordan and the Valley of Succoth east of it, then Gilead, Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah, then Moab, Edom and Philistia. The first group is the land claimed and the second is the neighbours put under it.Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms, 1871, on Psalm 108:7. | Psalm 108:7, Psalm 108:8, Psalm 108:9 |
| God has spoken, and God is asked | Verses 7 to 9 are God speaking, and verses 10 to 12 are the singer asking whether God has rejected them. The psalm sets the oracle and the question side by side and answers the question with the oracle.Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 5, 1878, on Psalm 108:11. | Psalm 108:7, Psalm 108:11, Psalm 108:13 |
What the composition shows
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
The psalm is evidence that Israel's songs were used again. A psalm made out of two others was still counted a psalm, kept in the book and given its own heading, which tells a reader something about how the Psalter was assembled and when.
Where the meaning sits
The seam is between verse 5 and verse 6. In Psalm 60 the request of verse 5 follows a complaint that God has rejected His people and broken their defences. Here it follows praise that has just put His devotion beyond the heavens. The same words are asked in a different key, and that difference is what the composer made.
The question left standing
Verse 11 asks whether God has rejected them and will no longer march out with their armies, and the psalm never answers it in words. The answer it gives is the oracle it has already quoted and the confession of verse 13, that with God they will perform with valor. Verse 12 names the alternative and dismisses it, the help of man is worthless, which is the judgment Psalm 118:8 and 9 make when they set refuge in the LORD above trust in man and in princes.
The debated question
Whether the psalm is David's own joining of his two psalms or a later editor's is argued both ways and cannot be settled from the text. The heading names David, which is the plain reading and the one the older commentators take. The single change at verse 4 and the psalm's placing in Book V, among psalms of the return, have led others to read it as a later arrangement of Davidic material for a new occasion. Nothing in the psalm decides it, and the meaning of the composition is the same either way.
Keep studying
Studies1
Words7
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Psalm 108:7; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms, 1871, on Psalm 108:1 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Psalm 108:1.
The exposition
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Psalms; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
The painting
The Hunters in the Snow. Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1565. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.