Psalm 61

Psalms 61:1-2

Hear my cry, O God: The Hebrew title, which this page's text does not show, reads To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David, naming only the stringed instrument and the Davidic hand, with no occasion attached the way Psalm 3 or Psalm 51 carry one in their own titles. The prayer opens from the end of the earth, a phrase the older commentators take as hyperbole for exile or extremity rather than literal geography, a heart overwhelmed and pressed toward one request, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. The rock asked for is not one the psalmist can climb to himself, and the plea admits the height is past his own reach.

Psalms 61:3-4

The request turns to its own reason, thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy, the rock of verse 2 now named as a place already stood on rather than a new hope. I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever answers the wandering cry from the end of the earth with the settled language of the sanctuary, trust pictured as a bird gathered under the covert of thy wings, an image Psalm 91 and Ruth 2:12 both use for the same shelter. Selah closes the verse with the pause the Psalter leaves everywhere unexplained.

Psalms 61:5-8

God hast heard my vows anchors the closing prayer in something already granted, the heritage of those that fear thy name, before the petition widens from the psalmist's own life to the king's, thou wilt prolong the king's life, and his years as many generations, language too large for one man's calendar. Spurgeon and Calvin read the excess as reaching past David himself toward the throne his own line was promised would not fail, a hope the psalm states without naming the covenant of 2 Sam 7 outright. The psalm ends where it began, with a vow, so will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows, the shelter asked for in verse 4 now the ground for a lifetime of thanksgiving.