Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word.
Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Jehovah, according unto thy word.
Teth. Good Thou didst with Thy servant, O Jehovah, According to Thy word.
TETH. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Jehovah, according to thy word.
The Psalms were not written to be read silently. They were sheet music. David set aside whole families of Levites to lead the singing, and 1 Chronicles 23:5 counts four thousand of them praising the LORD with instruments David had made. Three great guilds carried the work — the sons of Asaph, of Heman, and of Jeduthun — and their names still sit at the top of psalms we sing today.
The little lines above many psalms are performance directions left in the text. "To the chief Musician" points to the worship leader. "Neginoth" means stringed instruments. "Selah," scattered seventy-one times, is most likely a musical pause or a swell. The temple had trumpets, harps, lyres, and cymbals, and the sound of them carried across the city.
Three times a year every Israelite family that could travel went up to Jerusalem for a feast. Psalms 120 through 134 are labeled Songs of Ascents — short, portable songs sung on the climb up to the city, which sits high in the hill country. Other groups had fixed places too: Psalms 113–118, the Egyptian Hallel, were sung at Passover, which is almost certainly the hymn Jesus and the disciples sang at the Last Supper.
Because the book grew over centuries, it carries the whole history of the nation inside it. Psalm 90 comes from the wilderness. Many psalms come from David's years running from Saul and reigning in Jerusalem. Psalm 137 was written by people sitting beside the canals of Babylon with their harps hung up in the trees. The hymnbook outlived the temple that first sang it.
For the first hearers, the Psalms were the words God gave them to say back to Him. A farmer who could not read still knew these songs by heart, because he had sung them at the feasts since he was a child. When his crops failed or his enemies closed in, he already had the language for it.
They also taught Israel that God could take honesty. Almost a third of the Psalter is lament — complaint, grief, even anger, brought straight to God instead of swallowed. The book teaches the worshiper to carry everything to the LORD and leave the settling of scores with Him, and then it ends with five straight songs of pure praise, so that the last word of the human heart is praise.
Psalms — The canon's longest book — 150 Psalms edited into five doxology-bookended books, composed across a millennium, attributed to David, Asaph, Korah's sons, Moses, Solomon, Heman, Ethan, and anonymous voices. A ''Torah of David''; the Bible's longest continuous liturgical-devotional corpus.
The verses this one reaches11
I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.
You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word.
Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.
The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; You have made my lot secure.
You have given me Your shield of salvation; Your right hand upholds me, and Your gentleness exalts me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from You, and from Your own hand we have given to You.
I have sought Your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your promise.
Should it be said, O house of Jacob, “Is the Spirit of the LORD impatient? Are these the things He does?” Do not My words bring good to him who walks uprightly?
So Joseph imprisoned them for three days,
Voices3
ט, TETH.--The Ninth Part. TETH. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Entire Bible, 1771reformed
. In this ninth section the verses all begin with the letter Teth. They are the witness of experience, testifying to the goodness of God, the graciousness of his dealings, and the preciousness of his word. Especially the Psalmist proclaims the excellent uses of adversity, and the goodness of God in afflicting him. The sixty-fifth verse is the text of the entire octave. Ver. 65. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word. This is the summary of his life, and assuredly it is the sum of ours.
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, 1892reformed
The reliance on promises (Ps 119:49) is strengthened by experience of past dealings according with promises, and a prayer for guidance, encouraged by sanctified affliction.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed
The walk8
Two steps out along the cross-reference floor, votes-ranked — destinations reached by more than one path rise (the text's own hubs). Every stop is a page, and every stop travels with its words.
Through
Psalms 13:6I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.
leads to
Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Be exalted, O LORD, in Your strength; we will sing and praise Your power.
Through
Psalms 30:11You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
leads to
Again I will build you, and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out in joyful dancing.
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
Then the maidens will rejoice with dancing, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, and give them comfort and joy for their sorrow.
Our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this vast army that comes against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”
He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.
Through
Psalms 116:7Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.
leads to
I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
The whole web at once: see the Arc.