Psalms 105:3

Psa 105:3 Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD.

Ver. 3. Glory ye in his holy name] Of his power and goodness. See 1Co 1:31, with Jer 9:23. Non est gloriosior populus sub coelo quam Iudaicus, saith Alsted; there is not a more vain glorious people under heaven than the Jews; but "we are the circumcision, which worship in spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh," Php 3:3.

Let the heart of them rejoice, &c.] All others are forbidden to rejoice, Hos 9:1, and bidden to weep and howl, Jas 5:1.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_105:3

Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.

Christian joy

I. Who are to rejoice? Only those who seek the Lord. When are you to seek? Now. Where are you to seek? In His Word, His promises, His ordinances. Remember, the real seeking of God is when you are drawn by the Holy Ghost.

II. The grounds upon which believers who thus seek, and yet have not altogether found, Christian joy and rest, may undoubtedly rejoice. Not only is there the certainty of success in the event, but that success implies eternal life.

III. Why we are bound to make it a matter of conscience that we should rejoice in the Lord.

1. The honour of God Himself is concerned in it.

2. The extension of the Redeemers Kingdom requires it.

3. Your own personal usefulness, strength, and power to resist evil, is concerned (Neh_8:10).

IV. But there are hindrances to this joy.

1. The great hindrance is, unbelief in the real provisions made in the Gospel of Christ. What is the first idea which crosses the mind of the sinner when he is told that he will have perfect joy? The first idea that arises in his heart is, the news is too good to be true. What is that? It leads to nothing more nor less than that there is unbelief in the promises of the Father. Too good to be true! What does St. John think of this? He who believes this makes God a liar! Too good to be true! It was the very news He was sent to proclaim; it was the good tidings of salvation, and nothing short of salvation, Christ published. Beware, then, of unbelief, for it is a hindrance to all joy.

2. Again, you cannot have joy and indulge in your own sins. Joy in the Lord and joy in the devil cannot go on together. If you love your sin, you hate God. (Bp. M. Villiers.)

Psa_105:3

He brought them forth also with silver and gold.

A stanza of deliverance

Egypt may very fairly represent those states of sorrow and sadness, depression and oppression, into which Gods people come far too frequently. Specially is the house of bondage a true picture of our condition when we are convinced of sin, but are ignorant of the way to escape from its guilt and power. Then sin, which was once our Goshen of pleasure, becomes the iron furnace of fear. Glory be to God, He has now brought us out from that state of slavery, and we can sing of freedom given by His own right hand!

I. Our deliverance is by Divine power. When Israel came out of Egypt, it was Jehovah who brought with her armies. When any man is saved from spiritual bondage, it is the Lord Jesus who looseth the captive. But this does not exclude the use of means, or the action of the will. The Lord brought Israel forth; but they had cried unto the Lord by reason of their sore bondage, and they did not receive the blessing without desiring it, yea, and sighing for it; and when it came, they joyfully accepted it, and willingly trusted themselves with him whom the Lord had made to be their mediator and leader, even Moses. They did not share the honour of their deliverance with God, but still they gave their hearty assent and consent to His salvation. Willing as they were to move, it was still true, He brought them forth. We can never escape from the bondage of sin by our own power. If we are ever set free from sin and Satan, it will be eternally and infinitely true that the Lord brought us forth out of the house of bondage. Salvation is of the Lord. There is no true liberty but that wherewith Christ makes you free. If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Do you know what it is to be brought out of prison by a miracle of grace, by a revelation of the Holy Ghost, by the blood of Jesus shed for many? If so, you will join with all the saints in singing, As for His people, He brought them forth.

I. Our deliverance was attended with enrichment: He brought them forth also with silver and gold. The natives as good as said, Take whatever you please of us, for we have all treated you ill. Only leave us alone; for plagues and deaths fall upon us thick and fast so long as Pharaoh detains you here. However, this is not my point. I am dealing with more spiritual things. When God brings His people out of bondage, they come out enriched in the best and most emphatic sense. Trials and afflictions, which threaten to kill us, are made to sanctify us; and sanctification is the best form of enrichment. How much we owe to sorrow and sickness, crosses and losses! Our bondage ends in our coming forth with much that is better than silver and gold.

1. Thus do we come forth from conviction of sin. Now tell me, says one, what does a man gain by being in a desponding, sorrowful condition, convinced of sin, and full of fears? By the work of the Holy Spirit he will gain much. He will obtain a clearer knowledge of the evil of sin. An awful sense of guilt, an overwhelming conviction of sin, may be the foundation stone of a gloriously holy character. The tried and tempted man will also see clearly that salvation is all of grace. He can do nothing, and he knows it. When a child of God can spell grace, and can pronounce it clearly, as with the true Jerusalem accent, he has gained a great deal of spiritual silver and gold. Such persons gain by their soul trouble a fund of healthy experience. They have been in the prison, and have had their feet made fast in the stocks. Well, says one, I do not want to feel that sort of treatment. No, but suppose you had felt it, the next time you met with a brother who, was locked up in the castle of Giant Despair, you would know how to sympathize with him and help him. Where this is the result of severe trial, we may well say that the Lord has brought them forth with silver and gold.

2. Thus do saints come out of persecution. The Church is refined by the fires of martyrdom. Individual piety is also deeper, stronger, nobler in persecuting times than at other seasons.

3. Thus do believers come out of daily afflictions. They become wealthier in grace, and richer in experience. A man of God, whose life has been full of mental exercises and spiritual conflict, as well as outward tribulation, becomes, through Divine grace, a man of large wealth of knowledge, prudence, faith, foresight, and wisdom, and he is to the inexperienced like some great proprietor, by whom multitudes of the poorer class are fed and guided, housed and set to work. Those who have been much tried are in the peerage of the Church.

4. When you and I reach the shores of heaven, thus shall we come into glory. When we come forth out of our graves, it will not be with loss, but with enrichment. We shall leave corruption and the worm behind us, and with them all that earthly grossness which made us groan in these mortal bodies. God will bring us forth also with silver and gold. What golden songs will we sing! What silver notes of gratitude will we pour forth!

III. Our deliverance is accompanied with health and strength: There was not one feeble person among their tribes.

1. This fact is typical of the health and strength of the newly saved. The Lords people, at conversion, are as a rule wonderfully strong in their love to Jesus, and their hatred of sin. In most cases our young converts, when they have truly come to Christ, even if they are a little timid, are vigorous, much in prayer, abounding in zeal, and earnest in speaking out the Gospel. Many of them, I believe, would die at the stake readily enough, while they are in their first love. In their earliest days nothing is too hot or too heavy for them, for the sake of Christ.

2. Full often it is so with the persecuted. A man who has fulfilled an apprenticeship to this hard master, is likely to be a man indeed. If he has endured hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, he will be fit to become an officer in the army, and an instructor of recruits.

3. It would be a glorious day if it were so with all Gods people, that there were none feeble. We should, as a Church, labour to reach this high standard. We would have the weakest to be as David, and David as the angel of the Lord. We would have our babes become young men, and our young men fathers in Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. (Psa 105:3) Glory in his holy name ! Glad shall be the heart of those who seek Jehovah. Congratulate yourselves that you possess a right and interest in the favour of so glorious a Being. The last clause presents as an inducement, that to seek the favour of this God is a source, and by implication the only source, of joy and happiness. Compare Psa 34:2; Psa 40:16; Psa 49:6.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 3. Glory ye in his holy name] Show the name Jesus: exult in it - praise it. His name was called Jesus; because he came to save his people from their sins.

Let the heart of them rejoice] That is, the heart of those shall rejoice who seek the Lord: therefore it is added, -

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. Glory ye in his holy name] Cp. Isa_41:16; and see note on Psa_103:1.

let the heart &c.] True devotion leads to deep inward joy which will find expression in thanksgiving. Cp. Neh_8:10; Act_2:46-47.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Glory ye in his holy name,.... In the knowledge of it, as proclaimed in Christ; in being called by his name, and in having the honour to call upon his name; in the holiness of it; and in Christ being made sanctification as well as righteousness, in whom all the seed of Israel are justified and glory; as they may also of interest in him, and communion with him.

Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord; while he may be found, and where he may be found; who seek him in Christ, and under the guidance and direction of his Spirit; who seek him with their whole hearts, diligently and constantly. The Targum is,

"who seek doctrine from the Lord.''

Such may and should rejoice in him, and in him only; and that always, as they have reason to do, even in their hearts, since they that seek him find him; and whether it be at first conversion, or afterwards, or when he has for a time hid his face; it must be matter of joy to them, even to their very hearts, to find him whom they seek.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Glory ye in his holy name - The original word rendered “glory” is the same word which is commonly used to denote “praise,” and it has that meaning here. The idea is, In your praises let the main subject be the name of God - that holy name by which he chooses to be known. The Hebrew is, “the name of his holiness.” It implies

(a) that we should rejoice in God - in his very name - in that by which he chooses to make himself known;

(b) that it is a special subject of praise and rejoicing that his name is “holy;” that is, that he is a holy Being.

This can be a subject of real rejoicing only to those who are themselves holy; but properly considered, one of the highest reasons for rejoicing in God is the fact that he is holy; that he cannot look upon sin but with abhorrence. There would be no ground of confidence in God if this were not so.

Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord - That desire to know him; that come to praise him. Let their hearts rejoice - or, let them be happy:

(a) because they are “permitted” to seek him;

(b) because they are inclined to seek him;

(c) because they have such a God to come to - One so mighty, so holy, so good, so gracious.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Glory ye in his holy name; glory in the God whom you serve, as the only true God, and one of infinite power and goodness.

That seek the Lord; that seek his face or presence, as it follows, his acquaintance and favour, above all the world.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 3. Glory ye in his holy name. Make it a matter of joy that you have such a God. His character and attributes are such as will never make you blush to call him your God. Idolaters may well be ashamed of the actions attributed to their fancied deities, their names are foul with lust and red with blood, but Jehovah is wholly glorious; every deed of his will bear the strictest scrutiny; his name is holy, his character is holy, his law is holy, his government is holy, his influence is holy. In all this we may make our boast, nor can any deny our right to do so.

Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. If they have not yet found him so fully as they desire, yet even to be allowed and enabled to seek after such a God is cause for gladness, To worship the Lord and seek his kingdom and righteousness is the sure way to happiness, mad indeed there is no other. True seekers throw their hearts into the engagement, hence their hearts receive joy; according to the text they have a permit to rejoice and they have the promise that they shall do so. How happy all these sentences are! Where can men's ears be when they talk of the gloom of psalm singing? What worldly songs are fuller of real mirth? One hears the sound of the timbrel and the harp in every verse. Even seekers find bliss in the name of the Lord Jesus, but as for the finders, we may say with the poet,

"And those who find thee find a bliss,

Nor tongue nor pen Call show:

The love of Jesus what it is,

None but his loved ones know."

Ver. 3.

1. Those who find: or"glory ye, "etc.

2. Those who seek: or"rejoice."

Ver. 3 (second clause). Let the seeker rejoice that there is such a God to seek, that he invites us to seek, that he moves us to seek, enables us to seek, and promises to be found of us. The tendency of the seeker is to despond, but there are many grounds of comfort.

Psalms 105:4*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

3. Glory ye—Or, boast ye. Comp. Psa_34:2; Gal_6:14

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Glory ye in his holy Name. (comp. Psa_34:2, "My soul shall glory in the Lord As worldly men glory in their strength and riches, so the saints of God glory in God. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. (comp. Psa_33:21)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Glory - Glory in the God whom you serve, as the only true God.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Boast of His holy name Boast of the stronghold of His holy name that you have a patron like Him. התהללוּ is “porvontez vous” in Old French, [vantez vous in modern French, boast].

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.