Psalms 119:116

Psa 119:116 Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope.

Ver. 116. Uphold me according unto thy word] The promise is the soul’s support. Turn we the palm and not the backside of the hand to this staff, leaning upon it, praying hard for the accomplishment of it, and then be content, though we can say but as that holy man, Mr Paul Bain, did: I thank God in Christ, sustentation I have, but suavities spiritual I taste not any.

And let me not be ashamed of my hope] Let me not be defeated, disappointed, frustrated. This David knew he should not be (for spes in terrenis incerti nomen boni; spes in divinis nomen est certissimi, Heb 11:1 Rom 5:5), but yet thinks fit to seek it by prayer; as Elijah foretold abundance of rain, but yet went up to the top of Carmel and prayed for it, 1Ki 18:41-42.

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_119:116

Let me not be ashamed of my hope.

The Christians sheet-anchor

I. That we may not at last be ashamed of our hope, it must originate in a change of the temper of the heart. The carnal mind must be regenerated. Old things must pass away and all things become new. God must be loved and Christ received by faith.

II. That we may not at last be ashamed of our hope, it must render us holy. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now Christ can, in no other sense, be in the believer, than as His doctrines form our creed, His temper reigns in our hearts, His example guides our steps, and His love engrosses our affections.

III. That we may not at last be ashamed of our hope it must bear examination. Prove your own selves.

IV. That we may not at last be ashamed of our hope, it must live without an effort. We shall bend all our efforts to be holy and our hope will support itself.

V. The hope that maketh not ashamed is always interrupted by sin, while the hypocrite retains his hope unimpaired in the midst of transgression.

VI. That we may not be ashamed of our hope, others must have a higher opinion of our piety than ourselves. VII. That we may not, at last, be ashamed of our hope, it must put us upon earnest endeavours to reach the object of our hope. If heaven is the object of our hope, we shall endeavour to bring so much of heaven down to earth as possible.

1. The subject should urge us to examine ourselves, and render us willing to be examined.

2. The subject should render us submissive and thoughtful in every scene of life by which God tries our hope and proves our faith.

3. If our hope is such that we expect not to be ashamed of it at the last, let us not be ashamed of it now.

4. In that hope, of which we shall not at last be ashamed, we may now rejoice. Which hope we have, says an apostle, as an anchor of the soul, etc.

5. To so live as to sustain a high hope of heaven is the way to die in peace, with anticipated prospects of future blessedness.

6. To live with this high hope is to speak when we are dead.

7. This subject should show the ungodly how unprepared they are to die. What would be a preparation to die is a preparation to live. (D. A. Clark.)

A great good and a great evil

I. A great good. Hope always implies--

1. A future.

2. A good in the future.

3. An attainable good.

II. A great evil. Shame. Some are ashamed of that which cannot be helped, ashamed of the poverty of their ancestry, the supposed uncomeliness of their person, or of the condition in which they have been placed in life. Some are ashamed of that in which they ought to rejoice, ashamed even of the Gospel. Some are ashamed of that of which they have been guilty. This is remorse, and remorse is misery.

III. A great evil rising out of a great good. We are ashamed of our hope--

1. When the object has proved to be worthless.

2. When the object has proved to be unattainable. (Homilist.)

Christian hope

In the first clause there is the language of a man in great distress; nevertheless he is not in despair, for when you proceed to the second clause you find the psalmist speaking of his hope; he had not let go his hope. Though visited with so much calamity, and encircled with so much of peril, he still keeps down the rising fear, that after all he may be disappointed, and earnestly beseeches of God not to suffer him to be ashamed of his hope. It is very beautiful and instructive to observe how hope thus triumphs over trouble. We may go further, and declare that hope is nurtured by trouble. The text may be thought to indicate this; for David evidently speaks as if, having been carried through his trouble, he was yet to find his hope in all the beauty of its vigour. Now, there is no better way of interpreting Scripture than that of using one part as a commentary on another. We wish to show you from our text that hope may spring from tribulation; but this which is only hinted at by the psalmist is largely asserted by St. Paul, when he says, tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope. Here we have the stops which are missing in our text, and we may therefore supply them. We need hardly premise that the apostle speaks only of those who bear tribulation as Christians should bear it--who receive it as appointed of God, and desire to be improved by the fatherly chastisement. It is far enough from true, as a general proposition, that tribulation worketh patience; for how often do you observe in people of the world that they grow more fretful and irritable as their sorrows are multiplied; the chief effect of continued affliction being to sour the temper, and strengthen in them a habit of repining and murmuring. But let us take the ease of those in whom a work of grace is going forward, who are striving to submit themselves to the operations of Gods Spirit; and how true it is of them that tribulation worketh patience! The soul reasons with itself--Is not God the best Judge of what is good for me? Shall I be unwilling to suffer, when the Captain of my salvation was made perfect through suffering? So long as I withstand God, does it not prove that I need the chastening rod? Does it not provoke Him to chastise me yet again? And thus is patience wrought out by tribulation; not by tribulation in itself, by the mere onset of trouble, but by tribulation bringing (as it will bring) the Christian to reflection and to prayer. Let us proceed to the second step in what we may call the apostles commentary on the words of the psalmist, and let us see whether patience will not further work experience. The word experience properly denotes the putting something to the proof, making the sort of trial which is made of metals, by placing them in the fire, in order to the detecting and disentangling the dross. Hence the experience here mentioned by St. Paul must be the ascertaining the precise worth, veracity, and power of the consolations and promises of God. Tribulation worketh patience, in that suffering brings the Christian into an attitude of submission and acquiescence; but when he has been schooled into resignation, and made to wait meekly on the Lord, he is not left without heavenly visitations. Amid the pains of sickness, the infirmities of age, the corrodings of grief, what support is communicated! what strength! what joy! And from experience how natural, how easy the transition to hope. It is next alleged by St. Paul, which the psalmist held fast in the hour of his affliction, that tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, experience hope. He in whom patience has wrought experience is one who, having put to the proof those Scriptural promises which have reference to circumstances such as those in which he has been placed, has found them made good, accomplished in himself, and thereby proved to be of God; but what now can be such a reason for expecting the fulfilment of promises which have respect to future things, as the having experienced the fulfilment of other promises, both made by the same Being, which have respect to present things? Surely he who has tried the chart and found it correct, so far as he had the power of trying it, has the best ground for confidence in that chart with regard to ports which he has never yet entered. With how immediate, then, and direct a succession does hope follow on experience! Experience is a book in which there should be daily entries, and to which there should be daily reference. If we do not register our mercies, or if we never recount them, they are not likely to throw light upon coming events. But what a precious volume is our experience, if we record it with accuracy, and then do not let it lie idly on the shelf! the dust on the covers attesting how little it is used! Answers to prayer, what encouragements to pray: Promises fulfilled, what arguments for expecting their fulfilment! Mercies bestowed, what grounds for confidence that mercies will not be withheld! But if patience lead to experience, shall not experience yield some richer fruity Yes, verily, he who has tasted that the Lord is gracious is the last to doubt that the Lord will be gracious; he to whom promises have been fulfilled should be the last to suspect that promises may fail; and if every mercy received whilst patiently enduring may serve as a pledge, or earnest of future bestowment, oh l how true that as tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, so doth experience generate hope! And, therefore, though David was in trouble--trouble which almost made him despair of life--he would not let go his hope; he had been in too many troubles beforetime for this; he had been too well disciplined; he had had too great experience of the faithfulness and lovingkindness of God; and if he, in his first prayer, exclaims, like one almost disheartened--Uphold me according to Thy Word, in the next, like one who takes courage from the past, he gives utterance to the bolder words--let me not be ashamed of my hope. Christian hope maketh not ashamed. It paints no vision which shall not be more than realized; it points to no inheritance which shall not be reached. How should it make ashamed, when it altogether rests itself upon Christ, who is not ashamed to call us brethren? This is the secret of its difference from every other hope; Christ is the source and the centre of our hope--Christ, in whom all the promises of God are yea, and in Him amen; and if Christ can deceive us, if Christ can fail His people in their extremity, if Christ can want either the will or the power to save those who commit themselves to Him, then, but not otherwise, may the believer be ashamed of his hope. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

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

Psa 119:116. Uphold me according to thy word — Or hold me up, as he says in the next verse, seeing himself to be not only unable to go on in his duty, by his own strength, but in danger of falling into sin, unless he were prevented by divine grace; that I may live — May be preserved in spiritual life, and retain my title to eternal life. And let me not be ashamed of my hope — Or confidence in thy promises; of the certainty of which I have often made my boast before others.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

116. (Psa 119:116) Uphold me according to thy promise, and let me live, and let me not be ashamed of my hope. Promise, literally saying, that which thou hast said, as in Psa 119:82. Let me live might also be translated and I shall live, or paraphrased that I may live. See above, on Psa 119:17. Of my hope, literally from my hope, which some understand in a privative sense away from, deprived of, without my hope, i.e. without having it fulfilled. Ashamed of my hope does not convey the sense so fully as shamed in my hope, frustrated, disappointed, in my expectations.

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

Here, 1. David prays for sustaining grace; for this grace sufficient he besought the Lord twice: Uphold me; and again, Hold thou me up. He sees himself not only unable to go on in his duty by any strength of his own, but in danger of falling into sin unless he was prevented by divine grace; and therefore he is thus earnest for that grace to uphold him in his integrity (Psa 41:12), to keep him from falling and to keep him from tiring, that he might neither turn aside to evil-doing nor be weary of well-doing. We stand no longer than God holds us and go no further than he carries us. 2. He pleads earnestly for this grace. (1.) He pleads the promise of God, his dependence upon the promise, and his expectation from it: "Uphold me, according to thy word, which word I hope in; and, if it be not performed, I shall be made ashamed of my hope, and be called a fool for my credulity." But those that hope in God's word may be sure that the word will not fail them, and therefore their hope will not make them ashamed. (2.) He pleads the great need he had of God's grace and the great advantage it would be of to him: Uphold me, that I may live, intimating that he could not live without the grace of God; he should fall into sin, into death, into hell, if God did not hold him up; but, supported by his hand, he shall live; his spiritual life shall be maintained and be an earnest of eternal life. Hold me up, and I shall be safe, out of danger and out of the fear of danger. Our holy security is grounded on divine supports. (3.) He pleads his resolution, in the strength of this grace, to proceed in his duty: "Hold me up, and then I will have respect unto thy statutes continually and never turn my eyes or feet aside from them." I will employ myself (so some), I will delight myself (so others) in thy statutes. If God's right hand uphold us, we must, in his strength, go on in our duty both with diligence and pleasure.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 116. Uphold me] סמכני sammecheni, prop me up; give me thyself to lean upon.

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

116. Sustain me by thy word, and I shall live. Many read, According to thy word, so that the letter ב, beth, which signifies in, is taken for the letter כ, caph, which signifies as; and thus the sense would be, Sustain me according to the promise which thou hast made to me, or, as thou hast promised to me. And, undoubtedly, whenever God stretches out his hand to us to raise us up when we are fallen, or supports us with his hand, he fulfills his promises. The prophet, however, seems to pray, that constancy of faith may be given him, to enable him to continue steadfast in the divine word. We are said to fall from God’s word when we fall from the faith of it; and in like manner, so long as we repose upon the truth and certainty of it, he is our sustainer. But, as the prophet well knew that there is not strength in man adequate to this, he asks from God ability to persevere as the singular gift of the Holy Spirit. It follows, then, that true stability is to be found no where else but in the word of God; and that no man can steadfastly lean upon it but he who is strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit. We must therefore always beseech God, who alone is the author and finisher of faith, to maintain in us this grace. Farther, when the Psalmist places life in faith, he teaches, that all that men promise themselves without the word is mere falsehood. It is therefore the Lord alone who quickens us by his word, even as it is said in Habakkuk, (Habakkuk 2:4,) “The just shall live by faith.” Both passages have the same meaning. After Habakkuk has derided the foolish confidence of the flesh, with which men are generally inflated, and as manifested in their raising themselves on high that they may fall with the greater violence, he shows, that the faithful alone, whom the word of God sustains, stand upon safe and sure ground.

If the first interpretation is adopted, the second clause, make me not ashamed of my expectation, will be added by way of exposition; for these two things — the prayer that the prophet maybe preserved by God’s grace according to his word, and the prayer that he may reap the fruit of his hope — would amount to nearly the same thing. Yet, after having beseeched God to grant him constancy to persevere, he seems now to proceed farther, praying that God would, in very deed, show the thing which he had promised. Every man’s own infirmity bears witness to the many doubts which intrude into our minds, when, after long endurance, the issue is not answerable to our expectation; for God, in that case:. seems to disappoint us.

To the same effect is the next verse, except that no express mention is made of the word; and safety is put for life. The prophet means to say, that whenever God withdrew his word, it would be all over with his safety; but that, if he were established by the Divine power, there was nothing of which he would have reason to be afraid. The verb שעה shaah, which we have translated I will consider, is rendered by many, I will delight, and this sense is not unsuitable; for although God may give a very desirable taste of his goodness in his bare word, yet the savor of it is not a little increased when to the word the effect is added, provided we do not perversely separate God’s benefits from his promises. It is the true wisdom of faith to consider all his benefits as the result or fruit of his promises, of which, if we make no account, the enjoyment of all his good things will be of little advantage to us, or rather will often prove hurtful and deadly. Yet it appears to me preferable to render the verb by consider; for the more experience any man has of God’s help, the more ought he to awaken himself to consider heavenly doctrine. The Psalmist adds, that he will continue to persevere in this meditation during the whole of his life.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

116. But in order to keep God’s commandments, he needs sustaining grace. Cp. Psa_51:12; Psa_3:5; Psa_37:17; Psa_37:24.

be ashamed of my hope] Be disappointed and put to shame by the failure of my hope of deliverance. Cp. Psa_119:166.

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.

My flesh trembleth for fear of thee,.... Not for fear of the wrath of God coming down upon himself, nor for fear of eternal damnation; but for fear of what was coming upon the wicked, for their sins and transgressions. The word (n) used signifies such a dread and horror, which seizes a man to such a degree, that it makes the hair of his flesh to stand up; as Jarchi and Kimchi observe; see Psa 119:53, Job 4:14;

and I am afraid of thy judgments; not of their coming down upon him, but upon the wicked; the thought of which is more awful to good men than to the wicked themselves; and especially when under any darkness, doubts, and fears; lest, being conscious to themselves of their own weakness, they should be left to join with the wicked in their sins, and so be partakers of their plagues.

(n) Symmachus in Drusius; "horripilavit", Cajetanus apud Gejerum.

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

Uphold me - Sustain me in the trials and the temptations of life. Help me to bear afflictions without sinking under them; to meet temptations without yielding to them; to encounter opposition from the enemies of religion without being overcome.

According unto thy word -

(1) According to the requirements of thy word - that I may be conformed to them;

(2) according to the promises of thy word - that they may be verified in me.

That I may live - That my life may not be cut off by my foes, and that I may not sink under my burdens.

And let me not be ashamed of my hope - The meaning of this is, Let not my hope prove to be delusive and vain; let it not be seen at last that it is worthless, or that religion has no power to accomplish what it promises. See Psa 6:10, note; Psa 25:2-3, note; Psa 31:1, note. The phrase does not mean, as it would seem to signify, Let me not blush, or be unwilling to acknowledge my hope, or to profess that I am a friend of God. That “would be,” indeed, a proper prayer, but it is not the prayer here.

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

Or, because of my hope, or confidence in thy promises, of the certainty whereof I have oft made my boast before others.

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

Ver. 116. Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may have. It was so necessary that the Lord should hold up his servant, that he could not even live without it. Our soul would die if the Lord did not continually sustain it, and every grace which makes spiritual life to be truly life would decay if he withdrew his upholding hand. It is a sweet comfort that this great necessity of upholding is provided for in the word, and we have not to ask for it as for an uncovenanted mercy, but simply to plead for the fulfilment of a promise, saying, "Uphold me according to thy word." He who has given us eternal life hath in that gift secured to us all that is essential thereto, and as gracious upholding is one of the necessary things we may be sure that we shall have it.

And let me not be ashamed of my hope. In Ps 119:114 he had spoken of his hope as founded on the word, and now he begs for the fulfilment of that word that his hope might be justified in the sight of all. A man would be ashamed of his hope if it turned out that it was not based upon a sure foundation; but this will never happen in our case. We may be ashamed of our thoughts, and our words, and our deeds for they spring from ourselves; but we never shall be ashamed of our hope, for that springs from the Lord our God. Such is the frailty of our nature that unless we are continually upheld by grace, we shall all so foully as to be ashamed of ourselves, and ashamed of all those glorious hopes which are now the crown and glory of our life. The man of God had uttered the most positive resolves, but he felt that he could not trust in his own solemn determination: hence these players. It is not wrong to make resolutions, but it will be useless to do so unless we salt them well with believing cries to God. David meant to keep the law of the Lord, but he first needed the Lord of the law to keep him.

Ver. 116. Uphold me. A kite soaring on high is in a situation quite foreign to its nature; as much as the soul of man is when raised above this lower world to high and heavenly pursuits. A person at a distance sees not how it is kept in its exalted situation: he sees not the wind that blows it, nor the hand that holds it, nor the string by whose instrumentality it is held. But all of these powers are necessary to its preservation in that preternatural state. If the wind were to sink it would fall. It has nothing whatever in itself to uphold itself; it has the same tendency to gravitate towards the earth that it ever had; and if left for a moment to itself it would fall. Thus it is with the soul of every true believer. It has been raised by the Spirit of God to a new, a preternatural, a heavenly state; and in that state it is at held by an invisible and Almighty hand, through the medium of faith. And upheld it shall be, but not by any lower in itself. If left for a moment it would fall as much as ever. Its whole strength is in God alone; and its whole security is in the unchangeableness of his nature, and in the efficacy of his grace. In a word, "It is kept by the power of Gad, through faith, unto salvation." From "The Book of Illustrations, "by H. G. Salter, 1840.

Ver. 116. That I may live. The life of a Christian stands in this, to have his soul quickened by the spirit of grace. For as the presence of the soul quickens the body, and the departure thereof brings instant death; and the body without it is but a dead lump of clay: so it is the presence of God's Spirit which giveth life to the soul of man. And this life is known by these two notable effects; for first, it brings a joyful sense of God's mercy; and next, a spiritual disposition to spiritual exercises. And without this, pretend a man what he will, he is but the image of a Christian, looking somewhat like him, but not quickened by his life. William Cowper.

Ver. 116. That I may live. The children of God think they have no life if they live not in God's life. For if we think we are alive, because we see, so do the brute beasts; if we think we are alive because we hear, so do the cattle; if we think we are alive because we eat and drink, or sleep, so do beasts; if we think we live because we do reason and confer, so do the heathen. The life of God's children is the death of sin; for where sin is alive, there that part is dead unto God...God's children, finding themselves dull and slow to good things, when they cannot either rejoice in the promises of God, or find their inward man delighted with the law of God, think themselves to be dead. Richard Greenham.

Ver. 116.

1. Upholding promised.

2. Needful for holy living.

3. The preventive of shameful acts.

Ver. 116. Uphold me according unto thy word, etc.

1. The Psalmist pleads the promise of God, his dependence upon the promise, and his expectation from it :"Uphold me according unto thy word, "which word I hope in and if it be not performed I shall be "ashamed of my hope."

2. He pleads the great need he had of God's grace, and the great advantage it would be to him: "Uphold me, that I may live"; intimating that he could not live without the grace of God. M. Henry.

Psalms 119:117*

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

Uphold me according unto thy Word, that I may live; or, "according to thy promise." God"s sustaining grace, always needed to "uphold" the righteous, is graciously "promised" them. Their "life" depends upon God"s faithfulness to his promise. And let me not be ashamed of my hope. As he would be, if God"s promise were not kept.

Self-distrust.

"Let me not be ashamed of my hope." "A man would be ashamed of his hope if it turned out that this was not based upon a sure foundation." But here the psalmist evidently expresses a kind of fear of himself. He is afraid lest he should be ashamed of his hope, and so earnestly cries to God to save him from himself.

I SELF-DISTRUST AS A SECRET OF MORAL POWER. It belongs to the normal condition of man as a dependent creature. He ought to distrust himself; if he does not, he cannot be reliant on a Power beyond himself. A self-confident man is making the attempt to be something that he is not. He is trying to transcend his normal condition; and in the measure of his success he becomes an unnatural being. He is a "law unto himself," and that a created being never can be. Further than this, a self-distrust kept within due limits is an element of moral power, because it leads him

(1) never to act without due consideration and care;

(2) never to act without outlooking and uplooking for grace and help from a higher power.

And man is only the moral being that he can be, and was intended to be, when he is man inwardly guided, moved, restrained, inspired, by the indwelling God. Normal man says, "I cannot, but God can through me.

II SELF-DISTRUST AS A WEAKENING OF MORAL POWER. And this it is when it is only in a small degree intellectual, and in a very large degree emotional. Self-distrust becomes perilous sentimentality in some forms of sectarian religious life. It is exaggeration of sentiment to assume that, in the matter of redemption, or in the ordering of the godly life, God must do everything and man can do nothing. So long as self-distrust holds itself ready to respond to what comes of its reliance on God, it is healthy. When self-distrust is fostered by introspection, by examination of variable feelings, or by attempting to match feeling with impossible human standards, it is unhealthy, and utterly weakening to the moral fiber. Self-distrust that makes a man miserable and idle is, by its influence, stamped as bad. Self-distrust that inspires trust, self-distrust that persists in keeping on doing active duty, is healthy and good, honoring to God, and every way hopeful for man. R.T.

"My hope.

The prayer here may have its highest reference to our religious hopes.

I WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE GREATEST HOPE WHICH GOOD MEN CHERISH?

1. That which relates to our everlasting state.

2. That which is based upon the revelation of God in Christ.

II HOW MAY SUCH A HOPE TURN TO SHAME? What brings disgrace upon men in relation to their hopes is that they cherish unreal objects; that they expect too much; that they fail in the attainment through want of rational calculation, indolence, self-indulgence, etc. It is not from the nature of the objects that our disappointment can come, if we are building upon the hopes of the gospel. We cannot expect tot much, or draw too largely upon our imagination, as to the good that is to come. But we may fail and there is the shame and fail from various causes.

1. We may fail in perceiving the essential things, confounding the ritual with the spiritual, the ceremonial with the substantial.

2. Through careless contentment with our spiritual state. Not being assured that devotion to Christ, activity, and self-denial are indispensable.

III SOME REASONS FOR EVERY ONE TO BE APPREHENSIVE AS TO THE FATE OF HIS HOPE.

1. Present things may be absorbing so as to endanger the issue.

2. Tendency of our nature to flattering views of ourselves.

IV WHAT MEASURES NECESSARY TO ENSURE THE SUCCESS OF OUR HOPE?

1. The maintenance of constant interest in it.

2. Fidelity towards ourselves in demanding the practical influence of piety.

3. Habitual reliance upon God for help and direction. S.

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