Psalms 27:6

Psa 27:6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.

Ver. 6. And now shall mine head be lifted up] See Psa 3:4, and take notice how clear David was upon his prayer, of the possession of the promise, that he should both get the better of his enemies, and enjoy the public ordinances.

Sacrifices of joy] Heb. of loud shouting, hoc est sacrificia cum canticis, saith R. Solomon. Sacrifices with triumph, alarm, or jubilation to the Lord; not with profane triumphings, as the manner of the world is, as if by mine own strength or prudence I had gotten the victory. So at the battle of Agincourt, when our Henry V had beaten the French, the honour of the day was, by the king’s command, ascribed only to God. He would not suffer his broken crown or bruised armour to be borne before him in show; or any ballads to be set forth or sung in his honour, &c. (Speed. Daniel).

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.

6. (Psa 27:6) And now shall my head be high above my enemies around me, and I will sacrifice in his tabernacle sacrifices of joyful noise; I will sing and make music to Jehovah. And now may either be a formula of logical resumption, as in Psa 2:10; Psa 39:8 (7), or be taken in its strict sense, as denoting that he not only hopes for future safety, but is ready in the mean time, even now, to thank him publicly for his protection as already realised. The first clause merely amplifies the last of the preceding verse. The next adds the promise of a thank-offering at the tabernacle, which implies an assured hope of deliverance and prosperity. By a joyful noise some understand the blowing of trumpets which accompanied certain offerings (Num 10:10; Num 29:1); but as this is never mentioned in connection with private sacrifices, it seems more advisable to rest in the general sense of the expression.

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

27:6 hold my head high: A sign of victory. • The granting of the request of 27:4 prompts sacrifices with shouts of joy.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

David assured himself by the Spirit of prophecy that he should overcome his enemies, and serve God in his Tabernacle.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

head be lifted up--I shall be placed beyond the reach of my enemies. Hence he avows his purpose of rendering joyful thank offerings.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. Now shall mine head be lifted up] We shall most assuredly be redeemed from this captivity, and restored to our own land, and to the worship of our God in his own temple. There shall we offer sacrifices of joy; we will sing praises unto the Lord, and acknowledge that it is by his might and mercy alone that we have been delivered.

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

6. And I will offer sacrifices of triumph “Sacrificia jubili.” — Lat. “Sacrifice de triomphe.” — Fr. Ainsworth reads, “Sacrifices of shouting, or of triumph, of joyful sounding and alarm.” “This,” says he, “hath respect to the law which appointed over the sacrifices trumpets to be sounded, Numbers 10:10, whose chiefest, most loud, joyful, and triumphant sound was called trughnah, [or תרועה, truah, the word here used,] ‘triumph,’ ‘alarm,’ or ‘jubilation,’ Numbers 10:5-7.”

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.

(6) Sacrifices of joy.—Literally, of shouting; so LXX. and Vulg., hostiam vociferationis. The custom of blowing trumpets (Num_10:10; comp. Sir_1:16-18) at the time of the burnt offering illustrates this expression even if there is no direct allusion to it.

I will sing, yea.—Better, I will sing and play.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. And now &c.] In the immediate future he anticipates not protection only but triumphant victory. Cp. Psa_3:3; Psa_110:7.

in his tabernacle] Lit. in his tent, as in the preceding verse. There it may simply mean dwelling, in a general figurative sense; but here in connexion with the offering of sacrifice, it would seem that the tent which David pitched for the Ark on Mount Zion (2Sa_6:17) must be meant.

sacrifices of joy] A bold expression for sacrifices of thanksgiving. Joy may mean the jubilant shouting with which religious festivities were celebrated (2Sa_6:15; Psa_33:3; Psa_47:5); or trumpet-sound, such as accompanied certain sacrifices (Num_10:10); here probably the former.

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.

And now shall mine head be lifted up,.... That is, when brought into the house of the Lord, hid in the secret of his tabernacle, and set upon the rock Christ; by this phrase he means, either that he should be then restored to his former happy and comfortable condition, as it is used in Gen 40:13; or that he should overcome all his enemies, and triumph over them, being exalted, as he adds,

above mine enemies round about me; so that not only they should not be able to come at him, but should be subdued under him;

therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy: attended with shouting and sounding of trumpets: in allusion to the blowing of trumpets at the time of sacrifice, Num 10:10; Sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, with a joyful heart, for mercies received, offered up publicly in the house of the Lord, are here intended;

I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord; for whom praise waits in Zion, to whom it is due; he being the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, and the author and giver of all blessings, temporal and spiritual.

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

And now shall mine head - Now shall I be exalted. So we say that in affliction a person bows down his head; in prosperity he lifts it up. This verse expresses the confident expectation that he would be enabled to triumph over all his foes, and a firm purpose on his part, as the result of this, to offer sacrifices of praise to his great Deliverer.

Above mine enemies round about me - All my enemies, though they seem even to encompass me on every side.

Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle - In His tent, His dwelling-place: referring here, undoubtedly, to “the tabernacle” as a place where God was worshipped.

Sacrifices of joy - Margin, as in the Hebrew, of “shouting.” That is, he would offer sacrifices accompanied with loud sounds of praise and thanksgiving. There is nothing wrong in shouting for joy when a person is delivered from imminent danger, nothing wrong in doing so when he feels that he is rescued from the peril of eternal ruin.

I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord - This language is that which comes from a full heart. He is not contented with saying merely that he would “sing.” He repeats the idea; he dwells upon it. With a heart overflowing with gratitude he would go and give utterance to his joy. He would repeat, and dwell upon, the language of thanksgiving.

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

Mine head shall be lifted up above mine enemies; he will advance me above them, and give me a complete victory over them.

Sacrifices of joy, or of shouting or resounding, i.e. of thanksgiving; which were accompanied with the sound of trumpets and other instruments, Num 10:10; 1Ch 16:41,42; Psa 33:3.

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

Ver. 6. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me. He is quite sure of it. Godly men of old prayed in faith, nothing wavering, and spoke of their answer to their prayers as a certainty. David was by faith so sure of a glorious victory over all those who beset him, that he arranged in his own heart what he would do when his foes lay all prostrate before him; that arrangement was such as gratitude suggested. Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. That place for which he longed in his conflict, should see his thankful joy in his triumphant return. He does not speak of jubilations to be offered in his palace, and feastings in his banqueting halls, but holy mirth he selects as most fitting for so divine a deliverance. I will sing. This is the most natural mode of expressing thankfulness. Yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. The vow is confirmed by repetition, and explained by addition, which addition vows all the praise unto Jehovah. Let who will be silent, the believer when his prayer is heard, must and will make his praise to be heard also; and let who will sing unto the vanities of the world, the believer reserves his music for the Lord alone.

Ver. 6. Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me. A man cannot drown so long as his head is above water. Now, it is the proper office of hope to do this for the Christian in times of any danger. Lu 21:28. "When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads: for your redemption draweth nigh." A strange time, one would think, for Christ then to bid his disciples lift up their heads in, when they see other men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth Lu 21:26; yet now is the time of the rising of their sun, when others' is setting, and the blackness of darkness is overtaking others; because now the Christian's feast is coming, for which hope hath saved its stomach so long. "Your redemption draweth nigh." Two things make the head hang downfear and shame; hope eases the Christian's heart of both these, and so forbids him to give any sign of a desponding mind by a dejected countenance. William Gurnall.

Ver. 6. Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. "Surely, "some may say, "he could have called on God beyond the precincts of the temple. Wherever he wandered as an exile, he carried with him the precious promise of God, so that he needed not to put so great a value upon the sight of the external edifice. He appears, by some gross imagination or other, to suppose that God could be enclosed by wood and stones." But if we examine the words more carefully, it will be easy to see, that his object was altogether different from a mere sight of the noble building and its ornaments, however costly. He speaks, indeed, of the temple, but he places that beauty not so much in the goodliness that was to be seen by the eye, as in its being the celestial pattern which was shown to Moses, as it is written in Ex 25:40: "And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount." As the fashion of the temple was not framed according to the wisdom of man, but was an image of spiritual things, the prophet directed his eyes and all his affections to this object. Their madness is, therefore, truly detestable who wrest this place in favour of pictures and images, which, instead of deserving to be numbered among temple ornaments, are rather like the dung and filth, defiling all the purity of holy things. John Calvin.

Ver. 6. The saint's present triumph over his spiritual foes, his practical gratitude, and his vocal praises.

Psalms 27:7*

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

6. Now shall mine head be lifted up—His faith sees the coming exaltation and restoration to his throne.

In his tabernacle—His acknowledgments for deliverance should not be private merely, but in the most public manner.

Sacrifices of joy—Sacrifices of jubilation, or shouting, are such as were witnessed on the great occasions of their annual feasts, with full choirs of singers and bands of instruments.

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

And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me. A further and final triumph is confidently anticipated. God will complete his work. He will repulse the "host" by which David is about to be attacked (ver. 3), give him victory over it, bring him back from exile, and grant him once more free access to the sanctuary. Therefore, says the psalmist, will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; or, "sacrifices of joyful sound," accompanied with singing and instrumental music. (comp. Psa_89:15) I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. (comp. Eph_5:19)

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

With ועתּה the poet predicts inferentially (cf. Psa 2:10) the fulfilment of what he fervently desires, the guarantee of which lies in his very longing itself. זבחי תּרוּעה do not mean sacrifices in connection with which the trumpets are blown by the priests; for this was only the case in connection with the sacrifices of the whole congregation (Num 10:10), not with those of individuals. תּרוּעה is a synonym of תּודה, Psa 26:7; and זבחי תּרוּעה is a stronger form of expression for זבחי תודה (Psa 107:22), i.e., (cf. זבחי צדק, Psa 4:6; 51:21) sacrifices of jubilant thanksgiving: he will offer sacrifices in which his gratitude plays a prominent part, and will sing songs of thanksgiving, accompanied by the playing of stringed instruments, to his Deliverer, who has again and so gloriously verified His promises.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

sacrifices with joyous song Sacrifices over which a song is recited.

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.