Psalms 86:4

Psa 86:4 Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

Ver. 4. Rejoice the soul of thy servant] True and solid joy entereth the soul by the door of fervent prayer. Pray that your joy may be full.

I lift up my soul] In prayer, Psa 25:1, and confident expectation of an unmiscarrying return thereof, as Deu 24:15.

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_86:4

Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

Soul elevation

The souls true elevation is a progress--

I. Godward. Unto Thee. It does not really rise as it moves towards worldly wealth, position, influence, or knowledge; but only as it moves towards God.

II. By self-effort. Do I lift up my soul. It must rise, not as a stone rises into the air, by the application of a foreign force, and as soon as the force is expended comes down again; but as the lark rises, by its own energy, and the use of its own pinions. Self-lifting is the true lifting; and it requires aa effort, resolute, energetic, and persevering. (Homilist.)

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

Psa 86:4-5. Rejoice the soul of thy servant — It is God only that can put gladness into the heart, and make the soul rejoice; and it is the privilege of his servants to have joy, as well as peace, in believing: and they may pray in faith, not only that God would preserve their souls, but that he would rejoice their souls, and then the joy of the Lord will be their strength. For unto thee do I lift up my soul — Then we may expect comfort from God, when we take care to keep up our communion with him: prayer is the nurse of spiritual joy. For thou, Lord, art good — No less bountiful than I am indigent, which is a great encouragement to me in calling upon thee; and ready to forgive — Those that have offended thee; and plenteous in mercy unto all that call upon thee — Always prepared to show abundant kindness to them in their distresses, when with sincere desire, and true faith, they call upon thee.

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

4. (Psa 86:4) Gladden the soul of thy servant, for unto thee, Lord, my soul do I raise. The first clause is not a mere periphrasis for "make me glad," or "cause me to rejoice." It means "make me heartily rejoice, because I am thy servant," thus suggesting a new ground of his petition, different in form although substantially identical with that in the preceding verse. A similar analogy exists between the second clause of that verse and the second clause of this, the form of which, however, is borrowed from Psa 25:1. Here, as there, to raise the soul to God is to regard him with affection and strong confidence. See above, on Psa 24:4. At the same time, there is an allusion to the strict sense of the Hebrew verb, as if he had said, "make my soul rejoice, since I bring it up or raise it to thee for this very purpose." The force of the future is the same as in Psa 86:4.

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

Verse 4. Rejoice the soul of thy servant] I want spiritual blessings; I want such consolations as thou dost impart to them that love thee; I present that soul to thee which I wish thee to console.

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

4. Rejoice &c.] Cp. Psa_90:15.

for unto thee &c.] From Psa_25:1. God alone is the object of his desires, his aspirations, his prayers. Cp. Psa_143:8; Lam_3:41.

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.

Rejoice the soul of thy servant,.... With the discoveries of love, of pardoning grace, and mercy, before made sad with sin or sufferings; and with the light of God's countenance, before troubled with the hidings of his face: this may be applied to Christ, in sorrowful circumstances, who was made full of joy with his Father's countenance, Mat 26:37.

for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul: in prayer, as the Targum adds; and it denotes the devotion, fervency, heartiness, and sincerity, of his prayer; the doing of it with a true heart, the lifting up of the heart with the hands unto God, Lam 3:41 or by way of offering unto the Lord, not the body only, but the soul or heart also; or as a depositum committed into his hands; so Christ lifted up his eyes, and his heart and soul, to his divine Father; and also made his soul an offering for sin, and at death commended his spirit into his hands, Joh 17:1; see Gill on Psa 25:1.

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

Rejoice the soul of thy servant - Cause me to rejoice; to wit, by thy gracious interposition, and by delivering me from danger and death.

For unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul - Compare the notes at Psa 24:4. The idea is that of arousing himself, or exerting himself, as one does who makes strenuous efforts to obtain an object. He was not languid, or indifferent; he did not put forth merely weak and fitful efforts to find God, but he bent his whole powers to that end; he arouses himself thoroughly to seek the divine help. Languid and feeble efforts in seeking after God will be attended with no success. In so great a matter - when so much depends on the divine favor - when such great interests are at stake - the whole soul should be roused to one great and strenuous effort; not that we can obtain his favor by force or power, and not that any strength of ours will prevail of itself, but

(a) because nothing less will indicate the proper intensity of desire; and

(b) because such is his appointment in regard to the manner in which we are to seek his favor.

Compare Mat 7:7-8; Luk 13:24; Luk 16:16.

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

The expression notes fervent desire joined with hope or expectation, as appears by comparing Deu 24:15; Jer 22:27.

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

Ver. 4. Rejoice the soul of thy servant. Make my heart glad, O my Maker, for I count it my honour to call myself again and again thy servant, and I reckon thy favour to be all the wages I could desire. I look for all my happiness in thee only, and therefore

unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. As the heliotrope looks to the sun for its smile, so turn I my heart to thee. Thou art as the brazen serpent to my sick nature, and I lift up my soul's eye to thee that I may live. I know that the nearer I am to thee the greater is my joy, therefore be pleased to draw me nearer while I am labouring to draw near. It is not easy to lift a soul at all; it needs a strong shoulder at the wheel when a heart sticks in the miry clay of despondency: it is less easy to lift a soul up to the Lord, for the height is great as well as the weight oppressive; but the Lord will take the will for the deed, and come in with a hand of almighty grace to raise his poor servant out of the earth and up to heaven.

Ver. 4. Rejoice the soul of thy servant, etc. As I have not found rest in anything created, I have raised up my soul on the wings of thought and desire to thee my Creator. Love bears one's soul up; and it has been truly said, that the soul is more where it loves, than where it actually is. Thought and desire are the wings of love; for he that loves is borne on to, and abides in, what he loves, by thinking constantly on, and longing for, the object of his love. Whoever truly, and from his heart, loves God, by thinking on him and longing for him lifts up his soul to God; while, on the contrary, whoever loves the earth, by thinking on and coveting the things of the earth, lets his soul down to its level. Bellarmine.

Ver. 4. Unto thee, Lord, do I lift my soul. If thou hadst corn in thy rooms below, thou wouldest take it up higher, lest it should grow rotten. Wouldest thou remove thy corn, and dost thou suffer thy heart to rot on the earth? Thou wouldest take thy corn up higher: lift up thy heart to heaven. And how can I, dost thou say? What ropes are needed? What machines? What ladders? Thy affections are the steps; thy will the way. By loving thou mountest, by neglect thou descendest. Standing on the earth thou art in heaven, if thou lovest God. For the heart is not so raised as the body is raised: the body to be lifted up changes its place: the heart to be lifted up changes its will. Augstine.

Ver. 4. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift my soul, intimates that he had brought himself to the Lord as a living sacrifice, even as the heave offering in the tabernacleto show that it belonged to God and to his altar, and, that man had no part in itwas lifted up by the hands of the priests. Benjamin Weiss.

Ver. 4. I lift up my soul. It denotes the devotion, fervency, heartiness, and sincerity of his prayer; the doing of it with a true heart, the lifting up of the heart with the hands unto God, La 3:41; or by way of offering unto the Lord, not the body only, but the soul or heart also; or as a deposition committed into is hands. John Gill.

Ver. 4. Lord. Here, and in all the verses in this psalm where ynda Adonai, occurs, many MSS read hwhy, Yehovah. The Jews, out of reverence to the incommunicable name Jehovah pronounce ynda where hwhy is in the text. It is, therefore, not improbable that hwhy is in the true reading in all these places. Note to Calvin in loc.

Ver. 4.

1. The believer's joy is from God"Rejoice", & c.

2. The believer's joy is in God"unto thee", & c. G.R.

Ver. 4.

1. The great lift.

(a) The heavy weight"my soul".

2. The weak worker"I lift".

3. The great height"unto thee".

4. The appointed machinerymeans of grace; and,

5. The expected aid"Rejoice", etc.

Psalms 86:5*

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

4. Thus far the psalmist’s prayer has been urged from personal considerations; he now ascends to a loftier view, and grounds his hope in the character of God.

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

Rejoice the soul of thy servant. The prayer rises from mere entreaties for relief and recovery from a state of suffering, into an earnest request for that which the heart of man is ever longing for and seeking after gladness and joy. The faithful are promised that they shall come ultimately to a condition of exceeding great joy; but even saints are sometimes impatient, and want their joy in this world and at once. For unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. (comp. Psa_25:1, entitled, like this, "a Psalm of David There is no more likely way of attaining to spiritual joy than to be always lifting up the soul to God.

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

I lift my soul I direct my heart.

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.