1
O God, my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
2
Awake, lute and harp!
I will awaken the dawn.
My Thoughts:
For me the best part of each day is when I wake up, get a cup of coffee, and head to my room to spend time with the Lord in His word. It’s then that I don’t have the cares of the world filling my mind. I have started with prayer asking the Lord to open my eyes and my ears so that I can see and hear what He has for me each morning. I ask for understanding, knowledge, and discernment, not only for my time in His word but throughout the day.
After reading this passage (Psalm 108:1-2 ) I’m convinced that I need to add praising God with my mouth in my time with Him. Normally I do it when I’m entering into my prayer time, but the truth is, I don’t have anything that I can give God other than my praises, He has everything, what does He need from me? Even though I’m sure it’s not the most pleasant sound, I will praise him in song with my mouth.
This morning I was reading Ezra (chapter 8) when he was leaving for Jerusalem, and was ashamed to ask Artaxerxes for help against the enemy because he had told him that “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him”. What a reminder, for I am seeking God and I thank Him for His hand being on me for good. Praise the Lord…….Bill
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“O God, my heart is fixed. Though I have many wars to disturb me, and many cares to toss me to and fro, yet I am settled in one mind and cannot be driven from it. My heart has taken hold and abides in one resolve. Thy grace has overcome the fickleness of nature, and I am now in a resolute and determined frame of mind.
“I will sing and give praise.” Both with voice and music will I extol thee—”I will sing and play,” as some read it. Even though I have to shout in the battle I will also sing in my soul, and if my fingers must needs be engaged with the bow, yet shall they also touch the ten-stringed instrument and show forth thy praise.
“Even with my glory“—with my intellect, my tongue, my poetic faculty, my musical skill, or whatever else causes me to be renowned, and confers honor upon me. It is my glory to be able to speak and not to be a dumb animal, therefore my voice shall show forth thy praise; it is my glory to know God and not to be a heathen, and therefore my instructed intellect shall adore thee; it is my glory to be a saint and no more a rebel, therefore the grace I have received shall bless thee; it is my glory to be immortal and not a mere brute which perisheth, therefore my inmost life shall celebrate thy majesty.
If well I know the tuneful art
To captivate a human heart,
The glory, Lord, be thine.
A servant of thy blessed will,
I here devote my utmost skill
To sound the praise divine.
Thine own musician, Lord, inspire,
And let my consecrated lyre
Repeat the Psalmist’s part.
His Son and Thine reveal in me,
And fill with sacred melody
The fibers of my heart. ~Charles Wesley
“I myself will awake early.” I will call up the dawn. The best and brightest hours of the day shall find me heartily aroused to bless my God……In all worship this should be the personal resolve of each worshipper: “I myself will awake.“
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Enduring Word
My heart is steadfast: As in Psalm 57:7, David sang of the strength of his heart in God. His steadfast confidence in God gave him a fixed point from which he could and would sing and give praise.(Guzik)
Even with my glory: David praised God with the best of his being. Whatever glory belonged to David, he directed it toward God in praise. (Guzik)
Awake, lute and harp: The earnest praise offered to God was musical. David was a skilled musician (1 Samuel 16:18), and it could be said that this skill was part of his glory – so he offered it to God in praise. (Guzik)
i. Lute and harp: “The Psaltery [lute] was a stringed instrument, usually with twelve strings, and played with the fingers. The harp or lyre was a stringed instrument, usually consisting of ten strings. Josephus says that it was struck or played with a key. It appears, however, that it was sometimes played with the fingers.” (Barnes, cited in Spurgeon)
I will awaken the dawn: David was determined to give God the best in praise, so he gave unto God the choice part of the day. David let the sound of his praise greet the dawn as it rose in the early morning hours. (Guzik)
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Barnes
Even with my glory – This is not in Psalms 57:1-11. It is literally here, “truly my glory.” In Psalms 57:8, however, the expression, “Awake up, my glory,” occurs, and this seems to correspond with that language. It means here that it was his glory – his honor – thus to be employed in giving praise to God. It was worthy of all that there was elevated in his nature; of all that constituted his glory; of his highest powers. At no time is man employed in a more noble and lofty work than praise.
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Matthew Henry
We may here learn how to praise God from the example of one who was a master of the art.
1. We must praise God with fixedness of heart. Our heart must be employed in the duty (else we make nothing of it) and engaged to the duty (v. 1): O God! my heart is fixed, and then I will sing and give praise. Wandering straggling thoughts must be gathered in, and kept close to the business; for they must be told that here is work enough for them all.
2. We must praise God with freeness of expression: I will praise him with my glory, that is, with my tongue. Our tongue is our glory, and never more so than when it is employed in praising God. When the heart is indicting this good matter our tongue must be as the pen of a ready writer, Ps. 45:1. David’s skill in music was his glory, it made him famous, and this should be consecrated to the praise of God; and therefore it follows, Awake my psaltery and harp. Whatever gift we excel in we must praise God with.
3. We must praise God with fervency of affection, and must stir up ourselves to do it, that it may be done in a lively manner and not carelessly (v. 2): Awake, psaltery and harp; let it not be done with a dull and sleepy tune, but let the airs be all lively. I myself will awake early to do it, with all that is within me, and all little enough. Warm devotions honor God.
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A.R. Fausset
O God, my heart is fixed. The second “my heart is fixed,” in Ps. 57, is here omitted. What was the language of believing hope when he was a fugitive from Saul in the cave of Adullam, is here that of praise for past deliverance. Edom is no longer, as in Ps. 60, restricted to literal Edom, but typifies the foes of God’s people. I will sing … even with my glory—even with my soul, not only with my mouth (Ps. 30:12; 103:1). In Ps. 57:8 it is, “Awake up my glory.” The Hebrew has no “with;” therefore it may be, ‘even my glory (will sing).’ My glory is not the object of praise—viz., Jehovah (Ps. 106:20) (Maurer), but, as the English version, the instrument of praise, as the parallelism to “my heart” proves.
A. R. Fausset, A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments: Job–Isaiah, vol. III (London; Glasgow: William Collins, Sons, & Company, Limited, n.d.), 341.
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Kevin R. Warstler
108:2 The Hebrew word shachar (dawn) refers to the first light of morning. The psalmist began the day with praise (Jb 38:12).
Kevin R. Warstler, “Psalms,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 915.
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KJV W/Strongs Bible
108:1 A Song 7892 [or] Psalm 4210 of David 1732. O God 430, my heart 3820 is fixed 3559 8737; I will sing 7891 8799 and give praise 2167 8762, even with my glory 3519.
108:2 Awake 5782 8798, psaltery 5035 and harp 3658: I [myself] will awake 5782 8686 early 7837.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 108:1-2
1 O God, mine heart is a prepared, so is my ^tongue: I wil sing and give praise.
2 Awake viole & harpe: I wil awake early.
a This earnest affection declares that he is free from hypocrisy, and that sluggishness stays him not. ^Or, my glory, because it chiefly sets forth the glory of God.
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The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.
2 Timothy 4:22 NKJV
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