15
The voice of rejoicing and salvation
Is in the tents of the righteous;
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
16
The right hand of the Lord is exalted;
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
My Thoughts
This passage highlights the joy and salvation found in the homes of the righteous, celebrating the might of the Lord’s right hand. The commentaries below emphasize that the righteous experience profound happiness through their faith and should vocalize their gratitude, thus making their homes places of praise. The text reiterates God’s strength and valor, essential for defending His people, and proclaims that this divine enablement results in victory over adversaries. The righteous dwellings symbolize the joy from salvation, reinforcing the idea that a grateful heart should always express its joy and acknowledgment of God’s power……..Bill
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Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous.” They sympathized in the delight of their leader and they abode in their tents in peace, rejoicing that one had been raised up who, in the name of the Lord, would protect them from their adversaries. The families of believers are happy, and they should take pains to give their happiness a voice by their family devotion. The dwelling-place of saved men should be the temple of praise; it is but righteous that the righteous should praise the righteous God, who is their righteousness. The struggling hero knew that the voice of woe and lamentation was heard in the tents of his adversaries, for they had suffered severe defeat at his hands; but he was delighted by the remembrance that the nation for whom he had struggled would rejoice from one end of the land to the other at the deliverance which God had wrought by his means. That hero of heroes, the conquering Savior, gives to all the families of his people abundant reasons for incessant song now that he has led captivity captive and ascended up on high. Let none of us be silent in our households: if we have salvation let us have joy, and if we have joy let us give it a tongue wherewith it may magnify the Lord. If we hearken carefully to the music which comes from Israel’s tents, we shall catch a stanza to this effect,
“the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly:” Jehovah has manifested his strength, given victory to his chosen champion, and overthrown all the armies of the foe. “The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name.” When he comes to blows, woe to his mightiest opponent.
“The right hand of the LORD is exalted,” lifted up to smite the enemy, or extolled and magnified in the eyes of his people. It is the Lord’s right hand, the hand of his skill, the hand of his greatest power, the hand which is accustomed to defend his saints. When that is lifted up, it lifts up all who trust in him, and it casts down all who resist him.
“The right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly.” The psalmist speaks in triplets, for he is praising the triune God; his heart is warm and he loves to dwell upon the note; he is not content with the praise he has rendered, he endeavors to utter it each time more fervently and more jubilantly than before. He had dwelt upon the sentence, “they compassed me about,” for his peril from encircling armies was fully realized; and now he dwells upon the valor of Jehovah’s right hand, for he has as vivid a sense of the presence and majesty of the Lord. How seldom is this the case: the Lord’s mercy is forgotten, and only the trial is remembered.
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Enduring Word
The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous: Having received God’s wonderful rescue, God’s people give voice to their joy. It would be wrong for those who have received so much to be silent about it. (Guzik)
i. “‘The tents of the righteous’ may possibly allude to the ‘tabernacles’ constructed for the feast, at which the song was probably sung.” (Maclaren)
ii. “Apart from its use during the Passover Seder, Psalm 118 was also sung during the Feast of Tabernacles, according to the Talmud (b. Sukkoth 45a-b).” (VanGemeren)
The right hand of the LORD does valiantly: Repeatedly (for emphasis), the singer praises the right hand of God, recognizing it as the hand of skill and strength. God will not use lesser measures to rescue His people. (Guzik)
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Albert Barnes
The voice of rejoicing and salvation – Rejoicing for salvation; song, praise, thanksgiving. Luther renders this beautifully: “They sing with joy for victory in the houses of the righteous.”
Is in the tabernacles of the righteous – The tents of the righteous; their dwellings. That is,
(a) It is a fact that the voice of joy and rejoicing is there;
(b) It is appropriate that it should be so, or that a righteous family should be happy – the dwelling-place of praise;
(c) God will add to the happiness of the righteous, or will make their habitation happy, peaceful, blessed.
There is nothing that diffuses so much happiness through a family as religion; there is no joy like that when a member of a family is converted; there is no place on earth more happy than that where a family bows before God with the feeling that all are children of God and heirs of salvation.
The right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly – Hebrew “Doeth strength.” That is, God does great things, laying the foundation for joy and praise.
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John Gill
The voice of rejoicing and salvation [is] in the tabernacles of the righteous,…. In all the dwellings of good men, throughout the land of Israel, was heard nothing but the voice of joy, on account of David’s accession to the throne; the deliverance of him from a persecuting Saul, and of them from his real administration; and the victories David obtained over all his enemies: for, “when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice,” Proverbs 29:2. And still much more occasion is there of joy, in the dwelling places of the saints, though but cottages, and in the churches of God, the tabernacles of the most High, on account of the spiritual and eternal salvation Christ is the author of which joy is inwardly felt in the heart, and outwardly expressed by one saint to another; and in vocal prayer to God, and in singing his praises; which may be done in the houses of the saints, as well as in the house of God. What this voice, or the righteous with their voice, expressed in each of their dwelling houses, is as follows: for the word “saying” may be supplied, and the words connected thus:
[saying], the right hand of the Lord doth valiantly; or “acts powerfully”; in helping and assisting David, in protecting and defending him, in raising him to the throne, and in giving him rest from all his enemies; and so in supporting the Messiah, his antitype, as man and Mediator, in his work and under his sufferings; in raising him from the dead, and exalting: him at his right hand; and which was done with his right hand, Acts 2:33. Jarchi refers this joy here expressed to future times, the times of the Messiah: and in an ancient writing of the Jews the right hand of the Lord, three times mentioned in this verse and Psalm 118:16, is interpreted of the Messiah, the sort of David.
The right hand of the Lord is exalted,…. Lifted up, very eminent and conspicuous, easily to be observed in the instances before given, and become great and glorious in power; see Exodus 15:6. The power of God is superior to all enemies; and is beyond conception and expression; and is able to do for his people above all they are able to ask or think;
the right hand of the Lord doth valiantly: or “acts powerfully.” This is repeated for the confirmation of it, and to show how much the righteous were affected with it, and how desirous they were of glorifying of it; “the right hand of the Lord,” being three times mentioned, may have respect to the three divine Persons in the Godhead, whose right hand or power is the same: and as the right hand of the Father has done powerfully in the instances given, so the right hand of the Son has worked mightily in vanquishing all enemies, sin, Satan, death, and the world; in obtaining the salvation of his people, and in raising himself from the dead: and so the right hand of the Holy Spirit has wrought powerfully on Christ, on whom he rested as the Spirit of might, and through whom Christ offered himself to God, and by whom he was raised from the dead; and also in the conversion of sinners, and in helping, assisting, strengthening, and protecting the saints.
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Matthew Henry
He triumphs in an assurance of the continuance of his comfort, his victory, and his life.
First, Of his comfort (v. 15): The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous, and in mine particularly, in my family. The dwellings of the righteous in this world are but tabernacles, mean and movable; here we have no city, no continuing city. But these tabernacles are more comfortable to them than the palaces of the wicked are to them; for in the house where religion rules,
1. There is salvation; safety from evil, earnests of eternal salvation, which has come to this house, Lu. 19:9.
2. Where there is salvation, there is cause for rejoicing, for continual joy in God. Holy joy is called the joy of salvation, for in that there is abundant matter for joy.
3. Where there is rejoicing, there ought to be the voice of rejoicing, that is, praise and thanksgiving. Let God be served with joyfulness and gladness of heart, and let the voice of that rejoicing be heard daily in our families, to the glory of God and encouragement of others.
Secondly, Of his victory: The right hand of the Lord does valiantly (v. 15) and is exalted; for (as some read it) it has exalted me. The right hand of God’s power is engaged for his people, and it acts vigorously for them and therefore victoriously. For what difficulty can stand before the divine valor? We are weak and act but cowardly for ourselves; but God is mighty, and acts valiantly for us, with jealousy and resolution, Isa. 63:5, 6. There is spirit, as well as strength, in all God’s operations for his people. And, when God’s right hand does valiantly for our salvation, it ought to be exalted in our praises.
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The Pulpit Commentaries
The valiant right hand of the Lord.
The history of Israel was full of illustrations and evidences of this. The occasion of this psalm was one of them. But apply the thrice-repeated declaration of the text—
I. TO OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. For:
1. See how he overcomes Satan. He was tempted in all points like as we are, and again and again, and yet Satan found nothing in him.
2. Sin. He was holy, harmless, and undefiled; he did no sin.
3. The Law‘s condemnation. “He was just, and yet the Justifier of him who,” etc. “He magnified the Law, and made it honorable.”
4. Death. By his resurrection and ascension.
5. (Victory over*)All the works of the devil. (Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:24.)
II. TO THE TRIUMPHS OF THE GOSPEL. Read the history of the Church, trace its growth and increase, see its onward march still.
III. TO THE INDIVIDUAL BELIEVING SOUL. What hindrances we put, and still put, in our Lord’s way! What pride, unbelief, love of sin, and all the rest! And yet one after another he beats them all down.—S.C.
*added by Bill
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Cross-References
Exodus 15:6 (KJV 1900)
6 Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power:
Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.
Psalm 60:12 (KJV 1900)
12 Through God we shall do valiantly:
For he it is that shall tread down our enemies.
Psalm 4:3 (KJV 1900)
3 But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself:
The Lord will hear when I call unto him.
Wisdom of Solomon 5:15–16 (AV 1873)
15 But the righteous live for evermore; their reward also is with the Lord, and the care of them is with the most High. 16 Therefore shall they receive a glorious kingdom, and a beautiful crown from the Lord’s hand: for with his right hand shall he cover them, and with his arm shall he protect them.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 118: 15-16
15 The (g) voice of joy and deliverance shalbe in the tabernacle of the righteous, saying, The right hand of the Lord hathe done valiantly.
16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted: (h) the right hand of the Lord hathe done valiantly.
(g) He promises both to render graces himself, and to cause others to do the same, because that in his person the Church was restored. (h) So that all, that are both far and near may see his mighty power.
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Closing Thoughts
For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me,” says the Lord.’ ” Jeremiah 39:18 NKJV
“Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.” Psalm 91:14-16 NKJV
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,
7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7
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