This Psalm expresses the joy and confidence that spring from the simple sense of God’s forgiving love; for that unaided and alone has power to turn the convicted sinner into an accepted worshipper, and an expectant of glory (Rom. 5:I-2). It is the gospel that is here learned and enjoyed by the soul. The poor soul had been crying out from its own depths, but apprehending God’s forgiving love, it was at once made to sing of His heights and to wait for Himself.
It is a beautiful abridgment of Romans 7 and Romans 8—perfect, though so short. For here, as there, the soul is first heard as in the sorrows of conviction; then, on the firm ground of confidence; and then, in the bright elevations of hope, the longings and expectings of an heir of God. And a gospel this is, suited to be the utterance of returning captives, of any soul consciously on its way to God, and so, too, of the awakened and exercised Israel of the latter day. And as in the three preceding Psalms we listened to the returning captives, both remembering Babylon now behind them, and anticipating Jerusalem now before them, here in this Psalm they have remembrances and anticipations also, but of a deeper character, personal and spiritual.
The consciously accepted sinner may boldly and happily tell his fellow-sinners to look with him to Jesus—as here the soul calls on Israel to hope in the Lord because of His mercy and salvation.