This Psalm is one of peculiar interest to the soul. In the Psalm 56 the soul rejoiced in the word above all. All in God was matter of praise, but above all, His word, His promise, His covenant. “In God will I praise His word” (Psa. 56:4,10).
In this Psalm the word is praised again—esteemed above all God’s name or revelation of Himself. The worshipper owns that he had cried, and the Lord had heard him. This was to the honor of His word; this was the faithfulness of His promise. But we know that it is only in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, that all the promises are thus yea and amen (2 Cor. 1:19-20), and that He Himself, in an eminent sense, is the word. So that this Psalm is as the language of a soul upon its discovery of Jesus. He learns “the Word” (John 1:1) or “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” and sees that God has magnified Himself in that revelation beyond all other, and that there He shines, full of loving-kindness and truth, or, in the language of the New Testament, of “grace and truth” (Psa. 138:2; John 1:14). God has published His name again and again in the progress of this world’s history. He has successively unfolded the glory of it. He is “God,” “the Lord God,” “God Almighty,” “Jehovah;” and now He stands revealed in fullness in the light and glory and blessedness of His New Testament name.
Upon this discovery, all manner of joy and blessing is anticipated; for the cry of the sinner has been answered and the soul has been strengthened. Kings are heard not merely fearing or falling down (see Psa. 72; 102), but singing in God’s ways. The lowly are exalted, the proud are abased, according to the ministry of Jesus (Matt. 23:12), and the preaching of His apostles (Psa. 138:6; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). Joy in trouble, victory in the face of enemies, yea, revival or resurrection, are anticipated, and the full accomplishing of all that concerns the soul which thus apprehends and trusts this precious revelation of God. For such an one is God’s own work, as the Gospel teaches—“We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus,” as is here, with true Gospel confidence and liberty, pleaded. And this is the highest and most blessed confidence—the believer making his cause God’s cause. As the prophet said, “the battle is not yours but God’s” (2 Chron. 20:15), when he would, through the Holy Ghost, encourage the host of Israel and king Jehoshaphat. The saint’s blessing is thus God’s cause: and the confidence is, that it shall never be forsaken.