The spirit of this Psalm is much like that of the preceding, and is another utterance, without doubt, of the same sufferers, at the same season.
There are fuller and brighter anticipations of deliverance here; and there is, as afterward in Psalm 144, expectation of that deliverance by some mission or ministry “from above,” or from heaven. The scene in Revelation 19 is the answer of this expectation: there the heavens open to let down the deliverer here desired and expected.
How this collection of Psalms, contemplating strongly, as has been said, the willful king or apostate of the last days, presents the sorrows of God’s people in this world! Indeed all Scripture does—“we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” How could the Christ or the saints of God count but on resistance and martyrdom in a world that ever abides in full enmity against Him. “No man should be moved by these afflictions, for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.”—“As it were, appointed unto death.” But it is rest that remaineth. And so this Psalm blessedly anticipates God’s exaltation, and His people’s praise and songs, when the enemy is gone forever—when the divine “mercy and truth” and the mission “from above” have accomplished the deliverance. The saint prepares his instrument for a thankful song to the Lord—as David prepared music for the days of Solomon (1 Chron. 25).