This is a beauteous and touching little Psalm. It is as an utterance of Jesus in the sense of being rejected by Israel, though He were consciously and rightfully their king. And David, hunted by Saul in the caves and deserts after he had been anointed by Samuel, was the type of Christ in such condition. (See 1 Sam.)
This rejection by Israel gives Jesus to feel Himself a stranger here. He is, as it were, at “the end of the earth;” and there He prays, and there He desires the Rock, that is, Resurrection (see Psa. 40:22He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. (Psalm 40:2)), or the Kingdom. But He trusts, with full faith, in God’s present presence and shelter; and in that, as His tabernacle, He is purposed to abide “forever,” or through the age of His rejection. But after a pause, He anticipates more than a shelter in a time of rejection and sorrow. He assures Himself of God’s favor to Him as King; and that, as such, He will soon abide “forever,” or through the age of a kingdom, when He will pay the vows of His present distressful hours, and His cries and prayers shall be changed for joy and praise.