Psalm 109:27

That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

109:21-31 The psalmist takes God's comforts to himself, but in a very humble manner. He was troubled in mind. His body was wasted, and almost worn away. But it is better to have leanness in the body, while the soul prospers and is in health, than to have leanness in the soul, while the body is feasted. He was ridiculed and reproached by his enemies. But if God bless us, we need not care who curses us; for how can they curse whom God has not cursed; nay, whom he has blessed? He pleads God's glory, and the honour of his name. Save me, not according to my merit, for I pretend to none, but according to thy-mercy. He concludes with the joy of faith, in assurance that his present conflicts would end in triumphs. Let all that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him. Jesus, unjustly put to death, and now risen again, is an Advocate and Intercessor for his people, ever ready to appear on their behalf against a corrupt world, and the great accuser.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

That they may know that this is thy hand - That this has been done by thee; that it has all occurred under thy direction, or has been ordered by thee. The reference seems to be particularly to God's interposition: "Let it be manifest to all that thou hast interposed in my behalf; that thou hast undertaken for me; that thou art my Friend." He desired an interposition from God that he might be vindicated before all his enemies.

That thou, Lord, hast done it - Let it be such an interposition that it will be manifest to all that no other one but God could have done this.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

26, 27. Let my deliverance glorify Thee (compare Ps 59:13).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Know; being convinced of the eminency, and singularity, and strangeness of the work.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

That they may know that this is thy hand,.... Which inflicted vengeance, and executed judgments on Judas and the Jews, as before imprecated: so the Targum,

"that they may know that this is thy stroke;''

or which was concerned in all the sorrows and sufferings of the Messiah, which could never have come upon him had it not been the will of God; it was his hand and council that determined it, or men could never have effected it; see Acts 4:28, or which wrought deliverance and salvation as before prayed for; see Psalm 118:21.

That thou, Lord, hast done it: one or other, or all the above things; the finger of God was to be seen in them; particularly in the sufferings of Christ, and in his exaltation; see Acts 2:23.

Geneva Study Bible

That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27. that this is thy hand] That thou hast interposed for the deliverance of Thy servant. With hast done it cp. Psalm 109:21, lit. do thou with me.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - That they may know that this is thy hand (comp. Psalm 59:13). "Deliver me," prays the psalmist, "in some signal way, so that my enemies may be forced to recognize thy hand in my deliverance, and to confess that thou, Lord, hast done it." Psalm 109:27

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The cry for help is renewed in the closing strophe, and the Psalm draws to a close very similarly to Psalm 69 and Psalm 22, with a joyful prospect of the end of the affliction. In Psalm 109:27 the hand of God stands in contrast to accident, the work of men, and his own efforts. All and each one will undeniably perceive, when God at length interposes, that it is His hand which here does that which was impossible in the eyes of men, and that it is His work which has been accomplished in this affliction and in the issue of it. He blesses him whom men curse: they arise without attaining their object, whereas His servant can rejoice in the end of his affliction. The futures in Psalm 109:29 are not now again imprecations, but an expression of believingly confident hope. In correct texts כּמעיל has Mem raphatum. The "many" are the "congregation" (vid., Psalm 22:23). In the case of the marvellous deliverance of this sufferer the congregation or church has the pledge of its own deliverance, and a bright mirror of the loving-kindness of its God. The sum of the praise and thanksgiving follows in Psalm 109:31, where כּי signifies quod, and is therefore allied to the ὅτι recitativum (cf. Psalm 22:25). The three Good Friday Psalms all sum up the comfort that springs from David's affliction for all suffering ones in just such a pithy sentence (Psalm 22:25; Psalm 69:34). Jahve comes forward at the right hand of the poor, contending for him (cf. Psalm 110:5), to save (him) from those who judge (Psalm 37:33), i.e., condemn, his soul. The contrast between this closing thought and Psalm 109:6. is unmistakeable. At the right hand of the tormentor stands Satan as an accuser, at the right hand of the tormented one stands God as his vindicator; he who delivered him over to human judges is condemned, and he who was delivered up is "taken away out of distress and from judgment" (Isaiah 53:8) by the Judge of the judges, in order that, as we now hear in the following Psalm, he may sit at the right hand of the heavenly King. Ἐδικαιώθη ἐν πνεύματι...ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ! (1 Timothy 3:16).