Psalm 63:4

Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 63:4. Thus will I bless thee — That is, so as I have done, and have now said. As I have begun, I will go on: the present devout affections shall not pass away like the morning cloud, but shine more and more like the morning sun. Or, for this reason, being so sensible of the sweetness of thy favour; or, certainly, as the particle כן, cheen, is sometimes used. While I live — I will persevere in this work of blessing and praising thee: it shall be an important part of the business of my whole life. Through thy grace I will retain a sense of thy former favours, and repeat my thanksgivings for them; and every day give thanks for the benefits with which I am daily loaded. I will lift up my hands — Toward thee, in heaven, in prayers and praises, to my duty, and against my enemies; in thy name — According to thy command, with confidence in thy name, or thy nature and attributes, and in the strength of thy Spirit and grace.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

63:3-6 Even in affliction we need not want matter for praise. When this is the regular frame of a believer's mind, he values the loving-kindness of God more than life. God's loving-kindness is our spiritual life, and that is better than temporal life. We must praise God with joyful lips; we must address ourselves to the duties of religion with cheerfulness, and speak forth the praises of God from a principle of holy joy. Praising lips must be joyful lips. David was in continual danger; care and fear held his eyes waking, and gave him wearisome nights; but he comforted himself with thoughts of God. The mercies of God, when called to mind in the night watches, support the soul, making darkness cheerful. How happy will be that last morning, when the believer, awaking up after the Divine likeness, shall be satisfied with all the fulness of God, and praise him with joyful lips, where there is no night, and where sorrow and sighing flee away!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thus will I bless thee while I live - In my life; or, as long as life lasts, will I praise thee. The word "thus" refers to the sentiment in the previous verse, meaning that as the result of his deep sense of the value of the loving kindness of God, he would praise him through all the remainder of his life, or would never cease to praise him. A true purpose of serving God embraces the whole of this life, and the whole of eternity. He who loves God, and who has any proper sense of his mercy, does not anticipate a time when he will cease to praise and bless him, or when he will have any desire or wish not to be engaged in his service.

I will lift up my hands in thy name - In solemn prayer and praise. See the notes at Psalm 28:2.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. Thus—literally, "Truly."

will I bless—praise Thee (Ps 34:1).

lift up my hands—in worship (compare Ps 28:2).

in thy name—in praise of Thy perfections.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thus, i.e. so as I have done and now do. Or, upon that occasion, when I shall be restored. Or, for this reason, being so sensible of the sweetness of thy favour. Or, certainly; for this particle is sometimes used as a note of asseveration, as it is Psalm 127:2 Isaiah 16:6.

I will lift up my hands towards thee in heaven, in prayers and praises.

In thy name; according to thy command. Or, with confidence in thy name.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thus will I bless thee while I live,.... With his whole heart and soul, as he had sought after him, and as under a sense of his lovingkindness; and as he now praised him with his lips, so he determined to do as long as he had life and being; by proclaiming his blessedness, by ascribing blessing and honour to him, and by giving him the glory of all mercies temporal and spiritual;

I will lift up my hands in thy name; not against his enemies, against those that fought against him, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it, but unto God in heaven; and that not as a gesture used in swearing, but either in blessing, as Aben Ezra observes; so the high priest lifted up his hands when he blessed the people; or in prayer, or in both, so Jarchi's note is, to pray and to praise; See Gill on Psalm 28:2. The Targum is,

"in the name of thy Word I will spread out my hands in prayer for the world to come;''

that is, in the name of the Messiah, the essential Word, in whose name prayer is to be made, and whereby it becomes prevalent and successful; see John 14:13. This is a prayer gesture; See Gill on Psalm 28:2.

Geneva Study Bible

Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. Thus] So, as in Psalm 63:2 : cp. Psalm 61:8 : so fervently; in such a spirit of loving gratitude.

while I live] Cp. Psalm 104:33; Psalm 146:2.

I will lift up my hands] The attitude of prayer (Psalm 28:2; Psalm 141:2; 1 Timothy 2:8), the outward symbol of an uplifted heart (Psalm 25:1).

in thy name] Relying upon all that Thou hast revealed Thyself to be. Cp. Psalm 44:5; John 14:13, &c.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy Name (comp. Psalm 104:33; Psalm 146:2). The purpose of man's creation, the end of his being, his main employment throughout eternity, is the praise of God. Psalm 63:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

This strophe again takes up the כּן (Psalm 63:3): thus ardently longing, for all time to come also, is he set towards God, with such fervent longing after God will he bless Him in his life, i.e., entirely filling up his life therewith (בּחיּי as in Psalm 104:33; Psalm 146:2; cf. Baruch 4:20, ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις μου), and in His name, i.e., invoking it and appealing to it, will he lift up his hands in prayer. The being occupied with God makes him, even though as now in the desert he is obliged to suffer bodily hunger, satisfied and cheerful like the fattest and most marrowy food: velut adipe et pinguedine satiatur anima mea. From Leviticus 3:17; Leviticus 7:25, Grussetius and Frisch infer that spiritualies epulae are meant. And certainly the poet cannot have had the sacrificial feasts (Hupfeld) in his mind; for the חלב of the shelamim is put upon the altar, and is removed from the part to be eaten. Moreover, however, even the Tra does not bind itself in its expression to the letter of that prohibition of the fat of animals, vid., Deuteronomy 32:14, cf. Jeremiah 31:14. So here also the expression "with marrow and fat" is the designation of a feast prepared from well-fed, noble beasts. He feels himself satisfied in his inmost nature just as after a feast of the most nourishing and dainty meats, and with lips of jubilant songs (accus. instrum. according to Ges. 138, rem. 3), i.e., with lips jubilant and attuned to song, shall his mouth sing praise. What now follows in Psalm 63:7 we no longer, as formerly, take as a protasis subsequently introduced (like Isaiah 5:4.): "when I remembered...meditated upon Thee," but so that Psalm 63:7 is the protasis and Psalm 63:7 the apodosis, cf. Psalm 21:12; Job 9:16 (Hitzig): When I remember Thee (meminerim, Ew. 355, b) upon my bed (stratis meis, as in Psalm 132:3; Genesis 49:4, cf. 1 Chronicles 5:1) - says he now as the twilight watch is passing gradually into the morning - I meditate upon Thee in the night-watches (Symmachus, καθ ̓ ἑκάστην φυλακήν), or during, throughout the night-watches (like בּחיּי in Psalm 63:5); i.e., it is no passing remembrance, but it so holds me that I pass a great part of the night absorbed in meditation on Thee. He has no lack of matter for his meditation; for God has become a help (auxilio, vid., on Psalm 3:3) to him: He has rescued him in this wilderness, and, well concealed under the shadow of His wings (vid., on Psalm 17:8; Psalm 36:8; Psalm 57:2), which affords him a cool retreat in the heat of conflict and protection against his persecutors, he is able to exult (ארנּן, the potential). Between himself and God there subsists a reciprocal relationship of active love. According to the schema of the crosswise position of words (Chiasmus), אחריך and בּי intentionally jostle close against one another: he depends upon God, following close behind Him, i.e., following Him everywhere and not leaving Him when He wishes to avoid him; and on the other side God's right hand holds him fast, not letting him go, not abandoning him to his foes.