David here sets us a pattern for prayer. It is more than just falling to the knees and speaking out or requests. The prayer itself is contained only in verses 7 to 12, the first six verses being a preparation for prayer where David recalls God's mighty acts as a ground of confidence for seeking the Lord's blessings now. If God has been with him in six troubles, He will not desert him in seven. The last two verses are a vindication of prayer answered and an exhortation for other to pray. "I had fainted, unless … …" "Wait on the Lord … …"
Verse 1. "The Lord is my light and my salvation; WHOM SHALL I FEAR?" When Alice Driver was examined before her martyrdom she put all her accusers to shame. "Have you no more to say?," she asked them, as they looked at one another unable to quench the "light" that God had given her and unable to make her afraid. "God be honoured," she told them, "you be not able to resist the Spirit of God, in me, a poor woman. I was never brought up at the University as you have been; yet, notwithstanding, in the defence of God's truth, and in the cause of my Master, Christ - by His grace – I will set my foot against any of you. And if I had a thousand lives they should go for payment of that Truth." She was then led to her death.
Verse 3. "Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear …" Those who are willing to be combatants for God shall also be more than conquerors through God. None are so truly courageous as those who are truly religious. If a Christian live, he knows by whose grace he stands; and if he die, he knows for whose sake he falls. Where there is no confidence in God, there will be no continuance with God. When the wind of faith ceases to fill the sails, the ship of obedience ceases to plough the seas.
William Secker
Verse 4. "One thing have I desired of the Lord … that I may dwell in the house of the Lord …" In the beginnings of the Psalm, David keeps an audit of his soul's accounts, reckoning up; the large incomes and lasting treasures of God's bounty and grace. And now, where shall David design his presence, but where his light is, and his strength, and his life, and his salvation – even in communion with his God: and especially in the holy worship of his sanctuary. No wonder then, if above all things he desires and seeks after this "one thing … to dwell in the house of the Lord" all his days.
Robert Mossom
C. H. Spurgeon
Verse 8. "When thou saidst, seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, thy face, Lord, will I seek." We see here this much that God must begin with us, before we can close in with Him. God must seek us, before we can seek Him. God must first desire that we should draw near to Him, before we are able to draw near unto Him. "Thou saidst, seek my face;" and then, and not until then, "My heart said, Thy face, Lord, will I seek."
Thomas Horton.
Verse 9. "… put not thy servant away in anger …" God puts away many in anger for their supposed goodness, but not any at all for their confessed badness."
John Trapp
Verse 11. "Teach me thy way, O Lord …" Having compared himself to an exposed, deserted infant, adopted by God, he now asks to be shown how to walk. He asks the grace of being able to observe all God's holy commandments, which he never loses sight of throughout the whole of the psalms. What else could he do when it was the only path to that heavenly house of God, which he had just declared to be the only wish and desire of his heart?
R. Bellarmine
