Psalms 138

Psalm 138 is a psalm of David, and it is a thanksgiving - not the cry of someone still in the pit, but the song of someone hauled out of it, looking back. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul (v. 3). The rescue is past; the praise is present. And what is striking is where David chooses to sing it: not in a quiet corner, but before the gods - out in the open, surrounded by every rival power and competing claim - and with nothing held back: I will praise thee with my whole heart (v. 1). This is gratitude that refuses to whisper.³

The psalm has a shape worth tracing. It begins with one man's worship and then widens, almost without warning, to take in the whole earth: All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth (v. 4). David's private thanksgiving becomes a vision of universal praise - the day when even the mighty of the world bow to the words of God's mouth. The ground of that confidence is named in verse 2: God has magnified thy word above all thy name. God has staked His own honour on His word; what He has said, He will do. So David sings not because his circumstances are easy but because God's word is sure.

At the heart of the psalm sits its great paradox, and it is the engine of everything around it: Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off (v. 6). The God who is high - high beyond reach, high above every rival “god” David sings before - is precisely the God who bends low. He does not look down on the small; He looks toward them. It is the proud, the self-sufficient, the ones who need nothing, whom He keeps at arm's length. From that paradox the rest follows: a God who stoops to the lowly is a God who will revive a man in the midst of trouble (v. 7), and who will perfect that which concerneth me (v. 8) - finishing what He began, never forsaking the work of His own hands.²

Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.

Psalm 138:1-4 · A Psalm of DavidPraise Before the Gods

1I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. 2I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. 3In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. 4All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth.

The psalm opens with a resolve, and the resolve has no half-measure in it: I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee (v. 1). Weigh the two phrases. First, with my whole heart - not praise offered with one eye on the exit, not gratitude hedged in case things turn, but the whole self poured into it. The heart, in Hebrew thinking, is the seat of will and thought as much as feeling; to praise with the whole heart is to let no part of yourself hang back unconvinced. Second, before the gods. David sings his thanks not in a private chamber but out in the open, in full view of every rival claimant to worship - the so-called gods of the nations, the powers that promise much and save no one. He will not lower his voice to spare their feelings or his own dignity. There is a quiet defiance in it: surrounded by everything the world bows to, the man who has actually been answered by the living God lifts his praise where all of them can hear. Thanksgiving, when it is real, does not whisper.

Christ Connection - The Word Magnified

David gives a startling reason for his praise: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name (v. 2). A name, in the ancient world, was no mere label; it carried a person's whole reputation and weight. To say God has lifted His word even above His name is to say that God has staked His own honour on what He has spoken - that His promises are the surest thing about Him, more to be trusted than reputation itself. The Hebrew Scriptures had long taught that this word of God does things: By the word of the LORD were the heavens made (Ps. 33:6). But the New Testament dares to say something further about that word. When the apostle John set out to tell who Jesus is, he reached past every other category and called Him simply the Word: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (John 1:1, 14). The word God magnified above His name was not, in the end, only something spoken; it was Someone sent. The promise David trusted took on flesh and a face, and the honour God had staked on His word was made good in a Person who could be seen and touched and heard. To praise God for magnifying His word is, John would say, to praise the One through whom that word came to dwell among us.²

Christ Connection - All the Kings of the Earth

David's thanksgiving, begun as one man's song, suddenly opens onto the whole world: All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth (v. 4). It is a daring leap - from a private rescue to a vision of every earthly power bowing before the words of God. David could not have traced how that hope would travel, but Scripture follows it to its end. The same God whose word David trusted sent His servants to teach all nations (Matt. 28:19), and the apostle Paul saw the vision come to its summit in the exaltation of the risen Christ: God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-11). Notice what has happened. David sang that the kings of the earth would praise God when they hear the words of thy mouth; Paul announces that they will bow at a name. The praise of every nation, which David glimpsed from a distance, gathers at last around one Person - until the kings of the earth do exactly what the psalm foresaw, and bend the knee.

Between the resolve to praise and the vision of the nations sits the reason for both: In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul (v. 3). This is the bedrock of the whole psalm. David does not praise on speculation; he praises on experience. There was a day - a specific, remembered moment - when he had nothing left but a cry, and the cry was heard. Notice carefully what the answer was. It does not say God removed the trouble, or smoothed the road, or handed David an easy escape. It says God strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. The help came inward first. Before anything changed outside him, something was made strong within him - a steadiness, a resilience, a fortitude given where he most needed it. This is often how the answer comes: not the circumstance lifted, but the soul made able to stand inside it. And it is enough to build a life of praise on, because a man who has been strengthened in his soul has been given the one thing no enemy can take. The God who answers like that is worth singing to before the gods - for none of them ever answered anyone.

Psalm 138 begins with a decision you can borrow: I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. Two things in it are worth carrying into an ordinary week. First, the whole heart. Most of our gratitude is partial - thankful, but with one eye on what is still wrong, praising God while keeping a reservation in case things turn. David refuses the half-measure. The practice is to let one thing today be thanked for without the “but” - whole-hearted, holding nothing back. Second, before the gods. David does not save his praise for safe company; he sings it in the open, surrounded by everything that competes for his trust. You will spend your day among quieter “gods” too - the money, the approval, the security the world actually bows to. To give thanks out loud, unembarrassed, in the middle of all that, is its own small act of allegiance: a way of saying with your whole heart which God actually answered you. And He did. In the day when I cried thou answeredst me - not always by changing the circumstance, but by strengthening your soul to stand in it. Name that. Thank Him for it, whole-hearted, where others can hear.

Psalm 138:5-8The High God Who Has Respect Unto the Lowly

5Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD. 6Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off. 7Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. 8The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.

The vision of the kings continues, and then deepens: Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD (v. 5). Note the small but telling phrase - they will sing in the ways of the LORD. It is not merely that earthly rulers will admire God from a safe distance; they will walk in His ways, take His paths as their own, and sing as they go. Worship and obedience are bound together: to praise God truly is to begin walking where He walks. And the reason the kings will do this is given plainly: for great is the glory of the LORD. Glory here is weight, substance, the sheer heavy reality of God's presence and worth. When that glory is finally seen for what it is, praise is the only fitting response - not extracted by force, but drawn out by the undeniable greatness of the One who made everything. The psalm is moving from David's single voice toward a chorus, and the thread running through it is the glory that, once glimpsed, makes singers of kings.

Christ Connection - The High God Who Stoops to the Lowly

Here is the paradox the whole psalm turns on: Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off (v. 6). We might expect a high God to attend to the high - the powerful, the impressive, the ones who matter. David says the reverse. The very height of God is what makes His stooping so astonishing: the One enthroned above all looks toward the small and keeps the self-sufficient at a distance. The whole of Scripture leans on this. When a young woman learned she would bear the Messiah, her song was this verse set to new music: God hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden, and hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree (Luke 1:48, 52). And the God who has respect unto the lowly did not merely look down from a height; He came down into it. The One who could say, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden… for I am meek and lowly in heart (Matt. 11:28-29), was the high God Himself made low - bending all the way to the place of the lowly so that the lowly might be lifted. The apostles built the same truth into their teaching: God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble (James 4:6; 1 Pet. 5:5). The proud, who need nothing, receive nothing; the lowly, who know their need, are met by a God who came the whole distance down to find them.²

David turns now from God's character to his own situation, and he does not pretend it is easy: Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me (v. 7). Mark the honesty of in the midst of trouble. He is not promised a way around the trouble; he is walking straight through the middle of it, with the wrath of enemies on every side. The psalm does not deny the danger or minimise it. What it sets against the danger is not a change of circumstance but the action of God: thou wilt revive me. To revive is to be brought back to life, refreshed, given breath again when the breath has nearly gone - the inner strengthening of verse 3 carried into the thick of the fight. And the picture turns vivid: God will stretch forth thine hand, His right hand shall save. The right hand, in Scripture, is the hand of power and action. David is not bracing to fight his way out alone; he is watching for the hand of God to reach into the trouble and hold him up. This is the realism of biblical faith: it never says the trouble is not real. It says that in the midst of it, the living hand of God is more real still.

Christ Connection - He Will Perfect What He Began

The psalm ends not on David's resolve but on God's: The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands (v. 8). To perfect here is to complete, to bring to its intended end, to finish. David is confident not because he will finish well, but because God will - God has begun something in his life, and God does not leave His work half-made. The reason is given at once: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever. The very chesed David praised at the start of the psalm (v. 2) is now the guarantee of its end; the love that does not let go is the reason the work will be carried through. And the closing line turns confidence into prayer: forsake not the works of thine own hands - for what God has made, God is bound by His own faithfulness to keep. The apostle Paul gave this same confidence its New Testament words: being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6). It is one of the most freeing truths a person can hold - that the work of God in a life is, finally, God's responsibility to complete, and His mercy that endureth for ever is the surety. The One who began it has pledged Himself to finish it.²

Let the last verse of the psalm rest over your week: The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me… forsake not the works of thine own hands. So much of our anxiety comes from quietly believing the opposite - that the unfinished work of our lives is ours alone to complete, and that if we let up for a moment it will all come undone. David hands you a better foundation. The work in you is the work of God's own hands, and He does not abandon what He begins. That does not make you passive; David still walks in the midst of trouble and still watches for the hand that saves. But it changes who is finally responsible for the outcome. You are not white-knuckling your own perfection into being. So the practice is to name, this week, the unfinished thing you are most afraid will fall apart - the growth that feels too slow, the change that will not come, the part of yourself you despair of - and to hand it back to its true owner with David's own words: forsake not the works of thine own hands. Then work at it as one who is being completed, not as one who must complete himself. The God who is too high to be reached, and who yet has respect unto the lowly, will perfect that which concerneth you.

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Further study

Psalm 138 · Hebrew + classical Jewish commentarySefaria
The Hebrew text of Psalm 138 with Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for chesed (vv. 2, 8, “lovingkindness” and “mercy”), for shaphal (v. 6, “the lowly”), and for the much-debated phrase magnified thy word above all thy name in verse 2.
Psalm 138 ↔ Luke 1 · John 1 · Philippians 1-2 · James 4Intertextual Bible
Traces the threads tying Psalm 138 to the rest of Scripture - the high God who has respect unto the lowly (v. 6) echoed in Mary's song and in “God resisteth the proud” (Luke 1:52; James 4:6), the word magnified above God's name (v. 2) read alongside the Word made flesh (John 1:14), and the God who will perfect His work (v. 8) heard again in “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it” (Phil. 1:6).
Psalm 138 - Translators' NotesNET Bible
The NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Psalm 138 - the meaning of singing praise before the gods in verse 1, the textual questions behind magnified thy word above all thy name in verse 2, and the sense of God having respect unto the lowly while knowing the proud… afar off in verse 6.

Where this echoes in Scripture

Praise Before the Gods

The High God Who Has Respect Unto the Lowly

Psalms 138

Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.

Psalm 138:1-4 · A Psalm of DavidPraise Before the Gods

Christ Connection - The Word Magnified

Christ Connection - All the Kings of the Earth

Psalm 138:5-8The High God Who Has Respect Unto the Lowly

Christ Connection - The High God Who Stoops to the Lowly

Christ Connection - He Will Perfect What He Began

· · ·

Further study

Psalm 138 · Hebrew + classical Jewish commentarySefaria
The Hebrew text of Psalm 138 with Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for chesed (vv. 2, 8, “lovingkindness” and “mercy”), for shaphal (v. 6, “the lowly”), and for the much-debated phrase magnified thy word above all thy name in verse 2.
Psalm 138 ↔ Luke 1 · John 1 · Philippians 1-2 · James 4Intertextual Bible
Traces the threads tying Psalm 138 to the rest of Scripture - the high God who has respect unto the lowly (v. 6) echoed in Mary's song and in “God resisteth the proud” (Luke 1:52; James 4:6), the word magnified above God's name (v. 2) read alongside the Word made flesh (John 1:14), and the God who will perfect His work (v. 8) heard again in “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it” (Phil. 1:6).
Psalm 138 - Translators' NotesNET Bible
The NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Psalm 138 - the meaning of singing praise before the gods in verse 1, the textual questions behind magnified thy word above all thy name in verse 2, and the sense of God having respect unto the lowly while knowing the proud… afar off in verse 6.

Psalms 138

Psalm 138:1-4 · A Psalm of DavidPraise Before the Gods

Psalm 138:5-8The High God Who Has Respect Unto the Lowly

Further study

Praise Before the Gods

The High God Who Has Respect Unto the Lowly

How artists have pictured Psalms 138

Stuttgart Psalter, Psalm 138 (folio 152v)

Psalms 138

Psalm 138:1-4 · A Psalm of DavidPraise Before the Gods

Psalm 138:5-8The High God Who Has Respect Unto the Lowly

Further study

Praise Before the Gods

The High God Who Has Respect Unto the Lowly