Psalms 108:6 - Meaning and Application

Here we can learn how to pray as well as how to praise.

We should be public-minded in prayer and carry the needs of God’s church to the throne of grace, as in (Psalm 108:6). The church belongs to God’s heart, so it should also be dear to ours. We should pray for its rescue, and count it an answer to our own prayers if God grants help to his church, even when he delays what we ask for ourselves. “Save your church, and you have answered me, I have all I want.” When David says, “Let the earth be filled with God’s glory,” his prayers are complete, because he wants nothing more (Psalm 72:19-20).

We must also pray with faith in God’s power and promise. We trust his power when we ask, “Save with your right hand, which is mighty to save,” and we trust his promise when we remember that “God has spoken in his holiness” in his holy word, and has sworn by his holiness, so we can rejoice (Psalm 108:7). What he promises, he will do, because his word shows both his truth and his power. Living faith can rejoice in what God has said, even before it has happened, because with God, speaking and doing are never separate the way they are with us.

In prayer, we should also take comfort in what God has already secured for us, even before we possess it fully. God had promised David the hearts of his subjects, so David speaks of the different parts of the land as already his: “Shechem and Succoth, Gilead and Manasseh, Ephraim and Judah are all mine” (Psalm 108:8). In the same way, we can speak with confidence about what God promised to the Son of David, Jesus. God will surely give him the nations for his inheritance and the farthest parts of the earth for his possession, because he has spoken in his holiness. He will also lose none of those given to him, and, like David, he will have the hearts of his people (John 6:37).

God also promised David victory over his enemies, so David speaks of Moab, Edom, and Philistia as already his (Psalm 108:9). “Over Philistia I will triumph” explains the earlier line, “Philistia, shout in triumph because of me,” which some think should be read, “My soul, triumph over Philistia.” In the same way, the risen Savior is seated at God’s right hand, fully assured that all his enemies will, in due time, be made his footstool, even though everything is not yet under him (Hebrews 2:8).

We should also let the first signs of mercy encourage us to keep praying and hoping for God to finish what he has begun (Psalm 108:10-11). “Who will bring me into the strong cities that are still unconquered? Who will make me master of Edom, which has not yet been subdued?” This may have been discussed in David’s private council or in a council of war, but he brings the matter into prayer and leaves it with God: “Will not you, O God? Surely you will.” He may also have spoken with special confidence because of the old prophecy about Jacob and Esau, that the older would serve the younger, and because of Jacob’s blessing, which set him over Esau (Genesis 27:37).

We must not lose heart in prayer, or be driven away from God, even if providence has sometimes seemed against us. “Though you have cast us off, yet you will go out with our armies” (Psalm 108:11). “You will comfort us again after the time you have afflicted us.” Hard events are sometimes meant to test how steady our faith and prayer really are. So we must keep praying through trouble and not grow weary.

We should ask God for help and give up all trust in human strength (Psalm 108:12). “Lord, give us help in trouble, prosper our plans, and defeat the plans of our enemies.” It is not out of place to speak of trouble while we speak of victory, especially when that leads us to ask for help from heaven. “Vain is the help of man” is a strong plea. It means, “Human help is truly useless, so we are lost unless you help us. We know this, and that is why we depend on you and have reason to expect your help.”

We must depend completely on God’s favor and grace for both strength and success in our work and in our battles (Psalm 108:13). We must do our part, but we can do nothing by ourselves, only through God will we do valiantly. The apostle Paul says the same thing when he says he can do nothing that matters except through Christ who strengthens him (Philippians 4:13). And even after we have done our very best, we cannot win by our own merit or power. It is God himself who crushes our enemies, or else all our courage will not be enough. Whatever we do, and whatever we gain, all the glory must go to God.