Psalm 57:8

8 My glory, rise thou up; psaltery and harp, rise thou up; I shall rise up early. (My spirit, rise thou up; lute and harp, rise thou up; yea, I shall rise up in the morning.)

Psalm 57:8 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 57:8

Awake up, my glory
Meaning his soul, whom Jacob calls his honour, ( Genesis 49:6 ) ; it being the most honourable, glorious, and excellent part of man; is the breath of God, of his immediate production; is a spirit incorporeal and immortal; is possessed of glorious powers and faculties; had the image of God stamped upon it, which made man the glory of God, ( 1 Corinthians 11:7 ) ; and has the image of Christ on it in regenerated persons; and is that with which God and Christ are glorified; and is, upon all accounts, of great worth and value, even of more worth than the whole world: and this sometimes in the saints is as it were asleep, and needs awaking; not in a literal sense; for it is incapable of natural sleep, being incorporeal; but in a figurative and spiritual sense, as when grace is dormant, and not in exercise; when the soul is backward to and slothful in duty, unconcerned about divine things, and lukewarm and indifferent to them; which is occasioned by prevailing corruptions and worldly cares; and sometimes it becomes dull, and heavy, and inactive, through an over pressure by sorrows and troubles, as the disciples of Christ were found sleeping for sorrow, ( Luke 22:45 ) ; which seems to have been the case of the psalmist here; he had been in great distress, his soul was bowed down, ( Psalms 57:6 ) ; he had hung his harp upon the willow, and could not sing one of the Lord's songs in the place and circumstances be was in; but now he calls upon his soul, and arouses all the powers and faculties of it, and stirs up himself to the work of praise, just as Deborah did, ( Judges 5:12 ) ; some by his glory understand his tongue, as in ( Psalms 16:9 ) compared with ( Acts 2:26 ) ( Psalms 30:12 ) ; and so may design vocal singing here, as instrumental music in the next clause:

awake, psaltery and harp;
which, by a prosopopoeia, are represented as persons; as if they were animate, sensible, and living: these had been laid aside for some time as useless; but now the psalmist determines to take them up and employ them in the service of praising God: these are fitly put together, because psalms were sung to harps; and so with the Greeks a psalm is said to be properly the sound of the harp ^F19;

I [myself] will awake early;
in the morning, when salvation and joy come; and so soon cause his voice to be heard, as in prayer, so in praise; or "I will awaken the morning": so Jarchi; be up before the sun rises, the morning appears, or day dawns: this is taking the wings of the morning, and even preventing that. The Targum is,

``I will awake to the morning prayer.''

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 Scholia in Aristoph. Aves, p. 551.

Psalm 57:8 In-Context

6 They made ready a snare to my feet; and they greatly bowed my life. They delved a ditch before my face; and they felled down into it. (They prepared a snare for my feet; and they greatly bowed down my life. They dug a ditch before me; but they themselves fell down into it.)

7 God, mine heart is ready, mine heart is ready; I shall sing, and I shall say psalm. (God, my heart is ready, my heart is ready; I shall sing, yea, I shall sing a song.)

8 My glory, rise thou up; psaltery and harp, rise thou up; I shall rise up early. (My spirit, rise thou up; lute and harp, rise thou up; yea, I shall rise up in the morning.)

9 Lord, I shall acknowledge to thee among peoples; and I shall say psalm [to thee] among heathen men. (Lord, I shall praise thee/Lord, I shall confess thee/Lord, I shall give thanks to thee among the peoples; and I shall sing a song to thee among the heathen.)

10 For thy mercy is magnified till to heavens; and thy truth till to the clouds. (For thy love reacheth above the heavens; and thy faithfulness up to the clouds.)