I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you.
David pours out complaint and prayer together, his mind caught between distress and confidence in God's mercy. Whether he wrote this during his desperate flight to Gath or after deliverance, the psalm shows him clinging to faith even when fear drove him to feign madness, a weakness of the flesh that did not extinguish the exercise of prayer.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 56:1-13
Thy vows are upon me, O God. Vows made in his trouble he does not lightly forget, nor should we. We voluntarily made them, let us cheerfully keep them. All professed Christians are men under vows, but especially those who in hours of dire distress have rededicated themselves unto the Lord. I will render praises unto thee.
God keeps account of every weary step I took while hunted and homeless; He numbers my wanderings as a father numbers his child's sorrows. My tears are not lost, He bottles them, He writes them in His book. Not one falls unnoticed. He is afflicted in my afflictions.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 56:8-13