Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 7. Thou hast known my soul in adversities ] When all forsook me; when none could help me; when I could not save my own life; when my enemies were sure that I could not escape; then I found thee to be my Friend and Supporter. When friend, so called, finds it convenient not to know his friend in affliction and poverty, then thou didst acknowledge me as thine own, all worthless as I was. Human friendships may fail; but the Friend of sinners never fails. Cicero defines a real friend, Amicus certus in re incerta cernitor: "A friend in need is a friend indeed." Reader, such a Friend is the Lord.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-8 - Faith and prayer must go together, for the prayer of faith is the prevailing prayer. David gave up his soul in a special manner to God And with the words, ver. 5, our Lord Jesus yielded up his last breat on the cross, and made his soul a free-will offering for sin, layin down his life as a ransom. But David is here as a man in distress an trouble. And his great care is about his soul, his spirit, his bette part. Many think that while perplexed about their worldly affairs, an their cares multiply, they may be excused if they neglect their souls but we are the more concerned to look to our souls, that, though the outward man perish, the inward man may suffer no damage. The redemptio of the soul is so precious, that it must have ceased for ever, in Christ had not undertaken it. Having relied on God's mercy, he will be glad and rejoice in it. God looks upon our souls, when we are i trouble, to see whether they are humbled for sin, and made better by the affliction. Every believer will meet with such dangers an deliverances, until he is delivered from death, his last enemy.
Original Hebrew אגילה1523 ואשׂמחה8055 בחסדך2617 אשׁר834 ראית7200 את853 עניי6040 ידעת3045 בצרות6869 נפשׁי׃5315
