Psalms 61

To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David.

Following the intimation of the selah, Psalms 61:4, we may divide this psalm into two parts of eight lines each. Psalms 61:1-4 are an earnest prayer, with grateful expressions of trust; Psalms 61:5-8 are a joyful acknowledgment of the answer of prayer, with praise and vows of fidelity. The condition of the psalmist is one of great and overwhelming sorrow: he is far from his throne and capital, his prayer is for protection and the preservation of life, for which the memory of past experience leads him to trust. No enemy is mentioned or described, which itself is suggestive. He speaks like one of age and great experience, and his sorrow is dignified and chastened. Over all, faith rises in sublime control. There is too much internal evidence and concurrent authority, to doubt that the occasion was that of David’s flight from Absalom, and his residence at Mahanaim. 2 Samuel 17:27-29; 2 Samuel 18:1-5.TITLE:

Upon Neginah The singular of Neginoth. Delitzsch thinks that upon Neginath differs from in Neginoth, Psalm iv, title, the former, taken as a feminine noun, signifying “upon the music of stringed instruments,” and the latter “with the accompaniment of stringed instruments.”