This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.
Heartfelt praise and thanksgiving pleases the Lord more than even the costliest animal sacrifice. Grateful acknowledgment of what God has done and is doing for people is more pleasing to Him than human offerings and efforts made for Him. The psalm in which it stands portrays David's greater Antitype, Jesus, prefiguring events in the Saviour's life and revealing His inmost feelings and sufferings as He bore the sins of the world. Those who held the differing position teach that it is not a prediction about Jesus but a simple record of David's own experience, applying to Jesus no more than to anyone else whose history happens to run parallel to his. The triumph Christ won is also won for His children, who may pray its prayers with assurance that God will hear when their circumstances call for them.
Setting and Meaning
The verse stands in the prayer of one whose soul has come into deep waters of sorrow, filled with reproach and bitter shame. Forsaken by those bearing a brother's name, he is mocked while weeping in deep sinking and trembling fear. He pleads for God's lovingkindness and mercy to turn toward him and make darkness flee. He is confident that the Lord will save the sorrowing poor, revive the fainting, restore the sinking soul and make the contrite live, while asking that enemies not rejoice but be brought to grief with their chosen pathway darkened.
Praise and thanksgiving please the Lord more than animal sacrifice, even an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs. Gratitude for what God has done and is doing for people is more pleasing to Him than human sacrifices or efforts made for Him. Its place among the verses supporting 2 Chronicles 34:14-28 shows that the conditions of mercy were the same in Josiah's time as in the present and that the gospel is one message, connecting it with the enduring teaching about humility and exaltation.
Prophecy of Christ
The psalm portrays David's greater Antitype, Jesus, through petitions and experiences that prefigure events in the Saviour's life. Its burden relates primarily to David and finally and antitypically to Christ, with portions quoted in the New Testament as fulfilled in Christ, yet not every verse of the psalm applies to Christ. It is a prophecy that applies partly to what is immediately present and partly to what is remote, having a literal application to Christ as the New Testament states, yet it cannot all be taken as literal of Him in every part, for that would make Christ a sinner. By a differing position held by fewer, it is not a prediction about Jesus but a simple record of David's own experience, applying to Jesus no more than to anyone else in the present day whose history happens to run tangent to David's at certain points, such as being hated without a cause.
It is to be read in connection with Christ's betrayal, condemnation, and crucifixion, and this connection helps explain passages in the psalm. It is prophetic of Christ's experience when the sins of the world rested upon Him for humanity's sake. It belongs among prophetic word pictures that reveal Christ's inmost feelings as He endured temptation and life-and-death struggles with the enemy. It records the suffering of Christ, including sickness and the bearing of human infirmities and diseases even unto death, showing that He shared human weakness and inherited flesh and had no advantage over believers in resisting evil, and that He freely gives His advantages to those who trust Him.
The verse is identified as one of the Psalms' prophetic passages concerning Christ, describing an experience the Saviour passed through. The triumph Christ won is also won for His children.
Believers and Enemies
The victory secured by Christ in the experience described in this psalm is also secured for his children. When believers come into like circumstances, the prayers of this psalm may be taken up by them as their own prayers. They may offer them with confidence that God will hear.
The psalm comes to Christians by appropriated quotation whenever their history runs parallel to David's. This is so when zeal for the Lord's house consumes them and they bear the reproaches of those who reproach the Lord. Such appropriated use is distinct from fulfillment of a prediction, although both may be called fulfillment of Scripture in different senses. For this reason, a mistake in applying this psalm would not prove a mistake concerning Isaiah 50.
Its plea that enemies be blotted out of the book of the living applies to the enemies of Christ and to Lucifer and his followers. Their names were once recorded with the righteous but were erased after their revolt. With Psalms 109 and 137, this psalm stands pre-eminently among those called the cursing psalms. They are typical of tribulation upon the enemies of the church and are predictive, declaring the retributive providence and justice of a sin-hating God who punishes sin rather than inciting cruelty.
Heartfelt praise and thanksgiving pleases the Lord more than even the costliest animal sacrifice. Grateful acknowledgment of what God has done and is doing for people is more pleasing to Him than human offerings and efforts made for Him. The psalm in which it stands portrays David's greater Antitype, Jesus, prefiguring events in the Saviour's life and revealing His inmost feelings and sufferings as He bore the sins of the world. Those who held the differing position teach that it is not a prediction about Jesus but a simple record of David's own experience, applying to Jesus no more than to anyone else whose history happens to run parallel to his. The triumph Christ won is also won for His children, who may pray its prayers with assurance that God will hear when their circumstances call for them.
Setting and Meaning
The verse stands in the prayer of one whose soul has come into deep waters of sorrow, filled with reproach and bitter shame. Forsaken by those bearing a brother's name, he is mocked while weeping in deep sinking and trembling fear. He pleads for God's lovingkindness and mercy to turn toward him and make darkness flee. He is confident that the Lord will save the sorrowing poor, revive the fainting, restore the sinking soul and make the contrite live, while asking that enemies not rejoice but be brought to grief with their chosen pathway darkened.
Praise and thanksgiving please the Lord more than animal sacrifice, even an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs. Gratitude for what God has done and is doing for people is more pleasing to Him than human sacrifices or efforts made for Him. Its place among the verses supporting 2 Chronicles 34:14-28 shows that the conditions of mercy were the same in Josiah's time as in the present and that the gospel is one message, connecting it with the enduring teaching about humility and exaltation.
Prophecy of Christ
The psalm portrays David's greater Antitype, Jesus, through petitions and experiences that prefigure events in the Saviour's life. Its burden relates primarily to David and finally and antitypically to Christ, with portions quoted in the New Testament as fulfilled in Christ, yet not every verse of the psalm applies to Christ. It is a prophecy that applies partly to what is immediately present and partly to what is remote, having a literal application to Christ as the New Testament states, yet it cannot all be taken as literal of Him in every part, for that would make Christ a sinner. By a differing position held by fewer, it is not a prediction about Jesus but a simple record of David's own experience, applying to Jesus no more than to anyone else in the present day whose history happens to run tangent to David's at certain points, such as being hated without a cause.
It is to be read in connection with Christ's betrayal, condemnation, and crucifixion, and this connection helps explain passages in the psalm. It is prophetic of Christ's experience when the sins of the world rested upon Him for humanity's sake. It belongs among prophetic word pictures that reveal Christ's inmost feelings as He endured temptation and life-and-death struggles with the enemy. It records the suffering of Christ, including sickness and the bearing of human infirmities and diseases even unto death, showing that He shared human weakness and inherited flesh and had no advantage over believers in resisting evil, and that He freely gives His advantages to those who trust Him.
The verse is identified as one of the Psalms' prophetic passages concerning Christ, describing an experience the Saviour passed through. The triumph Christ won is also won for His children.
Believers and Enemies
The victory secured by Christ in the experience described in this psalm is also secured for his children. When believers come into like circumstances, the prayers of this psalm may be taken up by them as their own prayers. They may offer them with confidence that God will hear.
The psalm comes to Christians by appropriated quotation whenever their history runs parallel to David's. This is so when zeal for the Lord's house consumes them and they bear the reproaches of those who reproach the Lord. Such appropriated use is distinct from fulfillment of a prediction, although both may be called fulfillment of Scripture in different senses. For this reason, a mistake in applying this psalm would not prove a mistake concerning Isaiah 50.
Its plea that enemies be blotted out of the book of the living applies to the enemies of Christ and to Lucifer and his followers. Their names were once recorded with the righteous but were erased after their revolt. With Psalms 109 and 137, this psalm stands pre-eminently among those called the cursing psalms. They are typical of tribulation upon the enemies of the church and are predictive, declaring the retributive providence and justice of a sin-hating God who punishes sin rather than inciting cruelty.