This psalm has in it as much of warmth and lively devotion as any of David's psalms in so little a compass. As the sweetest of Paul's epistles were those that bore date out of a prison, so some of the sweetest of David's psalms were those that were penned, as this was, in a wilderness. That which grieved him most in his banishment was the want of public ordinances; these he here longs to be restored to the enjoyment of; and the present want did but whet his appetite. Yet it is not the ordinances, but the God of the ordinances, that his heart is upon. And here we have, I. His desire towards God, ver. 1, 2. II. His esteem of God, ver. 3, 4. III. His satisfaction in God, ver. 5. IV. His secret communion with God, ver. 6. V. His joyful dependence upon God, ver. 7, 8. IV. His holy triumph in God over his enemies and in the assurance of his own safety, ver. 9-11. A devout and pious soul has little need of direction how to sing this psalm, so naturally does it speak its own genuine language; and an unsanctified soul, that is unacquainted and unaffected with divine things, is scarcely capable of singing it with understanding.
Devout Affections.
A psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.