Psalms 17:15

As for me,.... I do not desire to be in their place and stead, with all their plenty and prosperity; I am content with my present condition and situation: for I will, or "shall" behold thy face in

As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. As for me - in contrast to my enemies for whom the Lord is preparing destruction.

I do not envy this their felicity, but my hopes and happiness are of another nature. I do not place my portion in earthly and temporal treasures, as they do, but in beholding God’ s face, i.e. in the enjoyment of God’ s presence and favour; which is indeed enjoyed in part in this life, but not fully and to satisfaction, or which David here speaks, as appears from the last clause of this verse; the sight of God and of his face being frequently spoken of, both the Old and New Testament, as a privilege denied even to the saints in this life, and peculiar to the next life, as is manifest from . In righteousness; with the comfort of a good conscience, bearing me witness that, notwithstanding all the calumnies and censures of mine enemies, I have been and am upright and righteous in the course of my life, both towards thee and towards all men; which testimony will enable me to look God in the face with boldness, when mine enemies, being conscious to themselves of gross and manifold unrighteousness towards thee, and me, and others, will be afraid to appear in thy presence. I shall be satisfied: I am now greatly distressed and dissatisfied, and mine enemies are filled and satisfied with good things; but my turn will come, the time is coming wherein I shall be abundantly satisfied, to wit, with beholding thy face, which is to me more comfortable and satisfactory than all the possessions of this world. When I awake; either, 1. When I shall be delivered from my present distresses and calamities. But these never are in Scripture, nor indeed can fitly be, called by the name of sleep, which is every where spoken of as a state of rest and quietness; as ,13; and consequently deliverance from them cannot be compared to awaking. Or rather, 2. When I shall arise from the dead; for death is very frequently called sleep, both in Scripture, as ,57 Daniel 12:2 ,13, and in other authors; and consequently resurrection from the dead is justly and fitly called an awaking, as it is . And since the doctrine of the resurrection of the just to a blessed and endless life was not unknown to the holy men of God in the Old Testament, as it were very easy to prove, nor to David in particular, as appears from ,11, and from divers other passages, it cannot be imagined but David would support and comfort himself in his greatest agonies with the consideration thereof, this being incomparably the most weighty and effectual argument and ground of comfort which he could possibly use.

Psalms 17:15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.Ver. 15. As for me] I neither envy nor covet these men’ s happiness, but partly have and partly hope for a far better. I will behold thy face in righteousness] Which none can do but the pure in heart, Matthew 5:8, and those that keep close to God in a constant communion, being justified and sanctified persons. I shall be satisfied] Better than those muckworms and their children are. When I awake] sc. Out of the dust of death, at the resurrection. With thy likeness] With the visible sign of thy glory in heaven, 1 John 3:2.

(15) I—emphatic. The satisfaction of worldly men is in their wealth and family honours, that of the poet in the sun of God’s presence and the vision of His righteousness. (Comp. Note, Psalms 11:7.) Instead of “likeness,” render image, or appearance. But what does the poet mean by the hope of seeking God when he wakes? Some think of rising to peace after a perplexing trouble; others of health after suffering; others of the sunlight of the Divine grace breaking on the soul. But the literal reference to night in Psalms 17:3 seems to ask for the same reference here. Instead of waking to a worldling’s hope of a day of feasting and pleasure, the psalmist wakes to the higher and nobler thought that God—who in sleep (so like death, when nothing is visible), has been, as it were, absent—is now again, when he sees once more (LXX.), found at his right hand (comp. end of Psalms 16), a conscious presence to him, assuring him of justice and protection. But as in Psalms 16, so here, we feel that in spite of his subjection to the common notions about death the psalmist may have felt the stirrings of a better hope. Such “cries from the dark,” even if they do not prove the possession of a belief in immortality, show how the human heart was already groping its way, however blindly, towards it.

Verse 15. As for me] I cannot be satisfied with such a portion. I will behold thy face] Nothing but an evidence of thy approbation can content my soul. In righteousness] I cannot have thy approbation unless I am conformed to thy will. I must be righteous in order that my heart and life may please thee. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.] Nothing but God can satisfy the wishes of an immortal spirit. He made it with infinite capacities and desires; and he alone, the infinite Good, can meet and gratify these desires, and fill this all-capacious mind. No soul was ever satisfied but by God; and he satisfies the soul only by restoring it to his image, which, by the fall, it has lost. I think there is an allusion here to the creation of Adam. When God breathed into him the breath of lives, and he became a living soul, he would appear as one suddenly awaked from sleep. The first object that met his eyes was his glorious Creator, and being made in his image and in his likeness, he could converse with him face to face - was capable of the most intimate union with him, because he was filled with holiness and moral perfection. Thus was he satisfied, the God of infinite perfection and purity filling all the powers and faculties of his soul. David sees this in the light of the Divine Spirit, and knows that his happiness depends on being restored to this image and likeness; and he longs for the time when he shall completely arise out of the sleep and death of sin, and be created anew after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness. I do not think that he refers to the resurrection of the body, but to the resurrection of the soul in this life; to the regaining the image which Adam lost. The paraphrase in my old Psalter understands the whole of this Psalm as referring to the persecution, passion, death, and resurrection of Christ; and so did several of the primitive fathers, particularly St. Jerome and St. Augustine. I shall give a specimen from Psalms 17:11: - Projicientes me, nunc circumdederunt me: oculos suos statuerunt declinare in terram. Trans. Forth castand me now, thai haf umgyfen me: thair egheu thai sette to heelde in the erde. Par. - Forth kasten me out of the cite, als the stede had bene fyled of me: now thai haf umgyfen me in the cros hyngand, als folk that gedyrs til a somer gamen: for thai sett thair eghen, that es the entent of thaire hert to heeld in the erde; that es, in erdly thynges to covayte tham, and haf tham. And thai wende qwen thai slew Crist that he had suffird al the ill, and thai nane. Perhaps some of my readers may think that this needs translating, so far does our present differ from our ancient tongue. Text.

15. As for me, in righteousness let me behold thy face: Let me be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness. With the low desires of worldly men the Psalmist contrasts his own spiritual aspirations. He does not complain of their prosperity; it does not present itself to him as a trial of patience and a moral enigma, as it does to the authors of Psalms 37, 73. Their blessings are not for an instant to be compared with his. ‘To behold Jehovah’s face’ is to enjoy communion with Him and all the blessings that flow from it; it is the inward reality which corresponds to ‘appearing before Him’ in the sanctuary. Cp. Psalms 16:11. ‘Righteousness’ is the condition of that ‘beholding’; for it is sin that separates from God. Cp. Psalms 11:7 note; Psalms 15:1 ff.; Matthew 5:8; Hebrews 12:14. He concludes with a yet bolder prayer, that he may be admitted to that highest degree of privilege which Moses enjoyed, and be satisfied with the likeness or form of Jehovah. See Numbers 12:6-8. Worldly men are satisfied if they see themselves reflected in their sons: nothing less than the sight of the form of God will satisfy the Psalmist. Cp. Psalms 16:11. See Driver on Deuteronomy 4:12. But what is meant by when I awake? Not ‘when the night of calamity is at an end’; a sense which the word will not bear. What he desires is (1) the daily renewal of this communion (cp. Psalms 139:18; Proverbs 6:22); and (2) as the passage in Numbers suggests, a waking sight of God, as distinguished from a dream or vision. The words are commonly explained of awaking from the sleep of death to behold the face of God in the world beyond, and to be transfigured into His likeness. Death is no doubt spoken of as sleep (Psalms 13:3), and resurrection as awakening (Isaiah 26:19; Daniel 12:2). But elsewhere the context makes the meaning unambiguous. Here, however, this reference is excluded by the context. The Psalmist does not anticipate death, but prays to be delivered from it (Psalms 17:8 ff.). The contrast present to his mind is not between ‘this world’ and ‘another world,’ the ‘present life’ and the ‘future life,’ but between the false life and the true life in this present world, between ‘the flesh’ and ‘the spirit,’ between the ‘natural man’ with his sensuous desires, and the ‘spiritual man’ with his God ward desires. Here, as in Psalms 16:9-11, death fades from the Psalmist’s view. He is absorbed with the thought of the blessedness of fellowship with God[9]. [9] Comp. Delitzsch: “The contrast is not so much here and hereafter, as world (life) and God. We see here into the inmost nature of the O.T. belief. All the blessedness and glory of the future life which the N.T. unfolds is for the O.T. faith contained in Jehovah.

As for me - In strong contrast with the aims, the desires, and the condition of worldly individuals. “They” seek their portion in this life, and are satisfied; “I” cherish no such desires, and have no such prosperity.

15. As for me—The pronoun is emphatic, and marks the contrast between the psalmist and the “men of the world,” just mentioned. So Psalms 73:28 : “But, [as to me,] it is good for me to draw near to God,” etc.