20 Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor his loving kindness from me. For the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Blessed be God! who hath not turned away my prayer He concludes the psalm, as he began it, with thanksgiving, and gives the reason of his not having met with a repulse; or, to take the figurative expression which he employs, of God's not having turned away his prayer. This was, that he had not withdrawn his mercy. For it is entirely of his free grace that he is propitious, and that our prayers are not wholly ineffectual.
Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer - That is, It is fit that I should praise and adore God for the fact that he has graciously condescended to listen to the voice of my supplications.
Nor his mercy from me - There is no more proper ground of praise than the fact that God hears prayer - the prayer of poor, ignorant, sinful, dying men. When we consider how great is his condescension in doing this; when we think of his greatness and immensity; when we reflect that the whole universe is dependent on him, and that the farthest worlds need his care and attention; when we bear in mind that we are creatures of a day and "know nothing;" and especially when we remember how we have violated his laws, how sensual, corrupt, and vile our lives have been, how low and grovelling have been our aims and purposes, how we have provoked him by our unbelief, our ingratitude, and our hardness of heart - we can never express, in appropriate words, the extent of his goodness in hearing our prayers, nor can we find language which will properly give utterance to the praises due to his name for having condescended to listen to our cries for mercy.
Blessed be God - I therefore praise God, who has not turned aside my prayer, and who has not withheld his mercy from me. Thus he told them what God had done for his soul.
Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer,.... Has not been angry against it, shut it out, or covered himself with a cloud that it might not pass through, which sometimes saints have complained of, Psalm 80:4; but graciously heard and received it;
nor his mercy from me; for that endures for ever, and is from everlasting to everlasting on them that fear the Lord, Psalm 103:17; all which require thankfulness and praise, which is here given.
*More commentary available at chapter level.