Yes, they will sing of the ways of Yahweh, for Yahweh’s glory is great!
Parallel Translations
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Yes, they will sing of the ways of Yahweh, for Yahweh’s glory is great!
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Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.
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Yea, they shall sing of the ways of the LORD; for great is the glory of the LORD.
Cross-references (21)
Passages linked to Psalms 138:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 21:5 His glory is great in your salvation. You lay honor and majesty on him.
- Revelation 4:11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and because of your desire they existed, and were created!”
- Revelation 7:12 saying, “Amen! Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might, be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
- Isaiah 6:1-3 In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew. One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”
- Malachi 1:11 For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering: for my name is great among the nations,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Revelation 5:12-14 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing!” I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever! Amen!” The four living creatures said, “Amen!” Then the elders fell down and worshiped.
- Exodus 15:11 Who is like you, Yahweh, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
- Exodus 33:18-19 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”
- Revelation 19:1 After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation, power, and glory belong to our God;
- Isaiah 52:7-10 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” Your watchmen lift up their voice. Together they sing; for they shall see eye to eye when Yahweh returns to Zion. Break out into joy! Sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. Yahweh has made his holy arm bare in the eyes of all the nations. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
- Isaiah 66:10-14 “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her; that you may nurse and be satisfied at the comforting breasts; that you may drink deeply, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.” For Yahweh says, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you will nurse. You will be carried on her side, and will be dandled on her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you. You will be comforted in Jerusalem.” You will see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones will flourish like the tender grass. Yahweh’s hand will be known among his servants; and he will have indignation against his enemies.
- Jeremiah 31:11-12 For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. They will come and sing in the height of Zion, and will flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd. Their soul will be as a watered garden. They will not sorrow any more at all.
- Zephaniah 3:14-15 Sing, daughter of Zion! Shout, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. Yahweh has taken away your judgments. He has thrown out your enemy. The King of Israel, Yahweh, is among you. You will not be afraid of evil any more.
- Matthew 21:5-9 “Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The disciples went, and did just as Jesus commanded them, and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their clothes on them; and he sat on them. A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees, and spread them on the road. The multitudes who went in front of him, and those who followed, kept shouting, “Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”
- John 13:31-32 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him immediately.
- John 17:1 Jesus said these things, then lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you;
- 2 Corinthians 4:6 seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
- Ephesians 1:12 to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.
- Luke 19:37-38 As he was now getting near, at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works which they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest!”
- Isaiah 65:14 Behold, my servants will sing for joy of heart, but you will cry for sorrow of heart, and will wail for anguish of spirit.
- Ephesians 1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 138:5 Yea, they shall sing in the ways…
Psa 138:5 Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great [is] the glory of the LORD.
Ver. 5. .Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord] As having tasted the excellence of the comforts of godliness (far surpassing those of the crown and sceptre), and felt the power of God’s word subduing them to the obedience of faith, whereby they come to rule with God, to be faithful with his saints, and to sing their songs.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain In the ways of the Lord; or, of, or…
In the ways of the Lord; or, of, or for, or because of the ways of the Lord, i.e. his wonderful counsel and gracious providences towards themselves and others.
Great is the glory; or, great shall be the glory. At that time the worship and glory of God shall not be confined to one small land, as now it is, but shall be extended to all the parts of the world.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the…
Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord,.... Which are all mercy and truth; ways of pleasantness, and paths of peace: so the eunuch went on his way, and in the ways of the Lord rejoicing, Act 8:39; Or, "they shall sing of the ways of the Lord" (t); of the excellency, pleasure, and usefulness of them;
for great is the glory of the Lord; shown in the works of creation; more especially in the person of Christ, and in the glorious work of redemption and salvation by him; and of which there will be a great display throughout the earth in the latter day, by means of the Gospel, the great spread of it, and the multitude of persons converted by it; which will make the ways of the Lord still more pleasant; see Isa 6:3.
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(t) "de viis Jehovae", Piscator, Schmidt; so some in Vatablus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The ways - His wonderful counsel and gracious providences.
The ways - His wonderful counsel and gracious providences.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. They shall sing in the ways of…
Verse 5. They shall sing in the ways of the Lord] They shall admire thy conduct, and the wondrous workings of thy providence, if they should not even unite with thy people.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the…
Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord - In the ways which God has appointed. They shall join with all that love him - with the humblest of the people - in acknowledging God. Kings and people shall thus bow before God in common acts of praise, and as being on the same level before him. As people, as sinners, as redeemed, as traveling to the grave, they are all alike before God.
For great is the glory of the Lord - Great is his character; great his dignity; great his honor; and all this will be seen to be so when those of most exalted rank thus worship and adore him. The most lofty on earth shall acknowledge that there is one who is more exalted than they are, and their own dignity and splendor shall thus contribute to deepen the impression of the honor and glory of God.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. they shall sing of the ways of Jehovah]…
5. they shall sing of the ways of Jehovah] They will celebrate His providential methods of dealing with His people. For ways cp. Psa_103:7.
the glory of Jehovah] The revelation of His power and majesty in the deliverance of Israel. Cp. Isa_40:5; Isa_60:1.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (5) In the ways.—Rather, of the ways, this preposition…
(5) In the ways.—Rather, of the ways, this preposition being so used frequently after verbs of speaking praising (comp. Psa_20:7; Psa_44:8; Psa_87:3; Psa_105:2), though there is no parallel instance of such a use with this particular verb sing.
For ways used of God’s mighty works in creation see Job_26:14; Job_40:19; of His action in history, Psa_18:30; Deu_32:4. It seems against the parallelism to understand literally that the heathen kings would come to walk in God’s ways—i.e., in righteousness, and so praise Him, as in Mic_4:2. The meaning is that heathen monarchs will be compelled to acknowledge the glory of Jehovah.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the…
Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord. They, i.e. the kings, shall sing, no longer in their own misguided heathen ways, but in the ways of the Lord, in the mode prescribed by his Law and practiced in his temple. (comp. Isa_49:22, 23 60:8-5, etc.) For great is the glory of the Lord. (cf. Isa_60:1-3 Isa_66:18) It is this "glory" which attracts "all nations and tongues."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 5. Yea, they shall sing in the ways…
Ver. 5. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD. Here is a double wonderkings in God's ways, and kings singing there. Let a man once know the ways of Jehovah, and he will find therein abundant reason for song; but the difficulty is to bring the great ones of the earth into ways so little attractive to the carnal mind. Perhaps when the Lord sends us a King David to preach, we shall yet see monarchs converted and hear their voices raised in devout adoration.
For great is the glory of the LORD. This glory shall overshadow all the greatness and glory of all kings: they shall be stirred by a sight of it to obey and adore. O that Jehovah's glory were revealed even now! O that the blind eyes of men could once behold it, then their hearts would be subdued to joyful reverence. David, under a sense of Jehovah's glory, exclaimed, "I will sing" (Ps 138:1), and here he represents the kings as doing the same thing.
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Ver. 5. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD. There will come a time when the praise of Jahve, which according to Ps 137:4 was obliged to be dumb in the presence of the heathen, will be sung by the kings of the heathen themselves. Franz Delitzsch.
Ver. 5. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD. Walking with God is a pleasant walk: the ways of wisdom are called "ways of pleasantness": Pr 3:17. Is not the light pleasant Ps 89:15: "They shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance." Walking with God is like walking among beds of spices, which send forth a fragrant perfume. This is it which brings peace, Ac 9:31: "Walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost." While we walk with God, what sweet music doth the bird of conscience make in our breast! "They shall sing in the ways of the Lord." Thomas Watson.
Ver. 5. See "Spurgeon's Sermons", No. 1615: "Singing in the Ways of the Lord."
Ver. 5. This is spoken of kings, but it is true of the humblest pilgrims. The Lord hath respect unto the lowly, and will make them sing.
1. They shall sing in the ways.
a) They take pleasure in them.
b) They do not go out of them to find pleasure.
c) They sing as they proceed in service, in worship, in holiness, in suffering.
d) They are in a case for singing. They have strength, safety, guidance, provision, comfort.
2. They sing of the ways of the Lord.
a) Of God's ways to them.
b) Of their way to God. They know whence they came out. They know where they are going. It is a good road; prophets went by it, and the Lord of the prophets. Therein we have good company, good accommodation, good prospects, good daylight.
3. They sing of the Lord of the way. His loving kindness. His truth. Answers to prayer. His condescension. His reviving us in trouble. His delivering us. His perfecting us. His everlasting mercy.
4. They shall sing to the Lord of the way.
a) To his honour.
b) To the extending of that honour.
c) As a preparation to eternally honouring him.
Psalms 138:6*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the…
Psa_138:5
Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord.
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Singing in the ways of the Lord
According to the connection, this is spoken of kings (verse 4). That time has not come yet, so let us sing all the more. We may (verse 6). If we do not, surely the stones of the street will cry out against us.
I. they shall sing in the ways of the Lord.
1. Gracious persons take pleasure in the things of religion.
2. They do not go out of Gods ways to get their songs. They shall sing in the ways. Alas! I have heard of some who go here and there, as they say, to get a little pleasure. What? You find no pleasure in the ways of God? Then you are a hypocrite.
3. They sing as they are actively engaged in the ways of the Lord. Soldiers march to battle ,with sound of trumpet and beat of drum, listening to music while they march; so Christian men go on their pilgrimage, and keep step to the sound of joyous psalms and hymns.
4. The children of God sing in the ways of God because they are in a case for singing: in a right state of mind for singing.
(1) When we are in the ways of the Lord we are strong; they go from strength to strength. When we walk as God would have us walk we are made strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Well may that pilgrim sing who is made strong by the mighty God of Jacob.
(2) You have safety also; for in the ways of the Lord all His servants are protected from danger. In the kings highway no lion shall be there, neither shall any ravenous beast go up thereon. You shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, in the ways of the Lord. Well may that traveller sing who is perfectly safe!
(3) You have also guidance.
(4) And provision.
II. they shall sing of the ways of the Lord. Not only are Gods ways the place of their song, but its subject.
1. Gods ways to us. Predestination, redemption, etc. Gods ways are such gracious ways, such wise ways, such holy ways, such ways of wisdom and of lovingkindness, that in any company we may talk about them, and in every place we may sing of them. We will sing of the ways of the Lord with us.
2. Our ways to God.
(1) A good road.
(2) Good company.
(3) Good accommodation.
(4) Fine prospects.
(5) We have daylight to travel by, for we are not the children of darkness.
III. Those who sing in the ways of God also sing of the Lord of the way. They shall sing in the ways of the Lord, and then some read it, That great is the glory of the Lord. That is the subject of their song. When they sing about the Lord of the way this psalm supplies us with the points of their song.
1. Gods lovingkindness (verse 2).
2. Gods truth (verse 2).
3. Answered prayers (verse 3).
4. Gods condescension (verse 6).
5. Gods delivering mercy (verse 7).
6. Final preservation (verse 8).
IV. They shall sing to the Lord of the way, as well as of the Lord of the way. They shall sing in the ways, for great is the glory of the Lord.
1. Let us take care that all our songs are to the honour and praise of God, for if we ever sing to our own praise it will be idolatry. I fear much public worship, is thus marred. Our singing should be such that God hears it with pleasure--singing in which there is not so much art as heart--not so much of musical sound as of spiritual emotion. They shall sing to the glory of God.
2. If you and I sing with the Spirit and the understanding, we shall increase the manifested glory of God by bringing others to sing in His ways. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The joy of believers in the way of obedience
I. The ways of the Lord.
1. The way in which God walks in regard to us.
(1) Nature.
(2) Dispensations of providence.
(3) Dispensations of grace.
2. The way in which we walk in regard to Him.
(1) Obedience.
(2) Inclination.
II. How the people of God are to be affected in them. They not only walk in the ways of the Lord, but sing in them. This implies acquiescence, approbation, satisfaction, pleasure, delight. Whence springs this singing in the ways of the Lord? We may look after some of the near sources of it.
1. Conviction. The believer is able to give a reason of the hope that is in him, and he is able to give a reason of the joy that is in him.
2. Renovation. Now he is born of God, therefore he savours the things which are freely given him of God.
3. Experience. Oh, what delightful hours were those in which I have taken sweet counsel, and gone to the house of God in company;--in which I have seen His power and His glory there!
4. Fellowship. I am a companion of all those that fear Thee, and of those that keep Thy precepts.
5. His prospects and anticipations. Eye hath not seen, etc.
6. The accommodation. Everything is provided for these travellers that shall make them rejoice and sing in the ways of the Lord. Guidance, defence, strength, etc. (W. Jay.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Yahweh is high, yet he cares for the lowly
Yahweh is high, yet he cares for the lowly
Yahweh is above all creation in power, position, and authority. Yet his interest is in those who are humble in spirit, servants to all. This is a simple contrast.
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the proud he knows from far off
This expression probably means that God is not faithful to those who are proud. (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
works
glory
proud
know
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.