Also to you, Lord, belongs loving kindness, for you reward every man according to his work.
Parallel Translations
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Also to you, Lord, belongs loving kindness, for you reward every man according to his work.
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Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.
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(62-13) Also unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for Thou renderest to every man according to his work.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (22)
Passages linked to Psalms 62:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Matthew 16:27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will render to everyone according to his deeds.
- Job 34:11 For the work of a man he will render to him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.
- Psalms 103:8 Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness.
- Romans 2:6 who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:”
- Exodus 34:6-7 Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth, keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the children’s children, on the third and on the fourth generation.”
- 2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
- Psalms 86:15 But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
- Proverbs 24:12 If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this,” doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?
- Psalms 86:5 For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.
- Ezekiel 18:30 “Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Return, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity will not be your ruin.
- Daniel 9:9 To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him.
- Micah 7:18 Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving kindness.
- 1 Corinthians 3:8 Now he who plants and he who waters are the same, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
- Revelation 22:12 “Behold, I come quickly. My reward is with me, to repay to each man according to his work.
- Psalms 103:17 But Yahweh’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children,
- Jeremiah 32:19 great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings;
- Ezekiel 7:27 The king will mourn, and the prince will be clothed with desolation. The hands of the people of the land will be troubled. I will do to them after their way, and according to their own judgments I will judge them. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.’ ”
- Ezekiel 33:20 Yet you say, “The way of the Lord is not fair.” House of Israel, I will judge every one of you after his ways.’ ”
- Daniel 9:18 My God, turn your ear, and hear. Open your eyes, and see our desolations, and the city which is called by your name; for we do not present our petitions before you for our righteousness, but for your great mercies’ sake.
- Ephesians 6:8 knowing that whatever good thing each one does, he will receive the same good again from the Lord, whether he is bound or free.
- Colossians 3:25 But he who does wrong will receive again for the wrong that he has done, and there is no partiality.
- 1 Peter 1:17 If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain So that the wicked shall feel thy power, and…
So that the wicked shall feel thy power, and the godly thy mercy.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 62:12 Also unto thee, O Lord, [belongeth] mercy:…
Psa 62:12 Also unto thee, O Lord, [belongeth] mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.
Ver. 12. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy] viz. To set thy power a-work for the good of thy people. And as these two, God’s power and God’s mercy, are the two pillars, the Boaz and the Jachin of every believer, (hence Job Job 42:2, having spoken his power, he speaketh of his thoughts of peace towards his people) so they are sufficient proofs of the doctrines before delivered, and do evince the truth of that which followeth.
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For thou renderest to every man according to his work] viz. Judgment to the wicked and mercy to the righteous; where the Syriac interpreter giveth this good note, Est gratis Dei ut reddit homini secundum opera bona, quia metres bonorum operum est ex gratis. It is mercy in God to set his love on them that keep his commandmeats, Exo 20:6.
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 Belongeth mercy, or benignity, or readiness to do good.…
Belongeth mercy, or benignity, or readiness to do good. Thou art no less willing than able to defend and preserve all that put their trust in thee.
For; or, therefore; for the following words seem to be either a reason or proof of, or an inference from, the two foregoing properties of God, power and mercy. God is almighty, therefore he can easily subdue and destroy all his and mine ungodly enemies, and recompense unto them all their malicious and wicked practices. He is also mild and merciful, and therefore will pardon good men’s failings, and graciously reward me and others of his people according to our integrity.
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According to his work; according to the nature and quality, though not according to the proportion, of their works, whether they be good or bad. And this, as he is obliged to do by his holy nature, and by that respect which he oweth to his own glory, so he is able to do it, being omnipotent, and willing to do it to the godly, (which was the only thing that might be doubted, because of their manifold and great corruptions, and imperfections, and miscarriages,) because he is merciful and gracious.
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 Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy,.... This is…
Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy,.... This is the other thing the psalmist had heard, and was assured of, and which encouraged his hope and trust in the Lord; that mercy belonged to him, Psa 130:7; as appears, not only from the common bounties of his providence, daily bestowed upon his creatures; but from the special gift of his Son, and of all spiritual mercies and blessings in him; from the regeneration of the Lord's people, the pardon of their sins, and their eternal salvation;
for thou renderest to every man according to his work; and which is a reason proving that both power and mercy belong to God; power in punishing the wicked according to their deserts, and mercy in rewarding the saints, not in a way of merit, or of debt, but of grace. Some interpret the words, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe, "though thou renderest", &c. that is, God is gracious and merciful, though he is also just and righteous in rendering to every man as his work is, whether it be good or evil.
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Next: Psalms Chapter 63
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 Therefore - God is almighty, therefore he can easily…
Therefore - God is almighty, therefore he can easily destroy all his enemies: he is also merciful, and therefore will pardon good mens failings. Renderest - And this as he is obliged to do by his holy nature, so is he able to do it, being omnipotent, and willing to do it to the godly (which was the only thing that might be doubted, because of their manifold miscarriages) because he is merciful and gracious.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 62:12. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy…
Psa 62:12. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy — Hebrew, חסד, chesed, benignity, beneficence, compassion. “Significat id boni, quod gratuito fit:” It signifies that good which is done gratuitously. — Buxtorf. He is no less willing than able to defend, preserve, and do good to those that trust in him. For he is as truly the best, as he is the greatest of beings, merciful and gracious, yea, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation and good hope. This is a further reason why we should trust in him, and answers the objections of our sinfulness and unworthiness; though we deserve nothing but his wrath, yet we may hope for all good from his mercy, which is over all his works. For, or therefore, thou renderest, &c. — For the following words seem to be added, either as a proof of, or an inference from, the two foregoing properties of God, power and mercy. God is almighty, therefore he can easily destroy all his enemies: he is merciful, and therefore will pardon good men’s failings, and graciously reward their integrity; according to his work — Which, as he is obliged to do, by his own holy nature, so he is able to do it, being omnipotent, and willing to do it to the godly, notwithstanding their manifold infirmities and miscarriages, because he is merciful and gracious. Though God doth not always do this visibly in this world, yet he will do it in the day of final recompense. No service done to him shall go unrewarded; nor any affront given him unpunished, unless repented of. Thus it appears that power and mercy belong to him. If he were not a God of power, there are sinners that would be too high to be punished; and if he were not a God of mercy, there are services too worthless to be rewarded.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy - Power,…
Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy - Power, indeed, belongs to God Psa 62:11; but this is an attribute to be feared, and while, in one respect, it will inspire confidence, or while it gives us the assurance that God is able to defend us when all else shall fail, yet, unattended by any other attribute, it might produce only apprehension and alarm. What man, weak and sinful man, needs to know is not merely that God has almighty power, but how that power will be wielded, or with what other attributes it is combined; whether it will be put forth to destroy or to save; to kill or to keep alive; to crush or to uphold. Man, therefore, needs the assurance that God is a benevolent Being, as really as that he is a powerful Being; that he is disposed to show mercy; that his power will be put forth in behalf of those who confide in him, and not employed against them. Hence, the attribute of mercy is so essential to a proper conception of God; and hence, the psalm so appropriately closes by a reference to his mercy and compassion.
For thou renderest to every man according to his work - As this stands in our version, it would seem that the psalmist regarded what is here referred to as a manifestation of mercy. Yet the “rendering to every man according to his work” is an act of justice rather than of mercy. It is probable, therefore, that the word rendered “for” - כי kı̂y - does not refer here to either of the attributes mentioned exclusively - either power or mercy - but is to be understood with reference to the general course of argument in the psalm, as adapted to lead to confidence in God. The fact that he is a God who will deal impartially with mankind, or who will regard what is right and proper to be done in view of the characters of mankind, is a reason why they should confide in God - since there could be no just ground of confidence in a Being who is not thus impartial and just. All these combined - power, mercy, equity - constitute a reason why people should confide in God. If either of these were missing in the divine character, man could have no confidence in God. If these things do exist in God, unlimited confidence may be placed in him as having all needful power to save; as being so merciful that sinful people may trust in him; and as being so just and equal in his dealings that all may feel that it is right to repose confidence in a Being by whom all the interests of the universe will be secured. Compare 1Jo 1:9.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain for thou renderest--literally, "that Thou renderest," &c., connected with…
for thou renderest--literally, "that Thou renderest," &c., connected with "I heard this," as the phrase--"that power," &c. [Psa 62:11] --teaching that by His power He can show both mercy and justice.
Next: Psalms Chapter 63
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; or, loving…
Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; or, loving kindness. "Of Divine power all nature speaks; the knowledge of God"s mercy rests mainly on revelation" (Kay). For thou renderest to every man according to his work. When God rewards well doing, it is Still of his mercy, since no man can claim that he deserves reward.
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. 12. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy.…
Ver. 12. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy. This tender attribute sweetens the grand thought of his power: the divine strength will not crush us, but will be used for our good. God is so full of mercy that it belongs to him, as if all the mercy in the universe came from God, and still was claimed by him as his possession. His mercy, like his power, endureth for ever, and is ever present in him, ready to be revealed,
For thou renderest to every man according to his work. This looks rather like justice than mercy; but if we understand it to mean that God graciously rewards the poor, imperfect works of his people, we see in it a clear display of mercy. May it not also mean that according to the work he allots us is the strength which he renders to us? he is not a hard master; he does not bid us make bricks without straw, but he metes out to us strength equal to our day. In either meaning we have power and mercy blended, and have a double reason for waiting only upon God. Man neither helps us nor rewards us; God will do both. In him power and grace are eternally resident; our faith should therefore patiently hope and quietly wait, for we shall surely see the salvation of God. Deo soli gloria. All glory be to God only.
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Ver. 12. Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy. Something more is necessary to invite us to a dependence on God than his bare power and ability to help us. There must be also a firm persuasion of the promptitude and readiness of his will to do what he is able; and this we have in the other attribute of his mercy.... "Unto thee, "unto thee alone, and unto none else. The most tender mercy amongst the creatures is none at all, being compared with the divine mercy. It belongeth unto thee, as thy prerogative and peculiar excellency. Mercy is a peculiar jewel of his crown. Or, thine, O Lord, is mercy. Nothing amongst the creature deserves the name of mercy but his own. Nothing is worthy to be so called, but what is proper and peculiar to God. Or, with thee is mercy, as it is expressed elsewhere. Ps 130:4, 7. It is with him; that is, it is inseparable from his nature. He is merciful in a way peculiar to himself, "the Father of mercies." 2Co 1:3. William Wisheart.
Ver. 12. For thou rend rest to every man according to his work; namely--judgment to the wicked, and mercy to the righteous; where the Syriac interpreter giveth the good note: Est gratia Dei ut reddat homini secunda opera bona, quia merces bonorum operum est ex gratia: It is mercy in God to set his love on them that keep his commandments. Ex 20:6. John Trapp.
Ver. 12. Thou renderest to every man according to his work. Learn to admire the grace of God in rewarding your works. It is much that he accepts them; and what is it, then, that he rewards them? It is much that he doth not damn you for them, seeing they are all defiled, and have something of sin cleaving to them; and what is it, then, that he crowns them? You would admire the bounty and munificence of a man that should give you a kingdom for taking up a straw at his foot, or give you a hundred thousand pounds for paying him a penny rent you owed him: how, then, should you adore the rich grace and transcendent bounty of God in so largely recompensing such mean services, in setting a crown of glory upon your heads, as the reward of those works which you can scarcely find in your hearts to call good ones! You will even blush one day to see yourselves so much honoured for what you are ashamed of, and are conscious to yourselves that you have deserved nothing by. You will wonder then to see God recompensing you for doing what was your duty to do, and what was his work in you; giving you grace, and crowning that grace; enabling you to do things acceptable to him, and then rewarding you as having done them. Edward Veal(--1708), in "The Morning Exercises."
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 Also unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy.
Psa_62:12
Also unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy.
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The mercy of God to miserable sinners His distinguishing attribute
I. Its properties.
1. Free and sovereign.
2. Rich and exceedingly abundant.
3. Effectual.
4. Comprehensive.
5. Perpetual.
II. The proper results of this truth upon ourselves.
1. Let us take care to seek Gods mercy in time.
2. Be encouraged to pray.
3. Let humble believers trust and not be afraid.
4. Thank God for His mercy.
5. Imitate it. (G. Burder, D. D.)
The mercy of God
One is at first sight tempted to amend the psalmists saying, and for mercy to substitute justice. It seems characteristically just, rather than merciful, to render to men according to their works. But let us emphasize this word his. Let us reflect that in what a man does there are elements which others have contributed, and for which others are responsible. It then begins to dawn upon us that some discrimination is possible, and that such discrimination is merciful. When we separate from a mans work that which is not strictly his, but the work of his parents, or his teachers, or of the spirit of his times, even a bad man seems less culpable. Some, but less than all, of the wrong-doing that we see in him was really his. The savage who delights in torturing his prisoners, the persecutor who kindles the fagots for heretics, need the benefit of this discriminating word, his work. Loss of sleep or dyspepsia may induce one to acts of peevishness or moroseness that are not wholly his work. The overworked pointsman who falls asleep causes a catastrophe not all his work. These discriminations society cannot always make and at the same time sufficiently safeguard public interests. But we may be assured that He who only is competent to unravel the complicated web does discriminate, and allots to each man retribution for no more than is strictly his. That there are such discriminations, however beyond our power to draw them truly, gives us a basis for charity in our estimate of those who excite our intensest reprobation. When we see a Nero or a Borgia, and are taxed to account for such an excess of wickedness, we may reasonably think it represents the accumulated contributions of more lives than one, and a responsibility in which more than one has share. Admitting all this, we must equally insist that no man can escape responsibility for the work which is strictly his. One may say, if he will, that man is nine-tenths environment, but one must not cancel the residual fraction for which the responsibility is his. No ship is started on the voyage of life with rudder lashed. In the most ill-starred, storm-crippled life, after all discrimination of the contributing forces which appear in the result, there is a certain remainder due to the free helm in the responsible hand--a work that is his, and a retribution due to that. What we have now to observe further is, that not only is the Divine discrimination merciful, but the retribution is also merciful. What should mercy seek first but to secure men against wreck and loss? And how can it secure them but by securing the moral order in its established lines of cause and consequence? We can do no more merciful thing for ourselves and our neighbours than to give the law of consequences full sweep, in rendering to each according to his work. To interfere, under however good a name, with the necessary trace of a growing character that is supplied by the law of consequences, is not mercy, but murder. For a man to imagine that he can lie, or steal, or scamp his work to his neighbours damage or danger, and escape the evil consequence, or any part of it, is to think the most immoral and dangerous thought. And it is merely helping somebody to think such thoughts--taking down the guard-rail on the path along the edge of the precipice--when we allow a weak sympathy to interfere with the hand that is laying on some guilty back the scourge of just consequence. Is there, then, no place for leniency? May not one say with King Arthur in excusing Sir Bedivere--
A man may fail in duty twice,
And the third time prosper?
Unquestionably; and yet who will gainsay that, as things go, the danger is not of too little leniency, but too much? No doubt it sounds charitable to say, Let him off; he wont do it again. But mercy demands security for that, not only for society, but for the wrong-doer himself. Nature takes this security of us by enforcing her rule, Pay as you go. Plato profoundly remarks, That it is better for a man to be punished than to escape. It saves him from a worse punishment in the degradation of his character. So in Mrs. Wards Marcella, Raeburn says of the homicide Hurd, I believe that if the murderer saw things as they really are, he would himself claim his own death as his best chance, his only chance, in this mysterious universe of self-recovery. To maintain moral worth, to save manhood from degradation, true mercy prefers the sound way to the soft way, and renders to each according to his work. What, then, becomes of the forgiveness of sins? Certainly, no cancelling of the spiritual law, whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Forgiveness works no cut-off of consequences. It merely shifts the train of consequences from a down-grade to an up-grade, from direction toward the outer darkness to the Fathers house. It is the transformation of She consequences which issue from our indestructible past that forgiveness effects. The evil deeds which cannot be annihilated, and whose causative power must abide in our life either for evil or for good, cannot be cancelled by forgiveness, but only converted from a fatal to a vital issue. So the muck-heap, which above ground poisons the air, fertilizes the soil when put underground. The evil that is buried by forgiveness: becomes a source of fruitfulness to the new-sown seeds of better resolution. (J. M. Whiten, Ph. D.)
For Thou renderest to every man according to his work.
The mercy of God seen in judgment
We have no difficulty in accepting the merciful character of God until we enter the realm of retribution and judgment. In the nature of the ease our conclusions must be imperfect, from our meagre knowledge.
I. The general law. God administers in perfect equity the legitimate results of every mans efforts to himself. The term render has the germinal sense of restoring, paying back, or making up the account of--rendering judgment.
1. This law--or method of Gods procedure--is universal in His dominions. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Material, intellectual, moral. Yet we must not get the idea of law as above the Lawgiver or Executor. Unintelligent power is not a swaying sceptre: Power belongeth unto God.
2. Nor must we think of God as held by any force, aside from His own wisdom, in the production of successive events in the universe: There is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God.
II. There are two sides to the tremendous fact of law.
1. The awful side. The side which thrills with its tremendous import--which threatens and yet invites. In its security of the reproduction of human actions. In nature. The fifth reproduction of a grain of wheat is 25,600,000,000 grains. Plant a cottonwood tree beside a stream in western prairies, and soon you will fringe the streams for ten thousand square miles. Memory is a reproductive spring of power as lasting as the soul. Panoramas, words, acts, buried for fifty years, spring from their graves with the bloom of youth upon them. How subtle, majestic and awful this power in moral realms! How large a sum of human life is fashioned by the subtle power of potent influence!
2. The other side of this awful fact of law is a glorious one.
(1) Without it there would be no permanency in the domain of active matter or spirit. Permanency, and the sense of it, is essential to satisfaction in every field of pursuit. We struggle for it in our contest with nature, with the world, with life itself. This underlies our great hope of heaven: it will abide.
(2) Without it there would be no incentive to effort.
(3) Without it there would be no standing and universal warning against sin, or incentive to virtue. The Judgment Day is to test our whole being and doing. The mighty environment of law is to hold our destiny and establish our glory or seal our doom. Sin will generate an awful cyclone. Righteousness will sail into a quiet harbour of eternal placidity and safety.
(4) There seem difficulties. It is hard for us to see and say, at all times, the Judge of the whole earth doeth right, and His mercy is unto childrens children. In the chamber of death, specially of the young. In the wake of the cyclone. But think: it is after the war-cloud has cleared away that we see and feel the glory of results. When we are so infatuated with one department of life as to lose sight of the import of its outcome, it is difficult to see that mercy inspires justice and law. Yet so we teach our children by painful discipline, if necessary. Is it unkind to hold the boy to his books though he squirm and cry? No; the delights to come from acquired mental power lead us in kindness to hold him to toil now. When we judge of Divine administration from the narrow limitations of human judgment. How often, if we only knew, would our tears be turned into smiles! A mother prayed for her sick young son that his life might be spared whether it Was Gods will or not, and he grew up to curse her life and break her heart, Two lessons this life under law should teach us--
1. Faith in God: as an Administrator--Governor--wise, powerful, merciful, good. A personal Friend.
2. Obedience to His commands. How shortsighted the soldier who stops to question the orders from headquarters! (M. D. Collins, D. D.)
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Psa_63:1-11
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.