the heart · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 7:10 My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.
Psalms 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Psalms 94:15 But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it.
Psalms 119:68 Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.
Psalms 36:10 O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.
Psalms 51:18 Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Psalms 119:80 Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed.
Psalms 32:2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 125:4–end
Here is, 1. The prayer the psalmist puts up for the happiness of those that are sincere and constant (Psa 125:4): Do good, O Lord! unto those that are good. This teaches us to pray for all good people, to make supplication for all saints; and we may pray in faith for them, being assured that those who do well shall certainly be well dealt with. Those that are as they should be shall be as they would be, provided they be upright in heart, that they be really as good as they seem to be. With the upright God will show himself upright. He does not say, Do good, O Lord! to those that are perfect, that are sinless and spotless, but to those that are sincere and honest. God's promises should quicke…
Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good,.... That are made so by the Spirit and grace of God; for none are naturally good, but evil; only such who are regenerated and made new creatures, who have a good work of grace begun in them; who have the good Spirit of God, and his good graces, and the good word of God in them, and are filled with all goodness; and which is known by the good fruits which they bear, or the good works done by them. For these the psalmist prays the Lord would do good to them, not only in a providential way, as he does to all; but in a way of special grace, bestowing the blessings of his goodness on them, and causing all things to work for their good: and as saints shoul…
Psalm 125:3-5
3. For the scepter [83] of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the just, lest the just should put faith their hands to iniquity. 4. Do good, O Jehovah to the good, and to those who are upright in their hearts. 5. But those who turn aside into their crooked paths, [84] Jehovah will make them walk with the workers of iniquity. But there shall be peace upon Israel.
3. For the scepter of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the just. This is, as it were, a correction of the preceding sentence. The Psalmist had said that the hand of God was extended on all sides to defend his Church. But as we are disposed to draw the divine promises to our own advantage, in the way of…
The Church Fathers
And he therefore addeth, "Do well, O Lord, unto those that are good and true of heart" (ver. 4). They who are right in heart, of whom I was speaking a little before,-they who follow the will of God, not their own will,-reflect upon this. But they who wish to follow God, allow Him to go before, and themselves to follow; not themselves to go before, and Him to follow; and in all things they find Him good, whether chastening, or consoling, or exercising, or crowning, or cleansing, or enlightening; as the Apostle saith, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God."
God is good, but he is also just, and it is the nature of the just to reward in proportion to merit, as it is written: "Do good, O Lord, to those that are good and to the upright of heart. But such as turn aside to their own crooked ways, the Lord shall lead out with the workers of iniquity." He is merciful, but he is also a judge, for "the Lord loves mercy and judgment," says the psalmist. And he therefore also says, "Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord." We have been taught who they are on whom he has mercy: "Blessed are the merciful," says the Lord, "for they shall obtain mercy." You see with what discernment he bestows mercy, neither being merciful without judgment nor judging without mercy, for "the Lord is merciful and just." Let us not, therefore, know God by halves or make his loving-kindness an excuse for our indolence; for this, his thunders, for this, his lightnings—that his goodness may not be held in dispute. He who causes the sun to rise also strikes people with blindness. He who sends the rain also causes the rain of fire. By the one he manifests his goodness; by the other, his severity. For the one let us love him, for the other let us fear, that it may not be said also to us, "Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and patience and longsuffering? Do you not know that the kindness of God leads you to penance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you store up for yourself wrath against the day of wrath."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Heart · .Upright — .Upright
Heart, Character Of The Renewed · Upright — Upright
Uprightness · Should be in: Heart — Should be in: Heart
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
On the ground of the strong faith in Psa 125:1. and of the confident hope in Psa 125:3, the petition now arises that Jahve would speedily bestow the earnestly desired blessing of freedom upon the faithful ones, and on the other hand remove the cowardly lit. those afraid to confess God and those who have fellowship with apostasy, together with the declared wicked ones, out of the way. For such is the meaning of Psa 125:4. טובים (in Proverbs alternating with the "righteous," Pro 2:20, the opposite being the "wicked," רשׁעים, Pro 14:19) are here those who truly believe and rightly act in accordance with the good will of God,
(Note: The Midrash here calls to mind a Talmudic riddle: There came a…
People who reject the straight path of the upright are fools (Prov 2:12-15). God pours out his goodness on the godly (see Ps 122:6-9).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 125:4
Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts.
Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. Men to be good at all must be good at heart. Those who trust in the Lord are good; for faith is the root of righteousness, and the evidence of uprightness. Faith in God is a good and upright thing, and its influence makes the rest of the man good and upright. To such God will do good: the prayer of the text is but another form of promise, for that which the Lord prompts us to ask he virtually promises to give. Jehovah will take off evil from his people, and in the place thereof will enrich them with all manner of good…
