a promise (to God) · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
God
אֱלֹהִ֣ים'E.lo.Him
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
render
אֲשַׁלֵּ֖ם'a.sha.Lem
H7999
to be safe (in mind · verb, piel imperfect, 1st person common singular
praises
תּוֹדֹ֣תto.Dot
H8426
properly · noun, common feminine plural absolute
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 9:1-3 I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.
1 Samuel 1:24-28 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him un…
Psalms 50:14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
Numbers 30:2-16 If a man vow a vow unto the LORD, or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond; he shall not break his word, he shall do according to all t…
Psalms 76:11 Vow, and pay unto the LORD your God: let all that be round about him bring presents unto him that ought to be feared.
Psalms 119:106 I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous judgments.
Ecclesiastes 5:4-6 When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.
Genesis 28:20-22 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 56:8–end
Several things David here comforts himself with in the day of his distress and fear.
I. That God took particular notice of all his grievances and all his griefs, Psa 56:8. 1. Of all the inconveniences of his state: Thou tellest my wanderings, my flittings, so the old translation. David was now but a young (under thirty) and yet he had had many removes, from his father's house to the court, thence to the camp, and now driven out to sojourn where he could find a place, but not allowed to rest any where; he was hunted like a partridge upon the mountains; continual terrors and toils attended him; but this comforted him, that God kept a particular account of all his motions, and numbered all the…
I will render praises--will pay what I have vowed.
John Gill on Psalms 56:12
Thy vows are upon me, O God,.... Which he had made to him in the time of his distress and trouble, and which he looked upon himself under obligation to perform; they were debts upon him he ought to pay off; they were with him; they were fresh in his mind and memory; he had not forgot them, which is often the case when trouble is over; and he found his heart inclined to make them good;
I will render praises unto thee; which explains what he meant by his vows; namely, sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord: when he was in distress, he had vowed and promised, that, if the Lord would deliver him, he would praise his name, and give him all the glory; and now he resolves to fulfil what…
Psalm 56:12-13
12. Thy vows are upon me, O God! I will pay thy praises. 13. For thou hast delivered my soul from death: hast thou not delivered my feet from falling headlong? that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
12. Thy vows are upon me, O God! I hinted, from the outset, that it is probable this psalm was written by David after he had escaped the dangers which he describes; and this may account for the thanksgiving here appended to it. At the same time, we have evidence that he was ever ready to engage in this exercise even when presently suffering under his afflictions. He declares that the vows of God were upon him; by which he means, that he was bound to pay them, as,…
The Church Fathers
For before the eyes of God the hand is never empty of a gift, if the treasury of the heart has been filled with good will. Hence the Psalmist says: In me, O God, are your vows which I shall pay, praises to you. As if he were saying openly: Even if outwardly I do not have gifts to offer, yet within myself I find what I may place upon the altar of your praise, because you who are not fed by our giving are better pleased by the offering of the heart. For nothing richer than good will is offered to God.
"In me, O God, are Your vows, which I will render of praise to You" [Psalm 56:12]. "Vow ye, and render to the Lord your God." What vow, what render? Perchance those animals which were offered at the altars aforetime? No such thing offer thou: in yourself is what you may vow and render. From the heart's coffer bring forth the incense of praise; from the store of a good conscience bring forth the sacrifice of faith. Whatsoever thing you bring forth, kindle with love. In yourself be the vows, which you may render of praise to God. Of what praise? For what has He granted you? "For You have rescued my soul from death" [Psalm 56:13]. This is that very life which he tells out to Him: "O God, my life I have told out to You." For I was what? Dead. Through myself I was dead: through You I am what? Alive. Therefore "in me, O God, are Your vows, which I will render of praise to You." Behold I love my God: no one does tear Him from me: that which to Him I may give, no one does tear from me, because in the heart it is shut up. With reason is said with that former confidence, "What should man do unto me?" Let man rage, let him be permitted to rage, be permitted to accomplish that which he attempts: what is he to take away? Gold, silver, cattle, men servants, maid servants, estates, houses, let him take away all things: does he by any means take away the vows, which are in me, which I may render of praise to God? The tempter was permitted to tempt a holy man, Job; [Job 1:12] in one moment he took away all things: whatever of possessions he had had, he carried off: took away inheritance, slew heirs; and this not little by little, but in a crowd, at one blow, at one swoop, so that all things were on a sudden announced: when all was taken away, alone there remained Job, but in him were vows of praise, which he might render to God, in him evidently there were: the coffer of his holy breast the thieving devil had not rifled, full he was of that wherefrom he might sacrifice. Hear what he had, hear what he brought forth: "The Lord has given, the Lord has taken away; as has pleased the Lord, so has been done: be the name of the Lord blessed." [Job 1:21] O riches interior, whither thief does not draw near! God Himself had given that whereof He was receiving; He had Himself enriched him with that whereof to Him he was offering that which He loved. Praise from you God requires, your…
Dictionary and topics
Gath — A wine-vat, one of the five royal cities of the Philistines (Josh. 13:3) on which the ark brought calamity (1 Sam. 5:8, 9; 6:17). It was famous also as being the birthplace or residence of Goliath (1…
Jonath-elem-rechokim — Dove of the dumbness of the distance; i.e., “the silent dove in distant places”, title of Ps. 56. This was probably the name of some well known tune or melody to which the psalm was to be sung.
Death, Natural · When averted for a season, is a motive to increased devotedness — When averted for a season, is a motive to increased devotedness
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).
In prospect of his deliverance the poet promises beforehand to fulfil the duty of thankfulness. עלי, incumbent upon me, as in Pro 7:14; Sa2 18:11. נדריך, with an objective subject, are the vows made to God; and תּודות are distinguished from them, as e.g., in Ch2 29:31. He will suffer neither the pledged שׁלמי נדר nor the שׁלמי תּודה to be wanting; for - so will he be then able to sing and to declare - Thou hast rescued, etc. The perfect after כּי denotes that which is then past, as in Psa 59:17, cf. the dependent passage Psa 116:8. There the expression is ארצות החיּים instead of אור החיּים (here and in Elihu's speech, Job 33:30). Light of life (Joh 8:12) or of the living (lxx τῶν ζώντων) i…
mere mortals (Hebrew ’adam): The psalm also uses two other words for man: ’enosh (“people,” 56:1) and basar (“mere mortals,” 56:4). All express the ideas of mortality and finitude.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 56:12
Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee.
Thy vows are upon me, O God. Vows made in his trouble he does not lightly forget, nor should we. We voluntarily made them, let us cheerfully keep them. All professed Christians are men under vows, but especially those who in hours of dire distress have rededicated themselves unto the Lord. I will render praises unto thee. With heart, and voice, and gift, we should cheerfully extol the God of our salvation. The practice of making solemn vows in times of trouble is to be commended, when it is followed by the far less common custom of fulfilling them when the trouble is over.
