to add or augment (often adverbial · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
king’s
מֶ֣לֶךְMe.lekh
H4428
a king · noun, common masculine singular absolute
life
יָמִ֣יםya.Mim
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
years
שְׁ֝נוֹתָ֗יוShe.no.Tav
H8141
a year (as a revolution of time) · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
many
דֹ֥רdor
H1755
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
generations
וָדֹֽרva.Dor
H1755
properly · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular 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 21:4 He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.
Psalms 89:36-37 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
Psalms 21:6 For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.
Psalms 72:15-17 And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be prai…
Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, h…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 61:5–end
In these verses we may observe,
I. With what pleasure David looks back upon what God had done for him formerly (Psa 61:5): Thou, O God! hast heard my vows, that is, 1. "The vows themselves which I made, and with which I bound my soul: thou hast taken notice of them; thou hast accepted them, because made in sincerity, and been well pleased with them; thou hast been mindful of them, and put me in mind of them." God put Jacob in mind of his vows, Gen 31:13; Gen 35:1. note, God is a witness to all our vows, all our good purposes, and all our solemn promises of new obedience. He keeps an account of them, which should be a good reason with us, as it was with David here, why we should perform our v…
the king--himself and his royal line ending in Christ. Mercy and truth personified, as in Psa 40:11; Psa 57:3.
John Gill on Psalms 61:6
Thou wilt prolong the King's life,.... Or "add days to the days of the King" (a). Meaning either himself, who, though his life was in danger by fighting with the Syrians and Edomites, or rather through the conspiracy of his son; yet was assured that he should yet live many years more, and especially in his posterity; and that his kingdom would be established for ever, as was promised him, 2 Samuel 7:12. Or rather the King Messiah, so the Targum: and Kimchi observes, that if this psalm respects the captivity, the King is the King Messiah: it may be understood of his life as man; who, though he died, rose again, and lives for evermore; and that, as to the glory of God the Father, so to the goo…
Psalm 61:5-8
5. For thou, O God! hast heard my vows: thou hast given inheritance to those [405] fearing thy name. 6. Thou shalt add days upon days to the king, and his years as generation upon generation. 7. He shalt abide before the face of God for ever: prepare mercy and truth; let them keep him. 8. So will I sing unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.
5. For thou, O God! hast heard my vows. He here shows the grounds upon which he had spoken of his abiding under the wings of God. The sudden joy which he experienced arose from the circumstance of God's having heard his prayers, and made light to spring out of darkness. By his vows we must understand his prayers, accordi…
The Church Fathers
"Days upon days of the King Thou shall add to the years of Him" [Psalm 61:6]. This is therefore the King of whom we are the members. A King Christ is, our Head, our King. Thou hast given to Him days upon days; not only those days in that time that hath end, but days upon those days without end. "I will dwell," he saith, "in the house of the Lord, for length of days," Wherefore for length of days, but because now is the shortness of days? For everything which hath an end, is short: but of this King are days upon days, so that not only while these days pass away, Christ reigneth in His Church, but the Saints shall reign together with Him in those days which have no end. ...For years of God have been also spoken of: "But Thou art the very Same, and Thy years shall not fail." In the same manner as years, so days, so one day. Whatsoever thou wilt thou sayest of eternity. Whatever thou wilt thou sayest for this reason, because whatever thou shalt have said, it is too little that thou hast said. For thou must needs say somewhat, to the end that there may be something whereby thou mayest meditate on that which cannot be told. "Even unto the day of generation and of generation." Of this generation and of the generation that shall be: of this generation which is compared to the moon, because as the moon is new, waxeth, is full, waneth, and vanisheth, so are these mortal generations; and of the generation wherein we are born anew by rising again, and shall abide for everlasting with God, when now no longer we are like the moon, but like that of which saith the Lord, "Then the righteous shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." [Matthew 13:43] For the moon by a figure in the Scriptures is put for the mutability of this mortal state. ...
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
Neginah — In the title of Ps. 61, denotes the music of stringed instruments (1 Sam. 16:16; Isa. 38:20). It is the singular form of Neginoth.
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).
The second part begins with a confirmation of the gracious purpose of God expressed in Psa 61:5. David believes that he shall experience what he gives expression to in Psa 61:5; for God has already practically shown him that neither his life nor his kingship shall come to an end yet; He has answered the prayers of His chosen one, that, blended with vows, resulted from the lowly, God-resigned spirit which finds expression in Sa2 15:25., and He has given or delivered up to him the land which is his by inheritance, when threatened by the rebels as robbers, - the land to which those who fear the covenant God have a just claim. It is clear enough that the receivers are "those who fear the name of…
you have heard my vows: The psalmist’s vows might also be a part of ceremonial sacrifices (66:13-15; 76:11; 116:14, 18). He praises and thanks God for his rescue. • The inheritance refers to the promise of the land (see Ps 60), the sacredness of the Temple, the joy of God’s presence (119:111), or any similar reward (16:6; 37:9, 11, 18, 22, 29, 34; 127:3).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 61:6
Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations.
Thou wilt prolong the king's life; or, better, "days to the days of the King thou wilt add." Death threatened, but God preserved his beloved. David, considering his many perils, enjoyed a long and prosperous reign. And his years as many generations. He lived to see generation after generation personally; in his descendants he lived as king through a very long period; his dynasty continued for many generations; and in Christ Jesus, his seed and son, spiritually David reigns on evermore. Thus he who began at the foot of the rock, half drowned, and almost dead, is here led to the summit, and sings as a priest abiding in the…
