Psalm 61:5
For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.
For thou, O God, hast heard my vows,.... Or "my prayers", as the Septuagint and other versions. Vows are so called, because it was usual to make vows in trouble, when prayer was made to the Lord for help and deliverance, Psalms 66:13. This is a reason why the psalmist was encouraged to put his trust in the Lord, because his prayers were heard by him; or he was sure they would be, as he had entreated, Psalms 61:1. The past is put for the future, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe; and it may be because of the certainty of his prayers being heard; and which may be concluded from the Lord's declaring himself a God hearing prayer, from the prevalent mediation of Christ, from the assistance and intercession of the Spirit, and from the exercise of faith in prayer, and the divine promises; or while he was crying to God an answer was returned, and he was delivered out of his troubles, Isaiah 65:24. Another reason follows:
thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name: not the land of Israel, as Aben Ezra and Jarchi; which was given for an inheritance to the posterity of Abraham, Ps 105:11; and which was never more fully in their possession than in the times of David: nor the tabernacle or sanctuary of the Lord, as Kimchi; where he desired to dwell, Psalms 61:4; and now had his request granted: but the heavenly glory, the incorruptible inheritance, the inheritance of the saints in light, prefigured by them both; which is the gift of God their Father to them his children; comes to them through the death of Christ the testator; is not of the law, and the works of it; is not acquired nor purchased; but is owing to the free grace of God; to predestinating grace, as the source of it; to justifying grace, through the righteousness of Christ, as the right unto it; and to regenerating and sanctifying grace, as the meetness for it. Wherefore it manifestly belongs to those that "fear the name of the Lord", himself, his perfections, particularly his goodness; who adore and admire, serve and worship him, internally and externally; not with a slavish fear, but with a filial godly fear. The Targum renders it,
"thou hast given an inheritance to them that fear thy name;''
that in the King's Bible is,
"an inheritance in the world to come;''
so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and the Oriental versions; and which sense is given by Aben Ezra. It may be understood of them that fear the Lord, being the inheritance itself; as they are of Christ, David's son and antitype, and who is designed in Psalms 61:6: see Deuteronomy 32:9 Psalms 2:8.