I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy
name, O LORD; for it is good (Ps. 54:6).
According to his usual custom, he engages, provided
deliverance should be granted, to feel a grateful sense of it; and there can be
no doubt that he here promises also to return thanks to God, in a formal
manner, when he should enjoy an opportunity of doing so.
Though God principally looks to the inward sentiment of the
heart, that would not excuse the neglect of such rites as the Law had
prescribed. He would testify his sense of the favor which he received, in the
manner common to all the people of God, by sacrifices, and be thus the means of
exciting others to their duty by his example.
And he would freely sacrifice: by which he
does not allude to the circumstance, that sacrifices of thanksgiving were at
the option of worshippers, but to the alacrity and cheerfulness with which he
would pay his vow when he had escaped his present dangers.
The generality of men promise largely to God so long as they
are under the present pressure of affliction, but are no sooner relieved than
they relapse into that carelessness which is natural to them, and forget the
goodness of the Lord. But David engages to sacrifice freely, and in another
manner than the hypocrite, whose religion is the offspring of servility and
constraint. We are taught by the passage that, in coming into the presence of
God, we cannot look for acceptance unless we bring to his service a willing
mind. (Commentaries)
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