Psalms 4:7 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

Thou hast put gladness in my heart - Thou hast made me happy, to wit, in the manner specified in Psalms 4:6. Many had sought happiness in other things; he had sought it in the favor of the Lord, and the Lord had given him a degree of happiness which they had never found in the most prosperous worldly condition. This happiness had its seat in the “heart,” and not in any external circumstances. All true happiness must have its seat there, for if the heart is sad, of what avail are the most prosperous external circumstances?

More than in the time - More than they have had in the time referred to; or, more than I should have in such circumstances.

That their corn and their wine increased - When they were most successful and prosperous in worldly things. This shows that when, in Psalms 4:6, he says that many inquired who would show them any “good,” what they aspired after was worldly prosperity, here expressed by an increase of grain and wine. The word rendered “corn” means grain in general; the word rendered “wine” - תירושׁ tı̂yrôsh - means properly “must, new wine,” Isaiah 65:8. The reference here is probably to the joy of harvest, when the fruits of the earth were gathered in, an occasion among the Hebrews, as it is among most people, of joy and rejoicing.

Psalms 4:7

7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.