As David expresses the need to be silent before God and praise Him, he concludes by saying, “And to You the vow will be performed.”

Without going into a complete background of the Psalm, the two words that stand out in this passage are “vow” and “performed.”

The idea of a vow indicates one who enters an agreement to which they must be committed to fulfill. Solomon emphasized the seriousness of vows when he wrote, “It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay” (Ecclesiastes 5:5).

The word translated “performed” is joined with the vow; indicating that when the vow is paid, “it completes an agreement so that both parties are in a state of shalom” (peace) (Lloyd, 1999). As a note of interest, the word translated “pay” in Ecclesiastes is the same word translated “performed.”

A leaders first responsibility is to God and then to those who follow. They must be committed to fulfill the responsibility of the relationship to which they have entered as leaders.

When they do, both parties are in a state of peace.

*Carr, G. Lloyd. “2401 שָׁלֵם”. In Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, edited by R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Jr. and Bruce K. Waltke. electronic ed. Chicago: Moody Press, 1999.