Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
O thou that hearest prayer - Who hast revealed thyself as a God hearing prayer - one of the leading characteristics of whose nature it is that thou dost hear prayer. Literally, "Hearer of prayer, to thee shall all flesh come." Nothing as applied even to God is more sublime and beautiful than the appellative "Hearer of prayer." Nothing in his attributes is of more interest and importance to man. Nothing more indicates his condescension and goodness; nothing so much encourages us in the endeavor to overcome our sins, to do good, to save our souls, and to save the souls of others. Dark and dismal would this world be, if God did not hear prayer; gloomy, inexpressibly gloomy, would be the prospects of man, if he had not the assurance that God is a prayer-hearing God - if he might not come to God at all times with the assurance that it is his very nature to hear prayer, and that his ear is ever open to the cries of the guilty, the suffering, the sad, the troubled, the dying.
Unto thee shall all flesh come - That is, all people - for the word is here used evidently to denote mankind. The idea is, that there is no other resource for man, no other help, no other refuge, but the God that hears prayer. No other being can meet his actual needs; and those needs are to be met only in connection with prayer. All people are permitted to come thus to God; all have need of his favor; all must perish unless, in answer to prayer, he interposes and saves the soul. It is also true that the period will arrive on earth when all flesh - all people - will come to God and worship him; when, instead of the scattered few who now approach him, all nations, all the dwellers on continents and islands, will worship him; will look to him in trouble; will acknowledge him as God; will supplicate his favor.
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