Deliver me from my enemies, my God. Set me on high from those who rise up against me.
Deliver me from the workers of iniquity. Save me from the bloodthirsty men.
For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.
I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me!
You, Yahweh God of Armies, the God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish the nations. Show no mercy to the wicked traitors.
They return at evening, howling like dogs, and prowl around the city.
Behold, they spew with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, “For”, they say, “who hears us?”
But you, Yahweh, laugh at them. You scoff at all the nations.
Oh, my Strength, I watch for you, for God is my high tower.
My God will go before me with his loving kindness. God will let me look at my enemies in triumph.
Don’t kill them, or my people may forget. Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield.
For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride, for the curses and lies which they utter.
Consume them in wrath. Consume them, and they will be no more. Let them know that God rules in Jacob, to the ends of the earth.
At evening let them return. Let them howl like a dog, and go around the city.
They shall wander up and down for food, and wait all night if they aren’t satisfied.
But I will sing of your strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning. For you have been my high tower, a refuge in the day of my distress.
To you, my strength, I will sing praises. For God is my high tower, the God of my mercy.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17 1 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God!…
1 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God! He insists upon the strength and violence of his enemies, with the view of exciting his mind to greater fervor in the duty of prayer. These he describes as rising up against him, in which expression he alludes not simply to the audacity or fierceness of their assaults, but to the eminent superiority of power which they possessed; and yet he asks that he may be lifted up on high, as it were, above the reach of this over-swelling inundation. His language teaches us that we should believe in the ability of God to deliver us even upon occasions of emergency, when our enemies have an overwhelming advantage. In the verse which follows, while he expresses the extremity to which he was reduced, he adverts at the same time to the injustice and cruelty of his persecutors. Immediately afterwards, he connects the two grounds of his complaint together: on the one hand, his complete helplessness under the danger, and, on the other, the undeserved nature of the assaults from which he suffered. I have already repeatedly observed, that our confidence in our applications to a throne of grace will be proportional to the degree in which we are conscious of integrity; for we cannot fail to feel greater liberty in pleading a cause which, in such a case, is the cause of God himself. He is the vindicator of justice, the patron of the righteous cause everywhere, and those who oppress the innocent must necessarily rank themselves amongst his enemies. David accordingly founds his first plea upon his complete destitution of all earthly means of help, exposed as he was to plots on every side, and attacked by a formidable conspiracy. His second he rests upon a declaration of innocency. It may be true that afflictions are sent by God to his people as a chastisement for their sins, but, so far as Saul was concerned, David could justly exonerate himself from all blame, and takes this occasion of appealing to God on behalf of his integrity, which lay under suspicion from the base calumnies of men. They might pretend it, but he declares that they could charge him with no crime nor fault. Yet, groundless as their hostility was, he tells us that they ran, were unremitting in their activity, with no other view than to accomplish the ruin of their victim.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17 Read Ps. 16.
Read Ps. 16.
Though his enemies were even at hand to destroy him, yet he assureth himself that God had ways now in hand to deliver him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–17 Psa 59:1 « To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam…
Psa 59:1 « To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him. » Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me.
Al-taschith] Destroy not, preserve me from this ambush. See Psa 57:1, title.
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When Saul sent, and they watched the house] But were disappointed by Michal shifting him out of the way, preferring a husband before a father, though she had otherwise no great goodness in her. The glory of this deliverance David wholly ascribeth to God, and seeketh help of him.
Ver. 1. Deliver me from mine enemies, O God] This psalm is the same in substance with those aforegoing, viz. David’s desire to be delivered from Saul’s craft and cruelty.
Defend me from them] Heb. Set me on high, far out of their reach.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17 He chiefly understands Saul, but speaks in the plural…
He chiefly understands Saul, but speaks in the plural number, out of, reverence to his king, and that he might, as far as he could in truth, derive the envy and hatred of these odious practices upon those that were about him; as he doth 1Sa 26:19, and elsewhere.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 8 The title of this psalm acquaints us particularly with…
The title of this psalm acquaints us particularly with the occasion on which it was penned; it was when Saul sent a party of his guards to beset David's house in the night, that they might seize him and kill him; we have the story Sa1 19:11. It was when his hostilities against David were newly begun, and he had but just before narrowly escaped Saul's javelin. These first eruptions of Saul's malice could not but put David into disorder and be both grievous and terrifying, and yet he kept up his communion with God, and such a composure of mind as that he was never out of frame for prayer and praises; happy are those whose intercourse with heaven is not intercepted nor broken in upon by their cares, or griefs, or fears, or any of the hurries (whether outward or inward) of an afflicted state. In these verses,
I. David prays to be delivered out of the hands of his enemies, and that their cruel designs against him might be defeated (Psa 59:1, Psa 59:2): "Deliver me from my enemies, O my God! thou art God, and cast deliver me, my God, under whose protection I have put myself; and thou hast promised me to be a God all-sufficient, and therefore, in honour and faithfulness, thou wilt deliver me. Set me on high out of the reach of the power and malice of those that rise up against me, and above the fear of it. Let me be safe, and see myself so, safe and easy, safe and satisfied. O deliver me! and save me." He cries out as one ready to perish, and that had his eye to God only for salvation and deliverance. He prays (Psa 59:4), "Awake to help me, take cognizance of my case, behold that with an eye of pity, and exert thy power for my relief." Thus the disciples, in the storm, awoke Christ, saying, Master, save us, we perish. And thus earnestly should we pray daily to be defended and delivered form our spiritual enemies, the temptations of Satan, and the corruptions of our own hearts, which war against our spiritual life.
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II. He pleads for deliverance. Our God gives us leave not only to pray, but to plead with him, to order our cause before him and to fill our mouth with arguments, not to move him, but to move ourselves. David does so here.
1. He pleads the bad character of his enemies. They are workers of iniquity, and therefore not only his enemies, but God's enemies; they are bloody men, and therefore not only his enemies, but enemies to all mankind. "Lord, let not the workers of iniquity prevail against one that is a worker of righteousness, nor bloody men against a merciful man."
2. He pleads their malice against him, and the imminent danger he was in from them, Psa 59:3. "Their spite is great; they aim at my soul, my life, my better part. They are subtle and very politic: They lie in wait, taking an opportunity to do me a mischief. They are all mighty, men of honour and estates, and interest in court and country. They are in a confederacy; they are united by league, and actually gathered together against me, combined both in consultation and action. They are very ingenious in their contrivances, and very industrious in the prosecution of them (Psa 59:4): They run and prepare themselves, with the utmost speed and fury, to do me a mischief." He takes particular notice of the brutish conduct of the messengers that Saul sent to take him (Psa 59:6): "They return at evening from the posts assigned them in the day, to apply themselves to their works of darkness (their night-work, which may well be their day-shame), and then they make a noise like a hound in pursuit of the hare." Thus did David's enemies, when they came to take him, raise an out cry against him as a rebel, and traitor, a man not fit to live; with this clamour they went round about the city, to bring a bad reputation upon David, if possible to set the mob against him, at least to prevent their being incensed against them, which otherwise they had reason to fear they would be, so much was David their darling. Thus the persecutors of our Lord Jesus, who are compared to dogs (Psa 22:16), ran him down with noise; for else they could not have taken him, at least no on the feast-day, for there would have been an uproar among the people. They belch out with their mouth the malice that boils in their hearts, Psa 59:7. Swords are in their lips; that is, reproaches that would my heart with grief (Psa 42:10), and slanders that stab and wound my reputation. They were continually suggesting that which drew and whetted Saul's sword against him, and the fault is laid upon the false accusers. The sword perhaps would not have been in Saul's hand if it had not been first in their lips.
3. He pleads his own innocency, not as to God (he was never backward to own himself guilty before him), but as to his persecutors;. what they charged him with was utterly false, nor had he ever said or done any thing to deserve such treatment from them (Psa 59:3): "Not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord! thou knowest, who knowest all things." And again (Psa 59:4), without my fault. Note, (1.) The innocency of the godly will not secure them from the malignity of the wicked. Those that are harmless like doves, yet, for Christ's sake, are hated of all men, as if they were noxious like serpents, and obnoxious accordingly. (2.) Though our innocency will not secure us from troubles, yet it will greatly support and comfort us under our troubles. The testimony of our conscience for us that we have behaved ourselves well towards those that behave themselves ill towards us will be very much our rejoicing in the day of evil. (3.) If we are conscious to ourselves of our innocency, we may with humble confidence appeal to God and beg of him to plead our injured cause, which he will do in due time.
4. He pleads that his enemies were profane and atheistical, and bolstered themselves up in their enmity to David, with the contempt of God: For who, say they, doth hear? Psa 59:7. Not God himself, Psa 10:11; Psa 94:7. Note, It is not strange if those regard not what they say who have made themselves believe the God regards not what they say.
III. He refers himself and his cause to the just judgment of God, Psa 59:5. "The Lord, the Judge, be Judge between me and my persecutors." In this appeal to God he has an eye to him as the Lord of hosts, that has power to execute judgment, having all creatures, even hosts of angels, at his command; he views him also as the God of Israel, to whom he was, in a peculiar manner, King and Judge, not doubting that he would appear on the behalf of those that were upright, that were Israelites indeed. When Saul's hosts persecuted him, he had recourse to God as the Lord of all hosts; when those maligned him who in spirit were strangers to the commonwealth of Israel he had recourse to God as the God of Israel. He desires (that is, he is very sure) that God will awake to visit all the nations, will make an early and exact enquiry into the controversies and quarrels that are among the children of men; there will be a day of visitation (Isa 10:3), and to that day David refers himself, with this solemn appeal, Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah - Mark that. 1. If David had been conscious to himself that he was a wicked transgressor, he would not have expected to find mercy; but, as to his enemies, he would say he was no transgressor at all (Psa 59:3, Psa 59:4): "Not for my transgression, and therefore thou wilt appear for me." As to God, he could say he was no wicked transgressor; for, though he had transgressed, he was a penitent transgressor, and did not obstinately persist in what he had done amiss. 2. He knew his enemies were wicked transgressors, wilful, malicious, and hardened in their transgressions both against God and man, and therefore he sues for justice against them, judgment without mercy. Let not those expect to find mercy who never showed mercy, for such are wicked transgressors.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–16 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God,.... David…
Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God,.... David had his enemies in his youth, notwithstanding the amiableness of his person, the endowments of his mind, his martial achievements, his wise behaviour and conduct, and the presence of God with him; yea, it were some of these things that made Saul his enemy, who, by his power and authority, made others; see Sa1 18:5. Christ had his enemies, though he went about doing good, both to the bodies and souls of men, continually; the chief priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, were his implacable enemies, and even the people of the Jews in general: and the church of God, and members of it, whom David may represent, have their enemies, sin, Satan, and the world; and as David and Christ, so the church has a covenant God to go unto, from whom deliverance from enemies may be desired and expected;
defend me from them that rise up against me; or, "set me on high above them" (l); out of their reach, as David was protected from Saul and his men, who rose up in an hostile manner against him; and as Christ was, when raised from the dead, and exalted at his Father's right hand; and as the saints are in great safety, dwelling on high, where their place of defence is the munition of rocks; and therefore it matters not who rise up against them.
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(l) "statue me in loco alto, i.e. tuto", Vatablus; and to the same sense Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis, Gejerus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13 David prays for deliverance from his enemies, ver. 1-7.…
David prays for deliverance from his enemies, ver. 1-7. He foretells their destruction, ver. 8-17. To the chief musician, Al- taschith, Michtam of David: when Saul sent and they watched the house to kill him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17 The psalmist prays for deliverance from his enemies, whose
PSALM LIX
The psalmist prays for deliverance from his enemies, whose
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desperate wickedness he describes, 1-7;
professes strong confidence in God, 8-10;
speaks of the destruction of his enemies, 11-15;
praises God for benefits already received; and determines to
trust in him, 16, 17.
NOTES ON PSALM LIX
The title, "To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David," has already occurred: and perhaps means no more than that the present Psalm is to be sung as Ps 57:1-11, the first which bears this title. But there is here added the supposed occasion on which David made this Psalm: it was, "when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him." When the reader considers the whole of this Psalm carefully, he will be convinced that the title does not correspond to the contents. There is scarcely any thing in it that can apply to the circumstances of Saul's sending his guards by night to keep the avenues to the house of David, that when the morning came they might seize and slay him; and of his being saved through the information given him by his wife Michal, in consequence of which he was let down through a window, and so escaped. See 1Sa 19:10-11. There is not in the whole Psalm any positive allusion to this history; and there are many things in it which show it to be utterly inconsistent with the facts of that history. The Psalm most evidently agrees to the time of Nehemiah, when he was endeavouring to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, when the enterprise was first mocked; then opposed by Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, who watched day and night that they might cause the work to cease; and laid ambuscades for the life of Nehemiah himself. Every part of the Psalm agrees to this: and I am therefore of Calmet's opinion, that the Psalm was composed in that time, and probably by Nehemiah, or by Esdras.
Verse 1. Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God] A very proper prayer in the mouth of Nehemiah, when resisted in his attempts to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem by Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, who opposed the work, and endeavoured to take away the life of the person whom God had raised up to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. I conceive the Psalm to have been made on this occasion; and on this hypothesis alone I think it capable of consistent explanation.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 Psa 59:1. Deliver me from mine enemies, O my…
Psa 59:1. Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God — Thou art God, and canst deliver me; my God, under whose protection I have put myself; and thou hast promised me to be a God all-sufficient, and therefore in honour and faithfulness thou wilt deliver me. He chiefly means Saul by his enemies; but speaks in the plural number, out of reverence to his king, and that he might, as far as he could with truth, lay the blame of these odious practices on those that were about him.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–17 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God -…
Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God - See the notes at Psa 18:48. This prayer was offered when the spies sent by Saul surrounded the house of David. They had come to apprehend him, and it is to be presumed that they had come in sufficient numbers, and with sufficient power, to effect their object. Their purpose was not to break in upon him in the night, but to watch their opportunity, when he went forth in the morning, to slay him 1Sa 19:11, and there seemed no way for him to escape. Of their coming, and of their design, Michal, the daughter of Saul, and the wife of David, seems to have been apprised - perhaps by someone of her father’s family. She informed David of the arrangement, and assured him that unless he should escape in the night, he would be put to death in the morning. She, therefore, let him down through a window, and he escaped, 1Sa 19:12. It was in this way that he was in fact delivered; in this way that his prayer was answered. A faithful wife saved him.
Defend me from them that rise up against me - Margin, as in Hebrew, “Set me on high.” The idea is that of placing him, as it were, on a tower, or on an eminence which would be inaccessible. These were common places of refuge or defense. See the notes at Psa 18:2.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 59
Psalms 59
To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him
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1 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God:
Defend me from them that rise up against me.
2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity,
And save me from bloody men.
3 For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul:
The mighty are gathered against me;
Not for my transgressions, nor for my sin, O Lord.
4 They run and prepare themselves without my fault:
Awake to help me, and behold.
5 Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel,
Awake to visit all the heathen:
Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.
6 They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog,
And go round about the city.
7 Behold they belch out with their mouth:
Swords are in their lips:
For who, say they, doth hear?
8 But thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them;
Thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.
9 Because of his strength will I wait upon thee:
For God is my defence.
10 The God of my mercy shall prevent me:
God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.
11 Slay them not, lest my people forget:
Scatter them by thy power; and bring them down,
O Lord our shield.
12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips,
Let them even be taken in their pride:
And for cursing and lying which they speak.
13 Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be:
And let them know that God ruleth in Jacob
Unto the ends of the earth. Selah.
14 And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog,
And go round about the city.
15 Let them wander up and down for meat.
And grudge if they be not satisfied.
16 But I will sing of thy power:
Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning:
For thou hast been my defence
And refuge in the day of my trouble.
17 Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing:
For God is my defence, and the God of my mercy.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its Contents and Composition.—The Psalm is artistically arranged, in two parts consisting of two strophes each. In each part the same expressions and thoughts are rhythmically entwined with one another, and repeated with but slight differences. The Title in its first half has the same elements as those of the preceding Psalms. The other portion of the Title refers to the period of the pursuit of Saul, an episode of which is described in 1Sa_19:11 sq. For the contents and form of this Psalm do not lead as to limit that dangerous situation in Gibeah to the one night before the flight which was rendered possible by Michal. It is particularly the recurring verses, Psa_59:6; Psa_59:14, which describe repeated hostile waylaying, which began with the evening. Over against them the singer puts in Psa_59:5; Psa_59:8 the activity of Jehovah, and Psa_59:9; Psa_59:17 his personal relation and behaviour towards God in the assurance of victory in faith, with words which evidently refer to one another, and yet are not entirely of the same tenor. At the same time the form of expressions excludes the supposition of a change of place. It is more appropriate therefore to think of this Psalm as an evening song, originating from the experience of those dangerous times at Gibeah, (Delitzsch), than to refer it to the wearisome and dangerous flight of David after his deliverance by Michal, and to find the occasion for the Psalm in this circumstance, and put its composition in the time after this danger was overcome (Hengst.). The universal historical conception of the Divine judgment over all the heathen (Psa_59:5; Psa_59:8; comp. Psa_59:13) shows that it is not necessary to think of foreign enemies; rather this view is decidedly against their description as hungry men (Psa_59:11; Psa_59:15), roaming about the city in which the threatened man was then situated with them, (Psa_59:6; Psa_59:14), using slanders as weapons (Psa_59:7; Psa_59:12). Hupfeld concedes this, and likewise that the enemies appear throughout as personal, and that we have therefore no more to think of a lamentation of the people in the time of the exile, when the poet was in the same city with the heathen (De Wette),than of a siege, whether of Jerusalem by the neighboring nations confederate with the Chaldeans, under the last king of Judah (Ewald), or of some fortress in the time of the Maccabees (Hitzig), or of an attempt by the Samaritans to disturb the rebuilding of the holy city begun under Nehemiah (Köster, Maurer).—The course of thought is in general the following: The prayer of the Psalmist for deliverance from bloodthirsty enemies (Psa_59:1-2) is founded upon the mention of their waylayings and his innocence (Psa_59:3-4), and then takes the form of a prayer for the Divine punishment in a universal historical character (Psa_59:5). This characteristic again appears in the expressions of the assurance of victory, which follow the description of the disgraceful conduct of the enemies (Psa_59:6-7). This assurance lies in the position and actions of God as well as of His threatened servant, (Psa_59:8-9). This characteristic becomes still more definite in the prayer which results from this confidence in the gracious operations of God, which prayer is that a moral effect may be produced upon his people through their perception of the Divine judgment upon lying enemies (Psa_59:10-13), whose disgraceful conduct is again brought forward (Psa_59:14-15), which is then connected with the very different behaviour of the poet, who is assured of his deliverance by the grace of God, and testifies his thankfulness for it.
Str. I. [Psa_59:4. Run and set themselves.—Perowne: “The words are military terms: for the first, see Psa_18:29, (according to one interpretation), Job_15:26; Job_16:14; the other denotes the marshaling in order, the array of troops, with a view to the execution of a determined plan. Or as Hengst. explains, a metaphor borrowed from an attacking host, which, getting a firm footing on the walls of a beleaguered city, is ready to rush in over them, or through them, as already broken, into the city.”—Awake, to meet me, and see.—Delitzsch: David is beset by such a band of assassins, as one besieged, sighs for relief, and calls upon Jehovah, who, as if asleep, seems as if He would abandon him. He calls upon Him with that bold appeal, to awake to meet him, that is to say, to push on to him with His help as an army of relief, and convince Himself in person of the extreme danger in which. His protege was involved.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_59:5. And Thou, Jehovah, Elohim, Sabaoth, God of Israel.—Instead of Jehovah, Sabaoth, God of Israel (2Sa_7:27), Elohim is inserted here in addition, which cannot be connected with the Jehovah which precedes even here, as Gen_2:5 sq.; Exo_9:30; Jon_4:6, and as we then would have to supply Elohe=God of hosts. But still less as Jehovah=God, that is to say, God Jehovah, are we to translate here: God Sabaoth (Luther), as if Sabaoth had already become a proper name (Gesenius, Olshausen), as after the Sept., the New Testament and the Church; but Elohim is used here as Psa_80:7; Psa_80:14; Psa_84:8, in the same connection as Jehovah Sabaoth, Psa_24:10; Psa_84:3, and instead of this because Jehovah had already been mentioned, and Elohim in this Psalm is treated as a proper name. Thus there is no improper use of the term (Hupfeld), but a characteristic heaping up of names of God, the use of which in the Holy Scriptures is no more to be regarded as usual formulas and a drawling use of titles, than we are to suppose a poetical figure in connection with the judgment of the world.—To visit all the heathen.—Since גּויִם is not to be changed into גּוִים=proud (Paul.), or to be referred to the final judgment (Kimchi, Rosenm.), so no more is the expression which is taken out of all limitations by the “all,” to be referred to those heathen among whom the threatened Psalmist is said to have been (De Wette, Ewald, Olshausen, Hitzig), or to be explained improperly of those Israelites which resembled them in disposition (Isaki, Ruding., Venema, et al.), but as these enemies are described directly as faithless with respect to iniquity, it is to be understood as comprehensive of all enemies of the kingdom of God, domestic and foreign (Chald., Aben Ezra, Geier, J. H. Mich., Delitzsch). 1
Str. II. [Psa_59:6. They return at evening, howl like the dog and go about the city.—This is the refrain of the Psalm (vide Psa_59:14). Ho compares his enemies to those half-wild dogs which are the scavengers of the cities of the East. They prowl about the streets at night, hunting for offal, and hesitate not to prey upon the dead and even the feeble and helpless, comp. Psa_22:16; 1Ki_14:11; 2Ki_9:36.2
Psa_59:7. They pour out, etc.—Alexander: “The first verb is expressive of a constant flow or gush. See above on Psa_19:2. What it is that they thus pour out, although not expressed, may be readily gathered from the context, namely, slanders and reproaches. The swords in their lips, are significant of sharp and cutting speeches, see Psa_55:21, and comp. Psa_52:3.”—C. A. B.]—Who hears it?—This question may either be regarded as the complaint of the singer (Rosenm., Hengstenberg, [Alexander]), or the fancy of the wicked (Syriac, Chald., Symm., Jerome, Isaki, et al.).
[Psa_59:8. But Thou, Jehovah, dost laugh at them.—Whilst they think to fall upon their victim unexpectedly, there being no one to know of their purposes and to warn the singer of them—yet Jehovah knows—Jehovah sees them prowling in the night, and Jehovah laughs at their folly, and holds all the heathen in derision who revolt and plot against His anointed, comp. Psa_2:4.—C. A. B.]
Psa_59:9. My strength, Thee will I regard.—Instead of the here unmeaning עֻזִּוֹ, we are to read with the ancient versions and some codd.: עֻזִּי, as a vocative. For the manifold attempts to explain the suffix of the third person have all been grammatical and syntactical vexations. Yet it is unnecessary to make any further changes in the reading in order to make this verse entirely like Psa_59:17 (Venema, Olshausen, Baur, et al.).
Str. III. Psa_59:10. My God will come to meet me with His grace.—This reading is attested by the ancient versions, and Augustine uses it in proof of his doctrine of prevenient grace. It cannot be pushed aside in favor of the reading preferred by most interpreters after the Chald. and the Rabbins (which gives the sense: God of my grace=my God of grace, that is to say: my gracious God), although that reading is undoubted in Psa_59:17.3
[Psa_59:11. Make them wander, that is, lead them astray, so that they will fail of their object. This verb is used of Cain, Gen_4:12, and of Israel in the wilderness, Num_32:13; vide Psa_59:15, where their disappointment is expressed. Thus they would afford a better evidence that Jehovah was his protector than if they should die a sudden death.—Our shield.—Comp. Psa_3:3; Psa_18:2; Psa_28:6.
Psa_59:12. The word of their lips (is) the sin of their mouth (Hupfeld, Delitzsch, Moll, et al.), that is to say, every word they speak is a sin. Ewald, in order to avoid this tautology, makes the clauses parallel, thus: the sin of their mouth, the word of their lips—O let them be taken, etc. But the above rendering is more appropriate.
Psa_59:13. Consume them.—Perowne: “This does not contradict the previous imprecation. He would have his enemies destroyed at last, but only after they had been, by a protracted, miserable existence, a warning to men of God’s righteous severity.”—Unto the ends of the earth.—Perowne: “This may mean that God, sitting in Jacob, having there His throne, exercises thence a universal dominion. But, according to the accent, these words should rather be connected with the words: ‘that men may know.’ So Calvin: ‘David indicates a singular kind of punishment, one the fame of which would reach even the most distant nations.’ And so Hengstenberg, who refers to David’s words to Goliath, 1Sa_17:46 : ‘And all the earth shall know that there is a God in Israel.’ ”—C. A. B.]
Str. IV. Psa_59:15. They wander about in order to devour, if they are not satisfied, they pass the night.—It is possible, by a slight change of the vowel points, to translate: if they are not satisfied they growl (Septuagint, Vulgate, Jerome, Luther, Geier, et al.). The present reading=they pass the night, is manifestly not to be explained of continued wandering about in search of food during the night (Isaki, Rosenm.), but of a night without the fruits of the day’s labor (Hupfeld), full of disquiet and pain from unsatisfied hunger, in contrast to the promise given to the pious, Pro_19:23 (Calvin, J. H. Mich., Hengstenberg, et al.), or to a remaining at the place and watching greedily for their food. It is true אִם לֹא may be a particle of affirmation=truly (Ewald, Hitzig, Köster, Maurer); but the further explanation: they will satisfy themselves and remain (dead in the place) (Ewald), or: they will fight long enough and rest (Hitzig), is objectionable.
[Psa_59:16. In the morning.—This is in evident contrast to the evening, in Psa_59:14. The enemies remain like hungry dogs unsatisfied in the streets, the Psalmist is delivered from their hands and praises God, his shield and defence, in the morning.—C. A. B.]
Psa_59:17. To thee will I harp.—Here there is a play upon words, אֲזַמֵּרָה with אֶשְׁמֹרָה, Psa_59:9. To God is to be directed both things that the Psalmist has vowed, his playing upon the harp and his waiting (Psa_130:6), or better: his attention (2Sa_11:16) regarding, 1 Sam. 26:75.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. God exalts His refugees in the midst of their enemies to such a position and condition of spirit, that they can lie down to sleep quietly by night in the feeling of security under Divine protection, whilst their adversaries, like a pack of hungry dogs, howl about without attaining their ends. But as this security does not arise from a proud satisfaction with themselves, but, whilst they protest their own innocence against the slanders of wicked opponents, originates only from faith in God’s grace, it does not produce any idle expectation and self-indulgence, but a comforted and joyous giving over of themselves to God in constant observance of His providence and renewed thankfulness for His help.
2. Although God, in accordance with His nature and actions, needs not to be summoned or aroused, in order to behold what transpires on earth, and to interfere for the deliverance of the pious and the punishment of the ungodly, to make an end of the no less shameful than dangerous conduct of the faithless, yet this is a strong support to the oppressed and persecuted, as well as a natural expression of their needs, and an involuntary testimony of their faith in the righteous government of the Almighty, and the condescending goodness of the faithful God of the covenant.
3. The closer the history of a man’s life is entwined in the history of the kingdom of God, the stronger is the impression made upon him, that his troubles as well as his deliverance have a universal significance transcending any personal references. In accordance with this on the one side is the pressure for a corresponding declaration of the judicial activity of God, that it may be experienced in the whole earth that the God of Israel is the only true God (1Sa_17:46); on the other side, the expression of satisfaction in the execution of the Divine judgments even to the extent of the annihilation of the enemies, which in the Old Testament not unfrequently advances to a personal desire of revenge.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
It is well for those who not only look at their need, but at the same time behold and trust in the true helper in need.—All the mighty ones of earth cannot cast you down, if God the Almighty will remain your strength and exalt you.—If thou canst oppose thine innocence to the wickedness of thine enemies, thou mayst confidently rely upon God’s strength against their superiority over you.—God sees very well how it fares with you, and knows likewise what He will do; but He would likewise be prayed to for His assistance.—When the enemies’ word has wounded your heart like swords, let God’s word be your balsam.—You may trust the power of the Almighty Lord of Hosts, the willingness of the faithful and gracious God of Israel to deliver and to judge.—The punishments of God are not only for the ruin of the faithless, but likewise for the warning of believers.
Calvin: It is the peculiar function of God not only to tame the few, but to draw the whole world to punishment for their shameful deeds.
Starke: When the ungodly suppose that they have the righteous already in their hands, God knows how to open a way of deliverance.—There is a visitation of grace and a visitation of wrath; he who would escape the latter, must humble himself in order to be capable of the former.—Were it not for the almighty protection of God, Satan and the world would long since have devoured the Church.
Frisch: There are two kinds of innocence, one before God, the other before men.—Tholuck: Although heaven is high, yet God’s ear reaches down to the earth.—God will come a thousand miles with His grace to meet him who takes but a single step towards God.—Taube: Power and grace are the two pillars of our help. The power of God without His grace is fearful, as the judgment over the enemies testifies; His grace without power would afford no comfort or help to the miserable.
[Matt. Henry: Let not those expect to find mercy who never showed mercy, for such are wicked transgressors.—When we think God’s judgments come slowly upon sinners, we must conclude that God has wise and holy ends in the gradual proceedings of His wrath.—As we must direct our prayers to God, so to Him we must direct our praises and must look up, making melody to the Lord.—Barnes: Whatever may have been the means of our rescue, it is to be traced to the interposition of God.—Spurgeon: To a brave man the danger causes little distress of mind, compared with the injustice to which he is subjected.—It is the mark of thoughtful prayer, that the titles which are in it applied to God are appropriate, and are, as it were, congruous to the matter, and fitted to add force to the argument.—How wrong is that state of mind which hates to hear of the punishment of the wicked!—How frequently have we met with preventing mercy—the supply prepared before the need occurred—the refuge built before the foreseeing grace of heaven has projected itself, and forestalled every difficulty.—Sweet is the music of experience, but it is all for God; there is not even a stray note for man, for self, or for human helpers.—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[1][Perowne: “The nations, to an Israelite, would be the embodiment of all that opposed itself to God; and in appealing to God to punish them, he would, in fact, be appealing to Him to punish all evil wherever manifested. The special judgment would follow from the universal, and be an instance of it. Even for the vindication of his personal innocence, we find our Psalmist (Psa_7:6-8) calling upon God to assemble all nations to His judgment-seat. Such expressions seem to us exaggerated, partly because of the comparative coldness of the western mind, and partly because it is very difficult for us to conceive of the feelings of the true Israelite; to whom the whole outer heathen world was a world lying under the heavy wrath of God, and to whom the greater part of Israel itself seemed corrupt and apostate.”—C. A. B.]
[2][Wordsworth: This description of the malicious vigilance of Saul’s messengers, thirsting for David’s blood (see 1Sa_19:11; 1Sa_19:15; 1Sa_19:20-21), is very applicable to the conduct of the enemies of Christ, who are compared in the Paschal Psalm to dogs thirsting for blood (see Psa_22:16; Psa_22:20), especially on the eve of His crucifixion. Then they went about the city of Jerusalem, like the howling and prowling dogs of the evening, in some Eastern cities. The Jews compared the Gentiles to dogs (see Mat_15:27); but they themselves were dogs, in their blood-thirsty cruelty and foul uncleanness, comp. Php_3:2.”—C. A. B.]
[3][The A. V. prevent is used here in the antiquated sense of going before, anticipating.—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 (Compare Psa 5:5; Psa 6:8).
(Compare Psa 5:5; Psa 6:8).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–17 1. Defend me—Literally, set me on high, as in…
1. Defend me—Literally, set me on high, as in a strong tower, or upon a rocky cliff. The first two verses are an earnest cry for help.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 1. Deliver me] Son_7:1, and frequently.
1. Deliver me] Son_7:1, and frequently.
defend me] Better, as R.V., set me on high (Psa_20:1; Psa_91:14). It is the verb from which is derived the epithet ‘high tower’ so often applied to God (Psa_59:9; Psa_59:16-17; Psa_18:2; Psa_46:7; Psa_46:11).
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1–5. The Psalmist prays for deliverance from the enemies who are bent on taking his life, pleading his innocence, and appealing to God to punish all injustice.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 (1) Defend me.—Literally, set me on high, i.e., place…
(1) Defend me.—Literally, set me on high, i.e., place me on some lofty and secure height.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–17 LIKE Ps 56 and Ps 57, this is a…
LIKE Ps 56 and Ps 57, this is a cry for deliverance out of great peril, with a final expression of confidence (vers. 16, 17) that the deliverance will be granted. From the psalm itself there is some difficulty in determining who are the enemies against whom aid is sought, since, while the bulk of the allusions suggest domestic enemies, there is distinct mention of the "heathen" in two places (vers. 5, 8). Hence it has been argued by critics of note that the entire complaint is against foreign foes, and the complainant either the nation (De Wette), or a late king of Judah (Ewald), or a Maccabean leader (Hitzig), or a poet of the time of Nehemiah (Koster). But the whole character of the psalm is Davidic, and the "title" must be regarded as having more intrinsic weight than the conjectures of critics, especially of critics who are so wholly at variance one with another as these. The title lays it down that the psalm is David"s, and assigns, as the occasion of its composition, Saul"s sending emissaries to watch the house where David was, with the intent to kill him. The reference is clearly to the narrative in 1Sa_19:11-18. And the psalm itself, when carefully considered, will be found to agree well with this time and occasion.
It is generally agreed that the composition divides into four portions, two of them closed by the pause mark, "Selah," and the other two by a refrain. It thus consists of four strophes, the first of five verses (vers. 1-5), and the other three of four verses each (vers. 6-9, 10-13, and 14-17).
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Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God. This is David"s almost constant cry. (see Psa_7:1 Psa_17:13 Psa_22:20 Psa_25:20 Psa_31:1, Psa_31:2, 15 35:17 40:13 43:1 69:18 70:1, 4 109:21, etc.) He has enemies, both domestic and foreign. In his early youth Saul becomes his enemy out of jealousy; then most of Saul"s courtiers espouse their master"s quarrel, he has enemies at the court of Achish; enemies in his family, even among his sons, as Absalom enemies among his counsellors, as Ahithophel; foreign enemies on all sides of him Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Amalekites, Syrians, Mesopotamians, etc. Against all of them he invokes God"s aid, and by God"s aid he triumphs over all. Defend me from them that rise up against me; or, set me on high above them (Kay, Revised Version). David"s domestic foes "rose up against him," no less than his foreign foes; made war on him; sought to seize his person, and put him to death.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-17. Waiting upon God.
There are expressions in this psalm which sound harsh and cruel, and which Christians would shrink from using. But, on the other hand, there is much here that comes home to our experience, and that is helpful and comforting in the great trials of life. It is something to know that good men have suffered affliction before us that they have been falsely accused and foully wronged, that they have felt the pangs of grief and the bitterness of disappointment, and that they have had to bear much and wait long before deliverance came. The lesson is clear. It isWait upon God. This is the refrain, which comes so sweetly at the middle (ver. 10), and then with increased force and emphasis at the end (ver. 17). The figure seems that of a sentinel on his tower. He is set there to watch. He must be vigilant and patient. There is much to try him, but not till morning breaks will he find release.
I WAITING UPON GOD ASSURES DELIVERANCE. Waiting implies faith and hope. "The husbandman waiteth for the harvest." The physician waits for the effect of his remedies. The father waits for the time when his son is educated, and fit to take his place in the world. So we are to have faith, to hold ourselves still, in patient expectancy, till God"s will is made known. Waiting does not preclude personal effort. On the contrary, it implies it. God will not do for us what he has made us able to de for ourselves. Our duty is to work, and wait upon God for his blessing. We must do our part, if we expect God to do his part. But there are times when we have, so far as we know, done all in our power, when we have exhausted all lawful efforts, and yet our condition is not bettered, but rather grown worse. Our straits are great. Our needs are urgent. Our enemies press us on every side, and shout as if sure of their prey. What comfort it is, at such a time, to commit ourselves to God, and to wait patiently for him from whom our salvation cometh! Remember what God is, and what he has done. He is our "Strength" and our "Defence." God in us is our Strength our strength made perfect in weakness. We in God is our "Defence our Strong Tower to which we run and are safe.
II WAITING UPON GOD AWAKENS PRAISE. (Vers. 14-17) Here is a sweet strain of thanksgiving. The rage and malice of the enemy still continue, but it is malice that is defeated, and rage that is baulked of its prey. The "morning" brings deliverance, and, instead of the shrieks of the victim, there are the songs of the victor. God has saved his servant who trusted in him. How often has the same thing come true! God"s people, waiting upon him in the day of their trouble, have found "defence" and "refuge." God"s power has delivered them from their enemies; God"s "mercy" has brought joy and peace to their hearts. Therefore they, with renewed ardour, say, "Unto thee, O my Strength, will I sing: for God is my Defence, and the God of my mercy. W.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17 To the Chief Musician. Strange that the painful events…
To the Chief Musician. Strange that the painful events in David's life should end in enriching the repertoire of the national minstrelsy. Out of a sour, ungenerous soil spring up the honey bearing flowers of psalmody. Had he never been cruelly hunted by Saul, Israel and the church of God in after ages would have missed this song. The music of the sanctuary is in no small degree indebted to the trials of the saints. Affliction is the tuner of the harps of sanctified songsters. Altaschith. Another "destroy not" Psalm. Whom God preserves Satan cannot destroy. The Lord can even preserve the lives of his prophets by the very ravens that would naturally pick out their eyes. David always found a friend to help him when his case was peculiarly dangerous, and that friend was in his enemy's household; in this instance it was Michal, Saul's daughter, as on former occasions it had been Jonathan, Saul's son. Michtam of David. This is the Fifth of the Golden Secrets of David: God's chosen people have many such. When Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him. Great efforts were made to carry the Psalms away to other authors and seasons than those assigned in the headings, it being the fashion just now to prove one's learning by disagreeing with all who have gone before. Perhaps in a few years the old titles will be as much reverenced as they are now rejected. There are spasms in these matters, and in many other things among the would be "intellectuals" of the schools. We are not anxious to show our readiness at conjecture, and therefore are content with reading this Psalm in the light of the circumstances here mentioned; it does not seem unsuitable to any verse, and in some the words are very appropriate to the specified occasion.
In Ps 59:1-2 he prays, in Ps 59:3-4 he complains of his woes, and again in Ps 59:5 he prays. Here he inserts a Selah, and ends one portion of his song. In Ps 59:6-7 he renews his complaint, in Ps 59:8-10 declares his confidence in God, and in Ps 59:11-13 lifts up his heart in prayer; closing another part of his Psalm with Selah. Then he prays again in Ps 59:14-15, and afterwards betakes himself to singing.
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Ver. 1. Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God. They were all round the house with the warrant of authority, and a force equal to the carrying of it out. He was to be taken dead or alive, well or ill, and carried to the slaughter. No prowess could avail him to break the cordon of armed men, neither could any eloquence stay the hand of his bloody persecutor. He was taken like a bird in a net, and no friend was near to set him free. Unlike the famous starling, he did not cry, "I cannot get out, "but his faith uttered quite another note. Unbelief would have suggested that prayer was a waste of breath, but not so thought the good man, for he makes it his sole resort. He cries for deliverance and leaves ways and means with his God.
Defend me from them that rise up against me. Saul was a king, and therefore sat in high places, and used all his authority to crush David; the persecuted one therefore beseeches the Lord to set him on high also, only in another sense. He asks to be lifted up, as into a lofty tower, beyond the reach of his adversary. Note how he sets the title, My God, over against the word, mine enemies. This is the right method of effectually catching and quenching the fiery darts of the enemy upon the shield of faith. God is our God, and therefore deliverance and defence are ours.
This Psalm has in its stern contents something no doubt strange to our ears. But never let us omit to distinguish from each other the times and diverse economies, and to place ourselves as far as possible, in sympathy with the experience of a heart which burned for nothing more than for the glorifying of God in this world. Everything that tended to obscure the theocratic relation of God to his people, called up in the soul of David the most vehement passion. The scornful oppression with which Saul and his venal satellites visited him, the man of God, could not but have, upon the eyes of all, the appearance as if Jehovah were no longer Lord in his own land, who inexorably adhered to his laws and rights. Treason, falsehood, and every kind of evil then prevailed unchecked. What wonder, that as formerly Moses in the wilderness was provoked against the stiff necked people, so also David, whom the awful holiness of God had already made to tremble, should feel his spirit stirred against the ungodly who surrounded him, and should say, with Job, "My bowels boiled within me." Frederick William Krummacher, D.D., in "David, the King of Israel, "1867.
Ver. 1. O my God. There are two pleas which the psalmist makes use of; one was, that God was his God, Ps 59:1; the other was the power and strength of his enemies. It is a blessed thing to have the covenant to fly to in all times of straits and troubles; there is always an anchor hold of hope there. My God, is such a plea as infinitely over balances all other things. He has engaged himself to do his people good; and it is time for him to work when the enemy exalts himself. The church's enemies are never so near destruction as when they think they have nothing to do, but take and divide the spoil. We may plead God's promise and the enemies' power too; both are a ground of hope to a believer in Jesus. John Hill (1711-1746), in "Sermons on Several Occasions."
Ver. 1. That rise up against me. He insists upon the strength and violence of his enemies, with the view of exciting his mind to greater fervour in the duty of prayer. These he describes as rising up against him, in which expression he alludes, not simple to the audacity or fierceness of their assaults, but to the eminent superiority of power which they possessed; and yet he asks that he may be lifted up on high, as it were, above the reach of this over swelling inundation. John Calvin.
Ver. 1. (first clause). Deliver me from temptation, uphold me in temptation, cleanse me from the result of temptation. The world, the flesh, the devil, and chiefly sin, these are our enemies. We cannot escape them of ourselves, but the Lord by providence and grace can rescue us.
In CHANDLER'S "Life of David, "Vol. 1., pp. 85-89, there is an Exposition of this Psalm.
Psalms 59:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 9, 10, 16 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God.
Psa_59:1-17
Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God.
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Revelations of the good and bad in human nature
I. The enmity of man towards man.
1. From the description that David here gives of his enemies, we learn that--
(1) They hated him with a deadly hate. They sought nothing less than his life; they were bloody men.
(2) They hated him without a cause. Without my fault.
(3) They hated him with furious rage. They are represented as furious beasts of prey, as ravenous dogs, as malignant slanderers, whose words are cutting as a sword, from whose mouth belches the lava of abuse.
(4) They hated him with persistent effort. They watch in the day, wait in ambush, return at night, and thus on until their fiendish purposes are attained.
2. The fact that men are thus enemies to men--
(1) Argues human apostasy. At some time or other there has happened in human life a moral earthquake which has riven the social body into pieces.
(2) Reveals the need of Christ. He reconciles man to man by reconciling all men to God.
II. The appeal of selfishness to heaven. What merit is there in such a prayer as this? Can it ever meet acceptance with that God who willeth not the death of a sinner, and who is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance?
III. The confidence of piety in God. Despite all the imperfections of Davids character, the root of the matter was in him. I will sing aloud of thy mercy, etc. Perfection of character is only gradually reached. The acorn, it has been said, does not become an oak in a day; the ripened scholar was not made such by a single lesson; the well-trained soldier was not a raw recruit yesterday; it is not one touch of the artists pencil that produces a finished painting; there are always months between seed-time and harvest; even so, the path of the just is like the shining light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day. (Homilist.)
Gods defence of His persecuted people
A lady was wakened up by a very strange noise of peeking against the window-pane, and she saw a butterfly flying backward and forward inside the window-pane in great fright, and outside a sparrow pecking and trying to get at it. The butterfly did not see the glass, and expected every moment to be caught; and the sparrow did not see the glass, and expected every moment to catch the butterfly; yet all the while the little creature was as safe as if it had been three miles away, because of the glass between it and the sparrow. So it is with the Christians who are abiding in Christ. His presence is between them and every danger. It really does seem that Satan does not understand about this mighty and invisible power that protects us, or else he would not waste his efforts--like the sparrow, he does not see. And Christians are often like the butterfly, and do not see their defence, and so are frightened, and flutter backwards and forwards in terror. But all the while Satan cannot touch the soul that has the Lord Jesus between itself and him. (Christian Age.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 59
Psalms 59
THE superscription makes this the earliest of Davids psalms, dating from the Sauline persecution. It has many points of connection with the others of that group, but its closest affinities are with Psalms 55, which is commonly considered to belong to the period of incubation of Absaloms rebellion (cf. Psa_55:10 with Psa_59:6; Psa_59:14, and Psa_55:21 with Psa_59:7. The allusion to enemies patrolling the city, which is common to both psalms, seems to refer to a fact, and may in this psalm be founded on the watchfulness of Sauls emissaries: but its occurrence in both weakens its force as here confirmatory of the superscription. It does not necessarily follow from the mention of the "nations" that the psalmists enemies are foreigners. Their presence in the city and the stress laid on words as their weapons are against that supposition. On the whole, the contents of the psalm do not negative the tradition in the title, but do not strongly attest it. If we have accepted the Davidic authorship of the other psalms of this group, we shall extend it to this one; for they clearly are a group, whether Davidic or not. The psalm falls into two principal divisions (Psa_59:1-9 and Psa_59:10-17), each closing with a refrain, and each subdivided into two minor sections, the former of which in each case ends with Selah, and the latter begins with another refrain. The two parts travel over much the same ground of petition, description of the enemies, confidence in deliverance and in the defeat of the foes. But in the first half the psalmist prays for himself, and in the second he prays against his persecutors, while assured confidence in his own deliverance takes the place of alarmed gaze on their might and cruelty.
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The former half of the first part begins and ends with petitions. Imbedded in these is a plaintive recounting of the machinations of the adversaries, which are, as it were, spread before Gods eyes, accompanied with protestations of innocence. The prayers, which enclose as in a circlet, this description of unprovoked hatred, are varied, so that the former petitions are directed to the singers deliverance, while the latter invoke judgment on his antagonists. The strong assertion of innocence is, of course, to be limited to the psalmists conduct to his enemies. They attack him without provocation. Obviously this feature corresponds to the facts of Sauls hatred of David, and as obviously it does not correspond to the facts of Israels sufferings from foreign enemies, which are supposed by the present favourite interpretation to be the occasion of the psalm. No devout singer could so misunderstand the reason of the nations disasters as to allege that they had fallen upon innocent heads. Rather, when a psalmist bewailed national calamities, he traced them to national sins. "Anger went up against Israel, because they believed not in God." The psalmist calls God to look upon the doings of his enemies. Privy plots and open assaults are both directed against him. The enemy lie in wait for his life; but also, with fell eagerness, like that of soldiers making haste to rank themselves in battle array, they "run and set themselves." This is probably simply metaphor, for the rest of the psalm does not seem to contemplate actual warfare. The imminence of peril forces an urgent prayer from the threatened man. So urgent is it that it breaks in on the parallelism of Psa_59:4, substituting its piercing cry "Awake, behold!" for the proper second clause carrying on the description in the first. The singer makes haste to grasp Gods hand, because he feels the pressure of the wind blowing in his face. It is wise to break off the contemplation of enemies and dangers by crying to God. Prayer is a good interruption of a catalogue of perils. The petitions in Psa_59:5 are remarkable, both in their accumulation of the Divine names and in their apparent transcending of the suppliants need. The former characteristic is no mere artificial or tautological heaping together of titles, but indicates repeated acts of faith and efforts of contemplation. Each name suggests something in God which encourages hope, and when appealed to by a trusting soul, moves Him to act. The very introductory word of invocation, "And Thou," is weighty. It sets the might of God in grand contrast to the hurrying hatred of the adversary; and its significance is enhanced if its recurrence in Psa_59:8 and its relation to "And I" in Psa_59:16 are taken into account.
The combination of the Divine names is remarkable here, from the insertion of God (Elohim) between the two parts of the standing name, Jehovah of hosts. The anomaly is made still more anomalous by the peculiar form of the word, Elohim, which does not undergo the modification to be expected in such a construction. The same peculiarities occur in other Elohistic psalms. {Psa_80:4; Psa_80:19, and Psa_84:8} The peculiar grammatical form would be explained if the three words were regarded as three coordinate names, Jehovah, Elohim, Zebaoth, and this explanation is favoured by good critics. But it is going too far to say, with Baethgen, that "Zebaoth can only be understood as an independent Divine name (Komm., in loc.). Other explanations are at least possible, such as that of Delitzsch, that "Elohim, like Jehovah, has become a proper name," and so does not suffer modification. The supplicatory force of the names, however, is clear, whatever may be the account of the formal anomalies. They appeal to God and they hearten the appellants confidence by setting forth the loftiness of God, who rules over the embattled forces of the universe, which "run and set themselves in array" at His bidding and for His servants help, and before which the ranks of the foes seem thin and few. They set forth also Gods relation to Israel, of which the single suppliant is a member.
The petition, grounded upon these names, is supposed by modern commentators to prove that the psalmists enemies were heathens, which would, of course destroy the Davidic authorship, and make the singer a personification of the nation. But against this is to be observed the description of the enemies in the last clause of Psa_59:5 as "apostates," which must refer to Israelites. The free access to the "city," spoken of in Psa_59:6, is also unfavourable to that supposition, as is the prominence given to the words of the enemy. Foreign foes would have had other swords than those carried between their lips. The prayer that Jehovah would arise to visit "all nations" is much more naturally explained, as on the same principle as the judgment of "the peoples" in Psalms 7. All special cases are subsumed under the one general judgment. The psalmist looks for his own deliverance as one instance of that world wide manifestation of Divine justice which will "render to every man according to his deeds." Not only personal considerations move him to his prayer; but, pressing as these are, and shrill as is the cry for personal deliverance, the psalmist is not so absorbed in self as that he cannot widen his thoughts and desires to a world wide manifestation of Divine righteousness, of which his own escape will be a tiny part. Such recognition of the universal in the particular is the prerogative in lower walks of the poet and the man of genius; it is the strength and solace of the man who lives by faith and links all things with God. The instruments here strike in, so as to fix attention on the spectacle of God aroused to smite and of the end of apostates.
The comparison of the psalmists enemies to dogs occurs in another psalm ascribed to David. {Psa_22:16; Psa_22:20} They are like the masterless, gaunt, savage curs which infest the streets of Eastern cities, hungrily hunting for offal and ready to growl or snarl at every passer-by. Though the dog is not a nocturnal animal, evening would naturally be a time when these would specially prowl round the city in search of food, if disappointed during the day. The picture suggests the enemies eagerness, lawlessness, foulness, and persistency. If the psalm is rightly dated in the superscription, it finds most accurate realisation in the crafty, cruel watchfulness of Sauls spies. The word rendered by the A.V. and R.V. "make a noise" is "said usually of the growling of the bear and the cooing of the dove" (Delitzsch). It indicates a lower sound than barking, and so expresses rage suppressed lest its object should take alarm. The word rendered (A.V. and R.V.) "belch" means to gush out, and is found in a good sense in Psa_19:1. Here it may perhaps be taken as meaning "foam," with some advantage to the truth of the picture. "Swords are in their lips"-i.e., their talk is of slaying the psalmist, or their slanders cut like swords; and the crown of their evil is their scoff at the apparently deaf and passive God.
With startling suddenness, as if one quick touch drew aside a curtain, the vision of God as He really regards the enemies is flashed on them in Psa_59:8. The strong antithesis expressed by the "And Thou," as in Psa_59:5, comes with overwhelming force. Below is the crowd of greedy foes, obscene, cruel, and blasphemous; above, throned in dread repose, which is not, as they dream, carelessness or ignorance, is Jehovah, mocking their fancied security. The tremendous metaphor of the laughter of God is too boldly anthropomorphic to be misunderstood. It sounds like the germ of the solemn picture in Psalms 2, and is probably the source of the similar expression in Psa_37:13. The introduction of the wider thought of Gods "mocking"-i.e., discerning, and manifesting in act, the impotence of the ungodly efforts of "all nations"-is to be accounted for on the same principle of the close connection discerned by the devout singer between the particular and the general, which explains the similar extension of view in Psa_59:5.
Psa_59:9 is the refrain closing the first part. The reading of the Hebrew text, "His strength," must be given up, as unintelligible, and the slight alteration required for reading "my" instead of "his" adopted, as in the second instance of the refrain in Psa_59:17. The further alteration of text, however, by which "I will harp" would be read in Psa_59:9 instead of "I will watch" is unnecessary, and the variation of the two refrains is not only in accordance with usage, but brings out a delicate phase of progress in confidence. He who begins with waiting for God ends with singing praise to God. The silence of patient expectance is changed for the melody of received deliverance.
The first part of the second division, like the corresponding portion of the first division, is mainly prayer, but with the significant difference that the petitions now are directed, not to the psalmists deliverance but to his enemies punishment. For himself, he is sure that his God will come to meet him with His lovingkindness, and that, thus met and helped, he will look on, secure, at their ruin. The Hebrew margin proposes to read "The God of my lovingkindness will meet me"-an incomplete sentence, which does not tell with what God will meet him. But the text needs only the change of one vowel point in order to yield the perfectly appropriate reading. "My God shall meet me with His lovingkindness," which is distinctly to be preferred. It is singular that the substitution of "my" for "his," which is needlessly suggested by the Hebrew margin for Psa_59:10, is required but not suggested for Psa_59:9. One is tempted to wonder whether there has been a scribes blunder attaching the correction to the wrong verse. The central portion of this part of the psalm is composed of terrible wishes for the enemies destruction. There is nothing more awful in the imprecations of the Psalter than that petition that the boon of a swift end to their miseries may not be granted them. The dew of pity for suffering is dried up by the fire of stern desire for the exhibition of a signal instance of Divine judicial righteousness. That desire lifts the prayer above the level of personal vengeance, but does not lighten its awfulness. There may be an allusion to the fate of Cain, who was kept alive and made a "fugitive and a vagabond." Whether that is so or not, the wish that the foes may be kept alive to be buffeted by Gods strength-or, as the word may mean, to be scattered in panic-struck rout by Gods army-is one which marks the difference between the old and the new covenants. The ground of these fearful punishments is vehemently set forth in Psa_59:12. Every word which the adversaries speak is sin. Their own self-sufficient pride, which is revolt against dependence on God, is like a trap to catch them. They speak curses and lies, for which retribution is due. This recounting of their crimes, not so much against the psalmist, though involving him, as against God, fires his indignation anew, and he flames out with petitions which seem to forget the former ones for lingering destruction: "End them in wrath, end them." The contradiction may be apparent only, and this passionate cry may presuppose the fulfilment of the former. The psalmist will then desire two dreadful things-first, protracted suffering, and then a crushing blow to end it. His ultimate desire in both is the same. He would have the evildoers spared long enough to be monuments of Gods punitive justice; he would have them ended, that the crash of their fall may reverberate afar and proclaim that God rules in Jacob. "Unto the ends of the earth" may be connected either with "rules" or with "know." In the former construction the thought will be, that from His throne in Israel God exercises dominion universally; in the latter, that the echo of the judgment on these evil-doers will reach distant lands. The latter meaning is favoured by the accents, and is, on the whole, to be preferred. But what a strange sense of his own significance for the manifestation of Gods power to the world this singer must have had, if lie could suppose that the events of his life were thus of universal importance! One does not wonder that the advocates of the personification theory find strong confirmation of it in such utterances; and, indeed, the only other explanation of them is that the psalmist held, and knew himself to hold, a conspicuous place in the evolution of the Divine purpose so that in his life, as in a small mirror, there were reflected great matters. If such anticipations were more than wild dreams, the cherisher of them must either have been speaking in the person of the nation, or he must have known himself to be Gods instrument for extending His name through the world. No single person so adequately meets the requirements of such words as David.
The second part of this division (Psa_59:14) begins with the same words as the corresponding part of the first division (Psa_59:6), so that there is a kind of refrain here. The futures in Psa_59:14-15, may be either simple futures or optatives. In the latter case the petitions of the preceding verses would be continued here and the pregnant truth would result that continuance in sin is the punishment of sin. But probably the imprecations are better confined to the former part, as the Selah draws a broad line of demarcation, and there would be an incongruity in following the petition "End them" with others which contemplated the continuance of the enemies. If the verses are taken as simply predictive, the point of the reintroduction of the figure of the pack of dogs hunting for their prey lies in Psa_59:15. There they are described as balked in their attempts, and having to pass the night unsatisfied. Their prey has escaped. Their eager chase, their nocturnal quest. their growling and prowling, have been vain. They lie down empty and in the dark a vivid picture, which has wider meanings than its immediate occasion. "Ye lust and desire to have, and cannot obtain." An eternal nemesis hangs over godless lives, condemning them to hunger, after all efforts, and wrapping their pangs of unsatisfied desire in tragic darkness.
A clear strain of trust springs up like a larks morning song. The singer contrasts himself with his baffled foes. The "they" at the beginning of Psa_59:15 is emphatic in the Hebrew, and is matched with the emphatic "And I" which begins Psa_59:16. His "morning" is similarly set over against their "night." So petition, complaint, imprecation, all merge into a song of joy and trust and the whole ends with the refrain significantly varied and enlarged. In its first form the psalmist said "For Thee will I watch"; in its second he rises to "To Thee will I harp." Glad praise is ever the close of the vigils of a faithful, patient heart. The deliverance won by waiting and trust should be celebrated by praise. In the first form the refrain ran "God is my high tower," and the second part of the psalm began with "My God shall meet me with His lovingkindness." In its second form the refrain draws into itself these words which had followed it, and so modifies them that the lovingkindness which in them was contemplated as belonging to and brought by God is now joyfully clasped by the singer as his very own, by Divine gift and through his own acceptance. Blessed they who are led by occasion of foes and fears to take Gods rich gifts, and can thankfully and humbly feel that His lovingkindness and all its results are theirs, because He Himself is theirs and they are His!
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Superscription.—“To the Chief Musician, Al-taschith.” See Introduction to Psalms…
INTRODUCTION
Superscription.—“To the Chief Musician, Al-taschith.” See Introduction to Psalms 57. “Michtam of David.” See Introduction to Psalms 56. “When Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.” The history here referred to is contained in 1Sa_19:11-18. Moll: “The contents and form of this Psalm do not lead us to limit that dangerous situation in Gibeah to the one night before the flight which was rendered possible by Michal. It is particularly the recurring verses (Psa_59:6; Psa_59:14), which describe repeated hostile waylaying, which began with the evening.”
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Both the nature of the contents and the style of the composition of the Psalm confirm the statement of the superscription as to its authorship and occasion.
THE HUNTED LIFE AND ITS DIVINE GUARDIAN
(Psa_59:1-10.)
In this, as in several preceding Psalms, complaint, prayer, and confidence are the chief feelings which find expression. Notice—
I. The character and conduct of the persecutors.
1. They were wicked. “Workers of iniquity.” The expression denotes great activity in wickedness, and is justly applied to Saul and his base agents.
2. They were cruel. “Bloody men.” They sought the life of the Psalmist though he had done them no wrong. “They make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.” “He compares his enemies to those half-wild dogs, which are the scavengers of the cities of the East. They prowl about the streets at night hunting for offal, and hesitate not to prey upon the dead, and even the feeble and helpless.” So fierce and cruel were they. No figure is too strong to represent the fierce cruelty of Saul towards David.
3. They were secret. “They lie in wait for my soul.” They were subtle and politic in their designs, and, as it were, lay in ambush that they might destroy his life (1Sa_19:11).
4. They were strong. “The mighty are gathered against me.” “It is not mere strength,” says Barnes, “that is here referred to, but that kind of strength or courage which can be employed in a desperate enterprise, and which is fitted to accomplish any scheme of wickedness, however daring or difficult.” Unscrupulous, bold, and strong were the men whom Saul employed against David at this time.
5. They were resolute and impetuous. “They run and prepare themselves.” Hengstenberg translates: “They run and plant themselves firmly.” The terms and the metaphor are military. David compares his enemies to an attacking host, which, having obtained a firm footing on the walls of a beleaguered city, is ready to rush over them, or through the breaches made in them, into the city. They were settled in purpose, and were eager to execute that purpose. “Their feet were swift to shed blood.”
6. They were slanderous. “Behold, they belch out with their mouth, swords are in their lips.” Alexander: “The first verb is expressive of a constant flow or gush. What it is that they thus pour out, although not expressed, may be readily gathered from the context, namely, slanders and reproaches. The swords in their lips are significant of sharp and cutting speeches. (See Psa_55:21, and comp. Psa_52:2). Arndt: “Just as a naked sword inflicts wounds, so do lies and calumnies cut in pieces innocent hearts.”
7. They were practically atheistic. “For who, say they, doth hear?” They were wholly destitute of the fear of God. They acted as though there were no God. (Comp. Psa_10:11.)
Such were the foes by which the poet was assailed on this occasion. They were calculated to strike terror into a brave heart.
II. The Prayer of the persecuted. “Deliver me from mine enemies,” &c. Notice—
1. The requests presented. David entreats God—
(1) For defence. “Defend me from them that rise up against me.” Margin: “Set me on high,” &c. He seeks to be raised far above the reach of his enemies, and above all fear of them. The man who trusts in God “shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks.”
(2) For deliverance. “Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity” &c. The foes were many, the danger was great; but the Psalmist knew that God could thwart their designs, and deliver him from their hands.
(3) For judgment on his enemies. “Thou, therefore, O Lord God of hosts,” &c. (Psa_59:5). On “all the heathen.” Perowne says, “The nations, to an Israelite, would be the embodiment of all that opposed itself to God; and in appealing to God to punish them, he would, in fact, be appealing to Him to punish all evil wherever manifested. The special judgment would follow from the universal, and be an instance of it.… To the true Israelite, the whole outer heathen world was a world lying under the heavy wrath of God, and to him the greater part of Israel itself seemed corrupt and apostate.” The Psalmist entreats God to visit them in judgment. The persecutors of the servants of God and the enemies of His cause will certainly meet with the punishment which they deserve, unless they penitently turn from their evil ways. When He arises for the help of His people He will smite their foes in His anger.
2. The pleas by which these requests are urged. He pleads—
(1) The might and malice of his foes. In this he found a powerful reason why God should help him. The greatness of our danger and our need are strong arguments with Him.
(2) His own innocence. “Not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord. Without my fault,” &c. David had not in any way injured Saul, or any of his enemies. So clear was he in this respect, that he could appeal to the great Searcher of hearts that he had, neither in heart nor in action, wronged Saul, or merited this treatment from him. “There are two kinds of innocence, one before God, the other before men.” David was quite conscious of the latter kind of innocence. However great a sinner he was against God, he knew he had not injured Saul even in thought. When seeking deliverance from God from such dangers this is a powerful plea.
(3). The might and majesty of God. “Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts,” &c. These names are not empty formulas or poetical figures. As “Lord God of hosts” all forces bow to His command. He cannot be overmatched. The names and titles add force to the argument.
(4). His personal relation to God. “Oh, my God … the God of Israel.” Blessed are they who, in their trials and perils, can plead their personal relation to Him, &c.
III. The confidence of the persecuted. The Psalmist was not dismayed by reason of his enemies, but confident in the all-sufficiency of his God.
1. In God as infinitely superior to his enemies. “Thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them,” &c. It is for God a light matter to confound their designs, &c. (Comp. Psa_2:4).
2. In God as his sure defence. “Because of His strength will I wait upon Thee; for God is my defence.” Conant: “My strength, I will wait on Thee; for God is my defence.” God is our high place. In Him we are inviolably secure—far above the reach of the utmost effort of our enemies.
3. In God as a gracious and timely Deliverer. “The God of my mercy shall prevent me,” &c. Conant: “God with His loving-kindness will anticipate me.” Moll: “My God will come to meet me with His grace.” Spurgeon: “How frequently have we met with preventing mercy—the supply prepared before the need occurred—the refuge built before the danger arose. Far ahead into the future the foreseeing grace of heaven has projected itself, and forestalled every difficulty.” So David rose triumphant over his trials and fears, &c.
CONCLUSION.—What message has this chapter from the history of the pious Psalmist for us in our life to-day?
1. The godly are still subject to sore trials, sometimes to bitter persecutions, &c.
2. Happy are they who, in their trials, are conscious of their innocence. Suffering is far more severe and intolerable when it is the direct result of sin, and is accompanied with a sense of guilt, than when we are sustained by the consciousness of our integrity.
3. More happy are they who, in their trials and perils, can look to God for defence and deliverance as a God in covenant relations with themselves. “Oh, my God … The God of Israel.” In Him they have all-sufficiency. “They that be with us are more than they that be with them.” “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
THE DIVERSE DESTINIES OF MEN MANIFESTING THE REIGN OF GOD
(Psa_59:11-17.)
The Psalmist here prays for, or, as some say, predicts, the infliction of the judgment of God upon the wicked who were persecuting him, and announces his determination to celebrate the praise of his protecting and delivering God.
I. The destiny of the enemies of the good. Their destiny is here set forth in two aspects.
1. Life protracted in misery. “Slay them not,” &c. Here are three elements of misery.
(1). Fruitless wanderings. “Scatter them by Thy power.” Hengstenberg: “Make them wander up and down through Thy power.” It is a prayer that God would lead them astray, so that they might fail of their object. This verb is used of Cain (Gen_4:12), and of Israel in the wilderness (Num_32:13). The wicked do miss the mark in life. They achieve no great purposes. And, even when they are able to carry their plans to a successful issue, they find no satisfaction in the result.
(2). Heavy afflictions. “Bring them down, O Lord our shield.” God will certainly humble and abase the enemies of His people. Calvin: “He wills that they should be thrown down from their honourable position, be cast, as it were, before one’s feet, so that they may afford in their misery and disgrace a standing spectacle of the Divine indignation.”
(3). Want of satisfaction. “And at evening let them return,” &c., Psa_59:14-15. Psa_59:14 is a repetition of Psa_59:6. The idea is, Let them come, and prowl and howl in vain, and meet with the mortifying disappointment which they deserve. The marginal rendering of Psa_59:15 is correct. “As for them, they shall wander up and down for food, if they be not satisfied, then they will stay all night.” They shall wander in search of food and find none, and shall pass the night full of disgust and pain from unsatisfied cravings. “It is the image of a wretched existence in hunger and pain.” Wickedness does not satisfy its agents. The evil heart is not restful. It is a stranger to satisfaction and peace. “The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest,” &c. The Psalmist prays that this disappointment and wretchedness may befall his enemies, that they may thus become monuments of the righteousness of the Divine rule.
2. Life ending in ruin. “Consume them in wrath,” &c. Perowne: “This does not contradict the previous imprecation. He would have his enemies destroyed at last, but only after they had been, by a protracted, miserable existence, a warning to men of God’s righteous severity.” The idea and desire of the Poet was, that God would visit them with one judgment after another, and ultimately bring them to utter ruin. Wickedness, if persisted in, must terminate in destruction. “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
Let it be distinctly noted that the destiny of the wicked is directly connected with their sin. “For the sin of their mouth,” &c. On the sin of their mouth we have remarked on Psa_59:7. The destruction of the wicked is viewed as the just consequence of their sin. The slander, pride, and cruelty of the enemies of David drew down upon them the righteous judgments of heaven. Men meeten themselves by wickedness for ruin before God dooms them to it. A man’s hell grows out of his own character and conduct.
II. The destiny of the suffering good. In the midst of his persecutions and trials the Psalmist confidently anticipates a life of devout and hearty praise. Notice—
1. The object of his praise. “Unto Thee, O my strength, will I sing.” God was the source of the strength of the Psalmist. In Him he found all that he needed, and to Him his praise was offered.
2. The reason of his praise. “For Thou hast been my defence and refuse in the day of my trouble. For God is my defence, the God of my mercy.” The rich grace of God toward us, and His sure protection of us, are a most sufficient reason for heartiest and grate-fullest praise.
3. The theme of his praise. “I will sing of Thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of Thy mercy.” M. Henry: “Power, without mercy, is to be dreaded: mercy, without power, is not what a man can expect much benefit from; but God’s power by which He is able to help us, and His mercy by which He is inclined to help us, will justly be the everlasting praise of all the saints.”
4. The manner of his praise.
(1) He would “sing.” Devout song is a natural and becoming expression of gratitude and joy.
(2.) He would “sing aloud.” In this way he would make his boast in the Lord, and seek to enkindle the spirit of worship in others.
(3.) He would “sing aloud in the morning.” The morning is the emblem of deliverance from trial, of prosperity and of joy. Morning is the beautiful symbol of the destiny of the righteous. God will turn the darkness of their night of suffering into the beautiful light of the morning of gladness. (Comp. 2Sa_23:4; Job_11:17; Psa_90:14; Psa_92:2). The wicked are advancing to the thick darkness of a dread night: the righteous to the unwaning light of a joyous day.
III. The reign of God manifested in these diverse destinies. The dark destiny of the wicked, and the joyous one of the good, are regarded by the Psalmist as supplying evidence of the righteous government of God. “Let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth.” David desired that it might be known among the nations that God ruled over His people—not the cruel and wicked Saul, but the holy God. His feeling was similar to that to which he gave expression as he encountered Goliath, “That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.” The design of God’s judgments is to convince men that the Lord reigneth. They aim not merely at the punishment of the impenitent, but at the warning of the wicked, the confirmation of the faith of believers, and the instruction of all men.
CONCLUSION.—
1. If there be revenge found in the desire of the Psalmist concerning his enemies, in that he is not an example to us. In him revenge cannot be commendable. In us, in this Christian dispensation, it would be exceedingly sinful.
2. Yet wickedness brings misery and leads to ruin. It is well that it does. It would be evil and unspeakably calamitous were it otherwise. Every right-minded and true-hearted man must approve this,—rejoice in this.
3. So righteousness tendeth to life and peace and joy. He who by faith is interested in the Divine power and mercy may triumph even in the midst of his enemies. “Light is sown for the righteous,” &c.
4. Though appearances sometimes seem inconsistent with the supremacy of the righteous government of God, yet he ever ruleth, and in the end His government shall be universally acknowledged.
MEDITATION AND PRAISE
(Psa_59:16-17.)
Consider—
I. The subject of the Psalmist’s meditation.
1. He meditated upon the Divine mercy. All the perfections of the Divine nature are glorious and furnish matter for delightful meditation. But it is from His mercy that we draw our chief consolation, encouragement, and hope. Every good man has an experimental knowledge of the mercy of God. In every age God has exercised his mercy to men; but the gift of Christ is its grandest expression. To seek an interest in the mercy of God is of the first importance.
2. He contemplated God as his refuge in trouble. “Thou hast been my defence and refuge,” &c. To have a refuge in time of trouble is desirable. “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.” We have every encouragement to put our trust in God. He is represented as a “rock,” a “fortress,” a “high tower,” a “shield,” and a “buckler.” God as a refuge—
(1.) Is near,—always at hand.
(2.) Affords the greatest security.
(3.) Is suitable. Our troubles differ, but He is a suitable refuge in every trouble.
(4.) David proved God as his refuge. Saul had laid plots to destroy him, but the Lord had delivered him. We also have obtained support and relief by trusting in God.
3. He contemplated God as his strength and confided in His power. “I will sing of thy power. Unto Thee, O my strength, will I sing.” In what respects are we to consider God as the strength of His people?
(1.) He defends them from danger by His power.
(2.) He assists and strengthens them for duty by His grace.
II. The influence of the Psalmist’s meditation. It led him to praise God. “I will sing,” &c.
1. Praising God is most reasonable.
2. Is a pleasant and delightful exercise.
3. Should be a part of every day’s employment. Divine goodness is daily manifested and should be daily acknowledged.
4. Will tend to prepare us to meet the trials which may yet be before us.
5. Will tend to meeten us for the enjoyment of heaven.
6. Requires a suitable frame of mind. True praise springs from gratitude; and is promoted by a consideration of what God is, what He has done for us, and what he has promised to do for us.
CONCLUSION.—
1. How great are the privileges of the people of God!
2. How important seriously to consider whether we are interested in these privileges.
3. Learn the importance of continuing to make God our refuge in trouble.—Abridged from an unpublished M.S.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Psa 59:9, Psa 59:17
Psa 59:9, Psa 59:17
These two parallel verses are a kind of refrain coming in at the close of each division of the Psalm. The first stands at the end of a picture of the Psalmist’s trouble and danger, and makes the transition to the second part, which is mainly a prayer for deliverance, and finishes with the refrain altered and enlarged.
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I. Notice, first, the waiting on God. (1) The expression "I will wait" means accurately, "I will watch Thee;" and it is the word that is generally employed, not about our looking up to Him, but about His looking down to us. These two things, vigilance and patience, are the main elements in the scriptural idea of waiting on God. (2) We have here set forth, not only the nature, but also the object, of this waiting. "Upon Thee, O my strength, will I wait, for God is my defence." The name of the Lord is strength; therefore I wait on Him in the confident expectation of receiving His power. The Lord is "my defence;" therefore I wait on Him in the confident expectation of safety. The first name speaks of God dwelling in us, and His strength made perfect in our weakness; the second speaks of our ’dwelling in God, and our defencelessness sheltered in Him.
II. Notice, next, the change of waiting into praise. In the second verse we catch waiting expectation and watchfulness in the very act of passing over into possession and praise. As resolve or as prophecy, this verse is equally a witness of the large reward of quiet waiting for the salvation of the Lord. The cry of the suppliant was to God, his strength and defence; the song of the saved is to the God who is also the God of his mercy. The experiences of life have brought out more fully the love and tender pity of God.. When our troubles are past, and their meaning is plainer, we shall be able to look back on them all as the mercies of the God of our mercy.
A. Maclaren, Weekday Evening Addresses, p. 112.
References: Psalm 59—J. Hammond, Expositor, 1st series, vol. iv., p. 219. Psa 60:4.—J. P. Chown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 363, Psa 60:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 983. Psalm 60—A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 201.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 The visitation of the Gentile world.
The visitation of the Gentile world.
To the chief musician, Al-tashcheth, Michtam of David, when Saul sent, and they watched the house to put him to death.
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The next psalm presents the visitation of the world, the last being apparently thus (and as the opening verses would seem to indicate) the judgment in Israel. Its scope is therefore far wider than its occasion would suggest, as the fifth verse plainly shows, where God is appealed to visit all the nations, and that as Jehovah, God of Israel. This agrees with their being seen where the prophecy of Zechariah and others shows them to be gathered when the Lord appears -around the city (impliedly Jerusalem).
The ninth and seventeenth verses compared show, more plainly than the last psalm; the Michtam character.
1. The first section gives the cause (or at least the immediate occasion) of the judgment. Enemies are rising up against the psalmist, workers of vanity and men of blood. He lays his case before Jehovah, Israel’s covenant-God, declaring his blamelessness in the matter. He reiterates this, and invites Him to come in and see if it be not so. Jehovah is then again invoked, and specifically as the God of Israel, to visit all the nations, and to stubborn plotters of iniquity to show no grace.
2. Then a brief section puts in contrast the parties opposed. On the one hand the enemies, like a pack of dogs, howling with disappointment, as they roam about in the evening gloom, the words upon their brave lips swords, because they apprehend no hearer. But on the other side is One who hears nevertheless, and, if He keep silence does so as counting all the restless attempts of men for His dethronement at their proper worth. He "laughs" at them: His appreciation of their folly being put, as commonly, in strong human language. Here, then, are the contestants in this strange, abhorrent warfare of the creatures with their God.
3. They have not sanctified Him: He must therefore, perforce, for He is holy, sanctify Himself in them, and at their cost. And this, as we have seen elsewhere, and more than once, is the meaning of the "ban" (Lev 27:28-29, notes). We have seen it in Hermon (Psa 42:1-11, notes) dominating, in some sense, the land of Israel. The principle of it has been enforced in Israel in the last psalm. Here we find it in the wider sphere of the Gentile nations. God hears the cry of His people, suffering at the hands of those who have cast off all restraint, -a cry which the psalmist here utters in direct appeal to Him. "My Strength," he cries, "I wait upon thee: for God is my high tower." Safe he will be here, lifted up upon that glorious elevation, far above the rage of his adversaries, though to human eyes right amongst them and therefore he says, "My God. will be before me with His mercy; and God’ shall make me see my desire on those that watch me," -the keen-eyed wild beasts ready for a spring.
But he cares not for mere extermination; nor is it enough that the enemies should be removed. He realizes the lesson that Israel had to learn in these enemies of theirs, who both in their presence and their removal are but signs, either of divine anger or its passing away. Hasty removal would not do, therefore. The lesson must be rightly learned, so as to abide in them; for it is the lesson of sin and its bitter fruit. "Slay them not," therefore, he says: not meaning that that is not to be in the end, for presently he will be found saying the opposite of that; but keep them sufficiently before the eyes of the people so that the lesson of their doom may take effect: for it is still the lesson of divine holiness and of sin’s necessary judgment. "Slay them not, lest my people forget: make them. wander by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield." Thus it would be their own doom for so many centuries, that would be repeated in the case of these their enemies -an impressive reminder of God’s equal ways.
Their indictment follows, their ways, which invite and necessitate judgment: the sin of their mouth, the pride of their heart, their profanity and falsehood. For this comes at last the full recompense, not indeed the eternal judgment, but as to the earth which they have polluted with their misdeeds, and which now in its own interests casts them forth. At last it shall be known, even by them, in the blow that falls upon them, that there is a God who rules in Jacob -none the less plainly when he is seen as "Jacob"; and also to the ends of the earth. In this utter consumption from the earth, the ban is fully executed.
4. In the last section of the psalm we have the experience, the brief rehearsal by delivered. Israel, of the story in its simplest elements. Again we see the hungry dogs uttering in the twilight their howl of disappointment; the lusts that crave and conquer and madden them for the prey that after all passes out of their reach. The evening deepens into night, and still the dogs are there; but morning comes and joy, and the phantoms of the night are vanished. In the morning they sing aloud of the mercy that has been with them. God has abundantly fulfilled their prayer. He has been their high tower and refuge in the day of their strait. Well may the "Michtam" ending speak of it as what shall now be forever on their hearts: "Unto Thee, my Strength, I will sing: for God has been my high tower, -my merciful God."
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv9, 17 Psa 59:9, Psa 59:17.
Psalms
WAITING AND SINGING
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Psa 59:9, Psa 59:17.
There is an obvious correspondence between these two verses even as they stand in our translation, and still more obviously in the Hebrew. You observe that in the former verse the words ‘because of’ are a supplement inserted by our translators, because they did not exactly know what to make of the bare words as they stood. ‘His strength, I will wait upon Thee,’ is, of course, nonsense; but a very slight alteration of a single letter, which has the sanction of several good authorities, both in manuscripts and translations, gives an appropriate and beautiful meaning, and brings the two verses into complete verbal correspondence. Suppose we read, ‘My strength,’ instead of ‘His strength.’ The change is only making the limb of one letter a little shorter, and as you will perceive, we thereby get the same expressions in both verses.
We may then read our two texts thus: ‘Upon Thee, O my Strength! I will wait. . . . Unto Thee, O my Strength, I will sing!’ They are, word for word, parallel, with the significant difference that the waiting in the one passes into song, in the other, the silent expectation breaks into music of praise. And these two words-wait and sing-are in the Hebrew the same in every letter but one, thus strengthening the impression of likeness as well as emphasising, with poetic art, that of difference. The parallel, too, obviously extends to the second half of each verse, where the reason for both the waiting and the praise is the same-’For God is my defence’-with the further eloquent variation that the song is built not only on the thought that ‘God is my defence,’ but also on this, that He is ‘the God of my mercy.’
These two parallel verses, then, are a kind of refrain, coming in at the close of each division of the psalm; and if you examine its structure and general course of thought, you will see that the first stands at the end of a picture of the Psalmist’s trouble and danger, and makes the transition to the second part, which is mainly a prayer for deliverance, and finishes with the refrain altered and enlarged, as I have pointed out.
The heading of the psalm tells us that its date is the very beginning of Saul’s persecution, when ‘they watched the house to kill’ David, and he fled by night from the city. There is a certain correspondence between the circumstances and some part of the picture of his foes here which makes the date probable. If so, this is one of David’s oldest psalms, and is interesting as showing his faith and courage, even in the first burst of danger. But whether that be so or not, we have here, at any rate, the voice of a devout soul in sore sorrow, and we may well learn the lesson of its twofold utterance. The man, overwhelmed by calamity, betakes himself to God. ‘Upon Thee, O my Strength! will I wait, for God is my defence.’ Then, by dint of waiting, although the outward circumstances keep just the same, his temper and feelings change. He began with, ‘Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord! for they lie in wait for my soul.’ He passes through ‘My Strength! I will wait upon Thee,’ and so ends with ‘My Strength! I will sing unto Thee.’ We may then throw our remarks into two groups, and deal for a few moments with these two points-the waiting on God, and the change of waiting into praise.
Now, with regard to the first of these-the waiting on God-I must notice that the expression here, ‘I will wait,’ is a somewhat remarkable one. It means accurately, ‘I will watch Thee,’ and it is the word that is generally employed, not about our looking up to Him, but about His looking down to us. It would describe the action of a shepherd guarding his flock; of a sentry keeping a city; of the watchers that watch for the morning, and the like. By using it, the Psalmist seems as if he would say-There are two kinds of watching. There is God’s watching over me, and there is my watching for God. I look up to Him that He may bless; He looks down upon me that He may take care of me. As He guards me, so I stand expectant before Him, as one in a besieged town, upon the ramparts there, looks eagerly out across the plain to see the coming of the long-expected succours. God ‘waits to be gracious’-wonderful words, painting for us His watchfulness of fitting times and ways to bless us, and His patient attendance on our unwilling, careless spirits. We may well take a lesson from His attitude in bestowing, and on our parts, wait on Him to be helped. For these two things-vigilance and patience-are the main elements in the scriptural idea of waiting on God. Let me enforce each of them in a word or two.
There is no waiting on God for help, and there is no help from God, without watchful expectation on our parts. If ever we fail to receive strength and defence from Him, it is because we are not on the outlook for it. Many a proffered succour from heaven goes past us, because we are not standing on our watch-tower to catch the far-off indications of its approach, and to fling open the gates of our heart for its entrance. He who expects no help will get none; he whose expectation does not lead him to be on the alert for its coming will get but little. How the beleaguered garrison, that knows a relieving force is on the march, strain their eyes to catch the first glint of the sunshine on their spears as they top the pass! But how unlike such tension of watchfulness is the languid anticipation and fitful look, with more of distrust than hope in it, which we turn to heaven in our need! No wonder we have so little living experience that God is our ‘strength’ and our ‘defence,’ when we so partially believe that He is, and so little expect that He will be either. The homely old proverb says, ‘They that watch for providences will never want a providence to watch for,’ and you may turn it the other way and say, ‘They that do not watch for providence will never have a providence to watch for.’ Unless you put out your water-jars when it rains you will catch no water; if you do not watch for God coming to help you, God’s watching to be gracious will be of no good at all to you. His waiting is not a substitute for ours, but because He watches therefore we should watch. We say, we expect Him to comfort and help us-well, are we standing, as it were, on tiptoe, with empty hands upraised to bring them a little nearer the gifts we look for? Are our ‘eyes ever towards the Lord’? Do we pore over His gifts, scrutinising them as eagerly as a gold-seeker does the quartz in his pan, to detect every shining speck of the precious metal? Do we go to our work and our daily battle with the confident expectation that He will surely come when our need is the sorest and scatter our enemies? Is there any clear outlook kept by us for the help which we know must come, lest it should pass us unobserved, and like the dove from the ark, finding no footing in our hearts drowned in a flood of troubles, be fain to return to the calm refuge from which it came on its vain errand? Alas, how many gentle messengers of God flutter homeless about our hearts, unrecognised and unwelcomed, because we have not been watching for them! Of what avail is it that a strong hand from the beach should fling the safety-line with true aim to the wreck, if no eye on the deck is watching for it? It hangs there, useless and unseen, and then it drops into the sea, and every soul on board is drowned. It is our own fault-and very largely the fault of our want of watchfulness for the coming of God’s help-if we are ever overwhelmed by the tasks, or difficulties, or sorrows of life. We wonder that we are left to fight out the battle ourselves. But are we? Is it not rather, that while God’s succours are hastening to our side we will not open our eyes to see, nor our hearts to receive them? If we go through the world with our hands hanging listlessly down instead of lifted to heaven, or full of the trifles and toys of this present, as so many of us do, what wonder is it if heavenly gifts of strength do not come into our grasp?
That attitude of watchful expectation is vividly described for us in the graphic words of another psalm, ‘My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.’ What a picture that is! Think of a wakeful, sick man, tossing restless all the night on his tumbled bed, racked with pain made harder to bear by the darkness. How often his heavy eye is lifted to the window-pane, to see if the dawn has not yet begun to tint it with a grey glimmer! How he groans, ‘Would God it were morning!’ Or think of some unarmed and solitary man, benighted in the forest, and hearing the wild beasts growl and scream and bark all round, while his fire dies down, and he knows that his life depends on the morning breaking soon. With yet more eager expectation are we to look for God, whose coming is a better morning for our sick and defenceless spirits. If we are not so looking for His help, we need never be surprised that we do not get it. There is no promise and no probability that it will come to men in their sleep, who neither desire it nor wait for it. And such vigilant expectation will be accompanied with patience. There is no impatience in it, but the very opposite. ‘If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.’ If we know that He will surely come, then if He tarry we can wait for Him. The measure of our confidence is ever the measure of our patience. Being sure that He is always ‘in the midst of’ Zion, we may be sure that at the right time He will flame out into delivering might, helping her, and that right early. So waiting means watchfulness and patience, both of which have their roots in trust.
Further, we have here set forth not only the nature, but also the object of this waiting. ‘Upon Thee, O my Strength! will I wait, for God is my Defence.’
The object to which faith is directed, and the ground on which it is based, are both set forth in these two names here applied to God. The name of the Lord is Strength, therefore I wait on Him in the confident expectation of receiving of His power. The Lord is ‘my Defence,’ therefore I wait on Him in the confident expectation of safety. The one name has respect to our condition of feebleness and inadequacy for our tasks, and points to God as infusing strength into us. The other points to our exposedness to danger and to enemies, and points to God as casting His shelter around us. The word translated ‘defence’ is literally ‘a high fortress,’ and is the same as closes the rapturous accumulation of the names of his delivering God, which the Psalmist gives us when he vows to love Jehovah, who has been his Rock, and Fortress, and Deliverer; his God in whom he will trust, his Buckler, and the Horn of his salvation, and his High Tower. The first name speaks of God dwelling in us, and His strength made perfect in our weakness; the second speaks of our dwelling in God, and our defencelessness sheltered in Him. ‘The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.’ As some outnumbered army, unable to make head against its enemies in the open, flees to the shelter of some hill fortress, perched upon a crag, and taking up the drawbridge, cannot be reached by anything that has not wings, so this man, hard pressed by his foes, flees into God to hide him, and feels secure behind these strong walls.
That is the God on whom we wait. The recognition of His character as thus mighty and ready to help is the only thing that will evoke our expectant confidence, and His character thus discerned is the only object which our confidence can grasp aright. Trust Him as what He is, and trust Him because of what He is, and see to it that your faith lays hold on the living God Himself, and on nothing beside.
But waiting on God is not only the recognition of His character as revealed, but it involves, too, the act of laying hold on all the power and blessing of that character for myself. ‘My strength, my defence,’ says the Psalmist. Think of what He is, and believe that He is that for you, else there is no true waiting on Him. Make God thy very own by claiming thine own portion in His might, by betaking thyself to that strong habitation. We cannot wait on God in crowds, but one by one, must say, ‘My strength and my defence.’
And now turn to the second verse of our two texts: ‘Unto Thee, O my Strength! will I sing, for God is my defence and the God of my mercy.’
Here we catch, as it were, waiting expectation and watchfulness in the very act of passing over into possession and praise. For remember the aspect of things has not changed a bit between the first verse of our text and the last. The enemies are all round about David just as they were, ‘making a noise like a dog,’ as he says, and ‘going round about the city.’ The evil that was threatening him and making him sad remains entirely unlightened. What has altered? He has altered. And how has he altered? Because his waiting on God has begun to work an inward change, and he has climbed, as it were, out of the depths of his sorrow up into the sunlight. And so it ever is, my friends! There is deliverance in spirit before there is deliverance in outward fact. If our patient waiting bring, as it certainly will bring, at the right time, an answer in the removal of danger, and the lightening of sorrow, it will bring first the better answer, ‘the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,’ to keep your hearts and minds. That is the highest blessing we have to seek for in our waiting on God, and that is the blessing which we get as soon as we wait on Him. The outward deliverance may tarry, but ever there come before it, as heralds of its approach, the sense of a lightened burden and the calmness of a strengthened heart. It may be long before the morning breaks, but even while the darkness lasts, a faint air begins to stir among the sleeping leaves, the promise of the dawn, and the first notes of half-awakened birds prelude the full chorus that will hail the sunrise.
It is beautiful, I think, to see how in the compass of this one little psalm the singer has, as it were, wrought himself clear, and sung himself out of his fears. The stream of his thought, like some mountain torrent, turbid at first, has run itself bright and sparkling. How all the tremor and agitation have gone away, just because he has kept his mind for a few minutes in the presence of the calm thought of God and His love. The first courses of his psalm, like those of some great building, are laid deep down in the darkness, but the shining summit is away up there in the sunlight, and God’s glittering glory is sparklingly reflected from the highest point. Whoever begins with, ‘Deliver me-I will wait upon Thee,’ will pass very quickly, even before the outward deliverance comes, into-’O my Strength! unto Thee will I sing!’ Every song of true trust, though it may begin with a minor, will end in a burst of jubilant gladness. No prayer ought ever to deal with complaints, as we know, without starting with thanksgiving, and, blessed be God, no prayer need to deal with complaints without ending with thanksgiving. So, all our cries of sorrow, and all our acknowledgments of weakness and need, and all our plaintive beseechings, should be inlaid, as it were, between two layers of brighter and gladder thought, like dull rock between two veins of gold. The prayer that begins with thankfulness, and passes on into waiting, even while in sorrow and sore need, will always end in thankfulness, and triumph, and praise.
If we regard this second verse of our text as the expression of the Psalmist’s emotion at the moment of its utterance, then we see in it a beautiful illustration of the effect of faithful waiting to turn complaining into praise. If we regard it rather as an expression of his confidence, that ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance,’ we see in it an illustration of the power of patient waiting to brighten the sure hope of deliverance, and to bring summer into the heart of winter. As resolve, or as prophecy, it is equally a witness of the large reward of quiet waiting for the salvation of the Lord.
In either application of the words their almost precise correspondence with those of the previous verse is far more than a mere poetic ornament, or part of the artistic form of the psalm. It teaches us this happy lesson-that the song of accomplished deliverance, whether on earth, or in the final joy of heaven, will be but a sweeter, fuller repetition of the cry that went up in trouble from our waiting hearts. The object to which we shall turn with our thankfulness is He to whom we betook ourselves with our prayers. There will be the same turning of the soul to Him; only instead of wistful waiting in the longing look, joy will light her lamps in our eyes, and thankfulness beam in our faces as we turn to His light. We shall look to Him as of old, and name Him what we used to name Him when we were in weakness and warfare,-our ‘Strength’ and our ‘Defence.’ But how different the feelings with which the delivered soul calls Him so, from those with which the sorrowful heart tried to grasp the comfort of the names. Then their reality was a matter of faith, often hard to hold fast. Now it is a matter of memory and experience. ‘I called Thee my strength when I was full of weakness; I tried to believe Thou wast my defence when I was full of fear; I thought of Thee as my fortress when I was ringed about with foes; I know Thee now for that which I then trusted that Thou wast. As I waited upon Thee that Thou mightest be gracious, I praise Thee now that Thou hast been more gracious than my hopes.’ Blessed are they whose loftiest expectations were less than their grateful memories and their rich experience, and who can take up in their song of praise the names by which they called on God, and feel that they knew not half their depth, their sweetness, or their power!
But the praise is not merely the waiting transformed. Experience has not only deepened the conception of the meaning of God’s name; it has added a new name. The cry of the suppliant was to God, his strength and defence; the song of the saved is to the God who is also the God of his mercy. The experiences of life have brought out more fully the love and tender pity of God. While the troubles lasted it was hard to believe that God was strong enough to brace us against them, and to keep us safe in them; it was harder still to think of them as coming from Him at all; it was hardest to feel that they came from His love. But when they are past, and their meaning is plainer, and we possess their results in the weight of glory which they have wrought out for us, we shall be able to look back on them all as the mercies of the God of our mercy, even as when a man looks down from the mountain-top upon the mists and the clouds through which he passed, and sees them all smitten by the sunshine that gleams upon them from above. That which was thick and damp as he was struggling through it, is irradiated into rosy beauty; the retrospective and downward glance confirms and surpasses all that faith dimly discerned, and found it hard to believe. Whilst we are fighting here, brethren! let us say, ‘I will wait for Thee,’ and then yonder we shall, with deeper knowledge of the love that was in all our sorrows, sing unto Him who was our strength in earth’s weakness, our defence in earth’s dangers, and is for ever more the ‘God of our mercy,’ amidst the large and undeserved favours of heaven.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Title.—(RV) 'For the Chief Musician; set to Al-tashheth. A…
Title.—(RV) 'For the Chief Musician; set to Al-tashheth. A Psalm of David: Michtam: when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.' For the first part of the title see on Psalms 57. The second part, which alludes to 1Sa_19:11, scarcely explains the contents of the Ps., which has foreign enemies in view throughout (Psa_59:5, Psa_59:8, Psa_59:13). 'My people' in Psa_59:11 has been held to imply that the writer was a king, while David at the time in question was only a subject. It is probable that the Ps. should be assigned to the period of the later Jewish monarchy. Like many other Pss., it presents the three features of danger, prayer, and confidence.
2. Bloody] RV 'bloodthirsty.'
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3. Not for my transgression] This might express the Psalmist's conscious innocence before God, but more probably it means that he had done nothing to provoke the hostility of his enemies.
4. Awake] cp. Psa_44:23.
5. God of Israel] specially invoked because His people are being assailed by the heathen. Selah] see on Psa_3:4.
6. The writer's foes are compared to the savage dogs which infest Eastern cities and prowl round at night in search of garbage. Possibly there is a hint here that Jerusalem was actually besieged. Make a noise] 'snarl.'
7. Swords are in their lips] Their speech is cutting and injurious. Who, say they, doth hear?] They question whether there is a God.
9. Because of his strength, etc.] RV 'O my strength, I will wait,' etc.
10. Shall prevent me] i.e. shall come to meet me.
11. Slay them not] must be understood in the light of Psa_59:13. The prayer is that they may not be suddenly cut off, but may be allowed to perish gradually in their sin, in order that Israel may have a more memorable object-lesson in the righteousness of God.
13. Let them know, etc.] Read, 'Let them know unto the ends of the earth that God ruleth in Jacob.' Zeal for God's glory is the one motive of the Psalmist's prayer, however vindictive some of his requests may appear.
14. Almost a repetition of Psa_59:6. It may mean that the contemptible attitude of the heathen described in Psa_59:6 is all that is to be left them.
15. Grudge] RV 'tarry all night.' 15, 16, Read, 'As for them they shall wander.. But I will sing.'
16. In the morning] Though his enemies prowl all the night it will be in vain.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 59
Psalm 59
Gentile Enmity Against Israel
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1. Surrounded by nations (Psa 59:1-8)
2. Their judgment anticipated (Psa 59:9-17)
Another Michtam of David when he was persecuted by Saul. While in previous Psalms we saw prophetically the remnant of the last suffering from their own ungodly brethren and the Antichrist, here the nations are their enemies. The word “heathen” should always be translated “nations.” They will surround Jerusalem. This is mentioned in Psa 59:6. They are like the dogs, the term used for Gentiles in the Word. The godly pray for deliverance and in faith sing of His power--” I will sing aloud of Thy mercy in the morning”--that coming morning when the shadows flee away.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Prayer of an Innocent Person against Those who Seek…
Prayer of an Innocent Person against Those who Seek His Soul.
To the chief musician, Al-taschith, again according to the melody "Destroy not," Michtam, a poem in epigrammatic form, of David; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him, the event being recorded, 1Sa 19:11-18.
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v. 1. Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God, tearing him out of their hands; defend me from them that rise up against me, moving him out of their reach, upon a height, to a stronghold. Note the call of trust: my God.
v. 2. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloody men, such as come with murderous design and intent.
v. 3. For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul; the mighty, those possessing power and influence in the world, are gathered against me, banded together for his destruction; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord, David feels himself innocent of any guilt which might have deserved such a persecution.
v. 4. They run and prepare themselves, setting themselves in readiness to capture him, without my fault; awake to help me and behold. Jehovah, who seems asleep at this time of great emergency, is urged to rouse Himself, not to abandon him, but to meet him, as with an army of relief, to convince Himself of the great danger in which David found himself.
v. 5. Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the Commander of all the heavenly legions, the God of Israel, of the congregation of all those who truly believe in Him, awake to visit all the heathen, the expression including all the enemies of the kingdom of God; be not merciful to any wicked transgressors, namely, as long as they continue in their murderous designs against his life. Selah.
v. 6. They, the particular enemies sent to capture him, return at evening; they make a noise like a dog, howling and snarling like the roaming Oriental dogs, the scavengers of their cities, and go round about the city, preying upon the dead and even upon the helpless and feeble.
v. 7. Behold, they belch out with their mouth, as the dogs do with their growling and barking; swords are in their lips, Psa 57:4; for who, say they, doth hear? It is an impertinent challenge, for they believe themselves safe in their wicked undertaking; they ridicule the idea that God’s punishment will strike them.
v. 8. But Thou, O Lord, shalt laugh at them, in mockery and derision over their folly; Thou shalt have all the heathen, the enemies of Israel, in derision, for their puny efforts in trying to thwart His plans.
v. 9. Because of His strength will I wait upon Thee, rather, "My Strength, Thee will I regard," confidently expecting his deliverance; for God is my Defense, his Stronghold in the midst of his enemies.
v. 10. The God of my mercy shall prevent me, coming to meet him with the fullness of His grace; God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies, those who were lying in wait to murder him.
v. 11. Slay them not, lest my people forget, the lesson of their punishment being forgotten with their total removal; scatter them, leading them astray, driving them into the wilderness, by Thy power and bring them down, humbling them before all people, O Lord, our Shield. In this way the fate of the enemies would serve as a continual example of warning.
v. 12. For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, everything they say being sin, blasphemy and slander, let them even be taken in their pride; and for cursing, against God, and lying, against David, which they speak.
v. 13. Consume them in wrath, after a protracted miserable existence; consume them, that they may not be, and let them know; find out conclusively, that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth, exercising dominion over His spiritual people wherever believers are found, 1Sa 17:46. Selah. David, therefore, lifts up the eyes of his spirit and sees the fulfillment of his prayer.
v. 14. And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog and go round about the city,
v. 6. unable to satisfy their hunger, foiled in their attempts to do harm.
v. 15. Let them wander up and down for meat, full of disquiet and pain on account of unsatisfied hunger, and grudge if they be not satisfied, remaining all night and watching greedily for food which is not forthcoming.
v. 16. But I will sing of Thy power, contrasting his fate with that of the Lord’s enemies; yea, I will sing aloud of Thy mercy in the morning, beginning the day with praising God; for Thou hast been my Defense and Refuge in the day of my trouble.
v. 17. Unto Thee, O my Strength, by whose mighty power he had been delivered, will I sing, with music on the harp; for God is my Defense, his Stronghold and Fortress, and the God of my mercy, who furnished so many evidences of His gracious feeling toward David, many more than he deserved. David’s praise is taken up by all believers, especially on account of their deliverance from the power of their great enemies, Satan, world, and flesh.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship"
set to Al Tashheth
This probably tells what musical style or tune to use when singing the psalm. See how you translated this in Psalms 57:1.
A psalm of David
Possible meanings are 1) David wrote the psalm or 2) the psalm is about David or 3) the psalm is in the style of David's psalms.
A michtam
The meaning of the word "michtam" is uncertain. You may use the word "psalm" instead. This can be written as: "This is a psalm that David wrote." See how you translated this in Psalms 16:1.
when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him
"from when Saul sent his soldiers to go and watch David's house for an opportunity to kill him"
set me on high
A high place represents a safe place where his enemies cannot reach him. AT: "put me in a safe place" (See: Metonymy)
rise up against me
Rising up against someone represents attacking him. AT: "attack me" (See: Metonymy)
bloodthirsty men
The word "bloodthirsty" contains "blood," which refers to murder and "thirsty," which refers to desire. AT: "people who desire to kill" or "people who like to kill people" (See: Idiom)
translationWords
psalm
David
Saul (OT)
God
raise
iniquity
save
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 11, 14 Ps 59 The psalmist laments the power of enemies…
Ps 59 The psalmist laments the power of enemies who conspire with other nations.
59:title the time Saul sent soldiers to watch David’s house: See 1 Sam 19:11-18.
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59:1-2 Protect me (or place me on high): When surrounded by evil, the godly pray for God to set them apart for himself and protect them.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.