Psslm 59

Morning Repost: Psalm 59 To the Chief Musician. Set to “Do Not Destroy.” 1 Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; defend me from those who rise up against me. 2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloodthirsty men. 3 For look, they lie in wait for my life; the mighty gather against me, not for my transgression nor for my sin, O Lord. 4 They run and prepare themselves through no fault of mine. Awake to help me, and behold! 5 You therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to punish all the nations; do not be merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah— 16 At evening they return, they growl like a dog, and go all around the city. 7 Indeed, they belch with their mouth; swords are in their lips; for they say, “Who hears?” 8 But You, O Lord, shall laugh at them; You shall have all the nations in derision. 9 I will wait for You, O You his Strength; for God is my defense. 10 My God of mercy shall come to meet me; God shall let me see my desire on my enemies. 11 Do not slay them, lest my people forget; scatter them by Your 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 the cursing and lying which they speak. 13 Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be; and let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah — 14 And at evening they return, they growl like a dog, and go all around the city. 15 They wander up and down for food, and howl if they are not satisfied. 16 But I will sing of Your power; yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; for You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. 17 To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; for God is my defense, my God of mercy. “‘A Michtam of David when Saul sent men, and they watched the house in order to kill him.’ 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.... 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... She, therefore, let him down through a window, and he escaped, 1 Sam 19:12.” (Barnes) “Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; defend me from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloodthirsty men. For look, they lie in wait for my life; the mighty gather against me, not for my transgression nor for my sin, O Lord.” This was not Yahweh’s judgment on David, but that of a false Israel or church. “’They run and prepare themselves’—Military terms to denote the rapidity and order of their movements, and their eagerness for the combat.” (Daniel Whedon)— “’through no fault of mine.’ This is done not on account of my violating the laws of the land [Judah], nor because it is alleged that I am a sinner against God.” (Albert Barnes) “’Awake to help me,’— Hebrew, to meet me. He prays that God’s movement to meet him as his Protector may be more expeditious than theirs to destroy him.— ’and behold’ [the situation.] "You therefore O, ‘Lord God of hosts’—Jehovah God of armies. A term denoting his boundless power [in battle].— ‘God of Israel’—A title denoting His covenant relation to His people, and His consequent special care of them, implying that David’s cause was the cause of Israel.” (Daniel Whedon)—> “’Awake to punish all the nations’— These heathens, or Gentiles; who though they are called and accounted Israelites by their birth, yet in truth, and in their dispositions and manners, are mere heathens and barbarians; in which respect such men are elsewhere called strangers, Psalms 54:3, men of Sodom and Gomorrah, Isaiah 1:10, and as Ethiopians, Amos 9:7; as among us ungodly Christians are oft called Jews, or Turks or heathens.— “‘Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors;’ for indeed thou canst not with thine honour, nor according to thy Word, be merciful to any such incorrigible offenders.” (Matthew Poole) Selah. Meditate on this! “‘At evening they return.’— Like wild beasts that roam at night, they come forth to do mischief. If foiled in the light, they seek the more congenial darkness in which to accomplish their designs. They mean to break into the house in the dead of night…” (Albert Smith) which is a sin in Israel. They do plan to be both judge and executioner in secret rather in the light, as those who apprehended our Lord. “They growl like a dog… they belch out;’ or, they pour forth, (to wit, words, for what else should come out of the mouth? even sharp and bitter words, as the next clause explains it,) abundantly and vehemently, as a fountain doth waters, as this word signifies. See Proverbs 15:28 Jeremiah 6:7. ’Swords are in their lips,’ i.e. words as keen and mischievous as swords...” (Matthew Poole) “‘For who,’ say they, ‘doth hear?’ They are free from all restraint, they fear no God in heaven, and the government on earth is with them. When men have none to call them to account, there is no accounting for what they will do.” (Treasury of David) “‘But You, O Lord, shall laugh at them;’ that is, [because they commune not with You, You]… will have all their efforts in derision, or will treat them with contempt.... ‘You shall have all the heathen in derision’- All those referred to in this psalm - the enemies of David - who have the character, and who manifest the spirit of the pagan; that is, of those who are not actuated by true religion.... This verse expresses the strong conviction of David, that all the efforts of his enemies would be vain; that God ‘would be’ his Protector; and that he would save him from their evil designs.” (Albert Barnes) “‘I will wait for You,' literally ‘because of his strength will I wait upon thee- The reference here is not to the strength or power of God, as if the fact that ‘He’ was powerful was a reason why the psalmist should look to him - but it is to the strength or power of the enemy - of Saul and his followers. There is much abruptness in the expression. The psalmist looks at the power of his enemy. ‘His strength,‘ he cries. ‘It is great. It is beyond my power to resist it. It is so great that I have no other refuge but God; and because it is so great, I will fix my eyes on Him alone.’... for God is my defense - ‘my high place.’” (Albert Barnes) “My God of mercy shall come to meet me; God shall let me see my desire on my enemies.“ “‘Slay them not, lest my people forget’— Slay not the race, while thou consumest (Ps 59:13) the individuals hostile to the Lord's anointed. Let the race survive as a lasting monument of God's righteous judgments on transgressors (1 Sam 2:36; 2 Sam 3:29). 'Scatter them by thy power.’ [Destroy the instigators and scatter the others.] ’Bring them (the evil ones) down’— from their high place of pride, arising out of prosperity. ‘O Lord our shield.’ 'Our' implies that David's cause is that of the whole Church. Hence, in Psalms 59:5 he calls upon the God of Israel. The cause of righteousness was at stake in his person, and would have suffered injury if Saul had prevailed.” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown) “For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride, and for the cursing and lying which they speak. Consume them in wrath.’ Such shall be the doom of Antichrist's followers in the last days." (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown)-- "'that they may not be; yet another case for annihilation of the wicked, rather than their eternal torment. "‘And let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth.’ The Hebrew accents require the sense, 'let them know unto the ends of the earth that God ruleth in Jacob.' So David said in his conflict with Goliath, 1 Samuel 17:4-6.” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown) Selah. The message is for the elect of every nation, those who truly elect Jesus, the Messiah, as their God. “’And at evening,' that is the end of time, 'they'— the world aided by a false church— 'return, etc.’ to encircle the remnant of that generation. "'But I will sing of Your power’— Precious Jesus! let no affliction, no trial, no one event, stop my song, or cause me to hang my harp upon the willow, for nothing can be sufficient so to do, or ought so to do, when once thy redeemed have learnt the song of Moses and the Lamb.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary)