NOTES for Psa 59

¹Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me.

²Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men.

³For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD.

⁴They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold.

⁵Thou therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.

⁶They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.

⁷Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?

⁸But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision.

⁹Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defence.

¹⁰The God of my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.

¹¹Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield.

¹²For 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.

¹³Consume 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.

¹⁴And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.

¹⁵Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied.

¹⁶But 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.

¹⁷Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy.

Hounded, harried, and persecuted by his enemies, a man cries out to God for protection and for the punishment of the lawless. We have encountered such a cry of despair many times, and it might seem that here too we see something similar. Yet here we see new features breaking through what has already become familiar.

First of all, the psalmist does not ask for the enemies to be destroyed; he asks only that they be scattered. Of course, in his dreams of the enemies wandering hungry, the desire for revenge is no less evident, but even such a disposition is a step toward softening the established treatment of enemies in those days. Moreover, in calling upon the Lord to visit all nations and destroy the wicked among them, the psalmist—accustomed to viewing the Gentiles as enemies—nevertheless does not call for the wholesale destruction of the nations themselves.

The Gentiles are still powerful, and the psalmist does not forget this, but their earthly strength is nothing beside the strength given by the Lord. It is He who makes strong those who take refuge in Him.

Other notes

For Psa 59:1-12