This
and the four following psalms are much of a piece, and the scope of them the
same with many that we met with in the beginning and middle of the book of
Psalms, though with but few of late. They were penned by David (as it should
seem) when he was persecuted by Saul; one of them is said to be his
"prayer when he was in the cave," and it is probable that all the
rest were penned about the same time. In this psalm, I. David complains of
the malice of his enemies, and prays to God to preserve him from them, ver.
1-5. II. He encourages himself in God as his God, ver. 6, 7. III. He prays
for, and prophesies, the destruction of his persecutors, ver. 8-11. IV. He
assures all God's afflicted people that their troubles would in due time end
well (ver. 12, 13), with which assurance we must comfort ourselves, and one
another, in singing this psalm.
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Complaints
and Petitions.
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To the chief musician. A psalm of
David.
1 Deliver me, O LORD,
from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; 2 Which
imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered
together for war. 3 They have sharpened their tongues
like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah.
4 Keep me, O LORD,
from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have
purposed to overthrow my goings. 5 The proud have hid a snare
for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins
for me. Selah. 6 I said unto the LORD,
Thou art my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O LORD.
7 O GOD
the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day
of battle.
In this, as in other things, David was a type of Christ, that he
suffered before he reigned, was humbled before he was exalted, and that as
there were many who loved and valued him, and sought to do him honour, so
there were many who hated and envied him, and sought to do him mischief, as
appears by these verses, where,
I. He gives a character of his enemies, and paints them out in their own
colours, as dangerous men, whom he had reason to be afraid of, but wicked
men, whom he had no reason to think the righteous God would countenance.
There was one that seems to have been the ring-leader of them, whom he calls
the evil man and the man of violences (v. 1, 4),
probably he means Saul. The Chaldee paraphrast (v. 9) names both Doeg
and Ahithophel; but between them there was a great distance of time. Violent
men are evil men. But there were many besides this one who were confederate
against David, who are here represented as the genuine offspring and seed of
the serpent. For, 1. They are very subtle, crafty to do mischief; they have
imagined it (v. 2), have laid the scheme with all the art and cunning
imaginable. They have purposed and plotted to overthrow the goings
of a good man (v. 4), to draw him into sin and trouble, to ruin him
by blasting his reputation, crushing his interest, and taking away his life.
For this purpose they have, like mighty hunters, hidden a snare,
and spread a net, and set gins (v. 5), that their
designs against him, being kept undiscovered, might be the more likely to
take effect, and he might fall into their hands ere he was aware. Great
persecutors have often been great politicians, which has indeed made them
the more formidable; but the Lord preserves the simple without all
those arts. 2. They are very spiteful, as full of malice as Satan himself: They
have sharpened their tongues like a serpent, that infuses his venom with
his tongue; and there is so much malignity in all they say that one would
think there was nothing under their lips but adders' poison, v.
3. With their calumnies, and with their counsels, they aimed to destroy
David, but secretly, as a man is stung with a serpent, or a snake in the
grass. And they endeavoured likewise to infuse their malice into others, and
to make them seven times more the children of hell than themselves. A
malignant tongue makes men like the old serpent; and poison in the lips is a
certain sign of poison in the heart. 3. They are confederate; they are many
of them; but they are all gathered together against me for war,
v. 2. Those who can agree in nothing else can agree to persecute a
good man. Herod and Pilate will unite in this, and in this they resemble
Satan, who is not divided against himself, all the devils agreeing in
Beelzebub. 4. They are proud (v. 5), conceited of themselves
and confident of their success; and herein also they resemble Satan, whose
reigning ruining sin was pride. The pride of persecutors, though at present
it be the terror, yet may be the encouragement, of the persecuted, for the
more haughty they are the faster are they ripening for ruin. Pride goes
before destruction.
II. He prays to God to keep him from them and from being swallowed up by
them: "Lord, deliver me, preserve me, keep me (v. 1, 4);
let them not prevail to take away my life, my reputation, my interest, my
comfort, and to prevent my coming to the throne. Keep me from doing
as they do, or as they would have me do, or as they promise themselves I
shall do." Note, The more malice appears in our enemies against us the
more earnest we should be in prayer to God to take us under his protection.
In him believers may count upon a security, and may enjoy it and themselves
with a holy serenity. Those are safe whom God preserves. If he be for us,
who can be against us?
III. He triumphs in God, and thereby, in effect, he triumphs over his
persecutors, v. 6, 7. When his enemies sharpened their tongues
against him, did he sharpen his against them? No; adders' poison was under
their lips, but grace was poured into his lips, witness what he here
said unto the Lord, for to him he looked, to him he directed himself, when
he saw himself in so much danger, through the malice of his enemies: and it
is well for us that we have a God to go to. He comforted himself, 1. In his
interest in God: "I said, Thou art my God; and, if my God, then
my shield and mighty protector." In troublous dangerous times it is
good to claim relation to God, and by faith to keep hold of him. 2. In his
access to God. This comforted him, that he was not only taken into covenant
with God, but into communion with him, that he had leave to speak to him,
and might expect an answer of peace from him, and could say, with a humble
confidence, Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord! 3. In the
assurance he had of help from God and happiness in him: "O God the
Lord--Jehovah Adonai! as Jehovah thou art self-existent
and self-sufficient, an infinitely perfect being; as Adonai thou art
my stay and support, my ruler and governor, and therefore the strength of
my salvation, my strong Saviour; nay, not only my Saviour, but my
salvation itself, from whom, in whom, my salvation is; not only a strong
Saviour, but the very strength of my salvation, on whom the stress of my
hope is laid; all in all, to make me happy, and to preserve me to my
happiness." 4. In the experience he had had formerly of God's care of
him: Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. As he pleaded
with Saul, that, for the service of his country, he many a time jeoparded
his life in the high places of the field, so he pleads with God that, in
those services, he had wonderfully protected him, and provided him a better
helmet for the securing of his head than Goliath's was: "Lord, thou
hast kept me in the day of battle with the Philistines, suffer me not
to fall by the treacherous intrigues of false-hearted Israelites." God
is as able to preserve his people from secret fraud as from open force; and
the experience we have had of his power and care, in dangers of one kind,
may encourage us to trust in him and depend upon him in dangers of another
nature; for nothing can shorten the Lord's right hand.
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Shame
and Confusion of Persecutors.
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8 Grant not, O LORD,
the desires of the wicked: further not his wicked device; lest they
exalt themselves. Selah. 9 As for the head of those that
compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them.
10 Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; into
deep pits, that they rise not up again. 11 Let not an evil
speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to
overthrow him. 12 I know that the LORD
will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the
poor. 13 Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name:
the upright shall dwell in thy presence.
Here is the believing foresight David had,
I. Of the shame and confusion of persecutors.
1. Their disappointment. This he prays for (v. 8), that their lusts
might not be gratified, their lust of ambition, envy, and revenge: "Grant
not, O Lord! the desires of the wicked, but frustrate them; let them not
see the ruin of my interest, which they so earnestly wish to see; but hear
the voice of my supplications." He prays that their projects might
not take effect, but be blasted: "O further not his wicked device;
let not Providence favour any of his designs, but cross them; suffer not
his wicked device to proceed, but chain his wheels, and stop him in the
career of his pursuits." Thus we are to pray against the enemies of
God's people, that they may not succeed in any of their enterprises. Such
was David's prayer against Ahithophel, that God would turn his counsels into
foolishness. The plea is, lest they exalt themselves, value
themselves upon their success as if it were an evidence that God favoured
them. Proud men, when they prosper, are made prouder, grow more impudent
against God and insolent against his people, and therefore,
"Lord, do not prosper them."
2. Their destruction. This he prays for (as we read it); but some choose to
read it rather as a prophecy, and the original will bear it. If we take it
as a prayer, that proceeds from a spirit of prophecy, which comes all to
one. He foretels the ruin,
(1.) Of his own enemies: "As for those that compass me about,
and seek my ruin," [1.] "The mischief of their own lips
shall cover their heads (v. 9); the evil they have wished to
me shall come upon themselves, their curses shall be blown back into their
own faces, and the very designs which they have laid against me shall turn
to their own ruin," Ps. vii. 15, 16. Let those that make mischief, by
slandering, tale-bearing, misrepresenting their neighbours, and spreading
ill-natured characters and stories, dread the consequence of it, and think
how sad their condition will be when all the mischief they have been
accessory to shall be made to return upon themselves. [2.] The judgments of
God shall fall upon them, compared here to burning coals, in
allusion to the destruction of Sodom; nay, as in the deluge the waters from
above, and those from beneath, met for the drowning of the world, both the
windows of heaven were opened and the fountains of the great deep were
broken up, so here, to complete the ruin of the enemies of Christ and his
kingdom, they shall not only have burning coals cast upon them from
above (Job xx. 23; xxvii. 22), but they themselves shall be cast into the
fire beneath; both heaven and hell, the wrath of God the Judge and the
rage of Satan the tormentor, shall concur to make them miserable. And the
fire they shall be cast into is not a furnace of fire, out of which perhaps
they might escape, but a deep pit, out of which they cannot rise.
Tophet is said to be deep and large, Isa. xxx. 33.
(2.) Of all others that are like them, v. 11. [1.] Evil speakers must
expect to be shaken, for they shall never be established in the earth.
What is got by fraud and falsehood, by calumny and unjust accusation, will
not prosper, will not last. Wealth gotten by vanity will be diminished. Let
not such men as Doeg think to reign long, for his doom will be theirs, Ps.
ii. 5. A lying tongue is but for a moment, but the lip of truth shall be
established for ever. [2.] Evil doers must expect to be destroyed: Evil
shall hunt the violent man, as the blood-hound hunts the murderer to
discover him, as the lion hunts his prey to tear it to pieces. Mischievous
men will be brought to light, and brought to ruin; the destruction appointed
shall run them down and overthrow them. Evil pursues sinners.
II. Here is his foresight of the deliverance and comfort of the persecuted, v.
12, 13. 1. God will do those justice, in delivering them, who, being
wronged, commit themselves to him: "I know that the Lord will
maintain the just and injured cause of his afflicted
people, and will not suffer might always to prevail against right, though it
be but the right of the poor, who have but little that they can
pretend a right to." God is, and will be, the patron of oppressed
innocence, much more of persecuted piety; those that know him cannot but
know this. 2. They will do him justice (if I may so speak), in ascribing the
glory of their deliverance to him: "Surely the righteous (who
make conscience of rendering to God his due, as well as to men theirs) shall
give thanks unto thy name when they find their cause pleaded with
jealousy and prosecuted with effect." The closing words, The upright
shall dwell in thy presence, denote both God's favour to them
("Thou shalt admit them to dwell in thy presence in grace here, in
glory hereafter, and it shall be their safety and happiness") and their
duty to God: "They shall attend upon thee as servants that keep in the
presence of their masters, both to do them honour and to receive their
commands." This is true thanksgiving, even thanksliving; and this use
we should make of all our deliverance, we should serve God the more closely
and cheerfully.
