Psalms 35

1. STRIVE thou, O LORD, with them that strive with me : Fight thou against them that fight against me. 2 Take hold of shield and buckler, And stand up for mine help. 3 Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that pursue me : Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. 4 Let them be ashamed and brought to dishonour that seek after my soul : Let them be turned back and confounded that devise my hurt. 5 Let them be as chaff before the wind, And the angel of the LORD driving them on. 6 Let their way be dark and slippery, And the angel of the LORD pursuing them. 7 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, Without cause have they digged a pit for my soul. 8 Let destruction come upon him at unawares ; And let his net that he hath hid catch himself : With destruction let him fall therein. 9 And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD : It shall rejoice in his salvation. 10 All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, Which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, Yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him ? 11 Unrighteous witnesses rise up ; They ask me of things that I know not. 12 They reward me evil for good, To the bereaving of my soul. 13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth : I afflicted my soul with fasting ; And my prayer returned into mine own bosom. 14 I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother : I bowed down mourning, as one that bewaileth his mother. 15 But when I halted they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together :

WE have here another of those Psalms, in which two great parties, the righteous and the

The abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not ; They did tear me, and ceased not : 16 Like the profane mockers in feasts, They gnashed upon me with their teeth. 17 LORD, how long wilt thou look on ? Rescue my soul from their destructions, My darling from the lions. 18 I will give thee thanks in the great congregation : I will praise thee among much people. 19 Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me : Neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. 20 For they speak not peace : But they devise deceitful words against them that are quiet in the land. 21 Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me ; They said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it. 22 Thou hast seen it, O LORD ; keep not silence : O LORD, be not far from me. 23 Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, Even unto my cause, my God and my LORD. 24 Judge me, O LORD my God, according to thy righteousness ; And let them not rejoice over me. 25 Let them not say in their heart, Aha, so would we have it : Let them not say, We have swallowed him up. 26 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that rejoice at mine hurt : Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me. 27 Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause : Yea, let them say continually, The LORD be magnified, Which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. 28 And my tongue shall talk of thy righteousness, And of thy praise all the day long.

wicked, are exhibited in contrast and in an attitude of mutual hostility. The Psalm may be divided into three parts, parallel to one another, in all of which the elements combined are complaint, prayer, and the promise of thanksgiving for anticipated deliverance. The first division is occupied with an invocation of Divine judgments on God’s enemies, ending with an expression of triumph in God’s favor (vs. 1-10). The second contains a more particular description of these enemies, as oppressors, false accusers, unthankful renderers of evil for good, and malignant scoffers, with a prayer for the Divine interposition, and a pledge of public thanksgiving (vs. 11-18). The third renews briefly the description of the enemy, but is chiefly filled with prayer to be delivered from them, and closes, like the others, with a promise of perpetual thanksgiving (vs. 19-28). A.

This Psalm is singularly animated; the transitions of thought and feeling are abrupt; prayer, imprecations, expostulations, complaints, and hopeful ejaculations succeed in rapid alternation; the images are vigorous and graphic, but not wrought out in detail; the position is not that of a king, but of a subject, harassed, poor, beset by enemies, liable to judicial persecution; there is no special consciousness of guilt, but perfect confidence in God’s righteousness, and in His own; the language also is rugged, with many archaic forms and obscure idioms, the rhythm highly lyrical and full of movement. All these characteristics point to the time when David was pursued by Saul.

1. Plead my cause.** David is wrongfully accused, and prays to God to be his advocate; but inasmuch as the cause is carried on not in a court of justice but in the battle-field, the advocate must be also a champion, and the images at once pass over into the sphere of warfare. As in all David’s earlier poems, the representation of the Lord is what is called anthropomorphical; he realizes the manifestation vividly as that of “a man of war” (Ex. 15 : 3). Cook.

3. “I am.” It is comfort to Israel in captivity that God says, I will redeem thee; but the assurance that quiets the conscience is this, “I am thy salvation.” Deferred hope faints the heart. Whatsoever God forbears to assure us of, oh, pray we Him not to delay this, “Lord, say to my soul, I am your salvation.” T. Adams.

4. Shameful disappointment shall be the portion of the enemies of the Gospel, nor would the most tender-hearted Christian have it otherwise; viewing sinners as men, we love them and seek their good, but regarding them as enemies of God, we cannot think of them with anything but detestation, and a loyal desire for the confusion of their devices. No loyal subject can wish well to rebels. In their hearts all good men wish confusion to mischief-makers. S.

5,6. The Psalmist represents his foes’ discomfiture under two figures; the first taken from common experience, but with the introduction of a striking image, which raises it into the higher sphere of poetry. As they are scattered in a confused rout, utterly unresisting, like the light chaff in the windy winnowing field, the angel of the Lord, the defender of the pious, strikes (not chases) each in turn with His strong arm, and throws him down. They seek safety in flight, but the roads are dark and slippery; they stumble, are pursued, overtaken, and fall under the blows of the mighty Being whose wrath they have provoked. Cook.

5. Let them be as chaff before a wind, and the angel of Jehovah smiting. Under the influence of inspiration the Psalmist sees the natural and righteous consequences of their wickedness, and viewing the case merely in itself, apart from personal feeling, speaks of this effect as desirable. The Psalmist desires the destruction of these sinners precisely as God wills it; nor is it any harder to reconcile such wishes with the highest degree of human goodness than it is to reconcile the certain fact that God allows some men to perish with His infinite benevolence. A.

6. A terrible doom is this, driven back from their malicious assaults upon the good, along a way dark and intensely slippery (Hebrew, double slipperinesses), and God’s angel of retribution crowding hard upon their steps! Ought not every good man to rejoice that God rules with retributive justice over all evil-doers, and that He will take care of the interests of morally right-doing, sustaining them by a righteous administration of reward and punishment? To this extent reaches the spirit of David in the Psalm before us; no further. C.

10. He will praise God with the whole man, with all that is within him, and with all the strength and vigor of his soul, intimated by his bones, which are within the body, and are the strength of it. He will praise Him as one of peerless and unparalleled perfection; we cannot express how great and good God is, and therefore must praise Him by acknowledging Him to be a nonsuch. Lord, who is like unto Thee? No such Patron of oppressed innocency, no such Punisher of triumphant tyranny. The formation of our bones so wonderfully, so curiously, the serviceableness of our bones, and the preservation of them, and especially the life which, at the resurrection, shall be breathed upon the dry bones, and make them flourish as an herb, oblige every bone in our bodies, if it could speak, to say Lord, who is like unto Thee? and willingly to undergo any services or sufferings for Him. H.

13. 14. David paints his own feeling and bearing toward his persecutors in the strongest contrast with theirs toward him, and so far as the history throws light on the case, with entire truth. The last clause of v. 13 is precisely, My prayer shall (or let my prayer) return into mine own bosom; let the good I have sought for them, since they requite it only with hate and wrong, come back in blessings upon mine own soul. Observe the appropriate gradation from remoter friends to dearest, “friend,” “brother,” “mother.” C.

13. “My prayer returned into mine own bosom; I had the comfort of having done my duty, and of having approved myself a loving neighbor, though I could not thereby win upon them, nor make them my friends.” We shall not lose by the good offices we have done to any, how ungrateful soever they are, for our rejoicing will be this, the testimony of our conscience. H.—Prayer is never lost; if it bless not those for whom intercession is made, it shall bless the intercessors. Clouds do not always descend in showers upon the same spot from which the vapors ascended, but they come down somewhere; and even so do supplications in some place or other yield their showers of mercy. S.

If the bounties of heaven were given to man without prayer, they would be received without acknowledgment. Prayer, administering the perpetual lesson of humility, of hope, and of love, makes us feel our connection with heaven through every touch of our necessities; it binds us to Providence by a chain of daily benefits; it impresses the hearts of all with a perpetual remembrance of the God of all. Croly.

16. Mockers at feasts, or feasting mockers. Those that feasted men’s ears at their meetings with speaking of the faults of others scoffingly, and therefore shared with them their feasts, as the word is; but to a renewed Christian mind that hath a new taste and all its senses new, there is nothing more unsavory than to hear the defaming of others, especially of such as profess religion. Did the law of love possess our hearts it would regulate our ear and tongue, and make them most tender of the name of our brethren; it would teach us the faculty of covcovenering their infirmities and judging favorably; taking always the best side and most charitable sense of their actions; it would teach us to blunt the sharp edge of our censures upon ourselves, our own hard hearts and rebellious wills within, that they might remain no more sharp against others than is needful for their good. L.

18. “I will praise Thee among much people.” Most men publish their griefs, good men should proclaim their mercies. Praise—personal praise, public praise, perpetual praise—should be the daily revenue of the King of heaven. S.

19-23. David describes the great injustice, malice, and insolence of his persecutors, pleading this with God, as a reason why He should protect him from them, and appear against them. They were his enemies wrongfully, for he never gave them any provocation; they hated him without a cause; nay, for that for which they ought rather to have loved and honored him. This is quoted with application to Christ. H.

24. Judge me according to Thy righteousness, Jehovah, my God, and let them not rejoice respecting me. “Do me justice, clear me from aspersion, grant an attestation of my innocence, in the exercise and exhibition of thine own essential rectitude, and in accordance with that covenant relation which exists between us; and thus, in the most effectual manner, take away from my malignant enemies all pretext and occasion for exulting in my overthrow, or otherwise triumphing at my expense.” With the last clause compare Psalm 30:1, where he thanks God for the very favor which he here asks. A.

28. My tongue shall speak of Thy righteousness and of Thy praise all the day long.** Who endureth to praise God all the day long? I will suggest a remedy whereby thou mayest praise God all the day long if thou wilt. Whatever thou dost, do well, and thou hast praised God. When thou singest a hymn thou praisest God, but what doth thy tongue unless thy heart also praise Him? Do no wrong, and thou hast praised God. Raise not strife, and thou hast praised God. In the innocency of thy works prepare thyself to praise God all the day long. Augustine.

When David’s whole career is intelligently and fairly reviewed, it leaves on the mind the impression of a man possessed of as meek and placable a temper as was ever associated with so great strength of will and such strong passions. Even in the heats of sudden resentment,

he was not apt to be hurried into deeds of revenge. Such being the case, it would certainly have been a strange and unaccountable thing if he had shown himself less the master of his own spirit in poems composed in seasons of retirement and communion with God, especially since these very poems express a keen sense of the heinousness of the sin that has been laid to his charge. He can affirm regarding his implacable enemies, “As for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom. I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.” “O Lord, my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy): let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth” (Psalm 7: 3-5). Surely one ought to think twice before putting on the imprecations an interpretation which would make them utterly incongruous with these appeals, uttered almost in the same breath. W. Binnie.