Psalms 59
ButlerFOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN; SET TO AL-TASHHETH. A PSALM OF DAVID; MIGHTAM: WHEN SAUL SENT, AND THEY WATCHED THE HOUSE TO KILL HIM.
1. DELIVER me from mine enemies, O my God: Set me on high from them that rise up against me.2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, And save me from the bloodthirsty men.3 For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul; The mighty gather themselves together against me: Not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD.4 They run and prepare themselves without my fault: Awake thou to help me, and behold.5 Even thou, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, Arise 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 O my strength, I will wait upon thee: For God is my high tower.
THIS Psalm, which in tone, coloring, and expression has much in common with the four preceding Psalms, is said in the title to have been composed by David when Saul’s emissaries watched him in his own house. It is quite consistent with David’s character that he should commemorate in his songs such a crisis in his life. But the internal evidence lends little confirmation to the accuracy of the title. All that seems certain is that the Psalm was called forth by some attack upon the life of its author. P.
1,2. The Psalm begins abruptly with a passionate cry for help, which is repeated four times, thus bringing most vividly before us the extremity of the danger and the persistency of the suppliant’s trust. The peculiar tenderness and closeness of his relation to his heavenly
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 be no more: That men may know that God ruleth in Jacob, Unto the ends of the earth. [Selah]14 And at evening let them return, let them make a noise like a dog, And go round about the city.15 They shall wander up and down for meat, And tarry all night if they be not satisfied.16 But I will sing of thy strength; Yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: For thou hast been my high tower, And a refuge in the day of my distress.17 Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing praises: For God is my high tower, the God of my mercy.
Friend which is so characteristic of David’s Psalms, and which they were almost the first to express, breathes through the name by which he invokes help, “my God.” A. M.—"My God" is such a plea as infinitely overbalances 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. We may plead God’s promise and the enemies’ power, too; both are a ground of hope to a believer in Jesus. John Hill.
3,4. 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 anything to deserve such treatment from them. “Not for my
transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord, Thou knowest, who knowest all things. And again (v. 4), Without my fault. 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 toward those that behave themselves ill toward us, will be very much our rejoicing in the day of evil. 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. H.
6. In bringing their secret plans to bear, they are represented as hungry dogs prowling about the city in the darkness for prey; ranging, each with his own object, but in one common cause. W. H. Tucker.—The masterless dogs are countless, as they have been from the earliest times in Eastern towns. They are hateful-looking, yellow beasts, with sharp muzzles. The prophet vividly describes their mode of life by day, as I often noticed it: “They are dumb, they do not bark, they dream, and lie about and like to sleep” (Isa. 56 : 10). After sunset, however, they are active enough, and swarm through the streets, breaking the quiet of the night with their dissonant noise. At the same time they act like sanitary police. Whatever is unclean, useless, or unholy according to Jewish (or Eastern) ideas, is thrown out on the streets. The dogs come and eat all this up. Furrer’s Palaestina.
9. How weak soever the believer finds himself, and how powerful soever he perceives his enemy to be, it is all one to him; he hath no more to do but to put faith on work, and to wait till God works. “I will wait upon Thee,” saith he to the Lord, “for God is my defence.” Dickson.
9,17. 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. The cry of the suppliant was to God, his strength and defence; the song of the saved is to 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. M.
10. Read first clause, “My God with His lovingkindness shall meet me.” Am. Com.—
The God of my mercy shall meet me with the blessings of His goodness and the gifts of His mercy, prevent my fears, and be better to me than my own expectations. It is very comfortable to us to eye God not only as the God of mercy, but as the God of our mercy, the Author of all good in us, and the Giver of all good to us. Whatever mercy there is in God, it is laid up for us, and is ready to be laid out upon us. Justly does the Psalmist call God’s mercy his mercy, for all the blessings of the new covenant are called the sure mercies of David (Isa. 55 : 3); and they are sure to all the seed. H.
11. Bring them down.** He would have them so brought down and consumed in their strength, dignity, command, wealth, riches, that made them proud, that they never be able any more to oppose God, hurt His people, trample upon religion and His Church; he would have them live. W. Nicholson.
14. This verse repeats what was said in v. 6, but the language of v. 15 shows plainly that a different turn is given here to the expression. There, the conduct of his enemies is described; here, their punishment. They came about him like dogs; like dogs shall they be treated. Their sin becomes its own curse. They come with their mouth wide open, ready to devour, but they shall find nothing to satisfy their hunger; they shall remain lean, hungry, savage, as they came. P.
17. The refrain, which occurs twice in the Psalm, witnesses to the growth of his faith even while he sings. At first he could only say in patient expectance (v. 9), “My strength! I will wait upon Thee, for God is my fortress.” But at the end his mood is higher, his soul has caught fire as it revolves, and his last words are a triumphant amplification of his earlier trust—“My strength! unto Thee will I sing praises; for God is my high tower, the God of my mercy.” A. M.
Strength—mercy. He joins these two attributes, “strength” and “mercy,” very well; for take away strength from Him, and He cannot; remove mercy, and He will not protect; both must go together in any one that will defend; power, that he can—mercy, that he will; otherwise ‘tis but in vain to hope for help from him. David found God to be both, and for both he extols Him. W. Nicholson.—When I have mercy and power together, then, with the Psalmist, I can say, “Lord, Thou art my defence.” There is the power that can preserve me; there is the mercy that will. When these two are brought together, there is a refuge for my soul. Thou canst be a refuge, for Thou
hast the might; Thou wilt be a refuge, for Thou hast the mercy. A. G. Brown.