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Psalm 59

Prayer for Deliverance from Enemies

To the leader: Do Not Destroy. Of David. A Miktam, when Saul ordered his house to be watched in order to kill him.

Deliver me from my enemies, O my God;

protect me from those who rise up against me.

Deliver me from those who work evil;

from the bloodthirsty save me.

Even now they lie in wait for my life;

the mighty stir up strife against me.

For no transgression or sin of mine, O L ord,

for no fault of mine, they run and make ready.

Rouse yourself, come to my help and see!

You, L ord God of hosts, are God of Israel.

Awake to punish all the nations;

spare none of those who treacherously plot evil. Selah

Each evening they come back,

howling like dogs

and prowling about the city.

There they are, bellowing with their mouths,

with sharp words on their lips—

for “Who,” they think, “will hear us?”

But you laugh at them, O L ord;

you hold all the nations in derision.

O my strength, I will watch for you;

for you, O God, are my fortress.

My God in his steadfast love will meet me;

my God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.

Do not kill them, or my people may forget;

make them totter by your power, and bring them down,

O Lord, our shield.

For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,

let them be trapped in their pride.

For the cursing and lies that they utter,

consume them in wrath;

consume them until they are no more.

Then it will be known to the ends of the earth

that God rules over Jacob. Selah

Each evening they come back,

howling like dogs

and prowling about the city.

They roam about for food,

and growl if they do not get their fill.

But I will sing of your might;

I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.

For you have been a fortress for me

and a refuge in the day of my distress.

O my strength, I will sing praises to you,

for you, O God, are my fortress,

the God who shows me steadfast love.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

In the verse which follows, he describes their fierceness. The expression, prating, or belching out with their mouth, denotes that they proclaimed their infamous counsels openly, and without affecting concealment. The Hebrew word נבע, nabang, means, metaphorically, to speak, but properly, it signifies to gush out, ³⁶⁴³⁶⁴ Ainsworth reads, “to utter or well out, as from a fountain; belch or babble, as Proverbs 15:2, 28, ‘As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her malice.’” “Le mot Hebrieu signifie se repandre en paroles, etc.;” i.e., “The Hebrew word signifies to break out in words, and it here denotes the oft repeated and passionate expressions which proceed from the mouth of persons actuated by hatred and rage, as in Psalm 94:4. To it the word bark answers very well, which is borrowed from dogs, and expresses the noise made by these animals; and this word is here the more apposite, that David in the preceding verse compares his enemies to dogs which incessantly run about and do nothing but bark.” — Martin. and here denotes more than simply speaking. He would inform us, that not content with plotting the destruction of the innocent secretly amongst themselves, they published their intentions abroad, and boasted of them. Accordingly, when he adds, that swords were in their lips, he means that they breathed out slaughter, and that every word they spoke was a sword to slay the oppressed. He assigns as the cause of their rushing to such excess of wickedness, that they had no reason to apprehend disgrace. It may be sufficiently probable, that David adverts here, as in many other places, to the gross stupidity of the wicked, who, in order to banish fear from their minds, conceive of God as if he were asleep in heaven; but I am of opinion that he rather traces the security with which they prosecuted their counsels, and openly proclaimed them, to the fact, that they had long ere now been in possession of the uncontrolled power of inflicting injury. They had succeeded so completely in deceiving the people, and rendering David odious by their calumnies, that none had the courage to utter a word in his defense. Nay, the more atrociously that any man might choose to persecute this victim of distress, from no other motive than to secure the good graces of the king, the more did he rise in estimation as a true friend to the commonwealth.

³⁶⁴ Ainsworth reads, “to utter or well out, as from a fountain; belch or babble, as Proverbs 15:2, 28, ‘As a fountain casteth out her waters, so she casteth out her malice.’” “Le mot Hebrieu signifie se repandre en paroles, etc.;” i.e., “The Hebrew word signifies to break out in words, and it here denotes the oft repeated and passionate expressions which proceed from the mouth of persons actuated by hatred and rage, as in Psalm 94:4. To it the word bark answers very well, which is borrowed from dogs, and expresses the noise made by these animals; and this word is here the more apposite, that David in the preceding verse compares his enemies to dogs which incessantly run about and do nothing but bark.” — Martin.