Biblion Bible Commentary
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Contend With Those Who Contend
Psalms 35:1-28
1 By David. Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me. · WEB
A man repaid with evil for kindness asks God to take up his case, and the detail he cannot get past is that he had mourned for them.
Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me Psalms 35:1.
The first verb is a courtroom word and the second is a battlefield one, and the psalm uses both throughout. What is being asked for is an advocate who is also a champion.
Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help... Tell my soul, "I am your salvation" Psalms 35:2–3.
The request in the middle of the armament is for a sentence. He wants God to say something to him, personally, while the fighting is going on.
Unrighteous witnesses rise up. They ask me about things that I don't know about Psalms 35:11.
The actual grievance, and it is legal. He is being interrogated about matters he knows nothing of, which is the standard method of a prosecution that has no case and intends to manufacture one.
They reward me evil for good, to the bereaving of my soul Psalms 35:12.
What follows is the passage the psalm is built around, and it is the reason its harshness has to be read carefully.
But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom. I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother Psalms 35:13–14.
These people had been ill and he had fasted for them. He had gone into mourning for men who are now testifying against him, and had done it as though for his own mother. The imprecations in this psalm are not the reflex of a man who hates easily; they come from someone whose kindness has been used as evidence of weakness.
But in my adversity, they rejoiced... They tore at me, and didn't cease Psalms 35:15.
The requests he makes against them are severe — that they be turned back, that their own hidden net catch them, that their way be dark and slippery Psalms 35:4–8. Three things keep them inside the frame the collection sets. Every one is addressed to God, not undertaken; the penalties asked for are the ones they had prepared for him, which is the pit-digging image again; and he asks for nothing at all in the two verses where he could have — the mourning passage contains no curse.
You have seen it, Yahweh. Don't keep silent Psalms 35:22.
The echo of their taunt is deliberate. They had said our eye has seen it Psalms 35:21; he answers that someone else was also watching.
Let those who favor my righteous cause shout for joy... May Yahweh be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant Psalms 35:27. The psalm ends by asking for other people's joy.
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