Contend With Those Who Contend
1 By David. Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me. 2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help. 3 Brandish the spear and block those who pursue me. Tell my soul, “I am your salvation.” 4 Let those who seek after my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonor. Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded. 5 Let them be as chaff before the wind, Yahweh’s angel driving them on. 6 Let their way be dark and slippery, Yahweh’s angel pursuing them. 7 For without cause they have hidden their net in a pit for me. Without cause they have dug a pit for my soul. 8 Let destruction come on him unawares. Let his net that he has hidden catch himself. Let him fall into that destruction. 9 My soul shall be joyful in Yahweh. It shall rejoice in his salvation. 10 All my bones shall say, “Yahweh, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?” 11 Unrighteous witnesses rise up. They ask me about things that I don’t know about. 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. My prayer returned into my own bosom. 14 I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother. 15 But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease. 16 Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me. 17 Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction, my precious life from the lions. 18 I will give you thanks in the great assembly. I will praise you among many people. 19 Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes. 20 For they don’t speak peace, but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land. 21 Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me. They said, “Aha! Aha! Our eye has seen it!” 22 You have seen it, Yahweh. Don’t keep silent. Lord, don’t be far from me. 23 Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me! 24 Vindicate me, Yahweh my God, according to your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me. 25 Don’t let them say in their heart, “Aha! That’s the way we want it!” Don’t let them say, “We have swallowed him up!” 26 Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me. 27 Let those who favor my righteous cause shout for joy and be glad. Yes, let them say continually, “May Yahweh be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant!” 28 My tongue shall talk about your righteousness and about your praise all day long.
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.
By David. Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me.
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.
2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help. 3 Brandish the spear and block those who pursue me. Tell my soul, “I am your salvation.”
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.
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.
What follows is the passage the psalm is built around, and it is the reason its harshness has to be read carefully.
13 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. 14 I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.
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, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease.
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. Lord, don’t be far from me.
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 and be glad. Yes, let them say continually, “May Yahweh be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant!”
The psalm ends by asking for other people's joy.
held with reason What this mark means