Deliver Me From My Enemies
1 For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A poem by David, when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him. Deliver me from my enemies, my God. Set me on high from those who rise up against me. 2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity. Save me from the bloodthirsty men. 3 For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh. 4 I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me! 5 You, Yahweh God of Armies, the God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish the nations. Show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah. 6 They return at evening, howling like dogs, and prowl around the city. 7 Behold, they spew with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, “For”, they say, “who hears us?” 8 But you, Yahweh, laugh at them. You scoff at all the nations. 9 Oh, my Strength, I watch for you, for God is my high tower. 10 My God will go before me with his loving kindness. God will let me look at my enemies in triumph. 11 Don’t kill them, or my people may forget. Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield. 12 For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride, for the curses and lies which they utter. 13 Consume them in wrath. Consume them, and they will be no more. Let them know that God rules in Jacob, to the ends of the earth. Selah. 14 At evening let them return. Let them howl like a dog, and go around the city. 15 They shall wander up and down for food, and wait all night if they aren’t satisfied. 16 But I will sing of your strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning. For you have been my high tower, a refuge in the day of my distress. 17 To you, my strength, I will sing praises. For God is my high tower, the God of my mercy.
Assassins circle a house at night like scavenging dogs, and the man inside asks that they not be killed.
For the Chief Musician. To the tune of “Do Not Destroy.” A poem by David, when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him. Deliver me from my enemies, my God. Set me on high from those who rise up against me.
The occasion is the night Michal lowered David through a window while soldiers waited outside for morning 1 Samuel 19:11. The psalm was written inside a surrounded house.
For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.
The protest of innocence is narrow and specific, as it always is in this collection. He is not claiming to be sinless; he is claiming that nothing he has done is the reason there are men outside.
They return at evening, howling like dogs, and prowl around the city.
The image runs through the psalm and is repeated at verse fourteen. Dogs in that world were not pets; they were scavengers that came into town after dark to work through the refuse. The assassins are described as animals looking for something to eat, and the psalm returns to it: they shall wander up and down for food, and wait all night if they aren't satisfied Psalms 59:15.
"For," they say, "who hears us?" Psalms 59:7.
The same assumption the tenth psalm quoted. Everything these men do rests on a conviction that the conversation is private.
But you, Yahweh, laugh at them Psalms 59:8.
The answer to the question, and it is the laughter of the second psalm — the response to a plan that cannot work being made with total confidence.
Don’t kill them, or my people may forget. Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, Lord our shield.
The most unexpected request in the psalm. He specifically asks that they not be killed, and gives a reason: a dead enemy is forgotten, and the lesson goes with him. What he wants is a standing demonstration rather than a removal. It is worth setting beside the psalms that ask for destruction — the collection is not uniform, and here the man with the strongest possible case for asking for deaths asks for the opposite.
For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride, for the curses and lies which they utter.
What he wants them caught by is their own speech. As so often here, the offense that finally matters is what was said.
But I will sing of your strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of your loving kindness in the morning. For you have been my high tower, a refuge in the day of my distress.
The dogs come at evening and the singing is scheduled for morning. The psalm ends by naming the hour at which its confidence expects to be vindicated, written by a man who did not know whether he would see it.
settled What this mark means