Biblion Bible Commentary
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Deliver Me From My Enemies
Psalms 59:1-17
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. · WEB
Assassins circle a house at night like scavenging dogs, and the man inside asks that they not be killed.
When Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him Psalms 59:1.
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.
They lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin Psalms 59:3.
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 Psalms 59:6.
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 Psalms 59:11.
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 Psalms 59:12.
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 Psalms 59:16.
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