1._Save me, O God! for the waters, etc. _Under the figure of _waters, _the Psalmist represents his condition as so extremely distressing that it brought him even to the brink of despair; and yet we know that, so far from being a soft and an effeminate person, he was one who encountered and overcame... [ Continue Reading ]
2._I am sunk in deep mire, where there is no standing place _Here he compares his afflictions to a deep sink of mire, where there is still greater danger; for if a man fixes his feet upon a solid bottom, he may raise himself up, there having been many instances in which persons, placing their feet o... [ Continue Reading ]
3_I am weary of crying _David, in seeking and calling upon God, when his affairs were in such a confused and desperate condition, exhibited an instance of rare and wonderful patience. He complains of having continued crying until he was exhausted and became hoarse, and all to no purpose. By the word... [ Continue Reading ]
4._They who hate me without cause are more in number than the hairs of my head _The Psalmist now expresses without figure what he had said under the metaphors of the mire and of the impetuous rushing of the waters. Persecuted as he was by so great a multitude of enemies, he had too good reason to be... [ Continue Reading ]
5._O God! thou knowest my foolishness _Augustine has labored to little purpose to show in what way these words are applicable to Christ; and at length he transfers to his members that which could not properly be said of the Head. (72) David here uses the language of irony; and by this mode of expres... [ Continue Reading ]
6_O Jehovah, Lord of Hosts! let not them that wait for thee be ashamed in me. _David declares that he is set forth as an example from which all the people of God may derive matter either of hope or despair. Although he was held in detestation and execrated by the great body of the people, there yet... [ Continue Reading ]
7_For on thy account I have suffered reproach _He now expresses more distinctly what he had stated ironically in the fifth verse, where he asserts that his faults were not hidden from God. Nay, he proceeds farther, declaring not only that the evil treatment which he met with from his enemies was unj... [ Continue Reading ]
9_For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up _(76) David’s enemies, no doubt, professed that nothing was farther from their mind than to touch the sacred name of God; but he reproves their hypocritical pretences, and affirms that he is fighting in God’s quarrel. The manner in which he did this, he s... [ Continue Reading ]
10._And I wept, my soul fasted _David here proves, by the signs or effects, that his efforts to promote the Divine glory proceeded from a pure and well-regulated zeal, inasmuch as he was not impelled or inflamed by the impetuosity of the flesh, but rather humbly abased himself before God, choosing h... [ Continue Reading ]
12._They who sit in the gate defame me _Had David been molested only by vulgar buffoons and the refuse of the people, it would have been more easily endured; for it is not surprising that mean persons, who have no regard to what is becoming and honorable, degrade themselves by indulging in defamatio... [ Continue Reading ]
13._But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O Jehovah! _It was a sign of uncommon virtue in David, that even this hard treatment could not shake his mind, and sink him into despondency. He informs us of the means by which he fortified himself against that terrible stumbling-block. When the wicked direc... [ Continue Reading ]
14._Deliver me from the mire, that I may not sink. _The Psalmist repeats the same similitude which he had used before, but in a different manner. He had previously said that he was sunk in the mire, and now he prays that he may not sink in it. In short, he now prays that those things may not now bef... [ Continue Reading ]
16._Answer me, O Jehovah! for thy mercy is good. _The appeal which he here makes to the mercy and compassion of God is an evidence of the distressed condition into which he was brought. There can be no doubt that he sustained a dreadful conflict, when he had recourse to these as the only means of hi... [ Continue Reading ]
18._Draw near to my soul, redeem it. _David was doubtless fully persuaded by faith that God was near him; but as we are accustomed to measure the presence or absence of God by the effects, David here tacitly complains, judging according to the flesh, that he is far from him. By the expression, _Draw... [ Continue Reading ]
19_Thou knowest my reproach, and my confusion. _This is a confirmation of the preceding sentence. Whence is it that the greater part of men become dispirited when they see the wicked outrageously rushing upon them, and their wickedness, like a water-flood, carrying all before it, but because they th... [ Continue Reading ]
20._Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am afflicted. _He expresses more distinctly not only that he was confounded, or ashamed at the sad aspect which he presented of having been deserted, but that he was well nigh overwhelmed with sorrow by lying so long under reproach and shame. Whence it is evi... [ Continue Reading ]
21._And they put gall into my meat. _Here he again repeats that his enemies carry their cruelty towards him to the utmost extent in their power. He speaks metaphorically when he describes them as _mingling gall _or poison _with his meat, _(85) _and vinegar with his drink; _even as it is said in Jere... [ Continue Reading ]
22._Let their table before them be for a snare. _Here we have a series of dire imprecations, with respect to which we must bear in mind, what we have elsewhere observed, that David did not allow himself recklessly to pour out his wrath, even as the greater part of men, when they feel themselves wron... [ Continue Reading ]
23._Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. _The Psalmist here refers chiefly to two powers of the body, those of _the eyes _and of _the loins; _and I have no hesitation in considering his language as a prayer that God would deprive his enemies of reason and understanding, and at the same... [ Continue Reading ]
24._Pour out thy fury upon them. _It is not surprising that David utters a lengthened series of imprecations; for we know well that the frantic enemies of the Church, into whom it was his object to inspire terror, are not easily moved. He therefore lifts up his voice against them in tones of greater... [ Continue Reading ]
25_Let their habitation be desolate. _Here he proceeds farther than in the preceding verse, praying that God would cause his wrath to descend to their posterity; and it is no new thing for the sins of the fathers to be cast into the bosom of the children. As David uttered these imprecations by the i... [ Continue Reading ]
26._For they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten. _He brings forward the crime with which they were chargeable, to make it manifest that they richly deserved such dreadful punishments. Some explain the verse in this way: “These enemies, O Lord! not content with the strokes which thou hast inf... [ Continue Reading ]
27._Add iniquity to their iniquity. _As the Hebrew word און,_avon, _signifies at times _guilt _as well as _iniquity, _some translate the verse thus, _Add thou, _that is, thou, O God! _punishment to their punishment _Others extend it yet further, regarding it as a prayer that wicked men might punish... [ Continue Reading ]
28._Let them be blotted out from the book of the living. _(95) This is the last imprecation, and it is the most dreadful of the whole; but it nevertheless uniformly follows the persevered in impenitence and incorrigible obduracy of which the Psalmist has spoken above. After having taken away from th... [ Continue Reading ]
29._As for me, I am poor and sorrowful. _(97) From this verse we perceive more distinctly how David cast away from him the swelling and raging passion of those who, with ungovernable fury, pour forth imprecation and vengeance. He here, without doubt, offers himself to God with the sacrifice of a bro... [ Continue Reading ]
30._I will celebrate the name of God in a song. _The Psalmist now elevated with joy, and sustained by the confident hope of deliverance, sings the triumphant strains of victory. This psalm, there is every reason to believe, was composed after he had been delivered from all apprehension of dangers; b... [ Continue Reading ]
31._And this will please Jehovah more than a young bullock. _The more effectually to strengthen himself for this exercise, David affirms that the thanksgiving which he is about to tender, will be to God a sacrifice of a sweet and an acceptable savor. There cannot be a more powerful incitement to tha... [ Continue Reading ]
32._The afflicted have seen it. _He here shows that the blessed effects of his deliverance will extend to others as well as to himself, a point which he frequently insists on in the Psalms, as we have seen in Psalms 22:23, and in many other places. And his object in doing this is, partly to commend... [ Continue Reading ]
34._Let the heavens and the earth praise him. _From this we may conclude with the greater certainty, that, as I have touched upon above, David in the whole of this psalm spake in the name of the whole Church; for he now transfers to the Church what he had spoken in particular concerning himself. In... [ Continue Reading ]
36._And the seed of his servants shall inherit it. _In this verse he declares that the blessing now mentioned would extend through a continued succession of ages — that, the fathers would transmit to their children the possession which they had received, as from hand to hand, and the children to the... [ Continue Reading ]