Psalms 17:13

_ARISE, O LORD, DISAPPOINT HIM, CAST HIM DOWN: DELIVER MY SOUL FROM THE WICKED, WHICH IS THY SWORD:_ Arise, O Lord, disappoint him - literally, 'anticipate his presence,' for it threatens me with destruction: be thou beforehand with him, so as to thwart his designs which he comes in person to execute. DELIVER MY SOUL FROM THE WICKED, (WHICH IS) THY SWORD. Compare Isaiah 10:5; Habakkuk 1:12. This idea of the wicked being the sword of God for chastising His people, hardly suits the context, as the ground of the Psalmist's prayer throughout is not that he had been suffering chastisement through the instrumentality of the wicked, but that his cause is altogether a righteous one, and the enemy's a bad one. Translate, 'deliver my soul from the wicked through (or by) thy sword.'...

13._Arise, O Jehovah. _The more furiously David was persecuted by his enemies, he beseeches God the more earnestly to afford him immediate aid; for he uses the word _face _to denote the swift impetuosity of his adversary, to repress which there was need of the greatest haste. By these words, the Holy Spirit teaches us, that when death shows itself to be just at hand, God is provided with remedies perfectly prepared, by which he can effect our deliverance in a moment. The Psalmist not only attributes to God the office of delivering his people; he at the same time arms him with power to crush and break in pieces the wicked. He does not, however, wish them to be cast down farther than was necessary to their being humbled, that they might cease from their outrageous and injurious conduct towards him, as we may gather from the following clause, where he again beseeches God _to deliver his sou...

8-15 Being compassed with enemies, David prays to God to keep him in safety. This prayer is a prediction that Christ would be preserved, through all the hardships and difficulties of his humiliation, to the glories and joys of his exalted state, and is a pattern to Christians to commit the keeping of their souls to God, trusting him to preserve them to his heavenly kingdom. Those are our worst enemies, that are enemies to our souls. They are God's sword, which cannot move without him, and which he will sheathe when he has done his work with it. They are his hand, by which he chastises his people. There is no fleeing from God's hand, but by fleeing to it. It is very comfortable, when we are in fear of the power of man, to see it dependent upon, and in subjection to the power of God. Most men look on the things of this world as the best things; and they look no further, nor show any care...

Verse Psalms 17:13. _ARISE, O LORD, DISAPPOINT HIM_] When _he_ arises to spring upon and tear me to pieces, arise _thou_, O Lord; disappoint him of his prey; seize him, and cast him down. _DELIVER MY SOUL_] Save my life. _FROM THE WICKED_, WHICH IS _THY SWORD_] Saul is still meant, and we may understand the words as either implying the _sword_, the _civil_ _power_, with which God had intrusted him, and which he was now grievously abusing; or, it may mean, _deliver me by THY sword _- cut him off who wishes to cut me off. On this ground the next verse should be read _from men, BY thy hand_. So the margin. The hand of God not only meaning his _power_, but his _providence_....

ARISE, O LORD - See the notes at Psalms 3:7. DISAPPOINT HIM - Margin, “prevent his face.” The marginal reading expresses the sense of the Hebrew. The word used in the original means “to anticipate, to go before, to prevent;” and the prayer here is that God would come “before” his enemies; that is, that he would cast himself in their way “before” they should reach him. The enemy is represented as marching upon him with his face intently fixed, seeking his destruction; and he prays that God would interpose, or that He would come to his aid “before” his enemy should come up to him. CAST HIM DOWN - That is, as it is in the Hebrew, make him bend or bow, as one who is conquered bows before a conqueror. DELIVER MY SOUL FROM THE WICKED - Save my

EXPOSITION THIS psalm is termed "a prayer"—"a Prayer of David." It consists, no doubt, mainly of a series of petitions (Psalms 17:1, Psalms 17:2, Psalms 17:6, Psalms 17:7, Psalms 17:8, Psalms 17:9, Psalms 17:13, Psalms 17:14); but contains also a number of verses which have no precatory

ARISE, O LORD,.... See Psalms 3:7; DISAPPOINT HIM, or "prevent his face" k; be beforehand with him, and so disappoint him, when he is about to seize his prey; who is comparable to the lion, or to the young lion; meaning the chief of his enemies, it may be Saul; CAST HIM DOWN; everyone of them that set themselves to cast down others to the earth. Jarchi's note is, "cut off his feet,'' that he may bow down and fall; DELIVER MY SOUL FROM THE WICKED, [WHICH IS] THY SWORD; so Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, render the words; that is, from wicked men, whom God makes use of as instruments to afflict and chastise his people: so the Assyrian monarch is called the "rod" of his anger, with whom he scourged his people Israel, Isaiah 10:

Psalms 17:1. _Hear the right, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips._ Good men are often slandered and misunderstood; and, at such times, the first verse of this Psalm will well fit their lips: «Hear the right, O Lord.» And, at all times, it is a great blessing when a supplicant can say to God, «Give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.» It must be a dreadful thing to pray with lips that do not speak the truth. When men's thoughts are far away from their prayers, and they are muttering pious words but their heart is absent, what a mockery it must be in the sight of God! A dead prayer, who will own it? It is like the child that was overlaid in the days of Solomon, which neither of the two mothers would own to be hers, Beware of dead prayers. You may dress them up as finely as you like; but, if there is no life in the

Psalms 17 The Prayer of Christ Against the Enemy _ 1. The Righteous Intercessor (Psalms 17:1)_ 2. Prayer for deliverance (Psalms 17:6) 3. The deliverance (Psalms 17:13) Psalms 17:1. This Psalm is blessedly linked with the foregoing one. We hear Christ interceding for the saints in whom is His delight (16:3). He pleads His own perfection. He is righteous; His prayer does not come from feigned lips. Not David, but Christ alone could truly say, “Thou hast proved my heart; Thou hast visited me in the night; Thou hast tried me. T

XVII. THE PRAYER OF A GODLY MAN FOR DELIVERANCE FROM HIS FOES. These foes are not foreign enemies but worldly Jews who persecute their pious and innocent neighbours. The cry for Divine help is made in Psalms 17:1 and is repeated in Psalms 17:6; Psalms 17:13. PSALMS 17:1. In Psalms 17:2 follow _mg._ Psalms 17:3_ b_. With slight alteration of the text translate Thou shalt find no evil thought in me; my mouth shalt not transgress. Such self-complace