Psalms 25:19

_CONSIDER MINE ENEMIES; FOR THEY ARE MANY; AND THEY HATE ME WITH CRUEL HATRED._ Consider - the same Hebrew as in Psalms 25:18, "Look upon." Whilst God looks upon His own people with compassion for their "affliction," and with "forgiveness" for their "sins," He "looks upon" their "enemies" with wrathful jealousy for His own honour and for His people's safety (Exodus 14:24). CRUEL HATRED. The Hebrew (_ CHAAMAAC_ (H2555)) "cruel" expresses and injustice (Psalms 25:3, end). The number and the violent injustice of the believer's enemies are strong reasons with God for interposing, both through regard to His people and through His hatred of injustice.

19._Behold mine enemies. _In this verse David complains of the number and cruelty of his enemies, because the more the people of God are oppressed, the more is he inclined to aid them; and in proportion to the magnitude of the danger by which they are surrounded, he assists them the more powerfully. The words, _hatred of violence, _(566) are here to be understood of a cruel and sanguinary hatred. Now, as the rage of David’s enemies was so great, that nothing short of his death would satisfy them, he calls upon God to become the guardian and protector of his life; and from this it may be inferred, as I have already said, that he was now placed in extreme danger. The clause which immediately follows, _That I may not be ashamed, _may be understood in two ways. Some retain the future tense, _I shall not be ashamed, _as if David felt assured that he was already heard by God, and as the reward...

15-22 The psalmist concludes, as he began, with expressing dependence upon God, and desire toward him. It is good thus to hope, and quietly to wait for the salvation of the Lord. And if God turns to us, no matter who turns from us. He pleads his own integrity. Though guilty before God, yet, as to his enemies, he had the testimony of conscience that he had done them no wrong. God would, at length, give Israel rest from all their enemies round about. In heaven, God's Israel will be perfectly redeemed from all troubles. Blessed Saviour, thou hast graciously taught us that without thee we can do nothing. Do thou teach us how to pray, how to appear before thee in the way which thou shalt choose, and how to lift up our whole hearts and desires after thee, for thou art the Lord our righteousness...

Verse Psalms 25:19. _CONSIDER MINE ENEMIES_] Look upon them, and thou wilt see how impossible it is that I should be able to resist and overcome them. They are many, they hate me, and their hatred drives them to acts of _cruelty_ against me....

CONSIDER MINE ENEMIES - See Psalms 25:2. It is evident that one source of the trouble referred to in the psalm was the fact that he had cruel foes, and that he was apprehensive of their designs. The train of thought seems to be, in accordance with the remarks above, that enemies actually surrounded him, and threatened him, and that this fact suggested the inquiry whether this was not permitted on account of his sins. this had led him to think of the sins of his past life, going back as far as his youth Psalms 25:7, as if these calamities, even in advanced life, were on account of those early offences. FOR THEY ARE MANY - Who and what they were, we have now no means of ascertaining. See the notes at...

EXPOSITION THIS is the second of the "alphabetic psalms." It is not so irregular as Psalms 9:1; but still is defective in some respects, the letters _beth _and _vav _being omitted in their proper place, _resh _being substituted for _koph_, and a second _he _being addled at the end. Some of these variations may be accidental, but others would seem to have been intentional, being found also in Psalms 34:1. The psalm consists of a number of prayers, reflections, and pious ejaculations, not drawn up in any systematic order, and not very clearly connected by any single line of thought. The separate portions have, however, in many cases much beauty; and it is observed that "some of the most precious spiritual treasures of the Church have been drawn

CONSIDER MINE ENEMIES,.... Or "look" m upon them; but with another kind of look; so as he looked through the pillar of fire upon the Egyptians, and troubled them, Exodus 14:24; with a look of wrath and vengeance. The arguments he uses are taken both from the quantity and quality of his enemies, their number and their nature; FOR THEY ARE MANY; the hearts of the people of Israel, in general, being after Absalom, 2 Samuel 15:12; and so the spiritual enemies of the Lord's people are many; their sins and corruptions, Satan, and his principalities and powers, and the men of this world; AND THEY HATE ME WITH CRUEL HATRED; like that of Simeon and Levi, Genesis 49:7; their hatr

Psalms 25:1. _Unto thee, O LORD, do I lift up my soul._ It is down; and I would fain lift it up; yet I am powerless to do so if I am left to myself. When the soul cleaves to the earth, who but God can lift it up? Yet it must be our desire and object to seek to lift up our soul unto God. Psalms 25:2. _O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me._ Whatever happens to me, I trust in thee. Down goes the anchor; that ship will never drift far out to sea. «O my God, I trust in thee.» Can you say that, dear friends? Then, if you are in the dark, you are as safe as if you were in the light, for still this anchor holds: «O my God, I trust in thee.» «Let not mine enemies triumph over me.» They will do so, if they can get me back into the w

PSALM 25-39 The fifteen Psalms which follow give the deep soul exercise of the godly. All fifteen, except the thirty-third, are marked as Psalms of David. Much of it expresses undoubtedly his own individual experience during the days of his suffering and at other occasions. Prophetically these Psalms give again the experience of the godly remnant of Israel in the time of trouble, preceding the coming of the King. We also can trace in these experiences much which concerns our Lord in His earthly life, when as the Holy One He lived that perfect life of obedience and trust, suffering too among the ungodly. But great caution is needed in the application of these Psalms to our Lord. Here we find expressions which could never be true of Him, who knew no sin. For instance some have applied Psalms 38:7: “for my loins are filled with a loathsome disease and there is no soundness in my flesh” to t...

XXV. An acrostic poem composed of religious maxims and prayers which have little or no connexion with each other. The text is imperfect, for in Psalms 25:18 f. the letter Q is omitted and R is repeated twice. PSALMS 25:9. In post-exilic times the pious Jews were usually poor. Hence the favourite virtue of the good Jews was submission to God, gentleness, resignation; such are the persons here called meek. See Psalms 62 for the estimate of riches in later times. Psalms 25:11. for it is great: and so too hard for me. Psalms 25:14. The secret of Yahweh is His purpose of exalting the meek....