Psalms 35:13

_BUT AS FOR ME, WHEN THEY WERE SICK, MY CLOTHING WAS SACKCLOTH: I HUMBLED MY SOUL WITH FASTING; AND MY PRAYER RETURNED INTO MINE OWN BOSOM._ When they were sick ... I humbled - `afflicted' (cf. Isaiah 58:3). As if their sickness was my own, I chastened my spirit with outward exercises of penitence. Times of sickness should be times of humiliation for sin, which is the original cause of all sickness. None ever realized this perfect union with the sufferings and sins of man as did Jesus, who "Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses" (Matthew 8:17). He especially returned good for evil, weeping over the city, which was about to be His murderer, and praying for them who did the awful deed (Luke 19:41;...

11-16 Call a man ungrateful, and you can call him no worse: this was the character of David's enemies. Herein he was a type of Christ. David shows how tenderly he had behaved towards them in afflictions. We ought to mourn for the sins of those who do not mourn for themselves. We shall not lose by the good offices we do to any, how ungrateful soever they may be. Let us learn to possess our souls in patience and meekness like David, or rather after Christ's example....

Verse Psalms 35:13. _WHEN THEY WERE SICK_] This might refer to the case of Absalom, who was much beloved of his father, and for whose life and prosperity he no doubt often prayed, wept, and fasted. _MY PRAYER RETURNED INTO MINE OWN BOSOM._] Though from the wayward and profligate life they led, they did not profit by my prayers, yet God did not permit me to pray in vain. They were like alms given to the miserable for God's sake, who takes care to return to the merciful man tenfold into his bosom. The _bosom_ is not only the place where the Asiatics carry their purses, but also where they carry any thing that is given to them....

BUT AS FOR ME - The psalmist now contrasts their conduct with his own. He refers to the recollections of his past life, and to the acts of kindness which he had shown to them in thees of trouble, as more deeply marking the evils of their own conduct now. WHEN THEY WERE SICK - Compare the notes at Job 30:25. It would seem from this that the persons referred to, who now treated him with so much ingratitude, were those with whom he had been formerly intimately associated, or whom he had regarded as his personal friends, since it cannot be supposed that this deep sympathy would have been shown for those who were altogether strangers to him. MY CLOTHING WAS SACKCLOTH - Compare the notes at Psalms 30:11

EXPOSITION A PSALM ascribed to David by the title, and with many characteristics of his early style—abrupt, impassioned, full of lively and graphic images, and full of transitions The picture which the writer draws of his own circumstances and position (Psalms 35:11, Psalms 35:19) accords well with what we know of David's life when he was a fugitive from Saul, and there is a special agreement between the first verse of the psalm and words historically ascribed to David at this period of his career (1 Samuel 24:15). The psalm naturally divides itself into three portions, nearly of equal length (Psalms

BUT AS FOR ME, WHEN THEY WERE SICK,.... Or under any disorder or distress of body or mind, when any misfortune or infirmity attended them; meaning Saul and his courtiers, before David was persecuted by them; MY CLOTHING [WAS] SACKCLOTH; that is, he was grieved, and mourned for them, it being usual to put on sackcloth in time of mourning; see Genesis 37:34; I HUMBLED MY SOUL WITH FASTING; on the account of them, giving up himself to prayer for them, as follows: AND MY PRAYER RETURNED INTO MINE OWN BOSOM; that is, he prayed privately and heartily for them, as for himself; he was constant in it, his heart was in it, and he took delight in it, and he was heard and answered; unless the sense should be, that his prayer was slighted by them, and so returned back to himself, as a present despised is returned; but however it wa

Psalms 35 The Cry for Justice and Divine Help _ 1. The cry of distress (Psalms 35:1)_ 2. The contrast? (Psalms 35:11) 3. Prayer for vindication and victory (Psalms 35:19) This Psalm introduces us again to the suffering of the righteous, giving another prophetic picture of the distress of the remnant. When David composed this Psalm we do not know. But He casts himself completely on the Lord and calls to Him for help and vindication. Thus the godly have always done when surrounded by the enemies who persecuted them. The condition of the godly when violence is in the earth during the time of Jacob's trouble

XXXV. PRAYER AGAINST TREACHEROUS FOES BY ONE WHO IS QUIET IN THE LAND. Psalms 35:6_ b_ should replace Psalms 35:5_ b_. Chaff driven before the wind may well suggest the image of the angel pursuing the foe but not that of pushing or thrusting. Psalms 35:7. Read, Without a cause have they hid for me their net: without a cause have they dug a pit for my life. Psalms 35:9 f. Soul and bones stand for the whole person. Psalms 35:12_ b_. The text cannot be right. Laying snares for my soul is a possible conj

CLOTHING, &C. Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, put, by Symbol, for feelings of sorrow. WITH FASTING. in the Fast: i.e. on the great Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16)...

The causelessness of the Psalmist's persecution and the ingratitude of his persecutors are urged as reasons for God's interference on his behalf....