Psalms 35:6

_LET THEIR WAY BE DARK AND SLIPPERY: AND LET THE ANGEL OF THE LORD PERSECUTE THEM._ Way be dark and slippery. image from one upon a dark and slippery path, which retards his flight, and makes his destruction inevitable. LET THE ANGEL ... - "the angel of the Lord," the Divine Word, who saves His people, pursues with vengeance His and their adversaries....

1-10 It is no new thing for the most righteous men, and the most righteous cause, to meet with enemies. This is a fruit of the old enmity in the seed of the serpent against the Seed of the woman. David in his afflictions, Christ in his sufferings, the church under persecution, and the Christian in the hour temptation, all beseech the Almighty to appear in their behalf, and to vindicate their cause. We are apt to justify uneasiness at the injuries men do us, by our never having given them cause to use us so ill; but this should make us easy, for then we may the more expect that God will plead our cause. David prayed to God to manifest himself in his trial. Let me have inward comfort under all outward troubles, to support my soul. If God, by his Spirit, witness to our spirits that he is our salvation, we need desire no more to make us happy. If God is our Friend, no matter who is our enem...

Verse Psalms 35:6. _LET THEIR WAY BE DARK_] Let them lose their way, be entangled in morasses and thickets, and be confounded in all their attempts to injure me. All these phrases are _military_; and relate to _ambushes, hidden snares, forced marches_ in order to _surprise_, and _stratagems_ of different kinds....

LET THEIR WAY BE DARK - Margin, as in Hebrew: “darkness.” That is, let them not be able to see where they go; what danger they incur; what is before them. The idea is that of persons who wander in the night, not knowing what is before them, or what danger may be near. The succession of images and figures here is terrific. The representation is that of persons scattered as the chaff is before the wind; pursued by the angel seeking vengeance; and driven along a dark and slippery path, with no guide, and no knowledge as to the precipices which may be before them, or the enemies that may be pressing upon them. AND SLIPPERY - Margin, as in Hebrew: “slipperiness.” This is a circumstance which adds increased terror to the image. It is not only a dark road, but a road made slippery by rains; a road where they are in danger every moment of sliding down a precipice where they will be destroyed....

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

LET THEIR WAY BE DARK AND SLIPPERY,.... In which they run before the angel, chasing and pursuing them; so that they know not where they are, at what they stumble, whither to flee, nor how to stand; the ways of wicked men are as darkness, they know not in what condition they are, and whither they are going; and utter darkness, even blackness of darkness, is reserved for them: but here it means a calamitous, uncomfortable, fickle, and unstable situation in this life; see Jeremiah 23:11. The allusion is to some of the valleys in the land of Palestine, which were dark, and the roads in them very smooth and slippery, as travellers in those parts have observed q; AND LET THE ANGEL OF GOD PERSECUTE THEM; Psalms 35:5. q See Maundrell's Travel's, p. 7....

ANGEL (_ See Scofield) - (Hebrews 1:4). _...

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

Prayer for the repulse and rout of his enemies. No doubt the language might be entirely figurative, but it is more naturally explained if a literal fulfilment was at least a possibility....