(2.) My prayer returned into mine own bosom. We are apt to justify our uneasiness at the injuries men do us by this, That we never gave them any cause to use us so; whereas this should, more than any thing, make us easy, for then we may the more confidently expect that God will plead our cause. This psalm opens in a warlike tone, so as to suggest a soldier for its author, and for its occasion the eye of some battle. I wept and I was there to help and all. 131, 4, b, carries its subject in itself. He prays that his enemies might not have cause to rejoice (v. 19): Let them not rejoice over me (and again, v. 24); not so much because it would be a mortification to him to be trampled upon the abjects, as because it would turn to the dishonour of God and the reproach of his confidence in God. He was concerned for their precious souls, and, since he helped them with his prayers to God for mercy and grace; and the prayers of one who had so great an interest in heaven were of more value than perhaps they knew or considered. Solomon wrote one or two (127 and perhaps 72). If God is our Friend, no matter who is our enemy. It is my soul that is in danger; Lord, rescue it. Lord, who is like unto thee? a. Stir up Yourself, and awake to my vindication: David was confident that he was on Gods side in his contention with his enemies, yet he longed for God to actively vindicate him. If the kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord and his anointed, who can contend with them? Say to my soul, "I am your salvation!" 4 Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life! "Judge me, O Lord my God! If he did not count our Lord to be divine, neither does David here ascribe Deity to Jehovah, for there is no difference except in the order of the words and the tongue in which they were spoken; the meaning is identical. (Spurgeon). God alone can defend him against his attackers (9-10).Davids sorrow is the more painful when he remembers that those who now fight against him are those whom he helped, sympathized with and prayed for when they were sick or in trouble (11-14). If God, by his Spirit, witness to our spirits that he is our salvation, we need desire no more to make us happy. 2. he humbled himself, fasted, and prayed on their behalf 3. he mourned for them (as for a close friend or brother) 4. he mourned for them (as for his own mother) There is a visible contrast between how the faithful follower acts and the faithless ones act! He prophesies the destruction of his persecutors, ver 4-6, 8. In sadness (Psalm 35:11-12), David reflects on the compassionate treatment he showed his foes before they turned against him. ( Psalms 35:7-10 ). Why Does God Compare Our Relationship with Him to That of a Bride and Groom? Their way shall be dark and slippery, darkness and slipperiness (so the margin reads it); the way of sinners is so, for they walk in darkness and in continual danger of falling into sin, into hell; and it will prove so at last, for their foot shall slide in due time, Deut 32 35. Verse Psalms 35:13. Who rejoice at my hurt; But cannot by itself mean smiters with the tongue. David vowed that his hand should not be upon him; he would not be judge in his own cause. When God in his providence shows his good-will to the prosperity of his servants, and the pleasure he takes in it, we ought to acknowledge it with thankfulness, to his praise, and to say, The Lord be magnified. i. 1. Read Chapter Compare Psalms 35:13-14 Meaning and Commentary INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 35 Why Does God Compare Our Relationship with Him to That of a Bride and Groom? Let not them that are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. 3 Brandish spear and javelin[ a] against those who pursue me. Two very wicked things David here lays to the charge of his enemies, to make good his appeal to God against them--perjury and ingratitude. Psalm chapter 35. (1-3) David pleads to God for defense. They were very barbarous and base, for they trampled upon him when he was down, rejoiced at his hurt, and magnified themselves against him, v. 26. They really would get upset.Now when Elisha was going up the hill, little kids came up from Bethel saying, "aha, aha, ye old bald man!" Note, It is no new thing for the most righteous men, and the most righteous cause, to meet with many mighty and malicious enemies: Christ himself is striven with and fought against, and war is made upon the holy seed; and we are not to marvel at the matter: it is a fruit of the old enmity in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman. Psalm 69:10,11 When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. It seems that this psalm also was written during the time of Davids flight from Saul. Those that hated David thought scorn, like Haman, to lay hands on him alone, but contrived to involve all the religious people of the land in the same ruin with him. See this explained by Solomon, 1 Kings 7 31, 32. Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so we would have it! Well, might he call them abjects, for nothing could be more vile and sordid than to triumph in the fall of a man of such unstained honour and consummate virtue. The language alternates between legal and military terminology. In the first section of the psalm, the emphasis is on petition, but in this one it is on lament. Let God be my salvation, not only my Saviour out of my present troubles, but my everlasting bliss. They rejoice and gather themselves together, and this assemblage of ungrateful friends rejoicing over another's misfortune, is augmented by the lowest rabble that attach themselves to them. Let me hear you say, "I will give you victory!" We need 2 cookies to store this setting. c. Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion who rejoice at my hurt: David simply and powerfully asked God to be his defense before his enemies. The verb means to smite; Niph. I. Note, A righteous cause may, with the greatest satisfaction imaginable, he laid before a righteous God, and referred to him to give judgment upon it; for he perfectly knows the merits of it, holds the balance exactly even, and with him there is no respect of persons. But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled my soul with fasting, And my prayer kept returning to my bosom. David mourned for them and sympathized with them in their grief. Against his many enemies (v. 4-6): Let them be confounded, etc. (2.) But, on the contrary, that they might be ashamed and brought to confusion together (v. 26, as before, v. 4); he desires that his innocency might be so cleared that they might be ashamed of the calumnies with which they had loaded him, that his interest might be so confirmed that they might be ashamed of their designs against him and their expectations of his ruin, that they might either be brought to that shame which would be a step towards their reformation or that that might be their portion which would be their everlasting misery. This , which even Rashi interprets in substantially the same manner, stands either in a logical co-ordinate relation (vid., on Isaiah 19:11) or in a logical as well as grammatical subordinate relation to its regens . the common phrase for thoughts coming upon the heart, Jeremiah 3:16; Jeremiah 7:31, etc.) And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and thy praise all the day long ( Psalms 35:22-28 ). 118.). It was so to St. Paul. See Daniel 9:3; Matthew 17:21; Luke 2:37. He pleads his own innocency, that he never gave them any provocation (ver 7, 19), but, on the contrary, had studied to oblige them, ver 12-14. i. This is the view of Ewald and Delitzsch, but seems prosaic. does not mean scorn or buffoonery, as Bttcher and Hitzig imagine, (Note: The Talmudic (), B. Sanhedrin 101b, which is said to mean "a jesting way of speaking," has all the less place here, as the reading wavers between () and .). He complains to God of the injuries they did him; they strove with him, fought against him (ver 1), persecuted him (ver 3), sought his ruin (ver 4, 7), accused him falsely (ver 11), abused him basely (ver 15, 16), and all his friends (ver 20), and triumphed over him,, ver 21, 25, 26. 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. Genesis 24:67) strikes the deepest wound: like one who mourns (, (Note: According to the old Babylonian reading (belonging to a period when Pathach and Segol were as yet not distinguished from one another), (with the sign of Pathach and the stroke for Raphe below equals ); vid., Pinsker, Zur Geschichte des Karaismus, S. 141, and Einleitung, S. , not: like the mourning (from , like from ) of a mother (Hitzig), but, since a personal is more natural, and next to the mourning for an only child the loss of a mother (cf. King James Version 35 Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me. And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation. Salem Media Group. Among the Hebrews fasting and prayer were much more closely connected than they are with Christians. (Comp. My clothing was sackcloth - Compare the notes at Psalms 30:11. Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning. V. He promises himself that he shall yet see better days (ver 9, 10), and promises God that he will then attend him with his praises, ver 18, 28. If a fellow-subject had wronged him, he might have appealed to his prince, as St. Paul did to Csar; but, when his prince wronged him, he appealed to his God, who is prince and Judge of the kings of the earth: Plead my cause, O Lord! That they might join with him in his praises: Let them say continually, The Lord be magnified, by us and others, who hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. The king's word is a law, and every thing must be carried with a high hand; he has fields, and vineyards, and preferments, at his disposal, 1 Sam 22 7. He thought of the people of God enlarging the LORD in their hearts and minds, and of his continual praise to God (my tongue shall speak of Your righteousness and of Your praise all the day long). David here shows. If our dove find no rest for the sole of her foot among our enemies, it shall fly into our bosoms and bring an olive branch of peace in its mouth. The enemys fall is the occasion of glad praise, not because his intended victim yields to the temptation to take malicious delight in his calamity (Schadenfreude). All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him? To my cause, my God and my Lord. Psalms 35:13 - Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible. Many good works have I shown you from my Father; for which of those do you stone me? Verse Psalms 35:13. But we soon (Psalm 35:7-8; Psalm 35:11-12) perceive that these warlike expressions are only metaphors, and that the foes of the poet are malicious slanderers and scoffers of the pious Israelitesit may be the court party in the time of one of the later kings, or . But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. Fight those who fight against me. When they were sick, David prayed for their recovery and mourned over their condition. But, at the same time, he foretold that the Lord would smite him (1 Sam 26 10), and here that the net he had hidden should catch himself, and into that very destruction he should fall. Psalm 34. His fasting also put an edge upon his praying, and was an expression of the fervour of it; he was so intent in his devotions that he had no appetite to meat, nor would allow himself time for eating: "My prayer returned into my own bosom; I had the comfort of having done my duty, and of having approved myself a loving neighbour, though I could not thereby win upon them nor make them my friends." Christian sympathy even for the froward. Click to enable/disable _gat_* - Google Analytics Cookie. Verse 13. The idea of the psalmist is that of a warrior prepared alike for attack or defense. And he turned around and cursed them. They had carried on their plots against him with a great degree of secresy (v. 15): "I knew it not, till long after, when they themselves gloried in it; but thy eye was upon them in their close cabals and thou art a witness of all they have said and done against me and thy people." i. And my prayer returned into mine own bosom - DeWette explains this as meaning, I prayed with my head sunk on my bosom; that is, with the head bowed down, so that the prayer which went out of Iris lips seemed to return again to his own bosom - that earnest prayer which one offers when the head is bowed with sorrow. Observe, He mourned as for a brother or mother, which intimates that it is our duty, and well becomes us, to lay to heart the sickness, and sorrow, and death of our near relations. Nederlandstalige Bijbelstudies door Stan Marinussen, Copyright - Enduring Word | . ). And now another prophecy relating to Christ.
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