3 For see, they are watching in secret for my soul; the strong have come together against me? but not because of my sin, or my evil-doing, O Lord.
They come together, they are waiting in secret places, they take note of my steps, they are waiting for my soul.
Look! you have seen today how the Lord gave you up into my hands even now in the hollow of the rocks: and some would have had me put you to death, but I had pity on you: for I said, Never will my hand be lifted up against my lord, who has been marked with the holy oil.
And Saul gave orders to his son Jonathan and to all his servants to put David to death. But Saul's son Jonathan had great delight in David.
Now when David had said these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, David, my son? And Saul was overcome with weeping.
The kings of the earth have taken their place, and the rulers are fixed in their purpose, against the Lord, and against the king of his selection, saying,
O Lord my God, if I have done this; if my hands have done any wrong; If I have given back evil to him who did evil to me, or have taken anything from him who was against me without cause; Let my hater go after my soul and take it; let my life be crushed to the earth, and my honour into the dust. (Selah.) Come up, Lord, in your wrath; be lifted up against my haters; be awake, my God, give orders for the judging.
The sinners are watching the upright man, desiring to put him to death. The Lord will not give him into their hands, or be against him when he is judged.
Those who have a desire to take my life put nets for me; those who are designing my destruction say evil things against me, all the day their minds are full of deceit.
The good man is gone from the earth, there is no one upright among men: they are all waiting secretly for blood, every man is going after his brother with a net.
This comes about so that the writing in their law may be made true, Their hate for me was without cause.
The kings of the earth were lifted up, the rulers came together, against the Lord, and against his Christ: For, truly, in this town, against your holy servant, Jesus, who was marked out by you as Christ, Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, came together,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 59
Commentary on Psalms 59 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 59
This psalm is of the same nature and scope with six or seven foregoing psalms; they are all filled with David's complaints of the malice of his enemies and of their cursed and cruel designs against him, his prayers and prophecies against them, and his comfort and confidence in God as his God. The first is the language of nature, and may be allowed; the second of a prophetical spirit, looking forward to Christ and the enemies of his kingdom, and therefore not to be drawn into a precedent; the third of grace and a most holy faith, which ought to be imitated by every one of us. In this psalm,
As far as it appears that any of the particular enemies of God's people fall under these characters, we may, in singing this psalm, read their doom and foresee their ruin.
To the chief musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David, when Saul sent and they watched the house to kill him.
Psa 59:1-7
The title of this psalm acquaints us particularly with the occasion on which it was penned; it was when Saul sent a party of his guards to beset David's house in the night, that they might seize him and kill him; we have the story 1 Sa. 19:11. It was when his hostilities against David were newly begun, and he had but just before narrowly escaped Saul's javelin. These first eruptions of Saul's malice could not but put David into disorder and be both grievous and terrifying, and yet he kept up his communion with God, and such a composure of mind as that he was never out of frame for prayer and praises; happy are those whose intercourse with heaven is not intercepted nor broken in upon by their cares, or griefs, or fears, or any of the hurries (whether outward or inward) of an afflicted state. In these verses,
Psa 59:8-17
David here encourages himself, in reference to the threatening power of his enemies, with a pious resolution to wait upon God and a believing expectation that he should yet praise him.