2 Mine enemies would swallow [me] up all the day long; for they are many that fight against me haughtily.
{A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.} Jehovah, how many are they that trouble me, many they that rise up against me!
I will be glad and rejoice in thee; I will sing forth thy name, O Most High.
He will requite evil to mine enemies: in thy truth cut them off.
He will send from the heavens and save me; he hath covered with reproach him that would swallow me up. Selah. God hath sent forth his loving-kindness and his truth.
{A Psalm, a Song, for the Sabbath day.} It is good to give thanks unto Jehovah, and to sing psalms unto thy name, O Most High;
All nations encompassed me; but in the name of Jehovah have I destroyed them. They encompassed me, yea, encompassed me; but in the name of Jehovah have I destroyed them. They encompassed me like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of Jehovah have I destroyed them.
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, and whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy [place], and with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Wherewith shall I come before Jehovah, bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old?
who hast said by the mouth of thy servant David, Why have [the] nations raged haughtily and [the] peoples meditated vain things? The kings of the earth were there, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. For in truth against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou hadst anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with [the] nations, and peoples of Israel, have been gathered together in this city
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 56
Commentary on Psalms 56 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 56
It seems by this, and many other psalms, that even in times of the greatest trouble and distress David never hung his harp upon the willow-trees, never unstrung it or laid it by; but that when his dangers and fears were greatest he was still in tune for singing God's praises. He was in imminent peril when he penned this psalm, at least when he meditated it; yet even then his meditation of God was sweet.
How pleasantly may a good Christian, in singing this psalm, rejoice in God, and praise him for what he will do, as well as for what he has done.
To the chief musician upon Jonath-elem-rechokim, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.
Psa 56:1-7
David, in this psalm, by his faith throws himself into the hands of God, even when he had by his fear and folly thrown himself into the hands of the Philistines; it was when they took him in Gath, whither he fled for fear of Saul, forgetting the quarrel they had with him for killing Goliath; but they soon put him in mid of it, 1 Sa. 21:10, 11. Upon that occasion he changed his behaviour, but with so little ruffle to his temper that then he penned both this psalm and the 34th. This is called Michtam-a golden psalm. So some other psalms are entitled, but this has something peculiar in the title; it is upon Jonath-elem-rechokim, which signifies the silent dove afar off. Some apply this to David himself, who wished for the wings of a dove on which to fly away. He was innocent and inoffensive, mild and patient, as a dove, was at this time driven from his nest, from the sanctuary (Ps. 84:3), was forced to wander afar off, to seek for shelter in distant countries; there he was like the doves of the valleys, mourning and melancholy; but silent, neither murmuring against God nor railing at the instruments of his trouble; herein a type of Christ, who was as a sheep, dumb before the shearers, and a pattern to Christians, who, wherever they are and whatever injuries are done them, ought to be as silent doves. In this former part of the psalm,
Psa 56:8-13
Several things David here comforts himself with in the day of his distress and fear.