Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 59:1

Clarke's Commentary

PSALM LIX

The psalmist prays for deliverance from his enemies, whose

desperate wickedness he describes, 1-7;

professes strong confidence in God, 8-10;

speaks of the destruction of his enemies, 11-15;

praises God for benefits already received; and determines to

trust in him, 16, 17.

NOTES ON PSALM LIX

The title, "To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David," has already occurred: and perhaps means no more than that the present Psalm is to be sung as Psalms 57:1-11, the first which bears this title. But there is here added the supposed occasion on which David made this Psalm: it was, "when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him." When the reader considers the whole of this Psalm carefully, he will be convinced that the title does not correspond to the contents. There is scarcely any thing in it that can apply to the circumstances of Saul's sending his guards by night to keep the avenues to the house of David, that when the morning came they might seize and slay him; and of his being saved through the information given him by his wife Michal, in consequence of which he was let down through a window, and so escaped. See 1 Samuel 19:10-11. There is not in the whole Psalm any positive allusion to this history; and there are many things in it which show it to be utterly inconsistent with the facts of that history. The Psalm most evidently agrees to the time of Nehemiah, when he was endeavouring to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, when the enterprise was first mocked; then opposed by Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, who watched day and night that they might cause the work to cease; and laid ambuscades for the life of Nehemiah himself. Every part of the Psalm agrees to this: and I am therefore of Calmet's opinion, that the Psalm was composed in that time, and probably by Nehemiah, or by Esdras.

Verse Psalms 59:1. Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God — A very proper prayer in the mouth of Nehemiah, when resisted in his attempts to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem by Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, who opposed the work, and endeavoured to take away the life of the person whom God had raised up to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. I conceive the Psalm to have been made on this occasion; and on this hypothesis alone I think it capable of consistent explanation.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 59:0 Wild dogs

At the time of writing this psalm, David had not yet fled to Gath and Adullam. He was still at Saul’s court, but his repeated military successes stirred up Saul’s jealousy, resulting in another attempt by Saul to spear him (1 Samuel 19:1-10). David escaped to the safety of his own house. Saul then laid a plot to murder him at his home, and David escaped only narrowly (1 Samuel 19:11-17). This psalm concerns the attempt on David’s life at his house.

The psalm opens with a plea for protection against those whose intention is to murder David (1-2). Bloodthirsty people hide in the dark, awaiting the opportunity to kill an innocent man (3-5). David likens them to a pack of wild dogs that prowl the streets at night, seeking some helpless victim that they can attack and tear to pieces (6-7). But they are powerless against God, and therefore they are powerless against those whom he defends (8-10).
David knows that God will destroy these violent people, but he does not want them killed in a way that would appear to be the result of natural causes. He wants their death to occur in such a way that people will see clearly that it is a direct judgment from the righteous God (11-13).
Meanwhile the hungry dogs still prowl. Each night they return, eagerly looking for their victim (14-15). God, however, still guards David, and each morning David praises him afresh for his faithful protection (16-17).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: Set me on high from them that rise up against me Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, And save me from the bloodthirsty men. For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul; The mighty gather themselves together against me: Not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Jehovah. They run and prepare themselves without my fault; Awake thou to help me, and behold. Even thou, O Jehovah, God of hosts, the God of Israel, Arise to visit all the nations: Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors, (Selah)"

"Set me on high" This is often translated either "protect" or "defend," thus giving us four one-word prayers in this first verse. These are "deliver, protect, deliver, save!" These urgent repeated cries for God's help emphasize the dramatic nature of the crisis David faced. He was one man, alone, hated, pursued, proscribed by the king, condemned to death without a trial, and an entire army at the disposal of his chief enemy had been commissioned to kill him. Hopeless? No indeed; God was with David!

"From mine enemies" Who were all these enemies of David?

"Saul became his enemy through jealousy; Saul's partisans took sides with him against David; he had enemies at the court of Achish; there were enemies in his own family; even his son Absalom hated him; even one of his counselors, Ahithophel betrayed him; and besides these, there were foreign enemies on all sides: Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Amalekites, Syrians, Mesopotamians, etc."Ibid., p. 12.

As we have frequently noticed, many of these psalms deal with hatred, opposition, oppression, injustice, slander, violence, etc., encountered by one who trusts God and looks to him continually for deliverance from implacable enemies on all sides. "The constant recurrence of this note in the Psalter is doubtless intended to provide a large measure of comfort and encouragement for the various circumstances of trial to which the godly are exposed."H. C. Leupold, p. 440.

"Workers of iniquity" David here pleads for deliverance because of the character of his foes. (1) They are evil workers (Psalms 59:2); (2) they are bloodthirsty men (Psalms 59:3), and (3) David has never wronged any of them.

"Not for my transgression… nor my sin… without my fault" This is a three-fold protestation of innocence on David's part. As Dummelow noted, this may not be taken as proof of David's being sinless in God's sight, but "Probably mean that he had done nothing to provoke the hostilities of his enemies."J. R. Dummelow, p. 352.

"The mighty gather themselves together against me" Spurgeon thought that this means that 'All' the mighty ones united against David. "No one of them was absent from the muster when there was a saint to be murdered. They were too fond of such sport to be absent."Charles Haddon Spurgeon, p. 262. We cannot say whether or not Spurgeon was correct in the application of this principle to the situation here; but well we know that such an attitude is very frequently that of the world toward the people of God.

"Arise to visit all the nations" This line has given commentators a lot of trouble. The usual explanation is that of Yates, "Although basically the lament of an individual, it has overtones which adapt it to national use also."Wycliffe Bible Commentary of the Old Testament, Old Testament, p. 516. This is the third time that we have encountered this world-wide international element in the Psalms. (See Psalms 56:7; Psalms 57:9, and again here). Please see discussion of all these. It is an earmark of Davidic authorship in all three. Kidner pointed out that this international flavor even existed in that very early prayer in the life of David, before his victory over Goliath. He prayed, "I come to thee in the name of Jehovah of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied… I will smite thee, and take thy head from off thee.., that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel" (1 Samuel 17:45-46).

"Here the picture widens as David now king (when this Psalm was written), applies the personal prayer to a larger situation, i. e., that of the nation."Derek Kidner, Vol. 1, p. 212. Our own view differs from this in that we think the supposition that the psalm was written years after the event that prompted it, after David was king, is unnecessary.

Leupold also sustained this same view: At the very time when Saul's men were surrounding the house of David with the intention of killing him, the Philistines were also harassing Israel (it will be remembered that when David was in the cave of Adullum, Saul had to leave off the pursuit to repel an attack from the Philistines).

"Thus when David reflected upon his own distress (in this Psalm), he felt that when God took his case in hand, God would also, at the same time, deliver Israel from the attacks of the heathen."H. C. Leupold, p. 441.

Thus the mention of "the nations" here is quite natural and understandable.

"God of hosts… God of Israel… visit all the nations" Three reasons are given here as grounds for David's prayer for God's intervention. "(1) He is the God of hosts, (2) He is the covenant God of Israel, and (3) He is also the God of all nations"New Bible Commentary Revised, p. 487.

This first paragraph ends with the word "Selah," which was probably some kind of a musical direction to the singers.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God - See the notes at Psalms 18:48. This prayer was offered when the spies sent by Saul surrounded the house of David. They had come to apprehend him, and it is to be presumed that they had come in sufficient numbers, and with sufficient power, to effect their object. Their purpose was not to break in upon him in the night, but to watch their opportunity, when he went forth in the morning, to slay him 1 Samuel 19:11, and there seemed no way for him to escape. Of their coming, and of their design, Michal, the daughter of Saul, and the wife of David, seems to have been apprised - perhaps by someone of her father’s family. She informed David of the arrangement, and assured him that unless he should escape in the night, he would be put to death in the morning. She, therefore, let him down through a window, and he escaped, 1 Samuel 19:12. It was in this way that he was in fact delivered; in this way that his prayer was answered. A faithful wife saved him.

Defend me from them that rise up against me - Margin, as in Hebrew, “Set me on high.” The idea is that of placing him, as it were, on a tower, or on an eminence which would be inaccessible. These were common places of refuge or defense. See the notes at Psalms 18:2.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

1Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God! He insists upon the strength and violence of his enemies, with the view of exciting his mind to greater fervor in the duty of prayer. These he describes as rising up against him, in which expression he alludes not simply to the audacity or fierceness of their assaults, but to the eminent superiority of power which they possessed; and yet he asks that he may be lifted up on high, as it were, above the reach of this over-swelling inundation. His language teaches us that we should believe in the ability of God to deliver us even upon occasions of emergency, when our enemies have an overwhelming advantage. In the verse which follows, while he expresses the extremity to which he was reduced, he adverts at the same time to the injustice and cruelty of his persecutors. Immediately afterwards, he connects the two grounds of his complaint together: on the one hand, his complete helplessness under the danger, and, on the other, the undeserved nature of the assaults from which he suffered. I have already repeatedly observed, that our confidence in our applications to a throne of grace will be proportional to the degree in which we are conscious of integrity; for we cannot fail to feel greater liberty in pleading a cause which, in such a case, is the cause of God himself. He is the vindicator of justice, the patron of the righteous cause everywhere, and those who oppress the innocent must necessarily rank themselves amongst his enemies. David accordingly founds his first plea upon his complete destitution of all earthly means of help, exposed as he was to plots on every side, and attacked by a formidable conspiracy. His second he rests upon a declaration of innocency. It may be true that afflictions are sent by God to his people as a chastisement for their sins, but, so far as Saul was concerned, David could justly exonerate himself from all blame, and takes this occasion of appealing to God on behalf of his integrity, which lay under suspicion from the base calumnies of men. They might pretend it, but he declares that they could charge him with no crime nor fault. Yet, groundless as their hostility was, he tells us that they ran, were unremitting in their activity, with no other view than to accomplish the ruin of their victim.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 59:1-17

Psalms 59:1-17 is another one of those "destroy not" prayers of David, when Saul sent and they watched the house to kill him. His wife, Michael, let him out of the window in a basket and David escaped. But the men were watching the house of David to kill him. And David wrote this psalm on that occasion.

Deliver me from my enemy, O God: defend me from them that rise up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from the bloody men. For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgressions, nor for my sin, O LORD ( Psalms 59:1-3 ).

It was just because of Saul's jealousy; it wasn't that David had done anything wrong.

They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold. Thou therefore, [O God,] O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all of the heathen: be not merciful to the wicked transgressors ( Psalms 59:4-5 ).

Just be merciful to me, Lord, in my wickedness. Isn't that the way that it goes?

They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and they go around about the city ( Psalms 59:6 ).

Here are these guys out there and they are barking like dogs, and David knew who they were.

They belch out with their mouth: and swords are in their lips: and who, say they, that does hear? But thou, O LORD, shall laugh at them; and thou shalt have all of the heathen in derision. Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defense. The God of my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see my desires upon my enemies. Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield. For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying of which they speak. Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied. But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning: for thou hast been my defense and refuge in the day of my troubles. Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defense, and the God of my mercy ( Psalms 59:7-17 ).

So three times over in the psalm, God is spoken of as David's defense. And it's surely neat to have God as our defense. Now, I have discovered that God will be my defense as long as I let Him be my defense. But if I seek to take up my own defense, then God will let me defend myself. And I have found that I really can't defend myself adequately. And so I have learned not to seek to defend myself, but to leave my defense completely in the hands of God. Now, if you want God to defend you, then you have to just commit yourself to the hands of God and not seek to defend yourself. God is my defense. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

David first called out to God in prayer, requesting deliverance from his attackers. The men who lay in wait for him intended to murder him.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

1. The conspiracy of David’s enemies 59:1-5

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 59

The occasion for this individual lament psalm was evidently the event the writer of 1 Samuel recorded in Psalms 19:8-14, namely: Saul’s attempt to kill David in his bed at home. David asked God to defend him from the attacks of bloodthirsty men and to humiliate them so everyone might recognize God’s sovereignty.

"The focus of the psalm is on God-the Deliverer (Psalms 59:1-9) and the Judge (Psalms 59:10-17)." [Note: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p. 201.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God,.... David had his enemies in his youth, notwithstanding the amiableness of his person, the endowments of his mind, his martial achievements, his wise behaviour and conduct, and the presence of God with him; yea, it were some of these things that made Saul his enemy, who, by his power and authority, made others; see 1 Samuel 18:5. Christ had his enemies, though he went about doing good, both to the bodies and souls of men, continually; the chief priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, were his implacable enemies, and even the people of the Jews in general: and the church of God, and members of it, whom David may represent, have their enemies, sin, Satan, and the world; and as David and Christ, so the church has a covenant God to go unto, from whom deliverance from enemies may be desired and expected;

defend me from them that rise up against me; or, "set me on high above them" l; out of their reach, as David was protected from Saul and his men, who rose up in an hostile manner against him; and as Christ was, when raised from the dead, and exalted at his Father's right hand; and as the saints are in great safety, dwelling on high, where their place of defence is the munition of rocks; and therefore it matters not who rise up against them.

l תשגבני "statue me in loco alto, i.e. tuto", Vatablus; and to the same sense Piscator, Cocceius, Michaelis, Gejerus.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

To the chief musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David,

when Saul sent and they watched the house to kill him.

      1 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me.   2 Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men.   3 For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD.   4 They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold.   5 Thou therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.   6 They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.   7 Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear?

      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 Samuel 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,

      I. David prays to be delivered out of the hands of his enemies, and that their cruel designs against him might be defeated (Psalms 59:1; Psalms 59:2): "Deliver me from my enemies, O my God! thou art God, and cast deliver me, my God, under whose protection I have put myself; and thou hast promised me to be a God all-sufficient, and therefore, in honour and faithfulness, thou wilt deliver me. Set me on high out of the reach of the power and malice of those that rise up against me, and above the fear of it. Let me be safe, and see myself so, safe and easy, safe and satisfied. O deliver me! and save me." He cries out as one ready to perish, and that had his eye to God only for salvation and deliverance. He prays (Psalms 59:4; Psalms 59:4), "Awake to help me, take cognizance of my case, behold that with an eye of pity, and exert thy power for my relief." Thus the disciples, in the storm, awoke Christ, saying, Master, save us, we perish. And thus earnestly should we pray daily to be defended and delivered form our spiritual enemies, the temptations of Satan, and the corruptions of our own hearts, which war against our spiritual life.

      II. He pleads for deliverance. Our God gives us leave not only to pray, but to plead with him, to order our cause before him and to fill our mouth with arguments, not to move him, but to move ourselves. David does so here.

      1. He pleads the bad character of his enemies. They are workers of iniquity, and therefore not only his enemies, but God's enemies; they are bloody men, and therefore not only his enemies, but enemies to all mankind. "Lord, let not the workers of iniquity prevail against one that is a worker of righteousness, nor bloody men against a merciful man."

      2. He pleads their malice against him, and the imminent danger he was in from them, Psalms 59:3; Psalms 59:3. "Their spite is great; they aim at my soul, my life, my better part. They are subtle and very politic: They lie in wait, taking an opportunity to do me a mischief. They are all mighty, men of honour and estates, and interest in court and country. They are in a confederacy; they are united by league, and actually gathered together against me, combined both in consultation and action. They are very ingenious in their contrivances, and very industrious in the prosecution of them (Psalms 59:4; Psalms 59:4): They run and prepare themselves, with the utmost speed and fury, to do me a mischief." He takes particular notice of the brutish conduct of the messengers that Saul sent to take him (Psalms 59:6; Psalms 59:6): "They return at evening from the posts assigned them in the day, to apply themselves to their works of darkness (their night-work, which may well be their day-shame), and then they make a noise like a hound in pursuit of the hare." Thus did David's enemies, when they came to take him, raise an out cry against him as a rebel, and traitor, a man not fit to live; with this clamour they went round about the city, to bring a bad reputation upon David, if possible to set the mob against him, at least to prevent their being incensed against them, which otherwise they had reason to fear they would be, so much was David their darling. Thus the persecutors of our Lord Jesus, who are compared to dogs (Psalms 22:16), ran him down with noise; for else they could not have taken him, at least no on the feast-day, for there would have been an uproar among the people. They belch out with their mouth the malice that boils in their hearts, Psalms 59:7; Psalms 59:7. Swords are in their lips; that is, reproaches that would my heart with grief (Psalms 42:10), and slanders that stab and wound my reputation. They were continually suggesting that which drew and whetted Saul's sword against him, and the fault is laid upon the false accusers. The sword perhaps would not have been in Saul's hand if it had not been first in their lips.

      3. He pleads his own innocency, not as to God (he was never backward to own himself guilty before him), but as to his persecutors; what they charged him with was utterly false, nor had he ever said or done any thing to deserve such treatment from them (Psalms 59:3; Psalms 59:3): "Not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord! thou knowest, who knowest all things." And again (Psalms 59:4; Psalms 59:4), without my fault. Note, (1.) The innocency of the godly will not secure them from the malignity of the wicked. Those that are harmless like doves, yet, for Christ's sake, are hated of all men, as if they were noxious like serpents, and obnoxious accordingly. (2.) Though our innocency will not secure us from troubles, yet it will greatly support and comfort us under our troubles. The testimony of our conscience for us that we have behaved ourselves well towards those that behave themselves ill towards us will be very much our rejoicing in the day of evil. (3.) If we are conscious to ourselves of our innocency, we may with humble confidence appeal to God and beg of him to plead our injured cause, which he will do in due time.

      4. He pleads that his enemies were profane and atheistical, and bolstered themselves up in their enmity to David, with the contempt of God: For who, say they, doth hear?Psalms 59:7; Psalms 59:7. Not God himself, Psalms 10:11; Psalms 94:7. Note, It is not strange if those regard not what they say who have made themselves believe the God regards not what they say.

      III. He refers himself and his cause to the just judgment of God, Psalms 59:5; Psalms 59:5. "The Lord, the Judge, be Judge between me and my persecutors." In this appeal to God he has an eye to him as the Lord of hosts, that has power to execute judgment, having all creatures, even hosts of angels, at his command; he views him also as the God of Israel, to whom he was, in a peculiar manner, King and Judge, not doubting that he would appear on the behalf of those that were upright, that were Israelites indeed. When Saul's hosts persecuted him, he had recourse to God as the Lord of all hosts; when those maligned him who in spirit were strangers to the commonwealth of Israel he had recourse to God as the God of Israel. He desires (that is, he is very sure) that God will awake to visit all the nations, will make an early and exact enquiry into the controversies and quarrels that are among the children of men; there will be a day of visitation (Isaiah 10:3), and to that day David refers himself, with this solemn appeal, Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah--Mark that. 1. If David had been conscious to himself that he was a wicked transgressor, he would not have expected to find mercy; but, as to his enemies, he would say he was no transgressor at all (Psalms 59:3; Psalms 59:4): "Not for my transgression, and therefore thou wilt appear for me." As to God, he could say he was no wicked transgressor; for, though he had transgressed, he was a penitent transgressor, and did not obstinately persist in what he had done amiss. 2. He knew his enemies were wicked transgressors, wilful, malicious, and hardened in their transgressions both against God and man, and therefore he sues for justice against them, judgment without mercy. Let not those expect to find mercy who never showed mercy, for such are wicked transgressors.