Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 64:8

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 64:8. Their own tongue to fall upon them-selves — All the plottings, counsels, and curses, they have formed against me, shall come upon themselves.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 61-64 Longing for God

Far from home, weary, depressed and in danger, David seeks refuge and refreshment with God. He trusts that God will bring him safely back to Jerusalem and give him the strength to carry out his promise to lead God’s people in God’s ways (61:1-5). The people with him add their support to his request (6-7), and David responds that he will always remain faithful to his task (8).
God alone is the strength of David’s assurance (62:1-2). David’s enemies think they can ruin him. They think he is as unstable as a leaning wall, as easy to push over as a broken-down fence (3-4). Actually, he is as strong and secure as a fortress, for he is built on God. All God’s people should therefore take courage and realize that they can trust in God through all circumstances (5-8). The unstable ones are those who live as if God does not matter. Life is uncertain, but they put their trust in wealth, even though that wealth must soon be lost (9-10). The only ones who have true security are those who take God into account and build their lives according to his values (11-12).
At times David experiences weakness and thirst in the dry Judean wilderness, but they are nothing compared with the spiritual thirst he has to worship at Israel’s sanctuary again (63:1). He praises God as he recalls the power and glory of God that he experienced at the sanctuary in former days. He looks forward to a life of continuing praise because of God’s continuing love (2-4). As he lies on his bed he thinks back with much satisfaction at all God’s goodness to him over the years (5-8). This gives him the confidence to believe that God will punish his enemies and bring him safely back to Jerusalem (9-11).
Again David cries to God to save him from enemies who by cunning and lying seek to kill him (64:1-4). They plot their evil carefully, thinking that God cannot see them (5-6). However, they are deceiving themselves. God will act against them suddenly and certainly, bringing shameful defeat upon them. God’s decisive action will be a warning to others, and at the same time bring honour to his name (7-10).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"But God will shoot at them; With an arrow suddenly shall they be wounded. So they shall be made to stumble, their own tongue being against them; All that see them shall wag the head. And all men shall fear; And they shall declare the work of God, And shall wisely consider of his doing. The righteous shall be glad in Jehovah, and shall take refuge in him; And all the upright in heart shall glory."

"But God shall shoot at them" In a verse and one half here (Psalms 64:7-8 a), the tables are completely reversed. It is God who does the wounding. All of the cunningly-laid plots and baited traps and snares of the enemies utterly fail to harm the perfect man in God's protection.

It is of particular interest that Leupold translated Psalms 64:7-8 thus:

"But God shot an arrow at them; Suddenly blows came upon them.
Each one was ruined; their tongues overcame them;
All that saw them shuddered."H. C. Leupold, p. 470.

Whether or not this is accurate, such an idea is most certainly in the passage. It was not David who was destroyed by the partisans of Absalom but themselves.

"But God" How often in the history of God's work among men have we encountered a thought like this. Acts 12 has a terrible record of the murder of the apostle James, the imprisonment of Peter, and the scattering of God's people from Jerusalem, "But the word of God grew and multiplied" (Acts 12:24).

Yates entitled these last four verses, "The Certainty of Judgment,"Wycliffe Bible Commentary of the Old Testament, p. 518. leaving the way open for much wider interpretation than a restricted application of it to the enemies of a perfect man in a given situation. There is a sense in which "the certainty of judgment," like the sword of Damocles hangs over the head of all mankind. The judgment is an appointment that no man may cancel, ignore, or escape.

"All that see them shall wag the head" "These words refer either to `derision,' or to `shocked concern.'"Anthony L. Ash, p. 215.

It seems to us that the latter would be most appropriate here.

"All the upright in heart shall glory" However this might be applied to the enemies of the psalmist, these words have an eternal significance. It is true of all men that the wicked shall be punished with "everlasting destruction," but that the righteous shall be welcomed into the home of the soul, "into the eternal habitations," where they shall share the glory of the redeemed throughout eternity.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves - In Psalms 64:3, their tongue is represented as a sword; and here, keeping up the figure, the tongue, as a sword, is represented as falling on them, or as inflicting the wound on themselves which they had intended to inflict on others. This might be rendered, “And they have cast him down; upon them is their own tongue;” or, “Upon them their own tongue has come.” That is, someone would cast them down, and they would fall as if smitten by their own tongue like a sword. It is not said who would do this, but the most natural interpretation is that it would be done by God. The idea is, that the instrument which they had employed to injure others would be the means of their own ruin.

All that see them shall flee away - Compare Psalms 31:11. That is, they shall flee in consternation from those who are so fearfully overthrown. They shall see that God is just, and that He will punish the wicked; and they will desire to escape from a ruin so dreadful as that which comes upon the ungodly. The idea is, that when God punishes sinners, the effect on others is, and should be, to lead them to wish not to be associated with such people, but to escape from a doom so fearful.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

8And they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves Pursuing the same subject, he remarks, that the poison concocted in their secret counsels, and which they revealed with their tongues, would prove to have a deadly effect upon themselves. The sentiment is the same with that expressed elsewhere by another figure, when they are said to be caught in their own snares, and to fall into the pit which they have digged themselves, (Psalms 57:6.) It is just that Heaven should make the mischiefs which they had devised against innocent and upright men to recoil upon their own heads. The judgment is one which we see repeatedly and daily exemplified before our eyes, and yet we find much difficulty in believing that it can take place. We should feel ourselves bound the more to impress the truth upon our hearts, that God is ever watching, as it were, his opportunity of converting the stratagems of the wicked into means just as completely effective of their destruction, as if they had intentionally employed them for that end. In the close of the verse, to point out the striking severity of their punishment, it is said that all who saw them should flee away The judgments of God are lifted above out of the sight of an ignorant world, and ere it can be roused to fear and dismay, these must be such as to bear signal marks indeed of a divine hand.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 64:1-10

Psalms 64:1-10 , another psalm of David.

Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from the fear of the enemy ( Psalms 64:1 ).

You know, fear is a horrible thing. And fear can actually get hold of a person's life and be a very debilitating force within a person's life. "Preserve me from fear."

Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity: Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and they bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even their bitter words ( Psalms 64:2-3 ):

And so here David now pictures his enemies as they are going around talking about him, sharpen their tongues to cut him to pieces with their mouths, and they take their bows and they shoot the bitter words at him.

That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and they fear not. They encourage themselves in an evil matter: and they commune of laying their traps privately; they say, Who is going to see them? And they search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep. But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly they shall be wounded. And so they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see shall flee away. And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing. The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory ( Psalms 64:4-10 ).

So a prayer of David for preservation from his enemies, for protection. Those that were seeking to destroy him with their words. "O God, turn their devices against them. Be my defense. All those that trust in the Lord and all the upright in heart shall glory." "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 64

David asked God to judge the enemies of the righteous in this individual lament psalm. He requested divine protection and voiced confidence that God would judge his wicked foes.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

David’s enemies had assailed him with words that they used like deadly arrows, but God would shoot these foes with His arrow of judgment. With it God would make them fall in battle. The NASB is a bit misleading in Psalms 64:8. The NIV is clearer. It reads, "He will turn their own tongues against them."

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

3. A prediction of punishment 64:7-10

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

David identified the reactions of two groups of people to God’s activity of judging his evil assailants. Those who observed the judgment would do two things. They would fear doing the same thing themselves and would declare to others what He did, having considered it themselves. Second, the righteous would also have a double response. They would rejoice in God’s will being done and would renew their trust in the Lord.

The godly should commit their case to God in prayer when they become targets of malicious gossip. They can also rest in the assurance that God will eventually turn the antagonism of the wicked back on them (cf. 1 Samuel 25). He will do so for His own glory and for the welfare of those who trust in Him. [Note: See Chun Leung Ho, "God Will Repay: An Exegetical Exposition of Psalm Sixty-four," Exegesis and Exposition 3:1 (Fall 1988):34-44.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

So shall they make their own tongue to fall upon themselves,.... The evil things they have wished for, threatened unto, and imprecated on others, shall come upon themselves; the curses they have cursed others with shall come upon themselves; the pit they have dug for others, they fall into. So Haman, to whom some apply the psalm, was hanged on the gallows he made for Mordecai; and the accusers of Daniel, to whom others apply it, were cast into the same den of lions they procured for him; and Babylon, who has been drunk with the blood of the saints, shall have blood given her to drink.

all that see them shall flee away; not being able to help them, nor to bear the horrible sight, and fearing the same judgments should fall on themselves; see Numbers 16:34. Or, "they shall move themselves" d; shake their heads in a way of derision, as Jarchi interprets it; or skip for joy, as the word is rendered in Jeremiah 48:27; and then it must be understood of the righteous; who, seeing the vengeance on the wicked, rejoice, as in Psalms 52:6; though, as they are afterwards particularly mentioned, others seem to be designed. The word is used for lamenting and bemoaning one's self, in Jeremiah 31:18; and so may be applied to the friends of the wicked lamenting and bemoaning their ruin, and their being bereaved of them, Revelation 18:9.

d יתנודרו "amovebunt se", Montanus; "commovebuntur", Vatablus.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      7 But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.   8 So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.   9 And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.   10 The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.

      We may observe here,

      I. The judgments of God which should certainly come upon these malicious persecutors of David. Though they encouraged themselves in their wickedness, here is that which, if they would believe and consider it, was enough to discourage them. And it is observable how the punishment answers the sin. 1. They shot at David secretly and suddenly, to wound him; but God shall shoot at them, for the ordains his arrows against the persecutors (Psalms 7:13), against the face of them,Psalms 21:12. And God's arrows will hit surer, and fly swifter, and pierce deeper, than theirs do or can. They have many arrows, but they are only bitter words, and words are but wind: the curse causeless shall not come. But God has one arrow that will be their death, his curse which is never causeless, and therefore shall come; with it they shall be suddenly wounded, that is, their wound by it will be a surprise upon them, because they were secure and not apprehensive of any danger. 2. Their tongues fell upon him, but God shall make their tongues to fall upon themselves. They do it by the desert of their sin; God does it by the justice of his wrath, Psalms 64:8; Psalms 64:8. When God deals with men according to the desert of their tongue-sins, and brings those mischiefs upon them which they have passionately and maliciously imprecated upon others, then he makes their own tongues to fall upon them; and it is weight enough to sink a man to the lowest hell, like a talent of lead. Many have cut their own throats, and many more have damned their own souls, with their tongues, and it will be an aggravation of their condemnation. O Israel! thou hast destroyed thyself, art snared in the words of thy mouth. If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it. Those that love cursing, it shall come unto them. Sometimes men's secret wickedness is brought to light by their own confession, and then their own tongue falls upon them.

      II. The influence which these judgments should have upon others; for it is done in the open sight of all,Job 34:26.

      1. Their neighbours shall shun them and shift for their own safety. They shall flee away, as the men of Israel did from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Numbers 16:27. Some think this was fulfilled in the death of Saul, when not only his army was dispersed, but the inhabitants of the neighbouring country were so terrified with the fall, not only of their king but of his three sons, that they quitted their cities and fled, 1 Samuel 31:7.

      2. Spectators shall reverence the providence of God therein, Psalms 64:9; Psalms 64:9. (1.) They shall understand and observe God's hand in all (and, unless we do so, we are not likely to profit by the dispensations of Providence, Hosea 14:9): They shall wisely consider his doing. There is need of consideration and serious thought rightly to apprehend the matter of fact, and need of wisdom to put a true interpretation upon it. God's doing is well worth our considering (Ecclesiastes 7:13), but it must be considered wisely, that we put not a corrupt gloss upon a pure text. (2.) They shall be affected with a holy awe of God upon the consideration of it. All men (all that have any thing of the reason of a man in them) shall fear and tremble because of God's judgments, Psalms 119:120. They shall fear to do the like, fear being found persecutors of God's people. Smite the scorner and the simple shall beware. (3.) They shall declare the work of God. They shall speak to one another and to all about them of the justice of God in punishing persecutors. What we wisely consider ourselves we should wisely declare to others, for their edification and the glory of God. This is the finger of God.

      3. Good people shall in a special manner take notice of it, and it shall affect them with a holy pleasure, Psalms 64:10; Psalms 64:10. (1.) It shall increase their joy: The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, not glad of the misery and ruin of their fellow-creatures, but glad that God is glorified, and his word fulfilled, and the cause of injured innocency pleaded effectually. (2.) It shall encourage their faith. They shall commit themselves to him in the way of duty and be willing to venture for him with an entire confidence in him. (3.) Their joy and faith shall both express themselves in a holy boasting: All the upright in heart, that keep a good conscience and approve themselves to God, shall glory, not in themselves, but in the favour of God, in his righteousness and goodness, their relation to him and interest in him. Let him that glories glory in the Lord.