Deeper Commentary

Psa 64:1
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David-
As noted on :2, this Psalm appears to be based during the insurrection of Absalom.

 
Hear my voice, God, in my complaint. Preserve my life from fear of the enemy-
Prayer is perhaps the area where it is easiest to have only a surface level of spirituality, without getting down to real faith, real perseverance in prayer, real wrestling with God. Elijah " prayed in his prayer" (James 5:17 AVmg.) reflects the Spirit's recognition that there is prayer, and real prayer. “Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer” (Ps. 64:1 AV) seems to say the same: there is our true, pleading voice: and the outward form of prayer. The form of words we use, the outward form, conceals the real thing; the real groaning of spirit which is counted by God as the real prayer. The tendency to multiply words in prayer without intensely meaning them is probably behind the Lord's teaching about faith as a grain of mustard seed, which could move a mountain (Lk. 17:20). He's surely saying that a little bit of the real thing can do such wonders.

Who we are as persons is effectively our prayer and plea to God. This conception of prayer explains why often weeping, crying, waiting, meditating etc. are spoken of as "prayer", although there was no specific verbalizing of requests (Ps. 5:1,2; 6:8; 18:1,2,3,6; 40:1; 42:8; 64:1 Heb.; 65:1,2; 66:17-20; Zech. 8:22). The association between prayer and weeping is especially common: 1 Sam. 1:10; Ps. 39:12; 55:1,2; Jn. 11:41,42; Heb. 5:7, especially in the Lord's life and the Messianic Psalms. "The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my prayer" (Ps. 6:8,9) crystallizes the point.

Psa 64:2

Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the noisy crowd of the ones doing evil-
"Conspiracy" sounds like the time of Absalom's putsch. "Noisy crowd" is AV "insurrection". But that is the same word used of Ahithophel in Ps. 55:14: "We walked to God’s house in company". "In company" is a word only used elsewhere in Ps. 64:2, where it is translated "insurrection" (AV), again in the context of Absalom. The double meaning of the word chosen reflects the duplicity of Ahithophel.

Psa 64:3

who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words-
When men speak hard words against us, the situation on earth is somehow mirrored in the court of Heaven- Ps. 64:3,7 speak of how men "aim their arrows, even bitter words"; and God responds by shooting arrows from His Heavenly control room. The language of sharpening could suggest that David wrote this as he sensed the oncoming insurrection of Absalom (:1,2).

Psa 64:4

to shoot innocent men from ambushes. They shoot at him suddenly and fearlessly-
Nathan had told David that he was to suffer the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba for the rest of his life. But in the Psalms associated with Absalom's rebellion, which was a consequence of his sin (Ahithophel was Bathsheba's grandfather), David often laments that he is suffering as an innocent man. This is another reason for querying whether he maintained the intensity of repentance for the sin which he had at the time. And we can likely identify with that weakness; the intensity of repentance is hard to maintain, and we often rework the narrative of what happened in our own minds- biased of course towards our own justification. See on :6.

Psa 64:5

They encourage themselves in evil plans. They talk about laying snares secretly-
David appears to have inside knowledge of how they were congratulating themselves on their plans. Absalom's plans for rebellion were therefore more or less known to David ahead of time. And yet in love he tolerated him and Ahithophel, perhaps in desperate hope of their repentance. This typifies how the Lord Jesus knew ahead of time that Judas would betray Him and yet still lovingly tolerated him, and did not at all take precipitate, defensive action.

They say, Who will see them?-
Again we doubt whether these men really thought their plans were invisible to God. But this was the subconscious state of their minds. This was how God read their attitude and perhaps revealed it to David.

Psa 64:6

They plot injustice, saying, We have made a perfect plan! Surely man’s mind and heart are cunning-
We may well enquire how David thought he knew the state of heart [AV "inward part"] of his enemies (Ps. 5:9; 36:1; 49:11; 62:4; 64:6). Perhaps it was a result of his reflection upon how he had only had a right spirit or heart given by God "within" him as a result of his repentance (Ps. 51:10 s.w.). His enemies were impenitent, and so perhaps on that basis he knew what was in their hearts.

AV has "They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search". Nathan had told David that he was to suffer the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba for the rest of his life. But in the Psalms associated with Absalom's rebellion, which was a consequence of his sin (Ahithophel was Bathsheba's grandfather), David often laments that he is suffering as an innocent man. This is another reason for querying whether he maintained the intensity of repentance for the sin which he had at the time. And we can likely identify with that weakness; the intensity of repentance is hard to maintain, and we often rework the narrative of what happened in our own minds- biased of course towards our own justification. See on :4.

Psa 64:7

But God will shoot at them, they will be suddenly struck down with an arrow-
David rejoices that Divine "arrows" were sent to destroy his enemies (Ps. 7:13; 18:14; 45:5; 64:7; 144:6), in fulfilment of God's promise to do so to the sinful within Israel (Dt. 32:23,42). But David was failing to realize that those same arrows had been fired by God into him in judgment for his sin (Ps. 38:2). This realization was perhaps to help David understand that his rejoicing in Divine arrows of judgment being fired at his enemies had not been mature; for he himself had to realize that he was worthy of the same. But as noted on :4,6, it appears David didn't perceive this as he might have done.

Psa 64:8

Their own tongues shall ruin them; all who see them will shake their heads-
Speaking of the sudden destruction of the wicked at the future judgment, David reflected: “So they shall make their own tongues to fall upon themselves” (Ps. 64:8). Unsound speech will be condemned, or [will lead to our] condemnation (Tit. 2:8). The implication seems to be that our words will be quoted back to us during the judgment process. Brother, sister, think about this. Ancient Hebrew had no expletives. Curses were uttered in terms of  imprecations wishing Divine judgment against a person at the last day. And so David asks that these curses uttered upon him come literally true for those who spoke them.

Psa 64:9

All mankind shall be in awe. They shall declare the work of God, and shall wisely ponder what He has done-
The judgment of his opponents which David had in view was therefore that at the last day. For it is a theme in Bible teaching about judgment that the judgment of the wicked will in some sense be public, before others, and the observers are brought to God by what they see (Is. 26:9; Rev. 16:15). 

Psa 64:10

The righteous shall be glad in Yahweh, and shall take refuge in Him. All the upright in heart shall praise Him!-
David is seeing himself and the righteous as Job, and he here continues that connection, seeing that Job is described likewise as "upright in heart" (Job 1:8; 2:3). David sees this as characteristic of all God's people (s.w. Ps. 11:2; 19:8; 32:11; 36:10; 64:10; 94:15; 97:11). He sees the wicked as those who are not upright (Ps. 14:3; 51:1,3). But these words which David writes about the wicked are then reinterpreted as applying to all men, God's people included (Rom. 3:12). Like Job, David had to be taught that actually he was failing to see the seriousness of sin; righteousness and acceptability with God is imputed to men by grace through faith, because actually there are none who are upright in heart, apart from God's representative son.