# comment

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<h2>You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Doeg is here addressed as if he is his own tongue. As "the word was God", so a man is his words. This points up the critical importance of our words.</p>


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<h2>God will likewise destroy you forever-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Doeg would be destroyed "likewise" by the sword, as the priests were slain by the sword; but "forever", perhaps implying that David understood the destruction of the 85 priests as not being "forever" in that they would be resurrected.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will take you up, and pluck you out of your tent, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Tent" is appropriate as Doeg lived in a tent as an itinerant herdsman (<a href='B:90 21:7'>1Sa 21:7</a>).</p>


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<h2>The righteous also will see it, and fear, and laugh at him, saying-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is best understood as the language of the last judgment, as there is no evidence that it happened to Doeg in this life. There is a Biblical theme that the judgment seat will be before all; the righteous will see the wicked walking naked in their shame; and will see the destruction of Doeg, resurrected and condemned to the second death. But again we see David as out of step with God, who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Prov. 24:17 is clear: "Don't rejoice when your enemy falls; don't let your heart be glad when he is overthrown". Hence Job calls a curse upon himself "if I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me" (Job 31:29). To rejoice in the condemnation of the wicked, rather than feeling sorry for them, is in fact the very reason for the condemnation of Babylon- see notes throughout Is. 47.</p>


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<h2>Behold, this is the man who didn’t make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Doeg clearly was motivated by a love of riches, and was rewarded by Saul materially for bringing about the betrayal of David and the slaughter of the priests. Trust in wealth is so clearly condemned in the Bible (Ps. 49:6), and the Lord brings out the parallel between having wealth and trusting in it. Whatever wealth you have, you will tend to trust in. Seeing God wants us to live life trusting / believing in Him, no surprises that He rarely gives wealth to His people, contrary to Pentecostal teachings. </p>


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<h2>But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in God’s house. I trust in God’s grace forever and ever-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At the time of the Psalm (:1), David was still on the run from Saul. But he felt as if he was in the sanctuary. The "house" of God was not then built; perhaps this was added in the exile, to encourage the exiles that like David they by God’s eternal grace could likewise effectively be in His "house"- even whilst in exile from it.</p>


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<h2>I will give You thanks forever, because You have done it. I will hope in Your name, for it is good, in the presence of Your saints- David speaks of that yet future as if it is yet done. This is how God sees things, and the invitation to have faith is an invitation to see things from His perspective. David sees himself at the last day in the presence of other faithful ones, thanking God for His judgments upon the wicked.</h2><h2></h2>


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<h2>For the Chief Musician. To the tune of Mahalath. A contemplation by David-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Mahalath" means "sickness", and this may have been written or used with reference to the time when David was sick after the sin with Bathsheba. The AV adds the title "Maschil", for instruction; as if this may have been one of the songs David wrote after receiving forgiveness, in an attempt to bring others to know the grace he had experienced.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity. There is no one who does good-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalms are sometimes paired, and we wonder if Psalms 53 continues the reflections of Psalms 52 about Doeg. However, "Nabal", whose name means "fool", died from heart failure; and perhaps he is here in view. Or perhaps a Psalm initially about Nabal was reworked to be relevant to Doeg and other individuals who had rejected God. The denial of God need not refer to atheism as we understand it; for atheism was almost unheard of in David’s time. Rather does it refer to the inner mentality which acts as if there is no God. The same phrase is used in <a href='B:230 14:1'>Psa 14:1</a>, and the Targum on that verse is ‘There is no government of God in the earth’. God may exist theoretically, but is not a factor in human life. And we too can be effective atheists in this sense. "There is" has been added by the translators. The fool says "no God" in his heart. But that is how God interprets man's self talk; for those two words aren't said consciously by men. We marvel that the God who knows every human thought in advance also knows and perceives the effective implication of those thoughts. This is an example of where God reads our thoughts and actions for what they effectively mean to Him. "The wicked has no room in his thoughts for God" (Ps. 10:4). "They say, how does God know?" (Ps. 73:11). "They say in their heart, Yahweh will not do good neither will He do evil" (Zeph. 1:12). "They have denied Yahweh and said, It is not He" (Jer. 5:12). "They refused to have God in their knowledge" (Rom. 1:28).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The quotation in <a href='B:520 3:10'>Rom 3:10</a> from <a href='B:230 14:1-3'>Psa 14:1-3</a>; <a href='B:230 53:1-3'>Psa 53:1-3</a> is about the fools who say in their heart that there is no God; and it seems David has specific enemies of his in view, perhaps Nabal or Doeg. Yet Paul applies this to every one of us, himself included. What he’s doing here is similar to what he does at the end of Romans 1 - he speaks of the grossest sins such as sexual perversion and reasons that we are all in essence guilty and condemned as serious sinners before God. Here he quotes passages which speak of effective atheism and applies them to us all, himself included- even though atheism was abhorrent to the Jews, and Paul may have seemed the last person to be an atheist. But the ‘atheism’ occurs within the psychological thought processes of the human mind- the fool says in his heart that there is no God. In the context of Romans, Paul is arguing that we call God a liar when we disbelieve His offer of justification and salvation. To deny this is to effectively say in our hearts that there is no God. If God is, then He is a Saviour God. To deny that He will save me is effectively to say He doesn’t exist; for a God who won’t save me may as well not exist. Far too many people claim some level of belief in God’s existence, but in their hearts deny Him, in that they personally doubt whether His promised salvation is really true for me.</p>


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<h2>God looks down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there are any who understood, who seek after God-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David clearly assumed that although this was generally the case, he and the righteous did understand and seek after God. But as noted on :2, Paul sees David as being overly generous to himself, and "concludes all under sin", including the righteous. We note that understanding God is paralleled with seeking after Him. Nobody arrives at 100% understanding of God; the true understanding is to have a heart which seeks to understand Him. The extent of God's knowledge is amazing. He sees every man's downsitting and uprising, and sees the thoughts of every man before he has them (Ps. 139). He "sees all the sons of men... He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth" (Ps. 33:13,14). Our genuine interest in Him must be a bright light in the gross darkness of what He sees. On one hand we can read these verses as God's opinion of literally every human being. But :4 speaks of these sinful masses eating up "My people", as if in fact the generalized statements concern the unbelieving world. But Paul interprets these words further, applying them to literally all of us.</p>


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<h2>Every one of them has gone back. They have become filthy together. There is no one who does good, no, not one-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David often describes himself as "upright in heart" just as Job was (s:w. <a href='B:220 1:8'>Job 1:8</a>; <a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a>). David sees this as characteristic of all God’s people (s:w. <a href='B:230 11:2'>Psa 11:2</a>; <a href='B:230 19:8'>Psa 19:8</a>; <a href='B:230 32:11'>Psa 32:11</a>; <a href='B:230 36:10'>Psa 36:10</a>; <a href='B:230 64:10'>Psa 64:10</a>; <a href='B:230 94:15'>Psa 94:15</a>; <a href='B:230 97:11'>Psa 97:11</a>). But he sees the wicked as those who are not upright, who have "gone back" (<a href='B:230 14:3'>Psa 14:3</a>; <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a>; <a href='B:230 51:3'>Psa 51:3</a>). But these words which David writes about the wicked are then reinterpreted as applying to all men, God’s people included (<a href='B:520 3:12'>Rom 3:12</a>). 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.</p>


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<h2>Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?- </h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm which was originally about Doeg or Nabal comes to be reapplied to the general enemies of God’s people, who 'ate them up' as did the Babylonians and Assyrians. Their abuse of people was because they lacked "knowledge", and yet adultery is also a sin reflecting a lacking of knowledge or understanding (<a href='B:240 6:32'>Pro 6:32</a>). Again, David uses terms about the wicked which become relevant to himself. All sin against others is a reflection of a lack of understanding and personal calling upon God.</p>


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<h2>There they were in great fear, where no fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them-</h2><h2> As noted on :4, a Psalm which began as David’s reflections upon individuals like Doeg or Nabal comes to be applied to Israel as a whole. A comparison of Psalms 14, 53 illustrate the process of re-writing at Hezekiah's time. These Psalms are both "A Psalm of David", and are virtually identical apart from <a href='B:230 53:5'>Psa 53:5</a> adding: "There were they in great fear, where no fear was; For God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee: Thou hast put them to shame, because God hath rejected them". This surely alludes to the Assyrian army encamped against Jerusalem (<a href='B:140 32:1'>2Ch 32:1</a>), put into fear by the Angels, and returning "with shame of face to his own land" (<a href='B:140 32:21'>2Ch 32:21</a>). The shame of the Assyrians is also reflected in 2 Kings 19:20 "The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and ridiculed you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you". Perhaps the idea is that the Jews who feared them need not have feared them. Yet both Psalms conclude with a verse which connects with the exiles in Babylonian captivity: "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, Then shall Jacob rejoice, and Israel shall be glad". So it would appear that the initial Psalm was indeed written by David; the version of Psalms 14 which is now Psalms 53 was added to and adapted in Hezekiah's time (<a href='B:240 25:1'>Pro 25:1</a>), and both versions had a final verse added to them during the exile.</h2></p><p>"Rejected" is 'despised'.  David claims here that God "despises" people. But God doesn't despise any (Job 36:5 s.w.). See on Ps. 15:4.</p>


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<h2>Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When God brings back His people from captivity, then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad- </h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Salvation" is Yeshua. Clearly the desire is for Yeshua / Jesus to come out of Zion, and this is how it is interpreted in <a href='B:520 11:26'>Rom 11:26</a>. Many NT passages mix a number of OT passages in one 'quotation'; e.g. " The deliverer will come from Zion" (<a href='B:520 11:26'>Rom 11:26</a>) is a conflated quotation of <a href='B:230 14:7'>Psa 14:7</a>; <a href='B:230 53:6'>Psa 53:6</a> and <a href='B:290 59:20'>Isa 59:20</a>. And <a href='B:650 13:5'>Heb 13:5</a> combines quotes from <a href='B:10 28:15'>Gen 28:15</a>; <a href='B:60 1:5'>Jos 1:5</a> and <a href='B:50 31:16'>Deu 31:16</a>. <a href='B:650 13:5'>Heb 13:5</a> doesn’t quote any of them exactly, but mixes them together. As noted on :5, this Psalm had initial application to individuals in David’s time, but :4,5 are reworked with relevance to the Assyrian invasion; and now in this verse the Psalm is given relevance to the exiles awaiting restoration to Zion. And this is how we too are invited to personalize and use the scriptures.</p><h2></h2>


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<h2>For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, Isn’t David hiding himself among us?- </h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Most people react badly to betrayal, and it leaves a lingering sense of bitterness. But David dealt with it by writing songs about his experiences, openly sharing how he thought and felt, and bringing God into every feeling and situation.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Save me, God, by Your name. Vindicate me in Your might-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David understood God’s Name as the summary of His personality and character; and it was according to his understanding of this that he asks for salvation. For the summation of God’s character is that He is a loving saviour. This came to full term in His Son, and abides true for all time.  God's Name and His power / might are often paralleled- because God's entire might is expended in the manifestation of the principles and characteristics of His Name. The personality of God, His Name, is reflected in the fruits of the Spirit in the New Testament. His power, His might, His Holy Spirit, will manifest those fruits in us- if we are open to it.</p>


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<h2>Hear my prayer, God. Listen to the words of my mouth-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could imply that David prayed his prayers out loud. David marvels that words coming out of his mouth could be heard all the way "up" in Heaven.</p>


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<h2>For strangers have risen up against me-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Ziphites were from Judah (<a href='B:60 15:55'>Jos 15:55</a>), but David treats them as Gentiles, which is the implication of "strangers". To hate our brother (for David was also from Judah) is to classify ourselves with the world.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Violent men have sought after my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The very phrase used of Saul's hunting of David at the time of the incident with the Ziphites (<a href='B:90 23:15'>1Sa 23:15</a>). Saul sought&nbsp; to take David’s life. So many of the Psalms contain imprecations against those who were seeking David’s soul- not just his physical life, but seeking to destroy his very being (e.g. <a href='B:230 35:4'>Psa 35:4</a>; <a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 54:1'>Psa 54:1</a>; <a href='B:230 63:9'>Psa 63:9</a>; <a href='B:230 70:2'>Psa 70:2</a>; <a href='B:230 71:13'>Psa 71:13</a>). These imprecations expose the evil of Saul, and asks God to condemn him. Some of those Psalms appear to have been written by David in the Saul days, and then rewritten at the time of Absalom's rebellion- another man who sought David’s soul, and yet whom David loved:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They haven’t set God before them. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication is that David had done this (<a href='B:230 16:8'>Psa 16:8</a>). Always David likes to present himself as of a totally superior spiritual class to his enemies; the sin with Bathsheba was to mean that so much of his hard words about others became relevant to him, driving him to throw himself upon Divine grace alone. Man is always "before" God. The art of the spiritual life is to live "before God", to realize our nakedness before Him, and to live transparently before Him and therefore all men. </p>


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<h2>Behold, God is my helper, the Lord is the one who sustains my soul-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The tone of the Psalm changes from desperate begging for help, to confidence that God has heard him. This may have been because of some direct Divine revelation; but I suggest rather it is what happens in our prayers. Within the prayer we ourselves become persuaded of God’s answer and find peace and confidence in Him.</p>


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<h2>He will repay the evil to my enemies; destroy them in Your truth-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Truth" is often a reference to God’s covenant. He appeals for judgment of his enemies on the basis that he considers they have broken covenant with God and must receive the curses associated with doing so.</p>


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<h2>With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to You. I will give thanks to Your name, Yahweh, for it is good-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David at this time was on the run from Saul. His freewill offering would have had to be made outside of the sanctuary system. Although he may have in view returning to the sanctuary and offering there, once all his enemies (including Saul) had been destroyed (:7).</p>


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<h2>For He has delivered me out of all trouble. My eye has seen triumph over my enemies- He speaks in This is like Ps. 52:9 and other psalms concluding "He has done it", or "He has finished / done it" (Ps. 22:31). Even though that point was yet future. This is the path of prayer, persuading ourselves through the course of the prayer that God will answer, and concluding that He has done so- and praising Him for it. Even though the answer is only what our eye has seen, by faith. the past tense when he has the future in view. David speaks of that yet future as if it is yet done. This is how God sees things, and the invitation to have faith is an invitation to see things from His perspective. David sees himself at the last day in the presence of other faithful ones, thanking God for His judgments upon the wicked.</h2><</p><p>And yet despite David's undoubted faith, at the same time he so frequently rejoices at the fall of his enemies (Ps. 37:34; 52:6; 59:10; 92:11; 112:8; 118:7). Whereas God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, feels sorry for Israel in their fall, and condemns Babylon in Is. 47 for having no compassion upon the condemned. He is definitely out of step with God- and yet David mourns the death of Saul and Absalom, both of whom he has ranted against in his psalms. I conclude he was so transparent before God that he just says what he knows is in his heart, even if it is wrong. For there is no point in trying to hide from God how we feel.</p>


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<h2>For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The context appears to be when David was still in Jerusalem (:9-11), and realized the extent of Absalom's rebellion and Ahithophel's deceit.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Listen to my prayer, God. Don’t hide Yourself from my supplication-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s prayer before fleeing Jerusalem was presumably written down, or recalled under Divine inspiration; and he wanted it to be known for all time and to all peoples, that God had saved him from apparently inevitable destruction- both personally and of his kingdom.</p>


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<h2>Attend to me, and answer me-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If we "attend" to God’s word (<a href='B:240 2:2'>Pro 2:2</a>; <a href='B:240 4:1'>Pro 4:1</a>; <a href='B:240 7:24'>Pro 7:24</a>), then He will "attend" to our word, of prayer (<a href='B:230 55:2'>Psa 55:2</a> and often in the Psalms). There is thereby a mutuality between God and man. Our attitude to His word becomes reflected in His attitude to our words in prayer; for God and man are in dialogue.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am restless in my complaint and moan-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s moaning or weeping was his prayer (:1). 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 (<a href='B:230 5:1-2'>Psa 5:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 6:8'>Psa 6:8</a>; <a href='B:230 18:1-3'>Psa 18:1-3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:6'>Psa 18:6</a>; <a href='B:230 40:1'>Psa 40:1</a>; <a href='B:230 42:8'>Psa 42:8</a>; <a href='B:230 64:1'>Psa 64:1</a> Heb:; 65:1,2; 66:17-20; <a href='B:450 8:22'>Zec 8:22</a>). The association between prayer and weeping is especially common: <a href='B:90 1:10'>1Sa 1:10</a>; <a href='B:230 39:12'>Psa 39:12</a>; <a href='B:230 55:1-2'>Psa 55:1-2</a>; <a href='B:500 11:41-42'>Joh 11:41-42</a>; <a href='B:650 5:7'>Heb 5:7</a>, 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" (<a href='B:230 6:8-9'>Psa 6:8-9</a>) crystallizes the point.</p>


text:
<h2>because of the words of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me, in anger they hold a grudge against me-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David surely should have hardly been surprised that Bathsheba's grandfather held a grudge against him! Yet his pain at the words he heard and the rumours that got back to him were all part of the "burden" he finally casts upon the Lord later in the Psalm.  We may rightly feel that David ought to have been more acceptive of the results and consequences of his sin with Bathsheba; but so much of his prayer life after the incident appears to be complaint about the consequences and badgering God to remove them- rather than glorying in the grace and forgiveness given him:&nbsp;</p><p>An alternative translation is "for they cast / hurl /throw iniquity upon me, and in anger they persecute me".  The allusion would then be to Shimei at this time, throwing stones and dust at David. Yet David accepts that Yahweh had bidden Shimei curse him, and indeed David did deserve death by stoning for his sins. But the Hebrew here seems to suggest that David considered the "enemy", Ahithophel and Absalom, were unreasonably oppressing him and making him more guilty than he was. As the Jewish rabbi Rashi puts it, "Ahithophel accuses me of iniquities that overweigh [the scale] to demonstrate that I am liable to death, and they sanction [the shedding of] my blood". Likewise David will lament in :13 that his "own familiar friend" has betrayed him and is now not his friend. He seems to just not get it- that he has sinned grievously and cannot reasonably complain about the consequences. He seems to have some mistaken sense of entitlement in thinking that his good friend Ahithophel ought to remain his good friend- although he was Bathsheba's grandfather. </p>


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<h2>My heart is severely pained within me, the terrors of death have come upon me-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is a far cry from the David who faced Goliath and fought the Philistines, fearless of death. His fear of death surely reflects his disquieted conscience, knowing he must come to judgment. He at this point lacks an abiding faith in God's salvation of him.</p><p>Despite his undoubted physique stamina, David was a broken man, even quite early in his life, prone to fits of introspection; dramatic mood-swings (cp. <a href='B:90 24:14'>1Sa 24:14</a> with <a href='B:90 25:6'>1Sa 25:6</a>; <a href='B:90 25:22'>1Sa 25:22</a>; <a href='B:90 25:34'>1Sa 25:34</a>;), sometimes appearing a real 'softie' but hard as nails at others (consider <a href='B:230 75:10'>Psa 75:10</a> and the whole of Psalms 101); easily getting carried away: be it with excessive emotional enthusiasm for bringing the ark back, in his harsh response to Hanun humbling his servants, his over-hasty and emotional decision to let Amnon go to Absalom's feast when it was obvious what might well transpire, his anger "flaring up" because of incompetency (<a href='B:100 11:20'>2Sa 11:20</a> NIV),&nbsp; or in his ridiculous softness for Absalom. He had a heart cruelly torn so many ways. All these traits are amply reflected in the Psalms: <a href='B:230 6:7'>Psa 6:7</a>; <a href='B:230 31:10'>Psa 31:10</a>; <a href='B:230 42:3'>Psa 42:3</a>; <a href='B:230 42:6'>Psa 42:6</a>; <a href='B:230 38:8'>Psa 38:8</a>; <a href='B:230 55:4'>Psa 55:4</a>; <a href='B:230 56:8'>Psa 56:8</a>; <a href='B:230 69:3'>Psa 69:3</a>; <a href='B:230 69:29'>Psa 69:29</a>; <a href='B:230 88:3'>Psa 88:3</a>; <a href='B:230 88:9'>Psa 88:9</a>; <a href='B:230 94:19'>Psa 94:19</a> (what introspection!); 102:4; 116:3; 143:4.</p>


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<h2>Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, horror has overwhelmed me-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This seems the very opposite to the situation in <a href='B:230 78:53'>Psa 78:53</a>, where the faithful were not fearful, and it was their Egyptian enemies who were "overwhelmed". He feels overwhelmed [s:w. "covered"] with horror, rather than feeling covered by Yahweh's protective cherubic wings, as he often confidently expresses (<a href='B:230 143:9'>Psa 143:9</a> s:w:). David appears to feel he is spiritually without God and facing the judgment of condemnation. His faith in forgiveness regarding Bathsheba and Uriah appears deeply dented at this point; because he had set his mind to assume that he was not going to suffer the consequences of the sin. Yet Nathan had assured him that he would, and he clearly struggled with that.</p>


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<h2>I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "I said..." suggests this Psalm is David’s recollection of how he felt just before fleeing Jerusalem from Absalom (see on :1).</p>


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<h2>Behold, then I would wander far off, I would lodge in the wilderness. Selah-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David did indeed lodge in the wilderness when he fled Absalom. But initially it seemed that flight even to the wilderness was impossible, because it would require David to have wings and fly there from Jerusalem (:6). He felt he was encircled. See on :10. David like all of us at some times in our lives wanted to return to his wilderness years shepherding "those few sheep in the wilderness" as his brother put it, or perhaps when on the run from Saul when he felt so close to God. The image of "a dove" (:5) is of innocence. He fantasized about just getting away from it all. But as the Psalm progresses, he casts his burden on the Lord, despite retaining his self righteousness.</p>


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<h2>I would hurry to a shelter from the stormy wind and storm-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David appears to wish to have a shelter from the storm- when elsewhere he proclaims Yahweh to be just thIsa. His confusion is because he expects God to remove from him the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba- and when God will not, David feels God is somehow not there for him. He fails to appreciate the wonder of the fact God had no executed him, and had extended the forgiveness which only comes from radical grace.</p>


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<h2>Confuse them, Lord, and confound their language, for I have seen violence and strife in the city-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This clearly alludes to Babel. David sees Jerusalem as no better than Babel / Babylon; and thereby the Psalm came to have relevance to the exiles with their desire to see judgment upon Babylon. This is however what happened to Absalom's putsch- it imploded and they were confounded.</p><p>"Confuse" is literally "swallow up", the idea being "swallow up these malicious plotters, as the earth swallowed up Korah and his crew". David also wishes this in Ps. 55:23, asking for them to be 'brought down'. This was fulfilled in Absalom's burial under a heap of stones in a deep pit (2 Sam. 18:17). And yet David bitterly mourned Absalom's death. The lesson is to be careful what we pray for, as we shall in essence receive it. </p><p>
"Confound their language" is "divide their tongues", and refers to the difference of advice between Hushai and Ahithophel. </p>


text:
<h2>Day and night they prowl around on its walls, malice and abuse are also within her-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had felt that fleeing Jerusalem was next to impossible because he was encircled within the city; hence he felt he needed to be as a bird to fly away, over the top of them. See on :7. His escape was therefore just in time, and was itself a token of God’s deliverance, seeing there were opposing forces trying to catch him if he fled.</p>


text:
<h2>Destructive forces are within her, threats and lies don’t depart from her streets-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Destructive" or "wickedness" is the word used of the wickedness of Ahithophel and Absalom (<a href='B:230 55:11'>Psa 55:11</a>). Solomon's Proverbs seem in places a justification of himself as king over his brother Absalom. He uses the same word to speak of "transgressors are taken in their own wickedness / destructiveness" (<a href='B:240 11:6'>Pro 11:6</a>); how a liar [Absalom] listens to a 'destructive' tongue [in taking advice from Ahithophel] (<a href='B:240 17:4'>Pro 17:4</a>); and how a foolish son [Absalom] is the calamity or destruction of his father (<a href='B:240 19:13'>Pro 19:13</a>). And yet all this evil had been predicted by Nathan as arising from within David's family [of which both Absalom and Ahithophel were members]- because of his sin. And he is now railing at that and refusing to accept that his sin was the root cause of it. Evil would not "depart" from David (2 Sam. 12:10) but he now laments that it doesn't depart from the streets of his city of Zion.</p>


text:
<h2>For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it; neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, then I would have hidden myself from him-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This suggests that Ahithophel's deceit of David went undetected for some time. The equivalent off Ahithophel is clearly Judas in the context of the Lord Jesus. And we wonder how He could have known from the beginning that Judas would betray Him, and yet apparently trust and like him so much that the betrayal came as a shock. We may be helped by considering how Samson surely knew Delilah would betray him, and yet still loved and trusted her, time and again. This is the nature of the human condition, to know and yet act as if we do not know. It is one of the features of love. The problem we have in understanding Samson (if we do have a problem with it) occurs again, in exactly the same form, when we consider the Lord's relationship with Judas. He knew from the beginning who should betray him. He knew that the one with whom He shared especially sweet counsel would betray Him (<a href='B:230 55:12-14'>Psa 55:12-14</a>). And surely the Lord Jesus had reflected on David’s experience with Ahithophel. And yet He spoke of how the twelve (including Judas) would sit on twelve thrones, sharing his glory (<a href='B:470 19:28'>Mat 19:28</a>). He loved Judas and treated him as a close friend, even though he knew that this very close friend would betray Him. There is, to my mind, no satisfactory explanation of this apart from to realize the utter humanity of the Lord; that just like Samson, He could sincerely love a man whom he knew would betray Him. This same Lord is the same today and forever. He isn't a hard man. He loves and actively fellowships at the time with those whom later He knows will betray Him, even now. He doesn't just not bother because He knows they will later turn nasty. Lord, we salute you for this, your utter grace:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2>But it was you, a man like me, my companion, and my familiar friend-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The person in view is clearly Ahithophel, David’s counsellor, the "man of my peace" (<a href='B:100 15:12'>2Sa 15:12</a>), referenced also in <a href='B:230 41:9'>Psa 41:9</a>. He was Bathsheba's grandfather, so we can imagine how his bitterness with David developed. The application of this passage to the Lord Jesus is an essay in His utter humanity. Judas was His friend and "a man like me".  But as David said these words and perhaps later sung them, he surely must have realized that it was to be expected that the grandfather of the woman he had violated would turn against him. What else could he expect? "But it was you" is spoken to a person. But at this point David wasn't with Ahithophel. But, with absolute psychological credibility, he had him as it were in his mind and spoke with him in his self talk. Indeed this psalm is mostly all David's self-talk. This surely is why Absalom and Ahithophel aren't mentioned by name- David knew the names of those whom he was referring to, and this Psalm is really and truly a transcript of his self talk.</p>


text:
<h2>We took sweet fellowship together-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>No "house" of God existed in David’s time, so perhaps this was edited at a later period. "Fellowship" is better "counsel", and the word carries the idea of decision making. Ahithophel had been David’s advisor and confidante. And they had sweet fellowship together- apparently.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We walked to God’s house in company-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"In company" is a word only used elsewhere in <a href='B:230 64:2'>Psa 64:2</a>, where it is translated "insurrection", again perhaps in the context of Absalom. The double meaning of the word chosen reflects the duplicity of Ahithophel. In Ps. 44:2 David ruefully remembers how happy he was to go to the tabernacle "in company" with other worshippers. Then in Ps. 55:14, composed also in the short time whilst he was on the run from Absalom, he bitterly laments that Ahithophel had walked with him in those crowds- but then betrayed him. David presents at this time as wanting various things, like the death of Absalom and yet Absalom's sparing from death... he is an unhappy man because he has slipped from having God's Kingdom and His Son as his sole focus.</p>


text:
<h2>Let death come suddenly on them, let them go down alive into Sheol. For wickedness is in their dwelling, in their midst-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Dwelling in tents and going alive into the grave is the language of Korah's rebellion. That is how David sees Absalom's rebellion. And yet when Absalom was indeed suddenly slain, David breaks down in grief. We must be careful what we pray for and what we wish upon men, lest it come true and it is not actually what we want.</p><p>David on one hand has a mind full of Biblical precedents, alluding to the destruction of Babel and also Korah, whilst at the same time stubbornly refusing to take full personal responsibility for his sins and therefore their consequences. One way to deal with the pain of injustice, betrayal and broken relationships is to simply think of our own sins and how we continue living by grace alone. Spiritually, we have no right to life. Let alone anything else. Being "cast down alive" could mean in the midst / prime of life, as in :23 David wishes they die in the midst of their years. When this happened to his middle aged son Absalom, he was heartbroken. He is just expressing his feelings with no wisdom nor thought to what an answer to prayer would really look like in practice.
We could read "May He [God] impose death". This is asking for the death penalty- when David himself had been saved by grace from the death penalties for murder, adultery and the sin of presumption. 
<p>Or, "May He invite death against them", a reference to the Angel of death. Yet David so bitterly mourned Absalom's death, despite these emotional pleas in prayer at this point.</p>


text:
<h2>As for me, I will call on God. Yahweh will save me-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The tone of the Psalm changes; see on :18. The idea of Yahweh's saving is 'Yehoshua', 'Jesus'. David was coming to faith in the essence of the yet future Lord Jesus. But "As for me..." suggests David's abiding wrong belief that he was the wronged righteous one in all this. And yet David was a great example of transparency before God, just telling God his feelings, be they of fuming anger against his enemies, or his wrongful sense of self-righteousness. This transparency arises from a real belief that God sees and knows all things in the human heart.</p>


text:
<h2>Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress; He will hear my voice-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Verse 17 begins a new section of the Psalm. The Psalm started by describing how David "cries out" in "distress"; the same word is used for "moan" in :2. At the start of the prayer David begs God to hear him / his voice (:1,2). We could better render :1,2: "Hear my prayer, God. Don’t hide Yourself from my crying out. Hear my voice, and answer me. I am restless in my complaint and distress". Now he is more confident, that God will hear his voice. This is one of many such prayers, where over the course of the prayer, David persuades himself of God's involvement and answer. Praying out loud can have the same effect for us too.
Day and night as they were prowling around (:10), David presents himself as praying. Note that "evening" was the start of the Jewish day. David’s first waking moments were naturally of prayer to God. And this is our pattern. He often mentions his habit of regular prayer morning and evening (<a href='B:230 5:3'>Psa 5:3</a>; <a href='B:230 55:17'>Psa 55:17</a>; <a href='B:230 59:16'>Psa 59:16</a>; <a href='B:230 88:3'>Psa 88:3</a>; <a href='B:230 119:147'>Psa 119:147</a>). This&nbsp; should not have to be enforced upon us, but rather the natural outcome of a life lived in constant connection with God. David perceived that the Mosaic ritual of morning and evening sacrifice taught the sacrifice of prayer should be made in daily life, even though at the time of many of the Psalms, David was exiled from the sanctuary. This exile from organized religion led him to make this connection, as it can for us too.</p>


text:
<h2>He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, although there are many who oppose me-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The tone of the Psalm changes from desperate begging for help, to confidence that God has heard him. This may have been because of some direct Divine revelation; but I suggest rather it is what happens in our prayers. Within the prayer we ourselves become persuaded of God’s answer and find peace and confidence in Him. Often we think that we can have peace only after the battle is fought. But David commendably comes to see that we can have that peace whilst the struggles are ongoing.</p>


text:
<h2>God, who is enthroned forever, will hear, and answer them. Selah. They never change, those who don’t fear God-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God’s eternal kingship perhaps suggests that at some time, these people will come to judgment. For God is sitting as eternal judge, and those who will not change or repent will be judged by Him. At what time that will be- isn't the issue. They will come to judgment.</p>


text:
<h2>He raises his hands against his friends, he has violated his covenant-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The individual in view is surely Ahithophel. The covenant in view is presumably that with God; for there is no evidence he had made a covenant with David. But to raise our hand against our brother, to hate our brother, is to break covenant with God- as the New Testament is clear. <a href='B:460 2:10'>Mal 2:10</a> uses the same phrase to break or violate the covenant- and again says we do so if we deal treacherously with our brother.  Ps. 41:10 speaks of this man as "one who ate my bread", the sign of covenant relationship. The reference is later to Judas who was at the last supper but betrayed the Lord. It is the betrayal of one with whom we have broken bread or done communion. "He raises his hands" may allude to how this was done at the offering of a peace offering- and David is saying that his enemy does that but at the same time plots against him. We recall that Absalom's rebellion began with him going to Hebron to supposedly offer sacrifice / peace offerings related to a covenant vow (2 Sam. 15:7,9).</p>


text:
<h2>His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This laments how words can not reflect the true state of a man’s heart. So why, then, is there so much emphasis on spoken words as the basis for judgment to come? Surely it is that although thoughts will also be judged, and the hypocrites revealed for who they are, it doesn’t follow that a good man sometimes uses ‘corrupt speech’. It’s impossible. A good man cannot bring forth bad words. But a bad man can sometimes bring forth words which seem good on the surface, but which are in fact counterfeit. But it can’t happen another way- a good man’s words aren’t just his surface level sin.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Smooth" or slippery is the language used of God’s confirmation of Judah in their sinful way (<a href='B:300 23:12'>Jer 23:12</a> = <a href='B:230 35:6'>Psa 35:6</a>); whichever path we choose, we are confirmed in. Those who are of a slippery tongue (<a href='B:230 55:21'>Psa 55:21</a> s:w:) will be confirmed in this; they will, as it were, slip headlong into condemnation. Their own chosen way is their judgment.</p><p>And yet exactly these thoughts must have been Uriah's about David's words and offers to him. </p>


text:
<h2>Cast your burden on Yahweh, and He will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be moved-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David is right in telling himself in his self talk to cast his burden on Yahweh. But the burden was so avoidable and self created. It was his pain at the actions of Absalom and Ahithophel. Had he done the right thing and resigned his crown, asking Yahweh to raise up a more suitable man- then his son wouldn't have sought the throne, and Ahithophel wouldn't have betrayed him. David himself had said that "he that rules over men must be just" or of integrity. He had lost his integrity. He could no longer be general in chief of the military, nor king of Israel. But he refused to get that. His anger with them arose from his refusal to accept abiding guilt for his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah. This was his burden. But all the same he casts it upon Yahweh. And these words are applied by Peter to us, to cast all our anxieties [which are very often self inflicted] upon the Lord.  And perhaps the Lord had these words in mind when He invites all the burdened to come to Him and take on His light yoke, so their burden will become light. Knowing we are forgiven, both of sins we recognize or those we don't fully recognize, relieved of both true and false guilt, is the only way to peace.
Yet straight afterwards, David goes on to call himself "the righteous". He was indeed counted righteous by grace through faith, but we could also argue that in the immediate context, David is simply being self-righteous. The rest of this Psalm surely indicates this [e.g. "But as for me..."]. So we marvel at God's grace. Counting not just a humble, repentant sinner as righteous, but even one who was not a humble sinner and who was in fact self righteous.
David in his earlier Psalms exalts and boasts to God that his feet have not slipped, indeed he was overly confident that his feet would never slip / "be moved" (<a href='B:230 17:5'>Psa 17:5</a>; <a href='B:230 21:7'>Psa 21:7</a>; <a href='B:230 55:22'>Psa 55:22</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 62:6'>Psa 62:6</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). His more mature reflection is that he had wrongly said "I shall never slip [AV "be moved"]" (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), and his feet had indeed slipped, not least over the Bathsheba incident (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). Solomon didn’t learn this lesson, for he likewise assumed that the righteous would never be moved / slip (<a href='B:240 10:30'>Pro 10:30</a>), although he appears to accept that even a righteous man like his father had indeed slipped (<a href='B:240 25:26'>Pro 25:26</a>). And Solomon himself did so, not learning the lesson from his father’s mistaken assumption that the righteous can never slip.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2>But You, God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in You-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> David’s prayer of repentance and request to be saved from "blood guiltiness" (<a href='B:230 51:14'>Psa 51:14</a>) is literally 'from blood'. He was a man of blood and was guilty of Uriah's innocent blood. David had asked for 'men of blood' to be slain (<a href='B:230 55:23'>Psa 55:23</a> s:w:), those who had taken the blood of the innocent (<a href='B:230 94:21'>Psa 94:21</a>), and for 'men of blood' to be expelled from his presence (<a href='B:230 139:19'>Psa 139:19</a>). And here David is writing after his sin with Bathsheba. God was trying to teach David that he was the type of person whom he condemned. And yet it is unclear if he learned that lesson. He asks not only for deliverance, but for judgment upon his enemies, and seems to take comfort in the prospect of their destruction. This is hardly the spirit of the Lord Jesus. Solomon liberally condemns the man who sheds innocent blood (<a href='B:240 6:17'>Pro 6:17</a>; <a href='B:240 28:17'>Pro 28:17</a>), refusing to recognize that his much lauded father had done just this, and was only saved by grace and not by any obedience to wisdom. There is so little grace in the book of Solomon's Proverbs because Solomon had failed to perceive the grace shown to his father.</p></p><Absalom died in mid-life, in the midst of his days, just as David wished for him. But when it happened, David was heartbroken.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. To the tune of Silent Dove in Distant Lands. A poem by David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As David was as it were in captivity to the Philistines, feeling like a Jewish dove in Gentile lands, so the exiles felt. Hence the usage of this Psalm by them. A case can be made that the whole of book 3 of the Psalter (Psalms 73-89) was written / edited in Babylon. The Psalms of Korah (83-87) seem to reflect the longing of the righteous remnant in Babylon for the temple services. And it is just possible that the entire Psalter was re-edited there in Babylon, under inspiration- for so many Psalms have elements of appropriacy to the exiles in Babylon and the restoration. The LXX titles of Psalms 56 [“Concerning the people that were removed from the Sanctuary”] and 71 [“Of the sons of Jonadab, and the first that were taken captive”] speak for themselves. Likewise the LXX attributes Psalms 146-148 to Haggai and Zechariah.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Many of the Psalms appear to be paired; Psalms 56 and Psalms 57 are an example. They are very similar. The title of Psalms 56 therefore provides a context for Psalms 57, which was "A poem by David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave" (<a href='B:230 57:1'>Psa 57:1</a>). David’s time when seized by the Philistines in Gath could refer to some unrecorded capture and detention of him in Gath- the home town of Goliath, whose sons&nbsp; / relatives had also been slain by David’s men, and David had slain "ten thousands" of Philistines. Or it could refer to the time when he was serving Achish king of Gath and had to feign himself mad in order to get released. Perhaps things were far tougher for David at that time than recorded in <a href='B:90 21:10-15'>1Sa 21:10-15</a>. Whatever, David took comfort from his situation with Saul (the subject of Psalms 57) and reapplied it to his situation in Gath in Psalms 56. And this is how we too pass through life- experiences in one situation strengthen us for another.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long he attacks and oppresses me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "attacks" upon David in Gath were surely verbal ones; but he felt them as real beatings and death threats. He was so sensitive to words that today we would likely place him somewhere on the autism spectrum. "Be merciful to me" was to be the very appeal of David to God after his sin with Bathsbeba (Ps. 51:1). We too are led by experiences. Even our sins are used by God to teach us. And our sins are foreseen by God, as David's was. He was in Gath due to his lack of faith and unwisdom. He has to beg God for mercy. He received it. And this was to be programatic for when he faced the Divine death sentence for his later sin, with Bathsheba.  </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My enemies want to swallow me up all day long, for they are many who fight proudly against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The word used of Saul wanting to swallow up David in <a href='B:230 57:3'>Psa 57:3</a>. But now it is used of the Gentile enemies of David. This means that Saul was acting as a Gentile to David, and this is quite a common conception in the Psalms; that those Israelites who hated David are treated by him as outside the covenant and effectively Gentiles. It was their hatred which led them to break the covenant, just as hating our brother means we have broken the new covenant.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems that David in the crisis in Gath reminded himself of one of his life principles, and kept repeating it to himself- that in times of fear, he would trust in Yahweh. This is the essential stuff of spiritual life; to repeat little phrases like that to ourselves, in both ordinary life and times of crisIsa.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In God, I praise His word. In God do I put my trust. I will not be afraid, what can flesh do to me?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the Hezekiah context, this would have been relevant to the reflection that Sennacherib had with him only an arm of flesh (<a href='B:140 32:8'>2Ch 32:8</a>). The "word" David praised and trusted was not the entire scriptures which he had then available. Rather does it refer to the specific prophetic word that he should be king after Saul, and / or that his kingdom would ultimately flourish. This likewise is "the word" he has in view in Psalms 119, rather than "the Bible" generally. In the Hezekiah context, it was Isaiah's prophetic word of deliverance from Assyria which was to be trusted; to trust God’s word is to trust Him. For "the word was God". Our attitude to His word is our attitude to Him.</p><p>David's low view of human "flesh" is God's view. He was brought through his extremity to see man as God sees him, as so weak and powerless. "He remembered that they were but flesh" (Ps. 78:39), accepting that man is only flesh and not to be striven against (Gen. 6:3). And so "cursed is the man who makes flesh his arm" (Jer. 17:5), for "all flesh is grass" (Is. 40:6).</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All day long they twist my words, all their thoughts are against me for evil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The twisting of words apparently applies to the Philistines (:1), but these are also David’s thoughts whilst suffering at the hands of Saul and then Absalom's supporters. With us too, circumstances repeat in our lives; our attitudes and faith are developed and tested. But again we marvel at David's sense of self justification. He was feigning madness in Gath, he had slain many Philistines including Goliath... and he complains that the Philistines twisted his words and were plotting revenge against him! He was clearly being deceitful with them. This was addressed by God, in the bigger picture, in teaching him through his sin with Bathsheba. For he was then taught that he could say nothing in his self defence, he was wrong wrong wrong. And yet justified by God's grace alone. His strong tendency to self justification and self pity was addressed through his sin with Bathsheba and God's grace to him, although there is ample evidence that later in life he returned to this same weakness of character. The language of twisting his words and plotting evil against him is exactly what David uses at the time of Absalom's insurrection against him (Ps. 41:7 and often). He was given the same experience as he had in Gath, in the hope he would have learnt from it.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They conspire and lurk, watching my steps, they are eager to take my life-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :5; these are also David’s thoughts whilst suffering at the hands of Saul and then Absalom's supporters. His Psalms were rewritten by him and reapplied to different situations, and this is how God also uses His own word, rescheduling and reinterpreting as needed. This explains why in Matthew especially, many New Testament quotations of the Old are not in perfect context; rather is it a case of reapplication and reinterpretation:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David later reflects that God had indeed cast down the peoples under him (<a href='B:100 22:48'>2Sa 22:48</a>; <a href='B:230 18:47'>Psa 18:47</a>); by saying this he considers that his prayer of <a href='B:230 56:7'>Psa 56:7</a> has been answered. Perhaps when he prayed it, he just wanted God’s anger to be poured out immediately, the day of judgment to come there and then, when the scales will be adjusted and men and nations cast down or lifted up. But he reflects that in a sense that had happened in his life, in that the peoples were cast down beneath him.</p><p>We could render "Weigh unto them (i.e. pay them, cp. Ps. 58:2) according to their iniquity". This desire for judgment upon enemies for their sins contrasts with what God taught David at the time of his sin with Bathsheba. He had a strong desire to see Divine judgment upon sinners. Which God sought to correct, working as He does even through human sin.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You number my wanderings-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had at this point in his life come to be in Gath and in danger of death; and this was far from the first time in his life he had been in such danger. He saw all his life and every point in it as part of "my wanderings", and they had been "numbered" by God, just as the book of Numbers is God’s numbering of Israel's wanderings. He knew God was not unmindful. But LXX "O God, I have declared my life to thee" has a beauty to it; relationship with God involves us telling Him our lives and situations, even though He knows them all.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You put my tears into Your bottle. Aren’t they in Your book?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Tear bottles were kept by mourners at funerals; they put their tears in a bottle which they then kept in memory of the deceased. But David says that his tears are in God’s bottle. The idea was that your tears went into your bottle. But David was so intimate with God that he perceived that his tears were in fact God’s; and vice versa. Perhaps he considered that he would die in Gath (see on :1), and God would mourn for him and record his death.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Then my enemies shall turn back in the day that I call. I know this, that God is for me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Seeing he was surrounded in Gath, this was quite some faith. But I suggested on :8 that he may have considered the possibility that he was meant to die in Gath. And so the "day" he would in the future "call" would then refer to the day of judgment. And even in defeat and death, God was still "for me". This is an abiding principle to live by.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In God, I will praise His word. In Yahweh, I will praise His word-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "word" David praised and trusted was not the entire scriptures which he had then available. Rather does it refer to the specific prophetic word that he should be king after Saul, and / or that his kingdom would ultimately flourish. This likewise is "the word" he has in view in Psalms 119, rather than "the Bible" generally. In the Hezekiah context, it was Isaiah's prophetic word of deliverance from Assyria which was to be trusted; to trust God’s word is to trust Him. For "the word was God". Our attitude to His word is our attitude to Him.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have put my trust in God; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It seems that David in the crisis in Gath reminded himself of one of his life principles, and kept repeating it to himself- that in times of fear, he would trust in Yahweh. This is the essential stuff of spiritual life; to repeat little phrases like that to ourselves, in both ordinary life and times of crisIsa.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your vows are on me, God. I will give thank offerings to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This promise to offer thank offerings presupposes that David would again one day be free to return to Zion or to the sanctuary; unless he offered in the wilderness.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You have delivered my soul from death, and prevented my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may have been added after the deliverance; or it could be that David, as he sometimes does, speaks of future things as being in the past. This is what faith is about- believing in things from God’s viewpoint, that what is yet future is now, in essence, for those with Him. So often David's prayers begin in crisis, but his prayers are a kind of self persuasion, to the point that he concludes triumphant that God will hear him and has effectively already done so. This is indeed the path of prayer.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. To the tune of Do Not Destroy. A poem by David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Do not destroy" may allude to Moses' prayer for Israel, "do not destroy" (Dt. 9:26). They were rejected by God, but Moses' mediation for God to "not destroy" them was heard, against all odds. This explains David's appeal for "mercy" and his references to God's grace in this psalm. David thus associates himself both with Moses, the prayer of the prayer, and also with the weak Israel for whom Moses was interceding. He prays like Moses, but for himself and his own salvation by grace. But the words are those of David to Abishai in 1 Sam. 26:9 "Do not destroy him", when urging him not to destroy Saul when he had the chance. And that is the context here- of David in the cave having an earlier chance to destroy Saul. But he kept singing himself the song "Do not destroy", to strengthen himself against the advice he was being given to destroy Saul.
Many of the Psalms appear to be paired; Psalms 56 and Psalms 57 are an example. They are very similar. The title of Psalms 56 ["when seized by the Philistines in Gath"] therefore provides a context for Psalms 57, which was "A poem by David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave" (<a href='B:230 57:1'>Psa 57:1</a>). David’s time when seized by the Philistines in Gath could refer to some unrecorded capture and detention of him in Gath- the home town of Goliath, whose sons&nbsp; / relatives had also been slain by David’s men, and David had slain "ten thousands" of Philistines. Or it could refer to the time when he was serving Achish king of Gath and had to feign himself mad in order to get released. Perhaps things were far tougher for David at that time than recorded in <a href='B:90 21:10-15'>1Sa 21:10-15</a>. Whatever, David took comfort from his situation with Saul (the subject of Psalms 57) and reapplied it to his situation in Gath in Psalms 56. And this is how we too pass through life- experiences in one situation strengthen us for another.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be merciful to me, God, be merciful to me, for my soul takes refuge in You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>According to the title, David is composing this having fled for refuge into a cave, a rocky stronghold. But his real refuge is God. It's like 'trusting' in medicine or insurance, when the essential refuge is God. The idea is that God was David’s city of refuge. These cities were for those who needed to flee when being chased by the avenger of blood (<a href='B:40 35:26'>Num 35:26</a>). The imagery is very appropriate to David when fleeing from Saul and Absalom. David’s constant meditation upon God’s law would have included the sections about the cities of refuge; he realized that actually no such city was available for him, but the spirit of the law led him to reflect that Yahweh was his refuge, wherever he was. David tends to open wilderness Psalms with this reflection, just as we may tend to begin prayers with the same opening phrase and thoughts (<a href='B:230 7:1'>Psa 7:1</a>; <a href='B:230 11:1'>Psa 11:1</a>; <a href='B:230 16:1'>Psa 16:1</a>; <a href='B:230 31:1'>Psa 31:1</a>; <a href='B:230 57:1'>Psa 57:1</a>; <a href='B:230 71:1'>Psa 71:1</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge, until disaster has passed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Likewise David realized that the cherubim shadowing the mercy seat were over him; he was as it were located on the very mercy seat. But he was nowhere near the sanctuary, and possibly in a state of ritual uncleanness and not technically obedient to the law. But he perceived from that same law that God is in fact beyond the confines of ritual. With God in his heart, he was as it were covered by His glory and the blood of atonement on the mercy seat.</p><p>Understanding the "wings" as those of the cherubim over the "mercy seat", the lid of the ark of the covenant, would fit well with David's appeal to be shown mercy beneath the wings. But running to take shelter under the shadow of wings is also the language of a bird running to the mother bird, protected by her wings and warmed by the heat from the mother's heart; and "wings" also by extension means the wings of a garment, into which the frightened child would run. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I cry out to God Most High, to God who accomplishes my requests for me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Most High" might allude to how the saves of Adullam were on high land, overlooking the valley of Elah. But David knew that despite that apparently human advantage and strength, the only true height was in God. The thought of the highness and power of God is an inspiration to faith in prayer. The requests of prayer are "accomplished"; not answered by a simple flash action, but involve working out so many facets of the answer. The idea of the Hebrew is of God completing or perfecting all things. David knew he was on the way to being perfected, even through all the dramas in the cave. And he knew his prayers would be answered in that context. He who has begun a good work in us will likewise work at perfecting it / completing it until the day the Lord returns. "God, who supplies my every need" (GNB) is surely alluded to in Phil. 4:19:"My God shall supply all your need". 
"I cry out to God" gives the idea of making a lot of noise, indeed David says in :8 he will praise God so loudly that he would as it were wake up the sun. But he felt these things in the cave, where silence was critical. Despite the constrictions of his immediate circumstances, he could in faith look forward to a day when he would loudly praise God, waking up the sun by the volume, and in fact be heard by the whole earth (:9). We too can look out from our own immediate constrictions, socially and otherwise, to the day when we shall be totally unlimited in our service of God. What's critical is that in our 'caves' we have that dream and desire. Are these the things we dream of? When life's pressures abate for a moment and our mind can wander... what are our daydreams? Are they of the things of the Lord and His Kingdom? For those momentary day dreams of a spare moment indicate where our deepest heart is.
</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will send from heaven and save me, He rebukes the one who is pursuing me. Selah. God will send out His grace and His truth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The word "send" is normally translated 'to send away, to let depart', implying physical movement away. This implies Angels are physically sent over space to answer prayer. The same word occurs in other verses where this same idea stands up well- e.g. <a href='B:230 144:7'>Psa 144:7</a> "Send Thine hand (an Angel) from Heaven...". It seems that great stress is placed in Scripture on the Angels physically moving through space, both on the earth and between Heaven and earth, in order to fulfil their tasks, rather than being static in Heaven or earth and bringing things about by just willing them to happen. See on <a href='B:10 18:10'>Gen 18:10</a> There is no record of Saul ever being rebuked for persecuting David. Quite possibly Samuel did, but it is unrecorded. David's confidence that God rebuked Saul may be an insight he had into the court of Heaven, where he as it were saw Saul being rebuked, and Angels being sent from that same Heavenly court to save David.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David fled from Saul's presence to the cave of Adullam, and all manner of bitter men and women came to him there. Adullam is an area near the Valley of Elah, where David killed Goliath, and has valleys with many caves on the valley edges where the men could live: "David therefore departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt and everyone who was discontented [LXX "troubled in mind"] gathered themselves to him and he became their captain. About four hundred men were with him" (1 Sam. 22:1,2). The Lord's body of people likewise has this feature of attracting alternative folks, or those disengaged with society, who may not have anything spiritually in common with His true people. We wonder if the snares dug by his enemies (:6) refer to some unrecorded intrigues against him by his own men. If the psalm has reference to the time when David had the chance to kill Saul in the cave, then we can better understand this reference to the bad words of the men around him. For they urged him then to slay Saul. The advice of friends is often not right. Against the noise in his own mind of their bad advice, he beat out the tune of "Do not destroy", possibly a well known song of the time. And this is how to use spiritual music. To let the words beat in our mind, against the temptations to go the wrong way in the heat of the moment. Without doubt, these men who were "set on fire" in bitterness could be understood as a reference to the men with David. He lay down to sleep next to them. David’s men represent the followers of the Lord Jesus (cp. <a href='B:650 13:13'>Heb 13:13</a>). David’s motley crew were bitter men, "them that are set on fire... whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword" (<a href='B:230 57:4'>Psa 57:4</a>). So rough were they that David says that having to live with them almost destroyed him spiritually (<a href='B:90 26:19'>1Sa 26:19</a>). This typology would explain why the body of Christ seems full of bitter men and women with hard words- who eventually will be the rulers in Messiah's Kingdom, after the pattern of David’s men. There can be no misunderstanding of David as some softie who let anything go. Of course he was a sensitive man, with a soft heart. The way others’ words so hurt him is evidence enough of this (<a href='B:230 57:4'>Psa 57:4</a>). Yet this was marvellously blended with his clear recognition of evil and firmly expressed desire not to mix with it.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be exalted, God, above the heavens! Let Your glory be above all the earth!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had earlier lamented that Saul "My enemy" (= Saul, <a href='B:90 18:29'>1Sa 18:29</a>; <a href='B:90 19:17'>1Sa 19:17</a>) was "exalted over me" (<a href='B:230 13:2'>Psa 13:2</a> s:w:). The David who had once triumphed over his enemy Goliath now felt that Saul was triumphing over him. This, in the bigger Divine picture, may have been to keep David from pride at the amazing victory and triumph. And he learned the lesson. David was indeed to triumph / be exalted over Saul (<a href='B:230 18:48'>Psa 18:48</a>), but he saw it is God triumphing / being exalted (<a href='B:230 18:46'>Psa 18:46</a>). His praise Psalms are full of this word and idea- of the exaltation of God (<a href='B:230 57:5'>Psa 57:5</a>; <a href='B:230 57:11'>Psa 57:11</a>) and not himself.  In extreme situations, as David was in, we can too easily focus simply upon praying for our immediate deliverance. But David commendably sees the glorification of God as being of the essence. So much so that it is at times hard to understand this prayer as in fact composed whilst in the cave hiding from Saul. But the title tells us this was indeed the context. "Be exalted" is asking God to exalt Himself, to visibly make His glory seen over the earth. In essence, this was David's form of our desire for the Lord's coming and the visible establishment of the Kingdom. This must always be our great desire even in the midst of personal crisis. For this is the ultimate truth that gives perspective to the immediate issues of this life, including death itself. The language is very much of large scale freedom, God's glory soaring above the heavens. And yet David these feelings within all the constrictions of the cave- physical as well as social constriction, if we have understood correctly the references to the men with him. We too live very limited lives, but can soar above them with the thoughts of God's glory. And again, as in so many of the Psalms, David begins in a crisis situation- but within the prayer, goes on to confidently exalt in God's salvation. It's one thing to praise God after the salvation has come, or the problem has been resolved. David's example is of glorying in God right in the midst of the crisis, and not afterwards. Although we could argue that he is editing his thoughts after the deliverance from Saul.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down, they dig a snare before me. They fall into its midst themselves. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had elsewhere prayed that the wicked would fall into their own pit (Ps. 141:10) and seems to rejoice when this prayer was answered (here and Ps. 7:15; 9:15). This is a far cry from the God who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Perhaps God tried to correct him over this attitude when his son Absalom finally ends up dead in a pit, after David praying this would happen to him. In the immediate context, David perhaps reasoned that Saul's persecution of him had led him to hide in a cave. But Saul entered that cave alone and thus David could easily have slain him. Saul fell into the pit he had set for David, but David in the end didn't slay Saul. He as it were allowed Saul to get up out of the pit and go his way. Despite having eagerly prayed for such a moment, when Saul would fall into the pit he had made for David. On one hand, David was bitter with his enemies, but on the other hand, showed them amazing grace. We see this both with Saul and Absalom. His grief when they die is sincere and not at all theatrical. We too struggle between angry judgment of people and yet showing them grace. David is presented as being so absolutely human and like us all. But in the cave, grace triumphed. We notice too the wild mood swings in David- from "my soul is bowed down" to his enthusiasm to shout out in worship and wake up the sun with his praise (:9).
</p><p>It is a common theme that the wicked snare themselves, falling into their own pit, judged by their own words, rather than God specifically snaring them (e.g. <a href='B:230 7:15'>Psa 7:15</a>; <a href='B:230 9:15'>Psa 9:15</a>; <a href='B:230 57:6'>Psa 57:6</a>; <a href='B:240 26:27'>Pro 26:27</a>; <a href='B:240 28:10'>Pro 28:10</a>; <a href='B:250 10:8'>Ecc 10:8</a>):&nbsp; From their own mouth and words men will be judged (<a href='B:470 12:37'>Mat 12:37</a>; <a href='B:490 19:22'>Luk 19:22</a> cp. <a href='B:100 1:16'>2Sa 1:16</a>; <a href='B:110 20:40'>1Ki 20:40</a>). It could even be that the Lord cites the condemnatory words of the rejected uttered during their lifetimes and leaves these as their condemnation. Woe, therefore, to he or she who has said unrepentantly that they don’t want to be in the Kingdom if brother x or sister y are going to be there. “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his life; but he that openeth wide his lips [in this life] shall have destruction” at judgment day (<a href='B:240 13:3'>Pro 13:3</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The snare was dug "before me". Solomon alludes to this in <a href='B:240 1:17'>Pro 1:17</a> "For in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird". All Solomon says is inspired truth, but clearly he has a subtext of justifying his father David; this was an obsession with him.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My heart is steadfast, God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's "fixed" or steadfast heart (also mentioned in Ps. 108:1; 112:7) is the heart of the Lord Jesus who steadfastly set His face to go to death in Jerusalem. To have a single hearted, set and fixed heart position for God... is what it is, to be a Christian. David had earlier understood that for the humble and righteous, God can "prepare their heart" (<a href='B:230 10:17'>Psa 10:17</a>). This is evidence enough that God works directly upon the human heart and psychology, which He does today through the work of His Spirit upon the human spirit. For it is men who must prepare their heart in prayer and relationship toward God (s:w. <a href='B:140 12:14'>2Ch 12:14</a>; <a href='B:220 11:13'>Job 11:13</a>; <a href='B:230 7:9'>Psa 7:9</a>). But God can also do this for the humble. Hence David later asks God to create in him a 'prepared' heart (s:w. <a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a>). And God heard; for the same phrase is used of how God 'prepared' or (AV) "fixed" / NEV 'made steadfast' his heart (<a href='B:230 57:7'>Psa 57:7</a>; <a href='B:230 108:1'>Psa 108:1</a>; <a href='B:230 112:7'>Psa 112:7</a>). In allusion to this, Solomon was to later reflect that God can direct or 'prepare' (s:w:) the heart of man, even if he is thinking to direct his steps elsewhere (<a href='B:240 16:9'>Pro 16:9</a>).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Wake up, my glory! Wake up, psaltery and harp! I will wake up the dawn-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is again David's self-talk, as we find in so many of his psalms. He is urging himself to awake in praise. It's one thing to thank God after the victory, after the answer has come. But quite another to praise God before the answer comes, or whilst the struggle is ongoing and apparently undecided. This is the praise of faith. 
</p><p>Or as AV "I myself will awake early". The Psalms continually stress the importance of starting each day with the Lord; David gives the impression his heart was bursting with praise as he awoke, and he instinctively wanted to grab his harp and play and sing praise.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will give thanks to You, Lord, among the peoples, I will sing praises to You among the nations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This psalm was composed in the cave, hiding from Saul. Although in a very hemmed in environment, David looked ahead to the day when he would sing praise out loud to God amongst the Gentile world. We too can look out of the tight confines of our social or economic space, to the time of eternal freedom and glory ahead.
David knew his sinfulness, he knew his reliance upon the grace of God, more and more as he got older; and increasingly he wanted to spread the knowledge of Israel's God to the Gentile nations around him. One would have thought that after the Bathsheba incident, David would have kept his mouth shut so far as telling other people how to live was concerned. But instead, we find an increasing emphasis in the Psalms (chronologically) upon David’s desire to teach others of God’s ways- particularly the surrounding Gentile peoples, before whom David had been disgraced over Bathsheba, not to mention from his two faced allegiance to Achish (<a href='B:90 27:8-12'>1Sa 27:8-12</a>). There is real stress upon this evangelistic fervour of David (<a href='B:230 4:3'>Psa 4:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:49'>Psa 18:49</a>; <a href='B:230 22:25'>Psa 22:25</a>; <a href='B:230 22:31'>Psa 22:31</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 40:9-10'>Psa 40:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 57:9'>Psa 57:9</a>; <a href='B:230 62:8'>Psa 62:8</a>; <a href='B:230 66:5'>Psa 66:5</a>; <a href='B:230 66:16'>Psa 66:16</a>; <a href='B:230 95:1'>Psa 95:1</a>; <a href='B:230 95:8'>Psa 95:8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:5-8'>Psa 96:5-8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:10'>Psa 96:10</a>; <a href='B:230 100:1-4'>Psa 100:1-4</a>; <a href='B:230 105:1-2'>Psa 105:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 119:27'>Psa 119:27</a>; <a href='B:230 145:5-6'>Psa 145:5-6</a>; <a href='B:230 145:12'>Psa 145:12</a>). Indeed, <a href='B:230 71:18'>Psa 71:18</a> records the "old and greyheaded" David pleading with God not to die until he had taught "thy strength unto this generation". As with Paul years later, the only reason he wanted to stay alive was in order to witness the Gospel of grace to others. David&nbsp;therefore coped with his deep inner traumas by looking out of himself to those around him, eagerly desiring to share with them the pureness of God’s grace. He didn’t do this as some kind of self-help psychiatry; it came naturally from a realization of his own sinfulness and God’s mercy, and the wonderful willingness&nbsp;of God to extend this to men.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Your great grace reaches to the heavens, and Your truth to the skies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The message David wanted to preach to the Gentiles (:9) was that God’s grace stretches between heaven and earth. "Mercy / grace and truth" is a phrase often used about the promises to Abraham. David saw these as the parade example of God’s grace, and he wanted to share that covenant with the Gentiles (:9). But the observation could be made that nearly all the "Gentiles" in the land [eretz] promised to Abraham were in fact Abraham's seed in some way anyway. But David is directing them back to their roots and urging them to accept the covenant made with their forefather instead of the idols they had chosen. God's grace is indescribable and beyond comprehension, reaching to Heaven. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><h2>Be exalted, God, above the heavens. Let Your glory be over all the earth- The earth / eretz refers to the land promised to Abraham. It was David’s desire that God be exalted there, lifted up to heaven, as it were, by the people living there. See on :10. David was a man of wide spiritual vision. The visible glory of God was in those days only seen over the ark of the covenant; but he had a vision of it spreading from there over the entire "earth", and here he is praying for that day to come about. But as noted on :9, he realized [as we must in our day] that this will only happen once the Gospel has been taken to "all the earth".</h2><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. To the tune of Do Not Destroy. A poem by David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed previously, "Do not destroy" may have been a popular song at the time which David particularly hummed to himself when contemplating the possibility of killing Saul. He rants and raves about Saul's wrongness but with that background noise- "Do not destroy". </p><p>This Psalm is a criticism of corrupt judges and leadership. Such criticism of Israel's judges is common in the prophets (<a href='B:290 1:16-25'>Isa 1:16-25</a>; <a href='B:290 10:1-4'>Isa 10:1-4</a>; <a href='B:300 5:26-29'>Jer 5:26-29</a>; <a href='B:400 3:9-12'>Mic 3:9-12</a>). So it could refer to the situation in Israel at the time of Saul or perhaps during Absalom's brief reign. But the Psalm may well have been reused regarding the corrupt leadership of Babylon over the exiles, or of the corrupt Jewish leadership within Babylon.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Do you indeed speak righteousness, silent ones? Do you judge blamelessly, you sons of men?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The sin of keeping silence in the face of others' oppression is perhaps the most common sin of omission. So many who have struggled against abusive regimes have come to this conclusion- that the real abusers were all the good people who remained silent and thus empowered abusive regimes. "Do ye indeed in silence speak righteousness?" (<a href='B:230 58:1'>Psa 58:1</a> RV). Speaking and acting righteously whilst keeping silent about others' abuse is not righteousness. But "silent ones", Heb. elem, may be an intentional parody of elohim, mighty ones, a term also used for Israel's judges, who were intended to reflect the judgment of the elohim above.</p><p>Absalom had for years urged the men of Israel to oust David and appoint him as king, because he would judge rightly. Hence David's complaint that in fact Absalom and his group were not at all righteous judges. The offer of good judgment was the platform Absalom had developed in order to overthrow his father David. This clearly stuck in David's gullet; he concludes the Psalm with an appeal for Yahweh to be the judge (:11). Not Absalom and not even himself. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>No, in your heart you plot injustice. You measure out the violence of your hands in the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David again comes over as (overly?) confident of knowing the hearts of men. It could be argued that he believed that works reflect thoughts, as the Lord also taught, and therefore reasoned back from actions to thoughts. Instead of measuring out justice, they measured out violence. Quite possibly David on one hand knew Absalom's plots against him, but like the Lord loving and trusting Judas despite what He knew of him, David allowed him to go to Hebron, from where Absalom's long plotted putsch against David began. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is not true in real time. But for timeless God, this is His perspective on them. Likewise in other cases He expresses His timelessness in ways which men can only understand as predestination. Or we could simply understand this as hyperbole, an exaggerated statement to the effect that the wicked go wrong from their youth. Or it could be that David is imputing too much sin to his enemies. See on :5.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He clearly refers here to a category of people, "the wicked", and not to all humanity. So it cannot be used as any proof that all human beings are like this from birth. We must remember that whatever we posit about human nature generally, we are saying about the Lord Jesus. For He shared our nature completely, and yet was holy, harmless and undefiled (<a href='B:650 7:26'>Heb 7:26</a>). Quite possibly David has in view Absalom, who perhaps from a child was wayward and deceitful. In any case, David sees the epitomy of wickedness as being dishonest. Lying is the essence of sin, which is why the Lord Jesus and the way in Him is called "the truth". To live in sin, and in denial of your sinfulness, is to lie. It's not just that radical honesty is mandatory for the believer; we are to see all sin as having lying at its root. The sins of Adam and Eve were all about lying. And so in :6 David twice wishes that the teeth of his enemies would be broken: "Break their teeth, God, in their mouth". Several Ancient Near Eastern legal codes stipulate smashing the teeth as a punishment for dishonesty. Although we feel in this David's anger at Absalom for lying about going to Hebron, claiming he was going there to pay a vow to Yahweh when in fact he went there in order to start the putsch against David.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their poison is like the poison of a snake; like a deaf cobra that stops its ear-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David presents these people as the seed of the serpent of <a href='B:10 3:15'>Gen 3:15</a>, abusing the seed of the woman, the righteous. Solomon speaks of the wicked within Israel as stopping their ears at the cry of the poor (<a href='B:240 21:13'>Pro 21:13</a> s:w:). He is alluding to how David his father had complained that the judges of Israel were like cobras who stopped their ear to the voice of charmers, refusing the voice of God’s word (<a href='B:230 58:4'>Psa 58:4</a> s:w:). Connecting the ideas, the cry of the poor is the cry of God’s word to us; our response to them is our response to them.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>which doesn’t listen to the voice of charmers, no matter how skilful the charmer may be-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Cobras are not actually deaf, but they can appear deaf to attempts to charm them with words and sounds. This provides some balance to the hyperbole of :3. The wicked are given the chance to respond to God’s word, but refuse it- and so their biographies appear to be consistently wicked even from their youth. 'Not listening to the voice' is the phrase so often used of Israel's refusal to listen to God’s voice (s:w. <a href='B:230 81:11'>Psa 81:11</a>; <a href='B:230 106:25'>Psa 106:25</a>; <a href='B:300 3:13'>Jer 3:13</a> etc:). Even those who are snakes can be charmed by God’s word- if they unstop their ears.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Break their teeth, God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lions are symbolic of Israel's Gentile enemies, as well as of the leadership of Judah in <a href='B:330 19:3-6'>Eze 19:3-6</a>. God’s apostate people are often likened to Gentiles; hence the double symbolism of the lion, representing both them and also the Gentiles. See on :3. David's sons as the princes of Judah and future potential kings were the young lions. We think of the lion motifs around the throne of the kings of Judah, as well as Ez. 19:3-6. It was from them that Nathan had prophesied there would arise suffering for David. Instead of humbly accepting this, David rails against it and asks for Divine judgment against them. And yet he bitterly mourns Absalom's death when God does in fact respond to his prayers. Again we have an example of David's prayers being a transparent reflection to God of how he was feeling at the time. He doesn't put on a good face before God whilst feeling otherwise in his heart.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them vanish as water that flows away. When they draw the bow, let their arrows be made blunt-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be asking for the judgments of the corrupt judges and leadership to be somehow rendered powerless. But again we note with concern that instead of wishing their repentance and salvation, David seems quite obsessed with wishing their condemnation. Whereas God has no joy at all in the death of the wicked (<a href='B:330 33:11'>Eze 33:11</a>). In the Hezekiah context we note that the only other usage of the phrase "vanish as water" is in <a href='B:290 8:6'>Isa 8:6</a>.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be like the path of a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that the snail appears to be melting into nothing during its very path through life; and this was how it was with the wicked. This idea is developed in :9; judgment is in essence now.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Before your pots can feel the heat of the thorns, he will sweep away the green and the burning alike-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This suggests that David expected the time of judgment to come very soon. Divine judgment was to come as a whirlwind from the desert, suddenly sweeping away the kindling which desert travellers had made to heat their pots. He saw his enemies as kindling burning, some of it green and not good kindling; but before they could generate much heat, they were to be swept away in judgment. This implies that they were as it were on fire already; the essence of judgment is going on now. Cheyne offers: "Before your pots can feel the thorns, and while your flesh (i:e. the flesh in the pots, on which you are about to feast) is still raw, the hot wrath of Jehovah shall sweep it away".</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again it seems that David’s reveling in the blood of the condemned is out of step with the God who takes no pleasure [cp. 'rejoicing'] in the death of the wicked (<a href='B:330 33:11'>Eze 33:11</a>). It was perhaps because of David’s attitude to "blood" rather than simply his shedding of blood which disqualified him from building the temple; God was not pleased with this attitude (<a href='B:130 22:8'>1Ch 22:8</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>so that men shall say, Most certainly there is a reward for the righteous. Most certainly there is a God who judges the earth- </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David here looks ahead to the day of final judgment. But again as noted on :10, we wonder at his logic; he appears to think that rejoicing in the death of the wicked therefore implies there is a great reward for the righteous. Grace seems not to factor, neither the awareness that the righteous have done what the wicked have done, and are saved by grace through faith rather than their works.</p><h2></h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. To the tune of Do Not Destroy. A poem by David, when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As Saul "watched" or "kept" the house, David’s response was to keep or watch over God’s ways (:9 s:w:). We note that this is an imprecatory Psalm, praying for destruction of enemies. But it is set "to the tune of Do Not Destroy". It's as if on one hand David wished destruction upon Saul, but this was in tension with "Do not destroy". Perhaps he set it to this tune because he realized that his desire for Saul's judgment was pitted against, or nuanced along with, his considering of Saul's life as "precious", choosing not to destroy him when he had the chance, twice, and weeping genuine tears of sadness at Saul's death. And then enquiring "Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may show the kindness of God unto him?".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver me from my enemies, my God; lift me on high from those who rise up against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Redeem / deliver me..." is a quotation from Jacob's words when he found his relative Esau barring his path back home (<a href='B:10 32:11'>Gen 32:11</a>; <a href='B:10 32:30'>Gen 32:30</a>). And the word is used of David’s desire for deliverance from Saul (<a href='B:90 26:24'>1Sa 26:24</a>); and yet this was a redemption unappreciated by him as it ought to have been (<a href='B:100 12:7'>2Sa 12:7</a>). Finally David recognized that this prayer was answered (<a href='B:100 22:18'>2Sa 22:18</a>; <a href='B:100 22:49'>2Sa 22:49</a>). As David had earlier prayed for redemption / deliverance from Saul and his enemies (<a href='B:230 31:15'>Psa 31:15</a>; <a href='B:230 59:1'>Psa 59:1</a>; <a href='B:230 144:7'>Psa 144:7</a>), he would later pray for redemption / deliverance from his sins (<a href='B:230 39:8'>Psa 39:8</a>; <a href='B:230 79:9'>Psa 79:9</a>). </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, save me from the bloodthirsty men-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Workers of iniquity" is a phrase used only in Job (<a href='B:220 31:3'>Job 31:3</a>; <a href='B:220 34:8'>Job 34:8</a>; <a href='B:220 34:22'>Job 34:22</a>) and then by David (with Solomon later alluding to David’s usage of the phrase). Apart from the law of Moses, Job was likely the only "scripture" David had access to; and so he often alludes to Job, seeing in him a parade example of innocent suffering. We too have been given scripture, which is largely a collection of biographies, in order to see that man is not alone in his apparently unique experiences; each are in essence passing through that which has already been experienced amongst God’s people.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> "Lie in wait" is the word for ambush. Solomon often uses the word, as if it is for him a major characteristic of sinners (<a href='B:240 1:11'>Pro 1:11</a>; <a href='B:240 1:18'>Pro 1:18</a>; <a href='B:240 7:12'>Pro 7:12</a>; <a href='B:240 12:6'>Pro 12:6</a>; <a href='B:240 23:28'>Pro 23:28</a>; <a href='B:240 24:15'>Pro 24:15</a>). But it's a rather specific word to use so often. It's as if Solomon is consciously alluding to his father’s experiences at the hands of the house of Saul (s:w. <a href='B:230 10:9'>Psa 10:9</a>; <a href='B:230 59:3'>Psa 59:3</a>), whom Solomon considered a threat to his own kingship. And so he seems to rather like using the term about sinners, as if using his wisdom to have a dig at his immediate opposition.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Reading through the book of Psalms in one or two sittings reveals that frequent and intense self-examination was a leading characteristic of David:, especially while on the run from Saul; as if he began to pick up false guilt from how he was being treated, wondering if it was all in fact justified (<a href='B:230 4:4'>Psa 4:4</a>; <a href='B:230 7:3'>Psa 7:3</a>; <a href='B:230 17:3'>Psa 17:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:20-24'>Psa 18:20-24</a>; <a href='B:230 19:12'>Psa 19:12</a>; <a href='B:230 26:1'>Psa 26:1</a>; <a href='B:230 39:1'>Psa 39:1</a>; <a href='B:230 59:3'>Psa 59:3</a>; <a href='B:230 66:18'>Psa 66:18</a>; <a href='B:230 77:6'>Psa 77:6</a>; <a href='B:230 86:2'>Psa 86:2</a>; <a href='B:230 101:2'>Psa 101:2</a>; <a href='B:230 109:3'>Psa 109:3</a>; <a href='B:230 139:23-24'>Psa 139:23-24</a>).</p><p>"Transgression" is Heb. 'rebellion'. The charge was going to be of treason, that David was planning on being king and was to be condemned. A kangaroo court would be held on this charge, David would be found guilty and executed. Yet Saul had twice been told that he would not be king and would be replaced. By charging David with rebellion, Saul's sin was indeed great.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :5, this attitude was to change after his sin with Bathsheba. The injustice of Saul's persecution weighed heavily on David’s mind in the Psalms written at this time. But clearly this led him too far along the road of self righteousness and assumption of his general perfection, which led him into the sin with Bathsheba. We too can wrongly respond to false accusation in the same way. Ps. 119 shows David was aware of many sins and weaknesses in himself at this time, but the experience of false accusation lead him to overlook this at this point. "Ready to attack me" is Heb. "they station themselves"- exactly what happened that night when Saul's men surrounded his house.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You, Yahweh God of Armies, the God of Israel, rouse Yourself to punish the nations. Show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :7. "Show no mercy" is "Be not gracious"; but later David asks exactly for such grace for himself in Ps. 56:1; 57:1. "Show mercy" is the term used in David’s plea for forgiveness in <a href='B:230 41:4'>Psa 41:4</a>; <a href='B:230 51:1'>Psa 51:1</a>. "I have done no wrong" (:4) was typical of David’s attitude before the sin with Bathsheba. He was taught that mercy to the undeserving is the essence of the Gospel; whereas previously he had railed against the display of any such mercy. AV "Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors" heightens the lesson. "Transgressors" or "traitors" is the term used by David of Saul and his supporters (<a href='B:230 25:3'>Psa 25:3</a>; <a href='B:230 59:5'>Psa 59:5</a>; <a href='B:230 119:158'>Psa 119:158</a>). Solomon uses this term, teaching that "transgressors" must be rooted out of the earth / eretz promised to Abraham (<a href='B:240 2:22'>Pro 2:22</a>), and that the "transgressors" are to face judgment (<a href='B:240 11:3'>Pro 11:3</a>; <a href='B:240 11:6'>Pro 11:6</a>; <a href='B:240 13:2'>Pro 13:2</a>; <a href='B:240 21:18'>Pro 21:18</a>; <a href='B:240 22:12'>Pro 22:12</a>; <a href='B:240 23:28'>Pro 23:28</a>; <a href='B:240 25:19'>Pro 25:19</a>). All Solomon says is true, but he clearly has in view the house and supporters of Saul, who were a group he felt he needed to repress in order to keep his own kingdom and power intact.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They return at evening, howling like dogs, and prowl around the city-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The allusion is to dogs hunting in packs, singling out their victim, chasing it until it is exhausted, bringing it down to the ground [David often speaks of 'bringing down'] and eating it alive. The "return at evening" could mean that having tracked David to his house, they disperse for a time like dog packs do, but "return" again to the victim at evening, and take up their watch (1Sa 19:11). If they were patrolling around the city, it was by God's grace that David managed to get over the wall and run away. Hence he asks God to "meet" him in :5 Heb. the other side of the wall. There was nobody standing there but God met him and directed him to safety. This is a description of Saul's men prowling around the city, ensuring David didn’t escape (:1). But the language is repeated in :14, with the Hebrew suggesting they would be made to do this again- in the condemnation of the last day. As they had prowled around the perimeters of the city like dogs, so they would be thrown out of Zion in the last day and wander in the darkness of rejection and condemnation. The idea is that they were living out their own condemnation. Their hatred of their brother led them to act out ahead of time the condemnation of the wicked.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Behold, they spew with their mouth; swords are in their lips-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here again we see the lesson of Job's sufferings; that human words are of immense power, and can be as swords. They were speaking loud enough for David to hear inside the house. The foaming at the mouth is described in :12 as curses and lies [the Hebrew could possibly mean "spells". These curses would have been imprecations, demanding David's eternal condemnation by God. "Foaming at the mouth" ["spew with their mouth"] is language associated with witchcraft and cursing. It has been observed: "this characteristic of salivation at the mouth was also ascribed to witches in Akkadian incantations. In the same way, the mulozi of Zimbabwe use "mate mabi", ‘bad spittle’ to effectuate ruin". Dogs and hyenas are associated with witches in Africa today, the belief being that witches can turn themselves into animals; and probably they also were thus associated in the ancient near east. Hence David likens these people to dogs. Michal's use of teraphim may have been because she thought they would counter all this. Curses were usually met by counter-curses. But unlike Michal, David was far above and beyond their ideas and called upon Yahweh to save him from evil in whatever form, perceived or actual. He says God is his shield against these curses (:11), not some counter curse nor teraphim. We could re-point :5 to read "wake up to punish all the witches, don’t have pity on any master of the dark arts". Likewise :8 "You scoff at all the nations" can be repointed as "you utter imprecations against all the witches".</p><p>
We note that Saul at this time was using witchcraft- it was likely popular in Israel at the time. But later he condemns witches. Again this is a psychological classic. He judges severely against what he himself is guilty of; he transfers his guilt to the witches. 
</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For, they say, who hears us?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here we have an example of God perceiving what human words and attitudes mean in reality, before Him. For they likely didn’t actually exalt that nobody heard their words, and that therefore they were unaccountable to God. But this was what their attitudes implied. The assumption that God doesn't hear human words and thoughts is almost endemic to human nature. But He does and by them He judges men.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But You, Yahweh, laugh at them. You scoff at all the nations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :7. David was in an apparently hopeless position, with the house he was in, and the entire city, encicled by Saul's men (:1,6). But he was confident that at that moment, Yahweh was laughing at those men. He was treating them as the Gentile nations. David commonly perceives the hateful and apostate within Israel as mere Gentiles. Or perhaps "the nations" was added under inspiration at a later point, perhaps during the exile. In :5 and :8 David speaks of Gentiles. It could be that Saul's men who were sent to take him included Gentile mercenaries like Doeg the Edomite. Or perhaps David reapplied this Psalm to a later time of threat from Gentiles. Thus he took comfort in his deliverance from Goliath as a basis for his deliverance from Saul at this time, and then used that deliverance from Saul as encouragement to faith that God would likewise deliver him from some Gentile opposition. This is the path of spiritual maturity and growth, going from strength to strength through all life's trials. </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh my Strength, I watch for You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As Saul "watched" or "kept" the house, David’s response was to keep or watch over God’s ways (:1 s:w:). The idea is "unto You will I watch". As they were looking at him, watching him, David was looking to God. In various ways we may all feel watched by men, we worry about image and appearance, or fear what they are devising. But our response is to believe that God is watching it all and we look unto Him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For God is my high tower-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David sees that Yahweh will be a "high tower" or place of refuge at the day of future judgment (<a href='B:230 9:8-9'>Psa 9:8-9</a>, quoted about this in <a href='B:510 17:31'>Act 17:31</a>). "He will judge the world in righteousness, He will administer judgment to the peoples in uprightness.  Yahweh will also be a high tower for the oppressed; a high tower in times of trouble. Those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek You"). This was his ultimate defence, rather than the house in which he was taking refuge at the time (:1). But David feels God has been like this to him in this life (<a href='B:100 22:3'>2Sa 22:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:2'>Psa 18:2</a>; <a href='B:230 46:7'>Psa 46:7</a>; <a href='B:230 48:3'>Psa 48:3</a>; <a href='B:230 59:9'>Psa 59:9</a>; <a href='B:230 59:16-17'>Psa 59:16-17</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 94:22'>Psa 94:22</a>; <a href='B:230 144:2'>Psa 144:2</a>). He therefore sees a seamless experience in his relationship with God in this life, and at the future day of judgment. God saves us right now and is a refuge for us in countless life situations; and this is the guarantee that He will be likewise at the last day.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My God will go before me with His grace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was inside his house surrounded by his enemies (:1), and escaped through a window. As he planned the escape, he believed that God’s grace would go before him. At the end of his life he appears to reflect upon this incident, glorying that although he was "compassed about" with the threat of death, seeing the house was surrounded by Saul's men intending to kill him; yet God’s grace had somehow gone before David and prepared a way of escape (<a href='B:230 18:5'>Psa 18:5</a>; <a href='B:230 18:18'>Psa 18:18</a> s:w:).</p><p>Psalm 18 speaks of a time when David is surrounded but miraculously delivered by an eartquake. We wonder whether this applies to the time when he was surrounded by Saul's men in his home with Michal. The house was surrounded, but Michal let him down out of a window and he escaped. How come, if the house was surrounded? An earthquake would explain how this was possible: "The cords of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The cords of Sheol were around me, the snares of death came on me [all referring to Saul's men surrounding his house]... Then the earth shook and trembled, the foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken... He sent from on high. He took me [Ps. 59:1 "lift me on high from those who rise up against me"], He delivered me from my strong enemy [Saul] [Ps. 59:1 "Deliver me from my enemies"], from those who hated me [Saul's men surrounding his house]; for they were too mighty for me. They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support. He brought me forth also into a large place [David fled to Samuel]. He delivered me, because He delighted in me. Yahweh has judged me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands has He recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God [Ps. 59:3,4"not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh. I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me"]" (Ps. 18:4,5,7,16-21).</p><p>
The idea is as in LXX that God's mercy goes before David. This is prevenient grace, the idea that God is already there and His grace has gone before us. David displays such faith by saying this, surrounded and trapped as he was my men intent on killing him. Ps. 21:3 has this same idea of God's grace being prevenient, going before us, just as predestination and calling from the beginning is cited by Paul as the parade example of God's grace: "For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head".
</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God will let me look at my enemies in triumph-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>AV "See my desire upon my enemies". David’s desire to see his enemies condemned seems to sharply contradict the Father who has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (<a href='B:330 33:11'>Eze 33:11</a>).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t kill them immediately, or my people may forget. Scatter them by Your power-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David wanted them to be destroyed (:13), but he wanted them to be scattered and then destroyed, so that their doom would be a lesson to as many people as possible. This was what happened to God’s apostate people- they were scattered as a lesson to the nations. This is an allusion to Cain being told he would not die immediately but rather would wander until his death- just as David wishes Saul's men would wander in the darkness of condemnation (:14). </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And bring them down-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The phrase is usually used by David to mean 'bring them down to the grave'. David is seeking to invert Saul's command to bring David up to him to be killed- up the hill to the upper town in Gibeah where Saul's palace was. David sees the descend of Saul's men from the palace down to his house as God bringing them down- to condemnation.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Lord our shield-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Another allusion to the promise that God would be a shield to Abraham and his seed. The promises to Abraham were continually appealed to by David in his times of crises. David surely had in mind how he had turned down Saul's offer of a shield, and had slain Goliath who had a shield. He is asking God to come through for him again, as He did against Goliath. We too are led to build on previous experiences of God's activity for us.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the sin of their mouth, and the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rather, "the sin of their mouth is each word of their lips". See on :7. As the Lord taught, by our words we are justified or condemned. We note how "sin" and "words" are paralleled. Pride and words spoken are the basis for their condemnation- things which would be shrugged off merely as surface level weakness by many today.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the curses and lies which they utter-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There were no expletives used in ancient languages. The curses they uttered were imprecations for Divine judgment upon David; and he asks for these curses to come true for them. But again we note the lack of grace and desire for their repentance on David’s part. Although unrecorded in the historical record, Saul would have justified his demand for David to be arrested and slain by various untrue lies about him. Backed up by curses. We note that instead of directly requesting their destruction, David asks God to let his enemies be caught up in their own pride and words, and thereby to condemn themselves. The Lord possibly alludes here in teaching that by their own words men are condemned or saved.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Consume them in wrath, consume them, and they will be no more. Let them know that God rules in Jacob, to the ends of the earth. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that he wanted the God of Jacob to be known as king throughout the eretz promised to Abraham. He wished for the Kingdom, the dominion of the king, to be known within that entire territory. And David considered that the destruction of the wicked would achieve this. It is perhaps intentionally ambiguous as to whether David wanted them to finally "know that God rules", rather than Saul ruling, as meaning he wanted them to repent- or whether he wanted them to realize all too late, in their condemnation, that "God rules". It appears from :14,15 that the latter is how David saw it. And such wishing of condemnation upon men seems to me quite wrong. </p><p>
The connection is clear with 1 Sam. 17:46, where David said he would "give the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel". Clearly David was inspired by memory of his victory over Goliath.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>At evening let them return. Let them howl like a dog, and go around the city-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This repeats :6. What they had done, acting like wandering dogs in the darkness, is here what David wishes upon them in the future day of judgment. As they acted like dogs wandering around the town and his property, so he wishes them the wandering of condemnation. The allusion is to Cain who also didn't die immediately but wandered around. As punishment for slaying Abel in jealousy. So by wandering around the town like dogs on the scent of meat, i.e. David, they were living out their condemnation. David's attitude was far from right bit yet he sung this to the tune of Do Not Destroy. Saul's life was precious in his sight. His wrath and his saving grace and love were in conflict, but love and grace won out. In this sense David had God's heart, for Hosea shows us that He feels the same struggle.</p><p> The ecclesia in the wilderness were ‘types of us’. They were rejected from entry into the Kingdom; and when that finally sunk in, they “returned [s:w. convert, turn back] and wept before the Lord; but the Lord would not hearken to your voice” (<a href='B:50 1:45'>Deu 1:45</a>). The rejected will “return [s:w. convert] at evening: they make a noise like a dog [whining for acceptance], and go round about the city [cp. the foolish virgins knocking on the closed door]”. This is the picture of <a href='B:730 22:15'>Rev 22:15</a>, where the dogs wander outside the closed city of Zion. The language here repeats that of :6. This was a description of Saul's men prowling around the city, ensuring David didn’t escape (:1). But the language is repeated here in :14, but with the Hebrew suggesting they would be made to do this again- in the condemnation of the last day. As they had prowled around the perimeters of the city like dogs, so they would be thrown out of Zion in the last day and wander in the darkness of rejection and condemnation. The idea is that they were living out their own condemnation. Their hatred of their brother led them to act out ahead of time the condemnation of the wicked. Just as John says that those who hate their brother walk in darkness, and darkness means condemnation at the last day.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They shall wander up and down for food, and howl all night because they aren’t satisfied-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was confident that God would deliver him from his encirclement, and that all who were out watching for him that night would find he had escaped and be "not satisfied". But he sees this as looking forward to their ultimate disappointment in the condemnation of the last day; see on :14. The lack of "satisfaction" is a major theme in the descriptions of condemnation for those who break the covenant (s:w. <a href='B:30 26:26'>Lev 26:26</a>). And it is the principle we must live by today; that the only satisfaction is in the things of God’s Kingdom. Even in this life, the eye is not "satisfied" with seeing or wealth (s:w. <a href='B:240 27:20'>Pro 27:20</a>; <a href='B:250 1:8'>Ecc 1:8</a>; <a href='B:250 4:8'>Ecc 4:8</a>; <a href='B:250 5:10'>Ecc 5:10</a>). And those who seek such satisfaction from those things will find that dissatisfaction is the lead characteristic of their condemnation (<a href='B:230 59:15'>Psa 59:15</a>). Tragically Solomon knew the truth of all this but lived otherwise; just as so many do who give lip service to the idea that the things of the flesh cannot satisfy.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But I will sing of Your strength. Yes, I will sing aloud of Your grace in the morning. For You have been my high tower, a refuge in the day of my distress-</p><h2>"In the morning", David had escaped (1 Sam. 19:12), and  "sang of God’s mercy" at Ramah with Samuel. David escaped by night from his house when surrounded by Saul's men (:1). This Psalm is his confident prayer before escaping out of the window. He was confident that by morning he would be safe and able to praise God for the deliverance. But the words also have generic reference to how David’s first waking moments were naturally of prayer to God. And this is our pattern. He often mentions his habit of regular prayer morning and evening (<a href='B:230 5:3'>Psa 5:3</a>; <a href='B:230 55:17'>Psa 55:17</a>; <a href='B:230 59:16'>Psa 59:16</a>; <a href='B:230 88:3'>Psa 88:3</a>; <a href='B:230 119:147'>Psa 119:147</a>). This&nbsp; should not have to be enforced upon us, but rather the natural outcome of a life lived in constant connection with God. David perceived that the Mosaic ritual of morning and evening sacrifice taught the sacrifice of prayer should be made in daily life, even though at the time of many of the Psalms, David was exiled from the sanctuary. This exile from organized religion led him to make this connection, as it can for us too.</h2>


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<h2>For the Chief Musician. To the tune of The Lily of the Covenant. A teaching poem by David, when he fought with Aram Naharaim and with Aram Zobah, and Joab returned, and killed twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God not going out with Israel's armies, and their turning back from their enemies at this time (:10; <a href='B:230 44:10'>Psa 44:10</a>), is all the language of the punishments for Israel breaking the covenant. The conflict with Edom is in 2 Sam. 8, immediately after the covenant with David. It's as if David is being warned that despite having the covenant, he is not invincible. He is being reminded that his people as a whole were not faithful to the Mosaic covenant.  But this Psalms 60 is a celebration of victory; a victory given because they had kept the covenant (:1). So the idea may be that David saw in the victory that now Israel were back in covenant relationship with Yahweh. Hence it is "to the tune of The Lily of the Covenant". God's grace was being extended; those who had broken covenant were being treated as if they had kept it. But having received the huge grace of the Davidic covenant, David was being reminded that covenant relationship was indeed by grace. This is indeed, as the title says, "A teaching poem by [or for] David".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God, You have rejected us. You have broken us down, You have been angry. Restore us again-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm is clearly related to Psalms 44, which appears to be a comment upon a temporary set back and defeat during this campaign against Edom. But despite this, the Psalm glorifies how God had come through for His people, despite the temporary reverses. See on :10,11.</p><p>I have discussed on 2 Sam. 8:1 how the major defeat in Edom is glossed over there in order to make David appear victorious all around him. The extent of the initial defeat may be hinted at in 1 Kings 11:15,16: "When David was in Edom, and Joab the captain of the army was gone up to bury the slain, and had struck every male in Edom (for Joab and all Israel remained there six months, until he had cut off every male in Edom)". This seems to say that Joab went to bury the slain of Israel, and at that slain in a great defeat, and at that time he remained six months subduing the Edomites with the victory which Psalm 60 later celebrates. </p>


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<h2>You have made the land tremble, You have torn it. Mend its fractures, for it quakes-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Fractures" is "breaches", and we wonder whether the Psalm was rewritten or reapplied with relevance to the exiles. A case can be made that the whole of book 3 of the Psalter (Psalms 73-89) was written / edited in Babylon. The Psalms of Korah (83-87) seem to reflect the longing of the righteous remnant in Babylon for the temple services. And it is just possible that the entire Psalter was re-edited there in Babylon, under inspiration- for so many Psalms have elements of appropriacy to the exiles in Babylon and the restoration. The LXX titles of Psalms 56 [“Concerning the people that were removed from the Sanctuary”] and 71 [“Of the sons of Jonadab, and the first that were taken captive”] speak for themselves. Likewise the LXX attributes Psalms 146-148 to Haggai and Zechariah. Even Psalms 60, whose title apparently refers to David, is full of reference to the exiles: "O God, You have scattered us [recognizing God’s hand in the Babylonian scattering of Judah]; O restore us again [RV]"; to which God responds that the land is in fact His and His alone (<a href='B:230 60:6-9'>Psa 60:6-9</a>), i:e. Judah did not in His eyes belong to the Babylonian nor Persian empires. The request for God to "heal the breaches" (<a href='B:230 60:2'>Psa 60:2</a>) was answered in that God raised up Ezra and Nehemiah with the potential power to indeed mend the breaches in Jerusalem and the temple.</p>


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<h2>You have shown Your people hard things, You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Taking the cup of wine is a double symbol: of blessing (<a href='B:530 10:16'>1Co 10:16</a>; <a href='B:530 11:25'>1Co 11:25</a>), and of condemnation (<a href='B:230 60:3'>Psa 60:3</a>; <a href='B:230 75:8'>Psa 75:8</a>; <a href='B:290 51:17'>Isa 51:17</a>; <a href='B:300 25:15'>Jer 25:15</a>; <a href='B:730 14:10'>Rev 14:10</a>; <a href='B:730 16:19'>Rev 16:19</a>). Why this use of a double symbol? Surely the Lord designed this sacrament in order to highlight the two ways which are placed before us by taking that cup: it is either to our blessing, or to our condemnation. Each breaking of bread is a further stage along one of those two roads. The relevance of this to the exiles is that indeed they had been shown hard things and had drunk the wine of condemnation, 'staggering' as a result of the invasion (<a href='B:290 29:9'>Isa 29:9</a>). They themselves were stiffnecked (s:w. "hard"), and reaped an appropriate judgment.</p><p>In the immediate context, David and his future Messianic Son have just received the amazing promises of 2 Sam. 7 but perhaps the point is that "Your people" were not faithful and actually through the defeat in Edom were given the cup of condemnation to drink. The fact they were later given victory, as Psalm 60 and 2 Sam. 8 mention, was by absolute grace to those who had just been condemned. David is also being nudged that he is not invincible because he has been given God's grace, and his failure with Bathsheba suggests he failed to grasp this still.</p>


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<h2>You have given a banner to those who fear You, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The truth" is a reference to the covenant; see on :1. The poles or banners of the Israelite army were in the name of that covenant. But there is a deeper, Messianic connection between "the truth" and the banner or pole. This is another link between the concept of ‘truth’ and the cross. In <a href='B:230 60:4'>Psa 60:4</a> God’s Truth is displayed on the banner (s:w. “pole”, on which the snake was lifted up). John struggled with words, even under inspiration, to get over to us the tremendous truth and reality of what he witnessed at the cross (<a href='B:500 19:35'>Joh 19:35</a>). God is the ultimate Truth, and the cross was the ultimate declaration of His Truth.</p><p>In the immediate context, the "truth", the covenant, was the basis of deliverance / salvation (:5), and, as it were, carrying this banner, Israel again went into battle against Edom despite their huge losses. But which covenant? Possibly the covenant David has just received. This verse doesn't mean that we go on crusades in the name of "truth"; but that a humiliated people of God, defeated after trusting in their own strength, now go to battle again- but this time trusting in the "mercy / grace and truth" of the covenant that saves (:5). Much of this Psalm 60 is repeated in Psalm 108 as a victory song. Likewise in Psalm 44. The war with Edom clearly had a far larger dimension than the simple note in 2 Samuel 8 that David defeated Edom. He did, but after a stunning defeat, and an amazing victory by God's grace alone, for which David gave ample thanks in at least three Psalms, 44,60 and 108. </p>


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<h2>So that Your beloved may be delivered, save with Your right hand, and answer us-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The beloved of Yahweh" was Israel nationally (s:w. <a href='B:50 33:12'>Deu 33:12</a>; <a href='B:300 11:15'>Jer 11:15</a>; <a href='B:300 12:7'>Jer 12:7</a>). But it was also David personally; <a href='B:230 108:6'>Psa 108:6</a> has the same words, but concludes "and answer me". A Psalm about David’s personal deliverance is extended to all Israel. David saw himself as representative of God’s people. It could be that Solomon is in view also; for his original name was Jedidiah (<a href='B:100 12:25'>2Sa 12:25</a>), 'the beloved of Yahweh', referred to in that way by David in <a href='B:230 45:1'>Psa 45:1</a>. Perhaps Solomon was involved in the battle against the Edomites and David is asking for his son to be preserved. So we see here how David conflated the promises about his Messianic son with himself personally and all Israel. And it led to disappointment when Israel were initially defeated by Edom.</p>


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<h2>God has spoken from His sanctuary: I will triumph. I will divide Shechem, and measure out the valley of Succoth-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Presumably there was a direct Divine communication from the sanctuary, perhaps through the mouth of Nathan, encouraging Israel to continue in the Edom campaign despite the reverses experienced (see on Psalms 44). The idea of 'division' and 'measuring' is 'possession' and inheritance (as <a href='B:60 18:10'>Jos 18:10</a>). The idea therefore is that Israel is God’s, and He had given it to Israel for inheritance; therefore those seeking to take it from them would be defeated. Perhaps Succoth and Shechem are mentioned because of their connections with Jacob, mentioned together in <a href='B:10 33:17-18'>Gen 33:17-18</a>. As He had been with Jacob, despite allowing him to experience many setbacks and near defeats, so He would be with the later seed of Israel. Or perhaps the idea is that territory on both the right and left hand of the Jordan river was God's and His land. </p><p>
Possibly David's "measuring" of the Moabites in 2 Sam. 8:2 is to be connected with this assurance that God will measure out an inheritance for Israel.  </p>


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<h2>Gilead is Mine and Manasseh is Mine. Ephraim also is the helmet of My head. Judah is My sceptre-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The emphasis is that the land belongs to God, it "is Mine"; therefore those seeking to take it from God’s people. would be defeated. Gilead and Manasseh represent the territory east of the Jordan; and Ephraim and Judah refer to the tribes west of the Jordan. The territories east of the Jordan just as much were God’s as those to the west of it; for the Edomites were seeking to take firstly the Israelite territory east of the Jordan.</p>


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<h2>Moab is My wash basin. I will throw My shoe on Edom, I shout in triumph over Philistia-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They were to become subservient to Yahweh. And that could imply that the hope was that they would accept Him as their God. For that was what conquered peoples usually did. David had earlier shouted in triumph over the Philistines when he slew Goliath; and that was to prepare him for this later victory. Circumstances repeat in our lives because they are under God’s control. 2 Samuel 8 records David's victories against these three- Moab, Edom and the Philistines. After this defeat by Edom, he was being encouraged to go to battle in faith in God's grace as expressed in the covenant. LXX "the Philistines have been subjected to me" fits the chronology of 2 Sam. 8, where David first defeats Gath and the Philistines before Edom.</p>


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<h2>Who will bring me into the strong city? Who has led me to Edom?- </h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Strong city" can mean the fortified, strengthened city under siege (<a href='B:120 25:2'>2Ki 25:2</a> s:w:). The reference may be to Sela or Petra, Edom's capital, which claimed to be fortified against any invader (<a href='B:380 1:3'>Oba 1:3</a>). David seems to be arguing that the Messiah would conquer Edom (Num. 24:18). But he is surprised and even angry that God has not given him victory initially over Edom (:10). The problem was that he had failed to give due weight to the promises to him being about his son, the Lord Jesus. Instead he too quickly assumed that the promises of the Kingdom of God must be about him. Just as we all have a tendency to stray from total focus upon the Lord Jesus and to want it all about me in the right here and now.</p>


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<h2>Haven’t You, God, rejected us? You don’t go out with our armies, God-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm is clearly related to Psalms 44, which appears to be a comment upon a temporary set back and defeat during this campaign against Edom. But despite this, the Psalm glorifies how God had come through for His people, despite the temporary reverses. So this comment that God has rejected them would be looking back to how they once felt; for this Psalm is a victory song over Edom after defeating them (:1).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God not going out with Israel's armies, and their turning back from their enemies at this time (<a href='B:230 44:10'>Psa 44:10</a>), is all the language of the punishments for Israel breaking the covenant. But this Psalms 60 is a celebration of victory; a victory given because they had kept the covenant (:1). So the idea may be that David saw in the victory that now Israel were back in covenant relationship with Yahweh.</p>


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<h2>Give us help against the adversary, for the help of man is vain-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Perhas a reference to some attempt to hire mercenaries to help them in the campaign against Edom.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>From the end of the land I will call to You when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although this is a Psalm of David (:1) it clearly has reference to the captives who were located at "the end of the land" / eretz promised to Abraham. He feels his own mental ("heart") and physical ("rock") strength has been overwhelmed and so he throws himself upon God. We too are brought to realize our own lack of human strength so that we might more powerfully turn to God. The rock higher than David was ultimately God, but he may also have in view the rock of mount Zion. In Absalom's time, this would have been where the sanctuary was, which he so hankered to return to.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You have been a refuge for me, a strong tower from the enemy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David often takes strength from God’s previous deliverances to cope with whatever he was now facing (<a href='B:230 61:3'>Psa 61:3</a>). This may sound natural, but in fact it isn't; because we are inclined to forget the great things He has done for us, as Israel did in the desert.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will dwell in Your tent forever, I will take refuge in the shelter of Your wings. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Clearly David longed to be back in the sanctuary. But he feels that he is in fact underneath the cherubim wings over the ark, with the glory of God above him and the blood of atonement beneath him. And he realized that whether or not in this life he ever got back to the sanctuary, he would eternally dwell in God’s tabernacle. The High Priest alone could nervously enter the Most Holy and sprinkle the blood of atonement beneath the wings of the cherubim- for just a few moments, once a year, on the day of Atonement. Aware of Israel's sins and his own sins, aware that he was before the very presence of God's glory, with a rope tied to his ankle so he could be pulled out of the Most Holy should he stumble. This rather speaks of our own highest moments of intimacy with God. We know this shall not last, the intense peaks are just that, peaks, that subside into the mire of mediocrity. We like David can look forward to living in Yahweh's tent / Most Holy presence all the time, "for ever". This to me is the greatest aspect of our future salvation. The way there has been opened with the tearing down of the veil, due to the Lord's death. For David, this ultimate future hope provided perspective on his immediate crises.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You, God, have heard my vows-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Vows were made as promises to do things for God if He came through for you. So this still suggests that David was too works based in his attitude.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> This seems another appeal to the promises to Abraham. The inheritance promised to Abraham's seed was to be experienced by David.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You will prolong the king’s life; his years shall be for generations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If this Psalm originally came from the wilderness years when David was not yet king, then this reflects his deep faith in Samuel's words that he should be king. Or if the Psalm has application to Absalom's rebellion and David’s exile then, we could then detect an allusion to the promises to David in 2 Samuel 7. He saw that they implied his own eternity. Perhaps by "the king" he therefore has in view the Messianic king from his seed, rather than himself. The prospect of eternity, of the Kingdom established on earth, is for all believers the perspective on current exiles and rejections.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He shall be enthroned in God’s presence forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whilst on the run from Saul, David was clinging on to his faith that he would in fact one day be king. But he goes beyond that to focus on the fact that what he really wanted more than anything was eternally reigning in God's Kingdom. We also need a kingdom perspective on whatever we so beg God for in this life. We believe we will indeed receive it, but that is nuanced by the ultimate desire- of eternity in God's Kingdom.
As disussed on :4, David's line of thought was on the ark of the covenant, and him as it were dwelling on the mercy seat [the lid of the ark], beneath the cherubic wings, covered with the blood of atonement. We can read his reference to being 'enthroned' in the same context, for the mercy seat was as it were the throne upon which God sat in glory. Gpd's kingship and glory was to be eternally David's, as it can be for all of us who are now "in" His Son. 
This surely alludes to the word in the promises to David that his throne would be established "in the presence" (<a href='B:100 7:16'>2Sa 7:16</a>). The translations tend to add "in your presence", but the grammar is indeterminate. It could as well mean in God’s presence, and this is how David interprets it here in <a href='B:230 61:7'>Psa 61:7</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Appoint Your grace and truth that they may preserve him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This prayer for the "king" in the third person may read strangely. Perhaps David speaks of himself as king in the third person because at the time he wrote the Psalm he was not actually king. Or if he has his future eternity in view, or that of his Messianic seed, that had also not yet begun. But he believed that "grace and truth", a term often used about God’s promises, would bring about the fulfilment of those promises.  "Grace and truth" suggests that God's grace is the ultimate truth. David was way ahead of his time in appreciating this; for "the law came by Moses, but grace and truth through Jesus Christ" (Jn. 1:14,17). He had the spirit of Christ, even though the Lord didn't physically exist at his time.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul rests in God alone. My salvation is from Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :4 and elsewhere, the Psalm seems relevant to David’s betrayal by Doeg, Ahithophel and Absalom. He emphasizes that God alone can save; seeing he has been stabbed in the back by those he considered his own family and friends. The Hebrew is literally "My soul is silent in God alone". Perhaps the idea is as in Ps. 65:2 "to You, silence is praise". This is proof for all time that praise doesn't have to mean singing or audible music. The word for "salvation" occurs six times. The essence of the Psalm is man's desire for Yah's salvation being met in Jesus, Yahoshua.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had a stronghold [s.w. fortress] in the cave of Adullam. But he was told by the prophet Gad to leave it and go into Judah, which seemed totally counter instinctive. As soon as David does this, his location is reported to Saul- but all this was to teach him that God was his stronghold / fortress, and Psalm 62 is perhaps his reflection upon that, leading him to conclude that God alone is his stronghold (1 Sam. 22:4-6). But David only got to that realization of Ps. 62:2 through losing his natural stronghold. We may lose a home, a relationship, use of a body part... all under God's hand, to bring us to Him. </p><p>"Alone" is related to the word for "one". Because God is one, the only source of power, we are to trust in Him alone. Here we see the meaning of the unity of God in practice. David sees that Yahweh will be a "high tower" or place of refuge at the day of future judgment (<a href='B:230 9:8-9'>Psa 9:8-9</a>, quoted about this in <a href='B:510 17:31'>Act 17:31</a>). But David feels God has been like this to him in this life (<a href='B:100 22:3'>2Sa 22:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:2'>Psa 18:2</a>; <a href='B:230 46:7'>Psa 46:7</a>; <a href='B:230 48:3'>Psa 48:3</a>; <a href='B:230 59:9'>Psa 59:9</a>; <a href='B:230 59:16-17'>Psa 59:16-17</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 94:22'>Psa 94:22</a>; <a href='B:230 144:2'>Psa 144:2</a>). He therefore sees a seamless experience in his relationship with God in this life, and at the future day of judgment. God saves us right now and is a refuge for us in countless life situations; and this is the guarantee that He will be likewise at the last day.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will never be greatly shaken-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s faith grows as his prayer goes on, for by :6 he is saying that he will not be shaken at all. And so we find in our prayer experience too; the process of prayer is such that we rise from our knees far stronger in faith and clarity of spiritual understanding than when we knelt down. This is the path of prayer, beginning in weakness and becoming stronger as our prayer proceeds. Heb. "I shall not falter greatly" could suggest David thought that small sins were not of great consequence. And this attitude led him to his great sin.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>How long will you assault a man, would all of you throw him down, like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "assault" would refer to their intentions (:4) and words. David sees their attitudes and words for what they really were. David feels his power is tottering, but is angry they seek to push him over.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They fully intend to throw him down from his high place-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference is to a plot to cast David down from the kingship, so the context is likely Absalom's rebellion. Yet David had been told that he would suffer trouble from within his own family as a result of his sin with Bathsheba. But now he experiences it, like so many, he bitterly complains about it. There is never any pause to confess that he was indeed deserving of it. "From his high place" is better "from his honour". David, like everyone especially at that time, feared shame and loss of honour as a fate worse than death. Yet after what he had done with Bathsheba and Uriah... how could he so fear this, if he were permanently repentant? Perhaps however we see his struggle against this native pride in the LXX renditions of :1,5: "Shall not my soul be subjected to God?... Nevertheless do thou, my soul, be subjected to God". In this case, in his self talk, David is telling himself to be more humble and to be "silent" despite wanting to speak out to defend his honour (:5). In :7 he asks God to be "my honour". Every spiritual man knows this struggle, the self talk required against the feelings and voices of pride within us. This is the real spiritual battle- within the mind, and not against some mythical external entity. The real satan / adversary is within the mind. And David's internal mind battles recorded in the Psalms, which are largely his self-talk, are perhaps the most extensive evidence of this in the Bible.</p><p>"Fully intend" is s:w. "counsel", the word used of Ahithophel, David’s counsellor who was Bathsheba's grandfather, who later betrayed him and turned against him (<a href='B:100 15:12'>2Sa 15:12</a>; <a href='B:100 16:23'>2Sa 16:23</a>). Perhaps David is commenting upon Ahithophel's counsel to Absalom which was designed to destroy him. See on <a href='B:230 32:8'>Psa 32:8</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They delight in lies; they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We may well enquire how David thought he knew the state of heart [AV "inward part"] of his enemies (<a href='B:230 5:9'>Psa 5:9</a>; <a href='B:230 36:1'>Psa 36:1</a>; <a href='B:230 49:11'>Psa 49:11</a>; <a href='B:230 62:4'>Psa 62:4</a>; <a href='B:230 64:6'>Psa 64:6</a>). 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 (<a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a> s:w: where David realized God desires truth "inwardly", in the inward parts). His enemies were impenitent, and so perhaps on that basis he knew what was in their hearts. The same idea is found in Ps. 55:21, which clearly refers to the behaviour of Absalom and Ahithophel: "His mouth was smooth as butter, but his heart was war. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords". And yet Uriah could have said all these things about David. David so often rants at the fact his enemies are liars, but his failures surrounding Uriah and Bathsheba were of lying. </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul, wait in silence for God alone, for my expectation is from Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here again we have an example of David's self talk, which in fact comprises much of his Psalms. He tells himself to quieten down into silence, and hope and expect help from God alone. Rather like we may tell ourselves in crises to not trust in insurance, emergency services, friends... but ultimately, in God alone. <p><p>Again we note that "alone" is related to the word for "one". The unity of God implies our total trust in Him alone. And we have another example of how within prayer (for this Psalm is a prayer) we can deviate from talking to God, to addressing ourselves within our own self talk. This is the stuff of real spiritual mindedness. David’s "expectation" in the context of <a href='B:230 62:5'>Psa 62:5</a> was the continuation of his own kingdom, despite all the threats against it from the likes of Saul, Absalom and others who would usurp his Davidic kingship and kingdom. Solomon likely uses the word for "expectation" with the same subtext; that all opposition to him was based upon a false expectation which would be dashed by God (s:w. <a href='B:240 10:28'>Pro 10:28</a>; <a href='B:240 11:7'>Pro 11:7</a>; <a href='B:240 11:23'>Pro 11:23</a>; <a href='B:240 23:18'>Pro 23:18</a>; <a href='B:240 24:14'>Pro 24:14</a>). The hope or expectation of David was that of all exiled Judah (s:w. <a href='B:300 31:17'>Jer 31:17</a>; <a href='B:310 3:29'>Lam 3:29</a>):&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I will not be shaken-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As in :2, God's salvation is the basis for feelings of stability. Indeed Yahoshua, Yah's salvation, Jesus, is the rock of stability. But only is we are totally persuaded of our final, future salvation in Him will we experience this stability.
As his prayer develops, David moves from saying that he will not be very greatly moved (:2) to saying he will not be moved [so LXX] / shaken at all. This is the path of prayer that we often see in David, and should experience ourselves. Persuading ourselves deeper as we pray. But we could argue that this is an unrealistic and even narcissistic claim, for every man apart from the Lord Jesus is regularly "moved" or shaken from total faith. 
David in his earlier Psalms exalts and boasts to God that his feet have not slipped / been shaken, indeed he was overly confident that his feet would never slip / "be shaken" (<a href='B:230 17:5'>Psa 17:5</a>; <a href='B:230 21:7'>Psa 21:7</a>; <a href='B:230 55:22'>Psa 55:22</a>; <a href='B:230 62:2'>Psa 62:2</a>; <a href='B:230 62:6'>Psa 62:6</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>). His more mature reflection is that he had wrongly said "I shall never slip [AV "be moved"]" (<a href='B:230 30:6'>Psa 30:6</a>), and his feet had indeed slipped, not least over the Bathsheba incident (<a href='B:230 38:16'>Psa 38:16</a>; <a href='B:230 94:18'>Psa 94:18</a>). But now he returns to his old failure, writing some time after the Bathsheba incident, proclaiming that he shall never be moved. Or this could simply be how it is in spiritual life; at times we are rightly aware of our possibility of slipping, other times we rejoice that God is keeping our feet from falling. Solomon didn’t learn this lesson, for he likewise assumed that the righteous would never be moved / slip (<a href='B:240 10:30'>Pro 10:30</a>), although he appears to accept that even a righteous man like his father had indeed slipped (<a href='B:240 25:26'>Pro 25:26</a>). And Solomon himself did so, not learning the lesson from his father’s mistaken assumption that the righteous can never slip.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>With God is my salvation and my honour. The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The continued language of rocks and caves is appropriate to David in the wilderness, running either from Saul or Absalom.</p><p>In the shame based society of his time, David was often [wrongly] concerned about his shame. He trusts that God would be his "honour", his "glory" (AV), the restorer of him from the shame of sin, failure, his failed family and temporarily lost throne. This continual concern he has for his "honour" reflects a lack of appreciation of the consequences of his sins with Bathsheba and Uriah. And yet in the same breath he speaks of God as his salvation, as if he not only has immediate salvation in view but the ultimate salvation. For that is when the righteous shall inherit glory, not now. But then, all men shall bow before the judgment seat, in shame at their sins.
Our salvation being "with God" suggests there is an individual salvation for each of us. The Lord speaks of returning with rewards with Him, appropriate response for every man's works and unique life path. This is the "hope laid up in heaven" which Paul speaks of (Col. 1:5). The LXX helps us here. Verse 7 reads "he is the God of my help, and my hope is in God", but then :8 goes on to say that God is to be the help and hope of all His people: "Hope in him, all you congregation of the people... for God is our helper". David saw himself as representative of all God's people, and this is how Paul presents him in Romans.  
</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Trust in Him at all times, you people-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David's line of thought now quickly moves from telling himself to trust in God (:7) to urging the whole world to do so. And this is the basis of our witness and evangelism to the world- the message flows from what we ourselves have come to believe in our own hearts.  Having just stated that God is his personal refuge (:7), David now urges all men to believe God is our refuge. "At all times" is quite a challenge- to consistently trust God "at all times", in all situations, and not just those desperate ones or ones which nudge us specifically towards faith in God.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us. Selah-</p><h2>David knew his sinfulness, he knew his reliance upon the grace of God, more and more as he got older. For this Psalm clearly has some relevance to his situation whilst fleeing from Absalom. One would have thought that after the Bathsheba incident, David would have kept his mouth shut so far as telling other people how to live was concerned. But instead, we find an increasing emphasis in the Psalms (chronologically) upon David’s desire to teach others of God’s ways- particularly the surrounding Gentile peoples, before whom David had been disgraced over Bathsheba, not to mention from his two faced allegiance to Achish (<a href='B:90 27:8-12'>1Sa 27:8-12</a>). There is real stress upon this evangelistic fervour of David (<a href='B:230 4:3'>Psa 4:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:49'>Psa 18:49</a>; <a href='B:230 22:25'>Psa 22:25</a>; <a href='B:230 22:31'>Psa 22:31</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 40:9-10'>Psa 40:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 57:9'>Psa 57:9</a>; <a href='B:230 62:8'>Psa 62:8</a>; <a href='B:230 66:5'>Psa 66:5</a>; <a href='B:230 66:16'>Psa 66:16</a>; <a href='B:230 95:1'>Psa 95:1</a>; <a href='B:230 95:8'>Psa 95:8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:5-8'>Psa 96:5-8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:10'>Psa 96:10</a>; <a href='B:230 100:1-4'>Psa 100:1-4</a>; <a href='B:230 105:1-2'>Psa 105:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 119:27'>Psa 119:27</a>; <a href='B:230 145:5-6'>Psa 145:5-6</a>; <a href='B:230 145:12'>Psa 145:12</a>). He wants others to find God a "refuge for us" as He had been for David. Indeed, <a href='B:230 71:18'>Psa 71:18</a> records the "old and greyheaded" David pleading with God not to die until he had taught "thy strength unto this generation". As with Paul years later, the only reason he wanted to stay alive was in order to witness the Gospel of grace to others. David&nbsp;therefore coped with his deep inner traumas by looking out of himself to those around him, eagerly desiring to share with them the pureness of God’s grace. He didn’t do this as some kind of self-help psychiatry; it came naturally from a realization of his own sinfulness and God’s mercy, and the wonderful willingness&nbsp;of God to extend this to men.</p><p>GNB "Tell him all your troubles" is what David himself is doing here, and does so often in his psalms. For him, prayer was a telling God... about life. Pouring out the heart to God may mean an openness and freedom in prayer to express to God all your feelings, your sufferings and distress. Which is exactly how David prayed to God, holding nothing back. If he felt bitter and cranky about someone, he told God, even if later he regretted and reneged upon those feelings [we think of his death wishes for his son Absalom which he expresses to God freely]. </h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up; they are together lighter than a breath-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David eagerly looks forward to the judgment seat (<a href='B:230 62:9'>Psa 62:9</a> Revelation , 12) as a source of comfort in his present distress. Those whom he had trusted in had betrayed him, whatever their social status. But David reasons further to perceive that in fact this is how all men are. These ideas are repeated in the context of the exiles, encouraging them that literally all men, even the great and might of the Babylonian-Persian empire, are too light to influence the balances of Divine judgment (<a href='B:290 40:15'>Isa 40:15</a>).</p><p>The idea seems as in GNB: "great and small alike are worthless. Put them on the scales, and they weigh nothing; they are lighter than a mere breath". If all were to be placed on a balance scale, their weight would be equal to that of their vanities in the other scale. Man is his vanities, he is no heavier than them. They would be equal. Or the idea may sarcastically be that even a puff of breath on the other scale would be heavier than them, and would make their scale "go up". And yet light things, the things of vanity, are glorified in our world in the name of culture or achievement. They are wrongly weighted. They are a "lie" in that they are false weights, appearing heavier than they are. Hence LXX "the sons of men are false, so as to be deceitful in the balances". We see here how David is ever aware of God's ongoing judgment. The balances are now operating, and man is being weighed. And this was a comfort to him. The final day of judgment will be merely an expression of how God's ongoing judgment has been. Indeed that final day of judgment is really for our benefit. The weighing up of each case is going on now; the day of judgment will simply publically declare the verdict. And "we make the answer now".</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t trust in oppression, don’t become vain in robbery-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This seems to have been a characteristic of the reigns of Saul and Absalom. But the language of oppression and robbery is often used in the prophets concerning the leadership of God’s people at later points (<a href='B:290 30:12'>Isa 30:12</a>; <a href='B:290 59:13'>Isa 59:13</a>). This was the equivalent of how Saul oppressed David (<a href='B:230 119:121-122'>Psa 119:121-122</a>; <a href='B:230 119:134'>Psa 119:134</a>). Samuel's insistence that he has not oppressed the people is in the context of his warning that Saul would do this (<a href='B:90 12:3-4'>1Sa 12:3-4</a>). When Solomon later condemns the 'oppressors' (s:w. <a href='B:240 14:31'>Pro 14:31</a>; <a href='B:240 22:16'>Pro 22:16</a>; <a href='B:240 28:3'>Pro 28:3</a>; <a href='B:240 28:24'>Pro 28:24</a>), he has in view a wishing of judgment upon the house of Saul. "The poor" whom they had oppressed would easily refer to David (<a href='B:90 18:23'>1Sa 18:23</a>; <a href='B:230 34:6'>Psa 34:6</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If riches increase, don’t set your heart on them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The next verses explain why. Our hearts are to be set exclusively upon God and the saving power of His grace (:11,12). Increased wealth tempts people to trust in that wealth for power; but the only power is in God’s free gift of grace. Gaining wealth either dishonestly [by theft] or honestly [by wealth increasing] is nothing to be compared with God's salvation, Yeshua, the salvation of Yah. This word occurs six times in this Psalm; and that is His power and grace (:11,12). This is what our heart is to be set upon- and the essence of Yah's salvation is the Lord Jesus and the things of His Kingdom. A major theme of the Psalm is that God alone can save, the word for "alone" occurs six times (:2,3,5,6,7,10). And wealth is the usual threat to trusting God "alone".</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God has spoken once; twice I have heard this, that power belongs to God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Once... twice" appears to be a Hebraism meaning 'certainly'. "Power" is here placed in opposition to human riches and oppression (:10). The attraction of wealth is here defined as "power". And yet it is mythical that wealth can buy power, ultimately. All power is with God, and the battle is not to the strong nor the race won by the swift. The power of God is revealed above all in His grace (:12); this is His ultimate power, of an order far above human wealth.</p><p>We could translate this and :12 to the effect that God spoke once, but David heard two things. Firstly, that power belongs to God, and also, secondly, that therefore all grace belongs to God. LXX: "God has spoken once, and I have heard these two things, that power is of God; and mercy is thine, O Lord; for thou wilt recompense every one according to his works". The greatest declaration of God's power is that He, the God who judges every man according to his works, can save man- by grace. His grace is the most supreme declaration of His power, far more than anything we see in the natural creation. The sight of a huge mountain, or looking out into the vastness of the cosmos, is to be a reminder that His grace to me is even of greater power than all that.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm of David, when he was in the desert of Judah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This surely refers to David’s experience at the hands of Saul, and yet it was appropriated by him to the situation he endured in exile from Absalom.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God, You are my God; I will earnestly seek You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was fleeing from Saul, but he perceives this as a fleeing towards God, a seeking for Him. We too mush see the push factors of life as in fact pull factors towards God. This theme continues in :8 "My soul has stuck close behind You", as if David is chasing after God or is following right behind Him. The Hebrew can also mean "I will early seek You", i.e. in the morning. Later in the Psalm, David speaks of how he praises God "in the night watches" too. This around the clock awareness of God is different to the idea of appearing before God only three times / year at the feasts, which is alluded to in the commentary on :2.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This longing for God was in terms of longing to be able to worship Him again in the sanctuary, from which he was exiled during the persecution from Saul (:2). And yet he was to come to realize that there in the desert he was as much in God’s presence, even beneath the cherubim wings of the ark, as he was in the sanctuary. The same word is used of how David felt "weary" when fleeing Absalom: "The king and all the people who were with him arrived weary" (2 Sam. 16:14). For David, and for us, one wilderness experience prepares you for the next. In his case, fleeing Saul was repeated when he had to flee his own son Absalom.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So I have seen You in the sanctuary, watching Your power and Your glory-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As David had watched the glory of God and sensed His power over the ark in the sanctuary, "so" He sees God’s presence in the desert. The two clauses need inverting. He watched God's power and glory in the desert just "so" as he had once seen it in the sanctuary where the ark was. "Power and glory" are associated with the ark (1 Sam. 4:21,22 "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken"; Ps. 78:60,61 "He forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men; and delivered His strength / power into captivity, His glory into the adversary’s hand"); but David now experiences the essence of them when far away from the physical ark. Although not a Levite, the implication is that David had somehow gotten close to the ark in the Most Holy place and had seen 'power and glory' over it in physical manifestation. Now he sees that quite apart from the physical ark. Ultimately, this is why God removed the ark and the sanctuary- so that His people would forge personal relationship with Him in exile. The sanctuary was conceived of as being where the ark was, "Yahweh’s sanctuary where the ark of God was" (1 Sam. 3:3). But "let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them" (Ex. 25:8) is a reflection of Ex. 15:17, which states that actually Yahweh was making a sanctuary for Israel in the entire land promised to Abraham: "You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place, Yahweh, which You have made for yourself to dwell in; the sanctuary, Lord, which Your hands have established". Ps. 78:54 confirms this: "He brought them to the border of His sanctuary". And God's sanctuary was in fact therefore in the hearts of His people: "Judah became His sanctuary, Israel His kingdom" (Ps. 114:2). David is now coming to realize this- that the sanctuary is not just where the ark was, but anywhere in God's land. So now in Ps. 63:3 we see a spiritual development from Ps. 42:2,3 [note the same themes of thirsting for and seeking for God]: "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?", or, "come before Your face / presence". This was surely looking back to how David had obediently 'appeared before God' as all Hebrew males were to do three times / year at the feasts. David says he now has "seen" God in the desert, or come into His presence there [just as Moses did]. There David was longing to get to the sanctuary and be in God's presence, just as some who are excluded from church initially long to be back there. But he now progresses to see that he was watching God's power and glory in the desert, "so", just as, he had earlier seen it in the sanctuary. David's thirst and longing of :1 are not now for the sanctuary, but in one word, for "God", for personal connection with Him. And this in turn is a development of his thought in Ps. 68:35 "O God You are awesome from Your sanctuary", LXX "In Thy sanctuary". He now sees God's awesomeness as not being spatially limited to the sanctuary. Hence his later comment in :7 that he feels that he lives all the time on the mercy seat with the cherubic wings overshadowing him and the blood of atonement sprinkled upon him. </p><p>But David's faith in all this went up and down. In 1 Sam. 27 he decides to leave Israel and live with the Philistines, self fulfilling his complaint that Saul was driving him out of Yahweh's presence. He ought to have perceived as he did here, that Yahweh's presence was everywhere. And other Psalms reflect his sense that the sanctuary was only in a specific geographical place: "Yahweh, who shall dwell in Your sanctuary? Who shall live on Your holy hill?" (Ps. 15:1); his request that Yahweh "end you help from the sanctuary, grant you support from Zion" (Ps. 20:2) suggests that even when king, having captured Zion Hill, David assumes that the sanctuary is specifically there. Indeed, his establishment of Zion as the place for the sanctuary was not by Divine command but a result of David's personal fondness for that hill, and God went along with that as He did with putting His shekinah glory in the physical temple. At the end of his life, he became obsessed with building a temple, despite God saying He didn't want this. He had slipped towards the pole of religion, away from the pole of personal spirituality and experience of God's presence which he experiences here in Ps. 63. Indeed this Psalm appears to be the pinnacle of his personal experience of God's presence, and he somewhat goes downhill in this aspect as his own life stabilizes. For it was when he had rest from his enemies, and was no longer on the run, that he had the idea of likewise domesticating God into a specific building in a specific place. </p><p>
David was here at his peak of personal closeness to God. He saw God in the desert "as" he had experienced Him at the sanctuary. When on the run from Absalom, again into the desert, he simply laments that he so wishes he could get back to the sanctuary. He reminisces how wonderful it was to be at the tabernacle: "I remember and pour out my soul within me, how I used to go with the crowd, and led them to God’s house, with the voice of joy and praise, a multitude keeping a holy day" (Ps. 42:4), whereas here in Ps. 63 he considers his wilderness experience as good as, and indeed far superior to, his appearances at the tabernacle. Here in Ps. 63 he is living intimately in God's presence. But in the Psalms which appear to be rooted in his later exile from Absalom, his prayer and hope is to be able to return to the tabernacle- rather than rejoicing in his present experience of God's presence. This "send out Your light and Your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to Your holy hill, to Your great tent. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my exceeding joy. I will praise You on the harp, God, my God" (Ps. 43:3,4). </p><p>
And as we see with Gideon, Samson and so many, man may reach a spiritual peak at some point in life, but somewhat droop from that into spiritual mediocrity in later life and death. But that doesn't mean they will not be saved.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Because Your grace is better than life, my lips shall praise You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that ‘more than my own life do I value God’s love / grace, His hesed , covenant love, for me’. Even if he were to die, having known God’s grace was enough, and David would ever praise God for that. Secular man sees the experience and preservation of human life is seen as the ultimate priority. But for the believer like David, there is something better than life, and that is life lived in God's covenant love.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>So I will bless You while I live, I will lift up my hands in Your name-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :3, David feels that the wonder of praising God at this moment was enough for him, whether or not he was to die at the time. David earlier had thought that such lifting up of the hands in praise was done only in the sanctuary: "Lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Praise Yahweh!... Praise Yah! Praise God in His sanctuary!" (Ps. 134:2; 150:1). But as discussed on :2, he was now perceiving that sanctuary as everywhere, as this praise with uplifted hands could be given at night on his bed (:6), wherever that may be. In Ps. 141:2 he realizes that the lifting up of hands anywhere is equivalent to the evening sacrifice offered at the sanctuary: "Let my prayer be set before you as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice". And this thought continues into :5: "My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness" (AV). We could translate this is "My soul shall satisfy [i.e. satisfy God] as with marrow and fatness". The offering of the marrow and fat was replaced by praising God with joyful lips (:5) and uplifted hands, even in the desert (:4). This for God is the very best. Marrow and fat mean the very best (Gen. 45:18; Ps. 36:9; Is. 25:6) and under the law they represented the very best parts of a sacrifice (Lev. 3:16). Man's love for God, even exiled man, in all his smallness, fallenness and moral weakness, can satisfy God and be seen by Him as they very best He could desire. That is an amazing thought. "As with marrow and fatness", "so as in the sanctuary", all reflects David's passing from the religious to the spiritual.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :4. The same word used of how Israel in the desert were "satisfied" with the food of God’s provision (<a href='B:20 16:8'>Exo 16:8</a>; <a href='B:20 16:12'>Exo 16:12</a>). David clearly saw them at that time as a precedent for himself whilst in the desert (:1). Being "satisfied" with food was the continual promise for obedience to the covenant (<a href='B:50 8:10'>Deu 8:10</a>; <a href='B:50 8:12'>Deu 8:12</a>; <a href='B:50 11:15'>Deu 11:15</a>; <a href='B:50 31:20'>Deu 31:20</a>). But he speaks in the future, "shall be satisfied", perhaps ultimately with his eye upon the Kingdom of God coming upon earth; although clearly he expected some form of this in his own immediate experience in this life.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My mouth shall praise You with joyful lips-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s joy was not in the experience of deliverance, but in his perception of God’s grace (:3).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>when I remember You on my bed, and think about You in the night watches-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This "bed" would have been somewhere in the desert whilst on the run from Saul (:1). David speaks of how he "meditates day and night" on God’s law (<a href='B:230 1:2'>Psa 1:2</a>), and also of how he meditates upon "God" at night (<a href='B:230 63:6'>Psa 63:6</a>) and in the day (<a href='B:230 71:24'>Psa 71:24</a>). "The word was God", and still is, in the sense that our devotions to God are to be according to His word; for in practice, what we see of God is largely through His hand and statements in history which we find in His word.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You have been my help-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the Hezekiah context, this would have applied to how Ahaz had given money to the king of Assyria, but "he helped him not" (<a href='B:140 28:21'>2Ch 28:21</a> s:w:). God was thereby revealed as the sole "hope of Israel".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will rejoice in the shadow of Your wings-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could mean that David was full of faith that he would return to the sanctuary; or that he felt that even in exile from the sanctuary, he was as it were right there beneath the cherubic wings over the ark, with God’s glory above him and the blood of atonement beneath him. This was an encouragement to the exiles. Ps. 36:8 appears to take this even further when David comments that even the Gentile peoples could share this experience, outside the land of Israel: "All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings". But sadly David strayed from this sense in wanting to build a physical place where the ark with its cherubic wings could dwell, and the presence of these wings, seen only once / year by the High Priest, is stressed in the temple records (1 Kings 6:24; 2 Chron. 3:11). </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My soul stays close to You, Your right hand upholds me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Heb. 'cleaves' as husband and wife cleave to each other. The push factor of Saul's chasing him led to him following hard after God. Saul was "seeking" David (:9 "they seek after my soul"), but this led to David "earnestly seeking" God (:1). This intimacy with God was found by David in the desert, outside of the sanctuary. David responded to their seeking of him by seeking God more. He uses the language of the hunt and chase to describe how he was drawing closer to God: "My soul followeth hard after thee" (<a href='B:230 63:8'>Psa 63:8</a>; Psalms 63 is a wilderness psalm, see title). "Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul... let all those that seek thee rejoice" (<a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 40:16'>Psa 40:16</a>). In this sense, David felt he wasn't fleeing from&nbsp; his enemies as much as fleeing to&nbsp; God : "Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies (from whom he was running): I flee unto thee to hide me" (<a href='B:230 143:9'>Psa 143:9</a>). This fleeing to&nbsp; God didn’t mean that David and Jesus didn’t respond or retaliate verbally; both of them, especially the Lord Jesus, did. They both pleaded their innocence, and accused their enemies of being unfair and hypocritical. Yet this must have been done from a genuine motive of love; as David loved Saul, as the thought of Saul's death must have torn at his heart, so the Lord Jesus loved Israel, weeping over Jerusalem, wishing to himself like a child for the impossible: that they would know him as their Saviour. Both David and Jesus had a real sense of direction, they could see that their mental, emotional and physical sufferings were leading them towards an altogether higher relationship with the Father. They took those sufferings as an almost welcome push towards the Father. They had a sure sense of spiritual direction in all their afflictions; this accounts for the human loneliness which they both felt. David felt that no one else understood (<a href='B:230 14:2'>Psa 14:2</a>, a wilderness psalm) or was really seeking towards God as he was doing (<a href='B:230 27:4'>Psa 27:4</a>; <a href='B:230 27:8'>Psa 27:8</a>). The Hebrew for "understand" here is that translated "wise" concerning David in 1 Samuel 18. &nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But those who seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul sought&nbsp; to take David’s life. So many of the Psalms contain imprecations against those who were seeking David’s soul- not just his physical life, but seeking to destroy his very being (e.g. <a href='B:230 35:4'>Psa 35:4</a>; <a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 54:1'>Psa 54:1</a>; <a href='B:230 63:9'>Psa 63:9</a>; <a href='B:230 70:2'>Psa 70:2</a>; <a href='B:230 71:13'>Psa 71:13</a>). These imprecations expose the evil of Saul, and asks God to condemn him. Some of those Psalms appear to have been written by David in the Saul days, and then rewritten at the time of Absalom's rebellion- another man who sought David’s soul, and yet whom David loved:&nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s characteristic of self-examination cannot be unrelated to the fact that while on the run from Saul, he keenly meditated on the word of God (largely in the Law); Psalms 119 has many connections between his love of the word and the outlaw experiences. Perhaps David thought so much of the Law that he came close to the spirit of Moses in the desert; for "those that seek after my soul... shall go into the lower parts of the earth" is clearly alluding to the fate of Moses' enemies, Korah et al&nbsp;.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"The lower parts of the earth" may well be a reference to some supposed place of punishment after death. But we know from Psalms 49 and so often in the Psalms, that David believed death was unconsciousness. He may therefore have been alluding to a common curse formula, probably used by Saul against David, and wishing it to come back upon Saul.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be jackal food-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When this happened to Saul and he was slain by his own sword, David wept deeply and genuinely. But what had happened was the fulfilment of his own prayer. Perhaps the desperate attempt to rescue Saul's body from the walls of Bethshan was an attempt to stop the latter part of the verse coming true. David surely learned the lesson we all have to- that we must be careful what we ask for in prayer lest we receive it.</p><p>“It is the jackal rather than the fox which preys on dead bodies, and which assembles in troops on the battle-fields, to feast on the slain” (Tristram). And yet David was at great pains to give Saul's bones an honourable resting place and rewards those who rescued his body. We see as so often that David's bitter words in the Psalms often don't match his actions in reality, which are far more gracious. And that is so true to observed reality in human life.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :2, this Psalm appears to be based during the insurrection of Absalom.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hear my voice, God, in my complaint. Preserve my life from fear of the enemy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>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" (<a href='B:660 5:17'>Jas 5:17</a> AVmg:) reflects the Spirit's recognition that there is prayer, and real prayer. “Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer” (<a href='B:230 64:1'>Psa 64:1</a> 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 (<a href='B:490 17:20'>Luk 17:20</a>). He's surely saying that a little bit of the real thing can do such wonders.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>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 (<a href='B:230 5:1-2'>Psa 5:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 6:8'>Psa 6:8</a>; <a href='B:230 18:1-3'>Psa 18:1-3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:6'>Psa 18:6</a>; <a href='B:230 40:1'>Psa 40:1</a>; <a href='B:230 42:8'>Psa 42:8</a>; <a href='B:230 64:1'>Psa 64:1</a> Heb:; 65:1,2; 66:17-20; <a href='B:450 8:22'>Zec 8:22</a>). The association between prayer and weeping is especially common: <a href='B:90 1:10'>1Sa 1:10</a>; <a href='B:230 39:12'>Psa 39:12</a>; <a href='B:230 55:1-2'>Psa 55:1-2</a>; <a href='B:500 11:41-42'>Joh 11:41-42</a>; <a href='B:650 5:7'>Heb 5:7</a>, 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" (<a href='B:230 6:8-9'>Psa 6:8-9</a>) crystallizes the point.</p><p>The prayer is not simply for preservation, but for preservation "from fear of the enemy"- a prayer against anxiety. God is quite able to work within the psychology of man. The whole Psalm is about the impact of others' words upon David. And he asks for psychological strength against the impact of those words, so that his life is not dominated by those words. This kind of thing is what daily, blow by blow spirituality is all about. David concludes in :9,10 with a kingdom perspective- one day there will be a day of judgment of human words, and the upright will glory. That kingdom perspective is so necessary- otherwise we are left playing back to ourselves the unkind words of others, as if this life is the only arena in which we shall ever exist, and therefore the words of others now will seem so significant.  </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the noisy crowd of the ones doing evil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Conspiracy" sounds like the time of Absalom's putsch. "Noisy crowd" is AV "insurrection". But that is the same word used of Ahithophel in <a href='B:230 55:14'>Psa 55:14</a>: "We walked to God’s house in company". "In company" is a word only used elsewhere in <a href='B:230 64:2'>Psa 64:2</a>, where it is translated "insurrection" (AV), again in the context of Absalom. The double meaning of the word chosen reflects the duplicity of Ahithophel.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When men speak hard words against us, the situation on earth is somehow mirrored in the court of Heaven- <a href='B:230 64:3'>Psa 64:3</a>; <a href='B:230 64:7'>Psa 64:7</a> 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).</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>to shoot innocent men from ambushes. They shoot at him suddenly and fearlessly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>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.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They encourage themselves in evil plans. They talk about laying snares secretly-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>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.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They say, Who will see them?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>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.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They plot injustice, saying, We have made a perfect plan! Surely man’s mind and heart are cunning-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We may well enquire how David thought he knew the state of heart [AV "inward part"] of his enemies (<a href='B:230 5:9'>Psa 5:9</a>; <a href='B:230 36:1'>Psa 36:1</a>; <a href='B:230 49:11'>Psa 49:11</a>; <a href='B:230 62:4'>Psa 62:4</a>; <a href='B:230 64:6'>Psa 64:6</a>). 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 (<a href='B:230 51:10'>Psa 51:10</a> s:w:). His enemies were impenitent, and so perhaps on that basis he knew what was in their hearts.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>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.</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But God will shoot at them, they will be suddenly struck down with an arrow-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David rejoices that Divine "arrows" were sent to destroy his enemies (<a href='B:230 7:13'>Psa 7:13</a>; <a href='B:230 18:14'>Psa 18:14</a>; <a href='B:230 45:5'>Psa 45:5</a>; <a href='B:230 64:7'>Psa 64:7</a>; <a href='B:230 144:6'>Psa 144:6</a>), in fulfilment of God’s promise to do so to the sinful within Israel (<a href='B:50 32:23'>Deu 32:23</a>; <a href='B:50 32:42'>Deu 32:42</a>). But David was failing to realize that those same arrows had been fired by God into him in judgment for his sin (<a href='B:230 38:2'>Psa 38:2</a>). 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. </p><p>The suddenness / quickness of judgment is a major Biblical theme. The suddenness of how the wicked had shot words like arrows at David (Ps. 64:4) is matched with how "suddenly" they will be struck by God's arrow in judgment. Judgment will be "sudden" (Ps. 64:7); and that may be part of the idea behind Rev. 22:12 "I come quickly / suddenly". Judgment will be a sudden surprise for the wicked, but something long and slowly awaited by the righteous. The Lord's coming will be as "thief in the night" for the wicked, "at an hour you do not expect", in that it will be unexpected, catching them off guard (Lk. 17:26-30; Mt. 24:42-44; 1 Thess. 5:2,3 "While people are saying, 'Peace and security,' destruction will come upon them suddenly"). The sudden nature of Divine judgment is a major Biblical theme. We think of the sudden deaths of Ananias and Sapphira; Miriam's immediate leprosy after her complaint, with God speaking "suddenly" to her about it (Num. 12:4); and the sudden nature of the coming of the flood and judgment upon Sodom. It was sudden in the sense that the judged people were hit by it as a surprise. Hence calamity or judgment from God comes suddenly (Prov. 3:25; 6:15; 24:22; Ecc. 9:12). "It shall be at an instant, suddenly" (Is. 29:5), like a bowing wall "whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant" (Is. 30:13). God's historical judgments have likewise come "suddenly" on those who experienced them, even though God's people expected them. We think of Babylon "suddenly" being destroyed (Is. 47:11; Jer. 51:8; Hab. 2:7), just as Babylon "suddenly" destroyed Judah (Jer. 4:20; 6:26; 15:8; 18:22). The suddenness was in the experience of the judged people; the righteous were aware of the judgment coming and saw it coming. </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Their own tongues shall ruin them; all who see them will shake their heads-</p><h2>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” (<a href='B:230 64:8'>Psa 64:8</a>). Unsound speech will be condemned, or [will lead to our] condemnation (<a href='B:630 2:8'>Tit 2:8</a> we are to speak "sound speech, that cannot be condemned"). The implication seems to be that our words will be quoted back to us during the judgment process. "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account of it in the day of judgment. By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned", the Lord taught (Mt. 12:37). Our words are taken that seriously by God: "He who guards his mouth guards his soul" (Prov. 13:3). We ourselves comment that "I knew you'd say that!", because character is ultimately reflected in our words; "for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks". All attempts to think one thing and speak another will all ultimately fail. Hence we pray for God to "put a watch before the door of my lips". Brother, sister, think about thIsa. Ancient Hebrew had no expletives. Curses were uttered in terms of&nbsp; 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.</h2>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All mankind shall be in awe. They shall declare the work of God, and shall wisely ponder what He has done-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>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 (<a href='B:290 26:9'>Isa 26:9</a>; <a href='B:730 16:15'>Rev 16:15</a>):&nbsp; All men would then be "in awe", in contrast to how these men had spoken their words "without fear" (s.w. "awe"), :4. Likewise at the day of judgment, all will "see" these men and their words (:8), whereas in their lives they had used words thinking "Who shall see them?" (:5).  </p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. A song-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The context appears to be David at the time of Absalom's rebellion, thanking God for restoring him, and looking ahead to God’s Kingdom coming upon earth. It has clearly been adapted further to be relevant to the exiles. Although verses 9-13 could suggest a thanksgiving song for an abundant harvest. Perhaps that indeed is how the usage of the Psalm developed- with the thanksgiving prefaced by the thought that we are all sinners, and such blessings are all of grace. Or quite possibly, there had been a lack of abundant harvest because of sin; and now that had been forgiven, and the blessed harvests had resumed. Maybe historically David was alluding to these blessings and cursings of the covenant after having experienced a bad harvest followed by a good harvest, around the time of his sin with Bathsheba.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise waits for You, God, in Zion. To You shall vows be performed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Literally, "to You, silence is praise". This is proof for all time that praise doesn't have to mean singing or audible music. The idea is as in Ps. 62:1, where the Hebrew is literally "My soul is silent in God alone".</p><p>David had made various vows as to what he would do if he returned to Zion. And now he was to fulfil them, and this song is one of them. The Hebrew implies "silent praise", a way of expressing the inadequacy of the audible song which David has composed. There may be an allusion to the silence in the sanctuary (later the temple courts) as the people awaited the reappearance of the High Priest on the day of atonement to declare their forgiveness. And there was to be silent praise this had been granted. As noted on :3,4, David seems aware that his suffering at the hands of Absalom was a consequence for his sin with Bathsheba, and he thanks God for his forgiveness. I have noted elsewhere however that he seemed to struggle with it all, with some of the Absalom period Psalms reflecting his feeling that he was suffering as an innocent man.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>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 (<a href='B:230 5:1-2'>Psa 5:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 6:8'>Psa 6:8</a>; <a href='B:230 18:1-3'>Psa 18:1-3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:6'>Psa 18:6</a>; <a href='B:230 40:1'>Psa 40:1</a>; <a href='B:230 42:8'>Psa 42:8</a>; <a href='B:230 64:1'>Psa 64:1</a> Heb:; 65:1,2; 66:17-20; <a href='B:450 8:22'>Zec 8:22</a>). The association between prayer and weeping is especially common: <a href='B:90 1:10'>1Sa 1:10</a>; <a href='B:230 39:12'>Psa 39:12</a>; <a href='B:230 55:1-2'>Psa 55:1-2</a>; <a href='B:500 11:41-42'>Joh 11:41-42</a>; <a href='B:650 5:7'>Heb 5:7</a>, 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" (<a href='B:230 6:8-9'>Psa 6:8-9</a>) crystallizes the point.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You who hear prayer, to You all men will come-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This refers to the coming near in sacrifice which is alluded to in :4. David saw his experience of forgiveness and grace concerning his sin with Bathsheba as programmatic for "all men", and he wanted to teach and preach it. "All men" are all those who will draw near to God (:4). We are to see the unbelieving society around us as different to the believers- they are to be "all men" to us, the environment in which we live.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It should be noted that David/Bathsheba language is used to describe Israel's spiritually fallen state (e.g. <a href='B:230 38:7'>Psa 38:7</a> = <a href='B:290 1:6'>Isa 1:6</a>; <a href='B:230 51:7'>Psa 51:7</a> = <a href='B:290 1:18'>Isa 1:18</a>; <a href='B:230 65:2'>Psa 65:2</a> = <a href='B:290 40:15'>Isa 40:15</a>). David recognized this in <a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>, where he likens his own state to that of Zion, which also needed to be revived by God’s mercy. As David’s sin is likened to the killing of a lamb (<a href='B:100 12:4'>2Sa 12:4</a>), so the Jews killed Jesus. The troubles which therefore came upon his kingdom have certain similarities with the events of AD67-70:&nbsp; They were also repeated in the Nazi Holocaust, and will yet be. Israel are yet to fully repent after the pattern of David.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sins overwhelmed me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The allusion to David’s sin with Bathsheba which began in :1 is continued in :4. David perceives that his personal sin ("me") is representative of "our [plural] transgressions". He saw in his salvation by grace a pattern for all who would afterward sin, as he makes clear in Psalms 32. The same word used for how David’s sins "overwhelmed me" (<a href='B:230 65:3'>Psa 65:3</a>) is used of how overwhelming or "great" is God’s grace (<a href='B:230 103:11'>Psa 103:11</a>; <a href='B:230 117:2'>Psa 117:2</a>). David felt overwhelmed firstly by his sin and then by God’s grace. This explains his fragile emotional and nervous state, as often reflected in the Psalms. But his path is to be that of all God’s true Israel.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But You atoned for our transgressions-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The words used for the atoning of Israel's sins, if they were to follow the pattern of David in repentance (<a href='B:230 79:9'>Psa 79:9</a>; <a href='B:290 27:9'>Isa 27:9</a>; <a href='B:340 9:24'>Dan 9:24</a>) Thus Paul argues in Romans that David's experience of sin with Bathsheba is that of every man, emerging justified and humbled by grace alone. We note the contrast between "me" and "our" sins. Atonement for sin has been achieved collectively for God's people, but we as individuals must as it were claim it. This is what should bind God's people together as a community- our joint experience of forgiveness. Thus in :5 he speaks of God as the God of "our salvation".:&nbsp;</p>


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<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed is the person whom You choose and cause to come near, that he may live in Your courts. We will be filled with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Choosing and causing to come near is the language of election and predestination, which Paul cites as the parade example of how salvation is by grace.
"Come near" is a common idiom for offering sacrifice and worshipping God. The idea is used in <a href='B:230 32:9'>Psa 32:9</a> of how men ought to learn from David’s example, and not be as horses who must have their mouths kept in with a bridle. God doesn't want to force men to come near to Him through using the force of bit and bridle; rather does He want genuinely repentant sinners like David, in awe of His grace, to come to Him of themselves with the "understanding" of Him as the God of all grace. But God all the same causes men to "come near" to Him (<a href='B:230 65:4'>Psa 65:4</a> s:w:); but not be coercion, by bit and bridle, rather by the experience of His grace, through the operation of the Holy Spirit.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference to the "courts" of the "temple" indicates that the Psalm was rewritten and reapplied to the exiles, in their hope for restoration if they followed the pattern of David’s repentance and restoration.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By awesome deeds of righteousness You answer us, God of our salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm now moves towards a greater relevance to the exiles (see on :4) and the hope of God’s restored Kingdom coming on the earth. Such restoration was to be by grace alone, but was brought about in "righteousness", in justice. Paul in Romans 1-8 develops this theme; that condemned sinners are justified by grace in a way that is all the same "just". This is the wonder of God’s grace and His saving work through His Son. For it was in Jesus, Yehoshuah, the salvation of God / Yah, that He saves rejected sinners in total justice.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth, of those who are far away on the sea-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This had particular reference to the exiles dwelling in Babylon and Assyria, at the ends of the eretz promised to Abraham. Those "on the sea" likewise refer to God’s people scattered even beyond that territory, in what is symbolically called "the sea" of even more distant Gentile areas. The term is used in that sense in :7.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who by His power forms the mountains, having armed Yourself with strength-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The implication could be that God would form new "mountains", perhaps an intensive plural referring to the one great mountain, of Zion. He would take His strength to Himself in restoring and reforming Zion.  It's the same argument as found throughout second Isaiah. As discussed on :3, the "salvation" in view in :5 is forgiveness of sin, and the subsequent reflections on God's huge power in creation are in that context. The God who forms and levels mountains can easily bring His people into His Kingdom. His physical strength seen in creation is a guarantee that He can do literally anything, including saving and restoring sinners to His Kingdom. So often we read an appeal to nature as the basis upon which God can save me... "I lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence shall come my aid" etc.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who stills the roaring of the seas, the crashing of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :5, the seas refer to the Gentile nations beyond the eretz or territory promised to Abraham. Those nations worldwide would be stilled, when God forms or reforms the great mountain of Zion (:6). The Lord Jesus spoke of the situation just prior to His return as the sea and waves roaring, apparently alluding here (<a href='B:490 21:25'>Luk 21:25</a>). "Stills" is literally 'to speak loudly to', and is usually translated "praise". The Lord Jesus fulfilled this, on God’s behalf, by addressing the roaring of the storm on Galilee. This was a microcosm of the coming of His Kingdom. The language used here (and in <a href='B:230 74:23'>Psa 74:23</a>) is that used of the gathering of the Assyrian and Babylonian armies against Zion (<a href='B:290 13:4'>Isa 13:4</a>; <a href='B:290 17:12-13'>Isa 17:12-13</a>; <a href='B:290 25:5'>Isa 25:5</a>; <a href='B:300 25:31'>Jer 25:31</a>). But God’s word was to calm that, in order to reestablish His Kingdom. And that is what we now read of in this Psalm.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They also who dwell in distant places are afraid at Your wonders. You call the morning’s dawn and the evening with songs of joy-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The picture is of the knowledge of the God of Israel spreading worldwide, from sun rise to sunset, so that dawn and evening would be accompanied by songs of praise from the Gentiles to the God of Israel. It was in this sense that the roaring of the Gentile seas would be made calm (:7).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You visit the earth, and water it; You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so You have ordained it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Fecundity within the earth / eretz promised to Abraham is part of the blessing for obedience to the covenant. Here David envisages it as happening abundantly- because the people of the earth / land had followed his pathway of repentance and restoration. This is the picture of Eden restored, with the river of God providing enrichment; the picture is repeated in the final visions of God’s Kingdom at the end of Revelation. "The river of God" is specifically envisaged as flowing from Zion (<a href='B:230 46:4'>Psa 46:4</a>), lending weight to my suggestions elsewhere that Eden was based around Zion.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You drench its furrows, You level its ridges, You soften it with showers, You bless it with a crop-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The impression is of superabundant blessing, with God’s hand working to create the optimal topography of the land [although "ridges" may refer to the furrows] and provide the optimal rainfall for maximal fruitfulness. "Soften" is the word used of the melting away of the Canaanite tribes before Israel entered the land:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You crown the year with Your bounty, Your carts overflow with abundance-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Crown" is better 'encircle'. The idea is that God’s bounteous blessing is experienced all around the year- and not just at the time of harvest, as understood by the pagan religions. His blessing is not just occasional, but every moment. God’s harvest or "carts" is that of His people, such is their identity in His Kingdom. But "carts" is s:w. "paths". The idea also is that this Kingdom situation would come about only when God’s paths or ways were followed.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The wilderness grasslands overflow, the hills are clothed with gladness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The perspective on the land is as it were an aerial view, with the hills and valleys (:13) apparently clothed with blessing. David is seeing things from God’s heavenly perspective; this is a vision of the Kingdom of God upon earth.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A song. or Psalm-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I assume from <a href='B:230 72:20'>Psa 72:20</a> that this is still one of the Psalms of David. It is a Psalm of praise to God for all He has done in saving David from some specific situation (:10-12), but it has clearly been reused by a later inspired hand, given the reference to the temple (:13).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The invitation is to the entire eretz to convert to Israel's God. This Psalm imagines that David’s invitation to them to praise God will be positively responded to (:4). The "shout" as in Ps. 47:1 could imply that all the earth is now accepting Yahweh as their king; to shout and sing was typical of a coronation. The idea is that the Gentiles will accept Israel's God as their king. The Psalm can be read as a vision of how people in the Kingdom of God will feel. They will realize their prayers finally were answered, they will see like Paul in Romans 7 that they did not cherish sin but hated it, they will see all God's works were "awesome" rather than struggling with God's actions. And outside the space-time continuum, they will be able to go back to events like the Red Sea deliverance and thank God for them and rejoice with Israel there. They will be able to declare the good which God had done for their soul. They will realize that being in "prison", literally or figuratively, being treated like a door mat with men walking over them, going through fire and water- was all part of the refining fire which brought them into the "place of abundance" (:12) of God's eternal Kingdom. So the Psalm can be read about our final understanding of all things, our making sense of our lives, which is necessary to make eternal life wonderful.
 </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sing to the glory of His name! Offer glory and praise!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>By singing along with the words of David’s Psalms, the Gentile nations within the eretz (:1) would be praising His Name. David perceived that the offering God really wanted was not so much animals slain upon the altar in Zion, as the sacrifice of praise. David had learned this from his own experience of sinning concerning Uriah and Bathsheba. Unable to offer any sacrifice to atone for what he had done, he concluded that the sacrifice required was a humble heart.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Tell God, How awesome are Your deeds! Through the greatness of Your power, Your enemies submit themselves to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Here David is as it were teaching the Gentiles how to pray to God in praise, putting words in their mouths. The submission of God’s former enemies was therefore not forced upon them by God, but was rather a voluntary submission in awe at His power and works, especially His fearsome deeds of judgment upon sinners (s:w. <a href='B:230 64:9'>Psa 64:9</a>). The submission however is not of the kind usually imposed upon the conquered- these who are laying down ['submitting'] to Yahweh are pictured as worshipping Him and singing to His Name from the heart (:4), identifying with Israel to the point that they can rejoice at the historical acts of Yahweh for Israel as having been done for them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>All the earth will worship You, and will sing to You; they will sing to Your name. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm imagines that David’s invitation to the Gentiles within the eretz to praise God will be positively responded to (:1). They would appreciate God’s Name, His essential character and purpose.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Come and see God’s deeds-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> awesome work on behalf of the children of men-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David invites us to come and see the works God did at the Red Sea, commenting: “there did we rejoice in him” (<a href='B:230 66:6'>Psa 66:6</a>). He praises God for saving him in the language of Israel’s Red Sea deliverance, speaking of it as “the day of my trouble” (<a href='B:230 86:7-8'>Psa 86:7-8</a> = <a href='B:20 15:11'>Exo 15:11</a>). He saw how their circumstances and his were in principle the same; he personalized the Scripture he had read, inviting us to play "Bible television" with the text. We are to go and see the Red Sea all over again:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He turned the sea into dry land, they went through the river on foot. There we rejoiced in Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalms so often encourage Israelites to feel as if they personally had been through the Red Sea experience. Generation would tell to generation the Passover story, and would also sing of God’s greatness as Israel did in Exodus 15 (<a href='B:230 145:5-7'>Psa 145:5-7</a>). Hence: “He turned the sea into dry land</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>there let us (AV: did we) rejoice in him” (<a href='B:230 66:6'>Psa 66:6</a> RVmg:). We too are enabled by Scripture to feel as if we were there, and to rejoice in what God did for us there. This of course depends upon our sense of solidarity with God’s people over time, as well as over space:&nbsp;The message here has special appropriacy to the exiles, who were encouraged to make a similar exodus to the promised land.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He rules by His might forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that God has not only been occasionally active by His might in history, such as at the Red Sea (:6). His saving activity is constant and not occasional.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His eyes watch the nations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Very relevant to the exiles. God’s Angelic "eyes" watch and guide the nations as part of His continual activity towards the salvation of His people. The Hebrew conception of an "eye" was that if it is watching you, then it is guiding and manipulating you (hence the concept of the "evil eye"). The allusion is how to God looked at the Egyptians at the Red Sea, made their chariot wheels get bogged down in the mud, and made the sea return over them: "in the morning watch Yahweh looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud" (Ex. 14:24). Yahweh "looked" at the time of the morning "watch". And He continues to do so today.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let the rebellious rise up against Him. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Rebellious" is indeed how Israel were in the wilderness (s:w:&nbsp; <a href='B:160 9:29'>Neh 9:29</a>; <a href='B:230 68:6'>Psa 68:6</a>; <a href='B:230 78:8'>Psa 78:8</a>). David is urging Israel to learn from this and not be rebellious but accept God’s guidance of them towards the promised land; especially relevant to the exiles. But sadly they remained rebellious (s:w. <a href='B:290 65:2'>Isa 65:2</a>):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise our God, you peoples! Make the sound of His praise heard-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David invites the Gentiles to praise "our God", Yahweh of Israel, and in turn to spread the knowledge of Him to others.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>who preserves our life among the living, and doesn’t allow our feet to be moved-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God’s preservation of Israel was by grace, and was intended to be a witness to the nations amongst whom they had been scattered. For the context is of witness to the Gentiles (:8). God had allowed the feet of His people to be moved out of their land, but the intention was that this was to be temporary, and their return would be a witness to the Gentiles amongst whom they lived- leading them to join in and also come to Zion in penitence and faith. And then He would not again allow their feet to be moved from their land (s:w. <a href='B:230 121:3'>Psa 121:3</a>). The Jews were kept alive as a people amongst the nations. But the origin of the Psalm is in David's feelings that he would now not "be moved" when in fact he was moved and his feet "slipped" at the time of his sin with Bathsheba, and he later accepts that only God's grace held him up. Likewise God did allow the feet of His people "to be moved" for they were taken away into exile by the Assyrians, Babylonians and Romans. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You, God, have tested us. You have refined us, as silver is refined-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These are the intended feelings of the exiles upon restoration, perceiving their captivity as a time of refining and "testing", just as the fathers were tested by Joseph / Jesus (s:w. <a href='B:10 42:15-16'>Gen 42:15-16</a>). But the exiles failed to be refined as intended (<a href='B:290 1:25'>Isa 1:25</a>), and it must be repeated (s:w. <a href='B:450 13:9'>Zec 13:9</a>):&nbsp;</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You brought us into prison, You laid a burden on our backs-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The imagery of the exile as a prison from which the exiles could be "brought out" is often used in later Isaiah. But most refused that redemption, and preferred to remain in Babylon. The burden laid on their backs is describing their exile in the language of the abuse in Egypt. But their experience there was nowhere near as bad, and the book of Esther reveals the Jews as wealthy and prosperous there.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You allowed men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but You brought us to the place of abundance-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is indeed what happened when Israel were brought out of Egypt, passing through the fire and water of the pillars of cloud and fire leading them. But the exiles for the most part declined this great salvation offered. Instead of men riding over their heads they could have had God’s cherubic chariot doing so (s:w. <a href='B:230 68:4'>Psa 68:4</a>; <a href='B:230 68:33'>Psa 68:33</a>; <a href='B:420 3:8'>Hab 3:8</a>).  The imagery is very much that of the exile, when the Babylonians said: "‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to those who walk over" (Is. 51:23). But this was "allowed" by God. Isaiah's prophecies of the restoration spoke in terms of a second exodus, now from Babylon rather than Egypt, and that explains the allusions here to being brought through fire and water to a "place of abundance". But the reality was that this Psalm was not felt nor believed by the exiles. For most declined that exodus and remained in Babylon, and those who did return did so for their own ends and without the experience implied here.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will come into Your temple with burnt offerings. I will pay my vows to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David desired to offer sacrifice in the sanctuary because of some great deliverance received. This is therefore reworked, under inspiration, with relevance to the time when the temple was built. The restored exiles ought to have vowed to offer sacrifice there in thanksgiving for their deliverance, but the record of the restoration indicates that they did so at best only half heartedly.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>which my lips promised and my mouth spoke, when I was in distress-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had apparently promised that if he was preserved, he would go to the sanctuary and offer sacrifice, and he was eager to do thIsa. His time of "distress" or AV "trouble" therefore looks ahead to the time of Jacob's trouble in the last days.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will offer to You burnt offerings of fat animals, with the offering of rams, I will offer bulls with goats. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Whenever this Psalm was originally written, it was presumably before David had come to the conclusion that God doesn't want animal sacrifice as much as He desires the sacrifice of a broken heart (<a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>). Israel unfortunately didn’t learn that lesson; for the few exiles who did return did so without contrite hearts, and offered merely tokenistic sacrifices. Or perhaps, if this Psalm is written after the Bathsheba issues (as suggested on :16), David is slipping back from his earlier understanding that God didn’t really want sacrifice.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Come and hear, all you who fear God; I will declare what He has done for my soul-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David knew his sinfulness, he knew his reliance upon the grace of God, more and more as he got older. One would have thought that after the Bathsheba incident, David would have kept his mouth shut so far as telling other people how to live was concerned. But instead, we find an increasing emphasis in the Psalms (chronologically) upon David’s desire to teach others of God’s ways- particularly the surrounding Gentile peoples, before whom David had been disgraced over Bathsheba, not to mention from his two faced allegiance to Achish (<a href='B:90 27:8-12'>1Sa 27:8-12</a>). There is real stress upon this evangelistic fervour of David (<a href='B:230 4:3'>Psa 4:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:49'>Psa 18:49</a>; <a href='B:230 22:25'>Psa 22:25</a>; <a href='B:230 22:31'>Psa 22:31</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 40:9-10'>Psa 40:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 57:9'>Psa 57:9</a>; <a href='B:230 62:8'>Psa 62:8</a>; <a href='B:230 66:5'>Psa 66:5</a>; <a href='B:230 66:16'>Psa 66:16</a>; <a href='B:230 95:1'>Psa 95:1</a>; <a href='B:230 95:8'>Psa 95:8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:5-8'>Psa 96:5-8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:10'>Psa 96:10</a>; <a href='B:230 100:1-4'>Psa 100:1-4</a>; <a href='B:230 105:1-2'>Psa 105:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 119:27'>Psa 119:27</a>; <a href='B:230 145:5-6'>Psa 145:5-6</a>; <a href='B:230 145:12'>Psa 145:12</a>). Indeed, <a href='B:230 71:18'>Psa 71:18</a> records the "old and greyheaded" David pleading with God not to die until he had taught "thy strength unto this generation". As with Paul years later, the only reason he wanted to stay alive was in order to witness the Gospel of grace to others. David&nbsp;therefore coped with his deep inner traumas by looking out of himself to those around him, eagerly desiring to share with them the pureness of God’s grace. He didn’t do this as some kind of self-help psychiatry; it came naturally from a realization of his own sinfulness and God’s mercy, and the wonderful willingness&nbsp;of God to extend this to men. David’s desire to declare what had been done for his "soul" was not simply the message of forgiveness; rather it was of spiritual and psychological restoration through the work of the Holy Spirit (<a href='B:230 23:3'>Psa 23:3</a>; <a href='B:230 51:12'>Psa 51:12</a>). The intention was that the exiles would follow his path of repentance toward such restoration of their soul.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I cried to Him with my mouth. He was extolled with my tongue-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that David prayed for help and at the same time praised God for already answering him, such was his faith. Hence GNB "I cried to him for help; I praised him with songs".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> This appears self righteous. For apart from the Lord Jesus, there is no heart in which there has been no cherishing of sin. In the matter of Bathsheba, David is set up as the parade example of a man who lusted in his heart, and then performed the fantasized sin. And yet here he predicates God’s answer to his prayer as being on the basis of his spotless heart. He fails to perceive that his deliverance or salvation was by grace. This raises the question as to whether this Psalm originated before or after the sin with Bathsheba. If after (see on :16), then again we wonder as to the extent of his repentance; he apparently failed to maintain the intensity of his grasp of grace and his own sinfulness. And we all have that same tendency.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But most certainly, God has listened. He has heard the voice of my prayer-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :18, David wrongly predicates God’s listening to his voice upon his apparently spotless heart (:18). We can note that he speaks of the voice of his prayer, as if within verbalized prayer there is an essence of our spirit which is the true voice of the prayer, and God hears thIsa. Therefore it is wrong to think that we cannot pray well or effectively because we aren't good at verbalizing.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Psalm, A song-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to have initially been a thanksgiving song for a good harvest, but it clearly has been developed to understand the harvest as the spiritual harvest of Gentiles for God’s Kingdom, with God’s blessing of Israel by grace leading to Gentiles being converted to the God of Israel.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause His face to shine on us. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Heb. 'shine with us', as if God’s joy is now that of His people. Blessing is often understood as forgiveness; this was the "mercy" implicit in the promises to Abraham and David. The shining of God’s face with His people suggests restoration of fellowship and loving acceptance of them by grace. And this was what led to the harvest now to be celebrated in the Psalm.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The allusion is clearly to the High Priestly blessing of the people in <a href='B:40 6:24-25'>Num 6:24-25</a>. But that blessing was to be shared with all the Gentiles. This is the same idea with which Psalms 68 begins, supporting the suggestion that the Psalms are often paired. This Psalm 67 would thus be an introduction to Ps. 68.</p></p>The allusion to the High priestly blessing is very clear: "Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘This is how you shall bless the children of Israel’. You shall tell them, ‘Yahweh bless you, and keep you. Yahweh make His face to shine on you, and be gracious to you. Yahweh lift up His face toward you, and give you peace’. So they shall put My name on the children of Israel; and I will bless them" (Num. 6:23-27). We note the stress is on "and I, I will bless them" (Heb.). Nothing magical was done by the priest himself, just as blessing is not achieved by wearing amulets or jewellery or having certain tattoos. He simply asked Yahweh to bless the people, and Yahweh would do so- and that is the spirit of this prayer in Ps. 67. But the difference is that the people being blessed are to pronounce these words. Not asking God to e.g. "make His face to shine on you", but rather, "cause His face to shine on us". "May God be merciful / gracious to us" rather than asking Him to be "gracious to you". The ordinary people, whoever was praying this prayer, is being given the job of the priests, indeed of the High Priest. Perhaps this was a psalm used by the exiles when the priesthood and temple cult didn't function; we see something similar in Daniel's prayer "cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary that is desolate" (Dan. 9:17). Perhaps it originated in the prayers of David and his men when they were unable to have access to the sanctuary and priesthood; LXX calls it a prayer of David. This is the path to maturity in us all; for whatever reason, we end up having to be the priest or the pastor. For indeed we are to be a kingdom of priests, and the 'priesthood of all believers' is very real. We are led to be the ones who take spiritual responsibility for others as well as ourselves. Perhaps the local church declines or breaks up, our pastoral figures die without replacement, we become disillusioned with them, or for whatever reason we move out of their sphere. In the bigger picture, that too is all of God. The priestly blessing was not to be repeated just as a form of words- the psalm concludes: "God will bless us" (:7). It's like praying for forgiveness, or a place in the eternal Kingdom of God, and concluding "I am forgiven... I will be saved. Amen! So it is!". The priestly blessing, however, was being prayed by individuals for not just Israel, but the Gentiles too.
</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>That Your way may be known on earth, and Your salvation among all nations-</p><p>The "blessing" upon "us" God's people was in order that all nations would know God's salvation. Verse 7 concludes the same way. Indeed this is the major theme of the psalm- that God's blessing upon His people leads to the salvation of the nations. And the idea of "blessing" is largely associated with forgiveness, grace, the gift of the Spirit and salvation. The shining of God's face is now the experience of every believer filled with the Spirit: "He shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). The experience of these things cannot remain with the recipient- we have to share them with the world. This psalm is a prayer that this happens, at least for the individual praying the prayer. Under the old covenant, "blessing" was in terms of the increase of the earth in harvest (:6), but under the new covenant, those blessings are of forgiveness, grace and salvation. I suggest this Psalm was relevant to the exiles, who had been offered the new covenant. Hence the "blessing" is defined as God's face shining upon man- fellowship with Him, with the barrier of sin now dealt with. And all God's people are now individually the equivalent of the old covenant's priests, mediating and pronouncing this blessing upon the world around us. The new covenant is based upon the promises to Abraham, which revolve around the idea of his seed being blessed in order to be a blessing to all nations of the earth (Gen. 12:2,3 "I will bless you... You will be a blessing... All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you"). This idea is clearly central to this psalm.
God's "way" is His "salvation". His driving purpose with the earth, His way amongst men, is in order to bring men to salvation. He is not indifferent but proactive in this work, and we His people are to reflect that and also be part of it. 
</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God’s grace in forgiving Israel (:1) was to reveal His way to the rest of the nations in the eretz, and serve as an advertisement for the fact that Yahweh is a God who saves; a principle brought to final articulation in the person of the Lord Jesus, Yehoshua, Yah's salvation. This was based upon the experience of David, who wished to advertise to the world his forgiveness and experience of God’s grace after his sin. The idea was that the exiles would follow his pattern of repentance and his path to restoration. They didn’t, but finally they will, at the last day.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>let the peoples praise You, God. Let all the peoples praise You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may be an invitation for the "peoples" of the eretz to praise Israel's God for His characteristic salvation and mercy (:1,2). "Let" can as well be translated "May...". Although "let" might suggest David was asking that Yahweh extend His saving plan to the Gentiles even at that stage.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You will judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations on earth. Selah-This verse is at the centre of the Psalm, the verses before and after are the same. The point of the psalm is that the priestly blessing is to be wished by all God's people individually upon not only Israel but the Gentiles too. Sadly the exiles became xenophobic rather than welcoming to Gentiles, so this prayer was not prayed from the heart by God's individual people as intended.</p><p></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The vision was of God’s kingdom or governance being over all the nations of the eretz / earth; and because of their acceptance of this, they would be glad. The justice of His judgments would be a cause for joy. This vision of kingdom or empire building was totally opposite to that understood at the time, where nations were militarily and economically dominated and forced into submission. Yahweh's Kingdom would extend by the choice of the subjected peoples, who would be awed by God’s grace to Israel, who would become the parade example of what it meant to have Yahweh as King.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let the peoples praise You, God. Let all the peoples praise You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Let" might suggest David was asking that Yahweh extend His saving plan to the Gentiles even at that stage. But David was well ahead of his time in this desire. For Israel failed to be the example of God’s kingship over a people, and the Gentiles therefore weren't encouraged to repent. We note the emphasis upon "all the peoples"- including their recent abusers, those whom Israel might consider beyond God’s saving purpose.</p><p>We began by observing that Ps. 67 is based upon the High Priestly blessing of the people, but every individual Israelite is now asked to pronounce the blessing. We have an example of Aaron pronouncing the blessing in Lev. 9:22-24: "Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people, and blessed them... and Aaron went into the Tent of Meeting, and came out, and blessed the people; and the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people.  There came forth fire from before Yahweh...  and when all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces [in worship]". Now, the individual Israelite was to act as Aaron the High Priest, with the intention that "all the people", not just Israel but the entire Gentile world, would be moved to worship Yahweh. Again we see the huge elevation of importance of the individual, to have as much power in blessing as the High Priest, and over far more people.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The earth has yielded its increase. God, even our own God, will bless us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The God of Israel would bless "us", Israel, with great harvests, and this would be a visible testament to His grace toward them- and was intended to lead the Gentile nations to Israel's God (:7). For blessing of harvests was seen then as the function of a nation's God. Therefore the Psalmist envisages a bumper harvest for God's people [we can render "May the earth yield its increase"], so that others would be drawn to Him. But the restored exiles experienced failed harvests; because they didn’t repent. Perhaps "God" rather than "Yahweh" is used at this point because this would be the perspective of the observing Gentiles.</p><p>The earth / land yielding its increase was a blessing for obedience to the covenant (Lev. 25:19; 26:4); and if the exiles accepted the new covenant, they would experience the same as a visible sign of God's pleasure with them in the restored Kingdom (Ez. 34:27; Zech. 8:12). The idea was that this visible blessing would lead the Gentiles to Israel's God. This wasn't the scenario that happened, but the psalmist wishes for it and prays for it.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. A song-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These words specifically refer to the setting forward of the ark [“So it was, whenever the ark set out, that Moses said, ‘Rise up, O Lord! Let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you’”, Num. 10:35), and I will suggest on :17 that the Psalm was originally used for David's bringing the ark to Zion. This would explain the references to Yahweh's victories over His enemies, because David brought the ark to Zion after having defeated the Philistines and the local inhabitants of Zion. The ranting against foreign deities in Ps. 68 would then be understandable given Samuel's appeal for them to be dropped (1 Sam. 7:2,3), and the obvious fact they had been unable to defend mount Zion from David's men. The triple emphasis in Ps. 68:3 upon "joy" can be understood against the background of the ark being brought up to Zion with great joy and hymns, one of which was surely Psalm 68 (2 Sam. 6:12). Ps. 68:11,25 stresses the role of the women in praising God, and it seems from David's exposure in front of the virgins of Israel at the time that women also had a specific role in the celebrations when the ark was brought to Zion (2 Sam. 6:20).    
Psalm 68 alludes throughout to Deborah's song of Judges 5, which according to some scholars may well be one of the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible and would therefore have been well known to David as he wrote Ps. 68. However, the points of connection are not sequential; words and ideas from various parts of Jud. 5 are alluded to in Ps. 68. Here the allusion would be to Jud. 5:22, where Sisera and his men are scattered and flee before God's people. The subsequent reference to the wicked 'perishing' (:2) connects with Jud. 5:31 "so let all Your enemies perish". "Sing... sing praises" (:4,32) is Jud. 5:3,12 "Sing... sing praises". "Kings of armies fled" (:12) is Jud. 5:3,19 where the same happened to Sisera and his armies. "You led captivity captive" (:18) is clearly Jud. 5:12 where Barak is to lead captors captive. God wounding the head and scalp of His enemies (:21) is what was done to Sisera when Jael smote him in the head (Jud. 5:26). "Benjamin, Zebulun, Naphtali" (:27) are the same three tribes glorified in Jud. 5:14,18. The similarities are so close that Judges 5 can then be used to illuminate some of the otherwise more obscure phrases of Ps. 68. The gushing rain of :9 alludes to the clouds gushing water in Jud. 5:4. And the enigmatic "while you men sleep among the campfires / cattle stalls" (:13) is now understandable when we see the connection with Jud. 5:16, where Reuben is rebuked for remaining in his sheepfolds rather than joining in the rout of the enemy. The publishing of God's word (:11) is seen to refer to publishing the good news / Gospel of salvation from enemies- once we see the connection with Jud. 5:11, where the faithful would "rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord" after the victory. 
This appears to be a song sung as the Israelites went out to battle. They took courage from God’s previous marchings forth to victory, both from Egypt and then through Canaan; and the spirit of those victories was to be repeated, and come to ultimate term in the victory of the Lord Jesus and the establishment of His Kingdom upon earth.</p><p>I have discussed on 1 Sam. 4:3 how there was always a tendency to use the ark as a talisman; and God was against that. The religious eclipsed the spiritual as regards the ark, several times in Israel's history. And I suggest David was not immune to this. He brings the ark to Zion without any Divine command to do so and without consultation with Him [David earlier asks God for guidance about his decisions in 2 Sam. 5, but not in the context of the ark];  and there was the disaster with Uzzah the first time he attempted it. This is to be compared to Israel's defeat when they took the ark with them into battle against the Philistines in the time of Eli. David clearly also veered towards seeing the ark as a talisman. It was almost as if he wanted to underwrite his own enthronement in Jerusalem by having Yahweh enthroned there also over the ark. Likewise David's desire to permanently locate the ark in a physical temple in Jerusalem can be seen as a desire to legitimate the enthronement of his dynasty in that city. But on the other hand, David often 'gets it' about the lack of need for the ark's physical presence. His psalms speak of how he lived permanently beneath the shadow of the cherubic wings, as if he lived on the mercy seat, on the sprinkled blood. In 2 Sam. 15:24-29 he flees from Absalom, and refuses the suggestion he take the ark with him. But, so true to real spiritual life, he also had tendencies towards needing the physical and religious when it came to the ark. Just as we pine for the religious at times, whilst also rejoicing in God's presence in our hearts quite regardless of religious context. David wrote at least two Psalms about bringing the ark to Zion, Ps. 68 and Ps. 132. Ps. 68 clearly expects God to bring victory to Israel because of the ark's presence in Zion, and Ps. 132 seems to reason that once the ark is in Zion it will be there forever. This wasn't to be the case. But we see in David's reasoning that he still considered the ark as some kind of physical guarantee of God's presence, and the legitimization of his own enthronement in Jerusalem- and that of his dynasty after him, as he imagined. He was proven wrong- the ark disappeared, his dynasty was cut off, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. But God's spiritual presence in human hearts continued and became the stronger after these things. We marvel at how God works through human weakness to achieve His wider purposes. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let God arise! Let His enemies be scattered! Let them who hate Him also flee before Him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The allusion is clearly to the High Priestly blessing of the people in <a href='B:40 6:24-25'>Num 6:24-25</a>, given whenever they began their onward journey to the promised land. This was how <a href='B:230 67:1'>Psa 67:1</a> begins, but the point is made in that Psalm that the blessing was to be shared with all the Gentiles. This is the same idea with which Psalms 68 begins, supporting the suggestion that the Psalms are often paired. Psalms 67 would thus be an introduction to Psalms 68.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God sees those who love the world as hating Him. Likewise the Bible speaks of the world as being sinful and actively hating God, whereas to human eyes the world is for the most part ignorant. Thus the Canaanite nations did not know much about the God of Israel, and yet they are described as actively hating Him (<a href='B:40 10:35'>Num 10:35</a> NIV; <a href='B:230 68:1'>Psa 68:1</a>). </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language used by David of the final judgment (<a href='B:230 1:4'>Psa 1:4</a>; <a href='B:230 112:10'>Psa 112:10</a>) but he sees in every victory of God’s people a foretaste of the final victory. It was this kind of victory which could have been granted to the exiles over Babylon (s:w. <a href='B:290 41:2'>Isa 41:2</a>)- had they desired to really leave and restore the Kingdom. But they didn’t, and so this kind of victory over the nations surrounding Zion will be finally given to the Lord Jesus at the last day (s:w. <a href='B:400 1:4'>Mic 1:4</a>). "As wax melts before the fire" is the same image we have in other depictions of the last judgment- the rejected are ashamed from before Him, they slink away (1 Jn. 2:24 Gk.). The whole heaven and earth of this present world will likewise flee away. Ps. 112:10 has echoes of the scenario: "The wicked shall see it (the Kingdom) and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth (judgment day language), and melt away". In similar vein the apostle speaks of the rejected as those who even now "draw back unto perdition" (Heb. 10:39). This is the idea behind Heb. 12:15 RVmg: "…man that falls back from the grace of God". What they did in this life in slinking away from the reality of pure grace will be what is worked out in their condemnation experience. There seems a certain similarity between this and how the combined Gospel records imply that men initially mocked Jesus on the cross, and then eventually slipped away in silence (Heb. 6:6). </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But let the righteous be glad, may they rejoice before God; yes, let them rejoice with gladness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The conflicts between Israel and other nations are seen by David as a struggle between the righteous and the "wicked" (:2). But Israel themselves were never totally righteous; the dichotomy is over simplistic and even self-righteous. But it will ultimately be this way when the Lord Jesus returns.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sing to God! Sing praises to His name! Extol Him who rides on the clouds: to Yah, His name! Rejoice before Him!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God "rode upon the heavens" to save Israel from Egypt and the Egyptians (s:w. <a href='B:50 33:26'>Deu 33:26</a>; <a href='B:420 3:8'>Hab 3:8</a>). David felt this was how God had delivered him personally (s:w. <a href='B:230 18:10'>Psa 18:10</a>). The allusion is clearly to the cherubim, the chariots upon which God rode. In the context of the exiles, God was ready to ride forth upon the cherubim which Ezekiel had seen in vision in Babylon by the Chebar river. But Israel would not.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in His holy habitation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The exiles were those who had been left as fatherless and widows in the destruction of Jerusalem (s:w. <a href='B:310 5:3'>Lam 5:3</a>), because they had despised the fatherless (<a href='B:330 22:7'>Eze 22:7</a>). But God was prepared to arise and deliver the fatherless. But the reality was that they precluded this potential operation of God by preferring to remain in Babylon:&nbsp;</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God sets the lonely in families. He brings out the prisoners with singing, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The allusion is to how Israel in Egypt were saved through uniting in family units around the Passover lamb. Those without families were set together with families, and were delivered as families. And God was willing to repeat the Exodus deliverance for the captives in Babylon / Persia. See on <a href='B:230 107:41'>Psa 107:41</a>. There is also allusion to the blessing of the Hebrew midwives at the time of the Exodus with families. And yet the rebels amongst Israel died in the desert, despite all this saving activity of God at the Exodus.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We forsake all human relationships to follow the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:470 19:27-29'>Mat 19:27-29</a>). And He promises to compensate for this even in this life. But it depends to what extent we are willing to accept and perceive it. Through meaningful fellowship with our brethren we will find those relationships which we have given up compensated for, even if we aren’t physically close to our brethren. To be set in a new family is paralleled with being brought out from slavery. Part of the process of our redemption is that we are set in a new ecclesial family. The implication of Psalms 68 could be that it was in these family groups that they travelled through the wilderness. The N:C:V. reads: “God is in his holy Temple. He is a father to orphans, and he defends the widows. God gives the lonely a home. He leads prisoners out with joy...". The very house / family of God becomes the house / family of the lonely. Hence the ecclesia is the house of God (<a href='B:530 3:16'>1Co 3:16</a>). We find true family in the new family of God.</p><p>LXX "leading forth prisoners mightily, also them that act provokingly, even them that dwell in tombs". This connects with a wider theme in this Psalm: that God's saving activity for His people is also for the spiritually weak amongst them. See on :18 "You have received gifts to distribute among men, yes, among the rebellious also". And the reference to "even them that dwell in tombs" clearly looks ahead to the Lord's saving work for Legion. Nobody was left behind in this great work of salvation, not even a schizophrenic living in tombs on a cliff side in rural Galilee.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God, when You went forth before Your people, when You marched through the wilderness... Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As God went before the people in the pillars of fire and cloud, so He would lead His people to victory again. And the particular reference was to the possibility of delivering the exiles from captivity and leading them through the wilderness, perhaps also led by Angels, to the promised land.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The earth trembled. The sky also poured down rain at the presence of the God of Sinai-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> at the presence of God, the God of Israel-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Earthquake and rain was sent at the time of the exodus. This was in fact to soften up Canaan for the arrival of the Israelites; they could have entered a land well watered by these rains, with harvest ready to be picked (:9). But because of their rebellion, this great potential didn’t come about; because they in their hearts turned back to Egypt. And so it was with the exiles.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You, God, sent a plentiful rain. You confirmed Your inheritance when it was weary-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :8, this rain was to prepare Canaan to be full of fruit by the time the Israelites arrived there; hence in the next verse we read in the context of Israel's arrival in Canaan: "You, God, prepared Your goodness for the poor". They left at Passover, and were intended to arrive in Canaan at harvest time. But such great potentials are wasted all the time by the desire to remain in Egypt / Babylon.  There may also be allusion to Ps. 78:24 "He rained down upon them manna to eat".</p>


text:
<h2>Your congregation lived therein. You, God, prepared Your goodness for the poor-</h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This 'preparation' is as explained on :8,9. The language of inheritance (e.g. <a href='B:670 1:4'>1Pe 1:4</a>) and preparation of reward (<a href='B:470 25:34'>Mat 25:34</a>; <a href='B:500 14:1'>Joh 14:1</a>) in the NT is alluding to the OT background of the land being prepared by the Angels for Israel to inherit (<a href='B:20 15:17'>Exo 15:17</a> Heb:; 23:20; <a href='B:230 68:9-10'>Psa 68:9-10</a> Heb:) . We must be careful not to think that our promised inheritance is only eternal life; it is something being personally prepared for each of us. The language of preparation seems inappropriate if our reward is only eternal life.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord announced the word; the women who proclaimed it are a great company-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is the implication that a great number of Angels- perhaps the guardian Angels of each of the Israelites- were with them too: "great was the company of those that published it... even thousands of Angels" (<a href='B:230 68:11'>Psa 68:11</a> AV). This "great company" is defined in :17 as "the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels". These Angels were the cherubic chariots which are envisaged as going out with the Israelites to every battle. The word published was the word concerning Israel leaving Egypt and overcoming every obstacle that lay in the way to entering and possessing the promised land. The same promise is to each of us in our journey from the Red Sea of baptism to the Kingdom (<a href='B:530 10:1-2'>1Co 10:1-2</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>If we prefer the rendering "the women...", then the reference is to Miriam and the women of Israel proclaiming God’s word of deliverance as already fulfilled. And it was women who first proclaimed the Lord's resurrection, the surmounting of all that may appear to lie in our way towards possession of the Kingdom.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Kings of armies flee! They flee! The women who wait at home divide the spoil-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note the emphasis upon the women (:11). The Canaanites did indeed flee, but Israel failed to believe that. They preferred to think that the Canaanites were invincible, and to return to Egyptian bondage. It was the same in principle at the restoration. Enemies would turn their backs and flee only if Israel were faithful to the covenant.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>while you men sleep among the campfires-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to allude to the rebuke of Deborah that the men of Israel were cowards and not using the great Divine potential for victory (<a href='B:70 5:16'>Jdg 5:16</a>). This would fit the context of the praise of women at this time (:11,12). As noted on :1, the enigmatic "while you men sleep among the campfires / cattle stalls" (:13) is understandable when we see the connection with Jud. 5:16, where Reuben is rebuked for remaining in his sheepfolds rather than joining in the rout of the enemy. The GNB seems to make better sense of :12,13: "The women at home divided what was captured: figures of doves covered with silver, whose wings glittered with fine gold. (Why did some of you stay among the sheep pens on the day of battle?)". Only in the Kingdom will we perceive all our missed opportunities in this life. And that is a powerful thought, to urge us to ever greater labour for the Lord whilst it is called today. LXX gives "Even if ye should lie among the pots, ye shall have the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her breast with yellow gold". This would suggest that the reward is still shared even with those who were nervous or self centred and didn't do what they could and should have done. This is a theme continued in :18- the gifts / spoils are shared amongst "men, yes, among the rebellious also". </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>the wings of a dove sheathed with silver, her feathers with shining gold-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Israel is the turtle dove (<a href='B:230 74:19'>Psa 74:19</a>). Perhaps this is an allusion to some poem known at the time, lamenting the glory which could have been Israel's but was wasted potential. In which case this battle cry is urging the male warriors to not be like their historical counterparts and fail to use all the Divine potential for victory. Or the idea may be to rebuke a love of silver and gold rather than arising and fighting to possess the land- a rebuke appropriate to the exiles who preferred the wealth of Babylon.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When the Almighty scattered kings in her, it snowed on Zalmon-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The scattered kings in the land ("her") would drop their weapons and armour and flee (:12). With the sun shining off all those items, it would appear like the snow which fell on Salmon, a hill near Shechem (<a href='B:70 9:48'>Jdg 9:48</a>), the central point in the land. Or perhaps there is reference to a snowstorm assisting the rout of enemies.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The mountains of Bashan are majestic mountains, the mountains of Bashan are rugged-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "The mountain of God is a rich mountain; a swelling mountain, a rich mountain". This would refer to Zion (as in :16), which was to be elevated as the central focus of God’s Kingdom. "Mountains" would then be read as an intensive plural for the one great mountain. The one great mountain of Bashan, if we retain that reading, would be Hermon.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Why do you look in envy, you rugged mountains, at the mountain where God chooses to reign? Yes, Yahweh will dwell there forever-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Psalm now moves in focus away from being a battle song as the troops marched out (:1) to describing the Kingdom of God to be restored in Israel. For this was to be the final outcome of all Israel's battles. Yahweh will dwell there eternally only when the Kingdom is reestablished in Israel. The surrounding hills around Zion represent therefore the nations surrounding Israel. They were not to be envious, but rather to accept Israel's God enthroned in Zion (:30,31).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The chariots of God are tens of thousands and thousands of thousands. The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the sanctuary-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As explained on :11, the huge Angelic activity of God at the time of the exodus could have been replicated for the exiles, and for Israel in any of their conflicts. There is the implication that God would again gather Israel through those Angels to make another covenant with them. Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 20 offered a new covenant to the exiles, seeing they had broken the old covenant. But they refused it. These things were all reapplied and rescheduled. For the huge cherubic activity of God now works to bring individuals of all nations to a point, as at Sinai, where delivered from Egypt they can accept the new covenant.</p.<p>We can read with GNB "the Lord comes from Sinai into the holy place". The picture then is of the ark journeying from Sinai to Zion, from one mountain to another. And then (:18) ascending the hill of Zion. The first reference of the Psalm may have been to this; and the distribution of gifts to men, indiscriminately (:18), would then refer to David's gift of bread and wine to all the men of Israel. David's procession in bringing the ark to Zion would then be the reference of :24,25. And that would explain why the Psalm begins with an allusion to the language used whenever the ark set forward.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You have ascended on high, You have led away captives in your victory train, You have received gifts to distribute among men, yes, among the rebellious also, that Yah God might dwell there-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :1, the primary reference of the Psalm is to David's bringing the ark to Zion. The ark 'ascended' on its journeys. In the context of the ark, "the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Yahweh God? and to whom shall He go up from us?" (1 Sam. 6:19). Finally the ark was "brought up" to Zion (2 Sam. 6:2,12). But the ark was to later be understood as representative of the Lord Jesus; and David's giving of gifts, indiscriminately, to the giving of the gifts of the Spirit at the Lord's ascension- both His 'ascent' on the cross, and to Heaven. Both of which events are connected to the giving of the Spirit gifts. We note that "Zion" is not specifically mentioned in Ps. 68 as where the ark / Yahweh ascended to. Perhaps that's because the ascent of the ark was designed to be understood as speaking of something far greater, a greater ascension, captives and gifts- the ascent of the Lord Jesus to the cross and to Heaven itself. Verses 19,20 will go on to say that this ascent of Yahweh will result in "salvation" and "escape from death"- far greater things than achieved by the ascent of the ark to Zion. 
The ascension of the Lord Jesus resulted in the gift of the Spirit to men. Not only Eph. 4, but also Acts 2:33,38: "being exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear... repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to the remission of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit". Likewise Acts 5:31,32: "Him did God exalt with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins. And we are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, which God has given to those that obey Him".
These words are quoted specifically about the victory of the Lord Jesus on the cross, His ascension to Heaven and gift of the Holy Spirit (<a href='B:560 4:8'>Eph 4:8</a> "to each one of us was the grace given, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore He says: When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men"). The argument of Ephesians 4 is that these gifts are given in order to bring us to maturity in and as the Lord Jesus: "until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13). And the context of Ephesians is the language of being built up a spiritual temple for God's habitation (Eph. 1:20-2:22; Ephesians 3 is largely a digression and so the theme of building the spiritual temple for God continues directly). This is saying the same thing as Ps. 68:18 "You have received gifts to distribute among men, yes, among the rebellious also, that Yah God might dwell there". The gifts were to sanctify God's people, including the rebellious, so that God might dwell in them. The historical basis was the giving of bread and wine by David to all Israel after the 'ascent' of the ark to Zion. And Ps. 68 frames this within the language of a victory celebration; for it was normal for victors to give gifts to their supporters after the victory. And so the 'ascent' of the ark is both the ascent of the Lord lifted up on the cross; and also His ascent to Heaven, both of which events are associated with the gift of the Spirit. When He was glorified, the gifts of the Spirit were given: "this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (Jn. 7:39). Bear in mind John's language of His ascent / lifting up on the cross and final outbreathing of His breath / Spirit towards His disciples. The element of unreality is that the captives led captive are us, the former enemies led joyfully into captivity to the Lord Jesus, and receiving gifts from Him. This explains the otherwise odd way that Paul changes "he receives gifts from rebellious people" (Ps. 68:18)  to "he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men" (Eph. 4:8). Paul makes the Lord the giver rather than the receiver of the gifts. He was given gifts by those He had conquered; but Paul changes this to Him giving gifts to the captives. This subtle change makes perfect sense once we understand that the captives are us, His former enemies now themselves rejoicing [rather than bedraggled and ashamed] as they are led in the victory triumph: "You have led away captives in your victory train". The gifts are given to them, and are shared with the former rebels now defeated: "You have received gifts to distribute among men, yes, among the rebellious also". Those 'rebels' are the condemned of :6, as if the idea is that all God's people, the rebels included, are to be saved. Although of course they each have to claim their part in that salvation; hence Ps. 66:7 "Don’t let the rebellious rise up against Him". We could however read more simply that the Lord ascended, was given gifts [by God] and then gave them to His people. 
As noted on :17, the exiles generally refused the scenario made possible for them. And yet the offer of a new covenant remains and has been extended to individuals of all nations, brought through the Red Sea of baptism to a point (cp. Sinai, :17) where they can enter covenant.</p><h2>Israel were slaves in Egypt, and then after the Red Sea baptism became slaves of God. <a href='B:230 68:18'>Psa 68:18</a> pictures them as a train of captives being led out of Egypt, merging into the image of a train of a captivity led into a different captivity. Romans 6 powerfully brings home the point: we were slaves of sin, but now are become slaves of righteousness. The gifts of the Spirit which were given were initially revealed in a miraculous form, but the essential purpose of the gift of the Spirit is so that God might dwell among us, even in the hearts of the formerly rebellious. And this is just as much His activity today as ever before.</h2>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burdens, even the God who is our salvation. Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "Blessed be the Lord God, blessed be the Lord daily; and the God of our salvation shall prosper us". Israel's deliverance and salvation from Egypt become the spiritual experience of all those saved in Christ. "Burdens" were associated with the slavery in Egypt; it was as if God was with them in that slavery, carrying their burdens with them. And this would have had special relevance to the exiles in Babylon and Assyria. "The God who is our salvation" is ultimately Yah-hoshua, Yah saves, 'Jesus'. And He daily bears our burdens, because He is still in essence a cross carrier. We are to daily take up our cross, each man is to bear his own burden in one sense (Gal. 6:5). But the Lord Jesus also bears them. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God is to us a God of deliverance; to Yahweh the Lord belongs escape from death-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Remember that this was initially a battle song as troops began to march to war (see on :1). The comfort was that God would save them from death, because that is the lead characteristic of Yahweh. And that would be ultimately true- even if they died in battle, the Israelites had the unique hope of the resurrection of the body.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But God will strike through the head of His enemies, the hairy scalp of such a one as still continues in his guiltiness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Thus would suggest that the Israelites were only marching to war against the impenitent who had refused God’s calls to repent. The allusion is to the striking of the serpent upon the head (<a href='B:10 3:15'>Gen 3:15</a>), and Israel were to be as the seed of the woman bringing this about.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord said, I will bring you again from Bashan, I will bring you again from the depths of the sea-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to reference words of God unrecorded in the previous historical records. Or the idea may be that as God had saved Israel from Egypt through the Red Sea, so He would do so "again" in every struggle of the Israelites. And this will come ultimately true at the last day.  But "the depths of the sea" is the consistent Biblical image used for the condemned, cast like millstones to the bottom of the sea. The idea may well be that God would save His people even from their condemned status. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>that you may crush them, dipping your foot in blood, that the tongues of your dogs may have their portion from your enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The taking of a portion or inheritance may allude to the conquest of Canaan, which the Israelite soldiers were to replicate every time they marched to battle (:1). These words were used by David of how God had wounded all his enemies under his feet (<a href='B:230 18:38'>Psa 18:38</a>) and he wished this to be the experience of all God’s people. So often he sees his life as a pattern for God’s people to follow.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They have seen Your processions, God, even the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The "they" may refer to God’s enemies (:23), but it is hard to understand how they had seen the processions in the sanctuary. Perhaps the processions were victory parades after the victory, with the captive enemies seeing them in shame (see on :25). Or we may go with LXX "Thy goings, O God, have been seen; the goings of my God, the king, in the sanctuary". We note that David repeatedly calls God "my king" or "the king". He realized that he was only king on God’s behalf, and all the desire of Israel for a human king had been a rejection of Yahweh.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The singers went before, the minstrels followed after in the midst of the ladies playing with tambourines, singing-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We note the repeated focus upon the role of women (see on :11,12). The reference to tambourines recalls Miriam and the women of Israel rejoicing at the salvation from Egypt. The processions in the sanctuary of :24 were therefore envisaged as processions of praise for victories granted in the spirit of that over Egypt.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Bless God in the congregations, even the Lord in the assembly of Israel!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This could be an invitation to the Gentiles to praise God along with the Israelites. This is a common theme of David. The "congregations" may be an intensive plural for the one great congregation of Israel. David often talks of how he wishes the congregation to praise God. It is the struggle of every spiritually minded and righteous man to humble himself to accept he is only part of a far wider congregation, comprised of believers who may frankly be less spiritually minded than himself (<a href='B:230 26:12'>Psa 26:12</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 68:26'>Psa 68:26</a>). David and the Lord Jesus are parade examples of achieving this sense. LXX "Praise God in the congregations, the Lord from the fountains of Israel".</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There is little Benjamin, their ruler, the princes of Judah, their council, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea may be that the two and ten tribe kingdoms were represented together. LXX "There is Benjamin the younger one in ecstasy, the princes of Juda their rulers, the princes of Zabulon, the princes of Nephthali". Perhaps Zebulun and Naphtali were chosen because they were commended for their bravery at the time of Deborah (<a href='B:70 5:18'>Jdg 5:18</a>), and she has been in view in :13, in her criticizing of the other tribes for not being as Zebulun and Naphtali. Or in the context of the exiles, it could be that they are mentioned as the areas which suffered most from the invaders (<a href='B:290 11:1'>Isa 11:1</a>). But they are envisaged here in glory in Zion.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your God has commanded your strength. Strengthen, God, that which You have done for us-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>There may be an allusion here to 'Hezekiah', strengthened by Yah. From here to the end of the Psalm, the vision is of God's future Kingdom to come on earth. But the idea is, from the allusions throughout the Psalm so far, that as God led His people out of Egypt and through the wilderness, as He gave them victory over Sisera, despite all their dysfunctions, missed opportunities (see on :13) and failures, so finally He will bring His people to His Kingdom. </p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Because of Your temple at Jerusalem kings shall bring presents to You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Clearly this was rewritten at some point after David, or maybe David was looking forward to the temple which Solomon would build. In this case, his vision for that temple was as a focal point for the Gentiles to come to and learn of Yahweh. Instead it became filled with their paganic images. Quite possibly this Psalm originated in the bringing of the ark to Zion, but under Divine inspiration was re-written and reapplied to Solomon's time and subsequent processions during the feasts. Similar language to Ps. 68 is used by Solomon at the dedication of the temple: "arise, Yahweh God, into Your resting place, You and the ark of Your strength: let Your priests, Yahweh God, be clothed with salvation, and let Your saints rejoice in goodness" (2 Chron. 6:41).</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rebuke the wild animal of the reeds, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples. Being humbled, may they bring tribute of bars of silver. Scatter the nations that delight in war-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The vision was that entity which had abused God’s people, be it Babylon, Assyria or Egypt, would be humbled and come to Zion in repentance with tribute to Yahweh; and those who refused to repent would be scattered in condemnation. But LXX has "Rebuke the wild beasts of the reed: let the crowd of bulls with the heifers of the nations be rebuked, so that they who have been proved with silver may not be shut out: scatter thou the nations that wish for wars". Those refined as silver refer to the exiles after their spiritual education in Babylon; but the truth was that they did not respond as intended, and remained not purified.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Princes shall come out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall hurry to stretch out her hands to God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>What began as a battle song ends up with a vision of the Gentile enemies accepting the God of Israel. This was the intended outcome of the campaign, rather than mere punishment for its own sake.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth! Sing praises to the Lord! Selah-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This appears to be encouragement to the Gentile enemies to praise Israel's God. This was ever David’s vision, as it is God’s.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>To Him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which are of old; behold, He utters His voice, a mighty voice-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "Sing to God that rides on the heaven of heaven, eastward: lo, he will utter a mighty sound with his voice". The reference to "eastward" would allude to the east wind which destroyed the Egyptians, associated with the clouds upon which the cherubim as it were rode. The mighty voice of God may be that which is verbalized in :34; it is an appeal for repentance and acceptance of Yahweh. "Which are of old" suggests that how God has acted in history, He will do again; a major theme of this Psalm.</p>


text:
<h2></h2><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Ascribe strength to God! His excellency is over Israel, His strength is in the skies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is an appeal for the enemies to repent; to perceive that He is king over Israel, they are His Kingdom; and the Gentile peoples can likewise become part of that Kingdom. For that was ever God’s intention.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. To the tune of Lilies. By David-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm has verses in it which are quoted about the Lord Jesus by Peter, Paul and each of the Gospel writers. They clearly understood it as a major prophecy of His sufferings.</p><p>Paul confirms this Davidic authorship (<a href='B:520 11:9'>Rom 11:9</a>). But the Psalm seems so relevant to Jeremiah sinking in the mud. Perhaps David’s Psalm was edited under inspiration to be relevant to Jeremiah, or was prayed by him and then rewritten by him. It is clearly appropriate to the Lord's crucifixion and is cited several times about Him in the New Testament. The parallels with Psalms 22 mean that it likely has the same original context- in the sufferings experienced by David as a result of his sin with Bathsheba. The Lord Jesus on the cross was so identified with sinners that although personally innocent, He fully entered into the feelings of condemned sinners. And therefore the words and thoughts of David when at this point are appropriated to Him on the cross.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David was at a point where he felt death was imminent. But as suggested above, it could well be that the Psalm was rewritten by Jeremiah on reflection at his experiences in the dungeon.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the picture of a man treading water with the last of his strength as he faces death by drowning. The exact historical reference within David’s life isn't clear. It could be, as suggested on :1, that his general sense of being overcome by troubles has been developed by Jeremiah.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea seems to be that he has put his last energy into appealing for God’s salvation, but this had not been forthcoming. The Lord's desire for a drink because "I thirst" was therefore only so that He could continue praying. <a href='B:230 119:82'>Psa 119:82</a> has the same idea, in that David’s eyes failed for looking for the fulfilment of God’s word that he would become king and his kingdom be established. Perhaps that was the original reference here, as David faced the loss of his kingdom to usurpers like Absalom and Adonijah.</p></p>Failing eyes is not necessarily literal. It is an idiom used for the wicked now being deprived of their hope (Dt. 28:32; Job 11:20). With reference to the Lord, we have a similar sense as in Ps. 22 where the Lord although sinless feels like a sinners, so close was His identification with us as He died. </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :8. As with "my enemies wrongfully" later in this verse, the continued emphasis in David’s psalms upon "without cause" surely reflects a self righteousness (<a href='B:230 35:19'>Psa 35:19</a>; <a href='B:230 69:4'>Psa 69:4</a>; <a href='B:230 109:3'>Psa 109:3</a>; <a href='B:230 119:161'>Psa 119:161</a>), and a refusal to accept that what happened to him was a result of his sin with Bathsheba- as Nathan had explained. For David’s righteousness was only impressive relative to the wickedness of his enemies; before God, it was filthy rags. It was true that Saul persecuted David "without cause" (s:w. <a href='B:90 19:5'>1Sa 19:5</a>), but the experience of "without cause" persecution can lead us to an inappropriate self-righteousness. This is what happened to Job, who also suffered "without cause" (s:w. <a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a>), and had to be convicted of self-righteousness at the end of the story. And it seems this happened to David. David himself intended to shed blood "without cause" and was only saved from it by grace (s:w. <a href='B:90 25:31'>1Sa 25:31</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the context of the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba, David says that his sins and their consequences are "more than the hairs of my head" (<a href='B:230 40:12'>Psa 40:12</a>). But he uses the same phrase in saying that his "without a cause" enemies are "more than the hairs of my head" (<a href='B:230 69:4'>Psa 69:4</a>). But again we note that he considers those consequences of his sin to be "without cause", and we wonder at the depth of his repentance and sense of culpability.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is inevitable that to someone of the Lord’s intellectual ability as the Son of God, to a man with His sense of justice and with His knowledge of the Jews and their Law, everything within Him would have cried out at the protracted injustices of His trials. He had the strong sense within Him at this time that He was hated without cause, that the Jews were "mine enemies wrongfully" (<a href='B:230 69:4'>Psa 69:4</a>). I suggested on Psalms 22 that this struggle with injustice and the apparent inconsistency of God was the Lord's final struggle in the moments before He died, and was required to bring Him to the acme of humility required for His final moment of death (Php_2:7-10). However, on the level of David, he was wrong to consider that it was somehow unfair that he was suffering the results of his sin with Bathsheba; for such troubles were exactly what Nathan had predicted would happen.</p><p>Some texts read "More numerous than my bones are they that are mine enemies falsely". The crucifixion psalms repeatedly talk of the bones. The Lord's bones were not broken but in great pain. The crucifixion process tortured the bones. And we are of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have to restore what I didn’t take away-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Take away" is the term used for stolen or lost goods which were to be restored. Perhaps there is reference to some false accusation against David which he felt aggrieved about. The allusion is to Jacob having to make good for the lost cattle of Laban during his time of exile, which David often looked to as representative of his experiences. But I suggested on :1 that this Psalm may have been rewritten by Jeremiah, so maybe there was some such incident in his life, perhaps concerning the property be redeemed. But these possible incidents are all typical of the way the Lord Jesus restored salvation and ultimately the garden of Eden, suffering in order to restore that which He took not away, and epitomized in the way He restored the ear of Malchus just before His death. That incident was perhaps providentially used by the Father to prepare His Son for His death to restore that which He had not taken away.</p><p>It seems that "that which I had not plundered" is a proverbial expression for suffering unjustly, as if he had been falsely accused of theft and made to 'pay back' what he hadn't stolen (see Job 20:18; 22:6). David had indeed taken away Uriah's wife, Uriah's life, the lives of other soldiers... in Nathan's parable, David had taken away Uriah's one sheep, and he himself had declared "He shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing" (2 Sam. 12:6). But now he complains that he is having to restore what he didn't steal. He had forgotten the reality of his sin and its consequences, just as men do today. In the initial application, the Psalm reflects David's self righteousness. But the language of innocence is applicable to the Lord Jesus especially in His death.  </p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God, You know my foolishness. My sins aren’t hidden from You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I noted on :4 that David was failing to accept the consequences of his sins with Bathsheba and Uriah. But true to our own experience, we can in one breath struggle to accept consequences of sin, minimizing what we did long ago- and yet almost in the same breath, accept full responsibility for them. But again, we may well enquire whether "foolishness" is not rather a mild term for what he had done (also used in <a href='B:230 38:5'>Psa 38:5</a>); surely "wickedness" would have been more appropriate. "Foolishness" is often used in Proverbs to refer to unwisdom and even silliness. But what David did surely requires more extreme language. We note that David has been quick to use a wide range of harsh adjectives and ideas in describing the wickedness of others like Saul who had tried to murder the innocent. And David had actually done so.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Why (oh why) hast Thou forsaken me?" is surely the Lord Jesus searching His conscience with desperate intensity, finding nothing wrong, and crying to God to show Him where He had failed, why the Father had forsaken Him. It may be that initially He assumed He had sinned (<a href='B:230 69:5'>Psa 69:5</a>), going through the self-doubt which David went through at the time of Absalom's rebellion (<a href='B:230 3:2'>Psa 3:2</a>). As David had felt then that God had cast him off, even though "my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail", so the Lord felt (<a href='B:230 89:33'>Psa 89:33</a>; <a href='B:230 89:38'>Psa 89:38</a>). But then with an unsurpassedly rigorous self-examination, He came to know that He really hadn't. This means that once over the crisis, our Lord died with a purity of conscience known by no other being, with a profound sense of His own totality of righteousness. Again, this enables us to better enter into the intensity of "It is finished".</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let those who wait for You be shamed on my account, Lord Yahweh of Armies. Don’t let those who seek You be brought to dishonour through me, God of Israel-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Wait" is better "hope". Perhaps David has in view those who were hoping for the fuller establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth under his kingship, which hope appeared to be dashed whilst he was now exiled during the rebellion of Adonijah or Absalom. David had supporters at the time of Absalom's rebellion, who remained in Jerusalem pretending to be on Absalom's side, but working to bring down his coup. And David here prays for them.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Because for Your sake I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But David’s shame was surely because of his own sake, and not for God’s sake. He always seems to struggle in taking full responsibility for the consequences of his sins. But it could be argued that he means that his reproach was because his enemies were jealous of his spirituality, and therefore they reproached him for the sake of his relationship with God.</p>


text:
<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Absalom's rebellion had been orchestrated over many years, and it seems he got David’s own brothers onside with him. Ahithophel was Bathsheba's grandfather and it seems he too had fomented opposition to David amongst his own family. But suffering consequences of his sin within his own family was exactly what Nathan had said would happen; and now it happens, David appears to rail against it. But the human pain of it all must not be thereby minimized. David loved his parents, especially caring for their safe keeping in his wilderness years; only to be forsaken by them (the Hebrew means just that), and to be rejected by his brothers and sisters (<a href='B:230 27:10'>Psa 27:10</a>; <a href='B:230 38:11'>Psa 38:11</a>; <a href='B:230 69:8'>Psa 69:8</a>; <a href='B:230 88:18'>Psa 88:18</a>). All this was after the pattern of Job, to whom David here alludes (see on <a href='B:220 19:12-14'>Job 19:12-14</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The essence of all this happened to the Lord Jesus, whose brothers initially did not believe in Him. "Stranger" implies a Gentile. The Lord Jesus was accused of being the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier. The way He compared Himself to a Samaritan, half Jew and half Gentile, shows that especially on the cross, this is how He felt. He was mindful of both Jewish and Gentile aspects of His future body as He died. Mary was a woman, a real mother, and her special love for Jesus would have been noticed by the others. This probably had something to do with the fact that all her other children had rejected Jesus as a "stranger", i:e. a Gentile; perhaps they too believed that this Jesus was the result of mum's early fling with a passing Roman soldier.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In Gethsemane the Lord spoke of drinking the cup of His final death and suffering. But earlier He had spoken in the present tense: “the cup that I drink of... the baptism that I am baptized with" (<a href='B:480 10:38'>Mar 10:38</a>). The drinking of the cup of death was ongoing. Likewise there are several verses in Psalms 22, 69 which are evidently relevant to both the Lord's life and also His final hours on the cross. "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up" is in the context of the cross, but is applied to an earlier period of the Lord's life (<a href='B:230 69:9'>Psa 69:9</a> cp. <a href='B:500 2:17'>Joh 2:17</a>). "I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children" is another example (<a href='B:230 69:8'>Psa 69:8</a>); it is a prophecy about the final sufferings of the Lord in crucifixion, and yet it is elsewhere quoted about the experiences of His ministry. And “they hated me without a cause" (<a href='B:230 69:4'>Psa 69:4</a>) was true throughout the Lord’s life (<a href='B:500 15:25'>Joh 15:25</a>) as well as particularly in His death.</p><p>Psalm 119 gives us the impression that David loved God's commandments, but lamented he had not followed them in his life- indeed he fears some kind of shame if his sins catch up with him. His fear of shame is often repeated (:6,22,31,39,46,51,80,116,141); this could refer to some public shame for an openly revealed sin. Or it could reference his sense of shame that "in sin did my mother conceive me" and his sense of shame that he was a poor man now in the opulence of court life. Possibly his illegitimate background had been hushed up, although it was known by "the one who taunts me... the arrogant mock me... utterly derided me" (:42,51); but when his sin with Bathsheba is revealed, he openly states for all the world to know that his mother conceived him "in sin". Yet despite this potential shame, David says he will cling to God's word of promise that he would be king. If his mother were a Moabite or non-Israelite, accounting for his red hair, he may have assumed that he as an illegitimate Gentile could never be king of Israel- if that were known about. We recall how Jephthah and Abimelech were the sons of prostitutes and how this militated against their leadership (Jud. 8:29-31; 11:1,2).  Jesse was asked to parade his sons before Samuel in order for a king to be chosen. None of them are chosen; but when asked if he has any other sons, Jesse answers rather awkwardly and obliquely that there is David who is minding the sheep. That sounds an excuse as the family did have a "keeper" of the sheep apart from David (1 Sam. 17:20). This would be appropriate if David were in fact illegitimate. He was therefore "a stranger to my brothers, And an alien to my mother’s children" (Ps. 69:8). "Stranger" is Hebrew muzar which is related to mamzer or bastard / illegitimate. All this rejection and lack of attention set David up for what was likely some form of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Dt. 23:2-4 was clear that a Moabite could not enter the congregation of Israel until the 10th generation. And David was descended from Ruth the Moabitess (Ruth 4:13-17). And so his faith in God's word of promise, that he would really be king, is in tension with his fear that he would be shamed and never accepted as Israel's king- seeing he was illegitimate, and not fully Hebrew. In addition to this Dt. 23:2 likewise says that an illegitimate man couldn't enter for ten generations: “One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of Yahweh".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the zeal of Your house consumes me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the application to the Lord on the cross, we see His total mental focus upon us, the house of God. Psalm 22 likewise gives insight into how the Lord seems to have died with a strong vision of us, the great congregation. See on :8. On a human level, David seems to have become obsessed with preparing for the physical building of the temple in his old age. He truly commented: " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up" (<a href='B:230 69:9'>Psa 69:9</a>). The RV margin of <a href='B:130 28:12'>1Ch 28:12</a> makes us wonder whether the dimensions of the temple were in fact made up within David’s own mind: “David gave to Solomon his son the pattern</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> the pattern that he had in his spirit&nbsp; [AV “by the spirit”] for the</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> house of the Lord”. But here David cites his obsession with building a temple as a kind of reason for considering that his suffering the consequence of sin was unreasonable. But the New Testament reapplies these words to the Lord's zeal for cleansing the temple.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Law taught that a man had to bring a burnt offering, of his own voluntary will, in symbol of his own dedication to his God. It was to be consumed by the flames of the Christ-altar, until all that was left was a pile of ashes. And he was to see in this a parable of his own life; totally consumed in service, until at the end, we're left a pile of ashes. We are as water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered again. The Man we follow is the supreme example. He knew himself that "the zeal of Your house consumes me"; the same Hebrew word is used as in <a href='B:30 6:10'>Lev 6:10</a>: "take up the ashes which the fire has consumed".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea of deferral of fulfilment is common enough in Scripture once you look for it. “The wrath of the Lord was upon Judah” in Hezekiah’s time; but he made a covenant with God and cleansed the temple “that his fierce wrath may turn away from us” (<a href='B:140 29:8'>2Ch 29:8</a>; <a href='B:140 29:10'>2Ch 29:10</a>). But this day of the Lord’s wrath was deferred until 90 years later (<a href='B:430 1:18'>Zep 1:18</a>; <a href='B:430 2:2'>Zep 2:2</a>). Hezekiah’s zealous cleansing of the temple (<a href='B:140 29:12-16'>2Ch 29:12-16</a>) cannot fail to have been one application of <a href='B:230 69:9'>Psa 69:9</a> “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up”- and yet these words are applied to the Lord’s cleansing of the temple and His death in the first century. Could it not be that the Lord Jesus cleansed the temple fully understanding these things, and seeking to defer God’s wrath upon Judah, to give them a chance to repent? And it was delayed- in that there was no immediate wrath from Heaven against the Jews for murdering the Son of God. And yet the days were shortened as well as deferred for the elect’s sake. An amazing Father somehow builds all these various factors into His time periods. Truly everything happens in our lives at the ‘right’ time!</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Scriptures which were relevant to Christ are actually directly applicable to us too, who are in Christ. Thus Paul reasons: "Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written (he quotes <a href='B:230 69:9'>Psa 69:9</a>), The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning…." (<a href='B:520 15:3-4'>Rom 15:3-4</a>). So here Paul points out a well known Messianic prophesy, applies it to Christ, and then says that it was written for us. This is exactly Peter's point, when he says that the words which were spoken to Christ at the transfiguration were also for our benefit, and that the word of prophecy which we have is to be treated in the same manner as if we had been cowering with Peter on the mount, hearing the words which Moses and Elijah spoke to Jesus. &nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I suggested on :7 that the subconscious reason for David’s reproach was his relationship with God. And this was certainly true for the Lord Jesus whom he typified, as it was true for Jeremiah (see on :1). David had earlier observed that when Saul was sick he had wept and fasted for him (<a href='B:230 35:13'>Psa 35:13</a>), and he did so again at Saul's death; and perhaps this was being politically used against him.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the context of the Lord Jesus, we see this fulfilled in the continual usage of the words "Jesus" and "Christ" as bywords to this day. Becoming a byword was the punishment for breaking the covenant (s:w. <a href='B:50 28:37'>Deu 28:37</a>). The Lord Jesus was therefore suffering as representative of a sinful, condemned Israel. The exiles ought to have found comfort in these prophecies. On the level of David, he was mocked as one suffering for breaking the covenant. When in fact it was quite the other way around.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who sit in the gate talk against me; I am the song of the drunkards-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is another allusion to Job, whom David continually sees as his pattern (see on <a href='B:220 19:12-14'>Job 19:12-14</a>). It was David’s own son who stood in the gate talking against his own father (<a href='B:100 15:2-6'>2Sa 15:2-6</a>). This was the typical consequence of David’s sin with Bathsheba which Nathan had predicted; and yet when it happened, David complains about it, as if still struggling to accept Nathan's words, and not focused enough upon the simple wonder of the fact he had been forgiven and his life preserved by God’s amazing grace.</p><p>David despises drunkards- but tried to make Uriah drunk in order to cover David's sin with Bathsheba.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But as for me, my prayer is to You, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of Your grace, answer me in the truth of Your salvation-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In the context, these are the thoughts of Christ on the cross. As He prayed on the cross, so we should arm ourselves with the same attitude of mind in prayer (cp. <a href='B:670 4:1'>1Pe 4:1</a>). These words are alluded to in <a href='B:540 6:2'>2Co 6:2</a>, where we are told to draw near to God (and encourage others to do so), because now is the accepted time and the day of our salvation. The crucified Lord reflected there that His prayer was offered to God "in an acceptable time". And yet this very passage is taken up in <a href='B:540 6:2'>2Co 6:2</a> concerning the necessary vigour of our crying to God for salvation. That the intensity of the Lord's prayerfulness and seeking of God on the cross should be held up as our pattern... the very height of the ideal is wondrous.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This suggests a man at the very end of life, facing imminent death. I suggested on :1 that there is no particular time in David’s life where this is recorded of him. Yet the words are so relevant to Jeremiah, who it seems reused this Psalm. Perhaps Jonah did likewise, for death in "the deep waters" applied to him. And they were exactly relevant to the Lord Jesus on the cross. These words are alluded to in <a href='B:230 18:17'>Psa 18:17</a>, where at the end of his life David reflects that he has been delivered from those who hated him (s:w:). At the time, he wept bitterly for Absalom's death; but in maturity he realized that this was in fact an answer to his prayers.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The reference may be to Ahithophel's plan to swallow up David at the time of Absalom's rebellion (<a href='B:100 17:12'>2Sa 17:12</a>; <a href='B:100 17:16'>2Sa 17:16</a> s:w:). David’s prayer of <a href='B:230 35:25'>Psa 35:25</a>; <a href='B:230 69:15'>Psa 69:15</a>; <a href='B:230 124:3'>Psa 124:3</a> not to be swallowed up / destroyed was answered, but he was devastated at the answer- for it meant the death of his son Absalom. Again David has Job in mind, who had his 'brethren' arguing that he should be swallowed up / destroyed without cause (<a href='B:220 2:3'>Job 2:3</a> s:w:).</p><p>As discussed on Ps. 22, the Lord's prayers for immediate deliverance death, and here for Him not enter a sealed grave, were unanswered. But here we have a parade example of how an unanswered prayer brought the greatest blessings. The fact God did allow His Son to die, and the grave to briefly shut its mouth on Him, brought about the greatest salvation.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Answer me, Yahweh, for Your grace is good. According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, turn to me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Although earlier David has complained that he is suffering unfairly (see on :4), he again returns to his awareness that he can only be saved by grace; for he is indeed a sinner suffering the consequence of his sins. True to our own experience, we can in one breath struggle to accept consequences of sin, minimizing what we did long ago- and yet almost in the same breath, accept full responsibility for them (see on :5).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t hide Your face from Your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David feels that his suffering at the hands of Absalom and his group was because God was hiding His face. But this was not the case. He is failing to give due weight to the words of Nathan. He was to suffer these consequences for his sin, but that didn’t mean God was hiding His face from him; for he was really and truly forgiven and restored before God. The exiles appear to have likewise struggled with the issue of consequence for sin. David had asked God not to hide his face from him, David personally, (<a href='B:230 27:9'>Psa 27:9</a>; <a href='B:230 69:17'>Psa 69:17</a>; <a href='B:230 102:2'>Psa 102:2</a>; <a href='B:230 143:7'>Psa 143:7</a>), but to hide His face from David’s sins (<a href='B:230 51:9'>Psa 51:9</a>). But it seems that in crisis he wondered whether he had in fact been forgiven.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Draw near to my soul, and redeem it. Ransom me because of my enemies-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David often speaks of drawing near to God, and yet he invites God to draw near to him (<a href='B:230 69:18'>Psa 69:18</a>). Yet David also recognizes that God “is” near already (<a href='B:230 75:1'>Psa 75:1</a>). I take all this to mean that like us, David recognized that God “is” near, and yet wished God to make His presence real to him. Truly can we pray David’s prayers. So often, prayer is described as coming near to God (<a href='B:230 119:169'>Psa 119:169</a> etc:)- and yet God “is” near already. Prayer, therefore, is a way of making us realize the presence of the God who is always present. You are not alone, I am not alone; “For I am with you”. God is with us for us in His Son. Of course, we must draw near to Him (<a href='B:230 73:28'>Psa 73:28</a>); and yet He is already near, not far from every one of us (<a href='B:510 17:27'>Act 17:27</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And yet it could be argued that God had already forgiven David, ransoming and redeeming him. But he was left to suffer the consequences of those sins, and because of that, in crisis he starts to wonder whether he has indeed been forgiven. And we can do the same so easily. The consequence of sin is death, and we can squirm against this when we or others face it... forgetting the wonder of the fact that we are indeed redeemed and ransomed from the power of the grave, although we must still take the consequences. The exiles likewise had to understand that they had been redeemed (s:w. <a href='B:230 74:2'>Psa 74:2</a>) but were suffering the consequence of sin. God was indeed their redeemer (<a href='B:290 41:14'>Isa 41:14</a>; <a href='B:290 43:1'>Isa 43:1</a> s:w:). At the very end of his life, David realized that he had in fact been redeemed (s:w. <a href='B:110 1:29'>1Ki 1:29</a>). He could give up his spirit to God in death, knowing that He was redeemed from the power of the grave (s:w. <a href='B:230 31:5'>Psa 31:5</a>; <a href='B:230 49:15'>Psa 49:15</a>). His sure hope in the resurrection of the body looked ahead to the attitude with which the Lord Jesus died.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonour; my adversaries are all before You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The tone of the Psalm begins to change from this point. This so often happens in the Psalms; David begins by praying desperately for help, and then within the same Psalm, becomes calmer, and ends up rejoicing. Perhaps there was some dramatic Divine revelation to him during the prayer. But rather I suggest that this is simply true to our spiritual experience in prayer; we too within the course of prayer become calmer, seeing God’s hand, aware that He does know precisely all our situation, better than we do; and shall finally bring us to the great salvation of His eternal Kingdom. And thus we conclude the prayer in joy and peace before Him.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Lord didn’t just passively enduring the polemics of the Pharisees; they were His chicks, He really wanted them under His wings (cp. Israel dwelling under the wings of the cherubim). We must ever remember this when we read the records of Him arguing with them and exposing their hypocrisy. He wasn't just throwing back their questions, playing the game and winning, just surviving from day to day with them. He was trying to gather them, and their rejection of His words really hurt Him. Their reproach broke His heart; He didn’t just brazenly endure it as we might the ravings of a drunken man (<a href='B:230 69:20'>Psa 69:20</a>):&nbsp;David here alludes to Job's experiences (see on <a href='B:220 19:12-14'>Job 19:12-14</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The shame of the cross is a theme of the records. The reproach broke the Lord's heart (<a href='B:230 69:20'>Psa 69:20</a>). It could even be that He suffered a heart rupture, a literal broken heart, some hours prior to His death- hence when His side was pierced, blood flowed out- and corpses don’t usually bleed. It has been commented that severe emotional trauma is enough to cause such a rupture. He wasn't hard and impervious to it all. He knew who He was, and where He was going. To be treated as He was, was such an insult to the God of all grace. And He keenly sensed thIsa. <a href='B:650 12:2-3'>Heb 12:2-3</a> parallels the Lord's enduring of the cross with His enduring "such contradiction of sinners against Himself".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is likely that the Lord was crucified naked, thereby sharing the shame of Adam's nakedness. The shame of the cross is stressed (<a href='B:650 11:26'>Heb 11:26</a>; <a href='B:650 12:2'>Heb 12:2</a>; <a href='B:230 31:17'>Psa 31:17</a>; <a href='B:230 69:6-7'>Psa 69:6-7</a>; <a href='B:230 69:12'>Psa 69:12</a>; <a href='B:230 69:19-20'>Psa 69:19-20</a>). And we are to share those sufferings. There must, therefore, be an open standing up for what we believe in the eyes of a hostile world. Preaching, in this sense, is for all of us. And if we dodge this, we put the Son of God to a naked shame; we re-crucify Him naked, we shame Him again (<a href='B:650 6:6'>Heb 6:6</a>). He was crucified naked, and the sun went in for three hours. He must have been cold, very cold (<a href='B:500 18:18'>Joh 18:18</a>). Artemidorus Daldianus (Oneirokritika 2:53) confirms that the Romans usually crucified victims naked. Melito of Sardis, writing in the 2nd century, writes of “his body naked and not even deemed worthy of a clothing that it might not be seen. Therefore the heavenly lights turned away and the day darkened in order that he might be hidden who was denuded upon the cross" (On the Pasch 97). The earliest portrayals of the crucified Jesus, on carved gems, feature Him naked.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"But there stood by the cross..." makes the connection between Mary and the clothes. It seems that initially, she wasn't there; He looked for comforters and found none (<a href='B:230 69:20'>Psa 69:20</a> - or does this imply that the oft mentioned spiritual difference between the Lord and His mother meant that He didn’t find comfort in her? Or she only came to the cross later?). His lovers, friends and kinsmen stood far off from Him (<a href='B:230 38:11'>Psa 38:11</a>), perhaps in a literal sense, perhaps far away from understanding Him. If Mary wasn't initially at the cross, John's connection between the dividing of the clothes and her being there would suggest that she had made the clothes. In any case, the four women at the cross are surely set up against the four soldiers there- who gambled over the clothes. Perhaps the other women had also had some input into the Lord’s clothing.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They also gave me gall for my food; in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is hard to find an occasion in David’s life which would have been relevant to thIsa. But I suggested on :1 that the Psalm was rewritten by Jeremiah. Perhaps they passed down gall and vinegar to him in the dungeon. But the Psalm clearly refers to the Lord Jesus, supremely. The Hebrew can stand the translation ‘poison’ (see RSV). Given the extended, agitated torture of crucifixion, there was a custom for close friends to get close enough to the cross to lift up a poisonous substance which the crucified would lick, and thereby die quickly. It is just possible that a friend (or even his mother?) or a sympathetic soldier did thIsa. Again, in this case it would seem that the Lord chose the highest level; our salvation would surely have been theologically achievable if He had taken it. But He chose to attain for us not only salvation, but “such great salvation" by always taking the highest level. He became obedient not only to death, but “even the death of the cross".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let their table before them become a snare, may it become a retribution and a trap-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A "table" is literally that which was spread forth, and need not refer to a piece of wood with legs. The idea is that their table, in the sense of a piece of material unrolled and spread upon the ground, was to turn into an animal trap into which they themselves would fall. The verse is quoted from the LXX in <a href='B:520 11:9'>Rom 11:9</a> and applied to the Jews who refused to accept the Lord Jesus as Messiah and king. Those who treated David likewise represented the Jews of the first century. Thus again David at this point is understood as a type of the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see; may their backs be continually bent-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is quoted in <a href='B:520 11:10'>Rom 11:10</a> about the Jews who rejected the kingship of the Lord Jesus, whom David typified. This darkening of Jewish hearts / eyes has been spoken of in <a href='B:520 1:21'>Rom 1:21</a> (s:w:), and I have argued on Romans 1 that 'Jews' and 'Gentiles' refer specifically to the Jewish and Gentile Christian converts within the church at Rome- rather than to Jews and Gentiles in some generic, global sense. As noted on <a href='B:520 11:10'>Rom 11:10</a>, what is in view here is the stumbling of Jewish Christian believers out of the way, leading to their being cut off from the Christ-olive tree. '"Bend the back" uses the same word as just used in <a href='B:520 11:4'>Rom 11:4</a> for those who bowed the knee to Baal. They would be confirmed in their idolatry. And perhaps the reference is to how the Christian Jews who fell away from faith would eternally bow down at the last judgment (<a href='B:730 3:9'>Rev 3:9</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Pour out Your indignation on them; let the fierceness of Your anger overtake them-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is the language used about God’s judgment upon the Gentiles (<a href='B:230 79:6'>Psa 79:6</a>; <a href='B:300 10:25'>Jer 10:25</a>). David often sees the apostate within Israel as no better than Gentiles. And yet when Absalom did die, David was heartbroken, even though it was the answer to prayers like thIsa. Being "overtaken" suggests being overtaken by military defeat, which is what happened to Absalom.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let their habitation be desolate, may no one dwell in their tents-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>These words are quoted about Judas in <a href='B:510 1:20'>Act 1:20</a>, who is clearly typified by Ahithophel, who was a main mover in Absalom's rebellion. The condemnation of Jewry for crucifying Christ in <a href='B:230 69:25'>Psa 69:25</a> ("let their habitation be desolate") is quoted in the singular about Judas in <a href='B:510 1:20'>Act 1:20</a>. What was true of Judas was also true of Israel in general; in the same way as the pronouns used about Judas merge from singular into plural in <a href='B:230 55:13-15'>Psa 55:13-15</a> ("a man mine equal... let death seize upon them"), as also in <a href='B:230 109:3'>Psa 109:3</a> cp. :8.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For they persecute him whom You have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom You have hurt-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The parallel between "him" and "those" reflects David’s awareness that his sufferings were representative of those of God’s people. This is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus on the cross, who was "wounded" for our sins on the cross (s:w. <a href='B:290 53:5'>Isa 53:5</a>; <a href='B:450 13:6'>Zec 13:6</a>), with the "wound" of the judgment for sin which was the just desert of His people (s:w. <a href='B:300 30:14'>Jer 30:14</a>; <a href='B:310 2:12'>Lam 2:12</a>):&nbsp;  The Lord's wounding is paralleled with that of His people. There on the cross, we were all in Him. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Add iniquity to their iniquity; don’t let them come into Your righteousness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It is a feature of God’s dealings with men that He confirms the degree of spiritual success or failure which we achieve or aim for by our own freewill effort. Thus we read nine times that Pharaoh hardened his own heart; but ten times that God hardened his heart. Similarly, God adds iniquity unto the iniquity of those who willfully sin (<a href='B:230 69:27'>Psa 69:27</a>; <a href='B:730 22:18'>Rev 22:18</a>). Conversely God imputes righteousness, adding His own righteous characteristics to us, in response to our faith. This is the key idea of 'justification by faith', being counted righteous although personally we are not.</p><p>Both sin and righteousness can be imputed. The conclusion is that whatever moves we make spiritually are magnified and multiplied in significance by God. And this adds endless meaning to every life decision and position, every single thought and action.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The suggestion is that they had been in the book of life, they were part of the Israel of God, but David wishes for them to be removed from it. This wishing of condemnation upon enemies, even when they include your own son [Absalom], seems so far from the spirit of the God who takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and instead wishes that all men come to repentance. Desire for repentance in his enemies is rarely seen in David; we find only death wishes, and even a desire for their eternal damnation. He continues to divide his world into the sinners and "the righteous", forgetting that he was only righteous after his sins of adultery and murder because he was counted righteous. The spirit of Moses was so different, wishing himself blotted out of the book of life so that sinful Israel might enter the land (<a href='B:20 32:32'>Exo 32:32</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But I am in pain and distress. Let Your salvation, God, protect me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Protect me" is AV "set me up on high". David sees the contrast between his present lowness and the height of his ultimate exaltation. David again sees himself as following the pattern of Job (s:w. <a href='B:220 5:11'>Job 5:11</a>). This was ultimately true of the Lord Jesus in His ascent to Heaven and Divine nature. Solomon presents his father David’s being 'set on high' (<a href='B:230 69:29'>Psa 69:29</a>) as programmatic for the exaltation of all the righteous; he sees David as the epitome of the righteous, and thereby justifies the Davidic dynasty (s:w. <a href='B:240 18:10'>Pro 18:10</a>; <a href='B:240 29:25'>Pro 29:25</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we note the change in tone of the Psalm. As noted on :19, David begins by praying desperately for help, and then within the same Psalm, becomes calmer, and ends up rejoicing. Perhaps there was some dramatic Divine revelation to him during the prayer. But rather I suggest that this is simply true to our spiritual experience in prayer; we too within the course of prayer become calmer, seeing God’s hand, aware that He does know precisely all our situation, better than we do; and shall finally bring us to the great salvation of His eternal Kingdom. And thus we conclude the prayer in joy and peace before Him.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that has horns and hoofs-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had earlier come to realize that a broken and contrite heart was worth more to God than any animal sacrifice (<a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>). Here he develops the idea to say that praising God for His grace (:30) was worth more than sacrifices; and that praise offered from a humble heart is hugely valuable to God. Hence the theme of humility continues in :32.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The humble have seen it, and are glad. You who seek after God, let your heart live-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :31, a humble heart full of praise of grace is so valuable to God. The idea may be that the humble "see" or perceive that God wants praise of His Name rather than sacrifices; and this is what God had Himself wanted. It was this attitude of heart which would live for ever (Heb:). Although we have no immortal soul, the righteous have an immortal spirit in that who we are in our hearts now is who we shall eternally be. These thoughts are also presented as the Lord's thoughts on the cross in Ps. 22:26: "The humble shall eat and be satisfied, they who seek after Him shall praise Yahweh. May your hearts live forever".</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise His captive people-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This has clearly been rewritten with reference to the captive exiles; see on :35. The captives were despised (s:w. <a href='B:160 2:19'>Neh 2:19</a>) as David was for his sin (s:w. <a href='B:230 22:6'>Psa 22:6</a>; <a href='B:230 22:24'>Psa 22:24</a>), and as was the Lord Jesus on the cross (s:w. <a href='B:290 53:3'>Isa 53:3</a>), but God did not despise them and would destroy that opposition. Yet perhaps it had a historical basis in David appreciating that although he had despised God in his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah (s:w. <a href='B:100 12:10'>2Sa 12:10</a>), God by grace had not despised him. Because God did not despise David’s contrite and broken heart (s:w. <a href='B:230 51:17'>Psa 51:17</a>, a passage also alluded to in :31). The exiles had likewise despised God (s:w. <a href='B:330 16:59'>Eze 16:59</a>) but would not be despised by God.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let heaven and earth praise Him; the seas, and everything that moves therein!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David associates the salvation of Zion with the "seas" praising God, the Gentiles beyond the "earth" / land promised to Abraham. This is the prophetic vision; of Zion's redemption being a powerful example for the Gentiles to accept Israel's God.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For God will save Zion, and build the cities of Judah. They shall settle there, and own it-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David saw his sufferings as being bound up with those of Israel; those who hated him hated Zion, those who blessed him blessed Zion, and God’s salvation of Israel was being expressed through God’s deliverance of him in the daily vicissitudes of life; as God had chosen Zion, so He had David His servant; David’s joy was Zion's joy, and her exaltation would be David’s&nbsp; (<a href='B:230 51:18'>Psa 51:18</a>; <a href='B:230 69:35'>Psa 69:35</a>; <a href='B:230 87:2'>Psa 87:2</a>; <a href='B:230 106:5'>Psa 106:5</a>; <a href='B:230 121:3-4'>Psa 121:3-4</a>; <a href='B:230 125:1'>Psa 125:1</a>; <a href='B:230 128:5'>Psa 128:5</a>; <a href='B:230 146:10'>Psa 146:10</a>; <a href='B:230 149:2'>Psa 149:2</a>). This is how we are to make sense of suffering- by understanding that it plays a role in the salvation of others, and is part of a wider nexus of Divine operation. We suffer so that we may be able to minister the comfort we receive to others (<a href='B:540 1:4'>2Co 1:4</a>). Job likewise came to realize that his sufferings were not so much for his personal maturing, but for the teaching and salvation of the friends.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Or we can understand this reference to Zion as an example of a Psalm of David being rewritten and reapplied, under Divine inspiration, to a later historical situation- perhaps to the restoration, when the exiles again lived in the cities of Judah. See on :33. "Own it" is the word for "Drove out" in <a href='B:230 44:2'>Psa 44:2</a>. It is the word for "inherit" in the promises that Abraham's seed would "inherit" the land (<a href='B:10 15:7-8'>Gen 15:7-8</a>; <a href='B:10 28:4'>Gen 28:4</a>). As in our experience, there is always a primary fulfilment of God’s promises and eternal covenant, which was based around the promises to Abraham. This was of particular comfort to the exiles. Although God appeared not to be coming through for them at the time, they were to take comfort in the covenant with Abraham; God’s hand had worked in the past and would do so again, and the land was ultimately theirs. Even if at the moment their enemies were in the ascendancy.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For the Chief Musician. By David. A reminder-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is a fragment from <a href='B:230 40:1-17'>Psa 40:1-17</a>, although here "Yahweh" is used instead of "elohim". And the final verse changes <a href='B:230 40:17'>Psa 40:17</a> "Yet the Lord thinks upon me" to an appeal for urgent help. It could be that David recalls his earlier successful prayer for urgent help in a situation and repeats it, although without the praise for an answer, which has not yet been received. Perhaps this is the sense of the Psalm title "a reminder", to act as God had done previously. Psalms 40 is an appeal for help with the consequences of the sin with Bathsheba, and maybe Psalms 70 was related to facing another such consequence.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Hurry, God, to deliver me. Come quickly to help me, Yahweh-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David repeatedly asks God to "hurry to help me" (<a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 38:22'>Psa 38:22</a>; <a href='B:230 40:13'>Psa 40:13</a>; <a href='B:230 70:1'>Psa 70:1</a>; <a href='B:230 70:5'>Psa 70:5</a>; <a href='B:230 141:1'>Psa 141:1</a>). But David had hurried (s:w:) to be obedient to God, always wanting to 'say yes straight away' (<a href='B:230 119:60'>Psa 119:60</a>). Our response to God’s voice is therefore related to His response to our voice; if His words abide in us, then we experience positive experience in answered prayer (<a href='B:500 15:7'>Joh 15:7</a>). </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be disappointed and confounded who seek my soul. Let those who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul sought&nbsp; to take David’s life. So many of the Psalms contain imprecations against those who were seeking David’s soul- not just his physical life, but seeking to destroy his very being (e.g. <a href='B:230 35:4'>Psa 35:4</a>; <a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 54:1'>Psa 54:1</a>; <a href='B:230 63:9'>Psa 63:9</a>; <a href='B:230 70:2'>Psa 70:2</a>; <a href='B:230 71:13'>Psa 71:13</a>). These imprecations expose the evil of Saul, and asks God to condemn him. Some of those Psalms appear to have been written by David in the Saul days, and then rewritten at the time of Absalom's rebellion- another man who sought David’s soul, and yet whom David loved:&nbsp;These words perhaps originated in the wilderness Psalm of <a href='B:230 35:4'>Psa 35:4</a>. But David repeats them here, in this Psalm which appears to reference to David’s sin with Bathsheba, which provoked the plotting against David’s life referred to here. And yet we wonder as to how David could so bitterly wish the destruction of his opponents, when he himself had been saved by grace.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be turned back because of their shame who say, Aha! Aha!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David’s repeated desire to see the condemnation of those who were judging him seems inappropriate for a man saved by grace; for they were the vehicles for receiving the consequences of his sins. "Aha!" suggests malicious pleasure at another’s misfortune as in Ps. 35:21,25. The implication could be that before his sin with Bathsheba, David had enemies who wanted to see his fall- and the Bathsheba affair was ideal for their purposes. GNB of :2 suggests the same: "May those who are happy because of my troubles be turned back". Although Nathan had basically told David that his troubles from his own family would not be "turned back". They would remain with him all his days. And yet we have these prayers recorded- as a lesson to us. It has often been said that God's response to prayer is "Yes", "No" or "wait". David here is unwilling to accept "No" nor "wait". He wants the "yes", and right away. Continually he asks God to not delay but to "hurry" in responding to the problems made by his family who are against his continued kingship. Even though God through Nathan had said that these problems were to continue all David's life.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You. Let those who love Your salvation continually say, Let God be exalted!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again we query why and how David continues to see people in such black and white terms, divided between the righteous and unrighteous, when he himself had been revealed as a righteous man who had sinned seriously.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The faithful are described as "those that seek (God)... such as love Your salvation". But in another sense, there is not one that truly seeks God (<a href='B:520 3:11'>Rom 3:11</a> - the context concerns all of us, believers and unbelievers); and yet we are those who seek Him. We must be ambitious to do the impossible. Those who truly love righteousness and the Kingdom will be rewarded with it. Likewise Paul in <a href='B:530 8:2-3'>1Co 8:2-3</a> describes the faithful man as one who accepts he knows nothing as he ought to know, but truly loves God. <a href='B:650 9:28'>Heb 9:28</a> is clear: "Unto them that look for (Christ) shall He appear the second time... unto salvation". Those who truly look for Christ will be given salvation. All who truly love His appearing will be saved (2 Tim. 4:8). Those who want salvation and love it, will get it. It is loving God that is so critical; we are to be “they that love His name”, loving all the characteristics that He stands for (Ps. 69:36).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David responded to their seeking of him by seeking God more. He uses the language of the hunt and chase to describe how he was drawing closer to God: "My soul followeth hard after thee" (<a href='B:230 63:8'>Psa 63:8</a>; Psalms 63 is a wilderness psalm, see title). “Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul... let all those that seek thee rejoice" (<a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 40:16'>Psa 40:16</a>). In this sense, David felt he wasn't fleeing from his enemies as much as fleeing to God: "Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies (from whom he was running): I flee unto thee to hide me" (<a href='B:230 143:9'>Psa 143:9</a>). This fleeing to God didn’t mean that David and Jesus didn’t respond or retaliate verbally; both of them, especially the Lord Jesus, did. They both pleaded their innocence, and accused their enemies of being unfair and hypocritical. Yet this must have been done from a genuine motive of love; as David loved Saul, as the thought of Saul's death must have torn at his heart, so the Lord Jesus loved Israel, weeping over Jerusalem, wishing to himself like a child for the impossible: that they would know him as their Saviour. Both David and Jesus had a real sense of direction, they could see that their mental, emotional and physical sufferings were leading them towards an altogether higher relationship with the Father. They took those sufferings as an almost welcome push towards the Father. They had a sure sense of spiritual direction in all their afflictions; this accounts for the human loneliness which they both felt.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In You, Yahweh, I take refuge. Never let me be disappointed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Typical of men of his time, David seems to fear shame [s:w. "disappointed"] more than death itself. Defeat meant shame, and he desperately begged not to be shamed. Perhaps it was the function of his failure with Bathsheba to help him redefine the motives for his trust in God. This Psalm repeats language from Psalms 22, 31, 35, 40 - which were all in the context of his sin with Bathsheba. It seems that this Psalms 71 is his plea for help as he continues to face the consequences of that sin even in his old age.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea is that God was David’s city of refuge. These cities were for those who needed to flee when being chased by the avenger of blood (<a href='B:40 35:26'>Num 35:26</a>). The imagery is very appropriate to David when fleeing from Saul and Absalom. David’s constant meditation upon God’s law would have included the sections about the cities of refuge; he realized that actually no such city was available for him, but the spirit of the law led him to reflect that Yahweh was his refuge, wherever he was. David tends to open wilderness Psalms with this reflection, just as we may tend to begin prayers with the same opening phrase and thoughts (<a href='B:230 7:1'>Psa 7:1</a>; <a href='B:230 11:1'>Psa 11:1</a>; <a href='B:230 16:1'>Psa 16:1</a>; <a href='B:230 31:1'>Psa 31:1</a>; <a href='B:230 57:1'>Psa 57:1</a>; <a href='B:230 71:1'>Psa 71:1</a>). But here he now reuses this lesson learned in the context of Absalom's rebellion.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A case can be made that the whole of book 3 of the Psalter (Psalms 73-89) was written / edited in Babylon. The Psalms of Korah (83-87) seem to reflect the longing of the righteous remnant in Babylon for the temple services. And it is just possible that the entire Psalter was re-edited there in Babylon, under inspiration- for so many Psalms have elements of appropriacy to the exiles in Babylon and the restoration. The LXX titles of Psalms 56 [“Concerning the people that were removed from the Sanctuary”] and 71 [“Of the sons of Jonadab, and the first that were taken captive”] speak for themselves. Likewise the LXX attributes Psalms 146-148 to Haggai and Zechariah. David’s experience of grace and appeal for salvation by grace was therefore intended to be programmatic for the exiles in Babylon.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Deliver me in Your righteousness and rescue me. Turn Your ear to me and save me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David appealed to God’s righteousness for deliverance from the consequence of his sins (<a href='B:230 71:2'>Psa 71:2</a>). This was appropriate, seeing that David had been saved from death by God’s imputation of His righteousness to David (<a href='B:230 32:1-4'>Psa 32:1-4</a>), by grace through faith; seeing David’s sins left him with no righteousness of his own. And it was on this basis that David believed he would continue to be saved / delivered / rescued (s:w. <a href='B:230 51:14'>Psa 51:14</a> in the Bathsheba context). But Solomon failed to learn from his mother and father’s experience of grace, teaching instead that personal righteousness is what saves (<a href='B:240 10:2'>Pro 10:2</a>; <a href='B:240 11:4'>Pro 11:4</a>; <a href='B:240 11:6'>Pro 11:6</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Be to me a rock of refuge to which I may always go-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had often used this image in the wilderness Psalms. But he asks that God will continue to be his refuge, now that in later life he faced another crisIsa. This is the force of "always", throughout his life.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Give the command to save me, for You are my rock and my fortress-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David envisages a Divine command being issued in the court of Heaven, and then this being operationalized on earth (presumably by the Angels). Verses 1-3 are the same as in Ps. 31 so we can assume this is a psalm of David. I suggest the initial reference is to God's dramatic deliverance of David from Saul in the wilderness of Maon at the cliff and mountain. "Refuge is 'maon', so the allusion is clear. God was David's "rock" (sela') and "fortress" (matsud). David had stayed in a "rock" (sela')  in Maon (1 Sam. 23:25). Saul had David trapped there, but messengers came telling Saul that the Philistines had invaded, and so he left chasing David when he almost had caught him. David then goes and lives in the "fortress / stronghold" (matsud) of Engedi (1 Sam. 23:29): "Saul and his men went to seek him. When David was told, he went down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard that, he pursued David into the wilderness of Maon.  Saul went on one side of the mountain and David and his men on the other, and David hurried to get away for fear of Saul, for Saul and his men surrounded David and his men to take them. But a messenger came to Saul saying, Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land!  So Saul returned from pursuing David and went against the Philistines. Therefore they called that place Sela Hammahlekoth. David went from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi". But Ps. 71 is David in older age, recalling this deliverance, asking God to again give a command to save him; and asking God to be the rock where he could "always" go, just as he had in earlier life. This could hint at David not being as strong in faith in his older age; he seems to fear God may somehow not come through for him.  </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Rescue me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This may have originated in his thoughts about Saul, but the context is now of salvation from Absalom and Ahithophel, and as noted on :1, it becomes the intended appeal of the exiles for deliverance from Babylon, then Haman, and indeed from all their captors. "The hand of the wicked / unrighteous" is the term used for the Babylonians in <a href='B:330 7:21'>Eze 7:21</a>, , "cruel and evil people" (GNB). The LXX title of the Psalm claims it was the thoughts of those who first arrived in exile in Babylon. Quite possibly it is therefore a psalm of Daniel or another exile close to him..</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For You are my hope, Lord Yahweh; my confidence from my youth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :3, David is asking that God will continue to be his refuge as he was when on the run from Saul, now that in later life he faced another crisIsa. This is the force of "always" in :3, throughout his life. We note that the Hebrew idea of "hope" is not 'a hope for the best', but rather an absolute confidence; hence "hope" and "confidence" are here paralleled. The "hope of Israel" is the utter certain confidence of Israel. The same idea is implicit in the Greek word elpIsa.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I have relied on You from the womb. You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Relied" is the word for "upheld". David feels that God has 'upheld' him from babyhood until old age. And he wants God to continue. The desire for God to still uphold him again looks back to his feelings after the sin with Bathsheba, when David asks God to "uphold me [s.w.] with Your spirit" (Ps. 51:12). Ps. 71 shows David wanting the same things as he did after the sin with Bathsheba, and we could possibly conclude that he had not really learnt his lessons. Here, in old age, he presents as insecure and uncertain about God's grace continuing to him.</p><p>David here likens God to a midwife, who gently eased and took him from his mother's womb. This usage of female imagery about God was unusual for the time, indeed quite a paradigm breaker, and reflects David’s relatively high view of women- compared at least to contemporary attitudes. If David was the youngest of many sons, his mother may well have had difficulties in his birth, and so his very survival was perhaps seen by him as a reflection of grace.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will always praise You-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The force of "always" in :3 is as here; David will praise God on his harp as he did in the wilderness years in exile from Saul, right to the end of his days.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I am a marvel to many, but You are my strong refuge-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Marvel" is the usual word for "miracle". David may mean that "many" considered his survival to be miraculous, but he attributes that to God as being his "strong refuge". But the word can occasionally mean a man of sign or symbol to others (s:w. <a href='B:330 12:6'>Eze 12:6</a>; <a href='B:330 12:11'>Eze 12:11</a>). In this case, David would be again aware (as he often is) that his life and experience of Divine grace was representative of that of all God’s true people.</p><p>But "marvel" is the word used in  Dt. 28:46, where the punishment of Israel for its sins is spoken of as “a sign and a wonder / marvel". David in this case would be saying that he knows he is seen by "many" as suffering for his sins, punished by God- but despite bearing the consequences for his sins, he asks God to be his strong refuge as he endured the consequences. Which really is how we all are in enduring the results of our mortality. 
 David [we can assume Davidic authorship from the quotations from Psalm 31 and many other Psalms] began this prayer by asking "Be to me a rock of refuge" (:3). This is so often the path of prayer in the psalms- they begin with a request, and then as the prayer proceeds, the conclusion is reached that what was asked for, has in fact been granted.
</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My mouth shall be filled with Your praise, with Your honour all the day-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Despite fears for his immediate future (:9), David’s vision is of himself in the Kingdom, eternally praising God for His saving grace. This is the perspective we must have before us. He began the psalm asking for his own honour to be preserved (:1). Now he comes to think of God's honour and how He will eternally praise it. Again, this is the path of prayer; beginning with our own personal concerns; but coming to be more God centered as we proceed. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Don’t reject me in my old age. Don’t forsake me when my strength fails-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David frequently expresses his aloneness, and the comfort He therefore finds in God. But this had to grow over time. His fears were those of the exiles (see on :1). &nbsp; <a href='B:290 46:4'>Isa 46:4</a> seems almost to be in answer to David’s fear, and is addressed to the exiles: “Even to old age I am he, and even to grey hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; yea, I will carry, and will deliver”. Possibly he feared being cast off / forsaken by God just as old people tend to be by society and family. There is the illusion amongst younger people that at some point in later life, and certainly in older life, they will be able to put their feet up and enjoy life, being cared for by their family. But actually life is full of trials and out of left field tests from God. They don't stop. But "cast me not away" ["reject"] is the language of Ps. 51:11 "Don't cast me away from Your presence". Being cast away from God is the language of condemnation (Dt. 29:28; Jer. 7:15). They were his fears after his sin with Bathsheba. And it seems now in older age, he is haunted by the same fear. Likewise "my strength fails" is now he felt after the sin with Bathsheba: "My strength fails because of my iniquity" (Ps. 31:10). This is all another indication that his 'repentance' regarding the sin was not total; for his later psalms frequently chafe at the consequences which God had given him, and he often asks God to change them. And now he has the same fears of ruptured relationship with God, the fear of condemnation as he drew closer to death and then, next waking moment, the judgment. But that of course was a good sign- to fear being cast away by God shows he currently felt "with" God, and the one thing he wanted was eternal relationship with God. Not having that was the one thing he feared more than death itself. See on :12.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For my enemies talk about me, they who watch for my soul conspire together-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"Conspire" is s:w. "counsel", the word used of Ahithophel, David’s counsellor who was Bathsheba's grandfather, who later betrayed him and turned against him (<a href='B:100 15:12'>2Sa 15:12</a>; <a href='B:100 16:23'>2Sa 16:23</a>). Perhaps David is commenting upon Ahithophel's counsel to Absalom which was designed to destroy him. See on <a href='B:230 32:8'>Psa 32:8</a>. Old age was always coped with through family caring for the elderly person. But God had promised that as a result of his sin, David would face bitter grief from his own family. Now he was old, he realized this meant he would be left without carers. It's possible that "they who watch for my soul" refers to those who should care / watch out for him in his old age- his sons. But instead, they conspired to kill him and take power from him. David feared the powerlessness of old age; not for him the death surrounded by loving children and grandchildren. Rather did they persecute him to the end. His throne was hardly secure even at the time of his death. His old age brought so many other problems, as his sons and others tried to grab the throne even before he had died.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>saying, God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him-</p><p>The Hebrew for "pursue" is found on the lips of Ahithophel at the time of Absalom's rebellion: "I will pursue after David" (2 Sam. 17:1).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>It was at this time that David felt God had forsaken him (<a href='B:230 22:1'>Psa 22:1</a>). But He had not, ultimately. So we have here an example of false guilt being placed upon a man even of David’s faith and spirituality. We must take guilt for sins we have done. This is the true guilt. But the world is full of those who place false guilt upon others, and we can too easily absorb it. And yet I suppose it is impossible, at least by any intellectual process, to precisely divide false guilt from true guilt. We can take comfort that the Lord Jesus was our guilt offering, for all our guilt, of whatever kind. We note that they pursued David because they thought God had forsaken him and would not therefore judge them.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God, don’t be far from me. My God, hurry to help me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The plea for God not to "be far from me" is common (<a href='B:230 22:11'>Psa 22:11</a>; <a href='B:230 22:19'>Psa 22:19</a>; <a href='B:230 35:22'>Psa 35:22</a>; <a href='B:230 38:21'>Psa 38:21</a>; <a href='B:230 71:12'>Psa 71:12</a>). The emphasis perhaps is to be placed upon David not wanting God to be far from him, seeing that he felt others were 'far' from him (s:w. <a href='B:230 88:8'>Psa 88:8</a>; <a href='B:230 88:18'>Psa 88:18</a>). He accepted his social and psychological isolation from others, but he didn’t want God to be likewise far off from him. In the context of the exiles, God was willing to not be 'far off' from the exiles if they repented (<a href='B:290 46:13'>Isa 46:13</a>).</p><p>As discussed on :9, David now in older age seems to be thinking back to his sin with Bathsheba and fearing the consequences, and condemnation. For he asks  for God not to be far from him, just as he asked at that time: "Don't forsake me... My God, be not far from me" (Ps. 38:21). GNB "Don't stay so far away, O God" certainly implies that at this point, he felt a distance from God. And he blames God rather than himself. It's easy to assume that retirement, old age, or at least some point in our future will be easier for us than now, that crises will not happen. But that wasn't the case for David, neither is it for any spiritual person. Indeed, it can be that the intensity of our preparation is intensified as we draw to the end of our race.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX "Let those that plot against my soul be ashamed and utterly fail". The plotting was clearly by Ahithophel and Absalom. David’s desire was heard in that the sword and the forest devoured or consumed Absalom and his forces (<a href='B:100 18:8'>2Sa 18:8</a>). But when the prayer was answered, David wept bitterly for the loss of Absalom. We are thereby warned to be careful what we pray for, lest we receive it- which in some form we will.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Saul sought&nbsp;or 'wanted' to take David’s life. So many of the Psalms contain imprecations against those who were seeking David’s soul- not just his physical life, but seeking to destroy his very being (e.g. <a href='B:230 35:4'>Psa 35:4</a>; <a href='B:230 40:14'>Psa 40:14</a>; <a href='B:230 54:1'>Psa 54:1</a>; <a href='B:230 63:9'>Psa 63:9</a>; <a href='B:230 70:2'>Psa 70:2</a>; <a href='B:230 71:13'>Psa 71:13</a>). These imprecations expose the evil of Saul, and asks God to condemn him. Some of those Psalms appear to have been written by David in the Saul days, and then rewritten at the time of Absalom's rebellion- another man who sought David’s soul, and yet whom David loved:&nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But I will always hope, and will add to all of Your praise-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The tone of the Psalm begins to change from this point. This so often happens in the Psalms; David begins by praying desperately for help, and then within the same Psalm, becomes calmer, and ends up rejoicing. Perhaps there was some dramatic Divine revelation to him during the prayer. But rather I suggest that this is simply true to our spiritual experience in prayer; we too within the course of prayer become calmer, seeing God’s hand, aware that He does know precisely all our situation, better than we do; and shall finally bring us to the great salvation of His eternal Kingdom. And thus we conclude the prayer in joy and peace before Him. "I will always hope" doesn't mean he would hope for the best; rather he speaks of the certainty of his expectation of final salvation. This is the Kingdom perspective we must always hold. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My mouth will tell others about Your righteousness and Your salvation all day, though I don’t know its full measure-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had vowed the same at the time of his forgiveness for the sin with Bathsheba. Now he promises it again, if God delivers him from the consequence of that sin. We note that he vows to tell others that which he admits he cannot fully fathom. Full intellectual grasp of the message of grace is not possible nor required to be able to share it with others. The Hebrew words for "tell" and "measure" are the same. The idea is that he cannot re-tell all the things of God's salvation; they are too many. Even if he spends all day telling or [Heb.] counting up all God's salvations, he cannot get to the number of it. The same word is used for "tell" when God promises that Abraham's seed cannot be told for multitude, they cannot be numbered (Gen. 15:5; 16:10). Abraham's singular seed [the Lord Jesus] would be told or multiplied more than man can count; not just in becoming many, but in the Hebraic sense of becoming so great, beyond human counting. He often gets to this point of admitting that his mind is tripping, faced with eternity, with all the countless number of thoughts that God has had regarding it. And every believer surely has this sense: "Many, Yahweh my God, are the wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to You. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered" (Ps. 40:5); "How precious to me are Your thoughts, God! How vast is their sum! If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with You" (Ps. 139:17,18). God's love, the eternal nature of His salvation, is indeed something we should talk of and praise, but going through it aspect by aspect, realizing that it is the final outcome of an infinite amount of Divine thinking... trips the mind. We feel our inevitable inadequacy, as gratitude and praise melt our hearts.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will declare the mighty acts of the Lord Yahweh. I will make mention of Your righteousness, even of Yours alone-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David appealed to God’s righteousness for deliverance from the consequence of his sins (<a href='B:230 71:2'>Psa 71:2</a>). This was appropriate, seeing that David had been saved from death by God’s imputation of His righteousness to David (<a href='B:230 32:1-4'>Psa 32:1-4</a>), by grace through faith; seeing David’s sins left him with no righteousness of his own. And it was on this basis that David believed he would continue to be saved / delivered / rescued (s:w. <a href='B:230 51:14'>Psa 51:14</a> in the Bathsheba context). This salvation by grace of a condemned sinner was and is "the might acts of Yahweh", as dramatic as what He did at the Red Sea or in any visible miracle.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God, You have taught me from my youth. Up until now I have declared Your wondrous works-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :3, David could look back and perceive the continuous action of God in his life, and despite his sin with Bathsheba, he rightly perceived that he had made a continuous positive response to His hand. From his youth, David had asked to be taught God’s way (<a href='B:230 119:7'>Psa 119:7</a>; <a href='B:230 119:12'>Psa 119:12</a>; <a href='B:230 119:26'>Psa 119:26</a>; <a href='B:230 119:64'>Psa 119:64</a>; <a href='B:230 119:66'>Psa 119:66</a>; <a href='B:230 119:68'>Psa 119:68</a>; <a href='B:230 119:73'>Psa 119:73</a>; <a href='B:230 119:108'>Psa 119:108</a>; <a href='B:230 119:124'>Psa 119:124</a>; <a href='B:230 119:135'>Psa 119:135</a>), and at the end of his life David recognized that indeed God had "taught me from my youth" (s:w. <a href='B:230 71:17'>Psa 71:17</a>). In secular life, teaching is something experienced in youth, and then life is spent practicing what was learned. But in spiritual life, David perceived that the God who had taught him from his youth was continuing to teach him (<a href='B:230 71:17'>Psa 71:17</a>). This is part of the "newness of life" experienced in Christ, the ever fresh spring water that we drink.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, even when I am old and gray-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>haired, God, don’t forsake me, until I have declared Your strength to the next generation, Your might to everyone who is to come-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The phrase "I am old and gray-haired" is a quote from David's mentor Samuel: "I am old and grey-headed and my sons are with you, and I have been your leader from my youth to this day" (1 Sam. 12:2). And Samuel goes on to protest his utter integrity all his life, and his skepticism about the next king. It's hard to think that David didn't have the same feelings in mind- when he should have realized that he had sinned and was living out the consequences for them which he had agreed with God in return for God sparing his life. Whether or not that is the case, we see the power of mentorship- David, now in old age, uses the very words he had heard as a young man from the old man Samuel.
This seems to mean that David is writing this when he is old. I discussed on :11 how David was picking up and absorbing the attitude of his critics that God had forsaken him- when God hadn't. He wishes to stay alive so that he might spread the knowledge of God’s grace to the next generation (:15,16). His entire purpose of living was in order to evangelize God’s grace; and that should be why we wish to stay alive. God’s might and strength, as discussed on :16, are revealed in His gracious forgiveness and salvation of condemned sinners.</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>One would have thought that after the Bathsheba incident, David would have kept his mouth shut so far as telling other people how to live was concerned. But instead, we find an increasing emphasis in the Psalms (chronologically) upon David’s desire to teach others of God’s ways- particularly the surrounding Gentile peoples, before whom David had been disgraced over Bathsheba, not to mention from his two faced allegiance to Achish (<a href='B:90 27:8-12'>1Sa 27:8-12</a>). There is real stress upon this evangelistic fervour of David (<a href='B:230 4:3'>Psa 4:3</a>; <a href='B:230 18:49'>Psa 18:49</a>; <a href='B:230 22:25'>Psa 22:25</a>; <a href='B:230 22:31'>Psa 22:31</a>; <a href='B:230 35:18'>Psa 35:18</a>; <a href='B:230 40:9-10'>Psa 40:9-10</a>; <a href='B:230 57:9'>Psa 57:9</a>; <a href='B:230 62:8'>Psa 62:8</a>; <a href='B:230 66:5'>Psa 66:5</a>; <a href='B:230 66:16'>Psa 66:16</a>; <a href='B:230 95:1'>Psa 95:1</a>; <a href='B:230 95:8'>Psa 95:8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:5-8'>Psa 96:5-8</a>; <a href='B:230 96:10'>Psa 96:10</a>; <a href='B:230 100:1-4'>Psa 100:1-4</a>; <a href='B:230 105:1-2'>Psa 105:1-2</a>; <a href='B:230 119:27'>Psa 119:27</a>; <a href='B:230 145:5-6'>Psa 145:5-6</a>; <a href='B:230 145:12'>Psa 145:12</a>). Indeed, <a href='B:230 71:18'>Psa 71:18</a> records the "old and greyheaded" David pleading with God not to die until he had taught "thy strength unto this generation". As with Paul years later, the only reason he wanted to stay alive was in order to witness the Gospel of grace to others. David&nbsp;therefore coped with his deep inner traumas by looking out of himself to those around him, eagerly desiring to share with them the pureness of God’s grace. He didn’t do this as some kind of self-help psychiatry; it came naturally from a realization of his own sinfulness and God’s mercy, and the wonderful willingness&nbsp;of God to extend this to men.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Your righteousness also, God, reaches to the heavens; You have done great things. God, who is like You?<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed on :16, the "great things" performed by God were His forgiveness and salvation of a condemned sinner like David. He did this by His righteousness, by imputing it to sinners; and David was the parade example of this (<a href='B:230 32:1-4'>Psa 32:1-4</a>). This is described in <a href='B:230 71:19'>Psa 71:19</a> as God doing "great things", the phrase used of the great things worked in visible miracles in Egypt (<a href='B:230 106:21'>Psa 106:21</a>) and at creation (<a href='B:230 136:7'>Psa 136:7</a>). But the forgiveness of people like David is no less a great miracle. Such great things are done because of His mercy / grace (<a href='B:230 136:4'>Psa 136:4</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, You will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The confusion between "me" and "us" is intentional, because as noted on :1, these personal experiences of David are being reapplied to the exiles, and ultimately to the entire community of God’s people. We too can therefore personalize the Psalms as we read them. "Troubles" is the word used of Jacob's time of trouble (<a href='B:10 35:3'>Gen 35:3</a>; <a href='B:300 30:7'>Jer 30:7</a>; <a href='B:340 12:1'>Dan 12:1</a>). David’s experience of trouble was representative of how the exiles and all God’s people could ultimately follow the path of Jacob to deliverance out of exile and from his strong enemies. But in <a href='B:230 71:20'>Psa 71:20</a> David sees his deliverance from the day of trouble as ultimately being in the resurrection of the body, being 'brought up again from the depths of the earth'. We note David doesn't speak of coming down from heaven, but of resurrection out of the earth and only then, at that point, being allowed to live [eternally].  "Many bitter troubles" is literally 'evil troubles', and the same three Hebrew words are used of how "many [s.w.] evils [s.w. "bitter"] and troubles [s.w.]" would befall Israel if they broke covenant (Dt. 31:17,21). Hence the change of pronoun to "us". Perhaps David's idea is that the God who would resurrect and save an Israel who had broken His covenant... would "let me live". If God were so gracious to Israel His people, surely He would be to David too. And we can rejoice in that same logic. That seems one reason why we have so much information in the Bible about Israel, their sinfulness and God's amazing grace towards them. It is all to encourage me personally... that this gracious God surely has room for me too.
"You will let me live" is another harking back to his experience of grace after he had sinned with Bathsheba. The God who had let him live then, rather than exacting the death penalty, could be trusted to save him from eternal death at the last day. This is how we have to face death and the prospect of judgment to come; to think back on the experiences of grace and deliverance we had throughout our lives.
</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>increase my honour, and comfort me again-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is in the context of the clear statement of faith in the resurrection of the body in :20. David was perhaps concluding that Nathan was right after all about the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba. He would not be honoured nor comforted in this life as he wished, but only at the last day. And yet we again sense his concern at his dishonour, resulting from his sins regarding Bathsheba. All his life, he couldn't live it down. His standing in the eyes of others assumed far too high an importance for him. But the context of this persuasion that God will "increase my honour" is the resurrection at the last day (:20).  In this case, we again see a kingdom perspective emerging as he continues in the path of prayer. He begins the prayer worried about his honour (:1), but now comes to see that what matters more is having honour in God's future kingdom.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>I will praise You with the harp for Your faithfulness, my God. I sing praise to You with the lyre, Holy One of Israel-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The context of :20,21 appears to speak of David’s position after the resurrection he looked forward to. He imagines himself continuing to praise God on the harp as he had done in this life. Whether that shall literally happen is a question and interest only for literalists. But the idea is established- that the essence of how we have served God in this life is how we shall eternally serve Him. Hence the Lord Jesus can invite us to live "the eternal life" right now; in that we can live the kind of life we shall eternally live in God’s Kingdom. </p><p>As noted on :1, this Psalm was the thoughts of those who first went into captivity in Babylon [according to the LXX]. The Psalmist wants to take a harp and praise God. Whereas the psalmist of Ps. 137 says that he felt unable to sing Yahweh's songs. This Ps. 71 is the response of faith.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>My lips shall shout for joy! My soul, which You have redeemed, sings praises to You!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The redemption from Babylon [see on :1] is the great theme of second Isaiah. This psalmist appears to have accepted that good news in faith. 
The context is of the resurrection from the dead (:20,21), when David shall finally be "redeemed". It seems he had looked in vain for redemption from the consequences of his sin with Bathsheba, and concludes that his house / kingdom / family in this life "is not so with God" (<a href='B:100 23:5'>2Sa 23:5</a>). And so he focuses himself here upon his final redemption in the last day at the resurrection (:20). In that day "with my whole being I will sing because you have saved me" (GNB); and we shall all feel and do the same. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A Psalm for Solomon -</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This Psalm has many similarities with coronation hymns of the surrounding nations. I suggest on :5 that the Psalm was written by David in the closing months of his life, and was likely intended as a coronation hymn for Solomon.</p><p>David’s hopes and expectations for Solomon are expressed in Psalms 72, "A Psalm for Solomon". The Hebrew title can equally mean "A Psalm of Solomon",", although the Davidic authorship is clinched by the final verse "the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended". David was so certain that his expectations would be fulfilled. David’s prediction that Solomon would wisely judge his people (<a href='B:230 72:2'>Psa 72:2</a>) was perhaps why Solomon asked God to give him wisdom to judge God’s people. His wise judgment of the prostitutes, and his willingness to consider such cases, was surely a living out of David’s expectation that he would deliver the poor, needy and those with no helper (<a href='B:230 72:12'>Psa 72:12</a>). The prediction that Solomon would be given of the gold of Sheba (<a href='B:230 72:15'>Psa 72:15</a>) was fulfilled by Solomon's willful trading with Sheba to get gold from there, and one wonders whether he in fact invited the Queen of Sheba to visit him in order to fulfil the prediction that the rulers of Sheba would come to him with gifts (<a href='B:230 72:10'>Psa 72:10</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God would only have a permanent physical house when His people were permanently settled, never to be moved again (<a href='B:100 7:10'>2Sa 7:10</a>), i:e. in the Kingdom. Yet Solomon perceived that his kingdom was in fact the final Kingdom of God. David made this mistake, in assuming in Psalms 72 that Solomon’s Kingdom would undoubtedly be the Messianic one</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> and Solomon repeated the error, yet to a more tragic extent.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon abused his people and turned away from God (<a href='B:110 12:14'>1Ki 12:14</a>). David’s vision of his son as the Messianic ruler didn’t come about. But these words were inspired, and they will come true- through reapplication to the Lord Jesus, his greater son. David had many sons, but clearly Solomon was the favourite, the love child, effectively, of David’s relationship with Bathsheba, the married woman he had become besotted with. It was this favouritism which no doubt provoked Absalom and his other sons to make the rebellions they did, no doubt deeply irked by prophecies like this in Psalms 72, which served the same function as Jacob's giving the priestly coat to Joseph. And it led Solomon to ultimate spiritual failure, because he came to assume that he would automatically fulfil the promises to David about a Messianic son. And so he came to consider himself spiritually inviolate, and came to live a life of debauchery rather than spirituality. David of course claimed that God had chosen Solomon out of all his sons (<a href='B:130 28:5'>1Ch 28:5</a>), but there is no record of that happening; rather do we suspect that David came to imagine that his own choice was in fact God’s. Psalms 72 was David’s declaration that he believed Solomon would be the Messianic ruler; but that was proven wrong, because Solomon did not reign with justice and turned away from Yahweh. The words will come true in the person of the Lord Jesus, but David was wrong to insist they must apply to Solomon.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>God, give the king Your justice; Your righteousness to the royal son-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The idea of a gift of righteousness had been learned by David after his sin with Bathsheba (<a href='B:230 32:1-4'>Psa 32:1-4</a>)- when he had no righteousness of his own. But righteousness was imputed by grace through faith, and Solomon knew little of grace and faith. The Proverbs, true as they are so far as they go, reveal a self-congratulatory, works-based spirit which has little to say about grace. </p><p>This Psalm was written at the end of David's life, and again reflects how he has failed to learn the lessons from his sin with Bathsheba. He assumes righteousness can be inherited and just given by God to someone because of their father. He seems to have quite forgotten his death sentence and the wonder of being counted righteous by grace through faith.
The prayer in this verse for "justice" to be given to Solomon is tantamount to asking God to give Solomon the wisdom to judge Israel justly. Solomon's request for exactly this was therefore a living out of this parental hope and expectation.  Yet still God was thrilled that Solomon did ask for this wisdom, rather than assuming he would be made wise because David had prayed he would be. "The King's son" David understands as the promised Messianic son.</p><p>
"Give the king Your justice" with the result of being able to "judge Your people" (:2) is all language echoed by Solomon when he as "the king's son" [NEV "royal son"] asks God for wisdom exactly in order to do this (1 Kings 3:5). His request for wisdom, followed immediately by the account of his wise judgment of the poor prostitutes, all fulfilled this. But it shows that his request for wisdom, whilst commendable and pleasing to God, was a living out of David's parental expectations for him expressed in this Psalm. And perhaps that's why the wisdom wasn't absorbed by him personally, and he turned away from personal faith in Yahweh.
</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will judge Your people with righteousness, and Your poor with justice-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>"He will..." can be rendered "Let him..." . Actually most of the verbs in Ps. 72 can be read like this, as optatives, rather than simple statements of the future.  The Psalm therefore wishes that this is how Solomon will reign; but it has its real fulfilment in the true seed of David, the Lord Jesus, and His Kingdom. The Psalm repeatedly wishes Solomon to rule with justice. God had told David in 2 Sam. 22 that he who rules over men must be just, and thus cut down David's claims to have been a glorious Messianic ruler in 2 Sam. 23. For David had not been "just". We think of his behaviour to the descendants of Saul when the Gibeonites complain, of how the cunning woman of Tekoah manipulates him, of his unjust refusal to discipline his sons, of his assigning equal blame to Mephibosheth and Ziba and many other things- that led to Absalom's rebellion on the basis that David was not judging Israel justly. David's humbled response had been to interject "Truly my house [family] is not so with God". He now seeks to change outcomes by praying that Solomon will be just. </p><p>
The poor or "afflicted" could refer to the prostitutes whom Solomon judged, as the parade example of those to whom he would bring justice and righteousness. We have an interesting window as to what these things mean, in that he didn't condemn them to death but let them live. This was justice to the spiritually poor. Despite the clear condemnation of prostitution in the Mosaic law.
</p><p>Solomon ultimately failed to do this, whipping the people and abusing them to complete his endless, obsessive building projects. The prophecy had possibility of later fulfilment in Zerubbabel, but that too didn’t come about; and so it was reapplied finally to the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus.  Or we can simply understand that these are David's wishes for Solomon which he failed to fulfil; but they will come true in David's greater descendant, the Lord Jesus.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The majestic prophecy of <a href='B:300 23:5-7'>Jer 23:5-7</a> had prophesied that when Israel returned from Babylon, “the branch” would rise and save them “and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth”, i:e. establish the Messianic Kingdom (cp. <a href='B:230 72:2'>Psa 72:2</a>; <a href='B:290 9:7'>Isa 9:7</a>). But Zerubbabel, the “branch-from-Babylon”, lead the people back from Babylon, half heartedly built a temple- which faithful men wept at, when they saw how feeble it was compared to that which should have been (<a href='B:150 3:12'>Ezr 3:12</a>). And then he beat it back to Babylon.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David so often parallels righteousness and justice / truth (<a href='B:230 9:8'>Psa 9:8</a>; <a href='B:230 33:5'>Psa 33:5</a>; <a href='B:230 37:6'>Psa 37:6</a>; <a href='B:230 72:2'>Psa 72:2</a>; <a href='B:230 94:15'>Psa 94:15</a>; <a href='B:230 99:7'>Psa 99:7</a>; <a href='B:230 103:6'>Psa 103:6</a>; <a href='B:230 106:3'>Psa 106:3</a>). Indeed, this parallel is so common in God’s word. What it means is that the righteousness of God is a just righteousness. It's not fake, 'I'll turn a blind eye'. It is true, real, valid, and has integrity underpinned in the very essential justice of God Himself. Justice and righteousness may appear abstract ideas, mere theology. But the result is that the person who believes God’s righteousness is imputed to him or her... will feel this, they will know it to be true, they can by grace, in faith, quietly hold their head up before God. And David after Bathsheba is our example. He believed and felt this imputed righteousness. It's not so much a case of 'forgiving ourselves' after God has forgiven us, but rather of being swamped by this very real and legitimate sense that truly, we have been counted righteous. And Paul in Romans holds up David after Bathsheba as the personal example to " every one who is Godly" in their time of spiritual need. See on <a href='B:230 41:12'>Psa 41:12</a>.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people, the hills will bring the fruit of righteousness-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is better translated to the effect that the mountains [an intensive plural for the one great mountain, Zion] would bring peace to the little hills. The vision was of the surrounding nations, the hills, being brought to peace with God through the function of the sanctuary in Zion which David planned for Solomon to build. But Solomon intermarried with the surrounding peoples, and was influenced by them to idolatry rather than bringing them to Israel's God. And David is wrong to predicate blessing upon the existence of a grandiose temple in Zion. </p><p>
David hopes and prays that the conditions of the future Kingdom of God would be experienced in Solomon, whom he wrongly assumed would be the Messianic son of David (:1).
</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will judge the poor of the people, he will save the children of the needy and will break the oppressor in pieces-</p>See on :2. These poor and afflicted were epitomized in the two prostitutes whom Solomon judged with grace and not condemnation. His judgment concerned their children. Those women are thus seen as "the needy" rather than simply sinners.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The RV says that Psalms 72 is a Psalm of Solomon (although see on :1)- in which case we have David or Solomon asking God to give him the throne, in return for which he would establish the Messianic Kingdom. His judging of the poor harlots would therefore have been in conscious fulfilment of the predictions he himself had made as to what his Messianic Kingdom would be like- as a time when the poor would be judged by him (<a href='B:230 72:4'>Psa 72:4</a>; <a href='B:230 72:13'>Psa 72:13</a>). He came to articulate God’s Kingdom in terms of how he wanted his Kingdom to be. It could be truly said that there is an urgent need for us to be convicted - deeply convicted - of our desperate need for the person of Jesus, His second coming and Messianic Kingdom:&nbsp;&nbsp;Solomon was so obsessed with himself, so inward-looking, so sure of his spiritual pedigree, so sure of the intellectual correctness of his spiritual knowledge that his need for salvation didn’t enter his heart:&nbsp;&nbsp; Because he never publicly sinned (unlike David) he lacked the awareness of his own sinfulness which would have helped him realize he was only a primary fulfilment of the Davidic promises:&nbsp;&nbsp; Lack of&nbsp; awareness of our own sinfulness is connected with a lack of true enthusiasm for the Messianic Kingdom:&nbsp;&nbsp; Because he thought the kingdom was with him, Solomon evidently failed to discern the chronic need of his own nature, both physically and morally:&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They shall fear You while the sun endures; and as long as the moon, throughout all generations-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David imagined Solomon's kingdom morphing into the eternal Messianic kingdom. This was parental obsession, overlooking the fact that all men sin and must die, and are saved from the grave only by grace through faith. David's assumption that Solomon would live eternally reflects a total refusal to accept the connection between sin and death; and a lack of gratitude for his own salvation from death for his sins. When Shimei threw stones at him to remind him that he deserved death, he accepted that; but at his end, David demanded Shimei be slain for pointing that out. Likewise he envisages Solomon's kingdom as spreading out from beyond the Euphrates worldwide (:11,17). This eternal kingdom was that promised to his son who would be born after he had slept with his fathers, and who would be God's only begotten Son. David has lost his focus on the things of the Kingdom and the name of the Lord Jesus. Instead he has become obsessed with creating his own narrative, that these things applied to Solomon. Solomon appears in the historical narrative at the end of David's life, when Bathsheba manipulates him to make Solomon king. He then spends the last months of his life in making speeches about Solomon, falsely claiming that Solomon had been named by God as the promised Son of the promises to David in 2 Sam. 7. As discussed on 2 Sam. 23 and 1 Kings 1,2, the last words from God through David are in 2 Sam. 23 and the speeches we have recorded in 1 Chron. 23-29 are all David's false claims about what he says God has said about Solomon. Psalm 72 was likely written in this same period. Indeed the final verse "the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended" could mean that this is the final Psalm of David- because there are several psalms attributed to David later in the book of Psalms.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will come down like rain on the mown grass, as showers that water the earth-</p><p>The allusion is to God's last words to David in 2 Sam. 23:4. God had clearly stated that David was not the great Messianic king, and David had agreed, interjecting that "Indeed my house [family] is not so with God". But again he loses that peak of contrition and the insight that comes with true contrition. For now he again seeks to apply those Messianic images to his son Solomon. And in Prov. 16:15 Solomon applies the images to himself: "In the light of the king’s face is life. His favour is like a cloud of the spring rain".</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In <a href='B:240 19:12'>Pro 19:12</a> Solomon speaks as if his own wisdom was like the dew coming down- as if he felt that the mere possession of wisdom made him the Messiah figure which his father had so hoped for him to be in <a href='B:230 72:6'>Psa 72:6</a>. And he says as much in <a href='B:240 29:3'>Pro 29:3</a>: “Whoso loveth wisdom [exactly what Solomon was commended for doing] rejoiceth his father”. He saw his wisdom and knowledge as some sort of a reward in themselves: “the prudent are crowned with knowledge” (<a href='B:240 14:18'>Pro 14:18</a>). This is of course true in a sense, as all the Proverbs are. But Solomon surely had the idea that he, who was so renowned for his knowledge, was somehow thereby rewarded by having it. This assumption by Solomon was likely behind each of the many references he makes to the value of wisdom and the blessedness of the man who has it. It is rather like feeling that ‘we have the truth’ because somehow our correct understanding of doctrines is a reward for our righteousness, and mere possession of doctrinal truth means that we are acceptable to God. &nbsp;</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Micah’s description of how “the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass” (<a href='B:400 5:7'>Mic 5:7</a>) is consciously alluding to the then-famous Messianic prophecy of <a href='B:230 72:6'>Psa 72:6</a>: “He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth”. The blessings Messiah brings are to be articulated through the witness of those in Him.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In his days, the righteous shall flourish-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon's later statement that the righteous would flourish is therefore a reference to this (<a href='B:240 11:28'>Pro 11:28</a>), assuming that David’s fantasy of Solomon having an eternal kingdom was going to be fulfilled in him. In <a href='B:230 92:11-12'>Psa 92:11-12</a>, David thinks that he himself will see the righteous flourishing (s:w. <a href='B:230 72:7'>Psa 72:7</a>). So he may be imagining that he would somehow be resurrected and see this happening in Solomon's reign. His hope will come ultimately true, but through the kingdom of the Lord Jesus and not Solomon.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>And abundance of peace-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This had been David’s vision of the future Kingdom of God (s:w. <a href='B:230 37:11'>Psa 37:11</a>), but he assumes and wishes that Solomon's kingdom would have become that.  David seems to now fail to understand that "peace" is primarily peace with God, achievable only through a Saviour. "Solomon" means 'man of peace' and this accounts for the emphasis upon peace in this picture of the Kingdom of God. But God had named David and Bathsheba's child Jedidiah, and actually Nathan came to reinforce this message to David when he insisted on calling him 'Solomon'. David set his son up for failure by projecting onto him his expectations that "Solomon" would be the Messianic man of peace. "Peace" in the Bible is peace with God, and only the Lord Jesus could achieve that. Life more abundant with God means "abundance of peace" with Him.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Until the moon is no more-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'> As discussed on :5, David liked to imagine that Solomon's kingdom would be eternal.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, from the River to the ends of the land-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Solomon followed his father David in trying to establish his kingdom up to the Euphrates (1 Chron. 18:3), but he never retained it, and certainly not for ever. He lost Damascus and never got it back. If we read "the land" as 'the earth', the idea may be that the kingdom was to expand from the limits of the promised land, i.e. the Euphrates, to the entire planet.</p><p>Solomon was intended by David to fulfil the promises to Abraham; for Israel had never fully inherited the land area promised to him. This was David’s prayer for Solomon; that he should have been the Messiah, and his Kingdom should have been Messiah’s. <a href='B:130 28:6-7'>1Ch 28:6-7</a> definitely seems to imply that Solomon could have lived for ever had he been obedient: “I will establish his kingdom for ever, if he be constant to do my commandments”. But&nbsp; Solomon failed, what was potentially possible didn’t come true, due to his apostasy. But these words are alluded to in <a href='B:450 8:5'>Zec 8:5</a>, as if to say that now, again, it could come true through the work of Joshua and Zerubbabel, and the priesthood and people being obedient to the temple prophecies of Ezekiel. If they wanted the Kingdom to come, then they had to live the Kingdom life:&nbsp;The coming King (and Joshua was prophesied as a king) was to free Judah from Persia’s dominion, and establish God’s Kingdom, with boys and girls playing in the streets of Jerusalem (<a href='B:450 8:5'>Zec 8:5</a>). “From sea even to sea” is a conscious quote of this famous Messianic prophecy of <a href='B:230 72:8'>Psa 72:8</a>.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David had prophesied that his great son would "have dominion from sea to sea" (<a href='B:230 72:8'>Psa 72:8</a>). 'Have dominion' is the Hebrew word translated 'rule over' in <a href='B:110 5:15'>1Ki 5:15</a>. David’s vision of his Messianic son having a world-wide Kingdom, in which all people blessed him for his grace and beneficence, was abused by Solomon into justifying 'having dominion' over people as his personal slaves; and they certainly didn’t bless him for it but rather complained (<a href='B:110 12:11'>1Ki 12:11</a>). It's as if Solomon grabbed the word 'rule over / have dominion', wrenched it out of context, and used it to justify his actions, giving a quasi-Biblical justification to his pure selfishness. This is where knowledge of God’s word can be a dangerous thing; leading people into a stronger self-justification than they would otherwise have had if they were guided by self-recognized greed alone.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; his enemies shall lick the dust-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>We must read :9-11 in the context of David’s vision of Solomon ruling over the entire eretz promised to Abraham (:8). The references to the Bedouins of the desert, the kings of Tarshish and Sheba (:10), therefore refer to the nations on the boundaries of that territory. The idea is that Solomon was to rule over the entire eretz- and even beyond, even over the peoples just over the borders of it.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring tribute, the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :9. These were the areas on the edge of the eretz promised to Abraham, and indeed the queen of Sheba did come to Solomon with gifts. We note that "Tarshish" here doesn't refer to the United Kingdom. The earth was understood as the territory promised to Abraham, and anything beyond it is spoken of as the sea or islands. The queen of Sheba did indeed bring such gifts, but the reference to 666 talents of gold coming to Solomon in one year shows how fake was his kingdom. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Yes, all kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This homage and the gifts of :10 were not to be because these nations have been forced into submission, as was usually the case in kingdom building at that time. They fall before him with their gifts because ["for"] of his justice (:12,15). The queen of Sheba brought her gifts from respect (:10), not because she was forced to. And so it is and shall ever be in the extension of God’s Kingdom upon earth:&nbsp;  There can be no question that these words did have some fulfilment in Solomon: “All kingdoms brought presents and served Solomon... All the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom… and they brought every man his present”. But this was a surface level imitation of God's Kingdom and was hollow within. The annual amount of gold brought to Solomon was 666 talents, and there are many other connections between the descriptions of Solomon's kingdom and that of Babylon in Rev. 17,18. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The primary fulfilment was in Solomon's delivery of the poor prostitutes who cried to him; they had no moral helper, spiritually and socially despised. And this was what the Lord did in His ministry and shall ever do, breaking bread with whores and moral outcasts. Solomon's pity (:13) and gracious judgment of those women thereby gives us a window onto how the Lord fulfilled these words to the ultimate. </p><p>As noted on :11, the astounding justice and loving care of the king of the kingdom would bring other nations to willingly submit and offer gifts (:10,11); not as signs that they had been forced into submission by military prowess. All visions of the Lord Jesus at His return forcing nations to accept Him at the point of a sword... are out of step with all we have seen and known of Him, as well as of these prophecies. These words were not fulfilled in Solomon as David confidently expected; Solomon whipped the people rather than delivering the needy who cried for help. And his throne hardly endured as long as the sun.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will have pity on the poor and needy, he will save the needy persons-</p>&nbsp;<p style='margin-left:1:415em'>See on :4. Pity on the surrounding Gentiles is the language of <a href='B:390 4:11'>Jon 4:11</a> about Nineveh. The old covenant required that Israel show no pity to the nations of the eretz promised to Abraham, lest they lead the people into idolatry (s:w. <a href='B:50 7:16'>Deu 7:16</a>). David, as so often, is looking beyond this to a new situation whereby Israel's king would show them pity, if like Nineveh they were repentant. But Solomon mixed with those nations and accepted their idols. David had seen himself as "poor and needy", needing grace after his sin with Bathsheba and its consequences (<a href='B:230 40:17'>Psa 40:17</a>; <a href='B:230 70:5'>Psa 70:5</a>; <a href='B:230 86:1'>Psa 86:1</a>; <a href='B:230 109:16'>Psa 109:16</a>; <a href='B:230 109:22'>Psa 109:22</a>). He wished Solomon to likewise have pity on the "poor and needy" amongst the Gentiles, those who had likewise repented (<a href='B:230 72:13'>Psa 72:13</a>). And David was especially desirous to himself see the "poor and needy" blessed and accepted as he had been (<a href='B:230 82:3-4'>Psa 82:3-4</a>; <a href='B:230 113:7'>Psa 113:7</a>). It is our personal experience of needing grace which leads us to have a heart for those like us, the poor and needy. Any other motivation will ultimately not abide. Solomon appears to glorify his mother Bathsheba for likewise pitying the poor and needy (<a href='B:240 31:9'>Pro 31:9</a>; <a href='B:240 31:20'>Pro 31:20</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>He will redeem their soul from oppression and violence, their blood will be precious in his sight-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>The Hebrew word hamas [basically meaning 'physical violence arising from wicked plans'] is quite common in Scripture, and the usages speak of how God is provoked by hamas to bring judgment upon the enemies of His people (<a href='B:10 6:11-13'>Gen 6:11-13</a>; <a href='B:400 6:12'>Mic 6:12</a>; <a href='B:430 1:9'>Zep 1:9</a>) and also to intervene in order to save His people (<a href='B:230 18:49'>Psa 18:49</a>; <a href='B:230 72:14'>Psa 72:14</a>). How amazingly appropriate that an organization actually called hamas has arisen in these last days to do violence to Israel! If Biblical history means anything to us, clearly enough God’s intervention in appropriate judgment and salvation cannot be far off. Note how Hagar's persecution of Sarah- typical of the Arab-Jew conflict- is described as her hamas (<a href='B:10 16:5'>Gen 16:5</a>).</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>In <a href='B:230 49:8'>Psa 49:8</a> David had used the same words for how the soul or life of persons should be treated as "precious". Saul used the same phrase of David’s saving his life: "My soul was precious in your eyes" [s:w. "life is costly"] (<a href='B:90 26:21'>1Sa 26:21</a>). David is alluding to this; Saul's human life had been precious or costly to him, but he was unable to redeem Saul eternally. Only God could do that, if Saul by faith accepted God’s grace. David wished that Solomon would have the same perspective, considering the soul or life of people to be "precious" or "costly", appreciating the value and meaning of human persons. But sadly Solomon abused his people later, as it were whipping them with whips. David's rule had been characterized by not generally seeing human life as precious, although he did achieve it in his view of Saul. He is wishing his son repeat his better side and not follow him in his bad side. But Solomon like David did show some value to human life in not slaying the prostitutes, but generally abused his people. </p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>They shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Men shall pray for him continually, they shall bless him all day long-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As discussed above, an ominous 666 talents of gold came to Solomon in one year. Solomon only had a surface level fulfilment of these things, and there was a spiritual void behind the exterior. </p><p>The idea is that because the poor and needy would be allowed to "live" and would be treated with justice and grace (:14), Sheba would give her gold and continual prayer be made for the king. It was usual that conquered peoples were forced to pray to the gods of their conquerors, and to give their gold. But as noted on :10,11, the growth of this Kingdom of God would be on a quite different basIsa. Peoples would be awed by the grace displayed, and would voluntarily come to worship Israel's God, acting as if they had indeed been conquered by Him- but by His love and grace, rather than His sword.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Abundance of grain shall be throughout the land, its fruit sways like Lebanon. Let it flourish, thriving like the grass of the field!<strong>- </strong></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As a result of just kingship, the blessings for obedience to the covenant would come about, in terms of agricultural fecundity. "Abundance of grain" recalls the situation in the seven years of plenty in Egypt, the implication being that this grain would be shared with the Gentile world around them, in order to lead them to Israel's God.</p><p>AV "There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon". The image is of how small beginnings grow into an abundant harvest, a mere handful of grain, sown on the top of a mountain- on a place unlikely to produce anything, usually barren and unproductive. This is the same teaching as in the parable of the grain of mustard-seed, and the parable of the leaven. We are like that handful of corn, born with all against us for spiritual growth. But the Kingdom age will see us flourish eternally.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>His name endures forever, his name continues as long as the sun-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Again David is imagining Solomon ruling eternally, but without due regard for the results of sin and the need for the grace of resurrection and forgiveness. And it was surely Yahweh's Name which should have been spoken of in this way and not Solomon's.</p><p>"Continues" is literally to re-sprout. "The idea is that of a tree which continues always to sprout, or put forth leaves, branches, blossoms; or, which never dies". God had promised to make David a great name, through his Messianic descendant. But David wants his name perpetuated now through Solomon. The idea is that God's Name / personality / character would keep growing or flourishing. His essential being is therefore not static. As Jn. 17:3 puts it, we shall eternally grow in knowing Him as He Himself grows. There will be no boredom in the eternal relationship. His Name shall be renewed (Heb.) for ever suggests that His Name or personality/ character will not remain static. </p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Men shall be blessed in him, all nations will call him blessed-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>LXX “All the families of the earth shall be blessed in him, all nations shall call him happy”, clearly alluding to the promise of the seed of Abraham (Gen. 12:3). David had lost focus on his own promised seed, who was to be the same Messianic seed promised to Abraham; and instead become obsessed with his narrative about his own son. The allusion is to the Abrahamic promise of <a href='B:10 18:18'>Gen 18:18</a>: "All the nations of the earth will be blessed in him". But the promise about Abraham personally and his seed is too quickly assumed by David to be relevant to Solomon personally. There is an intended ambiguity in the grammar, as to whether "be blessed" is purely a prediction, or a command- to chose to become blessed in him. That choice is now made in terms of choosing to be baptized into the Lord Jesus, the true seed of Abraham, so that we might receive the blessing of forgiveness and life eternal inheriting the earth (<a href='B:510 3:25-26'>Act 3:25-26</a>; <a href='B:550 3:27-29'>Gal 3:27-29</a>).</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Praise be to Yahweh God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvellous deeds-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This is an invitation for the "nations" of :17 to praise the God of Israel, not because they have been forcefully subjugated, but because they recognize that He is the one and only God, who can do such marvellous things as restoring His sinful people.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Blessed be His glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with His glory! Amen and amen-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>As noted on :18 this is David’s desire that the entire eretz promised to Abraham be filled with peoples who genuinely wish to bless the name of Israel's God and thereby give glory to Him.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Book III. A Psalm by Asaph-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This "Asaph" could be the Asaph of Hezekiah's time (<a href='B:290 36:3'>Isa 36:3</a>) who used the Psalms in the context of the events of the Assyrian invasion. The Asaph Psalms all have parts in them relevant to that context (Psalms 50, 73-83). Or the "Asaph" may have been the singers who were relatives of Asaph, prominent at the restoration (<a href='B:160 7:44'>Neh 7:44</a>; <a href='B:160 11:17'>Neh 11:17</a>; <a href='B:160 11:22'>Neh 11:22</a>). It could mean that the psalms were a part of a collection from the Asaphites, and the name "Asaph" was therefore simply used to identify the temple singers. And again, parts of the Asaph psalms also have relevance to the restoration. The fact the Asaph Psalms speak of elohim rather than Yahweh would support the idea that they were used in the exilic / restoration period. But Asaph was the "chief" of the Levites to whom David assigned the ministry of praise before the ark (<a href='B:130 16:4-5'>1Ch 16:4-5</a>). It seems he did compose his own Psalms, which were used by Hezekiah at his time (<a href='B:140 29:30'>2Ch 29:30</a>). So I would again suggest that all the Asaph Psalms were composed originally by David "for" [not necessarily "by"] Asaph, but were rewritten and edited for later occasions.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>A case can be made that the whole of book 3 of the Psalter (Psalms 73-89) was written / edited in Babylon. The Psalms of Korah (83-87) seem to reflect the longing of the righteous remnant in Babylon for the temple services. And it is just possible that the entire Psalter was re-edited there in Babylon, under inspiration- for so many Psalms have elements of appropriacy to the exiles in Babylon and the restoration. The LXX titles of Psalms 56 [“Concerning the people that were removed from the Sanctuary”] and 71 [“Of the sons of Jonadab, and the first that were taken captive”] speak for themselves. Likewise the LXX attributes Psalms 146-148 to Haggai and Zechariah.</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>This redefines "Israel" away from ethnic definition; the Israel of God are the "pure in heart". This Psalm may initially have been David’s thanksgiving for God’s restoration of his kingdom after the rebellion of Absalom. It describes a struggle with the problem of evil, but begins and ends with triumph that God ultimately is good to Israel. This was particularly relevant to Judah in captivity. But again we query why David so simplistically divides people into the very righteous, of pure heart [which none have ultimately], and the worst sinners.</p><p>Here we have the conclusion stated at the beginning; those who cleanse their hearts are the true Israel, and God is finally "good" to them. But the psalm explains the path of moral and intellectual failure that led the psalmist to this conclusion, at one point feeling equally "surely" that having a pure or clean heart was pointless (:13). See on :13.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had nearly slipped-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>David recognizes that his steps and feet had been stabilized by God (s:w. <a href='B:230 40:2'>Psa 40:2</a>). He saw God’s active involvement in helping him see through the problem of evil, and praises God for it. This internal psychological stabilizing of faith and understanding is just as much seen today, through God’s work through the Holy Spirit.</p>


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<p style='margin-left:1:415em'></p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked-</p><p style='margin-left:1:415em'>Surely Asaph as praise leader of Israel was aware of the copious commands not to envy the wicked, e.g.  “Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in Yahweh and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture” (Ps. 37:1–3). Proverbs says the same very often, e.g. “Do not envy the wicked, do not desire their company” (Prov. 24:1). To say "I was envious..." of the wicked is to admit to not having let God's clearest words have any real impact. We can all be the same. And we likewise could save ourselves so much grief if we just accepted God's simple words, rather than like Asaph having to learn the empirical way. This is what it is to believe God's word, rather than just read and be aware of it.
"Prosperity" is shalom. The psalmist has the same struggle as Job in Job 21:9, “their houses are in peace without fear”. Yet clearly true "shalom" is a gift from God to the righteous, as so many Bible passages make clear, e.g. "Yahweh turn His face toward you and give you peace” (Num. 6:26). We only have to slowly and carefully read these words of Asaph to see that he isn't reasoning right. He is misperceiving. The wicked do not have shalom. They only appear to have it; behind the nonchalant good life is all the stress and anxiety that comes from not being right with God. Nobody in the world really has shalom . And so it was by speaking these words out loud in prayer that Asaph came to see his error. We may live with the subconscious impression that the wicked are doing so well and life isn't fair to the righteous; but if we verbalize those thoughts before God in prayer, our error becomes apparent.   
Envy of the arrogant / proud, imagining them to be happy, is exactly the feelings of the returned exiles in Mal. 3:14,15: "You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God;’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed His instructions, and that we have walked mournfully before Yahweh of Armies? Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they put God to the test and escape". It could be that Psalm 73 is an appeal to the returned exiles to follow Asaph's example and repent of their perspectives. 
David had calmly urged not to be envious of the wicked (s:w. <a href='B:230 37:1'>Psa 37:1</a>), but he himself almost failed in this (<a href='B:230 73:3'>Psa 73:3</a> s:w:). We can profess clearly how much we are not envious of others; and then find ourselves like David, caught in a pang of crisis when we wonder why our lives cannot be like those of the world around us. Solomon simplistically commanded not to be envious of the wicked, drawing a simple contrast between the wicked, and the righteous who are not envious of them (<a href='B:240 3:31'>Pro 3:31</a>; <a href='B:240 23:17'>Pro 23:17</a>; <a href='B:240 24:1'>Pro 24:1</a>; <a href='B:240 24:19'>Pro 24:19</a> s:w:). But this is not how it was in reality with his father David, who admits to almost having given in to envy of the wicked (<a href='B:230 73:3'>Psa 73:3</a>) despite his earlier simplistic condemnation of such envy (<a href='B:230 37:1'>Psa 37:1</a>), and was only saved from that by God’s gracious action on his heart (<a href='B:230 73:2'>Psa 73:2</a>). Solomon's proverbs seem to fail to address this complexity of situations because of his own self-righteousness; and yet all he says is inspired and true so far as it goes.</p>


