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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 40:12 - 40:12
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Now, in accordance with the true art of prayer, petition developes itself out of thanksgiving. The two כָּלָא, Psa 40:10 and here, stand in a reciprocal relation to one another: he refrained not his lips; therefore, on His part, let not Jahve withhold His tender mercies so that they should not be exercised towards him (מִמֶּנִּי). There is just the same correlation of mercy and truth in Psa 40:11 and here: he wishes continually to stand under the protection of these two saving powers, which he has gratefully proclaimed before all Israel. With כִּי, Psa 40:13, he bases these desires upon his own urgent need. רָעֹות are the evils, which come even upon the righteous (Psa 34:20) as trials or as chastenings. אָֽפְפוּ עָלַי is a more circumstantial form of expression instead of אֲפָפוּנִי, Psa 18:5. His misdeeds have taken hold upon him, i.e., overtaken him in their consequences (הִשִּׂיג, as in Deu 28:15, Deu 28:45; cf. לָכַד, Pro 5:22), inasmuch as they have changed into decrees of suffering. He cannot see, because he is closely encompassed on all sides, and a free and open view is thereby altogether taken from him (the expression is used elsewhere of loss of sight, 1Sa 3:2; 1Sa 4:15; 1Ki 14:4). The interpretation adopted by Hupfeld and Hitzig: I am not able to survey, viz., their number, puts into the expression more than it really expresses in the common usage of the language. His heart, i.e., the power of vital consistence, has forsaken him he is disconcerted, dejected, as it were driven to despair (Psa 38:11). This feeling of the misery of sin is not opposed to the date of the Psalm being assigned to the time of Saul, vid., on Psa 31:11.