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21.They will gather together against the soul of the righteous As the Hebrew word גדד gadad, or גוד gud, (39) signifies to collect forces or a band of men, the Psalmist evidently intimates that he had to do with leading persons of influence, and not with those merely in private station. The term implies too, that it was not merely one or two private individuals who persecuted him, and others of the Lord’ people, but a public convention. Melancholy and disgraceful must the state of matters have been, when the wicked thus ruled in lawful assembly, and those who formed the college of judges were no better than a band of robbers. The case becomes doubly vexatious, when the innocent victims of oppression are not only injured, but have a stigma fixed upon their character. And what more unseemly spectacle, than when the whole course of judicial administration is just a foul conspiracy against good and innocent men? (40) The instance here recorded should prepare us for a like emergency, if it chance to occur in our own day, when the wicked may be permitted, in the providence of God, to mount the seat of judgment, and launch destruction upon the upright and the righteous, under color of law. Intolerable as it might seem at first sight, that persons innocent of any crime should meet with cruel persecution, even from the hands of judges, so as to be loaded with ignominy, we see that God tried his children in other times by this double species of oppression, and that we must learn to bear submissively not only with unrighteous violence, but with charges most injurious to our character, and most undeserved. (41)
(39) “ יגודו, (ja-ghod-du,) will collect in a troop Targ. ‘ heap together evils;’ LXX. ‘ hunt after.’ From גדד, ran by troops, invaded with an army. ” — Bythner
(40) “Deinde quid minus consentaneum, quam ut tota forensis ratio nihil aliud sit quam scelesta conspiratio ad insontes damnandos ?” — Lat.
(41) “Toutesfois pour autant que Dieu a jadis exerce ses serviteurs en l’ et l’ sorte de tentation, apprenons non seulement de porter patiemment une violence injuste, mais aussi les calomnies indignes,” etc. — Fr.