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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Psalms 35:1 - 35:10
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Prayer against the Godless.
A psalm of David, invoking God's aid against the ungodly, contrasting the hypocrisy, cunning, and malice of the wicked with the integrity and generosity of the righteous, on whose side he himself serves as example.
Imprecations upon the Wicked
v. 1. Plead my cause, as in court proceedings, O Lord, with them that strive with me, impleading him for alleged wickedness; fight against them that fight against me, carrying their hatred to the point of making war on him.
v. 2. Take hold of shield and buckler, the smaller one being used to protect the head, the larger to shelter the whole body, and stand up for mine help, to defend him against his enemies.
v. 3. Draw out also the spear, as a weapon both of defense and of offense, and stop the way against them that persecute me, so that they cannot proceed. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation, an assurance on the part of God that He would deliver and save His servant, sustaining him in this extremity.
v. 4. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul; let them be turned back, in abject retreat, and brought to confusion that devise my hurt, planning evil against him. The heaping of words signifying the failure of the hopes and undertakings of the wicked shows that David prays for the utter frustration of all their intentions, for their complete overthrow.
v. 5. Let them be as chaff before the wind, scattered to the four corners of the earth; and let the Angel of the Lord chase them, Jehovah Himself, in the person of this Angel, thrusting them down and destroying them.
v. 6. Let their way be dark and slippery, literally, "darkness and slipperiness," where they could not even see nor get a good foothold as they fled from their punishment; and let the Angel of the Lord persecute them, pursuing them as He did the Egyptians when He terrified them in the Red Sea.
v. 7. For without cause, without provocation on the part of David, while he was entirely innocent, have they hid for me their net in a pit, (which) without cause they have digged for my soul. That was David's complaint, that his enemies were hunting and pursuing his soul, his life, using every possible means for his destruction.
v. 8. Let destruction come upon him at unawares, devastation striking all the enemies of David and Jehovah before they realized their danger; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself; into that very destruction let him fall, destroyed by the very punishment which he had intended for the righteous. This overthrow of the ungodly power would be followed by the joy of triumphant faith.
v. 9. And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord, who by His revenge vindicated the cause of the righteous; it shall rejoice in His salvation, in the deliverance from their wiles which he had experienced.
v. 10. All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto Thee, his body joining with his soul in praising the Lord, which deliverest the poor, the humble righteous person, from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him? Cf Psa_10:2. Note that a believer may well pray for the destruction of the wicked if he places the execution of the vengeance entirely in God's hands.