5 All the day long they wrest my words: All their thoughts are against me for evil.
as also in all `his' epistles, speaking in them of these things; wherein are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unstedfast wrest, as `they do' also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
And Saul said to David, Behold, my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight Jehovah's battles. For Saul said, Let not my hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
And Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul was David's enemy continually.
If he say thus, It is well; thy servant shall have peace: but if he be wroth, then know that evil is determined by him.
All that hate me whisper together against me; Against me do they devise my hurt.
For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scoffer ceaseth, and all they that watch for iniquity are cut off; that make a man an offender in `his' cause, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just with a thing of nought.
Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might ensnare him in `his' talk.
and said, This man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went away, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might deliver him unto them. And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money. And he consented, and sought opportunity to deliver him unto them in the absence of the multitude.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 56
Commentary on Psalms 56 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 56
It seems by this, and many other psalms, that even in times of the greatest trouble and distress David never hung his harp upon the willow-trees, never unstrung it or laid it by; but that when his dangers and fears were greatest he was still in tune for singing God's praises. He was in imminent peril when he penned this psalm, at least when he meditated it; yet even then his meditation of God was sweet.
How pleasantly may a good Christian, in singing this psalm, rejoice in God, and praise him for what he will do, as well as for what he has done.
To the chief musician upon Jonath-elem-rechokim, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.
Psa 56:1-7
David, in this psalm, by his faith throws himself into the hands of God, even when he had by his fear and folly thrown himself into the hands of the Philistines; it was when they took him in Gath, whither he fled for fear of Saul, forgetting the quarrel they had with him for killing Goliath; but they soon put him in mid of it, 1 Sa. 21:10, 11. Upon that occasion he changed his behaviour, but with so little ruffle to his temper that then he penned both this psalm and the 34th. This is called Michtam-a golden psalm. So some other psalms are entitled, but this has something peculiar in the title; it is upon Jonath-elem-rechokim, which signifies the silent dove afar off. Some apply this to David himself, who wished for the wings of a dove on which to fly away. He was innocent and inoffensive, mild and patient, as a dove, was at this time driven from his nest, from the sanctuary (Ps. 84:3), was forced to wander afar off, to seek for shelter in distant countries; there he was like the doves of the valleys, mourning and melancholy; but silent, neither murmuring against God nor railing at the instruments of his trouble; herein a type of Christ, who was as a sheep, dumb before the shearers, and a pattern to Christians, who, wherever they are and whatever injuries are done them, ought to be as silent doves. In this former part of the psalm,
Psa 56:8-13
Several things David here comforts himself with in the day of his distress and fear.