3 Who have whet their tongue like a sword, And have aimed their arrows, even bitter words,
Let them melt away as water that runneth apace: When he aimeth his arrows, let them be as though they were cut off.
For, lo, the wicked bend the bow, They make ready their arrow upon the string, That they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart;
There is that speaketh rashly like the piercings of a sword; But the tongue of the wise is health.
There is a generation whose teeth are `as' swords, and their jaw teeth `as' knives, To devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.
And they bend their tongue, `as it were' their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah.
And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind. But the tongue can no man tame; `it is' a restless evil, `it is' full of deadly poison.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 64
Commentary on Psalms 64 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 64
This whole psalm has reference to David's enemies, persecutors, and slanderers; many such there were, and a great deal of trouble they gave him, almost all his days, so that we need not guess at any particular occasion of penning this psalm.
In singing this psalm we must observe the effect of the old enmity that is in the seed of the woman against the seed of the serpent, and assure ourselves that the serpent's head will be broken, at last, to the honour and joy of the holy seed.
To the chief musician. A psalm of David.
Psa 64:1-6
David, in these verses, puts in before God a representation of his own danger and of his enemies' character, to enforce his petition that God would protect him and punish them.
Psa 64:7-10
We may observe here,