10 Send them to destruction, O Lord; let their evil designs be the cause of their fall; let them be forced out by all their sins; because they have gone against your authority.
Let their table before them be for their destruction; let their feasts become a net to take them. Let their eyes be blind so that they may not see; let their bodies for ever be shaking. Let your curse come on them; let the heat of your wrath overtake them. Give their houses to destruction, and let there be no one in their tents.
Do to them what you did to the Midianites; what you did to Sisera and Jabin, at the stream of Kishon: Who came to destruction at En-dor; their bodies became dust and waste. Make their chiefs like Oreb and Zeeb; and all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna: Who have said, Let us take for our heritage the resting-place of God. O my God, make them like the rolling dust; like dry stems before the wind. As fire burning a wood, and as a flame causing fire on the mountains, So go after them with your strong wind, and let them be full of fear because of your storm. Let their faces be full of shame; so that they may give honour to your name, O Lord. Let them be overcome and troubled for ever; let them be put to shame and come to destruction; So that men may see that you only, whose name is Yahweh, are Most High over all the earth.
Put an evil man over him; and let one be placed at his right hand to say evil of him. When he is judged, let the decision go against him; and may his prayer become sin. Let his life be short; let another take his position of authority. Let his children have no father, and his wife be made a widow. Let his children be wanderers, looking to others for their food; let them be sent away from the company of their friends. Let his creditor take all his goods; and let others have the profit of his work. Let no man have pity on him, or give help to his children when he is dead. Let his seed be cut off; in the coming generation let their name go out of memory. Let the Lord keep in mind the wrongdoing of his fathers; and may the sin of his mother have no forgiveness. Let them be ever before the eyes of the Lord, so that the memory of them may be cut off from the earth. Because he had no mercy, but was cruel to the low and the poor, designing the death of the broken-hearted. As he took pleasure in cursing, so let it come on him; and as he had no delight in blessing, let it be far from him. He put on cursing like a robe, and it has come into his body like water, and into his bones like oil. Let it be to him as a robe which he puts on, let it be like a band which is round him at all times. Let this be the reward given to my haters from the Lord, and to those who say evil of my soul.
O Lord, keep in mind against the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem; how they said, Let it be uncovered, uncovered even to its base. O daughter of Babylon, whose fate is destruction; happy is the man who does to you what you have done to us. Happy is the man who takes your little ones, crushing them against the rocks.
As for those who come round me, let their heads be covered by the evil of their lips. Let burning flames come down on them: let them be put into the fire, and into deep waters, so that they may not get up again.
Now, we have knowledge that what the law says is for those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all men may be judged by God: Because by the works of the law no man is able to have righteousness in his eyes, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
Your hand will make a search for all your haters; your right hand will be hard on all those who are against you. You will make them like a flaming oven before you; the Lord in his wrath will put an end to them, and they will be burned up in the fire. Their fruit will be cut off from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men.
Who makes the designs of the wise go wrong, so that they are unable to give effect to their purposes. He takes the wise in their secret designs, and the purposes of the twisted are cut off suddenly. In the daytime it becomes dark for them, and in the sunlight they go feeling about as if it was night.
O let the evil of the evil-doer come to an end, but give strength to the upright: for men's minds and hearts are tested by the God of righteousness. God, who is the saviour of the upright in heart, is my breastplate. God is the judge of the upright, and is angry with the evil-doers every day. If a man is not turned from his evil, he will make his sword sharp; his bow is bent and ready. He has made ready for him the instruments of death; he makes his arrows flames of fire. That man is a worker of evil; the seed of wrongdoing has given birth to deceit. He has made a hole deep in the earth, and is falling into the hole which he has made
The nations have gone down into the hole which they made: in their secret net is their foot taken. The Lord has given knowledge of himself through his judging: the evil-doer is taken in the net which his hands had made. (Higgaion. Selah.)
Do not take me away with the sinners and the workers of evil, who say words of peace to their neighbours, but evil is in their hearts. Give them the right reward of their acts, and of their evil doings: give them punishment for the works of their hands, let them have their full reward.
<Of David.> O Lord, be on my side against those who are judging me; be at war with those who make war against me. Be a breastplate to me, and give me your help. Take up your spear and keep back my attackers; say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let them be overcome and put to shame who make attempts to take my soul; let those who would do me damage be turned back and made foolish. Let them be like dust from the grain before the wind; let the angel of the Lord send them in flight. Let their way be dark and full of danger; let them be troubled by the angel of the Lord. For without cause they have put a net ready for me secretly, in which to take my soul. Let destruction come on them without their knowledge; let them be taken themselves in their secret nets, falling into the same destruction.
Because of the sin of their mouths and the word of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride; and for their curses and their deceit, Put an end to them in your wrath, put an end to them, so that they may not be seen again; let them see that God is ruling in Jacob and to the ends of the earth. (Selah.)
Or make discovery of our secret purpose? The design is framed with care; and the inner thought of a man, and his heart, is deep. But God sends out an arrow against them; suddenly they are wounded. The evil of their tongues is the cause of their fall; all those who see them are shaking their heads at them.
<To the chief music-maker. Of David. A Psalm. A Song.> Let God be seen, and let his haters be put to flight; let those who are against him be turned back before him. Let them be like smoke before the driving wind; as wax turning soft before the fire, so let them come to an end before the power of God.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 5
Commentary on Psalms 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 5
The psalm is a prayer, a solemn address to God, at a time when the psalmist was brought into distress by the malice of his enemies. Many such times passed over David, nay, there was scarcely any time of his life to which this psalm may not be accommodated, for in this he was a type of Christ, that he was continually beset with enemies, and his powerful and prevalent appeals to God, when he was so beset, pointed at Christ's dependence on his Father and triumphs over the powers of darkness in the midst of his sufferings. In this psalm,
And this is all of great use to direct us in prayer.
To the chief musician upon Nehiloth. A psalm of David.
Psa 5:1-6
The title of this psalm has nothing in it peculiar but that it is said to be upon Nehiloth, a word nowhere else used. It is conjectured (and it is but a conjecture) that is signifies wind-instruments, with which this psalm was sung, as Neginoth was supposed to signify the stringed-instruments. In these verses David had an eye to God,
In singing these verses, and praying them over, we must engage and stir up ourselves to the duty of prayer, and encourage ourselves in it, because we shall not seek the Lord in vain; and must express our detestation of sin, and our awful expectation of that day of Christ's appearing which will be the day of the perdition of ungodly men.
Psa 5:7-12
In these verses David gives three characters-of himself, of his enemies, and of all the people of God, and subjoins a prayer to each of them.
In singing these verses, and praying them over, we must by faith put ourselves under God's guidance and care, and then please ourselves with his mercy and grace and with the prospect of God's triumphs at last over all his enemies and his people's triumphs in him and in his salvation.