14 O God, men of pride have come up against me, and the army of violent men would take my life; they have not put you before them.
For men who are going after me have come out against me, violent men are purposing to take my soul; they have not put God before their eyes. (Selah.)
The men of pride have made great sport of me; but I have not been turned from your law.
Now when it was morning, all the chief priests and those in authority took thought together with the purpose of putting Jesus to death. And they put cords on him and took him away, and gave him up to Pilate, the ruler.
Then the chief priests and the rulers of the people came together in the house of the high priest, who was named Caiaphas. And they made designs together to take Jesus by some trick, and put him to death.
And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the responsible men of the children of Israel do in the dark, every man in his room of pictured images? for they say, The Lord does not see us; the Lord has gone away from the land.
The men of pride have put secret cords for my feet; stretching nets in my way, so that they may take me with their tricks. (Selah.)
The men of pride have said false things about me; but I will keep your orders in my heart.
Now after this, Absalom got for himself a carriage and horses, and fifty runners to go before him. And Absalom got up early, morning after morning, and took his place at the side of the public meeting-place: and when any man had a cause which had to come to the king to be judged, then Absalom, crying out to him, said, What is your town? and he would say, Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom would say to him, See, your cause is true and right; but no man has been named by the king to give you a hearing. And more than this, Absalom said, If only I was made judge in the land, so that every man who has any cause or question might come to me, and I would give a right decision for him! And if any man came near to give him honour, he took him by the hand and gave him a kiss. And this Absalom did to everyone in Israel who came to the king to have his cause judged: so Absalom, like a thief, took away the hearts of the men of Israel. Now at the end of four years, Absalom said to the king, Let me go to Hebron and give effect to the oath which I made to the Lord: For while I was living in Geshur in Aram, your servant made an oath, saying, If ever the Lord lets me come back to Jerusalem, I will give him worship in Hebron. And the king said to him, Go in peace. So he got up and went to Hebron. But Absalom at the same time sent watchers through all the tribes of Israel to say, At the sound of the horn you are to say, Absalom is king in Hebron. And with Absalom, at his request, went two hundred men from Jerusalem, who were completely unconscious of his designs. And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, one of David's helpers, from Giloh his town, while he was making the offerings. And the design against David became strong, for more and more people were joined to Absalom.
<To the chief music-maker. Of the servant of the Lord. Of David.> The sin of the evil-doer says in his heart, There is no fear of the Lord before his eyes.
Have all the workers of evil no knowledge? they take my people for food as they would take bread; they make no prayer to the Lord.
He says in his heart, God has no memory of me: his face is turned away; he will never see it.
The evil-doer in his pride says, God will not make a search. All his thoughts are, There is no God.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 86
Commentary on Psalms 86 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Prayer of a Persecuted Saint
A Psalm “by David” which has points of contact with Psalms 85:1-13 (cf. Psalms 86:2, חסיד , with Psalms 85:9; Psalms 86:15, חסד ואמת , with Psalms 85:11) is here inserted between Korahitic Psalms: it can only be called a Psalm by David as having grown out of Davidic and other model passages. The writer cannot be compared for poetical capability either with David or with the authors of such Psalms as Ps 116 and Psalms 130:1-8. His Psalm is more liturgic than purely poetic, and it is also only entitled תּפּלּה , without bearing in itself any sign of musical designation. It possesses this characteristic, that the divine name אדני occurs seven times,
(Note: For the genuine reading in Psalms 86:4 (where Heidenheim reads יהוה ) and in Psalms 86:5 (where Nissel reads יהוה ) is also אדני (Bomberg, Hutter, etc.). Both the divine names in Psalms 86:4 and Psalms 86:5 belong to the 134 ודּאין . The divine name אדני , which is written and is not merely substituted for יהוה , is called in the language of the Masora ודאי (the true and real one).)
just as it occurs three times in Psalms 130:1-8, forming the start for a later, Adonajic style in imitation of the Elohimic.
The prayer to be heard runs like Psalms 55:3; and the statement of the ground on which it is based, Psalms 86:1 , word for word like Ps 40:18. It is then particularly expressed as a prayer for preservation ( שׁמרה , as in Psalms 119:167, although imperative, to be read shāmerah ; cf. Psalms 30:4 מיּרדי , Psalms 38:21 רדפי or רדפי , and what we have already observed on Psalms 16:1 שׁמרני ); for he is not only in need of God's help, but also because חסיד (Psalms 4:4; Psalms 16:10), i.e., united to Him in the bond of affection ( חסד , Hosea 6:4; Jeremiah 2:2), not unworthy of it. In Psalms 86:2 we hear the strains of Psalms 25:20; Psalms 31:7; in Psalms 86:3, of Psalms 57:2.: the confirmation in Psalms 86:4 is taken verbally from Psalms 25:1, cf. also Psalms 130:6. Here, what is said in Psalms 86:4 of this shorter Adonajic Psalm, Psalms 130:1-8, is abbreviated in the ἅπαξ γεγραμ . סלּח (root סל , של , to allow to hang loose, χαλᾶν , to give up, remittere ). The Lord is good ( טּוב ), i.e., altogether love, and for this very reason also ready to forgive, and great and rich in mercy for all who call upon Him as such. The beginning of the following group also accords with Psalms 130:1-8 in Psalms 86:2.
Here, too, almost everything is an echo of earlier language of the Psalms and of the Law; viz., Psalms 86:7 follows Psalms 17:6 and other passages; Psalms 86:8 is taken from Exodus 15:11, cf. Psalms 89:9, where, however, אלהים , gods, is avoided; Psalms 86:8 follows Deuteronomy 3:24; Psalms 86:9 follows Psalms 22:28; Psalms 86:11 is taken from Psalms 27:11; Psalms 86:11 from Psalms 26:3; Psalms 86:13, שׁאול תּחתּיּה from Deuteronomy 32:22, where instead of this it is תּחתּית , just as in Psalms 130:2 תּחנוּני (supplicatory prayer) instead of תּחנוּנותי (importunate supplications); and also Psalms 86:10 (cf. Psalms 72:18) is a doxological formula that was already in existence. The construction הקשׁיב בּ is the same as in Psalms 66:19. But although for the most part flowing on only in the language of prayer borrowed from earlier periods, this Psalm is, moreover, not without remarkable significance and beauty. With the confession of the incomparableness of the Lord is combined the prospect of the recognition of the incomparable One throughout the nations of the earth. This clear unallegorical prediction of the conversion of the heathen is the principal parallel to Revelation 15:4. “All nations, which Thou hast made” - they have their being from Thee; and although they have forgotten it (vid., Psalms 9:18), they will nevertheless at last come to recognise it. כּל־גּוים , since the article is wanting, are nations of all tribes (countries and nationalities); cf. Jeremiah 16:16 with Psalms 22:18; Tobit 13:11, ἔθνη πολλά , with ibid . Psalms 14:6, πάντα τὰ ἔθνη . And how weightily brief and charming is the petition in Psalms 86:11 : uni cor meum, ut timeat nomen tuum ! Luther has rightly departed from the renderings of the lxx, Syriac, and Vulgate: laetetur ( יחדּ from חדה ). The meaning, however, is not so much “keep my heart near to the only thing,” as “direct all its powers and concentrate them on the one thing.” The following group shows us what is the meaning of the deliverance out of the hell beneath ( שׁאול תּחתּיּה , like ארץ תּחתּית , the earth beneath, the inner parts of the earth, Ezekiel 31:14.), for which the poet promises beforehand to manifest his thankfulness ( כּי , Psalms 86:13, as in Ps 56:14).
The situation is like that in the Psalms of the time of Saul. The writer is a persecuted one, and in constant peril of his life. He has taken Psalms 86:14 out of the Elohimic Psalms 54:5, and retained the Elohim as a proper name of God (cf. on the other hand Psalms 86:8, Psalms 86:10); he has, however, altered זרים to זרים , which here, as in Isaiah 13:11 (cf. however, ibid . Psalms 25:5), is the alternating word to עריצים . In Psalms 86:15 he supports his petition that follows by Jahve's testimony concerning Himself in Exodus 34:6. The appellation given to himself by the poet in Psalms 86:16 recurs in Psalms 116:16 (cf. Wisd. 9:5). The poet calls himself “the son of Thy handmaid” as having been born into the relation to Him of servant; it is a relationship that has come to him by birth. How beautifully does the Adonaj come in here for the seventh time! He is even from his mother's womb the servant of the sovereign Lord, from whose omnipotence he can therefore also look for a miraculous interposition on his behalf. A “token for good” is a special dispensation, from which it becomes evident to him that God is kindly disposed towards him. לטובה as in the mouth of Nehemiah, Nehemiah 5:19; Nehemiah 13:31; of Ezra 8:22; and also even in Jeremiah and earlier. ויבשׁוּ is just as parenthetical as in Isaiah 26:11.