15 But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn't know it. They tore at me, and didn't cease.
Lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, Ripping it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together, Saying, "God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him."
But the unpersuaded Jews took along{TR reads "And the Jews who were unpersuaded, becoming envious and taking along" instead of "But the unpersuaded Jews took along"} some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people.
Some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to beat him with fists, and to tell him, "Prophesy!" The officers struck him with the palms of their hands.
Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying, "You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!" Likewise the chief priests also mocking, with the scribes, the Pharisees,{TR omits "the Pharisees"} and the elders, said, "He saved others, but he can't save himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now, if he wants him; for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'" The robbers also who were crucified with him cast on him the same reproach.
Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium, and gathered the whole garrison together against him. They stripped him, and put a scarlet robe on him. They braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they kneeled down before him, and mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head.
For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, [say] all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall; peradventure he will be persuaded, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker. He who is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished.
He has torn me in his wrath, and persecuted me; He has gnashed on me with his teeth: My adversary sharpens his eyes on me.
My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, And their tongue a sharp sword.
"An evil disease," they say, "has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more."
Don't let them say in their heart, "Aha! That's the way we want it!" Don't let them say, "We have swallowed him up!" Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me.
Let destruction come on him unawares. Let his net that he has hidden catch himself. Let him fall into that destruction.
"If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, Or lifted up myself when evil found him;
"But now those who are younger than I, have me in derision, Whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs. Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, Men in whom ripe age has perished? They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation. They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food. They are driven forth from the midst of men; They cry after them as after a thief; So that they dwell in frightful valleys, And in holes of the earth and of the rocks. Among the bushes they bray; And under the nettles they are gathered together. They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land. "Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them. They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, And don't hesitate to spit in my face. For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; And they have thrown off restraint before me. On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 35
Commentary on Psalms 35 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 35
David, in this psalm, appeals to the righteous Judge of heaven and earth against his enemies that hated and persecuted him. It is supposed that Saul and his party are the persons he means, for with them he had the greatest struggles.
In singing this psalm, and praying over it, we must take heed of applying it to any little peevish quarrels and enmities of our own, and of expressing by it any uncharitable revengeful resentments of injuries done to us; for Christ has taught us to forgive our enemies and not to pray against them, but to pray for them, as he did; but,
A psalm of David.
Psa 35:1-10
In these verses we have,
Psa 35:11-16
Two very wicked things David here lays to the charge of his enemies, to make good his appeal to God against them-perjury and ingratitude.
Psa 35:17-28
In these verses, as before,