5 They strengthen for themselves an evil thing, They recount of the hiding of snares, They have said, `Who doth look at it?'
He said in his heart, `God hath forgotten, He hath hid His face, He hath never seen.'
The proud hid a snare for me -- and cords, They spread a net by the side of the path, Snares they have set for me. Selah.
and now, come, I pray thee, curse for me this people, for it `is' mightier than I; it may be I prevail -- we smite it -- and I cast it out from the land; for I have known -- that which thou blessest is blessed, and that which thou cursest is cursed.'
And the Ziphites go up unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, `Is not David hiding himself with us in fortresses, in the forest, in the height of Hachilah, which `is' on the south of the desolate place? And, now, by all the desire of thy soul, O king, to come down, come down, and ours `is' to shut him up into the hand of the king.' And Saul saith, `Blessed `are' ye of Jehovah, for ye have pity on me; go, I pray you, prepare yet, and know and see his place where his foot is; who hath seen him there? for `one' hath said unto me, He is very subtile. And see and know of all the hiding-places where he hideth himself, and ye have turned back unto me prepared, and I have gone with you, and it hath been, if he is in the land, that I have searched him out through all the thousands of Judah.'
Lo, they belch out with their mouths, Swords `are' in their lips, for `Who heareth?'
And they say, `Jehovah doth not see, And the God of Jacob doth not consider.'
If they say, `Come with us, we lay wait for blood, We watch secretly for the innocent without cause, We swallow them as Sheol -- alive, And whole -- as those going down `to' the pit, Every precious substance we find, We fill our houses `with' spoil, Thy lot thou dost cast among us, One purse is -- to all of us.'
Each his neighbour they help, And to his brother he saith, `Be strong.'
`Wo to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye go round the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte, and whenever it may happen -- ye make him a son of gehenna twofold more than yourselves.
Then were gathered together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, to the court of the chief priest who was called Caiaphas; and they consulted together that they might take Jesus by guile, and kill `him',
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,