Psalms 57 commentary

All David's dependence is upon God. The most eminent believers need often repeat the publican's prayer, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” But if our souls trust in the Lord, this may assure us, in our utmost dangers, that our calamities will at length be overpast, and in the mean time, by faith and prayer, we must make him our refuge. Though God be most high, yet he condescends so low, as to take care that all things are made to work for good to his people. This is a good reason why we should pray earnestly. Look which way we will on this earth, refuge fails, no help appears; but we may look for it from heaven. If we have fled from the wrath to come, unto Jesus Christ, he that performed all things needful to purchase the salvation of his people, will do for us and in us all things needful for our enjoyment of it. It made David droop to think there should be those that bore him so much ill-will. But the mischief they designed against him, returned on themselves. And when David was in the greatest distress and disgrace, he did not pray, Lord, exalt me, but, Lord, exalt thine own name. Our best encouragement in prayer, is taken from the glory of God, and to that, more than to our own comfort, we should have regard in all our petitions for mercy.

By lively faith, David's prayers and complaints are at once turned into praises. His heart is fixed; it is prepared for every event, being stayed upon God. If by the grace of God we are brought into this even, composed frame of mind, we have great reason to be thankful. Nothing is done to purpose, in religion, unless it is done with the heart. The heart must be fixed for the duty, put in frame for it; fixed in the duty by close attention. Our tongue is our glory, and never more so than when praising God; dull and sleepy devotions will never be acceptable to God. Let us awake early in the morning, to begin the day with God; early in the beginning of a mercy. When God comes toward us with his favours, let us go forth to meet him with our praises. David desired to bring others to join in praising God; and in his psalms, he is still praising God among the people, singing to Him among the nations. Let us seek to have our hearts fixed to praise his boundless mercy and unfailing faithfulness; and to glorify him with body, soul, and spirit, which are his. Let us earnestly pray that the blessings of the gospel may be sent through every land.

PSALM 57

This psalm consists of two parts. In the first, David gives expression to the anxiety which he felt, imploring Divine assistance against Saul and his other enemies. In the second, he proceeds upon the confident expectation of deliverance, and stirs up his soul to the exercise of praise.

To the chief musician, Al-tascheth, The words, אל-תשחת, al-tascheth, are found in the titles of three other psalms, the 58th, 59th, and 75th. Michtam of David, when he fled from the face of Saul in the cave.

We are left entirely to conjecture as to the meaning of the word Michtam; and equal uncertainty prevails among interpreters regarding the reason of the inscription given to the psalm, Al-tascheth, i.e., destroy not. Some are of opinion that this formed the commencement of a song well known at the time; others take it to be an expression uttered by David in the desperate exigency to which he was reduced, O God! destroy me not Others conceive that the word is inscribed upon the psalm in praise of the high principle shown by David when he prevented Abishai from slaying Saul, and are confirmed in their opinion by the fact, that this is the very expression which the inspired historian represents him as having used, (1 Samuel 26:9.) But as the prayers which follow must have been offered up before he gave any such injunction to Abishai, this explanation is not satisfactory; and we are left to adopt one or other of the two former suppositions, either that the psalm was composed to the air of some song generally known at the time, or that the word expresses a brief prayer, which David notes down as having been uttered in memorable circumstances, and in circumstances of great danger.

Psalm 57:1-3

1. Be merciful unto me, O God! be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee; and in the shadow of thy wings will I hope, “Ou, hebergeray.” — Fr. marg “Or, will lodge.” until wickedness The original word, הוות, ha-uoth, for wickedness, the Septuagint here renders sin — “Until sin pass away.” Symmachus explains it in Psalm 55:12, by επηρεια, insulting injury “Simon, from Schultens, has, I think, given the true meaning. הוה, barathrum — est desiderium, idque pravum v. c. cupiditas devorandi — cupiditas dicitur profundum quod, barathrum, quod expleri non potest.” — Fry French and Skinner read, “until their mischief pass away;” “the mischief,” they observe, “now directed against me by my enemies.” pass over. 2. I will cry unto God most High, to God that performeth all things for me. 3. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. “Ou, a la confusion de celuy qui m’a guette.” — Fr. marg. “Or, to the confusion of him who hath laid wait for me.” See note on Psalm 56:1, where the same original word is used. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.

1. Be merciful unto me, O God! The repetition of the prayer proves that the grief, the anxiety, and the apprehension, with which David was filled at this time, must have been of no common description. It is noticeable, that his plea for mercy is, his having hoped in God. His soul trusted in him; and this is a form of expression the force of which is not to be overlooked: for it implies that the trust which he exercised proceeded from his very innermost affections, — that it was of no volatile character, but deeply and strongly rooted. He declares the same truth in figurative terms, when he adds his persuasion that God would cover him with the shadow of his wings. The Hebrew word חסה, chasah, which I have translated to hope, signifies occasionally to lodge, or obtain shelter, and in this sense it may be understood with great propriety in the passage before us, where allusion is made to the shadow of wings. David had committed himself, in short, entirely to the guardianship of God; and now experienced that blessed consciousness of dwelling in a place of safety, which he expresses in the beginning of the ninetieth psalm. The divine protection is compared to the shadow of wings, because God, as I have elsewhere observed, the more familiarly to invite us to himself, is represented as stretching out his wings like the hen, or other birds, for the shelter of their young. The greater our ingratitude and perversity, in being so slow to comply with such an endearing and gentle invitation! He does not merely say, in general, that he would hope in God, and rest under the shadow of his wings, but, particularly, that he would do so at the time when wickedness should pass over him, like a storm or whirlwind. The Hebrew word הוה, hovah, which I have rendered wickedness, some translate power. Be that as it may, it is evident he declares that God would prove his refuge, and the wings of God his shelter, under every tempest of affliction which blew over him. There are seasons when we are privileged to enjoy the calm sunshine of prosperity; but there is not a day of our lives in which we may not suddenly be overtaken by storms of affliction, and it is necessary we should be persuaded that God will cover us with his wings. To hope he adds prayer. Those, indeed, who have placed their trust in God, will always direct their prayers to him; and David gives here a practical proof of his hope, by showing that he applied to God in his emergencies. In addressing God, he applies to him an honorable title, commending him as the God who performed whatsoever he had promised, or (as we may understand the expression) who carries forward to perfection the work which he has begun. Horsley reads the last clause of the verse, “Upon God, who will bring things to a conclusion for me.” The Hebrew word גמר, gomer, here employed, would seem to be used in the same sense as in Psalm 138:8, the scope of both passages being the same. It materially confirms and sustains our hope to reflect that God will never forsake the workmanship of his own hands, — that he will perfect the salvation of his people, and continue his divine guidance until he have brought them to the termination of their course. Some read, to God, who rewards me; but this fails to bring out the force of the expression. It would be more to the purpose, in my judgment, to read, God, who fails me; in which case the sentence would, of course, require to be understood adversatively: That though God failed him, and stretched not out his hand for his deliverance, he would still persist in crying to him. The other meaning, which some have suggested, I will cry to God, who performs, or exerts to the utmost, his severity against me, is evidently forced, and the context would lead us to understand the word as referring to the goodness of God, the constancy of which in perfecting his work when once begun, should ever be present to our remembrance,

PSALM 57

Psa 57:1-11. Altaschith--or, "Destroy not." This is perhaps an enigmatical allusion to the critical circumstances connected with the history, for which compare 1Sa 22:1; 26:1-3. In Moses' prayer (De 9:26) it is a prominent petition deprecating God's anger against the people. This explanation suits the fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth also. Asaph uses it for the seventy-fifth, in the scope of which there is allusion to some emergency. Michtam--(See on Psa 16:1, title). To an earnest cry for divine aid, the Psalmist adds, as often, the language of praise, in the assured hope of a favorable hearing.

1. my soul--or self, or life, which is threatened.

shadow of thy wings--(Psa 17:8; 36:7).

calamities--literally, "mischiefs" (Psa 52:2; 55:10).

2. performeth--or, completes what He has begun.

3. from ... swallow me up--that pants in rage after me (Psa 56:2).

mercy and ... truth--(Psa 25:10; 36:5), as messengers (Psa 43:3) sent to deliver him.

4. The mingled figures of wild beasts (Psa 10:9; 17:12) and weapons of war (Psa 11:2) heighten the picture of danger.

whose ... tongue--or slanders.

5. This doxology illustrates his view of the connection of his deliverance with God's glory.

6. (Compare Psa 7:15; 9:15, 16).

7. I will ... praise--both with voice and instrument.

8. Hence--he addresses his glory, or tongue (Psa 16:9; 30:12), and his psaltery, or lute, and harp.

I myself ... early--literally, "I will awaken dawn," poetically expressing his zeal and diligence.

9-10. As His mercy and truth, so shall His praise, fill the universe.

Be merciful unto me - To show David's deep earnestness, he repeats this twice; he was in great danger, surrounded by implacable enemies, and he knew that God alone could deliver him.

My soul trusteth in thee - I put my life into thy hand; and my immortal spirit knows no other portion than thyself.

In the shadow of thy wings - A metaphor taken from the brood of a hen taking shelter under her wings when they see a bird of prey; and there they continue to hide themselves till their evemy disappears. In a storm, or tempest of rain, the mother covers them with her wings to afford them shelter and defense. This the psalmist has particularly in view, as the following words show: "Until these calamities be overpast."

I will cry unto God most high - He is the Most High; and therefore far above all my enemies, though the prince of the power of the air be at their head.

Unto God, לאל lael, unto the strong Good, one against whom no human or diabolic might can prevail. David felt his own weakness, and he knew the strength of his adversaries; and therefore he views God under those attributes and characters which were suited to his state. This is a great secret in the Christian life; few pray to God wisely; though they may do it fervently.

That performeth all things for me - Who works for me; גמר gomer, he who completes for me, and will bring all to a happy issue.

He shall send from heaven, and save me - Were there no human agents or earthly means that he could employ, he would send his angels from heaven to rescue me from my enemies. Or, He will give his command from heaven that this may be done on earth.

Selah - I think this word should be at the end of the verse.

God shall send forth his mercy and his truth - Here mercy and truth are personified. They are the messengers that God will send from heaven to save me. His mercy ever inclines him to help and save the distressed. This he has promised to do; and his truth binds him to fulfll the promises or engagements his mercy has made, both to saints and sinners.

My soul is among lions - בתוך לבאם bethoch lebaim. I agree with Dr. Kennicott that this should be translated, "My soul dwells in parched places," from לאב laab, he thirsted. And thus the Chaldee seems to have understood the place, though it be not explicit.

I lie even among them that are set on fire - I seem to be among coals. It is no ordinary rage and malice by which I am pursued: each of my enemies seems determined to have my life.

Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens - Let the glory of thy mercy and truth be seen in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath. Several of the fathers apply what is said above to the passion of our Lord, and what is said here to his resurrection.

They have prepared a net for my steps - A gin or springe, such as huntsmen put in the places which they know the prey they seek frequents: such, also, as they place in passages in hedges, etc., through which the game creeps.

They have digged a pit - Another method of catching game and wild beasts. They dig a pit, cover it over with weak sticks and turf. The beasts, not suspecting danger where none appears, in attempting to walk over it, fall tbrough, and are taken. Saul digged a pit, laid snares for the life of David; and fell into one of them himself, particularly at the cave of En-gedi; for he entered into the very pit or cave where David and his men were hidden, and his life lay at the generosity of the very man whose life he was seeking! The rabbins tell a curious and instructive tale concerning this: "God sent a spider to weave her web at the mouth of the cave in which David and his men lay hid. When Saul saw the spider's web over the cave's mouth, he very naturally conjectured that it could neither be the haunt of men nor wild beasts; and therefore went in with confidence to repose." The spider here, a vile and contemptible animal, became the instrument in the hand of God of saving David's life and of confounding Saul in his policy and malice. This may be a fable; but it shows by what apparently insignificant means God, the universal ruler, can accomplish the greatest and most beneficent ends. Saul continued to dig pits to entrap David; and at last fell a prey to his own obstinacy. We have a proverb to the same effect: Harm watch, harm catch. The Greeks have one also: Ἡ τε κακη βουλη τῳ βουλευσαντι κακιστη, "An evil advice often becomes most ruinous to the adviser." The Romans have one to the same effect: -

Neque enim lex justior ulla est

Quam necis artificem arte perire sua. "There is no law more just than that which condemns a man to suffer death by the instrument which he has invented to take away the life of others."

My heart is fixed - My heart is prepared to do and suffer thy will. It is fixed - it has made the firmest purpose through his strength by which I can do all things.

Awake up, my glory - Instead of כבודי kebodi, "my glory," one MS., and the Syriac, have כנורי kinnori, "my harp." Dr. Kennicott reads כבורי kebori, which he supposes to be some instrument of music; and adds that the instrument used in church-music by the Ethiopians is now called כבר kaber. I think the Syriac likely to be the true reading: "Awake up, my harp; awake, psaltery and harp: I will awake early." Such repetitions are frequent in the Hebrew poets. If we read my glory, it may refer either to his tongue; or, which is more likely, to his skill in composition, and in playing on differentt instruments. The five last verses of this Psalm are nearly the same with the Psa 108:1-5 of Psa 108:1-13. The reason of this may be, the notes or memoranda from the psalmist's diary were probably, through mistake, twice copied. The insertion at the beginning of the 108th Psalm seems to bear no relation to the rest of that ode.

Rabbi Solomon Jarchi tells us that David had a harp at his bed's head, which played of itself when the north wind blew on it; and then David arose to give praise to God. This account has been treated as a ridiculous fable by grave Christian writers. I would however hesitate, and ask one question: Does not the account itself point out an instrument then well known, similar to the comparatively lately discovered Aeolian harp? Was not this the instrument hung at David's bed's head, which, when the night breeze (which probably blew at a certain time) began to act upon the cords, sent forth those dulcet, those heavenly sounds, for which the Aeolian harp is remarkable? "Awake, my harp, at the due time: I will not wait for thee now, I have the strongest cause for gratitude; I will awake earlier than usual to sing the praises of my God."

Among the people - The Israelites.

Among the nations - The Gentiles at large. A prophecy either relating to the Gospel times, Christ being considered as the Speaker: or a prediction that these Divine compositions should be sung, both in synagogues and in Christian churches, in all the nations of the earth. And it is so: wherever the name of Christ is known, there is David's known also.

Thy mercy is great unto the heavens - It is as far above all human description and comprehension as the heavens are above the earth. See the notes on Psa 36:5, Psa 36:6, where nearly the same words occur.

Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens - The same sentiments and words which occur in Psa 57:5 (note). See the note there.

David was not only in a happy state of mind when he wrote this Psalm, but in what is called a state of triumph. His confidence in God was unbounded; though encompassed by the most ferocious enemies, and having all things against him except God and his innocence. David will seldom be found in a more blessed state than he here describes. Similar faith in God will bring the same blessings to every true Christian in similar circumstances.

Send forth - Will discover them, by affording his gracious help in pursuance of his promises.

Lions - Fierce and bloody men. I lie - I have my abode. On fire - From hell. Who are mere fire - brands, breathing out wrath and threatenings, and incensing Saul against me.

Excited - Glorify thy power, and goodness, and justice, and faithfulness, by my deliverance. Above, &c. - To the highest degree possible.

Fixed - In a stedfast belief of thy promises.

My glory - My tongue, the instrument of singing. Awake - I will employ all the powers of my soul and body.

The people - Among the Israelites, and among the Heathens, as I shall have occasion.

1. BE merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me , for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these Calamities be over past.

The Repetition implies both the greatness of his Danger, and the fervency of his Spirit in this Request, and withal that his whole Trust and Hope was in God's mercy.

(i. e.) Of the Protection; to which alone I trust, and not to the shadow of this dark Cave, in which I now hide my self.

Or the time of these Cala[illegible: 1+ letters]ities, which, I know, will shortly have an End.

Marginal references: Psal. 61. 4. & 73. 28.

2. I will cry unto God most high: unto God that performeth all things for me .

Heb. that performeth (or perfecteth or finisheth, as this Word is rendred, Psal. 138. 8. (i. e.) Will certainly perform or finish) for or towards, or Concerning me. He doth not express what he performeth, or perfecteth, or fulfilleth, but leaveth it to be understood, as being easie to be understood; He performeth, or perfecteth, to wit, all that he hath promised, engageth himself to perform, what he hath begun to do, or what is yet to be performed; it being usual in the Hebrew Language to understand a Verbal Noun after the Verb. He implies that God i[illegible: 1+ letters] not like Men, who make large Promises, but either through Inability or Carelessness, or Unfaithfulness do not perform them, but will certainly be as good as his Word.

Marginal references: Psal. 138. 8.

3. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up ; Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.

Either, 1. His Angels, as Dan. 3. 28. Or, 2. His help, Or, 3. His hand; which is understood after this Verb, 2 Sam. 6. 6. by Comp. 1 Chron. 13. 9. where it is expressed, Or rather, 4. His Mercy and his Truth, as it here follows where also this Verb is repeated, before those Words.

(i. e.) From that shameful Destruction which they Design to bring upon me. Or rather, as it is rendred, in the Margent of our Bible, and by many others, and as it is in the Hebrew; He hath reproached, (i. e. He will certainly put to Shame or Reproach) him that would swallow me up, by disappointing his Expectation, and delivering me from his Rage. i. e.) Shall discover them by their proper Fruits, to wit, by affording his Gracious help, in pursuance of his Promises.

Marginal references: Or, he Reproacheth him that would swallow me up.; Psal. 40. 11. & 43. 3. & 61. 7.

4. My soul is among lions , I lye leven among them that are set on fire n, even the sons of men , whose teeth are spears and arrows , and their tongue a sharp sword.

I Live in the midst of a Generation of fierce and Bloody men; which both in Scripture and other Authors, are oft called Lyons. [illegible: 1+ letters] I have my abode and Conversation.

Which Particle is easily borrowed out of the foregoing Clause.

Whereby he explains what he meant by Lyons, and tells us they were Beasts in the shape of Men.

Which may be considered; Either, 1. As Instruments of Destruction, as they are in Lyons. Or rather, 2. As Instruments of Speech, as they are in Men; for it here follows by way of Explication, as the manner is, and their Tongue. And both seem to signifie their wicked and pernicious Calumnies, of which he every where Complains, and particularly in the History, to which this Psalm seems to Relate, 1 Sam. 24. 10. and by which they designed to promote his Destruction.

(i. e.) They grievously wound my Name, and are devised to do me Mischief.

m To wit, of or from Hell, as is fully expressed, Iam. 3. 6. who are meer Fire-brands and Incendiaries, that are continually breathing out their Wrath and Threatnings, and incensing Saul against me.

Marginal references: Psal. 35: 17. & 58. 6.; Psal. 55. 21.

5. Be thou exalted , O God above the heavens : let thy glory be above all the earth .

Glorifie thy Power, and Goodness, and Justice, and Faithfulness by my Deliverance, all which are exposed to Censure and Reproach, whilst thou sufferest ungodly Wretches to oppress and Triumph over the Innocent and Righteous, that put their trust in thee.

(i. e.) Higher than the Heavens, or to the highest degree possible: Or above all the false Gods, which are supposed to reside in Heaven.

(i. e.) Above all Men upon Earth, some whereof do now Audaciously lift up themselves against thee, and above thee. Or, though (as the Hebrew Particle is commonly rendred, and it is no New thing, to have the same Word or Particle diversly taken in the same Verse, as hath been formerly shewed) the whole Earth; not onely amongst thine own People, but so that even the Heathens, shall be forced to acknowledge and admire thy Glorious deeds:

Marginal references: Psal. 7. 6. & 148. 13.

6. They have prepared a net for my steps, my soul is bowed down : they have digged a pit before me , into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves , Selah.

Or, was bowed down: I was even ready to fall and Perish. O[illegible: 1+ letters], mine Heart was oppressed and almost overwhelmed.

Heb. Before my Face: not in my sight, for that would have been in in Vain, Prov. 1. 17. but in my Way, where they thought I would go.

This was fulfilled in Saul, who by pursuing fell into his Hands, 1 Sam. 24. 3.

Marginal references: Psal. 7. 16. & 9. 15.

7. My heart is sixed , O God, my heart is sixed: I will sing and give praise.

Or, established, in a full assurance of thy merciful Help. It was ready to sink with Fear, or bowed down, v. 6. but now I have through thy Grace, Conquered my Fears, and am fixed in a stedfast Belief of thy Promises. Or, is prepared, to wit, to sing and give Praise, as it follows.

Marginal references: Psal. 108. 1. &c.; Or, Prepared.

8. Awake up my glory , awake psaltery and harp: I my self will awake early .

Either, 1. My Soul; Or rather, 2. My Tongue, the Instrument of Singing, which he was now about to do, v. 7. 9.

I will Rouse up and imploy all the Powers of my Soul and Body, to set forth Gods Praises.

I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people : I will sing unto thee among the nations.

In the great Congregations, amongst the Israelites of all Tribes, who are called by this Name, Deut. 33. 19. and amongst Heathens, as I shall have occasion, as he often had.

10. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens , and they truth unto clouds.

(i. e.) Is most Evident, and greatly Exalted.

Marginal references: Psal. 36. 5. & 71. 19. & 89. 2. & 108. 4.

Psa 57:1-5

By means of the two distinctive tense-forms the poet describes his believing flight to God for refuge as that which has once taken place (חסיה from חסה = חסי out of pause, like the same forms in Psa 73:2; Psa 122:6), and still, because it is a living fact, is ever, and now in particular, renewed (אחסה). The shadow of the wings of God is the protection of His gentle, tender love; and the shadow of the wings is the quickening, cordial solace that is combined with this protection. Into this shadow the poet betakes himself for refuge now as he has done before, until הוּות, i.e., the abysmal danger that threatens him, be overpast, praeteriverit (cf. Isa 26:20, and on the enallage numeri Psa 10:10, Ges. §147, a). Not as though he would then no longer stand in need of the divine protection, but he now feels himself to be specially in need of it; and therefore his chief aim is an undaunted triumphant resistance of the impending trials. The effort on his own part, however, by means of which he always anew takes refuge in this shadow, is prayer to Him who dwells above and rules the universe. עליון is without the article, which it never takes; and גּמר (Psa 57:3) is the same, because it is regularly left out before the participle, which admits of being more fully defined, Amo 9:12; Eze 21:19 (Hitzig). He calls upon God who accomplisheth concerning, i.e., for him (Est 4:16), who carrieth out his cause, the cause of the persecuted one; גּמר is transitive as in Psa 138:8. The lxx renders τὸν εὐεργετήσαντά με, as though it were גּמל עלי (Psa 13:6, and frequently); and even Hitzig and Hupfeld hold that the meaning is exactly the same. But although גמל and גמר fall back upon one and the same radical notion, still it is just their distinctive final letters that serve to indicate a difference of signification that is strictly maintained. In Psa 57:4 follow futures of hope. In this instance “that which brings me deliverance” is to be supplied in thought to ישׁלח (cf. Psa 20:3) and not ידו as in Psa 18:17, cf. Psa 144:7; and this general and unmentioned object is then specialized and defined in the words “His mercy and His truth” in Psa 57:4. Mercy and truth are as it were the two good spirits, which descending from heaven to earth (cf. Psa 43:3) bring the divine ישׁוּעה to an accomplishment. The words חרף שׁאפי sdro standing between a and c have been drawn by the accentuators to the first half of the verse, they probably interpreting it thus: He (God) reproacheth my devourers for ever (Sela). But חרף always (e.g., Isa 37:23) has God as its object, not as its subject. חרף שׁאפי is to be connected with what follows as a hypothetical protasis (Ges. §155, 4, a): supposing that he who is greedy or pants for me (inhians mihi) slandereth, then Elohim will send His mercy and His truth. The music that becomes forte in between, introduces and accompanies the throbbing confidence of the apodosis.

In Psa 57:5, on the contrary, we may follow the interpretation of the text that is handed down and defined by the accentuation, natural as it may also be, with Luther and others, to take one’s own course. Since לבאים (has Zarka (Zinnor) and להטים Olewejored, it is accordingly to be rendered: “My soul is in the midst of lions, I will (must) lie down with flaming ones; the children of men - their teeth are a spear and arrows.” The rendering of the lxx, of Theodotion, and of the Syriac version accords with the interpunction of our text so far as both begin a new clause with ἐκοιμήθην (ודמכת, and I slept); whereas Aquila and Symmachus (taking נפשׁי, as it seems, as a periphrastic expression of the subject-notion placed in advance) render all as afar as להטים as one clause, at least dividing the verse into two parts, just as the accentuators do, at להטים. The rendering of Aquila is ἐν μέσῳ λεαινῶν κοιμηθήσομαι λάβρων; that of Symmachus: ἐν μέσῳ λεόντῶν εὐθαρσῶν ἐκοιμήθην; or according to another reading, μεταξὺ λεόντων ἐκοιμήθην φλεγόντων. They are followed by Jerome, who, however, in order that he may be able to reproduce the נפשׁי, changes אשׁכבה into שׁכבה: Anima mea in medio leonum dormivit ferocientium. This construction, however, can be used in Greek and Latin, but not in Hebrew. We therefore follow the accents even in reference to the Zarka above לבאים (a plural form that only occurs in this one passage in the Psalter, = לביים). In a general way it is to be observed that this לבאים in connection with אשׁכּבה is not so much the accusative of the object as the accusative of the place, although it may even be said to be the customary local accusative of the object with verbs of dwelling; on שׁכב cf. Rth 3:8, Rth 3:14, and Psa 88:6; Mic 7:5 (where at least the possibility of this construction of the verb is presupposed). But in particular it is doubtful (1) what להטים signifies. The rendering “flaming ones” is offered by the Targum, Saadia, and perhaps Symmachus. The verb להט obtains this signification apparently from the fundamental notion of licking or swallowing; and accordingly Theodotion renders it by ἀναλισκόντων, and Aquila most appropriately by λάβρων (a word used of a ravenous furious longing for anything). But להט nowhere means “to devour;” the poet must, therefore, in connection with להטים, have been thinking of the flaming look or the fiery jaws of the lions, and this attributive will denote figuratively their strong desire, which snorts forth as it were flames of fire. The question further arises, (2) how the cohortative אשׁכבה is meant to be taken. Since the cohortative sometimes expresses that which is to be done more by outward constraint than inward impulse-never, however, without willing it one’s self (Ew. §228, a) - the rendering “I must,” or “therefore must I lie down,” commends itself. But the contrast, which has been almost entirely overlooked, between the literal beasts of prey and the children of men, who are worse than these, requires the simple and most natural rendering of the cohortative. We need only picture to ourselves the situation. The verb שׁכב here has the sense of cubitum ire (Ps 4:9). Starting from this אשׁכבה we look to Psa 57:9, and it at once becomes clear that we have before us an evening or nightly song. David the persecuted one finds himself in the wilderness and, if we accept the testimony of the inscription, in a cave: his soul is in the midst of lions, by which he means to say that his life is exposed to them. Here bold in faith, he is resolved to lie down to sleep, feeling himself more secure among lions than among men; for the children of men, his deadly foes both in word and in deed, are worse than beasts of prey: teeth and tongue are murderous weapons. This more than brutal joy at the destruction of one’s neighbourCf. Sir. 25:15, in the Hebrew: אין ראשׁ מעל ראשׁ פתן ואין חמה מעל חמה אויב (no poison exceeds the poison of the serpent, and no wrath exceeds the wrath of an enemy). which prevails among men, urges him to put forth the prayer that God, who in Himself is exalted above the heavens and the whole earth, would show Himself by some visible manifestation over the heavens above as the exalted One, and the prayer that His glory may be, i.e., may become manifest (or even: exalted be His glory, ירוּם), over the whole earth beneath, - His glory which to His saints is a health-diffusing light, and to the heartless foes of men and God a consuming fire, - so that the whole world shall be compelled to acknowledge this glory in which His holiness manifests itself, and shall become conformed to it after everything that is hostile is overthrown.

Psa 57:6-11

In this second half of the Psalm the poet refreshes himself with the thought of seeing that for which he longs and prays realized even with the dawning of the morning after this night of wretchedness. The perfect in Psa 57:7 is the perfect of certainty; the other perfects state what preceded and is now changed into the destruction of the crafty ones themselves. If the clause כּפף נפשׁי is rendered: my soul was bowed down (cf. חלל, Psa 109:22), it forms no appropriate corollary to the crafty laying of snares. Hence kpp must be taken as transitive: he had bowed down my soul; the change of number in the mention of the enemies is very common in the Psalms relating to these trials, whether it be that the poet has one enemy κατ ̓ ἐξοχήν before his mind or comprehends them all in one. Even the lxx renders καὶ κατέκαμψαν τὴν ψυχὴν μου, it is true, as though it were וכפפו, but can scarcely have read it thus. This line is still remarkable; one would expect for Psa 57:7 a thought parallel with Psa 57:7, and perhaps the poet wrote כפף נפשׁו, his (the net-layer’s) own soul bends (viz., in order to fall into the net). Then כפף like נפל would be praet. confidentiae. In this certainty, to express which the music here becomes triumphantly forte, David’s heart is confident, cheerful (Symmachus ἐδραία), and a powerful inward impulse urges him to song and harp. Although נכון may signify ready, equipped (Exo 34:2; Job 12:5), yet this meaning is to be rejected here in view of Psa 51:12, Psa 78:37, Psa 112:7 : it is not appropriate to the emphatic repetition of the word. His evening mood which found expression in Psa 57:4, was hope of victory; the morning mood into which David here transports himself, is certainty of victory. He calls upon his soul to awake (כּבודי as in Psa 16:9; 30:13), he calls upon harp and cithern to awake (הנּבל וכנּור with one article that avails for both words, as in Jer 29:3; Neh 1:5; and עוּרה with the accent on the ultima on account of the coming together of two aspirates), from which he has not parted even though a fugitive; with the music of stringed instruments and with song he will awake the not yet risen dawn, the sun still slumbering in its chamber: אעירה, expergefaciam (not expergiscar), as e.g., in Sol 2:7, and as Ovid (Metam. xi. 597) says of the cock, evocat auroram.With reference to the above passage in the Psalms, the Talmud, B. Berachoth 3 b, says, “A cithern used to hang above David’s bed; and when midnight came, the north wind blew among the strings, so that they sounded of themselves; and forthwith he arose and busied himself with the Tôra until the pillar of the dawn (עמוד השׁחר) ascended.” Rashi observes, “The dawn awakes the other kings; but I, said David, will awake the dawn (אני מעורר את השׁחר).”

His song of praise, however, shall not resound in a narrow space where it is scarcely heard; he will step forth as the evangelist of his deliverance and of his Deliverer in the world of nations (בעמּים; and the parallel word, as also in Psa 108:4; Psa 149:7, is to be written בּלעמּים with Lamed raphatum and Metheg before it); his vocation extends beyond Israel, and the events of his life are to be for the benefit of mankind. Here we perceive the self-consciousness of a comprehensive mission, which accompanied David from the beginning to the end of his royal career (vid., Psa 18:50). What is expressed in v. 11 is both motive and theme of the discourse among the peoples, viz., God’s mercy and truth which soar high as the heavens (Psa 36:6). That they extend even to the heavens is only an earthly conception of their infinity (cf. Eph 3:18). In the refrain, v. 12, which only differs in one letter from Psa 57:6, the Psalm comes back to the language of prayer. Heaven and earth have a mutually involved history, and the blessed, glorious end of this history is the sunrise of the divine doxa over both, here prayed for. Cry for Vengeance upon Those Who Pervert JusticeTheir teeth, said Psa 57:1-11, are spear and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword; Psa 58:1-11 prays: crush their teeth in their mouth. This prominent common thought has induced the collector to append the one Michtam of David, to be sung altashcheth, to the other. Psa 58:1-11, however, belongs to another period, viz., to the time of Absalom. The incomparable boldness of the language does not warrant us in denying it to David. In no one Psalm do we meet with so many high-flown figures coming together within the same narrow compass. But that it is David who speaks in this Psalm is to a certain extent guaranteed by Psa 64:1-10 and Psa 140:1-13. These three Psalms, of which the closing verses so closely resemble one another that they at once invite comparison, show that the same David who writes elsewhere so beautifully, tenderly, and clearly, is able among his manifold transitions to rise to an elevation at which his words as it were roll along like rumbling thunder through the gloomy darkness of the clouds, and more especially where they supplicate (Psa 58:7) or predict (Psa 140:10) the judgment of God.

The cumulative use of כּמו in different applications is peculiar to this Psalm. Its Michtam character becomes clearly defined in the closing verse.

Prayer in Affliction.

1 Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. 2 I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. 3 He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. 4 My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. 5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth. 6 They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.

The title of this psalm has one word new in it, Al-taschith—Destroy not. Some make it to be only some known tune to which this psalm was set; others apply it to the occasion and matter of the psalm. Destroy not; that is, David would not let Saul be destroyed, when now in the cave there was a fair opportunity of killing him, and his servants would fain have done so. No, says David, destroy him not, 1 Sam. xxiv. 4, 6. Or, rather, God would not let David be destroyed by Saul; he suffered him to persecute David, but still under this limitation, Destroy him hot; as he permitted Satan to afflict Job, Only save his life. David must not be destroyed, for a blessing is in him (Isa. lxv. 8), even Christ, the best of blessings. When David was in the cave, in imminent peril, he here tells us what were the workings of his heart towards God; and happy are those that have such good thoughts as these in their minds when they are in danger!

I. He supports himself with faith and hope in God, and prayer to him, v. 1, 2. Seeing himself surrounded with enemies, he looks up to God with that suitable prayer: Be merciful to me, O Lord! which he again repeats, and it is no vain repetition: Be merciful unto me. It was the publican's prayer, Luke xviii. 13. It is a pity that any should use it slightly and profanely, should cry, God be merciful to us, or, Lord, have mercy upon us, when they mean only to express their wonder, or surprise, or vexation, but God and his mercy are not in all their thoughts. It is with much devout affection that David here prays, "Be merciful unto me, O Lord! look with compassion upon me, and in thy love and pity redeem me." To recommend himself to God's mercy, he here professes,

1. That all his dependence is upon God: My soul trusteth in thee, v. 1. He did not only profess to trust in God, but his soul did indeed rely on God only, with a sincere devotion and self-dedication, and an entire complacency and satisfaction. He goes to God, and, at the footstool of the throne of his grace, humbly professes his confidence in him: In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, as the chickens take shelter under the wings of the hen when the birds of prey are ready to strike at them, until these calamities be over-past. (1.) He was confident his troubles would end well, in due time; these calamities will be over-past; the storm will blow over. Non si male nunc et olim sic erit—Though now distressed, I shall not always be so. Our Lord Jesus comforted himself with this in his sufferings, Luke xxii. 37. The things concerning me have an end. (2.) He was very easy under the divine protection in the mean time. [1.] He comforted himself in the goodness of God's nature, by which he is inclined to succour and protect his people, as the hen is by instinct to shelter her young ones. God comes upon the wing to the help of his people, which denotes a speedy deliverance (Ps. xviii. 10); and he takes them under his wing, which denotes warmth and refreshment, even when the calamities are upon them; see Matt. xxiii. 37. [2.] In the promise of his word and the covenant of his grace; for it may refer to the out-stretched wings of the cherubim, between which God is said to dwell (Ps. lxxx. 1) and whence he gave his oracles. "To God, as the God of grace, will I fly, and his promise shall be my refuge, and a sure passport it will be through all these danger." God, by his promise, offers himself to us, to be trusted; we by our faith must accept of him, and put our trust in him.

2. That all his desire is towards God (v. 2): "I will cry unto God most high, for succour and relief; to him that is most high will I lift up my soul, and pray earnestly, even unto God that performs all things for me." Note, (1.) In every thing that befalls us we ought to see and own the hand of God; whatever is done is of his performing; in it his counsel is accomplished and the scripture is fulfilled. (2.) Whatever God performs concerning his people, it will appear, in the issue, to have been performed for them and for their benefit. Though God be high, most high, yet he condescends so low as to take care that all things be made to work for good to them. (3.) This is a good reason why we should, in all our straits and difficulties, cry unto him, not only pray, but pray earnestly.

3. That all his expectation is from God (v. 3): He shall send from heaven, and save me. Those that make God their only refuge, and fly to him by faith and prayer, may be sure of salvation, in his way and time. Observe here, (1.) Whence he expects the salvation—from heaven. Look which way he will, in this earth, refuge fails, no help appears; but he looks for it from heaven. Those that lift up their hearts to things above may thence expect all good. (2.) What the salvation is that he expects. He trusts that God will save him from the reproach of those that would swallow him up, that aimed to ruin him, and, in the mean time, did all they could to vex him. Some read it, He shall send from heaven and save me, for he has put to shame him that would swallow me up; he has disappointed their designs against me hitherto, and therefore he will perfect my deliverance. (3.) What he will ascribe his salvation to: God shall send forth his mercy and truth. God is good in himself and faithful to every word that he has spoken, and so he makes it appear when he works deliverance for his people. We need no more to make us happy than to have the benefit of the mercy and truth of God, Ps. xxv. 10.

II. He represents the power and malice of his enemies (v. 4): My soul is among lions. So fierce and furious was Saul, and those about him, against David, that he might have been as safe in a den of lions as among such men, who were continually roaring against him and ready to make a prey of him. They are set on fire, and breathe nothing but flame; they set on fire the course of nature, inflaming one another against David, and they were themselves set on fire of hell, Jam. iii. 6. They were sons of men, from whom one might have expected something of the reason and compassion of a man; but they were beasts of prey in the shape of men; their teeth, which they gnashed upon him, and with which they hoped to tear him to pieces and to eat him up, were spears and arrows fitted for mischiefs and murders; and their tongue, with which they cursed him and wounded his reputation, was as a sharp sword to cut and kill; see Ps. xlii. 10. A spiteful tongue is a dangerous weapon, wherewith Satan's instruments fight against God's people. He describes their malicious projects against him (v. 6) and shows the issue of them: "They have prepared a net for my steps, in which to take me, that I might not again escape out of their hands; they have digged a pit before me, that I might, ere I was aware, run headlong into it." See the policies of the church's enemies; see the pains they take to do mischief. But let us see what comes of it. 1. It is indeed some disturbance to David: My soul is bowed down. It made him droop, and hang the head, to think that there should be those that bore him so much ill-will. But, 2. It was destruction to themselves; they dug a pit for David, into the midst whereof they have fallen. The mischief they designed against David returned upon themselves, and they were embarrassed in their counsels; then when Saul was pursuing David the Philistines were invading him; nay, in the cave, when Saul thought David should fall into his hands, he fell into the hands of David, and lay at his mercy.

III. He prays to God to glorify himself and his own great name (v. 5): "Whatever becomes of me and my interest, be thou exalted, O God! above the heavens, be thou praised by the holy angels, those glorious inhabitants of the upper world; and let thy glory be above or over all the earth; let all the inhabitants of this earth be brought to know and praise thee." Thus God's glory should lie nearer our hearts, and we should be more concerned for it, than for any particular interests of our own. When David was in the greatest distress and disgrace he did not pray, Lord, exalt me, but, Lord, exalt thy own name. Thus the Son of David, when his soul was troubled, and he prayed, Father, save me from this hour, immediately withdrew that petition, and presented this in the room of it, For this cause came I to this hour; Father, glorify thy name, John xii. 27, 28. Or it may be taken as a plea to enforce his petition for deliverance: "Lord, send from heaven to save me, and thereby thou wilt glorify thyself as the God both of heaven and earth." Our best encouragement in prayer is taken from the glory of God, and to that therefore, more than our own comfort, we should have an eye in all our petitions for particular mercies; for this is made the first petition in the Lord's prayer, as that which regulates and directs all the rest, Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Prayer Turned to Praise.

7 My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. 8 Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. 9 I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. 10 For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. 11 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.

How strangely is the tune altered here! David's prayers and complaints, by the lively actings of faith, are here, all of a sudden, turned into praises and thanksgivings; his sackcloth is loosed, he is girded with gladness, and his hallelujahs are as fervent as his hosannas. This should make us in love with prayer, that, sooner or later, it will be swallowed up in praise. Observe,

I. How he prepares himself for the duty of praise (v. 7): My heart is fixed, O God! my heart is fixed. My heart is erect, or lifted up (so some), which was bowed down, v. 6. My heart is fixed, 1. With reference to God's providences; it is prepared for every event, being stayed upon God, Ps. cxii. 7; Isa. xxvi. 3. My heart is fixed, and then none of these things move me, Acts xx. 24 If by the grace of God we be brought into this even composed frame of spirit, we have great reason to be thankful. 2. With reference to the worship of God: My heart is fixed to sing and give praise. It is implied that the heart is the main thing required in all acts of devotion; nothing is done to purpose, in religion, further than it is done with the heart. The heart must be fixed, fixed for the duty, fitted and put in frame for it, fixed in the duty by a close application, attending on the Lord without distraction.

II. How he excites himself to the duty of praise (v. 8): Awake up my glory, that is, my tongue (our tongue is our glory, and never more so than when it is employed in praising God), or my soul, that must be first awakened; dull and sleepy devotions will never be acceptable to God. We must stir up ourselves, and all that is within us, to praise God; with a holy fire must that sacrifice be kindled, and ascend in a holy flame. David's tongue will lead, and his psaltery and harp will follow, in these hymns of praise. I myself will awake, not only, "I will not be dead, and drowsy, and careless, in this work," but, "I will be in the most lively frame, as one newly awakened out of a refreshing sleep." He will awake early to this work, early in the morning, to begin the day with God, early in the beginnings of a mercy. When God is coming towards us with his favours we must go forth to meet him with our praises.

III. How he pleases himself, and (as I may say) even prides himself, in the work of praise; so far is he from being ashamed to own his obligations to God, and dependence upon him, that he resolves to praise him among the people and to sing unto him among the nations, v. 9. This intimates, 1. That his own heart was much affected and enlarged in praising God; he would even make the earth ring with his sacred songs, that all might take notice how much he thought himself indebted to the goodness of God. 2. That he desired to bring others in to join with him in praising God. He will publish God's praises among the people, that the knowledge, and fear, and love of God might be propagated, and the ends of the earth might see his salvation. When David was driven out into heathen lands he would not only not worship their gods, but he would openly avow his veneration for the God of Israel, would take his religion along with him wherever he went, would endeavour to bring others in love with it, and leave the sweet savour of it behind him. David, in his psalms, which fill the universal church, and will to the end of time, may be said to be still praising God among the people and singing to him among the nations; for all good people make use of his words in praising God. Thus St. John, in his writings, is said to prophesy again before many peoples and nations, Rev. x. 11.

IV. How he furnishes himself with matter for praise, v. 10. That which was the matter of his hope and comfort (God shall send forth his mercy and his truth, v. 3) is here the matter of his thanksgiving: Thy mercy is great unto the heavens, great beyond conception and expression; and thy truth unto the clouds, great beyond discovery, for what eye can reach that which is wrapped up in the clouds? God's mercy and truth reach to the heavens, for they will bring all such to heaven as lay up their treasure in them and build their hopes upon them. God's mercy and truth are praised even to the heavens, that is, by all the bright and blessed inhabitants of the upper world, who are continually exalting God's praises to the highest, while David, on earth, is endeavouring to spread his praises to the furthest, v. 9.

V. How he leaves it at last to God to glorify his own name (v. 11): Be thou exalted, O God! The same words which he had used (v. 5) to sum up his prayers in he here uses again (and no vain repetition) to sum up his praises in: "Lord, I desire to exalt thy name, and that all the creatures may exalt it; but what can the best of us do towards it? Lord, take the work into thy own hands; do it thyself: Be thou exalted, O God! In the praises of the church triumphant thou art exalted to the heavens, and in the praises of the church militant thy glory is throughout all the earth; but thou art above all the blessing and praise of both (Neh. ix. 5), and therefore, Lord, exalt thyself above the heavens and above all the earth. Father, glorify thy own name. Thou hast glorified it, glorify it yet again."

PSAL. LVII.

To the master of the musicke, Corrupt not, Michtam of David, when he fled from the face of Saul into the cave.

BE gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for in thee my soule hopeth for safety, and in the shadow of thy wings will I hope for safetie, till the wofull evils passeth over. I will cal unto God most high, to the God that perfectly accomplisheth towards me. He will send from heavens, and save me; he hath put to reproach him that would swallow me up Selah: God will send his mercy and his truth. My soule is among Lions; I lie among inflamers, the sonnes of Adam; their teeth are speares and arrowes, and their tongue a sharpe sword. Be exalted over the heavens, O God, over all the earth be thy glory. They prepared a net for my steps, he bowed downe my soule; they digged a pit before me; they are fallen into the midst of it Selah. Firmely prepared is my heart, O God, firmely prepared is my heart; I will sing and praise with Psalme. Raise up my glorie, raise up Psalterie and Harpe, I will raise up at the day dawning. I will confesse thee among the peoples, O Lord, I will praise thee with Psalme among the nations. That thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the skies. Be exalted over the heavens, O God, over all the earth be thy glory.

Annotations. COrrupt not] or, Bring not to corruption, or perdition. This word sometime importeth corruption of faith and manners, by sinne, as is noted on Psal. 14. 1. sometime perdition, or utter destruction, the punishment of sin, Ps. 78. 38. 45. Gen. 6. 13 and 9. 11. 15. it is a more vehement word than killing, Ezek. 9. 6, 8. This word is also in the title of the 58, 59, and 75. Psalmes. Michtam] a golden song. See Psal. 16. 1. from face] or, for feare of Saul. See Psal. 3. 1. into the cave] Saul sought David in the wildernesse of Engedi, upon the rocks, among the wilde goats; and being there in a cave, David cut off the lap of Sauls coat, and would not kill him. Which when Saul after perceived, his heartrelented for Davids kindnesse, and hee wept, acknowledging his fault. And taking an oath of David that hee should not destroy his seed, hee ceased his persecuting for a time, 1 Sam. 24. David in that distresse made this Psalme. Vers. 2. evills passeth] that is, every evill; or, the whole heape of evills passeth. Vers. 3. perfectly accomplisheth] or performeth, to wit, his grace, or his promise; or my affaires, bringing them to a full end and stay. So Psal. 138. 8. A like speech the Apostle useth, Phil. 1. 6. Vers. 4. He will send] or usually sendeth, to wit, his hand, as Psal. 144. 7. or, his Angell, as Dan. 3. 27. and so the Chaldee explaineth it; or, his mercy and truth, as after here followeth. swallow mee] or, breatheth after mee. See Psalm. 56. 2. Vers. 5. Lions] called here Lebaim, [illegible: 1 letter]eartie, stout, couragious Lions; of Leb, that is, heart, courage. As there be sundry sorts of Lions, so have they sundrie names; see Psal. 7. 3. Lions are mentioned in the Scriptures for the stoutnesse of their heart, 2 Sam. 17. 10. boldnesse, Prov. 28. 1. and grimnesse of their countenance, 1 Chron. 12. 8. Saul and his Courtiers are here Lions to David, as were the Kings of Asshur and Babel after unto Israel, Ier. 50. 17. the Roman Emperour to Paul, 2 Tim. 4. 17. and all wicked rulers over the poore people, Prov. 28. 15. inflamers] boutefeus, meaning fiery, fierce, and raging persons, that flamed wirh wrath and envie, and inflamed others. Of such David did complaine to Saul, 1 Sam. 24. 10. speares] Hebr. the speare; as chariot for chariots, Psal. [illegible: 1 letter]8. 18. So Agur speaketh of a generation whose teeth are swords, and their jawes knives, to eat up the afflicted out of the earth, Prov. 30. 14. See also Psalm. 55. 22. and 59. 8. Vers. 6. over the heavens] the Chaldee expoundeth it, over the Angels of heaven: so in vers. 12. Vers. 9. Raise up] or Stirre up, to wit, thy selfe, or Awake. A word of exciting, Iudg. 5. 12. Compare this with Psal. 108. 2, 3, &c. my glory] my tongue or soule. See Psal. 16. 9. and 30. 13. at the day dawning] I will rouse up my selfe with my instruments. Or, I will raise up the day dawning, that is, I will prevent the early morning, and be up before it, and so stirre it up. A figurative speech. Vers. 11. That thy mercy] or, For thy mercie is great, &c. Compare Psal. 36. 6.

PSAL. LVII.

ALtaſchith] i. e. Deſtroy not; David being in an imminent danger of deſtruction in the Cave, [non-Latin text not transcribed] Sept. might ſend up this ſhort requeſt as it were in a fright, before he uttered this inſuing prayer. Altaſchith in ſuch an exigent might well be an effectual prayer; as was the Woman of Canaans, Lord help me, and the ſick mans, Ah Father; or theſe might now be his words (to Abiſhai, or ſome other of his Servants, whoſe fingers even itched to bee doing with Saul) as afterwards they were upon a like occaſion, 1 Sam. 26.9. Deſtroy not Saul. See thou do it not.

Michtam of David] See Pſal. 16. title.

When he fled from Saul in the Cave] 1 Sam. 24.1. Or, into the Cave for ſhelter; and where when he might have cut Sauls throat, he cut his Coat only, and was inwardly checked for it; nevertheleſs the Spirit came upon him, which was no ſmall comfort, as Aben-Ezra here obſerveth, and he ſaid.

Verſ. 1. Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful] q. d. Now or never help at a dead lift. Bis pro more rogantium, ad corrober andum, ſaith Kimchi. Other Jew-Doctors give this reaſon of the repetition of his petition, Be merciful, &c. leſt either I fall into Sauls hands,Midr. Tilli. or Saul into mine; leſt deſire of revenge prick me on to kill him. Or, Have mercy on me, that I ſin not; or if I do ſin, that I may repent.

For my ſoul truſteth in thee] An excellent argument, ſo it comes from the ſoul, ſo it be heart-ſprung.

Yea in the ſhadow of thy wings, &c.] As the little Chicken in danger of the Kite hovereth, and covereth under the Hen.

Ʋntil theſe calamities be over-paſt] For long they will not continue; Nubecula eſt, ſite tranſibit, ſaid Athanaſins of the Arrian Perſecutions, which for preſent were very ſharp. So Maſter Jewel about the beginning of Queen Maries reign, perſwading many to patience, ſaid often, Hac non durabunt aetatem, this ſharp ſhower will ſoon over.

Verſ. 2. I will cry unto God moſt high] Who can eaſily over-top Saul, as high as he is, and all his complices; againſt whom I have this comfort, that in the thing wherein they deal proudly, God is above them, Exod. 18.11.

Ʋnto God that performeth all things for mee] And in mee, Iſa. 26.12. doth not his work to the halves, but is both author and finiſher of my faith, and other affairs, Heb. 12.2. Phil. 1.6. Pſal. 138.8. Here are the two props of Davids prayer, Firſt, Gods ſufficiency, he is the Moſt High. Secondly, his efficiency, he perfectly accompliſheth all things for mee.

Verſ. 3. He ſhall ſend from Heaven and ſave mee] Rather than fail, I ſhall have an Angel to reſcue mee; for although the Lord uſually worketh by means, yet he can work by miracles, and will do it, if there be a juſt occaſion; howſoever, his mercy and his truth he will be ſure to ſend, and that's enough. He will be ſeen in the Mount, he will repent for his ſervants when he ſe[illegible: 1 letter]th their power is gone, Deut. 32.36. when there is dignus vindice nodus, an extremity fit for divine power to interpoſe.

Verſ. 4. My ſoul is among Lions] And ſo is a lively picture of the Church in all ages. Would any man take the Churches picture, ſaith Luther? then let him paint a ſilly poor maid ſitting in a wood or wilderneſs, compaſſed about with hungry Lions, Wolves, Boars, and Bears, &c. Talis eſt Eccleſia in has vita, ſicut & in hiſtoria Danielis pingitur.

And I lie even among them that are ſet on fire] ſc. With rage and helliſh hatred: Others expound it actively, of thoſe Ardeliones anlici, thoſe Court-Incendiaries, who enraged Saul and the Nobles againſt David; as a traitour and Peſt. See 1 Sam. 24 10.

Even the ſons of men] i. e. Carnall men, that being in their pure naturalls, have no goodneſſe at all in them.

Whoſe teeth are ſpears and arrows] Such was Doeg that dead dog, and others void of the Spirit, which is, ne que mendax, ne que mordax.

Verſ. 5. Be thou exalted O God above the Heavens] That is, ſaith the Chaldee, above the Angels.

And let thy glory be above all the Earth] That is, above the inhabitants of the earth. There are, ſaith Kimchi, that think thou either wilt not, or elſe canſt not ſave; O let thy power appear for the conviction of all ſuch who now lift up themſelves, and ſeem at leaſt to touch the Heaven with one finger.

Verſ. 6. They have prepared a net for my steps] So that I can hardly keep foot out of ſnare: I dare not lift up one foot till I find ſure footing for the other; and that's hard to do. See Sauls charge to the Z[illegible: 1 letter]phites, 1 Sam. 23.22.

My ſoul is bowed down] I am glad to ſhrink in my ſelf (as fearfull people uſe to do) that I may ſhun thoſe gins and snares that they have ſet to maim and miſchieve mee.

They have digged a pit, &c.] They have forced mee into this ſubterranean cave; and behold Saul himſelf is caſt into mine hands, in this mine hiding-hole.

[non-Latin text not transcribed].

Verſ. 7. My heart is fixed O God] I am both ready and reſolute: I doubt not of deliverance, and am well prepared to praiſe God. It is fit he ſhould have the fruit of his own planting, and that of the beſt too: Otherwiſe, it is no better than the refreſhing of him that ſtandeth by a good fire; and ſaith Aha, I am warm.

Verſ. 8. Awake up my glory] He rouſeth himſelf out of his natural drouſineſſe, as Sampſon once went forth and ſhook himſelf.

I my ſelf will awake early] Or, I will awaken the morning, as the Cock by his early crowing, is ſaid to do.

Non vigil ales ibi criſtati cantibus oris Evocat auroram—Ovid. Metam lib. 11.

Verſ. 9. I will praiſe thee O Lord — Among the Nations] This was done by Chriſt calling the Gentiles, Pſal. 18.49. Rom. 15.9.

Verſ. 10. For thy mercy is great, &c.] Gods mercy is ordinarily in the Pſalms bounded by his truth; that none may either preſume him more mercifull than he hath declared himſelf in his word; or elſe deſpair of finding mercie gratis, according to his promiſe.

Verſ. 11. Be thou exalted, &c.] Verſus amaebaeus, ſee verſ. 5. only that's in way of prayer; this, of praiſe.

Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me. Urgent need suggests the repetition of the cry, for thus intense urgency of desire is expressed. If `he gives twice who gives quickly, 'so he who would receive quickly must ask twice. For mercy the psalmist pleads at first, and he feels he cannot improve upon his plea, and therefore returns to it. God is the God of mercy, and the Father of mercies, it is most fit therefore that in distress he should seek mercy from him in whom it dwells. For my soul trusteth in thee. Faith urges her suit right well. How can the Lord be unmerciful to a trustful soul? Our faith does not deserve mercy, but it always wins it from the sovereign grace of God when it is sincere, as in this case where the soul of the man believed. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge. Not in the cave alone would he hide, but in the cleft of the Rock of ages. As the little birds find ample shelter beneath the parental wing, even so would the fugitive place himself beneath the secure protection of the divine power. The emblem is delightfully familiar and suggestive. May we all experimentally know its meaning. When we cannot see the sunshine of God's face, it is blessed to cower down beneath the shadow of his wings. Until these calamities be overpast. Evil will pass away, and the eternal wings will abide over us till then. Blessed be God, our calamities are matters of time, but our safety is a matter of eternity. When we are under the divine shadow, the passing over of trouble cannot harm us; the hawk flies across the sky, but this is no evil to the chicks when they are safely nestling beneath the hen.

I will cry. He is quite safe, but yet he prays, for faith is never dumb. We pray because we believe. We exercise by faith the spirit of adoption whereby we cry. He says not I do cry, or I have cried, but I will cry, and indeed, this resolution may stand with all of us until we pass through the gates of pearl; for while we are here below we shall still have need to cry. Unto God most high. —Prayers are for God only; the greatness and sublimity of his person and character suggest and encourage prayer; however high our enemies, our heavenly Friend is higher, for he is Most high, and he can readily send from the height of his power the succour which we need. Unto God that performeth all things for me. He has cogent reason for praying, for he sees God performing. The believer waits and God works. The Lord has undertaken for us, and he will not draw back, he will go through with his covenant engagements. Our translators have very properly inserted the words, "all things, "for there is a blank in the Hebrew, as if it were a carte blanche, and you might write therein that the Lord would finish anything and everything which he has begun. Whatsoever the Lord takes in hand he will accomplish; hence past mercies are guarantees for the future, and admirable reasons for continuing to cry unto him.

He shall send from heaven. If there be no fit instruments on earth, heaven shall yield up its legions of angels for the succour of the saints. We may in times of great straits expect mercies of a remarkable kind; like the Israelites in the wilderness, we shall have our bread hot from heaven, new every morning; and for the overthrow of our enemies God shall open his celestial batteries, and put them to utter confusion. Wherever the battle is more fierce than ordinary, there shall come succours from headquarters, for the Commander in chief sees all. And save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. He will be in time, not only to rescue his servants from being swallowed up, but even from being reproached. Not only shall they escape the flames, but not even the smell of fire shall pass upon them. O dog of hell, I am not only delivered from thy bite, but even from thy bark. Our foes shall not have the power to sneer at us, their cruel jests and taunting gibes shall be ended by the message from heaven, which shall for ever save us. Selah. Such mercy may well make us pause to meditate and give thanks. Rest, singer, for God has given thee rest! God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. He asked for mercy, and truth came with it. Thus evermore doth God give us more than we ask or think. His attributes, like angels on the wing, are ever ready to come to the rescue of his chosen.

My soul is among lions. He was a very Daniel. Howled at, hunted, wounded, but not slain. His place was in itself one of extreme peril, and yet faith made him feel himself secure, so that he could lie down. The cave may have reminded him of a lion's den, and Saul and his band shouting and yelling in their disappointment at missing him, were the lions; yet beneath the divine shelter he finds himself safe. And I lie even among them that are set on fire. Perhaps Saul and his band kindled a fire in the cavern while they halted in it, and David was thus reminded of the fiercer fire of their hate which burned within their hearts. Like the bush in Horeb, the believer is often in the midst of flames, but never consumed. It is a mighty triumph of faith when we can lie down even among firebrands and find rest, because God is our defence. Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Malicious men carry a whole armoury in their mouths; they have not harmless mouths, whose teeth grind their own food as in a mill, but their jaws are as mischievous as if every tooth were a javelin or an arrow. They have no molars, all their teeth are canines, and their nature is canine, leonine, wolfish, devilish. As for that busy member the tongue, in the case of the malicious, it is a two edged, keen, cutting, killing sword. The tongue, which is here compared to a sword, has the adjective sharp added to it, which is not used in reference to the teeth, which are compared to spears, as if to show that if men were actually to tear us with their teeth, like wild beasts, they could not thereby wound us so severely as they can do with their tongues. No weapon is so terrible as a tongue sharpened on the devil's grindstone; yet even this we need not fear, for "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that riseth against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn."

Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. This is the chorus of the Psalm. Before he has quite concluded his prayer the good man interjects a verse of praise; and glorious praise too, seeing it comes from the lion's den and from amid the coals of fire. Higher than the heavens is the Most High, and so high ought our praises to rise. Above even the power of cherubim and seraphim to express it, the glory of God is revealed and is to be acknowledged by us. Let thy glory be above all the earth. As above, so below, let thy praises, O thou great Jehovah, be universally proclaimed. As the air surrounds all nature, so let thy praises gird the earth with a zone of song.

They have prepared a net for my steps. The enemies of the godly spare no pains, but go about their wicked work with the coolest deliberation. As for each sort of fish, or bird, or beast, a fitting net is needed, so do the ungodly suit their net to their victim's circumstances and character with a careful craftiness of malice. Whatever David might do, and whichever way he might turn, his enemies were ready to entrap him in some way or other. My soul is bowed down. He was held down like a bird in a trap; his enemies took care to leave him no chance of comfort. They have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. He likens the design of his persecutors to pits, which were commonly dug by hunters to entrap their prey; these were made in the usual path of the victim, and in this case David says, before me, i.e., in my ordinary way. He rejoices because these devices had recoiled upon themselves. Saul hunted David, but David caught him more than once and might have slain him on the spot. Evil is a stream which one day flows back to its source. Selah. We may sit down at the pit's mouth and view with wonder the just retaliations of providence.

My heart is fixed. One would have thought he would have said, "My heart is fluttered; "but no, he is calm, firm, happy, resolute, established. When the central axle is secure, the whole wheel is right. If our great bower anchor holds, the ship cannot drive. O God, my heart is fixed. I am resolved to trust thee, to serve thee, and to praise thee. Twice does he declare this to the glory of God who thus comforts the souls of his servants. Reader, it is surely well with thee, if thy once roving heart is now firmly fixed upon God and the proclamation of his glory. I will sing and give praise. Vocally and instrumentally will I celebrate thy worship. With lip and with heart will I ascribe honour to thee. Satan shall not stop me, nor Saul, nor the Philistines, I will make Adullam ring with music, and all the caverns thereof echo with joyous song. Believer, make a firm decree that your soul in all seasons shall magnify the Lord.

"Sing, though sense and carnal reason

Fain would stop the joyful song:

Sing, and count it highest treason

For a saint to hold his tongue."

Awake up, my glory. Let the noblest powers of my nature bestir themselves: the intellect which conceives thought, the tongue which expresses it, and the inspired imagination which beautifies it —let all be on the alert now that the hour for praise has come. Awake, psaltery and harp. Let all the music with which I am familiar be well attuned for the hallowed service of praise. I myself will awake early. I will awake the dawn with my joyous notes. No sleepy verses and weary notes shall be heard from me; I will thoroughly arouse myself for this high employ. When we are at our best we fall short of the Lord's deserts, let us, therefore, make sure that what we bring him is our best, and, if marred with infirmity, at least let it not be deteriorated by indolence. Three times the psalmist calls upon himself to awake. Do we need so much arousing, and for such work? Then let us not spare it, for the engagement is too honourable, too needful to be left undone or ill done for want of arousing ourselves.

I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people. Gentiles shall hear my praise. Here is an instance of the way in which the truly devout evangelic spirit overleaps the boundaries which bigotry sets up. The ordinary Jew would never wish the Gentile dogs to hear Jehovah's name, except to tremble at it; but this grace taught psalmist has a missionary spirit, and would spread the praise and fame of his God. I will sing unto thee among the nations. However far off they may be, I would make them hear of thee through my glad psalmody.

For thy mercy is great unto the heavens. Right up from man's lowliness to heaven's loftiness mercy reaches. Imagination fails to guess the height of heaven, and even thus the riches of mercy exceed our highest thoughts. The psalmist, as he sits at the cave's mouth and looks up to the firmament, rejoices that God's goodness is more vast and more sublime than even the vaulted skies. And thy truth unto the clouds. Upon the cloud he sets the seal of his truth, the rainbow, which ratifies his covenant; in the cloud he hides his rain and snow, which prove his truth by bringing to us seedtime and harvest, cold and heat. Creation is great, but the Creator greater far. Heaven cannot contain him; above clouds and stars his goodness far exceeds.

Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. A grand chorus. Take it up, ye angels and ye spirits made perfect, and join in it, ye sons of men below, as ye say, Let thy glory be above all the earth. The prophet in the previous verse spoke of mercy "unto the heavens, "but here his song flies "above the heavens; "praise rises higher, and knows no bound

TITLE. This Psalm was composed, as the title notes, by David prayer wise, when he hid himself from Saul in the cave, and is inscribed with a double title, Altaschith, Michtam of David. Altaschith refers to the scope, and Michtam to the dignity of the subject matter. The former signifies destroy not, or, let there be no slaughter; and may either refer to Saul, concerning whom he gave charge to his servants not to destroy him; or rather it hath reference to God, to whom in this great exigence he poured out his soul in this pathetic ejaculation; Altaschith, destroy not. The latter title, Michtam, signifies a golden ornament, and so is suited to the choice and excellent matter of the Psalm, which much more deserves such a title than Pythagoras' golden verses did. John Flavel (1627-1692), in "Divine Conduct, or the Mystery of Providence."

Title. A Psalm composed when David fled from Saul in the cave, which is referred to in Psalm 143, and which, because it is without any other distinction called "the cave, "is probably that celebrated cave where David with his six hundred followers lay concealed when Saul entered and David cut off the skirt of his robe. The king, accompanied by three thousand followers, chased him to the loftiest alpine heights —"to the sheepcotes, "where the cattle were driven in the hottest summer months only —to hunt him in every hiding place. There was a cave, in the darkened cool of which David and his men were hid. Such caves in Palestine and the East are frequently enlarged by human hands, and so capacious that they accommodate thousands of people. This song of complaint was written during the hours of suspense which David spent there, to wait until the calamity was overpast (Ps 57:2); in which he only gradually gains a stout heart (Ps 57:8). His life was really suspended by a hair, if Saul or any of his attendants had espied him! Agustus F. Tholuck.

Title. The cave. There appear good grounds for the local tradition which fixes the cave on the borders of the Dead Sea, although there is no certainty with regard to the particular cave pointed out. The cave so designated is at a point to which David was far more likely to summon his parents, whom he intended to take from Bethlehem in to Moab, than to any place in the western plains... It is an immense natural cavern, the mouth of which can be approached only on foot along the side of the cliff. Irby and Mangles, who visited it without being aware that it was the reputed Cave of Adullam, state that it "runs in by a long, winding, narrow passage, with small chambers or cavities on either side. We soon came to a large chamber with natural arches of great height; from this last there were numerous passages, leading in all directions, occasionally joined by others at right angles, and forming a perfect labyrinth, which our guides assured us had never been perfectly explored —the people being afraid of losing themselves. The passages are generally four feet high by three feet wide, and were all on a level with each other." ...It seems probable that David as a native of Bethlehem, must have been well acquainted with this remarkable spot, and had probably often availed himself of its shelter, when out with his father's flocks. It would, therefore, naturally occur to him as a place of refuge when he fled from Gath. John Kitto (1804-1854), in "A Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature."

Whole Psalm. Mystically this hymn may be construed of Christ, who was in the days of his flesh assaulted by the tyranny both of spiritual and temporal enemies. His temporal enemies, Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and people of Israel, furiously raged and took counsel together against him. The chief priests and princes were, saith Hierome, like lions, and the people like the whelps of lions, all of them in a readiness to devour his soul. The rulers laid a net for his feet in their captious interrogatories, asking (Mt 22:17), "Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?" and (Joh 8:5) whether the woman taken in the very act of adultery should be stoned to death or no. The people were "set on fire, "when as they raged against him, and their teeth and tongues were spears and swords in crying, "Crucify him, crucify him." His spiritual enemies also sought to swallow him up; his soul was among lions all the days of his life, at the hour of his death especially. The devil in tempting and troubling him, had laid a snare for his feet; and death, in digging a pit for him, had thought to devour him. As David was in death, so Christ the Son of David was in the grave. John Boys, 1571-1625.

Be merciful unto me, O God, etc. This excellent Psalm was composed by David when there was enough to discompose the best man in the world. The repetition notes both the extremity of the danger, and the ardency of the supplicant. Mercy! Mercy! Nothing but mercy, and that exerting itself in any extraordinary way, can now save him from ruin. The arguments he pleads for obtaining mercy in this distress are very considerable.

1. He pleads his reliance upon God as an argument to move mercy. My soul trusteth in thee, etc. This his trust and dependence upon God, though it be not argumentative in respect of the dignity of the act; yet it is so in respect both of the nature of the object, a compassionate God who will not expose any that take shelter under his wings, and in respect of the promise, whereby protection is assured to them that fly to him for sanctuary. Isa 26:3.

2. He pleads former experiences of his help in past distresses, as an argument encouraging hope under the present strait (Ps 57:2). John Flavel.

Be merciful unto me. According to the weight of the burden that grieveth us, is the cry that comes from us. How do poor condemned prisoners cry to their judges, "Have pity upon us, have pity upon us!" David, in the day of his calamities doubles his prayer for mercy: Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee, etc., Until these calamities be overpast. It was not a single calamity, but a multitude of calamities which compassed David, and therefore he compasseth the Lord about with petitions. His spirit being up in prayer, like a bell that rings out, he strikes on both sides, Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me. Joseph Caryl.

Be merciful unto me. The first clause contains the prayer itself in a very forcible word ygnx, properly, "Show thy most tender affection to me, "such as animals, with a humming sound, show to their young. Hermann Venema.

For my soul trusteth in thee. The best reason with God, who "taketh pleasure in those that hope in his mercy." Ps 147:11. Poole's Synopsis.

Soul. His soul trusted in God; and this is a form of expression the force of which is not to be overlooked; for it implies that the trust which he exercised proceeded from his very innermost affection —that it was of no volatile character, but deeply and strongly rooted. He declares the same truth in figurative terms, when he adds his persuasion that God would cover him with the shadow of his wings. John Calvin.

In the shadow of thy wings I will trust; properly, I will seek for protection. The very delightful figure here employed, is taken from the chicken lying safely hid under the mother's wings; at the same time it seems to have reference to the wings of the cherubim, by which the mercyseat was covered. Simon de Muis, 1587-1644.

The shadow of thy wings. Compare Ps 17:8 61:4; and Mt 23:37; and the Apocalyptic imagery, describing the church fleeing from the dragon in the wilderness; and "to her are given the two wings of the great eagle, "and she is delivered from the dragon, who desires to swallow her up. See Re 12:6,15-16. Christopher Wordsworth, 1868.

Until these calamities be overpast. He compares his afflictions and calamity to a storm that cometh and goeth; as it is not always fair weather with us in this life, so not always foul. Athanasius said of Julian furiously raging against the Lord's Anointed, "Nubecula est, cito transibit, "he is a little cloud; he will soon pass away. Man is born to labour and dolour, to travail and trouble; to labour in his actions, to dolour in his passions; and so, "Great are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of all." If we put our trust in him and cast all our care upon him, he will in his good time bring it to pass, that all our afflictions shall overpass. He will either take them from us or us from them, and then we shall assuredly know that the troubles of this life present are not worthy of the glory which in the life to come shall be showed unto us. For as the globe of the earth, which improperly for his show of bigness we term the world, and is, after the mathematician's account, many thousand miles in compass; yet, being compared unto the greatness of the starry sky's circumference, is but a centre or little prick: so the travail and affliction of this life temporal, in respect of the joys eternal in the world to come, bear not any proportion, but are to be reputed in comparison a very nothing, as a dark cloud that cometh and goeth in a moment. John Boys.

Verses 1-3. In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast, etc. As if he had said, Lord, I am already in the cave and in the holds, and in the shadow of it, but yet for all that I think not myself safe indeed, till I have made my refuge in the shadow of thy wings: that is therefore the course I resolve and build upon. It was wisely done of him: and mark what course he takes to do it, Ps 57:2, I will cry unto God most high, I will by prayer put myself under the shadow of God's wings: and mark what success should follow, Ps 57:3, He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. When we send prayers up to heaven, God will send help down from heaven. But yet David prays to God, as well as trusts in God. And unless we pray as well as trust, our trust will fail us, for we must trust to God for that we pray for. Jeremiah Dyke, 1620.

Him that would swallow me up. If I were to take you to my house, and say that I had an exquisite fat man, and wished you to join me in eating him, your indignation could be restrained by nothing. You would pronounce me to be crazy. There is not in New York a man so mean that he would not put down a man who should propose to have a banquet off from a fellow man, cutting steaks out of him, and eating them. And that is nothing but feasting on the human body, while they will all sit down, and take a man's soul, and look for the tender loins, and invite their neighbours in to partake of the little titbits. They will take a man's honour and name, and broil them over the coals of their indignation, and fill the whole room with the aroma thereof, and give their neighbour a piece, and watch him, and wink as he tastes it. You all eat men up... You eat the souls, the finest elements of men. You are more than glad if you can whisper a word that is derogatory to a neighbour, or his wife, or his daughter... The morsel is too exquisite to be lost. Here is the soul of a person, here is a person's hope for this world and the world to come, and you have it on your fork, and you cannot refrain from tasting it, and give it to some one else to taste. You are cannibals, eating men's honour and name and rejoicing in it —and that, too, when you do not always know that the things charged against them are true; when in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the probabilities are that they are not true. Henry Ward Beecher, 1870.

God shall send forth his mercy and his truth, viz., to save me. That is to say, God, to manifest his mercy, and vindicate the truth of his promises, will save me. The reader will observe, that mercy and truth are here poetically represented as ministers of God, standing in his presence, ready to execute his pleasure, and employed by him in the salvation of his people. Samuel Chandler.

His mercy and his truth. He need not send down angels, he need send but mercy and truth down, which elsewhere it is said he prepares in the heavens. Ps 61:7. He prepares commissions for them, and sends them down with them for execution. Thomas Goodwin.

My soul is among lions. This may also be construed of the church, and that both in respect of her spiritual enemies and temporal. As for her ghostly foes, the devil is a roaring lion (1Pe 5:8), and our sins are the whelps of lions, ready to devour us. And concerning outward enemies, the church in this world is like Daniel in the lion's den, or as "the sucking child playing upon the hole of the asp." Isa 11:8. She hath here no visible power or outward help to fly to for succour, all her trust is in the Lord, and "under the shadow of his wings is her refuge, till this evil is overpast."... And surely, beloved, if the church had not any other enemies, but only these monstrous Antichrists of Rome, yet she might truly complain with our prophet here, My soul is among lions. Eleven popes had that name, whereof all, excepting two or three, were roaring lions in their Bulls, and ravening lions in seeking after their prey. Leo the tenth so pilled (Pill —peel, to pillage, plunder, strip) and polled (Poll, used synonymously with peel) the goodly nations of Germany with his unpardonable pardons and merciless indulgences, as that his insupportable cruelty gave the first occasion of the Reformation of religion in that country. John Boys.

(first clause). Mudge translates literally, I lie with my soul amidst lionesses. This agrees with the opinion of Bochart, who thinks that the animals here intended are lionesses, properly, when giving suck to their young, a time when they are peculiarly fierce and dangerous, "nor need we wonder, "he observes, "that the lioness is reckoned among the fiercest lions; for the lioness equals, or even exceeds, the lion in strength and fierceness; "and this he proves from the testimonies of ancient writers. James Anderson's Note to Calvin in loc, 1846.

And I lie even among them that are set on fire. The whole pith lies in the word hbkva, I will recline, which denotes a tranquil and secure condition of body and mind, like a man reclining and sleeping, as Ps 3:5; I laid me down and slept, I awaked; and lived composedly; Ps 4:9; I will both lay me down in peace, etc. Hermann Venema.

The horrors of a lion's den, the burning of a fiery furnace, and the cruel onset of war, are the striking images by which David here describes the peril and wretchedness of his present condition. John Morison.

Net. Not having fire arms, the ancients were much more skilful than the moderns in the use of snares, nets, and pits for capturing wild animals. A large class of Biblical figures and allusions necessarily presuppose this state of things. W. M. Thomson.

My heart is fixed, O God, etc. The psalmist knowing that it is the order and work of God, first to prepare the heart for communion, and then to incline his own ear to hear his people, and to entertain communion with them in ordinances, he doth observe this order, and follow it with a practice suitable to it in his daily address to God, that is thus, wheresoever he doth find his heart put into a fitted and prepared frame for communion with God, he doth not let it die again, and go out of frame by a slothful neglect of such a disposition of heart. No, but he immediately sets himself to duty, to worship God, and to the acts of his worship, in his ordinances, as he expresses himself in Ps 57:7; viz., thus —ybl nwkg myhla ybl nwkg, Nachon libbi Elohim, nachon libbi (there is the first; he finds his heart fitted and prepared for communion with God): "My heart, "saith he, "is fitted or prepared" (for the word nwkg nachon is the passive conjugation niphal, signifying, he is fitted or prepared, from the root nzb, chun, he fitted or prepared, in the active; and so it is rather to be rendered prepared or fitted, then "fixed, "thus ykl, libbi, my heart; nwkg, nachon, is fitted or prepared), "O God, my heart is fitted or prepared" for communion with thee. Well, what follows? He presently sets himself upon that great duty and ordinance of communion with God, in the praising of his name and singing forth those praises, as in the words immediately following in the same verse, thus: My heart is prepared, O God, my heart is prepared; therefore, hrmzaw, ashidah va-azamerah, "I will sing and give praise." William Strong, in "Communion with God," 1656.

My heart is fixed, O God, etc. Fitness for duty lies in the orderly temper of body and mind, making a man willing to undertake, and able to finish his work with comfortable satisfaction. If either the body or mind be distempered, a man is unfit for such an undertaking; both must be in a suitable frame, like a well tuned instrument, else there will be no melody: hence when David prepared himself for praises and worship, he tells us his heart was ready and fixed, and then, his tongue was ready also (Ps 45:1), so was his hand with psaltery and harp; all these were awakened into a suitable posture. That a man is or hath been in a fit order for service may be concluded from

1. His alacrity to undertake a duty.

2. His activity in the prosecution.

3. His satisfaction afterward. Right grounds and principles in these things being still presupposed. Richard Gilpin (1625-1699,1700), in "Daemonologia Sacra."

I will sing. It should alarm the wicked that they are contending with a people who sing and shout on the battle field. Yea, they never sing louder than when most distressed and afflicted. Whether saints conquer or are conquered they still sing on. Blessed be God for that. Let sinners tremble at contending with men of a spirit so heavenly. William S. Plumer.

Sincerity makes the Christian sing, when he hath nothing to his supper. David was in none of the best case when in the cave, yet we never find him merrier: his heart makes sweeter music than ever his harp did. William Gurnall.

Verses 7-8. That worship that is performed with a sleepy, drowsy body, is a weak worship, but the psalmist here makes the awakening of the body to be the fruit and effect of the preparation of the heart; Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. Why so? My heart is prepared. The heart prepared and thereby awaked, will awake the body. To worship God therefore without a prepared heart, is to worship him with a drowsy body, because with a drowsy heart, and therefore weakly. John Angier, in "An Help to Better Hearts, for Better Times," 1647.

Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early. We must prevent God by early praise as well as prayer: "The God of my mercy shall prevent me, "sings David; and every child of David must prevent God again with his songs. Jehoshaphat delighted God with instruments of music before his deliverance. Faith must tune an epinikion, a psalm of victory, before the triumph. Praise is the ingenious mother of future mercies; as the Virgin Mary sang at Hebron before the birth of her son at Bethlehem. Oh, heavenly contention between mercy and duty! Samuel Lee, 1625-1691.

Awake up, my glory, etc. We must sing with excited grace. Not only with grace habitual, but with excited and actual: the musical instrument delights not but when it is played upon. In this duty we must follow Paul's advice to Timothy (2 Ti 1:6), anazwpurein, stir up the grace that is in us, and cry out as David, Awake love, awake delight. Ps 57:8. The clock must be wound up before it can guide our time; the bird pleaseth not in her nest, but in her notes; the chimes only make music when they are going. Let us therefore beg the Spirit to blow upon our garden, that the spices thereof may flow out, when we set upon this joyous service. God loves active grace in duty, that the soul should be ready trimmed when it presents itself to Christ in any worship. John Wells, in "Morning Exercises, "1674.

I will awake early. Literally, `I will awake the dawn.' a bold figure of poetry, as if the writer had said, —The morning shall not awake me to praise; but in my songs I will anticipate the dawn. R. T. Society's Notes.

It will answer our purpose to take notice, first, of the terms David uses, and then, secondly, press the exhortation. Of the terms he uses:

1. My glory. That is my soul (say some) because the spirit of a man is the glory of a man, whereby he is dignified and raised so much above the brutes, as to be but a "little lower than the angels, "nay, to be akin to God himself, "the Father of spirits." My musical skill, say others, the glory of the artist above the unskilful; and that wherein David had the glory of excelling, as Jubal had of the first invention. My tongue, say others; for this is also the glory of a man above the dumb creatures, and the glory of a wise man above a fool. And as the tongue is the glory of a man, so the glory of the tongue is to glorify God. Praise is the glory of all other uses to which the tongue is employed; and the tongue is, in the body, that "temple of the Holy Ghost, "what the silver trumpet was in the temple of Solomon; to sound the high praises of God, and express the raised affections of our souls.

2. Awake, psaltery and harp. The one for a psalm, the other for a spiritual song or hymn; that is to say, all my musical instruments and skill I will employ in and consecrate to the glory of him who "puts new songs into my mouth." He first teaches my fingers to fight, and then to play the epinikion, or song of triumph. Sound, then, my psaltery and harp, emulous of those that are around the throne above; your melody can soften my cares, lay my fears, and turn my cave into a choir. As to these instruments in the worship of God, they were doubtless allowed to David, and to the church in his time. They were agreeable to the state of that church and people, who were led very much by their senses; and whose infant and less discerning condition made it needful for the natural man to have something to fasten upon and be entertained with in the worship of God and to sweeten and take off from the labour and burden of that service. But as the gospel worship and appointments are a more spiritual, pleasant, and reasonable service, and need them less, so in the gospel institution we find no footsteps of them; and we know who first brought them into the church, as well as who first brought them into the world. It is not my business here to dispute this matter; and he must at any time do it but indifferently, whose inclination is against him all the while, and whose genius tempts him to wish himself solidly confuted in all he can advance. But since I find these instruments in my text, and since the sound of such texts as these is made use of to turn the public worship so frequently into concerts of music, I shall leave them with this remark: that to let them alone, especially in public worship, though one thought them tolerable, has a much better grace with it than to declare them "sorely displeasing to God, and that they filthily defile his holy house and place of prayer."

3. I myself will awake early. And without this, all the rest have been an empty sound; there would have been no melody to the Lord, whatsoever good music he might have made to himself. He would not put God off with a sacrifice of mere air. He summons the attendance of all his powers. Himself is the offering; and his music plays to the sacrifice, as it goes up in holy affections and spiritual joys; and unless these accompany the song, the mere breath of an organ, or the trembling of the strings of an harp is as good devotion and less offensive to God. Consider the nature and excellency of the duty. Singing psalms is a compound of several other duties. It contains prayer to a very great advantage: the stretch of the voice does humour and lead on the earnest reaching of the mind after the desired blessing. It is the very element and breath of praise; and the apostle tells us that "teaching and admonishing one another" is performed in singing "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." For when we sing of judgment, it is awakening to sinners; and when we sing of mercy, it is comforting to all. Meditation cannot have a better help. The solemn movement of the time gives room for the mind to compass the full sense of the matter, and to impress it deep; and while the tongue is making the pause, the heart may make the elevation. In short, it gives an accent to all duty; it is the music of all other ordinances; it is adapted and suited to all circumstances; as appears from the psalms composed upon all occasions and subjects, doctrinal, prophetical, oratory, and historical; of praise and prayer, of grief and joy, in the penitential and complaining, in the triumphal and rejoicing; as if singing of psalms could stand for everything, and, like the manna in the wilderness, gives a taste of all the other food we enjoy in the house of God.

Benjamin Grosvenor, D.D. (1675-1758), in "An Exhortation to the Duty of Singing, " Eastcheap Lectures, 1810.

The psaltery was a stringed instrument, usually with twelve strings, and played with the fingers. The harp or lyre was a stringed instrument, usually consisting of ten strings. Josephus says that it was struck or played with a key. It appears, however, that it was sometimes played with the fingers. Albert Barnes.

I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people. The Spirit of God who indited this scripture, made his penman know that the Gentiles should have the use of his Psalms. David Dickson.

The people —the nations. The Hebrew church was neither called nor qualified to be a missionary society, but it never ceased to desire and hope for the conversion of the nations. This is seen in those passages in which the psalmists betray a consciousness that they shall one day have all the world for auditors. How boldly does David exclaim, I will sing unto thee among the nations. In the same spirit, a later psalmist summons the church to lift up her voice, so that all the nations may hear her recital of the Lord's mighty acts: O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Ps 105:1. The full import of this class of texts is often hidden from the English reader by the circumstance that our translators have hardly ever used the word people in its plural form. Twice in the Revelation they venture to write peoples; everywhere else the singular form has to do duty for both numbers; so that in not a few passages the sense is greatly obscured to those who have no access either to the original or to other versions. In the Psalms, in particular, the mention of the Gentiles is more frequent than the English reader is made aware of. It is to be observed, moreover, that in addition to this strain of indirect prediction, the conversion of the world is articulately celebrated in many glorious Psalms. Indeed, so numerous are these, and so generally distributed over the centuries between David and Ezra, that it would seem that at no time during the long history of inspired Psalmody, did the Spirit cease to indite new songs in which the children of Zion might give utterance to their world embracing hopes. William Binnie, D.D., in "The Psalms: their History, Teachings, and Use, "1870.

Verses 10-11. A hard and ungrateful heart beholds even in prosperity only isolated drops of divine grace; but a grateful one like David's, though chased by persecutors, and striking the harp in the gloom of a cave, looks upon the mercy and faithfulness of God as a mighty ocean, waving and heaving from the earth to the clouds, and from the clouds to the earth again. Agustus F. Tholuck.

Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, etc. Greater words of prayer than these never came from human lips. Heaven and earth have as they imply, a mutually interwoven history, and the blessed, glorious end of this is in the sunrise of the Divine glory over both. Franz Delitzsch, 1869.

(first clause). Repetition in prayer.

1. Its dangers. May degenerate into "vain repetitions." Carried to excess painfully suggests the idea, God is unwilling.

2. Its uses. Eases the soul like tears. Manifests intense emotion. Enables those of less mental activity to join in the general supplication. R. A. Griffin.

Here are —

1. Calamities:

(a) War.

(b) Pestilence.

(c) Privations.

(d) Sin, greatest of all.

(e) Death.

(f)Curse of a broken law.

2. Here is a refuge from these calamities.

(a) In God.

(b) Specially in the mercy of God.

3. There is flying to that refuge.

(a) By faith; My soul trusteth in thee; Under the shadow, etc.

(b) By prayer; "Be  "etc.

4. Here is continuance both in faith and prayer; until, etc. G. R.

Verses 1, 4, 6-7. Note the varying condition of the same heart, at the same time. My soul trusteth in thee... My soul is among lions... My soul is bowed down... My heart is fixed.

Prayer to the performing God. He performs all his promises, all my salvation, all my preservation, all needed between here and heaven. Here he reveals his omnipotence, his grace, his faithfulness, his immutability; and we are bound to show our faith, patience, joy, and gratitude.

Strange reasons.

1. The psalmist in the depth of distress, cries to God, because he is most high in glory. Surely this thought might well paralyse him with the fear of divine inaccessibility, but the soul quickened with suffering, sees through and beyond the metaphor, rejoices in the truth, "Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly."

2. He cries to God for help, because God is performing all things for him. Why urge him then? Prayer is the music to which "the mighty man of war" goes forth to battle. R. A. G.

The saints comfort in adversity.

1. All contingencies are provided for: He shall (or will) send.

2. The highest resources are available: from heaven.

3. The worst foes will be overcome in the end: him that would swallow me up.

4. By the holiest means: mercy and truth. R. A. G.

The celestial messengers. What they are. The certainty of their being sent. Their efficient operation. The grateful receiver.

(last clause). The harmony of the divine attributes in salvation. Mercy founded on truth, truth vindicating mercy. Mercy without injustice, justice honoured in mercy.

1. The end which God has in view, both in heaven and earth, in a sinful and in sinless worlds —his own glory.

2. Our duty to acquiesce in that end: Be thou, etc. —Not self, not men, not angels —Be thou exalted, etc. In this we should acquiesce —

(a) Actively, by seeking that end.

(b) Passively, by submission to his will. G. R.

(first clause). It is implied that the heart is the main thing required in all acts of devotion; nothing is done to purpose in religion further than it is done with the heart. The heart must be fixed; fixed for the duty, fitted and put in frame for it; fixed in the duty by a close application; attending on the Lord without distraction. Matthew Henry.

1. What is fixed? the heart, not the mind merely, but the will, the conscience, the affections, which draw the mind after them: My heart is fixed —found an anchorage, a resting place, not therefore at the mercy of every gale, etc.

2. The objects upon which it is fixed.

(a) Upon God.

(b) Upon his word.

(c) Upon his salvation.

(d) Upon heaven.

3. The fixedness of the heart upon these objects, denotes —

(a) Singleness of aim.

(b) Uniformity of action.

(c) Perseverance to the end. G. R.

Verses 7-9.

1. He that will be thankful must treasure up in his heart and memory the courtesy that is done him; so had David done, and therefore he mentions his heart; and to make it more emphatic, he names it again, My heart.

2. After he remembers it, he must be affected with it, and resolve upon it; so doth David: My heart is ready, or else, My heart is fixed; confirmed I am in it to be thankful, and I cannot be altered.

3. It is not enough that a man carry about with him a thankful heart he must anunciare, tell it abroad, and make it known publicly what God hath done for him; yea, and do it joyfully too: I will, saith David, sing and give praise.

4. He must use all means he can to make it known —"tongue, ""psaltery, "and "harp, "all are little enough. Whence, by an apostrophe, David turns to these. Awake, my glory: i.e., Tongue, awake; lute and harp, awake; I myself will awake.

5. He must not do it in a sleepy manner, but with intention and earnestness of spirit: "Awake, awake, I will awake."

6. He must take the first opportunity to do it, and not hang off and delay it. I will awake early.

7. He must do it in such a place, and such an assembly as may most redound to God's honour: I will praise thee, O Lord, among the people: I will sing unto thee among the nations. William Nicholson.

Who? I. What? Will praise. Whom? Thee, O Lord. Where? Among the people. Why?

Public profession.

1. A necessity.

2. A privilege.

3. A duty. R. A. G.

The mercy of God reaches to the heavens.

1. As a throne. God is exalted in our eyes by his mercy.

2. As a ladder. By mercy we ascend from earth to heaven.

3. As a rainbow. Present and past mercies argue exemption for the saints from the wrath of heaven.

4. As a mountain. Its base is on the earth though its summit is lost in clouds. The influence of the cross towers to the heaven of heavens. Who can tell the glory of the summit of this mountain, whose base is refulgent with glory! R. A. G.

The amazing greatness of mercy.

1. It is not said merely that it is high as heaven, but great unto the heavens. It is high as the heavens, overtopping the greatest sin, and highest thought of man.

2. It is wide as the far reaching sky, compassing men of all ages, countries, classes, etc.

3. It is deep. Everything of God is proportionate; this, therefore, is deep in abiding foundation, and infinite wisdom.

WORKS UPON THE FIFTY-SEVENTH PSALM

The Works of JOHN BOYS, D.D., "Deane of Canterburie, "1629, folio, pp. 834-40, contains an Exposition of Psalm 57.

In CHANDLER'S "Life of David, "Vol. 1., pp. 176-9, there is an Exposition of this Psalm.