The Assured Judgment of the Wicked
To the Chief Musician. Net to “Do Not Destroy”. A Michtam of David when Saul sent men, and they
watched the house in order to kill him.
• This psalm filled with David’s complaints of the malice of his enemies and of their cursed and cruel designs against
him, his prayers and prophecies against them, and his comfort and confidence in God as his God. (MH)
• This is the individual lament of a man who is innocently persecuted by wicked and ruthless men (apparently of his
own nation) (Z)
Deliver me from my enemies, O my God;
Defend me from those who rise up against me.
• The first eruptions of Saul’s malice could not but put David into disorder and be both grievous and terrifying, and
yet he kept up his communion with God, and such a composure of mind as that he was never out of frame for prayer
and praises. (MH)
• Everything that tended to obscure the theocratic relation of God to His people, called up in the soul of David the
most vehement passion (TOD)
• O my God – there are two pleas which the Psalmist makes use of: one was that God was his God; the other was
the power and strength of his enemies (TOD)
• It is a blessed thing to have the covenant to fly to in all times of straits and troubles; there is always an anchor-hold
of hope there (TOD)
• The church’s enemies are never so near destruction as when they think they have nothing to do but take and divide
the spoil (TOD)
Deliver me from the workers of iniquity.
And save me from bloodthirsty men.
• He pleads the bad character of his enemies (MH)
For look, they lie in wait for my life;
The mighty gather against me,
Nor for my transgression nor for my sin, O LORD.
• Lie in wait – taking an opportunity to do mischief. United in league against him. (MH)
• They leave no stone unturned that they may effect my destruction (AC)
They run and prepare themselves through no fault of mine.
• They are very ingenious in their contrivances with the utmost speed and fury (MH)
• The innocency of the godly will not secure them from the malignity of the wicked (MH)
Awake to help me, and behold!
You therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel,
Awake to punish all the nations;
Do not be merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah
At evening they return,
They growl like a dog,
And go all around the city,
Indeed, they belch with their mouth;
Swords are in their lips;
For they say, “Who hears?”
• Evening – expresses the time of calamity and want, and alludes to the wild beasts which are wont in the evening to
go forth in quest of prey (TOD)
• Like a dog – famished and rabid dog, unable to satisfy either its hunger or thirst (TOD)
• Belch with mouth – abundance of evil things and wicked speeches that come out of their mouths which showed the
naughtiness of their hearts (TOD)
• They use the lowest insult, the basest abuse. They deal in sarcasm, ridicule, slander, and lies (AC)
• Vile men curse God as if He cannot hear and will not respond. But God listens patiently until that day when those
curses will fall back in judgment like stones from heaven. (LB)
But You, O LORD, shall laugh at them;
You shall have all the nations in derision.
I will wait for You, O You his Strength;
For God is my defense.
My God of mercy shall come to meet me;
God shall let me see my enemies.
• David here encourages himself, in reference to the threatening power of his enemies, with a pious resolution to wait
upon God (MH)
• David was hunted by those whose love had turned to jealousy, and this was driving them to murder him. But David
knew that God’s love for him was changeless (LB)
Do not slay them, lest my people forget;
Scatter them by Your power,
And bring them down,
O Lord our shield.
• Cain himself, though a murderer, was not slain, lest the vengeance should be forgotten, but was sentenced to be a
fugitive and a vagabond (MH)
For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips,
Let them even be taken in their pride,
And for the cursing and lying which they speak.
Consume them in wrath, consume them,
That they may not be;
And let them know that God rules in Jacob
To the ends of the earth. Selah
And at evening they return,
They growl like a dog,
And go all around the city.
They wander up and down for food,
And howl if they are not satisfied.
• It is not poverty, but discontent that makes a man unhappy (MH) (TOD)
But I will sing of Your power;
Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning;
For You have been my defense
And refuge in the day of my trouble.
To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises;
For God is my defense,
My God of mercy.
• God has the strength of the wicked in His hands, to curb and to restrain it, and to show that any power of which they
boast is vain and fallacious. His own people, on the other hand, He supports and secures against the possibility of falling,
by supplies of strength from Himself (JC-TOD)