Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 5 · Psalm 140
The Hundred and Fourtieth Psalm.
To the chief Musitian, A Psalm of David. The hundred and fourtieth is a prayer of Davids for deliverance from his malicious treacherous enemies, such as‖see Chaldee paraph. v. 9. Doeg, &c. 1 Sam. xxii. or rather the Ziphites, who had undertaken to overthrow his goings, v. 4. see 1 Sam. 23.20, & 22. and a prediction of the evils which should fall upon them, the just reward of their dealings with him. It was by him appointed for the publick service, and committed to the Praefect of his Musick.
1. DEliver me, O Lord, from the evill man, preserve me from the violent man,
2. Which imagine mischief†or with foreign in their heart: continually*do they gather or prepare are theya. gathered together for warr.
Paraphrase. O Lord, I come now to thee for thy seasonable relief and rescue, for wicked and injurious men, whose thoughts and actions are wholly set on doing of mischief, are now resolved to set upon me with the greatest violence, with all their heart as it were.
3. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent: adders poison is under their lips. Selah.
For this they prepare by slanders and malicious forgeries, their weapons are like those of the serpent, or most venemous vipers, they carry them in their mouths: the tongue of the one is not more sharp, nor the teeth of the other more poisonous, than are their words and slanderous fictions against me. (See Rom. iii. 14. Psal. lviii. 4.
4. Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man, which have purposed to overthrow my goings.
5. The proud have laid a snare for me and cords; they have spread a net by the way side, they have set gins for me. Selah.
Many insidious and treacherous ambushes have they laid for me; no fouler is provided with greater variety of gins, and nets, and springes, than they are with artifices of deceit to supplant and ruine me, and these they contrive, whithersoever I goe; so that I have no means or hope of safety, but by my resort and appeal to thee, for thy safe conduct, to secure me through all these dangers.
6. I said unto the Lord, thou art my God; hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord.
To thee therefore I humbly address my selfe, as to a God of mercy, and to me of most fatherly care and k…ndness, as well as to a Lord of all power and might, beseeching thee in mercy to look upon me.
7. O God the Lord; the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battel.
8. Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked,b. ‖or suffer not his—to goe forth, proceedfurther not his wicked device, lest they exalt themselves.
O thou eternal God, the Governor of all, from whose power it is that all my preservations and deliverances come, from thee I acknowledge to have received most particular and signal protections in all my former dangers: be thou now pleased to continue this thy good hand of safeguard over me, to blast, in stead of prospering, the designes of my malicious enemies, and not to allow them that temptation to exalt and elevate themselves, which good successes are wont to give wicked men.
9. As for the head of those that compass me about,†the— shall cover foreign let the mischief of their own lips cover them.
And so I am confident thou wilt doe, and make their wicked designes the instruments of evill to themselves (see Psal. vii. 15, 16.) and not me.
10. *Burning —shallLet burning coals fall upon them:‖they shall be let them be cast into the fire, into deep pits that they rise not up againe.
Thy severest judgments from heaven, such as fell on Sodome, shall undoubtedly be their portion, perdition and irreversible destruction.
11. †A sycophant shall not—Let not anc. evil-speaker be established on the earth: evill shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
Such accursed arts as those, of detraction and rapine, falseness and oppression, shall never have a durable prosperity, but continually pursue the author, as the hound a prey, and at length bring certain destruction on him.
12. I know that the Lord will*act the— maintaine the cause of the afflicted, and the‖plea (see note on Ps. 135. a) right of the poore.
13. Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name, the upright shall dwell in thy presence.
For unquestionably God will undertake the patronage of innocent injured persons, vindicate them from their oppressors, defend them so signally, that they shall be able to discern 'tis his work, and so give him the honour and glory of it, support and susteine such, when their oppressors are brought to nothing.
Annotations on Psalm CXL.
V. 2. Are they gathered together for warre] The Hebrew reades foreign,foreign from foreign to collect or draw together or congregate; so Hab. 1.15. foreign he gathers them into his net: and being here in the active sense, and joyned with warrs, it must be to prepare, put in order, instruere praelia, muster and set their affairs in order for battell. The Lxxii. duly render it foreign, they set their battels in order; the Chaldee foreign they excite, or instigate; and so the Syriack also.
V. 8. Further not] What was formerly noted of the conjugation Hiphil, that it sometimes imports not causing, but any degree of occasioning, or but permitting, is here observable of foreign foreignfrom foreign exivit to goe forth. From whence in Hiphil as it signifies to bring forth, to advance, so also to permit to goe forth or advance; and so the prayer here is, not so much that God will not give them a good success, as that he will interpose to their hinderance, blast and frustrate their designes, in stead of permitting them to prosper. To that the Chaldee applies foreign foreignthat follows, not in the notion of foreign for attolli exalting, but for tolli being taken away or destroyed, for so they read, foreign they shall be taken away or destroyed for ever, rendring Selah, as they constantly doe, foreign for ever; or perhaps in the notion of foreign to corrupt, or putrify so as to breed wormes, Exod. xvi. 20. they will be corrupted for ever. The Lxxii. have somewhat deformed this verse: for foreign foreigndesires, they read, as with other points, foreign, from my desire; for foreign his wicked thought or device, foreign, and so rendring it foreign, they thought or reasoned against me; then for foreign suffer them not to advance or prosper, foreign, forsake me not, from some other supposed notion of foreign. Yet they seem best to have rendred foreign they will be exalted, by foreign lest they be exalted. So v. 9. for foreign the head of those that incompass me, they read (as if it were foreign) foreign, the head of their circuit.
V. 11. Evill-speaker] foreign foreigna man of a tongue, is proverbially a detractor, or Sycophant: So Eccl. x. 11. foreign a man of a tongue, is by the Chaldee rendred foreign one that eats accusations, the phrase by which they express a sycophant; and so the similitude of the serpent biting doth inforce there. In this place they express it by foreign a delator with a three-fold or three-forked tongue, which is another style of theirs for a sycophant, because such a man wounds three at once, the receiver, the sufferer, and himselfe. Of him it is here said, foreign he shall not be established, in the future, (as all the former verbs v. 9, and 10. may be read,) and not in the imperative; and so by way of pronouncing or prediction onelyonly, and not by way of wish.