Psalms 56:5

5 All day long they seek to injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil.

Psalms 56:5 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 56:5

Every day they wrest my words
Form, fashion, and shape them at their pleasure; construe them, and put what sense upon them they think fit. The word F21 is used of the formation of the human body, in ( Job 10:8 ) ; They put his words upon the rack, and made them speak what he never intended; as some men wrest the Scriptures to their own destruction, ( 2 Peter 3:16 ) ; and as the Jews wrested the words of Christ, ( John 2:19 ) ( Matthew 26:60 Matthew 26:61 ) . The word has also the sense of causing vexation and grief, ( Isaiah 63:10 ) ; and so it may be rendered here, "my words cause grief" F23; to his enemies; because he had said, in the preceding verses, that he would trust in the Lord, and praise his word, and not be afraid of men; just as the Sadducees were grieved at the apostles preaching, through Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, ( Acts 4:1 Acts 4:2 ) . Or they caused grief to himself; for because of these his enemies reproached him, cursed him, and distressed him. The Septuagint and Vulgate Latin render it, "they cursed my words"; or despised them, as the Ethiopic and Arabic versions:

all their thoughts [are] against me for evil;
their counsels, schemes, and contrivances, were all formed to do him all the hurt and mischief they could.


FOOTNOTES:

F21 (wbuey) "fingunt mea verba", Cocceius, Gusset. p. 628. "They painfully form and frame my words", Ainsworth.
F23 "Dolore afficient", Montanus, Gejerus, Vatablus.

Psalms 56:5 In-Context

3 when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid; what can flesh do to me?
5 All day long they seek to injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk, they watch my steps. As they hoped to have my life,
7 so repay them for their crime; in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.