Psalms 140:7-13

7 God, my Lord, Strong Savior, protect me when the fighting breaks out!
8 Don't let the wicked have their way, God, don't give them an inch!"
9 These troublemakers all around me - let them drown in their own verbal poison.
10 Let God pile hellfire on them, let him bury them alive in crevasses!
11 These loudmouths - don't let them be taken seriously; These savages - let the Devil hunt them down!
12 I know that you, God, are on the side of victims, that you care for the rights of the poor.
13 And I know that the righteous personally thank you, that good people are secure in your presence.

Psalms 140:7-13 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. This psalm, A ben Ezra says, was composed by David before he was king; and Kimchi says, it is concerning Doeg and the Ziphites, who calumniated him to Saul; and, according to our English contents, it is a prayer of David to be delivered from Saul and Doeg. The Syriac inscription is, "said by David, when Saul threw a javelin at him to kill him, but it struck the wall; but, spiritually, the words of him that cleaves to God, and contends with his enemies." R. Obadiah says, it was made at the persecution of David by Saul, which was before the kingdom of David; as the persecution (of Gog) is before the coming of the Messiah. It is indeed before his spiritual coming, but not before his coming in the flesh; and David may be very well considered in the psalm as a type of Christ, for he was particularly so in his sufferings, as well as in other things.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.