Psalms 59:3-13

3 For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul; the strong are gathered against me; I am not in rebellion, nor in sin, O LORD.

4 They run and prepare themselves when I have committed no iniquity; awake to help me and behold.

5 Thou, therefore, O LORD God of the hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the Gentiles; be not merciful to any rebellious workers of iniquity. Selah.

6 They will return at evening; they will bark like dogs and go round about outside the city.

7 Behold, they belch out with their mouth; swords are in their lips; for who, say they, doth hear?

8 But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the Gentiles in derision.

9 I will reserve his strength unto thee, for God is my defence.

10 The God of my mercy shall meet me on the way; God shall let me see my desire upon my enemies.

11 Slay them not lest my people forget; scatter them by thy power and bring them down, O Lord our shield.

12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them even be taken in their pride; they shall be subject to weakness and to a curse.

13 Consume them in wrath, consume them that they may not be and let them know that God rules in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah.

Psalms 59:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him. The history of Saul's sending messengers to watch the house of David, and to kill him when he rose in the morning, is in 1 Samuel 19:11; which was the occasion of his writing this psalm; though the title of the Syriac version of it is, "David said or composed this, when he heard that the priests were slain by Saul:" and in the same is added, "but unto us it declares the conversion of the Gentiles to the faith, and the rejection of the Jews." And which perhaps is designed in Psalm 59:5; and some interpreters are of opinion that the whole psalm is to be understood of Christ, of whom David was a type, especially in his sufferings; and there are some things in it which better agree with him than with David, as particularly his being without sin, Psalm 59:3.