Psalms 59:8-17

8 And Thou, O Jehovah dost laugh at them, Thou dost mock at all the nations.

9 O my Strength, unto Thee I take heed, For God [is] my tower -- the God of my kindness.

10 God doth go before me, He causeth me to look on mine enemies.

11 Slay them not, lest my people forget, Shake them by Thy strength, And bring them down, O Lord our shield.

12 The sin of their mouth [is] a word of their lips, And they are captured in their pride, And from the curse and lying they recount.

13 Consume in fury, consume and they are not, And they know that God is ruling in Jacob, To the ends of the earth. Selah.

14 And they turn back at evening, They make a noise like a dog, And they go round about the city.

15 They -- they wander for food, If they are not satisfied -- then they murmur.

16 And I -- I sing [of] Thy strength, And I sing at morn [of] Thy kindness, For thou hast been a tower to me, And a refuge for me in a day of adversity.

17 O my Strength, unto Thee I sing praise, For God [is] my tower, the God of my kindness!

Psalms 59:8-17 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.