Psalm 27:12

12 Deliver me not over unto the will of my enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me and such as breathe out cruelty.

Psalm 27:12 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 27:12

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies
It is a dreadful thing for a man to be given up to his own heart's lusts, and to be delivered up into the hands of Satan; who would fain have even the people of God themselves in his hands, that he might distress them at pleasure, if not destroy them; and also to be suffered to fall into the hands of wicked men, whose tender mercies are cruel;

for false witnesses are risen up against me;
laying to his charge, that he sought to take away from Saul his crown and kingdom, and even his life, ( 1 Samuel 24:9 ) ;

and such as breathe out cruelty;
as Doeg the Edomite, whose tongue was as a sharp razor, and by whose hands four score and five priests were slain, on account of David's being supplied with bread by Ahimelech; the word is in the singular number; see ( Psalms 52:1-4 ) ( 1 Samuel 22:18 ) ; compare with this clause ( Acts 9:1 ) ; and Horace's phrase, "Spirabat amores" ^F12.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Carmin. l. 4. Ode. 13. v. 19.

Psalm 27:12 In-Context

10 For my father and my mother have left me, and the LORD has taken me up.

11 Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a right path because of my enemies.

12 Deliver me not over unto the will of my enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me and such as breathe out cruelty.

13 I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

14 Wait for the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, for the LORD.