Psalms 59:10-17

10 My God of mercy shall come to meet me; God shall let me see my desire on my enemies.

11 Do not slay them, lest my people forget; Scatter them by Your 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, And for the cursing and lying which they speak.

13 Consume them in wrath, consume them, That they may not be; And let them know that God rules in Jacob To the ends of the earth. Selah

14 And at evening they return, They growl like a dog, And go all around the city.

15 They wander up and down for food, And howl if they are not satisfied.

16 But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defense And refuge in the day of my trouble.

17 To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; For God is my defense, My God of mercy.

Psalms 59:10-17 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Following Qere; some Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, and Vulgate read My God, His mercy; Kethib, some Hebrew manuscripts and Targum read O God, my mercy; Syriac reads O God, Your mercy.
• [b]. Following Septuagint and Vulgate; Masoretic Text, Syriac, and Targum read spend the night.