Psalms 59:10-17

10 My God in his steadfast love will meet me; my God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.

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

12 For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies which they utter,

13 consume them in wrath, consume them till they are no more, that men may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. [Selah]

14 Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city.

15 They roam about for food, and growl if they do not get their fill.

16 But I will sing of thy might; I will sing aloud of thy steadfast love in the morning. For thou hast been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.

17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to thee, for thou, O God, art my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.

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.