Psalms 59:12-17

12 Let all their mean-mouthed arrogance catch up with them, Catch them out and bring them down - every muttered curse - every barefaced lie.

13 Finish them off in fine style! Finish them off for good! Then all the world will see that God rules well in Jacob, everywhere that God's in charge.

14 They return when the sun goes down, They howl like coyotes, ringing the city.

15 They scavenge for bones, And bite the hand that feeds them.

16 And me? I'm singing your prowess, shouting at cockcrow your largesse, For you've been a safe place for me, a good place to hide.

17 Strong God, I'm watching you do it, I can always count on you - God, my dependable love.

Psalms 59:12-17 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.