How long shall I take counsel in my soul
Or "put it" F19; to take counsel of good men and
faithful friends, in matters of moment and difficulty, is safe
and right; and it is best of all to take counsel of God, who is
wonderful in it, and guides his people with it; but nothing is
worse than for a man to take counsel of his own heart, or only to
consult himself; for such counsel often casts a man down, and he
is ashamed of it sooner or later: but this seems not to be the
sense here; the phrase denotes the distressing circumstances and
anxiety of mind the psalmist was in; he was at his wits' end, and
cast about in his mind, and had various devises and counsels
formed there; and yet knew not what way to take, what course to
steer;
[having] sorrow in my heart daily;
by reason of God's hiding his face from him; on account of sin
that dwelt in him, or was committed by him; because of his
distance from the house of God, and the worship and ordinances of
it; and by reason of his many enemies that surrounded him on
every side: this sorrow was an heart sorrow, and what continually
attended him day by day; or was in the daytime, when men are
generally amused with business or diversions, as well as in the
night, as Kimchi observes;
how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
even the vilest of men, ( Psalms 12:8 ) ; this
may be understood either of temporal enemies, and was true of
David when he was obliged not only to leave his own house and
family, but the land of Judea, and flee to the Philistines; and
when he fled from Absalom his son, lest he should be taken and
slain by him; or of spiritual enemies, and is true of saints when
sin prevails and leads captive, and when the temptations of Satan
succeed; as when he prevailed upon David to number the people,
Peter to deny his master, &c. The Jewish writers F20
observe that here are four "how longs", answerable to the four
monarchies, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman, and their
captivities under them.