Psalms 27:12

12 Give me not to the will of my adversaries, For risen against me have false witnesses, And they breathe out violence to me.

Psalms 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.

Psalms 27:12 In-Context

10 When my father and my mother Have forsaken me, then doth Jehovah gather me.

11 Shew me, O Jehovah, Thy way, And lead me in a path of uprightness, For the sake of my beholders.

12 Give me not to the will of my adversaries, For risen against me have false witnesses, And they breathe out violence to me.

13 I had not believed to look on the goodness of Jehovah In the land of the living!

14 Look unto Jehovah -- be strong, And He doth strengthen thy heart, Yea, look unto Jehovah!