Psalm 140
140:1. Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man. It reads like a clause of the Lord’s prayer, “Deliver us from evil.” David does not so much plead against an individual as against the species. We shall not find an unregenerate person who is not in some sense evil, and yet all are not alike evil. It is well for us that our enemies are evil: it would be a horrible thing to have the good against us. When the evil man bestirs himself against the godly he is as terrible a being as a serpent, or even a devil. The persecuted turn to God in prayer. We cannot of ourselves baffle the enemy, but the Lord knows how to deliver his saints.
Preserve me from the violent man. “The evil man” soon develops into the violent man. Our Lord was surrounded by those who thirsted for his blood. We may not, therefore, hope to pass through the world without enemies, but we may hope to be delivered out of their hands, and preserved from their rage, so that no real harm will come of their malignity.
140:2. Which imagine mischiefs in their heart. They cannot be happy unless they are plotting and planning, conspiring and contriving. They seem to have but one heart, for they are completely agreed in their malice. One piece of mischief is not enough for them. What they cannot actually do they nevertheless like to think over. When the imagination gloats over doing harm to others, it is a sure sign that the entire nature is far gone in wickedness.
Continually are they gathered together for war. They are a committee of opposition in permanent session; they are a standing army always ready for the fray. It is hard dealing with persons who are only in their element when they are at daggers drawn with you. Such a case calls for prayer, and prayer calls on God.
140:3. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. The rapid motion of a viper’s tongue gives you the idea of its sharpening it; even thus do the malicious move their tongues at such a rate that one might suppose them to be in the very act of wearing them to a point, or rubbing them to a keen edge. It was a common notion that serpents inserted their poison by their tongues, and the poets used the idea as a poetical expression, although it is certain that the serpent wounds by his fangs and not by his tongue. We are not to suppose that all authors who used such language were mistaken in their natural history any more than a writer can be charged with ignorance of astronomy because he speaks of the sun’s traveling from east to west.
Adders’ poison is under their lips. The deadliest of all venom is the slander of the unscrupulous. Our text, however, must not be confined in its reference to some few individuals, for in the inspired epistle to the Romans it is quoted as being true of us all. The old serpent has not only inoculated us with his venom, but he has caused us to be ourselves producers of the like poison: it lies under our lips, ready for us, and, alas, it is all too freely used when we grow angry, and desire to take vengeance upon any who have caused us vexation. It is sadly wonderful what hard things even good people will say when provoked. O Lord, take the poison-bags away, and cause our lips to drop nothing but honey.
Selah. This is heavy work. Go up, go up, my heart! Sink not too low. Fall not into the lowest key. Lift up thyself to God.
140:4. Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked. To fall into their hands would be a calamity indeed. David in his most pitiable plight chose to fall into the hand of a chastising God rather than to be left in the power of men. The Lord by providence and grace can keep us out of the power of the wicked. He alone can do this, for neither our own watchfulness nor the faithfulness of friends can secure us against the serpentine assaults of the foe.
Preserve me from the violent man. He will strike anyhow, use any weapon, smite from any quarter: he is so furious that he is reckless of his own life if he may accomplish his detestable design. Lord, preserve us by thine omnipotence when men attack us with their violence.
Who have purposed to overthrow my goings. They resolve to turn the good man from his resolve; they would defeat his designs, injure his integrity, and blast his character. Their own goings are wicked, and therefore they hate those of the righteous, seeing they are a standing rebuke to them. This is a formidable argument to use in prayer with God: he is the patron of holiness, and when the pure lives of his people are in danger, he may be expected to interpose. Never let the pious forget to pray, for this is a weapon against which the most determined enemy cannot stand.
140:5. The proud have hid a snare for me. Their victim may be taken like a poor hare who is killed without warning—killed in the usual run, by a snare which it could not see.
And cords. With these they pull the net together and bind their captive.
They have spread a net by the wayside. Where it will be near their prey; where the slightest divergence from the path will bring the victim into it. Birds are taken in nets, and men are taken by deceit.
They have set gins for me. Those who avoid the snare and the net may yet be caught in a trap, and accordingly traps are placed in all likely places. If a godly man can be cajoled, or bribed, or cowed, or made angry, the wicked will make the attempt. Ready are they to twist his words, misread his intentions, and misdirect his efforts.
Selah. The harp needs tuning after such a strain, and the heart needs lifting towards God.
140:6. I said unto the LORD, Thou art my God. He was assured that Jehovah was his God, he expressed that assurance, and he expressed it before Jehovah himself. Often the less we say to our foes, and the more we say to our best Friend, the better it will fare with us. David rejoiced in the fact that he had already said that Jehovah was his God: he was content to have committed himself, he had no wish to draw back. The Lord was David’s own by deliberate choice, to which he again sets his seal with delight.
Hear the voice of my supplications, O LORD. Since thou art mine, I pray thee, hear my cries. So long as the Lord doth but hear us we are content. The more we consider his greatness and our insignificance, his wisdom and our folly, the more shall we be filled with praise when the Lord attends unto our cry.
140:7. In the day of the clash of arms, or of the putting on of armor (as some read it), the glorious Lord had been his constant Protector. He had obtained a deliverance in which the strength of the Omnipotent was clearly to be seen. This is a grand utterance of praise, a gracious ground of comfort, a prevalent argument in prayer. He that has covered our head before will not now desert us. Wherefore let us fight a good fight, and fear no deadly wound.
140:8. Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked. They can do not more than thou dost permit. Assuredly the Lord Jehovah will be no accomplice with the malevolent; their desires will never be his desires; if they thirst for blood he will not gratify their cruelty.
Further not his wicked device. They are so united as to be like one man in their wishes; but do not hear their prayers. The Lord may allow success to attend the policy of the wicked for a time for wise reasons unknown to us, but we are permitted to pray that it be not so.
Lest they exult themselves. If successful, the wicked are sure to grow proud, and insult the righteous over whom they have triumphed. If God seems to favor them they grow too high for this world, and their heads strike against the heavens. Let us hope that the Lord will not let this be.
Selah. Here let us exalt our thoughts and praises high over the heads of self-exalting sinners.
140:9. To the Lord who had covered his head amid the din of arms the psalmist appeals against his foes, that their heads may be covered in quite another sense—covered with the reward of their own malice. The poet represents his adversaries as so united as to have but one head. The law of retaliation often brings down upon the violent the evil which they planned for others. When a person’s lips vent curses they will probably, like chickens, come home to roost.
David’s words may be read in the future as a prophecy, but in this verse at any rate there is no need to do so in order to soften their tone. It is so just that the mischief which people plot and the slander which they speak should recoil upon themselves that every righteous person must desire it: he who does not desire it may wish to be considered humane and Christlike, but the chances are that he has a sneaking agreement with the wicked, or is deficient in a manly sense of right and wrong. We suspect that some of our excessively soft-spoken critics only need to be put into David’s place, and they would become a vast deal more bitter than he ever was.
140:10. Let burning coals fall upon them. Then will they know that the scattering of the firebrands is not the sport they thought it to be.
Let them be east into the fire. They have kindled the flames of strife, and it is fair that they should be cast therein.
Into the deep pits, that they rise not up again. They made those ditches for the godly, and it is meet that they should themselves fall into them and never escape. When a righteous man falls he rises again, but when the wicked goes down “he falls like Lucifer, never to hope again.”
140:11. Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth. For that would be an established plague, a perpetual curse. God will not allow the specious orators of falsehood to retain the power they temporarily obtain by their deceitful speaking. They may become prominent, but they cannot become permanent. All evil bears the element of decay within itself; for what is it but corruption?
Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him. He hunted the good, and now his own evil will hunt him. He tried to overthrow the goings of the righteous, and now his own unrighteousness will prove his overthrow.
140:12. All through the psalm the writer is bravely confident, and speaks of things about which he had no doubt. The slandered saint knew Jehovah’s care for the afflicted, for he had received actual proofs of it himself. “I will maintain it” is the motto of the great Defender of the rights of the needy. Many talk as if the poor had no rights worth noticing, but they will sooner or later find out their mistake when the Judge of all the earth begins to plead with them.
140:13. Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name. As surely as God will slay the wicked he will save the oppressed, and fill their hearts and mouths with praises. Whoever else may be silent, the righteous will give thanks; and whatever they may suffer, it will end in their living through the trial, and magnifying the Lord for his delivering grace.
The upright shall dwell in thy presence. Thus shall they give thanks in the truest and fullest manner. Their living and walking with their God will be their practical form of gratitude. How high have we climbed in this psalm—from being hunted by the evil man to dwelling in the divine presence; so does faith upraise the saint from the lowest depths to heights of peaceful repose. Well might the song be studded with Selahs, or uplifters.
The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
e-Sword v 9.5.1 Copyright 2000-2009 Rick Meyers
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