สดุดี 59:10 วิจารณ์

This psalm is of the same nature and scope with six or seven foregoing psalms; they are all filled with David's complaints of the malice of his enemies and of their cursed and cruel designs against him, his prayers and prophecies against them, and his comfort and confidence in God as his God. The first is the language of nature, and may be allowed; the second of a prophetical spirit, looking forward to Christ and the enemies of his kingdom, and therefore not to be drawn into a precedent; the third of grace and a most holy faith, which ought to be imitated by every one of us. In this psalm, I. He prays to God to defend and deliver him from his enemies, representing them as very bad men, barbarous, malicious, and atheistical (Psa 59:1-7). II. He foresees and foretels the destruction of his enemies, which he would give to God the glory of (Psa 59:8-17). As far as it appears that any of the particular enemies of God's people fall under these characters, we may, in singing this psalm, read their doom and foresee their ruin. To the chief musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David, when Saul sent and they watched the house to kill him.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 59 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 Sa1 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 Psa 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, Psa 59:3.

The God of my mercy shall prevent me,.... Or "of my grace", or "goodness", as the Targum; see Pe1 5:10. God is gracious in himself, and he has treasured up a fulness of grace in Christ: he is the donor of all the blessings of grace in the covenant; and the author of all internal grace in the hearts of his people; and who supplies them with more grace as they want it; and he is the Father of all temporal and spiritual mercies. The "Cetib", or writing, is "his mercy"; the "Keri", or reading, is "my mercy"; grace or mercy is the Lord's; it is his own, which he disposes of as he pleases; being given and applied, it is the believer's; all the grace and mercy in the heart of God, in his Son, and in his covenant, is the saints', which he keeps for them with Christ for evermore; "the God of my mercy", or "grace", is the same with "my merciful", or "my gracious God"; who goes before his people, as he does the Messiah, with the blessings of his goodness, Psa 21:3. It may be rendered, "hath came before me"; and denote the antiquity of his love, being before his people's to him, and the early provisions of his grace and mercy for them: or "doth prevent me": expressing the freeness of it; he not waiting for any duties, services, or conditions to be performed, but bestows his grace and mercy, notwithstanding much unworthiness: or "shall come before me"; designing the seasonable and timely application of mercy come before his fears, as it sometimes does the prayers of his people, Isa 65:24; God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies; expressed in the following verses, Psa 59:11; or "vengeance upon them"; as the Targum paraphrases it; see Psa 58:10.

There is no need of such self-deception on the part of those who, through giving, however profusely, alms of their fruits or of money of whatever kind, believe that they are purchasing the right to persist with impunity in the enormity and wickedness of their misdeeds and vices. Not only do they perform such wickedness, but they so love it as to desire to persist in it forever, provided they can do so with impunity. "But one who loves iniquity hates his own soul"; and whoever hates his own soul does not show mercy but cruelty toward it. For in loving it according to the world, he hates it according to God. If, then, he wished to give to it those alms by which all things would be clean to him, he would hate his soul according to the world and love it according to God. Now no one gives alms at all unless he has the means of giving from One who has no need of it; and therefore it has been said, "His mercy shall go before me."

For a person's good will comes before many other gifts from God, but not all of them. One of the gifts it does not antedate is—just itself! Thus in the sacred Writings we read "his mercy goes before me" and "his mercy shall follow me." It predisposes a person before he wills, to prompt his willing. It follows the act of willing, lest one's will be frustrated. Otherwise, why are we admonished to pray for our enemies, who are plainly not now willing to live piously, unless it is that God is even now at work in them and in their will? Or again, why are we admonished to ask in order to receive, unless it is that he who grants us what we will is he through whom it comes to pass that we will? We pray for enemies, therefore, that the mercy of God should go before them, as it goes before us; we pray for ourselves that his mercy shall follow us.

But far be it from us to say that those who "according to his purpose are called …, whom he foreknew" and "predestined to be conformable to the image of his Son" should be abandoned to their own desire, so that they perish. For this is suffered by the "vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction," and by their very perdition God makes known "the riches of his glory on the vessels of his mercy." It is for this reason that after saying, "My God, his mercy shall come before me," the psalmist at once adds, "God shall let me see over my enemies." Therefore it happens to them as is written, "Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart." But this does not happen to the predestined, whom the Spirit of God rules, for their cry is not in vain, "Give me not up, O Lord, from my desire, to the wicked," since it is also against these same desires that they have prayed, as is written, "Take away from me the greediness of the belly, and let not the lusts of the flesh take hold of me." God grants this favor to those over whom he rules but not to those who think they are fit to rule themselves and who, in the stiff-necked presumptuousness of their own will, disdain to have him as their guide.

There remains the Pelagians’ second act of wickedness, because they posit free will to such a degree in human strength that they think that they by themselves, apart from the grace of God, can conceive of some good or do it. But if this were the case, why would the prophet say, “O my God, his mercy will precede me”? When you hear that you were preceded by the mercy of the Lord, one is given to understand that nothing of yours preceded God’s mercy. In another psalm he also says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who built it.” Again he says, “The steps of a person are directed by the Lord and he delights exceedingly in his way.” In another place the psalmist also attests, “The Lord raises up those who have been broken; the Lord loosens those who have been shackled; the Lord gives light to the blind.” When you hear that the Lord goes before, builds, directs and raises up, unbinds and illumines without any preceeding merits, what of your own do you recognize that you have begun except only that by which you are rightly damned for your haughtiness?… But you interpret these words and others similar to them with the most evil intention, namely, in order that you may believe that people take the beginning of their good will from their own powers and afterwards receive the help of grace, so that (it is wrong for this even to be uttered!) we are the cause of his kindness rather than he being the cause of his own kindness.

In order not to falter in good works, we ought always to rely for support on the help of the one who says, “For without me you can do nothing.” Hence in order to express the fact that the start of faith and good action is given to us by the Lord, the psalmist properly says, “My God, his mercy goes before me.” Again, in order to teach that the good things we do must be accomplished with his assistance, he says, “And your mercy follows after me all the days of my life.” In order to show that the prize of eternal life rendered for good works is bestowed on us freely, he says, “Who crowns you in compassion and mercy.” He crowns us indeed in mercy and compassion when he repays us with the reward of heavenly blessedness for the good works that he himself has mercifully granted us to carry out.

See on Psa 57:1, title, and for history, Sa1 19:11, &c. The scope is very similar to that of the fifty-seventh: prayer in view of malicious and violent foes, and joy in prospect of relief. (Psa. 59:1-17) defend me--(Compare Margin). rise up . . . me--(Compare Psa 17:7).

prevent me-- (Psa 21:3). see my desire--in their overthrow (Psa 54:7). enemies--as in Psa 5:8.

In this second half of the Psalm the cry of fear is hushed. Hope reigns, and anger burns more fiercely. The Ker says that Psa 59:11 is to be read: אלהי חסדּי יקדּמני, my gracious God will anticipate me, - but with what? This question altogether disappears if we retain the Chethb and point אלהי הסדּו: my God will anticipate me with His mercy (cf. Psa 21:4), i.e., will meet me bringing His mercy without any effort of mine. Even the old translators have felt that chcdw must belong to the verb as a second object. The lxx is perfectly correct in its rendering, ὁ Θεὸς μου τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ προφθάσει με. The Ker has come into existence in looking to v. 18, according to which it seems as though אלהי הסדּי ought to be added to the refrain, Psa 59:10 (cf. a similar instance in Psa 42:6-7). But Psa 59:11 would be stunted by doing this, and it accords with Biblical poetic usage that the refrain in v. 18 should be climactic in comparison with Psa 59:10 (just as it also does not altogether harmonize in its first half); so that Olshausen's proposal to close Psa 59:10 with אלהי חסדי and to begin Psa 59:11 with חסדו (cf. Psa 79:8) is only just to be put on record. The prayer "slay them not" does not contradict the prayer that follows for their destruction. The poet wishes that those who lie in wait for him, before they are totally swept away, may remain for a season before the eyes of this people as an example of punishment. In accordance with this, הניעמו, by a comparison of the Hiph. in Num 32:13, and of the Kal in Psa 59:16, Psa 109:10, is to be rendered: cause them to wander about (Targum, cf. Genesis Rabba, ch. 38 init., טלטלמו); and in connection with בחילך one is involuntarily reminded of Psa 10:10, Psa 10:14, and is tempted to read בחלך or בחלך: cause them to wander about in adversity or wretchedness, = Arab. ‛umr ḥâlik, vita caliginosa h. e. misera), and more especially since בחילך occurs nowhere else instead of בּזרעך or בּימינך. But the Jod in בחילך is unfavourable to this supposition; and since the martial apostrophe of God by "our shield" follows, the choice of the word is explained by the consideration that the poet conceives of the power of God as an army (Joe 2:25), and perhaps thinks directly of the heavenly host (Joe 3:11), over which the Lord of Hosts holds command (Hitzig). By means of this He is first of all to cause them to go astray (נע ונד, Gen 4:12), then utterly to cast them down (Psa 56:8). The Lord (אדני) is to do this, as truly as He is Israel's shield against all the heathen and all pseudo-Israelites who have become as heathen. The first member of Psa 59:13 is undoubtedly meant descriptively: "the sin of their mouth (the sin of the tongue) is the word of their lips" (with the dull-toned suffix mo, in the use of which Ps 59 associates itself with the Psalms of the time of Saul, Psa 56:1-13, Psa 11:1-7, Psa 17:1-15, 22, 35, Psa 64:1-10). The combination ולילּכדוּ בגאונם, however, more readily suggests parallel passages like Pro 11:6 than Pro 6:2; and moreover the מן of the expression וּמאלה וּמכּחשׁ, which is without example in connection with ספּר, and, taken as expressing the motive (Hupfeld), ought to be joined with some designations of the disposition of mind, is best explained as an appended statement of the reason for which they are to be ensnared, so that consequently יספּרוּ (cf. Psa 69:27; Psa 64:6) is an attributive clause; nor is this contrary to the accentuation, if one admits the Munach to be a transformation of Mugrash. It is therefore to be rendered: "let them, then, be taken in their pride, and on account of the curse and deceit which they wilfully utter." If, by virtue of the righteousness of the Ruler of the world, their sin has thus become their fall, then, after they have been as it were a warning example to Israel, God is utterly to remove them out of the way, in order that they (it is unnecessary to suppose any change of subject), while perishing, may perceive that Elohim is Ruler in Jacob (בּ, used elsewhere of the object, e.g., Mic 5:1, is here used of the place of dominion), and as in Jacob, so from thence unto the ends of the earth (ל like על, Psa 48:11) wields the sceptre. Just like the first group of the first part, this first group of the second part also closes with Sela. The second group opens like the second group in the first part, but with this exception, that here we read וישׁבוּ, which loosely connects it with what precedes, whereas there it is ישׁוּבוּ. The poet's gaze is again turned towards his present straitened condition, and again the pack of dogs by which Saul is hunting him present themselves to his mind. המּה points towards an antithesis that follows, and which finds its expression in ואני. ויּלינוּ and לבּקר stand in direct contrast to one another, and in addition to this לערב has preceded. The reading of the lxx (Vulgate, Luther, [and authorized version]), καὶ γογγύσουσιν = ויּלּינוּ or ויּלּנוּ, is thereby proved to be erroneous. But if ויּלינוּ is the correct reading, then it follows that we have to take Psa 59:16 not as foretelling what will take place, but as describing that which is present; so that consequently the fut. consec. (as is frequently the case apart from any historical connection) is only a consecutive continuation of ינוּעוּן (for which the Ker has יניעוּן; the form that was required in Psa 59:12, but is inadmissible here): they wander up and down (נוּע as in Psa 109:10, cf. נוּד, Job 15:23) to eat (that is to say, seeking after food); and if they are not satisfied, they pass the night, i.e., remain, eager for food and expecting it, over night on the spot. This interpretation is the most natural, the simplest, and the one that harmonizes best not only with the text before us (the punctuation ישׂבּעוּ, not ישׂבּעוּ, gives the member of the clause the impress of being a protasis), but also with the situation. The poet describes the activity of his enemies, and that by completing or retouching the picture of their comparison to dogs: he himself is the food or prey for which they are so eager, and which they would not willingly allow to escape them, and which they nevertheless cannot get within their grasp. Their morbid desire remains unsatisfied: he, however, in the morning, is able to sing of the power of God, which protects him, and exultantly to praise God's loving-kindness, which satiates and satisfies him (Psa 90:14); for in the day of fear, which to him is now past, God was his inaccessible stronghold, his unapproachable asylum. To this God, then, even further the play of his harp shall be directed (אזמּרה), just as was his waiting or hoping (אשׁמרה, Psa 59:10).