Chapter Fifty-Eight

The psalm was written concerning Saul’s attempt to kill David, described in 1 Sam 19. The content of the psalm does not contradict the stated inscription, and Ps 57:4-5, where David speaks of his innocence and the undeservedness of the persecutions, directly confirm the correspondence of the inscription to the circumstances of the psalm’s origin.

Protect me, Lord, from those who unjustly attack me and lie in wait to kill me (2–5). Punish the lawbreakers who, like dogs, roam about the city searching for me; who speak slanders and do not fear answering for them (6–8). You, Lord, are my hope; scatter them, but do not kill them at once; rather weaken them so that when the Hebrews see them they may learn to remember You (9–14). Let them go about weakened, and I will sing praise to You, my defender (15–18).

Psalm 58:3. Deliver me from those who do wickedness; save me from the bloodthirsty, By “those who do wickedness” are understood David’s enemies—the followers of Saul who persecuted him at the time when they themselves were conscious of the innocence and undeservedness of these persecutions: they were consciously committing wickedness. These enemies were “bloodthirsty,” they sought to kill David, to violently take away his life.

Psalm 58:4. For behold, they lie in wait for my soul; mighty men gather against me, not for my transgression nor for my sin, O Lord; David confesses his complete innocence before God, and from this flows the undeservedness of the persecutions. Such a declaration is usually made by David in psalms from the period of persecutions by Saul, when neither David himself nor any of his enemies could point to any fault of his either before God or before people.

Psalm 58:6. You, Lord, God of Hosts, God of Israel, rise up to visit all the nations; do not spare any of the ungodly lawbreakers: The “nations” which David petitions God to punish are called further “ungodly lawbreakers.” These are not pagan tribes but the same followers of Saul and enemies of David, who for their hostility toward him are compared with enemies of the Hebrew people—the pagans. The latter harbored the most hostile feelings toward the Hebrews, based not only on a struggle for political predominance but also on religious and social peculiarities of the way of life of both, which is why this enmity was deep and almost primordial. Such in its strength and depth was the hatred of David’s enemies.

Psalm 58:7. In the evening they return; they howl like dogs and prowl about the city; Eastern cities even now strike travelers with the abundance of homeless dogs, which usually lie on the streets during the day, but in the evening gather in packs, fight over food, and are dangerous to people. Dogs were despised animals among the Hebrews. The comparison of his enemies to them points both to the predatory, full of evil intention character of their pursuit of David and to the moral worthlessness of the enemies themselves.

Psalm 58:8. Behold, they belch out with their mouths; swords are in their lips: “For,” they think, “who will hear? David’s enemies “belched out slanders” against him, that is, they insulted him with harsh words and insults, and they believed in their complete impunity (“who will hear?”), and they did not think about accountability before God. Their slanders contained blasphemy and disbelief.

Psalm 58:11. My God, showing me mercy, will go before me; God will let me see my enemies. “My God will go before me”—will guard me from enemies, will prevent their intentions and thwart them. Perhaps David here meant the cunning of Michal, who, to give David time to escape, placed a dummy on his bed and covered it, telling Saul’s messengers that David was lying sick. By this opportunity David used his escape in flight. “To see my enemies”—not to flee from them but to stand boldly before them in the consciousness of one’s strength and invincibility.

Psalm 58:12. Do not kill them, lest my people forget; scatter them by Your power and bring them low, O Lord, our defender. “Do not kill them,” that is, do not subject them to immediate and complete ruin, but weaken their strength (see verse 14), make them harmless to David, but not unpunished: inflict upon them punishment in the form of prolonged suffering, poverty, sickness, and the like, which would be visible to all people. This is necessary “lest my people forget,” so that by their sight they constantly remind the Hebrews of the necessity of obedience to God and of the punishment that threatens from Him the wicked: immediate and complete ruin of enemies, though it produces an acute and strong impression, is of short duration. The people will soon forget what happened, and with it will lack the needed prolonged reminder “to remember God.”

Psalm 58:14. Scatter them in Your anger, scatter them so that they are no more; and let them know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. “Scatter them so that they are no more”—not in the sense of complete and immediate destruction (see verse 12), but in the sense of weakening their predominance over David and the people, of their disorganization and neutralization of their actions, so that they no longer have that superior strength which they now possess.

Psalm 58:16. Let them wander about seeking food, and if they are not satisfied, let them spend the night. Deprive them of material sufficiency and outward strength on which their influence rested. This verse clarifies and supplements verse 12. The outward humbled and distressed condition of David’s enemies, formerly wealthy and honored, will serve as a living reminder to the Hebrews of what wickedness and disobedience to God lead to.