Psalms 54 — DRA — Scriptura

See Hebrew/Greek in BSB →

54Unto the end, in verses, understanding for David.
^{Verse 2}Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication:
^{Verse 3}Be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled,
^{Verse 4}At the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me: and in wrath they were troublesome to me.
^{Verse 5}My heart is troubled within me: and the fear of death is fallen upon me.
^{Verse 6}Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness hath covered me.
^{Verse 7}And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?
^{Verse 8}Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the wilderness.
^{Verse 9}I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.
^{Verse 10}Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.
^{Verse 11}Day and night shall iniquity surround it upon its walls: and in the midst thereof are labour,
^{Verse 12}And injustice. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets.
^{Verse 13}For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him.
^{Verse 14}But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar,
^{Verse 15}Who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.
^{Verse 16}Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. For there is wickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them.
^{Verse 17}But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me.
^{Verse 18}Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice.
^{Verse 19}He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw near to me: for among many they were with me.
^{Verse 20}God shall hear, and the Eternal shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God:
^{Verse 21}He hath stretched forth his hand to repay. They have defiled his covenant,
^{Verse 22}They are divided by the wrath Of his countenance, and his heart hath drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and the same are darts.
^{Verse 23}Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer the just to waver for ever.
^{Verse 24}But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee, O Lord.

Commentary

(Heb.: 54:3-5) This short song is divided into two parts by Sela The first half prays for help and answer. The Name of God is the manifestation of His nature, which has mercy as its central point (for the Name of God is טּוב, v. 8, Ps 52:11), so that בּשׁמך (which is here the parallel word to בּגבוּרתך) is consequently equivalent to בּחסדּך. The obtaining of right for any one (דּין like שׁפט, Psa 7:9, and frequently, עשׂה דּין, Psa 9:5) is attributed to the all-conquering might of God, which is only one side of the divine Name, i.e., of the divine nature which manifests itself in the diversity of its attributes. האזין (Psa 54:4) is construed with ל (cf. אל, Psa 87:2) like הטּה אזן, Psa 78:1. The Targum, misled by Psa 86:14, reads זרים instead of זרים in Psa 54:5. The inscription leads one to think of the Ziphites in particular in connection with "strangers" and "violent men." The two words in most instances denote foreign enemies, Isa 25:2., Psa 29:5; Eze 31:12; but זר is also a stranger in the widest sense, regulated in each instance according to the opposite, e.g., the non-priest, Lev 22:10; and one's fellow-countrymen can also turn out to be עריצים, Jer 15:21. The Ziphites, although Judaeans like David, might be called "strangers," because they had taken the side against David; and "violent men," because they pledged themselves to seize and deliver him up. Under other circumstances this might have been their duty as subjects. In this instance, however, it was godlessness, as Psa 54:5 (cf. Psa 86:14) says. Any one at that time in Israel who feared God more than man, could not lend himself to be made a tool of Saul's blind fury. God had already manifestly enough acknowledged David.

(Heb.: 54:6-9) In this second half, the poet, in the certainty of being heard, rejoices in help, and makes a vow of thanksgiving. The בּ of בּסמכי is not meant to imply that God is one out of many who upheld his threatened life; but rather that He comes within the category of such, and fills it up in Himself alone, cf. Psa 118:7; and for the origin of this Beth essentiae, Psa 99:6, Jdg 11:35. In Psa 54:7 the Kerמ merits the preference over the Chethמb (evil shall "revert" to my spies), which would at least require על instead of ל (cf. Psa 7:17). Concerning שׁררי, vid., on Psa 27:11. In the rapid transition to invocation in Psa 54:7 the end of the Psalm announces itself. The truth of God is not described as an instrumental agent of the cutting off, but as an impelling cause. It is the same Beth as in the expression בּנדבה (Num 15:3): by or out of free impulse. These free-will sacrifices are not spiritual here in opposition to the ritual sacrifices (Psa 50:14), but ritual as an outward representation of the spiritual. The subject of הצּילני is the Name of God; the post-biblical language, following Lev 24:11, calls God straightway השּׁם, and passages like Isa 30:27 and the one before us come very near to this usage. The praeterites mention the ground of the thanksgiving. What David now still hopes for will then lie behind him in the past. The closing line, v. 9b, recalls Psa 35:21, cf. Psa 59:11; Psa 92:12; the invoking of the curse upon his enemies in v. 8 recalls Psa 17:13; Psa 56:8; Psa 59:12.; and the vow of thanksgiving in v. 8 recalls Psa 22:26; Psa 35:18; Psa 40:10.

Open full in Library

Bible

Translations

Pentateuch

History

Wisdom

Major Prophets

Minor Prophets

Gospels

Acts

Pauline Epistles

General Epistles

Apocalyptic

Apocrypha

Keyboard shortcuts