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a.
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Michtam (as in Psalms 16, 56, 58, 59, and 60) is
usually taken to mean “Engraven”, perhaps with the idea of a lasting
memory.
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b.
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When he fled from Saul in the cave. A specific allusion
to 1 Samuel 24. These words imply that David’s distressing crisis was the
pursuit organized by Saul, and that it was as a desperate last resort that the
hunted hero took refuge in the cave of En-gedi (cp. Heb. 11:38). The ensuing
opportunity to slay Saul when the king came unsuspecting into the cave must have
presented a powerful temptation and an intense psychological crisis. This
consideration makes David’s honorable behavior in sparing Saul’s
life more than ever a thing to be marveled at. Yet, crisis over,
“David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s
skirt” (1 Sam. 24:5).
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c.
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Al-taschith (subscription) = “Destroy not”,
with reference not only to David’s determination that Saul not be slain,
but also as a prayer, with reference to the critical situation which came near
to destroying David (vv. 2-4,6). See Psalm 56, Par. 2.
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1.
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For my soul trusteth in thee. Few Old Testament
worthies showed their abiding faith in God as did David; yet there were times
when even he wilted.
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In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge. This
is an allusion probably to the cherubim (Psa. 17:8; 36:7; 61:4; 63:7; 91:1; cp.
also Deut. 32:10,11 and Ruth 2:12). Though he was hiding in a dark and outwardly
forbidding cave, David’s faith kept him as close to his God as if he were
in the Holy of Holies of the sanctuary.
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Calamities is, literally, “wickednesses”.
So 1 Sam. 24:13: “Wickedness (not s.w.) proceedeth from the
wicked.”
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3.
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Him that would swallow me up. In Psa. 56:1 the danger
was from the Philistine warriors of Achish, king of Gath. Here, the danger is
from Saul and his men.
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Selah (see Introduction, Chapter 7) might suggest the
rock of the cave where he had taken refuge, or the sacrifices gladly
offered at God’s altar-rock in thankfulness in later
days.
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God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. As in v.
10 also. The phrase regularly means God’s promises (e.g. 89:14,24; Mic.
7:20; Gen. 24:27; 2 Sam. 7:15). Here it alludes either to 1 Sam. 16:13 or (if
inserted in later days) to 2 Sam. 7.
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4.
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My soul is among lions. A figure suitable to the wild
wilderness where David now was.
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I lie even among them that are set on fire. Had
Saul’s men been setting fire to the scrub bushes in an attempt to smoke
out David and his men?
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Spears... arrows... a sharp sword. The words tell their
own story.
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Arrows: Psa. 120:4; Jer. 9:8.
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Their tongue a sharp sword. James 3:6. Consider 1 Sam.
24:9, where David asks Saul: “Wherefore hearest thou men’s (evil)
words?” Also see Psa. 55:21.
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5.
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From this point the tone of the psalm is different. David has
come through, and now thankfully praises God.
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Be thy glory above all the Land. The Land over which
David now, in later days, is king.
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6.
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The verbs look back to the earlier, evil, time: they have
prepared a net... my soul was bowed down... they have digged a
pit.
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Selah. In his thankfulness, David offers
sacrifice.
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8.
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Awake up, my glory. That is, my tongue (Psa. 16:9).
David’s (and any other man’s) chief glory is to glorify God.
“A well-employed tongue for praising God, and edifying others, is indeed a
man’s commendation and glory above other creatures”
(Dickson). See Psa. 30:12, note.
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Awake, psaltery and harp. Not at all suitable to the
environment described in vv. 1-4. But David is now, after his trials, settled
in his capital.
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I myself will awake early. “I will awake the
dawn” (RSV, NIV, Delitzsch). ‘The dawn awakes other kings,’
says David, ‘but I awake the dawn!’ Here is unwearied
earnestness in the service of God: Psa. 63:1; 78:34.
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9.
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The people. That is, am, ‘my people
Israel’.
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The nations, who have now (as of 2 Sam. 8) come to
acknowledge David as God’s king in Zion.
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10.
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For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto
the clouds. God’s promises (cp. note, v. 3) are the greatest thing in
the world (cp. also Psa. 36:5; 85:10,11; 103:11).
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1.
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In the shadow of thy wings. By a slight reversal of
this familiar figure, Jesus becomes the mother hen under the shadow of whose
wings Israel may find refuge: Matt. 23:37.
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Until these calamities be overpast is Passover language
(Isa. 26:20,21; Exod. 12:22). The garden tomb, sprinkled with the blood of the
true Passover lamb, and overshadowed by angels, was the counterpart of the
dwellings of the Israelites in Egypt. The one who was inside (though already
dead!) was nevertheless safe under the sheltering arms of the
Almighty.
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2,3.
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I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all
things for me. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him
that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
As David was not prepared to work out his own salvation, by slaying Saul, so
here Christ puts the emphasis on God’s saving power. He, too, was
justified by faith (v. 1: my soul trusteth in thee), and most of all in
his hour of extreme need.
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3.
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Save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up.
The revilings directed toward Jesus on the cross: Matt. 27:39-44.
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God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. The
suffering of Christ was to be the means of the fulfillment of the declared
purposes of God.
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4.
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My soul is among lions. The “lions” of the
tribe of Judah: Psa. 22:12,13; cp. Prov. 28:15.
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Whose teeth are spears, and arrows, and their tongue a
sharp sword. Luke 22:52. Eph. 6:13,16,17 uses, in a contrasting vein, the
very words of the LXX here.
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5.
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Let thy glory be above all the earth. At the
crucifixion, while the whole land shuddered under an unnatural darkness, for
Jesus there was the sustaining brightness of the Shekinah Glory (Whittaker,
Studies in the Gospels, pp. 780-783).
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6.
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They have prepared a net for my steps. As in Psa. 56:6,
the numerous attempts to entrap and/or arrest Jesus (cp. also Job 18:8; Psa.
9:15; 31:4; 140:5; Prov. 1:17).
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They have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof
they are fallen themselves. The destruction of city, temple, and nation
followed on inevitably from the crucifixion of Jesus. See Psa. 7:15,
notes.
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7-11.
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As David came to the throne and to victory over his enemies,
both Jewish and Gentile, so also Jesus will do in his coming again in
power.
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8.
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I myself will awake early. (1) “And in the
morning, rising up a great while before day” (Mark 1:35)? Or (2) “As
it began to dawn toward the first day of the week” (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:2;
Luke 24:1; John 20:1)?
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