|
4.
|
Let me not eat of their dainties
(“delicacies” — NIV; used only here, but derived from a
root meaning “pleasant”). It was at a special religious feast at
Hebron that Absalom solicited and received support, and proclaimed himself king
(2 Sam. 15:7-12).
|
5.
|
Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness.
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Prov. 27:6).
“Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee” (9:8; cp. generally
3:11,12; Heb. 12:5-11; Eccl. 4:13; Rev. 3:19). The outstanding example of this
in David’s experience is the dramatic rebuke administered by Nathan the
prophet (2 Sam. 12:7).
|
|
And let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil
(Psa. 133:2). It was shortly after Nathan’s rebuke, which wrought its
intended repentance and restitution, that “David arose from the earth, and
washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the
house of the Lord, and worshipped” (2 Sam. 12:20).
|
|
Which shall not break my head. Or, as NIV, “My
head will not refuse it.”
|
|
For yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.
The RV has: “For even in this wilderness shall my prayer
continue”; this suggests David’s flight from Jerusalem.
|
6.
|
When their judges are overthrown in stony places. These
are the leaders Absalom and Ahithophel, both overthrown (2 Sam. 15:4; 16:23);
“stony places” is particularly appropriate to the death and
burial of Absalom, in “a great pit (with) a very great heap of stones upon
him” (2 Sam. 18:17; cp. Psa. 140:10).
|
|
Even more graphically, the NIV has: “Their rulers will
be thrown down from the cliffs”. (The verb here is the same as in 2 Kings
9:33: “Throw her [Jezebel] down! — cp. Psa. 137:9; Hos. 10:14; 2
Chron. 25:12; Luke 4:29.) Did such a thing really happen to some of
Absalom’s henchmen in the aftermath of the defeat of the
revolution?
|
|
They shall hear my words; for they are sweet. The
antecedent to “they” appears to be the “judges...
overthrown”; but this makes no discernible sense. So “they”
must refer to the nation returning to its former strong loyalty to David (2 Sam.
19:9,10,14).
|
7.
|
Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth (cp.
Psa. 79:1-3; Ezek. 37:1-14). “Our bones” is the only plural
pronoun in the psalm; it probably includes, along with David, his loyal
bodyguard (2 Sam. 15:15,18). The whole of this phrase is a hyperbole for
‘We are as good as dead’. When the rebellion was at its height, it
must have seemed to David that there was hope for nothing but defeat and
shameful death on the field of battle — without even the small solace of a
decent burial. The words seem to be a reminiscence of a previous misery; what
had befallen Saul (Psa. 53:5) was now, so it seemed, about to befall
David.
|
|
However, the RSV and NEB follow some manuscripts of the LXX in
reading “Their bones, etc.” — which would in such a
case refer to the wicked judges of v. 6.
|
|
As when one cleaveth wood is a vivid figure of the
wholesale slaughter of battle. But again (these verses are very difficult
in the Hebrew) the NIV has the alternative: “As one plows and breaks up
the earth” — referring to the casual scattering about of clods.
(Plowing is a figure of affliction in Psa. 129:3 also.)
|
8.
|
In thee is my trust. See David’s splendid words
in 2 Samuel 16:10-12 (cp. v. 3 here).
|
10.
|
Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I
withal escape. This pictures David escaping from Absalom: “And all the
country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also
himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the
way of the wilderness” (2 Sam. 15:23).
|
|
2.
|
Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the
lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Jesus kneels in the
evening shadows of Gethsemane; there he was “touched” by
Gabriel at the time of the evening oblation (Dan. 9:21; Luke 22:43). And
especially see the prayer of John 17.
|
3.
|
Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the doors of my
lips (cp. Mic. 7:5; Prov. 30:32). This, along with v. 1, is an intimation of
a Christ under the strain of great temptation. Compare the circumstances of his
trial in John 18:19-23; 19:10.
|
4.
|
Incline not my heart to any evil thing. If the Son of
God needed added strength from his Father, how much more so did his weaker
brethren.
|
|
Let me not eat of their dainties. The attempts by
Pharisees to ensnare Jesus by social invitations (e.g., Luke 14:1).
|
5.
|
Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness.
Peter’s well-intentioned though misguided rebuke of Jesus’
desire to go up to Jerusalem (Matt. 16:22)? Or Martha’s complaint about
her sister Mary’s failure to help her in the kitchen (Luke
10:40)?
|
6.
|
Their judges are overthrown. Here is the inevitable
judgment against the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. The fulfillment of the
Lord’s prophecy about this (Matt. 23, esp. vv. 29-38), while
“bitter” in its actual experiencing, must have had an element of
sweetness too for those who heard his words — the sweetness
of a renewed assurance which the clear fulfillment of prophecy always brings.
|
7.
|
Our bones are scattered could then be the bitter
persecution meted out to the followers of Jesus, during the death-throes of
Judah’s commonwealth.
|
|
If it is “their bones” which are scattered
(see Par. 3) — i.e., the bones of God’s enemies — then the
reference here may be to Judas Iscariot: “Falling headlong, he burst
asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out” (Acts
1:18).
|
9.
|
Snares... gins. Compare Psa. 140:5, and see references,
Psa. 140, Par. 4.
|
10.
|
Let the wicked fall into their own nets (Psa. 140:9).
Precisely what the rulers sought to avoid (John 11:48-50) came upon
them.
|
|
Whilst I escape is, of course, the Resurrection of
Jesus.
|
|
2.
|
Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the
lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. For David fleeing from
Jerusalem and for Jesus in Gethsemane, these literal offerings were not
possible. But the lifting up of their hands in praise and supplication was (and
still is, for others) equally acceptable. Hence also Lam. 3:41; Psa. 63:4; 86:4;
and 1 Tim. 2:8. (See also the list, Psalms Studies, Psa. 28, Par. 5, v.
2.)
|
|
For the relationship between prayer and incense, see also Mal.
1:11; Rev. 5:8; 8:4. For the relationship among prayer, incense, daily
sacrifices, and the morning and evening devotions of tabernacle and temple, see
Psalms Studies, Psa. 3, Par. 1.
|
4.
|
Let me not eat of their dainties. To share the close
friendly “table” fellowship of certain sorts of men is to become,
first by small degrees and then more and more by wholesale lots, like unto them.
In certain social settings, the general standards of courtesy forbid men to
express exception to what they see and hear, which at other times they would
resolutely shun. And so, almost subconsciously, “bad company ruins good
morals” (1 Cor. 15:33) — and the best of men, unless they are
constantly on their guard, tend to turn into the sort of people which mere
formality “compels” them to put up with. How dangerous such
“polite” associations with worldly men can be!
|
5.
|
Which shall not break my head. Contrast Gen. 3:15
— to which subtle allusion was also made in Psa. 140:3.
|
6.
|
Sweet is from the same Hebrew root (nahemu)
as was used for “dainties” in v. 4. The true
“sweetness” is with the godly, and not with the wicked.
|