Psalms 35

Contend, LORD, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me! The hunted king does not start with private revenge—he summons the LORD into the contention and the fight.

Bring contention to God first. When others fight you, ask him to contend; refuse to baptize your own retaliating spirit as prayer.

Calvin: enemies sought his life and troubled him by calumny; he pleads for redress of both. Appealing to God intimates wicked maligning men; urging him to take up arms shows grievous oppression. If even David did not escape malice, it ought not seem strange if they bite at us; incomparable consolation—God interposes against false accusations.

Commit life and reputation to God when falsely accused. Do not be disturbed solely by tearing mouths while he undertakes to plead your cause.

Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help! Defensive armor first: the plea asks God to rise as helper under assault.

Ask him to rise for your help. Name the need without pretending you already feel shielded; prayer may ask what faith still waits to see.

Calvin: such figures cannot apply to God strictly—he needs no spear or buckler; by breath or nod he overthrows enemies. The Spirit employs them to accommodate weak understanding and impress that God is present to aid. Faith ascends by degrees to heavenly power when God is introduced armed after the manner of men.

Pray as if God takes shield for you. Let the figure steady fear without shrinking God to human weapons; ask the exercise of his secret power against the ungodly's strength.

Brandish the spear and block those who pursue me. Tell my soul, "I am your salvation!" Wesley: Say—By thy spirit assuring me of it: and by thy providence effecting it. Offensive help and inward assurance belong together.

Ask both rescue and the word to your soul. Seek Spirit-assurance and providence that effects it; do not settle for delivered circumstances with an unbelieving heart.

Calvin: Say to my soul—have it thoroughly fixed that God is the author of salvation. From present aspect David could not ascertain it; natures are dull, and God often delivers while we sleep. Grant a lively sense of favor, armed as with a buckler, so hope rises superior to every danger—as infallibly certain as if God had said it.

Pray for lively persuasion, not bare rumor of help. Ask him to recall wandering thoughts so salvation-certainty outruns the pursuers.

Let those who seek my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonor; let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded! Imprecation here is courtroom and battlefield language handed to God—shame, turn-back, disappointment for life-seekers and evil-devisers.

Ask God to shame and turn back those who hunt life and devise evil. Take the plea seriously without nursing a private curse-life; leave the verdict with him.

Calvin: David calls God to take vengeance—not only to disappoint designs but to recompense according to deserts. First, confounded in seeing expectation fail; then, though imagining themselves firmly rooted, like chaff. The imprecation's style: he pleads not simply his own cause, nor utters rash passion, nor unadvised zeal; under the Spirit he entertains desires marked by moderation, far from revenge, hatred, or inordinate flesh.

Pray judgment without baptizing spite. Hold Spirit-guided appeal for just shame of the obstinate; refuse carnal desire for destruction as if it were piety.

Chaff image plus angelic chase: the enemies' stability is denied, and holy pursuit is asked.

Ask that plotted harm prove weightless. Chaff before wind is not cartoon cruelty; it is plea that malice lose its footing under the LORD's angel.

Calvin: as chaff driven with the wind, so disquieted by the secret impulse of the angel of the LORD they may never have rest. When he desires they be driven by the angel, we learn why the ungodly are troubled though no man pursues—God smites with amazement. This work is assigned to angels who execute judgments; the passage may touch permitted evil spirits over the reprobate, yet holy angels have pre-eminence as servants, fighting for the godly by opposing their enemies.

Confess angel-driven scattering of the chase. Trust God to unsettle settled malice; do not require your hands to play the wind.

Wesley: Their way—By which they flee, being chased. Flight itself becomes hazard under pursuit.

Pray that the fleeing oppressor find no sure path. Dark and slippery ways answer causeless hunt; keep the ask before God, not as a script you enact in bitterness.

Calvin: wherever they go, darkness and slippery places; in doubt and perplexity the angel pursues. Whatever they devise, may counsels end disastrously. Driven through dark slippery places so reason fails, they know not whither to go nor have time to draw breath.

Ask confusing pursuit of the cruel chase. Leave their footing to the angel of the LORD; refuse to envy those whose way God makes unsure.

For without cause they have hidden their net in a pit for me. Without cause they have dug a pit for my soul. Wesley: For—Out of mere malice. Double "without cause" is the moral ground of the imprecation.

Name causeless malice honestly before you ask judgment.

Calvin: he did not take God's name in vain nor call for protection without just cause—he asserts innocence and complains of severe affliction without crime. Carefully mark this, so that no one may rush unadvisedly into God's presence, nor call upon him for vengeance, without the assurance and testimony of a good conscience. Stratagem and fraud imply a tacit commendation of his integrity.

Imprecation requires a good conscience. Check your cause before you ask nets to rebound; God is not a hired avenger for murky quarrels.

Let destruction come on him unawares. Let his net that he has hidden catch himself. Let him fall into that destruction! Lex talionis under God's hand: the hidden net becomes the trapper's own fall.

Ask rebound judgment, not a private ambush you spring. Surprise destruction of the plotter is God's business; your calling is still not to live by the net.

Calvin: confusion of which he is not aware—when the wicked settle like wine on the lees, fear nothing, persuaded they go well, then unwonted terror; their craft turns to their own destruction. Let them fall with confusion into nets they laid—filled with amazement when suddenly visited. The more they imagine escape, the more terror when calamity overtakes.

Pray the plotter meet his own device. Hold sudden divine confusion as warning against settled cruelty; do not mistake calm malice for safety.

Then my soul shall be joyful in the LORD. It shall rejoice in his salvation. Joy is vowed as answer to deliverance—salvation, not payback, is the song's object.

Aim the heart past the enemy to the LORD's salvation. Let rejoicing be in him; refuse a soul that only knows how to hate well.

Calvin: not continuing mere desire—he promises gratitude. Few yield whole praise of deliverance to God; David will not forget. Soul rejoices not in a deliverance of unknown author, but in the salvation of God.

Vow joy in Jehovah's salvation. Credit the Author; do not split praise with fortune, skill, or your own grit.

All my bones shall say, "LORD, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?" Wesley: My bones—My whole body, as well as my soul. Incomparability centers on rescue of the overmatched poor.

Let whole-body praise confess who is like him. When you are poor against the too-strong, make bones and soul say it; deliverance of the needy is his glory.

Calvin: explains the joy—ascribing deliverance entirely to God. Men praise so that he scarcely obtains the tenth part; David distinguishes him from all others. Who is like thee: whole glory due to him alone. Peculiar duty to succor the miserable; cling to hope in adversity—enemies' power is no reason to lose confidence, for he reigns to resist the strong who oppress the weak.

Extol the incomparable deliverer of the poor. Rest hope on him when outmatched; let oppressors know they provoke the guardian of the needy.

They ask me about things that I don’t know. Courtroom cruelty: violent testimony and questions aimed at what he cannot know.

Bring false witness to God when defense is denied. You need not invent answers to framed questions; cry to the Judge who knows.

Calvin: violent witnesses rise—oppressed with calumny so he had no opportunity of defending himself; nothing more grievous to ingenuous minds conscious of no blame. Not only falsely accused but audacity of those who violently rose. They charge things he knows not. Being involved, he resorted to God to maintain innocence. Walk through good report and bad until God asserts innocence from on high.

Endure malicious witness with recourse to God. Purity of conscience supports only when it has recourse to him; wait his assertion.

They reward me evil for good, to the bereaving of my soul is bereft. Ingratitude deepens the wound: good answered with evil, soul stripped.

Name evil-for-good without becoming evil. Bereavement of soul is not imaginary; still refuse to repay in kind.

Calvin: aggravated malice—not only wronged the innocent but those who received enjoyment and favors recompensed with strange ingratitude. Severe to good men, yet great consolation when we can testify we attempted to soothe enemies toward gentleness while they desire our hurt; God will not suffer brutal ingratitude to pass unpunished. They endeavored to bereave the soul—deprive of comfort, overwhelm with despair.

Testify kindness before God when repaid with evil. Keep the record of good done; leave unpunished ingratitude to him.

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom. Wesley: Returned—Although my fastings and prayers did them no good. Costly love: sackcloth, fasting, bowed prayer for their sickness.

Remember how you prayed for them when sick. Love that wore sackcloth still hurts when repaid with hate; do not rewrite history to make yourself always hard.

Calvin: sickness stands for any trouble; as often as calamity befell them he was partaker of grief. Prayer poured into his own bosom—not ostentatious before men, but secret, God alone witness. Sackcloth and fasting helps to prayer in urgent necessity; he took their sins as it were to implore mercy while they sought his destruction. Fasting remains in force as a means fitted to promote humility when God shows displeasure.

Practice secret intercession, not theater. When enemies fall sick, pity in earnest; let former sackcloth prove your cause was not spite from the start.

I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother. Friend-, brother-, mother-grief: the measure of his former compassion.

Measure past love by family mourning. If you once bowed for them as for a mother, their later mockery is treachery—and your call is still not to erase that standard.

Calvin: behaved toward them as if each had been his brother; humbled as one that mourns heavily for his mother. Tokens of true love—not mere open hand with shut heart—laid them under high obligations; baser ingratitude than to vomit hatred in his adversity.

Let mother-grief love expose their later cruelty. Hold the memory of compassion; it strengthens appeal without licensing your own venom.

But in my adversity they rejoiced and gathered themselves together; the attackers gathered against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me without ceasing; Wesley: Gathered—so full of joy they sought to communicate it. Abjects—vile persons. Knew not—no suspicion. Tear me—good name with calumnies.

Name the joy that gathers at your fall. Wretches tearing without ceasing wound reputation; bring the ceaseless tear to God rather than invent matching slander.

Calvin: rejoiced at my halting—calamities; as soon as he began to stagger they gathered to overthrow him. Cruelty: many relent when enemies are wretched; these were incited by his affliction. Lowest of the people joined; firebrands kindled hatred. I knew not—no offense given, or no acquaintance. Cut/tore—opened mouth; scoffing without end.

Expect pile-on at the stumble. When abjects gather at your halting, hold integrity; their ceaseless tearing is evidence in God's court.

“Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me.” Wesley: Mockers—buffoons and jesters to gain admittance to great men's tables. Feast-stage cruelty with animal rage.

See the hired sneer for what it is. Mockery that buys a seat at tables still gnashes; do not envy the feast that feeds on your name.

Calvin: among perfidious jesters at feasts they gnash—crafty, lost to shame, deliberating how to destroy the afflicted. Leaders and powers more than thoughtless crowds. Gnashing marks furious beasts. Over cups they consulted putting him to death.

Feast-mockery can be murder's workshop. Take gnashing seriously as hatred, not mere humor; ask God to answer the banquet's plot.

Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction, my precious life from the lions! Wesley: Look on—Without affording me pity or help. Darling—my only one; left alone and forsaken by friends, none to trust but God.

Pray how-long without quitting trust. When friends forsake and lions circle, the only soul still has God; ask rescue, not a stoic silence.

Calvin: how long wilt thou look on—bewail delay; God allows the faithful to bewail grief at his delay while they quietly wait the time of help. Constrained by extremity—they rush like lions; solitary/only soul. Already he sets to thanksgiving as if he had obtained—invincible fortitude in extremity.

Bewail delay and still wait. How-long is permitted speech under lions; let it drive you to rescue-prayer, not to despair's exit.

I will give you thanks in the great assembly. I will praise you among many people. Wesley: I will—When I shall be restored to the liberty of the publick assemblies. Public thanks vowed under private threat.

Vow congregational thanks before the rescue lands. Aim praise at the great assembly; deliverance is not only for private relief.

Calvin: again engages to give thanks—sacrifice of praise. Even surrounded by fear he sets to giving thanks as if he had obtained, to encourage assurance. Outcast and fugitive, still thinks of praising and vows solemn sacrifice—sees deliverance shining in death's darkness. Great congregation and much people: the crowd at the sanctuary.

Practice thanks in advance among God's people. Let vowed public praise steady private terror; the throng will hear what the lions could not silence.

Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes. Wrongful foes and causeless haters—winking triumph denied.

Ask that wrongful joy be stopped. Without-cause hate does not deserve the last wink; leave their rejoicing to God's restraint.

Calvin: enemies already exulted in hope of his overthrow; he prays God would not suffer such wicked desire. Protests they hated without fault or occasion—malice urged cruelty. To secure help, come with testimony of a good conscience. Wink with the eye—mockery.

Block wrongful rejoicing by prayer, not by matching wink. Keep good conscience in the file; causeless hate is their record before God.

For they don’t speak peace, but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land. Yes, they devise words of deceit. Wesley: They breathe threatenings and war; not open violence but subtile artifices against those who desire to live quietly and peaceably.

Defend the quiet against deceit. Peaceable living is not weakness God ignores; name the craft that hunts the quiet.

Calvin: speak not peace but devise deceitful words upon the clefts of the earth—the miserable and afflicted, broken and maimed. As soon as they see opening—calamity—they put forth efforts to destroy. Cowards of prosperity become insolent in others' adversity.

God sides with the quiet cleft when deceit plots. Do not romanticize their "peace" speech; it is war in soft words—pray it exposed.

They open wide against me. Our eye has seen it!" Wesley: Wide—floods of scoffs. ha—joy and triumph. Our eye—what we long desired and hoped for.

Bring the Aha to God who also sees. Their eye's triumph is not the final sight; refuse to let their wide mouth write your end.

Calvin: open mouth, Aha! aha!—clapping joy at seeing him overcome and prostrate. Graphic cruelty of desires; the more they vaunt, the more they provoke wrath—and that encourages hope in prayer.

Treat Aha as evidence, not as destiny. Their seen triumph is temporary exhibit; ask the God who sees to answer the shout.

You have seen it, LORD. Don’t keep silent. Lord, don’t be far from me! Wesley: This—Thou also hast seen plots, threats, distresses. Keep not—Be not deaf to my prayers; same word for silent and deaf.

Appeal from their seeing to his seeing. Ask speech and nearness; silence and distance would leave the scoffed without a vindicator.

Calvin: implied contrast—they rejoiced at the sight; God also sees their cruelty. Overlook scoffing; elevate thoughts to God; entreat him to show troubles are not unknown—and the more he sees the wicked watching to ruin, the more speedily come. Keep not silence; be not far—forms of request governed by clear persuasion of providence.

Set providence as rampart against derision. Pray against divine silence; confidence that he has seen must govern the ask.

Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God and my Lord, to plead my cause! My Lord! Wesley: Awake—To plead my cause against mine adversaries. Double claim: my God! My Lord for my cause.

Ask him to awake for your vindication. Own him as God and Lord while you ask; cause-pleading is covenant speech, not presumption alone.

Calvin: stir up, awake for my judgment and cause. Delay makes God seem asleep to the afflicted; he asks what accords with appointment. My God! My Lord—personal claim under public assault.

Cry awake for judgment without charging him with true sleep. Let "my God! My Lord" anchor vindication-prayer when the case feels ignored.

Vindicate me, LORD my God, according to your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me! Judgment requested on the standard of God's righteousness—not private score-settling.

Ask vindication by his righteousness. That standard may correct you as well as free you; refuse a plea that only wants them silenced.

Calvin: confirms the prayer—God his defender maintaining righteous cause. Sets before himself God's righteousness, which forbids that he altogether abandon the upright. Solemn appeal: as he is righteous, manifest righteousness in defending his servant. When forsaken-feeling tempts, no remedy more effectual than this—the righteousness of God on which deliverance depends can never fail.

Appeal to righteousness that cannot fail. Anchor hope there when you feel abandoned; ask that they not rejoice, because his character is on the line with the upright cause.

Let them say in their heart, Aha! That’s the way we want it! Don’t let them say, "We have swallowed him up." Inner Aha and swallow-boast—both denied in prayer.

Pray against their heart's desire and swallow-claim. You need not hear that verdict stand; ask God to interrupt the private triumph.

Calvin: portrays cruelty of desires—if things happen to their wish, no limit to frowardness. The more they vaunt, the more they provoke wrath; David uses that as support in prayer.

Block the swallow-boast by appeal to God. Their heart's desire is not sovereign; ask interruption before cruelty finishes its sentence.

Let those who rejoice at my calamity be disappointed and confounded together; let those who magnify themselves against me be clothed with shame and dishonor! Closing imprecation: shame-clothing for calamity-rejoicers and self-magnifiers.

Ask collective shame for those who party at your hurt. Magnifying themselves against you is pride God may clothe with dishonor; leave the dressing to him.

Calvin: ashamed and confounded together—not one or two but a multitude; he yielded not to fear, believing God could at one stroke overthrow them all. Rejoicing at hurt shows cruel hatred; magnifying themselves against him is pride. Dictated by the Spirit—end of the proud: turn back with shame and disgrace.

Pray shame on cruel pride without fear of their numbers. Altogether is hope in God's one stroke; refuse panic that treats the crowd as final.

Let those who favor my righteous cause shout for joy and be glad. Yes, let them say evermore, "Continually, May the LORD be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant!" Allies of the righteous cause get a shout; greatness language answers the magnifiers of v. 26.

Pray for glad allies, not only shamed foes. Ask evermore praise that the LORD delights in his servant's welfare; let the church's joy outlast the mockers' feast.

Calvin: those who favor his righteous cause rejoice—deliverance becomes general rejoicing and stirs praise. Some formed just estimate and grieved that a holy benevolent man was wronged. Jehovah be magnified—tacitly opposed to the wicked's pride. God takes special care of servants and pleasure in their peace. Tongue declares righteousness and praise all the day.

Aim deliverance at God's magnification and the godly's gladness. Seek allies who love the righteous cause; let "Continually, May the LORD" drown the Aha.

Then my tongue shall talk about your righteousness and about your praise all day long. Final vow: tongue occupied all day with righteousness and praise—not with the enemy's name.

End the imprecatory path in all-day praise. After asking shame for the cruel, fill speech with his righteousness; do not let the curse become your only dialect.

Calvin: conclusion—celebrate in appropriate praises the righteousness of God by which he had been preserved and delivered. The tongue's all-day work is declaration of that righteousness and praise.

Let the tongue's last word be praise. Righteousness told all day is the imprecation's proper landfall; preserved servants become continual witnesses.