I. APPEAL FOR DELIVERANCE (1-2). Prayer. I. Expression of Confidence (ra). 2. Entreaty for Rescue (1b). 3. Extremity of Need (2). II. ASSERTION OF INNOCENCE (3-5). The Slandered. Protestation. Selah. III. ASSIZE OF JEHOVAH {6-13). The Judge. I. Application for Justice {6-8). 2. Anticipation of Succour (9-10 ). 3. Administration of Justice (u-13).
IV. ARREST OF WICKEDNESS (14-16). The Slanderer. Punishment. 1. Plot devised 14. 2. Pit dug (15a). 3. Plotter discomfited (15b-16). V. ASCRIPTION OF PRAISE (17). Praise. SUPERSCRIPT.-Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto Jehovah, on account of the words of Cush, a Benjamite. SUBSCRIPT.-For the Chief Musician; upon Gittith. PRIMARY AssocIATION.-Writer and circumstances are stated in the tide. " Shiggaion," Heb. occurs only here and plural in Hab. iii. I ; n1ost probably derived from a Heb. verb generally translated "to roar," and means to cry out, e.g. in trouble or danger or pain, also as a challenge and in triumph or joy; here, a loud cry of distress to Jehovah his Refuge and Rescuer. Cush (="black" or "sunburnt") not mentioned in the historical record, but was probably a close adherent as well as a fellow-tribesman of Saul, and prominent among those who made slanderous insinuations against David (r Sam. xxii. 8), further inflaming Saul's already irritated mind. Of such men David c01nplains (r Sam. xxiv. 9; xxvi. 19). Some think the name "Cush" is a symbolic one referring to Saul himself, whose character was morally "black" (his father's name was Kish). At any rate he was the chief offender by listening to the calumnies against David, and acting thereon. The psalm, then, belongs to the period when David was hunted from place to place by Saul who sought his life. "Gittith," i.e. winepresses; c£ subscript to Pss. lxxxi. and lxxxiv. These psalms were for use at the autumn Festival of Ingathering, or Tabernacles, which took place at the close of the vintage, the last harvest of the year. It may also have been sung as a chant by those who trod the grapes at the winepresses. This is a psalm of judgment; c£ Rev. xix. 15; Isa. !xiii. 3. PROPHETIC ANTICIPATION.-A "remnant" psalm pointing on to the time when a darker power will have risen up against God and His people, even Antichrist, oppressor of the faithful few. We hear the utterance of the remnant that shall be. The Spirit of Christ has again anticipated the need anq provided words easily appropriated to express the feelings of the sufferers, especially during the days of the Great Tribulation. PERSONAL APPLICATION.-How we should conduct ourselves under unjust accusations or when attacked by the malice and envy of others.
The righteous should leave their defence in the hands of God ( 1 Peter iv. 19). Those who invoke judgment must themselves submit to judgment, for God is no partial Judge. God has His arrows as well as the wicked (xi. 2) and the Wicked One (Eph. vi. 16). Against sin, holiness can only manifest itself as anger. Wickedness works to its own woe, unrighteousness to its own undoing. Do we sigh for the end of all wickedness on the earth? (v. 9); this corresponds to the pattern prayer (Matt. vi. 10 ). "Gittith "-sorrow and suffering are like the trodden grape-clusters, fruitful in producing the wine of holy joy. VERSE NOTES I. Br. "In Thee,(emph.) have I taken refuge"; (b) see I Sam. xxiii. 28; xxiv. 14; :xxvi. 18; they sought his life, I Sam. xx. r, 31; xxiii. 15, etc; "deliver" = rescue. 2. The chief persecutor here specified; "my soul"=a Heb term generally indicating the person himself considered as a living entity. 3. Refers to the crime of which he was falsely accused; for the calumny, see I Sam. xxiv. 9, II; :xxvi. 19; for protestation of innocence, c£ language, I Sam. xx. I; xxiv. IO-II; :xxvi. 18, 23-24; "iniquity"= wrong, what is crooked and distorted, not same Heb. word as in 14. 4b. His conduct had been the very reverse of that which was attributed to him, r Sam. xxiv. 4 ff.; :xxvi. 8 ff. ctr. Saul's spirit, r Sam. xxiii. 21 with 2 Sam. ii. 5; David's Ps. xxxv. 12-13. 5. David invokes a violent death by an enemy hand if he be guilty. "Selah" connects the crisis with the cry. 6. I.e. it might seem as if God were an indifferent spectator of His people's plight, or as if He were a negligent sentinel asleep at His post, yet the psalmist knew it was not really so; cxxi. 3-4. 7. A judgment scene. David prays that a general summons be issued to all the peoples to attend the tribunal; (b) as R.V. but a change in vowel points (which did not appear in the earlier text) makes the sense "over it (the assembly) take Thy seat on high," c£ ix. 4, 7. language of this verse suits the prophetic pro gramme of the last days. 8. The Judge having taken His seat the assize opens and the psalmist comes forward with his plea, "Do me justice." He challenges a decision based upon his conscious innocence of the charge of treachery brought against him; c£ r Sam. xxiv. ro-n; :xxvi. 23. See App. VIII. 9. David recognizes that his own case is but a part of the great cause of right agaët wrong. First line is an aspiration, "Oh, that the evil of wicked men might come to an end and that Thou wouldest establish the righteous" ; (b) argument, or ground upon which the hope is based, "For a 'trier of hearts and rems is God the righteous"; "heart" .in Old Testament regarded as organ of thought and will; "reins," (kidneys) as seat of emotions. 10. (a) i.e. it rests with God to defend him (na); "God"= Elohim; (b) "God" = El, Mighty One.
12-13. God described under fig. of a warrior armed with sword and bow as executor of vengeance upon the wicked. (13) Br. "Yea, at him hath he aimed deadly missiles, making His arrow fiery." (Kirkpatrick). God's arrows are His lightnings, xviii. 14; Zech. ix. 14; perhaps an allusion to the fire-darts of ancient warfare-arrows with in.flammable material attached, lighted and discharged into a besieged city to set it on fire. 14-16. The punishment of the wicked here, viewed from a different angle, namely that which inevitably follows as result of his own action. It is remarkable to find that Saul was smitten by the arrows of the very Philistines by whom he had hoped to destroy David, and by his own sword, 1 Sam. xviii. 17-21 with xxxi. 3-4. David instead of being killed by the Philistines was actually saved by them, I Sam. xxvii. 1-3. 15. Kirkpatrick renders "He hath dug a pit and delved it deep, and is fallen into the ditch he was making"; fig. used is that of pitfalls such as are made by hunters of wild animals. 16. Evil recoils upon the head of the evil-doer; 1 Sam. xxv. 39. 17. Closing Doxology; an acknowledgment of righteousness 'manifested in judging the wicked. Note title, Jehovah Elyon, suited to One who is Supreme Governor of the World. Book One. I. Revelation of the Divine Ruler, i.-viii. 3. The Ruler, viii. Son of Man.
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