I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.

“"Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not." Above, the Psalmist showed the insult of enemies against himself. Here he sets down deliverance from them. And first he asks in general against all enemies. Second he asks specifically against certain ones, at "Deliver me from my enemies." Concerning the first he does two things. First he implores God's help against the evils which he suffers from enemies. Second, that having been heard he gives thanks, at "Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me." Concerning the first he does two things. First he sets forth at length the evils he suffers, as to sadness. Second, as to the constancy of the tribulation. "Have mercy on me, God, for he has trampled." In this Psalm, according to the Gloss, the Psalmist speaks in his own person, expressing the very tribulations which he was suffering. It can also be said in the person of the Church, or of the just man, or of Christ, insofar as he bears the figure of our weakness. The title: "Unto the end, in songs, the understanding of David." And the sense is, "the understanding of David," as if he were to say: this is the understanding of David, set in songs. And it is entitled from understanding, so that he who is in tribulation may know how to recognize the evils he suffers, and the goods he awaits, according to that of Proverbs 14: "the heart which knows bitterness, etc.," and so on. This Psalm, then, is divided into three parts. For first he sets forth the tribulation he was suffering. Second, the malice of his enemies, at "Cast down." Third he calls to mind the help of God shown to him, at "But I have hoped in God." Concerning the first he does two things. First he asks that his prayer be heard. Second he sets forth the tribulation, at "I have been made sorrowful." He says therefore, "Hear, O God, my prayer." This is when what one asks is affirmed by repeating the prayer. Nor is this superfluous, because the repetition of a prayer stirs up affection. James, at the end: "it avails much," etc. Sometimes, moreover, what is sought is obtained even though the prayer is not acceptable to God, as when a sinner asks — yet in this very asking he merits God's indignation. Psalm: "he gave them their petitions, and sent fullness into their souls," etc., "but while their food was yet in their mouths... the wrath of God came up upon them." Often one grants in anger what he refuses in mercy. And therefore he says, "and despise not my supplication." One's prayer is despised for two reasons: either because one asks for what ought not justly to be asked, or because one asks not devoutly but with pride. Psalm: "he has had regard to the prayer of the humble, and has not despised it," etc. The prayer of the Pharisee was despised because he prayed with pride; Luke 18; Psalm: "let my prayer be directed," etc. "Attend to me, and hear me." Here is described the order by which God accepts a prayer: namely, that he first holds the person praying as accepted, since one who asks is not accepted on account of his prayer, but rather the prayer of those already accepted is accepted on account of their petition. Whence it is said in Genesis 4: "the Lord had regard to Abel first, and to his offerings." "Attend to me," that is, receive me favorably. Or, attend to my affliction. Exodus 3: "I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people." "And hear me." Psalm: "hear, O God, my prayer, when I make supplication." "I have been made sorrowful." Here he sets forth the tribulations. And first he sets down the cause of the tribulation. Second, its gravity. Third, the remedy. The cause of the tribulation was the tribulation which he was suffering. This too applies to Christ: "My soul is sorrowful even unto death." Now this tribulation of Christ can be considered as to its fruit, as to its manner, and as to its motive. The fruit of the tribulation of the saints is the exercise unto righteousness, as in trainings; and therefore he says, "in my exercise," that is, in the tribulation which you send in for the sake of exercise. "I have been made sorrowful." But against this, Proverbs 12: "whatever shall befall the just man shall not make him sorrowful." It must be said that the just man is not made sorrowful with the sorrow of the age which threatens death, but with the sorrow of penance which is according to God. Or it must be said that there is one sorrow which is a passion, and this corporeally imitates a passion, and this does not befall the wise man. There is another sorrow which is called a propassion, which is a sudden movement, and this sorrow was in Christ. And there is a twofold exercise unto righteousness. One is assumed voluntarily — 1 Timothy 4: "exercise yourself." The other exercise is one that is inflicted, of the kind spoken of here. The manner of tribulation is twofold. One is by words, namely by threatening. The other is when tribulation is inflicted by deeds, by persecuting. As to the first he says: "I was troubled at the voice of the enemy." One is troubled when the tranquility of the heart is wholly removed. "At the voice of the enemy" who threatens and blasphemes. Jeremiah 12: "my inheritance is become to me as a lion in the forest." As to the second he says, "and by the tribulation of the sinner," namely, brought upon me. Psalm: "many are they who persecute me." The cause of this tribulation is twofold: sometimes they trouble him out of settled malice, sometimes out of passion. As to the first he says, "for they have turned iniquities upon me," that is, they have carried out upon me the iniquity which they had thought to perpetrate. As to the second he says, "and in wrath they were troublesome to me." Genesis 49: "cursed be their fury." "My heart was troubled within me." Here is set down the greatness of the tribulation as to three things: because it is near, great, and effective. When someone wishes to set out grief at length, he says he was touched even to the heart. And therefore he says, "my heart was troubled within me," as if to say: not in outward things only, but even to his very heart he is wounded. Jeremiah 4: "I grieve in my bowels." The tribulation is also great, because among worldly things no evil is as great as death. Whence he says, "the fear of death," that is, fear concerning death, "has fallen upon me," because Saul wished to kill him. The tribulation is also effective, because fear, when it is strong, has a twofold effect: one in the body, namely trembling; the other in the soul, namely trepidation. And therefore he says, "fear and trembling of death have come upon me," that is, upon my powers as to the soul, "and darkness has covered me," that is, stupor has enveloped me. Or, "darkness," that is, evil men. Psalm: "they surrounded me like bees." "And I said: who will give me?" Above, the Psalmist set forth the affliction of heart which he suffered; now he sets down the remedy which he applied; and this remedy is chiefly the solicitude of contemplation, especially because in the works of the active life one is again held fast. Gregory: "the evils which press upon us here compel us to go to God." And concerning this he does two things. First he proposes the desire for the contemplative life. Second he shows what he did in disposing himself toward it. Third, what he awaits to be brought to completion by God. The second, at "behold, God." The third, at "I waited." In contemplation three things are required: facility of contemplating, the act of contemplation, and the effect. Facility is designated by feathers. Whence, being afflicted in the active life, he says, "I said, who will give me wings/feathers like a dove?" — considering that there is no remedy for escaping this affliction except through contemplation, and that he does not have the facility of escaping it, because he does not have feathers by which he might fly. And there is a threefold feather according to the three things which are required for contemplation. For first is required the ordering of the vicious affections, which is a certain disposition toward contemplation; and this is had through the moral virtues. Whence the feathers are the moral virtues, such as patience, humility, and so on. Malachi, at the end: "healing in his wings." Another feather is charity, which above all makes one fly into contemplation. Ezekiel 1: "and their wings were joined one to another." Another feather is wisdom; and by the feathers of wisdom truth is contemplated, because without those feathers one easily slips into errors if divine things are contemplated. Concerning these feathers, Isaiah 40: "they shall take feathers/wings as eagles," which signifies wisdom by its high flight. These things are said because they are not had at all in this life, and are given so that they might be had absolutely. And all these are given by God. Sometimes they are given to certain persons who, even if they have the feathers, nevertheless have them impeded, as with prelates when their resignation is permitted. And he says, "the wings of a dove," not of a raven. For the raven did not return to the ark, but the dove returned bearing a branch of green olive. Just as those fly like ravens who do not return to the ark through the affection of holiness, because they think of nothing but themselves — how, namely, they might track down some truth, as the philosophers do — but those fly like doves who both contemplate and return to their neighbors, teaching what they have contemplated, and who carry in their mouth the branch of green olive, dispensing the oil of mercy to their neighbors. For the dove is a clean animal, lovable, moaning; thus the saints are affected toward their neighbors and have compassion on them. Likewise it is a simple animal; thus the saints too have simplicity. Matthew 10: "simple as doves." The act of contemplation is signified by flight. "I will fly." In Sacred Scripture the progress of good works is designated by a threefold movement of an animal: namely by walking. John 12: "walk while you have the light." By running. Psalm: "the way of your commandments," etc. And by flying. Isaiah 40: "they shall fly and not faint." Walking is designated by the moral virtues, by which man lives in a human way. Running, by charity. Flight, by contemplation. According to Richard of St. Victor, contemplation is diversified just as the flight is diversified among birds. Sometimes birds fly upward, sometimes downward, to the right, to the left, forward and back, sometimes circling around. Sometimes, hovering suspended, they go forward and go back. So too in contemplation, to ascend is to consider lofty causes, to descend is to consider the lowest effects. Likewise, to go forward is to consider more the things opposed to one another which are held in common by many; to go back is when one considers private things. Likewise, from the right and from the left, when one considers certain circumstances. Circularly, when one considers the accidents of things; but when the individual thing is signified, then there is rest. The effect is designated when he says, "and I will rest," namely in consideration. This rest is had in this life. Wisdom 8: "entering into my house, I shall repose." And in the homeland. Psalm: "in peace, in the very same, I will sleep and I will rest." "Behold, I have gone far off, fleeing." Here is set down the disposition for contemplating. And first he shows what he avoided. Second, what he kept to. He avoided the impediments to contemplation, which are chiefly two, namely occupation with earthly things and with sin. And these two must be avoided in two ways, namely swiftly and effectually. Swiftly, so that it not be delayed; and therefore it ought to be done at once. Whence he says, "fleeing." Ecclesiasticus 21: "flee from sin as from the face of a serpent." Zechariah 2: "O, O flee out of the land of the north." Effectually, so that not only the act of sin but also the occasions of sin be avoided. And therefore he says, "I have gone far off," as if to say: I have abandoned all occasions of sin. Genesis 19: "do not stay anywhere in all the surrounding region." "And I remained in the wilderness." Sometimes one remains in solitude with respect to place, because he remains there bodily; sometimes with respect to soul, because even amid crowds he thinks upon the things that are of God. Hosea 2: "I will lead her into the wilderness." Lamentations 3: "he shall sit solitary." And these words, according to the Gloss, are otherwise expounded so as to be referred to Christ, who has feathers on account of charity, and flew away from the Jews and rested among the Gentiles, went far off from the Jews and remained in the faith of the Gentiles, which was a certain solitude. "I waited for him." Here he shows what he awaits from God, namely the help of God, which is the fulfillment of his desire. Psalm: "I waited for him who made me safe," etc. And therefore he says, "who would make me safe." And why? Because he alone is the savior. And from what does he save? From two things, on account of which he seemed to be moved to take up feathers: namely from the possibility of ruin, since he was being troubled among men. One is the sadness of heart, which believes it can find rest there. Whence he says, "from pusillanimity of spirit." He is too bold who seeks to find rest amid crowds. Isaiah 35: "say to the fainthearted: take courage." And "from the tempest," namely from the tribulation of men, save me, both temporal and spiritual. "Cast down, O Lord." In the preceding part the Psalmist set forth the affliction which he suffered from the wicked; here he treats of their malice. And first, describing the malice of sinners, he asks that it be hindered. Second he asks that it be punished with a penalty, at "let death come." Concerning the first he does two things. First he asks that their malice be hindered. Second he describes it, at "for I have seen iniquity." In two ways the wicked have the capacity and power to do harm: namely on account of the height of their position, and on account of the agreement of many into one. And this is dangerous; and therefore a twofold remedy ought to be applied against it. In one way, that they be cast down from their position. In another way, that division be placed among them. As to the first he asks, "cast down, O Lord," namely by removing them from their position, as if to say: cast them down by humbling them. As to the second he says, "and divide their tongues," because their malice is first in the tongue, with which they speak grandly. 1 Kings 2: "do not multiply speaking lofty things" — and because with the tongue, by speaking, they consent to evil. And a figure of this kind of division was in the Old Testament, where the tongues of the nations were divided; Genesis 11. "For I have seen iniquity." Here he describes their malice. And first he describes the common malice of the world. Second, the malice of some particular person, chief among them. He describes the common malice of the multitude first in general. Second in particular, at "day and night." In a multitude there is a twofold disorder: one on the part of the rulers, the other on the part of the people. For a city is well-ordered when the rulers rule justly and the people obey; otherwise it is not well disposed. And such a city is the world, in which neither do the rulers rule justly nor does the people obey. But the city of God is well-ordered. In the city of the world, then, "I have seen iniquity and contradiction." I have seen iniquity on the part of the rulers and judges. Isaiah 1: "your assemblies are iniquitous." Likewise I have seen contradiction against the rulers. Isaiah 41: "your people are like the soil, which is trampled." "Day and night." Here he shows it in particular. In any city there are three things: namely, the walls which surround it, the middle dwelling-place, and the streets. And the Philosopher distinguishes three kinds of men. By the walls are understood the princes and the great men of the city, who guard the people just as walls guard the city. Proverbs 25: "like a city open and without the circuit of walls, so," etc. Isaiah 62: "upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen," that is, princes and rulers. Isaiah 1: "your princes are unfaithful." And "day," namely by carrying out malice, "night" by devising it. Or "day" in prosperous things, "night" in adverse things. Whence he says, "iniquity shall surround them upon its walls," that is, the injustice of the princes shall surround the city of the world, just as walls surround a city. The middle of this city is the people, in whom "there is labor in the midst of it, and injustice" — as to the evil which they do, and thus zealous application to evil, when he says, "labor imposed." Jeremiah 9: "they have labored to act unjustly." Wisdom 5: "we have grown weary in the way of iniquity." And this very thing is the species of evil, and injustice. And this is understood passively, of the injustice which they suffer from the rulers, and the labor imposed upon them. The streets are public places, and there are those who carry on public trades, such as merchants, in whom there is manifest injustice, as through usury. Psalm: "who has not put out his money to usury." And therefore he says, "usury has not failed from its streets." Likewise hidden evils — whence he says, "and deceit." "If my enemy." Here he describes the malice of some singular and chief person within the multitude. And this perhaps refers either to Saul, or to Doeg the Idumean. And first he sets down the evil which could be tolerated in some way. Second he sets down the evil which is not tolerable. It is tolerable in some way that a man should suffer persecution from enemies. And therefore he first describes the persecution of enemies. And first on the part of the enemy who persecutes. Second on the part of the persecutor. Third on the part of the one who suffers the persecution. One who persecutes is sometimes called an enemy, namely when he carries out enmities outwardly. Ecclesiasticus 12: "never trust your enemy." Sometimes he carries out enmities while holding the enemy with hatred in his heart. Leviticus 19: "do not hate your brother in your heart." Now on the part of the persecutor there is a difference, because sometimes he who persecutes expressly speaks evils of the one he persecutes, whether by detraction or by doing injury; and this kind of persecution is called cursing. Whence he says, "if my enemy had cursed me." Psalm: "whose mouth with cursing, etc.," etc. Sometimes he does not speak evils expressly, but keeps an evil manner in speaking, because he speaks contemptuously. On the part of the one enduring, too, there is diversity, because sometimes he hears reproaches and endures them patiently. James, at the end: "you have heard of the patience of Job." Whence, "I would indeed have borne it." Sometimes he hides himself from the face of the enemy. Whence, "I would perhaps have hidden myself from him." Ecclesiasticus 8: "do not stand against the face of your enemy." John 8: "he hid himself." As to the diversity of the one persecuting, then, he says, "divide their tongues," etc., since I suffer not only from an enemy, but from a friend. As to the second he says, "if they had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him: but you, a man of one mind with me." Here he sets down the evil which is not tolerable, that is, that he suffers injury from friends, because no plague is more effective for harm than a familiar friend turned enemy. And he describes the enmity first as to interior things. Second as to exterior familiarity, at "who together with me." As to interior things he describes the evil according to three things. First, according to concord of mind/speech. Philippians 1: "you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind." And therefore he says: "but you, a man of one mind," as if to say: you have spoken evils to me; and so this is understood intellectually. And according to this it can be spoken of Saul, whose familiar he was. But in the Gloss it is expounded mystically in three ways: according as it applies to a believer, in one way; in another way according as it applies to Christ with respect to the Jews; in a third way according as it applies to Christ with respect to Judas. In the first way, then, any believer can say this when he suffers persecution from another believer. In the second way, Christ can say this of the Jews, who were of one mind, because they had bound themselves to his commandments. Exodus 14: "all that the Lord shall command us we will do." Third, as to Judas, who had bound himself to his counsels. And what he says, "my leader," is likewise expounded in three ways. In one way, according as someone can be called a leader because he gives good counsel and help, and afterward brings on persecution. Micah 7: "do not trust in a leader." In another way, of Christ with respect to the Jews, or of Judas, who is my leader not leading me, but established by me as a leader of the Gentiles. Romans 2: "you are confident that you are a leader." Or, of the priests, who are leaders among the people. But to Judas the apostle Christ says: you are a leader established by me, in one way because leader of the Christian people together with others to be led. Psalm: "the princes of Judah, their leaders." Or, a leader because established by Christ together with those who went before him wherever he himself was about to come. Luke 10. "My acquaintance" one believer can say to another believer, "who together with me took sweet foods," because they conversed together in the Church. Likewise the Jew was an acquaintance of Christ, who was conversant in the oracles of God. Romans 3. Likewise Judas, because Christ foreknew his malice. John 6: "one of you is a devil." Second, friendship consists in exterior familiarity. And this he shows in two things: namely, first in bodily and human matters, second in divine matters. In the first, those have friendship toward one another who converse together at table. And if this is understood of Christ speaking to Judas, then according to the Gloss he took bodily foods together with Christ at table. Psalm: "who ate my bread," etc. And he says "sweet," because the foods of those feasting together are wont to make minds sweet. Ecclesiasticus 6: "a friend is a companion at table." Thus too it can be said of any bodily intimate. There are also spiritual foods which Judas had taken together with Christ, namely the word of God. Ecclesiasticus 15: "he fed him with the bread of life," etc. God calls these "foods," because the words of God are sweeter than any bodily food. Psalm: "how sweet to my jaws," etc. In the second, therefore, he says, "we walked with consent." Jerome, on Matthew, says that there is nothing which makes people so distrustful of one another as diversity of faith and of divine worship. And this was especially so at the time of persecution, when fathers went before their sons, and the reverse. And thus unity of faith and religion is the greatest bond of love; and therefore it is the greatest malice to persecute those who are of the same worship. And it happens in two ways that some are of diverse worships. In one way, because one is not at all in that worship in which the other is, as when one is a Christian and the other a Jew or a Pagan; and such are not together in the house of God. Sometimes both are of the same religion, yet do not agree together, as a Catholic and a heretic; and he excludes these two when he says, "we walked together in the house of God," namely in the Church, 1 Timothy 3, which is the house of God — this the second. In the second way, when he says, "with consent." 1 Corinthians 1: "that you all say the same thing." But if we refer it to the Jews, then "in the house" means in Jerusalem. And likewise it was so with Judas, because Christ did not reject the bond of the old law. Matthew 5: "I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." "Let death come upon them." Here he asks that a just penalty be applied to them. And first he asks that the penalty be inflicted. Second he shows the fault, at "for wickednesses." Concerning the first it must be known that here is set down the history which is found in Numbers 16, when Dathan and Abiram made a sedition. Moses made the others withdraw from them, and said that the Lord would do a new thing, that the earth should open, etc.; and immediately the earth was opened and swallowed them up. Alluding to that history, then, he says, "let death come upon them," as if to say: let punishment come upon them, because they commit a new kind of fault in persecuting a friend, that is, Christ; and this in two ways. In one way, so that the one clause determines the other, as if to say: let death come, and of such a kind that they go down into Hell. Or, so that there be two penalties: one of death, and the other of descent into Hell. For there Dathan and Abiram, who were the leaders, were punished differently, since they were swallowed up; but the others were killed by the fire that occurred in the camp. As to the lesser ones, then, he says: "let death come upon them." As to the greater ones: "and let them go down into Hell." And in these is designated a twofold penalty, which the Psalmist does not desire but foretells. One which they will endure in Hell after this life; the other which they suffer here in this life. After life they suffer the death of eternal damnation. Romans 6: "the wages of sin is death." Psalm: "the death of sinners is the worst." But in this life they go down into Hell, that is, into the abyss of vices. Proverbs 18: "the wicked man, when he has come into the depths," etc. Or, let them go down alive after this life, that is, let them go down with the affection which they have — which is their life — to Hell. Or, if it be said in the optative sense, then it is expounded thus: death, namely of righteousness, by which one dies inwardly to sin. Colossians 3: "you are dead, and your life," etc. "Let them go down alive" — the life of righteousness — into Hell through consideration, according to that of Isaiah 38: "in the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of Hell." And those who thus go down through the consideration of the punishments, in order to escape them, go down alive, not as ones dying. Ecclesiasticus 7: "remember your last end," etc. "For wickednesses." Here is set down the reason for the penalty, where first he sets down their hidden fault. Second he sets down their manifest fault. He alludes to that history of Numbers 16: "depart, depart from the tents of the wicked." "Wickednesses" are called hidden sins. Romans 13: "not in acts of impudence," etc. Whence, "in their tabernacles," that is, in secret. "In the midst," that is, in public. Isaiah 3: "they have proclaimed their sin as Sodom did." Job 11: "if the iniquity that is in your hand," etc. As to the manifest fault: "and injustice is not found," etc.; or according to another reading. There is a twofold kind of fault: sometimes, namely, from sudden surprise; sometimes from malice. The first sin, which is from sudden surprise, is as it were extrinsic to man. Kings, concerning the parable of Nathan about the traveler, namely the concupiscence which suddenly entered into David. Whence another reading does not have "in their tabernacles," but "in their lodgings," as it were adventitious, according to the Gloss. The sense is, as it were natural, this sin, because "in the midst of them," that is, in the midst of the heart. Thanks be to God.”

“David here complains of his enemies, whose wicked plots had brought him, though not to his faith's end, yet to his wits' end, and prays against them by the spirit of prophecy. Observe here, I. The character he gives of the enemies he feared. They were of the worst sort of men, and his description of them agrees very well with Absalom and his accomplices. 1. He complains of the city of Jerusalem, which strangely fell in with Absalom and fell off from David, so that he had none there but how own guards and servants that he could repose any confidence in: How has that faithful city become a harlot! David did not take the representation of it from others; but with his own eyes, and with a sad heart, did himself see nothing but violence and strife in the city (Psa 55:9); for, when they grew disaffected and disloyal to David, they grew mischievous one to another. If he walked the rounds upon the walls of the city, he saw that violence and strife went about it day and night, and mounted its guards, Psa 55:10. All the arts and methods which the rebels used for the fortifying of the city were made up on violence and strife, and there were no remains of honesty or love among them. If he looked into the heart of the city, mischief and injury, mutual wrong and vexation, were in the midst of it: Wickedness, all manner of wickedness, is in the midst thereof. Jusque datum sceleri - Wickedness was legalized. Deceit and guile, and all manner of treacherous dealing, departed not from her streets, Psa 55:11. It may be meant of their base and barbarous usage of David's friends and such as they knew were firm and faithful to him; they did them all the mischief they could, by fraud or force. Is this the character of Jerusalem, the royal city, and, which is more, the holy city, and in David's time too, so soon after the thrones of judgment and the testimony of Israel were both placed there? Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty? Lam 2:15. Is Jerusalem, the head-quarters of God's priests, so ill taught? Can Jerusalem be ungrateful to David himself, its own illustrious founder, and be made too hot for him, so that he cannot reside in it? Let us not be surprised at the corruptions and disorders of this church on earth, but long to see the New Jerusalem, where there is no violence nor strife, no mischief nor guilt, and into which no unclean thing shall enter, nor any thing that disquiets. 2. He complains of one of the ringleaders of the conspiracy, that had been very industrious to foment jealousies, to misrepresent him and his government, and to incense the city against him. It was one that reproached him, as if he either abused his power or neglected the use of it, for that was Absalom's malicious suggestion: There is no man deputed of the king to hear thee, Sa2 15:3. That and similar accusations were industriously spread among the people; and who was most active in it? "Not a sworn enemy, not Shimei, nor any of the nonjurors; then I could have borne it, for I should not have expected better from them" (and we find how patiently he did bear Shimei's curses); "not one that professed to hate me, then I would have stood upon my guard against him, would have hidden myself and counsels from him, so that it would not have been in his power to betray me. But it was thou, a man, my equal," Psa 55:13. The Chaldee-paraphrase names Ahithophel as the person here meant, and nothing in that plot seems to have discouraged David so much as to hear that Ahithophel was among the conspirators with Absalom (Sa2 15:31), for he was the king's counsellor, Ch1 27:33. "It was thou, a man, my equal, one whom I esteemed as myself, a friend as my own soul, whom I had laid in my bosom and made equal with myself, to whom I had communicated all my secrets and who knew my mind as well as I myself did, - my guide, with whom I advised and by whom I was directed in all my affairs, whom I made president of the council and prime-minister of state, - my intimate acquaintance and familiar friend; this is the man that now abuses me. I have been kind to him, but I find him thus basely ungrateful. I have put a trust in him, but I find him thus basely treacherous; nay, and he could not have done me the one-half of the mischief he does if I had not shown him so much respect." All this must needs be very grievous to an ingenuous mind, and yet this was not all; this traitor had seemed a saint, else he had never been David's bosom-friend (Psa 55:14): "We took counsel together, spent many an hour together, with a great deal of pleasure, in religious discourse," or, as Dr. Hammond reads it, "We joined ourselves together to the assembly; I gave him the right hand of fellowship in holy ordinances, and then we walked to the house of God in company, to attend the public service." Note, (1.) There always has been, and always will be, a mixture of good and bad, sound and unsound, in the visible church, between whom, perhaps for a long time, we can discern no difference; but the searcher of hearts does. David, who went to the house of God in his sincerity, had Ahithophel in company with him, who went in his hypocrisy. The Pharisee and the publican went together to the temple to pray; but, sooner or later, those that are perfect and those that are not will be made manifest. (2.) Carnal policy may carry men on very far and very long in a profession of religion while it is in fashion, and will serve a turn. In the court of pious David none was more devout than Ahithophel, and yet his heart was not right in the sight of God. (3.) We must not wonder if we be sadly deceived in some that have made great pretensions to those two sacred things, religion and friendship; David himself, though a very wise man, was thus imposed upon, which may make similar disappointments the more tolerable to us. II. His prayers against them, which we are both to stand in awe of and to comfort ourselves in, as prophecies, but not to copy into our prayers against any particular enemies of our own. He prays, 1. That God would disperse them, as he did the Babel-builders (Psa 55:9): "Destroy, O Lord! and divide their tongues; that is, blast their counsels, by making them to disagree among themselves, and clash with one another. Send an evil spirit among them, that they may not understand one another, but be envious and jealous one of another." This prayer was answered in the turning of Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness, by setting up the counsel of Hushai against it. God often destroys the church's enemies by dividing them; nor is there a surer way to the destruction of any people than their division. A kingdom, an interest, divided against itself, cannot long stand. 2. That God would destroy them, as he did Dathan and Abiram, and their associates, who were confederate against Moses, whose throat being an open sepulchre, the earth therefore opened and swallowed them up. This was then a new thing which God executed, Num 16:30. But David prays that it might now be repeated, or something equivalent (Psa 55:15): "Let death seize upon them by divine warrant, and let them go down quickly into hell; let them be dead, and buried, and so utterly destroyed, in a moment; for wickedness is wherever they are; it is in the midst of them." The souls of impenitent sinners go down quick, or alive, into hell, for they have a perfect sense of their miseries, and shall therefore live still, that they may be still miserable. This prayer is a prophecy of the utter, the final, the everlasting ruin of all those who, whether secretly or openly, oppose and rebel against the Lord's Messiah.”

“Day and night they go about it, upon the walls thereof,.... That is, "violence" and "strife" go about the walls of it continually; men of violence and contention are the only watchmen of it: a city must be sadly guarded that has no better watch than this; mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it; it was full of wickedness within and without; the city, as Aben Ezra observes, was like a circle; violence and strife were as a line round about it, and mischief and sorrow the centre of it: and these two commonly go together; where mischief is, sorrow follows.”

“Storm. The first fury of the rebels, which is most dangerous, is thus specified. David was convinced, that his son’s party would dwindle away, when he was informed that he did not pursue him, following the advice of Chusai. (Calmet) — Hebrew, “I would hasten my escape from the impetuous wind and tempest.” But the Septuagint may be equally correct. (Berthier) — God protected his weak servant in the greatest dangers. (Worthington)”

“In the second group anger is the prevailing feeling. In the city all kinds of party passions have broken loose; even his bosom friend has taken a part in this hostile rising. The retrospective reference to the confusion of tongues at Babel which is contained in the word פּלּג (cf. Gen 10:25), also in remembrance of בּלל (Gen 11:1-9), involves the choice of the word בּלּע, which here, after Isa 19:3, denotes a swallowing up, i.e., annihilation by means of confounding and rendering utterly futile. לשׁונם is the object to both imperatives, the second of which is פּלּג (like the pointing usual in connection with a final guttural) for the sake of similarity of sound. Instead of חמס וריב, the pointing is חמס וריב, which is perfectly regular, because the וריב with a conjunctive accent logically hurries on to בּעיר as its supplement. (Note: Certain exceptions, however, exist, inasmuch as ו sometimes remains even in connection with a disjunctive accent, Isa 49:4; Jer 40:10; Jer 41:16; and it is pointed ו in connection with a conjunctive in Gen 45:23; Gen 46:12; Lev 9:3; Mic 2:11; Job 4:16; Ecc 4:8.) The subjects to Psa 55:11 are not violence and strife (Hengstenberg, Hitzig), for it is rather a comical idea to make these personified run round about upon the city walls; but (cf. Psa 59:7, Psa 59:15) the Absalomites, and in fact the spies who incessantly watch the movements of David and his followers, and who to this end roam about upon the heights of the city. The narrative in 2 Sam. 15 shows how passively David looked on at this movement, until he abandoned the palace of his own free will and quitted Jerusalem The espionage in the circuit of the city is contrasted with the movements going on within the city itself by the word בּקרב. We are acquainted with but few details of the affair; but we can easily fill in the details for ourselves in accordance with the ambitious, base, and craftily malicious character of Absalom. The assertion that deceit (מרמה) and the extremest madness had taken possession of the city is confirmed in Psa 55:13 by כּי. It is not open enemies who might have had cause for it that are opposed to him, but faithless friends, and among them that Ahithophel of Giloh, the scum of perfidious ingratitude. The futures ואשּׂא and ואסּתר are used as subjunctives, and ו is equivalent to alioqui, as in Psa 51:18, cf. Job 6:14. He tells him to his face, to his shame, the relationship in which he had stood to him whom he now betrays. Psa 55:14 is not to be rendered: and thou art, etc., but: and thou (who dost act thus) wast, etc.; for it is only because the principal clause has a retrospective meaning that the futures נמתּיק and נהלּך describe what was a custom in the past. The expression is designedly אנושׁ כּערכּי and not אישׁ כערכי; David does not make him feel his kingly eminence, but places himself in the relation to him of man to man, putting him on the same level with himself and treating him as his equal. The suffix of כערכי is in this instance not subjective as in the כערכך of the law respecting the asham or trespass-offering: according to my estimation, but objectively: equal to the worth at which I am estimated, that is to say, equally valued with myself. What heart-piercing significance this word obtains when found in the mouth of the second David, who, although the Son of God and peerless King, nevertheless entered into the most intimate human relationship as the Son of man to His disciples, and among them to that Iscariot! אלּוּף from אלף, Arabic alifa, to be accustomed to anything, assuescere, signifies one attached to or devoted to any one; and מידּא, according to the Hebrew meaning of the verb ידע, an intimate acquaintance. The first of the relative clauses in Psa 55:15 describes their confidential private intercourse; the second the unrestrained manifestation of it in public. סוד here, as in Job 19:19 (vid., supra on Psa 25:14). המתּיק סוד, to make friendly intercourse sweet, is equivalent to cherishing it. רגשׁ stands over against סוד, just like סוד, secret counsel, and רגשׁה, loud tumult, in Psa 64:3. Here רגשׁ is just the same as that which the Korahitic poet calls המון חוגג in Psa 42:5. In the face of the faithless friends who has become the head of the Absalomite faction David now breaks out, in Psa 55:16, into fearful imprecations. The Chethb is ישׁימות, desolationes (super eos); but this word occurs only in the name of a place ("House of desolations"), and does not well suit such direct reference to persons. On the other hand, the Ker ישּׁיאמות, let death ensnare or impose upon them, gives a sense that is not to be objected to; it is a pregnant expression, equivalent to: let death come upon them unexpectedly. To this ישּׁיא corresponds the חיּים of the second imprecation: let them go down alive into Hades (שׁאול, perhaps originally שׁאולה, the ה of which may have been lost beside the ח that follows), i.e., like the company of Korah, while their life is yet vigorous, that is to say, let them die a sudden, violent death. The drawing together of the decipiat (opprimat) mors into one word is the result of the ancient scriptio continua and of the defective mode of writing, ישּׁי, like יני, Psa 141:5, אבי, Kg1 21:29. Bttcher renders it differently: let death crash in upon them; but the future form ישּׁי = ישׁאה from שׁאה = שׁאי is an imaginary one, which cannot be supported by Num 21:30. Hitzig renders it: let death benumb them (ישּׁים); but this gives an inconceivable figure, with the turgidity of which the trepidantes Manes in Virgil, Aenid viii. 246, do not admit of comparison. In the confirmation, Psa 55:16, בּמגוּרם, together with the בּקרבּם which follows, does not pretend to be any advance in the thought, whether מגור be rendered a settlement, dwelling, παροικία (lxx, Targum), or an assembly (Aquila, Symmachus, Jerome). Hence Hitzig's rendering: in their shrine, in their breast (= ἐν τῷ θησαυρῷ τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν, Luk 6:45), מגוּרם being short for מגוּרתם in accordance with the love of contraction which prevails in poetry (on Psa 25:5). But had the poet intended to use this figure he would have written בּמגוּרת קרבם, and is not the assertion that wickedness is among them, that it is at home in them, really a climax? The change of the names of God in Psa 55:17 is significant. He calls upon Him who is exalted above the world, and He who mercifully interposes in the history of the world helps him.”