A SUFFERER, in sore distress of mind and body, aggravated by the neglect of friends and the spite of wicked enemies, acknowledges all to be the fruit of his own sins, and prays that the effect may cease by the removal of the cause.
The psalm contains three distinct complaints, or descriptions of his suffering, separated by two appeals to God, with a prayer at the beginning and the end of the whole Psalm. After the title, ver. 1, comes the first prayer, ver. 2 (1); then the first complaint, ver. 3–9 (2–8); then an appeal to the divine omniscience, ver. 10 (9); then the second complaint, ver. 11–15 (10–14); then an expression of hope and confidence in God, ver. 16 (15); then the third complaint, ver. 17–21 (16–20); and then the closing prayer, ver. 22, 23 (21, 22).
1. A Psalm. By David. To remind, or bring to remembrance, i.e. to remind God of the sufferer, whom he seems to have forgotten, with allusion no doubt to the frequent use of the same verb in reference to penitent self-recollection on the part of sinners. See 1 Kings 17:18, Ezek. 21:29 (24), 29:16, Num. 5:15.
2 (1). Jehovah, do not, in thy wrath, rebuke me, and in thy heat (or hot displeasure) chasten me. The force of the negative extends to both clauses. Rebuke, not in word merely, but in deed, corresponding to chasten, chastise, punish, in the other clause. He does not pray, as some suppose, for moderate punishment, or for loving as opposed to angry chastisement, but for deliverance from any punishment whatever, which is always indicative of God’s displeasure. See above, on Ps. 6:2 (1).
3 (2). For thine arrows are sunk into me, and thy hand has sunk upon me. This verse assigns the reason of the prayer in that before it. Arrows, sharp inflictions, as in Deut. 32:23, Job 6:4. The verbs of the two clauses are active and passive forms from the same root. Sunk into, penetrated, and by implication, stuck fast, although this specific idea is not expressed. Sunk upon, heavily descended, or, as the English version has it, presseth me sore. Compare Ps. 32:4, 39:11 (10).
4 (3). There is no sound place in my flesh because of thine anger; there is no peace in my bones because of my sin. Here begins a more particular description of the sufferings indicated by the general terms of the preceding verse. The first thing mentioned is his bodily suffering, as a token of God’s wrath and an effect of his own sin, by which that wrath had been provoked. Flesh and bones are put for the whole bodily frame. The word translated sound place is a local noun, as indicated by its form, and not an abstract (soundness). It occurs only in this passage and in Isaiah’s imitation of it (Isa. 1:6). There, as here, the body is represented as one bruise, in which there is no sound place, i.e. no spot free from pain or soreness.—Because of, literally from the face of, from the presence of, from before, the phrase being primarily used to denote fear or flight before an enemy. Peace may be taken in the wide sense of well-being, good condition, health (see above, on Ps. 37:11); but it more probably denotes peace in the strict sense, i.e. rest or freedom from the disquietude produced by pain.
5 (4). For my iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. This is an amplification of the last words of the verse preceding. “I say my sin, because the sense of my iniquities has now become intolerable.” Gone over, literally passed, i.e. surpassed, exceeded, or transcended. Too heavy for me, or heavier than I, i.e. heavier than I can bear. The reference is not merely to the effects of sin, but to the sense of sin itself, the consciousness of guilt, which he now associates with all his sufferings. As the preterite of the first clause represents the overwhelming sense of guilt as something experienced already, so the future of the second speaks of its excessive weight as something likely to continue.
6 (5). My stripes have putrefied and are corrupted because of my foolishness. The first noun does not denote wounds in general, but the swelling produced by stripes. Compare Isa. 1:6. The two verbs both denote suppuration, the first in reference to the offensive smell, the second to the running or discharge of matter. This may be literally understood as denoting a particular form of bodily distress; but it seems more natural to explain it as a figurative representation of extreme suffering, not unmingled with disgrace. All this he refers to his own foolishness or folly, in the strong sense of criminal blindness and irrationality. See above, on Ps. 14:1.
7 (6). I have writhed, I have bowed down greatly; all the day mourning I have gone. The first word is a passive, meaning strictly to be twisted or distorted, elsewhere metaphorically applied to moral obliquity or perverseness (Prov. 12:8, 1 Sam. 20:30), but here used in its proper sense to signify the distortion of the body by extreme pain, as in Isa. 21:3. The bowing or bending down may be from the same cause, or as a customary sign of grief. Indeed, the two ideas of sorrow and bodily pain run into each other throughout this passage. The word translated mourning properly means black, or more specifically, black with dirt, begrimed, or squalid, in allusion to the ancient oriental custom of sitting in the dust and putting ashes on the head, as signs of mourning. See above, on Ps. 35:14. Greatly. The Hebrew phrase means until very much, or unto extremity. מְאֹד is originally a noun meaning strength, but except in the formula, with all thy strength, is generally used as an adverb answering to very, greatly, or exceedingly, in English. I have gone. The Hebrew verb is an intensive form, nearly equivalent to gone about in English. For a still stronger intensive from the same root, see above, on Ps. 26:3, 35:14, in the last of which places we have also the words here translated bowed down and mourning.
8 (7). For my loins are filled with parching, and there is no sound place in my flesh. The loins, instead of being covered with fat (Job 15:27), are filled with dryness, literally (something) parched or dried up with extreme heat. To a Hebrew reader this word would necessarily suggest the additional idea of despised, contemptible, which the same form often conveys elsewhere (e.g. 1 Sam. 18:23, Prov. 12:9, Isa. 3:5). Indeed, it may be doubted whether this is not the only sense intended here, as that of parched is always expressed elsewhere by a different participial form (Lev. 2:14, Josh. 5:11). On either supposition, the meaning given in the English version (a loathsome disease) is implied, if not expressed. The repetition in the last clause from ver. 4 (3) above brings him back to the point from which he started.
9 (8). I am benumbed and bruised exceedingly: I have roared from the murmur of my heart. Benumbed, especially from cold, chilled, frozen, torpid. Bruised or broken. The same verb is used to express contrition or brokenness of heart in Ps. 51:18 (17) below; but here it has its proper sense, and is descriptive of a bodily condition. See above, on Ps. 10:10.—Exceedingly, the same phrase as in ver. 7 (6) above. In the last clause two words are employed, both denoting animal sounds, and nearly corresponding to our roar and growl. In Isa. 5:29, both verbs are applied to the lion, and both translated roar in the English Bible. For the use of such figures, see above, on Ps. 22:2 (1). The idea here is that his audible complaints are not expressions of mere bodily distress, but of mental and spiritual anguish. The roaring of his voice is but an echo of the murmur in his heart.
10 (9). Lord, before thee (is) all my desire, and my sighing (or groaning) from thee is not hid. This is at once an asseveration that his account of his own sufferings was not exaggerated or fictitious, and a reason why it need not be continued. “Thou knowest, O Lord, what I ask and what I need, the depth of my necessities and the intensity of my desires.”
11 (10). My heart pants (or palpitates); my strength has left (or failed) me; and the light of my eyes—even they are not with me. Here begins his second complaint or compassionate description of his sufferings, in which those arising from the conduct of others are made prominent. In this introductory verse, however, he describes the effect upon his own feelings, before proceeding to declare the cause. The palpitation of the heart, denoting violent agitation, is combined with loss of strength and that dimness of the eyes, so often mentioned as a sign of extreme weakness. See above, on Ps. 13:4 (3), and compare Ps. 6:8 (7), 31:10 (9), 40:13 (12). The last clause admits of two grammatical constructions. 1. “My strength has failed me, and (so has) the light of my eyes; even they are not with me.” 2. “(As to) the light of my eyes, even they are not with me.” The first agrees best with our idiom, and the last with the masoretic interpunction, which separates the light of my eyes from the preceding verb and noun by a pause accent.—Even they, literally, they too.—“Not only is my strength gone, but my eye-sight likewise, but my very eyes.”—Not with me, not in my possession, not at my command, gone from me. For a similar expression, see above, on Ps. 12:5 (4).—The preterites in the first clause represent the palpitation and debility as something of long standing, or at least as fully experienced already.
12 (11). My lovers and my friends away from my stroke will stand, and my neighbours afar off have stood. He now gives expression to the anguish caused by human unkindness, and first, by that of such as he believed to be his friends. These are represented as standing aloof, literally from before, i.e. out of sight, as in Gen. 21:16, and Isa. 1:16, not over against, as implying opposition or hostility. What he here complains of is indifference and neglect, as appears from the parallel expression, far off, literally from afar, according to a common Hebrew idiom which expresses the position of an object in terms strictly denoting motion or direction. See for example Gen. 2:8, where eastward is in Hebrew from the east, and the familiar phrase from the right or left hand, where we say at or on it. This usage renders it unnecessary, although not inadmissible, in the case before us, to supply a word, “they stand (looking) from afar.” The word translated neighbors means those near one, either in local habitation or affinity, and may therefore be considered as including the idea expressed in the English Version, kinsmen. Unless the variation of the tenses in this sentence is entirely unmeaning, which is highly improbable, both in itself and from analogy, the last clause may be understood to state as an actual reality, what is only apprehended in the first as probable or certain but still future. As if he had said, “My friends will no doubt stand aloof from this affliction; nay, they are already afar off.”—Stroke is here put for a providential or divine infliction in general, not for sickness exclusively, much less for a particular disease, such as the leprosy, which Jerome actually introduces into his translation. See below, on Ps. 39:11 (10), and compare Job 19:21, Isa. 53:4. Some suppose that there is an allusion to this verse in the statement made by one of the evangelists, that the women who had followed Christ from Galilee, and all his acquaintances, stood afar off, gazing at his crucifixion. See Luke 23:49, and compare Mark 15:40, 41.
13 (12). And those seeking my soul (or life) have laid wait (or laid snares) for me, and those seeking my hurt have spoken mischiefs, and deceits all the day will they utter (or devise). While his friends and neighbors stand aloof, his enemies are busy in attempting to destroy him. Seeking my life, as in Ps. 35:4, and Exod. 4:19. This phrase is particularly frequent in the history of David’s persecutions. See 1 Sam. 20:1. 22:23, 23:15, 2 Sam. 4:8, 16:11. The idea of seeking is expressed by two entirely different verbs in Hebrew. With the first clause compare Ps. 37:32.—Mischiefs, or still more strongly, crimes. See above, on Ps. 5:10 (9). The reference may be either to malicious consultation, or to slander, or to both. The last verb may be taken in either of its senses (see above, on Ps. 1:2, 2:1, 37:30), both which are appropriate in this connection. All the day (long), continually. See above, on Ps. 37:26.
14 (13). And I, as a deaf (man), will not hear, and as a dumb (man) will not open his mouth. This is at the same time an aggravation of his sufferings and a declaration of his patience under them. He is obliged to hear their calumnies and blasphemies as though he heard them not, being neither able to silence them nor willing to dispute them. The same two Hebrew words for deaf and dumb are used together in Exod. 4:11. Not only the idea, but the form of expression in this sentence, is copied by Isaiah in his prophetical description of Christ’s sufferings (Isa. 53:7), and seems to have been present to our Saviour’s own mind when he “held his peace” before the High Priest (Mat. 26:62, 63), and “gave no answer” to the Roman Governor (John 19:9).
15 (14). And I was as a man who does not hear, and there are not in his mouth replies (or arguments). The same thing is repeated, to make still more prominent the patience and forbearance of the sufferer. Does not hear, literally (is) not hearing. In our idiom the last clause would have been, in whose mouth there are no replies. The meaning reproofs is a secondary one, derived from that of proofs or arguments. See Job 13:6, 23:4.—The idea in both verses is, that he endured the evil speaking of his enemies, as one who had nothing to say for himself or in reply to their reproaches. This, while it mortified his pride, and thereby added to his pain, was at the same time an evidence of faith and patience, and thus prepares the way for the profession in the next verse.
16 (15). Because for thee I waited; thou wilt answer, Lord, my God! His silence and forbearance, though a part of his sore trial, did not spring from weakness, but from faith in God, and submission to his precept. (See above, Ps. 37:7.) “I retorted not their calumnies and taunts, because I waited for thee to vindicate my cause, and so thou wilt, thou wilt certainly answer.” The last verb does not mean shalt answer for me, as the Prayer-Book version has it, but as in other cases, hear or answer my petition for relief and vindication, whether silent or expressed. See above, on Ps. 5:2 (1), and compare Ps. 3:5 (4), 4:2 (1), 13:4 (3), 17:6, 18:42 (41), 20:10 (9), 22:3 (2), 27:7, 34:5 (4).—Lord, not Jehovah, but Adhonai, the divine name which properly means Lord or Sovereign. See above, Ps. 2:4, 22:31 (30), 35:17, 22, 23, 37:13.—My God, and as such bound by covenant to hear me.
17 (16). For I said, Lest they rejoice respecting me; in the slipping of my foot they have (already) magnified (themselves) against me. His tranquility did not arise from insensibility to danger, but from confidence in God. He was not without fear that his enemies might triumph over him, as they were already disposed to do, when he merely stumbled, but did not actually fall.
18 (17). Because I for limping (am) ready, and my grief is before me always. This verse assigns a reason for the triumph of his enemies, to wit, that he was really in danger. Ready to halt or limp, i.e. constantly liable to some interruption of his even prosperous course. See above, on Ps. 35:15. The form of expression does not exclude the idea of his actually halting, but rather suggests it. As if he had said, “The slightest occasion makes me halt or limp.” Grief or sorrow seems to be put here for that which causes it. I am always in full view of my worst distress.
19 (18). For my iniquity I will declare, I will be anxious on account of my sin. In our idiom this is tantamount to saying, I must confess that I am guilty; I have reason to be anxious on account of my sin.
20 (19). And my deadly enemies are strong, and multiplied are those hating me falsely (or without a cause). Instead of deadly some find the opposite idea, lively, here expressed. My enemies (are) living (or alive), they are strong. Or, my living enemies are strong. But חַיִים is the common Hebrew word for life, and as שנאי שקר means my enemies of falsehood, איבי חיים may mean my enemies of life, those who hate my life and would deprive me of it. Compare איבי בנפשׁ in Ps. 17:9 above.—Hating me falsely. Compare Ps. 35:19, 69:5 (4).
21 (20). And (those) repaying evil for good—they will oppose me for pursuing good. The first clause seems to belong to the preceding sentence, and to complete the description of his enemies, “those hating me without cause, and repaying evil for good.” Compare Ps. 35:12–16. Oppose me, be my enemies. The Hebrew verb is the root of the name Satan, the enemy or adversary of God and man. From its etymology, the verb would seem to denote specifically treacherous hostility.—The preposition in the last clause properly means under, then instead of, and more rarely in return for, which is the sense here. In return for my pursuing good, i.e. earnestly and eagerly endeavoring to be good and to do right. This was of itself sufficient to provoke their enmity.
22 (21). Leave me not (O) Jehovah! (O) my God, be not far from me! Having twice described his urgent need, he now resumes the tone of complaint with which the psalm began. The petition in this verse is one of frequent occurrence in the Psalms. See above, Ps. 10:1, 13:2 (1), 22:2 (1), 35:22. The most striking parallel, however, is Ps. 22:20 (19).
23 (22). Hasten to help me, (O) Lord, my salvation! The literal meaning of the first clause is hasten to (or for) my help. The same words form the last clause of Ps. 22:20 (19). My salvation, my deliverer, my saviour. This form of address bears a strong resemblance to the prayer in Ps. 35:3: Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
Alexander, J. A. (1864). The Psalms Translated and Explained (pp. 167–172). Andrew Elliot; James Thin. (Public Domain)
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