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140. Psalm 140

¹ Rescue me, LORD, from evildoers;
   protect me from the violent,
² who devise evil plans in their hearts
   and stir up war every day.
³ They make their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s;
   the poison of vipers is on their lips. The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here and at the end of verses 5 and 8.

    ⁴ Keep me safe, LORD, from the hands of the wicked;
   protect me from the violent,
   who devise ways to trip my feet.
⁵ The arrogant have hidden a snare for me;
   they have spread out the cords of their net
   and have set traps for me along my path.

    ⁶ I say to the LORD, “You are my God.”
   Hear, LORD, my cry for mercy.
⁷ Sovereign LORD, my strong deliverer,
   you shield my head in the day of battle.
⁸ Do not grant the wicked their desires, LORD;
   do not let their plans succeed.

    ⁹ Those who surround me proudly rear their heads;
   may the mischief of their lips engulf them.
¹⁰ May burning coals fall on them;
   may they be thrown into the fire,
   into miry pits, never to rise.
¹¹ May slanderers not be established in the land;
   may disaster hunt down the violent.

    ¹² I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor
   and upholds the cause of the needy.
¹³ Surely the righteous will praise your name,
   and the upright will live in your presence.

6. I said to Jehovah. In these words he shows that his prayers were not merely those of the lips, as hypocrites will make loud appeals to God for mere appearance sake, but that he prayed with earnestness, and from a hidden principle of faith. Till we have a persuasion of being saved through the grace of God there can be no sincere prayer. We have here an excellent illustration of the nature of faith, in the Psalmist’s turning himself away from man’s view, that he may address God apart, hypocrisy being excluded in this internal exercise of the heart. This is true prayer — not the mere idle lifting up of the voice, but the presentation of our petitions from an inward principle of faith. To beget in himself a persuasion of his obtaining his present requests from God, he recalls to his mind what deliverance’s God had already extended to him. He speaks of his having been to him as a shield in every time of danger. Some read the words in the future tense — “Thou wilt cover my head in the day of battle.” But it is evident David speaks of protection formerly experienced from the hand of God, and from this derives comfort to his faith. He comes forth, not as a raw and undisciplined recruit, but as a soldier well tried in previous engagements. The strength of salvation is equivalent to salvation displayed with no ordinary power.