351 By David. Strive, Jehovah, with my strivers, fight with my fighters, 2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and rise for my help, 3 And draw out spear and lance, To meet my pursuers. Say to my soul, 'Thy salvation I 'am'.' 4 They are ashamed and blush, those seeking my soul, Turned backward and confounded, Those devising my evil. 5 They are as chaff before wind, And a messenger of Jehovah driving away. 6 Their way is darkness and slipperiness, And a messenger of Jehovah their pursuer. 7 For without cause they hid for me their netpit, Without cause they digged for my soul. 8 Meet him doth desolation—he knoweth not, And his net that he hid catcheth him, For desolation he falleth into it. 9 And my soul is joyful in Jehovah, It rejoiceth in His salvation. 10 All my bones say, 'Jehovah, who is like Thee, Delivering the poor from the stronger than he, And the poor and needy from his plunderer.'
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 35:1-10
Commentary on Psalm 35:1-10
(Read Psalm 35:1-10)
It is no new thing for the most righteous men, and the most righteous cause, to meet with enemies. This is a fruit of the old enmity in the seed of the serpent against the Seed of the woman. David in his afflictions, Christ in his sufferings, the church under persecution, and the Christian in the hour temptation, all beseech the Almighty to appear in their behalf, and to vindicate their cause. We are apt to justify uneasiness at the injuries men do us, by our never having given them cause to use us so ill; but this should make us easy, for then we may the more expect that God will plead our cause. David prayed to God to manifest himself in his trial. Let me have inward comfort under all outward troubles, to support my soul. If God, by his Spirit, witness to our spirits that he is our salvation, we need desire no more to make us happy. If God is our Friend, no matter who is our enemy. By the Spirit of prophecy, David foretells the just judgments of God that would come upon his enemies for their great wickedness. These are predictions, they look forward, and show the doom of the enemies of Christ and his kingdom. We must not desire or pray for the ruin of any enemies, except our lusts and the evil spirits that would compass our destruction. A traveller benighted in a bad road, is an expressive emblem of a sinner walking in the slippery and dangerous ways of temptation. But David having committed his cause to God, did not doubt of his own deliverance. The bones are the strongest parts of the body. The psalmist here proposes to serve and glorify God with all his strength. If such language may be applied to outward salvation, how much more will it apply to heavenly things in Christ Jesus!