Psalms 57:4. My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
Yet, notice that David says, "I lie" there, that is the emphatic word; and the force of that word conveys this idea, "I recline there; I feel at ease, notwithstanding the danger of my position; I recline, and rest, even among them that are set on fire." Oh, the calm confidence of the faith that forgets the adversary when once she has hidden herself under the shadow of Jehovah’s wings! The description given of ungodly persecutors is very strong: "whose teeth are spears and arrows." Their mouth seems to contain a deadly armoury; they have no molars to grind their food, they are all canine teeth, cruel, cutting. You must know some such critical spirits, that seem to be all teeth, and whose every tooth is a spear or an arrow. But their tongue is worse than their teeth, for it is not only a sword, but "a sharp sword", a sharpened sword. Oh, how tongues will cut and wound!
You may heal the cut of a sword; but who shall heal the cut of a deadly, cruel, malicious, slanderous tongue? Yet for all that, David was not dismayed, but he said, "I lie down among such men, my soul is among lions." Like Daniel among the lions, so does this man of God take his night’s rest, as calmly as though he were sleeping in his own bed at home.
Psalms 57:4. My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
Yet, notice that David says, "I lie" there, that is the emphatic word; and the force of that word conveys this idea, "I recline there; I feel at ease, notwithstanding the danger of my position; I recline, and rest, even among them that are set on fire." Oh, the calm confidence of the faith that forgets the adversary when once she has hidden herself under the shadow of Jehovah’s wings! The description given of ungodly persecutors is very strong: "whose teeth are spears and arrows." Their mouth seems to contain a deadly armoury; they have no molars to grind their food, they are all canine teeth, cruel, cutting. You must know some such critical spirits, that seem to be all teeth, and whose every tooth is a spear or an arrow. But their tongue is worse than their teeth, for it is not only a sword, but "a sharp sword", a sharpened sword. Oh, how tongues will cut and wound!
You may heal the cut of a sword; but who shall heal the cut of a deadly, cruel, malicious, slanderous tongue? Yet for all that, David was not dismayed, but he said, "I lie down among such men, my soul is among lions." Like Daniel among the lions, so does this man of God take his night’s rest, as calmly as though he were sleeping in his own bed at home.