41 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Day and night they go about upon the walls thereof: mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it. Remember, Jerusalem was in the hands of a band of wicked men. Everywhere sin prevailed when David had quitted it.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Wickedness [is] in the midst thereof,.... All manner of wickedness; abominable wickedness; wickedness as arrived to its highest pitch, and as having filled up its measure; see Ezekiel 9:4; deceit and guile depart not from her streets; where truth was fallen, and equity could not enter, Isaiah 59:14; for these are contrary the one to the other, and...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets. For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: Here you get to the center of David’s grief. Ahithophel had betrayed him, and here you...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For [it was] not an enemy [that] reproached me,.... An open and avowed one; a Moabite or a Philistine; such an one as Goliath, who cursed him by his gods; but one of his own country, city, court, and family, who pretended to be a friend; his son Absalom, according to Arama: so it was not one of the Scribes and Pharisees, the sworn enemies of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But [it was] thou,.... The Targum is, "but thou Ahithophel"; of whom the words are literally to be understood, and so they are in the Talmud (u); and mystically and typically of Judas; a man mine equal; "a man", and not a beast, nor a devil; but a man, from whom humanity, kindness, and tenderness might have been expected; though both Ahithophel...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But it was thou, In the original it runs thus: “But thou.” The ardor of poetry is upon the Psalmist. He sees him: “Thou.” And he looks at him with indignation: “Thou.”
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
A man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. It is Ahithophel; it is Judas Iscariot; it is either; it is both. Oh! what a grief it is to be betrayed by one whom we have trusted, one whom we treated as our equal, one whom we followed as a trusted guide, one to whom...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
We took sweet counsel together,.... Not in religious matters; for in these the testimonies of the Lord were David's counsellors, Psalms 119:24; but in civil things: hearty counsel is one branch of friendship, and which greatly sweetens it, Proverbs 27:9; as this may be applied to Christ and Judas, it may denote the mutual delight and pleasure they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Let death seize upon them,.... Ahithophel and his accomplices, Judas and the men with him; as a mighty man, as the king of terrors, and shake them to pieces. Or, "let him exact upon them" (a); as a creditor upon the debtor, and demand the debt of punishment for sin: or let him come upon them at an unawares; let them not die a natural, but a...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them. And this prayer also was heard, for Ahithephel was hanged with a rope, and Absalom without one; and their followers perished by thousands in the wood of Ephraim; and so God swept away the good man’s slanderers.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
As for me, I will call upon God,.... Not upon a creature, on idols and images, on angels or saints departed; but upon God, in his time of trouble, for salvation and deliverance from enemies; who is able to save. This is to be understood of calling upon God in prayer; as Psalms 55:17 explains it, and the Targum here renders it; though sometimes...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
As for me, What would I do? Plot against their plots, and set cunning against their cunning? No, not I.
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice. He would pray often, but not too often. Where time sets her boundaries there are we to set up our altars: evening and morning, and at noon. It seems natural that our undertakings should be begun, continued,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray,.... These being the stated times of prayer with the Jews, and which continued to later ages, Daniel 6:10. These times, they say (b), were fixed by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: the morning prayer by Abraham, according to Genesis 22:3, the prayer of the "minchah" by Isaac, according to Genesis 24:63; and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle [that was] against me,.... That is, God had preserved his life, and delivered him safe and sound from many a battle which was fought against him, and might seem at first to go against him; and had given him peace and rest from all his enemies before the present trouble came upon him, 2 Samuel 7:1;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
God shall hear and afflict them,.... That is, either he shall hear the prayers of his servant, imprecating evils upon his enemies, Psalms 55:9; and shall bring them down upon them, in answer to his requests; or it may be, rendered, "God shall hear and answer them" (c); he shall hear their blasphemies, and take notice of their wickedness, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
He hath put forth his hands,.... The psalmist returns and describes, in this verse Psalms 55:3, the cruelty, perfidy, and hypocrisy of his false friend; who had stretched forth his hands against such as be at peace with him, or he pretended to be at peace with. So Ahithophel put forth his hands against David, by whom he had been admitted into his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
[The words] of his mouth were smoother than butter,.... Such were the words of Ahithophel, when in counsel with David; and such the words of Judas, when he said to Christ, "hail, master", and kissed him, Matthew 26:49; but war [was] in his heart; even a civil war, rebellion against his prince; that was what Ahithophel meditated in his heart; and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Cast thy burden upon the Lord,.... These are either the words of the Holy Ghost to David, according to Jarchi; or of David to his own soul in distress, and may be directed to any good man in like circumstances. The word rendered "burden" signifies a gift and so the words are translated by many, "cast thy gift upon the Lord" (f); what he has given...