Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto the Lord, concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite. The name of this psalm, “Shiggaion,” either respects the music or the matter of the psalm.

O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust The psalmist expresses his interest in God as his covenant God, and his trust and confidence in him; and with these he sets out as the stay of his soul, and his bulwark against the fears of his enemies; and he does not say that he had trusted in God, or…

Lest he tear my soul like a lion That is, one of his persecutors, the chief of them; it may be Saul, whom the psalmist compares to a lion for his majesty and greatness, the lion being the king among beasts; and for his authority, power, and might, and for his wrath and cruelty, which he feared; and…

O Lord my God, if I have done this. ] The crime which Saul and his courtiers charged him with, and which was made so public that every body knew it; and therefore it was needless particularly to mention it; namely, that he lay in wait for Saul, and sought his life to take it away, .

If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me, &c.] That is, when Saul was at peace with him; when he lived at his court, and ate at his table his meaning is, that he did not conspire against him, nor form schemes to deprive him of his crown nor of his life: or, as it may be rendered,…

Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it That is, if the above things he was charged with could be proved against him; then he was content that Saul his enemy should pursue after him, and apprehend him, and bring him to justice, by taking away his life from him; yea, let him tread down my life…

Arise, O Lord, in thine anger This and the following phrase do not suppose local motion in God, to whom it cannot belong, being infinite and immense, but are spoken of him after the manner of men, who seems sometimes as though he had laid himself down, and was unconcerned about and took no notice…

So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about, &c.] By “the congregation of the people” are meant the nation of the Jews, the twelve tribes of Israel, called an assembly of people, and a company of nations, ; and this is to be understood not of their gathering together in an hostile…

The Lord shall judge the people The inhabitants of the world in general; for God is the Judge of all the earth, and he judges the world in righteousness daily, and ministers judgment in uprightness, though it is not always manifest; or his own people in particular, whose cause he pleads, whose…

Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end Which will not be till the measure of it is fully up, and that will not be till the wicked are no more; for, as long as they are in the world they will be committing wickedness, and like the troubled sea continually cast up the mire and dirt of…

My defence is of God Or “my shield is in” or “of God” [[4]]; God was his shield, his protector and defender; see ; or “my shield is with God”; that is, Christ, who was the shield his faith made use of against every spiritual enemy, was with God; he was with him as the Word and Son of God from all…

God judgeth the righteous Not all that are thought to be righteous, or think themselves to be so, are such; nor is any man naturally righteous, or of himself, nor by virtue of his obedience to the law of works; but such only are righteous who are made so by the obedience of Christ; these God…

If he turn not Not God, but the enemy, or the wicked man, spoken of (Ps. 7:5, Ps. 7:9, Ps. 7:11) ; if he turn not from his wicked course of life, to the Lord to live to him, and according to his will; unless he is converted and repents of his sin, and there is a change wrought in him, in his heart…

He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death The weapons of his indignation, ; which, will issue both in the first and second death, corporeal and eternal; the instruments of the former are diseases of various kinds, and judgments, as famine, pestilence and of the latter not only the law…

Behold, he travaileth with iniquity Is full of it, and big with it, as a woman with child, and eagerly desires to bring it forth, and is in pain till he commits it; and hath conceived mischief; that which is injurious to God and the perfections of his nature, a transgression of his law, and an…

He made a pit and digged it That is, he digged a pit, and made it very large and capacious, to answer his purposes; and is fallen into the ditch which he made; so it is said of the Heathen, ; and is exemplified in the case of Haman, who was hanged upon the gallows he had built for Mordecai.

His mischief shall return upon his own head That which he conceived and devised in his mind, and attempted to bring upon others, shall fall upon himself, as a just judgment from heaven upon him; and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate; referring to the violence with which Saul…

I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness Or on account of it, as it was displayed in vindicating the innocent, and punishing the wicked; so Pharaoh having ordered male infants of the Hebrews to be drowned, and he himself and his host in righteous judgment being drowned in the Red sea;…