GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
In keeping with your mercy, wipe out my enemies and destroy all who torment me, because I am your servant.

King James Bible
And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

Douay-Rheims Bible
and in thy mercy thou wilt destroy my enemies. And thou wilt cut off all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

Darby Bible Translation
And in thy loving-kindness cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that oppress my soul: for I am thy servant.

English Revised Version
And in thy lovingkindness cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul; for I am thy servant.

Webster's Bible Translation
And of thy mercy cut off my enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.

World English Bible
In your loving kindness, cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who afflict my soul, For I am your servant. By David.

Young's Literal Translation
And in Thy kindness cuttest off mine enemies, And hast destroyed all the adversaries of my soul, For I am Thy servant!

Cross References

Psalm 52:5 But God will break you down forever; He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent, And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah.

Psalm 54:5 He will recompense the evil to my foes; Destroy them in Your faithfulness.

Psalm 116:16 O LORD, surely I am Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid, You have loosed my bonds.

Commentary

Matthew Henry's Whole Bible Commentary

Verses 7-12

David here tells us what he said when he stretched forth his hands unto God; he begins not only as one in earnest, but as one in haste: "Hear me speedily, and defer no longer, for my spirit faileth. I am just ready to faint; reach the cordial-quickly, quickly, or I am gone." It was not a haste of unbelief, but of vehement desire and holy love. Make haste, O God! to help me. Three things David here prays for:-

I. The manifestations of God's favour towards him, that God would be well pleased with him and let him know that he was so; this he prefers before any good, Ps. 4:6. 1. He dreads God's frowns: "Lord, hide not thy face from me; Lord, be not angry with me, do not turn from me, as we do from one we are displeased with; Lord, let me not be left under the apprehensions of thy anger or in doubt concerning thy favour; if I have thy favour, let it not be hidden from me." Those that have the truth of grace cannot but desire the evidence of it. He pleads the wretchedness of his case if God withdrew from him: "Lord, let me not lie under thy wrath, for then I am like those that go down to the pit, that is, down to the grave (I am a dead man, weak, and pale, and ghastly; thy frowns are worse than death), or down to hell, the bottomless pit." Even those who through grace are delivered from going down to the pit may sometimes, when the terrors of the Almighty set themselves in array against them, look like those who are going to the pit. Disconsolate saints have sometimes cried out of the wrath of God, as if they had been damned sinners, Job 6:4; Ps. 88:6. 2. He entreats God's favour (v. 8): Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning. He cannot but think that God has a kindness for him, that he has some kind things to say to him, some good words and comfortable words; but the present hurry of his affairs, and tumult of his spirits, drowned those pleasing whispers; and therefore he begs, "Lord, do not only speak kindly to me, but cause me to hear it, to hear joy and gladness," Ps. 51:8. God speaks to us by his word and by his providence, and in both we should desire and endeavour to hear his lovingkindness (Ps. 107:43), that we may set that always before us: "Cause me to hear it in the morning, every morning; let my waking thoughts be of God's lovingkindness, that the sweet relish of that may abide upon my spirits all the day long." His plea is, "For in thee do I trust, and in thee only; I look not for comfort in any other." God's goodness is commonly wrought for those who trust in him (Ps. 31:8), who by faith draw it out.

II. The operations of God's grace in him. Those he is as earnest for as for the tokens of God's favour to him, and so should we be. He prays,

1. That he might be enlightened with the knowledge of God's will; and this is the first work of the Spirit, in order to his other works, for God deals with men as men, as reasonable creatures. Here are three petitions to this effect:-(1.) Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk. Sometimes those that are much in care to walk right are in doubt, and in the dark, which is the right way. Let them come boldly to the throne of grace, and beg of God, by his word, and Spirit, and providence, to show them the way, and prevent their missing it. A good man does not ask what is the way in which he must walk, or in which is the most pleasant walking, but what is the right way, the way in which he should walk. He pleads, "I lift up my soul unto thee, to be moulded and fashioned according to thy will." He did not only importunately, but impartially, desire to know his duty; and those that do so shall be taught. (2.) "Teach me to do thy will, not only show me what thy will is, but teach me how to do it, how to turn my hand dexterously to my duty." It is the desire and endeavour of all God's faithful servants to know and to do his will, and to stand complete in it. He pleads, "Thou art my God, and therefore my oracle, by whom I may expect to be advised-my God, and therefore my ruler, whose will I desire to do." If we do in sincerity take God for our God, we may depend upon him to teach us to do his will, as a master does his servant. (3.) Lead me into the land of uprightness, into the communion of saints, that pleasant land of the upright, or into a settled course of holy living, which will lead to heaven, that land of uprightness where holiness will be in perfection, and he that is holy shall be holy still. We should desire to be led, and kept safe, to heaven, not only because it is a land of blessedness, but because it is a land of uprightness; it is the perfection of grace. We cannot find the way that will bring us to that land unless God show us, nor go in that way unless he take us by the hand and lead us, as we lead those that are weak, or lame, or timorous, or dim-sighted; so necessary is the grace of God, not only to put us into the good way, but to keep us and carry us on in it. The plea is, "Thy Spirit is good, and able to make me good," good and willing to help those that are at a loss. Those that have the Lord for their God have his Spirit for their guide; and it is both their character and their privilege that they are led by the Spirit.

2. He prays that he might be enlivened to do his will (v. 11): "Quicken me, O Lord!-quicken my devotions, that they may be lively; quicken me to my duty, and quicken me in it; and this for thy name's sake." The best saints often find themselves dull, and dead, and slow, and therefore pray to God to quicken them.

III. The appearance of God's providence for him, 1. That God would, in his own way and time, give him rest from his troubles (v. 9): "Deliver me, O Lord! from my enemies, that they may not have their will against me; for I flee unto thee to hide me; I trust to thee to defend me in my trouble, and therefore to rescue me out of it." Preservations are pledges of salvation, and those shall find God their hiding-place who by faith make him such. He explains himself (v. 11): "For thy righteousness-sake, bring my soul out of trouble, for thy promise-sake, nay, for thy mercy-sake" (for some by righteousness understand kindness and goodness); "do not only deliver me from my outward trouble, but from the trouble of my soul, the trouble that threatens to overwhelm my spirit. Whatever trouble I am in, Lord, let not my heart be troubled," Jn. 14:1. 2. That he would reckon with those that were the instruments of his trouble (v. 12): "Of thy mercy to me cut off my enemies, that I may be no longer in fear of them; and destroy all those, whoever they be, how numerous, how powerful, soever, who afflict my soul, and create vexation to that; for I am thy servant, and am resolved to continue such, and therefore may expect to be owned and protected in thy service." This prayer is a prophecy of the utter destruction of all the impenitent enemies of Jesus Christ and his kingdom, who will not have him to reign over them, who grieve his Spirit, and afflict his soul, by afflicting his people, in whose afflictions he is afflicted.

Calvin's Commentary

8. Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness in the morning, for in thee have I hoped; show me the way in which I may walk, for I have lifted up my soul to thee. 9. Deliver me, O Jehovah! from my enemies; I have hidden with thee. 10. Teach me that I may do thy will, for thou art my God; let thy good Spirit lead me into the right land. 11. For thy name's sake, O Lord! thou wilt quicken me: in thy righteousness bring my soul out of trouble. 12. And in thy mercy thou wilt scatter my enemies, and thou wilt destroy [252] all them that afflict my soul, for I am thy servant.

8. Cause me to hear thy loving-kindness. In this verse he again prays that God would show him his favor visibly and effectually. The expression cause me to hear, may seem not very proper, as the goodness of God is rather felt than heard; but as the mere perception of God's benefits, without a believing apprehension and improvement of them, would do us little good, David very properly begins with hearing. We see how wicked men riot in the abundance of them, while yet they have no sense of the Lord's goodness, through want of attention to the word, and a believing apprehension of God as a father. The adverb in the morning some confine to a reference to sacrifices -- which is a meager interpretation -- in allusion to the well-known fact that sacrifices used to be offered twice, in the morning and in the evening. Others give a more strained sense, understanding that when God deals in a more favorable way with his people, he is said to form a new day. [253] Others consider it to be a metaphor for a prosperous and happy condition, as an afflicted and calamitous time is often denoted by darkness. I wonder that there should be such a search after extraneous meanings for this word, by which he is simply to be considered as repeating his former prayer to God -- make haste. In the morning means the same with speedily or seasonably. He founds a reason here, as elsewhere, upon his having hoped in God, this being something by which, in a sense, we lay God under obligation to us, for in making a liberal offer of himself to us, and promising to sustain the relationship of a father, he gives what men would call a pledge. This, accordingly, is a species of obligation. But so far is this from implying any worthiness or merit on our part, that the hope we entertain rather proves our nothingness and helplessness. His prayer that a way might be opened up for him to walk in, refers to the anxieties which perplexed him. He intimates that he was dismayed, and brought to a stand, unable to move a step, if God did not open a way, by his divine power; that all the desires of his soul terminated upon him; and that he looked for counsel from him to procure relief in his perplexity.

9. Deliver me, O Jehovah! from my enemies. This prayer is to the same effect, his enemies being so earnestly bent upon his destruction as to leave no outgate for him. The verb ksyty, chisithi, some render to hope: the proper meaning is to cover, and I am unwilling to depart from it. The explanation some give is, that David upon perceiving the imminent danger to which he was exposed, betook himself to the covert of God's shadow, and concealed himself under the protection of it. This seems a very natural rendering, at least I prefer it to another which has recommended itself to some as being ingenious -- that David, instead of having recourse to various quarters for relief, was satisfied to have God cognizant of his case, and called upon him in a hidden manner and apart.

10. Teach me that I may do thy will. He now rises to something higher, praying not merely for deliverance from outward troubles, but, what is of still greater importance, for the guidance of God's Spirit, that he might not decline to the right hand or to the left, but be kept in the path of rectitude. This is a request which should never be forgotten when temptations assail us with great severity, as it is peculiarly difficult to submit to God without resorting to unwarrantable methods of relief. As anxiety, fear, disease, languor, or pain, often tempt persons to particular steps, David's example should bad us to pray for divine restraint, and that we may not be hurried, through impulses of feeling, into unjustifiable courses. We are to mark carefully his way of expressing himself, for what he asks is not simply to be taught what the will of God is, but to be taught and brought to the observance, and doing of it. The former kind of teaching is of less avail, as upon God's showing us our duty we by no means necessarily follow it, and it is necessary that he should draw out our affections to himself. God therefore must be master and teacher to us not only in the dead letter, but by the inward motions of his Spirit; indeed there are three ways in which he acts the part of our teacher, instructing us by his word, enlightening our minds by the Spirit, and engraving instruction upon our hearts, so as to bring us observe it with a true and cordial consent. The mere hearing of the word would serve no purpose, nor is it enough that we understand it; there must be besides the willing' obedience of the heart. Nor does he merely say, Teach me that I may be capable of doing, as the deluded Papists imagine that the grace of God does no more than make us flexible to what is good, but he seeks something to be actually and presently done.

He insists upon the same thing in the next clause, when he says, Let thy good Spirit lead me, etc., for he desires the guidance of the Spirit not merely as he enlightens our minds, but as he effectually influences the consent of our hearts, and as it were leads us by the hand. The passage in its connection warns us of the necessity of being sedulously on our guard against yielding to inordinate passions in any contests we may have with wicked persons, and as we have no sufficient wisdom or power of our own by which to check and restrain these passions, that we should always seek the guidance of God's Spirit, to keep them in moderation. More generally, the passage teaches us what we are to think of free will; for David here denies the will to have the power of judging rightly, till our hearts be formed to a holy obedience by the Spirit of God. The term leading, which I have already adverted to, proves also that David did not hold that middle species of grace which Papists talk so much about, and which leaves man in a state of suspension or indecision, but asserts something much more effectual, agreeably to what Paul says, (Philippians 2:13,) that

"it is God who works in us both to will and to do
of his good pleasure."

By the words right hand, I understand, figuratively, uprightness; David's meaning being, that we are drawn into error whenever we decline from what is agreeable to the will of God. The term Spirit is tacitly opposed to that corruption which is natural to us; what he says being tantamount to this, that all men's thoughts are polluted and perverted, till reduced to right rule by the grace of the Spirit. It follows that nothing which is dictated by the judgment of the flesh is good or sound. I grant that wicked men are led away by an evil spirit sent from God, for he executes his judgments by the agency of devils, [254] (1 Samuel 16:14;) but when David in this place speaks of God's good Spirit, I do not imagine that he has any such strained allusion, but rather that he takes here to himself the charge of corruption, and assigns the praise of whatever is good, upright, or true, to the Spirit of God. When he says, Because thou art my God, he shows that his confidence of obtaining his request was founded entirely upon the free favor and promises of God. It is not a matter lying within our own power to make him our God, but it rests with his free preventing grace.

11. For thy name's sake, O Jehovah! etc. By this expression he makes it still more clear that it was entirely of God's free mercy that he looked for deliverance; for, had he brought forward anything of his own, the cause would not have been in God, and only in God. He is said to help us for his own name's sake, when, although he discovers nothing in us to conciliate his favor, he is induced to interpose of his mere goodness. To the same effect is the term righteousness; for God, as I have said elsewhere, has made the deliverance of his people a means of illustrating his righteousness. He at the same time repeats what he had said as to the extraordinary extent of his afflictions: in seeking to be quickened or made alive, he declares himself to be exanimated, and that he must remain under the power of death, if the God who has the issues of life did not recover him by a species of resurrection.

12. And in thy mercy, etc. In this verse he repeats for the fifth or sixth time that he looked for life only of God's free mercy. Whatever severity may appear on the part of God when he destroys the wicked, David affirms that the vengeance taken upon them would be a proof of fatherly mercy to him. Indeed these two things often meet together -- the severity and the goodness of God; for in stretching out his hand to deliver his own people, he directs the thunder of his indignation against their enemies. In short, he comes forth armed for the deliverance of his people, as he says in Isaiah,

"The day of vengeance is in mine heart,
and this is the year of my redemption." (Isaiah 63:4.)

In calling himself The servant of God, he by no means boasts of his services, but rather commends the grace of God, to whom he owed this privilege. This is not an honor to be got by our own struggles or exertions -- to be reckoned among God's servants; it depends upon his free choice, by which he condescends before we are born to take us into the number and rank of his followers, as David elsewhere declares still more explicitly --

"I am thy servant, truly I am thy servant,
and the son of thine handmaid." (Psalm 116:16.)

This is equivalent to making himself God's client, and committing his life to his protection.

Footnotes:

[252] In our English Bible the verbs "quicken," "scatter," and "destroy," are in the imperative mood; but Calvin renders them in the future tense. In this he is followed by Dr. Hammond and Bishop Horne; "and then," as this last commentator remarks, "the Psalm will end as usual, with an act of faith and assurance that all those mercies which have been asked shall be obtained."

[253] "Que Dieu quand il commence a traitter ses serviteurs plus doucement, fait (par maniere de dire) luire un jour nouveau." -- Fr.

[254] "Je confesse bien que le mauvais esprit de Dieu agite et transporte les reprouvez, (car Dieu execute ses jugemens par les diables,)" etc. -- Fr.

Footnotes:

[248] To the title "A Psalm of David," some copies of the Septuagint and the Vulgate add -- "when his son Absalom pursued him," (see 2 Samuel 17:24, 25;) and interpreters in general agree that this is the most probable occasion on which it was penned.

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