Charles Spurgeon

Save me, O God, by Your name, and vindicate me by Your might!

“Save me, O God. Thou art my Saviour; all around me are my foes and their eager helpers. No shelter is permitted me. Every land rejects me and denies me rest.”

Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.

“Hear my prayer, O God. This has ever been the defence of saints. As long as God hath an open ear we cannot be shut up in trouble. All other weapons may be useless, but all prayer is evermore available.”

For strangers rise up against me, and ruthless men seek my life— men with no regard for God. Selah

“For strangers are risen up against me. Those who had no cause for ill will had gone against him; persons to whom he could have given no offence, for they were strangers to him.”

He will reward my enemies with evil. In Your faithfulness, destroy them.

“He shall reward evil unto mine enemies. They worked for evil, and they shall have their wages. It cannot be that malice should go unavenged. It were cruelty to the good to be lenient to their persecutors.”

Freely I will sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, O LORD, for it is good.

“I will freely sacrifice unto thee. Spontaneously will I bring my freewill offerings. So certain is he of deliverance that he offers a vow by anticipation. His overflowing gratitude would load the altars of God with victims cheerfully presented.”

For He has delivered me from every trouble, and my eyes have stared down my foes.

“For he hath delivered me out of all trouble. Up to that time deliverance had come, and for that danger also he felt that rescue was near. David lived a life of dangers and hair breadth escapes, yet he was always safe.”

Listen to my prayer, O God, and do not ignore my plea.

“Give ear to my prayer, O God. The fact is so commonly before us, otherwise we should be surprised to observe how universally and constantly the saints resort to prayer in seasons of distress.”

Attend to me and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and distraught

“Attend unto me, and hear me. This is the third time he prays the same prayer. He is in earnest, in deep and bitter earnest. If his God do not hear, he feels that all is over with him.”

at the voice of the enemy, at the pressure of the wicked. For they release disaster upon me and revile me in their anger.

“Because of the voice of the enemy. The enemy was vocal and voluble enough, and found a voice where his godly victim had nothing better than a "noise." Slander is seldom short of expression, it prates and prattles evermore.”

My heart murmurs within me, and the terrors of death assail me.

“My heart is sore pained within me. His spirit writhed in agony, like a poor worm; he was mentally as much in pain as a woman in travail physically. His inmost soul was touched; and a wounded spirit who can bear?”

Fear and trembling grip me, and horror has overwhelmed me.

“Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me. Like house breakers these robbers were entering his soul. Like one who feels a fainting fit coming over him, so the oppressed suppliant was falling into a state of terror.”

I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest.

“And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. If he could not resist as an eagle, he would escape as a dove.”

How far away I would flee! In the wilderness I would remain. Selah

“Lo, then would I wander far off. Yet when David was far off, he sighed to be once more near Jerusalem; thus, in our ill estate we ever think the past to be better than the present.”

I would hurry to my shelter, far from this raging tempest.”

“I would hasten my escape. He tried to pause but could not, like a horse which when pulled up slips on a little because of the speed at which he was going.”

O Lord, confuse and confound their speech, for I see violence and strife in the city.

“Destroy, O Lord. Put mine enemies to the rout. Let them be devoured by the sword, since they have unsheathed it against me.”

Day and night they encircle the walls, while malice and trouble lie within.

“Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof. The city, the holy city had become a den of wickedness; conspirators met in the dark, and talked in little knots in the streets even in broad daylight.”

For it is not an enemy who insults me; that I could endure. It is not a foe who rises against me; from him I could hide.

“The reader will do well to observe how accurately the psalmist described his own Psalm when he said, "I mourn in my complaint, "or rather "give loose to my thoughts, "for he proceeds from one point of his sorrow to another, wandering on like one…”

But it is you, a man like myself, my companion and close friend.

“But it was thou. He sees him. The poetic fury is upon him, he sees the traitor as though he stood before him in flesh and blood. He singles him out, he points his finger at him, he challenges him to his face. But thou.”

We shared sweet fellowship together; we walked with the crowd into the house of God.

“We took sweet counsel together. It was not merely the counsel which men take together in public or upon common themes, their fellowship had been tender and confidential. The traitor had been treated lovingly, and trusted much.”

Let death seize them by surprise; let them go down to Sheol alive, for evil is with them in their homes.

“Not thus would Jesus pray, but the rough soldier David so poured out the anguish of his spirit, under treachery and malice seldom equalled and altogether unprovoked.”

But I call to God, and the LORD saves me.

“As for me, I will call upon God. The psalmist would not endeavour to meet the plots of his adversaries by counterplots, or imitate their incessant violence, but in direct opposition to their godless behaviour would continually resort to his God.”

Morning, noon, and night, I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice.

“Evening and morning, and at noon, will I pray. Often but none too often. Seasons of great need call for frequent seasons of devotion. The three periods chosen are most fitting; to begin, continue, and end the day with God is supreme wisdom.”

He redeems my soul in peace from the battle waged against me, even though many oppose me.

“He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me. The deliverance has come. Joab has routed the rebels. The Lord has justified the cause of his anointed. Faith sees as well as foresees; to her foresight is sight.”

God will hear and humiliate them— the One enthroned for the ages— Selah because they do not change and they have no fear of God.

“God shall hear, and afflict them. They make a noise as well as I, and God will hear them. The voice of slander, malice, and pride, is not alone heard by those whom it grieves, it reaches to heaven, it penetrates the divine ear, it…”

My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant.

“The psalmist cannot forget the traitor's conduct, and returns again to consider it. He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him.”