Psalms 54:5
in Psalms 54He will reward my enemies with evil. In Your faithfulness, destroy them.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He will requite the evil unto mine enemies: Destroy thou them in thy truth.
KJV
He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in thy truth.
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This verse in Psalms 54
Commentary
6 notes on this verseAfter this there is a return to the Person of God, to Whom the petition was at the first addressed: Destroy them by Your truth. Truth confounds falsehood, and lying is destroyed by truth. We have shown that the whole of the foregoing prayer is the utterance of that human nature in which the Son of God was born; so here it is the voice of human nature calling upon God the Father to destroy His enemies in His truth.
This site's exposition
Surely God is my helper
on Psalms 54:4-5
Surely marks the turn from complaint to confidence, and God takes two titles here, helper and sustainer of my soul. Verse 5 says He will reward the enemies with evil. David asks God to destroy them, and asks it in Your faithfulness.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
He shall reward evil unto mine enemies,.... That eyed him as Saul did; that observed his haunts, where he resorted, and who were with him, as the Ziphites did under Saul's direction; as the Word (m) here used for "enemies" signifies: the mischief they had devised for him, he believed, would be returned upon their own heads; the pit they digged they would fall into themselves; and the net they had spread for others their own feet would be taken in.
on Psalms 54:4-7
How treacherous, how officious, were these Ziphim! It is well that God is faithful, for men are not to be trusted, Mic. vii. His prayer to God for succour and deliverance,
But he prays, Cut them off in thy truth. This is not a prayer of malice, but a prayer of faith; for it has an eye to the word of God, and only desires the performance of that. There is truth in God's threatenings as well as in his promises, and sinners that repent not will find it so to their cost.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
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. It is appointed, and so it must ever be, that those who shoot upward the arrows of malice shall find them fall upon themselves. The recoil of their own gun has often killed oppressors. Cut them off in thy truth. Not in ferocious revenge is this spoken, but as an Amen to the sure sentence of the just Judge.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יָשִׁ֣יב | yashiv | may he bring back | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| הָ֭רַע | hara' | the evil | H7451 → | 662 times |
| לְשֹׁרְרָ֑י | leshorerai | to enemies my | H8324 → | 5 times |
| בַּ֝אֲמִתְּךָ֗ | baamitekha | in faithfulness your | H571 → | 127 times |
| הַצְמִיתֵֽם׃ | hatzmitem | destroy them | H6789 → | 15 times |
יָשִׁ֣יבmay he bring back
yashivH7725 →1056 times
הָ֭רַעthe evil
hara'H7451 →662 times
לְשֹׁרְרָ֑יto enemies my
leshoreraiH8324 →5 times
בַּ֝אֲמִתְּךָ֗in faithfulness your
baamitekhaH571 →127 times
הַצְמִיתֵֽם׃destroy them
hatzmitemH6789 →15 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 31:23Love the LORD, all His saints. The LORD preserves the faithful, but fully repays the arrogant.
it leads to
- Psalms 97:10
Hate evil, O you who love the LORD! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
- Psalms 94:2
Rise up, O Judge of the earth; render a reward to the proud.
- Psalms 145:20
The LORD preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy.
- John 10:27–30
My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.
- Psalms 97:10
Through
2 Timothy 4:14Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.
it leads to
- 1 Timothy 1:20
Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:6
After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,
- Psalms 28:4
Repay them according to their deeds and for their works of evil. Repay them for what their hands have done; bring back on them what they deserve.
- 1 Timothy 1:20
Through
Psalms 94:23He will bring upon them their own iniquity and destroy them for their wickedness. The LORD our God will destroy them.
it leads to
- Psalms 7:16
His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.
- Psalms 7:16
About Psalms
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 3; Hilary of Poitiers, Homily on Psalm 54; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.