Psalms 140:1
Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men. Protect me from men of violence,
BSB
ASV
Deliver me, O Jehovah, from the evil man; Preserve me from the violent man:
KJV
Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;
Snatch me away, O Lord, from the evil man. The devil cannot deceive us so much by himself as he can through the instrument of a man; and it is from this that the prophet prays to be delivered.
Being as he was a figure of Christ, we need not wonder that the agents of the devil directed so much of their rage against him. And this is the reason why he animadverts so sharply upon their rancor and treachery.
Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. It reads like a clause of the Lord's prayer, "Deliver us from evil." David does not so much plead against an individual as against the species represented by him, namely, the being whose best description is—"the evil man." There are many such abroad; indeed we shall not find an unregenerate man who is not in some sense an evil man, and yet all are not alike evil. It is well for us that our enemies are evil: it would be a horrible thing to have the good against us.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Psalms 71:4Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and ruthless.
leads to
Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise against me.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Through
Psalms 140:4Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked. Keep me safe from men of violence who scheme to make me stumble.
leads to
Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
Let not the foot of the proud come against me, nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.
Deliver me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and ruthless.
My steps have held to Your paths; my feet have not slipped.
Through
Psalms 18:48who delivers me from my enemies. You exalt me above my foes; You rescue me from violent men.
leads to
May no slanderer be established in the land; may calamity hunt down the man of violence.
Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked. Keep me safe from men of violence who scheme to make me stumble.
The arrogant rise against me, O God; a band of ruthless men seeks my life, with no regard for You.