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
14 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.
This site's exposition
In Your faithfulness, destroy them
The request rests on God's faithfulness, meaning His word already given. Matthew Henry called it a prayer of faith rather than of malice, asking only that God's threatenings be carried out. Charles Spurgeon heard an Amen to the sentence of the just Judge.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"Turn away evil things unto mine enemies" [Psalm 54:5]. So however green they are, so however they flourish, for the fire they are being reserved. "In Your virtue destroy Thou them." Because to wit they flourish now, because to wit they spring up like grass: do not thou be a man unwise and foolish, so that by giving thought to these things thou perish for ever and ever. For, "Turn Thou away evil things unto mine enemies." For if you shall have place in the body of David Himself, in His virtue He will destroy them. These men flourish in the felicity of the world, perish in the virtue of God. Not in the same manner as they flourish, do they also perish: for they flourish for a time, perish for everlasting: flourish in unreal good things, perish in real torments. "In Your strength destroy," whom in Your weakness You have endured.
The Medieval Church1 voice
"Turn back evils upon my enemies." Here he asks to be heard on behalf of his enemies. And he asks two things against the two things they were doing to him, because they were persecuting him and seeking to kill him. And so he asks …
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.
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.
6 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Thy truth - Whereby thou art engaged to fulfil thy promises and threatenings.
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
He shall . . . evil--or, "Evil shall return on" (Ps 7:16) my enemies or watchers, that is, to do me evil (Ps 6:7). in thy truth--Thy verified promise.
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. Let the veracity of thy threatenings be placed beyond dispute, the decree is right and just, let it be fulfilled. It is not a private desire, but the solemn utterance of a military man, a grossly injured man, a public leader destined to be a monarch, and a man well trained in the school of Moses, whose law ordains eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.
He shall reward evil - Saul and his courtiers, instead of having God’s approbation, shall have his curse. Cut them off in thy truth - Thou hast promised to save me; these have purposed to destroy me. Thy truth is engaged in my defence; they will destroy me if permitted to live: to save thy truth, and to accomplish its promises, thou must cut them off.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
He shall reward evil unto mine enemies - Margin, “those that observe me.” The original word here means literally “to twist, to twist together;” then, to press together; then, to “oppress,” or to treat as an enemy. The reference here is to those who pressed upon him as enemies, or who endeavored to crush him. The idea is that God would recompense them for this conduct, or that he would deal with them as they deserved. Cut them off in thy truth - In thy faithfulness; in thy regard for what is right. This is simply a prayer, or an expression of strong confidence, that God would deal with them as they deserved, or that he would not suffer such conduct to pass without a proper expression of his sense of the wrong. There is no evidence that David in this prayer was prompted by private or vindictive feeling.
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 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 54; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 3; Hilary of Poitiers, Homily on Psalm 54; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.