1 Hold not Your peace, O God (Elohim) of my praise; (i.e. Whom I praise.)
2 For the mouth of a lawless one and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me:
They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. (See vv.6-19 for what they spoke. Cp. 38:11,12; 71:10,11.)
3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred; (Written down in vv. 6-15. Cp. 2 Sam. 16:5-13 for the type.)
And fought against me without a cause. (Cp. John 15:25.)
4 For my love they are my adversaries:
But I [am all] prayer. (Cp. 120:7 "I [am all] peace. As here in vv.1-5 and 21-27.)
5 And they have set against me evil for good,
And hatred for my love.
6 Saying, "(Set You a wicked man over him:
And then an adversary will stand at his right hand.
7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned:
And let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few;
And let another take his overseership. (Quoted, but not fulfilled in Acts 1:20)
9 Let his sons be fatherless,
And his wife a widow.
10 Let his sons be continually wanderers,
And beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
11 Let the extortioner lay a snare for all that he has; (Cp. 1 Sam. 28:9)
And let the strangers spoil his labor.
12 Let there be none to extend grace to him:
Neither let there be any to favor his fatherless sons.
13 Let his posterity be cut off;
And in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD (Yehovah);
And let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually,
That he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.)"
16 Because that he remembered not to show loving-kindness (or grace),
But persecuted the poor and needy man,
That he might even slay one broken in heart.
17 As he loved cursing, so let it come to him:
As he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment,
So let it come into his bowels like water,
And like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be to him as the garment which covers him,
And for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.
20 This is (v. 16 is a return to the subject of vv.1-5, and by the same speaker of vv.1-5.) the work of my adversaries from the Lord, (It was He Who permitted it. Cp. v.27, "This is Your hand; You Lord, have don it". See 22:15; 38:2,3; 39:9,10. Cp. Sam. 16:11, "the Lord has bidden him".)
And of them that speak evil against my soul. (See vv.6-19 for the evil spoken.)
21 But do You for me, O God (Yahaveh, here) the Lord (Adonai), for Your name's sake:
Because Your mercy is good, deliver You me.
22 For I am oppressed and needy, (refers to Messiah. Cp. v.16. See 40:17; 69:29; 70:5; 86:1.)
And my heart (cp. v.16) is wounded within me.
23 I am gone like the shadow when it declines:
I am tossed up and down as the locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting;
And my flesh fails of fatness.
25 I became also a reproach to them:
When they looked upon me they shook their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God:
O save me according to Your mercy:
27 That they may know that this is Your hand; (See v.20, put for what is done by the hand.)
That You, LORD, have done it.
28 Let them curse (as in 6-15), but bless You: when they arise,
Let them be ashamed; but Your servant shall rejoice.
29 Let my adversaries be clothed with shame,
And let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle. (Contrast this with the malignity of vv.6-15 and characterized in vv.16-19.)
30 I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth;
Yes, I will praise Him among the multitude.
31 For He shall stand at the right hand of the needy, (Contrast this with v.6.)
To save him from those that condemn his soul.