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Ver. 10. Day and night they go about it, upon the walls thereof] The ruffian soldiers do, as in garrisons is usual; or violence and strife do; so that in no place are good men in safety from rapines and robberies. Mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it] What work may be thought to be made the common soldiers, among the women especially, when Absalom openly defileth his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel! 2 Samuel 16:22. When Tilly took Magdeburg in the late German wars, besides many other outrages, the ladies, gentlewomen, and others, like beasts and dogs, they yoked and coupled together, leading them into the woods to ravish them. Such as resisted they stripped naked, whipped them, cropped their ears, and so sent them home again.
Ver. 11. Wickedness is in the midst thereof] As if it were no longer, as once, Theopolis, but Poneropolls, for all kind of naughtiness there. Deceit and guile depart not from her streets] The Vulgate hath it, Usura et dolus, Usury and guile; and Theodoret’s note here is, Notandum est, non mode Novi Testamenti perfectionem, sed Legis statum faenus damnare, that usury is condemned in both Old and New Testament.
Ver. 12. For it was not an enemy that reproached me] Ahithophel’s perfidy and villany troubled David more than all the rest; the re not being any wound worse, as Sophocies saith, than the treachery of a friend, ουδεν μειζον ελκος η φιλος αδικων; he being such a kind of enemy, quem neque fugere, neque fugare possumus, as Bernard hath it, whom we cannot easily prevent. See Psalms 41:9. Then I could have borne it] Though as a burden; but nothing so grievous; I should not have much mattered it.
Ver. 13. But it was thou, a man mine equal] Heb. according to my rank, my compeer, my colleague, mine Alter-ego, my bosom friend, one that stood even with me, and upon the same ground, as it were. My guide] In all mine affairs and actions; so that I thought nothing well done that I did not by his advice and counsel; my duke, my doctor, my Rabbi Davidis, as Rabbi David hath it, out of Kabuenaki.
Ver. 14. We took sweet counsel together] It was my great delight to confer and consult with him, especially about the things of God and the exercises of religion; which is or should be sacratissimum inter homines vinculum, the straitest tie of all. Religioa religando. And walked unto the house of God in company] But so do those false Italians, who carry a pocket Church book with a pistol hid in the binding, which, turning to such a page, dischargeth; a plot to entrap him whom they hate, even while they are in their devotions together, when there is the least suspicion (II Mercurio Italico, Introd.).
Ver. 15. Let death seize upon them] Irruat super illos mors, as a merciless landlord, as a cruel creditor, or as he in the Gospel, who took his fellow by the throat, and said, Pay that thou owest me. A sad time it must needs be with the wicked when death shall come upon them with a writ of Habeas corpus, and the devil with another of Habeas animam. Capiat illos mors, Thou shalt have the spirit. Let death seize them, so Aben Ezra rendereth it; Exigat mors in cos, so Kimchi, a ח שׁ ונ Psalms 89:22. Here it is written, saith he, without an Aleph, [Hebrew Text Note] as it were, with a swift hand; and as if death and seize were all one word; to note the sudden stroke of death, and that it will soon despatch them. To which sense also some render it, Decipiat eos mors, Let death deceive them, be too nimble for them. And let them go down quick into hell] As did Dathan and his complices, Numbers 16:31-33 [See Trapp on “Ps 55:9”] According to this imprecation Ahithophel and Judas, hanging themselves, went to hell alive, that is, hale and well; not enfeebled by sickness first. Augustine saith that heretics do the like, falling with open eyes, and self-condemned. For wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them] Heb. in their sojourning place (for here we are but guests and sojourners), and in the middle of them, that is, in their hearts and houses both, undique circumfluunt malitia et maleficiis, they are as naught as need to be.
Ver. 16. As for me, I will call upon God] Or, I have called upon God, sc. for good to be done to myself, Psalms 55:1, &c., and for evil to mine enemies, Psalms 55:9, &c. (of which sort of imprecations. [See Trapp on “Ps 35:4”] And he hath heard me] I know he hath, both for myself, Psalms 55:17,18, and against them, Psalms 55:19-21. For what reason? first, they fear not God, Psalms 55:19; secondly, they break covenant, Psalms 55:20; thirdly, they use deceit, Psalms 55:21. These courses will work their ruth and ruin.
Ver. 17. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray] So Daniel prayed three times a day, Daniel 6:10; and in the temple they prayed at the third, sixth, and ninth hour of the day. The saints set themselves certain hours to pray in (besides extraordinary occasions putting them upon that daily sacrifice), the better to arouse their spirits, and to keep constant intercourse with God. Papists have their set times; and Mahometans, whatever occasion they have, either by profit or pleasure, to divert them, will pray five times every day. This they do by form and custom, not by conscience: take we heed of those ordinary traitors, formality and customariness; it hath been bewailed before that many hold only a certain stint of daily duties (as malt-horses their pace, or mill-horses their round), and rest upon them when they have done, using the means as mediators, and so fall short, of Christ. And cry aloud] Rousing up myself, and wrestling with God, not in a customary, frigid, bedulling way; but with all intention of spirit and contention of speech. And he shall hear my voice] How should he do otherwise, I coming upon him with such earnestness? Preces fundimus, coelum tundimus, misericordias extorquemus, saith those primitive Christians whose prayers came before God as the noise of many waters, Revelation 14:2.
Ver. 18. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle] This he speaketh upon his prayer, by the force of his faith; as being assured of victory before the battle was fought or stroke struck, as they say. For there were many with me] i.e. God’s holy angels, as 2 Kings 6:16,17. Vel multi ex Israele orantes pro Davide, sic Aben Ezra.
Ver. 19. God shall hear] sc. My prayers which are on the file before him, and as solicitors with him. Mittamus preces et lachrymas, cordis legatos, saith Cyprian. Up go prayers, down come deliverances. And afflict them] Ludit ambiguitate verbi. The same word signifieth to afflict and to answer, q.d. he shall answer me, but afflict them; answer them with blows, with bitter answers. Even he that abideth of old] And is therefore no changeling; the Eternity of Israel cannot lie, nor repent; “for he is not a man, that he should repent,” 1 Samuel 15:29; neither can mine enemies hide themselves from him in any starting holes. Sedet Deus ad iudicandum, et surgit ad puniendure (Aug.). Selah] Id est, modo honorabili, saith R. Gaon. Or, So be it, O Lord. It is set in the middle of the verse, as respecting both parts of it. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God] Changed they are not by repentance (which is such a change of the heart, as bringeth forth a reformed life), but continue obstinate and obdurate; neither have they any alterations in their outward estate; they are not poured from vessel to vessel, have a constant prosperity (such as Demetrius called mare mortuum, a dead sea), and do therefore settle upon their lees, cast away all care of God and his service.
Ver. 20. He hath put forth his hands, &c.] That wicked Ahithophel hath. The Fathers understand it of God and his judgments. He hath broken his covenant] His oath of allegiance, and a particular oath when he was sworn of David’s counsel. The Scythians were strict covenant keepers (Herod. Melp.); and the Carthaginians infamous for the contrary; as now the Turks are.
Ver. 21. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter] Full finely he could soothe and smooth me up, while he was my counsellor, with his pithanology. Mel in ore, verba lactis: Fel in corde, fraus in factis. But war was in his heart] Heb. His heart was war. So in another psalm David saith of himself, “I am peace”; but when I speak of it, they are for war. His words were softer than oil] So were Joab’s to Amasa; Judas’s to Christ; Cambyses’ to his brother whom he slew; Andronicus’s to his nobles, put to death by him, while he wept over them, as if he had been the most sorrowfull man alive. Whereupon the historian crieth out, Oh deep dissimulation and crocodile’s tears, &c.! The wiser sort deemed Andronicus’s praisings to be the beginnings of a man’s disgrace; his bounty, his undoing, and his kindness, his death.
Ver. 22. Cast thy burden upon the Lord] Dare tuum, vel donum tuum, that is, whatsoever thou wouldest have the Lord bestow upon thee, cast it first by faith upon him in prayer, Agedum igitur animula men cur te diutius excrucias? (Beza); even all thy cares, businesses, travails, and troubles. This David speaketh first to himself, and then to others. R. Solomon maketh this God’s answer to David’s prayers, Spiritus sanctus sic respondit, saith he. And he shall sustain thee] Or, victual thee, nourish thee as a foster father; thou shalt have thy σιτομετριον, thy demensum, thy due allowance: as Joseph did his father and brethren, chepi tappam, according to the mouths of their little ones, Genesis 47:12; as Barzillai at this time nourished David at Mahanaim, 2 Samuel 17:27 19:32. He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved] Or if moved, yet not greatly moved, Psalms 62:2, nor removed, He will establish the just, Psalms 7:9.
Ver. 23. But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction] Into the deep Gehenna, saith the Chaldee; thou shalt hurl them into hell, from their lofty tops here. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days] Heb. shall not half their days; that is, shall be soon cut off, die in the flower of their age, come to an untimely end (Ad generum Cereris, &c.); either the sword in battle or the sword of justice shall cut them off; or some treachery of men, or their own intemperance, or God’s immediate hand, shall make an end of them betimes, and before they come to the full age of a man, or before they have effected their evil designs (Luther rendereth it, Non dimidiabunt negotia), or before they are in fit case to die, Tempore non sue, Ecclesiastes 7:17, then when it were better for them to do anything than to die. Our Richard III and Queen Mary reigned the shortest while of any other since the conquest. Charles IX of France, that bloody prince, died young, of a bloody disease, &c. Absalom and Ahithophel came to tragic and unhappy ends; so did all the primitive persecutors, those cruel crafties. But I will trust in thee] For safety here and for salvation hereafter. Upon Jonath-elem-rechokim] Meaning himself, who had wished before the wings of a dove, Psalms 55:6, and was now the dove of dumbness among foreigners, Philistines, those ravenous hawks that were ready to seize and tear him, Fatua columba, Hosea 7:11. Dumb he was fain to feign himself, and worse, among them (see Psalms 34:1, the title; 1 Samuel 22:17, &c.), and therein was more of the serpent than of the dove. Michtam of David] Davidi insigne aureolum, David’s jewels, or golden ingot. See Psalms 16:1, title. This Michtam he made likely (as also Psalms 34:1) when, gotten away from Gath, he came into the cave of Adullam, 1 Samuel 22:1. Carmine secessum scribentis et otia quaerunt.