to pull off · verb, piel imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
LORD
יְ֭הוָהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
evil
רָ֑עRa'
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
man
מֵאָדָ֣םme.'a.Dam
H120
ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
preserve
תִּנְצְרֵֽנִיtin.tze.Re.ni
H5341
to guard · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
violent
חֲמָסִ֣יםcha.ma.Sim
H2555
violence · noun, common masculine plural absolute
man
מֵאִ֖ישׁme.'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 18:48 He delivereth me from mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou hast delivered me from the violent man…
Psalms 71:4 Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.
Psalms 140:4 Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings.
Habakkuk 1:2-3 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
Psalms 17:13 Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
Psalms 140:11 Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
Psalms 43:1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
Psalms 59:1-3 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 140:1-7
In this, as in other things, David was a type of Christ, that he suffered before he reigned, was humbled before he was exalted, and that as there were many who loved and valued him, and sought to do him honour, so there were many who hated and envied him, and sought to do him mischief, as appears by these verses, where,
I. He gives a character of his enemies, and paints them out in their own colours, as dangerous men, whom he had reason to be afraid of, but wicked men, whom he had no reason to think the righteous God would countenance. There was one that seems to have been the ring-leader of them, whom he calls the evil man and the man of violences (Psa 140:1, Psa 140:4), probably he means S…
Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man,.... Either Saul; so Theodoret; or rather Doeg, according to R. Obadiah: but Jarchi interprets it of Esau; by whom he means Edom, or Rome, or rather the Christians in general. Were his sense confined to the Papists, he might be thought to be much in the right; for this is applicable enough to the man of sin, and his followers: for it may be understood collectively of a body of evil men; all men are evil by nature, their hearts, thoughts, words, works, and ways. David's enemies were evil men; and so were Christ's; as Herod, Judas in particular, and the Jews in general: and such are the enemies of God's people; the world, profane sinners, persecutors, and…
Psalm 140:1-5
1. Deliver me, O Jehovah! from the evil man, (homo,) preserve me from the man (vir) [222] of injuries. 2. Who imagine mischiefs in their heart; daily they congregate for war. 3. They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent: [223] the poison of an asp [224] is under their lips. Selah 4. Keep us, O Jehovah! from the hands of the wicked: preserve me from the man of injuries, who plot to overthrow my goings. 5. The proud have set a snare for me, and have spread a net with cords: by the way side they have set gins for me. [225] Selah
To the chief Musician, etc. I cannot bring myself to restrict this Psalm to Doeg, as the great body of interpreters do, for the context will clear…
The Church Fathers
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.
Indeed, from where comes evil for man, if not from man? Count how many things people suffer from externally. What does not seem to be done by human beings is very few. Evils abound for man from man. Theft by man, he suffered adultery in his wife by man, his servant was seduced by man, he was deceived by man, proscribed by man, attacked by man, led captive by man. Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. Now you, whoever you are listening, think only of the enemy, whom you endure as a nearby evil, powerful, companion, citizen. Perhaps you think of the thief when you hear: Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man; and thus you pray, when you pray, that God may deliver you from an evil man, whether this or that enemy of yours. Do not be evil to yourself. Hear me: may God deliver you from yourself. For when God by His grace and mercy makes you good from evil; from what does He make you good, from what does He deliver you, if not from yourself, the evil man? Absolutely, my brothers, this is true, this is certain, this is fixed: if God has delivered you from yourself, the evil man, no other evil man will be able to harm you.
"Deliver me, O Lord, from the wicked man" [Psalm 140:1]. Not from one only, but from the class; not from the vessels only, but from their prince himself, that is, the devil. Why "from man," if he meaneth from the devil? Because he too is called a man in a figure. ...Now then being made light, not in ourselves, but in the Lord, let us pray not only against darkness, that is, against sinners, whom still the devil possesseth, but also against their prince, the devil himself, who worketh in the children of disobedience. "Deliver me from the unrighteous man." The same as "from the wicked man." For he called him wicked because unrighteous, lest perchance thou shouldest think that any unrighteous man could be a good man. For many unrighteous men seem to be harmless; they are not fierce, are not savage, do not persecute nor oppress; yet are they unrighteous, because, following some other habit, they are luxurious, drunkards, given to pleasure. ...Wicked then is every unrighteous man, who must needs be harmful, whether he be gentle or fierce. Whoever falls in his way, whoever is taken by his snares, will find how harmful is that which he thought harmless. For, brethren, even thorns prick not with their roots. Pull up thorns from the ground, handle their roots, and see whether thou feelest pain. Yet that in the upgrowth which causeth thee pain, proceeded from that root. Let not then men please you who seem gentle and kind, yet are lovers of carnal pleasure, followers of polluted lusts, let them not please you. Though as yet they seem gentle, they are roots of thorns. ...And so, my brethren, body of Christ, members of Christ groaning among such wicked men, whomsoever ye find hurrying headlong into evil lusts and deadly pleasures, at once chide, at once punish, at once burn. Let the root be burnt, and there remaineth not whence the thorn may grow up. If ye cannot, be sure that ye will have them as enemies. They may be silent, they may hide their enmity, but they cannot love you. But since they cannot love you, and since they who hate you must needs seek your harm, let not your tongue and heart be slow to say to God, "Deliver me, O Lord, from the unrighteous man."
Dictionary and topics
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
Malice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The assimilation of the Nun of the verb נצר is given up, as in Psa 61:8; Psa 78:7, and frequently, in order to make the form more full-toned. The relative clause shows that אישׁ חמסים is not intended to be understood exclusively of one person. בּלב strengthens the notion of that which is deeply concealed and premeditated. It is doubtful whether יגוּרוּ signifies to form into troops or to stir up. But from the fact that גּוּר in Psa 56:7; Psa 59:4, Isa 54:15, signifies not congregare but se congregare, it is to be inferred that גּוּר in the passage before us, like גּרה (or התגּרה in Deu 2:9, Deu 2:24), in Syriac and Targumic גּרג, signifies concitare, to excite (cf. שׂוּר together with שׂרה,…
Ps 140 In this individual lament, the psalmist artistically sketches God’s enemies with all their evil intents. He prays for the Lord’s protection and rescue with confidence in God’s strength and justice. He foresees the evil as being judged by fire (140:9-11) and himself as being vindicated and dwelling in the Lord’s presence (140:13).
140:1-3 The psalmist prays for the Lord to rescue him from wicked people.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 140:1
Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;
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. When "the evil man" bestirs himself against the godly he is as terrible a being as a wolf, or a serpent, or even a dev…
