properly · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
LORD
יְהוָ֨הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
hands
מִ֘ידֵ֤יmi.Dei
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders dual construct
wicked
רָשָׁ֗עra.Sha'
H7563
morally wrong · noun, common masculine singular absolute
preserve
תִּנְצְרֵ֑נִיtin.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
מֵאִ֣ישׁme.'Ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
purposed
חָ֝שְׁב֗וּcha.she.Vu
H2803
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
overthrow
לִדְח֥וֹתlid.Chot
H1760
to push down · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
goings
פְּעָמָֽיpe.'a.Mai
H6471
a stroke · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
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 36:11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.
Psalms 17:5 Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.
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 17:8-9 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
Psalms 37:32-40 The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
Psalms 55:1-3 Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.
Proverbs 18:5 It is not good to accept the person of the wicked, to overthrow the righteous in judgment.
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…
Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked,.... From falling into their hands, and the weight of them); and from their laying hands on him, being men of power and authority;
preserve me from the violent man: or men, everyone of them; See Gill on Psalm 140:1;
who have purposed to overthrow my goings: to supplant him; to cause him to stumble and fall, to his disgrace and reproach; and that they might take an advantage of him, and an occasion against him. Arama interprets it, to drive me out of the land of Israel; see 1 Samuel 26:1. So Christ's enemies thought to have supplanted him, and have found something against him, to accuse him of to Caesar, Matthew 22:15.
John Calvin on Psalms 140:1-5
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…
Does He distinguish and separate anyone out, calling one to Himself as foreknown while sending the other away as not predestined? Never! Therefore, "you should not make excuses for your sins" (Psalm 140:4, LXX), nor should you want to make the Apostle's words an occasion for your own destruction, but should run, all of you, to the Master Who calls you. For even if someone is a publican, or a fornicator, an adulterer, a murderer, or whatever else, the Master does not turn him away, but takes away the burden of his sins immediately and makes him free. And how does He take away the other's burden? Just as He once took away that of the paralytic when He said to the latter: "My son, your sins are forgiven" [Matthew 9:2], and the man was immediately relieved of his burden and, in addition, received the cure of his body. - "Second Ethical Discourse"
"Preserve me, O Lord, from the hand of the sinner, from unrighteous men deliver me" [Psalm 140:4]. Here they wear their real colours, they are known; here we have no need to understand, but to act: we have need to pray, not to ask who they are. But how you should pray against such men, he explains in what follows. For many pray unskilfully against wicked men. "Who have imagined," says he, "to trip up my steps." Thus far it may be understood carnally. Every one has enemies, who seek to cheat him in trade, to rob him of money, where they are engaged together in business; every one has some neighbour his enemy, who devises how to bring mischief upon his family, to injure in some way his property and surely he devises this by deceit, by fraud, by devilish devices he endeavours to accomplish this: no one can doubt it. Yet not for these reasons are they to be guarded against, but lest they lay in wait for you and draw you to themselves, that is, separate you from the Body of Christ, and make you of their body. For as Christ is the Head of the good, so is the devil their head. What is, "to trip up my steps"? Not as though you should be deceived in the business you have with him, or he cheat you in a case which you have with him in the law courts. He has "tripped up your steps," if he have hindered you in the way of God; so that what you directed aright may stumble, or fall from the way, or fall in the way, or draw back from the way, or stop on the way, or go back to the place from whence it had come. Whatsoever has done this to you, has tripped you up, has deceived you. Against such snares as these pray thou, lest you lose your heavenly inheritance, lest you lose Christ your Joint-heir, for you are destined to live for ever with Him, who has made you an heir. For you are made an heir, not by one whom you are to succeed after his death, but One together with whom you are to live for ever.
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Psalms 140:4-5
The course of this second strophe is exactly parallel with the first. The perfects describe their conduct hitherto, as a comparison of Psa 140:3 with Psa 140:3 shows. פּעמים is poetically equivalent to רגלים, and signifies both the foot that steps (Psa 57:5; Psa 58:11) and the step that is made by the foot (Ps 85:14; Psa 119:133), and here the two senses are undistinguishable. They are called גּאים on account of the inordinate ambition that infatuates them. The metaphors taken from the life of the hunter (Psa 141:9; Psa 142:4) are here brought together as it were into a body of synonyms. The meaning of ליד־מעגּל becomes explicable from Psa 142:4; ליד, at hand, is equivalent to "immediately b…
The psalmist asks for divine protection (see Ps 121), praying that the Lord will keep him safe from the many schemes of the wicked.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on 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.
Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked. To fall into their hands would be a calamity indeed. David in his most pitiable plight chose to fall into the hand of a chastising God rather than to be left in the power of men. No creature among the wild beasts of the wood is so terrible an enemy to man as man himself when guided by evil, and impelled by violence. The Lord by providence and grace can keep us out of the power of the wicked. He alone can do this, for neither our own watchfulness nor the faithfulness of friends can secure us against the serpentine assaults o…
