to give · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
LORD
יְ֭הוָהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
desires
מַאֲוַיֵּ֣יma.'a.vai.Yei
H3970
a desire · noun, common masculine plural construct
wicked
רָשָׁ֑עra.Sha'
H7563
morally wrong · noun, common masculine singular absolute
further
תָּ֝פֵ֗קta.Fek
H6329
to issue · verb, hiphil jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
device
זְמָמ֥וֹze.ma.Mo
H2162
a plot · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
exalt
יָר֥וּמוּya.Ru.mu
H7311
to be high actively · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
Selah
סֶֽלָהSe.lah
H5542
suspension (of music) · interjection
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 10:2-3 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
Deuteronomy 32:27 Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our h…
2 Samuel 15:31 And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O LORD, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahit…
Job 5:12-13 He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.
Psalms 27:12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
Psalms 94:20-21 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 140:8–end
Here is the believing foresight David had,
I. Of the shame and confusion of persecutors.
1. Their disappointment. This he prays for (Psa 140:8), that their lusts might not be gratified, their lust of ambition, envy, and revenge: "Grant not, O Lord! the desires of the wicked, but frustrate them; let them not see the ruin of my interest, which they so earnestly wish to see; but hear the voice of my supplications." He prays that their projects might not take effect, but be blasted: "O further not his wicked device; let not Providence favour any of his designs, but cross them; suffer not his wicked device to proceed, but chain his wheels, and stop him in the career of his pursuits." Thus we are…
Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked,.... Of Doeg, as the Targum, and of other wicked men, who were desirous both of taking him, and of taking away his life: but the desires of such men are under the restraints of the Lord; nor can they fulfil them unless they have leave from him, which is here deprecated. The psalmist entreats he might not be delivered up to their will, or they have their will of him; see Psalm 27:12. Jarchi interprets it of Esau, as in Psalm 140:1; and it is applicable enough to antichrist and his wicked followers; who, could they have their desires, would root the Gospel, and the interest of Christ and his people, out of the world;
further not his wicked device:…
Psalm 140:6-10
6. I said to Jehovah thou art my God; hear the voice of my supplication. 7. O, Jehovah, my Lord! the strength of my salvation, thou hast set a covering upon my head in the day of arms. [226] 8. Grant not, O Jehovah! the desires of the wicked; they have devised, do not though consummate, they shall be exalted. Selah. 9. As for the head of those compassing me about, let the mischief of his lips cover him. 10. Let coals with fire fall upon them; he shall cast them into deeps, [227] they shall not rise again.
6. I said to Jehovah. In these words he shows that his prayers were not merely those of the lips, as hypocrites will make loud appeals to God for mere appearance sake, but…
The Church Fathers
Do not hand me over, O Lord, from my desire to the sinner. Scripture says that 'if anyone looks upon a woman to lust after her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.' So this is what the prophet is saying: Because of my concupiscence, do not hand me over to the devil; rather, it is well for me to be judged in the deed, and not in the thought.
Who is so foolish that, when he hears what is sung in the psalm, "Do not give me up, O Lord, from my desire to the wicked," he says this person was praying that God should not be patient with him, as though, as you say, "God does not give a man up so that evils are done except to show his patient goodness"? Do we not ask daily, "Lead us not into temptation," lest we be given up to our lusts? "For everyone is tempted by being drawn away and enticed by his own concupiscence." Therefore, should we not ask for God's mercy instead of asking him to show us his patient goodness? What sane person understands this; indeed, what maniac says this? Therefore, God gives people up to shameful lusts that they may do what is not fitting; but he gives them up fittingly, and these acts not only are sins, as well as punishments for past sins, but also they demand future punishments, just as he gave Ahab up to the lie of the false prophets and gave Rehoboam up to false advice.
"Deliver me not over, O Lord, by my own longing to the sinner" (ver. 8). Behold to what end Thy overshadowing shall avail for me, that I suffer not heat from myself. And what could that "sinner" do to me, rage as he would? For wicked men raged against the martyrs, dragged them away, bound them with chains, shut them up in prisons, slew them with the sword, exposed them to wild beasts, consumed them with fire: all this they did; yet did not God deliver them over to the sinners, because they were not delivered over by their own longing. This then pray with all thy might, that God "delivered thee not over by thine own longing to the sinner." For thou by thine own longing givest place to the devil. For lo, the devil hath set before thee gain, invited thee to dishonesty; thou canst not have the gain, unless thou commit the dishonesty: the gain is the bait, dishonesty the snare: do thou so look on the bait, that thou see the snare also; for thou canst not obtain the gain, unless thou commit the dishonesty; and if thou commit the dishonesty, thou wilt be caught. ...Hence is thine head overshadowed in the day of battle. For longing causeth heat, but the overshadowing of the Lord tempers longing, that we may be able to bridle that whereby we were being hurried away, that we be not so heated as to be drawn to the snare. "They have thought against me; leave me not, lest perchance they be exalted." Thou hast in another place, "They that oppress me will exult if I be moved." Such are they, because such is the devil also himself. ...
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…
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).
Such is the conduct of his enemies; he, however, prays to his God and gets his weapons from beside Him. The day of equipment is the day of the crisis when the battle is fought in full array. The perfect סכּותה states what will then take place on the part of God: He protects the head of His anointed against the deadly blow. Both Psa 140:8 and Psa 140:8 point to the helmet as being מעוז ראשׁ, Psa 60:9; cf. the expression "the helmet of salvation" in Isa 59:17. Beside מאויּי, from the ἅπ. λεγ. מאוה, there is also the reading מאויי, which Abulwald found in his Jerusalem codex (in Saragossa). The regular form would be מאוי, and the boldly irregular ma'awajjê follows the example of מחשׁכּי, מחמ…
The expression Sovereign Lord comes from combining the name Yahweh with the title Adonai (Master). See also 68:20; 69:6; 71:16; 73:28; 109:21; 141:8.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 140:8
Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked: further not his wicked device; lest they exalt themselves. Selah.
Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked. Even they are dependent upon thee they can do no more than thou dost permit. Thou dost restrain them; not a dog of them can move his tongue without thy leave and license. Therefore I entreat thee not to let them have their way. Even though they dare to pray to their, do not hear their prayers against innocent men. Assuredly the Lord Jehovah will be no accomplice with the malevolent; their desires shall never be his desires; if they thirst for blood he will not gratify their cruelty. Further not his wicked devices They are so united as…
