Psalms 57:6 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Psalms 57:6
They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.
properly · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person common plural
net
רֶ֤שֶׁתRe.shet
H7568
a net (as catching animals) · noun, common feminine singular absolute
steps
לִפְעָמַי֮lif.'a.Mai
H6471
a stroke · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
soul
נַ֫פְשִׁ֥יnaf.Shi
H5315
properly · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
down
כָּפַ֪ףka.Faf
H3721
to curve · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
digged
כָּר֣וּka.Ru
H3738
properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
pit
שִׁיחָ֑הshi.Chah
H7882
a pit-fall · noun, common feminine singular absolute
before
לְפָנַ֣יle.fa.Nai
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
midst
בְתוֹכָ֣הּve.to.Khah
H8432
a bisection · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
fallen
נָפְל֖וּna.fe.Lu
H5307
to fall · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common 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 145:14 The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
Psalms 7:15-16 He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made.
Proverbs 28:10 Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in p…
Micah 7:2 The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brot…
Psalms 35:7-8 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.
Psalms 140:5 The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah.
Psalms 9:15-16 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.
Psalms 142:3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 57:1-6
The title of this psalm has one word new in it, Al-taschith - Destroy not. Some make it to be only some known tune to which this psalm was set; others apply it to the occasion and matter of the psalm. Destroy not; that is, David would not let Saul be destroyed, when now in the cave there was a fair opportunity of killing him, and his servants would fain have done so. No, says David, destroy him not, Sa1 24:4, Sa1 24:6. Or, rather, God would not let David be destroyed by Saul; he suffered him to persecute David, but still under this limitation, Destroy him hot; as he permitted Satan to afflict Job, Only save his life. David must not be destroyed, for a blessing is in him (Isa 65:8), even Chri…
They have prepared a net for my steps,.... They laid snares for him, as the fowler does for the bird, in order to take him. It denotes the insidious ways used by Saul and his men to get David into their hands; so the Pharisees consulted together how they might entangle Christ in his talk, Matthew 22:15;
my soul is bowed down; dejected by reason of his numerous enemies, and the crafty methods they took to ensnare and ruin him; so the soul of Christ was bowed down with the sins of his people, and with a sense of divine wrath because of them; and so their souls are often bowed down; or they are dejected in their spirits, on account of sin, Satan's temptations, various afflictions, and divine d…
Psalm 57:4-6
4. My soul is among lions; [341] and I lie even among them that are set on fire, [342] even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. 5. Exalt thyself, O God: above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth. 6. They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves.
4. My soul is among lions. He again insists upon the cruelty of his enemies as a plea to prevail with God for his speedier interposition. He compares them to lions, speaks of them as inflamed with fury or implacable hatred, and likens their teeth to spears and arrows. In what…
The Church Fathers
We heard the apostle telling us, "We are ambassadors for Christ, exhorting you to be reconciled with God." He would not be exhorting us to be reconciled unless we had been enemies. So the whole world was the Savior's enemy, the captor's friend; that is, God's enemy, the devil's friend. And the whole human race, like this woman, was bent over and bowed down to the ground. There is someone who already understands these enemies, and he cries out against them and says to God, "They have bowed my soul down." The devil and his angels have bowed the souls of men and women down to the ground; that is, have bent them forward to be intent on temporal and earthly things and stop them from seeking the things that are above.
And what have they done to You, O Lord? Let the Prophet here exult! For above, all those verses the Lord was speaking: a Prophet indeed, but in the person of the Lord, because in the Prophet is the Lord...."Be exalted," he says, "above the Heavens, O God." Man on the Cross, and above the Heavens, God. Let them continue on the earth raging, Thou in Heaven be judging. Where are they that were raging? Where are their teeth, the arms and arrows? Have not "the stripes of them been made the arrows of infants"? For in another place a Psalm this says, desiring to prove them vainly to have raged, and vainly unto frenzies to have been driven headlong: for nothing they were able to do to Christ when for the time crucified, and afterwards when He was rising again, and in Heaven was sitting. How do infants make to themselves arrows? Of reeds? But what arrows? Or what powers? Or what bows? Or what wound? "Be Thou exalted above the Heavens, O God, and above all the earth Your glory" [Psalm 57:6]. Wherefore exalted above the Heavens, O God? Brethren, God exalted above the Heavens we see not, but we believe: but above all the earth His glory to be not only we believe, but also see. But what kind of madness heretics are afflicted with, I pray you observe. They being cut off from the bond of the Church of Christ, and to a part holding, the whole losing, will not communicate with the whole earth, where is spread abroad the glory of Christ. But we Catholics are in all the earth, because with all the world we communicate, wherever the Glory of Christ is spread abroad. For we see that which then was sung, now fulfilled. There has been exalted above the Heavens our God, and above all the earth the Glory of the Same. O heretical insanity! That which you see not you believe with me, that which you see you deny; you believe with me in Christ exalted above the Heavens, a thing which we see not; and deniest His Glory over all the earth, a thing which we see.
Dictionary and topics
Altaschith — Destroy not, the title of Ps. 57, 58, 59, and 75. It was probably the name of some song to the melody of which these psalms were to be chanted.
Afflicted Saints · Should praise God — Should praise God
Enemy · The wickedness of David’s — The wickedness of David’s
Malice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Net · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Pit · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Punishment Of The Wicked, The · Often brought about by their evil designs — Often brought about by their evil designs
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).
In this second half of the Psalm the poet refreshes himself with the thought of seeing that for which he longs and prays realized even with the dawning of the morning after this night of wretchedness. The perfect in Psa 57:7 is the perfect of certainty; the other perfects state what preceded and is now changed into the destruction of the crafty ones themselves. If the clause כּפף נפשׁי is rendered: my soul was bowed down (cf. חלל, Psa 109:22), it forms no appropriate corollary to the crafty laying of snares. Hence kpp must be taken as transitive: he had bowed down my soul; the change of number in the mention of the enemies is very common in the Psalms relating to these trials, whether it be…
This verse is repeated in 57:11 and 108:5. • God’s glory—his manifest presence that excludes all evil (8:1; 19:1-4; 24:7)—will fill the whole created order (Isa 6:3).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 57:6
They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.
They have prepared a net for my steps. The enemies of the godly spare no pains, but go about their wicked work with the coolest deliberation. As for each sort of fish, or bird, or beast, a fitting net is needed, so do the ungodly suit their net to their victim's circumstances and character with a careful craftiness of malice. Whatever David might do, and whichever way he might turn, his enemies were ready to entrap him in some way or other. My soul is bowed down. He was held down like a bird in a trap; his enemies took care to leave him no…