properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
transgression
פִשְׁעִ֖יfish.'I
H6588
a revolt (national · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
sin
חַטָּאתִ֣יcha.ta.Ti
H2403
an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness) · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
LORD
יְהוָֽהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
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 56:6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
Psalms 69:4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are might…
1 Samuel 24:11 Moreover, my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand: for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed thee not, know…
Proverbs 12:6 The words of the wicked are to lie in wait for blood: but the mouth of the upright shall deliver them.
John 15:25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.
Psalms 37:32-33 The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.
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…
1 Samuel 19:1 And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 59:1-7
The title of this psalm acquaints us particularly with the occasion on which it was penned; it was when Saul sent a party of his guards to beset David's house in the night, that they might seize him and kill him; we have the story Sa1 19:11. It was when his hostilities against David were newly begun, and he had but just before narrowly escaped Saul's javelin. These first eruptions of Saul's malice could not but put David into disorder and be both grievous and terrifying, and yet he kept up his communion with God, and such a composure of mind as that he was never out of frame for prayer and praises; happy are those whose intercourse with heaven is not intercepted nor broken in upon by their c…
For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul,.... As the men did that watched his house, when Saul sent to kill him; so the Jews sought and lay in wait to take away the life of Christ; and very often was it the case of the Apostle Paul, that he was in danger of his life, through the lying in wait of the Jews; so Satan makes use of cunning devices, stratagems, and wiles, to ruin the souls of God's people, if possible; and false teachers lie in wait to deceive them. The emphasis lies upon the word "soul", which is so precious, and the redemption of which has cost so much, even the blood of Christ;
the mighty are gathered against me; or, "dwell by me"; see Psalm 56:6; around his house, the soldiers t…
Psalm 59:1-5
1. Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God! lift me up from the reach of them that rise up against me. 2. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men. 3. For, lo! they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Jehovah: 4. They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to hasten for my help, and behold. 5. And thou, O Jehovah, God of Hosts! the God of Israel, awake to visit all the nations: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.
1 Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God! He insists upon the strength and violence of his enemies, with the view of exciting his mind to greate…
The Church Fathers
"For behold they have hunted my soul. ...There have rushed upon me strong men" (ver. 3). We must not however pass on from these strong men: diligently we must trace who are the strong men rising up. Strong men, upon whom but upon weak men, upon powerless men, upon men not strong? And praised nevertheless are the weak men, and condemned are the strong men. If it would be perceived who are strong men, at first the devil himself the Lord hath called a strong man: "No one," He saith, "is able to go into the house of a strong man, and to carry off his vessels, unless first he shall have bound the strong man." He hath bound therefore the strong man with the chains of His dominion: and his vessels He hath carried off, and His own vessels hath made them. For all unrighteous men were vessels of the devil. ...But there are among mankind certain strong men of a blameable and damnable strength, that are confident indeed, but on temporal felicity. That man doth not seem to you to have been strong, of whom now from the Gospels hath been read: how his estate brought forth abundance of fruits, and he being troubled, hit upon the design of rebuilding, so that, having pulled down his old barns, he should construct new ones more capacious, and, these having been finished, should say to his soul, "Thou hast many good things, soul, feast, be merry, be filled." ...There are also other men strong, not because of riches, not because of the powers of the body, not because of any temporally pre-eminent power of station, but relying on their righteousness. This sort of strong men must be guarded against, feared, repulsed, not imitated: of men relying, I say, not on body, not on means, not on descent, not on honour; for all such things who would not see to be temporal, fleeting, falling, flying? but relying on their own righteousness. ..."Wherefore," say they, doth your Master eat with publicans and sinners? O ye strong men, to whom a Physician is not needful! This strength to soundness belongeth not, but to insanity. For even than men frenzied nothing can be stronger, more mighty they are than whole men: but by how much greater their powers are, by so much nearer is their death. May God therefore turn away from our imitation these strong men. ...The same are therefore the strong men, that assailed Christ, commending their own justice. Hear ye these strong men: when certain men of…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
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.
Michal — Rivulet, or who as God?, the younger of Saul’s two daughters by his wife Ahinoam (1 Sam. 14:49, 50). “Attracted by the graces of his person and the gallantry of his conduct, she fell in love with…
Malice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Waiting · Especially in adversity — Especially in adversity
Waiting Upon God · Should be: Specially in adversity — Should be: Specially in adversity
Warfare Of Saints · Is against: Enemies — Is against: Enemies
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).
Psalms 59:3 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
First part. As far as Psa 59:4 we recognise strains familiar in the Psalms. The enemies are called מתקוממי as in Job 27:7, cf. Psa 17:7; עזּים as shameless, עזּי פנים or עזּי נפשׁ; as in Isa 56:11, on account of their bold shameless greediness, dogs. On לא in a subordinate clause, vid., Ewald, ֗286, g: without there being transgression or sin on my side, which might have caused it. The suffix (transgression on my part) is similar to Psa 18:24. בּליּ־עון (cf. Job 34:6) is a similar adverbial collateral definition: without there existing any sin, which ought to be punished. The energetic future jeruzûn depicts those who servilely give effect to the king's evil caprice; they run hither and thi…
Ps 59 The psalmist laments the power of enemies who conspire with other nations.
59:title the time Saul sent soldiers to watch David’s house: See 1 Sam 19:11-18.
59:1-2 Protect me (or place me on high): When surrounded by evil, the godly pray for God to set them apart for himself and protect them.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 59:3
For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord.
For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul. They were in ambuscade for the good man's life. He knew their design and cried to God to be rescued from it. Like wild beasts they crouched, and waited to make the fatal spring; but their victim used effectual means to baffle them, for he laid the matter before the Lord. While the enemy lies waiting in the posture of a beast, we wait before God in the posture of prayer, for God waits to be gracious to us and terrible towards our foes. The mighty are gathered against me. None of them were absent from the muster when a saint was to…
