gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
hosts
צְבָא֡וֹתtze.va.'ot
H6635
a mass of persons (or figuratively · noun, common feminine plural absolute
God
אֱלֹ֘הֵ֤י'e.Lo.Hei
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֗לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
awake
הָקִ֗יצָהha.Ki.tzah
H6974
to awake (literally or figuratively) · verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + paragogic he
visit
לִפְקֹ֥דlif.Kod
H6485
to visit (with friendly or hostile intent) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
heathen
הַגּוֹיִ֑םha.go.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
merciful
תָּחֹ֨ןta.Chon
H2603
properly · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
wicked
אָ֣וֶן'A.ven
H205
strictly nothingness · noun, common masculine singular absolute
transgressors
בֹּ֖גְדֵיBo.ge.dei
H898
to cover (with a garment) · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
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 9:15 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.
Psalms 55:15 Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.
Psalms 84:8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer: give ear, O God of Jacob. Selah.
Genesis 33:20 And he erected there an altar, and called it El-elohe-Israel.
Exodus 3:15 And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God…
Exodus 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon…
Psalms 7:12-13 If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.
Psalms 54:3 For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set God before them. Selah.
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…
prepare, &c.--literally, "set themselves as in array."
awake--(Compare Psa 3:7; Psa 7:6), appeals to God in His covenant relation to His people (Psa 9:18).
John Gill on Psalms 59:5
Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts,.... Of the armies in heaven, the angels, and of all the inhabitants of the earth; who are all under him, and at his dispose, and can do among them and with them whatsoever he pleases;
the God of Israel; of the people of Israel, literally understood; and mystically of all the elect of God, Jews and Gentiles. The former epithet is expressive of his power, this of his grace and goodness in a covenant way; and both encouraged the psalmist to address him on the following account:
awake to visit all the Heathen: either the wicked Israelites that rose up against David, and sought to take away his life, who behaved like Heathens towards him, and were accounted…
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
"Without iniquity I did run, and was guided; rise up to meet me, and see." To God is said this. But why? If He meet not, is He unable to see? It is just as if you were walking in a road, and from afar by some one you could not be recognised, you would call to him and would say, Meet me, and see how I am walking; for when from afar you espy me, my steps you are not able to see. So also unless God were to meet, would He not see how without iniquity he was guided, and how without sin he was running? This interpretation indeed we can also accept, namely, "Rise up to meet me," as if "help me." But that which he has added, "and see," must be understood as, make it to be seen that I run, make it to be seen that I am guided: according to that figure wherein this also has been said to Abraham, "Now I know that you fear God." [Genesis 22:12] God says, "Now I know:" whence, but because I have made you to know? For unknown to himself every one is before the questioning of temptation: just as of himself Peter [Matthew 26:35-69] in his confidence was ignorant, and by denying learned what kind of powers he had, in his very stumbling he perceived that it was falsely he had been confident: he wept, and in weeping he earned profitably to know what he was, and to be what he was not. Therefore Abraham when tried, became known to himself: and it was said by God, "Now I know," that is, now I have made you to know. In like manner as glad is the day because it makes men glad; and sad is bitterness because it makes sad one tasting thereof: so God's seeing is making to see. "Rise up, therefore," he says, "to meet me, and see" [Psalm 59:5]. What is, "and see"? And help me, that is, in those men, in order that they may see my course, may follow me; let not that seem to them to be crooked which is straight, let not that seem to them to be curved which keeps the rule of truth.
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…
Titles And Names Of The Wicked · Wicked transgressors — Wicked transgressors
Waiting · Especially in adversity — Especially in adversity
Waiting Upon God · Should be: Specially in adversity — Should be: Specially in adversity
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).
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…
The psalmist asks God to show the treacherous, deceptive, and wicked traitors no mercy (see 25:2).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 59:5
Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.
Thou, thyself, work for me personally, for the case needs thine interposition. Therefore, because I am unjustly assailed, and cannot help myself. O Lord, ever living, God of Hosts, able to rescue me; the God of Israel, pledged by covenant to redeem thine oppressed servant; awake to visit all the heathen, arouse thy holy mind, bestow thy sacred energies, punish the heathen among thine Israel, the false hearted who say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. And when thou art about the business, let all the nations of thine enemies, and all the heathenish…
