Psalm 59:6

The heading of the psalm ties it to a night in David’s life recorded in 1 Samuel 19:11–12. Saul, David’s own father-in-law, was driven by jealousy and fear, and he sent men to watch David’s house and kill him. The psalm calls itself a Michtam of David, a word often explained as “a golden psalm”. It opens with David’s urgent cry to be delivered from bloodthirsty men (Psalm 59:1–5), men who lie in wait for his life through no fault of his own, and verse 6 shows us what they are like.

“They return at evening.” The word ‘ereb means evening or sunset, the hour when the light fades. The enemies come back as the dark comes on, the way animals of the night come out to hunt, and they come back again and again. Whatever respite David has during the day, the threat returns with the dusk.

“And go round about the city.” The verb çâbab means to turn, to surround or to encircle. The enemies patrol the walls, closing in on every side and looking for a place to strike. For David this was literal, because Saul’s men were posted around his house, and it gives us the feeling of being hemmed in with danger in every direction.

“They make a noise like a dog.” The Hebrew keleb is the ordinary word for a dog. In Israel dogs were mostly wild scavengers that roamed in packs, fed on refuse and carrion, and could threaten livestock and people. They were counted unclean and were a byword for contempt, so to compare men to dogs was a deep insult. The noise is the howling, growling and snarling of a pack. David pictures men who have given themselves over to savage hatred, hungry to tear him down.

Scripture uses the same picture elsewhere. In Psalm 22:12–16 the sufferer is surrounded by bulls and dogs: “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me”. Paul warns the church at Philippi, “Beware of dogs” (Philippians 3:2), speaking of false teachers. Peter describes the devil prowling in the same way: “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). So the dogs of this verse also stand for any enemy that circles God’s people looking for a way in, whether human malice, the spiritual adversary or sin itself.

Verse 7 turns from the enemies’ howling to their speech, and “Behold” calls us to look at it. “They belch out with their mouth” uses the verb nâbaʻ, which means to gush forth or pour out like a spring, and it is used of words, good or bad. The KJV’s “belch” catches how crude this speech is. Their words spill out unchecked, a flood of malice with nothing held back.

“Swords are in their lips.” The word chereb is a sword, or a cutting tool such as a knife, and Strong’s ties its name to its destructive effect. Their words are weapons, meant to wound, to slander, to accuse falsely and to put David’s life in danger. In Israel words were understood to carry real force, and a false accusation could cost a man his life. Proverbs uses the same picture: “There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health” (Proverbs 12:18). “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Proverbs 18:21), and James writes, “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity” (James 3:5–6).

“But thou, O LORD” is where the psalm turns. After two verses about the enemies, David speaks straight to God and uses his covenant name, Yᵉhôvâh, the eternal God of Israel who keeps his promises to his people. The one who answers these dogs is the LORD who is bound to David by covenant.

“Thou shalt laugh at them.” The verb sâchaq is the ordinary word for laughing, and it can also mean to make merry or to play. Here it stands beside “thou shalt have all the heathen in derision”, where lâʻag means to mock or deride, and the two lines say the same thing twice. So God’s laughter here is the laughter of scorn. It is the laugh of One who is wholly sure of his power and knows that his enemies’ schemes will fail. Scripture describes God laughing in human terms so that we can grasp how he regards those who rise against him. Psalm 2:4 speaks of him in the same way: “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” In Psalm 37:13 the Lord laughs at the wicked man, “for he seeth that his day is coming.”

The enemies asked, “who doth hear?” Verse 8 gives the answer. The LORD hears, and he laughs.

Verse 9 gives David’s answer to the danger: “Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defence.” The word for strength, ʻôz, means strength or might, and it can also mean a stronghold. David waits on God because God is strong, and that strength is what makes his waiting reasonable.

The verb behind “wait upon” is shâmar. Its root meaning is to hedge about, as with thorns, and so to guard, keep, watch and observe. Here it describes a watchful, expectant waiting, the posture of a man who keeps his eyes on God and holds on in faith while the danger is still at the door and relief has yet to come. It is the active waiting of a servant who attends on his master, trusting God’s timing and his way of deliverance. Isaiah promises that “they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31), and he tells us that the LORD himself waits, that he may be gracious to his people (Isaiah 30:18).

“For God is my defence.” The word “for” (kî) gives the reason for the waiting. God, ʼĕlôhîym, is plural in form, and when it names the true God it is a plural of majesty that usually takes a singular verb. The word for defence, misgâb, means a cliff or some other high, inaccessible place, and so a refuge, a high fort or a tower. In Israel such a place was a walled town on a height or a mountain refuge where enemies could find no way up. The dogs circle the city below, and David’s God is a height far above their reach. David says the same in Psalm 18:2: “The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer”. “God is our refuge and strength” (Psalm 46:1), and “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10).

God defends his people in the same way today. He gives us armour to stand firm against the schemes of the enemy (Ephesians 6:10–18), he guards our hearts with a peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:6–7), and he protects us against false accusation and keeps us safe in Christ for eternity. His defence is his sustaining presence and his deliverance through trouble, and David wrote these words with Saul’s men still outside.

Verse 10 names God by his love: “The God of my mercy”. The word cheçed is one of the richest in the Old Testament. It is the steadfast love and covenant loyalty of God toward his people, his faithfulness to his promises. David calls him the God of my mercy, because that faithful love is set on David himself.

“Shall prevent me.” A reader today hears “prevent” as “stop”, but the KJV uses the word in its older sense, from the Latin praevenire, “to come before”. The Hebrew qâdam means to go before, to precede, to anticipate, to hasten or to meet. God’s mercy comes out to meet David and goes on ahead of him, already at work against the danger before David has taken all of it in. The KJV uses “prevent” in the same sense in Psalm 21:3, where God goes before the king with blessings, and Moses told Israel that the LORD himself goes before them (Deuteronomy 31:8).

“God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies.” The verb râʼâh means to see, to perceive or to experience. The enemies, shârar, are those who are hostile to him, here Saul and his men. The words “my desire” stand in italics in the KJV, supplied by the translators. David expects to see with his own eyes God’s justice done on the men who are hunting him.

David’s danger points ahead to the Son of David. Jesus too was surrounded by enemies, and he was arrested at night. The dogs of Psalm 22 that encircle the sufferer came around him at the cross, in the taunts and cries of the crowds and the soldiers. His enemies’ words were swords as well. They said he cast out devils by Beelzebub (Matthew 12:24), and the crowd cried, “Let him be crucified” (Matthew 27:22). Where David prayed to be delivered from his enemies, Christ gave himself up to them willingly. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7), and “when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” (1 Peter 2:23). He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

His whole life was the waiting of verse 9. “The Son can do nothing of himself” (John 5:19), he said, and in Gethsemane he submitted to his Father’s will, even to death. The cross looked like weakness, and there God’s strength was at work, for Christ “spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). This is the laughter of verse 8 carried out. After he rose he said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28:18), and every knee will bow to him (Philippians 2:10–11). By his death he delivers those who lived all their lives in fear of death (Hebrews 2:14–15), and the last enemy, death, will be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26).

The answer to “who doth hear?” is the eternal Word made flesh (John 1:1), who will judge every word and deed. When he returns, a sharp sword goes out of his mouth to smite the nations, and he rules them with a rod of iron (Revelation 19:15). In him the God of our mercy has gone before us. He is our high tower, and our hope in him is an anchor of the soul that enters within the veil (Hebrews 6:18–20). Paul could say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).

These verses give us an honest picture of hatred and a clear sight of God. The enemies come back every evening, their words cut like swords, and they are sure that nobody hears. David names all of it plainly before God, and then the psalm lifts its eyes. The LORD hears and laughs. His strength is the reason to wait, he is a height his people’s enemies can never climb, and his steadfast love goes out ahead of his servant to meet the danger. David wrote this with men watching his door, and God brought him out. The same God is the God of our mercy, and justice is safe in his hands.