Psalm 64:8

The first six verses of the psalm are David’s prayer against enemies who work in secret (Psalm 64:1–6). They “whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words” (Psalm 64:3). They lay snares privately and say, “Who shall see them?” (Psalm 64:5). Verse 7 is the turning point of the psalm, and it begins with two words that change everything: “But God”.

The enemies shot words, and now God shoots back. The verb yârâh means to throw or lay something, and especially to shoot an arrow, and the same root is used of water flowing and of rain. The word for arrow, chêts, is properly “a piercer”. The name for God here, ʼĕlôhîym, is plural in form and takes a singular verb, as it usually does, a plural of majesty for the one true God. Against their limited, earthly schemes stands his power, and his arrow finds its mark.

Scripture speaks of God here in human terms, as a warrior who fights for his people. Moses sang the same truth after the Red Sea: “The LORD is a man of war” (Exodus 15:3). The enemies’ bitter words were meant to wound, and in the end they come to nothing, while God’s arrow does exactly what he sends it to do.

Verse 8 opens with “So”, and it follows straight on from God’s arrow. The wicked fall by their own weapon, and it is God who turns it against them. The word for tongue, lâshôwn, is the tongue of a man or an animal, and by extension speech and language. In this psalm the tongue is the sword and the bow of verse 3, the instrument of slander and deceit.

“To fall” translates kâshal, which means to totter, waver, stumble or fall. The form used here means to cause to stumble or to make fail. The words they aimed at others trip up the people who spoke them, and the punishment matches the crime. Scripture says this again and again. “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein” (Proverbs 26:27). The man who digs a pit falls into it, and his mischief comes back on his own head (Psalm 7:15–16). Those who refuse wisdom eat the fruit of their own way (Proverbs 1:31). In the book of Esther the plotter is caught by his own plot: “So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai” (Esther 7:10).

The danger of the tongue runs through the wisdom of Proverbs and through James, who writes at length about taming it (James 3). In Israel a good name was precious, and slander and false accusation were grave wrongs, able to ruin a man’s standing and livelihood. This verse is a comfort to those who suffer from such words and a warning about our own.

The judgment of verses 7 and 8 happens where people can see it, and verse 9 tells how they respond. “All men” is kol-adam, all mankind. They “shall fear”, from yârêʼ, the word for fear that also covers reverence and awe. The same act that alarms them humbles them before God, and that awe is where wisdom starts: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

They “shall declare”, nâgad, which means to announce, tell, make known or report. What God has done is plain enough that people speak of it to others. David does the same when he praises God for his marvellous works (Psalm 9:1). “The work of God” uses pôʻal, a deed or work, and “his doing” uses maʻăseh, a deed, work or workmanship. Both refer to what God has just done in verses 7 and 8, his judgment on the wicked and his rescue of the one they attacked. His judgments show his holiness and justice, as Isaiah says: “But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness” (Isaiah 5:16).

“For they shall wisely consider of his doing” gives the reason for their fear and their telling. The verb sâkal means to be wise or have understanding, to consider, and also to prosper. The watchers look closely at what God has done and understand it, seeing his purpose and his justice in it. Another psalm ends the same way, with the righteous rejoicing at God’s vengeance and men saying that there is a God who judges in the earth (Psalm 58:10–11). In heaven the song of Moses and the Lamb praises God because “just and true are thy ways” (Revelation 15:3–4).

The last verse turns from the onlookers to God’s own people. “The righteous”, tsaddîyq, are those who are in right standing with God and live by his commands. They “shall be glad”, sâmach, which means to rejoice, to feel and show great joy. What makes this joy good is where it rests: “in the LORD”, Yᵉhôvâh, in God himself, his character and his acts of justice and deliverance. Nehemiah told the people, “the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).

“And shall trust in him” translates châçâh, to flee for protection, and so to trust or seek refuge. The picture is of someone running to God for shelter, and the righteous rely on him in the same way when they face slander and secret plots. The same call to trust, in the English, stands in Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart”.

“All the upright in heart shall glory” widens the circle to every one of God’s faithful people. “Upright” is yâshâr, straight or right, and “heart” is lêb, the inner person. “Glory” is hâlal, the root of “hallelujah”, which means to shine, to make a show, to boast or to celebrate. The upright boast in the LORD, the way David says, “My soul shall make her boast in the LORD” (Psalm 34:2). Their honour and their victory are his.

The psalm ends where the Psalter begins, with two ways and two ends (Psalm 1). The wicked who plotted are brought down and abandoned, and the righteous whom they attacked are glad, safe and full of praise.

David answers the arrows of his enemies with prayer, and the arrow of judgment is God’s to shoot. The law already said so: “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence” (Deuteronomy 32:35), and Paul repeats it to the church in Romans 12:19. So the one who is wronged is set free from seeking his own revenge and from despair, and can commit his cause to the God who sees in secret and judges in his own time.

God’s arrow of judgment is aimed at sin itself, and on the cross Christ, the sinless Lamb, took its full force in our place: “But he was wounded for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5). He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Jesus was also the righteous one slandered, falsely accused and plotted against in secret, just as David was. The plots meant to destroy him led to the cross, and the cross became the means of salvation and of victory over sin and death. Christ “spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15). In his resurrection and ascension he was vindicated, and he told his disciples, “be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). He will return as the warrior of Revelation, with a sharp sword going out of his mouth, to judge all who oppose God and his people (Revelation 19:11–16). He is “the Lord, the righteous judge” (2 Timothy 4:8), before whom every hidden thing will be revealed.

Verse 9 finds its fullest answer in him as well. The cross and the empty tomb are the greatest “work of God”, and declaring that work to all nations is the Great Commission. To “wisely consider of his doing” is to grasp the wisdom of God in a message the world counts foolish, Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:18–25).

And verse 10 belongs to everyone who is in Christ. We are counted righteous through him who was made sin for us, “that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our trust is in Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2), who has said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). Our glory is in the Lord: “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31). His resurrection gives us a lively hope of our own resurrection and of joy with him for ever (1 Peter 1:3–9).

These verses show us a God who sees every plot laid in the dark and answers it at the moment he chooses. Bitter words can wound, but they are arrows that fall back on the people who shoot them, and the last word belongs to God. That frees his people to pray as David did, to leave vengeance with him and to wait.

The psalm also turns the warning inward. The tongue that falls on the wicked is the same kind of tongue that each of us carries, and our words have consequences as theirs did.

Above all, the passage ends in gladness. When God acts, the onlookers fear and speak of his work, and the righteous rejoice in the LORD himself, run to him for shelter and boast in him. The joy he gives his people rests on who he is, and so it holds even before the trouble is over.