Psalm 13:4

Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:1-6 The psalmist complains that God had long withdrawn. He earnestly prays for comfort. He assures himself of an answer of peace. - God sometimes hides his face, and leaves his own children in the dark concerning their interest in him: and this they lay to heart more than any outward trouble whatever. But anxious cares are heavy burdens with which believers often load themselves more than they need. The bread of sorrows is sometimes the saint's daily bread; our Master himself was a man of sorrows. It is a common temptation, when trouble lasts long, to think that it will last always. Those who have long been without joy, begin to be without hope. We should never allow ourselves to make any complaints but what drive us to our knees. Nothing is more killing to a soul than the want of God's favour; nothing more reviving than the return of it. The sudden, delightful changes in the book of Psalms, are often very remarkable. We pass from depth of despondency to the height of religious confidence and joy. It is thus, ver. 5. All is gloomy dejection in ver. 4; but here the mind of the despondent worshipper rises above all its distressing fears, and throws itself, without reserve, on the mercy and care of its Divine Redeemer. See the power of faith, and how good it is to draw near to God. If we bring our cares and griefs to the throne of grace, and leave them there, we may go away like Hannah, and our countenances will be no more said, 1Sa 1:18. God's mercy is the support of the psalmist's faith. Finding I have that to trust to, I am comforted, though I have no merit of my own. His faith in God's mercy filled his heart with joy in his salvation; for joy and peace come by believing. He has dealt bountifully with me. By faith he was as confident of salvation, as if it had been completed already. In this way believers pour out their prayers, renouncing all hopes but in the mercy of God through the Saviour's blood: and sometimes suddenly, at others gradually, they will find their burdens removed, and their comforts restored; they then allow that their fears and complaints were unnecessary, and acknowledge that the Lord hath dealt bountifully with them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him - I have overpowered him; I have conquered him. That is, to triumph over him as having obtained a complete victory.

And those that trouble me - Hebrew, "My adversaries." The reference here is the same as in the former member of the verse. It is to the enemies that seemed almost to have triumphed over him already, and under whose power he was ready to sink. "Rejoice." Exult; triumph.

When I am moved - Moved from my steadfastness or firmness; when I am overcome. Hitherto he had been able to hold out against them; now he began to despair, and to fear that they would accomplish their object by overcoming and subduing him. His ground of apprehension and of appeal was, that by his being vanquished the cause in which he was engaged would suffer, and that the enemies of religion would triumph.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. rejoice—literally, "shout as in triumph."

I am moved—cast down from a firm position (Ps 10:6).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I have prevailed against him, to wit, by my art or strength; which will reflect dishonour upon thee, as if thou wept either unfaithful and unmindful of thy promises, or unable to make them good. Therefore repress this their arrogancy and blasphemy, and maintain thine own honour.

When I am moved; or, stumble, or fall, to wit, into mischief.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him,.... Which is an argument God takes notice of; and for which reason he does not give up his people into the hands of their enemies; see Deuteronomy 32:27. The Chaldee paraphrase interprets this of the evil imagination or corruption of nature, and represents it as a person, as the Apostle Paul does in Romans 7:15; and which may be said to prevail, when it pushes on to sin, and hinders doing good, and carries captive; and it may be applied to Satan, the great enemy of God's people, who triumphs over them, when he succeeds in his temptations;

and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved; meaning from his house and family, from his country and kingdom, from a prosperous state and condition to a distressed one; at which the troublers of David's peace would rejoice. They that trouble the saints are sin, Satan, and the world; and the two last rejoice when they are in an uncomfortable and afflicted condition; and especially Satan rejoices when he gains his point, if it is but to move them from any degree of steadfastness, of faith and hope, or from the ways of God in any respect: the Targum adds, "from thy ways"; for to be moved so as to perish eternally they cannot, being built upon the Rock of ages, and surrounded by the power and grace of God.

Geneva Study Bible

Lest mine enemy say, I have {c} prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

(c) Which might turn to God's dishonour: if he did not defend his.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. and those &c.] R.V., Lest mine adversaries rejoice when I am moved. Cp. Psalm 38:16. And by their triumph, as the emphatic contrast of the following verse implies, the honour of God Whom he trusts will suffer.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him. The triumph of David's enemy over him, whether he were Saul or any one else, even the ideal wicked man, would be the triumph of evil over good, of those who had cast God behind their back over those who faithfully served him, of irreligion over piety. He could therefore appeal to God - not in his own personal interest, but in the interest of truth and right, and the general good of mankind - to prevent his enemy's triumph. And those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. There would be a general rejoicing on the part of all his foes, if his arch-enemy succeeded in seriously injuring him. Psalm 13:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 13:4-5) In contrast to God's seeming to have forgotten him and to wish neither to see nor know anything of his need, he prays: הבּיטה (cf. Isaiah 63:15). In contrast to his being in perplexity what course to take and unable to help himself, he prays: ענני, answer me, who cry for help, viz., by the fulfilment of my prayer as a real, actual answer. In contrast to the triumphing of his foe: האירה עיני, in order that the triumph of his enemy may not be made complete by his dying. To lighten the eyes that are dimmed with sorrow and ready to break, is equivalent to, to impart new life (Ezra 9:8), which is reflected in the fresh clear brightness of the eye (1 Samuel 14:27, 1 Samuel 14:29). The lightening light, to which האיר points, is the light of love beaming from the divine countenance, Psalm 31:17. Light, love, and life are closely allied notions in the Scriptures. He, upon whom God looks down in love, continues in life, new powers of life are imparted to him, it is not his lot to sleep the death, i.e., the sleep of death, Jeremiah 51:39, Jeremiah 51:57, cf. Psalm 76:6. המּות is the accusative of effect or sequence: to sleep so that the sleep becomes death (lxx εἰς θάνατον), Ew. 281, e. Such is the light of life for which he prays, in order that his foe may not be able at last to say יכלתּיו (with accusative object, as in Jeremiah 38:5) equals יכלתּי לו, Psalm 129:2, Genesis 32:26, I am able for him, a match for him, I am superior to him, have gained the mastery over him. כּי, on account of the future which follows, had better be taken as temporal (quum) than as expressing the reason (quod), cf. בּמוט רגלי, Psalm 38:17.