Psalm 26:9

Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) Gather not.—Better as in margin. The psalmist prays that he may be spared to worship in the sanctuary, when doom falls on evildoers and carries them off. The LXX. and Vulg. have “destroy not.”

Benson Commentary

Psalm 26:9-10. Gather not my soul — That is, my life, as it is explained in the next clause; with sinners — Profligate and obstinate sinners, as the following words describe them, such being often called sinners by way of eminence. Do not bind me up in the same bundle, nor put me in the same accursed and miserable condition with them. Seeing I have loved thy house and worship, and endeavoured to serve thee acceptably, not only with ceremonial cleanness, but with moral purity of heart and life, do not deal with me as thou wilt with those that are filled with ungodliness and unrighteousness; do not destroy me with them, the righteous with the wicked; but save me in the common calamity, as thou hast been wont to do in such cases. In whose hands is mischief — Who not only imagine mischief in their hearts, but persist in it, and execute it with their hands. And their right hand — Which should be stretched out to execute justice and punish offenders; is full of bribes — By which they are induced to pervert justice, acquit the guilty, and punish the innocent.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

26:9 David, in this psalm, appeals to God touching his integrity. - David here, by the Spirit of prophecy, speaks of himself as a type of Christ, of whom what he here says of his spotless innocence was fully and eminently true, and of Christ only, and to Him we may apply it. We are complete in him. The man that walks in his integrity, yet trusting wholly in the grace of God, is in a state of acceptance, according to the covenant of which Jesus was the Mediator, in virtue of his spotless obedience even unto death. This man desires to have his inmost soul searched and proved by the Lord. He is aware of the deceitfulness of his own heart; he desires to detect and mortify every sin; and he longs to be satisfied of his being a true believer, and to practise the holy commands of God. Great care to avoid bad company, is both a good evidence of our integrity, and a good means to keep us in it. Hypocrites and dissemblers may be found attending on God's ordinances; but it is a good sign of sincerity, if we attend upon them, as the psalmist here tells us he did, in the exercise of repentance and conscientious obedience. He feels his ground firm under him; and, as he delights in blessing the Lord with his congregations on earth, he trusts that shortly he shall join the great assembly in heaven, in singing praises to God and to the Lamb for evermore.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Gather not my soul with sinners - Margin, "take not away." The word rendered "gather," means properly to "collect;" to "gather," as fruits, Exodus 23:10; ears of grain, Ruth 2:7; money, 2 Kings 22:4. There is the idea of assembling together, or collecting; and the meaning here is, that he desired not to be united with wicked people, or to be regarded as one of their number. It does not refer particularly, as I apprehend, to death, as if he prayed that he might not be cut down with wicked people; but it has a more general meaning - that he did not wish either in this life, in death, or in the future world, to be united with the wicked. He desired that his lot might be with those who revered God, and not with those who were His foes. He was united with those who feared God now; he desired that he might be united with them forever. This is expressive of true religion; and this prayer must go forth really from every pious heart. They who truly love God must desire that their lot should be with his friends, alike in this world and in the world to come, however poor, and humble, and despised they may be; not with sinners, however prosperous, or honored, or joyful, or rich, they may be. The word "my soul" here is synonymous with "me;" and the meaning is, he desired that "he himself" should not thus be gathered with sinners. It is the same word which is commonly rendered "life."

Nor my life - This word properly means "life;" and the prayer is, that his life might not be taken away or destroyed with that class of men. He did not wish to be associated with them when he died or was dead. He had preferred the society of the righteous; and he prayed that he might die as he had lived, united in feeling and in destiny with those who feared and loved God.

With bloody men - Margin, "men of blood." People who shed blood - robbers, murderers - a term used to denote the wicked. See the notes at Psalm 5:6.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. Gather not, &c.—Bring me not to death.

bloody men—(compare Ps 5:6).

The Treasury of David

9 Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:

10 In whose hand is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.

Psalm 26:9

"Gather not my soul with sinners." - Lord, when, like fruit, I must be gathered, put me not in the same basket with the best of sinners, much less with the worst of them. The company of sinners is so distasteful to us here, that we cannot endure the thought of being bound up in the same bundle with them to all eternity. Our comfort is, that the Great Husbandman discerns the tares from the wheat, and will find a separate place for distinct characters. In the former verses we see that the Psalmist kept himself clear of profane persons, and this is to be understood as a reason why he should not be thrust into their company at the last. Let us think of the doom of the wicked, and the prayer of the text will forcibly rise to our lips; meanwhile, as we see the rule of judgment by which like is gathered to its like, we who have passed from death unto life have nothing to fear. "Nor my life with bloody men." Our soul sickens to hear them speak; their cruel dispatches, in which they treat the shooting of their fellow-men as rare sport, are horrifying to us; Lord, let us not be shut up in the same prison with them; nay, the same paradise with such men would be a hell, if they remained as they now are.

Psalm 26:10

"In whose hands is mischief." - They have both hands full of it, plotting it and carrying it out. "And their right hand," with which they are most dexterous, "is full of bribes;" like thieves who would steal with impunity, they carry a sop for the dogs of justice. He who gives bribes is every way as guilty as the man who takes them, and in the matter of our parliamentary elections the rich villain who gives the bribe is by far the worse. Bribery, in any form or shape, should be as detestable to a Christian as carrion to a dove, or garbage to a lamb. Let those whose dirty hands are fond of bribes remember that neither death nor the devil can be bribed to let them escape their well-earned doom.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

My soul, i.e. my life, as it is explained in the next clause. Do not bind me up in the same bundle, nor put me into the same accursed and miserable condition, with them. Seeing I have had so great an antipathy against them in the whole course of my life, Psalm 26:4,5, let me not die their death; as Balaam on the contrary desired

to die the death of the righteous, Numbers 23:10. And seeing I have loved thy house and worship, and endeavoured to serve thee acceptably, not only with ceremonial cleanness, but with moral purity of heart and life, Psalm 26:6-8, do not deal with me as thou wilt with those that are filled with ungodliness and unrighteousness; do not destroy me with them, the righteous with the wicked, Genesis 18:23, but save me in the common calamity, as thou hast promised and used to do in like cases. The Hebrew word asaph, rendered gathering, is oft put for taking away, as Genesis 30:23 Isaiah 4:1 Jeremiah 8:13 16:5, and that by destruction and death, as 1 Samuel 15:6 Isaiah 57:1 Jeremiah 8:13 Ezekiel 34:29 Hosea 4:3. The ground of which phrase may be either, because by death men’s souls or spirits are gathered and returned to God, Ecclesiastes 12:7, who had dispersed them all the world over; or because the several sorts of men, good and bad, which live here together promiscuously, are there severed, and all of one sort of them gathered together unto their fathers or peoples, as it is expressed, Genesis 15:15 Numbers 20:24 2 Kings 22:20: compare Hebrews 12:23.

With sinners; profligate and obstinate sinners, as the following words describe them, such being oft called sinners by way of eminency, as 1 Samuel 15:18 Psalm 1:1 104:35 Isaiah 1:28 33:14.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Gather not my soul with sinners,.... Profligate and abandoned ones, such as are notoriously profane, and who live and die impenitent ones; otherwise all men are sinners: the sense is, either that he desires that he might not, by any means, be brought into the company of such persons, be joined unto them, and have a conversation with them, which would be uncomfortable, dishonourable, and dangerous; or that God would not destroy him with them; and that he might not die the death of the wicked, nor be gathered with them at death: death is often expressed by a man's being gathered to his people, and to his fathers; see 2 Kings 22:20; the body is gathered to the grave, the soul returns to God that gave it, and has its place assigned by him; the souls of the righteous are gathered into heaven, Christ's garner; the souls of the wicked into hell; the psalmist deprecates being gathered with them;

nor my life with bloody men; that thirst after blood, lie in wait for it, shed it, and are drunk with it, as the antichristian party; these God abhors and detests; nor shall they live out half their days, and their end is miserable.

Geneva Study Bible

{f} Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:

(f) Destroy me not in the overthrow of the wicked.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. Gather not] i.e. take not away. Let me not share the fate of those whose society and practices I have ever shunned. How natural a prayer if a pestilence was raging which seemed to strike righteous and wicked indiscriminately! The wicked are described as men of blood (Psalm 26:6), who do not shrink from violence and murder: in whose hands is mischief (Psalm 7:3), they deliberately plan and execute crime; and their right hand is full of bribes, which they take to pervert justice (Psalm 15:5). Nobles and men in authority are referred to. Comp. Micah 7:2-3.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - Gather not my soul with sinners. Unite me not in one doom with open sinners - those with whom I have always refused to consort (vers. 4, 5) - whose congregation I have "hated." "That the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). Nor my life with bloody men. Bloody men - literally, men of bloods - are the worst of wicked men, cut-throats, assassins, murderers. At any rate, put me not on a par with them. Little, probably, did the psalmist think at this time how soon he was to become, practically, a murderer, and to "slay Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the children of Ammon" (2 Samuel 12:9) Psalm 26:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

It is now, for the first time, that the petition compressed into the one word שׁפטני (Psalm 26:1) is divided out. He prays (as in Psalm 28:3), that God may not connect him in one common lot with those whose fellowship of sentiment and conduct he has always shunned. אנשׁי דּמים, as in Psalm 5:7, cf. ἄνθρωποι αἱμάτων, Sir. 31:25. Elsewhere זמּה signifies purpose, and more particularly in a bad sense; but in this passage it means infamy, and not unnatural unchastity, to which בּידיהם is inappropriate, but scum of whatever is vicious in general: they are full of cunning and roguery, and their right hand, which ought to uphold the right - David has the lords of his people in his eye - is filled (מלאה, not מלאה) with accursed (Deuteronomy 27:25) bribery to the condemnation of the innocent. He, on the contrary, now, as he always has done, walks in his uprightness, so that now he can with all the more joyful conscience intreat God to interpose judicially in his behalf.