Psalm 54:7

For he hath delivered me out of all trouble: and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) This verse does not actually state what has happened, but, according to a well-known Hebrew idiom should be rendered, When he shall have delivered, &c

Hath seen his desire.—Or, hath gloated on The Hebrews use the words seeing and looking very expressively, making the simple verb do almost what the eye itself can do: show hatred, love, triumph, defeat, wistfulness, disgust, &C (See Psalm 35:21; Psalm 52:6; Psalm 59:10; Psalm 92:11; Song of Solomon 6:13; &c)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

54:4-7 Behold, God is mine Helper. If we are for him, he is for us; and if he is for us, we need not fear. Every creature is that to us, and no more, which God makes it to be. The Lord will in due time save his people, and in the mean time he sustains them, and bears them up, so that the spirit he has made shall not fail. There is truth in God's threatenings, as well as in his promises; sinners that repent not, will find it so to their cost. David's present deliverance was an earnest of further deliverance. He speaks of the completion of his deliverance as a thing done, though he had as yet many troubles before him; because, having God's promise for it, he was as sure of it as if it was done already. The Lord would deliver him out of all his troubles. May he help us to bear our cross without repining, and at length bring us to share his victories and glory. Christians never should suffer the voice of praise and thanksgiving to cease in the church of the redeemed.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For he hath delivered me out of all trouble - This is spoken either in confident expectation of what would be, or as the statement of a general truth that God did deliver him from all trouble. It was what he had experienced in his past life; it was what he confidently expected in all time to come.

And mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies - The words "his desire" are not in the original. A literal translation would be, "And on my enemies hath my eye looked." The meaning is, that they had been overthrown; they had been unsuccessful in their malignant attempts against him; and he had had the satisfaction of "seeing" them thus discomfited. Their overthrow had not merely been reported to him, but he had had ocular demonstration of its reality. This is not the expression of malice, but of certainty. The fact on which the eye of the psalmist rested was his own safety. Of that he was assured by what he had witnessed with his own eyes; and in that fact he rejoiced. There is no more reason to charge malignity in this case on David, or to suppose that he rejoiced in the destruction of his enemies as such, than there is in our own case when we are rescued from impending danger. It is proper for Americans to rejoice in their freedom, and to give thanks to God for it; nor, in doing this, is it to be supposed that there is a malicious pleasure in the fact that in the accomplishment of this thousands of British soldiers were slain, or that thousands of women and children as the result of their discomfiture were made widows and orphans. We can be thankful for the mercies which we enjoy without having any malignant delight in those woes of others through which our blessings may have come upon us.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. mine eye … desire—(compare Ps 59:10; 112:8), expresses satisfaction in beholding the overthrow of his enemies as those of God, without implying any selfish or unholy feeling (compare Ps 52:6, 7).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He speaks of it as a thing already done, either to express his assurance of it, or because this Psalm was made after it was done.

His desire; or, thy vengeance; which may be understood out of Psalm 54:5. But there is no necessity of any supplement. The words in the Hebrew run thus,

mine eye hath looked upon mine enemies; either with delight, as this phrase signifies, Psalm 22:17 27:4, and elsewhere; or without fear or shame. I shall not be afraid to look them in the face, having God on my side.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For he hath delivered me out of all trouble,.... As he desired, 1 Samuel 26:24; that is, out of all his present trouble; not that he had no more afterwards; for as soon as one trouble is gone, generally speaking, another comes; but as God delivered him out of his present distress, so he believed he would deliver him out of all his afflictions in future times;

and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies: or revenge, as the Targum supplies it; not that he delighted in the destruction of his enemies, but in the justice of God glorified thereby, and in the goodness of God to him, in delivering him from them; see Revelation 18:20.

Geneva Study Bible

For he hath delivered me out of all trouble: and mine eye hath {g} seen his desire upon mine enemies.

(g) We may lawfully rejoice for God's judgments against the wicked, if our affections are pure.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. For he hath delivered me] Such a transition from the second person of Psalm 54:6 to the third person is quite possible: cp. the converse transition in Psalm 54:5 : but the subject of the verb maybe ‘the Name of Jehovah.’ Cp. Leviticus 24:11; Isaiah 30:27.

The perfect tense (‘hath delivered’ … ‘hath seen’) looks back from the hour of thanksgiving upon an answered prayer. Cp. Psalm 52:9, “because thou hast done it.”

hath seen his desire] Cp. Psalm 37:34; Psalm 52:6; Psalm 59:10; Psalm 92:11; Psalm 112:8; Psalm 118:7. Such rejoicing over the fall of enemies is not of the spirit of the Gospel. But the ‘salvation’ for which the Psalmist prays is a temporal deliverance, which can only be effected at the expense of the implacable enemies who are seeking his life; and it will be a vindication of God’s faithfulness and a proof of His righteous government at which he cannot but rejoice. The defeat of evil and the triumph of good presented themselves to the saints of the O.T. in this concrete form, which sometimes has a ring of personal vindictiveness about it, yet, fairly considered, is in its real motive and character elevated far above a mere thirst for revenge. See Introd. pp. lxxxviii ff.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - For he hath delivered me out of all trouble. "The poet looks forward, and treats the future as past" (Cheyne). He sees the "troubles" over, the Ziphites disappointed and punished, himself not only preserved from the immediate danger, but altogether freed from trouble of every kind, and rejoices in the deliverance which he feels has been accorded him. And mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies. There is nothing about "desire" in the original, which seems rather to mean, "Mine eye has looked, calmly and leisurely, upon my (defeated) enemies" (so Dr. Kay).



Psalm 54:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 54:6-9) In this second half, the poet, in the certainty of being heard, rejoices in help, and makes a vow of thanksgiving. The בּ of בּסמכי is not meant to imply that God is one out of many who upheld his threatened life; but rather that He comes within the category of such, and fills it up in Himself alone, cf. Psalm 118:7; and for the origin of this Beth essentiae, Psalm 99:6, Judges 11:35. In Psalm 54:7 the Kerמ merits the preference over the Chethמb (evil shall "revert" to my spies), which would at least require על instead of ל (cf. Psalm 7:17). Concerning שׁררי, vid., on Psalm 27:11. In the rapid transition to invocation in Psalm 54:7 the end of the Psalm announces itself. The truth of God is not described as an instrumental agent of the cutting off, but as an impelling cause. It is the same Beth as in the expression בּנדבה (Numbers 15:3): by or out of free impulse. These free-will sacrifices are not spiritual here in opposition to the ritual sacrifices (Psalm 50:14), but ritual as an outward representation of the spiritual. The subject of הצּילני is the Name of God; the post-biblical language, following Leviticus 24:11, calls God straightway השּׁם, and passages like Isaiah 30:27 and the one before us come very near to this usage. The praeterites mention the ground of the thanksgiving. What David now still hopes for will then lie behind him in the past. The closing line, v. 9b, recalls Psalm 35:21, cf. Psalm 59:11; Psalm 92:12; the invoking of the curse upon his enemies in v. 8 recalls Psalm 17:13; Psalm 56:8; Psalm 59:12.; and the vow of thanksgiving in v. 8 recalls Psalm 22:26; Psalm 35:18; Psalm 40:10.