Psalm 56:11

In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

56:8-13 The heavy and continued trials through which many of the Lord's people have passed, should teach us to be silent and patient under lighter crosses. Yet we are often tempted to repine and despond under small sorrows. For this we should check ourselves. David comforts himself, in his distress and fear, that God noticed all his grievances and all his griefs. God has a bottle and a book for his people's tears, both the tears for their sins, and those for their afflictions. He observes them with tender concern. Every true believer may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and then I will not fear what man shall do unto me; for man has no power but what is given him from above. Thy vows are upon me, O Lord; not as a burden, but as that by which I am known to be thy servant; as a bridle that restrains me from what would be hurtful, and directs me in the way of my duty. And vows of thankfulness properly accompany prayers for mercy. If God deliver us from sin, either from doing it, or by his pardoning mercy, he has delivered our souls from death, which is the wages of sin. Where the Lord has begun a good work he will carry it on and perfect it. David hopes that God would keep him even from the appearance of sin. We should aim in all our desires and expectations of deliverance, both from sin and trouble, that we may do the better service to the Lord; that we may serve him without fear. If his grace has delivered our souls from the death of sin, he will bring us to heaven, to walk before him for ever in light.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In God have I put my trust - The sentiment in this verse is the same as in Psalm 56:6, except that the word "man" is used here instead of "flesh." The meaning, however, is the same. The idea is, that he would not be afraid of what "any man" - any human being - could do to him, if God was his friend.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. God is for me—or, "on my side" (Ps 118:6; 124:1, 2); hence he is sure of the repulse of his foes.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

In God have I put my trust,.... See Gill on Psalm 56:4;

I will not be afraid what man can do unto me; the same with flesh in Psalm 56:4, and is opposed to God, in whom he trusted; and it suggests that he was not, and would not, be afraid of the greatest of men, as well as of the meanest; See Gill on Psalm 56:4; Arama distinguishes between "flesh" and "man"; the former, he says, means the Philistines, and the latter Saul and his army.

Geneva Study Bible

In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid;

What can man do unto me? (R.V.).

‘Man’ = ‘flesh’ of Psalm 56:4. Cp. Psalm 118:6, borrowed from this passage.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. Repeated word for word from ver. 4 (see the comment on that passage). Psalm 56:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

What the poet prays for in Psalm 56:8, he now expresses as his confident expectation with which he solaces himself. נד (Psalm 56:9) is not to be rendered "flight," which certainly is not a thing that can be numbered (Olshausen); but "a being fugitive," the unsettled life of a fugitive (Proverbs 27:8), can really be numbered both by its duration and its many temporary stays here and there. And upon the fact that God, that He whose all-seeing eye follows him into every secret hiding-place of the desert and of the rocks, counteth (telleth) it, the poet lays great stress; for he has long ago learnt to despair of man. The accentuation gives special prominence to נדי as an emphatically placed object, by means of Zarka; and this is then followed by ספרתּה with the conjunctive Galgal and the pausal אתּה with Olewejored (the _ of which is placed over the final letter of the preceding word, as is always the case when the word marked with this double accent is monosyllabic, or dissyllabic and accented on the first syllable). He who counts (Job 31:4) all the steps of men, knows how long David has already been driven hither and thither without any settled home, although free from guilt. He comforts himself with this fact, but not without tears, which this wretched condition forces from him, and which he prays God to collect and preserve. Thus it is according to the accentuation, which takes שׂימה as imperative, as e.g., in 1 Samuel 8:5; but since שׂים, שׂימה ,שׂים, is also the form of the passive participle (1 Samuel 9:24, and frequently, 2 Samuel 13:32), it is more natural, in accordance with the surrounding thoughts, to render it so even in this instance (posita est lacrima mea), and consequently to pronounce it as Milra (Ewald, Hupfeld, Bttcher, and Hitzig). דמעתי (Ecclesiastes 4:1) corresponds chiastically (crosswise) to נדי, with which בנאדך forms a play in sound; and the closing clause הלא בּספרתך unites with ספרתּה in the first member of the verse. Both Psalm 56:9 and Psalm 56:9 are wanting in any particle of comparison. The fact thus figuratively set forth, viz., that God collects the tears of His saints as it were in a bottle, and notes them together with the things which call them forth as in a memorial (Malachi 3:16), the writer assumes; and only appropriatingly applies it to himself. The אז which follows may be taken either as a logical "in consequence of so and so" (as e.g., Psalm 19:14; Psalm 40:8), or as a "then" fixing a turning-point in the present tearful wandering life (viz., when there have been enough of the "wandering" and of the "tears"), or "at a future time" (more abruptly, like שׁם in Psalm 14:5; Psalm 36:13, vid., on Psalm 2:5). בּיום אקרא is not an expansion of this אז, which would trail awkwardly after it. The poet says that one day his enemies will be obliged to retreat, inasmuch as a day will come when his prayer, which is even now heard, will be also outwardly fulfilled, and the full realization of the succour will coincide with the cry for help. By זה־ידעתּי in Psalm 56:10 he justifies this hope from his believing consciousness. It is not to be rendered, after Job 19:19 : "I who know," which is a trailing apposition without any proper connection with what precedes; but, after 1 Kings 17:24 : this I know (of this I am certain), that Elohim is for me. זה as a neuter, just as in connection with ידע in Proverbs 24:12, and also frequently elsewhere (Genesis 6:15; Exodus 13:8; Exodus 30:13; Leviticus 11:4; Isaiah 29:11, cf. Job 15:17); and לי as e.g., in Genesis 31:42. Through Elohim, Psalm 56:11 continues, will I praise דּבר: thus absolutely is the word named; it is therefore the divine word, just like בּר in Psalm 2:12, the Son absolutely, therefore the divine Son. Because the thought is repeated, Elohim stands in the first case and then Jahve, in accordance with the Elohimic Psalm style, as in Psalm 58:7. The refrain in Psalm 56:12 (cf. Psalm 56:5) indicates the conclusion of the strophe. The fact that we read אדם instead of בּשׂר in this instance, just as in Psalm 56:11 דּבר instead of דּברו (Psalm 56:5), is in accordance with the custom in the Psalms of not allowing the refrain to recur in exactly the same form.