Psalm 59:5

Thou therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Therefore . . .—Better, Yea, even Thou . . . Not only is there an emphatic “thou,” but the passion of prayer cannot exhaust itself without piling up all the customary names of the Divine Being.

God of Israel.—This is added so emphatically because of the “heathen,” against whom aid is invoked.

All the heathen . . . wicked transgressors.—These two terms are not synonymous, but contrasted. There were not only foreign, but domestic foes, viz., the party who, pretending to be loyal Israelites, were yet intriguing with the foreigners. The literal “coverers of wickedness” implies concealment and treachery.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 59:5. O Lord, &c., the God of Israel — In covenant with all true Israelites, whom thou promisest to protect and bless. Awake to visit all the heathen — Or, these heathen, who, though they are Israelites by birth, yet in truth, and in their dispositions and manners, are mere heathen. Be not merciful — Hebrew, אל תחן, al tachon, Thou wilt not be merciful, that is, Thou canst not with honour, nor according to thy word, be merciful, to any wicked transgressors — Hebrew, כל בגדי און, cal bogedee aven, perfidious transgressors, or, more literally, prevaricators of wickedness; that is, such as are guilty of great treachery and perfidiousness, meaning such as, with pretences of friendship, persecuted him and other good men, out of malice, and against their own consciences. But neither can God, in consistency with the perfections of his nature, and the truths of his word, show mercy to any incorrigible offenders.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

59:1-7 In these words we hear the voice of David when a prisoner in his own house; the voice of Christ when surrounded by his merciless enemies; the voice of the church when under bondage in the world; and the voice of the Christian when under temptation, affliction, and persecution. And thus earnestly should we pray daily, to be defended and delivered from our spiritual enemies, the temptations of Satan, and the corruptions of our own hearts. We should fear suffering as evil-doers, but not be ashamed of the hatred of workers of iniquity. It is not strange, if those regard not what they themselves say, who have made themselves believe that God regards not what they say. And where there is no fear of God, there is nothing to secure proper regard to man.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts - God of armies: commanding all the armies of heaven - the angels, and the stars and constellations drawn out in the form of armies; thou, thus endowed with all power, and able to subdue all people though arrayed and combined for purposes of evil - awake to my help. On the meaning of the phrase "God of hosts," see the notes at Isaiah 1:9.

The God of Israel - The God of the Hebrew people - the descendants of Jacob or Israel - the Protector of thy people - awake to help me, one of those who, being of that covenant people, come under the promise of protection.

Awake to visit all the heathen - On the word here rendered "heathen" - גוים gôyim - see the notes at Psalm 2:1. It is from the use of this word in this verse and in Psalm 59:8, as remarked in the Introduction to the psalm, that DeWette infers that the psalm could not have been composed on the occasion referred to in the title, and argues, that this term could not be applied by David to Saul and his followers. This objection, however, will lose its force if the word is understood as denoting people who had the usual character of pagans, who were fierce, bloody, savage, cruel. In this sense the word might be employed with reference to those who were engaged in seeking the life of David. David, using the common word "heathen" or "nations," as denoting those who are wicked, cruel, harsh, prays that God would awake to visit them; that is, to visit them for purposes of punishment, or so to visit them as to prevent their carrying out their designs.

Be not merciful to any tricked transgressors - That is, Arrest and punish them "as" transgressors, or "being" transgressors. This prayer is not inconsistent with a desire that such people might be converted, and "thus" obtain mercy; but it is a prayer that God would not suffer them, being wicked people, to go at large and accomplish the work of wickedness which they designed. See General Introduction Section 6. (5) (e).

Selah - A musical pause. See the notes at Psalm 3:2.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4, 5. prepare, &c.—literally, "set themselves as in array."

awake—(Compare Ps 3:7; 7:6), appeals to God in His covenant relation to His people (Ps 9:18).

The Treasury of David

5 Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.

"Thou," thyself, work for me personally, for the case needs thine interposition. "Therefore" because I am unjustly assailed, and cannot help myself. "O Lord," everliving, "God of Hosts," able to rescue me; "the God of Israel," pledged by covenant to redeem thine oppressed servant; "awake to visit all the heathen," arouse thy holy mind, bestow thy sacred energies, punish the heathen among thine Israel, the falsehearted who Say they are Jews and are not, but do lie. And when thou art about the business, let all the nations of thine enemies, and all the heathenish people at home and abroad know that thou art upon circuit, judging and punishing. It is the mark of a thoughtful prayer that the titles which are in it applied to God are appropriate, and are, as it were, congruous to the matter, and fitted to add force to the argument. Shall Jehovah endure to see his people oppressed? Shall the God of hosts permit his enemies to exult over his servant? Shall the faithful God of a chosen people leave his chosen to perish? The name of God is, even in a literal sense, a fortress and high tower for all his people. What a forceful petition is contained in the words, "awake to visit!" Actively punish, in wisdom judge, with force chastise. "Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors." Be merciful to them as men, but not as transgressors; if they continue hardened in their sin, do not wink at their oppression. To wink at sin in transgressors will be to leave the righteous under their power, therefore do not pass by their offences but deal out the due reward. The Psalmist feels that the overthrow of oppression which was so needful for himself must be equally desirable for multitudes of the godly placed in like positions, and therefore he prays for the whole company of the faithful, and against the entire confraternity of traitors. "Selah." With such a subject before us we may well pause. Who would not sit still and consider, when vengeance is being meted out to all the enemies of God? How wrong is that state of mind which hates to hear of the punishment of the wicked!

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The God of Israel; a God in covenant with all true Israelites, whom thou hast promised to protect and bless. The heathen; or, these heathens, or Gentiles; who though they are called and accounted Israelites by their birth, yet in truth, and in their dispositions and manners, are mere heathens and barbarians; in which respect such men are elsewhere called strangers, Psalm 54:3, men of Sodom and Gomorrah, Isaiah 1:10, and as Ethiopians, Amos 9:7; as among us ungodly Christians are oft called Jews, or Turks or heathens.

Be not merciful; for indeed thou canst not with thine honour, nor according to thy word, be merciful to any such incorrigible offenders.

Wicked transgressors; or, perfidious transgressors; such as persecute me, and other good men, out of malice, and against their own consciences, which tell them that I am innocent, and with pretences of friendship. He might well pray so vehemently against such, not only for his own preservation, but for the just and necessary vindication of God’s honour, and for the public good of mankind, whose common interest it was that such vile miscreants should be taken out of the way.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts,.... Of the armies in heaven, the angels, and of all the inhabitants of the earth; who are all under him, and at his dispose, and can do among them and with them whatsoever he pleases;

the God of Israel; of the people of Israel, literally understood; and mystically of all the elect of God, Jews and Gentiles. The former epithet is expressive of his power, this of his grace and goodness in a covenant way; and both encouraged the psalmist to address him on the following account:

awake to visit all the Heathen: either the wicked Israelites that rose up against David, and sought to take away his life, who behaved like Heathens towards him, and were accounted as such by him; and the petition is, that God would arise and punish them, everyone of them, according to their deserts: or else the Gentiles, properly so called, whom he desires the Lord would visit, either in a way of grace, by sending the Gospel to them, and taking out of them a people for his name, as he did, Acts 15:14; foreseeing, by a spirit of prophecy, that the Jews would be rejected for their ill usage of the Messiah; See Gill on Psalm 59:1, title: or in a way of punishment for their idolatry and impiety; and particularly the antichristian states and powers, called the Heathen, and Gentiles, and nations of the earth, Psalm 10:16; may be here meant; whom God will visit for their idolatry, blasphemy, and bloodshed;

be not merciful to any wicked transgressors; that are perfidiously and abominably wicked, as Judas Iscariot, the Romish antichrist. The Targum renders it, "princes of a lie"; that speak lies in hypocrisy, and are given up to believe a lie, as the followers of antichrist. God is merciful to wicked men and to transgressors, but not to wicked transgressors; apostates may be meant, such as deal perfidiously and treacherously, as the word (o) used signifies; who sin wilfully and knowingly, after they have received the knowledge of the truth; sin against light and evidence, and obstinately and wickedly persist therein: who sin the sin against the Holy Ghost, the sin unto death, which is not to be prayed for, 1 John 4:16; or otherwise this may seem to be contrary to the command and example of Christ, Matthew 5:44.

Selah; on this word; see Gill on Psalm 3:2.

(o) "perfide agentibus", Junius & Tremellius.

Geneva Study Bible

Thou therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not {d} merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.

(d) Seeing it belongs to God's judgments to punish the wicked, he desires God to execute his vengeance on the reprobate, who maliciously persecutes his Church.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. Yea, do Thou, Jehovah, the God of hosts, the God of Israel,

Awake to visit all the nations:

Be not gracious to any treacherous workers of iniquity.

Thou is emphatic, and the address virtually means, ‘since Thou art God of hosts, and God of Israel.’ The first title implies that He has the power (Psalm 46:7, note), the second that He is under the obligation, to interpose and ‘visit,’ hold inquisition concerning, the nations, to punish them for their offences. But who are meant by the ‘nations’ or ‘heathen’? Are they the enemies against whom the Psalmist is praying, and identical with the ‘treacherous workers of iniquity,’ mentioned in the next line? If so, the Psalmist’s enemies are foreigners, for usage does not justify the interpretation of gôyîm as ‘heathenishly minded men’; and if the Psalm is in its original form, it cannot have been written by David with reference to Saul and his myrmidons. But it is possible that, as in Psalms 7, the prayer for a judgement upon personal enemies is expanded into a prayer for a judgement upon all the enemies of Israel: and in that general judgement the treacherous Israelites who are iniquitously plotting against the Psalmist’s life will meet their due reward. Similarly in Psalm 59:8, ‘them’ will refer to the Psalmist’s personal enemies, ‘the heathen’ or ‘nations’ to the enemies of Israel. It is also possible, as has been suggested above, that the Psalm has been altered for liturgical use.

The anomalous form of the combination Jehovah the God of hosts here and in Psalm 80:4; Psalm 80:19; Psalm 84:8 (Jehovah Elôhîm Tsebâôth not Jehovah Elôhç Tsebâôth) makes it probable that the original reading was simply Jehovah of hosts, and that God is the substitution of the Elohistic editor for Jehovah, which however, has survived or has been restored along with it.

Be not gracious is the opposite to the Psalmist’s prayer for himself, Psalm 56:1, Psalm 57:1.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel (comp. Psalm 69:6, also "a psalm of David"). Awake to visit all the heathen. "All" is emphatic, and means not only those without the covenant, but also those within - the wicked Israelites. It is noted that Saul's instruments consisted of two classes - actual heathen, such as Doeg the Edomite; and irreligious Israelites, as the Ziphites and others, who were no better than heathen. Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. "The Hebrew words denote treachery and faithlessness" (Cook). They are scarcely applicable to open foreign enemies. Psalm 59:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

First part. As far as Psalm 59:4 we recognise strains familiar in the Psalms. The enemies are called מתקוממי as in Job 27:7, cf. Psalm 17:7; עזּים as shameless, עזּי פנים or עזּי נפשׁ; as in Isaiah 56:11, on account of their bold shameless greediness, dogs. On לא in a subordinate clause, vid., Ewald, ֗286, g: without there being transgression or sin on my side, which might have caused it. The suffix (transgression on my part) is similar to Psalm 18:24. בּליּ־עון (cf. Job 34:6) is a similar adverbial collateral definition: without there existing any sin, which ought to be punished. The energetic future jeruzûn depicts those who servilely give effect to the king's evil caprice; they run hither and thither as if attacking and put themselves in position. הכונן equals התכונן, like the Hithpa. הכּסּה, Proverbs 26:26, the Hothpa. הכּבּס, Leviticus 13:55., and the Hithpa. נכּפּר, Deuteronomy 21:8. Surrounded by such a band of assassins, David is like one besieged, who sighs for succour; and he calls upon Jahve, who seems to be sleeping and inclined to abandon him, with that bold עוּרה לקראתי וּראה, to awake to meet him, i.e., to join him with His help like a relieving army, and to convince Himself from personal observation of the extreme danger in which His charge finds himself. The continuation was obliged to be expressed by ואתּה, because a special appeal to God interposes between עוּרה and הקיצה. In the emphatic "Thou," however, after it has been once expressed, is implied the conditional character of the deliverance by the absolute One. And each of the divine names made use of in this lengthy invocation, which corresponds to the deep anxiety of the poet, is a challenge, so to speak, to the ability and willingness, the power and promise of God. The juxtaposition Jahve Elohim Tsebaoth (occurring, besides this instance, in Psalm 80:5, 20; Psalm 84:9), which is peculiar to the Elohimic Psalms, is to be explained by the consideration that Elohim had become a proper name like Jahve, and that the designation Jahve Tsebaoth, by the insertion of Elohim in accordance with the style of the Elohimic Psalms, is made still more imposing and solemn; and now צבאות is a genitive dependent not merely upon יהוה but upon יהוה אלהים (similar to Psalm 56:1, Isaiah 28:1; Symbolae, p. 15). אלהי ישׂראל is in apposition to this threefold name of God. The poet evidently reckons himself as belonging to an Israel from which he excludes his enemies, viz., the true Israel which is in reality the people of God. Among the heathen, against whom the poet invokes God's interposition, are included the heathen-minded in Israel; this at least is the view which brings about this extension of the prayer. Also in connection with the words און כּל־בּגדי the poet, in fact, has chiefly before his mind those who are immediately round about him and thus disposed. It is those who act treacherously from extreme moral nothingness and worthlessness (און genit. epexeg.). The music, as Sela directs, here becomes more boisterous; it gives intensity to the strong cry for the judgment of God; and the first unfolding of thought of this Michtam is here brought to a close.

The second begins by again taking up the description of the movements of the enemy which was begun in Psalm 59:4, Psalm 59:5. We see at a glance how here Psalm 59:7 coincides with Psalm 59:5, and Psalm 59:8 with Psalm 59:4, and Psalm 59:9 with Psalm 59:6. Hence the imprecatory rendering of the futures of Psalm 59:7 is not for a moment to be entertained. By day the emissaries of Saul do not venture to carry out their plot, and David naturally does not run into their hands. They therefore come back in the evening, and that evening after evening (cf. Job 24:14); they snarl or howl like dogs (המה, used elsewhere of the growling of the bear and the cooing of the dove; it is distinct from נבח, Arab. nbb, nbḥ, to bark, and כלב, to yelp), because they do not want to betray themselves by loud barking, and still cannot altogether conceal their vexation and rage; and they go their rounds in the city (like סובב בּעיר, Sol 3:2, cf. supra Psalm 55:11), in order to cut off their victim from flight, and perhaps, what would be very welcome to them, to run against him in the darkness. The further description in Psalm 59:8 follows them on this patrol. What they belch out or foam out is to be inferred from the fact that swords are in their lips, which they, as it were, draw so soon as they merely move their lips. Their mouth overflows with murderous thoughts and with slanders concerning David, by which they justify their murderous greed to themselves as if there were no one, viz., no God, who heard it. But Jahve, from whom nothing, as with men, can be kept secret, laughs at them, just as He makes a mockery of all heathen, to whom this murderous band, which fears the light and in unworthy of the Israelitish name, is compared. This is the primary passage to Psalm 37:13; Psalm 2:4; for Psalm 59 is perhaps the oldest of the Davidic Psalms that have come down to us, and therefore also the earliest monument of Israelitish poetry in which the divine name Jahve Tsebaoth occurs; and the chronicler, knowing that it was the time of Samuel and David that brought it into use, uses this name only in the life of David. Just as this strophe opened in Psalm 59:7 with a distich that recurs in Psalm 59:15, so it also closes now in Psalm 59:10 with a distich that recurs below in v. 18, and that is to be amended according to the text of that passage. For all attempts to understand עזּי as being genuine prove its inaccuracy. With the old versions it has to be read עזּי; but as for the rest, אשׁמרה must be retained in accordance with the usual variation found in such refrains: my strength, Thee will I regard (1 Samuel 26:15; observe, 2 Samuel 11:16), or upon Thee will I wait (cf. ל, Psalm 130:6); i.e., in the consciousness of my own feebleness, tranquil and resigned, I will look for Thine interposition on my behalf.