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COMMENTARY ON PSALM 35 A psalm of David. [1109] lessed david uttered this psalm likewise when pursued by Saul. He mentions also Doeg’s wickedness, who personally reported to Saul what happened with Ahimelech the priest, and was responsible for that awfully great slaughter.1 He mentions also the Ziphites and the others who betrayed David to Saul,2 as the verses themselves will teach. (2) Judge, O Lord, those who wrong me, war against those who war against me (v. 1). The order of the words is impressive, befitting the righteous man’s prayer: he first asked the God of all to judge, then to impose the sentence of punishment. Take up weapon and shield, and arise to help me. Brandish a sword, and engage those pursuing me (vv. 2–3). After mentioning war, of necessity he detailed as well the types of weapons, frightening those addicted to wickedness by the outline of weaponry: God did not use such weapons in punishing the wrongdoers; instead, he needed but a word for extreme punishment. Say to my soul, I am your salvation: your word is sufficient to me for salvation. Since the inspired author had mentioned weapons, you see, it was right for him to teach that God does not need such instruments: by word alone he punishes the one and benefits the other. (3) Let those who seek my life be ashamed and fearful, let them be turned backwards, and let those who devise evil for me be confounded (v. 4). Let them fail in their blood-curdling plots, he is saying, and let shame be the fruit of wickedness for them. Let them be like 212 1. Cf. 1 Sam 22.9–10, 18–19. 2. Cf. 1 Sam 26.1. Again there is the opening relation of the psalm to historical events, the promise that the verses will bear this out, and the subsequent failure to redeem the promise in the main. This insistence on staying with a historical base sits strangely with a commentator who lamented it in others in his preface. foam before the wind, with an angel of the Lord distressing them (v. 5). He had this also in the first psalm, “Not so are the godless, not so; instead, they are like foam, which the wind sweeps from the face of the earth.”3 Let their way be darkness and sliding, with an angel of the Lord pursuing them (v. 6): put them to flight, entrusting the pursuit to the unseen angels. This is the way we also find the Assyrians exterminated by an angel,4 and the way the exterminator destroyed the firstborn of the Egyptians.5 Now, he calls stumbling darkness and sliding: both those who limp and those who suffer sliding stumble. (4) To show the righteousness of the prayer, he added, [1112] Because they hid their destructive snare for me without cause, rashly they reproached my soul (v. 7). They employ unjust schemes against me, he is saying. Now, for reproached Symmachus said “undermined,” hinting at the ruin prepared secretly. Let a trap fall on him of which he is ignorant, and let the prey he hid take him; in that trap he will fall (v. 8). May they fall foul of their own planning , he is saying, and trip their own nets; may they be the victim of unforeseen hunting, which is what is meant by a trap of which he is ignorant. (5) My soul will rejoice in the Lord, it will delight in his salvation. All my bones will say, Lord, Lord, who is like you? (vv. 9–10): I shall gain satisfaction and joy in your good things, Lord, and through all my limbs I shall cry out that you alone are God. The phrase who is like you? has the sense, You alone are God, having power over all. Rescuing the poor from the hand of those stronger than he, and the poor and needy from those despoiling him: you do not allow the needy to be hemmed in by the more powerful; instead, the latter you suppress and come to the aid of the former. (6) Unjust witnesses rose up against me, questioning me on matters I had no knowledge of (v. 11). I was subjected to calumny, he is saying , accused of crimes I had not planned. When Saul under the COMMENTARY ON PSALM 35 213 3. Ps 1.5. In both places Theodoret’s text seems to read “foam,” cnou` ", not...

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