I. (59:1–10) Deliver Me from My Enemies, O God. The enemies are described as “those who work evil” and “bloodthirsty men” (v. 2) who “lie in wait for . . . life” (v. 3). They are “fierce men” and “stir up strife against” (v. 3) the singer—“for no fault of [his]” (vv. 3–4). In other words, this psalm is for situations in which the pious may legitimately claim to be innocent; they face hostility even though they have done no injury to the enemies.

The enemies are “howling like dogs and prowling about the city” like a pack of scavengers (v. 6). The image of verse 7, “bellowing” and “swords in their lips” (sharp teeth to tear), likely continues this, though the final line (“Who . . . will hear us?”) makes clear that this is an image of dangerous humans. Although dogs were apparently used in Israel as watchdogs (Isa. 56:10) and herd dogs (Job 30:1), in cities the dogs roamed as semiwild packs, feeding on carrion and trash as well as anything they could kill (cf. Ps. 22:16). Thus they posed a danger to any human who might venture out alone in the “evening.” But the faithful should not despair at such threats; God is greater than the enemies and thus is well able to thwart their schemes (59:8–10).

Verse 5 and verse 8 refer to “the nations” (Hb. goyim). The singular of this word (goy) can refer to any nation, including Israel (Ex. 19:6), but the plural (as here) usually refers to what we call “Gentiles,” that is, the other nations besides Israel. The title, however, sets the psalm in a situation in which the enemies are Israelites. Perhaps the simplest way to interpret this term here, then, is to see the psalm as describing these Israelites who sought to kill David as acting like Gentiles (as 54:3 seems to do; cf. comment on 54:1–3).

Psalm 59 responds to the situation with prayer: “deliver me” (vv. 1–2), “awake, come to meet me” (v. 4), “rouse yourself . . . spare none” (v. 5). But it also expresses confidence: “you . . . laugh at them” (v. 8), “my God . . . will meet me,” and “God will let me look in triumph” (v. 10; cf. 54:7). Taking these responses together, we realize that the psalm itself does not specify what the deliverance it seeks should look like. No doubt this is both because such deliverance can take many shapes and because the psalm is adaptable to a wide range of situations.

Psalm 59:9 uses two related images for God: “my Strength” and “my fortress.” These convey the idea of a person’s safety under God’s care (cf. comment on 18:1–3).

The Hebrew of the opening line of 59:10 (“my God in his steadfast love”) presents some difficulties (cf. ESV mg.; “The God who shows me steadfast love”). The text could either be, literally, “The God of my steadfast love” or “The God of his steadfast love” (and both of these would give us “The God who shows my/his steadfast love”). With a slight alteration of one vowel it would read, “My God, his steadfast love.” In practical terms there is not much difference between these!466

II. (59:11–17) Stop Them, That They May Know That You Rule. The basic request in this section is for God to bring judgment on these people in such a way that all people, both in Israel (“my people”; v. 11) and elsewhere (“to the ends of the earth”; v. 13), “may know that” a just, loving, and mighty “God rules over Jacob” and protects his faithful.

The disaster prayed for is that the enemies would fail in their purpose, “trapped in their pride.” In fact, the request “kill them not” (v. 11) indicates that the desire is for their failure to be visible to all, including themselves. We might be tempted to view this as angry vengefulness, but this would be out of place in the Psalms. It is better to take it as a cry for God to teach people a lesson through the failure of the bloodthirsty. Again, priestly leadership in the right use of the psalm is vital, so that no one employs this as a cover for slandering people he dislikes or promoting merely private resentments.

This section repeats the description of the enemies as wandering scavengers (vv. 14–15; cf. vv. 6–7) in order to keep the threat posed by the enemies’ greed in view.

The song closes with confidence that the worshiper will survive these threats in order to “sing aloud of your steadfast love” (v. 16; cf. v. 10)—that is, to sing aloud with the congregation of the faithful. “In the morning” (v. 16) corresponds to “each evening” (v. 14).

In verse 16, “I will sing of your strength,” uses the same word as “O my Strength” (vv. 9, 17). This shows the connection: God will show his strength on behalf of the faithful, and thus he is their strength. Similarly, God has “been to me a fortress” in the past (v. 16), and thus the psalmist writes, “You, O God, are my fortress” at all times (v. 17).