Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 38:12
They also that seek after my life lay snares [for me]: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
12. Pitiless enemies beset him. Comp. Psa 35:4; Psa 35:26.
mischievous things ] Lit. destructions. See note on Psa 5:9.
imagine ] Lit. meditate. Contrast Psa 37:26; Psa 37:30.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They also that seek after my life – This was a new aggravation of his affliction, that those who were his enemies now sought to accomplish their purposes against him with better hopes of success, by taking advantage of his sickness.
Lay snares for me – On the meaning of this phrase, see the notes at Psa 9:15. The idea here is that they sought this opportunity of ensnaring or entrapping him so as to ruin him. They took advantage of the fact that he was weak and helpless, and of the fact that he was forsaken or abandoned by his friends, to accomplish his ruin. how this was done is not stated. It might have been by their coming on him when he was thus helpless; or it might have been by endeavoring in his weak condition to extort confessions or promises from him that might be turned to his ruin. An enemy may hope to succeed much better when the one opposed is sick than when he is well, and may take advantage of his weak state of body and mind, and of the fact that he seems to be forsaken by all, to accomplish what could not be done if he were in the enjoyment of health, or sustained by powerful friends, or by a public opinion in his favor.
And they that seek my hurt – They who seek to injure me.
Speak mischievous things – Slanderous words. They charge on me things that are false, and that tend to injure me. The very fact that he was thus afflicted, they might urge (in accordance with a prevailing belief, and with the conviction of the psalmist also, Psa 38:3-5) as a proof of guilt. This was done by the three friends of Job; and the enemies of the psalmist may thus have taken advantage of his sickness to circulate false reports about him which he could not then well meet.
And imagine deceits – Imagine or feign deceitful things; things which they know to be false or unfounded.
All the day long – Constantly. They seem to have no other employment. See Psa 35:20.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 38:12
They also that seek after my life lay snares for me.
When friends are slow in helping, foes are most busy
Our friends should blush, that the wicked are more instant against us, than they are to maintain us. But it is no wonder, since by nature men are more bent and prone to evil than to do good things. By constraint they do good, but willingly they commit evil.
1. Their profit and pastime was to undo me. The order is here inverted; for meditating properly precedeth speaking, and speaking doing; but in the words of the text it is otherways; their malice extendeth to the highest degree, they will not be contented to banish him, prison him, and revile him, nothing can satisfy their thirst but his blood. This is the envy of the serpent against the seed of the woman. The devil is a murderer, and so are his children.
2. The means which they used against him: their purposes, their words, and their actions. They meditated, they consulted; for wrongs done rashly are less dangerous, and more excusable, out of a spleen and choler; but advised evils are more fearful, and more hardly to be eschewed, laying the grounds and pillars of their proceedings upon some sure hold. But we have one advantage, that God is present in all their counsels, and cannot only reveal them, but also disappoint them.
3. Finally, those their meditations and communications, which proceeded from cruel hearts, burst forth in actions which were mixed with craft, and so much the more perilous, for they are said to lay snares for him: taking the metaphor from hunters, fowlers or fishers, whose trade is only to catch birds, beasts and fishes by their engines and policy, seeing hardly they can be taken otherways. (A. Symson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. They also that seek after my life] They act towards me as huntsmen after their prey; they lay snares to take away my life. Perhaps this means only that they wished for his death, and would have been glad to have had it in their power to end his days. Others spoke all manner of evil of him, and told falsities against him all the day long.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Lay snares for me; that if my disease do not kill me, they may destroy me some other way.
Imagine deceits; they design mischief, but cover it with fair pretences.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. seek after my life(1Sa 20:1; 1Sa 22:23).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They also that seek after my life,…. His avowed and implacable enemies, whom nothing would satisfy but the taking away of his life: these came too near him; for these, he says,
lay snares [for me], as Satan does for the souls of men, as the Jews did for Christ, and as wicked men do for the saints, Ps 124:7;
and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things; to the injury of his character and reputation:
and imagine deceits all the day long; contrive artful schemes to deceive; see Ps 35:20.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Sorrowful Complaints. | |
12 They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long. 13 But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. 14 Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs. 15 For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God. 16 For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me. 17 For I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me. 18 For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin. 19 But mine enemies are lively, and they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. 20 They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow the thing that good is. 21 Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me. 22 Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.
In these verses,
I. David complains of the power and malice of his enemies, who, it should seem, not only took occasion from the weakness of his body and the trouble of his mind to insult over him, but took advantage thence to do him a mischief. He has a great deal to say against them, which he humbly offers as a reason why God should appear for him, as Ps. xxv. 19, Consider my enemies. 1. “They are very spiteful and cruel: They seek my hurt; nay, they seek after my life,” v. 12. That life which was so precious in the sight of the Lord and all good men was aimed at, as if it had been forfeited, or a public nuisance. Such is the enmity of the serpent’s seed against the seed of the woman; it would wound the head, though it can but reach the heel. It is the blood of the saints that is thirsted after. 2. “They are very subtle and politic. They lay snares, they imagine deceits, and herein they are restless and unwearied: they do it all the day long. They speak mischievous things one to another; every one has something or other to propose that may be a mischief to me.” Mischief, covered and carried on by deceit, may well be called a snare. 3. “They are very insolent and abusive: When my foot slips, when I fall into any trouble, or when I make any mistake, misplace a word, or take a false step, they magnify themselves against me; they are pleased with it, and promise themselves that it will ruin my interest, and that if I slip I shall certainly fall and be undone.” 4. “They are not only unjust, but very ungrateful: They hate me wrongfully, v. 19. I never did them any ill turn, nor so much as bore them any ill-will, nor ever gave them any provocation; nay, they render evil for good, v. 20. Many a kindness I have done them, for which I might have expected a return of kindness; but for my love they are my adversaries,” Ps. cix. 4. Such a rooted enmity there is in the hearts of wicked men to goodness for its own sake that they hate it, even when they themselves have the benefit of it; they hate prayer even in those that pray for them, and hate peace even in those that would be at peace with them. Very ill-natured indeed those are whom no courtesy will oblige, but who are rather exasperated by it. 5. “They are very impious and devilish: They are my adversaries merely because I follow the thing that good is.” They hated him, not only for his kindness to them, but for his devotion and obedience to God; they hated him because they hated God and all that bear his image. If we suffer ill for doing well, we must not think it strange; from the beginning it was so (Cain slew Abel, because his works were righteous); nor must we think it hard, because it will not be always so; for so much the greater will our reward be. 6. “They are many and mighty: They are lively; they are strong; they are multiplied, v. 19. Lord, how are those increased that trouble me?” Ps. iii. 1. Holy David was weak and faint; his heart panted, and his strength failed; he was melancholy and of a sorrowful spirit, and persecuted by his friends; but at the same time his wicked enemies were strong and lively, and their number increased. Let us not therefore pretend to judge of men’s characters by their outward condition; none knows love or hatred by all that is before him. It should seem that David in this, as in other complaints he makes of his enemies, has an eye to Christ, whose persecutors were such as are here described, perfectly lost to all honour and virtue. None hate Christianity but such as have first divested themselves of the first principles of humanity and broken through its most sacred bonds.
II. He reflects, with comfort, upon his own peaceable and pious behaviour under all the injuries and indignities that were done him. It is then only that our enemies do us a real mischief when they provoke us to sin (Neh. vi. 13), when they prevail to put us out of the possession of our own souls, and drive us from God and our duty. If by divine grace we are enabled to prevent this mischief, we quench their fiery darts, and are saved from harm. If still we hold fast our integrity and our peace, who can hurt us? This David did here. 1. He kept his temper, and was not ruffled nor discomposed by any of the slights that were put upon him or the mischievous things that were said or done against him (Psa 38:13; Psa 38:14): “I, as a deaf man, heard not; I took no notice of the affronts put upon me, did not resent them, nor was put into disorder by them, much less did I meditate revenge, or study to return the injury.” Note, The less notice we take of the unkindness and injuries that are done us the more we consult the quiet of our own minds. Being deaf, he was dumb, as a man in whose mouth there are no reproofs; he was as silent as if he had nothing to say for himself, for fear of putting himself into a heat and incensing his enemies yet more against him; he would not only not recriminate upon them, but not so much as vindicate himself, lest his necessary defence should be construed his offence. Though they sought after his life, and his silence might be taken for a confession of his guilt, yet he was as a dumb man that opens not his mouth. Note, When our enemies are most clamorous it is generally our prudence to be silent, or to say little, lest we make bad worse. David could not hope by his mildness to win upon his enemies, nor by his soft answers to turn away their wrath; for they were men of such base spirits that they rendered him evil for good; and yet he conducted himself thus meekly towards them, that he might prevent his own sin and might have the comfort of it in the reflection. Herein David was a type of Christ, who was as a sheep dumb before the shearer, and, when he was reviled, reviled not again; and both are examples to us not to render railing for railing. 2. He kept close to his God by faith and prayer, and so both supported himself under these injuries and silenced his own resentments of them. (1.) He trusted in God (v. 15): “I was as a man that opens not his mouth, for in thee, O Lord! do I hope. I depend upon thee to plead my cause and clear my innocency, and, some way or other, to put my enemies to silence and shame.” His lovers and friends, that should have owned him, and stood by him, and appeared as witnesses for him, withdrew from him, v. 10. But God is a friend that will never fail us if we hope in him. “I was as a man that heareth not, for thou wilt hear. Why need I hear, and God hear too?” He careth for you (1 Pet. v. 7), and why need you care and God care too? “Thou wilt answer” (so some) “and therefore I will say nothing.” Note, It is a good reason why we should bear reproach and calumny with silence and patience, because God is a witness to all the wrong that is done us, and, in due time, will be a witness for us and against those that do us wrong; therefore let us be silent, because, if we be, then we may expect that God will appear for us, for this is an evidence that we trust in him; but, if we undertake to manage for ourselves, we take God’s work out of his hands and forfeit the benefit of his appearing for us. Our Lord Jesus, when he suffered, threatened not, because he committed himself to him that judges righteously (1 Pet. ii. 23); and we shall lose nothing, at last, by doing so. Thou shalt answer, Lord, for me. (2.) He called upon God (v. 16): For I said, Hear me (that is supplied); “I said so” (as v. 15); “in thee do I hope, for thou wilt hear, lest they should rejoice over me. I comforted myself with that when I was apprehensive that they would overwhelm me.” It is a great support to us, when men are false and unkind, that we have a God to go to whom we may be free with and who will be faithful to us.
III. He here bewails his own follies and infirmities. 1. He was very sensible of the present workings of corruption in him, and that he was now ready to repine at the providence of God and to be put into a passion by the injuries men did him: I am ready to halt, v. 17. This will best be explained by a reflection like this which the psalmist made upon himself in a similar case (Ps. lxxiii. 2): My feet were almost gone, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. So here: I was ready to halt, ready to say, I have cleansed my hands in vain. His sorrow was continual: All the day long have I been plagued. (Psa 73:13; Psa 73:14), and it was continually before him; he could not forbear poring upon it, and that made him almost ready to halt between religion and irreligion. The fear of this drove him to his God: “In thee do I hope, not only that thou wilt plead my cause, but that thou wilt prevent my falling into sin.” Good men, by setting their sorrow continually before them, have been ready to halt, who, by setting God always before them, have kept their standing. 2. He remembered against himself his former transgressions, acknowledging that by them he had brought these troubles upon himself and forfeited the divine protection. Though before men he could justify himself, before God he will judge and condemn himself (v. 18): “I will declare my iniquity, and not cover it; I will be sorry for my sin, and not make a light matter of it;” and this helped to make him silent under the rebukes of Providence and the reproaches of men. Note, If we be truly penitent for sin, that will make us patient under affliction, and particularly under unjust censures. Two things are required in repentance:– (1.) Confession of sin: “I will declare my iniquity; I will not only in general own myself a sinner, but I will make a particular acknowledgment of what I have done amiss.” We must declare our sins before God freely and fully, and with their aggravating circumstances, that we may give glory to God and take shame to ourselves. (2.) Contrition for sin: I will be sorry for it. Sin will have sorrow; every true penitent grieves for the dishonour he has done to God and the wrong he has done to himself. “I will be in care or fear about my sin” (so some), “in fear lest it ruin me and in care to get it pardoned.”
IV. He concludes with very earnest prayers to God for his gracious presence with him and seasonable powerful succour in his distress (Psa 38:21; Psa 38:22): “Forsake me not, O Lord! though my friends forsake me, and though I deserve to be forsaken by thee. Be not far from me, as my unbelieving heart is ready to fear thou art.” Nothing goes nearer to the heart of a good man in affliction than to be under the apprehension of God’s deserting him in wrath; nor does any thing therefore come more feelingly from his heart than this prayer: “Lord, be not thou far from me; make haste for my help; for I am ready to perish, and in danger of being lost if relief do not come quickly.” God gives us leave, not only to call upon him when we are in trouble, but to hasten him. He pleads, “Thou art my God, whom I serve, and on whom I depend to bear me out; and my salvation, who alone art able to save me, who hast engaged thyself by promise to save me, and from whom alone I expect salvation.” Is any afflicted? let him thus pray, let him thus plead, let him thus hope, in singing this psalm.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
12 They also that sought for my life have laid snares for me, etc. . Here another circumstance is added, that the enemies of David laid snares for him, and talked about his destruction, and framed deceits among themselves. (54) The purport of what is stated is, that while his friends cowardly sit still and will do nothing to aid him, his enemies vigorously bestir themselves, and seek by every means to destroy him. He says that they seek his life, for as they were his deadly enemies and blood-thirsty men, they were not content with doing him some common injury, but furiously sought his destruction. He, however, here complains not so much that they assailed him by force of arms and with violence, as he accuses them of guileful conspiracy, which he designates in the first place metaphorically by the term snares, and afterwards adds in plain terms, that they talk about his destruction, and secretly consult among themselves how they might do him hurt. Now, as it is certain that David borrows not an artificial rhetoric from the bar, (as profane orators (55) do when they plead their cause,) in order to win the favor of God, but rather draws his arguments from the Word of God, the sentences which he here brings together for the confirmation of his faith we ought to appropriate to our own use. If we are altogether destitute of human aid and assistance, if our friends fail us in the time of need, and if others seek our ruin, and breathe out nothing but destruction against us, let us remember that it is not in vain for us to lay these things in prayer before God, whose province it is to succor those who are in misery, to take under his protection those who are perfidiously forsaken and betrayed, to restrain the wicked, and not only to withstand their violence, but also to anticipate their deceitful counsels and to frustrate their designs.
(54) ” Et machine des finesses pour le surprendre.” — Fr. “And devised stratagems for ensnaring him.”
(55) “ Comme celles des orateurs profanes.” — Fr.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
12. They that seek my life This is David’s first allusion to his enemies.
Speak imagine They circulated evil reports and meditated secretly concocted evil designs against the government. See 2Sa 14:25-33; 2Sa 15:1-6; Psa 41:5-9. The fact that David’s sickness was considered as a judgment of God, and an evidence that God had forsaken him, gave them boldness and their slanders plausibility.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 38:12. Lay snares for me Use violence against me.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Here again look at the gospel. Mar 14:12 ; Luk 22:3-6 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 38:12 They also that seek after my life lay snares [for me]: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.
Ver. 12. They also that seek after my life ] That seek and would suck my blood. As his friends were slack to help him, so his foes were active to hurt him. This David relateth before the Lord, that he may pity him, and be so much the more engaged to him; for he knew that where human help faileth divine beginneth.
Speak mischievous things
And imagine deceits
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
life = soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-9.
lay snares. Some commentators make two lines in this verse; but the Hebrew accents make three: the first = the act, the second = the speech, the third = the motive.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
lay snares: Psa 10:9, Psa 64:2-5, Psa 119:110, Psa 140:5, Psa 141:9, 2Sa 17:1-3, Luk 20:19, Luk 20:20
speak: Psa 35:20, Psa 62:3, Psa 62:4, 2Sa 16:7, 2Sa 16:8, Luk 20:21, Luk 20:22
Reciprocal: 1Sa 18:21 – a snare 1Sa 24:2 – and went 1Sa 26:2 – Saul arose Neh 6:8 – thou feignest Psa 12:2 – They Psa 35:4 – that Psa 36:4 – deviseth Psa 59:3 – they Psa 63:9 – seek Psa 119:95 – wicked Psa 140:2 – imagine Jer 18:22 – and hid Mat 26:63 – Jesus Mar 12:13 – they send Luk 6:7 – watched Joh 8:6 – as though 1Pe 2:23 – when he was