Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 6:10
Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return [and] be ashamed suddenly.
10. It is better to render the verbs as future:
All mine enemies shall be ashamed and sore vexed;
They shall turn back, they shall be ashamed in a moment.
The ‘dismay’, which he had felt to be a token of divine displeasure ( Psa 6:2-3), is now retorted upon those who took a malicious delight in his misfortunes. When God returns to His servant, his assailants are repulsed in sudden and ignominious defeat. Cp. Psa 35:4; Psa 35:26, Psa 56:9, Psa 83:17.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Let all mine enemies be ashamed – Be so brought to see their folly that they shall be ashamed of their conduct. The wish is that they might be brought to see their own guilt – a wish certainly which it is right to cherish in regard to all evil-doers.
And sore vexed – Compare the notes at Psa 5:10. The same Hebrew word is used here which occurs in Psa 6:2-3, and rendered vexed. It is a word which denotes trouble, trembling, consternation; and the meaning here is, that the psalmist prayed that they might be confounded or disconcerted in their plans – a prayer which is certainly proper in regard to all the purposes of the wicked. No one should desire that the purposes of the wicked should prosper; and not to desire this is to desire that they may be foiled and overcome in their schemes. This must be the wish of every good man.
Let them return – Turn back, or be turned back; that is, let them be repulsed, and compelled to turn back from their present object.
And be ashamed suddenly – Hebrew, In a moment; instantaneously. He desired that there might be no delay, but that their defeat might be accomplished at once. As it was right to pray that this might occur, so it was right to pray that it might occur without delay, or as speedily as possible. The sooner the plans of sinners are confounded, the better.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 6:10
Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed.
The tolerance and intolerance of the gospel
A difficulty is often felt in reading or repeating these imprecations. These denunciations are appalling, withering. Are they not essentially personal, the breathing of a Jewish spirit of revenge, and in no sense Christian and universal?
1. I can find no difficulty in granting that the Old Testament spirit was a harder and a sterner spirit than that of the New. The emblem of the New Testament is the cross, which signifies passive endurance. The emblem of the Old Testament is the sword. As the Spirit of God freely uses individual thought, style and expression, overruling them so as to bring out His own higher meaning, I should not be surprised to find occasional phrases of a fiercer and an angrier complexion than any which occur in the New Testament, and which I should interpret with a different signification from that which their utterer designed. We need not consider these imprecatory Psalms as the utterance of Davids longing for personal revenge It is very singular that each of the Psalms in which the strongest imprecatory passages are found contains also gentle undertones, breathings of beneficent love.
2. When under the old covenant, earthly prosperity was the portion of the wicked, and earthly adversity of the pious, the whole moral government of God seemed to be veiled in clouds and darkness. Now, when all seems troubled, we can look up and behold by faith the glory that shall be revealed. God is patient because He is eternal. Man is impatient when he is not assured of his immortality.
3. We must interpret every book by the mind of the author. If so, we must apply this to the Bible and to the Psalms. The real author is the Holy Spirit. The prophet seems to speak as if in prayer–when he sees that which will certainly come–showing that the known counsel of God, which He has firmly and immutably fixed, should not displease us. Conceive a created spirit enlarged so as to embrace the will of God in relation to all the children of men–a spirit looking from the margin of an eternal world upon the petty histories of the past, purified from personal hatred, partiality, and prejudice, measuring all things by the counsels of God, such a spirit could say without a taint of personal revenge, let all mine enemies be ashamed. Turn to two passages of the New Testament (Luk 9:49, and sequel). We think of St. John as a man of angelic, or at least of feminine, gentleness. But in his nature, as in the blue sky of his native Galilee, there were sudden storms and fierce lightning flashes. As yet the brothers knew not Jesus thoroughly. They would build up by force the kingdom whose walls are cemented, not by blood and iron, but by love. Such is the spirit of intolerance, which would in one age offer to God the hideous thing called by a fearful profanation an auto-da-fe; which in another would rivet the chains of penal laws upon a population; in another, with the cant of toleration upon its lips, stamp out an unpopular minority by rubrics and definitions. Is there any intolerance in the gospel? For answer see 2Jn 1:10. To deny that Jesus was the God-Man was to question His legitimacy and impugn His truth. Pagan toleration has been invidiously compared with Christian intolerance. But pagan toleration is a conclusion drawn from the false premises that all religions are about equally true; while Christian persecution is a conclusion falsely drawn from the true principle of the exclusiveness of true religion. Commend the spirit of tolerance to all whom our Church tolerates. Amidst much that is depressing there is one happy sign of our times. There are tokens that Churches sundered hitherto are yearning to be one. A day is coming, even on the earth, when the inward unity of Christs redeemed shall manifest itself outwardly; when the prayer of our High priest shall he fulfilled, that they all may be one. (W. Alexander, D. D.)
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Psa 7:1-17
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. Ashamed and sore vexed] May they as deeply deplore their transgressions as I have done mine! May they return; may they be suddenly converted! The original will bear this meaning, and it is the most congenial to Christian principles.
ANALYSIS OF TEE SIXTH PSALM
The parts of this Psalm are TWO, in general: –
I. A petition to God for himself, contained in the first seven verses.
II. The account of his restoration, contained in the three last.
I. The petition consists of two parts: 1. Deprecation of evil; 2. Petition for good.
1. He prays to God to avert his wrath: “O Lord, rebuke me not,” c.
2. He entreats to be partaker of God’s favour: “Have mercy upon me,” c. 1. To his BODY: “Heal me, O Lord.” 2. To his SOUL: “Deliver my soul: O save me!”
He enforces his petition by divers weighty reasons:
1. From the quantity and degrees of his calamity, which he shows to be great from the effects. 1. In general he was in a languishing disease: “I am weak.” 2. In particular 1. Pains in his bones: “My bones are vexed.” 2. Trouble in his soul: “My soul also is troubled.”
2. From the continuance of it. It was a long disease; a lingering sickness; and he found no ease, no, not from his God. The pain I could the better bear if I had comfort from heaven. “But thou, O Lord, how long?” Long hast thou withdrawn the light of thy countenance from thy servant.
3. From the consequence that was likely to follow; death, and the event upon it. It is my intention to celebrate and praise thy name; the living only can do this: therefore, let me live; for in death there is no remembrance of thee; in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
4. And that he was brought now to the gates of death, he shows by three apparent symptoms: 1. Sighs and groans, which had almost broken his heart; the companions of a perpetual grief: “I am weary of my groaning.” 2. The abundance of his tears had dried and wasted his body: “He made his bed to swim, and watered his couch with his tears.” 3. His eyes also melted away, and grew dim, so that he seemed old before his time: “My eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old.”
6. That which added to his sorrow was, he had many ill-wishers who insulted over him: “Mine eye is waxen old because of mine enemies.”
II. But at last receiving comfort and joy, he is enabled to look up; and then he turns upon his enemies, who were longing for his destruction: “Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.”
He magnifies God’s mercy; and mentions its manifestation thrice distinctly: 1. “The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.” 2. “The Lord hath heard my supplication.” 3. “The Lord will receive my prayer.”
Then follows his prophetic declaration concerning them:
1. Shame and confusion to see their hope frustrated: “They shall be confounded.”
2. Vexation, to see the object of their envy restored to health and prosperity: “They shall be sore vexed.”
3. They shall return to their companions with shame, because their wishes and plots have miscarried.
4. He intimates that this shame and confusion shall be speedy: “They shall return, and be ashamed suddenly.” Or, possibly, this may be a wish for their conversion, yashubu, let them be CONVERTED, raga, suddenly, lest sudden destruction from the Lord should fall upon them. Thus the genuine follower of God prays, “That it may please thee to have mercy upon our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers; and to TURN their HEARTS.” A Christian should take up every thing of this kind in a Christian sense.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Ashamed of their vain hopes and confidence of conquering and destroying me. Or, they shall be ashamed, because of their great and unexpected disappointment.
Let them return, to wit, from their wicked ways, from their hostile and malicious practices against me, and let them come and submit to me, from whom they have revolted. Or, let them turn back, as it is expressed, Psa 56:9; let them be put to flight. Or, let them be converted, i.e. repent of their sins, and return to their obedience to me. Although it seems more probable, both from the foregoing and following words, that this turning or returning is rather penal than penitential. Or, they shall turn or return. Or this verb may be taken adverbially, and joined to the following verb, as it is frequently in other places, and both may be thus rendered, let them, or they shall, be again ashamed; clothed, as it were, with double shame. Suddenly; sooner than I could hope, or they did expect or believe.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. and knows they will bedisappointed and in their turn (compare Ps6:3) be terror-stricken or confounded.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Let all mine enemies be ashamed,…. Or “they shall be ashamed” k; and so the following clauses may be rendered, and be considered as prophecies of what would be; though if this be considered as an imprecation, it is wishing no ill; wicked men are not ashamed of their abominations committed by them, neither can they blush; it would be well if they were ashamed of them, and brought to true repentance for them; and if they are not ashamed now, they will be hereafter, when the Judge of quick and dead appears;
and sore vexed; or “troubled” l; as his bones had been vexed, and his soul had been sore vexed by them; as he knew they would be through disappointment at his recovery, and at his deliverance from the distresses and calamities he was now in, when he should sing for joy of heart, and they should howl for vexation of spirit;
let them return; meaning either from him, from pursuing after him; or to him, to seek his favour, and be reconciled to him, and be at peace with him, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi explain it; unless this word should only signify “again”, as it sometimes does, and be read in connection with what follows;
[and] let them be again ashamed suddenly m; intimating that his deliverance would be sudden, in a moment, in a very little time, and so would be their disappointment, shame, and confusion. Jarchi, from R. Jonathan and R. Samuel bar Nachmani, refers this to the shame of the wicked in the world to come.
k “pudore afficientur”, Pagninus, Montanus; “pudefient”, Coeceius, Schmidt; so Ainsworth. l “conturbantur”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. m “iterum confundantur”, Gejerus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(10) Let all mine enemies.Better rendered either by the present or future. The Psalmist with the eye of faith sees the answer to his prayer.
Returni.e., retire discomfited and in failure.
My enemies shall all be blank, and dasht
With much confusion: then grow red with shame;
They shall return in haste the way they came,
And in a moment shall be quite abashed.
Miltons trans.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10. The evil that he dreaded, which his enemies had prepared, shall now fall upon them. This was in strictest accordance with retributive justice. They shall be ashamed Pale with disappointment. They shall be sore vexed Terrified. See on Psa 6:3. They shall return Retreat from their purpose and be marked as defeated men. They shall be ashamed suddenly Literally, in a moment. Their judgment shall come in the twinkling of an eye. God will return to David, (Psa 6:4,) and this shall be the cause and signal of the return the turning back, in shame and terror, and in a moment, of his enemies.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS
MY soul! see, I charge it upon thee this day, see that thy perusal of these precious portions of scripture be all directed to the discovery of him, to whom all the prophets gave witness; that wheresoever in the blessed book of God thy meditations are directed, thou dost search for Jesus as for hidden treasure. He will be found of them that seek him. He will never say (for he hath never said) to any of the praying seed of David, seek ye my face in vain. And oh! thou blessed Holy One of God! wilt thou not now, as in the days that are past, wilt thou not draw nigh to those who desire to draw nigh unto thee, and, by the sweet teachings and influences of thy blessed Spirit, make precious discoveries of all things which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning thyself?
My soul! pause one moment longer over this divine Psalm, that contains in its bosom so much of Jesus! Did thy Lord thus groan, thus cry out, and was his precious soul thus deeply exercised, when he stood forth as thy Surety? Did Jehovah thus bruise him, and put him to grief? And in the seasons of these chastisements, did the Father love him with a love that passeth knowledge? Nay, did the Father therefore love him because he laid down his life, and made his soul an offering for sin? Oh! then, learn henceforth how rightly to estimate afflictions. Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth; Nay, my soul, recollect, if we endure chastening, God dealeth with us as with sons. Oh Lamb of God! cause me to forget my afflictions in the view of thine. Thou drankest the very dregs of the cup of trembling; that thy redeemed might drink of the cup of salvation. Thou, the glorious Head of thy church, didst take out all the sting of sorrow in the sting of death, which is sin, that thy members might feel no sting in their sorrows, from their interest and union in thee. Hail! thou now risen, exalted, and triumphant Saviour; thou hast now conquered ail thine enemies, and our victory is secured in thine! Even now, in thy strength and righteousness, we bid all workers of iniquity to depart from us; for our persons and prayers are accepted in thee, and ere long we shall sit down with thee in thy throne, even as thou hast overcome, and art sat down with thy Father in his throne. Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 6:10 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return [and] be ashamed suddenly.
Ver. 10. Let all mine enemies be ashamed ] When they see all their hopes of my death and downfall disappointed.
Let them return
And be ashamed suddenly
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Let all: Psa 5:10, Psa 7:6, Psa 25:3, Psa 35:26, Psa 40:14, Psa 40:15, Psa 71:13, Psa 83:16, Psa 83:17, Psa 86:17, Psa 109:28, Psa 109:29, Psa 112:10, Psa 132:18, Isa 26:11, Jer 20:11
sore: Psa 2:5, Psa 21:8, Psa 21:9
return: Job 6:29, Mal 3:18
and be: Pro 29:1, 1Th 5:3
Reciprocal: Psa 31:17 – wicked Psa 70:2 – Let
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
AN INTOLERANT PSALMIST
Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.
Psa 6:10
I. Consider those passages in the Bible which are constantly objected to as most inconsistent with tolerationI mean the so-called imprecatory portions of the Psalms. (1) I see little reason for considering these psalms as the utterance of Davids longing for personal revenge. It is not likely that he should keep malice hoarded up in his soul, and relieve himself of it in the moments when he held communion with his God, cursing just as he saw by faith the city of eternal peace. (2) When, under the old covenant, earthly prosperity was the portion of the wicked, and earthly adversity of the pious, the whole moral government of God seemed to be veiled in clouds. The very fact that immortality was not clearly discovered to him made the pious Israelite long more passionately for the speedy shining forth of Gods power and justice. (3) We must interpret every book by the mind of the author. If so, we must apply this to the Bible, and to the Psalms. Their real Author is the Holy Spirit. It is remarkable that in the first chapter of the Acts the very strongest of these imprecations is applied as a prophecy to the betrayer of our Lord.
II. Notice two passages in the New Testament which give us the very type of the tolerance and intolerance of the Gospel.For its tolerance, read Luk 9:40, etc. The two incidents inculcate toleration, ecclesiastical and civil, on the spiritual and on the material side. For its intolerance, see 2Jn 1:10 : If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed. This can have no other meaning than that the elect lady and her children should show no kindly hospitality to impugners of the Incarnation. (1) St. John, living when and where he did, realised, as we can scarcely do, that the world lieth wholly in wickedness. (2) He saw, as we do not, that its best hope lay in the Incarnation, and so the man who went about bringing men to deny this was the enemy of the human race. (3) The honour of Jesus was dear to His apostles. In the estimate of him who wrote, The Word was God, to deny that Jesus was the God-Man was to question His legitimacy and impugn His truth.
III. Let me commend to you the spirit of tolerance.(1) To all whom our Church tolerates. (2) Towards those that are without.
Archbishop Alexander.
Illustration
This psalm might have a history to itself. It is the first of the seven penitential psalms. It is a wail of pain and sorrow ending in hope. One of the strangest though not happiest things in its records is, that it was, along with Psalms 42, the choice of Catherine de Medici, the Jezebel of the French monarchy. She was irreligious but superstitious, profligate, and devoured by ambition; and the fact that she had no children seemed likely to deprive her of the control she hoped to gain in the counsels of the monarchy. She took the psalm as an expression of her grief and sense of loss. She became the mother of Francis II. and Charles IX., whose character she corrupted by ministering to his vices, and whom she urged to the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Her desire was realised, says a French historian, for the misery of France; and that family, which then took pleasure in the Psalms, put to death thousands of the Reformed for singing them.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Psa 6:10. Let all mine enemies be ashamed Or, they shall be ashamed, of their vain confidence; and sore vexed Because of their great and unexpected disappointment. Let them return Namely, from their wicked ways, and from their hostile and malicious practices against me. Hebrew, , jeshubu, they shall return, turn back, or be converted; that is, repent of their sins and return to their obedience. And be ashamed suddenly Sooner than I could hope, or they did expect, or believe. Many mournful Psalms, says Mr. Scott, end thus triumphantly, for the encouragement of other mourners to hope and pray.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
6:10 Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return [and] be ashamed {f} suddenly.
(f) When the wicked think the godly will perish, God delivers them suddenly, and destroys their enemies.