History of writing
Psalm 12 was written after Psalm 7, which was dedicated to Nathan, who prophesied the victory of the ruler of Ancient Israel over Absalom. Traditions say that Tamar (David's daughter, as well as Absalom's sister) was raped by Amnon, her half-brother. As a result of this sin, fratricide occurred and the surviving brother desired to ascend the throne. He hatched a plot to force the king to leave his kingdom. However, the prophet said that David would defeat the traitor and regain power.
12th Psalm of the Psalter
The 12th Psalm of the Psalter was written at the conclusion of some test to which the king was subjected. The text itself testifies to this.
The inscription on the song “to the end” speaks of David’s complete victory, and the ending of the text is filled with joy and gratitude to God the Father.
Interpretation and semantic meaning
Psalm 12 consists of seven prayers that contain three sequential thoughts:
- a complaint to the Lord that He has turned away from the author;
- request for help;
- hope that the Creator will hear those who turn to Him.
In the first six verses, David talks about all the troubles, sorrows, and suffering that befell him. Like a cry of despair, he asks why the Lord turned away from him. The king is in despair; he does not know what to do, turning to God for his last hope. He seems to be reasoning, asking questions, waiting for answers.
The text of the last, seventh, verse is strikingly different in its mood. Here David regained hope and believed that the Creator does not abandon his children to their fate. He no longer complains, but praises the Creator. In his soul, disappointment and sadness are replaced by sincere joy.
The 12th psalm is included in the second kathisma. Unlike the order of twelve psalms, it contains only eight selected songs of the Psalter (Ps. 9-16).
Author's advice
Interpretation
The meaning of Psalm 12 has been analyzed by generations of researchers, including the holy fathers. They analyzed individual verses:
- Verse 1: In a difficult moment, David, in despair, assumes that God has forgotten about him, so his prayers remain unanswered.
- Verse 2: The author reflects on dying in sin, which he considers humiliating. Being an apostate, he extols the enemy, which is unacceptable.
- Verse 3-4: Building on the conclusions drawn in the previous verse, David prays to God for enlightenment. The word “eyes” here should not be understood literally; the prophet is talking about the eyes of the soul, their purification. He hopes for admonition given by the Lord, striving for correction through the fight against passions and sins.
- Verse 5: The author encourages Christians not to give up, just as he does not give up, not wanting to give in to the enemy. He is convinced that the believer must remain strong, no matter how severe the temptations and temptations, otherwise the enemy of good will become triumphant.
- Verse 6: David believes that the One Creator will take pity on him and grant him salvation.
When and how to read Psalm 12
The singing of the 2nd kathisma, and accordingly the 12th psalm, is carried out during the Sunday weekly service in Church Slavonic. You can also read prayers at home when you need the support and help of the Lord God. It is better to do this early in the morning or after sunset. The person praying must concentrate, distance himself from extraneous thoughts, and, if possible, light a lamp.
The Psalter is the volume containing the Book of Psalms
Text of Psalm 12 in Russian
When reading the text of a song in Church Slavonic, it is necessary to place the stress correctly. However, you can recite the psalm in modern Russian:
A sincere appeal to the Creator will help strengthen the strength of spirit, gain hope, and protect yourself from the devil’s machinations. Only the right attitude during prayer will help you reach the Lord God and restore peace to your heart.
How long, Lord, will you forget me completely? How long do you turn your face away from me? How long will I put advice in my soul, illness in my heart day and night? How long will my enemy rise up against me? Look, hear me, O Lord my God, enlighten my eyes, lest I fall asleep into death, lest my enemy say: Be strong against him. Those who are cold will rejoice as long as I move. I have trusted in Your mercy. My heart will rejoice in Your salvation; I will sing to the Lord, Who has done good to me, and I will sing to the name of the Lord Most High.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl+Enter.
Psalms, Psalm 5
5 The inscription in the Slavic Bible (“about the inheritor”) indicates the content of the psalm: it talks about the fate, destiny, inheritance of the righteous and the wicked. From euros language - “to the head of the choir; on wind instruments” - the inscription speaks of the method of musical performance of the psalm.
Psalm 5 was written during the preparations for Absalom's rebellion before David's flight from Jerusalem. This can be seen from David’s description of the unrest that was then occurring among the Jews: his enemies were going to commit “lawlessness” (v. 6), they were inciting the people against David by spreading “lies” and “flattering” promises (10), and a violent coup was being prepared, with shedding blood (7), David went to the temple and prayed before the Lord (8), both for the punishment of the wicked, and for “correcting his path” before the Lord (9). The entire content, therefore, points to the beginning of Absalom’s uprising, when David was not removed from the temple, saw the connection between the beginning unrest and his crime, and saw the means that Absalom used to prepare the uprising.
5 David prays to God to accept his prayer during the grave disasters that befell him (2-5), and to punish his wicked and bloodthirsty enemies (6-7). He asks God for constant guidance “in righteousness” and for the wicked to be judged for the sinful nature of their actions (8-11). The salvation of the unjustly persecuted David will fill all other righteous people with joy (12-13). “For the sake of my enemies,” so that by the death of David he would not allow his enemies to triumph and consider themselves right in all their evil actions (see v. 10). “Level the path - give a peaceful and safe life.”
5:2-3 Hear the words - listen, accept my prayer: “understand my thoughts” - listen carefully, accept my thoughts, my mental prayer.
David saw the success of the crime being prepared and the degree of his danger, which is why his prayer to God is distinguished by the character of not simple forgiveness, but a painful cry (“hearken to the voice of my cry”).
5:4 “Early shall I hear,” “early shall I appear before Thee.” The expression “hear in the morning” therefore means - provide help quickly. “I will appear before You,” that is, I will appear before You, in the temple, as a place of the direct presence of God.
5:5 If evil does not reign, you will not protect and protect the evil, the bad. The expression is taken from the custom of Eastern hospitality, when someone who came to the tent (to the “yard”) enjoyed the protection of the owner.
5:6 If they are not in your sight, you will not watch them or protect them.
5:7 The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and the treacherous. By this bloodthirsty we must understand Absalom, who, preparing to carry out a coup d'etat, did not neglect and was ready to resort to violent measures and the murder of his opponents. Absalom infiltrated the trust of the people with flattery and tried to win them over with promises of a cordial, fair and loving attitude towards him after receiving the royal throne, which is why he was called “treacherous” by David.
5:8 By “house, temple” we must mean the tabernacle (words Exodus 23:19
;
1 Samuel 1:9
;
2 Kings 12:20
).
5:9 David’s prayer for instruction “righteousness from God” indicates his awareness of some kind of guilt before God; His crime with Bathsheba was the same guilt. In Absalom’s uprising, he thus found a connection with his crime, which is why he does not accept any means to suppress the beginning of the unrest,” except repentance and prayer before God, from Whom alone he expected mercy for himself.
5:10 There is no truth in their mouths - their enemies spread false information about David among the people (see 2 Samuel 15:2-6
);
“Their heart is destruction” - they do not strive for the true good of the people, but for petty and ambitious goals, for taking possession of the throne and for honor ( 2 Samuel 15:10
); “Their throat is a grave,” by spreading lies they corrupt the people and destroy them, since they call the people to actions that are lawless and contrary to God, who will not allow untruth to triumph.
5:11 Condemn them, O God, that they may fall from their plans—condemn them, O Lord, that they may fall from their thoughts, that they may not accomplish the things they have planned.
5:12-13 The destruction of enemies is prayerfully requested by David not only to punish the wicked, but also to strengthen faith in the righteous, when the latter, seeing the destruction of all the enterprises of their enemies, will praise God as the only protector and patron.
This psalm is part of 1 hour (part of Matins), which was the hour of sunrise in the East. After thanking the Lord for the past night (see v. 4), with the words of this psalm, the church prays for the believers before God at the very beginning of the day for their preservation from danger, enemies and in spiritual purity.
6 The inscription indicates performance to the accompaniment of stringed instruments.
Psalm 6 was most likely written during the preparations for Absalom’s uprising that was just beginning. The latter, resting primarily on power-hungry plans, was at the same time an expression of God’s judgment on David for the crime he committed with Bathsheba and Uri: as having destroyed the family happiness of another, he himself must suffer punishment in his own family. David saw the connection of his crime with this uprising and in most of the psalms from this time he portrayed himself as undeservedly persecuted by the people (see Ps 4:2
), repents before God of his sin and asks for mercy towards him, which we see in this psalm.
6 David prays to God for mercy and mercy in view of his severe mental and physical suffering (2-8). In this repentance and prayer, he draws confidence in divine help, which is why he tells his enemies that their persecution will be unsuccessful (9-11).
6:2 Do not reprove in anger, and do not punish in anger. David was deeply aware of his guilt before God, and the gravity of the crime he committed weighed on him so much that he prayed to God only for mercy because of His great mercy, and not because David recognized any merit before God.
6:3-4 David’s suffering was also physical, in a deep illness that affected his entire body (“the bones are shaken” lyrics Ps 27:6-7
) and spiritual, in the consciousness of their sins before God.
6:6 David gives a new reason why he asks God for his mercy. His current physical condition and moral illness are such that, according to his understanding, they should lead to death, to Sheol, and “there is no remembrance of You there: in the grave who will glorify You?” Remembrance of God consists in penetration by His commandments, which require external detection; to glorify God means not only to compose a hymn in His honor, but to glorify Him by one’s actions. Those living in Sheol are deprived of both, as a place of inactive peace and spiritual tension in anticipation of the future judgment of God (see book Job 12:12-14
;
3:13-20
). Thus, the death of David in his present situation would not give him the opportunity to fulfill the purpose of man on earth, and he prays for the granting of this opportunity.
6:8 David mourns his sins, he no longer has enough tears and his eyes are inflamed (“my eye is withered from sorrow”); “I have become dilapidated from all my enemies,” I have become weak, unable to distinguish objects well from the tears caused by my misfortunes (“from my enemies”).
6:9-11 David’s repentant prayer to God was accompanied by some indication from God that it was accepted by Him, why the nature of its content changes; David demands that the wicked withdraw from him, and he believes that his lies will be ashamed by the unsuccessful outcome of their persecution. These lawless enemies were supporters of Absalom, who gradually rallied around the latter and increasingly revealed a hostile attitude towards David.
7 Meaning of Heb. The inscription “shiggayon” is not known exactly. It is assumed that this term denotes a song composed under particularly difficult circumstances in the writer’s life and expressing the confused state of his spirit, and therefore not distinguished by a strict sequence of presentation of thoughts. The psalm was compiled “in the case of Hus from the tribe of Benjamin” - “Hus” or “Cush” means an Ethiopian, a resident of central Egypt. It is impossible to establish exactly who is meant by this. One can agree with the assumption that this name should mean Saul, who is as darkly hostile to David as the skin of the Ethiopian is dark. The origin of the psalm from the time of Saul’s persecution is confirmed by the psalm’s indication of the difficult situation of David, unjustly persecuted by enemies and innocent of anything before God (see vv. 2-5 and 9). David’s confession of his innocence before God and the complete undeservedness of persecution is a feature of all his psalms from this period.
7 David prays to God for protection in view of his complete helplessness before his enemies and his innocence both before the latter and before God himself (2-6). Let the Lord pronounce his judgment before all nations so that the righteousness of David will be revealed (8-10). Since God is a righteous judge, David is confident that He will punish his enemies who dug a ditch for him (11-18).
7:2-3 In You I trust. David, pursued by Saul, could not offer any resistance, since he had an insignificant handful of people on his side, and Saul was coming at him with a battle-tested and large army, so his only defense could only be God, and not human help or art. Let him not, like a lion, snatch away my soul. The comparison with a lion indicates the degree of cruelty of David’s enemies, who sought to take his life (“soul”).
7:4-6 If there is iniquity in my hands. David denies committing any bad act against God or people, which is why his present persecution is completely undeserved. David was never treacherous, did not deceive his friends (“if I repaid with evil the one who was with me in peace”), and even “saved the one who without reason became my enemy,” i.e. Saul, in relation to to whom David not only did nothing wrong, but also saved him from the shame of defeat, for example, by his single combat with Goliath, and did not take his life when, during Saul’s persecution of David, the latter had numerous occasions to do so (see 1 Samuel 26 .
).
The persecution of David by Saul was the fruit of the latter’s painful suspicion of the power-hungry plans falsely attributed to David, which is why in the psalms from the era of these persecutions David always confesses both his complete innocence before God and people, and the complete undeservedness of the persecution. 6 tbsp. represents a form of spell cast by a person about himself. Such a self-conjuration was very common in ancient times (see Chapter 31 of Book Job
) and it had the nature of a voluntary obligation imposed on oneself by a person in the face of God, the Supreme and Almighty Judge. Such an obligation, as voluntary, testified to a person’s deep and sincere concern for his moral purity.
David's entire appeal to God then has this meaning. Let the enemy destroy me if I am wrong in anything before people and God. To investigate the case between David and his enemies, a trial is needed, and David further prays for this trial.
7:7-10 Move against the fury of your enemies - an accurate description of the attitude towards David of Saul and his companions. Saul's hatred had no justification or reason; it was blind and, in its blindness, formidable and unscrupulous in its means. Awake to judgment. God seemed to have abandoned David, did not pay attention to him, seemed to have fallen asleep, left his enemies to persecute him unjustly, and yet he was commanded by “judgment,” that is, a strictly fair assessment of everyone’s actions, which (justice) should guide everyone in their deeds and judgments.
In the predominance of the wicked, David sees the trampling of the law of God, for the restoration of which he prays to God. If the Lord rises to defend the justice trampled upon in the person of David, then “a host of people will stand around You,” all nations and, in particular, the Jews (“host” - assembly) will revere and bow before Him as the only Judge. The defense of the innocently persecuted will raise God “on high” before the people, instill and confirm the faith of the people that in Him alone there is truth and protection. The Lord is the judge not only of the individual, but of all nations. The history of the Jewish conquest of Palestine and the struggle against pagan peoples clearly showed that the Lord has power over the whole world and no one can resist His judgment and sentence. Confessing before Him “his truth and integrity,” David prays to “stop the malice of the wicked,” that is, the persecution of his enemies.
7:11-12 Since God is a righteous and long-suffering judge, who does not immediately punish his enemies, David entrusts himself to Him and sees in Him his “shield,” support and protection.
7:13-18 The enemies of David, in their unjust persecution of him, are the enemies of the Lord; God will not tolerate the triumph of unrighteousness, and therefore the wicked will certainly be punished and die, just as they die from the “vessels of death”, the carriers of death, that is, arrows that cause “scorching”, inflamed, purulent and fatal wounds to the wounded. The deeper the hatred (“conceived untruth, was pregnant with malice and gave birth to lies” - an image of the power of hostility) towards David, the more terrible the punishment from God will be for the wicked. Malice and villainy will turn on “his head”, on himself, and will become the cause of his death. This faith of David in the immutability of the death of his wicked enemies causes an extraordinary uplift of spirit in him and serves as the source of composing a hymn of praise in honor of God, as the defender of the truth (“I sing the name of the Lord”).
8 The inscription in the Slavic Bible indicates either the method of musical performance of the psalm on an instrument with holes similar to holes in a winepress, or the time of using the psalm when squeezing grapes, which work was usually accompanied by songs ( Judges 10:27
;
Jer 18:33
) From Heb. language - “on a Gathian instrument” (gittit), that is, on an instrument borrowed by the Jews from the Philistine city of Gath, which could resemble a grindstone. The entire inscription can be understood as an indication that the said psalm is performed on a Gathian instrument during the grape harvest, like a folk song. The entire content of the psalm corresponds to the indicated circumstances of the use of the psalm, representing a song of praise to God for His blessings bestowed upon man in a reasonably and beautifully arranged Universe.
8 Since the main subject of the content of the psalm is the image of the greatness of God in nature, suggesting in the writer of the psalm, David, prolonged observation and contemplation of it, and David could devote himself to this last only before his appearance in public service, when first persecution from Saul, and then war and the affairs of governing the state diverted his attention in another direction, then the writing of the said psalm must be attributed to the time of David’s life in his father’s house, after his first anointing by Samuel. Then he was still tending flocks, was among nature and could devote himself to contemplating it.
8 The royal position of man in the world is revealed in his dominance over all other species of the entire plant and animal kingdoms: both domestic and wild animals, birds of prey, and fish in the seas are subordinate to him. With his intelligence, discoveries and inventions, man not only protected himself from all predatory animals, but also subjugated them to himself, becoming himself an object of fear for them. Examples of such human domination are before everyone’s eyes. Verse 3, which contains a prophecy about the times of the Messiah, contained in the historical fact itself, shows that the said psalm is a representative messianic one.
8:2 “Earth” and “heavens” can be understood in two ways. By earth we mean everything created on the globe, which, by the variety, beauty of its objects, and their intelligent structure, clearly speaks of the greatness of their Creator. The heavens, celestial bodies and all atmospheric and astronomical phenomena speak about the same thing. In patristic literature, under the earth we mean people, under heaven - the world of angels. Both of them praise God. The first understanding is more consistent with the subsequent content of the psalm.
8:3 This divine majesty is so strongly diffused in the world and manifested so clearly that it is felt even by the infants who “gave praise to God.” With this ability to feel and see God in the phenomena of the world, they unintentionally and unconsciously, and therefore especially strongly, denounce and reject the judgments of those who deliberately do not notice this greatness, thus being the enemy of God, with their one-sided and erroneous judgments about the structure of the Universe as if taking revenge on Him for their spiritual blindness. Babies here mean infants. In the book. Prem 10:21
it is said that after the Jews crossed the Red Sea, even the lips of “the dumb and the tongue of babies became clear.”
This indicates not only that the Jews, formerly silent and oppressed slaves in Egypt, now boldly speak and sing praises to God, but also that infants took part in the general joy, directly and instinctively feeling the unusualness and wonder of this event. By babies we can understand not only infants, but also adults, with an unspoiled and pure sense of morality, bringing them closer to children. The fact indicated by the Book of Wisdom brings this place closer to Matthew 21:15-16
, which speaks of Jewish children who sang in the person of Christ, the son of David, that is, the promised Descendant, the Son of God, whom the Pharisees did not want to recognize as such. Thus, the fact that “Wisdom opened the mouths of babes” after the Jews crossed the Red Sea indicates to the fathers of these children that Wisdom, the power of God, is revealed to children, and not always, therefore, worldly experience and a person’s age serve as indicators of his infallibility judgments and actions, which was revealed in the history of the life of Christ, sung by the children as the Son of God, while the fathers of these children, denying His divine dignity, at that time made plans for His death. Thus, this fact is a prototype, where in a historical phenomenon the features of a future event in the life of the Messiah are indicated, which is why the said verse of the psalm, as a foreshadowing, is given in Heb. Matthew.
8:4-5 The writer of the psalm, amazed at the greatness of God when he considers His creations, reveres Him. This reverence is further strengthened by the consciousness that man has been appointed by God as the head of the world, which shows the extraordinary favor of God.
8:6-9 God's exaltation of man is manifested both in the characteristics of his spiritual nature and in his royal position in the world. In the first case, God “has made man a little lower than the angels,” that is, man, by his spiritual nature, stands a little lower than the angels and, like them, is capable of spiritual and moral endless development, which lower animals are deprived of. In this ability, which brings a person closer to the higher world of disembodied spirits and to God, his “glory and honor” are before the rest of the world. The expression “not much” in patristic literature is also understood in the sense of indicating the time of the state of fallen man in sin until his restoration through the sufferings of the Messiah, when a person, directly perceiving Christ in himself in the sacrament of the Eucharist, thereby becomes even higher than the angels, since the latter do not eat Eucharist. According to the latest understanding, the expression “not much” is equivalent to “for a while,” that is, from the fall of Adam to the suffering and resurrection of the Savior, man stood lower than the angels, and since the time of Christ he has become close to the latter.
9 The inscription “after the death of Laben” still remains unclear. It can be assumed that it indicates a method, a motive for singing a psalm based on the model of a song that began with these words and did not survive until later times. The psalm is alphabetical, beginning each verse with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, but not always, however, in strict sequence and in accordance with the present order. In the Hebrew Bible, this psalm is divided into two: the ninth psalm of the Russian Bible ends in the Hebrew verse 21, and from 22 there goes Psalm 10
, also alphabetical.
The Latin Bible adheres to the Hebrew order of division of the psalm, and the Greek and Slavic combine the Hebrew 9 and 10 psalms into one, the ninth. The absence of an inscription above Psalm 10
in the Hebrew Bible, the same alphabetical order and the similarity of both psalms in the expression of thoughts give the right to conclude about the unity of their author, David.
Psalm 9 was written about the victory won by David over the Syrians (the first part of Psalm 1-21 v.) and the attack at that time on Judea in the southern part of the Edomites, who caused enormous devastation among the defenseless population, since the soldiers were then in the north under the command of David in the fight against the Syrians (for more details, see “On the Origin of the Psalter” by Priest N. Vishnyakov, pp. 206-210).
9 The first part of the psalm is one of thanksgiving and praise. David promises to praise God (2-4) because He protected him from his enemies and gave him the power to destroy their cities (4-7). This victory revealed the judgment of God over the pagan people in defense of the righteous. Since God is eternal, the righteous who are always oppressed will find protection in Him (8-11). For the help provided, one must eternally praise the One who lives in Zion (12-13).
9 May the Lord extend the help that he provided to David in the present war into the future; let all the pagan peoples who forget God perish, let them realize in His terrible judgment over them that “they are men” (14-21).
9 The second half of the psalm is of petitionary content. Why do You, Lord, give success to the wicked when he does not believe in Your Providence on earth, is self-confident in his power, and in his actions strives to cause as much harm as possible to the poor righteous person through various cunning actions and ambushes (22-32). Arise, O Lord, to defend the oppressed and punish the unbelief of the wicked in You (33-34) You see how great the suffering of the righteous is; punish the wicked and thereby make people fear not man, but Your righteous judgment (35-39).
9:2-3 To proclaim all Your wonders - to sing of the victories that David won over the Syrians with the help of God. To triumph in You is to organize solemn holidays in the name of God.
9:5-6 David's victory is the expression and fulfillment of divine judgment over the pagan Syrians. They, as the wicked, who did not honor the true God, were rejected by Him and weakened to the point that they had neither cities nor weapons (Article 6) and their political and military power was overthrown for a long time (“their name was blotted out forever and eyelids").
9:8-10 That the God of David is the true God and the Eternal Judge of all nations is the basis of the faith of all the oppressed righteous that they will always find protection in Him. Probably, by the oppressed righteous man, David meant the Jewish people, to whom he wanted to instill his faith in God as his constant patron and only protector.
9:11 Those who know the name of God. To know the name of God means to recognize Him as the only true God and to serve Him.
9:12 God is called living in Zion because the ark of the covenant was there, where He always dwelt.
9:13 God “requires blood.” David's wars were defensive, he waged them under duress, when neighboring pagan peoples attacked the borders of his state, shedding the blood of his subjects, in whose defense he rebelled. This was the case during the attack of the Syrians described in the psalm, the fight against which was caused by attacks on their part.
9:15 At the gate of the daughter of Zion—at the gate of the city of Jerusalem. Usually the gate was the most visited place for its inhabitants, hence chanting at the gates of the city means chanting loudly.
9:20-21 Arise, Lord, let not man prevail - let the Lord be the only arbiter of the destinies of nations, let their happiness or misfortune depend on Him alone, as the true Judge, and not on human art and military successes, which may belong to to the wicked. The dominance of the latter would be the strengthening and spread of wickedness on earth. Therefore, David prays to God that He, through some special deeds, would show the whole world that power over it belongs only to Him, and that all nations would know that “they are men,” from Heb. enosh - weak, powerless.
9:22 The content of the psalm is of a petitionary nature. Since the southern borders of Judea were then devastated by the Edomites, the inhabitants of these areas did not have the strength to fight them, because everyone capable of bearing arms was in the north fighting the Syrians, they were defenseless. David portrays this helplessness when he says that the Lord “stands” away from them, hiding “his help.”
9:25 Both in the preceding verses and in the following, David depicts the self-confidence of his enemies in their victory and in the impunity of the devastation they cause; the wicked say about God: “he will not require”; the Jewish God is not able to do anything to them now.
9:27 The successes of the Edomites over the Jews instilled in them confidence that now they would not be shaken, and “no harm would befall them from generation to generation,” i.e., that the weakened Jews would not be able to recover from the evil inflicted on them for several generations , and at this time the Edomites will retain military and political superiority.
9:29-30 In addition to arrogance, reaching the point of disdain for Jehovah, which David spoke about earlier (see v. 25), enemies are distinguished by the morally untidy methods of their actions: they are insidious, deceitful, vengeful, and cruel.
9:32 The enemy explains his success by the fact that God “forgot” the Jews and will never see them, that He has turned away from the Jewish people and will no longer pour out His mercies on them.
9:33-35 David prays to God to rise up in defense of the oppressed Jews in order to punish the arrogance of the enemy, who is confident that “You will not seek”, you will not be able to protect your oppressed and lonely people, who are devoted to You.
9:36 Break the muscle, destroy the strength; “so that we may seek and not find his wickedness” - so that no trace of him remains, so that he, as an opponent of God, is completely destroyed.
9:37-39 Since power over the whole world belongs to God, and He is the patron of the pious, David is confident that the Lord will destroy all pagans on earth and for the partial fulfillment of this future David prays to God now: may the Lord hear the prayer of the humble Jews and will protect them, and this protection will clearly show all people to fear only God, and not man (“let not man be afraid on earth”).
Psalm 10 can be considered written during the preparations for the uprising of Absalom, which was noticed by both David and people close to him, who advised him to flee from Jerusalem. But David assessed the seriousness of his situation differently and continued to live in Jerusalem.
10 David’s friends advised him to save himself in the mountains, since they considered Absalom’s conspiracy to be already completely organized, and David’s position was dangerous (1-3).
10 David, recognizing himself as pure before Absalom and the people, continues to remain in Jerusalem, believing that the Lord will punish the wicked (4-7).
10:1 I trust in the Lord. David was accustomed to ordering and coordinating his life with the instructions of the Lord, which he does not want to give up even now, entrusting himself to His guidance, and not to the advice of friends, although sincere, he may disagree with God’s decision about David.
Fly to a mountain, i.e. the Judean Mountains, in numerous caves you could easily hide from enemies.
Speak to my soul - Hebraism - speak to me.
10:2 The friends justified their advice to flee by looking at the conspiracy as completely organized and ready for action.
10:3 The foundations were destroyed - the foundations of political and social life were shaken, since the conspirators did not recognize David as king, wanted his overthrow and sought to establish a new direction in life. What else can a righteous man, that is, David, do but not run, who, in order to fight an armed uprising that is ready to appear, has only the consciousness of his purity before his enemies, but no external means of defense.
10:4-5 David contrasts this advice with his faith in God as the protector of the righteous. The Lord watches over people from heaven, sending, as now, trials to the righteous in the temporary success of the wicked, but He hates the latter as those who trample His Law.
10:6-7 The Lord will rain down “burning coals, fire and brimstone” on the wicked. By burning coals we can mean lightning, by fire and brimstone - death through special shocks of nature, such as the death of Sodom and other cities of Pentapolis (see Gen. 19:24
). The scorching wind is probably the simoom, well known to the Jews for its disastrous effects.
Their share from the cup is their destiny, appointed by God, who does not allow the triumph of wickedness, since the Lord “loves righteousness, His face beholds the righteous,” that is, he always provides for him and protects him.
Psalms 11:11, 12, and 13 were written during persecution from Saul. This is confirmed both by the severity of David’s suffering depicted in the psalm, the duration of the dominance of the wicked over him, and the open and general spread of slander against him by his enemies, as well as David’s bitter cry about the destruction of righteousness on earth and the spread of lies. All this corresponds to the time of persecution from Saul, but not the uprising of Absalom, which was prepared secretly and did not have a lasting advantage over David. The bitter lamentation in these psalms of David about the decline of moral purity among the people presupposes in him the consciousness of his complete righteousness before God, which, as we said, is also a feature of the psalms from the era of Saul’s persecution.
11 David prays to God to help him, since he is surrounded everywhere by deceitful people (2-3).
11 David believes that the Lord will not allow these people to triumph, that He will save those whom they want to destroy (4-6).
11 The promise of God to protect the righteous is as certain and true as refined silver, and they are effective, even if the wicked temporarily gain the upper hand (7-9).
11:2 The righteous was no more - can be understood not only in the sense of indicating that during Saul’s persecutions the prevailing and active mood of both the people and the highest dignitaries close to this king was an “unrighteous”, undeserved and hostile attitude towards David, but and as David’s indication of his weakness, his fatigue from continuous persecution. The righteous man has ceased to exist - he lacks the strength (in the Vulgate - Sanctus detecit) to constantly run from enemies and invent ways to escape from them, he has weakened from persecution.
11:3 As a persecuted king, David could not find sincere sympathy and open help anywhere. The latter would inevitably bring wrath on such a person from the king. David could not rely on anyone for fear of being betrayed; in relations with himself, he saw only pretense and lies.
11:5 The Lord will punish those who say, “We can prevail with our tongue; who is our master?” Saul's hostile attitude towards David was supported by slander against the latter from the court flatterers, for whom the personality of David, who had created himself popularity among the common people, was dangerous due to his possible rise above them, so they lied about David before Saul, brought all sorts of accusations against him, confident in their impunity - who could expose them? (“Who is our master”)
11:6-8 But what people cannot do, the Lord will do, who says that He will “rise to defend” the offended and persecuted righteous. This promise of God is as infallible and valuable as silver, cleansed from the ligature. On this purity and immutability of the divine promise is based the confidence that the Lord will always, including during real persecution, preserve the righteous.
11:9 This faith in God supports David amid conditions favorable to the spread of corruption: since people who are morally insignificant have risen and received honor in society (of course, the slanderers close to Saul), the wicked dominate throughout the country (“go everywhere”).
12 David, exhausted and exhausted by persecution from Saul, turns to the Lord with a painful cry, when will it end? (2-3).
12 Protect me, Lord, do not give the enemy victory over me, give me the opportunity to praise You in hymns (4-6).
12:2 To forget in the end is to leave for final destruction. To hide your face is to turn away with your mercy, to refuse help. Composing advice means inventing methods of salvation. For the enemy to rise up means to have the upper hand. David portrays his situation during the persecution from Saul as so exhausting and full of such vicissitudes that he is lost, rendered unable to come up with anything new for his salvation.
12:4 Enlighten my eyes - give light to my eyes, instill cheerfulness and confidence that I will not perish (“I will not sleep the sleep of death”).
12:5 Do not let my enemy triumph, since such a triumph could serve as an indicator for him either of his righteousness over David, whom God abandoned with his help because of his guilt, or of God’s powerlessness to protect his righteous man.
12:6 Salvation from God, as long desired by David, fill him with rejoicing and praising God in hymns of thanksgiving.
