Psalm 140

To the Choirmaster. A psalm of David

1 Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men; preserve me from violent men,

2 who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually.

David’s first plea is stated as a chiasm, “Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men (adam), from violent men (ish) preserve me”. There were multiple times in David’s life, both as a young man and later as king when men were out to get him. When he was young they were jealous and threatened by his success. In a shame/honor culture, honor was in limited supply, and the more that David had, the less that they did. Later in life when David was king he had his enemies as well, as all political leaders do. In the course of his role as king, David had issued judgments that may not have sit well with everyone. Some people just love to criticize those above them in authority, thinking they can do better. Some people just like chaos. It is all that they know and in its absence they feel compelled to create it. These are men “who plan evil things in their heart and every day sojourn for war.”  These aren’t just people who accidentally hurt others. They are actively plotting harm. It’s their mission in life, their journey (sojourn). This is certainly David’s perspective, but it is also true sociologically that between 1-5% of the US population are sociopaths, meaning they are willing to violate moral and social norms. Evil and evil men will always be with us. It is a consequence of the fall that is beyond explaining and understanding. It just is. “Senseless” acts of violence are just that, those committed without feeling, remorse, or conscience. David asks for preservation from them, for his life and his reputation.

3 They make their tongue sharp as a serpent's, and under their lips is the venom of asps. Selah

The primary weapon of the psalmist’s enemy are their tongues. Such a small thing to wield such great power. James 3 describes this in detail -- setting forests ablaze, a restless evil, a deadly poison, destroying lives, set on fire by the fires of hell itself. Yikes! David is in politics so verbal jabs come with the territory, but that doesn’t make them less painful or consequential. We are shaped in deep ways by the words of others, for and good and for bad. Words of encouragement and confidence build us up, while criticism can cause us to wither or to lash out in anger. There is also the enemy who speaks to our heart, the Accuser and the Father of Lies. He may be more serious because his words get inside our head and convince us of things that just aren’t so. Often he’ll use the words of others, even casual things that are said to us that shouldn’t be as weighty as we make them, and we turn them into the defining narratives of our lives. Help me to identify the poisonous words of the Enemy for what they are: lies. May I pay them no regard and instead live in the confidence of who you say I am. Your approval is ultimately all that matters. Your words outweigh a thousand words of the Enemy. May I use my words today to counter the lies, the venom that comes from the lips of those that would destroy the children of God. 

4 Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from violent men, who have planned to trip up my feet.

5 The arrogant have hidden a trap for me, and with cords they have spread a net; [Or they have spread cords as a net] beside the way they have set snares for me. Selah

These two verses each consist of three lines as they describe actions of the psalmist’s enemies. The psalmist prays for YHWH to guard and preserve him from their hands with which they are planning to trip up his feet. The wicked are intentionally working to ensnare him in some way, setting a hidden trip, spreading a net, and placing snares along the road. They are all metaphors of course, creating a narrative of the psalmist continually under threat while walking through life. The psalmist describes three types of traps -- a trip line, a hidden net on the ground, and snares along the path. They are designed to capture unsuspecting prey. As a political figure, David was constantly threatened by rivals. That went with the territory, and he pleads with God for protection against these hidden but very real enemies. Our Enemy today operates in similar fashion. He is the father of lies and he delights in nothing more than tripping us up and ensnaring us along the way. As Luther wrote, “his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.” The Enemy hopes that we forget that he exists, and of course many people have. Because we have a real enemy who manipulates others to act as our enemies, we must be on our guard constantly. How often do we pray for God to guard and preserve us as we go about our daily lives? Not enough. We need to be aware of the wiles of the devil and pray with Jesus, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” C.S. Lewis’ masterful Screwtape Letters comes to mind because it exposes the way that the enemy works while revealing much about human nature as well. 

6 I say to the LORD, You are my God; give ear to the voice of my pleas for mercy, O LORD!

7 O LORD, my Lord, the strength of my salvation, you have covered my head in the day of battle.

David calls on the name of the YHWH repeatedly in his distress. First he declares his loyalty to him, “YHWH, You are my God.” Then he asks for YHWH to lean in and listen to his pleading for mercy. Finally, he expresses confidence that YHWH is indeed the strength of his salvation and the one who protects his head in battle. In the context of this psalm the battle seems to be political and not military, although David employs a military metaphor here. YHWH is his saving strength and an impenetrable helmet, giving him confidence to face this challenge. The language of head covering and salvation may be picked up by Paul in Ephesians 6:13-18

​”Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. n all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” This psalm and others by David likely formed the backdrop for Paul’s understanding of spiritual warfare. As king, David had real enemies who were constantly plotting his downfall. So do we. They are not human enemies, but spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, and they are constantly at work to drag us to hell with them. Awareness of their reality is step one. Step two is putting on the helmet of salvation, covering your mind, your thinking, your understanding of the world with the truth of God’s salvation. This is foundational. Don’t go into battle today without a helmet, without an understanding that you are saved by the grace of God, and there is nothing the enemy can do to pull you from His grasp. Thoroughly knowing and living in the reality of what God has done for you in Christ is your greatest protection from the raging enemy.  

8 Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked; do not further their [Hebrew his] evil plot, or they will be exalted! Selah

9 As for the head of those who surround me, let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them!

In verse 8 David seems to be speaking of an individual (“his evil plot”) and a group (“they will be exalted”). Perhaps he is referring to a ringleader and his operatives. For the believer today, this might as well be the devil and his demons. There is a pause indicated by a selah at the end of verse 8 as there was in verses 3 and 5, bringing to close the prayers of each of those verses: “Deliver me, guard me, grant me.” Verse 9 shares common words in common with verse 7 -- “head” and “cover”. In verse 7, YHWH has covered David’s head (with salvation) in the day of battle. In verse 9, the psalmist prays that the “heads” of his enemies might be “overwhelmed (covered) with their own mischief. It is an example of the way that the psalmist speaks of God’s retributive justice working its way out. The evil that we do to others always comes back on ourselves. God gets the final say when it comes to justice. David prays and is convinced that the trouble his enemies are causing him will reverse and trouble his enemies instead. There is always a price to be paid when we intentionally bring harm to others. Sin has a corrupting, destructive effect that is part of the deal when we engage in it. This is not so much a prayer that harm might come to others but a description of what happens to the person who engages in acts destructive to others. The “head”, that is the prime leader of those surrounding him and trying to trap him will instead be covered (trapped) by their own mischief. The plan will backfire, and David takes consolation in this reality of life. So should we whenever we are experiencing injustice. It may not happen in a way that we can see, but evil is punished. As Paul wrote in Romans, “the wicked receive in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” 

10 Let burning coals fall upon them! Let them be cast into fire, into miry pits, no more to rise!

11 Let not the slanderer be established in the land; let evil hunt down the violent man speedily!

The prayer against his enemy gets a bit more violent in these verses, as he calls for their sudden and painful death. In the ancient near east, execution by burning alive was practiced, although there is no record of it in the Bible in Israel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were cast in a furnace in Babylon as punishment for failing to worship the king, but that backfired, so to speak. Casting someone into a miry pit suggests drowning. This is the only use of this word in the Bible, but elsewhere it refers to a deep watery pit, perhaps a well or lake. Execution by drowning seems a little more inconvenient than death by fire. However, Jesus refers to this punishment when speaking of those that would harm children. It would be better for them if a millstone were tied around their neck and they were tossed in the sea. Did Jesus say this as a curse or as a statement of reality? Or both? This is what will happen when you harm a child: you have to live with yourself. You have to look at yourself in the mirror knowing what you have done, unable to absolve yourself of the guilt and bring an end to the self-hatred. Intentionally hurting a child ushers in a process that results in the slow death of the soul. This may be what Jesus is speaking of when he describes the consequences of using your power in the harming of others. David prays that honesty would prevail in the land and that evil (personified) would quickly hunt down the violent man. The “slanderer” in verse 11 is literally, “the man the tongue” (tongue man) in Hebrew. Surely we can pray the same today in an age of mass media and propaganda. We must desire for truth to win in political conversations. There’s no benefit to slander, and yet this is what many of our cultural elite do to maintain power. When such a person is “established in the land”, suffering for all is the result. 

12 I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.

13 Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall dwell in your presence.

David concludes his prayer with absolute confidence that his cause will be upheld by YHWH. Although he is king, it seems that he identifies with the poor and afflicted is his suffering at the hands of the wicked man. The word “know” is the common Hebrew word for knowledge that is gained by experience. David has experienced God’s faithful care for those at the margins of society, so he can be confident that his rescue is imminent. This is followed with a promise of thanksgiving, “Surely the righteous will give thanks to your name”, David including himself in that company, and “the upright shall dwell in your presence” (lit. “before your face”). Prayer can lead us to a place of such confidence when we have laid everything out before God and then acknowledge the reality of who He is, his character and his past actions revealing what He will most certainly do. God is for us - maintaining the just cause, executing justice for the needy and never taking his eyes off of us.