Today’s Passage: Psalm 140
This is a prayer David sings when men are out to destroy him. He begins with a plain cry, rescue me from evil men, and the danger he describes is first of all a danger of the tongue: words sharpened like a snake’s, venom on the lips, and then hidden snares laid along his path. But in the middle of it all he settles onto one steady line, you are my God. He names the danger honestly, and then he hands the judgment over to God rather than taking it into his own hands.
As you read, hold this: Rescue me from evil men. You are my God.
Context Of David
The little heading at the top is part of the psalm itself: a psalm of David, handed to the choirmaster to be sung. Notice the order of the trouble as David lays it out. The danger comes first as speech, the tongues and the venom, and only after that as snares set along the path. And running underneath all of it is his confession, you are my God.
Psalm 140:1-3 (BSB)
For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
¹ Rescue me, O LORD, from evil men. Protect me from men of violence, ² who devise evil in their hearts and stir up war all day long. ³ They sharpen their tongues like snakes; the venom of vipers is on their lips. Selah
Rescue me, he prays, protect me. These are men who devise evil in their hearts and stir up war all day long, and the weapon he fears most is their speech. They sharpen their tongues like snakes, and chemah, pronounced kheh-MAH. Strong's H2534, heat, wrath, burning anger, venom. It is paired here with עַכְשׁוּב (akshub), pronounced ahk-SHOOV, the ordinary word for a viper itself. This is not a blunt wound only, but a bite meant to poison, and Paul will one day take up this very line and refuse to leave it with David’s enemies alone. is on their lips, so that the bite, when it comes, is a word.
Psalm 140:4-5 (BSB)
⁴ Guard me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked. Keep me safe from men of violence who scheme to make me stumble. ⁵ The proud hide a snare for me; the cords of their net are spread along the path, and lures are set out for me. Selah
Guard me, he prays again. There is a snare hidden for him, a net spread out along the path, lures set where he is likely to walk. This violence is not a sudden flash of temper; it is planned, laid in wait.
Psalm 140:6-8 (BSB)
⁶ I say to the LORD, “You are my God.” Hear, O LORD, my cry for help. ⁷ O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, You shield my head in the day of battle. ⁸ Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked; do not promote their evil plans, lest they be exalted. Selah
You are my God, he says, so hear my cry. You are the strength of my salvation, the One who shields my head in the day of battle. And then he asks plainly that God would not grant the wicked what they want, would not let their evil plans rise up and prosper.
Study notes The venom Paul quotes
Paul gathers up this line and sets it alongside the open graves of Psalm 5, in one long catalog of what the human mouth becomes apart from God.
"Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The venom of vipers is on their lips." Romans 3:13 (BSB)
Apart from grace, David’s enemies are not a special case; the poisoned mouth is simply the human condition, and it belongs to every one of us. Paul is not drawing one bad circle around David’s attackers. He is describing every mouth, his own included, and only then does he turn to the righteousness that comes from God as a gift.
Psalm 140:9-11 (BSB)
⁹ May the heads of those who surround me be covered in the trouble their lips have caused. ¹⁰ May burning coals fall on them; may they be thrown into the fire, into the miry pits, never to rise again. ¹¹ May no slanderer be established in the land; may calamity hunt down the man of violence.
Burning coals, fire, the miry pit, never to rise again. These are hard lines, and we should teach them as they stand rather than sanding them down into a vague bad mood or, worse, baptizing our own thirst for revenge. But notice carefully what David actually does. He asks God to judge the violent; he does not reach out and take the coals into his own hand. The cry is honest and fierce, and it is handed wholly over to the God who alone has the right to repay.
Psalm 140:12-13 (BSB)
¹² I know that the LORD upholds justice for the poor and defends the cause of the needy. ¹³ Surely the righteous will praise Your name; the upright will dwell in Your presence.
And here is where the whole prayer comes to rest. I know, David says, and it is a settled kind of knowing: the LORD upholds justice for the poor and defends the cause of the needy. The righteous will yet praise His name, and the upright will dwell in His presence.
Rescue me from evil men. You are my God.