Psalms 35:1 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, David lays his case before God and describes the relentless anger and hatred of those who were against him. He was God’s servant, called by God to his work, walking in obedience and aiming at God’s honor. Yet people fought against him, opposed his rise, and used every means they could against him. They did not only work against him in secret, they openly took a stand against him and tried to hurt him in every way.

They pursued him with tireless hatred and sought after his soul, that is, his life. Nothing less would satisfy their violent purpose. They also wanted to disturb his peace and throw his mind into confusion. Their hostility was not a passing anger, but deep and lasting malice. They planned his harm together, using their skill and energy not just to injure him, but to find ways to destroy him.

They treated David, who was really a blessing to his country, as if he were a curse to it. They hunted him like a dangerous wild animal. They dug a pit and set a net for him, hoping to trap him and place him at their mercy (Psalm 35:7). They spent great effort on persecution, and they did it with care and craftiness. The old serpent taught them subtlety. They hid their net from David and from his friends, but they could not hide it from God.

David also felt how unequal the fight was. His enemy, especially Saul, was too strong for him (Psalm 35:10). Saul had the army under his command and acted as though he alone had the right to make laws and pass judgment. He could condemn whom he pleased and even throw a spear at anyone who stood in his way. His word carried the force of law, and everyone around him had to obey, whether right or wrong. He had lands, vineyards, and positions to give out, as in 1 Samuel 22:7. David, by contrast, was poor and needy, with little to offer and few supporters, mostly men of broken fortunes (1 Samuel 22:2). So it is no surprise that Saul stripped him of what little he had and of the influence he had gained.

If the kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord and his anointed one, who can stand against them? It is no new thing for the most righteous people, and the most righteous cause, to face many powerful and malicious enemies. Christ himself was opposed and attacked, and war is made against the holy people. We should not be surprised. This is the old hostility from the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman.

David then appeals to God about his own integrity and the rightness of his cause. If a fellow subject had wronged him, he could have appealed to his ruler, as Paul later appealed to Caesar. But when his ruler wronged him, he appealed to God, who is ruler and judge over the kings of the earth: “Plead my cause, O Lord” (Psalm 35:1). A righteous cause can be laid before a righteous God with full confidence, because he knows every detail, weighs everything fairly, and shows no favoritism.

God knew that David’s enemies were attacking him without cause and digging pits for him without cause (Psalm 35:7). That should comfort us when people wrong us, if our own conscience can say that we have done them no harm. Paul could say the same: “To the Jews have I done no wrong” (Acts 25:10). We often excuse our hurt by saying we never gave them reason to treat us this way. Yet that should make us more calm, not less, because then we may trust more fully that God will take up our case.

David also asks God to show himself both for him and to him in this trial. For him, he prays that God would fight against his enemies and keep them from harming him or carrying out their plans (Psalm 35:1). He asks God to take up shield and buckler, for the Lord is a man of war (Exodus 15:3), and to stand up to help him (Psalm 35:2). David had few people who would stand with him, and even many supporters would be useless without God. He also asks God to block their path (Psalm 35:3), so they will not overtake him while he flees.

He also prays for inward comfort. He asks God to say to his soul, “I am your salvation” (Psalm 35:3). He wants not only rescue from his present troubles, but deep comfort for his spirit. He wants to know that God is his salvation, not only as the one who saves, but as the one whose favor is itself salvation. If God, by his Spirit, assures our spirit that he is our salvation, that is enough. We need nothing more to be truly happy. And that inward witness is a strong support when people persecute us. If God is our friend, it does not matter who is against us.

David then looks ahead to the destruction of his enemies, which he prays for not from spite or revenge. He had shown great patience, even when Shimei cursed him, saying, “Let him curse, for the Lord has told him to do it.” So we should not think that a man so meek in daily life would pour out angry feelings in prayer. Instead, by the spirit of prophecy, he foretells God’s just judgments on those who were guilty of great wickedness, cruelty, treachery, and hostility to God’s purposes. They especially opposed religion and the reform David would have served if he had power. They seemed hardened in sin, like those who have sinned unto death and are not to be prayed for (Jeremiah 7:16; Jeremiah 11:14; Jeremiah 14:11; 1 John 5:16). David likely knew that God had rejected Saul and had told Samuel not to mourn for him (1 Samuel 16:1). These words also look beyond David’s own time and speak of the enemies of Christ and his kingdom, as seen by comparing Romans 11:9, 10.

He begins with a prayer against his many enemies (Psalm 35:4-6): “Let them be confounded,” and so on. Or, as Dr. Hammond reads it, “They shall be confounded, they shall be turned back.” This may be understood as a prayer for their repentance, since all who truly repent are brought to shame for their sin and turned away from it. Or, if they would not repent, David asks that they be defeated and disappointed in their plans against him, and so brought to shame.

Even if wicked people seem to win for a while, David sees that their end will be ruin. They will be like chaff before the wind, too weak to stand when God’s judgments come, and sure to be blown away by them (Psalm 1:4). Their way is dark and slippery, meaning that sinners live in darkness and are always in danger of falling into sin and into hell. In the end, that danger will catch them, and their feet will slip at the right time (Deuteronomy 32:35).

But even that is not the worst of it. Chaff in the wind may still find a place to stop, and a person on a slippery road may still keep his footing. Yet here David says that the angel of the Lord will chase them (Psalm 35:5), so they will find no rest, and will pursue them (Psalm 35:6), so they cannot escape destruction. God’s angels guard those who belong to him, but they also serve as agents of his justice. Anyone who makes God their enemy also makes all his holy angels their enemies.

David then turns to his one powerful enemy, saying, “Let destruction come upon him” (Psalm 35:8). He likely means Saul, who set traps for David and wanted to destroy him. David would not take revenge with his own hand or judge his own case. At the same time, he trusted that the Lord would strike Saul (1 Samuel 26:10), and that the very trap Saul set would catch him instead. This came true when Saul tried to have David killed by the Philistines (1 Samuel 18:25). That was the net Saul hid under the cover of honor, and in that same net he was caught when his own day of falling came.

David also looks ahead to his own rescue, and because he has left his case with God, he does not doubt it will come (Psalm 35:9, Psalm 35:10). He expects that his soul will be glad, not because life will be easy, but because the Lord will show his favor and keep his promise to save him. Joy in God and in his salvation is the only real joy, the kind that lasts and truly satisfies. Those who are sad before the Lord, and who sow in tears in a godly way, can be sure that joy will come in time, because gladness is being planted for them, and they will at last enter their Lord’s joy.

David also promises that God will get the glory for it (Psalm 35:10). He says, “All my bones will say, Lord, who is like you?” He means he will praise God with his whole self, with all his strength and all his heart. He also praises God as the one who cannot be compared with anyone else. We cannot fully describe how great and good God is, so we honor him by saying that no one is like him. There is no one like him to protect innocent people or to punish proud cruelty. Even the way God made our bones, so wonderfully and carefully (Ecclesiastes 11:5; Psalm 139:16), and the way he preserves them, should lead every bone in our bodies, if it could speak, to say, “Lord, who is like you?” and gladly suffer anything for him.