Psalms 35:17 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, David again describes the great injustice, malice, and arrogance of those who attacked him. He brings this before God as a reason for divine protection and help against them. They were deeply unfair, because they were his enemies without cause. He had given them no provocation at all. They hated him for no reason, and even for the very things that should have made them love and honor him. This is quoted and applied to Christ in (John 15:25): “They hated me without a cause.”

They were also rude and cold toward him. They could not even show him ordinary courtesy. They “speak not peace,” meaning that if they met him, they would not offer even a friendly greeting. They were like Joseph’s brothers, who could not speak peacefully to him (Genesis 37:4). They were proud and mocking too, opening their mouths wide against him, shouting and jeering when they saw him fall. They cried out with delight when he was forced to leave the court, as if saying, “Aha, this is the day we wanted to see.”

They were also cruel and low-minded. They trampled on him when he was down, rejoiced over his trouble, and boasted over his downfall (Psalm 35:26). People often side with the one who seems to be winning, and they hate the one who has fallen. So it was when the rulers attacked the Son of David, Jesus, and the crowd cried, “Crucify him, crucify him.” They also turned their attacks against all the serious, godly people who stayed with David (Psalm 35:20). They used lies and trickery to trap and ruin those who were quiet in the land.

That is the character of godly people in any land. They are the quiet ones, living in respectful submission to rulers, as far as they can before the Lord, and trying to live at peace with everyone. Still, it has often been the habit of their enemies to invent false charges against them. Every kind of evil trick and lie is used to make them seem hateful or contemptible. Their words and actions are twisted, even things they hate are blamed on them, laws are made to catch them (Daniel 6:4), and all of it is meant to destroy them and drive them out.

David then appeals to God, the one to whom justice belongs. He appeals to God’s knowledge: “This you have seen” (Psalm 35:22). Others had falsely accused him, but God knew the truth. God knew he had not falsely accused them, and had not made them worse than they were. Their plots had been carried out in secret, but David says, “Your eye was on them in their secret meetings, and you are a witness of everything they have said and done against me and against your people.”

He also appeals to God’s justice: “Wake up to my judgment, even to my cause” (Psalm 35:23). In other words, let my case be heard at your bar. “Judge me, O Lord my God,” he says, asking God to give sentence according to the rightness of his own nature and rule (Psalm 35:24). Solomon explains this idea in (1 Kings 7:31-32). When God is appealed to, he hears in heaven and judges by condemning the wicked and proving the righteous to be right.

David then prays earnestly that God would act for him and not stand by as if only watching (Psalm 35:17). “Lord, how long will you look on?” he asks. “How long will you allow the evil of the wicked?” He asks God to rescue his life from the destruction they are planning and to rescue his precious soul from the lions. His soul is his only life, so it is a great shame if he neglects it and a great loss if he loses it. Since it is the life that is in danger, he asks, “Lord, rescue it.” It belongs in a special way to the Father of spirits, so he asks God to claim what is his own and save it. “Lord, do not stay silent,” he says, as if God were agreeing with what was being done against him. “Do not be far from me” (Psalm 35:22), as if he were only a stranger to God, someone God was not concerned about.

He also prays that his enemies would have no reason to rejoice over him (Psalm 35:19). He says this again in (Psalm 35:24). His concern is not only that being trampled would hurt him, but that it would dishonor God and shame his trust in God. It would also harden his enemies in their wickedness and discourage all the faithful Jews who supported his righteous cause. He asks that he never be brought so near disaster that they could say in their hearts, “Aha, that is what we wanted” (Psalm 35:25), and much less that they could say, “We have swallowed him up.” If that happened, they would be insulting God himself.

Instead, he asks that they be ashamed and brought to confusion together (Psalm 35:26, as in Psalm 35:4). He wants his innocence to be so clear that they are ashamed of the lies they spread about him. He wants his cause to be so firmly established that they are ashamed of their plans and their hopes for his ruin. That shame might lead them toward repentance, or it may become their lasting judgment and misery.

Finally, he prays that his friends will have reason to rejoice and to give glory to God (Psalm 35:27). Even though others tried hard to blacken David’s name and make him hateful, and to frighten people away from supporting him, some still favored his righteous cause. They knew he was being wronged and loved him well. For them he prays two things. First, that they would rejoice with him in his joy. It is a great comfort to all good people to see an honest man and an honest cause succeed. Those who truly stand with God’s people, and are willing to share their lot even when they are being crushed, will in time shout for joy and be glad, because the righteous cause will finally win.

Second, he asks that they would join him in praising God: “Let them say continually, The Lord be magnified.” God should be praised by us and by others, because he takes pleasure in the good success of his servant. The great God is pleased with the prosperity of good people, not only with his family as a whole, the church, but with each individual servant in that family.

God takes pleasure in the well-being of his people, both in their outward lives and in their spiritual condition. He does not take delight in their suffering, because he does not afflict willingly. Since that is true, we should also rejoice in their good and not envy it.

When God, in his providence, shows his good will toward the prosperity of his servants and the pleasure he takes in it, we should notice that with gratitude and praise him for it. Then we should say, “The Lord be magnified.”

The mercy David hoped to receive through prayer he promises to repay with praise: “I will give thanks to you as the one who brought me out” (Psalm 35:18). His tongue will speak of God’s righteousness, meaning the justice of his judgments and the fairness of all he does. He will do this openly, in the great congregation and among many people, so that God may be honored and many may be helped. He will also do it constantly, speaking God’s praise every day, or all day long. This is a subject that will never be used up, not even by the endless praises of saints and angels.