Chapter 35
Chapter Outline
David prays for safety. (1–10)
He complains of his enemies. (11–16)
And calls upon God to support him. (17–28)Verses 1–10
It is no new thing for the most righteous men, and the most righteous cause, to meet with
enemies. This is a fruit of the old enmity in the seed of the serpent against the Seed of the woman.
David in his afflictions, Christ in his sufferings, the church under persecution, and the Christian in
the hour temptation, all beseech the Almighty to appear in their behalf, and to vindicate their cause.
We are apt to justify uneasiness at the injuries men do us, by our never having given them cause
to use us so ill; but this should make us easy, for then we may the more expect that God will plead
our cause. David prayed to God to manifest himself in his trial. Let me have inward comfort under
all outward troubles, to support my soul. If God, by his Spirit, witness to our spirits that he is our
salvation, we need desire no more to make us happy. If God is our Friend, no matter who is our
enemy. By the Spirit of prophecy, David foretells the just judgments of God that would come upon
his enemies for their great wickedness. These are predictions, they look forward, and show the
doom of the enemies of Christ and his kingdom. We must not desire or pray for the ruin of any
enemies, except our lusts and the evil spirits that would compass our destruction. A traveller
benighted in a bad road, is an expressive emblem of a sinner walking in the slippery and dangerous
ways of temptation. But David having committed his cause to God, did not doubt of his own
deliverance. The bones are the strongest parts of the body. The psalmist here proposes to serve and
glorify God with all his strength. If such language may be applied to outward salvation, how much
more will it apply to heavenly things in Christ Jesus!
Verses 11–16
Call a man ungrateful, and you can call him no worse: this was the character of David's enemies.
Herein he was a type of Christ. David shows how tenderly he had behaved towards them in
afflictions. We ought to mourn for the sins of those who do not mourn for themselves. We shall
not lose by the good offices we do to any, how ungrateful soever they may be. Let us learn to
possess our souls in patience and meekness like David, or rather after Christ's example.
Verses 17–28
Though the people of God are, and study to be, quiet, yet it has been common for their enemies
to devise deceitful matters against them. David prays, My soul is in danger, Lord, rescue it; it
belongs to thee the Father of spirits, therefore claim thine own; it is thine, save it! Lord, be not far
from me, as if I were a stranger. He who exalted the once suffering Redeemer, will appear for all