Destroy, O LORD, _and_ divide their tongues: for I have seen violence
and strife in the city.
Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof; mischief also
and sorrow _are_ in the midst of it.
Wickedness _is_ in the midst thereof; deceit and guile depart not from
her streets.
For _it was_ not an enemy _that_ reproached me: then I could have
borne _it_: neither _was it_ he that hated me _that_ did magnify
_himself_ against me; then I would have hid myself from him;
But _it was_ thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
We took sweet counsel together, _and_ walked unto the house of God in
company.
Let death seize upon them, _and_ let them go down quick into hell: for
wickedness _is_ in their dwellings, _and_ among them.
As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.
Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and he
shall hear my voice.
He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle _that was_ against
me: for there were many with me.
God shall hear and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah.
Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.
He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him; he
hath broken his covenant.
_The words_ of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war _was_ in
his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet _were_ they drawn
swords.
Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall
never suffer the righteous to be moved.
But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction:
bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I
will trust in thee.
This Psalm is a prayer: and although it may in the 10th and 11th
verses, be understood of Christ himself, praying against his betrayer
Judas, when he says, “If it had been mine enemy that reproached me,”
&c. yet, it is manifest to me, that it is a general prayer of the
godly against all the craft of insidious and deceitful men, and
against the artful Italian flattery of some persons, who are friends
as far as their tongue goes, but who have one thing on their tongue
and another in their heart, and consider craft and dissimulation in
all things to be the highest wisdom; as if they could deceive God
also!
They know how to promise, and do promise all things to your face: so
that David justly describes them thus, “Their words are smoother than
oil:” but when you have turned your back, they blacken your character;
and their mouth is more destructive than arrows and coals of fire; and
their tongue is a sharp sword, and a drawn dagger. And this is what
David complains of in verse 12;—that they deceive effectually with
their countenance, their look, and their eyes, and cover, under these
fox-like arts, Satanic bitterness and virulence. They eat and drink
with you, and pretend to be your friends and intimates, (as Judas did
with Christ;) they keep holy days and go to the house of God with you.
This is the reason, therefore, that David so utterly execrates them,
and says, “Let them be taken out of the way suddenly, and let them
descend into hell alive.” For virulent, outside-show hypocrites, like
these, distress the hearts of those that fear God in a manner that is
beyond description.
This very judgment which David threatens in this Psalm we see
executed, in our day, upon many tyrants and originators of sects; who
are taken off in a moment. For this execration is prophetic;
foretelling the end of all hypocrites, who will not listen to those
that admonish them in a godly manner, nor regard their advice; as it
is expressed in verse 19, “But they (says David) will not regard; they
are not changed; nor will they fear God; they go on in their course,
till they are taken out of the way suddenly.”