Psalm 64
“To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.” The chief musician was David’s choir director. The choir was composed of Levites and numbered probably from 2000-2500. David was a writer of hymns but he always went through channels, his choir director.
There are two parts to this psalm: Prayer under pressure, verses 1-6; deliverance from the pressure, verses 7-10.
Verse 1 – “Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer.” This s a qal active imperative, which means he understands Bible doctrine, he is on praying ground, and he demands a hearing before God. “O God” is a vocative referring to God the Father.
Then he begins his petition. “preserve my life from fear of the enemy.” The word preserve means to guard—“guard my life from the terror of the enemy.” The word terror here refers to pressure. He had a lot of enemies, they were trying to get to him, they put a lot of pressure on him, they were doing everything they could to destroy him.
Verse 2 – “Hide me from the secret counsel.” Hide is in the hiphil stem [causative]—“cause me to be hidden,” and this is simply a reference to the fact that he knows that Bible doctrine is his protection. “Secret counsel” is a conspiracy. This was the time of the Absolom conspiracy; “of the wicked” – the wicked are those who have rejected David’s authority as king and they seek to destroy his authority. They are in revolt against him although the revolt has not come to a head.
“from the insurrection” – the insurrection refers to those who seek to destroy the king.
“from the revolt of the workers of iniquity” – these workers of iniquity are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ primarily. They are believers out of fellowship and who had gone negative to Bible doctrine. They were full of mental attitude sins.
Principle: Authority and the exercise of authority produces many pressures as well as responsibility. In other words, no one can be in a position of authority without two things: pressure and responsibility. The people who most resent authority are the kind of people who can’t stand pressure and who will never take responsibility.
Verse 3 – the description of the pressure. “Who whet [sharpen] their tongue.” Sins of the tongue are based on mental attitude sins. These people sharpen their tongues; they are going to get David with their tongues.
“and bend their bows to shoot their arrows” – these arrows are “bitter words,” sins of the tongue: maligning, gossiping, judging, criticism, and so on.
Verse 4 – amplification of maligning. “They that shoot in secret.” These people always hit back in a sneaky way; they never challenge directly. They hide somewhere and take a shot at you.
“at the perfect” – there is no such thing as a perfect believer and the Hebrew word here does not mean perfect, it is tam which means complete or equipped. This refers to believers who are equipped with Bible doctrine, have inner happiness, occupation with Christ, and in a position of authority like David.
“Suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.” In other words, they are not afraid of him because they are so cowardly they do it behind his back.
Verse 5 – their plotting. “They encourage themselves in an evil matter; they commune of laying snares.” The communing means they decide to lay snares.
“they say, Who shall see them?”
Verse 6 – an invasion of David’s privacy. “They search out iniquity.” The words search out means to dig out, to find out. It means to sneak around and to spy. So we have spying on David; they were invading his privacy. Every believer, whether he is in authority or not, has a right to live his own life before the Lord and what he does is no one else’s business.
“they accomplish a diligent search.” This simply means that they keep him under observation until they discover some sin, some failure that they can use to discredit him.
“Both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, are deep.” The word deep here refers to deep in the sense of enmeshed in their own evil. First of all they were jealous of David, of his authority. They were then bitter toward him, they became hostile, antagonistic, and they expressed this through gossip and maligning. In this they found others who agreed with them, so they got together and did some plotting. They decided they needed to discredit David, so they invaded his privacy and began to spy on him.
Verse 7 – “But God.” God intervenes. Here is the answer to David’s prayer.
“shall shoot at them” – these people who are trying to destroy David’s authority will be knocked down. God will discipline them.
“with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded” – every time God fires they will be hit. They will be wounded in the sense that, first of all, their mental attitude sins will receive self-induced misery. In addition, their mental attitude sins will lead to gossip and maligning which lead to triple-compound discipline: self-induced misery, discipline for the sins of judging, discipline for the sins that you mention. This is the Greek of Matthew 7:1,2.
Verse 8 – “So shall they make their own tongue to fall upon themselves.” The tongue of a person who gossips and maligns weighs a ton! You cannot malign and criticise other believers without getting completely smashed yourself.
“all that see them shall flee away” – there is an illustration of this. There was a man at this time in David’s cabinet who was power-mad. He resented David. He thought he was as good as David, and he was a smart person. His name was Ahithophel. He had approbation lust and because of this he though he was as smart as everyone else, if not smarter. So when Absolom began to make noises of revolt he went over to Absolom. 2 Samuel 15:12ff; 16:15, 20; 17:1, 7, 14, 23. Ahithophel was discredited because he tried to discredit David.
Verse 9 – human reaction to divine discipline of the plotters. “And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God”. Who was it that protected David when the revolt came? It was God in His grace.
“for they shall wisely consider concerning his doing” – it was the grace of God. God’s grace took a doctrinal man and kept him in the position of authority in spite of the plotting, the revolt.
Verse 10 – David responds to this. “The righteous [the believer with doctrine] shall be glad in the Lord.” Shall be glad is samach, inner happiness. David is a believer and he has Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine produces inner happiness. Adversity cannot shake that inner happiness.
“they shall trust in him” – trust is chasah. This is the rabbit running into the cleft of the rock when being chased by the wolf. The hole is too small for the wolf and he can’t touch the rabbit. The rock refers to Bible doctrine. David is in God’s plan, he is in doctrine, and therefore the wolves cannot touch him. This is a Hebrew word for faith—the operation of the faith-rest technique.
“and all the upright in heart shall glory” – upright in heart means all of those in the land who knew Bible doctrine, who were oriented to the grace of God and the plan of God. They gloried in what had been accomplished by God. Wherever grace people exist, wherever there are grace believers, they always rejoice in the work of God.
Altogether this last verse adds up to occupation with Christ, and here there are three ingredients to occupation with Christ—inner happiness [shamach]; faith-rest technique [chasah]; doctrine in the soul described under the phrase “upright of heart.”
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Psalm Sixty-Four
{Prayer under Pressure - Discipline for Sins of the
Tongue}
{Verses 1-6: Prayer under pressure}
1~~ {Subscript}
To the chief Musician {of the musical division
- the band and choir - 4000 people} . . .
A Psalm of David.
Hear my voice, O Elohiym/Godhead
in my prayer . . .
guard my life from the terror {pressure}
of the enemy.
2~~Cause me to be
hid
from the conspiracy of the wicked . . .
from the revolt/insurrection
of the workers of iniquity {primarily believers out of fellowship}.
{Note: This is the
revolt of David's son Absalom. These 'wicked' are those who reject David's
authority.}
{Description of the
Pressure}
3~~Who sharpen their tongue like a sword
and bend their bows to shoot their arrows . . .
even bitter words {maligning, slander, judging, gossip, etc.}.
4~~ They that shoot
in secret
at the equipped/complete
{doctrine in the soul - mature and in some form of authority} . . .
suddenly . . .
do they shoot at him . . .
and fear not.
5~~ They encourage
themselves in an evil matter.
They decide to lay snares privately.
They say, 'Who shall see them?' {Conspiring in secret}
{Invasion of
David's Privacy}
6~~They 'search out'/spy iniquities.
They accomplish a diligent search
{observe David until can find a sin/failure they can exploit}.
Both the inward thought of every one of them . . .
and the right lobe {heart}
is deep {deep in evil}.
{Intervention of
God - Sins of the Tongue Discipline}
7~~But Elohiym/Godhead
shall shoot at them with an arrow . . .
suddenly . . .
shall they be wounded.
{Note: Self-induced
misery and compounded discipline. In judging for example, 1) self-induced
misery; 2) your sin has its own discipline; and 3) if you mention a sin, then
God's judgement of their sin is applied to YOU - also see Matthew.}
8~~So they shall
make their own tongue
to fall upon themselves
{tongue weighs a ton and will smash you to bits} . . .
all that see them shall flee away.
{Human Reaction}
9~~And all men shall fear,
and shall declare the work of Elohiym/Godhead.
For they shall wisely consider of His doing.
10~~ The righteous
shall be glad in Jehovah/God. . .
and shall trust in Him.
And all the upright in the frontal lobe {heart} . . .
shall rejoice/glory.