Psalm 54:5

He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in thy truth.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Cut them off.—Or, put them to silence.

In thy truth.—Or, according to thy faithfulness.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

54:4-7 Behold, God is mine Helper. If we are for him, he is for us; and if he is for us, we need not fear. Every creature is that to us, and no more, which God makes it to be. The Lord will in due time save his people, and in the mean time he sustains them, and bears them up, so that the spirit he has made shall not fail. There is truth in God's threatenings, as well as in his promises; sinners that repent not, will find it so to their cost. David's present deliverance was an earnest of further deliverance. He speaks of the completion of his deliverance as a thing done, though he had as yet many troubles before him; because, having God's promise for it, he was as sure of it as if it was done already. The Lord would deliver him out of all his troubles. May he help us to bear our cross without repining, and at length bring us to share his victories and glory. Christians never should suffer the voice of praise and thanksgiving to cease in the church of the redeemed.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He shall reward evil unto mine enemies - Margin, "those that observe me." The original word here means literally "to twist, to twist together;" then, to press together; then, to "oppress," or to treat as an enemy. The reference here is to those who pressed upon him as enemies, or who endeavored to crush him. The idea is that God would recompense them for this conduct, or that he would deal with them as they deserved.

Cut them off in thy truth - In thy faithfulness; in thy regard for what is right. This is simply a prayer, or an expression of strong confidence, that God would deal with them as they deserved, or that he would not suffer such conduct to pass without a proper expression of his sense of the wrong. There is no evidence that David in this prayer was prompted by private or vindictive feeling.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. He shall … evil—or, "Evil shall return on" (Ps 7:16) my enemies or watchers, that is, to do me evil (Ps 6:7).

in thy truth—Thy verified promise.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In thy truth; or, for or according to thy truth; whereby thou art engaged to fulfil thy promises made to me, and thy threatenings denounced against thine and mine implacable enemies.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He shall reward evil unto mine enemies,.... That eyed him as Saul did; that observed his haunts, where he resorted, and who were with him, as the Ziphites did under Saul's direction; as the Word (m) here used for "enemies" signifies: the mischief they had devised for him, he believed, would be returned upon their own heads; the pit they digged they would fall into themselves; and the net they had spread for others their own feet would be taken in. This was true as of David's enemies, so of Christ's, the wicked Jews, who narrowly watched him to take every advantage against him;

cut them off in thy truth; root and branch, as Saul, and his family, and his courtiers, quickly were, according to the truth of promises made to David, and of threatenings unto them.

(m) "observatoribus meis", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in thy {e} truth.

(e) According to your faithful promise for my defence.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. He shall requite the evil unto them that lie in wait for me:

Destroy thou them in thy truth.

God will cause the evil which they are plotting to recoil upon their own heads: or, according to the K’thîbh or written text (Introd. p. li), The evil shall return &c.: cp. Psalm 7:16. Enemies (A.V.) is a peculiar word found only in Psalm 5:8; Psalm 27:11; Psalm 56:2; Psalm 59:10, meaning those who lie in wait for him, like fowlers (Jeremiah 5:26 R.V.), or a leopard for its prey (Hosea 13:7). Jerome renders it insidiatores.

in thy truth] For Thou canst not be false to Thy promise to deliver me.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - He shall reward evil unto mine enemies; literally, he shall return the wrong upon my adversaries. "The wrong" is that which his adversaries had wished to inflict upon the psalmist, viz. death (see 1 Samuel 23:19, 20). Cut them off in thy truth; or, "in thy truthfulness" (Cheyne). God had given his people - those who were faithful to him - the promise of his protection, and, being true, could not go back from his word. Psalm 54:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 54:6-9) In this second half, the poet, in the certainty of being heard, rejoices in help, and makes a vow of thanksgiving. The בּ of בּסמכי is not meant to imply that God is one out of many who upheld his threatened life; but rather that He comes within the category of such, and fills it up in Himself alone, cf. Psalm 118:7; and for the origin of this Beth essentiae, Psalm 99:6, Judges 11:35. In Psalm 54:7 the Kerמ merits the preference over the Chethמb (evil shall "revert" to my spies), which would at least require על instead of ל (cf. Psalm 7:17). Concerning שׁררי, vid., on Psalm 27:11. In the rapid transition to invocation in Psalm 54:7 the end of the Psalm announces itself. The truth of God is not described as an instrumental agent of the cutting off, but as an impelling cause. It is the same Beth as in the expression בּנדבה (Numbers 15:3): by or out of free impulse. These free-will sacrifices are not spiritual here in opposition to the ritual sacrifices (Psalm 50:14), but ritual as an outward representation of the spiritual. The subject of הצּילני is the Name of God; the post-biblical language, following Leviticus 24:11, calls God straightway השּׁם, and passages like Isaiah 30:27 and the one before us come very near to this usage. The praeterites mention the ground of the thanksgiving. What David now still hopes for will then lie behind him in the past. The closing line, v. 9b, recalls Psalm 35:21, cf. Psalm 59:11; Psalm 92:12; the invoking of the curse upon his enemies in v. 8 recalls Psalm 17:13; Psalm 56:8; Psalm 59:12.; and the vow of thanksgiving in v. 8 recalls Psalm 22:26; Psalm 35:18; Psalm 40:10.