Psalm 64:2

Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) Secret counsel . . . insurrection—Better, secret league (sôd) . . . noisy gathering (rigshah). For sôd see Psalm 25:14, and for rigshah see Note to Psalm 2:2.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

64:1-6 The psalmist earnestly begs of God to preserve him from disquieting fear. The tongue is a little member, but it boasts great things. The upright man is the mark at which the wicked aim, they cannot speak peaceably either of him or to him. There is no guard against a false tongue. It is bad to do wrong, but worse to encourage ourselves and one another in it. It is a sign that the heart is hardened to the greatest degree, when it is thus fully set to do evil. A practical disbelief of God's knowledge of all things, is at the bottom of every wickedness. The benefit of a good cause and a good conscience, appears most when nothing can help a man against his enemies, save God alone, who is always a present help.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Hide me - Or, more literally, thou wilt hide me. There is both an implied prayer that this might be done, and a confident belief that it would be done. The idea is, Protect me; guard me; make me safe - as one is who is hidden or concealed so that his enemies cannot find him.

From the secret counsel - The word used here - סוד sôd - means properly couch, cushion; and then, a divan, a circle of friends sitting together on couches for familiar conversation, or for counsel. See Psalm 25:14, note; Psalm 55:14, note; compare Job 15:8; Job 29:4. Here the reference is to the consultations of his enemies for the purpose of doing him wrong. Of course, as they took this counsel together, he could not know it, and the word secret is not improperly applied to it. The idea here is, that although he did not know what that counsel or purpose was, or what was the result of their consultations, yet God knew, and he could guard him against it.

Of the wicked - Not the wicked in general, but his particular foes who were endeavoring to destroy him. Luther renders this, "from the assembling of the wicked."

From the insurrection - The word used here - רגשׁה rigshâh - means properly a "noisy crowd, a multitude." The allusion is to such a crowd, such a disorderly and violent rabble, as constituted a mob. He was in danger not only from the secret purposes of the more calm and thoughtful of his enemies who were plotting against him, but from the excited passions of the multitude, and thus his life was in double danger. If he escaped the one, he had no security that he would escape the other. So the Redeemer was exposed to a double danger. There was the danger arising from the secret plottings of the Scribes and Pharisees assembled in council, and there was also the danger arising from the infuriated passions of the multitude. The former calmly laid the plan for putting him to death by a judicial trial; the others took up stones to stone him, or cried, "Crucify him, crucify him!" The word insurrection here does not well express the idea. The word tumult would better represent the meaning of the original.

Of the workers of iniquity - That is, of those who were arrayed against him.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. insurrection—literally, "uproar," noisy assaults, as well as their secret counsels.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

From the secret counsel, i.e. from the ill effects of their plots against me.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked,.... The word used denotes both the place where wicked men meet together for consultation; see Genesis 49:6; and the counsel itself they there take; from the bad effects of which the psalmist desired to be hid and preserved. So Saul and his courtiers secretly took counsel against David, and the Jews against Christ, and that very privily and secretly; see Matthew 26:3;

from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity; their noise, rage, and tumult; see Psalm 2:1. The former phrase denotes their secret machinations and designs, and this their open violence; and the persons that entered into such measures are no other than evildoers and workers of iniquity; though they might be under a profession of religion, as David's enemies, and the Jews, who were Christ's enemies, were, Matthew 7:22; and who are further described in the next verses.

Geneva Study Bible

Hide me from the {b} secret counsel of the wicked; from the {c} insurrection of the workers of iniquity:

(b) That is, from their secret malice.

(c) That is, their outward violence.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. Thou wilt hide me from the secret council of evil doers,

From the tumultuous throng of workers of iniquity.

i.e. from secret machinations and open attack. The cognate verbs are used together in Psalm 2:1-2 (tumultuously assemble, R.V. marg.; take counsel). Cp. Psalm 31:13. The same words occur in Psalm 55:14, but in a good sense.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity. The first danger is from secret plots, which David knows to be going on against his authority (2 Samuel 15:1-12). The second, and greater danger, will be from open insurrection (2 Samuel 17:1-14). Psalm 64:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Psalm opens with an octostich, and closes in the same way. The infinitive noun שׂיח signifies a complaint, expressed not by the tones of pain, but in words. The rendering of the lxx (here and in Psalm 55:3) is too general, ἐν τῷ θέεσθαί με. The "terror" of the enemy is that proceeding from him (gen. obj. as in Deuteronomy 2:15, and frequently). The generic singular אויב is at once particularized in a more detailed description with the use of the plural. סוד is a club or clique; רגשׁה (Targumic equals המון, e.g., Ezekiel 30:10) a noisy crowd. The perfects after אשׁר affirm that which they now do as they have before done; cf. Psalm 140:4 and Psalm 58:8, where, as in this passage, the treading or bending of the bow is transferred to the arrow. דּבר מר is the interpretation added to the figure, as in Psalm 144:7. That which is bitter is called מר, root מר, stringere, from the harsh astringent taste; here it is used tropically of speech that wounds and inflicts pain (after the manner of an arrow or a stiletto), πικροὶ λόγοι. With the Kal לירות (Psalm 11:2) alternates the Hiph. ירהוּ. With פּתאם the description takes a new start. ולא ייראוּ, forming an assonance with the preceding word, means that they do it without any fear whatever, and therefore also without fear of God (Psalm 55:20; Psalm 25:18).