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The speaker is a king, in danger from crafty and violent and rebellious subjects, who prays for deliverance from them. The situation may be generalized and taken as an account of the struggle for ever going on between the righteous and the wicked.

I. THE NATURE OF THE WAR OF THE WICKED AGAINST THE RIGHTEOUS.

1. A war carried on by brute strength. "Violent men" (vers. 14). When men have not reason and justice on their side, they resort to the employment of physical force - Nihilism, dynamite, insurrection.

2. Slander. (Ver. 3.) Poisonous reports, full of lies and libels, and foul imaginations of a wicked heart, are propagated without scruple, with a view of taking away the character.

3. Crafty plots. (Ver. 5.) When open warfare is unsuccessful, they resort to traps and plots that shall surprise the unwary, and seek to ruin a man by secret means.

II. THE RIGHTEOUS MAN'S SECURITY. Commits his cause to God; he cannot defend himself by retaliations - by using their means in reply. The grounds of his hope.

1. God was his; therefore God would hear and answer him. (Ver. 6.) God the Almighty and All-sufficient was his, and he was God's.

2. His past experience. (Ver. 7.) God had already defended him in scenes of danger.

3. God cannot favor the wicked cause. (Ver. 8.) Therefore God would appear for him, on his side.

III. HIS FAITH IN GOD RISES INTO THE STRONGEST ASSURANCE.

1. There is a law of retribution at work. (Vers. 9-11.) The imprecations of the ninth and tenth verses emerge into the prophecy of the eleventh.

2. An assurance that God is pledged to the righteous cause. (Ver. 12.)

3. The righteous shall ultimately rejoice in the manifested presence of God. (Ver. 13; see Psalm 11:7; Psalm 16:11.) - S.

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KJV: {To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.} Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;

WEB: Deliver me, Yahweh, from the evil man. Preserve me from the violent man;