In vv. 13, 14, the poet comes back to brighter thoughts, and his words become limpid again with his change of mood. He "knows," as the result of meditation and experience, that not only he, but all the afflicted and needy, who are righteous and upright, have God on their side. He will stand by their side in their hour of distress; He will admit them to dwell by His side, in deep, still communion, made more real and sweet by the harassments of earth, which drive them for shelter and peace to His breast. That confidence is a certitude for the psalmist. He announces it with an "I know," and seals it with a "surely." Such is the issue of trouble which was spread before Jehovah, and vented itself in prayer.
1 Jehovah, I have called on Thee; haste to me, Give ear to my voice when I call to Thee. 2 Let my prayer appear before Thee [as] incense, The lifting up of my hands [as] an evening sacrifice.
3 Set a watch, Jehovah, before my mouth, Keep guard over the door of my lips. 4 Incline not my heart to any evil thing, To practise wicked practices with men that work iniquity; And let me not eat of their dainties.
5 Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me, [Such] oil for the head shall not my head refuse. For so is it that my prayer shall continue in their wickednesses. (?) 6 Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the cliff, (?) And they hear my sayings, that they are sweet. (?) 7 As a man ploughing and cleaving the earth, Our bones are strewn at the mouth of Sheol.
8 For toward Thee, Jehovah, Lord, are mine eyes [turned]; In Thee do I take refuge--pour not out my soul. 9 Keep me from the hands of the snare which they have laid for me, And from the gins of the doers of iniquity. 10 May the wicked fall into their own nets, Whilst at the same time I pass by!
Part of this psalm is hopelessly obscure, and the connection is difficult throughout. It is a prayer of a harassed soul, tempted to slacken its hold on God, and therefore betaking itself to Him. Nothing more definite as to author or occasion can be said with certainty.
The allusions in vv. 6, 7, are dark to us, and the psalm must, in many parts, remain an enigma. Probably Baethgen and Cheyne are wise in giving up the attempt to extract any intelligible meaning from ver. 5_c_ and ver. 6 as the words stand, and falling back on asterisks. Delitzsch regards the psalm as being composed as suitable to "a Davidic situation," either by David himself, or by some one who wished to give expression in strains like David's to David's probable mood. It would thus be a "Dramatic Idyll," referring, according to Delitzsch, to Absalom's revolt. Ver. 2 is taken by him to allude to the king's absence from the sanctuary, and the obscure ver. 6, to the fate of the leaders of the revolt and the return of the mass of the people to loyal submission. But this is a very precarious reference.
The psalm begins with the cry to God to hear, which so often forms the introduction to psalms of complaint and supplications for deliverance. But here a special colouring is given by the petition that the psalmist's prayers may be equivalent to incense and sacrifice. It does not follow that he was shut out from outward participation in worship, but only that he had learned what that worship meant. "Appear" might be rendered "established." The word means to be set firm, or, reflexively, to station oneself, and hence is taken by some as equivalent to "appear" or "come" before Thee; while others give prominence rather to the notion of stability in the word, and take it to mean _continue_--_i.e._, be accepted. There may be a reference to the morning sacrifice in the "incense," so that both morning and evening ritual would be included; but it is more natural to think of the evening incense, accompanying the evening "meal offering," and to suppose that the psalm is an evening prayer. The penetrating insight into the realities of spiritual worship which the singer has gained is more important to note than such questions about the scope of his figures.