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