Concerned By How Long His Affliction Is Going On He Points Out How False Their Accusations Are and Asks For Deliverance From Their Attempts To Bring Him Down (Psalms 35:17-21). .
‘Lord, how long will you look on?
Rescue my soul from their destructions,
My only one from the lions.
I will give you thanks in the great assembly,
I will praise you among much people.'
Patient endurance under affliction is ever the test of the man of God. Compare Roman Psalms 5:3-5; James 1:2-3, and the Psalmist is no exception. He is concerned at how long his troubles have been going on. They seem interminable. How long, then, can God look on and not interfere?
So he prays that he may be delivered from their attempts to destroy him, that he night be delivered from these wild beasts who have come together against him. And he promises that when he is delivered, then he will go into the great assembly and offer his thanks, he will go among large crowds of people and offer praise. He will give all the honour to God.
‘Let not those who are my enemies,
Wrongfully rejoice over me,
Neither let those wink with the eye,
Who hate me without a cause.
‘For they do not speak peace,
But they devise deceitful words,
Against those who are quiet in the land.
Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me,
They said, “Aha, aha, our eye has seen it.” '
These his enemies anticipate rejoicing over what they see to be his imminent downfall, they hope to wink at each other with they eye as they consider what they have achieved. Proverbs tells us that it is the worthless person who winks with the eye (Proverbs 6:12-13), for ‘he who winks with the eye causes sorrow' (Proverbs 10:10). It is a sign of those who are behaving in an underhanded way.
But the Psalmist prays that it might not happen. He asks, ‘let it not be'. Notice, however, that this is on the basis that it has no real justification. He is not about to get what he deserves. These people do not have a reasonable cause, they are behaving dishonestly. And they reveal it by devising deceitful words rather than speaking peace. They are not interested in a fair result, but in getting their own way. And they do not only do it against the Psalmist, they do it against all who are at peace and causing no trouble in the land. Dishonest accusations are rife.
And so their mouths are opened wide as they accuse him (compare Isaiah 57:4), and they insinuate that they have seen what they are speaking about. The picture is graphic. They say, ‘Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it', either as though they had come across it by surprise, or else were emphasising how they had caught him out. Compare the winking of the eye. It is all an act put on to catch him out. None of it is reality, it is a show put on for the judges.