He Calls On God To Vindicate Him, By Punishing Those Who Are Against Him, And By Rewarding Those Who Take Up His Cause, At Which Point He Will Make Known To All What God Has Done For Him (Psalms 35:22-28).
‘You have seen it, O YHWH, keep not silence,
O Lord, do not be far from me.
Stir up yourself, and awake to the justice due to me,
Even to my cause, my God and my Lord.
‘Judge me, O YHWH my God, according to your righteousness,
And let them not rejoice over me.'
The Psalmist is confident that YHWH see all that is going on, and he calls on Him to act on that basis. This is the confidence that all who live truly can have, that God knows the way that they take, and all that befalls them in it, and will thus in His own good time act on their behalf.
So he asks Him not to remain silent, (compare Psalms 28:1 where it is translated, ‘do not be deaf to me'), and to be close to him in his trials. For ‘be not far from me' compare Psalms 22:11; Psalms 38:21; Psalms 71:12. Indeed he calls on Him to ensure that he receives the justice due to him, and to uphold his cause. He is not asking for favours, but for justice. He is asking Him to act ‘according to His righteousness'. Note the proliferation of titles, ‘O YHWH', ‘O Lord', ‘my God and my Lord', ‘YHWH my God'. He is calling on the Judge of all the world to do right (Genesis 18:25).
‘Let them not rejoice over me.' It cannot be right that an unjust cause should triumph, for then righteousness will be the loser.
‘Let them not say in their heart, “Aha, so would we have it,”
Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”
Let them be put to shame and confounded together,
Who rejoice at my hurt,
Let them be clothed with shame and dishonour,
Who magnify themselves against me.'
The Psalmist is concerned that the unrighteous will not be able to gloat. He does not want them to be able to say, ‘Aha, we have got our way' (literally ‘Aha, our desire'). He does not want them to be able to gloat over the fact that they have swallowed him up. Compare Psalms 124:3; Proverbs 1:12; Lamentations 2:16. They rejoice at his hurt, so let them too be hurt, let them be ashamed and confounded. They magnify themselves against him, so let them instead be clothed with shame and dishonour. His desire is that they get what they deserve, the very opposite of what by underhand means they are seeking for themselves. Compare Psalms 35:4 where the same idea is in mind, and see Psalms 40:14. Continually he want right to prevail. He is as much concerned for the honour of God as he is for himself.
‘Let them shout for joy, and be glad,
Who favour my righteous cause,
Yes, let them say continually, YHWH be magnified,
Who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.'
And my tongue shall talk of your righteousness,
And of your praise all the day long.'
And it is because the honour of God is concerned that he anticipates support from the godly. He asks YHWH that those who support his righteous cause might be able to shout for joy and be glad at its success, because they will give honour to YHWH for supporting such a righteous cause and delighting in the welfare (literally ‘peace') of His servant, and having pleasure in his ‘peace'. The wellbeing of His servants brings glory to YHWH (as paradoxically so does their suffering for a righteous cause).
And the result will be that his tongue will ‘speak musingly' of His righteousness. It will be something to continually meditate on and rejoice over that YHWH's truth and righteousness have triumphed. And on top of that he will speak musingly of His praise all the day long. The result of his vindication will be that the praise is given to YHWH. And this should ever be the case.