All nations compassed me about, &c.— It is very plain from these words, that the neighbouring nations had entered into a league against David, and that this psalm was written before he had destroyed them, and consequently in the beginning of his reign. See 2 Samuel 7:1 and Psalms 83. I would just observe to the philological reader, says Dr. Delaney, once for all, that it is familiar with David to couch such images in three words, as would in the hands of Homer be the materials of his noblest, most enlarged, and most dignified descriptions. We have two instances in Psalms 118:12. They, that is, all nations, compassed me about like bees, and they are quenched as the fire of thorns. The reader has here in miniature two of the finest images in Homer; which, if his curiosity demands to be gratified, he will find illustrated and enlarged in the second book of the Iliad. The first of them stands thus transcribed from Mr. Pope's translation, ver. 209, &c.
—————The following host Pour'd forth in millions, darken all the coast. As from some rocky cleft, the shepherd sees Clustering in heaps on heaps, the driving bees: Rolling and blackening, swarms succeeding swarms, With deeper murmurs, and more hoarse alarms: Dusky they spread, a close-embodied croud, And o'er the vale descends the living cloud; So, from the tents and ships, &c.
The next is at ver. 534, &c.
As on some mountain through the lofty grove, The crackling flames ascend, and blaze above; The fires expanding as the winds arise, Shoot their long beams, and kindle half the skies. So from the polish'd arms and brazen shields, A gleamy splendor flash'd along the fields, Not less their number, &c.
The candid reader will observe, that here the idea of an army's resembling a flaming fire, is common both to Homer and David: but the idea of that fire's being quenched when the army was conquered, is peculiar to David. Life of David, book 2: chap. 9.