Psalms 17:3 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Thou hast visited me in the night— "Thou hast been present with me in my greatest privacies; to discover whether, in my retirement from the eyes of men, I was forming any evil designs, or indulging any mischievous imaginations." The last clause of this verse is obscure. David here is thought by many interpreters to hint at what passed in the camp of Saul, when Abishai would have killed him, but was prevented by David, 1 Samuel 26:9.; and the sense will be clearer, if the first words of this verse be added to the former, as they actually are in the LXX. Then the sense will be; "I have purposed that my mouth shall not offend, concerning men's works;" i.e. "I am so far from doing any wicked thing, that I will keep a strict watch, even over my words; and, though my enemies persecute me ever so much by their evil deeds, I am resolved that they shall not tempt me to speak evil. And as to what I said of my innocence, in respect of any wicked overt-act, this is one remarkable instance of it, that, when I had my enemy in my power, by attending to and obeying thy commandments, O God, the words of thy lips, I preserved my innocence in that great trial of it, and kept me from the ways of that destroyer, Abishai." Then the next verse follows naturally; in which he beseeches God to keep him in this righteous course: Hold up my goings, &c.