God's care of the poor. David complaineth of his enemies' treachery: he fleeth to God for succour.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
Title. לדוד מזמור למנצח lamnatseach mizmor ledavid.— The ground of this psalm is the same with that of the 38th and 39th. The author labours under some illness. He complains of the insult and treachery of his enemies, and of one in particular: he prays to be relieved, and accordingly is relieved. This mercy of God to him, he seems to attribute in the first three verses to his own compassion for the afflicted. Dr. Delaney is of opinion, that this psalm was written by David after his sickness, when Absalom conspired against him. There is no doubt (says he) but the king, who, as we suppose, discovered the conspiracy in his sickness, took immediate measures to defeat it, as soon as he found himself recovering: Nor is it improbable that he dissembled his recovery as long as he could, to prevent the effects of his son's ambition and impetuosity; who appears sufficiently from this psalm to have been determined upon his father's destruction, and fully resolved to out-do the malignity of his disease, and cut him off, if that should spare him; for those, I am satisfied, are Absalom's own words, recorded by David in the 8th verse, And now that he lieth, he shall rise up no more. It must doubtless have been matter of great surprise, and inexpressible affliction, to David, to find the two men in the world, whom he seems to have loved and most confided in, combining against him, and compassing his death. Absalom and Achitophel, his son and his counsellor: both of these are, as I apprehend, clearly characterised in this psalm: the vanity and lying spirit of Absalom in the 6th verse, and the treachery of Achitophel in the 9th, where we have a complaint, not only of trust betrayed, but of the rights of hospitality violated. The man who did this had eaten of his bread. In this exigency David had recourse, as usual, to the divine mercy and protection, Psalms 41:10 and finding their devices so far defeated as not to terminate in his immediate destruction, he gradually gathered hope and confidence from that delay; which he quickly perceived not to have arisen from any abatement of their malignity, but from the interposition of providence in his behalf, Psalms 41:11-12. If it be urged, that all this is only a comment upon a psalm, not grounded upon any historical relation; I answer, that the psalm itself is plainly historical; is confessedly written by David, and personally applied to himself; and consequently must refer to some circumstances of his life: It can refer to no other but this; and when applied to this gives, as I conceive, new light to the sacred historian's account of Absalom's rebellion. See Life of David, b. i. c. 8. I would only observe, that, supposing the truth of this application, David may properly be considered here as the type of Christ, and Achitophel of Judas; in which view the whole may be applied to our Saviour, who has led us to this application, by referring one verse of it to himself. See John 13:18.