Psalms 54:3 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Strangers are risen up against me— The inhabitants of Ziph, and of the wilderness and mountains near it, might very probably, as some think, be chiefly aliens and foreigners, under the dominion of the Hebrews. But it is to be remarked, that זרים zarim, strangers, is not always to be understood of persons who are strangers by birth or nation, but as to acquaintance, manners, and affection, of a hostile disposition and mind, strangers as to religion, virtue, compassion, and humanity. See Psalms 69:8.; Hosea 5:7. That this is the Psalmist's meaning appears from the following words: Oppressors seek after my life, who have not set God before them: a description which well agrees with the character and conduct of these treacherous Ziphites. Chandler.