For, lo, the wicked bend [their] bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
Ver. 2. For, lo, the wicked bend their bow] sc. To shoot at you, a silly bird; you were best therefore to be packing, and not to stay till you come tumbling down, as a bird fetched off with a bolt. Nam ecce inquitis impii apposuerunt pedem arcui (Beza). This hath ever been the guise of the Church's enemies, and is still, to terrify her (if they could) and affright her out of her faith and true religion. Nebuchadnezzar, for instance, Antiochus, that little antichrist, the primitive persecutors, and still the Papists, with their cruel inquisition, and otherwise. But what saith the apostle, In nothing be terrified by your adversaries, Philippians 1:28. Be not afraid with any amazement, 1 Peter 3:6. Nos quidem neque expavescimus neque pertimescimus ea quae ab ignorantibus patimur, saith Tertullian, We fear not what any of you can do to us, do your worst (Ad Scapulain). Contemptus est a me Romanus et favor et furor, said Luther, I care not for Rome's frowns or fair looks. This the blind world counteth and calleth silliness or stubbornness, but they know not the force of faith nor the privy armour of proof that the saints have about their hearts. They make ready their arrow upon the string, not in the quiver, as the Vulgate reads it.
That they may privily shoot Heb. to shoot in the darkness; so that, although the saints hide themselves in caves and dark corners, yet they are ferreted out thence by their persecutors, as David was by Saul often. And this some hold to be the meaning of that place, Psalms 74:20, "The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty"; that is, we can hide ourselves nowhere but the persecutors find us out.