For they speak against thee wickedly, [and] thine enemies take [thy name] in vain.
Ver. 20. For they speak against thee wickedly] Inasmuch as they speak against me; Tua causa erit inca causa, Your cause will be my cause, said Charles V, emperor, to Julius Pflugius, who complained he had been wronged by the Duke of Saxony; so saith God to every David. This Luther knew, and therefore wrote thus to Melancthon, Causa ut sit magna, magnus est actor, et auctor eius; neque enim nostra est. The cause is Christ's; and he will see to it and us. Moses told the people that their murmurings were not against him, but against the Lord, Exodus 16:8. As unskilful hunters, shooting at wild beasts, kill a man sometimes, so while men shoot at Christians, they hit Christ.
And thine enemies take thy name in vain] While they would despoil thee of thine omnipresence, omnipotence, &c., casting thee into a dishonourable mould, as it were, and having base and bald conceits and speeches of thee and thine. Kimchi interpreteth it of heretics, those false friends, but true enemies to God; of whom they make great boasts, as did the Gnostics, Manichees, Novations, and lately the Swenckfeldians (who styled themselves the confessors of the glory of Christ), and many of our modern sects. p &&& Heretics-False friends of God