Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men:
Ver. 9. Gather not my soul with sinners] I have loved thy house, which sinners never delighted in; therefore "gather not my soul with sinners"; so the Syriac senseth it. Let me not die the death of sinners, for I never cared for their company; so the Rabbis. See Trapp on " Psa 26:5 " Let me not share with them in punishment, for I could never abide their practice. Balaam would die the death of the righteous, but he liked not of their life. Euchrites would be Croesus vivens, et Socrates mortuus. like like Croesus and die like Socrates, Sir Walter Raleigh would live a Papist (there being no religion like that for licentious liberty and lasciviousness), but die a Protestant. We have some that would gladly dance with the devil all day, and then sup with Christ at night; live all their lives long in Delilah's lap, and then go to Abraham's bosom when they die. But this cannot be, as David well understood; and, therefore, both eschewed the life of a wicked person, and deprecated his death: Gather not, or take not away, &c. The righteous is taken away (Heb. gathered, Isaiah 57:1, as men gather flowers and candy them, preserve them); with such to be gathered David would hold it a happiness, but not with sinners with sanguinaries; for such are gathered but as house dust, to be cast out of doors.