Many [there be] which say of my soul, [There is] no help for him in God. Selah.
Ver. 2. Many there be which say of my soul] These scoffs and sarcasms leniter volant, non leniter violant. David felt them as a murdering weapon in his bones, Psalms 42:3; Psalms 42:10, and oft complaineth of them to God, Qui satis idoneus est patientiae sequester, as Tertullian phraseth it, who will see that his saints shall lose nothing by their patience.
There is no help for him in God] Salvation itself cannot save him; he is at that pass that there is neither hope of better for him, nor place of worse; there is no help, health, or deliverance for him at all. The Hebrew hath a letter more than ordinary, to increase the signifcation. Hebrew Text Note R. David rendereth it, Nullum auxilium, nullum auxilium, There is no help, there is no help for him; and interpreteth it, neither in this world nor in the world to come. Thus haply his enemies argued from his sin in the matter of Uriah; concluding that God would not look at him therefore. But for that matter he had soundly repented, and made his peace, 2Sa 12:13 Psalms 51:1,2, though this present conspiracy, and the trouble thereupon (which lasted six months, saith Jerome, Ex tradit. Hebraeor.), was a part of the temporal punishment of that scandalous sin, 2 Samuel 12:10. But that it lay not upon his conscience it appeareth, in that on his death bed he regretteth it not, as he did his not punishing of Joab and Shimei; concerning whom he therefore leaveth his charge with his son Solomon, 1 Kings 2:5; 1 Kings 2:8 .
Selah] i.e. In truth, or amen, saith Aben Ezra; Plane, Tremel.; Omnino, penitus, revera, Polan. The Hebrews at this day accordingly add to the end of their prayers and epitapha Amen, Selah, twice or thrice repeated. The Greek maketh it only a musical notion, Dιαφαλμα .