Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, [and] from the noisome pestilence.
Ver. 3. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler] i.e. Of the devil and his emissaries, 2 Timothy 2:26, who, by force and fraud, seek to ensnare the saints. Gratiae privativae multo plures sunt quam positivae, saith Gerson. God daily delivereth his from innumerable deaths and dangers. By fowler here some understand the punishing angel, 2 Samuel 24:15,17, and conceive that this psalm was penned upon occasion of that great plague that followed upon David's numbering the people; for then, if ever, both prince and people stood in need of special comfort, and here they have it. Divine consolations are therefore sweet, because seasonable and suitable.
And from the noisome pestilence] That uncomfortable and contagious disease. The Vulgate rendereth it, and from rough words. In Hebrew Dabhar signifieth a word, Debher, a pest; an evil tongue hath the pestilence in it, Ab excidio exitiorum.