Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
Prayer of the prophet for deliverance from the enemies whom he excited by his faithful denunciations.
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved - not only make me whole (as to the evils of soul as well as body which I am exposed to by contact with ungodly foes, and which to the eye of man, seem "incurable," and "refusing to be healed," Jeremiah 15:18), but keep me so.
Thou art my praise - He whom I have to praise for past favours, and therefore to whom alone I look for the time to come.
Verse 15. They say ... Where is the word of the Lord? - (Isaiah 5:19, "They say (in taunting mockery), Let him make speed, and hasten His work, that we may see it," etc.; Amos 5:18). Where is the fulfillment of the threats which thou didst utter as from God? A characteristic of the last stage of apostasy (2 Peter 3:4, "Saying, Where is the promise of his coming?")
Verse 16. I have not hastened from being a pastor - I have not refused thy call of me to be a prophet (Jonah 1:3), however painful to me it was to utter what would be sure to irritate the hearers (Jeremiah 1:4; Jeremiah 1:8, etc.); therefore thou shouldest not forsake me, (Jeremiah 15:15, etc.) to follow thee-literally after thee; as an under-pastor following thee, "the Chief Shepherd" (Ecclesiastes 12:11; 1 Peter 5:4).
Neither have I desired the woeful day - I have not wished for the day of calamity, though I foretell it as about to come on my countrymen; therefore they have no reason for persecuting me.
Thou knowest - I appeal to thee for the truth of what I assert.
That which came out of my lips - my words (Deuteronomy 23:23), a phrase which implies the duty of "setting a watch before the mouth, and keeping the door of the lips" (Psalms 141:3).
Right before thee - rather, 'was before thee;' was known to thee (Proverbs 5:21).
Verse 17. Be not a terror unto me - namely, by deserting me; all I fear is thine abandoning me: if thou art with me I have no fear of evil from enemies.
Verse 18. Destroy them with double destruction - `break them with a double breach,' Hebrew (cf. Jeremiah 14:17). On "double," i:e., overwhelming, see note, Jeremiah 16:18.