A prayer built almost entirely around danger from other people — snares, nets, sharpened words — and answered not by removing the danger itself, but by naming exactly who David trusts to cover his head when it arrives.
A study in Psalm 140 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 10 min read
Deliver Me, O LORD, From The Evil Man
“Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war.”
Psalm 140:1-2
“Continually” is the detail worth noticing — not a single plot David happened to uncover, but an ongoing, standing hostility, war being planned as a matter of habit rather than provoked by any one event.
“They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips.… Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings.”
Psalm 140:3-4
Words are pictured here as a deliberately honed weapon, not a careless slip of the tongue — sharpened on purpose, poison kept ready under the lips rather than accidentally spilled.
They Have Set Gins For Me
“The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me.… I said unto the LORD, Thou art my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O LORD.”
Psalm 140:5-6
Three separate hunting images stack up in a single verse — a hidden snare, a spread net, a set trap — each one meant for an unsuspecting target, and each answered by the same simple declaration: Thou art my God.
Thou Hast Covered My Head In The Day Of Battle
“O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked: further not his wicked device; lest they exalt themselves.”
Psalm 140:7-8
David speaks of past battles already survived in the same breath as a present danger not yet resolved — the covered head is remembered history, called on now as reason to trust it will happen again.
“As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them. Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again.”
Psalm 140:9-10
David asks for nothing here that his enemies had not already planned for someone else — the mischief of their own lips covering their own head is simple poetic justice, the trap-setters caught by the very trap they built.
The Upright Shall Dwell In Thy Presence
“Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth: evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him. I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor.”
Psalm 140:11-12
“I know” marks the psalm’s real turning point — not a new circumstance, but a settled confidence about how this particular kind of case, the cause of the afflicted against the powerful, always eventually resolves.
“Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence.”
Psalm 140:13
The psalm closes on dwelling rather than merely surviving — not simply outlasting the snares and sharpened tongues of the first half, but ending up somewhere altogether better than where the danger found him.
