rightly remarks, “To the raw meat correspond the immature plots, and to the cooked the mature ones.” To us, who regard the Psalm as belonging to the time of Absalom, and not, like Hengstenberg, to the time of Saul, the meat in the pots is the new kingship of Absalom. The greater the self-renunciation with which David at that time looked on at the ripening revolt, disclaiming all action of his own, the stronger the confidence with which he expected the righteous interposition of God that did actually follow, but (as he here supposes possible) not until the meat in the pot was almost done through; yet, on the other side, so quickly, that the pots had scarcely felt the crackling heat which should fully cook the meat.
Verses 10-11
Finally, we have a view of the results of the judicial interposition of God. The expression made use of to describe the satisfaction which this gives to the righteous is thoroughly Old Testament and warlike in its tone (cf. Psa 68:24). David is in fact king, and perhaps no king ever remained so long quiet in the face of the most barefaced rebellion, and checked the shedding of blood, as David did at that time. If, however, blood must nevertheless flow in streams, he knows full well that it is the blood of the partisans of his deluded son; so that the men who were led the further astray in their judgment concerning him, the more inactive he remained, will at last be compelled to confess that it does really repay one to be just, and that there is really one higher than the high ones (Ecc 5:7[8]), a deity (אלהים) above the gods (אלים( sdog) who, though not forthwith, will nevertheless assuredly execute judgment in the earth. אך here, as in Job 18:21; Isa 45:14, retains its originally affirmative signification, which it has in common with אכן. אלהים is construed with the plural (Ges. §112, rem. 3), as is frequently the case, e.g., 2Sa 7:23 (where, however, the chronicler, in 1Ch 17:21, has altered the older text). This is not because the heathen are speaking (Baur), but in order to set the infinite majesty and omnipotence of the heavenly Judge in contrast with these puffed-up “gods.” Prayer of an innocent Man Whom Men Are Trying to Take
This Michtam, after the melody Al-tashcheth, coinciding with Psa 57:5 and Psa 58:7 in the figure used in Psa 59:8, is the earliest among the Davidic Psalms which are dated
