orce when
we remember that the would-be murderers compassed his house in the
night. "Awake to meet me, and behold;" as if he had said, "In the
darkness do Thou see; at midnight sleep not Thou." The prayer is
continued in words which heap together with unwonted abundance the
Divine names, in each of which lie an appeal to God and a pillar of
faith. As Jehovah, the self-existent Fountain of timeless Being; as the
God of Hosts, the Commander of all the embattled powers of the universe,
whether they be spiritual or material; as the GOD of Israel, who calls
that people His, and has become theirs--he stirs up the strength of God
to "awake to visit all the heathen,"--a prayer which has been supposed
to compel the reference of the whole psalm to the assaults of Gentile
nations, but which may be taken as an anticipation on David's lips of
the truth that, "They are not all Israel which are of Israel." After a
terrible petition--"Be not merciful to any secret plotters of
evil"--there is a pause (Selah) to be filled, as it would appear, by
some chords on the harp, or the blare of the trumpets, thus giving time
to dwell on the previous petitions.

But still the thought of the foe haunts him, and he falls again to the
lower level of painting their assembling round his house, and their
whispers as they take their stand. It would appear that the watch had
been kept up for more than one night. How he flings his growing scorn of
them into the sarcastic words, "They return at evening; they growl like
a dog, and compass the city" (or "go their rounds in the city"). One
sees them stealing through the darkness, like the troops of vicious curs
that infest Eastern cities, and hears their smothered threatenings as
they crouch in the shadow of the unlighted streets. Then growing bolder,
as the night deepens and sleep falls on the silent houses: "Behold they
pour out with their mouth, swords (are) in their lips, for 'who hears'?"
In magnificent contrast with these skulking murderers fancying
themselves unseen and unheard, David's faith rends the heaven, and, with
a daring image which is copied in a much later psalm (ii. 4), shows God
gazing on them with Divine scorn which breaks in laughter and mockery. A
brief verse, which recurs at the end of the psalm, closes the first
portion of the psalm with a calm expression of untroubled trust, in
beautiful contrast with the peril and tumult of soul, out of which it
rises steadfast and ethereal, like a ra