Commentary - Psalm 64:1-6

Bird's-eye view

Psalm 64 is a prayer of a righteous man facing a particular kind of enemy. This is not open warfare with swords and shields, but a battle fought with whispers, plots, and slander. David, the psalmist, is targeted by a cabal of evildoers who operate in the shadows. Their weapons are words, sharpened like swords and aimed like arrows. Their strategy is one of ambush and conspiracy, confident that their secret machinations are hidden from view. The psalm lays bare the anatomy of wicked counsel, showing how evil men encourage one another in their schemes and meticulously plan their attacks against the innocent.

The first part of the psalm, which we are considering here, is the formal complaint laid before God. David brings his case to the ultimate Judge, pleading for protection from both the fear of the enemy and the enemy himself. He exposes their methods: the secret counsel, the tumultuous mob, the weaponized tongue, and the sudden, cowardly attacks. This is a psalm for anyone who has ever been the target of a smear campaign, office gossip, or a coordinated online mob. It teaches us to bring the specifics of our complaint to God, trusting that He sees what is done in secret and that He is the ultimate arbiter of justice.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 64 belongs to a collection of psalms where David cries out to God for deliverance from his enemies. It shares themes with many other psalms, but its particular focus is on the danger of conspiracy and slander. It echoes the concerns of psalms like Psalm 5, which speaks of the flattering tongue, Psalm 7, a plea for justice against a slanderer, and Psalm 52, which condemns the man who trusts in his own destructive tongue. What sets Psalm 64 apart is its detailed description of the process of wicked plotting. It takes us inside the "secret counsel" of the ungodly, showing us their mindset, their methods, and their arrogant self-assurance. The psalm moves from this detailed complaint in the first six verses to a confident assurance of God's sudden and decisive judgment in the final verses, a common pattern in the psalms of lament.

Key Issues

The Arrows of the Tongue

We live in a talkative age, an age of social media, where billions of words are launched into the ether every day. And because we are fallen creatures, a significant percentage of those words are what the Bible calls "bitter." They are arrows. James warns us that the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, set on fire by hell itself (James 3:6). David understood this intimately. His enemies were not just those who came at him with spears; they were those who came at him with whispers, innuendo, and outright lies.

This psalm teaches us to view such verbal attacks with theological seriousness. Slander is not a minor infraction. It is a form of attempted murder. The men described here have sharpened their tongue like a sword. They are not just venting; they are arming themselves. They aim their bitter speech like an arrow. This is calculated, targeted, and intended to inflict a mortal wound on a man's reputation, his standing, and his soul. When a Christian is on the receiving end of this kind of assault, he is not being overly sensitive to treat it as a genuine spiritual attack. He is being biblical. And the first thing he must do is what David does here: file a formal report with the commander-in-chief.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; Guard my life from dread of the enemy.

The psalm opens with a direct and urgent plea. David is not clearing his throat; he is in distress. He asks God to hear his voice. This is the cry of a child to his father, a subject to his king. The word for "complaint" here is not a whiny grumble, but more like the presentation of a formal case in court. He is laying out the facts of his situation before the righteous Judge. And his request is twofold. First, he asks God to guard his life, his physical existence. But second, and just as importantly, he asks to be guarded from the dread of the enemy. This is a crucial distinction. The enemy wants not only to kill him but to terrorize him first. Fear is a weapon in itself. David prays for deliverance not just from the objective threat but also from the subjective fear that the threat produces. He wants God to guard his heart as well as his body.

2 Hide me from the secret counsel of evildoers, From the tumult of the workers of iniquity,

Here David identifies the two-pronged nature of the attack. First, there is the secret counsel of evildoers. This is the conspiracy, the backroom plotting, the whispering campaign. This is where the strategy is devised and the slander is manufactured. It is hidden, clandestine, and therefore difficult to fight by conventional means. Second, there is the tumult of the workers of iniquity. This is the public phase of the attack. The secret counsel erupts into a public mob, an uproar, a riotous assault. The whispers become shouts. The plot becomes a persecution. David prays to be hidden from both. He is asking God to be his hiding place, a sanctuary where the plots of the wicked cannot reach him and the noise of the mob cannot overwhelm him.

3 Who have sharpened their tongue like a sword. They aimed bitter speech as their arrow,

David now specifies the primary weapon of this secret counsel. It is their tongue. The imagery is explicitly martial. They are blacksmiths of malice, sharpening their tongues on the whetstone of their hatred. A sword is for close-quarters combat, for a direct, slashing wound. Their words are like this. But they also have long-range capability. They aim their bitter speech like an arrow. An arrow can strike from a distance, from a hidden place, and the victim may not even know who shot it. This is a perfect description of slander, gossip, and anonymous online attacks. The words are "bitter," not just because they are harsh, but because they are poisonous, intended to envenom and destroy.

4 To shoot from places of hiding at the blameless; Suddenly they shoot at him, and do not fear.

This verse elaborates on the tactics of these verbal archers. They operate from places of hiding. They are cowards. They do not make their accusations to the man's face, where they could be answered. They shoot from ambush. The target is described as blameless. This does not mean David is claiming sinless perfection, but rather that in the context of this particular dispute, he is innocent. The attack is unprovoked and unjust. The attack is also sudden. The blameless man is going about his business, and suddenly the arrow strikes. And the shooters "do not fear." They have no fear of God, obviously, but they also have no fear of being caught. Their anonymity and their secret counsels give them a false sense of security.

5 They hold fast to themselves an evil purpose; They talk of laying snares secretly; They say, “Who can see them?”

The conspiracy is not a half-hearted affair. They hold fast to their evil purpose. The Hebrew word implies that they encourage and strengthen one another in their wicked design. This is the dark fellowship of the ungodly. Sin loves company. They talk among themselves, discussing the best way to lay their snares. Their whole operation is characterized by secrecy. And the engine of their confidence is a functional atheism. They say, "Who can see them?" They might give lip service to God, but in their practical operations, they live as though the heavens are empty. They believe their secrecy is absolute, forgetting that there is One whose eyes pervade every darkness and every secret counsel.

6 They searched out unrighteousness, saying, “We have completed a diligent search”; For the inward thought of a man and his heart are deep.

This is a fascinating and somewhat difficult verse. The enemies are portrayed as diligent investigators of evil. They are not sloppy in their malice. They searched out unrighteousness, meaning they meticulously craft their accusations and plots. They congratulate themselves on their thoroughness: "We have completed a diligent search." They have their story straight, their talking points prepared. They have done their "research." The second half of the verse gives the reason this is possible: "For the inward thought of a man and his heart are deep." This can be taken two ways. It could refer to the deep, inscrutable wickedness of the plotters themselves. Or, it could refer to the deep and complex nature of their target, the righteous man, making it easy for them to twist his words or actions. In either case, the point is that they are exploiting the complexities of the human heart for their own wicked ends. They are masters of misrepresentation because the heart is a deep place that can be easily misconstrued.

Application

This psalm is a profound comfort and a practical guide for believers who find themselves under attack by the tongues of men. The first and most important application is that we must take our complaint to the right place. We are not to repay slander with slander or conspiracy with conspiracy. We are to take our detailed, specific, and honest complaint to the throne of God. We must lay out the case before Him, trusting that He sees the secret counsel and hears the bitter arrows.

Second, we must pray for deliverance from fear. The goal of the slanderer is often to intimidate, to silence, and to paralyze with dread. We must ask God to guard our hearts, to give us a supernatural peace that is not dependent on our reputation in the eyes of men. The one who is hidden in the shadow of the Almighty need not fear the tumult of the mob.

Finally, we must recognize the spiritual reality behind verbal attacks. When men sharpen their tongues like swords, they are acting as the servants of the ancient serpent, the accuser of the brethren. This is spiritual warfare. We are not just dealing with a public relations problem; we are dealing with the powers of darkness. Therefore, our response must be spiritual. We pray, we trust, we continue in our blameless walk, and we leave the final verdict to the only Judge whose opinion ultimately matters. He will, as the rest of the psalm promises, eventually turn their own weapons against them.