Deliver Me from My Enemies
See what they spew from their mouths— sharp words from their lips: “For who can hear us?” Psalm 59:7 · Berean Standard Bible
David shows you what these enemies are actually doing—their mouths spew insults and sharp accusations, and they're saying these cruel things as if nobody will hear them or hold them accountable.
What David finds particularly contemptible is their arrogance. They're not just attacking him; they're doing it with a kind of brazen confidence that nobody—not David, not even God—will stop them or remember what they've done. They're counting on getting away with it.
David, revealing the cruelty in their words and their mindset
Proverbs and the psalms both teach that words reveal what's in the heart. Evil people often believe their words disappear without consequence, but Scripture repeatedly says God hears and remembers everything.
The psalmist describes his enemies' verbal violence: they belch forth sharp words, mocking speech that assumes no one hears their blasphemy.
The verb שׁפַךְ (shafakh, 'spew') typically describes pouring out liquids, suggesting an unstoppable flow of malicious speech. The phrase 'sharp words from their lips' (חֲרָבוֹת, haravot—literally 'swords') is a metaphor for destructive speech found in Proverbs 12:18 ('rash words like sword thrusts'). The rhetorical question 'For who can hear us?' reveals the psychology of the wicked: they believe their evil deeds and words escape divine audition, a motif explored extensively in Isaiah 29:15 and Psalm 94:7. The Patristic commentator Athanasius observed that this verse depicts not merely hostile action but deliberate blasphemy—a rejection of God's oversight itself.
The psalmist, now reporting the wicked's own self-justifying ideology—their belief that darkness conceals them from God.
This participates in the wisdom tradition's insistence on divine omniscience (Psalm 139) and anticipates Jesus's teaching that 'every careless word will be accounted for' (Matthew 12:36)—the conviction that nothing escapes divine knowledge.
5O LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, rouse Yourself to punish all the nations; show no mercy to the wicked traitors.
6They return in the evening, snarling like dogs and prowling around the city.
7See what they spew from their mouths— sharp words from their lips: “For who can hear us?”
8But You, O LORD, laugh at them; You scoff at all the nations.
9I will keep watch for You, O my strength, because You, O God, are my fortress.
Read all of Psalm 59 — Saul's men surround David's house. They prowl like dogs at night. David meets their menace with a song.
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