Psalms Chapter 35

At a Glance

  • Psalm 35 reads like a courtroom and a prayer in motion: a righteous speaker pleads with God to intervene against persecutors and contrivers of harm.
  • Psalm 35 belongs to the lament tradition within the Psalter, likely shaped by personal persecution and social injustice.
  • - Divine justice against oppressors: God’s intervention is sought against unjust schemes.
  • - Trust through adversity: humility, fasting, and prayer as disciplines in hardship.
  • - Public worship as response to suffering: praise in the assembly despite conflict.

Psalms 35

Psalm 35 reads like a courtroom and a prayer in motion: a righteous speaker pleads with God to intervene against persecutors and contrivers of harm. The psalmist lays out explicit requests for divine confrontation—shielding, pursuit, and defeat of enemies who devise schemes against the soul. The language is vivid and liturgical: the speaker asks for divine protection, for the thwarting of malevolent plans, and for the humility of those who would oppose him to be turned back. The middle portion centers on appeals to divine justice—let the wicked be confounded, let their traps ensnare themselves, let the righteous rejoice in God’s deliverance. The psalm’s latter half shifts to personal fidelity under pressure: when enemies mock and betray, the speaker shows humility, fasting, and prayer as means of steadfast dependence on the Lord. The closing verses sing of communal celebration: the psalmist plans to praise God openly in the assembly, to declare God’s justice before many people, and to trust in the Lord’s ultimate judgment. The juxtaposition of divine justice and personal devotion makes Psalm 35 a robust template for how to remain faithful when wronged and how to respond in worship regardless of external rancor.

Psalm 35 belongs to the lament tradition within the Psalter, likely shaped by personal persecution and social injustice. It shares kinship with other imprecatory and petitioning psalms, yet it remains oriented toward worship and trust, not vengeance alone. The rhetoric of being delivered from “nets” and the imagery of enemies as hunter and trapper reflect ancient Near Eastern literary devices for expressing moral conflict and divine vindication. This psalm situates within the broader collection as a model for how to voice grievances to God while maintaining confidence in God’s justice and mercy. The interplay of lament, petition, and public praise is characteristic of the Psalter’s pedagogical aim: teach the community to respond to suffering with faithful prayer, righteous living, and hopeful worship.

- Divine justice against oppressors: God’s intervention is sought against unjust schemes.

- Trust through adversity: humility, fasting, and prayer as disciplines in hardship.

- Public worship as response to suffering: praise in the assembly despite conflict.

- Righteous endurance and ethical restraint: choosing fidelity over revenge.

- When facing unfair accusations or relational harm, bring grievances to God with honesty, but cultivate forgiveness and ethical restraint rather than vengeance.

- Use suffering as an occasion for intensified prayer, fasting, and Scripture-meditation to align with God’s will.

- Maintain communal worship and testimony even amid hostility; let your trust in God’s justice shape vocal witness and patient endurance.

- Seek peaceful resolution and integrity in conflict, trusting that God can turn traps into testimonies of deliverance.

Key Themes

Divine justice against oppressors: God’s intervention is sought against unjust schemes.Trust through adversity: humility, fasting, and prayer as disciplines in hardship.Public worship as response to suffering: praise in the assembly despite conflict.Righteous endurance and ethical restraint: choosing fidelity over revenge.

Chapter Text

1

Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.

2

Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.

3

Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.

4

Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.

5

Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them.

6

Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the LORD persecute them.

7

For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have digged for my soul.

8

Let destruction come upon him at unawares; and let his net that he hath hid catch himself: into that very destruction let him fall.

9

And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation.

10

All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?

11

False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not.

12

They rewarded me evil for good to the spoiling of my soul.

13

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.

14

I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.

15

But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not; they did tear me, and ceased not:

16

With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth.

17

Lord, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions.

18

I will give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people.

19

Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.

20

For they speak not peace: but they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet in the land.

21

Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me, and said, Aha, aha, our eye hath seen it.

22

This thou hast seen, O LORD: keep not silence: O Lord, be not far from me.

23

Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord.

24

Judge me, O LORD my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me.

25

Let them not say in their hearts, Ah, so would we have it: let them not say, We have swallowed him up.

26

Let them be ashamed and brought to confusion together that rejoice at mine hurt: let them be clothed with shame and dishonour that magnify themselves against me.

27

Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.

28

And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.

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