Psalms 64
Big idea: An arrow psalm. The enemies sharpen their tongue like a sword and aim their arrows — deadly words — to shoot innocent men from ambushes, and their confidence is total: we have made a perfect plan. Then one word turns everything: but God will shoot at them. The same verb, the same weapon, and the psalm's judgment is precise and ironic — their own tongues shall ruin them. What they made is what gets them.
Psalm 64 ends with everyone pondering what God has done. Psalm 65 shows them what it looks like: a harvest.
64:1–10 — But God will shoot at them
A psalm about words used as weapons, and it sustains the metaphor from end to end. They sharpen a tongue like a sword and aim deadly words as arrows, shooting from ambush at someone who cannot see them. Then the reversal arrives in the same vocabulary: God shoots too, and what ruins them is their OWN tongues. The weapon and the judgment are the same object.
1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Hear my voice, God, in my complaint. Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. 2 Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the noisy crowd of the ones doing evil; 3 who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words, 4 to shoot innocent men from ambushes. They shoot at him suddenly and fearlessly. 5 They encourage themselves in evil plans. They talk about laying snares secretly. They say, “Who will see them?” 6 They plot injustice, saying, “We have made a perfect plan!” Surely man’s mind and heart are cunning. 7 But God will shoot at them. They will be suddenly struck down with an arrow. 8 Their own tongues shall ruin them. All who see them will shake their heads. 9 All mankind shall be afraid. They shall declare the work of God, and shall wisely ponder what he has done. 10 The righteous shall be glad in Yahweh, and shall take refuge in him. All the upright in heart shall praise him!
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).