Hide me from the secret counsel of evil-doers, from the tumultuous crowd of the workers of iniquity,
David does not pray for escape. He prays for cover — he asks God to hide him from plans made in the dark, and from the crowd stirred up to carry them out. So the verse raises a hard question: what do you do when the danger is hidden, the weapon is words, and you cannot answer back?
One writer ties this psalm to the time when David's own son Absalom seized the throne and drove him out.
Truth & TestimonyPsalm 64 is a prayer for preservation. He appeals to God to save his life. He especially asks God to hide him from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers (verse 2). This could well have been composed when Absalom had driven him from his throne. Thankfully he could throw himself on the mercy of God, who would still be his hiding place. He could leave the future to Him, knowing that "the righteous shall be glad in the LORD and shall trust in Him."
The verse names two things: a secret counsel and a crowd. The quiet plotting of leaders sets the noisy crowd moving.
Hamilton SmithThe psalmist lays the enemy's evil schemes out before God. He realizes that the wicked are taking secret counsel against him. What is more, the secret counsels of the wicked leaders drive the "tumultuous crowd" on to carry out these secret plans. Sharp and bitter words urge the crowd on against all that is of God, like a flight of arrows shot at random. They make slanderous charges without hesitation or remorse.
Plotting against a good man looks senseless until you see what it admits. People who hunt for faults in a believer show, without meaning to, what they expect faith to produce.
J. N. DarbyPsalm 64 shows a strange pattern in the world, yet one that anyone with experience in serving God knows well. The wicked, who hate righteousness, try to pin evil on the upright. This shows how widespread and strong conscience is. It shows another truth too: people expect the principles of those who trust God and confess His name to produce what is purely good... The wicked recognise that faith ought to produce what is right and perfect, that faith as its own proper fruit does produce it, and that faith expects it from the man who walks by faith. But they show their hatred of that principle, and of those who hold to the Lord by it, by hunting for sin and inconsistency.
The same writer notes that this shows up less among openly wicked people than among respectable unbelievers.
The prayer is defensive for a reason. The believer has no weapon against secret malice, and the malice does its damage by producing fear.
J. N. DarbyNote that he speaks of the fear of the enemy. This malice tends to produce fear. The godly man is no equal match for it; he can use no weapon against it. He leaves it to God by presenting it to Him. God puts His saints through trial. But in the end the wicked bring His judgment on their own heads. They even fear, and see, and acknowledge God's work. For this the godly must wait, and then joy will be complete. Their deliverance is a divine one, so it must wait for God's time of judgment.
The same experience shows up later. Jeremiah the prophet met a plan to silence his preaching by attacking his good name.
Georges AndréThe people, indignant at Jeremiah's preaching on the occasion of the vessel remade by the potter, plotted against the prophet. They decided to "smite him with the tongue," and to spread false rumours about him. In effect, backbiting and slander would stop his preaching and keep anyone from listening to his words. When David had a similar experience he prayed to God, saying, "Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked" (Ps. 64:2).
Later in the psalm the attackers' own weapons turn back on them. The whole matter also moves out of secrecy into the open.
C. E. StuartDo they sharpen their tongue like a sword? God will make their own tongue fall on them. Do they suddenly shoot at the righteous? God will shoot at them with an arrow and suddenly wound them. So there is a comparison, but there is also a contrast. In secret they planned to shoot at the blameless. In secret they planned to set traps, saying, "Who will see them?" But openly, before all, God will deal with such workers of iniquity.
- Secret — The attack begins hidden: a counsel of leaders, then a stirred-up crowd sent to carry it out.
- Slander — The weapon is the tongue, sharpened like a sword, firing bitter words like arrows.
- Shelter — The prayer asks for cover, not for a counter-attack. The believer has no weapon against such malice and must hand it to God.
- Suspense — The deliverance is God's, so it comes at God's time. The trial may not be over yet, but the timing will be perfect.
- Seen — God answers the secret plot in the open, before everyone, and the upright are glad in the LORD.
Who have sharpened their tongue like a sword, [and] have aimed their arrow, a bitter word;
In this psalm the enemy attacks with words alone. He sharpens his tongue like a blade and fits a bitter word to the string. So what does a righteous person do when the weapon aimed at him is a rumour, not a fist?
To whet is to sharpen. The Hebrew word behind "swords" is the everyday word for a soldier's weapon, and Scripture also uses it as a picture of speech.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe sword: chereb, a sword, as laying waste. It is the word commonly used in the Old Testament for sword... it was a straight tapering weapon, with two edges and a sharp point. Psalm 149:6; Isaiah 14:19. It is used figuratively for keen and piercing words, as in Psalm 57:4; Psalm 64:3.
The arrow in the verse stands for words too.
L M GrantThe arrows of the wicked are bitter words, cunningly framed against the righteous...
A sword needs a hand close by; an arrow does not. The second half of the verse describes a cruelty that never has to face the person it wounds.
Numerical Bible NotesAmong a crowd the tongue is a mighty instrument. Speech-making works on men's passions and loves emphasis. The "whetting of the tongue" is perfectly familiar to those who play to a crowd. Yet the arrow flies in secret too, and the blameless man is above all its target. The voice of slander takes its inspiration from the first tempter. It loves hints and suggestions. An open attack would be thrown back, and a specific charge might prove the very honesty it attacks. "Did God actually say?" might be the voice of innocence itself.
An arrow has one advantage over a sword: you can shoot it and then deny it.
Numerical Bible NotesSuch arrows fly on the off-chance, need no justification, and are not seen at their work until they have done it. They hide their mischief even from the one who scatters them, and no sting of conscience follows. "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" So "they shoot at him and are not afraid."
One writer reads the surrounding verses as a single campaign, in which the shot arrow is only one move.
Hamilton SmithThe psalmist spreads out before God the evil devices of the enemy, realising that the wicked are taking secret counsel against him... Sharp and bitter words urge the crowd on against everything that is of God, like a flight of arrows shot at random. Not only do they shoot the secret arrow of slander, they also lay snares to trap the godly.
The choice of victim is the odd detail. The archers pick the one who has done nothing wrong, and one writer finds in that a backhanded compliment to faith.
J. N. DarbyThis shows how universal and powerful conscience is. It shows another truth too: people expect the principles of those who trust God and confess His name to produce what is purely good... The wicked recognise that faith ought to produce what is right and perfect, and that as its own proper fruit it does produce it. They expect it from the man who walks by faith. But they show their hatred of that principle, and of those who hold to the Lord by it, by hunting out wrongdoing and inconsistency.
Against a sharpened tongue there is no counter-weapon. The psalm opens by asking God for rescue from fear. One writer treats that fear as the measure of this helplessness.
J. N. DarbyNotice, he speaks of the fear of the enemy. This malice tends to produce fear. The godly man is no match for it; he can use no weapon against it. He leaves it to God by laying it out before Him. God tests His saints, but in the end the wicked bring His judgment down on their own heads.
The rest of the psalm answers verse 3 point for point, using the same two weapons.
C E StuartDo they sharpen their tongue like a sword? God will make their own tongue fall upon them. Do they suddenly shoot at the righteous? God will shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly they will be wounded. So there is a comparison, but there is also a contrast. In secret they planned to shoot at the blameless... but openly, before everyone, God will deal with such workers of iniquity.
There is a further sword in view — one they never reckoned with.
L M GrantThey "sharpen their tongues like a sword" (v. 3), with the aim of cruelty toward others. They do not realise that they must one day meet the One out of whose mouth goes a sharp, two-edged sword (Revelation 19:15), the sword of the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17). Its purpose is not cruelty but pure justice.
- Sharpened — the sword stands for "keen and piercing words", and the arrow for "bitter words, cunningly framed against the righteous".
- Secret — slander prefers the arrow to the blade: it shoots from cover, needs no justification, and leaves "no sting of conscience."
- Blameless — the arrow hunts the upright. Faith should bear good fruit, so its enemies dig for any inconsistency that seems to disprove it.
- Defenceless — against slander the godly man "can use no weapon"; his one move is to lay the malice before God.
- Returned — the same two weapons come back: God shoots His arrow, and their own tongue falls on them, in public.