140
Psalm
Psalm 140
Psalm 140:1-13
Key words in this passage
Cross-references
Study notes
A speaker facing plotted violence and venomous speech turns repeatedly to the LORD for rescue and oversight. The dangers are specified as harms devised in the heart, snares set beside the path, and tongues sharpened like serpents. These threats prompt both recollection of earlier protection and direct requests that the wicked's plans fail. The psalm moves from those petitions into calls for the opponents' own downfall through fire and flood. It closes with the speaker's settled knowledge that the LORD will render justice to the afflicted, so that the upright remain before him. The structure separates description of the threat, personal address to God, and final assurance without resolving how the imprecations relate to the declared outcome.
What is Psalm 140 about?
A speaker under attack addresses the LORD with an opening plea for rescue from a bad man and from a man of violence. The request is repeated almost immediately, now naming the hands of the wicked and adding that these opponents have devised ways to thrust aside the speaker's steps. Their activity fills the day with harms planned in the heart and battles stirred up, while their speech receives its own description as a tongue sharpened like a serpent and rage like a viper's hidden under the lips.
Traps follow in the description: the proud conceal snares and cords, spread a net beside the track, and set further snares. The verses therefore locate the psalm in a concrete situation of plotted violence and verbal attack that threatens both safety and progress. These details matter at the outset because they define the precise danger that prompts every later petition and declaration in the psalm, showing why protection must come from the LORD rather than from any human resource.
Where does this passage sit in Psalm?
Psalm 140 follows directly after the extended meditation in Psalm 139 on the LORD's exhaustive knowledge of the speaker's ways and thoughts. That earlier psalm ends with a request for divine search and guidance along the way everlasting; the opening pleas of 140 then shift the focus outward to external opponents who have already devised harms in the heart and set snares beside the track. The shared concern for steps and direction creates a quiet transition between the two psalms without any explicit marker.
The three Selahs that punctuate 140 divide the material into segments that move from description of the threat to direct address and then to petition and confidence. This segmented shape appears in several neighboring compositions, including Psalm 139 itself and the psalm that follows. Psalm 141 opens with a similar cry for the LORD to give ear and then turns to the speaker's own lips and heart, extending the attention to speech that 140 has already placed on the sharpened tongue and viper's rage under the lips.
The closing lines of 140 declare that the righteous will give thanks to the LORD's name and the upright will dwell in his presence. This note of assurance about future dwelling echoes the end of Psalm 139, where the speaker asks to be led in the way everlasting, and it also anticipates the guarded speech and continued trust voiced in 141. Across these three psalms the Psalter places successive prayers that move from hidden inner life to visible opposition and finally to the hope of remaining before the LORD.
How is the passage structured?
The psalm opens with two direct appeals to the LORD for rescue, the first naming a bad man and a man of violence, the second repeating the same request while adding the hands of the wicked and their plotted interference with the speaker’s steps. Between these appeals the description of the opponents lengthens: they devise harms throughout the day, stir battles, and wield a tongue sharpened like a serpent with viper’s rage beneath the lips. A second Selah follows the account of hidden snares, cords, and nets placed beside the track.
At verse 6 the voice shifts from petition to direct address: the speaker declares the LORD to be his God and asks that the voice of supplication be heard. The next line recalls past protection, naming the LORD as strength of salvation who covered the head in the day of battle. This recollection supplies the ground for the negative request that follows: the desires of the wicked are not to be granted, their plan is not to be advanced, and they are not to be exalted.
The psalm then turns to the opponents once more, but now the focus rests on their own heads and lips: trouble covers the lips of those surrounding the speaker. Two further Selahs mark the movement into explicit imprecation, where burning coals are called down, the enemies are cast into fire and floods so they do not arise, and the man of the tongue is declared unable to be established in the land. Evil itself is said to hunt the man of violence.
The final movement replaces petition with settled knowledge. The speaker twice affirms having known that the LORD executes judgment for the afflicted and justice for the needy. The closing line states the outcome for the righteous and the upright without further request.
What is the historical background?
Selah appears after the descriptions of sharpened tongues and hidden snares, then again after the request that the wicked not be exalted. In temple performance this term directed musicians or worshippers to pause, allowing instruments to continue or the congregation to reflect before the next petition resumed.
The snares, cords, and nets placed beside the track belong to the ordinary equipment of shepherds and hunters in the Judean hills. These devices caught animals or guarded livestock; their use against a person therefore carried the concrete threat of ambush along a regular route rather than open combat.
The speaker’s plea that a man of the tongue not be established in the land rests on the conviction that secure residence in Israel’s territory depended on covenant loyalty. Instability or expulsion from that territory was understood as the visible consequence of persistent violence and deceit.
The petition for burning coals, fire, and floods upon the surrounding enemies draws on imagery already present in legal and prophetic speech when communities sought public vindication for the oppressed. The same expectation surfaces when the psalm declares that the LORD will execute judgment for the afflicted and justice for the needy.
The final statement that the upright will dwell in the LORD’s presence assumes regular access to the sanctuary courts. There, through sacrifice and praise, worshippers experienced the nearness of the divine king who defends the vulnerable.
What does this passage teach about God?
The speaker turns to the LORD as the only source of rescue from a bad man and from a man of violence. The repeated plea to be kept from the hands of the wicked shows that safety is not assumed but must be sought from God alone. When the psalmist says, "You are my God," the address establishes a personal claim on the LORD that precedes every request for attention to the voice of supplication.
God is further named as "the strength of my salvation" who has already covered the speaker's head in the day of battle. This recollection grounds present prayer in past action: the same LORD who acted then is asked not to grant the desires of the wicked or to let their plans advance. The request that the proud not be exalted treats human schemes as subject to divine permission rather than inevitable.
The petition for burning coals to fall and for the violent to be cast into fire and floods carries the conviction that evil speech and plotted harm will meet decisive reversal. The statement that a man of the tongue shall not be established in the land and that evil will hunt down the man of violence presents wickedness as ultimately self-defeating under God's order.
The double affirmation "I knew, I knew that the LORD will execute judgment for the afflicted and justice for the needy" declares settled confidence that God distinguishes between those who suffer harm and those who cause it. This knowledge leads directly to the expectation that the righteous will give thanks to your name and that the upright will dwell in your presence, locating the final outcome of the conflict in sustained communion with the LORD rather than in temporary escape.
What are the interpretive difficulties?
Verse 9 presents one clear point of divergence in the manuscript tradition. The supplied rendering takes the construct phrase as “the head of those surrounding me,” so that trouble is said to cover their lips. Other ancient witnesses rearrange the consonants or vocalization to produce a statement that the mischief of their own lips covers them. Both readings keep the focus on speech as the source of harm, yet they assign the covering action differently. The received form still merits careful attention because it maintains the psalm’s recurring attention to heads, whether the speaker’s head protected in battle or the heads of those who plot.
The petitions in verses 10 and 11 raise a second question. The speaker asks that burning coals fall, that the opponents be cast into fire and floods, and that they not arise. These lines do not resolve whether the request is for immediate personal retaliation or for the outworking of the judgment the speaker already claims to know in verse 12. The psalm supplies no narrative sequel that shows the request answered, so the precise relation between the imprecation and the later declaration of justice remains open within the text itself.
The doubled statement “I knew, I knew” in verse 12 stands out against the surrounding petitions. Nothing in the immediate context explains the repetition, yet it appears consistently across the main witnesses. The doubling may simply register settled conviction rather than textual accident. Even so, the verse does not specify how or when the LORD will execute judgment for the afflicted and justice for the needy; it registers knowledge without describing mechanism.
Finally, the closing claim that the upright will dwell in the LORD’s presence sits alongside the earlier calls for destruction. The psalm does not reconcile these statements by explaining how the one outcome follows from the other. It leaves the reader with both the request for decisive action against the violent and the affirmation that the righteous remain before the LORD.
Movement by movement
Superscription and First Cry140:0-1
The superscription labels the psalm a melody of David for the conductor. That heading sets the words that follow as song prepared for temple use rather than private outburst. The first line then opens with a direct imperative: Rescue me, O LORD, from a bad man; from a man of violence watch over me. The double object singles out one opponent first as simply bad, then as actively violent, and the second verb shifts from rescue to guarding, as though the danger already presses close enough to require ongoing protection. No prior description of the threat appears; the speaker begins by naming the LORD as the one who must act. The address therefore assumes a standing relationship in which the LORD can be called upon without introduction. The phrasing leaves the identity of the violent man unspecified, so the plea stands ready for any reader who faces similar harm. By placing this request at the head of the psalm, the melody signals that every later petition will unfold from this initial dependence on divine intervention.
The Enemies' Plots140:2-5
The opponents fill every day with harms devised deep in the heart and with battles they keep stirring. Their words receive the same careful preparation: a tongue honed sharp as a serpent carries hidden viper rage beneath the lips. The plea for protection shifts to the hands of the wicked and repeats the earlier request for oversight, now specifying that these same figures have plotted to thrust the speaker’s steps aside. The proud add physical traps to their verbal weapons, hiding snares and cords, spreading a net beside the track, and setting additional snares along the way. Each image moves from inward intention to spoken threat to concrete ambush placed where the speaker must walk. The repeated appeal to be kept from those hands shows that the danger is not abstract but lodged in particular persons whose daily activity targets the speaker’s footing. The serpent image draws attention to speech that conceals its poison until the moment of strike, while the snares and net turn ordinary movement into a calculated hazard. Selah follows both the description of the tongue and the account of the traps, marking the point at which the accumulated threats stand before the next address to the LORD.
Appeal to the LORD as God140:6-8
The speaker opens this section by stating to the LORD, "You are my God." The declaration stands as a direct claim of relationship before any request is made. It leads at once into the plea that the LORD give ear to the voice of supplication. The address then expands with two further titles: my Lord and the strength of my salvation. These titles are joined to the recollection that the same LORD covered my head in the day of battle. The memory of that protection supplies the ground for what follows. The speaker asks that the desires of the wicked not be granted, that their plan not be furthered, and that they not be exalted. The request therefore centers on preventing the opponents from achieving the success their plotted snares and sharpened speech were meant to secure. By naming the LORD in personal and saving terms, the speaker anchors the petition in an existing bond rather than in a general appeal for justice. The Selah that follows allows the weight of this concentrated address to settle before the psalm resumes with its description of the opponents' fate.
Prayer for the Wicked's Downfall140:9-11
The head of those surrounding the speaker receives the first petition in this movement, with trouble set to cover their lips. The phrasing keeps attention on the head even while shifting the earlier image of a sharpened tongue and hidden viper rage into a covering that now belongs to the opponents. The next lines move from that covering to an active call for burning coals to fall upon them, followed by their being cast into fire and floods so that they do not arise. These images of descent and submersion aim at total prevention of recovery rather than mere restraint. The closing line of the movement broadens the scope: a man of the tongue will not be established in the land, and evil will hunt down the man of violence to overthrow him. The two figures named here echo the bad man and man of violence named at the psalm’s opening, yet the reversal now rests on the land itself refusing to sustain them. The received wording of the head petition preserves the psalm’s recurring notice of heads, whether the speaker’s own head covered in battle or the heads of those who surround him now marked for trouble.
Certainty of Divine Justice140:12-13
The double declaration “I knew, I knew” registers settled conviction after the preceding requests that the wicked not be exalted and that burning coals fall upon those surrounding the speaker. What the speaker now states with such repetition is that the LORD will execute judgment for the afflicted and justice for the needy. The afflicted and needy stand in direct contrast to the man of violence and the proud who earlier devised harms and spread nets beside the track. The psalm does not spell out the precise form this judgment will take, yet the statement itself supplies the ground for what follows. Because the LORD will act in this way, the righteous will give thanks to your name and the upright will dwell in your presence. The two lines move from verbal response to settled location, the name receiving thanks while the persons themselves remain before the LORD. The earlier plea that the LORD cover the speaker’s head in the day of battle finds its counterpart here in the assurance that those who belong to the LORD will remain in that protective nearness rather than being overthrown.
Notes accompany the Anselm Project Bible, an AI translation from the original languages. Tap any verse above for the committee's word-level decisions.
Tap a verse