Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 59:1

"Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: Set me on high from them that rise up against me." — Psalms 59:1 (ASV)

Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God - See the notes at (Psalms 18:48). This prayer was offered when the spies sent by Saul surrounded the house of David.

They had come to apprehend him, and it is to be presumed that they had come in sufficient numbers and with sufficient power to achieve their object. Their purpose was not to break in on him in the night, but to watch for their opportunity, when he went out in the morning, to slay him (1 Samuel 19:11), and there seemed no way for him to escape.

Michal, Saul's daughter and David's wife, seems to have been informed of their coming and their design—perhaps by someone from her father’s family. She informed David of the arrangement and assured him that unless he escaped in the night, he would be put to death in the morning.

She, therefore, let him down through a window, and he escaped (1 Samuel 19:12). It was in this way that he was in fact delivered; in this way that his prayer was answered. A faithful wife saved him.

Defend me from them that rise up against me - Margin, as in Hebrew, “Set me on high.” The idea is that of placing him, as it were, on a tower, or on an eminence which would be inaccessible. These were common places of refuge or defense. See the notes at (Psalms 18:2).