Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 56

Man ... —Heb., enôsh, either as in Psalms 9:19, mortal man, or, contemptuously, “a rabble, a multitude.”

Swallow me up. —The root idea of the Hebrew word rendered this way is by no means clear. In many passages where it is used, the meaning given here by the Septuagint, “trample on,” will suit the context quite as well as, or even better than, the meaning, “pant after,” given in the Lexicons. (Isaiah 42:14; Ecclesiastes 1:5; Amos 2:7; Amos 8:4.) And this sense of bruising by trampling also suits the cognate verb, shûph, used only three times (Genesis 3:15; Job 9:17; Psalms 139:11).

Symmachus also here has “bruise,” or “grind.” On the other hand, in Psalms 119:131, Job 7:2, and elsewhere, the idea of “haste” or “desire” is needed. Possibly the original meaning of “trample” may have passed through the sense of physical haste to that of passion. Or we may even get the sense of “greedily devouring” by the exactly similar process by which we come to talk of devouring the road with speed. The same verb is used in the next verse with an object.

Fighting. —Better, devouring. (Compare Psalms 35:1.)

O you most High. —Heb., marôm, which is here not a vocative, but an adverbial accusative, “proudly,” in pride.

What time.—Hebrew, yôm, apparently with the same meaning as beyôm in Psalms 56:10, “in the day.”

I am afraid ... —No doubt the right reading is: “I cry.”

In God. —This verse forms the refrain (Psalms 56:11–12 are wrongly separated). As it stands, it is hardly intelligible. The text is also rendered suspicious by the fact that the Septuagint read “my words,” instead of “his word,” and by the omission of the suffix altogether in Psalm 56:11, where the first clause of the refrain is doubled. The obvious way to understand the verse is to interpret its construction as in Psalm 44:8: “I praise God with my word.” That is, in spite of all my enemies, I find words to praise God.

I will not. —Rather, I fear not What can flesh do?

Wrest. —Properly, afflict; and so some, “injure my cause.” But “torture my words” is intelligible.