John Calvin Commentary Psalms 9:13

"Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah; Behold my affliction [which I suffer] of them that hate me, Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death;" — Psalms 9:13 (ASV)

Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah. I think that this is the second part of the psalm. Others, however, hold a different opinion and consider that David, according to his frequent practice, while giving thanks to God for the deliverance worked for him, mixes with his thanksgiving an account of what had been the subject of his prayer in the extremity of his distress; and examples of the same kind, I confess, are to be found everywhere in the Psalms.

But when I consider all the circumstances more attentively, I am compelled to lean toward the other opinion: namely, that at the beginning he celebrated the favors bestowed on him to make way for prayer, and the psalm is finally concluded with a prayer. He does not, therefore, insert here in passing the prayers which he had previously made amidst his dangers and anxieties; but he deliberately implores God's help at the present time, and asks that He, whom he had often experienced as his deliverer, would continue to extend the same grace toward him.

His enemies, perhaps, whom he had already defeated on various occasions, having gathered new courage and raised new forces, made a desperate effort, as we often see those who are driven to despair rush upon their enemies with even greater impetuosity and rage. It is indeed certain that David, when he offered this prayer, was seized with the greatest fear, for he would not, on account of a small matter, have called upon God to witness his affliction as he does here.

It should be observed that while he humbly turns to God's mercy, he bears the cross laid upon him with a patient and submissive mind. But we should especially note the title he gives to God, calling Him his lifter up from the gates of death; for we could not find a more appropriate expression than to lift up for the Hebrew word מרומם, meromem.

By this, the Psalmist, in the first place, strengthens his faith from his past experience, since he had often been delivered from the greatest dangers.

And, secondly, he assures himself of deliverance, even in the very jaws of death, because God is accustomed not only to help His servants and deliver them from their calamities by ordinary means, but also to bring them back from the grave, even after all hope of life is cut off. For the gates of death is a metaphorical expression, denoting the utmost perils that threaten destruction, or rather, that open the grave before us.

Therefore, so that neither the weight of the calamities we currently endure, nor the fear of those we see impending over us, may overwhelm our faith or interrupt our prayers, let us remember that the role of lifting up His people from the gates of death is not ascribed to God in vain.