The danger in this psalm never actually arrives on stage — no visible army, no named enemy, nothing David can point to and confront directly. The entire threat is conspiracy, plotted in secret specifically so it can never be seen coming.
A study in Psalm 64 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
Preserve My Life From Fear Of The Enemy
“Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity.”
Psalm 64:1-2
David asks to be preserved specifically “from fear,” not only from the danger itself — an acknowledgment that a hidden conspiracy does damage before it even acts, simply by existing unseen and forcing its target to live braced against an attack with no clear shape.
Who Whet Their Tongue Like A Sword
“Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words: that they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.”
Psalm 64:3-4
The weapon here is explicitly speech, not steel — “even bitter words” clarifies the metaphor directly, in case the sword-and-arrow imagery left any doubt. Slander, aimed carefully and launched from ambush, does the actual wounding in this psalm.
Who Shall See Them?
“They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them? They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.”
Psalm 64:5-6
“Who shall see them?” is the exact same assumption that surfaced in God Is My Defence, the ambush plotted specifically on the confidence that no one is actually watching — a mistake this psalm is about to correct at some length.
God Shall Shoot At Them With An Arrow
“But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded. So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.”
Psalm 64:7-8
The reversal here is precise, not generic — the exact weapon these men whetted for someone else, God turns back on them by their own hand. Their tongue does not simply fail; it falls specifically upon themselves, the same instrument, redirected.
The Righteous Shall Be Glad In The LORD
“And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.”
Psalm 64:9
The outcome is not kept private — “all men shall fear,” a public recognition of what happened to a conspiracy that was designed, from its very first verse, to stay hidden forever.
“The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.”
Psalm 64:10
The psalm closes on a single verse of pure gladness after nine verses almost entirely occupied with danger — a reminder of how brief the actual celebration needs to be, once the underlying trust has already been settled the whole way through.
