Psalms
Chapter 64
David asks God to listen to his prayer and keep him safe from enemies who plot against him in secret. He describes how they sharpen their words like swords and shoot them at an innocent person from hiding, sure that no one will catch them. The psalm then turns: God will strike them suddenly, their own words will bring them down, and people who see it will tell others what God has done. It ends with the honest and upright glad in the LORD.
Plain reading written for preteens. Clear and complete, at about a fifth grade reading level.
Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy.
1God, listen to my voice as I pray. Keep me alive, for I am afraid of my enemy.
2Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked; from the insurrection of the workers of iniquity:
2Hide me from the secret plans of wicked people, and from the noisy crowd of those who do wrong.
3Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:
3They sharpen their tongues like swords. They aim their bitter words the way an archer aims arrows.
"Whet their tongue" means sharpen it. The picture is of enemies making their words into weapons.
4That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
4They shoot from hiding at a person who has done nothing wrong. They strike all at once, and they are not afraid.
"The perfect" here does not mean someone with no faults at all. It means a person who is innocent of the wrong these enemies accuse him of.
5They encourage themselves in an evil matter: they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?
5They cheer each other on in their evil plan. They talk about setting hidden traps, and they say, "Who will ever see them?"
"Commune of laying snares privily" means they talk together about setting traps in secret.
6They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.
6They look for ways to do wrong and say their plan is perfect. What a person thinks inside, deep in the heart, is hard to know.
7But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.
7But God will shoot at them with an arrow. All at once they will be wounded.
8So they shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves: all that see them shall flee away.
8Their own tongues will bring them down. Everyone who sees it will turn and run away.
9And all men shall fear, and shall declare the work of God; for they shall wisely consider of his doing.
9Then everyone will be afraid. They will tell others what God has done, and they will think carefully about it.
10The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.
10Those who do what is right will be glad in the LORD and trust in him. All who are honest at heart will be proud of him.
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