--- title: "Psalms 56 - Study King James Bible with clarkes commentary" description: "Read Psalms 56 with clarkes commentary commentary. 1 Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me. 2 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many tha" image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg" url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/56" --- [ Read](/kjv/psalms/56)[ Commentary](/study/psalms/56)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/psalms/56) Audio 1 Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.* 2 Mine enemies would daily swallow *me* up: for *they be* many that fight against me, O thou most High.* 3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. 4 In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. 5 Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts *are* against me for evil. 6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul. 7 Shall they escape by iniquity? in *thine* anger cast down the people, O God. 8 Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: *are they* not in thy book? 9 When I cry *unto thee*, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God *is* for me. 10 In God will I praise *his* word: in the LORD will I praise *his* word. 11 In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. 12 Thy vows *are* upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee. 13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death: *wilt* not *thou deliver* my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living? [Psalms 55](/study/psalms/55) [Psalms 57](/study/psalms/57) ## Commentary To verse 1 The *title* of this Psalm is very long: "To the conqueror, concerning the dumb dove in foreign places: golden Psalm of David." The *Vulgate* translates the original thus: "to the end. For the people who were afar off from holy things." "This inscription David placed here for a title when the Philistines-took him in Gath;" so the *Septuagint* and *AEthiopic*. The *Chaldee* is profuse: "To praise, for the congregation of Israel, which are compared to the silence of a dove, when they were afar off from their cities; but being returned, they praise the Lord of the world; like David, contrite and upright, when the Philistines kept him in Gath." The *Syriac*: "A thanksgiving of the righteous man, because he was delivered from his enemy, and from the hand of Saul. Also concerning the Jews and Christ." *Bochart* translates, "To the tune of the dove in the remote woods." If the title be at all authentic, David may mean himself and his companions by it, when he escaped from the hands of the Philistines; particularly from the hands of Achish, king of Gath. אלם *elem* signifies to *compress* or *bind together*; also, a *small band* or *body of men*: and יונת *yonath*, from ינה *yanah*, to *oppress* or *afflict*, is properly applied to the *dove,* because of its being so *defenseless*, and often becoming the *prey* of ravenous birds. It is possible, therefore, that the title may imply no more than - "A prayer to God in behalf of himself and the *oppressed band* that followed him, and shared his misfortunes in *distant places*." Others will have it to mean a simple direction "To the master of the band, to be sung to the time of a well-known ode, called 'The dumb dove, in distant places.' "There is no end to conjectures, and all the *titles* in the whole book are not worth one hour's labour. Perhaps there is not one of them *authentic*. They may have been *notices* that such a Psalm was to be sung to *such and such a* *tune*; giving the *catch-words* of some well-known song or ode: a custom that prevails much among us in songs and hymns, and is to be found even among the Asiatics. Verse [Psalms 56:1](/kjv/psalms/56/1). ***Be merciful unto me*** — I am assailed both at home and abroad. I can go nowhere without meeting with enemies: unless thou who art the Fountain of mercy and the *Most High*, stand up in my behalf, my enemies will most undoubtedly prevail against me. *They* *fight against me continually*, and I am in the utmost danger of *being swallowed up* by them. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com","name":"Real Bible Believers","description":"RBB","publisher":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/search?q={search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/56#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg","width":672,"height":448,"caption":"Real Bible Believers"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/56#webpage","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/56","name":"Psalms 56 - Study King James Bible with clarkes commentary","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/56#primaryimage"},"author":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"description":"Read Psalms 56 with clarkes commentary commentary. 1 Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me. 2 Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many tha","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/56#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/56"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/56#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study","name":"Study Bible"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary","name":"clarkes commentary"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms","name":"Psalms"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/56","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/clarkes-commentary/psalms/56","name":"56"}}]},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","width":512,"height":512},"logo":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo"},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/RBiblebeliever","https://www.facebook.com/RBibleBelievers"]}]} ```