@Ps 57:1-11. Altaschith--or, "Destroy not." This is perhaps an enigmatical allusion to the critical circumstances connected with the history, for which compare @1Sa 22:1 26:1-3. In Moses' prayer (@De 9:26) it is a prominent petition deprecating God's anger against the people. This explanation suits the fifty-eighth and fifty-ninth also. Asaph uses it for the seventy-fifth, in the scope of which there is allusion to some emergency. Michtam--(See on Ps 16:1, title). To an earnest cry for divine aid, the Psalmist adds, as often, the language of praise, in the assured hope of a favorable hearing.
1. my soul--or self, or life, which is threatened.
shadow of thy wings--(@Ps 17:8 36:7).
calamities--literally, "mischiefs" (@Ps 52:2 55:10).
2. performeth--or, completes what He has begun.
3. from . . . swallow me up--that pants in rage after me
(@Ps 56:2).
mercy and . . . truth--(@Ps 25:10 36:5), as messengers
(@Ps 43:3) sent to deliver him.
4. The mingled figures of wild beasts (@Ps 10:9 17:12) and
weapons of war (@Ps 11:2) heighten the picture of danger.
whose . . . tongue--or slanders.
5. This doxology illustrates his view of the connection of his deliverance with God's glory.
6. (Compare @Ps 7:15 9:15,16).
7. I will . . . praise--both with voice and instrument.
8. Hence--he addresses his glory, or tongue (@Ps 16:9 30:12), and
his psaltery, or lute, and harp.
I myself . . . early--literally, "I will awaken dawn," poetically
expressing his zeal and diligence.
9, 10. As His mercy and truth, so shall His praise, fill the universe.