Psalm 59 is one of several psalms that are based on recorded incidents in David’s life. In this case, it is from a time when David was hiding from King Saul, who had sent men to find him and kill him. The whole psalm is a statement that those who seek to do evil eventually find that it rebounds back on them. It has vivid and descriptive language which is full of illustrations – correspondences – about the nature and doing of evil. The psalm then closes with triumphant praise to God for His power, strength and protection.

All the psalms, at a deep level, also describe the states in the Lord during His life in the world -- in his glorification and also his deep temptations. This is very much the case in this psalm. The psalms also speak truly and accurately about our experiences in our own lives, during our regeneration, which involve temptations and determination on our part.

The opening verse calls to God four times to be delivered from enemies, each time in a different way. This undoubtedly shows the severity of the attack. Deliver me – defend me – deliver me – save me. This may sound like great fear, but it is also expressing a knowledge and deep awareness of the subtle ploys of evil to bring us down. The last of the four speaks of ‘bloodthirsty men’. Spiritually, this means the way in which evil – or hell – seeks to take away our faith, trust, vitality and confidence, our ‘blood’ which is our life. (Arcana Caelestia 4735)

The next several verses command us to see how evil seeks to destroy. This is so even though we have not deviated from our commitment to the Lord. Each set is countered with the Lord’s power to overcome or confound these attacks on us. The language used is very expressive: ‘They lie in wait for my life’, ‘They growl like a dog’, ‘They belch with their mouths’. When we really understand the nature of evil it has a carnal bestiality about it.

‘The Lord shall laugh at them’ (verse 8) reminds us of the truth that the Lord knows the intention and purpose of every evil and good state. Heaven knows hell because all those in heaven have experienced hell; Hell cannot comprehend heaven because it is driven by its own mad desires and knows nothing else. The Lord’s laughter at this is not contempt but Divine knowledge of its futility. (Arcana Caelestia 1093)

The image of a dog is helpful to show up the real nature of evil. A frightened dog is a danger because it is unpredictable. Its growls and slinking movements originate in its fear, as every evil intent does. (Arcana Caelestia 9231)

Verses 11 to 13 have the interesting request for evil not to be slain, not to be destroyed, but to be subdued, lest my people forget. This reminds us of the importance of maintaining a remembrance of evil and its tactics so that generations may never be overcome from ignorance or forgetting evil. For us, spiritually, the same principle of remembrance holds true. We need to remember that without the Lord’s work for our salvation we might well quickly plunge into selfish and ruthless thoughts, loves and actions. (New Jerusalem 163)

But evils that are seen need to be consumed -- consumed in the determination to overcome them and take away their power. While it is the Lord who fights for us in our regeneration and conflicts, we are to engage in resisting evils when they appear, so that we determine they shall not control us but we control them with the Lord with us. (New Jerusalem 194)

The close repetition in verses 14 and 15 of what was said earlier in verses 6 and 7 about the dogs growling and wandering the streets is the Word’s way of helping us to see that evil does not give up easily but returns to attack us with a new and subtler way of weakening us.

(see Heaven and Hell 580)

The last two verses focus entirely on the Lord, his power, his mercy, in defence of us: “For You are my strength, I will sing praises.” Whatever our experience or thoughts or emotions in our spiritual journey, our need is to come back and only focus on the Lord’s loving care for us and all of his creation. (Apocalypse Revealed 22)

7091. 'Thus said Jehovah, the God of Israel' means that it - the admonition to those opposed to the Church's truths - comes from the Lord's Divine Human. This is clear from the consideration that 'Jehovah, the God of Israel' is used to mean the Lord in respect of the Divine Human, for 'Jehovah' in the Word is the Lord, see 1343, 1736, 2921, 3023, 3075, 5041, 5663, 6281, 6303, 6905. He is called 'the God of Israel' because the Lord's spiritual kingdom is meant by 'Israel', 6426, 6637, and because by His Coming into the world the Lord saved those who belonged to that kingdom or Church, 6854, 6914, 7075. The reason why 'the God of Israel' means the Lord in respect of the Divine Human is that those who belong to that Church envisage everything spiritual or celestial, and the Divine too, in the way they envisage natural things. Therefore if they did not think in a natural way of the Divine as a Person they could not be joined to the Divine through any kind of affection. For if they did not think about the Divine as a Person in a natural way they would have either no ideas at all about the Divine, or else monstrous ones, and so would defile the Divine. So this is why 'the God of Israel' is used to mean the Lord in respect of the Divine Human, in particular of the Divine Natural.

'Israel' and 'Jacob' are used in the highest sense to mean the Lord's Divine Natural, 'Israel' the internal Divine Natural and 'Jacob' the external Divine Natural, see 4570.

Those who belong to the spiritual Church have been and are saved by means of the Lord's Divine Human, 2833, 2834.

The member of the spiritual Church, who is 'Israel', is interior natural, 4286, 4401.

[2] From all this it is now evident why in the Word the Lord is called 'Jehovah, the God of Israel' and 'Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel'. Anyone may see that when the Divine is referred to by these names it is solely because they are suitable for expressing something Holy that is not apparent in the sense of the letter. The fact that the Lord in respect of the Divine Natural is meant by 'the God of Israel' is evident from quite a number of places in the Word, plainly so from the following,

Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel saw the God of Israel, under whose feet there was so to speak a paved work of sapphire stone, like the substance of the sky for clearness. Exodus 24:9-10.

[3] The fact that this was the Lord, and not Jehovah, who is called the Father, is evident from the Lord's words in John,

Nobody has ever seen God. John 1:18.

You have never heard His voice nor seen His shape. John 5:37.

In Isaiah,

I will give you the treasures of darkness, and the secret wealth of concealed places, that you may know that it is I, Jehovah, who called you by your name, the God of Israel. Isaiah 45:3.

In Ezekiel,

Over the heads of the cherubim, in appearance like a sapphire stone, there was the likeness of a throne, and over the likeness of a throne there was a likeness, as the appearance of a man (homo) upon it above. And with him there was the appearance of fire and a rainbow, and of brightness round about. Ezekiel 1:26-28.

These things are called the glory of Jehovah and of the God of Israel in the same prophet, in Ezekiel 1:28; 8:4; 9:3; 10:19-20, and also where the New Temple is the subject, in Ezekiel 43:2; 44:2, [4]. ['The God of Israel' appears] in many other places besides these, such as Isaiah 17:6; 21:10, 17; 24:15; 41:17; Psalms 41:13; 59:5; 68:8, 35; 69:6; 72:18; and elsewhere. The name THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL is also used in Isaiah 1:4; 5:19, 24; 10:20; 17:7; 30:11-12, 15; 49:7; 60:9, 14; Ezekiel 39:7.

[4] The fact that the Lord in respect of His Divine Human is meant by 'the God of Israel' and 'the Holy One of Israel' is also clear from His being called Redeemer, Saviour, and Maker: REDEEMER in Isaiah 47:4 (Jehovah Zebaoth is our Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel is His name), and also in Isaiah 41:14; 43:14; 48:17; 54:5; SAVIOUR in Isaiah 43:3 and MAKER in Isaiah 45:11. From this it is also evident that no one other than the Lord is meant in the Old Testament Word by Jehovah, since He is called JEHOVAH GOD and THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, REDEEMER, SAVIOUR, and MAKER. He is called Jehovah the Redeemer and Saviour in Isaiah,

That all flesh may know that I Jehovah am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. Isaiah 49:26.

In the same prophet,

That you may know that I Jehovah am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Powerful One of Jacob. ¹ Isaiah 60:16.

Also in Isaiah 43:14; 44:6, 24; 54:8; 63:16; Psalms 19:14.

[5] The fact that the Lord saved Israel, that is, those who belonged to the spiritual Church, may be seen in Isaiah,

I will tell of the mercies of Jehovah, the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah has rewarded us with - great [as He is] in goodness to the house of Israel. He said, Surely they are My people, children who do not lie. And therefore He became their Saviour. In all their affliction He suffered affliction, and the angel of His face delivered them; because of His love and His compassion He redeemed them, and took them and carried them all the days of eternity. Isaiah 63:7-9.

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