Psalm 59: Dogs Around the City

"Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me… For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD. They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold."

"They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. Behold, they belch out with their mouth: swords are in their lips: for who, say they, doth hear? But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them… Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defence."

"Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and bring them down, O Lord our shield… And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city… But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning… Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy."

Two refrains

Two refrains interlock. The enemies' refrain: "They return at evening… like a dog" (vv. 6, 14). The speaker's refrain: "O my strength… God is my defence (misgabbi, "my high fortress")" (vv. 9, 17). Evening belongs to the dogs; morning (v. 16) belongs to song.

Saul's agents

1 Samuel 19:11–17: Saul sent messengers to watch David's house at night and kill him in the morning; Michal let him down through a window and put a household idol in his bed. The house in Gibeah, Saul's town (Tell el-Ful, pictured), is the setting the heading supplies.

Heading and poem

"To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David; when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him." The poem itself speaks of nations ("visit all the heathen," v. 5) and of God ruling "in Jacob unto the ends of the earth" (v. 13), which fits a king or a community better than a fugitive in his house. The heading's setting is a later association.

"Slay them not" in Christian history

Augustine (City of God 18.46) read 59:11 (Vulgate 58:12, "Ne occidas eos") as a prophecy that the Jews would be preserved, scattered, as witnesses to the Scriptures. This "witness" reading shaped medieval Christian policy, at once protecting Jewish communities from killing and justifying their subordination. It is a reception history, not the psalm's meaning in its setting.