This entire chapter is King David's cry from amidst persecution, disgrace, and mockery, and from the waters that have reached his very soul. In this part, we continue from the opening verses, in which David described sinking in deep mire and the multitude of his enemies, and confessed before the Holy One, Blessed be He, "O God, You know my folly" - and from here onward he pleads: even if I do not possess sufficient merit, save me for the sake of those who place their hope in You. We will go through the verses in order, according to the explanations of the Malbim, Radak, Rashi, and Ibn Ezra, as well as the insights of the author of Tehilot Maharith and the Mei HaShiloach.
אַל־יֵבֹשׁוּ בִי קֹוֶיךָ אֲדֹנָי אֱלֹהִים צְבָאוֹת אַל־יִכָּלְמוּ בִי מְבַקְשֶׁיךָ אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - Let those who hope in You not be shamed through me, Lord, God of hosts; let those who seek You not be humiliated through me, God of Israel.
The Malbim explains: Even though You know my folly, as we explained, nevertheless You must save me - so that those who hope in You will not be shamed through me. Notice that two terms are used here: boshah (shame) and kelimah (humiliation). While the Radak frequently follows the approach that parallel phrasing reflects the repetition of an idea in different words, for the Malbim there are no synonymous redundancies at all: every word carries its own unique meaning, and no two words are identical in sense.
The distinction is this: boshah is the shame a person feels within himself, whereas kelimah is the humiliation that others inflict upon him. We see this in common Hebrew usage as well: "I was ashamed of myself" stems from within. In contrast, "I hid not my face from humiliation and spit" (Yeshayahu 50:6), or "no one humiliates" - to inflict kelimah means that someone else is doing it to you.
From here, says the Malbim, emerges a wonderful precision. Hope is something felt in the heart. When a person hopes for something and it does not materialize, before whom is he ashamed? Not before others, for no one knew what he was hoping for in his heart, but before himself: I hoped, I waited, and my hope vanished. Therefore, the verse says, "Let those who hope in You not be shamed [yevoshu] through me" - using the term for internal shame. But "those who seek You" [mevakshecha] refers to those who actively and publicly petition God, which is evident to all. If they are not answered, they will suffer public humiliation [kelimah] from others: "Look at this person who stood and pleaded before Hashem, yet was not answered." Therefore, concerning them it specifically says, "let those who seek You not be humiliated [yikallmu] through me."
There is also a third term - cherpah (disgrace or reproach), which is even greater than kelimah. There are two differences between them: kelimah occurs specifically to a person's face, whereas cherpah does not have to be to his face. Furthermore, cherpah is always focused on a specific matter - one is reproached for such and such a thing - whereas one can humiliate another without any cause or reason at all.
One might wonder: What is the meaning of "Let them not be shamed through me" - what concern do others have with me? The Radak explains: If You destroy my hope, through this the hope of all who place their trust in You will also be destroyed. For they will say: Look how much David sought and pleaded, yet in the end the Holy One, Blessed be He, did not grant his request - so from now on, we will no longer pray, we have no hope. Rashi explains similarly: This is the very core of the plea - save me, for if You do not save me, all who hope in You will say, "Look, David was persecuted and was not saved." In other words, even if I do not possess enough merits on my own, since I serve as a symbol, if they see that my hope was in vain, everyone will cease to hope - and that itself is reason enough for You to save me.
And why does the verse address God as "Lord, God of hosts"? The Radak explains: The Holy One, Blessed be He, is the Master of the hosts on high, the heavenly hosts, and divine decrees descend through the heavens; He is also the Master of the hosts of Israel. Why is this mentioned here? Because this passage speaks of the exile, wherein we anticipate and hope that the Holy One, Blessed be He, will redeem us and bring us out of it. Who can accomplish this? The God of hosts, Who holds all the heavenly hosts in His hand, and Who can alter their course in a single moment, transform the situation, and redeem us from the distress in which we are immersed.
כִּי־עָלֶיךָ נָשָׂאתִי חֶרְפָּה כִּסְּתָה כְלִמָּה פָנָי׃ - Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face.
"For Your sake" means on Your behalf, because of You. Why do they persecute me? Because I am Your servant. This is just like the verse, "For Your sake we are killed all the day" - why is a person taken out to be killed? Because he kept Shabbat, because he put on tefillin, because he fulfilled Hashem's commandments. And so it is here: Why do they persecute us? Because we are Hashem's people. If we were not the people of Hashem, whom would we interest? But because we are the people of Hashem, we are persecuted.
And this is precisely the situation to this day: Why does the general public persecute us? Because we are God-fearing, because we serve Hashem. If someone were to conduct an investigative report on any other group or community in Israel, they would find appalling things, may Hashem have mercy - yet no such reports appear in the media. Only the Chareidi public serves as a backdrop for anthropologists to come investigate, discuss, and malign. And why all of this? Because we cling to You, Master of the Universe.
Radak explains similarly: For Your sake I endure the reproach of exile, for had I wanted to abandon Your faith and convert to theirs, I would have been prominent like one of them. This was Herzl's "ingenious" solution: to convert all the Jews to Christianity to the sound of church bells, thereby resolving the Jewish problem. For as long as there are Jews, there is a Jewish problem, and the moment there are no Jews, the problem is solved. Had I wanted to leave Your religion, David says, I would have had a tranquil life and no one would persecute me. And if they persecute me, it is because "for Your sake we are killed all the day." As we mentioned, reproach is always directed at a specific thing, and that thing is that I cling to You, walk in Your ways, and observe Your commandments.
The Malbim adds a reason here: How could it be that those who place their hope in You would be shamed on my account? Because the reproach I bore was for You, for Your sake. And if they see that someone who suffers for the honor of the Creator is not delivered, how much more so will they be ashamed and give up their yearning, their weeping, and their turning to Him. This, then, is the reason why a situation of "let those who hope in You not be shamed through me" could arise: because everyone knows that for Your sake I have borne reproach.
מוּזָר הָיִיתִי לְאֶחָי וְנׇכְרִי לִבְנֵי אִמִּי׃ - I have become an outsider to my brothers, and a stranger to my mother's sons.
Ibn Ezra explains: I was so altered that my brothers did not recognize me, as if I were a stranger. Radak similarly explains that muzar is a passive form of zar (stranger) - they regard me as an outsider. And who are "my brothers"? Radak explains: the descendants of Yishmael. And who are "my mother's sons"? The descendants of Esav.
כִּי־קִנְאַת בֵּיתְךָ אֲכָלָתְנִי וְחֶרְפּוֹת חוֹרְפֶיךָ נָפְלוּ עָלָי׃ - For zeal for Your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen upon me.
The Malbim explains: The reason I became a stranger to my brothers stemmed from the fact that "zeal for Your house has consumed me" - I felt zealous indignation concerning the members of Your household who do not heed Your voice. Why do they persecute me? Because I guide people onto the straight path of Your service, because I demand of them adherence to Your will. Thus, I brought conflict upon myself from those around me in order to draw them close to Your service - and this is the reproach that I bore for You, for Your honor.
In simple terms: When a person does not interfere in anyone else's business, people care little about him. But when someone comes and points out faults, rebukes, and sets his fellow on the straight path, it often stirs up agitation. People do not want to hear and do not want to accept it, and then they begin to persecute him. David says: It was precisely because of this that I was persecuted. "Your house" refers to the entire Jewish people, the members of Your household. I was zealous for Your great Name among the members of Your household; I rebuked them, corrected them, and guided them onto the straight path - and through this, I came into conflict with my brothers. Furthermore, "the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen upon me": the arrogant who blaspheme You reproach me, because in their eyes I represent You, demanding Your honor and offering rebuke.
The Radak offers another possibility: "those who reproach You" refers to those who blaspheme You, namely the Christian faith which speaks slanderously against the Divine. For their belief claims that the Holy Spirit, as it were, impregnated that impure woman. Who could conceive such a thing? One would need a twisted mind to imagine that the Holy Spirit unites with flesh and blood, and furthermore with a woman known in her time to be questionable in terms of sanctity - and we will not elaborate on this. Such notions are nothing but blasphemy and outrage against Heaven. "The reproaches of those who reproach You fell upon me" - they are the ones who torment me in exile.
And this can be connected to what was explained earlier: "those who reproach You" are those who claim we have no hope. You promised to redeem the Jewish people, "And I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God," yet they insist: No, Hashem will no longer redeem them. This is the well-known Christian doctrine of supersessionism: that the Holy One, blessed be He, abandoned the Jewish people who provoked Him so much, exiled them and afflicted them, and took the Christians in their place - executing a bargain "trade-in." The story of the Jewish people is over, they claim; from now on, there are the Christians. All of their persecutions were based on this, for through their persecution they sought to validate their claim: since the Holy One abandoned the Jews, He decreed that they would be perpetually persecuted for their sins, and especially for having executed their messiah - that defiled individual born of that woman, whom their trinity considers like a son of God.
A well-known story is told about the Brisker Rav. His students were sitting with him on a train when a certain man began questioning them about why they did not believe in that man. They said to him: "What are you talking about? Chazal lived in his time, and they declared that he was a sorcerer and an instigator who led others astray - they saw his true character." He replied: "Chazal were mistaken." They asked him: "How could you possibly say that? They lived in his day and knew him intimately, yet you, two thousand years later, presume to declare that they were mistaken?" He answered them: "Here is proof that Chazal could be mistaken: Rabbi Akiva believed that Bar Kochba was the Mashiach, and he was wrong." The students were stumped and had no answer. The Brisker Rav had not intervened in the debate, but seeing his students trapped, he came to their rescue. He asked the priest: "And how do you know that Rabbi Akiva was mistaken?" The priest replied: "Because Bar Kochba ultimately died, so it is obvious he was wrong." The Brisker Rav said to him: "If so, you too concede that a messiah who dies is no messiah" - and returned to his learning.
How absurd this is: "he died" is your argument, yet what about that man, did he not die? Indeed, they had a dilemma with this, which is why they concocted the tale that women arrived and saw him emerging from his tomb, inventing all sorts of fabrications. Christianity is riddled with fantasies, fabrications, vanity, and falsehood; anyone who examines it sees that not one stone rests upon another and there is no foundation to anything. At one point they traced his lineage to the house of Joseph, and when they realized that one cannot be Mashiach without descending from David, they fabricated a genealogy from the house of David. The entire edifice is built on falsehoods and heaps of nonsense.
Furthermore, that man himself stated, as recorded in their own texts, that he did not come to detract from the Torah of Moshe but to fulfill it. If so, to the Christian one must ask: Do you put on tefillin? Do you keep Shabbat? What remains for you of the Torah of Israel? He said himself that he did not come to abolish it, meaning that you are obligated to observe it all. And that is merely one minor contradiction among many.
In any case, their claim was that the proof of the Holy One having rejected us was that the Jewish people would be perpetually persecuted. Therefore, the priests constantly added fuel to the fire, encouraging the ignorant mobs to go out with pitchforks and hoes to carry out pogroms against the Jews. And when the aliyah to Eretz Yisrael began, it dealt them a stinging blow, for one of their archbishops had declared that a primary proof that Hashem had rejected Israel and chosen the Christians was that the Jews would never return to their land - yet suddenly, they returned.
And how does the church cope with this? Very simply: the pope refused to visit. "If I have not seen it, it does not exist." The same applies to Islam and the Palestinians: open their maps and see, it says Palestine; there is no State of Israel. If you do not see it and do not write it, it does not exist. The ostrich method has been around for thousands of years and still works for them. Later they were forced to offer an explanation, claiming: "The prophecy did not refer to Eretz Yisrael, but to Jerusalem." Then, in 5727 (1967), we returned to Jerusalem, and here they were completely stumped. The pope visited only up to the Allenby Crossing and the Daughters of Jacob Bridge and turned back without entering - once again, "if I have not seen them, they are not here, they do not exist." And there will always be excuses: until the embassy moves to Jerusalem, until the eastern, northern, and western parts of the city are in their hands. There is never a shortage of excuses.
This is the meaning of "the reproaches of those who reproach You": those who blaspheme You and declare that we have no hope and will never leave the exile, all to validate their baseless faith - these are the very reproaches that have fallen upon me.
The author of Tehillot Mahari"tz explains "For zeal for Your House has consumed me" in a different way: David's enemies would taunt and harass him, saying to him, "Let us go to the House of Hashem" - for they knew that David would not build the Temple, since the Holy One had sent a prophet to tell him that he would not build a House for His Name, but rather Solomon, who would arise after him. King David says: In truth, "I rejoiced when they said to me, 'Let us go to the House of Hashem'" - would that the Beit HaMikdash be built speedily! On the contrary, David did everything in his power for the building of the House, as he said: "I will not give sleep to my eyes, nor slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for Hashem, dwelling places for the Mighty One of Jacob." He gathered funds for the Beit HaMikdash and even built the Western Wall, and the Holy One said to the prophet: Go to him quickly, for David is zealous and can undertake immense expenditures in an instant - go and stop him.
We find, therefore, that David for his part yearned with all his might to build the Beit HaMikdash. Why, then, did he not build it? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, told him, "You shall not build a house for My Name." The reason for this: had David built the Temple, it would never have been destroyed, for the handiwork of the righteous is never undone. Just like Moshe Rabbeinu who built the Mishkan, and the Mishkan endures forever - "acacia wood standing upright"; it was hidden away rather than destroyed, hidden away and preserved. So too with the Beit HaMikdash: had David built it, it would never have been destroyed. However, Shlomo built it with builders who came from Lebanon, and we know what its ultimate fate was; and the Second Temple was built with the assistance of Cyrus and not solely by Jewish hands, and it too was destroyed.
And what would have been so terrible had it not been destroyed? Had there been a Temple that could never be destroyed, the Holy One, blessed be He, would not have been able to exhaust His wrath upon wood and stone. When the Jewish people sinned, the Holy One exhausted His fury upon wood and stone and destroyed the Temple; had the Temple stood forever, He would, as it were, have been forced, Heaven forbid, to exhaust His wrath upon the Jewish people. Therefore, He told him: "You shall not build a house for My Name."
This is what David means when he says: "The zeal for Your house has consumed me" - the yearning to build Your house consumed me from within, out of intense zeal for the house of Hashem, out of so much effort, longing, and anticipation, yet it did not come to fruition. And what do my enemies do? "The insults of those who insult You have fallen upon me" - they taunt me over this: "David, why do you not build the house of Hashem?" As if I were the one refusing and holding back the building of the Beit HaMikdash! Master of the Universe, see how devoted I am to Your house, and how they taunt me over this very matter.
וָאֶבְכֶּה בַצּוֹם נַפְשִׁי וַתְּהִי לַחֲרָפוֹת לִי׃ - "I wept with fasting for my soul, and it became a source of insults for me."
What is the meaning of "I wept with fasting"? The Radak explains that a letter vav is missing here, as though it were written, "I wept, and in fasting was my soul" - I wept, and my soul was also in fasting. This is like the phrase "sun, moon stood in their habitation" (Chavakuk 3:11), meaning sun and moon, or like "Reuven, Shimon," meaning Reuven and Shimon. In other words: I am constantly weeping and afflicting myself.
"And it became a source of insults for me" - the Radak explains: You are the reason for my insults, for they insult me because of You. They mock me because I serve You, just as the nations mock Israel for clinging to their pure faith. My very devotion to You is the catalyst for their taunts.
וָאֶתְּנָה לְבוּשִׁי שָׂק וָאֱהִי לָהֶם לְמָשָׁל׃ - "I made sackcloth my clothing, and I became a byword to them."
When I put on sackcloth as my garment, I became a byword to them. The Radak explains: for every bad thing and every misfortune, they mention me. No matter what I do, I am always the topic of conversation, and always in a negative light.
In Tehillot Maharitz, it is explained that David is lamenting here how deeply his enemies hate him: even when I weep and pour out my heart before Hashem while fasting, they say, "Do you know why David weeps so much? Because he knows his own sins! Look how much he has sinned; that is why he weeps so profusely - 'the heart knows its own soul's bitterness.'" Likewise, they mocked the fast itself, for Chazal said that whoever fasts is called a sinner; so they said, "Look, David now has yet another sin, for he is fasting!" Thus, no matter what I do, they will always find cause to disparage me.
This is precisely the reality of the Jewish people among the nations. No matter what they did, they were always condemned. When they were wealthy: "Behold the Protocols of the Elders of Zion; they have a plot to take over the world, they are the world's bankers, greedy, all the money is in their hands." When they were poor: "Look at these paupers who must be supported and whose children must be fed." When they were pacifists and opposed to war: "Naturally, they lack patriotism; they do not care about the country." And when they were militant: "Look, they are warmongers; they want war all the time so the gentiles will bleed one another while they sit on the sidelines." They always found something disparaging to say; they always found flaws in us.
יָשִׂיחוּ בִי יֹשְׁבֵי שָׁעַר וּנְגִינוֹת שׁוֹתֵי שֵׁכָר׃ - Those who sit in the gate speak about me, and I am the song of drunkards.
The Radak explains: when they sit at the gate or sit down to drink, who is the subject of their conversation? Me. I am their conversation, constantly ridiculed and disgraced. And so it is in our day as well: every news broadcast opens with us - the Charedim, the Charedim, the Charedim. When COVID rates were high among Charedim, it led the broadcast; yet when their numbers were the lowest on the curve, it was no longer an item, no longer interesting or newsworthy. They constantly seek only the negative and only the worst.
וַאֲנִי תְפִלָּתִי־לְךָ ה' עֵת רָצוֹן אֱלֹהִים בְּרׇב־חַסְדֶּךָ עֲנֵנִי בֶּאֱמֶת יִשְׁעֶךָ׃ - But as for me, may my prayer be to You, Hashem, at an opportune time; O God, in the abundance of Your lovingkindness, answer me with the truth of Your salvation.
The Malbim links these two verses: at the very moment when those who sit at the gate and drink intoxicating drink talk about me, composing songs about me, mocking me as their tune - at that very moment, "as for me, my prayer is to You." And why? Because precisely that moment is an opportune time, an eit ratzon. And at that time, "O God, in the abundance of Your lovingkindness, answer me" - first out of lovingkindness, for You abound in kindness and bestow endless good; and furthermore, "answer me with the truth of Your salvation" - "truth" refers to the promise, that the Holy One, blessed be He, validates His word: I hold a promise that You will save me, and in its merit, answer me.
The author of the Mei HaShiloach also connects these matters, noting that the most fitting time for prayer is precisely this moment: "Save me, O God, for the waters have reached up to my soul" - and immediately, "as for me, may my prayer be to You, Hashem, at an opportune time." Precisely when the waters have reached up to the soul, precisely when a person is downtrodden and brokenhearted, then prayer to You is at an opportune time. This parallels the words of the Malbim: specifically when they mock me, when a person is brought low and persecuted - that is the fitting hour, that is an eit ratzon.
We recite this verse on Shabbat, as it is well known that the time of Shabbat Minchah is the time of ra'ava d'ra'avin. Ra'ava d'ra'avin - not as some mistakenly hear, thinking it refers to hunger (re'avah), as if one is hungry then - but rather the "will of wills," with a vav. And as is known from the Kabbalists, during Shabbat Minchah the "forehead of goodwill" (metzach haratzon) is revealed, accompanied by an immense spiritual illumination. It is written that this is the most sublime time for prayer in the entire year; there is no greater eit ratzon than this. However, this is not a time to plead for one's private affairs, for on Shabbat we do not ask for personal needs; nevertheless, we should recognize that this is the most unique time of divine favor.
הַצִּילֵנִי מִטִּיט וְאַל־אֶטְבָּעָה אִנָּצְלָה מִשֹּׂנְאַי וּמִמַּעֲמַקֵּי־מָיִם׃ - Rescue me from the mire and let me not drown; let me be rescued from my foes and from deep waters.
The Radak explains: here he begins to detail the prayer he previously mentioned. And the Malbim explains that the requests correspond one-to-one to what was described at the beginning of the psalm: corresponding to "I have sunk into the muddy depths" - "rescue me from the mire and let me not drown"; and corresponding to "I have come into deep waters" and "numerous are my senseless haters" - "let me be rescued from my foes and from deep waters." For if he were saved from the water alone, his enemies would still confront him, since even if you pull a person out of the water, the enemy awaits him on dry land. Therefore, he prays to be saved from them as well.
אַל־תִּשְׁטְפֵנִי שִׁבֹּלֶת מַיִם וְאַל־תִּבְלָעֵנִי מְצוּלָה וְאַל־תֶּאְטַר־עָלַי בְּאֵר פִּיהָ׃ - Let the surge of water not sweep me away, let the deep not swallow me, and let the pit not shut its mouth over me.
The Malbim explains an insightful novelty here: these three things are actually forms of rescue, yet David does not desire them. A "surge of water" (shibbolet mayim) refers to a wave and rushing current of water - and if the current sweeps him away from here, he would indeed be removed from the enemy waiting for him. "Let the deep swallow me" - this too is a rescue, that the deep swallows him inside where the enemy cannot reach him. "Let the pit shut its mouth over me" - that the pit closes its opening over him, so that when they search for him, they will not find him. All of these are forms of protection from enemies.
And what is the underlying meaning? The Malbim explains: David could be saved from his pursuers - Avshalom who was pursuing him - in three ways. First, that the rush of water would sweep him outside of Eretz Yisrael, where Avshalom could not reach him. Second, that the deep would swallow him - that is, to be engulfed and hidden away in caves, just as David did for an extended period when pursued by Shaul. And third, a "well" - to be shut inside a fortified city.
עֲנֵנִי ה' כִּי־טוֹב חַסְדֶּךָ כְּרֹב רַחֲמֶיךָ פְּנֵה אֵלָי׃ - Answer me, Hashem, for Your lovingkindness is good; according to the abundance of Your compassions, turn to me.
Therefore David pleads: Master of the Universe, I do not desire any of these forms of protection - neither to be swept away by the torrent of water, nor swallowed by the deep, nor that the well shut its mouth upon me. I want salvation in a favorable manner, according to Your lovingkindness: "Answer me, Hashem, for Your lovingkindness is good" - by virtue of Your being good and abundant in kindness; "according to the abundance of Your compassions, turn to me" - that You look upon my distress and Your mercies be stirred for me. For these two reasons, kindness and mercy, I am worthy of compassion, and not through modes of rescue involving being swept away, exiled, or hidden.
And what is the meaning of "te'tar" (תֶּאְטַר)? Rashi explains that it is an expression of closure, spelled with a tet, similar to "iter yad yemino" (bound in his right hand) - not in the colloquial sense, but meaning closed and obstructed: his right hand is closed and weak. According to Rashi, everything mentioned in the verse carries a negative meaning: a water torrent that sweeps over him and harms him, a deep that swallows and ruins him, and a well that closes its mouth over him. The Malbim, however, as noted, explained differently - that all of these are forms of salvation, but they are less desirable rescues, and David prefers a better salvation than these: "Answer me, Hashem, for Your lovingkindness is good; according to the abundance of Your compassions, turn to me."
In this section of the chapter, King David teaches us three fundamental points. First, in linguistic precision: shame (bushah) comes from within oneself, humiliation (kelimah) comes from others, and disgrace (cherpah) is greater than both and is attached to a specific matter - therefore "let not those who put their hope in You be ashamed through me" is said regarding those who hope in their hearts, and "let not those who seek You be humiliated through me" refers to those who seek publicly. Second, regarding the nature of the persecution: "Because for Your sake I have borne disgrace" - all our disgrace exists solely because we cling to Hashem, and anyone who is zealous for the honor of Heaven and demands the honor of His house becomes a stranger to his brothers, and there is nothing one can do to appease them, for they will find fault with everything. And third, and most importantly: precisely at the hour when those who sit at the gate talk about him and mock him, precisely when the waters have reached the soul and the heart is broken - "And as for me, may my prayer to You, Hashem, be at an acceptable time." And out of that acceptable time, David asks not for a salvation of flight and concealment, but for a complete redemption: "Answer me, Hashem, for Your lovingkindness is good; according to the abundance of Your compassions, turn to me."