This psalm was composed regarding the deliverance from "Muth-labben" - that enemy who rose up against David. At first, the rescue appeared entirely natural, through ordinary warfare, and the hand of Hashem was not clearly evident. But the second time, when Labben returned and spread snares and nets to capture David and fell into them himself - there divine providence was revealed for all to see. The entire psalm revolves around this distinction between natural guidance and revealed providence. In this part, we arrive at the different levels of providence: over the crushed, over the people in times of trouble, and over those who know His Name.
וִיהִי יְהֹוָה מִשְׂגָּב לַדָּךְ מִשְׂגָּב לְעִתּוֹת בַּצָּרָה׃ - And Hashem will be a stronghold for the crushed, a stronghold for times of trouble.
Until this point, the psalm spoke of the Holy One, blessed be He, judging the nations and executing justice. Here a further dimension is introduced: Hashem is also a shield for the crushed. This level is even greater, for the Holy One, blessed be He, does not wait until harm is done to him and only then avenge it; rather, He immediately serves as his stronghold. "Misgav" means defense and protection - the Holy One, blessed be He, protects him and does not allow them to harm him at all. This applies whether one is downtrodden and crushed in his own right, or whether the time itself is an era of distress - "for times of trouble." That is, even a person who is not personally downtrodden, even someone wealthy and affluent, if he currently finds himself in a time of crisis, Hashem will immediately be his stronghold and have mercy upon him.
וְיִבְטְחוּ בְךָ יוֹדְעֵי שְׁמֶךָ כִּי לֹא־עָזַבְתָּ דֹרְשֶׁיךָ יְהֹוָה׃ - And those who know Your Name will trust in You, for You have not forsaken those who seek You, Hashem.
And this is the third level: those who fear Hashem, the people of Israel, with whom the Holy One, blessed be He, does not wait even for a time of trouble to arrive. "Those who know Your Name" trust in You, "for You have not forsaken those who seek You" - You have not forsaken them even for a moment. They are under constant providence, to the extent that trouble does not even reach them. Regarding the crushed it was said, "a stronghold for times of trouble" - when trouble comes, he will have a stronghold; but for those who revere You, who know Your Name, providence remains constantly attached to them.
The Malbim explains that "those who seek You" and "those who know Your Name" mentioned here refer to a very exalted level: one who attains an awareness of Hashem's Name with lucid clarity, knowing Hashem in total perfection. As it is written, "I will set him on high, because he knows My Name," which is an even higher level than "Because he has set his passion upon Me, I will deliver him" - for he comprehends Hashem's providence and divine knowledge with absolute clarity. And just as it says, "and by My Name Hashem I was not known to them" - knowing Hashem is an attainment, and it entails miraculous guidance where the Holy One, blessed be He, is with you every single moment. This describes one who trusts in the Holy One, blessed be He, continuously, without relying on intermediaries - he does not turn to this person for help or that person for aid (which is, of course, legitimate human effort), but rather places his entire trust solely in Hashem. He relies with total certainty upon the Holy One, blessed be He, alone. And those who seek You and trust in You, You do not forsake, for Your providence is bound to them at all times.
זַמְּרוּ לַיהֹוָה יֹשֵׁב צִיּוֹן הַגִּידוּ בָעַמִּים עֲלִילוֹתָיו׃ - Sing praises to Hashem, Who dwells in Zion; declare His deeds among the nations.
Sing praises to Hashem inasmuch as He is the One "Who dwells in Zion" - meaning Jerusalem, where Hashem watches over continually through individual providence, never forsaking those who know His Name. Furthermore, "declare His deeds among the nations" - make known among the nations how the Holy One, blessed be He, interacts with us through individual providence. Yet one must distinguish between Hashem's conduct toward the nations and His conduct toward the Jewish people, who are in the category of those who know His Name.
כִּי־דֹרֵשׁ דָּמִים אוֹתָם זָכָר לֹא־שָׁכַח צַעֲקַת עֲנָוִים׃ - For He Who avenges blood has remembered them; He has not forgotten the cry of the humble.
Regarding the nations - "He who avenges bloodshed remembers them": Hashem remembers them only from the perspective of demanding an accounting for blood. Their blood was spilled, evoking divine wrath, and Hashem remembers the spilled blood and exacts vengeance from the one who shed it. In contrast, however, "He has not forgotten the cry of the humble" - the cry of the humble, who are the Jewish people, Hashem has not forgotten at all. The Holy One, Blessed be He, does not wait until He is reminded by spilled blood; rather, from the very beginning He never forgot them, and He delivers them immediately - "for You, Hashem, have not forsaken those who seek You."
The Malbim explains the distinction between "remembered" and "did not forget." Normally, remembering occurs after something has been forgotten. Consider the common expression: "Now I remember!" - I remember now because previously I had forgotten. But regarding something that is constantly before me, I cannot say "I remembered." A person with a cup of tea sitting right beside him does not say, "I remembered that there is a cup of tea next to me." Anyone whose mind is sound, Baruch Hashem, does not "remember" what he never forgot in the first place. Thus, remembering always follows forgetfulness, and it is always triggered by a cause that brings it back to mind.
So too here: the blood of the victims whom Laban destroyed is what, as it were, reminds the Holy One, Blessed be He, to exact punishment from him and execute judgment. But "not forgetting" means that something was never forgotten in the first place - it is not "remembering" after an interval of oblivion, but rather that it never slipped from memory. Therefore, regarding the nations it says, "He remembered them" - the spilled blood, as it were, reminded Him to demand justice; but the Jewish people are on a far higher level, being humble, and therefore "He has not forgotten the cry of the humble" - He never forgot their cry, and He saves them immediately.
חָנְנֵנִי יְהֹוָה רְאֵה עָנְיִי מִשֹּׂנְאָי מְרוֹמְמִי מִשַּׁעֲרֵי מָוֶת׃ - "Be gracious to me, Hashem; see my affliction from those who hate me, You Who raise me up from the gates of death."
Here King David prays that Hashem save him from the rest of his enemies as well, the foes who pursued him, as he said elsewhere: "Those who hate me without cause are more numerous than the hairs of my head" - he had no shortage of enemies. Therefore he pleads: just as You saved me from Laban, save me from the rest of my enemies. "You Who raise me up from the gates of death" - I was already in mortal danger from Laban, with only a step between me and death, already standing to enter that very gate leading to death, and You saved me from his hand. Just as You saved me from his hand, so too deliver me from the rest of my foes.
לְמַעַן אֲסַפְּרָה כׇּל־תְּהִלָּתֶיךָ בְּשַׁעֲרֵי בַת־צִיּוֹן אָגִילָה בִּישׁוּעָתֶךָ׃ - "So that I may recount all Your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion, that I may rejoice in Your salvation."
The phrase "all Your praises" seems puzzling at first glance. After all, Chazal recount the story of that disciple who lengthened his prayers, saying, "The God who is great, mighty, awesome, potent, strong, and majestic..." His teacher asked him: "Have you finished all the praises of your Master?" In other words, have you concluded already? Keep going: the majestic, the strong, the powerful, the unique - carry on! His intention was: one must only recite what our Sages instituted. For if you begin to add praises on your own, the question immediately arises as to why you stopped there; add even more! And since there is no end to His praises, you will inherently fall short. When one recites precisely what was instituted, there is no question of why more was not added. But when one adds independently and then stops, it is like praising a billionaire by saying, "He is a great millionaire" - you have actually insulted him. A person worked for years to become a billionaire, and this man comes along and demotes him to a millionaire! It turns out, then, that one cannot simply say, "I will recount all Your praise" - can anyone truly exhaust all the praises of the Holy One, Blessed be He?
Rather, the Malbim explains: the meaning is that I will recount all the praises at once for the numerous miracles You have performed for me. For if You deliver me now from Laban, and later there is salvation from so-and-so, and then from someone else, each time I give thanks separately for a different miracle, and I do not recount all the praises together. Therefore I ask: "Be gracious to me, Hashem; see my affliction from those who hate me" - save me right now from all of my enemies, and then I will be able to recount all Your praise at once, all the manifold miracles You have done for me.
The Malbim further explains the end of the verse: "that I may exult in Your salvation." There is a difference between gilah (exultation) and simchah (joy). Simchah is a continuous, steady state, while gilah is a renewed joy, occurring when a fresh reason to rejoice arrives. A person who has just had a son experiences gilah right now; whereas a person for whom, thank God, all is well lives in simchah. This is why our Sages taught, "It is a great mitzvah to be in simchah always," rather than "in gilah," because gilah pertains to a novel event, whereas simchah pertains to what is constant. And this is his plea: perform fresh salvations for me, so that each time I may exult and rejoice anew.
טָבְעוּ גוֹיִם בְּשַׁחַת עָשׂוּ בְּרֶשֶׁת־זוּ טָמָנוּ נִלְכְּדָה רַגְלָם׃ - Nations have sunk into the pit they made; in the net which they hid, their foot has been caught.
As explained in the opening, at first David's rescue appeared natural. But afterward, when Laban came a second time and laid traps and snares to seize David, and ended up falling into them himself, here it was clearly seen that this was not natural, but through divine providence. This is comparable to someone who hears that the security services foiled a particular attack: everyone praises the security services, forgetting that there are a thousand times when attacks were not thwarted, and that the times they were thwarted occurred because it was the will of Hashem that they be thwarted - the Holy One, blessed be He, sent them. And when is this seen with unmistakable clarity? When it is reported that a terrorist died in a "workplace accident." Then no one asks where the security services were; there, everything is broad daylight: "He dug a pit, excavated it, and fell into the ditch he made" - what he wished to inflict became the very instrument of his own death. He came to set the explosive charge and went up in a whirlwind with it, "so may all Your enemies perish, Hashem." There, everyone says, "Thank You, Master of the Universe."
This is what David is saying: initially, the rescue took place naturally, by way of battle, and people did not see Hashem. But afterward, when Laban falls into the pit he himself dug, everyone perceives that this is individual divine providence. And the proof: "Nations have sunk into the pit they made" - in that very pit they prepared, in that very ditch they dug, they themselves sank. And not only that, but "in the net which they hid, their foot has been caught" - in the very net they concealed, their own foot was trapped.
What is the difference between "the pit (shachat) they made" and "the net which they hid"? The Malbim explains that hunters were accustomed to prepare a shachat - a pit in which the animal is destroyed (mushchat). Shachat with the letter tav derives from the root of destruction (hashchatah): they would dig a large pit and cover it with reeds and sticks, over which they scattered grass and leaves, until it blended seamlessly into the forest floor. The animal walks, steps on it, and collapses inside - falling headlong, breaking its neck or bones. Sometimes they also needed a net placed before the pit to cause the prey to stumble and tumble inside. Thus there are two types of obstacle: the net that trips, and the pit that destroys. This is what the verse comes to convey: not only did they sink into the very pit they dug, but the ensnaring itself occurred through their own net. Both the preparation for destruction, represented by the net, and the actual destruction itself - all of the harm came to them from what they themselves made. They prepared it for their own undoing, and through it they were harmed.
נוֹדַע יְהֹוָה מִשְׁפָּט עָשָׂה בְּפֹעַל כַּפָּיו נוֹקֵשׁ רָשָׁע הִגָּיוֹן סֶלָה׃ - Hashem has made Himself known; He executed judgment; the wicked man is ensnared by the work of his own hands. Higgayon. Selah.
Through this, it became known and clear to all that Hashem executed judgment, and no one else - after all, we did nothing, and he blew up on his own. Two things become evident here: first, that this was not an accidental downfall but the providence of Hashem; and second, that this did not occur merely as punishment, but as righteous judgment - by the very measure they measured, it was measured out to them. "The wicked man is ensnared by the work of his own hands" - at the very moment he was working and laying the snare, he was caught in it himself, like a person who is blown up by the explosive charge while in the middle of preparing it.
"Higgayon. Selah" - through this, all will meditate and contemplate. Higgayon is an expression of meditation and thought; the Malbim explains that higgayon always denotes profound reflection and contemplating a matter deeply. That is to say, through this event, all will contemplate and believe that everything is directed by Hashem's providence. And "Selah," in accordance with the Malbim's consistent approach, indicates that this topic has concluded, and here David moves on to another matter.
יָשׁוּבוּ רְשָׁעִים לִשְׁאוֹלָה כׇּל־גּוֹיִם שְׁכֵחֵי אֱלֹהִים׃ - The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations who forget God.
Here he pleads before Hashem: Master of the Universe, just as You have now destroyed that Lavan, which brought about a sanctification of Hashem's Name - for everyone saw that the Holy One, blessed be He, is the One Who oversees, and they saw that "the wicked is snared by the work of his own hands," realizing that this came from Him, blessed be He - so too, "the wicked shall return to Sheol." This refers both to the wicked in interpersonal matters, and to "all the nations that forget God," who forget Him in matters between man and God. Although the term "wicked" (rasha) generally encompasses sins both between man and God and between man and his fellow, since Scripture subsequently speaks of "nations that forget God" - a matter between man and God - this proves that the wicked mentioned first are those guilty of interpersonal wrongs. Thus, he requests that all the wicked be destroyed, both these and those.
כִּי לֹא לָנֶצַח יִשָּׁכַח אֶבְיוֹן תִּקְוַת עֲנִיִּים תֹּאבַד לָעַד׃ - For the needy shall not always be forgotten; the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
The Malbim explains that the clauses of this verse correspond directly to the preceding verse. "The wicked shall return to Sheol" - because "the needy shall not always be forgotten": Hashem will inevitably punish the wicked who mistreat the needy, for He does not forget the needy forever, and consequently the wicked will return to Sheol. And corresponding to "all the nations that forget God" - because the hope of the humble will not perish forever.
Yet how can the Malbim say "will not perish forever," when the text literally says "perish"? Rather, as the Malbim notes, the word "not" (lo) carries over to the second clause as well, drawing it along with it. We have discussed this concept several times, as in the phrase from Aleinu: "Who has not set our portion like theirs, nor our lot like all their multitude" - there is no need to repeat the word "nor" before "our lot," because the initial "not" applies to the second clause as well. So too here: "For the needy shall not always be forgotten," and [not] shall the hope of the poor perish forever. Hashem will fulfill that which the humble yearn for - that the kingdom and sovereignty of Hashem be revealed, and that He destroy all the wicked who deny Him.
קוּמָה יְהֹוָה אַל־יָעֹז אֱנוֹשׁ יִשָּׁפְטוּ גוֹיִם עַל־פָּנֶיךָ׃ - Arise, Hashem, let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before Your presence.
He further pleads: Master of the Universe, if this does not happen, and instead You cut them down through human agency - people will once again think that our issue is with man, unaware that our issue is with the Holy One, blessed be He. A person might think we have a problem with Iran, not realizing that his problem is with the Holy One, blessed be He. Therefore, if retribution must be exacted from us - Master of the Universe, exact it from us Yourself. "Arise, Hashem, let not man prevail" - let not mortal man be the rod of Your anger; let not him be the one to strike. "Ya'oz" (prevail) is from the root of strength and might: let no mortal man arise to be the mighty striker. "Let the nations be judged before Your presence" - let You Yourself, through Your own presence and deeds, judge the nations for their evil ways, not through human agency or intermediaries, but through the light of Your countenance, so that all will witness Your providence and understand that this comes directly from You.
שִׁיתָה יְהֹוָה מוֹרָה לָהֶם יֵדְעוּ גוֹיִם אֱנוֹשׁ הֵמָּה סֶּלָה׃ - Place terror upon them, Hashem; let the nations know they are but mortal men, Selah.
"Place terror upon them, Hashem" - You Yourself shall set and prepare it, and You Yourself shall be their dread ("morah"). The Malbim explains that there is a difference between "yirah" (fear) and "mora" (dread): "yirah" is the emotion of fear itself, whereas "mora" denotes the object or entity that is feared. And this is David's request: that You, Hashem, Yourself be the entity they dread. For if You bring Nebuchadnezzar against them to strike them down, they will fear Nebuchadnezzar, and that is not what I desire; my desire is that they fear Hashem Himself. "Let the nations know they are but mortal men" - let them know Hashem's Name and fear Him, realizing that they are merely frail mortals, and of what account are they? Instead of fearing mortal man, let them fear the Holy One, blessed be He. And with "Selah," the psalm concludes.
The psalm portrays distinct levels of divine providence: Hashem is a stronghold for the crushed in times of distress, and on an even higher level are those who know His Name, who are never forsaken for a moment, so that trouble never reaches them at all. Concerning the nations, "He remembered them" - the spilled blood calls their judgment to mind; whereas regarding Israel, "He has not forgotten the cry of the humble" - He has never forgotten them and redeems them immediately. David asks for deliverance from all his adversaries at once, so that he may recount all Hashem's praises together and merit ever-renewed salvations in which to perpetually rejoice. The deliverance from Lavan teaches everyone that the hand of Hashem accomplished it: they sank into the pit they dug and were trapped in the net they hid, "the wicked is snared by the work of his own hands," until "Hashem has made Himself known; He has executed judgment" - not mere punishment, but justice measured strictly according to the measure they themselves applied. From here, David concludes with a prayer that the wicked and the nations that forget God be destroyed, and that this should not occur through flesh and blood, but from Hashem Himself, so that He alone will be the dread they fear, and the nations will realize they are but mortal men.