לַמְנַצֵּחַ מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד׃ - For the conductor, a psalm of David.
The Radak states that David composed this psalm concerning Doeg and the Ziphites, who informed upon him to Saul. The Malbim takes the same approach: the psalm was established when the Ziphites disclosed David's whereabouts to Saul, saying to him, "Is not David hiding with us?", and Saul pursued him. David was hurrying to escape from one side of the mountain, while Saul and his men were closing in on David - that is, they were encircling the mountain from both sides, and there was merely a step between him and death. At that moment David said, "I said in my haste: all mankind is deceitful" - even Samuel in his prophecy, having said that I am destined to be king, is seemingly false, for here I am about to die. Yet at the very last moment, messengers arrived and told Saul that the Philistines had raided the land, whereupon Saul abandoned everything and departed to fight against them.
חַלְּצֵנִי יְהֹוָה מֵאָדָם רָע מֵאִישׁ חֲמָסִים תִּנְצְרֵנִי׃ אֲשֶׁר חָשְׁבוּ רָעוֹת בְּלֵב כָּל־יוֹם יָגוּרוּ מִלְחָמוֹת׃ - Deliver me, Hashem, from an evil person; preserve me from a man of violence. Who devise evils in their heart; every day they stir up wars.
The Radak explains: "Deliver me, Hashem" - that the words they speak against me should not harm me. And the Malbim explains that there are two categories of pursuers here. There are those who seek to do evil without personal benefit - so to speak, "for the sake of Heaven": they gain nothing from it, only that harm should come to their fellow. And there are those who seek to do harm for the sake of the profit that will accrue to them from it. Regarding the first type, who slandered him in secret, he says: "Deliver me, Hashem, from an evil person... who devise evils in their heart" - specifically in the heart, for they do not act openly for personal benefit, but secretly and without any gain. And regarding the second type, who act for their own benefit and wage war against him openly, he says: "Preserve me from a man of violence... every day they stir up wars."
And what is the meaning of "yaguru milchamot" (they stir up wars)? Rashi explains it as an expression of dwelling (megurim) - that there will be wars in their dwellings. Ibn Ezra explains "yaguru" as an expression of gathering and storing up (ye'egru), as in "Do not fear (lo taguru) any man," which Chazal expound to mean that a judge is forbidden to withhold or suppress his words out of fear of a violent man - do not hoard your words or keep them inside. Ibn Ezra also cites that it is related to "Do not provoke (al titgar) war with them" - every day they instigate and provoke wars. And from all of these, David pleads: Master of the Universe, protect me, both from those who harbor wickedness in their hearts and act in secret, and from those who act out in the open.
What is the difference between "an evil person" (adam ra) and "a man of violence" (ish chamassim)? The Malbim explains: "Evil" is in the heart, rooted in the human intellect - a calculated, intellectual malice. "Violence" (chamas), on the other hand, stems from the animalistic soul, the lower aspect of man. And in the book Yosef Tehillot, the author explains the distinction between the expressions: "Deliver me" (chaltzeni) - if I have already fallen into his hands, extricate me from there; "preserve me" (tintzereni) - guard me so that I do not fall into his hands at all. Similarly later in the psalm: "Guard me, Hashem, from the hands of the wicked" - when I am already in his power, and "from a man of violence preserve me" - that I should not be handed over to him at all. We see once again that the man of violence is the more dangerous of the two, which is why David prays that he should not reach him in the first place.
שָׁנְנוּ לְשׁוֹנָם כְּמוֹ־נָחָשׁ חֲמַת עַכְשׁוּב תַּחַת שְׂפָתֵימוֹ סֶלָה׃ - They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent; venom of a viper is under their lips, Selah.
Rashi explains "chamat" as meaning venom, as in "Their wine is the venom (chamat) of serpents." It cannot be interpreted as fury or wrath (cheimah), for could the term wrath be applied to wine? What connection does wrath have to wine? Rather, "Their wine is the venom of serpents" - meaning snake venom, as the biblical term tanninim denotes serpents. The Radak explains: "They have sharpened their tongue" like a sharpened arrow, meaning they honed their tongue to speak evil against me, just as a serpent appears to sharpen its tongue when preparing to strike. "Venom of an achshuv" - the poison the snake injects; the achshuv is a particularly vicious and lethal species of serpent. "Under their lips, Selah" - when an evil person flies into a rage and speaks with fury, foam and saliva spew from his mouth and drip from beneath his lips, resembling the venom dripping from the mouth of a snake.
The Malbim connects this verse back to the two categories of pursuers. Regarding the first type, who inflict harm without any personal benefit, it is said: "They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent" - for this is precisely what is said of the serpent: it is asked, "What pleasure do you derive? You bite, strike, the victim dies, and you move along." "And what profit is there to the slanderer?" - so answers the serpent, and such is the slanderer as well. Moreover, the Malbim notes that the serpent's strike is associated with the tongue, which is deeper inside than the lips. This is somewhat puzzling, as the serpents known to us bite with their teeth - some bite with ordinary teeth, while venomous snakes have fangs like two long hypodermic needles resting inside the mouth pointing inward, which swing erect when the serpent opens its mouth to strike. A serpent that bites with its tongue is unfamiliar, yet such is the phrasing of the Malbim, and it is possible that he refers to the inner fangs as a "tongue."
Indeed, according to the Malbim, "tongue" (lashon) is always an expression of what is internal. In several places in Sefer Mishlei, he explains that "lips" (sefatayim) indicate the external, while "tongue" refers to internal speech that is not apparent on the surface. Therefore, here: those who do harm without any personal benefit, who slander in secret and do not act openly for gain, are compared to a snake that bites with its internal tongue. And corresponding to the extortionists who act for their own benefit, who receive favors and benefits from Shaul in exchange for their slandering, it is said: "the venom of a spider is under their lips" - its venom is exposed, under the lips, which is external relative to the tongue, for they act openly in order to reap a profit. And the spider bites for its own pleasure, to suck a person's blood, just as they act for the sake of robbery and personal benefit. "Selah" - according to the Malbim, this marks the end of this matter, while according to most commentators it means constantly, forever, and for eternity.
A account is brought in the book Mishnat HaChalomot concerning the Gaon Rabbi Tzvi Blazer, who appeared in a dream five days after his passing, in the month of Av 5667 (1907), to his close friend the Gaon Rabbi Chaim Berlin. Among other things, he was asked what takes place there in the Heavenly Court, and he replied: The judgment in Heaven is extraordinarily severe, to a degree that no human being in this world can possibly conceive, and they are particularly exacting regarding forbidden, improper speech. It is truly awesome and frightening. "All the toil of man is for his mouth" (Kohelet 6:7) - all that a person toils to achieve, he can squander entirely through his mouth and his speech. Yet he also added a very encouraging word: for a Torah scholar, for one who is connected to the Torah, there are many advocates in Heaven; nevertheless, regarding the sin of the tongue, they are exceptionally exacting.
It is told of the Brisker Rav, the Gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Ze'ev Soloveitchik, that students once asked him whether it is true that a person will be held accountable in judgment if the prohibition of lashon hara was not as severe in his eyes as eating pork. He rose from his chair and said: It is the absolute truth. We recoil from pork - a person would be ready to die rather than eat pig - whereas lashon hara rolls off his tongue completely unrestrained. In fact, it is far more severe: eating pork is a negative commandment, whereas regarding a slanderer it is said that he has no share in the World to Come. Everything that the Chafetz Chaim cites in his anthologies concerning the severity of evil speech is of an intensity not mentioned regarding any other sin or transgression. And the explanation, as has been explained: man was distinguished by being made a "speaking spirit" (ruach memalela), endowed with the power of speech, and when a person causes damage to the highest faculty within him, that is the greatest possible flaw. On the other hand, the greatest elevation a person can attain is the study of Torah, which is likewise through the tongue - "Torah study is equal to them all," equal to all 613 mitzvot; "and all your desires cannot compare to it," and Chazal taught: even the desires of Heaven. Here is the great virtue of the tongue and the great blemish of the tongue: death and life are in the power of the tongue.
שָׁמְרֵנִי יְהֹוָה מִידֵי רָשָׁע מֵאִישׁ חֲמָסִים תִּנְצְרֵנִי אֲשֶׁר חָשְׁבוּ לִדְחוֹת פְּעָמָי׃ - Guard me, Hashem, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the man of violence, who have devised to trip my steps.
The Ibn Ezra explains once again the protection David requested: the wicked person and the man of violence "have devised to trip my steps" - pe'amay means my footsteps, as in "your footsteps" (pa'amayikh). After describing the evils they committed, he comes and pleads: Master of the Universe, protect me from them, for they seek to thrust my steps directly into Shaul's hands. The Malbim explains that after speaking in general terms, David now begins to specify: "Guard me from the hands of the wicked" - this refers to the one who does evil secretly purely out of wickedness; these are the Ziphites, who harmed David through slander in secret, deriving no personal benefit from it other than pure malice. "Preserve me from the man of violence" - this refers to Shaul, who harmed him for his own benefit, out of robbery, namely the usurpation of the monarchy: for if he did not harm David, he would be forced to surrender the kingship to him. And both of them together "have devised to trip my steps" into the trap they have prepared for me.
טָמְנוּ־גֵאִים פַּח לִי וַחֲבָלִים פָּרְשׂוּ רֶשֶׁת לְיַד־מַעְגָּל מֹקְשִׁים שָׁתוּ־לִי סֶלָה׃ - The arrogant have hidden a snare for me, and with cords they spread a net alongside the path; they have set traps for me, Selah.
A "snare" (pach) is a hidden trap. "And with cords they spread a net" - the method of hunters was to tie a long cord to the edges of the net; the hunter would spread out the net, scatter bread or bait upon it, and conceal himself in an elevated place. When many birds gathered upon it, he would pull the cord in a single moment, trapping them all. In the same way, they spread a net "alongside the path" (le'yad ma'gal) - in the place where they knew I traveled, near my pathways and steps, so that they could pull the cords at any moment and snare me. This aligns with what Shaul commanded: "See and learn of all the lurking places where he hides... who has seen him there" (I Shmuel 23:22-23) - they searched for the places he frequented in order to find him and hand him over. "They have set traps for me, Selah," and the Radak explains "Selah" as meaning without cessation: they repeatedly laid ambushes for him over and over again, even though they saw they were not succeeding.
The Malbim explains: "They hid a snare for me" - they sought to push my footsteps toward that snare so that I would fall into it, and cords were concealed so that when I arrived at the site of the snare, they would pull them and capture me. Yet they feared that I might outsmart them and travel by a "circuitous path" (ma'gal) - as the Malbim consistently explains that ma'gal refers to a winding, roundabout route, not the straight road. They said: David might realize that we are laying a snare for him and take the bypass instead; therefore, they spread a net alongside the winding path as well, so that if he did not fall into the snare, he would be trapped in the net. In addition, "they have set traps for me" - so that when he falls into the snare, he will immediately be struck, broken, and die. "Selah" marks the conclusion of this second theme.
אָמַרְתִּי לַיהֹוָה אֵלִי אָתָּה הַאֲזִינָה יְהֹוָה קוֹל תַּחֲנוּנָי׃ - I said to Hashem: You are my God; give ear, Hashem, to the voice of my supplications.
Ibn Ezra explains: It is not in my power to escape from them, nor to stand against them, except through You, and You alone are my God. This is the meaning of "You are my God" - You alone are my strength; I have no other power. In truth, this is far from simple, because when a person faces trouble, he often searches for many "deities." This does not necessarily mean literal idolatry: So-and-so will help me, I will turn to that cousin, I have an acquaintance here and an influential person who can move things there - these are all forms of multiple deities. And only when he fails does he turn to the Master of the Universe. It is like trading in options: one has several options, and if they do not pan out, it is always good to have the Master of the Universe on standby, waiting in the wings; if we do not succeed, then we will turn to Him, as we do not want to trouble Him unnecessarily. But then the Holy One, blessed be He, says: "Let them arise and help you, let them be your shelter," "Where are their gods, the rock in whom they sought refuge?" - where is the god in whom you trusted?
The Chovot HaLevavot writes: Hashem leaves a person in the hands of whichever entity he places his trust in. Whomever you rely on - that is where the Holy One, blessed be He, will leave you. In the IDF? He will leave you in its hands, as was proven on Simchat Torah. A person must know that trust belongs solely in Hashem: not in our own forces, not in nuclear capabilities, not in bombers and stealth fighters - on the day of reckoning, everything can collapse. In Whom must one trust? In Hashem, blessed be He. Let the Master of the Universe win - that must be the motto, for there is none besides Him. And this is what David says, which is no simple feat in the hour of trial: "I said to Hashem: You are my God" - You alone are my God; there is no other power upon which I rely.
The Malbim explains that here David transitions to the third part, expressing his trust on two grounds: First, from the standpoint of "You are my God" - You always save me, as he has past experience and therefore knows upon Whom to rely. Second, from the power of prayer, for the Holy One, blessed be He, is close to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth, and therefore, "give ear, Hashem, to the voice of my supplications." In this lies guidance even for someone whose personal resume does not feature many past successes: prayer is something you certainly can offer and certainly must offer - "give ear, Hashem, to the voice of my supplications."
יֱהֹוִה אֲדֹנָי עֹז יְשׁוּעָתִי סַכֹּתָה לְרֹאשִׁי בְּיוֹם נָשֶׁק׃ - God, my Lord, the stronghold of my salvation, You have sheltered my head on the day of battle.
Ibn Ezra explains: Hashem will shelter my head like a helmet that covers and protects the head so that an arrow cannot harm it. "On the day of battle" - at the time when weapons are used against me, the Holy One, blessed be He, shields my head like a protective helmet. Radak explains this metaphorically: the Holy One, blessed be He, is like a helmet of salvation; on a day of danger, He is the helmet that saves me.
אַל־תִּתֵּן יְהֹוָה מַאֲוַיֵּי רָשָׁע זְמָמוֹ אַל־תָּפֵק יָרוּמוּ סֶלָה׃ - Grant not, Hashem, the desires of the wicked; do not bring his plot to fruition, lest they be exalted, Selah.
Rashi explains that the wicked one referred to here is the wicked Amalek. "Do not bring his plot to fruition" - let what he planned not succeed, "zemamo" deriving from what he schemes and contemplates; "lest they be exalted, Selah" - that they should not become arrogant. As is well known, this was the way of Amalek and this was the way of Germany - the path of pride, the Aryan race, "lest they be exalted, Selah." Radak explains: Do not grant the wicked his desire, for his desire is to capture me; "do not bring his plot to fruition" - do not allow his scheme to be realized, for if their thoughts are carried out, they will exalt themselves over us and walk in the path of pride and arrogance forever.
The Malbim offers an original explanation of "yarumu" (lest they be elevated), in light of the scene described earlier: David was walking along one side of the mountain, while Shaul's men were encircling him from the other side, with the mountain separating between them so they could not reach him. Shaul wanted his men to "elevate themselves" - to ascend to the mountaintop, and from high above they would be able to shoot arrows at him, since by climbing to the top of the mountain they would outflank him and attack from above rather than through direct pursuit. Regarding this, David pleads: Please, Hashem, do not grant his plot; do not let his plan be carried out to climb to the top of the mountain and kill me. "Selah" - marking the conclusion of another theme.
The Gemara in Megillah (page 6b) expounds an astonishing teaching here, which directly connects to the reality we came to know in Germany: Rabbi Yitzchak said: What is the meaning of that which is written, "Grant not, Hashem, the desires of the wicked; do not advance his plot [zemamo], lest they be exalted, Selah"? Yaakov said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the Universe, do not grant Esav the wicked his heart's desires! "Do not advance his plot [zemamo]" - he has a muzzle [zemam] on his mouth, do not remove it from him, like a dog with a muzzle over its mouth, which if removed poses an immense danger to the world. For if they were to go out, they would destroy the entire world - this refers to Germamya of Edom, for if they were to go out, they would destroy the entire world.
The Yaavetz, some two hundred and fifty years ago, writes: Germamya means Germany, which is our Ashkenaz. The Vilna Gaon likewise writes that the correct textual reading is "Germania" (Germany). As is well known, the Gra was meticulous never to set foot in Germany, and even when traveling, he instructed the wagon driver not to take a shortcut through Germany, but rather to bypass it. Once, the Gra was sitting inside the closed wagon, learning by candlelight, and the wagon driver thought to take a shortcut. Suddenly he heard loud banging on the wagon wall from inside: "Where have you brought us? Get out, get out of here, this is an impure place!" Without seeing anything, in his holiness he sensed the soil of Germany and the Amalek within it.
The Gemara continues: And Rabbi Chama bar Chanina said: There are three hundred crown-bearing princes in Germamya of Edom - meaning three hundred principalities in the Germany of Edom. In the Midrash, the word "Germania" appears explicitly, without any textual emendations needed. "Edom" is the Roman Empire, and it is fascinating that the German Empire also called itself the "Holy Roman Empire," viewing itself as the successor to Rome; and Hitler, may his name and memory be blotted out, saw himself as continuing Roman imperialism. In the Hebrew Encyclopedia, under the entry "Germany," it says regarding the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: "The political fragmentation of Germany had far-reaching consequences. The 300 principalities and free cities zealously guarded their economic independence and burdened commerce by imposing heavy taxes." Three hundred principalities, exactly as the Gemara stated.
The Gemara further adds: Every day they go out against one another, and one of them is killed, and they are preoccupied with establishing a king - there were perpetual wars among them; every day they clash with each other, one is killed, and they are preoccupied with appointing a king to unite them. But the moment they unite and no longer fight each other - woe to us, who knows what will happen! Therefore: "Do not advance his plot [zemamo]" - do not remove the muzzle from his mouth, lest the worst of all come to pass. And indeed, Bismarck, who was known as the "Iron Chancellor," was the one who united the principalities, followed later by the rise of the Nazi regime, and the rest is history.
Rabbi Mazeh, the chief rabbi of Moscow, quoted the words of the Maggid of Kelm, delivered some one hundred and thirty years ago in response to the "Shulchan Aruch" of Geiger, one of the leaders of the Haskalah who authored a "new Shulchan Aruch." The Maggid said: In Germany, they will yet produce a detailed Shulchan Aruch of hatred toward the Jewish people, in which it will be written, "Kill even the best of the Jews." Thus he spoke in a sermon, many years before the Nazis came to power. When the refined German Jews heard this, they said: You come from Eastern Europe, where there are filthy peasants and uncivilized brutes, and you do not know the cultured European salons; that is why you speak this way. Could it be that in Germany they would say, "Kill even the best of the Jews"? And yet we all know - those were the Nuremberg Laws.
The Meshech Chochmah similarly writes: When Jews come to think that Berlin is Jerusalem, disaster will strike them, and specifically from the Germans among whom they strive so hard to assimilate. When people said that the words "And to Jerusalem, Your city, return in mercy" should be deleted from the siddur, since "we have Berlin," he told them: You have Berlin? You will yet see that from Berlin itself the destruction of the Jews will emerge! This, too, was written many years before the Holocaust, when everyone considered it mere fantasy, yet to our great sorrow, these words were fulfilled before our very eyes.
It is related about the Chafetz Chaim that in 5693 (1933), when the oppressor of the Jews rose to power and proclaimed his intention to destroy the Jews, one of the Roshei Yeshivah in Radin asked him what would become of the Jews in Germany and Poland. He answered him: Know that he will not fully succeed. As is known, the Chafetz Chaim had dreams before the Holocaust in which he saw a fire burning and consuming everything, laying waste to forests, and he heard a voice crying out, "Plead for mercy, plead for mercy!" He would wake up terrified in the morning and take upon himself a fast over his dream. People told him: Rabbeinu, you are elderly, this is genuinely dangerous for you. He replied: What are you saying? Who knows, perhaps we can sweeten the decree a little. Indeed, the Holocaust occurred after his passing; had the Chafetz Chaim been alive, it surely would not have happened, and who knows what would have been without his fasts and prayers.
The Chafetz Chaim added: No one has ever succeeded in annihilating the Jewish people, and we have a divine promise - "If Esav comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the remaining camp will escape." The questioner understood that danger was imminent and asked: And if he should succeed, Heaven forbid, in killing the majority of European Jewry, who will be the remaining camp that escapes? He answered him: That too is explicitly stated in the words of the Prophets, in the Book of Ovadiah - "And on Mount Zion there shall be refuge, and it shall be holy." It is related that he said this to Rav Kahaneman in their final conversation; Rav Kahaneman emerged from there shaken, unwilling to reveal all that had been said to him, but the verse "And on Mount Zion there shall be refuge, and it shall be holy" he inscribed on the outer wall of the yeshivah.
And indeed, this came to pass, though it was by no means simple: Rommel and his troops were already at the gates of Alexandria, extremely close to here, and there were already contingency plans to fortify Mount Carmel and recreate Masada - a mass suicide, rather than fall into Nazi hands. They were literally pounding at the door at El Alamein. And by the way, this provides the answer to those who question why the Gedolei Yisrael did not instruct people to move to Eretz Yisrael: it is easy to be wise in hindsight, once you see that everyone here was saved. But the pincer movement was intended to reach here as well, and the Holy One, blessed be He, foiled their plans - exactly as the Chafetz Chaim had foretold. Naturally speaking, who would have sent all the Jews here when the danger seemed even greater, as they would be concentrated in one place, handing the enemy the Jews on a silver platter? In the end, it unfolded just as the Chafetz Chaim said, and it became clear why Yaakov Avinu prayed in advance, "Do not advance his plot [zemamo]" - for if his muzzle were removed, he would destroy the entire world.
רֹאשׁ מְסִבָּי עֲמַל שְׂפָתֵימוֹ יְכַסֵּימוֹ׃ - As for the head of those who surround me, may the mischief of their own lips cover them.
"The head of those who surround me" - the wicked one who leads those encircling me. "May the mischief of their lips cover them" - the lies that he and his cohorts speak about me are what will cover them and bring them down, for "mischief of the lips" denotes falsehood. After all, they constantly incited Shaul, claiming that David sought to fight him and destroy him - and that very mischief of the lips will fall upon their own heads. The Malbim explains that this fourth section deals with the leader of those surrounding him to capture him, corresponding to "and Shaul and his men were encircling David," when they pursued him around the Rock of Divisions: may the mischief of their lips cover them; the sin of evil speech will descend upon their heads, and that is what will harm them and cover them.
יִמּוֹטוּ עֲלֵיהֶם גֶּחָלִים בָּאֵשׁ יַפִּלֵם בְּמַהֲמֹרוֹת בַּל־יָקוּמוּ׃ - May burning coals drop upon them; may He cast them into the fire, into deep pits, never to rise again.
Rashi explains: coals will be dropped upon them, and they will lie in them until they collapse and the coals are extinguished upon them, completely destroying and consuming the body. "May He cast them into the fire" - Scripture does not specify who casts them, for this is an elliptical verse; the One who casts them is the Avenger, casting them into the coals of Gehinnom and plunging them into pits never to rise again. Rashi interprets "pits" (mahamorot) as related to strife and conflict, similar to "you have been rebellious (mamrim)." However, the more familiar explanation is that of Radak: deep ditches or pits, just as the word is used in modern Hebrew. Chazal also taught: initially they would bury them in pits (mahamorot); once the flesh decayed, they gathered the bones and buried them in ossuaries - meaning they would first bury them in pits and later transfer the bones to an ossuary.
The Malbim explains: who will drop coals upon them? That very "mischief of their lips" mentioned earlier - the evil speech they uttered against me is what will bring down burning coals upon them. They themselves will fall into fire and will be unable to flee the danger, for they will tumble into pits from which they cannot rise; the pits will be filled with fire, and the coals will also rain down upon them from above.
אִישׁ לָשׁוֹן בַּל־יִכּוֹן בָּאָרֶץ אִישׁ־חָמָס רָע יְצוּדֶנּוּ לְמַדְחֵפֹת׃ - A slanderer shall not be established in the land; let evil hunt down the man of violence to overthrow him.
Rashi interprets this in reference to Eisav: "game was in his mouth" - meaning he would entrap his father with his mouth, and thus he is called "a man of tongue," whose speech is smooth. "Evil shall hunt down the man of violence to overthrow him" - the very evil he commits will hunt him down, and he will be trapped in the pits he prepared: "He dug a pit and hollowed it out, and fell into the ditch he made." Radak explains that "a man of tongue" refers to Doeg, who was a master of slander and spoke evil against David. "Shall not be established in the land" - he will not remain firmly established with power, but will be brought low and fall. "Evil shall hunt down the man of violence to overthrow him" - the evil he performed will hunt him down until it thrusts him into ruin, driven from one misfortune to another.
The Malbim adds: the slanderer "shall not be established in the land" - he will be unable to survive in the settled land and will flee to the mountaintops, and from there "evil shall hunt down the man of violence to overthrow him." He depicts evil as an abstract entity, designating it "a man of violence": the force of evil in the world will hunt down the slanderer from every mountain and hill to which he flees, pushing him down from the heights to his death.
In Yosef Tehillot, the Chida explains: Chazal taught that four groups do not receive the Divine Presence - flatterers, liars, slanderers, and scoffers. This is "a man of tongue" - the most distinct and corrupt of these four groups - "shall not be established in the land," where "land" is an allusion to the Shechinah, meaning he will not behold the Divine Presence. Why? Because he blemishes the windpipe (kaneh), the source of speech, as opposed to the esophagus (veshet), the channel of eating - a place that was not blemished by the sin of Adam HaRishon. Furthermore, he blemishes voice and speech, which correspond to the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah; he blemishes the mouth, which alludes to the Shechinah, and both "lip" (safah) and "tongue" (lashon) share the numerical value of Shechinah. Therefore, "he shall not be established in the land," unless he undertakes great repentance for his actions through "a healing tongue is a tree of life" - immersion in Torah study. Without this, he shall not be established in the land.
יָדַעְתִּי כִּי־יַעֲשֶׂה יְהֹוָה דִּין עָנִי מִשְׁפַּט אֶבְיֹנִים׃ - I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the poor, the justice of the needy.
I know that in the end, the Holy One, blessed be He, will execute the judgment of the poor and avenge His servants. The Malbim explains: "The judgment of the poor" - this is David; "the justice of the needy" - these are David's men. In the book Imrot Tehorot, a wondrous allusion is brought in the name of the Chatam Sofer: Our Sages taught that one of the reasons Elisha ben Avuyah, known as Acher, strayed into heresy was that he saw the tongue of Rabbi Chutzpit the Meturgeman cast upon a dung heap. He exclaimed: "Should a mouth that produced pearls lick the dust?" He did not realize that "that it may go well with you" refers to the World to Come, a world that is wholly good, and "that your days may be prolonged" refers to a world that is endlessly long, and not to this world. This is alluded to in the verse: "A man of tongue" (ish lashon) - this refers to Chutzpit the Meturgeman, a mouth that produced pearls; "shall not be established on the earth" - how could it be that his tongue licks the earth? Rather, we believe with complete faith that the Rock, His work is perfect, and His thoughts are profound. Meanwhile, "a violent evil man" (ish chamas ra) - whose Hebrew initials spell Acher (א-ח-ר), referring to Elisha Acher - "evil shall hunt him to overthrow him": this episode ensnared him and pushed him into heresy through what he witnessed. David says: I declare, "I know that Hashem will maintain the cause of the poor, the justice of the needy," and Hashem will avenge them; therefore, I am not distressed by this, for I believe with complete faith that glory will ultimately arrive and reward will be granted.
אַךְ צַדִּיקִים יוֹדוּ לִשְׁמֶךָ יֵשְׁבוּ יְשָׁרִים אֶת־פָּנֶיךָ׃ - Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your Name; the upright shall dwell in Your presence.
He asks that the Holy One, blessed be He, hasten our redemption and bring about a state where the righteous give thanks to His Name. The Malbim explains: The righteous "shall give thanks to Your Name," whereas the upright (yesharim), who are on an even higher level than the righteous, will comprehend the Holy One, blessed be He, in His very essence - not merely "Your Name," but "the upright shall dwell in Your presence," like those close to the King who sit before Him and behold Him directly; they will perceive the Divine, the greatness of the Creator, and Divine Providence.
Let us conclude with an allusion: Commentators explain that the righteous, even when they suffer in this world, do not harbor complaints against the Holy One, blessed be He. Instead, they thank Him, blessed be He, for everything He brings upon them, for they know that in this world they are merely guests, and all suffering serves only to refine them and is for their ultimate good, while in the World to Come they are assured of an existence that is wholly good. Where is this hinted? "Ach tzaddikim yodu lishmecha" - the word "ach" (אַךְ) can be read as a cry of pain (like "ach!"), as in the verse "And only Noah remained" (vayisha'er ach Noach), where our Sages teach that he was groaning and coughing blood from being struck by the lion. Even when the righteous groan "ach" - when they are in pain - nevertheless, "they shall give thanks to Your Name," offering thanks and praise without complaint.