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Psalm 63 · a question people ask

"They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be jackal food" (63:10). How can a psalm say that?

In the text

First, what the verses say. They are not a prayer: the psalmist says what "shall" happen to "those who seek my soul to destroy it" (63:9). He gives no command to anyone, and he doesn't say he will act against them himself. They "shall go into the lower parts of the earth" (63:9), and the psalm's last words are "for the mouth of those who speak lies shall be silenced" (63:11) (tap silenced). Just before, the psalmist has said, "My soul stays close to you. Your right hand holds me up" (63:8). The psalm doesn't name its enemies, and these notes don't. Other psalms do ask God to act against enemies, and Christians read those prayers in more than one way. The chapter on Psalm 109 sets out the main readings, each resting on its verses, and chooses none. These notes don't choose either.

The verses

“My soul stays close to you. Your right hand holds me up. But those who seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be jackal food. But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him will praise him, for the mouth of those who speak lies shall be silenced.”
Psalm 63:8-11 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 63

Psalm 63: My soul thirsts for you

The soul that thirsts "in a dry and weary land" (63:1) is the soul that "shall be satisfied as with the richest food" (63:5): nafshi both times. And "better than life" (63:3) and "while I live" (63:4) are one Hebrew word: God's loving kindness is better than life, and the psalmist says he will bless him all through it.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions