like profane mockers at a feast, they gnash at me with their teeth.
David's enemies are not mere dupes swept along by Saul's court; he distinguishes carefully between those thoughtlessly caught up in hatred through ignorance and those deliberate malefactors who wickedly conspired to destroy an innocent man for favor. Against the latter, he calls on God for justice, knowing his own innocence and relying on God's promise spoken through Samuel.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 35:1-28
"With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their teeth." Like professional buffoons who grin around the banquet to make sport, so they made a business of jeering at the good man; not, however, out of mirth, but from violent, insatiable hatred.
False witnesses rose up and swore to treasons David never committed, and ingratitude compounded the injury: they repaid good service with evil. This happened to the Son of David too. Such persecution shows how the innocent lie at the mercy of the wicked, yet it teaches us that God holds even bad men's consciences in check, or the harm would be far greater.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 35:11-16