Psalms 49:5

He speaks in his own person, because he had now said that he would incline his ear, Psalms 49:4, i.e. learn and practise what he was teaching others; but his meaning is more general, that there is no sufficient cause why he or any good man should fear; which is to be understood of excessive or immoderate and prevailing fear, causing dejection or despondency, or distrust of God's providence and goodness, or discontent with his condition; in which sense men are bid not to fear, Genesis 1:19 Matthew 28:5, compared with Mark 16:6. Thus Genesis 45:5, Be not grieved, to wit, inordinately; for otherwise they ought, and he would have had them to grieve for their sin. Thus to lead a man into temptation, Matthew 6:13, is to suffer him to be overcome by it, by comparing 1 Corinthians 10:13. And the object or cause of this forbidden fear is double; the one, the afflictions of good men, here following; the other, the prosperity of the ungodly, as it is declared Psalms 49:16, and of which he begins to treat in the very next verse, and continues the discourse of it to the end of the Psalm. In the days of evil; either,

1. Of sin; when iniquity of all sorts abounds; which is many ways grievous and vexatious to every good man. Or,

2. Of misery; in times of great distress and calamity, either public or private, when wicked men flourish, (of which he speaks in all the rest of the Psalm,) and good men are oppressed and persecuted. The iniquity of my heels; by which he understands either,

1. His afflictions; which he might justly call the punishment of his sinful actions; for iniquity is commonly put for the punishment of it, and the heels are put for a man's footsteps, and metaphorically for one's ways or actions, as Psalms 56:6, Psalms 89:51. Or, 2. The iniquity, i.e. the violent and injurious designs and practices of his ungodly and malicious enemies, who, as he here saith, did compass him about; whereby he notes their prosperous success against him, and his being endangered and vexed by them, as this phrase implies, Job 16:13 Psalms 17:9,11 Psalms 22:12 140:9 Habakkuk 1:4; and withal their intention and endeavour to vex and persecute and destroy him, as this phrase is used, Psalms 17:9, Psalms 22:12,16, and in many other places. This sense is favoured both by the Syriac and Arabic interpreters; whereof the former renders the words thus, the iniquity of mine enemies hath compassed me, and the latter thus, when mine enemies shall compass me about; and by the main scope of the Psalm, which is to comfort himself and other good men against that great scandal of the prosperity of the wicked, and the oppressions and miseries of the righteous. But all the difficulty is why or how he calls this the iniquity of his heels. For the clearing whereof, it is humbly proposed to consideration, that this genitive case, of my heels, seems to note not the efficient or meritorious cause of this iniquity, or punishment of it, but the object about which this iniquity is exercised; as nouns in the genitive case are frequently taken. Thus the spoil of the poor, Isaiah 3:14, is not that spoil which was made by them, but upon them; and the violence of the children of Judah, as it is in the Hebrew text, Joel 3:19, is that which was done against them, as we truly translate it. See also Daniel 4:27 Matthew 10:1 Acts 4:9. In like manner here, the iniquity of my heels, is the iniquity wherewith they compass and seek to trip up my heels; for we shall find David oft speaking of the malicious practices of his enemies, with respect to his heels, feet, or steps. So he tells us they pierced his hands and feet, Psalms 22:16, they compassed, and marked, and prepared a net for his steps, Psalms 17:11, Psalms 56:6 57:6; as Jeremiah also complains of his enemies, that they hid snare for his feet, Jeremiah 18:22. And therefore it is not strange that the iniquity of his enemies is here noted to be exercised about his heels or footsteps as this word signifies; either because they did malignantly observe all his steps or ways, that they might find occasion to load him with reproaches in order to his ruin; or because they purposed to trip up his heels, or to overthrow his goings, as he complains, Psalms 140:4. Besides, the words may be rendered, the iniquity of my supplanters; for the Hebrew word rendered heels may be, and is by some learned interpreters taken for a particle of that verb, which signifies to supplant or trip up the heels, or circumvent, from whence Jacob had his name And this character fitly agrees to David's enemies, who were not only most malicious, but also very deceitful and treacherous, as he every where complains.