“To the chief musician, a psalm of David. Hear, O God, my voice in my meditation; from fear of the enemy, thou wilt preserve my life. Thou wilt hide me from the secret of evil-doers, from the tumult of workers of iniquity, who have sharpened like the sword their tongues, have bent their arrow, a bitter word, to shoot in the secret places at the perfect; suddenly they will shoot at him and fear not. They will strengthen for themselves an evil matter; they concert to hide snares; they have said, who will see to them? They devise iniquities: We are ready [finished]! a well-devised device! and man's inward (thought) and heart [is deep. But God shall shoot at them: with an arrow suddenly the wounds have been theirs. And they shall be made to stumble, their own tongue against them; all that see them shall flee away. And every man shall fear, and they shall declare God's doings, and his work they shall understand. The righteous one shall be glad in Jehovah, and trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory” (ver. 1-11).
Thus the godly are consoled by the assurance of God's sudden and retributive judgment of their enemies, who are here described not as reprobates only but as malicious against the righteous, plotting and conspiring; but suddenly God's judgment falls, others fear as they behold God's doing, and the righteous rejoice in Jehovah Who has thus appeared at length in vindication of His name.