The suffering Jesus here prays for protection from His insidious infidel persecutors, who privily plot against Him, and despise the judgments of God.
More fully, however, it is the desire of the Spirit of Christ in union with the afflicted Remnant in the latter day. For against them, as against Jesus Himself, the infidel faction, as we know both from Psalms and Prophets, will plot.
The righteous know that God has His arrows as well as the wicked—His of judgment, theirs of deceit and mischief (Psa. 64:3,73Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words: (Psalm 64:3)
7But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded. (Psalm 64:7)). And they assure themselves that they will see their enemies taken in their own evil way, and then the world around fleeing from them, and learning, by His judgments, to fear the Lord and to publish His doings. And, finally, they take knowledge of themselves, as making their boast, putting their trust, and reaping their joy, in the God of their salvation.