Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Hide me - Or, more literally, thou wilt hide me. There is both an implied prayer that this might be done, and a confident belief that it would be done. The idea is, Protect me; guard me; make me safe - as one is who is hidden or concealed so that his enemies cannot find him.
From the secret counsel - The word used here - sôd - means properly couch, cushion; and then, a divan, a circle of friends sitting together on couches for familiar conversation, or for counsel. See Psalms 25:14, note; Psalms 55:14, note; compare Job 15:8; Job 29:4. Here the reference is to the consultations of his enemies for the purpose of doing him wrong. Of course, as they took this counsel together, he could not know it, and the word secret is not improperly applied to it. The idea here is, that although he did not know what that counsel or purpose was, or what was the result of their consultations, yet God knew, and he could guard him against it.
Of the wicked - Not the wicked in general, but his particular foes who were endeavoring to destroy him. Luther renders this, "from the assembling of the wicked."
From the insurrection - The word used here - ׁ rigshâh - means properly a "noisy crowd, a multitude." The allusion is to such a crowd, such a disorderly and violent rabble, as constituted a mob. He was in danger not only from the secret purposes of the more calm and thoughtful of his enemies who were plotting against him, but from the excited passions of the multitude, and thus his life was in double danger. If he escaped the one, he had no security that he would escape the other. So the Redeemer was exposed to a double danger. There was the danger arising from the secret plottings of the Scribes and Pharisees assembled in council, and there was also the danger arising from the infuriated passions of the multitude. The former calmly laid the plan for putting him to death by a judicial trial; the others took up stones to stone him, or cried, "Crucify him, crucify him!" The word insurrection here does not well express the idea. The word tumult would better represent the meaning of the original.
Of the workers of iniquity - That is, of those who were arrayed against him.
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