Catholic Commentary on Psalm 64

"The righteous will rejoice in the Lord and take refuge in him; all the upright in heart will glory in him!" (Psalm 64:10)

The Hidden Attack

Psalm 64 describes a particular kind of threat: the coordinated hidden assault by those who use their words as weapons. They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim cruel words like deadly arrows. They shoot from ambush at the innocent; they shoot suddenly, without fear. The tongue-as-sword and words-as-arrows is a recurring metaphor in the Psalter, because the damage done by words can be as real and as lasting as physical injury. The person who is attacked by slander, by coordinated rumour, by the campaign of lies conducted in secret, experiences something that is genuinely like being shot from ambush.

The attackers congratulate themselves on the perfection of their scheme: who can see us? Who can examine our motives? We have devised a perfect plan. This is the quintessential self-deception of the wicked: the belief that cleverness is invulnerability. But God, who sees all things, will suddenly shoot them with his arrows, and their own tongues will ruin them, because all who see them will flee in alarm.

The Divine Reversal

The conclusion of Psalm 64 contains one of the great reversals of the Psalter: the arrows aimed at the innocent are redirected by God at those who aimed them. The tongues that devised the attacks become the instruments of the attackers' own destruction. This is not vindictiveness but the description of moral coherence: the evil that is set in motion does not simply disappear; it returns to its source. The Catechism calls this the natural consequence of sin, which carries its punishment within it (CCC 1472).

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, if you are under hidden attack today, if words are being used as weapons against you in ways you cannot directly address, Psalm 64 commissions your prayer. Bring it to God. He sees the ambush. He knows the hidden counsel. And the conclusion is not the success of the attackers but the rejoicing of the righteous: all the upright in heart will glory in him.

Prayer

Hear me, O God, as I voice my complaint. Protect me from the threat of the enemy, from the conspiracy of the wicked. They aim their words like arrows. But you will act. Turn their own tongues against them. And let the righteous rejoice and take refuge in you. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

64
The Hurtful Tongue
(James 3:1–12)
For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
 
1 Hear, O God, my voice of complaint;
preserve my life from dread of the enemy.
2 Hide me from the scheming of the wicked,
from the mob of workers of iniquity,
3 who sharpen their tongues like swords
and aim their bitter words like arrows,
4 ambushing the innocent in seclusion,
shooting suddenly, without fear.
 
5 They hold fast to their evil purpose;
they speak of hiding their snares.
“Who will see them?” they say.
6 They devise injustice and say,
“We have perfected a secret plan.”
For the inner man and the heart are mysterious.
 
7 But God will shoot them with arrows;
suddenly they will be wounded.
8 They will be made to stumble,
their own tongues turned against them.
All who see will shake their heads.
9 Then all mankind will fear
and proclaim the work of God;
so they will ponder what He has done.
 
10 Let the righteous rejoice in the LORD
and take refuge in Him;
let all the upright in heart exult.

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