Read & explore together
Contend with My Opponents, O LORD
Psalm 35 is a prayer-song asking Yahweh to answer unjust attack. The speaker names traps, false witness and mockery, and keeps turning the whole complaint into prayer, ending with hope for vindication and praise.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
Within this psalm, the speaker says enemies pursue him, hide nets, seek his ruin, accuse him falsely, repay good with evil, and rejoice in his trouble. The passage stays in poetic language, but its requests are clear: defence, rescue, vindication, and public praise to Yahweh.
Psalms 35:1–28Main takeaway
This psalm teaches that a person facing unjust hostility may bring the whole matter to Yahweh and ask for help according to his righteousness.
Explore the poem and its images
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01A call for Yahweh to defendThe psalm begins with urgent commands directed to Yahweh: “Contend”, “Fight”, “Take hold of shield and buckler”, and “Brandish the spear”.
Explanation
The psalm begins with urgent commands directed to Yahweh: “Contend”, “Fight”, “Take hold of shield and buckler”, and “Brandish the spear”. These are poetic battle images for divine help. The speaker also asks for personal assurance: “Tell my soul, ‘I am your salvation.’” His enemies pursue and plot against him without cause.
02Justice against hidden trapsThe prayer asks that the attackers be driven like chaff and caught in the net they hid. Their own trap is to become their downfall.
Explanation
The prayer asks that the attackers be driven like chaff and caught in the net they hid. Their own trap is to become their downfall. Against that danger, the speaker looks forward to joy in Yahweh’s salvation and praises him as the one who delivers poor and needy people from someone stronger.
03Evil repaid for goodThe complaint becomes more specific. Unrighteous witnesses question the speaker about things he does not know, and they repay evil for good.
Explanation
The complaint becomes more specific. Unrighteous witnesses question the speaker about things he does not know, and they repay evil for good. He had mourned, fasted and prayed for them like a friend or brother. Yet in his adversity they gathered, rejoiced, mocked and attacked without stopping.
04Rescue, vindication and praiseThe closing lines ask, “How long?” and plead for rescue. The speaker asks that enemies not rejoice, gloat, or say, “We have swallowed him up.”
Explanation
The closing lines ask, “How long?” and plead for rescue. The speaker asks that enemies not rejoice, gloat, or say, “We have swallowed him up.” Because Yahweh has seen, he asks for vindication according to Yahweh’s righteousness. The psalm ends with thanks in the assembly and all-day praise.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01What kinds of help does the speaker ask for at the start of the psalm?
Notice both the battle images of shield and spear and the inward word, “I am your salvation.”
02How do verses 13 to 16 sharpen the sense of injustice?
Compare the speaker’s fasting, prayer and mourning for others with their rejoicing, mockery and attack against him.
03How does the psalm move from complaint to praise in the final part?
Look for the requests for rescue and vindication, then the promises of thanks, magnifying Yahweh and all-day praise.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Psalms 35:1–28
1Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me.
2Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for my help.
3Brandish the spear and block those who pursue me. Tell my soul, “I am your salvation.”
4Let those who seek after my soul be disappointed and brought to dishonor. Let those who plot my ruin be turned back and confounded.
5Let them be as chaff before the wind, Yahweh’s angel driving them on.
6Let their way be dark and slippery, Yahweh’s angel pursuing them.
7For without cause they have hidden their net in a pit for me. Without cause they have dug a pit for my soul.
8Let destruction come on him unawares. Let his net that he has hidden catch himself. Let him fall into that destruction.
9My soul shall be joyful in Yahweh. It shall rejoice in his salvation.
10All my bones shall say, “Yahweh, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?”
11Unrighteous witnesses rise up. They ask me about things that I don’t know about.
12They reward me evil for good, to the bereaving of my soul.
13But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom.
14I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. I bowed down mourning, as one who mourns his mother.
15But in my adversity, they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together. The attackers gathered themselves together against me, and I didn’t know it. They tore at me, and didn’t cease.
16Like the profane mockers in feasts, they gnashed their teeth at me.
17Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my soul from their destruction, my precious life from the lions.
18I will give you thanks in the great assembly. I will praise you among many people.
19Don’t let those who are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me; neither let those who hate me without a cause wink their eyes.
20For they don’t speak peace, but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land.
21Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me. They said, “Aha! Aha! Our eye has seen it!”
22You have seen it, Yahweh. Don’t keep silent. Lord, don’t be far from me.
23Wake up! Rise up to defend me, my God! My Lord, contend for me!
24Vindicate me, Yahweh my God, according to your righteousness. Don’t let them gloat over me.
25Don’t let them say in their heart, “Aha! That’s the way we want it!” Don’t let them say, “We have swallowed him up!”
26Let them be disappointed and confounded together who rejoice at my calamity. Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me.
27Let those who favor my righteous cause shout for joy and be glad. Yes, let them say continually, “May Yahweh be magnified, who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant!”
28My tongue shall talk about your righteousness and about your praise all day long.