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Passage Research

Psalm 140 — Sermon Preparation

A David prayer for protection from violent schemers whose tongues are sharp as serpents, trusting that God maintains the cause of the needy. Below is a research summary for Psalm 140, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.

14
verses
116 / 90
Hebrew words / lemmas
5
classic sermon excerpts
3
preachers & commentators

Psalm 140 in the Hebrew

Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.

HebrewTransliterationStrong'sCountGlosses
חָמָסchâmâçH25553violence, wrong
רַעraʻH74513bad, evil
נָצַרnâtsarH53412guard, protect
לָשׁוֹןlâshôwnH39562tongue
חָשַׁבchâshabH28032plait, interpenetrate
שָׂפָהsâphâhH81932lip, language
רָשָׁעrâshâʻH75632wrong, bad

How preachers through history handled this text

5 public-domain excerpts on Psalm 140, from the church fathers to the Puritans.

Matthew Henry3Alexander MacLaren1John Wesley1

“This and the four following psalms are much of a piece, and the scope of them the same with many that we met with in the beginning and middle of the book of Psalms, though with but few of late. They were penned by David (as it should seem) when he was persecuted by Saul; one of them is said to be his "prayer when he was in the cave," and it is probable that all the rest were penned about the same time. In this psalm, I. David complains of the malice of his enemies, and prays to God to preserve him from them, ver. 1-5. II. …”

— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 3 (Job to Song of Solomon), on Psalm 140:1–30 (Public Domain)

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