Awake to hasten for my help, and behold. In using this language, he glances at the eagerness with which his enemies, as he had already said, were pressing upon him, and states his desire that God would show the same haste in extending help as they did in seeking his destruction. With the view of conciliating the divine favor, he once more calls upon God to be the witness and judge of his cause, adding, and behold The expression is one which savours at once of faith and of the infirmity of the flesh. In speaking of God, as if his eyes had been hitherto shut to the wrongs which he had suffered, and needed now for the first time to be opened for the discovery of them, he expresses himself according to the weakness of our human apprehension. On the other hand, in calling upon God to behold his cause, he shows his faith by virtually acknowledging that nothing was hid from his providential cognisance. Though David may use language of this description, suited to the infirmity of sense, we must not suppose him to have doubted before this time that his afflictions, his innocence, and his wrongs, were known to God. Now, however, he lays the whole before God for examination and decision. He prosecutes the same prayer with still greater vehemency in the verse which succeeds. He addresses God under new titles, calling him Jehovah, God of Hosts, and the God of Israel, the first of which appellations denotes the immensity of his power, and the second the special care which he exerts over the Church, and over all his people. The manner in which the pronoun is introduced, and Thou, etc., is emphatical, denoting that it was as impossible for God to lay aside the office of a judge as to deny himself, or divest himself of his being. He calls upon him to visit all the nations: for although the cause which he now submitted was of no such universal concernment, the wider exercise of judgment would necessarily include the lesser; and on the supposition of heathens and foreigners being subjected to the judgment of God, it followed that a still more certain and heavy doom would be awarded to enemies within the pale of the Church, who persecuted the saints under the guise of brethren, and overthrew those laws which were of divine appointment. The opposition which David encountered might not embrace all nations; but if these were judicially visited by God, it was absurd to imagine that those within the Church would be the only enemies who should escape with impunity. In using these words, it is probable also that he may have been struggling with a temptation with which he was severely assailed, connected with the number of his enemies, for these did not consist merely of three or four abandoned individuals. They formed a great multitude; and he rises above them all by reflecting that God claims it as his prerogative, not only to reduce a few refractory persons to submission, but to punish the wickedness of the whole world. If the judgments of God extended to the uttermost parts of the earth, there was no reason why he should be afraid of his enemies, who, however numerous, formed but a small section of the human race. We shall shortly see, however, that the expression admits of being applied without impropriety to the Israelites, divided, as they were, into so many tribes or peoples. In the words which follow, when he deprecates the extension of God's mercy to wicked transgressors, we must understand him as referring to the reprobate, whose sin was of a desperate character. We must also remember, what has been already observed, that in such prayers he was not influenced by mere private feelings, and these of a rancorous, distempered, and inordinate description. Not only did he know well that those of whom he speaks with such severity were already doomed to destruction, but he is here pleading the common cause of the Church, and this under the influence of the pure and well-regulated zeal of the Spirit. He therefore affords no precedent to such as resent private injuries by vending curses on those who have inflicted them.

They run and prepare themselves - That is, they "hasten" to accomplish this; they are quick to obey the command of Saul requiring them to slay me. The word "prepare" refers to whatever was deemed necessary to enable them to accomplish what they had been commanded to do - arming themselves, making provision for their journey, etc.
Without my fault - That is, without anything on my part to deserve this, or to justify Saul and those employed by him in what they attempt to do. David, in all this, was conscious of innocence. In his own feelings toward Saul, and in all his public acts, he knew that he had sought only the king's welfare, and that he had been obedient to the laws.
Awake to help me - That is, "arouse," as one does from sleep. See the notes at Psalm 7:6. Compare Psalm 35:23. The word rendered "to help me," is rendered in the margin, "to meet me." This is the meaning of the Hebrew. It is a prayer that God would meet him, or come to him, and aid him.

They run and prepare themselves - They leave no stone unturned that they may effect my destruction and prevent the building.

They run and prepare themselves without my fault,.... Or, "without sin in me"; or "without punishment in them"; so the same word is rendered, 1-Samuel 28:10. "They run", in an hostile manner, "against me", as the Syriac version adds; or like dogs up and down, about the city, to find him and kill him; see Psalm 59:7. Or this may denote their readiness and swiftness to shed blood, Proverbs 1:16; "and prepare themselves" with weapon, with instruments of death, as the men did that were sent to kill him; and as the band of men that came with Judas to take Christ prepared themselves with swords and staves. The Targum is,
"they order or ordain war;''
which they prosecuted without any occasion of it from him, and wilt, impunity in them. Wherefore it follows,
awake to help me; or "to meet me" (n); see Genesis 46:29; with succour and supplies, and to deliver out of the hands of enemies. The Lord, though he neither slumbers nor sleeps, yet seems to be asleep when he does not arise to help his people, but suffers the enemy to prevail; and when he seems to take no notice of their case, but hides his eyes, and shuts them as a man asleep. Hence the following petition,
and behold; the distress the psalmist was in, and the wickedness and malice of his enemies against him.
(n) "in occursum meum", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Gejerus, Michaelis.

prepare, &c.--literally, "set themselves as in array."
awake--(Compare Psalm 3:7; Psalm 7:6), appeals to God in His covenant relation to His people (Psalm 9:18).

Run - To and fro, to receive Saul's commands, and to execute them with all speed.