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Psalm 35 (LXX 34) - Contend, O Lord, with Those Who Contend with Me

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Psalm 35 is the prayer of the righteous man surrounded by malicious opposition. David asks God not merely to comfort him, but to contend for him, because false witnesses, betrayal, and hatred without cause have become too heavy for human strength. The Church hears this Psalm with Christ before the council, Christ before Pilate, and Christ surrounded by accusers who reward good with evil. Spiritually, it teaches the believer how to cry for justice without becoming cruel, and how to entrust vindication to God rather than letting injury harden the heart.

Psalm Metadata

FieldNotes
NKJV / Masoretic numberingPsalm 35
Septuagint / Coptic numberingPsalm 34. The displayed Scripture retains Brenton’s chapter and verse labels.
Accepted authorDavid by superscription. Brenton begins, “A Psalm of David.”
Period in author’s lifeNo precise life period is given. The language fits Davidic persecution, false accusation, and betrayal, but the superscription does not identify an episode.
Christ prophecy statusPassion Psalm: false witnesses, hatred without cause, love repaid with evil, and divine vindication. John 15:25 plausibly echoes Psalm 35:19 (Brenton LXX 34:19) or Psalm 69:4 (Brenton LXX 68:5); John does not identify one exclusive source.
Coptic lectionary/service useA named historical Holy Pascha book places excerpts at Good Friday First Hour. Retained dated readings also attest the Lent and annual examples described below.
Numbering issueCommentary uses MT numbering first, with the Brenton LXX counterpart labeled. Worship references preserve the service’s printed labels separately; selected words, not a universal verse offset, establish the correspondence.

Historical and Scriptural Context

Psalm 35 belongs to the Davidic prayers for deliverance from enemies, but it is more than a generic conflict Psalm. Its enemies lie, mock, repay good with evil, and rejoice in the suffering of someone who had treated them as a neighbour or brother. This is personal betrayal, public accusation, and spiritual danger at once.

The preceding Psalm 34 (Brenton LXX 33) praises God after humiliating deliverance. Psalm 35 (Brenton LXX 34) moves from rescue already tasted to conflict still unresolved. The believer is being taught two prayers side by side: bless the Lord after He delivers, and cry to the Lord while enemies still speak.

Fr. Tadros Malaty’s modern pastoral commentary draws attention to the hope that repeatedly interrupts this lament. The wrong remains real, but the Psalmist keeps looking beyond his accusers toward the Lord’s salvation and the congregation’s praise.

Geographical Significance ⛰️

No specific geography is named in this Psalm. The meaningful movement is judicial and spiritual: the Psalmist stands as an accused man, surrounded by hostile witnesses, asking the Lord to arise as defender and judge.

🕯️ Light from the Word

Psalm 35:1-10 (Brenton LXX 34:1-10), God contends for the defenseless

34:1 A Psalm of David. Judge thou, O Lord, them that injure me, fight against them that fight against me. 34:2 Take hold of shield and buckler, and arise for my help. 34:3 Bring forth a sword, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say to my soul, I am thy salvation. 34:4 Let them that seek my soul be ashamed and confounded: let them that devise evils against me be turned back and put to shame. 34:5 Let them be as dust before the wind, and an angel of the Lord afflicting them. 34:6 Let their way be dark and slippery, and an angel of the Lord persecuting them. 34:7 For without cause they have hid for me their destructive snare: without a cause they have reproached my soul. 34:8 Let a snare which they know not come upon them: and the gin which they hid take them; and let them fall into the very same snare. 34:9 But my soul shall exult in the Lord: it shall delight in his salvation. 34:10 All my bones shall say, O Lord, who is like to thee? delivering the poor out of the hand of them that are stronger than he, yea, the poor and needy one from them that spoil him.

The Psalm opens with a bold request: “fight against them that fight against me.” This is not permission for personal revenge. David is refusing to make himself judge, executioner, and savior. He places the case before God.

At the heart of the opening is the word David asks God to speak: “I am thy salvation.” David does not only ask for external rescue. He asks for an inward word strong enough to steady the soul when enemies are stronger than he is. He needs God Himself, not merely the removal of an obstacle.

The judgment petitions are severe. The angel afflicts and pursues; the enemies’ way becomes dark and slippery. These are appeals for God to act against destructive evil, not merely descriptions of evil naturally collapsing. The returned snare adds another dimension: David asks that the trap intended for the innocent should catch its makers. Evil is self-entangling, but God is also its judge.

Augustine distinguishes these strands. In section 5 of his exposition, he hopes that shame will bring persecutors to conversion. In section 6, he reads the angelic judgment prophetically, as God’s righteous judgment rather than the speaker’s vindictive desire. In section 8, he explains the snare as wrongdoing returning upon those who devised it. His prophetic reading does not change the grammatical form of Brenton’s displayed petitions.1

Christian prayer therefore asks God to stop evil and entrusts judgment to Him, while seeking the wrongdoer’s repentance. We need not choose between the victim’s protection and the enemy’s conversion. The poor person must not be left in the spoiler’s hand.

St. Athanasius supplies a related principle, not an explanation of this particular snare: the Psalter gives the afflicted words with which to turn their condition into prayer. He also specifically recommends this Psalm among prayers that place judgment in God’s hands when persecution persists.2

The movement ends with the whole person praising: “All my bones shall say.” The oppressor’s greater strength does not determine the sufferer’s worth. God delivers the poor because the poor are not beneath His notice.

Psalm 35:11-16 (Brenton LXX 34:11-16), false witnesses and love repaid with evil

34:11 Unjust witnesses arose, and asked me of things I knew not. 34:12 They rewarded me evil for good, and bereavement to my soul. 34:13 But I, when they troubled me, put on sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting: and my prayer shall return to my own bosom. 34:14 I behaved agreeably towards them as if it had been our neighbour or brother: I humbled myself as one mourning and sad of countenance. 34:15 Yet they rejoiced against me, and plagues were plentifully brought against me, and I knew it not: they were scattered, but repented not. 34:16 They tempted me, they sneered at me most contemptuously, they gnashed their teeth upon me.

This section is the heart of the betrayal. “Bereavement to my soul” names an inward loss: the injury reaches the place where companionship and faithful kindness should have been. The Psalm does not identify a particular death here; it gives betrayal the weight of mourning.

Notice Brenton’s actual wording: “when they troubled me.” David responds to their hostility with sackcloth, fasting, and prayer, while treating them as a neighbour or brother. His conduct supports a reading of compassionate prayer for his adversaries. But this text does not describe their sickness or his mourning for a mother; those details belong to another English rendering.

“My prayer shall return to my own bosom” is a difficult image. Augustine draws from it an invitation to pray inwardly, where God sees and hears even when other people do not. This is a useful spiritual reading, not an exhaustive explanation of the image. The line need not mean that God has rejected the prayer or that prayer for another person has been wasted.3

The next verse refuses an easy reconciliation. “Plagues” describes the many afflictions brought against the Psalmist, not a specified medical diagnosis. His enemies rejoice over his distress; even their scattering has not become repentance. Being checked or dispersed is not the same as turning back to God.

The unjust witnesses become especially clear in the Passion. Matthew 26:57-68 and Mark 14:53-65 recount false testimony against Christ. Augustine reads the accusation of things unknown in the light of Christ’s innocence: He knew the accusers’ hearts, but He had not committed the evil charged against Him. This is a Christological reading of the verse, not a suggestion that Christ lacked knowledge.4

The spiritual danger here is bitterness. The Psalmist names the wrong clearly, but he still prays to God rather than becoming the same kind of person as his accusers. Christian forgiveness does not require pretending false witness is harmless. Nor does it require unsafe contact, silence about abuse, or the abandonment of lawful protection and justice.

Psalm 35:17-18 (Brenton LXX 34:17-18), the only-begotten one and the great congregation

34:17 O Lord, when wilt thou look upon me? Deliver my soul from their mischief, mine only-begotten one from the lions. 34:18 I will give thanks to thee even in a great congregation: in an abundant people I will praise thee.

Brenton’s phrase “mine only-begotten one” is striking. In the Psalm’s literal sense, it stands beside “my soul” and expresses the preciousness and vulnerability of the Psalmist’s one life. The Psalmist’s life is not disposable.

Read in Christ, the phrase opens into deeper light. The Only-begotten Son enters the place of the hunted righteous man. This is Christian resonance, not a replacement of the phrase’s immediate reference to the endangered life. His deliverance through Resurrection becomes praise in the great congregation, the Church gathered by His victory over death.

The question “when wilt thou look upon me?” is not unbelief disguised as prayer. It is the cry of someone who still addresses God while waiting. Before the rescue is visible, David promises public thanksgiving. His private distress will not have the last word; neither will his deliverance remain only a private possession.

This is why Christian interpretation does not flatten the Psalm into either David only or Christ only. David’s words are real. Christ fills them to their depth.

Psalm 35:19-28 (Brenton LXX 34:19-28), hatred without cause and vindication without revenge

34:19 Let not them that are mine enemies without a cause rejoice against me; who hate me for nothing, and wink with their eyes. 34:20 For to me they spoke peaceably, but imagined deceits in their anger. 34:21 And they opened wide their mouth upon me; they said, Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it. 34:22 Thou hast seen it, O Lord: keep not silence: O Lord, withdraw not thyself from me. 34:23 Awake, O Lord, and attend to my judgment, even to my cause, my God and my Lord. 34:24 Judge me, O Lord, according to thy righteousness, O Lord my God; and let them not rejoice against me. 34:25 Let them not say in their hearts, Aha, aha, it is pleasing to our soul: neither let them say, We have devoured him. 34:26 Let them be confounded and ashamed together that rejoice at my afflictions: let them be clothed with shame and confusion that speak great swelling words against me. 34:27 Let them that rejoice in my righteousness exult and be glad: and let them say continually, The Lord be magnified, who desire the peace of his servant. 34:28 And my tongue shall meditate on thy righteousness, and on thy praise all the day.

The phrase “hate me for nothing” is one of the great Passion lines of the Psalter. In John 15:18-27, Christ teaches His disciples to understand the world’s hatred in relation to its hatred of Him. His fulfillment statement in John 15:25 plausibly echoes Psalm 35:19 (Brenton LXX 34:19) or Psalm 69:4 (Brenton LXX 68:5). Both contain hatred without cause; the Gospel does not specify one to the exclusion of the other.

The enemies claim, “our eyes have seen it.” David answers, “Thou hast seen it, O Lord.” Their boast does not establish the truth. God has seen what lies beneath their peaceful speech, their winking signals, and their public accusations. David asks the true witness to act as judge.

“Awake” is the language of urgent appeal, not a claim that God literally sleeps. “According to thy righteousness” also places David’s cause under a standard greater than his own anger. Augustine warns here that suffering alone does not prove a person righteous: the cause must be examined. We may bring our injuries honestly to God without claiming that pain makes every judgment of ours infallible.

The ending matters. David does not conclude with hatred. He asks that those who desire his peace would say, “The Lord be magnified.” His tongue ends not in obsession with enemies, but in meditation on God’s righteousness and praise.

Augustine makes this final praise concrete. It continues beyond singing when ordinary actions are done without wrongdoing: business without injustice, work without strife, rest without returning to evil. He writes, “Whatever thou dost, do well, and thou hast praised God.”5

That is the shape of healed vindication. God may judge evil, expose deceit, and deliver His servant, but the servant’s tongue must still be trained for praise.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The following witnesses preserve printed Psalm 35 labels. Their corresponding passages in the displayed Brenton text belong to LXX Psalm 34. These are named historical or dated examples, not certification of one universal current schedule.

  • Good Friday First Hour — St. Mary Ottawa, Holy Pascha, 2018. The printed Psalm is a composite: “Psalm 27:12 & 35:11, 12, 16.” Its counterparts are Psalm 27:12 (Brenton LXX 26:12) and Psalm 35:11-12, 16 (Brenton LXX 34:11-12, 16). The selection joins false testimony, evil repaid for good, and hostile teeth. The four Gospel readings are Matthew 27:1-14; Mark 15:1-5; Luke 22:66–23:12; and John 18:28-40. Matthew and Mark show Christ accused before Pilate and answering with restraint; Luke includes the council, Pilate, and Herod; John presents His kingship and testimony to the truth. These are the hour’s actual trial readings, distinct from the earlier council accounts cited above. The accompanying 1 Corinthians 1:23–2:5 proclaims the crucified Christ as God’s power and wisdom.

  • Monday of the sixth week of Great Lent, Liturgy — March 27, 2023. The printed Psalm 35:1-2 corresponds to Brenton LXX 34:1-2. The Gospel is Luke 13:1-5, where Christ rejects the assumption that victims of calamity were worse sinners and calls His hearers to repentance. Asking God to defend us does not authorize us to explain another person’s suffering as deserved punishment.

  • Tuesday of the sixth week of Great Lent, Matins — March 28, 2023. The printed Psalm 35:13, corresponding to Brenton LXX 34:13, uses an English rendering that describes the adversaries’ sickness. Brenton instead says “when they troubled me.” Both selections contain sackcloth, fasting, and returning prayer, but their opening clauses must remain distinct. The Gospel, Luke 4:22-30, recounts Christ’s rejection at Nazareth. The pairing brings prayer and humility into the presence of real hostility.

  • Fourth Sunday of Babah, Matins — November 6, 2022. The printed Psalm 35:18 and 28 corresponds to Brenton LXX 34:18 and 28. Beside John 20:1-18, the promise of public thanksgiving gains Resurrection light: Mary Magdalene goes to announce the risen Lord to His disciples. Deliverance becomes testimony, not merely private relief.

  • Paona 2, Vespers — June 9, 2023. The printed Psalm 35:10,27 corresponds to Brenton LXX 34:10,27, but the selection abbreviates the verses. It retains the bones’ praise and the magnification of the Lord; it does not print the whole clause about rescuing the poor. That fuller context illuminates Luke 7:18-28, where Christ’s answer to John’s messengers includes good news proclaimed to the poor. The service’s English wording about prosperity differs from Brenton’s wording about those who desire the servant’s peace; neither makes discipleship a promise of wealth.

Iconography Connection 🖼️

For teaching, scenes of Christ before Caiaphas, Christ before Pilate, and the Mocking of Christ help readers attend to the Psalm’s false accusation and patient endurance. David the Psalmist also belongs in view—not merely as a musician, but as a hunted servant asking God to defend the poor and needy. These are biblical connections for contemplation, not a claim that a particular icon was designed as an illustration of this Psalm.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

  1. Ask God to contend without becoming vindictive. Bring a concrete wrong before Him. Ask for protection, truthful judgment, and the wrongdoer’s repentance rather than rehearsing revenge.
  2. Receive the inward assurance for which David prays. Slowly pray, “say to my soul, I am thy salvation.” Seek the Lord Himself, not only a change of circumstances.
  3. Name false witness clearly. The Psalm does not call betrayal a misunderstanding. Tell the truth without returning slander for slander.
  4. Let fasting soften the soul, not harden it. Join fasting to prayer for mercy and the refusal to delight in another person’s downfall.
  5. End with praise, not fixation. Give thanks with the congregation when help comes. Begin practicing the final verse now through honest speech, just work, and deeds that praise God.

Footnotes

  1. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm XXXV (Latin Psalm 34), §§5-8: conversion through shame, prophetic judgment, and the returning snare. NPNF, First Series, vol. 8, complete edition. ↩

  2. St. Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus concerning the Psalms, discussion of the Psalter’s portrayal of the soul and the persecution counsel listing source-numbered Psalms 25, 34, and 42. These descriptive locators identify the passages in the supplied unnumbered English text; its translator is unidentified. Paraphrase only. ↩

  3. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm XXXV (Latin Psalm 34), §16, on inward prayer heard by God. His subsequent proposed Christological explanation is expressly tentative; the application here is limited to his counsel on hidden prayer. Complete edition. ↩

  4. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm XXXV (Latin Psalm 34), §13, on Christ not committing the sin charged against Him. Complete edition. ↩

  5. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm XXXV (Latin Psalm 34), §27. Translation by J. E. Tweed, in the Oxford-derived edition condensed and annotated by A. Cleveland Coxe, NPNF, First Series, vol. 8, general editor Philip Schaff. The quoted sentence belongs to Augustine’s explanation of praise throughout ordinary daily conduct. Complete edition. ↩

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