Psalms 40:14

“Let them be ashamed and confounded together, etc.] As they will be at the last day, when they shall see him whom they have pierced come in the clouds of heaven, in his own and his Father’s glory, and in the glory of the holy angels; that seek after my soul to destroy it; that is, his life, as did Herod in his infancy, and the Scribes and Pharisees, chief priests and elders of the people of the Jews, frequently, and at last accomplished what they sought after; let them be driven backward; as those were who came with Judas into the garden to apprehend him, (<431806>John 18:6); and put to shame that wish me evil: as did the Jews, who sought all opportunities to ensnare him, and that they might…”

“The language is not necessarily imprecatory, but rather a confident expectation (Psa 5:11), though the former sense is not inconsistent with Christ's prayer for the forgiveness of His murderers, inasmuch as their confusion and shame might be the very means to prepare them for humbly seeking forgiveness (compare Act 2:37).”

“Let them be ashamed and confounded together - See at Psalms 35:4, note; Psalms 35:26, note. This may be understood here rather as a confident expectation than a wish or desire. It implies the certainty that they would thus be ashamed and confounded; that is, that they would not be successful, or would be foiled in their purposes. But understood as a wish or prayer, it could not be improper. There is no sin in the wish that the wicked may not be successful in their plans, and may not be suffered to injure us. As the language of the Messiah it was in every way an appropriate prayer that the purposes of those who would defeat his design in coming into the world might be foiled - for on the…”

“Let them be ashamed: The verbs in the preceding verse, in which the psalmist simply prays for deliverance, are in the imperative; but here, and in the following verses, they are in the future tense, and naturally express the language of lively faith and hope, rather than that of wishing the destruction foreseen and predicted. Psa 31:17, Psa 31:18, Psa 35:4, Psa 35:26, Psa 70:2, Psa 70:3, Psa 71:13; Isa 41:11, Isa 45:24 that: Mat 21:38-41 driven: Psa 9:3; Joh 18:6; Act 9:4-6, Act 12:23, Act 12:24 Psalms 40:15”

“In the midst of such sufferings, which, the longer they last, discover him all the more to himself as a sinner, he prays for speedy help. The cry for help in Psa 40:14 turns with רצה towards the will of God; for this is the root of all things. As to the rest, it resembles Psa 22:20 (38:23). The persecuted one wishes that the purpose of his deadly foes may as it were rebound against the protection of God and miserably miscarry. לספּותהּ, ad abripiendam eam (with Dagesh in the פ according to Ges. 45, 2, Ew. 245, a, and not as Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 1235, states, aspirated), (Note: After ל the aspirate usually disappears, as here and in Psa 118:13; but there are exceptions, as לנתושׁ ולנתוץ,…”