pleasure_, _i.e._, all that is well-pleasing to me, all that my heart desires. The preceding ישעי serves the purpose of qualifying it more definitely. The object of David's desires is, accordingly, his salvation, the glory of his house. Ver. 6. "_And wickedness, like thorns, they will all be driven away; for not will any one take them into his hands._" The subject treated of in this verse is: the Ruler among men [Pg 158] in His relation to His enemies. To those He is as formidable as His appearance is blessed to those who surrender themselves to Him. In Ps. xviii. also, there is a celebration of the indomitable power which the Lord grants to David, His anointed, and to his seed against all their enemies; compare ver. 38: "I pursue mine enemies and overtake them, and do not turn again till they are consumed; ver. 39, I crush them and they cannot rise, they fall under my feet." In the cycle of Psalms from cxxxviii. to cxlv., David likewise speaks of the dangers which threaten his house from enemies, and the leading thought of Ps. ii. is: the Messiah as the conqueror of His enemies. The eyes of David were the more opened to this circumstance, the more he himself had had to contend against adversaries.--בליעל always means unworthiness in a moral point of view, "wickedness," "vileness." _Wickedness_ is here used in the concrete sense = the wicked ones, the sons of wickedness, Deut. xiii. 14. The wicked ones, the enemies of the Church, are compared to the thorns, on account of their pricking nature; and therefore their end is like that of thorns, they will be thrown aside like them. In Ezek. xxiv. 28, after the judgment upon the neighbouring people has been proclaimed, it is said, "And there shall remain no more a pricking brier everywhere round about the house of Israel, where their enemies are, nor a grieving thorn;" compare Num. xxxiii. 55; Song of Sol. ii. 2; Is. xxvii. 4; Nahum i. 10.--מנד, the _Partic. Hoph._ of נוד, "thrust out," "put to flight" (compare Ps. xxxvi. 12), cannot be applied to the thorns, but only to the men. _Like thorns_, _i.e._, so that they become like thorns, of which the land is cleared. _For not will any one take them into his hands_--_Michaelis_: _Intractabiles sunt._ Ver. 7. "_And if any one toucheth them, he is filled with iron, and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly burnt with fire where they dwell._"