Verse 1
"A Song or Psalm of Asaph"
A song and a psalm together, meant to be sung with instruments. In one line: a song of Asaph.
Verse 10
"Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth"
Endor lies in the valley of Jezreel, near the battlefields of Deborah and Gideon; dung for the earth is what is trodden into the ground.
In one line: of those great ones, only dust remained.
Verse 11
"Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna"
Oreb and Zeeb were Midianite captains who fell in the days of Gideon; Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings taken after them.
In one line: four names everyone knows the end of.
Verse 12
"Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession"
The houses of God are the holy places; to take in possession is to seize and hold as an inheritance.
In one line: they did not want land — they wanted the holy places.
Verse 13
"O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind"
A wheel here is the dry thistle rolling across a field, rootless; stubble is the empty stalk left after harvest.
In one line: all that power weighs no more than straw.
Verse 14
"As the fire burns a wood, and as the flame sets the mountains on fire"
Fire moves from tree to tree until the wood is taken; flame runs up the slopes faster than anything can flee.
In one line: what looks vast burns quickly.
Verse 15
"So persecute them with your tempest, and make them afraid with your storm"
Tempest and storm are two words for one violent wind; make them afraid is to shake their confidence.
In one line: not a sword — a wind.
Verse 16
"Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek your name, O LORD"
Shame here is open and undeniable. Then comes the turn: that they may seek. Shame is the road back, not the end.
In one line: the shame is meant to return them, not to break them.
Verse 17
"Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish"
Confounded is to be left without an answer; troubled, to be shaken. For ever means no later hour for the choice.
In one line: the choice stays in their hands.
Verse 18
"That men may know that you, whose name alone is the LORD, are the most high over all the earth"
To know is more than to hear — it is to recognise. Alone means there is no second; over all the earth, the whole of it.
In one line: that they may know — and that is everything.
The part opens with names of defeats and closes with one sentence about recognition. Between them run three pictures of lightness — wheel, stubble, fire. Above them stands a request that is not revenge: that they may seek your name.