Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

(Heb.: 36:11-13) Now for the first time, in the concluding hexastich, after complaint and commendation comes the language of prayer. The poet prays that God would lengthen out, i.e., henceforth preserve (משׁך, as in Psa 109:12), such mercy to His saints; that the foot of arrogance, which is conceived of as a tyrant, may not come suddenly upon him (בּוא, as in Psa 35:8), and that the hand of the wicked may not drive him from his home into exile (cf. Psa 10:18). With חסד alternates צדקה, which, on its merciful side, is turned towards them that now God, and bestows upon them the promised gracious reward. Whilst the Psalmist is thus praying, the future all at once becomes unveiled to him. Certain in his own mind that his prayer will be heard, he sees the adversaries of God and of His saints for ever overthrown. שׁם, as in Psa 14:5, points to the place where the judgment is executed. The preterites are prophetic, as in Psa 14:5; Psa 64:8-10. The poet, like Isaiah (Isa 26:14), beholds the whole tribe of the oppressors of Jahve's Church changed into a field of corpses, without hope of any rising again.