What does Psalm 59:4 mean?

The men who lie in wait to ambush David (Psalm 59:1–3) do so for no good reason. These words were inspired by an incident where Saul, the king, sent assassins to kill David as he left his house. David escaped with the help of his wife, Michal, who was also Saul's daughter (1 Samuel 19:11–16). Saul's hatred for David was completely unjustified. David had neither rebelled nor given the king reason to want him killed (1 Samuel 20:30–33). At one point, David proved this by passing up the chance to kill Saul outright (1 Samuel 24:11). David poetically calls on God to "awake"—to be stirred into action.

Centuries later, the scribes and the Pharisees plotted to kill Jesus, the chief descendant of David. After apprehending Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, they handed Him over to Pilate for crucifixion, but Pilate reluctantly delivered Him to the crowd for crucifixion. He asked, "What evil has he done?" (Matthew 27:23), and declared, "I have found in him no guilt deserving death" (Luke 23:22). The apostle Peter refers to Jesus, the crucified Lamb of God, as completely innocent. He writes that Jesus' blood was "like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:19). In 1 Peter 2:22 Peter writes that Jesus "committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth." The apostle Paul also credits Jesus with sinlessness. He writes: "For our sake [God the Father] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). The author of Hebrews similarly affirms Jesus' sinlessness: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."