Psalms 140: When the hunters are overtaken by their own violence

Psalm 140 treats violence as something planned, spoken, handled, and hidden in advance. Harm begins in the heart, sharpens on the tongue, reaches through violent hands, and waits beside the path in nets and snares. Against that coordinated threat, the speaker names God as his own and remembers that his head has already been covered in battle. The prayer then asks not merely for escape, but for the attackers' designs to fail and their own harmful speech to return upon them. Severe images of judgment dominate the middle of that request. The ending widens beyond one threatened person, grounding confidence in the Lord's maintenance of the afflicted person's cause and the poor person's right, before the final image shifts from pursuit to thanksgiving in God's presence.