What is the context?
The speaker feels submerged in water and mud without a foothold, exhausted from crying for God. Enemies hate without cause and demand repayment for what he did not steal.
He also acknowledges folly and guilt before God. Innocence of their accusation does not become a claim never to have sinned.
This distinction matters when the psalm is read through Jesus: the New Testament’s use of a particular line does not make every first-person admission a statement of Christ’s personal wrongdoing.
How is this passage commonly understood?
Wesley expressly distinguishes innocence toward the enemies from guilt before God. The images voice overwhelming distress rather than naming a particular medical condition.
Where does this fit in God's plan?
John 15:18–25 explicitly takes up hatred without cause in Jesus’ account of opposition to Him. The wording is shared with Psalm 35, so its source should not be made exclusive here. The direct connection concerns causeless hostility, not the assignment of the psalmist’s confessed sins to Jesus.
What is our position?
We don't have a position on this passage yet. When our study reaches a conclusion the text supports, it will appear here.
Where can I study this further?
No deeper study linked yet.