“When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.” -Psalm 27:2
The assailing (violent concerted attack) of the evildoers is pictured as “eating up” David’s flesh. David has used this metaphor before:
“Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do not call upon the Lord?” -Psalm 14:4
To eat is to consume and ultimately turn that which has been consumed to refuse. This is similarly the case with Odysseus who is trying to get home before his bride’s suitors eat up his household, devour his home, and overthrow his kingship. In the end, it is they who are consumed. So it will be with David’s adversaries and foes because the Lord is his light, salvation, and stronghold.
Call is divine retribution or poetic justice, but as the proverbs says, “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.” -Proverbs 26:27
And St. Paul affirms this principle thus: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” -Galatians 6:7