1. Save me, O God.
Thou art my Saviour; all around me are my foes and their eager helpers. No
shelter is permitted me. But thou, O God, wilt give me refuge and deliver me
from all my enemies. By thy name, by thy great and glorious nature.
Employ all thine attributes for me. Let every one of the perfections which are
blended in thy divine name work for me. Is not thine honor a pledge for my
defense? And judge me by thy strength. Render justice to me, for none
else will or can. Thou canst give me efficient justice, and right my wrongs by
thine omnipotence. We dare not appeal to God in a bad cause, but when we know
that we can fearlessly carry our cause before his justice we may well commit it
to his power.
2. Hear my prayer, O God.
This has ever been the defense of saints. As long as God has an open ear we
cannot be shut up in trouble. All other weapons may be useless, but all-prayer
is evermore available. No enemy can stop this gun. Give ear to the words of
my mouth. Vocal prayer helps the supplicant, and we keep our minds more
fully awake when we can use our tongues as well as our hearts. But it is all
one whether we babble nonsense or plead arguments if our God grant us not a
hearing. When his case had become dangerous, David could not afford to pray out
of mere custom; he must succeed in his pleadings, or become the prey of his
adversary.
3. For strangers are risen up against me. Those who had no cause for ill-will had gone against him;
persons to whom he could have given no offense, for they were strangers to him.
They were aliens to his God also, and should these be allowed to worry and
destroy him? A child may well complain to his father when strangers come in to
molest him! What right have they to interfere? And oppressors seek after my
soul. Saul, that persecuting tyrant, had stamped his own image on many
more. Others followed seeking David’s soul, his blood, his life, his very
existence. No half measures would content them. They have not set God before
them. They had no more regard for right and justice than if they knew no
God, or cared for none. Had they regarded God they would not have betrayed the
innocent to be hunted down like a poor harmless stag. David felt that atheism
lay at the bottom of the enmity which pursued him. Good men are hated for God’s
sake, and this is a good plea for them to urge in prayer. Selah. As if
he said, “Enough of this, let us pause.” He is out of breath with
indignation. A sense of wrong bids him suspend the music awhile. More pauses
would, as a rule, improve our devotions. We are usually in too much of a hurry:
a little more holy meditation would make our words more suitable and our
emotions more fervent.
4. Behold, God is my helper. He saw enemies everywhere, and now to his joy as he looks
upon the band of his defenders he sees one whose aid is better than all the
help of men; he is overwhelmed with joy at recognizing his divine champion, and
cries, Behold. What matters the number or violence of our foes when he
uplifts the shield of his omnipotence to guard us, and the sword of his power
to aid us? The Lord is with
them that uphold my soul. The reigning Lord, the great Adonai, is in the
camp of my defenders. Here was a greater champion than all the valiant men who
chose David for their captain. The psalmist was very confident; he felt so
thoroughly that his heart was on the Lord’s side that he was sure God was on his
side. He asked in verse 1 for deliverance, and here he returns thanks for
upholding: while we are seeking one mercy which we have not, we must not be
unmindful of another which we have. It is a great mercy to have some friends
left us, but a greater mercy still to see the Lord among them, for like so many
cyphers our friends stand for nothing till the Lord sets himself as a great
unit in the front of them.
5. He shall reward evil unto mine enemies. They worked for evil, and they shall have their wages. It
cannot be that malice should go unavenged. It is cruelty to the good to be
lenient to their persecutors. Those who shoot upward the arrows of malice will
find them fall upon themselves. Cut them off in thy truth. Not in
ferocious revenge is this spoken, but as an Amen to the sentence of the just
Judge. The decree is right; let it be fulfilled. It is not a private desire,
but the solemn utterance of one well trained in the school of Moses.
6. I will freely sacrifice unto thee. Spontaneously will I bring my freewill offerings. So
certain is he of deliverance that he offers a vow by anticipation. His
overflowing gratitude would load the altars of God with victims cheerfully presented.
The more we receive, the more we ought to render. The Lord loveth a cheerful
giver. I will praise thy name, O Lord.
He resolves to be much in vocal thanksgiving. The name which he invoked in
prayer (verse 1) he will now magnify in praise. Note how roundly he brings it
out: “O Jehovah”—this is the grand name of the revealed God of Israel, a name
which awakens the sublimest sentiments and so nourishes the most acceptable
praise. None can praise the Lord so well as those who have tried and proved the
preciousness of his name in seasons of adversity. Surely it is good.
Surely we may read this as “God’s name is good, and so is his praise.” Praise
is good in itself, good to us, and good to all around us. If David’s enemies
are described in verse 3 as not setting God before them, he here declares that
he is of a different mind from them, for he resolves to have the Lord in
perpetual remembrance in his sacrifices and praises.
7. For he hath delivered me out of all trouble. Up to that time deliverance had come, and for that danger
also he felt that rescue was near. David lived a life of dangers and
hairbreadth escapes, yet was always safe. Out of all trouble our covenant God
is pledged to bring us. We have proved his promise good; he changes not, and therefore
in all the unknown future he will be equally our guardian and defense. And
mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies. He knew that yet he should
look on his haughty foes, gazing down on them in triumph as now they looked on
him in contempt. He desired this as a matter of justice, and not of personal
offense. His righteous soul exulted because he knew that unprovoked and
gratuitous malice would meet with a righteous punishment. Could we keep out of
our hearts all personal enmity as fully as the psalmist did in this psalm, we
might yet equally feel with him a sacred acquiescence and delight in that
divine justice which will save the righteous and overthrow the malicious.
In closing, let us trust that if we are as friendless as
this man of God, we may resort to prayer as he did, exercise the like faith,
and find ourselves ere long singing the same joyous hymn of praise.
Excerpt from:
The Treasury of David
By Charles H Spurgeon
