Psalms 54

Psalms 54:1

Psalm 54: God Is My HelperWhen David was fleeing from Saul, the Ziphites twice revealed his whereabouts to the king (1Sa_23:19; 1Sa_26:1). These betrayals gave rise to the words of this Psalm, a suitable prayer for God’s people in any age when suffering at the hands of men. 54:1 The opening cry for help asks for salvation by God’s name and vindication by His strength. His name stands for His nature or character and His strength for His omnipotence. Salvation here means temporal deliverance from enemies. 54:2, 3 The now-or-never urgency of the psalmist is seen in the importunate plea for God to hear, to listen to the hissing-hot words of his mouth. What had happened was that these strangers had conspired to double-cross David; bloodthirsty men were out to get himapostates who cared nothing about God. 54:4, 5 God is the answer. The Lord is with those who uphold the believer’s life. One day He will repay the enemies of His people with calamity and ruin. The knowledge of what God will do turns quickly into the prayer, “Do it, Lord. In proof of Your faithfulness, bring their wicked careers to an end.” 54:6 The saving name of verse 1 will then become the worshiped name. David will bring a freewill sacrifice to the Lord, and offer thanksgivings to the name of the LORDthe precious name in which all good is enshrined. 54:7 In the final verse David speaks as if all his trouble was past, and as if he had already witnessed the demise of his enemies. “Already,” writes Morgan, “though perhaps yet in the midst of the peril, he sings the song of deliverance, as though it were already realized.” Faith thus “gives substance to our hopes, and makes us certain of realities we do not see” (Heb_11:1, NEB).