Psalm 54 – Trusting God to vindicate all wrongs

Psalm 54, a maskil by David, finds its setting in 1 Samuel 23. The superscript makes clear that the composition was written when David learned of the betrayal of Ziphites. David was a fugitive at this point and was being pursued by Saul. He sought refuge among Ziphites, who later told Saul of David’s where about in the village of Ziph. Prior to all this, David had actually delivered Keilah at the guidance of God. This was a little border town. Doubtless to say, David who had done good, and yet had to experience betrayal, was difficult to swallow.

It’s worth noting that despite their betrayal, Saul was not able to accomplish his mission to apprehend David. In fact in 1 Samuel 24, we find how the tide had turned. Saul was in a cave and within the reach of David, who could have killed him. But he chose to spare him on account that he was the Lord’s anointed. David had learned to respect the Lord’s timing. David’s first response on hearing of the betrayal by the Ziphites was to pray for deliverance. As always he was also very sure that God would hear his prayer. Here he also promised to give thanks for his deliverance. He was devastated emotionally. So in his discouragement he prayed. From this Psalm, we take courage and like David, we should surrender our difficulties to God and trust Him fully when we are maligned.   

David’s opening words implied that he had explicit confidence in the Lord. He knew that God had the capacity to shield him. Here he asked to be delivered from two groups of people: the people that betrayed him and the aggressors that were hunting for him.  He knew that his only recourse was God, and the way to enlist Him on his side was through prayer. So he prayed. The Bible makes clear that God has given prayer as a channel for us to enlist His help. This David knew in practice early in life. Like David, we should cease fretting and start praying. We should make it part of our solution in the encounters of life.  

Verses 4-5, David shows us that praying is just one part, trusting and being fully confident that God would intervene is another. David did not just mouth prayer without the accompanying trust and confidence. Our prayer would be meaningless repetition if we come to God in prayer without believing that he could and would act on our behalf. God will not only help us in our situations, he will sustain us while we are waiting for His intervention. We need to remember that we have a faithful God. Verses 6-7 show us the best way to respond after we have made our request before God. We should just give thanks and gratefully anticipate God’s breakthrough moment. When was the last time we prayed to God in our crisis? Like David, let us make prayers our first option and not our last resort!