To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David

1 In Thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be ashamed: deliver me in Thy righteousness.

2 Bow down Thine ear to me: deliver me speedily: be Thou my strong rock, for an house of defence to save me.

3 For Thou art my rock and my fortress: therefore for Thy name’s sake lead me, and guide me.

4 Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for Thou art my strength.

5 Into Thine hand I commit my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.

6 I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the LORD.

7 I will be glad and rejoice in Thy mercy: for Thou hast considered my trouble: Thou hast known my soul in adversities:

8 And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: Thou hast set my feet in a large room.

9 Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.

10 For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.

11 I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.

12 I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.

13 For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

14 But I trusted in Thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God.

15 My times are in Thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.

16 Make Thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for Thy mercies’ sake.

17 Let me not be ashamed, O LORD: for I have called upon Thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.

18 Let the lying lips be put to silence: which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.

19 Oh how great is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee: which Thou hast wrought for them that trust in Thee before the sons of men!

20 Thou shalt hide them in the secret of Thy presence from the pride of man: Thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.

21 Blessed be the LORD: for He hath shewed me His marvellous kindness in a strong city.

22 For I said in my haste, I am cut off from before Thine eyes: nevertheless Thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto Thee.

23 O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.

24 Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.

The Point:

When troubles overwhelm us and all appears to be lost, we will count on the goodness of God to deliver us.

How do we feel in the recitation of this psalm?

As with most of the psalms, there is a combination of sentiments in this one. While I recognize God as the Savior, at the same time I ask Him to be my Savior. But why should I bother asking? Is there doubt that He is the Savior and will save? This prayer is based in faith that God will save and that faith drives the persistence in prayer. If I am in such tremendous need of salvation, where else would I go for it? The desperation grows as the psalm progresses. Attacked by enemies and abandoned by friends, one can hardly think of a more lonely and oppressive state of being. Such are the times that we feel an overwhelming, crushing sense of desperate need and helplessness. We grieve and sigh with deep and painful breaths under the weight of these troubles. But these are good times because it is at this point that we realize our utter dependence on God.

What does this psalm teach us?

Verses 1–8. The psalm begins with this curious mix of petition for help and a testimony of confidence. Look at verse 2. Why would the Psalmist write, “Be my strong rock. You are my rock and my fortress”? If God is already my Rock, why must I ask Him to be my strong Rock? Or put another way, if I have already received God’s salvation, why do I have to ask for it again and again? For the believer, salvation is something already accomplished and something that is being accomplished. We are both saved and being saved. The notion that once we have received Jesus our struggles are over is a false gospel and finds no support in the Bible. It is, in fact, quite the opposite. Once we have put our trust in God for our salvation, our struggles have just begun. Our crying out to God for help has just begun. Upon settling the matter that God is the source of our salvation, we will then cry out for His salvation for the remainder of our lives. You may ask, “Salvation from what?” From the guilt and power of sin and from our enemies: the world, the flesh, and the Devil. It is only those that have the faith to cling to God as Savior and to fight the battles that will be saved in the end. That faith expresses itself in all the cries for help found here in this passage: “Bow down your ear to me! Deliver me quickly! Pull me out of the net that they have laid!”

At the same time that he cries out for God’s deliverance, David intersperses in this prayer testimonies of faith. True believers trust in God. They commit their spirits into the hand of God. They hate those who serve idols. They rejoice in the mercy of God. With thankfulness, they remember all of those battles previously fought and won by God’s grace and strength.

Verses 9–13. The psalm continues with a deeper sense of the desperate state of the trials in which the Psalmist finds himself. Reading these descriptions can be downright depressing. How beneficial is it to describe in such sharp clarity the horrors of our condition? Does the believer find therapeutic relief in these descriptions? It is important that we remember that this is a prayer, a critical weapon in the spiritual warfare. Specificity is critical in our prayer for help. If we cannot clearly define our enemy, we cannot very well go after it. Some hide from their condition of pain. They may even dull the pain by the opiates of drinking alcohol or eating. But the believer is willing to look his desperate condition straight in the eye. It takes faith to do that, and then it takes faith to bring it before the God of grace, who alone can deliver us out of such desperate straits.

So here, David describes the heavy grief he feels. It is as though his life is slowly dissolving away. He is vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy, slander, and rejection from friends and neighbors. Evidently, some were even threatening his life. But his problems are not limited to external causes. He acknowledges his own sins and the damage they have inflicted on his life. It is possible that his sin with Bathsheba, which eventually produced such division in his own family and among the people of Israel, precipitated the situation described here. No doubt his closest allies were distrustful of him and his enemies took occasion to attack him. The tender mercies of men fall far short of the mercies of God.

Verses 14–18. A testimony of confidence in the Lord returns in verse 14. While others slander him, abuse him, and mistrust him, and he may not be able to confide in his closest friends, his focus shifts back to God. His trust is in Yahweh. Resting his life in God’s hands, he finds comfort in the absolute sovereignty of God over every detail of his life, including the day of his death. The pressures of what men think about him and do to him dissipate in the light of his relationship with God. To his own Master he rises or falls. If you have fallen and God has forgiven you, then what does it matter what men say or do to you?

But verses 15 through 18 return to more cries for help. He desires the enjoyment of a sense of God’s favor and mercy. Then, he argues persuasively for God’s intervention by drawing the lines of distinction between himself and the wicked: “Please, O God, do not let me down. Do not let me be ashamed. Remember that I am the one who trusted in You. It is the wicked—those that despise You and refuse to trust in You—that should be ashamed.” Such confidence here! It might seem an impudent confidence for a man who committed adultery and murder! But the appeal is based upon the mercy of God and one man’s willingness to trust that mercy. Are you willing to trust in that mercy today?

Still, David is grieved by the injustices wrought by the wicked and he asks God to intervene. The believer is not assigned the task to avenge the pride and deceit of the wicked who sin with impunity. But neither should he completely ignore it. Therefore, David pleads with God to stop the proud lies and contemptuous, God-denying speech of the wicked, the likes of which we find every day on the front pages of the newspaper and on the major television networks.

Verses 19–22. A testimony of confidence in the Lord comes in these verses. Who will protect the righteous from the false accusations, the persecuting pens, and the dangerous talk that comes from the wicked, especially those found in university classrooms, in the government, and in the media? David is sure of the goodness of the Lord: for He has laid up His goodness for us, even as a father stores up a great number of presents for his children in the closet in his study. The Lord will protect His own. Referring back to a real experience when God delivered him while he was in a besieged city, David recalls that God has proved Himself as the great Protector in the past. Think of all the times God has answered our prayers in the past. There is nothing like these memories of God’s deliverance that would press us to shout out praise for the goodness of God!

Verses 23–24. The psalm ends with an exhortation to the whole church. For the Psalmist, it is not enough that one person is praising God. He cries out, “Love the Lord, O His saints” and gives two reasons: He preserves the faithful and punishes the proud.

Finally, David leaves us with a sharp, yet simple, distinction between the righteous and wicked: the wicked are proud, but the righteous hope in God. Those who hope in God have every reason in the world to be full of courage and strength of heart.

How do we apply this psalm?

Even when we are discouraged and we are attacked on every side, our hope needs to be in the Lord. The Christian must never give way to despair and hopelessness. For this is the same as denying what the Bible says about God: He is good, He is faithful, and He is sovereign. The only question that we must answer is this, “Do we hope in God?” How does this psalm teach us to worship God?

While a believer may not approach God with the ultimate strength of faith, yet still, in faith, he presents his struggles to his Lord. In worship, we bring our pain and struggles before Him but we do not dwell upon our discouragements. We plainly and honestly acknowledge our struggles, and mix cries for help with statements of faith in God. This psalm helps us to work our way from the subject of our troubles to a testimony of our own faith in God, and heart-filled praise for His faithfulness in the past. More than anything else, worship is focusing upon God and this psalm takes us by the hand and teaches us how to do that.

Questions:

1. What is the point of this psalm?

2. What two forms of prayer does the Psalmist weave into this psalm?

3. What is it about the wicked that particularly concerns David in this psalm?

4. How does David distinguish the wicked from the righteous toward the end of the psalm?

Family Discussion Questions:

1. What is the difference between pride and confidence? Are you confident? Or are you proud?

2. Do you continue to cry out for God’s salvation? When will we stop crying out for God’s salvation?