"To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, “Is not David hiding among us?”
O God, save me by your name,
and vindicate me by your might.
2 O God, hear my prayer;
give ear to the words of my mouth.
3 For strangers have risen against me;
ruthless men seek my life;
they do not set God before themselves. Selah
4 Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord is the upholder of my life.
5 He will return the evil to my enemies;
in your faithfulness put an end to them.
6 With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;
I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
7 For he has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies."
Psalm 54
The sentiments expressed in this Psalm are familiar ones: the situation of crisis and emergency, the cry and appeal to God for help, then - without any sign of the circumstances changing as yet - the expression of confidence that the cry had been heard and that help will be forthcoming. The fact that this lesson is repeated so often, in one way or another, is some measure of the importance that it has in the mind of the Spirit for God's people, and how critical it is for us to learn it, and learn it well. The Psalm falls into two
parts, the first (1-3) being the prayer, spreading before God the need and its urgency, and the second (4-7) expressing confidence that the prayer has been heard. The order in which the thoughts in 1-3 run has been the subject of comment by the expositors: first the appeal to God by the Psalmist, and the recollection of the power of the Divine Name, then the plea for His prayer to be heard, and only then the recounting of the perils he faced. It is very much more important in spiritual experience to look to God than to look to the pressures surrounding us. In itself, this is an act and attitude of faith, as well as being good spiritual psychology. It is never spiritually healthy to be over-preoccupied with the forces arrayed against us, for the good reason that it never gives a true perspective of the situation. It is open to us, in any situation of crisis or pressure to exercise faith and, in an act of resolute will, at such a time, to turn one's mind and consciousness away from the fear and the alarm to the fact of God, to what He is, and what He means to those who trust in Him. This is what the Psalmist does here.