PSALM 59
After David was anointed to be king, he killed Goliath, the Philistine giant and became famous and admired. The people began to admire him more than King Saul.
Saul’s son, Jonathan, became David’s great friend. Saul gave his daughter, Michal, to David as his wife. Yet, as Saul realized the Lord was with David, Saul became afraid of David and became his enemy. So, Saul sought to kill David.
1 Samuel 19 tells us that Saul sent men to watch the house where David lived with Saul’s daughter. He wanted to kill David when he came out of the house in the morning. But Michal found out and warned David.
Michal let David down out of a window during the night and he escaped. He then wrote this Psalm as a prayer to God for deliverance.
Structure
The Psalm has two sections, verses 1-10 and verses 11-17. Both sections speak of David’s enemies as howling dogs and both end with David addressing God as his “Strength”.
59:1-10
As in previous Psalms, David asked God to deliver him from his enemies. They were evil and bloodthirsty. They literally laid in wait to kill him.
Killing a man after “lying in wait” made the killing a murder and subjected the killer to the death penalty in the Old Testament law. (Numbers 35:20) We might call it an ambush today.
To make matters worse, David had done nothing wrong to cause this situation. He was innocent. God had chosen him to be the next king, but he had not plotted against Saul. In fact, he led Saul’s army to victories over the Philistines.
We all have problems. Sometimes we have problems because we have enemies who hate us. But imagine knowing the most powerful man in your country wants to kill you and has men to help him? That is real stress.
Regardless of the cause of our stresses and worries, David sets the example for us in turning to the Lord for help and deliverance. Sometimes there is no one who can protect you except the Lord, so to him you must go.
David asked God to “awake” and to “rouse himself” and come to his aid. David was speaking figuratively, or he is anthropomorphizing (giving human traits to non-humans). God was not asleep. God does not sleep. Psalm 121:4 says “Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep”. Mary Crowley once wrote: “Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He’s going to be up all night anyway.”
What we know about God, though, is that he acts according to his will and his time table. So David is just asking God to act immediately.
Notice that David referred to God as the “LORD God of hosts”. “LORD” is the way most translations refer to the covenant name of God, YHWH. “God” here is “Elohim”, which conveys the idea of the powerful one, among other things. “Hosts” is the idea of armies. The Christian Standard Bible actually translates it as “armies” in this verse.
So, the God who is in covenant with Israel, who is the powerful head of a vast army, is asked to come to the aid of David, who is to be the king of Israel. David relied upon God’s commitment to the covenant as he prayed to God for relief.
The New Testament makes clear that those of us in the New Covenant also have the right to make requests to God. Jesus instructed us to pray, addressing God as “our Father”. (Matthew 6:9) He specifically said not to pray like the Gentiles, the pagans, who use lots of words. So, like Israel in the Old Covenant, believers in the new covenant have a special right to call upon the Lord and be heard. Jesus also said “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:13-14)
Verses 6 and 7 are a refrain that is repeated in the second stanza in verses 14-15. David compared them to packs of dogs who come in the evening, howling and prowling. Remember that dogs at that time were not pets like today. They were wild and they were dangerous, hunting in packs. They were more like wolves or jackals. Going out at night alone and without a weapon could be dangerous.
Despite the dangerous nature of these dogs, David’s enemies, David believed in God’s power over them. He saw God as being so much more powerful than his enemies that he laughed at them and held them in derision. (8)
David referred to God as his Strength and his fortress. He declared that he would wait for God to come and lead David to triumph over his enemies. He wanted God to come now, but he waited in faith nonetheless. He had faith because of God’s steadfast, covenant love for him and Israel.
59:11-17
In verses 11-13, David puts the “imprecation” in the imprecatory psalm. He asked God to trap his enemies in their pride and to consume them in his wrath. He wanted God to wipe them out and show that he is God.
Verses 14-15 repeat the refrain that compares his enemies to packs of dogs. But in 16-17, David ends the psalm with praise. He commits to singing of God’s strength and his steadfast love.
Looking back, now, what are the ways God is described in this Psalm? Here is a list:
*My God (personal)
*Lord God of hosts\Almighty
*Strength
*Steadfast in love
*shield
*fortress
*refuge
He is a God that we can trust, rely on, and ask for help.
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