“Save me, O God, by Your name,
And vindicate me by Your strength.
Hear my prayer, O God;
Give ear to the words of my mouth.
For strangers have risen up against me,
And oppressors have sought after my life;
They have not set God before them. Selah
Behold, God is my helper;
The Lord is with those who uphold my life.
He will repay my enemies for their evil.
Cut them off in Your truth.
I will freely sacrifice to You;
I will praise Your name, O LORD, for it is good.
For He has delivered me out of all trouble;
And my eye has seen its desire upon my enemies.” – Psalm 54:1-7
By God’s design, the notation above this particular psalm reveals to us exactly what prompted David to – once again – pour out his heart before the Lord. The notation reads, “To the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Contemplation of David when the Ziphites went and said to Saul, ‘Is David not hiding with us?’”
David knew all about betrayal. His life almost seems to be riddled with it, from Saul, to Michal, to Absalom, to Ahithophel, to Joab, and others. First Samuel 23:14-28 explains where the Ziphites come into the picture, saying, “And David stayed in strongholds in the wilderness, and remained in the mountains in the Wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day, but God did not deliver him into his hand. So David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. And David was in the Wilderness of Ziph in a forest. Then Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David in the woods and strengthened his hand in God. And he said to him, ‘Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Even my father Saul knows that.’ So the two of them made a covenant before the LORD. And David stayed in the woods, and Jonathan went to his own house. Then the Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, ‘Is David not hiding with us in strongholds in the woods, in the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon? Now therefore, O king, come down according to all the desire of your soul to come down; and our part shall be to deliver him into the king’s hand.’ And Saul said, ‘Blessed are you of the LORD, for you have compassion on me. Please go and find out for sure, and see the place where his hideout is, and who has seen him there. For I am told he is very crafty. See therefore, and take knowledge of all the lurking places where he hides; and come back to me with certainty, and I will go with you. And it shall be, if he is in the land, that I will search for him throughout all the clans of Judah.’ So they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. But David and his men were in the Wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon. When Saul and his men went to seek him, they told David. Therefore he went down to the rock, and stayed in the Wilderness of Maon. And when Saul heard that, he pursued David in the Wilderness of Maon. Then Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain. So David made haste to get away from Saul, for Saul and his men were encircling David and his men to take them. But a messenger came to Saul, saying, ‘Hurry and come, for the Philistines have invaded the land!’ Therefore Saul returned from pursuing David, and went against the Philistines; so they called that place the Rock of Escape.”
David was not only forced to flee from the king he loved and had once gladly served; he also had to deal with many of his countrymen (whom he had faithfully defended as a captain of Israel) who were only too glad to sell him out to his enemies. Those years he spent as a fugitive were years of intense trial and trouble. Man betrayed him, his own efforts failed him, and his circumstances were against him. But if there was one thing the Lord used those years, and indeed, David’s entire life, to teach him, it was this: “Trust Me.” Not man. Not self. Not what we would call luck. Trust God – Yahweh – and Yahweh alone. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart,” David’s son Solomon wrote in Proverbs 3:5-6, “and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”
When the Ziphites went to Saul, it was the Lord to whom David turned for help. “Save me, O God, by Your name, and vindicate me by Your strength. Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth. For strangers have risen up against me, and oppressors have sought after my life; they have not set God before them.” (Vs. 1-3)
David lays it all out before the Lord, unreservedly and unconditionally. He makes no attempt to bargain for God’s aid or wheedle help from Him against His will, knowing full well that such efforts would not only be laughably futile. David casts himself at the Lord’s feet, committing himself to His mercy and trusting His gracious and loving nature. But it goes beyond that. God is not only merciful and gracious; He is also faithful. As Jonathan affirmed to his beloved friend in the forest of Ziph, this faithful God had already promised David the kingdom. God’s word is immutable and inviolable. David, praying this psalm in the anguish and fear of his heart, prayed it in the knowledge that God is to be trusted. God was going to keep His promise to David and bring it to fulfillment. He keeps all His promises, and brings them all to fulfillment. Man lies and man fails and man betrays; God cannot lie, cannot fail, and will never betray. It was in Him that David placed his trust.
“Behold, God is my helper,” he writes in verses 4-5. “The Lord is with those who uphold my life. He will repay my enemies for their evil. Cut them off in Your truth.”
Pilate asked, “What is truth?” He failed to comprehend that Truth stood before him, right before him, in the person of Jesus Christ. David pleads that his enemies be cut off in the truth. How so?
Truth is what is. God is truth. He defines truth; He embodies truth; He equals truth. His word is truth. His word is law. By His word the worlds were framed, and not one jot or tittle will pass from the Law until all is fulfilled. Truth, by definition, cannot be messed with. We understand this easily enough when it comes to the natural laws of our universe. However much a lunatic may decry the law of gravity, if he attempts to defy it by jumping off a building, he will be cut off in the truth: that gravity exists. Likewise, if another lunatic declares that water is not wet, and he jumps in a pool to prove it, he also will be cut off in the truth: that water is wet (and so is he). We use these natural laws to develop technology and profit ourselves thereby. Whether we realize it or not, our second-by-second lives are not only rife with constants, absolutes, and rules – Truth – but those constants, absolutes, and rules are also essential to our very existence. David’s enemies? They were not defying God’s natural laws, but they were defying His equally inviolable spiritual laws. Sooner or later, those rebels would be cut off in the truth. Gravity pulls, water wets, and God IS. To disobey Him is to dig your own grave.
Fact: God promised David the kingdom of Israel. Fact: Saul and the Ziphites defied God’s promise. Fact: God’s promise cannot be broken. Result: David was saved from the hand of Saul and the Ziphites, and later became king of Israel.
God is to be trusted. His promises are to be trusted, treasured, and acted upon. Over and over again, to David, to Israel, to the world, He has proved His faithfulness. By trusting his God, David found comfort, strength, and peace in the day of evil. So can we.
Truth: Jesus died on the cross to win my salvation.
Corollary: I am freed from the bondage of sin and death, and I will live forever in Heaven.
Truth: Jesus died for me because He loves me with a love that is infinitely great.
Corollary: I have value and I am cherished and I am cared for.
Truth: Jesus is the Almighty Creator God.
Corollary: I have been redeemed and loved by Sovereign of All Things, and He thus has my best interests at heart; therefore, I lack nothing, I need fear nothing, and I need be anxious for nothing.
Truth: Jesus has me in this world for a purpose.
Corollary: Since Jesus loves me, that purpose is good and beneficial; since He is righteous, omnipotent, and omniscient, that purpose and plan for me is also perfect in every way. Any suffering I face in this life is thus from His love and intended for good.
Truth: Jesus promises to never leave me nor forsake me.
Corollary: I am never alone and I will never be given up on. My best Friend, my Brother, my Father, my Husband, my Savior, my Refuge, my fellow Laborer, my Strength, my Rock, my Anchor, my Advocate, my Protector, my Comforter, my Peacemaker, my Shield, my Reward, my King, and my Becoming One is with me always.
Truth: Jesus is coming back for me.
Corollary: I rest and rejoice in the assurance of His faithfulness and in the coming fulfillment of His promises, and I am spurred on to further depths and heights in my relationship with Him and my service to Him.
They saw knowledge is power. They’re close. Actually, because God is truth, truth is triumph. “More than conquerors,” Paul calls believers in Romans 8. But do we live that way? Do we live in power of the truth that has been revealed to us by the love of God? Do we, as His children in the faith, actually live our lives trusting Him? Do we let the truth of His promises revolutionize our hearts? Imagine! Imagine how radically different our feelings, behavior, and choices would be if they were driven by faith alone!
“I will freely sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, O LORD, for it is good. For He has delivered me out of all trouble; and my eye has seen its desire upon my enemies.” (Vs. 6-7)
David was not perfect in faith. He feared, he doubted, and on many occasions, he fell. He was a sinner just as we all are. None of us will be made perfect in this life; I expect that David sinned up until the moment he took his last breath. But because the faith he did have was genuine, he caught glimpses of the glorious triumph that awaits those who have been justified by faith. How God’s children long for those glimpses! How we love them! How we desire them to expand and deepen and stabilize! And if even the glimpses are precious…how much more their fulfillment!
The triumph of the truth is coming. There will come a day when in our flesh, we will see God – and sin will be no more. The doubts and the lies and the fears that plague our spirits will be gone forever. What glory will be revealed in us then! What everlasting joy will be ours! How freely our love for the Lord will flow, and how eternally our love will increase! “And behold, I am coming quickly,” Jesus testifies in Revelation 22:12, “and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”
So let the truth begin to triumph today. The culmination of its triumph is set for another day in another world, but it starts in this life, and on this earth. Every day is a day we have been given to stretch our capacity for the Lord and experience more of His goodness. Every day is a day we have been given to shine His light in this world that needs Him so desperately. Every day is a day we have been given to serve Him and store up eternal reward in heaven. Every day is a day we have been given to use to please Him, glorify Him, and bless His heart. Every day is a day we have been given to “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus,” (Philippians 3:14) knowing that He is our all in all. Every day is a day that we have been given to let truth conquer another piece of our hearts for Him.
May we allow it to be so!
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