This is a psalm of David, a truly painful psalm; it is an earnest and fervent cry for deliverance, for protection, for comfort in distress. It is a sad fact that the righteous man (the true child of God) is continually hunted by evil and violent men, by those who have the spirit of Satan, who masquerade as wolves in sheep’s clothing and hide as serpents by the wayside. These wicked men devise evil in their hearts, and continually stir up war and strife. The evil in their hearts comes out in plotting violence and harm against God’s children. They are restless in their malice, unrelenting and unscrupulous in all their wicked schemes.
David had many enemies: Saul, Doeg, Ahithophel, Shimei – and even his own rebellious son, Absalom. So Mordecai had his Haman, and Daniel during the reign of Darius was plotted against by his fellow commissioners and satraps. This shows the fierce, implacable hatred of Satanic forces against the man of God. The venom of the old Serpent has been instilled in such wicked elements, and they continually nurse anger, hatred, prejudice, spite, jealousy and vengeance against the children of God. They are always plotting to trip up the feet of the saints, they hide traps and cords and nets, and those vicious snares called gins, to destroy the righteous if they can.
It is a nightmarish experience, but the Lord allows His children to go through such painful situations time and again. The enemy, moreover, indulges in a campaign of slander against God’s children. “They sharpen their tongues like a serpent, the poison of vipers is under their lips.” So much slander and vilification – and often many (including believers and friends!) believe these lies. That is how the people of Israel were deceived by Absalom and Ahithophel. Nothing can be worse than the weapon of the tongue. No wonder James said it was ‘the very world of iniquity’, and ‘it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison’, Jas 3.6, 8. It was Satan, through his subtle and shrewd tongue, who maligned God before Eve.
David cries out to God. God is his salvation. It is God who covers his head in the day of battle. Don’t we remember how Paul the apostle speaks of the helmet of salvation. God is his shield; God is his deliverance. David prays for retribution. In his great distress and agony, he cries out to God for justice. And so the mischief of these wicked conspirators comes down upon their own heads. We know what happened to Saul, and to Absalom and Ahithophel; we know how Haman was hung up on his own gallows; and how those who plotted against Daniel were thrown into the lions’ den. Truly, vengeance belongs to the Lord.
We cannot fight Satan or his evil agents with the weapons of this world. We can only cry out to our Saviour and Preserver and Protector in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is God who fights our battles for us. And so David says, “I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and justice for the poor.” It seems so hard to believe and hold on to God when we are in the midst of a severe trial and going through great distress. But David says, “I know!” He knows how again and again the Lord has delivered him from the hands of his enemies, and finally established him upon the throne of Israel. He says confidently, “Surely the righteous will give thanks to Your name, O Lord. The upright will dwell in Your presence.”
And so David, from the initial heart-rending cry of ‘Rescue me, O Lord…’, in a scene where he is being hunted by violent men, is lifted up in the final verse of the Psalm to dwell in God’s lofty presence – away from all the evil, deceit, pollution and violence of this wicked world. It is through such painful situations – such great crises of the spiritual life – that we are brought into the heavenly realm of God’s calm and abiding presence. We are lifted up above the noxious fumes of vicious conspiracies and slander to come into the soothing presence of the just and faithful God, who will never allow His children to suffer more than they can bear – and who knows just how to deliver His saints from the day of distress in a mighty ‘last minute deliverance’!
This Psalm is truly an encouragement for suffering souls.
