Psalm 54 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence
In the superscript to this Psalm we are told that it was written on the occasion that the Ziphites went to King Saul and said to him, “Is David not hiding among us?” If you remember, from the moment that King Saul first heard the young women singing of Saul killing his thousands and David his ten thousands, he became very embittered toward David. And when he had found out that his own son Jonathan had made a covenant of peace with David he became enraged and desired to kill the youngest son of Jesse.
In 1 Samuel 23:15ff, the Ziphites were seeking to aid King Saul in his hot pursuit of David, so they gave him David’s exact location. But just when David was about to be caught, being surrounded by his enemies, an urgent message came to the king warning him of a Philistine raid nearby, and Saul was forced to discontinue his pursuit of David in order to repel the Philistines.
On one other occasion later on in 1 Samuel 26, the Ziphites once again pinpointed David’s location out to the king, but once again the Lord delivered David from his enemies.
This psalm begins by describing David’s anxiety in the midst of this unholy pursuit. He is crying out to God to save him, to vindicate him and to put an end to his enemies. He refers to the Ziphites as strangers who have risen against him joining ruthless men like King Saul in seeking his life. He describes all of these men as those who do not set God before themselves. This is a clear difference between the righteous and the wicked, for David says in Psalm 16:8 “I have set the Lord always before me.” In other words, he seeks to live for the Lord and his kingdom, trying to do everything for his glory rather than for his own gain.
Even while David is being pursued, he sets the Lord before him, reminding himself that God is on his side, saying in v.4, “Behold, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life. He will return the evil to my enemies.” Then based on this assurance, he prays to God against his enemies in v.5 saying, “put an end to them.”
In vv.6-7 he is either praying to God after the ordeal is over, or by faith he is already laying hold of the salvation that he knows the Lord will give him, envisioning himself giving thanks to the Lord and making free will offerings in his name for the great deliverance the Lord will give him from every trouble with his eye even looking in triumph upon his enemies.
Clearly in this situation David was able to look in triumph upon his enemies as he saw them fleeing suddenly to attend to another battle. But David’s assurance is that one way or another God will save all those who put their trust in the name of the Lord (Psalm 5:11). Of course, God’s salvation can come in a thousand different ways. Technically it was not a miracle that King Saul had to leave so suddenly, but the Lord was fully in it nonetheless, for our God can save by distraction just as much as He saves by extraction.