Please Deliver Me, Lord!
Psalm 7:1-17
- We’re continuing our study through the book of Psalms.
- This week, we’re going to look at a time when David cried out to God for deliverance.
- One of the important things to do when we read a Psalm is to look at the title and see if it tells us the occasion upon which the Psalmist wrote it or not.
- Psalm 7 it titled, “Shiggaion of David, which he sang unto the Lord, concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite.”
- The exact meaning of the Hebrew word Shiggaion is unknown, and there are several different guesses of what it means.
- If you have a NKJV, you’ll see that they translate it “A Meditation of David.”
- I prefer the commentator Adam Clarke’s translation of the word which is “to wander”, so he calls this “a wandering song.”
- That makes sense because the next part of the title, “Concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite” leads some to believe that this had something to do with King Saul.
- And remember, David was constantly wandering in the wilderness, as he kept hiding from Saul who wanted him dead.
- But who was Cush the Benjamite?
- Unfortunately, this is the only place in Jewish history where he is named, but because he was a Benjamite, he probably was a follower of King Saul.
- It’s likely that he was going to Saul and accusing David of some kind of treason.
- Charles Spurgeon goes so far as to call this Psalm “The Song of the Slandered Saint.”
- In any case, whatever circumstance David is facing, he goes exactly where he needs to go…before the Lord!
- So let’s look at 3 parts of this deliverance David is praying for.
I. Deliver me from persecution- Vs 1-5
- As Christians, persecution is always hard for us to experience.
- Years ago, my father took my brother and I street preaching when we lived in Colorado.
- I’ll never forget my dad, preaching, “Repent! Turn to Jesus!”
- We were all wearing sandwich signs with Scripture on them.
- But across the street, there was an outside bar on top of the building.
- I’ll never forget those people laughing at us and shouting swear words down at us.
- Someone from the bar actually called the police on us, and the officer told my father we needed to leave because we were on city property, or something like that.
- I remember I was embarrassed and scared, but also was glad that in the middle of persecution, I could stand up for the Lord.
- King David was persecuted a lot during his life, and here in Psalm 7, we have an example of how he responded to that persecution, through this song of prayer.
- First, he begins by calling out to God… “Oh Lord, my God!”
- That’s the first place we should go, whether we’re in trouble or not, but especially when we’re facing tough times.
- In Psalm 50:15, God says, “Call to me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me!”
- David understood that no trouble was too big for God to handle, and as His servant, he could bring his problems to God, and God would take care of it.
- Of course, that hasn't changed today for us.
- We serve a big God!
- Nothing is too difficult for Him!
- Troubles to us are not troubles to Him.
- Notice next he says, "In thee do I put my trust"
- There were a lot of people and things that David could have put his trust in.
- He was a strong warrior, so it would make sense if he put his trust in his own strength.
- He was a military leader with soldiers under him, so it would make sense if he put his trust in the small Army he had with him.
- He had proven himself to some of the Philistines when he lived with them, so he could possibly have turned to them as Israel's enemies and trusted in them to get him through.
- I'm sure there were other places as well.
- But David knew that none of them would be enough.
- No, his trust was in the Lord.
- Think about some of the people or things that you might put your trust in when you're being persecuted.
- Some might trust in themselves, so they respond in anger with whatever harsh words or actions can be used to get vengeance.
- Others might trust someone else to take care of it for them, so they tell them the problem and expect that other person will put a stop to it.
- Or maybe you put your trust in isolation as you pull back into your turtle shell and just wait for it to blow over.
- But none of those things will actually solve the problem, only God can.
- Then he says, "Save me from those who persecute me" and he takes it a step further by adding "And deliver me."
- Don't miss that.
- David knew that God could save him from his enemies because God did it many times for him.
- But saving is one thing and delivering is another, so I believe there's a reason David says both.
- God could very well step in and save the day for David.
- The slander could be proven wrong, or more people could support David than those who supported his enemies...
- There are a lot of different ways that God could save David.
- Deliverance, however, would be God completely taking care of the problem for David.
- God of course would save him too, but saving him would only be taking care of part of the picture.
- With deliverance, it would involve the entire picture.
- So not only would David be saved from the particular situation involved in this persecution, but he would be delivered from every person and part of the persecution.
- For example, while in the wilderness hiding from King Saul, there were 2 different occasions when God saved David from Saul by giving him into his hand.
- Both times, David could have killed Saul, but instead said, "I won't lay my hands on God's anointed.
- So in those cases, God saved him, and Saul retreated...however, it wasn't until Saul was killed in battle that David was completely delivered from his enemy.
- Now look in vs2 at the description David gives of his enemies.
- " Lest he tear my soul like a lion rending it to pieces, while there is none to Deliver. "
- That's a gruesome picture, but it's very realistic.
- Remember, David was a shepherd, so he saw the damage lions can do to sheep.
- In this case, his enemy was lying and slandering him.
- So David feels like the words of his enemies against him are tearing him apart, and they were.
- Not only were they tearing apart his name and reputation, but they were also tearing him apart on the inside...it was emotionally hard on him...
- And remember, David loved his king, Saul, who also was his father in law...yet he knew Saul was listening to these lies and looking for reasons to kill him.
- You know, Scripture describes Satan as a roaring lion, going around seeing whom he may devour.
- And that's one of the ways he tears us apart is through the words of others.
- Notice that David says there will be none to Deliver.
- That's how it feels sometimes, especially when we've let persecution get to us instead of looking to God.
- Yet He is still God, and we can always turn to Him.
- Vs 3-5 give us a picture of David's heart.
- He says, "If I've done this, let the enemy have his way with me."
- That shows you that David was willing to be punished if he had done anything wrong in this situation.
- Most people would either lie or try to justify their actions, but David didn't...
- We also see from these verses what kind of accusations were being hurled against him.
- His enemies were saying that he had appropriated spoils which rightly belonged to the king; that he had returned evil for good; and that he had taken toll for some generosity.
- David had a clean conscience and knew those were lies, but by wording it this way to God in prayer, he is acknowledging that God is his judge, not man.
- So even if Saul believed the lies, God knew the truth.
- You and I should have the same kind of heart for the Lord.
- God is our judge, not man, and God sees our hearts and knows the truth.
- So even when the persecution seems overwhelming, we can take comfort knowing that He will Deliver us from it.
II. Deliver me with righteous judgment- Vs 6-13
- One of the things we see over and over in Scripture is that we are supposed to fear the Lord.
- That means we need to hold Him in reverence and realize that He is God and we are not.
- So when David says, "Arise oh Lord in your anger", we have to realize that this is no small thing.
- His trust is in God and David knows that God in His anger is better than you and I in our anger because His anger is righteous and sinless.
- David also can see the Battle that's raging...
- His enemies, and Satan, are raging against him.
- But when you put their sinful, foolish anger next to God's perfect, righteous anger, you can see that their anger is nothing.
- With God's righteous anger comes a righteous judgment.
- An example of that would be when Jesus found the money changers at the Temple and in His righteous anger, He overturned their tables and let their animals loose.
- I'm sure that made the money changers angry, and it definitely made the Pharisees angry...
- But their anger was sinful and meant nothing before the righteous anger of Jesus!
- It's the same with the anger of David's enemies.
- Notice next that in vs7, David mentions the congregation of the people.
- This is referring to God's people, Israel.
- Obviously, a large quantity of them loved David, but Saul was on the throne at the moment and their loyalty was to him.
- But hearing these false accusations against David would have had the people confused and divided.
- David loved God's people and he didn't want them to be confused and struggling.
- So David's heart shows through once again.
- He wasn't just concerned about himself and his problems...
- He was concerned for his people, for God's people.
- And David knew that God 's righteous judgment found him innocent.
- The wicked however would come to an end.
- They might think they're winning, but God sees their wickedness and He won't establish them.
- He will however establish the just.
- That's because He sees the heart, so David leaves the judgment in the hands of God.
- That's not always easy to do because we want revenge or we want to see the other person pay.
- Yet Jesus tells us to love or enemies and turn the other cheek.
- They're in His hands.
- Besides, isn't His righteous judgment better than our imperfect, sinful judgment?
- Of course!
- That's evident by what David says next.
- "God is angry with the wicked every day."
- This is a sinless, perfect anger, righteous and pure.
- It definitely is not like ours because ours can be corrupted and full of sin, but God's can never be like that.
- No evildoer can escape that anger.
- Think of the story of Joseph in Genesis.
- His brothers hated him and were jealous of him.
- So they sent him away to slavery.
- While working for Potiphar, he was doing a great job and had control of the whole house.
- Yet Pitiphars wife tried to tempt him, and he did the right thing and fled.
- Because of that, she falsely accused him of trying to rape her so he was thrown in jail.
- Yet God knew the truth, and He cleared his name and restored Joseph to an even higher position than before.
- God's righteous judgment is all that matters, not sinful man's.
III. Deliver me completely- Vs 14-17
- David knew without a shadow of a doubt that his enemy would fail in his endeavors, and God would still be his God.
- David knew that God was going to deliver him completely from all of this.
- That confidence kept him going strong.
- Notice the way he describes the sin of his enemy...
- Everything they planned to use against him would fail!
- Their traps for him would be their own undoing.
- What they meant for evil, God meant for good.
- That's exactly what happened with Joseph as well.
- His brothers sent him s away and lied to their father.
- Yet God exalted Joseph to2nd in command of Egypt!
- That's not a small thing!
- His brothers evil plans failed, but God s plans w on.
- Ultimately, that happened with David as well when Saul was killed in battle and he became king.
- You and I will have enemies here on earth, but God will always win and never lose.
- Count in Him and trust in Him for deliverance!
