Psalm 17 - David's Plea For Refuge From Enemies Series

For Sermon Central researchers: Over the next few days I will be posting a series of sermons on Psalms as time permits. In my personal studies I have found psalms to be richer and more thought-provoking than I had ever realized. Too often I have swept swiftly through psalms without slowing down to inquire as thoroughly as I should into the depths of meaning and feeling that are expressed by the psalmists. Upon deeper examination and reflection, I find the psalms to be highly relevant to Christians in every age. My most recent foray into the psalms led me to conduct a series of studies in the Psalms recently.

The studies were held in a class environment suitable for pauses for questions and comments, and to discuss “thought questions” where the meanings are not readily apparent, as is often the case in poetry. My notes include suggested points for such pauses. However, I developed the material with the view in mind that the series may be well used as sermons. There is an introductory sermon that describes what psalms are (whether they are in the 150-chapter book or elsewhere) and explains the approach. In brief, I only presented selected psalms that I believe to be representative of the collection in the book of Psalms. The selected psalms were presented in no particular order in the series of classes; however, I suggest that anyone using this material as a series begin with the Introductory sermon and follow it with Psalms 1 and 2 in that order, as the first two operate as a pair. Beyond that, the selected psalms may be presented in any order.

We will not look at every psalm, or every verse of the ones we do.

To get as much enjoyment as we can from our study, I will do some (but not all) of the reading from the KJV, which I believe is the most beautiful of the English bible translations. For clarity we will also use other versions, mainly ESV, which I have used for several years and the one I have come to prefer.

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Psalm 17 is titled “A prayer of David” - one of the only 2 psalms so titled (the other being Psalm 86).

On a comparison of the "titles" in the Hebrew with those in the Septuagint (the Hebrew bible in use in Jesus’ time) shows that those in the Septuagint were taken from in the Hebrew originals. The origin of the titles, then, is at least as early as the second century B.C. when the Hebrew bible was translated into Koine Greek. But more likely, the titles were very old at that time.

The question of whether they were written by the psalms’ authors and are therefore part of the inspired text can never be settled to the satisfaction of all, and it hardly matters. They are nearer in time to the writing of the Psalm than any other information we have, and nothing of importance depends on whether they are part of the inspired text.

In the absence of a reason to think otherwise, for today’s purpose we will consider David to be the author of Psalm 17.

Read Psalm 17

The psalm has two main parts:

David’s claim of innocence

Prayer for refuge

Before we leave this room today I want us to carefully consider -

What are we to take away from this Psalm?

How does it inform or direct us?

The case for the David’s innocence in vs 1-5 is summed up in v5:

“My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped. “

Are verses 1-5 factually true?

Romans 3:23 leaps into our minds, conveniently reminding us that all have sinned – and not only have all sinned, but all have fallen short of the glory of God, which we seldom talk about. We usually refer to that passage as a proof text that no one is without sin, without considering what it is to fall short of the glory of God. But that’s a subject for another day.

But Paul hadn’t written that verse and David hadn’t read it. Nevertheless, David should have known whether he had sinned.

Then did David believe his claim – though false - was true?

That question raises another question…since the Holy Spirit is the channel through which all scripture was given, wouldn’t the Holy Spirit have prevented any scripture-writer from giving US untrue things? Perhaps we can get the answers this morning, at least with regard to Psalm 17.

But isn’t it obvious that David’s claims aren’t true? At the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia, Paul told the group that David was a man after God’s heart. But that’s not because David never sinned.