Psalm 54 - A Plea for Punishment
INTRODUCTION:
Interest:
Yesterday was the Fourth of July, the holiday dedicated to celebrating our country’s independence. A lot of traditions such as picnics, parades, hot dogs and fireworks have developed around this annual celebration. We should be proud of our country. We should rejoice in the freedoms that we have in this unique place called the United States of America. We should thank God as we celebrate the birth and existence of the country that we all call home. Even if we were not born in this country, we are here enjoying the blessings that God has provide for us through this nation’s history.
Of course, if we know the history of our country at all, we readily recognize that we only possess unparalleled freedoms because a brave group of men…and surely several women supporting them…had a vision of what could be rather than what was.
What was at the beginning of 1775 was a collection of colonies that were operating according to independent charters, but all beholden to Great Britain as the ultimate authority. The wealth generated in the colonies was largely being taken to Great Britain and all the governing decisions were ultimately made on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
What was envisioned by a group of men, by contrast, was independence from the oversight of that country so far way. They envisioned freedom to govern independent of oversight from rulers who were unaccountable to them. They also envisioned freedom to worship God as they saw fit from His word. By mid-1776 that vision resulted in the calling of a Continental Congress who issued the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. The birth of this country arose because men were able to look beyond what was and envision what could be in the future.
Involvement:
This morning, we will see that as believers we often need to have the same ability; we need to be able to look beyond what is and envision the future.
Context:
Our psalm this morning is again, like the last couple of weeks, connected by the superscription to events in the life of David. In this case, the connection is to a distressing series of events that involved the Ziphites, events recorded in 1 Sam 23 and 26. The Ziphites were one of the clans of Judah, David’s own tribe. When David was on the run from King Saul who was trying to kill him, he took his men and hid out in the wilderness of Judah figuring that he would be safe on his home tuff. The Ziphites, however, went and told Saul where he was hiding. The chapters in 1 Samuel record how David narrowly escaped twice from of the treachery of his own kinsmen.
Once again there is nothing in the contents of this psalm that directly connects to these events. Still, the extreme betrayal that David experienced at the hands of the Ziphites is the type of betrayal reflected in this psalm. What makes this psalm so powerful, though, is that believers frequently experience this type of betrayal from those who are expected to be friends.
Preview:
Our poem this morning is constructed so that it has five sections with those sections arranged so that the main point is located in the center section. There we will find the solution that can allow us to look beyond what is to what will be. There is also where we find the main lesson of this psalm, Strength comes from confidence that God sustains His people.
Application
It is possible that you are already thinking of an experience in which you were personally betrayed, viciously maligned by someone you thought of as a friend. More significantly, maybe you are thinking of a time when people turned against you because you were doing what was right. It is in these times that we need to look beyond what is to what will be.
Transition from introduction to body:
Strength comes from confidence that God sustains His people. As we work our way through this psalm, we can learn from the psalmist the steps that we need to follow to look beyond what is to what will be.
In the first section of the psalm, verses 1 and 2 we find.
BODY:
I. Our Plea: Save us, O God!
Let’s read these two verses and see what our plea should be when we find ourselves betrayed or oppressed. <read Ps 54:1–2>
What should our plea be when we find ourselves betrayed or oppressed? I would suggest that it should be the same as what we just read, “Save us, O God!” That is the pray that David urgently cries out, driven to it by the situation that confronted him. We can cry the same prayer.
Illustration
We have all heard urgent cries for help at one time or another, I’m sure. Think about how quickly those cries get our attention. This week, for example, all of a sudden, I heard one of those cries from Grace. During the COVID quarantine I have been working from the basement. I knew that Grace was watching Finley, our granddaughter, upstairs, so her cry immediately had my full attention. In this case I could tell that the cry was not a concerned cry, but it was still urgent. The urgent cry turned out to be that our dog wanted back into the house and Grace was in the middle of feeding Finley a bottle. Not exactly an emergency, but still enough of a need that she sought to get my immediate help since our dog is not very patient waiting at the door.
Well, David’s situation was much more dire. In the first two verses he calls on God to save him, to vindicate him, to hear him, to give ear to his words. These are all expressions designed to get God’s attention. He is asking God to show that he, David, is innocent by delivering him from whatever dire situation he is in at the moment. In fact, while our English Bibles don’t translate it this way, the first word of both verses 1 and 2 is “God” in the original Hebrew. God is the focus of David’s plea.
Application
Have you ever wondered if God might at times allow dire times to come into our lives simply so that we will call out to Him? If we think about how fast we respond to a cry for help, how much faster do you think God will respond? After all, God doesn’t even need us to explain the problem; He already knows. He has allowed the problem to arrive in our lives and is waiting for our cry. Why would we ever hesitate to cry out to God when we are in need?
Transition:
What should our plea be when we find ourselves in dire circumstances? Save me, O God.
Secondly, in verse 3 we can see…
II. Our Issue: Godless people seek our destruction.
Let’s read this verse…<read Ps 54:3>.
Even though God already knows the problem, David articulates it; people are out to get him. Strangers in this verse could refer to either non-Israelites or Israelites who do not recognize God and are no longer to be considered part of the covenant community. In either case, the issue that prompts our plea will be: Godless people seek our destruction.
Look at the words for destruction found in this verse: “risen against me,” “violent men,” “sought my life.” These men are out to get David. But why is that the case? Because “they have not set God before them.” That phrase means that they have intentionally not followed God by obeying any of His laws. Instead, they have lived their lives as if there is no God to hold them back. They are godless people because they deny that there is a God. And that denial of God, rather than leading them to ignore David, a righteous man who loves God; it has led them to seek his destruction. By stating the problem, David has thought through his circumstances from a theological perspective; the ultimate problem is a denial of God.
Application
Why is it that Christianity is under attack by so many godless people in our country, while other religions such as Islam and Buddhism are either ignored by them or even praised? Because Christianity points those people to the One they are trying to deny even exists, the One true and living God. When we think through our circumstances theologically, we will see that our most troubling issue will always be that godless people seek our destruction. Do you ever find yourself worrying about what might happen if our country continues its current path of rejecting God? Maybe instead of celebrating the Fourth of July yesterday, you found yourself mourning the godliness that is disappearing in our nation, being quickly replaced by godlessness. Maybe you are concerned with what the future might being. We should never be surprised when the hatred of godless people comes our way. Our Lord said that they will hate us because they hated Him first. We have been forewarned. Hatred and destruction may very well be what we see when it comes to considering our reality.
Transition:
Our issue: Godless people seek our destruction. That is what we learn in verse 3. This brings us to the pivot point of this poem, verse four where we find…
III. Our Conviction: God will sustain us.
Look at verse 4; the verse begins with “behold”; a word designed to call our attention to what is about to be stated…<read Ps 54:4>.
This verse focuses on one single truth, what must be at the center of our conviction: God will sustain us. There are those who hate us. There are those who seek to destroy us. Certainly. But there is One who sustains us—our God. He alone is the true Sustainer of life.
Our Lord Jesus said in Matt 10 that a single sparrow cannot fall to the ground apart form the Father’s knowledge. Not even a hair on our head is unknown; He has them all numbered. And then He assures us that we are far more valuable than sparrows.
Illustration
I’m sure that you have had the experience were a common food item has been dyed to match a particular theme. Some of you maybe even have had that experience yesterday eating something that was specially dyed red, white, or blue as part of your Fourth of July festivities. Maybe it is a was a piece of cake that was dyed bright blue. It didn’t look right. It didn’t look like the cake you normally eat and really love. But you were convinced that the dye would have no effect on the flavor at all and that conviction led you to take a big bite of bright blue cake in anticipation of a sweet explosion in our mouth.
Application
Friends, the central conviction that we must hold to regardless of how much it looks like destruction is looming around us is that God will sustain us. That is what will allow us to look beyond what is to what will be, that one central truth—God will sustain us. That must be our core conviction as believers.
Of course, living in the NT era we realize from the rest of Scripture that way in which God will sustain us is through eternal life, granted to us by faith in Jesus Christ. The destruction that we see looming around us may very well win out in the short-term, in the temporal here and now. But we can look beyond the here and now and see that all eternity lies before us, safe and secure because of our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
If you are unable to see that with confident conviction, then I urge you to please contact me so I can explain fully what Jesus has done and how you too can have this core conviction: God will save us…He will save us through faith in Jesus Christ.
Transition:
Our conviction: God will save us. Remember, I said that our main lesson comes from this verse: Strength comes from confidence that God sustains His people. We can face dire circumstances because our Strength comes from confidence that God sustains His people.
In verse 5, because of our conviction, we now find…
IV. Our Resolution: God will deal with the godless.
<read Ps 54:5>.
Because the haters are opponents of God Himself, David is able to pray for a final resolution from God…as can we. What is our resolution? God will deal with the godless.
David is confident that God is just and for that reason God will not allow His children to suffer without vindication. His prayer is that the very evil that these godless people intend to inflict upon him may rebound and land upon them instead. David is not seeking to harm them himself, but he is praying that the harm that they intend will backfire. He is trusting God to defend him and to deal with the godless who are attacking him.
But why is David entrusting his protection to God? Look at the last word of verse 5: “faithfulness.” The opponents are completely faithless; they have betrayed David and seek his destruction. By contrast, though, God is absolutely faithful. He will never fail to follow through on what He has promised His children.
Illustration
There are certain people who I have developed great trust in. People who, if they tell me they are going to do something, I am confident that it will get done. I don’t even bother to check to verify that they have followed through. I trust their faithfulness. There have been many times when someone might ask me how something that needs to be done in the church is going to get done and I find myself answering, “I don’t know. So-and-so said that he or she would take care of it. I know that if they are on it, it will be handled. I haven’t given it another thought.”
Application
God is infinitely more faithful than our most faithful friend. Does your life display the trust that His faithfulness warrants? When things are dire, and the world seems stacked against you; do you trust God to deal with the godless? Really trust Him, I mean. Not simply given lip-service to faith in God while you degenerate into a Nervous Nelly or Worried Wally. Whether we want to admit it or not, allowing ourselves to be consumed by worry indicates that we lack trust in the faithfulness of God. God will deal with the godless. We need to trust that God will do as He has promised according to the timing of His infinite wisdom and refrain from attempting to take matters into our own hands.
Transition:
Our conviction is to be that God will sustain us. That produces our resolution, God will deal with the godless.
In the final two verses the result of our resolution, we see…
V. Our Response: We will praise God for who He is.
Let’s read verses 6 and 7…<read Ps 54:6–7>
In David’s final two verses we see what our response will be to our resolution, We will praise God for who He is.
I know that verse 7 is translated in the past tense as if the deliverance has already occurred. That is not necessarily the case, though. Hebrew had a way of writing about something that was still in the future in a past tense manner as a way of expressing complete confidence that it would occur. It was a way of saying that the person was so confident something would occur that he was going to treat it as a done-deal. That may be what is going on here, or it could be that David is reflecting back on deliverance that he has already experienced.
In either case, David knows what his response to the deliverance will be—praise. He is going to go to the central sanctuary and offer a sacrifice to God. If you remember from our study through Leviticus, there were several different sacrifices that an Israelite could offer based on the reason that the sacrifice was being offered. We can’t always see the distinctions in our English translations, but the sacrifices had different Hebrew words. The sacrifice that David commits to offering here this in verse is the freewill offering. This offering was presented to the Lord as praise for the fellowship that the worshipper could enjoy with the Lord. It was offered as a fellowship meal that was enjoyed with family and friends before the Lord. One significant component of this offering is that it was not given in fulfillment of a vow made to the Lord. With this offering there was no question of the worshipper, in effect, saying, “God, if You will do this for me, then I will give that to You.” It was entirely a response of praise; a response that David anticipates giving because God has delivered him from all his trouble. A response of praise that he will give because the Lord is good.
Application
In a few minutes, we are going to celebrate communion together. Communion is a celebratory meal that we partake of together around the table with elements that remind us of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is really the NT replacement for the sacrifice that David promised to give to the Lord, but it is a replacement with so much more significance because it is offered on this side of the cross.
The godless are still out to get us, but we know that their efforts will ultimately be in vain because Christ has already risen from the dead. Deliverance cannot come without sacrifice…that was the message inherent in the OT sacrificial system, but the ultimate sacrifice has already been made. We can truly speak of the godless as already defeated, even though they are currently raging against us, because Christ has already died and rose again. We can most certainly consider our resolution as a done-deal. For that reason, we should eagerly respond with praise to God for His goodness this morning. We should joyfully give thanks to God as we magnify Jesus Christ, our great Deliverer.
Our God initiated our salvation. Our God accomplished our salvation. Our God has promised our final salvation. Our God is good. We will praise God this morning for who He is as we celebrate what He has given us through the work of Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, because of the finished work of our Savior, we even more than David, can look beyond what is to what will be. We can look to our final reward, our eternal inheritance, and find strength to face whatever comes our way in the present. Strength comes from confidence that God sustains His people.
Transition from body to conclusion:
Strength comes from confidence that God sustains His people.
CONCLUSION
We celebrated the independence of our nation yesterday because of the men who looked beyond the realities of living under British rule in 1776 and saw a future of freedom for a new nation.
We celebrate our freedom in Christ because we look beyond the present attacks of the godless to the future our Savior has secured.
Our Plea: Save us, O God!
Our Issue: Godless people seek our destruction.
Our Conviction: God will sustain us.
Our Resolution: God will deal with the godless.
Our Response: We will praise God for who He is.
Strength comes from confidence that God sustains His people.