A Psalm of David
1 Unto Thee will I cry, O LORD my Rock: be not silent to me: lest, if Thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto Thee, when I lift up my hands toward Thy holy oracle.
3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts.
4 Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands: render to them their desert.
5 Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them, and not build them up.
6 Blessed be the LORD, because He hath heard the voice of my supplications.
7 The LORD is my strength and my shield: my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth: and with my song will I praise Him.
8 The LORD is their strength, and He is the saving strength of His anointed.
9 Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.
David pleads for salvation from both the way and the plight of the wicked.
The deceitful and wicked intentions that lurk in the hearts of those who do not know God often infect Christian families and churches. Fear is not the right response, but a healthy apprehension and aversion for these dangerous perspectives and attitudes would be appropriate. Aversion is the sort of reaction you have when you happen to come across a dead rat in your bed. When confronted with spiritual danger, we cry out for God’s salvation.
Verses 1–2. Right away in this psalm, we sense desperation from the Psalmist. His heart is filled with a sharp awareness of the horrors of hell, the danger of deceit, and the possibility of apostasy. Our world is a dangerous world and we have little confidence in ourselves or anything in this world. Thus, David cries out to the Rock, a metaphor that brings back the image of the rock in the wilderness from which came water of life for the children of Israel. The rock is a symbol of salvation. His concern is that he does not want to become like those that are on their way to hell. That is, he does not want to apostatize. From the beginning to the end, our salvation is wholly dependent on God. Without His help, we would be forever lost like those that go to hell.
Verses 3–5. David acknowledges that God is in total control of the direction that his life takes and it will be God who prevents him from taking the paths of the wicked. Here his heart rejects that path, but even his heart is not to be trusted. God is his only hope for salvation.
What makes the wicked so dangerous is that they typically present themselves as peace-loving, nice people, but their hearts are bent towards destruction, disruption, and all sorts of evil. When the righteous get tangled up with these wicked hearts, they find their families and churches ripped apart. At first, they may see an external piety about these people, but eventually the bitterness and self-orientation of their hearts wreak havoc in all of their relationships.
Moreover, these wicked folks ignore the works of God. They look at the world around them, the historical events of creation and providence, and they refuse to attribute these works to God. It is interesting that the corruption of a biblical worldview always begins with a denial of God’s hand in creation or providence. Whether it be the formation of a creature with heart and lungs, or the rise of a tidal wave that kills 300,000 people, the wicked always want to attribute these things to chance. They deny the works of God, ultimately because they do not want to deal with a God who is over all things. As they deny the very “god-ness” of God, they make gods out of themselves and out of creation. Worst of all, they deny God’s work of atonement at the cross of Christ, and the application of that redemption by the sovereign hand of the Spirit of God.
David now turns and prays for their destruction. For such rebels that refuse to see the works of God in history and in man’s redemption, David declares God’s judgment.
Verses 6–7. After expressing his concerns with the wicked, their deceit, temptations and plight, David returns his focus to God in a short testimony of faith in Yahweh. He gains strength from the remembrance of answered prayers. How many times has God answered our prayers, and our hearts were encouraged, and are still encouraged? Whenever we trust in Him and turn our cares over to Him, we receive His help in tangible ways and that stirs us on to rejoice and praise His glorious name!
Verses 8–9. Towards the end of the psalm, David moves from individual worship to corporate worship. He shifts from speaking of his own relationship with Yahweh to the relationship between Yahweh and the whole congregation of the church. Although we may not be accustomed to thinking about it this way, our God is the strength and salvation for the whole church. A similar reference to this corporate salvation is found in Psalm 25:22 where the Psalmist called on God to redeem all of Israel.
Also, note that the church is identified with one called “The Anointed.” It is the same word used for “Christ” in the Greek New Testament and the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament). Indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Anointed One, is the representative and the head of the church, so it would be appropriate for David to associate Christ and His church.
Thus, the concern of the Psalmist is not merely for himself, but for all of God’s people. When God’s people are under attack, either spiritually or physically, when the church struggles through tribulations and trials, our hearts cry out for God’s saving hand. Without daily nourishment from God’s Word and Spirit, the church would languish in the desert of sin and temptation. Whereas God will not build up the wicked (v. 5), we pray that He will lift up His people forever (v. 9).
We must maintain a strong aversion to the ways of the wicked. How often the wicked attempt to lure us away from the ways of God by the message they give us on the television set or in the classroom! A righteous aversion is nurtured by loving holiness, walking in righteousness, and attending to the Word and prayer.
1. There is a strong contrast in this psalm between the wicked and the righteous: both are defined. Therefore, the preaching and prayers in our worship should clearly define these differences. Sometimes this form of contrast is called the thesis and the antithesis.
2. In worship, we may cry out to God for His salvation. We are sometimes led to think that our prayer for salvation is a one-time affair, but this is not true. We pray this prayer of faith all of our lives.
1. Give several examples of Deliverance psalms.
2. How does David describe the wicked in this psalm?
3. What are the ways in which we can be drawn away into the path of the wicked?
4. How is the word “anointed” translated in the New Testament?
5. What is the difference between individual worship and corporate worship?
6. Name one Thanksgiving psalm.
7. Which psalm contains the verse, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up”?
8. Name an acrostic psalm on Deliverance.
1. Can you think of any instances where God answered our prayers and our hearts were encouraged?
2. Do we regard the works of the Lord? When we talk about the weather, natural events, and human events, do we regularly acknowledge God as working in and through these things?