Psalm 54

Psalm 54:To the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Contemplation of David when the Ziphites went and said to Saul, “Is David not hiding with us?”

1 Save me, O God, by Your name, and vindicate me by Your strength. 2 Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth. 3 For strangers have risen up against me, and oppressors have sought after my life; they have not set God before them. Selah

“The historical background here, according to the superscription, is related in 1 Samuel 23:19, which reports the offer of the Ziphites to betray David into the hands of Saul.... David and his men had been joined by Abiathar, a son of Abimelech, who had escaped Doeg's massacre, and being a priest, he brought the sacred Ephod with him, by means of which David, after saving Keilah from the hands of the Philistines, escaped to the wilderness of Ziph, being warned by God through Abiathar. While David was in that wilderness (Ziph), the Ziphites, hoping to ingratiate themselves with Saul, offered to betray David...” (Burton Coffman)

“We have an urgent cry for help when the Ziphites disclosed to Saul David’s hiding place and offered to help him track David down. The Ziphites were of David’s tribe of Judah, yet they betrayed him to Saul. If you feel you have been betrayed by someone you thought you could trust, this Psalm is for you! Or in one sense is it not for all of us who live in this fearsome world where each day we need to fall on our knees and ask God to save us, to protect us and to sustain us?” (Revived by His Word)

“‘Save me, O God!’ etc. Though all help must ultimately come from God, there are ordinary methods by which he generally extends it. When these fail, and every earthly stay is removed, he must then take the work into His own hands. It was in such a situation that David here fled to the saints’ last asylum, and sought to be saved by a miracle of divine power.” (John Calvin)— “‘by thy name,’ that is Yahweh- Save me by thyself alone; so name here may be understood… David was now in such imminent danger of being taken and destroyed, that no human means were left for his escape; if God therefore had not Interfered, he must have been destroyed.” (Adam Clarke)— “‘and judge me by thy strength; David, though innocent, had many charges laid against him; his enemies were lively and strong; he puts his cause into the hands of the Lord, his strong Redeemer, who was able to plead it thoroughly against those that strove with him; so Christ, his antitype, committed His cause to Him that judgeth righteously, 1 Peter 2:23; and so should every believer.” (John Gill)

“‘Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth. ’For strangers [to Your Covenant mercies] are risen up against me,’ etc. His distress arose from his enemies, whom he here represents as— Unnatural. ‘Strangers are risen up against me.’ The expression is not to be taken literally as denoting foreigners, ‘since the inhabitants of Ziph, a town situated in the mountain wilderness of Judah, a few miles south-east of Hebron, were of the same race as David.— ‘and oppressors have sought after my life; they have not set God before them. Selah’ His own countrymen had become as foreigners to him, had treated him as an enemy. The Psalmist, like St. Paul in an after age, was in ‘perils among false brethren.’ Dickson: ‘No strangers are more strange than they who cast off the bands of civility and nature, whereby they were bound: false countrymen, false brethren, false friends, false alliance, are those of whom men may expect least in their need, for David findeth such men to be his greatest enemies.’” (Preacher's Homiletical Commentary)

4 Behold, God is my helper; Yahweh is with those who uphold my life. 5 He will repay my enemies for their evil. Cut them off in Your truth. 6 I will freely sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, O Lord, for it is good. 7 For He has delivered me out of all trouble; and my eye has seen its desire upon my enemies.

“‘Behold, God is my helper’— “This would naturally occur to him when he saw that Saul was obliged to leave the pursuit, and go to defend his territories, when he was on the very point of seizing him. God, whose providence is ever watchful, had foreseen this danger and stirred up the Philistines to make this inroad just at the time in which Saul and his army were about to lay hands on David.” (Adam Clarke) Yahweh is with them who uphold my life [my soul or nephesh]. My friends; those who have rallied around me to defend me; those who comfort me by their presence; those who sustain me in my cause, and who keep me from sinking under the burden of my accumulated troubles.” (Albert Barnes) — “‘He will repay my enemies for their evil.’—Saul’s troublers, who stirred him, “instead of having God's approbation, shall have his curse. ‘Cut them off in thy truth’— Thou hast promised to save me; these have purposed to destroy me. Thy truth is engaged in my defence; they will destroy me if permitted to live: to save thy truth, and to accomplish its promises, thou must cut them off.” (Adam Clarke) David had already brought his burnt sacrifice to the saving of his soul. He understood that, because of his faith, he would be saved from eternal destruction by fire at the end of time.

Many believe that the last two verses “evidently refer to the time when the Psalmist had obtained the deliverance which he sought.” (John Calvin) But it says that he has seen his eyes “desires against his enemies.” And he only saw Yahweh causing the armies of Israel to redirect their attention. So this is more likely a prophetic seeing of the end of our faith. Even now, encompassed all about, “’I will freely sacrifice to You;’ The Hebrew words rendered ‘freely,’ mean with ‘willingness, voluntariness, spontaneousness.’ The idea is, that he would do it of a free or willing mind; without constraint or compulsion; voluntarily. The reference is to a free-will or voluntary offering, as distinguished from one, that was prescribed by law. See Exodus 35:29; 36:3; Leviticus 7:16; 22:18; Numbers 15:3; 29:39. The idea is, that as the result of the [foreseen] divine interposition which he prayed for, he would bring voluntary offerings to God in acknowledgment of his goodness and mercy. “’I will praise thy name, O Lord for it is good’ - That is, God himself is benevolent; and David says that he would express his sense of God‘s goodness by offering him [the sacrifice of] praise. For He has delivered me out of all trouble; and my [prophetic] eye has seen its desire upon my enemies.’” (Albert Barnes) David was unable to sacrifice in the place appointed by Yahweh by the Mosaic law for such offering. But he desired to do so. And, as for Abraham, God accredited to him for righteousness.