Psalms 59:1

PSALM 59

A PRAYING SAINT AGAINST AN ARMY

SUPERSCRIPTION: FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN; SET TO ALTASHETH.

A PSALM OF DAVID. MICHTAM; WHEN SAUL SENT; AND THEY WATCHED THE HOUSE TO KILL HIM.

Leupold expresses perfectly our full confidence in this superscription. "We give full credence to the heading as being historically reliable and as actually reflecting the situation out of which the Psalm grew."[1] "The whole character of the Psalm is Davidic; and the 'title' has more intrinsic weight than the conjectures of critics, especially critics who all disagree with one another."[2]

THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND (1 Samuel 9:11-18)

David's victory over Goliath of Gath made him popular with the people who sang, "David hath slain his tens of thousands; and Saul has slain his thousands"! Saul's jealousy was strongly kindled against David. He promised David his daughter Merab for wife, but then gave her to another. Then Saul learned that Michal loved David, and hoping to get David killed, he promised him Michal provided David would go out and kill 200 Philistines. This David promptly did and was soon married to Michal, thus becoming Saul's son-in-law.

Saul's hatred of David grew worse. Twice he tried to murder David by casting his spear at him, but David remained unharmed. Then Saul tried to get Jonathan to slay David, but Jonathan refused. Jonathan warned David that Saul was determined to kill him.

Then came the incident that resulted in this psalm. Saul sent a detachment of his army to surround David's house and to kill him next morning. David's wife Michal aided David's escape by letting him down from an upper window, and then placing a dummy made of a teraphim and a pillow of goat-hair in David's bed.

Next morning, when the men demanded to see David, Michal said, "He is sick." Saul sent and demanded that they bring David in his bed in order that Saul might kill him; and when the deception was discovered, Saul demanded to know of Michal why she had allowed David to escape; and she excused herself by saying that David had threatened to kill her.

Of all the psalms dealing with David's difficulties with Saul, this is the very earliest. As Delitzsch stated it, "This is the earliest of the Davidic Psalms which are dated from Saul's persecutions."[3]

"The Psalm divides into four parts, two of them terminated by the word "Selah," and the other two by refrains."[4] These divisions are (1) Psalms 59:1-5; (2) Psalms 59:6-9; (3) Psalms 59:10-13, and (4) Psalms 59:14-17.

Psalms 59:1-5

"Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God:

Set me on high from them that rise up against me

Deliver me from the workers of iniquity,

And save me from the bloodthirsty men.

For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul;

The mighty gather themselves together against me:

Not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Jehovah.

They run and prepare themselves without my fault;

Awake thou to help me, and behold.

Even thou, O Jehovah, God of hosts, the God of Israel,

Arise to visit all the nations:

Be not merciful to any wicked transgressors, (Selah)"

"Set me on high" (Psalms 59:1). This is often translated either "protect" or "defend," thus giving us four one-word prayers in this first verse. These are "deliver, protect, deliver, save!" These urgent repeated cries for God's help emphasize the dramatic nature of the crisis David faced. He was one man, alone, hated, pursued, proscribed by the king, condemned to death without a trial, and an entire army at the disposal of his chief enemy had been commissioned to kill him. Hopeless? No indeed; God was with David!

"From mine enemies" (Psalms 59:1). Who were all these enemies of David?

"Saul became his enemy through jealousy; Saul's partisans took sides with him against David; he had enemies at the court of Achish; there were enemies in his own family; even his son Absalom hated him; even one of his counselors, Ahithophel betrayed him; and besides these, there were foreign enemies on all sides: Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Amalekites, Syrians, Mesopotamians, etc."[5]

As we have frequently noticed, many of these psalms deal with hatred, opposition, oppression, injustice, slander, violence, etc., encountered by one who trusts God and looks to him continually for deliverance from implacable enemies on all sides. "The constant recurrence of this note in the Psalter is doubtless intended to provide a large measure of comfort and encouragement for the various circumstances of trial to which the godly are exposed."[6]

"Workers of iniquity" (Psalms 59:2). David here pleads for deliverance because of the character of his foes. (1) They are evil workers (Psalms 59:2); (2) they are bloodthirsty men (Psalms 59:3), and (3) David has never wronged any of them.

"Not for my transgression ... nor my sin ... without my fault" (Psalms 59:3-4). This is a three-fold protestation of innocence on David's part. As Dummelow noted, this may not be taken as proof of David's being sinless in God's sight, but "Probably mean that he had done nothing to provoke the hostilities of his enemies."[7]

"The mighty gather themselves together against me" (Psalms 59:3). Spurgeon thought that this means that 'All' the mighty ones united against David. "No one of them was absent from the muster when there was a saint to be murdered. They were too fond of such sport to be absent."[8] We cannot say whether or not Spurgeon was correct in the application of this principle to the situation here; but well we know that such an attitude is very frequently that of the world toward the people of God.

"Arise to visit all the nations" (Psalms 59:5). This line has given commentators a lot of trouble. The usual explanation is that of Yates, "Although basically the lament of an individual, it has overtones which adapt it to national use also."[9] This is the third time that we have encountered this world-wide international element in the Psalms. (See Psalms 56:7; Psalms 57:9, and again here). Please see discussion of all these. It is an earmark of Davidic authorship in all three. Kidner pointed out that this international flavor even existed in that very early prayer in the life of David, before his victory over Goliath. He prayed, "I come to thee in the name of Jehovah of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied ... I will smite thee, and take thy head from off thee.., that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel" (1 Samuel 17:45,46).

"Here the picture widens as David now king (when this Psalm was written), applies the personal prayer to a larger situation, 1e., that of the nation."[10] Our own view differs from this in that we think the supposition that the psalm was written years after the event that prompted it, after David was king, is unnecessary.

Leupold also sustained this same view: At the very time when Saul's men were surrounding the house of David with the intention of killing him, the Philistines were also harassing Israel (it will be remembered that when David was in the cave of Adullum, Saul had to leave off the pursuit to repel an attack from the Philistines).

"Thus when David reflected upon his own distress (in this Psalm), he felt that when God took his case in hand, God would also, at the same time, deliver Israel from the attacks of the heathen."[11]

Thus the mention of "the nations" here is quite natural and understandable.

"God of hosts ... God of Israel ... visit all the nations" (Psalms 59:5). Three reasons are given here as grounds for David's prayer for God's intervention. "(1) He is the God of hosts, (2) He is the covenant God of Israel, and (3) He is also the God of all nations"[12]

This first paragraph ends with the word "Selah," which was probably some kind of a musical direction to the singers.