FOR THE DIRECTOR of music. With stringed instruments. A maskil of David. When the Ziphites had gone to Saul and said, “Is not David hiding among us?”
1Save me, O God, by your name;
vindicate me by your might.
2Hear my prayer, O God;
listen to the words of my mouth.
3Strangers are attacking me;
ruthless men seek my life—
men without regard for God.
Selah
4Surely God is my help;
the Lord is the one who sustains me.
5Let evil recoil on those who slander me;
in your faithfulness destroy them.
6I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you;
I will praise your name, O LORD,
for it is good.
7For he has delivered me from all my troubles,
and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.
Original Meaning
PSALM 54 IS a plea for deliverance and shares with Psalms 52 and 53 the theme of enemies who have no regard for God (cf. 52:7; 53:1, 4; 54:3). This psalm revolves around 54:4, which carries the major theme: “Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me.” References to God’s “name” as the basis of the psalmist’s hope for deliverance bracket the psalm at the beginning (54:1) and end (54:6), and the divine name Yahweh itself stands at the end (54:6), despite the fact this psalm is part of the so-called Elohistic Psalter.1 Concern with the divine name also links this psalm with 52:9, which expresses similar confidence in the name.
Surrounding the central verse, the psalm is divided into two segments of three verses each (54:1–3, 5–7). The structure of the psalm can be described as follows: invocation of God to hear and save (54:1–2), description of the psalmist’s plight (54:3), thematic statement of confidence (54:4), plea for retribution on the enemies (54:5), and vow of sacrifice and praise (54:6–7).
The Heading (54:0)
NO NEW TERMS appear in the heading of Psalm 54. The composition is referred to “the director of music” and attributed to David.2 Like Psalms 52 and 53 before it and the following Psalm 55, the present one is called a maśkil.3 The musical direction “with stringed instruments” (binginot) appears here for the first time since Psalms 4 and 6. The term also appears in the heading to Psalm 55.4
A historical notice connects Psalm 54 with the event in 1 Samuel 23:19–29, when the Ziphites informed Saul that David and his men were hiding in their territory and promised to turn him over to Saul. Nothing in the psalm specifically relates to those events, but the general concern about being attacked by “ruthless men” (54:3) and slanderers (54:5a) is compatible with the kind of attack experienced in 1 Samuel 23.
Call for Hearing and Deliverance (54:1–2)
THE PSALM BEGINS with a plea for God to “save” the psalmist “by [his] name.” In this context God’s “name” is synonymous with his “might” (geburah), as indicated by the parallel positions of the two phrases “by your name” and “by your might” in 54:1. For the Israelites, the name reveals the essential character and nature of the bearer; thus, with respect to God, the name reveals the power and authority of God himself. It is through the power and authority to which the name points that he acts to deliver and to judge.
Along with deliverance, the psalmist also desires “vindication.” This translation of the underlying Hebrew word (dyn [“judge”]) is interpretive in that it assumes that when God judges the psalmist, he will be found righteous and thus vindicated. Along with “vindication,” the psalmist seeks a hearing from God who is judge. His plea that God “hear” (šmʿ ) and “listen” (ʾzn) are attempts to gain access to a judge to hear the plaintiff’s case.
The Psalmist’s Plight (54:3)
THE PSALMIST VIEWS his circumstance as desperate—even life-threatening (“seek my life”).5 The attackers are called zarim (“strangers”) and ʿariṣim (“ruthless persons”). Normally a zar is a non-Israelite who does not share in Israel’s covenant relationship with Yahweh, an interpretation that seems uncomfortable with the identity of the Ziphites, who were residents of Judah. Perhaps the intent is to use a particularly harsh term to describe fellow Israelites in order to emphasize just how far they had removed themselves from true covenant relationships. The term ʿariṣim is often used in parallel with zarim to describe the fear-inducing opposition of foreign nations (cf. Isa. 25:5; Ezek. 28:7; 31:12), but it can also describe particularly “ruthless” attackers.6
Without regard for God. The attackers are not only strangers to covenant relationship and particularly ruthless; they also live with no regard for God. Like the “fool” in Psalm 53, these enemies refuse to acknowledge the authority of God over their lives. The phrase translated “without regard for God” is more literally rendered “they do not set God before them.” The picture is akin to that of following a trailblazing guide—setting that person in front and keeping one’s eyes fixed on that leader in order to know the right way. These attackers refuse to keep their eyes on God but seek to follow their own ruthless devices. Therefore, the psalmist feels confident to bring them into Yahweh’s court for redress.
Statement of Confidence (54:4)
THE CENTRAL MESSAGE of the psalm is confidence in God as the psalmist’s “help” and “sustainer” (lit., “prop, support”). Unlike the enemies, who ruthlessly “seek” to do harm to the psalmist’s nepeš, God is the psalmist’s “helper,” who “props up” or “provides support” for him.
OUT OF THIS confident expectation that God is helper and sustainer, the psalmist is able to seek the setting right of wrongs. In verse 5 he asks that God the judge render justice on his enemies by allowing the evil they intend for him to “recoil” on them. The enemies here are further called “slanderers” (šoreray)7—an accusation that fits the legal setting noted previously.
In your faithfulness. The psalmist anticipates the destruction of the enemy as a result of God’s “faithfulness” (ʾemet [“truth”]). The idea behind ʾemet is more than veracity or accuracy. It is rather the sense of endurance and commitment. God is to be trusted not because he is correct and accurate but because he is enduringly committed and worthy of secure reliance.
Vow of Sacrifice and Praise (54:6–7)
AS IN MANY laments, this psalm concludes with a vow to offer sacrifice and praise. The mention of sacrifice does point back to the concern with right sacrifice in 50:7–15, 23 and 51:16–17, 19. However, here the psalmist raises no question concerning the desirability of sacrifice.
I will praise your name. The psalmist vows to praise Yahweh’s name, picking up on the opening theme that it is the power of God’s “name” that delivers. Here the divine name is specifically stated and commended because “it is good”—a link with the similar statement in 52:9. The sacrifice and praise were likely offered in the context of temple worship—or in the postexilic context, during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem or in local synagogue worship.8
He has delivered me. The psalm’s final word is one of confident expectation of deliverance, stated as an accomplished fact. Either this is a sign of a reworking of the original lament after deliverance had been experienced, or else the psalmist’s confidence is so strong that deliverance is assured. The last phrase of the psalm is more vague and general than the NIV has interpreted it: “My eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.” The literal statement is “and at my enemies my eyes have looked.” But since the context is one of rejoicing over the defeat of the enemy, the NIV interpretation seems appropriate.9
THE GOD WHO IS OVER AGAINST US. According to this psalm, the enemies ultimately fail because they are “without regard for God” (54:3). As noted above, this phrase in the Hebrew means something like “they do not set God before them.” While this may have the effect of saying “they do not keep their eyes on God,” or perhaps “they don’t follow the path blazed by God going before,” the linking of this verse with verse 4 raises another interesting possibility. In verse 4, God is called the psalmist’s “helper” (ʿozer). We find a similar combination of two words—ʿezer [“helper”] and kenegdo [“like one over against him”]—in the description of Adam’s needed counterpart in Genesis 2:18. There God viewed the newly created human being as “not good”—that is, not yet complete—because there was not yet a “helper” (ʿezer) to provide the necessary relational counterpart (kenegdo; NIV “suitable for him”).
After no suitable ʿezer kenegdo was found for the Adam among the animals (Gen. 2:19–20), God divided the originally created Adam into two parts, forming one into a woman and bringing her back to the man, Adam. The man, now clearly identified as male, acknowledges the woman as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (2:23), and the passage concludes with the beautiful admission that when these two beings—who had originally been one—come together in appropriate relationship, the completion of the ʾadam (“human being”) is assured (2:24–25).
Thus, in the creation account, the appropriate relationship of man and woman realizes God’s intended completeness for humanity. In this relationship there is no implied inferiority of the woman, since she is made of the same stuff as the original Adam. Also her role as ʿezer kenegdo cannot be taken as subordinate, since the term “helper” (ʿezer) is used elsewhere in Scripture to describe God himself as the “helper” of humankind. The woman, then, is viewed as fulfilling the role of God in completing the ability of humankind to relate appropriately among itself as God is able to relate fully within himself.10
Now we know (from Scripture and from our present experience) that male and female did not continue long to relate appropriately as God originally intended and that the fall of human beings into sin and disobedience led—along with other consequences—to the destruction of the ʿezer kenegdo relationship (Gen. 3). But our psalm passage suggests that God still stands ready to provide the necessary relationship to make humans whole. God is our helper, says the psalmist, if only we will “set him over against” ourselves.
Contemporary Significance
KEEPING GOD OVER against us. How do we do what the enemies of this psalm did not? How do we “set him [God] before [or over against] us”? On the one hand, there is the expectation of keeping our eyes fastened on God. If God is the one who is over against or in front of us, our vision ought always to be focused on him. It is somewhat like two lovers alone at a restaurant table—hands clasped across the tablecloth, eyes locked together as if no one else is in the room. That kind of focused gaze on God reminds me of the old gospel hymn, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full on his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.”
Placing our gaze fully on God changes the way we see the rest of the world. When we look steadfastly at God, we find he is a God of justice and equity, a God who takes no pleasure in evil, the creator God who cares for the whole creation animate and inanimate, animal and human. Scrutinizing God in this way means we can no longer make light of his power and glory, nor can we ignore the call to participate in the restoration of the world. Our relationships will and must change; we will and must seek justice and equity as God does; we will and must respond to the whole creation in ways that seek its best interests rather than ours.
When the enemies of Psalm 54 set their eyes other than on God, they fail to see his “glory and grace.” Without him in sight, they are able to disregard him and join the fool of 53:1 in saying, “There is no God.” Ignoring his path, they feel free to become completely corrupt and without any good (53:1–4). In order to follow God’s path, the path described in 1:6 as “the way of the righteous,” we need to keep our eyes on him. Like the small child following his mom through the crowded shopping mall, a moment’s distraction can mean the difference between arriving safely in his mother’s wake or wandering the mall/world tearfully in search of her.
When we keep our eyes on God and allow him to be the helper who stands over against us, we can know the kind of fulfillment that even our most intimate human connections fail to provide. When our trust in human companions is betrayed (cf. 55:12–14), when our leaders fail (cf. 146:3–5), and even when our parents abandon and abuse us (cf. 27:7–10), God is there to hold us up and sustain us (54:4).
Knowing what we are praying for. Some of the prayers of the psalmists may bother us more than a little. Often they ask God for public redress of their wrongs in violent terms. “Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them” (54:5). Whatever happened to “love your enemy, do good to those who persecute you”? We feel constrained by our Christian principles to avoid spilling out anger and hurt on those we consider our enemies. Often we feel more than a little bit superior to these pre-Christian, Old Testament psalmists and their vengeful ways.
Let’s stop before we get too smug, however, and realize two things. (1) Those words of anger and vengeance are, strangely enough, God’s Word to us! What they teach us, I think, is not to go around hating our enemies, but to acknowledge that we sometimes (perhaps even often) do hate those who hurt us and wish them hurt in return. The recent execution of an infamous mass murderer is a case in point. Interviews with family members of those slain often expressed anger and rage and the desire to see the killer suffer as their lost loved ones suffered. They wanted to be there to see the lethal injection given, to witness the demise of the one they had named evil incarnate. If we convict the psalmist of wrong for these words of angry desire for vengeance, we will most likely have to convict ourselves as well before our lives are over.
These words of pain and rage challenge us to admit our own rage and hatred rising out of our vulnerability and impotence to stop the hurt and pain that consume those things, ideas, and people we hold so dear. These words also challenge us to acknowledge—in the absence of our own pain—that many others in our world have experienced life so abusive and anguished that they could pray these angry psalms without blinking an eye. Talk to some of the survivors of the Nazi Holocaust or those who experienced the abuses of apartheid in South Africa. Ask the families of the victims of revolutionary zeal in Chile and Nicaragua, mainline China, or the killing fields of Cambodia, and you will find they understand the words of these psalms in ways you and I never could. These words crack open a window to a true world that we may not want to admit exists—whether inside or outside of ourselves—but it is a world that our God knows and shares the pain it reveals.
(2) We need to realize that whenever we ask God to set things right, establish justice, vindicate the righteous, and bring an end to evil, we are actually joining the psalmists’ pleas for God to bring destruction on the wicked. It is a bit naive of us to believe in a holy and righteous God who is incompatible with evil and to ask him to enter our world decisively in order to end the effects of evil, and to ignore the fact that such a clean-up would have negative consequences for anyone and everything infected by wickedness. Both Old and New Testaments are clear in telling all who listen to them that aligning oneself with evil has destructive consequences. All those passages about fire and brimstone, divine judgment, eternal damnation, and hell are surely not there by mistake. Nor are they just the wishful thinking of angry, hateful people, who want to exercise destructive power over others.
Even when we ask for personal vindication rather than judgment on others, there is still a cutting edge to our request. To ask the judge to decide between two parties means that when one wins, the other loses; when the one is declared righteous, the other must necessarily be wicked. For us to be declared right means that others must be declared wrong and suffer the consequences of their wrongdoing.
It is interesting to me, however, that we never hear Jesus asking for personal vindication, but only for forgiveness. On the cross, rather than asking for God’s angels to prove to his detractors that he was truly the Son of God, Jesus instead asks his Father to forgive those who have brought him to death, “for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).11 So we should be careful what we pray for, because we may get more than we bargain for.