Download Here
The Sustained Soul
Psalms 54
November 10, 2019
Tonight we approach a Psalm
That finds David between a rock and a hard place.
The subtitle gives us the details.
“For the choir director; on stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “Is not David hiding himself among us?”
Basically you will see that we have David here.
• A man who was promised a throne
• A man who has had to flee
• A man serving God and landing in hot water
• He is hated and hunted
• He is unable to take matters into his own hands
• He is forced to simply endure this difficult situation
And the simple question to anyone in such a situation is
How do you endure?
How do you keep going when so many things are stacked against you?
And the answer is HOPE
Romans 5:3-5 “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
It is genuine hope, supplied to us by God,
That allows us the strength to endure
Even when circumstances are extremely unfavorable.
We’ll see that hope tonight in the 54th Psalm.
But first, let’s go and get a handle on the background behind this Psalm.
TURN TO: 1 SAMUEL 23
This portion of Scripture actually produced several of the Psalms.
Some we have recently examined.
It was in 1 Samuel 20
• That Saul’s animosity toward David was confirmed and David had to flee.
In 1 Samuel 21
• David fled to Nob to Ahimelech who gave David some of the consecrated bread and Goliath’s sword,
• From there David fled to Gath in the land of the Philistines where he had to fake insanity to escape. (This inspired Psalms 34 & 56)
In 1 Samuel 22
• David fled to Moab with his parents, but God directed him to stay in Judah
• So David hid out in the forest of Hereth.
• And David was relatively safe there.
It was then that Doeg the Edomite
• Told Saul about what Ahimelech had done by helping David
• And Saul had Ahimelech put to death,
• And Ahimelech’s son Abiathar escaped to tell David.
David then penned that 52nd Psalm
• To reassure Abiathar and the rest of the mighty men that Doeg’s words were empty threats.
That you all remember.
But the story continues.
David is now for the most part safe.
• He has taken refuge in the forest of Hereth,
• And he has comforted his men in regard to the idle threats of the enemy.
However, when Abiathar came to David he brought with him an ephod.
The ephod contained the Urim and Thummim
Which was a way of divining the will of the LORD.
Well in 1 Samuel 23
• David is hanging out in relative safety,
• But he receives word that a city in Judah is under attack by the Philistines,
• And now David is able to seek the will of the LORD
(READ 23:1-5)
• You see that David’s men understood the dangers in following this direction,
• But David is following the LORD and he goes and delivers that town.
The problem is that the town only has one way in and one way out
And David realizes that when Saul hears about what happened
He may come after David and if he does David is a sitting duck.
(READ 23:6-14)
• So David has now narrowly escaped and once again it feels like he can return to relative safety away from the threat of Saul.
But something happened.
DAVID GOT RATTED OUT.
(READ 23:19-29)
• The Ziphites ratted David out, and nearly got David killed.
• It was nothing short of the providence of God that allowed David to escape.
These men had no problem turning on David
In order to put themselves in good graces with Saul.
Now, that is likely the backstory to the 54th Psalm,
But I want to continue on in 1 Samuel for a moment
So you can get a better idea of these Ziphites)
David has escaped to Engedi, but then look at chapter 24.
(READ 24:1-3)
Now you know that story too.
• Someone ratted David out again (I know who I think it was)
• But Saul finds David and there we have the story of David cutting a piece off of Saul’s robe.
• The story results in Saul feeling remorse for chasing David, and determining not to pursue him anymore and Saul goes home.
It feels like the story should be over.
Well, it is, for a while.
In Chapter 25 David is just hanging out in the wilderness.
This is where he goes to Nabal for provisions
And Nabal refuses but Nabal’s wife Abigail provides.
You remember that story.
But then look again at chapter 26.
(READ 26:1-5)
• There they are again, those pesky Ziphites.
• And this is the story where David breaks into Saul’s camp and steals his spear and his water jug
• And once again shows Saul that he could have killed him but did not.
And of course there is a reason why David won’t kill Saul.
(READ 26:8-11)
• Saul is God’s anointed, and until God removes Saul, David is not at liberty to act against him.
Now I know that is a lot of backstory,
But I simply want you to understand David’s life of late.
• He’s got Saul who desperately wants to kill him
• He’s got the Ziphites who are determined to keep telling Saul where he is
• He’s got God who has forbidden him to touch Saul
It’s just a hard situation.
It would be one that might cause any of us to just want to give up.
Perhaps we would have wanted to take matters into our own hands
And go ahead and kill Saul and get it over with.
But David never did. David endured.
And Psalms 54 gives us a little insight as to how David did that.
Let’s break this Psalm into 3 points, and they certainly build upon one another.
#1 DAVID’S THREAT IS REAL
Psalms 54:1-3
Clearly by now you have seen that.
• On more than one occasion Saul has come close to killing David.
• And on more than one occasion Saul has been able to locate David while in hiding.
Saul is angry, the Ziphites are helping…the threat is real.
David isn’t just being paranoid here.
And so here David rightly takes that threat to God.
(1-2) “Save me, O God, by Your name, And vindicate me by Your power. Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth.”
When David says “Save me, O God, by Your name”
David is referring to the full attributes of God.
The name was significant in Israel.
• It is how a person was revealed.
• You are familiar with those covenantal names of God.
Well David here is referring to the fact that
God has revealed Himself as the Savior of Israel,
And that is why David is asking for salvation.
It is the equivalent of David saying,
“You are the revealed Savior, so save me”
David also recognizes God as the powerful Judge
“And vindicate me by Your power”
You are the revealed Savior, so save me.
You are the powerful Judge, so vindicate me.
They are the statements of a man
Who knows he cannot take the matter into his own hands.
He knows he must lean upon the LORD, and that is what he is doing.
He is leaning on God to save.
He is leaning on God to vindicate.
And his desperation in this matter is clear.
(2) “Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth.”
God, don’t ignore me now.
• You are the Savior.
• You are the Judge.
There’s nothing I can do so I’m crying out to you.
Now would be a bad time for You to tune me out.
And David explains why:
(3) “For strangers have risen against me”
That would be the Ziphites.
• Men who had no reason to hate David, but seemed more than willing to help Saul shed innocent blood by continually enlightening Saul to David’s location.
“For strangers have risen against me And violent men have sought my life;”
That would be Saul.
• The Ziphites expose David and Saul shows up to try and kill him.
And if that were not bad enough.
“They have not set God before them.”
That is to say, we have here enemies who want to kill me
And they are the kind of people who wake up in the morning
And seek direction from You.
Now David was that kind of guy, and that is partly why he is in this mess.
• It was God who chose to anoint David as king and thus anger Saul.
• It was God who told David to stay in Judah after he had fled to Moab.
• It was God who sent David to deliver the city of Keilah when he was hidden.
• It was God who wouldn’t let David kill Saul when Saul was firmly in his grasp.
So one could easily see that
The only reason Saul is still alive
Is because David continually sets God before him.
But the same can’t be said for David’s enemies.
• They aren’t the least bit concerned about the will of God.
• They don’t have an inner conscience to keep them from doing evil.
• They aren’t driven by the same moral or spiritual code that drives David.
David was in a battle where the enemy did not play by the same rules.
We have understood those types of issues in our day.
The enemy may attack us, blaspheme us, malign us, and even kill us,
But our playbook is filled with commands like:
Matthew 5:39 “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”
Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”
Romans 12:14 “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”
Romans 12:19 “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.”
That is the same type of problem David is facing.
The threat is real, and there isn’t anything that he can do about it.
He’s facing a dangerous enemy that plays by a different set of rules.
And all he can really do is cry out to God.
Can you see why his soul might become weary?
Can you see why his endurance might falter?
Well David’s threat is real.
#2 BUT DAVID’S GOD IS ALSO REAL
Psalms 54:4-5
And this is so important.
And this is where the rubber really meets the road in life.
You face that enemy and he persecutes you
And God tells you not to take your own revenge,
But to leave room for His vindication
So it really matters at that point if your God is real.
Because if your God is fake, that command won’t help.
• It won’t do you any good to turn the other cheek if the God who commanded that isn’t real.
• It won’t do you any good to pray for those who persecute you if the God who commanded that doesn’t hear.
• It won’t do you any good to refrain from your own revenge if there is no God out there to vindicate you.
Furthermore we might also add,
It won’t do you any good if you don’t really believe He is real.
This is why so many fail to obey commands like those.
In the moment of hardship; in the moment of difficulty,
It as though they fail to really believe God can be trusted
And they end up taking matters into their own hands.
They take their own revenge
They respond with a curse
When we do that someone would do good to ask us,
“Is your God not real?”
Well, David’s God is real, and what is more, David believes that.
Because after his cry we now see his confession.
(4-5) “Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is the sustainer of my soul. He will recompense the evil to my foes; Destroy them in Your faithfulness.”
David indicates that there are 4 things his God will do.
There are 4 things God will supply.
1) HELP
“Behold, God is my helper”
Certainly true for us.
Jesus even told us:
John 14:16-17 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”
David knew God would help.
2) SUSTENANCE
“The Lord is the sustainer of my soul”
• It is God who will keep me from stumbling.
• It is God who will keep me from throwing in the towel.
• It is God who will give me the strength to endure and carry on.
We also see this.
Peter taught us:
1 Peter 5:10 “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.”
God provides the strength of soul that is needed to endure.
3) VINDICATION
“He will recompense the evil to my foes”
• David knew that it was not his job to get even with Saul.
• David knew that was God’s job and he believed God would do it.
Paul taught us:
2 Thessalonians 1:6-7 “For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire,”
It was also Paul who reminded us not to take our own revenge for “Vengeance is Mine says the Lord”
David believed that.
4) VICTORY
“Destroy them in Your faithfulness.”
• At the end of the day David knew who would win.
• At the end of the day David knew who would be victorious.
He believed that God would show up
To help him, sustain him, vindicate him, and give him the victory.
Certainly the threat was real, but so was David’s God.
• God wasn’t just a token myth to David.
• God wasn’t just an empty claim.
• God wasn’t just a lifeless ceremony.
• God wasn’t just a boring hymn.
God was real to David.
David believed in God.
David trusted God.
That was the basis behind his obedience and the sustenance of his soul.
It seems like a simple question, but it really is the heart of the matter.
Do you believe in God?
Do you believe God?
• Is He real?
• Does He do what He says?
• Can He be trusted?
There are many who say “yes” to those questions,
But their life doesn’t back it up.
We remember those Cretans Paul talked about to Titus
Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”
They were people who claimed to believe in God
But their life certainly didn’t bear that out.
• There was only one reason David had stayed in Judah…
• There was only one reason David had refrained from killing Saul…
David believed his God was real
It is a very important reality.
So, we see here that David’s threat was real, but David’s God was also real.
#3 SO DAVID’S HOPE IS REAL
Psalms 54:6-7
Because David’s God is real, so is David’s hope.
Let me put it to you like this.
Hope is a result of faith, not the other way around.
Hope doesn’t come first, faith does.
If someone simply hopes for something that he doesn’t believe
All he has is some sort of fairy tale.
That is not Christian hope.
• Christian hope is not a verb, it’s not what we do.
• Christian hope is a noun, it’s what we have.
And we have hope as a result of faith.
• Because we believe God.
• Because we believe He is real.
• Because we believe He will do what He says.
• WE HAVE HOPE
Hope fades and hope falters when you don’t believe God.
But David did and so we see his hope.
(6-7) “Willingly I will sacrifice to You; I will give thanks to Your name, O LORD, for it is good. For He has delivered me from all trouble, And my eye has looked with satisfaction upon my enemies.”
You have here a future hope based on past reality.
• David knows that worship is in the future.
• David knows that thanksgiving is in the future.
• Because David believes that God is going to deliver him.
And the reason David believes that God is going to deliver him
Is because God has never failed him yet.
God has always delivered me.
Was it close at times? Absolutely
Did it feel like maybe He wasn’t? Yes
But did He? Yes, every time.
And with that confidence God is now
Sustaining David’s soul in this present threat.
THIS IS HOW THE SOUL IS SUSTAINED.
It is sustained through recognition of what God has done
And it is sustained through faith in what God will do.
And in this way God was helping David.
In this way God was giving David hope.
And this certainly applies to the Christian life we live.
• We face threats and enemies.
• We face things that would topple our faith and cause us anxiety and doubt.
What is it that sustains our soul?
• It is the reality that our God is real,
• Of what God has done,
• And the promise of what God has said He will do.
And frankly you can’t live the Christian life without that.
That brings to mind a New Testament passage that parallels this Psalm.
TURN TO: 2 TIMOTHY 4
• You of course remember that 2 Timothy is the letter where Paul is seeking to encourage Timothy not to quit, but to “preach the word”
• And the letter is filled with Paul seeking to encourage Timothy’s faith and give him hope.
But the last chapter of the letter gives us insight into Paul’s great hope
Even when facing various threats.
(READ 9-18)
• Here is the great apostle at the end of his life in the horrific Mamertine prison
• He will shortly be beheaded for the gospel and he knows it.
• And at the end of his life there were no prayer warriors surrounding his cell.
• There was no fan mail pouring in.
• Instead Paul says (16) “At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me;”
• The famed apostle was at the end of his life and was alone with the exception of Luke.
What soul can survive such heartbreak?
Paul could. Why?
(17-18) “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
That is a sustained soul.
Both by remembering what God had done
And by faith in what He would yet do.
And this is the calling for believers.
Let me remind you of the sustained soul of the apostles:
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 “we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;”
And then we are encouraged regarding how to have it.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
It is the same thing.
Remembering what God has done and faith in what He will do.
One more passage.
TURN TO: ROMANS 8:18-30
There it is again.
• Paul reminding that the present threat is no comparison to the coming glory.
• And even in the threat we have the Helper who supplies us with hope and prays on our behalf.
• And we have the full confidence that the God who first foreknew us will also lead us to glory.
These are the things that sustain the soul
Even in the midst of life’s threats.
That is what David had.
He believed God and the result was hope and the sustaining of the soul.
This is our calling as well.
