Sunday SchoolPsalm 179/17/17

The title of this Psalm is simply,A Prayer of David.We can't place it to a specific time in David's life, because there are too many possible points where this connects with his general circumstances. This Psalm is remarkable for its trust in God, its lack of confidence in self, and in its glorious heavenly hope.

1 Hear a just cause, OLord,Attend to my cry;
Give ear to my prayerwhich isnot from deceitful lips.

2Let my vindication come from Your presence;
Let Your eyes look on the things that are upright.

  • Hear a just cause, O LORD: As is common in the Psalms, David again prayed from a time of crisis. Here he began his appeal to God by declaring thejusticeof hiscause. He believed God had every reason toattend tohiscrybecause hiscausewas just.
  • It is entirely possible for someone to think that their cause is just when it is not; or for both parties in a fight to each be absolutely convinced that their own cause is just. We cannot automatically take these words of David to ourselves and immediately judge our cause as just.
  • Yet we can look at our cause as impartially and dispassionately as possible, looking at it from the perspective of others to the best of our ability, and be more concerned with what is trulyjustthan simply what favors us.
  • Give ear to my prayer which is not from deceitful lips: Even as David was convinced regarding the justice of his cause, he was also careful to speak honestly about his problem.
  • InPsalm 139:23-24David prayed:Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.This wonderful prayer - to know one's own heart and hidden motives and sins - is the kind of thing that David prayedbeforehe prayed this Psalm. He comes to God in this Psalmwith some confidence through atestedconscience.
  • Deceitful lips: They profess like a saint, but live like apagan.
  • Let my vindication come from Your presence: This was an important way that David left his problem to the LORD. "God, I refuse to take matters into my own hands. I will wait forvindicationtocome from Your presence; I want to know that this is Your work and not mine."
  • Let Your eyes look on the things that are upright: David phrased his request in a way that put more emphasis upon God's justice than on his own cause. He did believe that his cause was just; but he spoke in a manner that gave more importance to thethings that are upright.
  • David's idea was something like this: "LORD, I believe my cause is just and I have searched my own heart for deceit. Yet I wait for Your vindication, and I want You to do and to promote what is right. If I'm not on Your side, move me so that I am."

3You have tested my heart;
You have visitedmein the night;
You have tried me and have found nothing;
I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

  • You have tested my heart: Davidinvitedthe test in the previous verses; here he speaks havingpassedthe test (You have tried me and have found nothing).
  • It takes some level of patience and maturity to let God test one's heart in this manner. We must accept the fact that we might be wrong and that someone else may be right in the matter. We must be more interested in God's justice and His standard of right and wrong than we are in winning our cause. We must come to God and His word with a heart ready to be convicted and corrected.
  • I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress: David was careful to not speak in a sinful way about his crisis. He did not want to speak in a way that might deceive others or himself, and promote his own cause at the expense of God's justice. Davidpurposedthat it would not be so.

4Concerning the works of men,
By the word of Your lips,
I have kept away from the paths of the destroyer.

  • By the word of Your lips, I have kept away from the paths of the destroyer: This was one reason why David was good at this kind of strong self-analysis. He lived by the words of God'slips; he knew and loved and lived God'sword.
  • It was this word thattriedDavid andfound nothing. It was this word that gave David the wisdom and the strength to keepaway from the paths of the destroyer.
  • David had to protect himself, his family, and his men from Saul without becoming himself a twisted, self-interesteddestroyerlike Saul.

5Uphold my steps in Your paths,
Thatmy footsteps may not slip.

  • Uphold my steps: David felt that he was in danger of falling or slipping into disaster; he needed God to hold up his steps, so that hisfootsteps may not slip.
  • "What! Slip in God's ways? Yes, the road is good, but our feet are evil, and therefore slip, even on the King's highway." (Spurgeon)
  • In Your paths: This again shows the significant humility of David's prayer. He wants to be upheld, but only onGod'spaths.

6I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God;
Incline Your ear to me,andhear my speech.

  • I have called upon You, for You will hear me: David's calm confidence in the midst of his crisis is encouraging. Though his problems were not gone yet, he still was confident that God wouldhearwhen hecalled.

7Show Your marvelous lovingkindness by Your right hand,
O You who save those who trustin You
From those who rise upagainst them.

  • Show Your marvelous lovingkindness by Your right hand: This is the first appearance in the Psalms of the wonderful word,lovingkindness. David asked that this special love be shown to him by the special power of God (Your right hand).
  • Yet David spoke of more thanlovingkindnesshere; he spoke ofmarvelous lovingkindness, and thatby Your right hand. Charles Spurgeon said, "The wonder of extraordinary love is that God should make it such an ordinary thing, that he should give to us 'marvelous lovingkindness,' and yet should give it so often that it becomes a daily blessing, and yet remains marvelous still."
  • Many of us ask for or only expect God'smoderatelovingkindness. We make our prayers, our faith, and our expectations small. David here shows us a pattern to expect and ask from Godmarvelous lovingkindness.

8Keep me as the apple of Your eye;
Hide me under the shadow of Your wings,

  • Keep me as the apple of Your eye: The phrase "apple of Your eye" was used to describe something precious, easily injured and demanding protection. David wanted to be kept by God as if he were somethingvaluableand evenfragile.
  • This figure of speech is also used inDeuteronomy 32:10,Proverbs 7:2, andZechariah 2:8,For thus says theLordof hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.

- To be kept as the apple of the eye means:

- To be kept with many guards and protections

- Toalwaysbe kept safe

- To be kept from the small things, like dust and grit

- To always be kept sensitive and tender

- To be kept clear and unobstructed

- To be kept as something beautifulandeminently useful

  • Hide me under the shadow of Your wings: This is another powerful figure of speech. The idea is of how a mother bird shields her young chicks from predators, from the elements, and from dangers by gathering them under her wings.
  • This figure of speech is also used in three other Psalms (Psalms 36:7,57:1, and63:7). Jesus used this same word picture to show his love and desired care for Jerusalem inMatthew 23:37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks underherwings, but you were not willing!
  • Taken together, these two phrases are powerful pictures of God's care for His people.

9From the wicked who oppress me,
Frommy deadly enemies who surround me.

  • From the wicked who oppress me, from my deadly enemies who surround me: The threat in David's life wasreal. He faced not onlyoppressionthat made his life difficult, but alsodeadly enemieswho wanted to end his life.
  • In the midst of these real threats, David did the right thing: heprayed.

10They have closed up their fathearts;
With their mouths they speak proudly.

  • They have closed up their fat hearts: David here begins to describe the deadly enemies who oppressed him so. They were insensitive (fat hearts), and spokeproudly.
  • It is said that the purely fatty part of the human body, having no nerves of sensation, can be cut and pierced without experiencing any feeling of pain. So,to say that one’s heart is fat is equivalent to saying that it is hard and insensible, void of moral and sympathetic feeling, and not to be affected by any appeal made to its pity or sense of right.

11They have now surrounded us in our steps;
They have set their eyes, crouching down to the earth,

12As a lion is eager to tear his prey,
And like a young lion lurking in secret places.

  • Surrounded us in our steps … set their eyes … crouching down to the earth, as a lion: David described the dangerous, wild, beast-like actions of his enemies. They would destroy him as aliondestroys its prey.

13Arise, OLord,
Confront him, cast him down;
Deliver my life from the wicked with Your sword,

  • Arise, O LORD, confront him, cast him down: David declared his dependence on God to protect him. It wasn't because David was afraid of such lion-like enemies; as a young boy David had bested both the bear and the lion (1 Samuel 17:33-37). It was because David needed to see his enemy defeated by the hand of God, not the hand of David.
  • Confront him: This Psalm has no firm connection to any particular recorded event in David's life, but it is not hard to see it belonging to the long period when Saul hunted David. During that time David refused to strike out against Saul when he had the opportunity, because he knew thatGod must strike against Saul, and not David himself.

14With Your hand from men, OLord,
From men of the worldwho havetheir portion inthislife,
And whose belly You fill with Your hidden treasure.
They are satisfied with children,
And leave the rest of theirpossessionfor their babes.

  • Deliver my life from the wicked … from men of the world who have their portion in this life: David recognized that one characteristic of his enemies was that they looked much more tothis lifethan they did to eternity.

15As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness;
I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.

  • As for me: David here set himself in contrast to his enemies, who looked only to this life and not to eternity.
  • I will see Your face: David was confident not only of life after death, but that he would one dayseethefaceof God. The idea is not merely ofcontactwith God, but of unhindered fellowship with God.
  • See Your face in righteousness: The idea is that David would have a righteousness that would enable him to see the face of God. Again, we see his desire to have this unhindered relationship with God.
  • From a New Covenant perspective, we can say that thisrighteousnessis the gift of God, granted to those who receive the person and work of Jesus by faith.
  • I shall be satisfied when I awake: David knew that the transition from this life to the next was likewaking. He knew that the world beyond wasmorereal and less dreamlike than our own.
  • We tend to think of heaven and its realities as an uncertain, cloudy dream world. In truth, it is more real than our present environment, which by contrast will seem uncertain and cloudy when weawakein God's presence. Things will become clear. 1 Corinthians 13:12, For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
  • When I awake in Your likeness: David did not have a sophisticated understanding of heaven; one might say that no one in the Old Testament really did. Yet he did know that when he saw God's face, when he received His righteousness, when he awoke in heaven's reality, that he would beinGod'slikeness. 1 John 3:1-3, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!Therefore, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

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