Psalm 54

David wants God to destroy his enemies.

 


 

DAVID WANTS GOD TO DESTROY HIS ENEMIES

For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “Isn’t David hiding himself among us?”

 

VERSE 1. Save me, God, by your name. Vindicate me in your might.

Vindicate me. That is, “defend me” (NLT translation) or “defend my cause” (NAB translation).

by your name. The Divine Name refers to the Hebrew word יהוה. Scholars call it the Tetragrammaton. They transliterate it as YHWH. Nobody knows how to pronounce it. Read more »

 

VERSE 2. Hear my prayer, God. Listen to the words of my mouth.

 

VERSE 3. For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them. Selah.

Violent men have sought after my soul. David’s enemies were men of violence. Of course David himself was a man of great violence.

They haven’t set God before them. They are “godless.”

 

VERSE 4. Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the one who sustains my soul.

 

VERSE 5. He will repay the evil to my enemies. Destroy them in your truth.

He will repay the evil to my enemies. David wants the LORD God to do evil to his foes.

Destroy them. David wants God to destroy his enemies.

 

VERSE 6. With a free will offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, LORD, for it is good.

I will sacrifice to you. This reflects a bartering mindset.

If the LORD God does thus-and-such for David, then David will so thus-and-such for God.

Specifically, if God defeats David’s enemies, then David will make a generous sacrifice to God.

 

VERSE 7. For he has delivered me out of all trouble. My eye has seen triumph over my enemies.

 


next chapter »

« previous chapter


PSALMS

CHAPTERS: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 1617, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 3435, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 5253, 5455, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 7071, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 888990, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104105, 106, 107108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148149, 150

Deuterocanonical chapter: 151

RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, MemorizeDavid’s Fasting

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.