#DailyDevotion When People Oppose You Without Cause
Psalm 59 Rescue me from my enemies, O my God! Provide for me a high refuge from those who attack me. 2Rescue me from those who do wrong, and save me from murderers. 3There they lie in ambush for me, fierce men attacking me for no wrong or sin of mine, O LORD. 4I’ve done no wrong, but they run and get ready for me. Be aware of my encounter and see.
The inscription of this psalm gives us some insight to why David is praying this: “David’s inscription when Saul sent men to watch his home and kill him.” This took place in 1 Sam. 19:11-24. Saul sent men to watch David’s house to keep track of David. David’s wife made a dummy in his bed and he escaped through a window. People thought David was sick. When Saul came, Saul’s daughter, David’s wife, told Saul, “He told me, ‘Help me get away, or I’ll kill you.” David went to Samuel the prophet. When Saul found out, he sent men there to kill David. Each time he sent men, the LORD put His Spirit on them and they started prophesying. Eventually Saul himself went and he too started prophesying, he stripped off his clothes and lay there all day and night. So David was able to escape Saul.
With all that in mind we look at the psalm itself now. Obviously an appeal by David to help him be rescued from his enemies. He appeals to God as Elohim (generic name of God) and LORD (YHWH). These verses seem to the men watching his house while he escaped. The LORD through David’s wife provided for David to escape to where Samuel was staying. Thankfully, we probably don’t have men in our lives waiting to kill us. We don’t have people waiting to ambush us. We may have people who seek us harm in other ways for no sin of ours against them. We may experience this as children in schools. We might experience this in our office or at our jobs. People who are jealous of us, who are worried we may surpass them or get more attention than them. So they devise ways to humiliate us or take credit for the work we do. Against such people you think about when praying this psalm.
5You, O LORD God of armies, God of Israel, awake to punish all the nations; show no mercy to any treacherous wrongdoer.
David appeals to several names of God here, YHWH, Elohim Sabaoth (you may know this one from the communion service) and Elohim Israel. David feels the LORD is sleeping so he calls upon Him to wake up. It’s like when the LORD Jesus Christ was sleeping on the boat in the midst of the storm. He wants Him to punish the nations and to show no mercy upon them. It is also suggested here that David does not consider those who oppose him and who seek his life part of Israel. They, by their unbelief, have become like the nations. They oppose the LORD’s anointed one. Indeed, those who lack faith are not, at this moment, Abraham’s children, children of the promise as Paul notes in Romans 9. If they continue in their unbelief, they ultimately will be shown no mercy on the Day of Judgment.
On the Day of Judgment, the LORD Jesus Christ will come with all His angelic hosts to gather up the nations who reject Him, the LORD’s anointed, and they will show no mercy to them. Death and destruction is what they will experience as He rescues all of us from their wicked hands. We should not fear the world when the world opposes us. We should appeal to the LORD as David does here and wait upon His great deliverance.
Almighty God, LORD of Sabaoth, look down from heaven and remove from us those who seek our harm without cause or sin in us against them. Grant us peace in the midst of these troubles so we may praise Your holy name. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.