Psalm 54 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 54 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your might.
Verse 2Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.
Verse 3For the insolent have risen against me, the ruthless seek my life; they do not set God before them. Selah
Verse 4But surely, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.
Verse 5He will repay my enemies for their evil. In your faithfulness, put an end to them.
Verse 6With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
Verse 7For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
Devotion
I love playing hide-n-seek with our grandchildren. But it’s hard! You see, both we and they have dogs. So, if we play at one of our homes and the puppy is free to wander around, he always gives me away! The puppy doesn’t intend it, but he is being rude, disrespectful.
Saul and David are not playing games. Saul wants to find and kill David. David, meanwhile, is trying to run away. He doesn’t want to fight, much less to kill the King of Israel. Into this intrigue come the Ziphites, who live in the wilderness where David is hiding. They go to Saul and reveal the place where David is hiding. (1 Samuel 23:19ff.)
Like David, we may at times feel unfairly accused, exposed. People we trust let us down. Circumstances suddenly take challenging, even catastrophic turns. Like David, we cry out our pain to God, we lean on our helper to deliver us from every trouble.
Prayer
Loving God, we know that people we trust can let us down. Things in which we have placed our trust can suddenly evaporate. Focus our hearts to trust in you, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.