The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"deliver," Hebrew hatzileni (הַצִּילֵנִי), snatch away, rescue. With Saul's assassins watching his house, David cries for rescue: "Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God." The verb pictures a snatching away out of the hand that has hold of him.

"defend me," tesaggeveni (תְּשַׂגְּבֵנִי), set me on high, out of reach. The second petition is not for a wall around him but for height. To be "defended" here is to be lifted up where the hunters cannot climb, the same picture that will come back in verse 9 when he calls God his high tower.

"lie in wait," arevu (אָרְבוּ), ambush. He names his enemies plainly, "workers of iniquity" and "bloody men," and describes what they are doing outside his door. This is not open battle but ambush, men crouched and waiting for their moment.

"for my soul," lenafshi (לְנַפְשִׁי). Nefesh is the life itself. What they are lying in wait for is nothing less than his life, and David wants God to know exactly what is at stake at his door that night.

"not for my transgression," lo-fish'i (לֹא־פִשְׁעִי). Here is the one thing he presses on God: "not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD." He is not claiming to be sinless in general; he knew his sins well. He is saying that in this matter he is innocent, he has given no cause, and he takes that protest not to his friends or to public opinion but to God Himself.

Explanation

Weigh the words David lays such stress on: "not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD." He is careful to say it, and to say it directly to God, because it is the particular sting of this trouble. There is a suffering that comes as the harvest of our own wrongdoing, and when it comes we can hardly complain of it; but there is another kind that falls on us though we have done nothing to deserve it, and that carries its own peculiar pain, the pain of injustice. David is not claiming to be sinless before God in general; he knew his sins well. He is saying that in this matter, in Saul's murderous hatred, he is innocent; he has given no cause. And notice where he takes that protest, not to his friends, not to a court of public opinion, but "O LORD", to God Himself. When you are wrongly treated, there is a great temptation to spend your strength proving your innocence to people who will not believe you anyway. David does something wiser: he lays his case before the only Judge whose verdict matters, and lets Him be the vindicator. This is also what makes David's suffering a shadow of a greater one, for there was One who could say with perfect truth, and about His whole life, that His enemies hated Him "without a cause," and whose innocence was total. To be hated for no fault is bitter; but it puts the believer in the very company of his Lord.

Gospel Focus

"Not for my transgression, nor for my sin", David's innocence in this matter was partial and particular; the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled it perfectly, hated and killed though wholly without fault. Of Him the psalm's words come true absolutely: "They hated me without a cause" (John 15:25; Psalm 69:4), for He "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). When men "watched the house to kill" David, it was a shadow of the plots laid against Christ, who was "delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" into the hands of "wicked" men (Acts 2:23). And here is the wonder of the gospel: the sinless One was treated as the sinner, "not for his transgression, nor for his sin," but for ours, "he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin" (2 Corinthians 5:21). So when the believer suffers wrongfully, he is walking a road his Master walked first and deeper, "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example" (1 Peter 2:21). Take your undeserved trouble where David took his, straight to the LORD, and remember that the One who was hated without a cause bore it all the way to a cross, and turned the world's greatest injustice into your salvation. You are not alone in the unfairness; your Saviour has been there before you.

Word Study

"his strength," Hebrew uzzo (עֻזּוֹ). The foe is strong, "the mighty are gathered against me" (v3). But look at what David does with the enemy's strength: it does not drive him to panic or to reach for a stronger weapon, it drives him to God.

"wait upon thee," eshmorah (אֶשְׁמֹרָה), watch for, keep watch toward thee. "Because of his strength will I wait upon thee." This is a watchman's word, and it makes a lovely reversal: Saul's men are watching the house to kill David, and David answers by keeping his own watch, not on the assassins, but on God. There are two sets of eyes fixed through that night.

"defence," misgabbi (מִשְׂגַּבִּי), my high tower, stronghold. A crag lifted up out of reach, the same picture as the plea to be "defended" in verse 1. The bigger the threat, the deeper the waiting, because the tower is higher than the danger.

"God of my mercy," Elohei chasdi (אֱלֹהֵי חַסְדִּי). His confidence is not his own strength but the God of his mercy, the God of covenant love. It is not a bare power he waits for through the night but a love pledged to him.

"prevent me," yeqaddemeni (יְקַדְּמֵנִי), go before me, meet me. Sweeter still: "The God of my mercy shall prevent me." David does not merely wait for a distant God to arrive; the God of covenant love runs ahead to meet him.

Explanation

Look at how David reacts to the enemy's power, because it is not the reaction we expect. The foe is strong, "the mighty are gathered against me" (v3), and their assassins keep watch on his house. The natural response to a strong enemy is either to panic or to reach for a stronger weapon. David does neither. He says, "Because of his strength will I wait upon thee." The enemy's strength does not drive him to despair or to frantic self-defence; it drives him to God. Turn that over and feel its wisdom: the very thing that would normally make a man more afraid becomes, for faith, a reason to lean harder on the LORD. The bigger the threat, the deeper the waiting. And "wait" here is a watchman's word, eshmorah, "I will keep watch toward thee", a lovely reversal, for Saul's men are watching the house to kill David, and David answers by keeping his own watch, not on the assassins, but on God. There are two sets of eyes fixed through that night: the enemies' eyes on David's door, and David's eyes on his God. And he calls that God "my defence," misgab, a high tower, a crag lifted up out of reach. Then, sweeter still, "the God of my mercy shall prevent me", shall go before me. He does not merely wait for a distant God to arrive; the God of covenant love runs ahead to meet him. Faith's answer to a strong enemy is a stronger God, watched for through the night and already on the way.

Gospel Focus

"God is my defence... The God of my mercy shall prevent me", this high tower and this preventing mercy are ours in fullness in Jesus Christ, in whom God has gone before us in love. The word "prevent" means to go first, and that is the whole shape of grace, "we love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19); "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Before we ever sought Him, the God of our mercy ran ahead to meet us in Christ. He is our "defence," our high tower, for "the name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe" (Proverbs 18:10), and that name is Jesus. And the believer's posture toward a strong enemy is still David's: not panic, but waiting, "they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength" (Isaiah 40:31), and watchful trust, "casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you" (1 Peter 5:7). Whatever strength is arrayed against you, let it drive you not to fear but to God, your high tower and the God of your mercy, who in Christ has already gone before you, met you in your sin, and made Himself your defence. Wait on Him; keep your eyes on Him through the night; He is stronger than all that watches your door.

Word Study

"but I," Hebrew va'ani (וַאֲנִי), a strong contrast. The psalm ends in song, and it pivots on these two words. Twice the enemies were described prowling "at evening," making "a noise like a dog" (vv6, 14); against all that snarling David sets one small emphatic pronoun.

"sing," ashir (אָשִׁיר). David does not try to out-snarl his enemies through the night; he answers their noise with a different sound altogether. The night belongs to the dogs; the song is his reply.

"thy power," uzzekha (עֻזֶּךָ). The same word he used in verse 9 of the enemy's strength is now used of God's. The strength that had frightened him is answered by a greater strength, and that greater strength becomes the subject of his music.

"sing aloud," aranen (אֲרַנֵּן), cry out for joy. The second verb is louder than the first, a ringing shout rather than a quiet tune. Faith does not whisper its deliverance.

"thy mercy," chasdekha (חַסְדֶּךָ). The covenant love he had leaned on in the dark, "the God of my mercy" (v10), is what he sings about in the light. He praises the very thing he trusted.

"in the morning," laboqer (לַבֹּקֶר). Set the hours side by side. The dogs will prowl and growl until dawn, but dawn will come, and when it does their noise will give way to his music. This is the deep confidence of faith: evil has the night, but it does not have the morning.

"defence and refuge," misgab umanos (מִשְׂגָּב וּמָנוֹס). The high tower of verse 9 returns, joined now to a word for a place of escape. And notice the tense: "for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my trouble", sung as already accomplished, greeting the morning with gratitude before the danger is fully gone.

Explanation

The whole psalm turns on a contrast between two sounds and two times of day, and you hear it fully only in this closing verse. Twice David has described his enemies with the same picture: "they return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city" (v6, repeated in v14), a snarling, scavenging pack, prowling the streets after dark, hunting for a victim. That is the sound of the night, growling, hungry, menacing. And now, at the very end, David answers it with a completely different sound and a different hour: "But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning." Set the two side by side. The night belongs to the dogs and their noise; the morning belongs to the singer and his song. David does not try to out-snarl his enemies through the night; he simply outlasts them. The dogs will prowl and growl until dawn, but dawn will come, and when it does, their noise will give way to his music. This is the deep confidence of faith: evil has the night, but it does not have the morning. And notice the tense in which he sings, "for thou hast been my defence and refuge", he sings of the deliverance as already accomplished, greeting the morning with gratitude before the danger is fully gone, so sure is he that the God who is his high tower will bring him through the dark.

Gospel Focus

"But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in the morning", the morning song after the night of the prowling dogs is the very hope of the gospel, sealed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus endured a night of enemies like snarling dogs, "for dogs have compassed me" (Psalm 22:16), the mob, the mockery, the cross; but the night gave way to a morning, for "the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark" (John 20:1), and found the tomb empty. Christ's resurrection is the great morning after the darkest night, the proof that "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Psalm 30:5). Because He is risen, His people know that evil may have the night but never the morning; our light affliction is "but for a moment" (2 Corinthians 4:17), and a day is coming with no more night at all, when "there shall be no night there" (Revelation 22:5) and every prowling enemy is gone for ever. So take up David's refrain and Christ's own triumph: whatever growls at your door in the dark, God is your defence and refuge, and the morning belongs to Him. Sing aloud of His power and mercy, for the night will end, and the day of the Lord's people has no sunset.