The Book of Psalms

Word Study

"my God," Hebrew Elohai (אֱלֹהַי), the personal covenant address. Falsely accused and pursued, David's first move is not toward his enemies but toward God: "O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust." Note the intimacy of "my God", this is covenant relationship, personal trust in a God he knows.

"put my trust," chasiti (חָסִיתִי) from chasah, to take refuge, seek shelter. The verb chasah means to take refuge, to run into a shelter for safety, like a small animal fleeing to its rock. When slandered and threatened, David does not scheme revenge or trust his own strength; he runs to God as his refuge. This is the pattern of faith under attack: not self-reliance, not retaliation, but refuge in God. "The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe" (Proverbs 18:10). When we are wronged, our first instinct is often to defend ourselves or strike back; but David teaches us to make God our first resort, to flee to Him as our refuge before we do anything else.

"save," hoshi'eni (הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי). And on the ground of that trust, he asks for salvation. He does not ask to be rescued by his own strength or by the force of his own defence, but by the God into whom he has fled for shelter.

"deliver," hatzileni (הַצִּילֵנִי). With the cry to be saved goes the cry to be delivered, snatched out of the hand of the pursuer. To put our trust in God is to commit our cause and our safety to Him, confident that the God we trust will save and deliver in His own way and time.

Explanation

The heading tells us what provoked this psalm: "the words of Cush the Benjamite," some slander now lost to us. And notice how David answers words. He does not draft a rebuttal to Cush, does not trade accusation for accusation; his very first words go not to his accuser but to God, "O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust." That is a hard-won instinct. The natural reply to slander is more words, aimed back at the one who spoke them; David aims his upward instead. Even the obscure title "Shiggaion" seems to name a wild, agitated kind of song, and the form fits the man, a soul in turmoil, but even the turmoil is poured out toward God rather than flung at his enemy. The best answer to a lie is often not a louder truth to the crowd, but a quiet appeal to the God who already knows.

Gospel Focus

"In thee do I put my trust", this refuge is fully ours in Jesus Christ, who is Himself our hiding place and who bore false accusation without retaliating. Christ, "when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously" (1 Peter 2:23). Falsely accused before the Sanhedrin and Pilate, He did not defend Himself with vengeance but entrusted His cause to His Father, the very pattern David set. And He is now the refuge to whom we flee: "we... have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us" (Hebrews 6:18). To put our trust in God is, in the fullness of the Gospel, to put our trust in the Lord Jesus, in whom the psalm's promise stands: "blessed are all they that put their trust in him" (Psalm 2:12). When we are wronged, slandered, or persecuted, we follow Christ's example: we do not avenge ourselves, but "give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" (Romans 12:19), and we take refuge in the God who judges righteously. Our Saviour, who Himself was the innocent falsely condemned, understands every unjust accusation we face and is our sure shelter. Run to Him; put your trust in the Lord Jesus, and find in Him the refuge that no enemy can breach and the deliverance that no slander can undo.

Word Study

"defence," Hebrew maginni (מָגִנִּי), my shield. David states where his safety rests: "My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart." The word for "defence" is magen, a shield, the same word used in Psalm 3:3.

"of God," al-Elohim (עַל־אֱלֹהִים), upon God, resting on God. David's protection is not in his own innocence proving itself, nor in his ability to fight back, but in God Himself, who is his shield. To have God as our shield is the safest position in the universe, for no accusation, no enemy, no scheme can pierce the defense of the Almighty around His own.

"saveth," moshia (מוֹשִׁיעַ), delivers. And God is the one "which saveth the upright in heart." God is the defender and deliverer of such; the same God who shields them also rescues them.

"upright in heart," yishrei-lev (יִשְׁרֵי־לֵב), the straight-hearted, sincere. Note carefully: not the flawless, but the "upright in heart", those whose hearts are sincere toward God, straight and true, even if imperfect. This is a great comfort for the falsely accused and the sincere: God sees the heart, God defends the upright, God saves those whose inward disposition is true toward Him. Men judge by outward appearance and by slander; God judges the heart, "for the LORD seeth not as man seeth... but the LORD looketh on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). The upright in heart may be misunderstood and maligned by men, but they have a defender in heaven who reads their hearts rightly and saves them.

Explanation

Set this line beside the one just before it. In verse 9 David calls God the one who "trieth the hearts and reins," who tests the innermost self; in verse 10 that same God "saveth the upright in heart." The trier and the saviour are one. This tells us what "upright" means here. It is not a boast of sinlessness, for David has just staked his whole case on God searching him (vv3-5, 9); it is the confidence of a man willing to lay his own heart on the scales. To be "upright in heart" is not to have nothing God could find, but to have nothing you are hiding, to open the inner life to the God who tries it. And to such a man the heart-searcher is not a threat but a shield: the very God who examines him is the God who defends him.

Gospel Focus

"My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart", in Christ, God is not only our shield but our advocate, and He makes the sincere-hearted upright before Him. The great question is how any of us can be "upright in heart" before the God who sees all, and the Gospel answers: God gives a new heart and a right spirit to those who come to Christ, "a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you" (Ezekiel 36:26), so that we become the upright in heart He saves. And when we are accused, whether by men, by our own conscience, or by the accuser of the brethren, our defense is God Himself: "who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth" (Romans 8:33). We have "an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1), whose blood answers every charge. The believer's defense does not rest on his own performance but on the finished work of Christ and the justifying verdict of God. So the upright in heart, made upright by grace and kept by the Advocate above, need not fear the slanders of men or the accusations of the enemy. Our defense is of God, our shield is Christ, and the God who looks on the heart has made our hearts His own and pronounced us righteous in His Son. No weapon formed against us shall prosper, for our defense is the Almighty Himself, who saves and vindicates the upright in heart.

Word Study

"pit," Hebrew bor (בּוֹר), a pit, cistern. David describes a great law of God's moral universe: "He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made." The wicked man labors to trap the innocent, digging a pit for another to fall into, but in the end he falls into it himself.

"digged," yachperehu (יַחְפְּרֵהוּ). It is a recurring theme in Scripture: "whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein" (Proverbs 26:27); Haman was hanged on the gallows he built for Mordecai; those who cast Daniel's accusers into the lions' den saw the plotters devoured instead. God so governs His world that sin is often self-punishing; the very evil men devise becomes the instrument of their downfall. The wicked "travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood" (v14), but the offspring of their scheming turns and devours them.

"ditch," shachath (שַׁחַת), a pit, trap, destruction. His "mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate" (v16). This is the boomerang of evil: the schemes of the wicked recoil upon their own authors. This is a profound comfort to the wronged: we do not need to avenge ourselves, for God has built a moral order in which evil, left to God, destroys itself. So David can leave his enemies to God, confident that the pit they dug for him will one day swallow them, unless they repent. The righteous Judge sees to it that mischief returns upon its own head.

Explanation

The verse just before pictures evil as a pregnancy: the wicked man "travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood" (v14). He carries his scheme like a child, labours over it, and delivers it, and then, in verse 15, the thing he bore turns and buries him in the pit he had dug for another. Notice how much work it took, for he "made a pit, and digged it", no small effort, a man sweating to build the very trap that takes him. And notice who does not appear in the verse: God is not named swinging a sword. The judgment here is simply that God lets sin complete its own circle. This is the deepest comfort for the wronged, and the reason we need not avenge ourselves: evil is self-consuming, and the God who governs the world has only to let the trap spring on the one who set it.

Gospel Focus

"He is fallen into the ditch which he made", the law that evil recoils upon its author reaches its most astonishing display at the cross, where the plot to destroy Christ became the means of His triumph and the enemy's defeat. The rulers of this world dug a pit for the Lord of glory, but in slaying Him they fell into their own trap: through death Christ destroyed "him that had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Hebrews 2:14). Satan's greatest scheme, the crucifixion, became his own undoing, for by it Christ "spoiled principalities and powers... triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15). The pit the enemy dug for the Son became the grave that could not hold Him, and out of it He rose in victory. This is the ultimate vindication of God's moral order: the wicked fall into the ditch they made, and even the worst evil is overruled by God for good. So the believer, wronged and slandered, can rest: we do not repay evil for evil, but "overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21), leaving vengeance to the righteous Judge. And we take heart that the God who turned the cross into a crown can turn every plot against His people into their good, "all things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28). The enemy's pit becomes, in God's hands, the very place of his defeat and our deliverance. Trust the Judge who reads the heart and rules the world, and leave your cause to Him who made the cross itself the enemy's ruin.