Psalm 54:7
For He has delivered me from every trouble, and my eyes have stared down my foes.
Sermons
Peril and PrayerW. Forsyth Psalm 54:1-7
Phases of PietyHomilistPsalm 54:1-7
Prayer for DeliveranceC. Short Psalm 54:1-7
God Our HelperJ. Burns, D. D.Psalm 54:4-7
Thank-OfferingsA. Maclaren, D. D.Psalm 54:6-7














Here we have -

I. PERIL MOVING TO PRAYER. (Vers. 1-3.) Danger may arise from various causes. Soul-danger is the worst. Then when sore pressed and in trouble, the instinct of the heart is to cry to God, "Save me!" Prayer is "the mighty utterance of a mighty need" (Trench).

II. PRAYER INSPIRING CONFIDENCE. (Ver. 4.) Prayer brings the soul into the very presence of God. The thought of what he is (" thy Name") and of what he has done ("God is mine Helper"), furnish ample pleas for entreaty, and sure ground for hope. Experience gives us courage to cleave to the word of promise. "If God be with us, who can be against us?"

III. CONFIDENCE ANTICIPATING DELIVERANCE. (Ver. 5.) The nearer we get to God, the more truly we are in sympathy with him, so as to make his will our will, the more certain do we become of deliverance. We rise to the vision of victory. God is ever on the side of right. There may still be clouds, but we see the bright light shining above the clouds. There may still be struggles and pains, but we press on with renewed ardour and assurance, for we know whom we have believed, and that he is able to keep that which we have committed to him, and to bring forth judgment unto victory.

IV. DELIVERANCE. AWAKING PRAISE. (Ver. 6.) Some forget their obligations to God when the danger is past; but it will not be so with the righteous. Like the Samaritan leper, they return to give glory to God - with sacrifices of thanksgiving and songs of praise. - W.F.

I will freely sacrifice unto Thee: I will praise Thy name, O Lord, for it is good.
The closing verses of this simple little psalm touch very familiar notes. The faith which has prayed has grown so sure of answer that is already begins to think of the thank-offerings. This is not like the superstitious vow, "I will give so-and-so if Jupiter" — or the Virgin — "will hear me." This praying man knows that he is heard, and is not so much vowing as joyfully anticipating his glad sacrifice. The same incipient personification of the name as in verse 1 is very prominent in the closing strains. Thank-offerings — not merely statutory and obligatory, but brought by free, uncommanded impulse — are to be offered to "Thy name," because that name is good. Verse 7 probably should be taken as going even further in the same direction of personification, for "Thy name" is probably to be taken as the subject of "hath delivered." The Senses of the verbs in verse 7 are perfects. They contemplate the deliverance as already accomplished. Faith sees the future as present. This psalmist, surrounded by strangers seeking his life, can quietly stretch out a hand of faith, and bring near to himself the to-morrow when he will look back on scattered enemies and present, glad sacrifices! That power of drawing a brighter future into a dark present belongs not to those who build anticipations on wishes, but to those who found their forecasts on God's known purposes and character. The name is a firm foundation for hope. There is no other.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.).

Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not Thyself from my supplication.
Homilist.
I. THE COMPASSIONABLE. David appears here an object for pity and compassion, as the victim of —

1. Malignant oppression.

2. Overwhelming terror.

3. Foul treachery.

II. THE COMMENDABLE.

1. He lays all his troubles before Him who alone could help him. The fact that men in great trouble and danger, whatever be their theoretical beliefs, instinctively appeal to God for help, argues man's intuitive belief —(1) In the existence of a personal God;(2) In the accessibility of a personal God;(3) In the compassion of a personal God.

2. Under all his troubles he strives to maintain his confidence in God.(1) Men have burdens. What anxieties press upon the human soul, making the very frame to stoop, and the heart to break.(2) Men's burdens may be transferred to God. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord." How? By an unbounded confidence in His character and procedure.(3) Those who transfer their burdens on the Lord will be sustained. "He shall sustain thee." God gives men power to bear their burden, and will ultimately remove their burden from them.

III. THE CENSURABLE — HIS IMPRECATIONS. Revenge is a moral wrong; and what is morally wrong in the individual can never be right in any relationship or office that the individual may assume, or in any combination into which he may enter.

(Homilist.)

I. THE VIVID COMPLAINT (vers. 1-11). The singer's case is a sad one. His mind is restlessly tossed to and fro. Full of cares and anxieties he nowhere finds solid foothold, but continues distracted, and hence he must pour out his heart in groans and complaints. The reason is the voice of the enemy, that is, the reproaches and calumnies to which he is subjected. But word is accompanied by deed, for there is persecution as well as slander. Overwhelmed with horror, the one thought of the sufferer is escape. He longs for the pinions of a dove — itself the emblem of peace and quiet — that he may fly away and find repose.

II. THE TREACHEROUS FRIEND (vers. 12-15). The slanders of an avowed antagonist are seldom so mean and cutting as those of a false friend, and the absence of the elements of ingratitude and treachery renders them less hard to bear. "We can bear from Shimei what we cannot endure from Ahithophel." So, too, we can escape from open foes, but where can one find a hiding-place from treachery? Hence the faithlessness of a professed friend is a form of sin for which there is not even the pretence of excuse. No one defends it or apologizes for it. Yet it occurs, and sometimes, like the case in the psalm, under the sanctions of a religious profession, so that the very altar of God is defiled with hypocrisy. It is right, therefore, that such atrocious wickedness should receive its appropriate recompense.

III. THE ANTICIPATED RESULT (vers. 16-23). By a fine antithesis the speaker turns to describe his own course in opposition to that of others. They pursue wickedness and reach its fearful end. He, on the contrary, calls upon God, who is his one refuge in times of distress and anxiety. He lives in an atmosphere of prayer, which is expressed by his mention of the three principal divisions of the natural day. "Complain" and "moan" are the same words that occur in verse 2; only here they are accompanies by the assurance of being heard. God will assuredly redeem him from the heat of the conflict; and the interposition of His arm will be needed, for his adversaries are not few but many, too many for him to deal with alone. God therefore will hear and answer them just as He does to His own servant, but with a serious difference. His own He regards in mercy, others in judgment. God Himself so orders His providence that they are overtaken in their evil ways and plunged into the abyss. On the other hand, the sacred poet closes his lyric with a renewed asseveration of the only ground of his hope. As for me, whatever others may say or think, as for me, I trust in Thee.

(T. W. Chambers, D. D.)

People
David, Psalmist, Saul, Ziphites
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
55, Chief, David, Delivered, Desire, Enemies, Eye, Foes, Gazed, Hast, Haters, Instruments, Maschil, Musician, Psalm, Punishment, Satisfaction, Saviour, Stringed, Triumph, Trouble, Troubles
Outline
1. David, complaining of the Ziphims, prays for salvation
4. Upon his confidence in God's help he promises sacrifice

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 54:7

     5149   eyes
     6634   deliverance

Psalm 54:1-7

     5086   David, rise of

Psalm 54:6-7

     7366   freewill offering

Library
How those are to be Admonished who Praise the Unlawful Things of which they are Conscious, and those who While Condemning Them, in no Wise Guard
(Admonition 32.) Differently to be admonished are they who even praise the unlawful things which they do, and those who censure what is wrong, and yet avoid it not. For they who even praise the unlawful things which they do are to be admonished to consider how for the most part they offend more by the mouth than by deeds. For by deeds they perpetrate wrong things in their own persons only; but with the mouth they bring out wickedness in the persons of as many as there are souls of hearers, to
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Epistle vii. To Peter, Domitian, and Elpidius.
To Peter, Domitian, and Elpidius. Gregory to Peter, Domitian, and Elpidius, Bishops [1688] . I rejoice exceedingly that you welcomed with great joy the ordination of the most holy Cyriacus, my brother and fellow-priest. And since we have learnt from the preaching of Paul the apostle that If one member rejoice, all the members rejoice with it (1 Cor. xii. 26), you must needs consider with how great exultation I rejoice with you in this thing, wherein not one member, but many members of Christ have
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

The Difference Between Union and Rapture. What Rapture Is. The Blessing it is to the Soul. The Effects of It.
1. I wish I could explain, with the help of God, wherein union differs from rapture, or from transport, or from flight of the spirit, as they speak, or from a trance, which are all one. [1] I mean, that all these are only different names for that one and the same thing, which is also called ecstasy. [2] It is more excellent than union, the fruits of it are much greater, and its other operations more manifold; for union is uniform in the beginning, the middle, and the end, and is so also interiorly.
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

Epistle ii. To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch.
To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch. Gregory to Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch. I have received the letters of your most sweet Blessedness, which flowed with tears for words. For I saw in them a cloud flying aloft as clouds do; but, though it carried with it a darkness of sorrow, I could not easily discover at its commencement whence it came or whither it was going, since by reason of the darkness I speak of I did not fully understand its origin. Yet it becomes you, most holy ones, ever to recall
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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