Latest / Reformed Thinking / A Prayer for God’s Protection in a Hostile World (Psalm 17) | Charles Spurgeon

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A Prayer for God’s Protection in a Hostile World (Psalm 17) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Reformed thinking. Welcome back to the Deep Dive.
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  Today we are looking at Psalm 17, which is just a an
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  incredibly urgent and charged prayer from David directly to
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  God for justice. It really is our main source.
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  Here is a pretty extensive exposition of this prayer, and
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  we're going to be pulling out insights on what sincere prayer
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  looks like, the nature of God's protection, and what a real
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  eternal perspective does for someone in a trial.
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  And we're leaning on some, you know, some of the great old
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  commentators, people like Charles Spurgeon and the
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  Scottish writer David Dixon, who really shed a lot of light on
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  this text. So our mission today really is
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  to trace this appeal David is making.
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  He's in the middle of a life threatening trial and it's clear
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  this Psalm has, as the old writers put it, the smell of the
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  furnace upon it. It does.
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  This isn't theoretical. It's an appeal to heaven from
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  the persecutions of earth. You can tell David knows that
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  every single earthly court has failed him, or worse, has
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  already condemned him. And to make sure we work through
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  this properly, we're going to use a structure that Spurgeon
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  really liked. 1 he actually borrowed from David Dixon.
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  It gives us a clear path through David's thinking.
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  Yeah, breaks it down into 5 distinct movements.
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  It's really helpful. You can see how he builds his
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  case, how his focus shifts from, you know, the present crisis to
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  his future hope. OK, so first we have David
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  craving justice based on his own sincerity.
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  That's verses 1 to 4. Then second, he asks for
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  upholding grace because he knows he's weak.
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  That's verses 5 and 6. Right.
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  Third, he's seeking very specific personal protection
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  from his enemies, and he uses one of the most intimate
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  metaphors in the whole Bible. Verses 7 through 12 then fourth,
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  he pleads for his enemies to be defeated, but he sees them as
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  well temporary instruments in God's hand.
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  And then, finally, the whole thing closes, not just with a
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  request, but with this incredible, fierce confidence in
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  his eternal destiny. Just total satisfaction.
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  That's verse 15, a stunning conclusion.
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  OK, so let's unpack that first big section verses one through
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  4, The sacred art of supplication.
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  What just jumps off the page for me is the the sheer force of how
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  David begins. Oh, yeah, He begs for a hearing
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  not once, but three times in the very first verse.
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  He says, here, attend and give ear.
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  This is not, you know, your standard prayer before a meal.
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  Not at all. It signals absolute desperation.
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  Spurgeon points out that this repetition isn't just for show.
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  It's purposeful. He says.
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  It's like the repeated blow of a hammer hitting the same nail on
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  the head to fix it. So he wants his request to be
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  anchored. He doesn't want it to move.
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  Exactly. Or you can think of it as you
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  know the continued knocking of a beggar at the gate who cannot be
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  denied his He is so great he just can't walk away.
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  The sources call it a cry, which tells you he's probably weaving.
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  It's a piteous cry meant to appeal to the heart of his
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  Heavenly Father. And he's very specific about the
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  terms of the appeal. He doesn't just ask for
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  attention. He says, hear the right.
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  Why is he so focused on the rightness of his cause?
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  Well, because he knows that in the human courts, his voice is
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  just getting drowned out by slander.
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  There's that cynical old saying, right?
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  He that has the worst cause makes the most noise.
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  He's afraid of being overwhelmed by lies.
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  He is. His immediate crisis is that
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  he's being, and the commentators use this language, basically and
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  maliciously libeled by King Saul and his court.
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  They've slapped him with a hard sentence of being a traitor.
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  A rebel. So he's a wanted man, a Public
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  Enemy. And this isn't just about his
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  reputation, it's about his life. His life and the legitimacy of
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  his claim to the throne. So the urgency here is judicial.
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  He's not asking God to just overlook his sin.
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  That's mercy. He's demanding equity.
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  He's asking for justice regarding the specific crimes
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  he's been falsely accused of. OK, so he completely bypasses
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  the flawed human system. Completely.
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  He refuses to accept their bias verdict.
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  He takes his case before the highest court and appeals
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  directly to the sternest equity of the judge of all the earth.
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  When he says he wants his sentence to come from God's
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  presence, he's asking for a divine public declaration of his
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  innocence. He's that confident.
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  Utterly confident that the righteous judge who can't be
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  fooled will never wrong the right.
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  And this whole plea for justice hangs on one single thing, what
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  the old writers called the sun qua non of prayer, sincerity.
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  The text says his prayer doesn't come from feigned lips.
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  Sincerity is the bedrock to pray with feigned lips, what means
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  there's a disconnect, a contraction between your heart
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  and your tongue. The outward show of piety is a
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  performance. It's a lie.
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  And the commentators see this as a huge problem.
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  A huge threat to the prayer itself.
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  They call it a gilded exterior concealing a corrupt core.
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  You know, having the appearance of devotion while your real
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  motives are selfish or cruel. That seems like a much bigger
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  offense than just not praying at all.
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  Well, the sources call it double iniquity.
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  It cloaks malice under the sacred guise of religion, and
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  the folly of it is just staggering.
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  I mean trying to flatter or fool the all seeing one, Spurgeon
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  says. It's as impossible as trying to
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  take the moon in a net. Right, you can't deceive the one
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  being who knows your every thought.
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  God wants the soul to pour itself self out.
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  He doesn't accept the noise of an empty barrel.
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  So David, knowing that sincerity is his only way into this court,
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  he then invites the ultimate divine inspection.
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  He says, thou hast visited me in the night.
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  That's such an intimate, but also a very transparent phrase.
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  It is fascinating. The night is seen as the time
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  when the soul is most transparent, you know, free from
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  all the business and the masks we wear during the day.
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  God is coming into David's house at all hours, seeing his
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  unedited actions. And David is confident that God
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  acting like what? An Assayer testing medal,
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  that's. The image, yeah, he's confident
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  God has proved his heart and found nothing of the wicked,
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  treasonous plans he's being accused of.
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  He's essentially saying search me, O God, when I'm least
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  prepared, when I have no mask on, and you won't find any guilt
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  in this matter. So he's not trying to hide A
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  fault here. He's asking for something much
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  bolder. He's seeking public vindication.
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  Like an innocent man. He invites and sues for
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  judgement. He wants the results of God's
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  private inspection to become a public declaration of his
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  innocence. And for you, the listener, this
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  is a lesson. When you face slander, first
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  secure your innocence before God by inviting his inspection.
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  Then you can appeal for external justice.
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  OK, so he's established his sincerity and asked for a
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  favorable verdict. But then he shifts in verses 5
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  and 6. Recognizing the trial is still
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  dangerous, he makes an ethical promise.
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  I am proposed that my mouth shall not transgress.
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  Which is a huge resolution, especially considering the
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  provocation. He's under the tongue is called
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  a nimble offender. You know it's hard to tame he
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  makes this promise because he's been so brutally slandered.
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  The idea that no ripe fruit is unpacked by the birds.
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  Exactly. So David is resolving to set a
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  watch over his lips, which is just essential when injustice
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  threatens to turn your heart into a furnace of resentment
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  and, you know, retaliation. It sounds like he's resolving
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  not to fight fire with fire, not to respond to their malice with
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  his own. That's it.
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  The big temptation when you're suffering injustice is to take
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  the world's posture, to seek your own vindication through
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  shortcuts, gossip, rage, or just outright lies about your enemy.
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  David knows the path of the persecuted St. has to be
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  different from the path of the destroyer.
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  And that leads right into the phrase the paths of the
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  destroyer. What did the sources say that
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  actually is? It's understood as all the ways
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  of sin, but specifically the ruinous ways influenced by
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  Satan. I mean Satan's names in
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  scripture are Apollyon or Abadon which both mean the destroyer.
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  So the temptation is to leave the path of scripture.
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  Yes, when you're sorely provoked, you're tempted to
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  leave the highway of Scripture for the by Paths of malice to
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  become the very thing you're fighting against.
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  And the sources paint a picture of these paths.
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  They do. The Christian Path is the clear
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  highway built by the King, but the destroyers paths are
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  enticing and entangling mazes in a dark forest.
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  They look like shortcuts to revenge, to getting even, but
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  they're all traps leading to ruin.
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  So the way you survive has to be as pure as the goal of
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  surviving. Yes, and that purity comes from
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  an external guide. The only way to avoid those
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  paths is the word of God's lips. Scripture is called the Great
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  preservative from evil. It's the guide that steers the
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  Pilgrim clear, it's the fence that keeps you from wandering,
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  and the sword you use against the tempter.
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  So the word gives concrete guidance, not just abstract
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  comfort. It says don't go there.
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  Right. And because David knows he's
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  weak, his internal resolve is immediately followed by a plea
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  for divine help. He knows resolve isn't enough,
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  he prays. Hold up my goings, in my paths,
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  that my footsteps. Slipknot.
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  Which is a key reformed idea, right?
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  The necessity of upholding grace.
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  We're weak on our legs spiritually because of Adam's
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  fall. We're prone to stumbling even
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  when we want to do the right. Thing and David knows he needs
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  God to actively hold up his steps.
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  The analogy used is a careful driver who holds up his horse
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  when going downhill. The road might be perfect, but
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  the horse, our fallen nature, is unstable.
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  We need God's direct intervention in our steps.
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  It's a confession of total dependence.
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  And that realization that his own purity isn't enough, that he
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  needs moment by moment help, makes the transition to the
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  third section so powerful. He moves from seeking personal
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  purity to seeking this spectacular personal protection.
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  He asked God to show thy marvelous, loving kindness.
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  The language there is just so elevated.
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  The Hebrew behind it suggests something like distinguished thy
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  mercies. David is asking God to set apart
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  the choicest aid for him in this specific severe moment.
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  Not just common grace, but extraordinary distinguishing
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  mercy. And he grounds this bold request
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  in a title for God, reminding God of who he is.
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  O thou that savest by their right hand them which put their
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  trust in me. It's a declaration of God's
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  character, his habitual behavior.
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  God uses his best and most glorious strength, his right
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  hand of wisdom and might, to save believers who depend on
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  him. David is saying, Lord, this is
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  what you always do. I am trusting you now, so deploy
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  your most potent defense for me. Which sets up that incredibly
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  famous metaphor. Keep me as the apple of the eye.
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  And this is more than just a sweet image.
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  Oh, it's packed with theology. The apple of the eye is the
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  pupil, poetically called the Daughter of the eye.
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  And the commentators see three big ideas being conveyed here.
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  OK, what's the first one? The first is supreme value, the
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  pupil is the most precious and tender part of the body, and the
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  logic is beautiful. Persecuted Saints are especially
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  dear to God because their weakness invokes His greatest
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  tenderness. They're frail and exposed, so
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  they get priority protection. So their vulnerability actually
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  makes them a higher priority. Exactly.
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  The second concept is elaborate defense.
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  This is where the commentators bring in the genius of the
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  Creator's design. The eye is surrounded by bones
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  like Jerusalem and circled by mountains.
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  That's God's unmoving Providence.
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  And the eyebrows. They're the hedge, a penthouse
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  roof to devote sweat and dust. That's God shielding you from
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  peripheral harm. The curtain of the eyelids are
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  doors that snap shut at the first sign of danger.
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  That's God's immediate, instinctive care.
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  And the eyelashes are the fence. The fence of the eyelashes
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  acting like strainers. David is asking for that entire
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  multi layered system of defense. The door, the filter, the roof,
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  the mountain range. He wants nothing less.
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  And the third element is what? Instinctive Care.
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  Yes, instinctive care. By asking to be kept this way,
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  David is claiming a living unity with God.
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  He trusts. He's a member of Christ's
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  mystical body, so he's asking God to guard him as fiercely and
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  instinctively as a person guards their own sight.
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  And he needs this defense because his enemies are not
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  just, you know, random thugs. They're calculated, my deadly
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  enemies who compass me about. They're an organized, encircling
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  force. They're not just after his
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  stuff. They're aiming at the very life
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  of his life, trying to lay his spirit way.
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  He sees himself as a besieged city.
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  And he has that strange physical description of them in verse 10.
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  They are enclosed in their own fat.
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  It's a cultural critique really, rooted in spiritual decay.
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  The phrase points to luxury and gluttony, which leads to a
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  vainglorious fatness of heart. This excess shuts off all
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  compassion and empathy. The fattest soil grows the rank
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  as weeds, and this internal arrogance comes out of their
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  mouths. They speak proudly.
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  So their malice is a continuous calculated threat.
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  It is a continuous and energetic hatred, he says.
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  They've set their eyes bowing down to the earth.
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  It's the image of hunters looking down, searching for a
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  footprint, a past error or setting a trap for the future.
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  They're like lions, using all their strength and craft to
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  destroy him. This terrifying picture then
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  sets up the big theological pivot in Section 4.
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  David prays. Arise, O Lord, but then he says
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  something amazing. He asked to be delivered from
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  the wicked, which is thy sword and thy hand.
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  And this is the core Reformed insight into God's absolute
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  sovereignty over evil. It's how a believer can survive
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  persecution without losing faith.
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  David realizes the wicked can't touch him unless God permits it,
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  just like a sword can't cut unless a hand is wielding it.
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  The sword is deadly, but it's totally subservient to the one
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  holding it. That must take some of the
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  terror out of it, knowing the instrument of your suffering is
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  under the control of the very one you're appealing to.
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  That's the huge comfort here. David sees that even the most
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  wicked oppressors are operating under the providential rule of
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  the King of Kings. We see it elsewhere in
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  Scripture. Even Nebuchadnezzar, A profane
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  king, is called God's servant when he fulfills a divine
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  purpose, even though he's acting out of his own cruelty.
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  So God is using the enemies of His people as tools to
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  accomplish something good for His people.
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  Can we just unpack the weight of that?
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  It's a difficult tension, but it's a sustaining 1.
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  The analogy they use is the wicked as a scalpel in the hand
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  of a surgeon. The scalpel is sharp.
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  It's dangerous, it can cause severe harm.
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  But when it's held by the skilled physician God, it's used
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  not to destroy the patient, but to cut away disease and dross.
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  So the persecutor thinks they're destroying, but God is
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  redirecting the outcome. Right.
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  The persecutor acts out of malice, but God redirects the
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  result to test our hearts, to refine us like metal and a
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  furnace. The suffering is real, the
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  malice is real, but the result is sanctification.
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  And the application for you, the listener, is just vital here.
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  If you're going through some kind of affliction, the very
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  instrument causing the wound is being held and directed by the
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  physician for your preservation. It changes the trial from a
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  random attack into a personalized operation.
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  So what happens to the tools? The wicked can't just be God's
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  sword forever. No, they have a fixed destiny.
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  They're like the hammer or the rod used to refine the Saint.
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  But afterwards that rod or hammer is cast into the fire,
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  they're destroyed. Why?
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  Because they never intended to do God's will.
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  They acted from their own malice, and they're held
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  accountable for their wicked intentions even though God
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  sovereignly used the outcome. And this understanding of
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  sovereignty leads David to this profound contrast between his
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  eternal destination and the temporary portion of the men of
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  the world. That contrast is the heart of
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  his final argument. The men of the world are bounded
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  by this narrow sphere of mortality.
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  All their hopes, fears and satisfactions are stuck here on
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  the ground. They can't see past the horizon
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  of death. And their portion is described
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  with three qualities. First, it's immediate.
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  They want their best things now they have to have their portion
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  in hand. They can't wait for a deferred
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  future happiness. 2nd, it's sensual.
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  Yeah, it's terrine from the earth, meant to gratify the
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  bestial part of our nature. They're compared to swine with
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  husks or dogs with bones. They chase things that can't
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  touch the eternal soul. And 3rd, it's temporary, David
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  says God fills their belly with his hid treasure.
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  And there's a deep irony there. The fact that God gives gold and
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  silver the hid treasure, so liberally to his enemies shows
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  how little he values it. It's cheap currency.
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  He gives the husks of earthly success to his enemies to teach
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  his children what the true precious fruit is.
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  And because they have no hope for eternity, they're their only
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  legacy is physical and material. Exactly.
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  They're full of children, leaving their substance to their
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  babies, thinking that's their immortality.
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  They fought for the shell and in the process lost the eternal
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  kernel. Which brings us to David's
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  closing statement in verse 15. That's just glorious, confident
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  declaration. In total contrast, he says, As
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  for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness.
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  He cheerfully waves all the present temporary stuff.
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  His happiness is in reversion. It's held in trust for the
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  future by God while the worldly man is obsessed with the now.
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  David's confidence is fixed on the then.
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  That vision of the future is his anchor, his static point that
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  lets him find calm. And the core of that confidence
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  is the moment when I awake. This has to be pointing beyond
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  just, you know, feeling better after death.
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  Oh, and refers directly to the resurrection of the body.
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  David sees this present life, with all its injustice, as just
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  a dream or a shadow compared to the substantial enlivening light
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  of God's presence to come. The grave is just a place to
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  sleep a while. And his awakening has three
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  perfect elements of satisfaction.
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  First vision. He'll behold God's face.
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  The beatific vision. And it's not a passive sight.
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  It's a transforming sight. It's a site that reconfigures
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  the viewer. The light of God's glory
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  illuminates and fulfills the soul and body. 2nd Likeness.
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  He will be satisfied with thy likeness.
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  This is the ultimate conformity to the image of God found in the
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  glorified human nature of Jesus Christ.
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  His body will be like Christ's glorious body, and his soul will
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  be made perfect. And crucially, the resistant
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  principle of sin is gone. The internal war is over.
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  And 3rd, the final triumphant word, satisfaction.
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  I shall be satisfied. This is the crowning word.
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  This happiness is adequate and complete.
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  It fills the whole rational appetite.
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  Remember, the worldly are full but never satisfied.
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  The believer, though, upon seeing the finished work, will
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  declare I am satisfied. The joy is infinite and eternal.
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  The commentators had a couple of powerful analogies for this.
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  The first was the Roman conqueror.
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  Right. The soul might enter heaven
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  privately to death, but the awakening, the resurrection, is
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  the public pompous procession. The Saint rides in public
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  triumph, fully recognized as a child of the king, victorious
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  over sin and the grave. It's the official coronation.
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  And the second analogy, the finished cathedral that really
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  ties the whole Psalm together. It does.
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  The present life is the chaotic construction phase.
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  The masterpiece of God's image being renewed in you is totally
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  obscured by the scaffolding, the posts, planks, ropes, lime
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  mortar, slop and dirt of trials, sickness, and yes, the with the
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  persecutors themselves. So the persecutors are part of
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  the scaffolding. They are.
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  David is enduring all of this, knowing the scaffolding is
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  temporary but necessary for the work.
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  The awakening is when the Master Builder takes it all down, the
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  rubbish is cleared and the glorious fresco of the soul,
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  perfectly painted in God's image, is revealed for all to
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  see. And David the beholder is
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  utterly satisfied. What a complete contrast.
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  David chose the hidden manna, the spiritual and eternal, over
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  the hidden treasure of the earth.
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  His vision of that final satisfaction made all the
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  present scaffolding, the trials and the slanders bearable.
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  And David's life shows the true preservation isn't the absence
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  of trials, it's the sovereignty of kind of using those trials,
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  even the wicked who are his scalpel or his sword, to refine
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  the Saint until that moment of perfection.
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  David refused to be satisfied with the temporary, a confusing
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  scaffolding of this life. So maybe for you, the listener,
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  the question is this When you face injustice or trial, where
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  are you placing your ultimate hope?
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  Is it in the temporary supports of the scaffolding which will
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  all be thrown into the fire? Or is it in the certain
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  satisfying masterpiece that God is preparing for the
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  resurrection morning? Until next time.