Psalm 59 - God before me

Psalm 59 - God before me

Read: Psalm 59 vs 1-17

The relationship between Saul and David dominates a significant section of the book of 1 Samuel. Saul was Israel’s first King, God rejected Saul, God chose David, and Saul turned on David seeking to use everything within his power to destroy him. What is often forgotten is that there was another complexity to their relationship. Saul wasn’t just David’s king, Saul was David’s father-in-law. David was married to Saul’s younger daughter Michal. So, things get complicated in 1 Samuel 19 when Saul sends men to David’s house to kill him as he sleeps. Michal gets ear of this and she helps David to escape out a window. She then takes an idol, covers it with goat’s hair, and puts it in her bed pretending it is David. When Saul discovers that he has been tricked by his own daughter he is not happy (1 Samuel 19:17).

The word ‘enemy’ is an ever-present word throughout the Psalms. One third of all the Psalms talk about enemies.

The Bible reveals to us what is going on in this world, the things we cannot see. One of the hugely sobering truths of the Bible’s story is that we have an enemy, named in the New Testament as the devil (1 Timothy 5:14, 1 Peter 5:8).

Seen through this lens David’s experience of enemies attacking him (Psalm 56:1) and the repeated sense of them prowling around him (vs 6,14) actually becomes the experience of all Christians. Jesus’ parable of the weeds (Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43) alerts us to the fact that it can often be difficult to identify with any real clarity where the devil is at work, in the same way as it can sometimes be difficult in the garden to know if something is a flower or a weed. We need to be careful about attributing every pressure, every struggle, every apparently bad thing to ‘the devil’. 

But what we do know is that he is active in this world and like David’s enemies he conspires against us (Psalm 59:3). 

If this was all we discover from Psalm 59 it would terrify us. But while this Psalm reveals a battle it also reveals a wonderful Saviour. He is our strength, our fortress. He is the one who we can rely on (vs 10,17). That’s a fantastic truth. Psalm 59 encourages us to take up our shield of faith (vs 11), praise God (vs 17) and keep going.

Prayer: Lord Jesus thank you that I can rely on you. Please be my shield today. Keep me safe in you. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.