Surrounded by Enemies; Accompanied by God

I.  This morning we are back in the psalms. I have chosen Psalm 59 because it is so representative of a number of psalms like it.

II. Explanation of Psalm 59

A. Psalm 59 has this heading: TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO DO NOT DESTROY. A MIKTAM OF DAVID, WHEN SAUL SENT MEN TO WATCH HIS HOUSE IN ORDER TO KILL HIM.

1. The story referred to in the heading is found in 1Samuel 19:11–18:

a. “Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David’s wife, told him, ‘If you do not escape with your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.’ 12 So Michal let David down through the window, and he fled away and escaped.” (Notice how the language of v.11 is virtually identical to the language of Psalm 59's heading.)

2. But in the many different ancient Hebrew and Greek texts we have, these headings often contradict one another or are left out altogether. So, it is the general consensus from examination that these headings cannot be trusted. It is the original documents that we believe were the inerrant word of God, and these headings, it seems, were not in those original documents but were added on later. So we should not think of them as the word of God, but as traditions or as opinions of copyists.

3. If the passage itself seems consistent with the heading, it is appropriate to assume they may be correct. The particular problem in Psalm 59 is that there are a number of indicators which don’t seem to fit in well with the David and Michal story.

a. I’ll give you one example: the passage indicates pretty clearly that it was Gentile enemies who were opposing him: v.5-8 “You, LORD God of hosts, are God of Israel. Rouse yourself to punish all the nations; 7 There they are, bellowing with their mouths with swords in their lips... But you, O LORD, laugh at them; you hold all the nations in derision.” (The expression “the nations” in the OT refers to the nations outside of Israel, that is, the Gentile nations.)

4. So many other possible historical situations have been proposed concerning when this psalm may have been written.

a. One suggestion is that it was written in the days of Nehemiah when Sanballat and Tobias were opposing the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.

b. My favorite is that maybe it was written by Hezekiah when Jerusalem was surrounded by the Assyrians.

5. But we’ve got to take the psalm as it is, being less than certain of its original context.

B. 1-3 Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me from those who rise up against me; 2 deliver me from those who work evil, and save me from bloodthirsty men. 3 For behold, they lie in wait for my life; fierce men stir up strife against me.

1. Shock and awe: the author is faced with overwhelming force.

2. Romans 12:18 instructs us: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” But sometimes it’s impossible. And the psalmist finds himself in one of those situations. There’s going to be no settling this by negotiation. These men are evil, bloodthirsty, murderous and fierce. They’re not going to listen to reason, they’re not going to act like decent human beings.

C. 3b-4a For no transgression or sin of mine, O LORD, 4 for no fault of mine, they run and make ready.

1. The psalmist is in this terrible circumstance even though he’s done nothing to provoke it. These men are not getting back at him for some evil he’s done to them.

D. 4b-5 Awake, come to meet me, and see! 5 You, LORD God of hosts, are God of Israel. Rouse yourself to punish all the nations; spare none of those who treacherously plot evil.

1. Vengeance isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just not our job. It’s God’s.

2. There are some situations which call for God’s vengeance. In those situations it is no sin to pray for it.

3. Here are some NT examples of wishing for or praying for or supporting divine vengeance: 1Cor.16:22; Galatians 1:8-9, 5:12; 2Thessalonians 1:6-9; 2Timothy 4:14.

4. These situations are rare, usually much more rare than our desire to see vengeance. So we must be careful.

E. 6-8 Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city. 7 There they are, bellowing with their mouths with swords in their lips— for “Who,” they think, “will hear us?” 8 But you, O LORD, laugh at them; you hold all the nations in derision.

1. They think they have no one to worry about, no one who is watching their abuse, no wonder who will call them to account for what they do, no one who is a threat to retaliate.

2. But not only does God hear them, but He is not scared of them. In fact, He laughs at their attempts to intimidate.

F. 9-10 O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you, O God, are my fortress. 10 My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies.

1. The psalmist knows that God is his strength and fortress, and that in the end he will be triumphant because of God’s love for him. And so like a watchman straining his eyes to survey the horizon, he watches expectantly for the Lord’s deliverance to arrive.

G.   11-13 Kill them not, lest my people forget; make them totter by your power and bring them down, O Lord, our shield! 12 For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies that they utter, 13 consume them in wrath; consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth.

1. These are strange verses. It seems that the psalmist is asking that these men not die in a quick or subtle way. He wants them to be defeated in a Red-Sea-ish way, obvious to all including them. He doesn’t want anyone to mistake their fall as mere coincidence or an unfortunate occurrence. He wants it to be completely clear that God was the One who destroyed them. This zeal for publicity of God's judgment is seen in v.13: “consume them...that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth.”

2. You can also see this in v.11 “Kill them not, lest my people forget.” He doesn’t ask for a forgettable deliverance but for an UNforgettable one.

H. 14-15 Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city. 15 They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill.

1. Verse 14 is a repeat of verse 6.

2. Put yourself in the psalmists shoes here. This is very frightening stuff which he is being faced with.

I.  16 But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. 17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.

1. “I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning”? It's a miracle! Surrounded by enemies looking to destroy me, I have made it through another night because of God's protecting love.

III.   Applications

A. Sometimes in your life you feel like you’re surrounded by enemies, even though you’ve don’t nothing wrong.

1. The more life you experience, the more you experience this: surrounded by people and circumstances temptations which are biting you, stinging you, taking something from you, taking a piece of you.

B. But the fact is, many of us often DON’T feel like this. And psalms like this seem far away and not that relevant to our lives. We don’t feel surrounded by enemies that hate us and are trying to kill us. The things we struggle with are more internal.

1. But we need to remember what the NT tells us about our enemies. It tells us that we don’t fight against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Eph.6:12)

2. It tells us that our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1Pet.5:8)

3. The truth is that we’re ALWAYS surrounded by enemies — personal, spiritual enemies. And so scriptures like Psalm 59 are very relevant to us every day.

4. And every day we are being targeted with “the flaming darts of the evil one,” namely his lies and deceptions.

C. In the face of this constant onslaught, we have one and only one Help.

1. We have only One who delivers us from our enemies, who protects us from those who rise up against us; from those who work evil.

2. For our enemies are too great and too numerous!

3. He alone is our Strength and our fortress, a refuge in times of distress. In His steadfast love He meets us; and will give us victory. For before the whole world God rules over His beloved people. This is why we sing praises to Him.

D. The secret to finding peace in the face of attack is in going to Him. Notice how this is clear in the Scriptures I quoted:

1. Psalm 59:1 Deliver me from my enemies, O my God; protect me..., deliver me..., save me... 9 O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you, O God, are my fortress. 10 My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies... 16 For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. 17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress.

a. By his example, the psalmist calls us to go to God when our souls are being assaulted.

2. 1Peter 5:6–10, before talking about “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” it tells us that the key to our victory is to “humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God.”

3. And in Ephesians 6:11–13 before saying that we must “be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” tells us we need to be strong IN THE LORD AND IN THE STRENGTH OF HIS MIGHT. And that’s very different from being strong FOR the Lord or in the strength of OUR OWN might.

4. As long as we try to live by our own strength, God will often allow us to keep failing. Until we become persuaded that we can do nothing without Him (John 15:5), and continually call out to Him, we will be tempting Him to remove His help to show us what we can do on our own.

E. It’s all about keeping perspective. Let me explain.

1. Once when I was in college I had a job painting houses. One day I was up on the top of a tall ladder painting dormers on the third story of a house. Suddenly bees began to stream out of a hole in the wood. At first they just flew off into the distance. But the last one out turned around and flew back at me at ramming speed. Now at times like that, you have to keep perspective. A bee is pretty scary, but a bee sting is hardly as serious as a three story fall.

2. Let me tell you another story. I used to have a lot of problems with mice in my cars. One day I was driving on the highway early in the morning when it was still dark when I realized that there was a mouse scurrying around my feet. Suddenly, it was running back and forth on top of the dashboard. Again, when you’re in a situation like that, you have to keep perspective. The biggest danger of that mouse was that it might make me panic and get into a car wreck.

3. Do you see how keeping perspective or gaining perspective is all-important?

4. So many times the real danger is our reaction to circumstances, not the circumstances themselves. Things that happen cause us to lose perspective, and the losing of perspective is much more serious than the thing that happened.

5. The fact is that we can only gain perspective when we remember how God fits in to the picture.

6. This link will take you to a drawing I have used for decades to illustrate this, and it illustrates the situation in Psalm 59 very well.

a. The smallest figure is the believer.

b. The next figure is the believer’s great enemy, who towers over and threatens to squish the believer.

c.  The third figure, though, puts everything into perspective. It is God’s big toe, which dwarfs the enemy of the believer’s soul.

d. When all three figures are looked at in perspective, the believer is in a good place. But if God is left out, it is no wonder that the believer feels overwhelmed.

7. You see, the Lord’s love dwarfs all of the hate, the thoughtlessness, the ridicule of those who surround us.

a. As it says in Ps.108:4 “Your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.”

8. And it’s not just that the Lord is with us when we are in trouble. We have to realize how much God dwarfs the problems we face. They are nothing before Him. They have no power except what He allows them to exercise.

9. Think about this from the perspective of Christians in our society: so many believers seem depressed because Christianity is so attacked, maligned, and falsely accused these days.

a. And certainly there is truth to this perception. Certainly those who hate God are attacking His people. And in some ways from a Christian perspective things are deteriorating rapidly.

b. But there is no reason for panic. God is our refuge. He’s still far bigger than all the powers that oppose Him. He’s still laughing in the heavens at the audacity of those who think they can oppose Him and His people and get away with it. He can still change anything with one word from His mouth.

c.  He is still the strength and fortress of His beloved ones. He’s still worthy of praise and rest.

10.  I love how this psalm ends. It’s beautiful!

a. Here’s the man of God surrounded by danger and threat. And what’s he doing? He’s not panicking, he’s singing!

b. “I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning... 17 O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love.” (16-17)