Psalm 54 Sermon: I’d like us to turn our attention to the book of Psalms. And in particular, we’re going to be considering Psalm 54.
Let’s read this 54th psalm to begin our time
together.
{Read Psalm 54…}
Psalm 54 Sermon 1a Superscription
Now, like many psalms, Psalm 54 starts with a superscription
or literally a “writing above” the psalm. And in this psalm the superscription
actually gives us some helpful background on the situation in David’s life that
called for the writing of this psalm.
KJV Psalm 54:1 <{To/For} the {chief Musician/choir director/music director/director of music} {on/to be accompanied by/with} {Neginoth/stringed instruments}, {Maschil/a well-written song}, {A Psalm of/by} David,
And here’s now the situation in David’s life that moved him
to write this…
{when/it was written when} the {Ziphims/Ziphites} {came and said to Saul/came and informed Saul/had gone to Saul and said}, {Doth not David hide himself with us?/“Is not David hiding himself among us?”/“David is hiding with us”}>
Now, the situation to which this is referring is found in
both 1 Samuel 23 and in 1 Samuel 26. Two times these men from Ziph – a city in
Judah – came and told Saul that David was among them.
Now, you remember that Saul was king of Israel at the time.
But there was a problem – the Lord had anointed David king after he had
anointed Saul. So, Saul, being an exceedingly sinful and unprincipled man – and
one who was actually under the Lord’s judgement – he sought opportunities to
kill his opponent David. In Saul’s mind, if he could kill David then he would
be able to remain king and kind of put an end to the Lord’s anointing David to
be king. He actually thought that he could stop God’s plan. What arrogance – and
what madness!
Psalm 54 Sermon 1 Samuel 23
Well, so it happened that these men from the city of Ziph
were zealous to please their humanly-appointed king, Saul. And so, the first
time – as recorded in 1 Samuel 23 – these Ziphites sent to Saul letting him
know that David was hiding in their region.
Now, Ziph was in a rather hilly region of Judah and it was
the perfect place for a fugitive like David to hide. And so, Saul comes with
his men and they search for David. And in a relatively humorous scene, Saul
needs to “use the facilities” or “relieve himself” or whatever euphemism you’d
like to use for it – in Hebrew, he’s “covering his feet” – and amazingly, he
was doing that in the very cave in which David and his men were hiding!
Well, David’s followers encouraged David to kill Saul right
then and there. But he wouldn’t do it. He wasn’t going to utilize some
artificial means for God to fulfill his purpose. Unlike Abraham who with his
wife Sarah planned to use some human means to accomplish God’s promise, David
would not take that course of action. So, David simply cut off a part of Saul’s
robe.
Then Saul leaves and David comes out after him showing him
the piece of Saul’s robe that he had cut off and appealing to him that David is
not interested in killing Saul. Saul repents for the moment and determines not
to pursue David anymore.
Psalm 54 Sermon 1 Samuel 26
But then just a little while later in 1 Samuel 26 Saul gets
it in his mind to once again pursue David to kill him. And so he comes down to
Ziph again – where David was still hiding – because these treacherous men from
that city seem to enjoy turning-in David to their bloodthirsty and God-forsaken
king.
Well, this time, Saul goes to sleep and is surrounded by his
army of 3,000 elite fighters. But God causes a really unusually-deep sleep to
come on these folks and so David and Abishai his assistant go right up to Saul
and take his spear and his water jug. Abishai offers to kill Saul and end all
of this madness right then and there! But David refuses. He will not use
artificial human means to accomplish God’s plan – and certainly he won’t do it
when it involves disobeying the Lord.
So, David wakes everyone up fr
