Scripture
I will give thanks to Your name, O LORD, for it is good. {For He has delivered me from every trouble}
~Psalm 54:6-7, NRSV
Quote
The secret of a successful spiritual life is just to realize two things….I must have absolute confidence in God and absolutely no confidence in myself.”
~D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Psalm 54 is based on the events in I Samuel 23 where David is fleeing from Saul. David is South of Jerusalem seeking refuge among his tribesmen, the Ziphites. He is encamped near Horesh. Jonathan comes to him and reassured him that he will one day be king. We all need friends like Jonathan but we do not need relatives like the Ziphites who sold David out not once but twice. The Ziphites were being politically correct and playing along with Saul’s effort to defame David’s character. In an effort to destroy David, Saul had portrayed David as a traitor and enemy of the State. The truth was, David had not committed treason and he was not the enemy of Israel but the political pressure was so intense that no one wanted David in their area. Saul has made David so unpopular that even his relatives would not give him sanctuary.
David’s response: He calls for his priest Abiathar, they have a prayer meeting and David followed the directions of the LORD. The Lord basically told David, “Don’t trust your relatives, they will betray you.” David heeded the LORD’s advice and sure enough his relatives betrayed him but since David did not entrust himself to their keeping, he was delivered. Actually, Saul had him cornered for the first time and a message came to Saul that the Philistines were attacking Israel and Saul had to leave immediately. The sad thing is that the Philistines were the real enemy, not David, and Saul needed David’s help to defeat them but he was blinded by his jealously.
The bottom line: David put his confidence in God’s name {character}, His might and His faithfulness. David knew that God was good, He was mighty and that He had never failed David in the pass. This gave David so much confidence that he began praising God for his deliverance before it actually happened. This is one more reminder that we are to put our confidence in Christ and not in others. David’s relatives let him down. They were weak and cowardly people who lacked the integrity to stand for the truth. They betrayed their own relative and the rightful king. David referred to them as strangers and that they were. Put your confidence in Christ and not in men. He is faithful and strong; able to save to the uttermost.
Martin Luther’s second stanza of A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD comes to mind:
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing,
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabbath, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
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