THURSDAY, AUGUST 30

Psalm 59:1-17

1 Samuel 19:11-17

“He taketh the wise in
their own craftiness …”

DAVID SAVED FROM “DOGS"

This is a Psalm which refers to David being delivered from Saul’s ambush. Who are these, twice mentioned, as they that “make a noise like a dog” (Ps 59:6, 14)? The background of this Psalm is found in 1 Samuel 19:11-17. After failing for the third time to kill David with a javelin (1 Sam 19:10), Saul laid an ambush for him around his house in the night. The trap was to be sprung in the morning. David’s wife Michal (Saul’s daughter) got wind of the plot. In the stillness of the night she helped David escape “through a window.” How true Job 5:13 is. What a lesson to us who, like sheep living among wolves, should be wise as serpents before our enemies. “But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another …” (Matt 10:23). Hence Calvin, before the Paris (Roman Catholic) authorities could take him, also escaped through a window.

David saw no reason why he should be hunted down like a criminal. He protests his innocence (Ps 59:3). Therefore he had the more confidence in God to save him from Saul’s plot. Therefore he could utter such imprecations as in Psalm 59:12-13. “Slay them not” in Psalm 59:11 seems paradoxical, but death by stages is greater punishment!

Some commentators, reading Psalm 59:5, 8 where the heathen or nations are mentioned, think these verses were put in by King Hezekiah or Nehemiah to apply to their situation vis-a-vis the Assyrians or the mixed races living around Jerusalem. We agree with Spurgeon that this Psalm comes entirely from David’s pen. Why cannot David, inspired of God, apply this Psalm to the heathen nations with whom he had to contend? The dog is an unclean animal and this nomenclature is contemptuously used against the heathen. Why could not David use this term against Saul’s underlings? Doeg an Edomite (a Gentile), his chief enemy, was no better than a dog! And did not our Lord call His enemies vipers and Herod “that fox” (Luke 13:32)?

THOUGHT: My God is able to save and deliver.
PRAYER: Lord, lead my faith in Thee to greater heights for the days are evil.