God the Judge – Psalm 54

A text – Psalm 54

Save me, O God, by your name,
    and vindicate me by your might.
² Hear my prayer, O God;
    give ear to the words of my mouth.

³ For the insolent have risen against me;
    the ruthless seek my life;
    they do not set God before them. 

⁴ But surely, God is my helper;
    the Lord is the upholder of^[a] my life.
⁵ He will repay my enemies for their evil.
    In your faithfulness, put an end to them.

⁶ With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;
    I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
⁷ For he has delivered me from every trouble,
    and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

A reflection:

This psalm, attributed to David, is a prayer prayed in a time when enemies have done damage to his reputation and even threaten his life. In verse 4, David makes a claim that helps us know why he is praying this prayer for help from God. He says “God is my helper, the upholder of my life.” David is claiming that God, who created everything and everyone, loves the creation and the order he created and will restore that order. David isn’t going to restore it. David leaves the judgment and restoration to God.

Why wouldn’t he pray for God to help him smite his enemies? Because David is submitting himself and his enemies to God’s judgment and God’s delivery and God’s repayment. David does probably believe that God will put an end to the enemies, but he leaves that to God and promises to thank God for the result. David can name many times God has delivered him and many times his enemies have been defeated. That may be why he has confidence that the same thing will happen this time.

Have you ever prayed this kind of prayer: to be delivered by God, rather than for God to back you up as you avenge yourself on a wrongdoer? It seems more satisfying to take revenge ourselves – “I’ll get him for that!” Retaliation seems better, especially if our enemies have truly harmed us or those we love. Catch them, put them in jail, torture them. Get them back for what they have done. That is human action – humans doing action verbs. Many of us don’t imagine God doing action verbs. At least many of us probably don’t imagine God acting the way David probably imagined God acting.

Still, in times we may feel persecuted or wronged, we might take advice from Psalm 54. Take it to God as an act of worship and prayer. Thank God for all the protecting and upholding God has always done for us. Pray to God, telling about our circumstances and praying that God will judge us and our enemies fairly. That requires that we trust God to love us and help us. And in the end, that requires us to thank God for being God.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being our creator and protector. Help us to remember whose we are, and that you are always looking out for us. Help us to leave the judging to you. Amen.