Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Back to the Basics | The Writings | Psalm 54

Episode Date: May 13, 2024

When life is falling apart, David returns to the basics of faith in Psalm 54. Find out where to find encouragement and hope when you are stuck in difficult circumstances. Where do you turn when life gets hard? Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 54

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. My friend and his wife got married young. I'll call them Dan and Sally. Sally had some serious health issues as a child, and the doctors told her she'd never be able to have biological children. Not long after they were married, though, and much to their surprise, Sally became pregnant. And they were over-the-top excited to have a child they never thought they could have. People called it a miracle.

Sadly, Sally had a miscarriage. I went to the hospital to talk and pray with them. One thing I told them is that when life hurts and pain is intense, we need to return to the basics of our faith. The basics like, God loves you, and his promises never fail. When life is sunshine and rainbows, the basics might sound boring. But when life is dark and confusing, the basics sustain you. David wrote Psalm 54 during a difficult season of life,

and he follows the same pattern. When life is hard, go back to the basics. And here's what we find the basics are in Psalm 54. God is in control. God is our help in times of trouble. And God delivers us from our enemies. This Psalm is so basic that a lot of people will read through it quickly and move on to the next one. But I think that would be a huge mistake.

We need to sit in Psalm 54 for a while because it is jam-packed with spiritual wisdom. But in order to recognize its significance, we need to look above Psalm 54. Wait, what do you mean look above it? Well, I mean, literally, look above the Psalm at its setting. If you open up your Bible to Psalm 54, you'll see that there's a sentence above the Psalm that reads, When the Ziphytes had gone to Saul and said, is not David hiding among us? King David wrote this Psalm along with several others, and a few of them have a very brief description of the circumstances that led to him writing it. We find the story in 1st Samuel 23. So let's set the scene for Psalm 54 by briefly looking at at 1 Samuel 23.

First, there's Saul. Saul was the first king of Israel. Unfortunately, because he rebelled against God's commands, God told Saul that he had been rejected as king and that one of his neighbors, someone better than him, would take his throne. Then there's David. David is one of Saul's servants.

God told him that he would be the king of Israel, the one to take Saul's throne. David grew up to become a great warrior. Because of his military victories and faithfulness to God, David grew in popularity in Israel, which led Saul to become jealous, so jealous that Saul became hell-bent on killing him, forcing David to run away from his homeland and survive in the wilderness. When Saul searches to find and kill David, he comes across a people called the Ziphytes.

We read about them in 1 Samuel 23. It says this, The Ziphytes went up to Saul at Gibia and said, Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds of Hresh? Now, Your Majesty, come down whenever it pleases you to do so, and we will be responsible for giving him into your hands. So they set out and went to Zip ahead of Saul. Saul and his men began the search,

and when David was told about it, he went down to the rock and stayed in the desert. When Saul heard this, he went to the desert in pursuit of David. Now, take a second and imagine what David felt like. He'd been promised a kingdom, yet he's alone in a wilderness. He hadn't done anything wrong. He didn't deserve for the king of Israel to be hunting to kill him. Needless to say, life had not gone as David had planned.

Maybe you can relate to David. Do you feel disillusioned with the life God has given you? Do you feel like you're stuck in difficult circumstances? Do you feel like you deserve better? Psalm 54 is David's prayer in the middle of difficult and confusing circumstances. When life is fallen apart, David gets back to the basics. This prayer might help you know what to pray when you're in a difficult time. Psalm 54 verse 1. Save me, O God, by your name. Vindicate me by your might. hear my prayer oh God listen to the words of my mouth arrogant foes are attacking me ruthless people are trying to kill me people without regard for God surely God is my help the Lord is the one who sustains me let evil recoil on those who slander me and your faithfulness destroy them you should never doubt

in the dark what you believed in the light it's hard to see in the dark when we're hurting so we begin to doubt that God is real or cares about us or is with us or can really help us So the first thing that David does is pray, save me, O God, by your name. Vindicate me by your might. David understands that God has the power to save him. That's because even when we don't understand what's going on in our life, God is in control of our storms. If he wasn't, then our prayers would be useless.

Why pray to a God who can't save you? David knew that it was God's will that had led him to the position he was in. Whatever you're going through, you're not there by accident, and you're definitely not alone. But David also knew that God was the one person who could lead him out of the wilderness. Most importantly, David knew that he couldn't save himself. He needed something more than his own strength. So he turned to God.

Which leads us to the second thing we learned from Psalm 54. God is our help in times of trouble. In verse 4, David says, Surely God is my help. The Lord is the one who sustains me. David trusts the basic spiritual truth that God is for him and God is with him. God is not just in control. He's working out all things for the good of those who love him. The God that David trusts is not cold or calloused. He's not indifferent to his suffering. No, God is

personal and active and compassionate. He's the God of justice. Even when his circumstances tell him to think otherwise, David clings to the basic spiritual truth that God is working for his good. The last basic spiritual truth that Psalm 54 teaches is that God delivers us from our enemies. In verse 5, David said, let evil recoil on those who slander me, in your faithfulness destroy them. David believes that God is just. He trusts that God sees the injustice that's being done against him and trust that God will protect him and bring judgment on his enemies. It's funny because in David's prayer, he asked that God would let evil recoil on Saul and his army. And that's exactly what happens. We read about that again in 1st Samuel 23. As Saul and his forces were closing in on David

and his men to capture them, a messenger came to Saul and said, Come quickly, the Philistines are raiding the land. Then Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to meet the Philistines. At just the right moment in time, God delivers David from Saul's hands. Saul's evil ends up recoiling on himself because right as he closes in on David, God sends an enemy against Saul. This causes Saul to return home and allows David to escape untouched. In celebration, Psalm 54 ends with David giving praise to God.

He says, I will sacrifice a free will offering to you. I will praise your name, Lord, for it is good. You have delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes. From beginning to end, Psalm 54 shows us that God is the one at work. God is the one who has the power to save us. God is the one who is working for our good. God is the one who defeats our enemies. So God is the one who deserves our praise. I'm thankful for Psalm 54, because it offers us a firm foundation in the middle of difficult seasons of life. It reminds us of important truths that have the power to sustain us, even with life feels out of control. Through Psalm 54, God offers us a life raft that can survive the storms of life.

Even if God does not miraculously rescue us from our troubles like David, we know that one day he will make all things right. In the meantime, passages like Psalm 54 give us truths to stand on until that day comes. God is in control of your life. God is your help and your time of need. God will deliver you safely to His kingdom. Amen.