Psalm 54

Prayer for Deliverance

For the choir director: with stringed instruments. A Davidic Maskil. When the Ziphites went and said to Saul, “Is David not hiding among us?”(A)

God, save me by Your name,
and vindicate me by Your might!(B)
God, hear my prayer;
listen to the words of my mouth.(C)
For strangers rise up against me,
and violent men seek my life.
They have no regard for God.[a](D)Selah

God is my helper;
the Lord is the sustainer of my life.[b](E)
He will repay my adversaries for their evil.
Because of Your faithfulness, annihilate them.(F)

I will sacrifice a freewill offering to You.(G)
I will praise Your name, Yahweh,
because it is good.(H)
For He has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked down on my enemies.(I)

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 54:3 Lit They do not set God before them
  2. Psalm 54:4 Or is with those who sustain my life

Answered Prayer for Deliverance from Adversaries

For the music director, with stringed instruments.

A maskil of David,

when the Ziphites went and said to Saul,

“Is not David hiding himself among us?”[a]

54 O God, by your name save me,
and by your power vindicate me.
O God, hear my prayer;
heed the words of my mouth.
For foreigners have risen against me,
and ruthless men seek my life.
They have not set God before them. Selah
See, God is my helper;
The Lord is with those who sustain my life.[b]
He will repay[c] my enemies for their[d] evil;
in your faithfulness destroy them.
I will freely sacrifice to you;
I will give thanks to your name,
O Yahweh, because it is good.
Because he has delivered me from all trouble,
and my eye has looked with satisfaction on my enemies.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 54:1 The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm; the English verse number is reduced by one
  2. Psalm 54:4 Or “The Lord is the sustainer of my life.”
  3. Psalm 54:5 According to the reading tradition (Qere)
  4. Psalm 54:5 Hebrew “the”

David’s Narrow Escape

19 Some Ziphites(A) came up to Saul at Gibeah and said, “David is[a] hiding among us in the strongholds in Horesh on the hill of Hachilah south of Jeshimon. 20 Now, whenever the king wants to come down, let him come down. Our part will be to hand him over to the king.”(B)

21 “May you be blessed by the Lord,” replied Saul, “for you have taken pity on me.(C) 22 Go and check again. Investigate and watch carefully where he goes[b] and who has seen him there; they tell me he is extremely cunning. 23 Look and find out all the places where he hides. Then come back to me with accurate information, and I’ll go with you. If it turns out he really is in the region, I’ll search for him among all the clans[c] of Judah.” 24 So they went to Ziph ahead of Saul.

Now David and his men were in the wilderness near Maon(D) in the Arabah south of Jeshimon, 25 and Saul and his men went to look for him. When David was told about it, he went down to the rock and stayed in the Wilderness of Maon. Saul heard of this and pursued David there.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 23:19 Lit Is David not . . . Jeshimon?
  2. 1 Samuel 23:22 Lit watch his place where his foot will be
  3. 1 Samuel 23:23 Or thousands

19 Then the Ziphites went up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is not David hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh on the hill of Hakilah, which is south of Jeshimon? 20 So then, O king, whenever you want[a] to come down, come down, and it will be for us to deliver him into the hand of the king.” 21 And Saul said to them, “May you be blessed by Yahweh, for you have shown me compassion! 22 Go, please, make certain again! Find out and see exactly where he is[b] and who has seen him there! For they have said to me, ‘He is very cunning.’ 23 Look, find out all of the hiding places where he hides. Then return to me with dependable information,[c] and I will go with you. And then if he is there in the land, then I will seek him among all the thousands of Judah.” 24 Then they got up and went to Ziph before Saul.

Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon in the Arabah, to the south of Jeshimon. 25 And Saul and his men went to seek him, and they told David, so he went down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard this, he pursued David into the wilderness of Maon.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Samuel 23:20 Literally “for all the wanting of your soul”
  2. 1 Samuel 23:22 Literally “his place where his foot is
  3. 1 Samuel 23:23 Literally “to being established”