Who is in the Business of Rescuing Us?

Psa 35:1-10 -

A Psalm of David. Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me!
Take hold of shield and buckler, and rise for my help!
Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, "I am your deliverance!"
Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life! Let them be turned back and confounded who devise evil against me!
Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them on!
Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them!
For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my life.
Let ruin come upon them unawares! And let the net which they hid ensnare them; let them fall therein to ruin!
Then my soul shall rejoice in the LORD, exulting in his deliverance.
All my bones shall say, "O LORD, who is like thee, thou who deliverest the weak from him who is too strong for him, the weak and needy from him who despoils him?"


It is not a new thing for the most righteous people, and for the most righteous cause, to meet up with enemies. This is a fruit of the old enmity in the seed of the serpent against the Seed of the woman. David in his afflictions, Christ in His sufferings, the church under persecution and the Christian in the hour temptation, all pray to the Almighty to appear in their behalf, and to vindicate their cause.

We are apt to justify our uneasiness at the injuries people do us, by our never having given them a cause to use us so wrongly; but this should put us at ease, because when we pray to God for help, then we can be all the more expectant that God will plead our cause. David prayed to God to clear himself in his trial. Let me have inward comfort under all outward troubles, to support my soul. If God, by His Spirit, witness to our spirits that He is our salvation, we don’t need any more to make us happy; that is if God is our Friend, no matter who our enemy is.

By the Spirit of prophecy, David foretells the just judgments of God that would come on his enemies for their great wickedness. These are predictions; they look forward, and show the doom of the enemies of Christ and His kingdom. We must not desire or pray for the ruin of any enemies, except for our lusts and the evil spirits that would scope our destruction.

A traveler overtaken by night on a bad road is an expressive symbol of a sinner walking in the slippery and dangerous ways of temptation. But David having committed his cause to God did not doubt his own deliverance.

The bones are the strongest parts of the body. The psalmist here proposes to serve and glorify God with all his strength. If such language may be applied to outward salvation, how much more will it apply to heavenly things in Christ Jesus!

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Psa 35:11-16 -

Malicious witnesses rise up; they ask me of things that I know not.
They requite me evil for good; my soul is forlorn.
But I, when they were sick-- I wore sackcloth, I afflicted myself with fasting. I prayed with head bowed on my bosom,
as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; I went about as one who laments his mother, bowed down and in mourning.
But at my stumbling they gathered in glee, they gathered together against me; cripples whom I knew not slandered me without ceasing;
they impiously mocked more and more, gnashing at me with their teeth.


Calling a person ungrateful and you can call them nothing worse: this was the character of David's enemies. Herein he was acting as a type of Christ. David shows how tenderly he had behaved towards them in difficulties. We should grieve for the sins of those who do not express grief for themselves. We will not lose by the good things we do for any of them, no matter how ungrateful they may be to us. Let us learn to possess our souls in patience and meekness like David, or better yet, after Christ's example.

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Psa 35:17-28 -

How long, O LORD, wilt thou look on? Rescue me from their ravages, my life from the lions!
Then I will thank thee in the great congregation; in the mighty throng I will praise thee.
Let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes, and let not those wink the eye who hate me without cause.
For they do not speak peace, but against those who are quiet in the land they conceive words of deceit.
They open wide their mouths against me; they say, "Aha, Aha! our eyes have seen it!"
Thou hast seen, O LORD; be not silent! O Lord, be not far from me!
Bestir thyself, and awake for my right, for my cause, my God and my Lord!
Vindicate me, O LORD, my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me!
Let them not say to themselves, "Aha, we have our heart's desire!" Let them not say, "We have swallowed him up."
Let them be put to shame and confusion altogether who rejoice at my calamity! Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor who magnify themselves against me!
Let those who desire my vindication shout for joy and be glad, and say evermore, "Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant!"
Then my tongue shall tell of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.


Though the people of God are, and have learned to be, calm, yet it has been common practice for their enemies to devise deceitful issues against them. David prays, my soul is in danger, Lord, rescue it; it belongs to You the Father of spirits, therefore claim Your own; it is Yours, save it! Lord, be not far from me, as if I were a stranger. He who is exalted as the once suffering Redeemer, will appear for all his people: the roaring lion will not destroy their souls, any more than he could that of Christ, their Surety. God’s people trust their souls in His hands, they are one with Him by faith, are precious in His sight, and will be rescued from destruction, that they may give thanks to Him that is in heaven.