Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.
Who is the judge? God is the judge. In Psalm 54, David was in danger. The ascription describes the setting as the time the Ziphites told Saul that David was hiding among them. For this reason, David had a very reasonable fear that Saul would find him and have him executed.
Rather than trying to lash out against the Ziphites or against Saul, David asks God for vindication. When the people of God (Saul's people) and the people who had rejected God (the Ziphites) rose against him, David chose to call out to God for help. In God's time, the enemies would be stopped.
We make no mistake of it. David boldly prays that God would put an end to his enemies. But at the same time, it is David's prayer that God would do it, not that the Lord would make him able to do it.
American culture has seen uprisings of a sometimes violent revolutionary culture in recent years. Some, claiming the name of Christian, have suggested that God would have them rise up against other groups, and even against the government, trying to overthrow evil itself. There may well be times when God would use his people to enact a change of government. This has happened many times. But God's people are never able to stamp out evil through armed force. This is the domain of God and God alone.
What do we do when we are threatened? We pray. What do we do when we are afraid of our enemies? We pray. Yes, like David, we also may wisely choose to go hide somewhere or even to use armed force to stop those who would try to kill us and our families. But in the main, our action is in prayer. We pray that the Lord would stop evil. He is the only one who ever does this successfuly.
What is David's expectation? In the end of the Psalm he considers God's deliverance to be complete. Is God going to rescue his people? Then let us consider it already accomplished. Let the God of all be who He is, the mighty deliverer of his people.
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