Salutation
... in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen. Through the prayers of our
holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen. Glory
to You, our God, Glory to You.
O Heavenly King: Prayer to the Holy
Ghost
O
Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, You are everywhere and fill
all things, Treasury of blessings, and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and
cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, [A Psalm] of David, when the Ziphims came
and said to Saul, “Does not David hide himself with us?”
Save me, O God, by Your name, Judge me by Your
strength. Hear my prayer, O God. Give ear to the words of my mouth: for aliens
are risen up against me. Oppressors seek
after my soul. They have not set God
before them. Consider.
Behold, God [is] my helper. The Lord [is] with those who uphold my soul. He shall reward evil to my enemies. Cut them off in Your truth.
I will freely sacrifice to You. I will praise Your name, Lord: for [it is] good: for He
has delivered me from all trouble. My
eye has seen [its desire] on my
enemies.
________
If you have been
blessed or helped by any of these meditations in Psalms, please repost or share
all of them.
[1]
Ziphims, or Ziphites are people from Ziph, a tribe, town, and region in the mountains
of Judea, who were loyal to Saul, and thus willing to betray their own kinsman,
David (1 Samuel 23:19; 26:1). Because David
promises sacrifice, we believe that this Psalm is a Todah.
David cries out to God, calling the Ziphites, aliens (heathen,
people loyal to another nation), and oppressors. God had organized the Israelites by tribes
that marched and fought as single units.
It is inappropriate for the Ziphites to skirt their tribal headship in
order to curry favor with Saul: this sort of disloyalty tears the nation apart,
and is appropriately termed, alien. They
must have made slaves of other Israelites to warrant the title,
oppressors. David notes that they do not
see thing’s God’s way. This is not
hubris on David’s part. He had spent his
youth in prayer, slain Goliath by faith, and had refused to kill Saul on at
least two occasions: of all the people of the tribes of Israel, David was
unique in his relationship with God.
David knew what God wanted, and did it.
He knew full well that the Ziphites were not a people of prayer; they
have already broken God’s Law, they are aliens and oppressors.
David seeks help from the only place it may be found. It is useless to seek help in any other.
Accordingly, David offers sacrifice and praise. The explanation is that God alone is worthy
of praise, because He is good. The
further explanation is that God is good, because He delivers from trouble. Everything is concrete, nothing is left to
abstraction; David speaks only to the harsh realities of life: his life is in
real danger, and God really rescues him.
Many seek a religion of abstraction; Christianity is about reality.
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