Psalm 56:2
My enemies pursue me all day long, for many proudly assail me.
Sermons
Fear and DeliveranceW. Forsyth Psalm 56:1-13
The Deprecable and the DesirableHomilistPsalm 56:1-13
The Struggle and Victory of FaithC. Short Psalm 56:1-13














Taking this psalm as David's, we may use it to illustrate two great truths.

I. "THE FEAR OF MAN BRINGETH A SNARE." (Proverbs 29:25.) The best of men are but men at the best. David was a man of splendid courage and generosity; but there were times when he grievously erred (1 Samuel 21:10-15). It was said by Dr. Arnold, "The fear of God makes no man do anything mean or dishonourable, but the fear of man does lead to all sorts of weakness and baseness." We may see here how the fear of man leads to failure in truth. When the thought of self is uppermost, we are apt to resort to our own devices. God's ways are too slow, so we turn to our own way. Children, through fear, will tell lies. We pity them and forgive. But, alas! we do not ourselves wholly put away childish things. Abraham prevaricated. David practised deceit. Peter denied his Lord. The fear of man also leads to the sacrifice of independence. Imagination working through fear exaggerates our danger. We become restless and impatient. Instead of bravely facing our foes, we shrink from the path of duty.

"He is a slave who will not be In the truth, with two or three." But, worse still, the fear of man may lead to failure in justice and generosity. We are apt to put ourselves first. To save our miserable lives is the chief thing. Rather than that we should suffer, we would let others suffer. Rather than that we should be put to shame, we would have our opponents "cast down." This is the mean, selfish spirit which Satan recognized as so strong in human nature, when he said, "All that a man hath will he give for his life."

II. GOD DELIVERETH HIS SERVANTS THAT TRUST IN HIM. (Daniel 3:28.) How naturally David turned to God in trouble! Circumstances moved him, but there was more - love constrained him. His heart went forth in clinging trust to God. Faith is the true antidote to fear. It lifts us out of the dust. It places us by the side of God. It fills our soul with peace and hope. Through trust we gain courage to face the foe (ver. 6). Further, we obtain resolution to continue the conflict (vers. 7-9). Taking hold of God's strength, we wax strong. All that is deepest and truest in our hearts calls upon us to be brave, and to quit ourselves like men. We are in the way of duty, and are able to say, like the king in the story, "Come on, come all; this rock shall fly from its firm base as soon as I." The experience of the past and the sure word of promise raise our hopes. We look to the future with confidence. In all our wanderings God watches over us. In all our weaknesses and sorrows God stands by us with tender compassion for our weaknesses, and with loving consolations for our sorrows. The victory will be with the right (vers. 10-13). If God has begun a good work in us, he will carry it on to the end. He who has been our Refuge in the past will not fail us in the future. Therefore let us go forward bravely in the path of duty, not counting our lives dear unto ourselves, so that we may be found faithful to him who hath called us, and finish our course with joy. - W.F.

For Thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not Thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?
I. MERCIES RECEIVED ARE IN A SPECIAL MANNER TO BE REMEMBERED. This has been the method of God's people. David entitles Psalm 38., "A psalm to bring to remembrance His afflictions," much more, then, His comforts (Psalm 77:10, 11). Paul remembered a manifestation of God to him fourteen years before (2 Corinthians 12:1). If God treasures up our tears, much more should we treasure up His mercies; as lovers keep the love tokens of those they affect. God hath a file for our prayers, we should have the like for His answers. He hath a book of remembrance to record our afflictions, and believing discourses of Him (Malachi 3:16); why should not we, then, have a register for His gracious communications to us? Remembrance is the chief work of a Christian; remembrance of sin to cause a self-abhorrency (Ezekiel 20:43). The remembrance of God for a deep humility (Psalm 77:3). Remembrance of His name for keeping His law (Psalm 119:55). Remembrance of His judgments of old for comfort in afflictions (Psalm 119:52). And remembrance of mercy for the establishment of faith (Isaiah 57:11). Now, they are to be remembered because —

1. They are the mercies of God.

2. Purchased by Christ.

3. Beneficial to us.And we are to remember them admiringly and thankfully (Psalm 77:11). Affectionately; obediently and fruitfully (Psalm 116:16). Humbly: in their varied circumstances and details.

II. MERCIES RECEIVED ARE ENCOURAGEMENTS TO ASK AND HOPE FOR MORE.

1. For: There is as great ability in God (Isaiah 59:2).

2. As much tenderness as before (Lamentations 3:22),

3. The same pleas to be urged in our prayers.

4. One mercy in spirituals is to no purpose without further mercies. God would not lay a foundation and not build upon it (Romans 8:32).

III. IN CONCLUSION.

1. Take heed of forgetting mercies received (Jeremiah 2:2; Psalm 68:26). For if we do not remember them we shall be apt to distrust God and abate in our love (Psalm 78:19). And if we do not remember we cannot improve them, nor so easily resist temptation.

2. Make use of former mercies to encourage your trust for the future (Psalm 9:10; 1 Samuel 21:9).

(S. Charnook, B. D.)

This psalm seems to have been written when David, from the jealousy of the infuriated Saul, had taken refuge in the religion of Gath, and found himself an object of not unnatural suspicion, from which he escaped only by simulating madness. But his faith waxes stronger as the occasion of his trial comes. Just as there are sea-birds which sing amid the storm, whose earliest blast startles more timid wings, and sends them fluttering home, so in the season of his apparent hopelessness his heart trilled out some of his most rapturous doxologies, and some of the sublimest expressions of his confidence in God. So if our circumstances have been like to the psalmist's, if there be in our hearts memories of many sorrows and failures, of manifold enmity to the progress of the life of God within us, still let me ask you to take up the strain of these verses. If we have failed in the past, let us decide for God now.

I. THE MOTIVE WHICH IS TO PROMPT US TO DECISION. "Thou hast delivered my soul from death." Motive is the spring of all mental action. We are free, but we are not independent of motives, and hence Scripture continually appeals to them. And here in the great matter of personal consecration to God, what can urge us more mightily than this, that God has saved our "soul from death"? And —

II. THERE IS THE OBLIGATION. "Thy vows are upon me, O Lord." You are to feel that you are the Lord's; that you are not at liberty to swear any other allegiance or enter upon any other service. You are the Lord's bondsmen. Are you ready for this? It is the highest privilege.

III. THE LEGITIMATE EXPRESSION IN WHICH THIS CONSECRATION EMBODIES ITSELF.

1. In praise. The Christian's is a joyful, willing service.

2. In a desire to walk before God in the land of the living. Is this our ambition — to walk before God here and now? I trust it is, and may the ardour of your desire know no abatement or decay.

(J. Morley Punshon, D. D.)

I. THE DELIVERANCE REALIZED BY FAITH BEFORE IT IS ACCOMPLISHED IN FACT (see translation in R.V.). He is still in the very thick of the trouble and the fight, and yet he says, "It is as good as over. Thou hast delivered." How does he come to that confidence? Simply because his future is God; and whoever has God for his future can turn else uncertain hopes into certain confidences, and make sure of this: that however Achish and his giant Philistines of Gath, wielding Goliath's arms, spears like a weaver's beam, and brazen armour, may compass him about, in the name of the Lord he will destroy them. They are all as good as dead, though they are alive and hostile at this moment. We to-day have the same reasons for the same confidence; and if we will go the right way about it, we, too, may bring June's sun into November's fogs, and bask in the warmth of certain deliverance even when the chill mists of trouble enfold us. But then note, too, here, the substance of this future intervention which, to the psalmist's quiet faith, is present. "My soul from death." and after that be says, "My feet from falling," which looks very like an anti-climax and bathos. But yet, just because to deliver the feet from falling is so much smaller a thing than delivering a life from death, it comes here to be a climax and something greater. The storm passes over the man. What then? After the storm has passed, he is not only alive, but he is standing upright. It has not killed him. No, it has not even shaken him. His feet are as firm as ever they were, and just because that is a smaller thing, it is a greater thing for the deliverance to have accomplished than the other. How did David get to this confidence? Why, he prayed himself into it. If you will read the psalm, you will see very clearly the process by which a man comes to that serene, triumphant trust that the battle is won even whilst it is raging around him. The true answer to David's prayer was the immediate access of confidence unshaken, though the outward answer was a long time in coming, and years lay between him and the cessation of his persecutions and troubles. So we may have brooks by the way, in quiet confidence of deliverance ere yet the deliverance comes.

II. THE IMPULSE TO SERVICE WHICH DELIVERANCE BRINGS. "That I may walk before God in the light of the living;" that is God's purpose in all His deliverances, that we may thereby be impelled to trustful and grateful service. And David makes that purpose into a vow, for the words might almost as well be translated, "I will walk before Him." Let us see to it that God's purpose is our resolve, and that we do not lose the good of any of the troubles or discipline through which He passes us; for the worst of all sorrows is a wasted sorrow. "Thou hast delivered my feet that I may walk." What are feet for? Walking! Further, notice the precise force of that phrase, "that I may walk before God." It is not altogether the same as the cognate one which is used about Enoch, that "he walked with God." The one expresses communion as with a friend; the other, the ordering of one's life before His eye, and in the consciousness of His presence as Judge and as Taskmaster. Think of what a regiment of soldiers on parade does as each file passes in front of the saluting point where the commanding officer is standing. How each man dresses up, and they pull themselves together, keeping step, sloping their rifles slightly. We are not on parade, but about business a great deal more serious than that. We are doing our fighting with the Captain looking at us, and that should be a stimulus, a joy, and not a terror. Realize God's eye watching you, and sin, and meanness, and negligence, and selfishness, and sensuality, and lust, and passion, and all the other devils that are in us will vanish like ghosts at cockcrow.

III. THE REGION IN WHICH THAT OBSERVANCE OF THE DIVINE EYE IS TO BE CARRIED ON. "In the light of the living." That seems to correspond to the first clause of his hope; just as the previous word that I have been commenting upon, "walking before Him," corresponds to the second, where he speaks about his feet. "Thou hast delivered my soul from death... I will walk before Thee in the light of the living" — where Thou dost still permit my delivered soul to be. And the phrase seems to mean the sunshine of human life contrasted with the darkness of Sheol. Our brightest light is the radiance from the face of God whom we try to love and serve, and the psalmist's confidence is that a life of observance of His commandments in which gratitude for deliverance is the impelling motive to continual realization of His presence, and an accordant life, will be a bright and sunny career. You will live in the sunshine if you live before His face, and however wintry the world may be, it will be like clear, frosty day. There is no frost in the sky, it does not go above the atmosphere, and high above, in serene and wondrous blue, is the blaze of the sunshine. And such a life will be a guided life. There will still remain many occasions for doubt in the region of belief, and for perplexity as to duty. There will often be need for patient and earnest thought as to both, and there will be no lack of calls for strenuous effort of our best faculties in order to apprehend what our Guide means us to do, and where He would have us go, but through it all there will be the guiding hand. As the Master, with perhaps a glance backward to these words, said, "He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." If He is in the light let us walk in the light, and to us it will be purity, and knowledge and joy.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.).

Be merciful unto me, O God.
Homilist.
I. A BLESSED RELIGIOUS EXERCISE.

1. Praying. "Be merciful unto me," etc. An epitome of all true prayer. Mercy is what we need; to remove our sense of guilt, to break our moral chains, to clear our spiritual vision, to quicken and harmoniously develop all the powers of our higher nature.

2. Trusting. "My soul trusteth in Thee." This implies —

(1)A knowledge of the trustworthiness of God.

(2)A supreme love for the excellency of God.

3. Resolving. "Yea, in the shadow," etc. God is the natural Protector of souls.

4. Hoping (ver. 3). All godly souls are in a waiting attitude.

II. A WRETCHED SOCIAL CONDITION. Among savage, crafty and deadly enemies (vers. 4, 6). That men should feel thus to their fellow-men argues two things.

1. That morally they are in an abnormal condition.

2. That sin is essentially malignant. Sin, when it enters the soul, scorches all benevolent sympathy. Sin never fails to make its subject a tormenting devil.

III. A HAPPY MORAL STATE. Moral fixation, or godly decision of soul, "My heart is fixed." In our unregenerate state the heart is unsettled, divided, distracted, and herein is its misery. This fixation originates —

1. High happiness. "I will sing and give praise. Awake, psaltery and harp," etc.

2. High worship. "I will praise Thee, O Lord," etc.

(Homilist.)

The writer begins in deep distress; but he prays himself out of the pit; and in the end he rises to a sunny height of security and faith, where he praises the God who has delivered him.

I. THE ART OF PRAYER (vers. 1-6). Here he, first, clearly and fully describes his trouble. This is part of the art of prayer. It is often because we have nothing definite to pray about that our devotions are unsatisfactory. God is as interested in the trials of His people to-day as He was in those of David. Next, he argues his ease. And this also is part of the art of prayer. God likes us to put our intellect as well as our feeling into our prayers. His first argument is that he is trusting in God (ver. 1): he is trusting, he says, as the fledgeling cowers beneath the wing of the mother bird. Can God leave in the lurch any one who is thus depending on Him? But in verse 2 he uses a still stronger argument: he appeals to God's character, calling Him "God that performeth" — or rather perfecteth — "all things for me." God the Perfecter, who, when He has begun a good work, must finish it — how can He leave the career of His servant in its broken and incomplete condition? This is an argument we can all use, and it is one which cannot fail with God. He has now raised himself to complete confidence that God will deliver him; and to this he gives exquisite expression in the third verse, describing Mercy and Truth as two angels, whom God will send forth to rescue him from his necessities. In the same way in the 23rd psalm Goodness and Mercy are represented as attendants, following a good man all the days of his life, watching over his footsteps and always at his service.

II. THE ART OF PRAISE (vers. 7-11). First, praise begins with the fixing of the heart — "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed." The flutter of excitement is over, and he is able to collect his powers in perfect repose. But, secondly, they are not to go to sleep, though they are in repose; for he says, "Awake up, my glory; awake psaltery and harp; I myself will awake early." "My glory" is a name in Scripture for the soul, and surely a very fine one; the soul is the glory of man. But it needs to be awaked to engage in God's praise. There is music in it, as there is in a piano when it is shut; but the instrument must be opened and the keys touched. The music in our souls is allowed to slumber too much. The words, "I myself will awake early," ought rather to read, "I will awake the dawn." David was to be so early astir at his devotions that, instead of the dawn awaking him, he would awake it: he would summon it to arise out of the east and help him to praise his Maker. But it is not Nature alone he would inspire with his enthusiasm: so full is he of joy in God that he wishes to communicate his emotions to all his fellow-creatures (ver. 9). How marelously has this wish been fulfilled! The Psalter has been translated into scores of languages, and wherever it has been known it has been loved. Finally he gives the reasons for praise (ver. 10), "For Thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and Thy truth unto the clouds." These will always be the reasons for praise that is truly hearty — to know the mercy that is as far above our sins as the dome of heaven is above the earth, and to know the faithfulness which, having begun a good work in us, will complete it unto the day of Christ.

(J. Stalker, D. D.)

In the shadow of Thy wings will I make my refuge
What a beautiful illustration is the city of refuge of olden time of Christ as our Refuge! We have heard the solemn words, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." How can we escape from death? There is a Refuge, even Jesus; and we can hide in Him and be safe.

1. The cities of refuge were so scattered over the country that one of them could be easily reached from any part. "Kedesh" in the north, and "Hebron" in the south, while "Shechem" lay midway. "Bezer" was situated in the flat country, while "Ramoth" and "Golan" were on elevated ground. So our Refuge is easily reached by any one, it is "whosoever believeth in Him," and

"him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out." It is the simple coming to Him and the taking Him at His word.

2. The gates of the cities of refuge were open day and night, that the man-slayer might enter at any time. And we, too, may go to our Refuge at any time. He is ever ready to hear our cry and to rescue us, and to save us; but let us not delay.

3. Any one might flee thither, the stranger as well as the Israelite. So it is with Christ: all may come to Him, of whatever nationality (Galatians 3:28).

4. When the man-slayer reached the city of refuge, he had to plead his cause to the elders of that city, and then, if necessary, before the congregation of the children of Israel; and it was only when his innocence of the crime of murder had been proved that he was allowed to take refuge there; otherwise he was delivered up to the avenger of blood to be slain. But in Christ the murderer may take refuge, and find pardon and peace; the worst of sinners have found refuge there.

5. Then we read that the man-slayer who had fled for refuge should stay in that city, for if he went out of the gate at any time the avenger of blood might slay him, and his blood would be upon his own head. He should have remained in the city whither he had fled. So with us; if we are not in Christ the Refuge, we are out at our own risk.

(L. Shorey.)

People
David, Psalmist, Saul
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Attacking, Daily, Enemies, Fight, Fighting, Foes, Haters, Haughtily, Lie, Lifting, Numbers, O, Pride, Proudly, Pursue, Ready, Swallow, Swallowed, Themselves, Trample, Trampled, Wait
Outline
1. David, praying to God in confidence of his word, complains of his enemies,
9. He professes his confidence in God's word, and promises to praise him

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 56:2

     5899   lament
     8805   pride, results

Psalm 56:1-2

     5086   David, rise of

Psalm 56:1-4

     8754   fear

Library
March 27. "What Time I am Afraid, I Will Trust in Thee" (Ps. Lvi. 3).
"What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee" (Ps. lvi. 3). We shall never forget a remark Mr. George Mueller once made in answer to a gentleman who asked him the best way to have strong faith. "The only way," replied the patriarch of faith, "to learn strong faith is to endure great trials. I have learned my faith by standing firm amid severe testings." This is very true. The time to trust is when all else fails. Dear one, if you scarcely realize the value of your present opportunity, if you are
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

A Song of Deliverance
'For Thou hast delivered my soul from death: hast Thou not delivered my feet from falling? that I may walk before God in the light of the living.'--PSALM lvi. 13 (R.V.). According to the ancient Jewish tradition preserved in the superscription of this psalm, it was written at the lowest ebb of David's fortunes, 'when the Philistines took him in Gath,' and as you may remember, he saved himself by adding the fox's hide to the lion's skin, and by pretending to be an idiot, degraded as well as delivered
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Fear and Faith
What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee. 4. ... In God I have put my trust: I will not fear.'--PSALM lvi. 3, 4. It is not given to many men to add new words to the vocabulary of religious emotion. But so far as an examination of the Old Testament avails, I find that David was the first that ever employed the word that is here translated, I will trust, with a religious meaning. It is found occasionally in earlier books of the Bible in different connections, never in regard to man's relations
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

January the Thirtieth Irresistible Artillery
"When I cry unto Thee, then shall mine enemies turn back." --PSALM lvi. But it must be a real "cry"! It must not be an idle recitation which sheds no blood. It must be a cry like the cry of the drowning, a cry which cleaves the air like a bullet. Said a man to me some while ago, "Assault the heavens with cries for me!" That is the cry which takes the kingdom by storm. When such a cry rends the heavens, "my enemies turn back." A secret and irresistible artillery begins to play upon them, and their
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

Now this Election the Apostle Demonstrating to Be...
17. Now this election the Apostle demonstrating to be, not of merits going before in good works, but election of grace, saith thus: "And in this time a remnant by election of grace is saved. But if by grace, then is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace." [2672] This is election of grace; that is, election in which through the grace of God men are elected: this, I say, is election of grace which goes before all good merits of men. For if it be to any good merits that it is given,
St. Augustine—On Patience

Motives to Holy Mourning
Let me exhort Christians to holy mourning. I now persuade to such a mourning as will prepare the soul for blessedness. Oh that our hearts were spiritual limbecs, distilling the water of holy tears! Christ's doves weep. They that escape shall be like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity' (Ezekiel 7:16). There are several divine motives to holy mourning: 1 Tears cannot be put to a better use. If you weep for outward losses, you lose your tears. It is like a shower
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

The Providence of God
Q-11: WHAT ARE GOD'S WORKS OF PROVIDENCE? A: God's works of providence are the acts of his most holy, wise, and powerful government of his creatures, and of their actions. Of the work of God's providence Christ says, My Father worketh hitherto and I work.' John 5:17. God has rested from the works of creation, he does not create any new species of things. He rested from all his works;' Gen 2:2; and therefore it must needs be meant of his works of providence: My Father worketh and I work.' His kingdom
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Degrees of Sin
Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous? Some sins in themselves, and by reason of several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others. He that delivered me unto thee, has the greater sin.' John 19: 11. The Stoic philosophers held that all sins were equal; but this Scripture clearly holds forth that there is a gradual difference in sin; some are greater than others; some are mighty sins,' and crying sins.' Amos 5: 12; Gen 18: 21. Every sin has a voice to speak, but some
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

A Few Sighs from Hell;
or, The Groans of the Damned Soul: or, An Exposition of those Words in the Sixteenth of Luke, Concerning the Rich Man and the Beggar WHEREIN IS DISCOVERED THE LAMENTABLE STATE OF THE DAMNED; THEIR CRIES, THEIR DESIRES IN THEIR DISTRESSES, WITH THE DETERMINATION OF GOD UPON THEM. A GOOD WARNING WORD TO SINNERS, BOTH OLD AND YOUNG, TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION BETIMES, AND TO SEEK, BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, TO AVOID, LEST THEY COME INTO THE SAME PLACE OF TORMENT. Also, a Brief Discourse touching the
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Great Shepherd
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. I t is not easy for those, whose habits of life are insensibly formed by the customs of modern times, to conceive any adequate idea of the pastoral life, as obtained in the eastern countries, before that simplicity of manners, which characterized the early ages, was corrupted, by the artificial and false refinements of luxury. Wealth, in those
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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