For You Will Answer Me: Thoughts on Psalm 17

I call on you, O God, for you will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer (Psalm 17:6).

 

Psalm 17 is a lament and prayer of David. In it David anticipates the joy of being in Yahweh's presence. David prays for God's help; for the defeat of his enemies, who are wicked and unfaithful, confident that God will hear and answer him.  

 

David prays for deliverance from his enemies. These are the ungodly men who do not have faith in God, nor keep His covenant. David is confident that God will answer him for three reasons: David is faithful, keeping God’s covenant; God is loving; David's enemies are ungodly and evil (v. 1-5). 

 

David prays that he has kept himself from the ways of the violent. He is free from the kinds of wicked and unjust deeds that his enemies are committing. He is inviting God to see that because of his faith, David is a good tree that bears good fruit. He isn't claiming to be without sin. David's confidence is based on his own faith that God will keep His promises, not on how good David’s own works are.

 

In reality it isn’t David who does the works he calls God to examine anyway. David say that it is by God’s word that he is blameless. David writes, “As for the deeds of men - by the word of Your lips I have kept myself from the ways of the violent” (v. 4). 

 

Paul makes this same point when he writes, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose,” (Philippians 2:12-13).

 

David knows that God's love will not allow Him to be indifferent to the suffering of His people. God is compelled by His very nature to come to the aid of His people. Indeed, God has rescued His people from our true enemies of sin and death by Jesus' death on the cross and His resurrection. 

 

Then come David’s petitions. He prays that he would be protected from his wicked enemies (v. 6-9). He prays that those callous and arrogant men who seek to destroy him would themselves be destroyed. He calls on God to rise up and confront his enemies, and to save him (v. 10-14). 

 

Wicked men seem to prosper. That was as frustrating to David as it is to us today. Their end, however, is eternal punishment. While God may not strike down every enemy of His people during this present age, they will suffer eternal punishment and separation from God. They receive their reward in this age. God's people get the fullness of their reward in the age to come. 

 

God provides for the needs of His people. He directs us to seek first the kingdom of God. He gives us daily bread. He tells us not to worry about material wealth. He will make sure we have all the things necessary to support this body and life, about which the pagans spend day and night worrying about. Not only will He meet our physical needs, but the greatest blessing possible already belongs to us in Christ: forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God. 

 

As with all the Psalms, it is important to consider them from the perspective of Christ. David is a picture of the promised Savior, a promise that God fulfilled in Jesus.

 

Jesus knows that God the Father will hear and answer Him when He prays for the same reasons as David. Jesus is faithful, even to suffering death on a cross, doing the will of the Father. God is love, and Jesus is the personification of that divine love. Because of that love God took on human flesh and rescued His people from our true enemies of sin and death. 

 

Jesus, who is God incarnate, came into the flesh to bear our sin. He suffered at the hands of wicked and evil men. He, who had no sin became sin for us. By His sacrifice on the cross, sinless Jesus reconciled mankind to God. So, not only is this a prayer of David, it points to what God would do for mankind in Christ. He would rise up, confront our ultimate enemies of sin, death, and the devil, and rescue His people from the wicked by His sword (v. 13).

 

This prayer will come to ultimate fulfillement when Jesus returns on the Last Day. At His coming all men will rise again with their bodies and will give an account of their own works. And they that, like David, by their faith in Christ have done good will go into life everlasting. They that have, like David’s wicked enemies by their faithlessness done evil will go into everlasting fire.

 

In the meantime, God indeed stills the hunger of those He cherishes (v. 14). He prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. While we live in this fallen world He sustains us by giving us His very body and blood to eat and to drink. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we will see His face in righteousness. And when we awake we will be satisfied with seeing His likeness (v. 15).

The Good Old Days

“Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years’ ” (Genesis 6:3).

Ah, the good old days! Anyone who has had a Grandparent has probably heard that phrase, or at least some variation on the theme. Talk to any “old timer” about current events and you’ll soon be regaled with tails from “the good old days” that will serve to illustrate to you just how bad things have gotten over the years. Things just ain’t like they used to be…

We’ve cured polio, walked on the moon, and seen evil empires rise and fall - but things just aren’t as good as they used to be back in the good old days. As I grow older, I even find myself slipping into this annoyingly amusing stereotype, especially when confronted with some unexpected change, or the thought of society‘s relentless, entropic moral decay.

Noah, though, had he commented on the decay of society, would have had a much better case than any of us living today. Holy Scripture tells us that, after the Fall of Man recorded in Genesis 3, things sort of just kept going from bad to worse. In chapter six, we are told that the situation had reached critical mass:

The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain (Genesis 6: 5-6).

What an incredible thought. God, the creator, who had formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed life into his nostrils, was so disturbed by the sinful state of man that his “heart was filled with pain”. God made plans to wipe man from the face of the earth.

So the Lord said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created from the face of the earth - men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air - for I am grieved that I have made them" (Genesis 6:7).

What does this sad scene teach us? Two important things we should all come away with here are, 1) The Spirit of God works in the heart of fallen man, and 2) There is a limit to God’s patience.

From the time of The Fall, God strove to regain mankind. His plan, as explained to Adam and Eve in the garden, was that one of Eve’s “seed” would crush the serpent’s head - defeat Satan once and for all and restore mankind’s relationship with God. From that time, the Spirit of God worked in fallen man to lead him to repentance and trust in God’s promised redeemer. Indeed, when Eve became pregnant with her first son, Cain, the very name given to him evidences Eve’s faith - “Cain” means “I have the man, the Lord”, according to Luther’s translation. Eve believed that her son was the fulfillment of God’s promise. Unfortunately, Cain would not live up to his mother’s expectations. A few other examples, besides Eve, of those who began, after the Fall, “to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:26) are Abel, Seth, Enoch, and eventually, Noah.

The majority of mankind, however, resisted the Spirit of God. Over time the world slipped into the depths of depravity and wickedness described in out text. The “good old days” of Eden were long gone. By the time of Noah, God’s patience had reached it’s limit.

Things work pretty much the same way today. God’s Spirit is at work, calling sinful fallen man to repentance. Everyone who hears the Gospel of Christ - the redeemer promised to Adam and Eve - is called to eternal life through that Gospel. The Spirit, just at it did in the days after the Fall, struggles with man and urges him to turn from sinfulness and seek forgiveness, and true righteousness in Christ.

Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3).

God’s Spirit is doing this work right now through the words of Holy Scripture, creating faith in the hearts of men who do not reject Him. He is striving with the heathen - and with the believer - calling them to repent, to trust the Savior, and to follow Him.

…his [man’s] days will be a hundred and twenty years (Genesis 6:3).

None of us knows how long we will live; Our Lord could return at any time. Today is the day of salvation, as scripture says. Just as in the days of Noah, when God declared there would be an end to the grace period, so it is with mankind today. There will come a day when the opportunity to take advantage of God’s offer of Grace through Christ Jesus will be gone. Do not be left outside of the ark.