Singing Psalm 54 you value the truth
- Jun 2, 2023
- 14 min read
Updated: Apr 8
Singing Psalm 54 you value the truth as you trust God’s protection
Your present circumstances look ugly and feel hopeless.
You are suffering.
What to do?
Give thanks, and recognize, hate, and disdain falsehood. Love and value the truth.
Your circumstances look beautiful and feel great.
You are rejoicing.
What to do?
Give thanks and recognize, hate, and disdain falsehood. Love and value the truth.
You might be going through what looks to be some of the ugliest circumstances you could imagine. You bring it all before the Lord in faith that he is true and will bring good from it. Take heart because in the exact circumstances you are going through, God is working eternal good since your faith in what he will do is invisible.
The ugly thing you see is temporary, transient, fading. The beautiful thing you don’t yet see is eternal, and that is what you are certain of. Your hope is in what you don’t see, and you value the truth of it. And each day your faith grows and grows until one day, the Lord grows it up to the point where you don’t need it or hope anymore. Your faith will one day become sight.
“By your name, O God, now save me;
Grant me justice by your strength.” ~ Psalm 54:1
You can bear your soul to the Lord. No need to be concerned about social correctness; you value the truth as you tell him exactly what you are thinking, and how you feel.
Boast not when things go your way but that you know God and value the truth.
Despair not when things go against you understanding that God is protecting you not from but in your suffering.
David had two opportunities to destroy Saul who, instigated by a song that featured them comparatively, had a jealous eye on David and made himself David’s enemy. Saul repaid good with evil because God was not in his thoughts, only what other people thought about him.
David trusted not in his own power to save himself but in God’s lovingkindness toward him in his affliction that drew him close to God. David knew that God’s eye was on him and that the Lord himself would ultimately remove Saul from harming him.
“To these words of mine give answer;
O my God, now hear my prayer.” ~ Psalm 54:2
David and those like him who live by faith and not by sight value the truth and trust God’s provision and protection rather than trust the lie that says you can save yourself or the lie that precedes it that says you are your reputation, who people say you are.
“Strangers have come up against me,
Even men of violence.
And they seek my life’s destruction;
God is not within their thoughts.” ~ Psalm 54:3
David knew deep down that he would one day look on his enemy in triumph since he, like Jesus with Judas, did not repay evil for evil, but faithfully did Saul good. He resisted the pull to focus on managing his impressions in the eyes of others but cared instead at this juncture of his life only about what God thought of him.
David trusted God who promised to be with him in all that he had for him to do. Yet, you see how he had loved his enemy by the way he mourned Saul’s death when it finally did come to pass.
The shepherd, David, became a man who shed much blood on the earth to subdue and destroy God’s enemies. Jesus, the son of David, shed his own blood to build God‘s house, his church, his very own body that he disciplines, cares for, loves, and with whom he dwells forever as their great shepherd.
It might be that you feel burdened as you attempt to figure out how to save yourself and others from the troubles that you and they face. Jesus relieves you of all these burdens when you bring them to him.
Listen to his voice and learn from him who is highly skilled in gentleness and lowliness. Value the truth of his supremacy, and you will find rest for your soul in him alone.
Singing Psalm 54 you value the truth as you face opposition
“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.” ~ Genesis 3:15
It has been said that the rest of the Bible can be considered an extended footnote to Genesis 3:15 as God reverses the curse the curse of the fall.
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” ~ 1 John 3:8
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” ~ Luke 19:10
Jesus destroys evil in each one of his people in order to bring about their salvation. As his heel was bruised, we will have affliction for a time. As Satan’s head was bruised, his executive center will forever be disabled from scheming to bring harm to those who trust in Jesus to save them.
You value the truth as you address those who are strangers to God. They are alien to God simply because they do not think about God. Though they are insolent and arrogant, you filter your thoughts through a sieve of love before any words you say. You speak graciously to them because of God’s grace toward you.
When David was given the opportunity to speak to Saul and value the truth over lies, he reasoned with him respectfully even while he was being hunted down like a wild animal hunts for prey.
Those who are most uncomfortable with the imprecatory elements of the psalms seem to have little reason to cry out to God. Either they do not perceive that they have any trouble from oppressors or somehow feel that they are safe from harm without asking God to intervene and protect them against those who oppose him in their schemes to hurt others.
You value the truth when, acknowledging the spiritual battle you are in, you ask God to subdue and destroy his and your enemies in the spiritual realm while you continue to do good even toward those who do not value the truth, who have been taken captive by evil and seek your harm.
It does you good to remember that whoever or whatever seeks your harm are God’s enemies first, even if your own thoughts are set up to harm you. If your thoughts have been stolen and taken captive by lies, you are directed to steal them right back, and take them captive making them obedient to Christ.
You ask and trust that God can save his people from the lies they have bought and lead them to value the truth as he has done for you.
You value the truth that the triune God will deal with your enemies. He will either destroy their proclivity toward evil, use their own evil against them, or send enemies, angels, war, natural disasters, or pestilence to destroy evil.
Perhaps you were given the back hand of fellowship because of something as innocuous as being new to the area and could not compare to those who have been friends from birth. It’s nothing you did but it hurts just the same and can weaken you unless you are aware of the best friend you always have with you and have had since your birth, before your birth, nay, before the creation of the world!
And watch God transform your other relationships. If you have ever wondered, “What am I, chopped liver?” Wonder no more. You will be like a sweet-smelling flower in a beautiful garden surrounded by good friends, other sweet-smelling flowers, many of whom were those that formerly gave you the back hand of fellowship. This is how God will restore all things. Wait for it!
When you are weak, you are strong. The grace of his presence is sufficient for you.
You value the truth, when you understand that joy and suffering are not mutually exclusive. It is not suffering that is the antithesis of joy, but rather idolatry (Matt Papa) and comparisons (Ray Cummings).
John Beeson of The Bee Hive adds that comparisons not only steal joy, but also humility, repentance, and worship.
The only comparison that is any good is the comparison that causes you to be better not just look better, that leads you to love and admire those who are better than you.
“The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday.” ~ Matty Mullins
“It’s OK to focus on yourself when life gets challenging.” ~ Quote from this week’s CVS coupon mailer
Use the ability God gave you to think to value the truth so that you will not be a paradoxical “dumb” smart person who focuses on, depends on, and in essence, worships self.
Rather, aim to be a smart “dumb” person readily admitting that in the most important things in life you don’t know what to do so that you value the truth that God is both good and strong. You focus on, depend on, and worship God and not yourself.
Together with his people, his church, your eyes are on the One who makes the wisdom of the wise foolish and the strength of the strong weak. He enables you to be a part of his family where you bear the family resemblance more and more each day as you grow in serving, giving, and following Jesus.
Singing Psalm 54 you value the truth as you leave vengeance to God
Grudges and bitterness are poisons you drink of deeply in hopes that the other person will die. They kill you because you weren’t created to wield those swords. Vengeance and retribution belong to the Lord.
You can trust him to bring about justice and pay back evil. Your heart was not meant for that job. Even when you pursue legal justice, you can entrust it to the Lord and guard your heart, the wellspring of life.
God is good at paying back evil. He doesn’t always do it right away, but he always does it the right way. He often uses the person’s snare to catch him. It is his job. He is good at it.
It is not your job. It is not my job. Sometimes justice is served in this life. The rest of the time justice will be served in the life to come. You value the truth that in either case, justice will be served.
That said, if you are aware of people oppressing other people by breaking God’s law and justifying it with a law of man, respectfully contact your lawmakers asking that they would put into motion to revoke unethical, illegal laws of man.
Report those who are guilty of crimes to the authorities who are put in place as instruments in God’s hand to bring about justice. Those who do it right are merciful in the way they go about seeking justice.
If you personally avenge crimes that others commit, then you will be liable and brought to justice for it.
For lawbreakers who trust him, Jesus served the justice for each one’s soul. He paid the price for you to live a new life free and clear so that you could walk in it unencumbered by whatever you have done in the past even as you might be in prison for some of those things or even if you suffer the natural consequences of estrangement or alienation that follow relational strife. Jesus offers hope, repentance, and comfort both to the oppressor and to the oppressed.
Jesus was perfectly patient with sinners like David and Paul to give you hope as you believe in him, that though you are a sinner, eternal life awaits you as he promises to complete the good work he began in you. There was at least one season when David was uncharacteristically his own worst enemy and deserved to be destroyed for his own evil.
But at the time he penned Psalm 54, his thoughts were centered on God as he respected Saul even though Saul sought to do evil to David continually. He respected that God placed Saul in authority and trusted that God would take him out of authority when he deemed it best.
In spite of his sins, David’s heart was characteristically after God’s own heart since he appreciated and responded to God’s grace and mercy often searching out ways to be gracious and merciful to others.
The moment of truth when you know whether or not you value the truth is: are willing to suffer with integrity?
“The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” ~ 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12
Truth is not relative. Truth is objective and absolute. Jesus is the truth and the only way to the Father. Ask God to help you die to yourself now, moment-by-moment, day-by-day, rejecting what is false though it might be parading all around you as truth. Plead with the Lord to help you love and value the truth, trusting him for the ‘whens’ and the ‘hows’ that God will indeed give you a new and better life, moment-by-moment, day-by-day as you live by faith and not by sight.
God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will give you the fortitude to value the truth enough to die for it. Death always precedes resurrection.
When you value the truth, it is obvious to all:
“See how God has been my helper,
How my LORD sustains my soul:
To my foes he pays back evil —
In your truth destroy them all!” ~ Psalm 54:4-5
You will one day learn war no more when the Lord, in his mercy toward you, will either turn oppressors to himself, which is your heart’s desire, or destroy them so that others would not be harmed by those who love lies and won’t value the truth.
“He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.” ~ Isaiah 2:4
God’s name is his character, the total sum of who he is. He glorifies his name every time he shows you mercy. The great peacemaker will settle all disputes. He will save you by his name, by all that he is.
He listens to your pleas and answers you. His glory is his mercy toward those who are oppressed as he grants them justice from their oppressors.
Singing Psalm 54 you value the truth leaving vengeance to God. Waiting on him, you are merciful toward the unmerciful. Thus, you share in his glory.
“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.“ ~ Romans 5:19
“I will sacrifice with gladness;
Your good name, I’ll praise, O LORD.
He has saved me from all trouble;
I have looked on all my foes.” ~ Psalm 54:6-7
May 26-June 2, 2023
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Heart ♥️ reflection
February 21, 2025
Your life’s work: to trust Jesus’ care for you - Part 2 of 3
"Then they said to him, 'What must we do, to be doing the works of God?' Jesus answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.'" ~ John 6:28-29
Question: Is the work that God requires of us to do or to believe? How does this challenge common religious thinking?
Heart reflection: Many believe that doing good will earn God's favor. Being kind to earn salvation. Is it possible to earn brownie points with God? Most world religions teach this approach. Their thoughts are on themselves and on their performance. Yet learning the ways of Jesus is countercultural in that while we were still his enemies, not believing in him at all, Jesus died for us. Because he literally died to extend kindness to meet our greatest need, anyone who really takes that in is moved to respond with trust in him whom the Father sent to save us. Jesus flips common understanding on its head. He removes the pressure of working for salvation. Rather, our actions flow from the salvation we have already received from him. We are lights only in reflecting Jesus' light. We cannot generate our own. We don't perform acts of kindness to be saved. We are saved unto acts of kindness. Because he has already saved you, you get to become a kind person by the outworking of your faith in Jesus. Love emerges from what the Holy Spirit pours into your heart. "We love because he first loved us." The glory belongs to God, not us. Every gift, every breath, every opportunity comes from him. If you don’t yet cherish Jesus and his work, wait for it. Because the Lord is patient in teaching you how to anchor your thoughts on Jesus, you will one day love God far more than the gifts he gives you.
“Strangers have come up against me,
Even men of violence.
And they seek my life’s destruction;
God is not within their thoughts.” ~ Psalm 54:3
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The Psalms—Q&A
“What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?” ~ 1 Samuel 20:1b
How does the Lord Jesus leading me to sing Psalm 54 help me grow in my affection for God and in my connection with others?
If you think God‘s grace and mercy are only for other people, those awful people who would use him as an easy out to justify their bad behavior, what choices of thought are you left with?
The first that comes to mind is that you might think that you do not need God’s grace and mercy because although you wouldn’t say you’re a sinless person, you’re a pretty good person as people go. You think you are justified by your good works. You spend a great deal of energy forgetting anything that you have ever thought, said, or did that has not been good. The songs Oh! Darling and This Boy capture this thinking to a tee.
A second you might engage in is to think that the person who sinned against you is looking for a reason to not feel bad about it and merely uses God for that purpose (something deplorable that you think you would never do). This lines up with the first way of thinking. Since you spend most of your energy trying to forget about anything bad you’ve ever done, you reckon that this person is just the same. The idea that God would give the gift of genuine repentance to a person feels Pollyannaish to you even though God, throughout his word if you consider it, would inform your hope. It might quite naturally seem to you unreal, fake, phony to reason that there could be affectionate, caring relationships between God and humans.
Are these choices intellectually honest or feasible?
“Strangers have come up against me,
Even men of violence.
And they seek my life’s destruction;
God is not within their thoughts.” ~ Psalm 54:3
This is what the psalmist is singing about in Psalm 54. People get violent when they think that their thoughts are supreme while God is not in their thoughts.
When you sing Psalm 54, you get the sense of desperate need. If God doesn’t come through for me in grace and mercy, I’m sunk.
“By your name, O God, now save me;
Grant me justice by your strength.
To these words of mine give answer;
O my God, now hear my prayer.” ~ Psalm 54:1-2
This flies in the face of the idea that I am captain of my own ship, I control my own destiny, I am the master of my dreams, and the universe will bend according to my will. When I won’t acknowledge my master and don’t see myself as his servant, I become quite a scary monster indeed, intermittently camouflaged by saying and doing right, even humble things.
The true master never sleeps and uses even our folly to achieve his purposes which can never be thwarted. This is why the only way to true freedom is surrendering to your true master. Although he forgives sin, Jesus bids us come to him for rest. It is neither honest nor feasible to attempt to manufacture peace while hiding from the author of it, pretending to be someone you’re not, splitting yourself off as though you can deceive the one who made you, the one who is ever compassionate and willing to redeem you.
This one does not look at the outward appearance as man does. He looks in the heart and sees through the pretense, the variety show I think I must put on to survive. He alone can take the broken parts and make me whole—one consistent person— while the chameleons can finally be laid to rest never again to rear their deceptive heads. A case in point is Legion, the demoniac, who was freed by Jesus, moving from naked and ashamed, insanely harming himself and frightening others, to being clothed and in his right mind, resolutely desiring to follow Jesus.
“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” ~ Colossians 1:19-20
When I plan to build a bridge to make a healthy connection horizontally to another human, I must first access the vertical bridge from me to God which Jesus built solid and secure for my plan to have any hope of being achieved in a lasting way. Without this primary bridge to the gentle, humble one, I can’t help but stumble, proudly getting in my own way.
“ I will sacrifice with gladness;
Your good name I’ll praise, O LORD.
He has saved me from all trouble;
I have looked on all my foes.” ~ Psalm 54:6-7
Engage and grow together!
“Iron sharpens iron,
and one man sharpens another.” ~ Proverbs 27:17
April 10, 2026
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