David Hides from King Saul

“Come with great power, O God, and rescue me! Defend me with your might. Listen to my prayer, O God. Pay attention to my plea. For strangers are attacking me; violent people are trying to kill me. They care nothing for God.”- Psalm 54:1-3

 

This Psalm was written by David as he was hiding from King Saul. He was on the run ever since Saul found out David was to become King. Saul wished to kill David and was on the lookout for him. The Ziphites came to Saul and told him David was hiding among them. David wrote this Psalm as a prayer to God to defend him against his enemies.

Why did King Saul hate David so much? He saw that the spirit of the Lord was on David. In fact, scripture tells us the Lord took the spirit from Saul and placed it upon David due to Saul’s ungodly attitude shift. There was a time when Saul was God’s man for Israel. He was an honorable man; fair and just in all his ways. But when he had heard that God had anointed David to become next in line to become King, Saul burned with jealousy. It grew to hatred until Saul actually attempted to murder David. So that is a bit of the back story regarding why David was hiding from the King. 

Let’s look at the first 4 verses. It appears that David is crying out to the Lord. ‘Come’ … ‘rescue me’ … ‘Defend me’ … ‘listen’ to me. David had had an up and down life. There were times when he was strong with the Lord and times when he did bad things in spite of his love for God. Throughout the highs and the lows God always loved David. David was called a ‘man after God’s own heart’ and ‘the apple of God’s eye’. David knew, when things went wrong, he could always cry out to God to be rescued. If you had no faith that you would receive an answer, then why would you seek him at all? David knew he was far from perfect, but he also knew that God knew that and loved him anyway. It is a deep, abiding love. The kind the Lord wishes for us to have with him. 

David lays out the reality of his situation, even though he knew God knew all about it. People wanted him dead. That was it in a nutshell. David was trusting God to rescue him and defend him against his enemies. Like David we can expect the same result from God if we cry out to him for help. Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.

Richard Keller

Bread of Life Ministries