NOTES for Psa 54

It is no surprise that a person threatened with being treacherously handed over to his persecutor asks God for deliverance. The deliverance spoken of here is, of course, deliverance from immediate, present enemies, but we are entitled to regard this particular request as an image of our common hope for salvation from the power of evil and sin.

What is striking, however, is that the one who trusts in God not only pleads for his deliverance but is also ready to stand before His judgment. We might suspect presumption in this if we did not see how reverently the petitioner approaches the Lord. The insistence that the one who takes refuge in the Most High is worthy to stand before His judgment sounds not like boasting, but like a humble assurance that a person does not have the moral right to appeal to God in every state.

The Lord certainly hears and receives us in any case. He can come to our aid despite all our crookedness, for His mercy surpasses all our sins and all our vileness. And yet, when we take refuge in Him, let us not forget to look at ourselves and see what we are like.