^{17 “}How long, O Lord, will you look on and do nothing?
Rescue me from their fierce attacks.
Protect my life from these lions!
¹⁸ Then I will thank you in front of the great assembly.
I will praise you before all the people.
¹⁹ Don’t let my treacherous enemies rejoice over my defeat.
Don’t let those who hate me without cause gloat over my sorrow.”

Psalm 35:17-19, NLT

To be blunt, David thinks God  has suddenly become inactive. He just drops out of the picture. David struggles “big time” over this, without any understanding. His back is against the proverbial wall, and certain men like lions press  him hard.

There is a sense of having hungry lions who are moving directly at us. These lions are quite fierce, and they are aggressive (and quite hungry.) The psalmist begins to announce and profess (at the end) something very sad and quite difficult.

Commentary

V. 17, “How long, O Lord, will you look on and do nothing?
Rescue me from their fierce attacks.
Protect my life from these lions!”

Imagine if we subtract from our discipleship anything to do with spiritual warfare we would end up with spiritual platitudes and comfortable ethics. But we would not end up with a true biblical faith.

‘We were born for battle,’ and anything less is irresponsible and ignorant. King David sees the war, but can’t see God. There is a savage ferocity that surrounds him– and for the record they are way to close for comfort.

“Rescue me, protect my life from the lions!”  There is nothing friendly about carnivores. And can you imagine what these vicious predators will do to a helpless lamb? They will tear it into pieces, without hesitation.

V. 18, “Then I will thank you in front of the great assembly.
I will praise you before all the people.”

Perhaps the purest worship is the worship after a deliverance. And after a very challenging rescue, life is sweeter and the sky is bluer. It strikes me that almost all of scripture was written after the writer ‘passes’ through a considerable difficulties. Quite a few of Paul’s letters (the epistles) were penned from prison. I personally believe incarceration brought a deeper work than he could ever had done as a free man.

Rescue almost always brings us a sharp awareness and clarity.

V. 19, “Don’t let my treacherous enemies rejoice over my defeat.
Don’t let those who hate me without cause gloat over my sorrow.”

David understands what failure will mean. A defeat would be the ultimate disaster. David had no illusions, people hated him. His prayer for rescue was now God’s business– and God was going to have to do something pretty quick.

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ybic, Bryan

 

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• The Helpless and the Poor: Psalm 35:9-10 (psalmslife.com)
• A Battle Hardened God: Psalm 35:1-3 (psalmslife.com)