PSALM 17:1-15
Introduction:
“David would not have been a man after God’s own heart, if he had not been a man of prayer. He was a master in the sacred art of supplication. He flies to prayer in all times of need, as a pilot speeds to the harbour in the stress of tempest. So frequent were David’s prayers that they could not be all dated and entitled.
“The smell of the furnace is upon the present psalm, but there is evidence in the last verse that he who wrote it came unharmed out of the flame. This is AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN from the persecutions of earth. A spiritual eye may see Jesus here.” —Spurgeon
I. HEAR THE RIGHT, LORD vv. 1-4
A. David had CONFIDENCE that God would defend him, v. 1; Psalms 18:20, “The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.”
1. David’s HEART DID NOT CONDEMN HIM, vv. 2-4; 1 John 3:21, “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.”
2. So David prayed with COMPLETE FAITH, Psalms 140:12, “I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor.”
B. David prays that God WOULD GIVE EAR to his prayer, v. 1; Psalms 43:1, “Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.”
1. David was PERSECUTED grievously by SAUL,1 Samuel 23:15, “And David saw that Saul was come out to seek his life: and David was in the wilderness of Ziph in a wood.”
2. David pleads his cause before THE LORD, Psalms 5:2, “Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.”
II. GIVE GRACE, LORD, TO ACT RIGHTLY UNDER TRIAL vv. 5-6
A. Under difficult persecution David needed God’s Word and Grace to stand, v. 5; Psalms 119:116-117, “Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope. 117- Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually.”
1. In EVIL TIMES prayer is PARTICULARLY NEEDFUL, Psalms 119:133, “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”
2. He PLEADS with God saying, “hold up my goings,” Psalms 121:3 “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.”
B. David had MUCH EXPERIENCE in prayer with the Lord, v. 6; Psalms 66:20, “Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.”
1. Experience is a BLESSED TEACHER, Psalms 55:16, “As for me, I will call upon God; and the LORD shall save me.”
2. David had FULL ASSURANCE of God hearing his prayer, Psalms 66:19, “But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.”
III. KEEP ME AS THE APPLE OF THE EYE vv. 7-12
A. Show thy MARVELOUS LOVINGKINDNESS, Romans 5:20, “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 21- That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
1. Where sin abounded GRACE ABOUNDED MORE in our lives, Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
2. Sin reigned unto death, but GRACE THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS reigns unto ETERNAL LIFE, Romans 5:17, “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)”
B. The Apple of the eye, that is, GOD’S PRIZED POSSESSION, v. 8; Deuteronomy 32:10, “He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.”
“No part of the body more precious, more tender, and more carefully guarded than the eye; and of the eye, no portion more peculiarly to be protected than the central apple, the pupil, or as the Hebrew calls it, “the daughter of the eye.” –-Spurgeon.
1. God’s Word should be the APPLE OF OUR EYE, Proverbs 7:2, “Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.”
2. Those that TOUCH BELIEVERS ARE IN DANGER of God’s wrath, Zechariah 2:8, “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.”
C. Protection under the Shadow of His wings, v. 8; Psalms 36:7, “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.”
IV. DISAPPOINT THE WICKED, LORD vv. 13-14
A. The more furious the attack the MORE FERVENT was David’s prayer, v. 13; Psalms 44:26, “Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake.”
1. These were MEN OF THE WORLD that persecuted David, v. 14; John 17:14, “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
2. Their SENSUAL APPETITE gets the gain which it craved, Job 12:6, 9, The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly. 9-Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?”
CONCLUSION:
Here we see David’s “CONFORTABLE CONFIDENCE that all would certainly be well with himself at the last,” v. 15, “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”
John said in 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”