THIS POOR MAN CRIED, AND THE LORD HEARD HIM

Here we have another song of praise, cp. Ps. 33.

In the first half of the psalm, David exalts the Lord and invites others to join him in rejoicing in the Lord’s care for those who fear Him. He greatly appreciates the Lord’s concern for him and for many other God-fearing yet troubled saints, vv. 1-10.

The psalm, like Psalm 25, is alphabetical. The title assigns it to David, ‘when he changed his behaviour [feigned madness] before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed’. The historical background is found in 1 Samuel chapter 21, where we find David fleeing in desperation to the Philistines. He was discovered and only escaped by feigning madness, cp. the title of Psalm 56. What lessons David learned from this particular episode in his life!

With the threat of Saul and his associates ever before him, David goes outside of Israel into the land of the Philistines. He was at the mercy of Achish, king of Gath, and was only able to extricate himself from the dangerous situation by acting as if mad. David’s faith had been far greater before this occasion, and after being cast out by Achish he wrote this psalm. Now he says, ‘I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth’, v. 1.

‘In the Lord’, v. 2, is in the emphatic position at the beginning of the verse. In Him alone and in nothing and no one else! Truly, the Lord had delivered him from all his fears and all his troubles, vv. 4-6, 17. He had proved that the Lord protects, ‘The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him’, v. 7. And also that the Lord provides, vv. 8-10.

In the second half of the psalm, David takes on the role of the teacher. He emphasizes the essential characteristics of the fear of the Lord and the many blessings which attend those who fear Him, vv. 11-22. A literal rendering of our heading for today would be, ‘This afflicted man called, and the Lord heard, and saved him out of all his distresses’, v. 6; cp. v. 17; Ps. 31. 7. How David proved the truth of verse 6 in his career, and especially so in his excursion into Philistine territory!