A Psalm for Deliverance From Confusion
David is very confused. He may have done something wrong, but he isn’t sure. If he did do something wrong, what was it? And if he didn’t do something wrong, then why does he feel so guilty?
Does this sound familiar to you in your own life – in the midst of your own confusion? This is one of the most difficult psalms to make sense of, but it is well worth the effort. As we work through David’s confusion together, you may find that you have also worked through your own!
A Shigayon of David, which he sang to Adonai concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.
שגיון (shigayon) = A musical instrument? A mistake? “Confusion”?
1-2 O Adonai my God, in You do I take refuge. Save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
3-5 O Adonai my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, 4 if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, 5 let the enemy justly pursue my soul and overtake it and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. [Selah]
6-7 Arise, Adonai, in Your anger. Lift Yourself up against the fury of my enemies and awaken on my behalf the judgment You have decreed. 7 Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about You. Over it return on high.
8-11 Adonai judges the peoples. Judge me, Adonai, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me. 9 Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, and may You establish the righteous – You who test the hearts and kidneys, O righteous God! 10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous Judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.
דין (din) = “judge” (passing of a sentence)
שפט (shaphat) = “judge”(enforcement of a judgment)
כליות (ce’laiyot) = “kidneys”
12-16 If a man does not repent, [God?] will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow. 13 He has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making His arrows fiery shafts. 14 Behold, the wicked man (a) conceives evil and is (b) pregnant with mischief and (c) gives birth to lies. 15 He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. 16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.
17 I will give to Adonai the thanks due to His righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of Adonai, the Most High.
REFERENCES:
Attribution
Habakkuk 3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.
Philippians 3:4-5 … If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Torah, a Pharisee.
Numbers 12:1 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.
Verses 6-7
Numbers 10:35 And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, Adonai, and let Your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate You flee before You.”
Deuteronomy 32:40-41 “For I lift up My hand to heaven and swear, as I live forever, if I sharpen My flashing sword and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries and will repay those who hate Me.”
Psalm 2:9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Psalm 149:9 …to execute on them the judgment written! This is honor for all His godly ones. Praise Adonai!
Verses 8-11
Genesis 42:15 “By this you shall be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.”
Leviticus 3:4 And the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys.
2 Corinthians 10:5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Messiah.
Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9 (CLT) The heart is crooked above all things, and it is mortally ill. Who can know it?
Proverbs 16:4 Adonai has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
Proverbs 22:14 The mouth of forbidden women is a deep pit; he with whom Adonai is indignant will fall into it.
Psalm 30:5 For His anger is but for a moment…
Exodus 23:22 “But if you carefully obey His voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.”
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