Psalms for Psome – Ps 59.05 – Considering the Bible

My wife and I are reading through the Psalms in our evening reading and occasionally a nugget of the Psalms jumps out of the page. Don’t you love it when, after years of reading the “Old Book” passages become alive, reinforcing old teachings or simply warming your heart.

This is the book of Psalms, and it is rich.

I pray I can communicate a portion of the blessing we receive from this wonderful book.

Psalm 59

11 Kill them not, lest my people forget; make them totter by your power and bring them down, O Lord, our shield!
12 For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies that they utter,
13 consume them in wrath; consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah

David is on the brink of death, with one foot tottering over the grave. He has assassins pursuing him, lurking about, working with spies throughout the nation, hunting him down and seeking his death.

And yet David speaks of his enemies mouth, their lips, and their pride. This fact, at face value confused me, for I would have thought David would bring to God the actions these bloodthirsty men were in the midst of doing against him. Yet reference to their speech is scattered throughout the passage.

Consider

vs 3 fierce men stir up strife against me.
vs 5 those who treacherously plot evil
vs 7 bellowing with their mouths
vs 7 with swords in their lips
vs 7 “Who,” they think, “will hear us?” .. speak out plans of destruction

David is looking for God’s recompence upon those who speak evil towards him. This recompense comes in two forms for David.

The first is that those planning and speaking of his destruction are to be scattered. He is looking to God for their plans to come to nought. The first request is that they not be killed, but to be scattered. The evil plans are to be frustrated and those planning his destruction to wander away from this focus of their existence

The second recompense is for those planning David’s death to be consumed. When I see the word consumed, I automatically think of something used up, to be spent, eaten up. To consume in my culture is to use a finite product to its useful end, with it being of no use (or of no existence) upon consumption.

Is that David’s thought here? Somewhat, but what I understand is that this term in the Hebrew (כָּלָה kâlâh, kaw-law Strongs H3615), speaks also of completion, finishing or accomplishment.

So when David is looking for God to consume them in wrath, what is the message? Is David hinting at the idea that God has placed these men in David’s life on purpose, as training material for the future king, and that God will bring about a completion of the work these bloodthirsty men are allowed to perform, in order to train David?

Is that the message?

If so, this speaks of David’s understanding of God as much more than a singular relationship with himself, but that God is also One who orchestrates the entire creation to perform His good will.

No matter how you understand verse 13, it is difficult. If I have captured in a small way the actual understanding David had, it speaks of David’s faith in a greater way than simply seeking protection and deliverance from God in his present circumstances. David is expressing an understanding of a New Testament believer, with a revelation that few Old Testament saints were privy to.

Go back