Psalm 59

Psalm Category: Individual Lament

Central Thought: This psalm reminds us that we need to look through our worries and fix our eyes on Christ, and to rejoice in Him always.

The scene of this psalm is set in First Samuel 19:11 and following, when King Saul sent men to stake out David’s house at night and kill him. David escaped through a window under cover of darkness, which accounts for the description of his enemies as nighttime prowlers (Ps. 59:6, 14). However, this scene of intrigue and escape only prompts David to think in broader terms of the sins of the nations and God’s just judgment on all workers of evil (vv. 5, 8). The contest between Saul and David is seen as a small part of a larger conflict with universal implications.

We can trace the origin of this conflict back to Genesis 3:15, when God put enmity between the Seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. This key passage, which serves as a sort of table of contents for redemptive history, envisions the struggle of Satan and his minions against Christ and His church. From this perspective, we can understand why David’s struggles against various enemies are so well documented in Scripture: David represents the seed of the woman in the line of Christ’s descent. Satan desires to destroy that line, but God preserves it so that Christ will come as promised. The events of 1 Samuel 19, and David’s commentary on those events in this psalm, document one battle in this war, allowing us to see God’s faithfulness in preserving the line of Christ.

As we have seen in previous psalms, David, as a type of Christ, prophetically foreshadowed the persecutions that Christ would endure in His work of redemption. David’s protestation of innocence (vv. 3-4), while true in regard to the situation at hand, was not a life-encompassing reality (one need only read Psalm 51 to remember the limits of his innocence). The image of persecuted innocence comes to its full flower in the patient suffering of David’s greater Son, Jesus, whose example we are commanded to follow in any hardship that we may have to endure (see 1 Pet. 2:19-24).

Interestingly, David prays of his enemies, “Do not slay them, lest my people forget” (v. 11). David senses that the enemies of the church, no matter how unrighteous, often serve a good purpose in God’s plan for His people. Very often in the Old Testament, God used enemies of Israel to jolt them out of their laxity and sinful habits. Hostile powers were often used in God’s providence to chasten His people. Perhaps that is why David actually prays that the enemy live, “lest my people forget.” In light of the context, this petition can not be taken absolutely, because in verse 13 David prays, “Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be.” Where we might qualify our remarks, the Old Testament often uses one absolute statement to qualify another. It seems, on balance, that David is not praying for a miraculous, instant destruction of his enemies but only that justice would take its course, and that the enemy would serve God’s good purposes in the meantime.

The crown of this psalm is the final two verses, in which David looks away from his troubles and focuses his praise and adoration upon his savior God. It is instructive for us to notice that many of David’s psalms, though they describe hardships and troubles, end on a triumphant note of praise and joy. It is as though nothing could restrain his worship or mitigate his delight in the Lord.

This feature of Psalm 59 reminds us of the remarkable command of Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” We sometimes need to be reminded to look through our worries and fix our eyes on Christ, and to rejoice in Him through all circumstances. Psalm 59 reminds us of this very thing—that we can, along with David and all of God’s people, rejoice in the Lord always.