“I Shall Be Satisfied, When I Awake, With Your Likeness!” – Psalm 17

 
A Prayer with Confidence in Final Salvation     

Comments by Dennis Edwards

A Prayer of David

Psalm 17:1-2 Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goes not out of feigned (deceitful) lips. Let my sentence come forth from Your presence; let Your eyes behold the things that are equal (or right/true).

David is calling out to God, claiming that he is honest and sincere and God should hear and answer his request.

Psalm 17:3 You have proved my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me, and shall find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.

Apostle James reminds us that our mouth is our greatest problem. “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles our whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God,” James 3:5,6,8,9.

Jesus also told us we would give an account of every idle word for by our words we would be justified and by our words we would be condemned, Matthew 12:37. Words are real things. They bless or they curse. Apostle Paul also admonished that we “let no corrupt (or evil) communication proceed out of our mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”

Psalm 17:4 Concerning the works of men, by the word of Your lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

It is God's word that keeps us from the paths of the destroyer. We read elsewhere in psalms, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path,” Psalm 119:105. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way, by taking heed thereto according to Your word,” Psalm 119:9. “Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You,” Psalm 119:11. It is in living by, meditating on, and following God’s word that we escape the wiles of our spiritual enemy.

Psalm 17:5 Hold up my going in Your paths, that my footsteps slip not.

As God’s children we are totally dependent on His help, “Though we are faithless, yet He remains faithful,” 2 Timothy 2:13. Apostle Paul assures us that “He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,” Philippians 1:6. "For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day," 2 Timothy 1:12b.

Psalm 17:6-8 I have called upon You, for You will hear me. O God: incline Your ear unto me, and hear my speech. Show Your marvellous loving-kindness, O You that saves by Your right hand them which put their trust in You from those that rise up against them. Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of Your wings.

A familiar metaphor in the Scriptures is that of the Lord being like a mother hen who offers protection under her wings for her baby chicks. “He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust. Surely, He shall deliver me from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings shall you trust: His truth shall be your shield and buckler.” Psalm 91:1-4.

Psalm 17:9-10 From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about. They are enclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.

A somewhat accurate description of the ungodly rich and powerful who oppress the poor and needy and arrogantly speak against all that is called God or that is godly.

Psalm 17: 11-12 They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth; like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

The imagery of the wicked as a lion preying upon the godly is repeated in the New Testament where Apostle Peter writes, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith.” 1 Peter 5:8-9a.

Psalm 17:13 Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is Your sword.

God’s word repeatedly expresses the idea that the Lord at times uses the unbeliever to chastise His people. The King of Assyria was referred to as God’s razor in Isaiah 7:20 who came against Israel. “In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet: and it shall also consume the beard.” God would send the Assyrians as a judgment on the ten northern tribes of Israel.

Nebuchadnezzar who came and destroyed Jerusalem and the first temple is referred to as God’s servant in Jeremiah 25:9, “Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.”

Psalm 17:14 From men which are Your hand, O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly You fill with Your hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

The rich have found ways through their foundations and NGOs and associations to hide their money so that they are able to avoid taxes and as a result their income grows exponentially over the generations. They are of the world and love the things that are of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. But the world passes away and its lusts: but he that does the will of God abides forever, 1 John 2:16-17.

Psalm 17:15 As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Your likeness.

David compares the men of the world and their having their reward in this life to his own hope and reward in the heavenly realm. His words are similar to those of Job’s a thousand years earlier. “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins (body’s organs) be consumed within me,” Job 19:25-27.

In the New Testament we see a similar hope in Jesus’ disciples. Apostle John wrote, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does 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,” 1 John 3:2. Apostle Paul wrote, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself,” Philippians 3:20-21.

That’s the hope of every born-again child of God, eternal life. As Apostle Paul has also written, “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep (die) but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So, when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?...But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory (over the grave and death) through our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Corinthians 15:51-55.

Apostle Paul was reciting from Isaiah where we find the same hope. “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord has spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he shall save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation,” Isaiah 25:8-9.

We have no continuing city here on earth, because we look for one to come. We are strangers and pilgrims upon the earth, who have been persuaded by the promises of God and have embraced them. We look for that city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. “Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called our God; for He has prepared for us a city,” Hebrews 11:16. That is the Heavenly City, New Jerusalem where, God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things shall be passed away, Revelation 21:4. And God will make all things new.

That’s the hope we cling to, our heavenly reward. As again Apostle Paul writes, quoting again from Isaiah, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him,” 1 Corinthians 2:9. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord,” I Corinthians 15:58. “Be faithful unto death and I (the Lord) will give you a crown of life,” Revelation 2:10.