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Once again David is in trouble, and once again he prays for deliverance. But he prays with confidence, and is already planning his sacrifice of thanksgiving.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, “David is in hiding among us.”
Save me, O God, by thy name,
and vindicate me by thy might.
Hear my prayer, O God;
give ear to the words of my mouth.
For insolent men have risen against me,
ruthless men seek my life;
they do not set God before them. [Selah]
Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord is the upholder of my life.
He will requite my enemies with evil;
in thy faithfulness put an end to them.
With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to thee;
I will give thanks to thy name, O Lord, for it is good.
For thou hast delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
Words to Remember
Save me, O God, by thy name,
and vindicate me by thy might.
Hear my prayer, O God;
give ear to the words of my mouth.
The Servant Prays for Righteous Judgment
St. Hilary of Poitiers interprets the suffering of David as the suffering of Christ, the son of David. His interpretation is typical of early Christianity; the Christians saw Christ throughout the Old Testament, but nowhere more than in the psalms. In this psalm, Hilary says, Christ, as man, prays for what is rightfully his as God.
The suffering of the prophet David is, as we said about the title, a type of the passion of our God and Lord Jesus Christ. This is why his prayer also corresponds in meaning with the prayer of Christ, who, being the Word, was made flesh. He suffered all things like a man. In everything he said, he spoke like a man. And he who bore the infirmities and took on him the sins of men approached God in prayer with the humility proper to men.
This interpretation, even though we are unwilling and slow to receive it, is required by the meaning and force of the words. There can be no doubt that everything in the psalm is uttered by David as his mouthpiece. For he says, “Save me, O God, by thy name.” Thus, using the words of his own prophet, the only begotten Son of God prays in bodily humiliation—the Son who at the same time was claiming again the glory he had possessed before the ages. He asks to be saved by the name of God, by which he was called and in which he was begotten, in order that the name of God, which rightly belonged to his former nature and kind, might save him in that body in which he had been born.
So this whole passage is the utterance of one in the form of a servant—of a servant obedient unto the death of the cross, which he took upon himself and for which he prays the saving help of the name that belongs to God, sure of salvation by that name. Because of that, he immediately adds, “and judge me by your power” [“and vindicate me by thy might,” RSV].
For now as the reward for his humility in emptying himself and assuming the form of a servant, in the same humility in which he had assumed it, he was asking to resume the form he shared with God. He had saved that humanity in which as God he had obediently condescended to be born, so that humanity could bear the Name of God. And to teach us that this Name by which he prayed to be saved is more than an empty title, he prays to be judged by the power of God.
For a right reward is the essential result of judgment, as the Scripture says, “Becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him and gave unto him the name which is above every name.” Thus, first of all, the name which is above every name is given unto him; then next, this is a judgment of decisive force, because by the power of God, he, who after being God had died as man, rose again from death as man to be God, as the apostle says, “He was crucified from weakness, yet he lives by the power of God” (see 2 Corinthians 13:4), and again, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes” (see Romans 1:16).
For by the power of the judgment, human weakness is rescued to bear God’s name and nature. Thus, as the reward for his obedience, he is exalted by the power of this judgment into the saving protection of God’s name; so that he possesses both the name and the power of God.
Again, if the prophet had begun this utterance in the way men generally speak, he would have asked to be judged by mercy or kindness, not by power. But judgment by power was a necessity in the case of one who, being the Son of God, was born of a virgin to be Son of Man, and who now, being Son of Man, was to have the name and power of the Son of God restored to him by the power of judgment.
—St. Hilary of Poitiers, Homilies on the Psalms
Questions to Think About
1. How often do I pray in the name of Jesus—with complete confidence that he will answer my prayer?
2. Do I remember to thank God when my prayers are answered—or even before?