Listening to the news these days makes you begin to wonder if it's safe to go anywhere. I mean, a man is walking down the street, minding his own business, and for no apparent reason, a homeless fellow comes up and just knocks him down, or worse yet, knocks him in the head. We've all heard those stories. Or a woman is jogging on a jogging path that everybody uses all the time, and she's attacked, raped, sometimes killed. So you think, well, I'll be safer in the car. Well, you heard of road rage? I've mentioned this before, but it happened to me again Friday. I'm in the right-hand lane on the freeway going about 60 miles an hour. There's a one car length before but after ahead of me before the other car and somebody behind me moves over onto the shoulder to pass me and and then jumps in front of me just because there's one car length he could make up, and crazy. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that since COVID, it's gotten worse on the freeway. Do you agree with that? Oh, you're shaking your heads. I wonder if it's safe to be on the freeway. Well, when I get to the mall, then I'll be safe, right? Yeah, right. Then you encounter mass shootings. Are kids safe in school? You're not sure. I mean, you just begin to wonder. Well, the one place I know I can be safe is at home, right? You heard of home invasion robberies? They're very common. Matter of fact, there's a story last week about Aurora, Colorado. How many of you heard it? Where supposedly a gang from Venezuela, that's not confirmed, just took over a whole apartment complex. They interviewed one family that just left because this gang was taking over the complex. We're not even safe at home anymore. So what do you do when you don't feel safe? Well, let me share with you, you're not alone. There were people in the scripture who felt that way. One felt it and expressed it in very vivid terms. None other than David. So the question is, how did David handle it? And how would that help us handle it? Now, let me ask you a question. Am I making sense this morning? How many of you have felt unsafe? Raise your hand. All right. I got an audience. Virtually everybody raised their hand. Good. Turn to Psalm 59. Psalm 59. And while you're turning, let me explain something that'll help us understand the whole passage. The superscription tells us that at this time Saul sent men and they watched the house in order to kill him. Now, the superscription is giving us the setting and the purpose and the reason this was written. Now, as you will recall, 1 Samuel tells us the story. Saul was king. and he was trying to kill David. He was very jealous of David and he wanted him killed. At one point, he sent men, military men, to surround David's house. So this passage of scripture is about the time that David is at home and he's surrounded by people who want to kill him. Bottom line, he did not feel safe at home. Now, what did he do? As I understand this passage, it naturally divides into four parts. And those four parts tell us something that we are to do. So anytime you feel unsafe, this is what you should do. The first thing he did is he pleaded for deliverance. Look at verse one. Deliver me from my enemies, O God. Defend me from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloodthirsty men. Now this verse is packed with stuff that we could isolate. For example, just pick out all the words that describe his enemies. It says enemies. They rise up against me. He calls them workers of iniquity. But the really telling phrase is they were bloodthirsty men. Wow. These people were out to kill him. Now, notice what he says. He says, deliver me, defend me, deliver me again, and save me. You see those words? I'd like to make a suggestion. Basically, what David is doing is saying, Lord, Defend me he uses deliver twice and defend once and save me If I were going to put this in modern terms, I think what I would say is He secured the services of a bodyguard He's saying Lord I'm threatened by bloodthirsty men they want to kill me so Lord I You defend me. Matter of fact, he uses the word defend four times in this chapter. In this verse, he uses it again in verse nine, he uses it in verse 16, and he uses it in verse 17. It's almost the theme, Lord, you are my defender. And I say in popular terms, that means, Lord, you're my bodyguard. So, as my bodyguard, deliver me and save me. It's a plea for deliverance. He continues in verse 3, for look, they lie in wait for my life, and mighty and the mighty gather against me for my transgressions, not for my transgressions, nor for my sins, O Lord." By the way, notice the verse begins with what? Four. How many times have I pointed out when a verse begins with four, it's about to explain what happened in the previous verse. So he's saying, Lord, look, let me explain. And what he says is this. They're waiting to kill me, but it's not for any transgression I did. It's not for my sin. So verse three is explaining verses one and two, and the explanation is this. I didn't do anything wrong. I'm innocent. Boy, doesn't that speak to us. I mean, there were times when David did something and he deserved the consequences, like the sin with Bathsheba. But in this case, he's saying, I didn't do anything to Saul to deserve him trying to take my life. And isn't that where we are? You go for a walk, you get in the car, you go to a ball, you're scared to get out of bed. Not that you did anything wrong, but you could still be in danger of harm or even your life. So he is saying, Lord, I'm innocent now. You are my bodyguard. He continues this plea in verse four. He says, for they run and prepare themselves, though no fault of mine. He again is claiming his innocence. Then he says, awake to help me and behold, So, I find it really kind of interesting. Did you ever tell God to wake up? I mean, that's what he did. Now, it's almost like this is happening at night and he's saying, call my bodyguard, he's got to work the night shift. Lord, matter of fact, I've never prayed that. It happens in the Psalms a lot. David does this a lot. Lord, wake up. What a way to talk to the Lord. At any rate, he's saying, Lord, I want to make sure you're paying attention. You understand? I didn't do anything wrong. I'm innocent. And he repeats that in verse four. It's of no fault of mine. He's making a big issue out of that. And you know, I wonder if we heard him, how would it sound? This isn't just a simple prayer. I mean, his life is in danger. The house is surrounded, and he knows it. Can you imagine eavesdropping and hear how he prayed? One author, I think, captured it when he said, David storms the throne of God to almost breathlessly haste because Saul had sent men to surround the house and tighten the noose. The words gush forth like a hot torrent, deliver me, defend me, save me. The language is abrupt, it's urgent, These ungodly men were threatening his blood. Relentless, they waited for him outside the house." I thought that author captured the fact, this is not just a simple prayer, Lord, help me. It's, Lord, this is urgent. Wake up, hurry. This is serious stuff. He continues in verse five, therefore, O Lord, God of hosts, God of Israel, Awaken to the punishment of all nations. Do not be merciful to any wicked transgressors. Oh, now this is interesting. Prior to this, he's been focusing on his need, and it's real and legit. But his conclusion, notice he says, therefore, is that Well, the Lord should be awake to all nations. Boy, isn't that interesting? He's not only concerned about his own safety, he all of a sudden is no doubt thinking about Israel and the threat to Israel. There's a national threat. I find this most fascinating. This opening part of the passage is a plea for deliverance, mainly for himself, but not exclusively for himself. He included other people. Very, very interesting. When you're in trouble, you tend to think of just yourself. When David was in trouble, he not only thought of himself, He thought of the whole nation of Israel. By the way, that's a very important spiritual truth. We tend to think of ourselves all the time anyway, but especially when you got a problem, especially when you're in trouble and you just, all you do is think about yourself. Well, part of the solution to that is to think about somebody else. I want you to turn to James chapter one, put your finger in Psalm 59. We're coming back, but I want you to turn to, St. James chapter one. This is one of the passages that taught me this principle. Look at verse two. My brethren counted all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. That Greek word is literally endurance. All right. There's a trial. The psalmist, I mean not the psalmist, the people that received this book are having trouble. Matter of fact, if you read the book, you will see there were all kinds of trouble. For one thing, they were being cheated out of their wages. Chapter four, there was all kinds of conflict among them. I don't know that any of it was violent, but it was very real that they were having some pressing problems. So he addresses that and he says, count it as an opportunity to joy because this is a trying of your faith. And if you respond with faith, that'll teach you endurance. And he goes on to say, let endurance have its perfect work that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If you respond properly to trials, it will produce maturity. That's what he's saying. But he goes on to say, now you may not know what to do. So verse five says, if you lack wisdom, ask of God. He continues that. And the next paragraph, he talks about temptation as if to suggest that within every trial, there is a temptation. And in this case, it's to blame God. And then after that, he says this, look at verse 19. My beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Now, he's still talking about trials, adding temptation, and he's saying, this is what you need to do. Above everything else, you need to be swift to hear. Well, what does that mean? Swift to hear who? Swift to hear what? Well, he goes on in verse 22 and he says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only. So when he says, be swift to hear in verse 19, he explains in verse 22 that he means that you hear the word of God and that you're not just hear it, but that you do it. So when he says swift to hear, he doesn't mean just hear the words, he means absorb them and do it. Sort of like a mother. who says to her kid, did you hear me? She doesn't mean, did you hear my words? She knows he heard the words. He means, did you obey me? So what he's saying is, then do what the word says. Now, what does that look like? What are the specifics? Matter of fact, he goes on for the rest of the passage to talk about doing the word. But when he gets to the end, he tells you specifically what to do. I want you to look at verse 27, the last verse. He says, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keep yourself unspotted from the world. What an interesting observation. He gets down to the end of the chapter and he says, well, what you really need to do is go help somebody else. The chapter starts with you in trouble and in a trial, and it ends with, go think about somebody else. Go help somebody else. Very, very valuable spiritual lesson. So when you feel threatened, pray for deliverance. That's what Paul did. I'm sorry, David did. He pleaded for deliverance, but he didn't stop with himself. He prayed for the deliverance of the nation of Israel. All right, let's go back to Psalm 59. The first thing he did was plead for deliverance. The second thing he does is he proclaims his confidence. Now, this second section is a little tricky because it starts talking about the enemy, but the point becomes very quickly that he's expressing his confidence in the Lord. Look at verse six. At evening, they return. They growl like a dog and all around the city. Now he compares them to dogs. You need to understand something here, because you could really misunderstand this. In the ancient world, dogs were not pets. This might be more like saying they're wolves. We think of dogs as pets. That's not the point here or in some other passages where dogs are used in a derogatory sense. So he compares his enemies to wild dogs who are just howling, growling, barking. They're like a wild a pack of wild alley dogs, and he compares them to that. He says in verse seven, indeed, they belch with their mouth, swords are in their lips, for they say, who hears? Again, he's describing them, and one of their offensive weapons is words. They are outside the house, and apparently screaming things to heighten the threat. And then they say, who hears? Obviously a reference to the fact that God isn't hearing what we do, so we can get away with this. So he's describing the enemy. Now you have to understand that to appreciate verse eight, but In contrast to all those threats, he says, but you, O Lord, shall laugh at them. You have all the nations in derision. And again, he's not just thinking of himself. He includes all the nations, but he says, God laughs. That sounds cruel. God laughs at people. What does that mean? He has them in derision. And the Hebrew word translated derision means to mock, to ridicule. God ridicules people? What is he talking about? He laughs at sinners? Yes, but he's not laughing at their sin. He's not applauding the fact that they're doing this. He's applauding their arrogance. Remember back in verse seven, they belts with their mouth, swords in their lips, and who hears them? That's a reference to their arrogance, their pride. And so what's going on here is that God is laughing at their arrogance. You ever heard the Hebrew word chutzpah? Am I pronouncing it right? It means arrogant, self-confident, and that's how he's describing them. One author put it like this, the classic example of chutzpah is the young man who murders his parents and then asks the court to show mercy because he's an orphan. Now that's the nerve of these people. Who hears? We're gonna get away with this. Well, David is confident they won't. Matter of fact, that's his whole point in this passage. So keep in mind, he's in the house, surrounded by these enemies. They are now barking insults at him. And what does he do? Well, if you read the stories in 1 Samuel 19, his wife, Michelle, says, go out the back window. So he goes out the back window and escapes. Now, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, that Baptist preacher of the 19th century, so quotable, said this. Nothing was more subject to Oriental merriment than a case in which the crafty deceived and nothing more than made that happen than a man's derision for being outwitted by a woman. I thought that was an interesting observation that back in those days, they got outwitted by a woman that just poured salt in the wound. So David is confident, you can belch all you want, you can scream all you want, but I am confident of the Lord. Look at verse nine, I will wait for you, oh you, his strength, for God is my defense. I remember in the first part of this passage, beginning in verse one and going down through verse 10, Going down to the beginning of this passage, he said, you are my defense. Now in the second part of the passage, he says the same thing. I'm confident that you are my bodyguard and these people aren't threatening you. You're going to laugh at their arrogance. That's the point. So he concludes this second section in verse 10 by saying, my God of mercy shall come to meet me. God shall let me see my desire of my enemies. So he's confident that God is gonna laugh, God is going to deliver him, and God is going to give him his desire. His desire? What might that be? What would be his desire? against his enemies. I mean, he's already said, save me from them. Would that not be sufficient? Would he want more than that? And the answer is yes. The third part of this passage is a prayer for judgment. Look at verse 11. Do not slay them, lest my people forget Scatter them by your power and bring them down, O Lord our shield." Notice he didn't pray for their immediate destruction. Rather he prayed Uh, they may be scattered. Now I'm connecting verse 11 with verse 10 in verse 10. He says, uh, let me see the desire on my enemy. See that. And he immediately says, and this is my desire. And that is that you scatter them. Interesting. that you scatter them. It's also interesting, he uses another figure of speech for God defending him. And now he calls God his shield. Now prior to this, he called God his defense. You're my defender. I'm suggesting the modern parallel might be bodyguard. Now you're my shield. You're gonna protect me. So what I want you to do to them is scatter them. One commentator said this, the prayer of verse 11 is unique. David asked the Lord not to slay his enemy suddenly, lest the people of Israel entertain lightly the thought of the seriousness of sin. If punishment is gradual, the severity of God will be more indelibly impressed upon them. But it is clear from what follows that the ultimate destruction is included in the category of dire judgment the psalmist specified for his persecutors. He prays that they might be scattered by God's power and brought down by the Lord who guards Israel. End of quote. Interesting. So he prays that the Lord his shield would punish the wicked in such a way to scatter them that the people in Israel would recognize that God was doing it and would recognize the seriousness of sin. Interesting thought. But look at verse 12. for the sin of their mouth and the words of their lip. Let them even be taken in their pride for the cursing and lying which they speak. Now we've already seen that one of their weapons was words. Now he gets specific and he says what they're saying are lies and they are cursing. But notice also he says let them be taken in their Now, earlier I mentioned that the way he was describing them was arrogant, and now he specifically says they were proud. So in verse 13, he goes a step further and he says, consume them in wrath. Consume them that they may not be, and let them know that the God who rules Jacob to the ends of the earth, Selah. Ah, he starts out in this section asking for judgment. But what he says is, I want you to scatter them. That's the first thing he says. And the second thing is, and I want you to consume them. I want you to ultimately destroy them so that they will know that you're God. Remember they said earlier, who hears? We can get away with this. We don't care. And he says, well, Lord, you consume them so they may know who you are. One put it like this. David did not just want God to frustrate the attacks of the enemy. He desired that God would use their aggression as a lesson on how God deals with those who oppose him and his anointed. So he's saying, Lord, deal with them. Consume them. destroy them. Look at verse 14, and at evening they return. They growl like a dog and go around the city. They wander up and down for food and how as if they're not satisfied. Now, verse 14 might sound familiar because it's a repetition of verse six. Only this time, instead of being followed by a reference of the destructive speech, they return and the refrain is followed by pointing out that they were not satisfied. So there's a little difference, but it's basically a repetition of verse six. All right. David is reminding the Lord of the evil of his enemies. And he's asking that God judge them. Now, I said this passage was divided into four parts. So far, we've seen three. And those three parts are, I think, very instructive as to what we should do when we feel we're in a threatening situation. Number one, plead for deliverance, acknowledging that God is your defense. Now, David escaped out the back window, okay? So, if you're in danger, don't be foolish. Do something smart. Get out the back window. That's included. But don't count on that. Ultimately, you must trust the Lord. He is your bodyguard, not just the pepper spray. Okay? Use the pepper spray, but remember the Lord is the defense. He's the bodyguard. So the first thing you do is talk to the Lord, plea for deliverance. The second thing is he expressed confidence that God would do that. So I take it that what we should do is trust the Lord. that he'll do that, that he will not only deal with them, but use it as a spiritual lesson for people. So that's the second thing he did. He expressed his confidence that the Lord would deal with this. The third thing he did is he asked the Lord to scatter them and consume them, which is another way of saying he prayed for judgment. I think We would say, we hear it all the time, when somebody is attacked or unjustly punished somehow, what do they say? I want justice. That's basically what he's doing. He's saying, Lord, I'm innocent. This is no fault of mine. So I'm in a legitimate place to ask for judgment. I'm in a legitimate place to ask for justice. And that's what he does. Now, those are the three parts of this passage. I said there were four. What's the fourth thing you should do? Am I tempted to pause and give you time to think? What's the fourth thing? I mean, you've covered everything. If you're asking the Lord for deliverance, if you're trusting him, I mean, the first has to do with you. The second has to do with the Lord. The third has to do with them. What else is there? Well, look at verse 16. But I will sing your power. Yes, I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning. And you have been my defense, there it is again, and refuge in the day of my trouble. I pointed out that he uses the word defense in verse one, in verse nine, now in verse 16, he's gonna use it again in verse 17. You are my bodyguard. And so notice verse 16, I will sing your power. In other words, I promise to praise you when this is done. That's the fourth thing he does. I will, I'm not doing it now, but when you deliver me by your power, I'm gonna praise your power. Interesting. One more verse. He, by the way, before I go to the next verse, let me point out something. He says, I will sing of your power. Yes, I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning. Did you see that? Earlier, when were they attacking him? Remember the phrase? Earlier, it says in the evening. Now he says in the morning, when all this is over, I'm gonna praise you. Thought that was a little interesting twist. One more verse. Look at verse 17. To you, oh my strength, I will sing praises for God is my defense. He opens in verse one with God is my defense. He closes in verse 17 with God is my defense. And I'm suggesting that's something similar to saying, Lord, you're my bodyguard and you're gonna protect me all night. And when I get up in the morning, I'm gonna sing your praises. At this point, it's a promise to praise God because he will defend me. Got it? All right. Think you're gonna feel unsafe sometime next week? Another way of asking, are you gonna get out of bed next week? What's gonna happen, right? So what do you do? I think the one word I want you to leave with is, when I'm in that kind of a situation, Remember, the Lord is my defense. He says it four times in this passage. The Lord is my defense. The Lord is my bodyguard. Now, that being the case, when you need a bodyguard, then you plead for him to defend you. You pray for strength. You pray for the judgment on your enemy. And then you ask, you tell the Lord you promise you will praise him when he delivers. Got it? Very interesting passage. I don't have a bodyguard. Most of us couldn't afford one, right? How about if I give you one free? How's that? It's the Lord. I want to close by pointing out a couple of things. One is, I focused on the fact that these people had surrounded the house and they were literally threatening his life. He starts out saying they were bloodthirsty. But I want to point out that in several verses in this passage, verse 6, verse 7, verse 12, and verse 14, he mentions their words were weapons. That struck me because I think that sometimes we're threatened by people's words, not just physical abuse. So when your life is being threatened either by words or weapons, remember there's a merciful God who is a bodyguard, a shield, a refuge, and an avenger. All those words are used in this passage to describe God. Got it? One commentator summed it up by saying this. The occasion of this individual psalm is evidently the event recorded in 1 Samuel 19, namely Saul's attempt to kill David in his bed at night. David asked the Lord to defend him from the attacks of blunt thirsty men and to humiliate them so that everyone might recognize God's sovereignty. Believers can trust the Lord with great confidence. He will allow nothing to separate them from his love. And then this author puts Romans 8 in parenthesis. As we go through attacks, we should not only strengthen ourselves with the reminder of his complete adequacy as our resource, we also should pray for his glory. Now, I want to sum all this up. Feel threatened? What should you do? Leave by the back window. You thought I was going to say pray, didn't you? All right. If there's something you can do, do it. David did it even in this situation. Then, remember you have a bodyguard, a defender, and secure his services by simply praying and trusting. and praising when he comes through. Now, I think the tendency is for us to think of all the ways we can defend ourselves and we should. I'm not discounting that. I'm simply saying that ultimately what you need is a divine bodyguard. I read a story once that said something like this. I quote, Jerry and Jeff grew up in a rough section of Bronx. Early in their life, they develop an interest in self-defense. As they grew older, they became experts in the martial arts and opened a Kung Fu school. Later, after several members of their family fell victim to street crimes, the brothers formed a patrol that eventually merged with another group that came to be known as the Guardian Angels. You ever heard of the Guardian Angels? One day, a member of the Guardian Angel pointed a finger at Jerry as if it were a gun and said, you're good at Kung Fu. Bang. The article went on to describe the event. Jerry immediately got the point. His skill at self-defense was no match for a loaded gun. Then the angel said, where would you spend eternity if you're blown away by a pistol? Jerry admitted that he had never thought about that. When Jerry mentioned the incident to his brother, they both realized their need for the Lord in their lives. Today, Jeff and Jerry are Christians, and they use Kung Fu as a demonstration to tell others about the ultimate defense. the King David celebrated in the 59th Psalm. In our society, the article went on to say, we seem to be vulnerable to everything from viruses to nuclear weapons. We need divine protection. We must depend on God who is our defense and our refuge in a day of trouble. Use kung fu. Use pepper spray. Use the back window. Get out of there. But remember, you have a divine bodyguard. So when trouble calls, call on the Lord. Amen? Let's pray. Father, thank you. You're a father. that cares about all that happens to his children. Thank you for the invitation that we can cast everything that cares is a concern to us on you. You invite us to cast all of our care on you, including threats. But Lord, thank you for this experience of David as a reminder to us that you are our defense. Lord, help us to remember this. when we feel threatened. In Jesus' name, amen.