Psalm 17; Ultimate Satisfaction PastorRodney’s Weblog podcast

Content provided by Rodney Zedicher. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Rodney Zedicher or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

PastorRodney’s Weblog »
Psalm 17; Ultimate Satisfaction

5d ago

MP3•Episode home

2025 07/27 Psalm 17; Ultimate Satisfaction; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20250727_psalm-17.mp3

Prayer of the Hunted

Psalm 17 is a prayer for justice. It is a prayer to the LORD to protect and vindicate an innocent man who is threatened and in danger of death. Psalm 17 is a prayer of David. We are not given the occasion, but there were many occasions when David was on the run from king Saul.

I would venture that not many of us have literally been hunted, having to flee for our life. But we have probably all felt similar things in desperate situations. If the Lord is enough for David when he is quite literally being hunted down, do you think he is enough for you to turn to in whatever circumstance you find yourself?

This prayer is in three movements:

1-5 a plea for the LORD to hear a just cause

6-12 a call for God to display his loving protection

13-15 a confident plea for the LORD to punish and reward

YHWH Vindicate a Just Cause (1-5)

First, the Plea:

Psalm 17

A Prayer of David

1 Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry!

Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

2 From your presence let my vindication come!

Let your eyes behold the right!

David begins with three requests of YHWH God in verse 1; to hear, to attend, and to give ear. He asks for the Lord’s attention. He’s not asking that the sound waves reach him; he is looking for a response, in the way that you call 911 not to check that the connection is good and the responder on the other end can hear you; you want to know they are sending help.

He wants the Lord to attend to his just cause, his desperate cry, his prayer. He believes it is an issue of justice, which the Lord by his very character is obligated to respond to. But it is not something that can wait, it is urgent that the Lord intervene immediately, and yet it is a request, a prayer, in humility addressed to the King of kings whose ways are higher than our ways. And he gives the heart behind his request; it is not out of some secret motive; there is no hidden agenda. There is no deceit in his request He is a desperate man seeking intervention from the just Judge of all the earth.

And he asks for vindication from the presence of the Lord. God is absolutely just, and everything he does is right (Deut.32:4), and David asks for God to bring his glorious character to bear on his present situation. He invites the Lord to investigate and discern what is right based on the evidence, who is in the right.

Defense of Innocence

Verse 3 David defends his own character to the Lord. He is not claiming sinless perfection; but he knows his own heart and believes that in this matter his attacker has no ground against him.

Psalm 17

3 You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night,

you have tested me, and you will find nothing;

I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.

4 With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips

I have avoided the ways of the violent.

5 My steps have held fast to your paths;

my feet have not slipped.

Three ways the Lord is aware of his innocence; Lord, you have tried my heart; judged my inner motives. You have visited to investigate me in private; you have tested me, in the sense that a refiner purifies and proves a metal to be genuine. In all this he is confident there is no right ground for his attacker to stand on.

He defends his own motives; I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress. James tells us that

James 3:2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

He claims to be the wise man of Psalm 1 who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked. He is living life by the word of the Lord, not the ways of the violent. He is treading carefully and standing firm in the path of the Lord; he’s not treading on questionable slippery ground. His conscience is clear and he is confident the LORD will find no fault worthy of what his oppressors are doing.

Put on Display Your Wonderful Covenant Love (6-12)

In verse 6 he begins to lay out exactly what it is he wants God to do for him.

Psalm 17:6 I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;

incline your ear to me; hear my words.

7 Wondrously show your steadfast love,

O Savior of those who seek refuge

from their adversaries at your right hand.

8 Keep me as the apple of your eye;

hide me in the shadow of your wings,

9 from the wicked who do me violence,

my deadly enemies who surround me.

David calls out to the LORD because he is confident that God will answer him. In Elijah’s battle between the gods, in 1 Kings 18, the worshipers of Baal

1 Kings 18:28 And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. 29 And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.

In Isaiah 44:14-19 the Lord mocks those who make for themselves false gods, bowing down to things their own hands have made, seeking help from them. He says you are as blind and deaf as the block of wood you worship.

God will answer; his ear is inclined, he will hear. David invites God to show up in big ways, to show off. He asks ‘wondrously show your steadfast love.’ In Genesis 18:14, when God tells the 90 year old Sarah and 100 year old Abraham that they are going to have a baby, and she laughs, God says ‘Is anything to hard (or wonderful) for the LORD?’ In the Exodus 3, when the Lord is about to deliver his people from slavery, he says I will ‘strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it’ (Ex.3:20). Again in Exodus 34, before Israel leaves Mount Sinai, the Lord promises:

Exodus 34:10 And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels [wonders], such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the LORD, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.

Wondrously show off your steadfast love; steadfast love is the Hebrew word we looked at a few weeks ago ‘chesed’, which means ‘a binding commitment to covenant love and faithfulness.’ Because God bound himself to David by a covenant, he obligated himself to David, and now David calls on God to put on display for all the world to see how the LORD treats his beloved.

He addresses the Lord as ‘Savior’; ‘yasha’, the root of Joshua, translated ‘Jesus’ in the Greek. God is a rescuer, a deliverer to all those in danger who take refuge in him.

He invites ‘keep me as the apple of your eye’; guard me, protect me in the same way you protect the pupil of your eye. Eyes are fragile, vulnerable, and we have eyelids that instinctively clamp shut when there is any perceived danger. Have you ever had something in your eye? Everything else ceases to be important, suddenly your whole being goes into protection mode doing whatever it takes to preserve your eye. That is the kind of protection David is asking for.

He uses another metaphor; this time of birds: ‘Hide me in the shadow of your wings’. A mother bird will cover its young with its wings, giving her own life if necessary to protect her young. Jesus said:

Matthew 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, …How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

In verses 8 and 9 David communicates the gravity of his situation. The wicked are doing him violence. Deadly enemies are surrounding him. This is literally a life or death situation. Verse 10 goes on:

Psalm 17:

10 They close their hearts to pity;

with their mouths they speak arrogantly.

11 They have now surrounded our steps;

they set their eyes to cast us to the ground.

12 He is like a lion eager to tear,

as a young lion lurking in ambush.

A mother bird against a hungry lion doesn’t seem like the odds are in your favor, but remember, David is crying out to YHWH God, whose weakness is stronger than the mightiest man’s strength (1Cor.1:25).

YHWH Arise, Punish and Reward (13-15)

Verse 13 begins his final plea:

Psalm 17

13 Arise, O LORD! Confront him, subdue him!

Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,

14 from men by your hand, O LORD,

from men of the world whose portion is in this life.

You fill their womb with treasure;

they are satisfied with children,

and they leave their abundance to their infants.

15 As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;

when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

Arise O YHWH! Wake up and spring into action on my behalf! Confront my enemies in their injustice; cut them off as they come to get me. Subdue them; make their knees buckle. YHWH God says that every knee will bow to him (Is.45:23; Phil.2:10). It is YHWH’s hand that saves from men who belong to this world’s system.

Ultimate Satisfaction

Men of this world are further described as those whose portion is in this life. Psalm 16 was clear:

2 I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

5 The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;

11 …in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

For David, YHWH is his chosen portion, but for his enemies, their portion is in this life. Every good gift comes from the Lord, and children are a gift from the Lord. But children are not to be our greatest treasure. If we seek to find our satisfaction in our children, it will ruin us, and we will ruin them. Any person we elevate and expect them to be the source of our satisfaction will ultimately disappoint; only God is sufficient to satisfy.

And that is David’s hope. His ultimate desire is to behold the face of YHWH. This is what we were made for, he is the only one who can truly satisfy. This is the beatific vision; the sight that truly transforms us. I’ve been on mountain tops beholding stunning panoramic vistas. I’ve stood in awe and took in the grandeur; I’ve been moved in my soul. But I’ve come down from the mountain top, and eventually forgotten. It moved me, but it didn’t change me. But here, in the face of the LORD is the source of true and lasting transformation. Here’s how Paul puts it, in 2 Corinthians 3

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Beholding we are being transformed. This is the look that changes us. John puts it this way:

1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

We will be like him, because we shall see him. Transformed into the same image. Here’s what Jesus himself says in John 17:

John 17:24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

We have been invited to behold and to be transformed into his likeness, restored to reflect the image of the invisible God (Col.1:15).

But we also know that “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” (Ex.33:20).

That is why David says ‘I shall behold your face in righteousness.’ Throughout this Psalm he has been defending his own innocence, but righteousness is a gift. Romans 5:17 speaks of ‘those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness…’

Romans 4:6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

Our ultimate hope is that we, clothed in the righteousness of Christ through faith (Is.61:10), now able to behold the glory of the LORD, are being transformed.

Psalm 17:15 …when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

This is our ultimate hope, not rescue from our present circumstances, but forgiveness, cleansing, being clothed in a righteousness not our own, ultimately the resurrection, when seeing his face, we find true satisfaction.

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

10 episodes

#Bible #Sermons #Teaching #Doctrine #Theology #Utah #Rodney Zedicher #Society #Christianity #Religion #Expositional

Psalm 17; Ultimate Satisfaction

PastorRodney’s Weblog

published 5d ago