Devotional Short Note to Psalm 59: It is probably better to start with the concept of grandmother’s duvet. All of us have seen or experienced grandmother making a duvet stitching together many squares of textiles, colors, and patterns of material that she has collected over time to make for the bed a duvet. Another image from nature is a bee that goes from flower to flower to do flower sipping, in Latin called florilegium. In music a medley is a bringing together in one piece some lines from other songs. This is what David did in this Psalm.

The occasion is exactly what he called it to be, the night when Saul’s men sat around his house so that he shows his face and be killed (59:1). What David did in the dark hours and lurking shadows of this fearful night, is to lit an Iron Age I lamp, pull together the scrolls of Moses’ book on Deuteronomy, some of his own poems that he wrote already like Psalm. He did what one should do in a time of despair: pray. He prayed 59:2-3 for deliverance from “mine enemies”. He is surrounded by them and on an equal level and asked to be “set up on high”. These enemies are “workers of iniquity” and “men of blood”. It is a life and death situation for David. David is in the lion’s den. If he has God with him, he has nothing to fear.

David then proceed to give God the detail why these men are around his house: not for David’s transgression or sin. No action on his part, but simply because David is David. “They lie in wait for my soul” (59:4a); “they gather themselves together against me” (59:4b); “they run and prepared themselves” (59:5a); “they return at evening” (59:7a); “they howl like a dog” (59:7a); “they go round about the city” (59:7b); “they burp out with their mouth, swords are in their lips” which Calvin read as: “they vomit forth as many swords for the murder of the poor as they utter words" (59:8a-b); they wander up and down to devour” (59:16a); they “tarry all night if they have not their fill” (59:16b). It sounds like a mob of demonstrators taking their position around David’s house all night long. Apparently a few nights because he says they return at evening. This is the historical situation involved here for David and this night is going to be long unless David finds the proper ingredients for survival and the Holy Spirit put it on his heart to write a poem, a kind of diary how he conquered with God this night.

After giving the proper reasons for them to act against him, David wants God to “awake” (59:5b). God does not sleep because it is night, but David want God to come to his rescue. The situation is serious and immediate. Some scholars, including Hengstenberg, thought that the writing of the Psalm was after the event. Not so, for 59:18 says that “my strength, to You will I sing, for God is towering me, the God of my mercy”. After the rescue comes the singing of praises. He will do the singing “in the morning” (59:17b) and he will sing “aloud of Your mercy” (59:17b). So while he is writing, it is in agony. The threat is not over yet. At the flickering flame of the lamp he studied and wrote this Psalm. David had a developed view of eschatology. So the reason we brought up the duvet concept above, or the florilegium or flower sipping action of the bee or medley, is because David stitch in this Psalm historical narrative and eschatological events together. Eschatological knowledge is a kind of soothing medicine for his nerves, an idea that Calvin also had in mind but expressed differently because he was thinking in a presentist way as an event occurring in David’s now. It is not.

Eschaton is for the Time of the End. The “punish all nations” that David cited from one of the scrolls he was using [see the Selah or citation mark at the end of this verse] refers to the Second Coming of the Lord when nations will be punished and also a thousand years later at the Hell event when the final eradication of all evil will take place. David knew it and his source told him that. He knew on Who’s side he is on. David is looking up and here them retuning at evening again, howling like a dog, burping with their mouths and what did David do? Fear? Agony? Back to the prophecies and eschatology or last day events promises and descriptions. David says that God will [future form of the verb] laugh at them (59:9a). All the nations shall be in derision (59:9b). David knows God’s strength and “I will wait for You” (59:10a). Waiting patiently is the best way to conquer fear. “For God is my high tower” (59:b). David is a militarist and knows what safety is for a soldier. But God is his tower not this or that great nation and their modern militaries. The God of mercy will come to meet him [in the eschaton] and will let him “gaze upon my adversaries” (59:11b). It is in the eschaton and the prophets wrote about this event at the Second Coming when the saints can look over their shoulders to enemies remaining behind as they meet the Lord in the air.

David took the scroll of Moses and unrolled it to chapter 4 of the book of Deuteronomy. “slay them not ‘unless my people forget’” he read from Moses in Deuteronomy 4:9 and carefully wrote the words down. He rolled the scroll of Deuteronomy a few columns further to Deuteronomy 6:12, took his writing utensil and cited “make them wander to and fro by Your power, and bring them down” (59:12b). David felt very good. Moses knew what can happen to enemies. That is what he wishes his enemies should suffer: migration and downfall of powers. Migrations in our time are chronic and very evident and well covered around the globe by the media. The prophets like Isaiah 24 described that plaques and devastating phenomena will happen at the End of Days (Isaiah 24:1; also Joel 1:15). Great migrations will take place, Isaiah 24 says and those in the east want to stay in the west and those on the west in the east (Isaiah 24:2). There will be a worldwide leadership drain (Isaiah 24:4). “Desolation are in the city” (Isaiah 24:12). David wish this kind of scenario already in his own day.

David then closed the book of Moses and took up his own scroll at Psalm 10 and cited from 10:3-4 and 7 here in Psalm 59:13a-c. The enemies have sinned with their mouths and lips and they have pride and pride is going to keep them from heaven. Billy Graham said in a sermon extract online in Youtube in 1958 that pride is going to keep many people out of the kingdom of God. Pride was Lucifer’s problem in the Rebellion in Heaven events as one can see in Isaiah 14, Ezechiel 28 and also Patriarchs and Prophets by Ellen White. Augustine said in his book the City of God XIV. 13 that “Pride is the beginning of all sin”. Miles Smith said in a sermon preached at Worcester that “there is no sinne almost but pride doth participate with it”. The Franciscan school and Dominican School of Catholics also thought in the Renaissance period that pride was the sin of Satan. Jerome in Ezechiel Book IX, 28; Ambrose in Psalm David CVIII Expositio VII.7; John Milton in Paradise Lost 1:36-40 all talked about the role of pride. The list is much longer. Are we trying to be scholastic here? No. Ellen White is not the only one who saw the true problem of Lucifer in Heaven as pride. There is no reason to downplay her great works.

David’s enemies are cursing and David said: “and cursing and lying they will enumerate/write down” (59:13c). There are records in heaven of their deeds and all are written down what they do. David used the Selah or citation mark again.

He looked up and hear his enemies howl like a dog. They go around the city (59:15). David wrote down that his enemies are wandering up and down and they hang around all night (59:16).

David felt strength from the word of God in his soul: He ended this stitching together of texts and experiences with a confidence note: “and I, I will sing of Your strength”. He plans to sing very loud in the morning (59:17). God is his tower of his soul and his refuge on this night of distress. He will sing unto his Strength which is God and his Tower which is the God of his mercy (59:18).