26. Rescuer

God in the Psalms No.26

Psa 17:13 Rise up, O LORD, confront them, bring them down; rescue me from the wicked by your sword.

In this verse we see a very different aspect of the Lord – One who acts against His enemies and does something about them! But we must take it piece by piece.

David starts with this call to the Lord to “Rise Up”. This has two aspects to it: first that the Lord is in a place of rest as he rules, and second there is a need to move to bring change. This is a common call:

Psa 3:7  “Arise, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God!” One thing precedes the other by necessity.

Psa 7:6 “Arise, O LORD, in your anger; rise up against the rage of my enemies. Awake, my God; decree justice.” There is a double call implying the same thing.

sa 9:19 “Arise, O LORD, let not man triumph” There it’s a case of rise up to take action to stop something.

Psa 10:12 “Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God”. There it’s rise up so that you can act. In every case it is a call to the Lord to change from a state of inactivity to a place of action.

In our verse here, the call is to come from a position of inactivity to face up the people David is concerned about (the wicked) with their wrongs and then to bring them down so that they will  no longer prevail over David or dominate him.  Again this idea of the wicked being brought down is a common one:

Psa 36:12 “See how the evildoers lie fallen– thrown down, not able to rise!”

Psa 52:5, speaking of the wicked, “Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin”

Psa 55:22,23 “he will never let the righteous fall. But you, O God, will bring down the wicked” There are many more similar references.

The picture that is conveyed is of the wicked who are full of pride and think they are in a strong and secure position as they carry on their wicked acts. It’s like they think they are in a high unassailable position and they impose harm on others and appear to be getting away with it.  Thus we look at well known figures in the news and wonder how long they will get away which is clearly unrighteousness. From our hearts must come a similar cry, which is the cry of righteousness – bring them down Lord, pull them down from their high place of scorning you, your laws and indeed, scorning goodness, bring them down. It is a righteous cry because they are offending God and they are offending justice and they are offending the weak and the good. They continue to harm God’s world by what they say and do. It is right that we cry for their downfall. Now that may include, hopefully, them turning to the Lord in repentance and receiving a new life, but if they won’t they need stopping because they are not only doing harm, they are leading others astray.

But there is a simple, central truth here that sometimes those of us who are Christians question:  God does deal with the wicked! David knew it, experienced it and now asked for it. God DOES act into His world and He does bring discipline and judgment upon those who flout His design for His world. The Lord does not just sit back and let people get away with it. If He does He is doing it for a purpose and because He wants to use people to achieve His ends and that means taking time of He is not to offend the right He’s given them of sovereignty of will. It may take time and, indeed, it may be the other side of the grace on occasion, but the Lord WILL deal with the unrighteous and the wicked and the evil of this world. Establish that clearly in your belief system!