Bible Commentaries

Psalm 17

The Prayer of Christ Against the Enemy

1. The Righteous Intercessor (Psalms 17:1-5)

2. Prayer for deliverance (Psalms 17:6-12)

3. The deliverance (Psalms 17:13-15)

Psalms 17:1-5. This Psalm is blessedly linked with the foregoing one. We hear Christ interceding for the saints in whom is His delight (16:3). He pleads His own perfection. He is righteous; His prayer does not come from feigned lips. Not David, but Christ alone could truly say, “Thou hast proved my heart; Thou hast visited me in the night; Thou hast tried me. Thou findest nothing.” By the Word of God He had walked and was kept from the paths of the destroyer. What a grand testimony to inspiration we have in verse 4 when the Spirit of Christ declares beforehand that Christ would walk in obedience to the Word and that Word is called here “the Word of Thy lips,” which came from the mouth and heart of God.

Psalms 17:6-12. It is a marvellous prayer for His own with whom He so perfectly identifies Himself. The seventh verse is the key, for He prays, “Show Thy marvellous loving-kindness, delivering those who put their trust in Thee by Thy right hand from those rising up against them.” He pleads for His beloved saints that they may be kept as the apple of the eye, and hidden under the shadow of His wings. He speaks as for Himself, but it is for the saints, those that trust God, and God hears Him and answers. The enemy threatens His people on earth and therefore we find the plural in verse 11, “they have now compassed us in our steps.”

Psalms 17:13-15. The final prayer is to the Lord to arise and to rescue His suffering people from the wicked one, who is the sword in the hand of the Lord. Then when the Lord ariseth His people will behold His face in righteousness and in awakening shall be satisfied with His likeness. Oh, blessed Hope! which is ours too, when shall it be!