Psalms 17:1-15

Psalms 1:41

Gordon Churchyard

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David Prays for Help

Psalms 17

Gordon Churchyard

Jesus said, 'Ask me for anything in my name. I will do it for you'. (John 14:14)

Psalms 17

v1 LORD, hear what I am saying to you.
What I am asking is righteous.
Listen to me when I cry.
Answer me when I pray to you.
My lips do not tell lies.

v2 I want justice from you.
I want your eyes to see what is right.

v3 You can look at the secrets of my heart.
You can *test me at night.
Though you *test me, you will find nothing (wrong).
I promise myself that my mouth will not sin.

v4 People do bad things.
The words of your mouth (have given me help).
(They) gave me help not to do bad things.

v5 I put my feet on your path.
My feet did not *trip over.

v6 God, I pray to you, because you will answer me.
Listen to me when I pray to you.

v7 Show that your great love is wonderful.
Your right hand saves the people that ask for your help.
It makes them safe from their enemies.

v8 Make me as safe as the *apple of your eye.
Hide me under the shadow of your *wings.

v9 Very bad men have attacked me.
Enemies that want to kill me are all round me.

v10 Their hearts have become hard.
They speak very proud words.

v11 They found me. They are all round me.
Their eyes are open wide.
They want to put me on the ground.

v12 They are like a hungry lion.
They are like a great lion that is *hunting for its food.

v13 LORD, get up! Stand in front of them. Knock them down.
Save me from wicked men by your sword.

v14 LORD, by your hand (take them) from the earth.
Remove them from the world. Their *reward is in this life.
You give plenty of food to the people that you love.
Their sons also have plenty.
They will give much to their children.

v15 And I, because I am righteous, I will see your face, (LORD).
It will be enough for me when I awake.
Then I will really see you.

The story of Psalms 17

Somebody wanted to kill David. It was probably King Saul. He was like a hungry lion. (verse 2) Here are some words from 1 Samuel 23:25-26. "Saul chased David in the wild country near Maon. David ran away. David was afraid of Saul. Saul and his soldiers were all round David. They were ready to kill him". What happened next? A message came to Saul. It said, 'We need you to fight the Philistines. Come and give us help'. So Saul left David and went away. God answered the words that David prayed. They are probably in Psalms 17.

What Psalms 17 means

Verses 1 – 5: David asks God to look at the secrets of his heart. These are things that people cannot see. Only God can see them. David says, 'test me' at night. Probably that was when David was by himself. David says that he will not tell lies to God. Some of Psalms 17 is very difficult to translate. We have put some words in () to give you help. The words in () probably tell us what David meant.

Verses 6 – 8: Here are some wonderful Bible words. 'Great love' is 'chesed' in Hebrew. It means that God loves us and is kind to us. We are the 'apple of God's eye'. This means that people that hurt us also hurt God. We are special to God. Also, as a bird hides baby birds under its wing, so God hides us! We hide under his wings, like baby birds. The right hand of God here means what God does on earth.

Verses 9 – 12: David now tells God about his enemies. Really, they are the enemies of God as well. They want to knock David on to the ground. Then they want to kill him. Psalms 17:10 says, 'Their hearts have become hard'. We are not sure what this means. Perhaps it means that they will not change their minds.

Verses 13 – 14: David tells God what he wants. He wants God to kill his enemies and to save David. That is what 'remove them from the world' means. They will get nothing in the next world. This is because 'their reward is in this life'. We learn that David did not want to kill his enemies. Though it is hard to believe sometimes, God does care for his own people.

Verse 15: This is a wonderful part of the psalm. It tells us that David believes that he is righteous. He also believes that he will rise from the dead. 'When I awake' means 'awake from the sleep of death'. That is when David would see God.

Something to do

Ask God to make you righteous. This means that:

• you tell God that you are sorry that you broke his rules

• you ask God to forgive you (forgive means that God gives your sins to Jesus who takes them away)

• you ask God to make you a new person (this means that he gives to you his Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is another name for God)

• you try to keep all God's rules; the Holy Spirit will give you help to do this. Then, when you die, you will see God. You will live with him for ever. Look at the end of Psalms 5 to find what "righteous" means.

test ~ give someone an exam'trip over ~ hit something with your feet and fall over
apple ~ a fruit; the 'apple of the eye' is the part of the eye that hurts a lot when somebody touches it
wings ~ the arms of a bird; it uses them to fly with
hunting ~ looking for something to eat
reward ~ what you give somebody for doing something good