Psalm 54: God Is My Helper

"Save me, O God, by thy name, and judge me by thy strength. Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth. For strangers are risen up against me, and oppressors seek after my soul: they have not set God before them. Selah."

"Behold, God is mine helper: the Lord is with them that uphold my soul. He shall reward evil unto mine enemies: cut them off in thy truth. I will freely sacrifice unto thee: I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good. For he hath delivered me out of all trouble: and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies."

Ziph

Ziph is identified with Tell Zif, south-east of Hebron, on the edge of the Judean wilderness that falls away to the Dead Sea (pictured). 1 Samuel 23:19–24 and 26:1 tell how the people of Ziph twice reported David's hiding place to Saul. The "strangers" (zarim) of the psalm would then be fellow Judeans acting like foreigners.

A model lament in seven verses

Address and plea (vv. 1–2), complaint (3), confidence (4–5), vow (6), and the deliverance spoken of as already done (7). The short psalm shows the whole pattern of a lament in miniature.

Framed by the name

The psalm opens "Save me, O God, by thy name" and closes "I will praise thy name, O LORD; for it is good." The name of God, the means of rescue at the start, becomes the object of praise at the end. In this Elohistic psalm the divine name YHWH appears only once, in that closing line. No New Testament writer quotes Psalm 54.

The heading

"To the chief Musician on Neginoth (stringed instruments), Maschil, A Psalm of David, when the Ziphims came…" Two verses in the library's Hebrew; the Vulgate also gives the heading two verses ("cum venissent Ziphaei, et dixissent ad Saul"). Verse 3 is close to Psalm 86:14 ("strangers" there is "the proud," zedim, which differs from zarim by one letter). The heading's setting is traditional.