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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hi there, and welcome to another Wednesday Prayer through this Alms episode of the Praying Christian Women podcast. I'm Jamie Hampton, and today we are going to pray through talk about Psalm fifty nine and this is a prayer for deliverance from enemies. So whereas last week and Psalm fifty eight we talked about a Psalm where David kind of prayed for God to bring calamity on his enemies and disarm them or you know, remove their ability to inflict pain and punishment, this one is more a personal refuge. It's more of a you know, protect me, take me out of this situation, give me refuge and declaration of God's protection. So, yeah, this is a really good one. Let's pray before we get into reading God's word. Father, we just thank you for God's word. We thank you for David for his honesty for recording these words, these beautiful, poetic words of faith and strength even in the most dire, most difficult circumstances. We just pray that you would help us in our own situations as we see enemies lie in wait around us, that we would not be fearful, that we would be confident and sure of whose we are and who we are because of the blood of Jesus. Thank you for your protection, Thank you for your love. Thank you that you are on the throne and at work no matter what, even when we can't see it, even when the wicked seem to prosper, even when aros are being shot at us from all directions. But you are the God who discis the enemy. You are the God who shields and protects. And you are the God who takes what the enemy is intended for evil and redeems it for your good purposes, for your glory, and for the good of those who love you, who are called according to those good purposes. Amen. All right, Let's read Psalm fifty nine from the Nasby nineteen ninety five, prayer for deliverance from enemies for the choir director set to al tash heeth, which is again, do not destroy. It's that same tune that we heard in Psalm fifty eight. It's another mick tom of David, which is the type of poem that it is. And this happened around first Samuel nineteen eleven describes when this happened. This is when Saul sent men and they watched the house in order to kill him very specific instance. So Saul was after David, and basically David was surrounded by enemies. And an interesting thing this reminded me of when I went to Kenya right after college. I worked for a few months and then I ended up going to Kenya on a mission trip for two months. And after the mission trip, on the tail end of it, I took I went on a safari just to see the country. I went to Kenya. On the trip, I went to a the Masai Mara game preserve and we watched some Massi people doing some of the traditional Massai dances around the fire, kind of talking about some of the different rituals they had, like hunting rituals, where one of the dances they did they would mimic with the ions do when they hunt. And apparently the lions will get in like kind of a circle around their prey and they will grunt back and forth at each other kind of to communicate, and their grunting gets closer and closer together as they kind of come in circle in on their prey. They're kind of communica almost like echo location, I guess, kind of back and forth, back and forth, like to let each other know where they are. So they kind of one of their dances mimicked that sound and the way that they did that, and it was very it was amazing, It was it was very neat to see that. But in the middle of the night in my tent, which by the way, I went on the budget safari because I didn't have money for the like, you know, really nice safari in the building, so I went on the tent safari where I was in a soft sided tent. Our guards carried spears, not automatic weapons, to defend us should there be a problem, and so we were feeling a little bit vulnerable. But you know, we went to sleep with my friend Cynthia and me were in the same tent. So we went to sleep and at some point at night I woke up and I heard what I would bet my life on right now as the lion. It was lions, and they were doing that sound. And so it could have been someone pulling a very convincing prank on a very uneducated person from the United States. I don't know. It sounded like actual lions. It did not sound like the dance where they kind of mimicked what the lions were doing. It sounded like the actual lions, and I woke my tent mate up and I told her, I think these are I think I hear lions, and we listened and she agreed, she thought that's what it was too, and we prayed and we opened Scripture, and like, I just remember this feeling, and it's the only time that I physically felt this way that I had enemies surrounding me, and I mean, what's a tent going to do? Like we literally discussed what we would do if we heard them getting closer because our beds had like a hollow side. We had two like kind of caught things, but they had a wooden frame, and so we looked. We figured out that we could hide under the wooden frame and be protected. Who knows what was under the wooden frame. But at that point, my fear of insects or whatever, like spiders totally wasn't even an issue when I'm thinking of saving my life. So we really felt kind of surrounded by enemies. So I'm just taking that mindset of just pure terror and fear of the unknown, and I'm putting myself in David's situation, and he's saying, deliver me from my enemies. Oh my God, set me securely on high, away from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from those who do iniquity, and save me from men of bloodshed. For behold, they have set an ambush for my life. Fierce men launch an attack against me. Not for my transgression, nor for my sin, o Lord, for no guilt of mine. They run and set themselves against me. Arouse yourself up to help me. And see you, o Lord, God of Hosts, the God of Israel, awake to punish all the nations. Do not be gracious to any who are treacherous in iniquity. Selah. They return at evening. They howl like a dog, or in my case, they grunt like a lion, and go around the city. Behold, they belch forth with their mouth. Swords are in their lips, For they say, who hears? But you, o Lord, laugh at them, You scoff at all the nations because of his strength. Some ancient versions read my strength. Because of my strength, I will watch for you. For God is my strong hold. My God, and his loving kindness will meet me. God will let me look triumphantly upon my foes. Do not slay them, or my people will forget. Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, O Lord, our shield, on account of the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips. Let them even be caught in their pride, and on account of curses and lies which they utter. Destroy them in wrath, Destroy them that they may be no more, that men may know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the earth, saylah. They return at evening. They howl like a dog and go around the city. They wander about for food and growl if they are not satisfied. But as for me, I shall sing of your strength. Yes, I shall joyfully sing of your loving kindness in the morning, for you have been my stronghold and a refuge in the day of my distress. Oh, my strength, I will sing praises to you, for God is my stronghold, the God who shows me loving kindness. So this is more of a psalm. I mean, there's a little bit of imprecatory leanings here where he's talking about two different things. First, he says, don't kill them, don't put them to death, scatter them so they will bear testimony of your greatness and their defeat. But then later he talks about destroy them so that they will be no more that men may know that God rules. In Jacob to the Ends of the Earth, he talks a lot about them returning in the evening howling, and it talks about them, you know, like kind of foraging for food, and then they come and they circle around. I wonder if this kind of happened, if they surrounded him at night, so he didn't try to escape in the nighttime or something, but he was being oppressed by enemies. And as usual, David begins with stating his situation. He talks about how he is guiltless in terms of why they're coming after him. Obviously he's a sinful human, but he hasn't done anything to reap the consequences of this oppression and persecution. And I just wonder, in your life right now, is there a situation where you know, if you're feeling surrounded, maybe you're facing spiritual opposition, and it's for nothing bad that you've done that it's come upon you. It's maybe even something good that you've done. Maybe you're making progress in your relationship with God, maybe you're embarking on a new ministry, or maybe you're doing something where you just feel like you're being a target and you've got targets on your back. Or maybe it's a situation where you're being persecuted in some way for your faith or just for no good reason. And if that's the case, I think we can look at this and just glean hope. Because David is literally being surrounded by enemies who want to take his life, and yet he has the presence of mind and the faith to say, as for me, even though all of this is going on, he talks about them cursing and lying and speaking lies against him and sitting and lying in wait to destroy him literally bodily. But as for me, I will sing of your strength. And we know David was a musical person because the Bible talks about how wasn't it the liar that he played? He played an instrument to soothe Saul when they were on good terms. He sang, I'm guessing because he was a composer of music, and probably saying so, but as for me, I will sing of your strength. Yes, I shall joyfully sing of your loving kindness in the morning. So that's after waiting all night, as they surrounded him in the evening like jack bulls, and even though I'm guessing he probably didn't sleep at night. He would sing of your loving kindness in the morning, for you have been my stronghold and a refuge in the day of my distress. He was not physically in a place of refuge. They could have invaded, They could have come in to wherever it was that he was. They were surrounding him in the house. They were watching him in order to kill him. But God is this fortress. So when I was in my tent with the lion sounds around me, I would have loved to have had like a huge platform or fortress to be in. I would have loved not to have been on the budget safari. I can't tell you how many times I thought, why didn't I just ask for money from my parents to go on the more expensive safari so I could be by like what I wouldn't give for a door and a building. I really did feel that way. But David just says, you have been my stronghold. And that night God was my strong We cried out to him. He was our only protection and a refuge in the day of my distress. Oh my strength, I will sing praises to you, for God is my stronghold, the God who shows me loving kindness, and my prayer for you if you are finding yourself in a situation where you're being oppressed or persecuted, or lied about, or feel like you have enemies surrounding you, my prayer is that you will have the strength and just the ability to sing God's praises. I think sometimes we have to start singing before our heart catches up and before our mind catches up. We have to make the conscious decision to sing His praises for me personally, because I love music, I feel like singing, actually literally singing his praises, putting on praise and worship music and just belting it out, or reading psalms and speaking the words out loud, or just speaking truth. God. Even though I'm in this position, you are good. You are still on the throne. Even if you can't give thanks for anything in your circumstances, you can thank God for being who he is, and you can declare you are my stronghold. You are my fortress. Even though I have these flimsy tent panels that couldn't withstand the jaws and the talons of a lion, You are my fortress and my stronghold. Thank you. I declare it is truth. Let it be so. Let's pray, Father God. We just declare that you are our fortress and our stronghold. When we are surrounded by enemies, when people literally lie in wait to catch us, to destroy us, to set traps for us, to speak lies against us, to sabotage our good plans, to turn people against us. No matter what, you are our stronghold and our fortress, and you show us loving kindness, Oh my strength, I sing praises to you today. We will sing of your goodness and your love and your mercy. We will declare you as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, our present help in time of trouble, the one who lifts us up out of the myrie pit and sets our feet on solid ground, our fortress, our stronghold, in times of trouble, our rescue. You are on the throne in the midst of all of it. And we thank you for it. God, Thank you. Amen. We'd like to take just a quick second to thank the team at life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast. If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and so much more. That's lifeaudio dot com.