The Cry of the Hunted

This Psalm is in its proper place, and so perfectly follows Psalm 139 that one can read through making no break between the two. 

Psalm 140 is the cry of the hunted, the plea of a believer, who is constantly being persecuted and plotted against by cunning enemies intent on destruction for any who stand in their way of receiving what they desire.
David was being hunted like a deer on the mountains, and seldom obtained a moment's rest.
This may have been the time in 1 Samuel 22 when Saul and Doeg were pursuing David. David was on the run. King Saul, now possessed by an evil spirit, was after him. In his escape, he stops for food at Nob, where the Ark resided in the ancient tabernacle. Ahimilech was priest on duty. David asked for bread. In a historic move about which Jesus later would comment, Ahimilech gave him the loaves of the consecrated bread that sat that week on the table in the Holy Place.
But David also needed a weapon. He had left with none at all. “Is there not a spear or a sword on hand?” Lying behind the ephod, a special priestly garment, was the spear of Goliath himself. “There is none like it; give it to me.” And why wouldn’t it be given to David, the one who killed Goliath a short time before?
Nestled in the fascinating story are these foreboding words, “Now one of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul’s shepherds.”
Though Doeg was on King Saul’s staff as chief shepherd, he was obviously a traitor to his own people. Israel and Edom were currently enemies (1 Sam 14:47). The statement, “detained by the Lord” does not invoke further confidence in him either. It hints of Doeg’s true devotion - for his heart was far from God. It speaks of his feigned religiosity among his adopted people.
Move ahead to the tamarisk tree where King Saul sat with his own spear in his hand. With his servants around him he complained: “All of you have conspired against me . . . there is none of you who is sorry for me.” He openly griped about the covenant between David and Jonathan, his son, that had recently come to light, which fueled even more jealousy and hatred toward David.
Then Doeg speaks up, a man ready with an inside word. “I saw the son of Jesse [David) coming to Nob, to Ahimelech . . . . He inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.”
That was all it took. Ahimilech the priest was summoned immediately by Saul, and he dutifully came with his entire household—a large number of fellow priests. In a moment he was tried and condemned to die, though he was an innocent man. But no servant of the King would do Saul’s bidding, indicating that they were afraid to kill God’s anointed priests or that they privately had sympathies for David.
But one man will do it: Doeg because he was after Saul's own heart not God's.
Doeg killed 85 priests that day, and “he struck Nob the city of the priests with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and infants; also oxen, donkeys, and sheep he struck with the edge of the sword.” Only a Doeg could be so thorough.
This episode ends when one priest, who had escaped, reports the slaughter to David. David’s reply is sobering:
“I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have brought about the death of every person in your father’s household.”


David knew that an insecure person, who is very needy, can be very dangerous. They will do anything to find favor and acceptance with those they deem to be important; it includes 'selling out' family, friends and alliances. They lack the ability to accept responsibility for their destructive words or actions - they either lie to cover up, blame someone else or conveniently forget what they have said or done.
David wrote Psalm 139 & 140 as a sacrifice of prayer to offer his salt of faith. In a very pronounced and emphatic tone, he expresses his personal confidence in the LORD as the Protector of the oppressed - as his own God and Defender. Few Psalms are so rich in the paragon of precious faith.

This Psalm instructs me that the more insecure, dangerous people intertwine into my daily life (whether personally or professionally), the more earnest I should be in prayer to God. I am safe because the LORD protects His own. If HE is for me, who can be against me? I should especially watch and pray, that the Lord would hold up my goings in HiS ways, that my footsteps do not slip.
God is as able to keep His own from secret fraud as from open force. The experiences we have had in His power and care, in dangers of any kind, may encourage us to depend upon Him when dangerous, insecure people threaten us.


Created 6 months ago