4.30.2025 Prayer Room – Psalm 54

PSALM 52

David wrote this Psalm in response to 1 Samuel 22, when Doeg told Saul of David’s presence at the tabernacle of God and the priests there that were helping David. In an act of evil and paranoia, Saul instructed Doeg to kill the priests and others at the tabernacle.

1 Why boast about evil, you hero! God’s faithful love is constant.

2 Like a sharpened razor, your tongue devises destruction, working treachery.

3 You love evil instead of good, lying instead of speaking truthfully.

4 You love any words that destroy, you treacherous tongue!

5 This is why God will bring you down forever. He will take you, ripping you out of your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living.

6 The righteous will see and fear, and they will derisively say about that hero,

7 “Here is the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, taking refuge in his destructive behavior.”

8 But I am like a flourishing olive tree in the house of God; I trust in God’s faithful love forever and ever.

9 I will praise you forever for what you have done. In the presence of your faithful people,I will put my hope in your name, for it is good.

HEAR:

Listen to the Holy Spirit and pray. Specifically think about: 

• Repent of the ways you boast in your life that do not reflect God (v.1). One commentary says it like this, “The thought conveyed in this Hebrew word is not necessarily that of a person strutting around making extravagant claims to others about his or her abilities. Rather it is that of a smug self-sufficiency that does not parade itself openly simply because it is so convinced of its superiority.”

• Consider how you are putting your trust in the riches of this world instead of the abundance of God (v.7).

• Remember God’s goodness and reflect on ways His steadfast love has been faithful to you (v.1,9).

RESPOND:

Respond to God in prayer:

• Praise Jesus that because of His life, death, and resurrection, evil and death does not have a hold over us.

• Ask the Holy Spirit to tame our tongue, that we would speak in love and in kindness (v.4)

• Pray that we would be like an olive tree – resilient in the waverings of this world (v8).

• Ask the Holy Spirit for endurance and protection for believers in this city, that we would not fall in love with evil more than good.