For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Psalm 56

1 Be merciful to me, my God,
    for my enemies are in hot pursuit;
    all day long they press their attack.
2 My adversaries pursue me all day long;
    in their pride many are attacking me.

3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
4     In God, whose word I praise –
in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can mere mortals do to me?

5 All day long they twist my words;
    all their schemes are for my ruin.
6 They conspire, they lurk,
    they watch my steps,
    hoping to take my life.
7 Because of their wickedness do not let them escape;
    in your anger, God, bring the nations down.

8 Record my misery;
    list my tears on your scroll –
    are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will turn back
    when I call for help.
    By this I will know that God is for me.

10 In God, whose word I praise,
    in the Lord, whose word I praise –
11 in God I trust and am not afraid.
    What can man do to me?

12 I am under vows to you, my God;
    I will present my thank-offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered me from death
    and my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before God
    in the light of life.

A. Find Out:

1. What had been happening to David? v.1,2
2. How further did he describe what they were doing? v.5,6 
3. What did David say he would do? v.3,4,11
4. What did he feel about God’s word? v.4,10
5. What did he ask the Lord to do? v.1a,7,8
6. What did he say he would do? v.12

B. Think:

1. Read 1 Sam 21:10-15. What phase of David’s life is shown there?
2. What did David feel about his life at that time?
3. What kept him?

C. Comment:

The note at the top of the psalm indicates he wrote this psalm at a time when he was on the run from Saul and had to flee to the Philistines, the enemy! Yet the enemy distrusted him and many of them wanted to kill him. Without doubt this was a time when David’s life was under threat from every direction. Yet he was the Lord’s anointed (see 1 Sam 16:1,13), so why was this all happening to him? Why was God allowing this? The answer comes in this psalm.

Three times in this psalm David declares his trust in God. It’s easy to say you trust in God, but it’s only when you go through difficult circumstances that the truth of that really comes through. When things are going well, when you have plenty of money and plenty of friends, and you have good health and the future looks good, it’s easy then to say “I trust in God”, but what about when the opposite happens? How do we react when money is very short, when friends have drawn back from you, your health is breaking down and you worry about the future? Yet it is in these circumstances that our trust in God is proved to be genuine entire trust in Him alone

D. Application:

1. When trying circumstances hit your life do you complain or cry to God? They are there to draw you closer to Him.
2. We can trust God because of His word, what he has promised and because of what He has done already. Consider those things.