David Was Hiding

Meaning in Psalm 54

Alfred D. Byrd

FLEEING from Saul to life in exile,
David was hiding in hills of Judah.
Surely, he thought, my homeland is safe.
The people of Ziph, however, betrayed him.
David, they said, is hiding with us.
The king set out in pursuit of a man
Whom he thought a foe that sought his throne,
But who was in truth devoted to him
As the one anointed by God as ruler.
Only reports of war in the west
Kept him from hounding David to death.
Embittered, David hid out in caves
And told our God of anger and hurt.

"Neighbors, my God, have acted like strangers
Seeking advantage from selling my life.
To gain the ear of a king gone mad,
They've betrayed a man who'd been their friend.
They've set aside the law that You gave:
'Each person embodies an image of God;
The blood of humans cries out for judgment;
Bloodshed for bloodshed maintains a balance.'

"Save me, my God, through the might of Your Name:
The One Who Is is the One who can
Deliver the weak from the hand of the strong.
My Master, my Helper, protect my soul
By paying evil to workers of evil.
Darkness will fall on their ways of death.
When I see Your justice prevail in my life
As the foes of the truth go down to their death,
I'll load Your altar with gifts of praise
To show my love for the One Who is good."

(TO THOSE of us who follow a way,
The Law of Love, much later than David's,
Calling for death for our foes is wrong.
"Give good in exchange for evil," God says.
We must pray for God to open their hearts
To the light of the truth that is life for all.
When they turn from darkness to seek the light,
Their evil will die; their lives will begin.
Transformed by love, they'll now have become
Our brothers, our sisters — new lives in our God.)

If this poem spoke to you, you may enjoy my Biblical epic poems

A Song of the One, the age-old account of Creatlon, Fall, Redemption, and Glory retold in verse for a new millennium, and

The Stars Bow Down: An Epic of Joseph, the timeless tale of a favorite son whose brothers sold him into slavery, but whom God raised from a prison to save the known world from famine.