Psalm 17: What It Means To Know God

In Psalm 17, David is like a wounded animal. Predators have tracked him down and are now circling to finish him off. And as the inevitable seems to draw near, as the ravenous beasts close in for the kill, we don’t find him pleading for his life. You would think that now would be the time for frantic cries for help but what we find instead is that David is at peace. The moment where the pitiless predators are about to strike the deathblow is the moment for God to bring his deliverance. At the height of tension in the psalm, David says, almost resolutely:

Rise up, O LORD, confront them, overthrow them! By your sword deliver my life from the wicked^[1]Ps. 17v13

How can David be so serene in the face of such dire circumstances? He knows the Lord. He invites the Lord to test him, to see that there is no wickedness in him, to see that he has held fast to the ways and commandments of the Lord. David is not declaring that he has earned the right to have God rule in his favor, far from it. What he is demonstrating by reading off his own resume is rather that he knows that God is a refuge for those who seek him and he is just to the weak and needy. He is saying, here, he knows God to be a God who wondrously shows his steadfast love^[2]Ps. 17v6 by rescuing those at the brink of the grave. His recalling his own life with the Lord shows that he has been walking with the Lord in such a way that he knows the Lord deeply and has a deep-seated understanding of his commandments.

David, with his wounds bared to the unforgiving beasts, can display confidence because he has walked with the Lord through many seasons. He stands in the face of his tormenters, confident that the Lord will never fail him. And in this moment, theology takes on its truest form, not Cartesian knowledge, something you know with your head.  But rather, a truth where head, heart, body, and soul collide.  This is what it really means to know God.