I Am Your Salvation - The One Year Book of Psalms

Psalm 35:1-10

A psalm of David.

1O LORD, oppose those who oppose me.

Declare war on those who are attacking me.

2Put on your armor, and take up your shield.

Prepare for battle, and come to my aid.

3Lift up your spear and javelin

and block the way of my enemies.

Let me hear you say,

“I am your salvation!”

4Humiliate and disgrace those trying to kill me;

turn them back in confusion.

5Blow them away like chaff in the wind—

a wind sent by the angel of the LORD.

6Make their path dark and slippery,

with the angel of the LORD pursuing them.

7Although I did them no wrong,

they laid a trap for me.

Although I did them no wrong,

they dug a pit for me.

8So let sudden ruin overtake them!

Let them be caught in the snare they set for me!

Let them fall to destruction in the pit they dug for me.

9Then I will rejoice in the LORD.

I will be glad because he rescues me.

10I will praise him from the bottom of my heart:

“LORD, who can compare with you?

Who else rescues the weak and helpless from the strong?

Who else protects the poor and needy from those who want to rob them?”

Psalm 35:3 marked a turning point in the life of a young Dutch boy named Thomas Hemerken (later called À Kempis after his birthplace). In 1392 Thomas had been sent by his parents to join the Brothers of the Common Life, a devout group of believers whose message was “Turn away from sin, live like Jesus, and read God’s Word.”

Thomas thought that the Brotherhood would bring him salvation, but soon he learned that it didn’t do any good just to copy a pattern of good works. He loved the Psalms, and, like the psalmists, he struggled with his own sinfulness and the perplexities of life. Thomas wrote a book, The Soliloquy of the Soul, in which he drew on one psalm after another in his search for peace and salvation. Then he came to verses 3 and 10 of Psalm 35 and others like them. He realized he had to trust in Christ alone—and he did. Thomas’s better-known book, On the Imitation of Christ, interlaces Thomas’s meditations with more than a thousand Scripture references, including Psalm 35:3: “I am your salvation!”

The Lord is our salvation, and three things continue to testify that he has indeed saved us: the Holy Spirit (Galatians 4:6), our love for other believers (1 John 3:14), and God’s promises (John 1:12). What a difference that made for young Thomas, and what a difference it should make for you!

‘Tis everlasting peace! Sure as Jehovah’s name.

‘Tis stable as his steadfast throne for evermore the same.

I change, he changes not; for Christ can never die;

His love, not mine, the resting place; his truth, not mine, the tie.

HORATIUS BONAR

A Word on Words

“The bottom of my heart” (verse 10) is literally “all my bones.” A similar expression might be “I know it in my bones.”

Bible Networking

Note similarities and differences between this and the previous psalm. Angels are mentioned in both, and both refer to deliverance. But the mood is quite different.