Spiritual warfare has become a topic of considerable contemporary interest, but the truth is that this topic has attracted the interest of the church throughout history. We see it in what Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:11–12:
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
The church, through its whole history, has been engaged in spiritual warfare against spiritual powers that would oppose the people of God.
Spiritual Warfare Throughout History
This was expressed historically in the Heidelberg Catechism’s exposition of the sixth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. Question 127 asks, “What does the sixth petition mean?” It answers:
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil” means:
We are so weak that we cannot stand
on our own for a moment,
and our sworn enemies—
the devil, the world, and our own flesh—
never stop attacking us.
And so, Lord,
uphold us and make us strong
by the power of your Holy Spirit,
so that we may not be defeated
in this spiritual fight,
but may firmly resist our enemies
until we finally win the complete victory.
Thus, we see that spiritual warfare is something that Paul talked about, something that the Reformers talked about, and something that we’re still talking about in our day. And while it’s true that our ultimate battle is against spiritual forces, spiritual warfare often manifests itself through flesh-and-blood enemies—that is, the devil doesn’t so often directly attack us but rather indirectly attacks us, and Psalm 56 helps us to reflect on that reality.
Spiritual Warfare in Psalm 56
David wrote Psalm 56 after going through an intense episode of spiritual warfare in his own life while fleeing from Saul. In 1 Samuel 21, David, who has been anointed king by the prophet Samuel to replace Saul, is fleeing from Saul, who still has the real power. Things have gotten so difficult for David that he has decided to flee from the land of promise to the Philistines in Gath.
David clearly had to be desperate to flee to Gath, the hometown of Goliath. He had to know he would not be popular there after killing Goliath. In fact, David finds the situation in Gath so dangerous that he pretends to be insane. King Achish in Gath says to him, “Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence?” (1 Sam. 21:15). David’s ruse was succeeding, but 1 Samuel 21 tells us that David was very much afraid of the situation in which he found himself and of the enemies who opposed him—both enemies in Israel and in Philistia.
Later in his life, David writes Psalm 56 as a meditation on that experience of danger, that experience of being hunted, and that struggle he had with fear. Psalm 56 says:
Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me;
all day long an attacker oppresses me;
my enemies trample on me all day long,
for many attack me proudly.
When I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?All day long they injure my cause;
all their thoughts are against me for evil.
They stir up strife, they lurk;
they watch my steps,
as they have waited for my life.
For their crime will they escape?
In wrath cast down the peoples, O God!You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book?
Then my enemies will turn back
in the day when I call.
This I know, that God is for me.
In God, whose word I praise,
in the Lord,
whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?I must perform my vows to you, O God;
I will render thank offerings to you.
For you have delivered my soul from death,
yes, my feet from falling,
that I may walk before God
in the light of life.
We can feel David’s emotion in this psalm, this sense of opposition against him. The first thing we see is David in the fight, and that’s why he’s afraid. He sees the enemies that surround him and oppose him—his own people, Saul, and now the Philistines. They are coming after him boldly, trying to trample him, but they are also coming after him subtly. They are lurking, scheming, waiting, and watching. They are out to destroy him, and he says twice that they are after him “all the day long” (Ps. 56:1, 2). This is not a brief or occasional encounter. This is the reality that he feels he’s facing all the time.
David’s biggest foe, in a sense, is his own fear. He mentions that fear multiple times: “When I am afraid” (Ps. 56:3); “I shall not be afraid” (Ps. 56:4); “I shall not be afraid” (Ps. 56:11). He’s having a struggle with those who would frighten him, and he recognizes that his fear is not irrational or wrong. His fear is the ordinary human response to the very real struggle that he’s facing, and he’s alone in this struggle. But this is not only David’s psalm; it is Christ’s psalm.
Christ’s Spiritual Warfare and Ours
How parallel to David’s experience is much of Christ’s experience. Christ had enemies, even among His own people. He was put on trial by the priests and leaders of the religious establishment in Israel. He was also put on trial by the outsiders, by the foreign powers of Rome who actually condemned Him to death. Yet we also see a parallel to David in the fear that Christ faced.
We often may not think of Christ in terms of fear, but when He prays in Gethsemane, He says, “Let this cup pass from me” (Matt. 26:39). Why does He pray that? Not because He thinks that the cup will pass, but because He is facing the reality of the suffering He will undergo. He’s facing the real fear that the cross represents that He must undergo for His people. Christ too faced enemies and faced fear.
These things are true of us as well. Psalm 56 is echoed in Romans 8:31: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” That theme of “God for me” is where David keeps returning in Psalm 56. This is a psalm for David, and it’s a psalm for Christ, but it’s also a psalm for us.
When we face enemies, we ought not be surprised. As God’s people, it should not surprise us when we are criticized, rejected, or opposed. Psalm 56 is a great encouragement in the face of spiritual warfare, whatever that fight looks like for us. What David shows us here is that in that fight, the way to respond is with faith. One commentator notes that it’s an active decision on David’s part to oppose his fear with faith, to confront his fear with faith, and to overcome his fear with faith. That’s what we are being called to do. David did it, Jesus did it, and we’re called to do it as well—to face our fears with faith.
Facing Our Foes and Fears with Faith
What is the character of the faith we’re called to exercise according to Psalm 56? First, faith knows that God hears prayer. David is praying in this psalm, turning to God in the face of his enemies and his fears. He has confidence that God will hear his prayers. He begins, “Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me” (v. 1). At the end of the psalm, David is still praying: “You have delivered my soul from death” (v. 13). He prays for deliverance in verse 1, and he records that deliverance in verse 13. Here is David’s faith, confident that his God is a God who hears prayer.
Second, faith knows that God remembers and cares. In one of the most beautiful verses anywhere in the Scripture, David declares that God remembers him. His faith knows that God remembers him and cares for him:
You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book? (Ps. 56:8)
What a wonderful picture this is: Every struggle we experience as a Christian, every tear we shed, is not forgotten by God but rather preserved. The poetic image here is that God has a bottle where He’s gathered every tear. What an amazing thing to have a God so close to us, who so cares for us, and who is so concerned about us. God remembers. We are not abandoned in our struggle. That’s why the cry of Christ from the cross is so heartbreaking: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). The promise of Scripture over and over again is that God will not abandon us. God will not forget us. God will not forget even one tear we have shed in His service. Faith focuses on the God who remembers and cares.
Third, faith knows that God promises. One of the great things in this psalm is that David returns to the Word of God as the promises of God: “In God, whose word I praise” (Ps. 56:4, 10). Sometimes in life, we don’t experience or feel the presence of God the way we’d like. But this psalm reminds us that in those times, we can turn to His Word. We can turn to His promises. We can turn to what He has written to reassure us, and He is present with us in His Word. John Calvin, in his commentary on this psalm, says that sometimes in life, all we have is the “naked promise.” All we have is the bare promise of God. We don’t live by sight in those moments. We don’t live by feeling in those moments. We live by seeing and hearing the promise of God that reassures us and comforts us in every kind of circumstance.
Fourth and finally, faith knows that God acts. He is a deliverer:
Then my enemies will turn back
in the day when I call. (Ps. 56:9)
God not only hears prayer in terms of knowing prayers, but He is a God who answers prayers by delivering His people. That’s the point at which this psalm moves from describing the fight and detailing the faith to which we’re called to remind us of the future that is ours.
That future is one in which there will be judgment on the wicked. While judgment is not a theme that the church today particularly likes, it is a recurring theme in the Scriptures. Interestingly, judgment is the central verse in this psalm. At the very heart of the psalm is a reminder of the judgment to come:
For their crime will they escape?
In wrath cast down the peoples, O God.” (Ps. 56:7)
David knows there is a judgment coming, and that’s part of what reassures him in the midst of his struggle. God is a God of justice. He will not clear the guilty. Knowing this, David is reassured that his flight, his fight, and his troubles are not forgotten by God. God has a plan through them, and out of them will come a judgment on the wicked.
But out of the struggles will also come blessings for God’s people in the future. David has been hiding, limping, pretending to be insane. But in verse 13, he says:
For you have delivered my soul from death,
yes, my feet from falling,
that I may walk before God
in the light of life.
He sees the blessedness of God’s deliverance being a blessedness that allows him to walk. Where will he walk? Verse 12 tells us:
I must perform my vows to you, O God,
I will render thanksgiving to you.
David is going to walk to the tabernacle, to the place where God dwells. In other words, he is going to worship God, offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for His blessing upon him.
It is interesting to read Psalm 56 and note all the references to walking and to defeat. What is David’s threat at the beginning? He prays, “Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me” (Ps. 56:1). His enemies are using their feet to try to crush him. This psalm ends by saying, in effect, “Far from being crushed by their feet, God will raise me up to my feet that I might walk before Him.” Verse 8 says, “You have kept count of my tossings,” but it can also be translated as, “You have kept count of my wanderings.” In other words, David’s feet have gone all kinds of different places, and God has remembered every one of them and has been with him in every one of them.
Conclusion
In Psalm 56, God has given us a wonderful picture of one angle on spiritual warfare: Spiritual powers often manifest themselves through flesh-and-blood enemies who oppose Christ and oppose His work. In facing those enemies, it is critical that we not be overcome by fear but rather actively work to build up our faith. We do this by remembering God as the One who hears our prayers, who remembers every one of our sufferings for Him, who promises in His Word that He will be with us and will never leave us or forsake us, and who acts in history ultimately to deliver us.
Part of the joy of studying church history is seeing God’s acts of deliverance for His church over and over again. But even when we don’t see God acting to deliver His church, we know that a day is coming, a final day of judgment, when God will deliver and glorify His church, and we will all walk before the Lord in the land of the living. That is the promise and great encouragement we have from Psalm 56. So, as you face spiritual struggles and warfare, don’t lose heart. Don’t be overcome by fear. Read Psalm 56, allowing it to build up your faith that you might say again and again, “God is for me.”