From Glory To Glory: The Story Of Christ In Psalms 15–24 (Part 5)—Psalm 17 And Satisfaction With The Sight Of God

by on August 23, 2025 | Comment

“Keep your eye on the prize.” “Don’t take your eye off the ball.” We say these sorts of things for situations when we know that focus is extremely important. We miss hitting the ball when we are looking elsewhere than the pitch line. If we want to achieve our goals, we cannot get distracted. To see the other side of our circumstances, we need to lock onto the end result that we want and not let ourselves get pulled away from the course to get there.

Sometimes, that focus is harder to maintain than others. In baseball, we get the chatter from the outfield. That distraction might easily be set aside. Other times, the stakes are higher, the challenges are harder, and the distractions are more powerful. It is in those seasons that we have to know what is most worthy of our attention.

Psalm 17 is about keeping our focus in the right place even when distress would pull our attention elsewhere. Psalm 17 is about trusting God amid suffering.[1] Its main point, as we will see in this article and the next, is that God defends those who belong to him.

Rescue Needed

This series has explored how Psalms 15–24 build an increasing case about the pursuit of God’s presence. They remind us that the highest purpose we have is to know God and to pursue entry into his house.

A running theme in these psalms which began in Psalm 15 has been stability. Although we put it in different terms in English, the Hebrews word (מוט) appears throughout these psalms to declare that we will not be shaken when we are on course with God.[2] In Psalm 15:5, the psalmist says, “The one who does these things shall forever not be shaken (יִמּוֹט)” (my translation). This teaching is one piece of the psalmist’s case in Psalm 15:1–5 that the one who gets to come into God’s presence is the righteous one. In this case, the one who has fulfilled the law’s criteria of righteousness gets to enter God’s tent and climb the holy mountain.

Psalm 16 furthers the point by reminding us that God is the ultimate cause behind our stability. The psalmist says in verse 8: “Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken (אֶמּוֹט).” The psalmist’s confidence as stated here grows out of his contrast between the repercussions for the wicked and the righteous. In verse 4, those who chase wickedness reap sorrow. By contrast, in verses 5–8, those who choose the Lord as their portion know this stability.

Psalm 17 applies the idea as the psalmist asks God to examine him and to side with him against his enemies. He says in verse 5: “My steps hold fast in your paths, my feet have not been shaken (נָמוֹטּוּ).” Having cried for God to hear his cause and to vindicate him, the psalmist in verses 3–5 states his confidence that God would find him in the right, having unshaken footsteps. So, he expects God to vindicate him.

Psalm 17 intensifies the point that God’s presence is truly our only hope. Whereas Psalm 16 began with a perception of danger, Psalm 17 presents a situation pressed hard by danger.[3] The danger comes near enough that the Lord needs to weigh this contest between the psalmist and his enemies.

The Psalter is for our instruction—namely, as it teaches us about the law and the gospel. It shows us that God’s king must be the centerpiece among God’s people because lawbreakers can find refuge, forgiveness, and help. These songs instruct us in the godly response to the full spectrum of experience and emotion that we encounter in the Christian life. Psalm 17 is about the godly response when all the chips are down, but we know where our trust belongs.

Psalm 17 then points to the right response when we need rescue. It trains us how to pray when trouble is not just in sight but upon us.

Rest

Psalm 17 falls into three parts, each beginning with a petition for the Lord’s help.[4] The first is in verse 1: “Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!” The second is in verse 6: “I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God; incline your ear to me; hear my words.” The third is in verse 13: “Arise, O Lord! Confront him, subdue him!” These three petitions introduce each major section.

Each of the three petitions is a call for God to act. It is a summons to the Lord that one of his people needs him. Following each petition is a rationale for God to come to the psalmist’s aid. In each case, David appealed to the difference between him and the wicked who are after him. John Calvin explained, “By this form of prayer the Holy Spirit teaches us, that we ought diligently to endeavour to live an upright and innocent life, so that, if there are any who give us trouble, we may be able to boast that we are blamed and persecuted wrongfully.”[5] Calvin sees here an injunction to live well so that we might pray without reservation for God’s protection.

It calls us to consider ourselves in our trials as those who give ourselves to seek after the Lord when things are good and when things are bad. It asks us: Do we pursue holiness because it is the right thing to do or because we think God will help us if we are better people?

David can pray this way, not because he is perfect, but because he belongs to God.[6] His pattern of life shows where his allegiance is. And even in distress, he knows that God’s presence is the highest need that he has. Even in distress, David knew that his trust was rightly placed in God and his ability to protect his people. Rest is available despite distress because of God’s help.

So, we see Psalm 17 as a training ground for prayer amidst our trials. It gives us ways to cry out to God when the stakes against us are at their worst. It pushes us to pursue Christ with faithfulness so that we might come before the Lord unburdened as we seek his help. It ultimately reminds us that our trials cannot undermine real satisfaction: “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Ps 17:15).

Notes

  1. Carissa Quinn, The Arrival of the King: The Shape and Story of Psalms 15–24, Studies in Scripture and Biblical Theology (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2023), 84.
  2. Christopher Ash, The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary, 4 vol. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024), 2:177; Quinn, Arrival of the King, 84–85.
  3. Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms, 3 vol. (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic Press, 2011–16), 1:418.
  4. Quinn, Arrival of the King, 87–92.
  5. John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, 22 vol. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009), 4.2:236
  6. James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, 2 vol., Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2021), 1:228.

© Harrison Perkins. All Rights Reserved.

You can find this whole series here.

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