If Psalm 58 is an indictment of corrupt judges sitting in a courtroom, Psalm 59 takes us directly to the streets. It is an intense, fast-paced prayer of survival written when King Saul sent assassins to watch David’s house in order to kill him in the morning (1 Samuel 19).
v.4: Awake - It's interesting that we can pray like that, without being mistaken as if we think God is sleeping, for Psalm 121 explicitly tells us that He who keeps Israel "will neither slumber nor sleep." Here, David is entering a legal plea: "Lord, examine my innocence!"
As a side note, I prompted the question to pastor Ragusa of MeRF regarding how David succeeded where we fail, as in David held on to God's promise for him to be king (I alluded to the fact that GCC's pastor Chris once implied that David should not be king because man should not rule over other men, only Jesus is King), while if we were in David's shoes, we Christians today would generally say, oh wow, this challenge is too great, it must not be what God wanted, maybe I heard wrong, let's forget about becoming a king and just live a peaceful shepherd's life in a farm. The response I got was some misunderstanding about David ought not to be king using his own means using earthly means, or that whether one is serving God in jobs without going directly into ministries. I am beginning to wonder how Western Seminaries train these preachers. That they could only do textbook answers with the Bible, they cannot provide living answers from a living Bible. AI really speeds up the research process: These pastors did not get the discernment of rule vs. servant leadership (stewardship, rather than domination). So we are meant to be kings and kings are not about ruling over other men. The misunderstanding of this is simply escapism masked as piety. The presence of an obstacle does not mean the absence of God's calling.
v.6, 7, 14, 16: The contrasts of nighttime plotting and Morning praise to God.
The Redemptive-Historical Connection:
[ The Night of Terror ] [ The Morning of Deliverance ]
Assassins surround David's house. ───► The sun rises, the trap fails, David sings.
Soldiers guard Jesus' tomb. ───► The stone rolls away, death is defeated, Christ rises.
v.6 vs. v.14 refrain - David repeats the dog metaphor, but with a massive shift in tone. The first time, the dogs were terrifying stalkers. This time, it is a statement of their pathetic destiny: “Each evening they return, howling like dogs... They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill.” They are reduced from lethal hunters to miserable, starving scavengers.
v.7-8: They think God knows not, the assassins snarling in the shadows, but God is watching them and laughing from His throne.