David’s Psalm starts out like he is on top of the world. Only when we read the brief comments written above the words of the Psalm do we understand that David was not flipping out some nice religious cliché at the beginning of this Psalm. Prior to writing this Hebrew poem and song, David had made a mess of things. It started when he was running for his life from Saul and he ducked into Philistine territory to hide.
When he was discovered hiding among his enemies (don’t forget David killed their hero, Goliath) he was brought before King Achish (it says Abimelech but that was a title similar to Pharaoh and Caesar). Instead of calling on the Lord to save him, he took matters into his own hands and decided to save himself by acting insane in the King’s presence. Me thinks that has a familiar ring to it! I too have done similar things in my desperation.
Notice that David now recognizes his sin by the way he starts this Psalm. He says, “I will extol the Lord AT ALL TIMES; his praise will always be on my lips.” In essence, David is saying, I won’t be making that mistake again. I will always keep my focus on the Lord not on my circumstances.
We too need to keep our focus on the Lord, no matter what difficult circumstance we are in. When we boast in the Lord, we not only experience His salvation, we will draw others to the same conclusion. When we exalt the Lord, His presence (this is what glory means) takes over and we do not have to live in fear of whatever we are going through. “Let us exalt his name together.”