Chiastic Psalm 54
My friend Barney Skrentny spoke recently about the chiastic structure of the book of Philippians. This was a new one to me, and the example of Philippians is quite a complex one. For anyone who’s not familiar with the word “chiastic”, it means roughly that there is a symmetry in the text. The first section matches the last, the second matches the penultimate one, etc until you reach a central passage or verse. In the case of Philippians, the centre is Philippians 2 :19-23.
If that still doesn’t make sense, how about Psalm 54. As soon as I read it today, I thought it contained a much easier chiastic structure:
1 Save me, O God, by your name;
vindicate me by your might.
2 Hear my prayer, O God;
listen to the words of my mouth.
3 Arrogant foes are attacking me;
ruthless people are trying to kill me –
people without regard for God.[c]
4 Surely God is my help;
the Lord is the one who sustains me.
5 Let evil recoil on those who slander me;
in your faithfulness destroy them.
6 I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you;
I will praise your name, Lord, for it is good.
7 You have delivered me from all my troubles,
and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.
In verse 1 David prays for salvation and vindication; in verse 7 he has been delivered and has triumphed.
The prayer in verse 2 is matched by praise in verse 6.
Verse 3 talks about the specifics of the attack on David by ruthless evil men, while verse 5 asks God to turn their evil back on themselves.
And finally the central point, verse 4: here we see David putting his trust in God, literally in the midst of his troubles. The core and the key to the psalm are in its central verse, because no matter what is attacking David, his response is to rely on the faithfulness of the Lord. This is a teaching we can apply when we face trouble of any sort.
