Deliver me from all my foes

Authors:
Themes:
Scriptures:
  • 1 Samuel 19:11
  • 1 Samuel 24:11
  • Psalms 143:9
  • Psalms 24:1
  • Psalms 35:19
  • Psalms 59:9
  • Psalms 69:4
  • Psalms 83:18
Book Number:
  • 59

Deliver me from all my foes,
the evil and malign;
O Lord, they plot to do me harm
for no offence of mine.
Without a cause they seek my life;
have pity, see my need;
Lord God almighty, Israel’s God,
judge every evil deed.

2. Like dogs that prowl the streets at night,
they fill our hearts with fear;
they spew out wicked words, and say
‘There is no God to hear’;
but Lord, you laugh at all their ways
and mock the nations’ pride;
I watch for you, O God my strength,
and in your love I hide.

3. God, go before me, bring them down,
expose all they devise,
but spare their lives lest we forget
their treachery and lies.
In wrath consume their wickedness,
the pride and scorn of fools,
then nations near and far will know
the God of Jacob rules.

4. Once more they roam the town at night
and prowl each darkened street;
they snarl and howl like starving dogs
that find no food to eat;
but in the morning I will praise
the refuge you provide;
I sing to you, O God my strength,
and in your love I hide.

© Author
Jim Sayers

The Christian Life - Spiritual Warfare

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Tune

  • Dinas Bethlehem
    Dinas Bethlehem
    Metre:
    • CMD (Common Metre Double: 86 86 D)
    Composer:
    • Hughes, John (Dolgellau)

The story behind the hymn

This further contribution from Jim Sayers, written at Kesgrave, tackles another vivid Psalm of David’s desperation; it has been called a strange mix of storm and sunshine. The title locates it at the time ‘when Saul sent men, and they watched the house in order to kill him’. Modern city-dwellers may perceive its special relevance to them; so, says the author, may anyone being stalked. He dubs it ‘the dog-psalm’, saying he was careful to avoid rhyming howl/prowl/growl. For those verses in particular, it is one of the Psalms featured in William Mayne’s novel A Swarm in May. The challenge to today’s writer is, as ever, to do justice to the seriousness of Scripture while making it singable by Christians. The haunting tune DINAS BETHLEHEM was composed by John Hughes of Dolgellau for the Welsh version of O little town of Bethlehem. In 1956 it was published in the hymnal of the Welsh Baptists, and the English followed suit in 1962. Here it proves adaptable to a very different theme.

A look at the author

Sayers, James (Jim) David

b Epsom, Surrey 1966. Ashcombe Sch Dorking, Univ Coll of Wales, Aberystwyth (LL.B) and Edinburgh Theological Seminary (DipTh, M.Th). After two and a half years as assistant to Brian Edwards at Hook Evangelical Ch (FIEC), Surbiton, he became Pastor of Kesgrave Grace Baptist Ch, Ipswich, Suffolk, from 1995. Then in 2009 he moved to Abingdon to become Communications Director of Grace Baptist Mission. In 2020 he moved to Didcot to lead a church-plant, Grace Church Didcot. He chaired the team selecting versions of the 150 Psalms for Praise! He became a trustee of Praise Trust in 2016, and chairman in 2018.

He has 10 published texts, as here, of which the first he wrote (1994) was based on Ps 30. Nos.2B, 30A, 39, 59, 69A, 71, 86, 719, 1013, 1249. He also wrote the revised version of O Holy Night CP47