This is the situation in which the psalmist is placed. He is in a time of crisis; he has sought refuge in the Lord. But he had been warned, either by friends or by the inner voice of conscience, that escape would be the most appropriate course of action. Also, the advice carried within it a reminder of the might of wicked persons and of the threat contained within the crisis. There are times when such advice must be heeded, not out of fear, but out of prudence. But there are also times when it is necessary to take a stand, to refuse to admit to the natural and legitimate fear precipitated by the crisis, and to be confident in God who is still on the throne, still controlling the affairs of mankind. It was just such a situation that the psalmist encountered.

PETER C. CRAIGIE AND MARVIN TATE, PSALMS 1-50, VOLUME 19: SECOND EDITION (WORD BIBLICAL COMMENTARY), 134.

The crisis of oppression creates the sense that God’s face is hidden and that relationship has been disrupted, but deliverance restores a vision of the true state of affairs, so that it seems as if God has once again revealed himself (cf. Ps 9:17).

PETER C. CRAIGIE AND MARVIN TATE, PSALMS 1-50, VOLUME 19: SECOND EDITION (WORD BIBLICAL COMMENTARY), 134.

The founders of the United States deemed moral citizens essential to the perpetuation of the republic, yet they created a secular national government that lacked any power to regulate morality. Ensuring a virtuous population became primarily the responsibility of the churches and reform groups that relied not on coercion but on moral suasion. Some states did regulate various forms of personal morality, but only on very rare occasions before the Civil War did Congress pass moral legislation.

Gaines M. Foster, Moral Reconstruction: Christian Lobbyists and the Federal Legislation of Morality, 1865-1920 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002), 6.

As the inspired New Testament authors look back over the course of redemptive history, they do not see Calvary as a break in God’s ongoing covenantal work. Rather, they see Calvary as the fount through which the cleansing blood of Christ enters and then flows out to fill all of God’s eternal covenantal work

STEPHEN G. MYERS, GOD TO US: COVENANT THEOLOGY IN SCRIPTURE, 375.