Look on my affliction and deliver me,
for I do not forget your law.
Plead my cause and redeem me;
give me life according to your promise!
Salvation is far from the wicked,
for they do not seek your statutes.
Great is your mercy, O Lord;
give me life according to your rules.
Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
I look at the faithless with disgust,
because they do not keep your commands.
Consider how I love your precepts!
Give me life according to your steadfast love.
The sum of your word is truth,
and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
The Psalmist calls on God to deliver him because he has promised that he will keep His commandments. His enemies who do not know or trust God cannot and will not do as he does. All that they do is displeasing and offensive to the Lord, even, apparently their good deeds. The one who walks in the ways of the Lord does please and honor God. Such a person can look to the Lord for deliverance because his life is not deceitful or marked by hypocrisy. The godly person always trusts. His faith is going to be rewarded in time and in eternity.
The wicked have no such hope for reward because they live lives that show nothing but disdain for God. God will fulfill His promises to them but not in the way He blesses those who do have faith in Him. His promises to the wicked who flaunt their evil in the face of the Lord are of judgment and punishment. They will harden their hears against Him.
This could be avoided only if they embrace faith in Christ. He has atoned for the sins of all mankind. Yet many refuse to accept this. They do not listen to, value or obey God and His Word until they are faced with trouble and suffering. Then they cry out to God and wonder why He does not help. God knows the cry of the heart of one who truly desires His will and His way from the cry of one who just wants to be delivered so he or she can continue to live for him or herself, to continue to live in sinfulness. God will not answer the prayer of any one who is playing games with Him or does not acknowledge His sovereignty by faith. Though the wicked may disgust us who are righteous by faith, we must tell them the truth of the gospel of salvation in Jesus alone before God’s judgment falls on them.