Ps. 54.3 (strangers and anxiety)

For strangers / have risen / against me
and the ruthless / seek my life,
those who have / no regard / for God.

It is at this point that we come to see why the psalmist has travelled to the Temple to petition God for protection. He is under attack by people he does not know. The identity of these ‘strangers’ is not clear. Are they internal to Israel or are these other nations? If they are internal, are they wayward Israelites, in that they “have no regard for God”, or is that designation to mean that they, like the ‘fools’ in the previous psalm, are alien to Israel (i.e., an attacking foreign people)? Regardless, the emphasis falls on the fact that they are ‘faceless’ to the psalmist. And, therefore, much more ominous due to the inability to adequately communicate with them; in a way, they are incarnate anxiety. This is only compounded by the fact that they are also ‘ruthless’ and, apparently, murderous. One can detect a type of progression here: strangers – ruthless – no regard for God. To the psalmist, the ultimate danger of these men is that they have no regard for the God he has sought protection from. In other words, the psalmist is alone with God as these men have severed all ties with general standards of justice. They have cast them aside in their chase after the psalmist. Because they have no regard for God, they act in total disregard for justice. They are, in short, agents of death and chaos (they “seek my life”). This designation is important as it will be contrasted in the following verse—God will be seen as the “sustainer of my life” (vs. 4).