Psalm 54 · a question people ask
Who are the "strangers" and "violent men" of 54:3?
The psalm doesn't name them. It says what they did and what they didn't do: "For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them" (54:3). Strangers is zarim, from zur, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "be a stranger" (tap strangers). Elsewhere in the Psalms the same verb is used of one's own family: "I have become a stranger to my brothers" (Psalm 69:8). Violent men is aritzim; Strong's gives the word as "fearful, i.e. powerful or tyrannical" (tap Violent). The title names the Ziphites and Saul (54:1), but the psalm itself doesn't say whether the strangers are the Ziphites, Saul's men or others, and these notes don't guess. Nothing in the psalm points to any people today.
The verses
“For the Chief Musician. On stringed instruments. A contemplation by David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “Isn’t David hiding himself among us?” Save me, God, by your name. Vindicate me in your might.”
“For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them. Selah.”
“I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.”