"To the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
3 He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
4 My soul is in the midst of lions;
I lie down amid fiery beasts—
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
6 They set a net for my steps;
my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my way,
but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah
7 My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody!
8 Awake, my glory!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn!
9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
10 For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!"
Psalm 57
The theme of the past two Psalms continues in this one. David is still 'up against it', and the trials and pressures are still upon him. The cave referred to in the title of the Psalm is very probably to be identified with the story in 1 Samuel 24, and if this be so, we are given in that passage a dramatic backcloth for its message. The dangers were still very real and very urgent: how near David was to capture in the cave! He could probably hear the breathing of Saul as he slept, only yards from him. How graphically 4 reads when we remember and realise this. The first lesson we are taught here has to do both with the background of the Psalm and with a comparison with the two that precede it. We can hardly doubt that there is a providential ordering of the way in which these Psalms follow one another in the Psalter. The cry in the opening verse is the same as that in Psalm 56, but here there is a new emphasis and a new reason for it: there, it was a cry born of the consciousness of need; here it is a cry borne of the vision of God. The whole Psalm is on a high and exalted plane, as we may see from 5, 9-11. But there are contrasts too with the previous Psalms: in 55:6 the Psalmist longs for the wings of a dove, but here in 1 it is the shadow of the Divine wings of which he speaks. Also, the contrast is very marked between 55:4, 'My heart is sore pained' and the words in 7, 'My heart is fixed'. It is the transition from fear to faith, and the lesson is: Faith does not free us from trial, but it does enable us to triumph in it.