Psalm 57
Our reading is Psalm 57, verses
one through 11. And before we read the passage,
I want to show you as we work our way through
reading it, how Hebrew poetry works. This is an easy Psalm
to do that on. So take out your Bibles, open
to Psalm 57. And I want you to look at two
verses. that will help us sort of give us a place on the map,
and then we’ll look at two sections, and then we’ll read it, and we’ll
see how it works. So look in Psalm 57 at verse five. It says,
be exalted, O Lord, above the heavens. Let your glory be over
all the earth. Okay, does anybody see where
that comes up again in the Psalm? Verse 11, at the very end, it
says the exact same thing. Be exalted, O God, above the
heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. Now, I want you
to put on your thinking caps, your memory, put on your memories of backing,
I don’t know what grade it was in, maybe high school literature,
and you learn the structure of poetry. And remember, there was
A, B, C, D, and then often it went D, C, B, A. Do you remember that? Good poetry
has a rhythm and a rhyme to it. Well, Psalm 57 has that. And
so we want to read it that way. Verses five and 11 are the chorus. They’ll be sort of stopping points
for us. But look, if you will, at verse
one. It says, 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. So David’s crying out to God.
Well, look also at verse nine and 10. He says, I’ll give thanks
to you, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among
the nations for your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the sky. So David in both those passages
speaks to God. Now look at verses two and three.
He says, I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills his
purpose for me. He will send from heaven and
save me. He will put to shame him who tramples on me. God will
send out a steadfast love and faithfulness. And so it speaks
of the steadfastness of God. Well, if you look at verses seven
and eight, the counterpart in the second part of the Psalm,
it speaks of David being steadfast. He says in verse seven, my heart
is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing, I
will make melody, awake my glory, awake, O harp and lyre, I will
awake. the dawn. And then look at verse
four. He speaks of his problem. My soul is in the midst of lions.
I lie down amidst the fiery beast. The children of man whose teeth
are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. And
then you can look in verse six. It speaks of the same set of
problems. They are a net for my steps. My soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but
they have fallen into it themselves. So you see how Hebrew poetry
works. A lot of times there’s a refrain, a lot of times there’s
a chorus, but you get A, B, C, and then you get verse five,
and then you get C, B, A, and verse 11. And one of the things
you’ll notice as you read through the first section, verses one
through four, if you’re losing me here, hang on tight. is you’ll
see David crying out for mercy, David finding God to be steadfast,
David having enemy problems. And then you’ll see in the second
part, David has enemy problems. David is now steadfast and you’ll
see him emboldened because of what went on in verses one through
four. He’s more confident than ever. And then you’ll see him
sing to God instead of crying out to him. And then the chorus
there in both verses five through 11. So it’s an interesting way
to look at the Psalm. Hebrew poetry has structure.
And so the way we look at the Bible, some of you remember in
here a couple of Sunday mornings ago, what was Martin Luther’s
way of interpreting the Bible? You may remember. It wasn’t allegorical. wasn’t some of those others,
it was census literalis, right? It was literally. So we look
at it, how it was written. So Psalm 57, what is going on
in Psalm 57? Well, if you want to name a church,
the perfect church name, Psalm 57 is the Psalm for you. Psalm
57 takes place when David is hiding in the cave of I’ve been talking recently with
some friends who are starting a new church and we were talking
through the excitement of listing the ideals and the values and
the vision and all the wonderful things and then my friend says
to me, but you know, we always get the misfits. We always get
the misfits, those who aren’t happy where they are, and they
hear there’s something new, and they come and they think that
they’ll get a piece of the action at the new place. And so while
church planting and starting a church is very exciting, you
often get everybody who’s unhappy somewhere else coming at first.
And so the perfect church name is the Cave of Abdullam Church,
the Church at Abdullam. If you read in 1 Samuel chapter
22, where the context for Psalm 57 is, you’ll read that David
was by himself in the cave of Adullam, this big giant cavern.
He was hiding from Saul. He was taking refuge, not only
in the cave, but in the Lord. And about 400 people began over
time to gather to him, family members, friends. And in 1 Samuel
22 says in particular, it was people in distress, people in
debt, and people bitter in soul. Now, of course, we want the church
to be a place where those kinds of people can gather and be helped
and healed. But that sometimes can be the nature of the church
as well. It can be a gathering of people who are unhappy elsewhere. And so they gather together.
Well, David is in this cave. He’s on the run. Remember, Saul
hates him. Saul wants him dead. David has
been anointed king. Jonathan, his friend, has made
covenant with him. Remember, David did not go to dinner one
night, but Jonathan did, and then Jonathan was gonna tell
him what he should do, and so he shot the arrows and sent the
little boy out, and they had that whole scheme of telling
him if it was well or not well. It was not well, so David went
on, and he went to Gath where we read last week. He acted like
he was crazy because he shows up, at Gath, the city of the
Philistines, with the sword of Goliath, the giant. And so David,
not welcome there, has to act a little nutsy in order to get
in. We read that David went to the
priest at Nob and got that sword. We read that David got some of
the bread of the presence. We read that David also went
to Killa, where some of his ancestors were, and he helped them. But
now he’s in the cave of Abdullam. And he is hiding from wicked
men. He’s hiding from men who hate him and want to take his
life. And he’s done two things. He
has hidden himself in a cave, a place of refuge, but he has
also hidden himself in the shadow of the wings of Almighty God. And so we see David do two things
mainly in this psalm. One is ask for help. and two,
praise our great God. So verses one through three,
we find David crying out for mercy. He says, 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. I cry
out to God, most high to God who fulfills his purpose for
me. He will send from heaven and
save me. He will put to shame him who
tramples on me. And there’s that wonderful little
mysterious word, Selah, that we think means to stop and think
about it. So he cries out for mercy, cries
out to God. God will put to shame those who
are his enemies and trample upon him. In Psalm 57, there are 21
references to God. That’s a lot. In 11 verses, 21
references to God. And in addition to those references,
there are words like refuge, shadow of your wings, God most
high, purpose, save, all these wonderful words of salvation
and help. And so we read in Psalm 57 that
when we get in hot water, when life gets difficult, we have
no better place to go but to God most high. And so David cries
out to God for mercy. This is a God heavy, a God rich
passage. So what is David asking God for?
Well, he’s asking God to be something that he has been elsewhere. In
the Bible, we hear of God being like an eagle with the great
big wingspan. Maybe you’ve been to Florida
where you see eagles a dime a dozen. You can ride down the interstate.
You see eagles up in the tree. Up this way, if we see one, it’s
pretty rare, but they got that great big wingspan. And what
can an eagle do? It can swoop down and, well,
it can kill its prey, but it can also rescue its own. And so in the Bible, in the Old
Testament, we see in several places where God is like that
bird who swoops in and rescues his people. He did that to Israel
when they were in Egypt. He bore them on eagle’s wings
as he brought them out of Egypt, through the desert and into the
promised land. We see other examples of God taking care of his people,
Daniel and the lion’s den. We see God in places like Psalm
91, covering his people with his pinions or his outstretched
wings. He gathers his people under the
protection of his wings. We see Jesus in the New Testament,
praying over Jerusalem. He looks over Jerusalem, weeps
over Jerusalem and says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I would have gathered
you as a mother hen gathers its chicks. And then he says, but
you would not. And so we see wonderful pictures
of God being merciful and protecting. And David wants to lay hold of
those promises. He wants to lay hold of that
safety and that rescue. Now think about life in the ancient
Near East, life in the Judean desert, life in the place where
David is. It could come, a storm could come up quickly. It could
rain very heavily. The ground can wash out under you. And so
where do you want to be in a situation like that? You want to be in
a cave. And so he says, in verse one,
in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge till the storms
of destruction pass by. There’s physical danger, but
there’s also spiritual danger. And we find refuge in the wings
of God, and even sometimes in the physical cave of this world. And so David cries out to God
for mercy. The second little section, verses four through
six, We see David’s problem, and it really comes up in verses
four and six. Verse five, of course, is that
little chorus, but verse four says, my soul is in the midst
of lions. It sounds a bit like Daniel. I lie down amidst fiery
beast. Maybe some of you with an imagination
can think of dragons and other mythical figures. Y’all read
some of those things. We might think of a fiery beast
as a serpent that might hide in a cave. Now, who are these
lions, these beasts? They’re the children of man,
whose teeth are spears, whose arrows are and tongues. Their
teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp as swords. And then in verse six, they set
a net for my steps. My soul was bowed down. They
dug a pit in my way. They have fallen into it themselves. I think it was, Oh, what movie
was it we were watching lately? Daniel Boone or somebody. They were going along the Mississippi
River, and they walk into one of those ankle traps where they
get caught in it, and it yanks them up in the tree, and they’re
hanging upside down from their ankle that’s been caught in this rope.
Or you think of Swiss Family Robinson, the little boy who
digs a hole, and he wants to trap an elephant, and he gets
a lion. But you dig a hole, and you cover
it with leaves. Well, David here is saying these are the kind
of traps that have been dug for him. They’re wanting to catch
him like a wild beast. And in fact, they have fallen
into it themselves. Of course, by the grace of God,
the mercy of God, even the wrath of God. But David’s problem is
this. He has cruel enemies. David is a hated man. David is
a man on the run. David is a hated man. Saul wants
him dead. You think about how many times Saul has tossed his
javelin at David in the palace and wanted to peg him against
the wall, to pin him dead against the wall of the king’s palace. And so David is a wanted and
a hunted man. You can imagine what it’s like.
You know, he’s out in the desert, he’s by himself. He can’t sleep
at night, and when he does sleep at night, it’s not great sleep,
it’s fitful sleep. Every noise, every peep, every
sound. You know, you get out in the
Judean desert, it’s pretty quiet out there. And any noise is the
noise of an enemy, whether it’s a jackal or a spy or another
person, a serpent, whatever. So David has a big problem, but
he trusts in God. In verse five, be exalted, O
God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the
earth. How many times do we say when we’re in the midst of hardship,
Woe is me, or do we say, be exalted, O God, above the heavens? Usually, probably the former
and not the latter. But David has some serious problems
to work through. People are after him. His life
is threatened. Then we see David’s praise in
verses seven through 11. He says, my heart is steadfast,
O God, my heart is steadfast. Notice he’s been repeating himself.
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, verse one. But
verse seven, he wants God to know that his heart is steadfast.
Then he says, I will sing, I will make melody. Awake, my glory,
awake, O harp and lyre. I will awake the dawn. I’ll give
thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises
to you among the nations, for your steadfast love is great
to the heavens and your faithfulness to the skies. Be exalted, O God,
above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the
earth. So here is David’s praise. God has been faithful and steadfast,
and now it is David’s turn to be faithful and steadfast. Y’all
know some folks have some very weird talents. If you watch the
David Letterman show in years past, he always had those people
with weird tricks, weird human tricks, things. I have a friend
who was on there. I forget what he did. That’s
Mackie. He did something really weird,
but I can’t I can’t remember what it was. Well, my dad has
a weird skill. He can do a perfect Tarzan yell.
And this perfect Tarzan yell has appeared in all kinds of
places. When my grandparents had a little cottage down on
Baden Lake, we had a rope swing around the corner and we would
go swing for the afternoon off this hillside into the water
and Throughout the Uwari Mountains, you could hear Tarzan. And we
just thought it was great when we were kids. It’s embarrassing
now. But 25 years ago, we went to
Israel and Jordan and Egypt. We climbed Mount Sinai. We had
to get up at two in the morning to get there because for some
reason we had to get there and see the sunrise. It looks the
same everywhere I’ve been, but somebody had a good idea to get
up at two and go see it. So we get up there, it’s about
six in the morning, the sun rises and guess who appears? Tarzan. That’s what I think of in verse eight. David is so excited
about what God has done for him and his deliverance, his protection.
He says, awake my glory, awake, O harp and lyre, I will awake
the dawn. Of course, he’s a little bit
less profane than my father, who awakes the dawn with his
Tarzan yell. But can’t you imagine being out in the middle of nowhere? No sounds. but the loud praise
of God and his little lute or lyre or stringed instrument.
And he will awake the dawn because he wakes in the morning with
the praise of God on his lips. And so David is confident in
the Lord. He is steadfast in the Lord. And there’s something
in this verse we ought to, we ought to think about verse seven.
My heart is steadfast, O God. My heart is steadfast. Twice
he says it. This is a world that is shaky. This is a world that is wacky.
This is a world that is dark. This is a world full of a crooked
and depraved generation. In fact, before our pastoral
prayer every Sunday, we say, let’s pause, join our hearts
and minds together and ask for God’s help and blessing as we
live life in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation, as we
live in the midst of a dark and dying world, because that is
not an easy task. And David here says, my heart is steadfast.
My heart is steadfast. And so we have to figure out
as Christians how not to lose it. How not to fall apart in
the midst of a crazy world. When our little ones were babies
and coming along in the world, we had a person near and dear
to us who was older and said, this is not a world that you
wanna bring babies into. Well, it’s not. But if you’re
a Christian, it is. And so we have to be steadfast. We have to have confident hearts
that God is at work. He is working out his purposes.
What happens if Christians get wishy-washy? What happens if
Christians get wishy-washy and we curl up in a ball and we say,
oh, woe to us. The world is falling apart. It’s
not worth living life here. Just take us away. We’ve lost
our way. We’ve lost the steadfastness
of heart, the steadiness of heart that is needed. And so David,
in the midst of all his trouble with lions, with fiery serpents
or beast or whatever it was, with Saul pursuing him, with
what could we fill in the blank with the internet? We could fill
in the blank with culture, with drugs, with anything and everything,
we have to have steadfast hearts. It’d be good for us to end or
to land as David does verses five and 11. Be exalted, O God,
above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the
earth. We have to remember, even in
the midst of hardship, that the glory of God is above everything,
that the glory of God is the great purpose in life. And so even when We can examine
our own belly buttons and look at our own difficulties in life. The glory of God is central.
The glory of God is our purpose. Be exalted, O God, above the
heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. Pray with me.
Our God and heavenly Father, we pray for confidence like David,
confidence in you, the God of the earth, confidence in you,
the Lord and master of all. Yes, let your glory fill the
earth, but also keep us safe, watch over us, give us steadfast
hearts. Let us not grow weary and faint hearted and doing good
for in due season we will reap a harvest. And we thank you that
we have Christ in whose name and work we can trust and that
we will not falter or fail. And we ask this in his great
name, amen. O God, beyond all praising, we
worship you today. And sing of how amazing that
songs cannot repay. For we can only wonder at every
gift you send. ♪ And mercies without end ♪ We
lift our hearts before you ♪ And wait upon your word ♪ We honor
and adore you ♪ Our great and mighty Lord ♪ Then hear, O gracious
Lord that we, who know your favor,
may serve you as our King. And whether our tomorrows be
filled with good or ill, We’ll triumph through our sorrows and
rise to bless you still. To marvel at your beauty and
glory in your ways. And make a joyful duty our sacred
duty.