PSALM 57 [The Message Bible]
1-3
Be good to me, God—and now!
I’ve
run to you for my dear life.
I’m hiding under your wings until the hurricane
blows over.
I call out to God on High, the God
who holds me together.
He sends orders from heaven and saves me, He humiliates those who push me around.
God delivers generous love, He makes good
on his word.
4 I find myself in a pride of lions who
are wild for a taste of human flesh;
Their teeth are lances and arrows, their
tongues are sharp daggers.
5 Soar high in the skies, O God! Cover the whole earth with your glory!
6 They set their traps
before my path; I thought I was dead and done for.
They dug a man-trap to catch me, and fell
in headlong themselves.
7–8 I’m ready, God, so ready, ready from
head to toe—
Ready to sing, ready to raise a
tune:
“Wake up, soul!
Wake up, harp! wake up,
lute!
Wake up, you sleepyhead sun!”
9–11 I’m
thanking you, God, out loud in the
streets, singing your praises in town and country.
The deeper your love, the higher it
goes; every cloud is a flag to your faithfulness.
11
Soar high in the skies, O God! Cover the whole earth with your glory!
Elizabeth Elliot lost her first husband—a Missionary to the
Auca tribe, Jim Elliot, when he and four other men were martyred as they tried
to take the gospel to this hostile tland. She lost her second husband, Addison
Leitch, to cancer. Mrs. Elliot said,
“… I’ve I couldn’t figure out any reason
for the treatment I was getting from the Shepherd I trusted. And He didn’t give a hint of
explanation.”
If you’ve been a Christian for very long, you’ve been there
too. The Shepherd you trusted in put you into some circumstance that was rather unpleasant
and you didn’t have a clue what He was doing or why. David was there in this
Psalm. He was still only a teenager—when
God had anointed him as a replacement for the disobedient King Saul. King Saul’s jealous rage sent David running
for his life. He spent the better part of his twenties dodging Saul’s repeated
attempts to kill him.
The title tells us that he wrote this psalm “when he fled
from Saul, in the cave.” Yet, here is David, praising God in the cave. He’s exalting the Lord! He has something to
teach us about how we are to think and act in those times when we’re held up in
a dark damp cave, when God’s promises don’t seem to be true for us.
David must have wondered, “God, why are You allowing this to
happen to me? You anointed me as king—I didn’t choose for the job. Although, he may not
have realized why God was allowing him to suffer, he did understand what God
wanted from him in his suffering. David understood that to ask the question
“Why?” in the midst of suffering is to ask the wrong question. The proper
question to ask is, “God, what do You want for me to learn from my life as a
result of this trial?” He did know God’s glory should be our aim at all times, especially
in a time of trial.
The apostle Paul said, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or
whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31 ). He meant, “Let the promotion of God’s glory or
honor be your aim in all that you do. Strive in everything to act in such a way
that others may praise and honor the God whom you profess to serve because they
have seen His attributes shining through your own life.” That should be our aim at
all times, but especially in a time of trial. How do we do that? David shows us
how:
God is Glorified as We Trust Him in Our Trials
— Trust involves relying upon God alone (57:1)
Taking refuge in such a shelter
implies complete trust on the part of the person going into it. He is
entrusting his very life to those walls to protect him from death. In the same
way, we are to take refuge in God. We are to entrust ourselves to Him depending
upon Him to protect us. David hid in the
cave, but he didn’t trust in the cave, but in the Lord.
We do not rely on human merit. “Be
gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me.” God’s grace or mercy refers to His
undeserved favor. It’s one of the most difficult concepts for our proud hearts
to grasp. I find that many who profess to know Christ do not understand the
concept of God’s grace. This is reflected in the fact that they try to come to
God on the basis of their own goodness. They
may ask, “Why this trial, God, when I’ve been so good?” They think God owes
them something. That’s not trusting in God...
That’s trusting in ourselves.
— Going to God in prayer (57:1‑2)
Prayer is the language of trust.
This psalm is primarily a prayer. A person who trusts God prays and that way
God gets the glory.
— Trust is seeing
God as greater than my problems (57:4-6)
— God is glorified
as we praise Him in our trials (57:7-11)
— Praise is a matter of testifying to others of
God’s goodness (57:9-11)
~~~~
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens.
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth.
~Psalm 56:10-11
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