Deeper Commentary
Psalm 57:1
For the Chief Musician. To the tune of Do Not Destroy. A poem by
David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave-
Many of the Psalms appear to be paired; Ps. 56 and Ps. 57 are an
example. They are very similar. The title of Ps. 56 ["when seized by the
Philistines in Gath"] therefore provides a context for Ps. 57, which was
"A poem by David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave" (Ps. 57:1). David's
time when seized by the Philistines in Gath could refer to some unrecorded
capture and detention of him in Gath- the home town of Goliath, whose sons
/ relatives had also been slain by David's men, and David had slain "ten
thousands" of Philistines. Or it could refer to the time when he was
serving Achish king of Gath and had to feign himself mad in order to get
released. Perhaps things were far tougher for David at that time than
recorded in 1 Sam. 21:10-15. Whatever, David took comfort from his
situation with Saul (the subject of Ps. 57) and reapplied it to his
situation in Gath in Ps. 56. And this is how we too pass through life-
experiences in one situation strengthen us for another.
Be merciful to me, God, be merciful to me, for my soul takes refuge in
You-
Yes, in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge, until disaster
has passed-
Likewise David realized that the cherubim shadowing the
mercy seat were over him; he was as it were located on the very mercy
seat. But he was nowhere near the sanctuary, and possibly in a state of
ritual uncleanness and not technically obedient to the law. But
he perceived from that same law that God is in fact beyond the confines of
ritual. With God in his heart, he was as it were covered by His glory and
the blood of atonement on the mercy seat.
Psalm 57:2
I cry out to God Most High, to God who accomplishes my requests for
me-
The thought of the highness and power of God is an inspiration to
faith in prayer. The requests of prayer are "accomplished"; not answered
by a simple flash action, but involve working out so many facets of the
answer.
Psalm 57:3
He will send from heaven and save me, He rebukes the one who is
pursuing me. Selah. God will send out His grace and His truth-
The word "send" is normally translated 'to send away, to let depart', implying physical movement away. This implies Angels are physically sent over space to answer prayer. The same word occurs in other verses where this same idea stands up well- e.g.
Ps. 144:7 "Send Thine hand (an Angel) from Heaven...”. It seems that great stress is placed in Scripture on the Angels physically moving through space, both on the earth and between Heaven and earth, in order to fulfil their tasks, rather than being static in Heaven or earth and bringing things about by just willing them to happen. See on Gen. 18:10
Psalm 57:4
My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire,
even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue
a sharp sword-
This could be understood as a reference to the men with David. He
lay down to sleep next to them. David's men represent the followers of the
Lord Jesus (cp. Heb. 13:13). David's motley crew were bitter men, "them
that are set on fire... whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their
tongue a sharp sword" (Ps. 57:4). So rough were they that David says that
having to live with them almost destroyed him spiritually (1 Sam. 26:19).
This typology would explain why the body of Christ seems full of bitter
men and women with hard words- who eventually will be the rulers in
Messiah's Kingdom, after the pattern of David's men.
There can be no misunderstanding of David as some softie who let anything
go. Of course he was a sensitive man, with a soft heart. The way others’
words so hurt him is evidence enough of this (Ps. 57:4). Yet this was
marvellously blended with his clear recognition of evil and firmly
expressed desire not to mix with it.
Psalm 57:5
Be exalted, God, above the heavens! Let Your glory be above all
the earth!-
David had earlier lamented that Saul "My enemy" (= Saul,
1 Sam. 18:29; 19:17) was "exalted over me" (Ps. 13:2 s.w.). The David who
had once triumphed over his enemy Goliath now felt that Saul was
triumphing over him. This, in the bigger Divine picture, may have been to
keep David from pride at the amazing victory and triumph. And he learned
the lesson. David was indeed to triumph / be exalted over Saul (Ps.
18:48), but he saw it is God triumphing / being exalted (Ps. 18:46). His
praise Psalms are full of this word and idea- of the exaltation of God
(Ps. 57:5,11) and not himself.
Psalm 57:6
They have prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down,
they dig a snare before me. They fall into its midst themselves. Selah-
It
is a common theme that the wicked snare themselves, falling into their own
pit, judged by their own words, rather than God specifically snaring them
(e.g. Ps. 7:15; 9:15; 57:6; Prov. 26:27; 28:10; Ecc. 10:8). From their
own mouth and words men will be judged (Mt. 12:37; Lk. 19:22 cp. 2 Sam.
1:16; 1 Kings 20:40). It could even be that the Lord cites the
condemnatory words of the rejected uttered during their lifetimes and
leaves these as their condemnation. Woe, therefore, to he or she who has
said unrepentantly that they don’t want to be in the Kingdom if brother x
or sister y are going to be there. “He that keepeth his mouth keepeth his
life; but he that openeth wide his lips [in this life] shall have
destruction” at judgment day (Prov. 13:3).
The snare was dug "before me". Solomon alludes to this in Prov. 1:17 "For
in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird". All Solomon says is
inspired truth, but clearly he has a subtext of justifying his father
David; this was an obsession with him.
Psalm 57:7
My heart is steadfast, God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing,
yes, I will sing praises-
David had earlier understood that for the humble and righteous, God can
"prepare their heart" (Ps. 10:17). This is evidence enough that God works
directly upon the human heart and psychology, which He does today through
the work of His Spirit upon the human spirit. For it is men who must
prepare their heart in prayer and relationship toward God (s.w. 2 Chron.
12:14; Job 11:13; Ps. 7:9). But God can also do this for the humble. Hence
David later asks God to create in him a 'prepared' heart (s.w. Ps. 51:10).
And God heard; for the same phrase is used of how God 'prepared' or (AV)
"fixed" / NEV 'made steadfast' his heart (Ps. 57:7; 108:1; 112:7). In
allusion to this, Solomon was to later reflect that God can direct or
'prepare' (s.w.) the heart of man, even if he is thinking to direct his
steps elsewhere (Prov. 16:9).
Psalm 57:8
Wake up, my glory! Wake up, psaltery and harp! I will wake up the
dawn-
Or as AV
"I myself will awake early". The Psalms continually stress the importance
of starting each day with the Lord; David gives the impression his heart
was bursting with praise as he awoke, and he instinctively wanted to grab
his harp and play and sing praise.
Psalm 57:9
I will give thanks to You, Lord, among the peoples, I will sing
praises to You among the nations-
David knew his sinfulness, he knew his reliance upon the grace of God,
more and more as he got older; and increasingly he wanted to spread the
knowledge of Israel's God to the Gentile nations around him. One would have thought that after the
Bathsheba incident, David would have kept his mouth shut so far as telling
other people how to live was concerned. But instead, we find an increasing
emphasis in the Psalms (chronologically) upon David's desire to teach
others of God's ways- particularly the surrounding Gentile peoples, before
whom David had been disgraced over Bathsheba, not to mention from his two
faced allegiance to Achish (1 Sam. 27:8-12). There is real stress upon
this evangelistic fervour of David (Ps. 4:3; 18:49; 22:25,31; 35:18;
40:9,10; 57:9; 62:8; 66:5,16; 95:1,8; 96:5-8,10; 100:1-4; 105:1,2; 119:27;
145:5,6,12). Indeed, Ps.71:18 records the "old and greyheaded" David
pleading with God not to die until he had taught "thy strength unto this
generation". As with Paul years later, the only reason he wanted to stay
alive was in order to witness the Gospel of grace to others.
David therefore coped with his deep inner traumas by looking out of
himself to those around him, eagerly desiring to share with them the
pureness of God's grace. He didn't do this as some kind of self-help
psychiatry; it came naturally from a realization of his own sinfulness and
God's mercy, and the wonderful willingness of God to extend this
to men.
Psalm 57:10
For Your great grace reaches to the heavens, and Your truth to the
skies-
The message David wanted to preach to the Gentiles (:9) was that
God's grace stretches between heaven and earth. "Mercy / grace and truth"
is a phrase often used about the promises to Abraham. David saw these as
the parade example of God's grace, and he wanted to share that covenant
with the Gentiles (:9). But the observation could be made that nearly all
the "Gentiles" in the land [eretz] promised to Abraham were in
fact Abraham's seed in some way anyway. But David is directing them back
to their roots and urging them to accept the covenant made with their
forefather instead of the idols they had chosen.
Psalm 57:11
Be exalted, God, above the heavens. Let Your glory be over all the earth- The earth / eretz refers to the land promised to Abraham. It was David's desire that God be exalted there, lifted up to heaven, as it were, by the people living there. See on :10. David was a man of wide spiritual vision. The visible glory of God was in those days only seen over the ark of the covenant; but he had a vision of it spreading from there over the entire "earth", and here he is praying for that day to come about. But as noted on :9, he realized [as we must in our day] that this will only happen once the Gospel has been taken to "all the earth".
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