Prayer for Rescue from Persecutors.
For the choir director; set to [a]Al-tashheth. A [b]Mikhtam of David, [c]when he fled from Saul in the cave.
57 Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me,
For my soul takes refuge in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge
Until destruction passes by.
2 I will cry to God Most High,
To God who accomplishes all things for me.
3 He will send from heaven and save me;
He reproaches him who [d]tramples upon me. [e]Selah.
God will send forth His lovingkindness and His [f]truth.4 My soul is among lions;
I must lie among those who breathe forth fire,
Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows
And their tongue a sharp sword.
5 Be exalted above the heavens, O God;
Let Your glory be above all the earth.
6 They have [g]prepared a net for my steps;
My soul is bowed down;
They dug a pit before me;
They themselves have fallen into the midst of it. Selah.7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises!
8 Awake, my glory!
Awake, harp and lyre!
I will awaken the dawn.
9 I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to You among the [h]nations.
10 For Your lovingkindness is great to the heavens
And Your [i]truth to the clouds.
11 Be exalted above the heavens, O God;
Let Your glory be above all the earth.
This is another psalm (a prayer really) of David when he was in trouble. This was when Saul was hunting David in the wilderness and he took refuge in the cave (1 Samuel 24). While David and his men were hiding in the cave, who should come into the cave to get away from the army and take a nap? Yes, Saul himself was napping right in front of David, and the men told David that God had delivered Saul into his hand.
Then David does something very unexpected, instead of ending Saul right there, he merely cuts off a piece of Saul’s robe. David knew that his life (and Saul’s) were in God’s hands. God had given David a chance to take matters into his own hands, but by sparing Saul, David left Saul (and himself) in God’s hands.
When we are in trouble, it’s difficult to trust in someone else to rescue us. You may have seen the “trust game” where you close your eyes and fall backwards for someone to catch you. That’s not a place most would put themselves willingly, yet the stakes are even higher in real life, and God asks us to trust him instead.
So when David was in danger, he knew it (v3) as an opportunity for God to display his “lovingkindness and truth”. How does God display his truth? That seems a funny thing to say, but the word could also be translated “faithfulness”, which begins to make more sense. Again in v10 David tells of God’s lovingkindness and truth/faithfulness, that it is great to the heavens.
That’s big, really really big. When we have a God who loves us that much, whose faithfulness “reaches to the clouds”, we can do more than just trust him to catch us from falling backwards. We can trust Him with everything in our lives, because He is with us every step of every day. When you find yourself struggling and you can’t seem to find the way, lean on Him and let him show his lovingkindness, let him display his faithfulness, let him carry you if need be, and know that He is your God, and you are His own.