Psalm 57:1

The heading above the psalm says it was written “when he fled from Saul in the cave.” Saul, consumed by jealousy, hunted David to kill him, and for a long time David lived as a fugitive in the wilderness and its caves, even though God had already anointed him to be Israel’s next king. The accounts in 1 Samuel 22 and 1 Samuel 24 tell of that time. The cave of this psalm may be the cave of Adullam, where David escaped (1 Samuel 22:1), or the cave at En-gedi, where Saul himself came in while David and his men were hiding inside (1 Samuel 24:3), and where David spared Saul’s life. A cave could hide a man, yet it also left him exposed, with little to live on, and hunted by a king. In that day kings held enormous power, and to be the king’s enemy often meant death. David’s cry goes over the head of that king to God.

The rest of the heading tells how the psalm was to be used. “To the chief Musician” directs it to the leader of the singing. “Altaschith” is the Hebrew ʾal-tašḥēṯ, “Do not destroy”. It is most likely the tune the psalm was sung to, perhaps a song known by those opening words, and it also fits a psalm about God keeping David from destruction. “Michtam”, mikhtām, is a less certain word, often rendered “golden psalm” or “inscription”, which would mark this as a precious psalm or one meant to be kept in writing. Psalm 16 and Psalm 56 carry the same title.

Psalm 57 stands in the second book of the Psalms (Psalms 42–72), where lament, trust and God’s kingship come up again and again. Like other Michtam psalms, it begins in deep distress and rises to confident praise. It moves from the urgent plea of verse 1 to the cry that God be exalted “above the heavens” in Psalm 57:5, and on to David’s vow to praise God among the nations in Psalm 57:7–11. These first four verses are the prayer that opens that movement.

David’s first words are “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me”. The verb is ḥānan, which means to bend or stoop in kindness to someone lower, to show favour and to give freely. A request like this rests wholly on God’s kindness, and David makes it as a humble plea, appealing to who God is. He says it twice because the danger is close and the need is great, and the doubled cry shows how much hangs on God’s answer. He addresses God, ʼĕlôhîym, as the one who alone can deliver him. Many psalms of lament open with the same kind of cry, as in “Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak” (Psalm 6:2).

David gives a reason for his plea: “for my soul trusteth in thee.” The verb is ḥāsāh, also spelled ḥâçâh, which means to flee for protection, and so, figuratively, to trust. His soul, nephesh, is his life and his whole self. So the trust David speaks of is the act of running to God for cover, with everything he is. The same verb comes back in the next line, “in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge,” where David says it a second time as a settled decision about where he will stay.

The word for shadow, tsêl, means shade, and figuratively shelter and protection. The word for wings, kānāp̱ (kânâph), is the wing of a bird, and it can also mean the edge or skirt of a garment, or a corner. The picture is of a mother bird gathering her young under her wings, where they are warm, hidden and safe from what hunts them. It shows both the tenderness and the strength of God’s care.

Israel knew the picture well. Boaz blessed Ruth by “the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.” Psalm 91 speaks of the same shelter: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty,” and it promises, “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust” (Psalm 91:1–4). In another prayer David says, “I will trust in the covert of thy wings” (Psalm 61:1–4), and Isaiah promises perfect peace to the one whose mind is stayed on God, “because he trusteth in thee” (Isaiah 26:3–4). Jesus took up the picture for himself when he grieved over Jerusalem: “how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37).

David prayed this sitting in a cave, and he names God’s wings as his shelter. The rock around him could hide him for a while, and God’s presence would keep him through all of it. Our security is found in God’s presence in the middle of trouble, and he is the one who brings us through it.

Verse 2 tells us whom David trusts. “I will cry unto God most high” uses qârâʼ, to call out to someone, to address by name or to proclaim. David calls deliberately on a God he knows. “Most high” is ʻelyôwn, an adjective meaning high or upper, which as a title of God means the Most High. Saul was the highest power in Israel, and David appeals to the One above every king, whose purpose stands over every ruler on earth.

“Unto God that performeth all things for me” names what this God does. “Unto God” comes a second time, so David’s eyes stay fixed on one place. The verb gâmar means to end, to complete, to perfect, to bring to pass. God finishes what he starts, and David is sure that God will carry through to the end all that he has purposed for him, including the promises made to him about his kingship. Paul has the same confidence: “he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). God declares the end from the beginning and says, “My counsel shall stand” (Isaiah 46:10), and “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:28).

God’s people had seen him act like this before. He brought Israel through the sea (Exodus 14), fought for Israel in the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 10), and later kept Daniel safe in the den of lions (Daniel 6). In this verse the whole of Psalm 57 turns toward hope. Having asked for mercy, David now names the God he asks, and that God’s power and faithfulness are the ground of everything that follows.

In verse 3 David’s confidence grows. “He shall send from heaven, and save me.” Heaven is where God dwells, and from there he sends his power, or his messengers, to rescue his servant on purpose. The help David expects comes from above every earthly limit.

He looks to be saved “from the reproach of him that would swallow me up.” Reproach is scorn and public disgrace. David, anointed as Israel’s future king, was hunted as a rebel, and that shame was a deep wound in a society that prized a man’s honour. The verb behind “swallow me up” is shâʼaph, which literally means to pant or to snuff up, to draw in breath eagerly, and figuratively to devour or consume. The enemy is pictured panting after David, ready to destroy him completely.

The verse closes with the reason God’s rescue is certain: “God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.” Mercy is ḥesed, God’s steadfast love, his loyal kindness and covenant faithfulness to his people. Truth is ‘ĕmet, which means stability and certainty, and so faithfulness and truth. God is utterly dependable, his promises are sure, and his actions always agree with what he has said. David pictures these two as messengers that God sends out to do his saving work, so the God who saves is acting according to who he is.

“Merciful” in verse 1 and “mercy” in verse 3 share an English word, and they translate two Hebrew words. In verse 1 David asks for ḥānan, favour shown freely by the greater to the lesser. In verse 3 he rests on ḥesed, the loyal love God keeps toward his own.

Mercy and truth stand together all through Scripture. When God proclaimed his name to Moses, he called himself “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6). A psalm says, “Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds” (Psalm 36:5), and another says of God’s throne, “mercy and truth shall go before thy face” (Psalm 89:14). Lamentations says, “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22–23). The God who sends these out is the God of whom another psalm sings, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).

Verse 4 describes the danger David has been praying about. “My soul is among lions.” The word lâbîyʼ means a lion, and properly a lioness, the fiercer of the two. Lions were a real and terrifying danger in Israel, and Scripture often uses them for powerful, ruthless enemies. His soul, the same nephesh of verse 1, his very life, lies exposed to men who would tear him apart.

“And I lie even among them that are set on fire.” The verb lâhaṭ means to lick, and so to blaze or burn, like a flame. These men are on fire with rage and hatred, burning to do him harm. Paul speaks of “the fiery darts of the wicked” that the shield of faith quenches (Ephesians 6:16).

“Even the sons of men” tells us who these lions are. They are human beings, and their cruelty is all the more bitter because it comes from David’s own kind.

David, the anointed king hunted by those in power, points forward to Jesus, the Son of David, who was innocent and was hunted to the cross. In Gethsemane Jesus poured out his heart to his Father as David did in the cave, and he trusted his Father’s will to the end: “not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42).

The lions and sharp tongues of verse 4 surrounded him too. The religious leaders sought false witness against him (Matthew 26:59–60), one of his own disciples betrayed him (John 13:21), and the crowds reviled him as he hung on the cross (Matthew 27:39–44). Peter writes of him, “when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” (1 Peter 2:23). He bore the reproach David feared and “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). He suffered for the sins of others, as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and on the cross he triumphed over the principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15).

The rest of the passage finds its answer in him as well. God sent his Son from heaven so that the world through him might be saved (John 3:17), and in him God’s mercy and truth came together, for the Word made flesh was “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). He is the plainest proof of God’s mercy, because “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Death, which would have swallowed him up, was itself “swallowed up in victory” when he rose (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). God performed all things for his Son by raising him from the dead, “because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:24), and seating him at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3). The same God is now at work in all who trust Christ, conforming them to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). Christ himself is the shelter under whose wings he longed to gather his people, and in him we are carried through trouble and given victory over it, for he said, “be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

David shows us that prayer belongs at the start when fear presses in, and that we may keep asking. “Be merciful unto me” is a prayer anyone can pray, because it rests wholly on God’s kindness. To trust God, in the language of this psalm, is to run to him for shelter, and you can do that today by bringing your trouble to him and choosing to stay near him until it passes. Every trouble of yours has an end that God has set, and his wings cover you until then.

When words are aimed at you like arrows, you can tell God plainly what is being said, as David did, and leave your defence with him, the way Jesus committed himself to the One who judges righteously. The same verse speaks to our own mouths, since our tongues can be swords too, and we are called to speak words that bring health.

The God you call on is the Most High, and he finishes what he begins. He still sends out his mercy and his truth, and he has sent them to us in his Son.