Psalms 57

Psalms 57:1-11

Faith’s present shelter and final deliverance. To the chief musician, Al-tashcheth: Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul into the cave. The Al-tashcheth (“Destroy not”) which is in the title of the two following psalms, and the Asaphic seventy-fifth, as well as the present, is hard from its brevity to understand, as well as from its apparent applicability in so many ways. The historical occasion of the psalm also, while there is no difficulty attending it, has, in the same way, no special noteworthiness that I can discover. An opportunity this which men will take to disparage Scripture in favor of their own ignorance; but the stars do not the less shine because our sight may be too dull to behold them. Thank God, they do not! In the psalm itself, there is no peculiar difficulty. It goes on from present shelter to future deliverance and these are (speaking broadly) the two parts into which it is divided, each part being closed with the refrain.

1. In the first part the soul casts itself upon divine grace, as that which will surely meet the faith that takes refuge in it. The bird that, according to the ancient story, would shelter itself from the pursuer in the bosom of man may have cause to repent its confidence; but who shall ever say that his confidence in God has deceived him? Nay, rather, when all other trust is found to be in vain, this becomes the only and all-sufficient one. “Depths” of evil and abysses of sorrow there are indeed on every side; but the shadow of Jehovah’s wings is not merely a place of escape but a home rest, where the Eternal Light subdues itself to our weakness, and yet is an infinite glory of truth and holiness and fostering care. How sweet then may be the self-abandonment to Love so competent: “I cry unto God most High: to the Mighty that accomplisheth for me.” Where He has charge of all one’s concerns, how surely shall they all prosper; how deep may be the peace resulting. But there is not merely an indefinite confidence. The future has been marked out for us by Him to whom all His works are known from the beginning; and Israel’s portion glows in the page of prophecy, for faith to possess itself beforehand of it. David is himself the forerunner of the later prophets, the leader of that magnificent choir of divine song. Here he foresees the intervention of God for His people: “He shall send from heaven and save me” -“God shall send forth His mercy and truth.” In the meanwhile, however, there is plenty to test this confidence; and patience must have its perfect work. “My soul is among lions: I lie among them that are on fire, -children of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.” But he cries in distress no more. His heart is full of another longing, in which prophecy and prayer are found together, and God fills the whole scene. But then, and thus only, man’s blessing is accomplished, as it is indeed by Man -the Son of man -that the prayer is fulfilled. “Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens” has its answer in the psalm of the Son of man, the eighth psalm, “Thou hast set Thy glory above the heavens,” while “glory over all the earth” is the well-known result of the uprising of the Sun of righteousness in the appearing of the same blessed Person. God is with men -in Man: a consummation to which these psalms are leading on.
2. Accordingly the second part is occupied with the salvation of Israel -personated by the psalmist -and the blessing following for the earth. It begins with the recompense awarded to their enemies in divine righteousness. They have dug a pit and fallen into it. According to the eternal law of retribution, they have been taken in their own craftiness. Israel is delivered, and their heart, already turned to Him, is established as His by the grace shown them. “They will sing and psalm”: not only themselves praise, but make the mute things vocal -which is just man’s office as head of the lower creation.

Israel’s worship accordingly begins: her glory awakes; psaltery and harp awake; and this music of hers awakes the dawn of day for the whole earth. She is the herald of salvation for the nations also, the “first-born,” to be followed by the later-born. She praises among the gathered peoples, and sings her psalms among the races of men. God is with men. His mercy is great unto the heavens: -not, as before and afterwards said, His glory above them. The heavenly people will be witnesses of this mercy; and the parallel of His “truth unto the clouds” would seem to speak of heavenly influences for the earth, -whether the rule of the saints with Christ specifically, or in general the windows of heaven open, no restraint of those ministries from above, upon which all blessing for the earth depends. God is with men; but the supreme triumph of divine love is found even beyond and above this, God in Man, the visible glory and consummation of grace in Christ set above the heavens, while embracing all the earth in the lustre of His beams.