Amid fiery beast, the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. Be exaltet, oh God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. They set a net for my steps. My soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves. Say, La. My heart is steadfast, O God. My heart is steadfast. I will sing and make melody. Awake, my glory. Awake, O harp and lyre. I will awake in the dawn. I will give thanks to you, oh Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations, for your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Be exaltet, oh God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Let me pray for the preaching of God’s word. Father, as my words are true to your word, may they be taken to heart. But if my The word should stray from yours, may they be quickly forgotten. I pray this in the name and in the power of Jesus Christ.
Amen. Earlier this year, I had the privilege of watching Canada geese protect their young Two sets of pears were leading their small flotilla of gosslings, and they had just reached a small peninsula with high grass when one of the geese alerted. Immediately, the two lead geese cried, spreading their wings, and the gosslings fled for cover. One lagged behind, who was still in the water, and the other adult quickly flew over him. At that moment, an eagle slammed into the goose with its outstretched wings. The second Goose hurled itself at the eagle, and a second eagle came in to the fight. Two bald eagles with their talons, four parent Canada geese with their battering wings, and in a few seconds, it was over the eagles flying off to dine elsewhere. I was a bystander in awe of the power of protecting wings, and a parent determination to save. No doubt if those gosslings had any sense, they would have sung their parents’ praise. Praise is the natural response when one’s cry for help has been answered with so great a salvation. Indeed, that’s the rhythm that we see in the 57th Psalm. A cry for help leads to a reflection on God’s faithfulness, and this in turn gives the Psalmist confidence.
Knowing that his cry will be answered, he will be delivered. And this reality overwhelms him to praise. Latenest Psalm, as a song, contains two parts, each ending with the same refrain in verse 5 and in 11. Be exaltet, oh God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. That is the goal. That is where this psalm is pointing. The psalm, as we begin to unpack it, we’ll notice first in the superscription, we read that it is to be sung to the tune Do not destroy, which is also the tune for psalms 58, 59, and psalms 75. Do not destroy your people is what Moses prays in Deuteronomy 9: 26 and elsewhere. And so this Psalm, this tune, this phrase could be linked there. But Old Testament scholar Dielich, he also points to 2 Samuel Rather, 1 Samuel 26: 9, as well as Isaiah 65: 8, which reads this, As wine is found in the cluster, and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is blessing in it, so will I do for my servants’ sake. This advice, or it was perhaps even a popular saying at the time, went something like this, Just because the first batch of grapes are bad, you don’t have to destroy the vine.
Indeed, on this idea, Old Testament scholar Marvin Tate, he notes, Like the vine, Israel had brought grapes worthy of destruction. But Yahveh would not destroy Israel because she still contained a blessing. The setting for this Psalm is David fleeing from Saul in the cave. It could be pointing to the story in either 1 Samuel 22 or 24. But in either case, David opens the Psalm proper with a double cry for God’s mercy. Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, or be gracious to me, ‘ some translations say. This call to God for his mercy or for his gracious response is followed by David’s Declaration of Need, for in you my soul takes refuge. But David may have fled to a cave for physical protection, but he understands very clearly that his real and only refuge is in the Lord God. I wonder if our belief runs that deep. How often do I catch myself in times of trouble just trying harder, to work harder, to be more feverish in my planning or my plotting or my determining my own outcome? All in my household know the saying, Work will win when wishing won’t.
And certainly, David fled, too, and he led his men to the cave for hiding and for protection. And this is a profound difference. His soul’s refuge, his real confidence was in the Lord. And at the end of verse one, the image is stunning. It is under the shadows of your wings that I will take refuge. Old Testament scholar Marvin Tate wondered if David, instead of looking to nature, to the idea that I opened this sermon with, rather looked to the tabernacle. A seeing in the phrase, Shadow of your wings, perhaps a reference to the wings of the cherubim on the top of the Ark of the Covenant. That top, that cover, was called the mercy seat. Exodus 25: 20, lending support to this idea, says, The cherubim shall spread their wings above, overshadowing the Mercy Seat with their wings. It’s a beautiful possibility, and it rightly recognizes that only in God’s mercy, only in the atoning work of a proper sacrifice, can deliverance be truly found. However, because the other images of this psalm, the lions, the pit, the net, these are physical and practical and from nature, it’s more likely that David is choosing that imagery.
Like gothlings safe from the screaming eagles, which, by the way, they didn’t scream as they come in to strike. There is no place that David would rather be than under the Lord’s wings. Until the storms of destruction pass by. Four times, David uses the imagery of refuge under wings. And Jesus himself, recorded both in Matthew 23 and in Luke 13, uses this picture. In a prayer for Jerusalem, he cries out with incredible historic and prophetic vision, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing? Why are we so unwilling to call out to our heavenly Father for his protection, to run to him as our refuge, to seek him as a shelter in our storms? David His help for mercy. His call is for help. And His mercy, his call is for help, and his mercy, his cry is persistent and it is earnest. And even in the midst of his plea for mercy, his call for God’s grace, he is answered. The scholar James May notes that David’s vision of God is so strong that it permeates this prayer and diminishes the reality of the danger.
Verse 2, I cry out to God Most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. That’s an extraordinary statement of faith. It’s a deep theological reflection. Most of us have memorized, or at least are familiar with Romans 8: 28, the promise that God works all things together for good for those who love him, for those who are called according to his purpose. We take it in a way that says something like, Well, This will probably work out. God will probably use this. I suppose I can have some good at the end, some silver lining. But behind Paul’s assertion in Romans, behind David’s confidence in Psalm 57, is the truth that God has decreed every event of our life for his particular purpose. Our shorter catechism, Question 7, explains it this way, The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby for his own glory, he has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. Whatsoever comes to pass. Of course, we can see that, that he would do something like that for Abraham or for Ruth or for Joseph. Certainly, we believe that he ruled over all the events in Jesus’s life.
But mind and everything, that’s harder to believe. And yet the scriptures are clear, for those who love God, all All things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Paul is very clear. And if you look at Romans 8, if you tie that verse to the context, you see that it begins in eternity and it ends in our glorification. Imagine the comfort and the confidence you could have if you truly believe received that promise, that biblical truth. For David will see that this truth gave him incredible comfort in verse 4. But first, notice why else David has such peace. God is not simply passively aware of the future. He has foreordained it, and he himself is involved in it. Here in verse 3, David acknowledges that God has sent forth from heaven help in time of need. This help not only comfort comforts David, but also shames his enemies. This help comes in the form of two agents, loyal love and truth, or in the ESV, steadfast love and faithfulness. In this Psalm, the use of the language here personifies them, as if David sees God sending two emissaries or guides to lead him through the most difficult of times.
In verse 4, David, with his guide’s loyal love and truth, finds himself in the midst of lions, arguably the most terrifying of beings. I once got a backstage tour of an exotic cat zoo, and when I walked by the lion’s cage. I was a mere 5 feet from him. We were separated by one single chain link fence. And he looked at me, and I felt like he looked deep into my eyes, and he roared. And I felt the heat of his breath, and his voice terrified me. I think I was momentarily paralyzed, and I was safe as I could be. David, likewise, was in the safety of God’s purpose. Exposed to lions, he was fenced in by God’s love and faithfulness. And so believing his God, we that he could lie down in the midst of such enemies and sleep sweetly. When reading this, I wondered if perhaps Daniel drew comfort from this Psalm when he found himself thrown into a literal pit of lions. We don’t know for sure, but we know that like David, Daniel trusted in God to fulfill his purposes, and he knew that God was with him and he was as safe as he could be.
Lions or lying adversaries, those wicked children of men who would twist our words or seek to destroy our reputation with their sharpened teeth, are no real threat to us who have called out to the Lord for mercy, who trust in God’s purposes, who rest in God’s love and faithfulness, who seek God’s grace under the shadow of his wings. Notice that in verse 5, all this culminates into an eruption of praise. David voices his praise, be exaltet, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the Earth. This exclamation of praise. This refrain occurs again in verse 11 to close out the glorious song in praise. What started as a lament ends in exaltet praise, as our own pattern of living should do. Confidence in the midst of turmoil results in praise. Now, make no mistake about it, David is still in peril. Saul is out to kill him, and he has been on the run for some time, hiding in caves, wary of betrayals, spies, and other traps. Verse 6 makes that clear. And yet David knows that ultimately justice will prevail, and David’s enemies will fall into their own traps. Now here, the Psalmist inserts a selah.
That’s a musical or liturgical term that some consider might function as a pause. An opportunity for reflection. That would certainly be appropriate here. The first occurrence in verse 3 and this occurrence here, both cases, the enemy is brought to shame. Their plans backfire selah. It’s as if the Psalmist is asking us to reflect. David, in verse seven, comments that knowing this, believing in God’s future justice, trusting and hoping in God’s love and truth that enables his own heart to be steadfast. These words mean firm, established, and prepared. But David has trained himself on how to respond to turmoil. Cry out to God, believe his word, and respond in praise. That’s the training that he has undergone and he undergoes for himself. This is exactly what he does as verse 7 ends, I will sing and make melody. Perhaps verse 8 is a song within this psalm, or perhaps it’s simply a call for all of creation, join him. But in this call to praise, David first awakened himself. Awake my glory. God has created us glorious, and he’s even given us glory. And David desires to arouse himself to better praise, to better worship his God.
One scholar notes, The worshipper’s whole being is filled with the thought of God. And this state of mind is his glory, which is spread over him like the resplendent Majesty of God. Thus, the speaker’s glory is a sense of personal worth and ability to praise God. I wonder if this morning, in preparation for worship, you called to yourself, Awake my glory. I wonder if in your daily life lived out in worship of our God God, that you pause and awake yourself. Awake my glory, so that our lives are lived in praise and worship of our glorious God. But Notice that David’s desire is not simply that he praises God, but rather that he praises God among the peoples and among the nations. He displays a missionary zeal. This is a little aside, but I wonder if you noticed as you came in, the new display that the Mission’s Committee has put up highlighting our Missionary of the Month, keeping a missionary zeal in front of us week after week, month after month. But notice that David, rather, praises God among the peoples, among the nations, and In verse 10, he keeps God’s steadfast love and God’s truth or God’s faithfulness together.
These two emissaries ought not ever be separated. Now, 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that when we separate faithfulness or truth from love, we become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. A truth without love has no melody, no attraction, of rhythm. And love without truth has no substance, no saving words. One is dull, the other a mere vapor. But together they show forth the gospel. The good news of God’s salvation that Christ Jesus, he is the deliverer under whose wings one is safe. Indeed, his outstretched arms on the cross give us the only shadows that save. Christ, all his words are true, all his actions are love, and they are always together. I think this is a challenge for many of us. Some prefer only to be nice. They may proclaim or believe that love wins, and they resist judgment or warning. They minimize or ignore sin, and that is not the gospel. There is no power for salvation there. Others tack in the other direction, and with pressurized speech and intensity and what looks like anger, they hammer people with the law. That is not the gospel either. On one hand, to be nice is to be pleasant and pleasing, but it also avoids conflict and difficulties.
Rather, be kind. That is, to speak the truth lovingly and with sincere love for the other. If you don’t love the other, you ought not speak to them. Love them first, even as Christ has loved you, and then warn and offer rescue. In my personal worship this week, at one time I was reading through Psalm 40, and in verse 3, there the Psalmist likewise turns to praise, and he notes this, that in his new song, many will see and fear and put their trust in God. Truth and love together is something that can be seen and something that communicates the right fear and awe of our Lord. The gospel marries God’s steadfast love and his truth into a loving invitation to others to take a look at our lives, to see us, to see how we endure hardship, to see how we call out to the only one who can save us, the only one who loves unconditionally, who has purposed all things in our lives for our good and for his glory. This same God, who is so far above us in his nature, has seen fit to send his only son. And David saw his only son as God’s loyal love and truth, under whose wings he could take refuge.
And we see Jesus as the word became flesh and who dwelt among us as the spotless lamb who was lifted up on the cross and whose outstretched arms provide our salvation. This is the message of praise that we need to take to the world. And the place to start is right next door, perhaps right across the street, perhaps even in your own family. In distress, cry out to God. Believe with confidence his word, and let your praise be heard among the nations. Let us pray. Father, we give you thanks and praise for indeed your word is true and sure. Lord, you have done all this for you love your children, and you sent your only son to die on the cross for us. And we praise you for that. And so, Lord, we ask that you would work in us a better understanding of your nature, that we would also better understand that duty that you require of us, and that in proclaiming the gospel to those around us, it would flow out of our love. We would love them and desire something better for their lives. So, Father, cultivate that love for those in our family who know you not, for our neighbors, for those across the street, perhaps even at the other end of the pew in which we are seated.
Father, work in us a deep love for them that flows out of your love for us. Lord, we thank you for your word. May we live it out in our lives to the glory of your son by the of your spirit. Amen.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.