Roller-Coaster

Psalm 57 is the most amazing Psalm! It was so wonderful to study it in more depth with the help of Christopher Ash's book. I love how it's such a real picture of the Christian life- a cycle of trusting in God's promises, feeling the pressures of life and questioning, and then praising and back to feeling the pressures and clinging to the promises. It's so real and encouraging. I love the emphasis on God's covenantal love and faithfulness- he is totally trustworthy. 

There's so much in it which I'm not going to copy and paste here but I'd just really encourage you to read it, enjoy it and even get this book which is so helpful in studying the Psalms. Here is a link to an interview with Christopher Ash about the Psalms on the Good Book Company podcast.

***

Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me,

    for in you I take refuge.

I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings

    until the disaster has passed.

2 

I cry out to God Most High,

    to God, who vindicates me.

3 

He sends from heaven and saves me,

    rebuking those who hotly pursue me—[c]

    God sends forth his love and his faithfulness.

4 

I am in the midst of lions;

    I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—

men whose teeth are spears and arrows,

    whose tongues are sharp swords.

5 

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;

    let your glory be over all the earth.

6 

They spread a net for my feet—

    I was bowed down in distress.

They dug a pit in my path—

    but they have fallen into it themselves.

7 

My heart, O God, is steadfast,

    my heart is steadfast;

    I will sing and make music.

8 

Awake, my soul!

    Awake, harp and lyre!

    I will awaken the dawn.

9 

I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;

    I will sing of you among the peoples.

10 

For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;

    your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

11 

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;

    let your glory be over all the earth.

***

Christopher Ash:

David is confident that God will send “his love” (chesed, covenant love) and “his faithfulness” (faithfulness to covenant promises) as his agents of rescue sent from high heaven into David’s low cave. “God … will send his steadfast love and faithfulness out like agents of a king to do his will” (Mays, Psalms, page 210). David trusts that that heavenly reality will impact earthly pressure.

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One thing this psalm reveals to us (or reminds us of) is that the life of faith is something of a roller-coaster. As we sing Psalm 57:1-5, we may feel a sense that the pressures of verse 4 have been poured out to God in the believing prayers of verses 1-3 and the climactic prayer for the glory of God in verse 5. We might even think that there has been a resolution. And yet in verse 6 we are immediately plunged back into the darkest pressures of the king in the cave. Although there is perhaps some progress—there is a stronger sense of joyful confidence in verses 7-10 than there has been in the first half of the psalm—nonetheless the prayer of verse 5 has to be prayed again in verse 11, and no doubt will be prayed again and again until the Lord Jesus returns. The strange paradoxical mix of dark pressures and confident faith is a tension of Christian experience which we should be careful not to allow to dissolve, resulting either in despair (the pressures without the faith) or in triumphalism (the confidence without the pressures). No—dark pressures and confident faith can co-exist, and we should expect them to, until the King returns in all his glory to erase the former and vindicate the latter.