PSALM 57 - Happy Warriors

Introduction

A number of years ago—the kids were just little—we took a tour of Luray Caverns in Virginia. Now, I grew up going to Penn’s Cave in Center County and Lincoln Caverns down in Huntingdon. Those places put a high priority on keeping the ecosystem of the cave as undisturbed as possible—they don’t leave lights on inside, they discourage people from touching the formations, and so on.

But Luray Caverns were apparently opened to the public during a very different era—the first sign is that you access the caverns via an elevator shaft that has been tunneled into the cave ceiling! The floor of the cave has been replaced by brick walkways, the lights are never turned off (evidenced by the moss growing on the rocks under them!), and the crowning attraction is a large chamber that houses the Great Stalagpipe Organ—where hundreds of stalactites were chiseled and shaved down so that they would emit the proper musical pitch when struck by little hammers connected to the organ’s keyboard. It’s certainly not the conservation- and ecology-minded approach of some other cave attractions, but the music the Stalagpipe Organ makes really is beautiful!

Our Psalm this morning would be an appropriate one to play on the Great Stalagpipe Organ—Psalm 57 was written in a cave, after all! If you look at the heading of the psalm, it says “To the Choirmaster: According to “Do Not Destroy”. A Miktam of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.” This is another one of David’s “Outlaw Years” psalms, and the event it is referring to took place in 1 Samuel 22:1-2:

1 Samuel 22:1–2 (ESV)

1 David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men.

Now, for you and I a visit to a cave is an interesting and exciting tourism opportunity to marvel at God’s creation, learn about geology, experience the total darkness of being underground when they turn the lights off, and so on. But for a man of David’s time, going down into a cave wasn’t a fun diversion. A cave went under the earth—it was a form of going down to the grave!

And when you consider where David is at this point in his “outlaw years”, it really is like he has suffered a “death”, isn’t it? He has been driven out of his home by Saul’s hatred, the priests at Nob were executed for helping him, he narrowly escaped being caught and killed in the Philistine city of Gath (as we saw last week), and now he is literally being driven underground—driven into Sheol—by Saul’s consuming hatred.

And he’s not alone—he is joined by “everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, everyone who was bitter in soul...” Here is David, surrounded in the cave by a crowd of distressed, destitute, disillusioned and disgruntled people. But the end of verse 2 says that David “became commander over them”.

Think of that for a moment—you are driven underground, into a place that feels like the grave, and you are surrounded by people who are all disgruntled and bitter and destitute. Anything about that situation ring a bell? As we look around us today there is no shortage of people who are disgruntled, disillusioned, deeply in debt and bitter in spirit over the political, cultural and moral condition of our country. And it is easy for Christians to feel that we are being “driven underground”, as it were—although what we are experiencing here is nothing compared to what our brothers and sisters in Canada are facing from their government today.

We might not be at the point where we are actually driven from our workplaces, our communities, our schools, our homes—but we are certainly at a point where we are being surrounded by a lot of people who are full of despair and bitterness and hatred over the direction this country is going.

And you have a choice to make in the midst of all of this. You can either add your voice to theirs and join in with the anger and hatred and contentiousness and bitterness of their despair and disillusionment, or you can do what David did here—he did not descend into the anger and hopelessness of those who fled into the cave where he was, he became their leader. He did not let them set the tone of the cave—he set the tone!

And so I want us to examine David’s song here in Psalm 57 - I want us to understand how he was able to sing in that place of despair, how he was able to be joyful in the midst of people who were angry and pessimistic. Everybody on TV wants you to be afraid; everybody on social media wants you to be angry; everybody around the water cooler at work wants you to join in with their pessimism and bitter complaints and hatred for their enemies. But God’s call for you, Christian, is to be a happy warrior. His call is for you to set the tone in the cave—not of pessimism and complaints and despair, but of steadfast confidence in God!

Here is what I hope we can learn this morning from God’s Word--

Steadfast CONFIDENCE in God makes for a happy WARRIOR for God

Let’s listen to the song David was singing in that cave—surrounded by the angry, sullen and despairing people who believed that it was all over, David instead demonstrated

I. Steadfast TRUST in GOD (vv. 1-3)

Look at verses 1-3

Psalm 57:1–3 (ESV)

1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. 2 I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. 3 He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!

The first note of David’s song is his trust in God as his refuge—he says it twice in verse 1:

Psalm 57:1 (ESV)

1... O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.

David may have found a cave to hide in, but his real hiding place was in God. He says, “in the shadow of Your wings” I take refuge—I take this to mean not just a picture of a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings (the image that Jesus uses of Jerusalem in Matthew 23:37); I think what David is singing about here is the shadow of the wings of the cherubim that covered the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle. (I take it this way because David ties together a call for mercy from God with a reference to being under His “wings” which overshadowed the mercy seat).

David’s trust in God shows you that

His PRESENCE is your REFUGE (v. 1)

There in the presence of God, before the Most Holy Place, is a refuge for you that no one can disturb! When you come into the presence of God through your union with Jesus Christ, there is no one that can take away your security, because no one can take away the mercy of God for you! No matter what happens to you in this life, Christian, you have a refuge before God through Jesus, and no storm of destruction will ever cause God to cease pouring out His mercy on you!

David goes on to say in verse 2 that not only is God’s presence your refuge, but

His PURPOSE for you is RIGHT (v. 2)

Psalm 57:2 (ESV)

2 I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.

Here is another reason for David’s steadfast trust in God that made him a “happy warrior”—He knew that whatever happened to him, God had a good purpose for all of it! “God fulfills His purpose for me!” David knew (as we saw last week) that God had promised to make him king one day, and so he knew that this time hiding in the cave was only temporary; that God had promised a future for him and a glorious hope for him, and so he could not die before God kept His promise for him!

Christian, whether God’s purpose for you is to live or die, to prosper or languish, to succeed or fail—all of His purposes for you are right and good! Not one of His plans for you will fail, not one of His good purposes for you will be thwarted! You can have steadfast trust in Him because He has promised you that He will complete every good work in you so that you will stand complete and perfect when Jesus Christ appears someday (cp. Philippians 1:6).

David’s steadfast confidence in God—his trust in God as his refuge and his assurance that God’s good purposes for him could not fail—these things made David a happy warrior for God. He did not succumb to the bitterness and despair of the people around him in the cave—he became their leader; he led them into faithful obedient worship of God!

David was a happy warrior for God because of his steadfast confidence in God—his steadfast trust in God, and his

II. Steadfast HOPE for DELIVERANCE (vv. 4-6)

Look at verses 4-6 with me:

Psalm 57:4–6 (ESV)

4 My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts— the children of man, 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 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. Selah

David knew that God was faithful to deliver him from his enemies—despite all of their schemes and traps and treachery, God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to David meant that they could not touch him!

Because of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness,

We have PEACE despite our CIRCUMSTANCES (v. 4)

Have you ever been to a rodeo where one of the events is a game of “Bull Poker?” Four players sit down at a table in the middle of the ring and play a hand of poker while a rank bull is let loose in there with them—the winner is either the guy with the best hand or the last guy still seated at the table!

That’s the image I want you to have when you read verse 4—David is in the arena full of lions and fiery beasts who want to destroy him—but he is so confident of God’s protection for him that he lays down to take a nap! He is not angry, not apprehensive, not fretting or anxious over his surroundings; he is at peace!

Christian—no matter how badly things seem to be falling apart around you, you can have real peace in the midst of your circumstances because you know that God is faithful to you!vHenry Martyn was a missionary to the peoples of India and Persia in the late 18th- and early 19th centuries. When asked about the dangers of preaching the Gospel to people who were so vehemently opposed to Christianity, he famously answered, “I am immortal until God’s work for me to do is done. The LORD reigns!”

David was a happy warrior because God’s faithful protection gave him peace despite his circumstances. And when we read ahead to verses 5-6 we see that our steadfast hope in God’s deliverance means that

We have CONFIDENCE in God's PROVIDENCE (v. 6)

Psalm 57:5–6 (ESV)

5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! 6 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. Selah

David could clearly see that his enemies were laying all kinds of traps and snares for him—they were stacking the deck against him, they were waiting for the opportunity to take him out. But instead of fretting, instead of responding with hatred or threats of his own, instead of muttering and fantasizing over how he would blow them away someday, he trusted that God would take them out in His own timing and His own way!

We’ve noted before that God delights to destroy His enemies by making them fall into their own traps, and David sings about that here—they fall into the trap they set for him. Haman was hung on the gallows he built for Mordechai, Goliath was beheaded by his own sword. David isn’t worried about vindicating or defending himself—he isn’t worried about how his name is being slandered and dragged through the mud. All he wants is to see God’s name exalted above the heavens—and he wants God to exalt Himself by trapping his enemies in their own plans! That makes for a happy warrior, because—let’s be honest—it’s just plain funny to watch wicked and rebellious enemies get tangled up in their own traps!

David was a happy warrior for God because he took his confidence in the steadfast faithfulness of God. Steadfast trust in God, steadfast hope in God’s deliverance, and

III. Steadfast WORSHIP among the NATIONS (vv. 7-11)

Look at verses 7-11:

Psalm 57:7–11 (ESV)

7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody! 8 Awake, my glory! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! 9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. 10 For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. 11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!

In the midst of the cave, surrounded by the disillusionment and despair of destitute and bitter people, you are not, Christian, to be characterized by the same resentful and fearful spirit of the people around you. We are not to be known by our despair or fear,

We are to be known by HEARTFELT SONG (vv. 7-8)

David says that his confidence in God’s steadfast faithfulness meant that his heart was steadfast. This is a confidence and a peace and a joy that comes from the heart! Not a fake “everything will be okay” or putting a brave face on, or whistling in the dark—Christian, you are to be characterized by real, heartfelt joy in God!

You turn on the TV and hear the latest rebellious insanity slouching its way through congressional committees and it makes you laugh! You hear about another assault on religious liberty bubbling up through the courts and your first response is, “They’re going to get taken out by their own scheme—that’s going to be funny to watch!” When we have the kind of confidence in our Cave of Adullam that David had in his, it will shine like a beam of sunlight through the gloom and doom that pervades our surroundings.

We are to be known by heartfelt song, and David shows us in verse 9 that

We are to be known by GRATEFUL WITNESS (v. 9)

Here is the crowning glory of the happy warrior—here is the distinguishing mark of someone who has complete confidence in the steadfast faithfulness and protection of God—that you are characterized by a spirit of gratitude in the midst of these dark times.

Too many Christians in these difficult days smell just like the world around them—angry, frustrated, complaining about the fools and brigands who are at the helm of our country, pining for some “good-old-days” that they remember from years ago, dissatisfied and grumbling about the turn our country and our situations have taken.

But listen here to the song David sings in the depths of the earth with his enemies plotting to take him down surrounded by disillusioned, destitute and bitter people, and you hear none of that! You hear gratitude for God’s faithfulness, you hear joy in all the good God has given him, you hear confidence in the inevitable fall of his enemies, you hear peace and contentment even while the fiery beasts with their sharp tongues of lies and slander close in! That is a happy warrior for God, and that is what you are called to be, Christian!

But as we have noted, you cannot “gin up” that gratitude on your own—you certainly can’t be guilted into behaving that way. It must come from the work of God’s Holy Spirit who dwells in you, who gives you peace that passes all understanding, that gives you songs in the night, that gives you gratitude and joy and laughter in the midst of the battle.

Christian, if you find yourself sounding more and more like the disillusioned, grumbling, bitter, dissatisfied voices around you—if you find yourself feeding on the fear and distrust and anger being fed to you by the media (and make no mistake, both sides sell fear and mistrust!), if all you can see is how far things have fallen and how much better things used to be in the “good old days”, then there is only one remedy. You must name those things for what they are—they are sins of unbelief and ingratitude—and confess them as sins before God. Lay all that unbelief and fear and anger and resentment and anxiety at the foot of the Cross of Jesus Christ and leave it there.

You have the promises of God—His unbreakable, steadfast lovingkindness and faithfulness, purchased for you by Jesus’ blood on that Cross—that He will rescue you, He will not let the wickedness and rebellion around you succeed, He will accomplish all of His good purposes for you no matter what. You can be a happy warrior in this battle—with heartfelt gratitude instead of bitter complaining, with confident security instead of fearful fretting, with holy and bold confidence in your faithful Savior each day. Like the Riders of Rohan in Lord of the Rings who “sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them”, take up the sword of the Spirit in one hand and the instruments of worship in the other hand—gather here in His presence on the Lord’s Day to sing, and then go out to fight, laugh and feast as happy warriors in the midst of despair, singing with gratitude and steadfast hearts in light of the hope you have in your Savior Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

What were the background events that led David to write Psalm 57? Where was he when he wrote this psalm? How was David’s situation similar to what we are experiencing in our day?

Read over Psalm 57:4. What is David communicating when he says that he “lies down amid fiery beasts, the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords”? Where does David’s peace come from in that situation?

Why do we say that the crowning glory of the happy warrior is gratitude to God? As you read through Psalm 57, what evidence do you see of David’s gratefulness to God?

Spend some time making a list of reasons you are grateful to God, and look for opportunities this week to “set the tone” of your joyful gratitude to God in your conversations with others!