Welcome to Drive Time Devotions and our look at Psalm 57 today.
This section of Psalms is very specific in its titles about when they were written.
Psalm 56, yesterday, when David was held captive in Gath, and now Psalm 57, when David had
fled from Saul into the cave.
This is a psalm about when you've had to flee into a cave.
For many, the cave is, at best, a place of shelter, and at worst, a place where you feel
trapped.
For David, the cave became a place of praise.
Any place can be a place of praise when you know God, because God is everywhere.
David's trapped in a cave.
His life is at great risk, and he makes that cave into a place of praise.
He had confidence that God would fulfill his purpose for him, that the place of confidence
that he could be in was there because of who God was.
And that is a place of confidence that you can live in every day of your life, in every
circumstance that you face.
There's nothing that can happen that can stop God from working to fulfill his purpose for
you.
Now, your cave probably won't be a physical cave like David's.
It might be the cave of a time of waiting for a new job to come through, or the cave
of feeling trapped in an old job.
It might be the cave of a time of grief, or the cave of waiting on God's promise to
come through in your life.
Whatever cave you're in, I just want to remind you, it is better to be in the will of God
in a cave than out of the will of God in a palace.
So how can you make that cave a place of praise?
Well, you do the four things that David did that we see in this psalm while he was in
that cave.
Here's what you do while you're in that cave.
Here's what you make of that cave.
Number one, make sure that the cave is a place of prayer.
Verses one to three.
"Have mercy on me, O God.
Have mercy on me.
For in you my soul takes refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.
I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
He sends from heaven and he saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me.
God sends his love and his faithfulness."
David talked to God.
He trusted in God in that cave.
He says, "I'm taking refuge in you, God."
And he talked about the shadow of your wings.
Some think that might mean like a mother bird who protects her baby bird, but more likely
it has to do with the temple, where the wings of the cherubim went over the Ark of the Covenant
and the shadow of the wings was the most holy place of God's presence.
I will take refuge in the most holy place of your presence until the disaster has passed.
That is a place that is greater than any disaster.
That place, that most holy place of God's presence.
Verse two, as David prays here, contains two names for God.
God most high and God who fulfills his purpose.
In Hebrew, Elohim Elion and El Gamar, it's a good thing to use the names of God in our
prayers.
We don't do that enough.
When we say Father at the beginning and Jesus' name at the end, but use many of the names
of God in your prayers, especially when you're in a cave.
God Almighty, God my healer, God my strength, Ancient of days, God who sees, Holy God, Father.
You can look them up, these names of God and use them in your prayers.
Here's the power of prayer.
A long time before virtual reality, there was spiritual reality.
Virtual reality is making something false appear to be real.
Spiritual reality is making something real appear to be real.
You may not see it yet, but it is real and God wants you to see how real it really is.
His love for you, his strength for you in that circumstance.
That's what you do when you pray, is you make something real appear to be real.
You see beyond the cave that God is greater than the cave that you're in.
In this Psalm, you see yourself in a place of refuge with God.
You see God sending, sending his love and his faithfulness to you in that cave.
The cave is a place of prayer.
Number two, the cave is a place of perspective.
In verse five, David writes, "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let your glory be over all the earth."
Here he is in this dark cave, but he doesn't let his life become limited to that cave.
He recognized there that God is exalted above the heavens.
He saw that God's glory would cover all the earth.
He got a perspective bigger than the place that he was.
In verse six, David writes, "They spread a net.
My enemies spread a net for my feet.
I was bowed down in distress.
They dug a pit for my path, but they have fallen into it themselves."
David saw with new perspective the truth about his enemies in that cave.
He saw that whatever traps they would set for him, they'd end up falling into themselves
in the end.
And then in verses seven and eight, he writes, "My heart is steadfast, O God.
My heart is steadfast.
I will sing and make music, awake my soul, awake harp and lyre.
I will awaken the dawn."
David awakened his perspective in that cave.
And I just want to say to you, sometimes it takes the limits and the loss of a cave to
awaken your soul to what is truly important.
Let me say that again.
Sometimes it takes the limits and the loss of a cave to awaken my soul to what is truly
important.
The cave is a place of perspective.
Number three, the cave is a place of promise.
Verses nine and ten, David says, "I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations.
I will sing of you among the peoples, for great is your love, reaching to the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies."
Now, here he is in a cave, trapped, not knowing where his life's going to go.
And he says, "God, one day I'm going to praise you among all the nations.
All the peoples are going to hear my praise."
And right now, it's just him and God in the cave.
David was able to look forward to the promise of God, the promise that God had for his life,
even when he was in that place that seemed to have no promise.
And that leads us to the fourth thing about the cave.
Number four, the cave is a place of purpose.
Remember what he prayed back in verse two, "I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills
his purpose for me."
Many of us, in fact, I'd say most of us, we feel stuck when we get in a cave, like we're
never going to get out.
That's it.
God's purpose for me is over.
I'm stuck in this cave.
Well, David continues to see that God has a purpose for him.
And he recognized that the Lord was going to use even that cave to fulfill his purpose.
God has some wonderful things that he's going to do in your life when you get out of that
cave.
But don't miss the truth that God is fulfilling his purpose for your life even while you're
in the cave.
He's developing your heart of faith, your heart of love as you trust in him.
You may be facing a cave that looks like it's going to last the rest of your life on this
earth.
And your release will come when you get to heaven.
But that does not mean that the Lord is not at work in and through your life right now,
even in that seeming cave.
Now if you want to do some more study on this, you'll find that God has done some of his
most amazing work in caves.
Abraham and the cave of Machpalah, David and the cave of Engedi, the cave of Elijah, where
he met with God and heard the still small voice.
And don't forget that in John 11 28, we're told that they laid Jesus in a hollowed out
cave with a stone laid across its entrance.
God has certainly done some of his best work in caves and he may want to accomplish a resurrection
of purpose in your life even while you're in that cave that you're in right now.
Let's talk to God about that.
Our Father, caves are scary to us.
We feel like they're dead ends, but they are not to you.
They're places where you're at work.
So help us to make of the cave that we get in, whether we're in one now or we'll be in
one at some point in our lives, a place of prayer and a perspective, a place where we're
trusting your promise and your purpose in our lives.
And God, I pray specifically for a resurrection of purpose while we're in that cave.
Help us to see what you want to do in our lives, what you want to do through our lives,
that you are not done with us, that you are still working in us and through us.
Thank you that you are the God of purpose, whose purpose will never fail us or end in
us.
We praise you for this in Jesus name, amen.
Well join us tomorrow.
We're going to look for some good news in Psalm 58, which happens to be one of the most
negative of all the Psalms.