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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadSpurgeon Verse Expositions - Psalms 57:1 - 57:6
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1. Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.
The heading of this Psalm — “To the chief musician, Aitaschith Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave,” — tells us when it was written. It is one of David’s “ golden Psalms.” What a mixture of feebleness and strength there is in this first verse, — the feebleness so beautified by being clothed with the strength of faith! What a turning away from man, and what a turning wholly unto the Lord! And, in coming to the Lord, what humility, and what pleading for mercy, and for mercy only! “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me.” Yet what holy boldness also! “ For my soul trusteth in thee.” And what joyous confidence and what sweet repose in God! “Yea, in the shadow of thy wings, will I make my refuge.” “If I cannot see the brightness of thy face, the shadow of thy wings shall be enough for me. Only let me get near thee, — only permit me humbly to trust thee, and it shall be enough for me, ‘unto these calamities be overpass.’”
2. I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.
Do you pray like that, my brother, my sister? I hope you do “cry unto God most high;” but do you pray to him as the One “that performeth all things” for you; — not merely who can perform all things for you, but who is actually doing it at the present moment, — working out your lasting good by everything that is transpiring around you?
3. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah.
If all the forces on earth are not sufficient to save his saint, God will send sufficient reserves from the ranks of the heavenly host to preserve his people; or if he does not determine to preserve them on earth, he will take them away from the earth, to be with him in glory; but, in one way, or another, they shall be eternally secure.
Mark what the psalmist says of the voracity of his enemy: he speaks of Saul as “him that would swallow me up;” and the believer in Jesus is, at times, such an object of the unbeliever’s detestation that he would annihilate him if he could; but God will sooner send help from heaven for his people than that ouch a calamity should ever happen.
3, 4. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. My soul is among lions:
What peril David was in, and what dangers often surround the best of the men, — if not from arrows, and swords, and spears, from the hellish artillery of unbridled tongues! A human tongue is soft, but it can cut to the very quick; and the wounds from a cruel tongue are not easily healed. Many a man will bear, as long as he lives, the scars that were made by a slanderous tongue. God can save us, however, even from this great trial, and enable us actually to rejoice in this sharp affliction. It is no strange thing that has happened unto us, for so evil men persecuted the prophets that were before us, as they said all manner of evil against them falsely. God himself was slandered by the old serpent in the garden of Eden, so it is not surprising that his children should be still slandered by the serpent’s seed.
4. And I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.
A grand burst of praise, and all the grander because of the condition of the man from whom it came. “My soul is among lions,” says he; “but, ‘be thou exalted, O God;’” as if he would say, “It does not matter what becomes of me, I shall be content even in this den of lions, so long as thou art exalted above the heavens, and thy glory above all the earth.”
6. They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.
He knew that it would be so, and he looked upon it as already accomplished; their nets and pits would only injure themselves. Now look at the next verse in the light of the prayer David had been praying. See what a marvellous act of faith, and what a grand result of unwavering confidence in God it is, for a man to be able to sing as David does even when his soul is among lions, and fierce and powerful enemies are all round him, seeking his hurt.