If you have your Bibles this evening, I'm going to invite you to turn in Psalm 57, the 57th Psalm. As you're turning to Psalm 57, Psalm 57 is very similar, and we might want to turn the volume down. I'm still getting some reverb here. Psalm 57 and Psalm 56 are very, very similar, and you can see that in the runt wording. David is still running from Saul. We saw that in Psalm 56. And what we see is we see the emphasis in this Psalm, just like we saw in Psalm 56, it's on fear and faith. Same principles at play as he's writing here, and the same reality that his faith is much stronger than his fear. These are very formative years in David's life when he was a young man. just starting out on the run from Saul. You remember how he had ran from Saul and all the priests Saul had killed. David, as we looked at Psalm 56, was in Gath and he escaped from Gath. And then he went to a cave. And what we find in Psalm 57, right before you get into the main part of the psalm, the heading on it says, to the chief musician, or hand this to the musician. This is something that's gonna be played. And then it says, of David, where he fled from Saul in the cave. So we see he's hiding in a cave. He's hiding from Saul. This shows the particular time frame this took place. And if you were to look in the historical books, it'd be around 1 Samuel 24, which we'll look at a little bit later. But something else that David mentions here that he emphasizes is that it's a miktam. Now, this is something that we've mentioned more than once. That means it's something that he wants taught. He wants it recorded. He wants it repeated down through history. And because it's inspired of God, that's something that is happening. Job once said, oh, that my words were now written. Oh, that they were printed in a book. That they were graven with an iron pen and laid in the rock forever. Little did Job know his words were recorded forever, and we'll read them even to this day in time. Even so, this miktam, our teaching of David, it's recorded so others can learn from it. That means you and I can learn from it. As David is going on the run from Saul at this particular time in his life, as I said, there are formative years, but you know what? When you think about it, every year of our life is formative years. No matter how old you get, like my dad just said, you cannot exhaust the Word of God, so therefore what we learn We put it into practice and we're ever learning. And what God's doing with his word, he's ever conforming us into the image of his dear son. God is at work. Whether you're a new believer or whether you're a believer that's been around umpteen years, all of our years should be forming us more and more and more into the image of Christ. As he's in a cave, There's one of two caves that he's probably in. There's the cave of Adullam. There's the cave also of En-Jedi. Probably he's in the cave of En-Jedi, but I cannot say that conclusively. The reason is because when he was in the cave of En-Jedi, he had a time of rejoicing at the end, which we'll look at that. And here at the end of the Psalm, David is really rejoicing in the Lord. David's trust is seen in how he references God in Psalm 57. This Psalm is only 11 verses long, but he refers to God either by name or by pronoun 21 times in 11 verses. You see who the emphasis is upon. It's upon the Lord our God. I want you to notice the first three verses. The first three verses, it talks about the calamities of David. Now, it doesn't say just one calamity, but it says calamities, that means it's plural. Now, what is a calamity? Anybody know what a calamity is? A calamity would be adversities, when they often come, as far as when it's talking biblically, they come through wickedness or evil from others. Here is Saul's, King Saul, at the time of this writing. Here is King Saul's most loyal soldier. David would do anything to help King Saul. But the problem is, to King Saul, he's his worst enemy. And Saul wants to kill him. There's a little bit of irony in there. So what does a person do when calamities come down upon us? You think about it, these calamities, you seek shelter. You seek solace, you seek peace. If you were down in Florida, you'd seek shelter. There's a calamity, there is a hurricane. Floods of water, 16 inches at least in some places. Some are up waist deep in water in their front yard. Lydia was showing me a picture on the way to church. It seems like David has hit his limit as far as as much as he can take and he's exhausted from it. This is all I can take. So what does David do? He cries out to God. tried to think of a calamity in my life. The first thing I thought of, I remember, I was in an apartment a few years back and as I was on the phone with someone, I had a little Bluetooth wrapped around my ear and the apartment was empty and I felt something crawl on my ear and I'm thinking, bug, spider. And I did that real quick and my Bluetooth went flying off, poop, into the paint can. I thought, oh man, I pulled it out real quick and it's covered. I run to the sink, I wash it off real quick, shake it off real good, get it as clean as I could, and it's still working. I could hear somebody's voice on the other end that I was talking to previously. I thought, boy, that was almost a calamity. Well, eventually it stopped working because the water got into the inner parts of it, I guess, or the paint did. Anyway, that was a calamity. I not only slapped my ear and slapped my Bluetooth in my paint, ruined the Bluetooth, but things could have been a lot worse. Here is David. He's in such a desperate situation. He says in verse one, be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me. You notice he says that twice. When you're in dire straits and difficulties seem insurmountable, when you call upon God, you do it emphatically. You don't do it just casually. David says, be merciful unto me, oh God, be merciful unto me. You can tell he's going through a difficult time. Has anyone in here ever heard the saying, God will never put upon you more than you can handle? Ever heard that saying? That's not true. God will give you more than you can handle. You know why? Because He wants you to lean upon Him. Let me tell you something. You can't handle things without Him. What did Jesus say? Without me, you can do nothing. Don't believe that God won't put on you more than you can handle. God puts on us more than we can handle, so we'll lean upon Him more. We need to be learning to lean upon him and learning to grow in trust in him and growing in that faith. Here, David seeks shelter. Where do you seek shelter from? When life comes crashing in, no matter what it might be, it might be a natural disaster like a hurricane. It might be a health problem like cancer. It might be all kinds of problems we can think of. And it seems like the world's caving in on us. Where can we find shelter in the time of storm? Old song, they ought to give us the answer there. Notice what David says. He says, for my soul trusts in you. David trusted in the Lord with all of his being. He says, yes, in the shadow of your wings, will I make my refuge?" Here's the shelter. He says, "...in the shadow of your wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpassed." I want you to get the imagery of here of what David is saying. He's saying it's kind of like a baby chick. When the baby chick is in trouble, Mama Hen comes to the rescue. You know what Mama Hen does? She puts baby chicks the wing over the little baby chick. She protects that baby chick, doesn't she? And have you ever seen a mad mama hen? You know what? You better not mess with a mad mama hen. Here, it reminds me of someone. I'm going to use their name. Back in the early years of 2000, we took a trip to Brazil. and Odalie and Kathy at their children's home, the Alpha and Omega home down there. I can't remember how many kids they had there, a hundred and some I think, but I remember they had a soccer game, and there was a team that come in, and they had a soccer field at their place where they had the kids at, and they were getting into some heated competition. Well, this other team got beat, and what they did, they left, and then they came back with some other guys wanting to start a fight. Here comes Kathy Bajos. Many of y'all probably have not seen Kathy Bajos stirred up like a mama hen. She had quite a few of her kids behind her, and she's at the front of these kids, and she is chewing that group out, and she tells them, you need to get out of here, and boy, she chased them off the compound. I'm going like, you don't mess with a mama hen. Especially when you're messing with her kids. She was very protective of them, and let me tell you something, those teenagers, and that's basically what they were, they were teenagers, advanced teenagers, She chased him off the property there in Brazil. Here, David gives this picture of a safe place. Where is this safe place? It's in the shadow of God's wings. He says, I'm going to find my refuge. I'm going to make this my refuge. And when all the calamities are overpassed, they've gone over, then he's going to be safe because he's trusting in the Lord. Very interesting. You can find this terminology in more than just one Psalm. In the shadow of thy wings. It's found in Psalm 17, 8, 36, 7, 57, 9, 61, 4. It talks about the covert of God's wings. in 63 in verse 7, and then in Psalm 91 it's found in verse 1 and verse 4. So it talks about in the shadow of God's wings where we find refuge. When bad news, or what we think is bad news, comes our way, or calamities seem to come crashing in on us, if it's medical what do you do? You call the doctor first thing. If it's financial, you call the bank first thing. What do you do? Hear what David does. He says, he trusts in the Lord with all of his soul. And in the shadow of his wings, he's gonna take refuge until they're gone by. There was an old song from way back in my years when I was out in the world. But this one line came to mind. with this psalm. And it says, I'm walking in shadows I cannot see. And you know what? For the child of God, that is very true. If you know Christ as your Lord and Savior, wherever you go, you're walking in His shadow. He has promised, as that verse in, I can't ever get over Hebrews 13, 5. You're gonna probably get tired of me here and quoting it over and over and over again. But in the Greek, it literally says, I will no, not, never leave you, nor no, not, never forsake you. Triple negatives. Why is that? To emphasize, emphasize, emphasize. God will never leave us. It's like the mother hen, we're protected. We're in Christ's hands, who's in the Father's hands. We're safe in Him. Our life is hid in Christ, in God. So here we're protected. We're walking in shadow, a shadow we cannot see. But that shadow is ever abiding over you and me wherever we go. He is always with us, even if you don't feel like it. You know what? You don't have to feel like it for God to be with you. If He promised it, that guarantees it. That's not based on your feelings. It's based upon His truth and what He says. So what David says, he's talking about his calamities. He's talking about how he's going to take refuge in God, safety or shelter, and he's asking God to show His mercy upon him. Be merciful unto me. So then he cries out and calls out to God in verse 2. He says, I will cry unto God most high. I want to pause there because the word for God Most High in the Hebrew, it's only mentioned twice here and back in Psalm 56 and verse 2. This name for God is only revealed in these two verses of Scripture. Very fascinating. God reveals Himself through His Word. He reveals Himself through His names through His Word. Here the name for God is El Elyon. that very simply means he's transcendent. He is above all. He is sovereign or the supreme ruler. David is calling upon Him who is over all, who is sovereign over all. You know what, when you know that, that brings comfort. the most precious doctrine in the Word of God is the sovereignty of God. Because there we know He changes not. He rules, He reigns, He works, He's working all things together for our good and ultimately for His glory, which is what this verse of Scripture goes on to bring out. Notice what it says, "...unto God that performs all things for me." Now literally that's saying, and it's brought out in the ESV, it says, "...He fulfills His purpose for me." God is fulfilling His purpose in David's life. You know what God is doing in your life? If you're a child of God, God is fulfilling His purpose for your life. And we know that all things work together for good to them who love God and who are the called according to his purpose. That's a promise from God. Here it is in the Old Testament. God is fulfilling his purpose. David's saying he's fulfilling his purpose for me. Here he is in the midst of trouble. He's in a cave, he's hiding out. And what he's saying? He's saying God's working to accomplish His purpose in me. God's purpose and plan is at work and He's bringing it to pass. Now that don't make it all about me. David is not saying it's all about me. God saves and keeps and works for His namesake, that He might get glory unto His holy name. It's not about you, it's all about Him. Let Him alone get the glory. He alone is worthy of all the glory. Therefore, David is calling upon the Lord at this particular time and this particular need in his life. And what he says in verse 3, he's calling upon God to save him. He says in verse three, he shall send from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Same terminology that's used back in Psalm 56. If you notice down in verse one, he repeats that. There are certain ones that wanna swallow him up. David is saying God's gonna send from heaven. He's gonna save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up, Selah. Let's pause and think about that. Think about what God is doing. David desires God to save him from harm, but David also desires for God to save him from reproach. What is reproach? It means defamation. It means to blaspheme. He's asking God to save him from the enemy's mouth. Think about that. As we read on here in the latter part of that verse, he says, God shall send forth His mercy and truth. Here is David's hope. In the midst of his problems, the calamities, more than one, as he is taking refuge in God, he knows that God is going to send forth His mercy and God is going to send forth His truth, and they are going to prevail. So what David goes on to do in verses 4-6, he talks about his calamities and he gives details concerning them. Notice here is a picture. He says, My soul is among lions, 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 is a sharp sword. Notice here what he does. He uses picturesque language. The fiercest of beasts would be the lion. Often I remember singing that child's song, Who's the King of the Jungle? Who's the King of the Sea? the Lord. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. It's what the Word of God tells us. Here's a picture. He calls this fiercest of beasts as a picture of his enemies. Notice the most devouring element that we have in the world would be fire. It consumes. And then he talks about the sharpest military weapons they had back then, spears and arrows. And then he talks about the most human lethal weapon. It's a tongue as a sharp sword. You know what? Your tongue can do great damage. Read James chapter three. Talks about how it's a world of evil and how it can rip someone apart. The tongue can be the most painful instrument of human beings. Here, David, desires to be delivered. In 1 Samuel 24, look back there if you would, 1 Samuel the 24th chapter, and notice if this is the time frame David is speaking of, notice what was going on. It says in verse 1, and it came to pass when Saul returned from following the Philistines, that he was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi. And Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel. This is his elite force. This ain't just the military. This is the elite of the elite military. 3,000 of them coming after David and his men upon the rocks. of the wild goats. And he came to the sheep coats, by the way, where was a cave. Saul went in to cover his feet. David and his men remained in the sides of the cave. And the men of David said unto him, Behold, the day of which the Lord said unto you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it shall seem good unto you. Then David arose, cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privately. And it came to pass afterward that David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt. And he said unto the men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord. You see the predicament David was in. He's trapped in a cave, 3,000 of the elite military are right outside the cave, and here's Saul going in the cave. David had just delivered Keilah from the Philistines. Keilah betrayed David. He's on the run. There's nowhere it seems like he can turn to humanly speaking. And so what David does, he cries out in verse 5, Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth. Now I want you to think with me for a moment. A picture is just a picture until you see God in the picture. This past week Sarah took a picture of a rainbow that was going straight up in the air off Richmond Road. Anybody else see that? Kind of a neat picture there. You know what? That's a neat picture but what she brought out in the caption that it was the Lord who did that. And you know what, that picture's got so much more glory to it when you see the Lord's hand in that picture. You know what becomes the focal point of a picture when God's in it? God becomes the focal point. And how much more glorious that picture is when you can see God in the picture. So here David says, all in the midst of this as he's talking about his enemies and his calamities and all the things that are coming down upon him, he puts God in the picture. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the earth." In other words, David desires for God to vindicate his glory. David is being challenged. His faith is being challenged. The way he's looking at it is God is being challenged. Therefore be exalted, O God. above the heavens. In verse 6 he says, they prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They have digged a pit before me, and to the midst whereof they are fallen themselves, Selah. What do you think about that? When it seems like there is no hope, There is no way out. There's only one entrance to the cave. Saul comes in and they're hiding inside the cave. 3,000 men outside of the cave. There is no way out. You know what God did? He reversed the whole situation. God can do that, can't He? You remember when Haman built the big old tower to hang Mordecai? God flipped the whole situation around. Haman was hung upon his own gallows. In other words, God was mightily at work. Here David cut off the skirt of Saul's garments. He did it privately. Then his heart smote him. He felt guilty because he did it. Yet this man, Saul, wanted to take his life. And David felt guilty just cutting off the robe. the skirt of the robe of his garment. It's very interesting because here what David says, what they're trying to do to me, it's going to fall back on their head. They're digging a pit for me to fall into, whereby they're going to fall into it themselves. Selah. What do you think about that? Now, in the midst of these calamities, what David does, he gives praise unto God. In the midst of your turmoil, in the midst of your calamities, can you still praise God? I remember seeing a picture in the newspaper, I think it was, or one of the news, online news. We don't have hardly newspapers nowadays, but online news. You remember when the tornadoes hit down in western Kentucky? There was devastation. There was one house that was demolished, but there was a piano in it. And a man went to that piano and started playing hymns. Can you imagine, in the midst of everything falling down around you and you have nothing left, giving praise to God? Here's David. Verse seven, my heart is fixed, oh God. There's a repetition here, just like in verse one. Have mercy upon me, O God, have mercy upon me. My heart is fixed, O God. My heart is fixed. You think David is focused at this point? David is like zoned in upon God. His heart is focused upon the Lord. What's gonna happen when you focus your heart upon the Lord? Notice what he says, I will sing and give praise. If your heart is focused upon the Lord, you only give praise unto the Lord. You know what, you're gonna sing unto the Lord. You might not be able to carry a tune in the bucket, but it doesn't matter, you're gonna still sing to the Lord because you want to praise the Lord, because your heart's fixed upon the Lord. He says in verse eight, Awake up my glory. In other words, what I believe is that David went to sleep after all this transpired, if it happened like it does in chapter 24, 1 Samuel, as he was in that cave at En-Jedi. After he had a nap, Awake up, my glory! Awake, psaltery and harp! I myself I will awake early! David is saying, I'm going to get up, I'm going to wake up, and I'm going to praise the Lord. I'm going to praise you more when I wake up, Lord. Literally what it says, and I think the ESV might translate it this way, I will awaken the dawn. I'm going to wake up the morning. In other words, the morning ain't going to wake me up. I'm going to wake the morning up. How am I going to wake tomorrow morning up is by praising the Lord. Wow! And what does he do? He praises the Lord. He says in verse nine, I will praise you, O Lord, among the people. I will sing unto you among the nations. In other words, David wants to make God known. He wants the nations to know that he is God and beside him there is no other. He wants to make God famous. He wants to broadcast the greatness of God working in his life. That's outreach. That's evangelism. That's telling others of what great things God has done in our lives. He said, I want to make... I want to praise you where? Among the people. That would be Israel. I want to sing unto you among the nations. You remember he was just in Gath. Gath had him captive. He's going to make Gath know that God is great. He just rescued Keilah from the Philistines. He's going to make Philistia know that God is great. He had just taken his parents to Moab and placed them there for security while he was on the run. You remember who David's grandmother was? Ruth the Moabitess. Therefore, there was relatives there in Moab. Therefore, he's going to let Moab know. He's going to let the nations around know how great God is. Therefore, he's going to praise and he's going to sing unto God among all the nations. And then notice what he says as the psalm starts to close out. He says, for. Here's how I'm going to praise you. For. For what? He's going to praise him because God's mercy is great. David experienced the mercies of God and he says, your mercy is great unto the heavens and your truth unto the clouds. Here he's praising God for his mercy and truth. Notice back in verse three, he said, God is going to send forth his mercy and truth. David has experienced God's mercy and truth. But you know what? David showed forth God's mercy and truth. When Saul entered that cave, David showed mercy to him. He could have killed him, but he was a man after God's own heart. He spared Saul's life. Therefore, mercy was shown to Saul. He spoke the truth concerning Saul, as we read over in 1 Samuel 24, how Saul was God's anointed. Therefore, David was not going to strike down Saul. Notice here he's talking about God's mercy and God's truth, but that's applicable in his life to show forth mercy and truth that God has shown forth unto him. And then he says in verse 11, which goes right back to what verse five says. It's a repeat of verse five. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be above all the earth. Let God's glory be above all the earth. Did you know when you praise God, it has international connections? It goes forth. I have no doubt in my mind, much because of the way technology is in our day and time, Other nations know about New Life Baptist Church, that we're a small work as far as number. God's word's going forth. And some have heard. You know what, when you praise God, it redounds to the glory of God. God brings glory to his name. Here, it was Graham Scrooge from the 1800s that said, There can be no triumph where there's no trouble. You know what? The only way you can have triumph is if you have trouble. I read this little story last night to Sarah, and I'm going to close with this. I thought it was pretty interesting. There was a visiting preacher who was having breakfast with some of the men of the church. And as he was about to have breakfast with them, he called on an old farmer in Bibb-Over-Raws to ask the blessing over the breakfast. The old farmer bowed his head and said, Lord, you know I hate buttermilk. Lord, you know I hate lard. Lord, you know I don't care much for raw white flour. That preacher kind of squinted his eye up and looked at him. Why is he praying, going like, where is this heading? He looked around and he saw other people kind of wondering, what is this guy praying? And then the man said, but Lord, when you mixed them all together and bake all of it, I do love warm, fresh biscuits. So when you don't like it, or when life gets hard, or when we don't understand what you're doing, and we don't understand what you're saying, help us to relax and wait until you are done mixing. And I'm sure you'll give us something better than those biscuits. Wow, that's a pretty good lesson. God's at work. He works all things together for good. We cannot fully comprehend that because of our finite minds. How God can be working in somebody else's life and then our paths cross and God's working in both of our lives, our multitudes of lives and we see God's hand in it. It's often like the picture we use as a tapestry When someone is making a beautiful picture on the opposite side of that tapestry, it looks like mumbo jumbo, and that's what we often see is all that, but on the other side, God is making something beautiful. There's a little chorus we sing sometimes, something beautiful, something good. All my confusion, he understood. All I had to offer him was brokenness and strife. But you know what, God makes something beautiful. out of our life. Only God can do that. God takes all of our confusion, all of our messes. I was talking to somebody on the phone today about this passage of scripture. And they said, you know, I thought it might, Psalm 57 might have been after Bathsheba, then the fault would have been on him. I said, no, no, no, no, no. You gotta understand. The incident, even with Bathsheba, it was evil. but God brought good out of it. God can do amazing things with our messes. I'm not telling you to go out there and sin. I'm not telling you to go out there and make a mess. But here I am saying God can make something beautiful out of your life as we submit our lives to him. May God give us insight to his word and to his works and how he works by the power of his spirit to his glory. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your precious word. Lord, as we looked at the 57th Psalm and how it has been prayed, how it has been quoted, how it has been read over the years, time and time and time again, even so we read tonight, and your spirit still uses your word to speak to our hearts. So Lord, we pray that whatever we go through in life, we might be able to see, if not by a physical sight, by faith, your hand at work. And may we ever give you the praise, the honor and the glory for doing things that are way beyond our comprehension. Help us to be patient and wait upon you that we might glorify your name all the more for Christ's sake. Amen.