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"I am surrounded by fierce lions who greedily devour human prey—whose teeth pierce like spears and arrows, and whose tongues cut like swords."
(Psalm 57:4, CSB)
All right... I have a confession to make: Yesterday's devo was really written to set up today's devo! If you look at the verse above, you will see a different tone than in yesterday's verses. Yesterday's verses were Psalm 57:7-11. They dealt with praising God, and today's verses deal with a very tough situation. Well if you look at the reference of today's verse, you will see that it comes from the same chapter as yesterday's verses.
Psalm 57 is interesting because it is written by David as he is in a very tough place in his life. If you are familiar with the story of David, you know all about his victory over Goliath and his anointing as king over Israel. Well in Psalm 57, David has already defeated Goliath and even been anointed as king, yet he is running for his life from the current king, Saul. Saul is hunting down David, trying his hardest to kill him.
If you look in your Bible, you will see that below "Psalm 57" it says something along these lines: "For the choir director: 'Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David. When he fled before Saul into the cave.'" Historians believe that Psalm 57 is written in the same timeframe as 1 Samuel 24, which is the story where Saul goes into a cave to relieve himself, David is in the cave, hiding from Saul, and David cuts off a piece of Saul's robe. David feels bad about it and confesses to Saul what happened after Saul leaves the cave.
Why am I telling you about Psalm 57 and 1 Samuel 24? When I discovered the two were related, I thought to myself: Is my worship dependent upon the "goodness" of my situation OR the worthiness of my God? I know in my own life, it is very easy to worship God in the good times. It is easy to sing Psalm 57:7-11 when life is going well; however, it is much harder to worship the worthy God when I don't feel like life is going my way. THIS is what I want us to focus on today and learn from David. David, despite fleeing for his life and hiding in a cave, pens Psalm 57. The worship of Psalm 57 comes from a dark cave where a man is running for his life. This gives a whole new perspective on the state of David's heart when he was writing these words, as we understand he was in a state of desperation. David was continually doing this. Here are a few other examples of David praising God through writing Psalms in hard times:
- Psalm 31 – On David's Persecution by Saul – 1 Samuel 23:12
- Psalm 63 – Prayer of David in the wilderness of Engedi – 1 Samuel 24:22
- Psalm 64 – On David's Persecution by Saul
There are other examples of David penning Psalms in hard times, but what about you? Are you in a hard time right now? Are you allowing your situation to determine your worship of who God is?
Let's be like David, who worshiped even when it was hard.
For the second day in a row, I want to leave you with the same question:
How is your worship?
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