Psalm 57: Cave

Lately I’ve been examining my first response to bad news. Bad news might be a bit too narrow. I’ve been looking at my life and trying to honestly assess how I respond when things don’t go as I expected, when I don’t seem to have what I think I need, when people don’t treat me how I believe I deserve or when God doesn’t do what I had hoped, prayed and believed He would. When David first realized that Saul was trying to kill him, he ran. He did what he was supposed to do, he left the place that he felt comfortable, the place he belonged, the place where he was most loved, and he went to find a place to hide. His first stop was to get food and a weapon from the priests at Nob. He left there with the showbread (which was only supposed to be eaten by the priests) and Goliath’s sword and for some reason, he decided to go and hide from Saul in Goliath’s hometown of Gath. As we mentioned in our discussion of Psalm 56, unchecked fear will make us to some foolish things.

As I read Psalm 57, I feel like I understand Psalm 56 a little bit more. Who really wants to be alone when it seems that everything you hoped for has started to fail? For many of us, the worst place to be in situations is in our own heads, alone with our own thoughts. David probably thought more about not being alone than he did about where he was going, who he was running from than who he was, or should have been running to. It’s easy to look back and ask why he would run to the Philistines or what made him think that the town of Goliath would welcome and protect the man who killed Goliath. But sitting in our own places, couldn’t others look and ask similar questions of us? We do foolish things when we are afraid of or tired of being alone, but it’s often in the lonely places that God’s presence becomes the most real in our lives and where fears lies, if finally faced, begin to lose their strength.

When David realized that going to Gath had been a monumental mistake, he had to pretend to be insane so that they would allow him to leave (I Samuel 21). He went from Gath to the cave of Adullam. There he was alone until he was surrounded by those God would send, not those he would seek for himself. But Psalm 57 teaches us that David was less alone in the cave than he had been in Gath. In one place he was surrounded by people but without support, in the other, he was by himself but held by God. There is a difference between isolation and solitude. The first is when we remove ourselves from others or others remove themselves from us and we feel the need to carry, protect and provide for ourselves, the second is when we know that God Himself has pulled us away so that He can pull us close to Himself. Luke 5:16 tells us that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places to pray. In John 16:32, Jesus told the apostles, “You will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for My Father is with Me.” Jesus was never trying to get away from people, places or situations, He was always working to be with His Father. He was also convinced of His Father’s constant and perfect care. It wasn’t just God’s presence that Jesus was sure of, as we often try to be in some ethereal or mystical way, Jesus was sure that His Father was with Him, heard Him, answered Him and would always take care of Him. I believe God was seeking to teach David the same thing, I believe He’s trying to teach you and I this lesson as well.

David’s tune changed in the cave (pun intended). Alone in the cave he had to face not just the absence of everything he had assumed and trusted in, but also the goodness of God in unexpected and unwanted places. Michael Wilcock wrote about David, “He may have been a fugitive hiding in a cave, but he was also a believer taking refuge in the shadow of God’s wings.” In the second verse David wrote, “I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.” That last portion of the verse literally says, in the Hebrew, God who completes for. Somehow, in the cave David became convinced of God’s power to save and His character to complete. That means that in the cave David remembered the anointing oil that Samuel had poured on his head years earlier. In the cave David remembered that the LORD was indeed his Shepherd and he could stop wanting. In the cave David remembered the lion, the bear and the giant that had all come against but also been defeated by him. In the cave David stopped needing the voices of others and started hearing the voice of God, he stopped planning God’s next step and started listening for God’s next word. In the cave David went from Israel’s greatest soldier serenaded by women and children to God’s chosen vessel, surrounded by songs of deliverance. He became thankful in the cave as he remembered to put his confidence in God.

That brings us to our own caves. Some of them are of our making, some of them feel like David’s caused by the actions of others, but what if all of them are from the heart of God? What if God has a cave for you and a cave for me? What if God knows that it’s in the caves that we hear Him best and learn to lean on Him most? What if the caves are not situations that need to change for us, but situations that God is using to change us? Are we willing to run to the caves rather than running from them? The caves aren’t just our situations, they are the places where God allows us to see our hearts. In my own caves I’ve discovered my places of panic, of doubt, of fear and of disappointment. It’s been in my caves where I’ve learned how unhealthy I’ve allowed some of my relationships to be and how much I have needed affirmation from others to believe in the calling of God. In the caves I’ve learned who I am, and I’ve seen who God is. It was in my caves that I’ve been changed, and it will be in the caves that I’ll continue to be changed. As you read this today, I encourage you with what David encouraged himself, God is not only in control, He is faithful to complete, to fulfill, to be who He’s always been and to make you who He formed you to be. We know that all things have become new when we can sing in the caves rather than running from them. We become convinced of God’s care when we are willing to be lonely so we can discover that He will never leave us alone. Find your cave and you will find your confidence in God.