Part of a continuing series on the 48 psalms that speak to getting through depression, recommended by pastor and author David Seamands (Healing for Damaged Emotions).
There’s an old humorous ditty that goes like this: “To dwell
above with the saints we love, that will be glory. But to dwell below with the
saints we know, well, that is a different story.” I think David would have half-laughed upon hearing that, then remarking, “I’m dwelling below with
folks who aren’t exactly saints.” In reviewing our work, church, and social
networks, we’d probably say the same.
With Psalm 57 comes yet another “they’re after me” complaint. The preface says David had fled to a cave to
try to elude King Saul’s “murder David” campaign. David likened his pursuers to ravenous beasts
(v. 4), and the dangers he faces to net traps and pits. That reminded me of the
jungle warfare, especially during the Vietnam era. Scary.
THE UPWARD LOOK
But Psalm 57 isn’t just a battlefield report. It’s
interlaced with remarkable praise, making it a good model for looking “above”
when things below are scary, troublesome, and depressing. Twice David writes this chorus:
Be exalted, O God,
above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. (vv. 5, 11)
In other words, look
above. I wonder if at times David crept out to the entrance of his cave and
then, seeing no enemy about, dared to stand and drink in the skyscape. Perhaps
he remembered the poetry of Job, who declared:
He wraps up the waters
in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their weight. (Job 26:8)
Or as Job’s “comforter” Elihu observed:
Who can understand how
he spreads out the clouds, how he thunders from his pavilion? (36:29)
Do you know how the
clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who is perfect in knowledge? (37:16)
Then God breaks into the conversation, reminding Job and his
friends that He, the Creator, made the clouds as a garment for the newly-born
earth.
I’m not saying that looking at the clouds is a quick and
cheap way to chase depression. But God can use the skyscape to remind us of His
power and authority from all time, and how the threats we face from fellow humans
are not beyond His notice.
SHADOW OF SAFETY
Psalm 57 contains another powerful verse:
I take refuge in the
shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. (v. 1b)
“Shadow of your
wings,” also a key image of Psalm 17:8, brings forth two possible
scenarios. One is of chicks being
gathered to safety under the mother hen.
Jesus used this imagery when He mourned the state of spiritual affairs
in Jerusalem:
O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I
have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under
her wings, but you were not willing (Luke 13:34)
But in another interpretation, those “wings” are of the
golden cherubim on each end of the sacred Ark of the Covenant, the golden chest
containing the Ten Commandments and the most holy piece of furniture in the
Jewish worship system. They believed that the presence of God somehow resided
under the golden wings stretched out over the chest. I’ll have to wait until Q&A time in
heaven to understand what really went on there. But David, who wasn’t a priest
and therefore couldn’t go behind the curtain where the chest was secluded,
still considered that a special “God-place.”
Stuck in hiding in a cave, there was no way for him to even
get close to that sacred place. But he could fix his heart on God and worship
even there. William Cushing, a 19th
century pastor who turned to hymn-writing after losing his voice, gave us a
musical reminder of “looking above” our difficult circumstances when he wrote
this hymn:
Under His wings I am
safely abiding, Though the night deepens and tempests are wild;
Still I can trust Him,
I know He will keep me, He has redeemed me and I am His child.
Chorus: Under His
wings, under His wings, Who from His love can sever?
Under His wings my
soul shall abide, Safely abide forever.
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For another very "sing-able," encouraging reminder of this psalm, find a copy of Brent Chamber's scripture-based "Be Exalted, O God," copyright 1977 by Maranatha! Music.
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