“I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills his purpose for me.”
– Psalm 57:2
Hi James and Ellen,
What would you do if someone said that he or she is going to kill you? Would you find a place to hide to try to escape the guy or gal who said that he or she wants you dead? If you knew that a guy or gal is planning to kill you if he or she can find you, how will you spend your time while you are in hiding? Would you pull a David? David had a guy who wanted him dead. The guy who wanted David dead was Saul. Saul was the first guy who God had Samuel anoint to be king over the Israelite people group’s guys and gals. When David realized that his popularity among his people group’s guys and gals – which were also the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, had breached Saul’s jealously baseline, David took off for an out of the way cave that he knew about. David – instead of sitting around moping in a dismal cave bemoaning the predicament that he was in because of an unhinged king’s anger, spent his time scribing psalm songs to God. Psalm 57 is one of the psalm songs that David scribed while he was whiling away time in a gloomy cave. This psalm song is one of six psalm songs that David scribed that are called a miktam. Your grandpaa thinks that because David had so much time on his hands hanging out in an isolated cavern that he became somewhat obsessive compulsive in framing some of his psalm songs – such as this psalm song. This psalm song is composed of two parts that are equal in length and alike in structure. The two parts of this psalm song that David scribed contain three Hebrew couplets with both parts ending with the identical refrain. Because what David scribed in this psalm song are emotional pleas that were to be directly heard by God, this psalm song is identified as one of David’s prayer psalm songs. David is conveying through this psalm song prayer that he is desperately wanting God to deliver him from Saul. David knew that Saul has his mind set on finding him and assassinating him. David uses imagery to portray his immediate life context – using night as danger and morning as salvation. David wants to move from experiencing nightly fears to once again experience the joys that a morning brings. David appeals in this psalm song prayer to God for His mercy, love and faithfulness to redeem him from his untenable situation. Per what David scribed and which is now verse 2, “I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills his purpose for me.”, he was not naïve about why God had relegated him to face death – with lions in the area, in a dim, dank cave. David knew that Saul was setting traps to capture him, nets to entangle his legs so that he could not run and pits for him to fall into to be caught. Despite being the object of an obvious unwarranted hunt by Saul to find him to kill him, David did not complain about his unjustifiably induced hardship. David instead used God’s grungy grotto assigned time to scribe music as psalm songs, play the harp or lyre and sing songs to God.
So – where would you hunker down if anarchy suddenly became the norm in the United States? Immediately after Martin Luther King was shot and killed, ethnic driven mayhem erupted in the larger cities in the United States. Your grandpaa was working for Liberty Loan in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania when Martin Luther King was killed. At the time that Martin Luther King was murdered, your grandpaa was the designated guy in the Liberty Loan office in Marcus Hook who would go to the home of guy and/or gal who was delinquent on his and/or her installment loan payments to either ask for money or to pick up money to apply to the account that he and/or she has in the office of Liberty Loan in Marcus Hook. The day after Martin Luther King was shot, your grandpaa set up a cash pickup from a guy who lived in a rather rundown area in Wilmington, Delaware. As your grandpaa was walking back to his car from the house where a guy had given him $5 to apply to his account, your grandpaa happened to glance in the car parked next to your grandpaa’s car. Your grandpaa remembers spotting a red gas can in the car. A couple of guys came out of the house next door to the house where your grandpaa had collected the $5. The guys wanted to know why your grandpaa was looking in their car. The guys came across to your grandpaa as being really mad. The guy who your grandpaa had just collected $5 from came out of his house and walked towards your grandpaa. The guy had heard the two guys yelling at your grandpaa. When the guy who your grandpaa had collected $5 from got to your grandpaa, he told your grandpaa that he needed to leave the area and not to come back. The guy walked with your grandpaa to his car and stayed with your grandpaa until he got into his car and left the area. Your grandmaa at the time that Martin Luther King was shot and killed was a bookkeeper for Mullins. Mullins is a clothing store that is located near the end of Main Street in downtown Wilmington. When rioting broke out in Wilmington because of Martin Luther King having been shot, gangs of guys stormed the clothing store where your grandmaa was working taking armfuls of clothes off the store’s racks and shelves and running out of the store with the clothes. When your grandpaa went downtown the day after Martin Luther King was killed to pick up your grandmaa from Mullins, your grandmaa and grandpaa heard gunfire on their way to their apartment. Your grandpaa believes that the United States is ripe right now for another round of anarchism.
Are you ready for the difficult ordeals that God is going to unfold for you to reveal His purpose for your lives?
Psalm 57 (1115)