A Song from the Cave

Deep inside a cave, it is dark and cold. Water drips somewhere in the rock. A young man sits with his back against the stone, hunted by a king. And quietly, he begins to sing.

Not long ago, David was a hero. He had defeated Goliath. He had led Israel's soldiers to victory. He was King Saul's son-in-law and best friends with Saul's son Jonathan. But Saul grew jealous, and then dangerous. He tried to kill David. So David ran. He fled to the Philistine city of Gath, and had to pretend to be mad to escape. Now he has no home, no army, and no safe place. He makes his way to the hill country of Judah, to a cave near the town of Adullam.

David is not alone for long. When his brothers and his father's whole family hear where he is, they come down to join him. And then others start to arrive. The Bible describes them honestly. Everyone who was in distress. Everyone who was in debt. Everyone who was bitter and discontented. They gather around David, and he becomes their leader. About four hundred men. Picture it. A cave full of tired, worried, angry people, who have nowhere else to go, all looking to a young man who is himself running for his life. What do you do in a place like that?

Psalm 57 has a heading that tells us when it was written. A psalm of David, when he fled from Saul, in the cave. And it begins like this. Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for my soul takes refuge in you. Yes, in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until this disaster has passed. Think of a mother bird spreading her wings over her chicks in a storm. The cave is dark and hard. But David's real hiding place is God. I will cry out to God Most High, he sings, to God who fulfils his purpose for me. He will send from heaven and save me. And David is honest about the danger. My soul is among lions, he says. People whose teeth are spears and arrows, and whose tongues are sharp swords. They set a net for my feet. They dug a pit in my path. But they have fallen into it themselves.

And then the song changes. Twice David repeats a line, as if he is saying it to himself to make sure he believes it. My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises. Steadfast means fixed, firm, not going anywhere. Saul is still hunting him. Nothing outside the cave has changed. But something inside David has. Wake up, my soul, he sings. Wake up, harp and lyre! I will wake the dawn. Imagine singing so early that your song gets up before the sun. I will give thanks to you, Lord, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great, reaching to the heavens, and your faithfulness to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.

The second half of David's song from the cave did not stay in the cave. If you turn to Psalm 108, you will find that its first five verses are almost exactly the same as the ending of Psalm 57: my heart is steadfast, I will awaken the dawn, your love reaches to the heavens. Israel's worshippers took the song David sang while hiding and joined it to another psalm, so that it could be sung again.

A song from the cave. You'll find the story in First Samuel chapter twenty-two, verses one and two, and the song in Psalm fifty-seven. A hunted young man in a dark cave, surrounded by people in trouble, who chose to say, my heart is steadfast, and sang until the dawn. So here is a question to carry with you. When you feel stuck in a dark place, what could you sing or say to God?