2 I will send up my cry to the Most High God; to God who does all things for me.
The Lord will make all things complete for me: O Lord, your mercy is eternal; do not give up the works of your hands.
For I am certain of this very thing, that he by whom the good work was started in you will make it complete till the day of Jesus Christ:
Make you full of every good work and ready to do all his desires, working in us whatever is pleasing in his eyes through Jesus Christ; and may the glory be given to him for ever and ever. So be it.
My haters are ever ready to put an end to me; great numbers are lifting themselves up against me.
For this is the word of him who is high and lifted up, whose resting-place is eternal, whose name is Holy: my resting-place is in the high and holy place, and with him who is crushed and poor in spirit, to give life to the spirit of the poor, and to make strong the heart of the crushed.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 57
Commentary on Psalms 57 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 57
This psalm is very much like that which goes next before it; it was penned upon a like occasion, when David was both in danger of trouble and in temptation to sin; it begins as that did, "Be merciful to me;' the method also is the same.
So that hence we may take direction and encouragement, both in our supplications and in our thanksgivings, and may offer both to God, in singing this psalm.
To the chief musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.
Psa 57:1-6
The title of this psalm has one word new in it, Al-taschith-Destroy not. Some make it to be only some known tune to which this psalm was set; others apply it to the occasion and matter of the psalm. Destroy not; that is, David would not let Saul be destroyed, when now in the cave there was a fair opportunity of killing him, and his servants would fain have done so. No, says David, destroy him not, 1 Sa. 24:4, 6. Or, rather, God would not let David be destroyed by Saul; he suffered him to persecute David, but still under this limitation, Destroy him hot; as he permitted Satan to afflict Job, Only save his life. David must not be destroyed, for a blessing is in him (Isa. 65:8), even Christ, the best of blessings. When David was in the cave, in imminent peril, he here tells us what were the workings of his heart towards God; and happy are those that have such good thoughts as these in their minds when they are in danger!
Psa 57:7-11
How strangely is the tune altered here! David's prayers and complaints, by the lively actings of faith, are here, all of a sudden, turned into praises and thanksgivings; his sackcloth is loosed, he is girded with gladness, and his hallelujahs are as fervent as his hosannas. This should make us in love with prayer, that, sooner or later, it will be swallowed up in praise. Observe,