Is God Enough?—Encouragement From David’s PsalmsSample

Is God’s Compassion Enough?

Psalm 57 is entitled: Of David. A miktam. When he had fled from Saul into the cave. Knowing the context in which David wrote Psalm 57 makes it easier for us to imagine the variety of emotions David felt in that moment.

Imagine fleeing for your life and hiding inside a pitch-black cave. Feel your heart pounding and the coolness of the darkness. You’re alone. Trembling. Is it because of the temperature or fear? Likely both. You hear footsteps approaching. Many footsteps are advancing into your hiding place. Your body tenses. The footsteps are closer. Closer, and closer.

What’s racing through your mind?

We don’t need to imagine David’s racing thoughts. He tells us in Psalm 57:1a: “Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me…” (emphasis added).

I would have gone straight to, “God, get me outta here!” But David’s panicked plea was for mercy. How does mercy differ from sympathy, empathy, and compassion?

• Mercy is receiving God’s blessing instead of the punishment we deserve.
• Sympathy is feeling sad for someone’s hardship.
• Empathy is feeling what others feel.
• Compassion propels us into action, to DO something that might lessen a friend’s burden.

Why didn’t David plead for compassion—for God to move on his behalf? “For in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings” Psalm 57:1b (emphasis added).

Trusting Yahweh to grant him mercy, David’s heart and mind transition from the dark cave to the shadowy place beneath God’s wings (“wings” also translated as “covering”).

Approximately a thousand years later, Jesus also used the metaphor of God’s wings differently. Jesus pronounced many “Woe to you…” judgments on the Pharisees. Imagine being in that crowd when Jesus, breathless after shouting at the religious elite, searches every face in the crowd—faces that He knit together in their mothers’ wombs. He’s overwhelmed with compassion and says, “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, and you were not willing” Matthew 23:37 (emphasis added).

The prophet Jeremiah saw the same stubbornness in his generation: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, ‘We will not walk in it’” Jeremiah 6:16 (emphasis added).

Receiving God’s compassion is a choice. David chose to receive compassion because he trusted God’s heart.

“For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies” Psalm 57:10.

God’s Compassion Is Enough when we believe He’s 100% good and always accessible.

Has darkness invaded your world? Instead of viewing the circumstances as dark and scary, imagine moving through the darkness beneath the shadow of God’s wings. How could a shift of perspective change your whole world?

If you want to experience more of God’s rock-solid compassion, read and reread Psalm 57 to build your trust in God’s steadfast love. Then watch for His compassion, receive it, and enjoy the life-changing truth that God is for you, not against you.

If you enjoyed this plan and want to learn more, check out Mesu's book, Noble: The Story of Maakah on Amazon, at Baker Book House for 30% off, or wherever books are sold.