Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
Psalm 57:1: “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusted in thee; yea, in the shadow of the wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.”
Hebrew is an emotional language. You need to translate the language emotionally as well as intellectually. Try to picture David’s situation. He is a fugitive, pursued by the kings men. A price is on his head. He is wanted, not dead or alive, just dead. He is hiding out in a cave, he does not know one moment from the next if he will be found. He has no guarantee that he will even live to see the next day.
Sitting in the cool, damp cave he does what I think all of use would do, he starts crying out to God. “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me.” The word “merciful” is “chanan” which means to show favor. There is a first person singular pronoun at the end and it is in an imperative form. Hence it would be translated as “favor me.” More correct to our understanding it would be translated: “O’ God, help me, help me.” This is not just a little exercise in prayer. David is desperate. He is breathing heavily, he is crouched in a cave, terrified and he is saying: “Oh God, help me, help me.”
The next phrase is curious. “My soul trusts in you.” The word trust “chasah” is in a perfect tense. He is saying: “I have trusted in you.” Normally when we get into these desperate situations we put that into a participle phrase: “I am trusting in you.” Yet, David is saying “I have been trusting in you.” This is not the first time David has been in a tough situation, nor is it the first time for all of us. David has been there before, maybe not quite like this situation but he had faced death defying circumstances. What is going on in his mind is “God, I trusted you when I faced Goliath, and you came through. I trusted you when I faced a lion, and you came through. Now here I am again, there is no reason you will not come through for me this time as well.”
What is the situation you face to day? Is it financial, health, or job related? You’ve been there before and if you haven’t there is someone around who has and can testify that God’s always pulled them through. God loves you as much as that person. But for most of you Yamon Ki Yesepars, you’ve been down that road already and if you check it out, He’s pulled you through every time. Yeah, I know, that thought always, comes to mind, “Maybe, He’s not going to make it this time.” You know how ridiculous that sounds? But the enemy still sticks that thought in your head.
Yet, look at that word “trust” or “chasah.” It has a “cheth.” The sages teach that a “cheth” is two vavs joined together with a vertical line at the top. The vav represents a relationship between two people. The vertical line represents God joining man earth to earth or face to face. The next letter is a samek which is a picture of a container or heart with a lid on it. You are inside the heart of God and He has put a lid over his heart so no one or no thing can take you out. The lid is locked on the outside only you have the latch to open the lid and climb out. Who in their right mind would do that? I guess sometimes I am not in my right mind.
Finally, the word ends with a “he’ representing the presence of God. Trusting is a picture of crawling inside the heart of God, locking yourself in and just sitting back basking in the warmth of his presence while the storm ranges outside. When David said “I am trusting in You.” He was not gritting His teeth and thinking “Trust, trust, trust,” He was crawling into the heart of God, and basking in his presence and thinking, “If I go down, God is just going to have to go with me.” Not much chance of that happening.
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