Psalm 57 is one of the great cave Psalms. David hides from Saul, yet the Psalm is not spiritually cramped. It begins in danger but ends with heaven: “Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; and thy glory above all the earth.” The cave becomes a place where mercy, truth, praise, and resurrection hope are learned.
The Psalm gives us the language of shelter: “in the shadow of thy wings will I hope, until the iniquity have passed away.” St Augustine also reads it in the light of Christ, who took our human life, suffered and was buried, and rose to give us hope.
Psalm Metadata
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| NKJV / Masoretic numbering | Psalm 57 |
| Septuagint / Coptic numbering | Psalm 56 |
| Accepted author | David, according to the superscription. Brenton reads, “For the end. Destroy not: by David, for a memorial, when he fled from the presence of Saul to the cave.” |
| Period in David’s life | Flight from Saul into a cave. This guide reads the setting especially alongside 1 Samuel 24, though the superscription does not identify a particular cave episode. |
| Christ prophecy status | Passion and Resurrection typology. Augustine reads the cave through Christ’s flesh and burial; the exaltation refrain invites Resurrection and Ascension praise. |
| Coptic lectionary/service use | The retained Nadian/St Bishoy Agpeya places the Psalm in the Sixth Hour and Veil Prayer. Dated Matins references include selections in Great Lent, the Holy Fifty Days, and the third Sunday of Baba. |
| Numbering issue | The embedded Brenton text is LXX Psalm 56, with the superscription numbered as verse 1. For example, the wing prayer is Psalm 57:1 and Brenton LXX 56:2; the two exaltation refrains are Psalm 57:5, 11 and Brenton LXX 56:6, 12. Service references below retain their own printed labels. |
Historical and Scriptural Context
The superscription names David’s flight from Saul into a cave, but it does not say which cave episode it has in view. We can read it especially alongside 1 Samuel 24. There Saul enters the cave where David and his men are hidden. David has the opportunity to kill him, but refuses to harm the Lord’s anointed and restrains his men as well. This is not weakness. It is restraint born of fear of God.
That background matters for the Psalm’s spiritual power. David is hunted, but he will not murder. He is wronged, but he will not seize the kingdom by blood. Read beside this story, Psalm 57 is not only about hiding under God’s wings. It is also about remaining faithful while hidden.
David’s restraint does not require anyone to remain exposed to violence. After Saul goes away, David and his men return to the stronghold. We too may seek safety, tell the truth, and ask trusted people for help without making revenge our aim.
Geographical Significance ⛰️
The cave is a refuge during David’s flight; its exact location is not named in the Psalm. A small shelter becomes a school of patience, where the one in danger addresses the God whose glory is above all the earth.
The Characters 👥
David. The anointed man fleeing Saul, who in 1 Samuel 24 refuses revenge.
Saul. The king who pursues David.
The lions’ whelps. The threatening enemies whose teeth and tongues are pictured as weapons.
God Most High. The one who sends mercy and truth from heaven.
Christ. The Son of David, who took flesh, was buried, and rose in glory.
The Church. The Body of Christ, praying in danger and learning to praise.
🕯️ Light from the Word
Psalm 57:1-3 and superscription (LXX 56:1-4), Mercy under the shadow of wings
56:1 For the end. Destroy not: by David, for a memorial, when he fled from the presence of Saul to the cave. 56:2 Have mercy, upon me, O God, have mercy upon me: for my soul has trusted in thee: and in the shadow of thy wings will I hope, until the iniquity have passed away. 56:3 I will cry to God most high; the God who has benefited me. Pause. 56:4 He sent from heaven and saved me; he gave to reproach them that trampled on me: God has sent forth his mercy and his truth;
The Psalm begins with doubled mercy. David asks not only for rescue but for shelter. The wings suggest protective nearness; they can also recall the cherubim over the mercy seat. Far from safety, David turns toward the God who receives him.
“Until the iniquity have passed away” does not mean that the danger is imaginary. Iniquity still exists, and the Psalm gives no deadline for its passing. But it is not greater or more lasting than God. The one who cries to the Most High already knows Him as the God who has benefited him. He remembers deliverance and speaks of mercy and truth sent from heaven. Those same gifts will become the reason for his praise among the nations.
The Sixth Hour prayer places this cry beside the Cross. Through Christ’s saving Passion and Resurrection, evil does not have the final word. We can pray under His wings while still waiting for help and taking the steps needed for protection.
Psalm 57:4-6 (LXX 56:5-7), Teeth, tongues, snares, and the pit
56:5 and he has delivered my soul from the midst of lions’ whelps: I lay down to sleep, though troubled. As for the sons of men, their teeth are arms and missile weapons, and their tongue a sharp sword. 56:6 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; and thy glory above all the earth. 56:7 They have prepared snares for my feet, and have bowed down my soul: they have dug a pit before my face, and fallen into it themselves. Pause.
The sentence about God’s mercy and truth continues into deliverance from the lions. Yet David says he lay down to sleep troubled. The Psalm does not make undisturbed sleep a test of faith. It gives a voice to vulnerability as well as trust.
The enemies’ weapons are teeth and tongues: danger is joined to speech that cuts. This can include accusation, mockery, and manipulation as well as physical threat. David turns to worship rather than giving his enemies’ violence the last word. Refusing to answer harmful speech with harm does not mean concealing the truth.
Notice where the refrain comes. David asks that God be exalted before he has finished speaking about snares and the pit. Praise enlarges his view without pretending that the threat has vanished.
The pit the enemies dug has caught them instead. This is a picture of evil turned back upon its makers, not an invitation to gloat or a promise that every wrongdoer will fall at once. David entrusts judgment to God rather than making vengeance his work.
Psalm 57:7-11 (LXX 56:8-12), The awakened heart and praise among the nations
56:8 My heart, O God, is ready, my heart is ready: I will sing, yea will sing psalms. 56:9 Awake, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I will awake early. 56:10 O Lord, I will give thanks to thee among the nations: I will sing to thee among the Gentiles. 56:11 For thy mercy has been magnified even to the heavens, and thy truth to the clouds. 56:12 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; and thy glory above all the earth.
The heart becomes ready before the circumstances are easy. David does not wait for the cave to become a palace before praising. The repeated cry for mercy has become a repeated readiness to sing. Praise does not erase the cry; it grows from the same turning toward God.
The movement from cave to nations is astonishing. David begins hunted and ends singing among the Gentiles. Why should the song travel so far? Because the mercy and truth he has received are as high as the heavens and clouds. His deliverance opens into thanksgiving larger than himself.
Christians hear in this movement an anticipation of the Gospel. Christ rises from the tomb, and His praise goes among all nations. The Resurrection gives the Church a song that can be sung even where suffering has not yet ended.
Christological and Prophetic Reading
Psalm 57 invites a typological reading of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection. The one who shelters in the cave recalls the Lord who took our flesh, entered death and burial, and rose uncorrupted. The repeated prayer for God’s exaltation becomes, for the Church, a fitting song of His glory.
Augustine hears Christ’s prayer as a gift to us. The Word took a complete human life, soul and body, and made a human cry His own for our sake. Augustine writes: “Thou hearest the Master praying, learn thou to pray. For to this end He prayed, in order that He might teach how to pray: because to this end He suffered, in order that He might teach how to suffer; to this end He rose again, in order that He might teach how to hope for rising again.”1
Christ’s saving suffering and victory do not make cruelty good or ask us to seek harm. They give us a Lord to whom we can bring our fear and a hope that reaches beyond death.
Patristic and Orthodox Insights
St Augustine, the title and the cave
Augustine’s wording of the superscription differs from Brenton’s. Where Brenton has “Destroy not” and “for a memorial,” Augustine reads a command not to corrupt and a reference to an inscription. In section 3 of his exposition, he connects that wording with the inscription Pilate left unchanged over the Cross.
In section 4 he separately unfolds the image of the cave. The Word concealed His divine majesty in the humility of the flesh He took; His body was later laid in the rock-hewn tomb, and He rose uncorrupted. Augustine’s reading of the tomb is not simply a deduction about bodily incorruption from the title. It lets David’s hiding place lead us to contemplate Christ’s humility, burial, and Resurrection without erasing David’s own danger.
St Athanasius, praying the Psalm in danger
In his Letter to Marcellinus, Athanasius describes the Psalter as a mirror in which people can recognize their condition and find words for prayer. He specifically points to LXX Psalm 56 for someone pursued into a cave. The Psalm also gives us words for learning to praise while we wait, not only after visible deliverance.
The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖
The following examples name the retained Agpeya edition and dated readings. They show how the Psalm is prayed in those sources, rather than claiming that every parish uses identical wording.
- Agpeya Sixth Hour: The Nadian/St Bishoy Book of Agpeya prints the Psalm as 56 (57) at the hour associated with the Cross. The wing prayer becomes our prayer in the presence of the Crucified Lord. The same hour’s Gospel, Matthew 5:1-16, speaks of the merciful, the peacemakers, and those who are persecuted.
- Veil Prayer: The same edition includes Psalm 56 (57) in the Veil Prayer. Its night, shelter, and hidden trust fit the watchman’s prayer before God. The Gospel listed for this prayer is John 6:15-23, distinct from the Sixth Hour Gospel.
- Great Lent, Matins: On March 5, 2023, the second Sunday of Lent, the dated reading prints Psalm 57:1 for the wing prayer, corresponding to Brenton LXX 56:2, with Luke 4:1-13. Christ’s refusal to test God reminds us that refuge is not reckless self-endangerment. On April 5, 2023, the Wednesday of the seventh week, the same Psalm selection accompanies Luke 14:28-35: counting the cost of discipleship does not put us beyond mercy.
- Holy Fifty Days, Matins: On May 5, 2020, the third Tuesday’s reading prints Psalm 57:1 and 57:5 for the wing prayer and exaltation, corresponding to Brenton LXX 56:2 and 56:6. Its Gospel, Matthew 17:20-23, includes Christ’s coming betrayal, death, and rising. On May 6, the Wednesday reading prints Psalm 57:8-10 for awakening, praise among the nations, and mercy reaching heaven, corresponding to Brenton LXX 56:9-11; Matthew 20:17-19 announces the Passion and Resurrection.
- Third Sunday of Baba, Matins: The dated October 30, 2022 reading prints Psalm 57:8-9 for awakening and praise among the nations, corresponding to Brenton LXX 56:9-10. Luke 24:1-12 brings the women to the empty tomb early in the morning. A separate, superseded working-cycle reference prints Psalm 57:9-10 for a different selection, corresponding to Brenton LXX 56:10-11.
One nearby Vespers reference should not be mistaken for this Psalm’s exaltation refrain. In the dated May 5, 2020 reading, the printed Psalm 56:6 describes enemies watching the psalmist’s steps. A separate working cycle for that Vespers prints Psalm 57:6 for the net and pit, corresponding to Brenton LXX 56:7. These are different selections in different witnesses.
Iconography Connection 🖼️
The project Davidic Geography in the Psalms schematic can place the cave setting within David’s flight from Saul. It is a teaching schematic, not a claim about the exact cave or route.
A cave or tomb image can also help a teacher follow Augustine’s movement from David’s refuge to Christ’s burial and Resurrection. Do not let the landscape replace the spiritual point of restraint, mercy, and praise under pressure.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
- Hide in God without hiding from repentance. Name your own sin honestly without taking responsibility for another person’s wrongdoing.
- Refuse revenge even when you have an opportunity to take it; seek safety and help where they are needed.
- When praise is difficult, begin with David’s cry for mercy. Prayer need not wait for a calm heart.
- Learn to pray under the Cross, not only after deliverance.
- Remember one mercy God has shown you, and let thanksgiving widen your prayer to include others.
Teaching Guide
Big idea
The cave is not only a place of danger. In God, it becomes a place of mercy, restraint, prayer, and resurrection praise.
Discussion questions
- Why does David ask for mercy twice at the beginning?
- What does “until the iniquity have passed away” teach about patience?
- How does David’s refusal to kill Saul shape the way we read the Psalm?
- Why would the Church pray this Psalm at the Sixth Hour?
- Where does the Psalm move from personal danger to worldwide praise?
For personal prayer
Pray Psalm 57:1 (Brenton LXX 56:2): “in the shadow of thy wings will I hope, until the iniquity have passed away.” Name one situation where you need shelter without revenge.
Teacher's Notes
- Connect the cave to 1 Samuel 24 before moving to Christological reading.
- Emphasize David’s restraint. It is not incidental.
- Use Augustine’s cave interpretation to show Incarnation, burial, and Resurrection without erasing David.
- In lectionary discussion, explain why the Sixth Hour placement is spiritually powerful.
Glossary
- Cave: David’s hiding place in the superscription; in Augustine’s reading, also an image through which to contemplate Christ’s flesh and tomb.
- Shadow of thy wings: An image of shelter and divine nearness.
- Destroy not: Brenton’s superscription phrase. Augustine’s differently worded title reading connects an inscription with the unchanged title over the Cross.
- Holy Fifty Days: The Paschal season from Resurrection to Pentecost.
Translation and Source Notes
- Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX), Psalm 56. Its superscription has its own numbered verse.
- Explanatory references use Psalm 57 first and give the Brenton counterpart where needed. Service references retain their printed labels; the English of the retained Agpeya edition is not identical to Brenton.
- The dated readings and working-cycle references can share provenance. The selections cited here do not describe the whole of each rite.
- The historical comparison is 1 Samuel 24. Augustine’s exposition is a wider Christian exegetical witness; Athanasius’s Letter to Marcellinus supplies the prayer-school connection.
Sources
Scripture and ancient text
- Brenton Septuagint, Psalm 57 (LXX 56).
- 1 Samuel 24, David in the cave sparing Saul.
Patristic and Orthodox interpretation
- St Augustine of Hippo, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 57 (Latin 56), sections 3-5, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series I, volume 8.
- St Athanasius of Alexandria, Letter to Marcellinus, for the Psalter as a mirror and for prayer during persecution.
Coptic Orthodox / liturgical sources
Fr Jacob B. Nadian, Book of Agpeya, St Bishoy Coptic Orthodox Church edition, Sixth Hour and Veil Prayer.
CopticChurch.net, retained dated readings: March 5, 2023, April 5, 2023, May 5, 2020, May 6, 2020, and October 30, 2022.
Katameros working-cycle references for the distinct Vespers and Baba selections discussed above.
Davidic Geography in the Psalms, a project-created teaching schematic for David’s flight and cave context, not a period-accurate map.
Footnotes
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St Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 57 (Latin 56), section 5, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series I, volume 8. T. Scratton translated this Psalm range; A. Cleveland Coxe condensed the NPNF text, and Philip Schaff was general editor. See also the Oxford edition, volume III. ↩