John Knox found himself often in the audience of Mary Tudor or as she is better known Bloody Mary Queen of Scots. Mary took issue with John’s preaching, yet he refused to temper his preaching to suit Mary. John preached with his neck in the noose, but Mary feared John. Reportedly, Mary once said, "I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe."" No doubt, the bloody Queen proved to be God’s invitation to Knox to pray. Saul became the occasion for David’s cave prayers. All of us who will hold to faith in Christ alone for our salvation will learn to pray from a cave.
Psalms 138-145 is the final collection of Davidic psalms in the Psalter. Like Psalms 140 and 141, Psalm 142 is an individual lament, a poem about a distressing situation. The superscription of the Psalm gives us its setting. It is A Maskil of David When He Was In The Cave. A Prayer. This psalm is a prayer that David prayed when he hid from Saul in a cave. Two such cave incidents are recorded for us in 1 Samuel 22 and 24, one in the cave of Adullam, the other in the wilderness of Engedi.
The companion Psalm of Psalm 142 is Psalm 57, whose superscription reads, A Miktam of David, When He Fled From Saul, In The Cave. Psalm 142 seems to echo more distress than Psalm 57. It is no accident that the psalm reflecting David’s greatest distress is placed just prior to the final group of Hallelujah Psalms that close the Psalter at the highest pinnacle of praise. How well the Psalter sets forth that stream of biblical theology that teaches us if we suffer with Him, we will also reign with Him.
The anguish David experienced in his flight from Saul cannot be overstated. So intense were those years of living on the run, David wrote not 2 but 8 Psalms about his experience—34, 52, 54, 56, 57, 59, 63 and 142. These eight songs allow us to feel the distress, experience the faith, and, ultimately, know the faithfulness of God that David knew.
Perhaps, it was difficult for David to come to terms with the fact that he must flee Saul’s presence and live as a fugitive. Markedly, on the day he became convinced that he was persona non grata, the Scripture says, And David rose and fled that day from Saul.
On more than one occasion, we can hear the distress of David in the Samuel material as he questions why Saul would seek his life ( What have I done? What is my guilt? What is my sin before your father that he seeks my life? 1 Sam 20:1; Why do you listen to the words of men who say, “Behold, David seeks your harm? 1 Sam 24:9; Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands? 1 Sam 26:18)?
David was a shepherd when Samuel the prophet anointed him. This anointing signified the anointing of the Spirit of God. Life was good until the Holy Spirit came upon David. Then all of his trouble began. We could say Saul became jealous of David because of David’s success in battle and his fame among the people (1 Sam 18:7). I think the text reveals that the root of the problem was more than that. Saul could see in David what he no longer had: the anointing of the Spirit of God, thus the kingship (1 Sam 15:22-31; 16:14). Both Jonathan and Saul prophesied of David’s coming kingship (1 Sam 20:12-17; 24:16-22).
David struggled with what we wrestle with. On the one hand, his life has been interrupted by the God of Heaven, anointed, and commissioned. On the other hand, as he confessed to Jonathan, Truly, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death (1 Sam 20:3). How is it that we have the promise and benediction of God yet experience such peril? Are these things not contradictory?
The saga of David and Saul gives us a picture of the spiritual warfare of the believer. Perhaps you are in great distress. It may be that you have just become a believer. No sooner than you believe, you have more problems than you have ever had. It could be you are trying to walk in holiness and at every turn you experience distress and discouragement. Relationships go awry, you lose a job, unexpected expenses wreck your personal economy, and you are tempted with things that you thought you had put away—old attitudes, old weakness, old angers, old temptations assail you.
As believers we are under the benediction of God, yet we have an enemy. Our enemy cannot prevail. He simply hates the work of the grace of God in us. He sees in us not so much what he lost, but what he can never have. The good news is that Jesus triumphed over sin, Satan and death. Through our identification with Him by faith, we experience the power of His resurrection, so that in Him we can triumph over all our enemies. In this battle, Jesus is our supply. His power is appropriated for us and in us by the gospel. By His gospel, we stand and take back the territory that the enemy occupies—the territory of our hearts, minds, emotions, will, culture, society, and nations. Advance the Kingdom in the bold proclamation of the Gospel to yourself, in your church, and to the world.
Brothers and Sisters the gospel is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. We are not justified by lack of stress, suffering, hardship, and struggle. We are justified by faith in the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. Lack of hardship is no sure sign of the favor of God, and the presence of hardship is no sure sign of God’s displeasure. You cannot gauge your relationship with God based on temporal things, circumstances, and situations.
If you are not trusting in Christ alone for your salvation, God is against you. Any good that you experience and any joy you have is the goodness of God leading you to repentance. If you don’t repent, the goodness and joy of your life will testify against you on the final day.
If you are trusting in Christ alone for your salvation, God is for you no matter your circumstances. He is not judging you for your sin. He is treating you as a son. You are not experiencing His displeasure but His discipline. God disciplines us because He loves us. He is producing the peaceful fruit of trusting in Christ alone as our righteousness. Whatever comes our way, we know God is working in love to bring us to His eternal Kingdom. So when you can’t see how you will make it the rest of day, lift up your hands and praise God. He is giving you the opportunity to see His mighty work for you.
In Psalm 142, David shows us how to pray when we are in that crucible of knowing what God has anointed us to do and are, at the same time, assailed by the enemy. This is cave praying. Make no mistake cave praying is not permanently hiding out. It is praying leaning on the promises of God, knowing that the God of heaven rules all things. He will bring an army to you in the cave, so your hiding can be changed to advancing. Before you were born God in love laid out for you the course that would bring you safely to His Kingdom. David’s brothers and all his father’s house came to him in the cave. David took his father and mother to the king of Moab for safe keeping until he could know what God would do for Him (1 Sam 22:3). It is not without meaning that David’s great grandmother, Ruth, was from Moab. God also brought to David 400 of the most unlikely men to command (1 Sam 22:1-2), yet we can read of their exploits. This is cave praying. Let’s look at cave praying.
In verses 1 and 2, David seems to be telling the reader what he is going to do. He is going to pray.
He is rehearsing what he is going to pray. We can tell this is the case because of the pronoun shift from I in verses 1-2 to You in verse 3 and following. What do you do when you are in a cave and a king is seeking your life? Seemingly, you only have 2 choices. You can sit down and fret, or you can talk to Jesus. David determines that he will cry out to the LORD, plead for mercy, pour out his complaint, and tell his trouble to the Lord (vv1-2).
In verses 1 and 2, the second lines explain and expand the first lines. In verse 1, David desires what he does not deserve. In his prayer, he is not pleading his rights and innocence. He is crying out for mercy. The assumption of all prayer is God is gracious and merciful, and we are undeserving. Occasionally, we become proud and think that we deserve better and know our own needs better than God.
David’s plea for mercy helps us understand verse 2. Complaint in the first line is further defined by trouble in the second line. He is not complaining in the sense of griping against God. He isn’t blaming God. He is simply pleading his case before God. He is going to tell God about everything that is going on in his life. He is going to pour it all out.
What is the difference between the complaining of the Israelites in the wilderness and David’s complaint? They griped against God as an expression of unbelief. They were not looking for mercy, but asserting that they did not get what they deserved. David is reconciling the trouble he has over against what God has called him to do and be. He is saying, Here is what you have called me to do, and here are all the obstacles coming against me to hinder me in your call. You are the only one who can do anything about it. I’m alone in a cave.
Consider David’s situation. He was in the palace at the king’s table enjoying the victories that God was bringing over the Philistines. Suddenly, he finds himself in a cave with a crazy king and an army itching to kill him. His situation seemed to be in total contradiction to God’s calling on his life.
David builds himself up in the Lord. He is reminding himself of what he knows to be true of God. God called, anointed, and commissioned him. Only God could establish David.
Suffering seems to contradict glory. Suffering seems to contradict reigning. In God’s economy, suffering is a necessary currency for His work in us, in the church, and in the world. We must build ourselves up in the Lord, realizing that no circumstance, no matter how contradictory, will keep God from accomplishing His good work in us.
God’s providence is His presence in the details of our lives to bring about His purpose. David emphatically affirms the LORD knows his way (v3). When David is weak and discouraged, God knows where He is taking him. God knows where all the hidden traps are. When no human is at David’s side, when he is of no account to anyone, when he has no refuge, when no one cares, God knows right where David is. He guides David’s steps, so David doesn’t walk into a trap; God is on David’s right; God takes notice of David; God will be his refuge, and God cares for David.
You know my way. How those words tower over all of our trouble. To have no refuge was particularly troubling to an Israelite. David struggles with this. David had been forced outside of the borders of Israel. His family is in Moab. In his last meeting with Saul, David complains, If men [have stirred you up against me] may they be cursed before the LORD, for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the LORD…(1 Sam 26:19).
When David had no place to go, God took him to a cave. Perhaps the cave was not the best accommodations in the world, but it was a good place to pray. I remember a time when my family and I had no place to go. We had to move. I was caught between a lifetime of what God had called, anointed, and commissioned me to do and having no place to go. I got on my knees and cried out to God audibly and loud for a little cave praying. I said, Lord you know we need a place to live. While I was on my knees, a lady knocked on the door. I answered the door. She said, I know you need a place to go. We have an empty house, and you can have it for as long as you need it.
Cave praying acknowledges the providential hand of God in the direst of circumstances. Believing friend, no matter your situation today, I promise you God is at work. Perhaps you need a little cave praying where you acknowledge God’s care for you when everybody else forsakes you.
Where do you turn when you have no refuge? If God is not your refuge, you are going to turn to money, a job, friends, personal fame, and temporary releases. In time of crisis, we tend to turn to the old, familiar ways of behavior, behaviors that have brought temporary relief in similar circumstances. Those old ways and responses must be put away. God has you in the cave to root out of you those old ways of thinking, acting, and responding. He intends to be your treasure, and to show you He, in reality, is the only refuge for sinners (not a bottle, not a drug, not an affair, not a liason). Forsake all false shelters and go in the cave to pray for a while.
Where ever you are, God has brought you to that point. You may be in the cave. We try so hard to avoid the cave that we may not realize that God has taken us there. Stop scheming. Stop relying on your own ingenuity to solve your problems. Go to the cave and consider the providential work of God in your life before Him, asking Him to show you the way because He knows your way.
David learned some things about God he could have learned nowhere other than on the run from Saul. Who is your refuge when you have been run out of your inheritance? David learned that God is not tribal. If you’re in a cave, He is God there. If you are in the land of the Philistines, He is God there. If you are in Moab, He is God there. David’s vision and understanding of God were broadened by His need.
When David was in the cave, he met God there. He realized that the only refuge and portion he had ever had was God. If God is your treasure, then no matter your circumstance, no one can take Him away from you or you away from Him. People can take your stuff, your home, your marriage, your reputation, your job, your future, your life, but no one can take Jesus from you.
Here is a subtle but deadly problem. Some people want to use God to get what they really want. When they have lied and manipulated their way in the world and can’t get what they want, they try it with God. David is not using God here. Notice his language very carefully. He is saying, you, God, are my portion and my refuge. Yes, I want delivered from these dire circumstances, but I want you regardless. You are my treasure.
Do you find yourself trying to serve the Lord and life getting really hard? Do you have the thought, I’m not getting what I want out of this. I have heard people say, I tried religion once. It didn’t work. Our idolatry is subtle. I hear it expressed like this, Come to church and your marriage will be better. Come to church and life just goes better. Your marriage and your life will be benefitted by attending church, but you’ll just go to hell with a better marriage and life. After a church service one evening a man told me, “I wrote a $200 dollar check and put it in the offering plate, trusting God that the money would be in my account.” He was in the same boat as people who don’t give at all. Both have made an idol of money and in some strange way try to use God to get it. Your ultimate end is your God. Some give to get more, and some don’t give to keep more. The commonality is wanting money more than God. God will not be used.
David is saying, No matter how this turns out, you, O God, are my treasure. Friend, you need a refuge. Only one refuge can preserve your soul. You have a foe far more threatening than a human king or even the devil himself. If you have not placed your faith and trust in Christ alone, you have no refuge from the wrath of God. Christ is your greatest need.
You see then how David has qualified his 3 petitions in verses 6-7b with the absolute affirmation that God is His refuge and portion in verse 5. His petitions reflect his total dependence on God. His is not trying to use God. If God does not hear him, deliver him, and bring him out, he has no other hope in this world. For David the ultimate end of God delivering him is so that he can praise God and give Him all the glory. David himself is brought low and out matched. He can do nothing but hope in God and give Him glory when he is delivered.
David’s deliverance would not only lead to him to praise but it would lead the righteous to gather around him because of God’s goodness to him.
We know how this story ends. We know that David prayed and then looked out of the cave entrance and saw his brothers coming, his Mom and Dad, and then one after another people came. The most unlikely came—the distressed, the discontent, the indebted—and surrounded him. They saw not a fugitive in a cave, but a king reigning.
This is a psalm about cave praying. God knows your way. He leads you into the most stressful situations to give you the grand opportunity of trusting and treasuring Him.
The Lord’s Table brings our focus squarely on the Son of God. The inauguration of His ministry was marked by His baptism and the Spirit descending on Him. Immediately, He engaged our enemy in the wilderness. The garden was the cave where He cried out to the Father and committed Himself to bear God’s wrath for those who will repent of their sin and place their faith in him. In His life and ministry and death and resurrection, He has bound our enemy and plundered his house. We are those whom He has delivered.