Question: Have you ever experienced soul torment? Times when you wrestle with yourself to trust God more, to believe that He has your good in mind when you feel like you're in the midst of lions? When, like Paul in Romans 7, you struggle to be good and kind and loving when everything in you just wants a nice, hot bath?

David says in Psalm 57 that his soul, his very soul!, was in the midst of lions, that he lay down among fiery beasts, the children of men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. Whoa. Might you have people like THAT in your life? Then surely your soul is in torment.

And what is the tempter telling you in your torment? That your vast measures of sin brought it all on? That you ought to take matters into your own hands because God doesn't seem to care? That it is all someone else's fault and it's time to cry, "No fair!"?

Notice David's response in verse 5: "Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!" I don't know about you, but that leaves me breathless. To praise and exalt and honor and glorify God IN THE MIDST OF sharp teeth and tongues of steel? Impossible and impractical and un-doable. But he did it. He wrote this very song in the middle of a cave, hiding from Saul and all his hordes who were seeking to kill him. He was exalting God!

Now look at verses 2 and 3 to fill out your understanding of how this can be. He cries out to God, confident that He will fulfill His purposes for David, that He will send from heaven and save him, that He will shame the fiery beasts, and that He will send His steadfast love and faithfulness. Such confidence is amazing. But not really, when you think of God's work on behalf of His people from Adam through David and beyond. David had seen it countless times in his own life. David had many reasons to believe that God was not finished with him, that God had plans for him beyond the cave, that God was good and kind and loving and strong.

What ARE God's purposes for us that He promises to fulfill? We'll explore that tomorrow.