Psalm 57:1–11 “I Have Set My Heart; I Will Sing Praise.”
The Word is Powerful.
The Word transforms our lives.
Let us desire the Word.
Today, I want to introduce two scenes in Scripture where God worked powerfully when His people sang praises filled with His Word and His grace.
First, during the reign of King Jehoshaphat, three surrounding nations united to attack Israel.
Yet in this desperate moment, something unusual happened—Jehoshaphat placed the singers at the very front of the army. And the moment they began to sing, the Spirit of the Lord came upon the three allied armies. They turned on each other, destroyed one another, and fled. When Israel arrived on the battlefield, the war was already over. They won without shedding a single drop of blood.
The miracle was not that they sang, “Lord, help us win!”
The miracle was in how they sang—
“We cannot defeat these armies with our own strength.
The outcome belongs to God.”
As they sang with that conviction, grace seized their hearts.
What kind of person walks into a battlefield singing at the front?
Someone gripped by God’s grace and confident that God will fight for them.
The second scene is in the New Testament.
Paul and Silas healed a slave girl who had a spirit of divination. Her owners, losing their income, beat them and threw them into prison. Even after being flogged and chained, Paul and Silas sang hymns to God. And when they sang, an earthquake shook the prison, the doors flew open, and their chains fell off.
But the true miracle is this:
They did not run out.
Instead, they stayed to save the jailer who was ready to take his own life.
They were so overtaken by grace that their priority was not their own escape but the soul in front of them.
Paul writes in Colossians 3:16–17 ESV,
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly… singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus…”
Praise leads to gratitude.
And gratitude leads us to live every day—today—in the name of Jesus.
Psalm 57 is titled, “Praise and Trust in Times of Trouble.”
David wrote this when he was hiding in a cave from King Saul.
I often imagined David simply weeping and singing with whatever strength he had left.
But Psalm 57:1 shows us something deeper:
“I take refuge in the shadow of Your wings until the disaster passes.”
David was not merely hiding in a cave.
He believed he was hiding under the wings of God.
Though he was running for his life, through praise he became overwhelmed by God’s steadfast love and lifted up His glory.
Normally, we praise after the problem is solved.
But David praised before anything changed—because grace strengthened him.
In verse 7 he says,
“My heart is steadfast, O God… I will sing and make melody.”
David chose to sing—not because his situation improved,
but because he set his heart toward God.
Verse 8 tells us why:
“Awake, my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.”
Suffering has a way of putting us to sleep spiritually.
But praise awakens us as children of God.
Normally, the dawn wakes us.
But David says, “I will awaken the dawn”—
“I will not let trouble dictate my day.
By grace, I will rise and live this day as God’s new gift.
I will awaken the morning by choosing worship.”
Verse 3 says,
“He will send from heaven His steadfast love and His faithfulness.”
David didn’t understand why he was suffering,
why Saul wanted him dead though he had done nothing wrong.
Yet he knew this unchanging truth:
God still sends His love and His faithfulness.
So he endured, he cried out, and he chose to sing—even in the dark.
In verse 6 he declares,
“They dug a pit for me… but they have fallen into it themselves.”
David was still running.
Saul was still hunting him.
But David believed God would reverse the situation.
That confidence empowered him to sing in the cave.
Finally, verses 10–11 proclaim,
“Your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
Your faithfulness to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let Your glory be over all the earth!”
David remembered who God is—
the Most High,
the One whose love and faithfulness never fail,
the One who rescues the righteous and judges the wicked.
And so, in the cave, David made a decision:
“I will sing.”
This is the song he wrote—a song declaring a love so high it reaches the heavens and so deep it fills the seas.
And in that love, David’s soul was held and restored.
For us, this points directly to Jesus Christ—
the One who loved us and gave Himself for us.
His love is higher than the heavens, deeper than the seas,
and still being poured out over us today.
This love of Jesus—this love that proves the love of God—
always surpasses our circumstances and our understanding.
So let us praise Him.
Because every time we praise, grace awakens us.
Every time we sing, grace takes hold of us again.
May that grace awaken you, restore you, and strengthen you.
