The Hiding Place (Psalms 57–59)

Caves, closets, and courage meet in one sweeping story about refuge that holds when fear refuses to blink. We open with Corrie Ten Boom’s family watch shop in the Netherlands, where a secret room saved hundreds of Jewish neighbors and eventually led Corrie through prison, loss, and a line that still steadies the heart: there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still. From there, we step into David’s cave at En Gedi and watch an almost unthinkable choice—an easy chance to end Saul’s life—give way to a harder road of restraint and trust.

Across Psalms 57 to 59, David names the reality most of us would rather outrun: trials are unrelenting, injustice stings, and enemies circle like stray dogs. Yet his prayers turn a corner we need—away from shortcuts and toward the character of God. We talk about imprecatory prayer without flinching, why a world allergic to judgment quietly starves justice, and how the cross lets mercy flow without watering down the standard. David’s language is blunt, but his focus is not on fear; it is on a fortress he can sing about before sunrise.

This conversation threads Scripture, history, and honest questions into a single claim: refuge is not an escape hatch but a person. When power is misused, when timing feels cruel, when anxiety paces the room, we learn how to cry for justice, wait with integrity, and sing toward morning. Corrie’s testimony and David’s songs converge on a hiding place deeper than the pit, stronger than the pack, and near enough to carry you through the night.

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Chapters

• 0:33 Psalms As Lived Experience
• 1:07 Corrie Ten Boom’s Hiding Place
• 3:05 David In The Cave Of En Gedi
• 4:41 Choosing Restraint Over Revenge
• 6:08 Imprecatory Prayer And Divine Justice
• 9:01 Hunted Like Dogs, Singing At Dawn
• 12:10 Closing Blessing And Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:34

As you read the psalms, many of them are based on David's experiences. He wrote songs and poems about his life. Those experiences and the psalms that come from them teach us at least two things. First, they illustrate that the trials in this world are unrelenting. But second, they teach us that there is hope in the Lord in every situation. He is our fortress and refuge. Do you need a refuge today? Here's Stephen with the lesson called the hiding place.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12

Corey Tenboom was the first woman to be licensed as a watchmaker in the Netherlands. She worked with her father, whose name was Casper, in this family watchmaking business, and frankly, they were all quite successful. Corey and her family were committed followers of the Lord Jesus. When Adolf Hitler's troops invaded the Netherlands, this family began hiding Jewish neighbors to keep them from being sent into concentration camps. They built a secret room. It was a closet, really, in which Jews who were staying in their home could hide whenever the home was searched by the Gestapo. I have visited this home personally and I've seen that little secret room which became known as the hiding place. In all, around eight hundred Jewish people of all ages were saved by the efforts of Corey and her family. Eventually, an informant told on them, and Corey and her sister Betsy and their father Casper, they were all sent to prison. Casper would die there two weeks later. Corey and her sister were eventually sent to a concentration camp where Betsy would later die. Before she died, she whispered to her sister Corey, there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still. Well, eventually Corey was released, but because of her personal experiences in that pit, those those dark days of suffering and deprivation, she would have the opportunity to travel the world, uh some sixty countries in all, giving her testimony of God's faithfulness and forgiveness and telling people about that special hiding place. Well, in Psalm 57, you have the testimony of David, who could effectively uh say the same thing. There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still. Only David's pit was a dark, dismal cave. He's going to write Psalm fifty seven about that experience, and verse one says this In you, God, my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge. Now to put it another way, David is essentially saying, You, Lord, are my hiding place. Now the superscription here, the heading of Psalm chapter 57, reads Amictum, that is a teaching testimonial, of David when he fled from Saul in the cave. Now I believe this relates back to the details found in 1 Samuel 24, that event where David is hiding out in a cave. That cave is located in the wilderness region of Vengeti, and he's trying to escape from King Saul, and King Saul is trying to find him so he can kill him. Now this is a hilly region. It's dotted with limestone caves, and shepherds would use these caves to corral their sheep at night. Well, we're told back there in 1 Samuel that King Saul arrives with 3,000 of his soldiers, and they literally end up at the same cave where David and his men are hiding inside. Saul just doesn't know it at the time. 1 Samuel chapter 24 and verse 3 reads that Saul came to the sheepfolds by the way where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. The Bible records there in almost a humorous manner that Saul has to go to the bathroom and he chooses that very cave. Now you might wonder why God would record such a graphic detail like this, but I believe it's to show us how absolutely vulnerable Saul is at that moment. I mean, you got all these soldiers, they're standing around waiting outside the cave. Saul's gone inside the cave, he's taken his time, might be reading the newspaper, and this is where David's chance takes place. I mean, this is an opportunity to end Saul's life. But David refuses to lift his hand against God's anointed. He's willing to wait for God to deliver him in due time. Well, here in Psalm 57 and verse 2, he's pouring out his heart and he's writing this. I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. Now remember, David is trusting the Lord to fulfill his divine purpose for his life. What is that? Getting that throne. Well, that's not easy to wait on when you're here in a cave, and you have the opportunity to end the king's life who's trying to kill you. Well, now here in Psalm 58, David's going to admit his frustration over the injustice of the world around him, how hard it is to wait as he's treated unjustly, unfairly. That's not easy to do, by the way, when you're living in a cave. When you're experiencing unfair treatment that causes you to have to suffer from the unkindness of people in your world. Maybe you're there right now. You're suffering the unkindness, and maybe you have a chance to end it, but you won't do it because it's not right. Well, David calls on God here to bring judgment on those who defy God. This is what we call an imprecatory psalm. So David is praying an imprecatory prayer. Now you don't need to know how to spell that in the final exam, but this again is a prayer calling down the judgment of God on sinners. Somebody reading this psalm might think this isn't a very nice way to pray. Let me tell you, beloved, this is the other side of God that the world doesn't like. They want a God who's all-loving and all-merciful, without any justice, without any holiness. I mean, they they want the God they have created, frankly. They want a God they've created who will never serve as a judge. Why? Because a judge renders a verdict. He enforces a standard of what's right and wrong. And the world wants to get rid of that kind of God. They want to get rid of a God who is a judge. They don't want any enforcement of sin. Well, if there's no enforcer of sin, there's no standard of truth. If there's no standard of truth, he can't be judged for doing wrong. So what does that mean? Well, that means you can do whatever you want to do. You can do whatever you think is right for you no matter what it is. The problem is, when you eliminate a God who is a supreme judge, you can also eliminate God who can offer you a judge's pardon for your sin. You see, God's Son experienced the holy justice of God, judgment of God against sin. Jesus died to pay the penalty for your sin. When you believe in him, he can forgive you on the basis of his justice, his judgment having been satisfied in the death of his son, the Lord Jesus. So now you're safe. You're eternally safe from the terror, the judgment, the justice of God. When you run, you run to that Savior in faith, when Jesus becomes your hiding place. Now, as we move on to Psalm 59, it seems like David just can't get a break from King Saul. The heading here in uh of this Psalm says this when Saul sent men to watch David's house in order to kill him. Now, this event here is recorded for us in detail back in 1 Samuel chapter 19, where Saul became so jealous of David's growing popularity that he sent men to capture him in his own house. We're told by Samuel that with the help of his wife Michael, David escapes out a window and he runs for his life. Now it might have been around a campfire that night that David begins writing this song about that particular pit, that deep pit, that valley that he's just entered. Here in verse 14, David describes his enemies as howling like dogs, prowling about the city. They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill. It's not so offensive today. That's because dogs in our world, well, they live pretty decent lives, you know, they get a bath every other week and they eat regular meals, and many of them have a nice backyard to play in. But in the Old Testament, a dog was a scavenger, a dirty, dangerous animal that traveled in packs and would be, you know, run out of town, frankly, rather than invited to stay. David says here that his enemies are like a pack of dogs, and they're hungry to have a meal, and he's the meal, by the way. But that isn't the only thing David focuses on here in this deep pit of difficulty. In verse sixteen, David writes, But I will sing of your strength, I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning, for you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. You know, David could have tossed and turned all night over that pack of dogs chasing after him. But instead, David turns his attention. He focuses not just on the dark pit, the cave, or life on the run, but he focuses on the refuge he has in the Lord. And that's why he ends this psalm here by writing, O my strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love. You know what he's saying here? Well, this is another way of saying there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still. Well, until next time, beloved, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 12:10

Thanks for listening to The Wisdom Journey with Stephen Davey. To learn more about us and access all of our Bible teaching resources, visit wisdomonline.org. Our phone number is 866-482-4253. And you can email us at info at wisdomonline.org. Stephen developed this daily program to help you know what the Bible says, understand what it means, and apply it to your life. So please join us next time to continue the wisdom journey.