Psalm 57: The Cave and the Chorus
David is hiding in a cave. Saul is somewhere outside with an army. And what does he do? He calls for his instruments. "Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp: I myself will awake early." The man in the cave wants a concert. It is the sort of thing that sounds like madness until you realize it is the opposite — it is the most sane thing anyone has ever done in a cave. For what David knows, even surrounded by lions whose teeth are spears, is that praise is not a response to good circumstances but an act of defiance against bad ones. "My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed" — he says it twice, as if pinning it down with nails. The cave became, that day, something no cave had been before: a cathedral. And the roof of stone, one imagines, found itself, quite against its will, echoing a song.
00:00 Be Merciful, Be Merciful
00:20 Among Lions with Teeth Like Spears
00:40 Let Thy Glory Be Above All
01:00 The Pit They Dug Themselves
01:20 My Heart Is Fixed
01:40 Awake, Psaltery and Harp
02:00 Thy Mercy Unto the Heavens