Psalm 56-59 (or 60) appears to be in one grouping. The study of this chapter mainly began from MeRF's Thursday Bible study (on 6/19/2026), as Part 1 of a possibly two part lesson on Psalm 57. Part 1: Verses 1-5. And I have documented virtually all of these MeRF studies using Granola, including this chapter.
I find it interesting that Psalm 57 contrasts Psalm 56 such that 56 speaks of David's prayer while being captured by the Philistines at Gath and 57 speaks of his refuge in a cave from Saul. That is, if you care about the superscriptions of the psalms, since some always love to question the authenticity of these superscripts being inspired or not, being later additions to the Torah (at least 200BC to post-exilic era).
V1. on "my soul", it is important to note that we must avoid separating soul from body, as some from MeRF mentioned that David's "soul goes up to heaven, and that his body does not go up with it", which is leaning towards Gnostic heresy. I believe Pastor Dan was careful in his reply, that he subtly not trying to rebuke the error, but steered towards the fact that God ultimately delivers us "body and soul". I think it's better to read the soul here as David's innermost self. The point is not that David is escaping the body. A living man must be distinguished as more than just just physical material body, yet not a division of consciousness nor the ability to discount a material shell part, when we speak of body and soul.
v2. I made it a point in the Bible Study group from the question raised by the pastor: regarding "God most high", that the mention of a Most High God seems to be motivated by a comparison of a recognized ruler or king on Earth. In this case, King Saul, who though was certainly recognized by David to be wicked, yet, David would affirm King Saul as the rightly ordained ruler of Israel. Who is also David's own father-in-law. This would not be the case for David with the gentiles. In fact, there's no doubt that David would execute anyone who terminated Saul for David's sake. He would rather flee than attack Saul. In doing so, his comfort and strength lies in looking higher up, to the most high. So it behooves us to truly respect the order God placed in our civil magistrates, the rulers, the kings, the presidents of the lands, that we do not rebel as if we are ruled by foreign powers, but show God's honor by displaying our submission as rightful subjects of the land, because fret not the flaw of this world and its fallible kings, for we have the most high God to cry to.
v3. children of man as lions and fiery beasts. This certainly directs us toward the suffering of Christ. David's imagery was likely grounded from his trials as a shepherd, having to defend his sheep from wild beasts. "Whose tongues are sharp swords" shows the troubling skill of his enemies (from within, his own people, from Saul's side) in cunning intellect and betrayals.
v4. The goal of our mission is to glorify God. Only when we harbor no ill to others in our active cause for the Lord and suffer misunderstandings and harm from them, especially from those of our own "people" in the church, in the family, that we could get a hint of what David truly went through. What many times more it is, to even understand the suffering of our Lord? Today, most of us erred in justifying our careless divorce from the communion with the family of God with such verses, when things get hard in serving our church, our community. We need higher salary, we can't stand working with this brother or that sister. That irresponsible selfishness is hardly David's approach. How could we truly call for the exalted Lord above all Earth if we prioritize our own glory and comfort as the means to God's glory?