Overcoming: Life Lessons From the PsalmsSample

The King of Caves

“A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.

I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out my complaint before him; before him I tell my trouble.”

Psalm 142:1-2

David, the author of Psalm 142, finds himself as a young man hiding in the cave. He added his location as a part of the title to this Psalm. The location is important to understanding his condition.

He is stuck in a place and in a situation that he does not deserve. He has been a faithful young warrior and a supporter of the king. Yet, the King of Israel, Saul, whom David served, is pursuing him to kill him. Saul had become jealous of David for several reasons and plotted to kill him. Hence, David escaped the city and hid in a cave.

Caves are dark, lonely, harsh, cold, and frightening. Caves of the soul are remarkably similar. These are the hard places in life we find ourselves having to navigate. A theologian by the name of Starke says of these hard places, “The inner suffering of the heart, when the spirit is under deepest oppression, is the true school of prayer. God often purposely permits His children to come into great affliction so that His works may become manifest. He will yet be acknowledged by us as our only and best Helper.” This quote is sobering and difficult to read. The Psalmist would agree.

Caves are often the classrooms of God for our growth and faith. The greatest season of growth in our soul is in the hour we are most desperate for Him. When we are not able to save ourselves, we are stripped of our pride that says we can. In the cave, we find ourselves humbled. We see more clearly who we are and who we are not. We see our limitations and inabilities. As we cry aloud to the Lord and seek His mercy, we do so from a more genuine place of honesty and transparency. When He answers our prayers, we are more readily able to give Him all the praise for rescuing us from the cave.

In my personal caves, I have learned a lot about how to navigate my circumstances in the presence of the Lord. There is room within a cave to kneel and pray. There is room to sit and be quiet before the Lord. There is room to bow and honor the Father. There is room to raise your hands and lift your head to the King of Caves. When my Savior died, He was buried in a cave. But it could not hold Him. He was raised from the dead and exited that cave, thereby demonstrating to the world and ages to come that He is indeed the King of Caves. Caves are not made to be our home. They are not meant to be a place where we stay forever stuck in our soul or in our outward circumstances. What we do in the cave has everything to do with if we come out of the cave. I have learned that the presence of God can be extraordinarily rich within the cave. I have learned as I abide with the Lord that the cave has less power to imprison me in my mind, heart, and soul. I have learned that while my outward circumstances might not change, I can inwardly walk out of the cave and feel the freedom and shalom of God in the bright sunshine of His presence.

We are loved by the King of Caves. He is our Savior, Redeemer, Rescuer, and Lord. He did not stay in His cave, and He does not want us to stay in ours. He is available to us when nothing and no one is. If your heart, your thoughts, your behaviors, your emotions, or a situation has taken you to a cave, remember you are loved by a Resurrected Cave Escaping Savior. He called Lazarus out of a cave (John 11), and He will call you out and bring healing and direction to your life, too. If David wrote a sequel to this Psalm, he would tell you that the Lord brought him out of the cave and made him the King of Israel. Do not give up seeking the King of Caves for your life. Continue to seek Him as the Psalmist did: cry aloud, lift your voice, make your complaint known to Him, and share your troubles. Who knows? The King of Caves might make you a king or bless you in a way you thought unobtainable.