Praying to God Most High

To the Chief Musician. Set to “Do Not Destroy.” A Michtam of David when he fled from Saul into the cave (Psalms 57:1).

An unusual superscripture

The opening phrases that introduce most of the 150 chapters in the book of Psalms are called superscriptures. These phrases are usually very short, including only the type of Psalm and the author’s name. Some common examples are “A Psalm of David,” “A Song of Ascents,” and “For the Chief Musician.” Some superscriptures will indicate when the psalm was written, such as the one above. Others will indicate the proper timing and use of the psalm, such as Psalm 92, “A Psalm, a song for the Sabbath day.”

But the superscripture of Psalm 57 is highly unusual. It is one of only 4 psalms that include the words “set to ‘Do not destroy.’” The meaning of this is unclear. One theory from Jewish tradition is that there was a custom to cry out to God in times of danger using the prayer of Moses in the wake of the sin of the Golden Calf, recorded in the retelling of the story in Deuteronomy:

I prayed to the Lord and said: ‘O Lord God! Do not destroy Your people and Your inheritance that You have redeemed in Your greatness, that You have brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; do not pay mind to the stubbornness of this people, and to their wickedness and their sin, lest the land from which You brought us should say, “It is because the Lord was not able to bring them to the land which He promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the desert.” But they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You brought out by Your mighty power and by Your outstretched arm.’ – Deuteronomy 9:26-29

According to this tradition, this prayer of Moses was invoked in times of great danger. It is suggested that the superscripture of our Psalm instructs one praying with this Psalm to either recite Moses’ prayer first or to use a tune that may have been customarily used for it.

I would like to suggest that David inserted “Do not destroy” into the superscripture to invoke Moses’ prayer as a way of framing his own perilous situation as a danger to God’s overall plan for Israel and the world.

The substance of Moses’ prayer is worth noting. Moses does not defend the behavior of Israel. Rather, he argues that destroying them would have a negative effect on God’s ultimate purpose for humanity. Perhaps David was making a similar argument about his own private situation.

David and God’s plan

David was being pursued by King Saul. Saul was hunting David because the prophet Samuel had declared that David would become king and that the royal line would not continue to Saul’s son. David did not ask to become king. He did not try to overthrow Saul. The only reason David was being hunted was that God had decided that David should be king. Perhaps David was saying to God that inasmuch as it is God’s desire for David and his offspring to become the royal line, there will be negative consequences for God’s plan if David is killed.

With this in mind, it is worth noting the description of God as “Most High.”

The Hebrew word for Most High is Elyon. While this word is used to describe God many times in the Bible, this verse is the only time that this word is used in the context of a prayer, rather than as a praise. In other words, in every other instance where God is described as Most High, the one saying it is praising God or simply describing the fact that He is Most High. This is the only verse in which someone is “crying out” or praying to God with this description.

David knew exactly why Saul saw him as a threat. Under normal circumstances, someone who would declare himself a successor to the throne while the king is still alive would be killed for treason. Even though David did not choose to be named as Saul’s successor, he still knew that Saul was somewhat justified in hunting him, at least by the general rules of the day. 

By invoking Moses’ prayer and by appealing to God as “God Most High,” David was making his case. David knew that the only justification for saving him from Saul was the fact that God’s ultimate plan for the world depended on him becoming king of Israel. The line of David from the tribe of Judah would eventually lead to the Messiah. It was the plan of “God Most High,” the loftiest plans that are outside the purview of human awareness in the here and now, that David must be king. 

David saw himself as critical to God’s plan for the world and prayed to God with this in mind.

Each of us has a role to play in the building of God’s kingdom. We live in a time of the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. We must pray to God to give us strength and success because we are important to His ultimate purposes for the world.

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