Inscribed on the top lefthand corner, “david was here.” look closely.

(Part 1 and Part 2)
There is nothing about hiding out in a cave that makes me want to sing or to beg, “Fetch me my guitar.”  I quite hate caves, especially when death is waiting at the mouth of cave should I decide to pop my head out for a breath of non-stale-cave air.  The fact that the words below appear in scripture under such circumstances is not comforting at all.  It’s kind of the biblical version of my least favorite bumper sticker, “Too blessed to be stressed.”  

 
However in the biblical version there seems to be another common bumper sticker affixed right next to it, “S.S.D.D.”  I’ll let someone else translate…  One bumper sticker without the other just doesn’t work.  One denies reality.  The other walks about in uncreative nihilism.  I’d love to live in the conclusion of Psalm 57, the happy parts, but real life doesn’t afford that constant opportunity.    

      
7 My heart is steadfast, O God,
   my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody!
 8 Awake, my glory!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
   I will awake the dawn!
9I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
   I will sing praises to you among the nations.
10For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
   your faithfulness to the clouds.
 11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
   Let your glory be over all the earth!

 
How come there are songs emphasizing the end and songs promoting the beginning, but so few combing the idea that the good and the bad, the happy and the angry, the faith and the fear are woven together more than we wish?  Perhaps it has to do with wanting to be able to sum things up in order to stick them on our vehicles.