For You Have Delivered My Soul from Death

In the second part of Psalm 56 the great turn takes place: from distress and fear to trust and gratitude. David, who in the first part described enemies pressing him all day long, now turns to God in complete faith and discovers he is not alone. The fear does not vanish through denial, but melts before the knowledge that God is near, counting every tear and guarding every step.

At the heart of this part is a tender and comforting image: God gathers David's tears into His flask and records all his wanderings in His book. No pain is forgotten, no tear is lost. Out of this awareness rises the great thanksgiving at the end of the psalm: for deliverance from death, for feet that did not stumble, and for the privilege of walking before God in the light of life.

The psalm is rooted in one of the hardest moments of David's life, his flight from Saul to Gath, the city of the Philistines, where he faced real danger. It is from this low place that it was written, and that is why the turn to thanksgiving is so powerful: not the gratitude of one whose life is easy, but of one who tasted danger and was rescued.

The central verse of the psalm, chosen as the song title, is:

"For You have delivered my soul from death, have You not kept my feet from stumbling, to walk before God in the light of life"

That is: You, God, saved my soul from death and kept my feet from falling, so that I may walk before You in the light of life. This is the voice of a person who was rescued and returned to life, and who knows that every step is a gift. The gratitude is not only for physical salvation, but for the return to closeness with God.