Lying Down Among Lions

 ‘My soul lies down among lions, who would devour the sons of men. Their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongue a sharpened sword.’ Psalm 57:4 RSV

I was reading this on Thursday morning. Perhaps any other day this verse would have slipped by me, but the events of Wednesday drew my attention to it.

Wednesday actually began on Tuesday and Tuesday isn’t the starting point. The starting point was some three years previously. If I haven’t told you the whole sorry story, count yourselves one of the lucky few. It began with a police spot check, pulling drivers over to see if they could read number plates at 20 metres. There were eye tests and cataracts and laser surgery. There was covid and things took a long time.

Tuesday the clinic phoned. Someone had cancelled and did I want to take the appointment? Daft question, you think, right? Over three years is a long time. I had got used to not seeing clearly, I had magnifying glasses and books with large print.

It has all been a bit of a mystery why I wasn’t seeing clearly. Scans revealed a messy back of the eye. Maybe the optic nerve was not getting a clear read. However, looking closely at the left eye lens, the doctor realised that the lens had folded over around the edges. It happens, he said. Would I like it sorted, he asked? I was settling myself in for another long wait, but he hauled me into another room and grasped a laser. Even now I am not sure what he did. He warned me that it might not help, but I would be no worse off.

It is hard to put into words the miracle that happened later that night. I was seeing clearly. I could read things, lines from books, newsprint, poems – awesome.

The next morning, in my quiet time, reading Psalm 57, God said to me, ‘Did not your soul not down with the lions?’ There were things I could have done that I didn’t – I just put up with things. I laid down with the lions.

Other versions of the Bible make it clear that this is not a Daniel scene in the lion’s den. This is not God closing the mouths of the lions. The lions are people – men on fire, angry men, violent men, Some versions label the lions as simply ‘the enemy’.

This lying down was like an act of surrender that said this situation, this eye complication, was nothing I can change. I didn’t try. I just built my life around the problem. I adapted. I bought magnifying glasses and printed documents off in extra-large font. I did not know I could do anything else. Friends told me to phone the clinic, chase up the appointment, but I didn’t.

My lack of clear vision didn’t stop me doing things. I just made use of things, and people, Joe in particular, to help me. I was not immobilised. But now the vision is back I realise how hard I had to work and how draining it all was.

I don’t know what your lions are. I don’t know if your soul is lying down among them. They don’t have to be angry people who wish you ill. Your lions might be disappointments, illness, money troubles – the list goes on. Let me tell you now that you don’t need to lie down with it. You don’t need to tell yourself or let anyone else tell you there is no solution.

In the gospel there is a story of the demon possessed man of Gadarenes. It involves pigs running of a cliff. Before the pigs there is the man living among the tombs, cutting himself with rock. I don’t know what requirements there were about relatives visiting tombs of loved ones, but they didn’t. They gave the graveyard a wide berth. They lived with the man and adjusted what they did because of him. Then came Jesus. The townspeople did not have a solution to the man in the graveyard, but Jesus did.

A few weeks ago in Ephesians 1:17 I read ‘I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.’ Those first three words ‘I keep asking…’ have really lodged themselves in my brain. God does not mind if you keep asking. It is not a lack of faith to keep asking, God does not say, ‘I heard you the first time.’ I keep asking – make it your mantra.

Psalm 57:8 goes on to say ‘Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.’ If your soul lying among the lions, it is time to wake up. Worship gets you to the place you need to be and in the right mindset.

There is a way of looking at v4. Lying down has with it a suggestion of sleep. I don’t know whether Daniel in the lions’ den fell asleep. If you were surrounded by lions, would you fall asleep? In Psalm 23 the shepherd makes the sheep lie down in green pastures. Sheep don’t lie down unless they feel safe. It is possible that the psalmist is saying that even though he is surrounded by his enemies, he can still sleep peacefully because he knows God is in control. Are you paying attention?

A final observation comes in v5 – ‘Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.’ Can I also suggest that you comfort is not God’s highest priority? Yes, your soul is lying down with the lions. It’s not comfortable. You want a way out. But where is God’s glory best demonstrated? The way you deal with lying with the lions, whether it is the quick exit, or the long journey or the peace you know you have to lie down and sleep untroubled – whatever gives God the most glory is the path you need to take, You are not left ill-equipped to do any of these things.