Morning Comes for the Righteous Text: Psalm 59:16-17
Introduction: A Night of Growling Dogs
The Psalms are the prayer book of the saints, and they are not a collection of serene, abstract thoughts suitable for framing in a quiet room with floral wallpaper. They are raw, gritty, and born out of the crucible of real life, with all its dangers, betrayals, and fears. Psalm 59 is one such prayer. The superscription tells us the exact historical context: "when Saul sent men, and they watched the house in order to kill him." This is not a metaphor. David is trapped in his own home, surrounded by soldiers, growling like a pack of wild dogs, waiting for the sun to come up so they can rush in and murder him. The entire psalm is a desperate prayer offered in the dead of night, with the very real threat of death prowling just outside the door.
David describes his enemies as dogs, howling and prowling the city, their mouths belching out threats and curses. They are confident, arrogant, and they believe no one can hear them. But David knows that God in heaven hears, and not only hears, but laughs at their pathetic machinations. He laughs at the wicked, not because their threats are not real, but because their power is so utterly derivative and temporary when set against His own sovereign might.
The psalm is a journey from the claustrophobic terror of a night under siege to the expansive, confident joy of morning deliverance. It is a movement from peril to praise. And this is a pattern every Christian must learn. We will all have our nights of distress. We will all have times when the dogs are at the door, whether those dogs are financial ruin, a terrifying medical diagnosis, persecution from the world, or the internal assault of temptation and despair. The question is not whether the night will come, but what you will be prepared to sing in the morning. David, in the midst of the darkness, anticipates the dawn and rehearses the song he will sing when God delivers him. And in our text, we find the glorious resolution to his night of trouble.
The Text
"But as for me, I shall sing of Your strength; And I shall joyfully sing of Your lovingkindness in the morning, For You have been my stronghold And a refuge in the day of my distress. O my strength, I will sing praises to You; For God is my stronghold, the God who shows me lovingkindness."
(Psalm 59:16-17 LSB)
From Growling to Singing (v. 16)
We begin with the stark contrast David draws in verse 16.
"But as for me, I shall sing of Your strength; And I shall joyfully sing of Your lovingkindness in the morning, For You have been my stronghold And a refuge in the day of my distress." (Psalm 59:16)
The verse begins with that glorious, defiant conjunction: "But." His enemies prowl and growl (v. 14-15), unsatisfied and hungry for blood. "But as for me..." This is a declaration of spiritual independence. Their reality will not be my reality. Their soundtrack of snarling and cursing will not be my soundtrack. I have a different song to sing. While they are consumed with their wicked hunger, I will be consumed with the strength and lovingkindness of my God. This is spiritual warfare. You answer the growls of hell with the praises of heaven.
What is the theme of his song? First, he sings of God's "strength." This is not an abstract attribute. In the context of the psalm, it is God's raw power to save, His ability to scatter His enemies with a breath. David is physically weak and outnumbered. He has no strength of his own to fend off Saul's assassins. But he looks to God, his strength. He knows that God's power is the only variable that matters in the equation. Our problem is that we often look at our distress, and then we look at our own resources, and we conclude that we are done for. David looks at his distress, and then he looks at God's strength, and he concludes that he will sing.
Second, he will "joyfully sing" of God's "lovingkindness in the morning." The word for lovingkindness is that great covenantal word, hesed. This is not a sentimental, squishy affection. Hesed is stubborn, loyal, covenant love. It is God's promise-keeping faithfulness. God is not just strong in a generic sense; His strength is personally and covenantally directed toward His people. He has bound Himself to them by oath. David is not just hoping God might be nice to him; he is banking on the sworn, unbreakable allegiance of the God of Israel. And he expects this deliverance to be visible "in the morning." The night is for distress, but the morning is for deliverance. This is a profound biblical pattern. "Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning" (Psalm 30:5). The morning light dispels the shadows where the dogs prowl. It brings clarity, vindication, and a fresh declaration of God's faithfulness.
And why will he sing? He gives the reason: "For You have been my stronghold And a refuge in the day of my distress." Notice the past tense. He is looking back on God's faithfulness. This is how faith is strengthened. You face a present trial by remembering God's past deliverances. A "stronghold" is a high, inaccessible fortress, a place of ultimate security. A "refuge" is a place you run to when the enemy is in hot pursuit. God is both. He is our security when we are safe, and He is our salvation when we are pursued. David's confidence for the future is built on the hard-won experience of God's faithfulness in the past.
The Source and Sum of It All (v. 17)
Verse 17 is a powerful summation, a crescendo of praise that identifies God as the very source of David's strength and the object of his worship.
"O my strength, I will sing praises to You; For God is my stronghold, the God who shows me lovingkindness." (Psalm 59:17 LSB)
Here, David no longer just sings about God's strength; he addresses God as his strength. "O my strength." This is intimate and personal. God is not merely a strong ally; He is the very sinew of David's soul. This is what Paul meant when he said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). The Christian life is not about God giving you a little boost so you can handle things. It is about God being your strength. It is a complete transfer of trust from self to God.
Because God is his strength, David's response is to "sing praises" to Him. The Hebrew here means to make music, to pluck the strings of an instrument. This is not a quiet, internal gratitude. This is loud, joyful, musical worship. This is the kind of worship that is a public testimony. The dogs were growling publicly in the night; David will sing publicly in the morning. Our praise must be as robust as the peril we were delivered from.
He then repeats the foundation of his confidence, driving the point home. "For God is my stronghold." He says it again because it is the central truth that anchors his soul in the storm. Our faith needs these repeated declarations. We must preach the truth to ourselves over and over again until it drowns out the lies of our circumstances. And who is this stronghold? He is "the God who shows me lovingkindness." Literally, "the God of my hesed." He is the God whose very nature is covenant loyalty. His mercy is not a mood; it is His character. He does not just have hesed; He is the God of hesed. This is the bedrock of all Christian security. We are not saved because we are strong, but because He is. We are not kept because we are faithful, but because He is faithful. His lovingkindness is the final word.
Singing in the Morning of Christ's Resurrection
This psalm is not just about David's narrow escape from Saul. Like all the psalms, it finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true David, the beloved Son who was surrounded by the dogs of hell. On the night He was betrayed, the rulers of this world prowled in the darkness. They surrounded His cross, growling, mocking, and belching out their curses. They thought they had trapped Him in the house of death, and they set a guard to watch the tomb, to make sure He would not escape.
That Saturday was the darkest night in the history of the world. The disciples were scattered, terrified, locked in their own house of fear. The dogs of sin, death, and Satan were howling in triumph. It seemed that the night would never end.
But then came the morning. "But as for me..." On the first day of the week, as the dawn was breaking, God displayed His ultimate strength. He did not just send an angel to help Jesus escape. He shattered the gates of death from the inside out. Jesus Christ, who is our strength, rose from the dead, and in His resurrection, He sang of the Father's lovingkindness. He was the refuge for all His people, and He became the stronghold against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.
Conclusion: Your Morning Song
Because of Christ's great deliverance, we are now called to live out the pattern of this psalm. We live in a world that is still dark, and the dogs still prowl. They mock the name of our God, they surround the righteous, and they belch out their lies on every screen and in every classroom. We will have our nights of distress.
But we are a people of the morning. We are children of the resurrection. And so we must learn to sing. When you are in the midst of your trial, when you feel surrounded, you must begin to rehearse your morning song. You do this by looking away from your own weakness and looking to God's strength. You do this by remembering His past faithfulness, His hesed, demonstrated supremely at the cross. You address Him, "O my strength," and you resolve that when the dawn breaks, and it will break, you will sing joyfully of His lovingkindness.
Our corporate worship on the Lord's Day is our great, public, morning song. We gather together as those who have been delivered from the night. We sing of His strength. We proclaim His lovingkindness. We declare to the prowling dogs that our God is our stronghold and our refuge. And in doing so, we are not just remembering a past deliverance, but we are anticipating that final morning, when the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings, and all the growling of all the dogs of history will be silenced forever by the glorious praises of the redeemed.