Ps. 57.6 (ready to awake)

They set a net / for my feet

my soul / is bowed down

they dig a pit / in front of me

but they will / fall in it!

We saw in verse 3 that God would ‘challenge’ whoever ‘hounds’ the psalmist. Here, we witness the attempt by his enemies to capture him like prey—by way of net and by way of a (hidden) pit. The first phrase points to the psalmist very real despondency at being to avoid their plots. The second points to his assurance that whatever wicked they have devised for him will, in fact, return upon them; they will become the prey to their own devices. In vs. 4 this was understood as the effect of heaven—of God sending forth his loving-kindness and faithfulness. Here, that ‘sending forth’ is embodied in a type of wisdom principle: that those who act wickedly will be consumed by their own wickedness. In other contexts it almost seems as if this type of judgment is something that God does not necessarily need to ‘participate’ in; the only thing he needs to do is nothing, because evil will boomerang back upon itself. One can see that, on some level, here—God is not mentioned in the judgment and one gets the impression that the men, almost unintentionally, fall into their own trap. That said, the context of the psalm also points to this judgment being a form of God’s loving-kindness and faithfulness. For one, it immediately follows the verse proclaiming the ‘rising’ of God and the breaking forth of his glory. Second, it is the only verse in the psalm that speaks of the evil-doers being punished in any form. Whereas the psalmist fell asleep among lions, now the ‘lions’ will themselves fall into a hole of their own making (like an hunted beast). The hunters will become the hunted. The reversal is complete. We might say that, chronologically, the morning is getting ready to begin. Dawn is about to arise and the night is ready to pass. Formally, this is precisely where this verse sits: it straddles the time of night and the following section's calling forth of the morning. Here, at the borderland, the evil are ‘thrown down’ (or, fall down), and the righteous are ready to ‘awake’.