Introduction: I was blessed to have a father who instilled in me a love of travel. One of the most powerful and lasting memories I have is of a trip where he took me and others to Africa. We traveled to Kenya and parts of Tanzania. We saw the lions hunt on the safari. We saw zebras chased and gazelles chased and all were taken down by the rulers–the lions.

Literary Connection: I know of few short story writers who excel Ernest Hemingway. In his short stories, he is simply magnificent. I was reading a lot of Hemingway in the years before and after Dad took us to Africa. And if you know anything of Hemingway’s short stories, more than a few are filled with scenes from Africa that involve men and women, courage and cowardice, lions and prey. All play parts in the masterful fiction of Hemingway. When I read of lions in Scripture and in literary fiction, the scenes from my times in Africa burn brightly in my imagination. When you see blood of safari animals smeared on the visage and mane of majestic lions, and you see the puissance of the mighty and see the sweat on their muscular shoulders, you feel your finitude. You feel a “Zero at the Bone,” as Dickinson referenced when we cross a serpent.

Biblical Connection to Psalm 57: This week I am camping out in Psalm 57 and studying each phrase and image in it in order to teach it to my fellow Christian pilgrims Sunday at church. And in verse 4 of this poem from David, he writes, “My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts–the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords” (Psalm 57:4 ESV).

My mind naturally tracks with figurative language; literature comes naturally to me. I don’t struggle to view the world via a literary lens like some do. Most people I know struggle with literature; it’s too “gray” for them, they tell me. Geometry and mathematics are their lenses for viewing. Hey, so be it. I wish that God had also given me that way of seeing, but alas, that didn’t happen. Words are my way; Euclid remains a mystery to me, in most ways.

But the imagery here in v. 4 is of the heart of the man (David) being “in the midst of lions.” And those lions are people. Their teeth are “spears and arrows.” Leonine imagery to depict human violence and terror. People’s tongues David calls “sharp swords.”

Takeaway & the Big Picture: So often in Christian Scripture, leonine imagery is used. Daniel is cast into a den of lions (Daniel 6). Satan prowls around like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). Paul is rescued from the lion’s mouth (2 Timothy 4:17). Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5).

David pictured it. Paul experienced it. Daniel experienced it. Peter wrote of it. But Jesus faced it (the ultimate adversary/lion) and overcame him/it. You see, the reason the gospel is good news is because the greatest Lion was not in Babylon threatening Daniel; it was not Demas and Alexander and false brethren of the apostle Paul; it was not enemies of David, wicked men like Saul. Satan is a great lion seeking to devour God’s people.

But Satan is not the greatest lion. The greatest Lion is the one who crushed the serpent’s head, the one whose word is a sword, the one who laid down his life in order that he might take it up again three days later, and he is good, and terrible, and righteous, and he is the conqueror, the Alpha and Omega, and he bids you welcome. He is the Lion to watch.