This psalm’s superscription is “A Contemplation of David. A Prayer when he was in the cave” — like when Tom and Becky, or Andy and Helen were trapped in caves and needed to be rescued.
Those fictional folks, though, were together in the dark, and the shepherd boy who would be the king was all alone — that is, until he cried out to YHWH and was joined by about 400 other men.
The cave then became David’s fortress and the rebels became his army as they overthrew King Saul. But this prayer reveals young David’s dark thoughts in solitude while his fate is undecided.
“I pour out my complaint before [the Lord],” David says. “I declare before Him my trouble.” So it’s OK to gripe when stuff doesn’t go our way? And again he resorts to a tired old “snare” metaphor.
“Deliver me from my persecutors,” prays Dave of the Cave, “For they are stronger than I.” I’ll bet he wouldn’t have said that out loud if he’d been alone with Becky or Helen — or with Bathsheba.