Psalm Three.
A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom [Endnote 1].
1 O Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2 Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.” Selah
3 But you are a shield around me, O Lord;
you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.
4 To the Lord I cry aloud,
and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah
5 I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6 I will not fear the tens of thousands
drawn up against me on every side.
7 Arise, O Lord!
Deliver me, O my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8 From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people. Selah
[Endnote 2]
Background and Theme.
Psalm Three is written during a time of anguish for King David. Absalom, his own son, has overthrown his kingdom and is desperately seeking to kill him. This “psalm has been termed A Morning Prayer. It is the cry of the soul in the presence of danger; of trouble relieved by the passing of the night. [Endnote 3]” In the morning we hope for relief as the Sun disrupts the darkness. A plea for the Son to wreck the darkness of evil in the world.
Psalm Three has a unique three part structure with the resonance focused on the struggle, power of God and a prayer. Notice the structure [Endnote 4]:
Description of need
1 O Lord, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
2 Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.” Selah
3 But you are a shield around me, O Lord;
you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.
Confidence in God
4 To the Lord I cry aloud,
and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah
5 I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6 I will not fear the tens of thousands
drawn up against me on every side.
Prayer of deliverance
7 Arise, O Lord!
Deliver me, O my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
break the teeth of the wicked.
8 From the Lord comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people. Selah
The Impact.
In the face of any struggle we face it is too easy to focus on all that is wrong. David’s enemies even had the unique ability to get under his “spiritual” skin. The ability that leaves us questioning who we are. Forgetting that we are children of a living and powerful God! The devil in all of our struggles makes us feel as though we are not worthy of God’s deliverance.
David embraces the emotion but he doesn’t allow it to linger. Despite the pain, the confusion and the sorrow David turns to God’s resume. The reminders of all the times that God has rescued him and never betrayed him. We need to remember this when troubles hit. We need to remember that even though our problems are big our God is bigger and He is mighty to save.
David tells us that
God is a shield,
God bestows glory,
God lifts up our heads from despair,
God answers when we call,
and we can make it because
God sustains us!
The action that David takes in light of the pain is an intentional focus on God’s abilities followed by a prayer that God deliver us. I have to admit that I fall into depressive moods when I am attacked. Instead of focusing on God’s greatness I tend to focus on my inabilities. David has the recipe we need to make it through challenges.
God is the only one that can deliver us! In that deliverance David asks for a blessing. In Psalms One and Two the word blessing comes from the Hebrew word ’ashre which means good things come from keeping God’s laws. Here in Psalm Three David uses the Hebrew word bĕrakah. This Hebrew word can be translated to mean something that brings life and prosperity!
David calls on God to give him what he can’t earn.
David calls on God to give him what he cannot fight for.
David calls on God to give him what he cannot devise tactics for.
David calls on God to give him life in the face of death.
You can learn a lot about the character of a person as they face adversity. David in his adversity is close to God and he knows that it is only God that can deliver him.
May we always turn to God in the face of adversity. May we learn to trust God’s resume. And may we receive God’s bĕrakah!
Grace and Peace,
Geraldo
____________________
Endnotes:
1. Re: 2 Samuel, chapters 15-17.
2. The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984. Print.
3. Nichol, Francis D., ed. The Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary. Vol. 3. Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1977. Print.
4. Witthoff, David, Kristopher A. Lyle, and Matt Nerdahl. Psalms Form and Structure. Ed. Eli Evans. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2014. Print.
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