Psalm 3 A prayer for God's protection

Psalm 3^[a]

A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.

¹ LORD, how many are my foes!
How many rise up against me!
² Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him.”^[b]

³ But you, LORD, are a shield around me,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
⁴ I call out to the LORD,
and he answers me from his holy mountain.

⁵ I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.
⁶ I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.

⁷ Arise, LORD! Deliver me, 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.

Have you ever felt like you were being attacked?  Maybe you felt alone and afraid?  Maybe you had trouble sleeping at night with all the pressure you felt?   Then hear this prayer from the Psalmist.  (As a note currently I’m not feeling this way, but I have gone through times when I have felt spiritual attacks that have kept me awake before.)

This voice of prayer will be one that is seen throughout the Psalms.  It indicates that prayer begins by calling out to the Lord.  It asserts trust in God as the one who protects and sustains me.   It assures us that though there will be times when we go through hard times (where the question of mockers rings in our ears “your God will not deliver”)… and because of it we can struggle in our faith… still we can call out to the Lord to deliver.

We see in this prayer that faith overcomes fear.  Rest is found in the Lord.   And deliverance comes from God.   Salvation from that oppression rests in the hands of God alone.  So this cry for help is really a call to God to show up.  The attack the Psalmist feels from others is really an assault on God’s character “your God cannot save”.

It is the same charge Jesus faced while hanging upon the cross “he saved others why can’t he save himself… let him call out to God to save him now.” (paraphrased from Matthew 27:42-43)  What is ironic in their charge (that is the many foes of Jesus) is that Jesus dying upon the cross is the very thing that God uses to deliver His people.  Jesus sacrifice is what answers the Psalmist prayer to bring deliverance.

Question:  Will I trust God when attacks come?

Prayer for today.

Lord help me, in the midst of hardship and attacks to rest in you.   Help me when I feel attacked to know that, if I am following you, the assault is really against you.  And you already took that full attack upon the cross for me.  So let me trust in your deliverance.   And may you be my shield of protection. 

(As a longer side note of my thoughts in light of recent events)

This Psalm also speaks to us about trusting in God’s judgment, not our own.  We can take those attacks personally and want to seek out justice ourselves.   But that’s not what the Psalmist is pointing us to.   It’s actually the opposite of taking matters into our own hands, we are to have the faith that places the situation in God’s hands. 

For instance, in the news there has been the horrible act of terrorism in Norway.  Sadly the shooter used his beliefs as a justification of his heinous act.   So let me be clear then and speak out against this violence. What he did was completely wrong, and agaist what Jesus commanded us to do.   And maybe (let’s say) he looked at verse 7 which says “Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked” and misused it to think ‘I will take vengeance upon my enemies’.   Well that’s not what this psalm says.  First it is the Lord who acts not us.  Secondly “to break the teeth of the wicked’ meant to “take the power from their bite.”  It’s a call not to kill, but to deliver and save.   It is a prayer for help, that ultimately we see fulfilled in the sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross.   “Vengeance is mine, SAYS THE LORD”.   It is not mine and it’s not yours.   Therefore what this terrorist did was to use the Lord’s name in vain… by misrepresenting the faith in the worst way possible.  

He may have thought he was the Psalmist who was praying this prayer … but in fact he became the foes and enemies the Psalmist spoke against.