Photo by Tony Eight Media on Unsplash
By Mike Chaffin
Lord, how they have increased who trouble me!
Many are they who rise up against me.
2 Many are they who say of me,
“There is no help for him in God.” Selah
3 But You, O Lord, are a shield for me,
My glory and the One who lifts up my head.
4 I cried to the Lord with my voice,
And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah
5 I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me all around.
7 Arise, O Lord;
Save me, O my God!
For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone;
You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.
8 Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah
How many sleepless nights are lost worrying about the future, what’s going to happen tomorrow, or where to turn when faced with a difficult problem? Too many to count. We can be in real danger, not knowing what tomorrow will bring and wonder why me or where God is.
In our trek through the Psalms, I couldn’t pass up the very first Psalm in the Bible attributed to David. He wrote approximately seventy-three Psalms but the first two are not his. This is a psalm of lament. Of the 150 psalms in the Bible, fifty-eight are either personal (42) or community (16) cries to God. David was not shy to lament to God, and we shouldn’t either.
A lament is a cry to God for help and deliverance when we don’t see a way out. In fact, we are instructed to ask God for help in time of need. Jesus told us in Luke,
And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? Luke 18:7
In psalm 3 David cries out to God for deliverance. His son, Absalom, is in rebellion and seeks to remove David and be king. He has thousands of followers who are willing to fight for him. David placed this problem at the feet of God and put his trust in God to save.
My favorite verses in this psalm are,
5 I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me all around.
Journeys don’t get difficult by themselves. We either make them difficult ourselves or someone or something crosses our path making life difficult. David placed his confidence in the Lord and had faith enough not to lose sleep over the problem he faced. We can do that as well. Jesus, when teaching about worry told us that today’s problems are enough, and we don’t need to worry about tomorrow. When we adopt that attitude of trust and faith, we do not have to lose sleep over what might or might not happen. God is our deliverer. He is always on time.
(NOTE: The word Selah is thought to be a musical term designating a pause. When you read through this Psalm, take a pause at each Selah and let those verses sink in.)
