Triumph through Suffering

Psalm 3

Somehow or another, every good movie finds a way to place the main character(s) in an excruciating dilemma with seemingly no way out. After squeezing out every last second of agony and horror from the audience through the twists and turns of the crisis, the plot finally resolves in some clever, unexpected way which the audience did not anticipate.

With this Psalm, we see how David felt as he experienced a frightening and painful dilemma. Though we don’t see the end of the story, we do see how David believed – even knew – how the crisis would resolve in the end, no matter how greatly the odds seemed stacked against him.

This is “a psalm of David when he fled from the presence of Absalom his son.” This preface tells us who wrote the poem and why he wrote it. David wrote this psalm, and he wrote in response to a very difficult experience in his life.

While Psalm 2 envisioned foreign nations and kings plotting to overthrow David and his descendants from being king, here David faced an internal threat instead. He was being threatened not only by someone in his nation but within his own family – by his own son.

Sadly, Absalom had led a revolt against his father. This revolt was so severe that Absalom had forced his father to leave his home and go into hiding outside the city. To make matters worse, David’s close advisor, Ahithophel, had sided with Absalom.

This poem features a sequence of four sections that express David’s feelings and thoughts as he worked through internally a very difficult external problem. From these comments we see that no matter how greatly the odds were stacked against him, David trusted in God with fearless resolve. His example then reminds to intensify our trust in God as opposition to his king increases.

No matter what people say, what plans they may form, or what actions they may take against God, his king, or his people, we know that God rescues his people and his blessing rests upon his people. Therefore, we can pray to him with increased confidence even when the odds are stacked against us and rising.

Many question God’s ability to rescue his people.

Yahweh, how many are my foes!

            Many rise up against me!

Many say about me,

“No rescue for him from God!” Selah.

Psalm 3:1-2

In this opening section, David describes the nature of his problem. He doesn’t say anything about this being a family or internal problem, nor does he say anything about being expelled from his home and palace.

In this difficult moment, David struggled to cope with the growing number of people who opposed him. Three times he says “many.” This repetition reveals that David was not focused exclusively on Absalom’s rebellion. He focused on how Absalom’s rebellion had marked the peak of a rising opposition to his reign.

• David describes his opposition as “foes,” which envisions people as hostile enemies attacking him.
• To “rise up against” portrays people as being concerted and deliberate in their opposition to him. They didn’t just dislike or disagree with him, they defied him.

This opening section of the poem also describes what kind of attack David was facing from large number of people. It wasn’t a military attack that troubled David the most, it was a war of words – a smear campaign, a program of propaganda.

A rising number of people were openly questioning God’s support for David as king and this discouraging trend was growing in popularity. If a weekly poll had been run asking whether people in Israel believed God supported David as king, the percentage of those saying ‘no’ would have been growing significantly and steadily.

As David wrote this poem, he was facing a painful situation. His reputation was plummeting. His family was divided. His kingdom was crumbling. His own life was at risk. Yet the attacks which he focused on were none of these. He recognized that all these threats were merely extensions of a greater attack, a war on his personal faith in God.

We’re not David and we’re not citizens of the nation of Israel either. So how does this psalm connect with our lives today? How does it touch our own experience?

As followers of Christ, we are following him who is the ultimate Davidic king. He himself was also taunted by thousands of people in Jerusalem who called for his execution. They mocked him at his trial and taunted him as he hung on the cross (Matt 27:37-44).

“Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, ‘This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.’ Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, I am the Son of God.’ And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.” (Matthew 27:37-44)

As followers of Christ, we also experience hostility and opposition. From a numerical, statistical standpoint, social and vocal opposition to God is on the rise. To follow Christ is to place ourselves in a place of increased isolation, marginalization, and opposition.

Are you okay with that? It’s a difficult and painful place to be, especially when following God’s king puts you at odds with those closest to you – not only your neighbors and fellow Americans but your own immediate family, even your children. How should we respond when we experience such discouraging and painful opposition for following Christ?

His people ask him to rescue them anyway.

But you, Yahweh, are a shield around me –

            my glory and the lifter of my head.

With my voice to Yahweh, I cried out,

            and he heard me from his holy hill. Selah.

Psalm 3:3-4

In response to his plummeting public approval numbers and family rejection, David turned his attention to God more intensely not less. Though growing numbers questioned his closeness to God, he didn’t allow their skepticism to diminish his trust in God.

In response to growing criticism, David didn’t defend launch a public information campaign. He spoke to God instead. Though many people had turned against him, he turned to the only one he needed on his side – Yahweh himself.

Here David describes what Yahweh means to him in three ways. He is a “shield around me.” He is “my glory.” He is “the lifter of my head.”

• As a shield, David viewed God as a superior alternative to an actual military shield or a fortification to defend him against a physical assault. Though his military advantage was greatly diminished, he knew that God was the only defense he would need.
• As his glory, David viewed God as the source of his personal and royal reputation. As such, he believed that no amount of propaganda or strikes against his reputation could undermine his role as God’s chosen king. Despite the temporary smear campaign against him and threat on his life, David knew God would preserve his reputation.
• As “the lifter of my head,” David viewed God as the one who would lift his head from both a slumped-shoulder, bowed-low position in a physical sense and from a humiliated, dethroned position in a royal sense. He believed God would lift his spirits and restore him to the palace and throne in Jerusalem with his head held high.

Here David further describes his speaking to God as an external, vocal prayer, not an internal, quiet one. He prayed out loud and very loudly, too. This degree of unbashful, unreserved expression reveals the intense degree not only of David’s struggle and but of his trust in God as well.

To say God “heard me from his holy hill” reminds us that David was hiding outside Jerusalem. He was away from Jerusalem, his palace, his home, and most importantly the mountain where he worshiped God. Yet his closeness to God was not limited to a geographic location. He affirmed God’s closeness even from his undisclosed location.

Does the growing unpopularity of trusting in God inspire you to ask God to deliver you or does it persuade you to side with the majority instead or to be afraid? Are you afraid of what people will say and think about you for following his king? Or do you speak with him with greater resolve and trust than before?

They rest well as they wait for him to rescue them.

I will lie down, and I will sleep,

            I will wake up because Yahweh has sustained me.

I will not be afraid of thousands of people

            who all around have set themselves against me.

Psalm 3:5-6

Having both evaluated his problem and expressed his request for God to rescue him, David put his faith into action not by marching into battle but by marching to bed. Though this seems rather anticlimactic, it’s actually quite profound. Sometimes we put our faith into action not by making bold plans but by going to bed.

Here David portrays a deliberate choice to “lie down,” a decision to go to “sleep,” and a clear “waking up” the next morning after a full night of rest. Knowing how much internal anxiety and external pressure he faced, how could he do this? How could he go to sleep?

“It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so he gives his beloved sleep.” (Psa 127:2)

He could sleep during his struggle because Yahweh “sustained” him. “Sustain” means to place your hand upon someone to hold them up. To him God’s involvement in his life was so real that it was as though God was right beside him, placing his hand on his shoulder.

Many of us know as children what it’s like to be scared of the boogey monster under our bed or to be frightened by noises in the house when we’re trying to go to sleep. When this occurred, we felt most safe when our mother or father sat down beside us, tucked us in, and assured us that everything was okay.

That’s what David describes here, only he wasn’t threatened by the boogey monster. He was actually being hunted down by his own son who wanted to kill him. To make matters worse, his son had a large and growing number of people on his side.

Being certain of God’s approval and support in this dire and traumatic situation, David affirms his confidence. He claims that no matter how many people gang up against him, even if the number reached tens of thousands (like a full NFL stadium), he would “not be afraid.” Could you say the same? How many people or what opinions about you would prevent you from going to sleep? What fears keep you awake at night?

Their confidence grows as they wait for his rescue.

Rise up, Yahweh, rescue me, my God!

            Surely, you will strike all my foes on the jaw,

            the teeth of the wicked you will shatter.

Rescue belongs to Yahweh;

            on your people is your blessing. Selah.

Psalm 3:7-8

In this closing section of the poem, David envisions the two sides of the conflict he faces by saying “rise up,” something he said in the first section of this poem as well.

• At the start of the poem, he envisioned the many people who were rising against him. At the close of the poem, he now envisions the opposite – Yahweh rising against them.
• David’s opponents claimed God could not and would not rescue him, yet that’s exactly what David expects God to do.

In dramatic and poetic fashion, David envisions what God will do. He will strike his opponents in the jaw, in the very place where they attacked him – their mouths. He will strike them so forcefully that their teeth will shatter into bits and pieces.

Perhaps you know that tooth enamel is the hardest substance in your body. In a fist fight, it takes a lot of force to knock out your opponent’s teeth, what’s more to shatter their teeth into pieces! What David envisions here is a total deliverance from God. He believes that God will rescue him completely and leave his enemies toothless, that is – speechless.

Rescue belongs to Yahweh;

            on your people is your blessing. Selah.

Psalm 3:8

With this closing line, David states the obvious. Though it was true that rising numbers of people seemed to disagree, no statistical trends could persuade him otherwise, nor could they change the facts. To say that God could not and would not rescue David was utter nonsense, and he knew it, no matter how many people believed or claimed otherwise.

You can find all sorts of critics on Twitter, for instance, who claim all sorts of things and who may even gain thousands of followers who like what they say. Yet no matter how many skeptics claim otherwise, statistics prove that Michael Jordan is the best basketball player of all time, Tom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time, the Ford F-150 is the most popular vehicle of all time, and Chik-Fil-A makes the best chicken sandwich.

While some of these claims are debatable, one claim is not up for grabs. “Rescue belongs to Yahweh.” That’s who he is and what he does. Michael Jordan and Tom Brady win championships, Chik-Fil-A makes chicken sandwiches, and “Yahweh rescues his people.” That’s who he is. That’s what he does. No one is more reliable or successful at rescuing than him, no matter the odds or how many people claim otherwise.

Since Yahweh rescues his people, his blessing is assured. Though God’s blessing may seem to slip away at times, as when Absalom chased David from his palace or when the sun slips behind the shadows at nighttime, it cannot be removed. God’s blessing shines upon his people like the sun shines on the earth – forever.

As Paul would later write to a church like ours, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom 8:31). And then, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom 8:35).

Do you pray with greater confidence in God’s rescue?

No matter what people say, what plans they may form, or what actions they may take against God, his king, or his people, we know that God rescues his people and his blessing rests upon his people. Therefore, we can pray to him with increased confidence even when the odds are stacked against us and rising.

Do you ask God for his deliverance and blessing less or more confidently today than you once did? Or does rising opposition to God, his king, and his people weaken your faith and diminish your prayers instead? When you go to bed at night, deliberately entrust your cares and fears to God through prayer and rest in faith knowing that he is your shield and his blessing rests upon you.