Psalm 3:1-8
A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; (2) many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah. (3) But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. (4) I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah. (5) I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me. (6) I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. (7) Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. (8) Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! Selah.
This is the Psalm of the Bullied. Of the one who somehow displeases the perceived majority in his community.
What comfort to use these words in prayer: “O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;”, if you are in a position where it feels like those who you feel should be with you, are in fact against you. Imagine the feeling that must have been behind “many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God…”! David KNEW he was the King of Israel, that he was anointed by God and that God considered him “a man after God’s own heart”, and still he finds it painful to have his relationship to God questioned. Condemned as non-existent. There, in that pain David turns to God and affirms to God, and to himself that no matter what they say about him or what God thinks about him, God is His God: “But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head… I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.”. David trusts God. Why? Because his experience tells him that despite the animosty he is facing from people, God is listening to him, and that God will continue to listen to him. That’s why David can say: “I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.” Then why does he ask God to save him? “Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.” Because he is a man on the run. God has “provoked” David’s enemies, they are after him., and he needs God to protect him.
Verse 8 has an interesting detail, I’d like to point out. The Hebrew used for ’save’ in verse 7 is ‘yasha’ and that for ’salvation’ in verse 8 is ‘yeshua’. Apart from the fact that both can be used as a first name in Hebrew, the meaning of ‘yeshua’ (salvation) can also be ‘victory’. So what we have in verse 8 “Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people!” is a proclamation of GOD’s victory over those who are after David.
Amen
