Psalm 3 comes out of the backdrop of David’s failure as a father and a king. Absalom his son has successfully completed a four year plot to usurp the throne. David is fleeing Jerusalem with almost everyone in Israel against him. He has failed as a father and a king – and is facing the consequences.

Read. listen and watch how I show the relevance of this Psalm to me as I weathered the greatest failure in my personal life.

Here is the video link:

Psalm 3

The audio links are to the right (Spotify and iTunes), and the transcript used to produce this podcast is below.

Psalm 3… Overcoming Devastation

 

Background  – Absalom and David

The story of Absalom and David is found in 2 Samuel 13-18…

Talk about a sudden drop in the polls! David’s son Absalom had killed a half-brother for raping Absalom’s sister.  He then fled from his father David. David invites him back eventually, and Absalom hatched a plan to punish David – to steal his kingdom and to place himself, Absalom, as king. It takes four years. During the four years Absalom worked to gain the hearts of the people. through flattery and deceit, pretending to be the “people’s champion”. 

Read it here from 2 Samuel 15:

2 He would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out to him, “What town are you from?” He would answer, “Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.” 3 Then Absalom would say to him, “Look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you.” 4 And Absalom would add, “If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that they receive justice.”

5 Also, whenever anyone approached him to bow down before him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him and kiss him. 6 Absalom behaved in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he stole the hearts of the people of Israel.

After 4 years, Absalom makes his move. Under the pretense of worshipping God, he goes to Hebron, taking a large retinue with him.

7 At the end of four[a] years, Absalom said to the king, “Let me go to Hebron and fulfill a vow I made to the Lord. 8 While your servant was living at Geshur in Aram, I made this vow: ‘If the Lord takes me back to Jerusalem, I will worship the Lord in Hebron.[b]’”

9 The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he went to Hebron.

10 Then Absalom sent secret messengers throughout the tribes of Israel to say, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, then say, ‘Absalom is king in Hebron.’” 11 Two hundred men from Jerusalem had accompanied Absalom. They had been invited as guests and went quite innocently, knowing nothing about the matter. 12 While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s counselor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. And so the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom’s following kept on increasing.

As soon as David hears of the people claiming Absalom, he realizes that he has been duped by his son, and in order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed in Jerusalem, he abdicates his throne and flees into the wilderness, leaving Jerusalem wide open for Absalom to claim. David has a small force with him and Absalom now has access to a much larger army from all across Israel.

3:1,2 Devastation Strikes David

This Psalm is written against that backdrop. The bottom has dropped out of David’s life – daughter raped, one son kills another, and the murdering son coming after his father. The opening two verses has David praying.

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]

There’s a reason many say this of him. Prior to becoming King, he was a “man of the people”. He took the role of an underdog against Saul, his predecessor. Who doesn’t appreciate an underdog? The people loved him. David won the hearts of Israel long before he became king. But once he became King, he slowly turned into a king like every king around him – a bureaucrat, separated from the people, and no longer the “people’s champion”. I can’t help but imagine that as he drifted away from his people, he also drifted away from God.

As I read that story of David in 2 Samuel, and I read this Psalm, I see both sides to this story – the external story – David losing his throne to a vindictive son – and the internal story of David waking up to the horrific repercussions of his sin and negligence (to his people, his family,  and to his God). Once awoken to the reality of what is happening, his response is this prayer. And what a prayer – this isn’t a hands-wringing-woe-is-me kind of prayer. It is a declaration of WHO God is. And just who is He?

1. He is my shield – v3
2. He is my glory – v3
3. He lifts my head – v3
4. He answers me – v4
5. He sustains me – v5
6. He grants me fearlessness – v6
7. He delivers me – v8

David can say all this, while his world is crumbling around him. David can say all of this, even though he alone is the author of his own downfall. As David leaves his home in Jerusalem, he in effect comes home to his God. Let’s read this Psalm beginning to end.

3:1-8 The entire Psalm

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.

David is paying a price for his foolishness and negligence. What happens through Absalom is due, in no small part, to David’s failures as a father. Yet he does not hide from his God in shame. He knows EXACTLY where he needs to be… next to God. This is a time of great stress and fear for David and those who are with him. But the great leader, David, knows Who can and will deliver him, and he demonstrates that confidence in his God and in this Psalm.

Conclusion and Application

I experienced two times of devastation in my life, where seemingly I lost everything. The first time, it was courtesy of Hurricane Hugo, a category three hurricane that nearly wiped my house of the face of this earth… with my family and I huddling in the living room. The damage done was mind-boggling. With no earthly resources to replace all that was taken, my family and I saw God take care of EVERYTHING. But I want to focus on the time where my undoing was ALL on me (Like David, in this Psalm), and not the result of Nature.

The second time of devastation was when I lost my six-figure salary job, and through some of the most foolish decision-making possible, I lost my savings and everything else except for one vehicle. I was forced to sell my house to pay off the bankruptcy. This is the event that allows me to most identify with David in this Psalm. My destruction was entirely my own doing. I made wrong decisions in my job that led to my firing. I made wrong financial decisions that led to the bankruptcy. It was my own foolishness that led to my undoing… just like David. What I find remarkable as I remember that time is that I was totally aware of my sin that led me into this valley of destruction. I never made excuses, blaming other people for my distress. I confessed my sins to God, and looked to Him for deliverance.

Personalizing this Psalm

Here is the list, once again, only this time, as it is applied to me, not David.

1. He is my shield – v3. “…but you, Lord, are a shield around me” He indeed protected me from total destruction. In my initial appearance in Bankruptcy court, the court attorney accused me of money-laundering and recommended my case be taken to criminal court. That never happened. God shielded me.
2. He is my glory – v3. “… my glory, “ His Name was lifted by me again and again during this period. Any good thing that happened to me was due to Him alone. I was quick to recognize Him in everything that took place.
3. He lifts my head – v3. “the One who lifts my head high.” God kept me standing tall. Confessing my sins of financial foolishness, not hiding my failures, I set out to find solutions to put my wife and I (the kids were both moved out by then) back on track, financially. I did not succumb to fear and shame.
4. He answers me – v4. “I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain.” I have a VERY large list of times God answered my prayers during this time.
5. He sustains me – v5. “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.”  Our first year into our bankruptcy, my wife and I MAYBE made about 12,000.00 (can’t remember the exact amount). Under bankruptcy, we needed to make approximately 20,000.00 a year to keep the mortgage up to date (until we were able to sell the house), keep the lights on and have some food in the pantry. Neither my wife nor I can tell you where the extra dollars needed to fill the gap came from. But whenever one of the bills we had needed to be paid, we paid it with funds in our accounts. There were no huge donations, no nothing. When money was needed  – money was there. He sustained us.
6. He grants me fearlessness – v6. “I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.”Every day I got up, put on clean clothes and went out looking for work. As frightening as all this was  – and it WAS frightening – I didn’t have time to be afraid.
7. He delivers me – v8. “From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.”Ultimately, God DID deliver me. What used to be a side-hustle i.e. teaching a few guitar lessons, turned into a career that my wife joined me in – teaching music to the homeschool community in the Metro Atlanta area. Since 2002, she and I have taught music to elementary children through high school students.

The lessons learned through all of that are still with me. I am no longer the foolish spender. And I am no longer the prodigal who had strayed from God. 

I wonder why Psalm 3 is one of my favorite Psalms? You tell me.

Have a Blessed day!

Paige