I'm in a crisis - what now?

This is Kana and Charlene and my day 3 of our Bible Reading over 2 years.  Gordon and I had a lovely and full family day with our daughter Isabelle and granddaughters in which we spent concentrated time with them. So, after no regrets, only joys, I got late to today's Bible Reading and focused on Psalm 3.

I'm so aware of my two good friends reading the same parts of God's Word and pray that the Holy Spirit will be our counselor as we read and delight ourselves in the Lord our God.

Psalm 3 has been one of my favourite Psalms for a long time especially the bit about God being the lifter of our heads.  Just the verse when one feels either down in the dumps our downright depressed. As for praying down punishment on the enemy, I tended to give those verses a skip.  This evening I tried to face them and they made a lot more sense when we see we don't take matters into our hand. Certainly we should pray for God's mercy, but it's seem quite right to pray that the power of persecutors, despotic powers, Satan himself, false teachers should be curbed or stopped.

I found tonight's Psalm put me on the right track as how to handle dark times.

The notes that follow are my own impressions together with summaries from audio sermons and a blog or two as God's truths impacted my heart and mind and life:

Psalm 3 January 3

Psalm 3.  We tend to compare our trials and our darkest crisis don’t we – but for David to have to flee from his own son – that is appalling! Imagine his nocturnal flight from Jerusalem, from his rebellious son.
Then there was the mocking crowd and a rising tide of the disloyalty of his own people.

In verses 1 to 2, David describes his struggles honestly to God – no pretending that things are just fine.  Here we see something of David's internal mindset and his anxieties.

“O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah”

David has abundant, many enemies who are saying that God has turned his back on David. It sure looked like it. God had anointed David as king, but now it looked as if God had abandoned David,.  His enemies were accumulating and moving in for the kill.

David the psalmist begins this prayer with what’s right in front of him–with what he can see, his circumstances, with what hurts and threatens. David doesn’t pretend. David reports. David is honest before God about the pressure, pain, and fear. David has enemies. And these enemies are “many.” Three times the text repeats the “many-ness” of the threat David faces.

David is in trouble. This is what David sees in front of him. This is where David starts. David pours out his trouble to the LORD.

What do you see? What is happening in your life right now?  Avoid the temptation of processing and navigating the trouble by yourself. This Psalm calls us out of your self-sufficiency, out of  the self-sufficient life.

But…. David turns directly to the God who supposedly has abandoned him and pours out his heart, hurt and anger to God. He does not rationalize anger rather, but he expresses his emotions vividly and loudly to God.

(The 150 psalms present a mosaic of doubt, paranoia, giddiness, meanness, delight, hatred, joy, praise, vengefulness, betrayal – we find it all in the Psalms.)

 Verses 5,6 – complete confidence and courage.

We need to know in the middle of our struggles that God has not abandoned us.

Do you remember the way that David’s enemies saw things? “There is no salvation for him in God,” – verse 2.  Well, David knows otherwise and knows better than to think that God had abandoned him. 

He says in verses 3-6:

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 woke again, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.

Now David interrupts what he sees with belief.  “Life is very hard. But…David’s enemies are “many, many, many.” But David’s God is “shield, glory, lifter.”What do you believe about the LORD? 

Do you believe The LORD is your shield who protects you in the midst of today’s battle. The LORD is also your glory. He’s also the lifter of your head even today?  

Here David demonstrates something that we need to do if we’re going to survive our problems:

• Remind yourself of who God is, and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do in and through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. What David does here is to honestly acknowledge his emotions, but then to begin to work on what he knows to be true. He reminds himself about God and his character.
• God protects. David says, “But you, O LORD, are a shield about me – a shield all around him. David says that God is his complete protection.
• David says that God is his “glory”. David was on the run, and he had lost his glory, dignity and honour as a king.  David says that God is his glory and our glory even if we lose everything.
• David says that God is the “lifter of his head”. God has a way of restoring his people even in the middle of impossible situations.
• Finally, God is accessible. God answers from his holy hill in the middle of life’s difficulties. He’s present to help no matter where we are or what we’re going through.

I lay down and slept woke again, for the LORD sustained me.I will not be afraid of many thousands of people, who have set themselves against me all around.

Nothing had changed in this situation. 

1. Absalom was still out to get him. 
2. David was still surrounded by enemies. 
3. They still thought they had him in their power.

But..... in the middle of that mess David said, “I know my God.” We can continue in the middle of our crisis, look at thousands of our enemies and still sleep well at night because we know who God is, and that he is in control and has not left us.
Now David remembers.  Remind yourself today of how you cried to God in seasons of desperation in the past and of how he answered and took care of you. Your circumstances and cries and have changed, but God is still God.  He remembers you today. 

Though David’s circumstances have no changed, he sees past the immediate. 

Look at what he says in verses 7 and 8:Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! Selah

What about prayers that are made for God to strike our enemies!

We should certainly be praying for God’s mercy.  But it’s also right for the breaking of power of the persecutors of Christians, of despotic governments of the work of the most powerful evil one, Satan and the silencing of false teachers.

Here David says that he knows he doesn’t have to take things into his own hand. Why? Because he knows that God will take care of all of his enemies. Because of this, David is free from having to take matters into his own hands. He leaves the vengeance to God.

God can handle your honesty. But also remind yourself of who God is. 

Most of all, remind yourself of who you are in Christ. You have a Saviour who died to save you, to make you right with God. Remind yourself that if you have trusted in Christ, you have been adopted. You are now God’s own child. You never have to worry about God abandoning you.

Then see that God is a God who judges. You don’t have to judge your enemies, because God will do a better job of judging evil than we ever could. But look to the cross and see that this is where perfect justice and mercy meet, where God repays evil, but where forgiveness is extended to all those who want it.

When facing a crisis, turn to God, like David did in Psalm 3.

6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around.David makes a decision. David considers the evidence of his circumstances and the evidence of his God and he makes a decision to not be afraid. The word “many” shows up again. It doesn’t matter anymore. Even if he has to face “many thousands” of enemies who have set themselves against him “all around,” David knows the LORD his shield surrounds him all around. David teaches us how to process and approach life in this world. David should be very afraid. But verses 3-5 changed everything.  Now David is surrounded by a shield, he’s enjoying a glory that he can’t lose, his head has been lifted high.

A definition of faith:

Faith is being able to take a long look at your circumstances and a long look at your God and deciding that God is bigger. David decided to say “I will not fear”.

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.

 David makes two requests: “Arise…” and “Save me.” This is no fancy prayer request.  It boils down to:  'Help!"

8 Salvation belongs to the LORD;
your blessing be on your people!

David proclaims that salvation (victory/deliverance) belongs to God and that blessing is sure to come from God. Will I rest in the reality that salvation belongs to the LORD? 

I want Psalm 3 to mark my life.