August 3, 2008THE HEART’S CRY
Psalm 3
Most children go through it. I certainly did and didn’t really get over it until I moved out to go to college at age 18. The house I grew up in (in north Jersey just outside New York City)
was a four-bedroom, three-story home with unfinished attic and semi-finished basement. Both attic and cellar were scary places to be alone. Whenever heading upstairs from the basement, there were four or five railing posts at the bottom of the stairs. My heart usually skipped a beat, imagining some monster or enemy my older brothers told me about (the “Red Hessian” or “Joe the Bear”) grabbing my legs as I passed by. The fear was tangible. As adults, we too can be faced with scary challenges at night or in the day. We’re confronted with challenges real or imagined (sometimes more real than my childhood fantasy) that paralyze us or make life fearful. A diagnosis of cancer, retirement plans torched by the falling market or changes in tax laws, an impending divorce, our adult children facing overwhelming problems, worry over loss of job or failure in career, not being able to make ends meet with income not keeping pace with basic spending: Wow! The list just keeps coming. Afraid, yet? Scared like me just waiting for that monster to grab you? Psalm 3 is among many psalms of lament or complaint found in the Bible. For David, the pressure was on and being intensified. The subtitle of the psalm reads, “A psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.” You can read all about this difficult struggle in David’s life in II Samuel chapters 13-19. The Psalms are unique with their place in the Bible. They are at once God’s Word to us and our word to God. They help us express ourselves to God and they help us consider God’s ways for our lives. Psalm 3 does exactly that. It begins with an address to the “Lord.” And pours out, honestly and forcefully, a complaint, a problem, a lament. “How many are my foes!” Psalm 22 says, “My God, my God, why are you so far from saving me?” Psalm 42: “My tears have been my food day and night.” Psalm 71: My enemies speak against me; those who wait to kill me conspire together.” Psalm 120: “Too long have I lived among those who hate peace.” And Psalm 142: “I cry aloud to the Lord; I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble.” Then, as David works through his lament in Psalm 3, he asserts his faith with words of trust, deliverance, assurance, and praise. “But you, Lord, are a shield around me. From the Lord comes deliverance.” What a great pattern for prayer (the collection of Psalms became Israel’s prayer book and has served God’s people in this way ever since). What a great pattern for prayer – express your trouble, crisis, difficulty, lament – then trust in the Lord. It’s important that our prayers are balanced: requests and appreciation, complaints and confidence. I. Lament (vs. 1-2)
Whenever we face a problem in life big or small, we have a choice. We can turn away from God or we turn to him. There are many who use troubles to justify unbelief. The Lord invites us to use these difficulties to spur on and grow faith and trust. In I Peter 5 it says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”
David leads in a way we can follow. He was inspired to be honest with the Lord as he worded his complaint and appeal. We, too, can be more willing to express ourselves to God openly without covering over our problems. As Absalom’s attempted coup and following grows, David makes his complaint. “How many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me ‘God will not deliver him.’ David must have been saying to himself, “What should I do?” In a marvelous dramatization, Gene Edwards wrote A Tale of Three Kings. It follows David’s struggles and approach to crazy King Saul before him and up-start Absalom after him. Saul was the older man, King of Israel, when young and popular David burst onto the scene. But David refused to dishonor Saul or seek his throne. Now David is the older man, King of Israel when the young and popular Absalom burst on the scene. But this time the younger man does seek to dishonor the king and pursue the throne. Edwards imagines David saying, “If I stop him, will I still be a David? If I stop him, will I not be Saul? In my youth I was David. In my old age I intend to be David still, even if it costs me a throne, a kingdom, and perhaps my head. Think on it. God once delivered a defenseless shepherd boy from the powerful, mad king. He can yet deliver an old ruler from an ambitious young rebel” (Gene Edwards’ study in brokenness, submission, and authority is a great read; check it out: A Tale of three Kings). Along with the increase of problems, David also experiences an assault on his faith. “There is no help for him in God. God will not deliver him.” The word translated here for “help” or “deliver” is yeshuah, Jesus, one who saves. “There is no Jesus for him,” proclaims Absalom and his followers. If the Lord has rejected David then the people are free to do so as well. Anytime you or I assert our faith and live according to God’s word, there will be opposition. Jesus said to his disciples, “Don’t be surprised if the world hates you. Keep in mind that it hated me first. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (that’s John 15:18-20). The first attack is that God has abandoned us. The second is that we aren’t worth his attention anyway. And the third attack is the conclusion that we should give up our faith in him and turn elsewhere for help. In the midst of life’s challenges, difficulties, failures, and disasters, it’s the skepticism of others and our own self-doubt that battle against the faith in our hearts. Keep in mind what our Savior said about our Adversary, the devil, Satan. “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. For he is a liar and the father of lies” (that’s in John 8:44). So the apostle Paul encourages the early church to “take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16).
This exactly what David does in the balance of his heart’s cry, this song of lament. II. Trust (vs. 3-8) “But you, Lord, are a shield around me.” David knew that the God who rules the stars will guard his heart. God is that intimate, that close, that real. “But you, Lord are my glory, the one who lifts my head.” Our failures and problems in life caused by others or even by ourselves can cause shame or humiliation. David’s head was lowered in shame by Absalom’s revolt. But the God who protects and provides will go on to lift his head with kingly dignity restored.
Luther’s most famous hymn A Mighty Fortress says it: “And tho’ this world with devils filled Doth threaten to undo us; We will not fear for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us.” With God going into battle for us, the outcome is secure. David concludes the Psalm with his confidence and trust in God. “Salvation belongs to the Lord. From the Lord comes deliverance.” Again the word for salvation and deliverance is yeshua, Jesus. Jesus is our salvation; Jesus is our deliverance. Conclusion
When facing problems in life, fear can do interesting things to us. I would shudder and sprint up the stairs from my childhood cellar. Fear can propel us to fight, urge us to flee, cause us to freeze, or throw us into panic. I’ve done all four; and I’m sure you have as well. Fear activated David’s faith. Children of God, the Lord wants it to do the same for us. He collapses on God’s faithfulness as he puts his trust in the Lord yet again. God wants to do the same for you and me. So remember the psalms of lament. Express your struggle honestly, directly, from the heart to the Lord. And then reaffirm your trust and faith in the God, the Lord, the Savior who loves and redeems you. He is yeshua, Jesus, Redeemer, Savior. Let us pray together. |
