Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.
Do you pray that God will punch your enemies and break their teeth?
Psalm 3 does. But first, we need to begin where the psalm begins. It’s titled, “A psalm of David when he fled from his son Absalom.”
Here’s the backstory. David’s son Absalom staged a coup. Fearing for his life, King David fled Jerusalem, and Absalom moved into the palace. Everything important to David was breaking. A failing kingship, a failing family, his life in grave danger. What to do?
David prayed, updating God on his perilous situation:
O Lord, how many are my foes,
many rise up against me.
Many are saying of me,
“God will not deliver him” (v 1-2).
David’s enemies wrote God out of the picture. But David wrote God into his picture. He prayed,
You are my shield, Lord,
my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
I call out to you,
and you answer from your holy mountain (v 3-4).
Something shifted for David as he prayed. His enemies loomed less large. He trusted God to protect him. Despair became hope of deliverance. God’s glory invaded his weak and shameful escape from Jerusalem.
Listen to David’s relief and his emerging hope:
I lie down and sleep;
I wake again because the Lord sustains me.
I will not fear though tens of thousands
assail me on every side (v 5-6).
With this newfound confidence, David calls God to action:
Arise, O Lord!
Deliver me, O my God!
Strike my enemies on the jaw.
Break their teeth (v 7).
Is God David’s security detail, punching his enemies and breaking teeth?
Let’s pray.
O father, I too have enemies, but they are not plotters and assassins. My enemies lurk in my heart, emboldened by the degeneracy of our society.
My enemy is persistent anxiety that overwhelms me. My foe is unbelief that whispers, “Is God really listening to your prayers?”
In our world of wrongs and evil, I wonder if you care.
And yet . . . you are a shield around me. You teach me to think clearly, to believe faithfully, to act righteously, to hope relentlessly. You aren’t punching people and breaking teeth for me, but you sustain me in prayer, refresh me in sleep, encourage me in hope and love.
As the psalmist says,
From you, Lord, comes deliverance.
May your blessing be on your people (v 8).
Amen.
I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.
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