"He Answers us from His Holy Mountain..."Psalm 3
1 LORD, how my adversaries have increased!
Many are rising up against me.
2Many are saying of my soul,
"There is no deliverance for him in God." [a]Selah.
3But You, O LORD, are a shield about me,
My glory, and the One who lifts my head.
4I was crying to the LORD with my voice,
And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah.
5I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the LORD sustains me.
6I will (I)not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have (J)set themselves against me round about.
7Arise, O LORD; (L)save me, O my God!
For You have (M)smitten all my enemies on the cheek;
You have (N)shattered the teeth of the wicked.
8Salvation belongs to the LORD;
Your (P)blessing be upon Your people! Selah.
Have you ever felt so alone, that it hurt to see others smile?
To trust God when the winds are fair, this is but religion. To hold on when gales are fierce and threatening takes the gaze of a noble faith. Even more trying is when those gales are filled with the faces of those who despise you, taunt you, and await your demise. Then you must cling to God. God teaches the most valuable lesson of life in the school of rejection. But remember, we don’t go off somewhere to learn it, but He graciously teaches us as a Father in the home. Regardless of how severe our circumstances we are still at home with our Father. We can pray, “Our father who art in heaven...and know that he gazes upon our stammering lips and quiets our rhetoric long enough to fill us with peace. The Psalmist is experiencing aloneness. His adversaries have increased in the land, and many are saying God will not come to save. They have attacked what is most sacred and most reflective of the Father’s nature. A father is a protector first, because in protecting all other faculties are preserved. The accusers(and the Great Accuser most often is behind their words) slap him across the face with the bold assertion that God will not be found in his troubles.
Verse 3 resounds through the heavens, “BUT...” and God is there. He is a shield that stands in the way of the fiery darts of the enemy. Those darts are words, and they wound the stoutest of hearts. Next, He is Glory, pure love and divine fellowship with God. That unmistakable birth certificate brought out of moldy files and paraded for all of hell to see. “This one belongs to me, he is my Glory!” Because of this, the psalmist can keep his head lifted high.
Prayer, too helps keep perspective. The psalmist cries out to God, and He comes from His holy mountain. On close inspection we see one seeking God in all His holiness...himself right with God, he can enter boldly (Heb 4) into that holy of holies and find there the answers to his troubled heart. Real prayer will enter in and remain until God lifts the veil of confusion, and shows the path of execution of His perfect will.
What a gift when sleep comes in the face of tormentors. Jesus slept in the boat in the middle of a storm. A fitting picture for those caught in storms that threaten life’s equilibrium. The Psalmist hears from God, then sleeps well, awakes refreshed because it was the Lord who was watching over him during the dark evil filled night. For those troubled at night, cry out to God for deliverance. He will guard you as a night watchman. New strength and perspective has entered the psalmist’s mind, and now fear has been cast off, and the cloak dropped at every one of the feet of those who had harassed him. Now, rejection means nothing, only divine fellowship with the One who alone delivers from death.
The battle belongs to the Lord. God will strike our enemies on the cheek, if only we hand over our rights and station ourselves beside Him. It is a child king who nestles against the train of the King of all Kings. He will come to our defense on the decisive day of battle. Do you manage your skirmishes on our own time-table, or in your own strength? We must trust God in the day of evil, and to triumph and put to shame our darkest enemies in that most decisive moment.
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