Thursday, February 08, 2018

Psalm 3: More Impressed with God's Works than with My Enemies

In Psalm 3, David is overwhelmed by his enemies, and prays to God out of assurance and support. He cries aloud to the LORD (v. 4), and God answers, but there are no specific requests mentioned until near the end of the psalm, where we find two appeals: “Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God!" 

Most of the psalm, though, is a record of David’s engagement with God in prayer marked by assurance. He is shaken by the number of his enemies, but steadfastly assured of God’s support. It seems to me that he then prays “Arise” and “Save” not so much out of desperation but out of confidence that this is exactly what God intends to do. It is fitting that David would have this confidence, because he has seen God do this so many times before. This psalm, if the heading is correct, occurs later in life, with the usurpation of his son, Absalom, to the throne, and his fleeing of Jerusalem. But God has delivered David so many times before, especially with regard to the years of fleeing from Saul.

I only found one other verse in the OT that begins with the same Hebrew “How many.” 
Psa. 104:24 “How many are Your works!  In wisdom You have made them all; The earth is full of Your possessions.”
David is more deeply impressed with the magnitude of God’s works than he is with the multitude of his enemies.

And that’s where we will leave it today. How can we be more impressed with the magnitude of God’s works than with the multitude of our enemies? Read that verse, Ps 104:24, again. 

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