Psalm 3 “Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. 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. Arise, Lord! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.” Today's episode talks about David and his amazing trust in the Lord. He trusted and praised the Lord even when he was being chased by his son and tens of thousands of soldiers. Can we do the same? Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Trust & Thanksgiving In The Hard Times
Psalm 3 “Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. 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. Arise, Lord! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.”
Yesterday, I was listening to the Catechism of the Catholic Church in a Year podcast with Father Mike. He was talking about this Psalm. He was talking about how usually we are good at thanking God and trusting God when things are going really well in our lives. We thank God for giving us the answers to our prayers. We thank him when things go our way and when we are seeing success. However, how often do we praise Him, thank Him, and trust Him in the hard times?
David and God have a very intimate relationship. God chose David to be king when he was a very young boy. Even before he was chosen, David knew how powerful the Lord was. He used this knowledge to kill a giant named Goliath. He knew God was more powerful than anything on this earth. David was a great king most of the time, although he made some pretty bad choices as well. He was not a great father, and at one point, he was on the run from his son Absalom. It was at this point that David wrote this Psalm of Thanksgiving.
It wasn’t when he was safe in his castle, and God was giving him everything he wanted. It wasn’t when his armies were conquering all the other nations. It was when his own son was trying to kill him. He was fleeing his castle, his land, and his people, all so he could remain alive. This is when David wrote this Psalm. This is what David was saying about God when he was in trouble.
What do we say about God and to God when we are struggling or when we are in trouble? What about when our child is sick, and it feels like we haven’t had any prayers answered in quite some time? Are we still talking about how God is our protector? What about when we have been out of work for a long time, and there is no money coming in? Are we still talking about how God is our provider? How would we react if we were told that we needed to flee the country because a family member wanted us dead? I don’t think we could truly know how we would act until we were in that situation.
I would love to praise God and say how much he has done for me. I hope to be able to trust that the Lord will get me out of whatever circumstances in which I find myself. Let's take a look at the way David was praising and thanking the Lord. “Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.” But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. 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. Arise, Lord! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.”
First, David asks the Lord how many enemies he has. How many have risen up against him? Then David explains that these enemies are saying that God will not deliver him this time. I am sure this made God sad. He has saved His people time and time again, and there are some who still doubt that He will show up. David goes on to say, “But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. This is a great part of the verse because it shows us that even though David is running for his life, he still believes that God will protect him. He still believes that God will answer his prayers.
I wonder if we can say the same. Can we still say that God is our shield when we feel we are under attack? What if it feels like we have been under attack for years now? Do we still believe that the Lord is our shield? Do we still believe that He answers our prayers? Next, David said, “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.” David is showing us here that the Lord is sustaining him. I believe he is also showing us that he knows if he wakes up each day, it is because the Lord willed it. None of us are guaranteed to wake up each day. If we do, it is a gift from the Lord! David knew this. This part also shows us the trust David has in the Lord. He is being chased by an army led by his son. He has tens of thousands of people on every side of him, and yet he does not fear because he knows he has the Lord on his side.
Do you see how strong and fearless we are able to be when we understand the strength of the Lord and when we turn all things over to Him? David knows that God is in control of all things. He trusts God with his whole being, even to the point of death. He knows that if he dies, God has allowed it to happen. He is not afraid of his enemy.
The last part of this Psalm says, “Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.” In this last part, David is asking God to act in a very specific way. He is not just asking for them to be defeated; he is asking for God to strike them in the jaw and break their teeth. I looked up online if there was a specific significance to this specific request of David. Here is what I found in the article: Break the Teeth of the Wicked (Part 3) (Click Here for the article)
“Consider the memorable prayer after which I’ve titled this series of posts: “Break the teeth of the wicked.” David makes this request twice in the Psalms (3:7; 58:6). Is David asking God literally to knock out the incisors of the wicked? Is he hoping that God will deliver a blow to the jaw of the wicked, literally shattering their canines and crushing their molars? The answer seems obvious.
We must remember that the book of Psalms is poetry. David is praying in metaphor. And what does the metaphor of God breaking the teeth of the wicked mean? It means God takes away the power of the wicked to bite and devour. Keep them from harming me and others. Thwart their plans to do violence. The second instance in which David prays this prayer makes the point particularly clear:
O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord! (58:6)
David envisions his enemies as young lions seeking to devour God’s people. His request is that God would defang these wicked men. In short, David is appealing to God to stop the wicked.”
As you can see, David trusts the Lord and is able to praise the Lord even in times of great difficulty. What if we tried this? What if, no matter what we were going through, we trusted that God had our best interests at heart? What if we truly believed this? Think about that for a minute. Would it be easier to trust the Lord if you knew without doubt that God had nothing but your best interests at heart? What if instead of being so angry at the Lord, we took some time to praise him in the hard times? Would that change anything? Would we be more equipped to handle the hard times?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who listen to this episode. Lord, I pray your blessing on each and every one of them. Lord, we pray you protect us and you love us. We pray that you help us trust you even when times are hard. We pray that you help us praise you even when times are hard. Lord, we love you so much, and we ask all of this in accordance with our will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Tonight is mentoring! The topic for tonight will be why our forgiveness of others is essential. If you would like to join us send me a message and I will send you a zoom link! I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received by a member of the Catholic Charismatic Prayer group in November of 2023. If you have any questions about the prayer group or the words given please email Catholiccharismaticprayergroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word is, “My children, I long to give you my heart that weeps over this world. That weeps over those who are suffering needlessly because they do now know that they have a God who loves them.”