#681 Unworthy You Say

O Lord, how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me;
2 many are saying of my soul,
“There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah


3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
4 I cried aloud to the Lord,
and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah


5 I lay down and slept;
I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around.


7 Arise, O Lord!
Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.


8 Salvation belongs to the Lord;
your blessing be on your people! Selah Psalm 3 ESV

This is the poem about the time of David's trouble with Absalom. Below are the links to that part of the scripture which records the history. 

2 Samuel 15

2 Samuel 16 Absalom

2 Samuel 17

2 Samuel 18

When we think of our enemies it is a dark place to have to visit the faces of those who we called friends, advisers, and worse, family. David is being hunted by his own son and his counselor, Ahithophel.  

There is no salvation for him in God - I think only God may rightly determine if this is so, but it could play well upon our anxieties, for David could easily trace the events prior to this. He could think that maybe they are right, for am I not guilty of treason against God's moral law? I stole, I lied and I murdered. His enemies may think they have taken the best side in this, they are in the seat of right and fit to judge, for they know the stories well and the rumors even better. This is where we are in danger of embracing doubt, or ideals that are worse than our sins, for we are so caught up in our despair that we come to believe that there is no God for us to cry out to. Like Judas, we hang ourselves thinking there is nothing left, and this same cloud hung over the Apostle Peter when he denied Christ himself. It is depressing, but the rope took Judas nowhere, and to see the memories of our worst days is only a micron in a galaxy of sin's potential. Peter confessed to Christ that he was a sinful man, and often times our worst enemy is the self that doesn't make this confession. Ah, have I become so much a sinner that I cannot pray, that I may not confess, or was I so sick all along? It is the sick that need a physician, so cry out.

I will not be afraid - Those that judge our past may be so blind to their own, but David has cried out, and he has realized that God has sustained him all along. If we trust in ourselves then there is good reason to fret, but when we trust in God, then the thousands are a small lot.  

Salvation belongs to the Lord - I have summed up my stance on salvation in that very phrase. I am a Christian, who believes the Bible to be the word of God, that mankind is in a fallen state, that God is Holy and just, and so hates sin. I believe in the total depravity of mankind and our inability to save ourselves, and for that I am labeled a Calvinist, though John Calvin was just a man, as Paul or Apollos, but I am more than happy to be numbered with them, counted among those who believe that salvation is of the Lord. It is a most blessed and undeserved gift, to be able to cry out to the One Who knew you before you were born, Who owes you nothing, yet has made Himself known. David could have given up, if it were merit based then rightly so, but he is not the author nor the finisher of his salvation, and he had nothing to offer God but a broken life, a pile of bad decisions to be heaped upon his Savior. 

Gull

An Eagle