Canon Rob's Reflections

Christians, like members of the Jewish faith, are used to reciting the psalms during worship. Today’s, for example, is the one set for Morning Prayer and it will be sung by many choirs in churches and cathedrals up and down the country. Some psalms though are very personal and Psalm 3 is one of them. The opening words make this clear: “Lord, how many are my adversaries; many are they who rise up against me.” Some commentators suggest that this was a prayer of King David when he fled from his son Absalom who had led a rebellion against his father. [See 2 Samuel from Chapter 15.] Whether or not this is so, it is a prayer for God’s help based on the belief that He will indeed provide it. Malcolm Guite, in his beautiful book, “David’s Crown” begins his poem on Psalm 3: “That you may find your peace in his good will/Call out to him, and tell him all your fear/For he will hear you from his holy hill.” This poem, like the psalm itself is a plea from the heart, a very personal prayer, the first of its kind in the Psalter.

If Psalm 3 was a prayer offered by David, he did so knowing that many around him thought him to be foolish. As verse 2 puts it, “Many are they who say to my soul, ‘There is no help for you in your God.’” Pondering these words, I found myself recalling those spoken by the religious leaders who watched Jesus being crucified. They mocked him, urging him to “come down from the cross” and adding, “He trusts in God and claims to be God’s Son. Well, then, let us see if God wants to save him now!” [See Matthew 27.41f.] In the psalm King David found the same scepticism. Yet, even whilst he is fearful of Absalom’s treachery, his faith in God remains steadfast. “But you, Lord, are a shield about me; you are my glory, and the lifter up of my head.” [Verse 3] As you reflect on this verse, let your mind wander. Can you recall a time when you felt anxious and yet experienced God’s presence to help you get through it? Many find Thomas Chisholm’s hymn, “Great is thy faithfulness,” (249 in the hymn book we use) expresses trust in God, when faced with a difficult challenge, expressing as it does God’s unchanging and unfailing love and compassion. Verse 4 of today’s psalm expresses a similar sentiment: “When I cry aloud to the Lord, he will answer me from his holy hill.” The “holy hill” is Zion, Jerusalem, the Holy City to which David had brought the Ark of the Covenant. [See 2 Samuel Chapter 6.]

So certain is David that the Lord will hear his prayer and answer it, that, rather than worrying himself sick, he is able to rest easy. “I lie down and sleep and rise again, because the Lord sustains me.” [Verse 5.] Such is his faith, a faith which means he can sleep and also get up in the morning, refreshed and ready to face another day, knowing that God, his protector, is with him. David is no longer afraid “of the hordes of the peoples that have set themselves against me all around.” [Verse 6] For God is on his side and He will not fail him. A great many people choose to follow Absalom’s call to overthrow David, but God will rise up against them and, in the words of verse 7, He will “strike all my (David’s) enemies on the cheek and break the teeth of the wicked.” David’s faith is clearly very strong and deep, but he is also convinced that God has called him to be king and as long as that is so, he will always be protected from those who try and overthrow him. The Lord alone is the saviour [verse 8] and experiencing that for himself, David offers a prayer for the nation which he leads: “may your blessing be upon your people.”

Today’s psalm reinforces the often held belief that God is ‘on the side of the righteous.’ Does that still hold true or are today’s conflicts more complicated, less black and white? As you reflect upon David’s plight, you may find it helpful to hold it up against the conflicts we see in the news each day. Where is God in these?