GOD - OUR SHIELD, ENCOURAGER, SUSTAINER AND DELIVERER

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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.

Psalm 3 

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Have you ever been violated by people you thought you could trust? Sometimes this may come at the hands of a co-worker at your job. Sometimes it comes at the hands of someone you thought was a friend. Or, in what may be considered a worst case scenario, you are betrayed by someone who is family, one of the people you should be able to trust above anyone else. At times, it seems the people closest to you are the ones who are most likely to do you wrong.

This isn’t something that has just happened in our present day and time. No, it happened as far back as in biblical times.

A point in case is God’s faithful servant king David, characterized as a man after God’s own heart. As you study David’s life, especially his family, you discover he had three sons. Trouble brewed between two of them, Amnon (the oldest) and Absalom, when Amnon lured Absalom’s sister Tamar to him while pretending to be sick and sexually assaulted her. This resulted in Absalom killing Amnon and then fleeing while David mourned the loss of his son (2 Samuel 13).

Absalom would remain away from for three years before David would be convinced to allow him to return, and then it would be another two years before David would even agree to see Absalom. Scripture tells us that at this encounter, Absalom bowed down before his father and David in turn kissed him (2 Samuel 14). All appeared to be fine but it wasn’t.

We know this because as we get to Chapter 15 of 2^nd Samuel, Absalom conspires to take over David’s throne, and not when David died but rather while he was still alive. Absalom schemed and manipulated the people to side with him and once he had their favor, arranging so he would be declared king of Hebron, he made his move toward Jerusalem and the throne.

The Bible tells us that David, being forewarned of Absalom’s actions, had the foresight to know he was in trouble. And so he fled along with his household and went to the Mount of Olives where he prayed and asked the Lord to enter into his circumstances.

This is where we connect to the 3rd Psalm, written by David at the time he had fled Absalom. It’s important to know the background of the Psalm to properly understand its content. And as you can see, David was on the run from his own son who had allowed selfish ambition to rule him, so much so that he was willing to kill his own father to assume the power of the throne.

Imagine if you were David. How would you feel about being betrayed by your own son, so much so that you had to flee your own home to stay alive? What words would you say to the Lord in a time of trouble such as this?

As we look at our passage, we find David writing the following words:

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.

These are amazing, inspired words for you and I to remember and this psalm should be one we keep in mind as we deal with situations where we might be violated. David’s words offer us four important points to always remember about the God we serve:

1. The Lord is a shield.

David knew that no matter how much his enemies would try and go against him, they would do so in vain because he was protected by God – shielded by His power, protected by His covering. Scriptures assure us that if God is for us, no one can come against us (Romans 8:31). There is no greater form of defense any of us can have.

2. The Lord lifts up our heads.

When things seem at their worst, the Lord is always there to encourage us and lift us up. Knowing that we have a God who is always with us, keeping our foes from coming against us, offers us an incredible sense of peace and hope. And when we have that peace and hope from God, who is our glory, we can’t help but lift our heads to Him in praise and worship.

3. The Lord sustains us.

David saw his cycle of life - living through a day, falling asleep, and rising again into a new day – as coming from the Lord and the Lord alone. In acknowledging this, David showed he knew who was in control of his life. The very breaths and heartbeats that kept David alive and serving came from the very One David served – the same One who sustains and keeps us in His care. We are to never take this for granted, always giving thanks to our Great Sustainer.

4. The Lord is our deliverer.

No matter how precarious the circumstances we come up against are, no matter how difficult the way forward may seem, no matter how impossible it might seem for us to escape dangerous situations, we simply must remember that God delivers. He has done it for the ages. The same God who divided the seas so Israel could escape Pharaoh, the same God who provided manna and quail from heaven to feed His chosen people during their exodus to the Holy Land, this same God is the same God who delivers you and me today. What an assurance we have in Him!

Yes, God is all this – our Shield, our Encourager, our Sustainer, and our Deliverer – and so much more. This is why we need to honor Him with the way we live, trust Him in faith no matter what our circumstances, and seek to glorify and magnify Him at every opportunity we have.

Our foes might think they are greater than we are but they will never be greater than our ally –the Lord God Almighty.

Thanks be to God for all He was, all He is, and all He is yet to be.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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