A Psalm of David, when he fled
from his son Absalom.
O LORD, how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me;
many are saying to me,
"There is no help for you in
God."
But you, O LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.
I cry aloud to the LORD, and he answers me from his holy hill. I lie down and
sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me. I am not afraid of ten
thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
Rise up, O LORD! Deliver me, O my
God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the
wicked.
Deliverance belongs to the LORD;
may your blessing be on your people![1]
------ o ------
As David fled Jerusalem he was taunted and ridiculed. As a deposed king, David’s enemies scorned his reliance on God. His trust in God they said was futile. David’s sovereignty had been usurped by his son Absalom. David and those loyal to him escaped. Shaken to his core, David felt the piercing barbs of scorn and derision. Worst of all was the taunt that God would not be of any help to him. As night fell and David was alone with his memories, the rebuke of the Lord rang in his ears:
Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to
do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the
sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the
sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from
your house, for you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite
to be your wife. Thus says the LORD: I will raise up trouble against you
from within your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and
give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of
this very sun. For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before
all Israel, and before the sun."[2]
First the baby of Bathsheba died. Tamar was raped by Ammon
her half-brother. Absalom killed Ammon. Absalom wrenched the throne of Israel
from his father. Absalom claimed his father’s concubines. All these things were
public. Through a cloud of faults best forgotten, the memory of his once assurance
in God glimmered, that confidence which supported him throughout his life. He
recalled how God protected him while he tending sheep; he killed a lion and a
bear. As a young man he faced the giant of the Philistines, killing him with a
stone from his sling. Time after time he slipped through the net Saul set for
his capture.
David conquered the nations around Israel. David praised the Lord, as a shield around him, his glory, and the one who lifted up his head. Now again he is being pursued, and again David cried out to the Lord who protected him. He claimed that he would rise from slumber because God looked after him. Reinforced by trust in God he said, “I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me.” As David was fleeing, Shimei walked not far away cursing and mocking David. One of soldiers suggested he would stop the barrage, but David told him no, maybe God had instructed Shimei to curse him. David asked God for deliverance, “Deliverance belongs to the LORD!” That deliverance when it came was not without a price. Quelling the uprising led by Absalom settled David’s promise of fourfold remittance of the lamb in Nathan’s parable[3]. The insurrection came to an end with Absalom’s death.
There will be occasions when we are frustration and in pain. There will be times when we look back at the past. Times that were either better, or worse than they are in the present. We may be tempted to focus on things we wish we hadn’t done. Or, we might look back to things we accomplished. It is not helpful to look back to the past. Paul said:
I do not consider that I have made it my own;
but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to
what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly
call of God in Christ Jesus.[4]
Unlike David, we are not under Law, we live in God’s grace.
When God said he would forgive us, that is exactly what he does. For all of his
faults, David was a man after God’s own heart. There is nothing we have done
wrong that God won’t forgive. There’s nothing we have accomplished which can
put us into God’s grace; that he has given us.
When we feel angry against people who speak against us, or appear to
mock us; we too like David, need to let it go.
The part I like is “I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me. I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me.” I like that, but I’m not there yet.
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