I have been reading through the Psalms with a friend (two psalms a week) for over 10 months or so. I have learned much from David and Asaph and other writers who penned these devotional reflections. Below are my thoughts on one psalm. I invite you to reflect on it this week.
PSALM 56
“Be merciful to me, my God, for my enemies are in hot pursuit; all day long they press their attack. My adversaries pursue me all day long, in their pride, many are attacking me. When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise in God, I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? All day long they twist my words; all their schemes are for my ruin. They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps, hoping to take my life. Because of their wickedness do not let them escape; in Your anger God, bring the nations down. Record my misery; list my tears on Your scroll are they not in Your record? Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise in the Lord, whose word I praise in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere human beings do to me? I am under vows to You, my God; I will present my thank offerings to You. For You have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling that I may walk before God in the light of life.”I love this Psalm! David, in danger of losing his life at the hand of Saul, flees to Gath (the hometown of Goliath). Pretty drastic, isn’t it? To go to the town of the family of the man he killed and beheaded as a trophy. It goes to show you how down David was feeling and how desperate he was. His own followers at this stage were very few in number. The four hundred mentioned in 1st Samuel were yet to be gathered.
The first couple of verses indicate that David is feeling tremendous pressure, yet he is not crushed! He says in faith, that when he is afraid, he puts his trust in God. What a great a statement of faith this was for David, who really had nowhere to hide.
How’s your faith these days? From the life of David, we are given an excellent example of what absolute Faith looks like. What do you need to overcome these days? Sickness? Relational challenges? Your language? Bad habits? Maybe you have encountered overwhelming pressure such as David was confronted with this day?
As we’ve seen so many times, David’s language recognizes the promise of God when he states, “I TRUST IN GOD.” We find him sharing how the enemy continues to hunt him, to intimidate him, to weaken him, but now compared to God, David observes that the enemy is as frail flesh, and can ultimately do nothing to defeat him.
For me, he words, ALL DAY LONG, are the hardest ones to comprehend. We all know how to handle pressure in small or occasional doses, but pressure with NO END is what causes so many to break down. But, he has faith that his burden will be ever lifted by the Father… how I love the heart of this man.
This psalm is a great example of how to live, thankful and faithful. We have seen David travel through a journey of discovery, from being under great pressure, to feeling an unyielding onslaught of attack, to understanding the reality of supernatural protection.
I pray this will again be a practical example to you of how to encounter and overcome adversity.
