Reflections on Psalm 3

Would like to apologize for not posting earlier, many things have been going on, and I also wanted to read up on the background of Psalm 3 before posting my reflections. Unfortunately, that took a lot of time to think through.



Personally, reading this psalm tells me a lot more about the psalmist's attitude than about God himself. It's a little frustrating when one is looking to learn about God without having to go through the psalmist and the emotion he pours into the psalm, and for awhile I felt like I identified more with people who have no understanding about why we are willing to have faith in Him than with being someone who truly knows God.

I suppose it's something we all have to go through periodically, so that when we finally recognize God's participation in our lives, it becomes truth and real knowledge, not merely blind faith. Anyway, thankfully, the psalm had a preceding description - "A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom." So I turned to 2 Samuel 15-18 to read the story behind the psalm.

To briefly summarize, Absalom was David's son, he took over David's throne by conspiracy, and later set out to kill David. Thus, David had to flee for his life, and along the way, he discovered many people who turned against him. Some of his trusted advisors, his men, and his friends were among these people.

Given his situation, David had every reason to despair and question God, yet he still chose to put his faith in God and expressed it in a psalm. And what really stands out in 2 Samuel 15-18 is that David received everything that he had declared in faith within Psalm 3. I've decided to leave further details on above to the end of this entry, otherwise this will eb very long.

My personal takeaway from this is that God rewards us for both our faith in Him and the subsequent actions undertaken out of that faith. Such actions don't have to be very significant or visible, it could be as simple as choosing to praise Him despite not feeling like we want to. The most important thing to know is that living out our faith is THE condition we need to satisfy in order claim His blessings.



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List of ways in which God answered David's declarations within the psalm in 2 Samuel 15-18. Verses listed are from the Psalm.

v3. "you bestow glory on me and lift up my head."
- God restored his status as king, both officially and in the hearts of his people.

v4. "To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill."
- God sent many others who were willing to follow him and flee with him or take his instructions to do what they could while Absalom was in power. When we think about David's position, it's actually a very lonely one - can anyone else understand what it means to receive such betrayal from a son, especially for a king? Yet God never left Him alone, and He showed it by allowing David to meet people who supported Him.

v5. "I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me."
- I'm not sure if we can fully understand David's plight, imagine running long distance with great fear for your life and the others with you. But God sustained David so that he covered a great distance as he fled.

v6. "I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side."
- One interesting thing I noticed in 2 Samuel 15-18 is that David still undertook actions against Absalom's plans. For instance, he had people within the palace tell him of Absalom's plans, and frustrate Absalom's advisors' advice, even though he had no guarantee that God would indeed return him to the throne. Indeed, though David feared the results of Absalom taking the throne, he still had the courage to plan against Absalom and eventually planned a battle Absalom's men.