The Prayer of Trust

A Living Faith
What is Faith?
Faith Is Assurance

Psalm 3

The Message

 ^1-2 God! Look! Enemies past counting! Enemies sprouting like mushrooms,
   Mobs of them all around me, roaring their mockery:
   "Hah! No help for him from God!"

 ^3-4 But you, God, shield me on all sides;
   You ground my feet, you lift my head high;
   With all my might I shout up to God,
   His answers thunder from the holy mountain.

 ^5-6 I stretch myself out. I sleep.
   Then I'm up again—rested, tall and steady,
   Fearless before the enemy mobs
   Coming at me from all sides.

 ⁷ Up, God! My God, help me!
   Slap their faces,
   First this cheek, then the other,
   Your fist hard in their teeth!

 ⁸ Real help comes from God.
   Your blessing clothes your people!

For Reflection

I always have a problem with Biblical violence.  Recently our pastor, Will Robinson, suggested that one way to interpret this kind of Biblical violence is to think about the last time you were angry enough to write a hateful letter and not mail it or to scream, "He did what?  I'm gonna kill him!"  Perhaps this is just a psalmist blowing off steam.

If we focus on the last verses literally, we may miss the point.  This psalm shows me that the psalmist is deeply confident, committed and trusting that God will deliver him from that which threatens him.  The last lines if taken metaphorically shows that the psalmist trusts that God will handle the situations the psalmist faces.  The psalmist  knows that God will defeat His enemies. This is a plea from a real person with authentic feelings expressed without censure.  It is you and I over 2000 years ago.

How do you express your frustration?

Pray

To your God.  Tell Him how much you appreciate His support.  Be graphic in describing the outcomes of your faith.  Don't even hold back angry words.  Say, "God, it's me!"  He will understand.