May 6, 2025

May 6    Psalm 3

This Psalm is from the context of David fleeing from his own son Absalom. Sadly, when you look at David's life and all the great things that he did, there is a major issue when it comes to his family.  His own son Absalom is seeking to take the throne by force.  How hard it must have been for David to see that his own son would betray him and come against him so harshly.  There were signs in the past that Absalom was not a good guy, but David really did not step up to confront or correct.  There is probably some regret in his own life that maybe he felt like he created a monster out of his son by refusing to confront or discipline the problems he knew where happening.  His son was strong, smart, and handsome. However, his son was not a man after God's own heart and that was the character trait from David that he needed the most. The Bible is interesting to me because all of the "heroes of the faith" also have flaws recorded.  I find this encouraging because I too have flaws and it helps me know that God's work is not based on my perfection, but His.  

David is in a situation where the number of people against him keeps rising.  This is not a scenario where he was wrong and doing bad things and people turned against. He was remaining dedicated to God and the people around him started to turn against him at the encouragement of Absalom.  It is a situation entirely different if David became ruthless or immoral and people turned their backs on him.  In this situation what we are seeing is people turning their backs on David and in many ways, this is because they turned their backs on God and His will. As Christians we may face opposition from people when we stand up for what we believe.  We may face opposition even from other Christians for being "too holy" because we have really gotten serious about our faith and our lifestyle choices to honor the LORD.  Whatever opposition we face we must simply continue to trust God for our defense and our protection.  David realized that his enemies were no match for his LORD. The same is true for us today.