Psalm 3 - Lenses of Faith




God, when David looked at life, he saw You and life with a different set of lenses than those that I wear.  

David had the strength and the military prowess to put an end to those who rose up against his kingdom. But, instead, he fought on his knees.  He viewed his battles through the lens of faith.  In our day and age, we like to fight by lobbing word grenades - a one-liner on social media to make our “enemy” (or really anyone who just disagrees with our superior perspective) look stupid, or a full-blown verbal tear down of our “enemy” among likeminded friends who are glad to add their two cents. Either way, God, make me a man like David, who cries to YOU when my beliefs, morals, worldview, and identity come under attack.


And God, David's faith led him to be so thoroughly dependent upon you. So much so that he even acknowledged your sustaining hand to give him life for a new day. It seems the tenor of v. 5 is, “Lord, you preserved my life yet again while I slept, and you have faithfully given me another day to be alive. Wow! Thank you!” God, this is not the lens through which I look at my day when my alarm goes off at 5:30 am. I’m not utterly dependent upon you for life for another day. But God, I want this to be the case - to be so Godward-focused that I praise you for faithfully sustaining me every…single…day. 


And, Jesus, you, too, wore these lenses of faith.  I imagine you praying this at different times in your ministry. I imagine you praying this when you were in Jerusalem at the Festival of Dedication when it says that they “tried to seize you, but you escaped their grasp” (John 10:39). Like David, you wholly depended upon your Father to daily be delivered from your enemies. And your Father graciously answered that prayer, except when he didn’t answer it on the night you were betrayed. And Jesus, you knew exactly what you were doing as you willingly walked straight to the cross. Instead of your enemies being “struck on the cheek,” you were. You became the enemy of God so that salvation and blessing could come to me!  


Jesus, thank you a million times over.


Amen

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