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Country Song

Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! 

Many are saying of me, “God will not deliver him.”

But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.

I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain.

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.

I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side.

Arise, Lord! Deliver me, my God!

Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.

From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people. (Psalm 3)

 

          This is a song that David wrote when his son, Absalom, committed insurrection. I recently listened to this account of this event, and I suspect that David’s problem wasn’t with the fact that people from other nations were out to defeat, destroy, or kill him. It was with the fact that those who attacked him were people like his father-in-law, Saul and his son, Absalom.

We’re quite the same. It’s those nearest and dearest who hurt us the most, and who know how to hurt us the most. Part of the reason for it is that they know best how to hurt us. And part of it may be because we have taught them a pattern of behavior that one might call a “generational curse.” Absalom’s half-brother raped his sister and David did nothing about it. Absalom raped the ten concubines David left to take care of his household, and it’s likely that David would have let it pass, not because he didn’t care about the concubines, but because he cared too much about Absalom. David almost lost his army’s support because he cared too much about Absalom.

This is the first psalm in which David asks God to shatter the teeth of his enemies. For years, I’ve taken great comfort in that request. God is big enough and powerful enough to withstand my anger. As I read it today, I realized that shattering the teeth isn’t the same as “kill.” It puts one’s enemy at one’s mercy but doesn’t cause them to cease to exist. It seems to me that this fits the standard “self-defense” laws in our society. I need to think about it some more.

But like many of David’s “country songs,” this one shifts from woe-is-me to God-is-great. David has been helped before. He looks for God to help him again and he ends the song asking for God’s blessing – not for himself, but for God’s people. What blessing? What does blessing mean this time? The rest of the psalm suggests that blessing in this case involves deliverance from a leader/ruler who is not seeking God’s will. This is a psalm we should sing today, and a blessing we should request at all times.

 

 

 

  

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