Psalm 56:1-3 (HCSB)
Be gracious to me, God, for man tramples me; he fights and oppresses me all day long. My adversaries trample me all day, for many arrogantly fight against me.
What's amazing about many of David's psalms is that he often wrote them right in the middle of his struggles. The same can be said about many of our most beloved hymns... written right in the midst of trials and suffering.
David wrote this when he was engaged in battle with one of his fiercest enemies, the Philistines. We get the picture of a man oppressed. He is overwhelmed, he's stressed, and he's a little afraid. He's facing an enemy that is confident and arrogant.
The longer he fights them, the more powerful they seem. You can relate to that, can't you? You feel oppressed. You feel beaten down. You just feel trampled. The magic of Sunday wears off and your job doesn't give a rip that God is on the throne. The medical problems don't take into account that you had a wonderful church service several days earlier.
You can relate, can't you? You feel trampled all day long. There's an arrogance, a methodical way with which your opposition wears you down. It's like all your buttons get pushed. Easter wears off. Sermons wear off. Our good feelings wear off.
So how does he respond? How in the world does David deal with this? He's not in the synagogue. He's not at church. He's digging in the trenches. Trying to survive.
Here's how he responds: Psalms 56:4:
In God, whose word I praise,in God I trust; I will not fear.What can man do to me?
He responds the only way he knows how. By making a conscious decision, a conscious, day-by-day decision, often one moment at a time decision, to see the bigness of God. To force yourself to see the true perspective. To pull back the camera, to keep pulling it back, until you see that no matter how big your problem is, no matter how sharp the enemy's teeth are, no matter how stressful, no matter how grim or overwhelming the circumstances seem... you pull it back to you see that it pales in scope to our God and master.
Look at what he says:
In God, whose word I praise.
Everything is changing, fleeting. Health is fleeting. Finances crumble. Relationships erode. David, in the trenches, unsure of which of his men will survive the night, looks to His Father and His unchanging word. The unshakeable truths of His counsel. His promise to never leave or forsake his people. His vow to bring justice. His unwavering love and mercy. The hope that this is not all there is.
Put simply, he clings to the immovable. To that which cannot be changed or altered.
Look at what he says next:
In God I trust; I will not fear.
This is coming from a man who is experiencing real fear. Real frustration. Real stress. Real worry. There is a cause and effect system in place. What we claim to be true becomes true. In Genesis, God spoke... and it happened.
He spoke, and things came into existence. In the same way, we choose, we speak, how to respond to the circumstances we face. In fact, that's the only thing we can determine. We can't control the situation, we can only choose how we respond.
David is saying, "I will not fear." Now he's saying it as fear is creeping into his soul, but he's saying it. "I will trust in God. I choose to make him bigger than my circumstance."
Look what he says next:
What can man do to me?
"What can he do? My soul is secure. I have a never-ending relationship with my Heavenly Father. I've been forgiven of my sins. What can he do? Kill me? I die, and I'll be with the Father."
What if you responded that way? What if I responded that way? In light of my relationship with God, in light of who He is and how he will never leave me, in light of the amazing grace I've been shown, what can this problem really to do me?
Dear reader, God knows you're feeling trampled. He knows you're worn out. He knows you're struggling right now. Don't be ashamed and don't hide it. Do the same thing David did. Force yourself to see the bigness of God compared to your circumstance. As the old hymn says, "The things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace."
By His Grace,
Adam
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