Brown's Daily Word 5-12-09

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord another day in His Kingdom, to experience His grace and walk in His freedom. Two of my favorite Psalms are Psalms 3 and 4. Psalm 3 is known as a psalm of David. It was written when he fled from his son Absalom, in reference to David's flight from the murderous intentions of his own son towards him. David's family was dysfunctional like all of our families. In my book, 100 per cent of the families are dysfunctional, "for all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God".. Psalm 3 includes words of lament and words of confidence in his God.
The first two verses read "How many foes will there be? How many more can rise up to threaten me? Aren't you watching, God? People are mocking me. They're taunting me, saying, "Where is your God, ?"
At times we all have felt like foes, or at least trying circumstances, were lining up one after another against us. While I don't recall anyone taunting me with those very words, I have asked the question of myself, "Where is MY God?" I suspect a great many of us have done the same. Usually, at this point, a well meaning Christian friend says something prophetic-sounding like, "God won't allow you to face more than you can handle." That's a big lie. Nowhere does God promise such a thing. In fact, the Bible is full of accounts of God allowing His people to face more than they, in and of themselves, can handle. It is at those places where they come to rely fully on Him. "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it." (I Corinthians 10:13)
David, in this situation, concludes that he has no answer, in and of himself, for the mounting enemies and threats. He has no escape -- (this was likely penned as he hid in a cave). He has no assurance that if he were to lay down his head for an hour's rest that he would awaken. The dangers could overtake him. But David professes, "But You are a shield around me O Lord; You bestow glory on me, and lift up my head."
It was not David's own military might that could save him, nor was it his battle tactics or his ingenuity. "But" he claimed God as his shield. Because it is true that God was his shield, he could cry out to God, for God will hear him and answer. He could lay down and sleep, for God would sustain him. He had no need to fear even if tens of thousands surrounded him, for God was his deliverer.
Another big "but" in scripture is found in Daniel chapter 3. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were offered one last chance to denounce God and bow to Nebuchadnezzar or be thrown into a fiery furnace to die. Their reply: "If we be thrown into the blazing furnace the God we serve is able to save us from it and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." They had confidence that God would deliver them one way or another. We choose God.
David, and this big "but" in Psalm 3, gives us a picture of faith. I don't imagine that you will find yourself hiding in a cave from a murderous child or face a blazing furnace for refusing to bow at some altar, though I suppose it could happen. Life's circumstances often seem insurmountable. Enemies may appear to be innumerable. Believers always have a big "but" that they can claim: "But Thou O Lord art a shield for me; my glory and the lifter of my head."
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jUGTdYCs5Y