Psalm 3 – How Can I Experience Peace In Times Of Pressure? Series

Psalm 3 - HOW CAN I EXPERIENCE PEACE IN TIMES OF PRESSURE?

The door looked like a safe door and we were told to leave it locked all the time we were in our rented unit in Kiev. We don’t have to do that in Australia.

When we were visited by a man from the Ukrainian Mafia and his henchmen dressed as police we should not have opened the door. I admit that I felt a little afraid, but he was not really interested in us. He was the son of the person from whom we had rented and fortunately he was more intent on retrieving a jacket he had left in the house.

A friend once told us of the walls, barbed wire and alarms they had installed around their house in South Africa to remain safe. Even then they kept a gun under the pillow.

I don’t wake up thinking about my enemies. I don’t fear the intrusion of insurgent soldiers bashing down the door and firing their weapons indiscriminately at my family. I don’t know the horror of bombs and terrorism.

Christians can openly worship in Australia without fear of being ridiculed or persecuted. The pressures I face in life have not involved fighting for my life. I have no experience of the kind David faces in this Psalm. I don’t pretend to know how he feels. I hope never to experience such things and I pray for protection for those who do.

Nevertheless, I have a healthy reverence for God and a knowledge that I am in His hands. He is my faithful friend, and what I lack in experience of facing enemies, David has faced head on and can certainly answer the question better than most of us, “How do I continue to have peace in times of pressure?”

It is obvious that the Lord is also a friend to whom David can come when he feels the pressure of those around him who want him defeated and dethroned. Psalm 3 invites us with David to …

1. BE HONEST WITH GOD ABOUT THE PRESSURES AND THE CHALLENGES YOU ARE FACING

“O Lord, I have so many enemies; so many are against me. So many are saying, “God will never rescue him!” Interlude” (Psalm 3:1-2 NLT).

He doesn’t ask “Why, Lord?” He just lays out the facts. It’s good to verbalize what is happening in our lives to God.

Sometimes I meet someone who sees themselves as an atheist, those who don’t believe in God yet when I ask if I can pray for them after my visits they say, “Yes, please do.” I encourage those who feel they have no faith to simply keep the communication lines open with God.

Psalm 3 is mirrored in the New Testament in Hebrews 4:15-16 (NLT) which says that Christ understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testings we do, yet He did not sin. He, of all people, knows what it means to face the enemy, even to the point of death. It says “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”

David told God about his situation and was honest with God. I encourage you to do the same.

Watch King David if you want to know about pressure. When he wrote Psalm 3, he was surrounded by people who wanted to kill him. I have never faced that kind of situation.

In the book of 2 Samuel in the Bible, it tells of a rebellion against David. To be specific, it tells of Absalom’s rebellion against David. What makes it horrible is that Absalom was David’s own son.

What happened to make Absalom hate his father so much?

There are overtones here of the Starwars Trilogy. Luke Skywalker had some issues with his Dad, Darth Vader. Attacking the Death Star in an X-wing is nothing compared to the internal conflicts he faces in the final battle with Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi.

Luke says he’ll never submit to the dark side of the Force, but then again killing your Dad with a Lightsaber is not an easy thing to do.

Quantum leap back to my study. I can’t say I ever wanted to be like my Dad. Unwittingly I made a choice early in my life never to be a son. I didn’t learn from him and avoided him. I look a lot like him now and our relationship was reconciled before he died in an amazing way.

What’s all this got to do with Psalm 3? Wind back the scene to the window of 2 Samuel and you will see that Absalom never reconciles. He was an angry young man and battled all his life with issues to do with his father.