Theme: “Though This World with Devils Filled”
In this week’s studies we learn how David overcame his adversaries by committing himself into the Lord’s protection.
Scripture: Psalm 3:1-8
To many people the most appealing part of this psalm is the third stanza, the part in which David tells how he was able to lie down and sleep even in the midst of the sudden great danger occasioned by Absalom’s rebellion (vv. 5-6). It is a beautiful picture of one so trusting in God that he is able to sleep soundly even while the treacherous seek his life. Leupold calls it “the high point of faith reached by the psalm.”9
Actually, the confidence expressed in these two verses is the confidence of the next morning. The psalmist went to sleep trusting God. Now he has awakened with the events of the day (as was the case with the events of the previous night) firmly in God’s hands. He is saying, “I had a good night’s rest, and now I am not afraid to face the terrors of this new day. I will not fear the thousands drawn up against me.”
It reminds one of Martin Luther on his way to Worms. Luther had been called to Worms by the Emperor along with the Papal Legate to answer for his “heretical” teachings. He had been promised a safe conduct. But as Luther approached the city a messenger arrived with a warning from his friend Spalatin not to enter Worms. Luther told the messenger, “Tell your master that even if there should be as many devils in Worms as tiles upon the housetops, still I would enter it.” Years later, a few days before his death, Luther said of that moment, “I was then undaunted. I feared nothing.”
It must have been true, too, because it was in Worms that Luther gave his classic reply to the Diet: “Unless I be persuaded by the words of Scripture and sound reasoning I cannot and will not recant. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” Where had Luther found such courage? He had found it where David had found it, in God.
Study Questions:
Why do some people consider the third stanza the most appealing?
Can you testify to any time in your life when you were at peace in the midst of a trying situation because the Lord had given you the grace to trust him?
Application: If your life is at this moment similar to that of David, what is the Lord calling you to do in response to the difficulties you are facing? How will you put that into practice today?
9H. C. Leupold, Exposition of the Psalms (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1969), p. 62.
