Psalm 3:7–8: “Arise, O LORD; / Save me, O my God! / For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; / You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. / Salvation belongs to the LORD. / Your blessing is upon Your people. / Selah”

January 9th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

King David wrote this psalm as he fled from his son Absalom, who was trying to kill him and take his throne. Because of David’s sin with Bathsheba, his family was being torn apart by internal jealousies. And the hearts of all of Israel were with his handsome and charming son. David was so beaten down and discouraged that nothing sounded like good news or encouragement. It was a low point in his life as he left the capital and waited out the crisis across the Jordan River. David’s life was messy. Sometimes our lives are messy because we are reaping the consequences of our own sin, and sometimes they are messy just because we live in a world marred by sin.

David recorded for us his walk from discouragement to stronger faith and a newfound confidence in God. He said God had “broken the teeth of the ungodly,” meaning that, though they could still bite, they couldn’t really hurt anymore. David remembered that everything belongs to God anyway, and that because God loved him, He would save him; if not right away, at least eventually.

Pastor Andrew Murray wrote about trials in his own life:

First, He brought me here, it is by His will I am in this strait place: in that fact I will rest.

Next, He will keep me here in His love, and give me grace to behave as His child.

Then, He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn, and working in me the grace He means to bestow.

Last, in His good time He can bring me out again—how and when He knows.

Let me say I am here,
(1) By God’s appointment,
(2) In His keeping,
(3) Under His training,
(4) For His time.¹

“LORD, we accept Your Lordship over our lives again this day.”

¹V. Raymond Edman, They Found the Secret (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), pp. 117–118.