Psalms 3

I believe it is a mistake to quickly gloss over the Psalms whenever one reads them.  That is because the Psalms are filled with emotion and a quick reading simply doesn’t allow one to get any sense of what the Psalmist might have been feeling at the time.  Is it important to be connected with the emotions of a particular passage?  Isn’t cognitive understanding enough?  It is important to try and feel as the psalmist or any author might have felt.  God is revealing Himself through these words and His revelation to us does not overlook emotion.  This is the God who makes us sing.  If we are to love the Lord God with all our heart and mind, then we cannot do it leaving our emotions behind.  It is often the neglect of training our emotions thats leads us in to senseless sinning.

Psalms 3, David heart is troubled by his enemy’s presence. They taunt him as if the Lord doesn’t care about him. Notice David doesn’t mention any sort of fear over his enemies but the concern is the  Lord’s presence(4-5). David trains his thoughts and emotions to focus on what is important in life, make everything about God.  Instead of focusing on his enemies or the trouble at hand, to David, the real issue is whether he has the Lord’s presence or not.  Most people would probably focus on how oppressive the situation is, but David makes every situation to center on God.

Paul takes this thought farther in the New Testament.  Paul sees Christ in everything insomuch that his moments of suffering are opportunities for Christ to be magnified. David rehearses the promises God gave to him.  By meditating on what God has promised, David is able to see God’s purpose in everything, even when enemies pursue him.  Despite David’s failures, God has promised David His presence and a throne (2 Sam. 7:14-16).

So David even though sure of the promise, he still pours his heart out to the Lord in prayer asking The Lord to make good on His promise. In likeness, we should still ask for forgiveness even though we have it already in Christ. Because we have the promise does not mean we shouldn’t ask, but we can know in certainty that God’s answer will be yes because of the promise. Bible teachers often stress the importance of faith and obedience towards God, King David is demonstrating it in prayer.