“Lord how have they increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me. ‘There is no help for him in God”. (Psalm 3: 1-3)

It is no easy matter to maintain our faith and peace when reversals seem to multiply against us. Our lives are on a fast track downhill. One ill tiding falls close on the heels of another. No small part of these manifold blows is the knowledge that everyone is taking note of them. Everyone who has had any peeve, envy, resentment or ill feeling toward us is taking courage from our miseries, and prophesying total ruin.

David’s son, Absalom has succeeded in mounting a rebellion against his father, and has enlisted much support. He has gathered such a host of the king’s enemies that the man whom the Lord loves is obliged to flee. Political bootlickers and news pundits, sensing David’s job performance approval has sunk to new lows, prophesy his case to be hopeless. “Not even God can help him now”!

Amazing! The arrogance of men! God may be God, and He may be supreme, sovereign and omnipotent; but after all those attributes are merely theological shibboleth. Nobody really counts on them as reality when they must be applied to the hard facts of circumstances. A few people may be over-ruled by God. Even a large number may be set aside by God’s power. But when it comes to a great multitude of people…all of them against us, is it not foolish for us to hope in God putting all those people’s opposition down?

But that is precisely what David did. “I cried unto the Lord with my voice. And He heard me from His holy hill. I lay down and slept: I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.” Nothing yet had changed on the public scene. The gainsayers were still shaking their heads. Enemies were still gloating. The rebellion was still growing, and David was still retreating. But the outcome of the battle was settled, and David was resting peacefully in that. One fact outweighed everything else that was happening: vs.8: “Salvation belongs to the Lord”. There is not enough flesh on earth, nor enough demons and devils in the heavenlies to overthrow God’s salvation. It is exclusive His alone to withhold or grant. Blessed is that man whose hope is in God.

– C. M.