Not Afraid?

Psalm 3:6 says: I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about. Wow! I admit I have never had the experience of facing off with ten thousand people, but I have to say, that sounds intimidating.

As I writer I will readily admit that it is easy to write…just about anything. What I mean is that it is easy to write words that make the writer or anyone else sound brave, or sensitive, or any one of many ways. So, it is easy to write about being brave enough to stand in the face of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me round about.

Surely there must be more to this psalm. The psalmist starts out by noting that his enemies are increasing. Do you ever feel that way? Does it ever seem like your enemies are increasing exponentially? A lot of those enemies of the psalmists were saying that there was no hope for him; not even in God. You can almost feel the tension and the rising panic as he turns every direction, only to see more enemies and he can hear them say his situation is hopeless. So, he cries out and he cries out to God; to the One Who they said would not save him.

You know what happened, don’t you? I was crying to the Lord with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah (Psalm 3:4). He goes on to say that he lay down and slept. Now remember, he was facing off with an increasing number of enemies and the only thing that has changed is that he cried to the Lord and the Lord answered from His holy mountain. That is all that it took for him to be able to sleep. Sometimes the stress in our lives builds to such a point that we cannot sleep. Psalm 3 is good medicine for stress. It was in this rested state of mind that the psalmist was able to say he was not afraid of as many as ten thousand enemies.

As we have stated so many times, this world is a scary place. You may have ten thousand enemies, or you may have one who is scarier than any ten thousand could be. It does not matter. You can find salvation in God, no matter what your enemies say. Thanks be to God that He has told us of His salvation and how to secure it in His holy Word. He provided that wonderful blessing because He loves you and so do I.

Donnie Bates