For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Psalm 3 – Protection

1 Lord, how many are my foes!
    How many rise up against me!
2 Many are saying of me,
    ‘God will not deliver him.’

3 But you, Lord, are a shield around me,
    my glory, the One who lifts my head high.
4 I call out to the Lord,
    and he answers me from his holy mountain.

5 I lie down and sleep;
    I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
6 I will not fear though tens of thousands
    assail me on every side.

7 Arise, Lord!
    Deliver me, my God!
Strike all my enemies on the jaw;
    break the teeth of the wicked.

8 From the Lord comes deliverance.
    May your blessing be on your people.

A. Find Out:

1. What is happening to the writer? v.1,6
2. What are others forecasting? v.2
3. How does he see the Lord? v.3,8
4. How does he see prayer? v.4
5. What else does the Lord do? v.5
6. Therefore what can he feel? v.6

B. Think:

1. How would you describe David’s circumstances?
2. What had he learnt the Lord would do for him?
3. What effect did that have on him?

C. Comment:

     Before this Psalm is the note that it was written by David when he was on the run from Jerusalem when Absalom was in revolt. At that time, naturally, there would have been a sense of shame as well, perhaps, of fear and wondering what the future held, as he has this sense of being surrounded by enemies.

    First, note a sense that the Lord was his shield, who would protect him from those enemies. He sensed the Lord would restore honour to him and lift up his head (perhaps from being bowed down in shame). Even when he slept, he slept with the assurance that the Lord would protect him so he would not be attacked and killed in his sleep.

    Second, note that he knows the Lord as a man of war and so is not afraid to ask the Lord to come and destroy his enemies. He is in a physical war, and he needs physical deliverance and again and again in the Old Testament God gave that physical deliverance. For the most part today we are in a spiritual war, and we need to rely on the Lord for spiritual deliverance. Jesus taught us to pray, “deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13) and we still need the Lord as our shield and our deliverer.

D. Application?

1. More than we perhaps realise, we are surrounded by enemies who seek to destroy our faith.
2. Cry to the Lord that He will deliver you from faith destruction, that He will shield you from the darts of unbelief. (Eph 6:16)