Peace in the Storm!

Psalm 3:5- I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me. NKJV

It is said that Psalm 3 is the first psalm with a title. The title we are given lets us know that David wrote this psalm while he was fleeing his son Absalom. We recall that God had said to David,

Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’

2 Samuel 12:10 NKJV

So, David’s son tried to dethrone him and would have killed him in the process.

As David was on the run, he said to the Lord,

Lord, how they have 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.” Selah

Psalm 3:1-2 NKJV

David was aware that his son Absalom wished to kill him and take over the kingdom. In the midst of this, David cries to the Lord and says his enemies have increased and risen up against him. On top of that, they have said there is no help for him in God! David always found help in God! No matter if the sin was his own, he always turned his heart towards God!

When you are in the midst of a storm, the first thing you are going to have to do is turn your heart towards God. It doesn’t matter if it is a relationship storm, a financial storm, or a personal storm; you have to turn your attention to the only One who matters. God!

But You, O Lord, are a shield for me,
My glory and the One who lifts up my head.

Psalm 3:3 NKJV

David begins to give God praise, reminding Him that He was a shield for him. He is the One who lifted up his head, the One who gave him his glory! David understood that all of his help came from the Lord, that every victory was a result of His goodness. So, he gave God praise.

This is a lesson to all of us who are going through. After you whine and complain, you turn your face to God, then give Him some praise! What has He done for you? What victory has He brought you to? How good has He been to you and your family? Thank you, Lord, for blessings told and untold!

I cried to the Lord with my voice,
And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah

Psalm 3:4 NKJV

Then David prayed! He prayed with the confidence of someone who had gone to God in the past and had Him answer. He prayed with the realization that God would hear him now.

This is how God expects us to pray to Him. With confidence, with boldness!

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

1 John 5:14-15 NKJV

That’s expectation! That’s an assurance that the thing we have asked of God is so, because He heard, and He answered!

I’ve had many occasions when this has been a truth in my life. But I immediately thought of when I was a young girl and romance was on my mind. I used to read Harlequin Romance books as a young girl. One day, I decided that I should probably not be reading books that didn’t align with my faith, so I stopped reading them. But I remember saying to the Lord that He was the author of love, and why couldn’t I experience a love that made my heart beat faster, or my toes tingle? Several years later, when I met my husband, I experienced this type of love. After 38 years of marriage, I’m still in love with him. God can do anything! He can make anything happen! He can answer the heart’s cry when it doesn’t even know what it is crying for. Learn to trust Him more!

The part of this psalm that I really love is this next verse.

I lay down and slept;
I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.

Psalm 3:5 NKJV

David said he went to bed, and he slept! After David turned his face to God, he gave Him praise, prayed in confidence, then he went to bed and fell asleep! David decided that God was his sustainer! That God would protect him from Absalom as He had protected him from so many others. So he went to sleep!

That’s the remedy to worry today. We are not to pray, then go to bed and worry. We are to pray and believe that God is taking care of our situations and therefore, we are going to bed to sleep.

Worry is a Christian’s nightmare. I know, because I have experienced it. You toss and turn, and then you turn and toss. Your eyes peek at the clock, and you change positions throughout the night. All because you are worried about something that you should have prayed about, or that you prayed about but didn’t turn over to God. But not David! He went to sleep because to him, it was a done deal. And when he woke up, he knew that the Lord had sustained him. He was kept by the majestic hand of God!

I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people
Who have set themselves against me all around.

Psalm 3:6 NKJV

When David awoke, he said that he wasn’t afraid of ten thousand people who had set themselves against him. He didn’t know what the end of this situation was going to be, but he did know that he was in the hand of the Lord. He didn’t know if Absolam was going to get the best of him or not, but he believed God that it was going to be alright.

I love this psalm. It brings such encouragement to the weary soul. David ends this psalm by stating that “salvation belongs to the Lord”. He was convinced that no matter what happened, God was in control!

I don’t know what you are going through today. I don’t know what your situation is. But I know that God can handle it! I’m confident that if you trust Him with it, it will be alright and that He will give you peace in the midst of your storm. Wonderful Jesus!