In the face of a cruel enemy
After a bit of a break in the devotions, I'm back with a short series which I hope will be appropriate and helpful as we helter-skelter our way to the end of the year.| A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom. 1 O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! 2 Many are saying of me, "God will not deliver him." Selah 3 But you are a shield around me, O LORD; 5 I lie down and sleep; 7 Arise, O LORD! 8 From the LORD comes deliverance. |
Weariness... When we are beyond tired, when we need more than a nap, when we're exhausted on a cellular level, when our creativity has left town, our brains are on load-shedding and our emotions feel trampled.
I'm pretty sure this is how David felt when his son Absalom betrayed him and staged a coup. Absalom had been setting the stage for this rebellion for four years and I can only imagine that David had been dreading this moment. When we read the story of David's flight from Jerusalem we read about how an angry and bitter man named Shimei pelted him with stones, dirt and bitter accusations, and David, tired as he was, just let Shimei abuse him like this even though the palace guards were poised to kill him with just a word from David.
This heart-breaking picture of a depleted, weary and defeated David is followed by an interesting verse in 1 Samuel 15:14 "The king and all the people with him arrived at their destination exhausted. And there he refreshed himself."
How did David refresh himself?
Maybe by writing this Psalm...
Now, I need to be clear: We can't pretend that David was "100% OK" after this. We know he struggled tremendously after Absalom's death. But there was a turning point here...
Let's look at the Psalm more closely:
- David vents about his enemies and his own doubt, pain and fear
- It affirms God's goodness and how He delivers
- David chooses to sleep - abdicating the problem to God - this is the moment of trust
- He asks God to deal with his enemies
- He affirms his hope in God's deliverance
Resolving weariness can't be done with a nap, but it can begin with a nap.
The key to the start of David's healing lies in this: He resolves to sleep, knowing that God will work on the problem while David sleeps. He's abdicating. He's not trying to be God. He's giving up the pretense of being in control all the time.
This is the start of handling weariness.
We'll look at more tools in the next three weeks.
