What is your context today? Below are 10 questions meant to help you discern your current context. Choose one or two and reflect on where your head and heart are:
1. What am I enjoying about life?
2. Am I taking care of myself physically?
3. Am I letting matters that are out of my control stress me out?
4. What am I looking forward to?
5. Am I holding on to something I need to let go of?
6. What have I been spending the majority of my time on? How do I feel about that?
7. What matters most in my life?
8. What relationships am I investing in?
9. What about the future is worrisome for me today?
10. What about today am I truly grateful for?
The story of Psalm 3 is the story of David’s son, Absalom (see 2 Samuel 21:13-37)
+Absalom killed his brother to move up in line for the throne
+Absalom orchestrated a coup to take the throne
+Absalom marshaled an army to attack Jerusalem
+David and his close allies flee Jerusalem before Absalom can arrive in order to keep the city safe
After escaping the city David writes,
“O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying to me, ‘There is no help for you in God.’”
David’s enemy wasn’t the Philistines, Amalekites, Moabites, Ammonites, or any other foreign kingdom. David was waging war against himself. It was people from his own kingdom, officials from his own government, and his own son that set their faces against him. The enemy was within.
Sometimes the internal struggle is the hardest. Debilitating self-criticism and doubt, feelings of insecurity, second-guessing oneself, and negative self-talk can tear us down.
Psalm 3 continues. “But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.”