So many voices have been silenced during lockdown, but maybe not the ones you long would fade and fall away. The snide remarks, the belittling and withering tones. The insistent, incessant drone of condemnation and cynical barbs.
Perhaps that describes your world - on social media, at work, in relationships that ought to yield joy. Or maybe it's the world inside your head; try as you might, you're never too sure what is the genuine voice of conscience and what is the serpent's malign speech. Whichever it is, you often feel the accusations are unanswerable, so what does it matter who's making them? Because this is you, guilty as charged.
In Psalm 3, David speaks of having many foes who have risen against him. Their gleeful claim is that "God will not deliver him". David, in their eyes, is without hope and utterly at their mercy, waiting to be devoured.
The opening words of verse 3 oppose that conclusion in the most forthright manner: "But you, O LORD..." The living God is present and active in David's life and his presence brings hope to birth. That hope is two-fold:
Protection: "You, LORD, are a shield around me..." - the living God has committed, in covenant love, to guard and keep David, to keep him from all harm, all evil. No weapon forged against him will stand. No schemes will succeed. He is safe because he is shielded by the LORD.
Vindication: "You are...my glory, the One who lifts my head high" - The taunts and the accusations will be silenced and the disgrace that has gathered around David's head will be dissipated. Because the LORD will raise him, will lift the shame, will declare him vindicated. The LORD himself will be David's glory, his reputation, his unfading star, radiant in splendour.
David prays and knows that he will be answered from the LORD's holy mountain (verse 4). From the place where the temple would be built, where Abraham was prepared to offer his son, his only son, Isaac whom he loved. And in the fulness of time, the answering of prayer - your prayers - comes from the holy hill of Calvary, where God did not spare his own Son but offered him up for us all.
The death of our Lord Jesus is the source of all the protection and vindication we could ever need:
- The shield that bore the brunt of the onslaught against us, that took the blows in order to shelter others from harm, from accusation, from judgement, by submitting himself to the condemnation of sin in our place. "He to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood."
- The disgrace heaped upon the holy Son of God was for our vindication. On that cross, unfathomable shame was heaped upon him so that we might be declared righteous through our union with him. He was raised to life for our justification and we are incorporated by faith into that vindication. His spotless reputation is declared to be yours.
The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ both protects and vindicates. It silences all our enemies, within and without; it drains accusations of their power. The love it breathes "lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee." The peace it bequeaths passes understanding and is able to keep our hearts and minds secure, through all the blizzards of condemnation.
In all things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
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A Sovereign Protector I have,
Unseen, yet for ever at hand,
Unchangeably faithful to save,
Almighty to rule and command.
He smiles, and my comforts abound;
His grace as the dew shall descend;
And walls of salvation surround
The soul He delights to defend.
Inspirer and Hearer of prayer,
Thou Shepherd and Guardian of Thine,
My all to Thy covenant care
I sleeping and waking resign.
If Thou art my Shield and my Sun,
The night is no darkness to me;
And fast as my moments roll on,
They bring me but nearer to Thee.
Kind Author and Ground of my hope,
Thee, Thee, for my God I avow;
My glad Ebenezer set up,
And own Thou hast helped me till now.
I muse on the years that are past,
Wherein my defence Thou hast proved;
Nor wilt Thou relinquish at last
A sinner so signally loved!
(Augustus Montague Toplady, 1740-78)
