Welcome to Psalm 3. As it opens, David is expressing his own version of that kind of experience. The problems and the problem people are many. It’s unrelenting. They just never give up.
And from there he speaks words that are ours to take hold of with the hungriest of hearts:
But you, O LORD, are a shield around me,
My glory, the One who lifts my head high.
I call out to the LORD,
And he answers me from his holy mountain.
The living God, the eternal One, is David’s protector, his shield, his defender and provider. His refuge against the onslaught. There are no gaps in his defences, no weak links in the chain of his loving commitment. His guardian care is invincible.
Those who stand against David hold him in derision and scorn. They pour shame like water upon his head, they trash his reputation with fierce falsehoods. This is his downfall, the end of his career, the termination of his tenure. He’s at their mercy and they will show him none.
But David’s head is lifted high, in honour. He belongs to the Holy One and is vindicated by him. He is David’s glory - the One who stands up for him, who is unashamed to be fully aligned with him. The One who shares his own status with David, gives him his name and covers him with his own royal robes.
Our Lord Jesus willingly associates himself with us, declares that we are his and defends us as his own beloved people. He will not allow us to suffer final shame.
And the raising of our heads that takes away all our disgrace and dishonour, lifting us into living hope, is the action of the One who bowed his head and gave up his spirit, under the enormous load of sin’s desolation. The one whose sacrifice saves us from all the bitter fruit of our fallenness and cleanses the squalid, fetid ground of our hearts.
David calls to the LORD and is answered from his holy hill - from the temple itself, the very centre of God’s presence on earth. This is no incidental assistance. But another ‘holy mountain’ would in time draw our eyes and fill our hearts with astonishment, the hill just outside the city walls where our Lord Jesus offered himself for us. From that hill comes the Lord’s answer: “It is finished.” From there he speaks words of full forgiveness, words that promise not simply paradise but life with the Lord, in his eternal presence.
His intervention on our behalf is not our just desserts; it is entirely by his gracious resolve. And so it is certain, the only sure foundation when we are overwhelmed.
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For ever here my rest shall be,
Close to Thy bleeding side;
This all my hope, and all my plea,
For me the Saviour died!
My dying Saviour, and my God,
Fountain for guilt and sin,
Sprinkle me ever with Thy blood,
And cleanse, and keep me clean.
Wash me, and make me thus Thine own,
Wash me, and mine Thou art,
Wash me, but not my feet alone,
My hands, my head, my heart.
The atonement of Thy blood apply,
Till faith to sight improve,
Till hope in full fruition die,
And all my soul be love.
(Charles Wesley, 1707-88)
