Is It Difficult to Trust God Psalms 3:3      

Our Trust 

Our Protection         But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; 

There is a shift of focus in Psalms 3, from being smothered in problems to being surrounded by protection.  God is our shield, the one who guards, defends, shelters and keeps us safe.  Instead of complaining about being flooded with problems and trouble we hear the shout of faith that proclaims we are surrounded and protected by all-powerful God.

If God allows things to hit us around this shield, we have to concede that it is a messenger of the Lord that has a purpose in it.  We can’t give up and crack into caustic doubts and scathing suspicions.  We have to peal back the layers to grasp what is meant in the unscheduled difficulties.

Declaring the Lord, as our shield is a requirement; faith is not optional, it’s our obligation.

We develop understanding in the Lord by trusting, hearing and communicating with what He is saying.  When I was a child my father would always assure me that I could trust him to protect me.  I remember my dad as a strong man who was afraid of no one.

We see David expressing his feelings about feeling crushed by those who were attacking him with treats, but then He embraces the Lord as his protective shield.  Jesus is our strong man who is afraid of no one.

We need to guard against rejecting God’s voice when pressure exposes us.  It doesn’t matter that others say God doesn’t care about us, or if they blame us for ignoring God or being out of touch with Him.

The Lord is our vital bond, and to view His power and protective armor around us is to cultivate our inner trust.   We declare our faith in God, which is our shield, by intimacy in prayer communication with our Heavenly Father through Jesus.  We’re claiming Him as our insurance coverage, we’re proving our confidence in Him, and our trust in His ways with us.

It’s unwise to shut Jesus out.  Instead, we can express our sorrow to Him, cry to Him in every issue, trust His shielding love and resolve to always trust every detail to Him.  God’s responses are subtle and we have to perk our attention to Him.  Our communication breakdown is not because He’s allusive but our ears and heart have need of tuning.

Trust, like love, is not a feeling; it’s based on squeezing the positives out of the negatives that are surrounding our situations.  Trust and love are a choice, a commitment, and an act of the will to hold on to the Lord and His Word even when things are falling apart all around us.

The man who is credited with evangelizing Ireland is Patrick.

Patrick lived in uncertain times.  Everything was falling apart around Him.  Behind him lay the collapsed wreck of Roman civilization. Before him were the fierce, wild natives of Ireland. Patrick had no outward security, but he persevered at his calling, dying at last at the age of seventy-six.

In thirty years of ministry Patrick changed Ireland so thoroughly that, as Thomas Cahill reports in his study,

“As the Roman lands went from peace to chaos, the land of Ireland was rushing even more rapidly from chaos to peace.”

Instead of viewing the collapse of his culture as an unmitigated tragedy, Patrick seized it as an unprecedented opportunity to propagate Christ’s gospel.

Where did Patrick find strength in such times? He gives his answer in a surviving prayer known as “St. Patrick’s Breastplate.”

I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me: God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me, God’s eye to look before me, God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to speak for me, God’s hand to guard me, God’s way to lie before me, God’s shield to protect me, God’s host to save me from snares of devils, from temptations of vices, from everyone who shall wish me ill.…

Christ to shield me today against poison, against burning, against drowning, against wounding, so that there may come to be abundance of reward. Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise.…

I arise today through a mighty strength.…

Christ is our shield.

Our Praise                  my glory,

The necessity is to along with trusting and talking to Jesus as our shield, we should always allow Him in the place of our greatest glory.  Glory means He’s the one who gets all the credit.  He is the magnificent, wonderful and the total exaltation of all beauty in our feelings and expressions.  Just to humbly tell Him we love Him in every situation and problem is a massive calming with problems that flood into our lives.

It pleases me when someone trusts in me and it pleases God when we trust in Him.  He rewards all who diligently seek Him in all distresses.  Diligence is being meticulous about finding Jesus in our circumstances.  In the crowds around Jesus it was those who persisted and were attentive to getting in close and touching Him who saw there problems solved.

We look for Him in His Word and nowhere else; this is our meditation and inspiration to connect in prayer to Jesus.

“And let us not take it into our heads either to seek out God anywhere else than in his Sacred Word, or to think anything about him that is not prompted by his Word, or to speak anything that is not taken from that Word.” – John Calvin, Institutes

Our Promotion   and the lifter up of mine head

Problem after problem in our lives can shatter our confidence: but the things that break our heart elevate our head.  To be brokenhearted means our courage is broken down.  We are shattered by disappointment, stripped of what we thought would have happened.  Our spirit becomes smashed and we feel bankrupt emotionally and spiritually while we grovel in helplessness.

God blesses heartbreak; He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.  We want to walk tall and lift our head but not based on our achievements, or what we have accumulated.  It’s not confidence in our self that we need but confidence in the Lord our shield. We need Him our shield of faith.  God is our certainty and assurance in everything.

Prov. 3:34 God scorns the scorners but gives grace to the lowly.

James 4:6 he gives more grace. Wherefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

It’s in God where we are to find our confidence, our poise our firm security.

Our Plea             I cried unto the LORD with my voice, 

We tend to despise the things that strip us and make life seem so impossible, we loath the feelings of rejection and the doors slammed in our face.  This is where Jesus is knocking and this of all other things is what lifts our head to let Jesus in.  Psalms 24 says it so poetically:

Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

We need to live behind His protection with Jesus all around us and let Him fight the battles.

Our Privilege      and he heard me out of his holy hill Selah. 

He hears us; Jesus perceives everything and is working in ever issue and heartache to bring us to wholeness and completeness.