So You Had A Bad Day!

“But you, O Lord, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.” (Psalm 3:4)

Food For Thought: David was having a bad day! A really bad day! I’m sure there weren’t too many times in his life when he might have felt lower. His own son, Absalom had rebelled against him and usurped the throne. Apparently such a significant number of leaders and enough of the common people had sided with this would-be king that David realized he had to flee for his life. So he packed up shop and high-tailed it out of Jerusalem.

Adding to David’s despair was the knowledge that this was his own doing. He was now in the middle of the painful consequences of his adultery with Bathsheba and his conspiracy to murder in order to cover of the affair. David’s sin had set loose some very ugly outcomes within his own family, just as the prophet Nathan had predicted: Another son, Amnon, had raped his half-sister, Tamar. Tamar’s brother, Absalom had killed Amnon in revenge. Absalom had been banished from the land as punishment, and now upon his returned had led a rebellion that was costing David his throne, his dignity, and would ultimately end with Absalom’s death.

As David fled the city he loved, leaving behind everything he’d fought for, assuming that he’d never return to either Jerusalem or the throne, he fled with the dark and weighty knowledge that on some level, this was his own doing.

But David found solace in the Lord. He always did. When he was on the lam from Saul, hiding in caves, staying one step ahead of death, he found comfort in God. When things went from bad to worse and the few outcasts who were David’s followers were ready to desert him, David strengthened himself in the Lord. And now, when he had lost everything—and from his side of this story, this was a permanent loss, there’d be no fairy-tale ending to this sad saga—David again finds that God is sticking by him. Everybody else might leave, but not God. Everybody else might lose confidence in David, but not God. David might lose everything in this world he had acquired to this point, but he would not lose God.

Part of what makes our admiration and love for David so enduring is his tenacious hold on God. Strip David of everything and what’s left is David’s dependence on God. Take away his crutches, and David leans on God. Remove his power, and David finds strength in God. Take away his palace, the cave becomes David’s sanctuary. Take away his position, David positions himself in humility before God. Take away his wealth, David still worships God. Take away every defense, David runs to God.

We can relate to David, can’t we? Maybe that’s another reason why we love him so much. We can understand a guy who shoots himself in the foot—we do that sometimes. We can put ourselves in his shoes because we’ve blown it in our lives, big time. We’ve all had time where our world comes crashing down around us; times where situations turn sour, relationships go south, bad stuff happens, things fall apart, people we thought were friends abandon us, perhaps even turn on us. And to make it even worse, we understand it’s our own stupid fault. We are brother to David!

And hopefully we have the resilience of David. Hopefully we’ve learned to choose the option David did when he found himself in these desperate situations—which is still a pretty good option, by the way. In fact, it’s the best option. Go to God! That’s what David did. He’d go to God.

And why not! The Bible says God “will never leave you nor forsake you.” When everyone else is treating you like the plague, God is one who will stick closer than a brother. When you find yourself in a mess of any variety…even a self-inflicted mess, you can still come to the God who will be a shield about you, your glory, the lifter of your head.

When you look at the whole of David’s life, he should have ended up on the trash heap of human history. His blunders were huge, his failures so big, his mistakes so enormous. But David kept going back to God and each time he found God to be his shield, his glory and the one who lifted his head.

And so can you! That’s the best antidote for a bad day, by the way!

Prayer: Lord, I relate so David so much, and that’s why I love his story. Like David, so much of what I suffer is the result of my own doing—bad choices, wrong thinking, and willful sin. And like David, I come to you because you are my shield of protection, you are my glorious one, you are the lifter of my head. In this moment of prayer, I look to you once again to surround me with your presence and do your work in me. Heal me, cleanse me, fill me, lift me and use me for your glory.

One more thing… John Newton, author of the beloved hymn, Amazing Grace, was once notorious slave-trader who was transformed into preacher of the Gospel. Newton once wrote,

“We serve a gracious Master who knows how to overrule even our mistakes to His glory and our own advantage.”