Psalms For Life
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Yahveh Elohim hear our prayers

Psalm 3

God’s care in the midst of trouble

Those bent on living their own—as opposed to God’s—version of the good life sometimes want it so bad they’ll stop at nothing to get it. If we get in their way, they target us. But thankfully, God is our deliverer.

A David psalm, from when he fled from his son Absalom. 

1 So many are troubling me, YHWH—
so many rising up against me!
2 So many saying this about me:
“There’s no deliverance
for him from God!”   Selah
3 But you, YHWH, shield me on every side
honor me with your presence
and lift up my downcast head. 

4 I cried out loud to YHWH
and from his holy mountain
he answered me.   Selah
5 I lay down and slept
and woke up refreshed
because YHWH took care of me.
6 I do not fear the many thousands
closing in on every side. 

7 Rise up, YHWH!
Deliver me, God!
You will smash my enemies’ jaw
and shatter their teeth!
8 For deliverance belongs to you, YHWH.
May your blessing be on your people.   Selah

Like Psalm 2, this psalm responds to an attempted coup. Here David’s own son is leading the power grab. By now David’s family life is a veritable train wreck. Absalom’s revolt ended a whole series of failures on David’s part—failures to do right. David’s over-indulgent love and his desire to avoid public disgrace kept him from faithfully holding his narcissistic sons, Amnon and Absalom, to account. David’s refusal to resolve things between him and Absalom when he returned from self-exile, fed Absalom’s mistaken sense of injustice, which led to his rebellion.

Having fled Jerusalem, God’s royal residence, David is seemingly cut off from his only source of help. He’s been a fugitive before, but now he’s the older guy in the chase, and Absalom has rallied the entire nation against him. With Absalom’s soldiers closing in on David and all the numbers on their side, they “decide” on God’s behalf that what seems to be true is true: he’s abandoned David.

Though David is still very much a work in progress—conflicted, unwilling to do as he should—he does one thing right: he cries out to YHWH, whose care for him is already evident. And God graciously meets him where he is, granting him sleep in the knowledge that nothing can separate him from God’s love. The previous psalm ended with a promise of blessing to all who seek refuge in YHWH. This one shows us what that blessing, in fact, looks like: God protecting and caring for his people in the midst of trouble.[1]

David asks God to defend him against his foes and voices his confidence that God will silence them for good. He holds onto two truths that anchor him in the storm. First, God is sovereign over the earth: thankfully, heaven’s no democracy, run by popular vote. Second, nothing can rob God’s people of the blessing he’s promised them.

Prayer:

No less a work in progress than David, I desperately need your grace, Lord. Deliver me from evil—my own as well as that of others. You mercifully shield me, honor me, restore me. However hopeless things seem, I trust in your rock-solid love. All other ground is sinking sand. Amen.

During your free moments today, meditate on these words:

You, YHWH, shield me on every side
honor me with your presence
and lift up my downcast head.

 

[1] The psalm’s chiastic structure is as follows:  A. The many who rise up against me, YHWH, say you won’t deliver me (vv. 1-2); B. Expression of confidence in YHWH whose shield surrounds him (v. 3); C. I CRIED TO HIM AND YHWH HEARD ME (v. 4); C. I SLEPT AND YHWH CARED FOR ME (v. 5); B. Expression of confidence, no matter how many surround him (v. 6); A. Rise up and deliver me, YHWH, for you decide who to deliver and bless (vv. 7-8).

Why YHWH?

Every translator of the Psalms must decide how to handle God’s personal name, YHWH or YHVH, which occurs repeatedly in its Hebrew text. Translators of the King James Version usually translated it “LORD” (all caps) and sometimes transliterated it (badly) as “Jehovah.” Likewise, all modern translations either translate or transliterate it. Some other options for translating it are “the Eternal,” “the Almighty,” or “the Sovereign Lord.”

While translating it aims to make it more accessible to readers, transliterating it seems to me more faithful to the text since it’s not a word at all, but rather God’s uniquely personal name. This roots it more firmly in the biblical story as the name God revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. Meaning “the self-existent One who answers to no one,” the name YHWH set Israel’s God apart from all the gods of Israel’s neighbors.

Personal names are, well, very personal. Even the sound of a name can evoke strong emotion. I’ve chosen to transliterate only YHWH’s consonants since the earliest Hebrew manuscripts contain only consonants, the vowels being added much later. My aim in doing so is to honor God’s name and set it apart, as unique.

One problem with YHWH is that we aren’t sure how it was pronounced since Jews long ago stopped saying it out of reverence. (They read Adonai instead whenever they come to YHWH in the text.) I take the advice of my esteemed Hebrew professor, Raymond Dillard, who advocated pronouncing it as Yahveh (Yah·vay). He favored that over the standard Yahweh since the modern Hebrew pronunciation of its third consonant makes the name sound more robustly Jewish. It also makes it sound more robust, period.

Finding strength in the ancient psalms
May these psalms be a light to you in dark times. You can read more of Mark Anderson's writings on Christianity, culture, and inter-faith dialogue at Understanding Christianity Today.