Psalm 56 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
For the director of music. To the tune of "A Dove on Distant Oaks." Of David. A miktam . When the Philistines had seized him in Gath. [a]
1 Be merciful to me, O God, for men hotly pursue me;
all day long they press their attack.
2 My slanderers pursue me all day long;
many are attacking me in their pride.
3 When I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can mortal man do to me?
5 All day long they twist my words;
they are always plotting to harm me.
6 They conspire, they lurk,
they watch my steps,
eager to take my life.
7 On no account let them escape;
in your anger, O God, bring down the nations.
8 Record my lament;
list my tears on your scroll [b]—
are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will turn back
when I call for help.
By this I will know that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise,
in the LORD, whose word I praise-
11 in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
12 I am under vows to you, O God;
I will present my thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered me [c] from death
and my feet from stumbling,
that I may walk before God
in the light of life. [d]
As I studied this Psalm, I realized the importance of how much stress, pressure and adversity David was under. And through it all, he chose to remain faithful. But the type of faith expressed here, wasn't just simply stating to oneself, "it will all be okay, I know God will take care of me." It had to have been a struggle, definitely, to put aside his emotions and have that strong faith. Despite all he was going through, he pushed through it all, to remain faithful in God.
In verse 5, it says, "all day long." That meant he was dealing with everything literally all day long. That's a lot of pressure.
I know that I am trying to work on my patience in dealing with my daughter. At the end of a difficult day, once I have put up with her negative attitude, her fighting, her whining and her arguing all day long, I lose it. I am no longer composed, no longer gentle and no longer kind. And I am screaming at her. And I say it's because I can only handle so much. But looking at David's composure in this Psalm, makes me strive to be more like that.
And I love how he is always thankful. Even when everything around him seems to be crumbling down, he looks at his blessings.
A friend of mine wrote a blog post once, where she described that during really difficult times with her husband, she found herself focusing on 1 Thessalonians 5:18 "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is GOD's will for you in CHRST JESUS."
When she found herself angry and hurting, she would repeat that verse to herself, sometimes even as she gritted her teeth. She would repeat it 5-20 times, depending on the situation. And she would also find something within the situation to be thankful about and praise Him for it.
She stated that as she consistently did this, she realized that she was giving her anger over to God by giving Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving. She began to feel His presence and His peace and realized that God was taking away her anger.
And I believe that for David it was the same way. He opened up everything to God. He poured out his heart to Him and by doing that, he felt God's presence in such an amazing way. It was second nature for David to be thankful, even in the midst of such hurt and opposition.
May we all be able to experience that. May we all work on getting our relationships with God to be like that.
Have a blessed week.
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