“He’s got our back”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, May 16, 2022
Psalm 56 (Forward, p. 18) CEV p. 587
We often forget that the psalms are poetry, and, as such, often use figures of speech such as hyperbole, which means that we should not always take their words literally. Today’s psalm is fairly studded with expressions of the danger that its author, David, is presently in:
“My enemies chase me all day. Many of them are pursing and attacking me” (verses 1b-2a);
“Enemies spend the whole day finding fault with me: all they think about is how to do me harm. They attack from ambush, watching my every step and hoping to kill me” (verses 5-6).
The dangers to David’s life and limb are very real, though not quite as extreme as these words would indicate. Or at least, that is true if its subscription or title are accurate: “A special psalm by David when the Philistines captured him in Gath.” David and his family and entourage spent two periods as refugees in Gath, and, while he initially went there as a refugee, his stay later became rather untenable. He was never actually ‘captured’, but this certainly could have happened, and probably would have, had he stayed around any longer.
And certainly, there was ‘the talk’, the inuendoes, the disparaging remarks. Certainly, there were people who were finding fault with him—and for good reason. On his first sojourn there in Gath (1 Samuel 21:10-14), their king’s officials immediately brought it to his attention that it was David who had bested their army on previous occasions. And so, accordingly, David was afraid for his life and had to feign madness in order to escape from his clutches. Someone was finding fault with him, and for good reason: it only made sense. “Why would our old enemy now be here with us?” they wondered out loud.
This initial sojourn, unsurprisingly, was rather short, but a later sojourn was some sixteen months. While there, he placed himself and his men at the service of the king of Gath, Achish, and pretended to systematically attack border settlements of his fellow Israelites (see 1 Samuel 27). This convinced King Achish that David would be so hated by his own people, that he would remain loyal to him forever. This was so far so good, as long as David was not put to the test, not ordered to directly attack the main force of his own people under the direction of Saul (see 1 Samuel 29). But then, the commanders of the Philistine army saw a problem and raised the issue with Achish: ‘what if David, in the heat of battle, decides to turn against us and betray us and thus win favour with his old master? (There it was, someone finding fault with him, and for good reason!)
So, there, on these two different occasions, there was a very real danger for David, and for very good reason, and most of it was directly attributable to David’s own actions. Even so, David still felt confident that he could turn to God for help and receive it. He still felt that he could trust God to help him even when some of the responsibility for his present state lay with him. To me, this is very good news, for while the root of some of my problems lay completely outside of myself, some of them also are my own doing. And so, to know that God is with me and has promised to help me, is great and welcome news. It’s nice to know that He’s got our back, which means that we can depend upon Him, no matter what. Amen.
Forward notes: “They band together; they lie in wait; they spy upon my footsteps; because they seek my life” (verse 6).
“My older brother’s wife was a psychiatrist who did a great deal of work with Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD. From her, I learned that the part of the brain that controls emotions is much faster than the analytical part of the brain. Our emotions commit us to action long before we even begin to understand that there might be choices.
“One day she took a therapy group for a meditation walk across the park-like VA hospital grounds. As they quietly walked, attempting to meditate, she studied the group. None of them had known each other before the session, but they were spread out in perfect jungle patrol formation. In such a formation, the spacing decreases the chance that an initial attack will hit everyone and enables the soldiers to cover each other as they fight to safety.
“Long after their wartime service was over, these veterans were still walking through life expecting an enemy at any moment.”
MOVING FORWARD: “Read Ephesians 6:11-17 and consider how putting on the full armor of God prepares you to make spiritual instead of emotional decisions.”