Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Psalm 3 speaks to the comfort of the Lord which His people find when surrounded by enemies. Verse 2 gets right to the heart of the issue, when the enemies of God’s people, in effect, are rejecting God. “There is no salvation for him in God!” (ESV). The true and living God is the only one to have proven himself by overcoming death through a resurrection well attested by eyewitnesses. When people insist he is irrelevant or even doesn’t exist, they do so at their own peril. He who shows himself to be greater than death and claims to be the all-powerful creator and sustainer of all is certainly able to defend his honor. And he promises to do exactly that in the last day.
When the opponents in this Psalm claimed God was unable to help, what did the Psalmist do? Trusting in God, he could lie down and sleep, then wake again. There is security in God.
Why are we so afraid? Why do we experience so much turmoil, so little confidence, such a lack of hope? Perhaps it is because we, like the foes of the Psalmist, don’t really think God is the almighty. So we take heart today. God has not changed in his ability to watch over his people. There is no need to fear. We can lie down and sleep, knowing that the Lord who never slumbers is our protector.
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