The battle rages
Psalm 3 (Lent 1 – Supplemental Psalm Year C)
As King David penned this psalm, it was one of the darkest times in his life. He was on the run, forced to leave
Jerusalem and his palace. His throne was usurped by Absalom. Many were David’s foes who had risen against him. Fair
weather friends deserted him thinking Absalom to be the winning side. Secret hatred of his enemies came out into the
open, rushing to kick David while he was down. Yet the most painful of his foes was the terrible reality that was sitting
on his throne. That reality is seen in the heading – “when he fled his son Absalom.” Leading his foes was his own flesh
and blood. What a devastating blow not just for God’s anointed king, but also to a father’s heart! His foes arrogantly
taunted David, laughing at him, “God will not deliver him! God won’t save him!” David’s battle was raging on the
outside, but there had to be a deeper battle raging on the inside as his foes surrounded him, pressing against him,
pushing him to the limits of despair.
How great is your spiritual foe rising against you! Satan is always on the prowl like a roaring lion, looking for to
devour its prey. His temptations to sin come in so many different ways, from every side. They are the words of supposed
friends and the world around you leading you to sin sometimes like a wolf hiding in sheep’s clothing. His temptations are
in the little whispers of doubt in your ear, “Did God really say?” His temptations are the result of his hatred of God and
his desire to see all people standing as God’s foes. So he twists God’s own Word into half-truths taking what you know
to be true so you let your guard down and fall. That’s the foe we all have and our battle rages on with him surrounding
us on all sides. Satan wields his weapon of temptation so effectively on our weak sinful nature.
Then after our foe has taken his jabs, you try to flee, but the enemy still pursues. You try to stand alone on our
own might, but you cannot stand against such a mighty foe. Satan keeps jabbing and with every blow to the gut, you
succumb to a new temptation again and again. Then after falling to the ground bleeding from the wounds of your own
sin, Satan, the wily foe, stands over you laughing, taunting you. Do you feel his arrogant taunts, pushing you to the brink
of despair, “God will not deliver you!” Then in that temptation of guilt, you wonder, “Is he right? Am I a lost cause? Can
God save a wretched sinner like me.” The battle rages against our arrogant foe, but what Satan neglects to tell you is
what David’s enemies forgot.
As his enemies assaulted David’s faith, they were also assaulting the very object of his faith – The Lord and his
mighty promises. Was his faith shaken? Did that little bit of temptation’s doubt creep in when he sees the foes
mounting? Maybe so. We aren’t told exactly how much he wrestled with Satan’s temptations to doubt the Lord. But
what we do know is written in this psalm. Even in the siege of his enemies all around him taunting him, laughing at him
in their arrogance, David’s faith remained in the Lord. He calls the Lord his shield that was around him.
When a battle rages all around you, how important is a shield? The shield is that protection against the foe’s
jabs and the blows. It is your defense. Without a shield, you are defenseless and in great danger on all sides from the
foes that attack you. With the Lord as his shield, David had a solid defense. David’s shield was the very promises of God
that were unfailing. God told him that his family would reign on the throne of Israel, that he would build David’s house
with a greater descendant to come who would be locked in battle with our common foe – Satan.
So trusting his shield, he called out to the Lord knowing that the Lord answers his cries for help. Therefore he
could lie down and sleep. He would wake again because the Lord was the one who sustains him. Even though the battle
was raging for Israel’s throne with David’s own son and all Absalom’s allies, David did not fear the tens of the thousands
of enemies on every side. David’s shield was mighty enough to deliver him. David’s shield would silence the arrogance of
his many foes. “I will not fear,” he says. With the Lord as his shield and his defense, David knew he would strike their
jaw, breaking their teeth. David’s was confident that Lord would destroy their power. Without teeth the foe has no bite.
David’s deliverance and salvation could only come from the Lord and David trusted his shield for that deliverance.
When Satan’s takes the jabs of his temptations and laughs at your own weakness standing over you in the
middle of your raging battle, your shield from sin’s guilt is the Lord. He is a shield that does not fail to answer when we
call on him, a shield that stands all around us so we can rest secure sustained by the Lord’s presence. With the Lord as
our shield there is no need to fear our foe while he laughs at your weakness and just how easy it is to get you to fall
sometimes. Sin is serious and dangerous. Never think that sin is not that big of a deal, but we need not look at our sin in
despair. The foe of Satan and the sins he tempts us to commit has lost its teeth. Our foe, has already lost because the
Lord is our shield. Deliverance comes from him alone.
There’s a legend that’s told about Constantine, the man who would become the first Christian emperor of the
Roman Empire. Before a battle to take the throne, according to the story, Constantine looked up and saw a light in the
sky shaped like a cross. Then he heard a voice say to him, “In this sign, conquer.” So Constantine after this vision had his
soldiers place that symbol of a cross on their shields. Constantine’s army would win the day and he eventually become
the emperor. While this may or may not have happened exactly in the way it was told, the cross was stamped on their
shields as a symbol of their true defense.
Our shield has provided a solid defense. On that shield we see the sign of Jesus as the deliverance that comes
from the Lord. Today we see him right after his baptism at the very beginning of his ministry. We see him at the brink of
physical weakness, pushed to the physical limitations of the body without food. Yet even in that weakness, as true God
he is still strong and mighty to stand firm against the blows of Satan’s temptation. If Jesus had failed just once against
Satan’s raging jabs, we would have no shield, no defense, no hope in our battle with sin. Then Satan’s taunt would have
been true. “God will not deliver him.”
Even though Jesus was tempted, he did not fall, not even once. Even though Satan pulled out every trick in his
bag of temptations, Jesus stood firm. Yes Satan continued to try and break through that shield all the way to the very
end of Jesus’ suffering. Even as he hung their on the cross in apparent defeat, our shield was never broken. When Satan
thought he had won there was Jesus, alive announcing his victory. Jesus destroyed the devil’s power striking his jaw on
the cross and breaking his teeth rising from the grave. The foe has already lost. Deliverance from sin and Satan came
from the Lord in Christ alone. That battle is already been won. It rages no more. Your shield did not fail. Let sin not cause
you to despair, but instead lead you to stand behind your victorious shield.
Satan has lost his accusing power. He can harm you no more. He cannot hold your sins against you. His taunts
are empty words that carry no weight. Though we fall into sin, the Lord’s deliverance through Jesus’ victory over sin and
death stands our shield that can never be broken. Therefore trust your shield. Lie down at night and sleep in the peace
of forgiveness which is ours at cross of Jesus. As you place your trust in him, your sins are never held against you. They
are removed from you. It’s as if they were never there. The Lord continues to sustain you with his precious deliverance
from every sin, every fall into temptation. With the Lord as your shield, you are not defenseless in the raging battle for
our soul all around us and within us.
David’s battle with Absalom did end. The Lord did not fail to deliver David as he fled from Absalom, his son.
However, it didn’t end the way David wanted it to end. When you go home today, take a look at 2 Samuel 18 and 19.
See how the Lord brought that deliverance for David restoring him to the throne, but also why David still mourned
despite that victory.
As we stand in the midst of our raging battles against temptation and our falls into sin, the shield of our God is
our deliverance. Satan’s jaw may have been broken and his teeth shattered, but he still takes his jabs at your heart. By
ourselves we are weak. They come at us in different ways as Satan still rages all around us. Even though Satan has lost
and he knows it, our foe still attacks us in the same ways again and again to catch us in our weakness every day, leading
us to slip all the time. Our sinful nature still succumbs to those temptations no matter how hard we fight. The raging
battle with temptation will never be over until the Lord comes with the deliverance and blessing of life in heaven.
But your raging battles against Satan and his temptations are never fought alone. The Lord remains your shield,
your help, your sure defense. The Lord is your impenetrable shield with the symbol of Jesus’ victory over sin and death
stamped upon it, a victory that can never be taken away from you, a victory that gives you strength against temptation,
a victory that removes all despair when we do fall down. Your battle with sin and Satan is never alone when the Lord
stands in front of you and all around you. Trust your shield and even though the foe rages and thousands of temptations
surround you, rest secure in the deliverance that comes only from the Lord. Amen