The Lord who lifts up my head
[Psalms 3]
Have you ever heard the word “A man who bowed his head’? There are two choices in the question, "Where does my husband sit on the truck when I'm moving?" (1) "The passenger seat next to the driver" and (2) "The luggage compartment at the back." The reasons for the answer to “The luggage compartment at the back” are (1) to protect the luggage, (2) because there is no room to give him a ride, (3) to save money, and (4) for fun. Do you know the answer? There is no answer in the above (1) ~ (4). The correct answer is, ‘Please take me with you. Please don't leave me.’ haha. It's a funny answer on one side, but I think it's a pity from the other side of the reality of Korea. The Korean men who bow their heads due to early retirement are called ‘unemployment syndrome,’ the symptoms of "I became a loser in life," and the symptoms of "I can't face the faces of my wife and children who believed in only me.’ They are said to suffer from loss, betrayal, defeat and frustration (Internet). After I read the article about “A man who bowed his head” on an Korean internet website, I thought about ‘A Christian who bowed his head.’ The Chritian who bowed his head may suffer from loss, betrayal, defeat and frustration. But more than that, the “feelings” that make our Christians bow down are “guilt”: ‘My sins made my child like this, ‘My sins made my family look like this’ and etc.. These voices in our own minds can cause our Christians to become obsessed with loss, defeat, frustration, especially guilt.
David, the psalmist in Psalms, could have bowed his head. The reason was that David could have felt guilty when he was running away from his son Absalom because of the sin of killing his faithful soldier Uriah and taking Uriah’s wife Bathsheba as his wife (Psalms 3: “A Psalm of David: When he fled from the Face of Absalom his Son”). He could have bow his head when we think from his standpoint, such as 'I am in this this situation because of my sin,' 'I didn’t fulfill my responsibilities as the head of family, and this is why my house is like this' and etc.. However, the surprising fact is that in Psalms 3:3, David confesses that ‘The Lord lifts up my head.’ How much of David's confession is a great comfort and strength to us? I want to meditate on Psalms 3 under the heading “The Lord who lifts up my head” and humbly receive God’s grace to us.
The first thing to think about is “Increase of my adversaries”.
Look at Psalms 3:1 – “O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me!” When we look at this word, David said “how many are my foes!” He said ‘There are man who rose up against me’ (v. 1) and “Many” said “God will not deliver him” (v. 2). Here, the word ‘many’ appears three times in Psalm 3: 1-2. If we see this word repeated three times, our adversaries will become more and more and not less for sure. When we meditate the word of God day and night (1:2) and walk the way of the righteous (v. 6) and not walking in the counsel of the wicked, nor standing in the path of sinners, nor sitting in the seat of scoffers (v. 1), then those wicked, sinners and scoffers will be against and they will be many and their power will grow (3:1-2). That's why the psalmist David said in Psalm 2:2, “The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together …” (2:2). Where can we surely see this is in the life of Jesus, the Messiah, the “His Anointed” (v. 2). An interesting fact before crucifying Jesus was that “Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day, for before they had been enemies with each other” (Lk. 23:12). Just as Herod and Pilate, who were enemies in opposing Jesus, became friends, the people of the world are joining forces to overcome us together as friends when opposing us, the Jesus' disciples. In some ways, I think that the number of enemies is getting bigger is because one of the two reasons: (1) Evidence that I am getting discipline by God like David because I sinned greatly against my holy God, or (2) Evidence that I am walking faithfully on the way of the righteous. What are the critical blows that our enemies, who prowl around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (Cf. 1 Pet. 5:8), want to give us? It is the voice that many enemies say to David, “There is no deliverance for him in God” (Ps. 3:2). What many enemies said to David's soul was, 'God will not deliver you, he will not save you.' This is a very deadly Satanic voice that can blow our faith to fall. This is a voice we hear very well when we are exhausted and collapsed in adversity and crisis. When we hear the voices saying, 'Look, even though you are suffering and are in pain now, and no matter how much you pray, God is not helping you', this voice that we heard so well in when our spiritual power is weakened, our soul surely can be discouraged and be in anxiety. What should we do at times like this? We must overcome by faith: ‘Faith ca overcome, faith can overcome. By faith in the Lord Jesus, we can overcome the world’ (a Korean hymn).
The second and last thing to think about is “Increase of my faith”.
Increasing of my adversaries can be a great opportunity to increase my faith. I would like to think of three things about this growing faith:
(1) Increase of faith is “’But’ faith” or ‘Retrogress faith’.
Look at Psalms 3:3 – “But You, O LORD, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.” There is no conjunction in the Korean Bible but there is “But” in English Bible and the original Hebrew. In other words, when many adversaries tried to hit David and said to him, “There is no deliverance for him in God” (v. 2), David wasn’t disturbed by their word. Rather, he made this confession of faith, “You, O LORD, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head” (v. 3). This is 'Retrogress faith.' ‘Faith rather enjoys adversity and paradox’ (Park). We must retrogress the sinful wave of the world. Like a certain fish that goes up against the waterfall, we also have to go up against the waterfall of sin in the world. What a big challenge! When David was in the situation in which many and increasing adversaries tried to kill him, he went up against their waterfall-like saying of “There is no deliverance for him in God” (v. 2) and confessed ‘God protects me’ [“You, O Lord, are a shield about me” (v. 3)], ‘God who gives me glory’ [“My glory” (v. 3)] and ‘God who gives me hope, comfort and victory’ [“the One who lifts my head” (v. 3)] (Park). What an amazing confession of faith? We must pursue David's “But” faith or ‘Retrogress faith’. No matter what people in the world say to our souls, or whatever we say about God to our own souls, we must be able to confess the right faith. Although whoever lies to us about God, we shouldn’t be deceived bu must confess the truth by saying “But” God is the God whom the Bible says. We must also proclaim to our souls and fight the enemies who are in front of us or who are infiltrated in us and be victorious.
(2) Increase of faith is ‘prayer faith’.
Look at Psalms 3:4, 7, 8: “I was crying to the LORD with my voice, And He answered me from His holy mountain. Selah. … Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God! For You have smitten all my enemies on the cheek; You have shattered the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the LORD; Your blessing be upon Your people! Selah.” In these words we see David crying out to God [Ex.: (v. 4) “I was crying to the LORD with my voice, …”]. He seemed to pray to God and relied on Him more where there were more and increasing adversaries. In particular, on the basis of past prayer answers (v. 7), with confidence in prayer answers, he prayed for God's salvation (deliverance) from the adversity and crisis he faced. Although the adversaries continued to say, 'God will not save you,' David continued to proclaim to his own soul and believed that 'God is my savior', and prayed to God in faith for his deliverance. As David prayed “Arise, O Lord; save me, o my God” (v. 7), he admitted that he couldn’t do anything about many adversaries who arose up against him (v. 1). This fact gives us a valuable lesson. The valuable lesson is that the power of God's salvation emerges when we admit our limitations and seek God's infinity and ask God for his salvation. In light of this lesson, I think that if we aren’t praying to God means we are confessing that we aren’t recognizing our human limitations and don’t need to rely on God's infinity. This faith can never be said to be a growing faith. A believer who is still ignorant of human limitations and wants to fight against his enemies with his own strengthen will have no choice but to endure the struggle and experience defeat and frustration. It seems that Satan keeps telling our souls like this: 'You are fatigue and sleepy. Don’t pray, just go to sleep. You can minister without praying. Rely on yourself and do your ministry however you want. And if it doesn't work, it is not too late to pray.’ What do you think Satan’s strategy is? I think the Satan’s strategy is to make us to believe this lie, ‘You have unlimited power in you. Rely on yourself. You are God.’ That’s why we must be alert and pray to God. By doing so, we must experience His salvation (deliverance). We cannot save ourselves. We must pray. We must cry out to God in faith for His salvation.
(3) Increase of faith is ‘Faith that are not afraid.’
Look at Psalms 3:6 – “I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me round about.” When we look at this word, David confesses that he won’t be afraid of 1,000 of people. Of course, the more enemies we have, the greater our fears, but David was not afraid. This is the reaction of those who have growing faith. The Christians with genuinely growing faith have less fear as they pray more and more as the number of adversaries increase. Fear exists. But like David, they proclaim that they will not be afraid, and move forward by faith. David was able to proclaim it because there was prayers to support the retrogress faith. When we pray, the fear of man goes away because there is awe of God. Those who fear God won’t and can’t fear man. David not only was afraid of his adversaries but rather laid down and slept (v. 5) because he trusted God, who is the shield who protects his front and back, who will manifest His glory through many adversaries and who gives him hope, comfort, victory and lifts his head rather than frustration, disappointment and deft. How amazing faith of the believers who can sleep in crisis. As the waves on the surface of the sea are big, the deeper the sea, the calmer the bottom of the deep sea, even if our adversaries are attacking us, if we have the depth of faith in God, we will remain quiet and will look only to our Lord. This quietness is our strength [(Isa. 30:15) “… In quietness and trust is your strength …”].
The world is trying to make our heads bow. Satan is making every effort to make our head to bow by making us to taste the loss, betrayal, defeat and frustration. He is sending us a lot of enemies and is also beating us with a lot of pain and adversity. He says to our ears, ‘God will not deliver you,’ and tries to make us not to look at God our Savior. But we must pursue a growing faith by deeply recognizing that our faith must grow as the work of Satan increases. That growing faith or increase of faith is retrogress faith, prayer faith and faith that aren’t afraid. I hope and pray that we can praise God ‘The faith wins. The faith in the Lord wins. It win the whole world’ and faithfully walk the way of the victors for His glory.
With earnest desire for my faith to grow and increase,
James Kim
(Thanksgiving to the Immanuel Lord who has been with me with the grace of salvation in my life)