“OUR SHIELD”
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 7)
June 19, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are
saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. But You, O
Lord, are a Shield about me, my Glory, and the Lifter of my head. I
cried aloud to the Lord, and He answered me from His holy hill.
Psalm 3:1-3 (ESV)
The title of the Third Psalm reads: “A Psalm of David, when He Fled
from Absalom His Son.” Absalom was the third son of David--one of
whom the king was very proud. He is described in the Scriptures with
these words: “Now in Israel there was no one so much to be praised
for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to
the crown of his head there was no blemish in him” (2 Samuel 14:25).
However, like so many people who have a lot going for them, Absalom
abused the blessings of God, using them in a selfish and self-serving
way. He used his charm and good looks to his own benefit and, as a
result, the Scripture says: “Absalom stole the hearts of the men of
Israel” (2 Samuel 15:6). He rebelled against and humiliated his
father the king and drove him from Jerusalem, so that David had to
flee for his life. Eventually the forces of David defeated the forces
of Absalom and Absalom was killed. When David heard of the death of
his son he was overcome with grief and exclaimed: “O my son Absalom,
my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom,
my son, my son!” (2 Samuel 18:33). --not the most touching story for
Fathers’ Day, I’ll admit. But, as they say, it is what it is.
Like King David, you and I have enemies in the world. Some of them
might be quite close to us. David’s dilemma was that he felt an
obligation to defend and retain his God-given position as the king of
God’s people, yet the biggest threat to his kingship was his own son,
who he loved dearly. The words before us this morning, written while
David was on the run from Absalom and his troops, are the king’s
heartfelt prayer to God at a particularly difficult time in his life.
As we face our enemies, it would do us well to examine and take
courage from the example of David as he lays before God the trouble
that confronts him even as he states his confidence in the Lord.
Like David, we face external enemies--enemies that are outside of
ourselves. In his catechism Martin Luther speaks of these external
enemies as being “the devil” and “the world” (Small Catechism,
explanation of the Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer). The devil
has been our enemy from the very beginning and always will be. He
hates God and every blessing that God bestows. He especially hates
the redemption of sinners that God has provided through the perfect
life and innocent death of His Son. Satan wants nothing more than to
rob us of the salvation and peace with God that we have in the blood
of Christ. When we speak of “the world” as our enemy, we’re not
speaking of the world itself, since the world is God’s creation “and
God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good”
(Genesis 1:31). No, it is not the perfect world that God created that
is our enemy; it is the fallen world that is so corrupted by sin that
Satan is able to use even its beauty to entice us to “[worship] and
[serve] the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25).
But there is also the great internal enemy. Luther tells us that our
enemies are “the devil, the world, and our sinful nature” (Small
Catechism, explanation of the Sixth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer).
While it is true that in Baptism we have been given a new nature in
the image of Christ, it is also true that as long as we live in this
body we have to contend with the old sinful nature, inherited from
Adam. This is the spiritual warfare in which we are engaged
throughout our life here on earth. The apostle Paul described his own
experience with this spiritual warfare when he wrote to the Romans:
“I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry
it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want
is what I keep on doing. . . . Wretched man that I am! Who will
deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:18, 19; 24).
But not only do we share with David the fact that we are under attack
by external and internal enemies; we can also have the same confidence
that he had in the Lord when he prayed: “You, O Lord, are a Shield
about me.” David is confident not because he is sure that he will
prevail over his enemies or that he will never suffer injury or
defeat; he is confident because he is sure that the Lord knows what is
best and that what is best is what will ultimately happen. What the
Lord shields us from is our spiritual destruction. As in the case of
Job, Satan can afflict us in many ways and try to get us to renounce
our faith, but he cannot forcibly take our faith from us or destroy
it. That can only happen with our willing consent. As our Shield,
the crucified and risen Christ protects us from the devil’s real
attack--his attack on our faith and our peace with God. His
accusations against us for our sin as he tries to get us to doubt our
salvation are shielded by the One who said: “It is finished” (John
19:30) when He accomplished our salvation. The trials with which
Satan afflicts us are shielded by the One who overcame every
affliction--even death itself--for us. We are shielded from
everything by the Risen One who promised: “Because I live, you also
will live” (John 14:19).
David’s confidence is that the Lord is also his “Glory, and the
Lifter of [his] head.” The confidence that is ours in Christ is not
only that He is our Shield but that He is also our Glory and our Joy.
We not only survive in God’s presence but we shine because the ugly
nakedness of our sin is covered with the perfect righteousness of
Christ with which we have been clothed through the Sacrament of Holy
Baptism. When God looks at us on the day of judgment He will not see
our sin but rather the glory of Christ’s righteousness. This gives us
reason for the greatest joy that we can know. Whatever fear or shame
we feel right here and now because of our sin will be turned into
confidence and glory when the One who redeemed us with His own blood
returns to claim us as His own and to take us to His kingdom of glory,
where we will live forever with Him and with all who have lived and
died trusting in Him.
The hope that David expresses in Psalm 3--the hope in which we
live--is more than wishful thinking. It’s not just “pie in the sky.”
Jesus does not promise that we will be spared from the trials and
tribulations of life. On the contrary, He guarantees us that we will
be confronted by them and will be called upon to endure them with
faith. In His so-called “High Priestly Prayer,” the Savior prayed for
His disciples and for all who would eventually believe in Him through
their proclamation of His Gospel, including us. And His prayer for us
is this: “I do not ask that You take them out of the world, but that
You keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15). Like it or not, we
live in the midst of trial and temptation, and we will continue to do
so until the Lord sees fit either to call us to Himself or to return
in judgment. In the meantime, we can have the greatest confidence
that He is with us in the power of His Spirit to guide and comfort
us--to encourage and strengthen us--so that we can “be faithful unto
death” and receive, by His grace, “the crown of life” (Revelation
2:10).
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in
you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and
strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our
world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able
ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is
faithful, and He will do it. Amen.