King David has fled from Jerusalem to escape his Absalom who has rebelled against David and set himself up as king.  While fleeing from Absalom, David wrote psalms 3 and 63.  King David was a musician with a gift for worship.  Most musicians will tell you that some of their best songs come during times of great distress or great joy.  It is during some of the most emotional parts of our lives that some of the most radical things can take place in our lives.

David was certainly in one of his low periods.  His own son was out to kill him, and he has just learned that Absalom has mobilized the entire army of Israel to hunt him down and kill him.  He feels surrounded by his enemies and so he does the only thing he can think of; David turns to God for help.  If we could all learn this lesson, we would all be much more victorious on our walks with the Lord.  Often, we spend too much time fighting our enemies and not enlisting God’s help to deal with our enemies.

The psalms are such a great source of encouragement and edification.  Spending time in the psalms can give you a tremendous view of who God is and how He wants to work in our lives.  David authored many of the psalms and you can tell from his writings that he had a profound view of the role that God would play in his life.  Just in this one verse today we see three different ways that David viewed God.

First, David viewed God as a shield around him.  David knew God was going to protect him.  He knew no enemy could penetrate that shield unless God allowed them to.  We also need to adopt that same view of God; He is our shield.  All of your enemies can beat against that shield all they want, and they cannot harm you as long as you stay behind God as your shield.

Second, David viewed God as his glory.  David didn’t look to accomplishments or conquests or treasures for glory; he saw God as his glory.  Too often we look to ourselves for glory or we look to others to give us glory.  Our glory is God and any glory that we receive from others should be viewed as coming from Him.

Third, David looked only to God to raise him up.  He knew that is it was God who had made him king and helped him to be successful.  David knew that his efforts played an insignificant role in where he was in his life.  We would all do much better if we stopped taking credit in our lives for the things that God has done.  God put you where you are, and He is the one who will raise you up or lower you down.  Put your whole life into the hands of God and watch and see the amazing thing that He will make of it.  Jesus, teach us to come to You always and not just when we are in distress.

Read: 1 Chronicles 1:1-2:17; Acts 23:11-35; Psalm 3:1-8; Proverbs 18:14-15