Fight that good fight!
Last year, before the lockdowns began, two of my sons and I began studying Judo at a club in our area. Like many things that were going on in the spring of 2020, our lessons were brought to an abrupt halt. In our short time there we practiced appropriate posture, different grips, safe falls, and basic throwing techniques. I endured the bangs and bruises of a true novice as well as the quiet satisfaction of knowing how they’d been earned. Though my grace and prowess on the mat may have increased by about .01%, I did begin learning the basics. When I don my crisp white gi (uniform), tie on my unblemished white belt, and step onto the mat, I am years from being an accomplished practitioner of the art, but at this stage I am at least able to engage.
A beginner of any discipline would go through similar steps whether they were learning boxing, ballet, tennis, or a tenor saxophone for that matter. And any good instructor would make sure that their students understood that championships aren’t won by the basics alone but they’re never won without them.
Whether you acknowledge it or not, every day on one level or another is a spiritual encounter. On some days, probably most days, you move about with relative ease and confidence as the battle rages on around you at a low hum. Other days you’re very aware of the battles you’re in. You’re conscious of the difficult spiritual landscape that you need to traverse or you feel very sharply the attacks being hurled at you.
What do you do on those hard days? Do you look for the quickest and easiest way out? Do you furrow your brow, ball up your fists in rage, and swing like mad at whatever comes your way? Or do you curl up in a ball behind a stone in hopes that it will all blow over?
We are prone to these and other responses, but bless the Lord, we’re not left to them. The Word in Psalm 3 provides us with clear instructions for the Basics of Spiritual Engagement.
The Psalmist demonstrates 4 basic steps in engaging on the Day of Adversity.
1. Cry out to God. vv 1-2
2. Praise God for who He is. vv 3-4
3. Remember God’s past faithfulness. vv 5-6
4. Urgently ask the Lord for help. vv 7-8
Verses 1-2 - Lord, how my foes increase! There are many who attack me. Many say about me, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah
Here is the Psalmist’s view of the battlefield. In humility, and probably in desperation, he pours it out before the Lord. And look, God already knows what David is facing. God is sovereign and all-knowing. This isn’t new information for God. Yet through the Psalmist, the Lord instructs us to, once again, entrust ourselves to Him by pouring out our hearts to Him.
Cry out to God.
Verses 3-4 - But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head. I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. Selah
Now David turns to praising God for who He is. Remember, his situation has not changed yet, he’s still in the distressing and tense circumstances that he was in the previous two verses. But something has changed - David’s attention. He has lifted his eyes to the One True God.
Do you think, given the circumstances he’s in, in this state of mind, that this is a spontaneous eruption of warm emotions and praise? Probably not! David is engaging in real warfare by doing deliberate spiritual work.
In the midst of severe distress David comes before the Lord praising Him for who He is. He says you are a shield around me. Now -in this very moment- You protect me. And from every angle. Despite what it looks like, You are guarding me.
God’s love and wisdom abound. We’re not even able to see attacks from more than one direction. But God, our Protector, is guarding us from all sides.
Lift your eyes from the accusers and their accusations. Lift your eyes from yourself and your failures. Look to your radiant, majestic, and mighty God. David calls Him my glory, and the lifter of my head. He does not wash his face and say, “Hey, I guess I’m not so bad after all…” He marvels at the astonishing mercy and grace that God pours out on His people. You, God, are an Avenger. You, Lord, are Just. David’s head won’t hang in shame before his accusers because God will lift it according to His character and promises.
How stark a contrast to what the circumstances would encourage him to believe. All the voices around him would tell him to dive headlong into hopelessness and despair. Instead, he remembers the God who sits enthroned on high, the God who commands all the hosts of Heaven, the God who because of His mercy hears and answers His people when they cry out.
Praise God for who He is.
Verses 5-6 - I lie down and sleep; I wake again because the Lord sustains me. I will not be afraid of thousands of people who have taken their stand against me on every side.
This next step is to identify and marvel at the fact that this God has actually acted in my own life. In verses 3 and 4 David is proclaiming what he knows to be true by faith. In verses 5 and 6 he remembers his intimate personal experience of God’s faithful love. He takes all that He has just said about God and attaches those things to his own life. God is indeed a Protector and the evidence is in the fact that David is there still praising Him.
This is what it means to situate ourselves in God’s story. Friend, you are not just a collection of atoms bumping into other collections of atoms in one chance operation after another. You are someone made in the Image of God guided by His good Hand according to His Kingdom purposes. So every one of us has a story and events to look back upon and say, Yes, God has brought me to this point. Though we may not be able to perfectly make sense of the road from there to here, we can know that He has seen us through.
We might typically think that spiritual warfare only really involves really heavy sin struggles or deep psychological wounds -and certainly it does- but you’re engaged in spiritual battles daily. And there are daily maneuvers and operations that are offensive moves that God uses to sanctify us, to mature us, to guard us against temptation, and to move us along the path. Consciously recounting God’s past faithfulness, purposely bringing into view the record of His mercy, deliverance, and provision is a major offensive move.
As David remembers God’s past faithfulness, he’s all the more emboldened to trust Him in the present. God has heard and answered him in the past. He is not short on attention, his listening ear and delivering Arm do not grow weary. His sustaining grace and ever-renewing mercy do not run dry.
Situate yourself in the story of God who is faithful and who acts in the lives of His people.
Remember God’s past faithfulness.
Verses 7-8 - Rise up, Lord! Save me, my God! You strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord; may your blessing be on your people. Selah
With all of the previous verses in mind, David entrusts himself completely to the Lord as he cries out for justice, for deliverance, and praises God for His saving power.
God is no finite authority whose fickleness of mood might determine whether or not He responds graciously. James chapter 1 says Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He is not impulsive or moody. He is perfectly consistent with His own character and that character is unendingly gracious to His covenant people.
Come to Him, again and again and again, and
Urgently ask the Lord for help.
The Bible does not contain secret codes or magic formulas. What it does contain is so much better - the divine wisdom and promises of God. Psalm 3 shows us the basics in practice. They’re not a get-out-of-difficulty-quick scheme, they’re not a clever tactic to trick God into doing what you want, they are the foundational steps for engaging in the spiritual battles that you and I face day in and day out.
Cry out to God, praise Him for who He is, remember His past faithfulness, and urgently ask Him for help. Here are your jab, cross, and hook. They won’t win the match but without them you can’t even begin to fight. Here are your serve, forehand, and backhand. These don’t guarantee points but without them you’ll never connect racquet to ball. Here are your hand positions, embouchure (mouth shape), and scales. They don’t make the song but without them you’re just blowing air through a brass tube.
Fight the good fight, friends. The Lord hears, attends to, and cares for His people. How do we know? Jesus came. When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “'Abba', Father! ” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir. Galatians 4:4-7