Psalm 3:1a "A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son" 

Have you ever heard a song and thought to yourself, " I wonder what inspired the writer to write that? I wonder what was going on in his/her life that caused them to put pen to paper and produce such a sad, happy, or irreverent song."

Most of the Psalms in the Bible we can only guess at the inspiration, however that is not the case with  Psalm 3. We are told in the very first verst that David wrote this Psalm on the occasion of his son Absalom taking over his kingdom. 

Maybe one day we'll talk in more tdetail about what lead Absalom to do what he did, however for our propose today we'll only mention the fact that Absalom was David's son, and that he had good reason for being mad at his father. 

I would like to point out in passing that just because you have good reason for being mad at someone, that doesn't necessarily justify all of your actions towards them. Which leads us into verse 1.

David's predicament

We can categorize predicament under two headings: 1. his nemies are increasin, 2. His friends are decreasing

His enemies are increasing

Psalm 3:1b "Lord, how many are they increased that trouble. Many are they that rise up against me"

Here we see David lamenting the fact that the people that would call themselves his enemies are increasing daily. Again, I will point out that David is not without fault in this situation, however the point of the song is not that we have to be faultless to pray to God, we only have to be in need.

His friends are decreasing

We know from reading 2nd Sam 15:12 that not only did David's son turn his back on him, so did his trusted counsellor Ahithophel.

Psalm 3:1c "Many there be that say of my soul, 'There is no help for him in God"

I'm sure this probably hurt the most, people that you thought were your closested friends telling you that God is through with you. It's easy to glance at someone's life and declare to the world that there is no hope for this person; that God has turned His backon them. It's here that we need to remember that God is not like us! We're the ones that throw the baby out with the bath water over slightest mistake in their life, not God. Charles Spurgeon said this "He who counts the stars and call them by their names is in no danger of forgettting His own children"

David's response to his situation

Psalm 3:2-4 "But thou, O Lord, art my shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. Icried unto the Lord with my voice,and He heard me out of His holy hill"

When we offend someone one ofthe things we do is to avoid them, sadly, we do the same with God. What made David a man after God's heart is instead of running from God when he messed things up, he ran to Him.

"Many blush to confuss their faults, who never blush to commit them