“By this I know that thou favourest me, because
mine enemy doth not triumph over me.” (Ps 41:11
AV)
Sometimes
we get so focused on the failures we forget that we are winning. Or at the very least, we are not losing. Psalm forty-one is written around the time of
Absalom’s rebellion. David has much of
which to be discouraged. His son rebelled
against him largely because David did not render judgment in the rape of his
daughter Tamar by the hand of Amnon.
There is no indication David refused.
It simply was not handled acceptably by Absalom, Tamar’s brother. Not seeing Amnon disposed of quickly enough,
Absalom does so himself. Some suppose
David was not quick to render judgment because he still suffered the sting of
guilt from having an affair with Bathsheba.
Perhaps he felt his credibility would be questioned. If the reader put all of David’s failures
together from the death of the priests at Nob to Absalom’s rebellion, he might
conclude David is losing the war.
Looking at the purely cumulative nature of David’s faults might lean one
to the opinion David was more of a screw-up than a success. But that is not the case. As long as David stood, no matter how many
hits he took or mistakes he made, that was proof enough that God favored
him. He didn’t need to win every battle
to know the LORD was still by his side.
As
a pitching coach for little league and high school, there was a balance I tried
to establish in the minds of my pitchers.
Sure, you take one pitch at a time.
That is the focus one must maintain.
Otherwise, concentration is lost over obsessing other numbers like pitch
count, strikes and balls, outs, and the score of the game. But those things are important too. We use the phrase, chasing your tail. It means to chase something that can never be
caught to the detriments of making progress.
Our pitchers concentrated on making the perfect pitch. If we called for a four-seam fastball, that
is what he threw. If we called for a
slider or curve, that is what he focused on.
The downside of that laser focus is failure. If he failed to throw the perfect curve, he
might obsess over it, throwing it again and again. He could get caught up in trying to make the
perfect pitch and become discouraged when he cannot make it. At this point, the coach would go to the
mound and remind him he is winning the ballgame. If the curve isn’t working for him, we will
find another successful pitch selection.
If we were not winning the game, we would remind him of his success at
locating his pitches. The trick is to
keep that pitcher’s mind balanced so the failures do not outweigh the successes. If we do not do that, the pitcher will get
down on himself, the team, or the situation and he becomes useless.
We
have to be reminded that if we are walking with God, there will be failures. There will be times when we feel we are not
of any value to the LORD or that He is so greatly disappointed with us there is
no hope. But we must also remember the
truth that if the adversary does not triumph over us, the LORD does indeed favor
us. The Devil will never triumph over
us. Not in light of eternity,
anyway. In the word of God, there are
only two times mentioned when Satan could overcome a saint. There was the fornicator of 1Cor 5. There was also Hymenaeus and Alexander who
taught a heretical doctrine of the resurrection. Peter was rebuked as one influenced by
Satan. Judas Iscariot is said to have
been influenced by Satan. I hope the
reader sees these as extreme exceptions.
The vast majority of those mentioned in the New Testament were never
defeated by the Devil. Thus, the truth
is obvious. David had many successes
equal to, or greater than is failures.
Most importantly, no matter if it was self-inflicted or divinely sent,
the fact he was still standing was proof enough of God’s favor.
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