JULY 2025 - DEVOTION
LOW POINTS
“How are they increased that trouble me” Psalm 3:1
SOMETHING WE ALL UNDERSTAND
I don’t think I would find much argument with the following statement: sometimes life is tough. While day-to-day struggles can be exhausting, life also contains low points that go beyond the everyday. These are challenging times when circumstances prove exceedingly difficult to cope with. Low points are characterized by feeling overwhelmed by events, overcome by fears and overburdened by troubles. Relationship troubles, financial turmoil, loss, or a variety of other woes can bring about a low period. And it is a place we have all been.
DAVID’S LOW POINTS
David knew a lot about challenging times. We could easily identify several.
- The shock of King Saul turning on him due to jealousy and seeking to kill him.
- His years of living like a fugitive to avoid Saul.
- The rebuke he received through Nathan the prophet and the subsequent loss of his infant son due to his sin against God.
- The rape of his daughter Tamar by her half-brother Ammon.
- His son Absalom killing Ammon in revenge for that rape.
Others could easily be classified as a low point.
DAVID’S LOWEST POINT
Another low point awaited David when his son Absalom engineered and executed a plot to seize the throne, forcing King David, Absalom’s father, to flee Jerusalem for his life. Absalom's shameful act was all the more heartbreaking because of David's intense love for his handsome son. And later, when news reached David of Absalom's death in battle, David almost succumbed to the grief.
PSALM 3
David wrote about this low point in his life in Psalm 3. He remembered:
- It as a time when his troublers, and those who rose against him, had increased in number.
- The taunts from his enemies who said, "There is no help for him in God".
But from the other side of this low point, he also recalled:
- God had been his shield, his glory, and the lifter of his head.
- God had heard his cry from this low place.
- “Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people". His fears were unwarranted.
You may be at a low point. Ponder the lessons David learned. God will arise and lift you as well.
