“And I was gentle today though anointed king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are more severe than I. The Lord repay the evildoer according to his wickedness.”
– 2 Samuel 3:39
There’s a lot going on here in 2 Samuel 3 to lead up to this verse, but I’ll just summarize briefly. The main point in the end here is Joab, one of the sons of Zeruiah. has murdered Abner, and David is shirking his responsibility as the anointed king to exact justice for Abner’s murder. The reason David doesn’t carry out justice is because he’s afraid of the strength of Joab. He’s afraid of the strength of the sons of Zeruiah.
Delivered from Fear by God
God, we pray that you would deliver us from fear of obedience to you.
In this verse, we see the tendency or temptation in our own hearts and lives to not obey God, to not do what we should do according to his word because we are afraid of what others might say about us or do to us, or afraid in any number of other ways. I just want to encourage you, even as I do this in my own heart and life today, to think about anyways that God is calling you to obey him that you are not obeying him because you are afraid of what it might cost you, because you’re afraid of what others might say about you, or what others might do to you. So you or I can so easily justify, in a sense, not acting in obedience to God because we think it would be better for us if we didn’t.
2 Samuel 3:39 Prays for Trust and Obedience in God
So we pray based on 2 Samuel 3:39, God help us to trust you and not ourselves. God, we pray that you would deliver us from fear of obedience to you. God, we pray that you would help us today to do all that you are calling us to do in your word without fear, with love for you, with love for others, to walk humbly with you, do justice, love mercy.
As I think about this story in 2 Samuel 3:39, God we pray that you would help us, and all the more so in positions of leadership like you would just anointed David as king. God, and the leadership you give us in our homes and different positions of leadership you entrust to us, God help us to faithfully follow you to do what you are calling us to do according to your word no matter what that may cost us.
Oh God, we pray for wisdom, and in this prayer for wisdom, God, we pray that you would save us from our own foolishness, from acting out of fear, and from thinking that our ways are better than your ways. God, I pray for my own life and for every single person listening right now that you would help us to follow, obey you fully without fear no matter what that may cost us with a love for you and love for others. In Jesus’ name, we pray according to 2 Samuel 3:39, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
