¹O God, You have rejected us. You have broken us; You have been angry; O, restore us. … ¹²Through God we shall do valiantly, and it is He who will tread down our adversaries.

God’s promises of victory did not always come easily for David. The inscription details lead us to the historical records of 2 Samuel 8:1-4 and 1 Chronicles 18:1-13, neither of which show only the good stories of success. But this psalm says there is another story. Of course, any historical record is selective in what it includes; God was selectively showing the overall progress of His plan being fulfilled. But here, David invites us onto the ground level of events as things are happening, particularly one of the setbacks that threw him onto the Lord. In this, we see how a godly man deals with failure and how we, too, can face our defeats in a godly way.

There are times when we have laid out our plans, sought godly counsel, become confident in God’s will and moved ahead in faith—only to have everything backfire in our faces. We look for blame: who sinned, where is the weak link, who messed up? David pins the responsibility for the defeat on God; He has held back His help.

One commentator puts it this way, “David … storms the gates of heaven with his importunate plea for help.” I would hesitate to assign an inferior spirituality to his response, but I see David as passionate and loyal to God. When things go bad, he is not a quitter, a whiner or a rejector of God. He does not trust God in fair weather only. Nor does he put on a façade of trusting God with a pseudo-spiritual smile. He boldly goes to God because he knows God. He knows the Lord wants him to be truthful in his innermost being, so he knows God can handle his passion (see Psalm 51:6). We ought not to psychoanalyze this man of God, but take him at his word, just as God does (indeed God saw to it that this prayer of his was included in inspired Scripture).

Notice that David is writing communally, referring to “us” and “your people” throughout. He is leading the people by his authentic example and reflecting that his feelings are not his alone. He is not taking the fall for Israel’s defeat, but neither is absolving himself. It was the failure of the whole army and, thus, all of Israel. In the OT, God sees not only individuals but the nation of Israel as one people. This is one of those communal laments, and David leads the way.

He begins by interpreting the battle loss, attributing it not to a poor battle plan, faulty military strategy or fate, but to God rejecting them. If God could do miraculous things to give them victory at other times, then it is God’s doing if He withheld miraculous things that resulted in their defeat. The question is, why did God abandon them when they needed His help? David says tersely, “You have rejected us. You have broken us; You have been angry … You have made Your people experience hardship.” The picture of verses 1-3 presents a bleak assessment, and it makes no sense to David, who understood well God’s promises. He attributes not only victory to God but also their defeat. Yet, it vexes him nonetheless.

 David’s appeal is similar to Job’s, who complained that he had done nothing wrong, no moral shortcoming or disobedience that could account for his troubles. David likewise wrestles with God but never asks about human responsibility for what happened. In fact, he defends his army as marching under God’s banner (vs. 4), that is, in the name of Yahweh (although he never uses the personal name of God in this psalm). He reminds God that he and the people are “Your Beloved,” and because of this, God should rescue them. (vs. 5). If that were not enough, David, in verses 6-8, lays out the promises of God that propelled him and all of Israel into engaging the battle with their enemies in the first place.

If God does not give David victory, then who could do it (vs. 9-10)? That echoes the concern of Moses when Israel had sinned, and God threatened to no longer go with them in the Exodus. There is no alternative for the people of God; either God goes with us, or we go it alone without him. No human engineering or plans of our hearts can accomplish the will of God. David chooses the way of the Lord. He is not interested in knowing why; he just wants help.

The broad literary genre of this psalm is lament, but as with all of David’s writings, there is hope in the God to whom he appeals. While we see the record of his ultimate victory in other places in Scripture, this psalm reflects many truths that will help us respond in a godly way to the turnarounds in our own lives. First, God is in complete control, regardless of human reasoning. Faith leads us to always begin with God as we wrestle with failure. Second, God can handle our passion and the confusion we feel from knowing His promises but experiencing events that look contrary to what He promised. Third, no matter how little we understand about what God is doing, we need to hold onto our hope that with His help (and only with His help), “we shall do valiantly.” This is the response of a godly person.

Lord, when failure comes my way, I embrace the hope that You are still in control and will enable me to have victory.