Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

2 Samuel chapter 3, verse 39.

And I was gentle today, though anointed king,

these men, the sons of Zuriah, are more severe than I.

The Lord repay the evil doer according to his wickedness.

There's a lot going on here in 2nd Samuel chapter 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 Zyriah, has Abner and David is shirking his responsibility as the

anointed king to exact justice for Abner's murder and 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 Suriuraya.

And 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 in life today, to think about

any ways 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 and 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. So we pray based on Second

Samuel chapter 3, God help us to trust you and not ourselves. God, we pray that you would

deliver us from fear of obedience to you.

...