Salvation Belongs to God (Psalm 3)

Psalm 3 Salvation Belongs to God

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Land O’ Lakes Bible Church

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 1:4–9 (ESV)

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Introduction

A popular phrase that I heard growing up is, “Life is tough, get a helmet.” As I was having a conversation about this phrase with someone this week, the origin of this saying was debated, wondering if it was simply from a 90’s tv show. But regardless of the origin of this saying, this is how we often live life in this world. Life is tough, get a helmet, get up and pull yourself up by your boot straps, deal with it. All of these attempts to try and consider how to live in the midst of life’s toughness, of its difficulties and challenges. Or even worse crumble under the difficulties.

Even as some, hopefully the majority in this room believe in God, we are quick to forget that in the midst of these difficulties of life that our God is the Sovereign Ruler. That he is in control. That he is the one who is preserving and governing all things in his holiness, wisdom, and power. And because we forget this, we fail and are quickly overcome by the difficulties of life for we fail to turn and trust God, let alone to turn and praise him. It is only when we behold our God for who he is that we rightly turn to trust him and praise him, even in the midst of life’s difficulties and challenges. And that is what our Psalm begins to teach us this morning. It teaches us life is tough, but we don’t need a helmet, we need to behold our God!

Therefore, I invite you to take out your copy of the Bible, God’s given word, and turn with me to Psalm 3. The Book of Psalms is roughly in the middle of your Bible. And if you do not have a copy, you are going to want to take that Red Bible in front of you and open it to page #528 where you will find the start of Psalm 3.

While you are turning there, let me give us a running start to make sure we are all up to speed. Over the last two weeks, we have seen the path of true blessedness and human flourishing comes from delighting in God and his law and meditating, pondering on it and looking to his Anointed King who has been seated on the holy hill and who will have ultimate victory, conquering any who fail to give him the allegiance he deserves, yet gives refuge to all who come to him.

Psalm 1 and 2 give us hope in the midst of a raging and plotting people, that the victory belongs to the LORD. However, though the Psalms here start with laying out what should be the clear path to blessedness, though it ends in Psalms 146-150 with 5 Psalms starting with Praise the LORD, calling our attention that we are to ultimately be lead to praising our LORD in the Psalms, in between is a wrestling of the heart in the midst of the struggles to remember God’s anointed reigns and to keep praising our God.

The book of Psalms in its poetic and musical nature is to lead us to trust God and sing praise to him despite our struggles, sorrows, sufferings, afflictions, conflict, and more. The Psalm 3 through Psalm 145 are pointing us though the Anointed King of Psalm 2 is on the holy hill, his rule is not yet fully come. That we are to take the path of the blessed one by delighting in God’s law and meditating on it in between, but in doing so we will struggle to praise our God for we still live in a Psalm 1 world where the wicked, the sinners, the scoffers surround us. We also are to remember that we still live in a Psalm 2 world in which the nations are still raging, the peoples still plotting against the LORD and his Anointed King. And therefore any with them will still be opposed.

Therefore, in the midst of living in this already and not yet part of God’s Anointed King being established on the throne, we must trust God and his promises. We must trust that the Anointed King of Psalm 2 will conquer and be victorious, and therefore we should continue to praise our God along the way. May Psalm 3 this morning show us how to fix our eyes on our God and behold the one in whom salvation belongs. Let us then now hear the word of the LORD from Psalm 3.

Main Idea: Salvation belongs to God; therefore, we need not fear as opposition comes. Instead, let us rest in him who is our shield and our sustainer. We are going to unfold this in 4 points: (1) Our Opposition (V.1-2), (2) Our Shield (V.3-4), (3) Our Sustainer (V.5-6), and (4) Our Salvation (V.7-8).

Point #1: Our Opposition

I’m willing to bet many of us in this room have felt as if the world is completely against us at some point so far in our lives. That so many things are stacking up against us. That feeling as if nothing can go our way, as so many things are going wrong that we will never have relief again.For once bad luck begins, there is even the old superstition that bad luck, sorrow, affliction, suffering, even death comes in threes. There is a reason that Charles Spurgeon, that great Prince of Preachers writes on Psalm 3, reminding us:

Troubles always come in flocks. Sorrow hath a numerous family. [1]

It is in the midst of such stacking of troubles that we find David here in Psalm 3. David’s own Son, Absalom has began to pursue after his Father in order to destroy him. We see this setting in what is known the superscript of Psalm 3, which says: A Psalm of David, When He fled from Absalom His Son. These superscripts are given in some of the Psalms to help us understand the immediate context the Psalm was written to aide us to both understand it and appreciate it. These superscripts are part of the Psalm in itself and should be read and understood as part of the Scriptures. These stand apart from the headings added to the Bible, such as the heading above Psalm 3. If you are using an ESV like me, you see the heading, Save me, O My God. Another translation has the heading, Confidence in Troubled Times. While these headings are helpful, they are not scripture and not to be seen as authoritative.

But back to what is of this superscript regarding David fleeing from his son, Absalom. Absalom is David’s third son, and he rebels against David in turning the hearts of many in Israel against David. The fullness of this account can be found in 2 Samuel 13-19 from beginning to its conclusion with how David responds as this conflict is drawn to a close. I would encourage you to write it down to read this afternoon. 2 Samuel 13-19. But the summary of this account is as follows:

Absalom had a beautiful sister, Tamar who Amnon loved and asked David to send to him while he pretended to be sick.

Amnon was David’s first born son, the half-brother of Absalom and Tamar.

Tamar was sent by David her father to care for Amnon in his sickness, at Amnon’s request.

While Tamar was caring for her brother, Amnon, unaware of his plot, Amnon takes Tamar and forces himself upon her. Tamar tried to resist, but couldn’t. Amnon violated her. And then was tossed out in an act worse than the violation.

This was found out by Absalom and infuriated him, he cared for his sister Tamar and sought revenge.

David in hearing of this was very angry.

After 2 years, Absalom set a plot and had his brother Amnon killed as determined the day Amnon violated Tamar.

Absalom now flees and is eventually brought home as David is convicted of his own sin in the matter. Yet, while Absalom returns, he conspires a plot against his Father, David. He conspired how to turn the hearts of Israel against David, and to take the throne for himself.

Absalom’s conspiracy grew, so did those with him. They were many. This forced David and the few with him now to flee, to flee from the throne, to flee from Jerusalem, to flee as a sojourner, a refugee from his own kingdom.

Along the way, others began to mock David, calling him a man of blood, a worthless man whom the LORD has taken vengeance against.

And so it is here in this context that Psalm 3 comes, with David fleeing from his own Son and seeking refuge. And as he does, he cries out in complaint to the LORD, to יְ֭הוָה, at those rising against him. Verses 1-2.

Truly the many foes, the many rising against, the many saying there is no salvation for him in God is terribly hard, especially for the sake of David’s soul. Hearing the enemy cry out against you, telling you that your circumstances are a result of having no salvation in God. In the midst of despair, one is tempted to believe such a lie, such doubt. Even in the beauty of the Psalm, the word Selah is added to the end of this verse. (LONG PAUSE).

Selah is one of those words there is often much confusion on. There is debate if this is an artistic style or a musical note. Regardless of what exactly it is, Selah is being used to note an interruption, a change in the regular rendering of the reading. It is to cause us to pause and consider the weight of what has just been said before continuing to read.

Now, in case you are using a translation that does not have Selah, you might be a bit lost. If you will look carefully you will likely see a footnote where you see this noted in it. Because of some of the uncertainty about how to translate Selah, some translations decide to leave it out except for a footnote. But let me encourage you, to read that footnote when reading the Psalms, it will cause you to dwell more on these verses and be in awe of the turmoil and joy being communicated in the Psalm.

Therefore here is Psalm 3:1-2, we are to be drawn in to pausing as we consider this accusation against David that there is no salvation for him in God. (LONG PAUSE). Yet we must remember that David is not the only one to face such accusation. The true and better David, Jesus faced the same accusation in greater opposition on the cross. For while Jesus was nailed to the cross as one without guilt, yet pierced for our transgressions, he too was mocked and assaulted with such claims.

Matthew 27:42 ESV

42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.

To say that Jesus did not feel at least for a moment the weight of the pressure against him would be to miss his quoting of Psalm 22:1 “1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” And yet, though Jesus certainly felt for a brief moment being forsaken, he felt it not as one without hope, but with hope. For while he knew the situation and quotes it of Psalm 22:1, Jesus also knew the middle of Psalm 22. Psalm 22:19–21 “19 But you, O Lord, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid! 20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog! 21 Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!” And Jesus knew the end of Psalm 22. Psalm 22:30–31 “30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; 31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.”

The assault came on David and on Jesus declaring there was no salvation. And friends, we should expect no differently as we live in the already and not yet of salvation. For though the King is on the throne, his rule is not yet complete. The nations and the peoples are still raging against the LORD and his Anointed. They are raging and plotting even against his servants. And when they press in, they too will seek to rise against us, but they too will also cry out that there is no salvation for us in God. They will either call our faith foolish or they will seek to declare that there is no salvation for us in God because we are too bad. That it is impossible for us to be saved with all the evil we have done. Former friends will hurl these at us, for some, even family members. And in the midst of our struggles to fight for faith, that great slithering serpent will begin whispering the same. He will whisper there is no salvation for you in God, I own you, you are mine.

How right would be the serpent be if Psalm 3:2 were the end. If it were left to ourselves. If we were left to our own defense. Yet, when we trust in God’s Anointed King on God’s holy hill, we can have great confidence that Psalm 3:2 is not the end. For like David, we can cry out יְ֭הוָה. We can know he will hear and answer. We have hope, because our King who it was said, he cannot save himself, died not because others took his life, but because he laid it down in order to defeat sin and death. A victory that is made visible in Jesus’ resurrection.

Point #2: Our Shield

As we are surrounded by the wicked, as they scoff, as they rage, we need not fret, we need not enter despair, we need not take up our arms, we need to behold our God who is a shield about us. Verse 3.

The LORD is our shield, a shield that protects us. But he is not just any shield. Gentlemen of all ages in the room, think about the toy swords and shields we have played with, even if for some of us it has been longer than others. The shields were nothing but a small shield to lift to block a sword or a dart with a small surface area of protection. Maybe if we had the really good shield, it covered from head to toe, yet the side and backside were still exposed. In saying the LORD is a shield about me, David is beholding his God and seeing that he is protected whole and completely all around him. David recognizes that the LORD truly is a refuge to all who come to him. He is a shield which surrounds him.

But as David beholds his God, he sees not only a shield, but that the LORD is his glory too. It is being acknowledged then here that David’s glory is not tied to his throne, to him being king. His glory is tied to God himself and his calling on his life. And this glory being still in the midst of fleeing from Absalom. But if this is true of David, how much more is it true for us in Christ?

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Our glory lies in the LORD.

But that’s not all, the LORD is a shield, he is our glory, he is the lifter of our heads. The imagery here is painting the picture that even though Absalom is still pursuing David, that the LORD will not allow David to be trampled in shame by Absalom’s foot. David trusted the LORD to lift his head up in exaltation. This was not rooted in speculation or unrooted hope. This was rooted in God’s promise to David to have a son who would sit on the throne forever. David trusted the LORD because of his word. And so, David trusted the LORD here and sought him out in the midst of his affliction. Verse 4.

David cried out to the LORD and knew he would answer. For he again trusted the LORD’s promise to ask and the nations would be given over. David prayed because he believed God’s word. Friends, that same promise is given to us, we can cry out to the LORD in prayer and trust that the LORD will hear and answer us from his holy hill. (Pause). For when we are in Christ, we have Christ interceding for us, and he will ensure we are heard and answered for he is our shield.

Point #3: Our Sustainer

Verses 5-6. Nothing has changed in David’s situation. The many foes are still in pursuit of him. The many are rising against him. The many are still saying that there is no salvation for him in God. And yet, David in the midst of crying out to the LORD finds sleep. He sleeps, but not only sleeps he comes he awakens from the sleep because the LORD sustained him. He no longer is afraid of the many.

In the midst of trials and suffering, sleep is something that can easily evade us. It can keep us up and tossing and turning. It is one thing to have a night like that every now and then. But friends, if sleep is persistently evading us, how greatly do we need to learn the lesson here of Psalm 3:5, to grasp that by our fretting and worrying we can overcome nothing. We need to pray instead in moments where sleep seems elusive. To cry out to the LORD and hand our troubles over to him, knowing that even while we sleep, he does not. That he will sustain us, even if we shall not wake.

For here there is something greater and deeper being pointed to. Often in the pages of the Bible, sleep does not refer to just rest, but to die. Sleep is used with the hope of resurrection. Friends, even if in our afflictions, our suffering, our sorrows a long sleep should come, we who have trusted in Christ have hope. We have hope that we shall be sustained and raised when our King returns and cries out with a loud voice to those who have fallen asleep. We have this hope to cling to, that even when we lay down and sleep, that we are being sustained by the LORD, and in it we should not fear. We who are in Christ shall be sustained and rise again at the sound of our King’s voice as he calls us to a resurrection like his.

Our God also sustains us through his gift of the churc, the gift of one another.

Point #4: Our Salvation

Verse 7. And so as Psalm 3 progresses, David moves from complaint about his oppressors, to trust, to a deeper trust, to now calling out on the LORD to act accordingly. He cries out recognizing that it is the LORD who will save him. David here seeks not vengeance of his own, he entrusts the LORD to act for his own name’s sake, for his own glory as the God who saves.

And what a salvation that David seeks. It is not a salvation of God’s king simply being restored to the throne, but a crushing and silencing of his enemies. For the very ones raging, plotting, scoffing, David prays for their cheeks to be struck and their teeth to be broken. This painting the imagery of those who spoke so freely and carelessly will now be brought to silence. For how are they to speak in such a way without their teeth? The truth of this being made clear as we see the shift from verse 2 where it is said of David, there is no salvation for him in God. To verse 8.

Salvation does not belong to man, it is not man’s work. Salvation belongs to the LORD from beginning to end. The author of salvation is the Triune God. For it is the LORD who initiates salvation, carries out the plan of salvation, and applies salvation. To Quote Spurgeon:

…we hold and teach that salvation from first to last, in every iota of it, belongs to the Most High God. It is God that chooses his people. He calls them by his grace; he quickens them by his Spirit, and keeps them by his power. It is not of man, neither by man; “not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” May we all learn this truth experimentally, for our proud flesh and blood will never permit us to learn it in any other way. [2]

And because of such, this salvation cannot be spoiled as the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain. A salvation that belongs to God is much more secure for the likes of such forgetful and stubborn people like us. And so, we can rest assured when in the last phrase it is added, your blessing be on your people! Selah (long pause).

The blessing of salvation comes and is poured out on all who come to Jesus and are washed by the blood of the lamb. Blessing on all who find refuge in the shed blood of Jesus.

Oh friends, let us rest in such a salvation. And friend, if you are one here this day who has not yet come to see your need in Jesus. I pray that the word of God we have just unfolded and the Spirit would quicken your heart and awaken you to such a great salvation that comes through faith in this Jesus! I pray that you will be lead to come and us talk after about this salvation with me or a friend or neighbor nearby.

Let’s pray…

Endnotes

[1] C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Psalms 1-26, vol. 1 (London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers, n.d.), 22.

[2] C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David: Psalms 1-26, vol. 1 (London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers, n.d.), 24.