Matt's Sermon Prep | Psalm 3
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Ok if you have your Bibles, and I hope you do go ahead and grab them and head on over to Psalm 3. 4 & 5 year olds you guys are dismissed to go upstairs.
This is our 4th week of our Summer in the Psalms series. We spent one week looking at Psalm 23 and we spent 2 weeks in Psalm 1-2. In Psalm 1-2, which sets the stage for the entire book, we saw how blessed man lives, but then we flip to Psalm 3 which is a Psalm of lament. What started on such a seemingly positive note has very quickly turned to difficulty & hardship. But as Ross Allen says, “For those of us who know predicaments like David’s—violence, family turmoil, the agony of loving rebellious children, threats to life and livelihood—that is good news. “The way of the righteous” is not a detour around the trials and troubles of life; it is the trust that God is walking with us. God is present in the depths! And even there, precisely there, God makes life possible.”
This is why I have grown to love the Psalms so much—especially the Psalms of lament. In fact, I was tempted to do a whole series on Psalms of lament. They teach us how to navigate the hard seasons and the hard lives. It gives us words to say, thoughts to think, and actions to take whenever the waves are crashing in all around us. And what Psalm 3 is going to teach us specifically today is this:
Main Point: Trust in the Lord to sustain & save you.
Main Point: Trust in the Lord to sustain & save you.
If you look at the heading to this Psalm you’ll see that David wrote this Psalm when he fled from Absalom his son. I would encourage you to go back and read the tragic story of David & Absalom sometime this week.
Absalom was one of David’s sons. He had a beautiful sister named Tamar who was raped by her half brother Amnon. Absalom waited to do something about it and eventually had his brother killed. Absalom then fled and hid. David was angry that one of his sons killed another son, but after some time he invited Absalom back to Jerusalem, although he didn’t want to see him. After a few years, Absalom saw an opportunity and sought to stage a coup against his own father. He slowly stole the hearts of Israel from his father. At just the right moment, Absalom had some of the leaders announce him as king.
David’s family life was a trainwreck. Incest. Rape. Murder. And now a coup. David’s life was at risk. Absalom would’ve been seeking to have David and the rest of his children now killed so that there were no other threats to the throne. So David fled. As he fled the people began to look at him and cry out, “God has left you.” “You’re finally getting what you deserve.”
So what does David do in this moment? Well, Psalm 3. Let’s read through this. I’ll pray and then we’ll dive into it.
A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.
O Lord, how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me;
many are saying of my soul,
“There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah
But you, O Lord, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
I cried aloud to the Lord,
and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah
I lay down and slept;
I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around.
Arise, O Lord!
Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
Salvation belongs to the Lord;
your blessing be on your people! Selah
This is God’s Word for God’s people. And we respond: Thanks be to God. Let pray.
Faith does not deny reality.
Faith does not deny reality.
What is David’s situation?
“Many” x 3 - The seemingly insurmountable brokenness of the situation
The real crux - “There is no salvation for him in God.”
Is David finally getting what he deserved?
Has God left David as he did King Saul?
What is our situation?
Macro—the world saying salvation isn’t in God
On a minute level other worldviews/religions
The foes of the psalmist voice what could well be the credo of our secular society: “There is no help for you in God.” Or, more commonly put, “God helps those who help themselves.” When it gets right down to it, most of us, even most of us within the church, believe that “it is all up to us.”10 110 William H. Willimon and Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989), p. 36.1 Clinton J. McCann Jr., A Theological Introduction to the Book of Psalms: The Psalms as Torah (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2011), 89.
Contextually, where we will find the purpose of life...work, kids, finances, rest
Personal
Parents/kids, Students/friends, Older/physical, addictions/besetting sins
Where have you begun to wonder if maybe they are right? Where are you beginning to think that maybe God won’t save you or maybe, in a sense, God is no longer on your side? Where are you beginning to think that it’s all on you?
Laments help teach us that it’s not on you.
What does David do with his situation?
David names the challenge, but who does he name it to?
“O Lord”
Covenantal name of God who exists in self-giving relationship
We can move forward confidently.
We can move forward confidently.
“But you, O Lord” signals a change from lament to confidence.
He found confidence in the fact that God’s character and care for him contrasted sharply with their challenge.11 Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms 1–89: Commentary, vol. 1, Kregel Exegetical Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic, 2011–2013), 222.
What is the Lord to David?
A shield about me
Shields are used in battle to keep one safe—he keeps us safe in the midst of the battle, but our tendency is to trust other things as our shield.
At least I’ve got _____.
What we hide behind in our insecurities. What we do to avoid conflict. Grab ahold of to ignore reality.
David doesn’t say, “I must protect my image.” “I must resume my God-given position.”
What does it mean for the Lord to be a shield about me?
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
My glory
Hebrew = kavod (weight)
The voice that carried the most weight in David’s life wasn’t the thousands, it wasn’t the internal dialogue of worth, identity, perspective, it was the Lord.
When you’re in the midst of trials what carries the most weight in your life? Where are you finding glory?
It’s what we trust in. It’s what carries weight in our life. It’s what we determine our value, our direction, our purpose, our identity by. That’s your glory. It what tells us that we matter.
Illustration?
The lifter of my head.
Ps. 27:5-6 tells of a God who hides, conceals, and lifts up on a rock above enemies.
For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will lift me high upon a rock.
And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
If the Lord is our glory, the one whose opinion we value the most, then what he says will be what pulls our head out of drooping. It is what will direct our thoughts. Even when the enemy is jeering at us. Even when everyone around me is saying something different. Even when my own heart doesn’t feel it and wants to believe the shouts of everyone around us the Lord is who we look to and listen to.
What do we run to to lift our head?
Alcohol? Kids? Work? Isolation? Doom scrolling? Workout? Food?
The hearer of our prayers.
David’s circumstances didn’t cause him to wallow in sorrow. He acknowledged it. He recognized how significant things were and they drove him to prayer.
He prayed aloud. His brokenness, his being stuck, his remember who the Lord is or who he believes the Lord to be or who he wants the Lord to be led him to cry out loud in prayer.
Ps. 77:1 tells us that when we cry aloud to God he hears us.
I cry aloud to God,
aloud to God, and he will hear me.
He answered….
David’s confidence in the Lord was so high that he considered his prayer as good as done.
Ps. 34:4
I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
from his holy hill…
If this is the king who responds on the holy hill that means that the king in Ps. 2 was never David. He wasn’t the chosen one, but there would be one who would rule all nations. One who would be the Lord’s begotten Son. One who would be the Lord.
IF he is a covenant keeping God who hears and who answers and who protects and who carries the most weight in my life then in the midst of my sorrow and in the midst of what is a truly horrific situation what does that mean for me?
I lay down & slept. Ps. 4:8
In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Not because of his military prowess, not because his wisdom, not because of his reputation, not because his kids would be who they’re supposed to be, not because the conflict was solved, but because of the Lord.
I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
I didn’t wake up this morning because I had the right room temp or mattress firmness or diet, or exercise program or job or purpose...I woke up because the Lord sustained me. My head hit the pillow and he lifted it back up.
If I can sleep, then what have I to fear?
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
I will either fear people or fear the Lord. 1 Jn. 4:18
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
Gospel…he has shown us his perfect love on the cross.
Because of who God is, because of what God has done, we can move forward confidently.
We can trust God to be just.
We can trust God to be just.
Not a rally cry based on hype and self preservation
Poetic justice that counteracts the claims of v1 and is rooted in a right understanding of who God is and what God does. When God arises rebellion will fall
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
Not petty revenge. Justice due to rejecting God’s anointed king.
Justice rooted in love.
Problem with David as a father wanting forgiveness & restoration to his son Absalom. Justice sees Absalom utterly destroyed.
Cross offers a better word where love and justice meet.
allows us to see justice executed.
allows us to love those who have wronged us.
We can rest & rejoice in God’s salvation.
We can rest & rejoice in God’s salvation.
Laments end in praise.
Salvation doesn’t come from self-protection, personal effort, or piety. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
What are you trusting to save you in the midst of your troubles?
Salvation doesn’t just affect David…it brings blessing on God’s people.
When the Lord saves us it has a communal impact…at least it should. The community should know blessing and be able to rejoice in the faithfulness of God.
What if “salvation” doesn’t happen on this side of eternity?
The cross tells us that it will happen and then Rev. 7:9-12
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
