Christian, where is your Confidence?

Introduction

In October of 2007 the Dow Jones was at an all-time high of 17,370. The economy was doing great! For many people there was a feeling of confidence in the future because things were trending upwards. Jobs were being added. Life expectancy levels were on the rise. Things were looking good. And then the unexpected happened… The stock market crashed. The housing bubble burst open. Within 15 months the stock market would nearly be cut in half as the great recession was in full swing. For many people who had placed their confidence in the stock market, they had lost significant portions of their retirement funds. Others experienced lost income or even the loss of a job as unemployment rose across the country. All in all, the global GDP dropped over 5% during this time frame.

For many people, their confidence was shaken in this time and understandably so. We’ve all had our confidence broken by people and this is never a fun situation as it hurts.

The awesome truth found in Scripture is that our God promises to be with us, even in difficult situations. Whenever everyone else abandons us, we have the assurance that Jesus Christ will never leave or forsake us. Therefore we can have confidence in God even when things don’t look particularly good around us.

As we continue our study in the book of Psalms this evening, we will be in Psalm 3 as we see David cry out to God in the midst of a difficult situation and we see his confidence in the Lord to provide and sustain him. Do you believe that in your time of need, the Lord will not only hear you but that He will save you? That is the hope presented to us throughout Scripture and we see that specifically in our text tonight.

Psalm 3 CSB

A psalm of David when he fled from his son Absalom. 1 Lord, how my foes increase! There are many who attack me. 2 Many say about me, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah 3 But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head. 4 I cry aloud to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. Selah 5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again because the Lord sustains me. 6 I will not be afraid of thousands of people who have taken their stand against me on every side. 7 Rise up, Lord! Save me, my God! You strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. 8 Salvation belongs to the Lord; may your blessing be on your people. Selah

The Problem (1-2)

It doesn’t matter who you are or how popular you are, you will always have foes. There is an expression in sports that everyone roots for you until you become the best and then there’s a target on your back. Everyone wants to beat the best and regardless of how good you are or how nice you are, you will have people who don’t like you and who want to beat you. This is normal for us as humans and we see in our text that David has an increasing number of enemies who are attacking him.

As Christians, we will naturally have people who oppose us. Jesus said as much

John 15:18 CSB

18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.

People will hate us, not necessarily for what we do but for what we believe in. Have you noticed that people don’t hate the ministry within the church more often than not? They don’t hate the donations, charity help, food drives, back to school supply fundraisers, or pregnancy care center assistance. Those are helpful things and people generally don’t mind those. What do they hate? They hate the Gospel. They hate the message that they are a sinner and that they need a Savior. They cannot stand that message and whenever we preach the Gospel, just like what happened with Paul in Acts 17 when he preached the Gospel and got kicked out of Thessalonica, we will encounter resistance and make enemies whenever we do this. What should our response be? We continue to preach the Gospel, even if this presents some problems!

What do these people say to David? They say that there is no help for him in God. What is one of the biggest lies that the enemy tries to sell us? He likes to tell us that the problem that we are facing is too grand for ourselves. That God has abandoned us. We’re familiar with the story of Elijah and the prophets of Ba’al on Mount Carmel where Elijah pokes them around a bit and says that perhaps Ba’al is asleep and that they need to be a little louder with their celebration so that they can wake him up. This can be the thing that people say to us. This can be what the enemy whispers to us in our time of difficulty - God can’t help you. He has left you. Look at the problem before you - not even God can help you now.

What do we do in such situations? Rather than look at the problem, we look at the power of God.

God’s Power (3-4)

We talk about the “omni’s” sometimes regarding God. We know that He is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. He is all knowing, all present, and all powerful. Whenever we face serious problems, we can be overwhelmed because we are weak by ourselves, but we see in Scripture that we are not alone. Consider what Moses writes in Deuteronomy 1

Deuteronomy 1:28–30 CSB

28 Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart, saying: The people are larger and taller than we are; the cities are large, fortified to the heavens. We also saw the descendants of the Anakim there.’ 29 “So I said to you: Don’t be terrified or afraid of them! 30 The Lord your God who goes before you will fight for you, just as you saw him do for you in Egypt.

The Lord will fight for you. In our text we see that David notes that the Lord is a shield and He answers us whenever we call out to Him.

Isn’t that one of the grandest mysteries in the universe? The Creator God not only created us but He loves us so much that He listens to us whenever we call out to Him. Have you ever had two different people talk to you at once? This can make things a bit confusing at times because it’s hard to carry on two different conversations at the same time - if not impossible. Yet, God does this all the time and doesn’t miss a beat. He listens to millions of His children constantly. David not only notes that He listens and answers us, but He also protects us as the Lord lifted up his head.

There is a sermon illustration that has been used by man a preacher regarding looking at your God rather than your problem and it’s a good illustration because in the moment we all are left with a choice. On the one hand we can look at the opponent or we can look at our Creator. Think about waking up to a foggy day outside. There are times where the fog presents some problems for us. With all the deer that live around here, a foggy morning can increase the likelihood for hitting one. A foggy morning can increase the chances of a car accident or any number of other problems, but does the fog last for long stretches of time? Normally not. The sun pierces through the clouds and the fog dissipates. Just as light pierces through the darkness, God’s power is infinitely more intense and grand than the power of darkness and the power of this world. We look to His power and understand that God is always in control.

Our Provision (5-6)

Because God is all-powerful and in control, we can rest with confidence in His plan. This doesn’t mean that things always go our way or that we don’t encounter difficulties - instead it means that we understand that God’s plan for our lives is infinitely greater than our own. We know that He sustains and provides for us every step of the way as well.

Think back throughout your life and consider all the things that God has done to provide for you as only He could. In our text we see that David is surrounded by enemies, he is in a stressful situation where people want to kill him and what does God do? God calms his head and allows him to sleep and he wakes up again because He has been sustained by the Lord. Every day that we wake up, shouldn’t we say “thank you” to the Lord for giving us another day that we don’t deserve? He has provided every step of the way and much like the fiery furnace in Daniel 3, we believe that God will continue to provide for us as He has done in the past faithfully and even if things don’t go the way we’d like, we don’t fear because know who we belong to!

David doesn’t fear his enemies and he says that he will not even fear if there are thousands of people against him on every side. Why does he say this? From a military standpoint, this would be a catastrophic error in judgment. In ancient times, to be outflanked on all sides by a massive army usually resulted in complete annihilation. Yet, David says that he will not be afraid. Why? Because of the power of His God. Because of His confidence in His God. The God who destroyed 100,000 Assyrian warriors. The God who rained down plagues on Egypt and caused the waters of the Red Sea to part. The God who caused the walls of Jericho to come tumbling down. Why fear? God will provide and He has the goods to get it done.

Praying for Victory (7-8)

Whenever we think of warfare or combat or any activity, we minimize God’s involvement and prioritize our involvement and ability. Sure, we pray for our soldiers and they need that prayer, but we often don’t think of a battle as being between God and another lower g god. Yet, things were different for the Jews and in the ancient world in general. They genuinely believed that the only way that they would be successful in a battle was if God fought the battle for them. This is made evident whenever we consider how the Israelites fought in the promised land. The symbol of God’s presence for the Israelites was the ark of the covenant and there were times whenever the ark would be taken into battle to symbolize God’s presence with them. In later times the ark was in Jerusalem but the people still prayed that God would go with them because they realized that without divine assistance, they would be defeated. Yet, with God’s presence they would experience victory.

David prays that God would strike his enemies on the cheek and break the teeth of the wicked. He is praying for them to be defeated and for God to bring about this victory to himself. Sometimes this is our prayer as well - we see wicked actions going on before us and we pray that those who are doing evil would be punished and that we would be saved rather than crushed. We fight against evil and as we do so, we place our confidence in the covenant-keeping God.

As David concludes, we pray that God’s blessing be upon His people. We pray for ourselves, yes, but we also pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ to be filled and led and blessed. Again, our confidence isn’t placed in anything in ourselves or in any earthly system, our confidence is in the reality that salvation belongs to the Lord - the same phrase we see throughout the Bible. Because of this truth, what do we have to fear? We belong to God.

Conclusion

Whenever anxiety, doubt, worry, frustration, or confusion enter your life, where do you turn? For many of us we often turn to the wrong place first. We turn to ourselves often times. We turn to our knowledge, ability, or strength and whenever we do this, we fail to trust fully in the power and strength of our God. Let this Psalm be a reminder for us that our God is a shield - He is our protector, provider, and sustainer. He is the source of our confidence because He is with us.

Rather than looking to ourselves, let us strive to look first to our God. Let us remember all that He has done in the past and how He has been faithful every step of the way. Let us remember the truth of Romans 8

Romans 8:28 NLT

28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

Even when things don’t make sense - trust in the Lord. When life keeps you up at night, rest confidently in the Lord’s strength. Whenever you wake up, give thanks because you have another day. You have the opportunity to share about Jesus Christ with those around you. Whenever you pray, remember that the Lord is near to the broken-hearted and He is with you.

So, Christian, where is your confidence? I pray that our confidence comes from our God. From the Creator who loves us. Who calls us to love our neighbor as ourself and who sent His Son as the once and for all sacrifice on the cross. Trust in Him and His plan for your life and for His church.