Save Me, O My God (Psalm 3)

Announcements

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

This evening we’re continuing our series in the book of Psalms. As you know, we’ve been working through the book of psalms for a few weeks by taking one individual psalm and by working through those psalms line-by-line and verse-by-verse. Doing so allows us to understand the passage in a better way in context, which we then can apply to our lives without misrepresenting what the text says. This evening’s passage is Psalm 3, which is a Psalm of David written during a particularly distressing time of his life and this psalm, gives us insight into how David handled this distressing situation from a spiritual perspective.

And I think, quite frankly because life is often demanding and filled with struggle, we as Christians today will relate to this psalm rather easily. We probably have never experienced what David is experiencing in this psalm and yet, we can draw application from the text because just like David, we’ve experienced opposition in life, trials and tribulation, and great difficulty which hopefully leads us to do what David does to see God as our shield, our glory, and the lifter of our heads.

But before I give too much detail away right at the beginning, let’s take a moment to read the passage, I’ll explain how we’ll divide it up, and then we’ll dig into Scripture.

Psalm 3 ESV

A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. 1 O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; 2 many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah 3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. 4 I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah 5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. 6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. 7 Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. 8 Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah

As we study this passage together, we’re going to split it into three parts. And as you look at the text, I think you can tell where those divisions are—every time the word Selah is used, we’re going to use that as a division marker: (1) Vs. 1-2, David is Surrounded by his Enemies; (2) Vs. 3-4, God is his Protection; (3) Vs. 5-8, God Provides Peace, Victory, and Blessing. Vs. 1-2, will set the stage for what is occuring during this point in David’s life, Vs.3-4, shows us to whom David runs for protection, and Vs. 5-8, shows us the result of God’s protection of David. This Psalm, will encourage us to do just what David does—in times of distress in our lives, we should run to God for protection, and God will provide peace, victory, and blessing.

Prayer for Illumination

David is Surrounded by His Enemies (1-2)

Starting in Vs, 1-2, let’s re-read the text:

Psalm 3:1–2 ESV

1 O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; 2 many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah

Like I said in the introduction, David is essentially setting the stage for us—to give us an idea of what’s occuring as he’s composing this text. “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.’”

While that alone gives enough detail to know that David is in great distress, we actually have more information that we can utilize to determine more of what’s happening as David composes this. From the superscription of the Psalm, “A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son.”

Not only does this tell us who wrote the psalm, but it also tells us of what occurred to precipitate the psalm’s writing as well as a rough time period as to when this psalm was originally composed.

The superscription tells us that this was composed while David was fleeing from his son Absalom and we have to look back through the Old Testament to figure out when this occured.

All the way back in 2 Samuel 15, we read this. 2 Samuel 15:13-17, “Then a messenger came to David, saying, ‘The hearts of the people of Israel are with Absalom.’ So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, ‘Arise and let’s flee, for otherwise none of us will escape from Absalom. Go quickly, or he will hurry and overtake us, and bring disaster on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.’ Then the king’s servants said to the king, ‘Behold, your servants will do whatever my lord the king chooses.’ So the king left, and all his household with him.”

And you might hear that and wonder why exactly David is leaving his kingdom, so let me remind you, just prior to that point in history, Absalom had started a great conspiracy throughout the nation of Israel; and by starting this conspiracy, he was essentially able to convince the regular people of Israel that the king doesn’t actually care for them, but if he was the king, he would certainly care for them.

You might ask, why would Absalom do this, but remember with me that David and Absalom had a tumultuous relationship—Absalom had made wicked decisions and David had very little compassion on Absalom for those decisions.

It’s to the point now, that Absalom had finally mustered up enough of a rebellion against David, that he could take the throne of Israel—and so he does.

Remember, Absalom had been acting wickedly, so what does a king who just stole the throne from the former king do?

He starts to hunt David and those that went with David.

And that’s what’s happening as David originally composes these words in Psalm 3.

But let me clarify one thing, I don’t think that David literally pulled out some papyrus and penned these words as he was running through the desert.

My thought is that he composed these words as he was on the run in his mind and when he finally returned to Jerusalem, he wrote the words down.

Regardless--David is running from Absalom, who very much wants to kill him and David has this running through his mind, “O LORD, how many are my foes!”

Consider with me, that when David left Jerusalem, he left with a minority of people—whereas Absalom had conspired against David and had riled up the people, David was left with essentially his most loyal servants and his household.

The odds were against David at this point, which is why he left the safety of Jerusalem because he realized that he was unable to defend the city against the riotous people that Absalom intended to overrun the city with.

It’s no wonder why David would start this psalm with “How many are my foes!” There were an overwhelming amount of people against him at this point.

But I do want to point out, that early in the text, David recognizes the difficulties he’s about to face and he turns to one person in particular. “O LORD, how many are my foes!” In a time of great distress, he doesn’t hesitate to immediately go to the LORD and to cry out in distress.

David says, “Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, ‘There is no salvation for him in God.’”

So, David says that he has many foes and that many are rising up against him

Which simply emphasizes the greatness of the battle that’s coming against him

But he makes a statement that we need to talk about:

“Many are saying of my soul, ‘There is no salvation for him in God.’” And here’s why we need to talk about this, because it’s easy to spiritualize this statement and think that David is stating that people are accusing him of not being saved in the sense of eternal salvation.

The issue with that statement is that the Hebrew word translated as soul here, doesn’t carry the same connotation that we think it does. When we think of the soul, we think of the eternal part of our being that after our physical death, continues in life with Jesus Christ in eternity.

That isn’t always what the Jewish people meant when they utilized this word—sometimes it is, but not always. Often when the Jewish people utilized this word (translated as soul) and mean the whole person without the connotation of eternal life after death.

And in this case, they aren’t speaking of an eternal life after death—when these people are “saying of [David’s] soul, ‘There is no salvation for him in God’” they’re making the statement that God will not rescue him from them. Or as the Christian Standard Bible says, “Many say about me, ‘There is no help for him in God.’”

And that’s important to differentiate, because the idea of God rescuing him comes up again later in the psalm, but the idea in context isn’t of eternal salvation, but of physical protection.

David’s enemies are surrounding him and coming against him and they’re making the claim that God won’t rescue him, which sounds a lot like when the Assyrians came against Jerusalem and Sennacherib, king of Assyria put out the proclamation to Israel—all the other nations and their gods fell to me and my fathers, what makes you and Yahweh different? The accusation from unbelievers to believers is always that God won’t protect them.

David sets the stage to show the distress that he’s currently facing and then he utilizes a word that is unusual. I say that it’s unusual because we don’t utilize the word at all anymore (other than when we read the psalms) and I say that it’s unusual because in most modern translations, the word is in italics and it’s offset to differentiate it from the rest of the words. This word is the word Selah.

Since this is the first time we’ve seen the word in our study of the psalms, I want to explain a bit about it before we continue. Selah is a Hebrew word and just to add to the unusual nature of the word, we actually don’t know what it means. Even devote Jewish people don’t know what the word means.

But don’t let that shock you and don’t let that cause you to question the inerrancy of Scripture. We know that the word itself is supposed to be there and we know that the word itself doesn’t change the meaning of the rest of the Psalm.

And scholars have ideas of what the word might mean, they just aren’t 100% positive of its meaning, but since the word is utilized seventy-four times in Scripture, I want you to know what scholars think it might mean

So, let me give you some ideas of what scholars think it means and this is more for your information because like I said, we don’t know for sure:

Occasionally the word selah is thought to mean a “pause” or an “interlude.” The idea being that when you get to a selah, you should take a moment to reflect on what you’ve just said. The issue with this is that sometimes, the selah is written in a place that seems a little odd to reflect on. For instance, Vs. 2 of Psalm 3, “Many are saying of my soul, ‘There is no salvation for him in God.’” It seems a little bit odd of a place to pause and reflect.

The Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament (this would be the translation of the Old Testament that people utilized during the life of Jesus) translated the word to mean “a division.” So, in that line of thinking it isn’t really purposeful other than to divide the text.

What I think and again, this is what some scholars believe as well, is that selah is a musical term or liturgical term, meaning that it has something to do with how the psalm is to be utilized, but since the meaning of the word is lost, we don’t exactly know for sure.

The Amplified Bible gives the idea that since we don’t really know for sure what it means, perhaps it’s a good opportunity to pause, reflect, and praise the LORD in light of the what the previous verses said—and I’m partial to that idea because we don’t know what it means.

So, David starts this psalm by proclaiming his distress to the LORD— “O LORD, look at all my enemies” and in doing so, he explains that his enemies think that God has abandoned him. Nevertheless, David still turns to the LORD immediately and he continues in the concept of turning to the LORD in Vs. 3-4, God is his Protection.

God is his Protection (3-4)

Psalm 3:3–4 ESV

3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. 4 I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah

Despite the clear opposition and antagonism that David is facing from Absalom and those who are following Absalom, David finds comfort in God and in who God is. David utilizes the idea of a shield to describe God being the source of his protection despite his enemies making the claim that God wouldn’t protect him.

This isn’t the only time that David calls God his shield. Consider:

Psalm 7:10, “My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.”

Psalm 18:2, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

Psalm 18:30, “This God—his way is perfect; the word of the LORD proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.”

Psalm 28:7, “The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.”

And this metaphor continues in Psalm 33:20; 59:11; 84:11; 115:9-11; 119:114; and 144:2.

The idea being that God provides protection for David and he utilizes the words, “about me” or “around me.” That God protects David from attack all around him.

It is clear that David truly thought of God as his protection, but not only that, in Vs. 3, David calls God “[his] glory, and the lifter of [his] head.”

And we have to pause and think about what exactly this means. There’s two meanings behind it:

When David calls God his glory it is almost like David making the statement that God is his wealth and his riches. That God is worth more to him than any earthly possession, which makes sense when you consider that when David is writing this, he’s leaving his home, he’s leaving his possessions, and he’s leaving all that he once held dear. But in David’s mind, God is of far more value than everything that he’s lost.

When David calls God “the lifter of [his] head,” it is in contrast to how Absalom and Absalom’s people have treated David. The treatment that David experienced from Absalom and Absalom’s people would have caused David to be downtrodden—the Bible sometimes refers to people whose countenance has fallen. The countenance would be their facial expression—learning of Absalom’s treachery and the conspiracy that caused so many of the Israelites to go astray would’ve caused David’s face to fall, but it is the LORD who lifts up his head.

Whereas, Absalom and his people has caused David suffering, the LORD brings David out of that suffering.

And David knows that, so “[he] cried aloud to the LORD, and [the LORD] answered [him] from his holy hill.”

It’s worth noting that as David progressively seeks refuge in the LORD in this text, the words themselves start to take a more positive view.

When David feels overwhelmed by his enemies, he speaks of this enemies being numerous and his enemies rising up against him. When he felt uncertainty, he refers to people stating that God will not save him.

But as he continues and he shifts his focus to the LORD as his protection, he starts speaking of his face being lifted and being heard by the LORD.

Which is of note because often when we struggle with great distress, especially when people struggle with depression, the common complaint is that God often seems silent, but in Vs. 4, David “[cries out] to the LORD, and [the LORD] answered [him].”

This idea of crying out to the LORD is very similar to what we would do in our moments of distress. When we cry out and ask God for help, this is what David is doing. We see the start of that prayer in Vs. 1, “O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;” and then in Vs. 3, “But you, O LORD, are a shield about me.”

And despite the fact that he is in a great struggle and is facing great distress, unlike when those who struggle claim that God seems silent

Not only does the LORD answer him, he answers him from “his holy hill.” His holy hill refers to what eventually becomes the temple mount in the city of Jerusalem

The fact that God is responding to David from the holy hill is symbolic of the promise that God made to David—what we refer to as the Davidic Covenant.

Derek Kidner, “God’s holy hill was doubly relevant, as the place where God had installed both his king, David himself, and his ark, the symbol of his earthly throne and of his covenant. Not Absalom’s decrees, but the Lord’s, will issue from mount Zion, indeed have been dispatched from there already, to determine David’s fortunes.”

David cried out in prayer and the LORD has already answered David’s request from the holy hill.

David has expressed his disdain and discouragement in what has happened concerning Absalom and Absalom’s people rebelling against David and ultimately against God. David has expressed that whereas these people assume that the LORD won’t save him, he knows that the LORD is his shield and his greatest possession, and the one who lifts up his head. Then David takes the last four verses to speak of God’s provision of peace, victory, and blessings.

God Provides Peace, Victory, and Blessing (5-8)

Psalm 3:5–8 ESV

5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. 6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. 7 Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. 8 Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah

As David takes the last few verses to reflect on God’s provision of peace, victory, and blessings, he starts with one that we typically don’t even take into consideration. “I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.”

The fact that David is able and wiling to lay down and sleep despite knowing the his son is coming to attack him, shows us that David truly believed that God would protect him.

His faith in the LORD’s protection was exhibited by his actions—he didn’t just claim that he believed, he lived as one who believes.

We know that because someone who wasn’t sure that the LORD would protect him, wouldn’t have fallen asleep. If he was uncertain of the LORD’s provision for him, he would’ve stayed awake

And yet, in faith, he lays down and sleeps with the LORD sustaining him.

This shows a great amount of peace of mind in times of great distress.

Vs. 6, then builds on the encouragement and faith that he has in the LORD’s protection of him, when he writes, “I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.”

Here in Vs. 5-6 is a confidence that’s being expressed by David even in the midst of great trial and tribulation. There is a confidence in the LORD’s provision of safety and of security.

That even when all of the world is against him, he has no need to be afraid. Paul echoes the same sentiment in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Matthew Henry writes this about Vs. 5-6, “Many lie down, and cannot sleep, through pain of body, or anguish of mind, or the continual alarms of fear in the night. But it seems here rather to be meant of the calmness of David’s spirit, in the midst of his dangers. The Lord, by his grace and the consolations of his Spirit, made him easy. It is a great mercy, when we are in trouble, to have our minds stayed upon God.”

Because David is so confident in the LORD’s provision of safety and because he’s confident that he is on the LORD’s side and that his enemies are wrong in their treachery against him and against God, David uses the last two verses to record a petition for complete deliverance. And he does it utilizing a Hebrew way of writing that while admittedly the events haven’t happened yet, he’s so confident that they will happen that he writes it all in a past tense. David writes, “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.”

Again, so David writes these last few lines in a way that shows us his confidence in the LORD’s action against his enemies. He first asks the LORD to save him and he does it in a personal way.

“Arise, O LORD” is him utilizing the personal name of God, Yahweh to devote his attention to God; and when he says, “O my God” he is relating the relationship that he has towards Yahweh. It would be similar to stating God, you are my God.

And he continues by stating that his personal God, “[strikes] all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.”

Which shows us the utter destruction that awaits his enemies. The idea of the teeth of the wicked being broken is actually an idea that comes from the animal world—consider Psalm 58 in which the psalmist writes, “God, shatter their teeth in their mouth; break out the fangs of the young lions, LORD.”

Any animal like a lion or sometimes the Bible calls wicked people jackals, were to have their teeth broken out, they wouldn’t be able to catch their prey, they wouldn’t be able to eat; and their lack of sustenance would lead to their eventual death.

That eventual death is what David writes that God will do to his enemies.

And he closes the psalm with this one sentence, “Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people!”

Again this isn’t necessarily referring to eternal salvation, this is talking more of the physical rescue that he was speaking of earlier in the psalm, but the point remains that his rescue, his salvation belongs to God.

It’s very similar to what Jonah says as he’s within the belly of the fish, when he makes the statement that salvation belongs to the LORD, Jonah wasn’t speaking in a purely eternal sense, he was speaking of God’s ability to save him from drowning.

And yet, despite this not necessarily being salvation in the eternal sense, we could definitely make the case that eternal salvation belongs to the LORD.

As we know from the New Testament, eternal salvation is through Jesus Christ alone—our works don’t earn salvation, our salvation is based on our repentance from sin and belief in Jesus Christ as our LORD and Savior. We could say it another way, salvation is under God’s terms; and not ours. We don’t decide how we are to be saved, it doesn’t matter what our opinion of salvation is, the Bible tells us how to attain eternal security.

Romans 10:9-10 is very clear, “Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

Salvation is on God’s terms not our terms.

Just like the statement concerning physical salvation that David makes in Vs. 8. “Salvation belongs to the LORD.”

So essentially what David writes through Psalm 3 is that he is in a time of his life where there is great difficulty due to a great number of enemies that have risen up against him—unfortunately, one of those enemies happen to be his son, so I’m sure you can imagine the great distress that would bring up in his life. But even though he is struggling with this great amount of difficulty, he realizes that God is his protection and that God provides peace, victory, and blessing. The question the is, how do we apply this passage to our lives today?

Application

Let’s take the first two sections together: David is Surrounded by His Enemies (1-2) and God is his Protection (3-4)—starting with the first two verses and David’s statement concerning enemies that surround him. This is clearly a time in his life in which there is great difficulty and great struggle; and he laments the fact that he’s surrounded by enemies “how many are my foes!” But what we see is David crying I really have two application points for these four verses:

First, expect great difficulties in life—we live in a world in which people think that if they become a Christian, like will be easy and simple, but that’s simply not what Scripture teaches us. In fact, James 1 tells us to “count it all joy when you face trials of various kinds.” There is no if in that sentence—it isn’t “count it all joy if you face trials,” it’s “count it all joy when you face trials.

And those trials can range from every day life scenarios like simply being overworked and stressed to the car breaking down and the children being crazy to handle. It can range from the seemingly mundane to the extraordinary—the basement of the house floods or you lose your job. We should expect difficulties in life because the Bible shows us that life can be hard at times.

In these situations in which life is difficult, it is very easy to get depressed or angry; and it can be very easy to get upset with God and shout at the top of your lungs “Why is this happening,” but what David does in Psalm 3 is precisely what we are to do when we face great difficulties in life.

So first, expect great difficulties in life, but secondly, do just like David does and turn straight to the LORD—David is the rightful king of Israel in Psalm 3 and he’s essentially being kicked out of his kingdom and yet, he doesn’t throw a fit and he doesn’t get depressed or angry—even though he very rightfully could do these things. What does he do?

When life was difficult for David, what did he do?

He called out to the LORD—he told the LORD how he feels—God everyone hates me and they’re saying terrible things about me and really about you

He reminded himself of who God is; he reminded himself of God’s character—God, you are my shield, God you are the one who provides for me, protects me, and saves me

He sought refuge in God—he didn’t try to solve the problem himself, he sought God and he sought safety in the LORD

And then he praised God for who God is and what God had done for him—Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people!

When life is difficult for you--which let’s be honest, it will be hard and it will be difficult at times—that’s just the nature of what life is like. You need to:

Call out to the LORD—tell God how you feel (obviously in a reverential way)

Remind yourself of who God is and what his character is like

You need to seek refuge in him and seek safety in him

And then you need to praise God for who he is and what he has done for you

For example, if tomorrow on your way to work, the car breaks down, this is how you should handle it:

Call out to the LORD—God, I can’t handle this, everything breaks and I’m going to be late to work and I don’t think my boss will be happy. Everything seems out of control

Remind yourself of who God is and what his character is like—but I know that you are a good God who is sovereign and in complete control of all things.

Seek refuge in him—So, I’m leaving this all in your hands. Work in my boss’ heart so that he won’t be angry with me, help me figure out a way to get to work quickly

And then praise God for who he is and what he has done—thank you for helping me to remain calm and thank you for being a God who cares for me even when my car breaks down.

Doing this regularly and consistently will help you to stop relying on yourself and to rely on God; and it will help you to remain calm in situations that seem out of control; but most importantly it will bring glory and honor to God.

From the last section, God Provides Peace, Victory, and Blessing (5-8)—we see God’s provision for David—as one who brings him sustenance, one who defends his own people, and ultimately the one who owns salvation and gives salvation to all who would believe. I have two applications for this section:

First, because God is the one who provides peace, victory, and blessing, stop trying to find these things apart from God—our world seeks all of these things in other things, much like our world seeks happiness, joy, love, acceptance, and whatever else you can think of in other things.

When in reality, all of these attributes are found in Jesus Christ. Apart from God through Jesus Christ, you might experience a modicum of these attributes, but you won’t experience the full extent of peace, victory, and blessing.

So, the application is quite simple—stop seeking these things in other people, other objects, and other thinks—whether that’s through a spouse, a child, a job, or a hobby; and start seeking these things in God through seeking Jesus Christ.

Second, because salvation belongs to the LORD and it is something in which we need to go to God through Jesus for, we need to simply praise Jesus that he’s provided a means for us to be saved--

Or put simply, Psalm 3 teaches us that (1) life is difficult, so seek refuge in the LORD; (2) stop trying to find peace, victory, and blessing apart from God, go to him for peace, victory, and blessing; and (3) praise Jesus for providing you with salvation.

Pastoral Prayer