Psalm Three "My glory and my shield about me"

Psalm Three

“The Lord Our Shield and Glory”

Introduction: Good Morning Redemption Church. It is good to see you all this morning. I love seeing our people gather together. I love the fellowship that takes place in our service. This truly is a church where our people love one another with the affections of Christ Jesus. If you are new to Redemption Church or are watching online for the first time, my name is Noah Toney, and I am the pastor here. Here at Redemption Church, we exist to proclaim the gospel and make disciples for the Glory of God. That is our vision statement, and that is what we are all about. If you have your bible, please turn to Psalm three. We are continuing our summer sermon series called “Summer in the Psalms.” So far, we have looked at an overview of the Psalter. The Psalms tell a story. They are not just a collection of individual poems, but they have been arranged in a way that when they are read together, they tell a story of redemption. Then we looked at Psalm one, which describes the perfect citizen of God’s kingdom. He is this “blessed man” and the ideal person who loves God’s word, delights in God, and does not listen to the ways of the wicked. Then last week, we looked at Psalm two. Psalm two is like David zooms out from the blessed man and examines all of the kingdoms of the earth at once. Last week we learned that God’s Messiah-King will rule and reign in spite of the nation's plans to rebel against him. That is the message of Psalm two, and now as we go into Psalm three, we will see a first-person example of the nation’s raging against God’s anointed king.

Read the Passage:

3 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

Pastoral Prayer:

Jump In: if you can think back to the first sermon on the psalms, I compared the Psalms to individual pictures in a photo album. If you have a picture, it can tell you a lot of information, but if you turn over the back of the picture, it has writing on it. The writing often has the names of the people in the photos, but it also could mark the occasion, and this little bit of information fills in the detail of the picture. In the same way, Psalm three gives us that information. Look at the superscription above verse one, “A PSALM OF DAVID, WHEN HE FLED FROM ABSALOM HIS SON.” These superscriptions in our English Bibles do not have verse numbers; they are used more like titles. But these are in the ancient Hebrew; there is not one manuscript of the psalms that historians have that do not have these superscriptions. This tells us that whoever wrote the psalms, mostly David, intends for us to read the Psalms in light of the referenced historical event. This superscription tells us that this psalm is meant to be read with the story of Absalom’s revolt in mind.

For those who might not know the story, allow me to give a summary of the events leading up to when David wrote this Psalm and prayed this prayer. You have the story of David. He was the youngest of his brothers, he was small, and he was just a boy. Out of his twelve brothers, he was the least impressive; he was so unimpressive that when the prophet Samuel came to his father’s house to look for the next king of Israel, they did not even bother calling up instead they left him in the field to watch the sheep. David is anointed as the future king of Israel while he is still a young man. But King Saul is still on the throne; latter on in the story, David comes forward and kills Goliath, but after that, David started to gain fame in the eyes of the people. But David never sought his fame, he would not lift a finger against King Saul because it was God who had put Saul on the throne. Saul grew jealous of David, and over and over again we have these stories of Saul trying to kill David. David had many chances to kill Saul but would not lift his finger against him. Ultimately Saul is killed in battle. David becomes King over the nation of Israel.

When David is king, we have a climax with God making a covenant with David. God comes to David and promises David that he will have an heir of someone from his lineage who will go after him and will be raised up as the true and better King of Israel forever (2 Samuel 7). After God makes this promise to David, it looks like David might be the perfect king of Israel; the immediate chapter after God’s promise to David is a list of military victory’s that David won as the king. This list illustrates how David defeats the enemies to the west, the north and the south. For the first time in Israel’s history, David is expanding the borders of Israel and casting out those who before him failed to. For a while, it looks like David might be the true messiah, King. Then we have David’s sin with Bathsheba. David sees Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife, and he desires her, and he takes her for himself. And to cover it up, he uses his power to murder Uriah in the heat of battle. This is a grievous sin; God has given David everything he has asked for, yet David wants more. As a result of David’s unfaithfulness, God comes and speaks to David through the prophet Nathan and promises that he will raise evil from within David’s own house and that for all of David’s life, he would battle the surrounding nations and never see peace.

Enter Absalom. Absalom was David’s second-oldest son. David’s oldest son Amnon rapes Absalom's sister Tamar, and this makes Absalom furious. Absalom makes a plan and kills his half-brother Amnon. This is just the beginning of the familial strife in David’s family. Then Absalom is never dealt with for killing his half-brother; there is no reconciliation and no justice. David sits passively and does not deal with all of the injustice in his own house, and Absalom starts to steal the hearts of the people of Israel. When people would come to see David, Absalom, who was handsome, would stand at the city gate and stop people on their way to the king. When Absalom stopped people, he would lie and manipulate and deceive them into believing that the king was not interested in their dealings, and over time the people believed him, and Absalom stole the hearts of the people of Israel through politicking. Absalom gathered many horses and chariots and devised a plan to send secret messengers through the whole kingdom. Eventually, they were going to eventually announce that Absalom had been made king. When David hears about this plan, he knows that he must flee from Jerusalem, so he takes up and flees into the wilderness. When David flees, he hears that one of his chief councilors Ahithophel is siding with Absalom. This is a big deal because Ahitiphels council was counted as the word of God in that day. He had a well-known reputation for being shrewd, smart, and crafty, everything he put his mind to happen. And now he has sided with Absalom. When David hears that Ahitiphel is against him, 2 Samuel says that David stopped and “asked God, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.” Then coincidently, David also meets Hushi, a close friend and counselor to David. Hushi wants to follow David into the wilderness, but David tells him that he will be a burden on him. Instead, David tells Hushi to return to Jerusalem and go serve Absalom so that he might undermine Ahithophel’s council.

This is what he does. Absalom calls together a meeting to make a plan to defeat David and Ahithophel's plan is to go immediately gather 12000, men and run after David, burst into the camp, send it into confusion and slay David with the sword. And after David is dead Ahithophel says that the people with David will come back to Absalom like the bride coming to her husband. Which is interesting. Almost like there is a relationship between the king of Israel and the people of God? So when the time comes Hushi gives his council that it is unwise to pursue David and that if Absalom lost his first battle the people will remember it as the day that their new King Absalom lost his first battle to David the mighty warrior. And the king chose to go with Hushi’s council over Ahitiphel and there is this little statement at the end that says “And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For the LORD had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the LORD might bring harm upon Absalom.”

This is a massive story with a lot more parts, but the reason I take so much time to explain it is because it is crucial to understand what David is feeling when he writes Psalm 3. It is with this background in mind we read “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”

From the very first lines of this Psalm, we know that it is not a happy joyful song, but it is a song of despair and lament. David is crying out Oh YHWH how many are my enemies. Many are rising against me. He invokes the Lord by his own name. This is not a prim and proper prayer but a call of distress. Psalm two mentioned the nations raging against the Lord and his anointed, and here we are at verse one of Psalm three, and we are getting an intimate picture. We literally have David as the anointed king of Israel, and his enemies are multiplying against him. And it is not like the enemies he is facing are foreign nations that he does not know, but it is his own son. It is his flesh and blood; his own friends and his own councilors have aligned themselves against him. We might not know what it is like to have enemies trying to hunt us down and kill us, but we all know what it is like to be betrayed. We all know what it is like to have someone you love and whom you have broken bread with and laughed with turn against us or betray us suddenly. This is what David was going through and not only that his enemies were saying “there is no salvation for you in God.” We read this and it is easy to think that this is just a sin against David, right? This is just slander against him? No this is more than just slander this is slander against God. God has promised that he has established David and that from David’s line would come to the messiah king. So when they slander David, they are denying God’s promises to David and to themselves through David. When God makes a promise and swears by himself it will come to pass, it is not going to be thwarted. When people make claims that contradict God’s word it is but vanity, it is the same vanity we saw last week in Psalm 2. They don’t think that God will save David, they are greatly mistaken.

The same is true for us. God has not made a covenant with us individually or directly, but we are in covenant with God through Jesus Christ. If you have placed your faith in him, you are his, and nothing and no one can take that away. Jesus has said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” There is salvation for those who trust in God. David’s enemies stand around him calling out “there is no salvation for him in God.” For us, this looks like every time the world calls to us and tells us that we are wasting our time. “Why waste your time with that Christian thing?” “Why would you wait to have sex until after marriage?” “Why would you embrace such an old antiquated idea, what a waste of time. This is what the world is telling us every day, Christians believe it or not. What does David do? Selah

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

I think what we see here is profound. David takes the scoffing, he takes the words of the wicked and he does exactly what we should do. He runs to God and meditates upon God’s word. “but you oh YHWH are a shield about me.” This on the surface might just look like David is calling God his protection, this is true, but it is more. David is meditating upon God’s promise to him and also God’s promise to Abraham. God comes to Abraham and makes a promise to him and tells Abraham that he will have a child and from his seed the nations shall be blessed. God comes to David and makes a very similar promise. Abraham gets this promise from God and years go by and it is not happening so Abraham starts to make plans to make his own heir, but God comes to him and comforts him and says “ Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” What I am purposing is that David sees himself in a similar situation. He has been given a promise from God, and it is not happening, in fact, the opposite appears to be happening, his son is not the true and better king, but his son is a rebel. But David meditates upon God’s words of comfort to Abraham in his distress, and he applies them to himself. “but you oh Lord are a shield about me.” You were faithful to Abraham and you will be faithful to me. David when faced with challenges in life reflects upon God’s promises and he holds on to them. This is the same thing that we should do. When we are in distress, there is only one place that we can go for this kind of comfort, it is the word of God. Let us learn from David.

“You are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head,” David calls God his glory. What does that mean? What is a person's glory? I think that it is the best quality or event or thing about someone. When Olympians win a gold medal and stand on the podium that is their glory. Glory is the thing that brings people esteem or honor. David does not turn to himself, he turns to God. Oh God, you are my glory. The thing that brings David esteem with people is God. David does not claim his own merits, he does not sound his own bell, remember that time I killed Goliath, remember that time I killed 200 philistines for a bride price? The only thing that David knows is good about him, is God working through him and in him. The most glorious thing about David is that he belonged to and worshiped YHWH. Is this true for you? Do you feel this way? is God your glory! This is all over NT. Can you stand with Paul and say “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20).” Is Jesus Christ your glory? When we are discouraged and betrayed and pursued by those who dislike us or even hate us in their hearts, if you have Christ, you can stand and say “But you oh Lord are a shield about me, you are my glory and the lifter of my head.” This “lifter of the head” is just an Old Testament way of saying that I will see the victory.

“I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah”

David when he is in distress, who does he seek help from? God. I am amazed at how many places Christians go for help, without seeking God first. It is like we have a disease and we want to rely on ourselves, we want to do everything by our own strength and power. Let us learn to go to God in prayer. When you are distressed, when you are anxious, when you are suffering, pray. Seek God’s face, cry out to him. God loves his children, remember the words of Jesus, “Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matt 7:9). God delights in blessing his children, he delights in helping them. In fact, he saw us and wanted to help us so much that he gave up his only son on the cross to redeem us. Look at where God answered David from? “His holy hill.” This is the same hill from Psalm 2.

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.

In verses three and four David cries out for help, and he knows that God has heard him. Then what does David do? He lays down and sleeps! Maybe he doesn’t know that he is being tracked down by his enemies. If I was David’s counselor, I would tell him “David, you can sleep when you are dead; we have to go. Our enemies are coming.” This shows us David's radical faith and trust in God and his promises. He has severe burdens, grave anxiety, and serious concerns, but he takes them to God; he cries out to YHWH. Then he lays down and rests, knowing that God sustains him.

If you know that God sustains you, what else can you do? Where else can you go? There is nowhere higher to go? Where shall I go from your Spirit? Psalm 138 Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. If you are Christ Jesus, there is no dark night that he is not with you, you will never lie down and not have the Holy Spirit as a comforter. This is a great truth, this is sweeter than honey, and it should make out souls rejoice because life is hard. There are hard times, there are dark nights. The Christian promise is not that God takes away our dark nights, but that he is with us and he will never leave us nor forsake us.

Remember the story I started with. Ahithophel wants to come and bring 12,000 men that night and stir up the camp into confusion and slaughter David. He is “like the people who are plotting in vain against the Lord’s anointed, trying to set themselves in power.” But David prayed, “make the counsel of Ahithophel foolishness, and then he acted by sending Hushi the archite into the middle to thwart the evil plans. This is our relationship between action and faith, we pray and then we act, then we rest and watch what God does. This is what David does and then he lays down at night and rests. He has peace in God so he will not be afraid of many thousands of enemies that seek to kill him.

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!

David ends this prayer by minoring the way he started it. He turns the first two verses upside down. In verse one David cries “many are rising against me”, but in verse 7 in Hebrew, it’s the same word only it is now “God who is arising against his enemies.” In verse one, they say, “there is no salvation for him in YHWH”, but in verse seven David cry’s “Save me oh my God.” The wicked plan on chase David immediately into the night and kill him, but David remembers all of the times that God has fought for him, against Goliath, against the Philistines, against the Amorites, against the Amalekites, over and over again God has been faithful to his words and defeated his enemy’s, and God will be faithful now. He will strike his enemies on the cheek and break the teeth of the wicked. There is no salvation in many horses, there is no salvation in large numbers of hundreds of thousands of men, and there is no salvation in political gain or influence.

Verse eight, “Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people.”

David knows there is only one place to find salvation. That is the Lord. It has always been true. It was true for David when he fled from Absalom. It was true for Israel when they fled from the Egyptians and God saved them though the red sea. And it is ultimately true for us. There is no salvation for us apart from Jesus. He is our shield, he is our glory and he is the lifter of our head, he defeats our greatest enemy for us and stands in our place to protect us and save us in our time in our greatest hour of need.

We end with “your blessing be on your people”. Psalm, one opened with the blessed man, Psalm two ended with blessed are all who take refuge in you, and now psalm three ends with “your blessing be on your people. It is like David has taken up the offer in Psalm two and has now received the blessing.” When you take refuge in YHWH’s king, you receive the blessings of the kingdom.

Today’s scripture reading ended with David’s conspirators plotting against him and forcing David to flee, and when David flees Jerusalem with his closest friends, he crosses the brook of Kidron. As David flees he goes into the wilderness and he prays this prayer. The gospels tell us of another King, whose conspirators gather together and plot against him. King Jesus, king Jesus leaves Jerusalem with his closet companions and his disciples and he crosses the Kidron brook and he goes to a garden and with a heavy heart he says “Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” Than Jesus by faith, does not elude his captors, but hands himself over and is crucified so that me and you might be saved. What a wonderful God we worship.