Psalms

How many of you feel like you’re constantly facing trials, one after another? How

many of you feel like the weight of it all is just pressing you down further and

further and sometimes you just don’t feel like yourself anymore because there’s

just not that much of you left? You’re hanging on by a thread, you’re barely

hanging on because, well, that’s all you can do to keep moving forward.

Psalm 3 is all about this, and how we ought to respond in these kinds of

circumstances. We can learn something from someone who has experienced

these very same emotions and experienced hardships that just wouldn’t seem to

end. That someone, is King David. Before we read our Psalm for today, I’d like to

begin in 2 Samuel 13 to give us a backdrop of today’s text.

What I want for us to see today is that some of the hardships and pains that we

experience in our lives are due to either our own sinful actions or the sinful

actions of someone else. And so before we get to our psalm, I want to take us to a

place that shows us how we King David got to where he was in writing this psalm.

In the book of 2 Samuel, you will find an account that may shock you. It’s going to

involve King David’s David’s family. How many of you have ever experienced a

family conflict before? Do any of you have family drama? Believe it or not, King

David did too. This conflict involves two of David’s sons and a daughter. Amnon

rapes his half-sister, Tamar. Tamar’s brother, Absalom kills Amnon. And no wonder.

What a vile act that goes against everything God would want for his people to

experience.

But here’s the result. David’s son, Amnon, is dead.

Absalom was so guilt ridden, that he left Jerusalem for three years to a region

called Geshur. So not only has David lost one son, but two. For all he knew,

Absalom had run away indefinitely possibly never to be seen again. But Absalomreturns to Jerusalem and is there for two years without coming face to face with

his Father. And upon his return, something was brewing beneath the surface.

2 Samuel 15:2-6

2 And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate. And when

any man had a dispute to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call

to him and say, “From what city are you?” And when he said, “Your servant is of

such and such a tribe in Israel,” 3 Absalom would say to him, “See, your claims are

good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you.” 4 Then

Absalom would say, “Oh that I were judge in the land! Then every man with a

dispute or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice.” 5 And

whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he would put out his hand and

take hold of him and kiss him. 6 Thus Absalom did to all of Israel who came to the

king for judgment. So, Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

It is here that we see the craftiness and cunning of the human heart that is so

prone to lead us astray. You see, it may seem, at first glance, that Absalom is

merely doing people a service out of the kindness of his heart when, in fact, he is

pitting the hearts of these men against their king (his father).

“Oh, you have a concern, but no one is here to lend an ear? Poor thing. Well, if I

were king, I would not only listen to you, but I would make sure justice is carried

out.”

Now, that would be music to someone’s ears if they had frustrations that felt were

falling on deaf ears or no ears at all. And then someone comes along and tells you,

hey, I’ve got you, I’ll make sure to address your concerns because obviously the

one in charge isn’t doing it. And so, Absalom planted seeds of doubt in the hearts

and minds of the people that came to him, and their loyalties toward King David

began to shift toward Absalom.

Lesson of the day. Do not be an Absalom. Even though the people you’re helping

don’t see the real motives of your heart, don’t think for a second that God doesn’t

know what’s going on. Absalom is a master manipulator, seeing opportunity in

peoples’ grievances and then positioning himself as the one who is going to solve

all their problems. Any form of this kind of manipulation had no place in thehearts of ancient Israelites and has no place in the hearts of Christians today. It is

not of God.

To put this in a different context, I will quote President Ronald Reagan who had

long-held suspicions about the effectiveness and morality of the role of

government in people’s lives. He said this.

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m from the

government and I’m here to help.’”

Be watchful and be cautious. “self-interest can be easily disguised as interest in

others.”

And it’s so unfortunate that we have to be this way. The reason we have to, is

because we live in a fallen world marred by sin and its effects.

Jesus knows this and so before sending out his disciples, he tells them this,

Matthew 10:16b

16 “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Adding in my own thoughts here, “because there are many Absaloms in the world

today.” Be wise. Be shrewd. Don’t take everything at face value. But have a level of

discernment about you, so that you aren’t caught off guard or led astray.

Our text tells us that “Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.”

2 Samuel 15:13-14

13 And a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel have

gone after Absalom.” 14 Then David said to all his servants who were with him at

Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from

Absalom. Go quickly, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down ruin on us and

strike the city with the edge of the sword.”I can’t imagine what David must’ve felt upon hearing this news. It’s bad enough

for a king to think someone would attempt to kill you in order to take the throne.

It’s worse that it’s his own son. And David begins his flight away from Jerusalem to

get to safety.

2 Samuel 15:30

David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot

and with his head covered.

I can’t imagine all the emotions welling up inside David. As he walks up the Mount

of Olives and looks back and sees Jerusalem and he sees Mt. Zion and knows that

he won’t be able to return as long as Absalom is in charge. Just think, he woke up

that morning, and never thought in a million years that later that day he would be

fleeing his home, fleeing from his own son. And so, he ascends the Mount of

olives, “weeping as he went” to get to safety. How heavy is that?

And this is the backdrop behind Psalm chapter 3 for today. And so now, my hope is

that these words that we are about to read will land with much more impact than

if we hadn’t walked through the events leading up to it.

I have used this phrase before, and I think it is a perfect time to remind us of this

principle. Context plus content equals meaning. It is only when you have the

marriage of these two things that one can arrive to a wholistic understanding of

what the author meant when he wrote these words down. And so, with that, let’s

real our Psalm in its entirety.

Psalm 3:1-8

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[a]

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!

Now, you may have noticed the main theme of this passage of Scripture which

could be entitled, “Troubled But Unafraid”. Isn’t that an interesting concept? How

can one be troubled, disheartened, discourage and yet be unafraid, to not let fear

take a hold of you? Psalm 3 is a perfect example of how that is lived out.

Now, you may have noticed this word, Selah. Charles Spurgeon has some keen

insight on what this word means.

“This is a musical pause, the precise meaning of which is not known…At least, we

may learn that wherever we see “Selah,” we should look upon it as a note of

observation. Let us read the passage which precedes and succeeds it with greater

earnestness, for surely there is always something excellent where we are required

to rest and pause and meditate, or when we are required to lift up our hearts in

grateful song. “Selah.”

Psalm 3:1-2

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.” SelahPause. Let’s reflect on what’s being mentioned here. Men are rising up against

David and they are saying, “there is no salvation for him in God.” Now, we have to

recognize that this term salvation here is not in reference to our eternal state,

whether or not we are justified in God’s eyes. It is a reference to deliverance from

dangers, from enemies, sickness, or even death. So in effect, what David’s

enemies are telling him is, “there’s no place for you to run.” “God isn’t going to

save you.” God’s abandoned you.”

And what a victory it would be for David’s enemies if they could get him to believe

the things they were saying. To have David paralyzed by the fear that God had in

fact, left him.

If you’re in here today, and you find yourself in a place where it feels like God isn’t

there, I want you to know that He’s there. He’s with you.

Hebrews 13:5

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

And we have to know that when God says something, He means it. It’s one thing

to believe in God. It’s quite another to actually believe what He says. The latter is

typically more difficult than the former.

There’s none more adamant about getting us to think we’re alone than Satan

himself. Because if we feel like we are completely isolated, and without any hope,

that’s where he can begin to work at us and lead us down the path of despair.

Psalm 3:4

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.

I don’t know about you, but I love history. And I am particularly intrigued by

warfare throughout the ages and how it has evolved even to the present day. Iremember learning about the Roman shield formation known as the Testudo or

“tortoise formation.” The soldiers would hold their shields in front, to the sides

and over top so as to limit the effectiveness of the enemy’s archers. And you

would see this shield formation advancing and making progress and taking ground

despite the constant barrage of arrows and other projectiles the enemies would

hurl at them.

You see, this is the idea. David is saying that the Lord is our shield, not just a shield

that we hold in front of us, but the Lord is a shield about us. One without any gaps

and without any weaknesses. It envelopes our whole being. A shield that can

withstand anything that is thrown at us or aimed at us to do us harm. And it is

only because of this, knowing that God is our shield, that we can advance,

continue to move forward, continue to take ground despite the enemies attempts

to hinder or stall us.

God is our shield. He is also the lifter of our heads. No matter our circumstances,

and no matter how difficult they are, we can walk with our heads lifted, with our

heads held high. Why? Because God is our sustainer. He is our strength in times of

our weakness.

And the David writes, I cried aloud to the Lord and He answered me.

Friends, this is no mere silent meditation. This is an audible cry of desperation to

our heavenly Father for help. I remember, I was about 5 or 6 years old and I was

playing outside at the base of our hill. And we had a creek. I had slipped on a rock

and found myself caught in a thorn bush and I remember being afraid. I was on my

back and I was afraid to move because, if I did, the thorns would be right there to

dig further into my skin. All I thought to do in that moment was to scream,

“Daddy! Daddy help!” And I remember like it was yesterday, the image is

ingrained in my memory. I saw my dad running down our hill to save me, to help

me out of that thorn bush.

Now that I’m older and I reflect on that event, what an amazing picture that is of

how our heavenly Father responds when we cry out to him in times of

desperation. And of course, I can speak on this without pointing to the ultimate

example of Jesus, “God in the flesh” descending from heaven to earth to save us

from our sins by dying on a cross and rising again.Tomorrow is going to be the first day of Fall, and I’m so excited about that because

that means it’s almost Christmas. Many of you know that it’s my favorite holiday.

There’s a line in a song by For King And Country (Baby Boy) that goes like this.

“Oh, before that silent night

No Savior and no Jesus Christ

The world cried out so desperately

And the Baby Boy was the reply

Yes, Heaven's reply was a Baby Boy”

Psalm 3:5-6

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.

Let me ask you this? When’s the last time you had a good sleep? When was the

last time that you just laid down in your bed and you were just at peace with

everything? If it is anxiety and the cares and worries of the world are keeping you

up or causing you to be restless, do you know what works better than melatonin?

It is knowing God has everything in his hands.

David, who was being pursued by is son Absalom was able to sleep peacefully

knowing that his strength came from the Lord. He recognized that the Lord was

the one who sustained him. And because of that, there was no reason to be afraid

of the thousands of his enemies.

When all we think about is how big our problems are, it’s time to start thinking

about how big our God is.

Psalm 3:7

Arise, O Lord!

Save me, O my God!

For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;you break the teeth of the wicked.

We see a similar phrase used in Job 29:17.

I broke the fangs of the unrighteous

and made him drop his prey from his teeth.

What David is saying here is, “take the danger out of my enemies’ attack. Render

them harmless against me.” Just like a ravenous wolf who sought to tear us to

pieces, we’d want to knock it’s teeth out. Take away the means by which harm

could be done to me is what David is writing here. Obviously metaphorical

because I don’t ever remember reading a Bible verse that said, “Then Absalom’s

army became toothless.”

Psalm 3:8

Salvation belongs to the Lord;

your blessing be on your people!

The end of this psalm makes a shift here. The previous seven verses were all

focused on the individual, but in verse 8 we see a benediction to a group of

people. Now, of course this was written for the Israelites back in the time, but in

another sense, it was written for us today.

And let this be a reminder that in the midst of trials and uncertainty, God is there.

He is our deliver. He is our sustainer. He is the one who lifts our head. And finally

salvation belongs to Him and Him alone. And if we believe this, if we truly believe

this, that is a blessing like no other.

And this is how we, despite the fact that our hearts can be troubled at times, can

walk confidently in the Lord without fear.